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Nos Audietis, Episode 277: Sitting down with Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer
60 Plays7 years ago
Because Jeremiah and Aaron are apparently committed to never recording together again, this week it was Aaron’s turn to run the show. He and Likkit discuss an actual, honest-to-goodness victory as the rumored addition of Raul Ruidiaz.
But don’t worry, Jeremiah made an appearance in the middle segment. He sat down with Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer to discuss the state of the team, its struggles and where he hopes they are going.
This week's music: RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. To eat those of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now should be familiar to Fullpool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:20
Speaker
And there's food! Lots of it! Fullpool's unique writing styles apply to recipes like Leftover Thanksgiving, Turkey, Smaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Podcast Introduction by Sounders Players
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. The Seattle Sounders have done it! And now it's come out! And now they're working their science team!
00:00:49
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
00:01:06
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of Nos Arietas, sponsored by Full Pole Lines, Clean Ant Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios.
Hosts Discuss Show Transparency and Jeremiah's Absence
00:01:15
Speaker
This is episode 277, and we are recording on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018. I am your host for this episode, Aaron Campo, and I am joined by our engineer and co-host for the second week running Licket.
00:01:29
Speaker
So you'll notice that Jeremiah isn't with us tonight, and that's because he's got a very busy week of being a good husband and attentive father, and he just wasn't able to make the time. On some podcasts, other podcasts, if one of the co-hosts isn't available, they might say something like, oh, he said he was too busy to record this week, and then they decide to record in a bar and drink beer and have a good time.
00:01:53
Speaker
But in reality, maybe that person, for example, their wife works late on the only other day that everyone could record. And he didn't want her to have to wait for 45 minutes for a bus in Rainier Beach at 9.30 at night. Me personally, I think it's good to acknowledge that Jeremiah has his priorities in order. And that's the way we do it on this podcast. If somebody can't make it, we're going to tell you why, because they always will have a good excuse.
00:02:19
Speaker
So moving on, in quite a departure from the norms of the season, we actually have a decent bit of good news to discuss today.
Sounders' Victory Over DC United and Ruidíaz Signing Talks
00:02:27
Speaker
On Saturday, the Senators picked up their first win since May 5th, 2-1 over DC United, and that came on the heels of breaking news at the end of last week.
00:02:36
Speaker
that the Sounders were closing in on the signing of 27-year-old Peruvian striker Raúl Rídíaz from monarchus Morelia, a League MX team. Some outlets were reporting that that signing could be finalized on Monday. That obviously didn't happen, but
00:02:52
Speaker
It seems pretty far advanced, which is great. We're going to get into that signing a little bit later. But first, let's talk about the win over BC United. This was obviously a huge one for the Sounders. They more or less, I think, had to win to have any plausible hope of making the playoffs. And even though it was a narrow victory at home against the worst team in the Eastern Conference, I think there are some reasons to feel encouraged, especially by how the Sounders played in the second half.
00:03:21
Speaker
For a lot of the game, you know, it was kind of what we've become accustomed to this season. The Sounders had a lot of the ball, but didn't really do much in terms of creating chances in the attacking third.
Sounders' Performance and Tactical Analysis
00:03:33
Speaker
They showed some vulnerability on the counter. And I think, you know, for a lot of people, when Darren Maddox put DC-9 ahead in the 53rd minute, it was kind of an, oh, you know, here we go again sort of thing. But I think what was different this time around is that it seemed to kind of wake the Sounders up a little bit.
00:03:50
Speaker
Um, and really from then on, I think they were the better side. Uh, you know, Nico Ludero equalized four minutes later. Uh, and it took a while for the Sounders to be able to find the winner, which they got from Magnus Wolf-Ikram in the 83rd minute. Um, but the key takeaway, I think was how much better the Sounders looked after falling behind. Um, I think it's encouraging in the sense that
00:04:09
Speaker
They just haven't looked anywhere near that competent in the attacking third all season long ascend from maybe their win over Minnesota. And their other ones, they played pretty well, but not necessarily in the way you'd expect the team to play well. They were scoring goals on a counter, really digging in defensively, that kind of thing.
00:04:25
Speaker
But for the last half hour or so of this one, I think the Sounders really did play some fluid, creative soccer, which is what the team has built to do and hasn't really done all season long with the injuries they've had. And I think that what we saw for the last half hour on Saturday as a function of the team, starting to get healthy, starting to get back to fitness. But I'm interested to hear what you have to say about it.
00:04:48
Speaker
Uh, thank God. It was good. Yeah, it was encouraging to see after kind of just a couple weeks of, uh, not knowing what was going to happen. Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, for me, um, the way that the game changed when all the Alonzo came on was, was noticeable and important. Um, I think that, uh, it.
00:05:15
Speaker
He's such a key piece of this team and it's tough because we've seen them play really well with Svensson and Roldan in the center room and field. And so I don't feel like he has to be there for the Sounders to have success, but it's very nice to have him on the field. Everything just feels a lot more organized.
00:05:34
Speaker
Um, you know, the, the more attacking central midfielder can actually get into the attack comfortably. Um, so I thought that was great. Um, Victor Rodriguez, I think, you know, he, he had some moments. He still looks, looks like he's shaking off the rust. Uh, and I really think that, you know, him coming off for Ozzy and Magnus bull Ficram coming on or, or the two big things that changed this game. Um.
00:05:58
Speaker
And they just looked so much more dangerous from there. That's certainly not a slam on Victor because I think he's going to be a crucial player going forward. But you can tell he's just kind of getting back to game speed, getting back to game shape.
Defense and Player Contribution Discussion
00:06:10
Speaker
And I think that having a lot of guys that are fit, healthy, ready, and
00:06:16
Speaker
and the kind of players the Sounders have been missing. So for this season, I just think the difference was pretty palpable. I also wanted to get your thoughts on Kim Ki-hee in that game. I thought this was his best game as a Sounder, and he's had some really good ones. And for me, it's almost at the point where it's worth asking, is he not only one of our best two center backs, but is he the best center back on this team?
00:06:38
Speaker
I think he could become that. I think right now, like you were saying, I think it's probably his best game. He's really good. I'm sure you noticed he's really good on the ground, really good with slide tackles, just good with tackles and up close play in general. He was a little shaky with some marking. There was one header that
00:07:00
Speaker
uh, what's his name had that he is going to get to anyways, but he looked like he gave him a little too much space and it was really dangerous. Um, but other than that, yeah, he, he looked, he looked like this was his best game. I don't know if he's ready to supplant Marshall yet, but definitely say he's in the top three.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think for me, I think Kim has some pretty obvious physical advantages. I think he's significantly faster. I don't think even Chad Marshall would push back too much on that. And I think that he's maybe a little bit stronger, but I do think you're right that Chad Marshall maybe reads the game a little bit better. And just a lot of the more intangible things that the defenders are good at, I think Chad still has the edge.
00:07:43
Speaker
But we really are in a situation where we've got three center backs on this team that I think would start for almost every team in MLS. And then the fourth guy in Gustav Svensson would probably also start for at least half a league, if not more. So it's a pretty good place to be, I think, defensively.
00:08:02
Speaker
Another thing that I found really encouraging in that game was Harry Ship. Harry Ship is a guy that has kind of been on the outs pretty much since he's gotten here, honestly. I guess he started fairly regularly at the beginning of his first season here. But he just hasn't been a key cog. But I thought in this game,
00:08:22
Speaker
It's a lot of the things that I think people have been wanting that they just weren't getting from not to pick on him, but Alex Roldan in particular.
Youth in US Open Cup and Calculated Risks
00:08:32
Speaker
Harry Ship's movement, I think, was crucial to helping to unlock a DC United team that was pretty comfortable just to sit back. I wanted to get your thoughts on that as well.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, you could tell with the combination of look ship look like he was eager to show that he could contribute to this team. And what they were asking to do was essentially the mirror image of what the rod was doing out there. And you could tell that they were cutting in and having more success going in instead of trying to go out all the time, which was
00:09:06
Speaker
uh i thought was encouraging to see and yeah like you're saying ship he looked i would probably say it was one of his best games as a sounder yeah and it's a great time to have one i mean you know he's yeah he's brian schmester i said i think said um you know that he's he's got a new start or something of that um you know in that realm um which was i was kind of taken aback by and i think because a lot of the other stuff that was being discussed in that that interview where he said that was a bit more um
00:09:36
Speaker
important, I guess, um, you know, that it got kind of overlooked, but you know, I was really happy to see him, um, get a start and play so well. And I don't think he's a starter on this team when it's at full strength, but you know, it's, it's not a full strength right now. Uh, it hasn't been for awhile.
00:09:52
Speaker
Um, and for him to put in a performance like that means, you know, range bets or can trust him, um, to get spot starts to, you know, be able to work his way into the rotation, maybe to be a, you know, a guy that comes in off the bench when you, you want to close out a game. Um, so I was.
00:10:08
Speaker
I was really impressed by his effort there. And just in general, like I said, it's DC United. You're at home. You expect to win that game. You kind of feel like you have to win that game. It wasn't as much that they won, but that they did it, I think, in a pretty convincing fashion. I mean, it was 2-1, but over the last half hour, I don't think there was any question about who the better team
Excitement Over Raúl Ruidíaz's Signing
00:10:28
Speaker
was. DC, they still had their chances. It was still a bit nervy.
00:10:33
Speaker
um you know it was it was just what i really needed to see out of that game more than just getting three points was looking competent going forward because we haven't really seen it in a while
00:10:44
Speaker
So, yeah, so that was great. Not as great, I guess, would have been Wednesday night in the US Open Cup. The Sounders went out to Sacramento Republic. And, you know, the first round, not great. I don't have a lot to say about this game. It was, you know, it was a mediocre US level team against the pretty good US level team.
00:11:08
Speaker
I thought that the kids fought hard, you know, and they put in a ton of effort. I thought Ray Sarai was super impressive, but ultimately I just don't think that that team was ever going to be a favorite in that game. I guess the interesting question that I'll pose to you, Likit, is
00:11:26
Speaker
Do you think that that was the right decision to play that team, to not necessarily punt the US Open Cup, but to say, look, this is an early round cup game. We're playing a USL team. This is what we have some of these guys on MLS contracts for.
00:11:45
Speaker
This is a big reason that we have S2 is to be able to develop players and get them competitive minutes with the first team and say, maybe we're not putting out the best squad that we possibly could for this game, but it's the right decision. And I was curious to get your thoughts on that.
00:12:05
Speaker
I would probably say if we were not at this point of season with, I don't know how many points we have
Ruidíaz's Potential Impact and Strategic Fit
00:12:11
Speaker
for the first team, but if we were doing a lot better during this season, I would be more upset that they didn't start more of a first team lineup in the against Zach Republic. But given the circumstances of the week and the need to win on against DC, I think
00:12:29
Speaker
rolling out that lineup was probably the right idea, the right decision, even though it isn't just another one of those decisions this season that just happens to blow up in their face again one more time. It's just unfortunate, but I don't think there was any way around it just with what we needed to happen on Saturday.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think I generally agree with you. From what I've seen, for the most part, the people that are in disagreement are people that put a lot of weight on the US Open Cup. And not to say that I don't. I think it's a great competition and one that I want to win. But if you're equally concerned with US Open Cup, or even 80% is concerned with US Open Cup, maybe
00:13:12
Speaker
I can certainly see in that case how you would want them to put a stronger foot forward. For me, it's a nice to win thing, but it's never going to rescue a season for me, I guess is kind of the way I look at it. And I also want to see these kids play and get
00:13:33
Speaker
consequential competitive minutes. S2 is about development, right? More than it's about winning. And that's not to say these players don't want to win, but I think playing in the U.S. Open Cup, you know, as part of the first team is a much bigger deal. And I think the players are able to sense that. So, you know, I was fine with it. Obviously very disappointed to win or not to win. But the one thing I will say is that
00:14:01
Speaker
Like you said, there have been a lot of calculated decisions, calculated risks this season that have gone against the Sounders. At a certain point, you do have to wonder how many calculated risks you can really afford to take because there is a chance they're all going to go bad.
00:14:21
Speaker
And I think part of the reason that I was so encouraged by that DC United game was that I feel just so much better about this team going forward than I did on Wednesday. But with that being said, you know, if the wheels do, uh, I don't want to say come off because they kind of already have, but you know, maybe if they come off again, like the lug nuts aren't as tight as we thought they were, I guess, I don't know where I'm going with that, but
00:14:44
Speaker
You know, I do think that that decision to play that team in the open cup and sort of put yourself at a disadvantage in the early rounds has got to be considered as part of the whole, you know, when evaluating the season. But that doesn't mean it was the wrong decision. And I certainly do understand, you know, folks that do prioritize the US Open Cup, you know, how frustrating that would have had to have been to see that lineup and kind of know going in that it was going to be tough to get a win. But
00:15:12
Speaker
You know, for my part, I think it paid off because it's hard for me to imagine if the first teamers had gotten a ton of minutes in that
Sounders' Gameplay and Injury Management
00:15:22
Speaker
game that they would have been able to win that game against DC, especially considering that it went to extra time. So moving on from that bummer back to some good news, let's talk about Raul Rudias.
00:15:36
Speaker
I watch plenty of League MX, but I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. But I think the general consensus is that he's one of the better strikers in League MX.
00:15:50
Speaker
He's the Red Age, 27. Go ahead, like it. I was just going to say, he's scored something like 20 goals in the last how many seasons now? So 40 in the last 72 games. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, those are crazy numbers. That's the kind of numbers Oboe is putting up here, which those numbers were very gaudy. And one of the things that blew me away is that,
00:16:17
Speaker
as a professional. So he's played 272 club games as a professional and has 123 goals in 272 games. And that's, I think something like, you know, 0.45 goals a game. So a goal roughly every other game throughout his entire profession. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. Those are, I mean, those are very gaudy numbers. Um, I've seen him play, uh,
00:16:43
Speaker
a few times. I'm not going to lie and say that I've scouted him super closely, but he looks like the real deal. He doesn't look like a one-dimensional forward. I think one of the things that's encouraging for me about the signing is that right now with Morelia, he's playing as a lone forward. That's pretty similar to what the Sounders are doing, playing with a lone forward with Dempsey or maybe Volfer Ledero. We know he can play in that role.
00:17:12
Speaker
If the Sounders wanted to sign, you know, a target striker at some point, and have Rydias be sort of the second striker, I think he would do really well in that role. I think he'd do really well in a pairing with Jordan Morris. And I think that that's, you know, something to consider. I don't think signing somebody that's exactly like Jordan Morris is necessarily the best idea.
00:17:39
Speaker
Because obviously, you can't assume Jordan Morris is going to be the starting striker as soon as he gets back. And I don't think it's reasonable to assume that. But he is a player, I think, that the Sounders have invested a lot in, have a genuine interest in him developing as best as he can. And so signing somebody that you know is not going to absolutely block him, I think, is encouraging. That certainly shouldn't have been the number one thing they were concerned about.
00:18:07
Speaker
in a signing, but it's definitely a nice to have kind of bonus. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. I get the sense you are as well, but if you had anything you wanted to add and just, you know, how do you think it changes the season? Do you think it's the caliber of signing that they needed to make any concerns?
00:18:29
Speaker
Uh, I think it's the caliber of signing they needed to make. I mean, there's that there's always been that crowd that's always kind of calling for why they haven't replaced the Oba and like the Oba DP slot.
00:18:39
Speaker
which we can go on. We could go into a whole episode on that that topic, but it's the kind of player that this roster seems to need at the point. And just from optics standpoint, you want to bring in a guy that has goals written all over his name. So hopefully you can come and do that here. I don't know if there's any concerns that I can think of off the bat. Just, you know, hopefully just comes in and fits right in and doesn't get injured or anything. Knock on wood.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think the only concerns I have, I fully agree with you, is people are used to a saying on the show, no matter who's hosting and co-hosting. But I do think it's the right kind of signing. I would much rather be sending guys like this out of League of MX than maybe guys that are a couple years older out of big leagues in Europe. And honestly, from a win now standpoint, I'd rather be doing it than making
00:19:34
Speaker
bigger money outlay signings of 22, 23-year-old players. Because I just feel like there's a lot more certainty. So yeah, I'm super happy with it. The only concern that I have, obviously, like you said, is injury. I mean, these mid-season DP acquisitions are always tough because these guys are usually coming off of a full season. In this case, he's going to be at the World Cup. He's not a starter for Peru, but I think he's probably going to get some significant minutes.
00:20:05
Speaker
So fatigue is a concern, and he's probably going to have to have some time off. It's probably going to be a month or a month and a half or so before he can really be counted on to give you starters minutes. The other concern too, and I don't think it's a huge concern, and I think that once the sounders do officially announce the signing,
00:20:27
Speaker
you can consider it not a concern at all. But there is that outside possibility that he goes nuts at the World Cup and teams from bigger leagues come calling. I don't know how far the Sounders are. I don't think any of us are now really in terms of how far they are in the negotiations, how official everything is. But until we've got a picture of him holding up a Sounders shirt, I think that that possibility exists.
00:20:56
Speaker
But I don't know how likely it is. I mean, he's a known quantity. He's been playing for Peru for a while. He has three caps with them. He's been one of the better strikers in League MX for a couple of years. I think that, for the most part, the teams in Europe that would want him probably would have come calling him before the World Cup.
00:21:16
Speaker
But if you feel like being paranoid about it, about things falling apart, which I know I do, that's one of my greatest pastimes. That's something to be worried about to keep you occupied until the ink is dry. But assuming it does come together, I think everybody should be really happy, really excited. I know I am. And that's a good place to leave it, I think. Coming up, we've got an interview that Jeremiah did with
00:21:43
Speaker
Adrian Hanauer. There's some good stuff in there. I know a lot of folks have been wanting to hear from Adrian. So hopefully, you know, some of the questions you would have had for him will be answered here. And we're going to take a break and we'll be right back with that. You're listening to Nosarietes.
00:22:03
Speaker
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00:22:30
Speaker
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Adrian Hanauer on Sounders' Challenges and Strategies
00:22:44
Speaker
have you. Learn more and apply at veritycu.com
00:22:53
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietes. I am joined by Sounders Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer. Seem like we do this every year. So thanks again for doing it. Yeah, yeah. It must have been at least a year, Jeremiah, because I have to say, like, I swear the last time you showed up, you had two giant suitcases of equipment. And now you've got this little taser sized
00:23:17
Speaker
carrying case of this fancy high-tech equipment and that's impossible. I feel, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if the last time I talked to you was right around the time that this, I feel like it was a very similar place in sounder's history and I think it was right around the time when you guys were
00:23:37
Speaker
looking at signing Nico Ledero if I remember now I'm thinking I'm feeling it and Garth actually walked into the meeting if I'm remembering this I don't know if that was the last time that was certainly one of the last times you try to hit me when I'm when I'm in the pits exactly it's like when things are getting so bad I think you know agent needs the answer for all this
00:23:58
Speaker
Well, you know, to use Bryan's quote from the beginning of his press conference on Saturday night. Thank God. Thank God we won on Saturday. Otherwise, this would even worse. Yeah, so it would have been an even worse discussion for sure. So we may as well start there. With the win. With the win. With the win. What was it like for you?
00:24:23
Speaker
you know i talked to harry ship after the game and he said after dc scored that it didn't really faze him and on the field you might believe that considering they came back and scored you guys came back and scored a few minutes later but what was going through your head when dc took that one zero lead oh i knew for sure we were going to win the game
00:24:45
Speaker
I had so much empirical evidence to believe. Look, I was scared shitless if I'm honest. I've said it before. The math doesn't lie.
00:25:03
Speaker
and we've put ourselves in a pretty deep hole and getting zero points out of that game definitely would have not mathematically gotten us out of it but starts to realistically look pretty dire.
00:25:21
Speaker
So yeah, I was up with my family, had my son on my lap when DC scored and promptly removed him because I thought maybe he was bad luck or something. It's better than being thrown to the ground, I suppose. I've been in that exact situation before where I have my child with me and I'm watching a game on TV.
00:25:45
Speaker
And I'm like, nope, you're off. Get away from me. You're bad luck. I love you, but you're bad luck. I feel bad. I've done that to my girlfriend numerous times, but it was the first time I'd done it to my son. So that's pretty bad. Good learning. These are the things that he'll remember that will be imprinted upon him forever. Yeah, I hope not. And he's what, two? Yeah.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah, a little over two. So, no, all kidding aside, you know, look, the difference in that game was that I thought we'd played some pretty decent soccer up till that point. It wasn't great, wasn't the best we've ever played, but there was some, you know, there was some decent possession, some interplay, some possession in the final third, you know, some half chances, and I actually,
00:26:36
Speaker
You know, I believed going into that game that the goals would start to come. So, you know, I certainly didn't.
00:26:47
Speaker
and don't want to see us fall behind in games and have to come back. But at this point, we'll take three points anyway. We can get them. And one of the things I said at the beginning of that game when I saw the lineup was this was, I think, inarguably the most talented lineup that Saunders had been able to put on the field. But more than that, I think it was a lineup that if the lineup that looked like that had been playing,
00:27:14
Speaker
you know, five, six, seven games already this year that you probably wouldn't be in the situation that you're in now. Does that make it more frustrating or does that help give you some peace of mind? I mean, how do you go about balancing undeniably significant injury concerns with
00:27:36
Speaker
also an undeniable reality that it doesn't matter ultimately? It's a great question. It's complicated because I'm a fan.
00:27:52
Speaker
So I have certain biases and passions and certain ways I see the game through fans' eyes. I'm also an owner and look through the lens of being an owner and thinking about how we maintain
00:28:12
Speaker
the value of this franchise, the quality of the strength of the brand for our fans. I'm also day-to-day operator and manager. So what are we doing operationally to make sure that we are not suffering injuries, getting our players back from injury as quick as possible?
00:28:39
Speaker
And also, honestly, supporting the players who are on the field. Because I think that's one thing that gets glossed over a little bit. It's inarguable that Nicolas Ledero is one of our best players and makes a massive difference.
00:28:57
Speaker
but we have some players that are deeper on the roster who have been busting their asses, doing everything in their power to try to keep things afloat and come up with goals and defend like crazy and put their blood, sweat and tears into every game. And so I'm super appreciative of that because it does, it takes,
00:29:26
Speaker
a full team, players, managers, coaches, back support to win. It takes that whole group to lose also. And so those players are gaining invaluable experience. They are getting better, and they will be able to provide even more support as we move forward into the dog days of summer.
00:29:54
Speaker
You know, for sure you want your most experienced, high priced, however you define it as, you know, quality players on the field when you play games. I've used this, I need to dig up this article, but I've read a couple of articles
00:30:17
Speaker
that talk about winning sides in soccer. And a lot of people talk about tactics and systems and sports science and statistical analysis. When it comes down to it, really the only thing that matters is are your best players available for selection in the 11 and 13 or 14?
00:30:41
Speaker
When they've done the scientific studies, that's basically the difference between winning sides and sides that struggle, are the best players able to get on the field.
00:31:01
Speaker
I'm very happy that we're starting to get some of those guys back and reinforcements in the summer and a World Cup guys will eventually come back, but I'm also appreciative of the guys who've been busting hump to try and keep things afloat. So when you look back on this season,
00:31:22
Speaker
And you look at how there have been periods in each of the last four years, including this year, where the best players haven't been available for various reasons. Do you feel like that's something that's systematic?
00:31:40
Speaker
Or is that just a continuous run of bad luck? How do you go about analyzing that? Yeah. Well, we know empirically that over the last nine years, we haven't really dug into this year. But in the last nine years, our injury prevention work and
00:32:03
Speaker
and measurable number of games lost training sessions lost has been has been decreasing and is If not the top of the league every year in the top group every year we get we get information from our peers and
00:32:21
Speaker
And, you know, I'm not sure it feels this way that fans of basically every team in the world believes that their team has more injuries than everybody else. More hamstring injuries. I feel that way. I feel that way. So, you know, this year we, you know, it's been to an extreme and we'll see in the end of the year whether, you know, does it does it all balance out, even out or, you know,
00:32:50
Speaker
knock on wood, can we eliminate the injuries or do we keep getting them throughout the year? I don't think it's coincidental that Toronto is largely in the same boat. Having played two basically 11 month seasons in a row,
00:33:12
Speaker
It's a lot of wear and tear, a lot of accumulated mileage on players mentally and physically and with Champions League extra fixtures. Again, I don't think it's coincidental that both teams have really struggled with injury.
00:33:32
Speaker
But that said, we will look at everything and try to make sure that we're doing everything right from a training load standpoint. And obviously, Damien Rodin's come in, replaced Dave Tenney, and we're super excited about Damien. But there was a change. There's been a transition to the way we train and prepare.
00:33:59
Speaker
And I know Damien will look at everything he and the team are doing. So the best thing we can do is approach it scientifically and make sure we have the right mix of players. We're looking for the right physical attributes, scouting well, and keeping the players prepared mentally and physically.
00:34:25
Speaker
So the first half of the season, there's starting to become a narrative that the centers just don't value the first half of the season the same that they value the second half. Now, regardless, I think we could probably put that aside. Like, I don't think that's a real... It's just categorically untrue. You know, I've said it numerous times. Like, our tactic is not to suck for the first half of the year and then, you know, come on in the second half. We want to be consistent.
00:34:55
Speaker
and when throughout the year. We would love to be peaking at the end of the year, but we want to collect as many points as possible throughout the year. Given that, how sensitive are you though to the perception that the value of a season ticket is diminished by this perception that
00:35:18
Speaker
that the first half of the season isn't as valuable and that fans are starting to feel like, no, whether or not they're actually voting with their pocketbook this way, I don't know, but how sensitive are you to this perception that fans, that there's this narrative that that's going on and I don't know how you go about
00:35:35
Speaker
changing that narrative aside from just having better results which yeah i mean i think that's that's how you change the perception of a lot of things right you just you just perform differently like you know i don't i don't think that it does me any good to go out you know like i'm not going to convince people that were
00:35:55
Speaker
going to try harder next season, the results will determine whether people believe us and believe me. I'm always concerned if we don't play good, entertaining, winning soccer.
00:36:18
Speaker
But I'm, you know, I'm, and I suppose
Fan Expectations and Community Engagement
00:36:22
Speaker
I'm more concerned at the end of the season, because if you suck at the end of the season, you're, you know, you're going to maybe miss the playoffs, not win cups. So, but.
00:36:36
Speaker
But I'm super concerned in the beginning of the season as well, because three points in the beginning of the season counts the same as three points in the end of the season. And we know what happens when you have a good playoff seeding and get home field advantage and helps you through to an MLS Cup. So this year, there's a complicating factor, I suppose you could call it, in that at the end of the year, there's going to be a confidence, no confidence vote on
00:37:06
Speaker
on Garth's log away. And I know that you and Garth met with the Alliance Council recently. I don't know how much of that you want to necessarily share, but I guess what kind of message do you bring to them as a way of, because it would seem like with this vote pending, that it does demand a certain level of transparency that you might not otherwise want to
00:37:35
Speaker
want to give. We were asked to present a little bit of how we got here and where we're going. I won't go into the long version, but talked a little bit about the history of the sounders.
00:38:01
Speaker
You know, there's a very long tradition of winning and culture and chemistry with this club. I can only really speak to the whatever. I think this is maybe my 17th season associated with Sounders. Yeah, I think Dave actually pointed this out, I think.
00:38:18
Speaker
In all the years that you and Brian, at least, have been both associated with the team. And Bart. And Bart have, you've only missed the playoffs. Probably Taylor Graham. I don't know if he might have been that bad for him. But in all that time, you've only missed, I think, the playoffs once. Yeah. Yeah. So, look, and...
00:38:34
Speaker
I'll take a tiny bit of credit for that, but it's organizational and systemic and it's culture and chemistry and resources. And it's because we've generally had a pretty good plan and tried to stay true to that plan. And since the time Garth's gotten involved, it's sort of been continuation.
00:39:03
Speaker
Obviously, we won an MLS Cup, then repeated, and people can say, you can poke holes and say, well, we didn't dominate MLS Cup, but we were there. And there are a lot of teams that wish they were there. And now, for the first half of this season, we've struggled. Let's be honest, for a third of the way through the season, we're in a hole.
00:39:32
Speaker
You know, we, we, and, and, you know, some specifics, which I'm happy to share, you know, we, we did, we thought Jordy was, you know, in, in preseason was, was looking good. And, you know, we were excited about,
00:39:51
Speaker
about Jordan and Nico and Ozzie and obviously Clint in there and then Ikram and Victor Rodri. We thought we had a lot of, well we do, we did have a lot of pieces to the puzzle. We thought we would play good soccer for the first part of the season and that we would then in the summer at a DP,
00:40:16
Speaker
But we weren't quite certain yet exactly what type of player we would want in the summer. Because if Jordan had been performing to his potential, it probably would have been a slightly different player than we are today looking for. So Jordan goes down, we looked for a replacement over that opening transfer window.
00:40:44
Speaker
You know, February, March, April, those are not months when you want to be out looking for players because every league in the world is midstream and teams generally don't want to lose their best players because they can't replace them.
00:41:01
Speaker
And so we just couldn't find a deal that made sense and obviously the injury bug hit hard and we are where we are.
00:41:20
Speaker
Uh, we're, you know, we're confident that we can collect some points over the next, uh, you know, month, five weeks, uh, that, you know, we're going to get, uh, um, you know, obviously we've got Ozzy that's coming back. Victor's played a big role. Nico is back.
00:41:40
Speaker
Roman and Gustav will be back at some point here and will add a designated player and most likely a TAM player as well. And again, not that it's optimal, but I do believe that by the end of the season, or the middle to end of the season, we will be as good a team as there is in the Western Conference.
00:42:07
Speaker
we'll see whether we can dig ourselves out of the hole. How much damage do you think would be done if you, let's just say you miss the playoffs but you're playing really well at the end of the season, is there a concern that that will have a real bottom line effect or do you feel like if you can right the ship that it will kind of take care of itself? I mean look, I am always concerned, I'm concerned when we don't make it to MLS Cup that we're gonna,
00:42:34
Speaker
lose fans, alienate fans. I'm paranoid every single day and thankful for the support we have. I'm hopeful that after nine years of delivering, you know, what I would argue is an above average product, well, it's actually the best points
00:42:57
Speaker
Total I believe still I think I think LA may have moved back ahead But it's very close between you and LA either way one of the best points turtles in the nine and a half years I you know I'm hopeful that our fans will trust and believe that we will write the ship and and and you know and be a Championship contending team again and want to be part of that you know if we have
00:43:24
Speaker
two, three, four sucky years in a row, I get it. I mean, I, you know, like, I'm a fan, so if...
00:43:35
Speaker
If the soccer isn't entertaining, if we're not winning, I have those same gut feelings as our fan base. Like, hey, I want to be part of a winning group and organization and family. So I don't know. We will see, but all we can do is
00:43:55
Speaker
is try to put a quality team out there, collect points, connect with the community and our fans, continue to do things honestly on and off the field in delivering value to our season ticket base and our single and group ticket buyers and believe that they will come back.
00:44:24
Speaker
You know, one of the things that I think we have discussed a lot and has been discussed a lot is this lack of a better term, kind of a sense of entitlement. And I don't mean that to sound it in a negative way towards fans, but there is this standard, maybe a better way of a very high standard that Sounders fans are holding the organization to. Maybe the highest standard in the league. Do you view that as a positive in that you always feel like you need to perform or does it feel like
00:44:54
Speaker
but sometimes an unfair pressure. No, I think it's positive because I think it continues to, and honestly it starts with our whole mantra of democracy and sport. We have asked our fans to be more than just
00:45:12
Speaker
ticket holders, fans, customers. Therefore, I think it's fair of our fans to expect more of us than to just throw a product on the field and see how it all shakes out.
00:45:28
Speaker
I think more transparency from us is reasonable. I think holding us to a high standard on the field, off the field, character wise, and I talk about community a lot, like how we
00:45:45
Speaker
Interact with and influence our community So You know that said does it does it feel does it sometimes feel like there's a lot of pressure and that you know, I
00:46:01
Speaker
I personally carry a lot of that pressure and feel like I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders occasionally. Is that great for my long-term health? Probably not, but it's what I've signed up for.
00:46:22
Speaker
involved with the organization in one way or another since 1974, and I'm not gonna get away from it now. And so all in all, and look, I'll say another thing. I think that message boards, social media have allowed people to say things
00:46:53
Speaker
and express their feelings in a way that probably didn't exist, well, I know didn't exist 10 years ago.
00:47:02
Speaker
But when I'm walking around town, and so some of that gets to me, like the message boards. But when I'm walking around town, people are really nice and friendly and appreciative. And I go walking through Pioneer Square, even when we've had a bad game or we're losing and people are like, hey, we're going to turn it around, think positive.
00:47:30
Speaker
I think that there is a slightly different sentiment, you know, sort of in the human interaction than there is in the printed social world. So you're suggesting that the way we behave on social media might be different than the way we behave. That's an interesting...
00:47:54
Speaker
first one that said that. I was trying to say it in his nuanced way. No, you did. It's notable that people, not that I would expect people to be pelting you with tomatoes when you're walking down the street, but I do think it's notable that the anger is not the level of visceral anger that you would
00:48:16
Speaker
I mean, that does happen. It's not like it's unheard of for owners. Like a lot of owners don't walk around the streets of their hometown. I don't know if it's just because they don't want to interact with their fans, but it's not that unheard of for a player to be heckled that, you know, out on the town or whatever it might be. Don't get me wrong. I've been heckled and people are like, what's happened?
00:48:40
Speaker
But it doesn't feel as extreme as maybe an occasional message board might make me believe. Right. Well, and I get that too. You get heckled. I've had a lot of people say things online to me that they oddly don't seem inclined to say to me to my face.
00:49:04
Speaker
I hope I've just not invited now everyone. It's like the infamous, we only got so many phone calls, but we didn't get any phone calls about that. Now you're going to get heckled to your face. That's it. One of the areas where you can maybe measure dissatisfaction is butts and seeds.
00:49:27
Speaker
And, you know, we hear anecdotes all the time about, oh, well, there seemed like there was a lot less people at the game today.
Market Dynamics: NHL and World Cup
00:49:35
Speaker
You know, in a game like this last Saturday, well, there was a transfer down pour, the week before the RSL game, there was Memorial Day weekend. You can come up with excuses. That said, you know the actual numbers. How much of a difference has there been, you know, when you're trying to compare apples to apples between this year and previous years? Yeah. No, I mean, not dramatic, but there's a difference.
00:49:56
Speaker
For sure, you know the DC game Definitely, you know, probably I don't know but probably was one of our lower, you know show rates in the last few years and I get it like you know, there have been some games I'm you know, like
00:50:17
Speaker
There were times when we were hard to watch. It wasn't entertaining soccer. We have them in winning. Add in a torrential downpour and playing against the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
00:50:33
Speaker
you know but uh but you know back to your you know hey do you worry yeah absolutely i worry every day and i'm you know every single honestly though every single game uh i think i've missed maybe two home games in in the in the 10 years but uh every single home game
00:50:56
Speaker
15 minutes before kickoff, I sit there going, okay, this is the game where no one is going to show up. There are going to be 1300 people in the stadium. But they, you know, so far knock on wood, they, you know, they keep coming and
00:51:13
Speaker
But we need to do better. We need to make sure the product is good and entertaining. Otherwise, I expect that there will be people who decide not to use their season ticket or to go to a movie instead or watch The Mariners.
00:51:35
Speaker
do something else with their dollars. Along those lines, the impending arrival of the NHL to Seattle, is that something that you feel like is gonna exasperate those problems or can that be a positive?
00:51:50
Speaker
I don't necessarily believe that it's going to have a huge impact on the fan base. They ran their season ticket campaign oversubscribed. There's a limited number of seats available and games, so it's not like they can just keep selling.
00:52:20
Speaker
Uh, I'm sure there will be some, you know, some crossover and, and, you know, maybe a few, uh, few lost fans, but, uh, uh, typically where sports franchises, you know, where they compete, if you will, would be sweets, um, sponsorship.
00:52:42
Speaker
media, sort of, bandwidth, exactly, bandwidth, and you know, whose game is covered on the front page. But, you know, I guess the positive for me is my, you know, one of my best friends, Todd Lewicki, is running that organization and
00:53:02
Speaker
and he and I talk almost every day, and he loves the sounders. He helped start the sounders. If anything, I could see some sort of interesting partnership, loose affiliation out of the arrival of the NHL team.
00:53:27
Speaker
I don't know, I guess I'll touch on this as well. You know, this year's struggles come on the heel of, and I know overall there wasn't a big price increase, but some individual tickets saw, or some sections saw pretty big bumps in tickets. Is that, I don't know, do you feel like that that was
00:53:47
Speaker
unfortunately timed and or was it just something that thing you guys had to do but more along is that something that you know I think last year you said that was probably a one-time correction are you would you say you're still on pace for that being a one-time correction no we're gonna raise our prices significantly this sorry please
00:54:10
Speaker
That was a joke, yeah. So, look, our, I've said this before, what we're trying to do is generate as much revenue as possible in as appropriate a way as possible so as to support the soccer side with as many resources as possible to go out and sign as many of the best
00:54:40
Speaker
Players as we can and to support s2 and the youth system and support science and scouting and and all the pieces that go into Having the best product on the field and best Structure for for you know a legacy of success The you know last year was a sort of one-time adjustment kind of and again it was you know it was certain sections that
00:55:10
Speaker
that had really high renewal rates next to another section that might have been really close in terms of pricing, but it didn't make sense because that section never had renewal rates. Anyway, sort of a rebalancing.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. It would have been great if we had done that and on the heels of that we, you know, we had 28 points or, I don't know, yeah, instead of 11. But we just couldn't predict that. And yeah, did I answer that question? I think you did. I think you did. I think you answered it.
00:55:56
Speaker
But I'm guessing that the money, whatever added revenue you got from that seems to be reinvested in, you know, at least the numbers that we're hearing spoken about with like Raul, Rio Diaz, that rumor, it seems like that would have played a significant role in being able to make a signing like that. Yeah.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah, so people should be very happy that their prices went up because they are participating in for sure.
00:56:28
Speaker
You know, back to the, I know some people's prices went up significantly, but I can't remember the number, but it was like a third of the building either was flat or prices went down. I think the average. Weirdly we didn't hear from as many of those people. Yeah, exactly. That's social media anomaly again. Right, exactly. I think the effective rate increase was like in sixes or something. It was right.
00:56:58
Speaker
single digits or something like that. That said, again, I'm not sure there's a specific correlation, but we are out potentially looking to spend a pile of dough to bring in a summer signing who can
00:57:25
Speaker
help us continue to have a team on the field that can help us win championships. So it all, whether it's through our sponsors or suite holders, ticket holders, broadcast partners, merchandise, food and beverage, camp programs, parking, it all kind of
00:57:50
Speaker
You know it all sort of we try to balance it all out be as fair as possible to our fans because again you know we realize that we have nothing without our without our amazing fan base and and
00:58:07
Speaker
You know our hope is our fans are for sure fans are more willing to give us a little bit of the benefit of the doubt if we're continuing to put a quality championship quality team on the field. So I want to end on this note and I realize this is looking far out into the future. But on Wednesday there's going to be a.
00:58:29
Speaker
potentially an announcement of the 2026 World Cup. Seattle is one of the cities that's being mentioned. They scored very well in FIFA's scorebook on rating the bids. The possibility of the World Cup coming to Seattle, which is obviously still far from settled at this point, but that possibility
00:58:55
Speaker
What would that potentially do for Seattle and what you're able to do at CenturyLink? How much talk has there even been at this point of what effect that may have? Yeah, it's a great question. Everybody has their fingers and toes crossed. I've been saying this for a number of years. I'm super bullish on soccer in the United States, in North America, MLS.
00:59:23
Speaker
I become even more bullish with a World Cup in 2026. I think that puts 10 years of wind at our backs and the potential to really throw some rocket fuel in the
00:59:44
Speaker
in the league and grow like crazy. Seattle, you know, the work of Maya Mendoza-Ekstrom in our office. Mayor Durkin's been super supportive, a bunch of other people. Ralph Morton, Sports and Events Council, you know, we've put ourselves in a very, very good position to
01:00:13
Speaker
post games here, if we were to, if the United group gets the bid. And that allows, whether it's the sounders, other teams in our league, the broadcast partnerships, sponsors wanting to jump on board, it really does, I think,
01:00:40
Speaker
provide the potential for the types of revenue increases that allow us to continue to invest in the product and in the next 10 years make our league truly one of the top leagues in the world.
01:00:56
Speaker
And then how do you do you have any sense of like, how a Seattle, how Seattle might like, I mean, is there things that will have to be done in Seattle to make this or do you is it pretty much like what we have is pretty? It's pretty plug and play. You know, I think, honestly, Jeremiah, don't know all the details, you know, there might be a training field issue here and there. But you know,
01:01:23
Speaker
Stadium is good. We do have a lot of potential training facility opportunities. I have to imagine that's among the top positives to this potential market. Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously the summers here are fantastic. So the idea that teams can train in this sort of environment as opposed to in the south of the US.
01:01:52
Speaker
The transportation system, positive, the culture, the inclusiveness of our region.
01:02:08
Speaker
They're just all the all the companies, you know the corporate Support and potential for FIFA here is is immense You know the fact that Portland is not in the in the group and I believe maybe Covers out as well. I mean, so you're kind of we're kind of the the one, you know the one opportunity in the in the Northwest and
01:02:35
Speaker
You never know, but I'm super confident that should we get the bid that Seattle would be at home. Great. Well, I really appreciate your time, Adrian. As usual, you've been really generous with your time here, and thanks for doing this. Thank you. Great. You're listening to NOS Adidas.
01:03:00
Speaker
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01:03:25
Speaker
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Audience Questions and Player Development
01:03:29
Speaker
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01:03:43
Speaker
Welcome back to Nosadietes. Hope you enjoyed that interview with Adrian Hanauer that I have definitely listened to and have a lot of opinions on and found very illuminating. I haven't actually listened to it, but I'm sure it's good and I'm going to listen to it as soon as we're done recording. But now it is time for questions. So with it, go ahead and take it away. Alrighty.
01:04:02
Speaker
Ken Wise2020 asks, do you prioritize Christian's development as a 6 or an 8? Do you bring back Morris with an expectation of him being a 9 or part of a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2?
01:04:14
Speaker
It's an interesting question and I've actually been thinking about it for a lot of today because it was a slow work day for me. I'll get to the Jordan Morris part first. I think that the expectation has to be until he shows he can't play as a nine that that's where you want him to be because it's the most valuable position in terms of what the sounders could get in a transfer,
01:04:40
Speaker
what he can do in the field, how hard and expensive those positions are to fill, and I think his upside there is just a lot higher. But if he's in a 4-3-3 and can play on the left but as more of a striker, I think that's a pretty intriguing possibility as well because I think the skill set, you know, that you need to be a wide striker in a 4-3-3 and a 9 aren't totally different.
01:05:04
Speaker
And I think that the parts of his skill set that could use improvement might actually be more beneficial to have him playing in that sort of outside in sort of striker role. But I don't think that you bring him back with the expectation that he's going to be a winger in the midfielder sense. If he has to play there,
01:05:25
Speaker
you know, that it's not the worst thing in the world, certainly, but I just think he's a much more effective player closer to goal. And his upside there is much higher. If he's a winger, you know, he's probably an above average MLS winger, which is, you know, certainly not a terrible thing to be, but I think it's selling him short to move him there at this point in his career permanently. The question about Christian's development, though, I think is,
01:05:50
Speaker
is a lot more interesting because I think it depends on how you view the distinction between those two positions. I think tactically we're seeing
01:06:01
Speaker
In some systems, at least, it's certainly not a universal thing, but I think we're seeing a lot more teams using systems where they don't really have a six and an eight. They have a guy that's a six sometimes and an eight sometimes and another guy that's a six sometimes and an eight sometimes. I think the modern central midfielder, defensive midfielder is
01:06:22
Speaker
a little more versatile. You can expect a little more versatility. I think, though, that Christian has more development to do in terms of the more defensive side. And so if you're going to prioritize one area of his game, I think that it's probably that side. I mean, I think he's shown that he's a pretty effective player, closer to goal, crashing the box, things like that, making those long sort of amazing runs that you see from eights a lot of the time.
01:06:50
Speaker
He's an effective six, but I don't think he's as good as he could be there. And so I think sort of focusing on those areas of development for him could be pretty beneficial to his long-term development. Do you kind of view Christian as kind of a new wave Brad Evans type player? Because he seems to be able to slot in a lot of places already. Or is that because he's young?
01:07:16
Speaker
No, I think that's fair. I think he is maybe a little bit more of a complete player than you're used to seeing from MLS players. But I think that a lot of the younger players coming up have that to an extent that maybe the previous generation didn't. Tyler Adams can play all over the place.
01:07:36
Speaker
So I don't know. I mean, it's a super valuable thing to have. I mean, he looked great at right back against DCU. But yeah, I think that's pretty reasonable to think that that is a huge part of his value, that you can slot him in all over the place and think he's going to do the job for you. His conversion percentages on crosses must be pretty high because at least two or three.
01:08:03
Speaker
Yeah. All right. T. Rob Thomas asks, does our ideal starting 11 include Goose? I don't think that it does. I don't know. I guess the question is how you feel about Svensson versus Ozzy in that defensive midfield spot. If I had to choose one of them to have, I would probably choose Svensson just because I think he's going to be a little more reliable.
01:08:31
Speaker
from a health standpoint, and he is more versatile. But if Ozzy is healthy and he's on the roster, I would rather have him over Spencer in that position. So I don't know that our ideal starting 11 does, but I think even in an optimistic scenario of how healthy the team is going to be going forward, he's going to start a lot more games than he's on the bench.
Future of Coaching and Player Signings
01:09:00
Speaker
What a good problem to have. Yeah, for sure. At Slippish asks, how much longer should Smesser be the head coach? And how much longer will he be the head coach? So we kind of had this discussion about both Garth and Schmetz last season before things turned around. I don't think it ever reached nearly the crescendo it has this season.
01:09:23
Speaker
But my opinion hasn't really changed too much considering that the team got to the MLS Cup last season. And what it boils down to is this. I think Schmetzer has made some decisions this season that I find questionable. I will leave it at that because I like Brian Schmetzer a whole lot.
01:09:45
Speaker
He has done some things that I just did not understand that I think turned out really poorly. At the same time, I think that when you have a guy that's taken you to back-to-back championship games, one of them, and both times his team has started slowly, he's also had a ton of injuries and had to make a ton of really difficult decisions with not a whole lot of bullets in the chamber.
01:10:14
Speaker
there times I think he picked the worst or one of the worst options out of a bunch of bad options? Yeah, I definitely think so. But the reality is that he still had a bunch of bad options. And so you're then in a scenario where how fair are you being to him when he has his team even
01:10:36
Speaker
80%, 90% of where he would like it to be. He's gotten the results and it's a results-based business. And I know saying that, yeah, well, he got the team to back to back cups, is that results-based analysis? It is to a certain extent, but it's really hard for me to justify completely laying the blame on a coach.
01:11:02
Speaker
when so much of their rosters is out injured, even if they are making really bad decisions, when they've shown that they can be successful when they have the players they need. So I guess I would say, I think he's got at least through this season, and I would imagine even if they miss the playoffs, I would be pretty surprised if they don't give him next season as well. Or at least some of next season, the start of next season.
01:11:30
Speaker
I'll definitely say, I doubt they would make a decision before the end of the season either way. And I don't see the point. I mean, to me, if you're firing him at the pound of flesh thing, and I just, I can't imagine doing that to someone that's been, you know, such a faithful servant of the club, this branch, that's her.
01:11:50
Speaker
It would take tremendous amount of, I don't know the correct word to use, but if Garth was in charge of that and fired Schmetzer, it would take a tremendous amount of balls, I guess. Yeah. And for a guy that already is having trouble endearing himself to the fan base, maybe not the best move.
01:12:13
Speaker
66JZMSTR. Jazzmaster maybe? 66 Jazzmaster. I think he talked about his Jazzmaster once and I got jealous. Assuming Ria Diaz joins our team as our new DP, what position and type of player would you like to see in a summer TAM signing for the squad?
01:12:32
Speaker
I would like if it's possible to find a defensive midfielder. I don't think that that's the most likely scenario. I think the most likely scenario is another attacking player.
01:12:47
Speaker
For the most part, though, I think that that's going to be an area of concern next season. I think there's a very real chance this is Aziz last year. I'm pretty sure he's out of contract after this year. So I think that there's a realistic possibility to that. I think there's a pretty realistic possibility of Svensson going back to Sweden, which I know that this was last year and things changed, but he had said his plan was to play here two years and then go back to Sweden.
01:13:15
Speaker
You know, those are certainly possibilities. And if those two are gone, I think that you've got to, you know, all of a sudden you go from having that being a strength of the team, having, you know, these two guys that you feel very comfortable with in defensive midfield to being a pretty huge glaring weakness. So I would love to see them get that taken care of in this window. My assumption though, is that they're going to sign an attacking player and maybe sign a DP central midfielder.
01:13:42
Speaker
in the next window, or maybe they move Ledero there permanently. I don't know. But I think
01:13:51
Speaker
And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad decision, right? I think the general line on using TAM on attacking players is that they're more expensive. And so it makes sense to spend a good chunk of that resource on attacking players to be of higher quality in those areas of the field. If they're going to do that, I'm really hoping it's a winger and a direct winger, somebody that has sort of a
01:14:17
Speaker
just as a skill set that we don't have, that gives the team a little more balance, a little more dynamism, the ability to, say if you're protecting a lead on the road and you still want to have a credible attacking threat, things like that. So if they go that direction and I expect them to, that's kind of where I'm hoping they go is a fast direct winger that gives them that option.
01:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if we're going to believe what they were saying, that they were chasing a couple of players before the window, and for one reason or another, they decided to wait until the next window, to the more quote unquote, more displacement, then I would see as a winger or forward or something like that. Yeah, for Tam.
01:15:04
Speaker
Okay. Uh, let's see. Rick sports feed asks, would you have, would having a striker like Rudy as account for the difference between this team being three seven and two and potentially seven three and two? So I don't think that that's as wild as it sounds. Um,
01:15:21
Speaker
I think that the team defensively has been really solid all season long. Um, I haven't looked today, but I think that in terms of, you know, goals against, um, on a per game basis, they were in like the top five in the league, something like that. Um, they just haven't been able to score goals. And earlier in the season before the injury bug really hit, you know, when they were having these results, like they did against LAFC twice.
01:15:49
Speaker
they were creating chances. They just weren't finishing them. And it was kind of similar to last year at the beginning of the year. So I think that maybe they win a couple of those games that they didn't win. I don't know that they'd be seven, three, and two, but I think maybe they'd be
01:16:06
Speaker
five, seven, and two, or five, eight, and one, or something. I guess they couldn't be five, seven, and two. Five, five, and two. An extra four points right now would be, I mean, that's a lot of points. I think it's tempting to say, oh, we're 10 points, I think, out of a playoff spot. What difference is a couple extra ones going to make? But it's a pretty big one, especially with games in hand. So
01:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it certainly would have helped a lot. It certainly would have helped a lot. But I also don't think that a striker like Rudy Diaz was available at that point. And if they were, I think they would have signed him. So that's kind of the choice you got to make, is do we sign a guy that we can build around that's going to be a very elite player? Or do we just kind of take what we can get in this window?
01:16:58
Speaker
You know, they're pluses and minuses. And one of the minuses is that we are three, seven, and two and then scored less than 10 goals. So, I mean, the type of caliber of player that everyone wants is going to be a World Cup caliber player. And there just happens to be a World Cup this year. I mean, what can you do really? Yeah. Um, A.R. Beck asks, team seems to be focusing on a wide forward type as a tan player this offseason. Does this mean that next year's DP would likely be a center midfielder?
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a possibility, you know, if we end up getting a tan player in this window. I can't, especially Fauzi leaves, I can't imagine where else you would put them. And I think the most plausible scenario that I see lining up, and this is gonna make
01:17:50
Speaker
some people upset probably this time next year, is the Sounders get a TAM attacking player in this window. They get Rudy Oz. They get a DP central midfielder in the winter, which would be awesome. But then Dempsey and Ozzy are both gone and they've got a DP spot open going into, you know,
01:18:15
Speaker
into the summer window. And so we've got that situation yet again, where, you know, we're waiting on the DP signing and it's, if, if it plays out like that, probably the thought processes, we want to see what we've got in Jordan Morris before we make that mistake. Cause it will be coming back from injury or not make that mistake, make that decision. Um, that's a Freudian slip if I ever heard one. Um, but yeah, so, I mean, it could be a kind of similar situation. I guess next season, the big difference though, I think is that we would have.
01:18:45
Speaker
you know, in the scenario role really is and another attacking player and probably another central midfielder. And if it's a DP central midfielder, you'd likely expect that they would be, you know, kind of a
01:19:00
Speaker
at least have some creative ability. So probably not quite as bad, but I can see how people would be a little antsy in that scenario. But that's also just complete and total conjecture. I don't know anything. I could be full of shit. Who knows? I mean, you've got to think one of those DPs is going to be gone next year. Yeah. Unfortunately, the good super PAC asked, do you think Ozzy, speaking of which, do you think Ozzy will be on the team next year?
01:19:29
Speaker
Um, I don't know, man. I mean, I, I think, I don't think Ozzy is a DP caliber player. And I think signing him to a DP contract at the time made sense. Um, especially I think that they were kind of aware that Tam was coming into the equation and that they were going to be able to sort of be flexible with his DP status.
01:19:54
Speaker
Um, I don't, my thing with Ozzy is that, yeah, he he's probably worth paying Tam. And he's certainly important to the team culturally. Um, and when he's healthy, he's, you know, he's, he's a great player. And we saw that against DC United and how much he changed the game and against sporting Casey as well. Um, with that being said, you know, it's been a long time since he played a full season and a lot of the time he's been unavailable.
01:20:24
Speaker
later in the season, kind of a crunch time. And that's not great. That's not a great thing to have. And so if you're paying him Tam money as a defensive midfielder, the expectation has got to be that he's going to start every game, because he just, that position,
01:20:45
Speaker
if you're spending that kind of money on it, you need that level of reliability, especially since we're planning on signing another TAM player in the coming window. So if it's up to me, I don't know that I bring them back, which is painful to say.
01:21:02
Speaker
because I love Ozzy as much as I love him so much, but I just can't see him taking a 350K contract. And I wouldn't if I were him. I think he's worth more than that, but I don't know that the Sounders can continue to depend on him given the expectations.
01:21:22
Speaker
Ryan M. Baum asks, should we be optimistic about a late season run given our games in hand? So the games in hand help. I think it's two. We have two games in hand on most teams. We actually have to win those games in hand is the key thing.
01:21:40
Speaker
Um, I mean, at a certain point I just wasn't concerned because yeah, we were way behind everybody else, but we had like four games in hand on teams and then we didn't have four games in hand on teams. I didn't get any points from those games. So, um, but I don't think it's crazy to think that this team is going to make a late season run. I mean, I think, especially if they sign really as, um,
01:22:00
Speaker
That's the one thing that I think everybody agrees that this team is missing is a super dynamic goal scorer. So I think it's fair to be optimistic. But at a certain point, it's not going to happen, right? If you keep putting yourself in this hole, eventually you're not going to be able to dig out.
Fan Engagement and World Cup Support
01:22:17
Speaker
I expect them to be much better. And I think after everybody's healthy, World Cup's over, everybody's fit.
01:22:26
Speaker
you know, and really has this integrated that, yeah, they're gonna be a really, really good team, whether that's gonna be enough to share, I don't know, I don't know. But for my part, even if they did end up missing the playoffs, if they can play really well and kind of show, give us some reason to be excited about next season, I think that's gonna be okay with me, because they seem to know what the problems were, they seem to realize where they made mistakes.
01:22:54
Speaker
And they did legitimately have a ton of issues with health. And as long as they've gotten things turned around or on the right track and make the right decisions this offseason, I think I can live with it. I'm going to be calling for people's heads. But if they don't make that run, that's kind of a different thing.
01:23:13
Speaker
Yeah. I kind of feel like it's not going to, we're going to know way before the end of the season, if, you know, if they're going to bomb out or not. So I think, uh, if they can turn it around now or, you know, when they all get back and healthy, uh, it'll be encouraging. So if they don't do it when they get back and they bomb out, then. Well, we'll cross that bridge. Yep.
01:23:39
Speaker
ChamberI Seattle asks, do I want Panama, Sweden, and Peru to win or lose their World Cup games? Man, I always feel so weird about this because I want those guys to do well, but I also want them here, especially this season. I think in 2014, it was a little different because the Sounders were so good. And we're playing really well during the World Cup that it was kind of like, yeah, man, keep winning.
01:24:08
Speaker
We really need those guys. I felt awful for being relieved that Nico didn't make the World Cup roster. But if he's not here, I don't think we beat DC United. So I mean, I'm not rooting for Panama to win because I don't think that they have a prayer to win. So I'm not. I mean, I just they might get a draw out of England. I don't know. But I just they're really, really bad. It's embarrassing that they got into the World Cup over the US.
01:24:38
Speaker
Agreed. And, you know, Sweden and Peru, I don't know. My thing with there's a little extra with Peru because there is a possibility that, you know, really has catch somebody's eye until at least until it's it's officially official. But I say just go with your heart. You know, I'm not I don't really have I'm not rooting for anybody in this World Cup until the game starts pretty much so.
01:25:03
Speaker
you know, and then I'll figure out who I want to win. But if I'll be happy for, you know, for Gustav and potentially Raul, if they go deep into the World Cup, and if they don't, I'll be just very relieved to have them back. So whichever outcome happens is okay, I guess.
01:25:21
Speaker
I just don't want anyone to get hurt. That's the key thing. Kenneth M. Young asks, what is your opinion of the Seattle Loves Portland marketing campaign?
01:25:34
Speaker
I like it. I think it's very harmless banter. It's barely even banter, and it's just very wholesome. It doesn't take itself seriously. I like it. I don't like it when brands try to be overly sassy.
01:25:52
Speaker
And the sounders are a brand. I think they hit the right note with it. I mean, it's marketing, but it's also taking a dig at Portland, but it's not doing it seriously. And it's really annoyed the shit out of a bunch of timber sands. And that's, I mean, that's like, that's when you hit the sweet spot, right? When you're not even really trolling, but you're still pissing people off. That's, I think you've got it. So yeah, I like it. I hope they keep with it.
01:26:18
Speaker
Whoever came up with that idea in that meeting just should be given a raise or a week off or something. It's amazing. Yeah, it's like it's so almost subtle the way they did it. And it was just kind of like out of nowhere almost it felt like and it just popped up and it was, I don't know if it was supposed to be response to what the timbers did with their mockumentary, but it's just like the perfect response to it because it's not trying to respond to it, but it's just like,
01:26:47
Speaker
Hey, here's this thing. It's going to bother you. And it did. Yeah. Yeah. Enjoyable. All right. Let's go with the last question here. Tim, the marriage you asked. How are you guys doing? What have you been up to during the stretch when watching the Sounders hasn't been exactly a source of joy? What are you doing doing for fun? Thanks, Tim. I'm good. I've been playing pinball like I always do.
01:27:13
Speaker
and watching the Mariners, which has been a lot of fun. And if you like baseball, even if you've been beaten down by the Mariners, as I once was, I recommend it because they're a lot of fun to watch. Yeah, so I don't know. I think the thing I'm most thankful for about being formerly being an obsessive Mariners fan that would watch 150 games a year, even when they were losing, you know,
01:27:41
Speaker
10 games a year or whatever, is that it finally taught me how to have a healthy relationship with sports because I just hit a breaking point and was like, I can't.
01:27:52
Speaker
do this anymore. I can't make myself suffer like this." And so when the sounders are bad, it sucks, but it's not like this black cloud hanging over my life like it would have been 10 years ago or whatever. So thanks for that, Mariners, for breaking me on a childlike level. But yeah, how about you, Lickit? What have you been up to?
01:28:13
Speaker
Similar. I've just been playing a lot of video games. I'm just trying not to overly obsess about the little things of this season as I can, which probably drives a lot of people crazy because I'm trying to be in the middle somewhere a lot of the time. Yeah, it's the same thing. It's just at some point, you just have to remember that you watch sports for fun.
01:28:39
Speaker
And to root is great, but to get super annoyed by everything, it just takes up too much of your time. Yeah. That's how I feel too. And I will also say that if you're one of those people that has stopped watching The Sounders, you don't have to tell everyone you know that you're not watching The Sounders anymore and that it makes you extremely happy. You can just not watch them.
01:29:05
Speaker
And that's fine. It's fine if you're not enjoying watching the games. You don't have to. But maybe some people, even if the team's bad, like watching the games, and then want to hear about it. Anyway, just food for thought.
Episode Conclusion and Gratitude
01:29:18
Speaker
I think that's the show. I want to thank our sponsors. I'm going to go back up to where the sponsors are listed, because I don't usually do this part.
01:29:27
Speaker
Um, flip-a-wines, obviously, Verity Credit Union, Queen and Acupuncture, uh, Bootstrapper Studios, uh, I think I got them all. Good job, me. Uh, I think Jeremiah will be back next episode so you don't have to put up with listening me talk as much. Uh, but thanks as always for listening. Thank you to Lickit. Uh, and remember, you will never yet alone.
01:29:51
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Mountain wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:30:32
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!