Transcript
Speaker: Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
Speaker: Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
Speaker: Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does just about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what cross! And what a goal!
Speaker: Where's my copy? I got a bunch of them in the car. How many do you cost them? 50 bucks. I'll deadline you.
Speaker: This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
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Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. It is Friday. We are here at the Sounder Heart studios in downtown Seattle in the ID.
Speaker: i am joined by Nico Moreno and new... Member of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network, Adam Race, who's getting ready to start a new live show.
Speaker: We are ready to start talking about this. New live show on Monday afternoon, one o'clock. We're going to be on YouTube live starting hopefully this Monday. We're still trying to figure out some technical parts of it. But Adam, we're here for what we learned this week, I should say.
Speaker: Welcome to the show. Welcome to the network. Welcome to the family. Good to have you. Thank you so much, Jeremiah. I mean, I just want to say I've been going to every single Sounders game at home since 2009. Woo! little kid my family has been season ticket holders since then and it's just so great to be here I've been reading sounder at heart as long as I've been reading sports journalism oh mean this is this is really cool for me love to hear that love to hear sucking up to the boss already yeah no man no no look flattery will get you everywhere that's right Nico you could take a lesson from him dang it no look to be honest uh
Speaker: Jeremiah and I had been looking for a co-host for a quiet quite a long time for that Monday show. We talked to a lot of people. I made a lot of calls. at Jeremiah knows how obsessed I was with you know making a lot of calls and talking to a lot of people. But ultimately, what really won me over in terms of Adam, and I'll go ahead and be very concise on this. I love the fact that he was so involved, so soaked into the the culture and and the community of Seattle sports, not just soccer, but sports in general, you know, broadcast for Ballard, broadcast for ah Seattle U, not just soccer either, volleyball, I believe, all these things. I mean, it's, to me, there's a certain value that, uh,
Speaker: a lot of people need to see in that sort of commitment and, and our audience, if any audience out there is really gonna feel like you're part of this, man. And so to me, that was worth more than any of the other, you know, candidates that we had. So man, Adam, i'm just excited for us to start on our Monday show and I'm happy and, and, and proud as you know, the, the, the, coppo the the guy just under, uh, Jeremiah, just another worker, but just being able to just have you as part of the team, man. Yeah. Nico, thank you. I mean, I just want to say, i mean, if I could speak on what being a part of the sports community in Seattle means, uh, I think sports are a uniquely human thing. It creates community in a way that really nothing else does. And I love all sports, but
Speaker: Soccer is a uniquely human sport, the way that anyone can get involved. And as someone who has been involved in soccer in Seattle since 2009, like I said, when I was what, six years old, I don't mean to age you guys there. Sorry, but um to see it grow in this country over the last 10, 15 years. And, you know, it's amazing to watch and to be a small, small part of it and to bring it to more people. You know, what you guys do is great. To be a part of that is great. It's it's something that is so prevalent in.
Speaker: how we interact as people. And I don't think people give enough credit to the fact that that is what sports is. And that is what soccer is in our city. Oh, love that. Grab your tissues, people. I'm ready. Yeah, I know. like I'm ready. Let's go. Yeah. So, ah yeah, that's going to be Mondays on the Sounder at Heart YouTube channel. We're going to be going live.
Speaker: It will be, there'll be a new experience for Sounder at Heart. We have not really done a live show on any regular basis. Of course, there was, uh, adjacent things that we did but this will be it'll be the ah foray into live so hopefully people are a little bit patient with us on that but i think we are ironing out the kinks to be i'll give you a little bit more peek behind the curtain we were actually i was gonna i was planning on doing like a live test today but we couldn't figure it out because we over complicated things but that's okay uh this will be So we could, uh, this was an active week in the sounders. So we did learn quite a few things, but let's start at the top. The, the transfer window closed on Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, transfer into what closed on Wednesday. The centers did make a last minute move. They brought in Caden Clark, who is a name that you probably recognize if you've been around MLS, he, you know, he broke into the Red Bulls at 16. He was sort of phenom.
Speaker: He earned a transfer to RB Leipzig. And that's where his career started to go off the the rails a little bit. He didn't play at Leipzig. He went on loan to a team in the, I think the second division of Denmark didn't really play there.
Speaker: Came back to MLS a few years ago with CF Montreal. He had some, no, no. With Minnesota United where he's actually from, he's from Minnesota.
Speaker: He played with Hassani there. He played with Hassani there. He did not do much at Minnesota, but then he got a move to CF Montreal and, First few months there, gangbusters. Four goals, four assists. Looked like he had rediscovered his career. He actually made a, he he actually got into the U.S. national team for the January camp. Scored a goal, had an assist in two appearances for the U.S. s national team.
Speaker: And then the career started to the veer off the tracks again. Got off to a rough start at Montreal. Got traded to D.C. United. did not really play a whole ton at DC United this year. he barely, he did not make a single start this year.
Speaker: There was a trade that he was supposed to go to the Red Bulls that fell through. Supposedly he cleaned out his locker, was done with DC United. The Sounders were able to swoop in and get him for almost nothing. The Sounders gave up a second round pick to DC United.
Speaker: They will only be paying his on cap portion of his salary. He is a U22. So there's about year that he's owed off cap. sounders do not have to cover that.
Speaker: And the only way the centers have to pay any more, they would have to pay $50,000 more in GAM if he were to still be on the roster after the sprint season. So the centers are basically getting him for almost free for the next 10 months, we'll call it.
Speaker: Not a bad bit of business, but someone who comes to the Sounders with quite a bit of baggage. They, of course, also signed Dan Jovolek earlier.
Speaker: but Was that this? No, that was last week. That was last week. He already played, obviously. So those are the two moves the Sounders ended up making. I would say... underwhelming is maybe a fair way of putting it, but if you were to assess the moves as an entirety, let's start with you, Nico, what grade would you give the Sounders Transfer Window? Yeah, look to me and I've, you know been vocal and I've said this a couple of times on X, I had a whole life year, uh, life X, uh, open space yesterday where a lot of people chimed in on and, uh,
Speaker: I'm going to stick to a solid C. Look, I think that you get a home run outside. Let's call it a grand salami, if you will. When you get a franchise player at $6 million, dollars to me is the best deal of the transfer window. It could be, you know, a historic steal for a guy that can produce at the rate that,
Speaker: He does. I mean, look, I did an analogy. You know, I love my analogies. It feels like... Whenever you are trying to get like the brand new Jays and you get a raffle ticket, but everybody else got the wrong one. And the only one that was able to cash in on the raffle ticket was Craig Weibel because he kept asking about the player. He was relentless, no not taking no for an answer.
Speaker: And because of that, you get the best striker at $6 million, dollars half of what St. Louis paid for Navajo, which is absolutely insane. So when you have a home run there and then you get a single, right? with a guy like Clark, because look, both you and I, Jeremiah know that the Sounders were negotiating with a European winger that hit all of the boxes, right? he He checked all the marks. That was their number one target. That was a guy that was going to come in. And as far as we know, he had all the right attributes. He got into the prime assist zones consistently he was a goal scorer he was athletic but you were unable to close him down because hey cellular restrictions when it comes to that and the caps sometimes affect negotiations and that's what happened you were unable to get him done mainly because i think you were a little late you were ah you were very behind on having that sort of negotiation but your fallback is a guy like
Speaker: Clark, who, look, Caden, for everything that you just said, you know, there's been some ups and downs in his career. What I learned this week is that he's someone that... I think knows what he's done wrong. To me, he looked very honest when he talked to us. And, you know, he, you know, I asked him, do you feel like you have something to prove? He did not shy away from me. He said, yeah, you know, there's, there's things that I got to prove, but mainly I want to be a good teammate. I want to be able to come in here and help support. I don't think he's coming here with any sort of expectations in terms of getting minutes, but Hey, he did say,
Speaker: I've been sitting on the bench a lot. I got fresh legs. I got fresh legs. I got young legs. I'm ready to go. So look, that's something that I'm sure is going to be valuable for the Sounders. So jury's still out on where that's going to be, how that's going to play out. But I like it as a fallback. You know, I really do think that there is potential there. And I'm just curious what Adam thinks.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I think that you have to think of this in terms of grading an MLS team on their transfer window and grading the Seattle Sounders on their transfer window. It's no secret that the Sounders aren't the spendiest team ah in the league. And there's a lot of griping about that. But what they did this transfer window to me is so impressive because I watched that game with Dejan Jovolic and I just kept thinking to myself like,
Speaker: This was too easy. How do we get this guy for what we got him for? And it's an immediate, massive change as a player that not only, of course, he can do it himself. He had the two goals. The second one was created largely off of his own strike. But his gravity that he has, you talk about gravities with a striker so much. He brings those center backs in. He frees up room for players like Albert Roussaint. He's to make everyone around him better. So you're paying not only for a player that, I mean, he could bag...
Speaker: He could back 10 goals yeah in the remainder of this season. I don't think that's that's ridiculous to say with with with with how he's like, he could immediately make himself the leading scorer on the team yeah for the season. We were talking over and over again the press box that it was the first time a nine had started a game and scored for the Sounders, which is not fact. Which is the craziest stat. It's insane. The craziest stat. It's ridiculous. but But you have an answer. You have a solid answer. That is, like Nico said, that's an A+. plus That's perhaps the best bit of business done in the window.
Speaker: Caden Clark, it was so fascinating to see him come in because I i saw the news and i was like, I was following this guy when he went to Europe because all the USMNT fans were like, this is the next guy. This is one of the people coming up through the pipeline. And then he kind of disappeared a little bit. Like you said, he had he had some rough time back in MLS. He didn't really get the playing time he wanted to get in Europe.
Speaker: But when i look at these two transfers, I really like to look at the personalities that we've seen so far. What I've been impressed with Dan Jovulic is he's very confident. A lot of players, you're obviously a very PR trained. You don't want to go out and say like, I'm really good. I'm going to score a lot of goals.
Speaker: Day on has a way of saying that in a way where you're just like, yeah, I believe you. You're right. Yeah. And and it's so honest. Well, also making sure that he is focused on winning. Brian Schmetzer talked about when he got the game ball in the last match. He said, I came here not just to score goals, but to win games, um to have that confidence in yourself as a nine.
Speaker: Well, making sure it's about the team. That's a huge win for the culture. Caden Clark being honest about the fact that he's got to come out and it and he's got an opportunity here to spark something. This team needed a pick me up.
Speaker: As plain as it is, this has been a really rough stretch on the fans. This is really an unprecedented rough stretch on the locker room, a locker room that's used to success. um We heard Paul Rothfra coming off the field at training today. He said the vibes are back and that's what it feels like right now. And these players are helping with that.
Speaker: Yeah. So what's your grade though? I would say a B. A B. All right. Well, I'm going to come in a little between you guys. I, I've settled on a B minus. I think it's a little better overall than maybe Nico's giving it credit for in that.
Speaker: Look, I agree. I am honestly more excited about Jovalich. I don't know that there was a single signing that anyone in the league made who I'm more bullish on, at least for the short term.
Speaker: I think Jovalich is most likely. I don't think anyone will be surprised if he's the top. Of all the players who moved, he scored more goals than anyone else this year.
Speaker: We'll see how that goes. But he's only 27. I think. You're putting him head to head against Griezmann. Okay. Griezmann doesn't have a little bit of a head start, but, but, but I'm with it. No, I yeah i think going to stick with it. I'm going to go, going to stick with it.
Speaker: Clark is interesting. i I, am not as down on him as I think a lot of folks are. And look, he comes with a lot of baggage, but I think it in some, no one really doubts his talent or I don't think a lot of people doubt his talent. And what's funny is that if you look at his numbers,
Speaker: you know, he's got 11 goals, 19 assists in his MLS career in only about 6,500 minutes. That works out to be almost a goal or an assist every or half a goal or a goal or an assist.
Speaker: It's 0.5. It's basically 0.47 goals per 90. You can work that out for yourself, whatever I'm trying to say. ah But look, if he produced, you know, if he were to come in and produce the way he did during the first few months with Montreal, he had four goals, four assists.
Speaker: Sounders would be over the moon. This would be a home run signing. The fact that he comes in with no cost, basically, that he is he is almost free ah is great.
Speaker: And I think he does know that he has maybe not put himself in the best position at his previous stops. And so it's really going to be up to Brian Schmetzer to mold him. And look, the worst case scenario is that he flames out and doesn't really do anything here. And I don't want to pretend as if Caden Clark is just like signing some of these other players that they had lined up. And I think that you have to give the sounders some demerit for an inability. And it's not necessarily on credit. You can blame Craig. You can blame ownership.
Speaker: you can You can blame anything you want. But the reality is that they didn't get these signings done. They had a list of players who they liked. I've seen a six or seven players that they targeted to various ah degrees. They only really got far down the path, I think, on one.
Speaker: They really liked him. Like you said, it's a Swedish player. We're going to write about this a little bit later. I don't have his name right in front of me. Yeah, wasn't going to share it until you... Yeah, no, we're... I think we're okay to... If you know the name off the top of dubb your head, you're welcome to the share it. No, no, no, go ahead. Yeah, ah but ah we with this name will come out. I'm not trying to hide the ball on anybody, ah but we've gotten some... we've We've been given clearance to at least talk about this player. ah And...
Speaker: The problem was that the Sounders didn't really get a budget for transfers until really late in the window. And I think that is ah that that colors the entire the entire experience. If the Sounders had get been given $10 million dollars of transfer budget, which is what they were apparently prepared to spend,
Speaker: Back you know at the beginning of the post-World Cup break, I think they would have gotten they would have gotten some signings done. They would have gotten more signings done. They maybe have even been able to get this these two players. But because the money came relatively late, and I will say in some ways, I think the Jovulic thing, it ended up working out.
Speaker: Because i don't know that Jovulic was entirely available early in the window. I think a big part of the reason he was available was because Kansas City got a new owner.
Speaker: They had kind of drawn up new plans. But as it was, I don't think they really ended up replacing Jovulic on their roster. No, not really. Not not player for player. No. and And that's a little odd. So, honest yeah. But look, I do think that this is a good window. If you're judging it on the curve of did the Sounders do enough? If you if you are insistent on looking at the Sounders performance as a referendum on the last five years, it falls short.
Speaker: If you're looking at it in a vacuum of did the Sounders improve themselves maybe more than almost any other team. I think it starts to look a lot better. You know, I was going through Matt Doyle's transfer grades and he gave the Sounders a I believe a solid B. Oh, wow. Yeah. Good. And he only had eight teams above the Sounders.
Speaker: And I think one of the things that's easy to forget is that there was a lot of teams that were more active that had more in and out. And I guess it's notable that the Sounders also shipped out Osase de Rosario, they put him on loan, which that deal, if they are able to get $2 million dollars for Osase de Rosario, that's the purchase option.
Speaker: Sounder at Heart has been around in one form or another since 2009. In 2026, though, we make a pretty significant evolution when we go analog. Yes, that's right. In the year of our Lord, 2026, we are publishing a real-life magazine. We're calling this thing 4, as in Sounder at Heart 4.0. But we're stylizing it as IV because we absolutely love Roman numeral. And if you want to refer to it as IV, that's cool, too. The first issue has a comic book-style cover that was hand-drawn by local artist Kevin Newbern. Features by Tim Foss, Susie Rance, and Charlie Boehm. A statistical deep dive by Kat Bush. A Q&A with Brian Schmetzer. A column by G. Willow Wilson. And photographs by Noah Reif, Max Aquino, Mike Russell, and Jane Gershowitz.
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Speaker: That would be quite a bit of business. That would be good. But in the short term, it's ah I guess you can say it's a loss, although I don't know that he would have been playing a whole lot. No, don't think he would have. And you give him the opportunity to get a fresh start. And right but this is news that we broke through Sunder Hart, of course. And when that when I first heard about it, you know i thought it made sense. ah To be honest...
Speaker: I think that Osase had more talent than what he has shown with the Sounders, potential-wise. And I don't know if it's a difficulty with the system. or Look, to Brian didn't quite rate him. and and and You can the way that he talked about. The way he talked about Osase was obvious. and And I know that people don't like to think about this because they feel like Athletes should be fucking robots and that's all that they should just work. And, you know, he's a professional. Like, look, there's a mental state to to things like this. And if my coach don't trust me, it's going to affect my game. And I really do feel like there was something about it. So I love the fact that he gets a fresh start and I love the fact that he's able to revalue himself in another league.
Speaker: They're a 12th place team, the last of their league, if I'm not mistaken, in ah the Danish league. So can he get that team going? I think it's a positive. And if the center goes down for $2 million, man, I'll take that every day. And i mean in that to me, what that tells me is that they're bringing him in with the idea that he might be a starter.
Speaker: And he needed minutes. That's more than anything else. The worst thing that the Sounders could do with Osaze de Rosario is sign Jovlich. And then we know Brian rates Danny Masovsky over Osaze. We can dispute that all we want, but I think it's pretty clear that Brian rates Masovsky over Osaze. That was not going to leave a lot of minutes for Osaze.
Speaker: that's just the truth. He was, worse he was not going play a lot, uh, after over itch got here. So I think that that's a good move for him. They have, they also loaned out, uh, Cody Baker. That's almost more of a trade. I really don't think Cody Baker is coming back. Uh, and then they also loaned out you, Sukunome to the USL championship. I have not been keeping tabs on how that's been going. Uh, but neither one of those guys were playing very much.
Speaker: Clearly two more players who Brian Spencer did not really rate. I like Cody Baker. i would have honestly liked to have kept him around because I i think he provides some decent depth at left back, but it didn't look like he was going to get playing time. So I don't really blame him. i don't really blame the Sounders at all for shipping those moves out. I think if you're going to really...
Speaker: ding the sounders. It's just, it's because they didn't get the moves done that they themselves admitted they wanted to get done, but still like they are better now than they were at the start of the window.
Speaker: and There's really no way to put it besides you've got a 27-year-old and a 23-year-old. Pretty cheap. Good points. I you look around the league, and a lot of times when a team is in panic mode and they want to splash cash, they go and get someone who's established, someone, a big name who's going to come in and turn heads. But they've kind of gotten the best of both worlds in this way, especially in Dan Jovolic. He has room to improve, which is crazy to say because he already looks...
Speaker: almost a league above some of these other players that we've it's been so impressive and for Caden Clark you have this baggage coming in but you're not the big name of the window for the Sounders you have so much freedom and room to kind of grow this a great culture for a player like that to come into because you have an established head coach and he talks ad nauseum about how much he enjoys the culture of the locker room and and I I believe him. I mean, this is a team that has been under the same coach, under the same philosophy and a lot of the same players for so long. It's exactly where I think a Caden Clark can have success. Yeah. When you look at that, it's it's really it's two pieces of business that are great for the player and great for the team.
Speaker: Yeah. and And I was just going to just really quickly add, I think one of the underrated pieces of the Caden Clark thing is that this is a player who has pi played for almost exclusively ah dysfunctional teams. He was at CF Montreal, Minnesota United, you could argue is maybe more functional, but I don't know that that really was a good situation for him.
Speaker: DC United, clearly not a ah great situation. so this is his first real chance to play for like a real team. And I feel like he fits. He fits what the Sounders want. I have seen him watch them this week very closely, as much as it wasn't a long amount of time of me watching him play. But first touch is phenomenal. Explosives on the ball, the fundamentals on the way he just opens up his hips, the way he turns, the way he attacks space. i was surprised.
Speaker: you know, very impressed by the overall frame. I don't know why I had a thought that he was a little smaller than he was. He's a big guy. He's a big frame. I thought that he was physical. Soccer standards, by the way. Soccer standards, of course. I'm not talking football here. But soccer standards, I think he has a decent frame. He looks like a physical guy. And he's playing with a chip on his shoulder. So I like the move. I guess that another reason why I left it at a C grade for this window is because, you know, I thought that one, it was important to get a third player, whether it was a holding mid or a fullback. That's something that you're kind of missing in terms of depth, but mainly because, and maybe there's a good segue into the next segment.
Speaker: I don't know how much... of this falls on Craig Weibel because it feels like the budget opening up as late as it was, was what really hindered this team of making that their move and maybe getting there the guy that they wanted at at the winger position. So look, as Jason Derulo would say, you know, when the roof caved in and the truth came out, I just didn't know what to do. it Like the reality is that it's on ownership, man. It is a little bit on ownership to just...
Speaker: allocate that money because look what is the first thing that a realtor tells you when you go look for houses hey man go get pre-approved go go tell me how much you're worth because i can't be showing you houses down in rainier valley or houses down in kirkland or in mercer island if i don't know what you're worth and so if the gm has no idea what the budget is how are you minimizing the evaluation talent who you're going to go after the targets that were maybe available five weeks ago four weeks ago they're no longer available right four days before the window closed. So to me, it's a systematic thing. So for everyone who believes that just by removing Craig Weibel, things are going to be all peach and dory and it's going to be amazing. And we're just going to be the the new monsters of, of MLS once again. and we're going to go back to a leanness.
Speaker: There isn't that amount of confidence for me because if it's systematic and it starts at the top, it's got to be fixed at the top. Yeah, i I think the real estate analogy is really good. And I think to use another example here is that if you are you go out and you tell your agent that you have a million dollar budget.
Speaker: but you want a four million our four bedroom, three bath house, you start looking at four bedroom, three bath houses. You're probably in Seattle going to be a little frustrated at what you're looking at. And so what your agent is going to come back and say is like, look, if you don't like the options,
Speaker: You can do one of two things. You can downsize your expectations or you can increase your budget. But I can't make a $4 million dollars player fit your dream. you know In this case, to go back to soccer, if you want if you want to spend $4 million, dollars this is what $4 million dollars gets you. if you want to spend But if you have these expectations, you're have to have these You're going to have to change one way or the other. By the way, the player that we were talking about here, I went ahead and looked it up. It's Adrian Svanbach. He plays for BK Håkon, who is a Swedish team that Eric Freberg is apparently the sporting director of. That was pretty interesting.
Speaker: and And apparently they had just sold a player. They were not feeling like they absolutely had to sell. sell And the Sounders finally came in at a price that that made them more interested to sell. And when they talked to the player, the player was just not quite as willing to make the move they He needed to be, essentially. He wanted a lot more money than the Sounders had in the budget to to to make it happen. And we'll see if that ever works out. But ah he he was a player. he looked He's both ah a forward and a winger.
Speaker: He's been mostly playing as a winger this year. And they really liked his... his His profile, his physical metrics. he He's a, know, a high, you know, he he likes to press. He was a high action player. But that was that would have been a nice addition.
Speaker: but they didn't get it done. So you don't get credit for trying. And it's like trying to balance that desire of, I know what a lot of people have in their head that the sounders weren't even out there scouting players. They were scouting plenty of players. It's the ability to close the deal. And that's a multifaceted problem. And I guess if we can transition this into, you know, Jada Evans asked Brian, he's, about the upcoming GM vote and sort of like wanted to see what his, how he felt about the, the transfer window and how it affects the upcoming GM vote. And Brian will trim it down. He basically said, look, I would, i have a vote. I'm going vote to keep Craig.
Speaker: I don't necessarily want to put you guys on the spot right now. Cause I think there's still a lot to go into our decision there, but overall, going what is what do you think that how do you how do we What do you think are an appropriate way to judge the job Craig Weibel has done?
Speaker: I mean, you just look at the trophy cabinet and you realize that this is someone who's done a lot of really good business. And like I said before, the Sounders, They do business in a different way than a lot of other MLS teams do. It's, it's very unique, especially when it comes to the fact that the Sounders are one of the big dogs in MLS. They are a trophy winner.
Speaker: They certainly don't conduct business in the way that you see from the other big names in MLS, um like, you know, an LA FC or even Atlanta United. It's, it's, It's different. And I think that that kind of puts off fans sometimes. They see how other ah MLS teams are doing their business when they're drowning, when they're struggling. And they look and they see Sebastian Gomez on the right wing.
Speaker: And they're like, what are we doing? Like, that's ah that's a good quality player. Brian clearly rates him. um But the fans look at that and they just get frustrated. And and I understand. Yeah. It makes sense so why they'd be frustrated I think two things can be true when it comes to a player like Sebastian Gomez.
Speaker: He's made some real improvements. He's shown some real promise. He probably should not be starting for a team that thinks they have playoffs on their mind. No, and look, as much as you want to joke about it, just looking at the very small amount of training that I did,
Speaker: Kaden Clark was like a real man out there, you know, like a real player. Like he, he just fits better. And and again, no knock on Sebastian. I mean, he is going to be a good player and and you want him to develop, but he's not there yet. I would much rather see personally a guy like Hayden trying to figure things out out there. But look, going back to Craig, I think that it's very easy for me to just want to,
Speaker: keep some sort of consistency with changes above him. Like I'm curious and I put this on X, like, are you not curious what Craig could do with a real budget, with like ah a real sense and a commitment from the people above him saying, Hey man, we are, we understand that next season, there's some really big decisions to be made and we want you to have a plan and we're going to back you up with X amount of money. I'm curious. So to me personally,
Speaker: i I would i will want to keep it because I don't know what the better options are out there. You know, is Chris Henderson going to get fired tomorrow? I mean, maybe, but that's we don't know that yet. and And if he is, is he not going to get more money or a better option elsewhere? Does he feel like he's outgrown Seattle and he'd rather go to LAFC or somewhere else?
Speaker: I kind of think he does. i don't know. Chris has changed ever since he went from in Miami to Atlanta United. Those are big, big clubs. I don't know if he's going to want to go back to Seattle. So he's out of the picture. it What? Kurt Smith. Is that another option? Because he has some sort of ah ah pass with the Sounders. He's currently the RSL CSO. He is the son of Siggy Schmidt, in case you don't know. There you go. And so he has got some sort of known relationship with Adrian. That seems to matter a lot to the owner. So is he a guy? I'd rather keep Craig than Kurt. I mean, no no respect to Kurt, but, you know, I'd rather just keep Craig. So who are the people that are really going to come in and make a difference? I don't know if they're out there.
Speaker: You're probably going to promote somebody within. That would be my sort of assumption. So going that's what when people just say, why bull out, why bull out, why bull out, who are you bringing in? Who's really going to make a difference? And is that really going to be the way that the sounders want to do business? Because you've got to be able to coexist. You've got to be able to be a cohesive person for this job.
Speaker: And Nico, what I think a lot of Sounders fans may underrate is the fact that so much of this club is so cohesive. When you talk about the fact that you have a coach that's been there for so long, when you have a team that's built around veteran players, club legends who are still there playing at their best and helping bring up these young guys. And that's what I kind of mean when I say that this is a team that does development and business in a unique way. And Sounders fans, you know, you look at the losing streak and you panic.
Speaker: um As a lifetime Sounders fan, I think I can say that that we're a little spoiled at times We win trophies a lot we win games a lot especially at home and when you start to go to games and you're not impressed you've seen that maybe Two three periods of time. Yeah, this is history and it's unprecedented and this in this particular stretch is particularly bad to be fair Yeah, of course. and And I don't mind that. I mean, I've always said that it is your prerogative as a fan to be rational and to demand more and and have the bar be as high as it is and to want to have a team like you had with Raul and Nico forever. I mean, that's that's the expectation. And I don't mind that at all. We're just giving you the intricacies and and the insight so you could have a better understanding how things work and how potentially you could get better.
Speaker: Absolutely. Well, they do have a game this weekend coming up on Saturday against Red Bull New York, which I guess is actually the formal name of the team now. No longer the New York Red Bulls.
Speaker: ah They are a team that is in playoff position in the East, but actually is below the Sounders in the supporter shield standings. They started off very strong. They have a bunch of really good young talent.
Speaker: Michael Bradley is a good young coach, but they have struggled of recently. They are especially porous on defense. This is a chance for the Sounders to snap their winless skid to snap their winless skid at home.
Speaker: And honestly, it's something close to a must win for me. The Sounders do not have a whole lot of games left on the schedule where they are going to be such obvious favorites as they should be in this game.
Speaker: How do you assess this one, Nico? Look, this is a New York Rebels team that has won only one of their last five games. They have lost to Atlanta. They just got beat by Philadelphia pretty obviously and and it pretty confidently by a Philadelphia team that's not the best team. I think that they have some really good offensive players power. They're just a team that, as you mentioned, gives up a lot of goals. I don't feel like there is enough in midfield. They don't have anybody that can dictate tempo. And I feel like that's something the Sounders can try to expo exploit in some sort of parts of the game. They are a high-pressing team. I know that the Sounders are going to be waiting for that. Can they use that against the Red Bulls? Can they be the transition team that they were at the beginning of the season at some point last year specifically?
Speaker: It's about changing the point of attack. There are very small gaps when you're playing a team like the Red Bulls where the shape is not going to be consistent at a certain part of the field. And changing the point of attack is the key because that window is going to be open, but it's going to close pretty quick. And I think that Christian talked about it very slightly today because it is something that I feel like the team is going to want to do. Yeah.
Speaker: I do believe that speed is going to be something that Sanders are going to want improve on. They've been trying to do that throughout the window. But maybe having a guy like Kalani Kosa or Rianzi playing a little bit higher at the pitch can be an opportunity to create more width. Maybe simplifying the game a little bit and allowing him to stay wider, not necessarily making him come inside. now you're going to have a guy like Alex.
Speaker: that is going to go back to his original position at right back, he's pretty good with those underlaps. So maybe he's the guy that comes inside in those inside channels. And that's where you create the overloads. So for me, the sounders need to be able to Take advantage of whenever the Rebels do press high, but they're going to have to be just as good as they were against Chicago in the first 23 minutes. Can they replicate that? Can they be able to be as swift, as smooth in their offensive movements as they were in the first 23 minutes? Obviously, Jovalice is a big piece because he wasn't just good because of the goals. It was his movement off the ball.
Speaker: the way he was able to create spaces and open up things for other players. And his buildup, I thought that he was really good on linkup, being able to just take those one touches, drop when he has to. He demands a lot of marking, right? So when you have a guy that demands the sort of attention, it does create issues for a team like the Red Bulls that they're so based on active defending. And so I do believe that the Sounders can get a result.
Speaker: I just feel very... unsure of the defense. I, and, and, and the whole admits, right. I asked Christian today, do you feel like it's important to have a, a, a solidified partner next to you? Cause it's been a rotating door of the whole, both pivots, right. I mean, because of injuries, because of of a bunch of things, I don't know if Christian today knows who his best partner is. I don't know. Is it Hassani? Is it Snyder? Is it Peter Kingston? You know, who is it? And and so to me, that's going to be complicated against a team like the Red Bulls, because I do believe that if anything, they are able to get moving forward pretty quickly. They can be direct. And if you're not careful when it comes to
Speaker: holding your shape and and being a team that can keep certain guys at bay, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble. So i'm I'm hoping for a result. I'm hoping for a draw, but this is not an easy game.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that going into this game, you can kind of expect it to be entertaining in the same way that the last game was, which obviously you have a big crowd come in for that last match against Chicago. That first 23 minutes, what I'm worried about is, was that first section of that match, was that a rush of blood? Was that we've got some new players? We've got a lot of people in the stands. This is our moment.
Speaker: And then it kind of dissipates. And for the vast majority of that match, it looked like how the Sounders been playing for the last couple of weeks. They're on the back foot. They're just holding on against ah a good Chicago team, which eventually breaks down ah and gets those couple of equalizing goals.
Speaker: Christian Roldan talked in training about how this is a high-pressing and young Red Bulls team and there's going to be space. It's a very good time for Kalanikos Aranzi to be in form, which he is in form right now. He is going to be very important for using that space in the wide area. ah Peter Kingston, as you said, Nico, coming back from a yellow card suspension. I'm looking at him. for a big game. He's being played more in a midfield role. He's usually out wide. I want him to be able to use the space in this game and get on the attack. We've seen glimpses of what he can do on the attack in rave green. But as someone who's watched him come up through the college ranks, come up through the USL two ranks, this is exciting anyone. i've I've watched a lot of Peter Kingston and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I've really loved the fact that he has been able to shift into a few positions and cover pretty well. In my opinion, he's a very active player. um yeah Obviously he has a winger's pace. I've seen him play in games where the entire game plan is Peters on the left wing.
Speaker: get him the ball and get in the middle. He's going to beat two guys off the dribble and he's going to get it to you and you're going to score. He can't necessarily be that for the Sounders right now. He just doesn't have the reps and the chops for it. But I think this is the kind of game where he can show his own creativity and make everyone else around him better. And of course, Paul Rothrock, this is the kind of game where you look to him on the break in transition to create a difference. yeah And we haven't mentioned that Jordan Morris likely getting the start of this one. It will be interesting to see what he can do when he is presumably healthy.
Speaker: This seems like an opponent that might set up well for him. And we need to know if we're going to get much out of Jordan Morris at this point, because I think there's real questions about what we're going to get out of them. And I'm wondering, like, I would like him to start, but I don't know if he will, like maybe we'll be Paul and um Kalani on the other side. Like I, i have,
Speaker: real doubts on whether whether he will start or not because i feel like brian does like to bring him in late against tired legs but to me it's easier to be very cautious before the game activating those muscles making sure that he's stretched out making sure that he's properly warmed up joseph so there are no issues with injuries but To your point, it'll be very important for us to have those wide areas open. I do think that this team with Forsberg is going to be important that you're very good at transition defense. And I ask this consistently this week because he can be a guy that can cut through you like a knife on butter. I mean, if you're unable to really clear shape, he will see those spaces and open up.
Speaker: Julian Hall, he hasn't been in great form lately, but he can get behind you. They have been using Chupo Moten as this... Super sub of the bench. That could be dangerous. So the Sounders are going have to be in this game 90 minutes. You saw what happens against Chicago where...
Speaker: Man, you give up a really soft goal there for that 2-2. You cannot allow that to happen because you need to get some points. You look at the table and where you're at. This is a must-win game. And I didn't ask that to anybody this week because I feel like nobody was going to really answer the way I wanted. And they might look at me like I'm crazy asking that question right now. But it feels like a must-win game right now.
Speaker: sh It feels like a must-win game to me. ah the other The other player who I think people are going to be interested in is Audrey Mimetti, the young defensive midfielder for New York Red Bulls. He's only 17. People are comparing him to Sergio Busquets, though.
Speaker: ah He's an interesting player. I think that's... Probably a little getting ahead of ourselves. v ah But hey, look. but he He's a good player. But I think that's good for this week. ah Adam, once again, welcome to the family.
Speaker: We are very excited to start doing our live show that's going to be on Mondays on Sounder Heart YouTube at 1 o'clock. We're going to get all the kinks ironed out before then. Of course, I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Nico Moreno and Adam Race. This is...
Speaker: Nos Adietes, part of the Sound of Heart Podcast Network, and we will catch you next time.
Speaker: Let's go at Sounders.
