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The Most INSANE Seattle Sounders Rivalry Week - Ep. 102
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It’s a jam-packed pod as we take stock of the Seattle Sounders’ big road trip, which saw them post a 1-1-1 record across matches in Houston, LAFC, and Portland. Was the debacle at LAFC a cause for concern? Is a 1-1 draw at Portland an acceptable result? We discuss that and more in a double-game review. Later on, we dive into our Agenda Check and give our Winners and Losers from Matchday 14 in MLS.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
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Introduction to 'Lobbing Scorchers' Podcast
00:01:30
Speaker
5. Also anytime online at shoppodium.us as well as Instagram at Podium Edmonds.
00:01:37
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be real scorcher today. What the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:01:58
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome in to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers.
Seattle Sounders' Road Trip Analysis
00:02:03
Speaker
We are back from Portland, Oregon, and we have a jam-packed pod as we're going to be breaking down a big week for the Seattle Sounders.
00:02:13
Speaker
which saw them ah take a little trip down to Los Angeles that did not go very well. Then head up the West Coast to Portland, where they fared a little better and took a 1-1 draw. We're going to be talking about both those games in Seattle's road trip as a whole during this episode.
00:02:31
Speaker
Hit our positives and negatives, hit our agenda check, and then dive into some of the other results and news from around Major League Soccer. Noah, how are you feeling? It was a fun trip down to the city of roses, uh, soccer city, USA. Is that the correct? Uh, I think that's what terminology that they claim. Brian Schmetzer did challenge that claim in his post-match press conference.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I have to agree because, uh, they weren't able to get a home win and, we'll talk more about that obviously. But, I really did enjoy getting to travel with you and, go to another away game. We've now done l LA together and Portland,
00:03:08
Speaker
We got to expand past the West Coast, I think. Yeah, no, it was a good Lobbing Scorchers road trip, a successful one. ah We collected a lot of footage and content ah for another little vlog slash mini doc that we're going to put together in the same vein as the one that we put together for the Tacoma Defiance versus Portland Timbys in the US Open Cup.
00:03:30
Speaker
ah So I'm excited for that. to come out and yeah, hopefully we can ah make it around to more of the road games from around the league because I think we're getting some good content out of it. And you know, uh, sounders timbers still always a spectacle, a relatively nondescript one, one draw in terms of the, uh, final result.
00:03:50
Speaker
But, You could still feel the ah that same energy and history in the building, at least I thought. I don't know. There was some talk that ah people were saying it didn't feel like the like the apex of a Sounders-Timbers game or whatever, but I thought it was still lit.
00:04:05
Speaker
I mean, maybe not. Maybe it wasn't the best Sounders Timbers match to ever be played, but the reality of it is that that's how some of them go. There was a lot of draws in in this match week, so I had fun.
00:04:18
Speaker
They didn't lose. They took points away. so like, how could you really be that mad? The ah two rivalries that people talk about as having surpassed Cascadia, Hell is Real and El Trafico, were both also
Podcast Promotion and Audience Engagement
00:04:31
Speaker
draws. yeah Hell is Real was a 1-1 draw. So 1-1 draw on a Derby game, not unheard of.
00:04:37
Speaker
Let's get into this ah into this show, Noah. But before we do that, I do have to let you all know that Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderatheart.com. What's that, Link? Sounder at heart.com slash LS. Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free.
00:04:57
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Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show. The road to 100 Sounder at Heart subscribers is alive and well. Now it's more than ever a great time to become a member with the season in full swing.
00:05:09
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And if you're a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you also get access to the audio only versions. of our live shows right to your podcast for feed. That's a huge perk. It is. Sign up for Sounder at Heart, sounderatheart.com.ls.
00:05:22
Speaker
Shout out to our sponsors, Hacks on Ferments, Podium Menswear, Full Pull Wines, My Data Removal. ah Subscribe to our YouTube, like this video if you're watching on YouTube, and follow us on Instagram and all social medias.
00:05:35
Speaker
Noah, do we have any new subs to thank? this We have no subs and that really disappoints me. I have to be honest. um And because it disappointed me, I wanted to read out some of our new YouTube members because our YouTube members are our lifeblood too. And we we really appreciate them. So Beckett C and Chad Rookner, thank you so much for becoming YouTube members. You get access to all the emotes, all of our exclusive post show shows, the show after the show, um and if you want to become a YouTube member, hit that join button or scroll down, click the first link in the description. You could join straight from there if you're on mobile. so
00:06:14
Speaker
And let's ah let's set a little ah sounder at heart sub goal. what are we Are we still Waylon Francis-ing? We're still Waylon Francis. All right. we're We're still on our Waylon Francis sub. So if by the next show we record, we could get to 91, that would be great.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, would. But ah like Noah said, thank you to all our YouTube members for the support. Thank you to all our subscribers who have signed up for the support. We really love and appreciate each and every one of you.
00:06:40
Speaker
And really, ah the show wouldn't run without you. No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't.
Sounders' Game Strategy and Lineup Decisions
00:06:45
Speaker
Much appreciated. um All right, Noah, here's how I wanted to do this. It's a two match, two match pod with the midweek match.
00:06:53
Speaker
ah So we're going to be, it'll be a little different than our typical game review in that I think let's center the discussion around kind of both of these games instead of maybe like recapping the exact moment by moment of what happened in each of these games.
00:07:07
Speaker
Because I think ah when you have a midweek match and fixture congestion like this, um there's a lot of debate to be had as to how you should approach it, sure how you should prioritize things, how you should ah line it up.
00:07:21
Speaker
So with ah coming off what was a fantastic start to the road trip with their 3-1 win at Houston, I think the question in front of Brian Schmetzer and the coaching staff was, how do you approach two match week coming up one Wednesday midweek and one on the weekend lineup wise with the knowledge that you're playing both of the matches on short rest.
00:07:44
Speaker
ah And that the the final match is a derby match at Portland, which obviously carries a little more significance even than your regular, regular season game.
00:07:57
Speaker
ah So let's talk about how they did approach that. And if we ah agreed with that as our ah lineup reaction. So I guess the first one that I wanted to talk about Noah was just how they lined up at LAFC, which as we all know, famously did not pan out super well. no The Sounders lost that match four to zero, which I think, uh,
00:08:19
Speaker
it wasn't as non-competitive as a four zero, but when you get four owed, uh, it's never a good scene. It's never a good scene. And like, it it doesn't do you a lot of good to be like, well, uh, it wasn't as bad as a four. Oh, I mean, you got four owed. So the, uh, I don't think the intent was to punt,
00:08:36
Speaker
this game or look past it ah to the Portland game, but it was indeed a very heavily rotated lineup. I'm just going to read out how they lined it up because I was just looking at it just now, Noah, and this is a good lineup.
00:08:51
Speaker
um So you had Osase De Rosario get his first MLS start at LAFC flanked by Jesus Pereira and Pedro de la Vega. which, you know, that is rotated, but those are still two, uh, two of your biggest, highest paid, most high profile attackers that were out there.
00:09:09
Speaker
Uh, you did have Paul Roth rock out there, uh, but the double pivot, this was a JP Danny Leyva double pivot match. And you had KKR out there. And then ah you did have Nuhu and Yamar out there. and But you did have ah John Bell. J Bell got the start in the back.
00:09:25
Speaker
And Andy T also got the start. So I guess in general, no, I'll kick it to you. Sure. What were your thoughts when you saw this lineup? And how do you how do you now that you know the result, would would you have done it any differently? Or do you think it was the right decision to rotate to this degree? My first thought was awesome. We're we're getting a rotated lineup. This isn't a surprise.
00:09:48
Speaker
Hopefully we can make something of it, right? Like it was an opportunity to get meaningful minutes for some guys who you really, you want to know how they're going to do, right? Like you want to know how John Bell is going to perform starting a match. You want to know You want to see what you have in Osase de Rosario. You never know, right? Like he could have popped off and done crazy.
00:10:06
Speaker
um And then someone who I was, I'm obviously continued to be excited by was Kalani Kosarianzi getting the start there. That rocked. That's right. That's it I genuinely think that that right back position might be one of the most competitive battles right now between KKR and Alex Roldan just because they give you really different stuff, but they're both like really very solid players. Yeah.
00:10:30
Speaker
um which I just love to see. So I was, this is what I expected, right? It's midweek regardless. And ah you're going to have to rotate. um Now, if I can say hindsight's 20-20, would I have played some more people? Would I have played Moose?
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, probably. I probably would have started Moose. ah Would I have played Rusnak earlier? Or would I have, you know, maybe gotten some other players involved to start? I don't know. It's hard to say. But I mean, regardless, I think the the the biggest issue that I saw when I saw this lineup was the double pivot um of JP and Leyva.
00:11:10
Speaker
against an LAFC team that are pretty well known for being able to play through midfields like it's a hot knife through butter. Yeah. And I think the, the, the JP Danny Leva double pivot. I mean, what'd you think of that? i I felt like,
00:11:28
Speaker
you know, the narrative coming out of the game was that it got ran over, which I think was true in the second half. I thought in general, in the first half, Seattle was hanging with it in the LA, in the LAFC game.
00:11:40
Speaker
ah Their best chances came off set pieces. There was the ah Danny Lava one. He had the free kick that, ah that, that took a deflection, right? And it only missed that barely missed. That was almost a goal. And then De La Vega puts one off the bar.
00:11:55
Speaker
i won't lie. When I saw, the De La Vega one go off the ball bar. The first thought that went in my head was that's like one of the ones in a game like this, where if you really want to take a result, like, Oh, you need that to go in. Like it was, it was a good look.
00:12:09
Speaker
It was a good look. Danny Leiva had a good look. I think they had another good look off a corner kick at one point, if I'm not mistaken. Uh, but it was only one zero at the half under got their first goal.
00:12:21
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, Andy T arguably could have saved that one. But like the I think the thing looking back on this game is that they actually were, like it wasn't like the San Diego game, right, where they were getting mobbed on just kind of right from kick.
00:12:37
Speaker
They were actually in this game, but ah that honestly made it a little more frustrating, the the extent to which it got away from them in the ah in the second half. But I don't know. What did you think of it Well, I think that double pivot was ah quite slow for a very fast counterattacking opposition. i mean, anytime you're going against Denny Bawanga, the literal demon himself, I think the last thing that you want is a slow defensive mid, especially when he can just get into positions and blow by defenders. You need that insurance.
00:13:08
Speaker
ah So I thought, I mean... What are you going to do? Right? Like that is your rotated double pivot. Christian Roldan cannot play every single minute of every single game. He wasn't even in Los Angeles. Like he, he needed
Sounders' Game Performance and Evaluation
00:13:20
Speaker
the break, dude. Like, ah, I'm sorry. That dude, that dude is incredible. And he, he deserved the rest. Uh, but it's, it's hard. It's hard, right? That's, that is your best second choice.
00:13:31
Speaker
you know, um and I don't think Danny Leyva played poorly. There were people absolutely crashing out about Danny Leyva's performance, which I don't know about you, but kind of confused me because I didn't see him being as much as much of an issue as JP. I think JP was just really off this game and slow and looked like he hadn't played a professional match in a month.
00:13:54
Speaker
Like that's what it felt like. Yeah. So that's, that's what I was, uh, kind of the conclusion that I came to about the double pivot is like, I don't even know how much of it is to do with the quality of the double pivot and other, uh,
00:14:06
Speaker
more than like, it looked like, uh, two guys who hadn't played competitive MLS minutes consistently in, in a few weeks, you know, maybe if they'd been getting more reps lately and we're more informed, uh, it would, what happened in the second half wouldn't have happened. But, uh, I also don't think, uh, it was solely what happened in midfield. I think anytime you have a game state like that, it probably means you're going to be getting you that you got run on in midfield a little bit. Sure. I do think that is what happened.
00:14:34
Speaker
ah But like for me, it wasn't necessarily the L that was disappointing about this game. ah Games like this where you have to rotate and the schedule is crazy in MLS, they come for every team in the league. No one's really immune to it.
00:14:52
Speaker
ah We've been joking about how the Vancouver Whitecaps are apparently immune to it. They're not. Look at what happened to them ah this last match day when they were, they've been rotating, playing a ton of games, doing this crazy CCC run.
00:15:04
Speaker
And they zero zeroed at Austin, I want to say. Yeah, was at yeah they zero zeroed at Austin. And Takeoka had like a pretty incredible performance from what I heard ah to to kind of deny Austin too. So it wasn't just that like Vancouver were getting out of there with like a hard-earned draw. It was kind of a like Austin fans might have felt a little bit.
00:15:26
Speaker
sad to not be able to get out of there with a win. So yeah, like a result like that, it doesn't bother me just because I've seen it happen so many times. Like I know better than to get too wrapped up in that, especially when you're this rotated. But I do think the disappointing thing is that I think, I think this 11 with all those variables, notwithstanding, uh, like,
00:15:47
Speaker
you want it to at least get closer to being able to pull out like a zero zero or at least keep it competitive. And like my criteria for like a good performance under circumstances like that is like keep it in striking range, be competitive, give yourself a chance at the result.
00:16:03
Speaker
If you end up taking like a one zero L or a two one L or something like that, not the end of the world, but ah the, that didn't, that's not what happened in this game. They let it get away from them.
00:16:15
Speaker
And getting 4-0'd is just never fun because, like, we got to jump on on the post-game live. And, you know, the after every L, we our chat seems to be, like, where the crash-out convention happens. We do. We are the convention center. Lobbing Scorchers Convention Center for the Disgruntled and Unemployed is is where we are. So, like, for a 4-0, that's... ah that and That shouldn't happen with the depth that this team has.
00:16:44
Speaker
i think Brian Schmetzer himself would probably would probably tell you that. I don't think the last person who's excited about a 4-0, even if they're rotated, is Brian Schmetzer, especially because they did this already. They beat them 5-2, 5-1, whatever it was, ah in Seattle, rotated, even more rotated.
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, LAFC was more rotated in that game, but that's kind of what the the funny thing is, is like both of the games against LAFC this year, it's just been lineups, uh, like, especially the first one for both teams. It's like, okay, well, whatever the result is, it's not really like the, the first choice of those two teams playing each other.
00:17:21
Speaker
And in this one, i mean, I'm just reading out the Seattle lineup that line up. You get these like MLS lineups a few times every season in situations like this and there there's good novelty to it. ah But this was a this was a pretty wild one. Yeah, I wanted to hit before we move on because I know I know we have ah a real match to get to.
00:17:40
Speaker
Um, people were really getting on, Andrew Thomas and John Bell, myself included. I think John Bell probably had a career worst match there. He was just getting diced up and Andrew Thomas for sure had a career bad match, but,
00:17:55
Speaker
It's kind of one of those things, right? Like sometimes things, everything just kind of goes wrong. And like, I really do
MLS Scheduling and Its Impact
00:18:01
Speaker
think that that's kind of what happened with this match. It was rotated. It was a, it was a gamble already. And um I think players just kind of should just kind of hit the fan and and fell apart a little bit.
00:18:12
Speaker
um Maybe we can do like quick positives and negatives for this game. um But like, I wanted to hit like a, the negative was, I think there were a lot of individually, terrible performances, which just, that's just unlucky.
00:18:26
Speaker
Like I think to have that many players have that bad of a game, that's unlucky. Maybe it's coaching, maybe it's the game plan, but I really do think that was just like, you're kind of throwing a, you're, you're, you're throwing together whatever's in the fridge and hoping that it tastes good. And well, the milk happened to be expired. You know what I mean?
00:18:44
Speaker
So, uh, that's the negative. And then my positive was we did see a stew Hawks, uh, Was that technically his debut? Yeah. Professional debut. or mls debut And ah that rocks. So a shout out Stu Hawks. Free Stu Hawks. Keep playing him, dude. I want to see him in more than 10 minutes of a game. But but thought that was my positives and negatives from that game. Yeah, that's a good positive. Congratulations to Stu Hawks.
00:19:10
Speaker
Free him. Um, yeah, free Stu Hawks. Uh, there's not, I don't think there's a heck of a lot of positives from the LAFC game, but I would shout out KKR KK. Oh dude. And, uh, I thought player of the match for there. I thought, I thought Roth rock was, was doing his thing in the, in the first
Sounders' Road Trip Summary
00:19:26
Speaker
half. I thought the danger that Seattle did have in that game to my memory was mostly attributable to, to Paul Roth rock.
00:19:34
Speaker
Uh, but overall, I mean, it's one that you just throw in the bin, but, uh, like it it was, i won't lie. Like it was disappointing to see the, uh, to see the depth lineup, get, uh, get full road, get run on like that. Uh, because,
00:19:49
Speaker
ah you know, part of the idea with this roster build, I think with like, you know, focusing on depth was to avoid situations like that, like to be able to stay competitive and stay afloat in situations where other, other MLS clubs might have a hard time, but with the depth that this team had, i was at least hopeful when I saw the starting 11 for LAFC, I was, ah i was interested. I was like, all right, let's, let's, let's see what's, what they can do.
00:20:14
Speaker
I think there was a lot of that, like, Oh, Saza, I was, yeah I was happy to see him get the start. And I think at the end of the day, man, as hard as it might be to accept, like they kind they had to run a lineup like that.
00:20:25
Speaker
You can argue maybe they should have rotated a little less. Like maybe, maybe you start Moose, but like you really have to be looking at that Portland game too. You have to, you can't just empty the tank in every single game.
00:20:37
Speaker
So, well, and I think it, maybe it would have been less rotated had they not gotten the three in Houston, but it's like you get the three in Houston, you afford yourself a little bit of a, yeah of a like,
00:20:47
Speaker
Because no, obviously no coach is planning to to drop points. That's never what any coach wants to do. But you do have to make the calculation of like, okay, we secured three points on the road. That's a very good result, regardless of where you're playing.
00:21:00
Speaker
We're going to go now to our midweek match, which is also a way, and then have to travel again during the weekend. to our rivalry game and just a game where the result is probably going to matter a lot more.
00:21:13
Speaker
um You kind of assume that because LAFC is going to have a rivalry game in the weekend, they're going to rotate as well. So you kind of have to make that decision like, okay, like we've afforded ourselves the opportunity to to really like rest our players for the more important match.
00:21:31
Speaker
So going off this discussion, ah let's ah let's talk about our lineup reaction now to the subsequent matchup at Portland, yeah which I thought was
Rivalries and Player Performance
00:21:42
Speaker
going to be relatively straightforward in terms of, I think,
00:21:46
Speaker
We have a decent idea of like what a first choice 11 looks like for this team. Although I do still feel like it's just not well like with Ryan Kent. I think that, uh, that has added a new wrinkle to it, but there, is I mean, so there is like the one debate, uh, of who should, I think in this situation, it was straightforward as far as Ryan Kent was always going to start this game. Moose was always going to start this game. Bruce snack was always going to start this game.
00:22:11
Speaker
And then beyond that, it was a fully first choice. ah Obed, Christian, double pivot. And then the new who Kim Kihe, Yimar, Alex Roldan, backline with Steph Fry and Goal.
00:22:22
Speaker
ah The debate, and we were talking about this as soon as this lineup dropped, was ah who should start at that other winger spot. And you really have, you have three options there. So let's just, let's go over these.
00:22:33
Speaker
You have ah Pedro de la Vega, you have Paul Rothrock, and you have Jesus Ferreira. Honestly, if I was guessing the lineup before the game, I would have ah I would have guessed De La Vega or Rothrock before Ferreira. But then the lineup comes out and it turns out Ferreira is the one in there. And I think that was it that was an interesting one because, I mean, we've talked a lot on this show about how the Hayes News Ferreira Albert Rusnak fit has not ah it hasn't clicked yet.
00:23:03
Speaker
ah I've been saying I don't think that means it will never click and I do want to see them run it more. But I think the question is, is a Darby game like this, like the biggest game of your season? Is that the best option to run that to start the game?
00:23:18
Speaker
Or would you have rather have seen them ran run De La Vega or Rothrock at that spot? And I'll give my take, which is that, and this is going to come as a shock to nobody, but I would i would have started Rothrock in this game. I would have.
00:23:32
Speaker
I think in terms of just his temperament and ah mentality, it's tailor-made for this type of game. yeah You saw that when he came on, just the edge. Immediately. trying to fight a Timbers player, which is awesome. Immediately mixing it up.
00:23:46
Speaker
And ah that's what you want. And as much as anything, regardless of anything with Ferreira's form, if Ferreira had been tearing it up all season, then ah it would have been ah harder decision for me.
00:23:58
Speaker
ah But with the Rusnak-Ferreira duo still feeling dicey, I thought it was a good spot for a Rothrock game. And honestly, my favorite setup, Noah, right now is the one that with ah Kent Rothrock flanking Rusnak. So yeah that's where I'm coming from with it.
00:24:17
Speaker
ah I know that you don't feel much different because we were talking about it before a kickoff and you were already voicing your skepticism. You've been on the ah skeptical of Rusnak and Ferreira playing together thing. Definitely, definitely seeing Ferreira at the wing, skeptical of that.
00:24:34
Speaker
I mean, the dual 10 thing doesn't work either, but so I guess you're right. Yeah, I've been skeptical of it for sure. I hated this when this lineup came out. Obviously, everything to me made sense.
00:24:46
Speaker
You've got your standard back line. You've got your best goalkeeper and goal. You've got the best double pivot potentially in the MLS. I'm actually going to start that agenda. ah Best double pivot in MLS is Christian Roldan and Obed Vargas.
00:25:01
Speaker
um And then Rusnak, obviously, your director. Kent, you know, i think with the hindsight of how he played in this match, you probably... ah He probably was not fully fit to start this. So I think if you really did want to fit Jesus into this wrinkle, you could have played Rothrock on that other side, brought Kent on um and kind of mixed all of that up and then taken,
MLS Player Highlights and Discussions
00:25:26
Speaker
you know, then you could get all four of them in the mix. You get De La Vega, um Kent, Rothrock, all of that.
00:25:33
Speaker
And Ferreira. But the Ferrer thing just confused me, man, because we know he's not a winger. We know he can't, he's not, he doesn't play well in that position. And frankly, i I feel bad for him because he's very, very talented at playing 10 right now, or at least he's been hot playing 10 dishing dimes.
00:25:51
Speaker
We know what he could do. Seven assists, dude. That's, that's, that's not nothing. um And it just frustrated me. It it felt like a letdown. And and to your point, This was a Rothrock game, man.
00:26:02
Speaker
Talk about a guy who is physical and and buys into games and has that bite, can turn these rivalry games into something different. um And even, you know, Brian noted it, that there that he has that intensity. He had that...
00:26:18
Speaker
that drive and it just it it really fell flat for me and I'm very i very much question why in the world they did that because I truly do think if you're looking at a depth chart of a one two three I think Jesus Ferreria is a far and away number three between Pedro and Rothrock and I think Pedro and Rothrock are they battle for for that number one position week in and week out they just bring such a different quality right And I really think that to illustrate for me but why this Ferreira experiment on the wing just doesn't work is they were the most successful, Ari.
00:26:57
Speaker
They were the most successful in this match playing direct through the middle. When have you seen a Sounders team do that recently? Like they were playing so well directly through the middle. The one goal that they do have comes from a ball that Christian Roldan plays straight through the middle. I mean, it's frankly, it was one of the most beautiful balls I've ever seen in my life.
00:27:14
Speaker
But the wing play was almost ineffective until Rothrock and Georgie came on, like completely ineffective. It just did they did not happen. I mean, Ryan Kent was gassed. And, you know, that's that's something I want to hear your takes on about the Ryan Kent wrinkle into all of this.
00:27:31
Speaker
ah Well, yeah, before we do Ryan Kent takes, I would say two things on the Ferreira thing and I'm just theorizing. yeah But ah when I see a decision like this, that maybe doesn't make first that make total sense to me at first glance, I try and remember, you know, they the the coaching staff, they're at training, they're seeing what training looks like and I'm not.
00:27:50
Speaker
So I think that it's possible that ah I think to run to run that lineup in a game like this, I don't think they would do that if they didn't like what they were seeing from it when they trained it. So that doesn't that doesn't mean it's going to work. i'm just That could be part of the logic behind the decision.
00:28:10
Speaker
And to your point, too, that you can't not try and get him involved. right like you You keep saying this point, and I agree with it. It's like you have too good of an asset to not try and figure it out. And you shouldn't give up on it just because it doesn't look super hot at first. Like sometimes these things take longer than we would like. I think it's said savego right. Exactly. So like, and you, you can't improve on it unless you run it. I think the question is more like, should you have run it in like a game that's this big. And then, uh,
00:28:38
Speaker
I also was thinking there could be an element of it of like a a vote of confidence. Like if he's been training well and he's had a good attitude, which by all accounts, both those things are true.
00:28:50
Speaker
ah Maybe maybe there was a little bit. I don't think this was like fully it, but maybe there was an undertone of like. all right, we're going to trust you right here. Like it hasn't been like, super like consistent all season. And, this, this lineup in particular hasn't looked super electric, super great when we have tried to run it in games in the past.
00:29:11
Speaker
Uh, but we like, we like what you, we've been doing, what you've been doing. We trust you. We're going to give you a chance in a, uh, in a big game like this to, uh, to show what you can do and really have like a breakout performance.
00:29:24
Speaker
Maybe that's what he was getting at. I don't know if there's anything to that. Again, that's just me theorizing. ah but I like that theory. Yeah, I don't know. And but and like, and let's let's talk about how it actually ran because I agree with you. It's not like the wing play was super effective in the in the first half like on its own.
00:29:43
Speaker
ah But I thought the performance offensively in the first half was ah they they were they were up for the Derby. ah They got a goal out of it. And I thought they I thought the game plan was sound like ah Portland was obviously always going to be coming out playing with their hair on fire and trying to jump on top of Seattle earlier early in the game.
00:30:03
Speaker
And when you're in that situation as the away team, you're going to have to absorb but pressure. There are probably going to be some nervy moments, and there were, ah but you're also going to have your opportunities going the other way.
00:30:14
Speaker
yeah You are. And I like some of what I saw on the ah on the counter and in transition from the team in the... In the first half, I didn't think the the the ultimate chance generation wasn't super amazing, but ah they had they had some good counterattacks and then they got the first goal of the game, which that's the most important thing.
00:30:37
Speaker
Uh, anytime you're the road team in a Derby game, like your, your first task is like keeping that clean sheet as long as it's possible to do so. And then, and then scoring first, if at all possible.
00:30:49
Speaker
And they did do that. So I want to credit the, uh, them for that in the first half. And, uh, The offense as a whole, you Ryan Kent, you know, getting dispossessed a few times.
00:31:00
Speaker
Jesus Ferreira not looking super dangerous, but as a whole, like they generated some good looks. They had some good counters and they got a goal out of it. So ah I think, I think those were positives if we're doing preemptive positives and negatives.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I mean, it's just tough, you know, I want Jesus Ferrer to get involved and play well, but it's just doesn't, it's just not working right now. And I don't really know what to pin that on, but was just a little bit of a head scratcher playing 71 minutes and like,
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, he he was in involved. Like, his passing was fine, but, like, he he just wasn't getting involved like I would expect him to. He didn't make those, like, splash plays that you that you hope to see from an acquisition like this. He wasn't even making those splash plays that I've seen him make for the Sounders when he's playing at the number 10. And I just, i you know, I don't know what it is about where it where he's at on the field being such a hindrance to his ability, but...
00:32:06
Speaker
I mean, yeah, i think I think he's struggling in those positions and with a player like Russ Neck where Ferrer has to be very very poised and very like positional as opposed to this you know this free-flowing kind of guy. But I don't think he was a hindrance by any means. I just think maybe it's fair to question like...
00:32:28
Speaker
him not being as involved, is that technically a hindrance or are we just saying that? And did Portland just have great coverage on him? Well, yeah, it's hard it's hard to say too, because, ah Rivalry games are going to be like scrappy and gritty sometimes like it would be sick to be able to go out there and dice them up like Real Madrid like in every game like this.
00:32:53
Speaker
Not always how it goes. It's not how this one went. That has happened sometimes with this rivalry ah in the past. But let's ah let's talk about the goal itself because it was an awesome goal. It really was.
00:33:05
Speaker
Great work by Christian Roldan on this play. Pass of the week. I don't know if Matt Doyle has given that out yet, but that should be it. I mean, what a ball to ah to find Moose there.
00:33:16
Speaker
Great holdup play by Moose ah to maintain possession there. Lay it off to Rusnak. Bodies that man off of him. He shrugs him off. and loose Moose was, ah he was laying it on the line out there. dude he He was getting Speaker 2 2 0 0 0
00:33:33
Speaker
ah lock room postmatch his shins we they were destroyed dude i mean his legs were just cleat marks rips stains all of that dude i mean he he bled for this rivalry for sure they would send those balls in over the top and he would just be running at the cb and it was just it was like a like a gri iron football collision at times so honestly shoutout to moose for that ah But then an excellent finish by ah by Albert Rusnak.
00:34:01
Speaker
ah He takes that ball from Moose from the top of the area. Just perfect placement. Brian Schmetzer called it a classic Albert Rusnak goal. i think he He's got that fully in his bag. We've seen him do that a lot of times.
00:34:13
Speaker
and ah clinical. So really ah nothing but positive marks for for that sequence and that in that goal. that was ah That was a big time goal. And the the great thing about scoring first is in a in a rivalry game is that ah it gives you like a little more margin for error in the sense that ah I never, I don't know about you, I never had much of an expectation that they were going to shut Portland out in this game.
00:34:39
Speaker
the The timbers are very good attacking team. They've been scoring some of the most goals of any team in MLS. And especially when they're at home, they score a lot of goals. That is just what they do. And you just have to try and damage control that as much as possible.
00:34:54
Speaker
just the Just the statistical odds of anyone shutting out Portland at home. It's not an easy thing to do. So I think ah the the performance, the attacking performance was like, I would describe it as like, okay, like not amazing, not terrible.
00:35:11
Speaker
it was okay. It was probably, I think it was ah good enough to to win the game. i think it was, but I think the defensive performance was actually quite good. If you hold Portland to one goal and four shots at home, I think that's it that's honestly a pretty good day at the office.
00:35:27
Speaker
ah And it was really like that was their only really big clear-cut chance of the game. It was the best chance that either team had, i think, pretty clearly in the game.
00:35:39
Speaker
But ah with the dust settled at the end of the game, to hold them to one goal, that's a good defensive performance. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have two questions for you, Ari. yeah okay Number one is it's a draw.
00:35:53
Speaker
And we famously, there's draws that feel like wins and and draws that feel like losses. And I guess there's also draws that feel like draws. Where do you land on this one?
00:36:04
Speaker
I think honestly, ordinarily, it would be more closer to a draw that feels like a win than draw that feels like a loss because ah for for a Derby game, that's usually, i think, how it how you think of it as the road team.
00:36:20
Speaker
And the home team is the one that's going to feel disappointed ah if they can't take all three points. ah but there's a couple reasons why I don't think this quite feels like a win for Seattle, which is that, number one, they were ahead. They actually put themselves in position to where they could win the game. They were ahead and then gave up the lead, but then also, I thought the last five, ten minutes of the game, they looked like the more likely team to score. I feel like they had a lot of possession in the attacking end they were knocking it around uh de la vega had the one good look they had a lot of corner kicks in this game so the opportunities were there for them to win it so i think they had some other chances in this in the first half like right towards halftime like especially that ball that hit off the uh the referee that christian rolled on yeah schmetz mentioned that and was like i forgot about that yeah unlucky But then the other reason I think it's a draw, it's not a draw that feels like a win is just because of what happened in the LAFC game. Like win would have totally erased the, at least my own bitter, bitter feelings over them getting four-o'd.
00:37:24
Speaker
like that. And a draw doesn't like wash that away like that. So, uh, I think with those two factors, it's really, ah yeah, you're right. Like usually, ah any draw one team comes out feeling like it's closer to a W and the other team comes out feeling like it's closer to an L.
00:37:40
Speaker
I feel like ah the Timbers definitely are, it's going to feel like more of an L for them, both because they didn't take three points at home. And Phil Neville even was talking about it as post game presser.
00:37:53
Speaker
ah He said he wasn't really happy with the performance in the, in the second half. And he felt like he literally, I mean, this are his words on mine. He said he felt like they got a little lucky like to get out of there without losing the game. So they're not going to be happy with that.
00:38:06
Speaker
ah But Seattle really could have used like one of those psychological morale boosting wins after taking a tough L and they didn't get that. So I think it's like a it's pretty it's the rare draw that just kind of feels like a straight draw.
00:38:20
Speaker
Yeah, i'm I'm kind of more in alignment with its... It feels like dropped points. It doesn't feel like a loss. Like, I don't feel heartbroken. I don't feel frustrated. i don't feel angry. But I do feel like the Sounders could have gotten out of there with more points. So maybe that maybe that is truly what a draw feels like. It's like...
00:38:38
Speaker
oh Oh, okay. like that's That's not a bad result, but like i i'm I'm wanting more. I feel like there could have been more, and it leaves me like picking at little things you know of of what I would have liked to see better. But...
00:38:54
Speaker
not ah Not a disappointing result. i didn't I didn't leave that match upset. I didn't leave that match super happy. It was just it was a good game. it was ah It was an up and down game.
00:39:05
Speaker
um It wasn't like insanely exciting. It wasn't insanely boring. It just it was. so yeah Maybe maybe maybe this is the this is the first draw to feel like a draw to ever exist on Lobbing Scorchers. Yeah, it must be.
00:39:17
Speaker
My second question. Oh, yeah. My second question. We talked about this a little bit, um but and MLS scheduling midweek games for basically everyone during a rivalry week.
00:39:32
Speaker
ah So most teams had to play three matches in seven, eight, nine days, 10 days. How is that? That just seems ridiculous to me. It feels like it really ruined not only the LAFC game, which now we have to we don't really have any barometer for how we were playing against LAFC into it made that Portland game like it just it just didn't feel like we could really give it everything.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, I just wish they hadn't done that. ah The LAFC thing is, it's honestly like, okay, LAFC slammed on Seattle ah midweek while Seattle was super rotated.
00:40:13
Speaker
ah Seattle slammed on LAFC in the exact same way earlier this season in Seattle when ah LAFC was super rotated. ah Seattle was rotated for that game to LAFC rotated less than Seattle for this last game, but they still rotated a little bit.
00:40:28
Speaker
It's just like, ah I don't know. I don't like a situation where you have like a, a, a big Western conference rival that, like you said, like I use those games as a barometer for like where the sounders stand. And I mean,
00:40:44
Speaker
The 4-0 aside, I don't think anyone can say anything one way or the other about the quality of really either of the teams because of the scheduling. So that's frustrating. And really just having a three-match week during rivalry week, ah it it's it's sort of it feels like you're going into it like not at a not at full strength, which you always want to be ah as full strength as possible for a big game like that. And it feels like...
00:41:11
Speaker
They, uh, they didn't get that chance. So yeah, no, it's the, it was, that was an annoying part of the whole thing. Yeah. I, I hated it. It just sucks. And you know, I was talking to Ryan Kent in the locker room after the match and I, and I asked him about that specifically. I said, Ryan, like, dude, like, you know, this is your first, this is, this is your welcome to MLS moment, man. Like three matches,
00:41:34
Speaker
You fly to Houston, right? Like, that's that's a fun flight. And then you fly to l LA, and then you go probably... They probably came back home and then went straight to Portland.
00:41:45
Speaker
That's insane. that is That's more travel than you'd probably ever do in the entire European calendar, Ari. scottish Scottish League, the... It's a 10-minute drive for your rivalry matches. You can walk. Yeah, dude, you can walk. it's You can take a lime scooter. Dude, yeah, yeah e-bike.
00:42:01
Speaker
And so he said that it really did weigh on him, and he felt like he wasn't on it. You could literally tell. He said he wasn't happy with his performance, and he said you know he was feeling that. He was feeling all of that travel and getting used to that. like this is He's still like...
00:42:18
Speaker
getting used to MLS and like, that's a big thing in this league. Um, and just even more of a, just like we said, we would both have been happy with four points coming back from this road trip.
00:42:31
Speaker
I am still very happy because when you look at it, when you zoom out at these three matches, Houston, when it Houston is always a good result, Always a questionable result at LA rotated against LA. Okay, fine.
00:42:45
Speaker
You know, don't love it. It doesn't count any different in the standings than if they had lost one zero. Yeah, exactly. That cope, but it's true. I mean, goal differential or whatever, who cares? Yeah, it hurt the GD a little bit, but whatever.
00:42:55
Speaker
And then you go on the road at Portland and get a draw, right? On short rest and traveling three games in a row. That is a brutal road trip and four points out of that.
00:43:07
Speaker
I think you set yourself up pretty well. Obviously you want nine. You're super happy with six, but I think you'll take four. Yeah. And that's a good segue into the next thing I wanted to do talk about, which ah was just the road trip and as a whole. And I got my positives and negatives based around that. I like the three game swing of ah Houston, LAFC and Portland.
00:43:29
Speaker
And I guess let's talk about the outcome relative to our hopes and expectations that we set out beforehand, because we talked about that a lot. And, and ah you know, we were saying obviously with three with the knowledge that the 3-0-0 would be the optimum, obviously you you want that.
00:43:46
Speaker
yeah ah But being realistic about how an MLS road trip usually goes, I would have been very, very happy, I think, with the 2-0-1. Obviously, I don't think there's any ah holes to poke in that if they'd been able to do that.
00:44:00
Speaker
Uh, and then if it was a one, one, and one, uh, I wouldn't be thrilled about it, but, uh, I wouldn't be outraged about it either. I think one, one, and one, Nico and I were talking about it on kickoff this morning. One, one, and one was the bare minimum. So I guess, uh, let's, uh, I'll ask you because, I did a thought exercise with Nico on kickoff this morning where we gave them a letter grade for the three game road trip.
00:44:24
Speaker
And, uh, I landed on B minus because ah i feel like one, one and one. That's like a, that's a, that's a B to me. Or Nico said C plus. I said B minus. I think, right. I think in that range, C plus B minus, depending on how tilted you i report about yeah are. Yeah, exactly. What is this? My college? Yeah. What is this? My college report card? uh but i i think that's like a fair range to uh to put it because one one and one that's not an a for me i probably would have given an a to two oh and one given the circumstances i think three oh and oh would have been an obvious a uh but when you break but but if you i think if you win against la but get bammed on against portland i think that becomes a b minus right yeah exactly you know so it's so so circumstantial There's ah there's different ah ways you can look at it, but ah my thought was like, you know, i was I was grading each game individually and then kind of making a combined grade.
00:45:21
Speaker
I think the Houston game was an A or an A+. plus Like, that was... And I realized this morning, I forgot to acknowledge that, you know, they got that result, like, with ah with a red card or whatever, so people are going to say that that win doesn't count.
00:45:35
Speaker
Look, I think they win that game regardless. I think they probably win that game regardless, but also when you are put an advantageous situation, the onus is on you to capitalize. Also, Moose draws that red card. Like there's no... Right. They draw the red card by Moose making a play. It wasn't some gimme like a player crashed out and threw a punch. Like it was Moose playing the ball. Put the CB under pressure. Yeah. And it was an earned red card. That's a good point.
00:46:02
Speaker
But either way, I give them a good grade for capitalizing on the advantageous situation. Like you still have to do that. Like it's not like they give the other team a red card and then they say, all right, wrap it up.
00:46:13
Speaker
You win. we're gonna Look, Seattle was going to win this anyway now that they're up a man, so we can just give them two goals and three points in the standings. No, like you have to go out. You have to be professional about it. You have to execute. You got to score your goals, finish your chances, ah and ah make sure that you don't let them troll a draw in a situation where you're playing up a man for...
00:46:34
Speaker
that that long. So if you were going to be if you would have crushed them for not capitalizing on that and crashed out about how the worst team they're the worst team ever because they couldn't get a win while they were up a man, then you have to give them equal parts credit for capitalizing on it. That's just you can't have that both ways. So a a plus for me in the Houston game.
00:46:55
Speaker
I don't think you can give the LAFC game anything other than an F. Like anytime you get four owed, uh, I'm giving it a D minus. Yeah. Like whatever. I don't know. D D minus. Like it's, you're still failing, but you, you turned in the assignments. You just failed them.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like you didn't not show up. You just turned in the assignments and failed them for me. I would listen to the argument for a DD minus in this game, just because I do think it wasn't as non-competitive as four. Oh, and also like the lineup that was out there was, uh, it was a motley crew. That was the motley. It really was motley cruise. So, but like, I think at the end of the day, if you see four, Oh, that's a, that's an f So it's it's interesting because you have really the two exact opposites ends of the of the spectrum. You have an A, A plus, and then an F. And then the Portland game, ah i was trying to think of it as ah independent from how I felt about what happened at LAFC. Just how do you look at a one one ah Darby draw in isolation?
00:48:01
Speaker
i think that's a B. Is that fair? i think sure I think that's a b ah you get If you win that game, you you get an A. But ah if you take the road point at Providence Park, I would give that a B, ah you know maybe maybe B minus, whatever. But as a whole, i would have given it a solid B if the LAFC game had been more competitive. But since they got 4-0'd, that's where I come in with the minus B minus for the road trip, which isn't incredible, but it's also not terrible. Noah, what what grade would you give the road trip? Well, Ari, because I'm the king of stats, I used a little ah grade calculator here.
00:48:40
Speaker
So if you gave them an A, a plus for their their trip to l LA, you gave them B for, or sorry, not for their trip that for their trip to Houston, you gave them a B for the Portland game and an F for the LA game. That would be a C plus.
00:48:54
Speaker
Okay, so I guess was trying to eyeball it as a B-, but I guess I give him a C+. That's a good official calculator. I'm going to have to use that. Yeah, no, I actually liked this. Which I think B- or C- is fair. It's like the same thing, dude. It's the same thing. Who gives shit? It's the same thing.
00:49:11
Speaker
here's Here's my grades for it. um i think I think the Houston game was an A. You go down to Houston, right, and you you win a match that feels like it can go either way. you know It's a hard road trip. It always is.
00:49:25
Speaker
So that's an A for me. The LAFC game to me, just it just it's not enough. I understand that they lost 4-0. They didn't look great, but it's rotated whatever. like I don't think that's enough. I think that's like a D. like I think that's like a D.
00:49:41
Speaker
There was no dignity, but there's a D in dignity and I'm giving them a D. Yeah, they they came out with some sort of dignity in my opinion. And you know what? People are not going to like that because I saw a lot of people crashing out about this game.
00:49:53
Speaker
And then the timbers, like, I think I land probably on like a B minus. Like you, you you technically drop a point. Actually, no, you know, I like a B on this actually, because you passed, you did it, you did the thing, you did it well, you could have gotten better. I thought the performance was pretty good. Honestly, I thought it was pretty good.
00:50:15
Speaker
yeah it wasn't that It wasn't the greatest game they've ever played, but ah I think really it's about, like, a game like that, it's about playing well enough to win. I think it's fair to say that they did that. Yeah, so for me, B- minus is my final grade letter. um All right, so everyone's in ah ah the same relative ah vicinity with it. C+, plus B- minus road trip, which... ah again, like the sounders better get that GPA up, buddy. It's it's a little, uh, I think the greatest skewed low because, uh, of the four Oh, which, which is, they should have dropped that class. Sorry. They really should have dropped that class before the deadline. The, the gray got skewed low because of the four Oh, but that, uh, I think that's, that's fair. Like that's, it should skew low for a result.
00:50:57
Speaker
like that. And I think we're giving them, i think we're giving them probably more credit for the Portland draw than some people might. I think, uh, you know, yeah, there were people crashing out about the LAFC game there, but there was a couple also talking about how, uh, drawing at Portland is also the single most disgraceful results that a soccer club has ever, uh, logged.
00:51:20
Speaker
yeah I don't quite see it that way. I think a one, one draw on the road in a rivalry game is acceptable. I also think it's funny because if they would have lost in Houston, drawed in LA or, or one or drawed in LA or one or draw in Portland, everyone would be giving them high marks.
00:51:38
Speaker
Right. Which I just think is funny because it's the exact same because it's like you you come out with the exact same number of points. You're whatever. But like obviously the vibes of it are or feel better.
00:51:50
Speaker
I'll hit my positives and negatives from ah from the road trip as a whole. ah Positives. I put the one one and one on a road trip this difficult. Uh, isn't amazing, but not terrible. Uh, I thought the performance in the Portland game was pretty good, especially defensively. I know everyone's going to like, uh, harp on the fact that they like only got the one goal and Rusnak shouldn't be a DP because he should have scored five by himself.
00:52:16
Speaker
Uh, but I I'm factoring in the defensive performance in, uh, in how I think about it. And I really think including risk sliding challenge. yes Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, good shout by the way. ah But again, to hold the Timbs to one goal and four shots at Providence, that that's pretty impressive. That's good work.
00:52:37
Speaker
Speaker 1 0 0 0
00:52:40
Speaker
ah they got three goals in that game and ryan kent had one of the sickest solo runs i've seen in a while so that was a great performance another positive moose and rosenack are both in good form ah moose gets an assist in the Portland game, goal in the Houston game. Rusnak bangs a couple goals in the Houston game and then scores a really good goal in the Portland game.
00:53:05
Speaker
So it's good to have them playing well. And then also Christian Roldan's pass and just general performance in that game and presence on the team overall. That was fantastic.
00:53:16
Speaker
Am I missing anything? I feel like the... No, I think you hit it all. about sized it up. And then for the negatives, I just... And free Femi. yeah Free Femi, is how he said. yeah ah negatives I have, this team shouldn't get four owed. Like that, that, that 11 still shouldn't have gotten four owed. I know, I know it was, uh, it was arguably closer than it, uh, than it looked on the final scoreline. But like, uh, I looked at that 11 and it it should have been more competitive than that.
00:53:48
Speaker
And then also just that the Portland game was winnable. Like you had you were in position to be able to win that game. You had your chances to win that game and just couldn't quite get it over the line. So I think those are the sources of frustration coming off the road trip.
00:54:04
Speaker
ah You got anything positives and negatives wise for for the road trip? You know, you you didn't take a ah bite out of the MLS ah record where Portland still has more wins, but, you know, that's that's whatever. Like, that's fine. You know I'd like the Sounders to have more wins in the rivalry, but it is what it is. That's my negative.
00:54:24
Speaker
My positive is four points, and you keep rolling, and you got a game against FC Dallas this weekend, and Build on that. I think the biggest positive is this road trip is over. It's done. These MLS road trips, so they are they're brutal. And if you can if you can get through it with relative dignity intact, which I do think they did, the LAFC result notwithstanding, yeah then you can ah you can just push forward. um All right.
00:54:49
Speaker
ah We're going to take an ad break, and we'll be right back with our agenda check. This episode of Lobbing Scorchers is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based cellar. Not only are they a local company, but they've been supporting independent Seattle soccer media since 2011 and are run by Sounders fans.
00:55:05
Speaker
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00:56:15
Speaker
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00:56:58
Speaker
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00:57:09
Speaker
Welcome back. ah Thank you for not skipping the ads. If you if you skip the ads, we know. Don't skip the ads. I'm coming to your house. You know, we still get ah we still get people sometimes who are like, I do skip the ads.
00:57:23
Speaker
Oh, big guy. Okay. Yeah, it's funny until I literally show up at your house and knock on your door, chain you to your chair, and make you watch the ad because, like, it might happen.
00:57:34
Speaker
Don't skip the ads. Don't skip the ads. All right. Let's get into our agenda check. Noah, I got a few written down here, and then feel free to dish on yours if you've got any. ah The first one I wanted to talk about was this. ah It's kind of an old one. It's like a throwback, but it's the Seattle owns the Seattle or LAFC owns Seattle agenda. Yeah. ah which was one that ah that was a thing for a long time. It was a bogey team.
00:58:00
Speaker
LAFC pretty much ever since, right? The 19 playoff win LAFC had been for the vast majority of the time, getting the better of Seattle in these, in these matchups. It was one sided.
00:58:12
Speaker
It was really tilting because it was the exact same storyline as the Timbers ah for a lot of that same period of time too. It was like they, uh, They couldn't get the better of either of their two biggest rivals in the West.
00:58:26
Speaker
The Portland one, I think isn't as much a thing anymore. They finally like broke the streak and beat them last year. This match they didn't lose. So made the the Portland thing might still be a thing more than the LAFC one.
00:58:40
Speaker
Uh, but like I saw some stuff to the effect of like, uh, like after LAFC slam Seattle in this game, like, oh, well, it looks like the Sounders still can't get over the, uh, LAFC bogeyman LAFC still own Seattle. No, am I high out of my mind or did they not beat LAFC five to two earlier this year and in the playoffs last year ended their season last year?
00:59:02
Speaker
Jordan Morris is a name is on the ownership paperwork for BMO stadium after what happened in the playoffs last year. Is it not like, why are we still referencing? I get, I get that they absolutely destroyed it to Seattle and yeah in this most recent game.
00:59:18
Speaker
There's a no question about that. If you look at the scoreboard, but like we, we have to, are what about the two results before that? Like, listen, if you're going to say that the five to two doesn't count because everyone is rotated, you can't say this one counts either. And to our point that we said earlier on this show,
00:59:35
Speaker
It's kind of, it's they're kind of both washes. Like neither of these these games give us any insight into the teams themselves. So what I would go and look at is the last match that the Sounders played against LAFC, the last real match where the goals counted and you know the result counted, Ari, because that is this is very important.
00:59:55
Speaker
The playoffs. What are the playoffs for Ari? what What happens if you win all of the playoff? I believe that's what decides the champion of the league. Okay. So who won the game to get to the next round to potentially be a champion in MLS? In fact, the most important match of the LAFC season, who won that game in LA?
01:00:14
Speaker
The Seattle Sounders. Yeah. So famously, i think that that's really all that matters that the Sounders can consistently. know I'm not even trying to do a counter take of a actually Seattle owns LAFC. I think no one, no one owns yeah either. or No one owns each other right now. It's actually been relatively back and forth in the last few times that they've played.
01:00:34
Speaker
So I, I mean, I just, they're single owners. I saw this in like multiple places where, uh, I guess LSC still got their number. Can you really have the number if you crashed out in the playoffs? Yeah, it's like Jordan Morris doesn't own the club. He owns the stadium. But that said, like.
01:00:51
Speaker
He could get there. He could do a hostile takeover. You know, you never know. I just i just wanted to ah i just wanted to point out that that narrative flying around shouldn't be allowed That's a crazy narrative, Ari. I don't understand where people are getting that.
01:01:05
Speaker
It was a thing. It was. i Yeah, it was. It was thing. Back in the day. But we're talking about something that was a thing as if it's still a thing. I didn't i didn't think that was a thing. no Let's talk about the Ferreira and Rusnak can't play together. One of best agendas I've ever made, I think, potentially. See, I don't think that i don't think this game, ah I don't think it proved that the agenda is wrong, but I also don't think it was super strongly reinforced. I thought, ah again, like if we're judging the offense as a whole, as opposed to honing in on individual performances,
01:01:38
Speaker
I thought it ran better. All right. Maybe I'm ah ah putting too much stock in beat the copium copium, incremental progress. ah But they generated some good looks in the first half and got a goal. didn they Did they not?
01:01:51
Speaker
To say they, you mean the Sounders, not Rusnak and Ferreira, correct? Rusnak scored it. Yeah, but Ferreira wasn't involved in that play. Okay. Well, like they still got a goal with the setup.
01:02:03
Speaker
right I know i know i just i just know I'm I'm reaching. I'm reaching. I'm just saying. like ah i ah I didn't come out of this game being like, oh man, they can absolutely never run that again. like Which, there's been times where they ran that where I low-key did feel like that.
01:02:25
Speaker
Here's my argument, Ari. um I don't think that they should run that again. And here's why. Because you sit your talent on the bench when you put him on the field. And that's the problem. They can't play together. Because when you're putting Ferreira on the field in a position that he is not...
01:02:41
Speaker
getting involved in or he's not like making as much of an impact as other players normally would like the baseline the baseline of pedro de la vega and the baseline of paul rothrock on the wing are so much higher than the baseline of jesus ferrera on the wing and that's the problem right Maybe on paper you can play them together and it's not this crash out detrimental. They're literally like conceding goals because of it and they can't get anything going in attack, but it's you're taking off a better piece to put on a subpar piece when the reality is they're both just tens and we don't have a 210 system and we, we shouldn't have a two dense system because neither of these players could play together in that specific position together for sure.
01:03:30
Speaker
ah But that's the problem, Ari, is that ah on the field, when Rustack is on the field and Ferreira is on the field at the same time, there's someone spot who Ferreira is taking that is way better.
01:03:43
Speaker
And I do not think that they should or can play together. That said, start up against FC Dallas. Starting with the 10 against FC Dallas. I see what you're saying. ah i do think it's interesting that the coaching staff seems to see that differently.
01:03:59
Speaker
They wouldn't have run it in in this game if they didn't think that it could be successful. There's no way. Yeah. So yeah I have my pro licenses on football manager. So I mean, I think I know a thing or two. I'm just saying, like I honestly i agree with a lot of what you said as far as ah like even if it works okay, you're potentially sacrificing ah an option that could look great yep ah by running it.
01:04:25
Speaker
But I think they they're clearly, the fact that they start that they ran it in this game is interesting to me because that shows that they still think that it can work. Uh, you don't run it in the, in a Timbers game. If you're like, if you have questions about that, so there's clearly, they're clearly like going to keep trying it. And i still, I I'm still on the train that, uh,
01:04:50
Speaker
you shouldn't fully chalk it until like later in the season than this. Like you got to figure out ways to, ah you got really, you got to figure out how to run all kinds of different setups with how this league goes sometimes with, uh, with the injuries and the rotation and all the absences and the fixture congestion and all that.
01:05:08
Speaker
So, uh, I don't know. We'll, uh, we're obviously going to keep, uh, keep keeping track of this storyline. Does this mean that Schmetzer's, uh, anti-stats or pro stats because he keeps playing for, uh, in these weird positions?
01:05:24
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I don't know if what what that suggests about his attitude on it one way or the other, but I think Schmetz in general is pro stats. I've heard him, I've heard him drop some numbers before. Gross. ah My Moose should be an MLS all-star agenda. It's looking hot, Ari, every single day, dude. Every day. Strengthened again. This time he gets a hold-up assist.
01:05:45
Speaker
Phenomenal play by Moose and just another another goal contribution. And if he if he's not an all-star, then ah then that's cowardly.
01:05:56
Speaker
It's cowardly. And I'm going to stay on this as long as he keeps getting on the stat sheet like this and being the most important attacking player on the Seattle Sounders. Moose should be an MLS all-star five goals. One assist are you really can't ask for much more. And that brings me to my first agenda. That's not necessarily my agenda, but it's an agenda that I've seen pervade across the internet in multiple ways.
01:06:18
Speaker
Daniel Musavsky over Jordan Morris agenda. Whoa. Would you have ever thought... Like, star himm start him when Morris is healthy. Yeah. Would you have ever thought that Danny Musavsky in the year 2025 would be getting shouts that people think he should be starting over Morris and is over Morris on the depth chart right now?
01:06:39
Speaker
ah That's crazy. I'll say this. If he if he stays this hot and this productive, ah like you can't like diminish his role when Jordan gets healthy ah if he if the offense is still playing really well and he's still bang banging in goals. So he has to yes to keep up. I don't think he has to...
01:06:59
Speaker
stay this hot, like a goal every single game. Uh, but if it's a situation where he's cooled down considerably, then I think that makes the decision a little bit easier. easier But I think at the end of the day, there's, there's a big roles for both of them on this team when they're both,
01:07:18
Speaker
Healthy. I think a situation where you're kind of altered. what do you think of this? Like you're just kind of alternating it ah based on matchup and fitness. So one goes 60, the other goes 30 next game. The other goes 60, the other goes 30 and you can kind of mix and match it.
01:07:34
Speaker
And you don't have to be that regimented about it, but really just like whoever starts, you make sure that the other one at least gets enough run to impact the game, not like just bringing Moose on for four minutes at the end when he can't realistically have enough time to... mean, 20 minutes is basically four minutes in striker terms. I was saying 30. If you bring him on in the 60th, that's plenty enough time to make an imprint in a given game. And that also has the added benefit of potentially keeping them both...
01:08:02
Speaker
fresh ah So like I said, you don't have to like have a set system of it of like, okay, Jordan goes 60. Moose has to go 30. Like if things are going super well with one or the other starting and you want to leave them for longer than that, that's fine.
01:08:16
Speaker
But ah I think ah that this is one of those where it's a good problem to have. And ultimately we can debate it, but they're both going to be playing a lot. ah But like Daniel Mussovsky playing starting against Atletico Madrid is going to feed family. Sorry.
01:08:31
Speaker
And it might happen. Like Jordan's supposed to be back for a club world cup or that's the target at least, but we don't know if that's going to happen yet. And is he going to be 90 or even 60 fit? Right. He's not going to be 90 fit for a long time after he does come back. So that also makes the decision a little easier.
01:08:46
Speaker
ah But there's no question that Moose like needs to have a, a big role on this team right now. ah He's been that good and that productive. So. Yeah, I think that this is, like I said, it's crazy to even think that this is a possibility and a possible agenda in 2025.
01:09:03
Speaker
But you know what? he's He's shown all the haters wrong. And honestly, i have seen more than ever people actually admitting that they were wrong about him. Never in your life would you see people talk about Albert Rusnak like this.
01:09:16
Speaker
But people have done a full 360 on Danny Musavsky and have actively been admitting that they were wrong. Myself, I mean, i normally admit when I'm wrong. I'm wrong all the time. But like people on Reddit were like saying this, dude, that's crazy.
01:09:31
Speaker
People on Reddit admitting they're wrong. I think like moose is the world and Moose has been so good that he broke Reddit. Yeah. Like that's Moose. Moose is so good. He broke Reddit agenda. It's yeah. I mean, he might've, it sounds like he did. He might've.
01:09:44
Speaker
Well, here is my next one that maybe this one will break Reddit too. Roldan and Obed are the best double pivot in major league soccer.
01:09:55
Speaker
That is my agenda. I don't really have any context to present it against. It's all just vibes based. But the fact that you have Christian Roldan in his absolute final form, I don't think we've ever seen him play this well in his entire career.
01:10:10
Speaker
He is a TAM player. who should be a DP on legitimately any other team. I don't know how he's never been a DP. And Obed Vargas, who is the best young player in Major League Soccer. I won't hear it otherwise. That's the truth.
01:10:25
Speaker
$100 million dollars transfer fee to Atletico Madrid this summer after he absolutely destroys them and we go on to win that game 3-2. That's going to just be how it is. And I got to say, is legitimately anyone better?
01:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, ah if they're not number one, they're definitely up there. I actually, I want to look into this and come up with some of ah this is good under the light yeah points of comparison around the league. But I'll tell you the first one that ah came to mind. And ah I don't know if they run this as ah as a double pivot. I don't know their tactics that well. But as far as ah midfield duo, Jean-Jacques and Quinn Sullivan for the Philly Union, ah absolutely phenomenal.
01:11:10
Speaker
So I think Quinn Sullivan, uh, they might play him more as like a winger than like a holding mid. I
Philly Union's Tactics and Club World Cup Prospects
01:11:17
Speaker
don't know. That's, I have to educate myself on my Philly union tactics. Sure. But like, ah I know there are other, uh, there are other good candidates out there that, uh, we could put them against, uh, but there's no question that they're, they're ah a top tier midfield duo. Uh,
01:11:32
Speaker
in the league. Uh, and I thought like, uh, that was one positive from the Portland game was a Christian's performance, but just, oh man, I just love that double pivot. There were a lot of plays, uh, where, uh, Portland was trying to get off on the counter and then Christians just stopping those counters in their tracks. Uh, Obed has that attribute as well. And, uh, just so gifted as a facilitator and a ball progressor. So I like the agenda.
01:11:58
Speaker
It's one that I will continue to purvey. And I don't know, just like, I want to hear your notes on Christian in general, being a Tam player. And is that not feel insane to you?
01:12:09
Speaker
Like, do you not feel like he could be a DP on another team? No, he could. And I think it's, a it's, it's, we talk about this all the time, but I think it's like a benefit of having like a good winning culture and an organization that ah players like develop this loyalty to and love for like Christian. This is his only a club team that he's ever played for. her He's a club legend here.
01:12:34
Speaker
Uh, he's, uh, the ultimate adopted Seattle light through and through. And, uh, I think he's happy here. So like he'll, he, could he make more money on another MLS club?
01:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure someone would pay him but a pretty penny more than the Sounders pay him. But like he obviously doesn't want to do that, so I think i think that's a credit. They need to call his ass up for the USMNT. I don't understand why they're not doing it.
01:13:03
Speaker
What's up with that? That's a good take. The the haters are goingnna ah aren't going to like that one, but it's a good take. feel like they were always okay with Roldan. They were more just the Morris hate. They were like Roldan's like... Oh, no. Christian took just as much heat. Oh, my God. Of course. Classic. All right.
01:13:19
Speaker
Here's my another agenda. I'm laying them on thick today, Ari. Yeah. The Seattle Sounders, a team that's good, I think, can win one Club World Cup match agenda.
01:13:34
Speaker
I think that it's possible. I think anything can happen. And we've been talking about this. If any team can get hot, it's Seattle.
01:13:43
Speaker
it's not as ah It's not as crazy as it might sound. I think a lot of people are going into it. Remember we had the the the bloodbath quote, and I think that's how that's ah how a lot of other fan bases are coping with the fact that their team didn't make it. like they're They're like, oh, well, who they're to play PSG. Well, they're going to get destroyed there. Yeah, you know what my ah maybe. But like yeah individual game, anything can happen. It's really it's nothing not even to do with Seattle, ah you know, getting hot or being super good. It's more just like ah you toss the ball out there. Anything, anything can happen once it kicks off. Like, you know, all about you never know. Yeah.
01:14:23
Speaker
Ball bounce. It could be, it could be a game where they get absolutely like put under pressure the entire time and are yielding chance after chance after chance and Atletico Madrid or Botafogo or PSG or whatever it is like just can't finish.
01:14:36
Speaker
And then Seattle gets like a bullshit penalty or a fluke goal on the other end. And they win like that. Like that could happen. It's not like impossible. Yeah, I think that it's possible. I think that there's very much.
01:14:48
Speaker
Also, I saw a video of Botafogo. There's a Botafogo player and they were interviewing him about Club World Cup. And he was like, I'm so excited for Club World Cup. ah I'm so excited for our group. We get to play Atletico Madrid and PSG.
01:15:01
Speaker
And he's like, I've always dreamed of playing Atletico Madrid and PSG. And it's like that. I'll put that shit on my goddamn bulletin board, bro. You are owned by Olympic Lyon, dude. We know how bad your ownership is, bro. you Good luck, dude. Good luck. They're going to sell your ass before before you're done with this. They're going to send you to Marseille or wherever. They're going to send you to Lyon. Honestly, probably would have been more surprised if he had been like, I've been dreaming of playing the Seattle Sounders. Dude, what?
01:15:30
Speaker
My dream. My dream is to play against the Seattle Sounders. um But I really do think that it's possible. And along these lines, I think the Sounders have a way better chance of doing anything in this tournament than Inter-Miami do.
01:15:46
Speaker
um We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. Um, and my final agenda, this is something that I brought up, um, earlier on in our, in our, um, agenda checks this season, but I wanted to bring it back and check in the start KKR agenda.
MLS Team Performances and Highlights
01:16:02
Speaker
How are we feeling on this? I think he was the man of the match in that LAFC game, which I mean, only means so much, yeah but, uh, I, I think that he has been kicking ass, taking names. And I really think he is giving Alex Roldan like, uh,
01:16:15
Speaker
a run for his money. don't think he's a starter just yet like over Alex, but I think that he's a really great option and that we, he should be getting some starts. Well, like you said, I think the, uh, the competition they have at that spot right now is great.
01:16:28
Speaker
I think it has brought out the best in Alex. I agree. Like his, his, the uptick in his form, uh, which, uh, Jeremy Peterman, uh, uh, came up to us after the game. And that was one of his takeaways was like, God damn it. Like the, the right back was incredible out there. Like he was cutting everything out, just a dog on defense.
01:16:48
Speaker
Uh, I think the competition has elevated both their games, frankly. And i like in a first choice 11, wouldn't start KKR right now, but that is only because Alex is playing that well. I think I, I really think that, uh, his form has become a good storyline in in recent weeks. He's locking that spot.
01:17:10
Speaker
down ah But KKR, he gives you more like dynamic attacking and creative presence, I would say. But Alex is defending the last few weeks.
01:17:21
Speaker
Has he made a ah mistake? Not that I can think of. I mean, probably, but like... It feels like he hasn't put a foot wrong yeah for a while. So I think that's, ah you know, we were talking about the Jordan Moose dynamic. I think there, I think it's a positive dynamic going on right now with Alex Roldan and KKR iron sharpens, iron, iron and sharpens, iron gold sharpens.
01:17:45
Speaker
That's yeah. Yeah. Goal. I don't know. I see what you were getting at. Yeah. Um, That's agenda check folks. We're going to take another ad break. We're going to be right back with our ah winners and losers from around MLS from a rivalry week.
01:18:00
Speaker
Welcome back from our ads that you absolutely did not skip Noah. Let's bop around the league a little bit here. I got my winners and losers. And then I figured we can just riff on these teams and results.
01:18:13
Speaker
A winner section. I'm I'm I put the Chicago fire in there, ah four, one over Charlotte FC, which, uh, we're going to talk about Charlotte FC. Uh, but I want to give the fire a little bit of credit. We, uh, we had our fun a couple of weeks ago with, uh, with their seven, two and, uh, the Burr halter presser and everything. And it kind of, after that game, it kind of felt like, oh man, like they looked okay, like a little bit better than they usually are to start the season.
01:18:41
Speaker
Burr halter is doing a pretty good job. And then we were like, oh man, it's still the Chicago fire yeah a seven to two. How much progress did they ah really? That was a good win for them. That was on the road. it's a Charlotte team that's reeling right now, but, uh, like credit to Burr halter credit to the fire.
01:18:56
Speaker
ah they actually seemed to have got their heads on straight after that match. And, uh, That was a big win. I got Toronto FC Canadian Classique six to one on CF Montreal, who are the worst worst team in the league this side of the LA Galaxy. But like that's still a ah big thing. Anytime you drop six, that's a good day. I'm going to say I think they're burdeshi two goals to assist. Yeah, I think they're worse than the galaxy. Like I truly do. Like if they oh they should have like a there should be a like a Darby match for oh God. The spoon match. They should play a final match to determine who really wins. Yeah, it's not based on point total. It's like you have them battle it out. Yeah.
01:19:36
Speaker
Yeah. And the winner of that game actually gets the spoon because it's who wants it less. And then I got Orlando City SC, one of the most impressive teams in the league right now, at least over the last few weeks.
01:19:49
Speaker
They are blazing hot. They absolutely destroyed into Miami. oh Like, which ah we're going to talk about that on the, on the loser side. ah But you have to give credit to Orlando and Oscar Pereja for just how ruthless that performance was and really just how they've looked over the last few weeks. They look like a real, they look like a real thing.
01:20:13
Speaker
They look like a real thing in the East there. They haven't lost in. Yeah, they don't really. Wow. That's crazy. They haven't, they haven't lost since the beginning of March. yeah That's crazy. They don't lose.
01:20:23
Speaker
They had a period a couple of weeks ago where they had three zero zeros in a row, I think, which was sick. Yeah. But pretty much since then, they've been one of the most explosive attacks in the league. I think Martino Hada is, I was talking to Jackson felt about MVP candidates and I didn't even mention him.
01:20:39
Speaker
ah But I think he's up there. Muriel is just a really good striker. ah an Oscar Perea team is always going to be defensively disciplined and well organized.
01:20:49
Speaker
So i Nico and I were talking about this, but like every year we think it's going to be the Orlando year. And this year it looks like it actually might be.
01:21:01
Speaker
But let's move on to the loser section. What you're really here for. This is what's always more fun. The victim of that Orlando City SC performance. Enter Miami.
01:21:12
Speaker
Noah, we were ah we were listening to this the radio broadcast of this game on the drive back up from Portland, which is actually a lot of fun. like I haven't listened to a lot of soccer on the radio in my in my life, ah but just like sitting there, audio only, and then someone scores a goal, and ah we were we were we were rooting for Yeah, we were rooting, yeah. I think, did we do ah the, oh, Oscar parade. Yeah, that's right. We were chanting that, driving up I-5 after Orlando City scored.
01:21:41
Speaker
So that was fun. ah But also, this Inter-Miami thing is becoming ah ah increasingly a storyline, not not just for them, but just around the league, because i think they were thought of as, like it was just baked in that they were going to be as dominant as they were last year, this year.
01:22:00
Speaker
And it'd be one thing for them to not be that dominant. They set the points record sure and they were tearing through the league, but they look bad right now. Noah, like they like, like it's not like they're playing good competitive soccer and having bounces go against them or it's like fluke results or anything like that.
01:22:18
Speaker
They're getting like slammed on. They got slammed on by Minnesota. They got slammed on by by Orlando. And I think the most disconcerting thing for them has got to be just the morale of Lionel Messi.
01:22:31
Speaker
He really like he seems really unhappy. he was crashing out about the refs. Oh, that was so good. He was crashing out about the refs on like a very benign, not that controversial call. No, like he was saying and MLS needs to do something about their refereeing. Like this isn't good enough or whatever, which that's nothing new. You hear players and
Inter-Miami's Challenges and Critiques
01:22:50
Speaker
coaches say that all the time when they're talking about a controversial call, but the call is at least usually mildly controversial. I didn't think that call on the back pass was that controversial at all.
01:23:00
Speaker
And also it's just a sign like when you're, when you're becoming the ref guy, that is not, that is a sign, you know, it's yeah, that's a sign that things are not going well outside of whatever the call might've been. And he's, he, he messes the ref guy right now. Yeah. He's the ref guy. and uh, I also saw a stat that, it was the first time a club with Leon, Leon, Messi on it has lost by three or more goals at home, which is at, is at home.
01:23:26
Speaker
They're at a home in a rivalry game against Orlando, and they got 3-0 with Messi out there, with everyone out there. ah It just seems like it's becoming kind of a mess. ah Mascherano, does he know what he's doing?
01:23:38
Speaker
No. Doesn't seem like it. I'm not here to say one way or the other. i am. Maybe it was a ah not good call to give The coach head coaching job to Messi's friend who was a great player, but had only had coaching experience coaching youth youth national teams.
01:23:57
Speaker
putting Putting him as an MLS coach, which there's famously a lot of stuff that goes with that. that just as a normal head coach, you might not be ready to deal with unless you have experience with it or at least know about it and are prepared for it.
01:24:11
Speaker
I don't think that's working out so far. That's probably part of the reason why ah why their team is experiencing this downturn. But ah what do you what do you make of the ah what looks like an impending downfall for what was supposed to be a dynasty?
01:24:26
Speaker
Well, I think the problem here is twofold. First off, I want to say we called this. We called this when they fired the initial coach, which they hired was a GM who had whatever it was when the sporting director and replaced him with the guy. Yeah, the Academy guy. Maybe that wasn't a good call. We made a whole video talking about how this is sus.
01:24:51
Speaker
This is a downturn in vibes. This is sus. This is going to come back to bite them. When you give Messi too much power, this is it's going to come back to bite you. We did say that. We literally have been calling this, and we waited, and we reaped, and we're reaping, and we're sowing, okay?
01:25:06
Speaker
Inner Miami are the same team that they've always been. A great attacking force with the with no defense. With a defense that doesn't exist. But now they're not even scoring. And that's what I'm going to get to is...
01:25:18
Speaker
What happened was Miami was playing the Barca boys for like 60, 70 minutes at a time, maxing out their performance and then getting on these really talented young guys, getting on Bob Taylor, getting on Campana and these these pieces. They had a lot of pieces to where they could really minutes reserve their 900-year-old aging superstars.
01:25:40
Speaker
Well, think what's happening, Ari, and it's pretty obvious, Messi can't go 90, man. Busquets can't go 90. Alba can't go 90. Suarez can't go 90. Because they're 58 years old. Yeah.
01:25:51
Speaker
And it's an added detriment to the team. these I think MLS teams have figured out how to play against Messi a little bit better as well. You've gotten ah two seasons under your belt of what to do.
01:26:04
Speaker
Absolutely, he's still the best player in the world. But I think... He's getting older. They're all losing a step a little bit. And you don't do yourself any favors when um you just don't have you.
01:26:16
Speaker
Also, their goalkeeper is terrible. We have to talk about this. One of the goals that Orlando scored was literally at the goalkeeper's hands. And he just decided to let it drink. How? I don't know. I thought Drake cow was good. I don't know. Oscar Roussardi is legitimately 38 years old.
01:26:31
Speaker
Like they saw Brad Guzan beat them, own them, went out and signed their own Brad Guzan. And it's just not working out for them. But I am so here for this downfall. And I want to bring this up to you, Ari, because, um,
01:26:45
Speaker
This isn't right the brigade is not ready to have this conversation, but Leo Messi to assist five goals. How many assists and goals does Albert Rusnak have? That would be six and three.
01:26:56
Speaker
Hmm. Interesting food for thought. guess Messi isn't a DP because Messi shouldn't be a DP.
01:27:04
Speaker
I didn't say it. He said it I'm just saying when you are getting outplayed. i i have ah I have an agenda. I think we might have talked about this agenda, but I really like it. ah The inter-Miami downfall coincides with the trade of Bob T. you Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about this in the car. This is about to be the curse of Bob T, man.
01:27:22
Speaker
You don't trade Bob T. You don't trade Bob T, dude. We tried to tell you how good this guy was. When you have Bob T on your roster, you keep Bob T. They had the most electric striker in the world and they got rid of him. Bob T. Bob T.
01:27:34
Speaker
Yeah. I, I just, uh, in all seriousness though, I think there is something to what you were saying of like, uh, yeah, they got all these elite prospects, uh, but those are prospects it's projection and they've had a crazy hit rate. They sold Diego Gomez on a, but I feel like don't know go I haven't watched every single one of their games, but Segovia and I, I ended it looked so good to start the season.
01:27:56
Speaker
I feel like with them not playing this well, that must not be going as hot. I can't say that for sure, but like they would be taking better results and playing better. If those guys had hit like some of the other young guys they had brought in.
01:28:08
Speaker
But, uh, guys like Bob T and Campana were, uh, fantastic depth pieces to be able to lean on when you needed guys to soak up minutes when the Barca boys needed to rest. I guess part of what happened might just be that, uh, they don't have, uh, depth like that right now to be able to withstand the fact that all their best players have a combined age of 48.6.
01:28:31
Speaker
So it's tough, man. It's tough. But, uh, like you said, from the outside, It's funny. Yeah. Well, my question is like, why are they not starting Allende over Suarez? Allende scored two in the midweek match against San Jose.
01:28:47
Speaker
Also, Messi played two 90s. Messi played 90 midweek in ah in San Jose, I believe, and then played 90 this weekend. And see, this could That's insane. This could be... This is all theorizing and speculation, but stuff like that, i feel like, could be where the having the coach be one of the best friends of your superstar could just be a risky dynamic fundamentally because...
01:29:12
Speaker
He also played 90 the game before that too. So he's played three consecutive 90s. Like you really think that if Messi goes to Mascherano and is like, hey man, like, no, I'm good to go. Play me the full 90 again.
01:29:24
Speaker
Like I, sometimes you got to save guys from yourself. If it's ah from themselves, like if it's Tata, Tata actually had the like standing to be able to say, yeah.
01:29:36
Speaker
Well, and, but he also just had like, he, sometimes you have to make a hard call like that. That's why Messi had him removed. Yeah. And you have to be able to tell Messi, like, look, man, like you can't go a full 90 in this game.
01:29:48
Speaker
i think it, it kind of seems like to me that Messi just playing every minute of every game, that could be something where Mascherano like can't say no to him because they're boys. Like, and part of why Messi wanted him as the coach is because he, he knows he could be like, He's got some dirt on him. When I want to make sure that I can play whenever I want, he's not going to say no to me. He's my guy.
01:30:10
Speaker
So, again, I don't know that for sure. There's nothing reported on that. It's just like you kind of look at the lack of load management there. That's where my mind kind of goes. like It's shocking. The coach needs to be able to say, no, man, like you we need to save the capital here.
01:30:26
Speaker
It's just crazy because Messi, obviously, incredible talent, Three matches in a row going 93. It's because they played this a similar schedule to the Sounders, right? They played three games. They weren't all away, frankly, but dude played 90 for all three of them is insane. They didn't even play Albert Russ snack that many times and Russ snack has better stats than mass better stats than messy and he's younger and he I think he could probably play 90 through all of those three, but even Brian Schmetzer has the wherewithal to be like, yeah, no, that's um we're going to make sure we keep our players healthy.
01:31:01
Speaker
Because there's no way... And there's keeping them healthy, but there's also like when you're fatigued, yes you're not playing and producing as well. This is another reason why i truly think they're going to bomb out of the Club World Cup in embarrassing fashion because they're just running their guys. They're just running their guys. They're not even trying to load manage to get up to this Club World Cup.
01:31:21
Speaker
And when it happens... it's going to be over. It's like, there's no way they're going to be able to show out to the three most intense games of their entire season. And I think they're each four, four days apart, right? What are you going to run all of the guys at the same time?
01:31:37
Speaker
And that strikes me as an issue that a coach might have when they have no experience dealing with everything that comes with MLS, the travel demands, the crazy schedules, or just like if you've ever played youth kids, like, yeah, kids can play four games in a week.
01:31:52
Speaker
48-year-old Leo Messi? Sure, maybe he can. he He will tell you he can for sure. He's one of the greatest competitors in the world, but he shouldn't. It's a good downfall. i'm kind of It's unexpected. yeah i've been've ah We did predict that it could backfire, but I think the ultimate conclusion that I came to was that ah The talent is so overwhelming that it's probably going to win out and it's not going to affect them in the way that it might just because of the level that we have seen that team play at.
01:32:22
Speaker
ah But to see it seemingly not working out like that, ah like you said, I'm I'm I'm always here for a good downfall. It's kind of what I'm learning about
LAFC vs LA Galaxy and Broadcasting Quality
01:32:30
Speaker
myself through covering the covering the league ah more obsessively than ever is just like.
01:32:37
Speaker
A good downfall. i'm ah I'm kind of a sicko for it. I consume all the content of the teams that are spiraling, which brings me, which brings me to our next ah loser from, ah from this match day, which I have both LAFC and the LA galaxy. Noah, this L traffic was a lot of fun, both in terms of the, you know, game itself. We we were talking about how it hasn't surpassed Cascadia. It hasn't.
01:33:02
Speaker
ah But I like El Trafico. They're always good, fun games to watch. And ah this one was no exception. And the final result was one that I don't think it's kind of actually similar to the Sounders Timbers draw in that. I don't think it it doesn't satisfy either one of the teams, which is great.
01:33:19
Speaker
The Galaxy, yeah, they get the draw. It was a dramatic, like, 87th-minute equalizer. Nice moment for them. Marco Reus, who we were critical of that signing, to be fair, he has been playing ah playing a lot better the last, like, two, three weeks. He's honestly...
01:33:35
Speaker
At least these last couple games, Philly and this El Trafico, he's been one of the most in-form attackers in the league. So good for them, but they still haven't won a game.
01:33:46
Speaker
They're 0-10-4. Like a draw in itself, even if it was a relatively good performance by their standards, it doesn't do all that much for them. It does nothing for them really in the standings.
01:33:58
Speaker
And how much can it really help your morale when it's like a last-second salvage draw to move you to 0-10-4? So good performance for them on the whole, especially relative to how they had been playing.
01:34:10
Speaker
But that that result doesn't suit them that well. LAFC, you were playing a team that was 0-10-3 going into the game. You're your biggest rival. You have them ah walking wounded going into the game and you have a chance to just really, really like twist the knife, right? Like just...
01:34:27
Speaker
ah put them down so bad. Like imagine if LAFC had just ran on them like three or four nil in that game where the galaxy would be at ae after that, they would be in a place where they sign their coach to a contract extension.
01:34:42
Speaker
But yeah, Like that's not a good result for LAFC at all. They had it to one in the 87th minute and then got bammed on by Marco Royce. So that's not good. So, uh, really from the lobbying scorcher's perspective about as good an El Trafico as I could have hoped for. I loved it. Yeah. Fun to, fun to listen to on the, on the drive as well.
01:35:03
Speaker
And then also, uh, neither team gets a good result. The LA galaxy radio commentator is probably one of my favorite people of all time. Dude, we listened to him and, we should we should ah We should figure out his name. Dude, we need to we need to figure him out. But he was so sick. He was like chirping his own players. He was like, he was like um well, that's really not good. You really don't want to do that. That's not how you play soccer and stuff like that. It was so tighted it was so tight.
01:35:28
Speaker
And he was shouting people out in the chat. can't do that. yeah Yeah, it was. No, he would he was. You know what I liked about him, too, is like part we were listening to the broadcast audio at one point, and they just go off on these tangents sometimes. About Boten. And like, we're listening to it. So we're trying to figure out what's going on on the field. And they're like, ah you know, the thing about the U S national team is that like, like we did you know, Marco Roy played it for Borussia Dortmund? Like, can we get what's happening, like actually happening on the field right now? So we switched to the radio broadcast and it was great. He, you know, he was, ah you know, surreal passes back to Yoshida and he finds McCarthy and he's going to send it long. oh no, they're going backwards. They had the, break. yeah
01:36:09
Speaker
But like I could actually tell what was happening on the field by what he was saying, which that was a novel concept. I watched a premier league match today. on Liverpool versus Brighton get owned Liverpool fans. You lost buddy L big L in the chat. But ah other than that, ah they they also do that.
01:36:25
Speaker
They would talk about like who had the ball and I was like, oh my God, does Apple TV just have the worst commentators? Like, honestly, ah to be fair, I've ah like noticed that watching, like especially baseball games, um like they just watch the which I don't know, it's kind of a slower moving, less fluid action game. But still, sometimes I'm watching it. I'm like, you guys haven't talked about the game in 25 minutes. Happens in the NFL a lot, too. I think it's just like a yeah ah broadcaster affliction where sometimes they just get all tangential with it. and Radio guys are just locked in.
01:36:58
Speaker
i'm a pro I'm pro radio. Shout to Jackson Feltz and KJR. We're pro KJR on this podcast, but always been a sports radio guy. But ah I think this is also part and parcel of when you rely on making former players into pundits and then you're just like, yeah, dude, just go talk about whatever. But they have no broadcast training.
01:37:17
Speaker
Anyway, this is a total tangent. But shout out to Galaxy Broadcast ah Radio guy. you You fucking rock, dude. We
St. Louis and Atlanta United's Management Issues
01:37:23
Speaker
love you. Um, last loser of the week, man, Noah, this might be our next coach firing.
01:37:28
Speaker
Gotta be. It might be. There's been like rumblings actually that will. So I saw a rumbling, uh, uh, ball watching a shout out ball watching, uh, Jake from ball watching came on the show, but they, uh, related report.
01:37:41
Speaker
that there was major shakeups expected on the front office side, I believe, but that ah Olaf Melberg, I think that's his name. yeahaf olo um Olaf was also reportedly the seat is hot and he's potentially going to get let go soon.
01:37:59
Speaker
Hasn't happened yet as of this recording, but it feels like it's coming, doesn't it? Yeah. ah When St. Louis city SC came to uh, I knew what we were in for watching that team, which is that they, they really are playing like some of the most cynical negative soccer I've seen in the league. yeah god a while dude It's, it's like a and look,
01:38:25
Speaker
If you're in a situation, I don't really know their roster situation that well. I do know they've had a lot of injuries, and I do know that there are situations in soccer where injuries and where your rosters at might roster is at might dictate having to toss some negative tactics out there sometimes.
01:38:42
Speaker
Frankly, there's times yeah where the Sounders have had to do that. Every MLS team has had to do that in individual games here and there. like with And, ah you know, you could argue that their approach to that LAFC game should have been more just like muck it up yeah and don't really even try and score and try and troll the 0-0. 2024 Sounders style. See, i'm i would honestly...
01:39:07
Speaker
I would rather take a 4-0 where they're at least going for it and trying to win and maybe exposing themselves defensively more than they should than I would an L where it's like 1 or 2-0 and they were trying to play troll ball yeah the whole time. Develop the rather than... Well, that's the thing is that troll ball like that is usually not...
01:39:30
Speaker
No. It's not. Like, we saw what happened in the when St. Louis came to Seattle and tried to do that. the ah The moment that you give up that first goal and you break under the pressure, it's chalked. It's over, dude. Yeah, like, you you... It's all out the window. It's 2023 Sounders, like... And you have no, like, there's no recourse from that because you've been game planning to like specifically not in ah in a situation where you're chasing the game like that.
01:39:56
Speaker
And then once you are, it's like, it's chalked. I think that's, what's been happening to St. Louis is for whatever reason, I don't know if it's what he believes in or if he feels like his roster is necessitating it.
01:40:07
Speaker
ah But they're playing negative soccer and not taking results at the same time. You can't do that. Like you're yeah you're putting yourself on the block. Like if you do that.
01:40:19
Speaker
Their top scorer has three goals. Yeah, they don't score. They don't score. Their whole goal thing is not their thing. Goals and assists, top goals and assists, four combined. And they got lit up.
01:40:29
Speaker
by Minnesota this last week, 3-0 at Allianz Field. ah But it just it just seems like this is the next team that's going to be like, all right, we really got to shake this up because ah you run the risk of like sacrificing fan interest when you're not only not taking results, but you're not See, you're seemingly not even trying to score no goals.
01:40:54
Speaker
So I think the Olaf era might, it's it's on notice, heavily on notice. You never want to be um in the conversation with CF Montreal, Atlanta United, and Sporting Kansas City. But unfortunately, they're sitting in the shield at 27th below Sporting, just above Atlanta and CF Montreal and l LA.
01:41:16
Speaker
I mean, you're in the mud, like you're, you're in the mud and there's no coming out of that. You're probably not making the playoffs, uh, unless some miracle happens.
01:41:28
Speaker
And, um, I think that miracle has to start with getting rid of their coach. There's no way that he stays. Cause this system, For all of the clowning we've done on St. Louis, at least they've had some success. Like, they've been successful in the past. Yeah. They won the West their first year. But this is this is nasty. This is, like, terrible.
01:41:46
Speaker
People complain about Schmetzer ball being boring. go try it Go try and sit through three St. Louis City matches. But, see, it's like... a It is boring, but it's also like... It's going to be good. Well, but they're losing the... They're not grinding out 0-0s. That would be one thing. That would be one thing. They're getting bammed on.
01:42:09
Speaker
They got bammed on 3-0. You can't be a defensive team and then concede three goals. Yeah. it's yeah it's they're they They're playing inter-Miami defense, but their entire goal is to play defense. So it's like you know they don't have any attack. It's really...
01:42:25
Speaker
Really a shame. I didn't have it written down, but do you want to do a little Atlanta United shot in forever? Always. Always. I'm always here for it. Let's do it. Another tough one for the fight in loggerways. This time, a 1-0 home defeat to the Philly Union, which I thought the most interesting gay the ah part of the about this game, Noah, was...
01:42:46
Speaker
The, uh, the blatant lack of respect shown by the Philly union, towards Atlanta United in this game, they literally were like, we're not gonna play our starters. Like we're going roll out a pretty, I think they had a couple of starters in there and goalkeeper who' just named last name is Rick.
01:43:04
Speaker
Speaker 1 0 0 0 dude's just name is red he had an insane game to be fair like like that that's the thing is that nineteen though this was honestly i watched a lot of this game this was honestly the best atlanta united has looked in a while ah but they were playing it was against philly's second choice side against a nineteen year old goalkeeper who was owning them Like they were actually getting good looks on goal and this kid was just swatting them all away.
01:43:31
Speaker
And then meanwhile, the goal that Atlanta gives up, 42-year-old Brad Guzan just charging off his line and Charlie Browns it. ah Just a really good goalkeeper error. God, MLS goal of the week. And ah well, and then ah the guy sends it in and it's a... ah It's like a PK that gets awarded on video review, but a pretty stone cold handball and then Ty Buribo slams it.
01:43:57
Speaker
So it's just like, ah I don't know, man. I but like, I have no, I have nothing new to add to ah the discourse that we've been having on Atlanta in recent weeks.
01:44:10
Speaker
Other than it's just like, there's more sample size. It remains remarkable to me how you can spend that much money and have results like this. How does that happen? $12 million or $20 million, sorry.
01:44:23
Speaker
$12 million dollars for Miguel Almaron. 22 for Latte Loth, a league record. Guess, guess who's doing better than him? Albert Rusnak. Danny Musavsky. Danny Musavsky and Albert Rusnak.
01:44:35
Speaker
The duo of Albert Rusnak and Danny Musavsky has outperformed the duo of $30 million Almy Roan and $30 million duo Latte Loth and Almy Roan.
01:44:47
Speaker
just goes to show, man. It just goes to show. Money's not everything. Money balling. Sometimes it balls. Atlanta. i don't I don't feel bad for them. No, I love it. No, I love It's fantastic. Shout out to five-stripe final. Shout out five-stripe final. i mean I'm the number one consumer of five-stripe final. Yeah, that's that's the shouting for a final boss. That's a bad sign for Atlanta United when I'm that locked in on five-stripe final. never want Ari to be that locked in on your team because what will happen is either you're LA Galaxy, you win the cup, and then immediately become the worst team in the league, or you're playing the worst club in the entire world. You're in the middle of a death spiral, which, yeah.
01:45:25
Speaker
I'm surprised you haven't been more locked in on Montreal. I just, you don't speak French. that That makes sense. There's such a mysterious team to me. Yeah. Like, uh, I'm on their zoom calls and they're just popping off in French the whole time. i don't know what's going on.
01:45:39
Speaker
And then, they go out there and are, what's their record now? Like who has the worst one? have one, two, one, one. Yeah. Yeah. They won one, one, nine, one, nine and four in the galaxy. Oh, 10 and four. Oh,
01:45:52
Speaker
Speaker 2 0 0 0 that way galaxy's response to the situation that they're in was to come out with a statement that they have signed greg vanny to a contract extension that was we talked about it on the post game live or on ah on under the lights so we don't need to get that far into it but that was just kind of a funny situation for an mls club to be in where they had started they won the championship and started negotiating a contract extension with their coach in the aftermath of that championship. So there was like kind of just no question as to whether yeah he was going to get one. The negotiations had started before this season. and
01:46:24
Speaker
The deal had been done for a while, apparently. And then they get off to the worst start of any club in MLS history, but they do the extension anyway. So right after like getting 7-0'd by the Red Bulls, they had to come out and be like, we have extended our head coach.
01:46:38
Speaker
for a multi-year contract extension. Uh, we felt like we just had to keep like, it's just, I've never seen that. It's something that would never happen. Like they're on the best yeah in global football, right? Like, uh, you would never see an extension for a coach that was Oh, 10 and three at the time. It just wouldn't happen.
01:46:57
Speaker
So, yeah I mean, I'm not even saying like, I think we both been on the train of like Greg Vanny is actually good at coaching soccer, like ah at least track record wise.
01:47:09
Speaker
He's won a lot. He's won a couple MLS cups, yeah built Toronto into a juggernaut there. And then ah seemed like he had brought the LA galaxy back to perennial power.
01:47:20
Speaker
But now it's, it's funny cause he has to, I i feel like he has to like do the Vanny thing of like building them again. Yeah. But like they just they just did just did that. They just did that.
01:47:33
Speaker
Anyway, little tangent at the end there. But i no, I think we can call it right there. Yep. Another great episode as always. Thank you all for tuning in. If you're watching on YouTube, please like the video.
01:47:45
Speaker
ah Please subscribe to the channel. a Like, comment, subscribe, rate five stars, write reviews, tell your friends, tell your Share with Garth Lagerwey for sure. Share. with garth loggerway and chris henderson and greg vanny and will coontz and uh anything anything oh we're working on the uh the portland vlog that'll be out hopefully in the next uh i don't know like what week or two yep youtube.com slash at lobbying scorchers if you're listening on audio Yeah.
01:48:15
Speaker
And watch the U.S. Open Cup doc that we did, if you haven't yet, because that was fire. And this Portland one is going to be really good, too. You got some good footage. Yeah.
01:48:27
Speaker
You got the Roosnack goal. we Did get the Snack goal. Whole Snack goal. That's on our Instagram, which you should follow. And... More content to come. The content don't stop. We'll be back at it for, I'll be back at it under the lights on Thursday evening.
01:48:41
Speaker
Post game live, I think we should be able to fire up relatively. Maybe we'll do it from the stadium. we could We could try and do that. forgot it was a home game, yeah which is always a little trickier. But um if we don't do one immediately post-game, we'll do it like we have been doing Sunday morning. So stay tuned for all that.
01:49:00
Speaker
We'll catch you next time. Until then, we out. Peace.