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Nos Audietis, Episode 257: Roldan Cristian, Roldan
60 Plays8 years ago
This last week promised to tell us a lot about the Seattle Sounders. Facing a pair of winnable games at home, but missing several key players, the Sounders badly needed to claim maximum points if they were to solidify their spot in the standings.
It wasn't exactly easy, but the Sounders definitely got the job down. First, they overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat D.C. United 4-3. They followed that up with a three-goal, second-half outburst against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Jeremiah and Aaron discuss those wins, as well as the suddenly red-hot rumors around Derlis Gonzalez. Of course, they also find time to take your questions.
This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - "Ragged All Week", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adietes is sponsored by Designers Marble. Designers Marble is the premier custom cultured marble manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest. Their synthetic marble products, made with patented true stone technology, offer the beautiful look of natural stone at a fraction of the cost, while maintaining exceptional durability and ease of maintenance.
00:00:22
Speaker
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00:00:48
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this.
00:01:13
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adiadis, sponsored by Focal Wines, Queen Anacupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marvel, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 257, and we're recording on Tuesday, July 25th, 2017. I
Seattle Sounders' Winning Streak
00:01:41
Speaker
am your host, Jeremiah Shan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our producer, Lickit. Not sure I remember the last time we did this show after not just one, but two wins. Since returning from the Gold Cup break, the Sounders have won both games.
00:01:54
Speaker
They're now on a three game winning streak in a five game unbeaten run. The centers now find themselves in a tie for fourth place, just two at a third and three points at a second. If that weren't sounding good enough, by the time the centers play again, they'll have Clint Dempsey, Jordan Morris, and Nico Ledero back, all of whom missed the last game at least. So here we are, Aaron.
00:02:14
Speaker
it's uh late july and there was an amazing tweet that uh randy meeker sent out and uh he said that the sounders right now as of this like this time of the year last year were 11 points out of fourth they of course ended up finishing in fourth they're 10 points out of the west lead it's all of a sudden this is looking like uh
00:02:39
Speaker
Like it could be a good season, not just like squeaking into the playoffs. Yeah, I feel like, and it's understandable, but I feel like there's maybe a little PTSD from, you know, how terrible the start was to last season. The fact that the West and really increasingly the whole league honestly is looking pretty mediocre this year certainly helps. But, you know, it's undeniable that the season
00:03:04
Speaker
has not been anywhere near as much of a disaster as last season. And, you know, it never was as bad as last season. And I think we talked about that quite a bit, you know, that the Sounders are not playing well, but it's really, it's not a huge deal. And frankly, they've had a lot of seasons like this over the course of their history. 2011 was a pretty bad start. 2010 was an awful start.
00:03:29
Speaker
So this isn't really abnormal as long as they can keep this up. There's no plausible reason that they can't finish in second place and skip the first round of the playoffs. I think it's reasonable to expect that they can get a home game.
00:03:46
Speaker
You know, as good as Dallas is, I don't think that they have two games against FC Dallas. I don't think that them somehow winning the West is out of the realm of possibility by any stretch of the imagination. So, you know, if they can continue playing well, if they can make a couple additions and patch the holes that they have, I think you have to feel really good about, you know, not just going into the playoffs and being hot, but just about the season as a whole.
Western Division Mediocrity: Advantage for Sounders?
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I actually misspoke. The Sounders aren't 10 points out of first in the West. They're 10 points out of the Supporter Shield lead. They're only actually 4 points out of the West lead, which is... They have two games... FDC Alice has two games in hand, but the West is seeming...
00:04:30
Speaker
Almost, like you said, with those games in hand, it is almost looking winnable at this point. And I don't know, you brought this up in a chat the other day, and I don't know how this changes things. Do you think this makes the struggles at the beginning of the scene seem worse, or does it make it seem like, you know, maybe it wasn't such a big deal after all?
00:04:50
Speaker
I don't know if I would say that it wasn't a big deal because that was some pretty garbage soccer that we had to watch. And there are some things that I think could have been done to improve it. But, you know, realistically, I think that we're definitely seeing that this is a really good team that is pretty well constructed for the most part.
00:05:13
Speaker
I know that people are frustrated by, you know, the fact that they didn't name a full bench for one game. I know that people are frustrated by the fact that, you know, we had to see a lot of Jordy Dillon playing right back. But when you look at the players that they were missing for those games and they were things that, you know, they were missing for reasons that I don't think it was reasonable to.
00:05:32
Speaker
to plan for, I just, I don't know. I think it makes it a lot more understandable. And, you know, the fact that Kelvin Lirdom has looked incredible in about 100 minutes so far, I think anybody that still thinks that the Sounders weren't smart to wait and see, I think that you've got to eat some crow at this point, because I mean, he's been great. And I think it was reasonable to think that Brad Evans was going to be able to play.
00:06:02
Speaker
at least more than he did. I still wish that they had better striker depth and that they had better striker depth from the start. I think that's a reasonable criticism. I think it's reasonable to think maybe they should have filled one or two other roster spots with some sort of back-end, USL-plus kind of guys.
00:06:26
Speaker
I just, I don't know. I think that, especially now that we've seen how good they are when they're even close to healthy, I think that you just kind of have to revise some of the harsher criticism that we saw earlier in the season.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you look at the roster right now, and, you know, I wrote a column this week where I talked about this a little bit, where, you know, it's not just the starters. I mean, the starters look really good right now. I mean, you figure that when they're 100% healthy, you're looking at something like Jordan Morris up top, Nico Ledero out right, Clint Dempsey in the middle, and then you have options actually right now as it stands, oh,
Sounders' Squad Depth and Key Players
00:07:12
Speaker
uh shoot you know what actually i should close this this is the washing machine hold on i'm gonna fix that
00:07:42
Speaker
Is that better? Is that better? Much better. Okay, so I'll just go back to my column thing.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yeah, what I think is kind of an amazing thing is you look at, I actually wrote a column this week looking at this a little bit, and it's not just the depth of the starting lineup. You've got guys like Gustav Svensson who probably aren't going to be playing once this team is 100% healthy, either him or Roman Torres. Brad Evans probably isn't going to be, almost certainly isn't starting when this team is 100% healthy.
00:08:17
Speaker
Aaron Kovar. Guys like Aaron Kovar are going to be fighting to get into the 18. And he's Jordy Delham, who started a bunch of games. He's going to be fighting to get into the 18. Tony Alfaro might not get into the 18 again this year. And he's a guy who's had a lot of minutes. I mean, all of a sudden, the Sounders are going to have not just competition for starting spots, but they're going to be having competition just to get onto the game day roster. And that's before they've signed
00:08:45
Speaker
What looks like a designated player and all the rumors are pointing directly at Durlis Gonzales and potentially another guy. I mean, it's almost like they have an embarrassment of riches talent wise. And this is a team that we were openly questioning the construction of a month and a half ago.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're always going to react a little more emotionally in the moment to games that are really awful and bad starts and just bad performances. And the roster construction, I think, was an easy thing to point to.
00:09:21
Speaker
And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't pretty pissed off about it myself, but I think that you wrote a column, it must have been a couple weeks ago, maybe even a month ago, about how it was really starting to look like the sounders were, if not doing a rebuild, were definitely in a full-on transition phase. And I think it's easy to forget that.
00:09:41
Speaker
Garth really did inherit a lot of difficult circumstances. This is a team that to be polite is very veteran and he's addressing some of those things.
00:10:01
Speaker
It was probably necessary to get rid of some of those veterans, see what you had in some of the younger players, get some guys that are MLS rotational quality players like Will Bruin and Harry Ship.
00:10:16
Speaker
and see what you had with those guys and see what you had with your current roster construction. And then in the summer, you've got a little more flexibility. You've got, you kind of know how the season's shaking out. I think that the concern that this was going to be the way it was every year, I never really thought it made a ton of sense. And I think that it's pretty obvious now that they're just kind of rebuilding the core as they go.
00:10:42
Speaker
And that's a difficult thing to do. And I think that we have to acknowledge that. And if they can win MLS Cup in year one and end up getting into the playoffs as a relatively high seed in year two while rebuilding the core, it's hard for me to be too upset about that.
00:11:02
Speaker
And admittedly, I think that this is all taking on a very different tone because of how well they've played these last three games. And I think that these last three games were the first time this year that we saw the depth kind of looking how it was imagined, I think. You know, we had Gustav Svensson playing as a defensive midfielder, effectively filling in these last two games. And then the real kind of
00:11:30
Speaker
treat and surprise from this last week was Christian Roldan moving up to the number 10 spot. He didn't have a ton of passing volume the way that we're used to seeing the Sounders kind of key offensive players have. He only had 33 passes. Nico Ledero in any given game will have 45 to 60 passes.
00:11:56
Speaker
He showed off some very impressive skills. I mean, Christian Roldan, it seems like I kind of likened him to an onion where every game it feels like we just keep pulling back these layers and it's like, oh my God, he's like a really competent right back. Oh my God, he's a really competent mid. Oh my God, he's apparently a really competent number 10. And this was I think the third time he's played as a number 10 for the Sounders. But man,
Christian Roldan: Top Asset in MLS?
00:12:23
Speaker
it's, and he's 22 years old.
00:12:25
Speaker
I think I took this from you, and so I'm going to give you credit either way, but I think you called him a top five asset in MLS. Am I remembering that right, Aaron? Yeah, that's correct. It's tricky in MLS because clubs don't own players the way they do in soccer or in other sports. All of the most valuable assets in Major League Baseball, for example, are
00:12:51
Speaker
25 year old, uh, just graduated prospects, right? Because you can get a ton and return for them. Um, Christian rolled on is either going to be a top tier MLS player for, you know, another 10, 12, 15 years. Um, or he's going to move to a bigger club and, and maybe Mexico or maybe Belgium or something like that.
00:13:13
Speaker
and the sounders are going to get a big transfer fee for him. Or for some reason, maybe they'll end up trading him for a king's ransom. And if you look at what Dom Dwyer got, and Dom Dwyer is a- Or maybe he'll spend his whole career as the greatest sounder to ever play.
00:13:29
Speaker
Right. Well, that was the first, that was the first possibility that I put out there. Okay. Yeah. So, but I mean, like, if you, if you look at what Sporting KC got for non-Dwyer, you know, they got 900,000 in allocation guaranteed.
00:13:44
Speaker
And, you know, a pretty solid possibility that that's going to nearly double in the coming years. I mean, that's, that's a ton of allocation money. That's, you know, more than what the Sounders got for Eddie Johnson. And they use the money they got for Eddie Johnson to build a supporters shield winning team. Yeah. And they, and they use that money to build, you know, and pretty much in one off season to go from being sort of a mid lane playoff level team to being one of the best MLS teams that there's ever been. So.
00:14:13
Speaker
that can really transform a team. So, yeah, I mean, and the Sounders would not take less than what sporting case you got for Dom D'Or in the movement. I think that you would have to double it to move them within the league. So, yeah, I mean, he's a hugely valuable asset. And I feel like at this time last year, we were kind of talking about how we'd taken a huge step forward. I mean, he was really, at this point, one of the only bright spots about the season. And I feel like he's taken an equally big step forward this year.
00:14:41
Speaker
And it's, you know, it's almost frustrating that he didn't get more of a look at the gold cup because I feel like he deserved it. But at the same time, I'm comfortable with that. Because if, you know, if he ends up becoming a regular, he's going to then maybe hell starting in the World Cup, the odds of the Sounders keeping him go down quite a bit. So.
00:15:01
Speaker
But yeah, I mean he's been tremendous everywhere. He's been asked to play the fact that there's still sound understands that don't think he's a good player There are no there I would like those people to write into the show. Yeah
00:15:19
Speaker
Yes, our hotline, our hot take hotline and let us know why you think Christian Bouldon is not awesome. But yeah, I mean, I'm really glad that he got sent home from the Gold Cup because he played two games for the Sounders last week and I think those two games really, you know, maybe it was a good thing for him to have those two games without, you know, Clint and Jordan in the first one and without Clint Jordan and Nico.
00:15:43
Speaker
In the second one and it just allowed him to kind of spread his wings and fly I mean this is he's got five goals and two assists this year if you go back you look at his last 34 games He's got eight goals and two assists all of us. I mean those are those are like legit
00:16:01
Speaker
numbers i mean those are those are good numbers and he's not getting you know penalties he's not you know get it every close-range goal he has it seems like the product of just putting in some hard work and and winning uh... aerial battles uh... you look at the two goals that he scored against uh... the earthquakes and it was kind of vintage uh... Christian rolled on maybe not the first one was kind of vintage Christian rolled on where he he gets at the end of a of afflict header but the other one was
00:16:28
Speaker
just this gorgeous move. I love that head fake that he put on Bernardes to kind of open up the last bit of space. And then he really should have had a hat trick. He makes a great move to put himself in position and he misses that. He puts a ball with his left off the post, which would have completed the first perfect hat trick in Sunder's history. Is that the right term?
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, that is the right term. They had a natural one last year against Orlando City because that was three goals. That's right. Dempsey scored. But yeah, and I was already sad that obviously that he didn't score the hat trick. But when I found out that it would have been a perfect hat trick, I was significantly sadder because it really took some wind of the game. And then, of course, he doesn't win Player of the Week, which is just an absolute shame.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's a huge bummer. That's a prestigious honor. Yeah, very prestigious honor. So also in that game, I thought it was notable. Jordy Delham looked very competent. And I realize that that may sound like faint praise, but given the way that Jordy Delham has looked at right back, this was the first extended time. I think this was his first start at defensive midfielder.
00:17:51
Speaker
And he looked like a totally MLS quality, like Michael Azira-esque defensive midfielder. I don't know that I would feel comfortable with him starting in an MLS Cup final, but as the fourth defensive midfielder, I liked him a lot.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's, I think it's pretty clear just by watching him in the Gold Cup and by watching him, you know, at S2 and watching him in that game last night that he's much more comfortable in the center of the pitch. He played right back like he was in the center of the pitch and that was part of the problem. And I think that
00:18:31
Speaker
it's very obvious that the Sounders see something in him. And I think that for a lot of people, the vast majority of people, the extent of what they've seen of him were some really shocking performances as a right back. But I thought he looked good, and I'm glad that he got to play a few games in the Gold Cup because it really seemed like he was a lot more confident after playing it as a center back.
00:18:56
Speaker
And
Emerging Talents Boost Sounders
00:18:57
Speaker
you know, I mean if we've got guys that are coming up through us to that are he's what 24 25 something like that 24 I believe yeah, you know that are still young enough to develop a little bit more and
00:19:12
Speaker
that can play multiple positions adequately and they're on team-friendly contracts, that's a great way to fill out the back of your roster. And it is nice to see him have a good performance at one of his natural positions because if he struggles at defensive midfield, then you have to start asking the question of whether
00:19:34
Speaker
you know, is he really a player that's worth keeping around and continuing to give minutes to? But the fact that he performed really well relative to expectations, I think is a pretty encouraging sign.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, you speak about S2 players coming up, the other one was NuWho, and I think NuWho is quickly becoming a cult hero in the world of sounders, and it's not hard to see why. Everything he does seemingly has maximum effort behind it.
00:20:08
Speaker
you know he the way he just gets up the the the sideline gobbling up space and he's actually starting to you know for all the the silly stuff that he does that seemingly gets him into trouble
00:20:21
Speaker
none of it really is is you know he also gets himself out of trouble like he'll dribble himself into trouble on the sideline and then he dribbles out of it somehow uh you know there was this great play in the in the dc united match where he hit a clearance and it and it basically circled back and it was going towards the end line and then he used this funky kind of stutter step move to to win possession before it went out
00:20:45
Speaker
And then he fakes out one of the defenders and he ends up clearing the ball up the field. And I just thought it was this kind of vintage, perfect
00:20:55
Speaker
snapshot of what kind of player NuWho is and what's funny is that I don't think he's going to be playing a ton down the stretch because my suspicion is that Jovan Jones will move back to left back and NuWho will probably be more of a late game sub, but speaking of guys that are all of a sudden going to be fighting for spots in the 18, if the Sounders do add some more players NuWho might be another one, but
00:21:21
Speaker
It also allows Jovan Jones to move up a line. I don't love Jovan Jones as a left mid, but I have to admit that after these last couple games, I'm perfectly happy to see him there, especially as a sometimes villain, especially if that means we get to see Nuhu.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that we've been pretty consistent with Jones in saying that he's a perfectly decent midfielder at the MLS level, better than decent. I think he's a pretty good above average midfielder at the MLS level. He's an elite left back, and I think that, especially now that MLS teams are really starting to recognize that full backs are not where you put your worst starting quality player, but actually really important elements of a good team, having an elite left back is a huge advantage.
00:22:09
Speaker
And so, you know, I don't think that switching them permanently is a good idea, but I'm really glad that new who has gotten significant minutes that he's gotten a chance to show what he can do at this level. Um, you know, that it's the kind of thing where if Jovan picks up a knock and he's not feeling a hundred percent, they can feel pretty confident playing new in a big game. Um, whereas, you know, earlier in the season, he played through a pretty significant injury. Um, because they didn't, I mean, it was what, you know, you're going to play O'Neill Fisher at left back, which is really not a great position for him. So.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's been great. I think that the idea that he has shown so much that they have to find a way to get him onto the field or that him not playing as a starter in every game is going to somehow hurt his development. I think that's a little bit much. But, you know, it's funny because they had so much trouble at fullback earlier in the season and that was a huge problem. And it was one of the things people were so upset about. And now all of a sudden they've got O'Neill Fisher, who was a quality fullback, they've got
00:23:07
Speaker
Geordie Dilem who's an emergency fullback that can you know play the position sort of and then they've got Noohoo who really looks like you know he could start for maybe a third of the teams in the league and now they have Kelvin Leardam who has been incredible so far and they have Jovan Jones who is I think the best left back in the league so and Brad Evans and Brad Evans kind of who you know
00:23:36
Speaker
who thinks he's only right back and is pretty quickly being shown to be incorrect about that but yeah you're only right back and then he ends up having a really solid game at right or at right min yeah well you know it's a good problem to have i guess it is and and i do
00:23:56
Speaker
It is, I know that it pisses Brad Evans off, but his ability to play multiple positions is, you know, it's super valuable. And, I mean, we kind of talked about this on the last show, I think, but, you know, signing Lirdon is not just signing a fullback, because it improves their depth at so many positions, because Evans can slot in pretty much anywhere on the field, and that's just gonna make them
00:24:20
Speaker
a lot more flexible and able to withstand any injuries that'll be coming up because they're relatively healthy now, but that's not gonna be the case for the rest of the year for sure.
00:24:30
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We're going to come back. We're going to talk a little Gold Cup. We're going to talk about this $4 billion broadcast rights offer that was made to MLS and a few other things that are kind of trickling around in our minds. We'll of course take your questions later in the show. You're listening to Nos Adiattos.
00:24:54
Speaker
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00:25:21
Speaker
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00:25:42
Speaker
Welcome back to Noose Adiete. So this is our second segment. I don't know if I needed to say that, but you probably realize that. And we'll just get started right away. The rumor this week is that Dirlis Gonzales is on the verge of signing with the Sounders. Some reports
Potential Signing: Dirtless Gonzalez and Comparisons
00:26:04
Speaker
are saying that he could be flying out as early as Thursday. Dynamo Kiev has a Champions League qualifier that they're playing on Wednesday.
00:26:12
Speaker
And against young boys and supposedly he's gonna play in that game hop on a plane head to Seattle and sign for the Sounders which would be great news and it would be quite the turnaround from a couple weeks ago when the Sounders and And Durlis were apparently Not gonna make a deal because down of Kiev decided that they could not take whatever the Sounders were offering and lo and behold
00:26:42
Speaker
I don't want to say we predicted it, but I think we predicted it. That was not the end of the negotiations, and here we are. At the very least, it would appear that negotiations are continuing, and it looks like the Sounders may actually get their man. It would be quite the coup, I would say.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I think that if you look at the transfer fee that you would likely bring it would be a club record for sure I don't remember what the MLS record is But I think it's 10 million. I think the I think Atlanta played it played 10 million for McGill Elmarone Yeah, so it's probably not gonna be that much But it'll be in the ballpark of that and you know for a player that
00:27:30
Speaker
I don't know that he's in Amaron's, if he's quite that good, but he's not, in terms of his stature, in terms of his value on the transfer market, he's going to be pretty close to that. I think it's reasonable to expect him once he kind of
00:27:49
Speaker
acclimates to the league to have like 90% of Elmaron's impact, which is pretty damn good. So maybe that doesn't happen this year, but I think he's definitely a player that can help probably down the stretch and in the playoffs. And, you know, it's the kind of signing that three years ago I think would have been unthinkable. I mean, MLS change is so fast that it's like you almost don't really have time to
00:28:18
Speaker
kind of figure out that it's changing and then something like Atlanta shows up and they buy Joseph Martinez and Miguel Almerón and Edgar Fiaba and Gonzalez Perez and you know they're like basically an air to busy team with Jeff Lauren to wits.
00:28:35
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it's crazy how fast it changes. But yeah, I mean, if that's the kind of player that MLS teams are going to be signing regularly, that's really exciting for the league. And with the expected TAM infusions, that means that the sort of just below top tier players are going to be getting increasingly better. It's a pretty exciting time for MLS right now. And hopefully, they're not overextending themselves. I think they're probably not, but
00:29:04
Speaker
um because if they can keep growing at a pace i don't know that i don't think mls is a league that is capable of overextending itself frankly that's i think that's a reasonable thing to say and if they you know they're not going to keep growing this fast forever but if they can grow at 50 of this pace for you know 10 years um they're going to be in that
00:29:24
Speaker
Second dish tier of leagues, you know, they're gonna be on par with Argentina and Brazil and places like that Especially if the domestic talent continues to improve and I think that you know, there are a lot of promising young American players right now I think that
00:29:39
Speaker
there's more talent in sort of the younger, the younger MLS caliber player pool than there has been in a long time. And that's going to be huge, obviously. But yeah, I mean, Doros Gonzalez is not American, but young and very good. And they're going to pay a lot of money for him in school.
00:30:00
Speaker
So you compared him to Miguel Almeron and I think that that's probably a good comparison. They're Paraguay, they're teammates on the Paraguay national team. They're right about the same age. But something to keep in mind, when Almeron signed at the beginning of this year, he still has 10, right as of today, he has 10 national team caps.
00:30:20
Speaker
uh he's had only scored three goals outside of Paraguay uh at his club in it for his club team he'd only and he was he was playing for that lanus of uh the argentinian league and he'd only even uh he'd only well let's see i shouldn't say that maybe he's got he probably had more than that when he auditioned for all the competitions he'd only scored three goals in in league play in any case uh and four so he had four total goals
00:30:50
Speaker
in his last three seasons at Lanus in the Ardentinian League and he'd played about
00:30:59
Speaker
um two thousand minutes now compare that to dirtless gonzalez who is like i said almost exactly the same age uh he's a little bit more of a outside midfielder almarone was a little bit more of an inside midfielder actually almarone is actually a month younger than uh or gonzalez is actually a month younger than uh almarone for
00:31:24
Speaker
for uh if we're comparing these things and so he's been playing outside of Paraguay since 2015 he played for Basel in this in his Swedish league and he played for Dino Kia he and he actually played for Benfica for a little while uh in their u19 team in Portugal
00:31:45
Speaker
But then he went from Basel to Dynamo Kiev, who is obviously one of the biggest clubs in the Ukraine. And he's played something like 4,000 minutes, first team minutes. He's scored more than twice as many goals for the outside of Paraguay. He's got 24, I think 24 senior national team caps. He's played in Champions League.
00:32:11
Speaker
I mean, in a lot of ways, Durlis is a more accomplished player than Elmeron was and I don't think it's that crazy to think that he could
00:32:21
Speaker
exceed the kind of player that Elmeron has been for Atlanta. So this is a signing that I think is worth getting really excited about. And not just because the Sounders are getting a young player, but they're potentially getting a really good young player, assuming these rumors all come to fruition.
00:32:42
Speaker
I mean, I don't suspect that most of our listeners have heard of journalist Gonzalez beyond the rumor reporting that Sonder and Hart has done, but this is a potentially a really, really big signing.
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that my natural inclination is always to try to temper expectations, including my own, obviously. But I think you're right. I mean, I think that there's a tremendous amount of upside potential. I think a lot of people probably have concerns because he went to Europe, he had a really good season with Basel, made him move to a bigger club. And, you know, he's been good.
00:33:18
Speaker
There's not a market for him in that next stepping stone up. I don't think it's fair to say he's washed out in Europe, but he certainly hasn't had the career I think some people expected him to. And I think that that probably, I definitely will say that it probably biases people against players. But when you look at their careers, you're right.
00:33:44
Speaker
Derless is younger. He's done more for the national team The fact that he tested himself at a higher level and maybe didn't live up to expectations You could see that is a mark against him and it's something to consider But I mean Nico Lodera did the same thing Nico had less success in Europe. I think it's fair to say Sometimes it just doesn't work out for players. I Mean did he he played it
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. I don't know. It's tricky. Yeah, they're not that far off. They're more famous, definitely. They probably have higher expectations, but the caliber, it's pretty close, I would say. But even if that weren't the case, he's played well there. I think he's played better for Dynamo than Ledero did for Ajax.
00:34:40
Speaker
Um, if you, you know, just look at their numbers. And so, um, you know, I think that, I think that there is some bias against him because he's coming back from Europe. People are always more excited to get players that are, um, you know, on their way to Europe. And that's understandable. Um, but MLS has a, has a bigger profile.
00:34:59
Speaker
If he can play well here, he's going to get national team call-ups and get back into that mix a little bit more than he has been. His profile will rise, and MLS is on the way to becoming a selling league, and that's a good thing. That's a really good thing. I mean, for a long time, it's been pretty rare for MLS teams to be able to regularly sell players' support in leagues. That's a big part of how teams get better, and leagues get better, is that they bring in big transfer fees. And that's one of the exciting things about
00:35:28
Speaker
Players like Gurus Gonzalez and Miguel Almorone and Joseph Martinez to me is that it represents that next step in terms of stepping up the hierarchy. And it's also nice to get a guy that hasn't come into his physical and athletic prime yet to actually see him develop into a better player. It's pretty cool.
00:35:49
Speaker
Hopefully, if it happens. Absolutely. And I think it's also worth noting that this is a guy who scored against both Brazil and Argentina in
00:36:02
Speaker
at the national team level, which is, you know, granted the goal against Brazil was a penalty and was in a friendly, but the goal against Argentina was in a World Cup qualifier. So, I mean, this is a player I think worth getting very excited about. Who knows, maybe by the time this hits the air, there'll be even more news.
00:36:20
Speaker
We didn't want to talk all about Durlis. The other thing that was kind of very, that the Sounders had a big deal in, and again, maybe this won't be super relevant by the time you're listening to this, but the United States is playing in the gold cup final on Wednesday against Jamaica. Big upset,
Impact of Gold Cup on Sounders
00:36:36
Speaker
Jamaica over Mexico. But it's been impressive to see both Clint and Jordan Morris doing everything I think we would have hoped they would have done with the national team.
00:36:47
Speaker
I know I was a little annoyed when he when Clint didn't start against Who am I they played Costa Rica in the semi-finals? So I was a little annoyed when when he wasn't starting in hindsight, maybe that was getting a little harsh Because he clearly Bruce had a plan for him it was to bring him in as a sub it would have been on short rest This is probably all good for the Sounders. I don't think we would have liked to have seen Clint go to the gold cup and play
00:37:17
Speaker
you know, start three games in the span of a week. So maybe this is all working out for the best. But he got his goal, a beautiful free kick to tie Landon Donovan for the national team record. But his assist was even more impressive. Just kind of plowing over a couple or dribbling around a couple over guys and then feeding Josie Altidore. I've been very impressed with Clint Dempsey's play at the national team in the gold cup. And I've been impressed with Clint's play for the last month or so.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he really does kind of seem like he's back to back to himself. And, you know, I think that maybe they're the management of his minutes is part of that, because when he's coming off the bench, he can he can go full out. And I think we've kind of seen that, you know, earlier in the season, he wasn't part of that is that he hadn't played in, you know,
00:38:06
Speaker
very long time But you know, he's he's not a young guy, right? He's 34 So I'm 34 too which so that's depressing to say he's not a young guy, but whatever But yeah, I mean it's so it's It's it's been really encouraging I don't think that he's ever gonna be a super sub for the Sounders and I kind of lose my mind if he was but I
00:38:31
Speaker
If you know he's amenable to maybe starting a couple of games here and there off the bench I think what we've seen is that in two game weeks three game weeks that it works to bring them off it like in the Portland get And against in the Atlanta game was another game earlier this year where he came off the bench and he had a pretty instantaneous impact
00:38:50
Speaker
So, I mean, I'm fine with Clint coming off the bench every, you know, third or fourth game if it means managing his minutes. Because he looks like when he's rested, he's really, really effective.
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah, he is. And given that the Sounders have maybe not the greatest depth right now at Shryker, but the players they do have, well-brewed has been great. He's somebody that I think it's pretty clear that we can depend on to have effective games. He's not going to continue at the pace he's been on so far. I think it's totally reasonable to say that flat out. But he's been a really effective player. He's been a quality player.
00:39:34
Speaker
played like a player that could start for, you know, probably 75% of the league. So you have to feel pretty comfortable about that. Jordan Morris in the Gold Cup, I think, has looked very much like he's getting back to his old self. And even in the few games before going to the Gold Cup, you know, he looked, he didn't score any goals, but he was very active. He was very involved. He was, you know, creating chances for himself.
00:39:58
Speaker
Um, he was getting in behind the defense in a way that we haven't really seen him do this season. So, um, so it, it makes it a little more palatable, I guess, to, to, you know, be able to say Clint Dempsey, especially if they end up signing somebody like Derless Gonzalez, who provides yet another attacking option. Um, so yeah, I mean, I think that, uh, you've got to feel pretty good about the way Clint has looked, uh, and, and Morris as well. I think, you know, Morris during this gold cup has,
00:40:23
Speaker
I've just felt about a million times better about the season because he's not only looked like the player he was last season, but he's, I mean, he's had a couple really nice crosses with his left foot. He's had a couple just killer, killer passes, none of which ended up in a goal, but not really through any fault of his own.
00:40:42
Speaker
He's just, he looks so much more confident, so much more comfortable than he has earlier in the year. And that's really good news because we're definitely going to need him down the stretch if we want to finish as strongly as we're capable of.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think Jordan Morris, in some ways, his performance has been even more encouraging than Clint Dempsey's because he has, you know, he was struggling not immediately before leaving to the Gold Cup, but he had been struggling. He's certainly struggling to find the goal. I mean, he's only got two goals. I don't think he has any assists yet this year. And he's got two goals in the Gold Cup already.
00:41:17
Speaker
easily could have a couple assists as well. I wouldn't say he's been their best striker at the Gold Cup, but I would say he's at least in that conversation. I mean, he almost had that. It would have been a pretty impressive goal 10 seconds into the Costa Rica match. He hits it right off the post with
00:41:33
Speaker
One of those kind of classic Jordan Morris outside of the boot shots from the from the right side But I hope that he comes back confident. I hope he comes back ready to go I think this is you know, I was a little worried about him going to the gold cup I didn't really think he deserved it But I have to admit I'm kind of glad that he if if if the cost of missing him for a couple games it's a lot easier I guess also to feel good about it because he because the Sounders played well while he was gone, but
00:42:03
Speaker
You know, it's been good. I'm very happy. I think that the sounders stand to get back a much more confident player of nothing else as long as nothing goes wrong in the final with injuries or whatnot, which I'm totally sure I'm jinxing it now.
Dom Dwyer's Trade and MLS Player Valuations
00:42:20
Speaker
So one of the biggest probably MLS news this week was this Dom Dwyer trade that just happened today. Dom Dwyer got sent to Orlando City, a team that I guess has kind of become his adopted home. I guess he went to college in Florida near Orlando and then he of course played a season with the U.S.L.
00:42:46
Speaker
team that was also called Orlando City. I guess maybe it's the same team, technically. I guess that sounds really bad for me to say that as a Sounders fan. But he had a relationship with Orlando. They've been trying to get him. And then finally, the way they got him was essentially, we talked about this earlier in the show, but what amounts to a $1.6 million allocation swap
00:43:08
Speaker
in order to get Don Dwyer. I don't quite know what KC has planned. They've essentially given up their best score for the hope of getting other players. You have to imagine that there is another move on the horizon. Christian Nemeth apparently is thinking about coming back to MLS and
00:43:29
Speaker
Kansas City is trying to position themselves to get to the top of the allocation order to get him. But putting that aside, Paul Tenorio of 442 actually had a really interesting column that was talking about how this changes the way teams think about trading assets in an MLS. And I thought that that was probably the most interesting angle from a Sounders perspective.
00:43:52
Speaker
You know, up until now, the most that we'd seen change hands, I believe, was $650,000 in allocation. Now we're blowing that out of the water. We're talking about a million more than that. You can do a lot with $1.6 million in allocation money. I don't know, as an observer of MLAS, do you like the idea of potentially? And I guess the way that they're doing this is they're taking as many as three allocation money from at least three years and moving that over.
00:44:22
Speaker
in payments, like one each year. Do you like that, like MLS essentially doing that, Aaron? I do for a couple of reasons. I mean, I think that anything that gives a little bit more freedom of movement within the league is a good thing because I think that it's shitty for the players and I feel hyper hypocritical for saying that because I'm typically a hardcore player, player rights advocate, but I think it's good for the league to, you know,
00:44:49
Speaker
allow contenders to make actual impact trades if they want to a little more often. I think that's a good thing. If you're a team whose window might be closing and you've got a fair amount of allocation that you're sitting on and you feel like you need one more piece and you don't want to have concerns about whether or not they'll be able to adapt to the league or what have you, that gives teams another way to add players like that. That's a really important thing.
00:45:16
Speaker
Um, and, and I think that, you know, breaking things up, I mean, we talked about this earlier, but the Sounders were able to turn that allocation into, um, into, you know, a supporter shield winning team. Um, and, you know, a team that I think was the best team in the league that year.
00:45:33
Speaker
after being pretty mediocre the year before. And that's awesome. But it also breaking things up a little bit more gives teams a little bit more of an ability to plan. And I think it makes it less likely that teams are going to be able to just come in and completely
00:45:49
Speaker
rebuild base off of one trade, which you know, I think is a good thing. And it's perversely, it gives teams kind of an incentive to tank a little bit, which some people don't think is a great thing. I don't think it's the worst thing necessarily, because I think it's a valuable way for younger players to get playing time. You know, if you are
00:46:15
Speaker
in eighth place and way out of the playoffs and you've got one good player that's really valuable in MLS and a bunch of U.S.L. players that you think could, you know, turn into really promising players, maybe you're a little bit more likely to trade that guy. Take the allocation, feel like you're positioning yourself well for doing a rebuild pretty quickly and get those younger players playing time. It's kind of like what we saw
00:46:37
Speaker
you know, Chivas too, when they were basically, um, assets stripping in their, you know, their lame duck season where they just played a ton of kids and some of those kids ended up, you know, making them some money. Um, that's a cynical, you know, reason to do it. But, you know, for teams like, uh, I dunno, uh, Colorado, maybe they probably don't have young players cause, uh, Pablo has eaten them, but you know, um, yeah, so I, I like it. I like it a lot.
00:47:07
Speaker
They have some, I would imagine they have some tradable assets. Yeah, I mean, I kind of like it from that perspective too. I think it, you know, it's funny because Tenorio also wrote a column earlier this year talking about how the trade market and MLS had been destroyed because teams were looking for too much in return, essentially, like guys like Abdul Salam, which is another
00:47:29
Speaker
Kansas City player apparently Vermees was like looking for the world to trade his backup right back. And so it's kind of funny that in the same year where we're talking about how it's impossible to make a decent trade in them last all of a sudden this new avenue is opened up and it's a lot easier to make a trade now it would appear if teams are willing to stack allocation like this. So the final piece of this segment that we wanted to get into a little bit was
Promotion and Relegation in MLS: A $4 Billion Proposal
00:47:57
Speaker
A guy named Miguel Silva, who owns Miami FC and also commissioned a Delawite report on promotion and relegation in the United States, apparently made a 4 billion, that's billion with a B, offer for all of the broadcast rights of MLS for 10 years, starting at the end of their current deal with ESPN, Fox, and Univision.
00:48:26
Speaker
And the catch of this offer was that MLS would have to institute promotion and relegation. I don't know how many details of how promotion and relegation would work, but I guess 20% of the money that he was offering was gonna be held aside to give to lower division teams, which apparently lower division teams, you're gonna wait for this area, the lower division teams apparently like this idea.
00:48:55
Speaker
Who would have thought, right? Yeah. It's crazy that the lower division teams would like that idea. Who doesn't want to, you know, why wouldn't they want to spend a hundred million dollar transfer fee? Right. Why would your expansion fee? Right. Why would you need to do that? It's so, I don't know. I thought that I came away from this feeling like, so first of all, it's important to note
00:49:20
Speaker
that MLS legally cannot even discuss this deal with Silva. Silva apparently kind of created this strange meeting in order to present this offer and then MLS had to say, well, we can't discuss this because as you might imagine with a deal like this that
00:49:43
Speaker
Their current partners have an exclusive window to negotiate in and we're very far inside that exclusive window But even if you pull it pull it back, you know MLS is talking about four billion dollars for these are their global rights so Silva would then turn around and try to piecemeal sell all these streaming and broadcast rights and
00:50:05
Speaker
On his own or his company would try to sell him on his own and so MLS would not in in addition to adopting promotion and relegation they'd actually be Potentially walking away from money and you kind of put all this together and it feels very It feels very much like Silva just trying to make a point about promotion and relegation and not a real offer
00:50:34
Speaker
That said, maybe this is how we get to promotion and relegation when someone comes in with a real offer like this.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah, it could be. I kind of doubt it because I think that MLS is going to do it when it makes business sense for them to do. If someone comes with a $10 billion offer, for instance, and says, hey. Right. But if they're only going to take that offer, if they think they're ready for promotion and relegation, I guess is what I'm saying. If they feel like the second division, the potential second division is in a good enough place, if they feel like their revenue streams are still going to make sense,
00:51:09
Speaker
MLS is not opposed to promotion and relegation for any
00:51:12
Speaker
um, moral reasons, I guess, um, they're, they're opposed to emotion and relegation for, for business reasons. And, um, you know, and, and, and I think part of the reason that the whole thing is so annoying is that it's so clearly transparent. Um, I mean, it's designed to give people like, uh, Ted Westerveld are gone, right? Um, and we shouldn't be encouraging those people. They're the absolute worst pieces of shit in the American soccer community to the point where, you know, uh,
00:51:39
Speaker
I mean, I know people that would like MLS stuff, ProRel, would really like it. I don't think it's a terrible idea. I'd like to see it, but I'm not super hardcore. Yeah, for sure. But I know people that are like, I would really get into MLS if they had ProRel and
00:52:00
Speaker
And I believe them, you know, but they're like, but Ted is such a toxic piece of shit and all of this acolytes are such toxic pieces of shit that, you know, that I can't like, I can't even express that opinion anymore. And, you know, but it's designed to rile up people like that. And, you know, and we don't need anymore of that. If MLS thought that they could sustain ProRel and keep making money, they would do it.
00:52:26
Speaker
And the fact that there are people that continue to insist that that's not the case, it's just fucking mind-blowing, man. I don't get it. I hope that eventually those people lose their virginity because maybe they'll get us the peace and quiet. Well, I will say that one of the interesting things about this was that I guess if I was able to piece it together properly, it was suggested as a four division
00:52:49
Speaker
pyramid and the idea of MLS cooperating with a four division pyramid or that that the US is remotely ready for a four division pyramid or an open pyramid I think is so far from from reality. I mean we're talking about yes there are probably 20 teams in between the nasl and usl who are playing in stadiums where if you could if they knew they had a chance at promotion
00:53:19
Speaker
they could probably turn them into MLS quality stadiums. And then there's maybe another 10 who in a few years could maybe do that. But there's no one below the USL who is anywhere near being able to build an MLS quality stadium. You know, we're talking about for the most part, outside of USL and NASL, we're talking about teams that play in high school stadiums essentially.
00:53:47
Speaker
All right, well, that seems like a good place to call that a segment. We'll come back and we will take your questions. You're listening to Nos Ariates.
00:53:59
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:55:04
Speaker
acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com. All right, welcome back to No Study Yetis. We have some questions. Lick it, go ahead and take it away.
00:55:29
Speaker
Alright, we'll go right into here. Mrathkeberger22 asks, ever left an event game halfway through and regretted it later? I am curious, so I was not at the game, I was in DC watching on MLS Live and I'm curious, did you guys, did either, I assume Likit went at least, I don't know if Aaron went, but...
00:55:53
Speaker
What was the was the crowd getting out pretty badly early in the second half or was it since that that last goal came almost immediately after the third goal or the first goal came almost immediately after DC's first goal. So I don't know. What was it like in there?
00:56:07
Speaker
It didn't seem, I mean, some people left, but it was already a weekday crowd, so it was maybe a little thinner than usual. My thing was, like, the first thought I had was I was like, well, I'm already out on a Wednesday night, I might as well stay for the rest of the game, you know?
00:56:24
Speaker
I don't know people were pissed though. Yeah. Look if you're gonna boo you're gonna get your money's worth. You got to get your money's worth. You can't just leave. Yeah, exactly. That's might be the first time in a long time I remember the center's getting booed into the locker room because even that when they were down 2-0 against New England
00:56:40
Speaker
there was no booing at half, at least I don't remember there being booing because the Sounders were actually playing pretty well in the New England game. And so them coming back from 3-0 down to tie that was not entirely shocking. But in this game, they played so badly in the first half. And then they played and then they made the comeback look easy. Like it was like all of a sudden, like 27 minutes, it took them to complete the comeback. It was amazing.
00:57:08
Speaker
but what was even more amazing, I should say, was the rain were up four, was it the next day? The rain were up four zero, or maybe it was two days later, the rain were up four zero on Saturday, it was on Saturday. They were up four zero against, what was it, Western New York or Sky Blue? Sky Blue.
00:57:27
Speaker
and then they blew a 4-0 lead in a matter of minutes. It was amazing. They went from 4-0 up, running away with it, to being tied 4-4. And then Megan Rapinoe scores an absolutely amazing goal to win it anyway.
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, that was amazing to watch. And then to have the next day watch that crazy, like that was like the worst. I've never seen a worst half of soccer played live. And then just have that second half where we just basically were a different team. It was crazy. All right, next question. It looks like we may be doing the segment without Aaron.
00:58:11
Speaker
S N D R N V I a Ask I don't put much stock in this but Jovan should have been an all-star, right?
00:58:21
Speaker
yeah i mean i i don't know i i would i guess i could do my research and look at who the mls ulcers are but i don't know it doesn't matter who the mls ulcers are because joven jones is the best left back in the league i don't really understand why he's not in the ulster team but that's fine with me i mean i don't i don't really care uh i don't love the ulster game uh if you're gonna lose if you're gonna lose one player the goalkeeper is probably the one to lose
00:58:45
Speaker
Uh, so I'm, I'm fine with, with Joe windows not being called up from that perspective, but I think he deserves to be there. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's obviously they get like a bonus and stuff. It's nice for them and the recognition, but like, yeah, selfishly nice to have them here. Uh, M Jalman asks, is it a big deal that Brad hasn't been captain or is this all overblown? Is there official purpose of captaincy during the match anyway?
00:59:14
Speaker
I mean, I think that there's probably more than nothing there. I suspect that it's not just like a total
00:59:29
Speaker
Coincidence that that Brad is not the is not Been captain, but I don't think he's been like permanently removed from the captaincy and I suspect that if he continues to play if there are opportunities for him to be captain that he will be captain and I don't think it's that big of a deal but I I don't know I I wouldn't be shocked if the sounders were a little perturbed at some of the comments that he made
00:59:56
Speaker
in Sandra Hart, which was basically saying, you know, basically being mad. So I wouldn't be totally shocked if it was like there was some kind of like mild punishment for it. So I know he was, uh, Smetcher was asked about Brad's shish celebration and, uh, Smetcher said something about, he talked to him about it, asked him what it was about. Did, did anybody ever follow up about that?
01:00:19
Speaker
Not that I've heard but that was another I mean I guess that might have been another maybe it wasn't the comments. Maybe it was the shit thing But yeah, I mean I think it's fair to say that Brad is not super happy with his His role on the team and I don't blame him But at the same time I think the centers are doing kind of what they have to do
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah. And just to talk about that captaincy stuff, if you read Sound at Heart there, Dave just wrote a thing about that. So check that out. A very good article looking at how the sounders go about figuring out captaincy. OK, moving
Sounders' Inconsistent Performance Across Halves
01:01:00
Speaker
on here. T underscore Rob Thomas asks, the Dwyer deal seems excessive, but maybe I'm not being fair. Who else in the league is worth $1.6 million in allocation money? Rolled in. That's the easy answer, I think.
01:01:12
Speaker
the
01:01:29
Speaker
Uh, sought after four player in MLS, I would think there's probably 10, I would think there's at least 10 players in the league. I mean, I guess the thing that makes him special, he's not a DP. So maybe you have to hack off all the DPs that, uh, would potentially be on that list. But I mean, yeah, I would think that there's some others, but you're right. I'm with you. Christian hold on probably right near the top of the list. If you go just by, if you just go by stats though, uh, Mark Castner just said, uh, on Twitter that, uh,
01:01:58
Speaker
Uh, well, Bruin has more goals than. So let's try it. Let's try it. Uh, let's see two questions about Kristin rolled on Tim baller asks with, will this new goal screen put Kristin rolled on back in the US soccer camps?
01:02:19
Speaker
I mean, I think Christian belongs in the national team camp. It'll be interesting to see what happens in these World Cup qualifiers. I mean, if he, the next round of World Cup qualifiers, if he continues to play this way, I think he has to be called up. But these last two games aren't, you know, that's not what's gonna get called up. And at ConfusionTron asks, is Christian O'Donne the greatest sounder that ever sounded?
01:02:48
Speaker
He's on his way, I think. Yeah, I mean that's, you know, right now it's hard to, like, he's so likeable. He's got this great personality. He has this great story. There's, I can't imagine anyone that has ever met Christian Roldan not liking him. You know, and he's playing, like, he's just playing his ass off right now.
01:03:14
Speaker
Don't see yeah, he's he's one his way to being a legend so then putting pressure on him So then if in 10 years he becomes mr. Sounder does that make Zach Scott grandpa sounders? Yeah, I think that's what we would call him, right? Yep And then related kind of related to Christian roll down Emily our Cummings asked follow-up was 2015 our best draft year still have Miller fish and roll down from that batch
01:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I mean, we haven't had, I know it would be a close second. Yeah, we, we tend to draft pretty late. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think that, I think it would have to be, I'm trying to think of players, the sounders that have drafted that have gone on to be good MLS players with the sounders. Uh, Zach Awani. Zach Awani. Andy Rose to Vonda Carrasco.
01:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's like starting. The year they took Carrasco and Andy... The year they took Carrasco was a decent draft year because they also got Andy Rose effectively in the draft. Which was I think 2012? Yeah, it was ahead of the 2012 season.
01:04:23
Speaker
There's not a lot. David Estrada had an okay MLS career, I guess, who was a driver. I mean, on the standard of what... Eric Zavaleta has turned out to have a pretty good career, but not with the Sounders, obviously. I mean, I think, though, it's pretty clear that the closest we can come up with are guys that were rotational at best with the Sounders. Aside from Zach Wani, but he was also the first overall pick, which...
01:04:52
Speaker
You know, the hit rate is a little bit higher when you're drafting that high. So yeah, I think they could have drafted Roldan and no one else and it would have been by far the best draft year. The fact that they got a couple other, you know, seemingly pretty decent rotational players is plenty to push it over the line.
01:05:14
Speaker
Okay, Steve Locker asks, instead of viewing Morris slash Bruin slash DP playing time as a matter of earned time versus potential talent, why not just rely on tactics? I mean, that's a fair way of putting it. But I think the issue is probably, well, I mean, I think tactics are a good way of looking at it. But
01:05:39
Speaker
I suspect that it's hard, I mean, it's just hard to ignore when, you know, like Will Bruin is probably not tactically exactly the player that they want. Like I would imagine Jordan Morris is the, is the guy that tactically they would like to play around. And, uh,
01:05:56
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think they're going to be switching up tactics that much. Yeah, and I think they will. I think the fact that Morris played while he was pretty clearly hurt and struggling pretty mightily despite the fact that Bruin was playing pretty effectively off the bench.
01:06:13
Speaker
I think is evidence that you're right, that they want Morris in there because the way they want to play, he's better suited to it. Right. And, you know, with Durlis, if he comes in, that kind of changes things because he can be direct and stretch defenses. But I still imagine that they want two guys doing that instead of one. So it's tricky. And I mean, realistically, there's just no real tactic to get Bruin, Morris, Dempsey, Ledero, Durlis, if he comes in all on the field the same time. It's just, you know,
01:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, I can't imagine that Morris, Durlis, and Bruin are going to be playing together much. At ssu underscore Richard M asks, why are the centers so flat in the first half good in the second half? I think it's dictated so much by which half. I think it's more dictated by which end they're going towards. So when they're going towards the south end, they play well. When they're going towards the north end, they don't. So that's simple, right? Yeah. I'll go with that.
01:07:13
Speaker
Sanders, 14 of 17 goals at home this year have been in the south end. Insane. And I feel like that stat has been that way for a few years at least. It has. Don't they typically go towards the Burrowmen in the second half? They do. I was thinking about the other day of like, I really want to attribute it to the Burrowmen, but I think it's more likely that they just managed to break teams down in the second half.
01:07:39
Speaker
We'll go with that. Fine. It couldn't hurt. I mean, if it's loud and it confuses defenders, you know, or if they get inspired. I wonder how it compares to timbers going towards the timbers army. Yeah, I don't know. I would like that'd be interesting to see. Even if it just makes like an, like a, if there's a placebo effect to it, you know, that's kind of it. Yeah.
01:08:07
Speaker
T underscore underscore Willie asks, I think that's two underscores, with Lirdom and presuming Gonzales in the fold, what position is now the most in need of an upgrade?
01:08:21
Speaker
I don't know. I think I still think that that sort of striker winger tweener kind of player Like you're saying a 12 players. Yeah, not necessarily a starter Yeah, I mean if they have one player in their starting 11 that's not an above-average MLS player and I think above-average is even being conservative I mean, I think that
01:08:43
Speaker
If they sign their list, every player they have is a good MLS player in the starting 11. I guess maybe depending on how you feel about Tora's center back maybe.
01:08:58
Speaker
like if it's not Tora's, Evans and Svensson, you could both start and I think be above average. So I think really just having another attacking option that gives you a different look than Bruin is probably the obvious spot. I'll say this, that I think in terms of what they might target in the offseason, I know Matt Doyle, MLS analyst has gone on and on about this, but I do think with the way that the team is lining up, it's
01:09:25
Speaker
seems more and more likely that going after a young center back like a somewhat established but young center back I mean there's center back the guys who are getting minutes at center back are pretty old right now and I think they're all over like most of their top four center backs are probably all over 30 so I could see how
01:09:43
Speaker
that becomes a little bit more of a focus. If they bring in two more guys, this transfer window, I have to imagine that the second is much more of a luxury player. It's not going to be someone that they expect to start.
01:10:01
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, I mean, if Clint Dempsey keeps playing like this, he's coming back next year. But if for some reason he doesn't come back next year, I mean, I think if you can get a target forward and play Morris underneath him, that's an ideal scenario. Um, but it's all more just theoretical stuff right now, which is a pretty good spot to be in, honestly.
01:10:25
Speaker
Okay, elephant in the room time 66jzmstr asks, if we land the der lease, do we shift to a more defense than counter tag style or at least move a bit away from a possession based style? I don't know if that would. I'm not sure I see any reason why they would do that. Yeah, I mean, I think that one of the reasons that
01:10:50
Speaker
You want a direct player that can provide a counter-attacking threat. When you have a possession-based team, you want to have that option. You want to make teams deal with that counter-attacking threat to open up more space. All the best possession teams in the world have.
01:11:07
Speaker
Would you shut the fuck up? Jesus, Chris. All the all the best possession teams in the world have direct playing counterattacking threats that they utilize. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that maybe they they find themselves with more effective counterattacks when they come up. But I don't think that they need to change their tactical approach.
01:11:32
Speaker
Okay, Shao, Sour Mask Drink asks, why are there any games on Sunday night when they are only on local TV? Why not have them Saturday when most people would like?
01:11:43
Speaker
I was actually asking about this, and I would assume that the sounders have done surveys of their fan bases to ask people when they want games, and I can only assume that there is a significant segment of the fan base that doesn't mind these Sunday Night games
01:12:02
Speaker
like you're right it seems weird to be having a Sunday night game when they're not on national TV but I mean I don't think that that crazy as someone who was young once and didn't have kids
01:12:14
Speaker
I would probably rather give up a Sunday night and deal with being a little sleep deprived than giving up a Saturday night. Even when I was younger, I preferred the Saturday night games. There were nice things about Sunday night games when I wasn't as old and washed.
01:12:36
Speaker
You know having something to look forward to all weekend was pretty cool But I mean I kind of wonder if maybe the fact that the Mariners play almost always almost always play day games at home on Sundays If maybe that factors into it because they just figured like well, it's just gonna be easier But it's it's crazy to me like we're already done with Sunday or Saturday evening games for the year and you know, we were done in like May last year and
01:13:03
Speaker
Um, I wouldn't mind the sunday night games if they if it just wasn't almost all sunday night games I think that's the bummer is there's no do you think maybe they do they leave it? Maybe they schedule them on purpose or leave them on sunday nights just because the chance of them getting picked up on a national You know like a flex night or something. They don't have Early in the season like this or mid season. They're not doing those flex. I mean I I don't I mean I think
01:13:29
Speaker
Aaron's probably right, that it probably has to do more with the Mariners than it does with anything else. Yeah, makes sense. DirtyDCtown asks, why do you think Dempsey doesn't do autograph sessions? Is it a front office thing or is it a deuce thing? It's a deuce thing. Yeah, right, exactly. I mean, it's like, if you were, and I don't know exactly what, I assume this is like a post game situation. Like, I don't know what you probably like an event, like,
01:13:58
Speaker
Right, so I mean this is what I can tell you is that the sounders get a ton of requests for interviews or whatever else with their players and none of them get more requests than Clint Dempsey and the sounders are probably preferring Clint to do media appearances or whatever else and so they just don't have a lot of, you know, they don't have a lot of push, a lot of pull when it comes to getting him to do autograph sessions.
01:14:28
Speaker
is my guess. And he probably doesn't want to do them. The only one I can remember him doing was the FIFA, they did a FIFA 16, yeah, I think it was 16 event at Century of Lincoln. He showed up for that. Because it was FIFA. Because it was FIFA. Right. What they really need to do is just have Cabela's like ask for him. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Be there in a heartbeat.
01:14:53
Speaker
Jay Tabiasen underscore asks, why isn't Schmetzer coaching the All-Star team? Is that not a thing in the MLS? It is not. The All-Star team is always hosted by the local coach. So whoever is the coach of the market that it's being held in. So that's why the Chicago Fire Coach is the coach this year. That's why Porter was the coach when it was in Portland. It's always that way.
01:15:26
Speaker
Graham Condit asks, All-Star break. It is odd how markets that host the event have team success within a year. RSL, KC, Portland, Colorado, Chicago. Thoughts? I had never given any consideration to that. That is interesting. Yeah. I guess it's fixed. There's no other explanation.
01:15:51
Speaker
When it's fixed is the most obvious answer. That's usually the correct answer. That's an old saying, I believe. So basically, Graham, watch out for unmarked vans in front of your house. Yeah. OK. T. Steege asks, chances of a Godzilla versus Roldan banner being made? I always thought his name sounded like one of Godzilla's opponents. I love that. I love it. I hope it gets made. That's cute. I hope that this is why it gets made. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that.
01:16:22
Speaker
At Doosby asks, if the sounders were pirates, what job aboard the ship do you think would fit well for your favorite scallywags or players? Man, I wish I knew more pirate jobs. Who do you think the cook, if the sounders, Brad Evans would be the cook, right? Brad Evans would have to be the cook? Yeah. Who would be the guy that sits up in the lookout nest? I think they're just called the lookout.
01:16:52
Speaker
Right, but who would play? Oh, who would do that? Which sound? Uh, Fry, because he's used to standing around not having to do too much. Who would be the captain?
01:17:02
Speaker
Well, it's got yeah either that or it's uh, yeah, that's makes sense I was gonna say there's gotta be a job for smetzer on board because he could just stand around going You know, maybe he's the one that like picks the the rowers or whatever like they need to row the boat for some reason he could Well, they have the you know, they take the little boats out to Yeah, so he can say, you know, he's picking this guy cuz he's a tough kid and he's a tough kid
01:17:32
Speaker
Speaking of which, I was really, did you, oh, we don't need to talk about Game of Thrones, nevermind. No, we don't. Okay, last question. Graham Condit asks again, if Durlis plays in Champion League tomorrow, can he play next spring for the Sounders or will he be tied to Kiev? Next spring, is that when the club World Cup is? I suppose, yeah.
01:17:59
Speaker
Uh, that's a good question because the Sounders are definitely going to be playing in the club World Cup. Honestly, I think the club World Cup would be after we, if the Sounders can qualify for the club World Cup, it wouldn't be until after the 2018 season. So I don't think he would be cap tied anymore. If that's the same kind of just ruin his joke. Right. I know.
01:18:22
Speaker
Also, I don't think that anybody pays enough attention to the club World Cup to know like whether or not he was captained. Like I don't, they could probably sign Barcelona to play that one game for them and nobody would even notice. So I think it's fine. That's it.
01:18:41
Speaker
Oh. Well, I will say, if the Sanders can get Derless signed, I'm really excited about them actually going into a CONCACAF Champions League with something like a full roster. If you remember the last couple times that they were in the knockout stages of the tournament, they were missing key components because they hadn't arrived yet.
01:19:07
Speaker
Nico Ledero didn't play in last year's Champions League. Oba didn't play in 2013 Champions League. So anyway, that would be kind of fun. Anyway, I'm glad we got through this one. It was tough. Didn't always seem like it was going to happen. But we did it. Congratulations, guys.
01:19:26
Speaker
Anyway, wanted to say thank you to our sponsors, Fullpool Wines, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. I am Jeremiah Shannon, signing off on behalf of Licket and Aaron. This is No Study at Dis. Remember, you'll never get alone.
01:19:44
Speaker
Green Douglas fir where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:20:31
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one! Yeah, no problem.