Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Bear With Us: Retirement edition
119 Plays2 years ago
Just a few weeks after announcing his retirement as a player, Will Bruin is ready to start dabbling in pundritry. We were thrilled to bring him back for what may be the first of a revived series (that's still very TBD). In the meantime, we talked about how his post-playing career looks and he gave us some insight and impressions of Saturday's opponent Austin FC.
Sponsors
Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/
You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.
"Diversions" audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music: https://despatchesfromseattle.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of bear with us. I am Jeremiah Shannon. Joining me, of course, is Will Bruin back from the back from the from the summary. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Retired. Retired bear. Now retired will ruin an hour tired bear. You know, we're going to have to do what is going to be a weekly show now, right? There we go. You just got to tell my kids and not scream and be super loud and we can do it.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hey this is Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club and you're listening to
Retirement and New Challenges
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah, so let's just start there with the big news, which is you announced your retirement a few weeks ago now at this point. How are you settling into your post-playing career? It's been good. I mean, being a stay-at-home dad so far, it's been harder than going to trainings and games and stuff, so that's been the hardest part. But it's already March 1st, and I'm already itching to figure out what I'm going to do next.
00:01:13
Speaker
And you have three kids now since last time, I think. I don't know if you had your... You must have had the... You must have maybe just had the third one. He's six months now. So yeah, he was born in August. Okay. Yeah. And how is that going up the house? It's loud. A lot of chaos. Four, three, and six months. A lot of fighting. A lot of yelling. A lot of noise. So your two oldest are going to be like real rivals.
Children and Sports Exploration
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah. They're going to be going at it like all their whole lives. We just started them in like Pee Wee soccer, like the U5 and U4. So they're on different, they've always done soccer together. Now they're in different age groups and they had their first practices the other night, the practice Wednesday nights at different fields. Both of them were like sad to be separated from each other and have their own practices. So it was, it was interesting to watch like Caitlin. My wife had to take Liam the oldest. I took co in the middle and they both were like, no, I want him to be here. I want to play with him. So it'll be interesting to see how that season plays out.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, they're gonna have to one of them I somehow I have a feeling your, your three year old is gonna end up playing up a year up a year. And yeah, he's pretty good. I would say he's probably the two I'd say he's the better right now, at least the more interested. Right. And so then then it'll be and then all of a sudden your oldest will be decided that he's more into books.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, he's he will. He's already said he wants to. He doesn't want to do soccer game. Let's do tennis camp. So we're going to start looking for personal tennis camps and we'll just look at that. See, but it'll be funny though. And if the middle child starts following him in every sport, we'll see what happens. Jeez.
00:02:47
Speaker
I guess I have to be very careful about how much I laugh today. This cough I have is sticking around. So other than that, what are you feeling your days with other than carting your kids around everywhere?
00:03:01
Speaker
Um, you know, not too much.
Coaching Ambitions and Family Life
00:03:03
Speaker
I've kind of, uh, I'm finishing up my US soccer, uh, B license coaching course. So that's taken up a little bit of time. Um, a lot of target trips, no picking the kids up and taking them to school. Um, it's pretty much a low, low profile right now. And it's been good for a little bit, but I'm the person who needs to be doing something. So I'm, uh, kinda, kinda enjoyed the time, but I'm starting to figure out, all right, we got maybe a few more months to see what what's next.
00:03:30
Speaker
I got to imagine Caitlin is sort of like, Oh, he wants me out of the house. Yeah. Right. She's more than happy to hand off some of these responsibilities. Like now when I go, when I go coach with Austin's Academy or like,
00:03:43
Speaker
once a week at night, she's like, please go get out. Cause she's used to me being gone for preseason for a week at a time or like on the road for weekends for a game, just like to have her own time. So it's been even, um, last night I went to coach and the oldest Liam was like, Oh, we just needed a little break from dead.
Connection to Soccer Beyond Playing
00:04:02
Speaker
There we go. So do you, have you thought much about what you want to do long-term? Um, you know, I, I think I want to stay involved in the game. Um,
00:04:14
Speaker
whether that's on the coaching staff or in a front office, but I just can't see myself like stepping away completely from the game. It's like all I've known and all I've done. I had a long, I mean, it sounds funny, but I'm kind of like an MLS junkie cause I've got to play for 13 years. So now I'm going to be watching all the games and stuff. Um, it was kind of surreal cause I was in a wedding.
00:04:34
Speaker
at a wedding this past weekend during opening week. And I was watching games from my phone, trying to like check in, see how things are going. So, um, you know, it'll be, it'll
MLS Opening Games and Personal Reflections
00:04:43
Speaker
be interesting. It kind of felt more surreal since opening kick-started, but you know, during preseason, it was like, okay, great. I'm retired. I don't do a preseason, but now that season's in flow, it's a little more real now.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, I can imagine how preseason maybe feels like, ah, this is exactly, no way, I'm glad to be out of this. And then all of a sudden. I'll miss half a preseason land somewhere, you know, and now. I knew I was retiring, but like, you know. So where would you like to end up, I guess? Like, what part of the country are you hoping to get back to?
00:05:18
Speaker
So the only, the only West coast place we'd go back to is Seattle. Uh, okay. Good to hear that. But we're, we're open to like every opportunity and everything's going to be open for discussion. Like we're not shutting the door or anything. We're going to be open-minded, but we're not going to jump at anything that pops up, you know? So like, I'll take my time at the right situation, right place and right role presents itself. Then.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yes, it's something to consider, but I'm not going into this next chapter with the closed minds. And this is what I want. This is how I want it. Because when you do things like that, it never works out.
00:05:52
Speaker
Well, before you land somewhere else, let's empty the chamber on all your hot takes before you have to, you know, before you have to get into any of this stuff. So let's, let's start actually with a tweet you sent out, I guess during the Austin game where you express some frustration and then someone responded to you and you said,
Austin FC Analysis
00:06:15
Speaker
I think your response was something just like soft mentality. So what did you see in the Austin game, especially since we have Austin coming up for the Sounders this week?
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know full disclosure. Like I said, opening weekend I was at a wedding in Miami, so yeah, but by the time I stepped out of the reception after a few coronas and was watching was watching the last like 20 minutes of that Austin game, so I didn't catch the first half. And I hear I didn't miss much. I haven't gone back and watch it. I don't. I don't plan on it, but I turned it turned it on. It was one nothing and then I saw Minnesota score their their second to nothing and it's pretty much when.
00:06:53
Speaker
when the tweets started because it's like I don't know for me I love everybody at Austin I love the organization the players and stuff but like it's your home opener relatively new club it's not like Minnesota's a world beater um so you just you just got to come out strong
00:07:11
Speaker
Now, maybe technically you might not be the best, but you got to come out with some intensity. And like I said, I didn't watch the first half, but I hear it wasn't the most intense. So that's why I was like, man, somebody's just got a fire that somebody inside the squad has to be like, what the hell are we doing? Some guys got to get after each other. Because I remember my years in Seattle, internally, we had that with guys.
00:07:36
Speaker
performances weren't weren't great and guys held each other accountable internally. And that's, that's really important for a team. Yeah, so the team that Austin has right now, I guess, for the for the benefit of this show, is it's pretty much the same roster you had, you were on last year, like they have not changed a lot of guys, they haven't
00:07:58
Speaker
you know, they may be one or two additions, maybe a couple subtractions, but it's, it's pretty similar roster to last year. And last year was a roster that didn't really perform up to the level that they, that they wanted. What did you, from what inside, did you see anything there that you, you know, you were surprised at or that you felt like was like, were you, let me put it this way. Were you surprised there wasn't more off season changes? Yes. Um, yes and no. I,
00:08:30
Speaker
Roster is technically and very good players. Very good team. Very good individual quality. The one thing I will say that I think they're missing is that killer instinct, killer mentality. But you can't like that's hard. You can't just like go find somebody that has that. It just has to happen naturally. Cultural. You're saying it's more more of a cultural thing you have to breed. Not yeah, not necessarily, but like is you know. When things are tough.
00:09:01
Speaker
Sometimes people just, you can see teams that they just look at each other, like who's going to, like, it's just a bunch of like, Oh, here we go again. A lot of people looking at each other saying, who's going to step up and do something. But when, when you're on teams with, with guys that are like, like, for example, Ozzie Alonzo, like when I play with him, he is one of the best competitors wants to win the most I've ever played with. Like you almost feel like you're letting them down if you're, if you're not performing well. And, um, that's a very, probably one of the strongest qualities and traits a team can have. Cause it's just so like everybody feeds off it.
00:09:31
Speaker
You know, and like I said, those are not like everybody doesn't have that. Everybody has their own quality, their own style, their own personality. But having somebody like that is like, it's huge for teams. And so going back to going back to like, I thought there'd be more players being brought in. So I don't know the salary cap. I all I heard time and time and time and time again in the offseason was, oh, we have no space. We have no space. We have no space. But then you see other teams signing all these players. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to make any.
00:10:01
Speaker
I don't want to talk on something I don't know about, but I feel like more could have been done, but maybe it's coming. Who knows? Do you think that sort of mentality has to come from the type of player? Can it come from the coaching staff? Is it something even bigger than just coaches and players?
Influence of Key Players
00:10:19
Speaker
No, I'd say coaches cannot force that. If you try to force that, that's when you just get players not really buying in. You don't force that.
00:10:28
Speaker
it's a special quality honestly like players internally individually have to have it it's just like not something you can really teach and if you try to fake it it's obvious people know people see it so um it's just all about like finding the right type of player that has that and you can see it in performances on the field and stuff and from what you know of of
00:10:49
Speaker
internally in Austin, do you expect there to be a response this week or is this something where this is more of a long term issue that they're going to have to sort through? No, I mean, when I played last year, we were actually pretty good on the road. I couldn't go back and tell you exact.
00:11:10
Speaker
you know, records and stuff. I mean, I remember when it's Seattle. Yeah, I remember it was pretty good. The group kind of came together on the road. And I just don't know why they can't do that at home. That's that's kind of like what I'm hinting to. I don't know if like the fan base is so good that it puts almost too much pressure on the team at home. But like when you go on the road, it's almost like all right, we don't have to worry about performing as well and putting on a show we can be hard to play against. We can be tough and nitty gritty. We can try to get a goal and get a result. But like,
00:11:40
Speaker
It shouldn't shift from home and away. Obviously your tactics change a little bit, but like you shouldn't have to. You should kind of have that same mentality defensively at home, because then you'll have. The way the team coming in will play differently and you'll have more chances to score, but.
00:11:56
Speaker
I feel like I didn't explain that as well as I should in my brain, but hope you got the gist of it. Yeah. So one of the players that was missing last week, I think is out again this week is, or I would expect to be out again this week is Sebastian Drusi. He's obviously an extremely talented player. How much does missing a player like that end up impacting the way Austin plays? It's a big mess. He's like,
00:12:21
Speaker
He's the guy that, like, if you're in trouble and you're trying to play out and you can't get out, you can just force the ball into him and he'll get out of it. You know what I mean? Like, and he is a spark on the offensive side, creates chances. He's kind of the guy that, like, when things are tough, everybody looks to you like, hey, what are we going to do? You know, maybe he's just not the most vocal, but he leads by example in actions and missing him is tough because it's like when you're in the final third, everybody's like, we're seven, we're seven. We need to, let's get him involved on the ball because when he's involved on the ball, usually good things happen.
00:12:50
Speaker
So it's definitely a big mess, but at the same time, it's opportunity for other guys to step up and and show. Hey look, I want more minutes. I should be playing more and it's just that's the way this league is. You know injuries happen that I'm seeing more and more injuries happen over the years, especially with congested schedules and stuff. So it's just more opportunity for players to kind of build their own. You know, I don't wanna say legacy, but like build it, pave their own paths.
00:13:16
Speaker
Well, you mentioned this player by name. He's obviously the kind of player that...
00:13:23
Speaker
has the mentality you're speaking to, but Ozzie Alonso also recently announced his retirement. You obviously played with him several years or a couple of years at Seattle. And then yesterday, the Sounders had this big ceremony for him. They signed him to a one-day contract. I don't think the Sounders had ever done this before. They signed him to a one-day contract. They brought his whole family to Seattle, did this whole thing, and he's going to have a pregame ceremony as well.
00:13:50
Speaker
What are some of your favorite Ozzy Alonzo memories or some of your most vivid, maybe not favorite, but vivid memories? Honestly, first of all, it was great seeing all that stuff on social media the other day about him coming back to Seattle. It was really cool to see if anybody deserves it. He does. Honestly, the first thing I think about was when I was playing in Houston and playing against Ozzy. He's like, like I said, like
00:14:14
Speaker
As an apposer, you try to stay away from him because you know he wants to kill you. And I remember we kind of got into it. He went to like scratch my face and stuff. And then when I came to Seattle, everybody made all those videos and it was, it was great. But that's, that's the type of, it's like a win at all costs. That's the type of person he is. That's why he had such a long, great career. That's why he was such a winner.
00:14:36
Speaker
It's something that you truly have to want to win. And I don't think I've ever played with somebody who truly wants to win as much as he did, whether it was in training, whether it was in the games. It didn't matter to him. You're doing 5v2 and you make him, he's gonna kill you. Like I said, it's a trait that's like, you can't teach it, it's just desire. So he's definitely MLS legend. So I was happy to see him get a great send-off.
00:15:03
Speaker
You know, one of the things, so Obed Vargas was asked about him. Obed obviously never played with Ozzy, but he was asked sort of like, what stories have you heard about him? And Obed was sort of obviously a much younger player, came through at a very different time. And he was just like sort of wide-eyed at the idea that Ozzy would go into tackles just like he would in games, in training. And he was like,
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, I would hear the, and almost like, I can't, like, he almost didn't believe it, but he's like, this is what I heard, is that Ozzy would go into tag. I mean, is that really how Ozzy trained? Like, yeah, a hundred percent. It's almost like a generational thing. Like I started in 2011 and I played with a guy named Eddie Robinson. He was kind of like the same way. Like he would kill you at training. Like it didn't matter. And it is a train that you play. It's one thing to say it and then not actually do it and be like, well, we train that we play, but you're not going to go tackle people.
00:15:55
Speaker
and back then you were tackling people no matter what people got injured well that's just how it is because that's how you trained now obviously with all the sports science and everything it's like you want to keep your most effective players healthy so it's a it's a double-edged sword there but um little things like that kind of trickle into the games i think like if you pull out of
00:16:14
Speaker
You're used to pulling out of tackles and training. You might do it in the game at a big moment, but that's something Ozzy never did. He never pulled out of tackles, whether it was a regen day in 5v2 or, you know, MLS final. Did you like playing with players like that? Did you? I loved it.
00:16:39
Speaker
I love playing with guys like that, not against guys like that, but he's the type of guy like you loved being on your team. It's just the energy is contagious. The wanting to win is contagious. And it's just something that like feeds into the whole group.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, I can I can only imagine that would be he's probably I assume he's one of those players you absolutely love as a teammate and you despise as a exactly or I don't know. Maybe you begrudgingly respect, but you certainly exactly looking down at the other side of the plane loves playing with them against him. You're like geez gotta play the Aussie like against Aussie today. Hopefully he doesn't crush me.
00:17:14
Speaker
Does it feel like there are fewer players? Like at one point it seemed like MLS was sort of built on that type of player. I don't know that that's the case anymore. No, it's everything now is more like possession based sixes or possession based center backs. You don't really see like I remember my first few years, the center backs, they're not playing out. They're just trying to crush the forward and kick it long. Right. Sixes, sixes are killing the 10 now with all like the
00:17:42
Speaker
You know, yellow card accumulation bar and everything. You can't do it as much. It's just safer for players, which is better. But, um, you know, everybody likes to see a good tackle every now and then we do. We do love to see a good tackle. So, uh, this last week, there were replacement refs.
Impact of Replacement Referees
00:18:01
Speaker
in all the games, it looks like we're going to get replacement refs again, this game. And when you're talking about this sort of hard tackling and these types of things, do the replacement refs make it easier to get away with stuff? Do you feel like they're maybe even more on alert? Easier to fool. Easier to fool. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like with MLS refs that you're used to, you know, you know what you're getting, you know,
00:18:29
Speaker
almost like, you know, what you can get away with, you know, you can't get away with, you know, consistency now with all the new refs, you don't know what to expect. You don't know how they're going to call a game. You don't know. Like I, you see the highlights on Twitter of the. Markie Delgado was a second yellow, like doesn't even touch him, but the rack, you know, it's just like things like that. You just don't know what you're going to get. And as a player, that's tough.
00:18:53
Speaker
Do you, where do you come down on, I mean, how closely have you paid attention to the dispute between the union and the referees, the referee organization? Not too much.
00:19:06
Speaker
I expect that the referees are not asking for a bunch and I, no matter what, the league wants to try to win these things just out of how they are. Right. Been through it plenty of times. They don't care what it is. They just want to be like, we had the last negotiation win. Right. So, um, you know, um, Howard to the ref. Yeah, that's one thing I would not want to do is be a ref.
00:19:30
Speaker
Right. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, that's difficult. It's very difficult. You get off down to, um, just from not talking, just like you get mad people. Yeah, exactly. And like, it's, it's a tough job.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah. So the, the, it looks like maybe this is hopefully coming to a resolution, but you're right. It does feel like the, the, the league just sort of want to, wants to win this because at least to hear it from the PSRA is over what amounts to.
00:20:02
Speaker
you know, a hundred, the, the increases they're looking for amount to like a hundred thousand dollars per team. Like that's such a small amount of money that it's almost hard to fathom. Yeah. Like the fact that it's the way the league has grown over the years, that they're actually like complaining about this for me is like childish. That's just, but that kind of sums them up.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, and it does also feel like the players ultimate like the you know, the league owners may have some embarrassment over it there may although I don't know how many of them feel shame but there
00:20:37
Speaker
The, the, the, the people who are most getting hurt by this, I would think are the, the players, like whether or not the players think the referees, the union referees were the best referees in the world or not. They got on, it doesn't seem that hard to understand that these guys at least are experienced. They know what they're doing. Whereas these new refs, their experience levels are, you know, oftentimes nothing, literally nothing above an amateur level.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you know, you got a thing that's a little hard to think about. And you think like some of these guys can get caught up in the moment with some of the players that are playing on the field, too. Right. Like they start reffing. They start reffing the player protecting players. And it's just like, no, you want somebody who's going to come and actually wreck the game. Right. I mean, like the and I didn't see like I said, I didn't see enough week one because I was in the wedding to actually make like a solid critical decision on each game and referee. But
00:21:34
Speaker
That's just, you know, what I see from while I look at it on week one, I'll, I'll make more of a decision next week or let's say Friday tomorrow and I can actually watch a lot more games. It's, I mean, it's not hard to imagine that in the, you know, you look at the Miami game and here you have a ref who I'm almost positive has never coached professional.
00:21:53
Speaker
game and here he is looking at Leo Messi, Sergio Busquets, Luis Juarez, and then magically Busquets goes down on a phantom tackle and he's showing a unicorn. That's what I'm saying, yeah. It is. And I thought it was also very telling that Busquets afterwards, or at least yesterday I think it was, he said, yeah, that shouldn't have been a yellow card.
00:22:18
Speaker
Uh, but, but here's the thing, like, I don't think he was trying to fool the ref. I just think that's natural for me. You know what I mean? Like trying to just draw a foul, just draw them. That's it. But after that gets to the ref experience, ref knows it, sees it. So just calls a foul play on, but other refs see his reaction, the way he goes down and it's like, Oh, that's gotta be something bad.
00:22:36
Speaker
Right. And you can't, and I would think as a player, the last thing you want to do is alter your game at all based on the ref. And it's like, you need to believe that you're going to play your game the way that you play it. And you need to trust that the referee is smart enough to
00:22:53
Speaker
understand what's going on. Exactly. And that's enough to go see what's going on. That's what I mean when I say like, you don't know what you're going to get. So like, maybe you don't go in as hard, maybe you pull out a little bit, and then you get like, maybe you go in normal, and it's too hard for this riff, because you just don't know and he gives you a red card. So it's just like, the unknown and the risk is almost not worth it with the unknown.
00:23:15
Speaker
So the other thing that's been sort of circulating around the league that's been, you know, it's funny, for all the progress the league has made over the years in terms of raising its profile and bringing in higher quality players and just sort of putting more and more money into the whole operation.
MLS and US Open Cup
00:23:32
Speaker
You know, this is obviously a big potential year, Messi's here, there's all this attention. And yet the two biggest stories this preseason have been, A, the referees, but then B, this whole drama around the US Open Cup. Have you been paying much attention to MLS's attempt to sort of get out of playing in this? Not too much.
00:23:58
Speaker
One thing I saw, I think Garber said like, we'll do it, but you can't put all the onus on MLS to make the schedules. So I don't, I have no idea who does that. If it's US Open Cup, it should be US Opera. So I don't know who's actually scheduling all the logistics to things. I mean, it's the oldest tournament. So I think it should be, it should be happening. And it's a great opportunity for, to rest players and get younger. If you don't want to take it serious, great. Then play your young guys. Right.
00:24:25
Speaker
It should be on the onus of the club to do what they want. Like if they want to go for it, great player first. If you don't want to go for it, great play guys that want to win and can't have a chance to go for it. If you want to see what happens, mix and match. Like I don't see unless like they're just going to focus way more on, um, was it league's cup or league's cup then. And just put way more games in there that there is really no time, but
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, to me what it felt like was because you're right up until now teams had the ability to field a first team roster if that's what they wanted to do. They could fill it out with reserves and then backfill with guys they are calling up from their next pro teams or whatever and it seemed like
00:25:12
Speaker
You know, like you look at the sounders, the way that they had put together their roster for the open cup the last few years. And it wasn't like they were rolling out their first team players. They were mostly rolling out players who needed minutes. And I would think that's a great use of the open cup is great. Here's another thing I think.
00:25:32
Speaker
The league needs to open up, expand the rosters by a few roster spots. And if they keep adding tournaments and open cup things like that, then they would have to. So I think that's their way of like stopping that right now. Be like, what, I don't want to expand it by two or three roster spots. So we'll just mix the open cup.
00:25:48
Speaker
Right. It does feel again like the owners are sort of reluctant to spend a few dollars. We can't pay the referees. We can't make more roster spots. Right. Exactly. Like we're talking about adding maybe a couple roster spots that would cost $100,000 a year. Exactly. But Miami, you're compliant. You're good. Right. Right. So did you like playing in the Open Cup? Or what was your attitude about the Open Cup when you were a player? That's the one trophy I never won. Oh.
00:26:15
Speaker
I didn't mind it. Like it was like, you go, you kind of go into it with the mentality, like, okay, if we get through the first few rounds, we're going to really go for it. But those first few rounds are hard. Like you're playing lower division teams that really want to win. So games can be ugly. They can be chippy. And, but looking back on those with fun games, you know,
00:26:35
Speaker
Did you like playing in, you know, did you like playing at Starfire? Did you ever, you played some games? I did. Yeah. My, my knees were too old for it. Um, but the atmosphere was always great. And then it was fun. Um, yeah, I was part of that. I played in the game against San Jose that went to PKs and stuff, but, um,
00:26:54
Speaker
the
00:27:18
Speaker
I, one of the biggest attendance this owners have had for an early game because Victor, Victor Rodriguez scored in that game. He did. Yeah. And that's right. So we lost. Yeah. And I, if I remember correctly, Portland effectively used like their first team roster in that game too. Yeah. Yeah, they did. Because it was during, was it during an international break? It may have been during an international break.
00:27:39
Speaker
I think something like that. I guess I remember we were in the locker room going over the team and Schmetz was like, I don't know what they're going to roll out and he put up the whole. It was the first team. He was like, alright, let's go guys, right?
00:27:50
Speaker
Well, yeah, it will be interesting to see how that resolves. It looks like the way it's heading right now is the last report I saw was the seven best supporters shield ranked teams that weren't in CONCACAF Champions Cup. So which it's almost all Western Conference teams. It's like the Sounders. It's Atlanta. And then you go down. It's a bunch of teams like that. And then Houston Dynamo as the defending champions were also, although they would have qualified anyway.
00:28:19
Speaker
but I guess they're kind of coming up with different ways to get, or no, no, they wouldn't have qualified because they're in the ConcoCap champions cup. So they have extreme fixture condition.
00:28:29
Speaker
I'm sure the legal find some way to air quotes, win the argument and be like, all right, we'll play, but only with X amount of teams. Well, that's the sort of what it, that is what it feels like they're, they're doing is they are, they're agreeing to play, but only under these very specific circumstances. Yeah, exactly. Which seems to be a recurring theme these days. I know. I mean, you can't, you can't knock it too much because it's worked over the years, but yeah, it gets the harder it's going to be for them to control everything.
00:28:59
Speaker
Right. Exactly. And I guess that's maybe what they're, they're, they're doing everything they can to keep it going. Yeah. Retain as much control as they can. Well, um, anything else in the soccer world that's on your mind these days,
Reflections on Retirement
00:29:10
Speaker
Will? No, not too much. Just, you know, it's fun watching the games now. It's,
00:29:19
Speaker
We're not being on a sideline, but, you know, that's life. Life goes on. It's time for the next chapter. Like I told you earlier, it's like ripping off a band-aid. I feel like I easily could have played another year physically, mentally. I don't think I was there. I think I was ready to start new and start the next chapter. And that's where I'm at now. So it's exciting at the same time.
00:29:44
Speaker
So other than so I obviously the the obvious answer here is you got to go to a wedding on a Saturday during that's like yes, that is I've missed so many weddings over the years and One of my wife Caitlin one of her best friends that she played volleyball with I Was getting married so the joke was when we were there. Oh, well, thank you so much for retiring to come to my wedding So it was fun. Yeah, so I was Took me a few days to recover, but it was fine
00:30:12
Speaker
Anything else that you feel like is something you got to do in retirement that you realized you just were not allowed to do or you were never able to make time for that you have been able to do? Honestly, not yet. It's kind of boring. Like it's nice to refresh, get a break.
00:30:37
Speaker
But at the same time you wake up, you're like, all right, well, what should I do today? I guess I'll go for a run or do a Peloton or something. Um, kind of started, uh, dabbling into trading a little bit. So, oh, there you go. Hopefully I don't lose too much money doing that, but, um, but I just try to try to find time.
00:30:57
Speaker
Yeah, well, I have a feeling you won't have free time that much longer, but will it's, it's obviously great to catch up with you. It's great to see that you are in good spirits and that you seem to be enjoying retirement so far, but
00:31:15
Speaker
probably too much to figure out. Yeah, exactly. Like I I've enjoyed it. In my mind, I'm like, all right, once the kids because the oldest will start kindergarten in the fall and like, all right, by the end, by the summer, I want to have a nuclear direction. So we'll just see what happens.
00:31:31
Speaker
Well, stay in touch. And if you feel like doing this again in the meantime, you have an open invitation. We can come up with all sorts of punditry topics to talk about. And you can just sort of snipe at stuff from your lounge chair. Hey, you let me know because all I got to do these days is pick up and drop off school, maybe go to Target, do a few Target pickups, get some Starbucks.
00:31:58
Speaker
It's a simple life right now. Well, not simple. It's hard being a thing if I'm dead, but...
00:32:02
Speaker
No, I hear you. I definitely hear you. Well, we will, you know, we'll get you some games under your belt of watching and then you'll come ready with all kinds of hot takes. I'm sure. Let's do it. You let me know. All right. All right. Well, well, thank you for doing this. Uh, I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is bear with us and retired version one. Yep. Absolutely. All right. And we will, uh, we'll catch you next time. Sounds good.