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Nos Audietis, episode 296: Interview with Sounders Academy Director Marc Nicholls
59 Plays6 years ago
This promised to be an important stretch for the Sounders in terms of determing just how good of a team they are. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I know too much more about them than we did at the start of this recent three-game stretch.
In a vacuum, claiming two points in three games when two of those games were at home is underwhelming, even if you consider that two of those games were against top of the table LAFC. But when you zoom out and recognize that they were playing short-handed and on short-rest, in addition to being down a man for most of Sunday’s game, I think it’s harder to come away with anything like a clear conclusion.
One thing I think we know is that this team is willing to run through that wall, for whatever that’s worth. Wednesday’s 2-2 tie with the San Jose Earthquakes was definitely disappointing, but they showed some serious spirit by erasing a two-goal lead after losing three players to injury. Similarly, I’m not going to get too excited about that 1-1 tie with LAFC, but they did manage to escape with a point despite playing down a man for 72 minutes.
We talked about the week that was, interview Sounders Academy Director Marc Nicholls and take your questions.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food! Lots of it! Fullpool's unique writing styles apply to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books. 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. Fuck! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Morris runs right by him and sticks in and slots it in for a roll! Fantastic for George Morris!
00:00:55
Speaker
Here's Morris! Morris! Think of an ant! What do tigers dream of? They take a little tiger's hand. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle.
00:01:24
Speaker
like a beautiful child growing up.
Sounders' Recent Performances
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of Nos Arieta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines. This is episode 296, and we're recording on Wednesday, May 1st, 2019. I'm your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. As usual, I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett. Later in the show, Sounders Academy director Mark Nichols will be joining us
00:01:48
Speaker
on the show. That's not very good writing. Anyway, this promise to be an important stretch for the Sounders in terms of determining just how good of a team they are. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I know too much more about them now than we did at the start of the recent three game stretch. In a vacuum, claiming two points in three games when two of those games were at home is underwhelming.
00:02:11
Speaker
even if you consider that two of those games were against the top of the table, LAFC. But when you zoom out and recognize that they were playing short-handed and on short rests, in addition to being down a man for most of Sunday's game, I think it's harder to come away with anything like a clear conclusion. One thing I think we do know is that this team is willing to run through that wall, or whatever that's worth.
00:02:30
Speaker
Wednesday's 2-2 tie with San Jose earthquake was definitely disappointing, but they showed some serious spirit by erasing a two-goal lead, or two-goal deficit, I suppose, after losing three players to injury. Similarly, I'm not going to get too excited about that 1-1 tie with LAFC, but they did manage to escape with a point despite playing down a man for 72 minutes.
00:02:49
Speaker
Are you of the same mind or do you have a different take as far as what we learned about this team in the last week or so? Yeah, I think I am shockingly. You know, I think that the earthquakes result felt worse than it does now.
00:03:08
Speaker
because they went out and played really well again on the weekend. It seems like they're really getting their system kind of locked in. And it's a very strange system. I don't remember what Harry Chip called it. I think he said it was wild. And so it was going to take a while to adjust. They don't have a ton of talent, but I think that right now they're playing at a level that's a lot higher than the talent that they have.
00:03:36
Speaker
So I still think, you know, the Sounders should expect to be that earthquake team at home, but it felt better, especially after the way the game started. And then, you know, the tie against LAFC at home, given the context, given the circumstances, you know, I think you have to feel pretty good about it playing down a man for, what was it, like almost 80 minutes when you factor in at a time.
Tactical Insights and Match Analysis
00:04:02
Speaker
I mean, it's frustrating and you wrote a column about this earlier this week that I don't feel like, like you, I don't feel like we know that the sounders, how they really stack up against LAFC. That's to be the most frustrating thing is, and maybe, I don't know, maybe that's a good thing in a weird way. I was kind of trying to talk myself into this, that in some ways the sounders may actually have some sort of tactical or
00:04:31
Speaker
maybe psychological advantage over LAFC if they were to play again, because while the Sounders know they didn't get a win over LAFC, they also know that they never faced them at full strength. Meanwhile, LAFC knows that they were the better team in the two games that they played, but I don't think they're under any
00:04:56
Speaker
they're not fooled into thinking that, well, we faced the sounder's best side. At one point,
00:05:03
Speaker
For most of the game on Sunday, the Sounders were effectively missing four-fifths of their starting midfield, which I think is a pretty illustrative way of putting the team. And granted, Jordan Morris was on the field, but he was playing striker. I would say he seems better suited to be playing as a wide midfielder nowadays than he did as a striker, although that's kind of a funny thing when you
00:05:25
Speaker
when you think about where this team was thinking about him, how they were thinking of him at the beginning of last year. But, you know, that the Sounders kept them scoreless, I think, was pretty impressive. Again, I don't think that the Sounders are a better team, but I just don't think we can take anything like a serious analytical, anything seriously analytical away from that game, especially.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. And I mean, I think, you know, you look at the way the game unfolded, and LA FC absolutely had chances to win it. I think their their XG for the game was like something like 4.6 or something, which is somewhere between. Yeah, it was like somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5, depending on what models you look at.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, which is very high. But the Sounders also had a couple of very good chances to win it as well. I think LAFC was the better team. But I don't think a draw was an undeserved result by any stretch of the imagination. I think the most encouraging thing I think that we saw was that the Sounders, the way that they got overrun in midfield, the way that they got, I think it's fair to say, just tactically beaten by LAFC in the first game.
00:06:41
Speaker
Um, that did not happen at all in this game. Um, in fact, I would say that I think the Sounders midfield played slightly better and that's with arguably their best central midfielder being sent off. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think that was, that was encouraging and as nice as it would be to have two more points and, and be a little closer to them in the standings. Um, you know, I don't, I don't think it's, I don't think it's anything worth losing sleep over.
00:07:07
Speaker
You know, one of the things, narratively, that I felt like a lot of people were saying after this game was, well, LAFC, we at least know LAFC is a deeper team than the Sounders. And I don't even know that we know that. Because they were missing some players from this game. The only starter, the only genuine starter they were missing was Steven Betashower. They were missing Armando Diamanday. But he's kind of a 1A, 1B starter with Christian Ramirez.
00:07:35
Speaker
He's been the better striker, I think we can say, but he hasn't been their automatic striker.
00:07:42
Speaker
And other than that, the guys they're missing are like Danilo Silva hasn't, you know, he wasn't really, he had been displaced as a starter before his injury, but he's not really a starter. So it was like if the Sounders were missing Will Bruin and Newhoo and Roman Torres or something. It's just not the same thing.
00:08:10
Speaker
If the Sounders had faced off against the team that was missing Carlos Vela, who was missing... Diego Rossi. Diego Rossi. You know, players like that, I think that would maybe be more of a comparison, but I don't know. I don't know that LAFC is all that much deeper. I will say that it's nice that they were able to bring a guy like Lee Nguyen off the bench, but he's really... I felt like he was the only impact sub that they had in that game.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't know, this is probably gonna get me yelled at, but I'm not sure that I think Lee Nguyen at this point is that much better than Harry Shipp, honestly. I don't know that he is either. I don't think that he's crazy at all to say. I think that he's probably a more dangerous attacking player. I think he's more likely to, you know, pick out a pass and cut a defense apart, but
00:09:00
Speaker
when you look at his game sort of in total, I don't know, I don't think he's got that huge amount of viewership. Yeah, I think, and I feel like this has been something that's come up in the past where it's not just the sheer number of injuries, it's where those injuries hit, you know, the position groups, and it seems like to the Sounders, they all hit the same position group at the same time, and it's been a trend, and I think it's
00:09:27
Speaker
I can't think of any reason that that could be anything other than bad luck, but it's your frustrating. So yeah, I think Jordan Morris is your third option at Striker is very good and that most teams would absolutely take that. But I think that we have seen enough of Jordan Morris at playing as a lone Striker to
00:09:47
Speaker
Feel like we know that's not his best position and that he's not going to be much more than an average for it in MLS at that position. So Yeah, I mean it's I feel like sometimes we could be a little bit more honest about What kind of challenges the sounders are actually facing?
Player Development and Roster Depth
00:10:05
Speaker
And and I think in in that context you have to feel pretty good about that result. I Would totally agree with that
00:10:12
Speaker
Again, I would much rather have the win. I would much rather have been able to... In some ways, I might feel better if the Sounders had... No, I don't think I would have felt better if they had lost that game but played at full strength. But it would have been at least interesting to know where they stand in a weird way because I still don't know where their obvious area for improvement is.
00:10:36
Speaker
Like you, like I've heard it said that they should add another winger. I don't know that they can assume that they're going to find someone who's an upgrade over, frankly, over Jordan Morris or Victor Rodriguez, who, you know, Morris hasn't been spectacular, but he does have four goals and assists, which is pretty, pretty good numbers from your starting winger. Victor Rodriguez's numbers aren't quite as impressive, but I think he's looked really good, especially when they have a full complement of players.
00:11:06
Speaker
I guess the centers could absolutely add some more depth, but that's been kind of the frustrating part of this mid middle point is I still don't know that there's this, you know, like if, if Svensson is out for an extended period, I think that's the position you need to fill. But aside from that, I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't really think we've learned a lot about this team and I guess that's maybe the most frustrating thing. That said,
00:11:31
Speaker
If there is one thing that we've learned, maybe we've learned a little bit about the depth pieces that the Sounders have, and Will Bruin, I think, has relatively limited minutes. He's got two goals. I think he's looked perfectly fine as far as a backup striker goes. Harry Ship, also two goals. I don't think he's showing like he needs to be starting or anything, but I think that's a pretty solid piece to be bringing off the bench. And Wallabwana doesn't have any numbers to show for it, but you look at the,
00:12:00
Speaker
It sounds like the Earthquakes game, he looked very dangerous in that. He played a pretty decent defensive game against LAFC. I feel like that's the kind of... We want to be getting minutes out of a player like that. He's still young. He's someone that is showing a lot of potential. I don't necessarily want to bring someone in that's going to drive him completely off the depth chart.
00:12:23
Speaker
And then Jordy Delham, I thought, looked really good as your number three defensive midfielder. And Roman Torres, for as bad as he looked in the first leg against LAFC, I thought, or the first meeting against LAFC, I thought he was really good in the second leg. And I think he might have even been their best defensive player in that game.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that's unreasonable. I think Kim is a fundamentally different player when he's playing on the left. So yeah, maybe not as high of a bar to clear. But yeah, I thought he was really good. I mean, he has shortcomings in his game and how
00:13:01
Speaker
capable he is of adjusting to those shortcomings is going to determine how well he plays. And I think in the first game against LFC, he did very poorly adjusting to the shortcomings. I think in the second game, he did very, very well adjusting to the shortcomings. And so and I don't think it's a big shock that his first start against the season against a team that is arguably was the worst matchup he could have.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is almost certainly the best team in MLS right now, playing at home, feeling very good about themselves. That's not a great fire to be thrown into, even for a veteran guy like Roman. So I feel like we have enough of a sample size of him being a flawed but very good player to feel like the second performance was a lot closer to what we would expect to see from him going forward.
00:13:53
Speaker
I guess writeback is really the only question mark, but I don't think there are many better backup writebacks in MLS than Abdul Salaam. And we have no idea how good lingo is yet, you know? Right. Yeah. And that's the thing is that it's like, could they have a better backup writeback?
00:14:12
Speaker
Sure. If you're willing to spend the money, there's definitely a better right back out there than Saad Abdul Salam or Henry Wingo. But then you have to start asking, how much money are we investing in our right back position? You already have a TAM starter.
00:14:31
Speaker
I suppose, like to me, if you're gonna go for a right back, it's to find a starter to replace Kelvin Leardum. It's not to find his backup. Like if you're gonna spend the money. And Leardum, you know, I don't, he's been very up and down. Let's just say that. He, you know, he hasn't covered himself in glory on the defensive side. You know, he got absolutely roasted by Shea Salinas on Wednesday, but then he came back and he scores that goal.
00:14:59
Speaker
He didn't necessarily, he, I guess you could maybe pin the first goal that LAFC scored someone on him, but I don't know. I don't know how many right backs are going to handle Diego Rossi in that situation much better than Lierdom did. I mean, he forced across. I kind of put that, that goal a little bit on.
00:15:20
Speaker
It pains me to say, but it's pretty close to Stephen Fry. That's kind of a cross you expect your goalkeeper to get. Um, if you can't get it, you're going to be in trouble. Brad Smith also probably could have been in better position to defend that, but he's also facing his goal. I think there's a decent chance that if he tries to deflect that it's an own goal. So, you know, it was, it was kind of a tough situation. It was, you know, it was, you know, the issue really with, with, with that was just allowing Rossi to get into transition. Um,
00:15:51
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, I don't know. I guess if you put a gun to my head, though, I think the position I want to find another piece to is I want another defensive midfielder who can maybe allow Svensson to slide into center back if that's what you need. I think that probably answers a lot of the depth questions that you end up having. Yeah, I mean, I think that
00:16:16
Speaker
Spenson has had some very good games and I don't think he's a bad option at all in the role he's playing, but I think that you can upgrade pretty comfortably in that position.
00:16:29
Speaker
I don't know that he'd love moving to a utility role. In fact, I'm sure he would not. But if you're going to upgrade, I feel like that's the position you'd do it at, especially if you're bringing in somebody that's not necessarily going to start right away but can play there to allow someone to play some center back or to have some time off or to fill in in case of injury because we still don't really know how long he's going to be out.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, I will say that Svensson was training on the side. So it's not like he's completely shelved, but that's what even when they're doing kind of that sprinting on the running on the side stuff that could be weeks away. You know, I don't I would hope this isn't the case, but
00:17:11
Speaker
It wouldn't completely shock me if he was out for the month of May. I hope that's not the case, but that's, you know, like hamstring injuries, especially for players that are his age are always, you know, always tough. And, and for that matter, I mean, Chad Marshall is my understanding is almost like on a week to week basis. Like he is.
00:17:32
Speaker
going to be healthy a lot of the time. And sometimes he's not going to be healthy. And that's just kind of like the way this is going to go. So, you know, they have some they have some spots, I think, but it's it's mostly in the back six that they're going to be. Yeah. And also, Kim Ki-hee could use a day off occasionally as well. Yeah, every now and then at this point. Yeah, it's that's that's a very good point. I guess the the question I have for you
00:17:58
Speaker
Do you feel like, like I know this time last year, we were pretty adamant that the Sounders needed to bring in somebody, even if it was a short-term fix to play Stryker, even if it was the backup Will Bruin. Do you feel that same sense of urgency, like personally? How much better would you feel if the Sounders went out and signed someone, or are you content at this point to kind of wait for the right player?
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely don't feel the same kind of urgency. I mean, last season, our starter was well-brewing and our backup was, I mean, I genuinely don't remember who the backup striker was. I guess it was Lamar Nagel, right? Or Clint Dempsey. It was kind of like one of them were kind of the backup. Right. And that's not a good situation at all. No, especially in hindsight, it was a really bad situation. Right. So, no, I don't think there's anywhere near the same level of urgency.
00:18:57
Speaker
I mean, we've talked about this on air and we've talked about it off air. We've talked about it on Twitter. We've talked about it in the comments at Sounder at Heart. I think the reality is that if you want the sounders to go out and sign some depth pieces and or maybe even like a new starter right now,
00:19:19
Speaker
and have a more complete roster earlier in the season. I don't think that that's an unreasonable position. I think that you can make a case for that position, especially I think it's a better position to have now maybe than it was last season. I felt like we needed to bring in a body.
00:19:38
Speaker
But I thought that, wait, because we were so bad that it was like, well, what's the point? And we found out what the point, I guess, was by winning like 30 games in a row or whatever. But I think the player whom we were talking about this the other day that I mentioned was Adam Jan.
00:19:57
Speaker
Um, the Columbus striker guy that looks like Connor Casey, um, because he's now anyway, I think he's in Columbus. Um, I think, I don't know. It seems like it's going to look, this is talking. I'm going to look where he's playing right now, but yeah, I mean, Phoenix rising. So actually a great example.
00:20:16
Speaker
All right, well, yeah, so we could go out and get him right now and he'd probably make the better and minimum. I don't understand the point, right? I just don't understand the point of having somebody like that on the roster because
00:20:31
Speaker
For one, 100K is not a ton, but it's not like the sounders have a ton of cap room left, right? I mean, it's not like they have to be fairly judicious. And anything they add to the cap is going to change what they're able to do in the summer. So there's that. And there's also like, when is he going to play?
00:20:58
Speaker
I know that some folks were like, I would rather have anyone out there running around right now than, than Jordan Morris, um, because he looks like he's about to die. And I think, and I think that that's a total, totally reasonable position. But if Brian Schmetzer has Adam Jan on the bench, do you really think he's going to put him into the game? I'm just not convinced. No, I don't think there's any chance that like, like if you were going to pull out Jordan Morris from that game.
00:21:24
Speaker
you were probably gonna put in a Henry and Wingo or something to replace him. And you were gonna just gonna kind of go without having a forward. And in fact, at one point I thought the sound, I thought Shementra was doing that exact thing, but then he ended up pulling someone else. I don't remember who ended up being subbed out in that game. But yeah, I mean, it was definitely, I guess Boana came out, Ship came out. What was the other sub?
00:21:53
Speaker
I do not remember somehow. Were there only two? Maybe there were only two subs. But I guess that also speaks to how unlikely, like, Jordan Morris was playing in that game. He looked completely gassed at the end of it, and yet somehow he almost made it to, he almost scored the winning goal in the 90th minute or whatever.
00:22:19
Speaker
You know, I think that's something to keep in mind that, yeah, and like if Jordan Morris gets hurt, right? Last week, you're up Shit Creek, right? That's a big problem. But you don't carry four forwards in a single, when you're playing a 4-2-3-1,
00:22:35
Speaker
just so you can in case your first three forwards get hurt. Like this is not a good use of resources. Although I suppose that now they'll have Alfonso will come up with Chavez as that body. But I don't think that that's what it's about. And I guess the way I put it is you can choose
00:22:53
Speaker
either having players, you can have a good player now, or you can have probably a better player in the summer. And that's the thing, that's the choice when you advocate for filling out your roster with quality depth.
00:23:08
Speaker
You're advocating, necessarily, you're advocating for most likely signing a worse player. And that's a reasonable position, but you have to admit that's what you're doing. Because if that player was out there, they would have signed him. I mean, they've definitely shown a willingness to sign that guy in this window before.
00:23:28
Speaker
So and I don't think that they're not not signing that player just to save a few bucks. Like there's nothing about this whole this organization that makes me think that the relatively small sum of money that you save. By signing that player in the summer, as opposed to signing them, like the Sounders probably saved a couple hundred thousand dollars by signing Rui Diaz in the summer instead of signing him in the first window.
00:23:59
Speaker
he just wasn't available in the first window. And that tends to be the case. And if they'd been able to get him in the first window, they probably would have cost him a lot more because they would have had to spend millions more to get the transfer fee to make it worth Morelia's while, essentially. So even though you're in the middle of your season, we're going to buy this player.
00:24:25
Speaker
I mean, it happens, or else you end up with a guy like this guy that looks like he's going to sign with, uh, with Portland, who his last game as a, his last game in Mexico features him spitting at fans. That's the reason he's available right now. Right. And he's a good player, but they're paying, they're paying something like four or 5 million more than, than the Sounders paid for Rudy Diaz.
00:24:50
Speaker
And he doesn't have a better track record. No, he absolutely doesn't. So that's, I mean, that's the choice you're making, right? And, and I think that you can reasonably have the other opinion. I just think you have to be honest about the kind
Sounders' Tactical Philosophy
00:25:04
Speaker
of choice you're making. I mean, unless they make Caproom publicly available and we find out that the founders are sitting on like $2 million in Caproom, um,
00:25:14
Speaker
we have to kind of assume that that's the choice they're making. And I think it's the right approach. And I think we've kind of seen it justified that it's the right approach over the past few years.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, I understand the frustrations. Absolutely. And you know, what's funny is I got into this like very heated debate with a friend of ours who was adamant that the sounders just needed to sign players earlier. And this was like back in 2012 or 2013.
00:25:48
Speaker
And and I kept saying like, well, the reason they don't sign these players earlier is because it's harder and because the quality of player you get later in the season tends to be higher. And it's like, yeah, but they would get so don't they understand they would get so much more value out of the player if they get, you know, five or six more games from them and.
00:26:06
Speaker
I mean, I wish it was that easy. I wish it was that easy, but it's, it unfortunately is not. Um, one of these days, I suppose the sounders might go into a season fully stocked, but again, I think last year, you know, not to belabor this point, but I do think it was instructive. And I think it's instructive again right now is right now. I don't think there is an obvious position of need. It's probably a depth piece.
00:26:34
Speaker
And so that depth piece, you know, maybe you can get, I don't know, maybe you can trade for Perry kitchen and not have to sit, take his whole $500,000 salary. Like that would be a great move if you could do that right now. Maybe if he's not done, I mean, yeah, we don't know. And that's the thing. We don't really know how done. I'm just basing on like that type of like, there are some upside players around the league that are probably available for the right price.
00:26:59
Speaker
And if you can get a player like that, that's great. But then you have to accept that that might be the biggest piece you acquire. And then he might not be a starter by the end of the season. He might just be a depth piece. And that's your bullet. Was that the best way you could spend it? Yeah. And I don't think Perry Kitchen's better than Goself Svensson, even if he's the same player he was two or three years ago.
00:27:25
Speaker
And when you're trading in MLS, you're giving up something of value. So you're giving up TAM or you're giving up general allocation money or a draft pick or whatever. Even if you have to only, even if you can get Perry kitchen for a hundred thousand
00:27:39
Speaker
in allocation money, if you have to take on his whole salary, you know, your pro rated portion of his salary is probably $400,000 at this point. So that's, you know, he's counting five, he's effectively counting $500,000 against your salary. I think the Sounders could probably still find another Tam player at that point. But I don't, I don't think they have a ton that definitely decreases their flexibility. And that's the, like, that's, that's the kind of player I think you're looking at right now. Right. And that might not be the kind of player you're looking at in the summer.
00:28:08
Speaker
You know, that's, that is one of the benefits of waiting is that you have a better idea of what you need. Last year at this time, the sound, you know, if the Sounders had gone into last season fully loaded, they wouldn't sign, they wouldn't have been able to sign Raul Rui Diaz. Yeah. As it turned out, that was really a blessing in disguise. Raul Rui Diaz ended up being just what they needed.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And are going to like, is a player that they can build around. And I think, I don't know. I mean, if between now and Sunday, I guess it is, when the window closes, or no, next Tuesday.
00:28:47
Speaker
If you find out somebody is going to be out for three months or something, then yeah, maybe you have to change your approach. Although I'm not based on last year, I'm not convinced that they would. But yeah, I mean, the sounders are not in a bad spot right now. They're in third place. They they're
00:29:06
Speaker
You know, if they're not as close to LAFC as I think anyone would like, but they're certainly not out of spitting distance, and LAFC is most likely going to run into some kind of injury problems this year. Yeah, there are five points back for the game in hand. I mean, that's a pretty good spot. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's the other thing, is I feel like in general there's this level of frustration that is a little disconnected from the sounders' place in the standings. And I get that that frustration is based on the fact that
00:29:36
Speaker
It's like an, oh, here we go again thing. But this weekend, I think they're going to end up with close to their full complement of players. And that's the thing. That's the other thing is that they know the injuries better than we do. And you can't go out and sign another player because somebody is going to be out for three weeks. Well, anyway.
Interview with Mark Nichols
00:30:01
Speaker
That's probably a good place to call this segment.
00:30:04
Speaker
We have a bunch of questions from you that we will get into more things. We'll talk about Christian Roldon's red card. Don't worry, we're not gonna ignore that. Lots of other things. But for now, enjoy this interview that we had after the break. We have an interview with Mark Nichols. He talked, this was actually done before Alfonso Campochavas was signed. So he doesn't talk specifically about that signing, but I think you'll get the gist. A lot of it is evergreen.
00:30:33
Speaker
So anyway, I guess we should I should have mentioned the sounders won the GA Cup. That's something that happened between. Yeah. So that was great. I don't have much to add beyond that. But that's kind of why we had Mark Nichols on. But all right, doesn't know so yet. This will be soon.
00:30:52
Speaker
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00:31:11
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing, and three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
00:31:33
Speaker
Wanted to welcome Mark Nichols to the show. You may know his name. He's the director of the Sounders Academy. First off, did I get that title right, Mark? And technically, my title is Director of Player Development and Academy Director. And so you were close, you had half of it. OK.
00:31:57
Speaker
Well, I guess you were looking at your bio here. You were hired back in 2014, which actually predates Garth Loggway's time with the sounders by about six months or so. But you've helped oversee a plethora of changes to the success at the Academy level, as well as you've seen an increase in success at the Academy level. You've been piling up accolades in recent years. Most notably, you won the
00:32:25
Speaker
The U-17s won the GA Cup Champions Division trophy, which was the first time an MLS team had ever done that. And then last year you guys won the USSDA U-17 title. When you look at the accomplishments of the academy, how much do you gauge yourself by trophies like that? And how much do you look at other areas? I think you're asking the right question. I think that the trophies are very nice.
00:32:55
Speaker
And, you know, winning the match, competing, creating a winning culture is a priority, but it's not the priority. The priority is the translation of these young players to the first team. However, I think winning the trophies and doing so in a, you know, a very progressive style, keeping our identity and doing things our way means something for sure.
00:33:26
Speaker
And if you actually listen to Javi and Iniesta, and you look at what happened in Spain and their sort of revolution, I've listened to those guys' interviews, and I've listened to them speak on podcasts and different things. And they say that it was actually winning the Under-17, Under-20 World Cup and being in the mix there that actually gave them the platform that everybody had entered, hang on a minute, we'd better look
00:33:56
Speaker
closely at these guys. It's quite natural in many ways. And so my wider point here is that the winning of the trophies will help us, will help these players progress to the next level.
00:34:15
Speaker
You can go back to the last year's title, obviously a resounding win over Atlanta United. You dominated the game. You had all these players that had these amazing performances. Do you actually see a material benefit from that in terms of whether you're recruiting players, whether you're seeing... I guess we saw a lot of those players ultimately get
00:34:39
Speaker
professional contracts. I guess, how does winning help feed into, you know, the bigger picture stuff? I think it helps with the development. You know, so I think if, for example, if you're a national team coach, and you're going into a World Cup cycle, or you're picking a team to travel overseas, chances are, if it's a close one, you're going to go with the guy that, that there's one thing
00:35:10
Speaker
Um, because, you know, there are lots of good players, but I don't know if all of the players have the same resilience and durability and mental strength that a lot of our players have. And I think that's, you know, evident in the success they had and, and you know, that the struggle you're right in the Atlanta United final, we were, we're fairly dominant and comfortable winners in the end. Although, you know, it never quite feels that way when you're, when you're on the bench.
00:35:40
Speaker
But I think the evidence of what I just discussed there was there in the Valencia final, where the Valencia were excellent. They beat us in the first game. I think the neutral, if we're brutally honest, would say that they probably edged the final. But we found a way. And sometimes that's development too. And that's soccer.
00:36:08
Speaker
I'm quite proud of that part just as much as I have been with some of the dominant successes that we've had. So I think there's a material benefit of national team going back to your question. There's a material benefit of contracts. There's a material benefit of confidence, stuff that's hard to measure. And I think another benefit is that you're going to be trusted more. And of course, it only helps raise the profile of the club, which means it's
00:36:37
Speaker
You know, it's already a club with its base and atmosphere and culture that people like to join. And so when you add, you know, the success that we've had to that makes it even more attractive.
00:36:52
Speaker
You know, you look at that that US, the championship roster you look at this GA cup roster. And like I mentioned, there's a bunch of players that already have signed professional contracts, even Danny Leyva who's who's signed a first team contract. And there's a tendency I think for
00:37:09
Speaker
those of us that are looking at this to call it a golden generation of players. But yet, whenever you talk to someone in the Sanders organization, whether it's Garth or anyone else who talks about this, they're really reluctant to use that term. And they talk more about how this is more of a tip of the iceberg situation than it is some sort of golden generation with a particularly special group of players.
00:37:34
Speaker
I guess the question is, what kind of production do you think we can reason? If this is the tip of the iceberg, what kind of production should fans of the first team sounders be expecting from the academy? And how far out do you think we are from seeing the fruits of that labor really coming into the first team and having a noticeable impact on the first team roster? So it's a funny thing about generations.
00:38:04
Speaker
We have a, sometimes, you know, we talk as coaches and say, well, this age was really good. I don't what happened with this one. I don't know what was in the water that year. This is obviously a very talented group. They've proven that. I think from an academy perspective, we couldn't do any more in terms of the success that is had on the field together at this age.
00:38:33
Speaker
people probably don't know and it's not that important is that, you know, for example, our current under 15 team has won their division. They're on beaten this year and they're already in the top eight sort of national championship group. When we've gone overseas with some of our younger groups, they've done extremely well. And so we're really positive about what's coming through in general, you know, from sort of under 18, I would say down.
00:39:04
Speaker
We have lots of talented players, exciting players. And to the second question, players that we feel over time can impact the first team. We understand that the way MLS works and the first team roster, there's a real benefit to having our own on the roster. But for me and us in the academy, our goal is much higher than that. We want players that can impact the first team.
00:39:31
Speaker
And we want players that are of an ambition of ours is to have players that are of DP standards and level. Now that's lofty, but if they can do it in other countries in the world, in other locations, why can't we? So, you know, you don't want to build up the young players too much because they are young and they still have a lot to learn. They're still developing in every way, shape or form. But when,
00:40:00
Speaker
It's proven that they're as good as their peers around the world. They've played for Argentina and Spain and other top countries, Brazil. It fills us with hope and really sights us as to their potential impact.
00:40:23
Speaker
And so how far out do you think we are from seeing, maybe not DP levels, but you know, Danny Leyva 15 years old. I don't think most fans are expecting to see him starting a lot of MLS games for the next year or two at least.
00:40:38
Speaker
and you have like an Alfonso, a couple Chavez, who just won the Golden Boot at this GA Cup. He's still only 17. I mean, but so I guess the question, realistically, are these guys, are they a year out? Are they two years out? Are we still five years away from maybe really seeing these players have significant impacts? You know, each of them are different, and they'll have their own separate paths. But I think it's quite normal if you look at
00:41:07
Speaker
young players that the sort of average of top player potential probably comes at around 19. Now you know there will be some that are 17 and there will be some that are slightly later bloomers it's you know 2021 and so when you look at this group who are arranging between 15 and 17 that gives you an idea I think of that you know there's still a way away yet from
00:41:36
Speaker
reaching their sort of youth peak potential, if you like, their sort of first phase. Most people agree that players themselves peak at around the age of 28 in soccer. Goal is a later, but for most field players it's 28. So they still have an awful lot of development, an awful long way to go. But I suspect that it'll still be two or three years before they really shine at that level. It's still a long road for many of them. And while we're hopeful for them,
00:42:06
Speaker
They understand, we understand that there are ups and downs, there's stuff in life during this age that can impact the player, physical development, growth, mental strength, schooling, there's a lot of things to consider. So I would say that most top young players
00:42:33
Speaker
They're having their debuts at around 17 or 18, but probably becoming regulars at 19 or 20. Fair enough. And so who are some of the players that Sounders fans should be looking for? I'm sure you're reluctant to pick out too many individual names, but if you wouldn't mind dropping a few names and telling us a little bit about them, that would be, I'm sure our listeners would love that.
00:43:00
Speaker
Well, I think the obvious one to talk about is Danny Laver. He's obviously just signed at the first team contract. Danny was wonderful last week. He was still playing up. And this is an indicator of how young some of these guys are. He's still playing up at under 17. He's actually technically under 16. But he plays with great maturity. He kept in the group last week.
00:43:25
Speaker
I'm sure that most people understand a little bit more about him. He's been a regular with the defiance, trained every day with the first team for the most part. And Alfonso, of course, had a wonderful week last week. It's not unusual for him to perform like that. He's actually had a little bit of bad luck. He's had one or two injuries, unusual things go on in the last year where he's not been able to
00:43:53
Speaker
truly find his rhythm and run of games, but now he's getting there and you can see his potential. There's a variety of goals that he scores. He's a handful for the central defenders. He plays off the shoulder. He's a threat in behind. He scored six goals last week, two with a left foot, two with a right, two with a head. So, you know, it's a really interesting player for us. The others are assigned players. It was lovely to see Ray Serrano
00:44:23
Speaker
come up with the winner against Valencia. He's one that we feel long term, has a huge potential. He's still a little bit behind in some of his physical development. And he's one that he's capable of wonderful moments. Somebody that at times you say, you know what, you'd pay to watch him. Sometimes plays like that can be a bit frustrating too. And it's just a natural part of the evolution as they begin to make better decisions.
00:44:53
Speaker
I think when we think about the defiance loss, we still have some some Rogers that we're looking to, you know, to get back from injury and get a run of run of form is obviously very good on the ball, excellent passer of the ball, real quality in terms of reading the game. So he's one that we're still very hopeful of. And then, you know, there's a whole list. Josh Etencio has gone from a central midfielder to a centre back last week.
00:45:19
Speaker
and played extremely well there. So there's even guys like Josh where we're wondering about his best position. Danny Robles is another that at the academy level plays more of a 10, but will he translate there at an MLS level? Maybe not. Maybe we have to look at him slightly deeper and we've started to do that. Marlon Vargas is another player that on his day is capable of great things, but now has to translate that into the U.S.L. and the defiance shows flashes of that, but needs to put
00:45:49
Speaker
that together in a run of games. And then there are lots of players that maybe people aren't so familiar with that have come a little bit later. Ethan Double F, anybody saw him play? Last week had a terrific week at J Cup. He's one that's slightly younger in the birth cycle. He's a December birthday. He's gone through the growth spurt a little bit later. And now we can see what he's capable of. Sota Kitahara is an extremely versatile and reliable player.
00:46:18
Speaker
that performed in midfield last week, right, back, left, back. Alex Villanueva, who played left, that was another 17 national team. I could go on and on. But the good news is we have lots of players that are in the discussion. So I think that might be enough for now.
00:46:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's that's fair. That's a that's a pretty good list, I would say. So I just wanted to kind of back up a little bit and talk a little bit about the the state of the kind of how you've seen the the Sanders Academy evolve. Like I said, you were hired in 2014. How what was how would you describe the state of the franchise or the state of the academy when when you came on? And how have you sort of seen it evolve and change in the almost five years since then?
00:47:07
Speaker
Yeah, my my remit when I joined was to start at the time, the under 14 and 15 programme. So, you know, at the time, there was just the under 16, under 18 and first team. So I wouldn't describe us at that point as a, you know, sort of a true club when it comes to play development. And since so I would describe it in time as being quite basic. There was Darren, of course, who's the Academy director who brought me here.
00:47:37
Speaker
Dick McCormick was the coach of the 16s and 18. Sean Henderson was helping out at all of the levels. And it was a small tight-knit group who, for the most part, I think achieved great success and did really well and certainly provided the platform for the development of the program. Over time, it's changed to where we have an influence with local clubs from the age of eight to 12.
00:48:07
Speaker
We have our own programs from 12 to 14. We have full-time teams at 15, 17, 19, and USL. We were all part of the developmental arm. We have a head of education. We have a home state program. We have a performance coach, a dedicated medical staff, and full-time coaches at each age, former analysts. So it's really been building
00:48:35
Speaker
department, if you like. And it's only really when you ask that question that you look back and you realize, wow, it's been a lot of work, but we really are developing, we're really building something here. And not just our academy, I think it's been quite typical of most MLS academies. So I've been very fortunate.
00:49:03
Speaker
to work with Darren and Dick and Sean, and of course, I still work with Sean daily here, but then being able to bring in different people from different areas and being given the resources in order to do that. And one of the things that seems to have changed, and I don't know how much it's changed, but one of the areas that
00:49:29
Speaker
You know, you, we see, you know, you just look at the roster and you look at where these kids are from. And, and Danny Leyva is, I want to say is, is from Las Vegas. And if I understand correctly, he was like on a select team when you guys found him, which is for people that know, don't know, that's like the third level down from the top of the cat of like the developmental system. Is that right? Yeah. Danny was on that. He was on sort of a, he was on sort of a unfancid sort of premier level team that
00:49:57
Speaker
that wasn't particularly, that wasn't from one of the big clubs there in Las Vegas. It was somewhat below the radar. They had some decent players for sure. And of course, Danny, Danny was on that team playing up and it wasn't your normal structure. No. And yeah, we've, you know, we've targeted certain players and we've brought them in and they've adjusted great to what we want. And our coach would be able to make a positive impression.
00:50:26
Speaker
on them, but 80% of our players are still from the Greater Seattle area. I would say 10% are sort of from our territories, you know, sort of Washington in general, like a race around us from Moses Lake. And then there's probably another 10 to 12 in the club that are from these sort of uncharted territories, like Alfonso, who's from Fresno, and Lillian Merced, and Danny, who's from Las Vegas.
00:50:54
Speaker
And so you must, I guess you guys employ an actual scout, right? That goes out and finds some of these players. These aren't players that just kind of show up on your doorstep and say, hey, I'd love to play for you. Yeah, I wish it was that easy. Yeah, we need to put a lot of time and effort into that. We do have a head of recruitment. We're all scouts. We all have our contacts, connections,
00:51:20
Speaker
We watch a lot of video. We travel a lot. And as much as we can, we really have a sort of a recruitment index that we use where we have certain questions. Believe it or not, four-fifths of those questions and the actual form itself is more to do with the quality of the person and the character of the person as it is to do with the soccer part of it.
00:51:47
Speaker
And so that's an area perhaps that we can continue to develop and grow because we've seen how important it can be. And every day I wonder how many players we miss, not just us, meaning we like me. We, MLS academies, the US is such a big country with so many leagues and somewhat of a fractured soccer structure that these players are everywhere. We just need to do a better job of
00:52:16
Speaker
identifying them reaching out into different communities and giving them a chance and you know we've started to do that and we can see how productive that can be. Well at least from where I sit it seems like you've done a pretty amazing job it's it's been great watching the academy
00:52:35
Speaker
achieve some of the stuff that they've been achieving. And for me as a fan of the team, it's exciting to see some of these players come through. I don't know how, like I said, I don't think we've seen the bulk of what the Academy is going to supply, but it's very exciting to look into the future and see what the potential is. But anyway, thanks for coming on the show, Mark. Congratulations on the big GA Cup win and even more of those to come.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, thanks very much. You know, one of the things about what we talk about in the academy, one of our sort of pillars of the community is, you know, we wouldn't have this program without our fans, without our fans buying the uniforms, turning up to the games, doing all the things that they do. And our players really appreciate that. It's something we talk about a lot. So I appreciate it, Jeremiah, and thank you to you and to all of the fans. Great. Well, you're listening to Noose Audio at this.
00:53:37
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes. Lickit, you have a bunch of questions. I'll just go ahead and let you start asking them. Alrighty. Start with Friend of the Show Nate Bowling.
Upcoming Matches and Refereeing
00:53:48
Speaker
Who starts at right back this weekend and on a scale of from 2012 Ricardo Salazar to 2019 NBA playoff refs. How bad does Ted Uncle suck?
00:54:03
Speaker
Well, I'll start by saying, uh, I guess we'll answer these in order. My gut says Saad Abdul Salam is going to start, but my heart is kind of hoping Henry and Wingo gets to start. I feel like it's a high upside, low downside potential as in.
00:54:23
Speaker
he may, like Henry Wingo could look really good out there. And I think that would, you know, I think he plays more, his game is probably more analogous to Sada Abdul-Salam. And if the Sounders lose this game, I mean, that's, it's, you know, you don't want to lose this game in part because that's four straight that you haven't won. But at the same time, I don't feel like it's a game
00:54:48
Speaker
you need to win. And so I feel like the gamble might be worth it, especially if you can field an otherwise ideal 11 aside from him. Yeah, I pretty much totally agree. I also expect Salam, which is fine. He's a veteran. He had some good seasons in MLS and is not great as he's looked at times in Tacoma.
00:55:16
Speaker
That's Tacoma. It can be weird playing in the U.S. also. But I would like to see Wingo, and I'll also add to pretty much everything you said I agree with. But I also think when you're giving a young player a new start, a new position, doing it on the road can often sort of be a little easier, I think, for them. It can take a little bit of the pressure off. And then as far as the uncle question, the weirdest thing to me is that
00:55:45
Speaker
I don't necessarily think I felt like Ted Unkel was a great referee in the past, but
00:55:52
Speaker
That was one of the, I think, most poorly refereed games that I've seen this season, for sure. It was definitely the worst game I've seen him ref before. And that was kind of a surprise. I feel like he's usually pretty loose on the whistle, but does a decent job of controlling the game. And in this one, he had lost it by like 15 minutes in. So I thought that was kind of strange.
00:56:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I don't have anything to add to that. I'll say that I think that the Wednesday game was actually worse officiated than the Sunday game, but that's maybe... I don't know that I'd disagree with that, yeah. That's maybe not, that's not exactly high praise. Yeah. Speaking of this weekend, not underscore Rossi asks, who does Ozzy foul to get a yellow? I think either Morris or Ladero.
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going, I'm going to bank on Ledero. I almost guarantee there is a Ozzy yellow card on Ledero. And like, I, you know, if we know Ozzy, if, if he, like, he's going to have a few early tackles somewhat to send a message, I think. And I would not at all be surprised to see him take a yellow on Ledero. Yeah. I think we kind of know exactly what kind of phalates going to be too. Yeah.
00:57:13
Speaker
Okay. Uh, moving on, Marike, Marike sports asks, why can't they go to VAR on red card situations to get it right? Well, I'll, I'll say that I, they can.
00:57:28
Speaker
they absolutely should. I think what happened in this situation, though, is the VAR official who happened to be Hilario Grajeda, I think either saw the same thing that Uncle did, or at the very least, he didn't see anything that was so compelling as to
00:57:52
Speaker
suggest uncle overturn it. And I think the problem is, is this is maybe one of the shortcomings of VAR, is that VAR is not meant to second guess the opinion of the referee. It's meant to correct clearly wrong decisions. And I think, I don't think the Sounders were just being diplomatic today when they were, like, I think they were being
00:58:18
Speaker
mainly diplomatic, but I think there was a more than a hint of truth to what they were saying, which was it wasn't like it was an easy call. And it wasn't as if it was a call that if you're convinced it going, you know, if you see this going in that it should be a red card, I think there's nothing that you're going to see to sway you otherwise. But I can also see how the independent
00:58:45
Speaker
panel looks at that and sees all the evidence. And I think they're able to weigh it a little bit more cautiously. And I think they came to the right decision. But I mean, I'll tell you, when we were sitting in the press box, I think there were people that were disagreeing on whether or not it should be a red card. But I think there was a sense of, yeah, that could be a red card.
00:59:13
Speaker
Yeah, for me, it was less. I didn't think it was a red card. I thought it was a ridiculous call, but I didn't. I'm really surprised that it got overturned because that rule is by definition open to so much interpretation that.
00:59:29
Speaker
I kind of thought that's what it was. It was like, well, hey, you know, he retaliated and hit a guy in the face and we're just not going to stand for that. That was kind of the thought process that I had. And to me, it's kind of, I think referees are typically, and there is a referee on the independent review panel, are typically sort of loath to overrule each other in that way. So I think it's definitely the right decision, but it is one of those rules where there's so much ambiguity and discretion allowed that
00:59:59
Speaker
even if there's not supposed to be, right? Like it's supposed to be, well, if it's deliberate and not negligible force, then it's a red card, but how you define deliberate and how you define negligible force are of course, you know, very subjective things. So yeah, I was, I was surprised but pleased that it was overturned for sure.
01:00:17
Speaker
I'm just a little surprised in those situations. It feels like the game state should matter. And also, I mean, if they're unsure that center of should, should take absolutely take a look at it. Right. Shouldn't just take the word of someone that up and watching the replay of it just feels like this is a big decision in this game. When it's going, I need to see this again for myself. Like, yeah, I mean, I think the thing that like, that also frustrates me is that.
01:00:43
Speaker
There was a three-minute delay, basically, while they figured this out. And I feel like the time of that three minutes would have been much more effectively spent if Uncle had gone over to the monitor and looked at what was happening. And that also kind of makes me feel like maybe there should be a monitor at Midfield. Because if he could have just been sitting there looking at the monitor, instead of sitting there and having a conversation with Christian Roldan and whoever else,
01:01:10
Speaker
I feel like that that would have been a better use of his time. But at the same time, I don't know. I don't know that there's anything that, like, I guess you see the push from Atawesta. If anything, I think Atawesta would have ended up with a yellow card on review and that may be a...
01:01:27
Speaker
made the whole thing seem a little bit more just. Because to me, Atuesta, and frankly, Kay. Kay and Atuesta are really the ones who are instigating this whole thing. Neither one of them are involved in the tackle that Kay is essentially responding to.
01:01:48
Speaker
you know, both those guys basically, you know, you could argue they goaded, rolled on into this whole situation. It's a very frustrating situation all around. I'm not, I guess I'll just say again, I'm not surprised that VAR didn't overturn it. And that's the focus of this question. Yeah. Okay. Blue82VW asks, worst missed goal, Ramirez or Valdez? Fight.
01:02:15
Speaker
I had kind of forgotten about the Valdez one, and the Valdez one's probably worse, isn't it? I'm trying to remember it. It's the O's in Orlando, because he didn't have to leave his feet, whereas Ramirez had to leave, you know, although I guess Ramirez didn't have to leave his feet, maybe that's part of the problem.
01:02:37
Speaker
But I feel like I haven't watched the Valdez one recently, but I think there's at least a chance that that's worse. Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about. I think the one thing, and it's still a terrible miss, but I think maybe the one thing that hasn't kind of been talked about too much. Someone mentioned it in the Sounder Art Slack the other day, but I don't remember who it was, but that the ball did kind of take a weird hop like right before it got to him. He should still bury that, you know, a hundred times out of a hundred, but I guess it gives him a little bit of
01:03:07
Speaker
I'll also add that sleep at night. Maybe the thing that makes the Ramirez miss worse is that that's the potential game winner, whereas Valdez's miss would have made it four zero. Now I definitely remember the mess. Yeah. OK, shots fired us. Usually there are a few rumors floating around by now. I'm sure we have a big center back signing in the works with Marshall and Torres getting older every day.
01:03:34
Speaker
You know, I just want to start by saying I feel like this is a refrain that we have heard like every year since like 2009.
01:03:44
Speaker
like there's always rumors and and we haven't heard any rumors yet and then uh i i think we sometimes over like i think people misremember when the rumors oftentimes come about um but i i don't remember there being i i mean like there there were definitely rumors like when ledero was getting ready to sign and there have been big rumors like that i'm not saying they never happened but um
01:04:07
Speaker
I don't think there's going to be a big signing before May. I won't be surprised if they do make one. I won't be surprised either way. But Garth talked to the press today, and he definitely did not indicate that there was a signing imminent.
01:04:23
Speaker
Yeah. I think, too, that I wouldn't be shocked if the Sounders sign a new center back before next season starts. I'd be a little surprised if they don't, frankly, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure I would expect that this year. Did he say center back specifically? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, then that case. No, I'm not surprised at all. Like, I don't even think I don't even know that center back is the top. Like, I think their top target is probably more of a defensive midfielder than a center back.
01:04:55
Speaker
OK, DS Roland asks, are the sounders working on a secondary formation? Would you recommend one? If so, what? I think that the shape they play in could adapt pretty seamlessly to a 433.
01:05:11
Speaker
for when you need a little bit more attacking to attend. And it kind of plays like that somehow, but I feel like the wingers have a little too much defensive responsibilities for it to be a true 4-3-3. So that might not be bad. And then just more of a flat 4-5-1, I guess, for the opposite times would be nice. I really don't like five at the back formations unless you absolutely have the right players for it and it's your primary system.
01:05:39
Speaker
So I'd prefer not to see that again, but we probably. That said, I think if they have a secondary formation, it's probably a 343 or 5, you know, however you want to spread those numbers out. I think that's their secondary formation now. Yeah, I would agree. WM. Yeah. Okay.
01:06:03
Speaker
M. Jalman asks, how soon can we expect the academy kids to make a legitimate impact on the first team? Is next season too early an expectation? I think so. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be shocked to see them start getting minutes next season. But I would imagine it would be minutes in the hundreds.
01:06:23
Speaker
which is not insignificant necessarily, but in terms of them actually having a big impact on the first team, I think next season is probably a little too early, but 2021.
01:06:35
Speaker
probably might be when they start getting those rotational minutes. It just kind of depends. I mean, this is a weird time in the development cycle for players where sometimes kids just kind of take off like a rocket around this age. And a lot of the time they stagnate for a little while. So it'll be interesting to see. I think both of them need to bulk up a little bit more though before they're really going to be able to make a huge impact.
01:07:00
Speaker
So this is, this is actually one of the questions I asked Mark Nichols in the previous segment. So if you heard that, you probably heard what he said, but, um, I'll offer, I'll add that, uh, Lava's 15, Okampa Chava's 17. You look at the normal age where guys like that, or where players start to have contributions and it's closer to 19, 20, 21.
01:07:24
Speaker
And I don't think that signing them this early necessarily indicates that the sounders think they are so far ahead of the growth curve. I just think that they want to.
01:07:36
Speaker
be a part of their, like they want to have his hands on of control over their futures as they can. And I think that they see a lot of potential in these guys, but you know, if, if either one of them play this year, I'll be, I won't, I don't think either one of them are going to play significant minutes this year. I don't know that I'm expecting either one to play significant minutes next year. I think 2021, you're still talking about a,
01:08:05
Speaker
19 and 17 year old, if they're contributing in 2021, I think you got to be pretty excited about that. I think especially with Leyva too, attacking players maybe develop a little faster. Leyva being two years younger and also being less of an attacking player I think is
01:08:24
Speaker
I mean, it's fascinating to think of like what Leyva, he's not even close to done growing. I mean, who knows what his, what he looks like, you know, who knows? He might be a, I mean, for like, this is just crazy. He's 15 like there's, and he, like you look at him now and you think, oh, there's no way he could be a center back. But when he's 20, I mean, he's going to be five years older. He could be six, two and 180 pounds by these time he's, he's 20. Who knows? Right. Yeah.
01:08:56
Speaker
Uh, I was gonna say, I think I listened to Garth's thing today and he said that basically it was something like, uh, they wanted to speed up the development from like, say, Yedlin who, what, he started when he was like 19 or 20 or 20. Yeah. Like a year, at least a year, right? So that's pretty much what you should expect.
01:09:19
Speaker
U.S. Open Cup question here. Jim C Kim asks, what is one change that you would make to the U.S. Open Cup competition to make it more attractive and engaging product? I think I don't. Oh, go ahead. Well, yeah, I'm not sure that there's much you can do. I think that it is what it is kind of. And
01:09:43
Speaker
I just, you can pour more money into it. I guess if you're a soccer and maybe that moves the needle a little bit, but ultimately MLS teams feel the way they do about it. I don't really see that changing too much. Um, if anything, I would say that they've, they've maybe placed less of an emphasis on it. Um, aside from teams that don't really have anything to play for in the league. So there are probably some things you could do to spiff it up, but I just kind of think it's, it's found its niche.
01:10:10
Speaker
I think the best thing that you can probably do is is make it a fixed bracket. Don't make the don't make the don't make it quite so regional. And
01:10:27
Speaker
You know, you spend a little bit more money on, you, you put a little bit more money into the prize money. I'll tell you, I, the thing I really love the, I love the idea of being able to play the US Open Cup final at the end of the season. That's never going to happen in MLS because you have playoffs and it creates this whole mess of a situation.
01:10:47
Speaker
Uh, especially if you have the two finalists that have that, like, it's just a mess. You can't do it. Uh, the MLS tried it, uh, early on and it didn't work because it's, it ends up being, uh, no one cared. People cared about it even less. Um, but I think fixing the, like having a fixed bracket would do a lot to drive interest in it. And I think you probably have to come up with a way to.
01:11:14
Speaker
have more home games at the lower division sites. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. And right now, you're getting some of that, but I think as the more USL teams are getting into this tournament, the more capable they're going to be of hosting these games. And I think that maybe that fixes itself to some degree, because I think now you're going to probably find
01:11:39
Speaker
more U.S.L. teams bidding to host or more lower division teams bidding to host. So that could fix that. But I think, you know, all the games are going to be on ESPN plus this year, I believe, which I think is a huge step in the right direction. And yeah, I mean, I just think.
01:11:55
Speaker
It's moving slowly. I think it's getting to the point where it's improving. But yeah, I think you're right, Aaron. Ultimately, the problem is that MLS teams probably aren't going to prioritize it any more than they do now. And I think the best thing that the tournament can do is make it as good as they can without worrying about how MLS is involved. Like, MLS teams need to be involved in it. But I don't think that's ever going to get to a point
01:12:23
Speaker
where the sounders are treating it like first team, like where they're gonna guarantee first team minutes to players that are using, playing in the regular season.
01:12:34
Speaker
No, and I don't, I don't think they should. I genuinely don't think they should. I mean, it's not how top division teams treat cup competitions in other countries. And there's a reason for that. I mean, you sign players that aren't going to get a ton of playing time. One of the things you promise them is that, Hey, you'll get some playing time in the cup competitions. You know, um, you need to see how younger players are playing against seasoned professionals, things like that. So, um, yeah, I think, and I think too that, I mean, obviously we've talked about this a lot, but the red card wedding sort of.
01:13:05
Speaker
killed any appetite, I think, for taking early games very seriously. No one remembers that. What are you talking about? Moving on, we have two more questions, very important ones. Tim DeBarragio asks, who is the most handsome current sounder, most handsome of the MLS era? So two different questions. Well, I mean, I kind of feel like
01:13:36
Speaker
Hmm. Is Valdez the most attractive player to ever play with the Sounders? He's a very good looking guy. Although I feel like we got a similar question to this a couple of years ago and just got roasted by, um, by, um, yeah. Um, so I, yeah. Um, and I think Valdez was definitely one of our answers, but I mean, I'll stick by it. I think he's a, he's a very good looking fella. Um,
01:14:04
Speaker
I think Ramon is actually a really good looking guy too. He does have that. I think his whole affect is a big part of that. When you see him off the field, he always has this big grin on his face. He has this sense of self-assured style. The goggles. The goggles were quite the
01:14:31
Speaker
So Tim, if you don't know, is the guy who writes the match fitness column on Sounder at Heart. And it is an absolute must read. It talks about the style of the sounders, essentially. And he was very impressed by Brian Meredith's outfit, which I think was easy to be impressed by. It was a very impressive outfit. Yeah, it definitely was.
01:14:53
Speaker
And I feel like when you're someone that doesn't that isn't necessarily attracted to people of a certain gender a lot of what you're gonna base your opinion of their attractiveness on other than like sort of a an understanding of
01:15:09
Speaker
you know, traditional beauty standards is how people present themselves. Um, my wife and I will have conversations all the time and I'll be like, Oh, I think that, I think that guy's really handsome. We'll be like, she'll be like, what are you talking about? It kind of looks like shit. So I don't know, man. I don't know. But yeah, I think felt as I think I oftentimes finding myself asking my wife, is he, is it me or is he really attractive? And so.
01:15:32
Speaker
My wife's current thing is being really pissed off that Chris Pratt isn't a fat guy anymore. Because I started watching Parks and Rec a lot, but I'd never watched it before. So did she find him less or more attractive as a not fat guy? Significantly more attractive, yeah. Which shouldn't, I mean, you've seen me, so that shouldn't be a surprise. But yeah, she's like, he looks like such a little wuss now. It is funny to, not to get too on a tangent, but
01:16:02
Speaker
Local boy, I suppose we can call Chris Bratt. He looks like a complete slob, and it doesn't feel like an act in Parks and Rec. And it is still jarring to see how he's transformed himself into a traditional leading man. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. It's pretty wild.
01:16:23
Speaker
You know, good, you know, good for him. I mean, yeah, good for him. Absolutely. He seems to be doing okay, but yeah. The Scott Hatterberg role, is that what kind of got him on that path? It probably is. I think it mocks the van, yeah.
01:16:36
Speaker
And just to save you two from getting your houses burned down by bread, I'll just say it's got to be Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris is a, I feel like I can say, like an objectively very attractive young man. He's a very good looking young man. You guys should probably say that before you got some death threats from certain people. Yeah, no, that's fine. That's fine. All right. Ending on this note, Blue82VDiv has a second question. What's the best way to get rid of moles in your yard?
01:17:04
Speaker
Man, I hope it's those Sonic steak things because I just spent like 50 bucks on some. I really hope those things work. They should. I have not yet had moles, thank God. Dude, it's brutal. I didn't have a raccoon, though.
01:17:21
Speaker
We've got a lot of raccoons here. Well, we had a raccoon in our in our not in our attic, but in the eaves of our roof. Oh, that's I had. I had to spend a fair amount of money to get rid of those. We caught how many did we catch? I guess we caught two. Yikes. And and at that point, we cut down the trees that they were accessing it through.
01:17:44
Speaker
and boarded up the hole and whatnot. And that seems to have fixed the issue. The first one I felt really bad for. We caught it and it looked so like kind of like, oh, I'm so sorry. And he wasn't right. Well, I think the the exterminator guy actually may have he said he was going to let him go. And then the second one was very upset. And he's like, yeah, he's going to he's going to be taking a long nap.
01:18:13
Speaker
I like raccoons as long as they leave cats alone. Yeah, cats and raccoons probably don't mix well.
01:18:23
Speaker
Uh, it depends on the cats and it depends on the raccoons, like the ones that come around here, they'll kind of hit. So if the cats get a little too close to him, but they largely leave each other alone. Um, and the cats know that they're not gonna do especially well in a fight. Um, but in Olympia, when I was like 16 or 17, there was like this pack of raccoons on the west side, which is like the more, I guess rural side of Olympia, you'd say. And, uh,
01:18:48
Speaker
they were like breaking into people's yards and killing dogs and not like little like not like you know, a Pomeranian or whatever, but like golden retrievers and shit. Whoa. And yeah, so that that kind of freaked me out. But the ones the ones in my neighborhood are okay. And the other night I came out at like 1030 to take the garbage out. And there was one standing, we have like a pergola type thing in our backyard.
01:19:15
Speaker
And about, I don't know, like six and a half feet up the post, there's a little platform that's maybe like three inches by three inches.
01:19:25
Speaker
And he's just, all four paws, and he's a big raccoon. Like he's a city raccoon, like eats out of the dumpsters in his elves raccoon. And he's just sitting there, like all four paws on this little, and I didn't see him at first. And then I turned the light on and I just see like this raccoon at like, you know, eye level staring at me. It was pretty unsettling, but air cue. I've heard, uh, castor oil supposedly.
01:19:57
Speaker
So there you go. I got home from work today and there were like four new molehills in the yard. So I, anybody that doesn't follow me on Twitter. Um, that's what that joke was about. I think the other thing you could try is putting a recording of Will Bruin saying meow, meow, meow on Loon might work and just blast it. Yeah. Yeah. The neighborhood cats, uh, enjoy killing baby bunny rabbits, but have never actually, um, taken care of them all. So that's pretty cool.
01:20:26
Speaker
Awful. That's it. Yeah. On such a positive note, I guess we're going to call that a show. Uh, thanks to Mark Nichols for hanging out with us for a little while and answering some questions. Um, thanks to full pool wines for, for being our sponsor and thanks to you guys all for listening. It's always appreciated.
01:20:49
Speaker
I am Jeremiah Shannon. I'm signing off on behalf of Aaron Campbell and Lickett. This is No Sadietes. Remember, you'll never go to Rome. Green Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's roll on, Columbia roll on.
01:21:16
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!