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Draw in the Heart of Frisco (feat. Jeremiah Oshan) - Ep. 28
45 Plays1 year ago
Sounder At Heart's very own Jeremiah Oshan joins Ari and Noah to break down the Seattle Sounders draw to FC Dallas, preview the upcoming match against Vancouver Whitecaps and answer your questions. Plus around the league breakdowns from Inter Miami, LAFC, Portland Timbers and MORE!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Announcement
00:00:09
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome in to episode 28 of Logging Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall, and I've got producer Noah back here with me. I came back. Welcome back. Thank you. Say what's up to the people. Man, we have the bet. You know what? We're going for record-breaking numbers today. We're going for record-breaking numbers today, aren't we, Ari?
00:00:30
Speaker
We are. Today is a very special show. We're very excited to have another guest here on Lobbing Scorchers. I believe this is our third ever guest, so another historic occasion, but this is a good one. We got Jeremiah O'Shan, head editor of Sounder at Heart and host of Nos Adiadas joining the show.
00:00:49
Speaker
one of the big dogs in sounders media so we're excited to welcome in and we've got a really great and awesome sounders game to talk about today. A week after exploding for a 5-0 win over CF Montreal at Lumenfield for their first win of the season, the Seattle sounders have followed that up with
00:01:11
Speaker
momentum churning 0-0 draw at FC Dallas in the thriving metropolis of Frisco, Texas.
Sounders' Recent Matches and Performance
00:01:20
Speaker
They did not really actually carry the momentum over very well from that big win over CF Montreal. I wish we could have gotten a dub pod to bring Jeremiah on, but
00:01:33
Speaker
You know, it is what it is. We don't shy away from the results here at Lovings Gorgers. We talk about them no matter what they are. So we're going to dive into the nuts and bolts of that, talk about the game, do some broader takeaways, and then hit some of your questions and observations that the people sent me on Twitter, and then jump around the league for winners and losers from the Matchday 9 slate in MLS, as we always do.
00:01:56
Speaker
And then we're going to call it a wrap there for episode 28. But right now, let's bring Jeremiah in right now, actually, before I do my little recap of the Sounders game. And we're just going to do a little roundtable with the three of us. I'd like to welcome in Jeremiah O'Shen, head editor, Sounder at Heart. Jeremiah, thanks for joining the show, man. How are you?
00:02:21
Speaker
Good. I like that we went over what to say about my title and you decided to go with head editor, which sounds like a title that someone might have somewhere. Is that that's not the correct title? I think just go. I just go with the editor. You just go with. I like head editor. I like that on a business card. Okay. I mean, I could go editor in chief. I could go CEO. I like head editor. I like that.
00:02:48
Speaker
Well, thank you for joining the show, whatever your title may be. We really appreciate the time. Excited to talk some sounders with you. It's been definitely not the type of season that we're used to.
Sounder at Heart's Journey and Jeremiah's Involvement
00:03:00
Speaker
You and I have both been following this team and been around this team for a really long time. We're used to doing a lot of winning stuff, and that hasn't been the case so far this year. But Noah and I have found that it's actually generated
00:03:15
Speaker
in a way, more interest in the team than it might if they were doing well in some ways. So it's not necessarily a positive for the Seattle Sounders, but it's definitely good for the content in a way. I don't know if you guys have experienced similar stuff at Sounder at Heart, but before we jump to this game, Jeremiah, I actually wanted to ask you, I think a lot of people listening to this, there's probably a fair amount of overlap in people who listen to this show and follow you guys over
00:03:42
Speaker
over at Sounder at Heart and what you guys have going on over there. But for anyone who may not, could you just give the nutshell of how you got into covering the Sounders, how you ended up in Seattle and then latching on with the MLS scene and then kind of why you took to it so much and created this thing over at Sounder at Heart where you have a thriving community. You guys just went independent. How did you get into all this?
00:04:11
Speaker
Well, all the short version or the short version, the version I tell usually is I first discovered the sounders when I was getting ready to move to Seattle in 2009.
00:04:26
Speaker
I was working in newspapers at the time. I worked in the Bay Area. And in preparation of coming out here, I decided to go to a Sounders earthquakes match, which some of our readers mainly remember this match. It was in 2009, the earthquakes were in the middle of a pretty bad season. The Sounders were in the middle of a pretty impressive
00:04:54
Speaker
expansion season. I went out to, what's the name of that stadium in San Jose? Well, it's PayPal park now, but no, with the old one, what was the, I can't remember the name of it. It's blank. Yummy. The one at Santa Clara university. And I happened to be sitting right in front of the
00:05:11
Speaker
sounders away the ECS section and I was blown away. They were cheering and singing like the whole game and they lost the sounders lost that game for zero I believe and it was like the the biggest result of the earthquakes that had that season just kind of came out of nowhere and the whole time there was sounds a fans that were like kind of
00:05:32
Speaker
razzing like yelling at the sounders fans to shut up like literally just like just yelling shut up like the most bass like Insult like there was no Creativity or anything and they were just annoyed that the center fans wouldn't stop singing and I was really impressed by that and I actually got into an argument with some sounds a fans because they were being so ridiculous and Anyway, that was sort of my first
00:05:56
Speaker
exposure to the Sounders. And so then when I moved to Seattle a couple months later, my wife was going to grad school at Seattle U. I quit my newspaper job, just decided to see if I could make it work in Seattle. I didn't know what I was going to be doing. And I thought it would be fun to just go check out the scene. So I went to watch
00:06:17
Speaker
some Sounders matches at, uh, at the Georgian dragon again was kind of blown away at the, the atmosphere. People were into it. I had gone to Europe. I had been, I was in Europe during the 2006 world cup and that was the first time I had experienced anything like that with domestic soccer where people were just in like watching from a bar, singing and chanting and doing all kinds of stuff like that. And I was kind of hooked at that point.
00:06:41
Speaker
Then in 2010, I saw that Sounder at Heart was on SB Nation, which was a platform I knew because I was an A's fan. Athletics Nation was essentially the first SB Nation site. I was familiar with the platform. I reached out to Dave Clark and just said, hey, I'm an experienced journalist. I'd love to contribute to your site. I'm not looking for payment or anything. Dave had started the site.
00:07:09
Speaker
You know, a year or two earlier, and he had just moved on to the Espionage platform. He was happy to have the help and it kind of just went from there. And, uh, in that year I was able to start getting credit, like the sounders were really, really, uh, like gracious with allowing outlets like sounder heart at the time center heart was a really small site.
00:07:33
Speaker
And they, they let us go out to training. They let us get game credentials and it kind of just took off from there. And it's, and it grew pretty rapidly, you know, by 2011, 2012, we were one of the, like one of the real established sites covering the, covering the team. We may have even been probably the biggest independent site covering the team by 2011.
00:07:55
Speaker
And, uh, and yeah, just kind of, I was able to get full time job at SB nation. And I kind of moonlit as doing standard heart work during that whole time. Dave and I have sort of gone back and forth and in running the site and.
00:08:12
Speaker
And then last year I saw the writing on the wall. Espionage didn't seem to be super interested in investing in soccer at that point. And I asked if we could take Senator Hart independent and they didn't really have, they didn't really resist. They sort of just let me take it and we launched it and it's gone really well.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's been great to see you guys thrive after going independent. I kind of knew you would. I knew you had this baseline of a community that you guys were going to do well in that setup. But it's been kind of inspiring to see that in action, to be honest with you. Jeremiah, thanks for laying down that backstory. And I have kind of a similar story of coming into the whole sounder scene as an outsider. I'm from New Mexico originally, and then went to Western Washington.
00:08:59
Speaker
was trying to get into journalism stuff when I was coming out of college. And I don't know if you remember this, man, but you're the original reason that I made my breakthrough. My story is that I went and shadowed at the Seattle Times. And one of the guys that I talked to there was a guy by the name of Josh Mayers, who was the Sounders beat reporter for the Seattle Times.
00:09:20
Speaker
at the time. And I was asking him for advice on what I should do and how to break in. And he was saying that he was leaving the beat right then and that the Sounders beat was likely going to go to a more experienced journalist, which turned out to be Matt Pence eventually. But he said he knew that you were departing that role at the time at your role as the ML at soccer.com.
00:09:43
Speaker
Sounders Beat writer, so he gave me your contact information. I sent you an email with some of my writing samples and you forwarded those along to a gentleman by the name of Matt Doyle, who is at the time editor at MLSSogger.com and he still writes for us. Obviously everyone knows Doyle, but Doyle saw my stuff and
00:10:06
Speaker
decided to give me a chance after talking it over with Simon Borg. And that was how I got on the Sounders beat originally as the MLSSoccer.com beat writer. And my story kind of starts from there. But you know, I think about this sometimes, Jeremiah, if I hadn't sent you that email referenced by Josh Mayers, like, I wouldn't be sitting here recording this podcast right now. So I appreciate you for that, man. I don't know if you remember that, but that is the- You know, it's funny, I did vaguely remember
00:10:36
Speaker
I obviously remember writing for AWSSoccer.com, the eponymous website that I guess is that, yeah, I do obviously remember that I did that for, I covered them, I think my, the only full season I covered them, I think was 2013, which was a weird year to cover, which was another weird year in Sounders history, which honestly was another year where the Sounders had another awful start, interestingly enough.
00:11:05
Speaker
And I remember the first game I covered for them was the K.C. Keller game in 2012. And then I guess I quit during the 2014 season because I got hired full-time by SB Nation. And I did remember sort of passing along. It's funny, I knew I had something to do with passing along your information.
Ari's Soccer Journalism Journey
00:11:28
Speaker
I'm glad that I don't know. I remember feeling like I gave a recommendation to hire you even. Yeah, I think you don't know what it was based on. Well, it was it was based on I had done an internship at Seattle PI and that's how I generated my writing samples and they one of the things they let me do with that internship was be really hands-on and be sort of the sounders guy because
00:11:51
Speaker
uh the the sports editor and the other sports reporter there at the time uh they weren't super into the sounders and mls and they let me cover a game and i remember having the same reaction that you were talking about like oh my god like this is incredible like i'm yeah
00:12:07
Speaker
100% down to be the guy while I'm interning here who just covers this team. And I was able to generate some really good samples through that. And I remember being very diligent and being like, OK, these need to be good because maybe I can leverage these into somehow lashing on and covering this team, whether it's part time or freelance, which the beatwriting gig at MLS soccer, that's what it is. But I just wanted some sort of in. So I remember
00:12:35
Speaker
really kind of trying to take seriously being the sounders guy for the PI while I was the intern there. And I sent you those samples. And I think that's... Oh, okay. Yeah, good. Well, I think I made a good call. I appreciate that. Yeah. And I definitely... I've always appreciated that recommendation, both from you and from Doyle and Simon, seeing my samples and giving me the chance. And I'd like to think I've taken it and ran with it.
00:13:01
Speaker
It is funny to think that Doyle was just editing random beatwriter copy back in the day. I know. That is really funny to think about. Yeah. His role has certainly evolved over the years. He's big. He's on Apple TV now. He's a big shot. He's definitely not editing my copy, which you're right. It's hilarious to think that that's what he was doing. Yeah.
00:13:28
Speaker
I feel like he needs to bring back the March of the match podcast that he was doing with Jonah Friedman. Oh, that's a throwback was was free chow and Nick Rosano. Yeah, it was like they're they had a they had a people are super into this content. I bet but they had a they had a San Francisco. What do they call it?
00:13:52
Speaker
They had a San Francisco office basically that Doyle and Jonah Friedman and maybe fear shell. I don't know if your show was I visited that office. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And anyway, it was just like there was such a funny little endeavor that they they cooked up.
00:14:08
Speaker
Oh man, this was a trip down memory lane. I don't know how many people are going to be into that, but I'm glad we laid it down because it was fun for me to take that trip down memory lane. In all seriousness, I think there's nothing wrong with a little backstory and kind of diving into how we got here. I feel like I learned a little bit about your backstory right there that I didn't necessarily know.
00:14:29
Speaker
But let's get into the actual content here. We really don't have to. I mean, it wasn't that. Yeah. Who cares? We owe everything to Buckshaw Stadium. We owe everything to Buckshaw Stadium.
00:14:42
Speaker
Um, I, I, cause I do want to actually talk about the game and the team. Uh, this is way more interesting.
Analyzing Sounders' Current Struggles
00:14:49
Speaker
Uh, I think, like I was saying, I think it's, uh, it's been an interesting season so far. So I'm curious to hear your perspective on it. You know, I've been listening to no Saudi at us. I always read post game pontifications and sounded heart and all that post game pontifications, man. It's like my, uh,
00:15:05
Speaker
my one of my postgame rituals is definitely opening that I'm always looking forward to hearing what you what you have to say after these games and especially this season where the season's not going particularly well and I think I've found that a lot of people are very interested in diagnosing what's going wrong which
00:15:25
Speaker
I think is totally fair, you know, when your team's in a situation like this with when they're in a really, really lackluster run of form, people want answers. So.
00:15:36
Speaker
The latest game, 0-0 draw at FC Dallas and the thriving metropolis of Frisco, Texas. Back to scoring zero after scoring five goals. And the first thing I'll say is that ordinarily 0-0 at FC Dallas is not that bad a result. In fact, there's a lot of scenarios where I think it's actually a pretty good result. The sounders don't do well in Frisco historically. A lot of that I think is due to the unforgiving
00:16:02
Speaker
weather and oppressive heat that you often find down there, which theoretically, I don't think that was as much of an issue in this game, but it's just been a hard place over the years for Seattle to pull any sort of result. And I usually look at FC Dallas away as if you can get a point, smash and grab and get out of there, that's usually a pretty good result.
00:16:21
Speaker
But I think unfortunately with the context of how much the offense has struggled this season and just where they are on the table. This was not a good draw. It was not a good 00 and it felt like
00:16:35
Speaker
possibly a little bit like regression back to sort of the struggles that we've seen from the team this season, particularly in attack and dating back to last season, which Noah and I have talked about on the show ad nauseam. S.C. Dallas started this game off out on top of Seattle.
00:16:52
Speaker
I think for the first about roughly 10 to 15 minutes of the game. And that's going to happen when you're the road team sometimes. And I thought Seattle, the first test you need to pass in a road game like this is if the game state becomes a situation where the home team is on top of you for those first 10, 15, or 20 minutes, whatever it is of the game, you need to be able to weather that and get out of it without conceding. That's the first test you need to pass. And to Seattle's credit, they did
00:17:21
Speaker
pass that test and I thought they took pretty good control of the game after that but unfortunately they couldn't score. There was a couple of big chances. Jordan Morris had a 1v1 where he beat the guy and sent in a really dangerous cross that no one could quite crash onto. That's one of the really good chances that comes to mind and then I actually didn't see this one. I was doing a
00:17:43
Speaker
Uh, some, you know, I was doing my duties on the MLS soccer editorial desk, but apparently Christian rolled on Mr. Sitter. I mean, can anyone confirm or deny? Okay. So definitely Mr. Sitter, definitely Mr. Sitter. So that sounds like, that sounds like it probably pumped up the XG a little bit. Um, anyway, I'm going to lay down my two biggest takeaways, just general takeaways. And then Jeremiah, I'll bring you in to, uh, get your thoughts both on the game and what you think of my takeaways. Okay.
00:18:08
Speaker
So I think my biggest takeaway from this game is, and we've talked about this a fair amount, but I want to see Cody Baker get more minutes. And it's not even about the New Who debate. I'm not really interested in rehashing the New Who debate this week. It feels like we do it every week and it's fine. I get it. People get frustrated with New Who and I don't begrudge anyone that. In fact, believe it or not, I feel many of those
00:18:33
Speaker
same frustrations when he is doing his thing in attack. You know, he had one shot in particular in this game where he, I think he lined it up right footed from like five to eight yards outside the box, which like in terms of low percentage shots in an MLS game,
00:18:52
Speaker
NuHoo lining up a right footer from that far outside the box is, I mean, that's about as low percentage as it gets. So like, I get why people get annoyed with that stuff. But I think it's worth investigating whether there was causation to the
Tactical Discussions and Player Performances
00:19:14
Speaker
correlation or whatever of how much better the offense looked against CF Montreal and the fact that Cody Baker was on the field. I think he is earning more minutes and I'm not saying that if you start him for new who it's guaranteed to turn the whole offense around and the team's going to look like they did against CF Montreal, but I think it's worth
00:19:34
Speaker
finding out because you do have a data point where the team looked incredible with Cody Baker on the field and He and then he doesn't even get in this game until the last like three to five minutes of the game I so I would just like to see it tested if Cody big didn't you didn't actually play I didn't he didn't sub on it He was he was getting ready to come in and then and then didn't come in and
00:19:59
Speaker
Okay, so there were not enough subs are we there's not enough subs we used all of our subs. Okay, so that's good that that's a good segue to my uh My second takeaway, which is that and a lot of people pointed this out in the twitter question So i'm sure we'll dive into it a little more but I think I would like to see the subs just come earlier like, you know, cody baker doesn't get in the game at all apparently uh and
00:20:23
Speaker
Like Danny Musofsky, he subs in what minute was it? 86th. 86 minute Danny Musofsky. Okay. That's not enough time, especially for a forward to make an impact in the game. Like that needs, that's, that needs to be, I would like to see it happen at more like 60 to 65. That gives him a nice, good little sample of minutes to try and actually make an impact.
00:20:45
Speaker
in the game if it's more like 70 to 75 that's still like 86 man like he the moose can't cook subbing on at 86 so um i think you you i i agree with the lineup that schmetz rolled out i agree with the reverting back to the 4-2-3-1 and i i talked about this on the on the solo dub pod last week i i would rue diaz needs to be starting but if you get to 60 to 65 and you're not scoring i don't even care if the xg is cooking like
00:21:15
Speaker
Let moose get on and actually have enough time to make an impact in the game. And, uh, and the same thing with Cody Baker, let him on earlier if you're not going to start him. So those were my two general takeaways from the zero zero draw at FC Dallas. Jeremiah, what did you think of this game? And what do you think of my takeaways?
00:21:44
Speaker
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00:22:10
Speaker
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00:22:40
Speaker
I think your takeaways are totally, uh, legit. I, I, I shared these fresh. I share your frustrations in terms of the subs. And I guess we'll get into this a little bit later, but I did, I asked Schmetzer about it and it was kind of a funny answer because earlier in the, in the podcast or earlier in the interview, he, he opened Frank basically with the idea that he was disappointed with, with only getting one point and that it felt like there were three points on the table for them. I agree with all that.
00:23:09
Speaker
But then when I asked about the lack of subs and that he had said he wanted to get Leo Chu on the field and do all these things, he kind of admitted that it was a little antithetical to his earlier belief that there was three points were there, but then he sort of got conservative and felt like, well, I don't want to blow this one point, which is a fair, look, if you can get a point on the road,
00:23:35
Speaker
I realized this is a game I think the Sounders should have been feeling like they could win, but you'll take a point on the road, right? I think their struggles in Dallas have sometimes been a little overblown. Their record there is not awful. They have a lot of ties there though, or recent ties especially.
00:24:00
Speaker
And yeah, you'll take, you'll take that point. I don't understand the desire to let Rudy Diaz play this deep into matches. You know, I was just looking at his, his game log and he has played at least 79 minutes in all, but one of his starts. And, and he's, he's only come out before the 85th minute, I think twice, which is just not
00:24:26
Speaker
You know, that's, that's not, I'm not seeing that. You know, he looked good last week. He looked really good last week. I think you got to start him this, like starting him at this point is almost a no brainer, but you don't need to roll with him for, you know, 86 minutes. The way he did in this one, he was really ineffective. This is Navy is most ineffective game all season. You know, he, he only had one shot. It was from distance. He's not getting into the box. You know, he's not, you know, playing him in behind is sort of like a pointless endeavor.
00:24:56
Speaker
He does some positive things, but you don't, like, Musoski has the energy. He's, he's shown that he can be productive. I think you, you got to pull them out much closer to 80, maybe even 75 minutes. I just don't see the point in, in rolling with him as long as they rolled with them. And you know, whatever, we'll, we'll probably get into the new who thing later, but it is, you know, it's, it's hard to ignore that they, they scored five goals last week without him on the pitch. And they, you know, they, they felt,
00:25:26
Speaker
like they had to play them 90 minutes in this one. I don't quite get that. I think there are definitely fair questions to ask about the sub patterns. I think that was, I won't say that's my biggest takeaway because it feels a little obvious to just say sub earlier, because it's like the easiest thing you can do to second guess. But I just think the idea that they were controlling the game in the second half, but they weren't,
00:25:53
Speaker
Creating chances. They only had one shot in the whole second half. It came early relatively early in the second half It was a great chance. That was the Jordan Morris header that he was sort of Screened a little bit and so he didn't get as clean of a look as he probably would have liked but it was a great chance They probably should have scored there. They probably should have scored on they definitely should have scored that roll dawn sitter It was an absolute sitter He basically if he sticks out his left foot that goes in the net and said he tried to right foot it and he kind of whiffed on it and
00:26:21
Speaker
I thought Morris's chance early on was a really good chance. It wasn't a, it was a shot. It wasn't a cross. And, and the goalkeeper made a really nice save to keep it out. In fact, even after he saved it, I thought it was still going to go in just because of the, the, the way he hit it. But you know, they, so they had their looks. I just think they got way too conservative down the, down the stretch. They had, they had players on the bench. It wasn't like,
00:26:50
Speaker
It wasn't like Paul Rothrock was the only option they had to bring off the bench.
00:26:56
Speaker
They had plenty of firepower players that could have potentially changed this game. I don't even think Paul Rothrock was on the bench. Oh, he wasn't. No, I think he had played for Tacoma or something. OK. Yeah, there you go. You know, we've talked a lot about Paul Rothrock on this show, but we've talked a lot about Moose on this show, too. And, you know, I think, you know, I was talking about Cody Baker earning his minutes. I think Moose has earned his absolutely here as well. Like, and it just, you know, I mean, I said it already, but
00:27:24
Speaker
Um, he needs enough time to actually make the impact that we've seen him make at times this year. I mean, he's one of the only players on the team to score from open play this year. I feel like we're also skirting around the issue of how many 70, 80 plus minute games can Raul play before he breaks.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a total like, even if you take like, I think that's a more sympathetic view of it is for his own good. It's not even about whether or not you trust it's, it's literally for his own good. How long are you going to let him keep playing? You know, again, last week I think it was a little different of a situation.
00:28:02
Speaker
the Sounders were controlling that match. He was, you know, he was, he had 11 shots in that game. I think that might be a Sounders record. I was never able to confirm that, but that's, he was, and he, he could have had three or four goals easily last week. He looked great. Let him play. If he wants to play 90 minutes last week.
00:28:18
Speaker
Great. Leave him on the field. This week, he was a complete opposite performance. He was ineffective. I think he only had 12 touches in the second half. Only three of those came after the 65th minute. This is not a guy that needed to be on the field. He just didn't need to be on the field.
00:28:35
Speaker
Yeah. Especially the circumstances of it being in a way game. Yeah. There's a million reasons to not have him on the field. Yeah. Lead in that game. He had zero for two accurate long balls. He went 16 for 21 on passing. He had 0.05 XG. I mean, if you know, if you take XG as a, as a reality, but, uh, yeah, it doesn't make sense. I mean, let, let him play him, play him for 45, play him for 55 sub on the move. Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
But that's what I said. 60 to 65. That's what I would have done. I mean, I think that should be the standard unless he is absolutely bawling like he was against Montreal. The assumption should be he should be coming off around 60 or 65, especially when you have a Danny Masovsky just waiting in the wings. I'm not going to sit here and campaign for Danny Masovsky to be starting, but he should be getting 20 or 30 minutes every game. There's no reason not to. Yeah, 100 percent. Cody Baker, you know,
00:29:35
Speaker
What do you think of the season he's had so far? Do you agree that it's worth starting him or at least giving him more minutes? And do you think, to your eye, was the improved performance versus Montreal
00:29:54
Speaker
attributable to Cody Baker's presence on the field. Like a lot of people seem to think I'm not as sure about that. I think really well, but I don't know if you can definitively say that the reason that the offense looked that good was specifically because it was Cody Baker on the field and not knew. I don't know about that.
00:30:13
Speaker
What do you think, Jeremiah? Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely a little bit more in your camp. I think it's a little bit of a causality versus coincidence. Is he causing the sounders to be so much better? That seems to be... That defies a certain level of logic. If your left back is that influential on your team, that's a bigger structural problem, I think.
00:30:39
Speaker
Exactly. That's just to jump in right there. That's right there. What you just said is my whole issue with the new who debate and like how much heat and slander he seems to take. Like like I said, I get the frustration. But if your whole offense falls apart because the left back is not like a good attacking fullback.
00:31:03
Speaker
That's not good. That's, that's, that's the issue more than the player. Okay. Yeah. Right. And, and like this idea that if the centers just played a back three, that all of a sudden knew who would be like, everything would cook perfectly. I'm pretty skeptical of that one too. Uh, if for no other reason, then you're talking about bringing in a left wing back for an attacking player, essentially at that point.
00:31:27
Speaker
But yeah, I, I think there's an argument to be made that Cody Baker could have started this game. I think there's an argument to be made that he should have come into this game earlier.
00:31:39
Speaker
I don't, you know, and, but I'm also reluctant to just blame new who's performance on, and yeah, he took a 20. I mean, he took that shot. As soon as he took that shot yesterday, I was pulling my hair out. Like, what are you doing? He's wide. He he's open, but that's a chance that the sounders had a extended possession or they were working possession. There were other passes available. I don't know what he, like, there should be a no.
00:32:01
Speaker
you never shoot just don't know you don't need to shoot that you've never scored that we started a bit we started a little bit in the stands one day just pass like every time he passed we just cheer it was like you made you completed a pass king thank you but he does and the thing that's frustrating is he does you know like even if you look at the first 10 minutes or whatever of the montreal game he actually was doing some positive things you know he he pushed into the attack several times where he broke pressure and he was
00:32:30
Speaker
you know i think he was he was effective i i'm willing to believe that the centers might have scored had a good game regardless of of his presence on there and defensively he's he's mostly a very good player i think we can overstate how good he is defensively but uh i i
00:32:47
Speaker
I guess what I'm saying is I would like to see more of Cody Baker, even though I don't believe that Cody Baker is what's the single, the singular variable that's going to turn everything around. It's worth, it's worth investigating. I think, you know, you do have this example of the team looking amazing when Cody Baker was on the field. And, you know, I did want to address one thing.
CF Montreal's Form and Upcoming Match Against Vancouver
00:33:12
Speaker
about that, which is that, you know, after the Montreal game, there was a fair amount of talk of, well, that result is categorically meaningless because CF Montreal are a bad team and therefore beating them doesn't count or doesn't matter. And, you know, I addressed that on the solo dub pod, which is that, you know,
00:33:35
Speaker
When you're playing an inferior opponent, the Seattle did exactly what you're supposed to do. So I gave them credit for that and I stand by it. But also, you want to know what CF Montreal did this week?
00:33:51
Speaker
They beat FC Cincinnati, who won the supporter shield last year and were top of the table, looking like shield contenders again this year. So I don't think they're a super great team, but if they were so bad that it's so easy to beat them by five goals, then why didn't FC Cincinnati do it?
00:34:08
Speaker
Well, Montreal has also been blown out exactly one time this year. Yeah, and that's the other thing. They actually took, they won away at Inter Miami, who I didn't have Messi in that game, but they still, they're still obviously loaded. They're not so bad that you can just look at a 5-0 victory over them and just categorically dismiss it because they're the worst team of all time. They're not the worst team of all time.
00:34:34
Speaker
They're probably a playoff team. I would at this point expect them to make the playoffs. I said last week that I expect them to miss the playoffs, and I don't want to get too caught up in week-to-week results of this early in the season, but I could totally see them making the playoffs in the East.
00:34:55
Speaker
Courtois, their new coach, is pretty good and knows what he's doing, which is two things that Hernan Losada, their last coach, I'm skeptical that he knew what he was doing. So they have a coach who knows what he's doing. They have Joseph Martinez bam the goal against FC Cincinnati, who if they get a second life from Joseph, that'd be huge for them. But anyway, not a CF Montreal pod. But the Seattle's win over Montreal was not this super easy Mickey Mouse win that a lot of the discourse made it out to be
00:35:25
Speaker
in the aftermath. Um, but I guess let's, let's talk about the Vancouver whitecaps a little bit because that's who's coming up next. Uh, they're, they're coming to Lumen field for match day 10. And this is not necessarily the time you want to be playing the Vancouver whitecaps. This has been one of the best teams in the league this year. They were, uh, they were top of the West until last night when they lost three, one at VC place to the LA galaxy, which we're going to talk about that game in the winners and losers section.
00:35:54
Speaker
But the LA Galaxy are also one of the best teams in the league right now. So that was really a clash of early season heavyweights, which is a little bit funny to be using the term heavyweight with the Vancouver Whitecaps. But I think they have kind of earned that moniker a little bit early in the season here. This looks like a really good team. I really liked their roster when I look at it. It seems like they've done a great job of
00:36:16
Speaker
Finding building blocks specifically ryan gold and ryan white in attack and uh, it seems like they've improved a lot on defense and they're coming to town and They're not going to show any mercy. This is a rivalry game. Um, they have One of the better attacking teams in the league right now. They're going to feel like they can beat a vulnerable seattle team um, so
00:36:42
Speaker
I don't know. When I look at this game, I kind of like Vancouver here. I don't know about you guys. Jeremiah, have you watched much Whitecaps this year and just kind of what are your feelings going into this game coming off the Dallas game?
00:36:55
Speaker
Well, I'll, I'll start by saying that I had Dallas or I had a Vancouver as my second team in the West going into the season. I thought like I, I, I thought the sounders were going to win the West. I don't know if I would, I probably wouldn't predict that today, but I did, I did really like the whitecaps coming into the season. I think they play an attractive brand of soccer.
00:37:18
Speaker
you know, uh, Vanny Sartini is a fun coach. He like, I think he has a great sort of perspective on, on life and the game. And so it's, it's fun to see them doing well. Uh, it, I do think they're vulnerable. Like they're not, they're not going to be shutting any, like the sounders should feel like they can score some goals in this game.
00:37:39
Speaker
Although, I don't know, it will be very funny if they have two wins against two Canadian sides and they go, they're winless against California teams this year. They're a weird symmetry, but, or pointless against California teams so far. I mean, I don't know. I always give the Sounders a good, better than 50-50 chance of winning at home. So I don't, and I don't, the Whitecaps do not have a great history of success in Seattle. That's true. That's true.
00:38:04
Speaker
So I would think there's plenty of reasons to think the Sounders can win this game I'm not going into feeling like they're gonna get played off the park and frankly for as frustrating as the results have been this year for the Sounders I think you can say in every game That there have been one or two plays that ultimately kept them from getting a better result It's not like they are getting outclassed by anyone. They are they've made some dumb mistakes. They've failed to convert some convertible chances
00:38:34
Speaker
And in that way, I thought the Dallas game was very emblematic of their entire season, which is you can see the promise. You can see how close they are to putting it together that they still haven't put it together on a consistent basis. Going, you know, seven games into the season is what's really frustrating and.
00:38:52
Speaker
And so all of that, I give the centers a good chance in this one. I think it's probably as good of a time as any to play Vancouver just because they are coming off a frustrating result. Maybe they don't strike me as the most
00:39:09
Speaker
like they're, they're not coming into this, into this game feeling like, Oh, that was a blip. And we are oozing with confidence because they frankly haven't really won much over their entire history. Like they, I know they won the Canadian championship last year, but they,
00:39:26
Speaker
They are not a team that has a long history of success. They don't have, you know, a roster full of players who are brimming with confidence that they in self-belief that they just know that, you know, any, any hiccup is going to be picked up the next week. So, you know, it's, it's probably as good of a time as any to deface the white caps, but they're, they're a very good team. You know, they, they could easily win this game, but I don't know. I still feel I give the sounders a better than 50 chance to pull it out.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah. See, I don't know. I feel like, uh, what happened in the galaxy game, I was watching that game and oh man, it was, it was a good game. It was the game that I was looking forward to the most. Cause you had these two teams that are both top of the West right now and they were, they were going at it. And, uh, so the galaxy ended up winning three, one. Um, but it was, it was a close game. It was a competitive game. Uh,
00:40:17
Speaker
the galaxy were up one zero uh kind of deep into the second half and then the white caps get a brian white equalizer off a set piece and then uh the galaxy scored two between the 80th and the 82nd minute i'm going to talk about that game because i had some takeaways on that game in the next section um but i really i don't know i feel like the
Listener Engagement and Critiques
00:40:37
Speaker
even with that loss, the white caps, their vibes, I think they're feeling good about themselves right now. And with Seattle looking as vulnerable as they are, I think they're going to go into this game feeling like it's not going to be one of those games where
00:40:52
Speaker
as the road team, they're going to be looking at a point as the goal. I think Vanny Sartini is going to have them going in this game, trying to get all three points. Noah, if you have the questions pulled up, let's get into those now and we'll talk about some of the questions, takes, and observations that came from you, the people.
00:41:13
Speaker
Uh, and then we'll do, uh, winners and losers from bash day 10 in MLS before we get out of here. But yeah, right now let's dive in to some of, to some of your questions and see what you guys all thought about the, uh, zero, zero draw at FC Dallas and the state of the team. Uh, Noah, go ahead and fire away. And Jeremiah, if you want to jump in on these by all means, uh, feel free to. To answer some of these as well with your thoughts, lob your scorchers, perhaps. Yes.
00:41:40
Speaker
I think the biggest question that we got today, so I'm just going to kind of. Yeah, I'm going to regenerate my own question also because I'm interested in hearing this. There was just a lot of discourse around Cody Baker, which I know we touched on, but I wanted to just read the new who stat line from the last game and then kind of plop that in everyone's memory. And then we can pontificate around if, you know, that would have made a difference on attack knew who was over one on shots. He was three for three on successive dribbles.
00:42:08
Speaker
or successful dribbles can't speak today over to on accurate crosses and three for six on accurate long balls and then a defense he went over one on tackles had one clearance one headed clearance and then went five and eight on ground duels and over to on aerial duels
00:42:28
Speaker
Uh, and in my own analysis, minus the stat I test, uh, looked, looked to not be getting back as normal. Uh, so yeah, I think the biggest question is what does Cody Baker have to do to even just like get on the field? And why is Brian so insistent on continuing to play new who when us non coach folks are, are very interested in seeing a new look.
00:42:54
Speaker
because I think a lot of what this gets judged on is not necessarily the stat line for an individual game but how the defense is playing as a unit and they got a clean sheet in this game and there is a long history of
00:43:12
Speaker
this team playing at a high level on defense with New Who in the starting lineup. They have won multiple trophies with New Who as a starter on this team. Their defense was historically good in some ways last year. They kept a lot of clean sheets. They remained as competitive as they did and got second in the West because of their defense and New Who was a part of that. All these things with the New Who debate.
00:43:36
Speaker
I get that he's an easy target and he's frustrating to watch an attack and he offers nothing in attack and the left side of the attack becomes, those are all valid points and I do agree with them. But I feel like the flip side of it of what he does bring to the table gets lost in that. And I mean, look, I know a lot of people aren't going to agree with me on this and this isn't a popular take. I don't really care. I think he gets scapegoated in some ways for like,
00:44:04
Speaker
While all the issues that people bring up about him are very valid and I understand the frustration, the defense in general is just not, it's not the problem with this team. It's not. The defense was great last year. I think it's been mostly good this year with some individual unfortunate concessions and some definitely some mistakes that knew who has made in defense. And I would even grant that he has
00:44:28
Speaker
regressed a little bit in his defending, at least so far this year. But for me, when I look at a 0-0 draw where the problem was that they couldn't score again, I just don't, I'm not, I don't care really that much about the left back's stat line. I don't really
00:44:48
Speaker
care if there was a couple individual errors that he made that led to chances on the other end in a game where they kept a clean sheet. I'm much more concerned about the offense than the defense. That's just, that's my take on the, on the new who discourse coming out of this game.
00:45:05
Speaker
I guess a big piggyback on that. If we're going to pick on one of the full backs in terms of the contributions they had to this game, you know, I think they, the centers clearly rely on their full backs for a lot of the, the touches. I mean, both, both new who and Alex Roldan frequently ranked pretty highly if not leading the team in touches per game.
00:45:28
Speaker
But they, but they really do need Alex to produce offense and he was great against Montreal. He was, I guess, fine against, against Dallas, but he didn't do much going forward. And I think that's really where, you know, they, they need to be able to inject a little bit more life into.
00:45:47
Speaker
the offense from one of those positions. And if they're not getting anything, and frankly, Christian didn't do a whole lot in this game either. You know, Christian had that absolute sitter. He had one decent cross that or one good cross that probably should have set up a goal for Jordan Morris.
00:46:03
Speaker
but really wasn't as involved as the Sounders need him to be. I'm a little bit more concerned with his play, with Christian's play. I'm a little bit more concerned with the reluctance to sub out Raul Rui Diaz. And I think that those are probably bigger issues than whether or not it's Cody Baker or Newhoo at left back.
00:46:24
Speaker
And to be fair, Alex Roldan put up basically the exact same numbers that knew who did in terms of, you know, attacking play and attacking crossing and accuracy and all of that. So I'm lobbing my take here because I have to because this is I feel like I'm dying on this mountain. But it's it's more than just like it's more than just the you know, the stats and all of that. I just think that
00:46:50
Speaker
the vibes of new who being in that role is so weird and like you were saying Jeremiah the touching like having the most touches come out of your wing backs and your full backs and all of that you need someone who when they're making a play on the ball they could actually be successful in moving the ball like you were talking about earlier again like
00:47:11
Speaker
Instead of just passing the ball off when you've held extended possession and we know that you can be successful painting the ball around and moving and kind of breaking apart that defense when you have a player who is moving the ball forward at as high of a percentage as he is and rolled on is
00:47:28
Speaker
they need to be good at that. And when you have Cody Baker, someone who maybe what you will lose in gelling of the defense and of like knowledge when it comes to one-on-one defending or whatever people might want to say as new whose benefit you gain in attacking movement and connecting passes. So when your entire formation relies on your wing backs to distribute,
00:47:52
Speaker
Why, why in the hell would you ever play a player who cannot do shit in the attacking, you know, the attacking part of the field? That's just I don't know. That just blows my mind. Also, you know, no, I understand what you're saying. No. And I think you are speaking for a healthy segment of the fan base with some of those concerns. And, you know, I don't mean to dismiss those concerns. I mean, I think it goes back to kind of the point Jeremiah brought up.
00:48:21
Speaker
earlier, which is that, I mean, strikes me just as an over-reliance on the, on the left back for offensive output. Like if you have a player with new skill set that he, that he doesn't bring those things to the table, then it's on coming on, on the coaches and the players to adjust and find different ways of generating offense that don't, that don't rely on a player doing stuff that's outside of his skillset.
00:48:49
Speaker
I just don't think the system's bad necessarily. I think it's like you have pieces to plug the holes. Why not try it or like I said, I've been pro giving Cody Baker more minutes for kind of exactly that reason. I just don't I just don't really see it as like a. It's not a new who slander issue for me, it's just about trying something different.
00:49:13
Speaker
The drum has been banged and we move on. It will continue to be banged. Don't you worry. Uh, regression back to the mean. This team is still floundering. Question statements. We're sending that one off to Ari. I kind of said that the last game was a sport in Kansas city esque from the season before where they bammed and then look how the season turned out. Probably too early to tell, but I'm sending that off into, into the ether.
00:49:38
Speaker
It's too early to tell. That's what we're going to find out in the next few weeks. They have another game coming up against Vancouver. If they go out and score a bunch of goals and win that game, then I don't think we'll be as certain that this is regression.
00:49:54
Speaker
back to their previous issues. But if they go out these next few weeks and the offense looks exactly the same and they're scoring zero to one goals per game and they're not taking the necessary results they need to go up the table, then yeah, I mean, unfortunately, that's how we'll probably look back on this game. And the CF Montreal game will look like an outlier, but you can't say that really, I don't think based off this one game.
00:50:18
Speaker
No, uh, yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't think it's, it's, it's too much to say that this is one it's, it's part of a narrative for sure. That the sounders are underperforming what we want them to be doing. I don't know that this game in particular has me particularly more worried. I'll be much more.
00:50:38
Speaker
Either way, next week's game against Vancouver was going to be much more telling. If they had won this game 1-0 or they lost this game 1-0, ultimately, I think the more telling result is going to be what happens in Vancouver. And then they have this huge road trip coming up with DC and Philadelphia. And in the next few weeks, one way or another, we're going to find out a lot about this team. All of a sudden, the games are going to start coming really quickly. And we're going to be
00:51:09
Speaker
Our opinion of the scene is going to be less valid and the results are just going to be what they are.
00:51:15
Speaker
And let's not like just actually push away the fact that this team still got a point on the road against in Dallas, which has historically been a good thing to get a point on the road. So that is, uh, we, we do have to acknowledge that. I think it's easy to just push that aside, but they did get a result. They did get a point. That's a good thing. So does anyone repeatedly contribute to the name wrecking all stars as so often as Warren Barton does with Diaz, Ruby Diaz in parentheses?
00:51:43
Speaker
I know. Warren Barton is a boon for the Albotch name, Albotch name 11, which is a bit that I've been doing for many years, where every time a Sounders player's name gets butchered on the broadcast, I've created a whole lineup of them. Some of the greats over the years include Kevin Lierdom, Sebastian Fry, Eric Freiberg, Jovian Jones, Rudy Diaz. There's been a lot of them. Ruben Torres was in there.
00:52:10
Speaker
It just, uh, I don't, I don't think that it necessarily happens to sounders players more than any other team, but like, since I started cataloging them, it just, it happens. Uh, it feels like once every couple of weeks and you know, without, I know that broadcasting is a hard job, but like there, some of them like Sebastian Fry. How did that.
00:52:31
Speaker
How did that happen? I don't know. It's just not, it's just not his name. But there was, I noticed that too, Noah, Diaz was getting a lot of play on this broadcast, which I've heard him called Rudy Diaz before, which, and I've also, there was also, one of my all-time favorites, I just remembered this, was someone called him Paul Rudy Diaz, and just the...
00:52:54
Speaker
That's what we call Paul Rothrock. Yeah, exactly. So good good content for the all botched name 11 for this one. Thank you. Whoever pointed that out. I got to just say the warm. I don't think there's any announcer in the in the catalog in the in the fox sock or in the the Apple TV
00:53:17
Speaker
Universe who is less prepared and has more reliance on cliches than one Warren Barton He he has must have his agent must be doing Amazing work to make sure that he's not just getting jobs But he's getting like he was working the world this guy was working the World Cup last year amazing amazing work by his by his agent I'm just you he he must get paid by the minute and
00:53:47
Speaker
Every time the play-by-play announcer thought about a pause, Barton was in with a nonsensical observation that had very little to do with what was actually going on and looked like he was just reading from his list of cliches.
00:54:03
Speaker
My favorite was, he starts talking, oh, the Saunders have been not great in attack. Jordan Morris hasn't even had a touch yet in this game. He had like, at that point he had a shot across and like eight passes. And I was like, are we watching the same game?
00:54:19
Speaker
He was in citizens that Omar Gonzalez is one of the best center backs in the league. They just, they were losing their mind over the Sebastian legit header as if it would just absolutely was like a gimme goal. And without acknowledging that fry pretty much like it could have been a goal, don't get me wrong, but like Friday had it covered. He was, he was well positioned to, I mean, I don't know, it was just all over the place.
00:54:41
Speaker
Just Warren Barton is for me just he has to be the lowest ranked announcer that that Apple's employing. Ari, I think we found a new job for you. I think we need to get you we need to get you an agent and get you cooking because if this guy can get this guy can get jobs consistently. I don't know. I don't want to I don't want to contribute to the all botched name 11. I know if I got on the mic that I would I would realize
00:55:08
Speaker
what happens hey listen there'd be some sick clips though you doing some some cool slang terms there uh i kind of this is this wasn't brought up but uh i i wanted to ask about it because because jeremiah reminded me here fry's performance was was awesome
00:55:24
Speaker
He's been good the last two weeks. He had the save he made against EF Montreal. I forgot to talk about it on the solo dub pod, but that was a huge save. Yeah, there was a little bit of debate earlier this season because Andrew Thomas played pretty well and saved a penalty, like, who was his fry's job under siege. I think the last couple weeks have kind of tabled that. Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to know because I felt like people were banging that drum and then
00:55:49
Speaker
Radio silence now, where the haters at? They get quiet. No hate to Vargas, but why sub off Atencio instead of Obed after seeing so much success with Atencio JP duo last season?
00:56:03
Speaker
I mean, I thought it was a reason. My assumption is that the sounders were just going off of the performance yesterday. Vargas was, I thought, really good in that game. Vargas, I know, is sort of a divisive figure also in the fan base. And I get it. I was also very frustrated that he continued to start over Atencio last year. I think I would consider myself one of the bigger Atencio stands out in the world.
00:56:30
Speaker
But I was totally fine with this particular sub. I know the Sounders generally believe that Obed and JP are more complimentary of one another. I don't know if I totally agree with them on that. But in this game, Obed was having a better match than Josh. And I had no problem with that sub. I think Obed has looked a little
00:56:50
Speaker
a little better the last couple weeks. The thing I wanted to see from him is, you know, I feel like he holds his own out there, but for a player that's clearly as talented as he is and has the pedigree that he's developed, I would just like to see him, you know, impacting games more, getting on the stat sheet more. I know he has the ability to be
00:57:08
Speaker
a guy who picks up assists at the very least even though he's maybe not that gold dangerous a player. So it was I loved seeing him get a secondary assist and that's the kind of step I want to see him taking and if he if he shows that he's taking steps like that he's got to get his minutes because he's a very talented guy.
00:57:25
Speaker
Yeah. Just based on foot mob rating, which, you know, take it or leave it. A tensio had a 6.4 and Vargas had a 7.7. He was the number two in terms of a rating on the team just behind fry. So he was one of the best field players, I would say. So, uh, if you're gonna, if you're gonna look at that, that's, that's basically how it goes. Um,
00:57:48
Speaker
yeah i don't know i think that's probably all of the the good questions out there honestly i didn't get that many i haven't been getting as many since uh the sounders uh stopped losing these games and they've taken a win in a draw now no one wants to ask the questions but yeah anyway i mean i can i can love one more i got one
00:58:07
Speaker
All right. Go ahead. Go ahead. You know, I conspiratorial and I don't agree with this, but I'm going to lob it anyway. Okay. New crest. It ruined. It ruined to this club. Guys, what are we doing? The brand. See, this is what happens when you rebrand. I mean, I think the, uh, I like the galaxy brain that where you're going with that. I think the problem is that, uh,
00:58:27
Speaker
a lot of the issues that we've been talking about, especially on offense, they date back to the old crest. So I don't know if the timeline exactly matches up with that conspiracy, but I like where your head's at.
00:58:39
Speaker
I also, selfishly, I was one of the biggest drum bangers on getting rid of the old crest. And so I feel like I have a lot invested in rejecting this theory, totally selfishly. So I'm going to, I'm just not even going to pay attention. People gave me so much. I dug in on the, on the Olympic white curse back in the day and people like to throw all kinds of other stuff at me.
00:59:04
Speaker
as a refutation, as if I really believed there was an actual curse on this thing. And so this has been a popular thing that I've heard, but no, I'm fully rejecting the crest changes as a cause.
00:59:20
Speaker
I loved that Olympic white kit, so everyone else can shove it, dude. That's one of my faves. I get into this a lot. Are you talking about Olympic white or heritage white that you like? I like both. I love the heritage white. I think I was talking about heritage. Olympic is the one with the green. The heritage white was the one that had the collar. The Olympic white was just the plain white tee.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, but it had the green trim, right? With the with the did have green. Yeah, you're right. And that was the that was the Dempsey rip up the the notebook red card jersey. You're yes. You're correct. How do you guys not like that? That shit rocks. That's that's that's mine. But they were wearing the green shorts with that one, which is even more in shorts. I would have, you know, I could have got behind it.
01:00:03
Speaker
My favorite sounders kit of all time was the was the black one that they had that exact that nuclear orca. Yeah. Yeah. And that was that was the first black. So I love that. It is just a. Yeah. All right. Well, if we're good on questions, let's let's dive into some around the league stuff a little bit. Jeremiah, you get to stick around for. Yeah. That's for this. All right. Yeah. Appreciate appreciate your time.
01:00:28
Speaker
Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. I'm going to continue to crowdsource those after I think every single game and we'll talk about what you guys have to say about the team. You know, I always want to take the pulse of the streets and figure out what, how people are feeling, especially during a kind of tough time like this. I think it's, it's interesting and important to see how the people are feeling. Well, I got to tell you from one content producer to another, there's nothing quite like
01:00:54
Speaker
reader-sourced questions to help flesh out your ideas. I'm a big supporter of allowing the people to have a say just because it makes your job so much easier. It really does.
01:01:11
Speaker
I think the the sounder at heart comments section there's some there's some blazing hot takes in there but there's some uh there's always actually some genuinely good takes in there and then people I whenever I dive into it I'm always struck by some people will like will pop off for like 1.4k words uh and but it's like I love that passion you know it's like it shows how much they care oh yeah I will say just to digress a little bit
01:01:35
Speaker
when the lineup came out, someone said, I can't believe we're just playing for a point. And I thought that was the funniest comment because it was literally the exact same line. If they started in their five zero win last week, now it ended up playing out zero zero. So I guess maybe they knew something I didn't, but nothing about that lineup struck me as bunkering and just playing for a point. But I digress. I mean, maybe they're talking about new over Baker. That's exactly what that was. In fact, their entire, their, their entire premise. Listen, he's, he's the one.
01:02:04
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Baker is the one. It's just being bunkering and playing for five. Okay, so let's let's jump into winners and losers from match day, match day nine and MLS. And I'm going to do a historic first here to lead this one off and see what you guys think. I have a club here that's going to be the first club to ever be named both a winner and a loser on the same episode of Lobbings Quarchers.
Inter Miami's Mixed Results and Messi's Impact
01:02:28
Speaker
And for that honor, and it's going to we're going to we're going to do a
01:02:31
Speaker
a little bit more of a general discussion briefly about concave champions cup after this, but the club is inner Miami. They're, they're in the loser's section this week because they bombed out of concave champions cup to CF Monterey. And that was, I mean, this team was supposed to win concave champions cup, like straight up, they were, they were not supposed to go out.
01:02:52
Speaker
when they went out here at the hands of a CF Monterey team, which is really good, but you know, inner Miami, they're supposed to be, they're supposed to be that team with the roster that they have assembled. And I really thought they had a great chance to win this competition based on how I've seen them play at times, since they signed Messi and the Barca boys.
01:03:11
Speaker
And then, but they're also in the winner's section because they did take a 3-2 victory over sport in Kansas City, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday. Messi scored a banger, Luis Squares scored a game winner, and they're still like top of the table and looking like shield contenders.
01:03:30
Speaker
So, um, there's, there's a lot to unpack with inner Miami right now. There's kind of a duality at play with how they bombed out of CCC, but how I thought, I thought that sporting Kansas city game. All right. I mean, I'll give you my first takeaway. They went down in that game, one zero. And then I think they were down to one as well. They had to come back to get that win.
01:03:50
Speaker
And when they went down, the discourse immediately was, maybe this team is just not very good and not as good as everyone thought it was. I thought they were. And they have no defense. And the Barcelona boys are old. And maybe they're just bad. I saw a little bit of that. And as soon as I saw all that discourse starting to surface,
01:04:15
Speaker
I'll be honest, my first thought was like, I'm not buying into this really at all. I know that they bombed out of CCC really badly and that I'm down to make fun of them for that. I think inner Miami's failures are comedic in nature, but I still kind of stand by my initial evaluation of watching that team with all their pieces in place, which is that like when, when they have the Barca boys healthy,
01:04:46
Speaker
They play attacking soccer at a level that I really just, no, I don't think I've seen an MLS team hit. You could put those crazy dominant LAFC teams up there. They have some competition, but it's, I mean, it's electric to watch when they are at their peak form.
01:05:04
Speaker
And I thought this sporting Kansas City game was a good example of how even though, even when they had their, they are a bad defense and messy just scores a banger out of nowhere, which he's been doing his whole career, obviously. But, um, and then they, they Suarez scores and they win the game. He has the most goal contributions in the league, I think, uh, both in regular season play. And then if you factor in,
01:05:28
Speaker
champions cup as well. Their ceiling is inherently different than any other team in the league. And I don't really think any differently on that.
01:05:39
Speaker
just because they lost in Champions Cup, which is admittedly embarrassing, but they didn't have Messi in the first leg of that series. I think if they do have Messi in the first leg of that series, they probably win that series. And a lot more of their issues are going to be due to whether they can keep these guys healthy rather than what their ultimate ceiling is when they have their roster fully in place. So anyway, if anyone's got any inner Miami takes coming off this kind of duality of results,
01:06:08
Speaker
submit them now. I, I'll just say that I think that this week illustrates pretty fairly what Miami is, which is when they are at their best, they are almost without question the best team in the league. Like if they have everyone available and firing, nobody, like their ceiling is higher than every other team in the league. I don't, I don't even know if that's a question. I don't think that was ever really a doubt, frankly, at the beginning of the season, but for those of us who were
01:06:37
Speaker
saying pump the brakes on the expectations a little bit I don't think it was about their ceiling it was about well what's this team's floor and how much can we really expect all these 30 plus you know 35 year old players to play like if you know Messi's gonna miss games that's reality Luis Suarez no one doubts that this is one of the best the most talented players in MLS history
01:07:00
Speaker
But how many minutes can he really be expected to play? How many minutes can Sergio Busquets be expected? How many, you know, Jordy Elba is basically playing every minute of every game, it seems like. Is that something that we should really expect? And then, and as it is, they have all these injuries.
01:07:15
Speaker
that are gonna start, you know, that are presumably, and these are to their younger players mostly. So what happens when these older players start getting hurt? I think that's really what the questions are. And I just think that that makes their floor a little lower than sometimes the pundits at certain places like to pretend. But, you know, Messi was unstoppable. You know, he had an amazing goal and an amazing assist yesterday.
01:07:44
Speaker
What are you going to do? I mean, the guy is a player to ever play the game. Yeah. His goal in that game. It's just like, it's so tough because you know, him more than any other player that's ever played the game, you need to close him out right there. But just if you just look at where he's at on the field, like it must be so, he's so far out. Like as a defender, it must just be such like a psychological hurdle to think that he's has any chance of
01:08:12
Speaker
putting up a high percentage shot from that spot on the field. And then he just makes it like more times than not. I don't know. It's the first time that I've really been watching most of Messi's games live because when he's on Barcelona and playing for PSG, I'm not watching those games live. I see the highlights. But it's the first time I've consistently watched him live. And it's really just, it is amazing to watch. I love watching it. And I would say it's lived up to what we thought
01:08:42
Speaker
it could be
01:09:02
Speaker
available minutes or at least somewhere maybe more like 7075 but that they need them to be carrying a huge load this year and at their age I don't know if they can do that but uh it's a good segue into the other thing I wanted to talk about with this which is that MLS teams in general are not they're really not doing well in Champions Cup this year um the Columbus crew are still in it but everyone else is bombed out the results are super lopsided against League of MX clubs um
MLS Challenges in Champions Cup
01:09:28
Speaker
And there's been there's been some talk from from the pundits, including our friends over the the athletic that the the talk of progress in the aftermath of Seattle's victory in this competition in 2022 was overblown and that the breakthrough evidently only occurred because the Seattle Sounders were afforded an easy path.
01:09:48
Speaker
to Conchcraft Champions League as it was known back then, Glory, which, you know, that's an opinion that some people might hold. But, you know, it's funny, as someone who's invested in the Seattle side of all this, I'm just kind of sitting back watching everybody crash and burn and kind of feeling like, you know, yeah.
01:10:10
Speaker
It's a pretty hard competition to win, isn't it? It's not for everybody. It's not easy. There is no easy path in pocket cap Champions Cup. That is not that doesn't exist. OK, just as a concept, I'll say that I cover I've covered countless of these games at this point. Most of the runs that I covered with Seattle in it.
01:10:31
Speaker
did not end particularly well. Every single year, I watch teams bomb out of this competition. The New England Revolution lost their series 9-2 on aggregate. Wait, but I thought they were one of the best teams in the league. Our friends at the Athletic had them
01:10:51
Speaker
It was one of the league's better sides at the New England Revolution. Unfortunately, lost nine to two on aggregate in their in their concave champions. What was that? What were they even basing that on their supporter shield two years ago? No, it was based on the fact that they were a good team last year and they weren't. They were OK. They were like.
01:11:11
Speaker
Barely they were. I don't know. Yeah, I can't really. I don't really know about that. They have Bobby Wood. OK, they have Bobby Wood. They do have Bobby Wood. They have Carlos Hill. Maybe that's what the take was from. I don't know. I'm not here to litigate what the takes from our friends at the athletic, even though I just did. But I'm here for that. I'm like just to finish just to finish my my thought here. It's just.
01:11:38
Speaker
It kind of, I think it paints Seattle's accomplishment in an even more positive light, watching all this. And after the revs got crashed out, this is what I was going to hit on. Caleb Porter, he's basically like, this is unfair. They have 11 DPs out there. How am I supposed to compete with this? This is ridiculous. And there's all this talk about
01:11:59
Speaker
The roster rules and regulations needing to be relaxed for MOS clubs taught us that the same thing in this competition. And that's why, that's why inner Miami got knocked out. And, you know, I'm sitting here like, well, then how did, how did Seattle win it? How did Seattle win it? If it's impossible to win because every league MX team has 11 DPS.
01:12:18
Speaker
And the roster rules and regulations are such that it's not a level playing field. How did Seattle win it? And I'm not even saying that because I disagree that the roster rules and regulations need to be relaxed to make it a more level playing field and more realistic for MLS teams to compete consistently. I'm just saying a team did win it. Caleb Porter is talking about how it's impossible because they have 11 PDPs.
01:12:48
Speaker
I feel like if you want to say that any team had an easy path to win it, why are we not talking about 2020 when LAFC literally got to play every single one of their games in the US and never once had to go to Mexico and then still absolutely bottled the final?
01:13:05
Speaker
Great point, phenomenal. Noah, you don't hit very often, but you cooked on that one. Like, what are we talking about? This article was just absolutely... And I get it. Like, Jeremy, I was talking about, I think before we even started recording, it was a throwaway line. But this shit is just so dumb. Like, what are you talking about?
01:13:24
Speaker
It's just dumb. Like you said, there are no easy paths to Champions League. If you want to say that the Sounders had an easier path than the crew would potentially have this year, I would be willing to accept that. If the crew wins Champions League this year, first of all, that's going to blow a lot of narratives out of the water that MLS can't compete, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:13:48
Speaker
But they will go through an absolute murderer's row if they win this. I don't want to take anything away from this year being a particularly challenging year for MLS because all the big teams...
01:14:04
Speaker
you know, more MLS teams got into the Champions Cup this year because it's expanded, but it also opened the door for more League of Namekis teams to get in. And as a result, all the big League of Namekis teams got in at once, which that does not happen every year. You know, there is a there is a crapshoot nature to who qualifies for Conker Gap Champions League, Champions Cup, whatever, every year. And it's true that when the Sounders got in,
01:14:28
Speaker
they're the same, you know, they didn't have to play a Monterey. They didn't have to play teaguers. They didn't have to play America. Okay. Fair enough. They didn't have to play those three teams, but they played a very good lay on team. They played a Pumas team that was decent. Let's also not forget that when
01:14:44
Speaker
that when Toronto failed to win Champions League, they played Chivas, who was one of the worst teams in the league in League of Mechis the year that they lost. So it's not like every year is not created equal. And by the standard of previous Champions League winners, I think the Sounders road stacks up very favorably in terms of difficulty.
01:15:04
Speaker
That's one issue. But this year's tournament is a potentially bad reflection on MLS because
01:15:15
Speaker
Like the reality is that the top three or four teams in Mexico are still really, really good. They still spend a shit ton of money. They still can field, you know, 11 designated players or whatever the equivalent of that is. And that's, that's always sort of been true. The best teams in league M X M equis are still better than the best teams in MLS. I don't think that's really a question. Uh, the question has always been, has the gap shrunk?
01:15:43
Speaker
between everything else. And I think it is. I mean, I think league's cup was probably a good indication of the fact that as a whole, the league's compared pretty favorably, but you know, uh, Monterey is spending a hundred million dollars on their roster or whatever.
01:15:58
Speaker
100%. And like, I definitely, you know, Steve Trundello was talking about this after LAFC is classic getting bounced out of champions cup too. And I think it's kind of the MLS coach thing to do after you get bounced at a champions cup, you go to your press conference and you, you light it up by talking about how it was impossible for you to win because of the roster rules and regulations. That's all, that's all well and good. And I don't, I don't disagree that
01:16:25
Speaker
the most important step to actually meaningfully closing that gap to where there's not a gap anymore is going to be more even spending. I don't debate that. But I just think it's funny when it gets talked about how it's impossible.
01:16:46
Speaker
As someone who's invested in Seattle, I'm not going to lie. I really don't mind sitting back and watching all these other teams crash out of it, including in your Miami. I just talked about how I think they have the highest ceiling and play some of the best attacking soccer, the best attacking soccer of any MLS club that I've ever watched, and they couldn't even do it.
01:17:10
Speaker
So I'm just saying, I think the whole thing is kind of a boon for Seattle. It's just funny to write that. Again, let's not pretend when the Sounders won it that it was some kind of easy path. They still went to Mexico, played legs, did not lose a game.
01:17:30
Speaker
had positive gd plus 10 what was it it was like 12 or 13 or something at the end they dominated the tournament they i'm i'm pretty sure i looked this up i'm almost positive the sounders had the best goal difference in champions league history uh the
01:17:45
Speaker
the year that they won it, they were, they were done. Like we should not turn this into trying to diminish. And that's what kind of was frustrating about that whole thing is that it sort of diminished the sounders accomplishment with the, just a complete throwaway line without giving any sort of real attention or analysis to it. And I think that that's, it sort of distracts from the issue, which is there is a gap between league iMac keys and MLS.
01:18:07
Speaker
And you can write off the Sounders as a one-off achievement, but like you all the qualifiers need to be thrown out because every team benefits from for every team that's won Champions League benefits in some way from the path from some degree of that's that's the nature of a cup competition. Yeah, you can't like that's not that's beside the point.
01:18:29
Speaker
Like, let's focus on how does MLS, how did the best teams in MLS close the gap to the best teams in league at Mackie's?
Sounders' Legacy and MLS Comparisons
01:18:35
Speaker
And that's, that's a much more relevant and interesting conversation that somehow doesn't, that, you know, didn't need to be, uh, you know, just cast off that way.
01:18:44
Speaker
but even if you do want to like look at it in terms of like strength of schedule or whatever type of thing the Sounders didn't have never had the easiest path to win the whole thing like so it's it's silly to be like the first club to do it in the modern era was basically just handed it when it's like go back and look at every single tournament that they've ever played and and then rank them by how you would strengthen them and I'd probably say the Sounders are middle of the table if not you know upper middle I agree totally agree so
01:19:13
Speaker
Sorry, athletic, you you you you've been you've been blasted. We have been tortured. We love we love our friends that she athletic. I tried to get what come on is provided all of us with content this week. That was like a two to three day saga. A lot of a lot of takes were dished. And I always I always enjoy and I find that I find the discourse entertaining. And they really I think they unintentionally just threw gasoline on a fire with that. And I thought it was entertaining.
01:19:43
Speaker
Um, moving along with winners and losers. We went on a, on a tangent there, but that I wanted to, I wanted to dive into that. So I'm glad we hit that. So, but we'll, we'll make these last ones pretty quick and then, then get out of here. Um, but, uh, one of my other winners from this week, LA galaxy, I mean, okay. They were already my favorite.
01:20:01
Speaker
team to watch in the league even more than inner Miami. I think I just, I really love their front four, but Joey Pates, we did MVP power rankings for MLS soccer.com, which is something that we start doing at this point in the season.
01:20:17
Speaker
I was looking at the little spreadsheet where the votes were. A lot of people have Luis Suarez, number one. That's fine. I decided I was putting Joey Paints, Joseph Paints, number one in my MVP power rankings, because I've been watching a lot of Galaxy this year and his stats weren't crazy when we were doing this voting, but he is a game changer for them. Both him and Gabriel Peck, I think, were really good signings.
01:20:42
Speaker
Watching Joey Paints, I mean, the degree of influence and impact that he's having on these games for them is, it's incredible. In this game against the Whitecaps, it was Todd 1-1. The Galaxy had done what the Galaxy do. They choked an equalizer. It was 1-1. Joey Paints gets a goal and an assist between the 80th and the 82nd minute.
01:21:01
Speaker
The goal, I'm telling you guys, it's Leo Chu if he had consistent end product and was super goal dangerous. Imagine if every time Leo Chu made a run down the flank, he either created a dangerous opportunity for a teammate or had a pretty decent chance of
01:21:19
Speaker
taking a dangerous shot and scoring a goal himself. That's Joey pants and the galaxy are, are flying like this game was a perfect example. Like they give up this equalizer and then they just immediately strike for, for two goals. And Ricky pooge was very influential in creating these and at least the first chance as well. He got, he got the primary assist on Joey pants first goal. I just think we're, we might be talking about the,
01:21:46
Speaker
the best player in the league right now. Forget Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez and Haney Muftar and Cuccio. Like Joey Paints is my guy, my favorite player in MLS right now. I don't know if you guys have watched as much galaxy as I have, but like you got it. You got to tune in to the Joey Paints show. I'm telling you it's riveting television every week. I have not watched as much as you have, but I, I, I see where you're coming from for sure. I've seen the highlights of them. He's he's been outstanding and it does seem like he's the biggest variable that is
01:22:16
Speaker
come into this team and turn them from, you know, kind of a little bit of a, of a joke to, to a very competitive. There's still the, uh, there's still the LA galaxy. Like the, uh, like I said, the concession in this game, I was like, Oh my God, that is, that is just classic LA galaxy. I think they've conceded 12 goals this year. So I think that's part of what makes them such a fun team to lead, uh, to watch is they have this like turbocharged attack. That's the best in MLS besides like this side of inner Miami.
01:22:43
Speaker
Uh, and, but they, but they just still, uh, they love getting bammed on. Um, my other, my last winner for the week, I'm giving it to Orlando city. They got a three, two comeback victory at DC United. Duncan McGuire scored the game winner on a breakaway. And I don't know if you guys saw this, but vintage Nico Ledero assist on that one. He put in the exact type of, uh,
01:23:07
Speaker
past that the Seattle Sounders really haven't been hitting that much this year. But in all seriousness, it was a great through ball from Nico to find Duncan McGuire making that run, just like he and Jordan Morris used to do at Loom & Field. Orlando City, they were left for dead and there was a lot of talk about Oscar Pereira maybe being on the
01:23:28
Speaker
the hot seat. I don't know if this signifies that they're completely out of the woods. They might still be bad, but for this week they have a good result in some of the talk about the demise of Orlando City can subside. There was, I mean,
01:23:45
Speaker
They had a really good year last year. They were second in the shield standings and looked just so bad to start this year. They've been in the losers section of this segment a couple times. So they needed to get this win and they got a good game winner from Duncan McGuire. Moving on to the losers section, I got both the
01:24:07
Speaker
I'm putting both the timbers and LFC in here after their two, two draw at Providence park. It was a two, two drop, but both teams really lost this game. Portland choke to lead. And then LAFC couldn't win the game after the timber, uh, timbers goalkeeper, Maxine Crapel Crapel, who used to play for LAFC. He gets a red card with a ton of time left in this game. There was, it was in like the 50th minute or somewhere around there.
01:24:32
Speaker
And LAFC, they immediately tied it to two on the ensuing free kick. And then they can't score another goal playing up a man for 40 plus minutes against 10 man Portland. So really, uh, both these teams deserve to be in the loser's section for that LAFC. You got to win that game, Portland. You can't be getting a red card like that.
01:24:55
Speaker
like really like a goalkeeper red card is never ideal, but like with that much time left and in the scenario where, where Maxine Crapel got it there about, I don't know. Did you guys watch that game and any thoughts on that? I didn't really watch the game, but I did see the, I saw the highlights of the red card and it was like one of these comical
01:25:16
Speaker
situations where he's, he's lucky that he didn't give up a penalty as well. He literally, he, it's not like he was trying to win the ball and he missed it. He had already not won the ball and just kicked out at the attacker. It was like a comical red card. Like what are you doing? Like what in the world are you doing? And now why are you complaining? What do you, what is it that you're complaining about that it wasn't a penalty because it was as close to being a penalty as it could have possibly.
01:25:44
Speaker
Belongos foot was on the line. I think like that could I mean it was yeah, it was it was like I said It was as close to being a penalty as you can get without it actually being called a penalty He's very you know if it had been I think was one of those ones where it had been called the penalty I don't know that the AR would have been able to overturn it because it was so close to the to the penalty area it was I Don't know that was
01:26:09
Speaker
The timbers are going through something right now. They, their results are so all over the place. You know, obviously last week they came back from three, zero down, but they were down three, zero to begin with, you know, they, they're giving up goals in absolute bunches. Uh, you know, I, as you know, we shouldn't be casting stones, I suppose that as a good, as a class, I don't care. It's it's they are on a roller coaster ride this year. That's for sure.
01:26:34
Speaker
They are like the Phil Neville era started off blazing hot and it looks like they might be onto something, but it really hasn't, uh, hasn't, they haven't really sustained it. Like you said, their results are all over the place. They're winless and five Vander. He did his bit though. One of the weirdest, weirdest native players ever. He did it again. He did it again. Just like no impact on the game really doesn't really look that good. And then just comes out with the most insane goal you've ever seen.
01:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's I don't know what to make it. I was convinced a long time last year that he was bad. I don't think he's bad. He's clearly got a lot of ability in him. He scores some amazing goals, but he he just disappears for long stretches of games.
01:27:19
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know what to make of them. I really do. I think it's one of the weirder MLS players I've ever seen. Moving on. We'll do my final two losers and losers of the week here. I got FC Cincinnati in here. They went to CF Montreal, which it's an Eastern Conference road game, not necessarily the easiest thing. I don't think CF Montreal is as bad as they showed in their loss to Seattle. Talked about that. But FC Cincinnati, I mean,
01:27:49
Speaker
You know, you won the shield last year. You're supposed to be a shield contender again this year. And I think the thing with SC Cincinnati is they won the shield last year, but this kind of the storyline was there's a ton of like one goal wins, like a lot of one zeros, a lot of two ones. And I think what people were questioning where can you sustain that many
01:28:08
Speaker
results like that? Or do you eventually have to be able to take it to teams and get some multi-goal victories and not kind of rely on squeaking by like that? And I think this is an example of how hard that is to sustain. And I think FC Cincinnati is still one of the best teams in the league, but I don't know if they're going to be on that shield pace this year because a game like this kind of, it shows that they live dangerously with how they took those results last year. And then
01:28:37
Speaker
finally, uh, the new England revolution lose two zero at New York city FC. Uh, I mean, according to our friends at the athletic, this is one of the better sides in the league, but realistically, uh, I'm not really seeing that right now. They look like one of the worst teams in the league. And, uh, I it's like, uh,
01:28:56
Speaker
you know, when they hired Caleb Porter, I was like, all right, that, I mean, this is a guy that, uh, you know, I think his press conferences are, are pretty funny, but he's won a couple of MLS cups. He has experience in the league and it makes sense. I mean, the Caleb Porter era, it could not have gotten off to a more disastrous start. Could it Jeremiah? Oh, it's what do you mean by disastrous? Do you mean wonderful?
01:29:22
Speaker
Wonderful for us as outsiders, but disastrous for Robert Kraft. I don't know. He's, Caleb Porter is easily one of the most entertaining press. Like he's just, it's, his lack of self-awareness is just amazing. It's amazing.
01:29:44
Speaker
I love them. I love them too. I thought it was like after, after they lost nine, two on aggregate in champions cup, I was like, I can't wait to tune into the presser because like, if you're a Caleb Porter L presser, if they lost my one goal, you know, he's going in there and he's like, we, we outplayed them drastically. We're the best. We were the better team on the day. We might be the best team of all time, but we just happened to not convert our chances.
01:30:12
Speaker
in this game and the other team got lucky fluke goal. We should have won. That was an easy dub. We fumbled it, but we're the greatest team I've ever seen. That's a Caleb Porter L presser, a Caleb Porter presser after a nine, two aggregate defeat. He's like, all right, well, how do you, how do you really spin? You can't really go in after a nine, two and be like,
01:30:32
Speaker
we were the better team. We should have won that they got nine goals. We got two, but that we should, we're a great team and we should have won. So I was, I was curious how he was going to, uh, how he was going to rationalize that. And then he, he was popping off about how they had 11 DPs and
01:30:52
Speaker
It was impossible to win. And he really lived up. Like, I hope they don't fire him because I love a Caleb Porter L presser, Caleb Porter presser in general. But like with the reps as bad as they look, it's going to be a really fun season of Caleb Porter content. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's all I had
Supporting Local Soccer Media and Podcast Growth
01:31:12
Speaker
for the week, guys. So I think we can wrap it right there. We went long on that one, but it was a special show. We had we had Jeremiah O'Shan.
01:31:19
Speaker
from that, not that the editor of sounder at heart and hosted knows how to get us joining us laying down takes for like an hour and a half here. So I really hope everyone enjoyed the content. Jeremiah, thanks for you so much for the time, man. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I am a listener. I got to tell you, I don't know if I catch literally every episode, but I catch most of them.
01:31:41
Speaker
I think you guys do great work here. I'm a big fan of both of yours. And, you know, don't be shy. I would, I had a lot of fun. Oh yeah. We appreciate that man. And yeah, I'm, you know, I consume all the sound or hard content as well. You guys do great work.
01:31:58
Speaker
over there. I mean, I think most people know where to find Sounder at Heart and no adiators, but I mean, is there anything you want to plug or tell people who may not know about where to find you or any promo like that you want to sneak in before we head out here?
01:32:15
Speaker
I mean, yes, standard heart.com. I just will say, you know, we moved to a reader supported model in August and it's gone really well, but I really hope people appreciate that in order for.
01:32:29
Speaker
the robust independent media that we have here in Seattle to thrive, we have to support it. There are multiple entry points to Sounder at Heart. We tried to make it as affordable as possible while still making financial sense. But if there's one plug I want to give, we have a very active Discord community that is a private Discord community, and it's been a lot of fun.
01:32:56
Speaker
You gotta be you don't get access to that at the basic level there's a higher tier membership you need to be to be in there but we have like four almost five hundred people. That are in that that community if people want to really support center heart it's a great place to go hang out and otherwise i hope people keep consuming center heart as well as all the other awesome.
01:33:17
Speaker
Uh, media like this one, like, you know, the Seattle times, like, uh, as much as I hate to admit it, MLS soccer.com does, uh, I mean, it's a very important role in our, uh, ecosystem. So. Yeah, no, I definitely, if anyone's listening to this, who isn't subscribed to sounder at heart, go subscribe to sounder at heart, support local independent soccer media and, uh,
01:33:42
Speaker
We're going to call that right here for episode 28 of Lobbing Scorchers. Many thanks to Jeremiah O'Shan for coming on and laying down takes. And many thanks to all you all, as always, who listen to this show. We're seeing phenomenal growth with our downloads here at Lobbing Scorchers.
01:34:00
Speaker
And you just love to see it, Noah. We do. I love to see our stats on the uptick like that. And we hope to continue that trend. And it wouldn't be possible without all you guys who tune in every week. So much appreciated. And we're going to call it right there for this episode. No, go ahead. Open invitation. If anyone wants to toss a little sponsorship our way, we are open for sponsorship business. I mean, we're putting up stats here. We will. We'll share our numbers. If anyone has a product to plug, we will show for you.
01:34:31
Speaker
But we're gonna call it right there for episode 28. Until next time, we out. Peace.