Transcript
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Speaker: This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or lobbingscorchers.com slash youtube.
Speaker: Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
Speaker: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff, presented by QED Coffee. I'm Ari, and I have no co-hosts here this morning. I got no Nico.
Speaker: I got no Noah. So I'm going to be running the show here solo. But I got a big show for you here this morning, and I got a new background. If you're watching on YouTube that you can see, sorry, the lighting's not super great. I'm working on that. I'm working on modernizing the setup up in here. But I got the new background. I don't have a co-host, but got a big show. I'm going to talking about what went wrong, what what I got wrong, what we got wrong about the 2026 Seattle Sounders here this morning. Because as I record this here on August third
Speaker: 2026, the year of our Lord. We are on we are in hell, folks. We are in hell. The Seattle Sounders have lost a club record six games in a row.
Speaker: The squad is reeling. The owner is broke. There's no reinforcements coming. My mic is hot. Thank you, Hunch. Is that a little bit better? Things are not great right now in Seattle Sounders land. And I think it's fair to say that they're great in a way that we on our show certainly did not expect.
Speaker: So what I wanted to do here this morning is go through and talk about some of the things that we got wrong about this team. Because, you know, I think contrary to ah to public sentiment, sometimes we don't have a problem around here admitting when we get things wrong. In fact, I would say...
Speaker: about 70% of what I do on this show is sit behind this microphone and say stuff that turns out to be blatantly wrong. So ah when that happens, i always try and acknowledge it. And more, you know, I think more than like an apology tour or anything, I think it's,
Speaker: asking which assumptions were reasonable, which ones haven't held up, and and seeing what we can learn from where things stand. And also just going back and laughing at ah some of the stupid stuff that we said. So going to get into all that in just a few minutes here. It's just going to be me running the show solo here this morning. Like I said, if you guys have questions, thoughts, takes, observations, agendas, go ahead, drop them in chat. Tell me what you got wrong about the 2026 Seattle Sounders. And we can chop it up.
Speaker: Make it a little informal towards the back end of the show and call it with call it a morning. If you have not done so yet, please subscribe to QED d Coffee, lobbingscorchers.com slash coffee, our title sponsor. Go ahead and sub to the channel. The road to 4K is alive and well.
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Speaker: But... All right. Should we get into it? I mean, let's before before ah before we get into it, we can set the stage a little more and talk about where things stand, talk about this Portland game.
Speaker: I got back from Portland late last night if I seem a little tired. That's why. I had it i had a good trip down to Portland. i got friends down there, so I had a good little weekend. ah but I did have a bit of a travel snafu on my way back last night. I was catching a late train home and I got to the train station and they said, we can't put you on the train. There's a building on fire.
Speaker: We can't put you on the train.
Speaker: So I said, okay, well, where what are we doing? They said, we're stuffing you on a bus to Vancouver. We'll bus you to Vancouver. Then we'll get your ass on a train. We'll get you home. So I did that, but needless to say, that delayed me over an hour. So I got home at about about about midnight and then didn't fall asleep for a little while after that. So running on absolute fumes, but I did have a good trip down to Portland and shout out to Portland for letting me stream on the field.
Speaker: That was kind of cool. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the post game show. Sorry for the, uh, audio issues on that. That was my first time streaming outside a, at a stadium. So I know there was a little bit of issues with that. Uh, but it was still a good time and it was a good show, even if it was not a good game, uh, for the, uh, for the Seattle Sounders.
Speaker: James says, it makes you feel better. You've never been Craig. wa Craig Weibel was cooking. You just have bad taste levels of wrong. Hey, uh, You know, maybe not, but I've defended a lot of those viewpoints. I think that's actually a good place to ah to start because we're going to do Craig Weibel discourse here this morning as we will continue to do on our show. But I think the reason I wanted to do this show because...
Speaker: because
Speaker: For me, I've been thinking a lot about how to, ah you know, I think we all are to an extent. You know, there's people out there that will say that they saw this they saw this coming, that they knew that Seattle was going to be the worst the literal worst team in the league all summer.
Speaker: And i think there are people that ah may have predicted that, but i never I never bought into the notion that something like this was even worse.
Speaker: possible and I think that's one of the things that we're going to talk about is that the floor that we thought this team had that I thought this team had
Speaker: it gave out but it's also how did that happen that's what I'm ah that's what I'm trying to diagnose
Speaker: Johnny you did, you know, Johnny, Johnny says he was at a wedding and missed the game, but doesn't feel like he missed much. I thought it was actually a pretty good game. Like from a purely like back and forth entertainment value perspective. If you, if I didn't know what was going on with the Seattle Sounders right now,
Speaker: I had no context about the losing streak, and I just watched that game in isolation. I don't think I would have said that it was like a ah the worst game of footy I've ever seen. the x The XG guys, Reese, shout out Reese. Reese, are you here? The XG was like, they generated over 1.0 XG, which I know we've been talking about very low bars around here lately.
Speaker: And that is another bar that's admittedly not the highest. But we're talking about game we're talking about a game in Philly where they generated 0.02. All two right?
Speaker: So the fact that they went above 1.0, baby steps, progress, incremental progress.
Speaker: I'll just keep going. You guys are kind of cooking in chat. um I have my topics written down so we can get and get into them in a second, but I'll just work through these. Hunter says, would you rather have Garth back or Chris Henderson back?
Speaker: Look, man, I just look at Atlanta United and the trajectory they've been on over the last little era here. And i don't I don't know if like running it back with the previous generation, that's what Atlanta United has been trying to do. Atlanta United had two ideas.
Speaker: Pilfer personnel or front office personnel from Seattle. And bring back the gang, bring back like Miguel Amirone, bring back Tata Martino.
Speaker: That was their plan and that that plan didn't work. So I think just the principle of like going backwards like that, I'm not sure about, but then also like ah Chris Henderson and Atlanta's brass is player acquisition since he's been there has not been good. I don't know how much of that is Chris Henderson's fault. I honestly have no idea, but I just don't know if that's, if that would actually be a, ah solve for this. But I will say,
Speaker: that an under talked about person in the Sounders organization is Sean Henderson. And that's someone who I think, despite where things stand right now, that's someone who has a very good, successful, impressive track record with this team and with this scouting. I know everyone's down on the scouting right now, but like, if you go through their record over the last five years where they've been successful, right?
Speaker: Sean Henderson has a lot to do with that. Sean Henderson, i don't know if people realize, man. im Sean Henderson is one of the biggest reasons, under-talked-about reasons, why this team has been able to be as broke as it is and still be successful until right now.
Speaker: But like that's that that is ah that's something I was thinking about, Hunch, as guy who is internal, so people might not be excited about that if he took on like a bigger or more important role.
Speaker: but he's someone I think very highly of. So
Speaker: anyway, CWSW says, at what point does the club admit they need to address either the players or fitness staff in terms of injuries, considering the club says they have the best fitness staff. They seem to be average. Yeah. I mean, ah we can talk about the injuries too, because that situation has just gone so far off the rails that,
Speaker: i everyone Everyone wants explanations. Everyone has wanted explanations for a while because, you know, we've been talking about hamstring FC for years. This year, it's especially bad. This year, it feels like the boys can't jog 10 feet without pulling a hamstring. Even in this game, KKR a and Peter Kingston both took what looks like muscle strain type knocks and not to even mention Paul Arriola had to sub out five minutes into the game. What is going on?
Speaker: Why can Yamar not get on the field? Why did Kim Kihee? Kim Kihee played his first game in like a year and a half in Portland.
Speaker: Every time he was coming back, it felt like another hamstring pull or whatever. And, you know, this this this issue goes back beyond just this year.
Speaker: And I've never really, you know, known what to make of it. I'm not a doctor. Okay. I'm not a medical professional. And... how much impact the training staff has on something like that is impossible to know.
Speaker: And I will also tell you guys this, as somebody who follows the whole league, probably more than a lot of you do. Every fan base thinks they have the most injuries. Every fan base calls themselves hamstring FC. That's not true. We're the, they're the only ones who i actually call them hamstring FC, but everyone thinks of their team as hamstring FC.
Speaker: yeah,
Speaker: I think too, MLS is probably a league in general where the injury rate is higher. You see a lot of muscle injuries in this league. i think the the travel demands, the distance of travel, all that stuff probably plays into that. And you have teams every year that get decimated. And that's what's kind of creates the whole dynamic of MLS is this kind of drunk, memeable, quirky league is that you have these roster rules that cap what you can spend.
Speaker: to strengthen your roster. And then you have these insane travel demands and road trips and fixture congestion and 27 tournaments with these kneecapped rosters. And that combines to create lineups that every team, every team, every year has to do stuff like Seattle just did in Portland.
Speaker: Seattle was, Seattle was throwing Sebastian Gomez in the double pivot in Portland.
Speaker: That doesn't happen unless something has gone very wrong with, with the injuries. Yeah. So I don't know. I've, I've never like bought into the conspiracy theories about the training staff because
Speaker: it just seems like it's impossible to verify or prove that like, Unless someone does like a deep, someone out there do a deeply scientific look at if Seattle's injury rate is actually higher. And then you'd have to look at like, what about Seattle's environment or ecosystem is different from other locations?
Speaker: You know, this reminds me of what's going on with the 49ers right now in the NFL with the substation. Their fans, they're basically like the, the Sounders are basically the them of MLS in that way. Like they can't have a guy jog 10 feet without doing his hamstring.
Speaker: And their fan base has come up with the substation as the scapegoat. Is there anything, is there a substation at Long Acres?
Speaker: It does feel like since they moved to Long Acres, the boys haven't been able to jog 10 feet without doing their hamstrings. So I don't know. Schmetzer said after the game, you know, we're looking at it.
Speaker: But I feel like he said that before.
Speaker: I don't know. I don't know what to do about that. But like, honestly, unless they can get that to normalize a little bit.
Speaker: I don't know. i don't know how much it matters like.
Speaker: what player acquisitions they make because everyone's just going to be not able to play. And when you have this many guys out,
Speaker: it's hard to function week to week. The degree of difficulty on that is high, but I think that's a good segue into ah into the heat of the show that I wanted to get here get to here this morning. which was, as you can see from the title, what we got wrong about the 2026 Sounders. Since I don't have a co-host here this morning, it's going to be more what I got wrong about the 2026 Sounders.
Speaker: But the first topic I have written down here is just the depth of the team. Did I misassess that? Did we misassess that? We thought the depth on this team was good. It's it's become a common thing, you know, among the brigade and brigade adjacent communities when they're when they're joshing us a little bit to to say, you know, I thought you guys said this was the deepest roster in MLS.
Speaker: thought you guys said Craig Weibel had cooked with this roster, ah which is, you know, as things stand right now, fair enough. But, okay, what I'm going to do here is I'm going to lay down what our take was and why we thought it and then what the reality has been, and then I'll talk about – what I may have got wrong, what we may have got wrong.
Speaker: But I mean, the original take stemmed from the fact that last year's next man up mentality felt very real. Like as recently as last year and as recently as honestly the first half of this year, I feel like this team was still very emblematic of the next man up culture in the no excuses culture. That's, that's what I loved about this team last year.
Speaker: And what I think is so unfortunate to see go by the wayside right now is that last year they had Pedro De La Vega was injured last year too. Jordan Morris was more injured last year too.
Speaker: A lot of guys were injured last year and this team went out and they took results anyway. They didn't, they didn't care. They didn't, they didn't look at the injury situation and the personnel situation and say, oh man, like we're going to have to write it off this week. They didn't do that. And they played, they played,
Speaker: I thought very high level footy at times, even in spite of the fact that they were very injured. The league season wasn't phenomenal. I know they were only fifth in the West, which is lower than we've come to expect from this team. But they absolutely ripped it up in League's Cup.
Speaker: They had an awesome tournament. They beat Messi's Inter-Miami, as we all know, famously. So all things considered, I feel like last year's team showed excellent depth. And with the continuity going into this year, I didn't see why that would be different this year. It felt like a pretty safe, I don't know. I thought it felt like a pretty safe floor.
Speaker: Caleb with the five, he says, when am I going to co-host? We'll line that up, Caleb. We'll line that up. That's a great idea. Yeah. Somebody might have to do it. I'll be honest. I didn't, I found out very more recently than I would have liked that. I'm not going to co-host for this one, but the show goes on. What was I talking about? The depth. So that was, that was how I was thinking of this team's depth going into the year.
Speaker: ah But let's talk about the reality. The injuries did snowball, ah but the floor just completely disappeared from this team. This team stopped looking like themselves. it stopped looking like anything like we saw last year or really in the Schmetzer era.
Speaker: And I think what's what's so different about what's happening right now is the performance level is not just dipped. It's cratered. It's completely like they've been literally the worst team in the entire league for six weeks. Like we're just not used to seeing that.
Speaker: And I think what that exposed is just how little margin there is right now. Last year, they had a huge margin for error.
Speaker: So I think there's there's a few things to talk about with this. Did we simply overrate the depth? Was the depth always dependent on too many veteran guys, older guys staying healthy.
Speaker: Is good depth different from championship depth?
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: when I think about the depth on this team though, I feel like, I don't know, what do you guys think? Because i was thinking about this, and out of all the stuff that I'm going talk about here this morning that I was wrong about, this is this is the one where I think I have the least mea culpa, not only because of the logic that ah I outlined, but i feel like the depth guys aren't the ones letting the team down right now.
Speaker: I feel like Stuart Hawkins is actually playing really well. I feel like Tino Lopez outside of the Portland game where that did not go well for him.
Speaker: I feel like he's been playing all right. I feel like Pete Kingston has been balling actually a little bit. He's been like a plus contributor.
Speaker: Who are the ones that are really underperforming? Like, I feel like it's the millionaires. It's the older guys. That's how I see it. I know Snyder's having a rough go right now, but he's 19 years old.
Speaker: So I actually see the issue as more of the the top end underperformance than the depth guys. Now, don't get me wrong.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong. There's been, I think when we're talking about the depth guys that have not lived up to what they did last year or not lived up to what they were brought here to do.
Speaker: I mean, I think Moose, unfortunately, is the number one. That's the number one difference from last year to this year. And that's one that I'm going to have to eat some crow on later on in this show as well.
Speaker: ah But the only way you can survive a long-term injury to your DP number nine, like Seattle has had with Jordan Morris over the last couple of years, is if you have a backup who goes supernova or you have a committee that's able to like ragtag piecemeal together the the same production.
Speaker: Last year, Moose went supernova and produced at a freaking Raul Ruiz Diaz level clip. Like not saying he's as good as ruy Diaz. I'm saying last year he put up the same production like statistically as like a good Ruiz Diaz year, 18 goals, all comps. If Ruiz Diaz or any, any number nine put up those numbers. And I made this point about Moose last year. He would get it talked about way differently. And I think in hindsight,
Speaker: In hindsight, perhaps that was that might have been smoke and mirrors. And people were saying that at the time, and I was arguing a against it. So that's one thing that i that I was wrong about because Moose has not he's not repeated that this year. And earlier this season, i was still kind of holding out Moose He was going to, you know, I don't think I ever said he was going to replicate 18 goals, but I saw it as a situation where he could come in and even if there's a drop off, if he gives you eight to 12 goals from that position again, that would be excellent production and worth the money and worth the extension they signed him to.
Speaker: So
Speaker: that's one. And then I think, you know, Hassani Dotson is a depth guy that we liked the signing at the time. i liked the signing at the time.
Speaker: I thought that was a good move. I thought that was a high floor veteran option that, you know, I don't mind this strategy that they have of pilfering.
Speaker: guys from other teams such as Albert Rusnak and Jesus Ferreira. We've talked about this a lot. Like, I think that that that strategy in the right situations can prove to give you a higher chance at just like knowing what you're going to get without the volatility. So I kind of, I guess I thought too much of Hassani in that category. What we've seen so far, I think, is he's just, he either doesn't,
Speaker: he doesn't have the skillset to do what they need him to do while replacing Christian, or he hasn't figured out or adapted how to employ that skillset on this team.
Speaker: And whichever one it is, ah that's, I think if I had to point to things that have gone wrong this year, that would be a big one because ah you know, I'm, yeah I'm never going to blame just one guy for anything, but the reality is that Christian is out.
Speaker: He's out for the next few weeks too. And there's there's no like for like for him. It's not Hassani and it's not Snyder. And that's it's destroyed the midfield.
Speaker: I think the midfield's been better defensively, but in terms, like in the last couple games since the 5-1, but in terms of ball progression, you know, proactiveness in attack, but also just control over games.
Speaker: Schmetzer Ball, a tenant of Schmetzer Ball is having control over the game state, you know, force of will, possession. There's none of that with this midfield right now.
Speaker: So
Speaker: I think those are two factors I would point to to to say, like, we we thought this was still one of, if not the deepest rosters in MLS. i think it's I think it showed that, I think it functioned as it was last year.
Speaker: And perhaps we didn't account enough for stuff like regression with Moose. And also just, you know, i think something that happens sometimes is,
Speaker: at least with me, you know, I get too...
Speaker: I get too sure that something is going to transfer over when really like it's 50, 50 in a lot of these situations. And you, you can't guarantee that a supposedly high floor veteran that you're bringing in is going to match his career production or play the role and offer the production that you think he will. And ah Paul Ariel is a guy that I didn't even mention, but like, that's,
Speaker: That's another one where going into the season, i looked at it and see, you know, I see Paul Areola on the roster, watched him play a lot in his career. Yeah. He's coming off injuries, but like the whole thing is like, if you, if you assume relative health, which that may be, that was probably the biggest misstep.
Speaker: If you grant relative health, Paul Areola theoretically should be one of the better depth pieces that you can have on an MLS roster. And
Speaker: it hasn't panned out like that. They've gotten nothing out of that other than a couple of really good performances in CCC this year. He was really good against the Whitecaps in that series.
Speaker: But aside from that, he's been coming back from injury,
Speaker: trying to regain his fitness, and then just got injured again in Portland, unfortunately.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: That is probably, I would say Moose, Hassani Dotson, Paul Areola, stuff like that. Those are examples of things that going into the season, I thought of as safe bets that just weren't. So I think maybe the lesson there is that ah
Speaker: I think this team has earned a lot of benefit of the doubt With the types of additions that they make in this regard, a lot of the time, and this is the first year where it's really like blown up and not worked at all. But maybe I think next time, next time around, I'll probably treat these as more 50, 50 bets than for sure. Propositions. Like, you know, I think I went into this season thing, you know, Paul, Ariola and Hassani Dotson is a couple of your depth pieces. Ooh, that's money. That's what I thought.
Speaker: That's what I thought.
Speaker: Uh, the number nines, as I was talking about with moose, let's talk about the number nines. This, is this is one. i know that last one, I didn't eat a lot of crow and I defended our logic. This is one where I got to, I got to eat it a little bit.
Speaker: I got to eat it. ah not only, not only did I argue multiple times that the whole need for number nine was overblowing, but I was, proud I was probably, was probably condescending or came across as condescending to people who disagreed with that.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: You could probably make some very funny clips of my previous takes on the number nine situation. But my take on that going into the season was – I felt like, I think the Moose thing transferring over to this year is probably the thing that I was the most wrong about.
Speaker: ah But I put more trust in the 2025 breakout than probably should have. And then, you know, i both Noah and Nico were sounding the alarm bells for that regression. And I was arguing against it partially to be a contrarian and for a devil's advocate. But my thing was that,
Speaker: The Moose thing last year was it worked over a very large sample. And I understand that a single season sample size can be misleading sometimes. And when you're in the moment of a single season, it can feel like something is a is a foolproof plan.
Speaker: And then the next year turns out not to be. And that especially can happen with number nines. But the thing was, there was no point last year where the Moose thing didn't work. None. Every single time this team needed a goal, he would score one, maybe two.
Speaker: Every time. Think about the road game in Dallas last year. Do you have any faith at all that if this team had to go on the road to FC Dallas right now, they would be able to score even one goal?
Speaker: No, obviously not. Last year, they were in that situation and Moose scored a brace and they won the game. And he did that time and time again. He did it every single time. He did it over a large enough sample size of games where I'm looking at it and I'm saying, okay, clearly they unlocked something with him in this system with this supporting cast. And the whole point of the sign, the Moose signing to begin with was that they felt like they had found a target and sized up a guy that was a distressed a undervalued was putting up good underlying numbers and goals per 90 stats, but just wasn't getting the minutes to actually put up volume stats.
Speaker: And That bet was a smashing success last year. It was. It was. People talk about Danny Musavsky like he's this joke of a striker. I mean, he wasn't last year.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: There was evidence to suggest even prior to the single season that this is the type of stuff he could have done if he had gotten the requisite minutes. So when you combined...
Speaker: the strong underlying numbers that led his signing in the first place with the fact that he was so consistent last year and ended up racking 18 goals, all comps. I felt like he earned the trust and I didn't mind the extension.
Speaker: So on top of that, Osase was an upside piece that I felt like was worth betting on. He, he actually was scoring goals consistently last year in leagues cup. He scored a goal in the leagues cup final.
Speaker: I think he scored four goals in leagues cup and he's fun to watch and he's well-rounded. So between Moose and Osase, I thought that was a, a good depth duo.
Speaker: And then you have Jordan Morris up top who,
Speaker: I think maybe I was just hoping and and against hope that he could stay healthy this year, but it I think it stood to relative reason that with an entire off season,
Speaker: To rehab and get healthy and start from square one. i was hoping he wouldn't be more likely to pull his muscles after a full off season.
Speaker: than he would be in previous years, but ah that did not pan out at all. And that's, I mean, we've talked about it ad nauseum, so I don't think we need to get into the Jordan Morris escalators discourse. The only thing I'll say about the, the Jordan Morris escalators, which i already know are now famously going down in club club lore, but i think the frustrating thing about the escalators aside from the final outcome is for all the deserved, deserved heat that Craig wives is getting.
Speaker: right now I feel like he actually had the right idea with the escalators. I feel like he did because, and just hear me out, hear me out. The only reason that you put escalators in a contract like that is if you're not sure if the player is actually DP level or that he's going to stay healthy enough to be DP level.
Speaker: The escalators are basically so Craig Weib saying like, Jordan, we love you. But, like, dude, I can't, like, put you on the books as a DP right now. Like, I can't. What I can do is I can do this escalator stuff, and if you go out there and you stay healthy this year and you ball out and you score a bunch of goals,
Speaker: prove you're a DP, basically. Go out there, stay healthy, score a bunch of goals, prove you're a DP. I'll take care of you. You're a club legend. You've done everything for us. We still think you have a lot left in the tank, but i he he did the escalators because he was unsure.
Speaker: about making the player a DP. That's actually like, think about if he had just put Jordan on the books as a DP coming off the injuries that he came off of.
Speaker: That would have been crazier. So this was a way to, and you could say maybe they should have moved off to Jordan at that time. I've been, I've gone on record as saying that that's, that's a lot easier of an armchair decision to make than it is when you're actually in the GM's shoes. When you're talking about a player that's delivered,
Speaker: so many trophies to this club. And that at the time was still playing well too. He didn't really look, he didn't look cooked when he played last year.
Speaker: So I feel like it was the right idea. it just backfired horrendously.
Speaker: So
Speaker: that's unfortunate, but i think,
Speaker: that's where the take my takes on the number nine situation came from.
Speaker: The reality of it is that the striker production this year has been non-existent. This team still doesn't have a goal from a starting number nine, which a pretty funny stat. Honestly, that's good. I can't believe that stat. How far into the season are we? How far into the season are we? And this team doesn't have a single goal. Not one, not one. Is there any other team in the league that can say that?
Speaker: Attack definitely feels like it lacks somebody who can consistently finish these chances.
Speaker: The entire offense right now feels like it needs the perfect buildup to score.
Speaker: Ben says we dropped Ladero like a hot rock seat. A lot of people used to say that ah Seattle held onto Ladero and Rui Diaz for too long. And that's the other point that I'll make is I know people are are upset about how the Jordan situation has panned out.
Speaker: The escalators backfired.
Speaker: It's been a disaster for the roster, what's happened with that situation. But this is just how I feel, and you're welcome to disagree with this. But if there are three guys, literally any three guys on planet Earth who I will live with it,
Speaker: If they're signed on to this club a little too long and are overpaid on the back end of their contracts, if there are three guys that I will live with it in that scenario, it's Nico Ladero, Raul Ruiz Diaz, and Jordan Morris.
Speaker: You know, I know a lot of people really didn't like my takes
Speaker: about like the the dynasty tax or the just the the idea of a bit of a tax that you pay on the back end to senior players.
Speaker: But here, this is the difference. This is why this organization can do that and I can live with it. You can do that to me if you've won and you are champions.
Speaker: Brian Schmetzer is ah champion multiple times over. as are Raul Ruiz Diaz, Nicolas Ladero, and Jordan Morris. All of these guys are champions multiple times over. If you deliver multiple championships in multiple in every single different competition,
Speaker: and you act as standard-bearing players for the club, as all three of those guys have, then I personally, again, this is just me, I personally am, I i can live with it.
Speaker: If they get hung on to a little too long, you just, you need to be able to have contingency plans for if they're not producing like they used to. And that's, I think that's where my, the the bigger issue is, but
Speaker: that's just how I see it.
Speaker: Wade, thank you for the 10. Appreciate you, man. He says, late to the stream, Brian and the FO keep saying we want to find the right player to sign. I'm just confused. It seems like we had no problem signing the right players prior to 22. Why can't we make moves now? ah I mean, because they're broke, Wade.
Speaker: What are we talking about? They didn't used to be this broke.
Speaker: Now they're broke. All we can do on on our show is make fun of them for being broke until they sign somebody.
Speaker: The broke boys, the broke boys at Seattle Sounders football club. ah But to your point, to your, the whole, the whole like Craig Weibel, we're not going to sign somebody unless he's a surefire starter.
Speaker: That's not like, the more I think about that, the more i'm like, what is it? What?
Speaker: Like, yeah, you I get what he's saying in the sense that you like you want you you need the player to actually be a a contributor and not and not like a full developmental, not like a Leo Chu, I think is kind of what he's saying.
Speaker: Which, yeah, but like, you guys used to sign like Roman Torres and Andreas Evenschitz and Eric Freeberg. Remember that window where they brought in like four guys? That was the, was that the Ladero year or the year after?
Speaker: That's the type of stuff they used to do. They weren't that broke back then. They were still kind of broke, but not this broke.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: did we underestimate how difficult replacing elite finishing is? Were we grading Moose off one hot season?
Speaker: Probably. The only thing I'll say about Moose is that
Speaker: he's a service-based striker, and this team was really good at generating chances last year, like statistically. They were one of the better better xg they were they were XG merchants.
Speaker: But last year, they actually scored a lot, too. But last year, the system was getting Moose a ton of looks on goal, and this year, it's getting him pretty much none. So...
Speaker: Part of it is he's not taking his chances when they are there, but part of it is like he's a player that needs to be a cog as part of the whole and not like a, I'm going to carry the load by myself like that.
Speaker: And that is that is part of the issue. It's not the whole issue.
Speaker: But it is part of it.
Speaker: They're scouting a player who has only scored seven goals and from the air to be say only thing going for them is that he is not injured. I mean, we can talk about that guy because
Speaker: when you're as broke as this, that's the profile of player that you can target that you can afford. And that type of player can hit, but it's a very volatile thing.
Speaker: This guy is more experienced than a Leo Chu, but i though that's the that's the analogy I always make because the Leo Chu archetype or prototype, that that type of player is what you get for the types of transfer fees that we're talking about in these situations.
Speaker: This guy's a little more experienced. He's got an okay pedigree, but not incredible. I see no downside to bringing him in. I would do it. Why not?
Speaker: not my money. It's also not their money because they don't have any.
Speaker: But um would bring him in. I just, i players of that profile with these types of transfer fees are not gonna.
Speaker: I don't think that's gonna do anything. I don't gonna move the needle. I don't know. Latte Loth is not available, okay? He went to Union Berlin.
Speaker: ah Did we miss the warning signs in midfield? I think this is something that I got very wrong, and I talked about it with Hassani a little bit. ah But going into this season, I thought any any notion of a Christian Roldan injury, would it would be bad if he got hurt, but it would be survivable, I thought. Yeah.
Speaker: i thought I thought this team could survive a Christian rolled on injury. That's probably the thing I was most wrong about. I was very excited about Snyder taking on a larger role on this team. I thought Hassani Dotson offered veteran stability.
Speaker: I thought the midfield depth seemed adequate, but I think this is one where I look back on it and I'm like, man, maybe there were... And as I'm talking through it right now, there were probably a lot of alarm bells there. i assumed that Hassani was going to be pretty much, if nothing else, a replacement level and MLS defensive midfielder, which if he's making spot starts for Christian here and there or starting a run of games when if Christian has to rotate out or gets injured, thought that was fine.
Speaker: Snyder looked like he had the potential to be one of the most exciting young players in the league, and I still think he is. But Snyder is in hell right now.
Speaker: We're all in hell too, but he is in hell.
Speaker: And I think the reality of what happened was this team has no ability to control games or control game states right now. Every, every time they're defending in transition,
Speaker: it's slice like this, Ooh boy, hold on to your hats. Because,
Speaker: So much of the Seattle Sounders way, the philosophy of this organization is that when something goes wrong on the field, everyone goes, hey, Christian, Christian, this is this is going sideways, man. This is bad.
Speaker: We fucked this up. We're going to need you to fix this. And Christian goes, really, guys, again? Is anyone going to help me out? And everyone goes, ah maybe your brother.
Speaker: Yeah, your brother's back there with you. He'll help he'll help you out a little bit. where We're not. We can't. This is past our pay grade. We can't deal with this. You got to. It's on fire. You got to put that out.
Speaker: Christian? Christian and Alex. Come on, guys. Put that out. And then the Roldan brothers, they go, okay. All right. All right. God. We'll fix it.
Speaker: Jesus. Got to do everything around here.
Speaker: I think that's great to have a guy that when stuff goes sideways, you can point to and then be like, hey, you fix that. And then he does fix it every time. But the problem is when you lose that guy,
Speaker: when you lose the rolled on both rolled ons and you don't have those guys, who is your fixer?
Speaker: It's got no fixer.
Speaker: Jax, member for four months. Thanks for the support, man. Says we should do a big fan protest to get Hanauer to invest in the team. Good luck with that. I don't think we're broke. Look at all the game.
Speaker: Adrian is cheap to the point that he doesn't care. He's actively subverting us at this point. The game.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure the game is a smokescreen. Because, yeah, you would think that the game would mean they're not what they're not too broke to make moves. But they don't they don't use it. The GAM seems to be more of an idea, a social construct, if you will.
Speaker: What is GAM? What is money? Money is but a construct, is it not? That's the other Seattle Sounders organizational philosophy. Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, did we underestimate Christian's importance? No, I think we all knew that Christian is the glue, the heart and soul of this team. But were we asking too much of Snyder too quickly? Did the organization ask too much of Snyder too quickly?
Speaker: I think so. and I say that again, while still believing in Snyder fully, like I think every, every game that I watched Snyder, even during these dark times, every single game, there's one or two moments where you just watch him and you go, wow, wow. He's so talented.
Speaker: Like I love watching him play. He's fun to watch. He's exciting. He's explosive.
Speaker: He is going through, he's going through it right now.
Speaker: But he's going to, that's one, I guess that's one thing I take solace in is like, you know, he's going to be better for this. And part of developing, part of developing young players, we all talk about how much we love watching Tacoma Defiance guys come into the first team and break through and contribute. And it gives this team this local feel.
Speaker: But part of developing young players is you're going to take lumps. And that's what that's part of what's going on with Snyder right now. And that's part of what's going on in the midfield.
Speaker: And. Asking him to be a first choice starter all season in a double pivot on this team in his first full season in MLS.
Speaker: That was a huge ask. And in hindsight, what I think this team should have done and needed to do, this team needs to sign, needs to sign a just
Speaker: elite, stallion, durable, standard setting, team captain type character number six. An Ozzy Alonso Jaupalo type, who is between the ages of 24 27.
Speaker: A lot to ask. They've done it before. They did it when they signed Jao Paulo. Where's the Jao Paulo heir apparent? It was supposed to be Snyder Brunel. And i think Snyder Brunel can still be a starter on this team in the years to come.
Speaker: But Christian is 31, 32. thirty one thirty two
Speaker: So you're going to need someone – you're going to need to sign that guy that I just described in the next year or two anyway. And Snyder isn't ready to be a load-bearing starter right now.
Speaker: Maybe he will be. But i like does anyone like disagree that with that? Yeah.
Speaker: But even even with the acknowledgement that my takes on the number nine situation were bad, I think this team needs a number six more than they need a number nine. They need to – if you can't control games at all, which this team can't right now, then you can't play Schmetzer ball. The whole ten the whole basis of Schmetzer ball is control, controlled aggression, controlling the games, controlling possession, you know taking hold of the game.
Speaker: Imposing your will on the other team through your elite possession and technical skill and slicing and dicing into the primary assist zones. If you can't control the game from midfield, you are chalked from the jump.
Speaker: That's what we're seeing right now.
Speaker: So they need to they need somebody to help help them get back to re-exerting that type of control over games.
Speaker: Your worst take ever was comparing Snyder to Obed. I mean, I think that's a, that's an inevitable comparison. Is it not? They're going to get compared to each other, regardless of how you think it stacks up because they play the same position and they're both homegrown Academy guys. But to your point, Philip, to your point,
Speaker: i I probably compare, like, i probably, i don't remember saying it, but I probably said something, or I know Noah said something that he sees higher upside in Snyder than Obed, I think. And now that I'm thinking about it right now, I did say that. I definitely did say that.
Speaker: That still might be true, but I do think it is not for nothing that... and it probably informed how I think about it a little bit, that Obed came in and didn't really have these these growing pains to this extent. He did have them at times, but he never had a stretch of like five, six games where it felt like he was in absolute hell, like Snyder's in right now.
Speaker: Reese in here, yes, let's go, talking about benching Ruzak. I don't know if they're going to do that, but... I did advocate for that when De La Vega gets back. I think the first choice front four is De La Vega, Jesus Ferreira at the 10, Paul Rothrock on the left,
Speaker: whoever up top. I'll play up top. I don't really care about that at this point.
Speaker: But I think, you know, Paul Rothrock might be the one who's bumped to the super sub role in that situation. And I think something that we're learning over the last few weeks is that Paul Rothrock is perhaps better suited for a super sub role than a load bearing, than the best, the number one only goal scoring threat on the entire team.
Speaker: But I want to see them run it with Jesus at the 10 and De La Vega in there. How like that, Brigade? advocating Advocating for Jesus at the 10 and Rusnak off the bench.
Speaker: I thought Rusnak looked better against Portland in Portland. But there's like, the offense right now is just non-existent. But Rusnak and Ferreira have both been out there. So I don't even know if the setup that I just talked about would solve anything, but...
Speaker: something to try. But I think definitely,
Speaker: definitely the midfield was one of the things that I was most wrong about. And I think the lesson there is that as volatile as free agent signings and acquisitions might be, young players are also volatile.
Speaker: And
Speaker: i don't know. I just, I think they put too much on Snyder too early. He's 19. Think about what you were doing when you were 19.
Speaker: We were all fucking idiots when we were 19.
Speaker: I would not have been ready to be a load-bearing starter for the Seattle Sounders. you know Now Snyder, he's built different. I get that. It's just a lot to ask of 19-year-old.
Speaker: I, you know, just thinking about where I was at when I was 19, man. i owe I owe multiple people apologies
Speaker: for how stupid I was when I was 19. I mean, come on.
Speaker: We can do some Bruce Snack discourse here as well. Toss the brigade another bone. Because like I said, he's not producing right now. And we've been we've been among the the forefront of the Rusnak defenders at different junctures.
Speaker: We go back and forth with the brigade all the time. We have rapport with the brigade. But my take going into the season was pretty much what it always has been with Albert Rusnak, which is I feel like the that hate was over the top.
Speaker: if you wanted to tell me that he's not that exciting DP relative to other DPs in MLS, that he's a little underwhelming, that he doesn't put up quite the stat sheet production of the Haney Mukhtar or the peak Lucho Acosta.
Speaker: I've never disagreed necessarily with all that, or I think that's at the very least a valid perspective to have the idea that he's been this like disaster of a DP is what I've disagreed with. Um, yeah,
Speaker: I feel like there has been and always will be value in guys that you can just bank on for consistent stat sheet production. And I think going into this year, whatever other shortcomings he might've had, he at least offered you that you knew he was going to get on the stat sheet.
Speaker: So there's that aspect of it. But then also what I, what I judge a successful DP signing on is, how the team performs with them as a centerpiece and how I judge that is, you know, generally how much they're winning, which has been a lot with Rusnak on the team to be fair, but trophy hall.
Speaker: When I look back on the Nico Ladero era,
Speaker: one of the biggest reasons it was such a smashing success is because of the trophy hall, how much he won, how many trophies he put in the trophy case. ah Since Rusnak has been a DP on this team, he was a he,
Speaker: He meaningfully contributed it to CCC 2022. And I get that he was injured in leagues cup for most of it last year, but he was still a centerpiece on the team when they won it.
Speaker: So maybe some people hold that against him, but I don't, I don't, i don't really, i don't care what the roster looks like when they win the trophies, as long as they win the trophies. So if him being on the team didn't prevent them from winning that trophy and he positively contributed to CCC and a lot of other winning, then I think that's a fine outcome for him being a DP on the team.
Speaker: And he also, ah yes, he was injured for most of League's Cup last year. He was out there for the 7-0 against Cruz Azul, which I understand there's probably some reason why that doesn't count, but I'm just saying, like, it's not like he didn't contribute anything to League's Cup. So all that's to say, like, I felt like his consistency and availability and stat sheet production to this point all lent itself to, like, ah this is probably just going to be...
Speaker: another, another classic Roosnack year, which, you know, brigade can give me a a hard time about that. Do your worst. But I think, I think that if we're looking at it reasonably and rationally of his big picture on this team, I think what I just said is is plenty reasonable. You can disagree with it, but it's, I don't think I'm like high out of my mind on that.
Speaker: But then let's talk about the reality of what's happened this season because, you know, for everything that I just said, he has not been able to carry this attack during the losing streak.
Speaker: I think it's fair to say the performances haven't matched the moment. I think the Portland game was the the first time you could say that the performance matched the moment in the sense that, like, I thought he was, James and I were talking about it on the postgame show, actually, but he was playing, he was playing pretty hard, like on the Rusnak curve.
Speaker: There was one at one play where he tracked back and was busting it. I was like, I was pointing at him. It's like, look at that brigade.
Speaker: Brigadiers. Look at this man.
Speaker: Look at this man tracking back. Didn't it look like, honestly, in all seriousness, didn't it look like there was a fire lit under his ass a little bit? I think he knows what he knows that if things keep going like this, he's not going to be a DP on this team next year. He might not be anyway.
Speaker: just at his age. So
Speaker: like, i think, i think if when he looked like again in Portland, he looked like a guy to me who was playing. Like he understood that we'll see if that was just like a one game thing because he was given the armband for a rivalry game. Or if that's, if he's going to just like now be a
Speaker: big work rate guy.
Speaker: Okay, let me let lets talk about this one from Sean while we're on the Roosnack discourse. Since he never carried the attack, and this is coming from someone who generally likes Roosnack, guys have called him a force multiplier. Problem is our for force being multiplied right now. ah i think I think you're right in the sense that he's never carried it consistently in the way that a Haney Mukhtar does.
Speaker: But there have been periods of time where he had where he has, I think. man like This is another thing bra ah Brigade always gives us a hard time for. But Albert Rusnak and Jordan Morris at twenty in 2024 were genuinely pretty lit.
Speaker: That's the only – that was all this team had that year, if you remember. And those two spent all summer balling out and like, all right, you can say it didn't cause it count because of the schedule or whatever. I'm sure that's what the talking point would be. But like both of them were both of those guys who have are much maligned, oft criticized right now. Both of those guys that year, I thought maybe, maybe some people remember it differently. I thought they played very well that year and they almost dragged this freaking team
Speaker: To MLS Cup. they got They got five minutes from pulling that off. When that team really had no business. that The Albert Rusnak, Jordan Morris carried offense was effective at getting results and both those guys were playing well and both those guys were producing. But we i mean we saw it ran out of gas in that last in the Western Conference Championship against the Galaxy.
Speaker: But... We were talking about about that one-two punch that year, to my memory, very highly. i think at one point I said they were playing like the best one-two punch in the league and people made fun of me, but it was true. Like, stat sheet production-wise, it was. Also, go back and watch the go back and watch the tape, man.
Speaker: Watch the tape. Grind the tape of the 2024 Jordan Morris-Albert-Rustak duo. It fed families.
Speaker: James, thank you for the two. I think these are Roosnack stats. Four goals, one PK in the playoffs in 10 years, flat track bully. How many games, how many playoff games has he played?
Speaker: feel like three goals. I'm looking it up right now. I'm looking it up right now.
Speaker: Goal and assist in the playoffs last year.
Speaker: two goals for Seattle in the playoffs in 2023. He did goose egg in the, in the 2024 season that I was talking about, but like that, the, the Rusnak one, two punch with Morris bit.
Speaker: It was like a mid season generational run. Like by the time the playoffs came around, yeah, like it wasn't hot anymore. It wasn't.
Speaker: Four goals in 15 games. Not the greatest playoff resume, but you know I'm looking at his career stat page right now. he has 73 MLS goals and 76 MLS assists. See, that's what I'm saying, man. like That stat sheet production like that, there's no way that like bad luck and it doesn't count can apply to 150 goal contributions in the league. like Is every single one of them lucky? I don't know. like Maybe they are. Maybe they are.
Speaker: I get it, though. I get it.
Speaker: I thought Rusnak's goal against Minnesota last year in the playoff game that they lost to end the season was one of the better goals that anyone on the team scored all year for what it's worth.
Speaker: Was built, not bought, overplayed? Was that not the story? That's the next topic I have written down. Because we, I mean... God knows we had a great time on our show and you all had a great time to Duncan on inner Miami with built, not bought last year. We made a whole video about it. Go back and watch our post game show after the league's cup final.
Speaker: You could make some funny clips of us touting built, not bought and dunking on inner Miami fans.
Speaker: and contrast that with where things stand now. And I think a reasonable person could argue, maybe you should have bought a little bit as well as built. Maybe the bot aspect
Speaker: is actually an important component of the build, of the building.
Speaker: I think, you know, we all love the success that this team has had with youth development in the academy. It's felt sustainable. It's felt like they kind of just have a conveyor belt of guys that they can go to who will do a job
Speaker: on the first team.
Speaker: And I thought and still think that that part of the organizational philosophy deserves praise.
Speaker: Because as bad as things are right now, they have rode the built not bought philosophy
Speaker: to a lot of winning and ah and a lot of good times. So I don't think we necessarily over index that, but maybe maybe they got too high on their own supply with that.
Speaker: I think that might be part of what happened. I think after Leagues Cup last year, they might have started feeling themselves and they thought, oh man, why do we even need to sign a number six, man? We just, we just be messy in a cup final with Osase De Rosario up top.
Speaker: Why do we need to sign a six over the off season? Belkhouse, Snyder, Burnell. And he's going to go out there and ball because that's what we do. We produce guys like that.
Speaker: If that is how they were thinking of it, and maybe it's not even like a conscious thing.
Speaker: i think they were feeling themselves. They tried to heat check. It didn't work. But I think i think the reality you what we're seeing
Speaker: is that you have to buy in addition to build. whole idea that you can only build from within and you're never going to buy.
Speaker: don't know like how much longer you're going to try and sell that. Because again, like, I mean, I've said this a bunch of times, but like you can, you can lean on all that when you're winning, when you're contending, when you're in cup finals, when you're doing stuff like beating inter Miami in a cup final three to zero to the point where they crash out and spit on your team staffer.
Speaker: If you're able to pull off results like that, then then no, then people can question your method still. And people did, but like you don't, you don't really have to listen to the outside noise as long as you keep winning.
Speaker: And that's what they're not doing right now. They're losing a lot. They've lost six games in a row, which is still kind of crazy to say.
Speaker: i don't know.
Speaker: i think ah we might have we might have overemphasized that philosophy while underestimating roster balance.
Speaker: But to me, to me it's just like it's not like a one or the other situation. It's not like you either need to build or buy. You have to build and buy. Built to and bought. It should be switched to built and bought.
Speaker: We're built from within, and we also buy. We also buy. We do both things. The new Seattle Sounders mantra, built and bought.
Speaker: they They would have to actually buy people, players. They would have to buy players for that to make sense. But you see what I'm getting at. like i still think I still think that the investments that this club has put into youth development and the results that they've gotten from that are worth are worthy of all the praise that we gave it.
Speaker: got i think it's pretty obvious that that got hedged on too much.
Speaker: Phillips saying we're talking about leagues cup, just checking. And I'm happy to address that talking point because I've said that a couple of times, but it's, it's not about the leagues cup, the trophy or the tournament.
Speaker: It's not. If they had beat like the Columbus crew or the Colorado Rapids in the league's cup final, I would honestly be agreeing with the talking point that that trophy does not justify an organizational philosophy. And it's not like evidence of anything because it's, it's a new tournament. It doesn't have that much history.
Speaker: It's contrived. All that stuff is true. It's probably more of a cash grab than anything. but they didn't beat the Columbus crew. They didn't beat the Colorado Rapids. They took down the greatest player of all time. I don't care if you do that in a cup final. I don't care what cup final it is.
Speaker: It could literally be the Mickey mouse cup where it's like a trophy of Mickey mouse himself. And if you're playing Lionel Messi and the Barca boys for it, and you three owe them in a cup final to the point where they crash out and spit on a team staffer, that is a legendary, iconic results, no matter how you slice it.
Speaker: And honestly, I would rather have the Mickey Mouse trophy that I just described than the League's Cup. So that may an not even been a good example. That would be a sick trophy. but you get my point.
Speaker: It could be, even if it is a Mickey mouse tournament, it's not about the tournament and the trophy itself. It's about who you beat to get it. That's why that game is the all time beautiful illustration of built, not bought because their team and their fan base went into that game thinking they were entitled to win it because they have Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. And at the time, Sergio Burquets and Jordi Alba.
Speaker: And their entire fan base and their entire team went into that stadium that day thinking that we are above
Speaker: being challenged by the Seattle Sounders in a cup final, even though we're on the road in a very difficult stadium to play at.
Speaker: They thought they were entitled to it. And the reason that that was such a beautiful day to me is because once the ball kicked off on the field, the Seattle Sounders showed them that they were not entitled to it.
Speaker: And they waxed him. And then they crashed out so hard after the game that they spit on Gene famously. So that's what that's when I talk about built, not bought. That's what I'm talking about. i'm not talking about winning the league's cup trophy.
Speaker: i stand and I stand by that. I stand by that much. As bad as things are right now, no one in no one in the city of Miami can talk to any of you
Speaker: after that. not not even Not even just because of the L. The L would be bad enough, but it was more for me, it was more about their actions after the game. Where they not only took the L, but then subsequently embarrassed themselves in front of everybody, front of the whole stadium, in front of everybody in the world watching on TV.
Speaker: That was hilarious. But now this is a good point from Jim. And now would you want to be Miami or Seattle? What has Seattle done since? Stunk it up. Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker: I don't know if I would rather be Miami in the sense that like, I would still put Seattle's trophy case up over anybody, but I would certainly rather operate like Miami, you know, I'd rather be the l LA Dodgers than have to play the LA Dodgers, I guess.
Speaker: And that's what they're doing. They're the Dodgers of MLS. That's what they are. They just got Casemiro.
Speaker: So I actually, to your question, Jim, I don't know if I would rather be Miami because like Hunt is saying, when Messi leaves, I don't think there's any guarantee that they're going to be able to sustain this. Like, I think this, it feels very Messi based to me.
Speaker: And maybe it's not, maybe they are able to remain the the club that all the big stars want to go to after he leaves. But to me, is Casemiro really coming to inner Miami if Messi and the boys aren't there?
Speaker: I really don't think so.
Speaker: Yeah. Trying to sign KDB. They're the ones that are going to sign KDB and take bring him to MLS if it happens. And honestly, man, like i don't even fault them for that.
Speaker: if seattle what If Seattle wasn't as broke as they are and they had the ability and the the David Beckham allure to be able to bring a player like Messi to the club and then also
Speaker: soak up the residual benefits of every older player or elite young South American prospect in the world just dying to play for Inter-Miami, they would be stupid to not do that, man. like We can complain about it all we want.
Speaker: I am going to complain about it. We should complain about it. But like, would I do anything different if I was in their shoes to try and maximize their chances of winning and success? Like,
Speaker: are they cheating? Yeah. But like, they're if you bring Messi to MLS, they let you cheat. That's apparently the rule. And I don't even know if it's, i I don't think it's actually cheating. I don't think they're actually skirting the rules like in their technical form, but they're functionally cheating because having messy on the club is essentially a cheat code for recruitment as we're seeing.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: I can't remember why I was even talking about Inter-Miami, but let's talk about Craig Weibel. And then we're we're getting pretty close having wrap up the show.
Speaker: But
Speaker: there's things like the Musavsky extension, Bell Cowling, Snyder, Burnell,
Speaker: Those are the main two things that I question. ah The Hassani Dotson signing has not worked out yet. The striker depth looks very thin. The midfield's a mess.
Speaker: There's no margin for error. Several roster questions exposed simultaneously.
Speaker: is this six game losing streak? Is this exposing flaws or, you know, we overreacting to one bad stretch? That seems to be the kind of vibe and sentiment that Brian Schmetzer has, uh,
Speaker: has put out. I, but I think I, so I continue to think Craig Wybe's record is more mixed than as outright indefensible as the Brigadiers would have you believe.
Speaker: But there's just no question that where the roster is at right now is not tenable considering the level of broke that they are. And the gm the GM definitely, i think everyone plays a role in what the type of stuff that we're seeing right now.
Speaker: But when you look at
Speaker: guys like Hassani Dotson, Paul Areola, And even Jesus Ferreira right now, who I think we can talk about Jesus Ferreira because I think he's in the same bucket as Rusnak right now where he's been out there for this entire streak.
Speaker: He's been durable, at least. He's been playing. But like when you're in a situation where you have this many injuries, he's among the guys that... was acquired to like step up and help carry the load in a situation like this.
Speaker: And that's not happening right now. With Ferreira specifically, I still think he's a class player, man. Yeah.
Speaker: I think that there have been periods of time where he's been on this team where he's looked like one of like an upper tier playmaker in the league. And he is, he's a very talented facilitator, like his passing, his vision, his assist production has been good.
Speaker: The fact that he can't score.
Speaker: Is an issue. What, ah one of the things on back to the theme of stuff that I was wrong about. One of the things that I've been wrong about is I've said repeatedly a lot of times, clip it up.
Speaker: Jesus Ferreira, the goal scoring will come. like it will it will He will eventually start putting the ball in the back of the net. He has 50, 60 plus MLS goals to his name.
Speaker: He has an 18 goal season at FC Dallas. Proven MLS goal scorer over like a five-year sample size before he got to this team.
Speaker: And now he just, not only does he not score, he doesn't shoot. He almost scored in Portland. And
Speaker: i was like, oh, okay. He took a shot. There we go. ah But I think he's just, he's been way too deferential. Like, and, but like part of that is how he's being used, right? Like he's being played as a pocket quasi winger.
Speaker: Which I think has cooked at times. I thought they had that. They had that work, and he looked really good last year, man. League's Cup 2025, Pedro De La Vega fed families, but so did League's Cup 2025, Jesus Ferreira. That was where I felt like it unlocked. I was like, okay, this is Ferreira's role on this team. It's kind of weird.
Speaker: It's not the role that I thought that he was going to have. I thought he'd be playing up top a lot more.
Speaker: But I guess...
Speaker: I guess this works. He's getting assists. Like the team is generating chances at a really high rate. They're scoring a lot of goals. So if this is just what his best fit is on this particular roster, I guess that's fine.
Speaker: But how does he just never score?
Speaker: So, I mean, I still think that he's a very high level player in the league. I think that
Speaker: He probably will start getting back on the stat sheet, at least in terms of his playmaking, if this team gets a little healthier and the form turns around at all. But I do think it's ah it's notable to say the least that
Speaker: that the Rustak-Ferrera duo like has not done anything during this six-game losing streak. It's tough, man.
Speaker: Bree says, I think Jesus tries to be non-selfish to give it to someone else to score. He had a perfect shot in the first half, but gave him to another player. Yeah, exactly. Way too deferential, way too unselfish.
Speaker: And what it's it's tough because one of the things I love about his game is how unselfish he is. He truly is a guy that doesn't care if he scores or not. Like he's a team guy.
Speaker: As long as the ball is going in the back of the net,
Speaker: he is more happy to see a teammate score than he is to score himself. And I love that about him. I think that's a great quality. I love unselfish players. I love dime dishers and he's a he's extremely unselfish. He's a great dime disher. And also ah my favorite thing about Jesus Ferreira is that he's a work rate player.
Speaker: He runs and he presses and he's really good at those things, which he, the, this team was so good at pressing last year and at the first half of this year and the press has looked just way off.
Speaker: Over the losing streak. And for that part of Ferrer's game has not been nearly as effective, but like when he's, when this team is functioning well and he is he's in good form I just love the fact that he offers that sort of, ah he, I, I'm not saying this as a cop in terms of how good they are, but to me, the fact that he is such a willing and hard worker,
Speaker: there's been periods of times where that helped replace some of what ledderr Nico Ladero brought to this team because Nico Ladero is the highest work rate number 10 I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker: might be the highest work rate player I've seen in my life. And Rusnak, for the positive positive qualities that he has, he's not a Nico Ladero work rate type guy. Jesus Ferreira, maybe, you know, I don't know if he runs as much as Ladero, but he runs a lot is the point.
Speaker: So all that is great, but if he's never scoring ever, that's a pretty big part of what like he was brought to this team to do.
Speaker: So
Speaker: i still think very highly of Jesus for, uh, as a player, but it's clear that the roster was not set up for him to be able to carry the load.
Speaker: Should an injury crisis like this hit, because again, man, look at the front four that they put out there in Portland. Jesus Ferreira, Albert Rusnak, Paul Rothrock, and Osaze de Rosario. Every single one of those guys has been a contributor at this level to one degree or another.
Speaker: So the fact that we're basically expecting that type of front four to get shut out going into these games, that's not good.
Speaker: Magno, you just wait till those Jesus Ferrer escalators hit. I'm telling you all. I'm telling you all.
Speaker: All right. I had a couple more couple more things written down, but I do have to run. So I'm going to call it right there. Thank you all, as always, for tuning in Appreciate you rocking with the solo show here this morning.
Speaker: Thanks for bearing with me. I'm very tired. i got back late last night from the Rose City. So I was a little low on the energy, that's why. but Appreciate y'all.
Speaker: We'll be back at it this week. I'm not sure what that's going to look like. We got a lot of like announcements and stuff of that nature to get to.
Speaker: So stay tuned for all that. Subscribe to QED Coffee, lobingscourchers.com slash coffee. Sub to the channel, Road to 4K. Also, like the video if you have not. you watching on YouTube, please like the video.
Speaker: Like, comment, subscribe, rate five stars. All that good stuff. Appreciate y'all. Love y'all. Catch y'all this week. Peace.
