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Episode 430: Mailbag for Week 28
73 Plays2 years ago
This is the final week of the mailbag episode being available on our public feed. After this week, we're going to make this available only to paid subscribers on our private podcast feed. If you'd like to become one of them, we have plans starting as low as $19/year.
This week's episode serves as a preview of sorts for the Portland Timbers' match on Saturday. We answer some questions about the game; about the upcoming brand refresh; how Raúl Ruidíaz and Jordan Morris differ; an update on Danny Leyva as well as a host of other issues.
Sponsors
Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/
You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.
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Transcript
Introduction to Sounders and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our subscribers.
Subscriber Q&A and Community Engagement
00:01:33
Speaker
This is the question and answer episode for week 28 of the MLS season. I'm Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
00:01:42
Speaker
Well, Aaron, let's just go ahead and jump right into these things. I should say, again, these are all, I think, from our Discord, right? They are from our Discord. I'm pretty sure I got all of them. If I did not, it's probably because we changed the way we're doing the questions in there. So if you're in the Discord, but you didn't see messages about it, there's now a different room to ask the questions in because
00:02:05
Speaker
We want to encourage conversation, but we also want to make it possible for us to figure out where the actual questions are. So shouldn't be a problem going forward if I did.
00:02:15
Speaker
Miss your question. I'm sorry. I'll also add, we've decided, I think this episode, I think we decided this is going to be a subscriber only feature that we're doing here. We're doing plenty of stuff on the main channel. We want to make sure that we are doing subscriber specific content. And so if you're a subscriber, there's a pretty good chance, there's a lot more subscribers and there are people in our Discord.
00:02:41
Speaker
And that's fine. If you don't want to be in the Discord, I don't want to make anyone get on the Discord. But if you are a supporter level or above, you also get access to the Discord and you should take advantage of it. It's been kind of fun. There's a few hundred people in there. The chatter isn't going crazy or anything, but it's like a wide variety. It's a different kind of commenting experience. And I've been finding it fun. I'm new to Discord myself.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's nice because there's plenty of chance to go off topic and have some community building without it being distracting from the main purpose of the comments section on the site, which is talking about the articles and whatnot. Yeah, it's fun.
00:03:28
Speaker
I recommend it, and yeah. This also means that if you ask a question in Discord, we are gonna do our best not to answer it there, because that kind of defeats the purpose of making this a subscriber-only show. So don't be offended if we don't answer your questions there.
Player Performance Analysis
00:03:45
Speaker
Speaking of questions, first question is from Jeff Nusser. Iko was fantastic against Austin. How prepared should I be for him to start again on Saturday, and how prepared should I be for that to destroy all these good vibes?
00:03:57
Speaker
I do think you should be prepared for him to start that would be I would be shocked I don't know shocked maybe is overstating it but I'd be surprised if he doesn't start I was a little surprised that he started this game I was maybe even a little disappointed that he started this game but I would agree he was really good he
00:04:15
Speaker
stayed within himself he didn't over like the game did not feel like it was forced through him to the degree it flowed through him it was it felt natural and within the context of what it was meant to be he obviously had the assist he had the shot that I or we call that a shot it must have been a shot right the the game-winning play
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was a shot, right? It was a shot. Yeah. Well, whatever it was, he started his plays what started the sequence that that led to the goal. And he was just I thought he was very effective. He was he was he he only I think he had something like 56 passes, which is a lot for a normal player, but not so much for a Nico Ledero. And I liked him. I and I think at this point, I would be
00:05:04
Speaker
I can't blame Brian if he starts against Portland. I can't blame him. He's in good enough shape that he should be able to. I would imagine he can do this. Yeah. I don't know. What do you think? I think that seeing him be willing to be a little bit less enthusiastic
00:05:28
Speaker
made me hopeful that maybe he is starting to kind of understand his limitations or at least the need to, not limitations as such, but like the need to conserve himself, simplify things a little bit. He can't be the guy who plays three times a week every week and is all over the place every game anymore. It's just not feasible, but he can still be really effective as we saw in this game. So I take that.
00:05:54
Speaker
this game in general, there were a lot of things where I'm not like ready to throw up my hands in celebration, but I think are reasonable to take as encouraging signs as long as they continue. And that was, that was definitely one of them that Nico was willing to change the way he plays a little bit. And, um, it's hard to argue with the results. This one is for from fat monk, full head hypothetical. If Raoul is on instead of Jordan, does he score that goal off the free kick?
00:06:22
Speaker
If the hypothetical also supposes that he's in Jordan's position and you just freeze time and swap role in, I think probably. He's capable of that finish, is what you're saying? Yeah, he's definitely capable of that finish. He scored plenty of goals like that in the past, I think. That's one that I think
00:06:45
Speaker
You almost wish Raul had been on the field to score it because if it's a confidence issue with him, that's when I feel pretty confident he can vary. But he wasn't on the field and in large part because he hasn't been getting himself into good positions and he's been making things a little harder on himself than he probably needs to.
00:07:06
Speaker
So I think yes, but I don't think that changes the fact that Jordan deserved the start, did what he needed to do, scored a goal, which Raul has not been able to do. And I think just generally played a lot better than Raul has been playing and looked dangerous in ways that Raul hasn't. And also, I think maybe even more importantly, did
00:07:28
Speaker
things that Raul has never been great at doing, but it was offset by his goal-scoring ability, was able to do just a little bit more dirty work than Raul is really capable of. I guess that's not really answering the question. It's not the spirit of the question, but I think that in general, I'm happy Jordan scored that goal because I think it makes it harder to put Raul back in there.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yeah, in my sort of on the heels of the other question, I would suspect that Jordan gets another start there. I tend to think that
00:08:03
Speaker
You know, I did an interview with Brian Schmetzer on Tuesday. And one of the things he mentioned is that Raul seems to be sort of understanding of his current predicament. And my suspicion is that he needs to sort of play his way back into the team. And it's not like the Sounders are for as
00:08:26
Speaker
I know sometimes it feels like the sounders don't have any good options, but look through a slight, just like a slightly askew, they have more good options than they, like they have more players who theoretically could be starters than they have starting spots. And, you know, so when roll goes to the bench, what that means is that a Josh attention or an Obed Vargas gets more minutes. And I hope we have a Josh attention question somewhere in here because.
00:08:52
Speaker
I would really like to be able to talk to him, talk about him. Yeah, no, I think you're spot on there. And it's good to hear that rule seems at least understanding about what's going on and maybe not making a problem out of it, because that's always a tough situation.
00:09:08
Speaker
Next one is from Funky Heff. Bummer of a question, I'll just say.
Health Concerns and Recovery
00:09:14
Speaker
What's going on with Christian? I certainly don't want him to rush back, but I'm just worried about him since that seems like a long recovery and it's probably not a coincidence he had another concussion or went back into concussion protocol so quickly after his return. How does this compare to other folks recovering from concussions? Is there a chance we don't get to see him again this season? Is there a chance we don't get to see him again? Period.
00:09:37
Speaker
I would say that there is definitely room for concern on all these fronts. I am not a doctor. I don't have any specific insight into Christian situation other than what
00:09:55
Speaker
Spencer has been saying. And you know, he sounded when I talked to him, he sounded like he was concerned, or that there is a growing sense of concern. Apparently, they thought he was sort of through the worst of it. And then he'll he'll train for a few days. And then all of a sudden, he'll have symptoms that will come back. So apparently, he went and saw a specialist in Detroit. And hopefully, they're going to be able to come up with some sort of, like,
00:10:23
Speaker
prescription for lack of a better term to get him right. My suspicion is that that will just be rest. And like this is probably one of those things where it's just going to take time. He's definitely he's not going to play against Portland.
00:10:38
Speaker
They have two weeks off after that. I suppose it's possible that he is ready at that point. But if he's not, I think there has to be a real consideration for just letting him, giving him the peace of mind of taking the rest of the season off. Like, let's not, let's stop pretending like you're going to get right and play ultra safe.
00:11:00
Speaker
do stuff that you can control and hopefully let's get you back for next season. Again, I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to say that's what he should do. I don't know what he should do. But I would think that if he's not able to be back for the game that comes after the Portland game, I think that's a discussion that Sanders will probably have to have.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think the one thing that makes me feel a little more hopeful about this is that the way concussions are approached has been changing pretty rapidly. And even in the last couple of years, I think that teams have just become more cautious and know a little bit more about concussions and recovery and how to manage them. So I think there's a good chance that five years ago, he would already be playing again. And that would just be something that he was playing through. Yeah.
00:11:53
Speaker
That is, you know, but it's definitely it's definitely concerning. So this question is from.
00:12:06
Speaker
Another one from Fat Monk Foolhead.
League Position and Strategy
00:12:08
Speaker
What's the rest of the season look like with four points from two games? Those results make the Sounders suddenly look competent. However, I think anyone with a modicum of objectivity doesn't think this team is likely to make a deep playoff push. So at this point, what is the primary goal for Schmetron company? Is it just to get into the playoffs and hope to make a splash? Is it to give our aging vets one last hurrah? Is it to test our youth?
00:12:29
Speaker
players more and give them some MLS minutes. I don't think these are all necessarily mutually exclusive but I don't think you can realistically do all of them. So what should be expected to see in the last seven games of the regular season?
00:12:40
Speaker
I think that the goal for Brian Jametzer and for the players is considering the fact that they're in third place in the West, tied on points for second place. The goal has to be to get in the playoffs and win MLS Cup. You can't, you can't give up on a season. I don't care how bad they've been. You can't give up on a season when you're in that position. Uh, so that's, that's what they have to be doing, right? But the question I think becomes what is the best way to accomplish those goals? And.
00:13:10
Speaker
I think the Austin game maybe gave a little bit of ammunition to the side that believes that the way to accomplish those goals is to make some pretty drastic changes and kind of force, like you said about Raul, force some guys to play their way back into the lineup and be willing to trust younger players, be willing to give Joshua Tenzio more minutes, things like that, that maybe Brian hasn't been quite willing to do as of yet.
00:13:37
Speaker
Uh, and I think that that's the right way to do it. I'm certainly on that side is I think most people probably figured out by now. And that does give you the benefit of also being able to evaluate those players, right? Um, watching attention CEO in that game and watching him a lot of the time, frankly, I kind of thought about what Ziggy always said about Lamar Nagel, which was like,
00:13:59
Speaker
He, you know, it's good that we got in a situation where we had to play him because he never impressed me in training. He never, you know, but he always shows up in the games. And so if I trust him now and play him, and I don't know what it looks like in training, but he always shows up when he plays. He's always, I think, very good. And I think he was great in this game. And so I think playing your good players is the way to go. And if those players happen to be younger,
00:14:26
Speaker
even better. If you can get a sense of where they are and how much they can help you next year, that's a win-win if they can help you win this year. For Schmetzer and the team, it has to be winning as many games as it can. It's not a point in the season where the reasonable thing for the team to do is pack it in and give the kids as much playing time as possible just for the sake of it.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'll add the only part of that question I think that is mutually that isn't mutually or is mutually exclusive is this idea that they would give the veterans one last hurrah I don't frankly think that's
00:15:04
Speaker
That's not professional sports. That's certainly not the way that the Sounders look at things. I don't think any organization says let's play a bunch of old guys just because we know they're not going to be here for very long. So let's give them their proper send off. Maybe there's one guy you might do that with, right?
00:15:23
Speaker
I don't think that's part of the calculus. I think the calculus, like you said, is how do we win the most games? And the only question is, do you win the most games by injecting some youth into this team or do you win more games by relying on your veterans? I think Brian's assumption or his natural bias is towards leaning on the veterans. And like you said, I think this game is some reason to question that.
00:15:51
Speaker
I do think there does become a point at which you have to sort of take your, like if the Sounders were to have gone, let's just say pointless in this seven point or this nine point week, I think that would have been a pretty clear sign that, you know, maybe what we need to do is just really focus on next season. If we make the playoffs great, but the thing we really need to do is just focus on, on
00:16:15
Speaker
figuring out what we have, like which players are what we have on the roster and what we can do with them. And I think they bought themselves some more time to sort of like play it straight. And I think the only question is, are we better with Jordan at the nine? Are we better with attention at in the midfield? Are we maybe even better with Reed Baker Whiting as a right mid? Are we baby better with
00:16:40
Speaker
or a right back, or he may be better with a Cody Baker at left back. These are questions that I don't think we necessarily have answers to yet, but these are the kinds of questions that I think are going to have to be asked. I think too worth remembering, we have to watch this team and I think most people mostly watch the Sounders. If they watch any other MLS, they're still mostly watching the Sounders. There's one good team in MLS this year.
00:17:04
Speaker
And that's in that Cincinnati. There's a real I mean, it's it's it's funny to say because you're I know there's people that are like, oh, no, no, no.
00:17:13
Speaker
Nashville is pretty good. You might want to look at some of the results recently. Miami's good. Okay, Miami looks really, really good right now. Miami might not make the playoffs. I mean, they've got to make up 10 points in 12 games. There's just not a lot of... If there was every year where you could just say, look, we got to get into the playoffs and we'll just see how it goes after that. Yeah.
00:17:37
Speaker
This is that year. There's no team in the West that I don't think the Sounders are capable of beating if they can get this kind of figured out.
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah. And, and obviously, you know, there are a lot of, I know there's been a lot of people that have been saying like, Oh, look, if you look at the points per game, sounders aren't as good as you think they are. Well, I'll tell you right now, the sounders are, are tied for third in the West on points per game. Yeah. And the teams and some of the teams that are like chasing them are teams that they've had a lot of success against this year, Houston, Vancouver. Okay. Salt Lake, maybe not Minnesota.
00:18:09
Speaker
uh you know these are the those are the teams that they are that were apparent that were theoretically worried about passing the sounders by these are teams the sounders have been beating head to head so you know like i do think we have to be sometimes we have to take a step back and say like okay i understand how frustrating it's been i have it's been very frustrating this team has looked bad at times
00:18:33
Speaker
But if you're telling me there's no objective way that you think that this team is going to go on a run and potentially go deep in the playoffs, I disagree. I disagree. Yeah. There is a world where the Sounders won MLS Cup.
00:18:50
Speaker
Maybe nothing is likely, but it's not as crazy as I think maybe it has felt at times. Next one is from Chris. Reading really as ratings for the Atlanta game, going forward for JP mentions finding someone who can work effectively with him.
Midfield Dynamics
00:19:06
Speaker
What kind of player would the front office be looking out for? Is it mainly just a matter of finding someone who would compliment what JP's good and less good at? This is kind of your attention question, I think, maybe.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, this is sort of the attention question and I think really the answer is probably somebody that does a lot of the same things that Josh attention or or an Obed Vargas potentially I think attention was doing them at a better doing them better.
00:19:31
Speaker
But I think it looks a lot like one of those two players. Albert Rusnak, I think worked fine as a partner for him. I think what we've learned is that for Albert Rusnak to be really effective as an eight, he needs someone to be or to be in a double pivot.
00:19:52
Speaker
he needs someone to do a lot of the defensive work for him. And I think that's just a reality. The best part of his game is not out there making tackles and winning duels. That's just not who he is. Now he can do it in a pinch and be kind of effective. But if you're expecting Albert Riznak to be
00:20:15
Speaker
one of your key defensive cogs and the defensive individual, you're going to get run over. That's just, that's the way it is. He's a very good player, but he can't, that's not the way he's going to be deployed best. You need someone that's going to be able to do some of that defensive work, just higher up the pitch. And I think that's probably Josh Atencio or Obed Vargas. And I think whether or not it's one of those two players, it's someone that has a lot of those same attributes.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, there are a decent amount of players with that skill set that... I love Atencio, I like Virgis a lot as well. I would be happy if they were starting in that role, but if you think that the sounders can and should do better there, there are plenty of options that have that sort of classic 8 skill set that could be pretty intriguing, I think.
00:21:05
Speaker
And I don't have, I thought Obed Vargas was pretty good yesterday too. Yeah. I don't remember anything that he did that then he replaced JP. I think it's, it's possible that, you know, I, and I think the only reason you don't necessarily want to lean too heavily into this is because I don't know how long.
00:21:21
Speaker
Like even in a best case scenario, like how long you keep that pairing together. And so I think it's probably worth trying to get one of them to be a workable partner for, for JP. And, you know, if it's me, I want to start attention to you against the timbers.
00:21:37
Speaker
And I just, he brings so much energy. He brings so much, you know, willingness to drive forward and to push the action. And I just think that that adds so much to the tempo of the game and it makes the Sounders work a lot better. Yeah. All right. This is from the trial. He says, is the foreign office worried about declining attendance and enthusiasm? I know multiple season ticket members who aren't renewing or letting salespeople know this is their last year unless play on the field improves.
Attendance Decline Discussion
00:22:07
Speaker
I mean, I think Jeremiah, I'm sure you have better insight to this than I do, but I'm sure that they have noticed that attendance has gone down and hasn't come back since the pandemic or the pandemic, the more restrictive phase of the pandemic ended. And, you know, I'm sure that they're aware of these things and they have to be concerned about them, I'm sure. But I think that every year,
00:22:33
Speaker
that the sounders have existed. People have complained and said they were canceling their season tickets. I've known people every year that have done it.
00:22:45
Speaker
And I'm not trying to pretend like attendance hasn't gone down. And that's a real thing. And I think that the pandemic was certainly a part of that. And I think live attendance that a lot of things has gone down and hasn't quite recovered. But I do think that the sounders also made some conscious business decisions about how they were going to do things that did not prioritize.
00:23:19
Speaker
on a lot of levels, but I'm also, my job isn't maximizing revenues for the team. Right. So I, I, and that's not to say that you can't say that's a bad decision because I think it sucks. I would much rather them take a little bit of a revenue hit and have the stadium full, but.
00:23:37
Speaker
I think that I think that the business side of the Sounders knows what they're doing. I think a lot of people see declining attendance and say, well, they can't be making as much money as they were. I think they probably are making more money now than they ever have been would be my guess. Yeah, that's sort of my suspicion, too. And I do think there's also a little bit of a I don't want to say a red herring in this because I don't think it's it's completely false. But I think
00:24:04
Speaker
The issue with attendance I think has a lot more to do with the business decisions. And it just so happens that the play on the field has also not been great.
00:24:16
Speaker
But I think if you look at the long, if you look at the 15 years or whatever, 14 years of data that we have on the Sounders, results and attendance are not really that, they're not as related as you might assume they are. Like some of their best, like 2014 was their best on field season. And at the time, if I remember correctly, it was, they actually saw a decline that year in attendance.
00:24:39
Speaker
And, and so we've seen these trends where they don't, they don't quite match up the way that you would, you would expect them to. So maybe it's a lagging issue, but I think we are able to take out our frustrations oftentimes on look, you're not playing well. I'm going to not renew my season tickets.
00:24:57
Speaker
I think most people are though, if you really get down to it, it's an economic decision. It's a life decision. It's something else. The play on the field sometimes makes the decision feel easier and feel better. But I guess what I'm saying is the front office and the business side are not like in
00:25:18
Speaker
The front office side is not saying, we don't really need to win. And the business side is not saying, there's not someone on the business side saying like, no, actually you do need to win. I guess what I'm saying is the front office wants to win games and the business office wants to make money.
00:25:39
Speaker
And obviously you want both of those things to happen, but I think sometimes we oversell how much those two entities are like working conjunction. Yeah. If the sounders are bad for five years in a row, attendance is going to go in the toilet. Like I do not doubt that and everybody knows that, but they, you know, it's, yeah, I agree.
00:26:03
Speaker
Uh, next one is from Connor. Any news on what we can expect from the 50th season refresh? Sounds like we're not going to get major changes, but do you have any more details?
Sounders' 50th Season Speculation
00:26:11
Speaker
I saw they added a 50 ball logo to the season ticket member scarf for next season. What is there anything else you've seen? Would it be wishful thinking to hope for a retro third kit? Well, I guess it depends on what you think are major changes. Uh, I.
00:26:27
Speaker
I am very confident that there's going to be a new crest. I think they're probably going to tweak the colors. They're not going to have a new name. The new crest, I don't think is going to be a huge departure from what we currently know of as the Sounders brand.
00:26:45
Speaker
But there will be very visible changes. I don't know if there's going to be a third kit. I think a retro third kit would make a lot of sense. I have not heard that there's going to be one. You would think with all these third kits coming out that the Sounders would be among the candidates to get one. They apparently are one of the best selling jerseys every year. The Bruce Lee kit was apparently their best ever selling jersey. So you would think
00:27:11
Speaker
This is like a license to print money. Yeah. So you would think that they would want a third kit. I don't have any insight information on that though. Yeah. I would be shocked if they didn't have one that there's obviously, I don't have teams. It would defy logic if they didn't.
00:27:29
Speaker
You know, stranger things, stranger things, green caribou, uh, caribou wants to know while, while most of the attention is rightfully focused on the big changes coming at the top of the roster with all three of Tevez, Rothrock and double
Academy Players' Future
00:27:43
Speaker
error. Plus maybe read Baker Whiting. It feels like the backend of the roster is getting a little crowded on the right. How do they fit or not fit for next season? Might more loans like levas be in the future PS.
00:27:54
Speaker
Since I wasn't on Twitter, this is my first time submitting a question. Oh, yeah, that's great. I love that.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, I do, too. It's nice using Twitter for the questions for as many years as we did certainly made sense, but there were drawbacks to it. And now, yeah, now that it is the way it is, it's nice to have I loved that on there. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm cutting you off. No, no, I was talking all over you. I love how the people that asked the questions on Twitter were great. They gave us a lot of good stuff.
00:28:28
Speaker
reality was it was a lot of the same people, which is fine, but this does seem to be allowing for some more different types of participation. Agree. And I also like, uh, people seem more willing to talk about this stuff in the discord, not to keep plugging the discord, but there's a lot of discussion in there in the forums about these questions and reading some of the discussion has definitely like made me
00:28:51
Speaker
think about some things and having the questions have some time to breathe instead of putting out a call for questions and then seeing the questions for the first time five minutes before we start recording. Yeah, you know, this is it's so it's nice. It's nice. Anyway, to the question was a question there was a question. I think. I think with Rothrock, I am so happy that he has that he got a senior contract, and I think that he has valuable role to play on this team. I
00:29:22
Speaker
don't get the sense that he is a player that is likely to impact much of anything in terms of decisions that are being made, if that makes sense. Like he's a depth option that can play a couple of different attacking spots. And so I don't think that him being there as much, like that's just the kind of guy you have to have on an MLS roster, right? Like you need a couple of guys like that.
00:29:47
Speaker
And I don't know that if like, oh, you know, Rothrock isn't getting enough minutes where I don't think that that's a concern necessarily. Um, but with guys like Tevez and Dobler and Reed Baker Whiting, and obviously that's a little bit more of a concern, especially I think with, with Reed Baker Whiting, because he's being scouted by these teams and he has to play, right? And he probably should be playing at a level higher than MLS next pro if he's going to make a move. So.
00:30:15
Speaker
Um, I think there's a good chance that one or more of those players is gone next year, um, because they've been sold. Uh, I think it seems not crazy to think Reed Baker Whiting is more likely to be sold than not before next season. So yeah, we'll see. Um, but I think loans also would be, would be an option for sure. I think there's a pretty good chance that all four of those players are not on the roster for one reason or another.
00:30:42
Speaker
I don't, I don't, I don't know how much sounders are really like worried about finding minutes for especially Tevez, Rothrock and Double Air. That's not to say that they don't have a future, but I think they're at the point in their career where.
00:30:55
Speaker
Any minutes they get have to be totally earned. Like there's no, there's no, we got to give this guy minutes because he needs to develop. It's, it's, is he winning minutes in training? Give him minutes. And I would like to think that was why Dobler played was because he was showing out in training. And that's what he, and the reason Rothrock got that contract is because he was, you know, he won that contract.
00:31:16
Speaker
When Dylan Tevez gets on the field, it's because they think Dylan Tevez belongs on the field. Reed is maybe in a slightly different category, but again, like he needs to win his minutes. I think he's doing that. I think he's, he's making, but, and I do think that Reed's into a player who you got to kind of find minutes for one way or another. Yeah. But we'll see.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's the thing about the Academy that's always tough, especially when it gets to the point where the Sounders Academy is at now, is that the reality is that most players are never going to become pros and the ones that become pros, most of them are never going to have long careers. And the ones that have long careers, most of them are never going to be like indispensable. Right.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah, you get very attached at seeing guys get to the sort of the first team. And then once they're at the first team, it's like, okay, well, do your thing. Yep. Next one is from Chris R. Smith. I'm wondering if there's been any news from Colorado or Seattle regarding the loan of Danny Leyva. How has he been doing? What are the chances he has sold to Colorado or some other team versus Stan with Seattle? So the only updates we've gotten from
00:32:32
Speaker
about Danny Leyva are that Colorado made a decision to keep him at the trade debt, or at the roster freeze deadline, or not the roster freeze, the close of the transfer window. So they had to make an affirmative choice to keep him, and they wanted to keep him. So that's good. He's not playing a ton. He's going to end up
00:32:56
Speaker
playing less at Colorado this year than he played for the Sounders last year. You know, whether or not that's a, how much of a problem that is, I suppose is worth discussing, but you know, he's getting minutes. He's got, you know, he has five starts first team start or first MLS starts.
00:33:15
Speaker
That's more than he was on pace to get here. I think the reality is that while he was here, he was definitely behind both Atencio and Vargas and, you know, some other veterans potentially. So in that way, I think it's good. I don't know how likely it is that he gets sold. He is under contract for like three more years or two more seasons at least, I think guaranteed. So the Sounders do control his rights.
00:33:43
Speaker
I would be lying though if I said I had a really good sense of what's going to happen to him after this year. This is from Kolobos. He says, if the sounders were to go to the U22 route for signing DPs, how many would you sign in what positions? What position would you sign full DPs to?
00:34:05
Speaker
That all depends on who you're scouting, who's available, blah, blah, blah, right? But if we're talking blue sky, perfect world, I probably would not want more than one U22 DP unless I was absolutely convinced that they were going to be. You can have one guy who kind of is in that way or two role of watery ticket might take a couple of years and be okay with that.
00:34:31
Speaker
more than one of those guys and I think you're kind of hurting yourself. If you can go sign a 21-year-old who you know is going to be written an ink in your starting lineup, sure. Not super likely though, I think, with where MLS is and the development hierarchy worldwide. I would really only want one of those guys. If you can find a can't miss 20-year-old center back that's worth a DP spot,
00:35:00
Speaker
Sure, but the odds of that are much lower than an attacking player. There's a reason that most of the U22DPs in the league are attacking players, and it's because they tend to peak the earliest, and they have the most potential for becoming good investments.
00:35:21
Speaker
I think Leochu took them a while, but I think a great example of what you can maybe hope to get from the U22 DP, although you can certainly do better even than Leochu. Somebody can make you a huge profit, which I don't know that Leochu is ever going to do.
00:35:36
Speaker
the upside for Chu right now is, you know, he develops into a very useful player for the Sounders and maybe you can trade him for allocation money within the league. I don't, I don't see a big, I don't see the Sounders recouping his transfer fee right now though. No, but I think with the way he's played this year, if he can play that well, or
00:35:58
Speaker
bring back big assets in a trade, I think I'm okay with the transfer fee they paid for him. Yeah, no, I don't think there's a bad investment. Right. But it hasn't been like investment the way that that some YouTube 22 players or the way that kind of Garth talked about it being part of the, what do you call it the
00:36:16
Speaker
development. No, like we're playing the world's, I don't know, is some Tyrion line from, I don't know, whatever. It's been an okay signing. Yeah, I think it does illustrate sort of the challenge of this particular type of
00:36:33
Speaker
this kind of player. But yeah, if I'm if I'm the sounders, there's, first of all, there's no real competitive reason to sign more than one, you young DP, essentially, that's what you're talking about there. And if you're gonna sign that one young DP, I would think you would sign another, like,
00:36:52
Speaker
winger forward type, like to me, that's what I would do. That's probably what I would do with that. If you're going to spend, and then you can sign with the more classic U22 spots. You can put them like, I think that's more inclined, would I be more inclined to sign a center back to, or, you know, a number 10, like more project types that if they don't pan out, like high upside, you know, not necessarily.
00:37:21
Speaker
huge risk, but it's a challenge. There's not been a lot of super successful signings like this in MLS that sort of thread that needle.
00:37:33
Speaker
Uh, the, the Algo Amata being one of the big exceptions, right? The guy that looks like they might end up getting a record transfer fee for her. So who knows? They had to pay a lot of money for him too. I mean, that's, that's the other side. And Atlanta's model is to flip players for money. So they're willing to make bigger investments than maybe the sounders are. Um, Or at least that was their model. It was. I'm not sure we'll see how the model changes. Cause the last, the signings they've been making under Garth have not been quite such big swing.
00:38:03
Speaker
And a little bit more, let's get some, put some, uh, some of this money on the field to kind of actually win some games. Yeah. Crazy, crazy to think about. Right.
00:38:13
Speaker
Let's see, next one is from Sean Wheeler. You talked in this mailbag episode, I'm assuming the last one, some of these questions were asked before the good results of the last few games.
Coaching and Management Future
00:38:24
Speaker
I do think it's important to point that out. You talked in this mailbag episode about Schmetzer being gone next year far more than my emotional brain was ready for, but looking at it objectively, I do see where that's a real possibility.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:34
Speaker
How much do you think the big celebration of 50 years will play into that decision or any other decisions on the technical side of the house? I guess what I'm trying to say is can they fire Schmetzer then spend the next year talking about the importance of family and history? Well I'll answer the first part just straight up. I don't see how those are
00:38:56
Speaker
Unless we really literally think the Sounders are a family and they are more focused on history than they are on their present, I would hope that they can fire Schmetzer if the results demand it and still talk about family and history and all these kinds of things. Schmetzer is a huge part of the Sounders lore of the Sounders family of however you want to put it,
00:39:22
Speaker
But if you think that makes him unfireable, I'm not quite sure what we're doing. Yeah. I don't necessarily think Brian Schmetzer is going to get fired. If they play like they did against Austin, this is not a concern. Yeah. But in this hypothetical where, you know, the results are effectively demanding that he be let go, you have to let him go. Like that's just like they can't.
00:39:48
Speaker
they can't be bound to anyone, frankly. The way that, well, it doesn't matter how bad the results are. This is our guy. That can't be how they run this team. I don't think anyone really wants them to run this team. And I don't know that Sean is suggesting that, but I'll just put that out there. Beyond that, I don't think, I don't know. I'm of two minds. On one hand, I tend to think that the,
00:40:17
Speaker
technical side is aware of
00:40:22
Speaker
everything going on for next year, but I don't think that's what's going to drive any of their decisions. You could tell me that the Sounders want to find a way, they want an excuse to bring back Brian Spencer. Maybe that excuse is just getting to the playoffs so that we can bring it back next year. I would believe that. I don't know if that's true, but if you told me that was the case, I wouldn't straight up say there's no way. Beyond that though, I don't think the
00:40:51
Speaker
Like Brian is probably the only person who gets any consideration on that level. I don't necessarily think, like if they bring Freddie Monteiro back next year, geez, I really hope it's not because of the 50th anniversary. If they bring back Helen Rowe next year, I hope it's not because of the 50th anniversary. If it's Stephen Fry, I hope it's not just because of the 50th anniversary. I would like to think all of those decisions are going to be made independent of the 50th anniversary. Yeah. I would also say that I think that
00:41:18
Speaker
whether or not 50th anniversary is happening would be irrelevant to the decision that they make about Schmetzer, because I think that they are likely to really want him to come back anyway. Right. Like, I think. Yes. I think you and I don't want to speak for you, but I think our position is really I want Brian Schmetzer to come back.
00:41:43
Speaker
I want him to be the coach forever because he's winning and performing really well as a coach. But I'm also like, I'm not going to ignore a reality. If the sounders go on another losing streak and the results demand that he loses his job, then that's what should happen. But I have little doubt that most people in the organization are rooting for him to get it turned around.
00:42:13
Speaker
Maybe it makes it a little sweeter if you can do that and come back for the 50th anniversary.
00:42:20
Speaker
But I don't think that that's the reason. I think it's just going to be because people like Brian a lot and want them to succeed and they don't want to have to lose them. Otherwise, I think you're spot on. It's kind of what we talked about with the marketing side of the team and ticket sales and the business side of the team earlier, where it's like,
00:42:44
Speaker
everyone's aware of what's happening on either side of the aisle, but really they have different remits. And yeah, I guess what I would say the team is more focused on is I think they feel like they need to hit 2025. I think they're looking at 2024 as a big year for them. Yeah. And
00:43:05
Speaker
It's more important to put out a good team and to ride the momentum of all the attention that you're going to be bringing on yourself for a variety of reasons. Like they've set next year up to be a big year for a lot of, on a lot of fronts. There's going to potentially be a lot of roster turnover. There's going to be the training center. There's going to be this 50th anniversary celebration. There's a lot going into this year. And I think that are much more focused on how do we make 2024 successful?
00:43:33
Speaker
And if we can do it with a bunch of faces that we can say, like, look at old, like we, you know, Stephen Fry has been here for 12 years. He hasn't been 12 or 10 years, whatever it is. That's a nice thing to be able to say, but it's more important to have a goalkeeper that's going to win you games. And maybe that's Steph Fry. It might well be Steph Fry, but that's what has to be your reasoning is like, you can't like, I would think of anything next year, they can't afford to be too sentimental about the decisions. Yeah. A hundred percent.
00:44:03
Speaker
All right. This is from Levexillant.
Stadium Prospects
00:44:05
Speaker
Great name. Great name. We haven't gotten a lot of Levex puns lately. Yeah. That used to be like every third. Right. Exactly. Every third question. I believe the Seahawks lease ends in 2028. What are the chances they vacate for a new stadium elsewhere in the area and the Sounders renovate Lumenfield into the soccer fortress we deserve?
00:44:28
Speaker
Uh, I used to think the odds of this were really good and I have come around to thinking that they're really bad. I think there's a chance that the Seahawks move to the suburbs and a lot of it depends on what happens with the team, right? Because I know like there's a point at which the Allen trust has to sell the team. I think, um, I don't, I don't know when that is exactly, but I think that downtown stadiums are still very much in vogue, even in the NFL.
00:44:57
Speaker
It's a great location, the way the region's transit network is set up. Downtown Seattle is always going to be the hub of it, and it's pretty hard to get other places by transit. But I think that there's a very good chance that Lumen is either redone to the degree that it's unrecognizable or they build a new stadium.
00:45:23
Speaker
I hope they don't build a new stadium because that seems like a huge waste. I would really prefer they go the rebuild route. So I think that the odds that the sounders are just going to get Lumen to do whatever they want with are pretty low, I would say. And I'm not basing that on anything other than just my hunch. I don't have any information about that. But I do think there's a chance that they redo Lumen in a way that makes it
00:45:48
Speaker
a better fit for the sounders. And maybe that means doing grass trays. Maybe they find a way to do that in a rebuilt room. Or, you know, maybe it means they bring the seating a little closer to the field. I don't know. But I personally, from my perspective as like a
00:46:06
Speaker
I don't want to say urbanist because a lot of urbanists are very annoying, but I will for the purpose of this. I like mixed-use stadiums. They don't take up a lot of space. It's not as much public money going to it. It's not as many tax breaks going to it. It simplifies transit, all that stuff. I think the two tenants using the stadium is great, but I understand why it's not ideal for soccer and why it's not ideal for the Sounders.
00:46:37
Speaker
So if you can find a solution that makes it a little bit better suited for the sounders, although I think Lumen currently is not a bad fit by any stretch, while keeping it there and not moving the Seahawks out to Maple Valley or something where everybody has to drive to get to the stadium and it's isolated, I think that's a much better outcome. I will only add that
00:47:01
Speaker
Nothing about Loom & Field strikes me as unfixable from a sounder's perspective. The sounders have real gripes. I think legitimate gripes about Loom & Field and the way that they are still really treated as tenants. And they are. They are tenants. That's the reality. And they are reminded of this regularly.
00:47:21
Speaker
You can go through the list. There's no permanent locker space for them. There is no, everything, every renovation that gets into the stadium is focused on how does this work for the Seahawks? And maybe the sounders can use it. Like right now there is currently a big renovation going on in the sort of like the guts of, of Loom & Field. I think around what's called the, like we used to be called like the club field or the, like the
00:47:49
Speaker
press club or something like that was like that area in the corner and and they've been renovating that and basically it's gonna be these high priced seats where the players walk out in front of these high priced seats and they get to sort of and they go through this like tunnel and the and the fans get to see that
00:48:04
Speaker
that's not going to be something that like that like the the bar area might be something that sounders fans get to use but the part where the players walk through is not going to be a thing that that the sounders experience and there's like a whole host of these changes that are throughout the stadium that are really not geared towards the sounders but they could if they chose to they could turn all the the ad boards into
00:48:26
Speaker
LED boards that they can flip to be sounders or Seahawks. They can do a lot of stuff in the stadium. If they want to, they can absolutely put in and figure out a way to maintain a grass field. They can put in safe standing in the Braum end and they can swap it out every time they want to use it for the Seahawks. These are things that they could do if their will was there.
00:48:50
Speaker
Now, will they? I don't know. I guess what I'm saying is the sound is sounders don't need the Seahawks to leave. They just need to get a better, they need to have more equal footing inside their stadium. All that said, if one team is going to leave, I tend to think it's like still, like I used to think it was probably be the Seahawks because they'd go build their own Jerry world somewhere.
00:49:13
Speaker
I, at this point, I would probably guess that the Sounders would be the team that's more likely to leave the cost of them building their own facility is a lot smaller. They, you know, and it could potentially be out at, at long acres. Who knows? So I don't know. I don't, I don't, I, I think the smart money is that both teams are there for a long time, but who knows? Yeah, I hope so. I really hope so. The, the Sounders playing at long acres would be a huge bummer to me.
00:49:43
Speaker
I will say that's on it is connected to the train line. It's connected to a train line. Yeah, I mean, if you've ever I will say this that if they if if the decision is ever made to make sounder the sound the sounder a real commuter rail.
00:50:00
Speaker
It's a really nice location. And I have taken the train from King Street Station to Tukwila. And it's like 10 minutes. It's shocking how close it is. They do not even run transfer sounders games. I know. I'm just saying they could if they wanted to. They could. They certainly a lot of coulds in this response to this question. All right. Our last one is another one from the trialists. When is the next Yacht-Con?
00:50:28
Speaker
Ooh, that's a good one. I...
00:50:32
Speaker
would like to say that it will be this next off season. And we're going to, I think we're going to, that's my goal. I mean, this is maybe news to you. My, my goal is to do yacht con ahead of next season, sort of pick up where we left off with the last real yacht con, which was in 2020. And if we can find a facility, if we can, we can make the schedule work. That's my intention. I would like to think we're going to have more live events one way or another.
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah. Whether or not it's a big blowout like Yacht-Con, I can't guarantee at this point, but that's definitely the goal. That's the intention.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think the last time we talked about this on the show, we said that people should let us know if it's something they're interested in. Yeah. And we tried. We did try to actually do it last year. You didn't remember. And I'll be honest, like the response was not super encouraging and we didn't do it. So that kind of tells you where the things were there. But if you really want to do it. Right. It does. I will say that this year has felt more like.
00:51:33
Speaker
A normal year? A normal year than last year did. Like last year was like most people were back to doing... Yeah, it was too early to bring it back. So I think, yeah, I'm a little more optimistic for this year. But even if we don't do Yacht-Con, I'd certainly be, you know, down to for doing more smaller scale public events at some point as well. So yeah, I'd really like I would also really like to do it under Yacht-Con. It was fun. I will I am bummed that hails palladium doesn't appear to be
00:52:03
Speaker
of
00:52:21
Speaker
Yeah, kind of. Yeah. It was nice. It was nice. We'll figure something out. We will. We can do that. All right. Well, I think that's the show. Thanks for listening. We have a game really like we're probably going to release this on Saturday. So the game is going to be tonight. Yeah. I hope people are ready for that.
00:52:44
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I'm ready. I'll be at Bumbershoot actually. So you are? Yeah. I'm not going on. I don't think I'm going on Saturday, but I'm going to go. Do you have tickets to Saturday? I'm going to go Sunday. We're going to see. We're going to see if we go Sunday. We're we'd like to. There are some bands we want to see, but the bands were like committed to seeing her all Saturday. I assume Sleater Kenny is one of the bands that you're really.
00:53:09
Speaker
No, I'll go see you later Kenny, but my wife's not super in them. Screaming females is the big one. That was the main reason that I was like, maybe I do want to go to Bubbershoot, but I think we're going to try to see Morgan and the organ donors. If we go Sunday, we'll probably go see the Danny warehouse.
00:53:32
Speaker
Yeah. So we'll see, we'll see, uh, we'll see how it goes, but it's the first time I will have been to Bumbershoot since 2004, I think.
00:53:40
Speaker
It's been a while. First year we moved to Seattle, we went and I said, I'm never doing that again. Yeah. So I've never been to a bumper shoot, but I feel like this year's lineup was sort of made with people my age are probably pretty into this lineup. I think so. And it was pretty affordable. It scaled back quite a bit. The reason I didn't like going to the last few was it was like trying to be like Bonnaroo or something. And it was just too much. The headliners was like, oh, Sheryl Crow.
00:54:10
Speaker
No offense to Cheryl Crowe. This feels more like Bumbershoot was when I first started going in the mid-90s. Did they used to have, not to get too sidetracked here, but did they used to hold
00:54:27
Speaker
concerts in memorial for Bumbershoot or is that? Yeah, memorials were the main stage wars. So that was like, we're Beckwood play or Sheryl Crow. So that they're not doing, they're not using that this year. It's all like in the pavilion sort of space. Yeah. It's much more, much more scaled down. I mean, I, it used to be like, there were like hundreds of bands playing, you know, it was crazy. So it was, it was a little much. Um, but you know, I'm trying to, in my post cancer, post COVID.
00:54:58
Speaker
I'm trying to be optimistic about it and excited about being around that many people. So we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll see you there. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. I know I'm also bummed that we're recording this before the media game. Oh, when is that? It's tomorrow. You're playing, I'm assuming. I am playing. I'll see how long I can go, but I am going to suit up and be there.
00:55:25
Speaker
Well, gut speed. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we'll get another meme out of it. Right. That would be, that's really the goal. That's the goal is, is getting a meme out of it. Yeah. Well, with that said, I guess we should sign off. I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Aaron and Lickit.
00:55:42
Speaker
Thank you to our sponsors, Fullpool Wines, Watson's Counter. Of course, thank you to our subscribers and especially our Discord members because they're making this all possible. So hope you enjoyed that. And yeah, well, you'll never be all alone.
00:56:56
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!