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What We Learned This Week: The Sounders love a good road trip, Tigres and Dynamo previews
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Niko Moreno joins Jeremiah to discuss what they learned this week with the Sounders. The two talk about the start of yet another road trip - this time to Houston and then Monterrey, Mexico. Then they share what they know about Nikola Petkovic’s injury and what it means moving forward, and also the Sounders status now as a “selling club.” In the second segment Jeremiah is joined by Jon Arnold of Getting CONCACAFed to preview the match against Tigres. Niko rejoins in the third segment to mostly preview the upcoming Houston Dynamo game.
Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube, Jon Arnold on BlueSky and Getting CONCACAFED.
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Transcript
Will Bruin's New Role with Sounder at Heart
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come
Seattle Sounders' Regional Dominance
00:00:12
Speaker
on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what a goal! Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline you.
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines
00:01:18
Speaker
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 Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction of Nos Arietes Episode
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Arietes on the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. It is Friday. i' am Jeremiah Shan. We are remote this week, but I am joined as always by Nico Moreno on what we learned this week. How's it going, Nico?
00:01:59
Speaker
What's going on, Jeremiah? Sounder at Heart Family. What is going on? Happy to be on us always. Yes, today, you know, kind of feels like a nice, chill, Sunday-like morning. You know? don't get a lot of these. We don't get a lot of these. And you I guess they do come and you don't realize how how nice it might be sometimes for those Fridays to be a little bit...
00:02:25
Speaker
More calm, no running around. We love being a training. I know I do, but it does feel good to just not have to rush and deal with traffic and stuff. So I'm feeling pretty mellow. Got my coffee right here. So, you know, well, I'm ready.
Sounders' Road Game Challenges
00:02:41
Speaker
I'm ready. A little calm before the storm, I suppose, because the Sounders have had some light training weeks in the last year.
00:02:50
Speaker
few weeks, I suppose last month, because or shouldn't I shouldn't say light training weeks, we have not been able to attend as many training sessions over the last month or so as we were used to attending, because the Sounders have been on the road so much. This will be their seventh straight game away from Lumen Field, of course, not technically their seventh straight home game because they played a home game in Spokane, but seventh straight game away from Lumen Field, they will at now play eight straight away from Lumen Field when they play Tigris Wednesday in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals.
00:03:23
Speaker
ah But they will, and they they also, because they moved a game that was supposed to be on, i guess it was supposed to be between the two legs.
00:03:34
Speaker
the I guess it would still have eight. It was always going to be eight, wasn't it? Yes. It was. All right. Well, anyway. ah it was going to be eight, but... No, hold on. would have been nine because you would have added the The Tigris game, right?
00:03:52
Speaker
No, that was still, no, was a, it was a, the game they moved was going to be on the weekend. It would have come after the eighth game anyway, but whatever. Ah, gotcha.
Sounders' Defensive Strengths
00:04:01
Speaker
i Important thing is the Sounders have done remarkably well so far on this road trip. They are three, one and one. If you actually, i guess they're four, one and one.
00:04:12
Speaker
And they are, they, they have managed this very well. Now the underlying numbers don't always look great. Like they have been, they've been giving up a lot of possession. They haven't been taking as many shots.
00:04:26
Speaker
Their offensive numbers do not look spectacular right now. but their defense has really been very impressive during this stretch. Like they talked a lot this off season about getting better on defense. And it's hard to say that they've done anything, but do that. They've only given up three goals all year in seven games.
00:04:46
Speaker
And they've done it in a unique fashion because of the amount of injuries, rotating pieces, their ability to just get a lot of players behind the ball. it It's been different than than, you know, any, or it feels different than any other defense that I've covered with the team before. um And I think that there is a level of...
00:05:15
Speaker
greediness and relentlessness that i tend to... equate to character and and, and the team that can really go through so bad spells of a game and, and just push through. And when we look at the whole thing and players are going to come back home games that you're going to have, this is a very good situation to be in, in all aspects, not just results, but as a team and as a collective unit.
League and CONCACAF Standings
00:05:49
Speaker
Well, the thing is, is that this, you know, they they've said this repeatedly at the start of this this trip, which was you can't win the supporter shield but ah at this point in the season, but you can definitely lose it. And they're, you know, they, if they had fallen on their faces and they had gotten eliminated from champions league and they had failed to, you know, they hadn't gotten as many points as they've gotten from the road, they would have created a very different outlook going forward. And instead they've put themselves in a position where they really have everything to play for, you know, they're in the CONCACAF champions cup quarterfinals.
00:06:25
Speaker
I think this is a manageable series, by the way, we're going to talk to John Arnold from getting CONCACAF later on in the show. And he's going to do a full preview of this Tigris series.
00:06:36
Speaker
But I just think from a broad perspective, I feel really good about where this team is.
Team Challenges and Optimism
00:06:42
Speaker
And sure, there are some potential, I wouldn't say red flags, but maybe yellow flags about, you know, Albert Rusnak has not gotten off to the best start. You know, you can nitpick the way Jesus Ferreira has played this year. You can get kind of up in your feelings about the the injury crisis that has hit again. And we'll get into that as well. But I just think if you take a 10,000 foot view and you say, look, the centers are five, one, and one in all comps, they're three, one, and one in league play.
00:07:09
Speaker
They won both of their Champions Cup games against what might be the best team in MLS. I feel really good about where things stand right now. Absolutely. And part of that, at least for me, is that you have now...
00:07:28
Speaker
added some players that you maybe didn't know you had. ah You have put players in situations where they're having to play at a very high level. I think it was Ferreira who we spoke to this week, and he kind of mentioned that, look,
00:07:44
Speaker
us having two, three games more than like a Houston team that you're going to be facing gives you a little bit of an edge because you will have been able to get more chemistry, get more competitive minutes. And, and that, that makes a huge difference. I think that the Tino Lopez fine has been phenomenal. I think that Peter Kingston is a guy that I would be surprised if he doesn't get signed past this weekend I think that guys that have have had to step up like Alex Roldan always –
00:08:17
Speaker
even if he has to go back to his original position, not right back, that that level of confidence and leadership, it all kind of works together and it cements the group, right? and And, you know, we'll talk about injuries, but all of those things do kind of come together in a way that give you a a very strong competitive edge.
00:08:37
Speaker
And any time that you can tell yourself, look, we got all these points, we are probably – I don't know if they would say this, but we could say this. The Sounders are in a better position than we thought they would be after this amount of road games. I thought they would they would have a couple more draws. It's kind of what I had in in my math, and and they didn't.
00:09:00
Speaker
And they still haven't reached their top form because you know that at some point they're going to make it click and they're going to be a team that's better in possession, that ah maybe has a starting 11 that gets more repetition together and they start finding that ah beyond chemistry is ah that ability to just play off of each other in a way that is instinctive and not systematic. And so all of these things that you could add to what you're already doing. ah
00:09:34
Speaker
I'm not saying that this team is is a juggernaut. I'm just saying that I've been very impressed. And I think that they're going to be even better as time goes along. i mean, their floor is extremely high. And to your point that you started off with, the defense has been that platform that has allowed them to do that.
00:09:51
Speaker
Absolutely. I mean, you can you look if Albert Rusnak continues to score at the rate that he's going to score. He's scoring at the the Sounders might be in trouble, but the fact that you could look at it another way and say, look, the Sounders have gotten to this point without really any serious contributions from Rusnak without any contributions from any other number nines. They have, ah you know, they, they've done it with a, a mix and match center back pairings.
00:10:22
Speaker
They've been rotating their goalkeepers. I really am encouraged a lot by everything I've seen. And I think it's it's very easy to look at this all as sort of half or glass half full as opposed to or more than half full. I mean, this is like like a pretty full glass, frankly, right now. So ah i'm I'm feeling good about these things.
Impact of Petkovich's Injury
00:10:43
Speaker
But that said, we did get some pretty. sad news this week when it came to the injury situation, at least in one big way, Nikola Petkovich, who had just given us interviews on, I guess it was Thursday.
00:11:00
Speaker
and then we found out that on Saturday he tore his ACL and training. And that almost certainly means he's going to be out for the year. And I know you had not been quite as high on Petkovich as some of us,
00:11:12
Speaker
But I also think even you recognize that he was a ah positive influence on this team. Whether or not the Sounders were going to bring him in full time was a separate question. But this is definitely a loss for the Sounders, at least as far as their depth goes.
00:11:29
Speaker
Not just their depth, but it does hit the group's On a mental and vibe aspect, like i could I could hear it from from players that I talked to off to the side. It's hard to see a guy come in fit in You mentioned that interview, that scrum that you had that I wasn't necessarily a part of, but to what I've heard from you guys, he felt...
00:11:57
Speaker
I don't know, lighter on his feet. He felt like he was, you know, pretty he was starting to feel at place. He was starting to feel like he this was somewhere where he could be here a longer time. So that that mental part always sucks. And on the on the soccer aspect, yes, I am not going to.
00:12:14
Speaker
hide the fact that I wasn't as high as maybe you or Jackson or some of the other guys in the, in the beat were on him, but i could definitely appreciate that. He was a guy that was going to be another rotating piece and a different profile of,
00:12:31
Speaker
center midfielder, that that is always part of it. Did I think that he was going to be a guy that has, as maybe Brian surprised me with, said that he's seen enough where, you know, he would have been more than happy to bring him back or have the discussion or something to that effect of, of that he had seen enough to where it'd be an interesting proposition to see what that would have been in the future. But, but now all of that just kind of falls apart because, know,
00:13:01
Speaker
it's a severe injuries and ACL. It is one that's going to take him out for the year. So what that looks like moving forward, I mean, it's pretty murky because of the the loan and the, and the yeah potential transfer by and all of these things. But,
00:13:19
Speaker
I want to focus on, on the person and the player. i do feel like he had been someone that the players were starting to feel like he was one of the guys and and he did it pretty rapidly and he really integrated in the, in the group. And, and I always appreciate that from players because it's not an easy thing to do always.
00:13:40
Speaker
You know, and one of the things that was to your point that made it, they added the emotional aspect to this is he had just talked to us and he was seemingly so happy to be in Seattle.
00:13:54
Speaker
Like he just loved, you know, he talked about how the, the way that he, his playing style just fits in a lot better with the way that the sounders want to play. And, you know, he was asked about the competition with guys like Hassani and Christian and Snyder and even Peter Kingston.
00:14:12
Speaker
And he was, he was like, these are perfect players and they're not just perfect players. They're perfect people. And he just was a few, he was just like, lumping praise on these guys who is, who are ostensibly his has biggest competition for minutes and not just for minutes, but for the decision to bring him in full time. And I think it spoke a lot to the way that he's fitting in with the group and the way that he was just, you know, feeling it. And so my suspicion is that,
00:14:41
Speaker
the Sounders are probably going to try to figure out a way to keep him. I don't think they're going to, and I, and I think there is a weird, in a weird way, i could see this almost working
Salary Cap and Transfer News
00:14:54
Speaker
in the favor of him staying because he's obviously not going to hit all the playing time escalators that would have driven the price up. And I also wonder if there's some more negotiation to be done about whatever the, like, I don't know what the the purchase price on his loan was, but I can't imagine that Charlotte is more interested in bringing him back now.
00:15:15
Speaker
And they might just be willing to sort of write it off at this point. Whereas the Sounders, you know, they're, I don't know that i I think realistically, he's probably not going to be a useful player until the 27, 28 season.
00:15:27
Speaker
Like that feels like a pretty, so it's not just the rest of the year. It's, it's probably the sprint season next year that he's not up to full speed. But, you know, if if the Sounders like him, why not, right? I mean, he doesn't, he has a very low cap hit. He only would, he's going to be, if the Sounders were to bring him back, he'd only be a u twenty two And so, you know, there's some reasons to bring him back. and And I do sort of hope that it can work out. Now, I don't think the Sounders should do anything stupid and buy him at like the full price. But if they can figure out a way where, like, I would imagine he would much rather rehab here.
00:16:03
Speaker
I guess that's sort of, you know, to put it in more humanistic and more ah current terms, if they can figure out a way for him to rehab here, I think that's good for everyone.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe not the time to necessarily, you know, judge him. on you know his his soccer overall, his technical abilities or anything like that. But just going off of the injury, it'd be a tough buy, I think, because you also don't want to devalue his price. So I think that there's a lot of things where maybe he wants to stay, but I'm sure that he's, like every player does, sees himself as a player of X amount of of money or compensation. and
00:16:51
Speaker
I just think it'd be difficult. I also don't see... maybe Maybe they would, but I don't know if I see Charlotte just letting him go on a free even after the injury.
00:17:04
Speaker
So this is where it becomes more business than anything. And yeah I don't know if there is a way to make business make sense for both sides on this one. But that does not discount the fact that he has definitely made an impression. And and and that is worth highlighting, right? yeah He left an impression with the team and the coaching staff. And that that that goes a lot to say for his skillset. And, you know, maybe not just...
00:17:36
Speaker
in the limited amount of time that he's had on the field, but maybe in the training ground and, in ah in you know, everything that he does on on the other side and and really making a name for himself within the team. So I wish him nothing but the best. I hope that he has ah a quick and full recovery from a really tough injury.
00:17:57
Speaker
And that, you know, his future goes the the way that he needs to go. i just I don't see him coming back with the team, but but I certainly hope that he um he gets better.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah, I do, too. And I do. i I know a lot of people are out there sort of like putting on their. their tinfoil hats a little and wondering if the Sounders are doing something that is causing all these ACL injuries.
00:18:26
Speaker
And i I suppose it's possible. ah But I think there's like a couple of things that maybe are inflating the numbers a little bit in people's heads. One of them is keep in mind that Jordan Morris did not do his ACL the second time.
00:18:41
Speaker
when he was with the Sounders. He did that when he was on loan to Swansea. So I don't think we can really count that one. ah Yes, the Sounders just had a situation last year with Paul Areola.
00:18:53
Speaker
But before that, it was jio Paulo, who was obviously an older player. and you know and i think in maybe our minds, it it ends up feeling like a lot more than it really is.
00:19:05
Speaker
But also ACLs are pretty... weird injuries in that they are not entirely predictable. And it's, you know, it's, I don't, they almost all are happening on grass too, which I think is kind of interesting because I think a lot of folks tend to associate these types of injuries with turf.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I don't know that any of other than, than the one that JP did in the 2022 final, final ah most of these are happening on, almost all these are happening on grass. ah I do think it's weird that ah the Sounders keep having all these weird knee injuries.
00:19:43
Speaker
And I don't know, maybe there's something there, but I will just kind of remind everyone that injuries in soccer have become more common across the board. I think that probably has more to do with the the amount of games and travel that team players are being asked to do, and not really anything that the Sounders are doing. All the studies that we've been able to find suggest the Sounders are pretty average when it comes to injuries.
00:20:08
Speaker
And they may actually be a little bit above average when it comes, once you factor in how much more travel they have to do and the fact that they play their home games on turf. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad that you brought that up because it is something that has been on my mentions, has been brought up by, you know, plenty of people. And, you know, there's always this almost knee reaction to when you hear ACL, you just go to turf, you go to, you know, what the Sounders doing. and And, you know, most of this have happened, not just in grass, but,
00:20:44
Speaker
they're really hard, and and I guess this is just stating the obvious here, but they're just hard to predict because it's not like your muscles where you know that you're wearing them down and part of the, you know, sports science department can, you know, manage and and and limit minutes depending on, like, certain acids and, like, you know, strains that you see when it comes to those ligaments. it's It's just really hard to predict, so... It's unfortunate. It is. It could be a curse. I don't know. But the reality is that ah it it happened and now the Sounders have to move forward. It sounds like Brian was pretty...
00:21:25
Speaker
or he sounded confident in the the depth at that position with Hassani Dodson and Snyder Brunel. I think Peter Kingston's going to come to to play in that position if they end up signing him, as we think they will. So there's definitely a lot to to be discussed there. I'm not sure, and you could talk a little bit about this, but Jeremiah, maybe not too long, but that there is that ability to perhaps ah open up that international spot for the upcoming window and maybe remove some of the salary, although it wasn't much. ah So, yeah, maybe you could talk about that. Yeah. So the Sounders have...
00:22:08
Speaker
In theory, they can still play. I think there's some details being worked out exactly how this would work because it's a
Potential Roster Moves
00:22:15
Speaker
loan. But theoretically, the Sounders would be able to put Pekovic on a season-ending injury list, which would free up his international spot, which would free up a senior roster spot, and would allow them to use the prorated portion of his salary – Again, ah in the case of Petkovich, he only counts $200,000 against the salary cap because he's a U22 player. so you know, let's just call it $150,000 that they might be able to recoup.
00:22:45
Speaker
ah Maybe a hundred and maybe it's ah even as close to 175, but either way, it's not a ton of money on the cap. It might be something though. So I would imagine that's all, those are all things that in a roundabout way kind of help.
00:22:58
Speaker
I don't think any of those would be used until the summer. They can make signings right now, but the kind of signing they can make are guys who are on free transfers or players who are already in the organization. So theoretically, they could sign Peter Kingston. And I would imagine it it becomes a relatively straightforward decision with Peter Kingston. He does, I'm almost positive, have one more loan left. So the Sounders could bring him up for a short-term loan for this week or potentially next week or whenever they might need him.
00:23:28
Speaker
And then at that point, they would have a decision to make about whether or not they want him to bring bring him in full time. That's what happened with Tino Lopez. Every indication that I'm seeing from the Sounders is that they really would like to bring Peter in full time. I don't know why they wouldn't at this point.
00:23:44
Speaker
He's done everything that has been asked of him. He seems like a good fit. He seems to have some flexibility. And that's probably the only short-term thing I would expect him to do is to just sign Peter Kingston.
00:23:57
Speaker
But in the summer... they do have a lot of flexibility. I wrote about this over this week in a in an article that was called Selling to Win, Why the Sounders Altered Their Roster-Building Approach. And essentially what I did is I explained why the Sounders have suddenly started selling all these players. And i and and even though I use this term in the in the story, I do think...
00:24:19
Speaker
It's a little deceiving to say that the Sounders are suddenly a selling club because a selling club implies that you are oftentimes selling your best players, even though it costs you short-term results.
00:24:30
Speaker
All indications from the Sounders are that they aren't really interested in selling their best players. They're interested in selling players who are more the surplus types. You know, Reed Baker, Whiting, Georgie Manungu, Danny Leyva, especially those three players.
00:24:42
Speaker
and you can go back to Josh Atencio last year, all those players were sort of struggling for playing time. They did not have very clear paths to playing time. They were definitely not starters at the time that they were traded.
00:24:54
Speaker
And they were sent places where they were able to be more they they had better prospects for playing time. The exception to this is obviously Obed Vargas. That's a whole other situation that we've talked about a lot.
00:25:06
Speaker
He was clearly a starter for the Sounders. He went someplace where he is no longer clearly a starter, but again, that's ah a whole separate issue. But for the most part, the Sounders are... are bolstering their ability to go out and sign someone else. And that is really what this is all about. It's about their ability to get rid of some of the surplus players and ideally sign someone who slots in higher up in the roster, ideally like a starter type of player. You know, they can go out and they can sign a TAM, for instance.
00:25:33
Speaker
And so I think that the expectation should be that they will do that this summer. And I know there's a lot of people out there saying like, well, we've heard this story before.
00:25:44
Speaker
I will just add, we haven't really heard this story before, because in the past, what we've been talking about is theoretical resources to spend. Now they have what I would estimate at something like $4 million dollars in salary cap space that they can use as early as the summer.
00:26:04
Speaker
And that's the reason why i think even in our last show, I called it almost obligatory or mandatory or they're being forced almost into having to make a decision because they have this war chest of of of GAM and and and an open cap and and honestly necessity. ah moving forward for them to be able to take a nice deep look at this roster and say, where can I get better? Or where within our pipeline, are we not seeing something coming up? So we need to make sure that we fulfill that position for the future. And we do that by going to the international market and bring in a B and C. So I do have a lot of,
00:26:49
Speaker
stock in the Sounders making a couple of very interesting moves in in the summer. You know, I would love to see a U22-9 come into this team and i don't want to read bring bring back that that that whole, you know, we beat that horse to to ah to a pulp already. So we we don't need to talk about that all over again, but would I would like that.
00:27:13
Speaker
Well, let's, i guess, the and i geral i'll close that on this ah you know, You know, would recommend everyone go back and read the story that I'm talking about. There's also a story that's circulating ah that I just linked to on Blue Sky that ah sort of ah gets into this as well. But the reason, one of the reasons the Sounders felt like they had to become had to get more into the transfer market was because they were seeing a reality where in MLS, the amount of GAM that you can acquire has exploded.
00:27:47
Speaker
ah There is something like almost... a hundred percent more gam filtering around the MLS ecosystem today than there was in 2021, which is a huge increase.
00:27:59
Speaker
And the sounders were seeing teams like inner Miami and LAFC, especially who not only were spending money on the transfer market, but we're also selling players in order to build up their gam, uh,
00:28:10
Speaker
they're they're their GAM bank account, essentially. And what that essentially does is it allows you to spend more against the salary cap. And so instead of a salary cap of 6.5 million, lac might have a salary cap of million.
00:28:25
Speaker
And if the Sounders only have a salary cap of 13 million, that obviously is putting them at a pretty significant disadvantage on top of all the transfer spending they might be doing on DPs and whatnot. So the Sounders saw this this shifting marketplace and they just felt like, look, we just have to be more willing to trade young players and to sell them for assets, especially if they're contributing right now on the first team. And so that's really what we've seen, you know,
00:28:53
Speaker
Danny Leyva, as good as he was, wasn't necessarily
Trading Surplus Talent
00:28:58
Speaker
pushing. He was not pushing for starters minutes. You could say the same thing about Reed Baker Whiting. You could see the same thing about Georgia Manungu. And I think this is a ah pretty astute thing for the Sounders to be doing. And yes, it does.
00:29:11
Speaker
it does hurt their depth on some level, but it doesn't really do anything to their top, you know, 12, you know, 14 16 players in the rotation.
00:29:22
Speaker
And I don't think that there is, first of all, I think this is smart business. And and I think that is a facet that this club had not used to their best so effectiveness, you know, to to to really bolster ah other abilities to continue to feed the roster because yes. ah And I love that Brian said this, by the way, you know, he,
00:29:47
Speaker
said, look, maybe we got it wrong on Georgie and maybe he's going to go out there and just be this great player, you know, but that it was good business. It was $2 million dollars mark. And, you know, that says a lot about the player.
00:30:00
Speaker
And, you know, if he does well, I wish him nothing but the best. And I think there is a sense of you also have to do right by the player. And and I feel like Danny Leyva was a guy that,
00:30:10
Speaker
It'd been years and years and years where he wanted to be a main piece of the team. And even now, when I thought he was going to be a guy that was going to be slaughtered into potentially be a starter instead of, but Vargas, I don't know if he was going to stay there because maybe he just didn't quite fit what Brian wanted. And bri and Brian can make that decision and say, look, you're definitely going to give him a minute elsewhere. Same thing goes with Reed. Same thing goes with Georgie. Georgie was...
00:30:37
Speaker
Probably not going to get much minutes moving forward because it's not that he wasn't a good player. It's just that the system just asked for other things. And so whether they get it right or wrong, that will be determined by results, by, you know, i' but I'm knocking on wood people, not any more injuries on that side of the field and and and anything that that might make it seem like, see, if Georgie was here,
00:31:02
Speaker
We'd be a better team off. but But as things stand, it was good business. So I i think that you don't – and and i now I get the whole we're not a selling team because you're right. a selling team is kind of farming talent to get it out yeah like Dallas did at one point where sometimes they wouldn't even make it to the first team and they were already in New right? Right. So I get that. That's not what the sounders want to do, but you can still be a a team that sells your surplus talent. And that makes you a known commodity that is credit to your system, to your organization, and it could bolster ultimately your...
00:31:41
Speaker
maintain Because look, if you brought Jesus Ferreira for what 2.8, right? and And then you brought Paula Riola. yeah I think Jesus Ferreira is going to be a player that's to be here for a very long time. And if you can get those types of players for ah a substantial amount of game, then shoot, go ahead and go ahead and do it. Plus to your point, We don't know how much longer GAM is going to be around. I mean, for all we know, in two years, GAM could disappear and you didn't cash in all your chips that the casino gave you. now you're just sitting with it. So I just I think that there's a lot of smart business being done by the team on that regard.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. And I'll, I'll just add also that it's working out for the players that they move to. You know, I'm looking at Danny Leyva's, uh, playing time in, he just had a baller of a game a couple of weeks ago.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah. He, did his last game, he was like the player of the the week. One of the top players in the, of the week for, Nacoxa against Tijuana in a 3-0 win. And he's, you know, he's been arguably Nacoxa's best player, ah frankly. He's been really, really good. He's having, he's seeing his profile raise tremendously. And I don't know that, you know, to your point, I don't know that that was going to happen here, especially with Hassani Dawson, especially with Snyder Brunell. You know, there was a, there was a ah very real possibility that he was going to just get stuck in the same situation that he's been in for the last, you know, whatever, six or seven years, if he had stayed here. So this has worked out really good for him.
00:33:10
Speaker
it has, you know, it looks like Reed Baker Whiting is doing well in Nashville. You got to love that for, it you know, it does. hurt to see them doing well on other teams, but it also shows that the sounders are producing good players. You know, uh, Reed just coming off of a start, a league start in which, uh, or ah in which, uh, Nashville one five zero, you know, he's, he started one of the the legs against inner Miami and CONCACAF champions cup. He's getting some good minutes. He's, he's showing that he can play there and good for him.
00:33:41
Speaker
You know, i'm I'm really, I'm ecstatic for him. i Would I have liked to have seen that here? Absolutely. I definitely would have liked to have seen that here. But, you know, ah it it wasn't necessarily in the cards. And I think it's, you would be hard pressed to make an argument that he'd be doing better than Nuhu is right now.
00:33:59
Speaker
I mean, Nuhu was having a great year, and I don't know that he he would have dispached you know you would have gotten him rid of him. Georgie Manungu, we haven't seen how much he's going to play, but it looks like he's in contention to be a starter for Colorado. It looks like Colorado's system is set up really nicely for a player like him.
00:34:17
Speaker
I expect that to be a good a good move for him too. So on some level, we can't get we can't sort of hoard talent. Like the Sounders have to sort of get out of the mentality of worrying about what's going to happen if they trade a player.
00:34:31
Speaker
If they aren't playing, they should be moved on, especially if they don't have a clear pathway. You know, it's different for like a Snyder Brunel, who maybe he's not playing right now, but he's clearly working himself up to that point.
00:34:43
Speaker
But I just think you have to be smart about when you move players and how you move them. And to me, it looks like that's exactly what the Sounders are doing. Yeah. You don't want to stump talent. and and And that's what that can do. You hinder that player's ability to move forward. And if anything, and to add on and and kind of segue into the the the mates basically next part of the of this show,
00:35:06
Speaker
the show when you look at what they've been able to do with Tacoma Defiance and and and the academy and and the guys that are coming along, then, you know, as those players go along, then there are more minutes for a guy like Peter Kingston, who looked really, really good this week in training. He was right next to Hassani Dotson, who looked full in training. He looks good. Let's look at the center backs. I mean, you know, Stu was once again partial training, but they're definitely... starting to ramp up his ah workload as I heard it. So it it sounds like he's going to be ready to go. So those center backs are going to start to also look for minutes. And you and I have talked about her in the past where players but get into this gray area where, know,
00:35:53
Speaker
Let's say Stu. Stu, you don't necessarily want to drop him to play into comma defiance because he's too good for it. And then you're not getting first team minutes because there's other guys there. So then they just sit there and they have nowhere to go. And I think that some of the situations that I think Brian pointed out very clearly, you could say that they were in some of that area.
Player Minute Management
00:36:12
Speaker
Well, I can't put Reid into comma defiance and I'm not giving him enough play time. So, man, if we can move him on, then, you know, that's always good for them as well.
00:36:21
Speaker
Absolutely. And so before we take a break and we, we push it to the, the segment with John Arnold to talk about Tigres. And by the way, we will come back after that and we will preview the Houston dynamo match as well.
00:36:33
Speaker
I just also wanted to give a shout out to the Sounders Academy U 15s who qualified for the GA cup final where they'll play Valencia. So sort of um a rematch of the 2019 GA cup final. They won two zero over LAFC in the semifinals.
00:36:50
Speaker
They got a goal and assist from Chris Batiz is a name that you may remember. He just signed with defiance at the time he was 14. He's now, he just turned 15. So he seems to be having a great tournament. i believe he has seven goals and like four assists in this tournament so far. So he's just balling out. Absolutely. And then the right now, the U 16s are playing in the semifinals against the a team from Brazil whose name is escaping me, the Red Bull team from Brazil. And, and so there's a possibility that both Sounders U15s and U16s will be in the GA cup final, which is pretty cool. There is that's, those are the only two age groups currently in the GA cup. So that's ah you know, it's, it's good news all throughout the organization right now.
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah. and And it's great to see because, you know, we've had those, um, I don't know if litters is a good word in English, but, you know, in in Spanish you use camadas, like litter of players that that have come across it. And they've won tournaments. And if it's turned out, you know, I think Danileva was one of them. Ovid Vargas was one of them. You had Ocampo, who, well, maybe he didn't necessarily come through fruition, but, you know, those those groups of players built um teams and clubs. I mean, and I know I'm going get...
00:38:11
Speaker
killed for this and I'm not comparing it. I'm not saying that that's what they are, but like Barcelona has had those letters of players and, um and you, and, and and it it talks very well about a team. Whenever you do get those youth teams that can go out there and perform at that high level and win things and play together. And then at one point they can all,
00:38:33
Speaker
if they all make it three or four of those be at the, at the first team level. And it really becomes a, a culture thing that continues to just repeats itself. So it's, it's great for, for, for the club.
00:38:46
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, on that token, we should probably cut over to John Arnold of getting CONCACAF and then we'll come back and we'll talk a little bit about the Houston Dynamo game, which is coming up on Saturday. You're listening to Nos Adietes on the Sound at Heart Podcast Network.
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Speaker
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00:41:03
Speaker
Joining me today to help preview this upcoming series against Tigres is the one and only John Arnold of Get Conca-Caft. How's it going?
CONCACAF Champions Cup Matchups
00:41:13
Speaker
Good. I'm always happy when there's CONCACAF and there's been an international break, which is like my happy place into a CONCACAF Champions Cup serious match day, all MLS versus Liga Mequis. So yeah this is i can I can't get much happy.
00:41:28
Speaker
this what yeah this is This is why i do it. Yeah, exactly. And so I don't know how often, I guess this is not that rare for us to get all four quarterfinals be League Ameki's MLS matchups, but you always savor these opportunities because it's like a real measuring stick as far as those things go.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And then we'll see with Leagues Cup's evolution, you know, with games actually being played in Mexico, which has kind of been the big, I think, hanging question. Well, MLS is dominating a Mexican opposition in Leagues Cup, but they don't have to go to Mexico. Now some teams do. So maybe we'll start to see that as a so kind of acceptable, quote-unquote, second barometer. But with the home-and-home format, that doesn't exist in the final, unfortunately, anymore, Saunders fans. Yeah.
00:42:14
Speaker
you know I think this is still this this round and the next round, if there are cross matches, which I think most people hope there will be. i mean even if yeah Yeah, I mean, there's a world where there aren't. Even if you're a huge um MLS stan, I don't think you just want like, oh, it's all MLS teams. And obviously, if you're an MLS stan, you don't want it to be all Mexican teams. So anyway, this will be, for me, the most kind of reliable sort of barometer. It always is And even when the Sounders lifted the trophy, what I said, you know, I said, hey, we got to celebrate the Sounders. And I'm not just saying that for for your audience, although, you know, I don't mind a few brownie points here and there. But I wrote and and consistently kind of said, like, what's important for MLS to say, if they're ever going to be able to say we've surpassed Mexico and are the top league in CONCACAF, is not winning the CONCACAF Champions one time, but winning it consistently.
00:43:02
Speaker
and And that just hasn't happened, right? Yeah. This is it. This is the barometer. And this is, you know, when you get these matchups, you're right. I think there are ones that we savor partly because it's just a lot of fun and partly because like this will be part of the discussion of where's the game at and these sort of like things that we like to talk about as nerds for a long time.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, let's, before we get too deep into this matchup, what do you like? of If you're assessing the four, quarterfinals how do you like where does this one rank in terms of the miss the potential mismatch mismatch as far as like the mexican team has a better bigger spending roster or or just like i mean so for instance uh la galaxy are going to be huge underdogs against taluka right yeah and then it's and then it goes down from there like the relative competitive expected competitive of these and it i'm looking at it in my series
00:43:58
Speaker
It's the tightest series for me because, you know, I think Toluca has been so good recently in the Galaxy. We know about the Galaxy. LAFC, Cruz Azul. Well, maybe that's the tightest one. I mean, Cruz Azul could easily win the league. They've won the last CONCACAF Champions Cup. LAFC is a very good team. And then Nashville Club of America is a weird one because, like, America is this dominant force. It's always this, you know...
00:44:21
Speaker
ah huge spending and, but they're in this big time moment of transition and the Nashville is Nashville where they had a really good off season, but I think there's still sort of a hipster's choice maybe if you're going to say, oh, they're they're going to come out of the East or something like that. So I still, I'll kind of back myself though that like Sounders Tigres, I think might be,
00:44:40
Speaker
the tightest series, LAFC is just a weird one too, because like, I think you have this outsized, like sun sized gravitational pull. Uh, I don't think that's astronomically correct, but you know, uh, you have sun who is,
00:44:56
Speaker
worth a bazillion dollars and is like such a special player. Crystal school can't really match that yet at the same time, like they are the reigning champion. Sounders fans don't remember what they did in the previous tournament. Like, so that that's going to be a really tight series. I just wonder if LAFC is like budget spend, maybe kind of changes things. But I think this Tigres Sounders series is one I'm really excited for, partly because i think the teams are even and partly because I'm not really sure what to expect.
00:45:26
Speaker
Well, think there's also some interesting parallels between Tigres and
Northern Teams' Unique Challenges
00:45:31
Speaker
the Sounders. They're both sort of like northern teams. They are teams that are outside of the normal media sphere. One of the things, if people haven't, I would really suggest they go and watch the the video that you, the sort of the video What's the title of the series? Football Cities. Yeah, the travel video series. Yeah, it's a travel video series. And it's you did one on Monterrey and it is spectacular. But one of the things that you do a really good job of illustrating is how Tigres and Monterrey had to sort of go outside of the normal Mexican media and create sort of their own media platforms.
00:46:10
Speaker
ecosystem in order to get some attention because they just do not get the same sort of play that the teams certainly in Mexico city and in Guadalajara get.
00:46:20
Speaker
Yeah. I think you could almost draw a parallel to like baseball in the U S where this is something that's been around forever. And so you have the Yankees and the Dodgers and but like, there's still people who are like, Oh, the Dodgers, the New York team. Like that's how far back some of this idea goes in Mexican soccer, that the grand is the big four are the three Mexico city teams. And, and chivas and that's it and anyone else isn't worth respecting when monterrey comes in both teams in nueva leon have spent huge amounts of money in the last two decades bring in all these internationally recognized stars lift all these trophies and yet people in mexico city and guadalajara are still saying haha yeah good job little brother we don't actually respect you so you know, I don't know that the sounders pi fit perfectly in that box, but I think there definitely is the kind of like, no one likes us. We don't care. The weird thing is that like, in a lot of ways, I guess the timbers are like the ally there where you're like actually Cascadia rocks because like you have a Rados who's this like hated team right across town, but they're fighting the same battle. And so a lot of times you sort of end up as a, as brothers in arms in the fight against the Mexico city media dominance. So, um, Yeah, but the Tigres and Monterrey just have this very unique culture and there's this unique soccer culture around Monterrey because they really care. They really love the sport. El Volcan, the people who are able to go, is just going to be a fantastic experience.
00:47:38
Speaker
ah Hopefully nothing crazy happens you know in a bad way. Hopefully it's crazy in a fun way, but it should be. it's always I've always had great experiences there. Of course, I'm not wearing like ah a rival team's jersey. I'm usually wearing like a suit jacket, so people are usually like, this is a harmless...
00:47:53
Speaker
white man here. um And you're usually right. But all that to say, like the Wakanda is a special place, soccer culture in Monterrey is special, and it is like different, isolated from the rest of the US, similar to what you guys have in Cascadia, for sure.
00:48:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I think one of the things about El Volcan especially is that it is this old stadium.
El Volcan's Legendary Atmosphere
00:48:13
Speaker
I guess I assume it's part of the university, which is where the the team draws its name from, and and in not ah such a dissimilar way as Pumas does in Mexico City.
00:48:24
Speaker
ah and it But it does have this atmosphere that feels like... If it's not the best in the Western hemisphere, it has to be the best in North America, right? Like it's it's it's really an amazing thing to behold.
00:48:40
Speaker
It's my top atmosphere in CONCACAF as far as a club game. I think it's the best. I will say like the last time I was there, was a CONCACAF Champions Cup game and two rounds ago. And like, are they filling the stadium for...
00:48:54
Speaker
um a team that now even I can't remember, which is not a good sign. Shellapoo was playing against Rados. Oh, Forge FC, our friends from Canada. like did that but ah Did that pack out Volkan on a weeknight?
00:49:06
Speaker
No, it did not. But like the atmosphere is still good. The supporters are still crazy. And so when these games start getting more important or when the games are on weekends that people can can easily go to, I think it's the best atmosphere in CONCACAF.
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it it is really an amazing thing to behold. And I think what we saw in f the FC Cincinnati match was it has a characteristic onto it that sort of brings an energy that can lift a team. Like, I don't know that I would have expected, like I don't know if this has ever, i haven't seen this written about, but I i am skeptical that any team in CONCACAF has ever overturned a 3-0 deficit ah the way that they did. And they did it...
00:49:48
Speaker
by needing five goals, which is even more amazing. ah But I also wonder if, so the last time the Sounders played, or the only time the Sounders played at El Volcan was back in 2013 in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League at the time, in the which was a precursor to the Sounders becoming the first and MLS team to knock out a Liga Ameki's team from CONCACAF.
00:50:14
Speaker
But what we saw in that game was that as great as the atmosphere was, it didn't seem to have the same energy. And I'm guessing that's in part because it was not an elimination game. And I'm wondering, is that is that to being too hopeful to think that maybe Elvulcon's superpowers will not quite show themselves in this game?
00:50:34
Speaker
I mean, I think that's a question, but I would also say that like the respect for MLS teams has grown a lot since a decade ago. i think people really see these games, even on the Mexican side of the border now, like I think people really see these games as as important and understand sort of what it will mean to be there in the stadium to help your team.
00:50:53
Speaker
The other thing that I think is a bit of a disadvantage is like as far as how much will Elvokan weigh or not weigh on the on the shoulders. is that Tigres haven't played a home game since that Cincinnati game. It's a long time for people who are used to going to the stadium every week or every other week to wait. So I think there's been this anticipation of not necessarily, oh my gosh, the Sounders are coming, but like, I can't wait to go back to the stadium, right? I will say they then play Chivas on the weekend at home, which will be another big game. They're in a weird spot in the league right now.
00:51:25
Speaker
They're kind of hanging on to a playoff place. and It's going to be a quirky Ligia, the playoffs as well. And remember that the two-season system means that the playoffs are coming up. I think they'll start May 1st, if I'm not mistaken. But any Mexico internationals are going to get released before the Ligia.
00:51:42
Speaker
So it's going to be a ah very strange into the season. Tigres won't be wildly affected like that compared to like Chivas who only field Mexican players and have like four or five guys who are going to get called up to that World Cup squad. But there's still guys who who they may be missing. And so that game against Chivas on the weekend will be important. So we'll see if fans are ready. But I think I'm expecting it be a good atmosphere. I wouldn't be surprised if the number is higher for the Chivas game on the weekend than during the week, just because that is a big factor.
00:52:12
Speaker
um But I think it'll probably be a pretty good crowd at Boca. And so let's dig into a little bit the the actual on-field product that is Tigres. Now, this is a traditional power.
00:52:24
Speaker
ah They have been one of the best teams in CONCACAF for really as long as I've been following all of this. But they seem to be maybe ebbing a little bit right in this moment. Is that a fair way of putting it?
Tigres' Inconsistency
00:52:39
Speaker
I think they're both ebbing and flowing. It is yeah the most inconsistent, certainly the most inconsistent Tigres I can remember. When they've been bad, they've been kind of bad. When they've been good, they've been really good.
00:52:50
Speaker
Right now, they seem to be both. ah They have these moments where they lose three nil in Cincinnati. and like come off blaming Donald Trump because the airspace was closed the day before the game so they couldn't get in. and They were saying, well, if we had had our rest, we probably wouldn't have lost three nil, which you say, come on, that's ridiculous. And then they go out and win five one in the second leg. And you're like, well, maybe so. But that's not the only sort of like weird roller coaster they've been on. They won the Classico Reggio, the most important game. against Valos with like a late, late goal from Andre Pierre Gignac, who's still going in his 40s, which obviously i appreciate as someone who hasn't reached that milestone yet. I also haven't reached his goal milestones, but it's just good to see him still going.
00:53:28
Speaker
But they haven't really replaced him. like He won't start in the in the series with the Sounders, at least. It's unlikely. But... like They really don't have a ah super great answer. They've got El Bufalo de Guerra, the Uruguay international, where they picked up from America this offseason. It's like ah who they're sticking up there now, but no one is Gignac.
00:53:45
Speaker
But after that Classico-Reggio game and after that loss to to Cincinnati, they host Querétaro, a really poor team in Liga Mekis this year, and they have this scoreless draw where they had like...
00:53:56
Speaker
two or three shots on goal. And then they do that against Cincinnati and then they go to Juarez and lose. So I just think that maybe in the past, this team has been deep enough to sort of compete in all fronts.
00:54:09
Speaker
And I don't know that that's the case now. i don't that it's case for anyone right now in Mexico. I mean, I think even Cruz Azul is probably the one team that is going in both tournaments where you say, man, they could absolutely win a double.
00:54:20
Speaker
But even then, I wonder if they'll to start prioritizing with the players they're going to lose in the Ligia for the title run or the World Cup run or whatever you want to call it.
00:54:31
Speaker
But I think you see that with Tigres right now, that even though they're spending a lot of money, that they bought Angel Correa, that they're trying to bring in Gignac replacements, that they have homegrown players who they're developing, that they brought Marcelo Flores and Diego Lainez in several transfer months ago, that they're now well adapted to the team.
00:54:47
Speaker
even despite that spending, even despite the depth of the team, you know, we all, we always love to say compared to MLS, you know, you look at guys on roster slots, 18 through 25, they're making more money. They have more pedigree. They're international players in the case of like Marcelo Flores.
00:55:01
Speaker
But like, I do think that you're seeing that depth be less deep all across Mexico, but definitely Antigua. And so what, who are the players that,
00:55:12
Speaker
Sounders fan should be sort of keying as indicative of who this team is?
Key Players for Tigres
00:55:19
Speaker
I think like Angel Correa is obviously a recognizable name. He's won the World Cup, came from Atletico Madrid.
00:55:26
Speaker
He's been a good signing player. I don't know what the expectations were necessarily. I think he's probably reached but not exceeded them. But I think like if if the Sounders are going to have success, it's because fans are not learning the name or hearing the name of like Juan Brunetta, who's been around so many people know him as well. But I think like he's a player who they missed him with so with a knock a couple couple weeks ago.
00:55:47
Speaker
He's a player who like he will create opportunities. And with Aguirre up top, you know, he can finish that. That's about it. Like all he can really do is finish off an opportunity, at least from my perspective, see if I'm proven wrong, but like, that's about it. But Brunetta is the kind of guy who can make that moment of magic happen.
00:56:04
Speaker
Another guy they were missing for a lot of the season to injury is a Gorarian who scored a super late in that Cincinnati game. That was his first game back from injury has been able to recover, obviously with this international break, kind of a do it all midfielder. He can get dirty. He can play out wide if they want him. He can play in the interior. So he's a super useful player.
00:56:24
Speaker
And then like, look, it's it's it's still the same guys. Like, Jignac is still there and Nahuel Guzman is still at the back and he's going to steal the show no matter what, right? Like, he's going to do something weird.
00:56:36
Speaker
He's going to goof around with the referee. He's going to goof around with the fans. And like, I find him to be a fun and and interesting character. It's crossed the line a few times, like when he shine shown a show when he had a laser pointer in the press box of the Clasico Reggio and was flashing it at his Monterrey rivals, even though he was not able to play.
00:56:55
Speaker
That crosses the line. well like Doing a magic trick in League's Cup, I think it's fun. So I don't know, maybe that's just where where my line is. But like he will be the goalkeeper and he will do something weird. So I think that's worth watching as well. those are some names i would highlight. And then you get into like, Lainez is on the wing, Oziel Herrera likely starting on the wing, probably over Marcelo Flores.
00:57:15
Speaker
Speedsters, total opportunity to to create some chances. But again, like you're sort of, or I'm sort of saying like, oh, these guys are all dangerous. But then you look at like, No goals against Queretaro. One goal in the loss to Juarez. No goals in the first leg against FC Cincinnati.
00:57:31
Speaker
Needed a 90th whatever minute miracle from Gignac against Traados. Lost to Puebla. like these are the These are the results. This is what's happening. And so like you can we can go down the list and say, like oh my gosh, the attack, the attack, the attack. But I think the fact that Brunetta and Gorrarian were both missing for a period,
00:57:49
Speaker
and that they couldn't score during that period or couldn't score where they needed to is indicative of maybe how important those two guys are beyond the names that I think people recognize from from having been around for a long time. Absolutely. Well, if you had to make a prediction in this thing, I'm going to put you on the spot. Does this feel like, well, let me put it in another way.
00:58:08
Speaker
If the Sounders can win this, do you think it has a way of legitimizing the run in a way that apparently beating Leon and Pumas didn't in 2022? Yeah,
00:58:22
Speaker
yeah yeah sure, sure. I guess. I mean, I think like... Whatever. Like if people find that legitimate or not, I think is a bit ridiculous to be honest. And again, like I'm not, I'm certainly not pandering. Like I'm, I'm, I was in the FC Dallas supporters group when I was a kid. Like that's my loyalty, the such that exists. And then I covered the team for a decade, which is, you know, like can, can often make you quite cynical about a team when you're that close. I know you still have your love for the Sounders, but that's, that's um somewhat hard to maintain. We can talk about that another time, your, your fandom and how how you kind of keep that. But I wouldn't say I'm a fan of FC Dallas and haven't been for, for quite some time.
00:58:58
Speaker
So that's my loyalty. Do I think the Sounders should be celebrated for winning CONCACAF Champions Cup? Absolutely. Do I think their win was like legitimate and impressive? Yes. like it's a weird It's a weird thing because CONCACAF then like sort of ah re-brought the old champions into the the fold. So you can say like there are other MLS teams that can point to a trophy. But in the modern era, what and MLS team has the banner?
00:59:20
Speaker
What and MLS team has the trophy? It's just the Sounders, legitimate or not. And there's been other teams that have had easier paths. like God bless the Montreal Impact. But do you think that they were that good to get like as far as they did in the 2014-15? Yeah, yeah.
00:59:35
Speaker
No, like i don't think any of us do. It was fun. I still like watching the highlights, but like that, that's a team that you can maybe say like, oh, I don't know if they would have made it that far if they'd had tougher opponents. when they played the tough opponents, they lost.
00:59:47
Speaker
That's the question, right? When the Sounders have played the tough opponents after they won the championship, after they won the Champions Cup, I think like when they've played the tough opponents, right? they struggled, right? Like I probably don't need to meet to remind people about Cruz social, which I know was sort of like exercised by the league's cup and winning the league's cup. But like, that was still a thing that happened as well. So, you know, would does this win legitimize anything?
01:00:12
Speaker
I think the the closer we get to just saying all, all victories over quarter finalists in the CONCACAF champions cup. And if you win a semifinal that it's, that it should count.
01:00:27
Speaker
ah the better, because I just think that that that shows the tournament is growing up in a lot of ways and and sort of being taken seriously. and And who knows what the future is? You know, people are talking about what about the Libertadores and, you know, the the sport doesn't seem to be going in a direction where it's like, ah, things are getting better and we're keeping patient and letting a tournament grow and organically and not worrying about how much money it's making. But...
01:00:50
Speaker
It's a bit of a meta answer to say, like if you win this, you can hang your hat on it. Why not? Yeah, Tigres are inconsistent right now, but like they're Tigres. They have a world champion. They have André Pierre-Gignac. They have Nahuel Guzman. They have Joaquin, who's like...
01:01:05
Speaker
a top center back in the region. They have all these other, other great players who would start on any other team. Cause that's what happens when you get to these levels of the CONCACAF champions cup. And if Tigres, you know, if the Sounders get past Tigres and they lose, they miss a Ligia, does that like mean, Oh, that Tigres were bad. And that's the Sounders should be embarrassed. Yeah.
01:01:26
Speaker
No, like I, this is a, this, if this is a series and I think the series sets up well for them with the, with the first leg in Ed Volcan, honestly.
Does Beating Tigres Legitimize Sounders?
01:01:33
Speaker
and That's a huge. And then not having to play a league match in between, which was a ah kind of surprise gift. And Tigres has the the Chivas game. So, i mean, I do think that like, there are reasons to say that the Sounders should be able to handle this type of series if they win it.
01:01:51
Speaker
Like, I guess what I would say is like the legitimacy comes from like winning the series. And and if you win it, then great. And if, if you can, you know, people want to pick at Tigres after that's fine. Who else is in the semifinal? And the answer might be Nashville, but if they beat Club America, that's also legitimate, right? Like there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with beating in that. If the galaxy get past Toluca or if LAFC get past Cruz Azul, that's also legitimate. But, but the importance is Jeremiah vice versa, right? Right. If Tigres beat the Sounders,
01:02:20
Speaker
to Luke and the Galaxy, I'm going to put that one in a different category. But like if Cruz Azul beats an LAFC team that kept Buonga, that bought Sun, your audience knows LAFC. That is also impressive.
01:02:32
Speaker
That is also legitimate. So that to me is the growth. That's the excitement of this round. And if the Sounders get through, then I i absolutely will applaud them in written form. There you go. There you go. Well, it's speaking of written form, where can people read you?
01:02:48
Speaker
I've got a newsletter called Getting CONCACAFed. I have said for years that if you get the joke, the newsletter is for you. You can sign up for free. I'm still on Substack. We'll see how long that lasts. But for now, if you just search Getting CONCACAFed, I'm there. There's a free option.
01:03:01
Speaker
You should get one or two newsletters a week if you go free. If you go paid, I'm actually kind of telling you all the the Mexico stuff every Monday, plus the CONCACAFed catch-up, which is like a news roundup and some analysis of like everything going on in the region.
01:03:13
Speaker
I try to really get to so everything. Obviously, ah no one man should consume that much CONCACAPS. I don't always get there, but like if you want to know why the manager of the Nicaragua men's national team doesn't get a U.S. visa to enter the country, that's in there. If you want to know ah you know who's the most promising player coming out of Belize, that's in there. If you want to know why Jamaica struggled and didn't get to the World Cup, that's in there. so Again, if you get the joke in the newsletter, it's for you. I'll shift from like the international window to CONCACAF Champions Cup this week and next week. So hopefully people check that out.
01:03:46
Speaker
And I'm also on TikTok and Instagram. i do I do little videos. So yeah you do youtube I have YouTube for the travel video. I was going to say, your your video, you do great video work. like it's It's sort of this wonderful blend of lo-fi and ah but clever. And I appreciate i appreciate the tone. i appreciate the work. And ah yeah, I'll give another plug for your YouTube ah videos, which I think are are really well done. and Yeah, please check out Football Cities. it's on John Arnold FC, J-O-N, Arnold like Arnold Schwarzenegger, FC like Football Club. ah Yeah, it would mean a lot of people like watch the Monterrey one, especially if it helps you get some recommendations. And you can hit me up on Blue Sky if you're like, what neighborhood should i stay in? Or I'm stuck, where do I get tacos or whatever? I'm i'm available over there too on John Arnold FC.
01:04:32
Speaker
all right, well, thank you for joining us, John.
John Arnold's CONCACAF Coverage
01:04:41
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes on the Center of Herb Podcast Network. Hopefully you enjoyed that little segment with John Arnold of Getting CONCACAF. That is a newsletter that I think anyone who is interested in the region's soccer should be following. He does a great job covering everything from Liga Amekis all the way down to ah the national teams of Guyana and Barbados and Anything that's going on in CONCACAF, he's getting into. he He lives it, too. He, like, consumes it. he He's out there on the road. He watches the late games. He watches the CONCACAF games that nobody's watching, like the Trinidad, Tobago, Curacao types. I mean, it's just he he really loves the the region soccer. So if you do want to get more...
01:05:31
Speaker
within that that sort of information. He, he asked the league MX, man, he's completely connected. Like he and knows that that the players knows the systems. I mean, yeah. he's down there nothing the games yeah Yeah. Nothing but praise for John Arnold, man. He, he, he's, he's one of the real ones for sure.
01:05:46
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, let's turn our focus though, to the next game on the sounder
Houston Dynamo's Offensive Transformation
01:05:51
Speaker
schedule. And that's the Houston dynamo, the dynamo are off to a pretty good start. You know, it's been, ah they've only played four league games, so they haven't been nearly as busy as the sounders, but they seem to be a very different team right now. They, you know, has historically been much more of a defensive minded team under Ben Olson, they like having the ball, but the, they tend to have the ball as a way of keeping it away from the other teams.
01:06:18
Speaker
But this year they seem to be a much more offensive team. They they're coming off two straight games where they scored three goals. They were just in a a shootout with FC Dallas where they lost four to three.
01:06:29
Speaker
But then before that they beat the Timbers three to two, And this Guilherme, is that the right way? How you say that? Yeah. Guilherme. Yep. He from Brazil is just absolutely balling out four goals, three assists already this year. This is ah an interesting Houston dynamo team.
01:06:47
Speaker
They are interesting. And yeah, and It almost seems out of character. I thought it was funny that, you know, Brian, you know, he talked about ah Ben as one of the one of the old guys. And, and you know, he said they the team really reflected him. and And maybe it's true in terms of this team. And his teams are always like a strong challenge, you know, a very high tempo. But this one is particularly aggressive and actually good on the ball. Yeah.
01:07:21
Speaker
Going forward, I think that they're more direct in possession. And i think Ben wants more out of HH, Hector Herrera, in in that department of controlling the ball. And I think he expected...
01:07:36
Speaker
him and McGlynn to work a little bit better to figure out who is going to be the one that is going to control possession and set the tempo. So a lot of times they're skipping through midfield little bit. And Atchatch still you know does a good job at switching the point of attack and putting some through balls. But Guilherme is...
01:07:56
Speaker
the epicenter of every important dangerous attack that this team has. And that Dallas game, I mean, he balled out. And he really brings the team back almost by himself. like he ah Dallas was up to zero.
01:08:13
Speaker
Guilherme picks up a a silly ball. like i They're pressing, and it's not a high press, but the goalkeeper is out, like way out of his box. And he puts...
01:08:24
Speaker
a medicine ball to whoever the left back was. And Guillerme just immediately hits it. He's got the explosiveness to get on the ball. Goalkeeper's running back, trying to get inside the box, and he puts it away. Minutes later, he from from a set piece from a corner, he puts in a perfect ball for the next goal. And then...
01:08:45
Speaker
Before the half is even over, Guillerme, once again, not in the outside channel, not even in the inside channel, from midfield, like center midfield, he somehow gets into that area, and he sees Inali making a great run on the left side, and he cuts through like...
01:09:03
Speaker
I don't know, maybe six or or five Dallas players with one through ball. And and it's just phenomenal. So Guilherme, it's definitely the X factor for this team. I was able to get on the presser for Houston Dynamo this morning. Oh, today, yeah. and ah Look, Benny had nothing but great things to say about the Sounders teams. He knows that this is probably the the best defensive team he's faced you know during the season. So he praised the... the Seattle for them being this disciplined team that they don't shoot themselves in the foot. So it was going to be extremely difficult. And he said, you know, I hate them, but I respect them. And and the hate is obviously because they have his number and, and you know, I asked him about that. They have his number. He mentioned the red cards. He said, we get a lot of red cards against them, but he definitely respect them. He actually popped, Part of my question was about him and and and Brian being one of the old guys. And he said, look, Houston wants to be the Sounders. Like we we we have nothing but respect because he's part of the Mount Rushmore of coaching. So lot of praise from from Benny there. But that's a good team. it It's a different type of Houston, Ben Olsen type team. Like I have not seen a Ben Olsen team that plays like this, to be quite honest.
01:10:17
Speaker
Yeah. Speaking to your point of the Sounders sort of having Benny's number 10 straight, ah the Sounders have gone unbeaten against Houston. i guess that would maybe be all under Ben Olsen. I'm not a hundred percent sure when he started, but certainly i he's never beaten the Sounders since he joined Houston. Overall, the Sounders are 18, five and nine against Houston.
01:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, and that's that's both at... Even even at home, Sounders... Even on the road, I should say, the Sounders have a winning record. They're six five and five at Houston all-time. So this has been ah a pretty lopsided...
01:10:57
Speaker
rivalry I think you could say if you can even call it a rivalry, even, you know, the teams have met in some high profile meetings. They've, they've played, they've faced off in the playoffs just as recently as two years ago.
01:11:08
Speaker
ah So, you know, Houston's not a bad team, but the Sounders definitely have had their number and, and, you know, Houston, you know, Benny's right. They do tend to get a lot of red cards when they play the centers. But I also think,
01:11:20
Speaker
You know, Benny maybe complains a little bit too much when it comes to the referees. He spends a lot of time bemoaning the number of red cards without always looking at the incidents in which his teams are getting those red cards. I mean, if you go back to the playoffs, Hector Herrera got himself sent off for spitting at a referee. Yes.
01:11:44
Speaker
Like that's not, they don't, get they're not out to get you, Benny. You've got players spitting at referees. They're going to get sent off. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. The second yellow on the Chenco in this game too. That's something to point out, you know, the center back will be out because he got double yellowed against Dallas. And and that one seemed fair as well. And he did mention the records overall, even before talking about the Sounders. And he said, you know, the,
01:12:11
Speaker
The referee has been horrible, but I guess it's coming from the guy with a team with four red cards, right? So right so I think he's aware. He just says he doesn't agree with all of them. Sure. You get enough red cards and you're going to disagree with some of them.
01:12:25
Speaker
Exactly. And um that's Benny, though. And look, he he does not look like an old guy. like that He looks like he got squabbles. like he he's He's one of those coaches that I wouldn't like – If he's getting in your face, like he, you know, he, he, he, he could mad dog you. Like he, he go mag dog you. Like he he definitely is not afraid of coming at the referees, which is pretty hilarious. But in terms of, of his team. And I think the holes that, that I've seen, I've seen a lot of Houston Dynamo because Guillermo, I
Houston's Defensive Vulnerabilities
01:12:56
Speaker
really like. um And honestly, I've been wanting to watch a chat and what he's done. So I've watched like the their last three games and just defensively. It's, ah
01:13:07
Speaker
it's almost beyond comprehension how how poor they are. that They're so flat. There's no staggering. He plays this, or at least this year, it's a 3-4-3 or wingbacks, no matter in what setup they set up. And he is is kind of trying to get his best...
01:13:25
Speaker
most dangerous players yeah on the field. So he has like Inali playing with Bogut on that side and Herrera has no defensive player really. And neither is McGlynn. So there isn't really lot of- Yeah, there's not really a defensive ah defenive midfielder among the group. Well, in Spanish, ball winners. There's no ball winners is the way we refer to it. There's nobody that's really doing that- sort of duty. So they they do get kind of cut up pretty quickly. They have a hard time with ah balls behind their line, like straightforward balls. That's why i'm I'm kind of hoping we see Jordan Morris, if not as a starter sometime in the game, because I feel like this setup, unless Benny throws a curveball at Brian, which he could, if they played like they've been playing that high, that open, there's going to be space to run behind the defense.
01:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, ah this is going to be an interesting test for the Sounders ah because they you know they they've been very stout defensively. They haven't really had to open up. And it'll you know if if Houston can can force them to make some some changes, that's that's certainly notable. And wouldn't discount their ability to do that. This is a ah good offensive team who is generating real chances.
01:14:46
Speaker
But I don't think the Sounders can afford to give up the ball as much as they have been giving it up. Like they, they're going to need, I think they're going be in trouble if they are giving up 65% of possession, the way that they have been at times this year, this is the kind of team that could really punish them. I think.
Roldan and Moose's Potential Start
01:15:04
Speaker
Yeah. And so it all goes to how Brian sets it up. So something that we learned this week was that obviously Christian Roldan and Moose are going to meet the team in Houston. They haven't been part of the. the training week, but that doesn't mean that they're not going to not be available or available for, to start that game. So both of those players are in contention to start Alex rolled He definitely would not be part of this game. He never joined the the rest of the team. So to my understanding, he's not, he hasn't been part of the full in training session. So my guess is they're saving him for you get to make a lot of sense.
Kalani's Impressive Juggling
01:15:45
Speaker
Kalani has been really good.
01:15:47
Speaker
And another thing I learned this week is that Kalani can, uh juggled the hell out of a football right american football american football 30 times he he did it yes comparison to knew who and uh hasani who knew who guys go to the five somebody got five or four i think yeah knew who had three i believe is what i saw but it was yeah so that was actually a very funny little thing where they were having a contest to see who could dribble this uh the American football the most. And they were trying to tell Kalani that he only did 10 or something. yeah And I was like, i no was trying to cheat yeah, he sure was. That was kind of funny, but yeah, the, I think that there's going to probably be some limited rotation between these two games, but it it looks to me like, you know, we're going to probably see Albert and Jesus in both games. We'll probably see Jackson in both games.
01:16:40
Speaker
We'll probably see new who in both games. yep and I would, you know, it will be interesting to see if Rothrock starts both games or not. I would assume that Jordan will only start one just because he's coming off of the injury still, although he might not want to.
Peter Kingston's First Team Deal
01:16:56
Speaker
ah and yeah, so, you know, and I will say, so while we were recording just now, Peter Kingston signing was made official. So he actually is on a first team deal now.
01:17:09
Speaker
which we should have asked and we did not ask. him I know i was thinking something. Yeah. He probably would have said something exactly. So shame on us. Sometimes we, we fail you guys by not answering and getting all the questions that we should be asking answer or asked, but ah you know, we'll, we'll live on to the next day. Yeah, I guess. So sometimes we're asking some questions,
01:17:34
Speaker
Sometimes we get quite caught up asking questions that are not as important someone without pointing fingers. And we don't ask all the questions. So, you know, we got to... Yeah, we don't get... time And that's what sucks. Sometimes you're like, didn't really need to ask that right now. But you know what? I'm not even going to go there. yeah All I'm saying is that um I'm glad Peter Kingston just seems like... um like Like a real...
01:18:00
Speaker
um not not a baller, but but a gamer. He's a gamer. Good word. he is a gamer. And and me and um Danny Jackson were talking about it, and he just has this, like, matureness about him. This almost, like...
01:18:17
Speaker
ah roughness, but yet with this really good technical ability that I didn't really realize he had until his cameos have just gotten better and better from San Jose to Vancouver, you know, that the Spokane game. I mean, all of these little cameos, you're like, man, this guy, he he has some technical abilities. So when you put that together, it just screams Brian's Metro ball. And so, yeah, I think that he's going to be a great fit.
01:18:44
Speaker
You know, it's interesting that there seems to be this sort of like almost conveyor belt of players who, even though they don't look fantastic when they're with defiance, they are able to sort of level up when they, it's like theirre the nature of their game is that it actually gets better when they're surrounded by better, you know, like, and I think I put Peter Kingston in this category, but Tino Lopez in this category, I put Kalani.
01:19:08
Speaker
in this category where they actually look better. They look more up to speed than you would like. They they look like they're very competent players at defiance, but they aren't throwing a big numbers.
01:19:19
Speaker
ah Snyder Burnell is another one of players like this who they, they just, are very competent and there, and that translates very well to the next level.
01:19:29
Speaker
And Peter Kingston is one of these players, Peter Kingston. I'm really excited. I hopefully get to tell his story more because I think he has a really interesting story. You know, he came through the centers Academy. He grew up in, I believe Kirkland or Redmond, one of the, he grew up on the East side, but he came through the Sanders Academy.
01:19:46
Speaker
He was considered a high level prospect. I believe he was on those, uh, if not the 2019 team, then the 2022, no, I think it was supposed to have been the 2019 GA cup team that won it.
01:19:59
Speaker
So he was considered a pretty high level prospect. And then he went to he went to Seattle U. It didn't really work out. He transferred to UW. He's did a little bit better there, but he really, his only real impressive number season was a summer that he spent in Ballard where he helped them win the national championship.
01:20:18
Speaker
but he didn't get drafted and he played for defiance last year and he was good. He wasn't necessarily great, but a lot of all the talent ID people kept talking about how much they thought of him. And so he's been someone that I've been keeping an eye on just because of that. And, you know, he's looked great when he's played for the centers. I'm really, I'm really stoked. I think he he could potentially fit in really nicely here.
01:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. that There's just a ah level of composure that I guess I had not necessarily seen. um And the the ability to pi play beyond your years, both at the physical level and the the vision and and the the quick thinking, all of those little things that I look for in in a player, he has very rapidly shown glimpses of it to the point where I was just but pretty excited to get him into, into the team. um
01:21:18
Speaker
So kudos to him. Kudos to the Sounders for once again, finding diamonds in the rough, regardless of where they're at. Right. I mean, they just seem to find talent everywhere. So, so, so credit there for sure.
Promotion Path from Defiance to First Team
01:21:32
Speaker
Yeah, it is a really remarkable thing that they've been able to do in terms of translating the defiance to the first team. And it's not, you know, it would be one any team could promote a bunch of guys from their second team to the first team. The trick is, are they, are you able to stay competitive? Are you able to competitive?
01:21:52
Speaker
as one of the top teams in the league. And, and really that's what is makes this such a remarkable thing is that the Sounders have been able to do that. They've been able to promote guys from defiance and not miss a beat at the first team level.
01:22:06
Speaker
And Peter Kingston is just the latest example of that. I believe that gives them 14 players who had previously played for the defiance, uh, extremely who got their start, basically their professional start with the defiance. And that's half their roster. i mean, that's, that's,
01:22:22
Speaker
That's more than half roster. It's 14 out of 27 players. that's That's an amazing accomplishment. I got to say, I'm very impressed. And it works. It fits because there is, you know, one structure between both teams. There's one curriculum, one soccer module. And and they practice together.
01:22:41
Speaker
Jackson Reagan talked to us about it. Yep. Yep, exactly. Talking about Tino Lopez. He's like, you know, we've known for a couple of years that this guy was going to be a first-team player. And, you know, is he fit in? going to come in. He's going to perform. So it is something that is remarkable and very unique to the Sounders.
01:23:00
Speaker
Yep. And it is you just love to see it. You know, it does make it feel like a real club. And i think the Sounders have done, you know, I think every single time they sign a player like this, also it reinforces the idea that if you come to the Sounders,
01:23:17
Speaker
And you, even if you are signed to the defiance, you're going to get a chance to move up to the first team. That does not guarantee that you're going to move into the first team, but it shows that there is a real pathway here. It makes recruiting so much easier.
01:23:31
Speaker
And it's, it is a virtuous cycle. ah And you, you know, you love to see it. I think it does make it, and it makes it feel all, you know, it just makes it feel better all the way around. Yeah, that's why I'm i'm i'm interested in hopefully, ah you know, between Freddie and and Paula Nagamora, one of those two is going to be part of our next Coach's Corner. And I am curious about, because Nagamora has been out in this field and, you know, the second teams, you know, for for forever. So I'm really curious
01:24:03
Speaker
of his thoughts on what the Sounders have been able to build and, you know, has he seen it before? I mean, it's, it's really impressive. So I really want to get his take on what he's seen so far. And, and, you know, is it impressive? Is it you know, he's, he's coming way out of the organization. So getting his take would be very interesting.
01:24:20
Speaker
I totally agree. Well, I think that's probably a good place to call this a show. We'll be, obviously we'll be back next Friday, but where else can people listen to you?
01:24:31
Speaker
nikco Yeah, Boston, of course. You guys can always find me on Mondays with Ari Lillaw on Loving Scorchers Kickoff. We're probably going to have a really good one this week ah coming from a pretty heavy set of games and previewing the Tigres game. On Thursdays, I'm on soccer down here. on Thursdays with Nico, we discussed the whole league. You could find me there. On Tuesday, i will be doing a um a segment for Washington Sports Wrap on Fox 13. So go ahead and check for that. I think we're going to be previewing the Seagulls game that segment as well. So you
Show Wrap-up and Future Episodes
01:25:13
Speaker
can find me there. And of course, my favorite show here with Jeremiah on what we learned this week. Hope you guys continue to enjoy it. um
01:25:23
Speaker
I don't think I have anything else left. I wanted to make sure. know I think that's that's all the newsworthy stuff that that that I have. We were able to to get it out. I do want to leave it here on our show that I think that the Sounders are going to go to Tigris and get a result.
01:25:40
Speaker
and and And I think that they're going to go out there and get a result. I really do. I like what I'm hearing from the team. Brian's must have talked about the Colbillo. And he's like, look, we can't coach it. Guys got to feel it. And he reminded us of that game you and I were at where Christian Rodin is down on the floor for yes a long period of time. I swear, it feels like...
01:26:02
Speaker
10 minutes and they end up going back and looking at VAR. And so I really do think that this team with the Paula Riolas, with the Jesus Ferreros, with this kind of, I don't know, they feel like a confident bunch and, and, and a, a, a team that has been to Mexico has been in some difficult stadiums. I really do think that they're going get a result, man. So I just wanted to get it out there, put it out on our show, making sure that our people know that I think that the Sounders could really do it.
01:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think I like your confidence. I also feel like this is a team that the Sounders potentially match up with. Okay. Tegers has not been the monster that they have been in the past. They are just not as um they they've they've been more inconsistent. They've been dealing with some injuries. And I think that FC Cincinnati result can sometimes scare you a little bit because it does show how explosive they are.
01:27:01
Speaker
I think that also speaks to how much FC Cincinnati
Sounders vs. Tigres Matchup Discussion
01:27:04
Speaker
fell apart. I think if the Sounders can get past Tigris, that they suddenly have a very positive path to the final.
01:27:13
Speaker
And, you know, that that could be really exciting. It would be quite a way to start the year, but if that, yeah, if they can get a one, if a one, one result, I think would be, about perfect you know if they can go one one I would absolutely take that and that really i don't know why I have that I have that number here hopefully that happens and and they're a good team I think individually they have really good quality players right Linus is good Andre Correa is good El Bufalo Aguirre is good Brunetta is good they have really good players I just the collective play for me is not all there and I think that's what's separating them I mean they're 7th they just lost to Juarez by the way right I mean, yes, they had an early red card. I get it. But they still lost to Wires. It's Wires. So I think that, yes, this series team is is good.
01:28:00
Speaker
It's very good. but Yeah, they got talent. But they're, you know, like, you Geniac is not the player that he once was. And, you know, there's there's there's some exploitation to be had. And, frankly, if the Sounders want to be a regional power this is the kind of game you have to win or you have, this is the kind of series you have to win.
01:28:21
Speaker
Tigres is not going anywhere. It's up to the Sounders to raise their level, to be able to beat this kind of team. And, you know, let's cross our fingers. i think they, they have got a good chance. Absolutely. I think my dog knows at the end of the show. I'm glad he held off this long. don't know you could hear him. Hopefully not. But as always, man, appreciate you ah breaking it down. Jeremiah, you run this show like no other. Thanks to everybody for listening. Just excited to to get back here.
01:28:49
Speaker
I'm excited to get back here. oh you won't be here and our next show. Oh, that's right. I guess we might as well share. I'm going to be out of the country starting on next Thursday. So I won't probably do, I won't be here for the next, the next game.
01:29:06
Speaker
And I will be, uh, Yeah, I'll be doing our normal show on Monday with Aaron, but I will not be on the next What We Learned this week. And you and Tim are going to do the next two shows. So hopefully people enjoy listening to you and Tim. But we're still going to record. Don't worry. I'm just not going to record. That's a good sign, people. It's a good sign for Sounder at Heart. Jeremiah, studio space, vacations. He's like taking vacations. Just hanging out. He's just chilling now. He's just counting the dollar bills. I mean, okay. Exactly. I see you. Signing autographs. Signing autographs. That's right. It's whole other Jeremiah. I don't recognize you.
01:29:45
Speaker
All right. Well, let's get out of here on that note. I want to say thank you to our sponsor, Full Pool Wines. This Nos Adietes, which is part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network.
01:29:56
Speaker
We will catch you next time.
01:30:27
Speaker
Let's go and sounders.