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Seattle Sounders Make MORE Leagues Cup History?
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We're joined by special guest Tim Foss of Sounder at Heart and co-host of the new SAH podcast network show Backpost Runners! Topics of discussion include Seattle's injury situation, which is quickly devolving into a crisis; a preview of Saturday's matchup at St. Louis CITY SC; and the rise of young players we've seen throughout MLS so far in 2026. We also give our predictions on who will be the starting No. 9 in St. Louis, and what it will take for the Rave Green to atone for last year's 1-0 defeat at Energizer Park.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
Contact: lobbingscorchers@justoncemedia.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:22
Speaker
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers. We are laying this one down on Thursday evening ahead of the Seattle Sounders' next match at St.
Introducing 'Backpost Runners'
00:00:32
Speaker
Louis City SC in match day three.
00:00:34
Speaker
No NOAA this week, so to sub in, we've brought on friend of the pod, it's Tim Foss of Sounder at Heart and the newest co-host of the newest member of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. That's right, folks. We've got a new podcast in the Sounder at Heart podcast network, Backpost Runners, which he is co-hosting along with another friend of the pod, Mark Kastner.
00:00:56
Speaker
Tim, going to have you tell us all about Backpost Runners here in a second. But first of all, thanks for tapping in. How's it going? I'm excited to catch up with you. happy to Happy to join. ah It's going all right.
00:01:10
Speaker
Things are, they were nice out for a little bit. Now it's been pissing rain, but that feels like it's supposed to what happens. Pretty par the course, yeah. Yeah, it's much.
00:01:23
Speaker
You got a dog on your lap, it looks like. So that's another podcast for those watching on YouTube. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's Bobka. He might dish some takes. He's ah he's got feelings for sure.
00:01:34
Speaker
I'm, you know, anything that involves chasing a ball, he perhaps might be interested in. So kind of ah an overlap in interests and passions there for you guys. But ah ah anyway, yeah, thanks for ah thanks for hopping on on short notice. Appreciate you tapping in. ah Before we get started, I do want to shout out our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, and Full Pull Wines. And also, as always, if you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and like the video, sub to the channel, like, comment, subscribe, rate five stars, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, all socials, all that good stuff. ah Tim, let's talk some ah Seattle Sounders. But before we do that, real quick, I did want to give you the floor. Tell our audience about Backpost Runners and what you guys have going on there, where to find it, and what people can expect from ah from the newest member of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network.
Cultural Insights and Future Episodes
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. Backpost Runners is a project, as you mentioned, from me and Mark Kastner. I think very similar to the magazine for being a sort of more evergreen,
00:02:44
Speaker
version of the work that we do regularly on Sounder at Heart where, you know, the day-to-day, week-to-week coverage of ah soccer team or multiple soccer teams tends to really be focused on kicking the ball and what happens on the training pitch and in the games. And it can be tough to look at sort of bigger picture stories, I think,
00:03:11
Speaker
A good example of that maybe is i for the first issue of the magazine, i got to write a profile of Andy T who just really hadn't been profiled in a like human sort of way. There had been stuff about him as a soccer player, but him as a person hadn't really been covered anywhere. And the magazine provided an opportunity to do that.
00:03:35
Speaker
Back Coast Runners is The premise is sort of an NPR show for soccer sickos, ah trying to look at some of the, you know, maybe more cultural aspects of soccer in Seattle and in the U.S. more broadly. We started with an episode that was about
00:03:58
Speaker
rivalries and adversaries. We talked with Jeff Ritter of The Guardian about the best rivalries in MLS and how the schedule has sort of shaped some of those and the way Those rivalries, in turn, are shaping the way the schedule is going to change.
00:04:16
Speaker
And we talked to g Willow Wilson, famous for creating the character of Ms. Marvel. She currently writes Poison Ivy for DC, an award-winning author.
00:04:27
Speaker
She talked to us about what makes a good villain and why they're important. And we got to talk about and MLS villains for a bit. um We're working on some new episodes. We're going to try to do something focused on the World Cup, but probably before then, something looking at fashion and jerseys. um Still working on hammering out some of the details, but trying to broaden the types of conversations we get to have on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network.
00:04:59
Speaker
And you guys have put out one episode so far. i listened to it. It's great stuff. Where can people go find the first episode if they want to listen to that and subsequent episodes when you put them out?
00:05:12
Speaker
Those episodes are all just going to be on the... the regular No Sadie Etie Sounder at Heart podcast feed. I think they'll be available a little bit earlier to paid subscribers, but will be publicly available for every episode. they Episodes are being pretty heavily researched and...
00:05:39
Speaker
putting a lot of effort into them, so not putting them out super regularly.
Seattle Sounders' Early Season Challenges
00:05:43
Speaker
We're hoping to land on a cadence of about one every month or so, but some of that is restricted by just how busy regular lives are, so we're we're trying to get into a rhythm at the moment, but we'll have more information on upcoming episodes soon, hopefully.
00:06:05
Speaker
I love it. Yeah, I think there's absolutely a space for more in-depth coverage of stories like that and you know who these players are as people and their interests outside of the sport. So yeah, really looking forward to see what you and Mark do with that.
00:06:19
Speaker
We'll be following it and collabing a lot, I'm sure. So everyone, keep an eye out for Backpost Runners. Go listen to the first episode if you haven't and check out all the ones that they're going to be putting out throughout the season. All right, Tim, are you ready to talk some Seattle Sounders? Should we should we get right into it?
00:06:36
Speaker
Absolutely. All right, let's do it. ah Yeah, so I mean, I think we are at a bit of an interesting point in the season right now in that the season has just started, but you have the team going on a massive road trip here right as they are about to start CONCACAF Champions Cup. And as we're about to talk about, they have a bunch of injuries. So high stakes for these games in the sense that you never want ah the juggling of CONCACAF Champions Cup to come at the expense of your league form, if it if you can at all help it We've seen it happen to a lot of times, countless teams, but Seattle included, where they are playing in CogCalf Champions Cup, and it does come at the expense of the league form. So I think it is a question right now how they're going to handle this the combination of this road trip and CCC starting. And I think that is ah that's a good place to start because we're going to talk about these news items that have come out from Sounders Land in the last day or so. starting with some not so fun ones tim i mean we got some injury updates via sounder at heart and basically what's going on right now is the left mid position is under absolute siege they're dropping like flies ah you already had pedro de la vega
00:07:51
Speaker
out to start the season with his dislocated kneecap that he suffered on decision day last year had jordan morris go down eight minutes into the season and now you have georgie manungu who picked up a foot knock leading up to seattle's uh last game at rsl And you have Paul Rothrock now apparently having his ankle examined. No word, I believe, on the exact severity of that. I think the idea is that he can maybe play at St. Louis, but to what extent, how how fit he's going to be, all that seems like an open question. So it really, it kind of does just underscore life in MLS sometimes. Doesn't it like you go into these seasons? I've i've learned a long time ago that the depth chart that you see in preseason, you can think that you're really deep at one position or multiple positions. And then, you know, we're three games into the season and they are already on, I think, option number five. At left mid. ah Tim, how are you feeling about just the state of affairs health wise, particularly at that position? And how do you see them kind of handling this for this St. Louis game and moving forward if any of these guys have to miss additional time beyond that?
Injury Crisis and Impact on Lineup
00:09:05
Speaker
It's obviously tough and they are stretched just about as thin as you can be stretched in your third game of the season. i i think the good news sort of looking towards St. Louis is we saw Snyder Brunel played on that right wing for a bit against Salt Lake and he looked...
00:09:31
Speaker
up to the task at the very least. i You do have... They can call Sebastian Gomez up from Tacoma Defiance on a short-term loan. He's signed into the first team, but is in that 31st roster slot, which...
00:09:49
Speaker
It's technically an off roster slot requiring a season long loan. That's a little bit in the weeds for this conversation, but he could play on the left wing. I think that would be a good serviceable bench option for sure.
00:10:04
Speaker
It seems like maybe the most likely scenario is that Paul Areola starts at left wing. Uh, that was where he was playing more or less the this time last year with Jesus Ferreira on the right wing. That combination was pretty deadly in the early stages of CONCACAF Champions Cup last year.
00:10:32
Speaker
So we could say that see that play out again. And then if you've got Potentially, at the very least, Brunel and Gomez behind those two for bench minutes.
00:10:44
Speaker
You could potentially play Kalani Kosarienzi in an advanced position on the right if you need to move Ferreira around. It's obviously not ideal. you know We don't really know how much Paul Rothrock is going to be affected by...
00:11:04
Speaker
whatever extent of an injury this injury happens to be similarly i guess for georgie manungu he can start being worked into training and they they just have to test how well he's able to manage the pain from that and pain tolerance is what schmitz was saying right so he can't it's not he can play through it without worsening it it's just a matter of the level of the discomfort and if he can play through that but he was training this week and at least trying to play through it and yeah we'll see what happens with uh Paul Rothrock as well but you know three games into the season and we're talking about Snyder B and Sebastian Gomez playing on the wing I mean it is again par for the course for life in Major League Soccer but it is also like man
00:11:54
Speaker
This position in particular, you know, obviously you you came into the season with De La Vega still out, but you you did have Jordan Morris and Paul Rothrock and Georgie, and you you felt like you could withstand even a couple of hits at this position and you'd still be okay. But, I mean, you can't really withstand four hits at any given position,
Preview: Match Against St. Louis
00:12:16
Speaker
can you? so Right.
00:12:18
Speaker
And i I think it's compounded by the fact that you're experiencing a pretty similar injury crisis for back of a letter lack of a better term at center back and both of them are sort of in this weird spot of like you know kim kihi is getting closer and stew hawkins is still a ways away but if you're at training you can see him working with the ball on the side he's at least getting closer Ryan Saylor is somewhere at the White House, which is pretty far away from being on the field for the Sounders.
00:12:54
Speaker
ah But similarly, you know Jordan Morris gets his injury and it's four weeks out. Well, we're pretty close to halfway through that. And so you can... The situation is almost made worse by how close you are to being out of it um because the the other injuries are just so...
00:13:17
Speaker
uncertain and nebulous and you know thinking of Georgie even if he can play through it how much is his game going to be impacted by yeah a foot injury is he going to be as explosive is that going impact his ability to take guys on one v one you know it all remains to be seen but it is it is a bummer to see for sure Yeah, and you know I think the writing seems to be on the wall that Paul Areola is at least going to draw the start. Looking at the St. Louis game, Paul Areola is probably going to start in St. Louis. they you know They made him available at Long Acres this week. That's usually a sign that ah that he's going to play. And I think from what J.O. was saying and Nico, that they have him training out there. So I think that is what they're going to do.
00:14:09
Speaker
ah But, you know, Paul Areola is coming off an ACL injury himself, and he has played, what is it, 11 minutes in the Sounders' first two games of the season. ah But, yeah, this is per J.O. Was getting reps with what could be the starters in Wednesday's training session. So I think that is what they're going to do. And honestly, given the injury crisis that we've discussed, you know,
00:14:31
Speaker
it's good that they traded for Paul Areola and being down four guys at one position, that's about as good an experience and option as you could hope to have in that situation. But I think the question is, you know, how close is he to fully fit? And I don't think he's probably anywhere particularly close to 90 fit right now. So I think what you're going to see is Paul Areola role for the first 50, 60 minutes of this game. And then i think from there, ah probably i think you're probably looking at snyder b round round two because you're right like in the ah rsl game they did they were running him there and it looked pretty good he actually almost scored a goal there at the end so you know i i'm never wild about the notion of playing guys out of position by necessity like that but that does seem to be that the situation that they're in and if anyone seems to be up for it snyder b seems like he could be up for it but ah How are you feeling just about the notion of Paul Areola's first start coming off this injury? You know, I think we all we all know that he's a proven MLS player. He's a very good high-level MLS player. But this is going to be his first start in over a year coming off an injury.
00:15:44
Speaker
ah What are you expecting as far as, like, how how long he can go and what he's going to be able to bring? What can we rightfully expect him to bring to the table in his first start back coming off in a very serious injury?
00:15:55
Speaker
I think – The point of be not being 90 minutes match fit is a good one. i think it's reasonable to expect a good 45 minutes and then pushing for 50 or 60 minutes just to see how much you can get out of him in the start of the second half.
00:16:21
Speaker
He is going to be shaking off some rest, but I think... The benefit is that he's a very experienced player. You're going to get a good shift out of him for as long as he's on the field. and for all that he hasn't had a ton of game time, he got good reps during preseason. And because of where he was at in his recovery, he was doing a lot of on-the-ball training with...
00:16:53
Speaker
the academy teams during the offseason, ah which obviously is not the highest level of competition for a professional player well over a decade into his career, but is at least he should be fairly sharp from a technical perspective. It will take time for him to re-acclimate to doing it at the speed and intensity of an MLS match, but I think you can feel pretty good about the idea of aureola starting for you.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, so let's let's talk about this St. Louis game as it pertains to all this real quick because like I was saying, you do you have a situation where you're about to embark on a very lengthy road trip while Lumen Field undergoes these World Cup renovations. And that was going to be a challenge anyway, but now you've got all these injuries and you're going to play a St. Louis team on the road that was not good last year and has a new coach because of how not good they were. last year and they also you know i was looking at their roster moves over the off season and there was nothing like super crazy or splashy in there to the point where i look at it and i'm like all right that guy alone or these guys are gonna vault them to some sort of crazy different tier than they were last year you never know maybe johan demet i think is the new coach's name maybe he is just the guru and has them tactically advanced to the point where they improve a lot but i I'm kind of expecting them to be roughly a similar St. Louis team to what they were last year, which was honestly one of the worst teams in the league, definitely one of the worst attacking teams in the league. But you also have a St. Louis team that Seattle lost to in this exact stadium last year. And, it you know, it was deeply unpleasant going down memory lane about that particular game. I think out of all of the games that were the most unpleasant to watch last year,
00:18:53
Speaker
that one was up there in the pantheon i would put san diego away up there i would put lafc away up there but st louis away i mean you remember that that was like that was early in the season and that was before
Managing Injuries: Strategies and Tactics
00:19:06
Speaker
ferrera was they were they were first integrating ferrera and it wasn't going super well yet and the offense laid a pretty big egg that day and it was even more frustrating because st louis they weren't really doing all that much to score themselves but then of course you have edward lowen step up and he hits a pretty insane free kick and it was a 1 0 l and that was some of the hottest discourse i think after a match of last year i think a lot a lot because of the ferrera thing people wanted instant returns from that trade and they didn't really get it and his he also was getting crash out adjacent in that game like there was some body language stuff he was going at the ref that kind of thing and so i think everyone was feeling very negative after that game including myself ah but then you know it turned out that as the year went on things improved and this turned out to be a very good team offensively but it is still you know it is a it is a road game which is never easy and it is a team that they just lost to but you know when i look at it i do think this is pretty this should theoretically be very different circumstances to that. You have a team that is a lot more in place and everyone's already gelled and played together at this point. So it's not a team like last year that was in such a heavy acclimation period going into the St. Louis game. Now they're a lot more settled and it's not really a similar situation like that. And you also have a team that, you know, they did show that they can score a lot of goals.
00:20:37
Speaker
last year and uh they looked like that certainly against colorado so you would think it would stand to reason that even with all these injuries they should be able to go to st louis and have a much better chance of taking a win or at least a result than they did last year uh but again you know it's um mls you just never know what do you how are you feeling as far as what would be an acceptable result in this game because for me i look at the st louis team and where seattle's at and i think it is a winnable game but it also is a a road trip this lengthy i do look at it and i'm like you know what if it did turn into a situation where they had to get out of there with a one one or a two two or any any kind of draw I would not be, it wouldn't be the end of the world to me. I think it is the type of game, especially dropping that game at RSL, where it felt like you could have taken at least a point and then you didn't get any that maybe that enhances the importance of winning this game. But I also, i just look at the injuries, the schedule right now. And if they, if they took a point from this, I think I would be okay with that. Where you at on, on that?
00:21:45
Speaker
It's tough because I think under most circumstances, a reasonable person can look at any away fixture in MLS. And especially, you know, there's been a fair amount of conversation this past week about how heavy the home advantage is in MLS and that it seems like it's only increased, uh, that you look at any away trip and you kind of, and say, yeah, a point on the road is a good result.
00:22:21
Speaker
Most of the time, i That is one of Ziggy Schmidt's famous aphorisms that if you win at home and tie away, you're in good shape.
00:22:33
Speaker
But in the context of the second game of this five-game road stretch, you lost that game against ah RSL where you really should have at least been able to get something out of it.
00:22:45
Speaker
Even with the injury issues, you look at this matchup and the Sounders should have the talent advantage. This is also, i would argue, the most winnable of the games on this stretch for the Sounders. Yeah, exactly.
00:23:02
Speaker
I think anything other than a win is going to be a little disappointing. And i i also, one, just harking back to the game last year,
00:23:16
Speaker
It goes under discussed because Minnesota United were doing such egregious terrorism, but they were not the only team playing terrorism football in the league last year. And St. Louis under their head coach, who I do not remember his name, but they were certainly doing a little bit of a light performance.
00:23:37
Speaker
domestic terrorism every single game. They were the originators. they They were doing it before even Minnesota started doing it to that egregious of an extent, I think. they I feel like, you know, they're head coach last year was himself a former center back uh it seemed like game in and game out he was trying to see how much more than 50 percent of his lineup could be center backs yeah um and that is not a recipe for enjoyable to watch soccer um yuan de mei
00:24:14
Speaker
Maybe he's a good coach now. He hasn't been at any of his previous gigs. to Well, so wasn't he wasn't he intern for FC Cincinnati? That's all I kind of remember. Yeah, he was at inner innocent error FC Cincinnati for a bit.
00:24:31
Speaker
Not successfully, but also like at a point before Cincinnati were a good team in any capacity. And then he was at Ventura County, which is one of the California team's MLS Next Pro affiliate and wasn't particularly successful there either.
00:24:54
Speaker
um Maybe he has principles and theories that will play out differently for St. Louis, but it doesn't seem like that's been the case so far.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, well, i hopefully hopefully that they can at least get a point out of this game, because if you if you lose back-to-back games at RSL to a bunch of 17-year-olds, and then you lose to this St. Louis team, which I don't think many people are particularly high on, That would be that would be a tough way to start the season just vibes wise. You know, it's not like it would create an insurmountable hole or anything like that. But vibes wise as you're going into CCC, I think winning this game would do a lot to help the situation, especially i think we're all feeling a little kind of uneasy right now about all these injuries, but All right, we're going to take our first ad break and then we'll be right back talking some ah League's Cup schedule.
00:25:53
Speaker
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00:26:11
Speaker
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Leagues Cup: Strategy and Significance
00:26:28
Speaker
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00:26:29
Speaker
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00:27:59
Speaker
Welcome back from the ad break, which you definitely did not skip. All right, Tim, let's talk some leagues cup. We had some news break with that today. The league's cup, the league's cup schedule is out and we now know that the Sounders will start their defense leagues cup title defense by becoming the first ever MLS team to play a leagues cup game in Mexico when they visit two time reigning Liga Mackey's champions to Luca on August 5th to Luca. The top ranked team in the tournament with 74 points in the past two campaigns. They currently sit second in the Liga and Mequis Klasura table. The Sounders full draw August 5th at Toluca, August 9th versus Carataro, and August 15th versus Chivas Guadalajara. So... ah
00:28:43
Speaker
Tim, Leagues Cup title defense is getting underway, and we have the, I wasn't sure that they were going to do this where they have the MLS teams now traveling to Mexico for some of these games. So let's talk about that to start it off. I think just the ah just the fact that they're actually doing that because I think that is something that,
00:29:02
Speaker
I think that had it had to happen to really balance this tournament a little bit. If for no other reason than that, every time Liga Mechis teams perform poorly in this tournament or get knocked out of this tournament, their fans in media can immediately pivot to the excuse of, well, MLS is hosting all the games. And if Liga Mechis got to host some of these games, then maybe the results will. Okay, well, now I always thought that that was kind of like a, you know, if your league is actually that much better, as you all see, say it is, should you not be able to take a couple results on the road? Like, what are we talking about here with that excuse anyway? But now they're they're still going hosting a lot less games still, but they're going to be hosting some. Toluca's got this game at home against the Sounders that they should be favored to win so now i don't i don't want to hear about that anymore from any of any of their media or pundits or their fan bases like you're you're getting to host some of these games and you know there will be some novelty i think for mls clubs going down there and traveling
00:30:01
Speaker
for these games for the first time. We see them do it in CCC all the time, but it's the first time for this tournament. So ah how are you feeling about just the fact that they're having Liga Mechies teams finally host some of these games for Leagues Cup and then the Sounders playing the first one of those at Toluca, one of the best teams in Liga Mechies?
00:30:19
Speaker
I think having games hosted in Mexico is great and I would say probably well overdue. It definitely was a weird situation where...
00:30:30
Speaker
I don't know how much it was really publicly or openly being stated, but the front offices of Liga and Mickey's teams wanted the games played in the U.S. because even if turnout wasn't great for them, the revenue they were getting from those games was better than the revenue they would be getting for similar turnout at their home venues.
00:30:55
Speaker
But you also had... the you know coaches repeatedly pointing out like we had because they still were playing Liga Mekis games so would have situations where i don't remember which team it was but i I think one of the Mexico City clubs had like they had a game maybe in Florida or something and then they had to fly back to Mexico City and then fly back
00:31:27
Speaker
for another game in the US, like with travel only having really a rest day in between games. And yeah, you should be able to win some games on the road. But when you start factoring all of the logistics in, it really is a very unfair, unbalanced situation. So I think this does help balance the scales a little bit. I think it makes it a much more legitimate competition than it was. um And, you know,
00:31:57
Speaker
We have lots of experience with the Sounders going to play away in Mexico, but there are lots of teams in the league who don't have that kind of experience because if they have played in CCL at any point, maybe they have traveled to Mexico once in the last decade, twice, like.
00:32:20
Speaker
I think it is easy to take for granted how often the Sounders have played against Mexican competition in those competitions because they have regularly, even though they've only reached the final the one time, they've made it deep enough in the competition to be facing Liga Amiqui's teams.
00:32:38
Speaker
ah It's a little bit of...
00:32:43
Speaker
You know, you suffer for your success that the first time they have to do it in League's Cup is to play one of the best teams in Mexico right now. Toluca is a very good side. That's going to be a really tough test, but it should be a good game, i hope.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, where where are you at on how much weight you're putting on Leagues Cup in general? Because I was thinking about that when this draw came out today and I'm looking at the Toluca game and I'm like, man, like that's going to be pretty tough to win. And if you look at the draw, they're probably going to need to win two games to advance. It feels like the ah the odds are stacked against them having to play Toluca on the road in a group, a tough group where you're going to need to win twice. uh so maybe maybe i was ah pre-rationalizing and pre-coping you can tell me uh if i am but i do feel like the the nice thing about winning a tournament any tournament is that the next time you play in that tournament you can kind of play the house money card a little bit that's what i think you know maybe that's pre-cope but i think that's what you earn by winning the tournament like If they don't win Leagues Cup this year, ah i mean, it would be cool to repeat. It would be nice. It's not the trophy that I'm putting the most weight on this year. I mean, I think MLS Cup is always kind of the top dog, but, like, I would much rather win CCC this year than I would win Leagues Cup if given the choice. Do you think it's, like, a ah fair way to look at this tournament this year as kind of, like, a...
00:34:17
Speaker
You know, you can watch it stress-free if they advance and they make another run at repeating. Great. Awesome. If they go to Toluca and lose and get grouped, hey, you won it last year. You took down Messi and the Barca boys in front of 70K. No one can ever take that away. ah Shiny trophy still. Shiny. Do you think that that is, ah is that kind of how you're looking? That's how I'm looking at it. But ah are you are you on a kind of similar wavelength with that? Or are you kind of more, no, they should go at gun for the repeat?
00:34:47
Speaker
oh a hundred percent it's a mickey mouse tournament if they don't make it out of the group and if they win it then it's a real yeah trophy uh i think this year is even weirder than leagues cup already is because you're gonna be back in and mls play for like a month and then break again to do leagues cup after world cup uh it's pretty janky so the you know my feelings about leagues cup might change as we get closer depending on where the team's at when we're coming out of the world cup break um you know we could hopefully have pedro de la vega rounding into form again by the time this tournament kicks off and he loved this tournament last year so
00:35:38
Speaker
Maybe that's the power that you need to push through Toluca Carretero shouldn't be too much of an issue. That's a pretty stinky dog water team, but Chivas rebranding Chivas Guadalajara as Chivas USA has sort of surprisingly turned them around because they've been... Wait, did they do that?
00:36:03
Speaker
Not actually, they've always been in like the Chivas has been in a bad spot for a while yeah and started shifting towards bringing in more Mexican American players. ah They what the.
00:36:21
Speaker
kid from Chicago. Brian Gutierrez. Brian Gutierrez seems like he's been cooking there. i know Cade Cowell left to join Red Bull New York on loan, but they've got Richie Ledesma.
00:36:35
Speaker
I'm sure several other kids who guys who follow U.S. youth national teams have been obsessed with at one point or another over the last decade or over there.
00:36:47
Speaker
They've, you know, they've started. think this is the
00:36:52
Speaker
whichever the Apertura or Klausura, I think we're in a Klausura right now. Yeah. They've been doing pretty well to start the season, so They're always like, yeah, they have fallen on hard times in recent years, but I feel like in a tournament setting, they're always a factor. They're never gonna be like a easy push over game. it's It's a tough group, it's tough group. And ah yeah, no, I think if they make it out of the group and they make a run, like you said, awesome tournament, super meaningful trophy. If they get grouped, Mickey Mouse cash grab, who cares?
00:37:27
Speaker
Won it last year over Messi and the Barca boys, keep it
Sounders' Performance Evaluation
00:37:30
Speaker
pushing. so i think we're on a similar similar page there yeah it's a it's a bonus tournament regardless of what happens yeah and you know i'm not i'm definitely i wouldn't be against them repeating so uh yeah no do it by all means don't let uh don't let me stop you uh all right tim shifting gears back uh to the seattle sounders themselves for this next segment i have a couple little thought exercises for us that i wanted us to uh go through here quickly here uh the first one i wanted to give both of us are going to give one reason for optimism and one area of concern regarding the seattle sounders through two games got two games in the books now one win where they looked awesome against the colorado rapids one l at rsl where uh
00:38:22
Speaker
You know the performance what we can talk about what the performance was the performance wasn't horrible, but they did take a bad L. To a bunch of teenagers, so you got you got both ends of the spectrum, you got a great game great result great performance got an L that was undeniably tough to take. So through two games i'm going to give you the floor first why don't we start with your one reason that's got you feeling optimistic and good about this team's prospects having watched these first two games.
00:38:52
Speaker
I'm trying to think of something that is not going to step on either of our toes for a player that's got us most excited. But I think maybe thee the reason for optimism at this moment is that the Sounders have...
00:39:15
Speaker
a better environment for overcoming the injury problems they're dealing with because of the talent development pipeline that they've built.
00:39:29
Speaker
ah We're going to touch on Tacoma Defiance towards the end of our conversation, so I don't want to walk on that too much. But they need if they need
00:39:44
Speaker
players for the wings. I mentioned Sebastian Gomez can play, but Yusuke Onome can also play on either of those sides in a very Jesus Ferreira style interpretation of a winger very much like inverted pocket winger where he's not gonna hug the sideline he's gonna fill spaces uh but you know those are two guys who are reasonable to give a shot during this stretch where
00:40:21
Speaker
you're in a weird spot because all of your games are on the road, but you can kind of have a free hit to a certain extent. And similarly, they've got a couple guys who at this level are untested, but you do have options that there's only one way to find out if they're ready is to give them the chance. In Gallatin Sandnis and Tino Lopez, who I think both have shown well in training and in preseason.
00:40:50
Speaker
um So I think that is sort of my my reason for optimism is They are dealing with an injury crisis, but if anyone is going to be able to navigate it, it is this team because of the system they've developed.
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah, no absolutely. I think that's a great point about the injury crisis. But ah for me, the thing that's got me feeling good and like, all right, like this team could reach the heights that we're all hoping it can reach this season is just, I really like a lot of what I've seen offensively so far over both games. I know everyone's feeling a little sour about what happened in the RSL game and they only ended up scoring one goal in the game and they lost the game. So I get all that. But if I think if you take a step back And you look at the totality of both of these games and both of these performances.
00:41:40
Speaker
ah You had an attacking performance against Colorado that I thought was pretty lights out. And lights out, but also a carryover of a lot of the good stuff that we saw in attack last year. When the whole the whole thing going into last year was the offense wasn't dynamic or productive enough in 2024. 2025, we're really trying to be a team that...
00:42:00
Speaker
ah just attacks better and scores more goals and they did that and I think you kind of saw the fruits of that in Leagues Cup that's when I think they hit like their highest level of footy last year was in the Leagues Cup run when they were really they were playing attack and footy I think about as as as high level as I've ever seen a sounder's team play it like I don't i don't want people to forget how, like what level that they were on. You had Pedro de la Vega scoring Puskas nominees. They were 7-0 in Cruz Azul. They won 3-0 over Inter-IAMI. But like the performances in that tournament were fantastic. and i thought the colorado game what i wanted to see in preseason and in the season opener against colorado was just them like keep doing that keep doing that and i felt like they did that against colorado uh they they won that game 2-0 but they scored three goals the hasani dots and they literally came out and said that the hasani dots and goal should have counted so i'm gonna give them gonna give them the 3-0 on that even though it's only 2-0 in the books which That was about all you could ask for, I think, from that from that standpoint. And then even in the RSL game, I'm curious what you thought of this, but like it was funny. Coming out of that game, you did you still see saw a lot of like the talking points that you always see when the Sounders take an L, which is like, oh, you know, if the if they had the better, if they had the U22 number nine, or if they would just sign like a a big money attacker like LAFC and Inter-Miami do, they would ah they would have won that game. And that was just not my takeaway from that game at all. Like I felt like the offense in that game
00:43:32
Speaker
it it wasn't incredible. It wasn't a virtuoso attacking performance, but the chance generation was pretty good, I thought. Like, for for a road game, like, a tough road game, a place you never win, like, the chances were there. You had ah a goal off a set piece and an almost goal off a set piece that Rafa Cabral made an insane save on. And then I thought they had a lot of, uh, they had a lot of success playing Paul Roth rock in behind and him taking those one V ones on. And he created a couple of good chances, uh, really good chances. I thought there was one where I think he took a shot when he probably could have laid it off, but he's still, it was still a good attacking movement. It was a good chance. It's the type of stuff that you want to see from Paul Roth rock in the attack as a whole. So that's why going into this St. Louis game, like ah that, that makes me feel a little bit better about it in that it's it's not the same situation as last year when they went in there and their offense was not just there at all yet. I feel like they are in a pretty good spot with the personnel having played together enough. They know how each other play the, this, this group seems to be pretty good at chance generation in general. And I thought they were, know,
00:44:43
Speaker
It was pretty good at ah RSL. Not amazing, but it was good enough that they should have been able to at least take a result in that game. It left me feeling confident that if they can just kind of weather this injury crisis, get some guys back, this this team's going to be able to score some ah score some goals this year, which is always a good thing. What did you what did you think of the attacking performance at RSL in in particular? Because it There was some narratives about how it was like horrible and they need to spend $20 million dollars to fix it. But that's I didn't even see it like that. i
00:45:19
Speaker
won't bring up XG because one single game XG is a novelty more than anything beyond that.
Defensive and Midfield Concerns
00:45:28
Speaker
And i you know would hate to fill in for Noah's absence and then slander his name by talking about advanced stats and analytics. I didn't bring, i didn't even say XG, you know, I'm just, I was talking about the, the eye test for the types of chances that they generated at RSL. I thought they were, I thought they were pretty good. Were they not?
00:45:49
Speaker
I think they were good. i think it's always. Talking about this stuff is going to upset people who are upset already because the ball didn't go in the back of the net. And that is a fair criticism. You had enough good opportunities. You should have put the ball in the back of the net more than one time in an offside play, which Paul Rothrock should have stayed onside. He didn't need to be offside. He didn't gain any advantage by being offside. He just didn't.
00:46:16
Speaker
yeah maintain his run effectively enough that's it happens you get caught offside but uh rafa cabral came up with three pretty big saves on albert rusnak off the top of my head two from direct free kicks one of which was from like 45 yards out and Burt almost chipped him into the post. I think the one that hurts the most was the, was the Yamar, the set piece earlier where Jackson headed it back across for Yamar. It's like, man, that on another day that could have easily been a goal. And maybe that flips the whole game.
00:46:54
Speaker
I think that one and Snyder Brunel's like acrobatic overhead sort of kick, both going almost directly at Cabral is tough.
00:47:08
Speaker
Um,
00:47:11
Speaker
Cabral made the really good save where he makes a save but leaves it for Rusnak and then makes an incredible reaction save to block Rusnak's header into what otherwise would have been an open goal.
00:47:27
Speaker
um i think the team did enough to feel good about the fact that unless you are playing against a goalkeeper absolutely standing on his head and in an environment that very clearly, you know, I know Jeremiah talked about it on no Saudi Etis, but like a Sonny Dotson doesn't have the Sounders history against ah RSL. He also doesn't have a ton of success against them in their home stadium because nobody does. They are a very good home team for a number of reasons, but like,
00:48:06
Speaker
Playing in that stadium does things to your head, i think, that just... Has to! Has to! Don't help, but that they still did enough to have a reasonable shout for a result of some sort makes me feel pretty good.
00:48:22
Speaker
But also, what they showed against Colorado, and although it wasn't as effective against ah RSL, but they showed against ah RSL is that they are tweaking their system again.
00:48:38
Speaker
the Sounders have played more or less a similar game model where the focus is they want to keep the ball. They want to use the ball to diminish the other team's ability to create chances and also create their own chances.
00:48:55
Speaker
But we've seen them adjust it one way or another each season. ah And they seem to be reintegrating more of a press this season, which between that good possession play Being able to create more chances out of their possession play, but also playing a little bit higher line of engagement and a press should help them to create more turnover opportunities in more dangerous spaces in addition to being able to being able to create out of possession.
00:49:28
Speaker
And I think if they can get that more dialed in and we have seen them use this sort of road trip in the past to build team get that togetherness and dial in some of those tactics where they are, you know, able to focus a little bit more when they're out of town working on stuff together.
00:49:54
Speaker
um I think St. Louis should be a good proving ground for, okay, we did this and it was pretty effective, but we didn't have to do that much of it against Colorado.
00:50:07
Speaker
We did it, but it didn't really work as well as we would hope against RSL. Can we commit to it and keep working on it? And can it yield better results against St. Louis? And I think that is, I can double dip, another reason for optimism here. I think that is going to be more difficult for teams to play against than what the Sounders offered last year. And if anything, should hopefully generate more attack.
00:50:35
Speaker
Let's talk about our one areas of concern, the things that we're looking at we're going like, oh, I don't know. I'm a little i'm a little dicey about this. I'm a little a little bit worried about this. I mean, for me, I think in general, it's the defense because I think it was a recurring theme last year that they there was a lot of poor and ill-timed concessions that dropped them points.
00:50:59
Speaker
I've been saying that I think that that's the biggest reason why they didn't get home field in the playoffs last year. It's the biggest reason right why they got that why they got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Again, it actually was not the offense, contrary to a lot of the narratives. I think it was the defense. And when I look at that RSL game, I'm like, okay, I mean, that does not look very different than a lot of the stuff that we saw on that side of the ball last year. now i think if you're looking at the reasons for that if i think if you really want to hone in on it if you think back to last year like the whole notion in preseason and the whole goal in preseason last year going into the season was score more goals be more dynamic offensively And they were successful in that way. Productivity wise, they scored a bunch of goals. But I think there was there is a reality that if you change the way you play to be more aggressive in that way, you leave yourself more susceptible at the back. and i think you did see that last year they gave up a lot of goals on the on counter attacks when they were throwing numbers forward and again it was just always it always seemed to be at the worst time where it dropped them the points and it really it really hurt them and so when i look at that rsl game and i see the concessions that they had i get that i think the second one happens because they're they're chasing the game they're playing from behind and i think schmetz even said that he told them to come out aggressive to start the second half and then they immediately kind of get countered on. So hopefully that is not a situation that they didn't they didn't play from behind, honestly, all that much. I feel like last year that was a situation where they were playing from behind and they got caught out and they got punished because of it. So hopefully that that's a situation that doesn't repeat itself a lot this year. But I think overall I do look at it and I'm like, man, like if I mean, if you can see goals like ah they did against ah RSL or like they were doing last year, the you're gonna uh handicap yourself as far as being able to make a play for home playoff games which I think if you really want to win and MLS Cup like you really need to be at least getting a top four spot in the West but I think ideally getting the top two spot in the West like if you if you want to make the past and MLS Cup on as easy on yourself as possible that you have you can't be dropping all kinds of points off concessions like that like that all year like they were last year or you you'll end up in fifth or sixth again And what we saw in the RSL game did make me feel a little bit like, man, I don't know if i don't know if we're i don't know if we're past that. What do you think? What's got you concerned or feeling uneasy so far?
00:53:37
Speaker
I think the defense is a little bit concerning, just the The way both goals came about, you know, the first one is a really bad giveaway by Hassani Dotson that then no one reacts quickly enough to.
00:54:02
Speaker
Similarly, for all that some of the second goal is a product of them pushing to start the second half as they try to get back into the game.
00:54:15
Speaker
The giveaway to lose the ball is sloppy, but then the entire defense is out of position. That's just not a thing that can happen.
00:54:26
Speaker
um Rather than going into that additionally, i think a short-term concern that hopefully is just a short-term concern is that center midfield or central midfield where you are coming off of a season where christian rolled on and obet vargas were one of the best midfield pairings in the league they had such good chemistry and played off each other so well and knew exactly what the other one needed from each other
00:55:04
Speaker
And I think there's the potential that whether it's Hassani Dotson or Snyder Brunel, you could have a really good pairing again with Christian. And i remain of the mind that Christian is one of, you know, the five best number sixes in the league at this point.
00:55:24
Speaker
But with him and Hassani Dotson,
00:55:31
Speaker
you know They've only got two real competitive games together so far. The chemistry just isn't there yet, and what you get from Hassani is so different from what you get from Obed. i think the adjustment for both of those players is going to take a while to really figure out. And I think it's easy to see, like with the two players' strengths and their experience, that this could be a really good pairing. I think one of the...
00:56:00
Speaker
one of the things the sounders midfield struggled with last year was some degree of ball winning just because obet is good at lots of things but being that like ball hungry take it off of another guy type of player is not really his strength.
00:56:18
Speaker
He is really great at funneling a player into someone else who's going to win the ball and his forward movement, his ability to move off the ball to get it from a teammate is really good.
00:56:32
Speaker
Dotson is a different kind of player. he is a little bit more of that ball winner his... is He doesn't have the same ability moving forward on the field.
00:56:47
Speaker
I don't think that's necessarily a problem because of the other guys around him and Christian. I think if the two of them can do a little bit more winning the ball, Christian can distribute from back there.
00:57:00
Speaker
Hassani doesn't need to distribute or carry as much. He can give it to the one of the wingbacks or one of the center backs or Christian, or if Albert or Jesus is dropping in to get it, he can make a simple pass to one of those guys and he doesn't have to be playing line breaking passes.
00:57:19
Speaker
But for it to balance out, he needs to do more of the ball winning stuff and against RSL, Setting aside the giveaway, he also makes a really unnecessary challenge in midfield to get the yellow, which then hampers how he's able to play the rest of the game. ah you know if it takes a while for them to figure that pairing out, and I think realistically Schmetzer is going to let Hassani
00:57:55
Speaker
play until he's certain that guy can't be the starter next to Christian. So I think we may be in for a you know, at least the remainder of this road trip in the Vancouver series and CCC before we try another option if it's not working with him. But if they don't figure it out in the next couple games, I think that could be a real area of concern. Because if you can't control the midfield, which is one of the things that they really struggled with against ah RSL, not only is ah RSL very direct, but they let a
00:58:29
Speaker
gang of high schoolers bully them in midfield. That's not going to be a recipe for success, and it's going to put your defense under even more pressure. i think the acclimation with the with the christian hasani pairing is yeah it's a good point because i think we were all i was definitely hoping you know hasani's a veteran player he's been in the league for a long time ah hopefully that would make for a smoother acclimation period where there's not as many of those kind of learning curve moments But I think that is another thing I came away from the RSL game thinking was like, there probably is going to be some of that curve and going into a big road trip like this and going into a CCC. That is concerning, but all right, Tim, we had i one more thought exercise for this section, but ah we're running a little low on time. So we're going to skip it.
Lineup Decisions and Youth Development
00:59:20
Speaker
We're going to take one last ad break and then we're going to come back and close it out with some rapid fire stuff. We'll be right back.
00:59:31
Speaker
Welcome back from another ad break that you definitely did not skip. All right, Tim, we only we're only stick around for a few more minutes here so we can keep these quick at the end. But I did have a couple of agenda check items, and then I did wanna ask you about Tacoma Defiance briefly as we ah close it out. But the first agenda that I wanted to hit, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, uh it's it's uh it's really it's related to the whole osaze versus danny musovsky debate that we've been uh we've been having you can frame the agenda however you want the osaze is the starter debate or the moose is the starter debate uh but i think that is the biggest lineup decision that i'm wondering about for the st louis game because you have a situation where osaze was honestly he had one of the better preseason camps i've ever seen a sounders player have so uh i think everyone was on the same page that he should be starting the colorado game And I thought he played pretty well in that game, even though he didn't score. I said after that game, I was fully on board with him starting the RSL game. I think the RSL game was a little tougher sledding. And then on top of that, like, I really don't think he played like overtly badly or poorly in the ah RSL game, but Moose looked money. I mean, he was nails. He almost had that equalizing goal, which was very reminiscent of a lot of the goals that he scored last year. and i don't know like i just think that we might have reached the point as uh as a city and as a society at large where we might just have to accept and acknowledge that danny musovsky is uh is a thing like this guy just seems like he's automatically good for at least a goal of game right now dating back to last year and there was never really a point last year where i didn't feel
01:01:11
Speaker
like that and to see him look that good in the rsl game but also like who uh who flipped that whole playoff series against minnesota last year on its head it was it was moose they did not start banging in goals in that series until they made the switch to put moose on the field and then he started scoring goals the whole team scored seven goals so you know i do think that uh like there's got there' at this point like the whole it was an outlier or he can't do it again or he's not going to do it again. i just have yet to see evidence that he's not going to keep doing it. And that was kind of reinforced in the RSL game. And that's why, I mean, Nico and I talked about it this week on kickoff. And like, I don't think I would be outraged either way, but I'm kind of leaning moose where, ah where are you at on this?
01:01:59
Speaker
I think maybe a little bit similar the, hasani dotson where i think you kind of have to let him keep running to a certain extent and osaze yeah and i think it is additionally similar with osaze and hasani in that like hasani for the half that he played thought was pretty good
01:02:32
Speaker
especially for his first game with the team. Similarly, Osaze, through the just short of 70 minutes that he played, looked really good. He didn't get a goal, but, ah you know, he plays a phenomenal through ball for Ferreira, for Rothrock's goal,
01:02:51
Speaker
I don't think his struggles against RSL for all that, like he didn't do the most he with the touches he got, but he was on the field for an hour and he got 16 touches. That's less of an Osaze problem than it is an everybody else problem, especially when you're looking at like, you know,
01:03:09
Speaker
Paul Rothrock had Philip Quinton in a headlock for most of the game, but wasn't finding anybody with the passes once he got around him. i think if he and maybe some of this is that Osazi wasn't making the runs that he needed to to support, but I think if the team had made more of an effort to utilize Osaze and the things that he offers you beyond just putting the ball in the back of the net. I think that game goes a little bit different because you're a like you're able to force the other team's defense to play a little bit differently.
01:03:51
Speaker
um and I think that's part of why i am inclined to say you keep going Osaze at least for one more game just to see if ah RSL was an aberration.
01:04:05
Speaker
um i think the ability he offers you to integrate and incorporate other players who are going to run off of him, i i think just opens you up to do so much more.
01:04:26
Speaker
I wouldn't, I'm not going to be upset if Misovsky starts because yeah, he probably is going score a goal if he starts. Um, but I, I just, I guess they are also unlikely to entirely abandon the Osase project three games into the season. But I think yeah To a certain extent, you got to let a kid play through and Sase de Rosario is not a kid. He's ah an adult man.
01:04:53
Speaker
But you kind of got to let a guy play through his bumps to know if they're bumps or if that's just the guy to a certain extent. ah But I don't think there's a I don't think there's really a bad choice one way or the other.
01:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, no, I don't think so either. And I think ultimately both of these guys are going to be playing, especially with Jordan Morris out. So it's sort of a a debate on one over the other when the reality is both of them are going to be playing a lot. So we're gonna're it's kind going to be a let the best man win type of situation. And, you know, I think best case scenario, you have two really good, but really high level productive options at the number nine, which that can only be of help to the Seattle Sounders. ah What do you think Schmitz is actually, we talked about what we think that they should do. What do you think Schmitz will do? I honestly don't know.
01:05:43
Speaker
I honestly don't know. I usually feel like I have a good read on what he's going to do, but here I couldn't tell you.
01:05:51
Speaker
I think if I had to guess, I would say Osaze again. ah but that's based entirely on my guesses of what I think Schmetzer may have seen from the guys.
01:06:10
Speaker
i also think as a substitute,
01:06:16
Speaker
Musavsky maybe is a better... like his skill set fits better as a super sub, but I really, i really have no idea that is fully a shot in the dark. Yeah, no, it's a, it's a toss up, which is interesting. Like usually you have like a 60, 40 or 70, 30 kind of situation with this, but this feels a 50, 50. All right, Tim, one more here. And I think we can kind of weave these two topics together to close it out because the other agenda that I wanted to talk about was a more, general league wide agenda, but I think we can tie it into what we wanted to talk about with Tacoma Defiance, which is just in general the play your kids agenda throughout the league. It's a theme that a lot of people have pointed out in the early going and we saw what we all saw Lake was able to do to Seattle and we've all seen what Seattle's been able to do with their youth development system. But you've got just a lot of examples of it going on in the early season here. I think the Red Bulls are getting the most attention for it because Julian Hall is currently the early golden boot leader. And also, like, I gotta i got to say, like, I think I said it on one of our bonus shows, but like,
01:07:24
Speaker
I respect the courage of Michael Bradley to field lineups like that when he has a player like Eric Chupo-Moting who had 17 goals last year and he would have taken zero criticism for just playing Chupo-Moting instead of Julian Hall. And now Michael Bradley apparently saw what he saw on the training ground and in preseason and was like, I'm going start Julian Hall. I'm going to start these two other kids that are also really highly touted and it's paying off. And I've i've just been watching all this, you know, ah the Red Bulls are having success with it.
01:07:57
Speaker
ah RSL has been having success with it. Colorado got a game winner from an 18 year old. And I look at that and it's just like such a, uh, good example of of why play your kids actually, especially if you're one of these teams that's kind of like rebuilding or not a lot to play for contention wise. I don't understand why teams don't do this more because we're seeing the benefits that you get from it. But then on the flip side of it, you know, I look at Atlanta United, And they have a homegrown goalkeeper, Jaden Hibbert, who they started finally to play last year. Like Ronnie Dela did it under duress. He didn't play him all year. Finally, they were like, all right, Brad Guzans literally announced he's retiring. So we'll let Jaden Hibbert be the starter. He looked fine. Like he looked pretty good for the most part. He looked like he could be a starting MLS goalkeeper. And then over the offseason, they go out and they sign 36-year-old Lukos Hoyos.
01:08:46
Speaker
who they're starting over Jaden Hibbert right now. And it looks terrible. Like he's been like probably the worst goalkeeper in the league so far. He looked like an absolute clown against the San Jose earthquakes. And I'm looking at that. I'm like, Tata, what are we even talking about? Like there is no rationale in any dimension or galaxy why you should why he should be starting lucos Lucas Hoyos over Jaden Hibbert. And I think what we're seeing with all these other teams is kind of a an illustration of that. But ah I guess before we talk Tacoma Defiance, do you have any thoughts on the on just the general kind of trend we're seeing with that?
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, red Bulls are a little bit obviously part of the Play Your Kids movement, um but are sort of a...
01:09:37
Speaker
confluence of multiple elements here where Michael Bradley feels as comfortable as he does playing all of these kids because a year ago he was also their coach with RB2. That's good point, yeah.
01:09:52
Speaker
He is so much more familiar with those players than he is with Eric Chupomoting. And... For all that Eric Choupo-Moteng scored 17 goals last year, that was kind of a surprise to a lot of people because he's played for big teams, but he hasn't really been good for any of those big teams. And he's an elder statesman, to put it gently at this point.
01:10:18
Speaker
But... the you know With Julian Hall, you also have this element of what Matt Doyle is constantly preaching. I assume he must have a hotkey to type this out at this point, but there is a very clear...
01:10:34
Speaker
demonstration that if you can produce at the MLS Next f Pro level, particularly as a nine, but if you can be a good player at that level, you can be a good player at USL Championship, you can be a good player at MLS.
01:10:49
Speaker
And especially if it is goal scoring, the things that allow you to do that consistently at each level will allow you to do it as you step up to the next level, as long as you're willing to put in the work and you're in a good environment. Julian Hall, obviously in a good environment, willing to put it in the work. There's a reason.
01:11:10
Speaker
think they were talking about it on soccer wise earlier this week, but there's a reason that before he was legally able to play in most games because of the calendar shift to playing night games and games,
01:11:24
Speaker
New Jersey labor laws that he couldn't play, but they still were emphatic that he trains with the first team. This is a first team player like that. Kids got the juice to your point.
01:11:38
Speaker
If you're a team In almost any circumstance, if you've got kids who you think might be able to hang it only does you a disservice to not really find out and give them a shot, especially in these early season games where you're still just sort of finding things out, figuring out how your team is really going to look when the rubber hits the road, letting these young guys prove whether they can or cannot at this point.
01:12:10
Speaker
And then judging from there only makes sense because even if they're, you know, i think looking at what the Sounders have done over the last couple seasons,
01:12:23
Speaker
If you give guys a run, even if you determine, okay, this guy isn't going to be our first choice and maybe his pathway is blocked, there are going to be other people, whether that's in the league or elsewhere, who see that talent and put a dollar amount to it. And if you are either getting on-field production or transfer fees or resources of some capacity from these players, that clearly creates a virtuous cycle where not only are you demonstrating to the other guys down the pathway who have not reached your first team yet that you're going to get a shot.
01:13:00
Speaker
And if your path is blocked, we're going to find you a good place somewhere else. And it gives you additional resources to build around your team, make the team around those young guys better. So when they do come into the first team, their chances of success are greater. Like it all adds up. It has a cumulative effect. And yeah, there are plenty of Titans reaping the rewards early this season.
01:13:28
Speaker
Tim, real quick before we before we call it a wrap for this episode of Lob and Scorchers, thank you, first of all, so much for tapping in. Great stuff tonight. But you are ah you ah you follow, you're on the Tacoma Defiance beat. You do some TAC-D coverage for Sounder at Heart, and you're pretty in the loop, in the know about what's going on with the Sounders Youth Development in general. Do you have any anything that you can tell the people about what you're seeing with Tacoma Defiance so far, whether it's like individual players to be excited about or just how the team is looking or what what's going on with Seattle's youth development as it stands at this moment?
01:14:07
Speaker
It's their one game in We don't really see their training as much. I'm sure that I could if i asked Kevin k He would get me in there to watch some training. But ah it's just been one game so far. was rough one against LAFC's second team.
01:14:25
Speaker
um I think one player who is a, you know, academy developed guy who has been really exciting over the last year who looked pretty fun in that game was Edson Carley.
01:14:43
Speaker
He's a wide player, midfielder. I think he's played in a number of positions for the academy and the first team, or a Fiance played about 1400 minutes last year, had a couple absolute golazos.
01:14:59
Speaker
i He just really wants to get the ball and go towards goal one way or another. Really fun to watch. I think the other guys who are really, ah really stood out from that first game are some guys that they brought in from outside of the org.
01:15:17
Speaker
this offseason in what I think is a little bit of a shift of their approach to recruitment where because they demonstrated that Young players who come into the team, if they play well, they're going to get a chance with the first team. Now they're getting access to sort of a higher caliber of young player from around the U.S. s lower division. So one of the guys, Mark Gronick, he's the guy they brought in from USL League One Union Omaha. He's 19-year-old striker who had just a peach of a headed goal against LAFC2.
01:15:57
Speaker
um really fun player i think he's going to be really exciting to watch over the next few years he was the usl league one young player of the year last year xavi now lottie i think is how you pronounce this other guy's name he came from ah monterey bay this offseason I believe Monterey Bay is a USL championship side.
01:16:22
Speaker
i He played as sort of the 10 in this game and looked really good. He had some really nice moves and passes. And Rafael Haragui, I think, is the other guy. He came up through Sacramento Republic.
01:16:42
Speaker
And then i think he was... playing for a team in usl league one last season he had the cross for one of the goals a really nice play he was training with the first team to fill out numbers last week and looked really good in training on friday and then had that good performance fortifiance uh the other assister was uh a New Zealand U-20 international Cody Phoenix, killer name.
01:17:14
Speaker
They got to make a Cody for Cody sub, which is always money. um He seems like a really exciting, like advanced ah sort of modern left fullback.
01:17:27
Speaker
um i think those are just a handful of guys who worth doing a ah YouTube search for videos of every now and then.
01:17:38
Speaker
yeah this uh this braunic guy i think is the one that i'm the most intrigued about based on what i hear so far he seems uh he seems pretty intriguing and like one that might have slipped through the cracks somehow that has legitimate genuine upside so that's definitely that's definitely one to track where i kind of try to think of it as like who are the guys that i could actually see making a rise and you know we'll see what happens with braunic but that's the one that kind of sticks out to me right now yeah bronick's a really interesting player uh from brooklyn but played for the barca residency program um moved to union omaha to play for their
01:18:26
Speaker
eldest age group academy and then signed to their first team uh but with union omaha he was playing primarily as like a wing player uh i think sort of similar to the way jordan morris plays as a winger where He is starting in wide positions, but moving into more forward spots.
01:18:50
Speaker
ah I think some of that probably was a product of age and size that he was, you know, he's a big kid, but he's still a kid, so he doesn't have a huge frame.
01:19:02
Speaker
um I think as he continues to develop some of what looked like weaknesses in his game when he was played out wide, disappear a little bit. And as he's more able to use his size and physicality, i think he can be a really dangerous nine who's a little bit more able to create his own shop.
01:19:24
Speaker
A lot of really interesting technical skill as a product of coming through the Barca residency. And he's got Just a really cool shot on him. Just very interesting technique to watch.
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
01:19:38
Speaker
great stuff all right tim we're gonna call it right there thanks again for ah tapping in for pinch hit duty uh everyone if you're watching on youtube like the video rate five stars all that good stuff follow us on all the socials uh and we'll be back at it for the post game live on saturday and we'll see you all then and keep your eyes out for back post runners new sounder at heart podcast network podcast hosted by tim foss and uh mark castner but We will see you all on Saturday.
01:20:09
Speaker
Until then, out. Peace.