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Nos Audietis, Episode 319: Hey, at least no one got sick
83 Plays5 years ago
And just like that, it was over. After going 1-1-1 in the group stage, the Seattle Sounders were bounced from the MLS is Back Tournament in the Round of 16 by LAFC. The 4-1 scoreline may have been a little flattering even as the Sounders were thoroughly outplayed.
Disappointing as that loss was, neither Jeremiah nor Aaron were quite ready to freak out about it or about the state of the roster in general. They were happy that no one seems to have gotten sick while they were there, though.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpel's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Podcast Intro by Roldan & Morris
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Diaz through the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle. Like a beautiful child growing up. Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Full Wines. This is episode 319 and we're recording on Tuesday, July 28th, 2020.
Sounders' MLS Tournament Exit
00:01:43
Speaker
I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit.
00:01:48
Speaker
And just like that, the centers are out of the MLS's back tournament. By now, you probably know the rundown. They tied their opener against the sounds of the earthquakes, laid an egg against the Chicago fire, and badly beat the Vancouver whitecaps to qualify for the round of 16, where they were summarily smacked by LAFC to the tune of four to one.
00:02:05
Speaker
Our good buddy Will Bruin scored and actually almost got the equalizer but that definitely overstates how close this game was. The scoreline was maybe flattering as the Sounders had no answer for LAFC's press and couldn't really contain their attack. A pretty bad combination. As disappointing as that result was though, I'm reluctant to read too much into it.
00:02:24
Speaker
This was, after all, a tournament played with a few weeks of prep during a global pandemic and without several key contributors. The team that suited up on Monday was missing the team's two biggest offseason signings, Jau Paulo, who didn't make a single appearance in Orlando, and Jaymar Gomez-Andrade, who set out the final three aims. The Sounders were bad, but I'm just not sure what to take from that. How about you, Aaron?
00:02:50
Speaker
I am predictably kind of in the same camp. It was not a good performance, I don't think really, in any of the games. Vancouver was definitely the best, but that was just, I think, taking this score, Vancouver team is actually overselling it.
00:03:10
Speaker
You know, the Chicago performance was obviously very bad, although maybe overstated how bad it was just because it's such a bad result. That was more of a game of just like big mistakes, I think, than just in all performance. But the LAFC performance, I mean, that's, you know, as bad as I think we've
00:03:31
Speaker
Ever seen a Sounders team that wasn't like, you know, the dire days type teams where you're playing like 12 Academy kids? Yeah, I mean in terms of
00:03:45
Speaker
Oh, it's probably about as bad as we've seen a Brian Spencer coach Sounders.
Performance Analysis & Comparisons
00:03:51
Speaker
Certainly defensively, I think it was that bad. I'm reluctant to say, you know, like Brad Evans, for instance, asked if this was as bad as the Sounders looked against Kansas City back in 2016, the infamous game that cost, that, well, I don't know if it costs Siggishman his job, but it's the one, the last game that he coached. And I think that that is,
00:04:14
Speaker
a laughable comparison. And I don't know that Brad meant it entirely seriously, only because it was that like, we have to keep in mind, that was a game where the Sounders had one shot and it was from like 40 yards out. Um, it was, it was just a completely useless performance. And in this game, I at least, I mean, they scored a goal. They could have scored a couple more. It was not a horrible offensive performance over the last
00:04:41
Speaker
40 minutes or so. But it was bad defensively. It was really bad defensively. And I would say that and I would even say that it might not even be worse than the game they played against LAFC last year when they lost four to one in LA. But it was it was a bet that doesn't really change anything. The reality is they looked really bad. They got played off the park by
00:05:03
Speaker
a team that is going to be a contender this year. And the Sounders did not look like a team that was going to be a contender. But like I said, like, there's a lot of mitigating circumstances in this game and this tournament. And I'm just reluctant to take too much from it. Yeah, I mean, I think that the reality is that the Sounders have more schemes that are
00:05:27
Speaker
bad just in a, they don't look like they, well, I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, I guess, but they don't really look like they want to be there. They're very sloppy in a way that's uncharacteristic. They look very tired very quickly. They play together all that much.
00:05:49
Speaker
And I just, I think that teams are going to have a performance league like MLS where there's not a huge talent gap between most of the teams. You're more likely to get punished for it, especially when you're playing a team that's as good as LFC. But enough, I mean, I just, I don't really think that anything that happened in this tournament can really be used to prove or validate or analyze anything.
00:06:19
Speaker
tournament. Pretty much every team, I think, was missing players that weren't there for one reason or another. It's very weird that they were playing at like 11 o'clock at night. Yeah, that's another thing I hadn't really thought about. I mean, yeah, it's just
00:06:41
Speaker
You know, if you're going to be in it, you want to win it. But before, it's like halfway between the Desert Diamond Cup and the Open Cup, in terms of how much it really is, at least to us, worth caring about. And so, you know, I'm bummed that they're not in it, but I wouldn't say that I'm bummed that I
00:07:05
Speaker
keep watching it, if that makes sense. Because there's no standards for outage and just watch the literal Mickey Mouse tournament. I get that if this is the thing that you're looking forward to, that it's probably a huge bummer. But for me, it was just never much more than a momentary distraction anyway. So it's not
00:07:31
Speaker
Um, but without being said, I was actually surprised at how pissed off I was at how, how bad last night was. And especially is on your area in particular.
00:07:42
Speaker
And I think, you know, a point that was raised a few times was like, look, except for your target, I get this fucking only guy playing in the defense. And that's absolutely true. I thought Shane O'Neil had a terrible game. I think that some of the situations where making a bad decision were largely because of things Shane O'Neil did to put him in that bad position. I thought that the defensive midfield was horrendous.
00:08:10
Speaker
But ultimately, I mean, Xavier Ariaga has sent her back to the Sounders play to not insignificant transfer fee for that. That's a nightmare tournament. With the caveat, of course, that this tournament's probably not.
00:08:27
Speaker
you know, the kind of thing that you want to base anything on. It's certainly not encouraging to see that, especially considering that performances have not been limited to this tournament. I love his game. And I think that the positive is that center backs are weird. They have weird aging curves. There's plenty of time for him to put it together. He's definitely more in the sort of like David Louis school of
00:08:55
Speaker
completely bewildering decisions that end up costing you, which, you know, I think is preferable because I think it's easier to correct those mistakes and make them less often than just being flat out bad. And some of the things he does are amazing. I mean, he's a tremendous passer.
00:09:20
Speaker
a go-to center back that a team has given up a lot of resources for and consistently make the kind of mistakes he made in this tournament.
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah, he had a rough game. He had a rough tournament. I don't think there's really any disputing that. He was directly responsible for both goals against Chicago. He was responsible probably for at least two goals against LAFC. He could have been responsible for more goals against LAFC. I think it's probably fair to say.
00:09:53
Speaker
And yet I'm with you, I watch him play and I really, like I said this last year, I may have said it this year, if you put a Chad Marshall level center back next to him, I think he's the kind of center back that's gonna get, you know, defender of the year consideration because what he does well, he does really well and it's the kind of stuff that people like,
00:10:21
Speaker
love about center backs like he is so good most of the time he's so good with the ball at his feet he's such a good passer he has really good vision i think he actually does a pretty good job i think of of jumping passing lanes uh you know and maybe not as and maybe he's he's too prone to that
00:10:40
Speaker
But I think he reads the game pretty well, but then he just makes these really dumb physical errors. Like the penalty he gives up is just a completely brain dead kind of moment where he, he's late to the ball. He almost misses the man. Like he, he almost actually, he barely touches, uh, Rossi, but he gets there late in any case. Like he, he, he doesn't affect the shot essentially, but it's, it's a penalty every time it's a dumb penalty.
00:11:08
Speaker
And you just can't take that. And then on the third goal, he just totally whiffs the clearance. He just misses the ball. He doesn't control
Defensive Concerns: Ariaga's Errors
00:11:22
Speaker
it at all. And it is just very bad. And these are the kinds of mistakes, like you said, that you can fix. That's the good news, is that these are kinds of things that players should get better at doing. But what's frustrating is that he seems to be prone to these kinds of mistakes.
00:11:38
Speaker
I'm not one to read too much into the center's defensive record when he's playing, and it's pretty bad. I want to say it's over two goals a game when he starts, but he's also had almost no consistency in terms of who his partner is. Even this year,
00:11:54
Speaker
he's I think he's only started one game with Jaymar if that like I'm not even sure he's I think he's he must have started he's he definitely started the first game against the earthquakes with him so I guess he's got at least one but that and he might have one other game but I don't know for sure that he does
00:12:11
Speaker
And so I think that's certainly one problem, is that he's had no consistency in terms of who his partner is. And my hope is that once he gets a few games with Jaymar, we'll start to see this consistency, we'll start to see a pattern that they can start to play off of each other, and we'll look back on this and laugh, right? But right now, I can't blame anyone for being upset.
00:12:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that that's the thing is that I think that it's a point where this is a problem and it's completely reasonable to be concerned about it. But I don't think we're at the point, even though I said that he should ride back on the wing of the airplane last night. I don't think we've reached a point where, you know, you have to convey with them. I mean, not to not fly into the sub-cost fallacy, but I mean, I do think that
00:13:12
Speaker
a player based on potential the way the Sounders did, because they certainly didn't pay the transfer fee to pay for him for, you know,
00:13:24
Speaker
who they thought he could be on day one, you do have to kind of be willing to put up some growing pains. And center backs, you know, like I said earlier, they have every reading curve sometimes and they can compile to kind of put it all together. So, you know, certainly not at this point, but, and it's frustrating because, you know,
00:13:46
Speaker
The odds of there being a season, I think we'll probably get into this and the questions, but it's not 100% certain that there's going to be a season. And so, you know, you're kind of stuck waiting until next year, which is not ideal, but a lot of things about.
00:14:05
Speaker
and this one in the grand scheme thinks it's pretty low, I guess, in terms of importance. But, you know, this, I guess that that's a roundabout way of saying this is a season that you would like to see him take a big step forward in terms just of his or his age-wise. And we're not probably not going to get an opportunity to see whether or not he's capable of doing that, which is, you know, certainly not great.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, and and I guess along those lines the other reason that I'm I'm I'm reluctant to read too much into this tournament beyond ariaga is Man the Sounders made two big signings this offseason. They signed gel Paulo. They shine Jamar and So basically what we're seeing is we're what we saw the last year
00:14:57
Speaker
three games. And really what we saw this whole tournament was a team, what this team would have looked like if they didn't make any office, any big off season signings. And surprise, surprise, that's not great. Like this is a team that if you just take, if all you did was take out your two starting center backs and your top player off the bench slash
00:15:20
Speaker
dynamic winger off this team. Oh, and you're left back too, I guess. If all you did was lose those players, what would you be left with? Well, you'd probably be left with a team that isn't quite capable of winning MLS Cup because they would have lost a lot of ground. And certainly you can argue, well,
00:15:41
Speaker
LAFC was missing Carlos Fella and that's a big deal. Like LAFC, uh, I am very impressed how well LAFC has played without Carlos Fella. That's not to take anything away from what they accomplished, but. I mean, this is not, this is not the, the sounders a team it's, it's, it's missing several key components, uh, that Jovan Jones was, was only available off the bench in this one that will Bruin was playing his first game. I mean,
00:16:11
Speaker
They were down six or seven guys at one point in this tournament. Even McGillabara wasn't available in this game. So I'm just a little reluctant to be all losing my mind. I had someone in my mentions yesterday telling me, at least when they've looked this bad before, you knew they had reinforcements coming. And I'm thinking, they've got reinforcements coming. They're already on the roster.
00:16:39
Speaker
They just like weren't in this game. And yeah, I mean, I think they're going to be better if Jel Paolo is playing. I think they're going to be better if Jaymar is playing. You know, I think they should be better than that. That doesn't say that doesn't fully excuse that performance. And I do think it's it's somewhat concerning that they have a.
00:17:00
Speaker
They do seem to do this every year where they have one or two games where it's just like, God, this team looks awful. And it seems like there's too much talent on the field for them to look that awful. One of the stats that I've been tracking over the last
00:17:16
Speaker
six, eight months or so is, is the center's record when Ledero, Rui Diaz, and Morris all start together. And they came into this game 16, one, and three, I think is the, is the stat and, and they lost. So they're 16, two, and three. And, and very much like, like the other loss they had with those three, which was against the Portland Timbers at home. Yeah, they were missing some pieces, but
00:17:41
Speaker
They, they had enough talent on the field to be better than they were. And, and that's concerning. I don't know. Uh, there was definitely a clear directive to continue playing out of the back, even when that wasn't working, even though they were getting just absolutely destroyed by that high press. Were you like, given the stakes of this game, how did you feel about that decision to kind of just keep playing out of the back and, and, and refusing forward?
00:18:10
Speaker
I don't know, man. I mean, the stakes, I guess, are relative. Right. That's what I mean. I think the servers... Ultimately, I don't know much about this tournament. And I think, I mean, I'm not trying to poo-poo the question. I just like, that thought didn't really occur to me. Like, should they be playing more...
00:18:38
Speaker
Prudently, or should they just be a little more honest and play like you would expect from the time of playoffs? Maybe they should. I don't know. It was pretty clear early on that what they were trying to do wasn't working.
00:18:52
Speaker
But I think that if this is an earlier season game, like if you're reviewing it through that lens, okay, this is an earlier season game against the team that we have to be better than in the league this year. And we have to learn how to play against these guys. Probably there's a good chance we're gonna play against them. We need to be able to defeat this tactic, so we just gotta deal with it. Be a little more realistic about
00:19:20
Speaker
just prioritizing getting out of there with the results and going to penalties then you know they probably should have just kind of accepted the game state that they weren't going to compete playing the way that they would like to play and just turn up the pressure. So I don't know that there's an objectively correct decision. I would definitely lean more towards the this game is not the time to
00:19:50
Speaker
Bunker encounter like the stakes are just not care for me to to sort of abandoned what you. What to try to do as a team and learning how to deal with adversity is important and learning how to figure out how to break down teams like that is important.
00:20:10
Speaker
And, you know, before LAFC's third goal, I think we saw some pretty good signs of that. Like, I thought they made some tactical adjustments. They were starting to move the ball forward and at least they hadn't done previously in the game. We're going to change the game coming on as well.
00:20:28
Speaker
things they hadn't done before. They looked much more effective, much more comfortable. LAFC didn't really change what they were doing. They certainly looked a little more tired than they had been. But, you know, for a good
00:20:41
Speaker
I don't know, 20 minutes after the Center's 10 minutes for school, it will take a much different game. So, and I think, you know, we can actually play with these guys, you know, that the game as a whole was bad, but we know what we need to do to be effective against them, namely not make portable defensive mistakes, as I think are pretty important.
Tactical Choices & Tournament Stakes
00:21:10
Speaker
and put yourself into a situation where you're having to play from underneath and install it. So yeah, I think it just comes down to where you fall on that spectrum of how important is this game in terms of getting the result versus abandoning your identity. And to me, it falls on the less important end of that spectrum, I would say.
00:21:36
Speaker
I think, again, no one's going to be surprised by this, but I think I agree pretty much with that assessment. And this is what we said after the 4-1 loss to LAFC last year, if memory serves, is that one of the things I think we wanted to see in that game was, like, go toe-to-toe with them. See if you can hang. What's there to lose? And, oh, I guess when we're not full-strength, going toe-to-toe to them is not, like, a recipe for success.
00:22:04
Speaker
So we learned. And I think that, you know, you can't tell me that you, you put Joe Paulo in the midfield yesterday that they don't have an easier time with the break. You can't tell me that if you have Jay more on the field instead of Shane O'Neill, that you don't have an easier time handling the break. Like those things I think are the press, I should say, I think those are almost givens. Like you're going to have more skill on the field. You're going to be better. That's not to say that they didn't have an, they should have like,
00:22:33
Speaker
From a coaching perspective, they got out coached in this game. Bradley did what he wanted to do and Schmetzer didn't. And that's sometimes how it goes. But this is not, you know, presuming we have, whether or not we have a season or not, I suppose after this, it's.
00:22:47
Speaker
The stakes were not MLS cup. The stakes weren't the supporter shield. This wasn't even, it's some kind of weird stakes game. And I think it would have been a mistake to just be, you know, FC Cincinnati to take an example or Vancouver Whitecaps are in a different situation, right? Like they are grinding out results because they just need results for the results sake. The Sounders don't need to, they don't need to prove themselves to anyone in this tournament. They didn't need to, you know,
00:23:19
Speaker
No one cares if they just ground out a win in this one they got it the penalties and and managed to get through I mean it would been fun from a
00:23:28
Speaker
Like don't get me wrong, I would have enjoyed it. And I certainly would have had some, like some, some part of me would have been celebrating it, but it wouldn't have been like, Oh man, we're going to win MLS cup kind of attitude. And, and it is notable, I think that they, you know, for those 10, 15 minutes after Jones, which I think was a big part of it too, and Bruin came on.
00:23:52
Speaker
Like they were, they were good. They, and I think the, the goal that will scored was a very good goal. And I really thought like there was, you know, they had this right after that, they had that other chance that Rui Diaz took the volley. He juggled the volley and tried to beat the goalkeeper near post. Didn't work out too well, but you know, that happened sometimes. And then there was the, the other early cross that Jones put in that Bruin hit wide, you know,
00:24:20
Speaker
Those were good looks. And either one of those go in. I kind of sensed that the game was going to end 4-2 anyway, but it would have changed things at least temporarily. And, you know, it wouldn't have been crazy for them to see out a tie and maybe even pull off a miracle win, I suppose. But I don't know, would we have learned anything else if they had managed to do that?
00:24:51
Speaker
No, right? They still got played, outplayed pretty badly when they tried to go toe to toe for the first 70 minutes. And, you know, that's how it goes, I guess. It would have been extremely funny. I think. Yeah, it would have been great. I would have enjoyed it mentally.
00:25:09
Speaker
I mean, I don't, not who cares, obviously people care, but you know, it's just, it's hard for me to, like I was annoyed for about five minutes after the game last night and after a typical regular season game, if they play that badly, it'll kind of ruin my mood for like the next summer or so. So that's kind of where I'm at with it. You know, that's just, hadn't have been L.A.F.C.
00:25:37
Speaker
Um, I probably wouldn't have even been annoyed at all. I probably would have just turned it off at like, you know, 70 minutes. I'm like, yeah, whatever. That was, that was better than the other thing I was going to do with the last hour of my life, which I don't even know what that would be at this point in my life, you know? So, um, I, I'm.
00:25:58
Speaker
I'm hopeful that it's not the last that we see of the team this year, because it's not a great way to end this season after, especially after such a high of last season. But, you know, it's, it is what it is, as a wise man used to say. I don't, I don't.
00:26:15
Speaker
I think we'll probably talk more about this, but I'll say I don't think this is the last
Season Uncertainties & COVID Impact
00:26:19
Speaker
we'll see. I don't know that we'll actually see a completed season, but I think that the momentum toward playing something else is pretty strong. And especially as long as the USL championship in particular seems to be handling this well and doing it on a scale that is
00:26:39
Speaker
like a degree less than what, like, I don't think they're flying charters as an example. And if MLS is able to fly charters everywhere, I think that should help. Um, the major league baseball situation.
00:26:56
Speaker
I'm, it sounds like, uh, was maybe a case of players not being very disciplined in their private lives in their end. So as you know, it's kind of up to them, right? On some level, it's like, how serious do you, you want to take this and, uh,
00:27:13
Speaker
I'm not saying that that playing sports is the most important thing or anything, but if it's important to them, uh, they gotta have to do stuff to, to be able to keep playing. So anyway, uh, we'll get into that later. Uh, I did want to end on this note. Were there any, was there anything from this tournament that you saw as, as positive and, or worth really taking away from it from a, from a playing perspective?
00:27:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think it's a couple of the most obvious things for a year away and looked very good, I thought. He scored, what, like a minute after coming on? That's not too bad. Yeah. He didn't look super rusty. He looked like he was up to game speed. I think that's a tremendous sign. Jordan Morris, I think, is
00:28:15
Speaker
without, I think, and arguably the best attacking American player in MLS. He looks like he has continued to get better even after the time away, which is very impressive, because I think we have seen him since 2016. I thought he had, obviously, he had injuries that he was dealing with, but when he was able to get on the field, I thought he looked extremely good.
00:28:41
Speaker
um it was very nice to see the kids getting eating a run out you know they they are always inside ease and they all got some game time so i think that's um yeah i mean there were there were definitely positive things to take away from it um i you know the performances overall were not great but um you know we've kind of talked about to death why that's maybe not worth being super concerned about but
00:29:07
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, I think that scenarios, right. That, that we talked about, um, players not being fit and getting injured, uh, severely. We definitely saw some injuries, but I don't feel like we saw anything that's going to be, you know, season ending or anything like that. Um, as far as I know, nobody got COVID, which is a big, big, big winner for me. The tournament has been.
00:29:35
Speaker
I don't want to say the tournament's gone great, but it hasn't been a disaster by any stretch. The bubble seems to have held up fairly well. Knock on wood because there's still a little bit of turn left. So it's better than I expected it to be the team play again.
00:29:59
Speaker
I don't need to ever see the weird fake jumbotrons again. That was really weird. And I don't, I can't abide fake crowd noise, man. It's like, I thought it was a bad idea. I did not think I was going to win it, but I tried to give it a chance and then I just hate it. I absolutely hate it. I feel like there's a good chance we're going to be watching sports without crowds for,
00:30:25
Speaker
the foreseeable future. And I really hope that that's an experiment that dies a quick and unceremonious death because I just do not like it at all. It sucks. Yeah, I think I'm a little bit more ambivalent about the crowd noise. I must have not really been watching with a sound on yesterday because it didn't really even register
00:30:52
Speaker
when that it was on last night. So I was probably just watching it with the sound off, which I don't know. It's funny to me that the broadcasters all seem to love it. Like people who work in the industry seem to love it. And most fans seem to either be like me kind of ambivalent about it or actively hate it. Like I don't think there's a lot of fans that are like, no, no, no, I love the crowd noise. I love the fake crowd noise.
00:31:19
Speaker
like that does not seem to be a thing that anyone feels and I thought that the ESPN broadcast that didn't have the noise were fine like they I didn't mind it at all like it doesn't I don't mean like I think it's weird for the players and I guess it would be maybe one thing if they were piping noise into the stadium to kind of give it some atmosphere and
00:31:38
Speaker
But there they aren't and it's just for us. And I don't think I like I think it's just like the players I think probably find it more weird than fans do in terms of not having the noise because it makes it feel more like a training session, I think for them. And so that I.
00:31:57
Speaker
Like there's not really a fix for that. And like I said, unless they're going to pump crowd noise into the stadium, which they do for the media games. So I guess it's something they could theoretically do, uh, on T like once they start having these games and stadiums, but, um,
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, I was good. Glad to see I think everyone but Alfonso Ocampo Chavez for reasons I have not learned played in this game or played in this in this tournament. Danny Leyva, I guess broke his foot, but that is the only
00:32:30
Speaker
Like semi-serious thing that happened to anyone there. As far as we know, no one caught COVID, which is great. They just came out with a report today saying that I think it was the ninth straight testing day. So that means it's been 18 days since their last positive test. That's great. I think one of the things that I said, I think on the last show was that
Tournament Safety & Protocols
00:32:57
Speaker
If there's a positive we can take away from this, it's that you're creating a path towards a vision of what the world could look like if we can get rampant testing up and going in the United States. It seems like that's been borne out. If you can get to the point where you're testing
00:33:20
Speaker
every day or every other day and you can get those results back in a reasonable amount of time, that allows you a lot more freedom in your life. I'm not an epidemiologist, but this idea that we might have a saliva test that essentially works like a pregnancy test where you can take it every day and get results back within minutes
00:33:42
Speaker
Even if you're only at 90% accuracy, that would allow for probably a lot of resumption of normal life if we can get something like that. We are obviously not there right now and the United States is woefully behind the rest of the world, it seems, in terms of getting our shit under control. So those were all positives for me.
00:34:07
Speaker
Jordan Morris seems to be ready to take off in terms of just being an absolute superstar.
00:34:16
Speaker
knew who I thought was another positive. Like he, he to me has maybe made the biggest step forward in terms of where he was last year. And to me, he looks like, like I'm comfortable with him being the starting left back and then kind of figuring out what you do with Jovan Jones. Like maybe he's coming off the bench. Maybe he's starting on a wing opposite Jordan Morris. Like it gives you some good options. And if you can bring Jovan Jones off the bench, I think that's a great
00:34:42
Speaker
Like, he's a really good player if you use him the right way. And I don't think he needs to be starting. I'm totally fine with new starting right now. You know, like the left side of the sounders, I thought, look pretty okay. All things considered yesterday, it was, you know, up the middle where they really struggled. Yeah. Which is... Yeah, which is...
00:35:06
Speaker
It is a bad place to struggle, but it's also the place that they were missing the most guys. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, good point. Keeping it all in perspective, I guess.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know. They got out of the tournament 1-1-1 on regular season. They are now 2-1-2 on the regular year as they potentially go into a regular season. The reports have been that they're going to try to play an 18 game regular season.
00:35:37
Speaker
which would bring the total number of games to 23, I think is what I've heard. And then have like a 19 playoff, which I still don't quite understand how that will work. But it's a 19 playoff that's going to be played in the same number of days as last year's seven team playoff, which maybe makes sense, but I don't think it does.
00:36:05
Speaker
i don't know math math uh but yeah uh so that's i guess that's probably a good place to call this a segment we're gonna come back we have a bunch of questions from you uh you're listening to no study up here
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:37:02
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes. We have a bunch of questions from you and I'm going to get started and ask Aaron first because he was really excited about this. So this is from Andrew.
00:37:17
Speaker
Unbehan? I hope I said that right. I'm sure I didn't. Three questions. Are you guys going to eat a little crow regarding LAFC after the last NA episode? No idea what he's talking about there, but maybe you do. Uh, what do you think about the chances are that MLS tries to force this quote unquote season after COVID cup finishes? And last, what do you see as the sounder's position of most need at the moment?
Roster Depth & Improvements
00:37:41
Speaker
So I want to, I want to answer Andrew's question and I will.
00:37:45
Speaker
But I just, so there's a guy and I wanted to ask a question on here and I was logged into the notice on the, that's the account. And I saw the question and I said, okay, well, I want to ask the question. And then I went to the questions and I went to, and I said, well, okay, where's this question? So I went to look at the guy's pro he's got me blocked and he's asking a question on here. I believe kidding me.
00:38:12
Speaker
We're not going to answer your question if you got me blocked off on here. You kidding me? Yeah. Not cool. So for Andrew, I'm not going to make me. I'd probably block me too, but you can't you can't ask a question. Anyway, so this works.
00:38:32
Speaker
Andrew, so I feel like maybe we said that LAFC wouldn't be quite as good without Carlos Vela, and maybe that's what that is a reference to. If they had Carlos Vela, the problem would have scored because, I mean, their finishing was just horrendous. And I think that the thing that he does is score, like finish.
00:38:57
Speaker
So I don't know. Maybe we said some dumb shit. I don't know. It's possible. It's likely even.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm not entirely sure what that was about, but sure. I mean, it's always going to be. Yeah, they're quite good. I don't know if that's a huge shock. I do think the whole idea that they like exacted some kind of revenge for getting just absolutely curbs stomped at home in the playoffs in what was supposed to be like their, you know, christening is like the team that has your soccer or whatever.
00:39:34
Speaker
Um, you know, a Disney world tournament is like, you know, uh, anything close to revenge, but you know, whatever, whatever helps sleep at night. If they want to tell themselves that the score is even.
00:39:51
Speaker
Who are we to argue, right? We got the trophy. Pretty much. In terms of the season, I think you said it in the last segment, MLS is going to try to have a season. Whether or not they're successful, I think it's completely out of their control. I think they can do everything perfectly and reasonably.
00:40:15
Speaker
got, you know, the night before a series and getting COVID. And then, you know, like asking, like asking themselves the day before another team is supposed to fly and play games against the teamwork, like half of them have COVID, if they're gonna have the series, like, I don't know, man, I just that it can work, because I just don't think people are taking it seriously enough here in this country. But
00:40:44
Speaker
Even if MLS does everything correctly and the players all do everything correctly, which I'm allowed to ask of that many people, I still think it's unlikely to be able to happen just because I think it's going to get much worse over the next couple of months. But I obviously don't find it wrong.
00:41:16
Speaker
And then in terms of position of need, uh, you know, I'm like, I'm honestly, I'm pretty happy to see how this team plays out right now. Um, I am sure, you know, it would be wonderful to have a Jordan Morris equivalent to play on the right. I think everybody would love that. Um, I think it'd be great to have, you know, a
00:41:42
Speaker
go in a time machine and get Xavier Ariaga that knows how to defend, that would be good as well. But, you know, as it stands, I think you've got to see what you have with the roster as it's put together, before you can really be talking about, you know, what realistic changes you could be making to improve it.
00:42:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think, yeah, I think, I think if you were talking about the, the most, the biggest position of need, I think is probably center back, like, which is a little frustrating.
00:42:27
Speaker
but maybe not. I mean, they, they lost two starting quality center backs. I don't think they really replaced, I mean, in a way they lost three starting quality center backs from last year. And, and, uh, they've really only brought in two, I guess you could say. And, um, that position feels a little, that position definitely feels shallow to me right now. And I, and I know, you know, Garth has talked about how,
00:42:55
Speaker
He thinks that they have this flexibility with their roster that, you know, you have a Gustav Svensson, you have a Jordy Delem, you have a Josh Tencio who could all deputize and kind of play center back. But I don't think you want to be in a scenario where.
00:43:11
Speaker
any of those three are your assumed starter and really you're like one injury away, you know, two, we saw like, we were very close to seeing one of those players starting there against LAFC and maybe it could have gone much worse, but that's, I mean, that's a problem too, right? So yeah, I think if I was going to, if I was going to spend money to bring in one player, it might be a center back.
00:43:35
Speaker
I, I guess it would be like you said, a winger of some sort might be okay, but I don't, I don't know. I actually feel pretty good about their, their depth, uh, writ large on them in the, in the midfield. All right. So the next one is from, uh, Ariaka boss, the best player in the league in the biggest game of the season and helped us won a title. He also had this tournament. What do we make of him giving it consistency is perhaps the most important quality in a center back.
00:44:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have anything to argue with in what is said there, but I guess I'm, my assessment is I still want to see him consistent, play consistently with one partner. And I still really like his game and I'm hopeful he'll be better, but like you can't just, I also think we should go out and try to send her back. So.
00:44:36
Speaker
And that's what a wise because I'm a little, I'm a little worried that he's not going to be as consistent as he needs to be because he can't, you know, you can't have center backs giving up, you know, giving up goal. Like he, he, he's directly responsible for probably four goals in this tournament. And that's, that's too many. Like he can't average a goal. You know, you can't average giving up a goal per game on your just flatly on bad plays. Like that's just not a sustainable thing. And that's,
00:45:06
Speaker
where they are right now. Yeah, and I think too, as much as you, when you've got a young player that needs reps to develop, you want to give them a chance to fail, but you also don't want to keep throwing them out there when they don't have any confidence, because that's not good for development. But when, you know, the alternatives, like you said, were Shane O'Neill,
00:45:27
Speaker
It's much harder to make the decision to set him down because when he's on, he can be so good. So I think having, even if it's a player that is not as good as Ariaga when Ariaga is on his game, having somebody that you can feel comfortable with is not going to throw him away. It's an exception to have that's just really normal right now. Yeah. This one's from the Desert Pope.
00:45:53
Speaker
He wants to know, if it turns out there are no games left to play this year and we head into the next offseason, would you rather give Ariaga another year or just try to offload him?
00:46:05
Speaker
I mean, I think that I feel you have to give him another year, because that's a lot of it's just giving up on a player that you knew is probably going to have some developing to do very easily. But I think you almost certainly have to have a solid plan be kind of like we talked about in the last question, where, you know, he's not your
00:46:31
Speaker
unquestioned starter going into the season. If it's an MLS veteran that was a starter on a decent team, whatever it is, you don't go into the season feeling like you can't set him down if he comes out and performs poorly early on. I don't think you get rid of them, but I do think you get yourself an insurance policy is the short answer I would give. Yes.
00:46:59
Speaker
Uh, so the next one is from at BT Weber. If we think about this as a three game road trip, are we happy with four points and a couple of injuries? That's a, I hadn't really thought of it as a road trip. Yeah. If you look at it as a four game as a three game road trip, I think you'd take four points. Um, it's a little, I think you'd be more frustrated. Obviously if it's, if you look at it as a three game home stand, it's definitely not a three game.
00:47:27
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, I mean, I, I don't, I'm not upset with four points out of that. Like that's, I think if you told me the sound would finish the tournament with four points and bounce out of the round of 16, I'd probably say like, okay. Yeah.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if you, if you do care about the regular season implications, I think that's fine. I mean, obviously look for him to get nine points and, you know, take a commanding conference lead. Yeah, this one's from Jay Tobiasen. How much did the Sounders miss Jau Paulo in this tournament?
00:48:12
Speaker
I think a lot. And I don't think that that's a huge surprise. I think especially against LAFC not having somebody that could control why it was so difficult for them to control the press.
00:48:30
Speaker
And if you don't block the hosts on Twitter, maybe you can get an answer to your question about the press. Not that I'm so upset about that. But I think that was part of the reason is that the sounders did not have a way of finding the sound. They were way too quickly against the press. I think Joao Paulo is very good at controlling the tempo in a way that they just didn't have a player that was capable of doing that.
00:48:56
Speaker
Um, I thought Jordy Dillon played well, um, but he's not sure Apollo, um, you know, that's, that's probably pretty obvious things, but, uh, they, they missed them enormously. Would it have made a difference in terms of the ultimate outcome of the game? I don't think so. I just think that that LAFC is team is better than.
00:49:21
Speaker
the team that Sanders would have put out even if they did have him, but I certainly don't think it would have been that much of a shit show. So the next one is from Sean Rogers. What is the stronger feeling discussed at the performance versus LAFC or relief that the team doesn't have to spend more time in Florida? A stronger feeling. Well, I guess
00:49:48
Speaker
I don't think I got worked up in terms of disgust. I will say this, I'm surprised at how not strong I feel about either options because at the beginning of the tournament, I would have thought, Oh, I'm relieved that they get to get out of this tournament because it feels so unsafe now.
2020 MLS: An Asterisk Season
00:50:08
Speaker
But like from a safety standpoint, I don't know that like to me, it feels like
00:50:13
Speaker
They're actually in a kind of safe situation. Like it's not a bad situation to be in. Although I guess there's a hurricane coming through today and I wouldn't want to be there during a hurricane. So I guess I guess I'll pick my stronger feeling is I'm glad that they don't have to be in Florida during a hurricane. So I guess that one. But I will. I think I'll say this. I think MLS did a good job of creating an environment that players could feel safe in.
00:50:42
Speaker
whether or not that is a product of really, really diligent work or some just kind of getting lucky a little bit. I don't know, but I think from what I can tell players and people who are there feel pretty safe and MLS deserves credit for that. So. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah.
00:51:08
Speaker
This one's from coffee, coffee bikes. Uh, it says the season always going to, oh, wait, you're going to, did you want to answer that question? I'm sorry. I cut you off. Did you have a, no, I was about to say that I pretty much agreed with you. Yeah. Good old, good old agree. Uh, this one's from coffee bikes. He says, is the season always going to be a asterisk season?
00:51:31
Speaker
yeah i think so i think that i don't remember i think that it was
00:51:40
Speaker
It was a baseball writer. I don't remember which one it was, but he basically said, oh, I don't believe in asterisks. History is history. And that's some of the dumbest shit I've ever heard. It's pretty dumb. It's very stupid. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't enjoy it, whatever happens. I'm sure the team that wins, if there isn't an MLS Cup this year, I'm sure that the team that wins it will fly the banner and they should.
00:52:06
Speaker
But it's not normal season. I mean, when you've got like... You there? Yeah. Yeah. It looks like we lost the connection there a little bit. But go ahead. Oh yeah. I just think when you've got key players from teams saying that they're not going to play because they don't feel safe playing.
00:52:30
Speaker
It's one thing for a player to get an injury. I think it's another for a player to get an injury. So I'm just not going to be playing this season. I think it's much harder to pretend like anything was normal. And then you're playing half as many games as you normally would as well.
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, there's this a hundred percent an asterisk season. I honestly, I really, really believe they should not award the supporter shield this year. Uh, I, I don't see how you can pretend like this is just a normal season. Um, and I, and so yeah, for sure. I think that's unquestionably that way.
00:53:11
Speaker
Next is from our old pal, Dave Clark, at Better Than. After B-Rabs took Facito and Zakuani on different hiking trips, which former sounder is now the least likely to go hiking? Asking again, but not allowing a DP.
00:53:27
Speaker
Hmm, that's a yeah, I guess zakawani had been a long time holdout on hiking trips I don't know the players well enough to to tell you for sure who's the least likely to go on a hike but And It's kind of scanning who who like most of the team feels like I
00:53:51
Speaker
Like I'd be a little surprised if there's anyone on the team that would just, like Raul Rui Diaz seems like maybe he is the guy who has the most like blingy lifestyle that might be anti-hiking. But I bet, like he also still seems pretty down to earth. Like I would guess he digs hiking. I don't know. I feel like this is a- Well this is former, this is former sounders. Oh, former sounders. You do have a wider range of options.
00:54:21
Speaker
Yeah, good point. I don't know. Do you have one in mind? I do, but it's extremely mean, so I'm not going to say who it is. But people could probably guess who it is, because it's a joke that's probably not at all true. I don't know, man. I'm kind of with you. I feel like in general, soccer players are going to be amenable to walking and being out in nature.
00:54:49
Speaker
I could see Marcus Hanman just being like, I'm just going to go to the treehouse. I don't need to walk anywhere, I guess. But that's just more of a just based on my idealized version of.
00:55:02
Speaker
I could see that because I think he, he's probably someone who's like, yeah, I'll go hunting, but I'm not going to just go walking into a mountain for no, for no reason. Yeah, I can see that. I definitely picture him owning like a, I'm retired, don't ask me for shit trucker hat, you know, that he got like in Westport or something. Um, so I can see that. Um, I'm amazed. Mike, I can also see. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:36
Speaker
Yeah, all right. Well, we're going to close out with this one. We don't get a lot of these questions anymore, so I like this. This is from Emmet O'Connell. It says, it's a modern dilemma for the ultra wealthy. A yacht awaits, but how to safely reach it without exposure to the germ-ridden masses? Do you have any suggestions for getting... These questions... These questions get a little different than we did in 2001.
Humor in Pandemic Travel Challenges
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah. But it's still funny to me. It's funny in a much different way now than it was then. I mean, I think helicopters probably. I'm sure Jeff Bezos has a helipad at his house. I guess you do have to be locked in there with a helicopter pilot though.
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. If you're Elon Musk, you can just like get in your car and drive your, in your special tunnel that you're calling. You can do that. To walk into the sea, I think is what I would suggest they do, but that's not really the spirit of the question, I guess, since you're probably not going to end up getting to the yacht, but it would solve some problems at least.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah, take your future into your hands that way, I suppose. I was watching, I think it's like season eight of American Horror Story, where it's like an apocalyptic season. And in this one, one of the people went to the special place where the saved people went on a autopiloted plane.
00:57:21
Speaker
You could be certain that you would not die of COVID.
00:57:30
Speaker
Which I thought was an interesting solution to that dilemma. Uh, I mean, I can't see what could possibly go wrong in that situation. Like it's just like a big ass drone or like, I mean, it was like, it was like, uh, yeah, I don't know. He was flying the plane.
00:57:52
Speaker
in the movie, in the show, it was like, no, it was like an autopiloted, like the plane, you got on the plane and it just whisked them away. It didn't seem very realistic. Yeah. It lost me a little there, I'll be honest. Well, I mean, to be fair, neither does a global pandemic, you know, that's science fiction stuff, right? Right. No, good, good, good point.
00:58:17
Speaker
All right. Well, uh, that's the show, I guess. So thanks for, for listening. Uh, I hope we have more soccer to talk about this year. I, I do, I am actually hopeful that we get more soccer. I hope we feel like we can safely play soccer also. Um, but.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, I hope, I hope we get to have some soccer this year. It would be nice to get a little bit more of that and maybe even a whole season. Who knows? Uh, but yeah, thanks to our sponsor.
00:58:48
Speaker
Uh, full pool wines. Thanks to Aaron. Uh, thanks to Aaron. What am I doing? Uh, thanks. Uh, I'm, I am signing off for, I'm Jeremiah Shannon. I'm signing off for Aaron and Lickett. Uh, this is, yeah, thank you. Thank you for doing this, Aaron. Thank you. I don't know what I'm thinking before other than continuing to keep me company, I guess. I don't know. It sounds I'm getting, I'm digging myself into a hole. Like I dug myself into a hole with Brian the other day. Um,
00:59:17
Speaker
But anyway, we managed to not address that. I am actually gonna, I don't know, whatever. It's done is done. Anyway, this is no study at this. And remember, you will never yacht alone.
00:59:35
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:00:12
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!