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The one where the guys discuss the playoff-bound Sounders and review their season predictions
2 Plays0 seconds ago
With the MLS regular season behind us and the playoffs looming, Aaron and Jeremiah sit down and discuss the upcoming bracket tournament and where they see the Sounders headed in this chase for another trophy. They also dig into their “over/under” prediction list for the season to see how their prognostications over the season ended up.
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Transcript
Introduction and Announcements
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. Here we go. Come on. Hey, O'Shaan.
00:00:14
Speaker
Let's go. The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. Here comes Ruiz Diaz through the middle to crown it for Seattle.
00:00:25
Speaker
The Sounders rule the region. see of
00:00:59
Speaker
you know what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't? Ever since I wrote a commentary that we didn't take the outcome seriously.
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Sounders' Playoff Prospects
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Full Wines, Hacks and Ferments, and our subscribers. We're recording on Tuesday, October 21st.
00:01:53
Speaker
I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shann. Today, am joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett. Well, ah the Sounders ended their regular season on a winning note. They get a 2-1 win over New York City FC that sends them into the playoffs on 55 points.
00:02:09
Speaker
That's good enough for fifth in the West, 10th in the Supporter Shield standings, which is actually the lowest they've ever finished in a playoff season, but still pretty decent.
00:02:21
Speaker
Aaron, what would you say your feelings are heading into the playoffs? I am... Very cautiously optimistic. I think that the Sounders have a very good team.
00:02:33
Speaker
i think the way their defense has played down the stretch is really encouraging. um Some of the underlying numbers about theirre their road games that are encouraging and have made me think that maybe they're not you know quite as rough on the road as as their record would indicate.
00:02:48
Speaker
But they've still got a very, very long road ahead to get to the Dallas Cup. Likely road-heavy road. heavy road Yeah, absolutely. A road heavy road. ah And so, you know, I I think that whatever happens in the playoffs, as long as they don't get totally waxed, you know, by Minnesota, I feel pretty good about this season. um They you know, they won a trophy. They were a lot of fun to watch for long stretches of time.
00:03:14
Speaker
And I think that, you know, if you can go into the playoffs feeling like you've got a shot to make a run and the games are engaging and worth watching, that's that's pretty good, especially, you know, considering some of the injuries and and things like that they've dealt with. So, um yeah, I think it's I'm not going to say whatever happens in the playoffs is gravy, because I think that, you know, if they get bounced in an embarrassing fashion, that could definitely leave a bad taste in my mouth. But um I feel pretty good that I'm going to be satisfied with the season when all is said and done.
00:03:42
Speaker
I think the key for me in the playoffs is going to feel like we can compete. ah Yeah. And it's not so much what they do. And mean, there's a scenario where they could lose to Minnesota United and, you know, maybe they lose in two shootouts or something and it won't really change how I feel they matched up. Right.
00:04:02
Speaker
But. I do think this team is good enough to go on a run. They they would, like you said, they'd have to go on. They'd have to play the conference semifinals and finals at the very least or not the very least. They'd most likely have to play those on the road.
00:04:16
Speaker
There are scenarios. I will say this is one of the things that I've been saying a lot. is you know This last game wasn't completely meaningless from a standings perspective because it allowed them to finish ahead of four Eastern Conference teams.
00:04:30
Speaker
If they had lost this game, they would have actually finished below all nine playoff teams from the East. But as a result of that win, they finished ahead of Nashville, Columbus, Orlando, and Chicago.
00:04:44
Speaker
And I'm not saying any of those teams are... particularly likely to get to MLS cup, but I don't know that that's impossible. I mean, the East to me looks really wide open, much more so than the West where, you know, the West feels like it's really the top five teams. I feel very strongly will be one of the top five teams will be the representative out of the West.
00:05:05
Speaker
I don't know that I feel the same about the East. I feel like there are six or seven teams at least in the East who I could see making a run. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think Columbus is definitely a ah team that stands out to me as being pretty dangerous, pretty, you know, pretty ah threatening. Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
Philadelphia is definitely in the, I'll believe it when I see it, when it comes to the playoffs sort of, sort of category Cincinnati to some extent as well. Obviously Miami is the elephant in the room. um If they play as well as they're capable of playing, they'll probably walk through the playoffs, but we thought that last year too, and they got knocked out in embarrassing fashion. So um I, you know, I wouldn't be shocked to see one of those teams um end up making it through, like you said, not the most likely scenario, but I would probably take one, ah you know, one of those teams making it through one of those, yeah you know, three teams making it through three or four teams, I guess, ah over any one team that wasn't
Impact of Pedro de la Vega's Injury
00:06:04
Speaker
Miami.
00:06:04
Speaker
Right. Like I'll take the field over Philadelphia Cincinnati or Charlotte probably. Yeah, I would agree with that. and ah For sure. I would agree with that. I think I would take the field Philadelphia.
00:06:17
Speaker
mean I mean, I think I'd take the field over anyone on the East, frankly. ah Like, you yeah you could you could take out any of the teams. ah But real, before, don't want to get too far beyond this last game and sort of the Sounders, though.
00:06:32
Speaker
ah There was one big talking point coming out of this game, and that was the injury to Pedro de la Vega. He goes down with what we learned today is effectively a broken kneecap. That's the the layman term. I think the...
00:06:47
Speaker
ah the medical term is fractured patella, I guess is, yeah but it sounds right. And it sounds like the recovery on that is a lot more straightforward than if this was a ligament damage. So if he had torn his ACL, which was the biggest concern, I think, you know, that's a, that's an injury that could take,
00:07:05
Speaker
a year to recover from. If not, you know, they could potentially knock him out for the entire next season. Whereas this injury, they're saying six months, but it sounds like there's a pretty good chance that he'll be able to train ah before then. And so if he takes six months from now, he would be back and in April sometime.
00:07:23
Speaker
Not ideal, but you know you'd still be early enough in the season where you're going to have a pretty big role to play. And so it's not it's definitely not a worst-case scenario. know It was sort of a freak injury, though.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah. you You watch it, and it's there's not an obvious... you know, point where you're like, oh, that's brutal because he's going into a tackle, but not a particularly hard tackle.
00:07:44
Speaker
He's, you know, at first I thought it was on the temporary grass at Citi Field. It's not even on the temporary grass. It's actually on the the permanent grass part of the field, just on the edge of the the infield.
00:07:57
Speaker
And it doesn't look like his leg gets particularly stuck, but you can see his knee is all jacked up um i immediately. But this is sort of a rare injury. And usually the injury happens from you know a big fall or a real heavy you know blunt force type of trauma.
00:08:14
Speaker
And that's not what happened here. i don't so I don't really have a good... handle on exactly how the injury happened. I tried to, i i asked Brian actually, if, if he had a good sense of that and he didn't either, which I'm not surprised. That's not really his expertise, so but such a weird injury, but really just a, ah bummer more than anything else because Pedro had been, has been so much fun to watch this year.
00:08:39
Speaker
i do think he's a ceiling raising type of player for the Sounders. We've seen him have special moments and, The Sounders seem to play better when he's on the field than when he's not. The numbers basically support that idea that they have a much, much better record in games where he starts when versus when he doesn't. Although, if you look at when he's just on the field, the numbers are not quite so impressive.
00:09:04
Speaker
Still, i'm more I think I'm more bummed out for him than I am frustrated him. this being another injury. I mean, this is honestly like the injury, the individual injuries sort of wash over me at this point with the Sounders.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, how could, how could they not at this point in the year? um And, and i I would tend to be agree. I think the thing that he gives you that maybe nobody else on the team does is he just has that unplayable factor when he's very much on that.
00:09:32
Speaker
I mean, what snack is you know, God level in every game, but he can't, like strike panic into opposing teams the way Pedro can when he's at his very best. Right. Um, and you know, the, the, the cost of that is that a lot of the time he's not at his best and he can be a little bit of a passenger sometimes, but they don't have anybody who, who offers that threat.
00:09:56
Speaker
Um, As much as he does, at least. Yeah, not as much as he does, but i do i it's interesting because they it comes at a time when Ryan Kent is getting ready to return to the field.
00:10:09
Speaker
I don't think Ryan Kent is as good of a player as Pedro De La Vega. He's not certainly not shown to be as consistent as he is, but he is capable of those moments. In same way, Georgie Manungu is also sort of capable of some of the stuff.
00:10:23
Speaker
And you combine those two players, I'm not saying... you know, you can reconstruct Pedro de la Vega in the aggregate, but you can sort of get a little bit of the way there.
00:10:35
Speaker
Uh, and so it's, that's part of why I'm not freaking out from a specific Sounders perspective. This is more of a, I feel bad for this player because, and I feel bad for me for not being able to get to watch him. Right.
00:10:49
Speaker
Right. And I do think the Sounders chances of winning it are diminished somewhat, but, i' so I'm still kind of optimistic about their overall chances.
00:11:01
Speaker
This is not the same as lu losing Albert Rosnack or Christian Roldan. It's just not in the same caliber. I think that there is a point in the not-too-distant future where Pedro could be that important to to what the Sounders do.
00:11:15
Speaker
But they've just kind of had to... I mean, he he has played with he's played a lot this year. I think that there's this sort of... um incorrect a belief about how how often he's played this year, but he's he's played, I think, in close to 30 games.
00:11:29
Speaker
um I mean, he's he's been a ah pretty regular fixture in the team. He's been ultimately pretty healthy this year. Right. And I was going to say that the thing that is even more of a misnomer than how many games, yeah, I think he's actually played in 37 games. yeah But what is even more of a this misnomer, he's only not been available six games. So it's He had some injuries this year, but I think people in their mind have it much much more extreme than it actually was. like he for sure.
00:11:59
Speaker
He was mostly available this year. ah He didn't play as much as anyone would have liked, but he... He played. I mean, he was he played a lot. ah He was available a lot. Yeah, he played in
Minnesota United Series Preview
00:12:11
Speaker
twenty nine. Yeah, thirty seven games. He played thirty seven games this year. So, you know, that's all but ten games he played in so far.
00:12:19
Speaker
And it wasn't until pretty deep into the season where he looked like a player that was undroppable when he was healthy. Right. Like they they it took a while to kind of figure out how to, you know, best utilize him and where to deploy him and what kind of role to give him to where he became a player. Everybody agreed was kind of a key piece.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, he up until the Club World Cup ah through the Club World Cup, he really was sort of it was unclear what was going on with him. And there was very open conversations, I think, among the fan base of whether or not.
00:12:54
Speaker
He was a complete bust. And and it wasn't even really immediately after the Club World Cup. His breakout game, if you remember, was the the earthquakes game where they suddenly started him on the left side, which was the first time they'd started him there.
00:13:08
Speaker
And he had that goal and had a great goal. he had a great assist. And then it was sort of like off to the races after that. And he was a lot, you know, he was just a fun, fun player. ah You know, there was obviously the great, he had two wonderful goals against Cruz Azul, but he had he had a whole bunch of like just great goals throughout the season, you know, ah at various times.
00:13:32
Speaker
i Maybe my favorite one is the one he scored against the Galaxy in the League's Cup semifinal, where he's, he, you know, just sort of showed to me so much of what he does well, which is chasing down a ah play. I think he was off of a rebound and,
00:13:47
Speaker
And he's just like kind of a I don't know. I just love the way he plays the game. i he kicks the shit out of the ball. He's, yeah you know, he's he's capable of these like sort of mind bending moments and you never question his effort.
00:14:03
Speaker
You know, he's got a lot of talent, uh, you know i think his upside is still really high. and you know i so you know they're One of the other points of conversation seems to be, well, I suppose maybe this means that he's sticking around for a while because it's going to be almost impossible to move him. and I don't think that's such a bad thing.
00:14:20
Speaker
like if if you know like i like having Yeah. I mean, I think that the thing with Pedro was that, okay, this is a player that we're buying because in the best case scenario, we can make a big profit off of him.
00:14:32
Speaker
The medium scenario is he turns out to be a player. That's a key player for us for, you know, at a decent amount of time. I think if, if Pedro can come back strong next year, have a good couple of years, um hopefully, you know, res resign, you're going to look at and and be a key player for this team, be part of the next core of what's hopefully the next great Sounders team.
00:14:53
Speaker
Um, you're going to look at that $7 million dollars as a great investment. Maybe it's not as great of an investment as as it would have been if you could have sold them for $30 million. But sure. here Sure. Sure. You know, I think that that's still a pretty good outcome. $7 million dollars for a guy that you, you know, you could potentially have for six or seven years um is I think everybody would take, you know, that, that kind of business. So um yeah, it is, i do feel bad for the kid because he's clearly so talented And this injury was such a freak injury.
00:15:25
Speaker
i just reject out of hand the idea that this injury occurred because Pedro is injury prone, you know, whatever, whatever that means. um It's just freak injury. yeah He's just had a lot of bad luck in a short period of time. um And maybe he does end up being a player that just struggles with injuries his whole career.
00:15:41
Speaker
Or maybe he ends up being a guy who struggles with injuries for a short period of time in his career. And it just doesn't end up being a thing that that causes him that much, ah you know, causes him that many problems in the long run. Right.
00:15:53
Speaker
i We really don't know. ah Where do you fall, though, on the other point of debate on this, which was, should he have even been playing? ah You know, before the game, Nico and I talked about how we thought he would play, that we thought he should play, that though really we wanted to see this whole front four playing because if this is what you believe is your best attacking four, you need to get him minutes together.
00:16:19
Speaker
And they hadn't played together almost at all coming into this game. But there was some risk involved in it. this you know there there's west Their Western Conference standing was not in question. They were going to finish fifth no matter what.
00:16:32
Speaker
You could talk yourself into being... it was not a meaningless game, but the stakes of this game were not so high that you felt like you had to play everyone. To that point, Obed Vargas and Christian Roldan didn't play.
00:16:45
Speaker
But I'm, I did not, I was totally fine with the decision to play him. I don't really question it, frankly, at all.
Western Conference Playoffs Outlook
00:16:53
Speaker
but Yeah, it just feels, yeah, it feels like a hindsight is 2020 situation. um i think that it's a reasonable position to think, and it's not worth the risk, but I think that that position is a lot reasonable. If Jordan Morris has been healthy all season, you know, if, if Pedro has been healthy all season, frankly, or available all season or informal season, um this, this team,
00:17:15
Speaker
still has some kinks to work out. I think that they have started sort of shifting into a more defensive playoff type mode over the past month or so. And and that's borne out some good results in the defensive half of the field. But, you know, they haven't been as dynamic of an an attacking team as they had been earlier in the season. And so I think that trying to get those guys minutes together is the right call because there's risk in and not doing that. You know, there's there's risk in resting everybody and just kind of punting on that game.
00:17:43
Speaker
And then, you know, wasting that opportunity cost of, of getting them real game minutes, um, together. And also, you know, the point that you, you brought up earlier about, um, potential home field implications for an MLS cup final.
00:17:57
Speaker
I think that that's maybe not the greatest concern in the world, but I think it's a valid reason not to punt on a game entirely. Yeah. And I think it would be one thing if Pedro was, you know, still recovering from some kind of nagging injury and that there's a risk of him getting re-injured, but,
00:18:15
Speaker
It's just, you know, sometimes weird shit happens in a game. And this was one of those occasions. And you can't wrap these guys in bubble wrap every every time out. you've got to That's sort of where I come down. Yeah.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like some an injury like this feels like it's one of those things. Like, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. if it happened in this game, I suppose it's better than if it happened in the first playoff game. Because at least you go into this knowing the situation. Right.
00:18:42
Speaker
you know who know like i don't I don't know that there was something specific about the New York grass that made him have this freak injury.
00:18:53
Speaker
um I'm choosing to blame it because it it's convenient and because it's embarrassing that it's still a ah problem this late this long end of the... into things.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah. ah Sure. Fair enough. ah But yeah, I don't know. ah Looking though ahead to Minnesota United, ah this series does not start until Monday.
00:19:17
Speaker
Give us a little bit of time. As it were, I'm sure you knew this, but yeah you know, would have conflicted with the ah Mariners ah first yeah game.
00:19:28
Speaker
So I don't know. I'm not going to say it's just as well, but it does clear up the sports calendar a little bit. does Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been that would have been a tough choice. I'll admit.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, that would that would have been that would have been a tough one. ah But they they go to Minnesota, a team they lost to twice this year, but who I oddly feel okay with going against and you know, I'll preface this by saying i didn't love the matchup against any of the four top teams in the West.
00:20:01
Speaker
Right. But this is the one that seemed most, you know, manageable. Yeah. I don't think any team finishing ahead of you automatically means they're a better team that should be favored to win, but I do think it automatically means they're a team you have to take seriously and and Minnesota definitely is.
00:20:18
Speaker
And they're a team that the Sounders have struggled with this year for sure. Um, the, you know, that, that loss in Minnesota was one of the most frustrating games of the year. Um, and yeah, it's, it's a tough matchup, but the reality of it is, is that the stuff the Sounders do in the playoffs is the stuff Minnesota does all the time at a higher level.
00:20:40
Speaker
And so it's going to be, an unwatchable series, I think in a a lot of regard. um It's probably not going to be a fun one for neutrals, but I just trust the sounders ability to grind it out in in games like these.
00:20:55
Speaker
um I think what happens in the first leg, I guess you can't really call it a leg. The first game um is is, I think, going to be critical to setting the tone. ah It'd be real, real nice if if the Sounders were able to force Minnesota to come out and play when they came to Seattle.
00:21:11
Speaker
um I think that would go a long way towards improving their odds. You know, I don't think you have to win this game, but i have I think you have to at least get a point and establish yourselves as a credible threat to score so that Minnesota can't just feel like they're going to be able to come home and and grind out and go, you know, take its penalties or or grind out a win and with a nil-nil in third game. yeah.
00:21:34
Speaker
um Yeah, I think it's going to be torturous. I'm not I'm not looking forward to it. ae But, you know, once once the games get here, it'll be it'll be fun. But ah yeah, it's there's not a team I'd rather be playing that's ahead of us for sure.
00:21:49
Speaker
um But at least some of those games would be interesting. So I'll give you another. I don't know if I would feel any better about this if it was the if we were the four and they were the five.
00:22:00
Speaker
I mean, I guess I would feel better in having a potentially extra home game. Yeah, I don't know that that four or five matchup feels like a tough one to really feel like there's an advantage to playing.
00:22:14
Speaker
the extra home game. Like you're still playing a good team. ah They, this is the Sounders were situation they were in last year where they played Houston in the four five. They were the four seed. Houston was the five seed. I wouldn't be totally shocked if this series plays out similarly, where you have, you know, a pretty tight, you know, and that those that game on those games, obviously finished tied and they went, they decided it in shootouts. I don't necessarily love the matchup in the shootout, especially if the Sounders are, know,
00:22:42
Speaker
Not going to sub in Andrew Thomas, which I have seen no indication would be the case. But man, I did dig up this stat just to to put it out there. Andrew Thomas is eight and one in his verifiable career in shootouts. And so I figured that out by he had at least one shootout win in college. And then he went like.
00:23:06
Speaker
Five and one, I think, in the m and MLS Next Pro. And then he went two and oh for the Sounders. ah He's very good in shootouts. Stephen Fry, not as good. ah He is three and four in his career in shootouts, all of them with the Sounders.
00:23:21
Speaker
And he won MLS Cup, though. And then he won the two last year. And then he had four losses in between there. Yeah. um yeah I mean, it's going to be frustrating if the Sounders go to a shutout and lose and Stephen Breyes is in goal.
00:23:40
Speaker
I'll straight up say that. like I understand the reluctance to make substitutions for shootouts and I don't think it's likely to happen and i and I can see how that can be seen as a ah lack of respect for you know ah club legend, but the numbers seem so obvious to me and not just the numbers, just, I mean, I've, I've watched them both and shootouts.
00:24:05
Speaker
It's pretty clear that Andrew Thomas is just miles, miles better at handling them. So, um, yeah, if you just like look at who's guessed right the most times, it's going to be overwhelmingly on, on Andrew Thomas's side of the legend. And, and I mean, Steph guesses, right. A decent amount of the time. And for whatever reason, he just doesn't stop as many shots that he guesses right on as you would expect, you know?
00:24:29
Speaker
Um, it's yeah, but but Thomas is better at guessing and he's better. He's better at stopping the shots when he guesses. Right. It seems, it seems like an easy call to me, but I'm, I'm not a coach.
00:24:41
Speaker
That's not my decision. So. Um, we'll just hope it, it doesn't come to that. Let's hope. And I will say on the home field advantage tip, uh, I would generally agree with you, but the Sounders the best home team in the Western conference this year.
00:24:54
Speaker
That's true. That's true. Um, Minnesota is not especially good at home though. Um, I mean, they're, you know, they have a winning record at home, but their, their home record and away record is shockingly similar. Eight, five and four at home, eight, three and six away.
00:25:08
Speaker
So it's not like they have a huge advantage playing at home, I guess. um So maybe it's wash. So I just want to share this funny little ah statistic that kind of shows what separated the Sounders from Minnesota is that if that game, that last game that they played in Minnesota had ended in a zero zero tie, the Sounders and Minnesota would have ended up with the exact same record. They both would have been 15-0.
00:25:34
Speaker
fifteen 11 and eight. They would have both been on obviously 55 points. They would have, the Sounders would have scored one or three more goals than Minnesota, but Minnesota would have won in the tiebreaker because they still would have had a slight goal difference ah advantage.
00:25:55
Speaker
They would have had a been plus 16 to the Sounders plus 11. So this goal difference back is the, is the top yeah Wins are the first tiebreaker. Okay, that's right.
00:26:06
Speaker
and And interestingly enough, wins came into play for both who won the conference and who made the final playoff spot because San Diego had one more win than Vancouver.
00:26:18
Speaker
And even though though Vancouver had a better goal difference, And then Real Salt Lake got in over both the Earthquakes and the Rapids because they had one more win, even though the Earthquakes had the better goal difference.
00:26:34
Speaker
Yeah, it it is kind of crazy. I mean, i guess you would expect that from the league with as much parity as and MLS has, but it is kind of crazy how often like the fifth tiebreaker comes into play.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and in this case, i the 8-9 spot in in ah and the East also was decided by the wins tiebreaker because Orlando City had a better goal difference than Chicago, but Chicago had one more win.
00:27:02
Speaker
So the goal, the the tiebreakers came into pretty big effect this year. Yeah, absolutely. ah But anyway, ah I don't know. After that, the Sounders would most likely play San Diego.
00:27:17
Speaker
San Diego. I again, I'm not super like as matchups go. I'm not freaking out about that one either. I do think there's something to be said about San Diego, not having any real playoff experience.
00:27:33
Speaker
yeah You know, you can say big games or big games, but I mean, in the case of, you know, Miami last year, I think the three game aspect of it threw them off a bit.
00:27:46
Speaker
so I, so don't know, maybe that's a ah three game thing, but they obviously had plenty of big game experience. ah San Diego doesn't have nearly the level of big game experience, regardless of playoffs that Miami did last year. So I'm not, I'm not necessarily straight up mediocre home team too, which I think if you're talking about going down there and playing one game, if you've got a team that's barely over 500 home,
00:28:11
Speaker
You know, yeah, they got it. They are ah they had the least they were tied for the least number of home wins of anyone. Well, I guess anyone in the top six.
00:28:24
Speaker
they Yeah. they I mean, they were seven, five and five. That's not a great home record, no matter how you know slice it. The Sounders were 10, one and six ah as a as a contrast.
00:28:35
Speaker
ah They were founders last year were eight, two and seven at home. Just to put that in perspective. Yeah, right. I mean, five home losses is a lot of losses. They only were plus eight goal difference.
00:28:46
Speaker
They only had 25 goals scored. I mean, honestly, this was a if the Sounders had played like this at home. Ever, probably ah people would be very frustrated. yeah Six home points is not very much.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's the reason I brought up last season's Sounders record, right? Because that was, and and I agree, that but that was the biggest complaint about last season is they were bad at home and they were better at home than than San Diego was this year.
00:29:13
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah, the Sounders, in even in 2023, where they were hardly scoring at all, they had the same goal difference. They actually had a slightly better record.
00:29:26
Speaker
ah even though they only scored 19 times. Yeah. The Sounders, I don't know if the centers have ever had that few home points. I'm not going to waste our time digging through this, but ah even in 2022, when they missed the playoffs, the centers at 30 home points, like they're actually pretty good that you're at home.
00:29:45
Speaker
But um anyway, I, and then potentially you'll play Vancouver Yeah. Those are good teams. Those are really good teams. And, but if you can put off playing them until the conference finals, I think you got to feel pretty good about that. and Yeah, absolutely.
00:30:01
Speaker
I think, uh, every team outside of Minnesota is a team I think probably should be favored. Maybe not heavily, but, but favored against the Sounders.
00:30:14
Speaker
But LAFC is the only one that I would feel like they don't have a puncher's chance going into that game. Um, Now I felt that against LAFC in the playoffs before. And then two weeks later or three weeks later or whatever it was, we won a MLS cup at home. So it's not like that would be unprecedented for us to, to beat a team that looks a lot better on paper and LAFC team that looks a lot better on paper and LA, uh, to get to an MLS cup.
00:30:40
Speaker
But the other, the other, you know, teams in the playoffs that the Sounders could face after Minnesota, um, I'm going to go in with the mindset that I think they're going to win, even if I wouldn't set the odds in their favor if I was a bookie.
00:30:56
Speaker
Right. That LAFC team, though, is they're scary. Yeah. Well, I just ah if if people are interested, I wrote a whole column today that detailed a lot of reasons why you should be.
00:31:09
Speaker
you should at least have allow yourself to be optimistic about the Sounders chances. I leaned into a lot of statistics. I'll just kind of briefly go over some of the, the broader points is, you know, I do think the league's cup,
00:31:23
Speaker
run they went on matters i think it shows their potential yes it was mostly at home and and yes there's mostly against league amecis teams who they're not going to be facing obviously but these are league amecis teams who are mostly pretty damn good cruz's soul is currently second in the table in the amecis it's not like they were a bad team all of a sudden they were they came in as let's not forget a lot of people thought they were the best team outside of europe coming into that game Sounders put seven on them.
00:31:52
Speaker
ah Club Tijuana has also been ah pretty good. They're like upper mid table in the Gameckys.
Regular Season Reflection
00:32:00
Speaker
ah The Galaxy have been pretty good, actually, ever since they beat them.
00:32:04
Speaker
And ah both Santos Laguna and Club Puebla are... Like not that bad, actually. ah And then Miami is Miami. Like these are all good wins. These are not these are not bad wins, really.
00:32:19
Speaker
ah Against the teams ahead of them in the in the West, they actually did okay. You know, they were they were ah better than Minnesota in one of the two meetings that they played them, notably the the most recent one, the one that was in Minnesota.
00:32:34
Speaker
ah They went one-on-one against LAFC. They only went 0-1-1 against Vancouver, but I think you could argue that they were definitely the better team in the more recent meeting.
00:32:45
Speaker
And then they split their games against San Diego. And then the teams in the East that they would potentially... ah the ah Of the teams in the East that they played, they went 3-1-2 against them. So the Sounders actually beat some decent teams this year, I guess is my point.
00:33:03
Speaker
Definitely. you know, their record I think is generally a little better than it may look. If you just look at their standing, uh, you know, lot of teams that are worse than the Sounders have gone to MLS cup. I'm not going to get into all of that, but you can rest assured the Sounders would be, ah not notably bad among MLS cup finalists. If they were to get there, uh, this is an offensively deep team.
00:33:28
Speaker
They have 14 players that scored at least two goals in, uh, all competitions. Uh, It's a, it's, you know, last year they only had, they only had five players who had scored at least two in MLS play.
00:33:41
Speaker
They had nine in all comps, much more varied attack, I guess is the point I'm making. They've also been really good from open play, which I looks like is, is one indicator of being good in the playoffs.
00:33:53
Speaker
And finally Brian Spencer is a really good playoff coach. Like guess really Yeah. yeah Really, really good. Yeah.
00:34:04
Speaker
I mean, I think that the the one thing that I was nervous about as we got closer to the playoffs was this team didn't look capable of playing defense the way that they have in the past in the playoffs. And suddenly over the last month or so, they do.
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. You got to figure that there's you know, there's a reason for that. And last thing I'll say, 55 points this year. Fifth place. Sure. Not great. 56 points in 2019.
00:34:29
Speaker
ah twenty nineteen Yeah. No, this is a good team. This is a good team. And the Western Conference is good this year. um And, you know, that happens sometimes. Like, it's there there are some good teams in the West, and the Sounders, you know, didn't have as good of a regular season as some of those teams.
00:34:47
Speaker
But come playoff time, don't know, man. I just think it's a different ballgame. Yeah, this year was an interesting year in the standings in general. A lot of inflated or not. i won't say inflated numbers, but certainly more more teams with more points.
00:35:02
Speaker
ah Obviously, unprecedented for the ninth place team in the East to have 53 points. I don't think the cutoff line has ever been anywhere near that high ah in the West. I'm almost positive 55 points would have gotten the Sounders in the top for any other season.
Podcast Network and Sponsorships
00:35:17
Speaker
ah So it's it. I think overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the regular season. wouldn't say I'm thrilled with it, but I think given all the challenges that they went through ah with both injuries and fixture congestion, hard to be too upset about 55 points.
00:35:34
Speaker
There weren't really other than early in the season. There weren't any stretches of really frustrating play. I think even this, you know, that four game winless run they went on right after League's Cup.
00:35:46
Speaker
had some moments that you, it just didn't feel like dire. Uh, never felt like right the season was totally slipping away or anything. Like there were like little tweaks that you knew that they could make.
00:35:58
Speaker
yeah Yeah, and there's just there's such a proof of concept over the years of this team making those tweaks when it mattered and having success in the playoffs. The season's a great example. I think that the Sounders team blows the doors off of last season's team you know based on their regular season performance. But if they can make the same kinds of a kinds of adjustments but keep a little bit more of their cutting edge in the attack, I mean, I think you've got like their chances. I really do.
00:36:26
Speaker
Yep. Yep. I, I totally agree. Well, I think this is a good place to take a break. We're going to come back and we're going to review our over under picks from the beginning of the season. ah yes, maybe a little early, but most of these were based on the MLS regular season anyway. So it feels like a good time to just put that in the, you know, put it away and, uh, and sort of, we can, we can move on with other things, but, uh, you're listening to nose.
00:36:53
Speaker
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00:36:57
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:39:13
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adiates on the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Well, ah it's the time of year where we're going to go for our over-under predictions, which I got to say...
Performance Predictions Review
00:39:27
Speaker
I thought that the line was set okay. I know a lot of people, a few people were very upset that we didn't do halves.
00:39:36
Speaker
Because then it would have made it seem more betting, I guess. But the point here was not to like actually make bets. The point was to set what we thought were reasonable over-unders and go off of that.
00:39:48
Speaker
i Going over this, I feel okay about where we set the line for the most part. I do too. I do too. Aaron, why don't you just jump in? go ahead Well, was just going to say, to be clear, we did gamble a lot on this. We have a substantial amount of money on the line here, but that was just for fun.
00:40:05
Speaker
that That doesn't take away from ah the, you know, the primary. Two dollars. purpose Yeah, that's right. Well, hey, you know what? Nowadays. Yeah. ah But yeah, let's let's ah let's get going.
00:40:18
Speaker
um So our first ah prediction line was points. were Unless otherwise noted, by the way, these are all MLS competitions only. There are a couple that that aren't.
00:40:29
Speaker
But if I don't specify, just to assume MLS only. um So points 61 was our line. We both picked the under and we were both right. it was 58.
00:40:40
Speaker
Yeah, ah I got to say, maybe I was a little aggressive on the over-under. I think I probably said this at the time. Like, if we both picked under, I was probably too aggressive in setting the line.
00:40:54
Speaker
But, ah yeah. Wait, said 58, but it was 55. Yeah, was 55. Yeah, we... i said fifty eight but it' fifty five that yeah it was fifty five yeah we ah In hindsight, 61 in a season where you're going to play 50 games.
00:41:10
Speaker
But at the same time, what white caps are over and they played. They've played right. As of now, I think they've played one more game than the Sounders. So not impossible.
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there were what, six teams over 61 points this year. So, you know, yeah. Crazier things have happened. ah Next one was goals in MLS. And this is one of the ones people who were mad about the lack of half half Z's are going to just go ape over.
00:41:39
Speaker
ah The line we set was 58. I chose under you chose over. We were both wrong because the sounders scored 58 goals in MLS this year. What a prediction. That was a pretty aggressive. I have to say that was an aggressive one too, because that's, I believe it's 10 more goals than they scored last year, right? Uh, 51 last year.
00:41:57
Speaker
Okay. So not, yeah, but it's a, you know, that's a yeah. 58. gotta say that's, I don't know if i realized this though. That's the second most goals they've ever scored in MLS season.
00:42:08
Speaker
I don't know if I was actually aware of that when I set this line, but you know how many goals they scored in 2023, by the way.
00:42:17
Speaker
uh, like 42 or something like that. 40, Good 41. Lord. Yeah.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yeah. and Oh man. Oh man. That's a big improvement from 2023. two thousand and twenty three Yeah, is. It is. Uh, next one. 19 goals at home that year. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That, and I was going to say in the last segment, but there wasn't a good time to mention it.
00:42:39
Speaker
2023. They actually had fewer points at home than San Diego has had this year. They were, uh, had 29 at home this year. ah or that year 2023 sorry oh pretty brutal pretty brutal uh all right next one uh this is one we can't answer yet uh because there's still competitive games to be played ah you and i both picked the over the line we set was 50 currently they've played 47 they're guaranteed to play 49 to push they need to get past minnesota uh to win they need to get to the conference final
00:43:15
Speaker
not to win, but to to go. Well, then yeah, it actually, technically it depends on how they get past Minnesota. That's true. They could theoretically play three games against Minnesota and then the, the conference semifinals would be game 51.
00:43:31
Speaker
But, uh, that was a pretty good, um I feel good about that line though. Yeah, I think so. I think that that was spot on. I mean, I think, A push is probably the most plausible, like the most likely outcome, I guess. I mean, um they they had to like they had it meant they had to get. We knew what it it meant is that they had to advance in two of the tournaments that they were in. Well, I mean, at at this point, right. 50 is the most plausible outcome.
00:44:00
Speaker
Right. Oh, yeah. Now yeah for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think but I think you're right. Like it it was 50 was good because that's they did have to play a lot of games in Leagues Cup to get there. You know, they had to get into the playoffs to get there.
00:44:12
Speaker
um And that's I feel like what we were trying to gauge with that one. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We didn't pull this number out of thin air. Yeah. um All right. So we've got some goal contributions and this is really interesting, I think, as we go through these compared to.
00:44:29
Speaker
The team being a push at 58 on the goal scored for the team and also the second most goals the Sounders have ever scored in their regular season. and um So the first one up was 25 goal contributions from Albert Rusnak.
00:44:42
Speaker
Both of us went under and we were both right. He had 21.
00:44:46
Speaker
Still pretty good. so That's still pretty good season. Yeah. I feel like we probably said he could have he could go under this and still have a good season. And that's what he did. For sure. Yeah. 11 goals, 10 assists.
00:44:57
Speaker
ah You know, it's funny because when the Sounders signed him, this was like this was like the imagined season that he was going to be racking up. Right. Like these double-double seasons.
00:45:09
Speaker
And... Here he is two season. and He's played as a 10, two seasons. He's got double doubles in both seasons. Right. Yeah, I mean, he had 26 last season, but he scored more more goals this season.
00:45:21
Speaker
ah a lot of those assists were from set pieces. A lot of those assists were secondary assists. Not taking a thing away from from Elmer Rysnack, who I think has more than proven his worth this year, that last year wasn't a fluke.
00:45:33
Speaker
I'd almost take this season over last season, I think, even though the the goal contribution numbers are a little lower. I bet his you know, I wonder if his his per minute production is up this year.
00:45:46
Speaker
that's Yeah, that's a good that's good question. I mean, he played... Because he's missed 2,150 this year, 2,539 minutes last year. um i guess I could run that real quick.
00:46:01
Speaker
Well, I mean, i can I can tell you in MLS play that he is scoring 0.46 per minute as opposed to per his goals and assists Actually, if you take out his penalties, his production is almost exactly on goals and assists per 90. Yeah. 0.68 versus 0.67. That's interesting.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, that Consistent player. But if you include penalties, he's slightly up. Yeah.
00:46:33
Speaker
uh yeah i mean i think 25 was aggressive right because 26 was eye-popping last year yeah um so i feel very good about him his contribution this year even though he hit the under there uh next one is 14 goals for jordan morris obviously ah through no fault of his own minimal fault of his own he was under there at five um i took the under you took the over but i don't think it's really fair to hold that this against you he was ah a guy who's been remarkably healthy, you know, since his last injury. And, uh, he had some fluky stuff happen this year and was not able to play that many minutes. So, well, and I, and I'll add that his goal production per 90 is,
00:47:15
Speaker
is yeah his highest of his career. ah yeah He's on 0.6 goals per 90 right now. His previous career high was 2020 at 0.52.
00:47:26
Speaker
So on a pure goal scoring production per minute basis, he is he is having a career year. It's just that he's missed more time this year than in any season other than his you know lost is completely lost years.
00:47:41
Speaker
Yeah. Another funny happenstance, Danny Pasavsky, 14 goals. So exactly the number we set for Jordan. Yeah, that is funny. We got from Danny. um Next one. Jesus Ferreira, 20 goal contributions.
00:47:55
Speaker
ah pretty aggressive number, I think, in hindsight, because we both picked over, too, which, man, we were bullish on
Players' Contributions and Injuries
00:48:03
Speaker
Jesus. ah We sure. I think we were almost like trying to prove a point in our bullishness. That sounds like us, yeah. ah He comes in at 11, so well under.
00:48:13
Speaker
But I still, I think everybody's got to be pretty happy with Jesus. I mean, he he did struggle early in the year. i think that if we had gotten... you know, post club world cup Jesus over the, over the full year, he probably does get to that 20 number, but he definitely looks like the player we thought we were getting, I think at this point.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah. and yeah To just kind of piggyback on the aggressiveness of this number. He had only ah gone over that once in his career, or he has went over that one. That's man. Yeah. That's maybe we were on one.
00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah. That, that, that one, I think I feel, I feel I have some regret over that one. Yeah. Yeah. I think 15 probably would have been the the better number. He would have been under that too. But speaking of 15, that was a number we set for Pedro.
00:48:57
Speaker
I went over, you went under. Once again, we were both wrong because this is a push. Well, I guess I miss it. he it was not It was a push in all comps. Okay. but What did he have in MLS then?
00:49:08
Speaker
He just had four and four and mmo four five. Oh, yeah. So so nine so he's under. So so he's under at He was under. Yeah. All right. Well... But I feel okay with this one again. yeah
00:49:23
Speaker
His production just did not come where we thought it was going to come. He was much more productive in non MLS competitions than think we had anticipated him being. And I think similarly to Jesus, if, if he plays the way he played post club world cup over the course of the whole year, he's, I think going over 15 will contributions most likely.
00:49:46
Speaker
All right. Well, so you got that one right. I was wrong. um We're not we're not keeping track or anything. But anyway, I do think it's interesting that all of the key players whose goal contributions we tried to were under. And yet.
00:50:02
Speaker
and yeah 58 goals in all competitions, probably because of Danny Mussovsky scoring 14 goals. 58 goals in just an MLS. Yeah, in MLS, sorry. 85 goals in all competitions.
00:50:12
Speaker
58 in MLS. That's a huge number of goals. They scored a lot of goals this year. They scored a lot. The League's Cup performance was pretty outrageous. ah Yeah, who it was definitely... i think that at times, it like it made them feel more dangerous than they were.
00:50:32
Speaker
And so when they didn't play at that level, when they played in Minnesota or at Houston or wherever, it felt underwhelming. So it almost felt like in a weird, like paradoxical way, scoring all those goals and leagues cup made their league performance feel a little worse than it was in in the attacking phase. yeah Yeah. I think that's true.
00:50:52
Speaker
Um, anyway. Yeah. But I did think that was interesting. Um, the next one was 25 games from Obed and MLS. Um, And he had 26. So he was over there.
00:51:03
Speaker
I picked the over, you picked the under. I feel like this was kind of a proxy is Obed getting sold question. um Yes, I think. And I think we also talked about that when we did it.
00:51:16
Speaker
In hindsight, though, we probably should have gotten with 20 if that was really what we were trying to figure out, or maybe even 15. I don't know. um Because he has not been sold. He's he's still here. um Did miss some time with injury, did miss some time with the Mexican national team, which I think has actually been Mexican under 21 national team.
00:51:34
Speaker
Under 20. um so And I think that's actually been... a decent number of the games he's missed, if I recall correctly. but i think the the biggest chunk of games, I think, yeah, I'm almost positive that the most, he missed three games, I believe, for the U-20 World Cup, and that was the most, can that was the biggest reason that he missed games. I don't think he missed any games because of injury.
00:51:59
Speaker
Did he? Yeah, he had, did he have a red card? He did not have a red card, so he didn't miss any games for that. Yeah, he may have gotten rest a couple games. He got some rest, yeah. um All right, next one up was Christian with 2,500 minutes at MLS.
00:52:16
Speaker
ah We both went under. he was over 2,633 minutes. That's a lot of minutes, though. I mean, that is a lot to in especially because he...
00:52:28
Speaker
play He only played in Well, he played 33 games. Never mind. He started 32. So, you know what? No, I'm looking at 2024. Sorry. ah I knew he had not played that many games. so ah He played 31 games. Started 30. yeah. minutes is a lot ah it is the most on the team by About 300 minutes and it's the most of any outfield player by about 350 minutes. um
00:53:01
Speaker
So he played.
00:53:06
Speaker
Four full games more than anybody else. And then like another thousand minutes in other competitions. That's the thing that's really crazy. Like he played all 270 minutes in the Club World Cup.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty well. And, you know, in hindsight, 2,500 minutes is a lot of minutes for us to set that target at. But ah and hey, that's probably why we both picked me under because that that is a lot of minutes.
00:53:32
Speaker
We're about two thirds of the way through here. Next one is 10 starts in MLS for Andrew Thomas. He was under at eight. Another one, though, where it just feels like he played more because he you know was the starter for League's Cup.
00:53:48
Speaker
yeah I had 15 starts across all competitions. Yeah. Yeah. So I think a lesson for us is if they're in this many competitions next time, we should just do all comps.
00:53:59
Speaker
ah I had the under, you had the over. Yeah. Also, maybe a different comment. I think what we were trying to make a different commentary on how much of a role he was going to play. Right. Because I think we knew he would get probably Leagues Cup, for instance. Sure.
00:54:13
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there was a question about how much rotation they would do with Steph. Right. It turns out not any, really. I mean, he's played when he's been healthy. He missed games through do injury through injury, obviously.
00:54:25
Speaker
But he's been the unquestioned starter when he's been healthy and in league play. So. Another one that's kind of a bummer in hindsight, Paul Areola, 10 goal contributions in MLS. He had one.
00:54:37
Speaker
ah we were both over. I feel completely fine about that prediction. ah first First assist of the year and then ah nothing else. But, you know, shit happens. He only played, what, five games, six games and something like that.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. um I think he played like one, two, two games in MLS. I think two league games. Yeah. 74 minutes total. So, yeah. Man, it feels like a million years ago that he got hurt.
00:55:05
Speaker
ah It'll be good to have him back next year. All right. Here's one from all comps. It's the only one from all comps, actually. um Paul Rothrock, 12 goal contributions, and he had 13. We were both over. We were both optimistic about Paul's season. Good line, though.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah, very good line. Yeah. It feels like he scored more than that, I will say, or contributed more, more, you know, contributions than that. and And I will say one of the reasons for that is, you know, I think he has been around a lot of goals.
00:55:34
Speaker
Like he, you know, like I think of the one in L.A. where he was putting all all this pressure on the defense and it was an own it ended up going down as an own goal. But, you know, it could have, know, he was there potentially to finish it. And he just was so active and around.
00:55:50
Speaker
he just was on the field for so many good things, I think, is part of why it feels like he had more goal contributions. big goals too right like i feel like every every goal he scored every goal he created was memorable or important right um so that that's probably part of it but you know what for i think the question here was hey can he do this again yeah absolutely can you know he he absolutely showed that he this is repeatable so you know good uh good line
00:56:21
Speaker
And good answer, I think, all things considered, assuming he comes back. ah Next one we were on some crazy shit here. Georgie Manungu, 70 successful dribbles in MLS.
00:56:32
Speaker
He had 29. You picked the over. What was I thinking? I don't know. like He would have had to play so much. He would have. And ah i feel like this was a bit...
00:56:48
Speaker
that I'm just not fully honestly, like it almost feels like it must. I, I don't have a good explanation for this. This is an insane line. I don't know what I was thinking yeah with this line. Cause it, that's so many dribbles.
00:57:02
Speaker
That is it. Like I want, and I want to give some, uh, I want to give some context to that because it's it's so many dribbles. All right. So,
00:57:16
Speaker
ah
00:57:18
Speaker
The most number of successful dribbles in the league. There are only three players in the league who had more than 70 successful dribbles.
00:57:30
Speaker
They are Lionel Messi, Denny Buonga, and Carlos Heal. All of whom played at least, you know, Buonga did that in, wow, uh, no.
00:57:44
Speaker
That's touches, uh, So all of them played a ton. Yeah. Like they all, yeah, they all played at least, you know, 2,500 minutes or something, uh, or close to it.
00:57:57
Speaker
So it's like for, for Georgie to get anywhere near that, he would have had to play just so many more minutes than he was like, I don't know where I thought he was going to get the minutes.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I, uh, Funny, funny, though, to think about. ah That would be, I mean, you've got to dribble two guys a game. And even if you do that, if you do that every time out, two guys a game, you still don't hit that.
00:58:25
Speaker
Maybe he can do it someday. I don't know. I mean, i mean, he's he's a top 50 player in the stat. So, yeah you know, it's it's not
Future Outlook and Conclusion
00:58:35
Speaker
that he.
00:58:37
Speaker
You know, he. yeah No, no, I'm curious, actually, ah So let's just do you have the per 90 rate on that or.
00:58:49
Speaker
I'm looking for it. So his per 90 rate is 2.96 now.
00:58:57
Speaker
So if he plays, i mean, if he.
00:59:01
Speaker
If he plays 30 let's see 2.96 times. I mean, two point nine six i am
00:59:11
Speaker
i mean If he if he plays 30, 30 games, that's almost 90 dribbles. So maybe are hurt I mean, maybe you weren't that far off.
00:59:22
Speaker
It's I just think the the assumption that he was going to play that much is what is ah like. I just don't. It's hard to like, and especially in hindsight, it's hard to imagine ah scenario where he played enough minutes to get that high.
00:59:37
Speaker
Like 50 would have been a bull, like ah aggressive number and he would have still gone under that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, anyway, I would like to see it though. One of these days. If if he, if he becomes a starter, either here or somewhere else, I think there's a good chance he'll do it at least once in his career.
00:59:57
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, he, he is a honestly almost unstoppable dribbler. Like is, he is, i've I've never seen someone who, Every single time he gets the ball, you think he's going to.
01:00:10
Speaker
He's capable of beating his his man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Last one. Stuart Hawkins. Ten appearances. We both went under here and we were right to do so because he had four.
01:00:24
Speaker
I do think if he doesn't have the injuries, he has a pretty good chance of getting there, honestly, with the yeah the injuries they had to the center back or center back. He missed four months. yeah He missed four months where he obviously didn't get any.
01:00:39
Speaker
and during those four months, the Sounders played, you know, a dozen league games and you it's not hard to imagine him playing in half of them.
01:00:50
Speaker
Cause you know, Kim Keehee played a lot. John Bell played a lot. And I, I,
01:00:59
Speaker
I don't know that I would have expected him to Alex played a decent, Alex played four games at center back. Yeah. Yeah. Rough year for him.
01:01:11
Speaker
ah Certainly not a make or break year for him. And, you know, he's, he's 19 and he's a center back and he's huge. So, you know, I still have very high hopes for the kid, but yeah, it would have been nice to see him get a little bit of a breakthrough this year, but.
01:01:26
Speaker
I do think he's well positioned to have one next year, though. Like, I feel very good about his his potential next year. And when he did play it, I thought he looked good. You know, so yeah I thought he looked really good. and Yeah.
01:01:39
Speaker
right. That's it. That's that's ah I think we did OK, you know, both in setting the lines and and and making our predictions. um
01:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, this is a good exercise. I'm sure we'll repeat it next year.
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think ah that was fun. That was fun. Well, ah I think that's all we got for today. So thanks for hanging out with us. Thank you to our sponsors, Full Pull Wines and Hacks and Ferments. Thank you, of course, to our subscribers.
01:02:11
Speaker
And i will just pitch you again. The only reason we're able to keep doing this is because of people like you. Our memberships start as low as $30. At the $75 level, you get access to our Discord.
01:02:25
Speaker
ah We have a sticker, free sticker program that you can get involved in. We're still working on getting our ah full text RSS up and running that should be happening relatively soon though.
01:02:38
Speaker
So lots of good stuff going on. And and this is the time of year where i will probably be hiring some freelancers to help us with work. So it's like subscribers help pay the freelancers as well.
01:02:51
Speaker
So thank you to everyone who's making this work. ah But we got, we've got at least two more of these shows to do. at least maybe a bunch more.
01:03:02
Speaker
So I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves, but Aaron signing off for Aaron Campo and lick it. I am Jeremiah Shan. This is no study at this part of the sounder heart podcast network.
01:03:12
Speaker
And remember, you'll never get alone.
01:03:44
Speaker
Let's go and Sounders. um