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Episode 415: Fun while it lasted
73 Plays2 years ago
Remember all those good vibes from a couple of days ago? Those seem to be pretty much gone after the Sounders looked very flat in a 2-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes. Going with a very lightly rotated lineup, the Sounders looked like a team that was not at anywhere close to its best. Mark Kastner joins Jeremiah for this quick pod.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
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. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Sounders Celebrations
00:00:21
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. Here we go. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS co-pointers! Here come three games through the middle to crowd it! The vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
00:01:04
Speaker
Seattle Sounders the greatest MLS team in history This is a tiny doll
00:01:34
Speaker
Is
Episode Introduction by Jeremiah O'Shan
00:01:37
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our sub-stack subscribers. This is episode 415, and we're recording on Thursday, July 13th, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is a friend of the show, Mark Kastner, and of course, our producer, Lickit.
00:01:42
Speaker
that why you young people call twerking?
Analyzing Sounders' Performance Against San Jose
00:01:55
Speaker
Hey, remember all those good vibes from a couple of days ago? Those seemed to be pretty much gone after the sounders looked very flat in a 2-0 loss at the sound of the earthquakes. Going at the very lightly rotated lineup, the sounders looked like a team that was not anywhere close to its best. And that's probably as good of a place as any to start, Mark. Do you think Brian made a goof by not rotating the lineup more?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of feel like it was like, caught between two stools, or whatever the saying is, where it's always like, you rotated a little bit, but maybe didn't rotate enough or didn't go strong enough. Yeah, it just kind of felt like
00:02:40
Speaker
I guess I could understand how he got to every decision that happened. Yeah, for sure. I think it's in isolation. Like, it all makes sense. But then none of the pieces worked together.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, so the the only two changes he ended up making in case folks out there don't realize that he switched out a bear for Raul Rui Diaz and Cody Baker for for Alex Roldan. Now, both of those were pretty straightforward decisions in terms of why they didn't play. Alex Roldan had just played. Five games plus the Vancouver game.
Player Rest and Rotation Strategies
00:03:19
Speaker
in the span of about three weeks and he traveled like almost 20,000 miles during the process of all of that. And so I think he just needed some rest. Rui Diaz is still sort of like in a vague minute restriction where I, my suspicion is that the trainers just straight up don't want him.
00:03:40
Speaker
playing too much in, in close proximity. And that's just, they're trying to manage, they're trying to keep him healthy. They're trying to manage his, his workload because he has struggled to stay healthy so much this year. And so they're just doing anything they can to keep him healthy. And so I think those two decisions made sense where I had a little bit more
00:04:02
Speaker
concern was, and it's not all hindsight, I, I, from all week has been saying like, look, you got to arrest Nico Ladero. We got to stop doing this thing where we play him three times in a week. Uh, gel Paulo, who actually, I think gel Paulo was okay in this game, but I would have liked to have seen him, him rested.
00:04:22
Speaker
Obed Vargas has not really been that great anyway. Give the kid a break. Maybe see maybe if you're gonna if you're gonna use gel palo, why not use Josh attention next to him?
00:04:33
Speaker
Uh, knew who was one who I also would have liked to have seen rotated in part because what I thought made the most sense was sliding Cody Baker off to the left and then using Reed Baker Whiting on the right because he is so much more of a analog, I think for Alex Roldan style of play. Like Cody Baker does a lot well, but
00:04:53
Speaker
One thing he hasn't really shown is an ability to get forward and to essentially be the farthest guy forward during the buildup, which is what they ask Alex Roldan to do.
Game Dynamics and Midfield Errors
00:05:04
Speaker
And he's just not super effective once he gets up there. And, you know, it was working okay for about
00:05:11
Speaker
15, 20 minutes, the sounder started strong, and then completely against the run of play, Yemar takes down Christian Espinoza, and they conferred a penalty. And from there, it was really just a bit of a mess. Yeah. And it just like the whole thing about rotation or not rotation or whatever,
00:05:36
Speaker
To me, the most important thing when you're playing a team like San Jose is do you have the legs on the field to match what they do? Right. Because there are there are Lucci Gonzalez team who Sanders fans may remember those Dallas FC or FC Dallas teams, excuse me. And it's just a lot of running all the time. Right. Since what the team does. And with the choices that Brian ended up making is there were no legs on the field. Right.
00:06:05
Speaker
The only person that had legs was Cody Baker, and he was just playing right the whole time because Nico Hedero was just somewhere else. And I get why you play Baker on that side because Hedero's going to not be responsible defensively because of how aggressive he is in just kind of going on an adventure, so to speak.
00:06:33
Speaker
But there just wasn't enough there. And the sequence that led to the penalty was exactly why I think you and I have both been wanting to see Joss's Tencio play instead of Obed Vargas, because
00:06:51
Speaker
Obed is not the most athletic dude. I know he's 17 and I don't want to get into his ability so much, but you just can't leave that level of responsibility in the midfield to a kid. There was a lot of chasing going on during that whole sequence. Basically what happens in the sequence that leads up to the penalty is
00:07:19
Speaker
It comes from a sequence where the Sounders have the ball in and around San Jose's box. They turn it over. San Jose is able to get the ball up to the halfway line very quickly. And then it's just basically a three on three. And Obed and Vargas makes probably six decisions wrong in the space of five seconds. And it's like, yeah, of course he's going to do that because
00:07:44
Speaker
And, and I don't know if Josh attention would have done anything differently. I would have hoped he would, but you just click. It does not seem like they're putting Obed Vargas in a situation to succeed in games like this. Yeah. And I just don't like, and he just hasn't been playing very well where you have this guy.
00:08:05
Speaker
When, and I'm sure we'll get onto it, like the second most positive sequence in the entire game came in like the 85th minute from
Lineup Strategies and Future Prospects
00:08:13
Speaker
Josh. Right. Where he cut in and put in a dangerous cross that, uh, came reasonably close to being a goal.
00:08:21
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I think the, the weird thing about, and I don't want to pick on Obed cause I think he's altered, you know, like on, on the aggregate, he's been like fine, but he's just, I don't see how he became an irreplaceable part of the lineup or even on short rest, you got to use him because he hasn't, he's been maybe the worst of a, of a team that has been performing at a reasonably high level for a couple weeks. Now he has consistently been the least impressive player on the field.
00:08:51
Speaker
And, and that's not to say he's been bad, but I just don't see how his, how he's like cemented himself in the, in the lineup, the way that he has. And my suspicion is that the sounders are maybe trying to showcase him and they're maybe looking for a transfer. And so this is like, just getting him like piling up minutes is maybe a way to sort of bolster his, his sellability. But I don't.
00:09:15
Speaker
I still don't think that explains why you don't need to play them twice in a week, like back-to-back games like this. And I think the other thing that kind of frustrated me about the lineup decision is that it wasn't so much about how do you set yourself up to get the best result against San Jose.
00:09:31
Speaker
my
00:09:51
Speaker
the game.
00:10:08
Speaker
And so even if you lose 2-0 at San Jose, if you lose 3-0 at San Jose, that's not the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is that you lose and then you also mess up your chances for Saturday. And it remains to be seen whether or not they did that. Who knows? Maybe the Sounders come out and they look great against Dallas and it's all the
00:10:30
Speaker
all this is for nothing. But for more we sit right now, it does look like they put themselves in a less advantageous position for Saturday. Luckily, they're going to be getting back Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris, which they surely were not planning on doing when they were putting together the game plan for Wednesday. And so maybe they can that will help mitigate some of their challenges. But yeah, I mean, I think that's what my big frustration was, is that they sort of like
00:10:59
Speaker
lack of a better term, they got a little greedy and they thought like, Oh, what if we can go into the break on a four game win streak instead of being like, it doesn't like a four game win streak is not as important as like making sure we secure these points. Yeah. And just like, and to your point of like, it's poor planning all around, um, St. Louis and LAFC played on Wednesday night and Dallas didn't play. So you got, you got to kind of look at these things where it's like,
00:11:31
Speaker
And LAFC went on to win 3-0, 4-0, something like that. 3-0, yeah. Against St. Louis. So if the possibility is this is like a one or no point game against CNSA, which like, it just kind of is. And you have to make those decisions in MOS. You know that either
00:11:58
Speaker
Either St. Louis is going to break away or what's more likely because of St. Louis' injury situation is LAFC is going to get a huge bump from beating St. Louis at home, which they did pretty comfortably. You have to look towards the weekend with Dallas in a bit of an injury crisis, although they're getting back.
00:12:24
Speaker
national team players that they didn't necessarily. They're going to get Jesus Ferreira, but Ferreira played I think more minutes than anyone else. I mean, he's coming off back to back 120 minute games. Yeah. And missing penalties and such. So maybe he just needs a vacation, poor guy. I know another Jesus that took a three day vacation and came back for it.
00:12:50
Speaker
But yeah, it just seems like that San Jose game was really hard to win. Right, in the best case scenario. Yeah, in the best case scenario. And they didn't.
00:13:02
Speaker
And they kind of blew their steam out. And now it's looking like a very, very, very winnable game. Dallas at home. Dallas hasn't won in Seattle in like 19 tries or something like that. And it's like now that game looks like, like a draw feels okay in that situation.
Impact of Rest and Rotation Decisions
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's I think that exactly that's that's sort of the situation is that you took a game that should be
00:13:28
Speaker
really winnable and you turned it into a more complicated game than it has to be. And there is not really a compelling reason for it other than wouldn't it been great if we could have rode this momentum? And I don't know, I'm a little skeptical of the idea that momentum carries over from one game to the next that much. And sure, it would have been a great little story to tell to be like, yeah, we went into the break on a four game winning streak and we're sitting in first place. And yeah, sure, those are all great, great things. But like,
00:13:58
Speaker
they weren't the most important things you know like there wasn't like like getting six points from these last three games was a lot more uh like that would have that's that's a great outcome but getting only three points from them is
00:14:14
Speaker
maybe not a disaster, but it's really not good. And I think the Sounders obviously increased their chances of only being able to get three or four, which is, I don't know, I just feel like it's kind of a simple math game. And I think projecting forward, I think this is the thing that I'm a little worried from what I heard from Schmetzer is that this is not the first time the Sounders have played on short rest. I went through
00:14:43
Speaker
their schedule and only looking at games where they played on three or four days rest after a league game so you're not like ignore the open cup games because they rotated so much in those open cup games that it it sort of makes it irrelevant but in
00:14:58
Speaker
In the six games now that they've played on short rest from a previous league game, they're 0, 4, and 2. That's zero wins, four losses, and two ties. And they've been really bad when those games are on the road. The Vancouver game was a situation where they were in the previous Vancouver game where that was probably their worst performance of the season. It was very similar to the San Jose game where they were coming off of a
00:15:24
Speaker
They were coming off of a game in the Pacific Northwest and then they had to travel. And then the Timbers game was another short-rest game where they had their lowest XG output of the season. And so it's been a lot of performances sort of like that. And there's just nothing that tells me
00:15:50
Speaker
that, and I understand like Nico Ledero and Joe Paolo and a lot of these guys are probably campaigning to say like, no, I want to play. I want to play. I want to play. But it's Schmetzer's job to just say, no, guys, focus on the weekend. Like we, we can't play these. And what I'm a little worried about is that going forward, if they keep making these decisions, they don't have very many games. They only have two games the rest of the year that are played on, on like normal rest.
00:16:21
Speaker
And that's not good. No, I just kind of like wonder, the messaging from Smetcher that really kind of like bothered me in this last week is when asked about why
00:16:43
Speaker
like basically no substitutions happen against Vancouver until the 85th minute or whatever it was. No, 90th, until stoppage time. Yeah. Okay. So no substitutions happen there. And then when he was asked about that, he says that group deserved to be on the field to win the game, which- Right.
00:17:03
Speaker
I'm again, like I am just a dude. I've never played professional sports. So I don't know what it's like. That just sort of seems like something you say after you win in stoppage time, you know, right.
Opportunities for Young Players
00:17:15
Speaker
So it's like, cool. Awesome. Great. You know, believe in the guys, they did it. They played like they played really well in that game. They deserve to win. They won.
00:17:25
Speaker
But he said the same thing again after San Jose. Right. Or, you know, he said something along the line. Yeah, you're right. He did. He said basically, like, they deserve... And I guess against Vancouver, there's the argument to be made, like, look, we were playing well, and I didn't want to... Like, I didn't see... Like, we didn't see anyone that was looking...
00:17:45
Speaker
tired against Vancouver fine. Like I, I'm like, I'm willing, like it worked out and, and, and to his point, like they did look strong. So fine, but like there has to be like, okay. So you, you, you sh.
00:17:59
Speaker
You ran all these guys into the ground against Vancouver, so give them a break. Give them a break against San Jose. Then what does that say to the other guys? Exactly. Okay, I'm not intentionally making this a Josh Atencio versus Obed Vargas argument because Josh Atencio could have started in
00:18:23
Speaker
for three different people in that game. Right. Maybe four different people, depending on where you want to play in. But it's like, what are you saying to Josh Atencio over these last three months where he has where he's the best player in the best game that you've had all season against St. Louis? Or at least that's my opinion. He gets hurt. He comes back from injury. Now you're basically telling him he has no chance to get into the starting eleven because either one,
00:18:52
Speaker
the starting 11 gets on the field and wins a game in stoppage time and then that group gets to go again and then to that starting 11 plays effectively again or let's just say starting 13 plays again and they lose a game and the coach again thinks well that team deserve to try to win the game and it's just sort of like
00:19:18
Speaker
It's just like such a knock on the confidence for you. Right. Well, and I, I agree. I, I, it's like, what are you telling, you know, you have all these young players who, you know, I guess you can, you could say like, they haven't done enough to win more minutes. Okay. Fair enough. But
00:19:37
Speaker
If you continue to not give them minutes, how are you gonna, like, read Baker Whiting is not getting much playing time. You know, whatever you think of Dylan Tevez, okay, fine. Maybe Dylan Tevez hasn't played well enough to earn a ton of minutes. I can accept that. But like, at some point, don't you, you just have to sort of like use your bench. You just have, like, you're sending a horrible message, I think, by not using these guys, especially when you have a Josh Atencio who you just can't convince me,
00:20:05
Speaker
can't hang with the starting group. Especially when you're starting a 17-year-old instead. Right. Right. A 17-year-old who's not playing out of his mind, by the way. Yeah. It's like the complete opposite of that, like, that vaunted Austin FC game from a couple years ago. Right.
00:20:29
Speaker
At that time, it was at 2021, two years ago, where they started the most homegrown kids at the time or whatever. If you go and look back at the schedule and the situation the sounders were in, it's like normal place for the MOI schedule to be like that now, so it's a little bit like...
00:20:49
Speaker
Well, what's what's the big deal? But it's like, how do you go from being the coaching staff that sent the message to all of those reserve players and all of those that we believe in you? Yeah, at that time. And now you don't. Right. And again, I'm not at training every day. I'm not in the locker room. I like maybe these guys just suck. I don't know. But I find it hard to believe, basically. It's like, yeah, how can you not get
00:21:19
Speaker
How can Josh Atencio not be good enough to start two games this week, or at least one game this week? Right. Yeah. And I will say that the Sounders current situation is compounded by other factors. The fact that they haven't had Morris enrolled on, the fact that they have, you know, that Ariaga is hurt, that they have, you know, guys like Sota Kitahara and
00:21:43
Speaker
and Ethan Dobler are also hurt. But I have a hard time believing that they're the ones that would be knocking on getting into the field based on what we're seeing. But yeah, I mean, I think what's what's just so frustrating is the message that it's sending. And it does feel a little bit like we're falling into the same trap where last year, one of the big takeaways at the end of the year was maybe I was too like Schmetzer said, maybe I was too nice. Maybe I was too willing, essentially too willing to default to my starting 11 is the starting
Sounders' Depth and Playoff Potential
00:22:09
Speaker
11. And I'm only going to veer from that when I'm forced to.
00:22:13
Speaker
And he was forced to do it a lot, but I feel like we're sort of falling into that same trap where he sort of got his 11 to 13 players he sees as starters. And it's really going to take something to force his hand to veer away from that. And I just feel like that that is sending the wrong message. It's not doing enough to build the
00:22:39
Speaker
the vice, you know, the depth of the team. And I am a little worried that, you know, I, I think this team is going to make the comp, make the playoffs. They're probably going to make the playoffs comfortably. They may even be able to make some noise in the playoffs, but they, it's not just about how do you get the best result today? It's how do you ensure the best results tomorrow?
00:23:02
Speaker
And I just don't think they're doing a very good job of that right now. And it's frustrating to see. And this was just, I thought, a really good example of what I'm talking about where like they could have made some very reasonable rotations and still put out a competitive team. And I think.
00:23:19
Speaker
maybe you make changes at the end of the game to try to steal a result. But they just had nothing. They had nothing coming off the bench. And it's, again, we're in the same situation where we had last year where the Sounders weren't really getting a lot of contributions off their bench. Same thing this year. There may be a little deeper in terms of where they're getting production from, only because Leo Chu has blossomed into essentially a 12th starter.
00:23:50
Speaker
I don't know, it's very frustrating, very frustrating. And I think like, I think your point about it's not just about winning today, it's about winning tomorrow is really spot on, especially if, you know, our assumptions about why Obed Vargas is playing so much are true. Right. If you're trying to like sell the kid for
00:24:14
Speaker
a lot of money. Cool. That's great. I'm like really on board with that kind of pipeline and all that, but you still have to focus on winning the games today.
Nico Ledero's Role and Future in the Team
00:24:23
Speaker
Right. And on top of that.
00:24:26
Speaker
You have a 34-year-old club captain who is out of contract in four months, and there's just no movement on that at all. If the signal there is that he's not going to be around for very much longer,
00:24:45
Speaker
What's the point? He's not playing very well. You're playing him out of position. It does seem a little counterintuitive. I agree. It seems like what's happening right now, if I'm to read the room, what seems to be happening is Brian Schmetzer feels like
00:25:05
Speaker
Nico Ledero gives them the best chance to win today, but the front office is wholly unconvinced that they want to bring him back. I guarantee they don't want to bring him back as a designated player. I imagine that they are on the fence about guaranteeing anything to Nico Ledero beyond this year, especially if that's going to take away resources that they think they can spend elsewhere. That sticks him in the cycle where
00:25:35
Speaker
they're really reliant on him in the short term, but they have absolutely no future plans for him. And so that's sort of like holding back their ability to plan in the future by being so reliant on him now. And it's not like he's playing like he, he looked really good. I thought against the white gaps, he looked pretty good against the dynamo and
00:25:56
Speaker
And those are those are those are reminders that he still can be an effective player, but I'm sorry. He just is not. He's not the kind of player who you should be as reliant on as they are right now. Yeah, and to kind of throw.
00:26:10
Speaker
everything on the window to accommodate him in this position, which is kind of funny to even just call it a position because he's just playing. It is not a position. He's on the field. Yeah, there was a there was a moment in the second half, like five minutes after San Jose scored their second goal, which, you know, fair, whatever that kind of thing happens once every 15 years or something like that. But
00:26:34
Speaker
Um, he was just like, it was right when like Leo two ran into that guy and like, got the wind knocked out of him. And he was just, Ledera was just standing on the left, just over there. Yeah. Just standing there and like waving his hand for the ball. And there's like nobody on the field that can hit that switch. There's nobody on the team that could hit that switch. And it's just like, maybe he can, but it's just like, what?
00:27:03
Speaker
And I'm not a body language expert, and I don't think anybody is, but there's just like clearly so much disconnect around him. Yeah, I think Nico is upset. He gave an interview the other day where he basically said he wanted to be playing in the middle and he wanted to be playing every day and whatever.
Offensive Lineup Dynamics and Strategy
00:27:24
Speaker
kudos to him. He's a competitor. I don't doubt his desire. I don't doubt his commitment. But you can't be catering your entire
00:27:34
Speaker
present to a guy who is not part of your future, if that's what it is. I'm not convinced that he's in the Sounders' ideal 11. I guarantee that Brian Schmitzer has him in his personal ideal 11. I don't know what position he has him playing, but I think the Sounders are almost undeniably a more dynamic team with Christian Roldan at the right, with
00:27:57
Speaker
Albert Rusnak in the middle and one of Leo Chu or Jordan Morris on the left and either Chu or either Morris or Rui Diaz at the forward. Like to me that's clearly their most dynamic group and I don't see how Ledero fits into that. Maybe you can shoehorn them into as a defensive midfielder at this point but like
00:28:18
Speaker
To me, the most important thing the Sounders can do right now is figure out if Albert Rusnak is a number 10 or not. Because if he is, that answers a really important question in the post-Nego Ledera world. And if he's not, that also answers a really important question because that means that should be your absolute top priority in the offseason. Yeah. If the idea is that
00:28:43
Speaker
Brian Spencer is going to be your head coach for the next phase of this team. And it's like that kind of seems like what it is because we just let maybe the only guy that anybody in the world trusts around place, a head coach, we just let him go to
Team's Current Phase and Future Plans
00:29:00
Speaker
Atlanta without very much, you know, we sent him with his well wishes, so to speak. And so it's just sort of like,
00:29:14
Speaker
It is this little bit of purgatory. It's like, what's the, what's the plan here? We haven't signed a player from outside of MLS in like two years. Yeah. And, and, and then before that, I think it was, uh,
00:29:33
Speaker
I mean, before that, they, they signed the office and before that they had signed, uh, well, no, I guess gel Paulo and Yemar were 2020. So yeah, they, they didn't make any, any big outside MLS signings since 2020. I guess is the last time they really were, uh, you know, like this roster has effectively been, been pretty close to holes since 2020.
00:29:59
Speaker
And it's pretty clear like this is the final season of the phase of this roster, whether that's just whatever. There's going to have to be some change over this. And it's like there's no indication that that like, what's the, what's the plan there? Hoping for a large offer for Obed Vargas and Reed Baker Whiting, and then just kind of like.
00:30:23
Speaker
What is it? I think that's the other thing that's a little frustrating about Josh Atencio's situation is that this is a player who I think is potentially a building block for the sounders. There's maybe a world where Josh Atencio is an attractive
00:30:43
Speaker
He feels like the next version of Christian rolled on. Right. But yeah, exactly. This is a player who I think the Shounders should be building up and building around because he is a very talented player. And at one position or another, whether it's as a center back or as a center mid, he's someone that has
00:31:05
Speaker
It's easy to project as a long time MLS player. And they should, why shouldn't they be giving him minutes? And it's not like it doesn't have to be an either or situation. It should not be Obed Vargas versus Joshua Tenzio. They can both, there's plenty of minutes to go around between these two guys. And he's a versatile enough player that, you know, you can get with sort of like the right tactical setup, you can get
00:31:31
Speaker
things out of Josh Atencio in positions that aren't his best position. So like maybe you do play him at
00:31:39
Speaker
right wing, but it's more of this kind of like holding right wing so that Alex can push creativity. Yeah. Or, or even play him at fullback and, and you know, he does the new who thing, but on the other side and it's, and it's a little bit more like he's just kind of inverting himself into the midfield. Like he is the type of player that you can get so much more out of if you need to.
00:32:07
Speaker
Like they could, like you could have just played Josh Atencio instead of Nico Odera last night, or instead of Russ Nack, or instead of Jau Paulo, or instead of Cody Baker, or even instead of New Who. Like there's just so much creative and tactical flexibility with a player like Josh Atencio and to just kind of give him garbage minutes in the last few months.
00:32:32
Speaker
He was at the end there. And I hate to agree with Warren Barton, but there was only one player really trying to do anything. And once it went to zero and it was Josh. Yeah. Yeah. It was just it was a very frustrating game. And it is a kind of it was funny because the.
Sounders' Long-term Strategy and Frustrations
00:32:51
Speaker
Things seemed to be going so well a few days ago, and they were. The sounders were coming off, and it wasn't just that the sounders were coming off two good performances. They were coming off of a stretch of solid play, and it feels like they sort of just reverted back to a lot of their most frustrating habits against the earthquakes.
00:33:12
Speaker
maybe they can end strong and this will all be forgiven to some degree. But I do think that there are some real longer term questions that the centers need to wrestle with. And hopefully that they will do some of that during the league's cup because they have some questions that they need to answer. This can still be a positive season, but I think they have to start making some tough decisions.
00:33:41
Speaker
And the biggest one is probably around like how, what's the, how are we going to handle the Nico Ledero situation? Yeah.
Upcoming Challenges and Transfer Window
00:33:48
Speaker
But, uh, well, I think that's, that's probably a good place to call it. I don't know. Do you have anything else you wanted to get into Mark? Uh,
00:33:56
Speaker
No, I just want to see Josh Tentsium play more. That's like my pet project right now. Right. Yeah. And like League's Cup, we've said it before, but League's Cup poses an interesting challenge because the Sounders are in a tough group. RSL looks very good. Monterey is always strong and it's entirely possible the Sounders don't get out of the group stage and then they are going to have like a month off if that's what ends up happening.
00:34:26
Speaker
My preference is they either lose in the group stage or win. So what I've been saying is like, I would like them to either win it or to get to play one additional game after the group stage, because I feel like that's almost too long of a break if they.
00:34:41
Speaker
If they don't get out of the group stage, but, uh, when's the, uh, I guess a curious thing about this and just humor me while I Google something, when is the, when's the transfer window close? The transfer window closes on August 5th, which is, uh, you know, shortly after the, it's during the league's cup. Huh.
00:35:03
Speaker
That's interesting to me because if they lose both group games and. They would be out before the end of the. Yeah. Let's just, let's just say a new signing was, was to happen. It would give that signing a month to get comfortable with the team and training.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's I mean, there's something if they were to do that. My expectation right now is is that they're probably not going to make a big signing. But I would love to be wrong about that. We're going to talk to Craig Weible tomorrow, Friday. He's going to have his first availability and quite some time. And we'll ask him a lot. I'm sure about all of this stuff.
Team Morale and Future Outlook
00:35:41
Speaker
But we'll see. We'll see.
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah, I was hoping like I wrote in the preview of this game that like a loss or a draw is fine as long as like nothing outrageous happened. Yeah. And I and I under underestimated what apathy could do. Yeah.
00:36:05
Speaker
And now it just seems like, yeah, well, something outrageous did happen. That second goal San Jose scored was insane. But San Jose was going to win that game 1-0, no matter what it seemed like. So I didn't anticipate
00:36:22
Speaker
how bad the vibes would be staying up until like 1230 on a Wednesday night to watch that game. Well, that is one thing I am reminded of is that there's almost no amount of positive vibes that can counteract the negativity that comes with just even one bad performance. And, you know, that's unfortunately the state of affairs right now is, you know,
00:36:50
Speaker
Either the sounders are going to win MLS cup or they need to blow up their entire roster. Like there's no, there's really no middle ground. Like the boy who cried wolf was eventually did see a scary doc. Like that's the kind of.
00:37:06
Speaker
That's the part of the story nobody really talks about. Right. Exactly. Like, yeah, you did eventually. You're right. If you're an eternal pessimist, eventually you'll be proven right. Yeah. And the end of this season might be when all of those commenters and people on Twitter are right. Naturally, your best player ever in Club Captain leaving does facilitate a
00:37:32
Speaker
Uh, the change. Yeah. Or your 37 year old goalkeeper being 37 years old. So, right. Right. Well, all right. Well, that's a good place to call it. I think, uh, thank you, Mark, for doing this on short notice. Sure. Uh, you know, these, these multi-game weeks are always a bit of a challenge. Did you have any thoughts on, on Dallas before we, we go? No. No. Jesus returns.
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah. Except you probably won't. Dallas, this is going to be the first time the Sounders have played Dallas. Dallas has not been very good this year in case you don't know that. And they're very injured right now. Yeah. They've been in a bad place lately, but that isn't always- And not just Frisco,
Closing Remarks and Optimism
00:38:21
Speaker
Texas. Am I right, folks?
00:38:24
Speaker
All right. Well, that's, that's a good, that, that, that is a good place to call it. Uh, I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Mark Kastner and Lick It. Uh, thank you to our sponsors, football wines, and Watson's counter as well as our substax subscribers. This is no saudietes. And remember, you will never be out alone.
00:39:18
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!