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The Best Seattle Sounders Win Ever - Ep. 63
1.2k Plays5 months ago
We are thrilled to bring you arguably the greatest Dub Pod in Lobbing Scorchers history as the Seattle Sounders absolutely obliterated the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field in Matchday 31. We recap the hilarity that ensued following the Crew’s goalkeeper red card, which ended up seeing their center back play goalkeeper, Albert Rusnak score a hat trick and Wilfried Nancy give the most blazing hot coach press conference of the season.
Later on in the show we hit our Agenda Check, take your questions and even briefly dive into some USMNT punditry.
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Transcript
Unexpected MLS Game Highlights
00:00:00
Speaker
Maybe I earned a lot of money when I was 18 years old, but at 22 years old, I had no more money. So be my language. But this is fucking difficult. What's going on, everybody? And welcome to episode 63 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lilianwall. I got producer Noah here with me. And Noah, we've got the best dub pod of the season today, I think.
00:00:27
Speaker
This was the most unexpected but also the most MLS dub pod we will ever and may like ever see in our entire lives to be honest. That's right folks we have an incredible dub pod for you this evening recording this on Monday evening as the Seattle Sounders took on the Columbus crew at lower dot.com field and a highly comedic and entertaining series of events unfolded I don't like I've never seen anything like this game before and I frankly don't think we're ever gonna see this again This is a novel event. You could follow this league for Another hundred years and you will probably never see this so it's gonna be a great show um By the time the game was all said and done
00:01:09
Speaker
ah The crew had a full back in goal. No a center back center back center back in goal Albert Rusnak had a hat trick The Sounders had four goals and Wilford Nancy was ah about as mad as I've ever seen an MLS coach um Everyone knows that we love a blazing hot coach presser on this show and
Fiery MLS Coach Press Conferences
00:01:27
Speaker
we got a great one. I will tell you what I Got sent that audio last night and I said to myself This needs to be posted Immediately. Yes, so I transcribed it and I tweeted it out and nuked my mentions But I mean I had to it was like a component of Blazing hot MLS coach press conferences. This was right up my alley and there's actually two in MLS last night believe it or not and Caleb Porter of the New England Revolution gave one that was arguably hotter. I didn't think that I would get one MLS coach press conference as hot as Wilford Nancy's all season. And I got two in the same night. So just feeling blessed, feeling blessed. ah Really excited to record about it. We're going to break down everything that happened in our game review. ah We got our agenda check to hit. We're going to talk. We're going to get to your Questions that you all sent and there was a couple other games around MLS last night um And we're also we're gonna hit very briefly some ah US s men's national team punditry. the That's right Yes, the fraud squad the US men's national fraud squad was back in action We're not gonna give them too much time because they did not really do much to merit it but we are gonna talk about their friendly versus Canada and So yeah, it's going to be a great show. I think this might be our best ever show, man. Like I really just can't wait. For me personally, regardless of how this sounds, this could be the worst audio you ever hear. that For me personally, this is it. This is this is it. This is sort of like our magnum opus. I think this game, like I feel like this game was like designed for lobbing scorchers content. like correctly I don't even I couldn't believe what I was watching as I was watching it and then you threw the presser on top of it It's just unreal scenes.
Podcast Promotions and Subscriptions
00:03:18
Speaker
um So yeah, we're gonna dive into our game review shortly But before we do that I wanted to let you know that lobbing scorchers is a part of the sounder at heart podcast network if you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage and Consider supporting us by going to sounder art comm slash LS that sounder art comm slash LS Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show um No, I kind of liked it when you did the names. Yeah on the last one you want to hit Should I go for it again? Well, see, I wasn't even prepared, but don't you worry. The reason I did that is because I wasn't prepared either. I got it saved right here. I had it bookmarked, Ari. I'm prepared because when the call comes, I'm there to answer. As always, yeah, we really appreciate all our subs. Love you guys. Noah, rattle off the list.
00:04:05
Speaker
Our list is getting extra long. We are at 30 right now, so let's start it off here with Kenneth Wade, Joey Pascanelli, David McCoy, Owen Mason, Daniel Pavato, Samuel Fout, Ian Mitchell, Christopher Smith, Norm Bontye, Thomas Martin, Greg Hoker, Chris Mayley, Andy Hill, Mike Lincini, Norm Bontye, David Rodriguez, CJ Malzmerinakis.
00:04:24
Speaker
My nephews. There we go. Mark Ottinger, Zach Heckman, David Pope, Brian Morton, Claire Berger, Robert Singh, Taler Nakatsu, Steve Hudson, c Choska, Patrick Sexton, Aryey Mar, John Hatmaker, Imani Bach, and Justin Walker, folks.
00:04:39
Speaker
Who will be 31? What's a famous 31? I don't know. I was just trying to think of that. I don't know if there is one. But either way, the ah the drive to 31 subs, we just need one of you out there to go to sounderatheart.com slash LS. Subscribe under our link. And that really that helps us out so much. And we love all you guys who have already done so. And also, as always, if you are listening to this and you haven't done so yet,
00:05:03
Speaker
please subscribe to the Lobbing Scorchers YouTube. and We're doing pretty well on there still. the We're on the drive to 550 subs. We hit 500 before our last show. So help us on the drive to 550. It's going to be such a fire show tonight. I think we're going to rack some YouTube
Audience Feedback Engagement
00:05:20
Speaker
subs off of this. But ah thank you to everyone who's helping us grow on that platform. And shout out to our new audience on there. These video pods that we've been doing have been doing pretty well, like better than I expected.
00:05:31
Speaker
And appreciate we appreciate you guys also drop it in the comments section, even though it's a lot of the time to cook us. That's fine. We're here for it. Yeah, we're here for it. In fact, I think we are going to address a disgruntled comment. there' is There's a couple. It seems like ah every episode there's a couple of disgruntled commenters. For sure. that's i'm I'm in favor of that. So just don't don't stop cooking us on my account.
00:05:52
Speaker
All right, let's ah let's get into this game review. We hyped it up a lot. so we did We got to ah got talk about this game because this this was a great game. It was just a great game. It was a great dub. It was one of my favorite dubs of the last like two years, I would say, um both from an entertainment perspective and a comedy perspective. and um Just the result result perspective, everything about it was phenomenal. um And that shout out to the Columbus crew. That's the first thing I'm going to say about this. um Because they delivered this content by employing an interesting strategy before this game. This is this is a new tactic.
00:06:29
Speaker
I haven't seen many, if any, MLS teams ever do this. On their game day squad, they did not have a number two goalkeeper. They went into this game with just one goalkeeper, Abraham Romero. Who? Yeah. So you might be thinking to yourself, you might be wondering, Ari,
00:06:46
Speaker
why would an MLS team go into a game with no backup goalkeeper on their squad? Yeah, it's, I mean, great question. Great question. And there was a whole story behind that as it turned out, you know, I wasn't even like aware that this was as hot button an issue, but Wilford Nancy said afterwards, he's been just like seething about this all week, which makes it even funnier how it panned out because I'm sure Like regardless of the reasoning they went into the game thinking I mean whatever like we're just gonna get through this one game with Romero in goal And as long as he doesn't get a red card or injured we'll be fine and boy Abraham Romero i just Shout out to him. Thank you for the bit brother you my god So he should yeah can he we should start this I think this is gonna be it our first inductee to the lobbing scorchers Hall of Fame Hall of Famer and He was a Hall of Famer for what he did in this game. um I don't know why he did it. But yeah, anyway, we're gonna we're gonna get to that. um So it really popped off like right before halftime and it was zero zero up until that point.
Unusual On-field Events Analysis
00:07:46
Speaker
um But you know, it's kind of I kind of kind of got lost in the shuffle. But like I was actually really enjoying the game before everything hit the fan. Like I thought it was like,
00:07:56
Speaker
like the teams were competing at a high level. I thought Seattle was actually playing pretty well as the road team in this scenario. It was pretty evenly matched, which, you know, that's honestly not good for Seattle in the sense that they They were playing a very undermanned Columbus team. We talked about it on the preview show. They didn't have Kucho. They didn't have ah Patrick Schulte or Hagen, who's their normal backup goalkeeper. They were both on international duty. And then Evan Bush, their third goalkeeper, also was injured. So that's why they had Abraham Romero in goal. Kucho was with Columbia. Moraya, their really good fullback, was out. They had like five or six guys out because of international duty or absences. So Seattle. ah
00:08:41
Speaker
They were missing a few starters too, but I would say Seattle's lineup was in theory stronger than Columbus, which gave us like a glimmer of optimism that they could take a result in this game. But I think up until the red card, it was just like a pretty good, evenly matched competitive game. That's how that's how I saw it. um Did you have anything on the first half other other than other than that? I, you know, honestly, no, I, I thought that it was a pretty even game. I didn't really, I thought it was going to be a Columbus will troll, a nil, nil draw, be happy, stage like a one zero or something. It looked like Seattle was going to do their XG merchant thing. yeah Yeah. Um, but like at the point that the red card happened, I actually felt decently good about Seattle's chance of getting a result in the game. I thought they were playing pretty well, uh, but no one had scored yet.
00:09:31
Speaker
and then uh I thought the chance where he got the red card on was like a so like yeah well so actually Seattle really should have had a goal before this all he even went down yeah um Rothrock found Jordan for like a wide open look like way earlier in the first half and it's one with the form that Jordan's been in lately like I would expect him to finish um and he just missed it but like that really could have and should have been a goal so Seattle arguably like should have been in the lead by the time this red card happened but let's break down the ah sequence on the red card this was the first hot button event to occur in this game alright so I think the first thing to understand here is that Abraham Romero he had he had one job in this scenario
00:10:12
Speaker
like absolutely under no circumstances can you get sent off because you don't have a backup goalkeeper behind you if you get sent off a position player is going to have to go in goal right so uh They, uh, he could not afford to do what he did, which was, uh, there was a ball over the top for Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris runs onto it. He gets behind the defense and Abraham Romero, it was, it was an epic run. yeah He flies in from off screen and you could just see the collision course getting charted and he just absolutely takes Jordan out. Um, it looked like a forearm kind of to the head area yeah to me. Uh, and,
00:10:54
Speaker
I think there's a couple elements at play with Wyatt's a red card. I mean, there's the challenge, which he, I mean, he forearms him to the, to the head and neck area or whatever. And then also Jordan's like the last guy back too. So I don't know if it's outright dog. So, but like the fact that he got taken out when he was in behind and the last guy on goal, I think.
00:11:13
Speaker
Probably factors into why that's a red card, but I think it's pretty clear straight red yeah um based on where the where the challenge happened and Like the fact that he went high with it um I was surprised the commentators when it first happened. They didn't really I don't even think it registered with them. It didn't seem like they really thought that it was a red card or anything. They were just like, oh no, a terrible collision. And when I saw it live, I was like, is it? Yeah, I immediately thought. I think that's probably a little bit red. And then I saw Schmetz talking to the AR. Oh, yeah. you could hear schmetz on the audio was like hey guys
00:11:48
Speaker
got that they got to check a card that should be pretty red and You can see Seattle's players were also like okay I think and then and then it became kind of clear what was happening and he gets sent off and from there um It was ah it was just a great time. Seattle proceeded to absolutely beat the shit out of the crew. Rusnak scored a hat trick. He had one off the free kick, the free kick that was awarded. yeah um So Sean Swatsky, who's a center back slash defensive midfielder, I think, for the crew, he ends up having to go in goal. And the first thing he has to do is defend a Rusnak free kick from a like a pretty dangerous spot where Jordan got fouled.
00:12:32
Speaker
And um you know, i was I was of two minds on this. I was like, okay, this is great for Seattle's chances of getting a result in the game, but this is also feels a little dangerous because they were even saying this on the broadcast. They were like, if Seattle doesn't win this game and pretty handily, that's like embarrassing. oh yeah Because ah you have a midfielder in goal and ah you're up a man.
00:12:57
Speaker
So, like, you gotta win this game. And I was like, okay, well, if Rusnak just buries this free kick right here, that would be a good start. Like, yeah you got a guy who's never played goalkeeper in the MLS game before ah trying to defend this free kick. so just get it by him right off rip. And that's exactly what Rusenak did. He stuffed the free kick. Honestly, man, like, ah you know, I think there's a way better chance, obviously, that if it's Schultier, an actual goalkeeper in goal, that it gets saved. But it was a good enough shot where I don't even know if they would have have saved it. It was a really nice shot. I thought it was placed really well I don't know if it's Schulte or I mean Columbus has some great goalkeepers maybe maybe they save it maybe they don't but like it was once get no chance yeah regardless it was a great shot it didn't hit the wall he curved it around side netting great goal
00:13:45
Speaker
he did what he had to do in that situation was just get it on target and like you could tell um and Schmetz alluded to this after the game I mean the game plan becomes just there's no like percentages on your shots like to shoot as much as possible from wherever so that was one element of this that was fun to watch because guys were just pulling up yeah Steph Curry heat checking at times like Josh Atencio was getting in on it ah Because like that's I mean, that's when on these rare occasions where you see a position player in gold That's like what you have to do. You just have to shoot as much as possible and You're probably gonna sneak a couple by them and maybe you think about like, you know goalkeeping is like way harder than It probably seems yeah because like this guy like going up against MLS attack that's been like pretty average at best, I think, this season. At times dynamic, but this is just like a relatively average um MLS attack. And Zawadski had no chance. none and ah it was it was i don't I don't care that they were up a man with center back in goal. It was phenomenal to
Wilford Nancy's MLS Rules Critique
00:14:45
Speaker
watch. um We can do our goal breakdowns, honestly, because they were some nice goals, even though they came against Sean Zawadski. So Rusenak had their free kick right after the red card. ah Then the second one was Rothrock to Jordan. they actually
00:14:58
Speaker
ah redemp they They redeemed the the one that they missed. Well that Jordan missed in the first half. Rothrock really should have had two dimes. He should have has shouldve had two dimes in this game. And really canonically he has two assists in this game. He's somehow like he's like a deep side character in this game because of everything else that happened. But Rothrock was cooking. Yeah he was. This was like probably his one of his if not his best game like from front to back.
00:15:22
Speaker
Um, so he assisted on the second, uh, JMO goal. Uh, then the third one you had Rusnak again from, uh, it was one of his shots from outside the box assisted by a tensio, I believe, um, for three zero. And then the last one, I mean, this, this basically just became like a ah training ground drill. yeah Like that's what it looked like when they're going against like the practice dummies or. ah just ah like the drill they do before the games at Lumen where they're just like crossing it. Yeah, they're just blasting it. That's basically what it turned into. That's what this last goal from ah Jordan to Rusnak looked like. but that i mean The finish was nasty though. It was a nasty finish. I'm not going to lie. um he ah like Yeah, the way he like turned. He like lasered it off the outside of his foot. It was nasty. I think Jordan's assist was outside of the foot too. So I mean, well taken goal obviously. ah
00:16:16
Speaker
had a center back in goal but it was still like ah it was just so funny to watch yeah because of what happened ah with the red card and everything. Wilfred Nancy after the game gave his press conference and like I said I got sent that audio and should we just play our favorite parts right here Yeah. We'll just, we'll just laser this in right now. Take a listen to, would you say top contender for most blazing op press conference of the year? Easily. Yeah. Easily. Yeah. So, um, again, we lost the game, uh, tonight obviously. And, um, my plan was to talk about a few stuff already, win or lose. Um,
00:17:00
Speaker
I'm going to try to be coherent because this is not for me. Yes, we lost today. um'm Obviously, i'm and I'm not happy with that. But I'm not happy also about the lack of understanding of a clear situations. So I'm going to explain myself. After tonight's game, we are at 39 matches played.
00:17:31
Speaker
We were mandated to have three goalkeepers on the team sheet for CCC. This is what we did. We had to use a collab for a friendly friendly game against Aston Villa. So why I'm not happy before the game? All the week it happened, I was not happy about that. Because there is there is a rule, as you know,
00:17:58
Speaker
We can use only four times, four co-lops, one player from the reserve team who has a contract. contract
00:18:10
Speaker
As you know, you know the issue that we had with the goalkeepers with Evan Bush. So we try to anticipate that. We trade for adding a fourth goalkeeper, knowing that we could have a situation like this today.
00:18:27
Speaker
And when we asked before the game to have another call-up for our goalkeeper for the reserve team, they said no. Knowing that this game, Seattle, we were supposed to play this game in March, around March. So for me, yes, we lost, but again,
00:18:58
Speaker
The MLS, the league, there is a clear evolution about the way we do things, the numbers of games that we have. There is addition for the League's Cup, there is addition for the World Cup, and so on and so on and so on. We are pleased with that. All year when you ask me the question about how many games you're going to be tired, we have a lot of games and so on, I never complained.
00:19:26
Speaker
Because I said, we won. So this is the reward of the fact that we won. So we have games. And we are pleased with that. We are proud of that. But I cannot understand when there is a lack of coherence with a simple rules that's why we don't choose a color point when we do the friendly game, the preseason game. We played Aston Villa. So Stas and Cole, we called them. They played zero minutes.
00:19:56
Speaker
and we use all the aid collapse total for them. So what is the point? I'm not asking to ban the collapse. collapses I'm asking to add more collapse because we have more games.
00:20:14
Speaker
This is impossible to think like that. For me, this is a lack of, this is, this is ah I'm losing a bit my words in in in in English, but this is not, this is a command in validity. This is dishonest.
00:20:32
Speaker
So we just ask to add a corrupt because of the situation that I told you, we said no, they said no.
00:20:44
Speaker
but we use a club for the friendly game and we we are a club to develop players. So what is the message, knowing that I can talk because we have a young team and we are able to win with a young team and we are able to do good things with the academy. I'm really proud of all the players that went with the national team. I'm not complaining, I don't complain about that. I have no problem with that. I do this job for that.
00:21:14
Speaker
But why are we gonna sign a player, a young player, a professional contract for one game, knowing that this is not the moment to sign this player? Because what is gonna happen, what we're gonna sign this player is gonna come in the local room, is gonna be part of the group, but he's not ready for that.
00:21:43
Speaker
So what is the message for the young players in the academy? Oh yes, I signed a player because I didn't have a play a goalkeeper or they didn't have a player. Hey, to become a professional player. Sorry my language, but this is fucking difficult. Ta-ha, we signed him. Cole, we signed him. But there is different pathway with that. Cole, we had to loan him.
00:22:10
Speaker
because there is different pathway to become a good a consistent player. I'm not saying that we will not sign player. I like young players. That's why I'm here. I like also odd player. But that we should have consistency. It's a wrong message if we don't adjust that with the number of game that we have. It's a wrong message. The league wants to add more young players. No problem.
Columbus Crew's Strategic Decisions
00:22:39
Speaker
I started my career at 18 years old, but I stopped at 22 years old. Maybe I started too fast. Maybe I earned a lot of money when I was 18 years old, but at 22 years old, I had no more money.
00:22:56
Speaker
So what is the signal? So we're gonna sign the player to give him ah a good salary at 18 years old or 17 years old. old ah Instead of winning $30,000, we're gonna give him a salary of 80,000. He's gonna be happy, but at the end of the day, he will not play.
00:23:16
Speaker
There is different pathway for few players. So the CBA, they have to understand that. And I'm not upset because we lost the game. i i was a bit I was upset already before the game, all week, because this is not coherent.
00:23:37
Speaker
So, yeah, that was Wilford Nancy. I mean, he cooked. Yeah, he cooked. Absolutely cooked there. ah But let's talk about our reactions to this press conference. This is what I'm excited for, because there is a lot of let's talk about why he's mad, first of all, and just what happened with this rule. I think this is important to understand, to like get the full context of everything that happened here. Yeah. um But I mean, I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible because I think it's a situation. It's one of those situations where people can over complicate things sometimes. And a lot of people are getting super in the weeds with the technicalities of the rule. And Jeremiah Jeremiah cooked. Jeremiah cooked hard um because ah like When Jeremiah feels like that ah there's an erroneous point being made and he wants to disprove it Like he will go to K words on your ass and that's exactly what he did on sounder at heart Go read that for the breakdown of the minutia of it because like I can't really explain it any better than he did um I mean just even the headline roster mismanagement led to the crew having no backup goalkeeper Right. Exactly. That's a banger. And also it kind of it goes against what a lot of the conventional wisdom in the narrative. You know, everyone in this situation likes to be like, ah you know, Wilfred Nancy was speaking truth to power and sticking it to the man in the league is like screwing Columbus over and all that. And Jeremiah just took systematically took apart all of those arguments. So the national pundits were were definitely carrying water for for the crew. Yeah. I mean, okay. So, but like I'm, like I said, I'm going to keep my kind of take on this right now, like your level at your base level and simple as I possibly yeah can. And basically well you are an MLS show. We got a, you know, yeah but like, okay.
00:25:23
Speaker
So what happened was there is this rule that it's like basically a hardship rule where when you're playing over an international break and you already have like an injury and guys that are absent you can call players up from your like reserve side and take that spot for ah for like one game and then send them back down and The thing is, you have an allotted amount of times that you can do that in a given season. We're going to talk about why that rule is in place, but there is a reason behind why that is a rule. um And the crew used up all of their allotted times that they could do a call-up like this.
00:26:05
Speaker
and Why they did that is subject to debate. I don't know if they did not like understand the rule or if they didn't know the limit or they thought like Wilford Nancy was saying that they use call ups for the friendly against Aston Villa. There was ways that he could have they could have gotten around that and they didn't do it. um And on top of that, like even with the ah with the reality that they used up all their allotted call-ups they could have gotten a number two goalkeeper on the roster for this game through multiple other means which Jeremiah breaks down in his article but there was like a way to do this where they could have even with the call-up thing and having used all of them up they could have gotten the backup goalkeeper on the game day squad for this game for not a lot of money and It does I don't think like all that much effort but I think what it seems to me like reading between the lines as an outsider that what happened here was that Wilfred Nancy was really upset about the rule and he Decided that he was I'm i'm just not gonna call up the backup goalkeeper for this game because I'm mad about what the league is doing right now and I'm just we're gonna get through it because
00:27:14
Speaker
I'm going to tell my goalkeeper just don't get a red card. yeah and Also, it's the sounders. Yeah, it's the sounders. what are the real We're at home. What are the real odds that the goalkeeper is going to get injured? that you know You don't see that all that often. It could happen. And if it does, we'll deal with it. Well, you already have the PR narrative right there, too. Right. Exactly. like ah You can fall back on it if you do lose the game. And that happens. And you can use it to soapbox for your thing about the rule.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, so I think I mean I think that's what Happened here. Yeah, um but Sean Zwotsky you know he did what he could He did what he could he was competing out there, but he really like like I said he really had no chance um, but I don't know let's let's talk about like Wilford Nancy's points of contention here because like he could this could have been prevented easily could have been easily prevented easily my crazy pills no i don't think you're taking crazy pills i think that it's very clear that there was a calculated there was a calculation made right there always is with coaching they were either going to spend the money to sign a free agent goalkeeper which they could have done for no more than ten thousand dollars or they could have
00:28:31
Speaker
rode this one out with one goalkeeper, soapbox it, and complained because the thing that they hitched their wagon to, which was this short-term loan deal, was the only thing that they really thought to do, which they already knew they were not guaranteed to get this approved or not. So it's 100% on Columbus, and I totally understand the frustration from Columbus fans as well. Like, if I'm the Columbus crew, and I'm a fan, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, we really lost this game because our goalkeeper was,
00:29:04
Speaker
a defender, yeah, that sucks. And you lose the the best part. They're basically out of the shield contention now. right So like they were playing for they were playing for like to stay in the shield race within her Miami. Yeah, so I think with all of that together, as a fan, totally understanding if you're mad. If you're Wilford, Nancy, you should be embarrassed. You fumbled the shield because of your own mismanagement and because you either wanted to make a point or because you just didn't care enough to try different options. They could have signed someone in the hours before the match, made him be available for the game day roster, sat his ass on the bench, or even started him for one game. And you're good. You're good to go. But they didn't want to do that. They went with the narrative. And then the entirety of and MLS, social media, Twitter, Reddit, everything was
00:29:54
Speaker
on the cruise side, which is incredibly dumb. And I'm sure that you'll yeah elaborate. they They knew what the situation was and it's your own fault. And then I think that we should talk about the reason why this rule is in place, which is it's part of the CBA.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah. it That was negotiated by the players' union and the league. And the the goal of it is to try and like protect the players from situations where the call-up rule gets abused, right? You can have situations where players are ah getting used called up repeatedly. And I think they want to make it so there's a point where you just have to give them an MLS contract if they're getting called up on these like hardship situations all the time. Which should happen in the past. Which, yeah, that it's a thing that did happen. and like ah Every team is subject to that in the exact same way. Now, Columbus, Wilford Nancy's point of contention was that they've had so many games this year between Champions League, which they made it to the final of, League's Cup, which they made it to the final of and won. And to go along with their league season, they've had a ton of games.
00:30:59
Speaker
And he claims that they had to use all these call-ups to accommodate the other games and the fixture congestion that they had. But the thing is, if you read Jeremiah's article, there's no evidence for that at all that I can see. There were situations where they used call-ups or they really did not have to. Like the Aston Villa friendly, why would you use one there? You don't need to do that. You could have signed it. There's other ways. You have to know the rule and employ a way to get the other goalkeeper on your squad without having to use the call-up. Also, he was saying that they had to have three for the Champions League games. Which is not true. which is not like if They had to be three rostered, but the reality was that's not the case. And even the Houston Dynamo only had two on their 32-man roster. its You had to have three on the 32-man roster, but the game day roster, which is what those call-ups count for,
00:31:53
Speaker
You only need to have to yeah, so I don't it's again like that's on you. That's not on the league. No and like you know, I'm not like a big rule stickler kind of guy like I'm all for sticking it to the man or yeah whatever, but it's the opposite opposite of sticking into the man, but yeah, but like sticking it to the player. Yeah, yeah but also ah it's like if you If you adjust these rules just for one team, then like do you not have to you're kind of set in a precedent that the rule is like flexible yeah and that other and other teams are going to be like, well, wait a minute, why don't we get... so that's i mean I think that's why they're trying to... like It might seem like they're ah you know being hardasses about it or sticking to it overly rigidly.
00:32:38
Speaker
But like I really don't think that's what it is. I think it's a situation where if you have this rule that's in place in the CBA, you're literally you're undermining the CBA that you negotiated if you start giving exceptions like that. So it's really it's ah this net like this didn't happen to any other team. This is the only team that I've ever seen this happen to. And they're not the first team to have fixture congestion with Champions League and League's Cup either. It didn't happen to anyone else.
Match Aftermath and Social Media Reaction
00:33:04
Speaker
So like I said, man, it's it's your own fault. Well, it's just incredibly dumb too because you are essentially making an argument that the rule where you shouldn't be able to call up a player on a $10,000 salary playing him like he's an $80,000 minimum player. That's stupid. Like if the league minimum now is like what, 81, 82,000 a year.
00:33:29
Speaker
the league minimum in next pro i think you can just go by game check so it's like the the idea that you could essentially skirt around roster rules and restrictions by just pumping your next pro team and then just doing these small call-ups that's that's dumb that's dumb and these rules are in place for a reason to protect the players so they're not getting you know abused and i thought it was even funnier because he mentioned he's like well Why would I sign? Why would I sign a goalkeeper that's too? He's young. they're du they're They're not ready. Then why would you bring him up to play for the first team four times? Four call ups, right? Four different call ups. You brought him up. What's the difference?
00:34:12
Speaker
What's the difference? Yeah, that's a good question. The short-term loan versus that, what's the difference? I wanted to talk about some of the discourse in the aftermath of this because crew fans were way more mad. They were so salty. They were way saltier about it than I was even expecting. If this happens to...
00:34:28
Speaker
This happened to my team. Like I would ah I think I would be I would honestly be irritated with the club first and foremost, but I'd be like, you know what? I mean, ah we kind of got owned on that one. We owned ourselves on that one. Our coach owned our own team. um That's tough. On to the next one. I mean, Columbus is an MLS Cup contender this year. It does. I do understand what you were saying. Like it's it sucks that they ah That they this happened to them like in the middle of the shield race, but you know that's like I said That's like your own fault, but like um there's a there's a lot of talking points going on There's a clash between crew Twitter and Sounders Twitter that I kind of just took in from the sidelines But there's a few points that I wanted to bring up and you know if and there's any crew fans out there Go ahead and cook in the comments. It's not for it. Go for it.
00:35:17
Speaker
um but okay so there was at least one at least one take potentially more of like the sentiment that a Seattle like oh Seattle is so you should be super proud of BAM it on a backup goal or on not even a backup on a random dude to some random dude and goal like there's this there's this like notion that Seattle was like flexing on the dub or likes overly proud of it, which I I don't really think is the case at all You know I don't I mean speaking for myself, but I think most people from the Seattle perspective of this would tell you that I don't i don't think anyone's more or less proud of this dub than any other dub it's more from the comedic value of the fact that like ah
00:36:00
Speaker
Columbus is a much better team than Seattle this year and they're in the shield race and they literally what Columbus what Columbus did in this situation is they just took the three points that were Up for grabs in this game and gift wrapped them and just handed them to yeah Seattle So I think most people in Seattle are just like okay. I mean yeah, we'll take the we'll take those three points if you don't want them I guess um and ah There was more takes that were like the crew that you know Seattle is just about this like regular season dub. The crew are about trophy. Oh, that was so funny. I mean that maybe like I think they're used to being able to say that and it like it has. It's like they can hit that with L.A. F.C. or F.C. Cincinnati even like which is their biggest rival. Like I think they're that's their talking point for F.C. Cincinnati fans Seattle. I mean that doesn't like really that doesn't hurt us like They kept bringing up 2020 and I was like, guys, I legitimately don't know what you're talking about. There was not an MLS Cup played. There was no MLS Cup in 2020. It didn't happen that year. So I don't know what they're talking about with that either. But like either way, I mean, I'll take Seattle's Trophy Hall over the last few years.
00:37:09
Speaker
over Columbus's. I'll take it over literally anybody because it has CCL in it. Yeah. So like, uh, that just doesn't really make a lot of sense. I mean, you can, if you want to go with the talking point that it's like past glory and Seattle is mid now, um, which was another talking point that got brought up. That is true, yeah but that's exactly why it's funny. Yeah. Because yeah we, ah you think we know that Seattle is mid better than crew fit, then know that Seattle is mid.
00:37:33
Speaker
they're coming from that perspective by looking at the table we're coming from that perspective having watched every single game this entire season and dating back to last season so like that's definitely not news to us out here yeah but like that's the reason why Columbus actually had a chance of taking points in this game if their goalie hadn't gotten a really stupid red card and their coach an organization that had the foresight to like not use all their call-ups so they could have had a backup goalkeeper for this game which they didn't so like I really frankly don't I don't understand what like the whole point of contention
00:38:09
Speaker
there is like i said i mean i think from the seattle perspective it's just like your opponent screwed themselves over and gave you like the easiest three points of all time against which is yeah hilarious in ah in a situation where like seattle had a stronger lineup out there than columbus did and columbus was still playing and pretty much straight up i thought they could have actually they could have they could have gotten at least a point in this game if they hadn't done that and This is another point that I forgot to mention I know I'm going off here, but like it's another point that I forgot to mention which is that like the ah None of this is an issue if he doesn't get that dumbass red. Yes, exactly. Thank you does thank you like
00:38:51
Speaker
That's that's who you should be the most irritated with out of anybody because like what is he doing? That's the stupidest Stupidest goalkeeper decision I've seen I think ever that was just stupid his defender had the man cut his defender had Jordan covered all the way for like another 20 yards past where he should be and this man comes flying in off-screen r k owe zi bro He had watched a one too many Tamellia highlights. I mean, seriously. He was absolutely hauling ass to get that red card. It was unbelievable. Broke wanted that red card more than he wanted anything. I think I said earlier, but like you your situational awareness just has to be ah more acute than that in that situation. no He knows that there's no backup. yeah And he still goes out there and makes that challenge.
00:39:40
Speaker
so like where does Where does anything Seattle do did even like come into the equation? like that that's like the This is the decision making of your own coach and then your own fourth string goalkeeper who did the one thing that he just can't do. yeah like You cannot get sent off in this game.
00:39:58
Speaker
um and like he He got like a no doubt about it straight red, which is just unreal. The added comedy to all this is that while crew fans were still seething over this today, um like four guys from Seattle got on MLS team of the week. I think Jordan, obviously, Rusnak did, Atencio did, Chris did. So they're getting like all these individual accolades. And then after the team of the week came out, Rusenak got named player of the week for like the hat trick, even though it was all three goals were bamming on Sean Zwotsky, which like, you know, uh, he could have saved one.
00:40:37
Speaker
It's too bad. It was kind of funny how like anytime he made a save like the crowd. Oh, they were going crazy, which I did. I i like I respect it. I respect is by too um so Anyway, all in all just yeah an awesome series of events I loved every second of that game post red card. I like I you tweeted the Mike Tomlin meme That's how I feel like. Yeah, we do not care. Do not care. We do not care about the the extent to which the the Columbus crew believed they were wronged by MLS in this scenario. The Columbus crew did this to themselves. I was just shocked they weren't blaming the catering, honestly. like i thought Every time, every time, yeah it's it's always something. It's always something. yeah That's the other thing that upsets me is like Columbus fans, man. like i
00:41:25
Speaker
I kind of get worse since he's coming from here, man. I defended you, though. I propagated your conspiracy theories about getting poisoned in the CCL final. I was on that train, and I even propagated the take that if you hadn't gotten poisoned, that you would have won CCL. I'm off that now. You guys got boat raced in the CCL final. Get wrecked.
00:41:49
Speaker
Get bammed on. Get clapped. You you got absolutely bammed on in this game. it's That's unfortunate. It's really too bad. But it was fun for us to watch. yeah um But ah it's really, yeah, probably the most blazing hot discourse day of the season, the transcript that I tweeted at the press conference. My mentions were a tire fire. so I think that was like put in 40 different internet articles, too. like I think that tweet was embedded everywhere. I do i do want to say one thing, too. Yeah, yeah, cook. I tweeted out, someone someone quote tweeted me, because I tweeted, you're welcome LAFC, because as as we know we have this new contingent of LAFC fans, i'm Peso Pluma to them, you know, we've we've kind of, we've we've bridged the gap a little bit. And so they obviously don't like Columbus.
00:42:39
Speaker
They couldn't get it done against Columbus. And so we had to, you know, a real team had to get it done against Columbus. So I just tweeted out your welcome LAFC that set them off so hard. You were deep in the trenches and you were, uh, you're not taking the high road. No, and not at all. And so I quote tweeted or someone quoted me Seattle fans define success differently. And I was like, all right, that's that is this is perfect. So all I said is this is correct. And I posted a picture of the crew losing the CCL final next to the picture of the Sounders winning the CCL final. And it's like a dog. That whole talking point of like oh we play for trophies and like you play for the regular But you there's a lot of clubs you could say that too, and I think like I said I think they're used to saying that like this is not like a That that has you have nothing on that yeah You have nothing on that. Seattle's trophy haul over this last era is better than yours. That's not us flexing on it. That's just a fact. I think it's better than everyone's because of the CCL victory. The crew, I mean, they're going to say they have two MLS cups. They really, you really got one. You have one. You got the COVID one, so it maybe counts for 0.5 generously. Yeah. You got one MLS cup. Bridesmiths are through that, too. And you got League's Cup, which I'm not as much of a League's Cup hater as everyone else in terms of like. That can be your other 0.5.
00:43:59
Speaker
Yeah, that can be your other point five. It's a good trophy and like like no shade as far as the fact that the crew are arguably the best team in the league right now constantly ride them all the time and we Wilfred Nancy specifically we stand we are we stand that's why this yeah this conflict is kind of painful He do took the Steve C route. That's what just oh my god. It melted my brain because he he hit the Steve C It's the roster build we got you you know, there's not enough. ah I was like, please Wilfred. You're too good you are too You're the best coach to in the list you're the best coach in the league. He is a coward button and I just I can never forgive him for that. Honestly, it's like it's like the there's a lot of arrogance that was at play here and Yeah, this was like we disagree with this rule in the way that it's being enforced. So to make a point, we're going to go in this game like smartly with one goalkeeper and not like not use the mechanisms we could have to have a second one because we're like we're above all this yeah kind of vibe, right? Yeah, that's like what was going on here and they got owned for it. Yeah, they got
00:45:04
Speaker
destroyed they cooked themselves and that is the most beautiful part of all of it is they did it to themselves and out of the sport of shield race which is just even better get bammed on out of the shield race no shield for you guys this year no sorry sorry you just you gift wrapped Seattle the three points in this game and you gift wrapped the shield to inner Miami you may as well deliver the shield to your Miami personally yeah you may as well or Or even since he like since he could come back potentially and and and hit that like how funny is that man? How funny is that and also like guys? Why would we not celebrate that? That's hilarious ah You get like I think Columbus fans just don't understand how glorious it is being on the other side of it. Yeah, like honestly If they were in our position, they would definitely. yeah yeah like If the roles were reversed, I would like to think that I would look at it more rationally than their fans. I think we would look at the roster stuff more rationally. Us, not everyone online. No, exactly. like I think the Seattle fan base as a whole, it would probably be just like exact role reversals. Correct. But like Columbus fans, I'm telling you, like
00:46:09
Speaker
You're not you're never probably never going to get to experience this just because I don't think any fan base is going to get to experience like this exact scenario no ever again ah because no team is ever going to go into a game without a number two goalkeeper ever again. I've never heard of a professional team and willingly doing that.
00:46:29
Speaker
It's crazy. That is crazy. Like, I don't care what point that you, what righteous point you think you're trying to make about the unfairness of the rule, you are putting yourself in a pretty dangerous situation where exactly what happened to them could happen. That can happen.
00:46:44
Speaker
but Players get red cards and players get injured. And if you don't have a backup on the roster, especially for like a field player, you maybe you just can plug it in and gut it out. But a goalkeeper like you end up with Sean Zwotsky in gold. That's what happens, man. That's that's what it's called. um Taste of your own medicine. You know, it's tough. It's tough. It's you know, it was their Icarus moment. They flew too close to the sun. They thought they were the shit and they aren't. They got the shits.
00:47:12
Speaker
again so anyway so I don't know we we went we went hard right there but I felt like it was merited um you know Columbus Twitter or Columbus YouTube if you guys want to keep the dialogue going by all means give us the views yeah and drop your thoughts in the comments the thing I Please post in paragraph form. Yeah, exactly. the The thing I would say, though, is again, like you have to understand the comedic and entertainment value from our perspective. Yeah. Like it is potent. And like if you like you are high out of your mind.
00:47:47
Speaker
If you think we're not going to laugh at this and revel in it a little bit, right because like, like I said, the part, the the fact that Seattle has been a mid team this year and Columbus is the standard of the league right now is exactly the point of why it's funny. right Like that's, that's like, you can use that as a dunk, but that's really, that's literally the reason why the content hits so good for us.
Player Performance Reflections
00:48:09
Speaker
yep um Anyway, did you have anything? No, I think we hit everything and more. That was an incredible second. That was great. It was as good as I thought it was going to be. um One thing I wanted to ah let you know, Noah, is that this was actually a hot game for the anti-roosnack brigade. because I did see this.
00:48:29
Speaker
You would think it's counterintuitive to think that a game where he scores a hat trick that they would be out and about and honestly I think I've come to like this sort of good understanding with the anti-roosnack brigade where they they disagree with how I rate the player But like we have like ah we have good rapport or ultimately over it but they were actually out in full force because they were it was sort of like a lob over the plate for their narrative of like see he cooks when it's like but squad at When it's a bot squad, when it's Sean Sawatzky in goal, but look at the LAFC game and do it against LAFC, but he did it against Sean Sawatzky. So it actually fueled it did the brigade. I did see this. I just think there's two different ways to look at that. like i'm more I'm a more optimistic fan ah by nature and I try to have more fun with it.
00:49:14
Speaker
and the way i look But the way I honestly look at it is when you're given advantageous circumstances, your job is to capitalize yeah on it. like What Seattle could not do is give them because could Columbus any hope at all in this game. And they did a good job to take full advantage of the situation. From the very first kick of the game when the game restarted, Rizniak stuffs the free kick. like leaves no they they left They were thorough. They left no doubt about it.
00:49:42
Speaker
They absolutely bammed, which obviously not that hard to do, playing against a 10-man side yeah with Sean Zwotsky in goal. But like it would be way, way worse of a talking point if they didn't do that, right? yeah like So I give credit for taking advantage of the advantageous circumstances to root snack and for the team as a whole. That's exactly what you that's how you handle it as a professional in that situation. Yeah. No, I agree. ah you Listen.
00:50:07
Speaker
ah We do anti-roast snack brigade out there knows they've even added me into the group chat. Sorry. They told me that that's crazy They were not back I'm not joining that chat, but I'm glad that no isn't me. We respect each other's differing opinions We're like the UN n out here for for anti-roast snack brigade, but honestly, man, he did everything he he needed to do I don't really give a shit who you're playing if they're a bot squad you should bam on four goals and he did and And it doesn't really matter because the goals were sick as hell anyway. They were sick as hell. He was torturing Sawatzki. Yeah, like it was it was a little bit ah
00:50:43
Speaker
It was like sad to watch almost at one point, like that last goal that he hit on him. It's just like, bro, you have no, you like you, will you could be in there and face that shot a hundred times. You're not going to save it once. Like, yeah you are so chalked. You are, you are more chalked than any soccer player I've ever seen. Like not through no fault of his own. Like I said, I actually kind of admired like house Watsky did out there. He was competing and the after Ristak bammed the first free kick, you like you could, he was like laughing. He was like, okay. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Yeah, here we go. Like I guess this is what we're doing tonight I thought that I was gonna be playing CB like I always do and now I'm out here facing a free kick from their DP 10 like alright Yeah, pile it on boys and they did, you know with respect to the rest of the league Albert Rusnak 18 combined goals and assists, you know who has 19 I
00:51:34
Speaker
kucho snap for mvp bru sneck from vp He's at 20 goal contributions in league play. He's at 20. And that's what I'm saying. It's like 20 plus he's going to pass so many legendary sounders this year with his statistics.
Listener Questions and Agenda Check
00:51:47
Speaker
So I don't even give a shit who they're playing.
00:51:50
Speaker
Put some respect on our boy's name, okay? Put some respect on our boy's name. I didn't even mean to open up the whole debate again. Put some respect on his name. Shout out to Slovakia. Shout out to Slovakia. rone i mean the whole The whole team like did their job after that red card. like i see man like when you're when you're When the other team just gifts you the game, you have to take the gift. That's what the Sounders did. I was happy to see it, too, because of the content. All right, let's hit our agenda check now and then we'll do questions. um I only have three written down. Tell me if I missed anything. um I got the Georgie one, first of all, because we've been tracking that one, right?
00:52:24
Speaker
um You know, it's I guess this is kind of hard because it all came when the game was super chocked. But like I'm still in on the Georgie. I'm still in on the Georgie hype train. He had a couple of other nice moments, played pretty well. I like how I like how he can take guys out one on one and.
00:52:44
Speaker
Yeah, I'll call it strengthened. Yeah, I agree. I don't think there was anything to diminish it. Listen, okay, I know this isn't the Georgie. Actually, we'll get to it when we get to the De La Vega agenda, but I love Georgie. I want him to play more minutes. I was sad he didn't like hit, hit, but like, Dude, I like him. I like him. I don't know if he got the secondary for it, but I want to say he played a tenseo before a tenseo found Roosnack for the third goal. He's been in goal dangerous. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a fun storyline. And he's been getting interviewed more, and he seems like an awesome kid. So yeah, it's a fun new little story. Second agenda I've got is that the crew are perpetually the victims of MLS or other assorted conspiracies.
00:53:29
Speaker
They always seem to be in the middle of this, right? You had the CCL final, you had the league conspiring against them so they couldn't have a backup goalkeeper. Right, they wanted them to lose. Because they want Messi to win the shield. Yeah, so Don Garber wanted to move them. I guess this agenda is strengthened. Yeah, yeah.
00:53:48
Speaker
ah apparently Apparently poster child Club is yeah. No, it's you win League's Cup and the league says we hate you I just I had to throw that one in there. I'm sorry strength to the moon de la Vega as the Savior I think pretty much status Unchained unchanged maybe a small dip. Maybe a small dip. I don't know. I feel like ah We're still not to say the same thing every week, but like we're still just at this sample size where I'm going to keep holding out hope until I, the way I, okay, the, just a simple way that I kind of think of these things is that, um, I, I do like a 1000 minutes check-in that's like the first benchmark that I kind of look at.
00:54:27
Speaker
and so like I'm kind of going to I'm gonna gradually formulate my takes as he gets closer and closer to 1k minutes like 1,000 to 1,200 that's sort of 350 right yeah I just we just got it we got to see him more we got to let him cook it's just it's good day he's out there pussy even getting these games healthy he's played No, he hasn't even played a full 90, right? Am I wrong there? and i mean and Definitely not since like the beginning of this season. Yeah, no, it doesn't even look like he's played a full 90. So like what what? Yeah, I'll wait. I'll wait. I'll wait. I'm with you. Did you have any agendas or can we, should we hit these questions? No, I did want to add one more thing to the De La Vega though. I was sad to see him subbed off so early.
00:55:13
Speaker
Yeah, how'd you feel about that? I mean like they're gonna do what they think is in the best interest of keeping him healthy and keeping him fit So I just feel like he could have gotten one like even an assist and I just think that that would do so much for his confidence It's true. but Yeah in this but also like at the same time you could argue that like once you're up three goals especially like you can kind of just coast and you can take like guys who might be at injury risk or yeah Like I was kind of surprised to see Jordan and I think Rusenak was still out there. out there um So I don't know if that was just like, like I said, it kind of became like a training drill at a certain point. Like I don't think anyone was even sweating in the second half really, um but that would be like the counterpoint. Yeah, no, I see that. I just, I want to see him play so bad and I just want him to get, yeah feel I want him to get his his second goal or first assist because that man, that man could be good, but we don't know. Questions?
00:56:05
Speaker
Yeah. Let's hit these questions. What do we got? Thank you to everyone. Yeah. who all yeah and you know The whole thing mentions cooking, all of that. Uh, we'll start here. We hit on this earlier, but I just wanted to acknowledge that I did get
U.S. Men's National Team Commentary
00:56:21
Speaker
some talking points from this and thought it was funny with the supporter shield on the line and an open roster spot. How on earth do you not sign a keeper for this match? If you're Columbus, Yeah, I mean, it's that's a great question where it's a phenomenal question. It's one of the best questions I've ever heard. We're all wondering the answer to that. Yeah. This one comes from Kenny. Why does Columbus fan base think they deserve a charity spot in the Club World Cup? Should it go to a consistent champion like Club America, not bottlers with little depth?
00:56:47
Speaker
um yeah Is Columbus in the club World Cup or is he saying that they know say there's one more spot that MLS I believe or yeah I think MLS gets to choose who's gonna be in that spot and they haven't announced who or how. Okay and Seattle's already the most spot seattle's already in famously as the team that the MLS club that's actually won Champions League. yeah I don't know, but like I kinda, okay, here's my take on that. They should get the spot because they're gonna go and lose, and there's gonna be some conspiracy that comes out about why they lost, and I'm down for more of that content. They wouldn't let him play in Ohio, and so therefore the the FIFA hates them, and in Fontana, is that his name? Or is he d he gone now? Whatever. I think it's so funny. I did see a bunch of Columbus fans, like
00:57:37
Speaker
earlier, you know, talking about, Oh, you know, we're going to be in the club World Cup because they were thinking they might win the shield. And there's some rumors and rumblings that the shield winner might get put in. I think, I think that's a good way to do it. yeah That'd be sick. And then it goes to, Oh, that's, this is a ploy to get inner Miami in there. Exactly. Okay. I see what's happening. yeah But honestly, like if you take that out of it, I think shield winner getting this theoretical spot makes sense.
00:58:02
Speaker
Like, people people are gonna get their tinfoil hats on with that, and I think there probably is an element of ah forcing Messi into the competition, but like. I think he's being the open cup winner. yeah yeah so The open cup runner up. I want sport in Kansas City in the club world. So, I mean, okay, it would probably be, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a good take. ah This one comes from Kenneth Wade. Thank you for subscribing, Kenneth.
00:58:28
Speaker
Considering the infinite number of ways this game could have gone, what is the likelihood that this is the absolutely most comical possible outcome? That's a great question and great point. It was absolutely the most comical possible outcome. like i Like I said, I still can't believe how blessed we are with how that game went. I was i was literally, I was watching the game by myself and I was literally laughing out loud yeah during the second half. yeah no And after that ah stand after the red card, when I realized Sawatzki was going in goal, I was like, yeah bro, there's no way.
00:58:58
Speaker
Yeah, there's no way that they there's no way that they did this and then we got their goalkeeper No, it was like there is just no way that they did that in the best part was do the commentators were hinting at this all game They wanted this shit so bad. This is like commentator crack. I wanted it but like I didn't think there was a right way that we would actually get it. yeah you know like i thought i was like oh that's kind like they They noted it, like you said, on the broadcast. And I was like, OK, that's kind of weird. But like what are the odds that the goalkeeper is going to get injured or sent off? Not that high. I really did not think that we would be blessed as such. But lo and behold.
00:59:34
Speaker
It's so good. God, this is just, I'm still like smiling ear to ear. We're on cloud nine if you guys can't tell. Yeah. So if Columbus owns LAFC, but LAFC owns the Sounders, how likely are to how likely are we to win the and MLS cup? Say that one again.
00:59:49
Speaker
If Columbus owns LAFC, but LAFC own the Sounders, how likely are we to win MLS Cup? It's a good point, pretty likely. Yeah. Pretty likely. I think, yeah, we just have to hope that LAFC gets knocked out, right? And then it's anything anything can happen from there. I mean, you might have to play the crew of the MLS Cup, but like all you have to do is get their goalkeeper sent off. They're not going to have another one. We've done it before, so you know.
01:00:15
Speaker
This one comes from Spirit of 74. Does this match support Taylor Twelman's agenda of Sounders only smash on lesser teams, or are the Sounders really cooking right now after getting cooked? I mean, like you definitely can't like make judgments on whether they're cooking or not on a game where they were bamming all their goals on Sean Sawatzky. But like the thing is, like the the the only beat bad teams agenda, we probably should have put that in agenda tech. We can just talk about that right now. The only bad beat bad teams agenda to check is in full going to be strengthened because, ah yes, Seattle bammed in the game, but every every everyone wants to poke holes in it or asterisk it can just, you know, point to the whole goalkeeper, Sean Swatsky debacle. So unfortunately ah there's not all that much of a counterpoint to that.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. I think that was like the most strengthened agenda of all of them ah in this past week. it's a tough It's a tough thing to admit, but you know what? You can only play the people in front of you, and we still beat Columbus. I don't really care. I don't really care, Ari. I mean, get bammed on. Exactly. Get bammed on. Get smoked. Get smoked. Absolutely.
01:01:25
Speaker
This one comes from Rhett. Looking ahead, is this is it happenstance that the wwe WWE wrestlers are in town the same weekend as sporting club professional wrestling enthusiasts? Wait, wait, wait. Sorry, I read this wrong. WWE is in town next weekend, too? Oh, actually, we should go to that. Dude, we need to get this. Oh, my God. That's awesome. Good shout, Rhett. Thank you, Rhett, for pointing that out. We should go dressed as Tamelya.
01:01:49
Speaker
o should we if one of you okay if one of you watching is going to w WWE if you send us a photo dressed up just like even wearing a sporting Kansas City shirt anything Venmo you some ten dollars go for it that could buy you one beer probably All right, this one comes from wicked wise beyond just the goal contributions Is it safe to say that this will be albert rosenac's best season of his entire career? What about jordan morris's? I mean statistically, this is rosenac's best mls season. I think um even going back to He the guy had some really good productive seasons for rialis all lake. Okay, but um I mean, I think the way he's playing this year and just the the output that he's producing right now like
01:02:35
Speaker
Assuming he stays on the same track for the rest of the season. He might have like a 10 plus goal 15 plus assist type of year Which is I mean that's a great year and you know people are gonna say that the hat trick goals don't count because it came against Sean Sawatzki Not true. They still put those on the statue do are they they go towards his stats and They most certainly do count so get out of here with that They count pre-emptive leads. They did that for Jordan last year. They did that for Jordan and Leo Chu in that game. That's yes not how it works. That's not how it works, folks. They they count. I honestly like people. Another anti Rusnak brigade agenda is that he's only cooking this season because it's a contract year. I don't think that's true.
01:03:20
Speaker
I think that he's finally settled into the position that he's playing and has a really good connection with Jordan Morris. And I think Jordan Morris has a really good connection with Albert Rusnak. And I think also, ah you know, I thought Roald Dahl and Christian played great in this game as well. so Christian and Atencio. Atencio as well, yeah. good game So i think I think honestly at the end of the day, this will be the book. It already is Jordan Morris's statistical best season of his career, correct? Did he pass his goals? No, i don't he had 12 goals as a rookie. He's on 11 right now. But if you add in the open cup goal and he scored a few in leagues, correct like he is cruising across all comps. But their numbers ah across all comps are both excellent. like yes yeah You can just look at the ah look at the stats. um
01:04:07
Speaker
All right, we'll call it right there for questions. Again, thank you as always to everyone who submitted and gets the discourse flowing. We love you. You can always blow up my mentions if you want. maybe i'll Maybe I'll see it and maybe I'll respond. and Anyway, you all are much appreciated. um All right.
Upcoming MLS Matches Preview
01:04:25
Speaker
Should we get into some USMNT punditry real quick? Oh, God, all right. I'm ready for more Schadenfreude. All right. Yeah, we're not going to spend a whole lot of time on this, but I did want to report that the US Men's National Fraud Squad was back in action with a friendly against Canada and got bammed on.
01:04:41
Speaker
got bammed on, emphatically bammed on by ah Jacob Schaffelberg, first of all. ah And ah you know, Canada had like 11 MLS players. um So that's pretty funny. yeah um But the other, the main reason I wanted to bring this up was because have you been like following ah Jesse Marsh's press conferences after the game at all? he Talk about a cooker.
01:05:03
Speaker
Talk about a guy who's in a pressure group here. Every time they ask him about the US job and if there is any conflict or strife about taking this job or if he wanted the US job, he just goes, no. I don't want that job at all. It's a complete joke of an organization, basically. I'm paraphrasing, but he's like, the way it's run, I want no part of that. I'm way happier to be here. I feel like this is a better job. I'm vibing with this. Yeah, don't want it at all. I just think that's so Like funny how blunt he is about that and then I'm also like like cook Jesse Yeah, like you're right. Like I I would take your your job over the u.s. Job too right now Yeah, people better teams better people have been calling me a traitor in on Twitter because I was celebrating Jacob Schaffelberg Baming on a bunch of euro fraud. I'm basically Canada fan at this point. That's what I'm saying. I'm basically a converted Canadian. Like I like Jesse Marsh. Sorry, I'm sorry. Yeah, like I like Jesse Marsh. Their team's better. They're better. They're better strikers. Give me Jonathan David and Kyle Laron over Ballagans. Yeah. All day. And it's like, it's so funny too. Also like
01:06:10
Speaker
Honestly, ah watching that match, I thought it was hilarious how poorly Tim Reem played. Tim Reem played like a bot. He played like a hero bot. I didn't really watch that much of the game to be honest. Well, that's okay. i am Tim Reem this is good tim dream basically gave away two goals. And I think that it's funny because it's like, obviously I'm a very pro MLS narrative guy, but the fact that like Charlotte just signed him goes against, but like, I don't count it yet because he hasn't hit five matches for Charlotte. So he's technically still a Euro fraud.
01:06:41
Speaker
that's my take Fulham Fulham legend yeah um but uh yeah the Jesse Marsh press pressers are funny and also it's just like um you know I call them the fraud squad somewhat ingest but like they're actually bad there it's not it's and and you know you know what's messed up about it is like ah like I really do still think that there is talent in the pool in a way that like we probably haven't had in past generations, but like the idea of them as like a golden generation is almost like laughable to me at this point. They're fools gold. One friendly against Canada does not define them, but like when you take into account like the Copa debacle and just the general continually playing below the sum of your parts,
01:07:26
Speaker
I mean, you can blame Berhalter if you want, that's fine, and hope that Pocatino's gonna fix everything. I just don't, i like really, like I'm not trying to be any type of way about it, I just don't know if these guys are are as good as we all thought they were. you're like I'm really questioning it more than I have.
01:07:45
Speaker
in the entire time that I've been following this new generation, which is, you know, we followed their entire come up. And ah I was a big, like, when they were dominating Nations League, I was as much of a proponent as their upside as anybody. Paladin made you find God. Yeah, exactly. We literally did a whole episode where I talk about how he made me find God. And ah it's it's kind of, it's really, for me, it's honestly unfortunate how how much it's deteriorated. And um that's why I joke about it.
01:08:12
Speaker
like to cope, you know? Yeah. No, I agree. And honestly, like now that I've always despised the USMNT fan base just because of sorry, sorry, folks, I'm going to cook here ah but just because they're annoying and dumb. And like the national team is so incredibly like weird. I don't understand how you could like be a fan of only the national team. It's just it's odd to me. But even more than that, like The fact that they will literally just hate on a player for no good reason and then find some 12 and a half year old guy who plays in the Netherlands who has, his dad has a US passport and they're like, guys, okay, I made this highlight reel of this 12 and a half year old, okay, hear me out, I think he's gonna be the next guy, we gotta call him in. And then they're like, oh, Jordan Morris having the season of his life, if he ever touches the field, I will commit a crime.
01:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. Well, uh, you know, the bots, the bots are their own, uh, their own type of interesting little subculture that they've got going on there. Uh, I don't really, uh, I don't engage with them much if at all anymore. I know you still like to poke the hornet's nest from time to time, but like the one thing that I think, uh, what I would say about that is the kind of saving grace is that like, like when the national team is not doing well, they get upset and that's funny. Yeah. I'm always there for that content. And also, I'm going to celebrate if the US do well.
01:09:42
Speaker
yeah I am shameless. We get to have both ways. We're going to have a cake and eat it too in that way. I agree. Um, there's really not much talk about with other results around MLS. Um, Seattle was definitely like the main character last night. Like yeah that whole game, uh, that they were the stars of the show. Um, Houston and LAFC and Vancouver, Dallas both, uh, we're zero zero draws and DC beat Chicago. Ben Teke took the golden boot lead, I think. Um, but I'm not being so good, dude. If he wins it for this mid-ass DC side. Yeah, that would be great. Yeah. um But like I'm not even going to do winners and losers because there just wasn't like a lot yeah going on. And ah really, ah we won. We did win. We won. like not And I don't mean the Sounders. I mean us. Us, personally. Yeah. Ari and Noah, winners section. we want We're the winners for match day 31.
01:10:31
Speaker
um I wanted to talk about Caleb Porter's Blazing Hot Presser. I don't know if you saw it or I retweeted the transcript. It was incredible. So Caleb Porter, honestly, man, it was about as hot, if not hotter than Wilford Nancy's, which, like I said, to have two of these in the same night was unbelievable. He was mad because New England tied St. Louis City 2-2. And there was a there was a penalty kick call that Caleb Porter should have gotten. He he thought that New England should have had a penalty kick.
01:11:00
Speaker
um And he ah he called the ref a coward. He said the ref is a cow Which is that I just think that's funny because that's like what we call. Yeah, yeah, like you coward. we call that Yeah If you use the lingo like that's objectively funny exactly, and but he wasn't lingoing He was like actually he was like the ref is legitimately a coward for not awarding us this penalty kick call Which I looked at the call and like I think there's like a so solid argument that it's a penalty but he had one point that ah that bothered me actually which is that ah he said you know because we didn't get that penalty it took two point two points from us like we would have won is that you don't know that you would have made yeah he's presupposing you I get it like it's a high percentage chance that they would have made it but like ah
01:11:45
Speaker
you You don't know what would ah what would have happened. Or like if you score, I don't know i actually know at what point in the game it was, but if you score a goal to go go ahead, that changes what happens for the butterfly effect, man. That changes what happens the rest of the entire game, and you can't you don't you can't presuppose what would happen. so like it's always Whenever people presuppose stuff like that. I always mentally noted. I'm like, that's not you. Yeah, you don't you don't know. what would happen Well, it's just it's that classic like cowardice from a coach where you you we I love Caleb Porter because he will do anything but take responsibility or just like be like, yeah, we just yeah, we didn't play good enough.
01:12:21
Speaker
He was doing the like he's like actually MLS would schedule this game when the baronic pressure was too high and therefore the ball didn't float in the right way in the air. And actually because of the trackers on the back of my players, the 5G, they all got headaches. It's like he he's he's he cooks.
01:12:41
Speaker
He likes doing the, like, if Caleb Porter team takes an L, he likes doing the, we had the greatest performance of all time. We might be the greatest team of all time, but, ah you know, we got unlucky today, but if we keep playing like that, we're gonna win not just the shield this year, but five shields in a row. Yeah, we're winning Club World Cup. Yeah, but anyway. We should do, we should do a,
01:13:06
Speaker
Like I think at the end of the year we'll do an end of season awards. I think we should create a trophy for best blazing off press conference and we'll make sure that it gets to the coach. We will mail it out. I like that. You know, like, uh, usually Peter Vermees is the one who delivers this content. There's a few others out there that, uh, you know, Schmetz's was pretty hot after the, uh, uh, last LAFC. Yeah, that one was good too. He would actually be a nominee for that one. But honestly,
01:13:31
Speaker
None of it holds a candle to these back-to-back ones from Wilford and Nancy, Caleb Porter. um Go look them both up. I can't recommend it. and yeah um All right, let's ah let's preview this sporting Kansas City game. The Sounders are back in action at Loom & Field on Sunday. um The club of professional wrestling enthusiasts is in town.
01:13:50
Speaker
um I'll give you the scouting point on a report on sporting Kansas City. um It's always tough playing sporting Kansas City because you never know what they're going to do out there. They might hit you with the rock bottom. They might hit you with the full Nelson yeah suplex, whatever it may be. I mean, anything can happen in a game where ah where Seattle and sporting Kansas City get together. So And Ari, I'm a um um'm being told that the entire Sporting Kansas City roster will be at wwe WWE Friday Night SmackDown Friday at Climate Pledge Arena. They probably will, yeah. Their fans might be too. um But, you know, in all seriousness, um
01:14:31
Speaker
Sporting Kansas City, not that good. I mean, they were actually like near the bottom of the table for yeah a lot of the season and they've they've been playing better lately. But I mean, there's seven, 14 and seven with a minus eight goal differential have given up 53 goals this year. They're two, nine and three on the road. um They got a couple of good players. Johnny. rutt I feel like Johnny Russell.
01:14:53
Speaker
I'm predicting Johnny Russell is going to pay him in this game because he pretty, it seems like he's been on a heater a little bit. He's been on a heater a little bit and he, oh, no matter how, what the form of the two teams is, whenever Seattle plays sporting KC, Johnny Russell gets one. Um, Daniel Salloway is a pretty good player. Alan Polito, he's been hurt a lot this year. I don't even know if he's, uh, available right now, but if he is, he, uh, he has a decent MLS number nine when he plays, he just doesn't play that much. Yeah, so there are definitely there guys in attack that can hurt you, but this team does not defend very well They've conceded 50 plus goals um Playing them at lumen. I mean you should win this game. This should be a dub Yeah, like really has to be should be a dub and one thing I was gonna bring up too on that note Is that like Seattle moved up to fifth right? Yeah with ah with this win. They basically
01:15:40
Speaker
got the best possible result from everyone else out of the table. And there is an opportunity to make a play here, to get in the top four and maybe up towards like third, man. yeah Because if you just grant that these teams, Real Salt Lake and Colorado, and even outside chance LAFC, if you grant that they're going to drop a few points along the way here, um Seattle has the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts on Sunday.
01:16:04
Speaker
They have the quakes on my birthday after that We should go down for that yeah it's always is that it' here It's here um and then I'm looking I'm pulling up this guy's Houston on the 28th Houston ah atover At Lumen. Yeah, so but like Sporting KC, San Jose and Houston all at home doable. You could get nine from that. Like I'm not, I don't know if it's likely based on, it might get five gone but, um, like if you play up to your full potential and ability, you could, those are all winnable games yeah is my only point. So like there is an opportunity presented to like make a serious play and get up
Debates on Player Performance
01:16:45
Speaker
the table here. And so let's see if they can take advantage of that. I hope so. Alright, we had a couple other things to hit. yeah I guess just one YouTube commenter, right? I just i saw this YouTube comment and honestly, like I like the the format of YouTube because you can type, I think, unlimited characters in there. So people really get to
01:17:05
Speaker
diverge their full take. ah But one of our YouTube commenters had said this about our last episode, specifically the Taylor Twelman segment where you were defending Jordan Morris. ah So here we go. I'm just going to read this out.
01:17:20
Speaker
The phrase I think you're looking for in cognitive sciences terms is confirmation bias. Oh, yeah. Oh, he was right. I'm glad you noticed that I was i was looking for that. Damn it. You already have a bias, and you look for the data to support it. So yes, thank you. Gets into his cook here. While I generally agree with your takes, especially read the roster build, I wholly disagree with you using old data to support your argument. In fact, in sports, you're only as good as your last outing.
01:17:48
Speaker
Wish you had stuck with this season and focused more on just goals and assists they've created with plenty of big chances this year. But I think that that's true, but also Taylor Twelman's argument was predicated on he's never been good. Jordan Morris has never been good at the big in the big moments. I don't think TT would. ah
01:18:10
Speaker
would agree with that. i think i well I think his point was that he's never been good as the lone nine. yes Never been good as the lone nine. Not that he's not been a good player or necessarily a big game player, but he can't carry the load as the nine. So I guess like in that way, the take of like if can Jordan Morris score in big games might not actually be as relevant to what he was talking about. but like Even outside of the TT take, there has been a pervasive thing of like Morris and Rusenak are feasting on the bad teams and they're not scoring against, and they're they're not producing against the good teams. And the point i would the counterpoint that I was trying to make yeah is that throughout their careers, especially Jordan Rusenak, I followed him decently close on RSL, but I can't speak to it as much. yeah But like go look back through Jordan's entire MLS career and
01:18:58
Speaker
He scored in the biggest games against good teams ah in CCL for the national team against Mexico and in World Cup qualifying, like this idea that um he is a like merchant that only feasts against low level competition. It's just never been true. It wasn't true when people tried to do it for the US national team, like to undermine his US national team production. And it's not true about his MLS career at all. So that's what I was talking about with that. um yeah So yeah, I'm not exactly sure what's meant by using old data to support your argument. I guess I think you were talking about oh he he's won these trophies. He scored in these big games right. He's been you know without him. They wouldn't be in the position that they were at.
01:19:43
Speaker
which was directly addressing Taylor Twelman's thing. What I think we can also take from this is like, yeah, look at this year, man. It doesn't really matter if it's a big opponent or a small opponent. There's points being got from Jordan Morris, and maybe you can use him as a centerpiece. And also at the end of the day, he's having one of the best seasons of his entire career. So Taylor Twelman, your agenda has been checked.
01:20:09
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, it's real quick. I know we got another comment for someone who from someone who said that um like they didn't like that we spent the time that we did on the TT take because he doesn't represent the fan base. And i what I would say to that is that's exactly the point. yeah like If you're only focusing on what represents the fan base, you're A, you're getting a narrow perspective.
01:20:32
Speaker
and you're also getting what is often an emotional perspective, that's why I like to zoom out and look at what the national pundits are saying and see if there takes a line with how I see things because they're coming at it from an entirely different
Audience Engagement and Sponsorship
01:20:45
Speaker
lens. I don't think it's very informative or instructive at all to only look at the perspective from the fans that are emotionally invested in it and follow it day to day. like And you know, part of that is because I'm like ah a media junkie and I'm always like looking at the news and stuff.
01:21:00
Speaker
and i can't And I can't help it. But I do think like there's times where the National Pundits dish takes that I think are interesting to talk about. So we're going to keep doing that. um you know Matt Doyle wrote a whole column, shout out to our Chair Analyst on MLSSoccer.com. We've got to get him on. We do, yeah. It's like a new era of what what it's going to look like for Seattle. I encourage everyone to read it because, again, he's been sort of a proponent of ah Of like that the the craig wybes wait and see approach and not not cooking in this transfer window right away Was actually like the right way to approach the roster build like considering the de la vega injury And the fact that they don't even they don't know what type of running mate
01:21:42
Speaker
ah to sign for De La Vega because they don't even know if he's Good or gonna be productive yet. Yeah, so like they're it's just you don't have to agree with it But like these these are good points guys like these are things that Craig wives and like the organization like You don't have to agree, like I said, with them not signing anybody, but it's stuff that they would be irresponsible not to think about. like they just They just would. um And so that's not defending the approach to the transfer window at all. that's just like kind of Doyle did a good job, I thought, of laying out the type of stuff that like a GM and an owner
01:22:17
Speaker
have to think about when they're scouting and doing signings and managing their roster. And it's not always like as black and white as people make it, I guess, is is my point. And that's another reason why ah monitoring the mash the national pundits can be ah beneficial, because they'll bring up stuff like that that you might not have thought about.
01:22:33
Speaker
um And remember you don't always have to do it. You just got to listen to lobbying scorchers will bring you will spoon feed it to you yeah exactly I'll always keep you guys like appraised of what the national pundits are spouting off about um Anyway, thanks for that comment. Thanks to all ah for ah to all the YouTube comments. There's a lot of good ones on there Yeah, there's some good ones and you guys like feel free to let it rip like we want the engagement But we also like it's good discussion and like we're fully aware to like we get on here and we fire our takes from the hip We're wrong all the time. We're wrong all the time. So, like, it's like no... ah No hard feelings. Like, no hard feelings if you if you cook us. i We really don't care. We love it. um All right, I think we're good to call it there for episode 63. That was a great time. That was probably my one of my favorite shows that we've ever recorded. This was my favorite game of the season, my favorite dub of the season. I don't really see it being surpassed unless Seattle goes on like a crazy playoff run where they upset somebody or something. It was hilarious.
01:23:31
Speaker
the the Sounders beat the best team in the league with a With a center back and goal and I loved every second of it. Yeah. No, I whoo top five sounders moments for me of the last about a couple years at least. I know it's in the tie. It's in the top five for me now. It's usually historic dub like it's his story just for me personally. I'm not saying that every sounders fan is going to feel the same for me personally. God that was so not because of the significance of the points or anything like just because of the content exactly like that's and that's really what we're concerned about exactly. All right. We'll call it right there. Thank you so much, as always, to everyone tuning in to the podcast and our new audience on YouTube. um Like, comment, rate, subscribe, write us a review. Share with Wilfred Nancy. Share with Wilfred Nancy. Share with the Columbus Crew fan base. I'm sure they're going to be popping off in the comments. um We will see you next time on episode 64. Until then, we out. Peace.
01:24:32
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers is sponsored by Full Pole Wines, a Seattle-based seller. Not only are they a local company, but they've been supporting independent Seattle soccer media since 2011 and are run by Sounders fans. They offer the best boutique wines in the world to members of their mailing list with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers. Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. Three, your wine arrives at their Soto warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their Soto tasting room is also open to the public.
01:25:02
Speaker
If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpolewants.com.