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Sounders FC - DC United preview
80 Plays1 year ago
Jason Anderson, formerly of Black and Red United but current with Pro Soccer Wire, joined us to give us some insight into D.C. United, a team that appears to be a lot better than their record would indicate. Not only do they have one of the league's top scorers in Christian Benteke, but they also have the most active defense. Should be interesting!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. 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 Sounders 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.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
DC United Match Preview
00:00:48
Speaker
It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adiates. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today to help preview the DC United match coming up on Saturday is a good friend of mine from a previous life, Jason Anderson. You may know him as the former editor of Black and Red United, but he's now at Pro Soccer Wire. How's it going, Jason? It's going well. They keep having to write about soccer, so I guess I can't complain.
00:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, right. It's like it's if the checks are clearing, it's hard to complain these
Historical Match Frequency
00:02:01
Speaker
days. Yeah. So we are playing sounders in DC have not played much recently. I don't I don't honestly remember the last time Seattle played in DC. I could probably look that up if I were actually competent at my
00:02:19
Speaker
uh at at my prep but i did not do you happen to remember the last time dc and uh my guess honestly is that it might have been scheduled for the 2020 season um okay guess of mine is that it might have been on the schedule and then just not happened due to the pandemic um but it it is weird from a dc side that like
00:02:41
Speaker
DC feels like they always get assigned a game against Portland and then almost never Seattle or Vancouver. It's like once every five years our teams cross paths once again and are reminded that they are in fact in the same league. And then many years will go past until we meet again.
00:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, and of course the funny thing about this is that there was a time not so long ago when it almost felt like the Sounders in DC had a budding rivalry. Back in the early days of the Sounders entry into MLS, it was sort of like DC was one of the teams that wasn't quite where it used to be, but they were a
DC United's Vision and Structure
00:03:23
Speaker
a vanguard of a previous area. By the way, 2019 was the last time that they played. And I guess that was in DC? I'm assuming it sounds right. Would that have been at the current stadium? Yes, the stadium opened in summer, July 2018. Okay.
00:03:47
Speaker
Yeah. And then you, and then the time before that, that the Sounders visited DC was 2016. Okay. So it's, it's not one DC team that, that one year, a lot of not falling on either side of it.
00:04:01
Speaker
Right. But, um, yeah, it's been, you know, it's a funny, I dunno, it's a, it's a funny shared history that they have, of course, they, they met in the 2009 open cup final and, you know, uh, things have gone differently, uh, since then. Yes. Uh, to say the least, to say that, to say the least, but let's, let's talk a little bit about DC. Uh, this is a team who has.
00:04:28
Speaker
I don't know. Is it fair to say they've lacked a person? They've lacked a clear vision for a while.
00:04:36
Speaker
It's extremely fair for pretty much the entire existence of the Sounders as an MLS club. DC United has kind of lacked a real vision that some of it in the early days was, you know, ownership issues, playing an RFK meant no money. So they struggled with that for a while. But coming out of that into the Audi field era, a lot of
00:04:59
Speaker
We're going to be a gritty grind it out kind of team. And then when that didn't work, they went ultra high press, almost a preposterous level of direct play. When they burned that candle too brightly, they went to Wayne Rooney, who initially was like, we're going to be a possession team. We're going to be fun to watch. And then almost immediately,
00:05:21
Speaker
Realize the players couldn't do that. Um, I shouldn't say almost me. It took a it took a little while actually Um, and then whatever last year was, um other than miserable. Um So yeah, this this season is the actual departure. They finally said
00:05:36
Speaker
You know we have to stop just going from crisis to crisis and and actually like plant our feet and start the long slow process of building a proper club that has like a structure from top to bottom that follows a vision. New GM in Ali Makai who came from Nashville, new coach in Troila Sane who
00:05:57
Speaker
took up quite quite frankly a very bad red bulls team to the playoffs last season- for the folks that didn't watch the east very much that team had no business being close to the playoffs and.
Tactical Strategies of DC United
00:06:09
Speaker
What seems kind of repeating the tricky where. Getting a team to overachieve overachieve to some extent the results maybe don't show it quite yet but.
00:06:18
Speaker
Um, this is a team that doesn't have a ton of top line talent. Um, but they've bought in their structured really well. The tactics have been sharp. Um, and they've allowed this group to contend when on paper, you would say this, this team should not be anywhere close to the playoff line.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, so Troilus Sane has seemingly at least given a structure to what DC is doing. At least when you look at their stats, you can see a clear vision. This is a team that essentially seems to be playing Red Bull soccer. Is that a right way of looking at it?
00:06:56
Speaker
It's pretty close, yeah. The pressing is the emphasis. They are transitional. It isn't completely just like, let's destroy the game and have it be a series of tackles until the ball happens to go in the goal somehow. So they aren't quite to that point. But it is very much a team that has embraced
00:07:17
Speaker
Um, it's pressing structure is the foundation of, from which everything else follows. Um, the group has, there's been some recycling in terms of the roster to get a little younger, get a little more athletic, um, so that they can do that because in the past, you know, her net, her non-losados teams tried to do that with some players who were just not fast enough to do it. Um, so the team, you know, Mackay realized that, you know, to his credit that there, there needed to be some changes there.
00:07:43
Speaker
Um, and yeah, they are going to high press. They're going to take risks number numerically. Um, they are comfortable not having a ton of possession though. I will say there, I feel like it's trended up since the start of the season. They've been having a little more of the ball as they've gotten, uh, a little more time to work on that side of things. Um, so it's been.
00:08:05
Speaker
especially coming off of the Rooney era which was totally game-to-game it was hard to see what the connection was and why things were done the way they were done other than play it long to Ben Teke. That was the one thing that they could plant their flag on and say like well this works. Now they have that but they have a lot of other stuff and so it's been
00:08:27
Speaker
much, much easier to watch, um, to go as a reporter and be like, what am I going to see tonight? Um, it's frankly, last year was a chore for me to go to the game because I didn't have to be there. It's not my sole focus for DC is not my only, uh, the only thing on my plate. And last year there were games where I'm like, why am I even driving to the stadium tonight? Um, and now it's like,
00:08:50
Speaker
Oh, I'm going to see something that's interesting. I might learn something. It might not work, but it's going to be coming from a place of, you know, strategic thought and a coherent idea. So would you say you're happy with the job that Lissane has done?
00:09:08
Speaker
Yeah, so far, I would say I've been impressed with the fact that the roster, like I said, it's not that strong of a squad. Some of it is there is a lot of youth there, players that will be better in the future. They just aren't there yet because they're in their early 20s or in some cases, they're teenagers.
00:09:31
Speaker
And frankly, this is an overdue overhaul of this squad. And so in the year one aspect of it, I think they're further ahead than I expected. The players seem to be bought in. It doesn't seem to be an act.
00:09:47
Speaker
this far into the season, week nine, this will be, what, game 10 for DC? That stuff kind of wears off anyway, and it's not, those cracks aren't showing. So, yeah, I think he's figured out very quickly what to do with this group and how to get them to, frankly, they punch above their weight.
00:10:08
Speaker
I know their record is, it's like two, what is it? Two, four and three. Yeah, so not that great. But underneath that is there are a few games that you you're like, how did they not win that one? So, yeah, they are better than they appear. And that's
DC United Roster Analysis
00:10:26
Speaker
pretty remarkable because it's been a long time where in the past when DC was near the playoffs in the last few years, you'd say like, well, they're not really this good. It's kind of the opposite. It'd be like, this is not the record is a lie in that this team is worse. And when push comes to shove, they're going to get found out. And then come August, September, they would get found out. This year, if anything, I kind of expect them to be better in August and September than they are right now.
00:11:01
Speaker
So you look at the results, uh, and it's a, you know, it's a, it's a mixed bag as you might, as you, as you might imagine with, with that record, but there are some impressive results. You know, they have, they've been able to play pretty even away from home. I think that's probably the most impressive thing. They've got a two, two road tie with the timbers where I think they came back from two, zero down, right? That's correct. And then they, they tied FC Cincinnati. They tied St. Louis on the road.
00:11:28
Speaker
And they tied Columbus on the road. I mean, these are all, those are all teams that, you know, look like they're off to pretty good starts, but two losses in a row. Uh, both of them, it appears they were playing three at the back for the, which is the only time that they've done that. Is that, is that a change that you expect to stick or was that sort of a, you know, a scrambling decision based on personnel available?
00:11:53
Speaker
I think it's going to be a little bit of toggling back and forth. This game against Orlando, the first of the two that you're talking about, DC's system in that one was, it was curious. I'll say that there were times where it was just a 4-4-2, there were times where Christian Tohome was playing as a wing-back instead of as a winger.
00:12:16
Speaker
And there's a lot of that in DC's approach where their pressing shape is not at all their attacking shape. They go back and forth between those two quite a bit.
00:12:28
Speaker
But yeah, I think it's, it's been a fascinating, it's, it's coming in more. I will say that the, the back three thing, the, the ability to toggle between the two. I think it started with Columbus as well. I think they started in 4, 2, 3, 1, but very quickly.
00:12:46
Speaker
we're having to home a and her era kind of play the same roles even though her era was at right back into home a was. On paper the left winger- so there's a lot of flexibility within let's say in system and it's it's been. There been a certain amount of targeting the opponent you know if they see a certain weakness in an opponent they go for a certain structure- sometimes they're open about talking about it usually those are the winds- and then. When they've lost their
00:13:15
Speaker
little less open about what it was that was going on there but yeah they've been flexible and I I don't see a reason for them to change that right now if the the run of bad results continues then that might they might get away from them and they might have to go a little more structured but I do think there's going to be
00:13:35
Speaker
But against the animal, I don't know. I feel like maybe he's more likely to play. Let's say is more likely to play out of a back four at home in this one, but we'll see. He's caught me off guard a few times this season already.
00:13:50
Speaker
So one of the, the stars and maybe the offensive star of this team, uh, or on deniably the offensive stars was Christian Benton techie, uh, six goals. And it's been pretty evenly distributed. It looks like, uh, at least he's got goals in three of his last five games. How would you describe him? What, what can the Sounders expect to have to face when they, when they see been techie?
00:14:17
Speaker
I have to say, I feel like I don't want to overstate this, but I don't think that a player has been as good in the air as Vintekke has been in maybe the entire run of MLS. And I'm one of those guys that was there in 96.
00:14:37
Speaker
have nothing else to do with my life other than this. So I realized that I'm talking about over a quarter of a century, but he really has been kind of astounding as an aerial presence. And DC this year is not shy about using that. They aren't going to overdo it as the Rooney era, which was just all kick it to a Christian and see what happens.
00:15:01
Speaker
But they will go that route. His finishing has been hit or miss, which maybe for Premier League fans listening in is not going to be shocking news. If his finishing were a little sharper, I think DC's probably got four wins instead of two at the least, maybe even five. So he's been dangerous. He's been getting in great positions on a regular basis against
00:15:25
Speaker
that he's played. Um the fact that he can win those battles in the air has been crucial to the whole team's approach. But, um, he's also getting to spots where he's not having to win those in the air. He's getting open in the box, and it's just a ball to defeat. So, um, yeah, they are going to build around him. Um and his performance is going to be a real bellwethered as to whether they win or lose. Um but the funny thing is that he's had some games where he hasn't played that well, and he still
00:15:55
Speaker
It's been rare to say when DC signs a designated player that it's been a real slam dunk. Good job, everyone involved. But this one really is. He's been in every facet you can ask for. He's done what they wanted. And so other than Ben Teke, who else should we be watching out for? Who are the players that are sort of conducting this team?
00:16:18
Speaker
That has been a little bit more of the issue. Aaron Herrera has been really good coming up from right back. I also, I will highlight Ted Cudi Pietro, who is a homegrown player for the team. His status is up in the air. I think the press conference is tomorrow. It'll be tomorrow morning, Pacific time. And we'll find out he hasn't played the last couple of games due to an adductor injury that's been one of those. Maybe he can, maybe he can't.
00:16:48
Speaker
If he plays, DC is a sharper team because he brings more on the dribble. He brings an urgency to their attack on the ground. They don't have to go as direct because they can find him and he can break lines that way. They don't have another player like him. And that is the big issue when he's been out. They just don't have a replacement. They've tried to sort of spread his duties across several players. But it's a lot better to just have the guy that can do all that stuff.
00:17:16
Speaker
And so that that's going to be key because he'll line up as sort of an attacking midfielder, sort of a forward, depending on their their pressing shape and all that stuff. But he's been really effective for this group over the last couple of seasons and as much as you'd like DC to have a deeper squad of attackers that are really proven and reliable.
00:17:42
Speaker
kind of, it's not he's the ball game but he's a big chunk. Garrett Stroud has been solid, a solid all-round kind of player, good in pressing scenarios. Dahome adds a lot of speed on the wing and I get the sense that
00:17:58
Speaker
they might play Pedro Santos at left back instead of Connor Antley, which adds, it subtracts a lot of physicality and adds a lot of technique. Pedro Santos has been around forever, so he is on the slow side, but he is a much more skillful player than Antley, and they've been kind of having to make that choice, you know, if we're playing a speedster, then we're going to play Antley, and if we're not playing a speedster on that flank, then we'll play Pedro. I think at home, they'll go, they'll take that risk. And as much as it's,
00:18:28
Speaker
a little odd to be high level ex and a guy who may or may not play. That is kind of where DC is and that's why I've said that they are over-achieving a little bit because they are year one. They haven't built out that depth yet.
00:18:43
Speaker
and then late late game they've gotten some good um late in games i should say they've gotten some good results out of christian fletcher coming in off the bench another one of their homegrowns um can play on the wing he can play the nine either way he's been at he adds things to their attack when they get desperate which is it helped in portland um it helped i think he scored the equalizer in portland and then actually um
00:19:07
Speaker
Like immediately shush the, uh, timbers army, which was like a big, um, rare to see DC have a moment where a kid on the team gets to do something like that. Um, but yeah, they've, they've got some players, but it's definitely year one of assembling a squad that has that kind of depth that you can say, okay, there's five or six guys. It's it's, you know, Cudi Pietro is, is vital. I will say that they need him to thrive.
Goalkeeper Situation
00:19:32
Speaker
So, and it looks like Alex Bono has firmly beaten out Tyler Miller, of course, the former sounder for the goalkeeping job. I assume that holds.
00:19:42
Speaker
Miller has been injured. He only just came back for this NYC FC game. He had shoulder surgery last season and has just been. I think this was the first game he dressed for. This this game against NYC FC. So once he's fully fit, the goalkeeper battle will begin, but he hasn't been fully fit. So Bono, I will say, has played well. Yeah, his post shot XG looks very good.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, and I will say that if there had been a goalkeeper battle last season before the injury, I think Bono might have ended up shading it even though Rudy was very big on Miller's ability with the ball at his feet.
00:20:25
Speaker
Bono's a little less of a passer out of the back. He's just, he's a goalkeeper. He's not an ultra modern sweeper keeper. They're not looking to him to do any of that stuff now either under Truerless saying it's just not part of the equation. So he's been good. Not perfect, but pretty solid. No real complaints. I don't think anyone can have about him so far this year.
00:20:48
Speaker
MLS All-Star Tyler Miller. I should have. Yes. Yes. The benefits of Audi Field hosting that game meant we got Wayne Rooney hosting, coaching the team, Miller making the team. One of my favorite things that happened last year was someone asked Rooney what he learned from that All-Star game. And he said, absolutely nothing.
00:21:11
Speaker
It was true. No one learned anything. But why would you? What a strange question to ask about an Ulster game though, right? Yes. Extremely strange. Can't believe I saw it, but I did see someone stand up and ask that question in the press conference room. Where do you go from here? Yeah. What's next with the next time you play Arsenal? Right. Yeah. So I'll close out with this. I don't like to do predictions. I feel like that's maybe a little, a little tripe. But what are the vibes like with DC? What are the vibes going into this game?
00:21:41
Speaker
Uh, I would say because of the last two results, it's a little bit of a knife edge. Um, it does feel like a game that DC has to have, um, given that Seattle season has not gone. I feel like it's fair to say not to the way that anyone, that's probably fair to say. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think if you're a DC fan, you're looking at this, if you're DC at yourself, if you're DC United, the team, you're saying like.
00:22:06
Speaker
They're coming cross country. They've got one win on the year. This is one we have to have at home. Um, so there's a little pressure there. Um, but I, I don't know that this is going to be if DC stumbles, if they, if they have another game where they play well, but don't win. Um, I don't know that it's going to be a catastrophe, but it's one of those that maybe there's a non-zero chance of it becoming like a short term, you know, mental issue that they have to work through.
00:22:32
Speaker
I think there's still a decent amount of belief that the performances have mostly been there. If they just play up to what they've been doing at home, they should be able to win the game if the finishing is OK.
Transitional Phase of DC United
00:22:48
Speaker
Which there have been games where the finishing has been bad, and that's the reason they lost. So they do have to look at this. I'm thinking of their last home game against Orlando, where they should have buried that game before halftime. They let Orlando hang on.
00:23:02
Speaker
Orlando is great at making games sloppy and kind of concacathy, and DC wasn't ready for that. So if that happens again, then DC might find itself in some trouble. But I think it's not, I think everyone's kind of understood that this is the beginning of a long-term transition rather than just being, you know, we can see as far as the nose in front of our face, which is what they did for years and years, which was bad. Don't do that if you're running a soccer team.
Jason Anderson's Social Media and Work
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Jason, thank you so much for joining me and filling us in on DC, a team that we don't get to see very often. I am bummed to have to share that you've changed your Twitter handle to the very boring Jason D. Anderson. No, it's Jason DC Soccer. I don't know who that is. Oh, Jason DC Soccer. Sorry. I blew it. Yeah. But point being, it's boring.
00:23:58
Speaker
It is. Um, it may, it may have helped me get a job to some extent. I don't know that, but I said, um, yeah. So I have to take the L I guess on that one. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. But yeah, you can read his stuff at pro soccer wire.usatoday.com. It's been great having you on and, uh, you know, hopefully we have a good game on, on Saturday. Yeah, it should be fun.
00:24:25
Speaker
All right. Uh, I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Jason Anderson. This is no study at this. We will catch you next time.
00:25:30
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!