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Lobbing Scorchers Live: Fans React to Cruz Azul's DEMOLITION of the Seattle Sounders
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Viewing Options
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or lobbingscorchers.com slash youtube.
Pre-Game Excitement: A Real Scorcher?
00:00:21
Speaker
Well, sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. What the scorcher today? Well, it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, you might need a new kit after the match we just watched because you might have ripped yours in half in frustration.
Game Analysis: Disastrous Outcome
00:00:51
Speaker
Ari, post-game show, how are feeling?
00:00:57
Speaker
That was a disaster. That was a nightmare. and it I don't think... that that could have gone worse.
00:01:07
Speaker
I don't think so either. So many counts. I, you know, uh, I fully was prepared and accepting of the reality that they might not advance in this series. You know, it's a hard series and, they didn't, they didn't score in the first leg.
00:01:24
Speaker
So, uh, I wasn't going into this like feeling amazing about their chances, um but like I said, i mean that went as badly as it possibly could have gone, both just in terms of what happened on the field and the ah injury situation that you're now dealing with, um which is really bad.
Impact of Recent Injuries
00:01:50
Speaker
In the past two games, you've now had... De La Vega go down with what looks like a multi-week recovery type injury. You have ah Jordan Morris pull up with his with what looks like a hamstring, which usually that's a multi-week injury, if not longer.
00:02:08
Speaker
And then you have Paul Areola go down with what looked like a serious knee injury. Like I, they didn't give any updates on the, ah on the broadcast.
00:02:19
Speaker
Nico Moreno was reporting that it was usually a knee injury. Yeah. I mean, you know, I don't want to speculate, but that looked like a serious long-term injury.
00:02:32
Speaker
I would be surprised if it's not. So yeah. ah Like, on top of the result that has ramifications for the season going forward now, because ah realistically right now, unless we hear different, once we might, it looks like you're looking at the next three to four weeks at least without De La Vega and Jordan Morris. And you're probably looking at the season without Paul Areola. But ah let's just talk about the game, I guess, Noah, um and talk about why we think that happened.
00:03:13
Speaker
and I mean, I actually thought the first like three to four minutes were pretty good. Yeah, no, I would say... the first three four minutes, I was like, okay,
First Half Struggles
00:03:24
Speaker
let's go. Yeah, if we could just cut out the 90 plus of those minutes and just do that fo that first five, yeah you cut that, that's a highlight tape moment for the Sounders right there. It started off like, okay, and I was actually feeling pretty good.
00:03:40
Speaker
uh, through about five minutes. The rest of the first half was, it was a disaster. Like, uh, the, the areola injury obviously would have been a cloud regardless, but, um, they,
00:03:55
Speaker
they ah They were so bad in possession, Noah. Like, um the giveaways. No, it was so bad. i think I literally posted. I was like, I think this is the worst passing performance I have ever seen from the Seattle Sounders.
00:04:10
Speaker
It was embarrassing. The angle always surface. No, no, no, no, no. no That was awful, Ari. That was awful. the one I bring up is always the, uh, the Toronto FC MLS cup that they lost the 2017 one.
00:04:28
Speaker
That that's what that looked like. that If you watch that game back, you'll see that it was just as bad as that. But yeah, I mean, and, uh, it's, that's happened to this team in finals, like a few times now, or, uh, in big games, like they just get in this, uh, zone where they cannot keep possession.
00:04:47
Speaker
So like, ah you kind of they kind of chalked themselves just on that. like You need to score a goal. You can't score if you can't keep the ball at all. I think at one point the split was seventy thirty which it's fine to yield possession if you're ah keeping them into possession without purpose, which I thought for stretches of the first half they did that.
00:05:08
Speaker
But like realistically, they got pretty lucky to get ah out of the first half at one zero The first half was terrible. It was brutally bad. i thought like, yeah, going into half, if you can be one, like one nil at halftime, I'm like, okay, you're not out of it.
00:05:26
Speaker
Like, I think you even texted me and we're like, oh, we're not out of it. But like, this shit does not look good. And then they were out of it, though. It did. It did. but It was one of those things where it was like, okay, halftime.
00:05:38
Speaker
Who knows? Brian Schmetzer, you know, locker room talk. God only knows. You just
Hopes for Second Half Recovery
00:05:43
Speaker
need to score one. You don't need to win the game. You just need to score one. And it felt like there would be one chance that they could finish on. It felt like there would be one ball that Jordan Morris or Jesus Ferreira or, God forbid, Paul Rothrock would finish. You know what I'm saying? It was just like...
00:06:02
Speaker
it It didn't feel impossible, but it felt like the tallest mountain to climb. i think the game was lost ah in large part in the midfield.
00:06:12
Speaker
ah ah thought they the midfield got pretty much overrun all night long. ah Christian got pretty lucky to not get a red card.
00:06:24
Speaker
i think, I don't know, maybe maybe maybe I'm biased. I thought that would have been a harsh red but it could have been one it could have been honestly you got a little bit lucky to not get sent off they got all that was playing with fire today like crazy i mean that i get it you play into that game he's supposed to be a very quality player these this is like this is a game where he's supposed to shine and thrive and i don't think it was his best day at the office and so i can understand getting tilted But you did see him lose his head.
00:06:56
Speaker
You saw him like he's a young player. And like, that's, that sucks. But like, dude, it's okay. Like, calm it down. And I felt like that happened so much.
00:07:07
Speaker
Just, just like some bullshit would happen and they're just, it would just crumble. Shit would just crumble. Zippy Tuna, thank you for the $2 super chat. Appreciate it.
Defensive Issues and Substitution Choices
00:07:16
Speaker
Can I just say we are conceding way too many goals? Yeah, I mean, you never want to... So, like, they gave up four, and you could say that um ah that the third and fourth were when the game was, like, they were it was desperation time at that point, and ah it was more about, like, game state than bad defense. But, like, they really... Like, I don't really think you can...
00:07:40
Speaker
rationalized with that because they got pretty lucky to not give up a couple more in the first half. So, uh, yeah, I mean, it was brutal. I, i do want to to, I do want to say like going into that second half,
00:07:59
Speaker
I want to hear what you have to think about the substitution patterns. I saw saw some people a little bit upset that bri at Brian's subs, but like personally, I didn't have a problem with with what he was doing substitutionally. i mean ah thought the Danny Leyva for Jesus Ferreira sub, I didn't really get it. But i mean the way I think he probably was thinking of that is that they were...
00:08:24
Speaker
so, so bad in possession so bad that, and Danny Leyva could theoretically help with that. That's, I mean, that's the rationale that i would think is at play there. But anyway, we are taking calls tonight, folks. If you want to jump on here and, uh, and cope with us, it looks like we got Spencer in the queue.
Fan Reactions: Luck vs. Performance?
00:08:42
Speaker
ah Let's bring him on right now. It looks like he's going no video. ah We got Spencer and then and then Mark. Spencer, can you hear us?
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. Can you guys hear me? Oh, yeah. We can hear you, man. Talk to us. How are you feeling after a CCC crash out of epic proportions, frankly? like I just like i can't even find the energy energy to crash out about this game.
00:09:09
Speaker
it's just It was cursed. We can say that they play bad, but like when Jordan Morris and Paul Ariel go down with like non-contact injuries, the game is just cursed. It's chalk. There's nothing good happening there.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I really just can't even like I see people coming at Brian already for the substitution patterns.
Other Matches and Cursed Game Theory
00:09:29
Speaker
Like we can talk about Christian. We can talk about Obed. We can talk about Paul Rothrock.
00:09:34
Speaker
But like that's just a tough game. You know, like we can scrape go all we want. But like, don't know, I'm just at a you can't win them all place with this game. I kind of wish I watched LAFC Columbus tonight. I'll be honest with you. It might've been a way more cathartic experience, but that's another bad note.
00:09:53
Speaker
LAFC are advancing. They didn't even, they got too bammed on them, but you know, Columbus, of course, cause they're Columbus crew and they're worthless. They couldn't even get a third. It's like, come on, what are we doing?
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah, I totally hear what you're saying about it about it feeling cursed. That's like, that's what it, as as soon as Jordan pulled up, I was like, this might just be cursed. This might be chalked.
00:10:17
Speaker
Like they weren't, it it was weird because it was going so poorly that it felt like they should be down by a lot, but they really had a chance to win this series previously. for most of the second half until the very end.
00:10:30
Speaker
And, uh, even when they went down to, I liked the, I liked the fight to, uh, to get one back. I liked to, I was happy for Moose that he got one. I think Moose has taken more heat than is necessary for a third striker, but, uh,
00:10:45
Speaker
i don't know Spencer, how are you feeling? let's go yeahle We got a bunch of callers. so Give us your final take. My whole deal about it was just like the the press. like In the first Cruises game, we looked really bad for the third first 30 minutes. We couldn't connect any passes.
00:11:03
Speaker
And then like we hit that 30 minute mark and we figured out how to beat Cruz Azul's press. We were able to connect to some passes. That game looks so much better. And I thought we' were gonna hit that and like it just never happened. We could not press and then we got sat back so deep.
00:11:20
Speaker
that like the Sonners don't press a ton, but they do a lot of that repressing up in the final third, but we can never get up there to get that press to cause them problems. And so I think it was just what was happening off and around the ball, you know not even the passes. like i don't know something I don't know if it's just the the short rest or, God forbid, the altitude, maybe even that field,
00:11:44
Speaker
But like something just seemed off with our passes, and I would bet a lot of it's the pressure that was coming from their press that we just could not figure out how to get around tonight. Well, thank you, Spencer.
00:11:55
Speaker
We appreciate you calling in. Peace out. Love the show. Yeah, thank you calling, Spencer. Appreciate it. Thanks for calling in. All right, next up. Mark, give us a thumbs up if you're ready to go. You look cozy mode in there.
00:12:06
Speaker
Thumbs up. Here comes Mark Kastner, Sounder at Heart and Lobbing Scorchers fame. Mark, welcome to the show. thanks Crash out or crash up? I don't know. what Where are you at?
00:12:18
Speaker
You know... like I think people will probably be annoyed that I'm going to do this, but I'm going to crash up about this. okay Oh, okay. Yeah, please. Yeah, be the one because I'm going to be crashing out.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, so it's a it's a tough it's a tough loss for sure, and it's especially especially in the way that like they kind of just gave up after that third goal went in, which isn't great.
00:12:42
Speaker
But it's always worth trying to win this competition. I think it's worth... the rotation that we experienced the last couple weeks, I think it's worth trying to figure out the best 11 you've got in this competition because you never know what can happen. And, you know, we've, we're the only ones who ever win it, at least on the MLS side.
00:13:05
Speaker
And so I liked the Sounders chances this year and it, it kind of goes, it goes the way that it goes as it goes every year, you know, but I, you know, I kind of look at, we've, we found a A decent way to play. They played garbage tonight.
00:13:24
Speaker
I don't think they played like garbage in the first leg. they just got They just weren't clinical enough and probably a little unlucky in terms of like variance and stuff like that. Yeah, but now yeah, like in kind of putting the injuries aside to to like for a second.
00:13:42
Speaker
You've got like six, seven, eight weeks of MLS just every Saturday. That's it before the Club World Cup or before like a pretty tough MLS run before the Club World Cup. So
00:13:56
Speaker
I'm like, it's a good time to figure out like, okay, do are the Sounders, the deepest team in MLS who can kind of step up? They were an hour ago. yeah They were an hour ago. They might just be a normal MLS team now. So yeah, we're, we're, we're cool.
00:14:13
Speaker
I think, I think like worst case scenario, you know, i'm pretty sure Paul Ariel is going to be out for, a while that didn't look good He can have my knee. Like, yeah, well, I don't really need it.
00:14:26
Speaker
I've seen, I've seen your knees. They're not great. They work? I can run? I'm deceiving. I'm like Jordan Morris. I'm fast. don't think they're professional athlete knees. but That's true. Alright, Mark, I want to ask you this because we got a super sticker.
00:14:40
Speaker
Christian Roldan had a shocker of a game. I just hope this result doesn't send this season into a spiral. Let's get your Christian Roldan takes before we grab another caller here. Yeah, I don't think he's actually been that good all season.
00:14:52
Speaker
I don't think he's had a good game yet. I'm going to be like completely honest. It's... it's it's hard to It's hard to trash on the guy that's going to break the appearance record and stuff like that. But he's just not been playing super well. I don't i don't love this setup for him.
00:15:11
Speaker
like He's the one that probably has to sacrifice his game the most to make the whole thing work. So that's all right. He'll be okay. That's a scorcher. Yeah. and He'll be fine.
00:15:22
Speaker
That's a certified scorcher, Mark, because I think Ari's been been on the opposite. Well, so I would say I see that a little bit differently in that I really liked how Christian played the first couple games of the year.
00:15:35
Speaker
i i wouldn't say I've noticed that he's been actively bad leading up to this game, but I don't think he... I thought he started out hot. Leveled off a little bit. And then tonight, I think tonight might have been the worst game of his career. he got i just study I don't think he's been that that good this year. i don't i don't think that means i think he's been like terrible or anything.
00:15:57
Speaker
I think he sets a really high standard for himself. And I think if he was honest, I don't think he's necessarily met that yet this year. So that that's all. I mean, maybe it's a hot take. Maybe it's not. Well, Mark, thank you.
00:16:09
Speaker
Oh, i'm am I even? No, I'm not muted. Mark, thank you for calling in. Sorry. My brain is a scrambled eggs. We need to get you back on the podcast. So we'll text you. Yeah, we'll get you on soon. appreciate you. Oh, Mark dishing. We appreciate you.
00:16:23
Speaker
Peace and love. Bye, Mark. All right. Next up, Rory, are you ready to call in? Give us a thumbs up. There we go. Rory, welcome to the show. Crash out or crash up.
00:16:34
Speaker
How are you feeling? and I'm stuck in between both. um I think just like a couple of questions mainly were with the kind of game plan. like It felt very much like we were playing for penalties from the very beginning, and like especially after the 30th minute where it just became very apparent very quickly that like you know we had almost no attack in this at all and we were really up against the cosh. I'm just yeah like i just ah not too pleased about the changes that were made to you know become a little bit more attacking. And, you know, Arreola goes down.
00:17:03
Speaker
Morris goes down, right? What can you do? thats That sucks, right? You can't control that. and But yeah, I mean, I think ultimately I'm pretty, I'm not happy that we're this competition, but you know, like if we want, we should or what we should have our way through to the next round and then we lose to a you know a better team there.
00:17:19
Speaker
Well, what, maybe two more MLS games go by that we are really kind of, under pressure or rotating massively, you know, like, but I don't think this team looks like they could go all the way. um I'd say that's probably true from the game against Charlotte, you know, these two games now here as well.
00:17:35
Speaker
um And the LSE game is great, but, you know, I just don't think we're going to be that consistent. And so, like, ultimately, like, this I think this game sucked. There's some questions to be asked. But I'd just say, you know listen, like, let's just move on, like, move off and move on.
00:17:48
Speaker
Hopefully the injuries aren't too bad and we can still put together a really strong season and ultimately be ready for the Club World Cup. So what are you looking for then out of this season as a barometer for quality and like, this is a good season?
00:18:01
Speaker
Is it a trophy still? ah Yeah, I mean, i think the i mean on paper, they can definitely win a trophy. um I think a is going to be those questions. Are there injuries, right? They're asking me a massive question. But like ultimately...
00:18:14
Speaker
I don't know, like 2021, we won the CCL. And like after that, it just kind of turned into a dumpster fire. And the team hasn't really been exciting since then. And so I'm just looking just for like an exciting team on the field again.
00:18:26
Speaker
The trophy would be fantastic. like Don't get me wrong. I want as many wins at home. But you know ultimately, I'm just looking for a reason to go to Saturday's games again and be like, oh, yeah, to have really a great time. And we'll hopefully win by a couple numbers all right. But you know just just a solid team on the field would be um this is my only ask.
00:18:44
Speaker
I think that's a great point. We've been beating that drum since last season that like we want to be entertained as much as the results, you know, like ah so if they are able to, like you said, throw this in the bin and become that team that we hope they would before the season going forward, then i think this will sting a little bit less. Yeah.
00:19:08
Speaker
Rory, thank you for the call, man. Appreciate you. Looks like we got a couple other in the couple others in the queue here. Yeah, take care. Let's do some super chats right before. I see you, disc golfer.
00:19:19
Speaker
If you're ready, give us a thumbs up. We're going to do these super chats and then hit Sweet. Okay. We'll hit this from Zippy Tuna. I could just say we're conceding way too many goals. we did I guess we did hit that one, but thank you, Zippy Tuna, for the two bucks.
00:19:30
Speaker
And does Jesus Ferreira Get a run up top now. Ari, what do you think about that? I mean, we should probably talk about the ah the one that he skied because that was a huge play in the game, man Rothrock made such a good play. Oh my God. Rothrock.
00:19:46
Speaker
He put in the ball exactly where it needed to be put. And look, one of my pet peeves is when people are talking about strikers or when, uh, any player misses a goal and they could, they say, or misses the target and they say that has to be a goal right there.
00:20:02
Speaker
I, oh that always like drives me nuts because it's like, well yeah, like, uh, good detective work, Sherlock. Yes, that does have to be a goal. Uh, But like that, ah that was that was just such a tough one, man. And ah we've been on the Ferreira train. We liked the signing. I still, I don't, ah my rate, I don't rate him any differently as a player off one sky chance, but that, that was brutal, man. it That was brutal.
00:20:32
Speaker
I think what's more concerning is he came off so quickly. i was kind of like, why is he coming off? So I'm still wondering, is he fit? Is he fit? Is he still there?
00:20:43
Speaker
i don't think he's a bad player. I just think maybe that's part of it is that he's not fully fit. He's not fully integrated. And that is a problem. But um yeah, this next super chat here. Thank you for the $2. William disaster loss for the Sounders. C CWC will be tough. Ari.
00:21:02
Speaker
Is it going to be impossible? Do you think they even get a draw? I just don't really care that much. i look at that as like an exhibition tournament. I just don't want them to embarrass themselves at ah the CWC. That's basically my criteria for success.
00:21:21
Speaker
I wouldn't say they...
00:21:25
Speaker
Embarrassed themselves tonight, but they got they they were towing that line. They were telling that line. So that's I just that's my hope for the Club World Cup and our final super chat here before we get to disc golfer from Zippy Tuna. Thank you for the two dollars again.
00:21:38
Speaker
Weird Christian wasn't subbed. Looked gassed at 55. He just had a bad game, man. He maybe it was maybe it was he was gassed. That is, you know, bad elevation and everything. But I think he just had a bad bad, bad, bad, bad showing.
00:21:54
Speaker
Agree? Disagree? Thumbs up, thumbs down, Ari? ah Yeah, I mean, I think we ah we covered it with Mark, but it was just like, ah you know, we've seen Christian be an elite player in this league for too long for me to like, again, it's the same thing I was saying with Ferreira. I'm not going to change how I rate a player off one game. But yeah, I mean, I guarantee you he would tell you that it it was one of the worst games he's played in his career.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Joining us now is this golfer, one of our OG subs and one of our favorites here on the show. We don't have favorites, but if we had them. What's going on?
00:22:31
Speaker
you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you. Welcome to the show. Crash up, crash out. So ah crash out. so All right. um I just want to reply to Mark real quick.
00:22:43
Speaker
I'm sorry, Mark. On blast. Mark Kastner. Love you. Your blue sky is a banger account. it's a lot easier to crash up when you're a little Liverpool fan as a Leicester City fan.
00:22:54
Speaker
ah I'm crashing out. That's ah it's where I'm at right now. um But ah yeah, no, that's where I'm at. ah I think this game, I am i am okay with losing CCC at this stage of the competition because I think losing in this round is so much better than losing to a very good round a very good team in one of the future rounds. But yeah,
00:23:20
Speaker
yeah this was rough, man. The injuries, the injuries are what, what is making me crash out. Yeah. We haven't really like hit on that too much already. I mean, I do want to know, do you think that this depth, well, I guess I'll ask, you know what, we're going to ask our guest here. Cause that's who really matters. so Discover.
00:23:38
Speaker
How do you feel? Do you think that this depth is now non-existent if these injuries are really that severe? Or do you think that like, what where are you feeling on all that? Oof, yeah. um I think it's very good that it's just MLS play for the next couple weeks because I think that maybe gives the team a chance to get – I don't think – well, man, I'm worried about Areola.
00:24:00
Speaker
ah That looked bad. That looked really bad. um ah Besides that, I think Jordan will come back. Pedro will come back. um It sucks for this round.
00:24:11
Speaker
um Hopefully, Ariel is okay. I don't know if he is. But ah I think this team still has depth. I want to say, as a Musovsky defender, I'm so glad he scored tonight. I think he's been making good runs.
00:24:22
Speaker
He's been taking up good space. But every time the ball came to his feet, he just looked like... Absolutely. ah like like he He looked panicked. He had no confidence.
00:24:34
Speaker
So hopefully ah with that goal, he can become like i don't know an average MLS backup striker, which would be great. Open the floodgates. So hopefully that helps. ah No, i'm i'm I'm a bit worried about depth right now. I think the fact that all of the injuries are coming to high-level offensive players has me a bit stressed.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah. I, yeah. I mean, i agree with you there. The art, the areola injury just sucks so bad. I really liked how he was looking and integrating and fitting in with the team. ah The De La Vega one is obviously like, we know the history that's,
00:25:13
Speaker
Not good. And then, you know, losing Jordan when he's been really hot to start the season, too. I don't know. and The depth is chalked, but it's definitely compromised with those three guys going down. Like, there's no doubt about that.
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Cool. That's pretty much all I had, but I appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you, guys. We appreciate you. All right. Next up, Zwazo. Is that correct something close to that? Give us a thumbs up if you're ready to go.
00:25:43
Speaker
All right. Welcome to the stage. Did you call in last time? I did. That's right. you the You're the ph d Masters, but yeah. Masters. Okay. You know what? It doesn't matter. you're I'm giving doctor to you.
00:25:56
Speaker
I'm giving doctor to you. It doesn't matter. You've got a doctor in the house. Go for it. Sorry. Keep cutting you off. Yeah. I think first and foremost, if you want to be mad about this game, you can't crash out that you lost 4-1 in CONCACAF in Mexico, right? That's par for the course.
00:26:09
Speaker
That's something that's not an aberration. But I think you can be mad about that first leg. That game model and everything else is different if there is any sort of goals, right?
00:26:21
Speaker
And woulda, shoulda, coulda, yeah, if you scored in the first game, everything changes. But, like, you know Mexico's going to suck. Like, as as a place to play, you know, Cruz Azul, you know they're not at their homestand.
00:26:32
Speaker
You know that they're not packing out their stadium. You know that they're going to it's going to be weird and bumpy and the field's going to have turf monsters. So it's like, why not try to win in Seattle?
00:26:42
Speaker
And then if you want to do possession-based, absorb pressure and all that kind of stuff, great. Like, we've done it before. So that leads me to maybe the the controversy that that I want to add into this.
00:26:56
Speaker
Brian Schmesser is on his 10th season. Eight of our core players are on five-plus seasons. Our notable acquisitions are dudes who I think is fair to say at this point in their career are outside of the national team looking in, if not just written off, and are not expected to make any upward big money moves in their career.
00:27:16
Speaker
I think it's starting to be fair to to start recycling the conversation, looking a little side eye and saying, has the messaging gone stale? You know, because you can go down that depth chart and what Pedro is going to carry the intensity of the team.
00:27:33
Speaker
We got we got bailed out. I was there when when Nico Lodero landed right in SeaTac. He's a dude. Right. And that's just how he is. He's wired to say, I'm putting everybody on my back, whether you like it or not.
00:27:46
Speaker
and And looking at Pedro or Jesus or even Obed, we're going to put them on the pedestal and say, you are now the heartbeat. You're going to be screaming at dudes like Osvaldo Alonso in the 53rd minute when you don't make a play in Houston.
00:28:01
Speaker
That's tough. That's tough. And so, you know, to be fair to the team, they've played a lot of minutes. They play a lot of minutes every single year. The season is brutal. But I think maybe you get to start to question, has has the messaging gone stale?
00:28:18
Speaker
That's the biggest scorcher had on here. There's a lot to... i' um there's a lot to ah lot to unpack there. I mean, first thing I would say is that I definitely agree that... I mean, I said after the first leg that if they end up losing the series, you in large part lost it in the first leg when you didn't score any goals.
00:28:41
Speaker
ah Even one goal would have entirely changed the complexion of that series. So ah I would say, though, that ah like... for For this team, like this team was supposed to be able to go down to Mexico and be able to like handle ah trip like that and handle a game like that.
00:29:04
Speaker
better than they did. i mean, like they like, to be fair, they kept it close, but I think they got pretty lucky to keep it as close as they did. That looked like a CCC game that we got used to watching like, you know, five, 10 years ago when there is like a way bigger gap than there is now. That's like the whole not being able to keep the ball being under pressure the, in the entire first half. So I think that's why that's it's sort of the same point I made after the RSL game, I guess like, uh,
00:29:33
Speaker
What I'm disappointed with is, like, I think we are we had high expectations for this group, and they didn't they did not meet him in that game at all. think they're 100% fair expectations.
00:29:47
Speaker
but Before we, oh, we lost him. Oh, no. can you Oh, no. All right. Sorry. We're booting you now. the The takes were too hot. We bricked your internet. I'm sorry. Thank you, zwaz Zwazo, for coming on.
00:30:00
Speaker
Next up, James, give us a thumbs up if you're ready to go. All right. James Inyo, welcome to the stream. Crash out or crash out?
00:30:12
Speaker
crash out I don't remember what I was calling it. Crash up, crash out. ah Thank you so much for having me. I'm going to say crash out. You know, the the way this offseason was pitched was that we're not going to upgrade at the top end, but we're building depth because we have multiple competitions.
00:30:29
Speaker
Now, not only are we out of the one other competition that we had a legit shot in, all due respect to the Club World Cup, but now the injuries are starting to rack up as well and challenging that depth.
00:30:43
Speaker
So now, in addition to not upgrading at the DP level, the whole sort of raison d'etre of the offseason has kind of fallen to the wayside. um You know, we've got the three U22 slots, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence that we've got the scouting to make good on that.
00:31:03
Speaker
First of all, incredible word choice. Yeah. That was top tier. Second of all, Ari, take it away. Yeah. hu I mean, i ah I think your disappointment is is valid.
00:31:18
Speaker
like I mean, I think I was kind of just saying it, but ah when I looked at the offseason moves, i was high I was high on the depth that they were accumulating, and it just feels like it it kind of all blew up in one game.
00:31:35
Speaker
So, yeah, no, I ah ah feel your frustration there. yeah Yeah. And I, and with, um with regard to Schmetzer, the previous caller, I'm still not willing to write him off.
00:31:47
Speaker
I think he worked miracles last season, given the challenges that he had to deal with. I think he can work miracles again, but he had a lot of issues thrown at him. I don't think that he had a plan in mind, how he was going to going to integrate the big new expensive signings. I think that's shown the first few games of the season.
00:32:08
Speaker
I think it was always going to take time to do that. And just with the way the MLS season spits up, you don't have that time before CCC comes in. So I don't, I'm not worried about Schmetzer yet, um but I think that they've, you know, they've got to do something with those U22s before the window closes.
00:32:26
Speaker
ah You know, we don't, I don't think it looked good for Areola. I wish him best. Mm-hmm. Pedro is always going be a problem. Morris, you know, that one didn't look too terrible to me, but I just don't know that we can go into this thinking, yeah, we're going to be relying on Danny Russovsky a lot. Although fair play to We did score.
00:32:47
Speaker
The Moose. Moose agenda to the moon. We need, ah we need him to come through. I was happy for Moose. Yeah, me too. One positive from that game. And it's literally the only one yeah that I was happy for is.
00:33:00
Speaker
yeah But i just I hope they've been scouting those U-22s. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, and it's it's hard to rely on a U-22 signing. I mean, that's just the reality of this league. like To be a game changer, you've seen it a million times. you know You're not always going to hit.
00:33:17
Speaker
And if you do, sometimes it takes them a full season to really integrate and be stellar. And we saw that with Pedro and... Hopefully his injury isn't too bad, but you know what I mean? Like he started to look like he's balled out, but it took him a full season. So yeah we will see. The one thing with U22s I'll say is i if they haven't already offered Obed a maximum $1 million U22 contract, I hope they're doing it now because I don't know that we can replace him.
00:33:45
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Keep Obed agenda. It's been launched. Well, James, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate it. Yes. Have a good one. All right. Brendan, are you ready?
00:33:57
Speaker
Boom. Welcome to the show Crash out or crash up? ah Probably out. All right. Yeah, I'll tell you, I'm not feeling good. um I have concerns with like the formation that we're playing, to be honest. 3-4-3.
00:34:17
Speaker
i think, you know, especially tonight, you were looking at the back and and Reagan and Yamar, they were just being swarmed. and And when there was pressure down there, it gets so scrambly, right? We have our midfielders coming back to help, but it's just, it looks so unorganized, you know.
00:34:36
Speaker
ah compared to when we normally have two center backs and a left and a right back. And I just don't and don't feel good about this formation for us. And then ah in addition to that, you know Jordan Morris, it looked like he was alone on an island and they were trying to hit him with a Hail Mary pass constantly.
00:34:55
Speaker
And a couple of the the through balls from Roldan or Ferreira or whoever, they looked pretty good, but he was doing all the work himself. So you know I'm not surprised that he got hurt trying to chase one of those down.
00:35:08
Speaker
He's also been playing a bajillion minutes. That's actually, yeah, that's a fair point. Like i I was really... We've been talking about how he hasn't been getting rotated enough for our liking. We have been talking about that.
00:35:21
Speaker
Yeah, which it's like, and and I agree with you, like the only path to victory being ah quick counterattacking ball to Jordan Morris when your midfield is essentially playing like dog shit and can't make that quick pass out against a really, really quality Crucifil team that is going to challenge you every single time in the transition.
00:35:42
Speaker
that's their whole game That's their whole game model, right? Like they are an incredible transition team. Like, They're going to press you super hard and press you super hard. I mean, you saw the whole first half is like after the first 10 minutes, all it was was the ball was in the Sounders half.
00:35:56
Speaker
And then they would try and play a counterattack, but they just couldn't get it off quick enough. Or Jordan Morris wasn't fast enough or whatever. Like, it's just, yeah, that's that is that is interesting that you bring that up. Yeah, and and so i'm I'm looking at like how we're going to replace him. And, you know, I was happy for Moose scoring that goal, but I don't feel good about him, you know, being out there. And and and so I'm thinking about what we're going to do in the future if Jordan's out for any length of time, you know.
00:36:24
Speaker
I really feel good about Georgie and, you know, Jesus Ferreira. I wanna see something from him. It feels like, you know, he was our big acquisition and he's had a couple of nice, you know, balls that he's he's put into the middle here and there, but he hasn't really impressed me too much, so.
00:36:47
Speaker
He hasn't looked like the ah the player that we saw for a lot of years at FC Dallas yet. i've I've liked how he's looked so far like as a facilitator and how he's combining with guys, um but he's...
00:37:02
Speaker
he's From what I've watched him in his career, he's a very goal-dangerous player. He has 50-plus MLS goals, and we just haven't seen that yet. So, I mean, I'm willing to accept that he's still very new to the team. It takes time to, like, learn how to play on a new team like this.
00:37:19
Speaker
um But ah I know people are giving him a hard time about that miss tonight. And, I mean, it was a huge play in the game, so I get it. Yeah, he just leaned back on it and it and it was ugly.
00:37:33
Speaker
And so, you know, I'm i'm thinking, you know, with Rusnak going back to like midfield and, and you know, getting Rothrock or Georgie out there, we we could have some options up front, especially with the speed. I think i think that was the problem.
00:37:47
Speaker
Morris was, you know, he's fast, but he's by himself. And what are you going to do when you're, you know, running at two, sometimes three defenders? i is I felt so frustrated for him.
00:37:58
Speaker
And so I think Georgie, you know, the I think the game would have been really different if Manungu was out there and able to run with him and give him to someone a playoff. You know, I think back to the days of like, ah you know, Dempsey and Martin and how they were able to work together to really, you know, dissect the defense. And and that's just what I was craving tonight and we never got it. so
00:38:21
Speaker
Georgie, the next ah the next Oba agenda? Is that is that what I'm hearing? He's got the speed. He's got the ability to dribble with the ball. I don't know.
00:38:33
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know if anyone could beat that Oba finishing, though. that was pretty yeah That was pretty impressive. That was the other thing, too. There was one option where Georgie was making a run into the middle, and he laid it off for Kosovo Yanzi. And it's just frustrating because I just want him to shoot. i want him to take it with his left foot. It's like kept running.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah. Run it into the back of the net. Yeah. Just like get caught in the back of the net. It's fine, dude. As long as the ball goes in, like you get the point, you get the goal, you know? Yeah. He's like extra.
00:39:04
Speaker
Just do it. Just, yeah, just do something. I want him to be confident and, and, shoot more because he's always looking for the past. So, yeah. Sweet. Well, Brendan, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate you. Thanks, guys.
00:39:19
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Brendan. All right. Ari, I'm going to hand over the reins to you. i'm literally We are going to even record a podcast after this show. Can you all believe this? This is how much content we are here to give.
00:39:32
Speaker
We're kind of psycho for that. But ah Ari, I'll hand it over to you. I'm going to go get ready and walk over to your house and literally cry in the rain. um One thing I want to hit before I do get off, though.
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah. I know Paul Rothrock conceded that penalty. But can I say something? Can I say something? This is my hot take of the game. Yeah. Give me something to launch after you leave.
00:39:55
Speaker
he should have started. He was the best player out there today.
00:40:03
Speaker
All right. He got the assist. Maybe it won't count, but you know what? He got the assist and he should have had. He should have had another one. He was playing like a man possessed. He was playing like a man possessed already. You need you need a a psycho like Paul Rothrock when you're playing against Kruis Eswil.
00:40:21
Speaker
That's all I'm going to say. and yeah I agree that like yeah the ah penalty obviously overshadows Kruis. a lot, but like he was, he was one of the only guys making things happen out there.
00:40:32
Speaker
So I give him credit for that. Yeah. Well, continue to crash out with Ari again. if you guys i want to Before I do this, there's 100 plus people in here and we only have like 20 likes. So please hit the thumbs up button. Hit the like button, please. It helps us with the algo and with our self-confidence because both me and Ari are very, very... we We tie the views and the likes to our self-confidence. So we need that. That's how yeah yeah I measure my self-worth.
00:41:00
Speaker
Yeah. Like the video sub to the, I don't know why, ah if anyone in here is not subbed to the channel yet, but if you're not, you should be. Hit the sub. We will be doing more of these. and If you still want to call in, Ari will be here.
00:41:13
Speaker
The link is in the chat. It's pinned. okay The lines are open the lie is not open. We got no one in the queue right now. So if you want to come cope, feel free to ah feel free to queue up.
00:41:27
Speaker
Noah's going to walk over to my house. I'm going to keep him now. All right. Thanks, chat. I love you. Have fun.
00:41:39
Speaker
um Can we talk about the fact that we didn't get a true dub pod before this looming L pod? Yeah, sorry about that, guys. Our schedule got kind of thrown for a loop with a Tuesday game. That's fault.
00:41:50
Speaker
And we couldn't quite quite make it happen. But we should be back. I mean, now that there's theoretically shouldn't be any Tuesday games for a while. So I don't see why that would happen again. But yeah.
00:42:07
Speaker
Sorry. Like, uh, it is a bummer because the, oh man, guys, the LAFC win looked so good. The vibes were so high. The vibes were so high. I think I wrote about it in my, uh, little sounder heart column, but, uh, it felt, it felt like divergent vibes. That's why I felt like kind of good about this game because you're coming off like a really good five goal galvanizing type win where you really, you, uh, you were playing a pretty rotated lineup and you looked like, uh,
00:42:37
Speaker
basically alpha at LAFC. So ah it's just unfortunate. It just, I don't know, however much you believe in momentum that did not carry over at all.
00:42:49
Speaker
I felt like, again, the first three to four minutes of the game were, I thought actively good. I really, i really did like three minutes after kickoff. I was like, okay, like the squad is,
00:43:06
Speaker
is ready. Like, i don't know if they're going win this series, but they look like they're, they look like they're up for it. And then it just, the first half just deteriorated so rapidly.
00:43:18
Speaker
Um, they couldn't keep the ball. They couldn't keep the ball. Like
00:43:27
Speaker
it's, uh, I think it's easy to, uh, blame the attackers in a series where you score one goal across 180 minutes and it was off a set piece.
00:43:39
Speaker
And that's fair. But if your midfield is getting run on like that and you literally, and you just can't keep possession, the amount of giveaways, man, the amount of giveaways was crazy.
00:43:50
Speaker
It was crazy. There was, there was times where I was just sitting there kind of pulling my hair out, like, like just knock it around a little bit. And even in the times where they would try to do that, they would end up giving it away.
00:44:04
Speaker
So
00:44:07
Speaker
just to let down, just to let down, like I said earlier, I could live with them losing this series. These are hard series. The degree of difficulty on these series against these Liga Mackey's teams is insanely high.
00:44:20
Speaker
So I learned a long time ago to not fully crash out about losing to a league and Mackey's team in CCC, just because that's the most likely outcome anytime.
00:44:34
Speaker
But I mean, ah it's just disappointing because it was set up for them. It was set up for them, even with the zero zero in the first leg, it was set up for them.
00:44:49
Speaker
Reese, I think the JP shout is good, actually. And I had the i had i had the same thought in thea in the first leg. jp ah JP was put on one of the best CCC runs I've ever seen in the 2022 tournament.
00:45:07
Speaker
So I would like to have seen him out there more over both of these games, frankly. Looks like we got Jake in the queue. Jake, if you're ready, give me a thumbs up and we'll bring you on.
00:45:17
Speaker
All right.
00:45:20
Speaker
Jake, all right what's going on, man? ah where We've been asking crash up or crash out. How are you feeling? Crash up all the way. Come on. It's too early to crash out of this thing.
00:45:32
Speaker
My hot take is I will be okay. Why are you feeling optimistic going forward? Tell me why. All right. So someone in the chat said that Jesus will play the nine. I think that'll probably happen if Jomo's hurt. And then we'll bring Georgie in on the wing. I mean, we've got 40 games left in the season. Schmetzer puts together a great lineup no matter what we have.
00:45:57
Speaker
Someone even talked about Deuce and Oba being ah like the dr drift compatible kind of guys back in that day. i think we had a lot going for us. I think our depth is still strong.
00:46:08
Speaker
um we went down to Cruiser Zool and got stomped. I mean, that's just what happens. There's just nothing we can do about that. Yeah, I'm like, well, let's talk about like, ah I'm down to throw down some reasons for hope and optimism because this is obviously going to be a negative postgame. But I guess what I would say is that, like, I really don't think that that performance was indicative of the overall quality of the team.
00:46:34
Speaker
I think that was an individual... disasterally, disastrously bad game that happened at a really, really bad, inopportune time. But ah if you're at if I was to assess whether that game actually reflected how good this team is and how good it came to I really don't think that, I mean, i think we already know based on what we've seen earlier this season, they are not that bad.
00:47:01
Speaker
They are not that bad. Someone mentioned the high press, and I think it was two seasons ago. It wasn't it wasn't just last season Schmetzer worked magic. It was two weeks two seasons in a row. And there was a season where Portland played us early and played the high press.
00:47:16
Speaker
And I said that they would every every team in and NLS would play us the way Portland plays at the beginning of that season, and they did, and we ended up figuring it out. So we messed it up.
00:47:28
Speaker
I mean, ah think we'll be okay. Jake, I got one caller behind you in the queue. Any last thoughts, takes, feelings, observations? ah Let it rip.
00:47:41
Speaker
Nah, we love you. You and Noah keep it great. I'll see you later. Appreciate it man. Great call.
00:47:49
Speaker
All right. it Looks like we've got Hunch in the queue. I don't see... ah
00:47:56
Speaker
Looks like you're going no vid, so I can't do thumbs up. Hunch, I'm going to put you on here, and we'll ah we'll find out if it works. Hunch, can you hear me?
00:48:07
Speaker
Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. ah How are you feeling? What are your thoughts on your CCC crash out? Sweet.
00:48:22
Speaker
yeah have Not great, but then again, i don't care as much about this tournament as I do the regular season. and
00:48:38
Speaker
think I might have locked your audio.
00:48:44
Speaker
Hunch?
00:48:48
Speaker
think I might have lost. Yeah, I'm getting a little bit lag. It's just get a little bit weird. Yeah. Okay, um got you
00:49:01
Speaker
okay i lost you again. Overall, i I would rather us focus on the regular season. I think we have a tremendous amount of depth. I don't think we have sort of, you know, offense that's focused, whether it be the assistant coaches that – um
00:49:18
Speaker
as I said, sharpen the spear. We obviously are defensive forward. um This overall is is interesting, but I mean, I'm used to being disappointed, I guess.
00:49:31
Speaker
I mean, I think we ah we're all used to being disappointed by CCC. I mean, it's not just... like Games like that, it's definitely not something that only afflicts Seattle. That's kind of... That's sort of the classic what it looks like when MLS teams have to go on the road in ah in Mexico, but...
00:49:52
Speaker
That's why I'm disappointed because i ah I had hopes and dreams that this team could could rise above that like we saw them do in 2022, to be fair. like They've shown they can do it in the past. so
00:50:07
Speaker
Well, there was talks of overall that like this was a heavily rotated squad and that you saw what we did against LAFC, who was ah a big problem with us over the past years, especially at home.
00:50:19
Speaker
And then once we were up four or five, it's like, okay, was there no consideration for any kind of resting or any and you know anything to that degree? And then addition to that, like once we were getting outstaminated, I guess you could say, in the first 30 minutes, it was just there was no adaptation in terms of you know being prepared for the fact for the elevation or overall just adjusting you know from the perspective of like, we just needed a goal.
00:50:43
Speaker
And then we got behind and suddenly we're chasing the game and they just put the foot down. It looked like, ah I mean, seattle Seattle looked like tired, but like from the beginning of the game.
00:50:56
Speaker
When you're playing at elevation, usually that hits you as you get into the game. Didn't it look like in the first half that they were just a step behind? That's what it looked like to me.
00:51:12
Speaker
Not at first, I would say. and like they we We actually looked like we knew what the agenda was. And I'm sorry that's little bit like I'm watching your camera. You're good. You're good. um But then we went to our typical shell. Like it happened against LA ga Galaxy back when they were our nemesis nemesis, like years ago, back in the MLS playoffs.
00:51:31
Speaker
They would just press us in the regular season. They would press us in the playoffs. They would come at us, and they would push us back, push us back, push us back. And then suddenly we would, like, acquiesce. And then we ah moved beyond that. We figured out how to come back at them with Oba and Deuce. And then eventually we just overall said, okay, offense can be a factor in this and we can play even-handed match.
00:51:52
Speaker
And suddenly, you know, look at look at um Papa back when we played um in that and that one match where we just pinged it off the gold and and for the supporter shield.
00:52:05
Speaker
We had balance. And then suddenly it's now we're all back to defense, defense, defense, defense. defense And there's just no no emphasis on making the other team concerned about our agenda.
00:52:17
Speaker
We're more about let's let's respond to theirs. And that if our team decides to pull back, we don't adjust. And I don't know if that's okay.
00:52:28
Speaker
Brian is fine with the fact that we're playing defense.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah. real I don't know. It's it's hard to say. Too reactive. I would agree with that. Hutch, great call, man. Thanks for coming in, addition some takes. Appreciate it.
00:52:47
Speaker
um I spilled water on myself. God damn it.
00:52:54
Speaker
ah we're coming up on 53 minutes. So I think I'll, uh, I'll hang around for until we hit the hour mark.
00:53:05
Speaker
Like Noah said, uh, We're going to do a normal podcast after this because we're psychotic. But links should still be pinned in chat. ah if yeah If anyone else wants to get a final call in, no one in the queue right now. Appreciate everyone who's ah called in so far tonight. I think this is the most call-ins we've had. And these are ah these are a lot of fun. Love hearing from you guys. So anyone anyone is welcome to ah hop on and dish takes.
00:53:37
Speaker
As long as you don't full on crash out. no No full crash outs. But you're definitely welcome to crash out a little bit. Especially after a game like that. um Looks like got one
00:53:53
Speaker
couple more super chats to hit here.
00:53:58
Speaker
Oh, this is starting to make Sounders fun again. Zippy Tuna, appreciate you again hitting us all night. Rothrock and Reed when he's back, key at left wing back now. It's a good point.
00:54:10
Speaker
i mean, Rothrock, with these injuries, Rothrock, even if the Rothrock agenda was diminished, which it's not. it's I think it's even with the penalty, i think these last two games he's he's looked back to me. so And then another from Zippy Tuna, like 2018 versus Chivas, we lost Bruin and Chad to injury. Yeah, I mean, exactly. It's just like,
00:54:32
Speaker
it looked like the CCC of old, which is disappointing.
00:54:45
Speaker
Love the post-match lives. kind Cathartic even on an L-pod. Yeah, I agree. I actually texted Noah during the game. was like, the the show is like such a good cope, you know?
00:54:59
Speaker
So I appreciate you all for for assembling for it. ah Stilika, the link should be pinned in chat, but I can toss it in again. Hold on.
00:55:22
Speaker
That's the link right there. If anyone doesn't see the pins,
00:55:29
Speaker
that should allow you to hop on. Be taking calls for a few more minutes here. ah RBW injury timeline.
00:55:42
Speaker
i think, I don't know exactly, but i think he's probably another couple weeks out at least. It sounded like he did his hammy pretty bad. and
00:55:51
Speaker
Given this result, how can we not consider being competitive in Open Cup or even with participating? um I mean, it's defiance in Open Cup this year.
00:56:05
Speaker
Is that what you're saying? like
00:56:11
Speaker
ah All right. Looks like I got Stalika in here. Hopefully I'm saying that right. No video, so I'm just going to add you to the stage and we'll let it rip. Can you hear me?
00:56:25
Speaker
Does not sound like I have audio for you.
00:56:32
Speaker
yeah I'm not hearing anything. I'm going to remove you real quick. Get Brian in here and then maybe try again and see if I can hear you. Brian, can you hear me? Yes.
00:56:43
Speaker
I can hear you. I got you. How are you feeling? Are you crashing out or you crashing up? No, I'm kind of crashing. It's just disappointing because ah don't think they played like, they didn't really outplay us that much.
00:56:57
Speaker
Like if we could have, you know, maybe scored a few chances, not giving away the pen, like it was actually a winnable game, I think. It was still a winnable game, even with how badly the first half went.
00:57:10
Speaker
yeah Even after they went down two and Moose got the goal, yeah there was those glorious few minutes where I was like, they could still do this, you know? Yeah, that that's what disappoints me the most. Because it's not like it was there. Like, we could have actually taken it.
00:57:25
Speaker
Like, if they completely outplayed us, I would have been like, fair enough. But it's just that, you know, the hope... like especially when we scored the goal and there was still like hope there. i was like It was disappointing. And with the injuries as well.
00:57:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, injury situation, that that's like the result is one thing, but I think that's the most disastrous aspect of all this is ah like now you've got La Vega and Jordan Morris out for what, I mean, i'm I'm not a doctor and, you know, I can't tell just from watching, but like from what I've seen over the years, those look like kind of three to four week injuries to me and the areola one looks really bad.
00:58:10
Speaker
So yeah, I think areola might could be season ending just the way his reaction was. Yeah. and you I mean with Jordan, I mean, he's played like every game, like 45 minutes at least. So ah we definitely need a striker to rotate because we're just tearing him into the ground.
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah. Like, uh, we mentioned that earlier, but, uh, we ah We've been saying that he's not really rotating enough for our liking. It's felt like that he's had to play every game, or but like he doesn't have to play every game. you know so Brian, real quick before I let you go, how are you feeling about the rest of the season coming up here? Is this dampening your outlook, or do you ah feel like they can get back on the horse and contend for some trophies this year?
00:59:05
Speaker
I think we can contend. Like, hopefully we make a few signings in the summer. Like, that's what I want, really. But I think, yeah, well we can contend. Like, because even last season, we started the season terrible and we made it to the Western Conference Finals. So I think we'll be good.
00:59:24
Speaker
That's sort of how I see it, too. Brian, thanks for the call, man. Appreciate it. Great stuff. Absolutely.
00:59:34
Speaker
ahlika I saw you briefly in there, but then you disappeared again. so you want to try If you want to try and hop on ah again, we can see if the audio works.
00:59:50
Speaker
Yeah, the areola injury, look I mean, it looked bad. It looked bad.
01:00:00
Speaker
Defiant Striker. Might get a short-term look. De Rosario had a nice finish last week. You know, I ah have not watched him that much, but I do know that ah his his dad, Dwayne De Rosario, was a legendary and MLS player.
01:00:19
Speaker
So I kind of liked that signing when they when Defiance did that just because of that.
01:00:27
Speaker
Bloodlines, but...
01:00:32
Speaker
Ariel is not what makes or breaks this team to be fair. Feel terrible for him because he's great, but that's not what's keeping this team from trophies. Yeah. I mean, ah that is true, but like when we're talking about,
01:00:45
Speaker
why we felt like this team was as deep as it was. He was like a big name in that. I would say like, he's one of the names I would name for like, you know, when you do have to rotate and you can put him in there. That's like a great piece to have. All right. I got the Lika in here. It looks like i got video now.
01:01:00
Speaker
ah Can you hit me a thumbs up if you can hear me? Got you. Okay. Okay. How, how, how do you pronounce this? Am I saying that right?
01:01:14
Speaker
Oh, it looks like I don't have audio. Are you muted? I don't have audio.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, you're fully you're fully muted. All right, I'm going to take you off for for now. I can leave you there, and then if you ah if you can get the audio working, give me a thumbs up and we'll get you on here.
01:01:42
Speaker
Can I just ask for any previous two seasons, but especially this season, what is the Sounders offensive identity slash strategy? um
01:01:55
Speaker
The attacking identity that I think of when I think of a Sounders team is a team that is really good in position, in possession, hyper-technical, and can kind of slice you and dice you, but then is also, when they when they need to, can get out and run and execute and transition with the best of them. When this team is firing on all cylinders, that's the type of identity, that's type of stuff that I think we see them do.
01:02:24
Speaker
You do not see that at all tonight. And that's that's sort of the thing in these situations where they get where they get run on like that. Like the possession element of what I was just talking about just gets totally...
01:02:37
Speaker
Like they couldn't keep the ball at all tonight. And it's just frustrating to watch because it's almost like they are... you're drastically diminishing your chances before, before you even get to anything else, because you need, you need to be able to keep the ball to state the obvious. So anyway, that, uh, that's what I consider, uh, not just the last couple years, but like over the Schmetzer era, that's how I would describe the attacking identity.
01:03:15
Speaker
Jonathan Martz, separate take and not the cause of this loss. loss Love Fry and PKs are supposed to be made nine out of ten ten times. When is the last time he stopped a PK or didn't leave the goal line early? um yeah Yeah, I mean, he's never been an especially great penalty stopper. That's just not, like, people will have brought up that criticism of him before that he's, like, not good at penalties to other goalkeepers. I don't really value that.
01:03:45
Speaker
attribute and a goalkeeper that much like it's important and it's nice to have but like shot stopping and distribution are like that's what you need first and foremost because like like you said most penalties you're chocked you know fry has a few in his career to be fair but like he's not known as being good at that uh like tim mulia is um all right we look like we got a caller in the queue
01:04:14
Speaker
bed bed is bed is mara i'm not even gonna try this i'm gonna bring you on and you're gonna tell me how to pronounce it hello can you hear me yo do you hear me yeah i hear you how how do you how do you say that it's um it's my last name then my first name it's betty and then sam rath but yeah it's cool oh okay betty betty samrath just call me sam bro it's cool it's cool don't worry sam how are you feeling give me your takes Okay, um I think you probably already had a decent amount of Russnack hate by now. re Actually, no, go for it Yeah, we had it.
01:04:51
Speaker
Okay, so um yeah, Russnack be a DP, you know. Same with Morris. Let's get that out the way first. I mean, that was so bad. i mean, that was disgusting from everyone on the attack.
01:05:02
Speaker
I mean, I guess we had our chances, but... um Morris doesn't have it anymore. He just doesn't. It's not the same. not Not remotely close to being the same. Yeah, he can finish a tap-in every once in a while. Shout out to the wingers for helping him out there. But yeah, honestly, Morris, needs we need to let him go. He's all-time leading scorer now. I think it's time to just let it go. But here's the issue, though.
01:05:22
Speaker
We are too broke to buy him out. Because he's on a DP. Why would he ever want to leave off a DP right now? This is like, on contract-wise, this is the peak of his career. He's not getting paid any more money than this.
01:05:33
Speaker
So why would he want to leave? You feel me? So to me, it just seems like the front office doesn't any higher up don't have any ambitions. Doesn't this is heat. This is heat. We got, ah we got more Morris out. We got roof snack out.
01:05:49
Speaker
Um, and so are you now go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. I mean, uh, I guess it's it so it sounds like you're pretty much out on the whole operation at this point, like blow it all up. or I mean, what's your ah thoughts on how to rectify the problems you've c cited?
01:06:09
Speaker
Okay, so step one, not making any signings like De La Vega. Yes, he's young. Yes, it's good promise. Yes, a lot of money. But... You can already see the issues with it, and he's always hurt, and he just doesn't look like a 7.5 million signers signing to anybody, right?
01:06:25
Speaker
So I think taking a step from Garth when he was in office i'm here, where he would only sign players who are proven, and they're not too old but not too young. They're proven, they're winners, and they can do the job, and they can get it done.
01:06:37
Speaker
Rusnak, I mean, he he he fits the criteria, kind of. He's not a proven winner, but he he has experience. But we need someone different. We don't need anyone from MLS. We don't need anyone within MLS. You feel me?
01:06:51
Speaker
Same with Ferrer. I mean, Ferrer's cool. He's on the ta he's on a TAM. So I'm okay with him. He could be a good backup. he could See, this is one thing I don't like. And I'm going like a little bit off topic here. But I don't like how Ferrer isn't playing his natural position. And I don't like how we're utilizing him like a Swiss knife.
01:07:05
Speaker
He should be playing the number nine. And I think De La Vega should also be playing the number 10, even though he's more of a winger. But I think the way he plays compared to everyone else, he really pushes that ball forward compared to just everyone passing backwards, backwards, backwards, backwards to the side, to the side. He uses the middle of the field a lot more than everyone else.
01:07:26
Speaker
We didn't see any of that tonight.
01:07:29
Speaker
Sam, going to let you go on that. I got another person in the queue. Thanks for the call, though. That was the ah hottest call of the night so far. Yeah, some people told me to hop in, so i had to, you know. Yeah, appreciate it. Appreciate it.
01:07:41
Speaker
All right. Looks like we're going to give... ah So Stelica, one more try here. ah If we can't get your audio this time, it might just be chalk, but we'll get we're going to give this one more try.
01:07:52
Speaker
Can you hear me? I can hear you. Can you hear me? There we go. I moved to the phone. So it's actually Stelica, which is... Sorry. Yeah, no, no worries. It's it's he was a famous German player back in the 80s when I lived over there.
01:08:09
Speaker
And so they my friends started calling me that because my last name was a portion of his. OK. Yeah, it works for me. So and nobody knows what the hell it is or how to pronounce it. So it makes it interesting.
01:08:24
Speaker
Um, so yeah, on his points, uh, what would have, he's talking about nobody from MLS. What would Evander do up front for us? You know?
01:08:36
Speaker
He's a true 10. He's a true nine. Excuse me. He's a true nine. He's somebody that we, we probably should have went after, but I don't think we have the the salary cap room for, um, Ruth. Nick's fine. Ruth. Nick is, is a baller.
01:08:50
Speaker
He, he should be on this team. He proved it last year. He's already proving it this year. um We just, that under a salary cap rule, we can't keep up with the top shelf teams from Mexico.
01:09:05
Speaker
They're going to win eight times out of ten. It's like, ah the 2022 win was amazing. It was legendary. It's one of the sickest things an MLS club has ever done. It might be the coolest thing an MLS club has ever done.
01:09:20
Speaker
It was amazing. an outlier. and Absolutely. And i think, didn't this game tonight kind of show that, ah so that that's kind of, that's still the case.
01:09:34
Speaker
Absolutely. In my opinion, it it showed us that when they brought players in, their depth was so much higher than ours. I love our, don't get me wrong, I love our homegrown players and the the steps they've taken over the last couple of years.
01:09:49
Speaker
Rothrock is a rock star. um But you know It's not the same as bringing in top-shelf player like they're bringing in. And that just comes down to money.
01:10:01
Speaker
And until until that evens up, it doesn't have to be even, but gets in the same ballpark, that then then we can consider that we should win that, not could we win that.
01:10:15
Speaker
Right. like i I feel like it is... ah I mean, it's almost like a broken record because we talk about that that with CCC every year, but it is true. But i will I will say, like, the further I get away from it and the more that i watch ah CCC and MLS clubs try and compete in it, it makes the 2022 run, like, insane in retrospect.
01:10:40
Speaker
Like, because they not only won it, but they... ah they were pretty dominant in that tournament tournament the entire time. I think they had like a plus 11 goal differential. What a freaking run that was. That's sort of, it was unbelievable. And, and players like Freddie Montero were, were just, you know, crucial.
01:11:00
Speaker
And there's a player that played in Europe that came back and gave us every last little bit he had in that year, you know, and, so So that's the backups you need coming in as players that have that that skill, that experience.
01:11:16
Speaker
I mean, he's he was an absolute sniper and you know finished like a champ on those.
01:11:25
Speaker
Stilica, is that what you said it was? sorry eat a Stilica, yeah. Steel like the metal. Okay, Stilica. Okay. Before I let you go here, give me your last thoughts on just the outlook of the team for the rest of the season. Are you feeling, are you feeling good about contention?
01:11:43
Speaker
Are you, um my absolute I'm absolutely feeling good about MLS cup and, and competition as long as, as long as our players are not long-term injuries. Um,
01:11:57
Speaker
We need De La Vega back. we need We need Morris back. um i' What I saw on the Areola one did not make me happy. ah So that was that that looked like he was hurt bad. Yeah.
01:12:15
Speaker
like Patella, something like that. But I think we can do well in and MLS. um I wouldn't hold our breath in Club World Cup, obviously. And leagues is kind of a crapshoot, so we'll see how that goes.
01:12:30
Speaker
ah Anyway, appreciate you taking my call. I'll be subscribing to your your service here when i when I get off the phone here.
01:12:41
Speaker
Look for Tacos for Ticos, which is our nonprofit. I'll put it under that name. Oh, awesome. Well, thanks, man. Yeah, appreciate the call. You know, we're we're trying to do these call-in shows regularly. So anytime.
01:12:54
Speaker
Great call.
01:12:57
Speaker
All right. No one else in the queue right now.
01:13:02
Speaker
Sam, you were fine. It wasn't ah wasn't a full-on crash out. it was was liz a little It was a little bit of a crash out. But no, we respect Brigade around here, even if we disagree.
01:13:16
Speaker
Watched the Morris goals compilation today, and so many of them came from Ladero passes. Jordan needs service. We haven't had consistent service from the midfield since Nico dropped off. I mean, i think Rusinac gives him great service. I think that's his strongest attribute, and I think the way that those two combine – ah as very good a lot of the time.
01:13:41
Speaker
It wasn't tonight, but even tonight, Roosanac's set pieces were on point in this game. That's the only way that they got a goal was through that. um So I think it's like the problem has been, it's the problem last year to me is that it was only those two guys.
01:13:58
Speaker
That's why I kind of don't agree with people who were blaming them or saying that it was an indictment of their DP status that the offense underperformed last year. To me, they were the only guys on the offense who were performing and they didn't have enough around them. They didn't have enough support. That's how I see it.
01:14:15
Speaker
So like, hopefully the attack gets more, multifaceted this year. That's what we were hoping would be the case with De La Vega coming back for Rara in the fold.
01:14:27
Speaker
So there's still time for that to come true, but Oh, Noah's calling me right now.
Wrapping Up and Farewell
01:14:34
Speaker
Well, with his arrival about to start wrapping it up here. In fact, um'm I'm going to wrap it up because we're going to record a pod right now.
01:14:42
Speaker
So appreciate you all. In-person crash out. In-person crash out. Appreciate you all tuning in and everyone who called in Love it. There's great calls tonight.
01:14:55
Speaker
ah We really like hearing from you guys. OK, B, I see you in the queue. I'm sorry. Like we got I got to get out of here because I got to get up early tomorrow. So I got to lay down this pod. But call in next time. we we We'll try and get to everyone.
01:15:08
Speaker
uh shout out and r.i.p to conca have champions cup great tournament it was a lot of fun we'll always have the memory make sure you pour one out for ccc uh and uh there's still an entire damn season in front of us so we'll be here grinding this content that's what we're doing right now so uh Make sure you like the video.
01:15:32
Speaker
Subscribe to the channel. Patreon or subs. I'm actually wearing a Podium menswear shirt right now. Sweater? Anyway, that's that's all my shilling. Alright.
01:15:43
Speaker
This dubbed but dub po L-Pod. L-Pod will probably be out tomorrow, Alright. Keep your eyes is out for the L-Pod. And then I'm streaming on Thursday evening.
01:15:58
Speaker
Alright. Bye.