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Introduction to YachtCollege with Brian Schmetzer
65 Plays4 years ago
Brian Schmetzer helped us get YachtCon: Back To School started right, putting on his professorial hat to dig into his coaching philosophy and sharing some insight into his tactical approach to 2021.
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Transcript
Introduction to YOTCon and Yacht-Con
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome, everyone, to the first day of the two-week program that we have dubbed YOTCon Back to School. Over the course of the next two weeks, you're gonna have the opportunity to properly appreciate a bottle of wine, the finer points of creating cocktails, becoming a better artist, embarking on a mystical journey through the South Sound and what makes a proper pizza. You'll also get the opportunity to learn more about some of your favorite Seattle soccer personalities, the first of whom you're gonna meet tonight.
00:00:32
Speaker
If you're new to Yacht-Con, here's a quick synopsis. Back in 2015, we wanted to celebrate Nos Adietes' 200th podcast episode. One thing led to another, and we decided not only to do a live version of the podcast, but to give a totally pretentious name.
Yacht-Con's Charity Mission
00:00:46
Speaker
Yacht-Con was christened. Over the years, it's moved from a warehouse, to a restaurant, to a brewery, and then to an actual theater. We seriously considered going dark this year, but decided that it was worthwhile to keep the momentum going, and more importantly,
00:00:59
Speaker
to raise money for a worthy charity at a time when their services are as important as ever. We knew that simply trying to take the live version online wasn't really going to translate. So we worked with some of our friends in the food and beverage industry to cook up, pardon the pun, some great stuff for you. We then added a few more creative and interview-based elements to round it out. Yacht-Con Back to School was officially in session.
00:01:21
Speaker
Although our paid spots are selling out quickly, I wanted to remind everyone that all courses are free to audit. And I also wanted to give a plug to some of the courses for which we still have supplies. Adventures in watercoloring on March 24 and fashionable pizza making on March 26. We're also selling opportunities to make Licket, Aaron, and myself eat spicy hot wings and ask Garth some spicy questions during the How to Build a Dynasty course that serves as Yacht College's capstone project on March 28.
00:01:50
Speaker
visit sounder at heart dot com slash yacht con to get more details on all that. Aside from serving as a personal ego boost, the main reason we're doing all this to contribute to a much needed resources to our charity partner, as we've done in the four previous visions of this
00:02:07
Speaker
this event. Any proceeds from this will be donated to the Seattle Children's Autism Center. In years past they've used the money we raised to buy big red safety boxes which are then given to families to help them better manage children with autism.
00:02:23
Speaker
While these are usually handed out in person, this year the Autism Center has incurred added fees due to shipping them, so the money is even more needed than normal. So far we've raised more than $6,000 this year alone and could feasibly equal the more than $10,000 we raised last year. If you'd like to make a tax deductible donation to help reach that mark, you can do so by visiting give.seattletrigens.org slash yachtcon. If that's a lot to remember, don't worry, we'll be sharing that link a lot during the next couple of weeks.
00:02:52
Speaker
Before we get started, I should also thank everyone who made this possible, full pool wines, the doctor's office and the masonry or the food related businesses that donated supplies and whose owners are sharing their expertise and serving as our faculty, MLS watercolors,
00:03:08
Speaker
is sharing their creative talents and teaching their first ever course. Once again, Emily Cummings worked countless hours behind the scenes to help produce and make this event happen. Dave Clark also volunteered tons of time helping out as well as sharing his passion in teaching a course.
00:03:23
Speaker
My NOS Adiatus partners, Aaron Campo and Lickett P, once again did a lot of the heavy lifting that won't necessarily be in front of the camera. Two old friends of mine from college, Colin Steiner and James Morgan, designed our poster and effectively served as our producers, respectively. Finally, Beth Mantle, Susie Rance, Tim Foss, and Jacob Cristobal have donated time as moderators, hosts, and or behind the scenes helpers. As usually, this has been a true team effort and would have literally been impossible if not for the volunteer work these people
Courses and Lectures at Yacht-Con
00:03:50
Speaker
put in.
00:03:51
Speaker
If you're watching this and somehow don't know what else is going on, I highly recommend that you check out our course catalog. We'll have something going on virtually every other night between now and March 28th, and even though some of the classes are technically sold out of supplies, every class is available to audit for free. So
00:04:07
Speaker
Let's get this thing started and get to the stuff that you came here for. Our first guest, just as he has been in each of the previous four years, is Sounders head coach Brian Smedzer. Entering his sixth season as Sounders FC head coach in his 20th straight season as part of this organization, Smedzer is one of the most accomplished coaches in American soccer history. He's the only coach to have won multiple league titles in both the USL and MLS,
00:04:32
Speaker
And the Sounders have been to the playoffs in all but one of his previous 19 seasons on the coaching staff. His MLS winning percentage of 608 is the best among coaches with at least 70 games of experience. And his 762 playoff winning percentage is easily the best in MLS history. He has two MLS cups. He's been to four finals.
00:04:50
Speaker
You know, Brian, this all comes after a long if not necessarily a lustrous professional playing career that started when he signed as a teenager with the NFL standards out of Nathan Hale High School, stretched across at least six different leagues and featured stops on just about every professional indoor and outdoor team the region has ever known. It is my extreme honor to introduce our first lecturer at Yacht College, the one and only Brian Schmetzer. Welcome, Brian.
00:05:20
Speaker
Let me take myself off mute. Woo hoo, I was gonna say, I hope Adrian was listening to the intro. Yes, I sent him the notes. Yeah, you can be my sub sub agent for the next time a contract comes up. Yeah, I mean, I really hope all those points got hit, but you're gonna be around for a while. I mean, you're not gonna have contact negotiations for years now, right?
00:05:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, maybe if we win a couple more MLS cups, I might renegotiate. You never know. There you go. I like that. I like that. So I do. Wade, before you answer the question, say my career wasn't great. Is that what you just said? I said not necessarily illustrious, I think is what I said. Okay. All right. Okay. That's different. I mean, you know what? I actually, I was not planning on starting here, but you bring it up.
00:06:13
Speaker
You have, I think I got it right. You've played in like virtually every iteration or coach on every iteration of a professional team in this area, indoor, outdoor. Just tell us about some of those indoor days. What was, I mean, I know you played with Preckie when he was at the absolute height of his stardom. Just start with a story about Preckie or the indoor days.
00:06:38
Speaker
I mean, this is almost like we rehearsed this or something,
Brian Schmetzer: Coaching Insights
00:06:41
Speaker
Jeremiah. I am so happy that you just started off by saying, hey, Brian, why don't you tell us a story about Precky?
00:06:51
Speaker
Because there is a running debate amongst coaching staff right now at this moment. A, number one, who has the best left foot? Because Gonzo, myself, Preckie, Jimmy. Oh. When he was here, he was right footed. I think Tommy beats us all with his right foot because Tommy kicks balls at the goalkeeper's every day. But there's that debate. But Jeremiah, there was a
00:07:17
Speaker
There was a social media post a while back from the San Diego soccer's and it was, you know, it had some reference to myself and the old days and indoor soccer and in that particular clip, there was a scene where Preckie was playing for the stars and I was playing for the soccer's and
00:07:39
Speaker
Preki had gone down and tried to score or something. Then I got the ball and I ran past him going the other way because he didn't defend. And I had a lot of joy bringing that clip up on the big screen of our coach's office, just me and Preki going at it. But our debate is really, OK, what makes a good team? To the theme of the night, let's go to school here. Let's talk tactics. Let's talk about how teams win.
00:08:08
Speaker
So Frecky has his version. I have mine. I'm about to give both, both sides of it. Too bad he's not here. That would take all night. Anyway, Frecky says he was the best player on the team because he scored a bunch of goals.
00:08:25
Speaker
which might have been true because he scored a pile of goals in the indoor days. I mean, he was unbelievable. He scored a ton of goals for Tacoma, had a great career, you know, pushed him, remember, because he came to this country, indoor player, and launched his outdoor career, which is pretty unheard of. So what I always tell Preckie is I say, look,
00:08:48
Speaker
This is why I'm so tactically good and why I helped the team. Because I knew that you wouldn't play defense. You just didn't want to play defense. You wanted to score goals. And so I had to mark my guy over here. And then I also had to watch Preckie's guy over here. So I was always defending for two people so that Preckie could do his thing.
00:09:14
Speaker
And I did my thing, which was sacrifice for the good of the squad. And what is, okay, how do you win championships? Do you win it by good defense or do you win it by scoring more goals? I don't know. And Gonzo and Jimmy and Tommy, they all laugh at us because me and Preckie argue like, you know, 12 year old kids, but it's great. And the questions out there.
00:09:39
Speaker
was I more important for my team because I marked Preckie's guy and I allowed him to do what he wanted to do. Or was Preckie better because I would just pass him the ball and he would score. I don't know. So you're playing careers though. Did you both play on the Stars at one point?
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah, and in St. Louis as well. Okay. And so how would you describe your relationship before he started coaching with you? There was a logic to it when you thought about it at the time, but were you friends? How long does your relationship go back? What was your ongoing relationship like? Oh, we lived... Look, when we were in St. Louis, we lived in the same apartment complex.
00:10:24
Speaker
They were there for Preckie and Tricia, his wife, Tricia, great, great, wonderful person. You know, they were there at the birth of my youngest child, Kian. I helped my ex-wife out there with babysitting and stuff like that, you know, because I had two kids already. You know, I went back all the way to the late 80s, early 90s.
00:10:47
Speaker
And so when he, you know, one of the things I've been, you've brought this up a few times and I just don't know that it gets mentioned enough. You've surrounded yourself with maybe the most accomplished
00:11:00
Speaker
staff in all, I would think probably unquestionably the most accomplished staff in all of MLS. You have a formal World Cup player, you have a Champions League winner, you have a former two-time MLS MVP, who also was the head coach of the year in MLS. Tommy Duccio obviously has coached some of the greats. You brought in a
00:11:25
Speaker
your top physical guy comes from, you know, has a great resume. How important is it for you to surround yourself with people who are challenging you and not just kind of letting you get away with it being your way or the highway kind of thing? Well, it's part of what makes any organization, whether you're in pro sports or business or whatever, if you are a leader,
00:11:50
Speaker
of an organization or a department within a corporation or whatever, you always, as the manager of that group, of that department, you want to surround yourself with the absolute best people. And then you want to encourage them to voice their opinion. It's a safe work environment. We can say whatever we need to say in that coach's office,
00:12:16
Speaker
And Jeremiah, there are times when it does become a bit challenging because, you know, look, they're all accomplished. They all could be head coaches. And they might think, well, you know, I would do things different than Brian and, you know, this, that and the other. I accept that.
00:12:30
Speaker
I have a strong enough backbone to know that when Gonzo says something passionately, Reki recalls one of his experiences from when he was a coach. I accept that. I listen to it. I ask myself, why did they say that? What are they driving at? What are they trying to say?
00:12:50
Speaker
And then we talk about it and we come to then a conclusion where, look, if it's majority and we decide this is the way to move forward, then we do it. But if there's a divided room, then yeah, sometimes I have to come in and say, yeah, this is what we're going to do. But I can't talk enough about the staff.
00:13:12
Speaker
I mean, Tommy has been with me, you know, since 06, I believe, 05. You know, sacrificed a lot when he first started the U.S.L. days. I was good friends with Keller, with Casey. That was a natural connection. Casey to come back. Casey, one of the greatest goalkeepers in, you know, American history. Tommy always worked out with him.
00:13:39
Speaker
Gonzo, Mexican national team player, tactically astute. Jimmy, like you said, a Champions League winner. I mean, only maybe Vieira and Thierry Henry. Well, he's not here. Those two guys aren't here anymore. But I mean, who else plays in a Champions League final that coaches? You have Preckie, who had a tremendous playing career, but then was also an MLS coach of the year.
00:14:02
Speaker
So I don't have any issue. You brought up Adam Owen. I mean, he's a doctor. He's got a PhD. He's a lot smarter than I am. So I love the staff. I think it's a great staff. I think it's a very efficient staff. We have really great interactive meetings where we're always bouncing ideas off each other. So that part of it, I think I'm pretty smart in hiring good people.
00:14:30
Speaker
You know, it makes you better. It does push you. How does the work share among, you know, you, Preki, Gonzo and Jimmy work? Like, is there, do they have defined roles or is it all just kind of like you throw it into a cauldron and it all like turns into magic?
00:14:48
Speaker
We, no, sometimes it doesn't turn into magic, but we try and be a little bit more specific. I mean, we had this idea a while back where, you know, where, you know, Jimmy would be the coach of the defenders or take most of that work and Gonza would work with the midfielders. And then we had Ante Razov and Al Precki kind of work with the forwards. And we still hold true to that structure, but I could flip it around again. If you, again, if we're going to school here,
00:15:18
Speaker
So Preckie was a forward and he knew how to beat defenses or beat defenders one on one. So he actually can reverse that and say, okay, if you needed to stop me, these are the best defenders I played against in my career and this is what they did. And so Jimmy also doesn't want to be corralled as just a defensive coach because we're not NFL football.
00:15:44
Speaker
He wants to be a well-rounded coach of his own at some point. And so I let him do that with pleasure, Jimmy. If you want to take an exercise where the wing backs are overlapping and you're working on their attacking movements and they're crossing the ball, so be it. You want to work with some of the young players, and it's not just about defending. It's possession-oriented or something like that. I always encourage that.
00:16:12
Speaker
And Gonzo can do both as well. He can coach the attackers and he does a great job at it. And he can also talk about the defending tactics as well.
00:16:24
Speaker
So take us inside a game. When you are, you know, I assume you, every old saying, obviously everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth, right? And I would imagine that's very true with soccer where you can draw the X and O's, you can come up and you can plan for one thing, but the way the game plays out is oftentimes another. I imagine that's what halftime changes are for and halftime adjustments are for, but how much,
00:16:52
Speaker
tactical, how much tactical influence can you have in a game and how did the coaches fit, how did the various coaches fit into that? Another great question. There we have a little bit of structure as well. So Jimmy and Tommy Dutra actually go over all the set pieces with the guys to make sure that everyone from Raoul back to Steph know their roles and responsibilities on set pieces.
00:17:16
Speaker
You know, Gonza will take care of any final tactics once we get the lineup. Preki works on players, building their confidence in the warmups, talking to them, pulling them aside, talking about that. So we kind of divide and conquer that way a little bit. But, Jeremy, look, I'm a big guy about, OK, setting your team up with tactics or structure.
00:17:38
Speaker
But I truly believe that sports and sports in general, you're not always going to be able to impose your will on your opponent. That's just unrealistic. And so the players I like like Christian.
00:17:55
Speaker
like Nico Raul through sheer brilliance, Chad, guys that can adapt, Zach Scott's back in the day. There were a lot of guys that have played for this club that could solve problems because that's what happens. We can draw it up on the chalkboard. We can say, okay, this is what we expect, da, da, da, da, da. And then all of a sudden for some odd reason,
00:18:22
Speaker
having an off day or the other team just playing better than you and and you gotta adjust you gotta make those adjustments so as we walk off as we walk off at halftime I've already scribbled my notes you guys seen my little notepad there I usually check in with the guys as I walk off unless I'm of
00:18:40
Speaker
of course upset at the first half, and then I'm just counting to 100 just to calm down a little bit. But I like checking in with guys as we walk off the field. Ravi Ravameni, who I'm sure we're gonna talk about later in the broadcast, has clips. Jorge, our video guy, has clips gone. We'll take a look at some of the clips. Tommy likes to sit with Steph about goal kicks, playing out from the back, certain things, and we compile information
00:19:09
Speaker
amongst all of the coaches, verbal feedback and what we see on video. And then I picked that, you know, top two, maybe three attacking things I want to talk about. And then defensively, maybe two, maybe three tops.
00:19:26
Speaker
And then I say my piece and then the assistants again do their, do the rest. I mean, then we'll take some guys and Jimmy will take some guys and Precky will take some guys and they kind of filter out the rest of the information that we talked about.
00:19:41
Speaker
So I heard an interview with Bruce Arena a while back where he talked about the importance of man management versus tactics. You know, you worked with Siggy a long time. He seemed to have a similar philosophy where it was less about X's and O's and more about philosophies and getting the players in the right positions.
00:20:03
Speaker
And I kind of get the sense that's your perspective, too. But what do you think people misunderstand about the job when it comes to balancing tactics versus balancing man management? Maybe it's a late game sub. I know you've talked about sometimes you've got to bring in Roman Torres in part to keep him engaged as much as it is to shore up the defense.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, I can answer that a couple of different ways. Man management is obviously something that's critical, it's vital in pro sports. I mean, as the manager, you have to deal with so many different aspects of the game that I don't think there's one
00:20:42
Speaker
You know, maybe if you're Pep Guardiola, but I guess he's got a bunch of really super talented assistants to help him or, you know, or Klopp or, you know, someone like that. But you've got to be able to do multitask, but you also rely on good assistants and good people.
00:21:00
Speaker
The tactics are the tactics and some guys are, you know, Greg Berhalter, he had his tactics in Columbus, his tactics for the national team. And that's just a different way of doing things, Jeremiah. I don't think there's any right way or wrong way. It's just my way or Bruce's way or Greg's way or, or Pep's way or Sir Alex Ferguson's way, you know, probably the best or, you know, what most known man manager in, in, in, in our sport.
00:21:30
Speaker
And for me, my personal philosophy is this, yes, tactics are important. We always try and have some tactical structure within the group at the beginning of the year, throughout the year, based on different opponents. Who do we want to allow to have the ball on our opponents? Who do we want to make sure we're aware of? You always have those little tactical nuances in your game plan.
00:21:56
Speaker
But again, I'll throw a question out there to all the coaches and the teachers and the students out there. Let's just talk about maybe talking about man management in the sense of putting the best team out on the field.
00:22:11
Speaker
And here we go. So Victor Rodriguez, when he was here with Brad Smith, I mean, they were dynamite at the beginning of that year. I mean, they were killing teams. Victor would pick the ball up in the pocket. Brad would overlap. It was fun to watch, super talented players. We had Jordan on the right, Raul, Nico, Victor, Brad. It was great.
00:22:40
Speaker
Then you flip that around. Then you have Jordan and Newhoo. And what does that pair look like? And what are your tactics there? So I encourage Brad because of his profile, his positional profile. He could get up and down. He's fast. Victor coming inside. That was perfect. Now with Newhoo, more stay at home defender and Jordan being out there one against one or being able to stretch the field.
00:23:03
Speaker
Is that tactic or is that just man management? Are we just managing your group and putting a certain pair together that gives you a better chance of winning the game? Or is that a tactic? You could go to last year when we had bits and pieces of Christian Roldan out on the right wing, Gustav JP in the middle, and then late in the year when Gustav was on international duty and all that, we slid Christian back in and JJ was there.
00:23:34
Speaker
JJ and Christian are polar opposites, probably, of how to play right midfield or right wing. And so there was a different tactic when JJ was there. His job was to come inside the pocket, get the ball on his left foot, try and get the ball in behind the Jordan. Christian, his tactics were, OK, he was really good at attacking the prime assist zone. And how do we play with Christian on that side of the field?
00:24:00
Speaker
And so, you know, from a tactical perspective, people might say, okay, the Sounders, they don't play a specific style. They don't have, you know, like Berhalter when he had a Columbus or Peter Vermies at Sporting Kansas City. You know, those guys are, they just do it differently than I do.
00:24:19
Speaker
And I'm a believer that you try and get the right mix of guys on the field. And look, it's not always necessarily the best 11 soccer players you have. That's the other part of man management. Maybe it's the best group of 11.
00:24:33
Speaker
And then, yes, Jeremiah, to your point, I got to tell Romain, hey, look, Romain, I'm, you know, I got Javi and Yaimar playing pretty good. And, you know, we brought you back, but, you know, it just drunk Kilo, you know, so it's, it's always a bit of both. It's always man management. And what is your vision for the team?
00:24:53
Speaker
Well, I think sometimes the popular narrative is that you aren't necessarily a tactical coach. I don't think that's true. You seem to have actually embraced more of the tactical side of the game. I know you've gotten advanced coaching licenses since you've become a head coach. How has your knowledge and appreciation of the tactical side changed since you've moved into this position?
00:25:19
Speaker
Well, again, it comes down to whatever my tactics were. Selective pressure, like stepping up higher up the field, like putting pressure higher up the field. I'm a proponent of playing out of the back. There are certain things, perhaps signature pieces of ideas that I bring to the team. And then again, I allow people that are really good at their jobs to implement the ideas that I have.
00:25:50
Speaker
Case in point. Okay, so how do we defend? Active defending. So when we are up in the opponent's half of the field,
00:26:00
Speaker
We always want our centre backs and maybe in a back line of four, one full back to stay connected. If the ball's on the left, then Kelvin Lierden would always stay connected to the two centre backs. But the two centre backs had to be aware of the centre forward, but then also a player like Diego Valerian, kind of those half spaces, because Portland was a transition team.
00:26:22
Speaker
And so whenever their ball would turn over, the first guy they looked to was Valeri. And so we called that active defending. And so we, Jimmy, would drill those guys, make them watch film. And as we were attacking, the guys were already setting themselves up defensively to slow down the threat of any counter-attacking movements.
00:26:44
Speaker
And so that little tactic of active defending, that's what we implement. But I let Jimmy do it. He's the one that does it, playing out from the back. Gonzo was a possession-based midfielder in his career. Where do you find the numerical overload, starting with the goalkeeper? Your goalkeeper gives you an extra guy already. And then where do you find the little spaces? Where do you have the numerical advantage to advance the ball? Well, he does that better than I do.
00:27:14
Speaker
So here's the idea, Gonzo. I want to make sure that we don't just kick gold kicks down the field, so it's a 50-50 ball, and maybe we win it, maybe we don't. I actually want to try and keep 100% of possession. And how do we do that? And then with Preki, it's another example. He's got a lot of ideas about how to attack in the final third. And I say, OK, well, I want Nico to play in the pockets. I want one center forward to stay high.
00:27:43
Speaker
Depending on who we have on the field, this guy has this quality over here, and this guy's a true winger. So Preckie, figure out a way how we can get them arranged in the right spots, and off we go.
00:27:59
Speaker
So I know a lot of people say tactics when they mean formations, but you guys do, you've talked a lot about changing formations or at least introducing a new formation into the regular rotation this year. What can you tell us about that and how is that going? And I have to imagine there's something fun about that for you to be able to just try something new out at the training field.
Sounders' Tactical Adaptations
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah, well, I don't know, I can't see on my screen, Jeremiah, I don't know if Am or Lickett or someone back, how many people do we have on the broadcast now? A lot, a thousand? About a hundred. Okay, let's keep that thousand people in the circle of trust. Yes. I'm gonna give away a little bit of information here, but let's keep in the circle of trust here. So again, we go back to,
00:28:55
Speaker
you know, after the final and, you know, we're trying to recover, we're trying to lick our wounds a little bit. We're already starting about what's, you know, what can we do different? Four and a half years of four, two, three, one, you know, can we get Will on the field a little bit more because, you know, he's a goal scorer and, you know, can we do this, this and this? And so that conversation started to take place already after the loss in MLS Cup.
00:29:25
Speaker
then Jordan goes on loan. Jordan goes on loan. And it's like, okay, well, that's a pretty big piece, missing piece. And, you know, Gustav goes and, you know, Christian's coming inside. And so we got to fill that hole on both wings. JJ is gone. So there's another midfielder slash winger gone.
00:29:47
Speaker
Now you could say, does Ethan come in? Is that his chance to shine, AOC, you know, whoever, but okay, let's start seriously talking about a different formation with two forwards. Now you can play four diamond two, or you could play, you know, three, five, two, but it's always with two different, two forwards, get Raul and Will on the field. So we started to talk about that and then Jordan's injury.
00:30:14
Speaker
Because there was still some hope that at the end of the summer loan, maybe Jordan comes back to us. There was some uncertainty there. And maybe it's just a temporary new look for us. And we always can go back to 4-2-3-1. But when he goes down with the injury, we're starting to think to ourselves, OK, well, this is real. We really don't have our most dangerous, wide player, winger, whatever we want to call Jordan Morris.
00:30:45
Speaker
We don't have him anymore. He's gone for the entire year. And so now we have to make some real adjustments. So we are seriously, Jeremiah, talking about playing in a system with two forwards. We've tried three at the back. We'll try four, four, two diamond. We'll try and figure out a way what works best. But we are committing during this preseason to figure out a way how to get Will Bruin on the field
00:31:14
Speaker
with Raoul and then the feel-good story of Freddie Montero.
00:31:23
Speaker
Here you go. Now I have another super talented player that wants to come back to his home team. This is going to be his home for the foreseeable future. And that puts a smile on my face. So now I have options. If Raul has to go to World Cup qualifiers, well, I got Freddie Monteiro. That's great. I can go three for two. And there'll be midweek games. And it just makes sense to me to play with two forward when you have that group of players on your roster.
00:31:53
Speaker
So we are working out the kinks, Jeremiah. We're trying to figure out the best way to implement that. But there's pluses with three at the back. We call it 3-5-2. We have good wing backs. And Brad Smith can play wing back. Kellen Rowe, Alex has played. He could play wing back. If we stay with four, you'd have
00:32:17
Speaker
You know, JP, Christian, Medranda, Nico and a diamond shaped midfield. I mean, that would be pretty powerful. Medranda has been pretty good in preseason. So we'll kind of see what, how it all shakes out. But that's the objective to try and get, you know, a couple of forwards on the field because we lost.
00:32:37
Speaker
you guys know better than me, but Jordan got what, 12 goals and nine assists or, you know, whatever that was. I mean, that's a lot of production. Yeah. And we got to try and we have to try and, you know, make up for that.
00:32:51
Speaker
So you mentioned Freddie Montero being back. On a personal level, I'm sure that must have been exciting. He seemed genuinely excited. But what have you seen from him out at training? And how do you imagine him working with Nico and Raul? And in some ways, I was thinking he's never had in his, certainly in his time at MLS, never had this much talent around him. Yeah. Well,
00:33:20
Speaker
I had a couple of cups of coffee with Freddie at Santos Coffee down on Roosevelt. Thank you, Freddie, for that little, you know, blurb there. We had coffee, the coffee's good, really good. And we talked because this was, again, Jeremiah, this was before Jordan's injury.
00:33:44
Speaker
And so Jordan was on loan. Freddie wanted to come back. I think his time with the Whitecaps was over. And he wanted to come back. His wife, they wanted to start building a house and start their life after soccer. But he also wanted to play. He's still very competitive, ultra competitive. And so I had to just outline some
00:34:08
Speaker
expectations. I looked at him and I said, Freddie, look, I mean, what if we're playing in 4-2-3-1 and we're playing with one forward and Raul's a starter and Will's the first backup and you might not play. He goes, Coach, don't worry. I'll work hard. I'm going to get you to make me get on the field. So I said, OK, how are you going to do that?
00:34:35
Speaker
Well, I'm going to work hard. I'm going to make sure that, you know, okay, Freddy. So when I am busting your, you know what, your butt in training, are you going to do all the work and are you fully committed to the squad? This is, this is the message. It's your team. It's not my team, not Adrian Hanauer's team, not Garstein. It's the players team. They're the ones that do all the hard work throughout the entire season.
00:35:03
Speaker
And that's the message I gave to Freddie. And he was in, Jeremiah, he was in 100%. And I believe Freddie. I think he wants to end his career here. I think he wants to have a chance. I mean, you mentioned, I can't say that the Whitecaps are terrible, but you said that. No, I mean, you know, he wants to end his career on a good note.
00:35:30
Speaker
And is there an unfinished business sense to that? Is that a thing that drives him still, you think? Yeah, for sure. He's competitive. He's always been competitive. He's always been a competitive guy. You look at his career, he's had success at many different levels.
00:35:52
Speaker
So he's been really good, so far so good. I don't expect any problems. Happy to be here, happy to be home in Seattle. It's a great story.
00:36:06
Speaker
I hope it bears a lot of fruit. I hope there's a lot of goals in there and good storylines because it couldn't happen to a nicer young man. He's a young man now. He's not a kid anymore, you know, since we met him, you know, back in Columbia up in the high rise apartment of the owner of the team and me, Adrian and Chris Henderson. And we're in the middle of Columbia somewhere. I don't know where it was Jeremiah, but I remember there was Freddie over in the corner, very quiet.
00:36:34
Speaker
you know, 20 year old kid didn't say much while all the other guys were, you know, talking business and getting ready to come to the Seattle Sounders.
00:36:44
Speaker
So one of the other things that I think kind of defined this off season is you've brought in, you brought in Freddie, but you've also brought in Spencer Richie, you brought in Killen Rowe. You brought in a lot of guys that have genuine ties to the Seattle area, not to speak even of all these Academy kids. There has to be something like,
00:37:07
Speaker
in your heart that just loves seeing players either returning here or that are from here who, you know, like Spencer and Kellen have said, they've always wanted to play for the Sounders. I truly believe that people from the Northwest
00:37:25
Speaker
You can read the boys in the boat or many other stories about athletes coming from this part of the world. We are resilient. I truly believe that. But Spencer Ritchie came back from a very severe, broken, tid-fib. Kellan has had a good career. He's a good pro. He's done lots of good things.
00:37:48
Speaker
he always has been a competitor on the field every time we've played against him. He's the tattoo of the skyline and all that sort of stuff. I mean, it's nice to have those people with Pacific Northwest roots here, because I think they get it. I think they understand. I think they have it in their DNA. We are a resilient group of people up here in the Northwest.
00:38:16
Speaker
So we're tough kids. We're tough kids. There you go. Throw that in there. We are tough kids. And I'll tell you, can I break in before you end? Can I tell a tough kid story? Please. OK. So I talk about a young kid, a young player, a young Academy kid, Josh attention. So Josh, was it training? We're playing a little 66. This was yesterday. You know, we're play 66, like too many games.
00:38:45
Speaker
And so he steals a ball, wins a ball. I think it was actually Freddie Montero. I think Freddie Montero cleated him on the shin. It was a hard tackle because the guys are competitive, right? So Freddie comes in, straight legs, Josh. Josh is
00:39:01
Speaker
in pain but he follows through on the play he keeps going he keeps going forward and he and he starts to stumble but he finds the next pass and somebody shoots on goal and the ball goes out and josh ends up on the ground on the floor and he is in absolute agony he is in pain and i'm sitting there refereeing the game and i'm going should i call the trainers on the field should i
00:39:27
Speaker
No, I'm going to let this go. And so the kid is on the ground, picks himself up. He's limping profusely, but he gets up, gets back to his position, finishes out the last 30 seconds of that particular segment of our training session, goes off the field. The trainers look at him. He's got a gash Jeremiah, two to three inch gash. He had like 12 stitches in his shin. The kid is a tough kid.
00:39:56
Speaker
That is the epitome of a tough kid right there. Zach Scott was looking down and very, very proud, I'm sure. Look, Zach played with a broken bone in his foot. Josh has a ways to go, but same idea.
00:40:16
Speaker
So another person who kind of came up from within the community, he's not necessarily from here, but he came up from the Seattle community and has now risen to being one of the top analysts in all of MLS, Ravi Ramaneni. I hope I didn't totally... Ramaneni.
00:40:35
Speaker
He also seems to have been able to take a place in this organization. You mentioned him earlier. What does he bring and what can you tell us about him? Yeah.
Role of Analytics in Soccer
00:40:51
Speaker
So, look, analytics in pro sports is critical. It's vital. And we have two people that are
00:41:01
Speaker
you know, kind of nerdy in some sense, Adrian and Garth, they love all the statistics and data and all that sort of stuff. You know, and even an old time guy like myself, I understand the importance of the job that Ravi does for the team. And he's such a humble guy, Jeremiah. I mean, he's got an Instagram account for his dog. His wife Sarah's really great.
00:41:27
Speaker
You know, he was remodeling his home in South Seattle and they planted a garden and, you know, all this sort of stuff. And he is a really great humble guy, Villa Real fan. And former SB Nation blogger about Villa Real, by the way. Yes, yes, I think I knew that or I heard that from someone. But anyway, so Rob, he's this nice humble guy.
00:41:51
Speaker
And so I couldn't help the other day poking a little fun at him, you know, because we're having a coaches meeting. And sometimes he joins a coaches meetings just because I asked him about, he's also the salary cap guru. You know, he took that over when Kurt Schmid left for Miami. So he's good with numbers, Microsoft guy. So here's Ravi humble individuals got an important role in the club and they promoted him.
00:42:17
Speaker
And so we're having this coaches meeting. Robbie doesn't know what's about to happen to him. And as all of us are sitting there, Robbie comes into the room and I tell the coaching staff, I go, gentlemen,
00:42:31
Speaker
Please stand up and welcome the new Vice President of Data Analytics for the Seattle Freakin' Sounders, Ravi Ravameni. And we all clapped and cheered, and his face turned beet red. I mean, he was so embarrassed. But I mean, he's a great guy, and he fills a vital role for the club.
00:42:55
Speaker
Well, uh, do you know the name of the dogs, uh, Instagram account? Cause I'm sure people are going to be. I have to look at my phone over here, Jeremiah. I can put it out there, you know, we'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, I'll put it in the show notes, but you know, Robbie, let me give you an example. Cause you asked me the question, what does he do? And it's not there just for us to poke fun at him. I mean, he actually has a job. Um, so.
00:43:22
Speaker
Uh, look, when we were looking at Joe Paulo and Gregory was a target for us last summer, so Garth would say, okay, Ravi, I need a deep dive on, you know, JP and Gregory and compare them to Ozzy in his prime and compare him to Kyle Beckerman in his prime and, and, you know, and how did they pair up against, you know, former, you know, MLS or current form, former MLS, uh,
00:43:51
Speaker
you know, number sixes. And so Ravi does that. And he has these x-axis, the y-axis. Are they good in defending? Where do they plot out on the charts? You know, what's their, you know, defending actions per game? I mean, he really does a lot of good work that is a valuable tool again for us. Because again, the old school guy, what do my eyes tell me? That's what we're asking ourselves. And then it's always handy to have the data to kind of back up
00:44:21
Speaker
you know, what we see. Well, we got some questions from our audience that I wanted to, you know, before we, before we let you go, I wanted to ask you to get a few of these questions asked. Yeah. Is that okay? Sure. Let's go. Aaron, what you got? Yeah. So the first one is from Dave Clark, our dear friend, Dave Clark. Coach, what do you like about Wade Weber taking another step up in his career?
00:44:47
Speaker
He's just like me old school. He loves tough kids. He's gonna he's gonna work those kids He's gonna get them to be better and you know what? He's a teacher He's actually he has been in the teaching profession So look, there's a lot of good soccer players out there that had talented careers and all of that sort of stuff But how do you get the ideas? from your head and your own playing experiences into the head of
00:45:17
Speaker
read or, you know, AOC or, you know, or, you know, any of the young kids down at Defiance, you know, so how does, you know, Cody Baker, how are you going to get those ideas into those guys' heads? So I actually think he does really well with that. I've listened to him talk. He's he's he was in the preseason meetings with us as a coaching staff.
00:45:46
Speaker
socially, you know, six foot apart mass open area. We were very safe. But he was involved in some of our meetings. And I like I like what I heard. Yeah, I think I made this comment that I think he's probably the only USL or MLS coach who also taught IB history in high school. Yeah, there you go.
00:46:13
Speaker
All right, so the next question is from Jerry Neal. How big of a role does analytics play in making our team as good as it is? Yeah, well, I told you about Ravi. Look, we have every fancy tool there is to measure total distance, high speed running, sprint distance, axels, D cells, change them up. We do all of that real time.
00:46:42
Speaker
And so I'll give you two stories. I'll give you one good one and then one kind of common sense or old school one.
00:46:49
Speaker
And, you know, so the guys that are doing all that work, we have targets every day, every training session we have planned. Okay. We want to get seven and a half kilometers of total distance. We want the goal for the average of the squad to be 300 meters of high speed running. We want the sprint distance on this particular day to be lower. You know, we don't want them to sprint today because it's in the periodization of the week.
00:47:17
Speaker
And so we have a live feed of all the players and their GPS units. And so we will go and Ash, our data analysis guy on the field, can take an iPad and we can say, OK, so-and-so is going above that
00:47:39
Speaker
You know, high speed running 300 meter limit. So my curtail him or put a sub in or whatever, or conversely, if somebody's not doing the work.
00:47:52
Speaker
then we would take them after that particular training session and do some sprints with him so that they reach the appropriate amount of loading for that particular player. And it also varies, it also varies on position because look, center backs don't sprint as much as outside backs and they don't run as far a distance as midfielders. So we have those metrics as well. And so by position,
00:48:18
Speaker
by average, by the particular day. We have very specific marks of what we want to get accomplished out of training. And that helps us train smarter and better so that at the end of the week, guys aren't overloaded and we reduce injury.
00:48:37
Speaker
Now, the one good story about that is we had a training session the other day, and I think it was Friday, and we're going to give them the weekend off. And our goal was for, I think it was for 7.5K for that particular session. And there was a young kid that busted through the roof. It was like he went to 9.5 kilometers, which, look, in a nine-minute game, Nico Ledero runs
00:49:04
Speaker
13k plus christians at like 12 5 he's right below him but nico and those guys those guys are off the charts as far as their athletic ability is concerned so this young player in a training session was at 95 or 9.5 or 9.8
00:49:23
Speaker
And the fitness guys were like going, Hey, Brian, you gotta, you gotta like, you gotta like, slow him down. And I'm like going, I can't slow that kid down because that kid wants to make the team. He wants to show the coach that he deserves to be on the field.
00:49:39
Speaker
And so how do you manage that situation? I'm not going to tell the kid, oh, you know what, you can't work hard because it's not allowed. I actually say the exact opposite. I say you young kids better be the hardest working kids on the field because that's just the way the sounders, that's what we do. You kids have to earn your right to play on the team.
00:50:02
Speaker
So interesting dynamic there with the whole data collection and everything, but it still comes down to a personal level. Again, I use the data in hopefully a positive way to kind of, you know, you're either poking the guys to do a little more or sometimes with the senior players, you got to make sure they're doing the appropriate amount of work.
00:50:24
Speaker
And that's actually a great segue into the next question, which comes from Trent. How do you balance youth development and the need to get kids playing time with maintaining a competitive squad and a veteran squad?
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's the $50 million question, right? I mean, look, you saw the transfer fees for Aronson, you know, DK, the kid from Orlando, there was a rumor out there of 10 million, you know, Vancouver sold Davies for whatever it was, 18 million, 20 million. I mean, those are big numbers.
00:51:11
Speaker
So what our players have to do and what we discuss as a group, as a staff, is that the players have to earn their way up on the squad. Sounders have been notoriously hard to break into because look, we spend a lot of money on our team. And how is a young player going to be integrated into a group where that group is full of senior players that are making a lot of money?
00:51:37
Speaker
Case in point. I mean, case in point. Jordan Morris. Remember, in 2016, he had had that little taste of the national team. But we, at the beginning of that year, in that preseason, when Zig was there, we had Oba. We had Nelson. We had Jordan. And it was like, and we had Clint. I mean, how is Jordan Morris, fresh out of college, going to play in front of Nelson, Valdez, Oba, and Clint?
00:52:05
Speaker
I mean, challenging. And then Oba went to China and that opened the door, that kind of opened the door. DeAndre Jettland. How did that happen? We had Adam Johansson, sometime captain of the Swedish national team.
00:52:19
Speaker
But how did, how did Yandere get his chance to be the starting right back for our team? Well, beginning of that preseason, Adam had a little bit of a pulled muscle and Ziggy was, you know, going to play the veteran guy, but an injury and then Yandere comes in, lights it up. And all of a sudden he's playing in Europe now.
00:52:39
Speaker
You know, Christian, kudos to Christian, because he was a kid that kind of came out of nowhere, the young player, down the spine of the team, where we normally spend a lot of money, but he was able to do it, accomplish it. So it's not easy. It's not easy, but it can happen. And, you know, there's a crop of young kids that are hungry. So we'll see.
00:53:07
Speaker
All right, so next question is from Susie Rance. Has the club thought any differently about mental health resources and analytics for players in the last few years, and really particularly since the start of the pandemic?
Sounders and Mental Health Initiatives
00:53:21
Speaker
Look, we have talked about psychologists, sports psychologists, all that sort of stuff. You know, the pandemic, how does that affect young players? You know, we have kids that are homeschooled. We bring them with host families and stuff like that. I think that's something that we will look for.
00:53:37
Speaker
in the future but right now it's a very you know kind of limited I mean you know the psychologists are the coaches really I mean you know we've all had kids older kids I've had older kids and you know the the peer pressure within the group the senior players kind of helped the young guys so it's kind of by committee but not really not don't have a you know team psychologist or anything like that
00:54:04
Speaker
Next one is from Taylor Wimberly, just back to the sort of the tactical talk, I guess. If a 352 is the preferred formation, how do you handle depth at center back? Well, again, we're in the cone of silence, cone of silence here.
00:54:25
Speaker
Nuhu has looked pretty good as the left-sided center back in a three. So his physical characteristics are there. The young kid Sisoko from Defiance has looked pretty good. We'll, of course, miss some players for international duty in the summertime. So that might lead us to a couple games back to a four, two, three, one. So we're still working on that.
00:54:51
Speaker
Couple more questions. The next one, I think the most important question. What is your favorite pen for note taking? I don't know if I have a favorite pen, but I know my wife doesn't like when I click my pen during my interviews. She always trying to coach me up and make sure that I'm not clicking my pen. So this particular pen right here, I can't click. It's just not a cap. It's got a cap and I have to close it.
00:55:20
Speaker
And the last question is from Hope. What is your favorite moment as a sounder, as a player, coach, fan, any of it? Hope, thank you for ending this session on such a softball question. I mean, who can forget the joy of 70,000 people in and around the stadium?
00:55:44
Speaker
the entire Pacific Northwest, the city of Seattle, the pride we all felt. I mean, hosting MLS Cup is by far the easiest and best answer to that question.
Celebrating Seattle's MLS Cup Achievement
00:55:57
Speaker
That was such a great afternoon on so many different levels. I think the people in the
00:56:04
Speaker
Rowan, Enzone, you guys deserve that. The people that started with this in 09, they deserved it. The people back in the U.S.L. days that came to Starfire, you guys deserve that. The people way back in Memorial Stadium, watching Dave Gillett, Pepe Fernandez, Jimmy Gabriel, you know, all of those led, all of you people deserve that moment in our history.
00:56:31
Speaker
That to me was absolutely the best moment in, you know, Sounder's history. Well, I got two questions for you that I'm gonna try to pose these to almost everybody that comes on. And then we're gonna let you get out of here. The first one is what do you think you've learned about either yourself, the team, your philosophy? What have you learned in the last year with everything the way that it was?
00:57:02
Speaker
You mean from a soccer perspective or just in general? Take it wherever you want. It doesn't have to be soccer. It can be anything you want. Yeah, the reason why I asked that follow-up question, Jeremiah, because look, our country has been splintered. I'm a firm believer in the environment, global warming, all of that. There's so many things that
00:57:31
Speaker
We need to try and fix. And I made a pledge for my New Year's resolution just to be nicer to people. Maybe bridge a gap between people that don't see things the same way as I do. I'm firmly committed to saving the environment. We had grand babies come into our lives in the last year and a half and we have another one on the way.
00:57:54
Speaker
And I am so fired up about, you know, having these young people come in and, you know, providing for them and teaching them and watching them grow up. Our kids are great and, you know, just making sure that they have a good life and a stable planet and in something that, you know, that we might all take for granted.
00:58:18
Speaker
But it's something that's happening very rapidly and we need to address those issues. And so COVID was just almost the icing on the cake. I mean, the political stuff, the environment, then you have COVID. I mean, it was a triple whammy. And it just makes you reflect on how thankful you need to be
00:58:40
Speaker
to have a nice life and a wife and plenty good moments in your soccer career and your job and your kids are safe, your dog is doing well, Simba's great and you get to enjoy a glass of Washington red wine. I appreciate all the small moments that I have that I can afford to take in.
00:59:05
Speaker
And, you know, from a soccer perspective, Jeremiah, I think what happened was, you know, with the whole, you know, loss of the, you know, last game certainly was disappointing. You know, it was such a bitter disappointment for us. And, you know, the whole contract negotiation that, that kind of labored on and you look, I'm not a greedy guy and, you know, can we take care of the assistants and, you know, all of that sort of stuff. Again, it just makes me appreciate my job.
00:59:32
Speaker
You know, I have a great job. This is a great community. And, you know, I'm very thankful that I'm part of the Seattle Sounders. So the last thing I want to close on is if you were designing Yacht College, for instance, what's the course you would want to make sure we had and who's the get who's the teacher you'd want to make sure is teaching it?
00:59:58
Speaker
I mean, I could poke fun at Ravi and he could, you know, make me smarter. Uh, there's certainly guys that are more organized than I am, you know, you know, they're super meticulous guys. Um,
01:00:11
Speaker
Uh, you know, you might've stumped me there, Jeremiah. I mean, I could figure out how, you know, I could figure out how to be a better broadcaster in case I get fired. I might have to take over Taylor Twelman's job, you know, figure out how to be a national icon on ESPN or, you know, God forbid.
01:00:32
Speaker
God forbid, Jeremiah, I needed to become Alexi Lawless and be some controversial, you know, maybe he could teach me a few things about broadcasting. I don't know. I don't know. Well, that's a good note to end this on. So thank you so much, Brian, for giving us your time for doing this, for being opening up Yacht College in a way that, you know,
01:01:01
Speaker
We would have hoped and dreamed and, you know, I really do want to thank you for the bottom of my heart. It's been great having you as a part of Yacht-Con's past in this one and hopefully we have a few more in us too. Well, congrats to you, Jeremiah, the idea, the whole thing. It's a great event.
01:01:20
Speaker
you know it's a good cause it gets all soccer people together so who knows to you well thank you and that's a good good plug a good transition into if you liked what you saw today we got basically two weeks of courses lined up uh go to sounder at heart slash yacht con you can see all the
01:01:41
Speaker
all the courses that we're offering. It's going to be a lot of fun, I think, for the next couple of weeks. We got a bunch of your players that are going to be coming on, doing wine tasting, mixing cocktails. It's going to be a lot of fun. Wait a second. What did you say? No. Who's mixing cocktails? Oh, I mean, I don't. OK. All right. I think they'll be drinking mocktails.
01:02:06
Speaker
Okay. Mocktails. There you go. That's better. Cause I'll be watching, you know, I pay attention. All right. Well, uh, I guess we'll, we'll sign off on that, on that note. Uh, remember you'll never get alone.