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Tom Bogert Still Likes The Seattle Sounders Chances - Ep. 92 (Feat. Tom Bogert)
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It’s a very special episode as we’re finally joined by the great Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport and Soccerwise to talk about the Sounders from a national perspective, his take on Ryan Kent and a couple of the other big headlines from around MLS. After our initial discussion, Tom also gave us a glimpse into life as one of the biggest scoop-artists in the game in a segment that will be available exclusively to our YouTube members.
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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
Intro and Today's Weather
00:00:00
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. What the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
Episode Introduction with Guest Tom Bogert
00:00:22
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 92 of Lobbing Scorchers. Folks, we got a very special show for you today. We finally made it happen.
00:00:33
Speaker
We got the man himself on the show. tomm Tommy Scoops. We got Tom Bogert from Give Me Sport and Soccer Wise on the show. Tom, thank you so much for the time this morning.
00:00:44
Speaker
How are you doing, man? Thanks for having me. i love talking to you guys. I'm glad that, you know, if you ran through as many guests as you could, like episode 92, things are getting stale. It's like, all right, fine. Like, we'll bring on Tom. Like, you know, yeah you somebody's got to be a middle reliever kind of innings eater here. Like you, you, you threw the closers, you brought up your top prospects and then it was like, all right, man, it's July 15th. We need somebody to give us five innings. Like, let's
Time Zone Challenges in Podcasting
00:01:05
Speaker
go.
00:01:05
Speaker
You know, to be fair, we did try to make it happen sooner, but this East Coast time zone is just a little hard manage. You know, we're landing one down at 7.30 p.m. Pacific, and then out there it's already 2 a.m., so I don't know we're supposed to do that. But we made it happen.
00:01:21
Speaker
made i We made it happen. We got our asses up at 7.30 a.m. PT to make this happen. So that's how dedicated ah we are to the content today.
National vs Local Views on Seattle Sounders
00:01:30
Speaker
um Tom, let's just get right into it because we got a lot of stuff stuff we need to hit with you. Obviously, you're one of the most connected people in the game. So got insight on all kinds of behind the scenes stuff and really got knowledge of the whole league. So happy to get the chance to pick your brain. And we're going to start with ah some Seattle Sounders because that's the team that we cover primarily and are most interested in.
00:01:53
Speaker
So I whenever i have a ah national pundit on I'd like to get their perspective on what they think of Seattle because I feel like how we perceive it locally like following the team every day is is one way and then you talk to someone who views it from the outside you might get a different perspective so I'm always interested to hear about that.
Ryan Kent Joins Seattle Sounders
00:02:11
Speaker
And I guess let's just start off with the biggest story surrounding the Seattle Sounders at the moment, which is ah Ryan Kent. Ryan Kent has officially been signed, got announced yesterday. Seattle has a new addition ah that they ah went out and got after this Paul Areola injury.
00:02:29
Speaker
And, ah you know, I've been learning a lot about Ryan Kent the last couple days. ah Liverpool Academy guy, which, you know, I know speaks to your heart. So I guess... I wanted to ask you, what ah what was your kind of first reaction when you saw the links and the potential of the Seattle Sounders signing Ryan Kent? And just what do you make of the addition? Like, what do you think he can bring to the squad?
00:02:52
Speaker
Do you like the addition? I love it. And I'm shocked that the Sounders found enough allocation money roster space in the couch cushions
Ryan Kent's Impact and Signing Surprise
00:03:00
Speaker
to make it happen. This is one like he's been a free agent since October or the end of October.
00:03:05
Speaker
um he Like this guy screams would be an excellent and MLS signing, but I figured, okay, nothing happened. that He's just going to sign back somewhere else in Europe in in the winter. Then that didn't happen. And it was like mid-February. I was like, why are not why aren't more MLS teams connected with this guy?
00:03:19
Speaker
Why aren't I hearing more about somebody who's at least trying to talk to him? Usually in this scenario, when you think like, oh, that that should be an obvious signing or people should be at least calling. It's like, oh, he must be asking for $5 million. dollars And somebody would be telling me that.
00:03:32
Speaker
That clearly wasn't the case. And Seattle ended up getting this deal done. i didn't think that they had the space on the roster to do so. I'm sure that a little bit of the accounting from Paul Areola on the season-ending injured list will help with that. But again, i'm I'm not a cap wizard here. So I think it's a great sign. This is a team that was already really deep.
00:03:49
Speaker
Even without Paul Areola, they had enough to go by. They wanted more, of course. And Ryan Kent coming in is... It's a really good addition. And again, I'm just surprised it was Seattle because I thought that there's going more constraints. I thought there'd be somebody else to outbid them.
00:04:02
Speaker
Like if you're Toronto FC, if you're you know Houston, who as they were scrambling to try to fill their attack, and I know that they've made a few signings since, but there was ah a number of teams where i was like, dude, he'd he'd be a no-brainer starter for this team, I think.
Ryan Kent's Journey and Lifestyle Rumors
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, I'm interested to know, and and I mean, obviously, I don't know if anyone's going to know here, but it's the the reality of playing in Club World Cup and being Ryan Kent, a guy who kind of crashed out in dramatic fashion out of out of favor Fenerbahce and Fenerbahce. We literally, this is the mispronunciation podcast, by the way, so you will, yeah, we will not pronounce anything correctly.
00:04:38
Speaker
um Nor am I Turkish, but... Like to to crash out of Europe so spectacularly and you know, also to own alligators like just this. extent Are we 100% sure that that's true? Like I don't even I'm just saying that genuinely because I don't know.
00:04:54
Speaker
And I just anything that's on like troll football or. Yeah, to sport like I like my brain is like programmed to like ignore it. So if it makes it way to my timeline, I'm like so far of like defending my parameters that like I get angry when it breaches.
00:05:09
Speaker
Like the text that I'll send people when they send me something dumb like that. what i mean, I have no clue. We're here to proliferate the the fake news. Well, what I read was that when he was looking for a new club ah before he went to Rangers, part of his criteria for the new club that he was looking for was that they had to accommodate team.
00:05:30
Speaker
It's either one crocodile or multiple crocodiles. So yeah, I think there actually was, he did, ah he did own a crocodile.
Sounders' Struggles and New Signings
00:05:40
Speaker
um Tom with the Ryan Kent stuff now finalized and ah see where sticks match days into the MLS season here. How do you size up where Seattle is at right now out here?
00:05:53
Speaker
The vibes have been pretty ah negative the last few weeks, I would say. ah The goals haven't been coming. The injury situation is pretty brutal. ah But I do think with this signing, people are, I know I'm intrigued by it. And they also, their their last game against the Quakes ah wasn't a super great result, but it had a nice little ending. And I think there's a bit of a boost going into this San Diego game. But from ah from a national lens, how do you look at this team right now?
00:06:22
Speaker
So I still look at them as one of the best teams in the league because MLS is such a long season. And like, look, last year they were disastrous at the start of the season. and Like it took them. and And I was saying this around now of like, yeah, they're still going to be one of the best teams the league. And then at some point by like, I think June or July, i was like, i I might need to accept the fact that I might have been wrong.
00:06:41
Speaker
And then, so that made me double wrong because by the time I finally gave up, that's when they started playing as one of the best teams in the league. I hope that that's not what happens this year. I hope that they figure it out sooner. This team has too much talent.
00:06:52
Speaker
The coaching staff is too productive, entrenched, good, right? Like all of these positive words of they always figure it out. And usually it's pretty straightforward. And this roster seems like it should be generally straightforward.
00:07:04
Speaker
There's a lot of very good players, a lot of players who can play multiple positions that will help with rotation and all. But generally speaking, it's either going to be the 4-2-3-1 or the few times that they need to go back three. And then think that the principles should be similar.
00:07:17
Speaker
So I'm again confused why it's starting so slow. And you kind of look at like the underlying numbers, and it's too early to really be looking at XG and an expected goal difference because it's six games, things weird things happen. But they're within the top five in MLS and expected goal difference.
00:07:34
Speaker
Those other teams are Minnesota, very good. San Diego have played very well. Vancouver obviously played very well. in Philly. And then the fifth is Seattle, and Seattle are the only one who are really trailing in terms of making that turn into actual points.
00:07:45
Speaker
Longwood way of saying, I think that they're going to be very good. I'm disappointed by the slow start and I don't have, you know, a great reason for it so far. Well, I think one thing to that's kind of a good segue into the next thing I wanted to ask you about, which is I think ah one reason for the downturn in form ah is obviously the injury situation.
Pedro De La Vega's Injuries Affecting Team
00:08:06
Speaker
And they're in a situation with De La Vega again, where he he wasn't able to stay on the field. And it's honestly even more frustrating this year because he was fit in preseason and for the first few games of this season and in Champions Cup And he looked, he actually looked like the player they thought they were getting last year. He would play and ah you could, you you just, it just didn't look quite there yet. It's kind of like what they're going through with Jesus Ferreira right now, trying to integrate him.
00:08:32
Speaker
And it just never quite got there this year. It looked like he was actually getting there. Then he gets injured again. ah When you look at a situation where a team spent a bunch of money on a talented guy who looked like he was coming into his own, but he just can't stay on the field.
00:08:47
Speaker
Like, What do you think they should, ah how do you think they should handle this or what what should they do about it? Because I do think as talented as he is, it has been holding the team back really dating back to last year.
00:08:59
Speaker
No, it's so tricky. it's it's It's such a conundrum because like you said, like when he's on, like he looks like a legitimate DP in this league. He looks like somebody that you'd spend $7 million dollars on. But that has been so few and far between just in terms of availability. And then like you said, sometimes they's shaking off rust.
00:09:15
Speaker
He's in the zone for me now where like I'm looking at my like depth charts on soccer wise, like Seattle. And like before we was like trying to, you know, really get into the the sounder zone here before we started talking.
00:09:27
Speaker
And I'm looking at it and I'm like, I have Pedro De La Vega as a starting winger. Should I? But I was like, well, if he's fit, he probably started, but he's not really ever fit. And like, I'm like staring at Ryan Kent. i was like, do I put him over him?
00:09:38
Speaker
Do I, does Jesus stand like, because there's so many different options. I think where they should be at right now is you try to do your best. You try to manage him. Don't like, it seems like he can do, you know, three days of training in a row and that's maybe it.
00:09:52
Speaker
um um And you, i mean, you do your best to manage them, but like, he shouldn't be a guaranteed starter when he's fit. He, you shouldn't kind of sacrifice anything else around the team. The way you look at it for me is additive.
00:10:05
Speaker
And this team is deep enough and good enough and has the high end talent that if they, if he gets, gives them nothing, they're still going to be one of the best teams in the league. So you look at it it as additive.
00:10:16
Speaker
um And I know that that might be difficult to get the best out of him where he's just kind of off to the side and Hey, give us what you can give us, but we're not going to sacrifice the rest of the team for this. So it's a really tricky one. And you hope that,
00:10:27
Speaker
he's able to find more consistent fitness and availability because that'll help him perform better. And it's just sad to see injuries kind of slow a player down. But if you're Brian Schmetzer, you can't be building anything around him because you can't rely on Yeah, I think that's that's an interesting point, too.
Should Seattle Transfer Pedro De La Vega?
00:10:44
Speaker
Pedro is apparently still the most inquired-about player that the Sounders have. So I think it's interesting to, like, do you preserve his value, look to move him on?
00:10:55
Speaker
Especially as I have said this on the last podcast, this is a team of wingers. Like, I swear, every single player on this goddamn team is a winger. Like, we're signing another winger, we're not signing another nine, you know? hey who for His is for him, but then became a winger.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. Like, and, and Jesus Ferreira, you know, I think this is maybe, I guess let's, let's hit the Pedro thing first of like, do you think that this is kind of where it's going to go where they might have to just move off of them and hedge their bets there?
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I'd be, i don't know. um So i'm trying to think like, Every time I think that a transfer fee going out is like, going to lose money on that. And like, that's fine whatever.
00:11:36
Speaker
um Easier said than done. Like it's ownership's money. Right. like Right. And then if if you're the front office, it makes it more difficult. The next time you say, no, this is a seven million dollar player and it's going to work But every time I kind of said that about some other players last winter, Argentine clubs went out and spent $10 million dollars with Sebastian Giuse.
00:11:54
Speaker
ah Like, Austin almost would have driven him to the airport. If they got $3 million, I was going to say. Look, he's had ah ah he's had some good times, particularly that 22 season, just getting his salary off the books and just say, all right, like, that's cool.
00:12:07
Speaker
And they they made ten they got $10 million. dollars I couldn't believe it. yeah Alan Velasco. I love him as a player. I think that he has potential to be what Boca Juniors paid for him, but it was still like whatever, 10 million in add-ons and a sell-on and everything else. Like, so that being said, maybe they could get $7 million dollars for Pedro de la Vega from our Argentine team. And if that happens, I think you do it.
00:12:27
Speaker
But it's a lot of ifs. And what again, what I would say is I would doubt that that offer comes. But I said the same thing about the money that the Velasco deal ended up going to. And I said the same thing about Driuzzi. I don't even go back like Leandro Gonzalez-Pierrez, who is the the Austin FC. They signed a DP10 from Tyeres. I've already forgot his name, but like their first season.
00:12:45
Speaker
He was bad. Immediately, a South American club bailed him out. um Gregory went to Botafogo. All this money, like and I know this is Brazil. Like, every time that I think that, oh, man, like, they're going to have to lose a lot of money on this.
00:12:58
Speaker
Somebody from South America is like, here here's $5 million. And I love that as a trend in MLS. So if if you could do that for Pedro Del Vigo, I think at this point, you got to do it. I just don't understand why River Plate did that with Drew Yussi. I was very confused. the like It seems like it would be such an easy negotiation to be like, we know we everyone knows that this guy doesn't want to be on your team. so We'll give you $1 million or $2 million dollars for him, I guess. And ah if you don't want to take it, keep him and see how it goes having a disgruntled player on your team.
00:13:32
Speaker
and But they just shelled out the 10 mil. That's crazy. Well done by Austin. Again, I don't know how that they they really like and those negotiations. They got a bid from Estudiantes, which had an ownership that just did it didn't matter what number they said. They weren't ever going to pay it.
00:13:49
Speaker
Like it over the winter, it slowly became realized that like, just don't even take this team seriously. um And that's like that's what held up the Lucho Cosa situation is because like I think that Estudiantes offered Cincy something in the realm of $10 million, bucks which was just like way more than you should ever be paying for, um again, a 31-year-old who desperately wanted to leave. Lucho's a great player. $5 million is much more fair.
00:14:10
Speaker
So that's why Dallas were like, oh, you guys got $10 million? like Well done. We're not going to match that. And then all of a sudden, like they're like negotiating for contract. And it's like, wait a minute. That was way too easy. And then like... It became clear. It's they haven't paid Udinese. They haven't paid this team for this player.
00:14:25
Speaker
They can't register this one. So I guess River Plate was like, crap. Like he might actually go to Estudiantes, despite the fact that they don't have any money. And Driussi literally has a River Plate tattoo on him. um And I guess they they blinked first and well done.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah, I want to just jump back quickly to hey the Jesus Ferreira. It's the biggest discussion in Sounders fandom right now. What the hell is he is the question, I think, more than what the hell
Jesus Ferreira's Best Position Debate
00:14:51
Speaker
isn't he. ah We all know he's a talented player, but...
00:14:55
Speaker
He's not quite fitting in the role that they're trying to wedge him in at the nine. um And like I said, a team full of wingers. I don't know if you've been watching it closely, but let's get some Jesus Ferreira takes out you if we can.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, no. So I wanted you guys. I'm curious to see, again, like the on the ground day to day feelings. But for me, from the outside, Jesus has been at his best in his career when like Ricardo Pepe was the center forward ahead of him, like when he's a second forward type of player.
00:15:26
Speaker
Like, that's why i figured that George Morris was going to stay it center forward and Ferreira was going to be this like inverted winger. But that doesn't make sense with Nuhu because Nuhu isn't an overlapping fullback. And so it all comes around and like, I don't, the best thing for Jesus Ferreira, and I honestly think this might be the best 11 for Seattle, a three, four, two, one, where you have Jordan Morris as center forward. Jesus is kind of in that half space underneath.
00:15:50
Speaker
And then the other player is, you know, probably Rusnak or if you need to move Rusnak further deep. um And then maybe Ryan Kent can be a wingback. If not, obviously Roldan can be. You can put Rothrock as a wingback on the other side.
00:16:02
Speaker
It makes it difficult when then you're not playing with traditional wingers when you have 75 wingers. But I do believe that that 3-4-2-1 is their best 11.
00:16:13
Speaker
The defensive structure, no matter what, is going to be great. But I think at the back three, with New, who has a left center back in the back three, that gets the best out of him as well. And then you just have to say, hey, Ryan Kent, hey, Georgie Minungu, hey, Paul Rothrock, you're going to play wingback.
00:16:26
Speaker
And you're going to get forward all of the time, but you need to also defend a little bit. And that's just what it's going to take to get on the field. So that's where I see it. But again, like... there's been a lot of times with Jesus Frayer in particular and like these Dallas teams of the past, the last two years, I was like, this team makes so much sense.
00:16:41
Speaker
Jesus, Velasco, and Musso. Then Velasco was injured and Jesus was injured and it took Musso a little while to get going. Then he got going and then they were going to do it this year, even what's just like Musso and Velasco. Then Velasco's gone. Then everything else. So,
00:16:52
Speaker
It's always been a bit of like a quandary with Jesus. And I see it like that. Like he needs a more traditional forward around him, or at least somebody who's going to stretch the lines like Jordan Morris would. So he has more space operate in underneath because he can get in behind.
00:17:06
Speaker
He wants the ball to feed more. yeah I think the plan was to play him as a second striker off Jordan, to be fair. But that still has a winger, and if he's on the left, which makes more sense with Pedro Delevegue on the right, you don't have an overlapping fullback of Nuhu who's playing.
00:17:21
Speaker
So like that works as a solution, except not quite with this group
Formation Challenges and Ryan Kent's Role
00:17:25
Speaker
of players. And not to mention, he's the problem when that was playing out was he's getting in the space of Albert Rusnak, who, yeah I'm sorry, like, respectful respect to both of the players, but Albert Rusnak is going to beat you out on that depth chart every single time. He is...
00:17:42
Speaker
In practice, a a higher performing player. And that is his role to lose, which he's not going to lose that right now. right Like that's he's that's Brian's guy to start it and play. And, you know, so I just I feel like he's just in this weird odd man out scenario. But he's also in this situation where you can't not play him.
00:18:03
Speaker
And now he's just getting frustrated because he's, he's been put at this like pressing nine position that he's terrible at. He doesn't know how to work that space. He feels lost. And then you put a guy like Danny Musovsky in there, who's not productive, but he knows how to like operate in that same space.
00:18:19
Speaker
And literally once that happens, it unlocks all of those yeah specialties of Jesus Ferrer when he's out on that wing. He's service everything. It was like night and day. I totally agree. But, but so even with that too, it's like,
00:18:32
Speaker
If he's the nine, then again, you have Roosnack. They want to operate the same spaces. yeah And like, there's no vertical threats on on either wing the way that that's structured again without Morris in the team. And I think that's another reason why Ryan Kent is going to make sense because whether he's as a wingback or a winger, and like, again, I'm assuming that they're going to play the 4-2-3-1 more than anything else.
00:18:51
Speaker
Like Ryan Kent will go vertical and he's going to fit really well. And and I think that's why like... um we We haven't seen him play since October. And again, you said he wasn't shredding it at Fenerbahce.
00:19:03
Speaker
And he was really, really good for Rangers. But like, let's be careful. that's Rangers and Celtic would be two of the best like two the best two teams in MLS. And it was a third the the third best team in Scotland.
00:19:15
Speaker
I don't know where they would finish in Major League Soccer. So, like, just be careful with that. I think he's going to be really, really good for this team, but maybe it'll take a little time. That being said, when he gets up to full speed, I think stylistically he makes more sense for this group, for Jesus Ferrer, for some other players, for Rusnak. Like, that's going to open up so much more space.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, the vertical threat was Paul Rothrock, in the at least in the ah San Jose game, which actually was working quite well, but it was like a little one-dimensional. think you're right. like Ryan Kent, that's the exact kind of skill set that he can provide and hopefully add a boost to the team. And ah like just looking into him a little more, i kind of I like the fire that he plays with. It seems like he's always running at 100 miles per hour.
00:19:58
Speaker
ah Hard worker, which Brian Schmetzer is going to like. And it seems like, you know, a little bit of an eccentric personality with the crocodiles and ah some of the other stuff you've heard about him, which has probably worked against him at some points. But I think and for for this locker room, it actually could be ah ah good thing to have like a character guy like that in there. Listen, if we can handle Dempsey, we can handle the crocodile guy. Yeah, it's a kind of a similar idea in some ways.
00:20:27
Speaker
All right, let's let's move to some ah national stuff because we did have a couple headlines we wanted to hit with you, Tom. ah Tom Bogert from Give Me Sport Soccer Wise on the show. Very exciting.
Peter Vermees Leaves Sporting Kansas City
00:20:37
Speaker
ah the Tom, the biggest story in the last couple days was the departure of Peter Vermees from how could they do this to him Sporting Kansas City.
00:20:47
Speaker
The club of professional wrestling enthusiasts have parted ways with the longest tenured manager in MLS. I didn't think they were going to do it. It was funny. Noah and I were recording a pod the day before it happened. and we were predicting if it was going to happen and i said no like we had to put out the pod with me saying no after yeah would be good the ah but like ah you know to be fair there's been situations in the past where people thought it might happen people were there the fan base was calling for it and it just seemed like ownership had like unyielding faith in him which might have been justified at one point but clearly they felt it wasn't anymore the
00:21:23
Speaker
The streak they're on right now of 13 of 14 losses with the other one. They haven't won in 14 matches, I think. That's hard to do in this league. so It is. and now Now that it's happened, it doesn't surprise me that ah it reached a breaking point.
00:21:36
Speaker
But ah even so, it's the the part the departure of an MLS institution. ah Definitely, ah ah he's a league legend. you know As much as I give them a hard time about them suplexing other players on the soccer field, like he is a legendary coach and he's had a lot of success in the league.
00:21:52
Speaker
ah what What's just your kind of read on what's going on with them as an organization right now and why now was the time for them to part ways with him? Yeah, it's going to be a mess moving forward and and trying to kind of pick up the pieces here because he was is is an institution.
00:22:08
Speaker
This club owes him just about everything. He's the only person that won ah MLS Cup as a player and then as a coach for the same team. He won it in 2000 with the then KC Wizards and then took over as technical director 05 or 06 and then head coach in whatever, 08 or 09.
00:22:26
Speaker
oh like That's 20 years where pretty much every big decision is coming through Peter Vermees. And he's been incredible to take them from the KC Wizards to Sporting Kansas City in their new facility, the stadium, and then the the training center after that.
00:22:43
Speaker
Their run from 2011 to 18, they made the playoffs every year. They won four major trophies, one MLS Cup and three Open Cups. They finished top of the West, I think, four times in that eight-year span or or however long.
00:22:55
Speaker
They have been absolutely incredible, and they owe it all to Peter Vermeer, all of it. He gets the the blame for now, as he should. He hired Mike Burns.
00:23:07
Speaker
It was made clear to me in negotiat and negotiat in interviews for people other people who were interested in listening to that job or or talking about it, that you work for Peter Vermees and you're not getting the top sporting director candidates who go in and like the head coach is my boss.
00:23:26
Speaker
They've like, they have not transitioned out of and MLS 3.0, whatever you want to call it. The ownership doesn't spend enough. um And now he's out again.
00:23:37
Speaker
This has been a long time coming. I think he deserved... all of the leeway. And maybe I'm too much of a romantic about this. And that's why I'd be a bad owner or president or sporting director or whatever.
00:23:47
Speaker
um And like on the merit of performance, he absolutely is like, should have gone. Still that all being said, like i'm I'm looking at the positives of what it was in totality.
00:23:59
Speaker
Worried about the scene moving forward. Like how do you be the guy who comes in after Vermees? Every major and minor decision, again, funnels through him for the last 20 years. So people like somebody was like, oh, what about Jim Curtin?
00:24:12
Speaker
like Why in the world would Jim Curtin take this job? Why in the world would he? Why would like it's it's ahead of Montreal right now in the pecking order of the open jobs. Congratulations. Like, let's have that's a trophy. I feel like it isn't even like that, though.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yes, it is. Over Montreal, like, i don't I don't mean to take Montreal out with a straight here, but that is no no no contest. That's a no contest. But still, like, this like mike Mike Burns, that they hired a sporting director. Now like now he's going to, him and ownership will be leading the the search for a new head coach and all the like decisions they're for.
Sporting KC's Future Without Vermees
00:24:44
Speaker
You look at ownership, there have been, like, two single seasons where they've spent money. The Alan Polito year and then this winter. And I love the De'Agnon Vluch signing. I like what Manu Garcia has done so far.
00:24:55
Speaker
For six years, they haven't replaced Matt Beasle or Ilya Sanchez. And like, so like, that's cool that they have a good 10 and a good striker, but it doesn't matter. Like this team is not close to being competitive.
00:25:08
Speaker
The idea of doing it now is to maybe preserve the idea of 2025. It won't be a lost year. Like essentially the last few have been, but I think that this is going to be too far gone. And like carries of Agnan,
00:25:20
Speaker
He has been at this club since 2000. He was a player. His first season as a player was 2000. He retired in 08, 090s on the coaching staff. He's been here as long as Peter Vermees. So how much is actually going to change right away?
00:25:32
Speaker
um And I just don't think the roster is good enough. And I don't think ownership is going to invest enough. And the structure of the front office is going to make it difficult to get the top candidates. Like that doesn't mean that nothing can happen, nothing can change. But I'm worried about how long is it going to take to set a new course?
00:25:46
Speaker
Like what Vermees has done, it's not like you need to throw it all out, but you need to get out of his shadow if you if you bring in a new person and they're going to have to make some changes. Yeah, that's interesting. i'm I am really interested to see how they like get dragged up kicking and screaming into the modern era of soccer. because like I worked there for as an intern, and like it's a it's a great place to work. They have a great facility.
00:26:10
Speaker
One of my favorite stadiums in the entire league, the training center is amazing. The training center is where they train like all of the refs for the U.S. They have like such a great...
00:26:21
Speaker
system there. Great for coaching too. like They have all their... You know you can do sort of certifications and everything. It's a great soccer city. It's just like they suck. They suck so bad.
00:26:33
Speaker
And I think what? The last trophy they won was Open Cup and like... What was it? 2017 something? to say... that's that's basically a decade ago like and and i guess all of this to say I want to put a Seattle twist on this because sometimes I get scared about Seattle mirroring the
Parallels Between Sporting KC and Seattle Sounders
00:26:58
Speaker
sporting Kansas city. Look, right?
00:26:59
Speaker
Like you have an ownership group who isn't necessarily, we are not Atlanta. We are not Atlanta by even a, any stretch. And, ah we've only had two coaches.
00:27:11
Speaker
And, you know, there's been reports here and there that Brian Schmetzer has a lot of pull in the way that decisions get made, especially over Craig Weibel. And I don't know, do we do we worry as Seattle fans that maybe this is a situation that we could get into at some point?
00:27:28
Speaker
That's an interesting angle. um Anytime that that ah incredibly successful manager who's been there for a long time eventually leaves, there's going to be the worry. um I don't have it as much, I think, for Seattle. Right. Like a lot's going to depend on how much money that they're going to put in the team, because while you say no, like Seattle haven't been Atlanta in terms of the investment, like on the field stuff and and transfer fees and salaries.
00:27:51
Speaker
they haven't been what kansas city has been where true like i like and like what they did to get dempsey like that was real obafem i know like we're using ah examples from a long time ago but even pedro de la vega they got him for seven million i think it's pretty clear that by the additions and where the additions came from this winter that there wasn't any money for transfer fees because that's why there was a couple of trades and you that's what happens when you buy the rain and like And like, I think that that that was a fine, like that's going to work out. It's just that can't be every year.
00:28:20
Speaker
And I'm not suggesting that it's going to be, but that would be the bigger worry because again, I like Brian Schmetzer. Yeah. He has a lot of pull as he should have. a lot ofs But there was Garth Lagoe here before that helped set everything up. Again, Adrian and and the ownership is is where it starts. And I know that that him and Schmetzer are close. Again, he's been there forever, as he should be. Like, he's earned all of this. i don't want any of this to sound like a critique.
00:28:40
Speaker
I'm less worried about Seattle in, the again, the inevitable see scenario. Again, you know, 45 years in the future when Schmetzer isn't coaching the team. That they're going to, it won't be the same concerns. There will be questions because that is what's going to happen in any of these scenarios. But I think that they'll be fine.
00:28:57
Speaker
Yeah. I have to ask too. Sorry, Ari. I'm going to ask one more here. What is your favorite Peter Vermees presser? He is our favorite god flaming hot presser. oh it's a big content loss for us it is it is a big content i'll tell you first and foremost i missed the i'll miss the sideline gifs like yes like i was just staring longingly at the fuck off you love yeah you love that game i was just like looking at it yesterday i was just like good night sweet prince i hope that he goes to like mls 360 so he can recreate some of these things oh my god he would be such a good broadcaster dude i think he would yeah Like how they had Gio. He's low-key funny.
00:29:32
Speaker
Like he looks like a military guy with the gun the and his demeanor, his on the field, his haircut, everything else. He's a funny dude. Like when you get him in off the record moments or like in low, like again, not on the field, he's funny.
00:29:45
Speaker
And like, I've heard this from a lot of people. So, I think that that'll be nice. Like, yeah like if he wants to be a manager again, and I'm sure he will because he's crazy competitive. um One, he should based on merit. um He shouldn't do it immediately.
00:29:57
Speaker
You need to have a little bit of time go by because I don't think a lot like fans of like another team wouldn't be, I don't think thrilled in this moment, even though maybe they should be. if he are If he has five, six months doing media, i think fans are going to be juiced whenever he takes his next job.
00:30:11
Speaker
I totally agree. um All right, Tom, we have one more national storyline we wanted to hit with you.
LAFC vs Club America Charity Match
00:30:18
Speaker
Club World Cup. ah The Seattle Sounders are playing in it famously, ah and it was reported. Unfortunately, last in the last couple of days that ah so there was which club start which club got kicked out.
00:30:31
Speaker
ah leon Leone got kicked out. So to replace Club Leone, ah they're apparently going to have LAFC and Club America play a charity match to see who gets the charity spot. ah it's i think it's I think the idea is it's a one-off.
00:30:48
Speaker
ah they're fooling They're dueling for it. ah ah Is this, ah have you heard anything about if this is a confirmed, and B, yeah like, okay, so it's confirmed. What do you think? As long as Leon loses their appeal, which FIFA are assuming that they're going lose.
00:31:03
Speaker
Okay, so what is your take on a charity duel for a Club World Cup spot? um I'm surprised it wasn't another 16-team tournament. for the last spot.
00:31:16
Speaker
And then they sell the broadcast rights to Apple or ESPN or Fox or whatever. Right. yeah I'm surprised that that's not the case. um From trying to report on this,
00:31:28
Speaker
I like my colleague, Ben Jacobs. He was an excellent, excellent reporter. He's got so many contacts. Ben, on the pod. we love you. And he's like, Texas. So like, we work on stuff a lot together because we're both at Give Me Sport.
00:31:39
Speaker
um And he's like, he's trying to figure it out. And he's using logic. And he goes, what about Alouense? And I was like, dude, I got no juice for this. And he's like, he goes, bro, like, What about the Philadelphia Union? They're pretty high in the CONCACAF coefficient. Like, do you want to do you want to reach out to Philly and ask them if they're hopeful or expecting or anything? And I was like, I'm not wasting my time because FIFA is going to come up with, again, what I was going to joke, again, I thought it was going to be...
00:32:05
Speaker
multiple teams it was multiple teams i would' have thought more i was like dude i appreciate that you're trying to follow the logic and they're gonna give us logic and they did they said well club leon beat lafc in the final and club america have the highest coefficient and it just so happens that these are two of the super clubs in the region just coincidentally right um so just like and i'm not calling philadelphia but i'm not wasting my time i'm not wasting their time like i'm i'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that they're not gonna be in the mix and or if they are we'll find out when when it happens so That's my thoughts on it, that um they creatively found a solution.
00:32:37
Speaker
And I don't even necessarily hate it because like there's going to be, i forget the exact number that this spot's going to get, like multi-millions of dollars just for making it short. It's 9.8 just for playing. So, like, I wanted to joke about, like, would either team be, like, not screwed up? Like, they're obviously, like, they have plenty of incentives. So but my view of it is just, like, man, it it's a made-up tournament that I hope is going to go well. It would be exciting to play in. But then how is it going to impact the haves and have-nots and in world soccer anyway? and And just, you know, we'll see how it goes. And at least that they came up with a logical explanation after picking LAFC and Club America.
00:33:15
Speaker
As long as it wasn't hour and outness here. Yeah, it is nice that... ah Well, here's what I'll say, right? Like, I am so excited to watch LAFC lose another final. Like, that is, for me, everything.
00:33:28
Speaker
That's what I live for, okay? And, you know, Club America is going to give them the belt. This LAFC team, oh my god, incredible. I was really hoping that the Galaxy would get the spot and they would just get run over.
00:33:41
Speaker
But whoever gets this spot, realistically, has a good chance of not only getting that $9.8 million, but for every draw in in in this tournament, you get $1 million. dollars Every win, you get $2 million. dollars They're in a pretty weak group.
00:33:55
Speaker
I mean, Chelsea's not weak, but there's some random Turkish club. No disrespect to Turkey, again. But, you know, it's... It's a Tunisian. Yeah, it's like... Tunisian. Tunisian, yeah, it's Flamengo. Oh, yeah, Tunisian, not even Turkey. yeah Chelsea, and then the winner of of this. And again, let's like while I say that this is at least good that they only pick two teams, so while they're waiting for the appeal, they might be in a boardroom thinking, well, what if what if we expanded this mini tournament for the charity spot?
Episode Wrap-Up and Promotions
00:34:25
Speaker
That would be fire. Tom, we're, uh, we're past half an hour here. So thank you so much for the time. ah we're going to, uh, we're going to get you going here, but are are you able to stick around for a few minutes to ah lay down some stuff for our YouTube members or do you need to jet? We're going to, we're going to wrap it for this first segment right here. Uh, thank you so much for joining us. It was a long time coming and we're going to, we're going to get you, back on here.
00:34:51
Speaker
maybe uh maybe a little uh uh semi-regular tommy scoops check oh yeah man we' try and line it up but uh yeah thank you so much for the time this morning man i mean you're the the best in the game so uh always great to hear from you and uh yeah we're gonna get you back on soon What do you want to show wait before the regular audience dips out? ah bad buting Soccer wise, soccer wise. Yeah. Join the Patreon. The Discord is fun. I literally need to remind myself to close out the Discord app. So particularly game days where I'm like, I have a couple screens up because trying to watch a hundred games at once.
00:35:25
Speaker
And it's like, all right, all my time is texting people in the Discord because this is so much fun. So that I think that's my best sell for joining SoccerWise Patreon. We're just listening to it a podcast without that. You would add it on. You already follow Tom on ah Twitter in Blue Sky, but everyone go sub to SoccerWise. Consume their content. it's It's the best out there right now. We were on there one time.
00:35:45
Speaker
We were, and that's why we like it.