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Mailbag for Week 3
99 Plays1 year ago
The Seattle Sounders are coming off a second straight frustrating result and our listeners are feeling spicy. Jeremiah and Aaron answered questions about the proper rotation of players, whether or not the Sounders are particularly prone to muscle injuries and why it's so hard to develop at Homegrown offensive player.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
Mailbag Episode Introduction
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome back to the mailbag episode for heading into week three for Nos adiates. I am Jeremiah Shannon. Joining me today is Aaron Campo. How's it going, Aaron? You know, it's going great, Jeremiah. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm doing OK. All right. So, yeah, it's I guess we might as well just jump right into this. So let's do it. The first question is from Claxon
Golden Scarf vs Crystal Plaque
00:01:52
Speaker
five. Do we not get the Golden Scarf anymore? Why did Ozzy get a crystal plaque like he was retiring as a CPA?
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what happened there. I actually looked into this. I I will say that I noticed that there is there was.
00:02:07
Speaker
Signage advertising the Joe Roth Golden Scarf. So I assume it's still a thing. I wonder if he was supposed to get one. It seemed like there was maybe a few snafus with the pregame yesterday and things didn't, or not yesterday on Saturday, and things didn't go quite as smoothly. So I'm not ready to assume that. I don't, I did find the whole Ozzie Alonzo thing to be a little disjointed.
00:02:33
Speaker
I thought it was really cool. Like it was great that they brought him back. It was great that they did this whole, you know, media day for him. I thought it was all really well done. And then he just kind of came out on the on the field and he was presented. He didn't say anything. And I guess his kids were supposed to do scarves up. I don't know if they actually did it or like I heard there might have been some mic problems or they were really quiet or there was something that happened there where it didn't quite go off. Yeah.
00:03:04
Speaker
and uh yeah so that was a that was a i don't know it was kind of too bad because it it
00:03:09
Speaker
The whole day felt kind of off, frankly. Yeah. I would agree. I would agree. Yeah. I mean, the light show is cool. But aside from that, I didn't. Yeah. I have to admit, I thought the light show like I'm I'm I did think it was kind of cool. And hopefully, you know, hopefully that's a thing that is can be done well. It does without. Yeah. Without being an accessibility problem or right. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, fingers crossed on it, I guess. Yeah.
Sounders' Injury Prone Status
00:03:38
Speaker
All right, well, this is from G on E. Given the recent news of Pedro de la Vega's injury, it would be interesting to see if there's any data supporting the view that the sounders seem to be very prone to soft tissue injuries. Is this true or is it just a biased base on our viewing?
00:03:54
Speaker
I would say, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe you have run the numbers somehow. This feels like an impossible thing to prove or disprove, whether the Sounders are more prone than other teams. I do not blame anyone for feeling like they are or might be, but I do think that you're always going to pay closer attention to your team's injuries than other teams.
00:04:18
Speaker
you know, PDLV has a hamstring injury. It's the most common injury in soccer by far. So it is it is the most common injury in soccer. I so I did do a little bit of research on this. And there's not a lot of good public data, but I was able to talk to some folks that have some more proprietary data. And what they told me is most teams average right around 10 soft tissue indoor, I don't know if it was hamstrings specifically, but
00:04:47
Speaker
hamstrings are the most common.
00:04:51
Speaker
they'll lose about 10 different players or 10 instances of player loss due to soft tissue injuries throughout the year, which is pretty high. And the Sounders tend to be on the slightly below, like they are more prone to injury by a little bit than average, not enough to be like alarming, but not necessarily good about preventing them either.
00:05:18
Speaker
So I don't know. I don't know what to, like, it definitely feels like the centers have had a, have had lost key players at really inopportune times. But I, uh, I think the other thing that clouds our perception of it is that they are also, they've had some kind of freak injuries, like Albert Rosenach sprained his ankle. Apparently he's never in his life sprained his ankle before. And for him to do it on like the last training session before a game or, you know, uh,
00:05:46
Speaker
Jordan Morris blows out both ACLs, Christian Roldan gets a concussion. These are not training issues, you know, these are, these are just kind of like freak things that happen. And it seems to be happening to key players. You know, Ciao Paolo blows out. He has an ACL injury. Uh, New Who got malaria. You kind of just go down the list and, and it does feel like they're a little snake bit. And I think that does also cloud our judgment on
00:06:12
Speaker
I think too, I mean, this feels like a very consistent topic that we've discussed over the years on this show. And I have to feel like that's different managers, different training staffs, different training regimens. There has been a lot of turnover in the training staff, which I don't know if that's
00:06:34
Speaker
It's probably not helping, but that's probably the area of the team they've had the most turnover. I feel like they've gone through a high performance director almost one a year ever since Dave Tenney left.
00:06:47
Speaker
So I think all of that probably does play a role, but I do think that the fact that it has been consistently something that we're talking about and people are concerned about suggests to me that it's just kind of the way it is, especially in MLS where there's a lot of games, there's a lot of midweek games.
00:07:10
Speaker
It's certainly frustrating. Next one is from Dudesby.
Scoring Chances and Player Roles
00:07:14
Speaker
Would Lava generate more scoring chances? Lava might not have the defensive dueling chops that the other central deep-line midfielders have, but he seems like a much better passer. We have a strong back line, so why do we need to support them with two more defensive-minded center-mids when struggling for goals?
00:07:32
Speaker
I don't think this is a crazy suggestion. I think if you're going to replace one of the two current ones, I got to say that it's probably Obed Bergus. Josh Atencio, frankly, he won Man of the Match. I thought he had a Man of the Match quality performance. He came very close to scoring two different goals. He's probably the most aggressive passer they have in the central midfield. I don't think Josh Atencio is anything like the problem.
00:08:00
Speaker
I would be interesting to see, at the very least it would have been interesting to see Leyva come on late for Obed Vargas. I didn't think Vargas was bad in this game, but that would have been a change I could have gotten behind. Yeah, I feel like there have been a lot of performances this season where
00:08:18
Speaker
this season two games where you look at these players and you say, you know, this guy wasn't necessarily the problem here. You can't say that, but they certainly worth the solution either. And I feel like that's kind of how I felt about Bergus in that game. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that seems fair. All right. Uh, this is from Andrew and he says, new who Ariaga and Leyva seem like the
00:08:42
Speaker
Seem like all three guys have been available for a transfer or trade for at least a year, new who less so than the other two, with no takers. Is there something the Sounders are doing or not doing that is making it difficult for them to move these players? Ariaga is an obvious one, right? Because he's on a pretty big cap number and he's not starting, although, you know, he's, it feels like he's more in the plans this year than he was last year to me so far, obviously. He's played both games. Yeah, injury is certainly a factor there, of course.
00:09:10
Speaker
Um, but I don't get the sense they're trying to move new. Um, I don't, I don't think they're trying to move new. Yeah. I, I, I think that they were, but I don't, I don't get the sense they're trying to. And Lava to me, him going out on one last year just felt more like we want this kid to get some playing time consistently.
00:09:29
Speaker
Um, then they're actively trying to move him. Ariaga is, I think the sounders would probably like to move him, but I also think that he, he clearly has some value to them. Like it's not like he's just sitting there collecting a paycheck and not, not contributing at all. So I don't think they are necessarily feeling any pressure to move him, um, would be my guess.
Player Transfer and Trade Discussions
00:09:50
Speaker
And, uh, you know, it takes two to tango, right? So if teams aren't looking for a center back like that on that kind of a cap hit, it's going to be tough to move them.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably pretty accurate that I'm sure the sounders would be willing or happy to be happy to consider moves for all three players. But I also think they aren't. There's no reason for them to look to get rid of them either. They all have useful skills. None of them are
00:10:17
Speaker
tying their hands in ways that make it hard to make moves that they want to make. As far as I know, they still have cap space to go out and do something. Ariaga has been a useful player. I'm glad that they didn't trade him. It would have been an interesting situation if they had traded him because they've needed him the last two games. I think it's a matter of
00:10:43
Speaker
other teams might be interested but aren't willing to hit their price point.
00:10:54
Speaker
Transfer window closes, I'm sure teams would kind of like to keep their options open. I think if we get closer to the end of the transfer window and the trade window closing, teams that haven't been able to fill any holes that they may have at center back on the transfer market, maybe that's when they start looking at making a trade. And hopefully by that point, the sounders will be a little healthier and maybe they can entertain offers that right now wouldn't be super attractive.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. This one is from the Joshua.
Scoring Strategies and Tactical Improvements
00:11:23
Speaker
When do we think our scoring lows from last year are the same for this year? 20 something shots on goals, no score. Is this the same issue as last year? Is this something else? Not to be pessimistic, but this feels like last year. Who can score? Who can score off the bench? One loss and one tie at home is not inspiring. If we lose next game, which looks like a hard game to tie, let alone win, what should the team do?
00:11:45
Speaker
Yeah, this is the million dollar question, right? How do you how do you get the team scoring? I, I think it's a little early to say, you know, I actually asked Schmetzer this almost exact question today. And I found his answer to be to pass the smell test at the very least, which is, you know, last year, the problem was that they became
00:12:07
Speaker
unbalanced, you know, they were either too right side heavy or too left side heavy. And this year, they've been a little more balanced and the attacks are coming in from both wings. They're doing the whole, you know, inside out sort of build
00:12:23
Speaker
The attacking patterns seem to be there. They're getting into dangerous spots. They are getting a lot of penalty box entries. They're doing a lot of the tactical stuff that you want them to do. It's just not happening as crisply and as efficiently as you'd like.
00:12:45
Speaker
So, you know, two games in, I'm not ready to say these are the same problems, but I'm also not gonna tell anyone that they can't feel that way when it does feel a lot like last season. And so until the Sounders start scoring, you know, it's gonna feel like last season. So I don't really have a good, I don't have an antidote for that other than to say your frustrations are justified. Yeah, I think the frustrations are justified. I think to me the thing that makes me
00:13:15
Speaker
more confident or optimistic, I guess, that it's not the same issues as last season is that just that the roster is a lot different. And, you know, we haven't, there's no Nico Ledero. Um, there's Pedro de la Vega, although, you know, uh, not for, not for a little bit. Uh, but we haven't seen Rosinac yet. Um,
00:13:34
Speaker
There's a Miskovsky. So there are big changes. Uh, the team, I feel like is, is playing a little bit differently than they did last year, especially in the attacking phase. I think too, that maybe I'm misremembering. I don't know. Um, for me, this year looks like good process, not great results in the final third. Whereas last year it looked like.
00:13:57
Speaker
both were lacking, both the process tactically getting, trying to get into good positions, create chances. That felt futile and that hasn't really felt like the case. Um, it just has felt like things are just a hair off in the final third. And, you know, I think that that's not uncommon for teams, uh, early in the season. Right. Yeah. It's not, you know, the, you know, you look at the, the table of, of teams and
00:14:27
Speaker
You know, there's a handful of teams that have scored a bunch, but basically the entire league has scored between zero and three goals. You know, you have Miami with eight, you got DC with five, you've got Portland with five and Salt Lake with four, and then everyone else is zero, three, two, one.
00:14:53
Speaker
So it's, you know, in the Delta, you know, it's like, that's one big game. Essentially is what I'm saying. Like the sounders go out and score three against Philadelphia and all of a sudden, you know, they're, they're mid table in terms of scoring and you're, you know, it doesn't look so bad. So I don't know. We'll see. Uh, I'm not, I'm not at two games in where you haven't had.
00:15:12
Speaker
four-sevenths of your starting spine feels a little early to, for me as, you know, this is my job. This is what, you know, I don't blame a fan for getting frustrated and saying, Oh, this is all the same thing. But I feel like we, I have to look at this a little bit more critically. And I just don't see, you know, the repetition, other than the results feel very similar, but like the process still doesn't feel
00:15:38
Speaker
You know, uh, quite as redundant, uh, or repetitive. I think too, I mean, you can look at the way the team looked the first couple of games last year. They looked great. They looked like the best attacking human history, you know, and, uh,
00:15:56
Speaker
And that didn't last very long. So hopefully, hopefully it's the same kind of situation. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I'll take that. I'll take that. Uh, Scott Chewback, he says, it seems that for an American homegrown to make an MLS roster, they generally have to play defense wingback or defensive midfielder.
00:16:13
Speaker
But I imagine that if you are a player good enough to be at the top of the center's academy, you've probably been the nine or 10 for your teams throughout your life. So how does that reconcile? Do academies convert their best players to defenders so they can play MLS? Or are Americans with nine or 10 skills just destined to not advance beyond the US level? I mean, I think it's more that Americans with the skills to play those positions at a high level get
00:16:40
Speaker
get swooped up before they play MLS. There's a lot of American attacking players playing in Europe. Or before they become stars. Right. Like they may get start out in MLS, but they move on. Yeah. Attacking players, they're harder to come by. Teams are willing to spend more on them.
00:16:59
Speaker
There are all sorts of reasons that attacking talent, they peak earlier. So teams want to make moves for them a little earlier in their career, typically. And I do think that teams generally need, if you're a homegrown central midfielder, most teams need more midfielders than they need strikers. If you're a center back, most team probably need more center backs than out and out strikers, out and out attacking players.
00:17:29
Speaker
I also think that MLS teams are more likely to, you know, homegrown players are not going to be stars a lot of the time very early in their careers. And because of the sort of the restrictions on rosters and the incentives that teams have to spin the big on a few positions, you're more likely to want to make a designated player a striker or a creator. I mean, that's honestly, that's probably the single biggest factor right there. Yeah, I think it's that.
00:17:56
Speaker
for an American number nine or 10 to break through, they're probably gonna have to beat out a expensive international player. And that's just tough to do. And that said, you know, Jordan Moore, it does bear repeating Jordan Morris is a homegrown player. And you know, he's currently the sounder starting number nine. So it's, you know, I think
00:18:19
Speaker
The reality is that there's not that many, you know, homegrown from any academy, right? That are, you know, so it's like, uh, yeah. And if you, I mean, if you look at sounder strikers of the last few seasons that want Raul, you know, you've got Jordan, you've got Will Bruin, you've got Miskovsky, Miskovsky, these are, you know,
00:18:40
Speaker
players that came up through that system, right? So it's not unheard of, but yeah, I think that it's just harder. It's harder to break through as an attacking player in MLS because that's where teams are spending the money, I think. Yeah. All right. Two more questions. This next one is from Boomstick315.
MLS Growth and Super Club Potential
00:18:58
Speaker
Is parity possible if the league continues to grow? MLS roster spin has roughly doubled every 5.5 years. If MLS's growth rate continues, that would mean median roster spin would catch up with the likes of League Un within a decade, assuming they continue their current growth rate. That would be roughly 50 million a year median. The big three in Mexico can spend nearly double that today. Even if the median of League A and Meccis is far lower,
00:19:20
Speaker
Can MLS ever be a league that matches its level of ambition while also keeping the current level of parity? Or is world football too unequal to catch up to the big clubs without creating big clubs? Well, that's an, it's an interesting question. I think there's two, two issues here, right? There's one is can essentially what he's asking is can MLS create super clubs and can MLS be a top league in the world? And I don't necessarily think that for MLS to be one of the top leagues in the world, it needs to have
00:19:50
Speaker
super clubs where they're spending three, four, five, 10 times what some of the poor teams are doing. Now, if, if that's what happens, yeah, there's going to be a lack of parity, right? If, if we get to a point where inner Miami is spending 500 million on their roster and the rest of it, and there's a bunch of teams that are only spending 50 million on their roster. Yeah. You're going to see. You're going to see some of the, you're going to see the parody thing disappear pretty quickly.
00:20:20
Speaker
But I think what MLS is trying to do is keep that exact thing from happening. Like we might be in a world where, you know, inner Miami or New York City FC or LAFC or heck the Sounders or Atlanta, maybe they're spending a hundred million dollars on their roster. But the reality is that if they're doing that, the cheapest teams are probably going to still be spending 50.
00:20:44
Speaker
And I don't see any reason why there won't be parity in a league where the gap between the richest and poorest teams is only 2x. Yeah. I think too that you are much more likely to see, rather than MLS abandoning parity, you're likely to see more cost certainty start to be built into the top European leagues. It's really appealing to club ownership to be able to control costs. I don't think that that's a good thing on a lot of levels.
00:21:14
Speaker
That's what the whole Super League is about. Financial Fair Play was an attempt to do that to some degree. Basically, Europe tried to do what you're asking about here with Financial Fair Play, with keeping the super clubs, allowing those clubs to have their built-in advantages because of the revenues they were creating, while also preventing other clubs from going bust and all that stuff. It doesn't work.
00:21:44
Speaker
it's not a good system. So I think that we are much more likely to see in the next five to 10 years a lot more, maybe not hard salary caps, but.
00:21:54
Speaker
something like it that brings a little bit more parity than we are to see MLS go in the opposite direction. I personally think that that's bad. My least favorite thing about MLS, even though I've learned to accept it and understand why it was at one point necessary, is the enforced parity and the inability of clubs that create more revenue and have more resources to spend.
00:22:22
Speaker
in line with that revenue and those resources. I think it's a bummer, but it is what it is. I would love for there to be a reality where MLS teams could spend as freely as they wanted, but I just don't see it happening.
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. All right. Well, so we're going to end on this one. And I don't know, maybe this is too much of a bummer note to end on, but we'll do it anyway.
Pedro de la Vega's Nickname Decision
00:22:47
Speaker
This is obviously submitted a while before a setter is game, but D height wants to know what should Pedro de la Vega's nickname be? His whole name is six syllables. Peppo and Peppo is actually what his nickname is as far as I understand. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to, you know, if that's, if that's.
00:23:05
Speaker
What does nickname is? I think that's a good one to stick with. I just like saying PDLV. I think it's fun to say. Yeah, I do too. So I think that one works.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. The last time I came up with a nickname, it ended up being kind of embarrassing to me after a while. Was that Honey Badger? Yeah. Isn't it amazing how that stuck? It is. This is the test of time, though. Yeah. I guess I could take credit for the Brad Evans Sheriff thing. But I didn't come up with a nickname. I just voted for him for Sheriff. But that was after the Honey Badger thing. And that one doesn't bother me. That one, I think, is funny.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm retiring from the nickname game though. Fair enough. I'm just going to go with, uh, PayPal. It's PayPal, Peppo. Peppo, Peppo, Peppo. That's nice. That's one to say we're PDLV. That's probably what I'll usually call them. Yeah. Yeah. That one feels a little bit more like a Pacific Northwest name.
00:24:04
Speaker
But all right, well, just as a reminder, if you like this type of format show and you want to get involved, you've got to become a member of our Discord. To become a member of our Discord, you got to be subscribing to Sounder at Heart at the supporter level or above. We'll get you into our Discord. You can ask questions. We're going to try to do these every week. If we have questions every week, we'll do them every week.
00:24:29
Speaker
We keep toying with where we're going to put this show. I think we'll probably keep it on the public feed as sort of like, Hey, look at all the fun we're having over on discord. Come join us. But, uh, all that said, thanks for listening. I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Aaron Campo. This is no study at this and we will catch you next time.
00:25:46
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!