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Episode 372: Scouting Sporting KC
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This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Fullpool was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime sounder 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.
Sounders' Victory Celebration
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! I want to say bye-bye! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup winners! And Portland can't say he's cheating! Here comes Rudy Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle! They have climbed the mountain!
00:00:51
Speaker
And now our masters of all that they survey. Michael Odero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Seattle Sounders, this can feel it. Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome.
00:01:39
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:50
Speaker
I have no idea. I don't know.
Promotions and Announcements
00:02:15
Speaker
Follow them on Instagram at Watson's Counter to keep up with all the upcoming releases or check out their website at www.watsonscounter.com. Whether you want to stop by for your daily coffee to go or sit down for delicious Korean inspired brunch, Watson's Counter has got you covered.
00:02:36
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Noose Adiates. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is Dad Bell of what used to be the Blue Testament, uh, the SB Nation sporting KC site. But I guess you guys are in a bit of a transition right now. I don't think you're quite, are you ready to announce what you're doing? Uh, we are transitioning to a new site and, uh, we will have, we'll announce a new name probably this week. Okay. So, uh,
00:03:03
Speaker
We, it'll all be hopefully seamless, which I have no faith that that will actually happen, but we will be moving over sometime in the next 10 days, I suppose. All right, well, hopefully that goes well. And either way, people can, the Blue Testament Twitter feed still is. Yeah, we have all of our social media except Facebook, and we will continue, even if it's a,
00:03:31
Speaker
simple blogger site or something we will continue but we have a plan we have a place we're going we just got to get all the the details and things launched so fair enough uh all right well this is a an interesting time for a uh sporting kansas city sounders match a rivalry that
Seattle Sounders vs. Sporting KC Rivalry
00:03:51
Speaker
In the way that the sounders and LAFC are not quite rivals and it's sort of this mutual respect thing, there does seem to be a little bit more bad blood in the sporting Kansas City sounders, not quite rivalry.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, there's a little history there. Yeah, yeah, and it's all on mostly on field type stuff. But yeah, yeah, it's it's been it's it's always it always makes for an interesting matchup. And, you know, if if people may have forgotten, there was a time when the Sounders had this great record at
00:04:21
Speaker
what is now Children's Mercy Park, but the more recent history and really almost, well, I guess it's not quite ever since the 2012 open cup final. There was a, I think they had at least one more good result there, but it's been a while since the Sounders have had success there. That said, sporting Kansas City, not in a great place right now. Is that a fair way of putting it? Yeah, that's a very fair way to put it. That's a lot of people are a little angsty right now.
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah. So what's behind that angst? Lack of goals. Uh, no wins this far into the season, which is not normal. Even when sporting isn't at their best, they would at least have one win. Yeah. So oh two and two, uh, just one goal scored in those three games. And it came in the most recent game, uh, a game against FC Dallas that sporting Kansas city actually led. And I think they were
00:05:15
Speaker
There's slated to go up 2-0 when there was a penalty. Is that, am I remembering correctly or was that going to just take the lead 2-1? That would have taken it to 2-1. Okay. So this penalty situation seems maybe somewhat broadly indicative of the way the season has gone so far. Walk us through that. Oh, very much so. Willie Gotta gets taken down by the keeper. Penalty gets called. Willie Gotta steps up.
00:05:42
Speaker
the ball, the shot is saved, goes to VAR, keeper left the line a little bit early, like an inch. I mean, it was not very much. And so Eric Tommy decides that he's going to step up and take it on the retake. His shot is not any better. It gets saved.
00:06:02
Speaker
sporting goes on to not score anymore. That game, there was another shout for a, there was another penalty awarded, but it was called back because somebody was a little bit offside in the buildup. So there was just no joy at all, man. Yeah. And so if I, I, maybe this was a stat that was before the game, I'm not sure maybe, or maybe it was after, but I saw a stat somewhere that sporting Kansas city led the league in shots on frame.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, that was after the LA game because LA was just so bad. Galaxy, obviously. Right. And they were terrible. Sporting had 31 shots or something like that in that game and no goals.
00:06:46
Speaker
And so what is, what is there, is there an explanation for this? Do you have a theory as to why it's been so, why it's been so rough, uh, defining the back of the net? Cause you know, the, I know a lot of people tend to think, well, if you put shots on frame, eventually you're going to beat the goalkeeper, but that doesn't seem to be really working out so far.
00:07:06
Speaker
Well, when you put a vast majority of them directly at the keeper, I mean, they do actually have to shoot where he's not once in a while, or, you know, a hard enough shot at the keeper that he can't catch it, you know, something along that line. Maybe you get a little bit luck there. Shot selection.
00:07:27
Speaker
LA set back a lot. So sporting is never really good at picking apart a team that kind of sits back. They've never been great at that, but Johnny Russell's been out. So it's been either, uh, Kyrie Shelton that so many sporting fans love dearly, uh, or Marino's Johnny's the Cypriot national international, um, starting on that right wing spot and nobody is going to.
00:07:52
Speaker
None of them, neither one of them is Johnny Russell to like, at least create some chaos in the box. Shall we is a good shooter. But when he's, uh, when he's on, it's, it's great. When he's at his best, he needs to have at least a little couple inches of room to get that shot through. And if anybody's sitting back, man, it's just hard to, he did. It's hard for him to break them down. And so what is the status of Johnny Russell coming into this game?
Sporting KC's Challenges and Player Updates
00:08:24
Speaker
He pulled a hamstring in preseason. And according to Vermees, it was in the last couple of minutes that of his shift into the last preseason game that he went in for an overly aggressive tackle, whatever that means. And it wasn't a, it wasn't a fitness issue. It wasn't a, the training issue. It was an overly aggressive tackle and he hasn't been on the field since. Okay. And last time I was at practice, which was last Tuesday.
00:08:43
Speaker
I don't think you'll see him. Last I saw he was...
00:08:54
Speaker
He did a light jog earlier and then he was standing around watching. So I don't think he'll be in. Okay. Well, I can't say Sounder's fans will miss Johnny Russell. He seems to enjoy playing the Sounders. That said, Willia Gotta was sort of the player who
00:09:14
Speaker
came in late last season. Obviously it was a too, too little too late, but he had a pretty remarkable second half of the season last year. So much so that, you know, uh, you know, I heard him mentioned as sort of like a dark horse golden boot candidate. How has he been so far this year?
00:09:32
Speaker
Uh, oh man, I was, I wish I would have like a one really good concise word, but gun shy. Um, he's first couple of games, he really wasn't getting a lot of service. Like the, if the ball got to him, it was behind him or, you know, a couple of feet away from where he should have had it. You know, he had to reach out for it. It wasn't great service. And then when he did get good service, it was.
00:09:57
Speaker
He was too far away. He's a guy who kind of needs to be like in the box and get something there He's not gonna create a lot from outside usually I mean if he let me say if you know if he gets the ball and he's on a run, you know That sort of thing. Yes, but he's not gonna be a guy It's gonna dribble for people and then take the shot so you need some service and he wasn't getting very good service And when he did he wasn't making the most of it. Okay, so now he looks just totally
00:10:25
Speaker
lack of confidence, man. Okay. All that said defensively, not been a bad campaign. They gave up, you gave up a goal very early to the Timbers and the season opener. And then you said they, they went 200 odd minutes of shutout. They had two, they had back to back zero, zero shutouts against the rapids and LA. And then
00:10:48
Speaker
kind of a couple of late goals to FC Dallas in this last one. What have you thought of the defensive effort so far? It's actually not been bad. First couple of games, they had Ben Sweat starting on the left and he's better going forward left back than defensive. Andrea Fantis at left center back. Robbie, I always get in trouble for saying this, Voladare. He's a left-footed,
00:11:17
Speaker
center back playing the right so he's a little bit off there and Then Graham Zucy Remy Voltaire has been playing the six till they get the other guy in the Nemanio, Rodoya and It's actually been pretty solid Tim Leibold the German left back came in and played the the LA game And they basically just they didn't give LA very many chances and had a lot going forward But then of course he pulled a hamstring
00:11:45
Speaker
So it was back to Ben Sweat last game. He left the game a little bit early, don't know if it was an injury or he had just contributed to too many goals and they brought in a young right back to play left back.
00:12:01
Speaker
The defense has been pretty decent. It's just, it's not been maybe as good as the record showed, but it's, it's been pretty good. Okay. And so what's your expectation coming into this game? Is it that, uh, you, you continue the, the sounders woes, the sounders are going to be missing.
00:12:18
Speaker
A handful of players. It's not entirely clear. Uh, as of we're recording this on, on Monday, we haven't gotten final word, whether or not role Rudy Diaz is going to be available or not. Uh, we haven't gotten final word if Jackson Reagan is going to be available to not or, or not, uh, Rudy Diaz potentially call it up to Peru, Reagan potentially an injury. Uh, but there's going to be probably five or six guys missing for the Sounders. Um, a mishmash of starter, like most likely both full backs are going to be out. Uh,
00:12:47
Speaker
And then we'll see beyond that. But what's your expectation coming into this game as far as what kind of match you're going to see?
Upcoming Game Expectations: Sounders vs. Sporting KC
00:12:56
Speaker
I would say that's another difficult question for me because I want to be positive. I usually try to be a little more optimistic. You know, the fan side of me wants to be on a little bit on the good side of it. I was a little bit pissed off this last weekend. I'll be honest, just the way things went.
00:13:14
Speaker
on a normal game, I would say with what you just said, you know, hey, they're going to, it's going to be a, probably a good game. And I'd say maybe two, one sporting in sporting's favor, but
00:13:24
Speaker
with kind of looking like a lack of confidence at times. Now I'm a little more worried about that. And they're not going to be missing any players except for Johnny's being called up to the Cypriot national team, that they weren't already missing Johnny Russell for injury. The two DPs around all last year are still out getting closer by the day, according to everybody.
00:13:49
Speaker
I mean, I have seen Ellen Pluto in full training. So we, he could be on the bench. Okay. He could have been on the bench the last couple of weeks. He could be on the bench and got a kind of still probably several weeks away, but.
00:14:04
Speaker
There's just, they're just missing those guys and they, they aren't showing the rest of the guys are stepping up enough just yet. Again, score one nice goal. Maybe that confidence changes and all of a sudden, you know, I could see a five goal game, but more likely not. So, uh, more broadly speaking, what's the vibe with, as far as Peter Vermees these days, I know that that's a divisive issue. It seems, uh,
00:14:28
Speaker
at least from the outside, it seems this way, that there's obviously a figure who is sporting Kansas City at this point, right? Yeah, there's no place in sporting Kansas City that you do not find his DNA, man. There's no place. And so training center, through academies, through everything.
00:14:49
Speaker
And what, I mean, in what's your sense of, is that, is that a good thing? Is that like, where do you fall on the, on the Peter Vermee's, I don't know, scale, I guess we'll call it.
Peter Vermees's Influence and Legacy
00:15:02
Speaker
Well, uh.
00:15:04
Speaker
I tend to think that Vermees is a really good coach. He has his challenges at times. He has his flaws. Don't get me wrong. I wish sometimes he would sub earlier. If I remember correctly, you had a pretty good, at least the Blue Testament, I wasn't sure if it was you or maybe it was Mike, that had a pretty exhaustive look at his sub patterns.
00:15:30
Speaker
He was by a pretty fair stretch, one of the least likely to use the sub, like the most conservative subbers in the league, right? Yeah. And he's gotten better. He subs more now than he used to. And his mindset is that if the team is doing what I think they should be doing, I'm not making a change. So he, like, if they're getting shots, they're creating opportunities, he's like, he doesn't necessarily think that putting in some homegrown player or, you know, young guy who's
00:15:59
Speaker
Just 21 years old or whatever made me believe in French legs It's not gonna make the difference if they're doing what he wants them to do now Right and when they stop doing what he wants them to do now, that's when he makes the change again That's that's he's growing a bit in that so he's made there's you know, like Roger Espinoza basically is a kind of a 60 to 70 minute guy now instead of a 90 minute guy or you know, he used to be like he could play a double header it seems like but It he shouldn't even be starting every game now Mm-hmm
00:16:30
Speaker
And when they get some of the other guys back and some of the guys like Redoya more acclimated, I think that will change anyway. But so anyway, back on the whole Vermees spectrum, I'm pro Vermees. I still would like some things that he to do a little bit different.
00:16:48
Speaker
when you have a team that has only missed the playoffs twice. Of course, it's been twice in the last four years. But it's a pretty steady, reasonably successful team that has and usually relatively entertaining is just the last couple years have been a little bit of a struggle.
00:17:06
Speaker
All right. Well, um, I appreciate, uh, you taking the time with us. Uh, this is always a match that drives me crazy. I think I'm not sure there's other than going to Portland and I'm not sure watching games at children's mercy fills me with more. There's a place that fills me with more angst than playing at, at Kansas city for some reason. It's always, always good help. Yeah. Uh, and I think it's all, it's all like.
00:17:35
Speaker
like leftover emotion from, from that open cup final in 2012. But, um, yeah, the sandals, a team that I think we love to hate as much as I think you guys love to hate us. Yeah, absolutely. There's always no shortage of things to get heated about.
00:17:53
Speaker
There's been a lot of years, uh, cause like one of my things is, you know, there for, I don't know how many years we'd go to Seattle and we'd be leading. And then in the 70th minute or 80th minute, some guy would run 25 yards up the field and make a throw into and score. Yeah. Mike, you're talking about the Mike Facito goal. Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
You knew which one I meant. Yeah. So, you know, things like that. It's, I don't know. It's like Seattle is a team we love to hate and sometimes with the fans, it's, you know, fun. But I don't really have as much hatred for you as I do some other teams. So fair enough. I think that's probably, I think that's probably reciprocal in both, in both ways. Like it's, it's fun.
00:18:33
Speaker
we have these matches there so i just it's amazing how many memorable moments there are in the sporting kansas city uh sounders history but uh yeah uh dad i i hope to to be able to read you guys at your new location soon uh where it could be you're the back post on twitter right yes at the back post uh goes back to the old blog i had a long time ago so i've never changed it
00:19:00
Speaker
And of course, the Blue Testament is still on Twitter, but eventually we'll be rebranded and we'll hopefully be pumping out more supporting Kansas City content. Thank you for doing this, Ted. Thank you, man. And maybe we'll get you on the flip side of this in the next couple of days. Absolutely. All right. Well, you're listening to Nos Adietes. I'm Jeremiah O'Shan, and we'll catch you next time.
00:19:27
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the waters cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:19:58
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!