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Kickoff: The Toughest Loss in Seattle Sounders History?
964 Plays6 days ago
It's a wrap for the 2025 season for the Seattle Sounders after Saturday's PK defeat at Minnesota United. We'll pick up the pieces and tackle the debate as to where this L ranks in the pantheon of Seattle Sounders Ls. Later on, we'll also react to some of the other playoff results from around MLS, including the Portland Timbers' 4-0 crashout defeat to San Diego FC.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
Contact: lobbingscorchers@justoncemedia.com
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Transcript
Introduction: Live Podcast and Season Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. What the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
Seattle Sounders' Season Finale Analysis
00:00:44
Speaker
Good morning, everybody, and welcome in to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff. I'm Ari, that's Nico, and folks, we got a lot to talk about here this morning.
00:00:57
Speaker
ah The Seattle Sounders 2025 season is over, as you're probably aware. Round one defeat to Minnesota United after a ah crazy game three, three, three draw and regulation. And then an insane penalty kick shootout, which the loons end up winning seven to six.
00:01:15
Speaker
And that's a wrap. We're going to, we're going to get into it a little more. We got into it on our post game show, but we're going to get Nico's thoughts on that. ah We're going to, we're going to talk about some off season stuff. We're going to be reacting to other playoff results.
00:01:28
Speaker
ah So, yeah, a lot to get to ah Nico, I guess before ah before we get rolling here, how are you how are you feeling and what are your just initial thoughts on ah on this unceremonious end to Sounders season? you know think we we had a we had hopes of a deep playoff run this year. This team showed a very high level in Leagues Cup, won Leagues Cup.
00:01:51
Speaker
And even without Pedro de la Vega, they get the 4-2 win in game two. you're You're feeling like it's pretty set up, especially with how game three started. ah yeah Let's just, what did what did you ah what did you think all that? And then we'll get into ah into the fine points of it.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, Ari, first of all, ah good morning to you. Good morning to everyone who is watching us here this morning. Clearly a very interesting weekend. I'm excited to be on, of course, because I have not been able to comment too much on and the subject. It's kind of for my own benefit. It's been a pretty busy weekend between, you know, I kind of watched, my first watch of the game was on my phone as I got ready to watch my daughter play at Starfire.
00:02:36
Speaker
We watched the penalty kicks with a whole bunch of parents that were around me as the kids were at halftime. And then you kind of went into their second half. ah But that's kind of how busy my weekend has been. That it's been Christmas lights and a whole bunch of stuff.
00:02:51
Speaker
So I've put a couple of posts out there. in And I think my overall message to everyone would be, just to just to take a breather. It feels like a lot of times we're so reactive to things. And look, although it was an awful loss, I mean, it was as heartbreaking as it can be.
00:03:08
Speaker
I would never not think that the Sounders blew that lead and they could have absolutely won that game.
Fan Reactions and Team Performance Review
00:03:19
Speaker
But at the same time, I think that you got to look at the overall picture of the The season, the body of work Because if we go by the comments Man, I mean, we gotta blow it up And start all over again, I mean, you know Which that's what it's to be expected no, 100% man you know when you match it When you take an L like that It gets it gets unhinged And it ah It's expected. It should get unhinged after an L like that. Absolutely. crazy and That's exactly why you and I are here, or at least I like to think that I want to be a voice of clarity, a voice of calmness, ah just to keep people from the edge, man, because it really does feel like people are just completely down and fed up with it.
00:04:03
Speaker
um I guess if you want me to just get drifting on what i thought about the game,
00:04:11
Speaker
My first post and probably the only post that I really got out there when he came to the end of the game, which I would call my initial thought process was it was the roller coaster of a game.
Coaching Decisions and Game Strategies Discussion
00:04:25
Speaker
um I credit b Brian for doing everything he could to influence and and and win that game or get that game back. That does not mean that I thought that he was flawless and that he didn't not make any mistakes, but but there are maybe some questionable decisions ah because I think it is tough that You know, at times we want to just judge that the certain substitutions and certain things that get done, but we don't want to credit all the other stuff that that the coaches do. So I thought that Brian, I know it was hard for him to sub –
00:05:10
Speaker
Andrew Thomason, I mean, it looked like he had been struggling or or just quandering about if he was going to do it or not. I thought it was great that he did it. He gave his team a chance.
00:05:21
Speaker
I thought that the initial setup for the game was clearly a success. It was a right. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It worked to perfection. So good. Yeah. start was great. Right. And a lot of times we have to put it on the players. Right. and And so the game starts off perfectly. The pressing is just as good as if, as if it was in game two, the ah volume of play was great.
00:05:46
Speaker
ah the The chances that they were making ah the, the link up play, everything was working just fine. Right. They get ahead on the score. Quite early right I mean it's before like the 15 minute Mark where they're ahead was in the first 10 minutes it was in it was fifth And 8th minute 10 minutes they get ahead Of this scoreline Probably something that you weren't expecting i wasn't I know wasn't either, right? So everything's going great. So you got to credit, Brian, for setting it up correctly to start, having the guys ready to go right after the first minute.
00:06:27
Speaker
It showed. And then later as the game went on, you also have to credit Minnesota for being able to deal with those moments, getting themselves together.
00:06:39
Speaker
But I think what makes this a really tough loss is how it happened, right? You have the Rosales red card. clear red card and the inability for the Sounders to really take advantage of that.
00:06:53
Speaker
and And I think that's where it all lies. That's where everybody's frustration goes and rightfully so, because you should be able to not just manage the game, but you should be able to increase the score on that.
00:07:04
Speaker
Now, Seattle created opportunities. I thought that they created several opportunities. Sinclair saved some, the Sounders squandered some of those opportunities
Historical Playoff Losses and Emotional Impact
00:07:13
Speaker
as well. It's a little bit of both.
00:07:16
Speaker
But at the end of the day, I thought that the Seattle Sounders and Brian Smetzer gave themselves every chance to win that game, and they were just unable to do it. So let's let let's break down a couple of things before i pass the ball over to you. I don't want to get too extended on this first thought process, but I thought that I still stay on the notion that Brian Smetzer's substitutions were timely.
00:07:46
Speaker
Would I have chosen those players? I'm not sure. And I think that's where the conversation could go I know that Paul Rothrock has been this team's amulet.
00:07:58
Speaker
He's been phenomenal coming up the bench. We knew, and I said it in the pregame of this game, that's the way you want to use them. But I don't know if maybe Georgie would have been a better first substitution into the game.
00:08:15
Speaker
Or maybe with Paul Rothrock. Because he's the guy that I think could exploit the spaces better. He's one the one talents, his dangerous play, i think would have done wonders for a team that's down a man right? For you to be able to expose those spaces, for you to be able to take on and stretch more of that ah Minnesota defense that was already looking stretched out because
00:08:48
Speaker
As we also predicted, Juana played at that wingback position, and he was asked to do a whole lot, maybe more than he really had the ability to do so. And there were moments where Jesus did get to those spaces behind him.
00:09:02
Speaker
ah There were moments that Seattle did take advantage of that. But with a guy like Georgie that's more of a straight line, i'm going to just go right at you type of winger, it might have been.
00:09:13
Speaker
a little bit more effective, but I don't want to focus on that. Right. I just thought that that substitution was done at the right time. Then the other two come had Brian Smetzer not played Ryan Kent, people would have lost their mind.
00:09:26
Speaker
So you now with the newspaper under arm and on Monday, you know, kind of quarterbacking this thing after it happened, people are like Oh, you know, Ryan Kent should have not played. And, and look,
00:09:38
Speaker
I don't think he was great necessarily. I don't think he impacted the game maybe the way everybody expected, but you needed to get him out there. And that's why I credit Brian as well, right? you You used everything you had. You put all your cards on the table. You tried to do everything you could as a head coach to get the game back, right?
00:09:58
Speaker
But maybe the problem was just the sounder players individually didn't make enough plays, man. Two set, three set pieces that that that were part of it, right? I mean, it's a throw-in that gets flicked.
00:10:10
Speaker
so And, you know, it's... Right. It's annoying, right? It's individual plays, right? The Pereira free kick on top of the box. Is it clumsy? Is it silly?
00:10:22
Speaker
Right. I mean, Yammer kind of puts his hand out there. I think, you know, obviously, Yoboa plays it out well. Then Pereira puts it away. It's a phenomenal free kick. There's no getting to the free kick. I thought it was perfectly executed. Yeah, you can't give that to them.
00:10:35
Speaker
yeah Exactly. You could not give that to them 100%. Absolutely. And that's exactly why every single goal you could pinpoint as an individual error. And and credit to Minnesota for taking advantage of those moments.
00:10:52
Speaker
But for me, just to conclude, it is hard. Hard to put this loss on Brian. And this is as the village b Brian critic, you know, to everybody, right?
00:11:07
Speaker
But you have to be fair. and And I've always said this. I'm always going to call it like it is. And this one, this one, it's not on Brian. This one to me was more on the players. 70, 30 or 60, 40, however you want to call it, is more on the players than it is on Brian's manager.
00:11:26
Speaker
A few of you in chat are getting ahead of the of the topic that I wanted to tackle on this show. Nico, after the match, Brian Schmetzer said that this was it was, he either said it was the toughest or among the toughest losses that he's taken since he's been with the club. I'm not i'm not sure if he meant as head coach or dating back to when he was the USL coach or when he played for the club, but either way,
00:11:51
Speaker
ah that's a big statement. And it got me thinking because this was a a brutal L the L in itself is, is one thing, but like you said, it's about how it happened. ah How phenomenal the start was. You have a multi-goal lead. You go up a man in the first half.
00:12:05
Speaker
And the fact that you still found a way to lose the game and, and how the shootout went also, it was, it was one of the tougher L's I can imagine in recent Sounders history. And it got me thinking, you know, like what are the ones to compare it to?
00:12:19
Speaker
And, you know, I'm sure you could go back and find more than the list that I came up with. But I'm ah i'm thinking in recent years, I guess, in the Brian Schmetzer era, what were the where the toughest L's?
00:12:31
Speaker
And the first thing i so I'll say ah before we get into the specific L's, it's going to fun, guys. We're going to down memory lane of all the the most horrific L's. of the last few years but the first thing i'll say is that when i was compiling this list uh the thought that came into my head was like damn there's kind of a there's kind of a few lot to pick from here which you know on one hand that could mean like dang they've taken a lot of bad l's but you know what i think the takeaway from that is that is that the reason that they have a few of these really bad L's to pick from is because they're a club that plays in a lot of big games.
00:13:08
Speaker
All right. Correct. And if you're a club that plays in a lot of big games, you are going to be in situations where you're playing really good teams, or in this case, a team that's really good at like one thing. And you're going to be susceptible to, to taking L's because you're in a lot of, a lot of situations where that can happen, playing against the best competition that the league has,
00:13:28
Speaker
has to offer. All right. So I guess that's a long way of saying I would rather be the team that's playing. That's, that's, that's there. That's relevant. That's playing in these games and having, ah having a chance to have those results go either way.
00:13:42
Speaker
ah You're going to take some L sometimes, but they've also won a ton of trophies because they're a club that gets to be in these situations a lot. So I realized that that's cope, but there's something to be said for that.
00:13:53
Speaker
All right. Uh, Like, you know, pick any club that you want, any random club that you want, FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids or whatever. They don't have the same amount of of excruciating playoff big game L's as the Seattle Sounders do, but that's because they're not there. That's because they're not there.
00:14:11
Speaker
It's because they're not playing in them. So I think we should acknowledge that. Like when you put yourself out there and you put yourself in situations to compete and contend for trophies, stuff like this is going to happen sometimes. It's part of the game.
00:14:24
Speaker
It's part of a tournament footy and ah you can crash out over it. And this is a lot, an L two crash out over because of how it happened. But like I said, I would rather be in the big games for this to happen than not be in the big games at all. And I think we should, ah we should realize that.
00:14:40
Speaker
ah Before I get into all these ah these L's, everyone, please like the video. ah Sub to the channel. We're we're on the road to 3K subscribers on the on the YouTube.
00:14:51
Speaker
We're getting decently close there, so if you could help us out, get us across that line, that'd be a big milestone. ah Follow us on Instagram. Follow us on TikTok. Buy the Lobbing Scorchers hot sauce. Lobbingscorchers.com slash sauce.
00:15:03
Speaker
ah And I think that's everything I had to show. All right, Nico, this is what I got. This is what I got for the worst else of the last ah couple years or like two years, this last era.
00:15:15
Speaker
The ones that I thought of were 2017. That one, that one tough. twenty seventeen that one that one was tough um They got played off the field in that game. If you all remember, they could not keep possession of the ball to save their lives.
00:15:30
Speaker
Josie Altidore was out there playing like he was Michael Jordan. ah Michael Bradley looked like prime Iniesta out there. Like it was it was that was a tough one. ah But that one is more like they had literally beat that exact same team in that exact same building in MLS Cup the year before. So while the performance was unfortunate and watching that game was horrible, you could come out of it and you could kind of be like, all right, so you had two cracks on the road at MLS Cup in Toronto and you went one out of two.
00:16:00
Speaker
That's like... That's not the worst thing in the world. You take that. You take that all day, given the degree of difficulty on that road trip at that time of year. Against those TFC teams, like the 2016 Cup kind of, I think, softens the blow of that, at least in my mind.
00:16:14
Speaker
ah Yeah, that's that's the biggest thing when it came to that Toronto team, is that they were running through the league. They were... Incredibly talented on paper.
00:16:26
Speaker
ah You could... ah I'm pretty sure that it is that TFC team that ah eventually gets to the final of the CONCACAF Champions League and they lose to Chivas. They were a juggernaut.
00:16:40
Speaker
That was a ah great team. And going into that game, you kind of figured that it was going to be ah incredibly hard matchup. And I think... Something else that hurts And you could see it in Brian's face Is that They were confident going against into this Minnesota game. Oh, yeah. And maybe more confident that they were going into you know that TFC game. And so that that that that ah hurts even more when you think that you got it and it doesn't play out that way.
00:17:08
Speaker
It does, yeah. they are Let's be real.
Toughest Losses in Schmetzer's Tenure
00:17:11
Speaker
They're significantly better team than that Minnesota team. I don't care like about how the that game went or how the series ended, but that's that makes it even even more frustrating.
00:17:22
Speaker
A couple people have brought up MLS Cup 2020. I don't know what you're talking about. They didn't have an MLS Cup that year. That game didn't happen. That wasn't a ah ah real thing. ah But no, and I mean, in all seriousness, like, I mean, maybe some people were really busted up about that game.
00:17:36
Speaker
I don't... don't give a shit about that game and never did. That was the COVID cup. There was like 1.5 K there. I had a lot of stuff on my mind outside of the results of how the MLS season ended.
00:17:49
Speaker
It was kind of a fun little thing to be, uh, you know, locked in my house and, uh, getting to watch them make an MLS cup run. But the fact that they got worked by Columbus in that game and lost that game, I don't even remember like what happened in that game. Like, ah Zellerion got a good goal or whatever. I don't know. I just, I have never given a shit about that. Jovin Jones kind of sold the bag. Jovin Jones sold the bag. That's right. Wow. He was on the COVID team. Aiden Morris' come out game, you know, there were significant absences for Columbus and Aiden Morris is the one that paints your face. Yeah, like Darlington Magby had COVID. They had like two, a bunch of guys had COVID. Do you guys really care about that? Like, yeah.
00:18:31
Speaker
yeah No, no, no. I think it's a fair shout. It's a fair shout because of how badly they got beat. But, like, there was just so many the absences go there was just so much other stuff going on. And also, like, that that whole season didn't feel, like, real, though.
00:18:45
Speaker
You were playing, like, half the season in a freaking... quarantine bubble in Orlando, the Disney bubble. There's no crowd there. Then when they brought the season back to like the actual stadiums, there was only like limited cap capacity. So you had no atmosphere. The reason the Sounders won that game or were in that game was because Gustav Svensson scored a game winner against Minnesota United famously MTS Lumen Field. i I don't know. Maybe, maybe I'm a,
00:19:12
Speaker
alone on that but like there i don't think there's one game in seattle sounders history that i give less of a shit about than 2020 mls cup i'm sorry even if they won that like the the fact that the crew won that people look back on it and they're like oh yeah like they got that cup but that was the code the covid year like what like fair or not it has that asterisk because every you guys remember those games every week there was like oh there's seven guys out because they have covid Oh, they have six guys out because they have COVID. Well, they're playing it anyway. They're down to this guy, this guy, and this guy. It wasn't like real reflections of the actual teams because everyone was just sick all the time.
00:19:46
Speaker
Like that, i I don't know. I throw that one out the window. It was a tough L, but it's nowhere close to any of the other ones that we're talking about, in my opinion. ah Wade had a good shout that I hadn't thought of. This wasn't on my list, but... ah 2023 RSL penalty kick defeat in the in the playoffs, the David Ochoa game where they knocked Seattle out of the playoffs in PKs without taking a shot.
00:20:08
Speaker
that one That one was tough. that was That's a good shout. That was tough. That RSL team sucked. They had no business winning that game. and They did. and David Ochoa did his best Dane St. Clair.
00:20:21
Speaker
impression and uh they got knocked out on that that shouldn't have happened so that one was pretty tough i think this one was tougher uh but my pick nico would be uh 2018 uh i think it was the semi-finals against the portland timbies think that one was tougher than this one i would put this one second in the pantheon i think that one was tougher because it was the timbies it was at home The Timbs knocked you out of the playoffs at home.
00:20:46
Speaker
And then remember the way that happened? ah It was, it was like tied late. It was, it was back when it was home and away. It was tied late and Seattle was going to get knocked out. I think as the result stood on road goals and Raul Ruiz Diaz scores, what,
00:21:03
Speaker
was like in terms of technical skill, one of the best goals in Sounders history. And if they had held on to win the game, ah it would be that goal would be still getting talked about to this day.
00:21:16
Speaker
And it still should. That's how good a goal that was. And then freaking playoff Dairon Espria, who morphs into the greatest player October Espria, october eprea just comes in out of nowhere to score the goal that knocks Seattle out of the playoffs to totally negate that Rui Diaz goal. He's backflipping on Lumen. That was brutal. He was. That was brutal.
00:21:40
Speaker
And that was especially brutal because that team was rolling. That team could have won um MLS Cup that year. That 2018 team, that twenty eighteen team was ah that's probably the team that got that's been the closest to playing as high at as high a level offensively as we saw from the team this year. Really, in all the years after that, I feel like they became a team that could do enough on offense, but was really built on ah defensive solidity and game management and being opportunistic much more than like volume goal scoring.
00:22:10
Speaker
That 2018 team was scoring a ton of goals. Rui Diaz was playing out of his mind. They set the and MLS record for win streak at one point. They won nine straight games. They could have ah made an MLS Cup ah that year and they didn't because the Timbs bammed on them at Lumen. The fact that it was a Spria, the fact that it wiped off and made that Rui Diaz goal like meaningless as far as as the scoreboard and them advancing.
00:22:34
Speaker
I think that was that was worse, but I think the fact that this is up there with that says something like that's, that's how, that's how tough an L that this was. So I would say that, ah you know, I'm, I, I'm not quite with Schmetz. I think the 2018 one was, ah was tougher, but this one, this this one was pretty much just as tough. I don't know. What do you think, Nico?
00:23:01
Speaker
No, I, yeah again, because of the way that it happened,
00:23:13
Speaker
Nico might have froze He's frozen for you Chad He's frozen for me Oh there he is Can remove him
00:23:29
Speaker
Lobbing Scorchers Tech difficulties Do you guys see him? i don't i don't I don't see him now
00:23:45
Speaker
All right. Well, it looks like Nico's having some ah internet connectivity issues. So I guess I'll just, ah I'll just cook until he taps back in. But yeah, I mean, what I landed on as far as the the toughest L's of the Schmetzer era was,
00:24:02
Speaker
was that 2018 playoff loss to the Timbs. The 23 RSL one is a good shout. That might honestly be second. And then I got MLS Cup 2017. twenty seventeen And if you guys want to throw the COVID cup in there, you can. I don't give a shit about the COVID cup.
00:24:17
Speaker
All right, we got Nico back. There he is. He's moving. We can we can hear him. Pick up your thought. You cut out for pretty much all of that. So yeah, I think you can just start it over. ah No, I do think that because of the way it happened, ah being a man under ah the the su suspendful shootout, everything that Brian did to get there and get that objective.
00:24:43
Speaker
In the year that I would call his best coaching year, in a year where you could probably be a contender, a true contender for MLS Cup, I get why he's saying that. And I feel like maybe for...
00:24:58
Speaker
Everyone else, it might not be the toughest loss, but I could absolutely see why this is the toughest loss for him. It goes into everything that I had mentioned. The fact that you felt like you had planned it out, executed it.
00:25:14
Speaker
You were right there to to take it. It is kind of on on the team that you give up that lead with those sort of circumstances. And that's frustrating. I absolutely...
00:25:28
Speaker
agree that that's probably the toughest out that he's taken, Brian Smetzer as a whole, because of the circumstances. And I do believe that he knows that he was so much better than this team that it just shouldn't have been that way. And you're so close to just taking that next step and giving yourself a chance against San Diego and then one game away from the um Western Conference final.
Penalty Shootout and Individual Performances
00:25:53
Speaker
So I think all of it, it's... it's It's unreal. it It hurts. To me, i want to throw one up there that I didn't see up there for you. and the year Maybe that's why you didn't But it's the 2020 loss To Olympia For Champions League was thinking like playoff type stuff But yeah That was the round one You get eliminated You went to San Pedro Sula It was a 2-2 draw Albert Elise looked like the greatest player He looked like De'Ron Espria in October
00:26:27
Speaker
It was crazy. You come back here. You you you also give up a lead. It's too to You go into Piquez. You lost that in Piquez. ah That was a big one for me because that was another one where you went into that game thinking, ah we're going to take care of business. We're going to beat Olympia. There's no doubt about that.
00:26:44
Speaker
And then Pedro Troglio just completely flips it on you, and they end up beating you. But ah all of that to say that I think we all have our specific – big time losses that hurt more than others because of whatever we were feeling at that moment.
00:27:01
Speaker
But for Brian, I really don't think that there is any other loss that would be more catastrophic because of the way that it happened than this one. And obviously sometimes you're going off of what hurts the most and the the last game always hurts the most.
00:27:22
Speaker
But even i think if if we ask Brian, 10 years from today, what was the worst loss that you took? He probably will say that Minnesota loss. Yeah, the way the way it happened is like ah these things aren't all created equal. Look how they went out of the playoffs.
00:27:39
Speaker
Last year, that game was tough. it was It was frustrating at the Galaxy that they lost 1-0, and it felt like a huge missed opportunity because if they win that game, they probably win ah MLS Cup against the Red Bulls last year. But there's no there's no comparison between and the Galaxy.
00:27:56
Speaker
and This L, this L, you were up a man for 50 plus minutes and had the lead. You had a multi-goal lead at one point. ah And then that's not with not even taken into account everything that happened ah in the shootout with Andrew Thomas dislocating his pinky during the shootout on the first shot.
00:28:15
Speaker
still going on to make two saves. And then you have two other guys with twice, twice you had a chance from the spot to just end that shit right there twice. And you couldn't do it either time.
00:28:27
Speaker
I felt so bad for Andrew Thomas that his PK going off the post ends up losing the shootout because he did. He deserved to be the hero in that moment for dislocating his pinky during a shootout. The story coming out of that shootout should have been Andrew Thomas just wrote his absolute legend.
00:28:44
Speaker
Like playing through a dislocated pinky, still making two saves and then, helping them win the shootout. That's what should, uh, uh, happened. And he got let down.
00:28:56
Speaker
So it's just, uh, and That was just all around. if if it's not the toughest L in club history, it's it's definitely up there. But like I said, man, like I would rather be in that situation to have that happen than not be in that situation at all. So Nico, anything else, ah anything else on that real quick before we move on to the next topic?
00:29:17
Speaker
Well, i I really, we didn't get to talk too much about the the penalty kick shootout. Obviously I just kind of gave my broad thoughts on, on the game, but Man, it was just tough to see.
00:29:30
Speaker
And this goes into this topic that, as you mentioned, Brian Smetzer had been asked all week or maybe for the the entire series since game one about this switch.
00:29:44
Speaker
Was he going to sub in Andrew Thomas? He does it. It works because it absolutely works. Right off the bat, Andrew Thomas was so... Big in in that Goal and you could tell that That mentality is different The the kicker the the penalty kick shooter Is thinking differently Whatever game from the beginning Whatever advantage they got from Dane St. Clair Was gone um gone entirely Absolutely He Andrew Thomas Not only does Right he
00:30:19
Speaker
makes that impact, breaks his finger, dislocates it. They have to put it back in. He's in he's in real pain. If you've seen Andrew Thomas, you know that this guy a big, tough guy. I mean, not the tallest, but he's a tough guy. I mean, when I saw him yell the way he yelled, I thought it was over. For a second, I thought it was maybe his arm or his shoulder. I didn't know what had happened. Yeah, but I was like, what are they going to they going to put Alex in there? Like, oh my God, this is so We were talking about that. This was hilarious because like I said, I was with a whole bunch of parents at Starfire with my phone on top of a bleacher and everybody's like, oh, what's going to happen?
00:30:57
Speaker
and you know, we're thinking Alex is going to go in So credit to to Andrew. let let Let's start there. Andrew Thomas is an absolute monster. I mean, is a saw off my hand and I'm going to get in there with the nub and just do it for my team. I mean,
00:31:17
Speaker
This clearly is the perfect way to just, in my opinion, just pass the torch to under Thomas. ah Just that leadership, that that sacrifice that he did.
00:31:29
Speaker
Sometimes i have a hard time when I jab my finger at the gym just to play ball, just to play basketball. but um ah I might take, you know, The day and just be like, you know, I'll be back tomorrow.
00:31:41
Speaker
This guy got his stuff pop back in got in there Was a monster um um He threw himself to the right.
00:31:52
Speaker
you know he He went to the right side of like most of the PKs. He stopped three of them, or but he he affected all three of them, and stopped two. I think that's what it was. But he was just unreal.
00:32:03
Speaker
So for the Sounders, for all that to happen, and a guy like Obed Vargas that often, if not always, puts the ball in the back of the net on PKs,
00:32:15
Speaker
He's the one that doesn't put it away. Osasio Rosario, a guy that I'm pretty sure he was like the top scorer from PKs for Tacoma Defiance. I mean, he he's always been a guy that's been good at PKs, misses.
00:32:32
Speaker
And Andrew Thomas, you guys might not know this, I think Brian might have talked about it in in the press conference, but he is crisp on PKs. That guy puts him away. Just like he put that on the post, that's usually four to five you know inches below that, and it's in with power, with pace, with you know good you know location.
00:32:55
Speaker
I mean, the guy puts him away. So it was clearly not your night. Things didn't happen. but Individually, you were unable to do it. But you gave yourself every chance to win that game, including that decision to bring Andrew Thomas in and to still come across with your hands empty.
Offensive vs Defensive Issues in Sounders' Gameplay
00:33:14
Speaker
Oh man, that's, that's tough. That's tough. But credit again so Brian for making that decision Andrew Thomas for being an absolute monster.
00:33:23
Speaker
And at the end of the day, Regardless of how or why it happened, it it does go back to the penalty kick shooters. I'm sorry, right? I mean, that that is the big moment for Obed. The that they had so many that weren't on target, man. like yeah Across the two shootouts that they had in this series, they had Danny Leyva off the post. They had Obed off the post. They had Jordan off the post. They had Andrew Thomas off the post.
00:33:48
Speaker
Like, you got to get these on target as Nico appears to be frozen. Again, we're going to remove him from the stage. And then ah put him back on the stage. Is he still frozen? I don't know what's going on, man. Someone's messing with us. Minnesota's messing with us. I don't know what's going on.
00:34:02
Speaker
Loons fans are infiltrating the mainframe. They really are, man. That's wild. All right, Nico, let's move on to the next topic because ah there's there's a few more things to hit here and we don't have all that much time.
00:34:16
Speaker
ah We'll hit Super Chats first. Heberhammer, thank you for the support all season. Appreciate you. Uh, says this is a team that can do it. We have seen them do it in leagues cup. That's why it's so frustrating. Not because they can't, but because they can and didn't exactly. I think that's a big part of it.
00:34:30
Speaker
Wade member for six months. Appreciate the support brother. Only thing I'm crashing out about is losing to Dane St. Clair. Dude is cringe AF. I think Dane St. Clair is funny. I'm on record. I think he's funny. This this is the thing about Dane St. Clair is when, when he's doing that stuff to, uh,
00:34:45
Speaker
your team, it is annoying and it and it feels cringe. But like, I would be lying to say that if when he's doing it to other teams, do I do i find it funny and entertaining? I do. And also, ah he he did his thing in the ah in the PK shootouts. he won both of them, so you have to credit him for that.
00:35:02
Speaker
They put seven goals by him in this series. He's not, he's good. yeah I'm not even saying that he shouldn't have been goalkeeper of the year. They have a ah really good defense, obviously, and he made a lot of big saves for them this year. He won but both shootouts in the series.
00:35:15
Speaker
They also put seven goals by him in the series, so let's like be serious. he didn't It's not like he, the goalkeeper of the year, dominated the Seattle Sounders and led Minnesota United to the promised land. they They gave up seven goals across the last two games of the series.
00:35:28
Speaker
And a few of them, by the way, were... like I'm like, Dane Sinclair low-key could have maybe saved that... like Like, especially in game two, there was at least two of those where it looked like his hand was ah was there and he had the space to actually make the save and he didn't. So I don't even think people need to be that aggrieved about Dane St. Clair. He let he allowed seven.
00:35:49
Speaker
Seven goals. Right. And I think that's more credit to the Sounders than anything else. This is the best goalkeeper in MLS, in my opinion, clearly this year. And the Seattle centers were able to put away a whole bunch of goals on him, right?
00:36:04
Speaker
So two things I need to say about that. One is that the Sinclair thing doesn't really bother me as much because... He does play a role. You could tell he's in character when he is in between the post and in the on the field. He's trying to affect it. He's trying to be a villain.
00:36:21
Speaker
He's doing a role. And it works. and And he does it to get his team ahead. And, you know, that's going to throw people off. And I don't mind of you if you hate him, dislike him. But I get what he's doing.
00:36:33
Speaker
He's just not that person. Unlike a guy like Saha, who I can't stand on and off the field because he's just that obnoxious human being. I hate Saha i and irony is No and I are pros Obnoxious as it gets And the me and the sunglasses and he Big mouth i mean i that That is not St. Clair Who is clearly playing a role Saha, that's who he is every day you know he He goes up to a restaurant And asks for eggs Saha will have eggs That's just what I think about right So that's an obnoxious human being Not necessarily St. Clair
00:37:09
Speaker
Post it on his Snapchat like it's 2017 Exactly there you go so that that's what it is And then the other part is And I don't know if this is going to be a topic of conversation Ari but I need to say this It's it's still crazy to me That people Continue to Go around saying that this team lost and And they didn't get what they needed to Because they didn't sign the striker Because the DP attackers Didn't perform This is the Sounders Best offensive year Of their season Ever their history That's how good they have been yeah and And they put Seven goals on the best goalkeeper In MLS Seven goals
00:37:58
Speaker
They have been unreal all season long, and they've done it collectively. They look so fluid. They have this offense that ah just seems to be able to break any sort of scheme because they did that finally after a whole bunch of shots at it. They finally broke that wall.
00:38:18
Speaker
So why are we focusing on that? and And it's crazy to me that a guy like – guys like Jordan and and Albert who clearly – Did their job Are taking all of the heat from people For no apparent reason Look, do I think that they shouldn't go out there And i know the reason get somebody in the offseason?
00:38:40
Speaker
Sure, absolutely I've been saying that that you you need the next guy, right? um um i'm um I'm all for saying Look, we need to find a replacement That's totally fine But this team right now did not lose Because of the offensive output That's all I'll say Yeah, so that was the ah next topic because where there's go we got all offseason to get into ah offseason stuff, but I can already see where the discourse is going or it has been going and it went exactly ah where you're saying. And I'm just going issue PSA.
00:39:14
Speaker
Public service announcement, all right, because there's a lot of discourse going around talking about, you know, Jordan Morris. He can't get it done. He can't get it done in the big moments.
00:39:25
Speaker
Even though he scored the equalizer, that was the only reason that sent them to PKs. Albert Rusnak, he's not a good enough DP. We need to sign another ah different number 10.
00:39:36
Speaker
This team scored 87 goals this year. They scored seven goals in the series in question. How many more goals do you guys want? Some of you.
00:39:47
Speaker
How many more goals do you want? How many more goals do you need? Against the best defense in MLS, the most pragmatic team in, I don't know, MLS history against the best goalkeeper. Come on, people. Come on. They can't break down a low block. They need to sign somebody who breaks down the low block. i They broke down the low block for seven goals across two games.
00:40:07
Speaker
Goal scoring is not this team's issue. It was not this team's issue for one microsecond of this season. I don't know. Like the fact that an attack led by, uh, Danny Musavsky was able to be that productive.
00:40:19
Speaker
I can't explain it either, but it was. And that means that when people when people start talking about Jordan and Albert, I'm just telling you guys, don't fall for it. Don't fall for it. You don't have to take that bait. It's a red herring.
00:40:33
Speaker
It is not the issue. Nico, the issue with this team, let's talk about what the issue is. This defense, man, this defense all year was not...
00:40:45
Speaker
It was not good. Like, it was like a... But now that we're at the end of the season and we we have it all to look back on, they...
00:40:57
Speaker
papered it over by being this crazy high powered turbocharged offense that scored a shit ton of goals. No matter who was out there, people use the fact that Rusnak was out and they still were scoring goals. And the fact that Jordan was out and they were still scoring goals as evidence of something about Albert and Jordan. It's not, it's a testament to guys like Jesus Ferreira and Danny Musavsky. If you're making the leap of like, Oh, Rusnak was out and they were still good. So they don't need Rusnak. That is ah not the right takeaway.
00:41:23
Speaker
OK, and this is the other thing about that, like, because the reason that people have these takes about Jordan and Albert is it's because they had these agendas in 2024 when the offense was struggling and there was critiques to be had at that time about the role that Rusek was playing.
00:41:40
Speaker
and ah Jordan wasn't particularly productive during that period of time. So people formulated these agendas about the attack and about Craig Weibel. And then when the team went out and and actually improved at offense this year and started scoring goals, they refused to, like, change their perspective based on the new information and the fact that the ah the the offense was actually really, really good.
00:42:03
Speaker
Okay? So the thing is, if ah if If all of these takes about Jordan and Albert dating back a while now were correct going into this season, for you to be correct about that, the offense needs to be bad and it needs to be unproductive.
00:42:17
Speaker
It needs to be not fun to watch. If those things aren't the actual outcome of what happens on the field, then your take is not correct. you have to You have to lend credence to what actually happens on the field.
00:42:27
Speaker
How many goals do they actually score? How do they actually play? That has to inform how you think about it. All right? If those guys... who are part of the offense this year, go out and they score 87 goals, all comps.
00:42:39
Speaker
They did their job. They did their job all season. They did it in leagues cup and they did it in this series, seven goals in the series. Again, like what amount of goals, what amount of strikers to sign, what amount of other reinforcements to sign?
00:42:52
Speaker
Like you're trying to, you are literally trying to sign guys who can produce, like that. So it's just, it's, it's not the issue. It doesn't line up with
Tactical Evolution and Team Dynamics
00:43:00
Speaker
reality. The amount of goals that they scored completely disproves the point that like Albert Rusnak and Jordan Morris can't hack it.
00:43:08
Speaker
All right. That's not what, ah that's not what the issue is. ah The defense man all year, was was way too leaky. And ah the blown lead issue was a huge issue defensively as well.
00:43:22
Speaker
And I guess what the thing I think to talk about this offseason is how much of that is personnel versus how much of that is like tactics and coaching and how much they can do differently as far as that goes. Because to me, i have a hard time thinking that the issue is personnel, really.
00:43:38
Speaker
You have what most people consider to be the best double pivot team in the league ah shielding your back line. ah both Both of those guys are pretty damn good two way players. Christian is an elite two way player. Obed is a very good two way player. You got the best double pivot in the league.
00:43:54
Speaker
You got a CB duo that money most people consider upper tier in the league, Jackson, Reagan and Yimar. ah You got Nuhu who, for who whatever you want to say about him, he has provenly been a part of a lot of and MLS defenses that have been very good at preventing goals.
00:44:10
Speaker
So I don't think him alone is the issue. Alex Roldan had a really good year defensively. So to me, it's almost, it's like a mental thing. Like when this team goes ahead in a game, there's just like no confidence that they're going to be able to hold the lead, to support all the great footy that the offense is playing and all the goals that they're scoring.
00:44:30
Speaker
So that's the, if when I look at this off season, the number one thing that they have to focus in on, it's not going people are going to be saying it's, you got to sign a new number nine to replace Jordan or replace Moose, which again, like you said, I'm not even saying that they shouldn't make a signing there. If there's a new 22 target, number nine,
00:44:49
Speaker
that they have in mind that they can get. Yeah, sure. Go out and get them. But that's not the, that's not the most important thing. I don't think Nico, it's not like the most important thing is getting this defense to a place where you can take a lead in a game and feel confident in it.
00:45:02
Speaker
Again, like I didn't even feel that confident in the lead when they were up to one in Minnesota when they were up a man. That's how many leads they blew this year. And if you want to look at the real reason why they're not going to MLS Cup this year, I think it's because they blew way too many leads and dropped way too many points from winning positions this season. Like and and the crash out red car boys also played a role in that. But the reality is.
00:45:27
Speaker
The offense scored the fifth most goals in the in the West in league play. And you also I'm sorry to like you have to. You have to take Leagues Cup into account when you're evaluating like the big picture of of the team this season.
00:45:43
Speaker
You have to Yeah, man, look That's how I I was I went on a diatribe there But yeah, Nico, what are you No, like I like to unpack for sure But I like it, man You just went in the zone I dig it, man yeah Get in there in the paint and work, man I not like it The fact that Jordan I wanna say one more thing while I'm- Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Just the fact that Jordan takes as much heat as he does. like I will say it is like the supreme vocal minority. 98% of the fan base loves and appreciates Jordan for everything he's done for the club. There's the storyline of him being the local hero, and unfortunately injuries have been a big storyline of his career, and it was this season.
00:46:19
Speaker
This guy has the most goals scored in the history of the club, so that he can't finish in front of goal. Well, I think he can because he scored the most goals in the literal history of the club, despite missing like three plus seasons of his career at this point ah because of injuries.
00:46:35
Speaker
But even more important than that, it's literally been proven multiple times over in a bunch of different tournaments at this point that he can be an attacking focal point for a trophy contending and a trophy winning team.
00:46:47
Speaker
That's what matters is are you putting personnel on the field that can that can help you contend and win trophies? We know this for a fact that Jordan can do that. He's done it like five times.
00:46:58
Speaker
Like, I don't, it just, the the way it gets talked about just does not match up with his credentials and his history and his resume of production and production and winning trophies, which is what the whole point of this. So ah again, like I know it's a vocal minority position to be bagging on Jordan right now, but like As far as ah early take on ah personnel for next year on the on whether Jordan should be like a prominent member of this attack next season, he should.
00:47:28
Speaker
He should. like i he i don't want him to go out like that. Not like that's a possibility anyway, but this season was not like the right that's not the right way for a Jordan Morris season to go.
00:47:41
Speaker
And i have i have plenty of confidence that next year, assuming that he can stay healthy, which is obviously always the biggest question, But if he's on, i mean, we saw it. He scored the biggest goal. What could have been the biggest goal of the of ah of the season or at least the playoffs? So anyway, those are my thoughts on that.
00:47:57
Speaker
No, no, absolutely. Look, I feel like the people that
00:48:03
Speaker
have already and will continue to criticize and die on the hill of Jordan Morris, Albert Rusnak, and Jesus Ferreira are the problem and they're not good enough.
00:48:18
Speaker
It's exactly what you said. Those are people that have an agenda that they don't have the self-awareness to just admit that they were wrong going into the season. Because those people were the same ones that at the beginning of the year were saying, this Sounders team will get nowhere with this sort of players.
00:48:34
Speaker
If we don't go out there and sign a a DP attacker we're not that that's really they're not going to go anywhere. The same people that when he came to the Lunel Messi game in Leagues Cup were like, there's no way that the Sounders are ever going to beat Miami. I don't care if he's at home or not. They're going to get beat. All those people, right? The same people that going into Club World Cup were saying the Sounders are going to get embarrassed.
00:49:01
Speaker
Eight goals, nine goals, ten goals. they're going to take in more than any ah team in MLS. All of those people are the same ones that are on this stage tour and there will be on this tour all the way till the preseason of next year, just saying and and trying to get people to think and believe what they believe. But both you and I know and understand, and you have already gone into a rant that explained exactly why that's not the problem.
00:49:28
Speaker
So that's the main thing, right? you Probably one of the, I usually don't call comments dumb because everybody is, entitled to their opinion.
00:49:40
Speaker
But one of the less insightful and open-sighted comments that I saw in my mentions was my DP should not be missing sitters in front of the goal.
00:49:54
Speaker
Oh, so you've never seen Messi in league's cup, miss a sitter in front of goal. You never seen Buonga miss in front of goal in champions league last year. You've never seen ah ah Diego Rossi miss in front of goal. I've seen Cucho Hernandez, the guy that I've wanted for this team Since 2016. And that you know. we Obviously we'll never be able to afford. But that that's a guy that I've seen miss sitters. In front of goal.
00:50:21
Speaker
So what are we talking about? Look at the full body work. Anyone misses a chance. On a specific moment. That's just soccer. That's. That's sports, baby.
00:50:33
Speaker
that that That is just what happens. But look back and and really understand if that is the problem. So going back to the defense, yes, I do believe that is a little bit of tactics.
00:50:43
Speaker
And the reason why it's kind of ironic that we talk about it is because over the last four or five seasons, we've been begging – this team to be more entertaining and more offensive minded. And last season, that was the biggest criticism, right? Oh, this team can't score. Even going into the playoffs, you didn't know if you could trust this team because they just, they got there on on a good rhythm to close the season.
00:51:06
Speaker
And then in the playoffs, they just couldn't buy a goal. So that was a criticism that we had of them. And now this year, which was the objective from Marbella all the way down to,
00:51:19
Speaker
the last game that they lost was getting this team to be better offensively. Go look at the Freddy Juarez interview that we have on Sounder Hard on the Coach's Corner, and he talks about three-year process to get this team to be as fluid and elite as they have been.
00:51:37
Speaker
You talked about, ah Ari, you talked about the fact that certain players like Albert and Jordan were out and you were able to bring in other players to perform. That is a credit to the system. That is a credit to a conceptual team that knew and understood exactly how they wanted to attack the pivots, the services, the the way that Alex got forward. All of the things that you work in day in, day out for three years is what got you here. So that's credit to to the team. So it is kind of hard to say, well,
00:52:11
Speaker
you know Sometimes you gain certain things and you lose certain things and you lost a little bit of defense. But I think that there is a balance point that now this team, knowing that they have this offensive output, they are going to be able to just shore the holes that have clearly been a problem.
00:52:29
Speaker
and And it's not like they don't work on it. You know, I see Andy Rose day in, day out, week in, week out, working on set pieces and getting guys in the right positions. So, you know, it's a little bit of tactics.
00:52:40
Speaker
It's a little bit of just mentality and moments that you need to be on for 90 minutes. um and and And this is also something that happens in sports. I mean, as...
00:52:55
Speaker
As, I don't know, simplified as this might sound, there are moments in sports where, look, the season goes to a certain way. You have ebbs and flows. and defensively, this team just had a lot of bad moments.
00:53:12
Speaker
And that that does tell you that this was a bad defense compared specifically to other sounder defenses. But I do think that you are going to be able to go into 2026 twenty twenty six maybe add a couple of
Critique of MLS Playoff Format
00:53:24
Speaker
components. I think there's going to be a lot of changes, and you know we could talk about that in the offseason or in the, I'm sure, content that will be breaking out here in a couple of weeks or months.
00:53:33
Speaker
But at the end of the day, I do believe that there is a core, there is a um a group that's going to be able to take this team to the next level, and it does start with the defensive um solidifying lot more.
00:53:50
Speaker
Bieber Hammer points out Messi missed in front of goal against us. That's right. He did in the ah league yeah final. It's time to start asking questions. Can Lionel Messi hack it as a DP in, in major league soccer? Cause like, this the other thing about the Rusnak miss, which I understand. Like that was a brutal play in the game. I, I, that, I think that is where the game was really lost and you expect him to make it.
00:54:14
Speaker
We've seen him make it a hundred times, but if you're going to, hone in on one like kind of high variance miss like during one individual game.
00:54:27
Speaker
I can also point out that he finished off one of the best goals that Seattle scored all season earlier in that exact same game, ah five minutes into the game, which was a huge ah clutch moment where he delivered. You see how that works? Like Works both ways.
00:54:49
Speaker
You can't just take one into account and and not the other. That's not like that's not serious ah serious analysis. Gianni says the defense has suffered because some of the attacking onus was put on them to start attacks. yeah That exposes them to more risk because the counter happens closer to the net with fewer players to defend.
00:55:05
Speaker
So yes, yes, this is something that I think we should talk about because there is an element of when you play more aggressive and proactively offensively, like they made a point of doing this year.
00:55:19
Speaker
Yes, the idea is to score more goals and they did accomplish that they scored a lot more goals this year than they usually do. But we've talked about the give and take of that is going to leave you more vulnerable defensively in some scenarios, especially on counterattacks like Johnny is saying.
00:55:34
Speaker
So all of that is true. And if you give me the trade off of. the offense that we saw this year versus what we saw at the start of 2024. But you told me, you know, if you told me you're going to get 87 goals, all comps, 87, first of have been like 87.
00:55:50
Speaker
They're going to score 87. But you told me, yeah, you're going to get 87. But the tradeoff is you're going to concede a few more than the defense did last year when they only gave up 35 goals, which was the best mark in Major League Soccer, by the way, defensively last year.
00:56:04
Speaker
You're going to concede a few more goals than that, but you're going to get 87 attack. and attack uh without jordan morris and albert rusnak for a lot of the season i would have taken that all day okay so there is an element of they're probably going to concede a few more than they usually would playing like they play now because they're very aggressive offensively and they're like uh they're they're putting numbers forward they're going they're going in attack you can't ask for them to be ah high-powered dynamic productive offensive team like we were asking for all last year and then when they do that you know crash out about the defensive ramifications however all yeah that being said all that being said though all that being said a lot of these concessions and i pointed this out on the post game show a lot of these concessions we're talking about were not to do with that i don't i don't think it was i was just gonna say that like it wasn't a lot of these are not situations
00:56:58
Speaker
ah where it's because you're throwing numbers forward and exposed defensively and getting out of position and undisciplined or whatever. a lot of these situations are playing with the lead, playing with the lead and not managing the game well enough. And set pieces. If you count defending if you can throw into set pieces, which you should, although I don't know if in statistics you do, um a lot of the goals that were a problem and and what you'd call soft goals and that seemed repetitive.
00:57:27
Speaker
And I think that there's a big amount of goals like from set pieces that this team gave up. that That doesn't necessarily on being more aggressive. ah You know, there is a correlation. i agree. And I mentioned that ah earlier.
00:57:40
Speaker
It's the fact that this team had been working so hard into being more aggressive, being a more attacking minded team. Again, if you go back to the Ferry Juarez interview, he talks about the, the,
00:57:52
Speaker
The concept and objective is to get three, one, and six when in possession. So you want six attacking players, which is obviously your four attacking players, your striker, your three attacking midfielders, your wingers and your your cam, and then you get Alex Roldan pushing forward, and then one of your pivots. That's six people on the attack.
00:58:14
Speaker
But to you to what you said, ah Ari, There are probably a couple or several goals that were given up because of maybe pushing that high.
00:58:25
Speaker
But the biggest goals, to me, all happened on set pieces, which is not really ah correlation with the attacking-minded set. That cost them the season, is set piece defending. like ah It was definitely not the offense that ah that scored seven goals across the last... ah The last two games there's going to be a lot of Fun offseason discourse To have like but Let me get one more Jesus Ferreira man that's another one that I don't understand why people continue To beat up on Jesus Ferreira he was I think as good If not better than what anybody Expected he was a player That in all of their minutes That he had with this Team was was fundamental regardless Of
00:59:09
Speaker
The statistics or anything, he was an influential player on this team, regardless of the position, whether it was the nine, whether it was a 10, whether it was out in the wings, it didn't matter. Jesus Ferreira, when he came to the link of play, when he came to the fluidity that we've been crediting this whole time, Ferreira has been unreal. His versatility, his ah ability to Passed the the the ball in between lines.
00:59:37
Speaker
ah His vision, how cerebral he is. Everything about Jesus Ferreira has been unreal. As a matter of fact, one one of the things that I wish that Brian would have not done was take Ferreira out in this last game. I thought that he had been very good, but he was getting better as that second half went along.
00:59:58
Speaker
And I really wanted to see him on Osaset. didn't quite make a difference in the game. I wish that maybe you had added Georgie earlier and you would have left Jesus Ferreira as that other striker.
01:00:12
Speaker
just Just pin him all the way forward and have him do that Osasa stuff because you were not going to break this team down with... um Early balls into the 18 for him to use his size and all that.
01:00:24
Speaker
You were never going to do that. I thought that the link of play and the ability to keep the ball on the ground was always the key to success for the Sounders. And I thought Ferreira did that better. So get off Ferreira's back. I think he has proven that he and every Sounders fan should be Really excited that he's going to be here for a while because he is a team first type of guy.
01:00:47
Speaker
He has been extremely good and effective. So I don't get, i really don't understand the criticism and the people who say that he hasn't fit in and that he's not worth the money and all of this craziness.
01:00:59
Speaker
I don't get it. Jesus Ferreira was unreal this season. He's going to continue to get better and he's here to stay. Plain and simple. Yeah, i'm glad I'm glad you said it because, ah I mean, I put my neck out on that agenda at the beginning of the season. kind of Kind of rolling the dice a little bit because it admittedly, it didn't look all that great when he when he first got integrated with the team.
01:01:20
Speaker
I was like, you know, I've i've watched this guy play enough. I feel confident in the player that that they're getting here. And he turned out to be an integral, durable, and very consistent and reliable contributor to an attack that scored again.
01:01:37
Speaker
87 goals, all comps. I don't think we should ah undersell how crazy a ah number that is. Nico, not a lot of time left, so let's get into some other playoff results from around Major League Soccer.
01:01:48
Speaker
All these topics that we hit here this morning, we'll be hitting them a lot more in a lot more depth over the offseason. We'll be starting... you know, talk about who's coming back, who's going, we'll be covering all the all the moves that they make or or don't make. So there'll be plenty of time for all that. There'll be plenty of time for ah the should they bring the moves back discourse.
01:02:11
Speaker
But before we talk about ah the other playoff results, I did i did want to ah reference one thing that we talked about on the post-game show with ah one of our callers. I think it was Pooh's, P-O-O-Z-E. And he he was talking about the ah the format.
01:02:24
Speaker
And, ah you know, we've all complained about that. But i thought ah I thought he made a ah ah good point, which, okay, first of all, the ah the round one best of three, I think is just and completely whack.
01:02:35
Speaker
Like, it needs to go. And agree i know so I know a lot of people don't like the home and away aggregates. I that's what I I like that I think that that's the way to uh to do it I understand that it there's like the uh it's incentivizes negative soccer for the road team or whatever but like uh I like the away goals tiebreaker to uh to address that issue like I think that that makes sense and especially in a league like MLS where the home and uh
01:03:07
Speaker
road splits are so stark, like the degree of difficulty on scoring in a way goal. I think it's totally logical that it would be weighted more or weighted as the the tiebreaker. That's how it should work.
01:03:18
Speaker
One game for one team at home, one game for the other team at home. Let's see who scores the most goals. That decides who moves on. That's what should have been deciding what what like this series this there shouldn't have been a game three and the point that poos was making was like part of the reason they do it is because they want they want more games to make more money but they also want more like viral moments and dramatic moments and uh they got that in this game with with that with how crazy that game was and how crazy the shootout was and all that uh because so it was it was exciting to watch from that standpoint but guess what
01:03:56
Speaker
It's a manufactured moment, Nico. It really is. That game like shouldn't have been happening to begin with. That series should have been over the moment that Seattle beat Minnesota's fucking ass 4-2 at Lumen Field and proved definitively who the actual better team is.
01:04:14
Speaker
okay that's Minnesota had had ah Seattle at home twice in this series. Twice. Did they win either of those games? No. they They drew both of them. the The first one blatantly trolling for it, and the second one only playing because they had to because they had such a disastrous start that they fell behind by multiple goals 10 minutes into the game.
01:04:35
Speaker
The fact that they're moving on in a three-game series without winning one time while having two of the two of the games at home, like, I'm sorry, that's stupid. Like, you can call it sour grapes, but that is a stupid format.
01:04:47
Speaker
And ah it's, again, like, yes, that was an exciting shootout. it shouldn't have been It shouldn't have been happening. The only reason it was an exciting shootout is because you had a moment that was that was manufactured, that was created by a format that had a game that shouldn't have been necessary.
01:05:04
Speaker
So again, i fully recognize that that's sour grapes and ah sore losing. I don't care. I think it's right. Go back to the home and away aggregate format. That's the best way to do it. I understand there's there's drawbacks. There's go to be drawbacks or like negative soccer issues to deal with, with whatever format you put out there.
01:05:21
Speaker
You think this format doesn't encourage negative soccer? Did you see what Minnesota United was doing? Like, it's what what about this format solved that issue? Nothing. So, like, if you have that issue with the home and away aggregate series and you have the road goals tiebreaker, that's a much better way to do it than this shit, which is very transparently ah trying to add more games for ah more money, which puts more physical stress on the players, by the way, that's unnecessary.
01:05:48
Speaker
And it's just also not, the better team, like, is not advancing here. And we all know that. I don't even think Minnesota fans would deny that. They saw what happened in the last two games of that series. Like, they got their goals to tie the game, so credit to them for that.
01:06:01
Speaker
are we really Are we really trying to say that that team's better than this team? Like, come on now. like let's Yeah, and look, what what I would add to what you just said is that if you were not in the league that –
01:06:14
Speaker
ah embraces and has clear parity, I'd understand trying to figure out a way to, you know, minimize a team Just bunkering down all the time because it happens more often than not in You know, league MX and it happens in La Liga and it happens
Review of Other MLS Playoff Results
01:06:37
Speaker
in the premier and obviously those are two different ah formats, right? Because in both La Liga and premier is about a long season and it's all about points But when you have you know four or five teams that are
01:06:51
Speaker
so much better than the rest of the league. It's obvious that the rest of the league, when they play these big teams, they have to just go out there and bunker. that That's kind of the the way to success. I'm a small team. I can go toe to toe with this team.
01:07:03
Speaker
So I'm going to just try to win this playoff game by just bunkering down. Right. That's not the case here in, in, in MLS, right. You, you saw it in LAFC Austin, right. It, as much as LAFC was this,
01:07:19
Speaker
Way better team on paper Austin had moments, Austin had, you know, give himself a chance Same thing with Vancouver, they got pushed to the limit By Dallas, right? And it's a team that was number one That was clearly the the better team So I don't think there's a necessity for you to like Spend so much time to figure out how you can Make games more entertaining Because like you said Minnesota in three games didn't win one and they advanced, right? they they They did enough to just not lose, go to PKs and then
01:07:50
Speaker
they got credit for it. And I think that's counterproductive to what the league really wants to do. If it was the home away aggregate format of old Seattle wins that series, the the narrative coming in out of that is Seattle won that easily. Like Minnesota wasn't even ready for the smoke at all.
01:08:07
Speaker
Like if that would have been the takeaway coming out of the first season, two games. Like, what are we, what are we doing? Giving them a third game for it? Like what, what the hell, man? I don't know. Just the way it played out. It's, ah it's frustrating. Gianni's no, it's unnatural. I just, I dislike it. I really don't.
01:08:25
Speaker
ah You fix this is go to a point system. If you win three points, winning PK is two losing PK is one point lose outright zero points. That is one idea. Gianni you're cooking this morning. yeah yeah You got to call into the show. Next call in show, man. Where you been brother?
01:08:37
Speaker
Like, come like you're, ah you're, you're on point. Like, I think that is that that would be a better way to do it. I don't see what everyone has against the the old home and away aggregate scoring. No, it just simplifies it. i look i like the comment and it's a very good thought idea. Yeah, but it it adds more complicated and unnecessary things to it. Just play home and away.
01:09:01
Speaker
Play the aggregate and call it a day. Like, why are we not simplifying it and just focusing on the product and the field rather than all just formatic things? I mean, it just it doesn't make any sense to me. Now, I know it's going to change because obviously ah the the format for the entire of the year is going to change in 2027.
01:09:21
Speaker
That's still being worked on, but obviously you're going to change that up. I'm guessing that the playoff format will change again. I would really like to see this three-game series stuff just go away. It's because the oligarch class, if you show them any other mechanism to make more money, they're they're like vultures, man. they can't They start salivating in the whatever we have to do to maximize our bottom line even more. like that That's pretty much, I'm pretty sure, what's going on here for the most part.
01:09:53
Speaker
Nico, let's ah let's talk some more playoffs because there were other results aside from... ah the Seattle Sounders. I mean, you had Cincy winning the hell is real series. ah Columbus gave them a good run for their money, whooped him whooped up on them 4-0 in game two, but Cincy wins that series. Another example of like, it's kind of stupid that Columbus even had the third crack at it at all after getting, well, or no, I guess I would have rather Columbus won that after the 4-0.
01:10:19
Speaker
that's what i That's what I would have rather because wasn't it 1-0 in the, so ah Columbus should have gone through. Cincy shouldn't have had the third crack at it. That's what I meant to say. uh, inner Miami and the, uh, and the Barca boys obviously, uh, destroy Nashville SC, but Nico, let's just, let's just talk about the one that, uh, that the people want us to talk about.
01:10:38
Speaker
Uh, and that would be the Portland Timbies,
01:10:44
Speaker
Portland Timbies. They got played out the park. I mean, listen,
01:10:49
Speaker
I didn't think that they ah that they were going to beat San Diego. but when we so All right, this is this where I wanted to go with this. On the post-game live, we were talking about like if the Sounders L to Minnesota was embarrassing. and ah I'm someone who i tend to i try to stay away from that term unless it's extreme circumstances because but i feel like people go to that literally every single time they take an l Every single time they take an L, they go, oh, how embarrassing we lost. How embarrassing.
01:11:20
Speaker
Not every L is embarrassing. the ah The playoff L to the Galaxy last year that the Sounders had. Not embarrassing at all. Like the fact that people called that embarrassing was crazy to me.
01:11:31
Speaker
It's a hard fought competitive playoff game. That was zero, zero hanging in the balance ah late in the game. There's one moment that goes ah LA's way. That's GG's. That's the game. That's how it goes.
01:11:42
Speaker
Like you can't just, you can't just call every L that happens embarrassing. However, now however, what happened to Seattle in Minnesota ah was, you know, Here's how I kind of gauge if it's embarrassing or not.
01:11:55
Speaker
I asked myself, would I clown on another team if that exact same thing happened to them? If any other team, if any other team in the league went up to zero in the first 10 minutes of their playoff game, got where the beneficiaries of a first half red card and then still found a way to lose the game in the fashion that Seattle found a way.
01:12:14
Speaker
to lose that game, I would be going, ha ha, ha ha, that's pretty embarrassing, really bad L, that's as tough as it gets for your fan base. I would be saying all that stuff.
01:12:26
Speaker
So I'm not going to sit here and say that there's no element of... That loss, that was embarrassing for Seattle. just I think because of the red card primarily, like if everything else was equal, but it was 11 on 11 the whole time, maybe it's a little less bad.
01:12:42
Speaker
But the fact that you were up a man for that long, and then you still find a way to fall behind in the game while you're playing up a man... I don't care how good they are at set pieces. Minnesota United, a man disadvantage. Actually, i think it turns out doesn't matter that much because of how they play. And it's not like they're trying to like play offense, really.
01:13:03
Speaker
like All they're doing is trying to get on counters and set pieces, which you can do with 10 men. So ah all that's to say, like what happened to Seattle was tough. It was a little embarrassing. But it's not the same category of embarrassing as what happened to the Portland Timbees.
01:13:19
Speaker
It's not. Yes, they lost the game in excruciating fashion, and they lost the game while they were up a man, but they scored three goals in the game. They were in position to win the game.
01:13:30
Speaker
They were competing their asses off. It's not like they were getting... blown off the field, that that would be embarrassing. If they lost that game 4-0, that would be embarrassing. More embarrassing than than what happened. Even as bad as it was, that would be more embarrassing.
01:13:45
Speaker
The Portland Timbys went into San Diego with a chance for Phil Neville to save his job. And they embarrassed themselves way more than the Seattle Sounders did. I will say that. I will say that. That was way worse.
01:13:56
Speaker
They were not even close to to San Diego in that game. And ah they also got a crash out red card as well just to tie it off. So my question, Nico, is, i mean, just looking at how the Timbys season ended, ah this is the second year in a row that they've had their season end in the playoffs, losing to a much better team by four plus goals.
01:14:17
Speaker
ah I think it says quite a lot about the state of things. i have a I have a couple of friends in college that i that I lived with who are both from Portland and they're both big Timbers fans. And one of them was texting me last night and he's he's fully like, he's crashed out. Like he's blow it all up, blow up the roster.
01:14:36
Speaker
Fire Phil Neves. Ned Grabowoy. He's kind of the type of fan that's like fire everyone after every loss. But it's fair over there. Really like on that he's there. I think most of their fan base is there. Like this whole operation needs a reboot.
01:14:51
Speaker
Sell the team. All that shit. That's what they're going through. So I will say to all you watching, it could be worse. You could be the Portland Timbies or you could be an even worse team than that. Like, ah like Atlanta United or who won our DC United. So again, like I said, at the top of the show, a couple of times, like you would much rather be the team that's taking the L that Seattle took in the playoffs this year, than you would be some of these other teams.
01:15:16
Speaker
ah But the Portland Timbies, especially man, like, I mean, well, Phil Neves, first of all, like he's got, he's gotta be cooked, right? He's cooked. Like, Yeah, i think I think he's gone. i mean, there was nothing consistent about Portland aside from the fact that they were inconsistent. I mean, you you did't have you had no idea all season long who they were as a team, what they wanted to do, what they were good at.
01:15:38
Speaker
You knew what they were bad at, but you had no idea what they were good at. The fact that in the last four games against San Diego FC, going back to decision day, they got beat.
01:15:51
Speaker
12-3, I mean, that that is a lot of goals to give up to one side. I mean, in last night's game, they were outperformed in every single way. They crashed out. of Mosquera tries to hit Lozano with a...
01:16:09
Speaker
forearm to the throat gets a red card. I mean, it was, it was an embarrassing loss in so many ways because San Diego was so much better that there was nothing else that the Timbers could do than just play to just hurt the other team.
League Competitiveness and Team Management
01:16:24
Speaker
But the Greeners course, the second goal and come out Miller, purposely you could see him he goes out of his way to just shoulder the hell out of Pellegrino I don't know how that wasn't a bigger deal than it was but you could tell that he was just frustrated and wanted to hurt somebody and that's what he does so the Timbers just had no business in that game yesterday as much as they were able to affect the game and and mud it and get San Diego out of the rhythm in game two.
01:16:56
Speaker
In this one, it was lights out all about San Diego from the first minute. There were moments that the Timbers did found some chances and some opportunities. They have a talented ah roster in in certain, especially in the attacking side.
01:17:10
Speaker
So that's all – it all goes back to Phil Neville. How could you possibly have such a crap team when you have so many differing good pieces? Now, it's not a perfect roster. The roster's not that bad. it's It's not great, but it's not this bad.
01:17:23
Speaker
No, absolutely. No, no. In its balance, absolutely, there's definitely some players that are – they should not be there. But I think that there's a lot of pieces or there's enough pieces that this team should be better than it was.
01:17:35
Speaker
Yeah.
Minnesota United's Style and Playoff Journey
01:17:36
Speaker
It's a – I think the ah most unfortunate thing about Minnesota United beating ah Seattle, aside from the obvious, is that now we got to watch Minnesota United be the ones to try and play San Diego, right? Like, dude.
01:17:53
Speaker
No one wants to see that. San Diego and Seattle. I'm kind of interested. It's kind of like, it's kind of like, I'm interested in Yeah, I mean, I have morbid curiosity. Like, can these, can these Bits men from the state of Minnesota United do it again?
01:18:06
Speaker
i doubt it against a... ah San Diego team that has a really good offense, but they did just do it to Seattle. So if any team can do it, it's these trolls, but it's like Seattle, San Diego would have been one. That would have been a burner. That would have been a banger. People would have wanted to watch that.
01:18:20
Speaker
That is true. Who wants to watch that is true. Claire and the gang Ramsey ball it for another 90 minutes, dude. Like that's, That's be terrible to watch. No one wants to see that except for Loon's fans who I think some of them get some sick joy out of watching this.
01:18:35
Speaker
And on the road, they're going to drop everybody back. That's the reason why i think it's not like a foregone conclusion that San Diego is going to win that because Minnesota is like their style is like perfect for road games.
01:18:48
Speaker
the What blows my mind about it is that they do the exact same thing. at home which though listen i gotta i gotta run but the last thing i'll say uh just on that topic is ah minnesota I know that a that you guys finished fourth this year, and you know you got your playoff win.
01:19:05
Speaker
You beat Seattle in the playoffs, which is the biggest moment in your club's history. um ah let's let's let's make Let's do some personnel maneuvering over the offseason, okay? i Get this roster in a place where you can move past this this Ramsey ball. and like I know it works.
01:19:21
Speaker
I know that... ah the Their fan base has found this kind of niche as like the, our team is the trolls that you can't beat and like, ha ha ha, whatever. Let's move past this.
01:19:32
Speaker
Let's play the game next year. i don't know if if Eric Ramsey and whoever the GM have ah have thought about that, but I think playing the actual sport could stand to benefit ah both the team, but also, you know, giving a great fan base that has a great stadium, something to watch that isn't that isn't this bit that we're seeing. That is, ah there's,
01:19:54
Speaker
Noah said he was going to get a tattoo of Minnesota United, win MLS Cup. But, like, there're the i I don't think they're going to win MLS Cup like this. It is possible. We have seen teams make it through tournaments like this. I'm not saying they're – I'm not making a tattoo bet. Like, i I didn't think that they were going to be able to do it in game three against Seattle, and they freaking pulled it out. So more power to them.
01:20:13
Speaker
But, God, man, like – Now, now you did this to us. We have to fucking watch you do this against San Diego. And it's just going to be like you said, it's like a morbid curiosity. Like, oh, let's let's watch this to see if they could do it. But it's I'm not going to be tuning in because it's going to be like an enjoyable game to watch.
01:20:29
Speaker
But I think Seattle laid out a pretty good blueprint. to break that wall down and i just think that san diego's gonna do it i think dryers have an unbelievable season just watch the seattle film they were freaking destroying that team like offensively so no i love it i think i think valkyrie is going to be important in that i think uh trevor's cough has been unreal and just uh you know breaking lines and kind of pushing teams in that team is just too talented to lose to this team specifically after what seattle did and
01:21:02
Speaker
the voids that they put on that on that Minnesota defense. So, yeah, I'm totally with you. I think it's going to be all about San Diego in this one.
Conclusion and Future Content Engagement
01:21:10
Speaker
But ah I know that you got to go, man. What I will say is that obviously the boys' season is over. The Sounders are eliminated. But our season is not over. Hell no. we what We'll have some more content. We'll have some more videos.
01:21:23
Speaker
Then we'll give you the goodbye for the year. But continue to stay um with us. Thank you for everybody for being so engaged and consistent and watching our show. We're going to continue to do this, but you know, we'll get the goodbyes later on, but stay tuned. Cause we got a lot more content coming in.
01:21:40
Speaker
Yes, sir. Appreciate you all tuning in to a kickoff all season. It's been a, it's been a really fun way to get the week started. And like Nico said, we're going to keep doing it. So, appreciate the support all year. Appreciate the discourse all year, even when we disagree.
01:21:52
Speaker
And, uh, Love you all. We'll catch you this week. The yeah the coverage isn't stopping. The playoff coverage isn't stopping. And then the offseason is going to turn up. So we'll see you guys for all that. Have a good one.
01:22:03
Speaker
Love you. Peace.