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Nos Audietis, Episode 320: Keep Portland weird?
65 Plays5 years ago
It's been nearly a month since the Seattle Sounders last played, but they return on Sunday against the Portland Timbers. It's definitely a weird one, though, as there will be no fans, likely artificial crowd noise and uncertain stakes.
What we know is that this is probably about as close to "normal" as we're going to get for the foreseeable future.
Aaron and Jeremiah discuss all of that, sing the Sounders' praises for the announcement of 2021 season-ticket renewals and answer many of your questions.
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)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction and Wine Book Release
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books. Hey,
Sounders Players Introduce Podcast
00:00:33
Speaker
this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle. Like a beautiful child growing up. Welcome back to another edition of Noice Adi at This, sponsored by Full Pool Wines. This is episode
Return to Play: Sounders vs. Timbers
00:01:40
Speaker
320, and we're recording on Thursday, August 20th, 2020. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan.
00:01:45
Speaker
Joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit P. It has been almost a month since The Sounders last played. They finally returned to action on Sunday against none other than the Portland Timbers. In a sense, it's the closest we've been to normal since MLS was forced into hiatus about five months ago. In another sense, we are still so far away from normal that it honestly makes me want to cry. Sunday's game will be played in front of no fans, likely with some sort of piped-in noise track, and it won't even be technically
00:02:15
Speaker
A Cascadia Cup match, but at least it will be something close to a full strength sounder squad for the first time all year. All of this leaves me not quite sure how to feel, although I know it doesn't feel
00:02:32
Speaker
normal in any way. Aaron, what is your, I don't know, what's your feeling going into
The Surreal Experience of Watching Sports
00:02:39
Speaker
this? I mean, in a sense, it feels like the season is finally starting and I have some reasonable hope that they may actually complete this season, but I don't know, it's just bizarre. It is very bizarre. It's definitely of all the sporting events that I've watched
00:02:58
Speaker
so far it feels the most surreal I think because Watching European soccer always feels like sort of detached, you know, even like Aston Villa team I followed for four years and years It's not happening in the same like physical space, you know, so it's there's a weird detachment to it Yes, you can sort of pretend like
00:03:25
Speaker
you know, things aren't happening
Impact of COVID and Social Movements on Sports
00:03:29
Speaker
so many things are happening. And I do think, I mean, in the U.S., it's COVID, obviously, and it's we're having a harder time with it than most other countries. So that that's part of it. But there are also lots of other things happening. You know, the Black Lives Matter protests have been ongoing and are still ongoing. The election is like ramping up big time. There's just a lot happening all the time. And California appears to be on fire.
00:03:57
Speaker
Right. That, I mean, well, that's, I mean, that's fairly standard. I think at this point, but, um, but yeah, they just said that Cal Fire, the organization that is responsible for fighting wildfires, that they have no resources to fight these fires. Cause usually what they do is they bring in prisoners to be like the frontline firefighters and all their prisoners have COVID essentially.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, that does seem like a flaw in the system. It does seem like a flaw in the system. And it seems like we've kind of exposed a few of those over the past six months or so. We have. But yeah, I mean, there's no detaching yourself from what's happening in your own backyard, right? And I mean, it's very real, I think, for everyone still. The games are happening here, but we're not going to be at them. You might, I guess, but I certainly won't.
00:04:49
Speaker
It's going to feel artificial. I think the other thing, too, is that whatever season there is, even if they do finish the season, it's a weird sort of asterisk-y season, no matter what happens. Especially if the Timbers win. Yeah, for sure. But there's no... Obviously, I want the Sounders to win every game, and I want them to win the MLS Cup again this year.
00:05:18
Speaker
But I think you're kidding yourself if you think that whoever ends up winning that last cup this year is going to feel the same way that they would if they wanted in a non-COVID year. It's a different thing. And so trying to find a place in my life for it again is a strange feeling. Trying to decide how invested I am in it is a strange feeling.
00:05:45
Speaker
Part of me just wishes that we could take a mulligan on this year, but that's obviously not happening for reasons both practical and somewhat befuddling. I'm sure as soon as the game kicks off and we see things are underway and back to whatever passes for normal at this point, I'm sure I'll get myself back into the swing of things.
00:06:12
Speaker
I mean, I'd be lying if I said that I was excited. I guess at this point, it just feels very strange. It feels very, very strange.
00:06:19
Speaker
Well, I, I, I feel bad because I feel like we've talked about this season this way, like for five months, essentially to the degree that we've been recording for the last five months. Um, and I, and I think that that's an honest that we're coming to you from an honest place. And I hope people respect that and I hope people understand it. I hope that we are like tapping into something that.
00:06:46
Speaker
Our listeners share like it's it's a tough time and I don't think we we want to pretend otherwise That said we I do want to talk about some soccer things in this But one of the other aspects before I get off of this I did want to share from a personal standpoint one of the things that's going on That's I was thinking about today is makes this whole thing very surreal is that you know someone on the center heart?
Challenges in Sports Journalism During COVID
00:07:10
Speaker
Thread asked me like well, what have I seen in training and what have I thought about? the way that
00:07:17
Speaker
Jamar Gomez Andrade and Javier Ariaga are working together and all in the in the kind of like observational stuff and it's like I have no idea I haven't been to a training session in five months I don't think I'm gonna be allowed to go to a training session all season when we go to the game assume like I'm I'm honestly still debating I've finally found out that I will be allowed to go to the game, but I'm still debating if I really want to go in part because I
00:07:42
Speaker
We're going to be in a press box. We won't have access to players. We won't have access to coaches. We will be able to see the game better and there's an advantage point advantage that you have, I think, in sitting in the press box.
00:07:56
Speaker
But it's not going to be, you know, and I think there's some like journalistic value in being at that first game because it's going to be so weird. And I, and I feel like I need to, like, there's a significant part of me that feels like I need to be there just to document what it was like to be at CenturyLink Field for the first game back. All that said.
00:08:17
Speaker
It also makes it hard to feel the same way because this is all so different. Like I haven't talked face to face with Brian Schmitzer in five months. And, you know, as you, I guess we didn't talk about it the last time I recorded, but like the last exchange that he and I had at the season, or I guess it wasn't the last one, but, um,
00:08:40
Speaker
You know, we had this kind of weird exchange where I was trying to like make fun of myself and he thought I was taking a shot at him and it turned into this whole thing. And then he kind of came at me on Twitter and like he and I have a pretty good relationship, I think. And I and I had this long talk in part about how
00:09:02
Speaker
This is all a product of us not having that same in-person rapport that we're used to having. And that kind of, to me, colors a lot of what's going on right now. And from a personal standpoint, it just makes it very hard to get totally vested in something when this stuff is all-consuming of my life for eight or nine or 10 months a year. And now it's like in the background while I'm doing all this other stuff. And that's not to
00:09:30
Speaker
wine to you and to our listeners is just to say, I can't blame anyone for feeling a little disinvested from all of this because if I'm feeling disinvested, I can only imagine how people that are already more casual followers of the team might feel. And maybe it's less
Sounders Lineup and Defensive Concerns
00:09:48
Speaker
different for them. I don't know, but my suspicion is that a lot of people share these emotions and it's hard to know what to
00:09:57
Speaker
feel maybe this will all provide a nice you know maybe once we get going this will all feel more normal and we'll get back into the swing of things and we'll start reporting on we'll start like breaking down the failures and the triumphs of the midfield uh which will feel nice i suppose um go ahead no that's all i was gonna say
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah, and so anyway, I do want to transition into some actual soccer talk. This is supposed to be the first time that, in fact, Brian Schmitz are guaranteed that we will see Jiao Paolo and Jaymar Gomez-Andrade both should start
00:10:41
Speaker
this game and that the Sounders will be the closest they've been to full strength all year. My understanding is there may be an injury or two to the starting lineup. We'll probably find out more tomorrow maybe by the time this comes out but my suspicion is that there's going to be at least one starter missing from this game and
00:11:03
Speaker
But still, I am genuinely, I am honestly excited. I can't, I'm really looking forward to seeing Jow Paulo and Nico Ladero on the field together. And that is the one thing that I feel like I've been able to latch onto and say like, this could be a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's fair. I think most of the other things that we're going to be watching for in this game are less fun. Is the defense going to be functional?
00:11:30
Speaker
Uh is is I think a big storyline. Um So that's kind of a nerve-wracking thing. Um, whereas I think shawl paulo and and ladero and how they look together is I mean, it's like we've been waiting to find out since february, you know, so Um, so yeah, that's that's very exciting. Um And you know, I I think knowing that the team is capable of better than we saw in in the covet cup, uh is
00:12:00
Speaker
It's exciting in a way. It's a little nerve-wracking because maybe they're not capable of better. Maybe, you know, this is the team that we have. I don't think that's true though. So I think, you know, we can expect to see a much better version of the team. So I think, I think that's exciting. And I think I really do believe like once the game kicks off and it's the Sounders and the Timbers playing,
00:12:23
Speaker
outside of the Disneyland bubble, which just made everything feel kind of weird in its own special way. I think it's going to be easy to forget all of the craziness once things get underway, I hope.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's too much talent. I wrote a column the other day about how this will finally get a sense of whether or not the roster that Garth built this offseason actually is any good. And it's not too hard to look at it on paper and think like, this should be a pretty good team.
00:13:02
Speaker
You know, I don't think there's any obvious holes in the starting lineup right now. Christian Roldan, we're going to hopefully get to see it right wing. But one of the things I really like is the idea of him, Gio Paolo, and Nico Ledero being able to kind of rotate positions. All three of those players have played all three of those positions. And they have all done so pretty effectively.
00:13:29
Speaker
And so I think there's some kind of dynamic movement that I'm really looking forward to seeing and moving around. Jordan Morris still is capable of, it's easy to forget. He had that one game against Vancouver where he absolutely dominated, but other than that, wasn't necessarily great in Orlando. But that was a good reminder just how good he can be. But then off the bench,
00:13:55
Speaker
Presumably, they'll have Jovan Jones, Miguel Abara, Will Bruin. Those are three pretty good veterans that you can bring off the bench. And then you also have someone like Handwall Bwana, who has shown at least moments of being able to emerge and turning into the player that a lot of us hoped he would be. So those are all on paper. I think this team still has not any obvious glaring flaws.
00:14:24
Speaker
I think it can come together. I guess the glaring flaw potentially is at center back where Javier Arriaga is, has been up and down to say the least. And I think that is probably the nicest way thing anyone said about him lately. Yeah. Uh, that's, that's probably true. Um, and that actually does remind me, you had a tweet a couple of days ago, um, about the Sounders XGA, how, how the defense, and I wanted to reply to it. Um, but I.
00:14:53
Speaker
think I went outside instead. But I think it's a fair point in that, you know, the Sounders defense 98% of the time has been, I think, exceptional. Yeah. It's the 2% of the time when they haven't been exceptional. It's been atrocious. Yeah, it's been very, very bad. And so I think that's, that's extremely frustrating and a little concerning. But I also think that those kinds of mental mistakes and
00:15:23
Speaker
the kinds of breakdowns that they've been having are not something you would expect to continue with the rate that they do. And something that I think is a little easier to address than just not being very good. So, you know, I don't think that he is as bad a player as we've seen this season. I don't think that it's really especially reasonable to take any
00:15:50
Speaker
major lessons away from the COVID Cup, just because it was a weird tournament under really weird circumstances. You had like the Sounders playing at like 6am one day and 9pm the next day, just very, very weird tournament in general.
00:16:07
Speaker
Um, but I think that they are clearly a talented unit defensively. They just have to minimize mistakes. Um, you know, I think that, that having a more settled, stronger starting 11 is going to help with that. Um, I definitely do. So, um, and you know what, if, if it turns out that he is going to make mistakes like that, that frequently, well, it's better to find out this year when everybody agrees that the season's kind of a wash anyway. Um, you know, yeah. So.
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see. But yeah, I do think that they're going to get it figured out. I mean, he still is a very young player in terms of, you know, the center back aging curve. And I do think it is important to remember that it's been a couple mistakes and they're huge. Like, I just don't want it to be another Jaleela Anibaba situation, you know, where it's like,
00:17:01
Speaker
One mistake very early on in his Sounders career and his name was Mud for the rest of the time here. I hope that he gets a chance to sort of show his worth. Yeah, and the thing is, I hope, I sometimes think I'm taking crazy pills. Like people say like, well, what does he do well? And it's like, is it not obvious? He's a great, he's like really good with the ball at his feet for the most part. And he's a great, like he's a great passer by center backstand.
00:17:30
Speaker
He's not been nearly as good in the air as I expected him to be, but he does a lot of things well. I actually like his physicality. I don't think it's out of control, although it does seem like he's prone to out of control moments.
00:17:51
Speaker
He's just the other side of OK sometimes. Right. But he's also had some really bad errors.
00:18:02
Speaker
If you're making errors like that, consistently that's a problem. And he was probably responsible for at least three or four goals in the tournament. And that's too many for a center back to be directly responsible for. So hopefully we'll start to see a better version of him.
00:18:23
Speaker
I'm not freaking out about the Sounders depth at center back yet. I feel like Shane O'Neill is a decent backup. How much he plays will probably end up determining how successful the Sounders are though. If he has to play a lot, the Sounders could be in trouble just because it exposes their depth pretty badly.
00:18:46
Speaker
But, you know, there's, like I said, I think on paper, there's a lot to like about this team. I, again, I think Ariaga and Andrade could be a really good pairing. I'm, I'm still pretty bullish on Andrade. And I think it's, it's worth keeping in mind that the Sounders, two biggest signings this off season have played a grand total of something like, well, in this tournament, in that tournament, they played a grand total of 150 minutes, I think.
00:19:16
Speaker
And, and Joe Paul obviously didn't suit up in any of them. You know, we haven't seen Lidero and Joe Paul on the field together at all. So there's, there's a lot of reasons to think that centers are going to get better than they've been so far, which is good to know.
00:19:32
Speaker
I don't know, I did not watch a lot of the tournament outside of the Sounders. Did you have anything? No, I only watched the Sounders. Apparently the Timbers won, I'm told. I've heard that as well. Good for them. Good for them. That's nice. I feel like we were pretty consistent in
00:19:51
Speaker
how we felt about the tournament from the start. So we can say that, who cares? You know, like we can see that pretty without it being just sour grapes. Yeah.
Hosts' Perspective on Tournament Engagement
00:20:02
Speaker
I mean, I just like, I didn't even, I watched most of the Sounders games. I did not watch the 6 a.m. game and I saw the score and said, you know what? I don't need to watch that. I think ever since then I can, I haven't been able to sleep in past exam. Right. Oh yeah.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, I don't know, man. Maybe the timbers are good. If they are, good for them. Yeah, good for them, right? That's great. I seem to recall them being fairly unimpressive earlier in the season, but apparently Merritt had a huge boner for this thing. So it wouldn't shock me if that sort of filtered down through the org.
00:20:44
Speaker
I'll say this I talked to Richard our friend Richard Farley who? rip He you know he I guess we could have maybe had him on today You probably would have agreed to that but anyway that would have been a downer to him to talk it He he was like, you know, he works for the timbers now obviously or maybe you don't know that but Richard works for the timbers now and I talked to him a couple times in the bubble and You know, he
00:21:14
Speaker
I think his attitude, and I think this was very much the attitude of the Timbers, and I don't know the degree to which this was the attitude of other teams and maybe it was really common, but he, I think was a lot of, like a lot of people who wasn't necessarily excited about going there, but once he was going, it was like all in. And, and I think that the Timbers seem to have very organizationally had that attitude of,
00:21:41
Speaker
Whether or not they were wanting to be there in the first place, the minute they showed up, it was, we're taking this seriously. This is, you know, if we're going to be here for.
00:21:53
Speaker
three weeks we may as well be here for six weeks and we may as well win this thing and you know they like to his you know i like i talked to him before they played a single game and and his that was his attitude so like he wasn't hiding he wasn't like that's what their attitude became as they advanced um and i i would imagine a lot of teams at least said that was their attitude i'm i i don't know how true that is but
00:22:21
Speaker
the Timbers clearly had, you know, had their head on right for this tournament. So good for them. It will be interesting. The centers have actually had like a month off though. And they've actually, this is like a real, they finally had like a real preseason. I'm wondering if that will be set them up better or if they're like, how that, like the Timbers just played this game like, what, a week ago?
00:22:50
Speaker
Man, I don't even know how long ago any time was anymore. That sounds right, I guess. I think it was like last Tuesday or something. I think so, yeah. So they'll have had about two weeks of prep. The sounders will have had closer to five weeks of prep.
Game Schedule Uncertainty and Player Safety
00:23:10
Speaker
And they've been able to get healthy, which I think is hugely important. Right.
00:23:17
Speaker
The Timbers have played the competitive games more recently. They played better recently. The Sounders should be relatively healthy in this one. I don't know what the health of the Timbers looks like, but I don't know. I mean, I'll watch the game, but as a sign of the times, I don't know what time the game's on. 7.30? Is it 7.30 on Sunday? You're asking the wrong guy. Yeah. Probably.
00:23:39
Speaker
but yeah it's gonna take a while it's gonna take a while it is and then and these games come fast and furious man yeah they're playing on sunday wednesday i think sunday again i think wednesday they have six games in 19 days well they've scheduled six games in 19 days we'll see how that actually turns out but yeah i mean i'll say it'll say this just on that subject i
00:24:07
Speaker
I think what the bubble showed us is that in some ways the players are more safe in this environment than they would be if they were just left to their own devices because they would probably be out living their lives and maybe not making the best choices. If they were just like told, there's no season and you gotta go do what you gotta do to keep yourself sane. I think in some ways this environment, cause they're getting tested every other day
00:24:36
Speaker
they're basically being told in no uncertain terms that your safety is as important like in order to keep your teammate safe you have to stay safe and I think that kind of breeds a certain responsibility in terms of staying out of
00:24:55
Speaker
potentially dangerous situations or situations where you're more likely to be exposed. And so I do think that if players are following protocol that this can work. I don't think there's anything that's inherently dangerous about just the act of playing soccer. They're most likely gonna get sick out in the community if they're gonna get sick.
00:25:21
Speaker
I think that that's probably true, but I think you also have to ask yourself if MLS is unique in American sports. Um, if you think that the athletes are all going to be, um, more responsible than they have been in other sports. Um, you know, the Seahawks cut a guy for, for sneaking a woman into the team hotel. They've had tons of outbreaks in the MLB. Um,
00:25:49
Speaker
You know, I think it kind of seems like once the initial outbreaks happen and it kind of, you know, everybody kind of comes to Jesus a little bit, I just, I don't think that players in MLS are, are so unique in their like level of maturity and responsibility that we're not going to have at least a couple.
00:26:11
Speaker
Well, I agree, but I also think that in a weird way, Nashville and Dallas maybe were like the sacrificial lambs. That's a fair point. I think that probably, like to me, if I'm a player, whatever my attitude was before that, I think now, and I think that the fact that they were able to play the tournament without anyone else getting infected after those two teams were basically kicked out,
00:26:41
Speaker
that kind of underscores that some choices, like whether or not they were actually dangerous choices or not, some choices were made by some players on those teams that ended up resulting in them getting sick. Whether or not they were bad choices or not is not what I'm here to say. I'm just saying that some players on that team got sick and passed it on to other players.
00:27:04
Speaker
players on other teams managed to not do that for however they managed to do it, right? And I think that it showed that you can successfully do it. It's not impossible, but it's also like, it was this kind of come to Jesus moment where it's like, man, if you let your guard down, this is what can happen.
00:27:22
Speaker
So I don't know, maybe MLS already had that and maybe those two incidents end up being the thing that sparks like consistency for everyone else. I don't know.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's a fair point. I hope you're right. I think to be fair, what we thought we knew about the virus and how it spread in, I think, I guess, April when we first started talking about this tournament and leagues started designing their protocol is much different than what we know now. And I think that we have a better sense of what the actual risky behaviors are. I think we have a better sense of
00:28:02
Speaker
how, you know, what, what a good testing program has to look like, um, and things like that. So I think that that definitely helps. Um, but I still think, you know, we're going to be lucky if, if there's not at least one or two more outbreaks over the rest of the season. Um, and hopefully, you know, the sounders aren't involved in one of them. Yeah. No, I mean, I think luck is definitely a part of it. Like for sure.
00:28:27
Speaker
Because we just don't know enough. It seems like the way people get infected is being around an infected person for an extended period of time. And as long as you aren't doing that, it seems like you can stay relatively safe. But we don't know. It's like we're learning stuff about this in real time.
00:28:55
Speaker
Maybe it'll turn out that it is actually 5G, you know. Maybe. Maybe. We don't know. We don't know. But all right. Well, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. And we're going to come back and answer all your questions. You're listening to Nos Arietes.
00:29:17
Speaker
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00:29:37
Speaker
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00:29:59
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes. So before we get to your questions, I'm going to try doing something that I don't know if we've ever
Sounders' Community and Inclusivity Initiatives
00:30:08
Speaker
done. I'm going to try to play the audio of the video the sounders sent out to season ticket holders who are renewing. And I imagine that this will be eventually widely available, but I think as of now, it's only going out to season ticket holders.
00:30:25
Speaker
And so bear with me for the technical part of this. I'm going to try to essentially share my screen, which I think will then allow the audio to come through on the recording. But it's a really good video, and I just wanted to talk about it a little bit because it is, I will tell you, it's the closest thing I've gotten to pumped up about the sounders for a long time. So here we go. For the song that starts in Occidental, then fills up Century Link Field.
00:30:55
Speaker
It's more than just a battle cry. It's the heartbeat. A shared pulse of this city. From Yesler to New Holly. Soto over to the east side and beyond. We are a family. Together, or even a partner. Since 1974, we've been pushing progress, fearlessly finding ways to win.
00:31:25
Speaker
We are all sounders. Eternal blue, forever green. And here it's bigger than soccer. It's more than cups and banners. This is a movement where all are welcome. And together we are a force for good.
00:31:48
Speaker
So to all our fans and the frontline heroes who've put it all on the line, supporting, serving, and demanding that Black Lives Matter, I am forever grateful for the family, for the faithful, for the love.
00:32:16
Speaker
All right, I think that worked. Did it work? Did it sound like it worked to you? I didn't hear it, but fortunately, we have a producer, so hopefully we can... Yeah, maybe he'll just throw that in there. But if it doesn't end up in there, you can go watch the video. Yeah. But anyway, the things I liked about the video...
00:32:37
Speaker
It was well done in every aspect, I think. But I appreciated that they kind of put it out there a little bit. They didn't just show the kids marching with the Black Lives Matter banner.
00:32:50
Speaker
but they actually say the words Black Lives Matter. I thought that was interesting. It was an inclusive video. They clearly tried to get a diverse group of fans showcased there. I liked the feelings of this. It evoked. It was about soccer. It was about community. And I think it was just very well done. And even cynical old me, I thought it was a good piece of media.
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the least you can hope for is for people to come out and say the words. Don't allude to it. Don't put it in the background. Just say it.
00:33:36
Speaker
without being, I mean, ultimately, like, this is advertising, right? Right. And that's, I mean, that's a cynical approach to it, which, you know, no one should expect anything less from me. But, but it's true. I mean, that's what it is, right? But I don't
00:33:53
Speaker
To say that, to be critical, it's just the reality of it. So spreading that needle is very difficult. You have to get the tone right. You have to tie it into what you're selling, which ultimately is soccer. You have to make that connection. And I think they did a very good job of doing that. And to be clear, I think Brian Schmetzer believes everything he said.
00:34:17
Speaker
a very intelligent, very thoughtful man. And I don't think he'd be saying anything he didn't believe. And I think the organization tries as best as they can to live those values. It's difficult for any business entity to have values in the sense that I think we traditionally think about them, but I think that they do try as much as any organization can to live those values. And so I think it struck a very good tone. I think that it's
00:34:45
Speaker
I think it's easy to be cynical about this stuff, but I do think that there are people that it matters.
00:34:54
Speaker
to have this club that they care so much about reinforce that message without dancing around it, without doing something like FC Dallas did and talk about how they value free speech. That was amazing. One of their players got racially abused. That was shocking. Yeah. I mean, so I think it's a tricky
00:35:18
Speaker
needle to thread. And I think they did a very good job of doing that. And I think having Coach Schmetzer be the one out front and saying those things is meaningful, you know, because I think that he is like a connection, like he's
00:35:31
Speaker
He is part of the business entity of the club, but he is also the spirit of the club. He is a living embodiment of the club and that connection to the community that I think exists outside of the Sounders as a corporate structure. He has an authority that I don't think somebody from the marketing department would have or a voice actor would have. So I think that they just did a very good job of it.
00:35:59
Speaker
So there's two other things about that, not about that, but about the information that the sender sent out with their season ticket renewal form, which I was happily reminded that.
00:36:14
Speaker
We don't owe very much money on our season tickets next year. But one of the things was select the way of your keeping up with the club and they list outside media and they give examples of outside media. The first example, Sounder at Heart.
00:36:33
Speaker
Gotta love that. Gotta love that. But then they also had a section that said, which sounders social justice pillars are you passionate about? And they must fight racism, protect our planet, defend the right to play, and stand for LGBTQ and equality.
00:36:52
Speaker
I I just appreciate that. It's not that any of those specific things were I mean, I think all those are great things but I just thought it was interesting that There's a whole question. It's you know, there's only like you know, it's like it's like things like choose your favorite player and what's your twitter handle and how many kids under the age of 18 are in your household and then it's like which social justice like I I kind of appreciate like they I think it's
00:37:18
Speaker
I like that they're putting this stuff front and center and that they're not dancing around it and they're kind of stating their values and you know like on some level sure it's gonna all depend on you know there's gonna be a time when they have to
00:37:34
Speaker
like put up or shut up. But I don't know. I appreciate the gestures at this point. And it makes me feel good about giving my money to this organization. And in addition to supporting them in other ways. But anyway, I thought it was interesting. But we have a bunch of questions that we should get to, I suppose, eventually.
00:38:01
Speaker
And I'll go ahead and start out. This one is from our good friend Dave Clark at Better Than. Should CenturyLink have fan audio piped in? So we talked about this a bit before the recording, not to peek too much back behind the curtain or anything. And you've mentioned something that I guess I haven't spent a lot of time
00:38:25
Speaker
thinking about and that's that the coaches and players seem to prefer it because it just gives it more of a sense of normality and makes it a little less surreal for them. Yeah. And I wouldn't say that that has made me do a 180 on this issue because I still do not like it. I think it's weird and sounds artificial and
00:38:48
Speaker
And I have a very galaxy brain take about this that I don't even know if I fully believe it, but that it's almost like, journalistically dishonest to broadcast the game with artificial crowd noise because it's ultimately like a document of what happened on the field and you're adding this artificial element to it. But I like obviously I don't actually care that much about that.
00:39:18
Speaker
But I think that if the players prefer it, if the coaches prefer it, their opinion matters a lot more than mine on this. Ultimately, it's pretty easy for me to hit mute. And I've been pretty outspoken about not liking this in the past. But hearing that from that perspective, now, I will say, if we're just talking about audio overlaid on the broadcasts, I remain fervently against that. But if it's even pumped into the stadium,
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, slightly different, I guess. Yeah, so I'm one of the few people, I suppose, who actually knows what it's like to be playing in a stadium with piped-in noise, because when they do the media game, they actually do this. My understanding is that the piped-in noise will be a little bit smarter than what we got was basically just a loop of crowd noise, so that it felt like there was a crowd there.
00:40:15
Speaker
This is gonna be something more akin to like FIFA like what we've seen on the broadcast where there are cadence it like the cadence changes with the game and there's oohs and awws when something happens and booing when something bad happens and cheering when a goal is scored and and all kinds of things like that and and what will be interesting is how they balance that with
00:40:43
Speaker
what I know is a tricky subject for ECS, because on one hand, I think ECS, I think has a valid point in that I don't think, like I'm not going off of like, I haven't had like an extensive interview with anyone about this, but my sense is that there is this unease with the idea of effectively being able to replace
00:41:11
Speaker
supporters with fake noise and that's always been a on you know like that was a a something that was a charge levied against sounders fans early on in back in the 2009 10 days that it was like they were piping in noise to make it seem louder and all this kind of stuff and so it's a touchy subject i and i and i think that there's something to be said about uh fans not wanting like they don't want this to be a trojan horse where
00:41:39
Speaker
okay you have a good excuse to do it now but if we wanted to protest for instance and withhold our cheering to make a point would you then just pipe in noise and they don't want that to be kind of accepted as a valid replacement and so i think that that's fair
00:41:58
Speaker
But it'll be interesting to see how they balance this and how whether or not ECS fills up their section with banners and whether there's banners around the stadium. And I'm just very interested to see how this all plays out. But one of the other things I learned is that it sounds like if the game's on national broadcast, the national broadcaster actually gets to control the audio, whether it's no audio, whether it's live in the stadium, or it's just on a track in the studio.
00:42:28
Speaker
So some interesting nuance there, but I think that I'm with, I'm willing to like defer to the players is my short answer is if the players and the coaches want this, the game's already going to feel very abnormal. And if this is what makes it feel more normal, I don't have any problem with that. Yeah.
00:42:51
Speaker
All right, so our next one is from Vincall06. With everything that's going on in the world right now, has there ever been a less anticipated Seattle Portland map?
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah, so the only one that I can even think of that's close, and none of them other than this are even in the ballpark, but was that 2017, I want to say open cup match, which was the first time the Sounders and Timbers had played in the open cup since the red card wedding. And that must have been 2016. Maybe it was 2016. No, I think it was 2017.
00:43:28
Speaker
Yeah, because 2016, they lost to the galaxy, right? And, or RSL in the open. Yes. I don't think they, no, no, they beat RSL. They lost to the galaxy. Okay. I don't think they even played the temper. No, they didn't. It was 2017. You're totally right. And, um, they, and basically Caleb Porter and Brian Schmetzer both basically, uh, refuse, neither one of them use starters and they basically put out their USL teams and.
00:43:55
Speaker
I think Pablo Rossi may have even actually scored in that game. That was...
00:44:01
Speaker
should tell you a lot about, uh, the, the, the intensity with which that mattress played and the anticipation that, uh, led into it. And so maybe that one would be below this maybe. Um, but this is considering, I mean, this is the least buildup that I know I have felt for a sounders timbers match. Um, it it's, like I said, it's officially not a Cascadia cup match. So you're not getting the same, I think,
00:44:31
Speaker
supporter driven kind of narratives that you would normally be getting right now. But yeah, I mean, no one will be at the game, which I think is a factor as well. No one will be at the game. So yeah, I mean, it's it's it's it does not feel like a normal, uh, sounder's timbers match. That's for sure. Uh, this one is from, oh man, this is a tough one. A un bahan.
00:44:58
Speaker
I think that looks right. That sounds right to me. What are your expectations for a fully healthy lineup on Sunday? I mean, we kind of talked about this earlier, I guess, but I think explicitly I really want to see
00:45:18
Speaker
I think some rest is reasonable to expect. I don't think that we're going to see this team at its best. But I would like to see a largely mistake-free game. Even when the Sounders have looked good this season, they've had some pretty embarrassing mental breakdowns.
00:45:37
Speaker
I'd like to see a team that's not being overwhelmed for stretches of the game. That would be nice. That would be very nice. Last year, there were definitely a few games where the Sounders' backs were against the wall and they were getting outplayed.
00:45:55
Speaker
But it was very rare that they just felt like they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth, at least later in the season. Once everything started to gel. And I feel like in every game this year there has been, maybe not the Vancouver game, but otherwise there have been long stretches where they just did not seem like they were in the game at all. So I'd definitely like to not see that.
00:46:18
Speaker
Um, and ultimately I think it's reasonable to expect that. I mean, they've got as strong of a team as they're going to have, I think for the rest of the year. Um, they've had, you know, plenty of time to train together. Um, dropout has been in full training for like a week now. Right. So does that, I think he's been, I think as far as I know, I think he may have actually been in full training this whole month, even better. So, so yeah, I mean, I think that's, uh,
00:46:45
Speaker
There are few excuses, I think, for a genuinely bad performance other than the fact that the world is ending, which is a valid excuse, I think. I would say this is what I'd say about that, is that whatever excuses the Senators have now, it's like, or whatever challenges they have now, they're the same challenges that everyone is facing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess the only difference would be that the Timbers do have more recent game time.
00:47:15
Speaker
So maybe that's a factor, but I would argue, I think that that's going to be offset by the fact that the numbers have not, you know, they've been at home, they've been resting, they've been able to get healthy, they've been able to train together extensively. So I would kind of think that those two things offset. Next one is from Twimberly23. T. Wimberly is probably actually what it is. We would likely be seeing Draw Paulo next to Svensson for the first time. How do we play differently with his skill set in a deeper role?
00:47:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's going to be an interesting one to see. My suspicion is that. They'll finally be able to really control the midfield in a way that they haven't really done that. That was like the one of the things that we I think we kind of lost with Alonzo is someone who was who could dribble out of pressure, who could still hit that killer pass when needed, and he's going to be a little bit more aggressive too. I mean, I just really like gel Paulo.
00:48:14
Speaker
everything I've seen from him, I really liked. And we haven't really seen him in that number eight role, but I just think we're going to see a more fluid and more kind of dynamic midfield than we've seen before. Yeah, I think I think that's fair. I mean, I think that as well, Paulo is
00:48:34
Speaker
I'm certainly not an expert on his game, but I feel like he's going to be in what is sort of more naturally his position. But I also think having a player with his skill set in that role is much different than what we've seen from the sounders in the past. And so I think, like you said, it's going to be a little bit more fluid, the transitions are, I mean, I love Christian Golden. Hello, the player.
00:48:58
Speaker
but he's not the same kind of players Waffleo is. And so I think, you know, we're going to see a little bit more fluidity and maybe a little bit more, um, you know, sort of playmaking and string pulling, um, from deeper positions and more accustomed to maybe Nico Ladera will not have to run himself to death for 90, 96 minutes every week. That would be kind of nice. Yeah, that would be, that would be pretty clutch. Um,
00:49:24
Speaker
This one is from BT Weber. Would any of you entertain New Who at center back? I feel like we talked about this a few years ago when the non-defensive parts of this game as a left back were severely more lacking than they are now.
00:49:48
Speaker
I think Nuhu would be a pretty good center back. I think he'd be a pretty decent center back. There are things about his game that make me slightly nervous.
00:49:59
Speaker
that are maybe a little less concerning out wide, but I think he could adapt and play the role. He's a tremendous man-to-man defender. He has great defensive instincts. He reads play really well. I think in the right kind of defensive setup with the right kind of partner, or in like a three-man back line, you know, where he's playing as sort of like a left-center back, I think he'd be very effective. But, you know, I think it's like the,
00:50:30
Speaker
Uh, what, what is it? The, the defensive pyramid in baseball? Is that what they call it? What is it like that positional scarcity or whatever? Yeah. Um, like I think that new who would have good.
00:50:44
Speaker
defensive skills and instincts for a center back and he has elite defensive skills and instincts for a left back. And I think that the reason to move him is because you just are not getting offensive output from him that you need from that position. I think it's arguable whether or not the Sounders are getting that now, but I think it's unquestionable that he is
00:51:06
Speaker
significantly improved in that regard over, over the past couple of seasons. Um, I think especially, you know, in, in Orlando, I thought he looked pretty, pretty good going forward. Yeah. Maybe their most consistent player. Yeah. Um, I think that there is a segment of people that hate new who will never like new who refuse to accept that he's improved at all. Um, we'll tell you up and down that he is.
00:51:33
Speaker
uh, actively bad in the defensive phase of the game, um, think that he's never made a good pass. And I think that that extreme of the conversation, um, gets treated as though it's legitimate and I don't think that it is. Um, and so I think people are constantly sort of entertaining the idea of like, well, could we get more new at this position or that position? And I think ultimately, um,
00:51:59
Speaker
you know, if you're not happy with what he's giving you offensively as a left back, then maybe this isn't the team for him. But I think that he's a good enough player as he is. That's only going to continue to get better. He's not...
00:52:15
Speaker
you know, he has not reached his prime yet, left back to position where players can develop kind of late. So I think you just be happy that you have a player that cheap with that much potential that you can plug in. What is historically one of the toughest positions on the field to fill?
00:52:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'm I I don't know that I've ever quite seen the appeal of moving new who to center back in that I just don't I I don't see a player like he doesn't strike me as a center back. Yeah, like he's not a particularly good header of the ball. His play is a little
00:52:54
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I guess in some ways he might be very Jimmy Troy already asked and maybe he could be successful. I Jimmy Troy already did not also strike me as like an elite center back. You know, like I like Jimmy Troy, but
00:53:09
Speaker
I don't know that he was an MLS Cup winning center back. But of course, he was also in his twilight of his career when he came here. So I don't know, maybe it would have been different if he was younger. I would not pair Nuhu with Ariaga. I'll just put it that way. Yeah, that's right. That would be a little scary. Maybe he could work with Andrade maybe.
00:53:28
Speaker
But yeah, I'm not a new who to center back truther, that's true. I think if you're going to move him, moving him to central midfield makes more sense than center back. Oh, that's an interesting idea. He would be a very specific type of defensive midfielder, but I think he could do really well as that type of defensive midfielder, just sort of a pure destroyer.
00:53:57
Speaker
All right, this is from Carl Nelson. With the current core, especially Ledera, Rui, Diaz, Fry, Morris, and Roldan, how much longer is the window open for the team to be in the top tier of the league? 2021? Longer? I'm just realizing it was my turn to read the questions. Yeah, that's okay. My apologies. You know, I think 2021 easily, I don't see any reason to think that they're
00:54:23
Speaker
that that, you know, the question really, I think is about Ledera and Ruidiaz, because I think Lawrence and Moldan are going to be elite MLS players for five or six years, probably, is like a minimum expectation. Ledera and Ruidiaz could be a shorter timeframe, but I think you can go into 2022 with those fours, sort of your
00:54:48
Speaker
Central core and not central because Morris is a wide player and rolled on I guess is two at this point But you know that sort of being your you're attacking front for and feel pretty good about it most likely But I mean, you know, it just depends on how players hold up. I mean Niko has a lot of miles on his legs Sometimes that's not a big deal. Sometimes it causes guys to have shorter careers, you know, so I think that's that's a huge factor Rui Diaz kind of the same deal strikers have
00:55:17
Speaker
just sudden dips sometimes, sometimes, but 2021 I think is, I feel pretty confident that next season they're going to be still an elite team. Yeah, I think 20, my suspicion is that this team will look pretty similar to the one that they currently have in 2021. And then at the end of 2021, we could see a pretty dramatic shift in like, I wouldn't be surprised if Ladera was gone after 21. I wouldn't be surprised if Ruby Diaz was gone.
00:55:45
Speaker
you know, Morris heck Morris could be gone rolled on. I mean, I don't know. Like there's a lot of players could be gone. Um, that doesn't mean the sounders won't have replaced them with sufficiently talented players. But I, I think, I think especially after this year, there's going to be an inclination to, uh, well, I mean, I guess it depends on how this year plays out, but I think a lot of the core players are going to be back for next season. Um,
00:56:11
Speaker
And maybe we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, but I think the window for this group is probably 21 is where that window probably started to close. So the next one is from Ali underscore P eight. Do they get to charter flights for travel the rest of the year? They do. Um, and they, they, they might.
00:56:36
Speaker
bus to Portland, but I don't think they are. I think they're going to fly to Portland even like I don't think the sounders are going to bus anywhere. I think the only place that the only bus situations are ones that like LA Galaxy to LA FC in New York City to Red Bull and and those kinds of things. I don't think I'm 90
00:57:01
Speaker
nine, or maybe even 100% sure that the Sounders are not going to bust to Portland, especially since they are. I think the idea is that they'll just come in the morning and leave at night.
00:57:12
Speaker
that very quick turnarounds and they're going to do their best not to stay the night in in road cities. I guess there might be situations where it makes sense to like if you've got a two game road trip and the game the second game is like four days away you
00:57:32
Speaker
might not fly home, I suppose. But I think almost everyone is, they're all going to be charters and they're all going to be like in and out as fast as possible, which might be, I don't know, I guess there's potential for that to be a big disadvantage for road teams, but at least for these first six games, all the games are within a two hour flight. So it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Yeah. I mean, I would imagine a flight to Portland is less taxing than a bus ride to Portland.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Because it's what, like an hour maybe? Right. Especially when you can do a charter where you don't have to go to the airport and do all the silliness that comes with getting on an airport. So this is from Bill Jones Trumpet. I don't expect any fancy transfer rumors this summer, but should I? If you lived in Europe or South America,
00:58:28
Speaker
Actually, maybe depending on what part of South America, but if you lived in Europe and someone asked you if you wanted to come to the US now, would you want to do that? Do you think that would be a good idea? I don't think that I would.
00:58:48
Speaker
uh that no that that we will not see any incoming players this year maybe i'm wrong i don't know i mean i think there's probably some south american countries that like for i mean and for a lot of players it's still like if the the money is the money right um it's true you know we saw the guy that came to inner miami from uh from uventus um the french guy that's true
00:59:11
Speaker
um so it's not it's that i don't i mean i think you're right i think that's a point against mls for sure but um i think the bigger issue for the sounders is that they don't have a lot of flexibility in their cap right now yeah and um
00:59:29
Speaker
I think in order to bring someone in, they may have to move someone out. So, I'm not holding out a lot of hope for a big move this summer, but who knows, stranger things have certainly happened. Let's not forget, they signed Clint Dempsey when they had three DPs. That's true. They did. They did. They should sign him again. I don't think he's doing anything.
00:59:51
Speaker
This one's from NRES24. How close do you see the Kraken and Sounders FCU getting? Do they plan double headers like the Mariners or sick to supporting each other from Twitter like most sports teams? Well, Adrian, as you may or may not know, Adrian Hanauer is actually on the Kraken's ownership group. He's, I don't know how big of a stake he has, but he definitely has a stake in the team.
01:00:17
Speaker
So I think that just from that alone, I would think that they'll have a close relationship with the Kraken than they did with the Mariners. And I can see how maybe it'll be interesting because theoretically, they're going to be competing in some pretty direct ways.
01:00:47
Speaker
So I don't know. But I think it wouldn't be at all surprised to see them sharing some
01:00:53
Speaker
like analytical resources and things like that. I mean, I think that the main reason that the sounders and mariners do double headers is because they can't play at the same time. And it's a clear win marketing wise for both teams to say, Hey, watch that game and then come over here. Cause it's across the street. I mean, when you're talking, yeah, from Queen Anne to lower Queen Anne to, uh, you know, that's, it's slightly different. Um, but.
01:01:23
Speaker
Um, yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I wouldn't be surprised to see like booths, like at like, you know, like there being a presence. Yeah. Uh, let's see. This is from Unforgiven Tater. How important are preseason trophies more or less than the Heritage Cup? Uh, well,
01:01:50
Speaker
The only Heritage Cup match in the preseason tournament got the biggest rating. So I think you can say. Wow, look at that. Pretty safely that the Heritage Cup is a much bigger deal than the Coke Cup.
01:02:06
Speaker
which I'm counting as a preseason trophy, even though it was after the season started. Who ended up winning the Heritage Cup? Did San Jose advance for it? Who finished higher in the... Did San Jose win the group? We did, didn't they? I think so. Yeah. So I guess they won it. Yeah. Shucks. Darn it. Darn it. I'm upset. I'm very upset about it. Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
Well, I think that's all the questions. That's the last question. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was a little more soccer-y than our last few shows. So we're getting there. We're getting there. Stick with us. Eventually, we'll be talking just soccer. Maybe the next show will be just soccer.
01:02:52
Speaker
Maybe. We'll see. We'll see. Well, Aaron, it was a pleasure, as always. Indeed. Hopefully people are tolerating all of this. And I hope everyone out there is staying safe. A big thank you to our ongoing sponsor, Full Pull Wines. Can't say enough nice things about them.
01:03:15
Speaker
Other than that, I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Aaron Campo and Lick It. This is No Study Yetis. Remember, you will never yacht alone.
01:03:41
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!