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Nos Audietis, Episode 262: What if the USA missed the World Cup?
60 Plays8 years ago
The Sounders head into the final stretch of the season in fine position. Although they are coming off a 2-0 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Union, they beat the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 at home earlier in the week. That leaves the Sounders comfortably in fourth place and with a semi-reasonable hope of still grabbing a bye. But as long as they can win at least one of their final two homes, hosting a first-round playoff game seems like a solid bet.
If there’s a dark cloud hanging over the team right now, it’s injuries. As great as they looked in the win over the Whitecaps, their starting lineup against the Union was missing four key components and a fifth was playing with a broken arm. Clint Dempsey was merely given a rest and it looks like Roman Torres will be fine, but Osvaldo Alonso looks like he’ll be out for a bit and Cristian Roldan has a broken arm that probably won’t be fully healed until the seaosn is over.
Jeremiah and Aaron discuss all of this, while also considering how big of a deal it would be for the United States to fail to qualify for the World Cup.
This week's music: RIP Tom Petty, "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
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 Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adieres is sponsored by Full Pool Wines. Full Pool Wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nos Adieres since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:00:23
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. And three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
Hosts and Episode Overview
00:00:42
Speaker
Hi, this is Brad Evans. You're listening to No Sari Adis.
00:00:57
Speaker
The rain falls past him. She couldn't help thinking that there was a really wanted life. Someone else left her home and was a great big girl. But that's a place that's strange, isn't it? Yeah, she left her dad.
00:01:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, right. Take it easy, baby. We'll make her last no less. She was an American girl.
00:01:46
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 262, and we're recording on Wednesday, October 4th, 2017. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett.
Seattle Sounders Playoff Position
00:02:03
Speaker
The Sounders head into the final stretch of the season in fine position. Although they are coming off a 2-0 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Union, they beat first place Vancouver 3-0 at home earlier in the week. That leaves the Sounders comfortably in fourth place, and with a semi-reasonable hope of still grabbing a bye. But as long as they can win at least one of their final two home games, hosting a first round playoff game, seems like a solid bet.
Sounders Injuries and Strategy Impact
00:02:25
Speaker
If there's a dark cloud hanging over the team right now though, it's injuries. As great as they looked in the win over the Whitecaps, their starting lineup against the Union was missing four key components and a fifth was playing with a broken arm. Clint Dempsey was merely given a rest and it looks like Roman Torres will be fine, but Azvado Alonso looks like he'll be out for a bit and Christian Roldan has a broken arm that probably won't be fully healed until the season is over. Given all this, how would you describe your feelings heading into this final stretch of games, Aaron?
00:02:53
Speaker
Cautiously optimistic I guess which I feel like we say at this time of year quite a bit. Yeah But I mean the the the Christian rolled on thing is is concerning Because it we just don't know how he's gonna respond I mean it was strange that he looked fine in the Vancouver game right, you know after he broke his arm and and I wasn't even thinking about it and then I
00:03:20
Speaker
You know, I guess it turns out having a bunch of plaster on your arm and not being able to move it at all kind of limits your mobility. But other than that, I mean, the Philly game, I don't want to say it didn't bother me because it was certainly annoying, but with that lineup.
00:03:36
Speaker
the road 10 a.m.
Game Analysis: Sounders vs Philadelphia
00:03:38
Speaker
start after a midweek game against the Philly team who is you know generally bad but has actually you know won the same number of games as the Sounders at home this year and and generally been pretty good at home I just think you know expecting to get anything out of that game was
00:03:55
Speaker
Probably a little bit unrealistic And you know the way that they lost was certainly annoying because they were in it, you know And I thought good for a point until a shot that had no business being taken let alone going in But you know, I mean that kind of shit happens so
00:04:13
Speaker
I mean, they're going to get players back. Clint Dempsey is going to be able to play. These last two games, Roman Torres is going to be able to play. They're going to get Victor Rodriguez back. So, you know, I'm not super concerned. But if Christian Roldan is, you know, the Christian Roldan we saw in this game for the rest of the season, then yeah, I think that that's a pretty big concern. But I don't know if that's the most likely outcome.
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, I would say with Rule Dawn, the thing that, you know, I'm with you, and I think that it's a really easy, a lot of people are second-guessing the decision to start him, and I think it's fair to second-guess him, but only if you admit that it's hindsight that's really driving your decision, because I think, you know, the Sounders surely knew that that big plaster cast was gonna affect him differently than the injury affected him in the first game. It wasn't just the Broken Arm, it's this, you know, Mega Man,
00:05:06
Speaker
arm thing that he's carrying around. But it's, I don't think the Sounders had any way of really predicting the degree to which it was going to hamper him. Now in the first half he looked like a totally useless player frankly. He only had, you know, I think he had 15 touches. He wasn't active at all defensively. He had only one defensive action that he was credited for and that was a loss tackle.
00:05:31
Speaker
He was like 5 for 11 passing in the first half, but in the second half he was decent. He wasn't great, he wasn't the Christian Roldan that we're used to seeing, but he had a bunch of defensive actions, he was better passing, he was actually getting involved in the game, and so to me it suggested that he actually did get used to the cast.
Osvaldo Alonso's Injury Concerns
00:05:51
Speaker
How much better is he? Is he good enough to start? I think that's still a fairly open debate to be had. And I think it's certainly worth wondering how much he can possibly heal in two weeks while the sounders are resting for the international break.
00:06:07
Speaker
But I think that to say that it was obvious that he shouldn't have been starting from the second minute, and I've certainly heard a few people suggest that, I think is just too easy of hindsight. And I think the Sounders knew there was going to be an adjustment period. I don't think that they necessarily expected to take 45 minutes. I think that they probably expected him to have a little bit better, be able to get into the flow of the game faster.
00:06:31
Speaker
And I think in hindsight yeah, you can say he probably shouldn't have been starting But I still think you know there was some use in that maybe He got that out of the way. Maybe he's you know now that he kind of knows what it's all about You'll have some time to train with it. He'll kind of be a little bit more used to it Maybe we're making too much of this I guess the injury that I wasn't worried about but now I am a little bit more worried about is Osvaldo Alonso who
00:06:58
Speaker
you know, apparently hurt his, I think it was his quadricep is what they called it after the game.
00:07:04
Speaker
was a non-contact kind of injury. And I know Brian Schmetzer suggested that he might be able to come back by the October 15th game against FC Dallas, but that seems very, very optimistic. I would be, you know, I'd probably be happy if he could come back for a bench roll against the Rapids. And if he can start by the time the playoffs start, I think that has to be considered a pretty massive success. But I'm personally girding myself for
00:07:34
Speaker
potentially not having Alonzo back until maybe the conference semi-finals assuming the Sounders get that far.
Sounders' Strategy Without Key Players
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that that's why roll gone is key. I mean, I think that one of the big talking points that we had when Alonzo went out injured is that
00:07:49
Speaker
You know, hey, this sucks a lot and everybody would love to have him and much rather have him. But if there's any season where it doesn't feel like that's just kind of the end of it, it's this one because Gustav Svensson has been so good as a central midfielder. Christian Roldan has established himself and I think the top tier of defensive midfielders in the league. So it didn't feel like his big a blow, but if you're talking about not being able to play Alonso or Roldan or even if you can't play Roldan, he's not
00:08:19
Speaker
the Christian Roldan that we've come to expect, that's a much bigger blow. It's weird talking about an injury to Ozzie Alonzo and saying, well, it's only a big deal if something else happens. It's always been the thing that was the one thing that couldn't happen to the sounders.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think Rule 9 is a bigger loss, so I'm a little more concerned about that, but I think that you're right in terms of the timeline. I mean, I think it's reasonable to expect that he's not really going to be able to have a huge impact until after that first international break.
00:08:58
Speaker
That's that's a pretty huge bummer because the sounders have had a ton of bad luck this year with injuries And you know to have more of it kind of piled on right at the end of the season is really really frustrating it is frustrating and You know, I I would like to think that we're not gonna you know We're obviously the centers are already without Jordan Morris that has proven to be a pretty significant blow But you know like the you alluded to this the Sounders had gone into the Union game 6 1 & 2 in matches Alonzo had played a half or less and that's
00:09:28
Speaker
basically unheard of throughout their history. If you go back to their previous 18 matches where Alonso played a half or less, the centers had only won four times. So they're much better equipped to handle Alonso's loss now than they ever had been.
00:09:44
Speaker
before and that, you know, you can go back to their whole history. They've always struggled whenever Alonso was out and that goes back to 2009. But I am hopeful that
Clint Dempsey's Role and Performance
00:09:53
Speaker
the Sounders may have figured out how to play when Jordan Morris is not available and the answer is probably not just sticking Will Bruin in that spot and leaving everything else the same. I think what we saw and what I'm hopeful that we can see more of
00:10:09
Speaker
as the season winds down and I frankly hope that the Sounders stick with this until Morris is fully fit to come back. But Clint Dempsey playing the number nine, we didn't really get much of a chance to talk about this, but this is something that we had suggested previously and we finally got to see against the Whitecaps. Clint Dempsey was absolutely spectacular. I mean, I think he probably had his best game of the season.
00:10:31
Speaker
He scored a goal, I think he had an assist, but in any case he helped set up, maybe he didn't have an assist, but he was consequential in a lot of what the Sounders were doing, positive offensively. He hit the crossbar on another shot, an absolute laser of a shot that he had, but his hold-up play I thought was sneakily
00:10:51
Speaker
like elite level good. And I love that formation. I love seeing Christian Roldan playing the number 10. I love seeing and kind of being a support striker in some ways to Dempsey, who in some ways was more of a false nine. But then Lidero on the right, Rodriguez on the left, I just loved the whole thing. I thought it worked really well. And if the sounders can make that formation work going forward, I think they are an MLS Cup contender, frankly.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you and I think that what that performance really drove home is that the key to making sure that when you have three players like Dempsey, Ladera, Rodriguez that kind of tend to operate in the same spaces and maybe approach the game in similar ways from an attacking standpoint, they look to create, they look to make kind of
00:11:46
Speaker
late runs and things like that. They're all dual threats, but they're, you know, none of them are really like what you think of as being out and out attackers necessarily. None of them are directed anyway. I think that the key to making that work is just making sure that they all have space to operate. And, you know, we saw that. I mean, I think the biggest problem we've seen with Clint Dempsey and Will Bruin
00:12:09
Speaker
being on the on the pitch at the same time this year with Ledera and Rodriguez kind of trying to operate in the spaces they like to move into is that it just gets so uh so congested and nothing's coming off because people are getting in each other's way and
00:12:25
Speaker
And it's just really frustrating to watch. And I think it's tempting to say, well, that's a Dempsey problem. But I don't think it is. I don't think that's fair to say. I mean, because we see, you know, we see Lidero being less effective. We see Rodriguez being less effective.
00:12:40
Speaker
And they can get that space when Jordan Morris is playing because Jordan Morris is a lot more direct. He's stretching defenses. He's making the kind of runs that those players like to put balls into. And Wilburn just isn't that kind of player. He's not a direct player. He likes to...
00:13:00
Speaker
kind of hang out around the top of the box and then kind of crash in and it just doesn't work as well. And Wilburn, I think, is a great guy to have as an option, you know, to have on the bench and make spot starts and, you know, be effective. But for those three guys and those are the three guys that are going to make this offense work, especially until Jordan Morris gets back,
00:13:21
Speaker
You have to make sure that they have the room to do the things that they're going to do. And we saw that against Vancouver. It was one of the reasons that I kind of wanted to see, you know, what we could get with Clint Dempsey as a floss nine and just kind of give up the pretense of, you know, him being an out and out striker and just kind of embracing what he is. And I think it worked really, really well.
00:13:40
Speaker
I don't think it's always going to work as well as it did in that game. I think the Sounders arguably their best offensive performance of the year, but it's a proof of concept and it came against a team that's a legitimately very good team leading the Western Conference right now.
Offensive Strategy Adjustments
00:13:59
Speaker
I thought it was really encouraging. All things being equal, I'd much rather have, you know, Jordan Morris back because I think it makes the offense that much more unpredictable and hard to deal with. But, you know, until we have that, I really hope that's kind of the default. Christian Roldan's role in that is maybe a little understated as well. And what I think really makes it work, and I think it could work if you have to move Lidero over or Rodriguez over. I don't think that it
00:14:25
Speaker
It means that, like I wouldn't say that Christian Roldan is the key element to make that formation kind of working, but the fact that he's kind of more of a hard running, that he's basically willing to be the guy that makes some of those runs that you expect a number nine to make, and yet he doesn't need to be spending time on the ball. He doesn't need to get 50 touches to be effective. He doesn't need to, you know, he can, you know, he can basically be in some ways a box-to-box forward almost, where he's, you know, he's covering a lot of ground.
00:14:55
Speaker
And he's not making runs constantly, but he's there to crash the box when he needs to. We saw this great interchange between Dempsey and Roldan early in that match where Dempsey laid off a ball to Roldan with a back heel. And then this is one of those moments where you're just reminded that he is
00:15:16
Speaker
an elite level athlete, and the way he just burst around, I guess it was Kendall Wasten, or no, it was, uh, was it Blonjos that he got around? In any case, he makes his burst into the box and he puts a, he creates a bunch of space for himself and he ends up putting a shot off the far post, but it was just a gorgeous exchange. I also have
Press Box Anecdote
00:15:37
Speaker
to say that I almost got myself kicked out of the press box
00:15:41
Speaker
because I had this very loud reaction when Clinton Dempsey had this kind of ninja sidekick to set up a Jovan Jones break late in the match.
00:15:56
Speaker
I just loved watching him in that game. It was just a reminder of how much fun Clint Dempsey can be when he's on his game. And I said this in a column afterwards, that it was the game where we saw Flair beat function in terms of Dempsey's game. And when he's able to do that, he is as good as anyone in the league, frankly.
00:16:14
Speaker
And it gets me really excited and it makes me excited to see what this team can do I just hope that they actually have an opportunity to do it and it's not gonna be run over by Yeah, and I think to in addition to being you know insanely effective and you know really dangerous It's just a ton of fun to watch Clint Dempsey when he when he has that confidence and when he's kind of feeling himself And I think that that's the thing that kind of
00:16:40
Speaker
It's really important, I think, especially for an MLS season that can really feel like a slog at times, you know, to have players that are really fun to watch. And the Sounders have not been a ton of fun to watch for, you know, a significant portion of the last, I would say three seasons.
00:16:58
Speaker
And a lot of that is out of their control, and I don't necessarily blame them for it, but it's really, really nice to have a game like that where you can just kind of sit there and mouth a gape and watch a guy like Dempsey just try ridiculous shit and actually pull it off. But I did want to...
Tactical Plays and Player Contributions
00:17:14
Speaker
You brought up Christian Rolldown in his role, and that...
00:17:18
Speaker
in that shape and I kind of wanted to talk about the way he was used a little bit more because you know in addition to contributing to the attack and being really effective and making smart runs and you know making really smart passes and contributing in the final third he was kind of doing that thing that I think is you know more and more in vogue internationally playing that sort of advanced destroyer role that I really love and I think it's a really
00:17:45
Speaker
uh interesting tactical approach you know to say hey if we're gonna try to create pressure high up the pitch why don't we try to use you know a guy that's really good defensively high up the pitch and and create from there and i thought he was doing a little bit of that and it was it was really fun to watch and so
00:18:01
Speaker
You know, in addition to what he's doing offensively, I think he just makes the sounders press so much more effective. And a lot of people talked about how much better they looked in transition and, you know, how they were actually effectively counterattacking in this game. And we haven't seen that. And I think rolling on playing in an advanced role is
00:18:19
Speaker
you know, at least partially responsible for that. And we kind of saw that the last time he played in that advanced role in Squirt of Hatrick. And a lot of those chances that he had, you know, he had a hand in creating in the defensive phase of the game. Oh, my God. Right. I keep forgetting that like he had it. He had two balls, I think, that were off the post in that game.
00:18:41
Speaker
including one that was basically a walk-in that he just didn't quite finish. Yeah, but I do think if you're a two-way player like Christian Roldan, and you can be really effective on both sides of the wall, and you get put into a position where the pressure that you create, the defensive actions that you have can lead to chances,
00:19:01
Speaker
and you can finish them, you can be a really, really, really valuable player. I don't know that just from a tactical perspective, from a roster perspective, that that's the ideal place to put them when the Sounders are fully healthy. But where they're at now, where they're missing a key piece in Jordan Morris in the attacking game, I think it's a tactic that's certainly worth keeping with.
00:19:25
Speaker
So the other element I wanted to touch on, and I'm just kind of curious on your thoughts on this. So we saw Jovan Jones and Nuhu playing again on the left side. We've seen this a few times this year. And the last few times it's been frustratingly ineffective. You know, you go all the way back to the RSL game. That was a game they started.
00:19:46
Speaker
there was absolutely nothing created in the offensive zone where you expect one of those two players to be effective. Then in the Union game, it was kind of more of the same, where when they were playing together, there just was nothing created from that kind of left-sided wing play. And so much of the Sounders' success this year has come from left-sided wing play.
00:20:08
Speaker
I think Newhoo is a great player. I think that he has a very bright future. I think Jovan Jones is probably the most effective offensive fullback in the league in a long time.
00:20:20
Speaker
They do not work together, I don't think. I do not think that they complement each other in ways that maybe seem like they should, but for whatever reason, they are just not a combination that seems to click. And I'm really hopeful that we've seen the last of that, at least as a go-to tactic.
00:20:39
Speaker
Start a game and I cannot understand we're gonna you know, we'll take some questions about this in the in the last segment I just don't see why you would start those two together when you have an Aaron Kovar when you have a hairy ship when you have even a Lamar Nagel sitting on the bench basically just To waiting to fill that spot. It's it's very frustrating and I would really like to think that we're not gonna see it anymore yeah, I'm totally with you and and it's the kind of thing where if this were April and
00:21:07
Speaker
I would be a little more, you know, accepting of it being sort of an extended thing where they want to give it five or six games to see if they can get on the same page. I'm skeptical that it ever could. I just, I think you're right. I think that for whatever reason, they don't really work together on the same side. I'm totally cool with it being a late game thing, you know, moving Jovan up to midfield and bringing on new who to play. Left back.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:43
Speaker
as a full game solution, it's just not working. Yeah, it's painful to watch, and it's not like it's been a one-time thing. And I don't really know what it is, and I don't know if it matters what it is, because it's not really the time to try to figure out whether or not you can fix that when you have other options, like the ones you mentioned, that you can see if maybe they can come in and click.
00:22:08
Speaker
I mean, with with Victor Rodriguez coming back, you know, it's probably maybe a notch. But but I think it is worth saying that that's just an experiment that is not not born any fruit at all. Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to take a break. We're going to talk a little bit about the U.S. national team that has two very important World Cup qualifiers coming up on Friday and Tuesday.
US World Cup Qualifiers Significance
00:22:30
Speaker
Then we'll come back, take your questions. You're listening to no idea.
00:22:37
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:23:19
Speaker
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00:24:10
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes. So big big big big big games coming up. Alexi Lawless called these two World Cup qualifiers the most important World Cup qualifiers the US has played since 1989. I don't think that's accurate. The US has gone down to the wire to qualify before so I don't
00:24:32
Speaker
think that he's being entirely, I think that might be a little bit of hyperbole, but these are very important games. There was a tweet from Paul Carr, the statistician from ESPN, who said the US basically goes from like a 93% chance of qualifying if they beat Panama at home to something like a 30% chance if they lose to Panama, or even if they tie them maybe. But in any case, it's a big game.
00:25:01
Speaker
The US should beat Panama at home. This is the kind of game that they have traditionally always won. But it's no guarantee. Panama has become a much better team. Panama is actually ahead of the US in the hex table right now. And either way, there seems to be a pretty good chance that the US may end up having to qualify through a playoff, which would be not guaranteed as well.
00:25:28
Speaker
But I guess the operative question and the thing that's being bandied about in supporter circles is whether or not there might be positives from the US missing the World Cup. And I think the argument goes something along the lines of if the US fails to qualify, that would force US soccer to make big changes in the way that they are
00:25:54
Speaker
kind of governing the game as it is run here and i don't know what those changes are that are so obvious to make or what those changes might be that they're currently reluctant to make i don't know maybe these people think that pro rel would come if
00:26:11
Speaker
if the US misses the World Cup, but rather than asking, I assume you don't think it's a good thing that the US misses the World Cup, but I'm curious, how big of a disaster do you think that would be for the US to miss the World Cup, Aaron?
00:26:26
Speaker
I mean, it would suck a lot. Um, I think, I think that's pretty obvious. I think that I don't think that it would do any real long-term damage to the program. I mean, I think that soccer in the U S is established as, as, I don't want to say a big deal, but like the U S is going to be a competitive team in CONCACAF. Um, it's not like soccer culture in America is going to fall apart from the missile World Cup.
00:26:54
Speaker
It would be humiliating. You know, there's no way that the Kafka cap is the easiest region to qualify out of. Or I would say Oceana might be. Yeah, Oceana fair point. But and I think there's no way that the U.S. shouldn't be qualifying out of Kafka cap.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that. It's certainly a black mark on the program. I think that's what you're saying, basically, is that it's embarrassing.
00:27:25
Speaker
Right. And I think that the embarrassing. Yeah, I think so. And yeah, I mean, I think that heads would roll. You know, I think that Sunil Galati would have to step down. I think that Bruce Arena, you know, I think that the way the US looks at it, you know, hiring head coaches would probably change pretty significantly. I think maybe they'd, you know, feel like they had to do something to make a big splashy hire for their next head coach.
00:27:52
Speaker
Um, but ultimately, I mean, I think that the reason that the US is not as good as other countries is that they don't develop as many good players as other countries. And I think that the reasons that they don't develop players as good as other countries, everybody is aware of. And I think that the idea that people don't recognize it, uh, and you know, and say, you know, cause they're just too dumb or they don't get soccer or whatever.
00:28:19
Speaker
which is a really, really common thing that a lot of pro-relets like D'Mandy about, like, Osunu Guladi doesn't know anything about soccer, blah blah blah, which is, you know, patently bullshit. I mean, I don't like him, I would like him to go away, but I think it's pretty obvious that he knows soccer pretty well and cares about soccer.
00:28:37
Speaker
But the reality is that the youth soccer system in the U.S. has a ton of power and a ton of money, and they are going to be really, really resistant to change. And I don't think that they're going to really care about the U.S. missing the World Cup, frankly. I mean, I think that, you know, they would certainly rather the U.S. make the World Cup, but they're not going to give up their cash cow. And I just, you know, I don't see that. I just don't see any way that it leads to real and meaningful change.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I think that you know, we're starting to see some really good younger players in and you might have our first world-class player Yeah, yeah, and you know and it's a lot of people say, you know, this is really the first I Think it's this is the first generation that has come up with MLS as
00:29:30
Speaker
a league that wasn't kind of a joke, if that makes sense. The guys that are in the core now, that are MLS guys, have been playing in MLS since it's been a competitive league. They weren't playing in 2004 or 2005 when it was pretty bad.
00:29:45
Speaker
And and they say well MLS isn't doing what it's supposed to do Which you know, I guess fair point But what are you gonna do? I mean, I just I think people think that this is a really easy problem to solve and Whatever the thing that pisses them off the most is the thing that they think will fix it And I'm just as guilty event is anybody else because I think us you soccer cultures is garbage, right?
US Soccer Development Challenges
00:30:14
Speaker
So I'm sitting here blaming it
00:30:17
Speaker
But I just, I don't know. I think that a big part of this is that I just don't care about international soccer as much as a lot of people do. So, you know, my feelings on it are a lot milder, but...
00:30:31
Speaker
For me, I think that there's this expectation that the US should be an international soccer power. They should be a team going into the World Cup feeling like they can win it. They should be a team that's dominating CONCACAF and beating Mexico with regularity.
00:30:49
Speaker
And I just don't think that's true. I mean, yeah, the U.S. is a big country that's rich and has a lot of good athletes. So, you know, I just like there's not a magic button they can push that is going to fix all their problems. And I think that the U.S. being as big as it is probably causes some problems and makes it a little bit harder. There are a lot of things they could do, I think, to improve incrementally. But I think realistically,
00:31:15
Speaker
the best that they're going to be in in my lifetime is probably you know a team that can maybe go into one world cup uh... in you know every twenty four years and feel like yeah i don't know that right they can be better than they are now i don't know that the u.s. being a world power on the level of spain or even france who is not necessarily a world power in that you
00:31:45
Speaker
they are expecting to win the World Cup every year. But I think having them be, you know, I guess reaching Mexican heights is probably a realistic goal. And Mexico, let's be honest, they're really good at advancing out of the group stage of the World Cup, but they have not really competed for a World Cup title either. And I think I'm with you that it's it's a little bit much to expect the US to suddenly become a world power in the sense that they are
00:32:14
Speaker
you know, consider it a favorite to win the World Cup. I think that they can get better and I think that they can get to a point where they are expecting to be able to compete for a World Cup and I don't think that's where they are now. But I also think that, you know, we're
World Cup Qualification Impact
00:32:31
Speaker
I guess to go to my central question, which was how bad is it if the US doesn't qualify? And I'll say I think it's pretty bad, and I don't think it's just bad from an optics standpoint. I think that if we really want to grow the game, the US is on this really great trajectory of growing relevance and growing popularity. And I don't know that there's an easy way to chart that, but if you look at
00:32:59
Speaker
viewership of average World Cup games, soccer is clearly getting more and more popular with each successive World Cup. You know, basically ever since the 2002 World Cup, we've seen a steady increase in viewership.
00:33:13
Speaker
And you look at the US ratings whenever they play a big game, and in the World Cup is where they're getting by far the most attention. Like it dwarfs. It just absolutely destroys. You know, like the biggest, like we just had like last year when the US, when the Sounders beat Toronto in the MLS Cup Final, that was the best ratings ever for an MLS Cup Final. It was like 1.7 or 2 million people between the United States and Canada watched that game.
00:33:39
Speaker
that like 2 million people is like not even an average world cup game and that's not even including the US so there's just so much more attention on the US when they are in the world cup and that you just can't mimic it in any other tournament and if we want to continue to have the sport grow in relevance if we want to continue to have the sport
00:33:58
Speaker
you know, grow in, uh, in main- and I don't know, maybe we don't, but if you do, if you're someone who wants the sport to grow in mainstream, uh, sports, if you want, you know, if you want LMS to eventually become a top league, I think you have to, you know,
00:34:16
Speaker
a lot of that popularity is going to grow through the US being in a World Cup. Now, I don't think it's necessarily a massive setback that's going to destroy the game if they don't get in. But, I mean, for no other reason, if you're a Christian Pulisic fan, you should really want to see him in a World Cup. Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing and I don't...
00:34:35
Speaker
I don't disagree with you that the USP and the World Cup is going to help grow the game, but soccer is unique in that it's the only, I don't want to say only, but I feel like it's the only major sport
00:34:51
Speaker
that's popular globally where the US does not have the best league and the US doesn't have the best players. And so people, I think a lot of people that I would even consider casual soccer fans who are Americans, who are even white Americans, their connection to the game is through the Premier League.
00:35:12
Speaker
and it's through the England national team or the Spain national team or whatever. And then you have a lot of Americans who have connections to the Mexican national team or other teams in South America. So I think that it helps for sure. And especially if you're going to start converting people who are casual fans into hardcore fans of the sport.
00:35:35
Speaker
But I don't know if it really is going to have a huge impact on the continued growth of the game in the US, because I think that a lot of people just view soccer outside of a lens of having anything to do with America. But it does, it hurts MLS a lot. And I think for me, that's the biggest thing is that
00:35:52
Speaker
You know, missing out on that experience, it's going to make promising American players, I think more likely to go to Europe because they see, you know, MLS is, there's a ton of MLS players on the, on the national team and they can't get to a world cup. Well, they, I want to play in a world cup, so I'm going to go to Germany or what have you. And I think that's the biggest risk to me in terms of like the growth of the sport in America. Yeah. And I guess the, and I don't know, maybe this is taking it too far, but I do wonder if
00:36:22
Speaker
The US doesn't qualify. Does that maybe even jeopardize the...
00:36:27
Speaker
quoting what's being called the United bid for the 2026 World Cup, which features obviously Canada, the United States and Mexico. I mean, I don't think it necessarily puts that in jeopardy, but I wonder if there's a cascading effect from, you know, let's just say the US fails to qualify. Let's just say Sunil Giladi gets sacked. Let's just say there's like a serious change in leadership at the US soccer level, where it's not just Giladi and it's like people all over the leadership,
00:36:56
Speaker
I do wonder if that might have an impact on the on the ability to get the 2020 26 World Cup and then that would be really I think that's where you start to get into you know that would be I mean it's again I don't know that it's a setback in terms of like we're gonna lose ground from where we are now but you talk about a potential to really springboard MLS and US soccer the 2026 world hosting a 2026 World Cup would be a massive opportunity and
00:37:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's that's a huge angle that I hadn't thought of. Shut the hell up. But I don't think it's terminal necessarily. I mean, we you know, Russia was awarded a world company or that they didn't qualify. And I think that they're kind of similar to the US in terms of their place in the game, where you feel like they should be a lot better than they really are for a whole host of reasons. And they're just not simple reasons that is disappointing, frankly.
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, it's a big country, huge population. Russia is certainly not as wealthy as the United States, but there's plenty of money there. And as we've seen, a lot of that money seems to be in the hands of people that really like soccer. So yeah, I mean, but I definitely think it hurts things. I think that a World Cup in 2026, like you said, would be huge for the profile of the game in the US and by extension for MLS.
00:38:22
Speaker
There are a ton of reasons not to want the U.S. very concrete and I think easily verifiable reasons to want the U.S. to make the World Cup. And a bunch of vague and kind of ham-fisted reasons to think that maybe there would be some kind of benefit to missing the World Cup. I just think the whole argument's a non-stop. Very, very well put. All right, well, we're going to go ahead and call that a segment. We're going to come back, take your questions. You're listening to NOS, audio this.
00:38:55
Speaker
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00:39:22
Speaker
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00:39:45
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes. We have some questions, and Likit is going to ask them. Yes, you are right. Here we go. Thirdstringstar asks, three starters going down in the same game is a good thing, right? Asking for a friend. But really, how unlucky is that on top of Morris and Evans? Yeah, you know, it sucked for sure.
00:40:10
Speaker
I'm amazed this year. It seems like the injuries have all come in waves. We lost Marshall and Alonzo in the same game, in that Colorado game.
00:40:23
Speaker
We've had, I feel like this has happened a few times where we've lost players all in clusters of it, which seems to suck more. I bet you the total loss of injury time is not worse than it's been in years past, but it just seems like they've all come together.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah, that was something Schwester kind of talked about earlier in the season, where it was like, it seems like entire position groups were getting hit all at once and, you know, they were having to do things like play Geordie Delimite, you know, left back or whatever. Right. Yeah, so it's pretty frustrating. At least it's kind of spread out, although I guess not since Aussie. Yeah, it's at least spread around different positions, but it's still like a lot at once.
00:41:12
Speaker
A follow-up question is Angelic01 asks, do you think we'll have Morris back for the playoffs? I think probably, but maybe as a bench player, especially if the attack that we saw in Vancouver is a recurring team. I will say that I heard a rumor that he had a much more serious injury than was being reported, and based on the information I was able to gather,
00:41:39
Speaker
That was not the case.
Player Recovery and Performance
00:41:41
Speaker
So if you've heard a rumor floating around that he had some kind of catastrophic Injury, I'm told that that's not really the case and he was he was jogging around practice the other day They say that rumor came out I think then then that like that same day or the next day He there's a photo of him jogging with Evans on the side, right? D underscore height has a three-part question. Oh jeez, I
00:42:06
Speaker
What is the deal with Brad? 2. Is Svensson new Brad? 3. Have they ever played on the field together? Are they possibly the same person? Well, I will say that I had a chance to talk to Brad recently and he told me that it was basically an issue with a disc in his back and that that was actually causing him
00:42:30
Speaker
other injuries that he had dealt with early in the year and that this disc had gone undiagnosed and was like squeezing a nerve or something like that and it's now been repaired and he's he seemed hopeful that he might be able to come back at some point this year and he was jogging around at training but I don't think he's gonna start another game barring some unforeseen circumstance. And Svensson's been great.
00:43:00
Speaker
They're not the same person, though, I don't think. They did. I think they may have actually both scored in the same game. Didn't they both score in the in the DC game? Did they? Did Evans score a goal? Yeah, Evans had the gold off the assist from Jovan Jones that I think was the. Oh, you're right. Yeah, the first goal. And that's true in that game. That is true. Yep. I mean, it doesn't really because he did the same person. I guess that's fair.
00:43:31
Speaker
uh better than ask have you seen kovar it's it's like it is it again i'm i'm flummoxed by this one i i don't get it i thought the last game he played in i think was the away vancouver and he had a chance to win that game
00:43:50
Speaker
by either scoring or by passing it to Dempsey in front of goal. And he didn't. And I and he seemed like he was pretty effective, though, in that game. And yeah, he was really good. And I think that that's why the him missing that chance was so frustrating. Right. But yeah, I don't I don't get why he has not featured more. Certainly strange.
00:44:17
Speaker
Actually, there's two questions about Harry's ship in Kovar, so I'm going to ask him back to back. Escape the Shoe asks, has Harry's ship regressed or has he just been injured in Seattle? I like his transition center mid, but he hasn't played for months in the first team. And then Steve Locker asks, who do ship and Kovar need to bribe in order to get a substitute appearance? Do the Sanders want them to move on after the season? Should ship and Kovar try to leave?
00:44:45
Speaker
I think that injuries certainly have hurt Chip's case. I think he also just wasn't very good when he was getting a fair amount of playing time, and that can hurt. That can really hurt your chances of getting back into the rotation, whether that's fair or not.
00:45:03
Speaker
But this last game, especially the fact that neither of them played, is pretty crazy to me. I think maybe that it's possible that they want to make him kind of a full-time sort of defensive midfielder, and they don't think he's ready to do that yet for the Sounders, so they want to give him more time to do that at S2, but that kind of feels like a stretch to me.
00:45:28
Speaker
I'm sure the Sounders would love to keep, especially Aaron Kovar, but I wouldn't be shocked if he's ready to move on after the season, which is super frustrating because I think he has the potential to be a pretty decent MLS player. That could be a fairly cheap rotational option for quite a few years for the Sounders.
00:45:50
Speaker
I'm just starting to think maybe it's not going to happen here and I don't fully understand it. It's definitely pretty flamixing. I am with you on that. I like some things about Harry Ship's game. I think he might actually have some potential as a defensive mid, especially if you could pair him with
00:46:06
Speaker
We haven't seen him paired with Christian Roldan, and I think that that could be a defensive mid pairing that could potentially work. He needs someone that can really move, though, to be next to him. As far as Aaron Kowar goes, I'd like to think that he'll be back next year, but if he doesn't play in these last two games, I just don't see why he'd want to come back, frankly.
00:46:31
Speaker
And that kind of sucks to say it because I want him to be here. But I think he has to take a long hard look at what his options are if he can't even get on the field for the Sounders right now.
00:46:48
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, we've seen quite a few players that kind of had the same kind of trouble breaking into the team leave in recent years and go to teams that weren't quite as good maybe and get chances and do pretty well. You know, Dylan Remick hasn't set the world on fire, but he's gotten a fair amount of playing time for Houston, been pretty effective.
00:47:06
Speaker
So I wouldn't blame him for doing it. But but I just I hope there's something that we're missing That would explain all this that would be definitely the preferred outcome Yeah, like if we found out he had a secret injury, but he's been on game day Ross He was on the game a roster against the Union so that suggests it's not an injury thing. But anyway What's his contract situation by the way He's not like a homegrown anymore, right? I don't
00:47:35
Speaker
think he is but um... yeah i don't know i don't know what his situation is okay brian richards one asks am i the only one who thinks that nico is giving possession way too often and way too easily lately you know i was gonna ask that one of course uh... a i hate the phrasing of any question am i the only one who because you're never
00:48:04
Speaker
You're not a special snowflake. You did not discover something for the most part. You did not discover something no one else had seen. I'm sure a lot of other people share your opinion that Nicolas Ledera gives the ball away too easily. And I would even agree that it does seem like he has been more prone to easy giveaways this year than he was last year.
00:48:28
Speaker
I don't know
00:48:47
Speaker
he would be right up there with the league leaders and assists, and I don't think anyone would be really worried about it. And, you know, he had probably a couple decent looks at goal that he probably should have finished, but he's not really a goal scorer anyway. But, yeah, I mean, I think his overall struggles have been overstated, but at the same time, I think he... Like, you know, I think we saw it in the Union game. He, like, two or three times, I felt like he got caught from behind and just gave the ball away.
00:49:18
Speaker
Which I don't that happened a lot in that game. It seemed like for other players too anyway
00:49:26
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. Good point Sadie. Undertable Fan, and these questions are related too. Undertable Fan asks, Jones should be left back or not start and lately his midfield performances haven't been as good. Am I the only one seeing that? Is it playing with new? And Flip Flops asks, I have mixed emotions about Jones. He gets assists but at other times just does not seem interested in playing.
00:49:57
Speaker
So this is a thing that I hate. That player just doesn't care XYZ. I think Jovan looks exactly the same level of interest that he always has. He busted his ass late in that game against Philadelphia playing center field and snuffed out.
00:50:16
Speaker
at least two, and I think maybe three pretty dangerous counters by himself. Just holl an ass to break up those plays. I agree that he's been pretty bad in the midfield. I've never really liked him in the midfield, and I think especially, you know, these last few games, that it's been underwhelming to say the least his performances, but
00:50:40
Speaker
Man, I just, I have some pretty serious issues with the Jovan is checked out. You know, Jovan isn't trying. Jovan is lazy stuff, which if you've been listening to the show for a long time, you probably are not surprised to hear. But yeah, I just, I've not seen any evidence at all that he's any less committed, you know, over the last month or two than he ever has been.
00:51:04
Speaker
I'll agree with that. I don't think that I've seen a noticeable drop off in his effort other than when he literally skipped out on town for a little bit. But I think when you see him playing, I don't think he looks like a completely different player or anything like that. And frankly, early in the season, he was, you know, not in that different of a situation, I don't think.
00:51:28
Speaker
he thought he was coming back regardless and my suspicion is that that contract was probably in the works before it was announced and he was still playing well but anyway I do think that when he's playing midfield some of his tendencies are more
00:51:48
Speaker
Like, I don't know, maybe it's not being fair to him. Because as a midfielder, he does need to stay higher. And so maybe he's being asked to not check back as much as you might like to see him doing otherwise. And I think that a lot of times when things are people view as being lazy or things that are offensive players just staying higher up the field, like they are sometimes asked to do.
00:52:16
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know, I don't think, I think Jones is an elite, at least at the MLS level, left back, and I think he's a very mediocre left mid, and I would much rather see him playing left back, and I'll leave it at that.
00:52:33
Speaker
Okay, fair enough. There's two roll down type questions I will ask together.
Speculations and Predictions for Sounders
00:52:40
Speaker
Ex-Zag, when will roll down be able to cast side his cast? And Mere Shimer asks, do we have an estimate for when roll down can return to play relatively unhindered? Best lineup without him, assuming no Aussie.
00:52:53
Speaker
I don't think we have, we don't really know the extent of the injury, we don't know how serious of an injury it is, so I think it would be silly for us to sit here and speculate as to how long it will be until his cast comes off or even how long it will take before he's back to normal. I will however speculate as to what the best lineup would be if
00:53:13
Speaker
he is not really ready to play. And I think the lineup I'd probably want to see is Svensson and Dellum as the defensive mids, and then probably Kovar, I would like, this is what I would like to see, is Kovar, Rodriguez and Lidero with Dempsey up top.
00:53:38
Speaker
You caught up there. Who would play behind Dempsey in that situation? I was thinking about being able to play behind Dempsey. And then Lidero to the right and Kovar on the left. Gotcha. Yeah, I think I'm with you. Andy Frickwell asks, who is your most overrated, underrated, sounder this year? That's a good one.
00:54:09
Speaker
overrated amongst sounders fans it's probably actually christian uh hold on but uh you can still be incredible and be overrated um uh i think he's been probably the the team mvp this year but i think that uh some of the opinions that sounders fans have about how how good he is are a little
00:54:33
Speaker
Much an underrated I would say I was a little surprised to see him shoot up to number two on the sounder at heart 24 24 list. Yes underrated maybe part of what you're alluding to Yeah, but it's it's definitely not just that I mean, I think There have been a lot of people saying, you know, I understand saying that you should be an automatic starter for the national team and
00:54:59
Speaker
in every game and i think that's a little much but uh underrated i would say Dempsey he's had a really good year i mean this is this could probably be his most productive year as a founder um so yeah that's that's what i'm going with yeah if you were to get well he won't have the most total goals and assists he's ever had but if he can get three goals in his last two games which is not at all
00:55:26
Speaker
uh, outside the realm of possibility, he would tie his sounder's career best for goals in the season. Yeah. And I think, I mean, his, his, his highest this mark him in 2014, right? Uh, yeah. So yeah, I guess maybe in terms of just like absolute production, but I mean, I think maybe it's fair to say it would be his best year. Um, he's been asked to do more things this year. And the fact that he's coming back from a very serious health issue.
00:55:55
Speaker
is almost been cast aside as meaningless when I think we can agree that it was pretty significant. Let's see, I'm gonna go with
00:56:07
Speaker
Jordan Morris as both well, I know I'll just say I think he I think Jordan Morris's contributions have been somewhat underrated. Yeah in that I think he has been far more effective than most want to give him credit for because I think he he does a lot that doesn't show up as goals and assist and could he be better a hundred percent? Yes, he needs to be more clinical of a finisher. He needs to be
00:56:35
Speaker
You know he still has lots of improvements to be made in his game, but in some ways I think he's become a more complete player And I could see him You know I could see this year if he puts kind of the good things he did this year Together with the good things he did last year I think we could see him turn into an actual elite level player next year and so in that way I think he might be a little underrated as far as overrated goes I
00:57:04
Speaker
You know, I hate to say it, but I think Alonzo has probably been a little overrated this year. He's been very effective and I think he's been very good, but I think it's not a coincidence that the sounders have sometimes looked more dynamic when he's not been on the field.
00:57:21
Speaker
And I think that his game has slowed down a little bit. And I think that, like, I don't think that him being out would be a good thing, but I do think the level, the degree to which he is the most, you know, his importance to the team is relatively low compared to where it has been in the past. And I don't know that, um,
00:57:42
Speaker
most that I get the sense that maybe people still tend to think of him as a vital cog and you know like you saw for instance you saw Matt Doyle point out when he went down that the Sounders in his mind went from being the most talented one of the most talented teams going into the playoffs to being one that was not as that he wasn't as
00:58:01
Speaker
he didn't think as highly of them. And I don't know that, frankly, Alizado Alonzo by himself, now there's a cascading effect that might go on that would change things, but by himself, I don't think he's that important in terms of their title chances. Good. Tstige asks, over, under for Sounter's goals combined for the last two matches. Three and a half.
00:58:32
Speaker
I think that's, I think that's a good one. Yeah. Hard to argue with that. Hard to argue with that one. I would take the over though, if that was the... Yeah, sure. We're going to go with three and three quarters. The Desert Pope asks... The Desert Pope asks, who do you think the most likely sounder to be claimed in the LAFC expansion draft is?
00:59:03
Speaker
I feel like this is a setup for people to, people with the assuming that we'll say Brad Evans because with the, or something, I don't know. Although I guess the thought is that he'll go to the galaxy. Who is the most likely to be taken? Brad Evans won't be taken because he's going to be a free agent. So it would be silly to take him regardless. So we'll just take him. Even if he wasn't, that's not a guy you want to waste one of those picks on. No. Questions about his injuries and whatnot. Let's see who's going to be exposed in my mind.
00:59:33
Speaker
I wouldn't think it would be crazy if Roman Torres was exposed. If I am LAFC, Roman Torres is a player that I would absolutely take.
00:59:46
Speaker
I'm assuming Alonzo has a no trade clause. No, I don't think that, I think, I bet you he does. I bet you he is, he could very well be exposed. I think he's another player where if I'm LAFC, I'd be pretty tempted to take Alonzo. Although, you know, and I guess it kind of depends on what his salary number is next year. But if, I mean, if he's making over a million dollars, it might be tough to take a, you know, a guy on the wrong side of 30 who has dealt with injuries the last couple of years.
01:00:16
Speaker
But he's another one. Yeah, I could see someone like that being taken. It's tricky, too, because the way teams have approached the expansion draft has kind of changed to where they're filling out the back end of the roster with it. They're not taking their marquee players anymore. Aaron Cobar is someone who I think probably is very attractive as a as a expansion. Harry Ship, maybe even.
01:00:38
Speaker
That's another good one. Yeah, he's he's kind of that in between where he's still pretty young. He's not overly expensive He has a track record But he's not somebody you know, do you Bob Bradley probably goes in pretty well Yeah, but if he if he's a bust it's probably not a huge deal Caleb Malice
01:01:06
Speaker
Speaking of Evans and galaxy West Coast underscore Brian asked it is a tradition for a coach to poach players from their farmer team Which player do you think will be a galaxy player next year? I say Evans Yeah, I guess that was why I had Evans in my head from that last question I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't see it. I don't see Evans going yeah joins I would also I
01:01:32
Speaker
If he actually meant what he said about Freddie and never playing for a rival, I can't imagine, because I give so much more of a shit about the rivalry with LA than I do with Vancouver, and I think most soundershins do. So if he actually meant that and he wasn't just, you know, dancing or whatever, then it's hard for me to see that. And I don't, I mean, I don't know that Siggy is gonna
01:01:59
Speaker
Ray, I mean, I could see Kovar being another player that Sigi might be interested in. Sigi always seemed to be a reasonably big Aaron Kovar fan. You know, he gave him a pretty long run out last year. Like, yeah. And I mean, those are two great examples of why I think it's going to be tough for the Sounders to keep Kovar, because I could see him fitting in a lot of situations around the league. And those would be two that would make sense. OK.
01:02:31
Speaker
Kenwise2020 asks, Smetcher's contract runs through the end of this year, correct? If so, is it renewed and how for how long? By the way, I sure hope it is. Hashtag C.L. Sun. I... Whose contract? Schmetzer. I don't know that. I honestly have no idea how long his contract is. And I don't know. I guess I could look this up. But I doubt they announced the length. I would be a little surprised if he was only on a
01:02:57
Speaker
I mean, that would mean he was assigned a year long contract. That would be pretty weird on pretty weird for a head coach to sign a one year contract. So my unless they gave him a rolling contract kind of deal, right? In which case it would, you know, like I'm assuming semesters back. I'd be very surprised if semesters not back next year regardless of what happens this year.
01:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, I would be shocked. I mean, I think that he's weird because I like, I think he's a really good coach, but I also think that he probably has no interest from other clubs. Um, because I don't think that he gets the respect he deserves. So there you go. I am three, three, three asks, what position in the West do we end up in? And how far do you predict this team goes in the playoffs? Knock on wood.
01:03:51
Speaker
I think they're gonna end up third because I think the Sounders are probably gonna finish it. My thinking is they're gonna finish ahead of at least Portland, even if they can't catch Kansas City and the Whitecaps. And I could see them, like I don't, I honestly don't, like I'm not saying they're gonna go to MLS Cup, but I don't see anyone in the West that I'm, I feel like is a clearly better team than them. I think that they could easily
01:04:20
Speaker
Like I think in a two game series, if they play a home first round game, I think they match up fine with, in a two game series with everyone. I think third's probably right, but I, the only team that I would feel like they had no prayer against is Sporting Kansas City. And that's not a rational grounded in, you know, actual reality opinion. That's just a,
01:04:48
Speaker
I never feel like we're going to score against them. And we usually don't kind of opinion. But I think that the West is so tight. There's actually a lot of data to back that up. They've only scored two goals against them in like six years.
01:05:04
Speaker
That's true. But yeah, I mean, I do think that the West is so tight this year that I could see them easily losing in the play-in game and I could see them easily going to the MLS Cup. And I don't know that either of those outcomes would be, you know, at all surprising or at all worth being all that upset about, I guess.
01:05:26
Speaker
A related question, Chris Seattle asks, who would you prefer as a single elimination opponent? Dynamo, Dallas, Portland? I think Dynamo is the team I would probably most want to play in the first round of the teams that are likely to make it.
01:05:45
Speaker
Yeah, FC Dallas is not going to make playoffs. I feel pretty comfortable saying that. I would go with a Dynamo too, especially if it's at home. That's what I'm saying. If it's away, yeah. The team I don't want to play in the first round is RSL.
01:05:59
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. I wouldn't mind. They might. I mean, you could make a case at RSL right now. It's the best team in the West. Yeah. I was actually going to say that the team I'm most like, I think sporting Kansas city is I'm with you that the team, I least want to play in a two game series of sporting Kansas city, but the team I want to least play in a, in a, like a one or done that you got to win this game is, is RSL. I wouldn't mind playing Portland just because then we would know they wouldn't go any farther.
01:06:32
Speaker
Jim C Kim asked if the East was guaranteed to win MLS Cup like many pundits believe which team would you want to see win? I've been thinking about this a lot and There's there's like I guess the fire maybe Yeah, I mean yeah, I guess I
01:06:54
Speaker
There's fans, I would feel really good for their fans, but I don't like their ownership. No, their ownership is awful. No, that's a great... I mean, there's things that I really genuinely don't want. Like, New York City FC, I don't want to see them win. I don't want to see Toronto, I feel like I have too much invested in
01:07:14
Speaker
in the banter for them to win. I feel like the crew as a team that I don't want to see good things happen to, although I guess I was rooting for them against the Timbers, but I don't want to see them win.
MLS Cup Preferences and Predictions
01:07:29
Speaker
I guess. That's the only scenario I never root for the crew, frankly. Maybe the Red Bulls, maybe? Yeah, they might. They might not make the playoffs.
01:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, for me, Toronto wouldn't be that bad just because they're so clearly good that like cosmically, it would be a huge bummer if they didn't win the championship after having this season. And then like with Atlanta, I have nothing against Atlanta. You know, I love a lot of what they've done. I love their players. They're a lot of fun to watch, but I'm just so petty that I don't want them to win. And I know it's coming this year. But I actually, I will say this is that I don't think
01:08:11
Speaker
that winning in their first year would actually be good for them as a fan base. And I don't mean that, and there's a petty part of me that thinks that, but there's like a real honest, all you can do is go down from there. I guess it would be fun to see them in Champions League next year.
01:08:29
Speaker
And so maybe I should reset this. But I just think that winning MLS Cup your first year doesn't, I don't think, set you up for anything like realistic expectations. And I think you have to, in some, like, obviously you're gonna enjoy the ride, you're gonna love it if it happens, but it's just so hard to, like, in hindsight I think it was so much better that the Sounders didn't win it until year 8. Because it made us kind of, like, appreciate what it was a little more.
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm with you. And I think that the high that they're on right now, it's helpful to come down. If you're tripping really hard and it seems great, you still want to come down eventually. Because everything after that's anticlimactic, right?
01:09:23
Speaker
If you don't win in year two, it's like, well, what's the point? And it's not like you have to, you know, it's not like you have to stop, like, I'm not saying that it's meaningless unless they win in year eight, but like, I'm with you. I just think it's, you kind of have to suffer a little bit to like truly appreciate it. I feel like.
01:09:43
Speaker
And that sounds patronizing, but I really don't mean it that way. I just like, like Toronto deserves. But I also want to, I also like, again, pettiness. No, it would be hilarious. I'm not saying I would root for them, but like cosmically.
01:10:02
Speaker
their fans have been true enough and you know they're a great team but it would be funny as shit if they didn't win i mean especially if they made it again and lost it would be just the best so that trophy that trophy you case needs to stay empty no matter what
01:10:19
Speaker
Okay. Three, uh, non-serious questions. Uh, I think Eric Beck wants us to know he's on vacation. So I'm on vacation in Barbados and I've been watching the SF on TV. Do I have a soccer problem? Yeah. Why are you watching television at all? A little in soccer when you're on Barbados. Yeah. Exactly. I watched the sounders game in New Orleans last year, but it was like,
01:10:44
Speaker
I was really, really drunk, so I needed to be inside. That's fair enough. Grouchy Val asks, what injury will you be recuperating from during the international break? Man, I hopefully will get a little bit more. I have, in this horrible run of sleep, kids not cooperating. It's rough.
01:11:12
Speaker
I'm just generally old and have a terrible body, so I'm pretty much always injured in some fashion. So, I don't know. Motin' like, everything. Yeah, pretty much. Out here trying to keep breathing. Okay, last question. Kael Baldwin asks, how drunk is too drunk at Downtown Disney?
Humorous Incident and Podcast Reflection
01:11:33
Speaker
So, this is not, they were not at, I assume this is a reference to Alex Morgan, who actually was not at Downtown Disney, she was at Epcot. That's so sad. I guess, so apparently there's like a whole bar area in Epcot that is like, you go, it's like you can drink in all these different quote unquote countries, air quote countries.
01:11:59
Speaker
And so when the story first came out, it was like, geez, how petty is the person that reported Alex Morgan? Like this is like, how, what could have really happened here? Right. And it was like, uh, you know, I don't want to say we felt sorry for Alex. We definitely, we definitely didn't feel sorry for her, but it was kind of like, this is such a non story. But then the details came out and it was glorious.
01:12:24
Speaker
He was yelling at the cops that I know the Orlando SWAT team, which is also hilarious that now we have two incidents where Orlando teams associated with Orlando City, players associated with Orlando City have basically tried to use I know the cops as a way of getting out of a ticket.
01:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's incredible. And I think the answer to the question is if you're Alex Morgan, any drunker than that is too drunk, but that's the absolute perfect level of drunk for Alex Morgan to be at the Epcot Center because
01:13:01
Speaker
if that if she hadn't been that drunk we wouldn't have gotten this story and we've earned it like as a society as a people in america after the shit we've been through over the last year or so we've earned that story we've paid for it through our suffering
01:13:19
Speaker
And she's done us a favor. I mean, the World Cups were great. All the goals she scored from the national team, you know, God bless them. But this is something that she's given us as a people that I just don't think, you know, can ever properly be a game for. I gotta find some patriotic music to put in the back end of that. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's it. That's it. Well.
01:13:43
Speaker
We made it through another episode of No Sadietes. Who ever thought that we would get through 262 episodes? And it feels just like the first... We've got like 700 to go to catch up to that corner of the galaxy show. Geez, you know, I have to admit that I am sometimes appalled. Not appalled, I'm amazed. Like there's all these, we've been around for a long time, but we've slowed down considerably.
01:14:08
Speaker
We should probably, by all rights, be pushing 500 episodes right now if we had been keeping up the pace that we had earlier in our show's run. And there's all these shows that I know started after us that have either caught us or passed us or about to catch us. And there's part of me that's like, oh, wow, that's good for them. But another part, it's like, you guys are crazy.
01:14:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm firmly in that camp. Also, our shows are like four and a half hours long. It's like the, you know, Satan tangle of podcasts. We have shows that are as long as Hardcore History episodes. Yeah, so God bless our listeners for putting up with us for this long. Yeah, I have no idea how to do it.
01:14:54
Speaker
I had, I remember I was, when we first started, on a tangent, when we first started this podcast, Arlo White was the announcer and I had a pretty friendly relationship with Arlo and I think I asked him like, so have you, have you listened to the podcast? And he's like, I have, and it's too long. Yeah. It wasn't wrong. It wasn't wrong. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I see your point, but I don't know that we're going to change that part of it.
01:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, we I mean, I feel like we tried for a while and we just stopped doing the parts of the show where we talked about ourselves for 20 minutes at the end. And that like, you know, that was a nonstop. Yeah, right. Exactly. I think we did have a couple of episodes where we tried to make the questions more germane to the task at hand. But losing battle, although we had had that we've done some epic question and answer sessions that were like in the 45 minute range.
01:15:50
Speaker
that probably or longer. This one, as I say that, I look at the clock and we're pushing 40 minutes on this. But anyway, good job, everyone.
01:16:03
Speaker
People got one computer. Yeah, exactly, exactly. We do it for you guys. So, thanks. You're welcome. Thanks again to our sponsors Fullpool Wines, Queen Ant Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, and Designers Marble, and of course our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studio. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and Likit. This is No Study at This. Remember, you'll never get alone.
01:16:28
Speaker
Green Douglas fir where the water's cut through Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On Roll On, Columbia Roll On Roll On, Columbia Roll On Your power is turning our darkness to dawn Roll On, Columbia Roll On
01:17:15
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!