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Nos Audietis, Episode 234: Playoffs?!?!
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At one point in this week’s show we were asked “what one word would you use to describe this season?” Our best answer: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
It has been a wild season, and it’s going to continue for at least one more game. The Seattle Sounders have gone to depths they’ve never before experienced and managed to come out of it in reasonably good shape as they’ll be hosting a Knockout Round game.
To help Jeremiah and Aaron make sense of this crazy season, we brought back Richard Farley onto the show. They talk about the Sounders’ chances at making it all the way to MLS Cup, what Brian Schmetzer still needs to do in order to get the fulltime gig and they answer your questions. Enjoy.
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsors
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Auderes is sponsored by Constellation & Co. Constellation & Co. is a letterpress stationery company and gift shop located in the Fisherman's Terminal, next door to Chinooks. Their storefront in the Magnolia Interbay neighborhood of Seattle is home to antique printing presses, unique greeting cards and locally made goods.
00:00:21
Speaker
They also offer design and printing services for weddings and special events. Mention Nos Aureres for a 20% YNYA discount. For more information, visit ConstellationCo.com.
Sounders Clinch Playoff Spot
00:01:06
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
00:01:24
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of Nos Adietes, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Constellation & Company, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, and the book Towards Cascadia. We'll recall in this episode, 234, and I still need to rewrite my intros. We're recording on Tuesday, October 25th, 2016. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. I'm joined, as usual, by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Licket, will also be joined by professional hanger on, Richard Farley.
00:01:49
Speaker
It was a bumpy road, but here we are for an 8 straight season getting ready for a playoff soccer. The Sounders put the finishing touches on what has to be their wildest season yet by beating Rialso at Lake 2-1 on Sunday, clinching a playoff spot in a home game in the knockout round where they'll face Sporting Kansas City on Thursday.
00:02:06
Speaker
They did it much the same way they got themselves into this position, with a couple timely goals and some solid defending. The first one was about, as pretty of a team goal that you'll see, a sequence that included 10 passes and touched 8 players. It ended up with a couple backheel passes from Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris, setting up Alvaro Fernandez for his first goal of the season. Interestingly enough,
00:02:28
Speaker
The only offensive player who didn't get a touch in the sequence was Nico Ledero. The Sounders gave up an equalizer on their next position, but came back with a goal from World Dawn, who had probably his best purely attacking match of his career.
Playoff Outlook & Team Reflection
00:02:40
Speaker
That all said, Aaron, I always ask you, how you feeling going into the postseason? Is it relief? Is it accomplishment? Are we now playing with house money or is it now? Now it gets serious.
00:02:55
Speaker
I think all of those and also, you know, a feeling of like, well, we've been here before as well. I mean, the second half of the season and really the last 14 games of the season have been a blast. It's been so fun and it's, you know, it's a new era. It's exciting. And I think that was kind of going to be the case no matter what happened. But then, you know, for the Sounders to go out and
00:03:21
Speaker
an average two points per match. Play is, you know, I think arguably the best team in the league over that stretch. Get into the playoffs, get a home playoff game. That's super fun. And, you know, no matter what happens on Thursday night, I think, you know, that's going to be a fun memory to have, I think, for all of us. At the same time, you know, like I said, I mean, we've been here before. The Sounders have never not made the playoffs and that's
00:03:48
Speaker
I personally like that box being ticked. I know a lot of people don't care as much about the playoff streak, and that's understandable, I think. But I think it's important, and I think especially the circumstances involved make it a pretty cool accomplishment. But then also, I have no idea what to think about how the playoffs are going to go.
00:04:11
Speaker
Uh, I, I just, I could see the sporting KC beating the Sounders on Thursday night. I could see the Sounders winning him a last cup. And I don't, I usually have a gut feeling of, you know, I think that the Sounders have a pretty good shot this year or, uh, I don't.
00:04:28
Speaker
Make the sounders have I and I you know, I genuinely have no idea I mean, I think if they play as well as they've shown they're capable of over the stretch Without you know without plenty at least because if they played like they play against Orlando City, I would consider them nailed on MLS cup favorites, but they can't really do that without point MC. So
00:04:52
Speaker
You know, I don't know. I have no idea how to feel. It's going to feel disappointing if they don't win the MLS Cup just like it always does. I think it's probably going to feel less disappointing this year if it doesn't happen. But at the same time, I would not be at all shocked if this is the year they finally did it.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's kind of a funny set of emotions because on one hand, I think, you know, here we were three months ago talking about this being a completely lost season. And in a lot of ways, it felt like a season that was going to have long term ramifications for the direction of this organization. And and in that sense, I think the Sounders can rest assured that the ship is still kind of heading in the right direction. And it's not completely it's not a completely lost season in that.
00:05:38
Speaker
I think we found pieces that can help us going forward regardless of what happens in the playoffs.
Sounders' Competitiveness & Future
00:05:43
Speaker
But on the other hand, if they don't win MLS Cup, it's a lost season in that it's another year that the Sounders were competitive, that the Sounders put out a team that was
00:05:55
Speaker
seemingly on paper capable of winning the whole thing and didn't. And so it will be frustrating in maybe not the same way that it was in like 2011 or in 2014, but in its own way.
00:06:11
Speaker
That said, I am very curious about your perspective on this, Richard. How does it feel to you? Does it feel like the sounders are kind of playing with house money here, or are they just kind of basically where we all expected them to be at the start of the year, essentially?
00:06:28
Speaker
I don't think it does feel like House money, mostly because they aren't acting like it. You kind of walked around the team afterwards and part of me felt like they were kind of forcing this narrative that you heard from Brad Evans and a couple other people just kind of saying, well, we're supposed to be here.
00:06:46
Speaker
obligatory place for us. On the other hand, you do feel that there is at least some really low level sense of relief among the team. So I'm not sure what that means, but it certainly doesn't quite feel like we're in the house money situation. And I think a lot is going to depend on how they return to training and the intensity that they can carry over. Is there a let up within the team? Is there a relief that settles in and affects their preparation for Thursday? And I think that'll dictate a lot of
00:07:15
Speaker
about how we see this team coming out of Sunday's game. Sunday could have been a very emotional game, especially with Zach Scott's retirement. But I don't get the feeling there was this over-swell of emotion within the team. And in that sense, I think it's easy to talk ourselves into the idea that they're just kind of chugging along, carrying this forward, and really acting as if this is exactly where they thought they would be all along.
00:07:39
Speaker
Well, yeah, and I think maybe, and this is the first time I've thought about it this way, but maybe in contrast to the house money, is that I think you're right that it had potential to be a really emotional game, a really emotional kind of ending. If the Sounders had lost that game and failed to make the playoffs, all of a sudden, I think, you know, I went into that game thinking, you know, if they don't make the playoffs, they don't make the playoffs. They kind of put together a decent run and there's some positive,
00:08:06
Speaker
feelings going into this offseason but I think in hindsight if they had failed to make the playoffs there was a lot of potential negativity that could have really bubbled up and I think you know it being Zach Scott's last game was gonna be part of that but I do think it would have been you know it would have been kind of bidding farewell to a lot of these guys and and I don't know that that one game saved a bunch of players jobs or means that the the offseason turnover is gonna be dramatically different but I
00:08:35
Speaker
it does feel like there's gonna be at least a little less overt raw kind of emotion at the end of the season assuming it doesn't end like in an MLS final loss or something like that which you know at that point it's uh
00:08:52
Speaker
It's, it is what it is. But this is, I think this will be really interesting. It's going into the season, into the post-season in a very different emotional state than the Sounders have ever been. I think maybe in 2009 there was a certain happiness to be there. But every year other than that, I think they went into the post-season really feeling like they, you know, 2013 even, I think it was, there was this kind of like,
00:09:20
Speaker
emotion of look, we're just, you know, I don't know if they really believe that that was a team that was going to win it all and that there was kind of an inevitability to the season ending in a kind of frustrating way because the end of the year had been so frustrating.
Playoff Challenges & Strategies
00:09:35
Speaker
But every other year, I think the Sounders went in thinking, OK, you know, we can we can do this. We can make this happen. This is a good team. And man, from where I sit, the field seems as wide open as it's ever been. You know, you look at Sporting Kansas City and this is a team that
00:09:50
Speaker
you
00:09:51
Speaker
has not been anything like a juggernaut coming down the stretch. The Sounders are favorites in this game. I think they should be favorites. If they don't win this game, I think that they would be rightfully disappointed. But then you go to Dallas, assuming they play Dallas in the next round, they're missing Maro Diaz, they're missing Fabian Castillo, and they've played pretty well down the stretch. I think it's maybe been overstated how much they came back to earth. But they're the supporters shield winners, they're the rightful supporters shield winners. I don't know, what do you think, Aaron?
00:10:21
Speaker
How much should FC Dallas be feared at this point?
00:10:25
Speaker
It's a tricky question because they've been mediocre, I think, really since they lost Fabian Castillo, and losing Maradeus certainly isn't going to help that. But at the same time, this is a team that the Sounders have, I feel like, always had problems with. Even when FC Dallas was bad, I feel like the Sounders have had problems with them. And I feel like right now, the way the team has constructed, even missing those key pieces, it's a bad matchup for the Sounders.
00:10:56
Speaker
The sounders saw that they showed that they could hang with them in Dallas not too long ago, despite missing some key pieces. And Maro Diaz is not going to be in the lineup for the sounders if it gets to that point. But at the same time,
00:11:15
Speaker
I don't know. It's so weird because I feel like with Siggy still at the home, you kind of had a sense of how the playoffs were going to go, how the team was going to set up. And you had to kind of calculate that in your expectations. And I just, I really don't know how Brian Spencer is going to approach things. I think that you'd be crazy to say that there wasn't a change in the way the Sounders approach things in the playoffs, especially in the last three or four years.
00:11:45
Speaker
So, you know, does Brian Schmetzer do the same thing? Is that institutional memory still there of, you know, the playoff collapses in the past? I don't know. It's a tricky thing. I think if the Sounders try to go in and do what they do and execute it without trying to change too much, I think they have a great shot against Dallas. If they try to be a little more conservative, that's where I get worried.
00:12:08
Speaker
I mean, I will say that I think that the sounders are, that Brian Smetcher is a little bit more inclined to kind of roll the, to like just play, like continue to play the same way.
Coaching Tactics & Speculation
00:12:20
Speaker
And I don't think we've seen really any signs of him kind of pulling the reins back seriously, maybe against, maybe in that first half against, against the timbers where it did feel like they were maybe trying to weather the storm a little bit and then that back fired pretty badly. But,
00:12:39
Speaker
I mean, I think that they played pretty straight up the whole time. And I do think that Schmetzer might be a little bit more inclined. I don't think Schmetzer feels like his, you know, I think he feels like he's got a lot to win and personally that he's kind of proven to some degree what, you know, what he's, what he can prove. And I thought there was kind of an interesting, speaking of Schmetzer, I think there was an interesting line in Garth Legway's otherwise pretty, you know, pretty,
00:13:08
Speaker
a
00:13:26
Speaker
Garth Legway and he said something similar to you when you did that interview with him a couple months ago about Binko Ledero and and is it is that something that we should should we be parsing my preferences to keep him as if His his as if it's his hands are tied or what do you make of that statement Richard?
00:13:44
Speaker
No, I think you should respect that, but also respect the fact that he is gonna be somebody that is not going to all of a sudden change a process or mindset just because of a couple, three months worth of good play.
00:14:00
Speaker
He also constantly alludes to the fact that the team has collapsed two times in the last 13 months or had collapsed two times in 13 months when Sigi was fired. And one way to look at that is those are the aberrations and the other way to look at it is those were the telling signs or those were the signs of a process that he didn't feel
00:14:18
Speaker
was very strong. I think that he's going to use these three months to inform a process that he already had in place. And even in the days after he had let Siggy go and Nico came on and when I was talking to him a lot and even during the time when the Sounders were still on the ascendancy, he kept saying the same things. I've had four coaches in five years. No general manager wants to go through that.
00:14:39
Speaker
I would like, I want Brian to have every opportunity to succeed. I want him to succeed. It's continuity. It's the fact that he's been here for a long time. It's the fact that he has a lot personally invested in this team. So if he can prove that he is our best candidate, that would be a best case scenario for me. I absolutely believe that he still believes that, but I believe that he thinks that the organization deserves
00:15:04
Speaker
owes it to itself to do its due diligence. So I think no matter what, they are going to look at other candidates. And Brian has just put himself in position to potentially be the favorite going into the offseason. So would you say that your expectation is that he's going to be that there's not going to be some end of season announcement regardless of what happens? It's going to be something that comes during the offseason.
00:15:25
Speaker
I would expect not because I would expect the process that they need to go through with each candidate, Brian included, hasn't been started with Brian at all. I get the impression that they're very focused on what's going on right now, which means come the offseason, the same questions that they have to ask everybody else, they're going to have to
00:15:41
Speaker
ask Brian officially. I'm sure they informally know what Brian thinks is about how the relationship should ideally work between his position and Garth's position, how Brian would integrate his head coaching philosophy with what people like Chris Henderson bring to the table. And I'm sure Garth and everybody's probably pretty comfortable with that. But at the same time, they need to be very explicit with each other before making that decision. And to this point, I'm under the impression that Brian's had his hands full with what's going on on the field.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I do have to admit that I in some ways, you know, like Senator Hart, myself, maybe driving this train to some degree, has been pretty overt and saying like, hey, we want Brian hired now. And I, I think part of that is, is we really like Brian and we want him to do well. But I guess if we pull it back and we're trying to be a little bit more journalistic about this, the reality is that
00:16:32
Speaker
Brian and Garth probably haven't had a lot of big picture conversations about the direction of this organization. And that, and that, that, you know, a vision if Brian Schmetzer has a vision for this organization has a vision for his leadership of the organization.
00:16:52
Speaker
that it probably hasn't had much opportunity to have been shared with Garth because so much of what their conversation is probably revolving around is, what do we do in the next game to make sure that we're in the best place possible to get a result? Yeah, I completely agree with that. And when I'm thinking about to what I do know about the process that they're going to undertake, Brian checks so many boxes that I think Garth and the organization want. But I think one of the boxes that he doesn't check is that
00:17:21
Speaker
Or he might not check, it's not clear that he checks it, is that Garth wants to build an organization that is gonna be able to incorporate talent from some of the places in the world that he thinks Seattle's gonna be able to leverage going forward. And those are the places in the world where they get somebody like Nicholas Lodiaro. He wants the team to play a style that is welcoming to those players. He wants the actual first team squad to have an atmosphere where those players can come in and really make the most of the dollars that Seattle's gonna spend on those spots going forward. Now to me on one level,
00:17:48
Speaker
You look at how Lodero has been able to integrate himself quickly and everything has been perfect and the team style of play is subtly so much better than it was under Sigi. You would say that those boxes are starting to be checked, but again, that is something that probably needs to be explicitly discussed in December and into January. I do honestly believe that
00:18:09
Speaker
If Garth does go in another direction, it's going to be because he honestly believes that another person has a better resume or can bring more to the organization, not because he was never open to hiring Brian. I do think he is absolutely open to hiring Brian. Well, if we move it back to this game and kind of what we learned from this game going into the playoffs,
Player Focus: Christian Roldan
00:18:35
Speaker
I mean, I was just really pleased with the play of Christian Roldan. We had seen Roldan perform so well as Ozzie Alonzo's partner. We'd seen him be competent as an outside mid, but I don't think we'd ever seen him really kind of put out his chest and be an offensive difference maker in the way that you could be in the run of play.
00:19:01
Speaker
And and I wonder if if we we saw something this week that's going to have, you know, maybe a little bit more of a, of a lasting impact. Like, you know, it seems like Brad Evans is is going to be is going to be the the right mid or is going to be healthy. And it would make sense to put him in there. But I don't know, Aaron, are you interested in seeing Christian rolled on a little bit more?
00:19:27
Speaker
I want to see Christian rolled on all the time, but as a right midfielder, I guess, specifically? Yeah, exactly. And I don't mean as his primary position, but do you think that he's maybe earned a longer look there? Is this a position that you wanted, or would you like to see him move back to Ozzy's partner almost as soon as possible?
00:19:52
Speaker
I mean, I think so much of it depends on who else is available to play. It's because he was so, so good with Ozzy Alonzo. And I think that, and Eric Freeberg, I think is pretty good partner with Ozzy too. And I thought he had a pretty solid game on Sunday as well. So, you know, for this game, you know, maybe it does make sense, especially
00:20:16
Speaker
Depending on what Brad Evans fitness is like and all those things Brad Evans is a as much as I think he starts in a perfect world He's a pretty great late game Swiss Army knife type sub to have because you can just kind of throw him anywhere So I mean maybe it makes sense to put him at right midfield for this game but I think that going forward his best role is going to be in central midfield and part of it also depends on
00:20:41
Speaker
you know, what the Sounders do in the off-season. Where do they spend their money? I mean, are they going to, you know, go get a DP or central midfield DP? Are they going to go get a wide player as a DP? So that's going to impact it as well, but I think his highest upside is definitely as sort of a more attacking partner in a double pivot.
00:21:06
Speaker
So Richard, what do you think Christian Roldan's ceiling is at this point?
00:21:11
Speaker
I kind of get the feeling Christian O'Dan's ceiling is not too far from what we're seeing now. And that's mostly because he's playing so well right now. But when you really look at Christian, you look at his physical tools and where he's likely to mature, I'm not sure that we're going to see him really mature that much more. Maybe he'll have a couple of years where he can put together kind of, you know, say if he's saying playing a number eight role beside Ozzie Alonzo type where he can put together like a six and eight season here and there. But I,
00:21:40
Speaker
I don't really know that we're going to see a ton of upside. I hate saying that because I end up saying the same things about Jordan Morris, too. But I guess sometimes you just have players that especially if they're coming out of college, they might be a little bit closer to the finished products than we would see with somebody with a different development curve.
00:21:57
Speaker
As is, I think an interesting conversation is where Roldan actually is right now because all this year we've kind of discussed Christian as if we're kind of surprised by how much he's contributing and look at how versatile he is and look at the level he's been able to maintain throughout the season and we've never actually stopped and said, how good is this guy right now? Because I don't know if I would call him necessarily a borderline all-star, but if there's a name for a level right below that, I think he's probably at that level.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah, you know, you brought up an interesting idea, and that was comparing him to Darlington Nagby, which on its surface, I feel, seems to feel like a really strange comparison. So did Timbers fans. But in reality, they're actually kind of playing similar roles, and they're doing it very different ways, and they do it with very different skill sets, but it seems actually like, you know, the more you think about it, it seems like a pretty fair comparison.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think it's an interesting comparison because one, they're five years apart in age. We don't realize how old Darlington Nagby is. And second, it really does. It does challenge you to think about things in terms of skill sets versus actual results because I'm not really sure on what vector
00:23:09
Speaker
we would say Christian Roldan has a better skill set than Darlington Nagby. Few players actually do. And Darlington Nagby does leverage that skill set, albeit in some very specific areas. I think as a number eight, you're not going to get somebody that's better at ball retention than he is. But what we see from Christian Roldan, whether he's playing in the line or three behind a striker or in that number eight role, is a level of production. And really, I think the thing that really stands out is his continued opportunism in the final third.
00:23:37
Speaker
that really transcends a lot of those skills that Darlington Nagbee has and it forces you to ask a question of yourself. Would you rather have this really skilled player that you feel gives you an advantage every game or would you rather have this player that although you can't quite explain why he does it, he seems to two, three times a month come up with some big play that is truly decisive in games in a way that we rarely see Darlington Nagbee be.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and it's so funny, you look at the goals that Christian Roldan scored, and other than the one that he hit on, you know, it was a pretty nice shot from outside the box, they've all been right in front of the goal, essentially, and this is a guy who's maybe 5'8", if it's, you know, at the height, like, that's the biggest he might, he might be 5'6". He's not a big guy. And yet, he's someone that's constantly being put into the box that causes trouble, and the ball seems to find him,
00:24:30
Speaker
You know, it's a pretty impressive ability that he has to around the goal. And I wonder if that's something that somehow has been missed or if it's a fluke thing that he just so happens to be there. But yet we keep seeing him in the same places and being deployed in that way. And it's a skill set that
00:24:50
Speaker
you know, really speaks to some longevity, I think. You know, he doesn't have to score, like he's not scoring beautiful goals necessarily. But I, I do think like the goal he scored this week, where he, he basically puts home a rebound, that was a really quick reaction play, was a lot harder than it than it may have looked at first. Yeah, and I completely agree. I think the fact that he keeps finding ways to do these things, to contribute about 20 yards up the field,
00:25:20
Speaker
where you think he should naturally be or would be more often than not, and the fact that they don't seem to lose anything defensively ever when he does that. And I think that his defensive game, be it his positioning, or his actual execution in tackles, or his ability to find the right person when the Sounders are coming out of their own third, I think that's another place where he is
00:25:42
Speaker
unspectacularly above average. And I think for a lot of people who don't watch The Sounders on a day-to-day basis, it's gonna take some time to realize that there are no real weaknesses to Roldan's game. You do have to watch him a lot to appreciate everything he can do. He's gonna inspire a lot of these debates. Two months ago, we were actually starting to debate who's had the better year, Jordan Morris or Krishna Roldan.
00:26:04
Speaker
And I think for a lot of people across the country, that's going to sound just as ludicrous a comparison as Darlington Nagbee versus Christian Roldan. Who would you rather have right now? And a lot of that debate is informed by the fact that Roldan is five years younger. But I get the feeling if you don't watch Christian Roldan week in and week out, these comparisons that sound perfectly reasonable to us sound absurd. It's just he's such a good all around player that nothing super stands out and makes it way onto a highlight reel.
00:26:31
Speaker
Christian Roldone reminds me a lot of Scott Parker, weirdly, where it's like there's nothing that blows your mind about anything that he does, but it's like you said, he just does every single thing at an average to above average level. And a few things at a well above average level. And that doesn't necessarily stand out, I don't think, to people like you said that don't watch the games every week, but it's incredibly valuable.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to think of a comparison because Scott Parker has become kind of this, this almost joke because of his kind of eternal Englishness and he's seen by a lot of people, particularly because he was a captain for a little bit is kind of like this, this joke, but he was a very good player who played some for some very good teams but
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I can't think of one. I think, you know, if Christian Roldan was just a little bit better in one area, he might be Dax McCarty and have that kind of cache behind him. Or if he was a little bit better in his distribution, he might be Will Trapp. Or if he was a little bit better getting forward, then he might be getting compared to some of these more goal-scoring types. Or maybe he'd have some of the hype around him that somebody like Tommy Thompson has, even though Tommy Thompson is probably like,
00:27:41
Speaker
20% the player Christian Roldan is right now. But as is, since none of those things stand out, it's really hard for people to just look at him for 15 minutes and really get a good idea of what he is. As we're talking about here, this last weekend, he was a right wing. Most of the time, he's been a central midfielder. He can play four or five different positions depending on your setup. And as I'm talking about this, I'm wondering if that actually works against him and him being ranked so low on things like the 24 out of 24.
00:28:07
Speaker
It is an interesting comparison to look at his numbers and to look at the way he's perceived and you look at a Darlington Navy and I think part of what leads to people being so excited about a Darlington Navy is you can watch him for 15 minutes and he will do something that blows you away.
00:28:24
Speaker
And the chances of you can watch rolled on for a whole game and if you're just looking for him to do something that jumps out at you, he might. Yeah, I also think the sorry to cut you off there jail, but I also think this informs the ceiling talk that we were talking about before, where.
00:28:39
Speaker
Well, what is Christian Roldan's ceiling? Well, for him to be a meaningfully better player, he would either have to excel in one of these categories that we haven't seen him truly excel in, and it doesn't look like he has the physical tools to ever become like a 16 or a 12-goal scorer, or he would have to move up in all of these skill sets that we're talking about, and that's just the kind of improvement that we don't really see happen.
00:29:01
Speaker
The improvement we're more likely to see from him are probably going to be on the mental side or just his ability to read the game even better than he does now. I don't even know if that's possible, but I don't know if we are going to see a huge leap from Christian Roldan. In fairness, I'm not sure if he needs to have one.
00:29:20
Speaker
All right, well, that's probably a good place to call that a segment. We're going to come back. We're going to talk or we're not going to talk to anybody. We're going to talk to ourselves. I guess we're going to kind of talk to you, but we'll answer your questions. You're listening to NOS Adiatus.
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Speaker
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00:29:55
Speaker
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00:30:17
Speaker
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00:30:31
Speaker
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. Two,
00:30:51
Speaker
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. Come on and shake it out. We'll go back to Nous Arietes. We have lots of questions. We have some questions and Likit is going to be polite enough to ask those for us.
00:31:38
Speaker
And we were doing a baby naming ceremony for my youngest, and so we were planning for that. And my kid is sick, so she's not sleeping well, so the whole house isn't sleeping. So, you know, it's been... I'm tired, I'm pretty tired, I'm not gonna lie. I just bought a house, I'm doing fucking great.
00:31:48
Speaker
I don't know about polite, but we'll go right into it.
00:32:05
Speaker
Oh, I was trying to cut you off so we didn't have to talk about your damn house. And you had an epically short signing. I got you all ready for like being in there for hours. And yeah, it wasn't just you either. And it was so we're closing on Thursday. So it was like, well, I guess I can't go to the game. And I was, I was super sad about it. And then they were like, Oh yeah, you can come in and it'll take like half an hour and then we'll just give you the keys on Friday. And I was like, Oh, that's awesome though.
00:32:34
Speaker
It's very awesome. Did they not give you reams and reams of paper? I mean, we had to sign a lot of shit, but it was basically like, you know.
00:32:43
Speaker
This means this, and that's it. I mean, I think, I feel like in the last like two or three years, maybe, uh, you just sign a lot of stuff digitally beforehand and you don't have to, which is pretty, pretty sweet. How is Sadie adjusting to the, Oh, I guess you're not in there yet. So no, no, we don't have keys yet, but she, she'll be fine. She's moved a lot. We move a lot. So she'll be pissed there too. Just like she's pissed where she is now. Yeah, she's always pissed. That's just the way it goes.
00:33:13
Speaker
she is a cat after all uh at billy dust asks describe this regular season in one word does oh my god count is one word if you use uh omg could omg be one word it it's been i mean roller coaster is a cliche way of putting up but it really has been that's two words i guess it's
00:33:37
Speaker
Yeah, roller coaster's two words. Also, I guess it's unfair to call it a roller coaster, because a roller coaster usually has more than one down and one up. Like, it's been a very strange season, and in ways that, you know, last year I guess was similar arc-wise, but last year started so well, and then the middle was so, was depressing in ways that this one wasn't, I guess, but then the end wasn't quite as triumphant either. It's almost like a sine wave, but if you catch it at its descent,
00:34:07
Speaker
because I think, you know, you normally think of a sine wave, it goes up and down, but if you catch it like where it's crossing back over the axes and toward the down and it goes all the way down and then comes back up. And so it's like that period of the sine wave. Aaron, nothing, no word.
00:34:27
Speaker
Sure, I guess it would be a word cuz like that's sure. Yeah, like literally everything You know just like we are terrible sure why not, you know say yeah fired sure We're gonna make playoffs now. Yeah, that's exactly how people reacted would see you got fired Maybe Shruggy. Yeah, just like this the shrug emoji thing. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, there you go. Perfect. Okay
00:34:57
Speaker
Okay, at Lavex, Lavex Dash asks, favorite Zack Scott moments? Moment or moments? Mmm, that's good. I should have thought about that one. You know, the one that's always gonna stand out is...
Zack Scott's Memorable Performance
00:35:13
Speaker
Well, you know, I guess the one moment that I really enjoy watching more than any other was his reaction to the goal he scored against LA in the playoffs that brought the Sounders to within a goal of equalizing that series. I guess it was 2012? That was 2012, right? Yeah, and then King got the penalty. And then King got the penalty off Adam Johansson. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
That was a good moment. It was. His goal in the Open Cup was good. That was good, yeah. The thing that sucks is all of his good moments ended up in heartbreak, eventually, that we're naming right now. His performance against
00:35:56
Speaker
God, I totally am blanking on his name. I think it's the one that stands out because I feel like it was the first time in the MLS era that he showed he'd adjusted to the speed of the game and could be like a really useful guy. And that was kind of an aha moment for a lot of people.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, that's a finite got him, you know, one of his nicknames, which is cool. But I mean, I think a lot of a lot of the fun Zach Scott moments are just him being around, you know, and like him bringing his kids on the field after games is always like one of the best things about a win, you know, seeing that things like that. And there are a ton of moments that stand out because I feel like so much of what he brings to the team is
00:36:51
Speaker
you know, just that continuity and just, you know, kind of understanding what it means to be a sounder and kind of spreading that throughout the organization and things like that. I mean, I think that's why he's so important. And if, you know, we went back to the pre-MLS days, I'm sure there are many great ones that people could bring up. So, and I would encourage them to.
00:37:20
Speaker
I think they had a lot of the highlights in one of the videos they did for him. That one game he had against LA where he was just destroying everything that came in his path. He was on a yellow card and he just kept on just killing LA. It was great. That was so great. I thought that was actually one of the videos that they had that was talking to a bunch of his former teammates and the mad gorilla. I thought that was pretty, the whole mad gorilla thing was pretty funny. It was good.
00:37:51
Speaker
Ryan M. Baum asks, who would be your preferred starter Thursday? Flacco or Gomez? Flacco. I'm not sure that's any question at this point. Like, Flacco has not been everything we hoped he would be, I don't think, but he's at least been
00:38:13
Speaker
he's been useful and not to like slag her Goma is too bad because I he's you know nice guy and all that but man he's not been he's not he aside from like whatever grit is or hustle I don't know that he's bringing a lot in a game to game basis
00:38:32
Speaker
I feel like you and I were both pretty low-key happy with the signing. We were like, yeah, he's a veteran. He'll probably score a couple goals. And he has not lived up to even those expectations, which sucks.
00:38:47
Speaker
I actually think Flacco is kind of improving as the games go on. At least it seems like his kind of game fitness seems to be getting better, where he's able to kind of maintain his top speed deeper into games now. So if anything, I think he should be getting better going forward, although with the quick turnaround of games this week, you wonder.
00:39:03
Speaker
not just him, but who in the squad is going to be affected. I think the bigger question is just who would be the ideal 11 right now. Aaron kind of alluded to it before, but if you think Brad Evans is one of the best players, 11 players, he fits in so many places that it opens up so many options as to who should be the one person you think they should drop. I mean, Flacco could conceivably be that person if you think that, you know, you want to keep roll down in the, in the attacking three and keep Freiburg in the middle.
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm inclined to put Evans on the right mid. I think the ship has sailed on him playing right back this year. I'd still like to see him play there next year. But I think for better or for worse, Tyrone Mears is the sounder starting right back for now until the end of the season. And so I think it's essentially what their best 11 I think is what they rolled out
00:39:59
Speaker
on Sunday, except Moving Roll Dawn back and putting Evans at right mid. Speaking of rosters, Chip Rogers asks, what is the ideal roster rotation strategy, assuming we win Thursday and have to play Sunday as well?
Roster & Player Fitness Considerations
00:40:17
Speaker
I think the ideal is there's no, ideally you don't have to rotate it at all, like you can get everyone ready to go for a game on short rest, that's not perfect, but I don't see any, like I guess maybe you've
00:40:32
Speaker
Maybe you swap in Freeburg for someone, maybe for Evans, and you go back to Roll Dawn, but man, there's not a lot. The Sounder's Depth is not great right now, especially with Andres. I guess, ideally, Andres Avonchitz is ready to go for the next round, I guess.
00:40:49
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think that's the only thing. Otherwise you just kind of have to roll through. You got, um, which, you know, was one of the big problems against Dallas last year is that the team was just exhausted, but you know, that's why you win games in March, April and may, uh, you don't have to deal with that. And I think it is, you know, that is a bigger disadvantage for, for the teams in those, um,
00:41:11
Speaker
you know, three, four, five, six spots, then it should be that way, I think. Oh, it absolutely should. Yeah, it should. But I think it doesn't get enough credit for being a pretty major disadvantage. Seattle's one thing is that they are going to be playing those three games and eight games on NFL turf. So you do kind of go through that eleven and wonder who's going to be most affected by that. But unfortunately, some of the players where it's going to be most affected, there's a pretty significant drop off. So maybe there maybe mirrors is one of those players that's most affected and
00:41:40
Speaker
You move Brad back to that to write back in that second game against dollars or something like that. But I just don't see any other place where there's a major change because I mean, what are you going to do? Start Nelson all of a sudden? I just don't think that's going to be a viable thing. And luckily, it's NFL turf that only has three NFL games on it so far, which is I think makes a huge difference, honestly. Yeah, definitely.
00:42:06
Speaker
Speaking of Ivanshits, EbolaKilo asks, how healthy important is Ivanshits for the playoffs? My expectation is that he is not going to be ready at least until the, I guess they call it the conference semi-finals. And honestly, I don't know if I really expect to see him starting at least until the conference finals. Like, I hate to say that, but that's how I feel right now.
00:42:36
Speaker
But if that's when he's healthy, do you, is he a starter at that point? Cause then conceivably that's what six games in a row that Fernandez has started. I mean, I guess it's nice to have, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. He probably doesn't, I think he probably does start if he's been able to, like, I don't think he's going to just start from.
00:42:58
Speaker
Like he's not going to just go into the game, like his first appearance won't be starting. Like I think if you can get him some reserve minutes in the conference semi-finals that he might be a starter by the conference finals, but you know, that's, it's not, that's, I think I would like the Sanders chances a lot better with Andres, I'll put it that way.
00:43:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think the things that he does really well are things that tend to stand out in the playoffs. You know, set piece delivery, you know, things like that are really crucial. I mean, I think, I don't think the Sounders are going to be as defensive as maybe they have in the past in the playoffs, but it's just a more defensive game. I mean, it's a higher stakes game. It's like most cup competitions.
00:43:42
Speaker
having a guy that can put in the kind of set piece delivery he can is huge and he just doesn't make a lot of mistakes and that's one of those things that
00:43:52
Speaker
I think he's underrated, especially when playoff time comes. Maybe he's not going to set the world on fire every game, but he's going to put in a pretty solid performance. That would really be nice to have in the semifinals, because I feel like that's probably going to be the tougher round over the conference finals.
00:44:18
Speaker
Okay, so you guys talked about Roldan a little bit, but I think there's some information here you could probably add.
Roldan's National Team Prospects
00:44:23
Speaker
Matt Faust asks, what do you think about Roldan's future? How long can we hold on to him? What is his ultimate position? Do you think he's gonna play for the US or Guatemala? I think that especially
00:44:39
Speaker
assuming that MLS continues to improve at a fairly steady clip over the next four, five, six years. I can see him being a guy that stays in MLS for a really long time and maybe eventually becomes a TAM kind of player. And that's not a dig at him. I think it's kind of like we alluded to earlier in the show. There's nothing that he does really that
00:45:04
Speaker
is going to blow a lot of teams away. He's 21 years old, that's not old by any stretch, but he's getting out of the age where foreign leagues are going to pay for potential. He's really got to take a pretty huge leap, I think, to be a guy that gets on
00:45:26
Speaker
the radar of leagues that could really pay him much better. So I think, you know, he could stick around MLS for quite a while, but, you know, and as to whether or not he'll play for the U.S. or Guatemala, I mean, I hope he plays for the U.S. because I think that, you know, he's a useful guy to have in player pool for sure. And there is a possibility that he takes a big step and becomes a guy you really want on your team.
00:45:53
Speaker
Uh, but I don't know. I mean, it depends entirely on whether or not he gets called up. To me, Roldan's the kind of player who now in the current state of MLS is the kind of guy that sticks around. I don't think he needs to, you know, he's someone that maybe was going to go to Scandinavia a few years ago, you know, five, six years ago, maybe he would have explored that possibility. But I, I tend to think of him as, as more of an MLS lifer, but
00:46:19
Speaker
And I think as far as the national team goes, I think he'll probably give it a couple more years. And I think the big talent will be what happens in January. If he doesn't get a call in this January camp, if he's not called up in the next year, I think at that point, he's probably going to start to think, if I want a national team career, it's probably going to be for Guatemala.
00:46:40
Speaker
And I think if he is interested in playing for the U.S. and the U.S. is even in any small way interested in him, January is completely reasonable. I mean, we saw Tony Chani called up in the last January camp. He's not even an American player anymore. And I think that Christian Roldan definitely had a better year this year than Tony Chani had last year. As far as his long term position, I think that
00:47:03
Speaker
I think he's probably going to end up as an eight just because the positions higher up in the field for him and most of the teams he's likely to be on are going to be positions where you're going to get the really high price talent in the league. And although he can play wide, I just don't think that's his best position. I think when you look at Christian Roldan and I think he is somebody that's going to top out salary rise at the top end of the non-DP scale or maybe if he really does explode, end up being somebody that you have to pay down a little bit with allocation or down.
00:47:29
Speaker
I think if you're planning for that guy, he has to be your number eight, basically. And this got cut off a little bit. We had that technical issue last segment, but we were talking about his potential. I think one of the things that really does keep him from really projecting as a superstar player or somebody that would get drawn into Europe is the fact that his skill set is so well-rounded that you can't really look at him and say that, like, oh, he's just all of a sudden going to become like an A-plus creator or an A-plus scorer or an A-plus ball winner.
00:47:57
Speaker
Their improvements that he's likely to make are going to kind of probably be across the board in a function of just his his mental maturity or is an emotional maturity as much as just getting stronger as a player. And for that reason, I think that he's probably going to continue to fly a little bit under the radar and again, be somebody that probably only his coaches and his the fans of his team that watch him every day are going to be able to appreciate fully.
00:48:21
Speaker
There was no technical difficulties, Richard. Geez. Come on. We were professionals here. Yeah. What are you doing? You're throwing us under the bus here. Look, honesty is my brand, for better or worse. No, for worse. Sorry about that, guys. Uh-huh. At T-Stege, I think. One of the results of the Sounders' playoff. Come on, now.
00:48:46
Speaker
I can't pronounce some of these names. Will the results of the Sounders playoff run determine the Schmetzer's coaching fate here, or is he cemented for next season?
00:48:55
Speaker
I don't think he's cemented. I think, you know, like Richard said, I still think there's a process the sender's gonna go through. I think there are probably a couple names out there that they feel like they need to see about bringing in for an interview. I would have thought that Bob Bradley was one of those names. I don't think that that's a name that is anywhere near there. You know, unless something happens at Swansea, I doubt he's...
00:49:19
Speaker
It's someone that they even bother calling at this point. I still think Guillermo Barro Scolotto is someone that you have to reach out to in terms of gauging their interest. But then after that, I don't know. There's no one that I like, I don't necessarily feel like they need to go out and interview a bunch of people, but I don't think Schmetzer has the job like sewn up as of today.
00:49:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think the only other name that jumps out to me, and Scolotto is somebody that I've mentioned to people around Seattle, and I wouldn't be surprised if they talked to him either formally or informally. And the other person that kind of checks a lot of the boxes that we've already talked about is Taboramos also. So I think Taboramos is at the point in his coaching career where he might be willing to jump in a little bit. I think there are other kind of coaching names that are floating around a little bit like Aleko Escudarian from Cosmos, but I don't really see him being in Seattle's picture particularly.
Coaching Futures & Predictions
00:50:12
Speaker
And as far as the playoffs are concerned, I think that, you know, there is a possibility if there's an early exit that it will. Well, the earlier the exit is obviously going to reflect more poorly on Brian. And I think if there's a really early exit or if there's a disappointing performance in later rounds.
00:50:26
Speaker
the question of okay well are we just hiring somebody that's just going to get us right back to where we were with Siggy that becomes a more logical question to ask and I think in general there needs to be the feeling over these next one three five six games that Seattle is progressing and that'll be an evaluation that goes beyond results okay
00:50:53
Speaker
Claude Teatonio asks, thoughts on Sigi picking Dallas to win over the Sounders in the next round? How do you think the players will react to that? I mean, Dallas won the supporter shield. They're a really good team. I don't, I would hope that they aren't going to take that personally. The weird thing about the Sigi thing is that I feel like he has some animosity towards Garth and maybe a little towards Adrian, but I
00:51:18
Speaker
I genuinely get the sense that he's rooting for the Sounders in large part because I think he sees it as his team. And I think they're not going to take it personally. But hey, if that's what they need to motivate them, I'm all for it. They should burn him in effigy or something.
00:51:35
Speaker
What I'm hoping they do is they watch the the video that that bad and most comics guy makes every year and they see that both of his kids picked the Sounders to fall to Dallas and This is these are two kids they brought out the Sounders brought them out to Seattle last year And this is how they repay that that is that's that's harsh. That's harsh kids. That's what should be firing up the Sounders
00:51:58
Speaker
I like how, whether it be on TV or in interviews, like nine out of 10 things we see quoted from Siggy or he says are like perfectly reasonable things, things that you'd you'd expect anybody to say. And then there's like a little jab, not OK. He got that out of the system back to normal, fairly evaluate everything jab. So it's really it's really reminiscent of every one of his post-match press conferences, really.
00:52:20
Speaker
or his induction speech to the Hall of Fame when he is giving this really nice speech about how everyone is, you know, great and all this stuff. And then he can't just, he just can't stop himself from like putting the knife in Caleb. He just can't help himself. Which, which I think is great because it's more to talk about, but it also, it also makes you wonder, even though the FC Dallas prediction, perfectly reasonable if that wasn't his little knife. Right. Exactly. Totally.
00:52:49
Speaker
or his sly way of motivating his team. Oh, maybe, maybe. Ziggy's now a double agent. Right. Double agent. Okay, here's the thinker. Matt Oak asks, explain why we are going to win MLS Cup. Narrative.
00:53:07
Speaker
That's I mean it would be you know, it is a good narrative. It's a good narrative. I Don't know. I think the sound the sounders are really really well balanced They have you know a great defense. I don't think that the defense gets enough credit very solid midfield
00:53:28
Speaker
don't have any real major weaknesses in the attack um i don't know i mean i think they've got as good a shot as anybody right yeah i think i think it's entirely possible that within two weeks we will be able to make a viable argument if the sounders play to their talent's potential that they are the best and most dangerous team of major league soccer so i think that's that's the logic
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll also say that I think a big part of it is that there's no one in the West, certainly, that talent-wise, I feel like, is blowing the sounders away. I guess maybe LA on paper is still kind of a juggernaut that's waiting to be woken up. How old is that paper? Right, exactly. I mean, that's the thing, is that it's like, at some point, I mean, I think LA is what they are.
00:54:14
Speaker
This is a team of Sounders beat 4-2 on the road. I don't think that that was just a total fluke result. I think the Sounders might really benefit from a very wide open field as well. I think the big argument against the Sounders making out of the West is the argument against every team making out of the West is that you throw the dice so many times, eventually the wrong number is going to come up.
00:54:38
Speaker
Seattle has to throw the die one more time than Colorado or Dallas does and I think the one thing that I That makes me kind of step away from Dallas is that in their first game without Diaz? They were shut out against a second choice galaxy team and that's only one game But I would feel a lot better about Dallas's chances if they had scored two or three open play goals in that game as of right now I think they're going in the playoffs without a proven plan how they can score goals and
00:55:08
Speaker
I think, uh, we're going to win MLS cup. And just to prove to Philadelphia area, um, journalists that, you know, Jordan Morris isn't just some rookie. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I don't understand what you're talking about. Next question.
Roster Changes & Team Dynamics
00:55:29
Speaker
The cam one asked meers and Evans here next year. It's not who is starting right back. Look at Jeremiah or Aaron.
00:55:37
Speaker
I don't think any three of us will be starting, hopefully. I think the saddest part is that if it wasn't gonna be one of the three of us, it would undoubtedly be like it. Yeah. That's pretty sad. Did you see him almost get through that window? Come on. Still closest for the whole season. Jesus. No one made it? I guess no one did, did they? You were probably the closest, weren't you?
00:56:03
Speaker
Definitely definitely it's I think I definitely don't think both those players I'll just say I don't think both those players will be back I tend to think that one of them will be but
00:56:17
Speaker
I would be really disappointed if that one is Tyrone Mears. And I don't have anything personally against Tyrone Mears, but I am definitely overseeing him as the Sounders starting, right? Like, I can live with it for the rest of the year, but I do not want to see him as the starting right back next year. It would suck if Brad isn't on the team, obviously, for anybody that's been at all connected to the Sounders. It's also kind of funny that six years ago Brad wasn't really that popular of a player, and now he's kind of a cornerstone player. And I just kind of wonder if
00:56:45
Speaker
If Chad Marshall ends up retiring, if that ends up being kind of a factor in bringing Brad back because of his versatility and that, oh, you know, if Afaro doesn't actually step in, we saw Brad to step in there next to Roman.
00:57:05
Speaker
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00:57:32
Speaker
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00:57:54
Speaker
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00:58:24
Speaker
Take it all.
00:58:29
Speaker
Timer if he asks, is there anything better than the fact that Flocko refers to his boys as Miss Gordos? Did I say that right? Miss Gordos? Yeah, I think that's awesome. That's great. That's great. That's super great. I love everything about Flocko. So Flocko was wearing a felt sports coat in the locker room, which I thought was purple, I believe. It was gorgeous. It was felt?
00:58:56
Speaker
Well, it's not, it probably wasn't really felt, but it's like that. It looks like that. It's not actually felt. It's, I'm sure it's, you know, whatever. There's, I don't know what you actually call that material, but it's the, you've seen it on jackets. Suede? No, not suede. It looks like felt. Like velvet? Velvet. There you go. Velvet. I said that like 10 seconds ago. Oh. Nobody listens to me. That's fine. Because your level's too low, I'm going to fix it in post.
00:59:26
Speaker
That velvet. There you go. Velvet. Why does he felt purple? I want to see it. He was wearing a purple velvet. Sports. I hope I'm hoping he was only wearing that because he scored a goal because it would it doesn't make sense otherwise. I complimented him on it and he was very appreciative of the of the that's that someone complimented him. Was he wearing was he wearing an ascot? No, that was a little disappointing. It would have been much better if he had now. Didn't you give him one? I should give him. I should have. I didn't bring one.
01:00:10
Speaker
Well, normally I would say the galaxy because they're the galaxy, but Colorado is a nightmare because they're just, they're hot dog water. You know, like they're just so uninteresting in every way.
01:00:11
Speaker
was a failure on my part.
01:00:28
Speaker
But they gave up less than a goal a game, you know, over the course of the season and there's nothing about that to think that it was fluky. They're just really well organized and really... Other than my insistence that it is. Right. Which you're still clinging to, which I respect.
01:00:46
Speaker
So I don't want to play them because I don't want to watch them twice in the space of a week, but also because they're just a nightmare. Because they're the kind of team that just destroys you and just totally shuts you down and kills your soul. But they're so uninteresting and underwhelming that you just attribute it all to yourself and think, God, our team is totally shit. Because they're so...
01:01:11
Speaker
just boring and how they go about beating teams. It's the worst. I hate them. I hope they lose in the second round. So do I. Actually, I think the Sounders match up really badly with the Rapids, too. And it's partly because I think the Sounders are going to have the most trouble with a team that just wants to keep the score low. And I think
01:01:31
Speaker
I don't want to say that sounders match up the best with Dallas, but in some ways I do think Dallas is most likely to play a game that allows the sounders to kind of play their, their game. I think this conversation is just a reminder of how garbage the Western conferences this year, at least at the top compared to most years.
01:01:49
Speaker
And even at the bottom, I get the feeling that sporting and RSL just aren't the quality of teams that we would normally see in these playoff spots in the Western Conference. It's completely underwhelming this year, because usually there's one or two teams that you identify as a clear-cut favorite. And now that Dallas has had some injuries and some absences to bring them back to the pack, I almost wonder if New York Red Bulls are going to break through this year.
MLS Cup Contenders & Play Styles
01:02:11
Speaker
Well, I do think that the top of the East is more talented than the top of the West. You just look at their rosters and their rosters make you a little bit more worried about what they could do. And I think the Red Bulls, I think the Red Bulls have to be considered the favorites to, they gotta be the sexiest demo. I would assume most people are picking the Red Bulls to win an MLS Cup this year.
01:02:40
Speaker
Hmm. I haven't seen very many predictions at all, but maybe that's just because I don't actually use. I haven't really either. I'm guessing. Yeah. I, I don't think NYCFC's defense is going to hold up, but there's something about the Toronto teams that remind me of those really top heavy galaxy teams when Beckham, Donovan and Keene were there. And it's just like, well, if those, if those players play well, they're going to win. And you get that same feeling with Gio Vinko and Bradley, if he wants to play well, he's going to play better than anybody. And Altidore is still a handful no matter what else you think about his game. And
01:03:09
Speaker
They have enough will johnson's and drew moors around them. It's like yeah, and one game they could they could beat anybody probably God, can you imagine will johnson winning the MLS cup tutors in a row? Please no, please no He's gonna say f seattle if they if they win too. That's what that'll be the funniest part And then and then say we don't care about them Anyway, let's talk about the timbers
01:03:37
Speaker
No, let's I'm sure go on go on look it go on from that. Uh, Timothy's ass. Oh, Tim Murphy is uh, he's got all the questions. Yeah, what's up with that Tim Murphy Uh, what skc player or coach do you most want to see cry sweet salty barbecue tears on thursday? Don Dwyer is that even a question? It's not a little shit
01:04:02
Speaker
There's a lot of, I don't know, I feel like there's a lot of players that are worthy of derision on that team. Starting at the top, Peter Vermees is pretty...
01:04:12
Speaker
Like I think the thing that drives me crazy about Peter Vermes is that somehow he's cultivated this aura about him that people believe he plays like something like an attractive style of soccer. And it's the not at all. It's not at all. I feel like people always are talking about because they're always telling people how they want to follow a Barcelona model. So right. He's like the best PR. He's done a great PR job. I'll give him that.
01:04:42
Speaker
on the opposite end of the spectrum. I am not super looking forward to going to the locker room after the game asking Benny failhopper about potentially not being with Kansas City next year. So those are the kind of stories that are the opposite end of that spectrum.
01:04:57
Speaker
Does it look like he won't be back regardless? I mean nothing's confirmed, but it does seem like all options are on the table And I he definitely seems like the type of player and given where FC Kansas City's roster and needs are right now Seems like the type of player that vermines would justify moving on from or at least Yeah, at least not giving him the type of offer that would blow other offers away interesting hmm
01:05:25
Speaker
Last question by Tenerifee is, what's the next player retirement announcement that you hope to hear? Uh, I don't... Well, that's... That's... Well, for you, it's Tyrone Mirrors. I mean, I wasn't gonna say that. Hope to hear. That's kind of a... Yeah, I don't want to hear out of anyone. I don't like to hear players announcing that right now. Landon Donovan. I didn't want to hear Robbie Kane retire.
01:05:49
Speaker
Landon Garment is still in this league, isn't he? I forgot about that. My god, has he done anything since that first goal? I don't think so. He actually started last... He maybe have started the last two games, actually. Did he really? Geez. I had forgotten that he was still a player in this league. I swear. I mean, I picked him because it obviously wouldn't be that big a deal if he retired again. Yeah, I would like to see him retire again.
01:06:11
Speaker
That's true. He probably hasn't opened any of those retirement gifts yet. So it's, it's all covered. Right. I guess at this year too, I wouldn't mind if Gomez retired just because it does seem like he has a career waiting for him behind the mic. And yeah, we kind of talked about the fact that this has not been that great a year for him. Yeah. I like, yeah, no ill will to the guy, but yeah, I think I'm with you there.
01:06:36
Speaker
It was all in banter and fun. Yes, good point. As if they listen to this show. Maybe they do, or somebody does and then tells them to listen to it once we say something bad. Jeremiah, do you think Pat Marshall's around next year? You know, I think that's a good question. I tend to think that he will be around, and I think that his ability to stay healthy down the stretch
01:07:00
Speaker
is probably indicative of his, like, I think he was probably swaying either way. If this season had ended kind of poorly, I would not have all been surprised to see him retire, but he's supposedly under contract for next year. And I would imagine that he'll want to give it another, another year. So I also wonder who Seattle has to make the tough choice on and leave, expose and expansion then.
01:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, well don't you don't you listen to our show Richard? We've been asked this question like three times in a row No, I'm looking at I'm just because you brought it up. I went and looked at the lineup that LA put out against Dallas Ariel lattice inner was there starting number nine? Mm-hmm Landon Donovan started at the 10 and
01:07:56
Speaker
Raul Mendiola was starting the midfield. What was this lineup? Bruce did say before the game he was going to rotate his lineup. He said like Wednesday. He said like four days ahead of time. I mean, they were locked in the third. Yeah. Wow. All right. Well, anyway, that digression. Digression. Twimberly23 asked, who has the second safest arms on the team?
01:08:24
Speaker
I thought that was such a great, that was such a great line by Christian. I've never felt safer than I did in this picture when, when Roman Torres is carrying him effortlessly, seemingly. With one arm. With one arm. That was amazing. I'm sure, you know, God, who would, I don't even know who would. Good question. Probably Stephon Fry. Yeah, I was gonna say Stephon Fry. Yeah, that would be my guess. Wouldn't it be Zach Scott? He could probably carry like four guys. Probably.
01:08:54
Speaker
Most still play soccer with his kids. Yeah. How cute was that picture of Osvaldo, Osvaldo, Alonzo's daughter sleeping on him in the pregame ceremony? So cute. So cute. The picture that he posted to his Twitter after the game, he has his wife and his three kids there. And one of his kids has his exact face. It's really creepy. The one is his wife, the one his wife holding. Right. I noticed the same thing.
01:09:24
Speaker
The same D-G-A-F look, it's so great. Okay, A.R. Beck asks, I have Hershey's KitKat and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for Halloween. Do I let the kids choose or work it so the best stuff is left over? Give them the kisses. God, that's brutal. Let the kids pick, my God, you guys are monsters.
01:09:51
Speaker
This is why you buy yourself a bag, right? And don't put it in the books. Right, exactly. I mean, is there like some kind of weird law that doesn't let you buy your own candy? Yeah, I gotta say, I agree. If you, yeah, it's like the one day a year, especially these days when like parents are all like, well, it's a gluten free.
01:10:13
Speaker
You know, just let them have the whatever they want. Do people trick-or-treat near you, Aaron? Do you get trick-or-treaters at your house? In my apartment building? No. Good point. I probably, I'm sure at the new house that there will be, but I won't be there, so. Dodge it a little bit. I would. Do you get trick-or-treaters, Likit?
01:10:40
Speaker
Just a couple kids not very many. Do you take your kids somewhere? Yeah, we generally do these usually like a Candy Row or we sometimes take them to the Central Market does a in-store safe zone kind of thing. Oh We're gonna do I think we'll probably take our kids somewhere, but I don't think I think we'll probably take them somewhere nearby like that's essentially our neighborhood, but no one really
01:11:07
Speaker
Trick or cheese at our house, unfortunately. We got like six trick or cheaters. That's because everybody's going out to like Montlake. Right. You get chit. Okay, we got two questions left. First one is, M. Gentlemen asks, how late is too late in the year to be drinking pumpkin beer? That's the trick question, I think.
01:11:29
Speaker
Man, I like pumpkin beer. I don't care what anyone says. Yeah, I mean I like good pumpkin beer There's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of bad a bad pumpkin beer, but there's plenty good pumpkin beer out there What you want to fight Richard I have a I actually have a rule for when pumpkin beer is acceptable You just look at the calendar and if the month ends in a Y don't do it
01:11:55
Speaker
I think you should drink whatever beer makes you happy whenever in the year you want to. The month ends at a Y? Are you sure? Did you mess that joke up? No, I didn't. So July is the only month that you don't drink pumpkin beer? January, February also.
01:12:14
Speaker
but december and uh yeah basically like in the spring the ones that don't have a y on it you don't really find pumpkin beers and then in the fall the ones that don't have a y on it you do find pumpkin beers okay fair enough i this just in german doesn't know which one's ending why well it also it's also a joke that like it's not even a joke it's just like a rule that has too many levels to explain to it it's like well yeah april doesn't have a y but good luck finding a pumpkin beer in april
01:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, but what if you, what if you sell her your beers? What if you buy a six pack of, you know, a pumpkin beer in November and drink four and have two left in April? What then? That's, that's a good point. If you do all that stuff or if you make your own beer and you're listening to my stupid rules on beers, then you have this weird anachronism or this weird inconsistency. So, uh, yeah, just go by people are listening to us. Like, wait, wait a minute. I was going to drink that beer and now I can't. Damn it.
01:13:07
Speaker
Random guy on this sounder's podcast has this rule and I'm really thinking that's what I should really change my whole lifestyle to adhere to. But yeah, no, as, as Aaron said, if you're, if you're going through all that, then you probably don't need to listen to stupid rules of thumb about the temporal consistency of beer. Fair. Big words. These are big words for this podcast. Temporal.
01:13:31
Speaker
Kenny the host can't even Remember all the months with wine. I know slow down Okay, last question sunny Jim 509 asks if the sounders hoist the cup when we get the Aaron Jeremiah and look at dance video We are all clamoring for absolutely not. Oh Man, I'll post dance video for you guys. You can you can dance. That's fine. I'll do it. I'll take the bullet I'm going streaking. I am going streaking
01:13:59
Speaker
I've pretty much crafted my entire adolescent teen and adult life around not having to dance. Fair. And so I'm not gonna start now. Okay.
01:14:18
Speaker
That was it. That was it, by the way. Oh, that was it. Well, I did say that was the last question. You did. Well, I do want to end on this note, because I'm a sad, bitter person. But I just feel like we should pour one out for the Timbers, because they suffered quite a week this week.
01:14:40
Speaker
I can't imagine what would happen. I can't even imagine if the Sounders had a week like that. I honestly feel bad for people having to cover the Timbers this week because it's got to be a vitriolic, horrible place to be doing right now. Not to just say this, but the Sounders at times had that week once a year every postseason.
01:15:01
Speaker
I don't know, there was a lot of things that may have felt that way, but there was a lot packed into this week. The Sounders had a bad loss in one leg of the postseason and that was shitty, but the Timbers got knocked out of two competitions and two of their best players might be in jail.
01:15:24
Speaker
and they lost to one of their big rivals, 4-1, in a game where the other team had nothing to play for and they lost by such a wide margin that their seemingly instrumental lead in the Cascadia Cup was lost.
01:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the thing is that all these these last two games were perfectly winnable. And now it's not just like, you know, it's not just like you lost. It's like some part of you didn't show up for these games that, you know, on paper and, you know, based on like your past, how you finished seasons of the past, you should have won these games. So, you know, something about your mystique and your aura just didn't show up this week, did it?
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty, it'll be interesting to see how this offseason goes because it can't be fun, it can't be fun, that's for sure. You're gonna see a different Timbers team in a couple of key places come this winter, so should be interesting.
01:16:23
Speaker
So, Rich, you followed that team closer than either Aaron or I. Were there warning signs that this was coming? No. If anything, Kayla Porter had kind of intentionally, throughout the year, retained a very even keel. There was even a point in the middle of the season where they went nine games unbeaten. I think they only had five wins in there.
01:16:40
Speaker
he had intentionally kind of said, look, we're just going to stay very even keel. And I think when you look back at how they finished seasons under Porter, I think he kind of thought, let's just stay, let's just keep everything very level until the end of the year. And then we'll worry about really pushing for results. And this year, as opposed to last year and the two other years where even the year that they didn't make the playoffs, they finished really strong. This year, it just didn't work for some reason. And so
01:17:05
Speaker
The kind of the backfire of the strategy is has is that you don't really get to see your true self until September and October And does that give you enough time to adjust clearly this year it didn't
01:17:16
Speaker
Yeah, it turns out that points in July and points in October count the same. Who would have thunk? Who would have thunk? And I do think that one of the things that did underscore, and not so much that was about the timbers, but I do think one of the things that their collapse underscored is just how hard it is to achieve what the Sounders did this year and what they have achieved over the last eight years. And they've created a situation where making the playoffs
01:17:43
Speaker
advancing out of your Champions League group are just kind of a given. And that's not to say that it's automatic, but that's the perception, that it's like, well, of course the Sounders are going to win their Champions League group, even if that group includes two really good teams.
Sounders' Consistent Playoff Success
01:18:01
Speaker
Of course the Sounders are going to make the playoffs, even though they started the season like total crap. And I do think that it's worth
01:18:10
Speaker
You know, as much as it will be disappointing if the Senators don't win MLS Cup this year, or they don't get to the MLS Cup final at least, that I think that there's something to be said for taking a little bit of time to appreciate that the Senators have now made the playoffs for eight straight years. That's tied for the longest streak active. It's tied for the longest ever streak. Only the LA Galaxy from 96 to 2005.
01:18:34
Speaker
uh made it more consecutive years and that was obviously with a lot of teams in a league where even more teams made the playoffs and and the the Sounders are still the second most points since 2009 uh there's only two two other teams that even made the playoffs seven of the last eight years so there's a lot that i think that we can look back on this year and and and kind of maybe appreciate a little bit about what they've they've really accomplished over these eight years even though they haven't won MLS Cup but
01:19:04
Speaker
Anyway, I was just gonna say this dovetails on my thing of judging teams by championships It's just really kind of a very unfair standard like Just statistically speaking in Major League Soccer if you win more than one Championship over every 20 years or as of next year every 22 years You're doing better than the average team yet. I'm not sure any fan base would really think of that as a success so if you were to play that out and considering some teams like the galaxy are going to win more than a couple of titles in that span then almost every team in
01:19:33
Speaker
your league is going to be a failure by that standard. So it just shows how stupid that standard is. And I think it just up tails with what you're talking about to make the playoffs, to put yourself in position that often. And I think everybody on this show would agree if the Sounders just keep putting themselves in position, eventually things are, you know, whether it be by luck or just by the nature of the competition, things will click and they'll win a title. I just don't think judging people solely by championships is by any measure a reasonable one.
01:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, and it'll bring up an interesting question and we don't need to get into it now. We should probably call this a segment or call it a show. But it does bring up an interesting question. It's like, would you rather be the sounders where you're in the playoffs every year, you're competing for an Elmless Cup?
01:20:15
Speaker
you're falling short a lot of the time. Like, would you trade places right now with the last two years with the Timbers? And I'm sure a lot of people would, they'd take that MLS Cup. But Aaron and I have talked a lot about how much extended enjoyment a team gives you, and the Sounders have done a pretty good job of being able to give you something fun to be excited about over a long period of time.
01:20:39
Speaker
Anyway, I'll probably call it there.
Conclusion & Sign Off
01:20:43
Speaker
Thanks to Richard for coming on. Thanks to Aaron. Thanks to Lickit. Thanks to our sponsors Verity Credit Union, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Foolpool Wines, Constellation & Company, and the book, Towards Cascadia. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, signing off for No Saudi at Dis. Remember, you'll never get alone.
01:21:04
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 Rollong, Columbia Rollong. Rollong, Columbia Rollong. Rollong, Columbia Rollong. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Rollong, Columbia Rollong.