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Fans react to DEMORALIZING Seattle Sounders loss at Philadelphia Union!
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Lobbing Scorchers reacts and take calls following Seattle's 1-0 loss to Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania during the Major League Soccer regular season.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorships
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, Ari here. I'm excited to tell you about one of our sponsors, Hakes and Ferments. Hickson is a Seattle-based hot sauce and vinegar brand, making some of the most flavorful hot sauce around. We've partnered up to craft a small batch green blended hot sauce fermented to perfection with bright flavor and medium heat.
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00:00:31
Speaker
We get a lot of emails here at Lobbing Scorchers.
Podium Menswear Collaboration
00:00:34
Speaker
Mailing lists we forgot to unsubscribe from, recruiters begging us to go work for FIFA. But one of the most common is people who want to know how we maintain such an effortlessly classy yet fashion-forward wardrobe. Mostly me, I think, but Noah too, I guess.
00:00:47
Speaker
Well, the answer is our sponsor, Podium Menswear. Podium is based in Edmonds and they carry really quality stuff like Filson and Red Wings. They cover all the basics and also have some stuff that's not as easy to get here.
00:00:59
Speaker
You can shop in store at 14 4th Avenue North in downtown Edmonds or online at lobbingscorchers.com slash podium. Right to your door.
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00:01:10
Speaker
we've partnered with seattle coffee roaster hu e coffee to bring a full spectrum of coffees to our listeners matt the owner is a diehard sounders fan an inaugural season ticket holder who can often be overheard talking about the latest match while he works behind the bar thankfully you don't have to live in seattle to get great coffee q e's high- qualityal coffee subscription service offers our favorite blends right to your doorrk at lobbing scorchers.com slash coffee.
00:01:35
Speaker
First time subscribers can get 25% off your order. Additionally, QED is offering Lobbing Scorcher supporters 25% off site-wide with the code LS74. What are you waiting for? Visit one of their three locations in Mount Baker, West Seattle, and Three Tree Point, or go to lobbing scorchers.com slash coffee and use code LS74 at checkout.
00:01:55
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or lobbingscorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:02:17
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well it's gonna be a scorcher.
Seattle Sounders' Recent Challenges
00:02:38
Speaker
Wow. Why so serious, Ari? The Seattle Sounders just lost their fifth game in a row, the first time in club history. Not only that, giving the two-win win.
00:02:52
Speaker
Philadelphia Union, their first home win of the season. Round of applause for the Charity Stripes. Incredible. This team looked disastrous today, which is something, unfortunately, we've come to expect. um Ari, how you feeling? I'm going try and get this presser pulled up. Make sure we don't miss it because we don't want miss a moment. But... um This game turned me even more into a joker than I already was.
00:03:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's not great. You know, making history out on the East Coast, never before have the Seattle Sounders lost five straight league games, but they have now. And, ah you know, it it is it is unfortunate, Noah, because you go into this game,
00:03:42
Speaker
I think we all, none of us like expected them to win or take a result in this game. I think this is kind of what at least you and i expected to happen. I think I said that when we were predicting the schedule on the last show. But you know now that we've seen how it actually played out, This Philly team is bad enough where a result actually was attainable, even in spite of the fact that the Seattle Sounders are in their worst run of form in their history, in their MLS history. And they still could not come...
00:04:16
Speaker
All that close to scoring. So we've got the hostage video pulled up and we'll get that started with Brian Schmetzer and whoever they're bringing out in just a few minutes, it looks like. But yeah, I think, I mean, we're we'll get into all the yeah all the negatives about where things stand right now. But I think...
00:04:35
Speaker
the The thing right off rip that makes it even more frustrating than it already would have been given that we expected them to lose this game is that the opposition was such that they actually didn't have to lose this game. They, if they had even been able to generate enough sustained pressure or generate enough chances to score even one goal, they actually, they could have gotten a point in this game, which really wouldn't have like,
00:04:58
Speaker
mattered from the in the broader picture. It would have mattered in terms of the standings, I guess. But like I don't think... you know They could have scrapped out the 1-1 in this game, or they could have... This game could have played out the exact same way pretty much, but they scrap out a 1-0 and get super lucky somehow. That would not really...
00:05:14
Speaker
It would be good for morale, but in terms of where things actually stand at this moment in time, I
Post-Game Analysis and Fan Engagement
00:05:20
Speaker
don't think it would have mattered. I think we saw everything we needed to see in terms of how the actual game went.
00:05:26
Speaker
So that's kind of that. why we'llll We'll get into it more, but that's where I'm at, like right off the bat. We'll absolutely get into it more and we will take your calls. I see some people asking how you call in. Once we get past the press conferences, once me and Ari get past our takes, we will drop that link to call in in the comments. We do only have spot for eight people at once. If there's more than eight people, it'll just say there's not room and you'll just have to keep trying to join. I will say, though, we are going to try and move people through quickly today as me and Ari... Listen, if the team doesn't want to show up and play...
00:05:59
Speaker
fuck if I'm going to show up and play. Like, you know what I mean? We've done three hours each of the last two games. Yeah, like, it's the Philadelphia Union. You just lost to the worst club in Major League Soccer, maybe despite, um I don't know, maybe maybe maybe sporting is worse, but it doesn't really matter. um We did just get record-wise. Record-wise and points-wise, they're the worst team in the league right now. I don't know about any more, but they were going into this game. They absolutely were going into this. Kavon, well, let's let's let's hit the super chat here. Post-game bingo, unlucky.
00:06:28
Speaker
Game away in the um away games and MLS are blank. One unfortunate moment played better non DP interview. ah Good play from a defiance player. So got chat. I want everyone to write these down and I want everyone to notify us in chat.
00:06:43
Speaker
If one of these things happens in the postgame press conference, want to hear unlucky. we hear unlucky at all away games are tough in and MLS. One unfortunate moment played better non DP interview. And a good play from a Defiance player. So i think I think you might be able to hit most of those. So we'll see if those all come true. Thanks for making that bingo card there, MG206.
00:07:06
Speaker
ah You know, the one prediction that I had, thankfully, didn't come true. And that was Kavon Sullivan did not score or assist on the Seattle Sounders. Though, honestly, Ari, he probably should have. That second goal looked like it was onside. Yeah, no, he that I thought he was for sure on. Like, I'm glad that VAR showed the restraint to not delay the game for 27 minutes and then change it because it was one of those situations where you couldn't really tell if that, yeah. But ah that should have probably been a good goal. Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I don't know where we are, but I think Chad has the right idea here that these games are getting harder and harder to watch. I legitimately couldn't, I can't even get up the energy to be upset anymore. reached point acceptance. I've reached the point of acceptance. reached the point of acceptance i've ascended past the point of like lashing out and being too bent out of shape about it is what it is like there's like i said we we literally did i not say that that exact that exactly what would happen before no you you literally said that we had this conversation four days ago three days ago when we were sitting
00:08:14
Speaker
I said, this is one of those games where in an MLS where we've been, you and I have watched this league long enough to know this is one of those road games where, you know, what's going to happen before it even happens. And honestly, it was not even as bad as I thought it was going to be for whatever that's worth, which is not a lot, but like, i thought that'singo card that's bingo card.
00:08:32
Speaker
What did i say? I think he meant for the presser, but what did I say? I know, but away games in MLS are blank. I feel like that one fits close. So everyone everyone gets a point. Make sure to check it off on your bingo card at home. Well, so, I mean, away games in MLS are difficult, but this is known...
00:08:48
Speaker
theoretically historically as a very good away as the uh statistically highest performing away team in major league soccer so under normal circumstances in normal times this is a game where you would expect them to be able to go get a result this is a stadium where they went and won last year pretty easily like remember that obed vargas was there they did play that game between two months the game took two months to complete but it did happen Was that the raccoon game? I have that on the thumbnail. I don't know saw that. No, it wasn't the raccoon game, but it was the game where it took, they had the weather delay so long that they played it like a month and a half. Okay. Yeah. I used the raccoon for the thumb because I was like, you know, it was like two years ago, but it is a Philly union reference. And also think it actually kind of sums up like the guys chasing it. We're digging in the trash. We are literally in the trash. That was an intentional photo choice, if anyone was wondering. Reese
Player Performance Discussions
00:09:40
Speaker
has a banger here. I think we need to note this here. Reese says, Rusnak may have had one of the best performances today. He almost assisted Kavon. That cross to Kavon Sullivan was his most dangerous attack. It a dime. It was a dime. Honestly, Reese has been on fire just cooking my ass for the last two weeks and I'll take it. I'll take it. It's, uh... Reese, I know is on... He's cloud-nining right now just from everything that he's been saying for the past, like, two and a half years. Like, Reese is an OG and he's been on the brigade and, you know, it's like, what do do? You gotta give it to them when they're right. So...
00:10:13
Speaker
Oh, God. I want to know. i want to hear. i have two I have two negatives. I just want to get them off. Yeah, yeah. No, I have i have a lot of stuff written down to get to as well. I was gonna i was hoping they would start this hostage video. i name They're yelling at him in the locker room right now. There's no... so To what end? To what end? Cavan, not Cavan. It is Cavan, yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker
You know what, guys? How long have you watched the Lobby? This is what I'm going to crash out about right now. How long have you all watched the Lobby Scorchers broadcast to know we're not going to pronounce anything correctly?
00:10:44
Speaker
but it That is our shtick. First, it was the fucking Quintaro, Quintero, Darwin Quintero team yesterday. And now we're getting Kavan, Kavan, Kavan, Kavan. It doesn't matter. he's literally he plays for Bangladesh.
00:10:59
Speaker
I can't get his name right. I'm sorry. Like, I don't know what you want. Here's something we can, okay, you actually, you had your negatives that you wanted to cook on. Yeah, yeah. Well, number one, um um I just... a Paul Arriola getting a start made me... That's when I filmed that joke. I was going to say we should we should talk about the lineup because that's not... What made me joker with the lineup was like running the double the same double pivot again. Is there is there something that like we're missing with that? like um I think that... I don't know. I like...
00:11:31
Speaker
Pete, Pete, Pete. Okay. First of all, first of all, yeah Peter Kingston has to be a starter on this team right now. Like, yeah, there's no, there's no way around that. And I don't care if it's at right back. I don't care if it's at center mid. I don't care if it's on the wing. I don't care if he's your number set. He just, he is bringing one of the only ones who is bringing juice and energy right now. And the team didn't, the did the team not look way better once he subbed on? Like, looked so much better once he came on yeah so like why is he it's the one guy he's he's wrong right now he can play in that double pivot i bet like he is a mix it up physical like type player covers covers ground runs a lot like he but he's not gonna be christian rolled on at it but he can do i would be surprised if you put him out there if he didn't do it functionally especially because he he is playing his ass off right now so like i i don't understand like
00:12:24
Speaker
you may as well run him in the double pivot for either one of Hassani or Snyder. It doesn't matter. Like i that's my, like that's one of my biggest complaints right now. I don't understand playing this. I don't care who you put in there.
00:12:37
Speaker
Also, where are the goddamn transfer rumors? If you truly don't have anyone, you can't even just pick someone up. You can't even just pick someone up from an MLS team. Put out a little cam around. What the fuck are we doing? Put out a fake rumor.
00:12:53
Speaker
Put out a fake rumor like Atlanta United's been doing. her um You know what? I'm going to do that tomorrow. i'm gonna put to Atlanta United put out rumors. They're like, oh, where we got Koke inbound. we got We got Darwin Nunez coming inbound. And then two days later, they're like, they you signed with the, or like Koke is staying at Atletico. Darwin Nunez is going to Turkey. Like, just their news.
00:13:16
Speaker
Fake us out. I feel like Tommy Scoops knows because like they'll be, they'll probably, he'll know like, oh, they had a conversation with someone or they're looking at someone, which is generally when you would be like, okay, Atlanta United are rumored to be with this person, right? But everyone knows the Sounders aren't actually going to sign them. So any talks are meaningless. Why report on something you know is never going to happen? It's like at least Atlanta, you know, will go out there and throw $15 million. It's like feasible that they would do that. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
00:13:44
Speaker
It's just like, bro, what the hell are we doing?
00:13:51
Speaker
Man, can we please get the ah please get the hostage video going, man? Because I got this, guys. This is what we're this is this is what's going on. GhostNack is on the stand right now, chat. GhostNack is here. That's the player that they selected. He's speaking right now. You just can't hear him.
00:14:08
Speaker
I... like Okay, let's go down the list, Ari. We need to continue to talk about Paul Areola. Why in the fuck is he starting?
00:14:22
Speaker
have Because you're paying him $1.1 million. Let's see what's going on. I mean, you'd have to buy him out. You think they're going to do that? Nope.
00:14:33
Speaker
I heard him.
00:14:37
Speaker
Let's see who it is.
00:14:41
Speaker
Oh, they won't they won't tell us yet. They won't tell us yet. They wouldn't tell me yet. But, um, all right. i Like, dude, okay. I hate that I have to play into the damn, like, Craig Weibel, you know, badge. We're brigade. We're brigade now. We're brigade now. I'm like, don't want to be, I've resisted the toxins, the poison, the drink for so long. And yet here I am. Is Paul Areola the worst signing in Sounders history?
00:15:12
Speaker
No. he Top five? I don't think he's had enough time to create a legacy like that. ah But, like, dude, I mean, what about, ah what about like, ah there's there's just a lot of competition there. Okay, hostage video, hostage video.
00:15:28
Speaker
All right, guys. Thank you both very much for your time. Can you hear me okay? Yep. All right, we're going get going. First question to Maz Vida. Maz, go ahead, please. Yeah, hey, fellas. Look, you've lost five in a row, and there's no more...
00:15:42
Speaker
Can you hear me? There's no moral victories. But are you, can you hear me? Not a little bit. through i think the ACs. OK. I'll just try to to chop it up. I mean, make it real you know real quick here, real succinct. Hey, are you seeing any improvement from last game to this game? I know you've lost five in a row.
00:16:03
Speaker
Are you seeing any improvement even though you lost another game? Yeah, I think so. I think obviously we gave up the goal in the first half, but we still have chances to come out here and get a result.
00:16:20
Speaker
See the fights there from the guys. I think we're just a little bit.
00:16:27
Speaker
I think it's time it's time for us to create our own luck. We keep battling. The games aren't going to get any easier.
00:16:38
Speaker
What does that look like creating your own luck? Is just a confidence thing? that what that is, just a belief? Not that you don't have belief, but how do you create that luck? How do you put that in your mind?
00:16:49
Speaker
is it there already? think it's just you know going back to the basics. mean, we all believe in one another. And we had a really good fight out there today. And I think the first step is, you know, don't continue the first hole.
00:17:02
Speaker
Obviously, they're in their own stadium. It gives them a little bit more confidence, gets the crowd involved. I think that's the one for us. And the longer we keep behaving from zero to the more we go into the game, and the more we have a chance to come out with week.
00:17:20
Speaker
Thank you. Thanks, Boz. Next question, we'll go over to Jeremiah. Take it away, Jeremiah. Yeah, how would you guys describe the the mood in the locker room right now? i mean, I can, yeah, how would you describe it?
00:17:32
Speaker
I think, you know, there's some frustration, but that only comes because, you know, we are can say whatever everybody want kind a walk target smart well pretty have to assumema and assume two thousand and seventeen so live on a t bi as soon as gonna get for screenre i a consable everything me depo you know there's there's some frustration not only come because it's no good expectations for what we want to do.
00:18:04
Speaker
This club has been very successful in the past. So I think, know, if you're not frustrated, you're not unhappy with the results, then that means you don't care. So I think, you know, we're going to take the time to reflect on this game and and then focus the next one for all of our energy to that.
00:18:20
Speaker
Like I said, we've got to care and become lucky and it's about time that we start getting goals.
00:18:27
Speaker
All right, guys, we'll keep going here. And thank you in advance just for speaking up. I'm told you're having some difficulties with the HVAC in the room. So appreciate you working through that with us. The next question, we're going to Jada Evans at the Seattle Times. Jada, go ahead, please.
00:18:40
Speaker
Thanks. Thanks for the time, y'all. With this kind of situation when you're when you're losing five games, I mean, are you getting enough of assistance or help on ideas on on what to do from the coaching staff as far as how to how to fix things?
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah, do how is that aspect? are you Are you getting the support that you need on that in that realm? Of course, I mean, the coaches are preparing us, you know, they're laying down the tactics, some things we need to do better and the strength of the other team.
00:19:13
Speaker
You know, we have to take accountability and put that into action. You know, there's only so much they can tell us until the game, you know, pis off and it's up to us to execute. And we have no better guys and no hard quality players that, you know, we get a job.
00:19:32
Speaker
All right, next. Jada, go ahead and ask a follow-up if you need one Well, yeah, I'm just wondering, though, ah then when you kind of look around the locker room, I mean, there's you have injuries, too. So when you look around, you you feel that what you have right now can get you out of this?
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, injury. I mean, last year, you lot injuries. were very good at this call. Like I said, if somebody's injury, the next guy's going to step up Yeah, it's like I said, it's easy to say like you are being here, but I'm very confident.
00:20:15
Speaker
When we go out there, the first win, everything becomes beautiful. So yeah. Thank you. All right, we'll move over to Callahan next. Callahan, go ahead and ask a question, please.
00:20:29
Speaker
So what do you think has been the biggest issue over these five games? Obviously five losses in a row, they're to have a lot of issues, but you think there's a one big issue to you or do you think it's more team-wide?
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, i know we lost, you know, it's been five in a row, but after the break, you know, You know, we had a reset and more starts from there. I think, you know, we played a rival, obviously, you know, we don't want to look too much into the past, you know, but that was always, you know, unacceptable.
00:20:57
Speaker
And you look at Austin, you know, they scored towards the end. So maybe if we have a little bit more discipline and try to see that, you know, it out. And then today, you know, thought we battled really hard and the ball didn't bounce our way.
00:21:09
Speaker
And, you know, we let them, you know, continue to gain momentum, but we still created enough chances to come out of here, you know, with a better plan. So I think if we focus on the totality of the results too much, then it takes a little bit of energy away from focusing on exploring.
00:21:31
Speaker
All right, we'll take one or two more, guys. Appreciate you working with us here on the audio issues again. Felipe and Makeda, ahead and ask your question, please. Thank you, ah Alex. um Guys, in your opinion, what's happening with the team? But why is in in this moment in the Seattle Sounders history, I know football is about moments, but do you think is the locker room, is the the front office, is the coaching staff? What do you think or is a combination of of the three or what what's happening right now?
00:22:10
Speaker
feel like, yeah, we're not going to be in any office or in the office. We've been winning four, seven, eight, and three, like I said.
00:22:21
Speaker
So right now, just what we're going to do, come together, work smart, work hard, believe. Like I said, if you win one and build one, two, three, you're going to win. You're going to be very confident.
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think starts just wonderful. One way leads to another one.
00:22:44
Speaker
From there. Like I said, historically, this is a pretty successful club and this is going to be part of that.
00:22:57
Speaker
All right, we'll take a sorry, I didn't need to step on you. We'll take one more here, Jeremiah. see you go ahead and ask it. Yeah, you know, I i guess i'm I'm curious specifically about the the
Offensive Strategy Critique
00:23:11
Speaker
offense. You know, you said you created some chances today. i there There weren't a lot of them, though. And i I'm just curious if there's anything that you think you need to be doing differently offensively. Is the team, is it sort of like one of those things where it feeds on itself, where you're so worried about being strong defensively that it's harder to get forward? Or is it just a matter of of taking some chances?
00:23:37
Speaker
I think we need be a little bit braver in some situations. Obviously, you know, we try to keep possession predominantly, but today was a little started off for a little bit more as dogfight.
00:23:49
Speaker
But if you look at their chances in the first half, you know, it's both changed games. They scored ball behind, got made a great finish. But, you know, we scored, you know, the one that cut back or, you know,
00:24:04
Speaker
If Ozaza gets except shot off, not blaming any of our guys, but that changes the outcome the game. And so I think also playing away from home, I thought we took a fight for them today.
00:24:19
Speaker
And I think that's when we got to look back at the video and see how we can play from behind it and maybe change our
00:24:34
Speaker
Right. Nuhu, Asani, thank you both very much for your time. We appreciate it. We're going to let Safe travels home. Thank you, guys.
00:24:46
Speaker
All right. That was... Oh, you're muted. i You're muted. yeah my bad. I was muted. i I was going to say, I'm not going to lie, i didn't really understand much of what was just said there. I did...
00:25:02
Speaker
Do you have takeaways from that? i don't know. This is what my no that was a lot of my take was.
00:25:14
Speaker
That's what I that's what i got from that. I don't know about you guys. What I gathered was they had an AC. There's like an AC unit going in the room so they couldn't hear was really being asked. Well, it is just funny to me that, like, just turn the noise cancellation off on the Zoom call on your my iPad, which is you something you can do. But, like, it's you know, whatever. What do I know? Also, maybe you could just get, like, lav mics for the players. um They connect to the iPad. They're $70. I just, like, you know, i'm
00:25:45
Speaker
i we're the bad tech guys so like how i was gonna say like i'm not i don't have i don't have room to talk especially when it comes to the lav mics but uh i have some bad news but as we uh wait for schmatz dude i have some really bad news i have some really bad news all right because reese was calling you okay Reese was cooking me He was cooking me. He was saying, Ari, why don't you go look at the underlying numbers? Why don't you go look at the underlying numbers? See how the squad did. See if, ah see if that justifies the loss or anything. So I was like, you know what, Reese, you're, you're right. I'm going to look at the underlying numbers just ah you know, not, I wasn't even going to bring them up. I was just going to look just to look, just to see what was going on.
00:26:25
Speaker
Anyway, guys, I regret to inform you that the Seattle Sounders generated 0.1 expected goals tonight. what what Which honestly, i think we like that's are beating their ass. The eye test is beating their eyes regarding regardless. ok Okay.
00:26:44
Speaker
Coach, thanks for joining us straight to questions. Sure. Okay. Jeremiah saw your hand first. Go ahead and lead us off, please. ah Yeah, so obviously five straight losses. I'm sure you can say that there was some good defensive effort in this game, but offensively, it seems like you got you're not really able to generate much.
00:27:06
Speaker
um i know what What can you say about the offense? Do you feel like you're getting enough from you know your your star players who you still you know just some you still have available?
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, mean, I can cut to the chase. I mean, look, what we discussed with the players afterwards is, look, you know, we needed to, you know, go back to being hard to beat. know, our goal for this game was to keep a clean sheet. You know, we were trying to do that, but you've got, you know, Tino and Stewie, God bless them, you know, Kalani, their makeshift back line, you know, one mistake, they get the goal. And, and okay, that's, that's,
00:27:48
Speaker
didn't want to concede in the first half. Then getting to your question directly, if you look at the sequence, you know, Paul Areola had a good game, good performance. He came on, gave us a spark. Gets in behind on the right-hand side. he elects to chip a ball into the back pose or moves over Paul's head, the other Paul's head.
00:28:12
Speaker
But Osase is there right in the middle of the goal. And if he just sips the ball across the base of the goal, maybe the defender kicks it in osase is right there we need to create a little bit more you know intensity in front of the goal and so what i told paul i said look let's just let's just whip a bunch of more balls in there and let osase or masaski who's ever in there uh fight for
00:28:40
Speaker
You know, that's one. You go to Jesus and look, i've seen I've seen this happen around the world. It's happened to me. You know, you have a guy on and on his first touch, you know, he's gonna he's go to show the coach that he should have started and be the hero.
00:28:55
Speaker
And, you know, it was little tough. I mean, it's on his left foot. But those are the one moments that you might get in an away game in MLS that, you know, we need to, you know, just be a little more clinical.
00:29:08
Speaker
know, the sequence with Albert and Paul, think they're the other Paul Rothrock, I mean, Albert on top of the box, their team did a good job, you know, closing that down. But again, I've seen Albert score from, you know, those spaces top of the box.
00:29:23
Speaker
Paul Rothrock, leading scorer, though I can't complain about any of the guys effort, not Paul Areola, Jesus, not Albert tonight, certainly not Paul Rothrock. I'm not complaining about their effort.
00:29:37
Speaker
He's got a chance at the back post to dunk on a guy and headed in. I've seen Paul score that i in training and in games. And then, you know, finally, you know, the last guy I would highlight for you is, look, Peter Kingston is chomping at the bit from our playing time.
00:29:58
Speaker
I mean, he came on and, you know, sparked the team as well. But you've got a ball and Osazi is onside, fair challenge. The ball drops to Peter Kingston, top of the box, and he dinks the ball. Had that gone in, it would have been a highlight for you. we were all, you know, one one happy to go home, start up something more positive.
00:30:20
Speaker
But you're right, Jeremiah, we just haven't been able to, you know, be as dangerous as we should be on the attacking side of the ball.
00:30:33
Speaker
All right, next. is whole ups last Yeah, yes. Go for it. Yeah, I mean, and I guess, how do you how do you in how do you push you guys, you know, when you you don't have a lot of options, I guess, to make changes. But how how do you go about applying pressure and and sort of demanding better, especially, you know, offensive performances?
00:30:59
Speaker
Oh, look, Jeremiah, we have changed kind of the way we we selected players, you know, that message is out there. You know, I mean, the three headed monster up front with Jordan Osase and Danny, I mean, they're all talented players. but One of them has to make that position their own. We've talked about that. You know,
00:31:21
Speaker
talking about Jesus and Albert and Paul, free experience, good, dangerous, attacking players. How do we unlock them? you know, Hassani, Snyder, the kid, you know, Snyder had a better game today, but the other day he was a little, you know, wasn't his best performance. We need a little bit more punch from those positions.
00:31:42
Speaker
And then, you know, again, there's Kalani and Alex will come back and, you know, Peter's going to be in the mix on the right-hand side. left-hand side if pepo comes back if you pressure on call i think that's coming i think i think those decisions are coming they're going to be harder for me when everybody's healthy but you know the message has been being sent it's just you know i gotta find at some point jeremiah you know look to give those guys all in their credit because again i think it works hard at some point i might have to just okay this is the lineup
00:32:22
Speaker
And I'm going to make those choices and we're going to stick with it. And then, know, those decisions and it falls on me. All right, Jada, we'll go to you next. Go ahead, please.
00:32:34
Speaker
Thank you. Thanks for the time, Brian. Do you, after the Portland match, you said that you had some tough conversations with Adrian with this, ah with two more losses on on top of that. Do you feel that things, your position at all is in in any kind of pearl this this upcoming week here?
00:32:53
Speaker
i mean i hope i i hope i've uh garnered a little bit of a longer leash than some look i understand the business jada i'm not going to shy away from the question i understand the results we're in a results based business and so things continue to go well that's certainly an option that adrian has i mean i we have conversations all the time about the team with craig and adrian and We talk about it.
00:33:21
Speaker
We've never had a direct conversation about the security of my job. What we talk about as a collective is to try and get better and try and figure out a way how to get this group of players who started off the year really strong back into winning some games and collecting some points on the road.
00:33:45
Speaker
May I ask, ah why do you feel you have or or or have earned a longer leash? why Why do you feel that way? You made ah you said do you have a longer leash. Well, Jada, I don't to spout my record on the air for the record.
00:34:04
Speaker
But look, I've done a lot. I'm a company guy. I think I'm a pretty calm head. Look, I know there's a lot of people out there and certainly your line of questioning is legitimate.
00:34:17
Speaker
I mean, there's a lot of people out there that aren't happy, they're happyed with the coaching, they're unhappy with the club, the direction of the club, no signings, I didn't get all of that. But one of the best things that coaches can do is have an even keel and provide leadership in challenging moments.
00:34:36
Speaker
And so at some point, yes, I won't be the coach of the Scali Sounders. When that is, it's based on many factors. So my belief in myself and my coaching and and my staff, I think we do a good job.
00:34:53
Speaker
Thank I appreciate it. Miles, we'll go to you next. Go ahead, please. Brian, how do you apply pressure to players to be more go go dangerous, um yet not put enough pressure so that they're not being creative?
00:35:11
Speaker
Because that's what you face. You face interim coaches and your opponents are playing carefree. How do you do that as a balance as a coach? Great question, Moss.
00:35:23
Speaker
Last couple of games, it's that loss in Portland. you know i've tried to take a little bit of the pressure off look i think the response in austin was pretty good you know the response here tonight was pretty good i'm not killing them i can't kill tina lopez for letting the guy run behind him can't do that but i could certainly challenge the senior players that need to be a little bit more gold dangerous and so that messaging has been
00:35:55
Speaker
know, sent through the locker room in different forms and group settings, individual settings. And then again, we're trying to get all the details right as a coaching staff, going back to some of the basics, trying to simplify things for the players.
00:36:11
Speaker
So hopefully they can catch a break and we win a game here soon. Without getting into your coach's room, I'll just ask a vague question. Have you thought about the possibility of having two strikers?
00:36:25
Speaker
ah Yeah, I mean, we talked about it. And late in the game, I pushed Paul next to Wachowski. You know, it's a little unconventional, but, you know, have I thought about that? Sure. I mean, Jordan is de facto, you know, when Jordan and Moose lay together, they're basically two forwards.
00:36:45
Speaker
We would play Jordan in the right. So everything's on the table, Moss. Thanks. All right, we're going to throw to Jonathan Tannenwald in the room with Matt Winter from the Philadelphia Inquirer. JT, go ahead, just speak up for us for the Zoom feed.
00:36:58
Speaker
Thank you, Alex. I'll do my best. It's funny, Brian, because for a lot us in the rest of the country, we'll start with one of those jobs of the actual pressure on a way that maybe doesn't exist.
00:37:12
Speaker
The club's in the sleep. It's not likely.
00:37:16
Speaker
Well, again, i mean, it's, it's, sure there's pressure with every head coach and every professional sport. Again, the pressure I feel comes more internally than externally.
00:37:31
Speaker
but there's been some challenging conversations i mean adrian's not afraid to challenge me about saying well why did you do this or how come this is all ended the way it was it's not like he's been afraid or garth has challenged me in the past and craig will come down to the coach's room and and say hey what are you guys thinking about there is that inherent pressure but look I'm again, confident in my abilities.
00:37:58
Speaker
The pressure comes from inside trying to find the solutions to the right. I don't think they're going to call me if I lose five in a row.
00:38:11
Speaker
They're not going to call me. So it might be something else. Everybody's waiting. very vice week or
00:38:24
Speaker
all that couldn't quite
00:38:27
Speaker
Well, I mean, let me try and figure out my mess first. Obviously, it would be a tremendous honor if they even thought about me or called me.
00:38:37
Speaker
I think that's pushing the cart way before the horse. Like, I'm a big USA fan. I think the energy that the US brought certainly it ended with a thud.
00:38:49
Speaker
But the energy, the enthusiasm of the World Cup, that still resonates it still resonates in Seattle. All my friends are still talking about it. But it's way too early, I think, for me to start thinking about a different program.
00:39:07
Speaker
Thanks, JT. Appreciate it. We're going keep rolling here on Zoom. Next question, we will go over to Felipe Makeda. Go ahead, please. Thank you, Alex.
00:39:18
Speaker
Coach Brian, how hard is for you to plan and the games with your coaching staff when the team is going through these this these hard times?
00:39:33
Speaker
Is it that you are doing what you what you can with what you have or you're doing what you should be doing with the players that you have? Well, we were trying to come into this game, Felipe, with a little bit more pragmatism. That's a big word, a fancy word, but we were trying to just be a little bit more direct.
00:39:53
Speaker
Defend well, defend hard, defend strong, playing their half of the field. And you know it just didn't work in the first half as well as we could have because they scored the goal in the 30th, 32nd minute.
00:40:08
Speaker
thirty second minute In the second half, we went back to trying to play how we like to play. I think our possession was a little bit better. We created some chances.
00:40:20
Speaker
yeah Keep it rolling here. Callahan, if you have a question still, go ahead, please. So obviously you've been a coach for a while. Do you, is, are there other, ah are there other like losing streaks and bad spells that you look back on sort of what you did during those times as guides for how to get out of this losing spell? or do you think each one is sort of different from a coaching perspective?
00:40:42
Speaker
I always fall back to this. So you have to redouble your efforts to make sure all the details are taken care of. You have to, again, and everybody can see the solution. Everybody, can see that we're not scoring enough goals and the trick is to get out of the routine of saying well this is a problem this is a problem that's a problem and focusing on what's the solution here what can we do better here what do the players need to do to feel confident so you always have to try and find solutions in some of these moments so we've gone back to the basics from the training staff the equipment staff everybody everybody's trying to make sure that we're getting those
00:41:24
Speaker
minor things correct and then again trying to provide solution for the players as well as you know holding everybody accountable. All right we'll take one or two more here. Noah go ahead please use the question.
00:41:55
Speaker
Look, I thought again, tonight's game, i thought Massani was better tonight than he was in Austin.
Midfield and Transfer Strategy
00:42:00
Speaker
I think Snyder was a little better tonight than he was in Austin. Look, it's ah it's a newer pairing, but they trained enough together.
00:42:10
Speaker
Certainly, we missed Christian. Certainly, we missed Obed. But they're super talented players. Hassani's an MLS veteran. you know Snyder is a good talent.
00:42:21
Speaker
Needs a little bit of fine-tuning, little bit more experience. But you know I thought tonight they were OK.
00:42:38
Speaker
for depth or competition you know feeling that out again I'll go back to what I said maybe a little bit earlier look maybe I got a Christian comes back I got to make a decision and kind of stick with it roll with it for five six games hold it out there we'll see what Christian comes all right Jeremiah do you to follow up still Yeah, ah you know, when we last talked to you in Seattle, you were asked about players coming in. You sort of alluded to that now.
00:43:09
Speaker
You didn't seem like you had a lot of, you you weren't demanding any any sort of reinforcements. Do these two losses any more to sort of light a fire under trying to make something happen?
00:43:22
Speaker
guys know me well enough. I don't demand um Adrian and Garth and Craig, I mean, they've been good bosses. They've provided me with good players throughout my career.
00:43:34
Speaker
We're certainly having conversations, Jeremiah. There are conversations going on about how to improve the squad. are we doing? What are the options? What's plan A? What's plan B? What plan C is?
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah, some of those compens conversations might be revved up a little bit, but again, i think myself, Adrian, and Craig, I think we're all, we've done this a long time, and We haven't hit the panic button yet.
00:44:00
Speaker
Might come, might not. But right now we're kind of thinking things through because look, the worst thing we could do is go out and make a rash signing just for the sake of signing a player.
00:44:14
Speaker
And then that player doesn't work out. We have to be very specific in who we sign and make sure it's the right fit and you know the right talent. I guess, I mean, can you be, though, too careful about that? Because it seems like that's sort of the pattern that is that has grown over the last few years, is that you are waiting for sort of the perfect player, and you you're not able to sign any player in the summer, at least.
00:44:41
Speaker
Well, look, I will give you my opinion, but... way this has gone since 2016 when i first took over you know i looked on a garth and adrian and adrian and craig they've been the ones i've stuck with the coaching i certainly lend my opinion i am german i will give them my opinion but those guys are the ones that have been kind of going and doing things and yes i will give you this little tidbit i have in the last couple of weeks, you know, giving them some little bit stronger opinion just about what's, you know, wrong with the team, in my opinion, and how we go about it as a club.
00:45:26
Speaker
Look, Jeremiah, we're still we're still successful. I understand everybody's you know calling for more signings. And on one hand, I might say, yeah, we probably should.
00:45:37
Speaker
But on the other hand, again, if your resources are such, we're not going to go out right now in this window and replace five guys to group that started off seven three and three We're just not going to do that.
00:45:53
Speaker
All right, Jada, if you have your follow-up, you can ask it, and we'll we'll have that be the last one. Yes, I don't think you kind of addressed as far as that Andrew what what was going on with or what was his decision making, I guess, and in getting or ah sorry in seeding that goal.
00:46:11
Speaker
Andrew as well, like the team is going through a little bit of a rough patch. You know, the League's Cup, Steph's gonna get those games. So maybe he can take a step back and kind of figure things out on the goal. He was as culpable as, you know, the young kids in front of him. You gotta let your defenders defend.
00:46:28
Speaker
You must let your defenders defend in that situation. Or if you're off your line, you need to be high enough that you can clear the wall. So again, that's a learning curve for Andrew.
00:46:39
Speaker
Coach, thanks for your time. safe travels. We'll see you back in Seattle. Media, if you have any needs,
00:46:52
Speaker
Well, there you have it from ah Brian Schmetzer. Welcome to the Tony Dotson double pivot, apparently. Yeah, do you want to, because we can't hear your question. Yeah, i just asked him.
00:47:04
Speaker
I asked him um with the context, like, I know that your double pivot is such a key part of the way that you construct your team and missing out Christian Roldan. That's a big blow. How do you feel Sonny Dotson and Snyder Brunel have been working together? And then that way he gave his answer. And then I followed up with, do you need more support in that area? And if I would have gotten another follow-up, I would have said, what other pairings could you see in that place? But I got muted.
00:47:37
Speaker
I mean, you know, fair enough. You got your your question and then your yeah then your follow-up. So you don't want to be dominating, I guess. But i think that's actually, unless you had other takeaways from the Schmetz presser, ah i think that's a good segue into what I wanted to to talk about. I did want to touch on quickly the him calling Adrian broke.
00:47:59
Speaker
He definitely did not... He did not definitely... Nothing was said that dispels the broke allegations. That's for damn sure. I will say that. I mean, the fact that he's going into their chambers and saying, sign someone...
00:48:15
Speaker
i mean did say that He said, I'm making my saying that in very peace, politically. I mean i made my opinion went known more strongly, i think is what he said. So I mean, God, man, would have been nice to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Finances are as such. Yeah. yeah yeah No, no, it was it was when your resources are as such. yeah that's That's the best way to say broke that I've ever heard. That is unreal.
00:48:40
Speaker
I'm bringing that one up on the next date night. I'm like, babe, I'm a podcast search. When your resources are as such.
00:48:49
Speaker
Resources are as such is now in Lobbing Scorchers lexicon forever. unfortunately of course Resources are such. When resources are such, you know, you can only you can only do so much when you're resources. And that's why you should like the video, subscribe to the channel, and send us some... resources are as such.
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah, and send us some jewels. For sure, as such. Send us some jewels. Do we ever find out what the jewels mean? I don't know. i just I just like saying it. It has to be something good. It's not like you get nothing from Jules. I i would be surprised. All right. this is what i ah This is what I wanted to talk about, Noah, because ah I think Schmetz's whole disposition, as we kind of joke about it there, was ah was pretty interesting. To me, he looked like a guy that was – Pretty much at the like, you know, we've been joking about being at the point of acceptance. That's kind of what it seems like where he's at to me, where he's pretty much ah like, you know, the squad is deathly injured. i don't have the personnel to really get out of it
00:49:49
Speaker
Basically, all I can do right now is steer the ship as best I can and try and keep it afloat. and maybe we can grind out some one zeros or one ones or zero zeros in there. But really until I get my, until I get me a Christian back, until I get me yeah Yamar back, until I get me De La Vega back, until I get Alex Roldan back, it might be, we might be just in a tough way and we'll see if I can make it out of it. We'll see if the team can make it out of it. But there's no, he, it looked like to me, he's like, there's no point in me getting up here and like giving a tongue lashing and calling guys out and saying this isn't good enough and all this, this, that, and the other. He basically looked like, past that. But so this is what I want to say about that though, because like my sort of, what I come out of this five game movie losing streak, Noah thinking of is, you know, there's a lot of reasons. I think we ended up where we're at right now. And I think probably in the building and in the front office and stuff, they're probably blaming injuries over,
00:50:42
Speaker
everything and i think you could you could look at the injuries and the injuries matter but they don't they don't explain this they don't explain everything and it's not that that we can't be hand waving that but i think we can start with that because it is fair to point out all right It is fair to point out, and I'm just going to just say it to, in the interest of fairness, missing Christian rolled on missing a Mark missing Pedro de la Vega, missing Alex rolled on missing all these guys is significant. That's in that list. I just named, which isn't even everybody. That's your best leader, your engine of your entire team, the heart and soul of your team. That is your best defender. Another guy who provides ah ah a lot of captaincy and leadership, even if he's not wearing the armband, that is a team captain. As far as I'm concerned in YAMR. And in your most dynamic attacker, as we all know, in Pedro de la Vega. So it is fair to say it is fair to say that most teams would struggle missing a trio like that, especially in Major League Soccer with these roster rules that we all know and love. But but the reason that that is not something that you can.
00:51:46
Speaker
hang your hat on and hand wave away on that basis and just say, oh, well, once we get healthy, it's going to be all better and it's fine and then whatever, is that this organization has spent years building a reputation for surviving exactly situations like this as recently as last year. And you and I on on our show.
00:52:05
Speaker
And we've praised them countless times for keeping their level despite international duty, despite CONCACAF Champions League congestion and key absences. That's been one of the hallmarks of the Brian Schmetzer era. So I think injuries in this scenario, they explain why Seattle is not at their best right now. I can live with that. I can understand that. If you're going to not be missing all these guys, not be at your top top tip top 2025 Leagues Cup level,
00:52:29
Speaker
That's one thing, but they don't explain why they become, this is the one of the worst teams in the league over the last month or yeah plus month plus probably the worst team in the league. They're probably the only team that's 05 and 0. So this, that runs counter to the Sounders identity. That's the issue. That's why this feels so jarring. Seattle's not supposed to be a team that just craters when your starters get hurt. Next man up has been always more than lip service around here. Okay. And now you're in a situation where you got five straight losses, performances that don't resemble the sound of the team that we expect and the consistency and the competitiveness and the baseline level have pretty much, I don't want to say disappeared, but they're not anywhere near the standard of of this club. So it's not just about the results. It's about, to me, it's like, feels like the erosion of a defining characteristic of the Schmetzer era. I don't know if that's dramatic, but like when you get five, one by your rival and you're putting up these toothless attacking performances and not taking road results, like you usually do. ah This team has always kind of prided themselves on being,
00:53:28
Speaker
injury I won't say injury proof but injury resistant and right now they're just anything but that so that's kind of when I when I see Schmetz and the players kind of being like oh we're we're injured we're trying to grind through it like you know we had better chances than this it's ah like I just don't think that really don't think it really means anything no I feel like The Sounders have been playing Russian roulette for the last five years, and there's six spaces in the chamber.
00:53:58
Speaker
The next time you pull the trigger, you're dead. like it's they they have They have gambled themselves to the point in which... you are no longer able to withstand the things that you were once able to withstand.
00:54:13
Speaker
Again, i think that it's great that they've been doing business and moving people and loaning people. That was something that Craig Weibel said that he wanted to do last year. The problem is now we don't have anyone to back up the starters. And you're saying, oh, well, you know, they're injured. And like when they get back, They'll be fine.
00:54:33
Speaker
No, they won't. Jordan Morris is 32. two What is he? 32, 34. Well, okay. But so I'll just to devil, just to devil's advocate. mean let me Okay. No, sorry. My analogy here. Like, yeah, keep cooking. Keep going. Sorry. You've got Yamar, a core centerpiece that when he's not playing, it's genuinely a problem for your back line.
00:54:58
Speaker
How many more years does he have? You're looking at your midfield here in Christian Roldan. That was a good spill. so um You're looking your midfield in Christian Roldan, who I think is incredible. I think still has more years, but you are looking at him getting older. He is going to age out of that position and he is more injury prone now that he's older. Every time he gets hurt, he's less elastic. And that's just the truth. What happens when your entire team cannot function with him?
00:55:29
Speaker
That is a
Team Identity and Resilience Issues
00:55:30
Speaker
problem. And then you look to the number nine position where you have Jordan Morris and it's like brother, I could have told you this was a long time coming. We've been talking about the number nine position. Craig Weibel has been talking about the number nine position for a very long time. Osadze Di Rosario, I like him, but I don't think he's it.
00:55:50
Speaker
Danny Musavski, I like him, but I don't think he's it. Then you look at where the rest of the team is and your depth just isn't there. You have Jesus Ferreira, who's not playing bad, but you also have Albert Rusnak. You have to make a decision on his contract.
00:56:05
Speaker
To reload this team is going to be a feat of God when you refuse to pay a transfer fee and refuse to spend any of that Tam Gam Bam that you have in your ah your holster. And additionally, even if you do have that Gam and that Tam,
00:56:25
Speaker
Ari, how many players in Major League Soccer are you actually going to be able to spend that on to fix the roster that you have? I don't think there are enough players in the league that are willing that will be willing to be dealt to the Sounders to fix the problems that they have.
00:56:43
Speaker
This isn't a one signing fix. This isn't a two signing fix. This is a three or four signing fix with additionally signing more young players and figuring out how you're going to replace Albert Rusnak, how you're going to replace Jordan Morris, and you have to make a decision on Pedro de la Vega. That in itself, that whole decision is a nightmare.
00:57:04
Speaker
The Sounders have played Russian roulette. They have won enough times to where there is one click left and you're blowing your head off. Yeah, no, it'd a ah it's so it's a fire analogy, honestly, because it does it does feel like...
00:57:20
Speaker
What they got away with last year is now catching up to them like all at once is what it feels like. We're doing an LA Galaxy. We've done LA Galaxy. That is kind of what it feels like. I mean, so as to the question of what you were getting at at the beginning of the analogy on like if things will improve with when they get healthier...
00:57:42
Speaker
i so ah The only thing I'll say is that I would be surprised if like, let's just assume that they get Christian and Yamar back at relative health and at relative, like what their usual performances are. i would be surprised if that doesn't improve.
00:57:59
Speaker
the situation. i think that this team without Christian in midfield has looked like a mess for that this whole time that they haven't had him. And I think the Yamar injury has loomed a lot larger than we might've thought. Although I think the CB pairing with the average age of 19.7 actually played decently well tonight, all things considered. I think the defense did its job tonight. If you concede one goal on a cross country road trip, and then basically you hold them below one XG as a, as a unit, like it, it's not like the union really had any, like, it's not like they were pummeling Andy T the entire game. Yes, but it's also, it's the union.
00:58:40
Speaker
Well, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like like we we have to quantify what we're saying here. It's like, yes, you're going to get better towards the end of the season. I guarantee you, I guarantee you they make the playoffs and,
00:58:52
Speaker
They're not winning Leagues Cup. i I will put all of my money in the entire world on that. They are not going to win MLS Cup in the form that they're in now with no new signings. I'll tell you that much. Maybe they can get something moving if they decide to get this rumored signing done. Have you heard there's this Argentine winger that they're potentially going sign, Ari? I don't if you've heard about this. I think his last name is like La Viga or something. Yeah, that's going to be the new signing. They're also getting a new right back who I think is related to Christian somehow. Yeah, yeah. That's going to be an infusion and a starting Colombian center back. But my point was that... But you raise the bar now. You don't raise the bar in the next three years. That's what I'm saying. You can play...
00:59:35
Speaker
You can play fine through the rest of this season, but it's going to come down to figuring out how you reload this team. Maybe it's not this offseason. Maybe it's not next offseason. But you're telling me three years down the line, the core of this team is going to be here? I don't think so. Well, no, and I think... the writing had been on the wall, especially with the DP situation, but with like a lot of the older veterans on this team. Anyway, I think regardless of how this season went, those are decisions that were going to have to get made. Anyway, even if they were playing well right now, those did that, the writing would be on the wall in a lot of these cases. ah But like, I do think like my point is that even, even if getting those guys back improves the situation for the, for the short term, that doesn't,
01:00:19
Speaker
that does not hand wave how badly this went off the rails without those guys, even if they stabilize it, which I expect them to, I would be surprised. i would be surprised if when Christian rolled on and yay, more comes back, I won't even bring up De La Vega. Cause I know that triggers you But I would be surprised if when Christian rolled on and Yamar get back, it doesn't stabilize and improve the situation. And this team looks a lot better offensively because I think Christian actually affects that side of the ball much more than we even realized. But also defensively, too, even with the...
01:00:53
Speaker
Well, that's, I mean, and that's the question. And also like, as it pertains to, ah to De La Vega, I'll say this as the guy who is more open to him being helpful than other people, even if he comes back and looks like the league's cup version of De La Vega stays healthy and carries this team to a lot better results. Maybe they make a little playoff run with him acting as a centerpiece and he makes it through and it's all good. Even if,
01:01:19
Speaker
He does that. You like absolutely cannot go into next season putting all your cards, like all your eggs in that basket. And yeah they might, but depending on how the rest of the season goes. He is absolutely going to hit like a goddamn freight train for the Seattle Sounders. Because even if you give him a chance. even if he makes it through the rest of this season, there's just no way to confidently say that he can lead you through an entire regular season. Plus all the tournaments you're going to play the sprint season, I guess is changes it a little bit, but like you can't, you can't, you're gonna give him a clear you can't, really you can't rely on him as heavily as they, as this roster relies on him. So that means that all those changes are coming. I think they would have been coming anyway. My, the I think the main thing that I find like,
01:02:06
Speaker
most galling about this stretch is just how far it went off the rails, which is like, again, like this is, not all so This is not only the worst stretch in club history, but it's like they look like the worst team in the league right now. No, they this is the worst stretch in club history. Siki got fired. And listen, that team was not good by any means.
01:02:26
Speaker
This team at least has results that they accrued beforehand, whereas that team didn't. That is a key distinction. right yeah that is and But also, they lost a big game to Portland and then lost at Sporting.
01:02:37
Speaker
I mean, it's effectively the same... I would give it the same amount of weight as this five stretch of losses that we've taken. And I get it. You're injury prone. Your roster is the problem. That's why we're sitting here. so I'm not sitting here saying it's Brian Schmetzer's fault. I think if they fire Brian Schmetzer, we get five years of the worst Seattle Sounders soccer you've ever seen in your life. And it's going to be an absolute struggle to ever figure out how to get this team back. And additionally, i don't think Adrian would even be able to sell the club because they would be that bad.
01:03:08
Speaker
So, I think retaining Brian Schmetzer is paramount to this, but this this is that's a whole side thing to say. They have been burning the candle on both ends. You're selling every single one of your your young talents that actually have and MLS minutes that could slot in when there are injuries. And on the other end, you're letting your DPs get older and older and older and older and older and refusing to bring in new talent.
01:03:34
Speaker
I mean, i like, I'm...
01:03:39
Speaker
I'm shocked. I'm shocked. And this is exactly what's what what what happens when you do this. And listen, you get by for a while, but now we're losing on the road at fucking Philly, giving them their first home win. They've had two home wins in two years.
01:03:54
Speaker
Two home wins in two years. They're bad. Yeah, they're bad. They're bad. odd Yeah. Yeah. It's... ah Man, I had ah had a really good point that I was going to cook on, but I forgot what it was. um Damn it.
01:04:11
Speaker
Damn it. It was going to be so good too. it was going to be so good. Yeah, I guess I'll, I'll, I'll summarize where I'm at right now by saying, you know, for me, the, the concern is not just simply the five match losing streak. Obviously that's bad enough. We all, we all know that, but it's that for the first time in a long time, they've really just, they've stopped looking like the Sounders for they were years. Yeah. Yeah.
01:04:34
Speaker
For years, this was and, you know, there have been, you know, lulls in form and dark times before and they've taken bad results. But for years, it's just been a club that we know as having an identity built on just resilience and consistency and finding solutions when adversity hit. And I think they've stayed true to that identity through a lot, including as recently as Last year, you know, I saw one comment in chat earlier that was like, this is the roster that you guys backed and you were you were saying this, this and this to people who didn't back the roster. How do you feel now? I feel like we were saying that at a time last year when they were exemplifying all the qualities that I just talked about in spades. They had an injury crisis that was maybe not this bad, but almost as bad last year. And what did they do? They were resilient. They were consistent. They found solutions in the face of adversity, in the face of all those injuries. They did what we expect a Seattle team to do, which is fight through it, be resilient and compete for trophies anyway, take results anyway. And that's exactly what they did last year. You know, you can say what you want, but they finished top five in the West and then ripped through leagues cup, like no one's business. They were by far and away the best team in that tournament out of 36 teams. So I think everything we said earlier,
01:05:46
Speaker
last year applied at the time. But unfortunately, it has now all blown up all at once this year and laid bare problems that we can all, that we can all see. But those qualities that I've talked about, they're, they're not there right now. And the injuries are real and they'll help explain this stretch when we look back on it. But if the Sounders are going to turn this season around, the answer can't just be waiting for healthier days. They have to get back to the identity that made them one of MLS is most reliable teams in the first place. So, and to defend our own position,
01:06:19
Speaker
We also were sitting there saying they need to make signings. They need to make moves. This is an aging core. We've been talking about this for a long time. We've also been saying, listen, Albert Rusnak is serviceable right now. Do you want to sign someone and kick him off the boat?
01:06:36
Speaker
when he's performing well, or do you want to take a gamble knowing that the front office will make one gamble, will make one gamble. And if it doesn't pay off, that's who's playing.
01:06:49
Speaker
Okay. Right now is Albert Russack playing? Well, I wouldn't say so. I wouldn't say he's had a good season at all. I gate is cooking. Brigade is cooking. Brigade is cooking. That said,
01:07:01
Speaker
Great. Awesome. Let's make a change now. DPs age out sometimes. like You have nothing to lose now. I don't know. I think i think it's it's it's ah it's it's a lack of planning, and I think we we did talk about it, but I think it's also easy to be...
01:07:21
Speaker
like we We can take some blame, but like i mean i don't i don't really think that it's been an unfair thing. And also, like the beautiful thing about us is that if we're wrong, we're wrong. I don't give a fuck. yeah I was wrong. I thought Russack would be good this year.
01:07:34
Speaker
i Yeah, I sit behind this microphone and I just fire off all my takes and I let the chips fall where they may. A lot of them going to wrong and a lot of them have been wrong. So I got no bones about that. but i mean I don't think... i don't to talk I don't think we need to mea culpa as much as people are saying, but you know, that's just me. Maybe, maybe. whatever anyway to let's let's Should we drop the call link? Dropping it in. drop Dropping it in.
01:07:57
Speaker
Call into the stream. There it is right there. Do your worst. I've been loving this video. We're only at 83 likes. If we can get to 100 likes, Ari said that he will eat on stream again. Yes, we got Gianni leading it off. Yes, let's go. Let's go. Gianni's here, but okay. And then we got Blake. All right, we're filling up. We're filling up. Let's get these calls rolling. I'm going to bring... a Gianni on stage right now. There he is. Gianni. What's up, man? The Seattle Sounders. They are spiraling. That's five losses in a row. This time to the Philly union who are the worst team in the league going into the game. It's not good.
01:08:35
Speaker
What's going on, man? how are you feeling? I mean, not good as being nice. Like this is fucking dog shit. Yeah. I don't know what else you want me to say, man. Like, this is fucking brutal.
01:08:46
Speaker
Five losses on the trot. Like, that's bad. um Fucking walking walking wounded out there. Just straight up defiance is our back line. Midfield just getting run through. hey Gal played well. Defiance back line was not that bad. It was really not that bad.
01:09:05
Speaker
You know what? Defiance almost beat Portland. This team didn't. Yeah. Put more Defiance guys. He's cooking. I still consider Pete Kingston a Defiance guy too. So like the Defiance guys were the ones who were actually, who have actually been kind of bringing it I thought Sebastian Gomez played well too. I thought Sebastian Gomez played well. And I thought, despite what happened on the goal, Stu Hawks looks like an MLS CB to me. Like I really, think he does. He's kind of, he's kind of fun. He's fun to watch. Like he hits good dimes and then his slide tackling was good. I don't know.
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah. That, that goal was like a series of just bad kind of mistakes. Like it was a bunch of kind of like nothing mistakes that added up to like a tragic error. So Paul Rothrock on the initial cross in is slow to actually step to the guy, gives them a window to actually hit that cross in. Yeah. Like that was just kind of shadow defending.
01:10:03
Speaker
um Guy gets the ball. Center back doesn't do enough to actually put him off, the forward to put him off. And Andrew Thomas runs out to try and collect the ball because I think he thinks that the center back is going to body the forward, which would give him the opportunity to make a play on the ball.
01:10:24
Speaker
None of these things happen.
01:10:27
Speaker
Well, Gianni, give us your, give us your takes right now. Um, we are going to rip through this queue. So I want you to, I want to give you the floor. I just want, I just want to hand you the mic. Okay. Here.
Fan Disillusionment and Management Criticism
01:10:39
Speaker
Oh, This series, I think actually might've put the nail on the coffin. I don't think I'm renewing next year. Wow. That might be the end of my season ticket. Like I've been a season ticket holder for over a decade.
01:10:54
Speaker
yeah. I get that this team is injured. I get that there is like we've been playing poorly. Too many times I look at the field while we have a defender with the ball.
01:11:09
Speaker
We have fucking seven dudes ahead of him. walking around, no one's making a run. There is no movement in our field. We are static. We can't make simple passes. We aren't going to do a damn thing to sign a player, apparently, because it's a summer window. we don't We're fucking allergic to those. We don't need sun. get Like, SPF 1000 on our skin, get us the fuck out of here. um Like, I don't really know what to do with this team and anymore.
01:11:36
Speaker
We do not have a starting forward who scored a goal. We're over halfway through the fucking season.
01:11:47
Speaker
I just don't know what you want from me. Like, um okay, so we've got two DPs who have played combined less than half the games over the last two years.
01:11:58
Speaker
They don't really play. yeah did Are they DPs? but Should we buy them out? Oh, no, we don't want to pay. we don't resources Resources are not such. Oh, I'm sorry. We're already fucking doing that.
01:12:12
Speaker
Like that was the excuse for not buying out Raul was we don't want to pay a guy not to play for us. Well, fuck, we're doing that with two players now. I mean, you did that for Raul anyway.
01:12:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like he was just, he sat on the bench. It's like, he's not going to, well, we're do I'm sorry. We can't give him the money to not play for us. i'm like, okay, cool. We're going to sit him on the bench. That's a couple million dollars fucking wasted. We have zero abilities to succession plan.
01:12:39
Speaker
We decided, hey, you know what, Chris Henderson, we can't promote you. So you're going to go to Miami. Oh, shit. There was actually a position that opened up immediately after he left because Garth decided, hey, I wanted to i want to move up a little bit. OK, Garth goes over to Atlanta.
01:12:59
Speaker
If we had said, if we had any forethought that we were not going to be able to resign Garth, You just say Chris Anderson, here's a contract. When Garth leaves, you step up to that position.
01:13:11
Speaker
We cannot succession plan to save our fucking lives. We can't see more than one year or two years ahead of us. And it's insane because we end up in this position that I think we all could see coming. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't the fucking exit. It was a goddamn train.
01:13:33
Speaker
Like, I've been saying this for fucking years. And every single time I say something about it, I'm like, oh, you know, they'll figure it out. Oh, you know, these slow starts, they'll get better.
01:13:43
Speaker
Except we have a hot start. And then all of a sudden the team falls off a fucking cliff. Why? Because guess what we are now? We're a pressing team. What happens to pressing teams as they go throughout the year?
01:13:55
Speaker
Pressing teams get worse because there's so many games, you can't put that many miles on your legs.
01:14:05
Speaker
Fair enough. Yeah, you're not Simeone. You don't have a $700 million dollars roster with players down. yeah but You don't get to have Obed Vargas on the bench. Well, here's the other thing.
01:14:18
Speaker
If you're going to go out and get rid of all these useful players, you have to replace them. you you can go two You can go three for two. If you trade out three players, you have to get a a combination of two players that can actually fill up that roster spot. Because if you're not doing that, if you're going to go three for four, that means you're actually replacing better players with worth worse players, which is what we've done.
01:14:46
Speaker
You can't do that. And this idea that, oh, we can sell players, we'll bring up these defiance players, only works as long as you have enough defiance players.
01:14:59
Speaker
we've pillaged that team to the point where we're scraping the barrel. Well, Defiance are making more signings than the Sounders this summer, so that is tight. Yeah, and we just become a Defiance pod. Defiance pod. Yeah, we should.
01:15:12
Speaker
Because he tore up the league, and then he won't get a single minute, and we'll loan him to someone and get, like, I don't know, like an international spot for it. And then we'll take that international spot, and we'll turn it into $250,000 worth of like everyone else got.
01:15:26
Speaker
yep yep and I mean, that's just some fucking galaxy brain shit that we're doing. Yeah. So much GAM. So much GAM. So much GAM. And yet, as long as you have GAM.
01:15:38
Speaker
Oh, shit. That's right. you can't You can't apply that to international transfers because we're the only ones who fucking use GAM. And since GAM is a closed economic circuit, there's an inflation rate on it like you wouldn't fucking believe.
01:15:52
Speaker
every single year. So every year that we actually put off the gam that we get from a trade, it becomes less useful. So, Oh, we're going to, you should write a gam inflation article for us.
01:16:05
Speaker
Oh, Oh, I'm going to DM you after this. Gamflation. Gamflation is real. Like gam is only so useful and gam a year or two down the road is just incredibly less useful than GAM in the moment. And we are trading away players for future GAM, which means we're actually getting this getting way less value than we think we are.
01:16:36
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Gianni, you did just get one vote to become GM by Eric here. So I think you should hop off this call and start preparing your resume. You give it to us and I'll slip it under Adrian's door next time I'm at Long Acres for you.
01:16:52
Speaker
Oh yeah. i got words for him too. they're not good None of them, none of them should go over air. Yeah. Gianni, thank you so much for calling in. Sorry. We're great stuff. gi here We're pushing, but we appreciate you boss.
01:17:05
Speaker
Thanks guys. Keep a rocking. Blake, we see you in the queue before we get to you. We're going to one second. We're just going to read the super chats. Cause we, we missed some. We've got some.
01:17:17
Speaker
$5 from Demon Hunter Mog. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. We are in hell. Guys, hell is real. Hell is real. Darby is just the Seattle Sounders versus signing somebody. This is a way better, more interesting Darby than Columbus Crew versus Cincinnati.
01:17:34
Speaker
ah Jake says, we i really feel like Schmetzer should have started Fry. We need new leadership on the pitch really bad right now. and No offense, Nuhu. We talked about this last episode. Why the fuck does Nuhu have the captain's armband? No disrespect, Nuhu, but ah why does Paul Rothrock not have that armband?
01:17:51
Speaker
I don't really care who has the armband right now. And, you know, I thought it was, I guess, fine that they sent New Who out for the hostage video because he did have the armband and he's a senior player on the team or whatever. But as for the idea of like starting Frye,
01:18:06
Speaker
ah I don't know. We can talk about that, but I do feel like something of the many things that's going on right now is you have young guys who Andrew Thomas isn't exactly a young guy, but he's new to starting. But like, there's an element of like, when you have guys out there like Andrew Thomas, who is in his first year as a starter. And I think Snyder Brunel is going through this right now as well. There's going to be like, they're goingnna make mistakes. They're going to do stuff where you're like, damn, like,
01:18:37
Speaker
That's a more senior player might not have done that, but you live with it because it's like growing pains and there'll be better for it the next time. So I think Snyder is going through one of those spots right now, but that's where I'm like, man, maybe change the double pivot up a little bit. Like he's struggling. Like he looks like he's suffering out there sometimes.
01:18:53
Speaker
He is fighting for his life, to be quite honest. He's fighting for his life out there every game. anyway like And it's making him look bad. I had someone tell me today that Kavon is better than Snyder, and I was like, bro, shut up. Just because Snyder is literally trying to do everything and not able to do anything, it doesn't mean he's better than... than then I don't even... i I'm going to say something that I'm going to regret. The weak-minded Kavon Sullivan, who, by the way, Stu Hawkins fucking owns you. Stu Hawkins, that was not a foul. Highlight of the game. Highlight of the game. I forgot about that. I have to go back and clip that, so we'll post that. Dude, but that was... Stu Hawkins stalked to the moon for that. That was incredible. Stu Hawkins, yeah. just how pissed Kevin got after that. I was gone. um Honestly, thank you, Stu Hawks for somebody just hitting somebody. I don't know. Exactly.
01:19:45
Speaker
Starts to Hawks. Timbo says this offense is trash pandas at this point. Shout out, Jimothy. And that 10 month member, I wonder where Hanauer is right now. He's probably watching. He's watching the stream. He's literally on his yacht right now, counting singles, smoking a loose cigarette that he bought. counting his game. He's counting his game. He's counting his game, smoking a loose cigarette.
01:20:08
Speaker
um This one wasn't a donation, but I just thought it was funny. um Brian Cross, inshallah, Smetzer is back. That was from the press conference when he was like blasting balls in the box. 499 from loss, 3495. Kingston and Rothrock drink from the same high work rate well. Wish it would have turned into a goal. I completely agree. Keith Kingston isn't starting in Portland, Lobbing Scorchers is riding.
01:20:31
Speaker
Yeah, we'll be in Portland rioting. um Rhino Official 32 says, I feel bad for Brian. He can only work with what he's got, which is nothing. Might as well play the injured players in Portland. Can't be any worse. You guys are down bad right now, but I get it. Yeah.
01:20:50
Speaker
Thank you for the jewels, both of you. And, oh my God. um Sounders, EBFG. I think Brian put in that double pivot as a response to Adrian being broken, not selling. He's not being heard. IMO. You guys said it. Acceptance. You know what? um That's the most, like, galaxy brain take I've ever heard. But i I'm going to get on board with it. Whatever. Schmitz has achieved nirvana. Tonight's presser confirmed it. He was just like...
01:21:18
Speaker
Well, you know, we'll we'll assess when Christian Gordon gets back. What even is a win or a loss? Like, if you really think about it, winning and losing, it's just a social construct within our minds. It's all how you perceive it, man. yeah The way I perceive it, Seattle beat the Philadelphia Union tonight. It's all about the means in which you possess and the means in which we possess are none. And so therefore I flow like water.
01:21:43
Speaker
I am nothing and everything. Um, shout out Brian Schmetzer and my own mother dropping a 20 bomb. Thanks mom. My mom just bought me dinner. This is literally a gift to bury your sadness in Taco Bell minus the lettuce.
01:21:57
Speaker
I'm eating the lettuce because honestly, you know what's ah but's more enjoyable than watching the Seattle Sounders? Getting the Taco Bell shit virus. I gotta be honest. Way better. hey The Timbs have been bammed on. they're I'm not saying to celebrate it because last time I did that, they just immediately counter-bammed, but they did get bammed on by Real Salt Lake at home.
01:22:16
Speaker
Yeah. All right, Blake, I see you now. We'll bring you in you're ready. Sick. Yo, how are we? How's it going? ah like Oh, you're in Philly. You're in Philly. How was it Yeah, you're in Philly. Yeah. ah Philly, you know, I got there We drove a long way from New York. My brother's driving right now. Shouts to Tyler.
01:22:43
Speaker
You know, I got there. the place smelled. The people smelled. i was like why are they blowing fake snow over all the place yeah they were doing like a july and christmas and i'm like what the hell is this fucking place chester new jersey or fucking Pennsylvania and i'm like this is not a good place and on on the show on the uh you know the broadcast you see over the river by the bridge i'm like oh subaru park what a beautiful place and then you get there and it's a fucking shithole and i'm like oh my god uh and my friend did you have the sign chat's asking oh yeah no i i had uh craig out and i made one for my brother too it said weibel comma cell and uh or sorry uh hanauer cell
01:23:41
Speaker
you ah we have photos i think my brother sent you to them on instagram okay i'm right now so i don't think they put us on tv but um yeah we held them up at several times during the game the ecs folks there were kind folks from all over the east coast actually like miami new york uh atlanta um but you know it was a good crowd there but you know that game fucking sucked bro spent like 100 bucks four beers and a shitty ass pizza um and you know to get down to it i would second everything you guys said we're burning the wick at both ends we sold our young talent that's what i said last week and um
01:24:32
Speaker
And now we're trying to play with these injuries when for years we've been developing this youth program where, so that in the case that our, there you go.
01:24:46
Speaker
In the case that our first team gets some injuries, our team wouldn't completely fall apart.
01:24:57
Speaker
We would have this depth. However, They sold everybody. And this is a management decision.
01:25:08
Speaker
This is an ownership decision. I'm just pissed that we are in the position that we are.
01:25:19
Speaker
oh no, the Philly. He's back. he's back ah You're back. You're back. and i Am I back? You're back. You're back. I would say all of your discussion, everything you said this whole broadcast, I totally agree with burning the wick at both ends.
01:25:35
Speaker
um You know, we're trying to play through injuries. It worked last year, but you know, when you sell all of our young talent, get rid of our depth, it's just not working. And so, you know,
01:25:48
Speaker
what Brian Schmetzer said, it's like, oh, I don't want to make the wrong decision in purchasing a player. ah you had so many years to make that decision.
01:26:00
Speaker
And here we are. You can't just sit on your hands and expect the perfect player to fall into our lap. And it's just, you know, the indecision is biting our butts now.
01:26:16
Speaker
So we're just watching it in real time. And, you know, were we started the season pretty decently. but for whatever reason, over the World Cup break, you would think we would have the time to prepare to do better for the second half.
01:26:35
Speaker
But... We're not so um, you know, i would second everything all you guys are saying Uh, just be glad you guys Weren't at philly.
01:26:47
Speaker
I had fun with my brother. It's just good time but you know another away game off the checklist um But yeah, man, uh Fucking the delaware river is fucking smelly like It's a sad-ass stadium, bro. Don't. informed that the they literally play next to an and so a garbage incinerator.
01:27:15
Speaker
I would not doubt that. I don't even know. It was, we just got off the bridge and we were there and I'm like, what the fuck is this place? Pardon my French. Oh, Blake. Thank you yeah so much, man. Yeah. No, thanks for having me on calling on the road. We're going back to New York. So appreciate you guys. safe And we appreciate you too, Blake and love the photo. we will talk to you soon. Thanks guys. Thanks for having me.
01:27:41
Speaker
Take care. yes all right did everyone see the photo did everyone get a good yeah yeah and we saw it was we can pop it up one more time it's pretty great there's a good collection here a good collection of of people hanging and chilling and in the craig out i like the the pointing to the finger point it's pretty fun william i see you you ready yeah welcome to the stream william how we doing about as good as we can be doing i think yeah
01:28:13
Speaker
Like we were going in expecting a loss and the goal that happened was an expected goal to happen, but it still hurts to see. Yeah, correct. Yeah, I think it was like ah either a lack of confidence or just like a hesitation to do what they should have done in like the center backs Andrew Thomas. And it's just a mistake that they'll make once or twice and then hopefully not make again. but after so many of those in a row, it's just rough.
01:28:39
Speaker
It's a goalkeeper error for me, but it also like, I think focusing super a lot on the goal that they conceded is almost like not the point to me. It's more like, because again, like I said, like, I feel like the D the defense did its job. Yes, they can, they got bammed on. One time in a cross country road game with 19 year old center backs. You should ideally, ideally, ideally as the stats guy, you should ideally be able to generate more than 0.1 XG to pick your defense with two 19 year old starting center backs up and make it so one bad concession doesn't chalk the entire game and the entire result.
01:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, the office just has no drive right now. It's like a few players will have moments or Paul or Kingston will just be driving, but not everyone else is really sluggish or just passing back.
01:29:29
Speaker
It feels like we either overshoot ah like overballs too or they're offsides when those happen too. you i don't know if you've noticed that. Yeah, that was a problem. That's been a problem. That was the Georgie, the Georgie special.
01:29:43
Speaker
I miss Georgie. Playing that high line. Yeah. Give, but give us your Georgie. Did you miss George? So here's, here's one. I was going or yeah, you go for it. No, this is just an aside, like I guess, but it's a part of it, you know, cause we are talking about all of the players in which the Seattle centers have offloaded to all of generously offloaded to all of their, their neighbors. Yeah. Georgie hasn't looked incredible on the team that he's on. He's definitely- They could used him tonight. They could have used him tonight. That's what I was going to say is that even so, the depth in what he brings off- RBW, they could use RBW right now. They could use Danny Leyva right now. I was going to pose the question to you guys. like Do you think that if this team still had Georgie Manungu, Reed Baker Whiting, Danny Leyva, who else did they just did they just move off of? I'm missing one. But like if if they had all those guys, would those improve the situation? And I actually i was expecting to think, no, not really. But as I went through it, I was like, I think it would have.
01:30:36
Speaker
Yeah. They're so bad, absolutely. if like Yeah. If you bring them all back, it's doing so much better. And I think maybe by moving them out, it could have been like a man management problem. like just Cody Baker. yes sorry Yeah, sorry.
01:30:51
Speaker
That just like hopes went down or just people weren't feeling the same in the clubhouse anymore because it doesn't feel like...
01:30:57
Speaker
like I think we have good players. They're just not playing well right now. It is that interesting, fickle locker room thing that me and Ari always talk about, about like moving people out too much or moving people in too much really does cause a shakeup and a change in the locker room. And yeah, your core guys now are Hassani Dotson and Jesus Ferreira.
01:31:17
Speaker
I really like Jesus as a 10. I don't love him as the right winger. Yeah. Yeah. ah Put him at the 10. I think put KKR right wing and Kingston right back.
01:31:35
Speaker
Yeah. Or the other way. Or the other way. It doesn't matter. Oh, yeah. Okay. I like that. Yeah. Looks like Cody Baker did get minutes today, too. So shout out. Yeah, they're actually they're going to play him. They're going to play. Yeah.
01:31:49
Speaker
Yeah. Well, William, do you have any any other thoughts on the match? ah Not on the match. The one thought I had is we saw Holland like his woodland creature. So maybe if we entice him with Jimothy, we can get him on alone for the rest of the season or something.
01:32:04
Speaker
Oh, my God. Could you imagine? Can we get like a five game loan? Like pay him, pay him like 10 million just to come play like five matches. Do the James Rodriguez bit where he just comes here to do preseason and then can go back to where he wants. Like, why don't we do that? We should just do that. That'd be insane. I mean, he liked America.
01:32:24
Speaker
Throw it out there, yeah. Yeah, he likes raccoons. He likes raccoons. We got raccoons. We got beavers out here. can go to Gold Garden and see the beaver there. got otters. Yeah. We're very Nordic. You know, he could live in Ballard.
01:32:37
Speaker
He'd love living Ballard, right? Yeah. So, yeah that's a good take. Oh, imagine him coming on the float for that, can't remember the day, but the celebration Ballard. okay Yeah, exactly.
01:32:49
Speaker
Sweet. Well, any final thoughts there, William, before we move on to James here? At least the rain beat Portland, but it's just looking rough on the sounder side. It is tough, but we will be back against Portland next. On the first. So we bounce back.
01:33:05
Speaker
Bounce back. Bounce back in Portland. The woman lost in Portland 0-2, and there was two red cards on the Thorns in like the 7th or 8th minute in the 56th, and it was the worst game, I think, in NWSL, maybe.
01:33:19
Speaker
Yeah. But, yeah. Yeah, well... Shout out to the rain. Shout out, shout out, shout out. Well, William, thank you so much for calling in. We'll see you guys. Thanks William. m ah James, are you ready? Let's get him in here. Let's get him in here. All right. cook I'm putting the mic down. Just cook. I'm going to listen to you. I'm going to get a drink. you you hopefully Well, hopefully because last time his tech made it so we couldn't talk. so i But I think, how's it going, James?
01:33:47
Speaker
Fifth straight L this time at the Philly Union. what are you ah What are you chewing on right now? Well, so first I just want to say prayers up for Jermaine Bertramé. He seemed to have suffered a nasty head injury, so let's hope he's okay.
01:34:02
Speaker
Point two, know his mom is pretty dang funny. um And then what I want to say about the game is that I think this is going to be spun as not that bad of a loss because we didn't give up three, let alone five goals.
01:34:17
Speaker
But I think this is what and worse than it looks. I think it's worse than it looks because you look at the absences list. It's almost, I mean, the big damage is on the defensive end. You know, we're on our second choice right back. We're on our fourth, fifth and sixth choice center backs.
01:34:34
Speaker
um I mean, maybe more depending on where you put Alex in there, but in terms of the offense, you've got the $830,000 midfielder that Weibel just signed. Nice paid player on the team.
01:34:48
Speaker
You've got a guy making one of areola making $1.2 million. dollars You've got our highest score. You got D row who just got a new contract. And then on the bench, you've got a $2 million dollars max Tam player and a $700,000 striker who also just gave a new contract.
01:35:08
Speaker
And so if you looked at that and you said, all right, defense is ravaged, but we've got a lot of our high paid guys on offense left. And if you lost four to three, if you lost three to two,
01:35:19
Speaker
That would be fine. Philly's a bad team. You should be able to get some goals and you might give up some on the other end. That's kind of what's expected. So to get blanked 1-0 where the defense actually has a fairly creditable job and the offense is just nothing, i think that's a really bad result.
Player Positioning and Performance
01:35:36
Speaker
It's worse than one nail would suggest to you, particularly given that Philadelphia have been a really bad team this year. Yeah, because it's not like you can say, oh, well, the 19-year-old centerbacks were in, so what do you expect? They did well. They actually held them to one goal. Yeah, they played well. And this goes to your point that Ari made earlier, is that the guys who played well were the fucking defiance guys.
01:35:58
Speaker
Like, they were out there. Yeah. fighting their asses off. And it does seem like the core of this team is like, guys, we're injured. Like it's, yeah, it's MLS. Like we can coast into the playoffs. Like it almost feels like the, maybe, and maybe, maybe this is a little bit of a conspiracy, but it almost feels like the message is well, guys, we're injured and... Don't these pressers kind of feel like like like that?
01:36:22
Speaker
Yeah, and and it's like, okay, well, you know, we just need to get incrementally better. We just need to we need to try a little bit harder every game and get better. And the veterans are like, yeah, that happens. You know, tough stretches happen. Like, my career will go on. i have my contract. And then you have the likes of...
01:36:39
Speaker
Stu Hawkins, who's fighting for his life out there, who they refuse to play. So the fact that he's playing is simply because there's no one else to play in that position. You have you have um ah ah Gomez out there. um Why am I blanking on his first name?
01:36:59
Speaker
Sebastian. Sebastian Gomez out there who hasn't seen the field at all, but then looks like he looks like he has that fire. he has that fire. The only player that I would even say that has the fire is Paul Rothbrock, but the problem is he feels so much pressure. Today was not a good game for him.
01:37:15
Speaker
He was trying to do everything and doing nothing at the same time. And that's that's a really challenging place to be in. So you have these two camps of the guys who are fighting for their lives because this is their breakout moment. And you have the guys who it's like, eh, we're injured. Who cares? We'll keep it pushing.
01:37:36
Speaker
It's just this weird dynamic.
01:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, you know, with Rothrock, I think of him as, um you know, if you remember the 2014 season, um Nagel and Barrett got a surprisingly high number of goals because they were able to, you know, with Dempsey and Obafemi pulling so much attention and being such a threat, these other two sort of, you know, standard and MLS guys were getting, i forget the exact numbers, but it was around nine goals each. And that's the role that Rothrock should be playing where he's, you know, you're so worried about the DP 10 and the DP nine that Rothrock just ghosts in there, which he is good at and picks up a bunch of, you know, picks up close to double digit goals. He's not allowed to do that because he's the only one trying to do everything. He's whipping in crosses. He's taking shots. He's trying to dribble with, and it's just brutal. But to go back to your point about the press conferences,
01:38:30
Speaker
Rusnak actually seemed to kind of have ah a bit of a rallying cry in the last press conference where he was saying, he said something like, um nobody gives a shit if we go out and play ugly for a hundred minutes and win.
01:38:44
Speaker
i kind of disagreed. I disagreed with that, but yeah, yeah can continue. well Well, when you're in a slide, if you if you got if you gotta to play Paraguay ball and to get a win and get out of the slump, that's fine with me. My issue is that he followed up that comment with zero defensive contributions, zero tackles, zero interceptions, zero dribble attempts, one shot on goal, none on target, 39 touches.
01:39:13
Speaker
So you've got this guy who has, ah I looked it up, you know he's obviously been under Craig Weibel for his entire MLS career. He's gotten almost $17 million dollars out of Craig Weibel.
01:39:27
Speaker
He has been paid a fortune and he's telling everybody, oh, we got to go out there. we got to do the dirt. What? I need a new boss. Yeah. Well, he's saying, oh we got to play ugly. We got to play hard. And then follows up with with that kind of stat line where he gets thoroughly outplayed by a 16 year old child.
01:39:47
Speaker
He gets bodied by a 16 year old child. I mean, Kevin shrugged him off like he was a stuffed animal at one point. And he, you know, Kevin's running everywhere. He's getting on the ball. He's slipping passes through. He's taking shots, all stuff that Rusnak isn't doing. So, you know, i would be thoroughly in favor of just cutting Rusnak a check and getting him out of there because you cannot go out there in your press conference as one of, as the highest paid player on the team, a guy who should be a leader, say, we got to dig deep. We got to win ugly and then put up that shit pile of a performance, cut him a check. It's going to cost you one 10th of the club world cup money. You open up a DP spot. Even if you don't sign somebody, you can put Jesus in the DP spot and you've got a a ton more gam left over and send a message that this kind of lazy ass performance is just not good enough. It's not tolerated.
01:40:39
Speaker
And it's going to send a message to those kids who are out there working their ass off, like a Stu Hawkins, like a Snyder Brunel, that we're not just going to let these multimillionaires post on past glories that weren't that glorious to begin with.
01:40:53
Speaker
I'm interested. this is i just conspired something. I just conspiracy theoried something here, and I want to hear your take on it. What if they've already told him that they're not going to re resign him?
01:41:06
Speaker
And this is his way of just being like, i don't i'm just i don't I don't... I seriously doubt they did that, but it might be a like he sees writing on the wall situation. I i wanted to say like...
01:41:18
Speaker
the whole ah The whole premise of like we just need to win ugly, like results over performances type thing, almost feel like it should be the opposite, man. Play better. Go out there and put in like a better effort and a better performance. And then if you still don't get the result, then I would think that you would be in a better place both morale-wise and just like – all around vibes wise, if you actually, you know, if you go out like, you like James was saying earlier, if you had gone out in this game and got out and ripped off some good counterattacks and scored a couple of good goals, but then, but you still lose the game anyway. Like I would take more positive from that than I would be if they ugly and scrapped out a trash one zero, that really didn't look like the offense ah was doing anything, but they got lucky. You see what I'm saying? Like, I feel like it's almost, that's like flipped in my mind.
01:42:07
Speaker
I don't think we have the players for that. I mean, you know, you're down a couple of DPs. You're down your're your best creative player. um i mean it's i mean, if you're looking at it from the point of view of the coach and and certainly the front office, um a couple noble losses are less valuable to you than missing the playoffs.
01:42:29
Speaker
I mean, missing the playoffs is the one thing that's really going to miss people off. Whereas if you can just limp in their Paraguay style, it's going to be okay. But no, I'll sort of counter your conspiracy theory with one of my own. Because I mean, again, I'm biased. I'm a brigadier for life. I don't think this was a, I don't think Rusnax's performances this year have been much worse than they ever are. I think he's just less lucky.
01:42:54
Speaker
But my thought is, I think Craig Weibel knows he's done for. Because there's no urgency coming out of this. He either knows that he's going to lose the GM vote But I am assuming that the GM vote coincides with his contract. And I think he probably knows he's out
Future Speculations and Succession Planning
01:43:09
Speaker
of here anyway. I mean, he's just wasted way too much Hanauer's money to survive at this point.
01:43:14
Speaker
So, you know, you look at this, you're like, why aren't we getting any rumors? Why doesn't there seem to be any urgencies press conferences? I think he knows he's done for. And look, he didn't work in MLS for two years before Garth gave his old buddy a pity job. He's not getting another job.
01:43:27
Speaker
So, I mean, he's just, i yeah my conspiracy theory is he knows it's over and he's just kind of running out the string. There is, that is, I've heard that actually from a few people in the media world of he's quite quitting.
01:43:41
Speaker
Or at least people are theorizing that. Yeah. Not that yet. I'm not reporting that people are saying that he's doing that, but there's been rumbles of people who think that like he knows he's cooked or he's like i am at the point essentially or that he's at the point where he knows that Adrian won't give him any money. Without any money, he can't do anything, and he's already dug himself such a bad hole. That's kind of what if I find if I had to to guess.
01:44:08
Speaker
yeah Yeah. I mean, well, if you look back, you know, Loggerway had such credit that I, so I, Gianni was talking about cutting his season tickets. Cause he's so ticked about this. I rage quit my season tickets in 2018. The day that Loggerway did the interview where he said, oh you know, you want to be big in l LA. You want to be big in Toronto. You know, we're not trying to compete financially with them. i I hated that interview. I said it to my ticket rep and I canceled my tickets in hindsight. What I,
01:44:37
Speaker
think Loggerway's probably doing is trying to stir up enough anger that he was forcing Hanauer's hand and Ross' hand to give him the money to go out and get Ruiz Diaz in the summer. But Loggerway had the track record and the clout to do that, and Weibel's track record is terrible, so he he can't do that. And so, look, if he's if he's quite quitting, that wouldn't be the stupidest way he's quit a job at NLS. So...
01:45:00
Speaker
Garth did have that like ability to push harder than just about anybody because of his pedigree. But additionally, on top of that, because of like who he was, he would he he owe like he demanded when he took that job that he would be listened to and he wasn't going to take any shit. And I think, you know, the reason Craig has been...
01:45:22
Speaker
I think Craig is ah the opposite of that. He's very much a company man, as Brian Schmetzer put it in the press conference, where he understands the directive and he's not going to step out of line of that because he doesn't necessarily feel that that's the right way to handle business. It's less about his vision and more about accepting the vision that's been presented to him and trying to follow the path, which I think Your boss is always going to try and screw you.
01:45:49
Speaker
So you should just try and do the best work you can and you should advocate for yourself, which I don't think he did. And that's being generous to Craig and charitable to Craig, who I do think is a good person. But I do agree. I think his, unfortunately, his tenure is coming to a close here in Seattle.
01:46:04
Speaker
James, do you have anything else before we close it out here with you and move on to Tyler next? my My friend JD wanted me to point out that this is now 1,090 minutes since Albert Rusnak has had an open play goal or assist.
01:46:22
Speaker
Ari, what do you have to say about that? It's not great. It's not great.
01:46:30
Speaker
Anyway, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate you having me on. and I hope you all have a nice evening. And Noah, don't know if you heard me, but tell your mom that she's quite funny. i will I will tell my mom that she is funny and I appreciate it Have a good night, James.
01:46:44
Speaker
See you, James. All right, Tyler, we're putting you on the stage. How are you, my friend? Hey, guys. is Wait, is that the famous misspelled MLS Cup hat?
01:46:56
Speaker
It's the famous knockoff MLS World Cup hat. Oh, my God. This is... That's sick. I just had a fangirl moment. That just brought me back. I had to flash my kit for this one. I'm trying to keep the spirits up there. It's so good.
01:47:11
Speaker
So last time I was on, I asked you guys about interesting players. And I think the good news is i want to take some positives away from this game. I think we have some answers now about interesting players because we've now seen some Sebastian Gomez and I like what I see from some Sebastian Gomez.
01:47:29
Speaker
We've seen more Stu Hawkins than we've seen in three years for some reason, but at least we're seeing it now. And I am now Stu Hawkins fan and I was Stu Hawkins fan before, but you know more of a Stu Hawkins fan than I was before. That's pretty cool.
01:47:45
Speaker
And I think Peter Kingston had a really nice bounce back match after being pretty bad the last time he ran out. So, um you know, to the person who made the comment that, or maybe as you guys had said, the Defiance players are the ones playing. Definitely true, but at least someone's playing out there. And I think you had a standard Rothrock, you know, run for everywhere. i would actually like to see the miles tracked for Rothrock in that game because he ran an absolute marathon in that match. And I continue to be impressed by his willingness to just continue to try to fight people we're right up until the 91st minute. So that's good.
01:48:23
Speaker
Talking about the bad. So what what is the purpose of subbing on Jesus Ferreira if he's going to get a golden look in the box and completely scuff the look?
01:48:39
Speaker
I don't really know what he's supposed to be doing other than putting that ball on target. So I found that pretty frustrating. I think Dotson had one good play, which was taking a foul in the 65th minute that he got a free kick out of. He did shield there nicely. Other than that, was pretty bad.
01:49:00
Speaker
And Rusnak, I think we've covered enough, but definitely not the best performance. But um but I really do i do want to say that I think we should be taking, you know, was the Philadelphia Union, but but i will I will ride with the optimists and say there was something in this match that was not present for for sure in the Portland match, and certainly less so in the Austin match.
01:49:26
Speaker
And so I wanted to know if you guys felt the same way, even though we're all in five loss territory and all that stuff. I mean, like, yeah, there's like, there's, I don't know, i guess for lack of a better term, like the incrementalism of slowly getting better and slowly getting healthier is true. And I think to speak to one of the things that both Ari and i agree with is that like, this team will probably be fine this season. Like they'll still, they'll make the playoffs. They'll, be better They'll be better than this. I don't want to say fine. Yeah, like they they'll they'll get there. But does it address the problems? No.
01:50:04
Speaker
Does this run make just everything so much more glaring? And is it just a run where you're like, I just can't really excuse that. Like... Yeah, kind of. So I don't know. I think what really takes it into that territory is the Portland game. If it was if all these games were going like these last couple have been where it's just like the offense isn't doing anything and then you give up a late goal in the Austin case or you give up a 1-0 in Philly in this case. If the Portland game looked more like that, maybe you could squint at this whole thing more and be like, all right, they're at least like, you know, they at least have their sort of baseline and they're just not getting done right now. They're not getting these games over the line. They're not getting these results. But you throw in getting 5-1 at home by the Timbs, and that just kind of puts it into this situation.
01:50:52
Speaker
stratosphere of like, this is this is this is not just write-offable, this is like unacceptable. yeah there's There's too many historics and the defend in the defeat category. Five in a row never happened in Sounders history. the Highest, ah biggest defeat at Lumen Field for the Sounders against Portland ever. I mean, those those are that's two like very embarrassing things. We have people, I have people constantly in my replies like,
01:51:19
Speaker
the Sounders are bad. The Sounders are like, this feels wrong to me. Like, uh, there was a I can't remember a Charlotte fan. They're like, I'm uncomfortable. Like I'm uncomfortable with the Sounders being like this tragic. So it's a Marvel movie timeline shit right there. No, exactly. Yeah, it's the fallen hero. We literally are. We've lost our powers. Like, it's like the boys, you know, when what the what's his name loses his powers and we're here. Sorry, is that probably a spoiler for some people? But um it's like, yeah, you're, you're, what are we?
01:51:56
Speaker
Yeah. I wanted to point out a couple things about the signings too, because I think it's really interesting. So 2013 and 2015 are the times people are really kind of comparing to this. Those were bad four four games in a row. It's really interesting to note that following 2015's losing streak, we signed Roman Torres, Nelson Baldez, and Ivanchich.
01:52:18
Speaker
So that's that was really interesting to me because I was like, well, there was some activity there. And they were also like, the team needs to get better. Let's get Roman Torres in. And I think he did make the team a lot better, especially the next season. So I think that's the type of thing I'd be looking for. 2013 also, i had to unmemory hold this or whatever, but that happened like a little bit after the Dempsey signing was announced. So I think everybody was pretty much like, what who cares? Like we're getting Dempsey in when he gets back from Tottenham whatever it was. So that, you know, it's like, I just kind of speak to that as i do think there's a lot of truth to the fact that the fact the the transfer rumors, the lack thereof, the lack of any sort of communication around that, and certainly the feeling like we can just kind of stand pat where we are is exacerbating it as much as any of the results are to my mind. Because I do, um I mean, I was obviously around for those
01:53:20
Speaker
Other times, and, you Roman Torres was an excellent, like that was a really exciting signing, like to be like, oh yeah, this guy that we literally just saw in the Hex is gonna come play for us. That's awesome. And then Dempsey, this guy we just literally saw playing in the Hex is gonna come play for us. Same thing. So, you know, I think, um Do we think one international slot is going to solve this problem though is is the real question. And I just don't see, i don't see it doing it. So, um, don't worry. We can sell that slot.
01:53:52
Speaker
Yeah, we can sell that slot for, it's getting, it's getting, it's only going, it's only appreciating value, right? They're like, man, buy low sell high years later. That's what you can do Loan loan your your up and coming striker that you signed and make sure to not ever play him, even though your starting strikers can't score and profit question mark? Five more steps after that profit. Yeah.
01:54:18
Speaker
I wanted to ask one more thing and then I'll let you guys kick me off. But um just in terms of, so I'm looking at domestic players here because I think that's where we have to be looking. And I haven't seen a write up on Soundert Hart necessarily. um But I'm curious if you guys have any USL guys, championship guys that you're looking at as potentially like, hey, this could be the next, because Kingston actually was a USL two guy. For those people that are not absolute sickos like I am for American soccer, ah you know there's level there's several levels that Kingston jumped actually to jump onto the Sounders there. A lot closer is obviously USL championships. So i'm curious if you guys have your eye on anybody out there, any Tulsa players, any New Mexico players, anybody that you've seen or you're looking at.
01:55:03
Speaker
Man, I have not been ah following USL championship enough this season to identify like specific targets. But like, i think that, you know, that's always a place where you can go and find like supplementary value. But when I think about like what this team needs to address, like it's needle movers type situation, I'm just like, I'm,
01:55:26
Speaker
I don't know. I'm a little wary of banking a lot on that because it's just like you, they have a perfect example on this team right now of ah in Danny Musavsky of a so ah striker who kind of fits the mold of the, there's a lot, there's a ton of data and numbers to suggest that if you're ah like an elite volume goal score in the USL, it'll translate to mls And And with Moose, it pretty much has like actually in his career as a whole outside of this year. But like the whole thing. And the year before the year he scored all those goals and the year before that. But, you know, only only one year before the year he scored a lot of goals. Okay. The point is. His rate numbers were good before though.
01:56:09
Speaker
Yeah. His rate numbers were very good. His rate I realize those don't count. I'm just saying this is. I don't know. Goals for 90. That's a fair stat. Exactly. It's not XG. That is how scouts and front offices look at it. And there's a lot of examples of it. But then this is what I was going to say is it's like, I think you're kind of seeing the like ah the flip side of that where this year it's like Moose has fallen completely off the map. So like yeah i just i am when I think of like what this team needs to actually go into the future on Bender standing like with its roster,
01:56:44
Speaker
I feel like it's like, yeah, I mean, to me, the biggest thing is the DP situation has to get addressed. Like you can't, that's, that's just priority number one. And I'm not so much sure like the supplementary moves even matter until that's ironed out.
01:56:55
Speaker
I will say that this, I think the Sounders are very good at making those supplementary moves. I think go watch some defiance games and you'll tell that like their pipeline is good. That's why they signed Mark Bronick, who was considered a very, very good USL player.
01:57:11
Speaker
They're, I mean, watching the Tacoma Defiance, they're a lot better this year than they were last year. yeah they've got ah They have way more stability in their coaching staff now. But yeah, I mean, like you have Charlie Gaffney, who's been playing really well in that right wing back position. And you know Mark Bronick, he's got seven goals, three assists, which isn't necessarily like elite by any means. He's like an example of the type of guy to keep an eye on, I think. but that's Yeah, like that's that's I think they're doing a good job there. So... um
01:57:42
Speaker
I don't know. It's, um I feel like the Sounders, like to Ari's point, they're good at identifying those people. I think it's, it's the step up from that where it's like someone who you can get in an interleague transfer, like a Jesus Ferreira type deal, but maybe like a little bit less on the numbers. What you would have wanted out of the Hassani Dotson deal.
01:58:03
Speaker
or your designated players. Like people who can actually, to Craig's credit, he's right. We need people who can show up and play day one, who are going to be able to beat out the talent that we have on the roster, but they don't want to spend for it.
01:58:16
Speaker
And I want to say, to be clear, I think I'm talking about it more like if we if we're going to cut Hassani Dotson, like who are we putting in there? You know, like Sebastian Gomez is the type of player that i'm I'm thinking about in my head. I'm like, our problem to me now, yes, I just don't think the number nine problem is going to get solved. And so what I'm looking at is how do we improve the team overall? And I think it's like the players that we have available to move in as we've had these injuries has not always, it's not always been clear to me that there's a really good succession plan that runs through the organization and then outside the organization that they're thinking like, okay, we have two.
01:58:53
Speaker
I mean, the pivot is like the classic problem, right? You're like, this is the central part of our entire structure of our team. We have literally two guys that can play there, two guys. So if one of them gets hurt, I guess we're just screwed. Yeah, you know exactly. they agree they did They need a six so much worse than they need a nine. They did just sign a six to the defiance though.
01:59:15
Speaker
This Costa Rican kid who I want. Oh, that's right. yeah he He doesn't have that much tape. And frankly, I don't know shit about the Costa Rican league to actually be honest. That's not going to do it. Yeah. You need it' sign to do it now, but it's like, to your point, it's the, the succession plan isn't completed. It's like, it's there somewhat like they're trying to build it, but he's not ready to go right now. So, yeah. And I would just, I would just close on when you have a team of players who 90% of your starters are 29 or older.
01:59:47
Speaker
to me, I would be prioritizing the succession plan if I was a GM and it doesn't feel like that's happening. So that's all, that was where I wanted to kind of i bring it around. So, but thank you guys very much. You guys are always crushing as usual.
02:00:01
Speaker
You are crushing even more with that hat. I'm very jealous. I'll keep bringing out the like real vintage, vintage, you know, gear as as we go along here. things get real bad, I'll start, I'll start going into the closets. We need the mojo. Well, Tyler, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate you. Thanks, Tyler. here All right. Jesus, are you ready to go? going to go grab some water, but I'll be right back. Okay. Sounds good. Jesus is unmuted. We're Jesus and then Timbo and then Sam. And then the queue is empty. So, Jesus, you're on. no How we doing?
02:00:33
Speaker
Can you guys hear me? Yes, sir. Can you guys hear me? Yep. Can you hear us? Yeah or no? yep let me let me Let me go back. All right. Jesus is not working. Timbo, you ready?
02:00:48
Speaker
Yep. right. Sweet. Let me make sure you guys can hear me before we move on. Yeah, you sound you sound a little garbled, but sure we can hear you. Hold on. Let's test it real quick.
02:00:59
Speaker
I mean, our show can't be press conference from earlier, right? No, exactly. It can't be where any worse. That was good tech that does sound better, though.
02:01:11
Speaker
So, ah i mean, let's let's start off with the presser tonight. just kind of I kind of want to call out Jada Evans for the Seattle Times tonight. And I know she's been a great person to to cover the Sounders in the last six years, but I'm really irritated with her calling out Brian tonight on the resume. this isn't you know This isn't the National Football League.
02:01:32
Speaker
It's MLS soccer. it's it's And not to say that five losses in the history of the Sounders is a bad thing, but like the fact that just so there's a bipolar component of this, this press conference. Cause on one end she's, you know, calling out the coach.
02:01:46
Speaker
Hey, do you, are you worried about your job yet? You know, dadada not like, you know, thinking about the last 10 years of what this coach has brought to this team and the fact that due to the resources available, we aren't going to get a better manager like for the rest of the year. If, if they decide tomorrow that that's it, you know, or after the Portland game or after the Toluca game or like,
02:02:08
Speaker
the fact that changing up the manager right now will absolutely sink this team. Yeah. I mean, i hear that. I will say, i will say a lot of, Oh yeah. So go, go for it. Go for Yeah. I think, I think a lot of fans and people who follow the team very closely understand a lot deeper, the feeling and a lot of us, but I do think it's a question that is asked, not just to like push and be like,
02:02:33
Speaker
ah shouldn't you be fired? Like, I don't... i Yeah, like, you you should... do Why do we have a press conference with you? You're five losses in. On the other hand, I just want to add, then then we go into, like, hey, how do you feel about joining the U.S. men's national team? you know, they got an open spot. Like, well i it's very just a weird... I think... the I mean to say that like Jada is asking the question as the means of getting an answer, less so than a means of prompting a like prompting something or having some kind of comment about it. like The way that she...
02:03:10
Speaker
approaches her interviews, I think is a lot more to do with getting the answer to the question, which is when you're writing about this team having five losses, you can quote Brian Schmetzer saying, listen, I think that I've earned enough leash to be able to go through more than what a lot of MLS coaches have. And she's writing for a reader base that isn't really tapped into MLS all the time. That's fair too. Exactly. That's what I was going to say. I like, i think...
02:03:38
Speaker
I mean, first first off, it's not really like her or any other reporter's job to like take into consideration what they think or what people think about what firing the manager might do. It's like to me, like a reporter asked that question when the results and the vibes are bad enough that it starts becoming an actual question. And I do think that we are at that point. So like from that end, like it's a – it's a question that's gonna get asked by her or somebody else like when the results go this sideways and ah when I first heard her follow up of like well why do you think you have that long of a leash I did have the reaction that I think a lot of people did of like does Brian Schmetzer really need to like explain that to like anybody like we all know that his resume is second to none of any coach in MLS history. So to have him like have to defend that, that seems crazy to us, but we're also diehards. We're sickos. We're plugged in every day. So like if she's trying to give context to people that don't have that same context, they might want to know why Brian Schmetzer thinks that. So I think that's, that's probably how she was thinking of it. Not as like a I'm going to put Schmetz on blast type thing. It's more just like, or, or heat up the seat at this point at this conference right i mean that's that's fair um the second thing i saw tonight after at halftime where you know people were like thomas out of goal and i just i yes goalie made a mistake tonight it happens in soccer and in football in general you like and and honestly
02:05:10
Speaker
he He seemed to play great the rest of the game. I did see him making moves and saves that I don't think Fry or somebody, and and not to say Fry wouldn't do that, but I just, there's an age component there. He's not, if if I'm 30 going into 40, making dives to to shots that are close, but not there, I'm probably not making those dives and and throwing myself to the ground the way i saw Thomas do tonight. And those people who want Thomas out, they're going to opportunities to see Fry and goal before the season is out with leagues. So I just,
02:05:39
Speaker
um It just, it kind of blows my mind. i think Thomas has earned his spot, has earned, you know, it's not ah it's not a goalie or a defense issue, I think, right now. If you if you look at at the goals over the last five games, we have two.
02:05:56
Speaker
One of them is garbage time in Portland. The other one is Rothrock kind of like ah ah ugly goal, but it's a goal. and could and could have tied up that that game had we had we not imploded. The good news tonight is I don't think the Sounders imploded like they did the last two games. Low bar.
02:06:12
Speaker
Low bar. Didn't implode. Bar met. Yeah. the the The bar I was kind of hoping for tonight was was the 0-0 draw. Honestly, I wanted to see some boring soccer in Philly.
02:06:24
Speaker
No crash out red cards in the city of Philadelphia. Great job. Great job by everyone involved. Let the Rocky music play. I mean, it it it is. It is what at this point.
Goalkeeping and Defensive Analysis
02:06:36
Speaker
like come in and And it wasn't 90 degrees in Philly tonight. I mean, incinerator aside.
02:06:43
Speaker
So um I guess on on last last notes, i the Nolan film I mentioned the last time I won was the Odyssey, not the Dark Knight and Noah. Like, you know, I don't...
02:06:54
Speaker
i appreciate that I appreciate the Joker impression. Honestly, the intro, that intro was incredible. Like, I'm going to watch that a lot. that's He said, why so serious? Why so serious? I mean, it it the vibes are bad.
02:07:13
Speaker
so they're not They're not good. They're not good. We had to we had to come up with something. you know so that was me I'll do an Odyssey one, I'll go see it first. Timbo, do you think, what what is your feelings on ah you know as bad as things are right now?
02:07:31
Speaker
ah Is this cope or hope? You do have Christian Roldan and Yemar coming back theoretically. And as much as we have Pedro de la Vega also, yeah I'm just trying not to even say it because bad people react as such. The resources are as such, but ah um like, i do you think, is that is there is are you feeling any coping? Like, all right, once Christian gets back, once Yemar gets back and maybe we get a little de la Vega in there, it'll, it'll improve. Or are you feeling nihilistic and fatalistic?
02:08:00
Speaker
I mean, I am a little bit, but I know that Roldan will replace Dotson. As soon as we get Dotson off the field, I think we're a lot better of a team. I just i understand that he's an MLS veteran, and he had he had a few good years in Minnesota.
02:08:15
Speaker
Those days are gone. like I haven't seen anything that would present that and his play the last last few games. I think he's been kind of a sieve. I think we're lucky to not have lost this game 2-0 due to a hairline offside call. I don't think he was off. I don't think he was off. For all the bitching that Sounders fans do about the refs fucking making like terrible calls, I've seen a couple that have like really bailed us out of but a sinking ship that call tonight and then the the simulation call against rothrock that should have been right like or a second yell or whatever the situation is that made the we we should have been down a guy like it is what it is like it is what it is but um yes i think i think yehmar's coming back is and roldan especially christian roldan coming back is is huge um clearly i mean There's a fire there too. There's there's kind of, you see that out of guys like Peter Kingston and and Paul Rothrock where they are, didn they might as well get tattoos of of the crest at this point because they they bleed and sweat and and live it. i think Christian Roldan's in that same kind of pool of players.
02:09:25
Speaker
So having him on the field, having that kind of inspiring um leadership, as veteran leadership, frankly, is a good thing. Completely agree.
02:09:38
Speaker
Amazing. Well, Timbo, thank you for calling in. and Hey, we still got to build a bonfire in Portland. So that's that's what we we're that's the next. that's the night i understand people aren't excited about that. We we could throw the owner and the GM at the top, but I'd like to put the timbers up there too. let's can we leave Can we leave the owner in Portland?
02:09:55
Speaker
Can we just leave them there? I don't know. Maybe he can like own like, ah I can't believe we have to watch this team play the Timbs again right now. Can I, can I, I I'll, I'll let you go here, Timbo. Um, but I will, I do have a take for Ari after this. So thank you for calling in. Have a good night boys.
02:10:14
Speaker
Before we get to you, you're next, but I'm just going to make this take here and you can answer it in a second. But, uh, our good friend, Colton, Colton Kaiser. who's been on our board before. I was talking to him today, and he he had an idea for ownership. He said, take one Hanauer, the multi-millionaire Hanauer, the small M millionaire, or capital a millionaire, and give it to the small B billionaire Hanauer, his brother.
02:10:41
Speaker
He sells the club to his brother, or just transfers ownership. His brother... can keep him in charge, but we actually have more money.
02:10:53
Speaker
Thoughts? This is Colton's idea, not mine. That's a Colton Cook right there. I don't really care who it is. I was saying I wanted it to be the the AI tech oligarch who bought the Seahawks. I don't want him.
02:11:07
Speaker
don't it he's got He's got cash. He's got the cash. Does he? the cash. I don't know. I don't know. He's net worth a lot of billions. someone with that kind of net worth why can't we just like ah like why didn't we both inherit like a billion dollars we would be way but we would be potting like like after the games can you imagine if we had can you imagine if we had the oligarch budget for our show oh my god man we would have like 4.5k subs dude it'd be crazy we'd have 4.5k at least sam we're are you ready we're gonna bring you in how are we what's up sam
02:11:45
Speaker
Uh, you know, I, I'm doing all right. I mean, yes five L's five els in a five els in a row. Five L's in a row isn't great. You're never going to good on the fifth L in a row.
02:11:58
Speaker
No, definitely not. I mean, like, okay. we never know five els you know definitely know We haven't. We haven't. I mean, we're we're bordering on historic territory at this point. I really don't want to lose six games in a row. Like, please, please. But I do want to respond to your take about ah selling to Adrian's brother. i i don't know. Feels like a kind of situation where it'll be the Scooby-Doo meme where you kind of take the mask off and it's just Adrian underneath. Like, nothing's going to change if we did that. I know it's a joke anyways, but, you know, even still.
02:12:28
Speaker
Jeez. I guess like on the game itself, like look, like the day was great. At least we didn't get rained out like two years ago. Cause that was a fucking miserable experience traveling all the way down there. And then yeah, getting about five minutes gameplay and the ball couldn't even move. So, I mean, we don't need to re-litigate that or anything, but i yeah, I don't know. It'd be nice if we played a little bit better, but if we want to take a little silver lining against Portland, we conceded five against Austin. It was three. Today was one. Maybe we win the game by one zero.
02:13:00
Speaker
we'll see so it's it's so sick how low the bar is right now we're like all right didn't concede five didn't concede five didn't get a crash out red card didn't score a goal but only lost by one yeah i i i don't i don't even i don't even know what to say i mean like okay like there's a lot of like negative stuff going around about the players and it's like obviously like we're not gonna We're not gonna speak bad about any of the Defiance kids. They obviously care. But like one guy did really want to highlight, um Snyder Brunel definitely had a much better game tonight than the last couple. But he was the first player to walk over to ECS tonight.
02:13:40
Speaker
He stayed there applauding the entire time. He was the last player to leave. like that That guy cares. yeah i I can really appreciate that. I know everyone else did.
02:13:51
Speaker
And I know a lot of the other guys on the team do. I mean, none of them want to lose, but I mean, it, it sucks. It sucks losing, but I'm, I'm willing to live with the struggles that Snyder is going through right now. It's like when you have like a, like a minor league baseball prop prospect who is, everyone knows is going to be hella good, but then they call him up and then he's hitting like one 98 cause he's not ready yet. And he's going and yeah and he has to go through that. And then the next year, because he went through that, he's going to hit 300, you know, like Snyder is in that he's in that like two for 46 rut of like a,
02:14:28
Speaker
prospect that is just going through it there's gonna be jumper without him taking a shit this season you know that's a better way to put it yeah exactly you really don't you really don't he will he will snyder will be stronger for this he will be stronger for this there it's kind of like one other thing i kind of wanted to bring up too it's like i i kind of forget who said this i'm i'm not sure if it was someone from the sounders organization if this or if this was like maybe like a matt doyle thing but i mean like There's kind of like the general rule of thumb where if you kind of need like nine of 11 starters on the field for depth players to like play well, you you need like the support around them. And I mean, like we're missing...
02:15:06
Speaker
six starters, I guess, like Pedro, Jordan, Yamar, Christian, Alex, Jackson. Yeah, yeah, that's six right there. I mean, like, you're you're just not going to be able to, like, it's even if you're substitute your deaf players are like good players, you're you're still just not going be able to perform to the same level. And it's like that that kind of sucks for the guys like Snyder, who's, I mean, like, this is his first year as a sub. he's He's 18, 19 years old at this point, like,
02:15:34
Speaker
I don't know you you can't really expect too much out of them, but yeah the the injury crisis is kind of brutal and it's no excuse still the team needs to perform five losses in a row is just straight up not acceptable but.
02:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. That's why the injury thing is, I i don't know, like it is it is all true, but it's more than a little cope, I think. because The reason is because this team used to be able to be in situations like this and not have to make these excuses that we're making for them right now. they didn't They didn't use that. They used to be a team that was like, you know, like that's what I loved about the kind of culture of the team last year is they were in this exact situation. Like it was maybe not this bad, but it was pretty much just as bad. And they went out and they said, no we we had some terrible times last year. Yeah. And they, and, and this team went out there every week and they said, we don't give a shit. We, we are the Seattle Sounders. We have this injury. We have that injury. We don't need three DPs. We're going go out there. We're going to take results and we're going to rip it up in leaks cup anyway. Cause that's what we do, man. We don't like, we don't make excuses. That's the culture that I know this team to have. And so for us to have to sit here and be like, well, Any team, if you lost this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy, and this guy, then you would be chalked. But like, no, not this team. This team didn't used to have to like do that. So that's, that's like, honestly, the thing that I think is the most concerning is the fact that they're in this situation, admittedly dire, and they're having to go to that. Well, they're having to go to the, well, you know, if everyone's hurt, but it's like, no, Seattle Sounders don't say that they don't. Yeah. It's Brian Schmetzer says it every time it's next man up mentality, just,
02:17:04
Speaker
and dia got it perform you be That was a actual, that wasn't lip service. That was a real tenant of this team in the culture. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's to be fair, to be fair, it's not to say that there aren't some players who are taking it seriously. i mean, it's like, look at our center backs. Yeah, they're like 19 and 17 years old by the end of the game or something like that. Like, yeah, it's ridiculous that that should not be that should not be a starting MLS pair of center backs. And that's not to say they did bad or anything at all. Just, you know, it's it's just kind of the reality of it. But
02:17:36
Speaker
um Yeah, I don't know. kind of Kind of the last thing I wanted to like kind of get into a little bit is like, man, we we really need reinforcements in attack. Like, no i'm not even saying it I'm not even saying it needs to be like a starting level caliber player, but we need different player profiles. Like, it's...
02:17:52
Speaker
it's like I hate to relitigate this kind of too, where it's like, yeah, we traded Georgie away. It's just the reality of it. And I'm not saying like he necessarily would have helped us a ton, but like one kind of one kind of interesting fact is just like, yeah, I mean, like regardless of production that he had on the field, like players were terrified to defend him. Just that simple gravity that he and players of his skill set are able to create. like It creates space for other players, even if he's not adding the box score, of which he's not really doing in Colorado either. Like it makes the game easier for everyone else around him, whether that be Albert Rusnak or Jesus Ferreira. And I don't I mean, like we we can play the game of what ifs all we want, and it's not going to change the reality of of anything on the field. But I mean, just it's just one kind of interesting thing of, yeah, just what kind of the like the positive cascading effect a player like can him can have. And I don't know, hopefully we're able to bring someone in
02:18:51
Speaker
who has just a different skill set to what everyone else does.
02:19:03
Speaker
Hey, you me both. yeah that's that's i don't know that's my response to all of that correct all of those correct takes it's uh i just it just feels it just feels so brutal uh do you have anything else or or uh are you are you gonna leave us with that uh beautiful um don't even let's let's fucking win next game I love it. let its Let's fucking win next game. Sam, thank you so much for calling in We'll see you against Portland for our dub pod.
02:19:36
Speaker
Yeah. yeah be po Fingers crossed. Finger crossed. Hey, Ari, so much you need us. so most you need those There we go. Shout out New Mexico. All right. Jesus, are you ready again? Yeah, Jesus. And then we got Nat and then we're calling it.
02:19:51
Speaker
All right. What's up, Jesus? Can you hear us now? Yeah, my bad. My wife has been total ass off. All week. I think the Sounders, with their shitty performance, I think melted in my router.
02:20:03
Speaker
Anyways, anyway let's get to the point. I think what the team has needed and so far needed, I mean, don't get me wrong, that the Science kids did really good job. And seeing how they performed today was great. Rothrock, Brunel,
Fan Support and Broadcast Issues
02:20:18
Speaker
Kingston. I mean, shout out to Kingston. He came out like one of those Barrio teams, you know. What's that one team I forgot? Like, I know...
02:20:26
Speaker
uh you guys promoted all the time ballarddiff ah Ballard uh Ballard Ballard yeah yeah Ballard FC uh I noticed that it's a very it reminds me like a Rio Van Aconel in Madrid one of the last Barrio teams but Yeah, let me get straight to the point of the game. Well, i was at work at the time, so only got to see limited action. And thank God I missed half of it because half of my charge went away while watching this game. Well, we seriously need a ah number nine and we seriously just, come on, just win next game, man. We can't, we have to go back to that shithole called Portland.
02:21:04
Speaker
I'm not looking forward to it I do. If they get waxed, like what happens if they just get absolutely waxed, which might happen. oh Oh, my God. i don't think Brian Schmetzer should be fired, but I have a feeling and a little bit of devil.
02:21:21
Speaker
And I'm wearing the 2016 kit with the golden star on it, if you guys can't see. I see that. The golden star on it. Hey, that year the year they were in the year they got that star, they were a lot worse than this, um like against all odds. Yeah.
02:21:37
Speaker
yeah i remember i remember that was the worst the worst time and i ever seen that team was worse than this team ill like yeah not that i want to compare any sounders i just that was like dog days but like we've said at least they did something to make that team better right that right now yeah that year that year it was like all right there's it's very clear what the team is missing and then they went out and spent a bunch of money and they got it yeah yeah i got it done But rather right now, I don't know where, i don't know where the ownership's at. I don't know what Craig's doing.
02:22:12
Speaker
Probably just not probably just glazing off of Adrian Hunter's money. Probably spending a lot of it. it's Not enough of it. He's not spending enough of it.
02:22:24
Speaker
Not enough of it, but yes like I was thinking about it earlier saying what happens if the Sounders were actually bought by the Saudis. could Could they probably bring like Kareem Benzema type signing?
02:22:35
Speaker
i Imagine did they bring the bank for somebody from Europe, which I totally doubt what happened. I mean, look at all the players that came from Europe to the United States. They love the United States. Holland to be example. Holland.
02:22:48
Speaker
i feel like I feel like if the Saudis took over the Sounders, there would be even more unhappy fans than just being this broke. like it would be ah it would be a It would be a tough scene. But, you know, why honestly anyone else.
02:23:04
Speaker
and then I don't know. Someone's got to have money. Yeah, Inter-Miami probably is already cheating. And you know it's bad when the MLS is investigating. It's horrible. but Miami does love to cheat. They're allowed they're allowed to cheat. They're going to investigate. It was investigated. They're going to investigate and be like, that's that's legalized cheating. That's fine. Yeah, yeah it's okay. We only have one hope.
02:23:28
Speaker
We only have one hope. Macklemore, bet you have the same amount of money as Adrian Hanauer. Take over the club. Macklemore, Ben Haggerty, take over the club. We need a different kind of white boy swag in there.
02:23:42
Speaker
All we have left. Take over. Yeah. I'm gonna pop some tags. But, Jesus, anything you want to leave us with here? Honestly, just like we need all fans to travel to Portland. I mean, ah if yeah i don't care if we get pelted by a bunch of beer, by a bunch of salty Portland fans who have nothing else to cheer about besides their their Super Bowl win, their Mickey Mouse championships. They have not won anything.
02:24:10
Speaker
And honestly, i care about i don't care about Portland. What it is to do to do in Portland, as Joakim Noah once said, but I have other stuff. But... Like, as Didier Drogba says, I don't recognize my club anymore.
02:24:24
Speaker
I don't recognize the club anymore. We used to always be Portland.
02:24:31
Speaker
oh my god every everyone's dishing what type which type of oligarch they want to buy the club that's how down bad we are yeah yeah everybody just horrible man but i'm i still love the team the sounder so i die and if we win the mls cup and i mean next year this year i'll probably get that to probably get the love with ted because why not i travel three hours away to see this team every single day spend my hard-earned money My heart and money because I love this team.
02:25:01
Speaker
And, yeah. Well, we need we need them to come through for you, Jesus. So, thank you for calling in. Do it for the for the team, the drive. Yeah, I do it all the time. but Have a good night, guys. Thank you for having me. My bad on the technical difficulties. But, yeah, see you guys next Saturday. I'll be back here for the dub against Portland, baby.
02:25:24
Speaker
so There we go. See you soon, Jesus. Appreciate it, Jesus. Nat, all right. You're going to close us out here. um Just you give us your slander. Go for it. s Let it yeah it be your newade He needs to go away.
02:25:39
Speaker
he's He's useless. He's doing nothing. the one he's He's still useless. like he's star worse he might He played well. he's still We still lost.
02:25:51
Speaker
We don't win when he plays. Stu Hawks? Because of the defense that gave up one goal when they generated 0.01 xG? I like the point. though I do you like the person who brought up the...
02:26:06
Speaker
point about how like yeah it it should be people are going to look at the score line and and say that this game is better than the other games because of the score line but it is true like the defense like is the is who we should have been worried about and we had more of our attack on the field so i did like we should have been able to score against a philadelphia team that is just going nowhere right now So i do I do really agree with that. And it's still like, yeah the defense yeah, the defense held for most of the game. But still, like every game that Stu Hawkins is in, like he is he, i am i know that there's going to be a moment where he is going to let the other team have a massive chance.
02:26:52
Speaker
And just like he's had, he's been on the team for way too long. And now maybe he was, he's only now starting to get like consistent playing time, but it's like, why has, was he been on the team for so long? Like, i don't know. His lease is too long, but I agree that he should have been playing earlier. yeah I agree with that.
02:27:12
Speaker
But we had other center backs. He should have been playing ahead of him as well. So, um, but, uh, uh, we got it But i'm more mad I'm honestly more mad at Jackson Reagan because still, after getting one of the stupidest red cards ever...
02:27:32
Speaker
ah no apology No post or anything, nothing on Twitter, nothing on Instagram, apologizing to the fans for ah for making one of the stupidest decisions, which is just a frustration play. like There's no other way to put that. It's just like, you you know you're on a yellow card. The way that you get a second yellow card, you have...
02:27:57
Speaker
Like, like in this way. yeah What, like what the comments are saying? Yeah. Hawkins is better than Reagan because I do think if Ray, if Hawkins had done something, he's, but he's ah putting out a post apologizing for the behavior because that red is absolutely terrible. And Reagan needs to speak up about something. So the fact that he's being silent, speak up Reagan.
02:28:20
Speaker
As Young Thug once said, he don't got internet. All the players. All of our players. All of our DPs who are just staying quiet. Morris, again. Where are you?
02:28:31
Speaker
Say something. Talk about how this is embarrassing. like um Like, the players gotta be... fair I want to hear... from the players and not have them hiding behind a terrible press conference connection. Cause that is also ridiculous. Like what, what is this? Why is the, why is it? It's not hard. The quality of the, they want $400 million a year for their TV rights deal, by the way, but can't even set up a fucking love Mike. The quality of the hostage videos, think really just like, just adds, it's, to the situation now. It's like, we just watched this trash game, five losses in a row, historically bad run of form, 0.01 XG. And then you get the zoom call, just not even connecting. You can't understand what's being said. It's like, this is really just like, and you know, I can sympathize with tech difficulties and specifically as it pertains to zoom calls. So I get that, but it is also like, you know,
02:29:38
Speaker
It's not even just the Sounders. It's like, how do not all these teams not have lav mics and like... This isn't... There's no standard operating procedure for any of the PR and MLS stuff. And that's a problem because MLS HQ doesn't care and they're not smart enough to figure that out. But also like...
02:29:53
Speaker
Why don't they just do it like every other league in the world? They also, you, they don't have to publish all of the, uh, like not all teams publish their press conferences. So you have to like literally dig through shit to be able to try and find it. Like when we try and find, um, like a crash outs, yeah it's like actually a scavenger hunt to try and find the clubs that post them and don't. So yeah. Well, MLS is always trying to say, like, take us seriously. Like, take us seriously. We'll take it from here. We have stuff like this.
02:30:23
Speaker
And then, like, just on the Inter-Miami game that was on Wednesday, ah the they had no commentators for the first five minutes. They just had a graphic that said that said it's experiencing audio technical difficulties. And it's like, okay...
02:30:38
Speaker
I understand that happens. I do broadcast stuff. Like, yeah, stuff happens. But there's so much money with how much... Apple is paying so much, like, in a Messi... Or Messi wasn't playing in that game. But Messi's team, like, how is that happening? That's not happening in other leagues.
02:30:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's crazy. It's just, like, you want to be taken seriously. would Then fix these simple stuff. Well, I think it's funny because me and ari like broadcast live stream on location all the time. Is it always perfect? No, but like how how can two fucking idiots with no like resource... We don't have financial... we we are resources chats Our resources are not as such.
02:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, our operating income, our total revenue is less than like a livable wage in Seattle. So like I don't... we're making it happen how are we making it happen i don't really i don't know tragedy and and yeah right now i'm trying to like i'm like i'm i really don't know what to do about this next saturday game because it's like normally if i'm free on a portland game i'm like i want to go to this game it's portland it's close by um
02:31:59
Speaker
and i mean i do compare for some m mos stadiums like i do i do actually think providence park is better than a lot of them like it actually is i like i like going to games there i don't have problems in yeah yeah the the new stand that they built on the far side like that is actually really nice i was looking at and like tickets for those like in that new stand area like pretty good seats like like you are available for like 60 bucks which is like it's like fine but it's like it's like i even like for that it's like i don't know like do i want to watch this get scored on four times like ah and then drive three hours back like like it's like what is happening with the sounders it is true like it just we've never really felt this way and it's like it's like Maybe it was ah you know maybe it was inevitable eventually. like It's been a pretty charmed life. like They really have not had a lot of... Most teams have been through stuff like this multiple times between the times that ah Seattle has ever felt like this. And the last time Seattle felt like this, they literally won MLS Cup that year. So no one remembers that that badly. Everyone looks back on that and is like, hey, wasn't that funny when everything was asked for a half a year and then and then the team won and MLS Cup? you know like now But now it's like...
02:33:20
Speaker
Reality setting in. I just don't want to be blue too close to the LA Galaxy. Like the LA Galaxy, like you've pretty much since... I mean, yeah, they won one MS Cup, but since 2014, since that 2014 team, I would say, like their team has just been so depressing because the team has just never...
02:33:41
Speaker
played entertaining soccer or has never has just felt like they have been see i feel i feel like last year they were actually they were ripping it for a minute there man like i don't know like the galaxy oh okay i thought you were talking sorry i thought you' were talking about seattle yeah the galaxy yeah no yeah yeah like yeah they um did they had like the one run but like just like even but yeah just like It just feels like even they don't care. Like they'll bring in one big star, but then and they're like, all right, that person's going to carry us. But still, they just haven't been the same from what they were in like the in their high in their heydays. And it's like and people are still trying to remember that. And like the Sounders fans are talking about our heydays.
02:34:30
Speaker
So it's just like, yeah, I want to go It's tough.
Management Accountability and Closing Remarks
02:34:34
Speaker
and yeah i don't And I agree with what you said, Noah, about firing Schmetzer. Firing Schmetzer is not the answer there because it's like there's no one there is no one better right now who yeah who would who we could pay for what the Sounders would be willing to pay their coach.
02:34:53
Speaker
Resources not as such. Yeah, resources not as such. Yeah, i and I don't think, I don't know what Precky, i don't know if Precky is ready to be the coach of the Sounders. I don't think that's going to be, that would be enough of a change.
02:35:08
Speaker
The problem is Hanauer. We need Hanauer to, Hanauer speak, speak again. He used to like to do interviews. Say something now.
02:35:20
Speaker
Adrian Hanauer, come on the Lobbing Scorchers podcast. you we You will be reincarnated as a lotus flower. Yeah. He should. That would be... the life If he actually cares about this team, like he should.
02:35:36
Speaker
I agree. It would also be good for our numbers. so that would yeah If he actually cares about this podcast. Yeah. And Wavell, like, you have nothing to lose. Like, why are you going out silently? Nothing to lose. Go down swinging. Go down swinging. This is my favorite take that you've had. It's like, just fucking go for it. Who cares? Go out. Sign whoever. He's not going to get a better job. so Sign whoever you want. The world is your oyster, brother. Yeah. sign Give out some ridiculous contracts now. Just make something happen. All right.
02:36:10
Speaker
I love it. Well, Nat, thank you so much for closing us out here. Should I buy a Portland ticket? We're going. We're going to go. I'm trying to figure out hotels, though, because it's a fucking... Why is it $200 a night? Like, come on, bro. Yeah.
02:36:25
Speaker
So... i would I like the days when ECS actually ran buses. Yeah. Let's do that. Bring that back, ECS. can we need Maybe we need an ECS. Maybe we need to do Lobbing Scorchers buses. Maybe that's our new like um our new funding vehicle. Literally vehicle. Anyway, Nat, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate you. and We'll see you after the Portland game. Ari, and just have a couple super chats, and then we can get out of here. Okay. Super chats. And then I have one thing real quick and then we can get out of here. Go for it. Go for it.
02:36:57
Speaker
Oh, just to, you guys want to feel worse. You guys want to feel worse. The Portland Timbies are, came back and are now up to one against RSL and Felipe Morris scored both goals in his last game with the club. So they're having this like magical vibe filled evening at Providence park where they went down a goal and are now, and they also went into this game under the delusion that they're now relevant because of what they did to, Seattle. So now they're like even more cloud nining and thinking that they're onto something this season, which that we obviously that's going to crash and burn and they're going to become irrelevant and non-competitive like they always are. But right now it's just unfortunate because their fans are in that like self-deluded stage where they think that they're good. And that's just always frustrating. And then meanwhile, LAFC are absolutely tearing apart the club of wrestling enthusiasts with Sun Hung Min scoring another goal. And Denny Buonga and Davi Martinez, who are both super sick, really fun to watch players also scoring a goal. So it's just like, if you needed little insult to that injury, there you go.
02:38:02
Speaker
what What is it like to beat the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts? That I do not know. in the year, in the God's year of 2026, that's something that I don't know.
02:38:13
Speaker
just, we're, you know, we're in hell right now, folks. But, you know, if I'm going to hell, I'm glad that we're, we're, yeah, you all are coming with me and I wouldn't go with anyone else. So God damn it. We'll, we'll be going to Portland. We'll be doing our show. We'll be doing this content like we always do. ah So, you know,
02:38:35
Speaker
On one hand, it's obviously unfortunate what's taking place with the Seattle Sounders, but it is, it has made the shows interesting. And I think we've had a lot of really good discussions. And I think we've had a lot of discussions that are kind of going to prelude a lot of what's to come with this team, because regardless of what happened, I think this season, i would be surprised if it stays this bad, like their worst team in the league bad for the rest of the season. But I think what's interesting about this stretch is that it's kind of, it's like it's laid bare.
02:39:04
Speaker
a lot of stuff that was probably coming down the road anyway, and that was going to have to be reckoned with one way or the other. So maybe we're just doing that a little bit earlier than anticipated, but either way, it's not fun times right now for Seattle, but it is interesting time. So at least there's that Noah, you got anything to ah leave us with?
02:39:21
Speaker
No, just these three super chats here. We start with a third string star who says, i would like to see us give Jesus a run at the 10 rather than Rusnak. I don't understand why this isn't an approach. I don't understand why they didn't start Jesus, but that's a whole other question.
02:39:41
Speaker
I will say on that topic, ah like when De La Vega gets back and that like, you know, if you're gonna him in the starting lineup, which I think they absolutely have to do, it's like, who do you drop?
02:39:51
Speaker
Like, I think it is Roosnag. I think you have to start Ferrer at the 10. You have to put De La Vega on one flank and Rothrock on the other with this Osaze Moose super platoon. Remember at the presser when Schmetz called it the three-headed monster? i was like, bro, don't say that. free but gone with zero goals anyway Anyway, anyway, when De La Vega gets back and ah is immediately put in the starting 11 to save the season, Ferreira's got to be the starting 10 and Paul Rothrock, you don't drop him either. Like it's, you got to make a tough decision on that and bench a DP, but that it is what it is.
02:40:26
Speaker
Completely agree. um All right. We got Gianni new member being ah better than this is such a low bar. You'd have to step in a pile. just trip over it. I don't, I'm maybe it's thank you for the $5. I don't know what's happening. I think I see what happened. I think I see what happened there, but it's, it's,
02:40:45
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. He pasted new member. Yeah. Being better than this is such a low bar. I see being better than this is such a low bar. You'd have to step in. Yes. i the That is where the bar is right now. It's in hell. That's where.
02:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. And James with the two bones got to run. Thanks guys. Like, and subscribe. What a perfect way to end this. If you enjoyed listening to this, maybe you're watching it on X the Everything app or Twitter, as we like to call it. ah You can check our YouTube out at youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. Check out all of our social media and links at links.lobbingscorchers.com. And for all of you watching, visit lobingscorchers.com. Something's coming.
02:41:27
Speaker
this week and i just i think you're gonna enjoy it so just check it out lobbing scorchers.com sign up for the emails and you'll you might see something cool happen but um like the video subscribe to the channel if you're also if you're listening to on audio subscribe to the podcast rate five stars shout out to our sponsors podium ends or hacks and ferments uh uh coffee yeah yeah and you the youtube members so thank you guys ari Anything else? We're ready to go.
02:41:59
Speaker
Appreciate y'all. Love y'all. We out. sure Wait, should I play the outro? Yeah, play again. Play it again. Okay, okay, okay. Play it again. want to watch it again. I want to watch it again. Yeah, all right. Bye, everyone.
02:42:10
Speaker
There is no passion. There is no vision. There no aggression. There is no fucking mindset in this football club. You won't give any plans. You won't give money.
02:42:21
Speaker
Nothing you give. You know what? And you expect that to let's try one. Lord of child on the world.
02:42:30
Speaker
My father was a drinker and a thief. In one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself.
02:42:44
Speaker
He doesn't like that. Not one. So we watch it. He takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me and says, why so serious?
02:42:59
Speaker
He brings me with the knife. Why so serious? He sticks the blade in my mouth. Let's put a smile on my face.