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Nos Audietis, Episode 309: Apparently a SuperDraft happened
64 Plays5 years ago
We recorded before today’s SuperDraft, but that didn’t stop us from talking about how we don’t have very high expectations for it anyway. We also answered a ton of your questions.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction to Full Pool Wines and '36 Bottles of Wine'
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpel's unique writing styles apply to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, Smaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Seattle Sounders' Draft Strategy Overview
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Fuck! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here come three deers through the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and it has come. I feel a lot better by now.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hill is the greenest green in Seattle
00:01:37
Speaker
This is episode 38 and we're recording on Wednesday, January 8th. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. As usual, I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett. So it's been about a month since we last talked to you and frankly,
00:01:54
Speaker
There hasn't been much that's happened. We wanted to get back together mainly because the Sounders are going to be opening training camp next week. They've got a draft, probably have already held the draft, frankly, by the time you're listening to this.
Is the MLS Draft Valuable for the Sounders?
00:02:10
Speaker
The draft is going to be on Thursday. The Sounders don't have a first round pick as of the recording of this. They pick in the second round.
00:02:19
Speaker
35th, I think in 52nd, which is the last pick of the second round and those are the only two picks that will be held during the During tomorrow's portion of the draft and I don't think the Sounders are I think they're only showing the first round on the streams and whatever so the Sounders may not be involved at all in the Really public part of this draft. It's not in person. It's gonna be on a conference call and
00:02:47
Speaker
I don't, I don't know. I'm kind of fascinated if I'm around, I'll probably watch it. Uh, but, uh, an email from the, from the league office informed us that this is the most elaborate broadcast that they've ever done for the draft. Uh, which is, I guess technically true. Uh, probably they've got cameras embedded in like with a bunch of players and in a bunch of draft rooms and.
00:03:12
Speaker
I don't know. I also get the sense that this is the least typed draft in MLS history. Hard to get too excited about, especially as a Sounders fan. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to think of the last time I cared about an MLS draft. The Christian rolled on here. 2015. I think that, yeah.
00:03:35
Speaker
But even that one, like, I didn't think Christian Roldan was going to turn into Christian Roldan. You know what I mean? No, but I think, I mean, I can only speak for myself. I was watching that one kind of, like, once he started falling, it's like, right. Oh, shit. Like, could the sounders get him? And because
Academy vs. Draft: Sounders' Player Development Focus
00:03:50
Speaker
there was this sense that the sounders were really interested in getting him. And so that became kind of a thing. It was Garth's first draft, too. It was also Garth's first draft. But
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that's and it's been like even 2016 was like who who cares? I don't Somebody said the name of the guy we drafted last year the other day and I it took me like Like later in the day. I was like, oh right that guy Tucker bone Tucker bone. Yeah, you would think I would remember a name like that, but you would Well, yeah, so it's you know, it's I mean, I'm not sad that the draft doesn't matter as much anymore
00:04:33
Speaker
I know a lot of old school MLS media guys are super sad about it. Um, I'm never going to care about that, but you know, rip, rip to those guests phone, I guess. But, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's better to get players from the academy. Um, it's just a better system, better, better quality, uh, players coming out
Sounders' Draft Strategy: Hits and Misses
00:05:00
Speaker
of the academy. So, you know, but it's.
00:05:03
Speaker
I'll probably watch it. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I left out some of the distracting, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't know who almost any of these guys are. There's a guy from Seattle University who
00:05:15
Speaker
I don't have in front of me, so I'm not going to pretend to know who he is. But he's apparently a pretty reasonably well considered defender. And he could potentially go in the first round, maybe high in the first round. But it seems to me that there's like five guys in this draft who everyone agrees are like the five best players. And then it's like a crapshoot after that. Whereas where people will go. I went down this rabbit hole today of
00:05:45
Speaker
You know, Tim Foss, who writes for Sounder at Heart, pointed out in a story recently that the sounders have, no player the sounders have drafted in the last four drafts is on an MLS contract right now, which is kind of a remarkable thing to say it like that. But it got me thinking like, okay, well, is this a product of the sounder suddenly being bad at the draft or
00:06:12
Speaker
Is it more about where they're picking in the draft? And so I looked out who, all the players that were picked after the Sounders, after the Sounders picked, and it's like, there's no, there's like no one there. Like the biggest, I would say the best talent.
00:06:30
Speaker
that they missed on, which is I think kind of ironic because he's a player who grew up in federal way and went to crossfire and you would think the Sounders would have been pretty familiar with him. It was Hasani Dotson got drafted last year. He was 31st overall. Interestingly enough, Dave Clark picked him in the
00:06:47
Speaker
in the SB Nation mock draft last year. The Sounders did not pick him, obviously. And then after that, it's like Jack Elliott is the only other real player of consequence who the Sounders theoretically missed on. He was like the 75th player taken in 2017. But other than that, it's like there's only a handful of guys who even have like 20 MLS appearances, let alone ever establish themselves as starters.
00:07:16
Speaker
And it's just, you know, when you're picking in the twenties, like the sounders are, you know, their average draft position in the last four years was something like 22.75, which is to say like way down at the bottom of the first round. And there's just not.
00:07:32
Speaker
talent that deep. I mean, you get past the first dozen picks or so, and it's, it's really a crapshoot. Like players come out, like there's still the odd, like stud that, uh, you know, like somehow falls. Like Christian Moldon was a fifth, I think the 15th or 16th pick in the 2015 draft. It's not any Datsun, you know, I guess. Yeah. It's not any Datsun, right? Yeah. But to me, it does feel more like pure dumb luck. And like, frankly, like I'm looking at the draft last year. Um, so the number one pick, Frankie, Amaya,
00:08:02
Speaker
Uh, fairly played 19 games for our first Cincinnati for a horrible, horrible team. Uh, the second pick, uh, Seattle Haji, uh, four games for the earthquakes, uh, Santiago Patino, who apparently played for the sounder shoe 23s as well. Um, 11 games for Orlando city couldn't have told you who he played for.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah.
Sounders' Roster Depth Concerns
00:08:30
Speaker
Callum Montgomery was the number five pick. Sorry. The number six pick. I don't know who any of these people are, by the way. No. I've never even heard of most of these people. Callum Montgomery was the number four pick played 20 games from North Texas, zero games for FC Dallas. Um, then finally a player of consequence, Andre, uh, Shinishiki, um, actually a pretty solid player, uh, for our last year. Um, but I mean, and like,
00:08:59
Speaker
Part of it is that the MLS draft really even in the last like seven or eight years has moved from being like, you know, teams were drafting players into the second round that they expected to at least get some playing time right away to now where, I mean, like I'd be lying if I said I'd pay a ton of attention to, um, you know, MLS college prospects in their first couple of years, but I'm sure
00:09:26
Speaker
Frankie and Maya is still expected to have a good pro career. Um, it's just, I think that the MLS draft is a lot more like the MLB draft now where teams are taking players that have one, maybe two years in college. Um, and they're playing in USL instead of just kind of sitting on the bench and not doing much of anything. Um, and then there are over college players that, you know, like, uh, like his honey Dotson, for example, I keep, we keep coming back to him, but.
00:09:56
Speaker
He's a good example of what we're hoping happens, I think with the sounders where, you know, they, they end up drafting a guy late that turns out to be a contributor right away. But yeah, I mean, it's like, I, the MLS draft is still a useful thing. Um, still catchment areas and all, and all that whatnot, but it's just, no, no one's building their roster through
Potential Signings and Strategy for Upcoming Season
00:10:20
Speaker
the draft. I mean, there used to be, it used to be kind of this,
00:10:23
Speaker
belief that sure you're going to sign your stars and like your big offensive production guys from Europe, but if you aren't drafting, you know, those guys that are filling out your roster and are able to make spot starts and you know, maybe they're getting 500 to a thousand minutes. Those are, those are the guys you got to be getting from the draft. I don't know if that's even true anymore. Like you don't need, you can never like last year, Philadelphia union traded their whole draft.
00:10:52
Speaker
I don't know that there are literally no worse off than the Sounders are and probably no worse off than a dozen teams in terms of what they got out of that draft. And they got like $250,000 of allocation, so good for them. But one of the other things I thought was kind of interesting was I looked at the current MLS or the current US national team roster, which is almost all MLS players. And so you would think that
00:11:15
Speaker
that would have, like traditionally you would have quite a few players who came through the draft. Like, you know, Graham Zusi came through the draft, you know, you can go back and like the US national team has a long history of players who, you know, maybe they weren't the highest level prospects coming out of college, but they were drafted still, right?
00:11:36
Speaker
There's only six players on the current roster who
Recent MLS Draft Trends and Their Impact
00:11:40
Speaker
were drafted at any point. There's only three of them that were drafted since 2017. There's 10 homegrown players.
00:11:49
Speaker
Right. And that the homegrown player rule hasn't even existed that long, which I think just tells you, like, to me, what that tells you is the high end prospects in in MLS now we're all coming from, like the academies. Right, right. Which makes sense. I mean, yeah, totally makes sense. You know, it's you're putting players on it's like an apprenticeship kind of thing, right? Right. Putting players on a path to being professional soccer players, and they understand the organization. I mean,
00:12:18
Speaker
The thing is, is that if you're just, if you're talking about somebody that's going to more effectively be somebody that can fill out the back end of the roster, is it going to be an 18 or 19 year old with upside that, that knows the system pretty well, that the coaches know pretty well that, um, you know, has probably has some, some reps with the first team coming into a training camp, even before their first team contract is signed.
00:12:45
Speaker
Or is it going to be a 23 year old, you know, that's been playing at Bowling Green or whatever. Right. Who's kind of already the player who. Right. And like, I'll use the Hasani dots. And again, as a, as a good example, like here's a player who he didn't have. Like, I think he probably had a better rookie year than he's ever had in his like full time soccer playing life. Like, yeah, like, I don't know. It was kind of amazing. If you look at the.
00:13:14
Speaker
the kind of sizzle reel that MLS put together of all their top like long distance goals. Dotson has like two or three of them on there.
00:13:23
Speaker
And like he's just not, he's a player that kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, he's a fringe, you know, he was on the U 23 team this
Sounders' Roster Management: Strategy and Trades
00:13:30
Speaker
year, but he would never, as far as I know, he would never been involved in on the national team level. Uh, you know, he was a player that played right in the sounders backyard. The sounders never, you know, he, at one point, uh, I guess he trialed for S two back in the day. Uh, but the sounders never gave him like a serious look. So he very much went under the radar and it's great that a team like Minnesota found him.
00:13:53
Speaker
brought him up. I think it's a great story. But that's really the exception that kind of proves the rule, which is the only guys that... It's like these extreme cases of guys that just kind of fall through the cracks. And I think that makes the draft useful. It's just not important in the way that it used to be.
00:14:15
Speaker
And all that said, I think, unfortunately, if the Sounders had drafted Dodson, I don't think he would be the player he is right now because I have a hard time imagining he would have gotten, I think he got like 24, 25 starts or appearances last year. I have a hard time imagining he would have been able to do anything close to that with the Sounders. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that's, that's the other thing too, is I do feel like
00:14:41
Speaker
Even if you look into drafting a player that has the potential and has the upside, it's about finding the right situation for them. And believing in them. The Sounders knew they wanted Christian Roldan. They'd seen him a lot.
00:14:57
Speaker
they had tried to get him into the generation Adidas class the year before, like they were invested in him like he was an academy player. And that's, and it's no coincidence that he is by far, the most successful draft pick they've made, other than maybe, like the only one, the only other player even in the conversation is Zack Awani, right? Right, right. And that was
00:15:22
Speaker
well in the wheelhouse of the MLS draft being an important thing. Right. And he was the first pick in the draft and he was the first pick in the draft for an expansion team. Uh, like all the, you know, everything was lining up for that one. Right. Like, I think if there was a player playing at your dog or playing at Seattle, you, um, or, or even, you know, PLU or something that was sort of regarded as being like a consensus. This guy's going to be a good pro. Um,
00:15:52
Speaker
the Sounders would probably be all over it. But I think that that does kind of speak to just the amount of familiarity that you have to have with a player to feel with a young player like that, to feel comfortable with trusting them with minutes and stuff like that. Apparently, on a kind of a different note, the Timbers drafted a guy that played at Memphis last year.
00:16:19
Speaker
and he is now playing in the Venezuelan First Division. So that's interesting. For Memphis 901? No, no, the University of Memphis. Oh. Yeah. I just thought that was interesting. That is interesting. That he would have gone to the Tibbers, you know? Yeah, like the Tibbers are another interesting, you know, here's a team that you would think would be
00:16:42
Speaker
using the draft a little more effectively. I think Jeremy Abobasy is like, I feel like he's like the only player they've ever,
MLS Trade System vs. European Models
00:16:50
Speaker
the only useful player they ever gotten from the draft. Yeah. And they did have a couple of drafts where you could still get useful players and they picked. Yeah. And they also don't have produced Academy. It's actually kind of remarkable that they managed to be as competitive as they have, not to just randomly shit on the timbers, but I think that's fine.
00:17:08
Speaker
They're all about randomly shitting on the timbers. But yeah, so I don't know. That's the draft. I guess this is the long way of us saying we don't have a lot to talk about today on this segment. We have a lot of questions that people ask and we get into that in the next segment.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, you know, the training camp opens next week, Sanders still haven't signed, they did sign Harry's ship today, I guess that, well, they didn't, I reported that a month ago, that's been signed for five weeks or something, six weeks, but they announced it today, which was the weirdest, like I had just given up on them making that announcement, I don't know why they... He was just gonna show up at camp or whatever. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm totally, what are you talking about? Is this a story?
00:18:00
Speaker
But yeah, it's been, you know, we don't know what's going on with Kim Ki yet. We don't know what's going on. There's, you know, this Gregory guy from Brazil is maybe, I think that is an actual, a real rumor. Like they are really pursuing them. I don't know how close they are to signing them, but I've been able to confirm that that's a real thing. Hopefully that old magic comes back and something's announced tomorrow.
00:18:29
Speaker
I feel like it's been oil since we had one of those, you know? I know that was like a regular thing for a while and it hasn't happened in a bit. I mean, I think it's probably because we used to record more than once a month.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, I guess we would also record on Mondays usually. Yeah, like Tuesday was like a common day for them to drop.
Yacht-Con 5 Event Announcement
00:18:52
Speaker
But it did feel like that for sure. But anyway, all right. Well, I guess we can call that a segment. We'll come back and then take your questions. You're listening to Nos adiates.
00:19:07
Speaker
Full pull wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nota adieres since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:19:26
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. And three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com. Welcome back to No Study at Dis. We have questions.
00:19:52
Speaker
Let's go to get some answers for that thing. Lick it. Hopefully they match. Yeah, hopefully. Those questions. Yeah. Okay. Let's go. Mike Standish starts us off with, uh, how long until people forget about the MLS Cup wins and start grumbling about Garth? Mike, I have bad news for you. It already, it's already happened.
00:20:16
Speaker
Um, you know, and I have to admit, like I'm, I'm sympathetic, uh, on some level because like I'm frustrated as I think all of us are probably kind of frustrated that the Sanders haven't made really any notable moves this off season. Uh, you know, they picked up a backup goalkeeper, they resigned, uh, Harry ship. And that might be the extents of it. Um,
00:20:44
Speaker
Like I would have liked to have thought that they had at least one, like a second center back under contract at this point. Yeah, it would be nice. I mean, I think that kind of where I've landed on, on this is that, um, the body of work, I think is unimpeachable, right? Like I think that, um, it's very obvious that Garth waterway is exceptionally good at his job. Um, it's obvious that there's always a plan. It's obvious, you know, that he, that he knows what he's doing.
00:21:15
Speaker
Um, but I would rather he not have the pension for doing some of the things that he does. Um, I think that's a good way of putting it. Yeah. I mean, I think, I don't think that, you know, those two things are, uh, in conflict at all. Um, I wish that, you know, he didn't leave it late, uh, as often as he does, but he does. And like, you know, if, if that were happening and they weren't competing for, you know, MLS cups every season, or at least in the hunt.
00:21:45
Speaker
Um, I would be a lot more annoyed, but it's I don't know. It's just what are you gonna do, right? You know, I'm curious Let's just say they get this Gregory thing Gregory is this Brazilian defensive midfielder who his highlights make him look like a Second coming of Osvaldo Alonzo frankly and his stats are pretty encouraging as well not as high volume of a passer as Alonzo, but a similar defensive player and
00:22:15
Speaker
And he seems to have the tools in the kit that you'd want. But if they just say they bring him in in the next couple of weeks, how dramatically does that change the way that you look at this roster as constructed? I mean, it's still absurdly thin, especially at the center back position. But I mean, I think I think it's definitely back to being
00:22:37
Speaker
Because you have to assume right that that, that means Fenson is going to be playing center back, or Delham I suppose, or Delham. Yeah. Yeah. So, I feel, I would say I feel better with Fenson playing center back than Delham I know that Delham plays there for his national team. He's played there a bit for the Sounders and he's been solid, but I just.
00:22:58
Speaker
I feel better with Svensson there. I don't think that that's unfair to Dellum. But yeah, I mean, it's very thin. Because even if Svensson is playing center back, you have one natural center back. Your third string center back is a midfielder.
00:23:15
Speaker
um it's not a situation but but i feel the the 1311 is much better yeah and i i guess it's not would you feel better about i mean i think we agree that there's still a lot of room to grow but i feel like just adding like even you know whether it be an attacking midfielder or
00:23:33
Speaker
Center back or defensive like any one of those three positions I think you can add to this team and the way it forces other players around at least makes you feel a little bit better about like, okay can this team go to Guatemala or go to Honduras and and And beat national like I think like one player of one of those three positions could potentially Sway me into feeling much better about their chance. I mean as it is I
00:23:59
Speaker
a good chance of winning that first series, but it is a perilously thin. The other thing I haven't really thought about and I don't, I'm curious what you think of this is like if the Sanders just came out and said like we see Jordy Delham or we see Gustav Svensson as a center back and they might not be starting right now, but we see that as one of their positions and just kind of come out and say it and
00:24:26
Speaker
Like, does that change anything? Like, they're sending a message that this is not just a temporary solution, this is actually our plan? Or is it just like we need more bodies and that's what it comes out to? I mean, I think that we definitely do need more bodies. I'm comfortable with there being an attempt to convert those guys to center backs more on a more of a full-time basis. Svensson has played there, obviously.
00:24:56
Speaker
I wouldn't say extensively, but you know, for, for a good period of time, um, you know, they made a similar decision with Brad Evans, uh, a few years ago. Um, but ultimately there's a pretty huge risk there when, you know, you've got three guys, even if they see them, both the center backs, you've got three center backs, one of whom, um, I think everybody agrees has a high ceiling, but who has not.
00:25:24
Speaker
I don't think you could say that he has put together like a long consistent stretch of being a dominant center back. I think we all expect him to. I definitely do. Yeah, he doesn't strike. I don't think he, if I understand what you're saying, he's not an anchor of your defense. He's not a guy that you can just say like, he's not Chad Marshall, I guess. I think that's true. And even beyond that, he had some poor performances last year. I don't think he put together like,
00:25:53
Speaker
a run of performances where you can say definitively that that's behind him. You know, I feel comfortable. I feel very comfortable. I think he's going to be a great center back, but there's some risk there. There's some risk that, you know, Svensson is where Delham is not going to take to the new position as well as you'd like. So it's just piling risk on top of risk, if that makes sense. And so I don't, you know, I don't think it's a disaster necessarily, but
00:26:24
Speaker
You know, the defense was not exactly a strength of the team last season for, for, um, a pretty good chunk of it. And, um, to weaken that unit even further is, is a little, it's a little nerve wracking, I would say. Yeah, I would agree with that. I, I, at the hope at the very least.
00:26:45
Speaker
Like I would feel a lot better if they just re-signed Kim. Like if that was, like if we just, that was the baseline Kim's back, everything like maybe we're going to move Svensson to center back. Maybe we're going to move down to center back, but like Ariaga and Kim are starting center backs. This is our baseline. Everything from there is an adjustment. I would feel so much better, but yeah, with one set, I mean, and it's not just one center back. It's, it's really three primary defenders. If you, depending on what you think Jovan Jones is going to do, um,
00:27:15
Speaker
Um, that's, you know, they just need, they do need bodies. They just do it. There's no way really around that. They don't have a backup right back. They don't have, you know, you, maybe they have two left backs. That's fine, but they, they don't have more than one real center back. Um, and it looks like Emmanuel Saccini is maybe going to be, uh, officially on his way. There's some rumors that there's teams in Argentina looking at him. So like, that's not, you don't want to.
00:27:43
Speaker
they're not so deep at defensive midfielder right now that they can just like pull from that position and not have a, there's, there's a cost of that. Um, especially considering that, I mean, Gustav Simpson's an international Christian. That's another, yeah, right. That's a whole, another, right. That's a whole other, they've got a lot of games to play early in the season. They've got, they've got a lot of games early in the season and then they've got, uh, I think it's six games.
00:28:09
Speaker
I think it's six games that are gonna be played during, potentially six games that are gonna be played during the Copa America and Euro. And so they're gonna lose a bunch of players potentially for that too. So they've got roster issues that need addressing sooner or later. Yeah. And I mean, just to kind of tie it up, I still feel pretty confident that they're going to address most of those issues before the start of the season. Like I think they're gonna sign probably two or three more guys.
00:28:39
Speaker
Um, but you would think um, so i'm not i'm not super concerned about it yet Um, but you know if they don't then going into the season that's a pretty pretty big ganks for me. Yeah Okay, keeping with roster type questions, there's two questions about center backs
00:29:03
Speaker
First one, Ken Oplinger asks, true or false, a new center back that doesn't come in until mid to late February, won't be able to integrate into the team enough to help us make a CCL run. Go ahead. I would say false.
00:29:20
Speaker
I know like, so, and I guess you could look at, that's around the time that Kim joined back in 2018. Yeah. 2018. And he was not fully integrated enough to really help. He played against Chivas in the away leg and he wasn't great in that leg.
00:29:45
Speaker
He also was dealing with, if I remember correctly, he was also dealing with an injury, so it's not entirely fair to say that he didn't have time to integrate. It was just that he didn't for other reasons. I would think center back is one of those positions where you can kind of step off the plane and figure it out. You're not going to be at your best, but
00:30:08
Speaker
you know, if you've got 10 solid players around him, you should be able to put in your talented center back, you should be able to figure out. I feel like Roman Torres, when he came to Seattle, was playing almost immediately after.
00:30:22
Speaker
Joining the team and he was good. I would say too I think it's really hard to take any way anything definitive away from that second look against she was because the whole team was it was a mess Yeah, I was it was funny the I was looking back on this and I've forgotten like will Bruin got hurt that game I think Dempsey got hurt that game Chad Marshall got hurt that game Kim Ki he got hurt after coming off the bench It was a it was a nightmare. Yeah, it was really a nightmare. I
00:30:53
Speaker
The second question about center backs is motley69 asks, can anyone at center at heart play center back asking for a friend? Ryan Kalkar is pretty tall. Yeah. Or who's I bet Max Max Aquino, maybe he's a low key, probably the most competitive. I mean, Jeff Wilcox clearly a high level player still, but not a center back. Definitely not. No, no.
00:31:23
Speaker
I would be a waste of his talents. Complete with his talents. Okay. You guys kind of touched on this, but we'll ask you anyways. Liam the Merc asks, who is Emmanuel Tashini and should I be concerned if he leaves the Sounders? I think you kind of answered your own question there. Yeah.
00:31:39
Speaker
I'm curious if Liam is how, how tongue in cheek that first part of that question is but, um, yeah we didn't really get to know such any very well. If, in fact, unless you were at training like every day, I don't think you really have any sense of how good or bad, frankly, he might be.
00:32:01
Speaker
Like I thought he was an interesting gamble. I was optimistic about him coming in. I was, you know, you look at his resume and there's some things in there that suggested he could have been a decent player for the Sounders, but like he clearly didn't.
00:32:17
Speaker
Like based on the way he was playing the, based on the comments that both Garth and Brian made about him, uh, they, they didn't seem to think that he came close to like winning them over. Yeah. And I think too, it's likely that they wanted to see if he could fill a specific role and he couldn't.
00:32:43
Speaker
I mean, I mean, maybe a decent enough player, but yeah, I mean, this is, this is my read on it. Here's the guy who is you got to pay a million bucks a year. And you got Jordy Dellum sitting there at like, call it a hundred thousand dollars a year. It's a 10 time different pay. And clearly you don't judge it. You don't expect to be 10 times better, but.
00:33:06
Speaker
He's got to be clearly better or else why do you have him on the team? And my suspicion is that like he had room to he had a he had a gap to make up because Brian knows what he's getting out of Geordie Delham and he
00:33:21
Speaker
Like, whether or not Jordy Delham is the best player for that position, you can rely on him to do X, Y, and Z. And he might even outperform that a little bit. Whereas you don't totally know what you're going to get with a new player, like Emmanuel Saccini. And the upside that Saccini showed, I can only imagine in training, was not like they just weren't sitting there going like, this is a clear upgrade over what we have.
00:33:47
Speaker
And given that, they weren't going to disrupt the locker room and the rotation. And, frankly, nothing changed in the offseason that would open up space for Ceccini. I mean, unless maybe Delham is playing a bunch of center back, but...
00:34:06
Speaker
You know, it's you know, you like they're also i'm sure that part of it is like cicini is Potentially blocking danny leva, you know, that's they seem to have very similar kind of profiles and Why do you have this player who's not clearly like if he's not clearly better than you don't need to bring him back essentially Okay, this next question I think our listener was a little
00:34:36
Speaker
liberal with his number of questions he's asking. So I'm just going to ask the general question. Vbar96 asks, is 2020 the year of the choo choo? Uh, I don't think so because I don't trying to think of a non judgmental way to phrase this. Um, I don't think that he is ever going to get
00:35:07
Speaker
what I would consider to be an objectively fair shake on the scene. Maybe fair isn't even the right word. He's having to overcome a fair amount of
00:35:25
Speaker
of built-in, like for lack of a better term, built-in bias. Like I think he has a track record for better for worse. And I think that there is some, like, I think there's a genuine love for the player, for the person, a new who on the Sanders coaching staff. And I think there's a general frustration with the player.
00:35:51
Speaker
And if that makes sense and not in it, like he's clearly got all the physical tools. And if you were to just unleash him, it would be fascinating to watch. And I, I think that, but I, if you're a coach, I can understand why you still need him to tick all these boxes that show that he deserves that much of a leash for lack of a better term. And.
00:36:16
Speaker
You know, I don't, I don't, it'll be interesting because I, I, I, like I could see a platoon almost situation working where, you know, maybe new who plays games on the road when you're trying to, you know, lock it down and, and Jones is a, you know, more attack oriented option at left back. I think that we're going to see more of new who this year, if only because there's not another, like there's just one less left back in the mix.
00:36:43
Speaker
You know, and I mean, I think new who plays a role, like he's a really, really useful player, even how he's being used. I, I do agree that I think maybe the ship has sailed on him being like a 30 game a year starter. Right. And I would say for the sounders, for the sounders, there's very clearly something that I'm not seeing a new who that I'm not seeing a Jones.
00:37:09
Speaker
that the coaching staff is. Because for me, from what I see, it seems like a very obvious decision to go with NewHoo to make it a starter. And what's funny about it is that I think NewHoo
00:37:21
Speaker
is like, you look at them both in a vacuum, like you just look at their profiles and whatnot, you would think Nu who is the guy who's going to get the conservative coaches benefit the doubt because like this primary defensive player, he doesn't add a lot going forward, but he really does lock down his side on defense. Whereas Jones is not, is like the polar opposite. Right. I mean, I do understand that tactically it's very important that the sounders get
00:37:49
Speaker
Useful attacking with from their fullbacks I Get that aspect of it but to me it's never seemed like it was an issue of new who of Their frustrations with new who being that he just like wasn't that good of an attacking player Like I think that they are willing to live with that to some extent so there's just something about the way he plays or what he's doing that I'm that I'm not seeing and You know
00:38:19
Speaker
whether that thing that I'm missing justifies him having to overcome so much biases. Not really important, I guess, because the reality is that it's there and the coaches are the ones filling out the team sheets. Okay, let's see.
00:38:47
Speaker
Oh eight in Garcia asks, what are the chances we play a role done as a right and right wing this season? Is this satisfying to you? I'd rather him be in the middle. High, yeah, very high. Like I don't know if he's going to play. I don't know that I would say that he's going to. Be the primary starter at that position, but we will. I would guarantee it that he will play on the right wing. He will get starts on the right wing.
00:39:13
Speaker
And I at this point expect that to be the default position for him at the start of the season. And then they'll see how they feel.
00:39:26
Speaker
Like that's not the most satisfying answer to me, but that's where I think this is going. Like I feel like they are more than half, like they're very, like unless some trans, like, I don't know, like Brian Lozano is a player who is being rumored to be available and I suppose vaguely linked to the sounders. Like I would like, if you're asking me, what would I rather do is like bring in Brian Lozano and leave,
00:39:56
Speaker
rolled on in the middle, that's what I would do, if it's my choice. But I mean, I don't, maybe that's shooting too low, like, because that's obvious, like, that's a DP under any foreseeable format. Maybe, I don't know, maybe the Sanders want to spend more money on a DP than that, and the player that they want is
00:40:16
Speaker
You know, like if that's the gamble, right? That they're going to spend 15 to $20 million, like guaranteed, you know, commitment to, uh, attacking player. Yeah, sure. Wait till the summer if that's what you need to do. I'm not going to stress that over that, but, um, that's, you know, no one's telling you, like no one's come here and said that. Um, and, and like, if, if Roll Dawn's going to keep the seat warm, essentially.
00:40:45
Speaker
Uh, until that big player comes, great. Uh, that's fine with me, but given what we know now, like I would rather bring in a, you know, lower priced, I'd be willing to bring in a lower price player and, and have Del rolled on in the middle. But I don't think that's, I just don't like, if you had to, if you're going to ask me, like, what do I think is the most likely thing to happen for the first month of the season? It's going to be rolled on playing on the right. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't think I have any disagreement with that. Um,
00:41:15
Speaker
whether that's his best position. I don't, I don't think it is, but it's another one of those things. It's also kind of irrelevant. Like, and I think, I do think to be fair, I think that people, myself included get hung up on this idea of like a player in his, his natural position or his best position or whatever. Um, you know, he's one of the, he's clearly one of the best 11 guys on the team. Um, they like to leave roster flexibility. He can do a job on the right. Um,
00:41:43
Speaker
You know, he's, I think as a winger, he's like average to above average. Yeah. Not the end of the world to have that for half the season. Now, if that's the plan long-term, obviously that's a bigger problem. Right. No, I would agree. I don't think that I would hope that they aren't.
00:41:59
Speaker
seeing him as their right mid for the next five years right exactly um but that you know that brings us to an interesting what like given what we saw from Jordan Morris and I think we would all agree that that was Jordan's best year as a pro yeah where he kind of ascended to I think legitimate stardom as you know I think he's probably the best attacking
00:42:24
Speaker
Okay. He's the best attacking American in MLS. Not, I guess, in the pool, but in MLS. And is his best position as a wide midfielder at this point? I mean, are we comfortable saying that? Or do we think he might be his best position as a forward? I mean, I think that he's basically playing as a forward with the Sounders. I think he's playing. Fair enough.
00:42:51
Speaker
From a from a nominal standpoint the Sounders are playing like a 4-2-3-1 But they're really they're playing with two strike. They're playing a 4-3-3 kind of Yeah, I mean they're just a very balanced team, right? But I mean it's it's a fair I understand your point and that's that I think that I mean I was very consistent with saying that playing him out wide wasn't waste that you know, he was he needed to develop as a forward and
00:43:18
Speaker
Oh, you got where I was going with that. But I think that the critical difference is that he developed skills that he didn't have at the time. Because I think always it was like, hey, if he can improve his left foot, if he can get better crossing, if he can do XYZ, sure.
00:43:41
Speaker
You know, he, you'd be a great winger. I just didn't expect him. There was a lot of ifs and like, there was a lot. Yeah, I agree. And I know, and I know I wasn't putting it out there as a way of suggesting that maybe, maybe Christian Roldon's best position is right. I don't think it is. But I just think it's interesting because we had this conversation a lot about players playing on a position and then.
00:44:01
Speaker
that out of position is like, Oh, maybe they were actually better in that other position. And I didn't mean to imply that I think that could happen with Roland. I just thought it was an interesting tangent that it was in my head. Well, and I mean, to be, to be totally fair, I mean, it's entirely possible that if he plays there for an extended period of time, maybe it's not going to become his best position, but he can develop the skills that he's lacking now and become much better there.
00:44:28
Speaker
I mean, I mean, I could see Roldan turning into like a 10 goal, you know, eight assist right mid. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, which is, I don't think, I still don't think that's the production you want out of like, if I'm the sounders, that's not my high end best case scenario production for my right mid, but that's really good production from an MLS right mid. And, and again, I mean, if you look at the way the sounders play tactically, they depend on the right midfielder for production the way most teams defend on a central midfielder.
00:44:57
Speaker
Right. I mean, he's kind of playing right mid the opposite way of Morris is playing left mid, whereas he's more of a box to box player. They don't depend as much on getting that attacking production. So, yeah. Okay. Next question. Bill Jones, S T R P T asks, how is the champions league format different now than it was the last time when we were there? It's not.
00:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's the answer. It's the exact same. Then, because it was only two years ago, the centers were playing in champions like they played under this exact format. It's two legs all the way from the round of 16 to the final. And there's, I don't think, I don't even know if there's any, oh, I guess there is one chance. I don't think there are.
00:45:46
Speaker
I don't think there's overtime anymore. Yeah, that's right. I think they go straight to, if it's tied after 180 minutes, that is one change. So, which is honestly, it's weird to get used to, but it makes sense that in a double leg tie, you wouldn't want to give, I mean, especially if you're not trying to give home field advantage, right? The team in the second leg has a huge advantage because they get to host over time. So, right.
00:46:14
Speaker
And plus I don't like watching overtime. So it's very rarely that over like overtime, I find this as a, as a fan, like overtime is this sigh of relief. We made it to over or it's either like, if your team was like hanging on or whatever, it's a sigh of relief of like, you can take a breath, but you're really just like.
00:46:35
Speaker
gearing up for penalties, like there's not, like very rarely is over time, like an entertaining 30 minutes of soccer. Right. Yep. Especially when you have a ton of games to play and not a very big roster. Right. Yeah. Okay. Uh, Isaac Kata one asks, what's the status on the local TV contract with Q 13 slash Joe TV. And also any new sponsors coming on board for 2020?
00:47:04
Speaker
So the TV deal is all, as far as I know, is all set. Apparently the sounders are like the best thing to ever happen to Joe TV, which I don't know, maybe shouldn't be surprising, but they're doing like huge numbers. They're the top rated local regional broadcast and all of MLS. Joe TV treats them. You know, if you can get over the fact that on channel called Joe TV,
00:47:31
Speaker
You know, like Joe TV treats it like they're a big deal. Like they do pregame shows, they do some limited postgame show. I mean, they pulled out all the stops for MLS Cup. Like whatever you think of the quality of the broadcast, and I think it's fine, the effort and the attention I think is there and fans are watching it. And that's all great.
00:47:59
Speaker
the YouTube TV thing is a little bit more of a black box that I don't know what, like, I got really, it was a weird, a really weird kind of situation there when YouTube basically announced with like less than 48 hours notice that like, oh yeah, we don't have the sounders anymore. Thanks. And like the sound- No way to get your recordings, no way to- Right, exactly. Like good luck with that. And like the sounders,
00:48:28
Speaker
had an oddly like, well, we didn't think they were gonna do it that way kind of response. And I didn't know quite what to make of it because it did seem like it was like, I don't know. I got the sense that YouTube TV is kind of getting out of the live sports game. Like I don't think LAFC is gonna be on there beyond this year. And the only reason they're still there is because they signed a longer deal than the Sounders.
00:48:56
Speaker
So I guess that makes sense. And I don't, you know, you would think that by now the sounders would have announced the replacement package. It sounds like the worst case scenario is that they'll be back on ESPN Plus and potentially, and that won't be blacked out outside of the Seattle area. So like that provides some solution for the East Siders.
00:49:25
Speaker
To me, that sounds much better because ESPN plus is five bucks a month. Right. The downside has been that the the centers are very rarely the audio like, like, I don't care.
00:49:37
Speaker
If you're going to look for the ideal scenario, you probably want your broadcast to be out there. But I suppose one thing that strikes me as a possibility is maybe they get onto this Hulu TV live deal, which is basically a very similar product.
00:49:57
Speaker
YouTube TV or it's called Hulu live, I think. And it's a very similar product to YouTube TV. It's a little more expensive, I think, but maybe only marginally. I can't speak to the quality of the product. I've never tried watching it, but it's like another cable replacement ban plan. What I think would be great ideally is like they offer some sort of streaming service that is somewhat affordable, is more affordable than having to like commit to 50, 55 bucks a month, which just for,
00:50:25
Speaker
Sounders is obviously outrageous. But, you know, if you're cutting the cord, it makes a little bit more sense. But yeah, there's no the streaming situation is very much up in the air as far as I can tell. I wish I had a better answer. Today was that we would get all that quite was the new sponsor. I have no idea. Yeah.
00:50:46
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Zulily is going to still be on the shirt and I think they sold all their big sponsorship. They sold a bunch of big sponsorship packages last year. I actually would love to figure out like what the net
00:51:01
Speaker
gain was in terms of, uh, their sponsorship money compared to what they were getting from X. Like if you took all the packages that they were essentially lumping in with X box and compare it to what they got from. What was it? Zulily? Was it sweet? Was it Swedish that they, they, so I feel like they have like six different healthcare sponsors. Yeah. Cause they do have one of Swedish cause they have the commercials, um, where Victor is saying left, right. For some reason. Um,
00:51:31
Speaker
And then like Primera, I think is one as well. Primera was the one that was the presenting sponsor, right? Right. Right. And I guess those are different things, like one's an insurance company and one's a, but then I feel like they have something with Kaiser too. So I don't, I don't know. Well, they definitely had a CHI Franciscan was on their training. Right. Right. So they're just, you know, smoking up all that. It's definitely good that there are that many healthcare companies. And then they are, and then kind of.
00:51:59
Speaker
Defiance had Zoomcare or whatever, right? It wasn't Zoomcare, but it was someone like that. It was like one of those, I mean, I guess it's like a pretty big provider in the South Sound. I can't remember which one it was. Medic something? Medic? You could do our research here on this team. Yeah. It's on their shirts. Multicare. Multicare. Multicare. Well, I got half right and half right. Yeah.
00:52:29
Speaker
I had the VM. Okay, Tommy Does asks, any CBA updates? So there hasn't been a lot in the, like, I guess it's a good sign, maybe, if you talk yourself into it, that there hasn't been a lot of leaks, like, so it's not like,
00:52:53
Speaker
The owners who have always been pretty good about not leaking and the players who have been less good in that way are better, I guess, depending on how you look at it. No one's really been talking a ton. There was an interview with, I think it was Eric Miller, who's a player rep on Sirius that Mickey Turner actually did a really good job of recapping.
00:53:17
Speaker
And he suggested, you know, he kind of just recapped the stuff that they're deciding on. I don't think he gave a very clear sense of whether or not the progress that they want has been made. It sounds like in some ways they're ahead of where they were four years ago, five years ago, in that they are, I think there's a little bit more of a,
00:53:41
Speaker
mutual understanding of of the key points and like they've gotten past this idea that free agency was this non-starter which in hindsight seems like the most ridiculous thing that the owners could have ever risked having a strikeover is this thing that in the end has cost them nothing right maybe like a hundred thousand dollars total throughout the league yeah i mean i mean maybe like i don't even know like
00:54:09
Speaker
It, in hindsight, I mean, it seemed like, and I guess they, what they're worried about is it opens the door to bigger gains. But man, talk about a nothing burger. Like for all the fight that they had over free agency, it was like a completely Prince. It was a completely principled fight. Like there was no, like in the end it caught it. Like the money was a hundred percent inconsequential. Right.
00:54:35
Speaker
And I don't know, you know, in like some of this stuff that the players seem to want to get, I don't like, I don't like, I'm really curious. Like how much are they really willing to sacrifice for guaranteed charters? Like if you're a player and you're being told like we can put a million dollars into the salary cap or we can fly you guys around on charters every game. I mean.
00:55:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's definitely, it's, it's gotta be a quality of life issue, right? Like, um, but I guess from the player's perspective, I can see them being skeptical that they're ever going to see that million dollars.
00:55:17
Speaker
Because I mean, the history of MLS is to keep them from seeing any money. I mean, it's I mean, if you're the ownership, you just say like, sure, we're we'll do charters, but it's that's a million dollars you're not going to have. Like, it's just like you just kind of have to take their word for it that. And so I don't know, maybe it's like, you know, it's kind of like the players in some ways called the owners bluff, but in other ways,
00:55:41
Speaker
the owners got exactly what they wanted. So I don't know who wins in the, I mean, I'm sure the players would say they lost in the whole TAM deal, but you know, the owners were saying like, Oh, we don't have any more money to spend. And then it was like, Oh, just joking. We've got $2 million, $3 million per team that we can spend on in this very specific way. And, and I,
00:56:02
Speaker
you know, like the owners knew that they couldn't keep going with spending the way that they did. So they were going to have to inject some money. And, and so I suppose they could use that same logic and say like, sure, take, take a million dollars off the salary cap, give us all charters. And I'm sure you'll figure out a way to spend the money that you wanted to spend anyway. Right. Right. That's true. I mean, they will, the thing with MLS that,
00:56:28
Speaker
should be very obvious to anybody that's paid attention to it for long enough is that anytime the owners say anything, they're probably lying. And that's showbiz. I'm not saying that to paint them as evil. They do a pretty good job with that themselves, but they have money.
00:56:49
Speaker
you know, the franchises are going, what did Charlotte pay? $250 million? Yeah, it's absurd. Or something. Like, Clark Hunt and whatever, two penny jerk waddones, the Whitecaps, or, you know, trying to figure out ways to... I think a client mallet or something. Yeah, some, I don't know, man. They don't have as much money in Canada, so it's not totally fair, but...
00:57:16
Speaker
But I mean, they're trying to actively figure out ways to be competitive without, there was the athletic article today about restricting the third DP spot to 23 year olds or whatever, because they want to be able to make a profit on selling players or whatever. It's like, well, hey, you know what a really good way to do that is, is to make teams more likely to take risks on signing younger players and paying transfer fees. Yeah. I didn't, I don't know if I totally followed the logic of
00:57:46
Speaker
Like that logic didn't really work for me. The pitch of it was that if we sign, if we force teams to sign more young players, they'll be forced to sell young players. I mean, that's how they're selling it. What? That doesn't make any sense. And also like, just when Toronto FC or LAFC sell, because when LFC sells Diego Rossi for, let's just say $12 million,
00:58:16
Speaker
Uh, the Vancouver white gaps get like virtually none of that. Right. I mean, like, what, why are you, why are you, this is why, this is why they want, they see the players as assets. So Clark hunt can say he can justify spending $6 million on a transfer fee or whatever. Right. If he's buying a 19 year old, that he only has to pay $150,000 a year. Right. Um,
00:58:43
Speaker
It's the, because if you're paying, if you're paying a $6 million transfer fee for a 27 year old, he's going to be making $2 million a year, $2 or $3 million a year. Right. So if they sell these players and or buy these players and feel like, well, we don't have to pay them squat and we can reasonably expect to recoup our money.
00:59:02
Speaker
That's an easier self for the, for the cheap teams. Um, right. Why do they kick? I guess they did. It's a competitive, right. It's a competitive thing when everyone had played with the same limitations. Right. So they're, they're kneecapping the teams that are willing to spend more.
00:59:18
Speaker
Um, well, also like giving themselves a plausible to my ability to, to, yeah, it just seems like you're, it does. It just feels like it's so overthinking and it's like a rule that like you, if you look at the, I'm sure if you went through the MLS wrestlers last year, you'd find like one or two teams or two or three teams, maybe that couldn't have fielded their.
00:59:40
Speaker
group of dps under this proposed rule like the sounders could have used the same three dps la fc could have atlanta could have toronto i guess maybe couldn't have the galaxy couldn't have but like everyone else i think could have and so it's like who are you like we're we're designing this for
00:59:59
Speaker
for a team that to keep the galaxy from barely making the playoffs. And I mean, Toronto C ended up obviously in MLS Cup, but they had a great 2017. That was two years ago. I don't think that that showed that that's clearly the right way to build your team.
01:00:21
Speaker
Um, I mean, no, it's extremely dumb. It's it's, and I think my biggest problem with it is that every one of these new regulations that MLS puts into place, Tam, I mean, Tam has made the league much better, you know, don't get me wrong, but they all, it
01:00:37
Speaker
forces teams into building their teams a certain way and spending money a certain way on certain players. And we should be doing the other direction. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it makes it so boring. I mean, pretty much the only competitive advantage you can have is in your, how much money you spend on your GPs and how good you are at hitting your tan signings. And that's it. Like that's, and that's just, that seems so boring, you know?
01:01:00
Speaker
Yeah. And the way that the athletic article painted it was they were getting their, the two influential players were the Dallas guy and the Vancouver guy. It's like, why are you listening to a guy that runs a team that's terrible at doing everything and Dallas? I mean, that's the thing, right? Is that like, if, if it were purely like Clark hunt owns the Kansas city chiefs, he can run a successful team. He's not stupid. He just doesn't want to spend money.
01:01:31
Speaker
Um, if he doesn't want to spend money, let him fail. But he, and that's what's, oh, the other thing that's kind of like wild though, is that I actually think Dallas, you know, there was a story in, in big D soccer. If you're so inclined to rig big D soccer, put together a great story on this like elaborate system that Dallas is putting together a foreign academies. Like they've got academies in Puerto Rico. They got academies in Mexico and they got a,
01:01:59
Speaker
I think they got another one. They've got like five, four or five teams that are playing outside. Like they're putting up all these teams that are like right on the Mexican American border. And these are, they're spending money on this. I mean, they're, I don't think Dallas is actually like a cheap team. If you look at their organizational spend, like I would be willing to bet that they're spending a lot more than like Chicago fire, even the Chicago fire have a pretty big first team payroll. Right. But
01:02:26
Speaker
And so they're making decisions about how they want to spend their money, which is, I think, great. And they're putting together a reasonably competitive team every year. And that's good for them.
01:02:40
Speaker
they're making a choice not to spend money on their first team. And I think too, I mean, and this is me being cynical again, but they're investing their money in things that they're hoping they can make money off. Sure. No, I agree. But that's what I'm saying is that it's like, they like, I don't know, understand why they're so wrapped up in like, like, if you have a business plan, run your business plan. What are you worried about? No, I agree. I totally agree. But
01:03:04
Speaker
They want to limit the teams. I know and it's stupid. It sucks. I agree. No, it totally sucks. It's, it's absurd that we're listening to these people, you know, like, like it said, like, why are we listening to these guys? Right. I agree. Deep breath. Okay. Next question. Um, see Southern, you asked a couple of questions, but we're just going to ask the first one. How long until our academy is producing a Yedlin or Morse every couple of years? Never.
01:03:33
Speaker
Like I don't want to be a jerk about this, but if your expectation is that the sounders are going to produce a national team, like starter every couple of years, I don't think you're ever going to be satisfied with the production of this Academy. Like that's, there's no Academy in American history that's done anything like that. Like they, like we're, that's like Chelsea. That's like Barcelona. Iax.
01:04:04
Speaker
I don't think that that's a reasonable vote. Now is the more reasonable goals, like how often are they producing MLS quality players? And that's a fair, that's a fair question. Like they have, like right now there are three, well, no, I guess there's four players, five players on the team, on the first team that are, uh, academy products. There's, there's obviously Jordan Morris, there's, uh, Trey Muse, there's Hondwalb Wanna, there's,
01:04:32
Speaker
well, Fonso a couple of Chavez, there's Danny Leyva and I feel like, and I guess that's five. And like they have a range of like upside and past performance. And like, I think you should be expecting them to be producing first team caliber players every year. Like that's up to me a fine. And I think we're close to that. I think we're getting close to the point where every year there should be a player coming up
01:05:01
Speaker
from maybe not like fresh from the Academy, but a player every year come up that you should expect to be a regular first team contributor. And frankly, they haven't had one of those since Morris. And that's a big gap. You know, he came in in 2015, they have yet to produce like, I think Leyva is on his way, I think.
01:05:24
Speaker
Alfonso Ocampo Chavez is on his way. You know, the, I think Buana is maybe we may have to kind of accept that he's not going to be the player we hoped he would be, but Muse is, you know, got some upside. So, I mean, I think we're close to doing, to be able to do that. I don't put it, like I said, I think
01:05:44
Speaker
every couple of years producing a Yandria dinner, John Morris. I think we kind of have to, we were maybe spoiled that they came as early as they did. I think too that, that you kind of have to change the way, like, I don't know if it's fair to include Yedlin and Morris in discussions about the current Academy, because there it's, it's Apple's marches. I think like the Sounders have done as much to develop new who say, for example, as they did to develop Yedlin and Morris, right?
01:06:14
Speaker
Um, I think you could even argue they did, they probably did more to develop new hood and they did Yedlin or Morris. Yeah. No, I mean, I, at least from before they signed with the sounders. Right. And so.
01:06:28
Speaker
You know, I mean, Garth came in largely with the remit of building the Academy, um, of improving the Academy. And he's been here for five years now. And, you know, we're starting to see, like, we've got multiple kids that I think have been in the Academy since he got here that are on the, on the edge of the first team now that came in last year. Um, so, I mean, I think, you know,
01:06:56
Speaker
Um, there's reasons to be excited. Um, but I think you're right. I mean, I think that, that Morris and the headland in that quick succession was lightning to the bottle. But I also don't think that it was indicative of anything the sounders were doing right that they're not doing right now. Yeah. And I, that's a good way of putting it. I don't think the, like not to.
01:07:21
Speaker
belittle anything that the previous Academy administration was doing with the team, but De'Andre Edlin and Jordan Morris basically fell in their lap. Like they were players that were already like reasonably developed by the time they showed, like they both played one year with the Saunders Academy.
01:07:44
Speaker
Okay. Last question. Andy Fred will ask, how long is too long to leave my Christmas decorations on the lawn? Oh, now we're getting serious. Yeah. Um, I, I personally love Christmas decorations so much that I don't start even noticing them.
01:08:01
Speaker
until like February, I would say. Yeah. I mean, I, I agree. Like I, I actually am, I get kind of sad when I see all the Christmas decorations coming down because for me it's like, for me, it's not an anticipation of Christmas. It's like a way of brightening a dark, a literally dark time in the Pacific north. Like this is not as much of an issue for me when I lived in California, but living in Seattle, uh, I want to see those Christmas lights up as long as possible.
01:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I saw on the, on the dry phone today, it was already dark and I saw a guy that sell Christmas lights on his car and it put me in a better mood, you know, even for a few seconds. So, um, it was really sad. We took down, we, my wife took down our Christmas decorations on, uh, on Sunday and I was super sad about it, you know? Yeah. I think we, we may have to, we may take ours down on, I was, my wife and I were talking about this. We might do it. Oh God.
01:08:57
Speaker
It's Friday. If we're going to take, take them down, we need to do it tomorrow. Um, maybe we'll leave them up. I don't know. The tree seems to be going strong. Like I kind of feel like if the trees that like just like bolting all over your floor, you guys will leave it up. Um, yeah, I mean, that'll be soon. That always got us into trouble when I was a kid, cause we, we didn't have real trees. We had fake ones because my mom was allergic to them. So we didn't have that like natural.
01:09:22
Speaker
Um, okay. Time to, time to take shit down now, sort of, uh, she was tempted to leave it up through summer. Well, she just forgot, like, you know, I think you should at least leave, leave your decorations up until January 6th, which is three Kings day. So if you believe in, if you believe in the big baby Jesus, that's, that's an important day. So. Yeah.
01:09:47
Speaker
Which was what, three days ago? Yeah. That was for me. Yeah. Giovanna grew up celebrating Three Kings. My wife's celebrate Three Kings day. So it was, uh, my parents, my parents are, I think famously, um, very religious, but in like a way, like Christmas was never a religious holiday for us. So none of the like associated like three Kings day or any of that stuff was like ever.
01:10:17
Speaker
I think I'm clearly not the person to be speaking to this, but speaking today is more of a Catholic thing than a... Not a lot of evangelical Christians are out here, you know, observing Catholic adjacent holidays, I would say.
01:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, well, a good note to end the show on. A little teaser. We have not 100% finalized everything on this yet, but it's looking like Yacht-Con 5, soon to be named more cleverly, is gonna probably be on February 25th. That's a Tuesday evening. It's looking like we're gonna get a venue in the Fremont.
01:11:08
Speaker
neighborhood so it's going to be a big one. If these plans all come together it's going to be a lot of fun. I think this will be in some ways the Yacht-Con that we had always envisioned when we first set out on this this path so it should be a lot of fun but mark it on your social calendar. I would hate to hear that you didn't feel like you got enough warning for setting time aside but it will be an all-ages venue and
01:11:37
Speaker
all those types of things. So all the good stuff that you're used to for Yacht-Con and hopefully some better stuff. We, looks like we'll actually have a real sponsor this year, which is great. We'll get into all this stuff later. But anyway, thanks for all your questions. This is like our second off season show. We might, we're on a roll. I think it's our third. Third off season. I guess if we did, you're right. Cause we did a post-MOS Cup one, right? That counts. Yep.
01:12:06
Speaker
So, uh, look at that. Look at us. Look at us. Very exciting. Uh, yeah, uh, I'm Jeremiah O'Shan. I'm just going to sign off for, uh, Lickett and Aaron. This is No Sadiettis. Remember, you will never get alone. Green Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Mountain wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's roll on, Columbia roll on.
01:12:37
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!