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Episode 418: Mailbag for Leagues Cup Week 1
67 Plays2 years ago
Jeremiah and Aaron take a bunch of questions from listeners that inquire about Brian Schmetzer's contract situation, whether advancing in the Leagues Cup is actually desirable and what we want the starting lineup to look like going forward.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:21
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. Here we go. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS co-pointers! Here come three games through the middle to crowd it! The vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
00:01:04
Speaker
Seattle
Mailbag Questions and Schmetzer's Contract
00:01:05
Speaker
Sounders the greatest MLS team in history This is a tiny doll
00:01:34
Speaker
Is that why you young people call twerking?
00:01:37
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our Substax subscribers. This is the mailbag episode for League's Cup Match Week 1. I am Jeremiah Shan, joining me today is Aaron Capo and our engineer, Lickett. Well, Aaron, we want to just start off and ask some of these Substax subscriber questions.
00:02:02
Speaker
Let's do it. Yeah, these first four of them are from our wonderful subscribers. And the first one that I will ask you is from Ryan. What is Schmetzer's current contract situation? The best slash newest info I saw was a sounder article saying he resigned a new contract or at least 2023.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, so I was actually able to do some actual reporting on this, and I can tell you that he is signed through 2024. He's under contract for the rest of this year. He's under contract for next year, which frankly, I think it would take something pretty monumental to justify not bringing him back for the 50th anniversary season of which I imagine.
00:02:42
Speaker
he will be a significant part of and rightfully so. I mean, no one has spent more time and more energy with this organization than he has. But after next year, it sounds like his contract is potentially up and maybe there's a neat way of parting ways or maybe he proves that he needs to be here even longer.
00:03:08
Speaker
That's, that's that, I guess.
Key Players for Seattle Sounders
00:03:10
Speaker
Uh, all right. Well, this one's from Sammy cats. He says, currently, can you rank the five best players on the sounders for the rest of 2023? So let's, let's all add a caveat to this. The five most important players for the rest of the season. And yeah, so that, that works in that with that framing, I'm going to say Christian. Number one. Number one. Okay. I think, I think Christian is the, well,
00:03:37
Speaker
I think Christian is the most important player on the team. So I'll just stick with that. I think that the next player is the player who's going to.
00:03:48
Speaker
be the most, the talisman, right? Where as he goes, go to Sounders and I think that's Raul. If Raul can play like Raul again, I think the Sounders are in pretty decent shape. If he plays like he's been playing for the first part of 2023, it could get rough. Leo Chu, I think is an obvious one.
00:04:10
Speaker
uh he's been the best attacking player all season and uh doesn't really show too many signs of stopping or that this is this is a fluke um i'll say jackson reagan i think he's been phenomenal i think yamar has been excellent as well but um i think reagan is
00:04:30
Speaker
in the figuring it out phase of his career where week on week he just looks like a better player. So that's what that's that's for. And I think I'm going to say Nuka Ledero for
00:04:48
Speaker
the reasons we talked about on the mainline show. Um, if we mean who, who was the most important, uh, if it were best, Nico would not be in here. I don't think he's one of the five best players on the team right now. And I don't think he's going to become one of the best five best players. I'd probably say Jordan, uh, or, or real snack. But I think that if Nico can accept a role that is more suited to where he's at in his career, it can mean pretty good things for, for the rest of the year.
00:05:15
Speaker
Well, I don't know. I assume this was an oversight on your part where maybe you're just taking him from granted. But I think Joe Paulo probably has
Club World Cup and CONCACAF Aspirations
00:05:23
Speaker
to be in that. And I'll even put him number two. I think not only has he been the most
00:05:30
Speaker
maybe their best player the first half of this or the first two thirds of this season. But I think he is really like his performance, I think is going to go a long way towards dictating how good they be. So I also rolled on number one, Jau Paulo, number two, sort of in the same vein that you ranked Raul Rui Diaz, number
00:05:50
Speaker
Two, I think Albert Rusnak probably is gonna be an equally important, like how he does, especially if he ends up assuming the number 10 role. I think he maybe goes in at number three. I'll agree with you that, well, and I think Jordan Morris Potentia is another one who I think probably goes in number four. And I think you sort of have to choose between Morris and Chu as being the most important.
00:06:18
Speaker
And then, yeah, I'll agree with you. I think Reagan, his performance is going to be a pretty big part of this. So I guess my five are Roldan, Jel Paolo, Rusnak.
00:06:31
Speaker
Morris and Reagan. Now, uh, I think that's good. We, we had a different group there, but I also think the fact that there are, you know, we, we listed what eight or nine players in that among our two tens. And I think that's like, to me, I, I really do think this team has the talent now, whether or not it fits together. That's the big question, right? Yeah. I am swapping JP for what arrow. Okay. Fair enough. But we still have a different one, right? We sell a different list. Yeah, we did. We did have a different list.
00:07:01
Speaker
Uh, next one's from Bill Jones. How do we match up against Monterey in the profit cup? I'm assuming we can feel something like our best 11 as we did in Dallas and that they'll remember how to play together. Yeah. I don't, I'm not going to sit here and try to like.
00:07:15
Speaker
pretend like I know Monterey's lineup. I do know that they have, they're really, I mean, they're not like a leg, just a legacy team. They are legitimately one of the best teams in Mexico. But, you know, they'll be playing us on a short rest. They'll be playing us at home. And yeah, I mean, I would think the Monterey game will be as close to our ideal 11 as we've had all year. Assuming no unexpected injuries between now and then,
00:07:43
Speaker
Jordan Morris should be fully available. Christian Roldon should be fully available. As far as we know, literally the all, you know, 13 most important Sounders players are going to all be available and there's going to be some real lineup decisions to be made. And in fact, the lineup that they roll out in that game will give us a big window into what Brian Schmetzer sees as the Sounders ideal lineup, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:13
Speaker
I don't feel great about how they match up against that Monterey team, but I think that short rest, you know, playing at home, maybe the Mexican team's not taking this tournament super duper seriously because they want to go home and see their families a little sooner, could all play to the Sounders favor.
00:08:34
Speaker
Uh, so this is from Ben again, uh, another sub-stack question, uh, since we already are guaranteed a spot in the next 2025 world club world cup is getting into the champions league, a positive since it will continue, congest a very congested schedule. Now I will add. This is the 2024 champions league that the Sounders are going to be qualifying for.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, but we are qualified for the club world cup in 2025. Right. That's the next one. Yes. So the question I think is, since we can't, since we don't have to qualify for the coral club world cup, I think that's.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. I mean, it's, it, I guess winning the 2024 CONCACAF champions league is all you're doing is winning another trophy. You're not qualifying for a bigger tournament necessarily. Well, you're never qualifying for a bigger tournament because CCL is bigger tournament than the club world cup.
00:09:34
Speaker
Well, exactly. And I think that's right. I agree. And I guess that's one of the things I always think it's very weird that CONCACAP Champions League sort of gets pitched. We talked about this, in fact, last year, about how it sort of gets pitched as like a qualifier for the club World Cup when that's. Now, I don't know, maybe this new
Scoring Challenges and Summer Beverages
00:09:53
Speaker
club World Cup format will make it seem like a bigger deal. Maybe when the UEFA teams start taking it seriously.
00:10:02
Speaker
Well, that's the thing is that if there's, you know, cause there's going to be like eight UEFA teams, I think in the, in this club world cup. And so who know? I mean, like, I don't know. I, that one, unlike the league's cup, I think there is potential for that to sort of blow away our expectations. Like that could end up being a really fun tournament.
00:10:21
Speaker
I think that there is definitely an intention there to make that a tournament that the UEFA teams have to take more seriously and to make it a true club world cup and I support the idea. I guess generally though I would say that it's always worth qualifying for the CCL because the CCL is the best tournament that the Sounders
00:10:41
Speaker
have a legitimate chance
00:10:57
Speaker
in that, but the format of that tournament actually makes it less likely that they're going to be competitive than they were in the old format where like theoretically you could just win three games and, and get hot once against a, you know, a European team or something. Yeah. Yeah. I, I under, I mean, I think if you really value the club world cup highly, um,
00:11:21
Speaker
It's maybe you don't care about getting to CCL, but I always want to be in CCL. I think so. Yeah. I think CCL is fun. I love playing it. It's, uh, and, and like I said all last year, if the cost of winning champions league last year was missing the playoffs.
00:11:37
Speaker
Even if it means they are crappy again this year, I still think it was a worthwhile endeavor. One of the best sporting memories of my life was being at Loom & Field with 70,000 people and it being just like everything you dream of. If you have a goal of winning a championship that is going to be very hard to win, which I think is true of CCL because no MLS team would ever want it.
00:12:05
Speaker
and you play in a league with a salary cap, guaranteed contracts, union restrictions, all that stuff, the chances are that you are going to put yourself in a not great position at the end of that window.
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah. But it's worth doing if you can win that championship. And they did.
Left Wing Strategy Debate
00:12:22
Speaker
So, you know, so it goes. Yeah. All right. I think we're on the Twitter. Yeah. We are on the Twitter questions now. The first one is from Nick Payton. How bad are we bad at scoring or really unlucky? Bonus question. What is your go to summer beverage right now? I mean, I think it's a little bit of both. It's hard to not
00:12:43
Speaker
feel like we're a little bit bad at scoring, and unlucky. I think the perfect example of that was right after the Sounders scored against Dallas or right after Dallas scored,
00:12:58
Speaker
They immediately get in the next kickoff. They created a wonderful opportunity. Raul Ruidias hits this just gorgeous pass to Rusnak. He runs onto it. He tries to touch it around the keeper. The keeper makes a great play, but the rebound falls right to Ruidias' feet. And what does he do? He just like clubs it and gives it right back to the goalkeeper when he has effectively an open goal in front of him. I mean, that's...
00:13:23
Speaker
That's, that's both that's both bad at scoring and unlucky. But my, my go to summer beverage right now, I just bought a four pack of rattlers of grapefruit rattlers. Oh, those are like good one. Those are perfect. It's a good one. I am I do I will say I think that a lot of the time teams that have a lot of bad luck eventually it does become
00:13:48
Speaker
because they're insane and all that stuff. Summer drink of choice for me right now, non-alcoholic edition, I'm really getting really into kombucha this summer for some reason. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tattoos and kombucha.
00:14:07
Speaker
There's a kombucha brewery, I can't remember what it's called, but I think it's up on the peninsula somewhere, but they do like a Hopped Huckleberry kombucha, very good. And then I've been drinking a lot of on the weekends, you know, when I have a cocktail or whatnot, I've been doing a lot of whiskey eyeballs, so just whiskey, general lemon, lime, very good drink.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, good, good, good. All right. This is from our good friend inner Pearson. Oh, who's your starting left wing going forward? Is it true or Morris? Leo gives us with on the left that we don't otherwise get any takes players on 1v1 or 1v2 in a way that we just don't see from Jordan. Are we going to see a timeshare or Jordan playing up top?
00:14:49
Speaker
I think if you're asking me right now, you can only pick one player to start them and they have to start on the left wing. I pick Leo Chu. He's been consistently very good. He's been one of the only really attacking outlets the Sounders have had for a lot of the season. I just don't think you can take him out of lineup right now. Yeah.
00:15:07
Speaker
But if I were in charge and I kind of got free reign, I would be doing a lot of rotating and you'd be seeing Morris on the right, you'd be seeing Morris up top, you'd be seeing Morris on the left when Chiu gets arrested occasionally. I think that the sounders have all of this great depth and they have a lot of players that can play a lot of different positions and they don't seem to be
Fan Engagement and TV Deals
00:15:30
Speaker
using that as much as they could. Now, some of that is injuries and Morris being gone for international duty and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not, you know, it's not as though this has all been a choice necessarily. But I do think that it's it's not which one it's I it's, you know, either or both, just depending on on the situation, the you know, the opposition.
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah. So, but if you're saying if there's one player, you have to choose Morris or Chu. Right now it's Chu. Yeah. I don't think that's crazy. I think I'm maybe a little bit more inclined to try to figure out how to keep Morris on the field, but I'm with you. I think we're going to have to see... My hope is that we see a lot of rotation. Yeah. And the thing is that...
00:16:25
Speaker
This should set up for it. They should be able to come up with mix and match lineups that make sense and are effective. I think it's entirely possible that their best lineup maybe is Chu on the left, Morris at center forward and Christian Roldon on the right. Like we said, there's other formations that they could use too that would also make sense and get all those guys on the field.
00:16:50
Speaker
Uh, go ahead. Uh, next one is from TIE fighter 17. Would you extend Rusnak for next season? I don't think he deserves 95% of the hate he gets. However, the potential to new DP level players next season could bring a lot of excitement into the fan base.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think the, my, you know, Rusnak has an option for next year. I would assume it would be a DP wages. And if I'm the sounders, I basically tell Albert, look, we'll bring you back at max TAM.
00:17:21
Speaker
but we can't bring it back as a DP. Yeah. And we'll give you, you know, we'll guarantee you for two or three more years. I think Russnak is a really useful player. I just don't think, uh, you know, he's, he's barely over DP now. I mean, he's at 1.8. The DP threshold is like 165. So it wasn't like,
00:17:39
Speaker
I'm not convinced that that was sort of like the make or break number. I think the sounders were sort of like playing budgetary games where they were just like, Oh, look, we can't say like, they wanted to save their money. I suspect that's my, my conspiracy theory is that they basically wanted to save their, they wanted to basically, they're looking, my assumption is they're looking at 2024 as the year where they make some, some big signings. And I hope that's what they do.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think I can disagree. I do think he's been very good. I think he's been very consistent. I don't, I don't think he's anything close to the problem, but I think if you can open up a DB spot and you know, and if it, if it means you have to say goodbye, then right. So yeah, that's the risk you take. Yep.
00:18:22
Speaker
All right. This is from mRathGibber22. I'm really looking warm on the, I'm really lukewarm on the team right now and can't put my finger on it. Underwhelming play, Providence sponsor, new TV deal with Apple, et cetera, et cetera. I guess the question is, do you, why do you think there's like all the above? What's the question? I mean, it's all of the above and other, I think. I think.
00:18:50
Speaker
The underwhelming play is the big part of it, right? Because I think we were willing to overlook a lot of stuff earlier in the year when they were playing well. The Providence thing was a bummer for a lot of us. The new TV deal. I like the Apple TV deal, but I completely understand why a lot of other people don't for logistical reasons and for just moral reasons that wanting to deal with Apple totally get it. I think
00:19:12
Speaker
My interest in MLS in general right now is in the toilet. It's never been lower. I don't care about anything else happening in the league. I don't care about the league's cup. I still love the Sounders. I still watch every game. I'm still emotionally invested. MLS couldn't really care less. So I think that's a big part of it. And I also think that there's something about winning the big one.
00:19:40
Speaker
climbing the mountain, this thing that the whole. You get to the mountain top and then you're like, Oh, what's that all there is? Right. And, and I think, you know, like it's, it's reasonable that you're just not going to be quite as emotionally invested because you're not chasing. You're not chasing it anymore. Yeah. Luckily. Get a couple of years away from it. And that tends to come back, but, um, you know, I think it's just, I think it's natural. And I also think.
00:20:05
Speaker
The pandemic for a lot of people put sports in a different perspective and I think that that's something that maybe doesn't get talked about as much.
Sounders' 50th Anniversary and Re-engagement
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, I will say that I think next year's 50th anniversary comes at a very opportunistic time because it does give the Sounders a really natural time to sort of like get
00:20:24
Speaker
re-engage, do all this kind of stuff. And I hope they're going to be opening up a new training facility. There's going to be a lot of positive energy around this team next year. I don't blame anyone for being in the dumps a little bit about the way things are. And it's not because the team is awful and it's not because they don't care. It's just that it all feels a little anti-climatic right now. And my hope is that
00:20:46
Speaker
Maybe they go on a league's cup run. Maybe they finish the season strong and these feelings are, uh, you know, more temporary than that, but I don't think you're wrong. I guess is the, is, is. Yeah.
00:21:01
Speaker
I agree next one from at third string star is it just me or does anyone else appreciate how much the sounders used to try and play on opposite times of day with the Mariners now we seemingly only have 640 MLB and 730 MLS games that both get out at the same time our IP trying to keep me at home now I will say I think that a lot of that has to do with there were some temporary
00:21:23
Speaker
rules in place about events in the stadium district that have expired, and I think that's a big part of it. But it does suck, I think, if you're not going to the games or what have you. I can't say that I've been as bothered by the dual Mariners sounders aspect of it. I think for me, it's bigger. It's more that just like
00:21:48
Speaker
Every game being at 730 is kind of tiresome. I don't, I'm not as, like I said, I get to the game early enough that I'm usually not, like it's not that big of a deal, but yeah, it does seem that way. And I, and I think you're right. The reason is that I think the sounders and, and manners just aren't forced to coordinate the way that they used to. Yeah. And.
00:22:11
Speaker
And yeah. Um, all right. This is from Rhett Guilford. Uh, Atencio has a tentative deal to move clubs, right? He can't be happy about his playing time decreasing from the second year in a row. Obviously injury has some part of that, but potential sale loan would make the lack of playing time recently make more sense.
00:22:28
Speaker
I don't think so. I mean, that's just total speculation on my part, but I don't think that's what it is. I think if you're loaning him, who cares how much he's playing, right? What's the other club? The other club doesn't have the leverage to tell you to stop playing him, and you probably just would have done it by now. If you're selling him, I mean, the transfer window everywhere but here is open right now.
00:22:49
Speaker
And I just don't see there being a huge market for Josh Tenzio right now. So I don't think it's that. I'm frustrated with his lack of playing time. I think he's been really good this year. I'm sure he is as well. But he's also, I mean, he's a kid, like you don't get a lot of...
00:23:06
Speaker
unless you're a, you know, can't miss prospect, you don't get a lot of opportunity to complain about your playing time when you're his age. Yeah. And
5-Substitution Rule in MLS
00:23:15
Speaker
I will say, I don't know that he's actually going to play less this year than he did last year. He only played 725 minutes last year. He's at 5.15 right now. So if he gets two more starts, he'll probably end up eclipsing that pretty comfortably. That said, it is, I would imagine he is very frustrated. I don't think there is a,
00:23:35
Speaker
deal already in place. Yeah, I think he's frustrated. I hope he gets more playing time. I think there's a possibility he's in the Sounders' ideal 11 at this point, at least in my mind. But we'll see. It doesn't look like we're going to get that tested.
00:23:55
Speaker
Alright, next one is from Bob Clow. Since the advent of five subs per game, has there been any noticeable impact on game strategy and tactics in an MLS? And the Sounders specifically, are there missed opportunities here? Any coach taking full advantage of the new rule or still just waiting for the 60th minute?
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think it was a good move. I think it probably has improved the quality of games in ways that are hard to notice all the time. I do like there being five subs, but I think you're right.
00:24:30
Speaker
I don't know of any coaches that are suddenly have figured out like a way to ultimate, like really exploit this rule. I don't get the sense that there's a lot of, a lot more halftime subs, for instance, now, um, at least not in MLS that I'm aware of.
00:24:47
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to see more subs being made for sure. I think that that would be beneficial for the Sounders, but I think coaches are very stubborn and I'd be shocked if anybody has dramatically changed their approach in this regard. Yeah, I mean, I think that still the thing that
00:25:04
Speaker
most coaches is that like very few coaches are willing to just sort of admit that they got the lineup wrong. And and so you're just not going to see a lot of subs before the 60th minute or so just because it's like I don't like there's a reason coaches pick the lineup they picked and they want to see it play out.
00:25:22
Speaker
All right, well,
Inter Miami's Roster and MLS Rules
00:25:23
Speaker
these are sort of related questions, so I'll ask them together from Jason Bestlife2 and Dudesby. They both kind of are asking about the whole situation surrounding Miami and potential rule changes and how it feels like they are skirting a lot of rules by effectively changing their entire roster at mid-season.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you have better insight into the specifics here than I do. And I think your consensus, correct me, or your takeaway, correct me if I'm wrong, is that it's probably not all completely above board, but it's also probably not as shady as it looks, like they are being creative with the way they're doing some of these things. And
00:26:09
Speaker
They're getting a little bit of assistance probably from the league because it means bringing Messi into the league, but probably not any more egregious than paying Clendam to his transfer fee, for example. Is that fair? Yeah, because I think, to me, the biggest one right now is the whole situation surrounding Rodolfo Pizarro and one of these moves that I think most people
00:26:31
Speaker
didn't even realize happened was that they bought out Kieran Gibbs at the beginning of the season, or they mutually agreed. I'm putting air quotes around this. They mutually agreed to part ways, which theoretically, I suppose means that the player just agreed to cancel his contract. But Kieran Gibbs apparently is working on the broadcast team. So he's getting paid by the team, which theoretically should count as a buyout as far as I understand it. Now with Rodolfo Pizarro,
00:26:55
Speaker
It sounds like what's happened there is that Miami's found a team in Greece or somewhere to take his contract. He maybe has really agreed to just walk away from his contract on the assumption that he's going to be made whole with this new deal somewhere else. Assuming that's really what's happening,
00:27:19
Speaker
You know, it's not quite as bad. And I suppose that one of the things to keep in mind is like they've been playing this year with a really bad roster in part because they were saving up money to like go out and make a couple U-22 signings and potentially bring in some other senior roster players. My assumption, though, is they're going to have to have some other senior roster players going out. And so I think there's some other shoes that are going to drop. But it would really behoove MLS, I think, to get out in front of this and ask for a little bit more transparency.
00:27:49
Speaker
The fact that nothing has been announced about what's going on with Pizarro other than that Miami bottom are mutually agreed to part ways, which implies that this player just walked away from millions of dollars, is a bad look for the league. And the league should basically come out and say like, this is why this makes sense. And I think a lot of people are asking these questions. And I think they're legitimate questions. And if this is all above board,
00:28:14
Speaker
hey, fine, can you show us your cards? Can you explain how this works? And I think that we're getting to the point where, you know, fans want to know that we're playing on an even playing field, at least plausibly, and it doesn't feel that way right now.
League's Cup Speculation
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that with what LAFC pulled last year with all this stuff, where they were clearly breaking rules, but doing it in an accounting way. And I think that that's the thing that bothers people is that it's like, look, we know that MLS reserves the right to do whatever the hell they want.
00:28:50
Speaker
right they they've made that pretty clear in the past but i don't like the no no this is all totally you know just trust us right no i don't i don't trust you and you'd be crazy to trust you uh and yeah i mean i think everybody seems to be willing to accept that you do what you got to do to get leo messy into the league and make him happy um i don't love that but i understand it and
00:29:19
Speaker
You know, it's, it's crazy to complain about, but I do think that trying to pretend like everything is being done, like, I don't think that any other team would be able to get away with this. And I think the fact that it's Miami of all teams doing it that got as quick, like, yeah, closest that, that MLS has ever come to handing out like a death penalty type sentence for shenanigans.
00:29:44
Speaker
to now just be like, well, kind of the same kind of stuff, but it's messy. So whatever. Yeah. Well, I will say this. I think for all the shenanigans, they're going to have a really hard time making the playoffs. They are currently 12 points out of ninth place, albeit with two games in hand.
00:30:03
Speaker
But I don't see them, like, and I don't know that Jordy Alba to pick one player is going to be the guy that's going to push him over the top. The reality with all the signings like this is that Leo Messi is still Leo Messi.
00:30:19
Speaker
He could play at 50% effort level, which I don't even know if he has in him, but he theoretically could and still be the best player in the league. But that's still one player. It's one player and these other guys that are coming in, they're big names that make a lot of money, sure. But I mean, Steven Girard played an MLS, Frank Lampard. Yeah, I'm not at all convinced that Sergio Bootz gets going to dominate this league. Yeah. And so I do think that
00:30:46
Speaker
I think, I mean, I ultimately, I think bringing in Messi's buddies is going to make Miami a worse team than going out and getting actual good players that are invested would be. But, you know, I'm not, uh, not in charge of Miami. So, uh, next one is from tacos and haircut. Only 12 regular games left before the Sanders first MLS brand update heard any rumblings about how the process is going.
00:31:09
Speaker
There's actually only 10 regular season games, but there's 12 at least total games just to correct. But I haven't heard any recent rumblings. I mean, I think it's all done is my understanding. I have heard bits and pieces about the status of that. Like, I think they already have a jersey.
00:31:31
Speaker
I don't know that they're going to be getting a third jersey. I wouldn't be shocked. Supposedly the Bruce Lee kit was the Sounders best selling shirt ever, which you would think would rank it would be enough to rank it among the best selling MLS shirts ever. And that would presumably qualify them for a third kit, which would make a lot of sense to come out with a third kit next year when they're doing this whole brand update. I don't know, like I haven't seen any
00:32:01
Speaker
I haven't like seen anything. My suspicion is that it's going to be like the strong indications I've had is that the Space Needle is very much going to still be part of the logo. That sounders is definitely going to be part of the logo and that there's going to be some slight tweaks maybe to the color scheme, but nothing too dramatic. Yeah.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I think you and I were both hoping for maybe a little bit more of a overhaul. But I think it does seem like they've kind of gone about the process the right way and soliciting input from the community. And maybe a lot of that input disagreed with us. So maybe that was part of it. Yeah.
00:32:48
Speaker
All right. Well, this is a good note to end on from JDB to 19 with the whole crew back. Why can't the Sounders win league's cup? It's a great question. I think they totally can. I mean, I think.
00:33:00
Speaker
They have the talent, they've beaten Mexican teams with this group of players, and they even had to go to Mexico to do it. Yeah, they have just as good a shot as maybe not anybody, but they have a good shot. They certainly can. Knockout tournaments are fluky. All sorts of stuff can happen. Yeah, they can. And I hope they do. I hope they can figure some stuff out and get back to their best and go on a tear down the stretch.
00:33:28
Speaker
That would be great. And I'm with you. I think there's a decent chance that they, you know, it wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world if they were to come out and actually win this whole thing. So, you know, I don't necessarily wouldn't say I'm predicting that, but it wouldn't be the most surprising outcome.
Closing and Subscriber Benefits
00:33:49
Speaker
That's for sure.
00:33:51
Speaker
Uh, so yeah, me as well go do it. I suppose, uh, it certainly would help change the vibes, uh, a bit. And if, and if they won the league's cup and they, and they, uh, struggled a little bit coming out of the gates, I suppose that would be, uh, uh, a fitting price to pay, but it doesn't have to be that way either. So, uh, anyway, well, that's our show. Um, thanks again to our sub sec subscribers, uh, who really are helping fuel our.
00:34:21
Speaker
are increased output here and we really do appreciate it. If you are interested in becoming a Subzac subscriber, it's $50 a year or $5 a month and you get some early access. We're going to have a big interview with Hugh Weber coming up that will
00:34:42
Speaker
have an extended version available only to subscribers. We're going to keep doing stuff like that. Of course, there's there's all kinds of other little perks that we that we try to add. But also thank you so much to our regular sponsors, Watson's counter and football wines. I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Aaron Campo and Lick it. This is no study at this and we will catch you next time.
00:36:02
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!