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Nos Audietis, Episode 324: Finishing up
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The Sounders are finally wrapping up this wild season, heading into the final game of the regular season sitting third in the Western Conference with a decent shot at still grabbing the No. 1 spot if they win and results fall their way. But it’s been a bumpy ride getting here, at least recently.
They’re now 1-2-3 in their last six, which includes a brutal stretch of five games in 18 days. The most recent of those was a 1-1 tie with the LA Galaxy. The Sounders finally rotated their lineup in that one, making five changes from the previous game and looked OK out of the gate. When most of their starters came on in the second half, they looked a ton better but still managed to give up a goal against the run of play before finding a very late equalizer.
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 and Sponsorship
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. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books. 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. What? 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 comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
Seattle Sounders Season Overview
00:01:35
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines. This is episode 324 and we're recording on Thursday, November 5th, 2020. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
00:01:49
Speaker
The Sounders are finally wrapping up this wild season, heading into the final game of the regular season, sitting third in the Western Conference with a decent shot still grabbing the number one spot if they win and results fall their way. But it's been a bit of a bumpy ride getting there, at least recently. They're now one, two, and three in their last six, which includes a brutal stretch of five games in 18 days. The most recent of those was a 1-1 tie with the LA Galaxy.
00:02:12
Speaker
The Sounders finally rotated their lineup in that one, making five changes from the previous game and looked okay out of the gate. When most of their starters came on in the second half, I thought they looked a lot better, but they still managed to give up a goal against the run of play before finding a very late equalizer. Ultimately,
00:02:28
Speaker
settling for the tie in that one and at least keeping the chance of getting the number one seed in the Western Conference alive. So given all this, Aaron, how are you feeling heading into not just the season finale, but really heading into the playoffs?
Challenges and Player Management
00:02:46
Speaker
It's concerning. I think Brian Schmetzer sort of touched on them last night. I think it was last night in the press conference about how this is
00:02:54
Speaker
traditionally been the time of year that the sounders start rounding into form, heading into the playoffs. Although if you look at it just by number of games played, this is actually about the time of the year they start to kind of swoon a little bit.
00:03:08
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, in terms of the calendar, you know, it's, you definitely much rather, um, be sort of coming all together and looking rested and ready to go, go into the playoffs. And, um, they just don't, they look, you know, they look flat pretty often. Um, I think a lot of key players are starting to look, uh, a little worse for wear. Um, but I do think that.
00:03:31
Speaker
That's why last night was, in a way, as frustrating as it was to give up that goal in a game that they've been dominating, but I think the better side in. It's good to get a result whenever you have that much squad rotation when you can get some players arrests.
00:03:46
Speaker
I would have loved to get Nico Ledero arrested as well because I think that he's the guy that I'm most concerned about just because he looks just exhausted, which is not a way. I don't think that we're really used to him looking at all. So that's a concern, but maybe he can get the next game off. That would be nice. But ultimately, I think that this is a team that
00:04:10
Speaker
probably understands the need to pace themselves a little more than maybe younger teams or more inexperienced teams. So maybe that's part of what we're seeing is they're just sort of trying to reserve that.
00:04:20
Speaker
that next year for the playoff run. Um, that would certainly be, uh, I think preferable to, to them all being dead on their feet. But, um, you know, I think we know like we've seen this year, they're, they're a very talented team capable of beating anybody in the league. Um, depending on how the seeding works, they're probably going to have at least one home game in the playoffs. Um, they're probably going to face at least two teams assuming they can get through the first round that are, that are
00:04:44
Speaker
worse than they are talent-wise. So I think it's okay, you know, but I'm certainly not feeling as confident as I would like.
Performance Consistency Issues
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that that's probably a fair way of putting it. You know, you got to go back a pretty long ways to find the last time that the centers actually were able to put together a
00:05:09
Speaker
like a full 90 minutes where they were the dominant team. Like I would say you probably got to go all the way back to October 3rd, which I guess on the calendar is not that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago. It was seven games ago. That was the game. They won three to one at home against the Whitecaps. They were dominant. I think the only one they gave up in that one was a late penalty.
00:05:34
Speaker
that was very questionable at that. And they won the next game against RSL. It was a little bit more of a grinded out victory. And then they kind of went into the swoon. I thought they looked good against LAFC in losing. And that actually was, in some ways, I thought they played better than in the RSL game. And then they've just really since the LAFC game, I don't know that they've put together
00:06:01
Speaker
a complete performance. They did beat the Whitecaps 2-0. That was a pretty solid performance. But you just look at these games, and sometimes it's one decent half and one really bad half. And they've had at least a couple halves during this stretch where it's just awful. The second half against the Rapids, I think, was the worst they've played all year.
00:06:29
Speaker
Which, you know, maybe it's a relatively high bar. They've looked pretty good this year, but they just looked awful by any standard. They weren't creating chances. They didn't look like they had energy. It was just a very, very poor performance, especially coming off of a first half where I thought they looked pretty good, even though they were down two to one in that half.
00:06:53
Speaker
you know it's gonna be interesting if they can pull it together you know they're gonna get some time off after the regular season they're gonna get at least two weeks they haven't amazingly they still haven't released a firm schedule um the best i can tell is they're gonna start the playoffs on something like november 20th
Impact of International Call-ups
00:07:13
Speaker
which would presumably be the playing round for the Eastern Conference. And then a week after that, I would assume is when the Western Conference would come in, or at least a few days after that. And depending on when that is, it could cause the centers some
00:07:30
Speaker
some headaches because Raul Rui Diaz we already know has been called up again to Peru. We're assuming that Javier Ariaga is going to get called up to Ecuador. I think I heard Gustav Svensson, they're expecting to lose to Sweden. So there's going to be some missing pieces potentially for the first game depending on how the
00:07:49
Speaker
the quarantine phase works this time but yeah I mean I don't I can't say that I'm super confident uh I think the center we should the center should you know they're gonna get a good test at home against the the earthquakes uh who actually just qualified for the playoffs
00:08:06
Speaker
Which is a wild thing to say, given how this season has gone for the Earthquakes. They've been, at times, one of the worst teams in MLS history. Like, really, really that awful. Like, they have some really, really bad results. And it wasn't just the 7-1 loss to the Sounders. That was in the middle of a really bad run for them. And they've been pretty good recently. You know, the Sounders recently played them to a 0-0 tie down in San Jose.
00:08:33
Speaker
But yeah, it's going to be an interesting end to this season. But I have to admit, I think I'm really looking forward to it being over. Yeah, I definitely am as well. It's nice to have a distraction. It's nice to have something resembling normalcy going on happening.
00:08:56
Speaker
Um, it's also, I mean, it's two games a week every week. Yeah, it's exhausting. It's, it's so much, it's so much like the other night, my, you know, I put the sounders on and my wife was like, are they playing just like twice as many games this year? And it's like, yeah, they are. Um, in a way they're playing far fewer in reality, but I mean, it's, it's a lot. And, and, uh, you know, I, it.
00:09:21
Speaker
I'm just then ready for something different to pay attention to, I think. But as long as the games are happening, I'm going to enjoy them and obviously want the best for the Sounders and obviously want them to win another in the last cup. But I think that it's going to be, if they don't manage to do that, probably less deflating this season than it maybe has in the past because it's just so much. And having that little break between the end of the regular season and the playoffs is going to be pretty nice as well.
00:09:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think that, that'll be particularly nice having that break. Maybe you'll re-energize me. I, and I, and I should also clarify that I'm not looking forward to the season ending soon. I think I'm just looking forward to being able to see the end and, uh,
Fatigue from Game Frequency
00:10:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's just been it's been hectic to try to cover these games. I don't I don't know. Maybe I'd feel differently if I was just watching them as a fan. I suspect that's not I think there's probably a lot of burnout in the fan base, too. It's just it's just rapid succession of games that seems like it's been going on forever. And it's it's been a solid four months of two games a week, basically, which is
00:10:32
Speaker
which is a lot, you know, especially with everything that's going on in the world. So I will say that there have been some encouraging performances. I think, you know, Raul Rui Diaz seems to be coming into form. Jordan Morris seems to be looking a little better. He had started to go into a little bit of a swoon. He's now got a goal and an assist in his last two games. He came off the bench yesterday, looked very much like his old self, I think, yesterday.
00:11:00
Speaker
Rui Diaz has been, you know, about what we'd expect from him. He's scoring goals. He's in vague shouting distance of the Golden Boot. He'd need to score a hat trick at least in the season finale to have any sort of chance. I don't think if that's necessarily in the cards, but, you know, he's been someone who has put together a solid season. You know, it was funny, I was putting together my best 11
00:11:30
Speaker
Uh, for the MLS balloting this year. And I thought there was a pretty solid case, you know, to be made for five sounders on that list. Uh, I think you can argue that Rui Diaz belongs in the best 11. I think you can argue that Nico Ledero belongs in the best 11. I think you can argue that Jordan Morris belongs in the best 11. I think you can argue that Joe Paulo.
00:11:50
Speaker
belongs in best 11. I think you can argue that Jay Margomas and Drade belongs in the best 11. And I think there's a non-homer, like I'm not going to put five players on my best 11 because I feel like that's too homer-ish, but I think you can pick from those five easily three players and there's not necessarily a runaway MVP candidate. I guess you can argue that Pazuelo is probably the strongest candidate, but there's
00:12:16
Speaker
There's a good argument to be made in terms of a lot of guys. I think that, you know, I was actually surprised when I started digging into the stats where some of the defenders I assumed would be near the top are really not like a Jonathan Mensa has not been nearly as dominant as his early performance suggested. So it's going to be interesting to see how all this breaks down. But I bring this up because I think the sounders have some really solid individual performances this year. I think if you take
00:12:46
Speaker
you know, from a 10,000 foot perspective, you know, the Sounders have been in contention for the supporters shield essentially all season up until last, you know, losing last week's game. They are still have a shot for winning the Western Conference for only the second time. That's kind of an amazing thing to me realizing that they've only finished top of the Western Conference once and that was the year they won the supporters shield in 2014. So it's a weird thing to say that the Sounders
00:13:14
Speaker
haven't been great lately, but it's just these last six games have been such a downer. They were really on kind of a, in some ways, a historical pace before these six games and they've fallen way off that.
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, at the height of the season, we were having discussions where I think the consensus was only affirmative that, you know, is this the best, most talented sounder stream ever assembled? And I think it's a tougher case to make at this point. I think in a normal season, you know, they might be in that conversation, but I just don't know if they're quite deep enough to have been able to weather, you know, all of these games.
00:13:56
Speaker
But yeah, so it has been kind of a downward way to go out. But I do think you're right that the lows of the season have been just sort of mediocre, which is preferable to what they've been, I think, in the last couple of years. Yeah. And I think you could also add step and fry to the conversation of best 11 players. I'll admit that I don't pay a ton of attention to other goalkeepers in MLS. But I think the fact that roughly half of the Sounders
00:14:24
Speaker
lineup could be in that discussion is evidence that they've put together a pretty solid team that, you know, I just don't think really gets enough credit from the national media, but I think we're kind of used to that. That's sort of par for the course at this point. And, you know, just kind of got to take that as it comes. But, you know, if they can put together a playoff run and win another MLS Cup, I think you have to be pretty thrilled with what they've been able to accomplish, given everything happening. But
00:14:53
Speaker
You know, even if they don't, I think for the most part, they've played very attractive soccer. They've, you know, they've, they've shown how talented they can be. There's a lot to be excited for, I think for the next year or two with this, this core of this team. And hopefully next season will be a little more close to normal. And we can have a full season and sort of get to enjoy them and circumstances where it doesn't at times feel like torture.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably the biggest positive to take away from the season, aside from the very real possibility of them making an MLS Cup run, is that it seems like there is the core of another, at least one more solid run here. We've heard that Nico Ledero is being pursued by a team in Saudi Arabia, and I don't want to discount that possibility. I think that it's definitely possible that
00:15:50
Speaker
He's going into a final year of his contract. If that team is willing to make a, I don't know, $5 million, this is maybe something we can get into later. But it's possible that Ladero isn't here next year, I suppose. But assuming he's back, there's no reason that this team shouldn't be considered among the top contenders going into next year just based on the talent that's here now. And you got to assume that they'll make some additions and that they'll improve around the edges a little bit.
00:16:18
Speaker
So that's I don't want to say that this has been you know, so it's not like it's a lost season and and like you said they can still make a run this year and it's been very good and it's just it's just too bad that it it that the season took a
00:16:34
Speaker
turn for the worst because it felt like it really was shaping up to be kind of a special season. I think a supporter shield would have been tainted. There's no reason to pretend otherwise. It would probably have a well-deserved asterisk next to it, but I would take an asterisk supporter shield over a no supporter shield and I'll take an asterisk
00:16:57
Speaker
MLS Cup over new MLS Cup. And you know, so there's still plenty to play for. It's just it's just been kind of a weird place. This team is and I think in some ways we've forgotten how good this team looked a month ago. You know that I keep hearing that the defense is a big problem, but I don't know. I look at this defense when it's when it's all together. There are right up there with the best defenses in the league.
00:17:26
Speaker
I think that the Sounders defense and we kind of talked about this with with our guys specifically, but I think it's true of the whole defense. They're prone to giving up goals that look extremely bad. Yeah, I think the goal that they gave to Chicharito is a great example of that.
00:17:42
Speaker
I'm also not enamored with Shane and Neil is I think is that you're aware. I do not think he's good and so and I so I think the drop off from like the first choice Sounders defense
Player Highlights
00:17:54
Speaker
to the one we've seen a little more often is not not good I think he's an especially
00:18:02
Speaker
Poor pairing with with ariaga just because I think they have similar weaknesses in their in their game, but I think jamar ariaga Your left back of choice and and lirdom is you know, maybe not the best defense of the league but plenty good enough to You know be in the conversation for best teams in the league So speaking of backups alex rolled on yesterday had it you know, I think
00:18:27
Speaker
maybe his best performance as a sounder, you know, I think you could maybe argue that he was also very good in that early season game against RSL where he had the assist, but I was just, I thought for the, maybe for the first time this year,
00:18:43
Speaker
Alex Roldan looked like a starting right back to me. Maybe not, like I don't think he's better than Lirdum right now, but I think you could slot him in for Lirdum and not feel like it's a huge drop off. There was the clearance off the line, which was a great, really like a legitimate, great highlight clearance where he makes a diving save of a
00:19:05
Speaker
off his head that goes off the crossbar and stays out. But he just looked confident in possession. He put in some good crosses. He was matched up with Christian Pavone. And at no point did Pavone look like he was dominating him.
00:19:21
Speaker
at no point. Like I don't remember Pavone really doing much in the game at all, at least while Roldan was on him. And Pavone is like, he's not going to get a lot of MVP attention because the galaxy are completely trash. But
00:19:37
Speaker
His numbers suggest that he is MVP, like he's, you know, there's almost, by any metric, he should be an MVP contender based purely on his stats. And I think he probably belongs in the best 11, but that was as tough of a matchup as I think you're gonna get in MLS. And Alex Roldan was right there.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that Pavon is clearly one of the best players in the league. And I think that that's, if you're making the judgment of whether or not a player is like a starting caliber player, the ability to at least look like you belong when you're matched up against one of the better players in the league is, I think, an important data point. And I think that, I don't know that Alex Roldon is or ever will be
00:20:25
Speaker
a player that I'd be thrilled to be in the starting 11 for the Sounders but I think he's clearly a starting caliber MLS player and I think I feel like we've talked about this a couple times this year but I think that the step forward he's taken this year has been sort of an underrated storyline because I think coming into the year it was right
00:20:44
Speaker
to wonder whether he really had no career at this level at all in his future. And I think now he's pretty clearly going to be a guy that has a meaningful career. I think he's likely to end up a starter somewhere else or just sort of a rotational guy here, depending on what he wants his career to look like. And that's super impressive based on where he was last year, where he was, I think, pretty clearly a back of the roster guy. To take that kind of stuff forward, yeah.
00:21:13
Speaker
You got cut last year I mean it's worth I think it's important to point that out like the Sounders at the end of last season had an option on his contract and they declined his option and You know when we asked I actually had a very distinct memory of this we asked we asked Garth about this in the postseason press conference and You know, we asked him about Alex in particular and he's like, you know, I I suspect he's gonna try to come back next year but it was really a
00:21:42
Speaker
You know, that's how it wasn't like, we've wish him the best of luck. You know, we would really like to bring him back. It was like, I think he's going to try to come back. And I think it was them kind of saying like, you know, Alex, we don't see a future for you here, but if you want to be here, we'll let you, you know, he essentially came to camp on trial and.
00:22:01
Speaker
And to his credit, he was willing to transition to write back. The Sounders seemed willing to give him a shot at write back. They didn't really have anyone else competing for his spot, but I suppose you could argue that if they wanted to, they could have brought Sada Abdul-Salam back.
00:22:21
Speaker
They didn't. And I think he's been a significant upgrade over Abdul Salaam. If you give Alex Roldan 2000 minutes, I think he's a better than average MLS back, right back. And I feel like his confidence has improved. He just looks like someone who can compete every week.
00:22:48
Speaker
at no point does he look in and over his head. And this is just not the same player that he looked like when he was playing last year and the years before that. And it's a great story and I would like to be able to
00:23:02
Speaker
Uh, tell it more fully, but it's been a tough season to tell these type of secondary stories. Uh, but he's been, he's been fun and I, and I, and I think it's a, it's a good, a good thing for the centers to have him on the roster. Uh, it'll be interesting to see how, how he develops. He's still relatively young, but he's got some upside and, uh, and yeah, it's, it's been, it's been good. Uh, I think he's been one of the.
00:23:28
Speaker
the definite bright spots.
Opportunities for Young Players
00:23:31
Speaker
The other thing that came out of yesterday, it was good to see was Ethan Dobleri playing, getting his first MLS start. He had not played a ton. I think he'd only really played since, I don't think he'd actually played since MLS is back. And that's been kind of one of the ongoing frustrations I think for me and for a lot of other people is that the
00:23:53
Speaker
This has always been a handicapped year in terms of trying to get the young players' minutes because it's a hard thing to try to balance, but they really have not gotten young players' time this year. I saw something in the Sounders rank at or very near the bottom in terms of players'
00:24:14
Speaker
in terms of minutes played by players 23 and under. And it's, you know, basically Bewanna had, the minutes that they had were almost all Bewanna's who's no longer on the roster. And everyone else has just been kind of sitting on the sideline and frankly, not even on the sideline. They've oftentimes not even been making benches. So it was good to see Doblery play. It was good to see him play well. Did you have any takeaways from his performance?
00:24:44
Speaker
I think that what you're looking for from a 17-year-old making their first ever start is to not really be able to notice them. And I think that that's more or less was the case. He looked like an MLS player. And that's pretty good for somebody his age that has been so on the fringes of the first team. He didn't
00:25:08
Speaker
dazzle by any stretch of the imagination, but he definitely seemed to know what he was doing. He didn't seem...
00:25:14
Speaker
of sorts. He didn't seem like the moment was too big for him. Maybe one of the advantages of not playing for the crowds, you know, for players like that is that there's just less to be nervous about it, I'm sure. So yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I don't think it was like some of the debuts from the younger guys we've seen in the past where you were just blown away that you had a kid performing at this level. But I don't think that that's necessarily
00:25:42
Speaker
I think just showing up and looking like a professional is pretty encouraging for, you know, a 17-year-old. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you can make a pretty good argument that he deserved to draw a penalty. I'm still a little mystified how that wasn't a penalty. You know, I think you can maybe argue that the later one on Rui Diaz was a little more borderline, but, man, that one felt... I mean, you hit a shot.
00:26:11
Speaker
Defender has his arm out. It hits it. I don't know.
00:26:17
Speaker
kind of a bummer that didn't go his way, but that's how it goes, I suppose. But yeah, he was good. He was aggressive when he needed to be. He didn't look overmatched. Again, he was on the same side as Pavone. He was playing in front of Roldan, which is, I guess, maybe another thing that works in Roldan's favor is, you know, he had a 17-year-old playing in front of him, and he had to kind of be the veteran presence there, and he handled that just fine.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there was definitely some encouraging signs yesterday. I don't know, was there anyone's performance in particular you were frustrated by? I've already mentioned the guy that was playing last night that I don't really care for his game, so I won't rag on him too hard. I think otherwise it was about what you expect from everyone. I would have loved to see Nico get a rest, but I also understand that
00:27:13
Speaker
you maybe don't feel like you can just do a complete line change and you have to have some continuity from game to game.
00:27:21
Speaker
Otherwise no, I mean, it was, it was a very unspectacular, uninteresting game. I mean, to, to put it bluntly, but I don't think anybody was poor really outside of, of, I don't think anybody was playing below their level. Um, I, you know, I, I expected when I saw that lineup that it was not going to go quite as well as it did, frankly. So, um, I, I felt like we were kind of playing with house money anyway. Um,
00:27:46
Speaker
I think there was much more for me to be encouraged by, especially with Jordan looking like himself for the first time in a couple weeks, as you said. I think that's the biggest question mark the rest of the way, aside from Ledero's fitness.
00:27:58
Speaker
You know, is Jordan in a slumber? Is Jordan just tired? And I think the evidence would point to him being tired and that's a much easier problem to fix. So, um, you know, it's, I mean, that's a game that I ultimately feel like, yeah, the Sounders should probably beat that team. Um, but considering the context of the game and everything, I can't help, but you know, feel okay with the way it panned out.
00:28:24
Speaker
Fair, fair. All right, well, let's go to a break. We're going to come back and listen or take your questions. You're listening to NOS Adietes.
00:28:38
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:29:18
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiatus. Lots of questions. Likit, go ahead and start firing away. For sure. LokiLoki asks, I get the sense that frustrations are running high, just a product of not winning or something else.
00:29:35
Speaker
Well, you know, I guess this is a good opening to maybe talk about what was a pretty big news story last week.
Coach Schmetzer's Contract Uncertainty
00:29:42
Speaker
Brian Schmetzer, it was, I had always suspected, at least I had suspected I had been talking about this with some of my other reporters on Sounder at Heart that we had been meaning to get to the bottom of Brian Schmetzer's contract status. I thought it was, I had heard that was running out at the end of this year and
00:30:04
Speaker
just trying to find the right way to bring it up, essentially. And then Paul Tenorio just went ahead and tweeted it. And yeah, so he's had a contract at the end of the year. And what was kind of like astounding, not astounding, but was stark, I think, about that report was that it had a quote from Brian Schmetter saying like, yeah, I'm frustrated that I don't have a contract yet. And Garth, I think, did a good job of trying to
00:30:34
Speaker
you know, play it down the middle a little bit more like, yeah, of course we want him back, but we got to find the right number and we're not. And it didn't sound like he's in a big hurry, but then they both went on KJR on Tuesday and they kind of tried to both sound positive about it, but there's clearly some frustrations there. And I think it's, you know,
00:30:50
Speaker
I don't want to read too much into it, but Schmetzer has not quite seemed himself for much of the year. I would imagine a good deal of that is just the pressure of playing in this environment. I would imagine that, you know, there's all sorts of things going on, but I'm sure his contract status is part of that. And from the sound of it,
00:31:11
Speaker
I think that some degree of the negotiations may also be about him wanting to take care of his assistant coaches and acknowledging that his assistant coaches are sought after and if the Sounders can't take care of them to the degree that they need to be taken care of, that they're gonna lose some of these guys and that's gonna make Schmetzer's job harder and it's gonna hurt the Sounders' preparations or whatever. But yeah, I mean, I do think that there's some underlying pressures going on
00:31:39
Speaker
And, and I don't know if I can, I can really blame anyone. Sure. I would, I would love Schmetzer to be back, but I think the Sounders have some, you know, they can't just write them a blank check and say, you're going to be our head coach until you don't want to be our head coach anymore. Yeah. I think.
00:31:57
Speaker
I think too that there's a tendency, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone, to think that because sports are sort of like a distraction from all of the real world things that are going on, to think that the people involved in sports aren't equally susceptible to those pressures and everything like that. And so I think, I just feel like everybody is like a notch or two crankier than usual. So I would imagine that that probably doesn't help, but the contract situation to me is a frustrating one because
00:32:27
Speaker
I think that the general reaction is to take Schmetzer's side. And I completely understand that inclination because he's beloved. I think he's clearly earned probably a pretty substantial raise. But I do think that I have to imagine that it is not as cut and dried as it maybe seems that there are other factors involved in why it hasn't gotten done yet.
00:32:57
Speaker
I think that Brian probably recognizes that he is much more popular among the fan base than Garth is, um, and that maybe exerting some public pressure is a good way to get things sped up. Um, so that, that could be a factor as well. But, uh, I do think that if the team was winning that probably these things would be less, uh, of a public boiling point, I guess. Yeah.
00:33:26
Speaker
Okay, this next question, I think you should probably put on your sarcasm hats. SP The Ghost asked, what does Brian hate kids in rotation? I mean, he did rotate last night, but I think it's pretty fair to point out that he is not rotated very much and that he doesn't play kids very much as we were just talking about in the last segment. It's just the fact, I mean, whether or not he just doesn't trust the kids he has, whether or not he's just more prone to favoring veterans,
00:33:55
Speaker
whatever it may be, the facts are what they are. He has not rotated a lot, and when he does rotate, he's tending to play veteran backups rather than academy products. Yeah, and I don't know that there's a... I think if there's a reluctance to do it, it's...
00:34:15
Speaker
that these kids have essentially only, they've only been able to play in training. Like they haven't been able to get regular minutes at Tacoma, which is what you would normally be doing. And maybe you'd feel better about playing them in real matches like they'd have to do. And it's not like there's a lot of room for error. And so I kind of get it. I still think that the rotation's been unnecessarily tight.
00:34:45
Speaker
There's really only two or three guys out of the top, out of the starters who are getting regular minutes. You know, it's like Will Bruin, Shane O'Neal, and Jordy Dilham are really the only players that are getting, you know, minutes on a weekly basis. I guess you could maybe throw Alex Roldan into there.
00:35:10
Speaker
I mean, I don't know, maybe that's being too harsh. You can kind of, there's a Jovan Jones, Brad Smith, New Who kind of rotation to a certain degree too. But anyway, it's just like, it's been a tight rotation. And although I guess now that I'm saying out loud, I think part of the problem is that it's a rotation that seems tighter than it really is because so often
00:35:32
Speaker
they've used, they've had to use that rotation when the other guys aren't available, either through injury or for international call-ups or for whatever else. So it's like, they very rarely have had like a full bench of like, these are the guys we want to use. A great example of that is, you know, Miguel Obara and Roman Torres having been able to be on the bench the last two games because they've had various, you know, either sickness or personal issues that they had to deal with. And so,
00:36:02
Speaker
You know, I think that makes it seem maybe a little tighter than it really is. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I was kind of sticking with that. Dave Montgomery asks, how long until I see Justin Dillon on the back of a milk carton? Others? Yeah, I mean, that's one guy who I feel for. I don't think he's gotten
00:36:28
Speaker
if he's played at all like he's barely even making if he played it was I don't think he's played since MLS is back uh like since since like he may have played early on in those early season games but he hasn't I don't think he's played since then and that's that's tough that's really tough uh yeah he he played for the defiance in the last game before the pandemic
00:36:53
Speaker
Like that game that was played in front of an empty stadium. And, uh, and I, and I don't think he's played since then. Yeah, that's, it's tough too, but that phase of your career to be, to be in a situation like that, where it's probably make or break at this point. Like, am I going to do this or not? And, um, to just not even get any minutes at all has got to be pretty frustrating. He has, he has one game, five minutes, um, the season and that was.
00:37:23
Speaker
the 7th of March. So the Columbus game, he played five minutes and that was the last time he played. So yeah, that's tough. Yeah. I know you guys touched on this too earlier, but Narias24 asks, who's your starting right back? Alex Rodin and his new improved form or stay with Leardham?
00:37:45
Speaker
I, for me, I think it's still pretty clearly weird I'm I think he's one of the better. He's in the top third I would say right backs in the league I don't think Alex is quite there yet and I think there's something to be said for that kind of continuity with your core. I think it's an interesting question going into next season. I think that next year is a contract year for earlier I'm right.
00:38:05
Speaker
Or this, this might be a contract. I don't actually know. Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say, I just don't, I think he's probably out of contract this year. Cause I think he was, I think this year was an option year for him. And so my suspicion is that he's, he's out of contract after this year.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think it means that you can maybe have a conversation about whether or not you want to bring him back and go with Alex. And then maybe that's one of the positions you can adjust on the fly later in the season if you feel like you need to. Because I do think, I would rather have cleared him if he's under contract, but he's on a pretty big cap number. It's not insignificant. He's a Tampler. He's a Tampler. He's on the downside of his career, I think, most likely.
00:38:47
Speaker
I think if you can get them back at a pretty big discount, then maybe it's worth doing that. But I do think that having a credible backup in-house and not having to go out and recruit somebody is definitely makes that decision a little bit easier to make. But for now, still Kelvin for me. Okay, next question's from Alexila Los.
00:39:12
Speaker
Maybe you've heard of that guy before, Alexi Lawless. Is Jordan Morris, speaking of which he misspelled Jordan and he fixed it later on, but is Jordan Morris in your starting 11 if we're qualifying started today?
00:39:30
Speaker
I think he's in the contention. I think he goes opposite Christian Pulisic, whatever side you're going to put Pulisic on. I think that maybe means that he's your right mid. I think he's in contention for it.
00:39:51
Speaker
I'm trying to think who, I guess Gio Reyna is maybe in the conversation there. Sebastian Legette is maybe in the conversation there. I've seen him kind of propose as kind of a starting center mid for them. I think he's right there. I don't have a encyclopedic knowledge of the national team to be able to definitively say that. But the sense I get is he's competing with guys like Josh Sargent and Tim Wea.
00:40:21
Speaker
You know, and if that's, if that's who he's competing with, I think he's right there. Yeah. I mean, I think Raya, Rayna is probably the most credible competition. He's, he's taken a pretty big step forward. That is my understanding of these, um, I'd be lying if I said I'd watched a ton of, of anything that wasn't a team that I actively worked for this year. But, um, you know, I, I definitely think that he has become sort of a regular and that certainly makes him work. Um,
00:40:50
Speaker
more of a threat, I'd say, than somebody like Sargent or way of his struggling to play in time. Um, but I, I, he's, he's definitely given for ulcers tendencies towards sticking with, with players that he trusts. Um, I think that that probably gives them something of an edge there. Um, cause he has, I mean, he's as much as some people hate to hear it, he has performed extremely well with the national team. Um, when he's been called on to do so, and he's played very well in league play this year. So.
00:41:19
Speaker
Um, is he going to beat out GRA not two years from now? Probably not. He stays on the path. Yeah. You know, he has and that's, that's fine. I mean, I want the best players playing for the national team, but, um, despite what some people on Twitter might think, um, but you know, I think for now, that's, that's his spot to lose. I suspect that he will at some point, but, but for now, I think he's probably the guy.
00:41:46
Speaker
Okay, Edefay asks, is Uno used to choose the starting center back pairing?
00:41:54
Speaker
It's, I don't know, man. I mean, it's, it's get into it. Yeah. I think Shane O'Neill's bad. Um, I hate, he seems like a great guy. Uh, he played pretty well earlier in the season. He has not played well since then. I don't understand how he's continuing to get starters minutes. I think it's, it's perplexing to me. Um, I understand that you have to rotate and that, you know, you can't have Ariaga, Ariaga has had national team.
00:42:23
Speaker
call-ups, so he obviously can't play every game. I think GMR in O'Neill is a decent-ish center-back pairing. I think that GMR sort of makes up for the deficiencies in O'Neill's game a little bit to the point where it's not as bad. O'Neill in Ariaga is
00:42:43
Speaker
horrifying to watch because as much as I love Ariaga, I think he's a great player. I think he's going to be a very good center back for years to come. He does interesting things sometimes and so does Shane O'Neal. So, you know, I would like to see them improve that spot going into next season. But I do think, I mean, ultimately a lot of Shane O'Neal's minutes this year have come when Ariaga has been unavailable.
00:43:12
Speaker
and Jamar can't play every single game twice a week. So it is what it is. But it's unfortunate that the sounders were not able to sort of get a better sense of what O'Neill's actual talent level was before they were able to make another signing. That would be my position on that. Yeah, that's pretty fair, I think. I'm a little less critical of
00:43:39
Speaker
O'Neill's overall quality. I think he has been fine for the most part, but yeah, I don't see how he can start with a healthy Ariaga and Jamar. I understand early in the season that there was some understandable desire to give Ariaga maybe a rest because he,
00:44:08
Speaker
just looked really bad for a couple of weeks. But he's not been bad recently. And I would like to think that it's a very clear-cut decision that Ariaga and Jaymar are your starters in a must-win game.
00:44:24
Speaker
Yeah. I think if O'Neill is your fourth center back, you're in very good shape. Um, I think when he's getting heavy rotational minutes, it's not, it's not ideal. And I think he was probably brought in to be more of a fourth center back type than to get heavy rotational minutes. So it's unfortunate. Okay. Uh, Joe Tobias and asks the sounders have been at their tacking best in quick transition, but the team plays a consistent possession style. How do you maximize both?
00:44:58
Speaker
I mean, I think this is the equation that Schmetzer is constantly trying to solve, and it's not an easy one. I think it's like quicker decisions, essentially.
00:45:14
Speaker
I think I can understand how maybe in the film room it can feel a little frustrating because on one hand he's saying, you got to play faster. But on the other hand, he's saying, you got to be patient. And I think if you break it down, it actually makes sense. He's saying that the decisions have to be made faster, but you still have to look for the right option.
00:45:37
Speaker
And I think what he's saying is that those two things sometimes don't work in tandem for the Sounders. And playing quickly, getting out in transition are all good things, but you also can't just rush the game.
00:45:53
Speaker
know, I guess that's, that's, that's kind of where you go from being a good team to a great team, right? Is like the great teams do find that balance and they do consistently find good opportunities while not just playing the ball back. And if you see, you know, you watch the Sounders play at their best when they were, you know, at the height of this season and they would be stringing 20
00:46:16
Speaker
you know, 15, 20 passes together in attacking sequences where they would sometimes have to reset all the way back to Stephen Fry. And, but the ball was moving constantly and there was a lot of quick decisions, but they weren't forcing anything at the same time. And I think that's kind of what he's talking about is you play quickly, but you don't force things that aren't there. Yeah. And I think,
00:46:41
Speaker
that is a really tough needle to thread. And I think that you also have to account for the short turnover, the congestion, and just the minutes that these guys are having to play, where you're probably are going to play a slightly more up-tempo style that's better suited to the team.
00:47:01
Speaker
in ordinary circumstances, but you can't really do that when you have to play twice a week. And when you're, when you're having so many of your key players having to go 90 minutes twice a week, you know, you have to, you have to balance how do we play in an ideal world versus how do we get to the end of the season without people's legs falling off. Um, and so that makes an already pretty tricky balance, even trickier. Um, and I think, you know, if you look at teams that over the past few years have had success in making that
Strategic Play Style Balance
00:47:28
Speaker
that very aggressive, high tempo, high pressing sort of style their homework. They're underperforming this year. Atlanta, LA, both underperforming.
00:47:39
Speaker
pretty, pretty significantly, I think. So it's, it is like everything else. It is figuring out that balance. There are added factors this year that aren't present in most normal seasons. Um, but I also think that it's one of those weird things where it's a cross purposes where from an attacking perspective, having that quick transition play getting out on the break is maybe really good for your, your team from in the attacking phase, but it's maybe better with the way the defense tends to look.
00:48:08
Speaker
to hold a little more possession and use offense defense. So it's tricky, but I think Jeremiah that you're right that it is about executing quickly, not necessarily playing so quickly because you can play a very possession or patient possession heavy style that looks like you're flying on the transition if you're making the right decisions and making them quickly and being aggressive without being reckless.
00:48:38
Speaker
Like that goal they scored last night. Exactly. Yeah, actually, that's a good, that's a great example. Yeah, because that goal, I mean, if you look at just the goal highlights, that goal looks like it's coming from a counter attack, but realistically, it wasn't. It was just coming from really effective breakout play from the midfield. Yozaboni. Yozaboni.
00:49:02
Speaker
Are we more likely to win with offense or lock down the defense going forward? Will the team break out of this funk in time for the postseason? I think we know the answer to that. This team can't I don't think for extended periods of time bunker and I just it's not in their DNA. They're just not good at it. It's not.
00:49:20
Speaker
And I think the defenders, the deficiencies defensively that they have are much more easily exploitable when they're sort of in a situation like that. I think you're going to see either Ariaga or O'Neill getting picked on in situations like that. So I think they have to be, I think they have to be attacking and they've managed to be very attacking and also play good defensively at times of season. They just have to get back to their best.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah, this is not a, I don't see a way to a championship where you're asking a back line of Jay Mar and Ariaga with Lirdham and, you know, New Who or Brad Smith and a midfield of Jau Paulo and Gustav Svensson as just being sort of bunkered in. Like that's just not, that's not your winning, that's not your winning hand.
00:50:17
Speaker
And just hoping to catch Morris in transition with Rui Diaz and then work a two-man game or something. I don't think that's gonna happen. Before we move to the next question, can we just quickly talk about how Jimmy Madranda was a little bit surprised last night?
00:50:42
Speaker
Yeah, that was a little bit of a surprise. We didn't see a lot of him, but he came with some energy. He made one nice play to keep a ball alive in the corner there that I feel like led to a scoring chance.
00:51:01
Speaker
But yeah, I have no idea what to expect from him. I don't think he's gonna play a huge role, but potentially that's an interesting piece to add, and it'll be interesting to see how he's used down the stretch, or in the playoffs, potentially. Where's the stretch? It was very funny that when they announced Medrano was being subbed down, I just assumed it was for the galaxy, because I forgot that we traded for him.
00:51:29
Speaker
It was under the impression that he was sort of injured and that wasn't going to play at all. Well, he hasn't played at all since early in March. And it was unclear when the Sounders got him if that was purely because of an injury or what it was. But yeah, I was a little surprised to see him play for sure.
00:51:54
Speaker
Cool, last question then, move on. Nikita Banana asks, what happens if you combine the majesty of Christian's eyebrows with the power of Alex's mustache? Does Captain Planet appear? That's a child of the 80s reference there. That's a very deep cut. Yeah, Captain Planet was probably only in the air for like a year or two, right?
00:52:24
Speaker
I guess it's probably lived on in, in, in syndication. Yeah. I mean, like I, I watched it and my sister watched it and she's six years older than me, but I mean it. So closer to my age. I don't, I don't know if they really, like, did they used to make multiple seasons of kids shows or did they just like put the same six episodes on for 20 years in a row?
00:52:45
Speaker
You know, it's a great question. They were on for six seasons, by the way, 113 episodes. So that's like, that would have made sense. She could have watched it when she was like 10 and then it was a little bit on when I was 10. So there we go. Yeah. Um.
00:53:00
Speaker
I got nothing on that, but one of the things I did notice is that when Camp opened, Alex Roldon had like this shaggy ass haircut and was kind of unkempt and I feel like that was kind of how he was last year too, is he had kind of adopted this almost bohemian look.
00:53:18
Speaker
And as he's become a more regular part of the team, he's cleaned up his hair a lot. And he's got this really clean mustache. And all of a sudden, he's all cleaned up and all business. And it's an interesting physical transformation as well as a playing transformation.
00:53:40
Speaker
It looks good. It's a handsome family. I just assumed that Christian must have had a sit down and talk with him and said, look, you're representing Rainer Beach. Let's look like it. Right. That's it.
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah, well, thanks to our sponsor, Full Poll Wines, of course. I actually just picked up a case of wine from them to distribute to some of my wife's coworkers at Seattle Children's Hospital. So shout out to Full Poll for helping make that happen. But yeah, this is gonna be a,
00:54:21
Speaker
an interesting end of the season. I'm sure we will, I'm sure we'll come to you. We'll try to do an episode before the playoffs and after the season finale. And then we'll see how it goes from there. But yeah, thanks for everything. Thanks for listening. Thanks to
00:54:43
Speaker
I don't know. It's taken with us through this season. I know it hasn't been normal. We haven't been recording as regularly as we would have liked, but thanks for sticking it out with us. I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Aaron Campo and Likit. This is No Sadi at Dis. And remember, you will never yawn alone.
00:55:07
Speaker
Green Douglas Square where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:55:44
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!