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Nos Audietis, Episode 317: MLS went and did it
57 Plays5 years ago
There were plenty of times when it seemed like the 2020 season was completely lost, but last week MLS announced that their long-rumored summer tournament would happen. On Thursday, they even released the draw. So, yeah, this is really happening.
Aaron and Jeremiah spend most of the first segment discussing the pros and cons of going forward with the tournament. While both still have significant reservations, they also admit that they’ll almost certainly be very interested in watching it. Live soccer, after all, beats no soccer.
As usual, they also take question from readers. Enjoy.
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: Full Pool Wines' Book Release
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 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 Diaz 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 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.
Podcast Delay: Black Lives Matter and Self-Education
00:01:36
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of NOS Adiades. This is episode 317 and we're recording on June, Thursday, June 11th.
00:01:47
Speaker
But you'll probably be listening to this on Saturday, June 13th, because in
00:01:55
Speaker
Out of respect to the general strike that Black Lives Matter Seattle King County has called, we will not be publishing this on Friday. I myself am going to be refraining from work and trying to educate myself and doing some things along those lines to be a better ally, frankly, and hopefully
00:02:20
Speaker
If you didn't do the general strike you at least understand, but I would love to think that a lot of our listeners participated in that, maybe went to a march or something along those lines.
00:02:33
Speaker
but we did feel it important to record because I should say our sponsors are sponsor is a football wines and I'm joined by Aaron Campo. I don't know. I'm like freeze. I'm like freestyle in it. I'm all over
Mixed Emotions: MLS Tournament and COVID-19 Concerns
00:02:48
Speaker
the place. This is the world of COVID now. But anyway, the reason we wanted to record is because there was actual news this week in the world of the sounders and
00:02:59
Speaker
We found out that we got an actual schedule for not an actual schedule we have actual games on the schedule we don't know exactly when the centers are gonna play but we found out that they we found out their draw for the MLS is back tournament which is quite the name.
00:03:15
Speaker
and uh and we're gonna actually have games to be talking about in about uh about a month or so and that's kind of exciting i don't know it's i i think we still probably both have somewhat mixed emotions but aaron how are you feeling about all this this was like the clunkiest intro i think i've ever done uh but what do you think about all this stuff
00:03:37
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I mean, I think, I don't think my opinion has changed too much about this tournament. I, if anything, I would say that I'm less excited about it tonight than I was in the past, but, um, I mean, it's happening right at this point and, and God knows I need something to do. So, um, you know, all, all in, I'm sure that I will enjoy it more than whatever else I would be doing.
00:04:01
Speaker
otherwise, once it's started. But I still think it's a terrible idea. It does not seem like they have planned for the important parts of this at all. One of the things that I heard, I think this might have been you personally paraphrasing, but it was basically like, well, you know, we have plans in place for the people that the players and the staff will come in contact with in the hotel and things like that. But it's not like we're going to be testing the bus drivers.
00:04:29
Speaker
And to me, that suggests that they have no fucking idea what they're doing because one of the primary ways that
00:04:39
Speaker
that this spreads is by sharing space with people inside, which I think a bus qualifies as inside. It can pass through HVAC systems, and that's been proven. Buses in Orlando, Florida, I would imagine, are air conditioned, I would hope.
00:05:01
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, it just suggests that they are not paying attention to the right things to me. I think it's almost inevitable that somebody's going to get sick. Cases in Florida are, are going up at a pretty alarming clip. So, uh, terrible idea on the record of saying that, but you know, until somebody gets sick and they have to call it off, I'll enjoy it. I'm sure. Yeah. Uh, I think that you have some very fair concerns and I think I was somewhat.
00:05:31
Speaker
You know, I think like one of the big concerns about this tournament and these tournaments was kind of like the testing availability. And I think that I'm at the point now where I, I think it's fair to say that
00:05:46
Speaker
tests are available. And so I know one of the concerns early on was like, man, we're taking tests from normal people and we're giving them to athletes. That doesn't seem like a great use of all these tests. It seems to me that the testing is available. It's just a capacity issue of how many tests can be processed and how many people are actually seeking out to getting them. So that part
Safety Protocols: Testing and Quarantine Measures
00:06:10
Speaker
I feel a little bit better about than I did originally.
00:06:12
Speaker
I will say that I feel better about the original plan, which was supposed to be as long as 10 weeks. And this tournament's actually going to be no longer than six weeks. Like teams aren't, players aren't going to be there any longer than six weeks. And some teams are going to probably be there closer to three weeks, which is I think a much more palpable or palatable, palatable length of time. And.
00:06:40
Speaker
And so I feel better in those ways. And I do think that the number of the way that they're doing this testing, I think is going to keep from a widespread outbreak, they are, you know, testing them before they leave, they're testing them right after they leave, they're going to be
00:06:59
Speaker
essentially the teams are going to be quarantined together for the first week and then they're going to be doing testing every other day for the first two weeks and then they're going to be doing testing before every game after that. So there's a lot of testing going on when you're doing that much testing you should be able to keep the spread from getting too far out of control
00:07:21
Speaker
I'm sure I think there's a pretty good chance that someone will get sick while they're there and maybe a few people will get sick while they're there. But I don't think the nightmare scenario where you have the entire league essentially stuck in Orlando in a cruise ship scenario is probably not going to come to pass. But you're right. One of the big holes in the bubble, so to speak, is the hotel staff and the drivers and all those kinds of things.
00:07:50
Speaker
And by the sound of it, they're not doing a whole lot to to like physically keep them like they're not going to be those people. The people that are working at the hotel are not going to be quarantined. They're probably not going to be tested on any kind of regular basis. And and so they're really relying on those
00:08:14
Speaker
the hotel staff to just be you know kind of like practicing the best hygiene they can and wearing face masks and you know I don't know maybe they're gonna have the driver in some sort of hermetically sealed
00:08:32
Speaker
driver's seat area like I don't know how they're gonna do that but I suppose there's ways but man that just feels like they're they are kind of playing with fire and and they're gonna be in a community where there's pretty widespread you know viruses is still spreading so yeah I mean I think it's gonna be challenges and all that said I I get the sense that once they start playing these games I'm gonna want to watch them
Critique of MLS Decisions and Capitalism's Role
00:09:01
Speaker
And so it's like I get it like I don't know that I feel like this is a great idea, but I also think I'm going to be kind of like I think the format of the tournament is intriguing. You know, they're going to be playing.
00:09:16
Speaker
Essentially, it's like a mini World Cup where the Sounders are in a three a four team group and then the top two teams Are gonna advance out of that group and they're gonna play around a 16 and it could be a lot of fun I mean, they're gonna have games on every day. There's gonna be three got three games. I guess almost every day and You know, it'll be it'll be a fun ride. I suppose Yeah, I mean I think that you've kind of hit the problem with
00:09:44
Speaker
all of this just maybe capitalism or society in general is that we both agree that it's a pretty bad idea and we both are absolutely going to watch it. I mean, you know, what else is there to say? I mean, and like partially, you know, at some point, I guess we have to take some risk to keep things
00:10:05
Speaker
moving as a society, I don't know. I think, I mean, MLS is our problematic fave. I don't think that this is us criticizing the league as an institution is really anything new. I don't like most of the people making decisions or in power. I think they're objectively bad people.
00:10:28
Speaker
Most, not all, obviously. There are obviously some good people involved, but most of them just want to make money and keep making money for a long time.
00:10:37
Speaker
you know, 80% of what they're concerned about. Um, and I'm going to continue to give them my money because I'm a rude and that's just, that's kind of how it goes. You know, um, I've got to have some kind of distraction and something to pay attention to. So, um, yeah, I gotta get that dopamine still flowing, right? Pretty much. Pretty much so. And like, I mean, obviously it's going to be good to see the team again. Um, I, I don't.
00:11:02
Speaker
I don't, it's really hard for me to find a way to contextualize this, this competition. Like it's part of the, part of the regular season, but I'm really skeptical the regular season is actually going to happen. Um, it's, it's not, you know, like the winning team is not going to win the MLS cup. Um, it, like it feels like halfway between like the U S open cup and those pre-season tournaments that teams play in during the middle of the season, you know?
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, those well, no, not even those like the ones with like the International Champions Cup or whatever, you know, with like Real Madrid and Liverpool and DC United for some reason. It feels like halfway between that and like, you know, Silicon Cup to me. I think the soccer is going to be pretty not great.
00:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's that's the thing, right? I mean, these guys have been away from soccer for like, they won't have played a game. The last time they played was on March 7th, I think, right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, the March 7th. And they're not going to play again until July 8th. I mean, that's a solid four month break. Like, right.
00:12:13
Speaker
That's a really long time to be away. Like that's not more than an off season. It's more than an off season. Exactly. And they had just started their season. Like that's the thing is that it was like, they were still kind of in preseason form when they, when, when this all happened. I mean, the centers had played four games.
00:12:33
Speaker
But, you know, they were all pretty close together. Right. And I think like if you, if you watch the first couple rounds of Bundesliga after they reopened, it was not good relative to the quality of the league, typically. And that's a much better league with a much shorter break. So it's going to be, you know, it's going to be interesting to see, but that might make for fun games. Who knows?
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah, um, it might, it might make for fun games and it might make for, you know, I, you know, they're going to have these five subs, which I guess is a, you know, it's good that they are going to have the five subs. Uh, they're going to be playing. What are the similar rule? I guess they're going to have VAR, which I don't know if that's good or bad, but, um,
00:13:23
Speaker
It's going to be an interesting tournament. And I really do hope, like I really genuinely hope that they're able to come back and have something like a regular season and, you know,
00:13:41
Speaker
But you're right. Like I think you probably, like the thing, I think the, probably the biggest motivating factor for most of these teams is going to be the prospect that this is all they have for, for the season and that the winner of this is going to be maybe not the literal MLS cup champion, but they're going to be the defacto MLS champion. Uh, and I don't know, in some ways it might even be more.
00:14:08
Speaker
more legitimate than the MLS Cup champion. I don't know if that's, like, it'll be interesting to see how much they actually play. And because it's like, once you start the regular season, you know, like, let's just say in a perfect world, they pick up right where this tournament leaves off. And like the first week into September, they're playing games or, you know, late August, they're playing games at home stadiums.
00:14:35
Speaker
Like do we, what's the, like, what's the most number of games they can realistically play? Like maybe seven, like, can they play a half season? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I mean, I think honestly, the odds that they're going to have to, if they even do start to play regular games, that they have to cancel the season because of the second wave hitting is, you know, pretty likely. Um, so I don't know. Um,
00:15:02
Speaker
It's just weird, man. It's super weird. I think everybody knows it's weird. I think everybody knows. I think that's the thing is like, it's this huge elephant of the room of it's like, well, we kind of have to do something, right? Like we were allowed to do this. Everybody's bored. We might as well do it. And everybody knows it's kind of shitty and everybody knows it's kind of doomed to fail. Like, I don't know. It's just,
00:15:27
Speaker
It's weird, but, you know, I mean, well, let's let's let's focus on the fact that it is happening. Sure. The sounders are where they had an actual draw today. I don't know. Did you watch it? Did you watch? Did you watch? No, no, it was it was kind of comical, like instead of having like a traditional draw where they just kind of have a a bowl and they pull out, they pull out ping pong bowls and open them up and
00:15:57
Speaker
That's what you got. They had this weird thing where they had all the ping pong balls out and then the representatives from each team picked a ping pong ball. And they opened up the ping pong ball and that was who you drew. And it was like one of these things where if they wanted to fix it, they absolutely could have very easily. And they pretty clearly wanted to fix it.
00:16:25
Speaker
I mean they and so it was like they did this weird thing where like a couple hours before the draw they just announced that oh actually the first game is gonna be it are gonna be Orlando and Miami FC or inner Miami and
00:16:40
Speaker
Well, what, where did this come from? And so like inner Miami just got plopped into Orlando's group. And, and then of course the way that the groups, especially in the Eastern conference played out, we're like, well, these are all like the most obvious match-ups that if you were going to fix it, this is how you'd set it up.
00:16:58
Speaker
And so it felt very much like the sounders were destined to be in the same group as the Portland Timbers, especially after LAFC and LA Galaxy got into the same group. And lo and behold,
00:17:12
Speaker
The Saunders did not end up in the same group as the Timbers, which now makes me think that maybe it wasn't fixed and it was all just ridiculous on a normal ridiculous level. But the Saunders ended up in a group with the Vancouver Whitecaps, FC Dallas, and the San Jose Earthquakes.
00:17:28
Speaker
which aren't, you know, it's like all their secondary rivals are in the group. You know, the Sounders have faced Dallas four times in the last six years in the playoffs. They obviously have had some memorable games with the earthquakes and they play the very, very hotly anticipated Heritage Cup with them. And then, of course, there's the third wheel of Cascadia Cup. What do you make of that group, Aaron?
Sounders' Group Dynamics and Historical Rivalries
00:17:54
Speaker
I mean, I think
00:17:56
Speaker
that the Sounders are clearly the best team in that group. FC Dallas I think is pretty good. It's been so long since the op season that I don't remember if they made a lot of significant changes, but it doesn't feel like they did.
00:18:12
Speaker
No, they did. I think they're going to end up losing their goalkeeper, though, because Jesse, everyone's favorite goalkeeper in Seattle got busted for domestic violence, which is not something to joke about. But I assume that means he's not going to be available for this tournament because that's a.
00:18:30
Speaker
That seems extremely likely. I think that if you get arrested for something involving domestic violence or drugs, the odds of you coming back anytime soon are pretty low. It's pretty awful details. That is true, although he frankly is not very good, so I don't know
00:18:53
Speaker
just in pure on field turns how much worse that makes them. But they're, you know, I think they're pretty. Yeah, I mean, he's almost certainly better than whoever they're replacing them with, I guess it's fair to say. So I guess that's
00:19:10
Speaker
I don't want to say beneficial, but I guess in terms of on the field, maybe it is. Um, but otherwise, you know, I think they're like the FC Dallas team that has existed in this, basically this template and form for as long as I can remember where they're pretty good. Um, they're not as good as they probably should be. Um, they have a bunch of solid players and no real superstars. Um, but they, you know, are, are going to play pretty.
00:19:38
Speaker
pretty well most likely.
00:19:41
Speaker
Vancouver is Vancouver. They are a loaf of white bread. Nothing interesting about them at all. And, you know, San Jose is, I think, kind of the wild card. I'd be lying if I said that I'd watched them so far this year, but I mean, you know, last year they were an interesting team, I think it's fair to say. Certainly not as good as a lot of the pundits wanted everyone to believe, but definitely much better than they had been in the past. Certainly more fun to watch. Certainly
00:20:10
Speaker
more interesting to watch not only than they have been in the past, but frankly than most MLS teams were. And I don't think there's any reason to think that they aren't going to improve pretty significantly. So they could be a team that gives the Sounders a run for their money in this group. But I do think that the Sounders are the pretty clear favorites. I mean, I think that if
00:20:33
Speaker
If you were going into a playoff series with any of these teams, or I guess not series anymore, if you were playing any of these teams in the playoffs, you know, you would expect to beat them pretty handily. Yeah, I think that's a fair way of putting it. And I think if you also look at the other two groups in the Western Conference, one of them, you know, the, the timbers, I think ended up in the, in the toughest group. That's LAFC, LA Galaxy, timbers, and oh man.
00:21:03
Speaker
Now I need to pull up the draw so that I'm reminded of what everyone was doing. But yeah, I mean, there's, I think that that's a pretty tough group, even if just by those three teams. And then the other group was Minnesota sporting Real Salt Lake. And gosh, it was the other one. I can't, I can't even remember who the MLS teams are anymore, honestly.
00:21:33
Speaker
No. All right. So the three groups were, what do we got here? Okay. So Seattle, Dallas, Vancouver, San Jose, RSL, Kansas City, Colorado was the other one in Minnesota, then Houston's the fourth team in the LASC group.
00:21:56
Speaker
each of those teams have. Well, I don't know. I guess, sleepily, that RSL group is pretty evenly matched. There's no one standout team in it, but Colorado finished last year really strong, Minnesota finished last year really strong, Kansas City was pretty good last year, although they've already lost Felipe Gutierrez, which is a pretty big blow to them.
00:22:17
Speaker
and then RSL, which I was shocked. I was shocked to realize that RSL was the third seed in the Western Conference last year. Like that blew me away. It's legitimately pretty shocking, I would say. Yeah, I was definitely surprised by that one.
00:22:36
Speaker
And then you have a six team group in the Eastern Conference that was, like I said, Orlando and Miami, and then New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Nashville.
Easiest Group? Sounders' Competition Analysis
00:22:47
Speaker
And then you got Toronto, New England, Montreal, DC, and Atlanta, Cincinnati, Red Bulls and Columbus. So I don't know, I think maybe you can argue that of all the groups, the sounders,
00:22:59
Speaker
or maybe in the softest group. Like they don't have an overly bad team in their group, but they don't have, aside from the sounders, I don't think any of those teams are.
00:23:11
Speaker
Like the elite teams in the league. Um, yeah, that seems, that seems like a pretty accurate assessment. Um, I did enjoy merit Paulson finding a way to bitch and be, um, have a persecution complex about this of all things, just the biggest, it was, it was such a weird, it was also a really weird, uh, way that he.
00:23:35
Speaker
he worded it it was like this kind of sarcastic thing of oh we got a cupcake group and the sounders are in such a tough group it's like what what are you going through yeah he's a uh real piece of shit i think it's fair to say at this point um but like i i know it's easy for me to say that uh just as a sounders fan that he's recently blocked on twitter and everything but like
00:24:04
Speaker
Oh, recently? Yeah, he blocked me on Saturday, I think it was, because he had that thread where a bunch of Timbers fans and folks from Timbers Army were telling him to use his position of influence and power and privilege to influence positive change and to confront the realities of where his family's money likely came from and how it probably involved exploitation. And he got real pissed at that.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised that he was like, I would think like, man, your dad was Hank Paulson is Hank Paulson. Like, how can you sit here and say like, he got all his money through legitimate like, like how, how
00:24:47
Speaker
Like, it's okay, dude. You can just own it. Right. I mean, I think that it is impossible to have that level of generational inherited wealth.
00:25:05
Speaker
without having some of that money coming from fairly evil places. It's not like Hank was a self-made man or anything. Let's be real here. I don't know, man.
00:25:24
Speaker
I don't know. I really hate that. I really hate that guy. I think I called him soccer Elon once and that seems very like he just has those vibes of like, he refuses to confront what he actually is. Um, and, and it makes them just even more insufferable than people that are just like openly evil, but I digress. Um, at any rate, uh, yeah, finding a way to be, um,
00:25:52
Speaker
to be the victim in this bullshit tournament is pretty incredible to me. Yeah, you got to look pretty hard to define. I mean, it's like everyone's coming into this thing. I think it's such a hard tournament to handicap.
00:26:08
Speaker
Um, like I've heard people suggest that really the advantage is going to go to the team. That's the most motivated. Like there's no other way to, I think that's a very fair way of putting it. Like if you come into this thing and you feel like you are.
00:26:25
Speaker
you got your head straight, you've got this clear goal. Those are the teams that I think are going to do well because you can argue that young players are better, you can argue that veteran players are better, you can come up with all these things, but I don't know that
00:26:42
Speaker
any of that really holds as much water as which team comes in with the singular goal of winning this thing, right? And I've got to imagine that that motivation
00:26:57
Speaker
is, is got to be higher for teams that have like a chip on their shoulder. Right. Like I'm not, I don't think the sounders are capable of coasting. Like I just don't think that they have that in their identity, but I think it's probably harder to get up for this than it is. If you're a team, like maybe San Jose, um, I think is a great example because like that's their whole thing is trying harder than everybody, you know, it's how their play, it's how their coach, that's how the team has been built. Um,
00:27:25
Speaker
And in a league where the margins are already pretty thin talent wise, I think that that can make a huge difference in a competition like this, where things can just be kind of flukey. As an aside, I do think it's kind of funny that we're finally getting the playoff system that we've been hoping for for years.
00:27:40
Speaker
That is, you know, I thought about that too. I thought about that too. It is a funny thing that it's like, we've been sitting here pining for this almost exact, uh, like pretty close to me, not this exact format, but like pretty close to this format. And, and here we are right here with the, with the, with this exactly how it is. Um, you know, especially, you know, it would be interesting to see if like the league is like, you know, there's something here.
00:28:10
Speaker
Because you figure you cut it in half and all of a sudden it's pretty intriguing. Yeah.
00:28:16
Speaker
No, it's true. It's true. It's just another monkey paw kind of thing. I would say that makes me think that we have, it's our fault that all of this has happened. Right. Right. Cause it really does seem like there have been like a bunch of things like this where we were like, ah, well, you know, we've kind of been talking about how it would be nice if this would happen for a long time, just not right circumstances. Sorry, everybody.
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, this is our fault, our fault, but, um, yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be, I do, I really do think it's an intriguing format. And I think that it presents some interesting match-ups and I don't know, like.
00:28:57
Speaker
It'll be fun to not worry about other things for a while and it'll be fun to actually care about who wins games. What's it, I guess, Aston Villa is going to play on Wednesday, right? Yeah, I think so, which is wild. They played two friendlies yesterday, I think.
00:29:19
Speaker
So that was kind of fun to see, I guess. Um, it's just, it's weird because the stakes are so high because they're finishing the season. Um, like they, they don't have like this nothing tournament. Nobody cares about, um, like this is a huge, uh, you know, a huge deal for them. Um, and.
Impact of Empty Stadiums on Game Experience
00:29:41
Speaker
Like, I feel like they are probably one of the teams whose home field advantage is most important and they're not going to have that. Um, so yeah, I mean, they were definitely one of the clubs that was not in favor of, of restarting the season. Um, Oh really? Why? Because they didn't want to play in empty stadiums. Oh, they just don't want to be relegated. Like, they were thinking that if they didn't restart the season, they can have relegation. More or less. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:10
Speaker
So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see how that all shakes out, but it's definitely going to be weird. I think this whole thing in Orlando is so surreal that
00:30:24
Speaker
It feels like it feels removed in a weird way. It just doesn't feel like the sounders are playing in a tournament. It just feels to me like the Desert Diamond Copper or something, right? But they're taking it more seriously. And then the Bundesliga. I like the Bundesliga. I enjoy watching the Bundesliga. It's been great to have it back. I have no emotional investment in it. So seeing teams play in empty stadiums and all that doesn't
00:30:54
Speaker
it doesn't hit any strange chords. Seeing villa playing at an empty villa park is going to be very weird. That's going to be because that is such a huge part of the emotional push and pull of the games and stuff. It's going to be very weird. I'm excited to have it back and I feel like the UK has done a slightly better job than we have, so maybe it's not as bad an idea.
00:31:17
Speaker
Um, although I guess I would put the emphasis on slightly there. Um, but it's going to be, it's definitely going to be surreal. I would say is pretty clear. Yeah, it's, it's, you know, I, I guess Germany seems like they've actually done an okay job handling this. And so I guess that, and it's, and it's been interesting to see how the evolution of another elite, you know, like
00:31:47
Speaker
I know early on there was a lot of debate over the pumped in crowd noise. Yeah. And I don't, I mean, I, I guess from a viewer's standpoint, I, I do get it. Like it. Like they've actually done a pretty good job of making the noise seem relevant, which is kind of funny. Um, but it also feels very cheap. So yeah, I hate, I hate it, man. I don't like.
00:32:14
Speaker
I understand the desire to give people that little dose of, we know that you're watching this as a distraction, so we don't want you to be constantly reminded that it's different and we want it to feel like it would. But I think sometimes it's okay to just confront reality. Yeah.
00:32:36
Speaker
I'm sure they're gonna pump in noise for the for this tournament, but I don't I don't think it's gonna like to me I don't think it's gonna play as well as it does in in Germany or even in England because they're not gonna be in real stadiums, right? And so it's gonna feel much more artificial I think Yeah, I I would agree with that I think and I just
00:33:06
Speaker
Honestly, I don't trust MLS to do anything and not be as tacky as possible about it. Um, that's, that's probably overly harsh, but, um, like it's an already very tacky concept and I feel like MLS is going to do it much worse than, than other.
00:33:22
Speaker
teams or other leagues have done. So we'll see. I don't know. I mean, I think there's a very good chance of watching games with the sound off anyway, so it's probably not a big deal. But I mean, like to me, it's a missed opportunity to like have this unique experience of being able to hear the players on the field and hearing the coaches and hearing that communication. Honestly, that's probably part of why they want the noise so that you don't hear the players, you know, drop enough bombs every 10 seconds. Yelling at each other for why aren't you more fit?
00:33:53
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Like, I mean, cause like, I'm sure that like players, like dudes that, that love each other and our teammates and good friends say some just awful things to each other on the field during games and they don't want people here or not. Maybe I don't know. But, um, yeah, so I, I dunno, I think, but I think it would be cool to have that experience. Cause like, when else are you going to get that, you know, like in, in 2022 or whenever things are kind of back to normal, um, you know,
00:34:20
Speaker
people are going to be back in the stadiums and it's going to be loud again. This is like this one weird little window where we have the opportunity to have this different and fairly novel experience. I say we kind of embrace that, but I'm obviously not making that decision.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is probably a good place to call it a segment. We're going to come back. You guys actually sent us quite a few questions, so we're going to answer some of those. But you're listening to NOS Adietes.
00:34:56
Speaker
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00:35:15
Speaker
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00:35:37
Speaker
Welcome back to another segment. I'm a mess today. We have questions, Aaron. We do. I'll go ahead and ask you the first one. How about that? That sounds great. This one's from Andy Fretwell. He says, can y'all do a quick recap of who's on the team? I forget. Just kidding. Yeah, I mean, it is probably worth it.
00:36:04
Speaker
just kidding aside, it's worth reminding everyone, the sounders have not actually played a game this year with their full roster. They signed Jiao Paulo, we've seen him, they signed
00:36:22
Speaker
Jamar Gomez Andrade we've seen him but we haven't seen him extensively. Those are the two most notable new players We heard rumors that they're gonna be not we didn't hear rumors We were told they were gonna sign probably two more players. I assume from the defiance We can kind of make guesses. I would imagine it's two of Josh attention Sam Rogers Chris Hagart and
00:36:49
Speaker
I'm blanking. Shannon Hopio, I would imagine two of those players are going to sign. But we haven't actually seen Nico Lidero play this year. We haven't seen Will Bruin play in almost an entire calendar year. Maybe even more than a calendar year. When did he get hurt? No, I mean, it was last year, so it wouldn't be a calendar year, I don't think.
00:37:15
Speaker
I think he got hurt around this time last year, but in any case, so we haven't seen either one of them play. And are there any other newish players that I'm forgetting about?
00:37:26
Speaker
Miguel Abara, I think is the only, Shane O'Neill who has been very good. Yeah, good point. Limited action. And then I think, you know, obviously there are players that left, which like I was like in my head, like Kim Ki-hee still plays for the team, you know, like Brad Smith still plays for the team. So that'll be interesting, but
00:37:49
Speaker
Um, yeah. And I did see actually a rumor and I think it was like newer within the hour kind of rumor that Garth Lagerwey said that he might still have some money to spend. So. Well, yeah, that was, yeah, I was, I think, I think I was in the interview where that was kind of brought up. Okay. So maybe it was Brian, Brian Schmetzer basically said, uh, we think Garth will figure out a way to get us a player if we need one. Well, that's not as exciting then.
00:38:18
Speaker
No. So, yeah, I don't know. All right.
New Sounders Players: Joao Paulo's Potential
00:38:26
Speaker
Well, so next one is kind of along the same lines and it's from Bill Jones TRPT, Bill Jones Trumpet. Can you remind us how excited we should be that Joao Paulo plays in Rave Green? Yeah, that's a good one. He was a lot of fun. He scored a couple goals. He had a
00:38:42
Speaker
He had an assist, I think as well. He's a fun looking player. Everyone that I have heard talk about him in training, like I haven't seen him in training a lot because I just haven't had it. There hasn't been a lot of open training sessions since he's been with the team.
00:38:58
Speaker
But the people who have seen him train just rave about him, and I think that was potentially a really great signing. It would be tough to see how much of him we actually, how much of that comes to fruition, but I think that was a pretty good signing.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, I would say it's a pretty good signing. I mean, I think like we talked about this a lot in the before time, but you know, it's just the kind of player that we've been hoping for for a long time. Maybe we're a little surprised to get him at this point in time, but can certainly see how it's going to work out pretty well, I would say.
00:39:35
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, so this one's from Michael Leaper. I don't know. That's, you know, it's funny. We don't get a lot of questions from people I've never heard and we got a couple from new people today. It's kind of fun. Uh, should, should have taught, should have MLS talk to us soccer about the Orlando tournament.
00:39:53
Speaker
being this year's Open Cup? I mean, U.S.L. already said they were out and there is a CCL berth at the end of this tournament. I like that they did not. And I think that the reason that I would not have liked this being an Open Cup tournament is that it's not an Open Cup. I mean, it's an MLS competition. You know, a lot of teams in lower divisions are
00:40:16
Speaker
qualified for the Open Cup. That's what keeps the Open Cup relevant, keeps it interesting, keeps it fun, makes it different and exciting in not just American soccer, but American sports in general. You don't see amateur teams playing NBA teams in any context.
00:40:38
Speaker
I think as sad as it is that the US Open Cup's run of consecutive tournaments is going to come to an end.
00:40:48
Speaker
I think that it's worth it to preserve the integrity of the competition and the history of the competition. I hope that it's not something that the competition can't recover from. It's definitely propped up by US soccer. So I don't know how likely that would be, but it certainly seems like it would be a possibility. And I think that would be very upsetting. And in terms of the CCL birth,
00:41:19
Speaker
I am not super worried about CCL right now and I doubt anybody really is. Like it just, let's get an actual season under our belts and then we can kind of figure that out at the end of things. You know, that, that birth is still there for new soccer to give out. Um, I'm sure they'll find a way to allocate it. Yeah. I got to admit the CCL birth feels a lot like theoretical award. Like I, like, I don't know if they've actually called off this year's term. I mean,
00:41:48
Speaker
And it is funny, the Sounders went into this year, clearly gearing up for CCL. They went out early in highly embarrassing and frustrating fashion. But in some ways that was probably a blessing, like to not, like how much more frustrating would it be right now if you were like, Oh, we're on the verge of winning CCL. And of course the rug gets pulled out from under us. That would be supremely annoying.
00:42:18
Speaker
I just don't see that tournament getting finished in. I don't know how, like, are they, do we really think they're going to play it next year? I don't know. I don't, I, I frankly, I think CCL is another tournament that this might end up killing off. If I'm being completely honest, I think that's entirely within the realm of possibility. It could. I mean, it doesn't, that does not seem outrageous in any way. So Europe. Yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
Yeah, next one's from Emmett O'Connell. How pissed were you we didn't get Portland in our group too? I assume this is sarcastic. I was not pissed at all. I'm okay with not playing the timbers more times than is absolutely necessary.
00:43:06
Speaker
I don't know, I guess it would have been kind of fun to play the timbers, but I don't want to, I don't want to play the timbers in a fake, you know, like a trumped up tournament like this. I guess if they played in the knockout round, maybe that would be more like tense, but I was definitely not upset to miss the timbers. Yeah. Agree. Maybe I should be, but I was not.
00:43:34
Speaker
This one's from m rath gieber gieber to 22 Matt, right? What are the odds they play games this season after the tournament I had just accepted there would be no live soccer until
00:43:49
Speaker
Uh, I am not optimistic that there's additional soccer after this tournament. I mean, I think I'm no, no, I'm no fancy big city epidemiologist, but, um, you know, I think that all signs point to a second wave that is probably going to be worse than the first wave at this point. Um, most likely starting in August or September. Um, that seems to be, if not the consensus that seems to be, um,
00:44:19
Speaker
the generally accepted idea. I know that our beloved president, the big guy himself has said that there will be a vaccine by then. And I think that he's out of his fucking mind. And anyone that takes Trump's vaccine that is ready in like three months or whatever is also out of their mind. So I'm not holding out too much hope for that. I don't think that you can have
00:44:48
Speaker
anything approaching a regular season, unless all the teams can play in their home stadiums. Um, I don't see that happening with cases going nuts in so many parts of the country. So, um, yeah, I don't, I mean, I'd love to be wrong because if I'm wrong, I think it means that things are kept a little more under control that I'm afraid of, but I don't think I'm wrong. Yeah. I mean, I think.
00:45:14
Speaker
I suspect that they're going to try to play games. And so I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that we will have more games after this tournament. I do think that the possibility of having anything like a complete season is pretty remote and
00:45:38
Speaker
And so I think there's a pretty good chance that whoever gets crowned champion at the end of this tournament will be the only champion that gets crowned this year. Uh, but I don't know, I think there's a decent chance that we'll have games again, like it strikes me that playing outdoor soccer matches. When you're properly, you know, when you're properly testing, everyone is probably not the highest risk behavior.
00:46:08
Speaker
And so I think that we might be at a point where we could kind of trudge through with games, but man, it would be pretty, I mean, I think it depends on the level of outbreak, right? Like if we're kind of, if this is the new normal that we're in now, I could see, I totally would expect there to just kind of power through it and play. Like they could probably play games at home stadiums in a month, I would think if they really wanted to.
00:46:37
Speaker
But I think the issue is like they just don't think they can finish out a season. And so this way you get a completed something, right? Yeah, exactly. So the last one is from Irish Sounder. When we beat the Whitecaps in Portland, don't even make it out of the group. Do we retain the Cascadia Cup?
00:46:55
Speaker
You know, I saw Tom Bureau of ECS say that they are going to make an announcement along these lines coming up. So by the time you listen to this, it will probably be official. I don't know what they're going to do. My suspicion, knowing
00:47:15
Speaker
Knowing ECS and knowing timbers army to the degree, I know them and, and supporters groups in general, my suspicion is that they are going to say that they will not award the Cascadia cup to empty stadium games. Yeah. So I think, I think they're just going to cancel Cascadia cup for 2020 and hope to give it out in 2020. That's my prediction.
00:47:41
Speaker
That seems reasonable both as a prediction and as a stance. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah, I mean, if the point of the trophy is more of a
00:47:56
Speaker
like a symbol among the fans and less about like winning something on the field. It feels really like naked to award it to an empty stadium. Agree. Like it's just, I don't know. I feel like I'm not someone, like I'm not the football without fans, it's not football without fans or whatever. What's the saying?
00:48:27
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I know what it is, what it's supposed to be or whatever. Yeah, right. Like I'm not, I, I'm, I'm fine. I'm, I'm okay with playing games without fans in the stands. Like I'm not gonna, like, I prefer it obviously to be in fans in the stands, but given these times.
Fans' Role and the Meaning of Cascadia Cup
00:48:43
Speaker
I'm okay with it. I think I can get over it. Um, I don't think that players are at any more risk than are at less risk than grocery store workers. And apparently we're okay with people working at grocery stores. So like, I don't know. I don't want to get too high horse about that part of it, but I think the Cascadia cup. I'm totally okay with not awarding it in front of an empty stadium. Like that just feels wrong. Yeah. Okay.
00:49:13
Speaker
I think I just talked to myself. I would be almost willing to guarantee that's what they're going to do. Yeah. And frankly, if they don't, I'll be slightly annoyed. Yeah, I would be too. I would feel very counter to what their ethos is. Yeah. But anyway, that's the show. Yeah. Got any final thoughts? I think you're right.
00:49:35
Speaker
Uh, I don't think so. Black lives matter. Um, seems pretty obvious, but apparently we have to keep saying it. So, um, everyone accepts it as, as truth. Right. Right. I agree. Yeah. I think that, that, that seems to be the general consensus at this point in time. Um, amazing that that is necessary, but, uh, it seems to be so. Yeah.
00:50:01
Speaker
Uh, and I hope that you, uh, go out and you listen to some people talk about things that you know a lot more about. But, um, I am Jeremiah Shan. Uh, I should also say thank you to full pool wines for once again, sponsoring this wonderful program. And they keep sending us checks. I.
00:50:25
Speaker
Can't get over that. It's pretty wild. They're a great company. I really hope people are supporting them right now because they have a business model that seems to set up really well for the current state of affairs. Definitely. But anyway, I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit. This is No Sadietes. Remember, you'll never yet alone.
00:50:50
Speaker
Green Douglas spur 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.
00:51:28
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!