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R.I.P. Live Ders - Ep. 20
52 Plays1 year ago
Ari and Noah give a touching eulogy for the Live Sounders twitter account, recap the 2-1 loss to LAFC, share their favorite moments from MLS matchweek 1 and preview the Seattle Sounders upcoming match with Austin FC.
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Transcript
Introduction to Season 2
00:00:11
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome in to episode 20 of Lobbing Scorchers. That's right. We are back in action. This is Ari Lillianwall. I got producer Noah here with me. Noah, for the first time in a long time, say what's up to the people. Welcome to season two. Season two. We're back. We took a little off-season hiatus from recording this, but
00:00:36
Speaker
We're going to get back on it. It's time. You know, I think we both had a lot of stuff going on not to make excuses or anything, but we've we've been moving out of the lobbying scorchers mansion. You know, I was looking for housing in in.
00:00:52
Speaker
Packing all my stuff up in u-halls and getting my new place set up. And so we're coming to you live from From my new house Noah's over here. What do you think? No, it's pretty nice in here It's nice, you know, you took all that uh, that major league soccer calm money and and put it into something Yeah, no, I'm definitely living in luxury in a in a basement unit North Seattle But no, I I'm pretty happy with it in all seriousness. But um now that
Sounders' Off-season and MLS Opener
00:01:21
Speaker
I'm a little settled. Noah, you're pretty much down to moving, too. I mean, hey, moved once, ready to move again. We're ready to get back at it. The MLS season is underway. Seattle Sounders season is underway. There's going to be a lot of content now for us to talk about. There was over the offseason, too. I wish we had gotten to record at least a couple over the offseason, given all the stuff that happened with the Sounders and around MLS.
00:01:47
Speaker
It's a little bit of a new look for Seattle this year. Not the most roster turnover in the league, but certainly some big moves. One really big move in particular, which we're going to talk about a lot on this episode with Pedro de la Vega signing as a young DP. But the season is underway. It got underway with a 2-1 defeat to LAFC at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
00:02:15
Speaker
on Saturday so we're going to talk about that game. Unfortunate result but some good stuff to talk about too so we'll get into that and we're also going to be previewing Seattle's next match up against Austin FC later in the show and also talking about some of the other results that went on around MLS last night so
00:02:39
Speaker
Yeah, excited to be back. It's going to be a fun season. We're going to try and do these on a regular schedule. Our track record of doing that has not always been a strong track record, but we're going to do our best. It's like going to the gym. New season, you start out strong. Yeah, exactly. So it's going to be fun. But before we get into all that, I wanted to start this show on kind of a more somber note, Noah.
Reflecting on @LiveSounders and Twitter's Role
00:03:05
Speaker
I wanted to give a hearty RIP and farewell to At Live Sounders, the Seattle Sounders official play-by-play account that they announced that they're discontinuing the use of before the first game and that's a sad day for me in particular because as
00:03:23
Speaker
Some of you probably know I used to run that account for all the home games. My friend Shane Evans recorded. He founded that account back in the day. And it's been the source of a lot of great memories over the years. I think what Shane did a great job of when he created Live Sounders was making it kind of a unique voice. You know it's a little bit you kind of.
00:03:45
Speaker
put your own spin on the live tweeting as opposed to just like the generic play by play and he really established a really great really funny fun voice with it and you know when i when i got the chance to run that account which i've done for the last few years i did my best to carry on that legacy
00:04:06
Speaker
And I'd like to think I did that. There was some legendary tweeting done over the years. Not to my own horn too much, but I sent some really good tweets. You fired off some bangers. I fired off some bangers. I'll say I understand the decision to discontinue it. I was noticing last year that the interactions on the tweets
00:04:29
Speaker
They just didn't pop like they used to even it was irrelevant to if the tweets were good or not I could still tweet out the bangers and They didn't seem to get as much engagement as they used to Twitter is a little bit of a dying platform these days Unfortunately, I know I don't even really use my personal account as much as I used to back in the day A lot of things have gone south with the platform we don't really need to get into the fine points of the Elon Musk era but
00:04:58
Speaker
the platform formerly known as Twitter. Yeah, I think a lot of brands you're going to see probably gravitate away from the platform in this type of way, unfortunately, which is sad because as much as I hate on Twitter,
00:05:15
Speaker
I've had, I've had a lot of great times with it over the years and I still use it to keep track of the news. And I was, I was sending tweets from my own account in the game last night, but it's, it's just not the same as it used to be. So hopefully someone can come in and change that someday. But for now, like I said, RIP and farewell to Lavdurs. I wanted to, uh, Relive a couple of my most legendary tweets from Lavdurs. No, if you'll indulge me.
00:05:40
Speaker
I would love to I would love to indulge. I think my my favorite tweets that I ever sent from live Ders were. Well, one of them was during the I want to say it was the covid year.
00:05:56
Speaker
There were a lot of good ones that year. The Western Conference final against Minnesota United. And the final game of the season. Yeah, exactly. There was no MLS Cup played that year. That was the final game of the season.
00:06:14
Speaker
If you'll remember Gustav Svensson legendary sounder, he scored a game-winning header in stoppage time I think yeah of that game and Minnesota had been up to one if I remember correctly until really late in that game and then Rudy Diaz tied it and Gustav Svensson Had a header right at the death 3-2 to send Seattle to the MOS Cup, which they didn't plan and
00:06:39
Speaker
You know, that was kind of a, that was a really weird time. Empty ass lumen field. No fans there. Um, and I remember going into those playoff games that year, I think they beat LAFC, the, uh, the game before that too. And, uh, you know,
00:06:55
Speaker
Society was down so bad. There was no fans at the games. And I remember just thinking, you know, I'm going to have to bring it on live Durs, both, you know, for for my personal legacy on live
Seattle vs LAFC: Rivalry and Challenges
00:07:08
Speaker
Durs, but also because I feel like at that time, you know, the return of MLS in the games, even though there are no fans there, it really at least speaking for myself, it offered in respite.
00:07:19
Speaker
from the fact that society was crashing and burning around us. So I was like, I really want to bring it for these tweets, give people something to follow. Something fun. And when Goose stops fencing, scored that game winner, whenever he scored a goal or made a great play, I would go with the Goose's Loose tweets.
00:07:43
Speaker
And I just got the idea as soon as he scored the goal, I was like, I'm just going to Google image search pictures of geese and just start firing them off, no context. So I pulled like four or five images as fast as I could, just cut and paste, bam, cut and paste, bam, cut and paste, bam.
00:08:08
Speaker
Like you know sometimes with Twitter. It's simple as effective. I didn't put any captions I didn't I didn't put any commentary with them I had the goose is loose on a couple of the prior tweets, but just four or five photos of a goose and The stats on all of them were incredible. They were all they were all pulling like five six hundred likes yeah, and you know everyone's replying the goose is loose and
00:08:33
Speaker
I was I was proud of that one. You were in playoff form. I was in playoff form. That was good good social media And I think it's a good example of like what made live Durs such a good account Yeah, like you can't really do that from the team account But like from a from a play-by-play account where you get to have your own voice and spin on it you can do stuff like that and and it hits you know, the engagement was good and I
00:08:54
Speaker
I'd like to think when I have a good idea and a good tweet like that, it added to people's game day experience and how they experienced a legendary moment like that. I don't know if that's the case, but that's what I'd like to think. My other favorite live Thursday night was definitely the 2019 Western Conference Final at LAFC.
00:09:19
Speaker
That was a really funny one because pretty much nobody, myself included, thought Seattle had a chance to win that game. And when Attoesta scored to go up 1-0, I kind of figured it was going how people expected that it would.
00:09:37
Speaker
And, um, but then Seattle, uh, Nico Ledero scored the equalizer to tie it. And then Rui Diaz, uh, scored another one, I believe, to put them up to one going into halftime. And that's sort of when I decided, you know, I'm going to lean into the fact that this is, uh, this is an upset in the making here. No one really expected this outcome. LAFC, if you remember that year, had a plus 48 gold differential.
00:10:03
Speaker
At that time, they were the most dominant MLS team I'd ever seen. As good as Seattle was that year, everyone thought LAFC was going to win that game. They were nasty. They were nasty that year. They've had some dominant teams since then, but I still think that 2019 team was kind of on a different level.
00:10:21
Speaker
which is kind of perfect for them because it's that classic like so good so quality but still can't get the job done yeah it was it's sort of that that game was the start of them fostering their reputation as big game choke artists yeah
00:10:37
Speaker
So but at the time, that was not the case. And anyway, basically, I spent the second half kind of needling and antagonizing all the national pundits that that had been picking against Seattle in the game. I didn't tag or call out a specific pundit. It's more the pundits as a concept. That was also kind of the genesis of the the bit of antagonizing the proverbial national, the proverbial and literal national pundits.
00:11:09
Speaker
And the fans I think got a big kick out of that because what Seattle did in the game just flew in the face of what everyone thought was gonna happen. So I tried to capture that in the tweets and I sent off some really good ones that night. When I think about my best live Ders tweets, I think that game was like my magnum opus. I consider that like,
00:11:35
Speaker
the height of your professional posting. The height of my professional career, to be honest, was specifically that game. I still think it's the most legendary win in Sounders history, considering the opponent, the venue, everything that was at stake, and what the expectations were versus what the reality turned out to be.
00:11:54
Speaker
So anyway, like I said, I definitely understand the decision that they made to move away from the account, but it's still a sad day and I wanted to say thank you to everyone who followed along while I was live tweeting those games over the years.
00:12:10
Speaker
I had a blast with it. It's definitely some of the most fun that I've had since I've been around this team was getting to fire off those tweets. And you know, it wouldn't have been possible without everyone who interacts with the pregame Jordan Morris content and asked me for the lineup. So RIP and shout out to live Durs. It was a hell of a run. I'm going to miss it. But, you know, we push forward.
00:12:44
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sunny at This, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support. Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gets you access to everything we produce.
00:13:10
Speaker
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Pedro de la Vega's Signing and Impact
00:13:32
Speaker
Thanks for listening.
00:13:40
Speaker
So does that make you now officially semi-pro poster? You went from professional poster and now you're semi-pro poster. I guess that's one way of looking at it. This is your retirement speech. Yeah, I'd still like to think of myself as a pro poster. And one thing I was... Free agent poster. I'm a free agent poster if you need anyone to fire off some banger tweets. Re-entry draft. I'm probably your guy.
00:14:07
Speaker
No, I actually so I was I was letting some tweets fly from my own account during the game last night, which is something that I still did sometimes because I only did live dares for the home games. So I would do that during the road games sometimes in past years, but not as often really last year. And so last night I was kind of getting back to that.
00:14:26
Speaker
And I had fun because when I'm tweeting from my own account, I can put more of my own kind of thoughts and opinions and feelings into it. Whereas when you're tweeting from a team account, you can't really do that as much.
00:14:41
Speaker
So I definitely, I was enjoying it last night, like kind of tweeting with the people again. I felt like I was back in the trenches with all of you. You're in the mud with me and getting into fights with fan TV accounts. That was a good quote that you had. It's always entertaining to see the fan bases beefing with each other, especially these two fan bases,
00:15:08
Speaker
There's no love lost. That 2019 game was the better than Bob game. It was. God, that game really was the back game. That was the game. That was the game. It totally was. Anyone asked me what the game was, that's what I say. It was such a good dub. But LAFC fans, I don't think they ever really got over that. My other story from that game is right after the game was over, I was leaving to get back to my hotel.
00:15:37
Speaker
and I was walking outside the stadium and I was feeling myself just because of how big of a dub it was and how good my tweets were, not to brag, but I just remember seeing this really drunk LAFC fan stumbling around out in front of the stadium and he didn't know who I was or anything. He didn't know I was from Seattle or affiliated with Seattle at all.
00:16:00
Speaker
But he was just stumbling around and his girlfriend was trying to kind of like corral him because he was all over the place and He just he just like looks up at the sky and he goes man fuck Seattle I was just laughing my ass off cuz that was the prevailing sentiment yeah around BMO Stadium that day which a time at the time was Bank of California Stadium and
00:16:25
Speaker
That was the was that the new who game to with the with the case. Yeah, yeah, nope. Good point. That was the that was the game where after the match, the Sounders were celebrating in front of the traveling supporters and LFC fans as they tend to do. Sometimes they still do this. They do well. They were hurling beer cans on the field and knew who famously saw beer can flying down at him and just kicked the hell out. Yeah.
00:16:50
Speaker
He caught that thing clean. That's better than most of his clearances. He hit it with, I think, that scissor kick clearance, but it was a can of Dos Equis. A photographer, I really wish I remembered who it was so I could drop him. I think it was, I will, yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
Hopefully, hopefully we can look that up and put it in the description or something. But they got an insanely iconic picture of new who mid swing, hitting the beer can and it's spraying everywhere. The video or the video guy, Brian Babcock, my buddy, he's like right in the background of that picture.
00:17:30
Speaker
Let's jump into the review of last night's game versus LAFC, you know, as fun of a little trip down memory lane as that was of that conference final.
00:17:45
Speaker
yesterday's game did not go that well. And frankly, the last few times that the Sounders have played LAFC since that conference final, this sort of budding rivalry that Seattle and LAFC have has been tilted in favor of LAFC, both in terms of the head to head matchups. I mean, LAFC won the playoff game in Seattle last year, but also frankly, in terms of their standings as front runners,
00:18:12
Speaker
in the league. Preferably. LAFC, you know, we've had as much fun as anybody with their big game chokes over the years. In fact, we dedicated an entire episode of Lobbing Scorchers to it. Correct. Last year when they lost the CONCAF Champions League final. So that's all well and good. And trust me, I will continue to do that every time they do choke in a big game like they did in the MLS Cup last year as well. It's a little unfortunate
00:18:44
Speaker
What all the things that happened in the lead up to this game I was really looking forward to this game because obviously it's the first game of the season and You know that always comes with its own level of excitement. Everyone feels like they're an MLS cup contender on match day one But you know
00:19:01
Speaker
There's been a few moving parts over the offseason, most notably Pedro de la Vega. But you got guys like Nathan, you got guys like Danny Musofsky as well, who those guys aren't starters, but and, you know, they ended up featuring in the game. But basically, you just want to see.
00:19:18
Speaker
how everything looks, how preseason went, how everything's fitting together. And unfortunately, we did not really get that opportunity because in the preseason lead up to this game, half the team got injured. You had Stephen Fry out for this game. I think you had a hip injury in training. You have Jau Paulo out for this game. You have Yemar out for this game.
00:19:40
Speaker
Albert Rusnak literally the day before the game busted his ankle in training. He was out for this game Yeah, and so it really it it became a thing where it just wasn't Really a game where you can evaluate the actual team. Yeah, you were getting your city squad. It's just unfortunate I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a
00:20:00
Speaker
C-Squad well it was a mismatch. I you know I it was a rotated squad It was a it's exactly it's the type of starting 11 that you put out when it's like three or four months into the season and everyone's you know taking knocks and It's a us open squad pulling their hamstrings or whatever And it's just you know
00:20:23
Speaker
frustrating to go into the first game of the season like, all right, we're already doing this. We're already having to basically throw every projected lineup out the window and do this mix and match stuff where it's just hard to get.
00:20:39
Speaker
It's hard to get a feel of what the actual team is going to look like, because I think specifically in this game, it's really hard to evaluate offensively without JP and without Rusnak. Those are two of your most important players. That's the engine. JP is your engine. And Rusnak, this was his year at the number 10, right? So a lot of stuff in attack and in JP's case, both sides of the ball is going to run through.
00:21:08
Speaker
those two guys and when you don't have them uh it's like a car with an engine that's like not you're missing cylinders yeah exactly thanks for saving your pistons aren't firing completely which you know
00:21:22
Speaker
That stuff is going to happen over the course of an MLS season. It's just unfortunate that it happened before the first game, especially because this matchup with LFC was a tasty one. These are the two teams that most of the national pundits have picked to finish at or near the top of the West this year.
00:21:39
Speaker
So I was really looking forward to seeing something resembling a full strength matchup between these two teams and we just did not get that. LAFC didn't have a lot of injuries but you know one of my big takeaways from this game getting to see
00:21:59
Speaker
The LAFC that we got to see is that they're still among the elite teams in MLS, unfortunately. I take no joy in having to say that.
00:22:10
Speaker
I thought like they had as much roster turnover as anybody this year. I think the staff was like, they had almost 50% of their like, the guys who play the most minutes, like not on the team anymore. They had to sign a lot of new guys, integrate those guys. Sometimes that takes time. And just with LFC, it pisses me off because they just don't have to adapt or adjust to that for some reason, you know?
00:22:38
Speaker
I mean, I, I think that they, they looked like they were still adjusting. Like I think, I think even Bwonga looked like he was still figuring it out.
Seattle's Season Outlook and Offensive Strategy
00:22:50
Speaker
I think the score line was as close as it was.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, but I think the the scoreline Flattered Seattle a little bit for sure LAFC could have had at least a couple more goals They hit the post like at least three or four times. Yeah, Wanga hit the post multiple times by himself I can't believe Wanga didn't have a goal in this game. Like he he he hit the post at least twice I want to say maybe even three times And you know if you if you play that game
00:23:17
Speaker
A hundred more times he's he's probably one of those is finding that in in a lot of those games. So LFC like when they're when LFC is on their game, it's just it's like they're it's like they're playing at a different speed, man. That's like really what it looks like. Yeah. You know, we could talk about the reasons for that. I think it's just because they're really, really good at scouting and they find they're really good at finding players that fit that style and
00:23:47
Speaker
can play into the identity of how they want to play. And I got to give respect to it. The fact that they were able to look like they did an attack for a lot of that game and generate the chances they did and get close to having three or four goals, I think it's fair to say that they should have had three or four goals in this game. I mean, that is a credit to them. I think it was a bit of a scattershot performance from Seattle defensively.
00:24:17
Speaker
But I credit at least some of that to the fact that LAFC looks like one of the best teams in the league again. And, you know, based on what I saw in this game, it's only one game, but I pretty much expect that to hold true throughout the season. It seems like they have their formula down and they were executing it well once again in this game. LAFC's goals came from Timothy Tillman and Bogus. I'm not going to try and say his first name. I think it's Matias.
00:24:44
Speaker
but like i said they could have had more seattle ran out in a four four two how did you think about that you know i when i saw when i first saw the graphic i was like okay okay i can i can see
00:25:02
Speaker
how this makes sense without Rusnak, there's not really a logical like for like Rusnak replacement. I thought the way they might do it is Rock CR 10 in the 4-2-3-1, which I think would have been a defensible play as well.
00:25:24
Speaker
I've thought of the idea of Morris and Ruby Diaz as dual strikers. Could be worth a run for a while. So given the situation with personnel, I didn't mind that here. Ruby Diaz and Jordan up top and then you had Christian and Leochu as your wingers. Atencio Vargas as your double pivot.
00:25:50
Speaker
and then a back line of Alex Roldon and Newham as your fullbacks. Nathan got the start with Yeymar out. Jackson Reagan, who projects as the first choice starter throughout the season. And then Andrew Thomas was in goal for Stephen Fry. I thought Andrew Thomas actually did pretty well.
00:26:10
Speaker
I don't think you can blame him for either of the goals and he made all the saves that he needed to. I think he looked rough but it was also his debut and clearly I don't think in his mind he was going into game one starting. No and so like with that being the case
00:26:27
Speaker
I definitely don't think goalkeeping was the reason that Seattle lost this game, or why they conceded either of their goals. And even on all the ones where LAFC hit the post, a lot of that was just defensive breakdowns and Denny Spawango making plays. It wasn't really anything the goalkeeper did.
00:26:47
Speaker
Thought I thought Nathan did okay at CB2 he had one he had run really big clearance Wanga got in on goal and and almost did his hammy there he looked yeah, it looked like he he did his hammy, but he ended up staying in the game and
00:27:04
Speaker
I thought he acquitted himself. Well, Nathan is, I think that was a good signing. He, uh, he's played at a high level for San Jose. I think he's had some injury issues, but, um, he's a talented defender and I really like the, uh, the, the CB depth on this team. I think that's probably the strongest position group. Wouldn't you agree? I would agree a hundred percent. It was last year too.
00:27:27
Speaker
It was last year too, but you throw in... And Javi even seems like he looks good too. I thought Javi looked pretty good too, you know, for as much as Javi Arayaga has taken over the years. At least in this game, I thought that he did alright. I think a lot of Seattle's defensive issues were about kind of... I mean, yeah, Newhoo lost track of Timothy Tillman on LASC's
00:27:51
Speaker
First goal, but then also you know not to bag on the attention of Argus double pivot but I think when you see a game where There's stretches of the game like that where the game state is so heavily in Kind of tilted towards one team a lot of the times that's because you're getting run on on midfield a little yeah, and I think attention on Vargas
00:28:15
Speaker
Especially Atencio, he kind of started to break out last year. And I think we all know how talented Obed is. With that as the double pivot in a game against an opponent like this, in an environment like this, it's probably going to strain your midfield a little bit. And without having watched the game again, my guess would be that's probably what happened a little bit. No, they were getting beat. I noticed that during the game that both of them were kind of
00:28:44
Speaker
diving in a little bit too much, leaving that just enough space in the central final third where someone would get beat, someone would have to cycle back in, and then that leaves another man unmarked to kind of push out wide. That just kind of cycle of movement and that attacking play.
00:29:04
Speaker
I mean, I think it happened a couple of times and they're young, they're talented, but yeah, it's not like you have someone like JP with one of those guys to kind of like be that insurance. It's a big ask for an 18 year old and a 22 year old who are still both just starting their careers to to run a midfield in in these type of circumstances like we said the engine of the of the team. Yeah. Hopefully we get to see JP in the Austin game. Just I just
00:29:34
Speaker
Don't know for us next in a play. It sounds like he's gonna be out for a couple more weeks. I just want to see something closer Yeah to what we all thought the projected starting 11 was gonna be you know Yeah, still salty that this game didn't pan out like that. I just wanted to see it. Yeah, no exactly I've been looking forward to seeing it for you know The last month leading up to the season and we just really did not get to see at all What it's supposed to look like so I'm salty about that yeah
00:30:04
Speaker
Why what what is he?
Preview of the Match against Austin FC
00:30:06
Speaker
What was he doing to do his ankle like that in the day before the game? I mean, I don't know what are you doing? You can do your ankle at any time. Just like was he like trying around was he like just walking up from pike place market and just twisted it on that big ass hill. I could have happened. I think he
00:30:22
Speaker
You know, I think they were probably just doing scrimmage stuff and he rolled it. So, you know, it is what it is. He'll be back soon It's just a sprained ankle, but like I said annoying I think the key play in this game know what at least from a Seattle perspective it actually happened in the second minute when Jordan Morris had a 1v1 with Hugo Loris and He had it saved. It was a really good opportunity. I can't remember off the top of my head who threaded that ball through but it was
00:30:51
Speaker
It's the type that's the type of chance where in a game like this if you really want to have a realistic shot at winning the game You have to score that and I have to be the guy like you'll never hear me say when a forward misses a chance He has to finish that I hate saying that because You know
00:31:13
Speaker
I try not to nitpick an individual play for a professional athlete that can do things that I certainly couldn't do. You gave me that one-on-one. I'm not making it. I know it's different because these guys get paid a lot of money to finish chances like that, but it's more just like
00:31:32
Speaker
When you have a set amount of chances like that over the course of a given season Some of them are gonna go in some of them are gonna get saved. You're gonna miss a couple sitters. So I try and Judge it more off by what the conversion rates and stuff look like over a larger sample size Certainly than one game. So I'm not gonna get on Jordan too much for having that shot saved Hugo Loris is
00:32:00
Speaker
one of the best goalkeepers of all time, honestly. Who looked in prime form, by the way. He looked good. He had a really good game. Yeah, that was another disturbing thing about watching- Because I thought he was going to be just washed. Yeah, I mean, I was kind of hoping that that would be the case, but that is not the case. He looked really, really good.
00:32:22
Speaker
That's unfortunate for the rest of the Western Conference. You know they had Maxine crepe who who is a really good upper tier goalkeeper in MLS, but That's a level looks like an upgrade. Yeah, I think they leveled up there even at just leadership wise even like having him there That's that's undeniably a positive Yeah, we we had one of our writers do a little spotlight post game story on him after the game And that's one of the things they were talking about in in the article on MLS soccer comm is
00:32:52
Speaker
Andy Diosa is our new writer who wrote that by the way, so you should check it out but yeah, it's You know, he's one of the best goalkeeper's of all time it just starter for the French national team for 145 whatever caps and has played for Tottenham forever and been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League So this is a great player
00:33:15
Speaker
And even at 37 you can see that he still has the ability and one of the things they were talking about after the game was just yeah that leadership and that mentorship that He brings to their team in their locker room It's it's a boost for them. What can I say? It's unfortunate, but he looked really good in the game He got Jordan Morris on that one which just reminded me of that last LA FC game where Morris had his his shot saved was it LA FC it was in the playoffs
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think in the playoff game we were talking about the last season. It was just that. Well, it was Crapo who got him. And honestly, that save by Crapo in the playoffs was- The reason they won. He made a few saves that were the reason that they won, but that was an unbelievable save. I feel like that save, like the narrative after that was how Jordan flubbed the chance.
00:34:13
Speaker
I'm, I don't know. It was just an insane. It's an insane save. Like, yeah, he was like, uh, he had to like reach back, like unbalanced and barely got a thing.
MLS Context and Sounders' Position
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah. Cause we talked about it. He went from being down low on the wrong side of the shot to somehow launching his body up.
00:34:31
Speaker
on his like using his back leverage to like get it on the other side it was crazy save it just gave me it gave me PTSD flashbacks from now yeah I didn't think of that at the time but it's a good point but anyway
00:34:46
Speaker
realistically like if you were going to get a point in this game you probably had to score multiple goals holding LAFC to less than two goals at home with how good they looked that was probably going to be a tall task so after conceding the first goal
00:35:05
Speaker
trying to get out of there with a 2-2 is probably your most realistic proposition and to Seattle's credit they did get one goal back in the second half and I guess that's a good segue to talk about Pedro de la Vega because I feel like if there was a reason for encouragement and optimism in this game
00:35:24
Speaker
It was definitely the Pedro de la Vega cameo. We haven't really done the whole backstory because we didn't record when the signing actually happened, but this is a big signing. This is a young DP, $7.5 million transfer fee.
00:35:41
Speaker
He's coming from Lanus, which is an Argentine top flight club where Diego Valeri actually started his professional career. Pedro de la Vega said that Diego Valeri was actually a resource that he reached out to when he was talking about joining Seattle and MLS.
00:36:01
Speaker
So in a way it's kind of weird but Sounders fans kind of got a thank and shout out Diego of Larry because apparently he said very good things about the whole Pacific Northwest and MOS and just the the quality of life that he would have living in the Northwest and That along with several other guys that Pedro de la Vega knows from Argentina kind of helped sell him on coming here so he arrives with a
00:36:28
Speaker
Quite a bit of pedigree. I mean, he's, I would say, based on the research I did about him, he's considered one of the better up-and-coming young attacking prospects coming out of Argentina right now. He's had a little bit of, he's missed some time with injury, I believe, but last year was the first year of his professional career where I think he really got consistent run, playing and starting for Lanoos.
00:36:55
Speaker
He put up some pretty solid numbers. I want to say six goals, six assists in league play. I'm not sure if that's totally right, but it's something to that effect. And I think you saw it in this game, Noah. I think you did.
00:37:11
Speaker
Just really good and dynamic on the ball. He had one run in particular that I'm remembering where he kind of shed his defender and made like a twenty thirty yard run at least solo run. Yeah, which is something that you saw him do on his highlight reel a lot. Yeah. And you know you can see his gifts as a facilitator and a passer which
00:37:35
Speaker
He's gonna get some goals. I would say My read on it is he is about as goal dangerous as Nico Ladera was in his prime which is to say, you know He's not gonna score you 15 20 goals in a year probably but he can he can probably give you that Six to eight hopefully close to double digit goals range, especially if he's taking penalties. I think that's a realistic hope That he can get you double digit goals but you know
00:38:05
Speaker
What this team was lacking last year was that was that creativity that fight that sauce that that guy who can Who can set other people up with these really good chances? Which Seattle just like wasn't able to do consistently last year you saw it in flashes with the two more with the two Morris connection exactly like you saw it at times, but
00:38:29
Speaker
It was not it was not consistent enough and I think everyone On the team and the coaching staff would probably acknowledge that they ended with 41 goals last year and there was just really really long stretches where the attack just felt stagnant and it was not consistently producing and You know, I still think Leo Chu has a valuable role on this team and
00:38:53
Speaker
I tend to think it's more as a super sub with Pedro de la Vega in the fold. I think Pedro de la Vega, that's your left winger, in my opinion. I don't really see any other way they should line it up. I bet you looked lost yesterday too. He didn't have a very good game.
00:39:16
Speaker
I was chest thumping on Leo Chiu at one point last year because he had the four assists game. He played really well. There was a time where it kind of looked like he was breaking out and I was taking a victory lap on that because my take had been leading up to last season that Leo Chiu just
00:39:33
Speaker
You know, I wasn't I wasn't trying to say that I knew that he was this great elite player, but it was more about like if you sign him as a U-22 initiative player, which Seattle did, and you spend all this money on him, you have to give him the minutes to find out.
00:39:48
Speaker
They were doing this thing where he got to the team and he was only getting spot duty. He wasn't really getting a lot of run, which that's fine when he first gets there. There's an acclimation period to all these young signings that get to MOS like that.
00:40:05
Speaker
But it gets to a point where you have to give him the run to see what you got and I think you know Schmetz understood that and Saw enough in training to give him more of a run last year He started a lot of games played a lot of minutes last year And there there were times last year where the Leo Chu experience was really good. So I want to acknowledge that because I feel like
00:40:27
Speaker
He is a guy who has taken a lot of heat for inconsistency and poor decision making, which is entirely valid and you kind of saw why those talking points are out there in the game yesterday with his decision making in attack.
00:40:44
Speaker
He also for long stretches of last year for better or for worse was the only guy in attack who was really making things happen. Yeah, there were there were multiple games where the only reason that they were in the game or that they had any attacking juice in general was because he was like going all out. Yeah, just balling.
00:41:03
Speaker
Especially the the really lengthy stretches of the season where Christian was out and you don't have his presence down the right side pretty much the whole offense was spamming the ball to load you down the left side and It was effective at times so but with that acknowledged it just seems like Pedro de la Vega. There's there's a different type of Pedigree there. He's in another tier. He he you know, I don't want to I don't want to put
00:41:31
Speaker
Anything on him too soon before we see a little bit more of a sample But like I think you can tell like just from watching him play yesterday He looks like the most dynamic player on the team already and he got his goal He got his goal. It was from the spot but like I'll tell you why that's not even really that much of a caveat and
00:41:50
Speaker
I mean, I saw enough from the run of play to be able to feel like, okay, I see the skill set here. I see how this is supposed to fit. I think this could work.
00:42:05
Speaker
But I thought the fact that he ended up taking the penalty was significant. You know, Rui Diaz and Resnak both weren't on the field. Those are two guys that might have an argument to take a penalty in the event that they were also on the field. So I think I think Resnak probably takes it if he had been playing, but you don't think he hands it off.
00:42:29
Speaker
I don't know. It's kind of an interesting question. I feel like in that scenario, the way it usually works is that the guy who's been on the team and you know, Rusnak is a leader on the team. He might take it, but I also can see Jordan was on the field.
00:42:45
Speaker
Jordan has never really been a penalty taker that's true like Although the times that I've seen Jordan take penalties. He's been good at it Yeah, but I don't think I've ever seen him like take one in a game I mean Nico Ladera this was his job for so many years, and he was so good at it, so it's kind of like
00:43:01
Speaker
a little bit up in the air on who's going to take him this year. I kind of assumed it would be Russnak, but he wasn't playing. But it was good to see Pedro de la Vega step up and be like, OK, I'm taking this. I'm taking this. It's my first few minutes of my MLS career. But I'm going to be up to this moment. He steps up there on the road at LFC against Hugo Louris, one of the best goalkeepers of all time.
00:43:27
Speaker
And he drills it, sends him the wrong way, converts the penalty, makes it 2-1. Nice to see, even in the losing effort, that he stepped up to that moment and delivered. And it's stuff like that, like you're looking for signs early that
00:43:45
Speaker
This is a big time player who can make a significant impact on this team. And I think drilling a penalty like that is a nice little data point to that effect. Even outside of the contributions that he made on the field, which I just felt like the attack just really looked. It flowed a lot better when he was in the game.
00:44:09
Speaker
As soon as he's physically able, you know, he was coming off of a knock and then he was dealing with visa issues So his fitness wasn't all the way up. So that's why he had to Play the super sub role and kind of by the time that he got in the game Seattle was already down to zero But I'm just looking forward to seeing what the team looks like when he's starting because yeah really
00:44:35
Speaker
so much of this season noah hinges on this signing not just being a hit but being a demonstrable hit yeah like this needs to be an impact player who is putting up numbers and it's the start of the rebuild i mean yeah in a way i think you could say that i think
00:44:52
Speaker
They're kind of in a situation where it's rebuilding and retooling in a way. Retooling, I think, is a better problem. Retooling, trying to contend at the same time, though. It's not like when you hear the term rebuild, you sometimes think about lean years and sacrificing results in the name of future progress. That's not really how Seattle rolls. Seattle is rolling, trying to win every trophy they play for every year. That's just what the expectations are. Yeah, which is why I think it was great to keep
00:45:21
Speaker
Like I was I was very much under the or in the camp of let's get rid of Raul because like we can just sign a really good player like Pedro de la Vega and then get a dynamic striker who's like nasty.
00:45:36
Speaker
but it's like it's almost is genius the way that they've done it in let's build out our our engine right you've got Pedro de la Vega on the wing and then you've got you you're keeping Rusnak who's nasty I'm pro Rusnak I've always been I think we've there's a pro Rusnak podcast this is a pro Rusnak podcast I was already getting people in my mentions yesterday talking about how you know it wouldn't matter even if he had played I had a tweet to the effect of like you know
00:46:03
Speaker
I want to see it with JP. I want to see it with Burt Rusnak. I want to see it with De La Vega starting. Maybe this is just how my brain operates, but when I see a lineup like that, and it's kind of a survival test type of game, I'm not going to sit on this podcast and talk about how the offense is terrible again, and we're just watching the same movie as last year. It didn't even look like last year, though.
00:46:33
Speaker
before De La Vega got in the game. But you have to take the personnel into account when you're evaluating that, in my opinion. Now, if JP had been playing, if Resnak had been playing, if De La Vega had been starting, and it still kind of looked like the same sort of struggling offense that we saw last year,
00:46:58
Speaker
then yeah, I would be like, okay, that's a little disturbing that you've had all these changes and you had De La Vega and Rusnak and JP all playing together and you're still racking up minor amounts of XG but not finishing. All right, that's not good. But like, I'm not going to say that until I see
00:47:20
Speaker
the actual something closer to the actual 11. We might never see the actual 11. That's how MLS season works. Correct. As much as we give the sounders a hard time about like always having these injuries and always having these rotated lineups. I think everyone thinks that that affects their team the most because they follow their team. Right.
00:47:40
Speaker
But like most, there's precious few MLS teams who go through seasons without being in these situations. Correct. For Seattle right now, it's really unfortunate that it happened right off rip before the first game. But like this is how it always goes, man. I've done enough of these seasons to know that. We're just lucky we haven't had to play Champions League.
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah, imagine that. A lot of those teams, they're going to be dealing with that even worse than Seattle is pretty soon because of the toll that that's going to take. Seattle, they're not even juggling competitions right now, and they are essentially fielding an XI that's the type of XI that you field when you're juggling three comps. Yeah. How do you think Craig is feeling right now? Why, Bull?
00:48:26
Speaker
after after that debut from from de la Vega because I know you were kind of we were both kind of alluding to like this signings kind of for his ass you know like yeah no I I think there's a lot of truth to that and I think he was probably encouraged by what he saw in the same way that we were you know
00:48:49
Speaker
It's a brief cameo, really small sample. So I'm sure he's trying not to read too much into it one way or the other good or bad. But I really, I do think that we saw enough to see, to get a pretty good idea of the type of player he is and the type of stuff that he can do. And me personally, I was encouraged by what I saw.
00:49:14
Speaker
I don't know how Craig feels about it, but I think mainly he looks like a fun, entertaining player to watch. His team hasn't had enough of that. They didn't have enough of that last year. It's just that juice, that kind of swag on the field. He seems like he brings that. I'm hoping he continues to bring that, because if nothing else, it'll make the team in this season a lot more entertaining.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, we talk about that a lot with Pete Carroll funny enough is like we love them as a coach because of the of the like culture that he brought and the like Fuck it. We're just gonna have energy and vibes Yeah, he brings good energy and vibes even even when he stepped on the field. He was not even remotely scared to play He was not even remote. He just looked like he was just like yeah, dude like whatever. This is normal. I'm having fun I'm doing my thing
00:50:06
Speaker
totally and like that doesn't happen a lot with people his age debuting after signing a major contract yeah and that's i mean that's another thing i'll say about him is you know having gone to his opening press conference at long acres um i think a big reason for why they ended up finalizing this signing is because of how strong the character evaluation was
00:50:27
Speaker
He was impressively comfortable at his press conference when he was interacting with us. You know, it's tough. You're getting up there. He's a young guy, doesn't speak English. So he's doing the press conference through a translator. And but you can kind of gleam little things about guys personalities when they're in that media setting.
00:50:48
Speaker
You know some guys some guys on every team don't mind doing media stuff and are really good insightful interviews then you also have a portion of guys on every single team that really hate the media or I don't know that's a strong word but they just
00:51:05
Speaker
They would just as soon never get interviewed. Clint Dempsey was like that. Every press scrum that he did, he seemed like he didn't really want to be there. Which is funny because now that's what he does for a living. It was funny the first time I saw Clint in the studio because I'm always like, you always give us a little bit of a hard time, Clint.
00:51:26
Speaker
you know i really like i i say that in jess but like i don't hold that against any guys that like don't like their press obligations the only time it gets annoying is when they like roast you and like they try and roast you for asking a stupid question when the question is entirely valid which you know that's happened to me a few times but like i understand like
00:51:46
Speaker
Some guys don't really like the spotlight like that. And I think Clint was a more introverted type dude, just as one example. But Pedro de la Vega, at his press conference, he was super engaged. He was making eye contact with all the reporters. He was cracking jokes a little bit. He was giving pretty insightful answers through his translator. And I think you could see that
00:52:14
Speaker
the character evaluation that they did was probably strong. And that's, that's like, that's a huge piece of it. When you're talking about signings for this much money is you want to make sure you have the right personality profile and fit. The sounders have always talked about how they kind of, how much they kind of weigh that when that was a big thing when Nico Ledero is the same thing. And he ended up, you know, bringing so much off the field in terms of,
00:52:39
Speaker
leadership and mentoring the young players. So, um, from all that perspective, I think De La Vega checks out. Now that doesn't guarantee that he's going to hit on the field, but like you said, there, there is so much riding on this. I jokingly tweeted yesterday that Pedro De La Vega is the one man who can save this fan base from another year of the XG debate. And, you know, I was joking, but that is kind of true because
00:53:09
Speaker
He is the single biggest change that was made in terms of this attack, right? Other than that, it's pretty much the same pieces. It's Rusnak, Christian Roldan, Jordan Ruidias. All these guys are good players in their own right, but
00:53:29
Speaker
I think that it's pretty clear, having watched this team last season, that there was some juice and creativity missing. And that was a void that needed to be filled. And this signing was to address that void. And so if this is even a situation where he hits at like half or 60% capacity, that's gonna cap the ceiling of the team. Now, if it's a huge hit and he becomes like a,
00:53:56
Speaker
Tiago Amata tier productive type player that skyrockets the ceiling of this team because I think you have a team that has a really good defense that's returning most of its pieces from last year. This was an elite defense in MLS for most of last year.
00:54:15
Speaker
The statistics bear that out. I will say there was some stretches, particularly in League's Cup, where the defense did not cover itself in glory. However, I think looking at the whole sample, if you're judging it fairly, and just looking at the stats, this team can hold people off the score sheet. And I expect that to be the case this year. The struggles doing that against LAFC yesterday notwithstanding, I expect this to be a very strong defensive team.
00:54:44
Speaker
that this season is all about if this attack can produce at an elite level in MLS and that's going to be the difference between contending for trophies and not contending for trophies and the biggest variable that's going to determine that is the signing of Pedro de la Vega.
00:55:03
Speaker
It's going to be the thing to watch the most closely. I agree. We're going to be talking a lot more about him throughout the regular season. And I'm looking forward to tracking it however it works out. I think this team just needed something new. And I think that this signing definitely provides that if nothing else, even if it's no guarantee how it's going to work out. I wanted to talk about the replacement ref because oh my god. All right.
00:55:33
Speaker
You're not going to hear me. Let's throw out a needle here though, Ari. Let's be... Okay, in all seriousness, you're not going to hear me incessantly bagging on the replacement refs all that much. I think everyone knows that it's not an ideal situation.
00:55:50
Speaker
I will say I have no problem saying that I stand with pro referees and what they're demanding. In this capitalistic society, man, there's just too much of needs like this not being met when what they're asking for doesn't seem that unreasonable.
00:56:13
Speaker
I mean I think the biggest one for me players fly private now they you know and and refs are flying in coach still.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah, they should that's why they should get give them vision more. They should get treated. Well, you know, we all love to give pro referees a hard time. You know, I do it as much as anybody. They make some bad calls a lot like refs in every league correct in the world premise terrible to like I'm really I've if you've listened to this podcast for a while, you know, I'm not a huge bag on the ref guy. No.
00:56:47
Speaker
However, like I just bring this up because three of these calls in this game where they mean they were comedic now. Yeah, they were like I lost the game. I was laughing. I was laughing while I was watching the game. Okay. All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna go through these and tell me if you remember them and you can see if you can explain what was going on. Yeah on some of these. Okay.
00:57:05
Speaker
So the first one was, it was kind of early in the first half. It was a corner kick where his LAC corner gig, corner kick comes in. Ilie dreaded, dreaded Ilie gets his head to it and he heads it off the post. It deflects off the post.
00:57:22
Speaker
lands in play, I think, to Bawanga on the right side. And I don't know if the ball went out off Bawanga or not. But regardless, the ball never touched a sounder ever. And it didn't even get it didn't even get close. I think what he was calling was that the header deflected off a defender. But
00:57:44
Speaker
It didn't at all. It wasn't close. And then also it landed in play and I think hit belong it anyway before it went out and he called it in LAFC quarter, which I, it was just as inexplicable. Like I don't like the apple TV broadcast. They had to, they were trying to like play it off. They were like, Oh, we didn't really know what I don't really get why that's the best part about the TV guys were at the end of the game. They go,
00:58:13
Speaker
man that ref did a really good job they literally hit him with the that ref did a really good job so anyway that was that one i felt like maybe he was confused or like one of the ars was like oh there's a foul in the box on the header and then he was just like oh okay it's a corner that's the only way i could describe like explain it because you know when there's jostling in the box sometimes it'll be like okay foul i think
00:58:34
Speaker
But I don't understand. That one is inexplicable. I'm going to spend the rest of my waking days like wondering how that was a corner gig. We should get them on the pod. Like, please, exclusive interview to just explain what on earth was going on there.
00:58:50
Speaker
Um, Christian rolled on, got a really funny yellow card where, um, someone on LAFC slide tackled, it was either Obed or attention. I want to say, and it was a yellow card challenge. The Apple TV broadcasters were talking about that too. Um,
00:59:07
Speaker
And so Christian was arguing that it should have been a yellow card challenge and he ended up getting a yellow from for dissent. But the clip is just so funny because the broadcasters are talking about how that was a yellow card challenge and the ref like really slowly and dramatically like pulls the yellow card out and you're expecting him to show it to the LFC player and then he just kind of like slow turns and gives it to Christian.
00:59:35
Speaker
who had been arguing, but I've seen worse descent than that go un-yellowed. So it was just, the fact that Christian ended up being the one to get the yellow card at the end of that sequence was very, very funny. And even not to give a yellow to the tackle as well. Yeah. Like both? Okay. Yeah, exactly. If you want to give the yellow for the tackle and for descent, that might even make more sense, but to just get it to Christian after that challenge,
01:00:05
Speaker
Okay, and then also just so the Seattle's PK was won by Jordan Morris and It was a really clear foul on Aaron long that was I mean once a sounder once a sounder once a sounder S2 legend Aaron long you could you could tell from watching it live that it was a PK They were saying on the broadcast again that it was clear PK without even seeing the replay
01:00:29
Speaker
You know you're going to miss those sometimes so whatever, but then he goes over to VAR it and it took him an hour and a half to look at that. Yeah, I'm already trying to use a computer genuinely like I was like holy shit. I don't know about you, but I was I was like
01:00:45
Speaker
Having a mental breakdown while he was doing the review. I was like dude. There's just no way that this can take this long Yeah, there are There's one angle where you can see it very very clearly if you want to look at it two three four you maybe even four times
01:01:00
Speaker
That's still arguably too long for how obvious a call this is. He was sitting there for eight minutes. It was realistically, it felt like realistically, it was probably more like two or three. Yeah. But that that is just like that's a little bit ridiculous. Three minutes on top of the play happening whistle.
01:01:25
Speaker
Finger up to the ear type thing. You know what I mean? The the I'd understand it's a replacement ref who's just learning BIR whatever that just Back to pro reps like a call like that. I'm sorry. It does not need to take that long like Especially like we talked about the clear and obvious threshold and they're like you well if he's looking at it for that long then how can it be clear and obvious well it
01:01:47
Speaker
The fact that he took an hour and a half to like come to the correct conclusion doesn't mean it was any less clear and obvious in this scenario. So I don't know that that one just like like, you know, you know, when something's just like, it's like nails on a chalk. Yeah, it was terrible. Like that was brutal to watch.
01:02:06
Speaker
It wasn't even like that was gonna be a game-changing moment necessarily. I mean, there's a PK call as well. Correct, but I'm like, it's not like it's a tied game, an important match, and this is like a penalty in the 91st minute that's gonna win the game. You don't need to look at it for 18 full minutes. It's like, let's make a decision, make the decision, be confident, and move on. You know what I'm saying? It was brutal viewing.
01:02:36
Speaker
Anyway, LFC winds up winning the game to one. They moved to one. Want to know Seattle is now. I want to know ahead of their next game, which will come at Lumen field home opener next Saturday. Austin FC. We're going to preview that quickly at the end of the show, but real quick before that, if it's all right now, I wanted to jump around the league. Let's do it.
01:02:58
Speaker
We might be debuting a new lobbying scorchers segment here I don't know if this is gonna work But I felt like it was kind of a good way to map out my takes from the rest of the slate last night So I just wanted to do What I saw is the the winners and losers
01:03:14
Speaker
From match day one in MLS. There's more games tonight So I'm not gonna have Every result taken into account here. Yeah, but I think it's fine to just do it from what we saw last night because a lot of teams played and there I think there are certain things that we can take away So I got three winners
01:03:35
Speaker
to look at here. I mean number one, sorry about it, but I'm going to I'm going to go with LFC like the thing is like there is so many question marks with them given the turnover that they've had and Carlos Vela is still unsigned like he's not even in the picture right now.
01:03:51
Speaker
And so I was trying to pay pretty close attention during this game to if there's going to be any sort of adjustment period for them looking different or not as potent as the LAFC of years past. And I mean, I got to tell you, no, I didn't see it. I really did not see it at all. Like you can blame some of that on Seattle's defensive frailties in the game and some of the issues they had controlling the game in midfield.
01:04:17
Speaker
I think LFC is just they're just kind of like that like I'm sorry like they they really they play when they're on their game that team seemingly regardless of who the personnel is they look like they're playing at a different speed.
01:04:33
Speaker
Then the opposition and that's even without like they don't have kelena costa anymore carlos veila is not in the fold they're integrated integrating all these new signings they have a new goalkeeper who you know is one of the best goalkeepers of all time but i still it's new it's new nonetheless they have all these moving parts and
01:04:52
Speaker
I got to say it just looked the exact same to me. Yeah, it looked like they didn't miss a beat, which is it pisses me off, dude. It pisses me off like you think of Seattle had that much turnover that
01:05:07
Speaker
They would they would adjust that quickly like I don't think so no like most teams aren't capable with doing that Like I said, I think you got a credit like John Thorrington and their whole scouting department for being able to do that I mean, it's impressive. It's impressive. I will make fun of them every time that they choke in a big game. Well, I also I mean When I when I see something that's impressive like I gotta I gotta give the credit where it's due I think we've also talked about how the Sounders staff have not
01:05:37
Speaker
It's slowly been like picked away like a vulture, right? Like they were incredibly talented for a long time in the front and back office of like just Insane coaches people who multiple people who are now head coaches who are just like watching film, you know what I mean? Yeah, and so That I mean that plays a huge role in being successful in this league and any league and man I mean LA FC is just they've got an amazing amazing staff
01:06:04
Speaker
They do they do unfortunately we have to give them the lobbing scorchers props You might not like this one either, but Portland Portland was a big winner last night finally they realized Evander is trash Evander yeah Evander wasn't playing in Portland's home opener, which was against the Colorado Rapids, so I'll give that caveat Yeah, it was they it was the rapids the rapids
01:06:28
Speaker
A lot of the national pundits were talking about how great an offseason the Colorado Rapids had I was a little bit skeptical You know, I understand why they got the positive press that they did I think Jordy Mihailovich was a good signing Zach Stefan is theoretically, you know for all the for all the slander that US men's national team fans levy at him He's theoretically an upgrades to he's talented. I mean the Phil Neville era
01:06:55
Speaker
It got off to about as good a start as they could have hoped for one over Colorado. It was four zero in the first half. The rapids were melting down for sure. They were playing zero defense and Sam Vines had a deeply funny own goal. That was hilarious for the goal. He kicked it right into his own net. But you do, you do have to give the timbers credit for
01:07:24
Speaker
We might get cancelled for these two takes here. Listen, man, if Seattle's rivals are playing well, I'm going to lay it on you guys and tell you. It's not something that anyone is going to want to hear about, but I mean, in this slate of games, two of Seattle's biggest rivals were two of the best performing teams of the weekend, unfortunately. That's just how it is.
01:07:51
Speaker
And, you know, I think the takeaway in all seriousness, though, is that
01:08:00
Speaker
The timbers might not be in as bad a way under Phil Neville as we might have hoped that two of their goals got scored by Anthony who's a Brazilian U-22 guy I believe that they signed last year and he scored a couple really nice goals and you know that's the kind of thing where if you hit on a signing like that it can go a long ways so
01:08:23
Speaker
Anyway, it's one game and it is the Colorado Rapids, but in terms of the teams in the match they won slate who had the best results, you gotta give credit to Portland. You gotta give credit where credit's due, unfortunately. Give it where it's due.
01:08:39
Speaker
And then my other my other one is DC United. They were playing their season opener against New England without their head coach. My boy Troy was saying formerly of New Mexico United. He got he got suspended on yellow card accumulation last year when he was coaching the Red Bulls.
01:08:57
Speaker
And so he had to sit out his first game as coach of DCU. And they beat New England three to one. Veroni, the New England forward, got one of the dumbest sequence of double yellow cards I've ever seen. That you probably won't see a worse ejection than that all season. That was so stupid. I don't know what he was doing out there. So that gave DC the man advantage for most of that game. But they took advantage of it.
01:09:26
Speaker
They won three to one. Christian Benteke had a hat trick. They were all over him. So I mainly wanted to highlight that one because Troy Lissane is he coached New Mexico United, which is my hometown club. And, you know, I'm a religious fan of them. I watch all their games.
01:09:46
Speaker
And I always credit Troy Lissane. He was the inaugural head coach of New Mexico United. And he did a great job at instilling culture in that organization and really getting the community in my home state to rally behind that team. And they did such a good job with the lead up to it and the marketing. And the kids are the best in the nation, in my opinion. And a lot of that is a credit to Troy Lissane. And that's why I'm telling you, man, New York Red Bulls
01:10:15
Speaker
I don't really know that much about their new coach. They should have just kept Troilus saying like I was saying it the whole time. He did pretty well last year. He got them into the playoffs. Who did they even have on their team last year? Exactly. And they needed someone to especially after all like the scandal and stuff with Gerard Struber, they needed someone to come in and like reset
01:10:35
Speaker
the tone and the culture of the whole organization. And when they gave him the interim tag or made him the coach for the rest of the season, I was like this, having seen what he did for New Mexico United, this is the perfect guy for where they're at as an organization. And I thought that pretty much bared itself out on the field in terms of just the vibes around their team and the results they were getting.
01:11:00
Speaker
And they did my boy dirty. They let him go, despite the great job he did in turning it around after that. He gets the job at DC United, which I was happy to see. And his first game, they get a 3-1 win, admittedly aided by a red card. But still, I'm happy for Troy Lissane. I think he's a good coach. For the best for him, to leave the Red Bulls organization. I just don't think that there's any juice left in that entire organization. I mean, the one thing I will say about the Red Bulls is Emil Forsberg seems like a good signing.
01:11:30
Speaker
But definitely see what you know and then I also wanted to shout out slam and Sam a dinner on for scoring out ever for st. Louis City, you know
01:11:40
Speaker
Slammin Sam a dinner on we wish he could have stayed on this. Yeah, he's so good. He's so good Like three defenders like unstoppable freight train force of nature clinical finish I'm watching that and I'm thinking about watching a bear rack up XG last year and I'm just like Man and you know Craig Craig Wabel was asked about this. He had a whole explanation for how the salary didn't get asked about it last year. Yeah, he did
01:12:10
Speaker
He gets all kind of like frosty when he gets asked about it. He's like, you know, there's a reality of the salary cab league and like something like we can't keep players like this in these scenarios. And he has like an iron clan explanation for why slam and Sam had to be moved on. But like, as much as it hurts us seeing slam and Sam become a legitimate MLS striker, when Seattle especially really could have used someone with that exact skill set last year, that's got to hurt Craig waves. Just like, Oh yes. Like, Oh yeah. I don't think he enjoys seeing it, but like,
01:12:39
Speaker
I enjoy seeing it and I think Craig Webb's probably does too in the sense of like slamming Sam has like a fun backstory like he kind of it's kind of been an underdog player slept on and he's really he like if you look at his numbers the underlying ones and the stat sheet and
01:12:55
Speaker
This is like a legitimate M.O.S. Stryker. Yeah, he's nasty. Shout out to slam in the same a dinner on. He's nasty. I wish him continued success. Yeah, I took some heat on Twitter. I posted. Damn, can't believe we we let us like, damn, never forget that we cut this guy so we could sign a bear. Yeah. And people, people, people were like, you know, that's not what happened. You know, that's not what happened. I'm like, let me let me shit post in peace. Let me let me live.
01:13:23
Speaker
Let him post. Let me post losers from last night. This is going to be more fun. That's going to be more fun. Yeah. And why CFC stands out? Don't disrespect my King, Talis Magno, who beat messy on Ballon door night. Okay. Okay. I mean, needless to say they lost one zero to Charlotte FC on the road and
01:13:45
Speaker
That's jumping though. Yeah, it's they have a pop in atmosphere at Bank of America Stadium, but like Charlotte is not a trendy pick from the pundits this year at all and NYC FC was a trendy pick for a bounce back. You know when I voted on the first power rankings, I didn't have them that high.
01:14:03
Speaker
And I was like you know I kind of have no idea what to think of this team because they've got a lot of new players Yeah, and NYC OC seems like one of those teams. That's always in the mix even even if you think that their roster might be Not as good in a certain year as it was another year like they always especially playing in the Yankees outfield That's that's the biggest home field advantage you can regardless of where you fall on whether that's fair or not like
01:14:31
Speaker
The dimensions on that field I've been to it are pretty ridiculous. They've like learned how to tailor their team to be insanely dominant playing on that field with those dimensions. I honestly, they rack points off that every year, but they also usually have a good roster. And I don't know, like even on the road, one zero to Charlotte.
01:14:49
Speaker
That's tough. I mean, we'll see. It's early. I don't think Charlotte will be terrible this year. I don't think they're going to be good. I don't know. Have you seen their roster? I mean, they could surprise some people. I don't want to. I don't think that they're going to be good. I'm just saying. I don't think that New York City FC is going to be good either.
01:15:10
Speaker
It's, you know, it's one game, but it's kind of how I was feeling. I was, I felt validated for, cause I was looking at everyone else's votes for their power rings. Everyone had NYC way, way higher than I did. It seemed like, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to stand by this and through one game, uh, I feel validated, which is of course it's going to backfire soon, but we'll take the W for now.
01:15:28
Speaker
Other other loser Orlando City see drew CF Montreal another popular Pick from the pundits 0-0 at home I watched a little bit of that game and in what I watched Orlando didn't really look especially close to scoring and I think a performance like that at home in their first game of the season with all the expectations that they're gonna have after a
01:15:53
Speaker
Coming in second in the supporter shield and bagging 63 points last year. There's a little bit of a letdown. Yeah, not score It was interesting seeing Niko Lidero in purple. He started the game for them I believe and he played most of it. He might have you might have gone the full 90 I'm not sure but that seemed to me that like Niko's gonna have a big role on that team. It's not gonna be like He's he's like a bit player or a backup. I think Oscar Perea is gonna rely on him a lot and
01:16:18
Speaker
And it might not have worked yesterday, but you know I was always kind of in the camp that Niko's not You know he's not what he used to be but he's not as washed as a lot of people We're saying he still had double-digit assists last year. He still can run his ass off So I think he's gonna do some good stuff for them And I think ultimately that'll be a good signing, but let down for them in their first game, and then I think
01:16:41
Speaker
the toughest one that i watched last night noah and this will be a good segue into our little preview at the end here but awesome to see man oof 2-1 defeat to minnesota united at q2 but i'm telling you man i watched quite a bit of that game i had that one up a lot
01:16:57
Speaker
It was not that close. How do you lose in Minnesota United? Minnesota United looked like Real Madrid. It's Austin FC. It was 2-1 at the end because Austin scored in the 94th minute, right at the end. But that was pretty much a 2-0 game. And Minnesota, especially in the first half,
01:17:15
Speaker
all over them like egregiously yeah like on top of them on Austin's home field the whole game Sebastian Drew see is already done his hamstring Josh Josh wolf he's on the hottest seat in the league like straight up that was surprised I didn't get rid of him after last season I was I kind of was too I think a lot of people were I think a lot of their own fan base was
01:17:37
Speaker
I definitely didn't do anything to make that see the cool that seat down now last night that was that team is in shambles there in shambles their sporting directors this new guy he has a lot of work to do and admittedly he hasn't really he didn't really make a lot of moves to make his mark in this window like I said Drew sees her
01:17:59
Speaker
They still have Manuel Ragoni, who's just really been an underperforming DP. Their CBs, Julio Cascante and whoever else they put back there seem pretty error prone. They concede a lot of soft goals.
01:18:17
Speaker
a lot of that I'm telling you man like I watched a lot of that game it looked non-competitive abjectly non-competitive okay so we'll segue that into the preview because Seattle's next opponent is is Austin FC coming to lumen field next Saturday
01:18:35
Speaker
We'll try and make this a quick one. I know we've gone long, Noah, but I think I'm just excited to be back. No, I know. We're cooking. There's also a lot that happened. There's been a lot that happened. To everyone who's bearing with us and listened to this point, thank you. We're just going to knock out this preview and get out of here.
01:18:56
Speaker
So I mean from a Seattle perspective if there's an opponent that presents an opportunity for a get right game I mean on paper you would think this would be it. I'm telling you guys this team is down bad horrendous down really bad and That can go one of two ways when you play a team like this and that's one thing I'll tell you is because as down bad as they might be
01:19:18
Speaker
They're also desperate. Josh Wolf is, he is coaching for his job. Like that is not an exaggeration or, um, you know, me trying to rile anybody up. That is the reality of his situation. I guarantee you, he knows that. Um, he probably.
01:19:36
Speaker
I guarantee you he's well aware that he was a little on the rocks after how last year went for them. They were the most under-achieving team in the league last year, I think, because the year before that, they made the Western Conference final. They took all their screenshots of the preseason predictions. They had a rollicking good time dunking on everybody when they made a little playoff run, got blown out by LAFC in the Western Conference final. But, you know, Josh Wolf, he was up there.
01:20:02
Speaker
He was touting how much they defied the pundits and expectations and a lot of people, myself included, were pointing out that they drastically overperformed what their performance numbers were. Yeah, exactly. Remember Fraud Watch? Austin FC was on Fraud Watch after that conference final run two years ago and it was entirely validated.
01:20:25
Speaker
Last year because they didn't really make a lot of moves and their luck evened out. That's what happens man That's the game and that's why you went you and you do the like dunking on the pundits thing when you have kind of an overachieving year Like that's fine. Like I would do the same thing if Seattle did that but yeah, you're playing a dangerous game especially if you're a coach up there talking about like chest thumping about how you proved everyone wrong and then you go out have a year like they did last year and
01:20:52
Speaker
I'm with you, man. I was like pretty surprised that they didn't make a change there just because of like how How kind of toxic the vibes? Yeah? They traded away their fan base was feeling themselves after Making the conference final and they were all bragging about how they were gonna defy the pundits again and then when it didn't pan out like that they got pretty upset and
01:21:16
Speaker
I think the fans hate hate the club more than anyone like they definitely like yeah No, I kind of see what you're saying. Yeah There definitely have become self-aware about what's going on. I mean if I were them I'd be disgusted too. I mean, you know all one thing I will say is that Like if they do make a move and get rid of Joshua wolf, I'm really gonna miss his press conferences and
01:21:39
Speaker
I've been tuning into them frequently. That's one of your favorite things. It really is. Well, I always enjoy a coach press conference when a coach is under the gun. And when they start to get to that point, their answers start getting very adversarial and confrontational. And that has very much been the case dating back to last season with Josh Wolff at Austin FC.
01:22:04
Speaker
I think I was talking about this on one of their shows last season, but they have a couple reporters, but one in particular who's really antagonistic towards him. And I just love their dynamic when he grills Josh Wolf, and Josh Wolf is getting all defensive, and they start going at it. I live for that. I cannot tune into those post-game pressers fast enough. I tuned right in to the one after their loss first Minnesota last night.
01:22:33
Speaker
Josh like what do you have to say brother? What's going on? Tell me what tell me what's on your mind? Talk to me Josh He already it's one game into the season and he is already He looks rattled up there and I like he's trying not to come off as rattled but like
01:22:50
Speaker
You can't hide it. You can't hide it when you're in this situation that he's in so Anyway, that's not to say that this is gonna be an easy game because people love to use the sounders to just exactly man around exactly exactly so the whole goal of this game is
01:23:09
Speaker
You can't let that happen. This can't be one of those games where you get out-intensified by a team that's inferior to you. That's happened too much last year, mostly against the Portland Timbers, but against a couple of other teams, too. That's really what this game is going to come down to, because even if Seattle is still missing Rusnak, hopefully they can get JP and Steph
Austin FC's Strategy and Sounders' Home Advantage
01:23:35
Speaker
and Fryback. And if that's the case,
01:23:38
Speaker
You have more talent than this Austin FC team right now. This Austin FC team is rebuilding with a new sporting director. That's the situation that they are in. They're going to bring a team here that's going to try and probably muck up the game and get out of here with a zero zero or a one one if they can. That's honestly like what they should do, given the talent mismatch that's at play here theoretically. So
01:24:07
Speaker
go jump on top of them put on a show for the home fans. Hopefully de la vega can start. I think if they have de la vega starting that same roster that they rolled out against la fc you can you can bam agree win agreed and like you have to actually go out and execute that though like i'm not too
01:24:27
Speaker
hot and bothered about losing the LAFC game, but you need to put it in the rear view mirror and take a dub here at home against a team that is reeling with like essentially a lame duck coach. Yeah. Like, so just go out and execute, get three points, get the vibes back right after they, they, they suffered a little bit at LAFC yesterday. That's pretty much how I see it. Um, you had anything on Austin FC?
01:24:54
Speaker
No, I think it'll be a nice return to Loom and Field. Hope to see you all there. I'll be there. Ari, will you be there? I'm going to be there. I'm not going to be doing live dares anymore, as we know, but I'm still going to be going to the home game. So I'll be up in the BB.
01:25:10
Speaker
Maybe we maybe we need to do some fan reacts after the game do some our stuff at sounders fancy. Lobbing scorchers fan TV.
Closing and Gratitude
01:25:19
Speaker
I kind of like that idea. Yeah, it's not bad. Okay. Well in that case we ran long on this one. So let's get out of here. Yeah, let's go really good to be back. Thank you to everyone who who's tuning back in. We're going to try and get these going regularly and but I want to say I appreciate everyone. I got a few messages and tweets from people who
01:25:38
Speaker
We're like, hey man, where's the podcast? Is it coming back? And it makes me feel good that we have listeners and people that enjoy tuning into this show. Me and Noah have been doing it for fun when we were roommates, which we're not anymore. But when you guys give us positive feedback, it gets us motivated to want to keep doing it and know that you all enjoy it and that we're not just talking to ourselves. So appreciate you all.
01:26:03
Speaker
We're gonna we're gonna keep grinding these out and Yeah, that'll be a wrap for this one until next time we out