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Nos Audietis, episode 299: Finally something fun to talk about
59 Plays6 years ago
We finally have something nice to talk about, even if the Sounders made us sweat through 96 minutes before giving it to us. Kelvin Leerdam delivered the winner in the 6th minute of stoppage time, giving the Sounders their first win in six weeks and ending a four-game all-competition losing streak and pulling them within two points of second-place LA Galaxy.
Almost as impressive as the, was the way they got it. The Sounders tied a season-high with 24 shots, including 14 from inside the penalty area. That doesn’t even include that absolute golazo from 16-year-old Danny Leyva, who was robbed of his first career goal by VAR. Speaking of Leyva, he was part of a virtual Sounders youth movement as they fielded their youngest starting lineup of the year with Gustav Svensson the only out field player who was at least 30. It was also a relatively cheap group, as 66 percent of the Sounders payroll was unavailable for one reason or another.
We discussed all of this as well as taking questions from readers ... which included our fictional co-rec team made up of current Sounders and Reign players.
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.
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food! Lots of it! Fullpool's unique writing styles apply to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Show Introduction by Sounders Players
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Fuck! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Morris runs right by him and sticks in and slots it in for a roll! Fantastic for George Morris!
00:00:55
Speaker
Here's Morris! Morris! Think of an ant! What do tigers dream of? They take a little tiger's hand. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle.
00:01:27
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Focal Wines. This is episode 299, and we're recording on Monday, July 1st, 2019. I'm your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. As usual, I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickit, is here too. Just...
00:01:41
Speaker
Take our word for it. Uh, we finally have something nice to talk about.
Sounders' Victory and Team Dynamics
00:01:45
Speaker
Even if the centers made us sweat through 96 minutes before giving it to us, Kelvin Lierdom delivered the winner in the six minute of stoppage time getting the centers their first win in six weeks and ending a four game all competition losing streak.
00:01:56
Speaker
and pulling them within two points in second place, LA Galaxy. Almost as impressive as the win was the way they got it. The Sounders tied a season high with 24 shots, including 14 from inside the penalty area. That doesn't even include the absolute gold lasso from 16-year-old Daniel Leyva, who was robbed of his first career goal by VAR. Speaking of Leyva, he was part of a virtual Sounders youth movement as they fielded their youngest starting lineup of the year with Gustav Svensson, the only outfield player who was at least 30 years old.
00:02:24
Speaker
It was also a relatively cheap group as 66% of the owners payroll was unavailable for one reason or another. All that said, Aaron, how good are you feeling about a win over, let's be honest, a mediocre at best Vancouver whitecaps team?
00:02:39
Speaker
I mean, pretty good considering how much trouble the Sounders have been having with mediocre at best teams during this power outage, I guess you could call it. I think they played really well. I think that they deserve much more than a one goal win based on the quality of play and based on the balls that actually went into the back of the net while play was still active as well.
00:03:05
Speaker
It wasn't a fun game to watch, especially the first half. I thought the first half was about as boring of a game as we've seen this season. But if
Standings and Season Outlook
00:03:18
Speaker
you can get three points with a group that's as compromised as what the Sounders have right now, I think you have to feel good about it. They're going to start getting players back soon. I think that they're not going to have Nico back for Wednesday, I don't believe.
00:03:35
Speaker
Cause Peru, yeah, Peru one. Okay. Sorry. I was second guessing myself there. Um, but you know, they'll get them back, they'll get them back soon. Um, I think the NYCFC game is going to be a pretty tough one. Um, they've been extremely good, especially at home because they play in a not soccer stadium. Um, so that's a pretty huge advantage to have, but.
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I feel good about it. You know, I think everybody knew that this stretch was going to be tough. And right now, the sounders are two points behind the galaxy with a game in hand, I believe. Yeah, with the game in hand. They're not going to catch LFC, LAFC, unless something crazy happens to LAFC. Although they are just eight points back of LAFC. I don't think they're going to catch LAFC either. But I was surprised to see that they were even that close.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's pretty shocking. LAFC is on a very, very crazy, um, crazy run right now. And so, um, you know, that's, they have a chance of breaking yet again, the single season points record. So, um, yeah, so if they don't catch LAFC, which I don't think they will, um, even though they are closer than it might seem that they would be, um,
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, they're in good shape, I guess is the point that I'm getting at. I think it's totally reasonable to think that they're gonna finish second in the West. And considering how many players have been missing, how long this stretch has gone on, it hasn't been a whole lot of fun and it's not over yet, but really they just haven't done that much damage to themselves and to their standings in the league.
00:05:14
Speaker
some of the narrative was that oh well I guess we just shifted you know the horrible part of the season a couple months back but I just I really don't I don't know I don't think it's been that bad and I feel like every season aside from 2014 has had a period that was just kind of rough like this we're getting close to the end of it and we're still in pretty good shape so
00:05:36
Speaker
But definitely good to get three points instead of one. And it was really starting to feel like it was just going to be one of those kind of nights. So it was a huge relief to get to three points and stay towards the top of the conference. Yeah, I think last year we talked a lot about how if the Sounders could just kind of tread, if they had just been able to get a point here or there,
00:06:02
Speaker
you know, maybe pull out some win, you know, a win or two. That stretch at the beginning of the season wouldn't have been so bad. And I think that's more what we're seeing is what would happen if they were actually pulling out some results. Their last 10, which is basically when their struggles started, they've, you know, after their blazing seven games start to the season, there's three, four, and three, which is not gangbusters, but
00:06:30
Speaker
that's how you stay in a race is like struggling but still claiming uh 12 points in 10 games yeah i mean that's the thing is you you kind of have to i think anticipate that you're going to hit a stretch like this at some point uh in MLS i just kind of think that's the way it goes and so you have to just not completely fall apart for it to not torpedo things and um you know three losses in a row isn't great but
00:07:01
Speaker
I feel like there have been periods where the sounders have played worse for consistently longer periods than this and still ended up okay.
00:07:10
Speaker
would I much rather spread the losses over the course of the season? I mean, of course I would. Like, it's a bummer to have this lull every year at some point in the year, whether it's the beginning, middle, or end. But that's just, you know, it's kind of the nature of the beast. And the teams that stay healthy, the teams that are of the competitive teams, because there's usually, I think, five or six teams in MLS every year that are genuine contenders,
00:07:38
Speaker
whichever team stays the healthiest, whichever team is least affected by call ups and things like that is usually the team that ends up winning the shield. And this year, it looks like it's probably going to be LAFC last year. You know, it was it was Atlanta. It's just kind of the way it goes. And Atlanta didn't win the supporters shield. Oh, that's right. That was New York won it last year. Right. Well, I guess it's always a funny thing to remember there. I guess there were two very lucky teams last year. But yeah, I mean, it's
00:08:07
Speaker
I would love to be.
00:08:09
Speaker
uh, in the mix for the shield every year. I don't know, especially in the current iteration of MLS, where teams just have a lot of international players, um, significantly more, I think, than they used to. I don't know if you can really necessarily expect that every season, but I think as long as you're kind of in the mix and towards the top of your conference and strong going into the playoffs, you've got to feel pretty good about it. It remains to be seen, obviously, if the Sounders are going to be strong going into playoffs, we've still got quite a bit of season left, but, um,
00:08:39
Speaker
you know, their nadir was not as bad as I think everybody feared. And I'm assuming that we've hit the nadir. That seems like a safe assumption, but maybe not. I don't know. Maybe I'm jinxing things. Who knows? I mean, they got two more road games. One of them is against a Columbus crew team that, like a lot of the previous opponents, is really struggling and seems ripe for an
00:09:04
Speaker
I don't know if you would even call it an upset, but it seems like the kind of game the Sounders should be able to figure out to win. But a little note,
Sounders' Home Performance and Player Highlights
00:09:11
Speaker
the Sounders finished with 43 points in the second half of last season. Granted, that's a historic season. But if they were to do that again, and granted they won't, but they would be on 72 points, which would almost certainly that would be the one of the two best
00:09:30
Speaker
records in MLS history, and it would certainly push LAFC if they were able to repeat that. But to put that in context, the Sounders only finished with 59 last year, so they're 15 points ahead of where they were at this point last year, which is
00:09:46
Speaker
a pretty good place to be, I'd say. No, 13, sorry, 13 points ahead of where they were last year. Still, it's, I guess it's just a way of illustrating that this has not been, if this is as bad as it gets, the sounders are in fine shape. And I think we saw that
00:10:05
Speaker
you know, I've kind of been thinking this a lot during a lot of the streak is that to some degree, having all these road games all piled up is maybe making their struggles look a little bit more significant than they would be if they were playing one or two of those games at home, because they are showing that they can keep that they could get results at home. And that they're much more capable of grinding out results when you know, they're at Century League Field where they're
00:10:34
Speaker
right now they're one of the two best home teams in the league right along with LAFC. So this is a pretty good home team if they can at least get, if they can get a couple points from this road trip, I think they'd have to feel really good about themselves and they'd set themselves up really nicely. But let's talk a little bit about Danny Leyva who
00:11:02
Speaker
Even if you don't count that goal, and I guess MLS is insistent on not counting that goal, I thought it was an absolutely spectacular game. I would say as far as rookies in, I don't know if he's technically a rookie because he had signed a pro contract prior to this year, but assuming, I think people understand what I'm saying as far as like calling him a rookie,
00:11:28
Speaker
I would put this up there with the best ever rookie performances by a sounder in their debut at least.
00:11:35
Speaker
probably the best. I don't even know who would be second best, frankly. I just was very impressed by his composure, by his passing. He had a bunch of really nice switches. He made a whole slew of interceptions and tackles, including a, he helped keep the ball a couple times in stoppage time, one of which essentially led to the goal they scored.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that the thing that was probably the most encouraging to me is that I think that he was much stronger in the second half and really sort of asserted himself more in the second half. In the first half, though, I mean, at halftime, I said, man, I don't really remember him at all. And I think that given the context and given his role, that's actually a really good thing. Like, if you're not. He wasn't getting beaten. I don't know. And I don't know that Vancouver was really picking on him.
00:12:33
Speaker
either by purpose, like either they just recognize that he wasn't a weak spot. But yeah, he was not, there was never a point where I was like, oh, he's getting overrun.
00:12:42
Speaker
Right.
Danny Leyva's Promising Debut
00:12:43
Speaker
And I mean, he wasn't making bad passes. He seemed fine. He seemed to fit in. Generally, I think that you want somebody playing the way he was playing in the first half to not really stick out. And so I thought that was encouraging. But then in the second half, I think you could partially, I think that there was sort of a tactical shift. I think that the sounders kind of recognized that we're going to have to be a little bit more aggressive.
00:13:07
Speaker
to break down Vancouver and sort of maybe risk the counter-attack a little bit more. So that probably helped, but he genuinely did not really put a foot wrong. I mean, he had a couple of passes that didn't do what I think he was hoping for them to do, but they were aggressive passes. Like he was trying to make plays, he was trying to make things happen, and that's what you want from a creative midfielder.
00:13:33
Speaker
At the same time, you mentioned the interceptions, you mentioned him just sort of being in the way of a lot of what Vancouver was doing. And I think for somebody that's a younger player, not a younger player, I mean, the youngest player, right, a 16-year-old,
00:13:48
Speaker
the things that they tend to need a few years of experience to be good at. And this is not just teenagers, but kids out of college are things like reading the game, you know, sort of a tactical education and experience and things like that. And he seems just miles ahead, you know, of where you would expect people to be, um, in that regard. And I mean, it's, it,
00:14:14
Speaker
it's tempting to get carried away because it's just so rare to see somebody that young look so comfortable and accomplished in those areas of the game. I mean, those are the things that tend to take a few years to polish. Like when people say, oh, that player has a lot of promise, but they need to grow into the game, they need to
00:14:35
Speaker
just gave the experience, the stuff that he was doing and excelling at are things that those are the kind of things people are talking about. And that's just really, really encouraging to see. Obviously, Vancouver is not a great team. Obviously, Vancouver for the vast majority of the game was content to sit back and look for counters. And they were playing their third game in eight days, right against all
00:14:59
Speaker
rhyme and reason and they were using nine nine players played in all three of those games which is very curious to me but anyway so yeah so i mean there there are definitely caveats right um he has to do it consistently he's gonna have bad games um
00:15:14
Speaker
you know, accomplished veterans have bad games, but they're used to it. When kids have bad games, especially if they make mistakes that lead to goals and things like that, it can, you know, it can damage the psyche probably a little bit more. Um, so, I mean, it's important to not get carried away at this stage, but
00:15:31
Speaker
It's really, I think it would be very difficult to expect more from a debut of a player, of a 16-year-old player. I mean, if he was a first-round draft pick, like a top three draft pick, and that was his first game, I would be able to win. For a 16-year-old, it's out of this world. I think if he was 19,
00:15:51
Speaker
people would be talking about like, oh, this guy might be the future of the men's national team. Yeah, not off, you know, maybe not for one performance, but if he consistently does things like that at 16, I don't know what, like, I don't, I don't know that we have a good comparison for a 16 year old who's playing that sort of role. The thing I thought was most interesting is I asked
00:16:12
Speaker
Brian Schmetzer about the decision to use Leyva instead of Delham who is coming off a very good performance in the Gold Cup. I kind of assumed that it was they didn't want like Delham hadn't played in
00:16:27
Speaker
a week, I believe. So he was on full rest, but maybe they were just wanting to take it easy with him, whatever. And Schmester said, no, it was completely a tactical decision. They basically didn't want to put Dellum next to Svensson as they both are kind of like sit deep type of defensive midfielders. And he wanted Leyva in there precisely because he thought he'd do more attacking. And he wanted him to get involved in the attack and he wanted him to push, you know, push forward.
00:16:55
Speaker
And he wanted him to kind of play the Christian Roldan role, which I don't, I'm not gonna sit here and say that's a more complicated role than what you're asking Gustav Svensson to play. But it does seem to show some faith that, and some belief in his ability. And we saw that, you know, when he collects the rebound off of the Justin Dillon shot, and he picks his head up, he takes, I'm thinking just shoot it, just get it off your foot.
00:17:25
Speaker
And he's much smarter than me. He takes a couple dribbles, he puts himself in position, and he just floats an absolutely perfect ball into the upper 90, over five defenders, three of which are in position to potentially make a save if he doesn't hit it basically perfect.
00:17:43
Speaker
I just thought it showed a ton of composure a ton of confidence and You know, I don't you know, it was it was funny I I was I also asked Spencer about him being a defensive midfielder and and Spencer didn't even want to commit to him being a defensive builder He just just like he's a good ease. I don't know that he's a defensive builder. He might be more of an eight He might be a 10. I don't know and I just thought you know, and I guess that's a reminder. He's 16. So you don't want right? Yeah
00:18:10
Speaker
You have no idea. But it's just like, this is the skill set this kid has. He might be a world, I mean, he really might be like a world class number eight. He might be a world class number six. He might be a pretty damn good number 10. I don't know. I mean, he could obviously fall well short of all those things too. But it's really exciting to see a player like that. And I, I mean, I just wonder, like now it was like, it went from being like, oh, I'm sure he'll play a few minutes this year.
00:18:40
Speaker
because the sounders are pretty high on him. But what's the scenario where Danny Leyva gets a series of starts?
00:18:49
Speaker
No, I mean, I think I think the last show like I even went so far as to say if he's getting significant minutes, something's gone very wrong. Right. And maybe it doesn't go. Maybe he just deserves to start games sometimes. Yeah. No, I mean, I think I think that's totally reasonable. And I think I don't know that NYCFC is is a game that you would expect him to start, but.
00:19:16
Speaker
But maybe the next one is, you know? Like, I don't think he's an automatic starter, but he's earned another look. Like, it's not like he has to wait for his next chance now. Right. I would totally agree. And I would say that, you know, with Nico Ledero coming back, that obviously throws a wrinkle into things, but. I like, I could see maybe them going with Delham and Svensson as the defense, as the, as the kind of the, the double pivot.
00:19:43
Speaker
against New York City FC just because they might want a more defensive look. But if Ledero, I mean, if they aren't going to put ship next to this fence, in which I suppose is a possibility, Leyva maybe is a very good play against Columbus. And it's crazy to think about that. I'll also say that Alfonso Ocampo Chavez, granted, he only played
00:20:08
Speaker
a couple minutes in regulation and then eight minutes or so in stoppage time. So he didn't have a ton of play, but I watched the stoppage time again today. I watched basically his whole appearance a couple times today. And he didn't do anything spectacular. And there was one play where he ended up trying to pass it to, I think, Bawana, where he probably could have shot.
00:20:37
Speaker
Overall, I thought he also showed quite a lot of composure. He won a couple fouls that were not easy, like that were important fouls to win where he won possession, then he basically forced the Vancouver player into making a foul. He had a couple decent kind of moves into the attacking third. You know, nothing to get super excited about the same with Danny Leyva, but for a 17-year-old making his debut,
00:21:04
Speaker
And I was I was pretty I mean I thought there was some promise there. I will say one thing that's kind of funny about Ocampo Chavez and Leyva is Leyva
00:21:14
Speaker
is a, has a much more mature kind of presence about him. And he seems much more comfortable like speaking to the media. And I, the thing that most impressed me was, you know, he, so he was doing this, his whole, you know, media thing after the game. He's answering in long, full sentences. Like these are the kinds of things you, you come to not expect from younger players, right? He's, he's articulating
00:21:40
Speaker
complicated ideas. He's not worried about talking about himself. But then at the end of it, he starts getting answered, asked questions in Spanish, and then just without missing a beat, he's doing the same thing in Spanish. And
00:21:58
Speaker
You know, it's, I don't know, for me, I'm just blown away that he can be that articulate in two languages and that he can be, that he can just do it so effortlessly. Like someone like Christian Roldan, I give him a ton of credit for like basically forcing himself to speak Spanish, but you can tell it comes a little tougher to him, even though he grew up in a Spanish speaking household. Whereas Danny Leyva just was like, you know, he just kind of like flipped a switch in his brain and he was speaking Spanish.
00:22:28
Speaker
and answering with the same level of articulateness. It was very impressive to see. One other young player I wanted to highlight was Henry Wingo, who has not played a ton up until recently. And I think it's probably not even controversial to say this. This was his best MLS performance, don't you think?
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah, without question. I mean, and he looked great against Portland in the Open Cup in a short, you know, a short stint. And I think we talked about that. But, you know, this was a start. And I think he was outstanding. I think it was everything that I've been wanting to see from from Bwana and haven't. I think Bwana is probably more physically gifted. I think that Bwana
00:23:10
Speaker
is maybe even in some respects more technically strong, but I think Wingo just has a maturity to his game that Bwana doesn't have quite yet. He's taking people on effectively in a way that Bwana just does not. Bwana, we've kind of talked about it before. He has one move right now.
00:23:31
Speaker
And that's okay I mean he's still very young he's got plenty of time to develop. But I think he was getting looks and maybe a little bit more buzz because I think he is so gifted physically and I think he is so, you know, he's, he has a technical skill set that
00:23:47
Speaker
Frankly, we haven't seen all that much from our homegrown players necessarily. But Wingo, I think, he has a maturity to his game. And it's not like he does not have an impressive physical skill set. And it's not like he's not a technically solid player, because he definitely is.
00:24:03
Speaker
He's just, I think, more capable of putting it all together right now. And I'm really glad he got, you know, he got that start because I thought he was outstanding. And it's nice to be able to bring on somebody like Bwana who is a lot for defenses to deal with, especially late in games with tired legs. Yeah, I kind of feel like right now, Bwana is the better option off the bench. And Wingo is the guy who I'm a little more comfortable seeing play for 70, 80 minutes.
00:24:29
Speaker
I was getting actually kind of frustrated with Bwana over the last few games in part because I just felt like
00:24:38
Speaker
whatever like that killer instinct just seemed like it went out from him for whatever reason he was getting too easily be like pushed off the ball he wasn't being aggressive on offense he was basically a non-factor on defense and wingo was all was the opposite of all those things he was he was taking his chances he was attacking the defenders uh he was strong defensively uh
00:25:04
Speaker
I don't know, I still don't know what Wingo's future is in this league. I think it might unfortunately for him be kind of a jack of all trades. Like I don't know that he's gonna really have a chance to settle in in one position. I know the Sounders had talked about him being a right back and
00:25:22
Speaker
That doesn't seem like it's ever going to really come to fruition. But he had three key passes. He had two successful dribbles. He had a shot. And that's exactly the kind of thing I want to see from a young defensive or a young outside midfielder.
00:25:40
Speaker
And he was just fun to watch. He didn't necessarily have a starring performance, but I think this is the kind of performance we really needed to see from him to remind us of why he's still here and why the sounders haven't kind of just kind of cut bait on him. And then even I was even like I thought like I was a little surprised to hear some of the criticisms with Justin Dylan.
00:26:05
Speaker
I suppose that might be because he only had, he didn't really get involved in the game too much. He only had 17 touches, but the guy had, he had four shots.
00:26:15
Speaker
Like, I thought, I thought he played well. I mean, I saw, I saw some criticism as well and I was a little taken aback by it. I mean, uh, did he play as well as you would have expected Wilbur and to play? No, I don't think so. Um, it's because he's, he was playing in USL and Wilbur and got hurt. And so that's who you got to replace him with. But I mean, if, if Justin Dylan's on this roster next year, after Wilbur is recovered and ready to play again, I'm totally fine with that. I think he, he showed well, I think he showed.
00:26:46
Speaker
at least gave you reason to believe that he's better than sort of a replacement level USL player. That's one of the things that we've kind of talked about in the past is if you're filling out the roster with guys like this,
00:26:59
Speaker
you know, with replacement level U.S.L. players, right? Like, what level of performance can you really expect them to put in? And I think he exceeded that. Especially considering, you know, he's been practicing with a team for what, like a week, I think. And he was on fairly short notice getting signed. I mean... He wasn't one of the guys that was called into the
00:27:19
Speaker
first team for the Open Cup game. He was very much a second, a second tier, like the Sounders didn't sign, I don't think the Sounders signed him with the expectation that he was going to make it to the first team. I think he was signed primarily to basically fill out the roster and give competition to people like Alfonso Con, or
00:27:41
Speaker
Ocampo Chavez and Alec Diaz and some of the younger guys at the Defiance. And as it turns out, he's won the starting job there. And so I think he's somewhat exceeding expectations, but yeah, he hadn't done more than a few training sessions with the first team.
00:27:57
Speaker
Yeah, and he has, and I think you could kind of see that. I mean, he was definitely mistiming his runs a little bit, but he was making good runs. I mean, he sees space, he understands when he needs to be making his runs. And he got him behind a few times, you know, I think that there were definitely reasons to be encouraged by his performance. I also like that he has a skill set that no sounder's forward has. I mean, he is a big boy and he plays like a big boy.
00:28:21
Speaker
He's 6'4". He's all of 6'4". He is very large. And Will Baroon is a big boy, but he doesn't always necessarily play like it. And Justin Dylan is a bigger young man. But he has a physical presence that I think the sounders could use on occasion. So yeah, I was encouraged. I mean, I don't think he's ever going to be a world beater. I don't think that this is going to be like a
00:28:47
Speaker
a situation where we just uncover this diamond in the rough and he turns into a 20-goal year scorer or whatever, but I think he could be a very solid guy to have on the roster. It's nice to have two strikers again on the roster. I mean, I know AOC is also on the roster, but
00:29:03
Speaker
until he starts to getting regular playing time. I'm just going to kind of assume he's not going to play very much. So yeah, I mean, I think I'll be very happy when Raul gets back. I wish Will Bruin wasn't hurt, but all things considered, I was pretty encouraged by what we got from Dylan in that game. Yeah, based on this game alone and Frank and who knows what we see the next time from him. But based on this game, I'm much less worried about the next two games where Dylan and maybe AOC are going to
00:29:33
Speaker
be playing some. My initial reaction to Rui Diaz in Peru winning, beating Uruguay in the Copa America was like, well, I probably would have rather had Rui Diaz back just because I felt a little more confident with the midfield depth. But now I'm kind of, maybe this works out. Maybe this works out OK.
00:30:00
Speaker
Um, cause Lidero I think is the more important overall player, but given the current situation, the Sounders were in seemingly, uh, Rudy has seemed like he might be more important, but Dylan, at least I think if he, if what you're at, what you're looking for from Dylan is two more games and then like spots, you know, like he's the one you get through it. Like the other thing I like about Dylan is he's the one you could probably throw in at the end of a game and just say, get on the end of a set piece. Like they don't have guys like that really.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah, and as much as I like Roman Torres playing forward in the novelty of that, it's probably better to have an actual striker, you know, to take that on. So yeah, it's I mean, I love big physical strikers, and I always have it's a problem I have. So it's nice to finally have one of those. I mean, I get I get I can see Dylan having like an Ellen Gordon esque kind of career where he
00:30:55
Speaker
You know, maybe he has a year or two where for some reason he gets a bunch of minutes and he scores a dozen goals or something, but he's going to, for the most part, just be some, I think he's going to probably be someone who can do a job.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah. And if that job right now is just to stay high, harass the post, like he was active. I don't have any complaints, frankly, about Justin Dylan. Like he, you know, like there was a chance or two that, you know, maybe he could have done a little bit better with, but.
00:31:27
Speaker
In general, I find that if you're complaining about somebody not finishing good chances, you're complaining about bad luck. And I really kind of feel like he was getting into good spots. He was taking good chances. His aim was a little bit off, and I can live with that.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Well, let's go to break. We're going to probably, I'm sure, have more opportunity to talk about the call, as well as a few other things. When we take questions from readers, you're listening to no audio.
00:32:01
Speaker
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00:32:20
Speaker
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00:32:41
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiates. We have questions of yours to answer. Likit is not gonna be joining us after all. And so that...
00:32:52
Speaker
Okay, Aaron and I can handle this. Aaron, go ahead and fire away with the first question. So question one is from our good pal Nate Bowling. The first question, it's a three-parter, but fortunately the first part we've already kind of talked about, and that was thoughts on Dylan's debut. So we're going to skip that. You can go back and listen to it again and pretend like we're answering Nate.
00:33:16
Speaker
Question two, Jeremiah has talked repeatedly about the likelihood of assigning. How does the emergence of Leyva and Return of Jones impact that? And then question three, and I think that there's space to kind of make these connected. Questions two and three, are we nearing the end of the Rodriguez era in Seattle? Yeah, so I think the answer to question three may or may not impact the answer to number two.
00:33:44
Speaker
From my reporting and everything I've heard, the sounders are primarily looking at a kind of central midfielder and probably someone like an eight or a six, someone that is kind of like a Gustav Svensson replacement, someone that you would potentially pair with Christian Roldan in the middle. Now, I have to admit the idea of Danny Leyva emerging to the point
00:34:11
Speaker
of changing that, I don't think, I think the reason the sounders were going down this path is they didn't foresee that as a likelihood. And it's just one game, but I do kind of wonder if
00:34:29
Speaker
maybe the timeline on Danny Leyva as a regular player gets moved up. And if that's next year, like where he's potentially competing for a starter's minutes, you would be kind of, it seems kind of silly to go and get a high price number, a high price DP that is effectively blocking him.
00:34:50
Speaker
And that maybe that money is better spent on the outside, especially if you don't think Victor Rodriguez is going to be able to stay healthy. And frankly, it is hard for me to see Victor Rodriguez long term with the Sounders. We're now in year three, and he's never been able to stay healthy all year.
00:35:13
Speaker
He's, I think someone, I saw someone compiled the percentage of games he's been available for, and it's like 44% since he got here, which is not good. And like, I don't know, I don't, is he injury prone? Is that a fair, like, is that a real thing? I don't know. But what I do know is he hasn't been able to stay healthy. And if he can't stay healthy, you can't, the centers can't trust you to stay healthy. And, you know, this was a perfect example this week where
00:35:40
Speaker
You know, he played in the open cup game. The expectation was he was going to be ready for the, for this game. And then he, he, you know, strains his hamstring. The sounders basically make a decision to keep him out. And that's that.
00:35:57
Speaker
And it's, it does, I think it does impact your decision-making process. I don't know, like, I don't know how far down the road the sounders were in potentially signing someone. And if they were far down the road in that, I don't know that they're going to change tracks now, but I do think that there might be some second, you know, some other thinking related to all that.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, go ahead. Yeah, I was actually just gonna say that I didn't really find any reason to disagree with any of that. So we can just move right on. Oh, okay. This was from Kelly Mullins. She says on a scale of zero to Clint Dempsey, how excited should we be about Leyva? I mean, I'm probably more excited about Leyva than I was about Dempsey, honestly. Really? Wow. I was and I was excited about Dempsey, but it was more funny than anything. I think that
00:36:49
Speaker
But like having a young homegrown player to obsess over, um, that could, I mean, I think that it's, I don't think it's reasonable to say the expectation is that Danny Leyva is going to be a world-class player. That's going to be a fixture in the U S national team for years to come. Like that's crazy, right? But it's not crazy to think he could be. Uh, and that's just, that's super exciting. I mean, it's part of.
00:37:14
Speaker
what's fun about being a sports fan is seeing young kids grow into what they're going to become and seeing that journey. And it's super exciting. And also from a competitive standpoint, having a young homegrown player that is cost controlled and that is off cap is really important from a competitive standpoint. So yeah, I mean, I'm super excited about him. He's not going to
00:37:42
Speaker
influence results as much as Dempsey did, obviously, at least at this stage. But from being excited to watch what happens standpoint, yeah, I'm super excited. You know, I wonder how much does it impact things? Like, I think it's great that he's only 16. He's only 16. And he just turned 16 this season, like during the season. So he's going to be in Seattle
00:38:07
Speaker
for at least two more years, if only because he's not gonna be able to go to Europe until he's 18. But does that temper your excitement at all, knowing that he's still so young and there's like, if he really does continue on this arc that you, like in the best case scenario arc, he is a player at 18 who European teams are fighting over and potentially bringing in a big fee, but the Sounders,
00:38:37
Speaker
by like most likely aren't going to get to firsthand experience his best years. Does that temper things or is it do you think in like kind of with Yedlin where you're I don't know maybe you're able to still enjoy it at a high level because you know the sounders played a big part in his development.
00:38:57
Speaker
I mean, for me, I'm definitely able to enjoy it. I mean, I love watching Yandere Edlem play in the Premier League. You know, I love seeing him continue to develop. And it's like a point of pride, you know, that he came up with the Sounders. And Leyva is going to be even more so of a Sounders Academy product than yet. Yeah, much more so. And so that's, I mean, to me, that like makes it even more exciting. And yeah, if he turns into the player that it looks like he might be capable of being, he's probably not going to be here for that long.
00:39:28
Speaker
But like you said, you know, there's a big transfer fee coming the sounder's way in that case, which is, which is always nice. Um, and, and it's one that they'll get all of, uh, which is, is also nice and it's not all of, but most stuff that's what, like 80%. I think, no, I think they get, I think now the new rule is that, that they do get a hundred percent of the homegrown. If you transfer homegrown player, I think you get to keep all of it. Well, yeah. So even better. Right. Um, and, and yeah, I mean, it's like, you want for, for a lot of reasons, you want.
00:39:58
Speaker
young players that come up to your academy and go on a greener pastures, you want them to do extremely well. You want to root for them because it means more teams are going to know who you are. Youth products are going to know who you are. It makes you a more, I think, attractive potential destination for players. I think that the academy rules are going to change a lot in the next few years. And so things like catchment areas and so forth aren't going to be nearly as big a deal.
00:40:28
Speaker
It helps improve the image of mls which in turn helps you know improve the kind of transfer fees teams are getting further academy products. Yeah i mean it's it's i think it's really hard to enjoy soccer on.
00:40:47
Speaker
to the sort of global level that I think MLS is really starting to be a part of without rooting for stories like that. And I think it's kind of foreign to the American sports experience, but I think you kind of have to make peace with it because now that MLS is where it's at and where it's, I think, going to be going in the future, it's going to be happening a lot more. So I think if you're going to keep
00:41:12
Speaker
enjoying the product and rooting for the team. It's just something you kind of have to make peace with and learn how to look on the bright side of it. The next one is from Andreas Marcos, and we kind of talked about this, but we can maybe go into more detail. Wingo versus Bwana, who should get those minutes on the wing going forward?
00:41:31
Speaker
You know, it's not quite, my inclination is to say Wingo because I think Wingo is the player I would trust to start. Coming off the bench though, and let's be honest, that's really what the long-term prognosis is this year. It's hard for me to see either one of them breaking into the starting lineup with the fully fit. As long as the Sounders are fully fit, I just don't think either one of them are gonna get more than a spot start here and there. I mean, I'll still say Wingo because I think
00:42:01
Speaker
just the way he attacks might be preferable. But I don't know. I think that they both offer different types of skill sets. And, you know, Buan is a little more proven at this point in that he's actually scored some MLS goals. He's got some MLS assists. Wingo doesn't have either as far as I know. So,
00:42:26
Speaker
I don't know. I think Wingo is the player more likely to start, but I think Buana might be the guy more likely to get minutes once the lineup is more settled.
00:42:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's true. And I would just add that I think that a big part of it too is that Wingo has earned more starts, but we've also seen more minutes rather from his performance, but we've also seen Bwana turn in exciting performances as well. And so it's really, one of them has got to do it consistently, I think to really have an edge over the other. I did see someone suggest that they would rather see Bwana and Wingo both starting over Harry ship. And I thought that that was crazy.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think I can get on that trolley. No, I mean, Harry ship, I realized hasn't maybe put up the sexiest stat line over the last, you know, four games or whatever. But Loki, he's been the best offensive player. Yeah. And he's he's a facilitator to the extreme. Yeah, I love watching Harry ship play. It's tremendous. So this is from Matt Oak. He says, is Zach Math still nursing his boo boo? I hope so.
00:43:35
Speaker
I really hope so. I really hope that whatever happened hurt like a son of a bitch. It's just infuriating to me. I'm still pissed off about it. So this was a funny situation. I'm not going to name any names, but there was a rather robust disagreement in the press box.
00:43:58
Speaker
around this incident and not just because whether or what not it was a foul was kind of secondary point of discussion. The real crux of the discussion was should the sound would the was that goal cheapened because Alan Kelly should have just blown the play dead and were the sounders being bad sports by continuing to play despite McMath being down.
00:44:28
Speaker
No, that's a huge load of horseshit. And I think it's a huge load of horseshit for several reasons. And I think primarily, Zach McMath did not, to me, look, he did not seem to give the appearance of being injured until he realized that he was not going to be able to get back in time. Yeah. He comes out, he makes a very aggressive play on the ball. He does a good job contesting the shot. Yeah.
00:44:56
Speaker
But if he doesn't get stepped on, I don't think he's got time to get back into position. And so it's not a question of whether or not, you know, it's I don't think that the quote injury unquote or quote foul unquote have anything to do with it. He makes an aggressive play. He takes a risk. He his defenders clear the ball to the worst possible place. The kid puts in an inch perfect chip into the back of the net.
00:45:24
Speaker
I mean, that's why it's an aggressive play, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's the thing is that it's like, even if, like, let's pretend he wasn't hurt. Let's remember the rebound goes out to Danny Leyva. It's not like he dicks around with the ball for 10 seconds. He pretty quickly moves into position to shoot. I don't know that that McMath would have been able to get back anyway.
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah, and that's, I think that that's just really the crux of the issue for me, is that if it's the kind of thing where the ball gets cleared but it doesn't get cleared to where it does and the math is still down and the sounders continue playing on.
00:46:09
Speaker
and and then score. Yeah, I think that maybe you've you can make a case that that's bad sportsmanship. And I think maybe you can can make a case that it cheapens the goal. But that's not what happened. And pretending that's what happened is dishonest. I mean, it was I didn't stop playing. That's the other thing is that I think there's this idea that like, oh, everyone, of course, of course, the whistle should have blown. Of course,
00:46:36
Speaker
This was not the right thing. No, the reality was that everyone on the field was still playing. There was no sense that the whistle should be blown. There was no sense that the ball should be played out. I think everyone did what they had to do. Now, secondarily, what did you think of the call? The foul call? Yeah. Also a huge pile of bullshit.
00:47:03
Speaker
I think I know where you're going with this and I should probably let you go there before I keep talking. So go ahead. Well, I was just going to say that if I had, if that had been called in, like if the foul had been called live, I think I would have begrudgingly accepted it because I do think it's kind of like one of those borderline calls where
00:47:28
Speaker
You know, it's, you see it called, right? Yeah, for sure. Like it's not, it's not necessarily a foul every part of the field, but it's like one of those situations where like the goalkeeper is more protected than other players. And does he make contact with McMath? Absolutely.
00:47:45
Speaker
does he injure him? I don't think he did but like was it reckless? No way he's just kicking through the ball. I just couldn't believe it was overturned on a like if like and I don't and I think that's one of the things that's most frustrating about VAR is that clear and obvious on paper seems like a really
00:48:06
Speaker
clear and obvious standard. And in reality, it's really just another judgment call. Like, yeah, yep, absolutely. That's 100% that and that is where I thought you were going. And I kind of agree. I mean, I think that's a shitty call if it gets called a foul. But the key thing is if it gets whistled right away, nothing's being taken away. And so there's not the emotional aspect of it.
00:48:30
Speaker
But it was absolutely a case of Kelly realizing he probably should have blown the whistle. And I think of getting bullied. I mean, frankly, I think that the Vancouver players were all over him, and he decided he needed to review it because of that, because clearly they must have seen something. It's obviously not clear and obvious, right?
00:48:57
Speaker
Yeah, you could, it wouldn't be shocking to see that called a foul real time I think it's a bad call, but most of the time it doesn't really matter so whatever. I think going back and taking the goal away is horseshit, and I think, and this is the thing I mean I think both of us were huge proponents of the AR.
00:49:17
Speaker
And in a perfect world, I still am. I think eliminating error is great, however you can do it. The problem is that the implementation has been as bad as it can possibly be just across the board. And that's what's in a way that makes it more frustrating because I do feel like I would almost say passionately in support of VAR in that if you have this tool,
00:49:42
Speaker
to correct obvious mistakes, why wouldn't you use it? But what's so frustrating about it is like you said, it's being used all the time to second guess themselves. And that's not to me the spirit of the rule. It's not, you know, it's not
00:50:00
Speaker
making everything perfect. That's not the goal. And I think that was, to me, articulated early on in the implementation of this. It's not we want to get 100% of calls, 100% right. It's we want to get the biggest calls as right as possible. And
00:50:18
Speaker
I don't think, like, I feel like there's just too much wiggle room and there's too many goals that seem like they should stand being taken off the board. And I think that every goal taken off the board is way worse than every goal that's wrongly allowed to stand, you know, like. Yeah, absolutely. Because there's so few goals and goals are such a big part of,
00:50:45
Speaker
of this league and I realize you don't want to get into a situation where you're basically advising referees to let it play because you can always go back and correct it. Like there's a fine line between those things, right? But man,
00:51:08
Speaker
I just don't like the idea that we're taking goals off the board as much as we are. And I'm still, I would say I'm still a big fan of VAR. I'd be really bummed to see it go, but it just kills me that it's being used the way that it is.
00:51:20
Speaker
Yeah, I would definitely agree. I would totally agree with that. The interesting thing, too, about this discussion is that the next question was, why do we even have VAR? So I think we can probably skip that one, but thank you, drone637, for that question. So we'll move on to OhOops, who asks, can you guys explain why Weirdum didn't make the cut for MLS All-Star? Please use sarcasm if necessary. I mean, clearly, it's because he's
00:51:49
Speaker
Not because Graham Zusi is just that good. Yeah, clearly. No, I was I was surprised for sure that I don't know. Lierdom. Was I mean, statistically, Lierdom is probably the best fullback in the league on a counting stats basis. I don't know.
00:52:16
Speaker
I was, I was a little more surprised that Brad Smith wasn't on because I felt like he's just been the best, like to me he's the best left back in the league. Whereas I don't know that Brad that Kelvin Lierdom is so obviously the best right back in the league. I think Lierdom's been statistic maybe he's, you know, from a goal and assist.
00:52:36
Speaker
perspective, maybe he's been the best, but I don't know. I don't, there's a lot, I felt like on the fringes, there were some really questionable decisions by James O'Connor. And by the way, I hate the idea that coach is whoever happens to be the coach of the host. It's extremely, yeah, it's extremely stupid.
00:53:03
Speaker
Like, I mean, a lot of things about the all-star game are extremely stupid, but that seems like one of the dumbest. Yeah. It seems to me like it's like the defense, like the defending coach, the defending MLS champion or something should be the coach. Yep. That seems like the most logical, but you know, what do I know?
00:53:23
Speaker
This one's from Bill Jones, STRPT. Should we just call him Bill Jones Trumpet? I don't know. Yeah, I think so. Okay. He's got, I wonder, I'd love to know what the streak of shows that he's had questions on. I think all of them. It might be. We do love that you keep giving us good questions. Absolutely. Because they are almost always very good questions. Yeah. Are we currently shopping in the position that Rodriguez ship play for DP talent? Are we also looking for another striker? Or is Jordan our number two going gold?
00:53:54
Speaker
I mean, I would I would expect that. So I don't think the sounders are signing a DP in this window because I don't think they can. Right. They know they just could. They definitely like in the they can. They definitely can. And they've suggested that they are.
00:54:10
Speaker
Like maybe not likely, but that they definitely are considering. So who can, can Ariaga be? Yeah. Ariaga is only on like 500,000. Like he's like just barely making more in total compensation than Rodriguez. Right. But I thought, I thought it was an issue of transfer fee with him.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah, but it's like he's got like, I think he's got like a $2 million transfer fee spread over three years. It's like 700,000. Okay. So he's got like 1.2 cap it. Okay. So, so that, um, I mean, I would imagine that they're still probably looking and I don't know that ship and Rodriguez are really analogous. I mean, I think Rodriguez is more of a pure attacking player, but they, but they do, I guess both kind of operate in the attacking midfield.
00:54:52
Speaker
Um, I would still kind of assume that they're looking for at the central midfield, but, but I don't know. I mean, I, I think that you can get, I think the ceiling on the kind of potential that, that you can get for assigning and attacking midfield spaces is much higher, but I also don't get the sense that they're going to be, you know, making a huge like Ledero or Rui Diaz level signing. Um,
00:55:23
Speaker
So I think they're probably keeping their options open. That would be my guess. Although maybe not at this point, like they might be pretty far along with things at this point, I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised to see someone in the attacking midfield. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone in the defensive midfield. But I would say that anywhere else would be a pretty big surprise. Yeah, and as far as Dylan go, or as far as a number two forward goes, I'd say,
00:55:52
Speaker
I don't, I think what's tough is that I don't think they have a lot of extra, like if they sign a DP, I don't think there's a lot of extra money to go around. And so I don't know that, I feel like someone like a Justin Dillon is probably gonna be your de facto number two. And like, if you really need a starter, Jordan Morris maybe moves into that spot.
00:56:20
Speaker
I don't see it as a huge, huge need the way that it was last year. Between Rui Diaz, Dylan, Alfonso, Ocampo Chavez, and Morris, I feel like as long as Rui Diaz doesn't have a season-ending injury, I feel like they'll be fine there. Between those three players, I feel like you can fill out the game here and there that you might need them.
00:56:50
Speaker
Yeah, I would, I would tend to agree. I think, I mean, I think take thinking of it in terms of like depth chartish is tricky because he's a starter at one position and maybe to back up at another, but I don't know if that really makes sense to think of it in those terms. But I, and I also think that they have decent coverage, like between Rodriguez, ship Jones, Bawana, Wingo. Right. Like that feels like.
00:57:16
Speaker
decent coverage on the outside. So you like, you could start Joe, you could start move more as the forward and still have like Jones and ship as you're starting outside mids. And I don't like that doesn't concern me for one, you know, a game here or there. Yeah, definitely. Next one is from aspect ratio Ross. Does the Tacoma Defiance record reflect what their players are able to offer the sounders?
00:57:45
Speaker
No, I don't think it does. And I, you know, like it's what showed to me was pointed out to me that the Defiance rank, either last or something like last in 538 global rankings, like of 600 odd teams. And there's an important thing to keep in mind with that is that it, it looks at more than just
00:58:12
Speaker
It's not looking at their current team today. It's looking at a long history of teams. And it should say that there's a lot of teams in the U.S.L. that are grouped around the Defiance. So the gap between them and the fifth or sixth worst U.S.L. team is not very big.
00:58:32
Speaker
But I guess when I bring this up, because I do think it overstates how bad the defiance are, for one, especially when you consider they've been getting results lately. So it's not like they're getting blown out of the water every week still. Most of their problems, I think, are an issue with a complete inability to field anything like a stable lineup. And that's unfortunately kind of by design.
00:58:59
Speaker
The Sounders are clearly valuing youth national team call-ups and first team needs over the Defiance. And that's very frustrating from a results standpoint for if you're like a Defiance fan buying season tickets, I get how that's very frustrating that you just want to be able to kind of latch onto a handful of players and say like, these are our guys and I really like rooting for them. And the organization is just not giving that to you.
00:59:25
Speaker
But from a roster building perspective, when you look at the Defiance as mainly a tool for the first team, it makes a lot more sense. And I think you're seeing there's some talented players there. I mean, Danny Leyva just held his own in an MLS game. He hasn't played that much for the Defiance in part because he's been needed elsewhere.
00:59:52
Speaker
So yeah, I don't think it reflects what those players can offer sounders. I think there's probably a handful of players on the finance that would fit right in with the sounders if they were needed. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that of all the
01:00:10
Speaker
the component factors of underperformance relative to expectations that go overlooked, I think that that lineup consistency that you mentioned is by far the most important. And I think it just doesn't get nearly enough credit for how disruptive it can be. It's hugely important, the consistency from game to game. Not only that, if you've got a bunch of players out playing for their national teams, youth national teams, whatever, you're probably
01:00:38
Speaker
losing out on their, on some quality there. It's just also the familiarity, the consistency, the sort of the team spirit, I guess, for lack of a better term aspect of things. It's, it's a huge factor. Yeah. And that's not like, I don't have a good, like as someone who might want to buy season tickets to the Defiance, like I don't have a good argument for why you should like
01:01:05
Speaker
still buy season tickets for them, other than you want to see the future of the team play. And I do think that there are the, like, you just look at how many players the centers have signed from the Defiance and it's a pretty decent number. Like they now have five players on the current first team who first signed with the USL team. And I think that's a pretty big sign that a pretty good sign that they are, they know what they're doing as far as that goes. Um, it's just not necessarily leading to great results.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, I mean, I think that the value proposition of minor league sports is always, um, it's cheap. It's, it's fun to watch live sports. And, and I think especially, um, at this level, it is what you mentioned, like you, you want to watch the kids grow. Um, and, and it's not bad if that's not enough for you to want.
01:01:58
Speaker
to be a season ticket holder. Like it's not a criticism. It's not a failing. It's just, that's, that's the selling point. And if that's, if that's not enough, like I think, Hey, you've, you've kind of got your answer. I mean, and I do think that the worst case scenario in some ways would be like, I know a lot of people look at that 2015 team and they say, well, can't they just do that? And you look at that 2015 team and I guess they had, I don't know, did new who play on that 2015 team? I don't think he did. And I don't think the LM did either. Did he?
01:02:29
Speaker
I don't, I don't remember. 2015 is a long time ago. It was a long time ago, but like in some ways that's, it's great that they were fun to watch and they were putting up results, but they, that team did not have a bunch of MLS quality prospects and other than, as it turned out, Aaron Long was on that team and I guess he was maybe the best prospect that they've ever had to come through their system in a sense, but, um,
01:02:58
Speaker
Like for the most part, if you're signing a bunch of 24 year olds, you're not giving yourself a lot of upside potential. Yeah. Yep. I agree. Uh, so this is from inter Pearsonal. He says, we know the sounders were in negotiations with Ledero way back in mid may of 2016. We knew they were signing roll the first week of June, 2018 it's July 1st already. So when do you, when do we hear about the new DP target?
01:03:25
Speaker
Should the Sounders hold off on signing a high cap defensive midfielder now or in the winter because of the emergence of Danny Leyva, could Svensson stay one more season to bridge the gap? So in terms of the first question, I feel like we get this every transfer window. Right. And yes, there have been times when the Sounders knew, like we kind of knew what was happening well before it happened. I don't really think we knew about Ariaga.
01:03:54
Speaker
No, I mean, to be fair, I wasn't in a literal coma when we signed him. So maybe there were a couple of days of notice, but maybe a day or two of notice, but not much.
01:04:06
Speaker
Like Oba, we wouldn't have had notice unless his team decided they weren't going to honor the release cause in his contract. Like it would have been a sudden thing. Dempsey, we only had a day or two of notice because somebody happened to see him at the airport. Like there, sometimes we, we know well before, before anything happens. And I'd say more frequently, we don't really know until it's about to be announced. So I don't think not hearing anything.
01:04:32
Speaker
you know, as it suggests things one way or another. Yeah. In terms of the second question, I wouldn't be shocked if Svensson is back next year, but I don't think we can be reliant at this point, expecting Danny Leyva to be somebody we can rely on next season. Yeah, I mean, it does put the Sounders in a little bit of a tough situation, because on one hand, you'd love to, like, allow for that possibility.
01:05:02
Speaker
But on the other, you don't want to put yourself in a position where you're now relying on Leyva to be a starter for you at 17, which seems like a crazy thing to say out loud. But yeah, I don't know. It's a tough situation.
01:05:20
Speaker
You know, I do think it's worth reminding everyone that the sounders made two signings at the end of the last transfer window who haven't really had a chance to have much of an impact yet, but who will be ready to start contributing
01:05:39
Speaker
Well, yeah, they're about ready to, they're like now is when we should expect them to start contributing. And that's before the window opens. So I would, I wouldn't get too wrapped up in like, if the sounders can get this guy signed.
01:05:52
Speaker
Like I think a lot of effort went into getting the two guys, they got signed, signed. And I don't know that on July 9th, they're going to be unveiling a DP, but I think we should give them a little bit of wiggle room because they kind of pulled two massive signings out of their, out of thin air at the end of the last transfer window.
01:06:11
Speaker
But anyway. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. So the next one is from ST O'Brien 425. How are players salaries handled when offered international duty? Does Seattle still play all these guys? If I was the owner, I would not be happy. Yeah, I mean, they, they still pay them. They don't get any relief from the cap. And I'm sure there are owners who
01:06:37
Speaker
complain about this, I would imagine that mostly first year owners are the ones that complain about this. And then they kind of realize that's just kind of the way it is. And for better or for worse, and there's not really much to be done or said about it. And that's, that's, yeah, I mean, that's kind of how it is, unfortunately. It's a bummer, but I mean, you're not competing with other MLS teams when you're signing players of that caliber, you're competing with every other team in the world. And so,
01:07:06
Speaker
And that's kind of the way it is over the world. Yeah.
01:07:11
Speaker
This one's from Ken Oplinger. He says, on a scale of deadpan to clop, where does Symmetra's fist pump after the Lyrdom goal rate for coaches celebrating a goal? Did you happen to say? I did. I give this today, and I was very amused by it. If I recall correctly, the gift is one second long. Yes. And there is a lot happening in that one second. Yeah. There is a lot of emotional information conveyed in the space of that one second.
01:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's very good. It seemed cloppish to me, although clop would have kept going a lot longer. It definitely was kind of the way I felt, which was like,
01:07:57
Speaker
still angry that I had to even still be caring about this game, you know, because it should have been over well before that. So, but relieved, you know, so yeah, it was very good. The thing I was wondering about was he seems to be glaring at someone. Yeah.
01:08:17
Speaker
and I don't know if it's at dos Santos which would maybe not make a ton of sense or if it's the fourth official or maybe it's no one in particular maybe he's just like that's just his face that he's the emotions he's feeling and it's not directed at anyone but it does make for a wonderful moment I think it does that's very good um dos Santos since you mentioned him did you catch the outfit he was wearing
01:08:41
Speaker
No, I did not. Man, it was some shit. It was like a very express for men kind of situation. It was like a black, very tight black dress shirt. And like, I don't know, it was very, he didn't look bad. It was just, it looked like he was, it did not look like he was about to coach a soccer game. Like it looked much more like he was about to go, go out. To the club. Yeah. Or where, you know, wherever people his age go. I don't know. Oh yeah. I'm seeing it now.
01:09:10
Speaker
That's a black on black look and kind of buttoned. He's got a extra button open, no tie. So you look like he might be getting ready to hit the town after. Yeah.
01:09:25
Speaker
I like it. Yeah. I mean, it looks good. It's just, you know, again. No, it's I know what you're saying, though. It's maybe not the. This one's from Emmett Connell, Emmett O'Connell. Been watching a lot of NWSL in the Women's World Cup, playing co-ed Rhett Soccer and been thinking about this. How would you build a co-ed team of Sanders-Rein or US national team, US women's national team with no more than six male players on the field at any time? So we we collaborated.
01:09:55
Speaker
I'll let you go through some of this lineup and we can talk about it a little.
01:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, and we definitely went with Sounders Rain because it's... That was more fun. It was more fun and it seemed like both easier but also harder at the same time to me, I don't know. And it's a Seattle soccer show. Yeah, that too. And the caveat here is so we were only using the current rosters. At first, I was thinking it was like historical rosters, but I reread the question and that didn't seem...
01:10:25
Speaker
Like what we were going for, but we also wanted to put together like the most functional team, right? So it's not necessarily like the best, the six best rain players or five best rain players and six best sounders. It was just like what we thought would be like the most sort of complimentary thing. There was, this isn't an all-star team, right? Like that's, we didn't, you know, have like six winners in the midfield. So with that being said, going left to right, um,
01:10:52
Speaker
from the back, so Stephen Fry and goal. I would say that was probably the one we had the most trouble coming to a conclusion on. Yeah. I think we were inclined at first to go with Lydia Williams, in part because we felt like maybe the goalkeeper is a position that you could, for lack of a better term, sacrifice. Yeah. But we ended up not feeling like we needed to do that. And I think Stephen Fry might be the player who would most enjoy being on this team.
01:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's fair. Then the defense, we've got Brad Smith, Lauren Barnes, Kim Kihi, and Celia Jimenez. Any notes on that? I mean, I think, I feel like that's a pretty
01:11:33
Speaker
It's hard to argue with any of those choices, I think. No, and I think Lauren Barnes' natural side is on the left. Kim Key's natural side is on the right. I kind of like that. I like having Brad Smith, the idea of Brad Smith, being able to streak down the field against a co-ed opposition, Celia Jimenez. I can't sit here and say I know a lot about her game, but she's got like almost 30 caps for the Spanish national team. So I feel like that's a pretty good sign that that's a solid play there.
01:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, defensive midfield, I think was probably the, some of the easier choices, Christian Rodin and Jessica Schlock, I mean,
01:12:12
Speaker
Fishlock had to be on the team. Fishlock had to be on the team. And Roldan, I think, the only question was whether it would be he or Svensson. And I think with Fishlock, I feel like you feel comfortable going with Roldan there. Yeah. And then the attacking midfield, Bev Yanez, Nico Ledero, Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe and Ledero are obviously no-brainers. Yanez was, I don't know that this is necessarily her natural position or her best position. But she could, she can play there. And I thought,
01:12:41
Speaker
that she would be able to do a job, I think. She has to be on the team, I feel like. And this is a position where she can do well. Yeah. And then Shryker is Raul. Yeah, you just got to. Yeah, this one. Yeah, you got it. But that was a very fun question. Thank you, Emmett. It was. It was a fun little exercise. And we'd love to hear if anyone has knit picks or they have their own lineup that they'd like to do, we'd love to hear it.
01:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, put them in the comments or Twitter, wherever. Yeah, because it's a fun one. And US national team ones as well would be a good one if you want to tackle that.
01:13:20
Speaker
Um, next one is from Smashly SC, uh, our good panel, Ashley. Uh, what incorrect information will Jeremiah give coach next game? Yeah. So I, uh, Schmetzer as he's wanting to do kind of put me on the spot at the press conference, he was talking about the most, he was asking if the centers had ever lost four in a row and kind of what they were trying to avoid doing in this game. And.
01:13:45
Speaker
He said, Jeremiah probably knows the answer to this. And in a moment of hubris, I thought about it and I was like, yeah, that sounds right. And it was quickly pointed out to me, not luckily, during the press conference, but like Alex, the press guy,
01:14:09
Speaker
He kind of gives me a little bit of coverage like, oh, we're talking all competitions or maybe some different numbers, blah, blah, blah. That wasn't really the issue. The reality is hundreds of twice lost four in a row. They once lost five in a row and it was only 2015 and summer of 2015, they lost five in a row. At the end of 2013, they lost four in a row. So I was way off and I am ashamed.
01:14:32
Speaker
But I thought in my head, I had looked this up last week and I are in the last, after their last game. And I had only looked at their last couple of years, I think during the Brian Schmetzer era. So they had never lost four games under Brian Schmetzer. Anyway. I mean, that's, I mean, it's not, I don't want to say it's unfair if I'm to put you on the spot like that, but I think you're, I'll take it. You're being a little too hard on yourself, you know?
01:14:58
Speaker
Well, it's okay. I also should say, I also put myself out there a little bit that day. I took the opportunity to actually address the assembled media from the podium to give the explanation from the referee. I just felt like that was the perfect opportunity to get up there and I don't know, it was fun. I hope you saw the video.
01:15:23
Speaker
This is from rave SFCs is what the hell is up with the gold elevator, who is now over 24, I believe. Yeah, I feel like at this point, it's fair to say that we're all getting worked. Like, this is not this is definitely intentional. Right. And what happened there intentional or somehow they literally forgot to like buy the yellow elevator.
01:15:51
Speaker
Also possible, also possible, but like, I think it's possible that it was at some point a fluke. Uh, and now like it's been programmed so that it's never going to happen. Well, I hope if it, when it does, it's going to be just outstanding. My hope is that like for the season finale, that yellow elevator comes through and there is like an eruption and like we've never heard before. Yeah, that would be, that would be very nice.
01:16:21
Speaker
Like it's just a long con. Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, like if you're going to work in the marks, you've got to give them the payoff eventually. They can't just be like for years, the yellow elevator not winning. Yep. Uh, this is a, this is a good one. I'm curious to hear your take on this one from drone 637. So I guess we did get to one of his questions. Uh, what is your opinion on mushrooms on a salad?
01:16:46
Speaker
So I, for a long time, was pretty anti-mushrooms on salad, but I feel like lately I've found myself, if you get the right dressing, you can drown anything in blue cheese and it's fine. So I don't have anything against sliced creminis on a basic salad. I don't want it to be on a fancy salad, but if it's like,
01:17:12
Speaker
you know, diner salad with iceberg lettuce and blue cheese? Sure. Yeah, I think so. It's definitely not a must have for me. Definitely not a must have. That's yeah. And I think, too, that it kind of depends on what else is going on on the salad. Like if it's like a mixed greens, like a spring mix or something with like a
01:17:38
Speaker
vinaigrette, I'm probably gonna like that more than if it's like a chef's salad type deal. Because it gives it like some heft, right? But yeah, I'm not against it. It's pretty rare, I'd say that I am gonna be against mushrooms being in the equation. I mean, I'll say this. So the sounders have a salad bar.
01:18:03
Speaker
like ahead of every game, which is, frankly, one of the coolest. I love that. I love that they do a salad bar as one of their staples of their pregame spread in the press box. They usually have mushrooms. I almost never purposefully put them on. Yeah, I think I would have to say that if I'm doing a salad bar,
01:18:26
Speaker
I'm probably not going to go for the mushrooms because there's going to be other stuff I want to have on there more. Like when I was working out at Microsoft, I definitely did not, I went for the salads a lot, didn't typically go for mushrooms. And that was even though like, I'm not going to pick off mushrooms if you give it to me. Yeah. Yeah. But there are some salads where I think it's a definite, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a bonus. It's a nice, a nice little touch for sure.
01:18:53
Speaker
Is this me or you? I think it's you. So this is from our good friend, Turner ESQ. He wants to know, do we have any advice for getting over jet lag? Asking for a friend, I think this might be actually for him though because he flew out to New York and then I think he's going to Columbus after he's following the Saunders around.
01:19:13
Speaker
He's trying to get some meetings with Don Garber. I don't know how that will go, but he's working some connections while he's on this trip.
Travel Experiences and Jet Lag Stories
01:19:21
Speaker
Definitely. So I went to South Carolina in April.
01:19:28
Speaker
So, you know, the three hour jet lag. There were extenuating circumstances to me feeling like crap, which people are probably aware of by this point. But I mean, I just tried not to change anything. Like I just kind of tried not to pay attention to what time it was and just let my body clock do the job. And that seemed to work for me. But if you're actually
01:19:52
Speaker
like doing stuff that's time sensitive, that's not really an option. So it's, I don't know, man, it's a tough one. It's, it's, I've never done great with it. I've never struggled too badly with jet lag just inside the United States. Like I've been out to the East coast a few times, relatively recently, and I kind of just ride it. Like when I get out there, I don't make myself go to bed early and I just stay up until I'm tired and then I
01:20:22
Speaker
Like I kind of enjoy that aspect a little bit, especially since I'm usually not with my kids, not with my family. And so I'll call them at bedtime when it's like really late for me. And it's, I've never gotten too badly burned going to the East coast, but I'll tell you the funniest story I have for jet lag is the first time I came back from Europe.
01:20:45
Speaker
We are my now wife and I went to go see a movie. We went to go see cats and dogs for some reason which was like a horrible movie. And we got there we went to like an eight o'clock showing or something. And it was like one of the few movies I was playing in Gilroy.
01:21:04
Speaker
we get there and then realize it's like all kids and we're very like, oh, did we make a bad choice? And we did. It was a horrible movie. But yeah, like halfway through the movie, we both full blown passed out sleeping. And so that was fun. Yeah, I don't I don't really have any I mean,
01:21:25
Speaker
I've never been to Europe. Just sad. And I think that you've really got to go across more than three time zones for jet lag to really be a factor. But I did go, and I don't know if this qualifies as jet lag necessarily, but I did go to Alaska in June once. So long nights.
01:21:47
Speaker
Yeah. And that coming back from the coming like being there, it was very, very weird. Like I remember I was like at a bar like reading and just kind of hanging out because I was with my parents. So I had to go drink. And so I'm just like hanging out reading and it's light outside and the bartender is like, yeah, it's last call. And I'm like, and last call there is like later. I think it was like 4am.
01:22:13
Speaker
And I was just like flabbergasted. I intellectually knew that obviously it stays light all the time, but it was very disorienting. And then getting back after being there for like 10 days, it was a lot. It'll definitely screw with you, like your Cacadian rhythms in a way that I think just the time differences doesn't really.
Q&A Session and Future Plans
01:22:35
Speaker
Well, this was, I think, clocking in at one of our longest ever question and answer sessions. But good questions. Good questions. I enjoyed it. Hopefully, people hung out through all of them because those were great. But yeah, that's our show. Thanks to our sponsor, Filippo Wines.
01:22:54
Speaker
Thanks to all of you for listening. We have a show 300 coming up next time we record. We're going to have to try to come up with something fun for that. So we'll see what we can cook up for you. And who knows, maybe we can come up with something that is not super lame and maybe we'll do a
01:23:14
Speaker
I don't know, maybe we'll meet up somewhere. If you're into that, tweet us so that we actually know people are into it. We're not gonna do like a yacht con type thing. Just do probably a, if we were to do anything, it would probably just be like a live recording at a bar somewhere or something. I don't know.
01:23:30
Speaker
But anyway, I'm gonna give a plug to our store on threadless, nosadietes.threadless.com, I believe is the address.
Closing and Merchandise Promotion
01:23:41
Speaker
So that's that. I'm Jeremiah O'Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and Lickit. This is Nosadietes. Remember, you'll never get alone.
01:23:55
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.
01:24:32
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!