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Nos Audietis, Episode 260: VAR you not entertained?
63 Plays8 years ago
It's been far too long since the Seattle Sounders last won a match and the fanbase is growing a bit restless. But that's not the only reason. There have been growing reports of stadium staff possibly overstepping some of their directives, further enflaming passions. Of course, referee Drew Fischer didn't exactly help the situation either, handing out a highly questionable red card toward the end of Sunday's match.
Jeremiah and Aaron go on a couple rants about these things but do find time to talk about the actual game as well as answer many of your questions.
This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
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. Music used in the sponsor reads: LASERS - "Amsterdam"
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Transcript
Introduction and Verity Credit Union
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Audeadas is sponsored by Verity Credit Union. Verity is a local credit union and has been headquartered in Seattle since 1933. They have branches throughout the Puget Sound area and know what is important to you because they live here too. Verity is not for profit
00:00:18
Speaker
and puts any money they make into good rates, products and services for you, the members. They have credit cards with competitive rates, checking and savings accounts and loans for all sorts of things, even bicycles.
00:00:31
Speaker
Verity is federally insured by the NCUA and an equal housing opportunity lender. Anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in Washington state can become a member and we would love to have you. Learn more and apply at veritycu.com.
00:01:14
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle
Episode 260 Overview
00:01:34
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of No Audiotis, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marvel, and her broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 260 and we're recording on Tuesday, September 12th, 2017. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo. Lickit is apparently too busy tonight.
Sounders' Performance Discussion
00:01:53
Speaker
The Sounders are currently in the midst of a 12 game unbeaten run, yet the mood around the team seems to be turning increasingly sour. That's likely because the last three games have all been ties, all against our biggest rivals, two of them came at home, and all three felt more like two points dropped than one point gained.
00:02:09
Speaker
The most recent of those was, of course, the L.A. Galaxy game, in which the Sounders were the better team almost throughout only to see their longtime nemesis score first, from none other than Giosse's artist, and needed a late equalizer from Marnegel just to salvage a point. Even worse, they lost Roman Torres to a very questionable red card. All of this was compounded by some pretty troubling reports of CenturyLink Field Stadium staff exhibiting some pretty abhorrent behavior.
00:02:34
Speaker
put it all together and maybe it's no wonder the sounders and the fans are a bit grumpy to steal a phrase from Brian Schmetzer. So Aaron, how is it that in a 12 game run with the sounders sitting just a point out of first place in the west with a game in hand no less, it does feel like there's a very negative vibe going on right now, right?
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, I mean, on the one hand, it's a little bit weird because, you know, the Sounders earlier this season, we were talking again about missing the playoffs and, you know, like whether or not these slow starts were, you know, just gonna, you know, make this these late runs on every year occurrence. And then turns out we didn't really need much of a late run.
00:03:17
Speaker
And, you know, we've been right in the mix for first in the Western Conference for about a month now. But I mean, you know, you'd be crazy to say that the Sounders have been playing great soccer lately. They've probably been playing better than their results would indicate, but I think it's fair to say that they're not really playing up to the level of talent that they have or what we would expect from the level of talent that they have. And, you know, weirdly, the last game that they really were dominant at home, at least,
00:03:45
Speaker
Was the San Jose game where they were missing a bunch of their regular starters. So Yeah, it's I mean, it's I think that without the slow start this year Maybe this just gets kind of chalked up to one of those spells where you know, they're getting results are grinding out but it's not a whole lot of fun to watch but really, I mean a lot of this season hasn't been a whole lot of fun to watch a lot of last season wasn't a whole lot of fun to watch a lot of 2015 wasn't a whole lot of fun to watch
00:04:13
Speaker
And, you know, when it's been three years since the team was consistently really exciting over the course of the whole season, I think that, you know, people are going to start getting a little bit annoyed about that. And I think that's fair to a certain extent. But, you know, I think if they are getting results in these games, people are getting wins in these games.
00:04:31
Speaker
people aren't going to be quite as cranky and it's weird to look at a draw against the galaxy and see it as being as bitterly disappointing as it is but that team is bad. It's a really really bad team and they've been playing
00:04:46
Speaker
a little bit better since Ziggy took over, but I mean, it's becoming clear that as bad as Kurtonofo was, this was not entirely a Kurtonofo problem. And that's a team that the Sounders should be beating at home, and they didn't do it, and they should have beaten Portland at home, and they didn't do it.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's frustrating. But if they can turn it around and start actually getting wins again, I think people would be a lot happier.
Goal Opportunities and Fan Issues
00:05:15
Speaker
But, you know, for me, the unbeaten streak is it's nice and it's nice to get points and get results. But
00:05:20
Speaker
I would gladly trade some of these, you know, draws at home for wins and some of those draws on the road for losses at this point. Just because I feel like it's been so long since the Sounders just went out and blew someone away. And, you know, the Minnesota game, I guess, away was the last time they did that. But, yeah, and especially at home, like, it just feels like almost like a chore at times.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's just not a lot of fun and with the players that we have on this team it should be. I'll rebut some of what you said. I don't think the way they're playing is what's causing the heartburn. I do think that it's just about the results. And like you said, if they had gotten wins in these games, I don't think we would be talking about
00:06:08
Speaker
how problematic or how much concern there is. You know, if you look at the last four games, they outshot their opponents 20-9, that was the Galaxy game. 17-15 was the Portland game. But weirdly, they had a expected goals total of four in that game, which is the highest total in the season. We can get into a whole thing about that. But anyway, and then they outshot Vancouver 25-8, and then they outshot Sporting Kansas City 21-8.
00:06:38
Speaker
or I should say Minnesota United 21-8. So they're getting shots. They're creating high expected goals. You know, if you look back at those four games, this week they had the third highest expected goals of any team in MLS. Against Portland they had the highest. Against Vancouver they had the highest. It was like 3.1. And against Minnesota they also had the highest that week.
00:07:04
Speaker
So they're creating chances, I think you could say that they're playing pretty good soccer, if not, you know, certainly by MLS standards. You know, you want to be hitting the back of the net a few more times, but I don't think the quality of play is so far off. I just think that they aren't finishing, and that's really what makes this so frustrating. And in some ways, I almost wonder if it would be less frustrating if at the end of each one of these games you start going, well, they were kind of lucky to get a result in that one.
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's possible. And I think that's all fair. I think, especially in the LA game, and that's the game that's on everybody's mind, I don't think they played very good soccer at all. And it certainly wasn't aesthetically pleasing. And a lot of that is on LA. I mean, they played a very rustic style of soccer in that game. Good frame. Good frame there. I think disappointing.
00:07:55
Speaker
Thank you. And I think that's disappointing, you know, given Sigi's teams in Seattle could be pragmatic, I think it's fair to say, but it was rare if it ever happened that we saw a team come out and play like that. And that's, you know, that's disappointing.
00:08:14
Speaker
but you know it's not like the the sounders were angels in that game either so you know that's that's only fair to point out but i mean i think you're right in general that if if we're getting those goals that we should be getting um especially in the games before the yellow game that
00:08:30
Speaker
people are going to be a lot less concerned and that, you know, maybe it's it is less frustrating. And that's fair. But I mean, at the end of the day, you do have to get those results. And when you have a long string of these frustrating results where, you know, you're creating good chances and not getting the goals and then you come out and play a game that was
00:08:51
Speaker
like the one we saw on Sunday, it just kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But I think a lot of it, and you kind of alluded to it in the intro, is not just the stuff that's going on on the pitch. And I think that that's part of why people are frustrated. It's kind of been building for a while and starting to reach ahead. Before we get to the game, we should probably address this.
00:09:16
Speaker
There was a few incidents that got reported at Sunday's game. One of them was a fan that went into the stadium and felt like he was essentially profiled because he got upset when they wouldn't allow his wife to bring in a bag that was apparently very miniscule over the size limit when he had seen other people allowed in with similar size bags or even bigger bags.
00:09:42
Speaker
And there was an incident kind of around then. He ended up writing a letter and he essentially said that he felt like he was targeted because he was Hispanic and that he felt like some of the things that were said to him were implying as much.
00:09:59
Speaker
And then on top of that, and I guess that's an incident that it happens. I don't know how much attention it would get in a vacuum. But you compound that with apparently StaffPro, which is the organization that does security at Sounders Games, made one fan remove a, I believe it was, they made one fan remove a shirt that just said anti-fascist on it. And I guess there was also some discussion about making them
00:10:26
Speaker
Making ECS essentially take down a sign that said dreamers are here to stay and I guess their argument was that Those were political statements Which I find you know as as you know, I'm sure there's gonna be some disagreement on this but I think that the sounders are pretty well established that just because two sides of our
00:10:49
Speaker
our political spectrum disagree on something it doesn't make it an inherently political statement and I think that the Sanders especially in their support of Pride Week have made a statement essentially saying that
00:11:03
Speaker
demand or calls for equality should not be deemed political statements. I would say a shirt that simply says anti-fascist would fall under that. And I would think that a statement like dreamers are here to stay would hopefully fall into that category as well. And so then today the Sounders essentially put out a statement through the Alliance Council that said that they were looking into it and that
00:11:31
Speaker
that they were aware of the situation. Now I talked to a sounder spokesperson who essentially delivered the same message to me, but they added that it wasn't quite as cut and dry as the statement that was put out in the Alliance Council. They said they were very well aware that it wasn't just an ingress issue, that there are other issues going on here. And to their credit, they seem to be taking it very seriously. The person I talked to seemed to have a very, they called the reports credible,
00:12:00
Speaker
you know, without necessarily giving them credence, but saying that they at least are worth looking into and that they're examining them. So I take it that the sounders are serious about trying to address these issues. The problem, of course, is that it's not even the sounders who are contracting with Staff Pro. It's CenturyLink Field. The sounders are essentially tenants of CenturyLink Field, and CenturyLink Field hires Staff Pro. So there's a third party involved in this whole thing.
00:12:28
Speaker
and it makes it a bit of a mess. I kind of feel bad for the sounders on one hand because they don't
Stadium Politics and Equality
00:12:35
Speaker
have full control over this, but on the other, I think that they deserve some of the ill will that is being sent their way because it ultimately reflects on their product.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, it absolutely does. And I think that I don't think that, you know, we've heard at least is widely circulated. You know, I definitely don't want to dismiss the possibility of similar things happening in the past because I wouldn't be shocked at all that they had. But
00:13:03
Speaker
It seems like it's happened more this year. From my perspective as the whitest guy you'll ever meet and also generally a very, very mellow person, I've had some awful experiences with CenturyLink Field staff, with StaffPro. Just the game day ingress-egress experience this year has been awful.
00:13:26
Speaker
They seem really understaffed, you know, constantly. Everybody seems stressed out constantly. Security guards seem very pushy. I had a pretty gross experience with one after the New England game, in fact. And so it doesn't shock me that under those conditions, people that are, you know, more prone to being racist, frankly, are going to overreact.
00:13:53
Speaker
Um, it certainly doesn't excuse it, but it's, it's an easy thing that staff pro can do actually properly staffing to keep tensions down. Um, I don't expect staff pro to do anything. Uh, frankly, um, I, I don't have a very high opinion of them as a company to hear that. Um, and, and right.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, I mean, it's it's bitterly disappointing, you know, because on the one hand, you are right, like the sounders have a limited amount of power. And even if they do respond in exactly the right way and do everything within their power, which, you know, to be clear, I don't think they've done yet. I'm not saying that, you know, they've handled this perfectly. But even if they do,
00:14:37
Speaker
You know, there's a limit to what they can do and that's the reality But you know at the end of the day for people that you know are in marginalized communities. They're not gonna want to come to games whether or not the founders can do anything about it or not and and it's really unfortunate because I
00:14:56
Speaker
The MLS fan base is pretty white and it's something that I've talked about with a lot of people that they just don't do a great job of outreach to getting into Spanish-speaking communities and doing a lot of marketing to people of color and non-white communities, non-middle class affluent white communities. It's just not something they've been great at throughout their history.
00:15:22
Speaker
And stuff like this certainly isn't going to help. And in terms of banners and anti-fascist t-shirts, I think you're right. It's political in the sense that these are things being debated by politicians, but it's not political in the sense that
00:15:43
Speaker
There's no room for fascism in this country. You should be able to wear a shirt that says that you oppose fascism wherever you want to. That doesn't seem like a controversial opinion. And by saying, hey, that's a political statement, and we don't want to suppress free speech, but we don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable, or whatever the mealy-mouthed corporate insurance logic is that led to that decision.
00:16:13
Speaker
You're normalizing fascism as a reasonable political position. That's bad enough at any time, but in the current political climate where there are literal fascists preening around and marketing and branding themselves as such, it's terrifying. It's terrifying that we're more concerned about those people. In terms of a dreamers are here to stay sign,
00:16:38
Speaker
I'm with you and I think it is similar to doing a pride celebration. At a certain point, you have to pick a side and whether or not it's a political issue is irrelevant. Corporations pick sides largely because of money. Budweiser doesn't market to LGBTQ communities and sponsor the pride parade because their board have hearts of gold. They do it because that's a customer base.
00:17:08
Speaker
And I would imagine that, while there are certainly sounders fans that are in favor of repealing DACA and everything, the vast majority of their fan base probably stands behind the dreamers are here to stay message, just given the community that the team is in.
00:17:27
Speaker
And I think the best way to make it clear that that's not an acceptable stance for, you know, for the club to take is to make the club aware of that and make CenturyLink feel aware of that and make staff are aware of that and try to make as much noise as possible.
Security and Mistreatment Response
00:17:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I certainly understand that that
00:17:46
Speaker
that the sounders are within their right to make a decision about what kind of signage should be in their stadium. But I also think that they're well within their right to draw a line and say this is the kind of signage that we will allow.
00:18:00
Speaker
We won't allow this other kind of signage, but whatever you decide not to allow is effectively a political speech. So they can't really have it both ways. I don't think that they're trying to have it both ways. I should say everything that I heard
00:18:18
Speaker
uh... from the Sounders in my conversations was that they seem to be on the side that i think most of their fan base would like them to be on uh... which is that this was these were uh... decisions made by either uh... independent you know by people that were taken upon themselves uh... certainly not being handed down from the Sounders so i think that's a good thing uh... but yeah i mean i think that we have to be we have to be aware that you know this is turning out that
00:18:47
Speaker
you can't have it both ways essentially you can't be welcoming to all and not excluding some like there's going to be like if you want people of color if you want
00:18:58
Speaker
marginalized communities to feel comfortable in in your in your stadium, you can't silence people supporting them. That's just not gonna that's not gonna work. And and I think the sounders recognize that I think that's a positive, not to get too derailed from from our larger conversation. But I did think that this was an important topic that we needed to deal with. And, and hopefully,
00:19:24
Speaker
We'll see from the sounders some progressive statements that aren't just corporate speak that we saw today. I'll be honest, when I first saw the statement that came out through the Alliance Council, I was really disappointed. I actually thought it was a little embarrassing that that was the first public statement that was made. Now, I think in hindsight, I don't necessarily put that on the sounders.
00:19:48
Speaker
I honestly think Alliance Council probably should have added their own context. Maybe they were asked not to. I don't want to get into like a finger pointing issue there. I'll just say that the statement by itself is not enough. But after talking to the sounders, I feel like they understand what's going on here.
00:20:09
Speaker
And they are looking into the issues that are various and that have been ongoing. And it's not a one game thing. It's not one fan saying I was mistreated. It's a series of reports that are now starting to kind of get signal essentially and are starting to become a bigger deal. And you know, I don't know how much of that is.
00:20:29
Speaker
is over is is casting a pall over over to this point in the season and I suspect that to some degree the feelings would be different if the Sounders were winning but that maybe it's a good thing then that that the Sounders aren't winning games where the stuff is going on because this stuff is
00:20:47
Speaker
does deserve attention and it shouldn't be just overlooked because the sounders are playing well. That said, I'm gonna make an executive decision. I think we probably should take a break. We'll come back in the next segment. We'll talk a little bit more specifically about the game. You're listening to NOS Adiatus and we'll take questions after that.
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00:21:13
Speaker
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Speaker
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VAR System Controversies
00:22:36
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietes. So that ended up getting a little off topic and we didn't want to get too lost in that discussion and we didn't want to give short shrift to some stuff that actually did happen in the game. The biggest of which I think were two
00:22:52
Speaker
two plays I think that maybe best illustrate what is becoming an increasing frustration with the video assistant referee system where the first one was the Jordan Morris goal that was ultimately disallowed and I should say that it was correctly called
00:23:09
Speaker
The the beef I have with that one was not the ultimate decision I think that whether or not it had been reviewed if it was a reviewable play It would have been disallowed. He was offside. It wasn't by a big margin, but he was offside
00:23:25
Speaker
It was frustrating. It was a great play. I think it was indicative of the kind of play that Morris, Ledero, and Dempsey are capable of kind of putting together. It was a beautiful little sequence. That aside, the thing that's frustrating about it is that the whistle blew maybe a beat before Morris hits his shot. So the play essentially, but because the whistle blew before the shot, it's not a reviewable incident. Now,
00:23:55
Speaker
What damage is there to be done if the referee holds his whistle, if the shot goes misses,
00:24:04
Speaker
You call it offside. If the shot goes in, you let the goal go up and you review it. And I realize that it's very frustrating for fans to have a goal potentially taken off the board. That should not be the goal here. But if the replay were to have shown that he was actually onside, and there's no way that there was not even a doubt live that he could have been onside,
00:24:29
Speaker
that there's no harm, I don't think, in letting that play go through and then pulling it off the board. I would much rather see that pulled off than with the alternate version being you're allowing it to go forward. I just think that's a huge problem with VAR right now is that the referees essentially aren't being instructed to blow their whistle at any different time than they would have otherwise.
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that one of the concerns that you expressed in the past is that if they're not doing that, if they're not holding the whistle and waiting to see how those, you know, close bang bang kind of plays play out, then the net result of our is going to be a lot of goals taken off the board and not a lot going on. And and that's that shouldn't be the goal, you know, that that's because I feel like already we have a
00:25:22
Speaker
a lot more situations where, you know, goals that should be called should be good are called off because of bad offside calls than goals that are offside that are scored. And you know, we should want to reward good attacking play. It's really hard to score goals in soccer. So when teams do it, we don't want to screw them out of those.
00:25:44
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, I'm totally with you. You know, if we're giving referees the benefit of the doubt because it wasn't just Fischer, you know, I think we've seen this quite a bit since Varv is introduced, where, you know, there are these really close calls that are getting blown dead. So it's not just Fischer, even though I'm not happy with him, so I don't want to defend him too much.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not putting that one necessarily on Poof Fisher. You saw it in the seminar thing that MLS put out. They actually ask Howard Webb directly, like, are you instructing referees to hold their whistle longer? Because so do allow for VAR to effectively confirm offside calls. And he said, well, we're actually asking referees to call the game just like they always did. And I think that's
00:26:35
Speaker
You know, I understand that there's like some risk in asking them to do something different than they've always done, but if you're going to have this technology, I think you should use it.
00:26:47
Speaker
Right. And that's, I mean, I guess that's what I mean about giving him the benefit of the doubt in that I'm hoping that this ends up evolving into the kind of thing where there's enough outcry over over things like this. The outcry would probably be more effective for goals that that should have, you know, actual correct all side calls.
00:27:08
Speaker
You know, if there's enough outcry over this, that's something that they'll reevaluate. I mean, my thing with VAR is that I didn't really expect it to go great this season. I expected to be pretty pissed off about it on, you know, multiple occasions. And I don't think that that means we should, you know, just say, oh, well, you know, I was expecting it to go wrong, but I'm willing to deal with some difficulties for a while while they kind of get things ironed out. Because I think in the long run, if they get those things ironed out, it's going to be a huge plus for the game.
00:27:37
Speaker
Um, if they don't fix this stuff, you know, if this is happening this time next year, um, then I'm going to start hoping we get rid of it, which we won't, you know, you can't, uh, you can't unopen the bottle or whatever that term phrase is, but
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, I really am hoping that this is just kind of the ironing out the the wrinkles phase and that you know They they hit a happier medium kind of like they've done in the NFL. It's although It's still not great in the NFL, but it's better than it used to be so Yeah, and I should say that I don't think that referees should be holding their whistle on literally every off-site call I think it would become a
00:28:16
Speaker
We don't want to be in a situation where we're reviewing 10 offsides in a game, but in a situation like this where essentially you're talking about the referee holding their whistle for like a half second longer, like literally as Morris is winding up to shoot is when the whistle blows, the goalkeeper thought that the goal counted, which shows how close of a call it was. I just think in situations like that, there's no harm in holding their whistle. Of course, the more
00:28:46
Speaker
Relevant and potentially more angering not potentially the undeniably more frustrating situation from a sounder's perspective was the red card on Roman Torres which I think is made even worse because there was a similarly questionable red card against new who the week before and and I don't think that this one is Ultimately gonna be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things and
00:29:10
Speaker
you know the centers were able to get through who knows maybe they would have won there was six seven minutes left in the game uh maybe they would have been able to win if they had their full complement of players but
00:29:21
Speaker
Uh, you know, my suspicion is that Gustave Stenson will come in for Torres this next game and he'll be fine. Uh, so it's not like it's a huge loss, but it's just very frustrating because, uh, the replays to me show that, you know, I don't even want to get into whether or not it was a foul. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. I really think, you know, it's a reasonable interpretation, I suppose, to say that there was a foul on the play, like,
00:29:46
Speaker
You know, we spent a lot of time on Sounder at Heart dissecting that play, looking at who's foot kicked the ball free. To me, at first it looked like Roman Torres, but I've actually been convinced that it was probably Jermaine Jones that kicked the ball. I still haven't seen an angle that definitely shows a foul, but
00:30:04
Speaker
whatever. I don't necessarily want to get into whether or not there was a foul. I'm willing to accept that there should have been a free kick on this play. What I can't accept though is that that's a red card for dogso. There's just simply no way at all that you can convince me that Jermaine Jones is capable of turning that into an obvious goal scoring opportunity when he's pulling up
00:30:28
Speaker
a solid five yards before Roman Torres even really gets to him. I think what happens there is Jermaine Jones realizes he's out of gas, realizes that Roman Torres is closing the gap. He probably sees Chad Marshall also cutting off his angle. And so at that point, he's looking for contact. Now, maybe he gets some contact there, but there's just no way that, you know, I've seen people say that, well, he's getting ready to wind up for a shot. Well, that's a 22 yard shot with his left foot with a defender draped on him. That's not an obvious goal scoring opportunity.
00:30:57
Speaker
okay so then maybe he was about maybe if you take the foul out of it that allows germane jones to drive into the drive into the box well at that point chad marshall is there to cut him off like i just don't see the argument for dogso i i mean it actually makes me it makes me really mad and it makes me really frustrated that drew fisher that either the var didn't tell him you really need to take a look at this because he was not
00:31:21
Speaker
In on goal, but then on top of that dog So you can review dog So all the way back to the start of the attacking sequence where Bradford Jameson the fourth gives Will Bruin a forearm shiver to the chest and easily you could call that a foul. We've seen less Lesser situations called back for fouls like in the Dallas game, which I think was
00:31:43
Speaker
you know, questionable to call that back, but we've seen it done. So clearly it's possible. And that was actually pulling a goal off the board. I just don't see how that was not deemed worthy of taking a second look. No, it's absolutely crazy. And I think, I mean, frankly, I think that every red card for things that aren't violent conduct should be reviewed automatically. I think the referee should have to look at it because it's just such a huge
00:32:11
Speaker
I think penalties and red cards, all of them, should get looked at. It's such a huge thing. It has lasting effects beyond one game. I think it should be automatic. I don't think the referee should have any input at all as to whether or not they want it to be reviewed. Because a lot of referees are smug pricks, and they're not going to accept the fact that maybe they got a call wrong.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's crazy. And I think you're right. I mean, I think if that gets reviewed by an actual impartial party, the Sounders have a free kick at like, you know, 23 yards out instead of going down a man and having a dangerous free kick at the other end.
00:32:52
Speaker
You know, as poorly as I think the Sounders played in that game, they had a lot of late pressure. I didn't think it was at all out of the realm of possibility that they were gonna get a goal. When Torres comes off, it makes that, you know, a lot more difficult. So yeah, I think that it's appalling that, you know, if we're gonna have this, we should use it for things like this. This is exactly the situation that we should use it for. You know, it's not an offside call. It's not determining whether or not a foul occurred in or out of the area or whatever.
00:33:21
Speaker
I mean, Roman Torres gets suspended. So he's going to be out another game. The Sounders are prepared to deal with that pretty well. What if that happens to, you know, in the next to last game of the season and the guy that is in that position isn't Roman Torres, it's, you know, it's another team. And so going into the playoffs, they're without like, they're only good center back or something like that. I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous that we're not looking at this stuff every
Praise and Player Analysis
00:33:48
Speaker
single time. And especially,
00:33:50
Speaker
um yeah i don't know i i think i guess that's all i have yeah and i i guess and i'll i'll back that up is that even if even if ultimately the referee decides that he was correct like i'm what like whatever i think that's that's wrong but i'm willing to accept that i have a difference of opinion on that but what i want is i want like give me the dog and pony show
00:34:16
Speaker
Like, show me Drew Fisher looking at the play again and having to announce what his decision was or essentially having to defend his decision on some level.
00:34:31
Speaker
going through the film and actually looking at it like yeah maybe he ends up affirming it I guess like I'm still mad about it but at least I know the technology was used at least I know that they were looking at both plays and I think that there needs to be better communication between the official and the and the fans frankly I think there needs to be a way for there to be an official announcement
00:34:57
Speaker
that says what's going on, that the video review is looking at something, whether it's in the box or it's on the field. I just think that there's a lot of, in some ways I feel like having the technology and it not working the way that it seems like it should work is more frustrating than not having the technology. And along those lines,
00:35:16
Speaker
I think what else is really frustrating is that it's becoming apparent to me that VAR exists more to affirm referees' decisions than it is to contradict referee decisions, which is to say that they want to make sure that they have a viable defense of the call that they made. They aren't necessarily interested in getting what most would agree is the right call or the correct call. They just want to be able to say like, well, that's my, you know,
00:35:42
Speaker
There is some interpretation of this play that follows my thinking or why I made this call. And I just think that's absolutely the wrong way of looking at it. And I realize that there's always going to be a lot of gray area, but there just has to be more of a transparent and more of a process that leads us to getting right calls, not just avoiding wrong calls, if that makes sense.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yeah, it absolutely does. And I totally agree with you. And that's I think one of the most disappointing things is that it feels like a way to protect referees more than a way to get the calls right. And, you know, I mean, for example, if if Fisher has to look at that call, and he determines it's the right call, and he lets it stand, and, you know, his bosses at pro say, dude, that wasn't the right call.
00:36:30
Speaker
It's a teaching moment, you know, and I don't think that and they can explain, you know, here's why it wasn't the right call and you looked at it and you still got it wrong. This is a problem. You need to fix it. And I think that it's just it's one of those things where referees get a lot of criticism and some of it's unfair and a lot of it is
00:36:49
Speaker
Even if it's fair criticism, it's not especially nice or civil. And I get that. You probably have to be somewhat defensive as a referee because they're getting yelled at by players and fans and getting social media abuse. And so I get that. And I get that they want to be right.
00:37:09
Speaker
But we shouldn't take criticism, especially when we do something wrong, as a slap in the face. You should want to be as good at your job as possible, and you should want to have all the tools possible at your disposal that you can have. And I think VAR is a great tool if it's used correctly, but it's not being used correctly. It's being used to entrench referees and shield them from criticism.
00:37:35
Speaker
And given the way MLS fans feel about Pro already, I really see that backfiring if they don't kind of go in the other direction on that.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely think there's some potential that this could end up being a net negative for MLS, and that would be a real shame because it has, you know, I think that, you know, the way we've seen VAR var used in Germany, for instance, has been much more roundly applauded.
00:38:05
Speaker
And granted, that's starting at a better baseline of referee quality, where Germany has some of the best referees in the world, so maybe it's an unfair comparison, but yet they've seem to have managed to use VAR in a way that is enhancing the game instead of detracting from the game.
00:38:25
Speaker
And it's just frustrating that that's the case. And I feel kinda bad that so much of our show this week so far has focused on referee decisions, which is something we often try to avoid doing, and off-field stuff, which is not something that we necessarily avoid.
00:38:40
Speaker
Try to avoid doing it in this case I think was very important, but I don't know is there anything about the game itself that we should be that we're Ignoring here that really needs our attention before we go into question I think that Roman Torres had a hell of a game And I think that if you want to take and I think these look great for a couple months now Yeah, maybe not a couple months, but but a while
00:39:04
Speaker
Yes, I would say at least for the last four or five games. He's looked very good Yeah, and I think that you know if you were one of the folks that I and I kind of felt this way that You know, maybe he wasn't fully healed or he just he wasn't he was still kind of rusty From injuries and that was why you know, his performances hadn't been great. I think maybe that lent some credence to it but also maybe he's just kind of an up-and-down player, but he's been tremendous and and you know, it's it's it's really good to see because I I want a you know, I
00:39:32
Speaker
a peak Roman Reigns on this team. Roman Reigns, Jesus. Roman Torres on this team. Roman Reigns is a different guy. Yeah, so I want that on the team and not the other Roman Torres that we saw. And so
00:39:50
Speaker
It's exciting. It's cool to see. But other than that, that game sucked. It was not fun to watch. I thought Jordan Morris looked pretty good until he got hurt. That's a huge, huge bummer that I don't think we've actually mentioned. He's going to be out for probably a couple of months. Right. And, you know, and he looked really, really good and he's looked good, I think lately. And that's going to be kind of a pain in the ass to deal with. But outside of that, it just it wasn't a pleasant game. The Galaxy were.
00:40:19
Speaker
Not fun to watch at all, which is a bummer, but they do have Dominic Nier on staff now, so maybe it's not that surprising. Yeah, I would say Romontor has turned into the plays of the game. One of them was that sliding volley to Lamor Nagel, which I don't know that I appreciated it in real time as much as I did when I watched the replays of it, because
00:40:43
Speaker
Osvaldo Alonso puts in a looping ball and Roman Torres you don't expect to see it on the wing but there he is and he just slides into it and he hits it perfectly across the across the goal and the Marnagle made smartly you know made a run to the middle of the box and hit it really well I know it deflected off a galaxy defender but the replays I saw sure looked like it was going in no matter
00:41:05
Speaker
you know, whether the Galaxy defender hit it or not. And that was a great, I mean, the goal was a great goal. It should, you know, that should be said. It's actually the, what's weird is that that's the first goal in four games that the centers had scored from the run of play.
00:41:20
Speaker
The last time they had scored from the run of play was when Morris set up Dempsey against Sporting Kansas City. So that was a nice little footnote to see ended. But then the other great play was Roman Torres chasing down Jermaine Jones to get into position to ultimately be red carded. But that was a great play. I mean he
00:41:43
Speaker
closed down a lot of space. I mean, when, when, when Jermaine Jones first got that ball, I thought he was gonna, I thought he was in on goal all alone. I thought, I almost thought the, you know, that was, it was almost like a, why are they, the centers even chasing him at this point? But sure enough, Roman Torres catches up to him. Chad Marshall did a great job to get himself into position there too. But both of those were really encouraging plays to see from, from Torres. And I think it kind of showed him using his physicality
00:42:10
Speaker
in ways that we haven't always seen this year. But, you know, he's also he does have two assists this year. Both of them were on game late game tying goals. So, you know, good for him. And I also thought O'Neill Fisher had a had a surprisingly good game.
Impact of International Breaks
00:42:24
Speaker
I was surprised to see how many people were were kind of down on him. I mean, I think he was a little slow to close out. Alison Drini on the on the goal. But other than that, Alison Drini really didn't do much.
00:42:36
Speaker
You know I thought you know this is one of the most dangerous players in the league and O'Neill Fisher held his own against him And he actually had some really bright moments offensively too Which was another thing that was frustrating one of those moments was he rounded the the fullback Bradley Diallo and he goes into the box he basically gets dragged down from behind to me that's every bit as much of a foul as the
00:43:01
Speaker
I'm not going to get into that. I thought Fischer was a bright spot in the game. I don't know that he's going to get himself much more playing time. It was good to see Nagel play. I was a little surprised to see Nagel come in over Aaron Kowar, but maybe in that kind of game it made sense. But yeah, not a lot of great talking points from that game otherwise.
00:43:22
Speaker
No, definitely not. I mean, and it's I feel like the sounders always kind of start flat after international breaks. And I feel like it's always been that way. So maybe it's just, you know, my mind tricking me. I don't know. But, you know, I mean, they did give them a lot of time off. That's true. And the D.C. game was after an international break.
00:43:42
Speaker
uh... you know i think the new england you might have as well uh... so if you have any it's not yeah uh... but i don't know if they just they seem flat didn't seem especially cohesive is gross and unpleasant as games like that can be to watch uh... it i guess i'm not super concerned about it because we know that they can play a lot better than that uh... and you know and and they will uh... and so
00:44:09
Speaker
Not a ton to take out of it, but I think probably not a lot to be especially worried about either. Yeah, the DC game was definitely after an international break. The revolution game was not...
00:44:24
Speaker
It may have been two games because it was only a few days after, or six days after the Galaxy 3-0 win. But anyway, your point stands. We're going to take a break though. We're going to come back. We're going to take your questions. You're listening to Nos Aietis.
Nicolas Lodeiro and Midfield Speculation
00:45:07
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:46:20
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes, so no lick it today, but I'm going to go ahead and I think I can handle asking questions and I'll weigh in when needed. But we'll start off with Tyler Schott, Schott's Fired, at Schott's Fired is his name. Why do I feel like Nika loses the ball or shoots off frames so much every game this season? I get frustrated with him multiple times.
00:46:42
Speaker
His shooting has definitely not been great, but I mean, he scored some great goals last year and it's frustrating. But I don't think that that was ever like he was not going to be able to do that consistently. I don't think I don't think he was going to be able to convert as many chances as he did last season. So I'm not as worried about the shooting, although I would certainly like him to score more often. And I think that a big part of the frustration and I felt it too with Nico, but
00:47:11
Speaker
I feel like last year, I don't know if he was actually playing any better or worse or making any better or worse passes. I just think that they were leading to something a little more often. I don't think he's been as good this year. I definitely wouldn't say that, but I still think he's been a really, really, really good player this season. And I think he's having to do a lot that maybe he wasn't having to do last year.
00:47:37
Speaker
And I think just, you know, in general players that kind of play the style, he does can have some really frustrating games where nothing is coming off. But, you know, the upside is worth it. So I'm not super concerned about it has been frustrating, but I think, you know, like this has been kind of a recurring theme on the show. But I think if we're winning these games and, you know, instead of getting draws out of them, that it's probably not something people are noticing, myself included. Do you put much credence in? I know this is kind of becoming a popular
00:48:06
Speaker
theory that that Ledero would be better off if he was playing in the middle and I don't know Dempsey was either playing like I guess it's possible that the Sounders could play around with the formation that has Dempsey as a nine and Ledero sitting beneath him more as a as like a pure attacking midfielder as opposed to you know essentially a withdrawn forward like Dempsey has been playing.
00:48:29
Speaker
Uh, I don't, I don't think that it's causing problems necessarily. I mean, I think that having Dempsey Rodriguez and Lodero all kind of playing in the same spaces is, is maybe not ideal. Um, because, you know, I mean, it gets crowded, but, but it's a lot of teams have players that do similar things like that.
00:48:50
Speaker
and occupy the same spaces and it's effective and you know the Sounders best attacking season they had Papa Martin's and Dempsey all playing in those spaces a lot of times. I do think sometimes we kind of have we kind of created this narrative in our head that like Dempsey and Martin's were I mean they did feed off one on each other one another really well but they him Papa and and Martin's were in the same space a lot and when it got gummed up it really got gummed up.
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah, I will say, though, that the idea of maybe playing Dempsey is kind of like a false nine and a four, three, three, and just not having an out and out striker with Morris and not Morris Rodriguez and Ledera on the wings while Morris is hurt.
Jordan Morris' Injury and Team Strategy
00:49:35
Speaker
And, you know, maybe having like a three man midfield and playing rolled in kind of at the point of that three. Oh, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing how that that goes. I don't think we're going to see that. I think we're probably going to see, you know, we'll ruin just kind of sliding in for Morris.
00:49:48
Speaker
I don't know that that's the wrong decision. But if you're kind of looking to minimize the issues of them maybe stepping on each other's toes, you know, something like that might not be bad. But I think playing without a striker, you know, an out and out striker is
00:50:06
Speaker
I don't know if it's something Brian Schmetzer is going to do. Um, and, and, you know, and there are good reasons not to, um, but, but I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it maybe once or twice. Yeah, I don't think it would be. Yeah, I'm with you. Like I, I wouldn't mind at all seeing a three man midfield of, of Svensson ruled on and Alonzo and kind of with the idea that Rodriguez, Dempsey and, and Ledera were kind of allowed to push farther up the field.
00:50:33
Speaker
Uh, wouldn't be a bad idea. Uh, anyway, this is from at my Barcelona. It says, why do they play in away kits at home? I'm sure rave green would have gotten all three. And so to back this up, they played of course, in their Pacific blue on Sunday. And that was because I guess they always, whenever they play these, uh, these games where they have the, the brand, the added branding of the video game, it's always in like a, in their secondary shirts. Like last year they had the.
00:51:03
Speaker
The Gears of War in their Pacific Blue in the year before that, they had the Halo branding on their black shirts. And then the game for that, they were in white because of Heritage. So what do you think? If they had been playing in Rave Green these last two games, would they have gotten wins?
00:51:20
Speaker
Well, definitely in the Portland game, because they should never wear white again. But I've always been fervently anti-white, and I think we all know that. But yeah, I don't know. I don't like playing in secondary kits at home. It doesn't matter, but I don't like it. And so I'm fine with going on record as saying that, yeah, we would have had six points from those two games. Fair enough.
00:51:46
Speaker
wearing green, just because I don't want to get home. So, Sander's trialist says, if the offense clicks with Bruin as a regular starter, does Morris sit when he's healthy again? So, I think it's a tricky question because I think that Jordan Morris is going to play when he's healthy.
00:52:10
Speaker
But given that he's probably not going to be back until right before the playoffs, or even in the playoffs, and if the Sounders are playing well, I can definitely see not wanting to mess that up. And maybe he is at less risk of an injury if his minutes are getting managed a little bit. And so generally, I would say I want Jordan Lourdes playing.
00:52:39
Speaker
I think generally the Sounders would want Jordan Morris playing starting, rather, but I think that given the timing of the injury, it wouldn't shock me that if things are going pretty well in the attack and Bruins looking good, that, yeah, if Morris is in a reserve role in the playoffs. And I think that's okay. I mean, I think because one of the big reasons I want Morris playing is because I want him to develop.
00:53:00
Speaker
you know when you get to the playoffs um it's different right but that's a big f i mean i'll just say that i think that the team is better with morris and i think that the odds of the attack you know playing as well as it can with him down are not great yeah um i think i'm with you there i my suspicion is that jordan morris if he comes back or like it was my suspicion is that once the
00:53:26
Speaker
Once the announcement is made, he's probably, they're probably gonna give him like one of those four to six or four to eight week windows to come back into. And if he's back in closer to four weeks, I think there's a decent chance that he'll be starting by the end of the season. If he's not back until six weeks, I think at that point, you probably just let him come off the bench for the rest of the year. But I think next year, he's probably gonna be starting again, regardless of what happens at the end of this year.
00:53:56
Speaker
So anyway, another one from my Barcelona, what do you think of Schmetzer's idea that we need to be more patient in the attack?
Attacking Patience and Player Roles
00:54:05
Speaker
I mean, Brian Schmetzer knows a lot more about soccer than I do. So he's probably right, but that certainly doesn't seem like the problem to me. It really doesn't. And I think that the sounders, I get sort of your general attacking mode being to try to be patient and break down possession, but it just seems so often like they have decent transitional opportunities and everything slows down.
00:54:33
Speaker
and the defense gets behind the ball and we get in these situations where we pass it around a bunch and then settle for a low percentage shot eventually or take a sequence of 12 corners.
00:54:45
Speaker
I mean, like I said, it's entirely possible that that he's right But that just really doesn't feel like what's causing the problems. Yeah, I I think that that's probably my suspicion is that he's Hopefully understand like I'm sure he would believe that once their sounders are in transition They need to play faster and they that's maybe one of the problems is they are playing too slow in transition but I I guess I could see how
00:55:12
Speaker
maybe they aren't shooting I don't know I don't know it was a weird statement I mean I will say I don't know I looked into this the last four games they've had 22 shots blocked I'm not sure if that's indicative of shooting too fast or waiting too long to shoot though it might be indicative of not
00:55:32
Speaker
looking for the like waiting too long to take shots and defense is being allowed to close you down maybe? I don't know. But I thought that seems high, 22 block shots. They've had at least five shots blocked in each of the last four games. I don't know, it seemed high to me. It seems high. And I guess my first thought was that, well, yeah, of course, because they're constantly in situations where the defense is packed in and set.
00:55:58
Speaker
That could be totally wrong. That was just kind of the first thing that sprang to my mind. I think that's probably true. At GDsounders, does Nagel deserve more playing time? No, I don't think so. I mean, I love a guy and I'm super, super glad that he scored that goal, but I think his best position is situational sub.
00:56:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it would be interesting if he somehow gets this, like, let's assume we have six games. The next six games are without Jordan Morris. It would be interesting if the Sounders give him a look as a striker in any of those games. But I would have a hard time justifying seeing him start over Victor Rodriguez or Nicolas Ledero or Clint Dempsey.
00:56:47
Speaker
And those are essentially, you know, I don't want to see any of those three players benched for, for Lamar Nagel, essentially. Yeah. I mean, I think it's a situation of maybe he gets more playing time, but I think it's cause it's a necessity rather than, you know, he, he should be playing more. Yeah. Um, let's see, this one's from at under table fan. What will it take for people to understand that contact doesn't equal fouls and that consistency calls are important.
00:57:16
Speaker
Uh, I think that everybody gets the second part. Um, yeah, but you know, I mean, it's, it's tricky because, uh, what constitutes a foul, how much contact constitutes a foul. I mean, that that's inherently subjective. And so, um, you know, I think that you can, uh, look at the, the Torres foul at the end of the game and say,
00:57:41
Speaker
that shouldn't be a foul and be right. And I don't think it was a foul, frankly, but you can, like we talked about, you can make a very reasonable case that it was.
Future Player Signings
00:57:53
Speaker
So I think everyone would agree that not all contact equals a foul, but the degree to what kind of contact, what level of contact equals a foul is always gonna be up for debate. And I think that's okay.
00:58:08
Speaker
Yeah, uh, this one's from at colon source rex the off season this off season Are we looking for a designated player who is a winger or are we looking for one who will play up top? Or are we looking for both because there's no clean Dempsey? Uh, it's man. It's a tough question because And I think it gets tougher because of the morris injury. Um Because I think you know this stretch run was going to be really big for jordan morris. Um, and he's going to miss it now and so
00:58:36
Speaker
Um, you know, his stat line is going to be disappointing, but you don't want to say, okay, well you lost your job cause you got hurt. You know, you're not going to be a starter for us cause you got hurt. So, um, I mean, I think it's weird because like if Rodriguez is the player that he's looked like so far.
00:58:53
Speaker
It's hard for me to imagine us going after a winger, unless Ladeiro does make a permanent move to the center, but if he's doing that, then either Dempsey's gone, which I don't think is gonna happen, or Morris is going to the bench anyway. But I also, like, I don't know where you put another DP. And it's a tricky situation, because people desperately want another DP. I certainly do.
00:59:16
Speaker
I guess we're not doing phrasing anymore. I always forget about that and then I'll be talking about it with people that don't follow soccer as closely as me and they give me these weird looks. It's weird because I don't see an obvious spot for a designated player.
00:59:39
Speaker
But people are going to get really pissed off if we don't sign one or even two. So I don't know. If Dempsey leaves, which again, I think is a pretty slim chance of that happening. I think it's almost certainly a more traditional number nine type of forward. But short of that, I really don't know. So this one's from at Caitlin smooth. How good of a job do you think Christian is doing of taking care of Jordan right now? I think he's probably doing a pretty good job. It's not do what?
01:00:08
Speaker
You'd hope. Yeah, I would hope so. It's not too far from the U District to Mercer Island.
Criticism and Praise in Sports Broadcasting
01:00:13
Speaker
So, you know, I think that his dad is probably taking better care of him, I would hope. But yeah, it was man, it was really awkward when they kept showing close ups of him and his dad sitting on the bench and Morris looked like he, you know, somebody shot his puppy and his dad didn't look too happy either.
01:00:33
Speaker
i don't get why uh sports producers love to do that kind of shit like yeah we get it he's hurt he's sad about it we're all sad about it too i don't i don't really want to dwell on this uh so this one's from at meager 253 are there any good referees left Salazar is good uh
01:00:51
Speaker
which is so crazy. We talked about this on the last show, I think, that Ricardo Salazar is suddenly like one of our favorite referees. Yeah. And he, I mean, kind of tying into the last segment, you know, he seems really willing to embrace Var and use it the right way. Right. Probably because he's demonstrably committed to getting better at what he does. So, yeah, Salazar is good. There are a couple others that are fine. But, yeah, I think Salazar is the only one that I'm generally happy to see.
01:01:22
Speaker
It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre. This one's from at Slippish. Who plays Striker if Bruin has to miss a game? I think Nagel is the most likely candidate, which... It would be pretty funny if Lamar Nagel ends up being a... not just a part of a Sounders run, but like an important part. Like, oh god, where would the Sounders be if they hadn't picked up Lamar Nagel for free?
01:01:48
Speaker
Which, you know, we've said that so we've said that quite a bit at this point, right? Yeah, it's I don't know. It's it's funny like he's because he's been gone a lot, right? Like he's been gone for a season and a half this time. He was gone for a season the last time he was gone.
01:02:06
Speaker
But it just like he came on and it was like yeah, there's no more he's always here and there's probably gonna score a goal I think I think I actually called the goal, you know and said yeah, this feels like a game where he's gonna score a goal Because it's only good. I mean he's always been the dude that makes something out of these just gross nasty scrappy games God bless him for it. Yeah, that seemed like a very Lamar Nagel goal It felt you know, there was a goal he scored against
01:02:34
Speaker
Man, I don't remember who. He scored a lot of goals like that, I feel, where he's kind of cut into the, he's basically cut to the penalty spot and received a cross. That seems to be like kind of one of his signature, his signature plays as well as hitting crazy shots from 25 yards or whatever.
01:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, he has, you know, for all the, I think, reasonable criticisms that you can make of his game, he has really, really good instincts. And, you know, I think we saw that a lot in 2013, 2014, when he, you know, scored a ton of goals, just kind of cleaning up for Dempsey and Oba. And, you know, this was another
Champions League Prioritization
01:03:11
Speaker
example of that. And that's really valuable to have any guy that's going to be a late game sub.
01:03:15
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. This one's from Matt Faust. Any guesses to win the schedule for the 2018 Champions League will firm up. Related, to what degree do you think the Sounders are going to prioritize the Champions League? I'll let you handle the schedule question because I have no idea and you might have an idea. I don't. There you go. There you go, Matt. Sorry. I think it'll be a high priority. I mean, but I think that
01:03:43
Speaker
I feel like the way we talk about prioritizing different competitions is flawed in some ways. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and it's something I've done a lot of in the past. But I think that you want to build a good roster that has good depth that can get you through the season, but also has high end talent that will be there come playoff time. And in that sense, building a good roster for CCL is a lot like building a roster that's kind of optimized for MLS Cup.
01:04:12
Speaker
So maybe there's some synergy there, I don't know, but ultimately you want good players and you want enough depth to kind of ride out the storm. And maybe there are small tweaks you make here and there based on which competitions you prioritize the most, but I don't know how much you can do to really say we've built a roster for CCL.
01:04:34
Speaker
And I think you know if the Sounders are in late round games and the CCL they're gonna be playing a first team I don't think there's any question about that. So And if they have enough depth, you know their first team that they play and CCL that that next MLS game The roster probably isn't gonna look, you know that much weaker. So
01:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it's a high priority, but I don't think there's anything they can do differently in terms of roster construction to make it, you know, to optimize for the competition, I guess.
01:05:09
Speaker
Well, I'll say this is if we are to take Garth at his word, and this is a good, you know, I'm supposed to be talking to Garth this week. Originally, we had actually planned to put it into this show. I don't think that's what we're gonna end up doing. Of course, by the time you get to this part of the show, you'll have known whether we did or didn't.
01:05:30
Speaker
But one of the questions I think I'm going to, I'm glad you brought this up because it makes me want to ask him because he's paid a lot of lip service to the importance of the Champions League. The Sounders have made it sound as if this is a big deal to them.
01:05:45
Speaker
And I think that the way the new Champions League format, we may not like it from a competition standpoint, but I actually think it helps from a roster building standpoint is that unlike previous years where there was a group stage where you would play potentially two minnows and the sounders, MLS teams had a relatively easy path
01:06:09
Speaker
through the group stage they're going to have to be ready to play big teams relatively early and it'll be interesting to see how how they set up because it's going to behoove the centers to have pretty much a full roster at the beginning of the season which is
01:06:25
Speaker
close to when they'll start playing Champions League games. So, you know, I think there is some things that they can do that are different than what they've done the last two seasons. And one of them is have a roster that's more set early in the season. And I think that if they're really serious about winning Champions League, they need to make sure that their roster is in place as it possibly can be near the start of the season. Yeah, that's something I hadn't thought about, but that's a really good point.
01:06:51
Speaker
So finally we're going to end with a question from at Smashly FC, and this is for you, Aaron. He says, when does it become appropriate to start calling a quote-unquote game a quote-unquote fucker?
Closing and Upcoming Interview
01:07:05
Speaker
I think that generally when it starts to really piss you off is a good time. I should clarify, is he talking about pinball games here? No, no, he's talking about sounder games. Oh, yeah.
01:07:17
Speaker
After, so the backstory here is that after Clint Dempsey scored against Portland in Portland to tie that game, I tweeted, let's go win this fucker. And now Ashley tweets that, retweets that every single game, sometimes multiple times. So, I mean, so the answer, there are two answers either when you're pissed off about the game and you've kind of lost hope,
01:07:43
Speaker
or when you've newly found hope in a game. You know, because I was convinced we were going to lose that game and then I was like, hey, we're going to win this game. Let's win this fucker. So yeah. But if you're talking about college football, that's the only way to describe a college football game is calling it a fucker.
01:08:01
Speaker
I'm sure there's a whole story there. No, there's not. Oh, okay. Well, in any case. Anyway, that's our show. So, appreciate everyone listening. I suspect we're gonna have some sort of bonus edition either later in the week or maybe even next week, early next week, that is an interview with Garth Legway that we're still trying to... We're supposed to do it on Thursday, so cat's out of the bag on that one.
01:08:30
Speaker
But let's hope it actually happens. We've been trying to get this interview for a long time. But anyway, thanks to our sponsors Fullpool Wines, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marble, and of course our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and not on behalf of our lazy producer Likit. This is No Study at This, and remember, you'll never get alone.
01:08:56
Speaker
Green Douglas, where were the waters 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
01:09:43
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!