Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 371: Not quite satisfied
70 Plays2 years ago
The Sounders had a chance to score a statement win against arguably the league’s top team who was playing their fourth game in 10 days and 5th in 15, but ultimately had to settle for a 0-0 tie against lAFC. Watching the game back, though, I was kinda struck by just how good the sounders looked, especially in the first half.
Sponsors
If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.
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)
Recommended
Transcript
Sponsors and Boutique Wines
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Fullpool was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup Victory Highlights
00:00:21
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. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! I want to say bye-bye! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup winners! And Portland can't say he's cheating! Here comes Rudy Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle! They have climbed the mountain!
00:00:51
Speaker
And now our masters of all that they survey. Michael Odero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Seattle Sounders, this can feel it. Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome.
00:01:39
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:50
Speaker
I have no idea. I don't know.
Watson's Counter Social Media Promotion
00:02:15
Speaker
Follow them on Instagram at wantsonscounter to keep up with all the upcoming releases or check out their website at www.watsonscounter.com. Whether you want to stop by for your daily coffee to go or sit down for delicious Korean inspired brunch, Watson's Counter has got you covered.
Sounders vs LAFC Match Overview
00:02:33
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adiata, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and Watson's Counter. This is episode 371 and we're recording on Tuesday, March 21st, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett. Sounders had a chance to score a statement win against arguably the league's top team who was playing their fourth game in 10 days and fifth and 15, but ultimately had to settle for a zero zero tie against LAFC.
00:02:59
Speaker
Watching the game back though, I was kind of struck by just how good the sounders looked, especially in the first half. Aaron, what did you make of that kind of disappointing 0-0 tie from a results perspective, but
00:03:15
Speaker
I don't know, fair to say it was pretty good from a what we learned perspective.
Social Media's Influence on Game Perception
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's you hit the nail on the head. This is a good example of why I think that for me at least like watching games without being on social media, seeing what other people are saying, seeing other people's reactions.
00:03:35
Speaker
I can really influence how I feel about the game because I was watching on about a half an hour delay because I got in a little later than I expected that afternoon and I thought it was great. I was really happy with the sounders played. It felt like they just were pretty clearly
00:03:50
Speaker
the better team, but unlucky. And they were also facing just a really good defensive team in LAFC. And I was really encouraged. And then I saw that some people maybe didn't feel the same way about that game. And that's not to say that people that felt differently, that their opinions are invalid. But I do feel like maybe I would have been influenced. Maybe my mood would have been influenced otherwise. I don't know. But I felt really good after that game. Obviously, getting to three points would have been
00:04:17
Speaker
Great, and I think would have been well deserved. I think that the Sounders were the better team. I think that they created plenty of chances. They certainly could have lost that game just based on the way things went in the last five, 10 minutes of the game. That would have been brutal. And that would have been, yes, that would have been really, I think, fair to say unfair or not reflective of the way the game went, but it could have happened because the Sounders didn't convert their chances. But yeah, I was really encouraged, I think.
00:04:44
Speaker
that in terms of just how well the Sounders played, how well they executed, I didn't see a whole lot of difference between this game and the RSL game and the Colorado game. I thought the Sounders just played really, really well. They just didn't get quite as much luck going their way. And they also played a team that's, you know, made it really hard on them defensively.
Sounders' Strategic Play Against LAFC
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, I, you know, it's one of those games where obviously, yes, I want the three points, but if you had told me the Sounders got outplayed by a team that was, you know, again, playing its fourth game in 10 days and fifth and 15 and one, like, let's just say they won one zero, but they looked kind of bad doing it, or they tied that same team, but looked pretty good.
00:05:30
Speaker
at three game four of the season. I don't know. I'm honestly, I think I'm inclined to, I would rather see them playing well than getting results at this point in the season. And I really did think they played well in that game, you know? And I said, like I said, in the first, in the intro, like the first 45 minutes were
00:05:53
Speaker
I mean, as good as they've looked, frankly, like if Albert Rusnak's shot goes in instead of hitting the post, or if Raul Rui Diaz finishes that shot right at the end of the, that chance at the right at the end of the first half, if either one of those go in, I think it ends up being a totally different game. And I think it would have been a very well deserved lead going into the half.
00:06:16
Speaker
and you sort of have your cake and eat it too in that case. But I found a lot really encouraging. And yeah, there was little moments where
00:06:25
Speaker
They just weren't as sharp as you'd like them to be. And those are things that I'm sure they're going to work on. You know, today, Brian was saying like, yep, we've definitely noticed that we got shut out the last two games after scoring six in the first two. And you know, we're going to work on our offensive moments and all this kind of stuff. And that's, Hey, I, that's what I want to hear from the coach. But if you're asking me what I saw, like I was, I liked it. I thought they'd look good. Yeah. Processes on point execution can always get better.
00:06:53
Speaker
But what they're doing, the intent that they have behind the things they're trying to do, I don't have any complaints with. And I just think it's always, I think people intellectually, they know this team that we're playing is very good. They're going to make it difficult. But you always want all of the control to be in your team's hands. And when you're playing teams as good as LAFC, it's not. I mean, if LAFC executes as well as you execute,
00:07:23
Speaker
you're probably not going to score. You're going to have difficulty scoring at least. And that was kind of what happened here. You and I were kind of talking about this before the game, and I thought you made a good point that
00:07:36
Speaker
LA traded danger going forward for keeping the sounders wrapped up. I mean, I think that LAFC usually creates a lot more in the attacking phase. And I think the fact that they did not create a whole lot until again, the last five minutes of the game or so.
00:07:54
Speaker
is indicative of how seriously they took the Sounders, how threatening they saw them as, and really just the Sounders dictated the game and forced them to do that. And LES say, sure, they have the advantage of being away from home and not having as much of an impetus to get forward. But that's a team that likes to score goals. I mean, that's really what they're all about.
Sounders' Defensive Analysis
00:08:15
Speaker
And they chose not to do that, not to go after that as aggressively in this game because the Sounders were kind of putting them to the sword.
00:08:24
Speaker
And they're also a team that likes to press a lot. And I thought they at least went through the motions of trying to press. And the sounders sort of like alternated playing through it and playing over it. And they did both really efficiently. One map I saw charts lost possessions. And the sounders created something like 13 turnovers in
00:08:51
Speaker
in LAFC's end. LAFC only created three turnovers in the Sounders' end, and those were all very close to midfield, so sort of away from danger, so to speak. And I thought that was also really encouraging, especially with how much they at times struggled to handle the press against FC Cincinnati. And you can certainly argue, oh, well,
00:09:12
Speaker
LAFC wasn't as efficient as they would be because they were both on the road, but also playing on tired legs. And there's truth to that. And I think it's the knowledge that the points were there for the taking and the Sounders couldn't do it. That's what's really frustrating. And I agree, it is frustrating. This is a game the Sounders, I would have really liked the Sounders to have won, but I don't think we should, those are two separate, I guess what I'm saying is we should be able to compartmentalize our frustration over the result
00:09:42
Speaker
with our being encouraged by the way they played. And I think this is one of those games where the XG doesn't really tell the whole story because purely by XG, the sounders barely were better than LAFC and most of the sounders XG came out of set pieces and those are
00:10:02
Speaker
totally fair things to point out that they didn't create a lot of shots, great shots from the run of play. But if you all I would say is like, go back and watch the game and just watch the play between like when especially just watch the first half. The Sounders dominated every phase of that game. They were getting into good spots. They just weren't like completing that last pass. They weren't like able to get the shot off that they wanted. And that's you know, those are problems. But I think we can sometimes overstate
00:10:32
Speaker
like how dangerous or understate how dangerous the sounders look because there weren't there wasn't that final shot or whatever.
00:10:41
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that if you look at the game holistically, you and I have, I think, a slightly different position on single-game XG. I think it's almost never useful in this small of a sample. And I definitely think it was misleading in this game. And I think that the reasons that you mention are why. Because XG is really, I mean, it's a stat that's going to tell you something in the aggregate.
00:11:07
Speaker
From my perspective, there just aren't enough actions in any given game to to really useful in the aggregate. But the Sounders were getting in good positions. They just weren't. They didn't have the final pass and the game state had a lot to do with that. I mean, it's much harder to make the final pass when the other team is playing that many men behind the ball and they're not being you know, they're they're trading the ability to go forward to do those things. And you know, I just you're right that
00:11:37
Speaker
It's frustrating not to get the points in a game that the Sounders I think should have won like to be clear as happy as I was with the way they performed. They should have won that game. They did what they needed to do to put themselves in a position to win that game and they didn't and that's frustrating.
00:11:52
Speaker
But we're also fortunate to be at the point in the season where you can be frustrated with the result and separate it from the process. And I think that, you know, analytically, that's what we're trying to do. I also think it's worth noting that through four games, the Sounders have given up one goal and they've played some good offensive teams. I mean, Cincinnati and LFC can both score goals and
00:12:14
Speaker
You know, they've given up one between those two and none to anyone else. That's, that's pretty encouraging to me. Yeah. I, you know, I think the stat as far as that goes, that really jumps out to me is the sounders have three shutouts in their first four games this year. They only had six shutouts all of last year. Uh, so they're halfway to last year's total, you know, while being.
00:12:37
Speaker
you know, about 10% of the way through the season, 12% of the way through the season. And that's, you know, I think that's by itself pretty encouraging.
Raul Rui Diaz's Performance and International Duty
00:12:47
Speaker
I think the defense just looks much, much better. Jalpaolo has, is not
00:12:55
Speaker
been you know I think he looked great against RSL and he's only looked sort of okay especially when it comes to the attack phase attacking phase but he's really helped solidify the defense I think you know Albert Rusnak I think has been
00:13:12
Speaker
Uh, has looked better with Joe Paulo next to him. There's not a lot of like, if you go through the, the starting 11, I don't really have a lot of concerns at this point. Like I think we're seeing what we want to see out of most of these guys with maybe. The notable exception of Raul Rui Diaz at this point, but like he's also played a hundred minutes that he's not, you know, that he's not looking his sharpest is not.
00:13:38
Speaker
that surprising. And, you know, it's a little frustrating that as soon as he starts, he goes off to Peru to play with the, or he goes off to Spain to play with Peru and the, and some effectively meaningless friendlies.
Debate on XG's Usefulness
00:13:54
Speaker
But, you know, if, if he can stay healthy, I'm very confident that he's going to score his 10 to 15 goals and the sounders are going to be fine at that position.
00:14:04
Speaker
Raul is like a lot of strikers, a drip, drip, gush kind of player. He looks bad a decent amount of the time and a lot of much better strikers than Raul look kind of bad a decent percentage of the time because scoring goals is a low percentage game.
00:14:24
Speaker
It doesn't happen all that often over the course of the season. If Raul scores 20 goals in a season, that's a hell of a season and that's 14 games he's not scoring a goal in. It's just one of those things. I feel very confident that he'll be fine. He hasn't looked his best, but like he said, he's been injured. He's working his way back to match fitness.
00:14:51
Speaker
scoring goals is just kind of a streaky affair. I mean, it's just kind of the way it goes.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, it was both frustrating and encouraging his scissor kick attempt that didn't come off. I didn't think he had heard himself doing it. So did I. I also thought that at first, but that he attempted it, I thought was actually kind of encouraging. Yeah, absolutely. He's definitely a player who when he has confidence, I feel much better and he pretty clearly has it right now. So it's just.
00:15:21
Speaker
Getting in the right spots. The one that I really wanted for him though was there was a play in the second half where Jordan played sort of like they played Jordan over the top. He hit it back to Nico and then Nico hit a cross to a diving Rui Diaz that if he had connected with almost certainly would have been a goal. But he just couldn't quite get there and ended up not coming of anything. But it was the kind of play
00:15:48
Speaker
that reminds you like this is like that was exactly that's exactly why like that goes on xg is zero right but if you right connects it it's you know point seven or something like that right and it and then to your point like a single game xg is very
00:16:05
Speaker
dependent on, you know, oftentimes one or two really good chances when that's not giving you a whole picture of how dangerous a team was as in one game. Yeah, I think that it's it's not that it's never instructive in some ways, but I think you can be over reliant on it. Yeah. Like if you look at the XG from a game you haven't watched, you're probably not going to think anything too completely crazy.
00:16:36
Speaker
about the way the game went. But but you might trust. Well, you might. You might, especially depending on the game state. Right. Like if it's a if it's a four nil game, let's say, and one of the teams and the losing team has a pretty high XG number, you might think, well, that turned out lucky. But in reality, they were getting a ton of low percentage chances because they were losing for now. Right. So it can be it can be misleading. But I think generally you're probably going to like this was the sounders, I think, were a better team. But
00:17:07
Speaker
I don't think it would have been, like, I don't think a draw was an unfair result. And the XG would have you think that a draw was how things could have gone or should have gone rather. But I do think that those are the things that are missing, right? Or just like those almost chances. And I know non-goal XG is, or non-shot XG is supposed to sort of correct for that. But I remain pretty skeptical of that at this point. I think it's like the right direction. Yeah.
00:17:36
Speaker
But I don't think it's quite there yet. It's still it's in the wrong cul-de-sac, but it's getting there. But yeah, but at any rate, I think you're right. Like, those are those are the things that doesn't pick up on. That's why it can be misleading. And I think in a single game, any game that I watch as close as I watch this one, I trust my test more than the next G. There are other numbers that will make me, you know, reconsider things. But I didn't see any in this game. I thought the Sounders with a better team. They played well.
00:18:05
Speaker
Couldn't get the final ball, had some bad luck. They did hit the, I think the inside of the post, you know, pretty early on, which I think would have just completely changed the complexion of the game. So, you know, bomber not to get them, especially against the team that you're ostensibly consider your rival for, for the conference or potentially a sport or shield even. But in the grand scheme of things, good performance, something I think that they can build on.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And that's actually that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We have a bunch of your questions, so I don't want to get. When we first recorded this episode, we had a whole question and answer segment.
Technical Issues Apology
00:18:43
Speaker
Unfortunately, our tech has failed us and we lost that. We apologize and we'll try to figure out what happened and fix it going forward.
Closing Remarks and Farewell
00:18:50
Speaker
That said, thanks for listening and thanks to our sponsors, Full Pool Wines and Watson's Counter on behalf of Aaron Campo and our engineer Lickett. I'm Jeremy O'Shan. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:19:03
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.
00:19:36
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!