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Under the Lights: Seattle Sounders match up with one of MLS's BEST (feat. Massive Report)
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After starting their return to MLS play with a smooth 2-0 victory over Austin FC at Lumen Field, the Seattle Sounders will now welcome one of the league's elite sides in Matchday 22 when they host Wilfried Nancy's high-flying Columbus Crew on Sunday Night Soccer. We're joined by Crew reporter Caleb Denorme of Massive Report to preview the weekend's premier matchup in MLS.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Introduction to 'Lobbing Scorchers' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:44
Speaker
Good evening, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Under
Pre-Match Analysis: Seattle Sounders vs. Columbus Crew
00:00:49
Speaker
the Lights. Got a big show for you all here tonight. The Seattle Sounders are back at it in MLS play this weekend, coming off a 2-0 win over Austin FC at Lumen Field. They're now going to welcome one of the best teams in MLS. That is the Columbus crew.
00:01:05
Speaker
We're going to be previewing that in just a minute with Caleb DeNorm of Massive Report. And then a lot of ah unexpected Sounders news today that i wasn't anticipating when I woke up this morning.
Impact of Jahao Paulo's Injury on Seattle Sounders
00:01:19
Speaker
But there's unfortunately season ending injury for zhaiao Paulo.
00:01:24
Speaker
ah So we're going to talk about the implications of that. And we are also we got a transfer rumor. A real live transfer rumor from our own Nico Moreno of Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff, ah linking the Sounders to a what would be a U-22 forward by the name of Noah Ohio.
00:01:45
Speaker
That's his name, Noah Ohio. Don't know anything about Noah Ohio, but we're going to talk about him later on in the show. So, yeah. A lot to get into.
00:01:56
Speaker
We're about to talk about the Columbus crew. hopefully they ah Hopefully they brought a backup goalkeeper this time. Hopefully. But before we get into that, in just a second here, ah please like the video.
00:02:09
Speaker
If you have not yet, sub to the channel. ah Follow us on all socials. Instagram. TikTok. the whole nine follow us on everything. Uh, I think, Oh, and, uh, lobbing scorchers.com slash sauce, uh, for our recently dropped hot sauce.
00:02:28
Speaker
And if you use code LS at that link, you get a free bottle with your order. So you can't beat that. ah All right, let's get into this Columbus Crew preview right now. We have got another special guest this week to help us preview set Seattle's upcoming opposition, which this is a big one. Like I said, one of the best teams in Major League Soccer, measuring stick game.
00:02:52
Speaker
So to help us with that, we have got, we're going to bring him to the stage right now. His name is Caleb DeNorme. He is a senior contributor for Massive Report, which is one of the biggest outlets covering the Columbus Crew.
00:03:03
Speaker
ah Here to talk to us about this game on Sunday night soccer between the Seattle Sounders and the Columbus Crew at Lumen Field. Caleb, thank you so much for joining the show this evening and helping us preview the Columbus
Columbus Crew's Form and Tactical Analysis
00:03:15
Speaker
Crew.
00:03:15
Speaker
How are you doing? I'm good. Thank you for for having me. um I always love hopping on and talking and with different people around MLS about their teams. Obviously, my niche is the Columbus crew, but Seattle is a team that, ah me personally, i don't always want to watch other teams in MLS because they don't play you know good style of soccer.
00:03:36
Speaker
Seattle, for me, I always love watching them play. So major respect to that club and and to all of you guys because you guys have some of the best fans in MLS, if not the best. So excited to be on.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, no, we were gonna i was going to get into it, but I feel the same way about the Columbus crew. ah Sometimes I go into these previews and I don't i know the whole league pretty well, ah but ah some teams better than others. Some teams I don't really know much at all.
00:04:03
Speaker
But the crew I watch all the time, i ah they've rightfully earned their reputation as one of the most watchable teams in the league. So excited to talk with you about that. But before we do get into it, I do like to give our guests a little opportunity at the top to ah talk about the work that they're that they're doing, plug anything you might be working on.
00:04:21
Speaker
ah So, yeah, if you just want to tell our audience about what you guys have going on at Massive Report and what you do on a day-to- day to day, week to week basis covering the cover in the club. Yeah, absolutely. Um, master report is amazing. Um, obviously, ah we cover the crew, so we have in-game coverage, we have recaps, all that kind of stuff.
00:04:42
Speaker
Uh, my personal niche is doing what I call tactical reviews, um, which essentially is me breaking down game film and talking about, Hey, what worked in this game? You know, did they decide to build with a two back or three back and how did that fare against the other team? Um, or what didn't go well or what the other team did to maybe, um,
00:05:01
Speaker
you know, catch the crew out or really screw themselves in this one. So that's kind of my niche. I'm very much a soccer nerd. I very much love watching hours upon hours of just game film over and over and trying to look at the different things.
00:05:15
Speaker
ah But we are active on all social media. Go check us out at Master Report and go follow all the wonderful people over there that do great work. The crew don't do not get a ton of coverage outside of you know local newspaper Columbus patch and us. So ah it's always great um to be a part of an organization like that and also to be welcomed by the crew and MLS to be able to do that. So definitely go check it out if you are interested in learning more about the crew or just wanting to read some interesting stuff.
00:05:50
Speaker
Absolutely. Everyone ah go subscribe and follow to a Master Report. They do great work covering the Columbus crew, which we're going to talk about right now as they get set for their trip to Seattle.
00:06:01
Speaker
Lumen Field, Sunday night soccer, primetime game. Everyone's going to be watching. So this is an exciting one. And so, Caleb, i was ah we were talking off air a little bit, but what I like to do to start off these opponent previews is I give you my outside perception of the club in question as as an outsider, as a neutral.
00:06:20
Speaker
And you can tell me if the way that I see it from the outside aligns with how it's actually what's actually going on on the day-to-day with the club. And this one, i like I said, I feel pretty good about this one.
00:06:32
Speaker
Sometimes I go into this firing kind of blind and just ah let go of takes that I... Don't know if they're right or not, but I know the crew pretty well. So but I'm to hit you with it anyway. And you can tell me if you have any amendments to ah how I perceive it. But when I think about the Columbus crew and just their status league wide right now, the way I look at it is at any given time, there is a select group of clubs in the league that i kind i call it like a seat at the at the table of like actual contenders clubs that are actually about it, who put out a high quality squads that play good soccer every single year and are actually going for trophies.
00:07:11
Speaker
And really, you know, you have your dark horses, but like I said, at any given time, there's probably only like four or five clubs that I actually consider with a seat at that table. And the Columbus crew over the last,
00:07:22
Speaker
three years pretty much since Wilford Nazi has been there, have been, ah they have very much have a seat at that table and they won an MLS cup in 2023, I believe ah they won the COVID cup, but you know, we don't talk about that around here. That game didn't happen, but they did win the one in 2023.
00:07:39
Speaker
And I think the success that they have had has been accompanied by the crew are known as the club in MLS that plays, I would say, the most aesthetically pleasing soccer.
00:07:53
Speaker
It's not just that they're getting results, taking wins and competing for trophies. It's the way they do it, the way that they play. A lot of the times when you watch the crew play, it's like they're playing at a different speed than the other team.
00:08:06
Speaker
And, uh, you know, I've racked my brain trying to figure out how, how they do it because, ah they, they're sort of the style that they play is what other MLS clubs want to emulate, uh, scoring a ton of goals, just whipping the ball around. Like I said, playing at a different speed, uh, defending well as well. I would say it's not like an inter Miami situation where they play like that offensively, but not defensively. It's a well-rounded team.
00:08:31
Speaker
And to me, ah we're well We're going to talk about him, but I think it is a testament to Wilfred Nancy and just his brilliance as a coach. I kind of can't believe that he's in MLS, but whatever he's done, he's got some kind of secret sauce and he has this team.
00:08:49
Speaker
probably the highest floor in MLS. And I say that because i think the narrative around the crew this season was actually that they were struggling a little bit in the post-Cucho era to like adjust to that and to really find that level that they found under Nancy the last couple seasons.
00:09:05
Speaker
And there was, like a as I understand it, there was a part of this season where the fan base was kind of like, hey, what is this? We're the Columbus crew. We play the best soccer in the league. We're grinding out these like 0-0s, 1-1s. We're taking a couple Ls that we don't normally take.
00:09:20
Speaker
Got waxed by Inter-Miami, 5-1. Is this like is this like not clicking anymore? And then in the last, like I don't know, three, four weeks or so, they've kind of reasserted themselves. Like, no, we we still are the Columbus crew.
00:09:34
Speaker
We play the best ball in the league. We got the best coach in the league. And we're going to be in the mix for every single trophy and can win any game and you on any given week. that we play.
00:09:45
Speaker
And I think as it stands going into this game, I think the crew are kind of, they're, they're kind of back a little bit. Would you say that, that ah characters characterization is ah roughly accurate or would you make any amendments to that, ah to that picture?
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, that was great. um You hit almost every nail on the head, if not every nail. I mean, I know my crew. much i know my gri you pretty you You might be a crew fan. um You pretty much described how the season went and kind of the narrative around it. In terms of recently, if you look back at the schedule, the crew had a really rough May.
00:10:22
Speaker
like in extremely rough May. um And also in the June as well, they were struggling a little bit. um Did not win for a while there. I think it was like six or seven matches where they either either drew or then you had that 5-1 loss to enter Miami that was just brutal.
00:10:39
Speaker
um And really you talked about at the beginning, the loss of Cucho at the beginning of the season. And that was the big storyline in Columbus that worried most of the crew fans because, you know, when we got rid of Lucas Delrayon, as many of you may remember from 2020,
00:10:55
Speaker
We were wondering, you know, who's the replacement? And instantly it was Diego Rossi because they signed him six hours after. That was a very uncrew-like move. um The crew like to sell in the winter like they did with Cucho and wait until the summer window to find a replacement so they can do their due diligence.
00:11:12
Speaker
So they were really looking at, okay, Diego Rossi is your only main star because remember, they got rid of Christian Ramirez as well, who is a sneaky big part of that team. yeah
00:11:25
Speaker
Diego Rossi um and now it almost firmly rested upon Diego Rossi's shoulders to carry the offense but then you see if the at the beginning which everybody beat Chicago so that's nothing new um but they start grinding out like these 1-0 3-2 games like they're not really blowing people out um And they just kept picking up points. It was not pretty. It what didn't look like the 2022 crew or 2023 crew.
00:12:00
Speaker
It was gritty, not pretty, which is very um not like Wilford Nazi. They were still playing great soccer, looked good aesthetically, the results weren't there. They were missing the final finishes a few times.
00:12:13
Speaker
And then you go and you trade for Daniel Gosdog. who hasn't got off fastest start. He hasn't scored yet. um And so we're still waiting on that. But you go through this rough stretch in May into June, and then you take a break for the Club World Cup. And so they have a few weeks off after the Inter-Miami game.
00:12:31
Speaker
um And they come back. They get two or three straight wins heading into this game. And they've looked pretty good. The main problem that I think flew under the radar ah in the summer when they were having that rough stretch was their defense.
00:12:45
Speaker
ah They had some shambolic defending um in those games of just – that you would not expect from a crew defense that features, you know, MLS defensive player of the year, Steven Marrera and Patrick Schulte, who is, you know, on the US Men's National Team and Sean Zawadsky, who has been a budding star.
00:13:02
Speaker
ah But there, it was just some very bad defensive performances. And it wasn't, it was a lot of mental mistakes as well. So I think that that characterization was was correct. And I think that we are starting kind of to see if the crew get on a roll, even without Daniel Gosdog scoring, like that's the scarier thing that you have Philadelphia Union's all-time leading goal scorer, and he hasn't scored yet.
00:13:27
Speaker
And you're still waiting on him to click, and they're still winning games. So again, it all goes back to Wilfred Nancy. This guy's a magician. He he cracked the code basically in no time in Columbus. And um you have to think that he's not long for this league as much as it pains me to say, someone's going to come and get him. Someone in Europe is going to come and get him and he is going to make them a winner almost instantly given the right funds and given the right players.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's a perfect segue into the the next topic I wanted to hit, which was Wilford Nazi. ah I kind of am of the belief that coaches don't necessarily always matter or make as much of a difference as people often think that they do.
00:14:12
Speaker
ah To me, like what makes a good coach a lot of the times is not necessarily X's and O's, but it's more man managing managing personalities managing egos managing the locker room and then really uh the roster is going to define how competitive and how successful you are more than the coaches typically however there are a certain percentage of coaches that do that are so sharp tactically and just understand the game on like some sort of wavelength or different level than most other people that they meaningfully move the needle for their team purely by ah just being on the sidelines and being the person who's imparting the system and imparting the tactics.
00:14:55
Speaker
And Wilford Nancy, i think most people consider him the best coach in MLS right now. I consider myself in that group. And I think he is very much shown to be in that category of a coach where it like you got to give him like ah any coach, a good roster, but like you can give Wilford Nancy CF Montreal's roster as we saw, and he's going to have them like in the mix because he's just that good.
00:15:18
Speaker
And I think and i like his, his reputation, it's not like smoke and mirrors at all. There's something about, about his tactical acumen that just, yeah it has his teams play aesthetically pleasing soccer and, ah ah like productive goal scoring soccer, but just, I don't know. It's just like, seems to work better than anyone else does it. So I'm curious from your perspective as someone who's covered him a lot, probably talked to him a fair amount and just been around the team and seeing how they play and seeing how he operates.
00:15:54
Speaker
What is it about Wilfred Nazi that ah makes him what he is, which I think most people agree is this is the, this is the best coach in MLS. Yeah. I think that,
00:16:06
Speaker
I think that it's a combination of things. Obviously the tactical acumen of of you know his mind is just ridiculous off the charts. like If you look at the way that they play the game, they will not look this they will look relatively the same in the same shape, but you you never know what they're going to do They can build from the outside with wingbacks or they can go through the middle because you have Darlington Nagby who doesn't lose the ball.
00:16:30
Speaker
So he can just, you know, dribble everyone or combine quick passes in the middle, or you can go long because you have those wide wingbacks or you have those inside forwards. So when you think about his system and you think about And to your point, like you said, i talking about how coaches may not make much of a difference.
00:16:48
Speaker
I agree with that to some point. If you have a team like Miami who can spend out the wazoo and has Lionel Messi, coach isn't going to make a difference. Okay. lean on I could coach that team. Yeah. I could coach that team to the playoffs. Exactly.
00:17:01
Speaker
But when you look at MLS and this is the beauty of this league that I think that we need to remember when talking about, you know, promotion, relegation, all that stuff. Um, is the smaller market teams who don't want to spend as much like the crew were.
00:17:17
Speaker
You need to have a good coach started with Greg Berhalter, love him or hate him. However, it ended with the U S national team. He elevated that crew squad when he was there beyond their talent level, way beyond. It was Federico Higuain and everybody else.
00:17:32
Speaker
that That was it. um And then you go to Caleb Porter, and that's the transition period where we just got new ownership. We're just trying to survive and get new fans so that we can prove that we can be in this league without relocating.
00:17:46
Speaker
elevates that team wins a championship. Nobody thought that was possible. And so Wilford Nancy fits this acumen of a coach that elevates his players. And that's exactly what Columbus has got out of their prior coaches with Burr Halter and Porter and even before that.
00:17:59
Speaker
So when it comes to Wilford Nancy, the one thing is his tactical acumen like we talked about. But the other thing is He is a brilliant man manager. He has a way that he can talk to players and get through to them like coaches that I have never seen before.
00:18:18
Speaker
um And I think the best example of this is Alexandre Maton, who is no longer with the crew, but he was an outcast when Caleb Porter was here. Originally brought him in on a U22, I believe, um and was it supposed to be this quick, fast-paced, skillful coach wide mid slash attacking midfielder never really fit into Porter's scheme um did not look good with the crew when Porter was there Porter obviously gets fired they bring in Wilford Nancy and he starts Alex Maton like first game basically that he's in charge he's starting Alex Maton or bringing him on for large portions of the game and all the crew fans are like wait we thought this guy sucks
00:18:59
Speaker
But it turns out that he was a solid starter and very, very valuable for us in those runs. And so he has this ability to get through to players. Um, mentally, but also he raises their tactical acumen as well. Like we've talked about, if you look at the players on the crew and what their original positions are and what they changed into, it's, it's a revelation. You talk about Sean Zawadsky, who started off as a central midfielder, holding midfielder, obviously played a little bit of goalkeeper, which was not fun for us to watch, but you know, he has that in his bag now, but now he's the anchor of the back line. I would argue that Sean Zawadsky might be the best defender on the crew's roster at this point. He's,
00:19:40
Speaker
he has impressed me lot with um with how he's played. You look at Steven Marrera, originally a right back. Well, now he's slotting in at center back. um You look at Max Arfsten, who was a striker, who's now playing wing back and playing left back with the national team.
00:19:56
Speaker
So you look at those guys and you think that, everybody needs to be adaptable in Nancy system. And I think that's, what's so cool about it. ah One of the recent examples we have is they brought in um Ibrahim Aliou from the Houston dynamo earlier this season.
00:20:10
Speaker
And they were talking about, you know, he's a striker. He can play wing back, but you know, he's fit in well, wherever he's gone, whether it was up top or at wing back or wherever Nancy's put him, he's fit in well, he's done his job and he scored goals. And I think that that's,
00:20:27
Speaker
If there's one thing to knock Nancy about, um and I'm really digging at straws here because he he's the the best coach that I've ever watched. um It would be sometimes he subs too late.
00:20:41
Speaker
So ah his system requires a lot of running, a lot of interchanging and stuff like that. People can get tired and you can see the tired legs at some points and maybe he won't sub until the 75th, 80th minute.
00:20:53
Speaker
um That's maybe a knock that I'd had for him. But other than that, He covers every base, but really, um and just watching this team play, i especially from where they came from under Caleb Porter, where the system was very much, you know, we're going to line up in a 4-2-3-1, we're going to do passive.
00:21:13
Speaker
from left back pass around to right back back to left back. Oh, that didn't shift. All right, now let's go forward. I don't wanna say it's boring soccer, but it's not exciting. um And then you get into Wilford Nancy where it's like end to end stuff. You're committing 10 players in the attack and you only have one guy back and your goalie is 40 yards off his line, you know, playing passes.
00:21:36
Speaker
it's it's beautiful to watch it is and um he has changed what happens in major league soccer now because I think coaches are coming in and they're seeing what he can do and they think oh maybe I can do that or maybe I have a player who's adaptable who can do that so yeah it he is he's not long for this league like I said someone's gonna come and get him and it's gonna be sooner than later You hit on two things there, which I always strike me when I watch a Wilford Nancy team, which is a unpredictability and adaptability.
00:22:06
Speaker
Like, it's, it's not like a, uh, super dogmatic system. He, he makes tweaks like based on the matchup and then we'll attack teams in different ways, like based on where their weaknesses are. So it's not just like, this is our identity. This is our game plan. Week in week out. He, uh, he makes like changes and tweaks to it.
00:22:25
Speaker
And then also just sometimes when I'm watching the crew, like, uh, I don't know, just like a center back will all of a sudden make a run out of nowhere and score a goal. And you're like, like how, like no one does that. Like with the frequency and effectiveness of this guy. And I mean, you're right. I can't believe he hasn't gotten picked up in Europe already because it, to me, it's like proven at this point that if you, if you give him a solid roster, your floor is like spectacular.
00:22:54
Speaker
upset like there's no ah there's no question that he's going to be able to pull the results it's just a matter of if like when you when you took him from the cf montreal which is a low spending team not a lot of resources just not very well run put him on the crew which not not like the craziest spend spenders in the world but very like smart with how they spend and build their roster and everything you see what happens they won mls cup immediately uh That's a testament to the coach.
00:23:19
Speaker
So, yeah, and I don't think he's long for
Daniel Gazdag's Role in Columbus Crew
00:23:22
Speaker
the league either. And I'm honestly just curious to see how far on the global stage he can he can rise because he's that good.
00:23:30
Speaker
Let's talk some ah let's talk some Gazdag, though, because you you mentioned that earlier. And that was that was one of those ah classic moves when I saw the crew did it. was like that's I mean, that's a good move.
00:23:40
Speaker
When they did it with Diego Rossi, it's like, it's, you know, it's just occurred to me right now, but Columbus and Seattle have actually ah used a similar tactic to, ah to great effect, which is getting other teams DPs already that were in MLS and, m os And then just transferring him to there. So Rossi, he was on LAFC and was a great player for a few years, went overseas, I think to Turkey and it didn't write and it didn't quite pan out.
00:24:08
Speaker
ah But then he comes back to the crew. That's like a higher percentage move because you already know that the player can do it in MLS. And so Seattle has done that with guys like Albert Rusnak and Jesus Ferreira.
00:24:19
Speaker
Columbus has done it with Diego Rossi. Now Daniel Gazdag. But God's dog has not really gotten going, going with Columbus yet. Like you mentioned, he, he hasn't scored. So I guess I'm just, ah I'm curious your thoughts on where things stand with that whole thing, because I mean, it's a big trade. They signed to a big contract extension to be like a centerpiece building block.
00:24:40
Speaker
And it hasn't taken off yet, but I mean, that's not, that's not really abnormal. Like sometimes these things take a little time to click even under a coach as good as Nancy, but based on what you've seen from God's dog in Columbus so far, ah how do you kind of evaluate his performances and where is your confidence level as far as all right, this guy is at some point soon here going to catch fire and become that sort of centerpiece building block type player that that the crew need him to be after making that a that trade.
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's it's important to remember, um and I remind many crew fans of this because i think that I'm much more patient um than most people.
00:25:23
Speaker
But when you think about the crew and you know players adjusting, especially, again, Wilfred Nancey's system, it's incredibly complex. It really is. You have to play three or four positions on a given night and you have to know how to counter press, you know, how to cut off passing lanes.
00:25:39
Speaker
Oh wait, now we're back on offense. Where do I need to go? Oh, I can go anywhere, but you have to work with the other players. So I'll use this example. We saw this when Diego Rossi came to the crew.
00:25:51
Speaker
um He came back and everybody was like, Diego Rossi and Cucho and Christian Ramirez are going to score, you know, 60 goals this year and it's going to be nuts. And, Diego Rossi struggled out of the gate. He really did. Like he, he was not very sharp. He was misplacing passes. He wasn't always in the right spot.
00:26:11
Speaker
And this was a sore time for crew fans. Cause we just gotten rid of Lucas L. Arian who did not, bit that well into Nancy system. He's more of a true 10. We, you need some more hybrid player exactly like Diego Rossi is who can play wing striker 10, whatever.
00:26:26
Speaker
Um, but it it took him a while to adjust, but at the end of that season, you could see it start to click as the playoffs rolled around in that season. And they started making that run to the MLS cup finals.
00:26:38
Speaker
You started to see him clicking and getting goals and getting assists and working with Cucho. It just took half the year. um So I'll say this for Daniel Gosdawg, it's coming.
00:26:50
Speaker
It's going to come and it's going to happen. I think sooner rather than later when he started, his first few games were rough. um Poor touches, didn't really know where to go on the field, was dropping in deep and and just playing these one, two passes with players and wasn't really creating anything of substance.
00:27:09
Speaker
um But in these past few games, if you look at the Atlanta game, I would love, i don't know MLS has this, but a XG stat for specific players.
00:27:20
Speaker
Because I swear he could have had the hat trick in that game. Brad Guzant stood on his head. Well, then i'll have to look I'll have to look into that. Maybe I need a statistician. But um ah Brad Guzan stood on his head on a few of those saves, as he you know his 40-year-old self will.
00:27:36
Speaker
um And Atlanta got some crucial blocks around the goal that Gazdog was just looking up, like, I can't even help this right now. um I do think it's one of those situations where it's going to be as soon as that first goal comes.
00:27:50
Speaker
man, people better watch out because because it may be an avalanche. It could be two, it could be three, it could be four. um But again, patience is what I would preach. I think it's going to happen. I think that he needs a little bit more time.
00:28:04
Speaker
um Again, if he sticks around for ah years to come, even next season, I think that he will be a revelation of what he is this season. God, it's it's so funny, like, just realizing these these Seattle parallels because ah Seattle this season has gone through the exact same thing with Jesus Ferreira.
00:28:24
Speaker
This is guy that they traded for over the offseason, big blockbuster trade, who came in with 50-plus MLS goals. I was hyped on the trade from day one because I watched a lot of FC Dallas with Jesus Ferreira.
00:28:37
Speaker
ah over the years. And I, and I was like, Oh, this guy is awesome. He's been a best 11 attacker in the league. He's had 18 goals seasons. And also just from the amount of him that I watched, I believed in the, ah the IQ, the versatility, all the Jesus attributes that Jesus Ferrer attributes that everyone saw during his tenure with FC Dallas.
00:28:58
Speaker
ah But same thing that you're talking about, didn't score his first goal for a while. ah He has been getting assists the whole time. But like with Jesus Ferreira, it's like you need to be getting the goals too for it to be really like maximizing what he can be as a player.
00:29:12
Speaker
ah But i was in the I was in your same seat basically saying just I'm pretty sure it's it's betting on track record. When you have a guy like Jesus Ferreira or Daniel Gosdog, it pretty much doesn't happen where they just like forget how to score goals or forget how to play soccer.
00:29:30
Speaker
ah That's just something, especially at their ages. Ferreira is a little younger. i think he's 24. Gosdog is what, 24? 29, 30 or something like that. yeah i think I think he's 29 right now.
00:29:41
Speaker
Older than Ferreira, but still not at an age where it's like he's going to forget how to put the ball in the back of the net randomly. Age 29. Doesn't really happen. So that's I was basing my patience preaching just purely on that. It wasn't any like a big, great ball knowledge. It was as simple as he has scored a lot of goals in MLS and he's 24.
00:30:02
Speaker
So the vast likelihood is he's probably going to start scoring goals again, which is why it was a good trade to begin with, because you have this proven track record. And I was saying that the whole time I took, I took a fair amount of heat for it.
00:30:15
Speaker
People didn't like it. People didn't like my Ferreira takes. They said, this guy is horrible. He's a bust. He doesn't know how to score a goal. What are we doing? What was this trade? And go figure lo and behold. Seattle's last three MLS games, he's got two goals. And in their last win over Austin FC, he had a goal and an assist.
00:30:32
Speaker
And so i'm I'm still, I'm being, I'm preaching patience to myself. I'm not victory lapping. It's two goals, two um MLS goals that he's scored. ah But definitely the trajectory as we sit today is definitely pointing like upward in a way that it wasn't a few weeks ago when everyone was calling Jesus for a bust. So I'm,
00:30:53
Speaker
my ah My takes on it are looking pretty good right now. ah But yeah, like I fully expect Gazdog to click with the crew playing under a coach this good on a team this good with this roster.
00:31:04
Speaker
ah There's kind of no way that he doesn't ah he doesn't get hot eventually. And like hearing that I didn't see this Atlanta game. I know Columbus won three one. But hearing that he was like a little snake bit and right XG merchanting, as we call it, ah but like not quite finishing that. But that stuff like that evens out. That's going those chances. If he gets enough of those, they are going to start going in.
00:31:28
Speaker
And anyone in Columbus who's like, skeptical on gauze dog i'm pretty sure it's like a similar situation and that the track record is going to win out and that's that's why it was uh a great move by what's the gm's name it's it's escaping me it's uh it's a tall it's a tall it's a tall yep he He took over for Bezbachenko, and he they haven't really missed a beat as far as that goes.
00:31:52
Speaker
But yeah, like I think the best teams in this league, they make ah they minimize the risk of assigning whiffing by, you know, ah there's a lot of different factors that go into that. But one of them is if the guy has already been successful in the league.
00:32:06
Speaker
Gosdog, like you said, leading goal scorer in the history of the Philly Union. That's pretty, that's... ah pretty distinct track record. So, yeah, but I, I mean, I'm hoping that he doesn't put it together in this game, but I mean, he he's going to, he's going to like eventually.
Adapting Post-Cucho Hernandez: Columbus Crew's Strategy
00:32:23
Speaker
but I guess that, that sort of brings, uh, brings me to the next topic, which just this whole thing you were talking about, about the adjustments in the, uh, post-Cucho era which uh that was sort of uh a ah ah big headline when Cucho got transferred to uh Real Batiste uh and the crew they said all the right things at the time like this was part of like kind of the agreement when we brought him to Columbus was that if he played well enough and became a superstar which he did and he had ambitions of going going to Europe or whatever the case may be we weren't gonna hold him back we were gonna let him pursue that
00:33:01
Speaker
And Cucho earned that. He was ah one of, if not the best players in the league for like a two year span. So it was, it was a headline maker, but it also made sense, but it also put the crew in a situation where they were missing a superstar, the but one of the best players in the league. So I think that was always going to be an adjustment, but when it happened,
00:33:24
Speaker
ah I was like, all right, there might be a little bit of a drop off here, but I think Wilford Nancy, he's the type of coach who can throw Jason Russell Rowe in there and he's probably going to bang in some goals. He's not going to be Cucho out there, but you'll get production out of him.
00:33:38
Speaker
And that was, that was in my head earlier this season, like before the season started. I was like, watch it be the Russell Rowe breakout. I don't know if it's been a full-on breakout, but I look up every now and again, and Jason Russell Rowe is out there just banging in goals.
00:33:52
Speaker
So I was like, yep, all right, well, that's pretty much the crew. The crew are one of the only teams I could think of that could lose Cucho Hernandez and then not really lose all that much in results. Like you said, they had the tough May, but over there you look at where they are right now, 1.8 points per game, playing some of the like most aesthetically pleasing, productive attacking soccer in the league.
00:34:12
Speaker
So I don't know. When you look at the post Cucho era, was there was there anything Nancy did there that kind of led to them being able to stay afloat and now get back to where they usually are at the top of the league?
00:34:24
Speaker
or and Or have you been surprised at all at how much ah Columbus has been able to not just stay afloat, but kind of play at their customary level, even losing a player like ah like Cucho?
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'll start off with two things. First off, um we ah my my guy Patrick Murphy, who who was my boss, but stepped back a little bit from Massive Report, um he wrote a pretty in-depth article about what led up to Cucho leaving. So go check that out on Massive Report. Just search up Cucho. It's the first result. Go check that out.
00:34:57
Speaker
um The second thing I'll say is ah again i'm young but cucho hernandez is easily the most talented um and in my mind is up there to be maybe the greatest player in franchise history he he's that good yeah yeah yes absolutely talent wise you can talk accolades and and you know whatever that that can be a conversation for another time but talent wise i think that it's him and it's really not close um He left on, I believe it was deadline day, which really ticked a lot of crew fans off because now it's, they were like, all right, so you sold Ramirez and then you sell Cucho. So it's really just Diego Rossi, like I said before.
00:35:37
Speaker
um Jason Russell Rowe, still has some uh some kinks to iron out in his game um i'll say that but has been massive massive leap from where he was even you know two three years ago when he was starting in games uh coming up from crew two and we were short on the on strikers he had to start a few games um I will say that I think that his play style is going to be more of a Christian Ramirez.
00:36:05
Speaker
It's going to be more of a hold-up player, poacher-type player, which is is what he's done. But Wilford has come and said before in training that he, even when Kucho was on the team, that he believed that Jason was the best finisher in the entire squad.
00:36:25
Speaker
He said that Jason, you know, had the best... finishing ability out of everybody, including Kucha, which is incredibly high praise and we've seen it translate to goals. You look at yeah Jason's play style, it's nothing super glamorous. He has pace and he got he has a big body and he can win in the air, but he's not going to do anything that makes you feel like, oh, wow.
00:36:47
Speaker
But he just scores goals. So he's been productive. And, um you know, as Aliou has come in and Gazdog came in, he's fluctuated in and out of the lineup a few times. But, you know, when he's on the field that he can step up.
00:37:02
Speaker
I will say that from the standpoint of Wilford Nancy, um He always had an ace in the hole with Cucho on the field. If something wasn't going right, and I don't i don't want to make the comparison to Lionel Messi because Cucho is not Lionel Messi, but in the sense of what they are. He was playing he was playing like it for like two years. yeah yeah i Historically, i don't want to say that, but on their teams, you could give Cucho Hernandez the ball and say,
00:37:28
Speaker
Help me. Yeah, just do cool do cool stuff. yeah go Yeah, go. And he would do it, yeah. And you'd see him do it. And I think the most recent example of that was in the League's Cup Final against l LAFC.
00:37:40
Speaker
um You know, i think it was tied 1-1, and they gave him the ball on a short corner, and he curled the ball in, and maybe it was a cross, maybe was shot, nobody will ever know. But he put it in a dangerous area and scored, and it was one of those things where it's just like,
00:37:54
Speaker
Give him the ball and get the hell out of the way because he's going to do something crazy. ah Um, So now you lose that and and now it's more of your having to rely more on the team game and you don't have that ace in the hole because as much as I love Diego Rossi, he's not that guy. He's not Cucho's level.
00:38:13
Speaker
You can give him the ball and he's going to make one, two, three guys miss, but he's not going to rope it, you know, top bends from 30 yards like Cucho can, but he can be a playmaker. I think that the emphasis for Wilford Nancy and the crew this season has been without Cucho.
00:38:27
Speaker
more, more team combined goals. And that's really where they struggled beginning in the year because it was hard to get on the same page. There was some rust to knock off. Um, and sometimes early in the season where it's like, man, we're, we're playing Montreal and it's zero, zero, and we just can't hit anything.
00:38:47
Speaker
just keep giving the ball to Cucho. He'll figure it out. There's not that guy anymore. You'd think it'd be Diego Rossi, but again, not every player is the same. Not every DP that the crew brings in is going to be the same. We saw that with Lucas L. Rion. We see that with Cucho now.
00:39:00
Speaker
um So I think that having a more team oriented approach and having to get team goals, 13, 14, 15 passes, pinging around for a tap in, maybe getting two V ones, stuff like that has had to happen.
00:39:13
Speaker
Um, Maybe it's been a few less spectacular goals. We're not seeing a lot of 30-yard curlers or you know attempted bicycle kicks or the crazy stuff that Cucho used to do. But um again, you have to change with the times. And this goes back to Wilfred Nancy being the amazing coach that he is.
00:39:31
Speaker
He can change with the times. He can adjust his system to fit his players. And we've seen that before. He'll tweak formations. He'll tweak... You know, tactic styles, if we have Max Arson on one wing and Mo Farsey on another wing who are two extremely proven wing backs in this league and the other team has Alejandro Bedoya playing left back like they did last week.
00:39:53
Speaker
you got to attack that area. And so we're going to attack the width that time. So it's stuff like that. um It's a combination of the players playing team ball and also Wilford Nancy having to be a little bit more intentional pinpointing.
00:40:04
Speaker
Okay, here's where the team's weaknesses last or last week. And in this case, it was Philadelphia and they started Bedoya at left back, which, you know, not a lot of pace out there. So Lassie Loppelainen, who's our backup left back, ah just streaked right past him and got a yellow card 15 seconds into the game.
00:40:22
Speaker
So it's it's stuff like that where he's kind of have to put on his thinking cap a little bit more. and And the players have to think a little bit more because they don't have Cucho to bail them out anymore. So they have to step it up as well.
00:40:36
Speaker
Caleb, I just got ah one more from you, for you and then I'll ah let you go. We got Caleb DeNorm from Massive Reports helping us preview Sunday Night Soccer, Seattle Sounders versus Columbus Crew.
00:40:47
Speaker
I wanted to ah ask you about this coming game a little bit. um'm I mean, I'm looking real forward to this one. Like, this is... there's There's a few that you circle on the schedule every year. And ah Columbus is one that i that I always do because it's just, as long as Wilford Nazi's there, it's just a great test. You're going up against the best tactical mind, the best coach in the league.
00:41:09
Speaker
Let's see what you can do. Last year, they Seattle went to Lower.com Field, and it went smashingly well. Great game. We all have fond memories of that one. And you know what's funny about that? What's funny about that game is I always consider that ah that game the ah the one that kind of put our show like more on the map than it already was.
00:41:30
Speaker
I mean, it wasn't that on the map. And then after that game, it kind of skyrocketed us. Because do you remember how blazing hot the discourse was after that game? And we kind of came out swinging yes right in the middle of it. Yes, I do.
00:41:42
Speaker
Well, Wilford Nancy gave a we we have a segment on this show called the blazing hot coach press conference of the week that exists in large part because of Wilford Nancy's presser after that game where he was going off about like why they didn't have a backup goalkeeper. But like, you know.
00:41:59
Speaker
ah From our biased perspectives, we're like, what you're saying, like, why would you not? you you What you did is you didn't put one in the squad to, like, make a point. And then your goalkeeper got a red card and it was a bit of a cell phone.
00:42:12
Speaker
ah But, like, I don't even it wasn't even like a dogging on Nancy at all. yeah I mean, you know how much respect I have for Wilford Nancy. But that was very funny just because of his press conference crash out.
00:42:24
Speaker
And then also just the ensuing fan base discourse. Like we it was, we, we all had a lot of, ah a lot of fun with it, but the reality was like, you, you couldn't really like say that, Oh, Seattle got the better of Wilford Nancy in any kind of like straight up sort of way.
00:42:40
Speaker
they, uh, They had Sean Zawatsky in goal and then Seattle put like three goals, four goals past him, which, you know, it was a professional way to handle it, but it wasn't the most impressive one I've ever seen.
00:42:53
Speaker
But now I feel like we're actually we're going to get to to see these two teams. Assuming that Wilford Nancy brings a backup goalkeeper this time, we will get to see these two teams actually play on a ah more level playing field than that.
00:43:06
Speaker
And ah I'm looking forward to it. It's a measuring stick type game. It's a game against one of the best teams in the league with the best coach in the league. So ah let's let's see what you got. Seattle just got done with the club world cup, beat Austin FC, Austin FC, not the Columbus crew. Not that good. It was a good win, but this, this would be like a real kind of, i don't know if it'd be a statement win, but what, Whatever team, win if if either team can win this game, I think it would be something of a ah ah a statement win. But how you see it from a ah Columbus perspective,
00:43:37
Speaker
what what do you what do you think is would be like an acceptable or good result for Columbus in this situation? i think the way I think of it is anytime you have a road trip this long, that's basic this is basically across the country.
00:43:49
Speaker
Yeah. A draw is typically an acceptable result if you can grind one out. ah But I also part of me is like, well, the crew, the crew are one of those teams that has a different standard. They kind of expect that they can and should win any game that they play. There's no team in MLS that ah that you put up against them where they're like, oh, we're way overmatched. We can't play with them like.
00:44:10
Speaker
This is going to be some impossible task. So with that in mind and some of the other stuff we've talked about, Gauzdog not heated up yet, but probably going to heat up soon. And then just where things stand with the crew in general.
00:44:24
Speaker
How are you sizing up this matchup and what are your expectations or hopes result wise as ah Columbus head to Seattle here? Yeah. so a few things before I hop into that. um You're right. The crew are not Austin and we made very sure of that. in I didn't even, I wasn't, I didn't even say that. Yeah.
00:44:43
Speaker
No, no, no. I was supposed to make that. I was supposed to make that joke. We sent Texas that lion sack of crap, Anthony pre-court down there and he's been pretty relevant ever since. So I'm happy about that. But um the other thing was before that game last year,
00:44:59
Speaker
um You know, my mom doesn't watch soccer that much with me, but she was like, you know, how you feeling about tonight? I said, well, there's only one thing that can go wrong. mean, that would be if a goalie gets a stupid red card. But i said that it never happens.
00:45:14
Speaker
Well, then he comes out and cleans this guy's clock. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. And all the crew fans on Twitter were like, you know, it's it's this kid's first game. He's going to be a trivia question answer in five years where people like, who's that goalkeeper made one appearance and got a red.
00:45:28
Speaker
Anyways, um I think that – When I think about this matchup, um two very good teams, two very well-respected teams that I think have mutual respect for each other. Again, like you said, um anytime you're on a road trip, ah in my mind, anytime you're on a road trip, you're thinking draw is good.
00:45:47
Speaker
Win is amazing. i Loss sucks. I mean, any loss sucks, but you're thinking if you can get one point um in Seattle, cool. get Get back home.
00:45:59
Speaker
Get out of there. ah If you can get a win, better. um I do think that it's going to be a ah tight game. I think from the Cruz standpoint, Now I'm not going to put a jinx out there, but they, they are thin at goalkeeper again. um Evan Bush is like, oh they watch out.
00:46:16
Speaker
We know how that can go. yeah Evan Bush has started the past few games and he's been really good. um I did see Patrick Schulte is back at training. ah So we will see if he will be a go um for Sunday. There's still a few days to go before then. So we'll see.
00:46:32
Speaker
Um, And then obviously Abraham Romero is going to be the third and God, I hope that he doesn't see the field. ah But Nico Hagan got hurt with Guatemala at the Gold Cup, so he won't be part of it. So we have maybe two to three goalkeepers. I hope four was Sean. So so we'll see about that. um I think.
00:46:51
Speaker
when you think about the roster for the crew for this game, I'm still going to be without Max Arfston, who's still going to be on international duty. So I would look at that left wing back spot. And really there's been two guys who've started there. It's either been lossy Lopalainen who has been amazing for the crew, um brought him in and didn't play the first few weeks because that he was either injured or wasn't really up to par yet.
00:47:14
Speaker
um But got an assist, uh, I believe it was last game. he I think he got an assist last game to Mo Farsi. And I think the home game before that to Aliou in the beginning. um So he's been dishing out assists. So watch for him or Ibrahim Aliou could start out there.
00:47:30
Speaker
it's going to be indicative of what Nancy thinks about the Seattle Sounders of who starts. um If it's Ibrahim, all you likely a more attacking focused wing back who will cut in and make those diagonal runs across the back of Seattle's defense. And, you know, maybe you want to exploit long balls there.
00:47:49
Speaker
Lapa line is a little bit more of a winger threat um who is more natural in that position. So we'll look out for that. Um, But I really think that, again, like I said, you get a draw, perfectly good. Get out of there.
00:48:02
Speaker
um You get a win, even better. ah Those are the only question marks is who's going to start at at left wing back and who's going to start at goalkeeper are going to be my biggest questions going into it. um I think that...
00:48:16
Speaker
I don't know um how Seattle has been feeling after the world the club World Cup. I know that they were playing a few extra games that the crew obviously were not. So um maybe fatigue will be a part of that. Maybe it won't.
00:48:30
Speaker
we Only time will tell. um But i would if I was making a prediction for this game, I would say it's it's either going to be a 1-1 or 2-2 draw. i think I think both teams going score.
00:48:41
Speaker
i But I think it will end up even between the two. um And hopefully they'll meet each other down the line, you know, at the ultimate end of things. Yeah, no, I think it's ah it's it's pretty evenly matched, and I never go into a game against the the crew with much of an expectation of keeping a a
Seattle Sounders' Challenges and Opportunities
00:49:03
Speaker
clean sheet. They pretty much never get shut out. It just doesn't happen that much. like Maybe maybe in the... like dog days of May that you were talking about, it might have happened.
00:49:12
Speaker
yeah But like gen like, when all things are relatively normal, the Columbus crew just, you put them out there for 90 minutes in a soccer game and they're going to get at least two goals. That's just like, that's the Wilford Nancy effect. It's almost like cheating now. I'm telling you.
00:49:28
Speaker
ah Dan asks, do the crew have an Alex Roldan type that can keep a clean sheet? Yeah, his name is Sean Zawatsky. He didn't keep one in the in the game where he played goalkeeper, but he was he was competing out there. And you know what?
00:49:40
Speaker
I respected that. um he He was... ah ah god that God, that game was so funny. Like the after the Like well what was so funny was the red card happened and ah ah and they get the free kick, the first free kick after the red card and Sean Zawadski goes in goal.
00:49:58
Speaker
And then Rusnak immediately puts the free kick by him. And you could see Zawadski, he was just like, all right, like my ah my goalkeeper career is six seconds in and I have already conceded, but it was just one of those things where it's like what do you even what do you even do? What do you even take from this?
00:50:15
Speaker
ah but I will say, sorry to interrupt you. um No, no, go for it. One of the funny things that happened at the press conference this week I saw it was someone asked Steven Marrera. They were like,
00:50:27
Speaker
hey, if if it wasn't Sean going in net, would it be you? And he was like, oh, I don't know. And he was downplaying it. and they're like, well, would you have been better than Sean Zawadzki in goal? and And he said, absolutely, yes, he would have in a joking manner. But, you know, maybe Steven Marrera will hop in goal. Who knows? I don't know. I just don't want to repeat that because I was a goalkeeper all my life. So um I was texting my friends and telling them, like, see maybe not everybody can be a goalkeeper maybe you can't cut it um and and maybe it needs to be just a secret society it did it proved that uh being a goalkeeper is way harder than people realize or that that like actual goalkeepers make it look because sean zawatsky is uh like you mentioned he's having a breakout year he's a great player
00:51:15
Speaker
And he had no he had no chance. And it's not like he didn't know what to do or what he was doing. It's just that when those when those bullets are flying and that ball that ball is coming at you and you've got like the other team's DPS like teeing up those shots.
00:51:30
Speaker
It's just a different animal. And it did kind of underscore that. ah The Sounders had a so similar situation where Alex Roldan had to play in goal against San Jose at San Jose a couple years ago, but it was for like two minutes at the very end of the game, maybe like a little longer, but not. And he actually famously did not concede a goal and made like a save or two, but like Zawadzki had to do it for like,
00:51:53
Speaker
the whole second half. it it Yeah. I think it was, I think it was close to like 50 or 60 minutes. It was not, it was not like, cause you were expecting them to go into the locker room and maybe like, who's going to come out with the gloves?
00:52:05
Speaker
Like maybe he he'll get subbed out and it'll be someone else. Like you had no clue what was happening. And I just remember sitting there and being like, this is a, this is a wash game.
00:52:17
Speaker
and This is a throw by game. And it really made me angry, not because the crew lost, but because it was such a good game between two good teams. Yeah. And it was just ruined by that guy coming out and full on John Cena, WWE wrestling move just took out that Seattle attacker.
00:52:36
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Don't even, what's that, what's that kid doing? Is he still on the team? Yeah, and he's he's our he is. I don't think he's appeared in another game since, but he he's like our reserve keeper, because I remember they signed him like three weeks prior for that purpose of like, maybe we, you know, Patrick Schulte was away on international duty. I think Hagan was away and Evan Bush injured his wrist or something. And so he was the last man standing. But I have to imagine Wilford Nancy in the locker room.
00:53:06
Speaker
I don't know if a coach, you don't say anything and you just say, go out, play your game, do whatever. Or if you go up to him and you'd be like, do not go after anybody today. Like, don't leave your feet.
00:53:17
Speaker
Don't send a flying knee into this guy's jaw. Obviously, whatever happened, he didn't listen. And, you know, we have that 5-1 or 4-1 scoreline to stare at for the rest of eternity.
00:53:29
Speaker
We'll always have the ah the content. I agree, though. it did like That game was like just a back-and-forth brawl, like two two good teams going at it, and then it just got yeah absolutely blown up by the goalkeeper red.
00:53:41
Speaker
ah yep i'm i am a i don't I don't need to see a repeat of that. like I have the one no with the one goalkeeper red card, second half 4-0 at the crew, and I'll take that. i want to see the i want Because this is a measuring stick game for both teams, I want to see ah where they stack up.
00:54:00
Speaker
All right, Caleb, that's all I got for you tonight, man. Thank you so much for hopping on. ah Before you go, anything that you're working on with Massive Report or that you guys got coming up or you're doing covering the team that you want to plug or let people know about?
00:54:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um Go check out, ah if you're a tactics nerd like me, go check out the tactical reviews. It's it's decently in-depth, I think, and um I break it down game by game. So hopefully every game, unless it's a short match week, I do i do every game. So go check those out. um especially for this game after this game because I will also be talking about Seattle and maybe talking about what they're doing as well ah to get some insight in that. um Obviously go check out massive report we have amazing writers there they do great coverage of the team and um gets really in-depth stuff that a lot of people miss and really have a finger on the pulse much like you all do um and and that's the beauty of of ah MLS is you have these
00:55:01
Speaker
you know, and, uh, for these teams more. So definitely go check out. as Um, but ah to he covers the team, uh, and he's now on a track to see how, right. So the tendons.
00:55:18
Speaker
All right. Your audio was cutting out a tiny bit for me at the end there, but I got most of it. Thank you so much again for the time. No, you're all good, man. Appreciate the time tonight.
00:55:29
Speaker
Learned a lot about the Columbus crew, and I know our audience appreciates it as well. So ah take care, and we'll we'll collab with you guys, get you guys back on our show some point soon. All right. Awesome. Thank you for having me on.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah, take care. That was Caleb DeNorme from Massive Report. previewing the Columbus crew. Good stuff there. ah like I said, at the top of the show, one of the best, or I did a couple times during the ah interview, one of the best teams in MLS every year for the last two, three years.
00:56:03
Speaker
Uh, and even in a year where, it seems like, especially, like he was saying in may, it hasn't gone that well. Uh,
00:56:14
Speaker
They're still at 1.8 points per game. So go figure. Coming Lumen Field on Sunday. Sunday night soccer presented by Continental Tire.
00:56:25
Speaker
It's going to be a good one. We'll see if ah the Seattle Sounders can build on that 2-0 win versus Austin. All right. Let's get into some ah some Sounders news because we got we got a bit of it.
00:56:37
Speaker
ah But ah before we do that, again, like the video, sub to the channel, Follow us on Instagram. Follow us on TikTok. Lobbingscorchers.com slash sauce.
00:56:51
Speaker
No, am I missing anything? I think that was it.
00:56:55
Speaker
um Jake, thanks for the updates on the Defiance score as well. Obviously not keeping track of that. Sounds like they're winning.
00:57:06
Speaker
And there's a Georgie assist. So good stuff from TACD so far. All right. couple Sounders news items to start it off.
00:57:18
Speaker
And then we got some Schmetz and Roosnack sound that we can get into later as well, if time allows, which I think it will, because i think both of these both of these news items are pretty straightforward, I think.
00:57:32
Speaker
There's not like all that much discourse to be had surrounding them. But the first one is some very sad news, which is that JP evidently per sounder at heart has sustained a torn ACL, the same one that he tore it in the ah CCL final in 2022 training. And so ah he's going to be out for the rest of the season.
00:57:56
Speaker
JP season is over torn ACL, which sucks. Sucks. JP was a, in a backup role on this team this year.
00:58:08
Speaker
he and Danny Leyva were the, the reserve double pivot essentially. So he really, ah you know, people were talking about the decline of, ah of JP, which, you know, 33 or whatever he was, think, I think that wouldn't have necessarily been a shock, but I also, he really just wasn't playing a lot in general.
00:58:29
Speaker
Like to be able to get a rhythm, to be able to, you know, find the best 11 form JP of old. ah And the the thing that is so shitty about this, aside from, you know, what it means for JP and his season and his career, but like he and Danny Leyva were going to, with Leagues Cup coming up and stuff, like he and ah Danny Leyva were going to, this was just the start of where he was going to be playing a lot.
00:58:59
Speaker
A lot more. And he gets hurt right as that's happening. So it sucks. Heartbreaking news. And yeah, I think let's ah let's take a moment. Of appreciation for J.P.
00:59:12
Speaker
a great sounder who, uh, you know, uh, we, I was talking, um, during the club world cup with, uh, Pedro from glorious Boda Fogo. And we were talking about JP, like, uh, because JP played for Boda Fogo before he came to Seattle.
00:59:27
Speaker
And, uh, we, uh, We both had similar perceptions of him, of a guy who, it's not just that he was like a great player on the field with next-level technical ability, best 11 at the position, had an 11-assist season.
00:59:45
Speaker
But when we talk about things like ah like playing for the badge, you know laying it all on the line for the club, really the weight of the badge, you can you can feel that.
00:59:57
Speaker
on a player when they're on that field jp is like the embodiment of that and uh he has been his whole time on the team and uh they do not win conca cap champions league without jp they don't uh he made some of the biggest plays of that tournament like uh kind of small dirty work plays that uh that you might not, they don't go on the stat sheet necessarily. It's not the flashiest stuff, but he always had that presence for the team. But also, if you if you guys remember, he drew a massive penalty in Mexico in one of those games. I can't remember exactly which one that was off the top of my head, ah but i think it was in the game that they ah they ended up tying it two two
01:00:44
Speaker
It was one of the legendary results that they took in Mexico during that run, of which there was a couple. He draws a penalty in one of those games. Lyon, yes.
01:00:54
Speaker
There was that one.
01:00:59
Speaker
That was... that could that That play, that could have been it. that those The margins in ah in a tournament like that, very thin. One penalty here or there, like that kind of stuff can make the difference. And he stepped up. He made those plays.
01:01:13
Speaker
Yes, Nico Ladero and Raul Ruiz Diaz where the were the stars of that tournament for Seattle, but they don't win it without JP. And he, of course, tore his ACL in the final.
01:01:25
Speaker
which, like, ah that was so unfortunate because of, like, to have it happen at the apex of that tournament.
01:01:36
Speaker
But, like, at that point, they end up winning that game easily. And he had put so much in that, like, he he had as much of an imprint on that on that and CCC, CCL title as anyone.
01:01:52
Speaker
So endless respect and appreciation for JP for that. ah And then, yes, the Brazilian beesquake.
01:02:04
Speaker
One of the best individual plays I've ever seen on a on a soccer field.
01:02:13
Speaker
Go back and watch that one again if you haven't watched it in a while. I watched it kind of recently.
01:02:19
Speaker
that was That was peak JP. that was the That was the type of stuff that he that he could do, man.
01:02:28
Speaker
What a run. Incredible. So, it's a it's ah it's it's sad. It's a sad day.
01:02:41
Speaker
Losing a great sounder for the rest of the season. And at a point where he he he was just about to start playing a lot. He was.
01:02:54
Speaker
depending on how they handled leagues cup, he was either going to be playing a lot of regular season games or getting a lot of minutes in leagues cup. So, uh, what happened to the couch cushion with, Oh, I don't know. I was throwing it around.
01:03:09
Speaker
If it's bothering you, I can move it, but I don't really feel like doing that. That's a better, that's a more valid complaint than the person who commented that the, the jerseys in the background are like 0.2 inches off.
01:03:21
Speaker
Hopefully I don't, uh, trigger anyone's OCD by, by pointing that out.
01:03:29
Speaker
ah But yeah, let's talk about what, um what JP, what they're going to do at that position without JP, because like I said, JP, Danny Leva, that was the, that was the reserve double pivot. That's what they had been going with whenever they needed to rest or rotate Christian rolled on and Obed Vargas.
01:03:46
Speaker
ah So, I mean, I think this means a couple of things.
01:03:52
Speaker
I hadn't even thought about this from Roberto. Atencio trade sucks right now. Got two ACLs. Come and get him. Yeah. I mean, I think the Atencio trade, uh,
01:04:04
Speaker
it needed to happen regardless for his sake. Like, I think my my impression of that trade was that was something that like, he felt like he needed to do, to take the next step in his career and not be in a situation where him getting minutes was dependent on like an injury situation like this.
01:04:21
Speaker
And, uh, Colorado is straight up bell count. And they, they start him every game. He plays like every minute of every game, as far as I can tell, every time I watched the rapid seas out there. So, uh,
01:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was a good trade. It's just it's unfortunate they get hit with a season-ending injury at that exact position. ah But so it goes sometimes.
01:04:44
Speaker
And I mean, yeah, I think there's two things here. Number one, Danny Weva is going to have to step up. He's already been he's been getting, you know, playing bit parts here and there.
01:04:59
Speaker
Looked fine, I think. Passable, definitely not a
01:05:05
Speaker
definitely not doing anything like egregious or wrong out there. But I think hopefully this is where we see Danny Leva step into a bigger role when he's needed to and actually
01:05:17
Speaker
actually hopefully become like more of an impact player than he's been. I would say, which I think he has that in him. it's It's again, it's a situation where it's pretty hard to gauge because when a player's not getting consistent run, getting consistent minutes, it's hard to get in a rhythm. It's hard to like make an impact like, ah like you can when you, when you're in a rhythm, you're getting regular minutes, you have extended reliable opportunities to make that impact.
01:05:45
Speaker
Daily hasn't had that in his career really like i don't know it's been all sort of the this uh
01:05:55
Speaker
bit role fits and starts second half cameos so danny wayva let's see if he can step up and then uh a few people have already mentioned it in chat but snyder brunell
01:06:11
Speaker
Jake san was saying that they are reportedly signing him. I don't know. I haven't seen that. ah I haven't seen that confirmed.
01:06:21
Speaker
But they're I think they're going to, if they haven't done that or if that hasn't been announced, i't know if anyone can confirm if that's been announced. But if it hasn't been announced, I mean, it's going to get announced. That's one thing they're going to do. And I guess that's one. Okay, it is confirmed.
01:06:34
Speaker
So they're signing Snyder Brunel to the first team, which you obviously, you wish it wasn't an and ah almost official announcement. Okay. you wish it were i wasn't under these circumstances, but it is, that, that is, that's an exciting development in the sense that, ah I mean, yeah we get a chance to see another homegrown, make the first team and see if he can make it. it When did Sounder and Hart drop that? I was just reading. ah
01:07:06
Speaker
I was reading about Noah, Ohio on there. Okay. So I do read it, but I didn't see, I didn't see the Snyder report. Drop the link.
01:07:16
Speaker
Scored for defiance tonight. But like, I know i I've only watched Snyder Brunel like when I watched defiance here and there. And ah I do know he is one of the best players on that team. And I also know like internally, he's a guy that he's in that group of guys on defiance who the the idea is, all right, this guy is ah first team player.
01:07:44
Speaker
he yeah he doesn't have a He hasn't had his opportunity yet. He's only, what, like 17?
01:07:50
Speaker
But from everything I've heard, from when if you ask any of the coaches about him or anyone kind of plugged into the youth setup, he's like, if he's not the guy on that team, maybe Osaze.
01:08:04
Speaker
was that guy, but now he's kind of been in the first team mix. So he's sort of graduated past that Snyder Burnell is like in that category of homegrown defiance players who they, who they very much see as a player that's going to meaningfully contribute for the first team in the future.
01:08:21
Speaker
And he's going to get his chance. Like, This was, like it's a big hit to a position group that had a lot of depth. I think this, it was among the more more straightforward position groups on this roster was that double pivot. It was Obed and Christian starting JP, Danny Leyva.
01:08:41
Speaker
backing them up, which that was a, that was a good rotation, but now that's in flux a little bit with, with JP going down and ah Snyder Brunel. I think he's going to get, I don't think it's like a, ah he's going to be totally buried and never get on the field.
01:08:59
Speaker
type situation. Like, I think he's going to, they're going to give him a little bit of run, which that'll be cool. That'll be cool to see. Cause you know, if nothing else, when you get a homegrown guy called up like that, there's the intrigue of like, maybe this guy could be really good.
01:09:13
Speaker
Like maybe he could be not just a starter, but like an impact player. We don't know with Snyder Brunel right now. So maybe we'll get to find out. Uh, I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, ah when Kim Kihee gets back, if he they don't deputize him in there ah little bit.
01:09:32
Speaker
he He has played there in his career, like D-mid. He's a center back first and foremost, but that might be something that they do.
01:09:46
Speaker
So we'll see. All right, here is the link.
01:09:52
Speaker
Snyder Brunell will sign first team contract with Sounders. There you have it. Yeah, I'm a bad, I'm a bad employee. Didn't read that.
01:10:00
Speaker
The Snyder Brunell show starring Snyder Brunell at Snyder Brunell.
01:10:08
Speaker
It's starting. It's starting.
01:10:13
Speaker
But ah yeah, I mean, I guess that that's pretty much all ah all I had to say about that situation. and it's a It just sucks a lot. And you know, any time a guy has a season-ending injury, it sucks.
01:10:26
Speaker
But you especially feel for JP in this situation because he's been such a great sounder, great guy, great leader. And he was just about, his role was about to increase.
01:10:40
Speaker
Alex rolled on at D-mid. Yeah, that's probably, that's, That's going to happen too.
01:10:49
Speaker
We did not talk about Noah Ohio, so let's do it.
Transfer News: Noah Ohio and Seattle Sounders' U-22 Slot
01:10:54
Speaker
Let's do it. Because that's his actual name, as I understand it.
01:11:00
Speaker
ah Hold on. I'm just going to pull up Nico's tweet here because it was his report, so I want to give him his credit. We have a transfer rumor related to the much-discussed U22 spot.
01:11:17
Speaker
I have a couple of shout outs on this. Actually.
01:11:22
Speaker
One is for Nico, who I'm going pull his tweet up right now, but the other is for Tim Foss of Sounder at heart, who wrote an article on Sounder at heart discussing potential U22 transfer targets.
01:11:38
Speaker
And this guy apparently was on it. So let's ah let's learn about him because i know absolutely nothing about him. ah this is This is from Nico. Per sources, turns out, Dutch forward, Noah Ohio.
01:11:51
Speaker
um am i being Am I being trolled that his name is Noah Ohio?
01:11:59
Speaker
Noah Ohio?
01:12:04
Speaker
feel like this is a bit.
01:12:10
Speaker
Yeah, I won't watch the highlights. I won't watch the highlights. Learned that lesson. learned that lesson. Although apparently if you play GIFs of them on Twitter and Blue Sky, you don't get DMCA'd. I'm not going to do it because I don't know that for a fact, but I did do it before.
01:12:27
Speaker
and didn't get popped. So maybe that's the workaround. Uh, Dutch forward, no Ohio, who's recently mentioned in a sounder at heart report by Tim Foss as a potential sounders target is more than that.
01:12:39
Speaker
Uh, this is the big part told there's an actual offer on the table for the former, uh, Red Bull Leipzig player and negotiations are ongoing. So this is the thing. This is not like one of those, uh,
01:12:52
Speaker
those aggregator rumors where they're just kind of like pulling out random names that are available on the transfer market and then like saying this team is linked to them and then nothing ever comes of it.
01:13:02
Speaker
According to Nico, there's an offer on the table.
01:13:07
Speaker
Offer on the table for Noah, Ohio.
01:13:12
Speaker
Is that based on his ability or on his name? I don't know, but there he is right there. That's him. Wearing the number nine for a Red Bull Leapsing.
01:13:24
Speaker
Or I guess, is it RB Leipzig? I always call it Red Bull because they... i But like, ah someone told me at one point that it's like, that's not the name. I don't know.
01:13:35
Speaker
ah So we'll see if the they get this one over the line. But Noah, Ohio is evidently a Yeah, here we go.
01:13:47
Speaker
Thanks, Jake. Six foot one striker, 22 years old, 2.3 market value. So that's what we're looking at. That's what we're looking at.
01:13:58
Speaker
And it's kind of funny because ni Nico and I ah specifically have talked a fair amount about like the types of players that he's been hearing that are linked to Seattle for this U22 spot.
01:14:13
Speaker
And what Nico was telling me on the last episode of Lobbing Scorchers kickoff is that The budget that we're talking about in terms of the transfer fee is not an exciting number.
01:14:29
Speaker
Like when we look at the the big the big time transfers in this league, I think you got to be at least talking about De La Vega money, but even that's on the low end at this point.
01:14:40
Speaker
You got you like $10 plus million. dollars That's when people start to go, oh, okay. This guy's market value according to transfer market. So make of that what you will.
01:14:51
Speaker
But his value is 2.3. So I'd imagine if they do acquire this kid, it'll be in that sort of ah in that sort of price range, which that's not going to get people that excited.
01:15:05
Speaker
It's not. They're going to say it's money balling. They're going to say it lacks ambition. And they're going to say, Ohio is terrible without having watched him play.
01:15:20
Speaker
I'm going to and i'mnna try and keep an open mind in the sense that, ah you know,
01:15:30
Speaker
A man's market value on transfer market or what are on a transfer fee, that doesn't necessarily define them.
01:15:38
Speaker
If they've scouted him up and they think he can outperform that and perform at a level of ah of a player that they spent a bigger fee on, I'll keep an open mind.
01:15:51
Speaker
I'm not going to ah condemn him to bus status before I watch him play, especially with a name like Noah Ohio. ah But let's just ah let's take a look at his career. Let's do this. Can I look at his transfer marked on there? No, is that going to is that going to get me DMCA?
01:16:08
Speaker
Pretty sure I can do this. Let's see. Let's just take a look at the. At the transfer marked. we Check out where he's been in his career.
01:16:21
Speaker
how many goals he's scored, what clubs he's played for, all that good stuff. Noah, Ohio, Dutch center forward, 22 years old.
01:16:36
Speaker
There you have it. Current current market value, 2 million euros.
01:16:43
Speaker
One thing i I read about this guy earlier,
01:16:48
Speaker
is that apparently he's boys with ah Jude Bellingham. Like, not just acquaintances, but they're it's like his... je This is Jude Bellingham's, like, best childhood friend.
01:17:01
Speaker
So if he comes to the team and ah then convinces Jude Bellingham to join him, that could be a W. ah But yeah, here, let's take a look at his stats and see if I can zoom this in a little bit. There we go.
01:17:19
Speaker
This season, in the air to VCA, five goals, 23 appearances. Not terrible. Kitchen Champions League, two goals, three appearances.
01:17:33
Speaker
Looks like he did a ah ah little stint in the championship.
01:17:41
Speaker
He's been around. He's been around, played a lot of soccer for a 21 year old, I guess 146 games, top flight.
01:17:52
Speaker
And I'm seeing 41 goals.
01:17:58
Speaker
i think I think, okay. I think some of these are, this is like youth leagues too. So not, not all top flight. So you got 10 goals for 17 squad.
01:18:14
Speaker
Bundesliga five goals.
01:18:27
Speaker
Joe Bellingham.
01:18:31
Speaker
Jude Bellingham to the Sounders via no Ohio agenda.
01:18:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's sort of so that's the impression that I was getting that I was getting to Wade.
01:18:45
Speaker
when i When I look at a player like this, here's what else is that. they ah Craig Wives has been very clear that he whatever you twenty two they bring in, it's not with the intent of it being a developmental spot.
01:19:08
Speaker
We've talked about that a lot. He's talked about that a lot. He's very been very clear that they want and need this to be a player that is not just going to bench ride, that's going to contribute, that's going to play, that's going to produce.
01:19:22
Speaker
but don't That like puts more pressure on it. Honestly, usually you hear him say like, oh, well, you know, it's ah it'll be a U22. So we don't know. We're going to work him in, ease him in. have to key I want to keep expectations down.
01:19:35
Speaker
ah But ah we're cautiously optimistic that at some point down the line he can be in it. Usually you get that. Greg Weibes has been saying like now, like we're when we fill this spot, the reason that we're being so like ah patient and methodical about it.
01:19:52
Speaker
is that we can't have someone coming in and not be ready to contribute and be bench riding. He said, he said that I will say in my, and this is, this is purely vibes based. This has, I know nothing about the player. I haven't even, i literally haven't even watched his highlights.
01:20:08
Speaker
I, I looked up his bio a little bit and then just looked at the transfer mark with you guys right now. So I don't know anything about him, but purely based off vibes. when you have like a, a player who's like 20, 21 years old like this, who is like fringe, like solid, good prospect status, but ah hasn't scored much yet.
01:20:30
Speaker
And, and it like that is a projection situation. You are, you're taking a bet. You're projecting that if they, if you get them into your team with your coaching and you give them the minutes,
01:20:48
Speaker
they'll outproduce what they've been able to at this point in their career. That's, I mean, that's just a bet. That's a bet. And if you, if you're, if you got like full confidence in your scouting,
01:21:01
Speaker
and the types of profiles of players that fit in your system and on your team, both on and off the field, and and you feel like that you can get them to a place where they're going to make that impact, then then that's great. You should you should bring them in.
01:21:16
Speaker
But it's it's definitely not a sure thing. And kind of what I was getting to is I feel like I've seen this type of profile player a lot, and the hit rate's just not that high.
01:21:27
Speaker
yeah've We've gone through the U22 hit rates on this show, just looking at what clubs have and haven't had success with them. And it's pretty hit or miss.
01:21:39
Speaker
Some teams are really good at it. Like we went through that list and there were few teams where every, all you looked at their U22s and it was all guys that like play and contribute and score and make an impact every week.
01:21:53
Speaker
But there was honest, there's more names that were just like, that never really did anything that never lived up to it. So if they get in Ohio, I guess that's his nickname.
01:22:09
Speaker
If they get in Ohio,
01:22:15
Speaker
will ah we'll We'll see if they can get out of him what they think they're going to get out of him. But
01:22:23
Speaker
I don't know. I am looking at this a little bit like, like I see what Nico was saying when he was, ah
01:22:32
Speaker
Nico said something to the effect on kickoff of like,
01:22:36
Speaker
The players that they're looking at like seem seem good, but it's not like names or profiles of players that are necessarily going to get people super excited. And I think this, you know, this falls into that category. It's a young player that not a lot of people know about that hasn't played a lot of games.
01:22:54
Speaker
And that you're you're projecting and it would also be for a transfer fee that is perceived to be like lower than they should be spending or in ambitious or whatever.
01:23:06
Speaker
Now, I'm not going to put any of that on them yet. I'm not.
01:23:11
Speaker
They haven't acquired him, first of all, yet. But let's just say they do. Let's say that Noah, Ohio, or even like i this profile, this even if they don't end up getting Noah, Ohio, I think this tells us, that's kind of what's interesting about this. This tells us the types of profiles of players that we're talking about.
01:23:35
Speaker
Guys between the ages of 20, 21, early 20s guys who are in like prospect, unproven prospect status that have a lot of potential but maybe haven't realized it yet.
01:23:50
Speaker
And you're talking about transfer fees that are more like $2 million to $3 million as opposed to $8 million to $10 million.
01:24:00
Speaker
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Like... In theory, I don't, I really don't. I've, I've said plenty of times that I value what you bring on the field, not what your transfer value is.
01:24:16
Speaker
And I think there's so many examples of reasons why people shouldn't care about stuff like that as much as they seem to.
01:24:25
Speaker
We're witnessing one of those examples right now with Toronto FC.
01:24:32
Speaker
If you think your transfer fee will get you success,
01:24:42
Speaker
look at what has happened to our Canadian brethren who shelled out the most transfer money and MLS over the last like three or four years, other than maybe Atlanta.
01:24:55
Speaker
They're in the top two to three teams.
01:24:59
Speaker
For loent Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernadeschi, who... God love them. They rolled up to MLS.
01:25:10
Speaker
They vaped at practice. They fought at practice. They vaped on the plane.
01:25:19
Speaker
They didn't score a lot of goals. They won pretty much no games. Didn't get close to any trophies.
01:25:27
Speaker
And now they're gone.
01:25:35
Speaker
What more can we get for a 22-year-old for $743K-ish per year? Yeah, I mean, it is I guess it is roughly like in what you would expect. But, I mean, that's what you're paying them when they get there. they like The transfer fee isn't necessarily related to that.
01:25:50
Speaker
see what I'm saying?
01:25:55
Speaker
The vaping is true. That was reported. that was i was Tom Bogues had that one.
Off-Field Antics and Player Performance
01:26:02
Speaker
Bernadeschi was... He had his vape, and he was going to hit it.
01:26:09
Speaker
He was going to hit it at practice, and then when he hit it on the plane, that was when they were like, that's, you can't, what are you doing? What are we talking about? He was like, I want to, I want to vape.
01:26:24
Speaker
That part of it wasn't reported. Let me be clear about that. i don't I don't know if that conversation took place. I imagine when they saw him vaping on the plane, some sort of conversation like that took place.
01:26:37
Speaker
That you can't vape on the plane. He was vaping on the plane. You don't you don't vape on the plane. But to be fair, Bernadeschi actually played some good ball for them.
01:26:49
Speaker
It's not like it it didn't make a difference. They didn't win anything.
01:26:55
Speaker
Didn't matter. The transfer fee was still not money well spent.
01:27:01
Speaker
But he did have productive stretches. He scored some good goals. He actually played well at times. Bernadeschi is a good player. In Sydney, I have no idea what was going on with that.
01:27:18
Speaker
The guy went from leading Italy to the to the Euro title
01:27:26
Speaker
to going to Toronto FC and crashing crashing out and
01:27:32
Speaker
like forgetting how to play the game almost. You know how I was saying that players like Daniel Gosdog and Jesus Ferreira just don't forget how to play soccer. Insigne, like, I guess is a counterpoint to that because it seems like he kind of did.
01:27:49
Speaker
The point is, i would, 100 times out of 100, rather the Sounders sign a guy like Noah Ohio for 2.3 and have him actually come in and be a player and produce and contribute to winning than I would then have them spend 15, 20 million dollars, which they can't do because they're broke. But I'm just, if they could spend 15 to 20 on guys like Bernadette and Insigne, who if they did that, everyone would be like, oh my God, what a this is,
01:28:22
Speaker
The beacons of ambition. Ambition FC. $15 million dollars on Insigne.
01:28:30
Speaker
Build the statue of Hanauer. But then he comes in and doesn't do shit. That's how it goes sometimes. So there's there's just there's just more to it than that.
01:28:43
Speaker
Oh yeah, okay Joey, you're right. that They were making $15 million dollars a year. So the point the point pretty much stands. Insigne was the third highest ah third highestest paid player in MLS.
01:29:01
Speaker
He was on $15 million this year, and they had to buy him out. They're paying him that money to do whatever. I don't even know if – Bernadeschi had another club lined up. No idea what Insigne is doing.
01:29:16
Speaker
Ohio is a hilarious name, and I kind of still can't believe that it's kind of surreal.
01:29:27
Speaker
Noah, Ohio.
01:29:30
Speaker
It's fire. it's fire i hope they i hope they go get him, and I hope he's hella good. Imagine the content for us.
01:29:40
Speaker
if a guy named Noah Ohio comes to the team and then he actually just is hella good for multiple different reasons.
01:29:51
Speaker
I think the obvious one is that having a a guy named Noah on the team would be a good bit, but the Ohio aspect of it actually contributes to this as well.
01:30:03
Speaker
Colton, who used to live at the Lobbing Scorchers mansion, is a big, like, Ohio guy. He's a Bengals fan. Loves Ohio. So it's like a... That's why... that's what When I say that I feel like I'm being messed with with this, it's like the Lobbing Scorchers prototype name.
01:30:26
Speaker
Like... it's It's kind of wild.
01:30:36
Speaker
Tacoma
01:30:39
Speaker
This defiance game seems lit. What is it going on? Buying a guy for 2 million, ends up flopping is better than buying a guy for like 8 plus mil and then they flop. Yeah, I mean, ideally ah ideally, when you have any kind of million, you don't want them to flop.
01:30:55
Speaker
But ah my my point is like, I can already see the discourse coming. I can see it coming from a mile away. If they drop,
01:31:07
Speaker
2.3 or whatever this kid is worth on transfer marked on the signing. people are going to People are going to skewer it before before the dude even plays one minute. You're like, we already know.
01:31:20
Speaker
We already know what's coming. and I'm not going to partake in that. I'm to give Ohio a chance to prove himself.
01:31:34
Speaker
Approach it with an open mind.
01:31:40
Speaker
he does He does have some pedigree. not like a ah
01:31:47
Speaker
It's not like a money ball situation where it's just like a guy that's like totally out of nowhere that's not rated, you know?
01:31:58
Speaker
So,
01:32:01
Speaker
we'll see. There can be only one. i will be doing anything I can to make sure this transfer doesn't go through. I've already started a rivalry with him. See, like this is what I'm saying though, like a little Noah rivalry.
01:32:13
Speaker
We could use that.
01:32:21
Speaker
um We're going to have to get him on the pod if his name is Noah Ohio.
01:32:26
Speaker
ah That's about all the no Ohio thoughts that I had because i again, no, I heard his name for the first time, like three or four hours ago. So what we'll be, we'll be tracking no Ohio in the coming days.
01:32:40
Speaker
the The thing about this that's so note noteworthy, I think is just that like it, uh, like Nico said, they made an offer and talks are ongoing. So it seems like this is one that they feel like, all right, if we can get this guy to,
01:32:58
Speaker
to come to the club.
01:33:01
Speaker
They clearly based on what Craig Weibel has told us, they think he can come in here and be like a, impactful and MLS player off rip. That's that, that is, uh, that's the standard. That's the implication.
01:33:19
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, we got some, uh, we got some Brian Schmetzer sound and, ah some Albert Bruce neck sound. So I'm going play the Schmidt sound, see what he has to say.
01:33:32
Speaker
Then depending on how much ah time we spend on that, maybe hit Bruce snack, but, uh, planning on going about two hours tonight. So think that should, uh, see us down the home stretch. But as always, if you guys got any questions or topics and chat, you want me to hit, feel free to drop them in.
01:33:51
Speaker
And, uh, Like the video. Go watch the Beano board video where Noah mobbed around the ah Club World Cup. I'm going to drop that link in chat, actually.
01:34:07
Speaker
I'm going to drop that link in chat because it's a good video.
01:34:17
Speaker
Everyone, go give a watch and a view to the Beano board video.
01:34:23
Speaker
Please, please and thank you. um What was I doing? Oh, yeah, Schmetz. Schmetz sound. Play the Schmetz sound, react to it a little bit, maybe talk some more Columbus crew.
01:34:37
Speaker
Oh, wow. Schmetz was miked up by DAZN? How did I miss that? have to check that out.
01:34:52
Speaker
All right, here's the Schmetz video.
01:34:59
Speaker
This is from training yesterday. I actually haven't watched this yet, so let's see what Schmetz has to say. I'm not watching the Dizone content.
01:35:08
Speaker
I meant watch it on my spare time.
01:35:21
Speaker
um looks like Pedro De La Vega cut his hair. are you thoughts on them Oh, wow. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Sorry to cut that off, but that was a news item that I completely forgot about that I wanted to talk about real quick, real quick.
01:35:42
Speaker
All right. That was Jackson Feltz on the question. So I'm going to um'm go to put Jackson Feltz's picture on the screen. Pedro de la Vega did cut his hair.
01:35:54
Speaker
And this is actually no ah newsworthy, and I'm going explain why. Okay, there you see it It's not like the most high-res photo, but that's Pedro. See this? That's Pedro de la Vega right there.
01:36:08
Speaker
No flow.
01:36:11
Speaker
No flow.
01:36:17
Speaker
The flow is gone, which I think, okay, all right.
01:36:23
Speaker
This is note newsworthy anyway because the flow is what De La Vega was. That was kind of his thing. That's like what he was known for. Whole time he's been on the team. The flow has been like the distinguishing feature. It's his trademark.
01:36:38
Speaker
It's kind of his vibe. He's got the flow. He cut it all off. So what does this mean? What is the significance? Here's what I can tell you about when an athlete changes the hair up.
01:36:55
Speaker
And you know i've been I've been around this team for for a long time. I've been around NFL players a little bit in my time working in this field. And one thing I can tell you is that when an athlete change does a drastic hair change, it's it's to it's because they feel like the vibes are off.
01:37:16
Speaker
The vibes are off. It's just the way they want it to click. it's not It's not working. It's not there. And so they're just there. They change the hair to just change it up.
01:37:28
Speaker
Yeah, fresh start. Exactly. This tells me that De La Vega is like, vibes are off right now.
01:37:39
Speaker
I'm not playing how I want to play. I'm not playing up to the standard that I but i want to play at. I'm going to change it up. I'm to something drastic. I'm to do something drastic and just cut it all off.
01:37:52
Speaker
I've been there. It's not even ah
01:37:56
Speaker
not even ah just athletes. I've i've done that.
01:38:02
Speaker
I famously, during the COVID lockdown, bleached my hair Justin Bieber blonde.
01:38:11
Speaker
Just because the societal vibes were off, you know? So I figured if I did that, it's that's a little different. little different, but for an athlete, it's a 100% like a, like a vibe shift vibe reset.
01:38:24
Speaker
So, uh, I do, I like, I'm, I'm speaking in jest a little bit. It's not like a huge deal that he got a haircut, but I honestly do think that it is a genuine indication that in his own mind, he's like, this is off right now. This is off right now.
01:38:42
Speaker
I'm going just cut all the hair, reset the vibes.
01:38:54
Speaker
Areola in the background also with the bleached hair. Jordan Morris and Paul Areola both did this as well when they were rehabbing their injuries.
01:39:05
Speaker
it's ah It's a thing. It's a thing with the hair.
01:39:13
Speaker
Well, Jackson actually asked him about it, so let's hear what Schmitz has to say about this. I'm actually curious now.
01:39:28
Speaker
New short look, but he's good. He's a good looking young man. Uh, you know, they, uh, do what they do. They're living life. Pedro's in a good mood. He's working hard at training. That's all I can ask for. I've been looking at the tape from ah Austin. What, what stood out about how you guys performed?
01:39:47
Speaker
Well, there's a lot of things, but in general terms, I mean, I liked some of the possession sequences we had, you know, the goal was exceptional, but there were other possession sequences where maybe it's not 27 passes, but where we want the players, how they got out of pressure, ah you know, spaces that we ah occupy, but different people in those spaces. i thought it was, it was real good.
01:40:12
Speaker
You know, defensively, couple of things we could clean up, but you know, Austin didn't create a ton. They had some chances, you know, some moments where maybe with a little bit more, you know, discipline on their side, they would have made us pay. But overall, was good performance.
01:40:31
Speaker
Brian, there was a couple of chances that were created by Albert just putting the ball into space over the top, behind the defense, even when you're possessing the ball. Is that something you're working on ah the general? He's been doing that since he's been here.
01:40:46
Speaker
You know, his connection with Jordan from a deeper position has always been there. I think he's played guys in from back here. but I think you're talking about maybe some when he gets the ball out there a little bit further from goal, some of the crosses.
01:40:59
Speaker
i mean, he has it in his tool bag. And, you know, look, Danny Mososki has done really well. You know, not just the goal he scored with his feet, but he had a couple half chances, you know, being good in the air inside the box.
01:41:13
Speaker
And, you know, Albert's good enough to recognize that. That's a good problem to have. But now that Jordan's going to be coming in with some minutes, you know, how do you handle that specifically? Same way I'm handling Kalani and Alex and Yaimar, Kim Kihee and Jackson and Ryan Kent and Paul and Pedro and Jesus and Jordan and Danny, the list goes on.
Seattle Sounders' Strategy and Tactical Adjustments
01:41:38
Speaker
Speaking of Yamar and Kim, feel like Yamar was a partial participant today in training. Yeah, he's probably still two weeks away. you know, I'm going to get an update after he gets through some of these partial trainings. But, you know, again, the calf muscle, especially a big, powerful guy like him, I want to be careful.
01:41:56
Speaker
ah But they're getting closer. You know, maybe, you know, two to three weeks. Maybe it's two weeks. I'd i'd be hopeful for closer to two weeks.
01:42:07
Speaker
But we'll see. And if they're in Stuart Hawkins, how are you still? He's still out. He's three, four weeks out. How do you build up with this performance? i mean, you talked about all the good things. It seemed like at the time maybe there were some transition moments where the pass could have been a little bit quicker or cleaner.
01:42:24
Speaker
Cleaner, yes. So how do you build up that for the upcoming game? Well, we've messaged it. Somebody's got to let Maz in. Hey, let Maz in. I mean, do I have to do everybody's job here?
01:42:41
Speaker
ah What I would say is against a team like Columbus, who really values the ball, we can't afford to be sloppy or lazy or ineffective with our passing because when they get it, they're keeping it for minute or two and you don't want to chase a ball all game um so we'll have to do a little bit better job there uh but at the same time you know i think we're turning into a pretty good possession team too and if we can get past their initial counter press you know we have to make them suffer a little bit too ryan in terms of you being a possession team are you looking to cross to move the ball from right to left because noticed in the first 10 minutes you said something to
01:43:27
Speaker
We're always trying to change the point of attack, but look, with our group, not so sure we're a classic possession team because think we've got some high motor guys. ah We're also good in transition with Jordan and Moose Paul and other guys. But yeah, moving a team side to side is always one of things, playing through the middle first and then going wide. I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of things that we try and accomplish.
01:43:53
Speaker
You know, each game just manifests itself a little differently. Is that what you mean in terms of decisions by the players? Organically. We give them the outline, but on the field, they have to, you know, they have to make those decisions. that was Was this Jesus' first most complete game, would you say? Statistically.
01:44:15
Speaker
statistically an eye test. Eye test, yeah. It's good goal. But he missed a chance earlier that he may be, you know, he's and a little unselfish there. He's trying to play the ball back in the middle. But I think he could have done the same thing, make the goalkeeper make a save.
01:44:28
Speaker
ah You know, and there was a defending moment where he lets guys go inside. So, you know, it's still a work in progress. But it was a very good performance. Yeah. Something that you know fans are going to say, hey, goal and assist, we're finally getting what we got when we made the deal.
01:44:48
Speaker
But I always say that Jose brings a little bit more to the table. I like the way he defends, his work rate, you can't question that. So you know i see it a little differently maybe than fans and just guys that worry about goals and assists. But He had a good game.
01:45:05
Speaker
Danny Masavsky play inside the box. What's your take on that guy that, you know you know, might have been off the radar earlier on, but seven goals this year, all comps, his holdup play, ah the goal he took, you know, it's all good.
01:45:24
Speaker
All good for me. Defensively, you talk about defending that, the the goal that we scored, ah In the second half, you know, Danny Musaski drops back and defends the pivot like we asked him to do.
01:45:41
Speaker
And then we win the ball, we get a free kick. Okay. Then the rest is history, 27 passes, but his work defensively is what won us the ball in the first place. And he had a, ah near goal as well early where he just couldn't get his hips around.
01:45:56
Speaker
Yeah. Long throw. Yeah. We got to take, we got to. We got a long throw. We got scored upon from a long throw against Atletico. So we're taking hints.
01:46:07
Speaker
Brian, you have been the top in terms of corner kicks and everything. that I wouldn't say frustration, but is there a way to try to take advantage we're talking about some things. I mean, we're looking at different...
01:46:23
Speaker
you know, schemes and things, putting guys in right spots. But there again, it's his delivery and life or death in the penalty box. So, you know, that to me is most of it. give up Given Danny Mazowski and how well he's done here since he's coming in, um is Jordan an option on the wing perhaps to keep Danny on the field?
01:46:43
Speaker
Maybe. I mean, jordan Jordan, I think he wants play number nine. I think he thinks that's his position. So that would take a little bit of you know cajoling. ah But, you know, look, late in games, can we play with two forwards?
01:46:59
Speaker
Sure. You know, and Jordan always liked to play in that left pocket. and Maybe Mazovsky's more central. ah There's different ways you can skin that. ah Speaking of, you know, you talked about defense a little bit.
01:47:11
Speaker
How impressed or have you been by just Christian Roldan being able to carry his performance of the Club World Cup and put it into Austin and be just as good and effective as he was on both sides of the ball against Austin?
01:47:24
Speaker
can't remember first half, second half at the time when we lost the ball up there. Paul or someone lost the ball up there. He sprints back in the slide tackle with the outside of his right foot. I mean, it's great.
01:47:38
Speaker
He's kept he's he kept his level high. Jackson Reagan, um I would assert, I'm not a coach, that this is the best that he's been playing in terms of decision. He had a couple of those passes that didn't kill you.
01:47:50
Speaker
Yeah, well, in the first half, he gave one right to him. Yeah. So let's pump the brakes here a little bit. But he is awfully good at what he does best, which is see the field, start our attacks, find balls, you know breaking lines, all of that sort of stuff. What makes him an elite center back?
01:48:07
Speaker
But yeah, sometimes when you have that confidence and you take some risks, you know sometimes it comes back to bite you. How you channel that in terms of the confidence, but yet don't be too confident? I'm not channeling anything. That's that's like that's him.
01:48:22
Speaker
He is a confident kid by nature, quiet confidence, not the loudest, but you can tell when he's feeling good and finding passes and then you know that's the easy thing to see long, ooh-ah passes, but some of the simple things he does, just playing one touch, simple, one touch, 15 yards ahead of the play,
01:48:44
Speaker
Those are the moments that really open up games for us. And he's been tackling without making the foul. A couple times in a game, he'll come and make that tackle. He's press guy. He's pretty good.
01:48:54
Speaker
you know and I don't mind if he makes a foul at midfield. But you know closer to goal, is he can still work on his defending. but i can't remember if you were ask this in the postgame conference, but I believe Stephen Fry got to a thousand saves in his career. and you know, your thoughts on that in general.
01:49:11
Speaker
Just another checkbox. I mean, the guy's done it all. he's a He's done it all. And, you know, we're happy to steal him from Toronto and have him finish his career with us.
01:49:26
Speaker
when a week This is a week late, but Memorial Stadium closed. yeah i Just your thoughts. yeah lot of Iconic venue. Went there and...
01:49:39
Speaker
1974, 75, you know, ah you know played soccer there high school, Nathan Hale. Rebirth of the Sounders when I first took over, we played there.
01:49:52
Speaker
Lots of rain matches there. soccer You know, soccer, football. I mean, it's been an iconic Seattle institution. But from the renderings I see, I think it's going to be pretty nice.
01:50:03
Speaker
And it probably was time for, you know, a redo. but Brian, obviously no last no sounders there on the MLS All-Star game, but I don't want want to focus on what your thoughts are on the event itself. Do you like MLS All-Star game? Would you do it any differently? you know i don't know much but I don't know enough about what they've got scheduled for this year, but in general, I think All-Star games are kind of part of the American sports scene.
01:50:30
Speaker
And, you know, they're exciting events. mean, I like the home run derby, you know, three point shooting. Now football's got their skills stuff. I mean, we're doing some stuff, you know, the ball. I think it's, I think it's good entertainment.
01:50:48
Speaker
All right. Thanks guys. All right. Schmetz after practice yesterday. ah wow.
01:51:00
Speaker
Schmetz after practice yesterday.
01:51:04
Speaker
One, I thought, newsworthy item from that. Yaimar. Two weeks out. Supposedly, about. God, I can't wait for him to be back.
01:51:17
Speaker
Kim Kihee was holding it down. And I thought J-Bell played really well, actually, in the Club World Cup. Especially against PSG.
01:51:28
Speaker
actually thought J-Bell was... You really, you could not have asked him to do anything more than he did against PSG. ah And then you had Alex Roldan, who also, you couldn't have asked for anything different.
01:51:44
Speaker
ah But I think Yaimar's absence from the Club World Cup and was was was tough, man. It was tough.
01:51:57
Speaker
Do they concede a couple of those silly goals if he's on the field?
01:52:01
Speaker
Maybe they still do. But I can't wait to have him back. The physical presence, the leadership, the positioning,
01:52:13
Speaker
the aerial dominance. Two short weeks, hopefully. Jaimar will be back. ah he also Schmetz was also talking Ferreira a little bit.
01:52:25
Speaker
Someone i asked if that was his best game or his most complete game. He said it was statistically.
01:52:34
Speaker
But there was a couple instances where he mentioned something that I've been noticing a lot this year, which is too deferential. Too deferential.
01:52:46
Speaker
Wanted to be a little more selfish. I'm glad he pointed that out. I hope i hope they're coaching him on that.
01:52:53
Speaker
Take the shot. There's a couple instances in that game where he could have been a little more more selfish. And, you know, I get it. i think I think part of, you know, we've talked a lot about, like, his tactical fit. Can he and Rusnak play together?
01:53:06
Speaker
To me, ah honestly, pretty big part of what was going on earlier in the season was ah him not wanting to be, like, the guy who comes into the new team and then is, like, just trying to take all the shots for himself.
01:53:18
Speaker
He's an unselfish player by nature. He's a pass-first player. He's, like, a point guard that can also average 20 points a game, you know? Did that make sense?
01:53:29
Speaker
He's a pass-first player. And there's been a lot of times this season where he's trying to be like, no, no, no. Like I'm the new guy on the team. You take it, you take it, you score the goal. But then it's like, no, you're good at scoring him.
01:53:43
Speaker
You got to try and score think that's sort of what Smith was getting at there.
01:53:50
Speaker
There was a couple of times in that Austin game. And then I don't even know if the one he, uh,
01:53:56
Speaker
he brought up if this was the one of the ones he brought up, but, uh, he also could have had a goal on, uh, on the, uh, on the run that Ryan can had.
01:54:10
Speaker
So, uh, hopefully, uh, hopefully we see Jesus Ferreira. Uh, like, look for me,
01:54:21
Speaker
I wouldn't say he's like fully, fully broken out yet, but based on what I've seen the last few and MLS games, and especially that that game against Austin was really good. That looked like FC Dallas-Jesus Ferreira. It did. that's like That is what I pictured.
01:54:36
Speaker
That game is what I pictured when they traded for him. So to see him do that was great. But if Ferreira starts playing like that, he's going to be a pretty clear starter on this team. I think so.
01:54:51
Speaker
I think so. I realize I think ah probably higher of them than most Seattle people at this point.
01:55:00
Speaker
Because I've been basing a lot of my evaluation on him, like on track record, not just this season, which is his first season on a new team for the first time in his career.
01:55:11
Speaker
But if he keeps, he has to keep it up. He has to sustain it. But if he keeps playing like that and he keeps producing, there's not going to be a first choice Sounders starting 11 without Asus Ferrer in it. And there shouldn't be.
01:55:22
Speaker
Because that's the type of quality he can bring. So let's see if he can still bring it. Again, not victory lapping. I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait to take my Ferrer victory lap because it's going to feel a lot.
01:55:33
Speaker
It's going to feel a lot sweeter when it's just like undeniable.
01:55:39
Speaker
So I'm waiting.
01:55:42
Speaker
But hopefully he can keep it rolling against Columbus. I think he's probably going to start. And we'll see if he can employ some of the stuff Schmetz was talking about there.
01:55:57
Speaker
And then he was talking to, I think he was talking about Moose a little bit.
01:56:02
Speaker
Sort of just like he went down like the whole kind of depth chart management that he has to do between all the position groups. This is what I this was what i was going to ask Chet. You think it'll be Jordan or Moose starting on on Sunday?
01:56:16
Speaker
I think it's going to be Moose. think they're going keep trying to ease Jordan back into it for now, especially if Moose coming off a game where he had another goal and really just like an all-around good game.
01:56:29
Speaker
I mean, he's going to start Moose, have Moose go 60-70, have Jordan finish the game. But that's going to be interesting because, like, say they start Moose and Moose...
01:56:42
Speaker
Scores another goal.
01:56:46
Speaker
Yeah, I agree, Vamos.
01:56:51
Speaker
But then it's like
01:56:55
Speaker
how long like, so the first time he doesn't score a game, is that when you put Jordan Morris back in as the starter? These are those ah those man management scenarios that coaches have to deal with.
01:57:09
Speaker
keeping guys happy, making sure everyone's playing their role, getting their minutes.
01:57:14
Speaker
I don't necessarily envy it. I don't necessarily envy it.
01:57:22
Speaker
Hard decisions to make.
01:57:28
Speaker
All guys, I'm coming up on two hours.
01:57:32
Speaker
um think I'm going to start wrapping it up here. Maybe a little bit of a
01:57:39
Speaker
shorter one than usual, but, uh, it's been a, it's been a long week. Got the fourth tomorrow. Got a big weekend of MLS.
01:57:50
Speaker
There's a bunch of games tomorrow.
01:57:55
Speaker
And then full slate Saturday. And then, uh, Sunday night soccer, Seattle's going to be on it. Primetime baby. We all know everyone watches, uh,
01:58:09
Speaker
Sunday night soccer presented by continental tire. So it is in all seriousness, it is, it is fun to be like the, uh, the prime time, the showcase, the showcase match. That's, I guess that here, there's, that's one thing.
01:58:26
Speaker
That's one thing we can do before I get out of here. Uh, this is, this is the perks folks. This is the perks that, that are, uh, that come with being on, uh,
01:58:38
Speaker
Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire. You get featured in Matthew Doyle's preview piece where look how much he writes about the goddamn Seattle Sounders this week, folks.
01:58:53
Speaker
I mean, you got players in focus. You got what's at stake. You got Weeby's radar. I haven't even read that yet. i I like did the web production for this whole thing before we had the text for We Be It.
01:59:10
Speaker
Oh, and he's doing the Jesus Ferrer discourse.
01:59:15
Speaker
You got the tactical breakdown.
01:59:20
Speaker
This is it. This is everyone's ah everyone's talking about you got projected lineup graphic. Okay, so here's there are actually a couple things to hit with this. I said I was going to go two hours. i'm going to go a little past.
01:59:33
Speaker
So number one chat. Tell me what you think of this because Doyle has been beating a drum. that we have not really talked about at all. It's occurred to me briefly at different junctures, but I never really started beating the drum. And now we got Doyle beating the drum, but basically, and he says it in this column, you can check it out for yourself.
01:59:55
Speaker
But Doyle is trying to speak this into existence right here. De La Vega on the left. He thinks that might be the key to it all.
02:00:07
Speaker
He didn't like guarantee it, but this is a this is a Doyle theory that De La Vega's struggles. And I don't know if this is based on him playing at Lanus there or if this is just theorizing, but he's saying that De La Vega's struggles could be just because you know they've been playing him inverted
02:00:30
Speaker
on the right wing. Maybe if you just pop him on the left, that'll be what unlocks him.
02:00:38
Speaker
What do you guys think of that?
02:00:41
Speaker
It feels like a vibes-based thing to me, but I'm down to try it. He cut the hair, put him on the left. i bet I bet if you combine the haircut with the positional change, the vibes will change just enough
02:00:59
Speaker
to get him going. um Honestly, at this point, I'm down with it.
02:01:08
Speaker
Maybe that is what it is.
02:01:12
Speaker
Maybe that is what it is.
02:01:19
Speaker
He's got Moose starting. I think this is it. I think this is going to be it.
02:01:27
Speaker
Pedro Alex connection, but also just like where he is
02:01:35
Speaker
his most comfortable, feels the most natural.
02:01:40
Speaker
Now that I think about it, I watched a lot of his Lanus highlights when they signed him, obviously, and I'm pretty sure he was playing over there, at least sometimes. Could be wrong about that. It's something to try. Like, it's good food for thought.
02:01:55
Speaker
Let's see who he's got starting for Columbus.
02:02:00
Speaker
God, their team is good. It's really good. It is funny, though, like ah Russell Rowe, where Cucho used to be, but it, like, still works.
02:02:11
Speaker
That was a lot of his highlights. Okay. That's what I thought.
02:02:16
Speaker
Played on the left against on his deb debut against LHC and was very good. i think I think Doyle might might have cooked on this.
02:02:26
Speaker
I'm annoyed he thought it. mean, i mean ah
02:02:31
Speaker
It's occurred occurred to me, but not i'm the I'm not going to sit here and say it's occurred to me to any meaningful extent. like as a ah It's like his agenda right now. like I never definitely never had an agenda about it.
02:02:42
Speaker
But we're going to, on our next agenda check, actually, this will be in there. This will be in there. We're going to talk about this.
02:02:50
Speaker
Crew are likely going to be running a band of three. Jason Russell Rowe, Daniel Gosdaw, Diego Rossi. ah Not as intimidating on a lineup graphic as it was in the Cucho days, but I'm telling you guys, Jason Russell Rowe, he's dangerous.
02:03:09
Speaker
He's actually pretty good. Diego Rossi's best 11 caliber attacker. And Gosdaw, like ah Caleb and I were talking about it in the opponent preview today, but...
02:03:21
Speaker
He's going to heat up. He's going to heat up.
02:03:26
Speaker
Pedro been injured. Brian doesn't seem to be playing him, and he had the best per 90 stats all this year until Jesus' last match. um i don't I don't think that's the issue right now. I mean, as far as I know.
02:03:41
Speaker
That's why i've been so I've been saying, like, I thought it was kind of weird that he didn't play against PSG.
02:03:48
Speaker
I was accused of wearing a tinfoil hat. I don't think I'm tinfoil hatting. I think that's like, why is your $7 million dollars player not playing against PSG? It's at least ah it's lisa question worth asking.
02:04:01
Speaker
Maybe it does have an innocent answer. not saying it doesn't.
02:04:08
Speaker
But I don't know. I'm going to ask the question.
02:04:16
Speaker
Uh... Yeah, Nagby is still that dude.
02:04:22
Speaker
Diego Rossi does strike fear in my bones. Nagby strikes fear in my bones, but like a different type of fear.
02:04:31
Speaker
They're also really good defensively, and their fullbacks are disgusting.
02:04:37
Speaker
I think Loplinen's the backup, but Farsi's really good.
02:04:46
Speaker
I picked the team I thought would win, yeah. Nico did ask him about it.
02:04:54
Speaker
And Schmetz got really tilted. But it's like...
02:05:01
Speaker
I mean, that question has to be asked.
02:05:09
Speaker
um All right, let's see what Weeby has to say about Jesus for... I hadn't read this yet.
02:05:20
Speaker
How does Jesus Ferreira best fit into the Seattle Sounders group?
02:05:29
Speaker
Open question that. Head coach Brian Schmetzer is still figuring out, and so is Ferreira. Ferreira's FC Dallas history tells us he's the most comfortable and productive as a sort of second forward number 10 with the freedom to find the ball and find the game with runners oriented around him.
02:05:42
Speaker
In Dallas, the team was built around him and the game flowed through him. In Seattle, Ferreira is integrating into an established, successful group. Albert Rusnak is the number 10, full stop. Schmetzer prefers to play with one striker.
02:05:53
Speaker
So where does that leave Ferreira, whose goal-scoring numbers are close to 90 career lows? per ninety career lows Great question. We be welcome to the discourse, um mostly on the wing and still trying to fit in.
02:06:08
Speaker
Ferrer's goals against goal against Austin arriving at the perfect time to slam home. Paul Rothrock service of the far post was a positive sign. 24 year old told me back when SNS rolled through versus Minnesota United, that he was still getting to know his teammates and developing an understanding of their tendencies on the field.
02:06:22
Speaker
Fitting in takes time. And the second half of seasons always seems to be sounders time. Perhaps it will be Ferrer's as well. All right. Well, there you have it. Uh,
02:06:33
Speaker
there's some national punditry acknowledging the Jesus Ferreira discourse. That's a, you know, we've been having the exact same discourse all season, but you know, to be fair to, to we be in the national pundit class, like there's not as much of a reason for them to be specifically plugged into the Jesus Ferreira discourse on a daily basis.
02:06:54
Speaker
Like we all are, but I mean, I think he hit it as well. Like it was a positive sign. So
02:07:06
Speaker
Anyway, there you go. Check out Doyle's ah Sunday Night Soccer previews. Check him out every week. He does that for... yeah He writes that many words for the Sunday Night Soccer game every week, about every game, every team.
02:07:20
Speaker
It's always fun to be one of the teams that ah that that the national pundits are like breaking down. Because like ah seattle you Seattle's not as much in like the... ah
02:07:35
Speaker
the national discourse group as they used to be.
02:07:43
Speaker
There are times where I'm like reading stuff that like national league wide coverage.
02:07:49
Speaker
And I'm like looking for the sounders portion of it. and And I think in, in, in part, that's sort of like a almost complimentary because Seattle is typically just pretty consistent. and
02:08:01
Speaker
You know what to expect. They're going to be in the mix. Doesn't have like the same storyline allure for like the 10th year running.
02:08:11
Speaker
As like teams that are like newer and shinier.
National Spotlight: Seattle Sounders on Sunday Night Soccer
02:08:18
Speaker
But when you're playing on Sunday night soccer presented by Continental Tire.
02:08:27
Speaker
You can't ignore. You get the breakdown. Yeah, solid but not easy to pimp out. All right, on that, I'm going to call it a night here. went 2-10. I went 2-10 for you guys.
02:08:40
Speaker
It's a good shift. um Thank you all, as always, for coming and hanging out on Under the Lights.
02:08:51
Speaker
We've really, ah it's funny, like, we yeah we have like our our usual crews that show up for kind of both kickoff and under the lights. ah But they are kind of distinct crowds in some way some ways as well.
02:09:08
Speaker
And I feel like our under the lights crew is ah is a sick crew. Love hanging hanging out with you guys on these Thursday evenings.
02:09:22
Speaker
Great stuff from Caleb DeNorm of MassiveReport, GoTask, MassiveReport, subs and follows on all platforms. ah If you have not done so yet, I don't know what the like count on this video is.
02:09:34
Speaker
It's not high enough.
02:09:37
Speaker
Pump it up to at least 50, but ah ideally closer to 100.
02:09:44
Speaker
but it's got to be at least 50. like the video uh if you're if you're new here maybe perhaps then you haven't subbed to the channel please sub to the channel and toss us follow on instagram and tick tock um after show may potentially sunday actually i think i think yeah actually i'll i should be able to do one on sunday Because will not be... work the games on Saturday, so I don't have that going on.
02:10:20
Speaker
I'm going to go to the game.
02:10:23
Speaker
But mostly just to hang out. And watch the Seattle Sounders play the Columbus Crew. But so i I'll let you guys know on Blue Sky what it's looking like exact timing wise. But I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to just chat home after the game and lay down a postgame live and take some calls.
02:10:46
Speaker
So keep an eye out for timing on that. And then we'll be back at it like normal next week. We'll have kickoff on Monday with Nico, who's going to have a mic.
02:11:00
Speaker
Got that set up. I know that's exciting. We'll have another pod coming out. And we'll be back here. Right here.
02:11:11
Speaker
At 7.30 for Under the Lights. So the show goes on. But, alright. I'm going to take off on that. Thank you guys again for tuning in. Appreciate y'all. Love you guys. Peace.