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Kickoff: Grading the Seattle Sounders' three-game road trip
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After posting a 1W-1L-1D record over their three-match road swing in Houston, Los Angeles and Portland, we give our takeaways on the team's performance, then look ahead to their return to action in Matchday 15 vs. FC Dallas.
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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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Transcript
Introduction & Weather Commentary
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 real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well it's gonna be a scorcher.
00:00:44
Speaker
Good morning, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff.
Main Topics & Podcast Delays
00:00:50
Speaker
I'm Ari, that's Nico, and we have got an absolutely jam-packed show for you all here this morning.
00:00:56
Speaker
ah We're gonna be talking about the Seattle Sounders 1-1 Derby draw at Portland Timbers. After that, we're gonna be doing a little thought exercise. We're gonna be giving the Seattle Sounders letter grade for their ah three-game road trip that saw them go to Houston, Los Angeles.
00:01:14
Speaker
And Portland. And then after that, we're going to bop around the league a little bit, as we always do talk about some of the other rivalry rivalry week results from around Major League Soccer, some inter Miami, perhaps as they continue their downfall, and then go from there.
00:01:32
Speaker
ah But, Nico, to start it off, ah you guys may have noticed a little bit of ah a late start here this morning. It sounds like there was chaos and anarchy at the Moreno residence. We had a missed school bus. Nico, give us the VAR review. whose Whose fault was it? Did anyone get a yellow card? Are there going to be fines by the disciplinary committee? What what happened, man? What happened?
00:01:54
Speaker
and No fines. that I definitely take full responsibility for the the inconvenience there. My daughter had a... little bit of extra time today to do her hair because apparently it's a special day at school and I allowed it.
00:02:09
Speaker
Everything kind of started setting back five minutes at one time and by time lunch was done, apparently she left a little bit later and it's definitely on me because I was not keeping track of time. So You know, review came back and i am the only person that is responsible for the mid tab. That's on you, man. I mean, the hair thing, I think ah that plays into it, but ah you weren't locked in on the clock and i was the bus driver gets there.
00:02:36
Speaker
Where is she? I'm going to keep going. You know, so happens to the best of us, happened to the best of us but ah appreciate you all bearing with us as we ah weathered that storm here. But we are here now and we got a lot to talk about, Nico.
00:02:50
Speaker
Seattle has played two games since we last recorded, one of which.
Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers Analysis
00:02:54
Speaker
Did not go that well, one of which went a little better. ah But let's start ah Nico in particular with this with this Portland game. We haven't caught up on that at all. One, one draw. Albert Rusnak scores a nice opener.
00:03:08
Speaker
ah But Santiago Moreno gets the equalizer five, six minutes later. And that was all she wrote as far as the scoreboard went. ah How do you size up this result for Seattle? Just my initial take on it was ah just generally 1-1 draw ah in a Cascadia Derby game isn't the worst result in itself. I think you usually take that. Usually the home team is going to feel worse about a draw than the road team.
00:03:36
Speaker
ah But I think the vibes might not be as positive as they could be coming off that result. because of how much of a debacle this LAFC game was. And ah given that debacle, they really, ah I don't know if it's like must win, but they really could have used a win to wash away the bitter taste from that LAFC game.
00:03:57
Speaker
And a draw doesn't really do that, even if it's not the worst result in itself. ah That's how I see it. Do you see it much differently? And what did you think of Seattle's performance in in general in this game?
00:04:10
Speaker
Well, let's start by... Given the Timbers some credit, I had been on record, because as someone who follows the Timbers pretty consistently over the last couple of games, in both in which they were able to have clean sheets, they were clearly trying to mitigate some of the defensive issues they've had all season.
00:04:33
Speaker
They've been a lot more selective on when to push numbers forward. They've been working out of a mid to high block And I just had a feeling that Phil was going to go in here and try to make things not easy for Seattle.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I think that that's what happened. I thought that they did a great job at containing Ryan Kent, not allowing him to have a lot of space on when where to run through.
00:05:01
Speaker
I feel like they did a good job at keeping Wazowski from getting to certain positions where he's had a lot of success. ah in the last six games that he's been as good as he's been.
00:05:15
Speaker
so because of the game plan, because of the place where you played Providence Park being a difficult venue to to play at, I feel like Seattle, they did a solid job.
00:05:28
Speaker
ah Did they finish off? Could I say that they could have done better? Absolutely. I feel like Brian Smetzer was spot on when he said that it was...
00:05:39
Speaker
points missing. but They dropped some points. They were the better team over the 90 minutes. Perhaps they had the most amount of chances, not the best chances, but they had the most amount of chances.
00:05:52
Speaker
I thought that they were able to, at the very least, create opportunities offensively. And more importantly, they kept a very good offensive Timbers team almost at bay.
00:06:09
Speaker
ah Anthony was ineffective. Santiago Moreno, aside from the goal, was pretty ineffective. Da Costa, I thought he was good. But regardless of, I think Seattle did a great job defensively to hold them back.
00:06:22
Speaker
My man of the match was Christian Roldan with Yemar maybe a close second. But I thought that they did a lot of things right to keep the Timbers from getting forward when they decided to get forward.
00:06:36
Speaker
In conclusion, I think that Seattle got a solid point that they did miss an opportunity to win this game because I thought that they had everything to win this game even before the game.
00:06:50
Speaker
I thought that they were the more balanced team. I thought that they were the team in better form. And please entertain this next minute of rant for me. Oh, yes. Please go for it.
Media Perspectives on Seattle Sounders
00:07:02
Speaker
If there's something that really bothers me to see out there when it comes to media and things like that is hyperbolic takes. And in the midweek game where there was a heavily rotated Sounders team,
00:07:17
Speaker
all of a sudden we went from, or people decided that the Sounders went from being a team that was progressing, that was getting better, that was finding their identity, that were clearly getting better in terms of their principles, that were finding guys, to all of a sudden this is the worst team ever. And we just surrendered the white flag and all of this crazyness in the game that it was clearly, regardless of the position and the team that you were going to play, you were going to have to rotate.
00:07:47
Speaker
So in this one, there was a bunch of people talking about how they were going to get smashed by Portland Timbers because the Timbers were the better team. And you you don't want to give up a game midweek and then go to a rivalry game.
00:07:59
Speaker
So all of those things are, for me, something that you and I and Lopez Courches, I heard the post-game show, just absolutely perfect, right? Right information, right?
00:08:12
Speaker
giving the audience a take on things, but with knowledge of what's really going on. So I appreciate you. And of all of our audience, if you find yourself ever with the need of information for a need to go find takes on the Seattle Sounders, go to the right places and don't allow these other, you know, guys and click baiters and all that stuff just,
00:08:41
Speaker
ruin your perception of things. So for me, this one, I think the Seattle Sounders are where they should be. um And we'll talk about where we grade them in terms of these three grade road trips that they've been on.
00:08:56
Speaker
ah But overall, man, Seattle could have done better, but I'll take the point. I think two things can be true. Number one, ah that the the midweek at l LAFC, the likelihood of taking an L there was always pretty high considering the circumstances of the schedule and the rotation and all that.
00:09:18
Speaker
ah But that also, they ah that getting 4-0'd is never fun. And ah it is absolutely fair to point out that ah with the depth of this roster being what it is, the 11 that they rolled out out at LA shouldn't have got 4-0. I do think that game was more competitive than 4-0, which anytime you say that when you get 4-0, it ah doesn't really get you that far.
00:09:46
Speaker
But ah that game was 1-0 at halftime. If you told me that going into that game with that lineup, given what the schedule is, you're in striking distance to take the to still take at least a point there. ah And even with it being 2-0 into the second half, ah you're not totally out of it at that point. Then it gets away from you late, probably looks worse than it actually was.
00:10:08
Speaker
ah But at the end of the day, a 4-0 is 4-0. this team shouldn't be getting four-0'd even if they rotated. So ah even even if ah I'm not tilted at all that they dropped the game, I definitely understand why there was ah some negative blowback after that result.
00:10:28
Speaker
But I mean, I agree with you. I think like, In MLS circumstances put you up against it like that sometimes it's about how you handle it in the ah the midweek game was a debacle there's no question about it, but I think coming out of that game the ah the question became how do you bounce back you've got a Darby game coming right up biggest game of the season, always one of the biggest if not the biggest games of the regular season.
00:10:54
Speaker
And they they got a result that I think most times is acceptable. It just doesn't feel super great when you really, like I said, you really could have used the W just to get the psychological morale back on track. Oh, yeah.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, this team was flying before the LAFC game. It really, it took the wind out of the proverbial sales to lose that game that badly, but they had won four out of five. They were scoring in scoring goals for fun.
00:11:21
Speaker
ah The offense looked great. I thought the chance generation over that four Oh, and one stretch was about as good as I've seen from a Sounders team in a while. All that stuff is still true despite what happened ah at LAFC, but yeah,
00:11:33
Speaker
let's ah Let's get into what I made the ah title of this stream today, Nico, which is grading the Seattle Sounders three-game road trip. ah We talked a lot before this road trip about what our expectations and hopes should be as far as performance and point haul.
00:11:48
Speaker
And I think you got a a mixed bag. in terms of both of those things they come out of it one one and one which uh we were talking about all the different records that they could take off like with three oh and oh being the uh the apex optimum of uh of what we could potentially see and then i was hoping for a little two oh and one they end up at one one and one which uh isn't Amazing, but it's also not terrible.
00:12:16
Speaker
ah So I figured, Nico, we could do a little exercise where we just give the Seattle Sounders a letter grade based on their performance over this three-game road trip and how they handled ah admittedly adverse part of the schedule with a a lot of a lot
Seattle Sounders' Road Trip Evaluation
00:12:33
Speaker
of rotation. Fixture congestion can be tough.
00:12:35
Speaker
But the best teams in this league know how to get through stretches like that and come out on the other side unscathed. I wouldn't say they came out of this unscathed because of what happened at LAFC, but they do come out of it with taking points in two out of the three games. So let's let's give a letter grade for these three games at LAFC.
00:12:52
Speaker
Houston, LAFC, and Portland. ah And I'll start with what I landed on, which is over these three games, I would give it a yeah B minus.
00:13:04
Speaker
B minus is what I landed on, and I'll explain how I landed on that, which is ah kind of tried to break it up into how I would grade them individually in each of these games. And I think you have the definition of a mixed bag.
00:13:18
Speaker
ah The Houston game, I don't really see how you could give anything other than an A+. plus You can't do it up for an MLS road game any better than that. You score three goals, ah and the offense, more more than the goals that you scored, ah the offense ran...
00:13:34
Speaker
Excellent for for most of that game. You had the highlight reel run from Ryan Kent. You had Moose scoring again. ah and really, anytime you take three points on the road, it's a great, fantastic result.
00:13:48
Speaker
But anytime you can do that and combine it with a performance where you look like the home team, that's an A+. that one was great. And I think that's honestly... makes it a little frustrating that it went off the rails midweek because it started so well.
00:14:01
Speaker
They put themselves in great position to be able to get two wins out of this three game stretch. Uh, but just looking at that game in isolation, that one's an a plus, then you get to the LAFC game. I mean, I don't know.
00:14:12
Speaker
You can give it a D you can give it an F whatever it's, it went off the rails. It was, it was not good. You can question the, uh, tactical setup as well. Uh, Whatever the case may be, that one ah that one was not good.
00:14:26
Speaker
So they're not they don't get a good grade for that one. This Timbers game is a little more interesting in and debatable, though. And I was trying to ah give my grade on this one ah just on this game itself and not take into account like the vibe deterioration that happened after the LAFC game. And look, I really think, you know, I think some people think that ah any game that you don't win by four goals is just an automatic F. These Derby games are intense.
00:14:53
Speaker
The degree of difficulty on them as the road team is very high. And you're not always going to win every single one of these. And there's a reason why a draw for the road team in these games is typically considered successful.
00:15:08
Speaker
So result wise, think I would give it a B. You get an A for that or an A plus if you win it. basically no matter what the performance was, I think. If you win it, you get ah you get an A. But if you if you take a hard-fought 1-1, for me, that's a B. So I think in the totality of that, I see that as a B. But I threw the minus in there just because of how much the LAFC game went off the rails at the end.
00:15:36
Speaker
Look, if they had ah lost that game in a more competitive fashion, like a 1-0 or a 2-1 or something, ah think I would be on a solid B for the road trip as a whole. But just because I don't like getting on our postgame shows after 4-0 and having to deal with that discourse, so I threw the minus in there because of that.
00:15:54
Speaker
ah But overall, ah that's what I landed on. B-minus for this three-game road trip, which is not a it's not incredible, but it's not a disaster. It's not an embarrassment to the ah the club and the sport, as some may have characterized.
00:16:09
Speaker
So that's how I landed on B-minus. Nico, how do you size up this ah this road trip? What would you grade him out with? ah Yeah, I would say that for me, overall, it's a C+.
00:16:21
Speaker
And the reason why I say that is because when I looked at this road trip, I said that the bare minimum of these three games should be four points. The bare minimum, like that's the the average of what you should be able to do is is that. If you get beyond that, then it's better. If you get below that, then you obviously aren't doing your job.
00:16:40
Speaker
And I thought that they handled it well to start off, get you three points, assured the three points that you are going to get out of these three game stretch. Go to Houston with your very best team, get and assure yourself three points.
00:16:55
Speaker
The way that game played out had certain things there that that you could you know pick at and and say, you know, being an up 10 man, Houston is, whatever, is still on the road.
00:17:08
Speaker
ah For me, that was a ah good performance. That was an A performance for me as well. When you go to LAFC, you got to fail them, right? I mean, you can lose a game four zero regardless of the last two goals coming in after the 80th minute and pass them. You can't get a passing grade for that.
00:17:25
Speaker
No. um I will say that, of course, Because of the the result, I think that there were a lot of assumptions made about certain players. And for me, Bryant's Mets are needed to see certain players play a competitive game, a difficult game and a difficult venue to have a better assessment moving forward.
00:17:54
Speaker
and So I thought that there were good things that still don't get you to a passing grade, but I thought that for me, it was necessary for you to see a guy like Osasa start a game.
00:18:05
Speaker
It was necessary for you to see a guy like Kalani play again, play in the fullback position as he did in the second half. I think that there were just things that you needed to see. and And I think Brian was able to, at the very least, look at some things for the future.
00:18:22
Speaker
Then you go to this one. I think, and and I have no issue saying that, I thought that the team could have done better.
Player Performances: Kent & Ferreira
00:18:29
Speaker
and therefore, for me, I probably hit this as a B.
00:18:33
Speaker
ah because of the starting set. I was a little bit shocked not to see Pedro De La Vega start this game alongside Ryan Kent. I think that there was a missed opportunity to exploit some of the spaces that Portland did give at times, whenever they would push their lines a little bit higher, when Mosquera would push forward.
00:18:54
Speaker
I mean, there were moments and times where I felt like ah whether it was Bravo or whether it was Mosquera, there was space to be had and Seattle wasn't able to do it. Jesus Ferreira for everything he does well is not necessarily stretching out a defense and being a guy that is going to make you the defend, that's going to pin back your fullback, that's going to go at you consistently.
00:19:18
Speaker
And another thing that I thought was missing, that if you were not going to start Pedro for whatever reason, you decided not. It should have been Rothrock that played that position. And i know that Paul, especially now, because we're in an era that if we're talking about how good Ryan Kent has been and the talent he has, we got a completely shit on Paul Rothrock for being a guy that is not a European style player and all these things.
00:19:44
Speaker
But the reality is that if you have any sense of the game, there's a lot of things that Paul Rothrock does that are important for this sort of matchup. One, and one that I thought was missing overall was the temperament, the character. that the character that There's a certain way that you go into a derby that I felt like there wasn't nobody really there to set that bar.
00:20:06
Speaker
And then two is that he's going to make that fullback or wingback work. Regardless of how good or bad or sharp or not sharp Rothrock is, his high volume of play, his high rate, that engine that he has is going to create a lot of issues for that side of the defense. So when you were going into a game that perhaps ah Phil Neville was going to be a little bit more conservative, it would have been nice to have a guy that was going to wear down that side of the
00:20:40
Speaker
Offense in that sort of way. And that goes to Ferreira having another lackluster performance. I mean, I wanted to see more. i wanted him to be more involved, more influential.
00:20:54
Speaker
ah It's clear that it's fair to criticize the lack of influence he's had on the attacking end. And do we go back to, is it positional? Is it...
00:21:06
Speaker
a fitness thing. You know, he was coming in from a game, a week where he wasn't full on practice. He was kind of on and off. Then he ended up having a couple of back-to-back trainings where he was full in training. So that's why he obviously gets to start.
00:21:21
Speaker
But maybe there was a minute restriction ah because later you ended up taking him off and play with Paul Rothrock as a ah striker, which It's not something that I condone. It's not something that I like.
00:21:34
Speaker
It's not something that I think should keep being an option. So with all of those things put into place, I feel like Maybe I'll stick with a B minus for that particular game.
00:21:45
Speaker
um But overall, I would say it's a C plus sort of situation. Just a little bit better at the end of it, just because you could have had this game, regardless of maybe not having your best 11 forward to start off that game.
00:21:59
Speaker
You still gave yourself a chance. You still were better than Portland. Statistically, my eye test, by just the way Phil Neville handled the last 10 minutes of that game. He's kind of playing for a draw.
00:22:11
Speaker
He's happy with the draw. And that for me, and that perfect, and that for me, although Brian also said that there's no moral victories, I feel like moving forward, it makes you think, hey, we're on the right path.
00:22:24
Speaker
We're making progress. Yeah, you hit on some ah lineup and substitution stuff that I want to dig into a little more. ah Before we get into that, Bad Sequels, YouTube member for three months, Ari Niko, Lowkey, 20 today. Yeah, we planned that.
00:22:37
Speaker
ah Thanks for the support, Bad Sequels. Appreciate you. And Derek Richards coming in with the $4 super stuff. Oh, yeah. Derek. You are a maniac as always. Love you man. ah But yeah, let's, ah let's talk about this ah starting 11 and substitution stuff a little more. Brendan brings it up in chat.
00:22:54
Speaker
I questioned the move at a left mid and right mid. I think Kent Jesus wasn't very effective. De La Vega is more dynamic than Ferrer. Love Georgie, but I don't think he and De La Vega vibe very well.
00:23:05
Speaker
ah Yeah. So I think the, the eyebrows that were raised when this starting 11 came out was ah I really, ah if you would I don't think I did a predicted starting 11. I don't usually like do stuff like that. But if you had a asked me to predict my starting 11, even taking into account the lineup that they ran LAFC, I would not have called the Rusnak-Ferrera duo getting the start in the ah Portland game just because there is not a ah
00:23:36
Speaker
track record of that ah looking super hot this season. ah We've talked a lot about kind of the awkward tactical fit between those two players. ah And so i and I've been saying, I think they still do need to try and figure out a way to run it with those two guys playing together.
00:23:55
Speaker
This would not have been the game where I necessarily, where I personally necessarily try to do that. ah But I also, my reaction when I saw that it was Ferreira starting was like, okay, like this is a, ah You need this player to get going. No better, I guess, a place for it than a Derby. Let's see what he can do today.
00:24:14
Speaker
And, ah you know... Individually, i didn't think it looked much different than it has at times this season when they ran that setup. But I will say if there if there was a positive takeaway from that 11's performance, I thought the attacking performance in the first half and really throughout the game, but I thought the attacking performance in the first half ah was okay. They generated some good looks in transition.
00:24:41
Speaker
I think what you were saying about taking advantage of the space, it was unfortunate because I thought they had some good-looking counters and sequences of play and build-up, taking advantage of that space when Portland... You knew Portland was going to be throwing numbers forward and really pushing for that first goal. You were always going to have to absorb that pressure and ideally generate some looks at the counter And I thought they did an okay job of doing that with Ferreira and Rusnak both out there. And I felt like they were not stepping on each other's space as much as they have been in the in previous matches. So when I'm looking at how the offense functioned as a whole, I thought it was all right. But ah again, yeah, you need –
00:25:19
Speaker
ah You need Ferreira to be more influential throughout, ah throughout the first half than he was. And I think with that in mind, I totally agree. This was, this is like a perfect Roth rock game.
00:25:33
Speaker
You could see it when he actually got in the game. ah Like you mentioned, just the the kind of edge that he brings the swagger, the chippiness, all of that stuff is tailor made for Derby game like this.
00:25:45
Speaker
And yeah, i My favorite setup for this team right now, I think, is the Kent and Rothrock duo like playing together. And so I guess that's what i would have liked to have seen.
00:25:59
Speaker
ah But then, yeah, when we're talking about the substitutions and sort of like Rothrock and Georgie and everyone's role tactically when they came on, yeah, Schmetzer said that it was sort of – like a Rothrock false nine thing. Didn't he, didn't he say that at the, at the presser?
00:26:16
Speaker
And it felt the word false false nine. He just said that the reason why he didn't bring in Osas is because Rothrock just has more experience. And and that's a fair assessment.
00:26:27
Speaker
And again, this goes back to Wednesday's game where now Brian has a better idea of what Osas can provide right now. And yeah,
00:26:39
Speaker
You got to give him the benefit of the doubt where he thought, look, i just told saw Osase and what I'm going to get out of him right now is not what need. And he ended up just going with Rothrock. I mean, that obviously it also talks about the lack of depth that there currently is.
00:26:55
Speaker
at that striking position, something that I've been saying consistently, and that that's the reason why you go there. But again, not not necessarily something that I think was going to change the game because it was late in the game. I mean, it was like you got maybe, I think, 10 minutes, if that, out of Paul Rothrock's striker.
00:27:14
Speaker
And so, you know, it was just something that I feel like he just changed. He wanted to use, and he wanted to attack the the wide areas, and that's why you bring in Georgie. ah Tire legs makes sense ah But not having that Striker that you can trust I think is also a factor Of why you ended up with just Rothrock playing up there Seattle did get a very good goal in this game And i think honestly Something that makes the result ah Adds to a little bit of the frustration Is that ah they actually put themselves In really good position to win this game Like you mentioned ah They score the first goal
00:27:53
Speaker
And then even even at the end of the game, to me, it really looked like Seattle was the more likely team to score at the in the last like five, ten minutes of that game than Portland. They were on top of them for that last period of the game, knocking the ball around in the final third. They had a couple good looks. De La Vega had the look, right? Gavin Brothran gets one that...
00:28:16
Speaker
If he passes to Alvaro Rosnick, it's more than likely a goal. But that goes again to Rothrock's effort and willingness and ability to get to prime assist zones.
00:28:30
Speaker
And Going back to my huge ah pet peeve of 2025 is the hyperbolic takes and the overreactions that we constantly get.
00:28:41
Speaker
it's It's funny how Rankin went from being the most talented player I've ever seen with the Sounders jersey to maybe he's not that good. ah Once again, it's an overreaction to absolutely everything. Look, we knew moving forward that Ryan Kent still had some things to gather, right? I mean, we had seen him come in be a guy that was unbelievable off the bench.
00:29:06
Speaker
And you know that he has the talent, you know how good he is on the ball. But when you start a game and you play 90 minutes, there's a lot of things that kind of move forward that you kind of got to get used to. I thought defensively, he needs to be a little bit better.
00:29:18
Speaker
That goal against ah the equalizer by Santiago Moreno. He's not tracking back enough. He's not really marking anyone up. And Kim Kihie ends up having to push on the wide side to get the Costa.
00:29:30
Speaker
ah There was a lot of things that I felt like Ryan could have done a little bit better. ah he had difficulties getting on the ball. ah There's one chance in the first half that He should be able to bring that ball down, leading the ball in front of him and get an opportunity. But he kind of gets stuck in his foot. He brings it back.
00:29:49
Speaker
He makes a pass to the left side to Musovsky, I think, create an opportunity. So the chances were there. ah But I feel like Ryan Kent is still trying to get the legs from under him.
00:30:00
Speaker
But those hyperbole takes of... he He's awful. He's great. he's one I mean, there's I remember doing radio for 10 years in Spanish lets you be very mindful of where your analysis is.
00:30:16
Speaker
And I remember John Rojas, one of the guys that I learned a whole bunch of ah in radio would say, your your analysis has to be have enough foundation that it doesn't depend on a result week to week. And this is what I see from people and and and everyone when it comes to, you beat Nashville 3-0, Sounders are amazing.
00:30:37
Speaker
Then you have a bad game, they're awful. And then you beat St. Louis four by four goals, they're amazing again. that There is a a middle ground of this team is where it should be right now.
00:30:47
Speaker
It could be better in a lot of ways. But same thing with Ryan Kent, I think that there's still some things that he's got to get through and I still got to see. ah But he, in my opinion, is still not at 100% yet.
00:30:59
Speaker
He was out of the game for a long time, out of competitive minutes. And I think once he gets to that top form, he's going to be a lot better than he was in this game against the Timbers.
00:31:10
Speaker
It is something that I've noticed more and more the longer I'm in this podcasting and YouTube and game. ah um every Every take is ah like the most the most recent result proves every take or agenda that people have.
00:31:29
Speaker
So any result that's not fantastic and they win by multiple goals proves every negative agenda that people have about ah about every player. so ah Yeah, including depth. Let me just hit that one foot.
00:31:43
Speaker
Everybody was so frustrated with the Wednesday game because of depth. And depth can be objective depending on what you think depth is. If you think depth is having an entire B team that can play just as good or close to as good as your A team, then you are living in La La Land, my friend. Unless you're the Vancouver Whitecaps, apparently.
00:32:02
Speaker
But most MLS clubs... No, but but but even the Whitecaps... Yeah, actually, day zero-zeroed. Day zero-zeroed. there's No, and for that that that... I forget what game they they ended up ah winning, and they didn't put brown-white. They had a whole bunch of people off.
00:32:17
Speaker
But, yes, I mean, of course, there's ways to move around your... ah your your team around, but i guarantee you that those teams are able to not get and not be as effective as they typically are.
00:32:31
Speaker
And maybe the circumstances are different against the team that's in front of you. Because look, as much as that game was awful by the Sounders, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it was bad on Wednesday in terms of the execution.
00:32:44
Speaker
It was almost a 1-1 game if Pedro Lliga gets that header that hit the top of the post. Maybe that change was coming a little bit. They were able to create some chances. And again, it's not It's not 3-0 to the 88th minute. So it it wasn't as clear cut as it should have been.
00:33:01
Speaker
But again, it just goes back to... me saying that the depth of this team, what that means is just you have enough talent in your roster, very good, more than you've ever had as a sandwich team, that if De La Vega gets hurt.
00:33:18
Speaker
You have somebody that could potentially replace that player without having a huge drop. Same thing goes for um if Rustag was to get hurt, if Gamera was to get hurt, if certain players, that that's what depth we've been praising.
00:33:33
Speaker
And I think that's still true. It remains true. What is not going to be true is that you're going to get a team of Eight new players that haven't really played together, that are playing at LAFC, and they're not going to have issues in just simple connecting, simple understanding of the game, communication issues. Everything you saw going wrong on Wednesday at times happens when you have a brand new team playing together that hasn't been playing consistent community events.
00:33:56
Speaker
That's all. Rico points out it was Kent's first three-game road trip with a ton of travel miles. And ah yeah, I think you could ah you could tell. You could tell. And in fact, Lobbing Scorchers was actually able to catch up with Ryan Kent after the game in the locker room. oh Noah and Colton got a couple minutes with him. And i haven't seen, i actually haven't seen the footage we got yet.
00:34:21
Speaker
But they were, they it was he said he was like, I've never done that before. It was his first experience with an MLS road trip like that. It's just not something that you have to do in the Scottish Premiership. It's not.
00:34:37
Speaker
The Scottish Premiership, you are driving 24 miles on the bus to get to your next game. You don't have to fly. the distance that they had to fly to Houston, then go to LA, then go to Portland.
00:34:48
Speaker
And, uh, he, he, he freely admitted, he was like, yeah, my, like physically, i That was demanding, and i by the end of it, I just wasn't but at my full capacity.
00:35:01
Speaker
You could tell it was not the greatest Ryan Kent game. I'm not going to let it diminish my Ryan Kent high one bit. i see i I still think that ah some of the upside that we've seen from him is as high as – Any player I've seen come into this team in years, ah just in terms of what he can do when he's at full capacity.
00:35:22
Speaker
ah But I think he would ah he would also admit that this wasn't his greatest game. There was a couple of things. i Well, it felt like at the beginning of the game, he was like almost too juiced. He was trying to do too much.
00:35:33
Speaker
It felt like he was doing the ah the 2025 Denny Bawanga where. uh when he got the ball out wide and uh the timbies they clearly watched their film they were not going to let number 77 uh win that game single-handedly for seattle and they would send two three guys sometimes out there when he got the ball out wide and you know in that situation when you got when you're getting double teamed and in a couple cases triple teamed uh i think you should be looking at who is open and he was just I'm all eyes ahead. I'm going to beat all three of these guys by myself.
00:36:07
Speaker
And he got dispossessed like four five times. So ah it wasn't as, ah as like effective on a touch to touch basis.
00:36:17
Speaker
Like that's the crazy thing about like what we saw in the, in the St. Louis game and and a other couple moments or even the Houston game, there were just these individual moments where he was just taking over.
00:36:28
Speaker
Wasn't able to do that in this game. But again, I'll give benefit of the doubt there. His first time with a travel schedule that crazy, and I just think we've seen such great stuff from him at times before this game that ah I still lend credence to that, even though he wasn't as effective in this game.
00:36:47
Speaker
And the Timbers, they they did a good job on him in particular, ah but they were they did leave themselves vulnerable in ah in a a lot of different spots in this game in terms of – ah leaving a lot of space for Seattle to attack, like when they would go forward and lose the ball. And they had some bad giveaways, ah but let's, ah let's just talk about Seattle's goal. That's a nice little positive.
00:37:09
Speaker
That was a positive in this game.
Sounders' Tactical Execution & Key Players
00:37:11
Speaker
Great team goal. ah That pass from Christian rolled on might be like dime of the season from a Seattle sounder player. He was fantastic in this game.
00:37:20
Speaker
yeah All winning continues to be phenomenal. and just like the the the energy effort and work rate, but also just what he brings on both sides of the ball. You saw it all in this game.
00:37:30
Speaker
And on this goal, ah the pass that he makes to spring Moose is a world-class dime. And then you have a Moose assist on this goal. So Moose gets on the on the stat sheet.
00:37:42
Speaker
Again, great hold-up play for Moose there to lay it off to Rusnak. And then let's give Albert Rusnak his flowers. That's an excellent finish. ah That is a DP goal right there.
00:37:53
Speaker
It counts because it's a rivalry game against a Timbers team that is good on the road. You can't even poke holes in that one. It's a good goal. ah And really, I thought, so we have – Anytime Rusnak does something good, we get Brigade in ah in our chat doing their mental gymnastics to, like, figure out why it doesn't count. You could actually see it happening in real time where they were like, all right, ah well, ah yeah, he scored the goal.
00:38:19
Speaker
But ah after that, they didn't score another goal. So he actually is still bad. And ah we're actually still right about ah about him. ah But, like, the thing is... ah Even outside the goal, I thought Rusnak, he had just had some excellent sequences of play. There was multiple times where ah he got the ball in space from the midfield, and just like the the first touch and the turns, head up, spring the counter going forward. He's really good at that.
00:38:48
Speaker
ah And so he had a couple like that. And then at the end of the game, Nico, he makes a slide tackle, lays his body on the line. Beautiful. To cut that ball. He looked like Christian Roldan.
00:38:59
Speaker
Looked like Christian Roldan on that play. That could have been a game-saving play. We don't know. It was going to be a dangerous counter. And he laid his body on the line out there, slid-tackled it in there. So I want to props Albert Rusnak, not just for an excellent goal, ah but for an all-around game that I thought was ah was good.
00:39:17
Speaker
was good. That's ah you you need your DPs to score goals like that. Right. And that was a, that was a great finish. So Nico, what did you, what did you see on, ah on that goal?
00:39:28
Speaker
It's great awareness by k Christian Roldan, a fantastic pass with the right pace um credit to the, Moose for getting Miller on the foot race for positioning his body correctly.
00:39:43
Speaker
And then the awareness of understanding where Albert was and not one going down easy and looking for just a foul. ah Two, maybe doing a little bit too much and holding that ball where there was no need for. it um And then three, Albert Rusnak being Albert Rusnak. I mean, this is a shot that he has in the back.
00:40:06
Speaker
And he does tries pretty consistently at times, maybe a little bit too much. He likes to place his shots rather than full on, just hit him with force, with strength. And he he does it perfectly. He gets the ball.
00:40:19
Speaker
He does the entire body fake to make Kropot think that he's going to the far post. And then he ends up hitting it to the near post.
00:40:32
Speaker
And it was just perfect. Clearly he had to be maybe a little bit of um luck ah for that ball to go through the legs of Finn the way he did.
00:40:43
Speaker
But nonetheless, up. It made it cooler that he megged the guy. He made it even better. It made it even cooler. But what I'm saying is that this is not a coincidence. This is something that he practices. This something that he has on his bag.
00:40:55
Speaker
Thought that it was a great goal from start to finish. Credit to all three of those guys for the the way they handled it. And I'm with you. Albert Rosnack, beyond the goal, I thought that he was finding the right spaces. I thought he was dangerous.
00:41:09
Speaker
He was positive on the ball. He was good in his passing. and Another great performance from Alvaro Rosna, who does get a lot of heat. And ah if anything, to me, he's shown that getting re-signed as a DP,
00:41:23
Speaker
was worth Six goals, three assists so far for Albert Rusnak so far this season, while also missing time with injury. And I think that I really like the chemistry and interplay that he's shown when he's played with the Ryan Kent so far. It's already looked miles better than it has ah with Ferreira. And ah I really think that Rusnak getting that type of quality out wide him playing with a player like that.
00:41:53
Speaker
He could end up with a ah pretty crooked stat line this year. he had a good one last year, 10 and 16. That's a, that's great. That's excellent production. Uh, even more than that, if you do all comps and, uh,
00:42:06
Speaker
with him being at six and three so far this year, it feels like he's picked up where he's left off purely production wise. You can debate the performance if you want. Uh, but I think when you're talking about a DP number 10, at least for me, the stat sheet is just the first place I go because, you know, you can, you can play as, uh,
00:42:24
Speaker
as well as you want but if the uh if the production's not there that's the first thing that you need to see he's doing that right now he did it again in this game so uh that was good that was encouraging again moose gets the assist uh but uh i guess nico uh where'd uh where'd you want to go from here did you have any uh other takes on the lineups or the performance or the road trip as a whole Yeah, i thought I wanted to praise Alex Rodham for another strong performance, especially defensively. it is not easy to handle Anthony and Bravo on that side, and he did that extremely well.
00:43:03
Speaker
I thought that he, the entirety of the game, he was poised. I thought that he was smart, ah very intelligent on understanding where he needed to be. So that one I wanted to go ahead and put out there.
00:43:16
Speaker
and I think Kim and Yamar had a very good game. Maybe a couple of issues getting out of the back, not as crisp as maybe it could be. But when he came to all around defending, thought that Yamar put Mora in a little heat chain and just put him on his pocket. I mean, he just had him the entire of the game.
00:43:38
Speaker
It's not easy to handle a guy like Mora. Even on the goal, you could see where Santiago Mourinho hits. Jamar is on Mora like a bat. I mean, um he's just on him.
00:43:51
Speaker
ah So all around, I thought Jamar had a very good game. He's someone that I feel like needs to continue to be very good for the Sounders to continue to progress um beyond that man uh i think that's that's about everything i had on the uh on the negative side i would say uh like when you get the first goal in that uh like at that part of the first half uh your next task absolutely becomes getting to halftime with the lead and
00:44:23
Speaker
the most dangerous period of time after you score the first goal is that like 10 to 15 minute period where, especially when you're on the road and the home team's like, oh shit, like we just gave one up. We really got to, ah we really got to get one back now.
00:44:37
Speaker
You got to be able to absorb that and get that game to halftime at one zero. And if they could have done that, ah you know, who knows what would have happened if, if Portland was still chasing the game in the second half, maybe they still get the equalizer, but to give it up,
00:44:53
Speaker
six minutes, five, six minutes after you get the first goal. Uh, that's frustrating because you knew that that part of the game is where you were going to have to fend off an onslaught.
00:45:04
Speaker
And, uh, they weren't quite able to do that. And, uh, you know, who knows if they are, if they were able to withstand that and get that game to halftime one zero, they definitely would have had a better chance at winning the game.
00:45:16
Speaker
But, uh, I don't know. Do you think there was anything that they could have done differently to, ah to prevent that equalizer, manage the game state better. So they didn't let the Moreno goal was the best, the highest quality chance that either team had all game.
00:45:30
Speaker
i agree. No, I think that they they could have done a little bit. They could have done a lot better when he came to long spells of possession. I think that's one thing that ah they needed to do a ah lot more, especially right after that goal. ah make the Take that air out of the stadium specifically that you can do once you have a lead and you're able to hold a lot of possession.
00:45:52
Speaker
I would have liked that to be a little bit better. I thought that That's another thing that I felt like brian didn't Ryan Kent didn't do too well in this game. He was very rushed. yeah He wanted to get forward so quickly.
00:46:05
Speaker
And he wanted to do so many things with the ball. A lot of those times he was dispossessed. Maybe you just are OK by just dropping the ball. keep in possession, you restart at the back, you find another way to go in But there's one time that he's on top of the 18 and I'm not sure what he's trying to do oh with a couple of scissors and then the ball kind of just gets away from him and he gets dispossessed.
00:46:27
Speaker
That is one time where I could be like, okay, I'm going to drop it with a whole possession. thought thought that that's what the team could have done better overall. Also, again, a lot more of that tracking back.
00:46:39
Speaker
If you look back at that goal, Look at what Ryan Kent is at the top of the box. He's marking absolutely nobody. And again, I don't want to, I'm not, I'm not trying to dog on him or say, you know what, he's an awful player. That's not what I'm saying.
00:46:51
Speaker
I'm saying that that's what could have been done better. there's a lot more of that one-on-one defending, better communication, ah and you take away that overload on that side that results in the Santiago Moreno goal. I do have one more thing that I had on my notes that I'm glad I looked at.
00:47:08
Speaker
Don't know what happened. I know that it's not an injury, but the late scratch for Joe Pablo was odd. um They called it a late scratch on the broadcast.
00:47:22
Speaker
The only reason why he did not travel. That's why, ah or at least he doesn't look like he was at the stadium. So, My guess is that he didn't travel, but it's I know it's not injury related.
00:47:35
Speaker
ah So yeah, people were asking me, why did JP not make the 18? I'm not quite sure. That's something that we'll look into and we'll ask Brian tomorrow. But I thought that it was a little bit odd. Again, in the broadcast, they call it a late scratch, but I know that he wasn't in the stadium.
00:47:52
Speaker
So I'm not sure why that reason of that move was. my My read on that was, or at least my assumption, was that ah they started him at LAFC. Christian didn't travel for that game.
00:48:07
Speaker
yeah And he perhaps emptied the tank in that game and they weren't going to play him in this game, so just don't bring him. But... There could be something more to it. I guess we'll we'll find out this week. I know ah ah know you're going to ask Schmetz about it.
00:48:22
Speaker
Let's hit a couple things from chat here as we keep it pushing. Jerome says, something I've noticed with our most talented players is when they have the ball, they tend to try the most audacious thing. I think Schmetz should remind them to keep it simple and build with the team. I think that is... ah I think you did see some of that in this game. I think if we're talking about Ryan Kent's ah performance in particular, i think there was, there was some of that again, especially in the first half at the start of the game, when you could tell he was just super jacked up, uh,
00:48:52
Speaker
Like I said, it felt like he was trying to do too much. Like when you got two to three guys running at you, that means someone else is open somewhere, you know? So there, I think his decision-making in a couple of those moments could have been a little bit better where they they were throwing numbers at him.
00:49:08
Speaker
out wide there. And I think that's a situation where, yeah, you keep it simple. You recycle it, find anyone and then try and move the ball around to where, cause they're unbalanced.
00:49:19
Speaker
That's the thing about the double and triple team. And hopefully I hope as more teams but start to try to do that to Ryan Kent, they figure out how to take advantage of that a little more because yeah, you're you're perhaps taking that one player's opportunity out of the game, but you are unbalancing yourself when you do that. Think of, you know,
00:49:37
Speaker
ah talking about it live right now feel like they uh could have taken advantage of that a little bit more even though i felt like they uh i liked how they i liked how the game plan was in terms of uh when portland threw numbers at them and left that space in behind and seattle was able to win the ball it was just like go like immediately and they had some really good sequences uh in the build-up but i did feel like the uh The chances that they did end up generating at the hole, I mean, the XG was pretty low. It was below one, I think, 0.72.
00:50:12
Speaker
ah So that, to me, tells me that while the buildup and the counters might have looked good, the ultimate ah chances that they got off it weren't necessarily of the highest quality.
00:50:23
Speaker
so But I think there is something to what you're saying in there, Jerome. Jake says... Kent and Ferreira got similar touches and their performances felt dramatically different for me. Struggling to pinpoint it, but it felt like Kent was trying and I don't know that I saw it from Ferreira. Yeah. So a lot of people are having great comments.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I'll give my take on the Ferreira aspect of it, which is, I think there's questions given the lack of a goal production and his tactical fit, not working super well.
00:50:51
Speaker
There's been questions about his effort and his buy-in and stuff. i I don't think that's the, uh, That's the issue. i I don't know. I always try and be careful about ascribing struggles to lack of effort when I don't like know that for a fact.
00:51:08
Speaker
ah But also I do see signs that ah he cares a lot about ah playing well for this team and this team being successful. um My evidence for that would be like, if you look at ah just his reactions when the team scores, know,
00:51:23
Speaker
Like he's as pumped up as anybody. He's a very, he's an unselfish guy. He's not a me guy at all. He's not a me player at all. He just wants the team to score.
00:51:33
Speaker
And whenever they do that, he looks like the happiest guy on the field. So I don't, that doesn't mean everything, but to me that indicates that he is bought in and ah he wants very badly for this team to be successful. It just hasn't,
00:51:48
Speaker
fully panned out on the field yet. ah But look at how he celebrated when Rusnak scored that goal. He looked like the happiest guy in the Pacific Northwest. So I don't know. Nico, ah what what is your take on this one?
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think that you don't criticize effort because you are a good journalist and a good overall human being, and you're not a clown that's just trying to say things just because he thinks it.
00:52:11
Speaker
And so I praise you for that. Yeah, I don't think it's effort. I do think that the reality of it is that he's just not fitting in it. And that comment is beautifully worded because it's it's pretty pretty straightforward and and and it's pretty accurate.
00:52:29
Speaker
Because if you look at how much time Ferreira got on the ball compared to Ryan Kent, I want to say that he got more touches than Ryan Kent, but it doesn't feel like that. It doesn't look like that. ah And Ryan Kent did seem to be a ah lot more influential in his own type of way, trying to make things happen and getting in the in inside the 18.
00:52:49
Speaker
ah Maybe he's got a couple of passes that he allows Corpo to get on a little bit too easily. ah But is that ability to show up? like you if you If you have the eye test, it just feels like Ryan Kent did a lot more than Ferreira did.
00:53:04
Speaker
there i mean, I've watched the game three times. And in one of those times, I had to make sure to just completely focus on where Ferreira was and what he was doing. I go back and see, what where is he at here?
00:53:15
Speaker
And he just was not as... involved engaged and just it didn't feel like that and even an overall runs when it comes to transition moments so i'm not sure what the disconnect is I'm not going to criticize his effort. I think he cares. I think that he puts in a lot of effort. I think he wants to play well.
00:53:36
Speaker
I just don't think that he's been doing it. So why that's not happening, it's something that Brian Tumacher is going to have to look into. And something that I'll be asking him, obviously, this week is, what do you need to do to make sure to get more out of Ferreira? Because at the end of the day,
00:53:53
Speaker
and This is something that i hope the audience knows. i have no issue criticizing the team, ah player, Brian Smetzer. I've done it.
00:54:04
Speaker
um I have, I could probably say pretty confidently that I'm the guy that gets on the team the most yeah straightforward. That's why we love you. And just recently, I, i ah after our Friday show, I had a comment that someone said that we should be criticizing the team and, know,
00:54:21
Speaker
just what we're doing is not helping. That just seems odd because I'm the opposite guy. I'm the guy that's consistently criticizing, but you've got to be fair in your criticism you've got to understand the process and not be hyperbolic and not be overreactive over the little things. So when it comes to Ferrer, I do criticize his effectiveness on the field.
00:54:42
Speaker
And I think that it's an issue that needs to be looked at intensely and fixed immediately. Yeah, and I can understand ah some of the negative negativity with the with the discourse coming off this week again, just I mean, I mentioned it earlier, but just because of how much the LAFC game went off the rails, and then you're not able to see out the win in Portland, which for me, if they had won the Portland game, that would have erased the l LAFC game. i would have agree.
00:55:11
Speaker
And like, I just think that ah getting the one, one again, not a bad result in isolation, but it doesn't wash away the bitter taste of the LAFC game. Like we might've hoped that they, that they would have, if they could have won that game.
00:55:27
Speaker
But yeah, One one in Portland. You usually take that. ah Zach says Portland game plan for Kent. They doubled him sometimes tripled him. He needs to recognize the pressure and recycle it. Agree. I think that if we're doing the Ryan can performance evaluation, that's ah that would be one of the main takeaways. And, uh,
00:55:46
Speaker
I think, uh, as he gets more reps with this team and, uh, hopefully just gets his fitness up and just his overall sharpness up, we'll see his decision-making, improve as well. I mean, it's been excellent. I think leading up to this game in terms of him picking his spots, uh, uh, picking out runners and, uh, is just the awesome work he's done as a facilitator. So,
00:56:12
Speaker
ah Hopefully in this next Dallas game, he can get on track. Yes, Nico. So I'm not much of a stat guy. ah People know that, but I wanted to just look for Rara and can both 71 minutes.
00:56:27
Speaker
For Rara had 45 touches. ah Ryan can't had 48. So pretty, pretty close to the exact same thing. Ryan can't 31 or the 34 passes.
00:56:39
Speaker
It went in 91% accuracy. Yeah.
00:56:43
Speaker
Jesus Ferreira, 31 out of 36, 86. So the numbers are pretty similar, but when you look at the items, it just feels like Ryan Kent was more involved, but ah statistically,
00:56:55
Speaker
They were pretty similar. So that that's it's a great comment. It's very well put. ah and And that's exactly what needs to be found out. what Why is that? Why does it feel like Herrera is just not as involved, as engaged, as influential as other players or as he could be? Because, again, I'm not ready to give up on him.
00:57:15
Speaker
I think that he's got the talent, the potential. You just got unlock that. How do you do that? That's the difficult question. did the That's the ah million dollar question or the ah high TAM amount of money question.
00:57:29
Speaker
um Nico, let's ah let's do some around the league stuff as we yeah wind down the show here this morning.
Inter Miami's Struggles & Messi's Impact
00:57:38
Speaker
ah There's a lot of other rivalry week fixtures going on this weekend. Yeah.
00:57:44
Speaker
ah Columbus and Cincinnati drew hell is real one, one. ah That's two of the best teams in the league. NYC won their Derby with the Red Bulls, two, zero Toronto swamped CF Montreal, six to one.
00:57:57
Speaker
ah But ah Nico, let's stay on the inter Miami beat ah once again, because ah man, we want to talk about vibe deterioration.
00:58:10
Speaker
They lose three to zero, three, zero. at home to Orlando city SC. ah And I think they're like, they've won one in their last seven or eight or something. It's really bad.
00:58:23
Speaker
It's bad. not They're not good right now. Like look at their, their six, three and four, which isn't the worst record, but they're inner Miami messy in the Barca boys. They're supposed to be up averaging two plus points per game.
00:58:34
Speaker
They're at 1.69. ah Their goal differential is plus three. It's plummeting by the week. Messi is disgruntled. He's talking about the refs after the game. MLS needs to hire better refs. Brother, you just lost three zero and you haven't you haven't won a game in like um a month or something or you maybe one game.
00:58:53
Speaker
ah Yeah, they beat the Red Bulls a couple weeks ago. But other than that, they've been losing every game. they might they this whole thing might be spiraling. It might be spiraling.
00:59:03
Speaker
It kind of feels like that. ah What did what do you think of where things stand for Messi and the Barca boys after a 3-0 demolition at the hands of their most heated rival, or Orlando City SC?
00:59:15
Speaker
Yeah, the the scoreline was surprising, not the result. I had Orlando winning this game because they were in better form. As much as people hate it I thought that Minnesota's social media ah person, whoever decided to call them the Pink Phony Club.
00:59:35
Speaker
That was funny. that's that It's brilliant. It's brilliant because it's it's not just trendy, because my daughter loves the song, and you it it just describes the club perfectly right now. And everything that Lionel Messi does after the game,
00:59:55
Speaker
criticizing refs, going at the refs, having Bruce Arena have to hold this guy back. All those antics, they're just feeding to that clear look that there's this function all around.
01:00:06
Speaker
And you got Macerano after the game talking about maybe we're failing as a coaching staff and yada, yada, yada. The reality is is that this team defensively is poor.
01:00:17
Speaker
They make one too many mistakes. They depend on Messi. And now teams are saying, look, don't let Messi beat you. And it doesn't I don't care who it is. If it's Allende or if it's Suarez, I don't care. But Messi's not going to beat us.
01:00:32
Speaker
So they're completely flocking him. They brace him. They do all kinds of ah defensive things where he's the main point of reference. And they're not allowing him any sort of room.
01:00:44
Speaker
And if there's anybody that could do it and they could do it proudly is Orlando and Oscar Pereja team that has a ton of offensive power. And when it comes to defense, they don't give it to you. They don't give it to your heart. They're going to elbow you. They're going grab you. They're going to bite you.
01:01:01
Speaker
I mean, they are just a very good team. And in this one, they were solid defensively. No spaces. If you were going to get on the ball, you were going to feel the defender right next to you. And they just broke down Miami. And when it came to offense, look, man, the the fact that Messi was worried about A pass back to Galese on that goal, the Muriel goal, is i a one pass from Galese through the entire team to the back of your defense.
01:01:31
Speaker
And then Muriel has all the room to run up onto your goalkeeper and score that goal. And Messi was mad that there was a back pass to Galese. There was no back pass. There was no intention to do it.
01:01:44
Speaker
The pass was supposed to be to a defender. The defender kind of goes off of it. Galece touches it with his feet, grabs it. And that's what he's mad about. That's why he's over there chirping after the game. Messi, that's the last of your concerns, bro. It's literally the last of your concerns.
01:01:58
Speaker
It's not even on the list. It's not even on the list of concerns. so So all of it, it just, yes, it seems like it's far out of control. Don't know what the answer is.
01:02:10
Speaker
Everything that you kind of put together in place to globalize and market your team is coming down in flames. So look, they got to really break it down.
01:02:21
Speaker
Macerano needs to simplify the game. They need to really focus on how to not play messy ball, but play collectively. And maybe they they figure it out. And i i'm and I'm sure they will. they They have enough talent that they could possibly do it. But right now, yeah looks a mess.
01:02:37
Speaker
I'm glad you brought up the ah controversy with the Minnesota United social team because that was, they were Minnesota after they beat Inter-Miami, they were going about as hard on the socials as I've ever seen another club go at another club uh they had the uh what was the one that you mentioned uh the pink phony club so they had that which that that's great that was genius my favorite one yeah did you see they made like a stock inter miami fan that was like an angry emoji that but it had like a yankees cap and in inter miami jersey lakers shorts there was like headlines in the background about all the bandwagon teams so and then uh their supporters also had a tifo that i think it said uh
01:03:22
Speaker
History over hype, culture over cash. That's so sick. Exactly. Exactly. ah So they were they were chirping both their their fans and their social team.
01:03:33
Speaker
And I thought it was great. But then ah David Beckham. David Beckham goes on. ah He's scrolling. He's scrolling on Instagram, going through all the content about ah how his team just lost.
01:03:45
Speaker
He sees a picture of that TIFO and he comments, respect over everything. youre Like, here's the thing. First of all, like, as the club owner whatever, you should just not be scrolling the IG feed after a game like that.
01:04:00
Speaker
Just don't scroll it. Don't scroll it. But ah the thing is, like, if you're going act offended over banter like that, ah no one's going to take you seriously or give you anything on that because when you assemble messy in the barsa boys and boys in that team and you create this big shot roster, set the points record, whatever.
01:04:22
Speaker
ah But really your whole team is built around buying these superstar players, including Lionel Messi. And you're, not successful or you're struggling, you're going to get chirped.
01:04:33
Speaker
That is just how it goes. And you have to take that on the chin. Like maybe you can say that you feel like they went too hard or they went over the top. Uh, I don't know if there's such a thing as that when, uh, when you have a situation like this, like if you want to get chirped like that, you got to keep winning games. And, at the very least not getting boat raced like they've been doing in, in recent weeks.
01:04:58
Speaker
So, uh, Yeah, no, it's ah it just really looks like it's it's spiraling down there, which I think that's pretty funny. i'm always I'm always here for a good downfall. And it looks like, we'll see, I think you i think you could be right that ah there's so much talent on the team that and they're just going through a rough patch right now.
01:05:15
Speaker
Maybe they put it back together. But it feels like the level has fallen so far from, I've been as... ah bullish as anybody on the level of soccer that that team has played when they're at their best.
01:05:28
Speaker
I still think that there was long stretches of last year where they were playing the game as, at as high a level as I've ever seen in MLS club play it like just in terms of the attacking soccer that they were playing.
01:05:41
Speaker
and the level of danger they were generating seemingly every time they were ah on the ball. It was a buzzsaw at times, but I think what you've seen is that when you even, when you have a buzzsaw, but it's built around guys that all are all 42, maybe that's not ah as sustainable over a full season or in future seasons as they might've hoped.
01:06:02
Speaker
But yeah, I just, ah I don't know. I think it's fair also to look back and question the Mascherano hire. We were questioning it at at the time. i What coaching experience does this guy have? I know Messi's boy. he was a great player.
01:06:17
Speaker
Being a great player and being a great coach, two entirely different things. I think we're seeing that. And that's the thing, right? People just say, oh, Nico and people are being anti-Messi. That is not true. I love Messi. Messi my second favorite player behind Ronaldinho of all time. And I've always been a supporter for him.
01:06:35
Speaker
What I have an issue with is the way that organization is ran. and the decisions that have been made and the way that they handle their business. And if you're a team like Miami, that does look a little bit generic and not organic, like other clubs fucking embrace it. don Don't let that get, get you tilted. That that's who you are you know, that it.
01:06:56
Speaker
But the reality of it is that, like you said, moving forward, this team's going to have to figure things out. We'll see what happens with Macerano. um I just think, They got found, and Orlando's just a better team.
01:07:10
Speaker
And Orlando couldn't put five on you, if not six. Angudo has one that he misses. Muriel has one that he misses. I mean, that it was just a game where you were outplayed.
01:07:22
Speaker
And the the fact that you don't see that, just it's just odd to me. ah Machirano talked about being in control for 25 minutes, really? 25 minutes out of 90? That's not great, bro.
01:07:34
Speaker
So I don't know what i don't know why we're trying to get at here. But at the end of the day, Orlando, to me, is a serious candidate, ah staying on the you know national topic that we're kind of on right now.
01:07:48
Speaker
I've heard... Tom Bogert on SoccerWise talk about how he always falls for Dallas every year. um fall for Orlando every year. I always feel like they're going to go They're going to win. They're going to win the the East. They're going to win the whole thing.
01:08:04
Speaker
And they kind of fall. and And for me, once again, I'm back on the On Orlando thing I thought they were going to be good regardless this year ah But I had other teams higher than them But man they look like the real deal That's a good squad Oscar Perea is a great coach you know It's the is the difference between a guy Who is a who has been working on this stuff for the last 20, 25 years of his life, and a guy who was playing for Barcelona a couple years ago, his boys with Messi, we have no idea if he knows what he's doing.
01:08:35
Speaker
He looks like he might not. um Good stat from Jake here. First time any club has lost a home match by three or more goals when Messi was on the pitch. I fully believe that. And I think that is, i think that's the ominous thing.
01:08:49
Speaker
If you're inter Miami right now is it doesn't look like Messi himself is handling this. Well, he's not used to being in this situation. No, exasperated. He's chirping the refs. Like you said, Bruce arena is having to hold them back.
01:09:02
Speaker
He's talking about the refs after the game, ah this last game where they lost three zero. And yeah, we're talking about like a questionable back pass in one moment of the game that you lost by three goals.
01:09:15
Speaker
Nico, as we wrap it up here, last ah a team I wanted to talk about. It's the same clubs every week, but I don't care because ah basically, uh, I've realized that I'm just kind of on the downfall beat.
01:09:28
Speaker
Any team that's experiencing a downfall, I'm locked in on. And my other one, other than Inter-Miami, still Atlanta United. ah Look, they... ah
01:09:40
Speaker
It's tough, man. It's tough. They needed a win in the worst type of way. They're playing at home against a Philly team that I thought it was interesting. ah Philly goes in there. They beat the hell out of Atlanta in Philly the last time these two teams played a couple weeks ago. Nico,
01:09:56
Speaker
The disrespect that the Philly Union showed to Atlanta United in the lineup that they rolled out there in their starting 11th for this game, they didn't, they they were like, we're going to treat this like we're playing a team, like ah like a USL team in the Open
Atlanta United & El Trafico Recap
01:10:11
Speaker
Cup.
01:10:11
Speaker
Like they rolled out like i can an entirely rotated squad, their B team without their Jean Jacques, their, ah their big star D mid who I love by the way. Like yeah I think he's one of my favorite new players in the league this year, ah but they roll out the B team and Atlanta United rolls out their first choice team at home and they still couldn't get it done.
01:10:32
Speaker
They lose one zero and just in hilarious fashion. Once again, they give up a PK where Brad Guzan, uh, Don't know what he was doing. Comes off his line for no reason.
01:10:44
Speaker
ah Whiffs it. the ah The Philly guy gets it. Is sending a trying to send a cross in onto like an open net, basically, I think. And then the Atlanta guy handballs it. Gives Ty Baribo the PK. And then they end up losing 1-0.
01:10:59
Speaker
I mean, i don't know if there's anything even new to say about this at this point. But I just, how does this happen, Nico? What, like, how can like how how does it get to a point where they can't even win a game?
01:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, man, that's beyond me. And look, they don't start a lot in this one. They also try to, I think, in some way, figure out other things. I thought Tiara was actually pretty good ah most of the game, even maybe a little bit better than ah lot to lot was when he came on.
01:11:28
Speaker
ah i think that Philadelphia is just the better collective unit. I think Cardinal has done a fantastic job with that team. And anytime that you're able to ah rest the the golden boot in MLS and and still get a win, although he's the one to scorch the ah PK there later on because he comes in and for the second half.
01:11:47
Speaker
I think just Philadelphia, i don't know if disrespectfully, but I think they knew that with the way they play, the way they understand their own game, ah they were going to be able to get a result against Atlanta, and and they did.
01:12:02
Speaker
Atlanta
01:12:04
Speaker
It's crazy how much they do offensively because they did enough to, if not just equalize, to win this game. and They created a ah lot of opportunities.
01:12:16
Speaker
Amador got on the ball consistently in 18, on their own. i thought they had a bunch of chances in the first half that they didn't necessarily, obviously, or didn't execute there.
01:12:28
Speaker
And then in the last 10 minutes, they're all over Philadelphia and they still can't get a goal. I don't know if it's lack of confidence in the final third or or if it's just a team that's just not clicking, but it's hard to so look at a team with that much talent on the field and not be able to figure it out.
01:12:49
Speaker
Nico, let's hit El Trafico here, lastly, to ah to close it out. ah Galaxy tie LAFC Really fun game. ah We were playing the radio broadcast in the car driving back up from Portland, and it was actually really fun because we were all – Noah Colton and I were all kind of rooting for the Galaxy in this game.
01:13:08
Speaker
And, like, listening to a game on the radio when you can't see what's happening is actually pretty fun. Like, the Galaxy scored the opener, and everyone in the car was like, yeah! Let's go. So ah that was pretty fun. But ah the El Trafico match itself was, you know, we, Nolan and I were on our high horse this week leading up to the game about ah how bullshit it is that the national pundits are calling El Trafico better than Cascadia rivalry. I still think that is a...
01:13:38
Speaker
brain dead take, but that aside, El Trafico is ah always a lot of fun. This match was no exception. And really from a lobbing scorchers perspective, the result ended up pretty much perfect. I think because ah two, two draw where LAFC gives away the lead right at the end ah that keeps the galaxy winless.
01:13:57
Speaker
So they're now Oh, 10 and four that rocks. And then LAFC, they drop points against the, the worst team in the league right now and their most heated rival and, uh, have a letdown ending where they give up the equalizer right at the very end.
01:14:12
Speaker
So that also rocks. I loved that aspect of it. Uh, but I think, uh, I guess, I'm wondering if, uh, if you think of the galaxy any differently after their last couple games where, uh, they get the draw in this one and Marco Royce, who we were, we were very critical, like looking back at will Koontz's interviews, uh, where he was talking about what's went wrong this year. And he's like, well, last year we pushed all our chips in and we saw her in Marco Royce for a bunch of money.
01:14:42
Speaker
ah And now that really screwed us for the next year. And we had to get rid of like four guys because of that. We're sitting there like, well, why did you do that? Why did you do that? You didn't need to sign him. I don't think to my memory that Marco Royce was like the reason that they ended up winning and MLS cup. That team probably is good enough to win it without him.
01:14:59
Speaker
And it seems like it really kind of screwed them for this year. And he wasn't, he was injured and not informed to start this year as well. ah But, you know, credit where it's due.
01:15:10
Speaker
He had two assists in the Philly game that they ended up losing, and then he was fantastic in this game. ah He scored two goals, almost had another assist, springing Gabriel Peck on a counter for a goal that was waved off for a borderline offside call.
01:15:26
Speaker
So he actually is looking like the player they thought they were getting right now. But ah Nico, ah real quick here at the end to close it out. What did you think of El Trafico? And if you have any thoughts on either of the two teams in particular.
01:15:41
Speaker
First of all, if you are saying that, um, LAFC and LAG, El Trafico, is a better rivalry than maybe you grow up without watching soccer and maybe you don't really care about culture or about what a rivalry really means and you like, you know, generic things like this that kind of just get put together for people to just consume, that's totally fine. But I'm with you. i think it's an awful take.
01:16:07
Speaker
think Sasha said it a bunch of times and that just made me think less of Sasha. It wasn't just Sasha, to be fair. It's been a lot of the national pundits. But yes, he did. Terrible take. But in terms of the game, I thought that it was a positive for, a huge positive for LA Galaxy that um Marco Reus after the game sounded like he won the thing.
01:16:25
Speaker
ah yeah Although they just kind of drew it, but it's a big result for LAG. I thought it was a trap game for LAFC. I said it ah consistently and it almost was. Gabriel Peck, one step forward,
01:16:40
Speaker
one step less back and he is on site and he gets that goal and LAG probably win this game. But going back to your point on Marco Reus, I mean, it was crazy to me to find out after the game that this is his first multi-goal game since he came to the LA Galaxy. I mean, that'll tell you enough about a guy that you paid a ton of money for.
01:17:01
Speaker
ah Beautiful goal, mean fantastic technique to put the ball over the wall. No doubt about that. But yeah, you can expect more from a guy of his caliber. um You know, he did play well last game as a false nine. He played well this time around with ah Christian Ramirez in front of him. But just a little bit of a moral win for LA Galaxy. I thought the game in general was fun, was interesting.
01:17:23
Speaker
I'm not glazing it the way people are, you know, out there pundits. Like this was the greatest game ever. Some very good goals, a good atmosphere. But I'm not here going to glaze the hell out of this game.
01:17:36
Speaker
the The Denny Buonga goal was very good. Oh, it was beautiful. It was a great shot. It was a great shot.
MLS Rivalries Debate
01:17:41
Speaker
I don't want my ah my rivalry takes, honestly, to be to be taken as like, I don't think you need to slight El Trafico to acknowledge that Cascadia rivalry has much more history, decades of bad blood, and is just, in general, a better rivalry than El Trafico.
01:18:00
Speaker
We're biased, obviously, but I think, to me, i feel like I'm taking crazy pills. but that like We have these lists coming out that are like, best rivalries in MLS, and Cascadia's like sixth.
01:18:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's wild. and There's no substance behind what the rabbit really means. I mean, pick up a dictionary and look at the damn word, first of all. And then sure, i mean, what's more entertaining?
01:18:23
Speaker
Then we can have a discussion. What... What rivalry is more entertaining? What rivalry has the better moments? What rivalry has the better goals? Then you can go ahead and go and name El Trafico number one and, you know, Hell is Real after that, whatever you want.
01:18:38
Speaker
But when it comes to being real, although I do like Hell is Real rivalry a lot more than I like El Trafico. ah But in all sense, I mean, by the word, by the definition, the Timbers and the Sounders Cascadia rivalry goes way beyond any of these other ones.
01:18:55
Speaker
good defensive play from long he stepped up to make pe peck offside yeah that was a good play uh but uh when gabriel peck when he was tracking back to try and uh block gabriel peck's shot and he slid just fully off screen oh that that was funny i wanted that gold to account just so uh that that uh missed with slide tackle could have gone in the officially in the history books but uh All right, Nico, let's get out of here on that.
Upcoming Content & Audience Engagement
01:19:22
Speaker
I got to jump on my little content call in two minutes here. So got wrap up on that.
01:19:27
Speaker
Thank you all, as always, for tuning in. If you haven't done so yet, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, like, comment, subscribe, follow Rate 5 Stars Review on all platforms. We'll be putting out a pod. Hopefully that'll be dropping tomorrow.
01:19:41
Speaker
I'll be back at it on Thursday for under lobbing scorchers under the lights. And then the games the games are going to keep rolling. FC Dallas comes to town this coming weekend.
01:19:54
Speaker
So ah the content don't stop. We got a ton of footage from our road trip to Portland that we're going to put into a vlog similar to our ah US Open Cup dot mini documentary. ah Really excited for that.
01:20:05
Speaker
We got some great stuff. Noah was ah able to shoot the game from like down on the field. He said he got the entire sequence of the Roostnack goal. So I'm excited for that to come out. Excited for you all to see that. And Nico, anything work wise you're doing this week that you want to plug before we get out of here?
01:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, as always, ah Thursdays with Nico on SDH Soccer down here from 7.30 to about 4.15. Friday, of course, again, we'll do what we learned this week with Jeremiah O'Shann. And then check out Pulsar Sports. We'll have all the videos as soon as they come off from across the week of training.
01:20:41
Speaker
I do have an exclusive that I have to do with Andy Rose that I have not been able to do. It's called Talking Tactics. We did one with Freddy Juarez. We'll do one with... a Andy Rose this week.
01:20:51
Speaker
So go ahead and check that out. And then for everyone that helped hit 100 likes in that one video, we do have an item that we're going to raffle. I got to give that to Ari, but I wanted everybody to know that we do have that item to raffle of everybody who did a like in that specific video.
01:21:09
Speaker
So obviously I'm going to let Noah and Ari take the reins on how to do that. But ah we do have the item. All right. We're getting out of here on that. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Appreciate it have a good Have a good rest of your week.