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Highest of Highs, Lowest of Lows - Ep. 87
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We have a seldom-seen combined Dub and L Pod as we drop our belated game review of Seattle’s 5-2 Matchday 3 demolition of LAFC, then dive into the Rave Green’s unceremonious exit in the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 at Cruz Azul. Can we still take encouragement from that dominant performance over the Black & Gold, or does the injury-riddled CCC disaster have us crashing out?
We also hit our Agenda Checks from both games, talk Winners and Losers from around MLS in Matchday 3, and have our Blazing Hot Coach Press Conference of the Week sponsored by Haxan Ferments.
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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 to Episode 87
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, sure, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well, it's gonna be a scorcher.
Mixed Emotions and Episode Structure
00:00:21
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 87 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall. And Noah, we have got a pod of highly conflicting emotions here tonight.
00:00:36
Speaker
How are you feeling? um Well, Ari, literally before this, I was crashing out. And then before that, I was celebrating like I had just won the lottery.
00:00:47
Speaker
And now I'm just like in a state of mental distress. Yeah. So this is going to be a bit of an unorthodox pod tonight. We have a ah this might be the only time in Lobbing Scorchers history where we do a dub pod and an L pod in
Seattle Sounders' Recent Matches Overview
00:01:03
Speaker
the same pod. An emphatic dub pod and an emphatic L pod. About as emphatic on each end of that spectrum as you can get. So I think it's actually going to be a kind of interesting show. yeah I'm looking forward to it.
00:01:14
Speaker
Even though the L pod is fresher, ah I'm still looking forward to the contrast that we're going to be highlighting here tonight. Uh, we've got two games to review, one of which, uh, we're going to do the belated dub pod for the five to shellacking of LFC, LAFC at Lumen field, uh, with the Tuesday game and some scheduling, uh, alignment issues this weekend, we were not able to get the dub that dub pod out like we normally would.
00:01:44
Speaker
but we weren't going to not put it out.
CONCACAF Champions Cup Loss Analysis
00:01:46
Speaker
Even after the CCC game, we were hoping it was going to be a double dub pod. um But unfortunately the Seattle Sounders have crashed out of CONCACAF champions cup in emphatic fashion, as you said, in,
00:02:02
Speaker
that was about as big a disaster as I could possibly think of. Not, not that they lost like no them losing in itself ah it is unfortunate, but it wouldn't be a disaster.
00:02:13
Speaker
But this was a disaster, both in terms of the performance and then the injuries. This is really bad. Yeah, it's really bad. So we're going to talk about all of that.
Podcast Network Promotion
00:02:24
Speaker
um But before we do, I do have to let you all know that Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder to Heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderathart.com slash LS. Noah, can you remind me what that link is? Sounderathart.com slash LS. Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show.
00:02:48
Speaker
ah We are closing in. at 100 Sounder at Heart Subs, which is a very exciting milestone for us. And now more than ever, it is a great time to become a member with the season in full swing. Subscribers also now get access to the audio-only versions of our live shows right to your podcast feed. That's a huge perk.
Sponsor Shoutouts
00:03:05
Speaker
Lobbing Scorchers kick off. Lobbing Scorchers under the lights. post gameme We've been doing post-game lives, call-in shows. So ah you get access to that.
00:03:12
Speaker
ah Shout out to all our sponsors, hacks and ferments podium menswear and for podium menswear. We got to say I'm wearing podium menswear right now. If you're watching the video, shout out to podium and Edmonds. Go check it out.
00:03:26
Speaker
They just got a bunch of new stuff in. i went over there. I almost spent literally, I almost used the podcast credit card already because I was like, you know what? This is a tax write-off, right? But go get yourself your own tax refund write-off, aka use your tax refund, go buy some new clothes. Anyway, that's my show. One of the best ways you can support the show is to support our sponsors. They all make genuinely great products.
00:03:49
Speaker
I was using Haxan Ferments hot sauce today, and it was so good. It's actually like so good. And honestly, after this, I'm going to go drink four bottles of full pull wines. so All right.
Victory Over LAFC Discussion
00:04:01
Speaker
Let's... ah we but we have we have we have ah oh yeah yeah new We have new people. Sorry. New subs. I'm sorry. I'm so excited to get it. know. We're like itching to go. Ryan Van Lair, Jake Kline, and Michael Pissaruck.
00:04:13
Speaker
Hell yeah. all. Something like that. Appreciate you. All of our subscribers. What are we up to now numerically? Wow. We're 20 away from ah from a hundo. Yeah.
00:04:26
Speaker
That's Sounderhardt.com slash L.S. Love you guys. Appreciate the support. All right. Should we do this? Let's po let's do it. Let's do this pod. ah So I think the way we were going to do it is ah we were going to start with the highs. Yep.
00:04:38
Speaker
And then go to the lows, but then kind of ah maybe keep the game recaps a little shorter, but we're going to do, are we going to do like separate agenda checks? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. All right. It's going to be like two pods in one. So yeah, so ah let's just talk about this LAFC game first. Cause that was awesome.
00:04:52
Speaker
It was, I was riding high after that. I was like, all right, cruises. We'll bring them on. Right. Didn't, ah didn't end up panning out like that. But, but on Sunday,
00:05:05
Speaker
Saturday. so Yeah. I'm just went the next day. out oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. I got you. Seattle Sounders five LAFC two. They dropped a five spot on LAFC, which I mean, it is worth despite what happened tonight.
00:05:21
Speaker
It is worth acknowledging the significance of that, how good the performance was. But to me, Noah, the most satisfying part of watch, I mean, it was that was a cathartic game to watch on a lot of counts.
00:05:33
Speaker
And I'm going to talk about it in the agenda check. But this whole thing we were doing the last two years of talking about how how much LAFC owns Seattle and how it's a one sided Western Conference rivalry. You can't even call it a rivalry or a crack clash of heavyweights anymore because l LAFC wins every that's done.
00:05:52
Speaker
It's done. That is done. I think it should have been done with the playoff win last year. I was saying it was done, um but people were still because people were saying, ah well, ah yeah, they won the one playoff game.
00:06:04
Speaker
But what about the 10 before that? Right. My response to that is like the stakes of that playoff game were such that if you take the L that LAFC did at that in that fashion in your own building, you were linked with the the previous 10. I don't.
00:06:19
Speaker
I'll trade all 10 of those for for that win. Are you serious? Like, I don't care. um But now with this, that is dead, dead. um We can do our lineup reaction because ah both, but i mean, both teams were heavily rotated. Yes. you know, a lot of the talking points coming out of the LAFC camp was that, well, this doesn't matter because ah we were rotating for CCC.
00:06:42
Speaker
Well, guess what? So was Seattle. Didn't do them a lot of good. Nope. But it this was depth on depth and Seattle's depth won out.
Player Highlights: Paul Rothrock
00:06:50
Speaker
And I know what I'm encouraged by that despite what happened tonight. I still yeah think that the positives that we saw from this LAFC five spot remain despite how badly they crashed out of CCC. How do you feel about that? No, I agree. I thought for one, if we're looking at the lineup itself, you had Jesus Ferreira, you had Paul Rothbrock, JP, Danny Leyva. You had, you had a mix. You had a start from Costa Rienzi, a kid who was on a short-term loan has been playing super well.
00:07:24
Speaker
Um, and so he gets a goal and let's just do a, I mean, lobbing scorchers, man of the match, lobbing scorchers, man of the match, easy call Rothrock. I was saying KKR.
00:07:35
Speaker
Okay. You take KKR. I'll take Paul Rothrock. Okay. Well, I drop your disher dish, your dish, your first MLS goal. That was a great moment. And then also how he did it. Yeah. That was one of the better individual efforts efforts. You'll probably see all season.
00:07:50
Speaker
Just the, just, just how hard he beasted that guy. And they're you 22, you 22 initiative signing who KKR bossed a 22 year super draft. UW. Subgraduate. So like just the fact that it was his first MLS goal, I thought it was like the teammates reaction. Like they were going crazy. I'm sure the bench was going crazy. Like, yeah, it was just a fun, heartwarming moment. Those are like, like when I look back on a season and I like regardless of how it ends and like, what were the standout moments? What were, what are the best memories? Like that was a great one. Yeah. So that would be my KKR shout. Yeah, no, that was like such a good story to like the cherry on top of the perfect match was having a kid who is essentially like a homegrown player, someone who it's kind of like the old on brothers. Like, yes, technically they're not from Seattle, but they went to UW.
00:08:50
Speaker
you know, adopted, seat adopted Seattle. I'm an adopted family. Yeah, exactly. And for him, someone who like, I really loved in preseason, you liked him in preseason as well.
00:09:01
Speaker
The energy that he has, like all of those videos that the sounders were putting out in preseason in Marbella, where they were just like, they would just hand him a mic and he would just, you know, he just has such a good energy to him.
00:09:11
Speaker
Everyone on the team seems to like him. And, uh, did you see, uh, before you do your Roth rock, uh, did you see his post game interview? This was funny. I was there. Oh, you were saying there. I asked him a question too. Yeah. didn't that. Uh, yeah. Well, I thought it was so funny how he, uh, he looked actually very like reasonably comfortable. He was pretty nervous. You could like, well, I i think the first couple answers I was like, all right, yeah he's nervous, but he's, uh,
00:09:38
Speaker
He's, he's handling it, uh, pretty well. Like those scrums when you're not used to that, they're nervous for the reporters. Yeah, exactly. So like, yeah like it takes a while when you become a professional, ah to get good at that.
00:09:52
Speaker
Uh, but he was doing pretty well. And then someone asked him, ah have you had any dialogue about a first team contract? i think it was Jeremiah, Jeremiah asked him and he got really uncomfortable Yeah, he went like this. They told him what happened was they told him in the locker room after the game that he had earned a first team contract.
00:10:11
Speaker
And I'm sure it was like a moment where everyone mobbed him or clapped and and stuff. But you could tell he wasn't sure if he had the go ahead to divulge that. And like his reaction, it was like they signed you. like yeah And finally, he goes, i don't know if I'm supposed to say it, but whatever. No, he said, he's ah I don't know if I should say this, but fuck it.
00:10:31
Speaker
yeah Yeah. He said, but fuck it. I got the contract. It was awesome. so that was an even better. yeah Well, the best part was like 10 minutes before that Schmetzer was asked about it. And he said, you know, I'm going to have to have a really long conversation on the phone with Craig in the car on the way home. And it's like trying to keep you lying. Motherfucker, Brian. you like Yeah, that was that was a blatant lie.
00:10:55
Speaker
Brian, we know you listen. Well, yeah. Also, ah that's another it's good spot to bring up. Brian Schmetzer listens to Lobbing Scorchers. Noah asked a question at the press conference. Of course, I asked the Rothrock question, but it was a genuine question. It was a fine question. He was like, but anyway, he said the exact quote was, add that to your podcast. Yeah. Meaning he knows that you have a podcast, this podcast. Yeah. So thanks for listening, Schmetz. Appreciate the support. We love you. But subscribe to Sounder at Heart, sounderheart.com slash LS. Schmetz, come on.
00:11:24
Speaker
Come on. I mean, we know we know he listens because we were big in the coach of the year push. Yeah. Yeah. um All right. Make your Rothrock. All right. You know, I had two. I had two because, you know, yeah i always know which ones you're going to pick. So I always like to go with something different here. But um my two men of the match, I'm going to go. Danny Leyva had an outstanding game in this match.
00:11:47
Speaker
And I think that this season he has really grown into the player that the Sounders saw him to be. a good point. You know, he has fought through going on loan, not playing the the minutes that he was said, told that he was going to be playing on the at that loan.
00:12:06
Speaker
You know, so much, so much stuff that he's been through, you know, he's kind of rode the bench, hasn't gotten his break. Been on the team for seven years at this point. Yeah. Like he, he's basically a Sounders veteran.
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah. Like it's, it's funny to say, but like he's been around a long time and he looks like a different
Player Performance Praise: Danny Leyva
00:12:22
Speaker
player right now. He does. I was going to say from last season to this season, he looks so confident. He's playing really well. His distribution is so good, man. Like just, just so good. So I had to give a shout out to him because he played 88 minutes of great soccer and I'm excited. I thought, and I guess we'll touch on it when we get to the crucis. We'll think I thought he played well in that match as well.
00:12:44
Speaker
And then my other one, Mr. Pauly prime time. Paul Rothrock Lobster, my man, dude. Goal and an assist, Ari.
00:12:55
Speaker
and And it was a Galazzo and a really nice assist. Yeah, and that's, you know, he self-admitted was like, I have not had the best season so far. It's hard to come back from injury. We talked about with Pedro De La Vega. We talked about it with every single player, Morris, all of it. It's a confidence thing, right?
00:13:10
Speaker
He said in the post-game scrum after, he was like, During preseason, I was making some plays and Brian pulled me aside and said, you're playing jumpy.
00:13:22
Speaker
I can tell that you're stressed out. I want you to know that I will be patient with you, but you need to be patient with yourself. And you can tell that over these last few games and these reps that he's gotten, he's settled into the game.
00:13:38
Speaker
He's found his presence. He's found his patience and he's more confident because of that. And I just thought that that was really awesome to see. He's a player that goes into training, works his ass off.
00:13:48
Speaker
Brian says as much and you can tell he listens to what the coaches say and and implements it in the right way. I think this was the best Rothrock game yet.
00:13:58
Speaker
I really yeah like in terms of all around performance and then stat sheet contribution. Um, the thing I wanted to say about the Rothrock goal is that it was really good to see them get a goal.
00:14:10
Speaker
off a set piece. I really liked the design on that. It was great, man. Like, uh, that was just really well worked where you, you kind of have options, right? Like Rusnak is making the read. Do I put it in the mixer? Are they dropped far back enough for me to hit Rothrock? He makes the read. He hits Rothrock.
00:14:28
Speaker
Uh, and then the, uh, to me, it seems like the design on that is like, uh, there you're just like creating so much kind of chaos in front of the goalkeeper, um and, uh, trying to sort of make it so he can't see. And then that shot, that shot has a better chance of going in for Rara almost fucked that up.
00:14:47
Speaker
yeah yeah he almost fucked that up and uh he was off he well he was off but like you couldn't clearly and obviously tell if he was obstructing from the offside position i did see some l lafc fans upset okay that is ah that is how you can't tell you can't you can't and so if you can't tell you have to leave it i understand it was it was definitely borderline yeah but uh and people were some people were getting on ferrera someone like i saw someone call him lazy. I think if you watch it again, he's not being lazy.
00:15:15
Speaker
he ah he He lost focus. like I think he lost focus for like half a second. yeah like When I watched the replay, which I did a few times, ah swear I swear there was like a half second where he was like...
00:15:28
Speaker
Oh shit. And then like, yeah. And then jump back on side. But I, which is, yeah I would have been, ah I would have been very tilted at him if that had gotten waved off because it would have been the third perfectly executed set piece of the season that they got waved off offside.
00:15:42
Speaker
So thankfully that didn't happen. But anyway, it was, that was a great, I liked that goal a lot. Yeah, that was a sick goal. I have to say like for him to settle that ball because it was a little bit behind him, like the pass from a snack wasn't perfect, but Rousnac Rothrock was able to read it really well, collect it, take a little bit of a step again, that like just settling, calming down, taking that shot, being confident. It was so sick. And I mean, yeah, he was all like, dude, I mean, Jesus was offside.
00:16:16
Speaker
Like, I think there's a shout for it, but like, the issue is not if he was off or not, he was off, but it's, you can't obstruct from, yeah he wasn't like, he wasn't like making a run at the goalkeeper and making a run at the ball being played. You just, you couldn't tell if he was in the keeper's sight line or if he was slightly,
00:16:30
Speaker
So if they if they had waved it off on the field, I think they would have had to leave it. yeah But if they leave the goal on the on the ah on the field, then it has to stand. And I would have been even more tilted if they had ah if they had waved it off because that wasn't clear and obvious. But I also would have been pretty tilted at Ferreira. Yeah, I mean, you know, the I got to go with the old adage from our friends at Happy Foot, Sad Foot, which they even said this on their postgame live stream.
Controversial Goal Reflections
00:16:56
Speaker
If it's cool, it counts. If it's cool, it should count. Exactly. And that was fucking cool. Yeah, that was cool. I think that's spot on. Let's do positives and negatives ah because there's a lot of positives from this game. And then we're going to have to do some negatives in the next section.
00:17:10
Speaker
ah The positives I have five goals. Like anytime you drop a five spot, that's yeah that's a good night. On Olivier Giroux. You're right. Well, that's that where I'm going to get to that. Um, as I said, the LAFC own Seattle narrative is dead. So that is honestly the biggest positive for me coming off of this game. I was, couldn't have been more tired of that.
00:17:31
Speaker
Um, I wrote down here, positive vibes ahead of this. Okay. But it's true. it is true. Like that was a positive, uh, didn't end up panning out, but that was a positive.
00:17:44
Speaker
Uh, I wrote Paul Rothrock and Georgie bounced back. They had a rough shift at RSL, uh, to the point where I w I was crashing out a little bit. Georgie had me crashing out in that game, not on his stock, but just on like, not on the, ah on the offside play in particular, but yeah yeah, Georgie looked great. He got, uh, the, the Georgie to Rusnak goal was really, really good.
00:18:06
Speaker
Georgie absolutely, ah destroyed. Uh, who was that guy? Yeah. I think it was Yaya boa. Yaya Boa had one of the toughest games I have ever. He looked so bad. So on the Christian goal, he got deked so bad. ye That was an awesome play by Christian where Alex was going up the sideline and...
00:18:29
Speaker
entire LAFC team was like, all right, he's laying it off here. And Christian totally deked him and Yaya Boa got juked out of his shoes. Uh, and then the, the, uh, the finish by Rousnac, everyone's going to say it was easier and didn't count or whatever. no that was, that's not, really that's not an easy finish because of how the pace that the cross is coming in.
00:18:49
Speaker
So that was just a really, really good goal and a great play by Georgie. Rothrock destroyed Ryan Hollingshead. My favorite was incredible. My favorite play of the game aside. Well, he destroyed him like three or four times. he looked like he had just gotten hit by a car. But the one, yeah, the one where Rothrock just totally juked him and left him in the dust.
00:19:07
Speaker
That was like, that's as bad as you can get juked. yeah When they make the Rothrock mixtape at the end of the year, that's going to be prominently featured. They're going to like play it back a few times because of how bad he got Hollings. That's what we're going to teach Ari how to use a video editing platform so he can make a rock. edit yeah Whoever makes the Rothrock edit got a lot of material in this game. So that was great to see. And then my last one that I wrote down was that did you looks like a bust.
00:19:34
Speaker
Like, uh, yeah, like I, I don't know what the threshold of games is where you like call that a day. is, but it's been over 25 games at this point.
00:19:46
Speaker
There's these stats that are very alarming. If you look at them of, he's not only not scoring goals, he's not taking shots. I forgot he was on the field for like, 85 minutes of this game. Basically it was like, and I'm like looking for reasons to be like, Oh man, like Giroux is gonna probably break out at some point and it's going to turn LAFC into this crazy juggernaut.
00:20:12
Speaker
I'm like that. Like they've gotten pretty much nothing out of him, which is both funny and beneficial to Seattle. So that was my last positive. Yeah. Uh, positives in this game.
00:20:25
Speaker
Should I do my negatives first or do you want to? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's where I mean, I only have two cause this was a great, uh, this was a great performance. Uh, the De La Vega injury. Yeah.
00:20:36
Speaker
wanted to hit on that a little bit. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's an undeniable negative. He's probably going to be out at least a few weeks and just any time he goes out with an injury like that, it's hard not to feel anxiety about it because of what happened last year. So that's a pretty big negative.
00:20:49
Speaker
And then um the first goal they conceded, the equalizer, was another pretty bad concession, really bad concession in a so early season that's had too many
Seattle's Defensive Review
00:21:01
Speaker
bad concessions. And like, honestly, like in a hypothetical world, say this game finishes like 2-2 and they drop more they drop more home points.
00:21:11
Speaker
We're sitting here like this defense needs to like, shape up yeah now yeah i feel like that kind of after the ccc game but like that equal like that was a that was just a really bad goal like it jackson reagan and andy t i mean it they don't know they got them good i don't know how yeah that was bad so those were my two negatives yeah and that david but that david martinez girl goal too was that's the one you're talking about No, no, the no, no, no. The first one, the first one. Okay. We can talk about that goal. yeah David Martinez goal was, ah all right.
00:21:46
Speaker
For anyone who doesn't know that kid is like, uh, a baller. He's well, he's one of the high, most highly rated players his age in the world. have you ever ah heard of a club called Bayern Munich?
00:21:59
Speaker
every once in a while, Ari, I have heard of them once. It was like clubs like that who were like, uh, going for him, like seriously. And, uh, LAFC, like when LAFC landed him, it was like this big, like, Whoa, what's like, why, how, how, and why, because of how highly rated,
00:22:17
Speaker
He is and he's been he hasn't played that many minutes in MLS and it seems like the narrative with him is like he's been a little hit or miss like when he's been good. He's looked like one of the best players his age in the world and then sometimes he'll go through periods where you don't really notice him on the field, which I think that's normal for a young player. Yeah, but I saw that play and i was like Oh, yeah, that was messy-esque.
00:22:40
Speaker
Okay. he He was at midfield. He dribbled from midfield through what seemed like 10 defenders, shook them all off and scored.
00:22:51
Speaker
it was It was the best run like but unlike that I've seen since JP's beard quake, honestly, which is funny. They both happened
Impressive Goal Analysis: David Martinez
00:22:58
Speaker
at Lumen Field. It reminded me of, and not completely the same, but that Raul goal where he like Dinks it over the two defenders. do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah. And that's one of his most famous goal, but this was like the, the, how long the run was. Yeah. It's true. So that's one where I'm where that's a concession where I'm like, all right, that kid just made, he just balled out. He just balled out. Like, all right. Like if he's going to score that cool goals count.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah. yeah But the first one where Andy T and Jackson Reagan just run into each other and yeah and but then at that point it just becomes a ball pinging around. That just didn't need to happen and it was at a really inopportune time and it didn't end up mattering. But like I think taken in the context of the other kind of just bad concessions that they've had so far this season.
00:23:45
Speaker
Um, I didn't like to see it. And I was tilted at the time because it was right after the De La Vega injury. And, ah it was giving up an equalizer, like before you can get to half. So that's my, yeah.
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm right there with you. Honestly, like, do I even have any different positives? Um, I think I might've covered those. Yeah. You really cooked with that. Maybe, maybe my, my other positive is like,
00:24:11
Speaker
this shows that there is the depth is good. Like there is some yeah M and M M in mla but that is what matter right like that was's what matters that's what matters in in the reality of things is like if you're going to compete in these big competitions you're going to roll out your depth for MLS, right? And now they're going to be rolling And now they're going to be rolling it out. Yeah.
00:24:36
Speaker
ah But like, I think that was kind of the point was for me, it did cement the fact that like, if you're going depth of v depth, there was such, okay. I went on the happy foot, sad foot podcast. Some of you might've watched it and I made a joke. I said, does LAFC really have depth?
00:24:53
Speaker
Cause I've heard people talking all the time about LAFC is the second deepest team in the, no, they're not. That's what I was going to say that- Like, no, they're not. You guys played like ass. I think there's a positive takeaway um regarding Seattle's depth for sure.
00:25:12
Speaker
And then there's also the takeaway of like, yeah, LAFC's depth-
00:25:19
Speaker
yeah They tanked. like They looked horrible. And like their fans and Happy Foot, Sad Foot, as I would expect, and I would do the same thing, to be fair. I'm not criticizing. But they're saying, oh, well, we were rotated, so whatever.
00:25:32
Speaker
But like... You have Olivier Giroux on your team. You're supposed to be, you you know, big bad LAFC who's got like the the deepest, best team of all time. So yeah they they definitely...
00:25:44
Speaker
i don't I don't know if that was just like you know one bag bad game or if that's reflective of their depth, but that was not that was not good. And I think you can both credit Seattle's depth for capitalizing on that and putting up five goals and also say that was dicey from the black and gold.
00:26:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm right there with you. ah Negatives,
00:26:08
Speaker
Danny Mussovsky.
00:26:12
Speaker
That's it. Okay. We'll get into it. He'll, he'll be in a positive in this next one. So I'm putting him in the negative. I feel like, uh, feel like Moose brought his stock back a little bit with next one. But if you were looking at this game, he played 45 minutes of the worst dumbest and didn't do anything.
00:26:29
Speaker
People say ghost snack, Ari. I like to perpetuate a new ghost. Gustavski. All right. Is that, is that something like you can, uh, you can cook on that if you want. I'm, I just don't want it on record. I'm not with the, I just am not with the like, uh, incessant negativity about the number three striker. Like I get it. Like he hasn't played well since he's been on the team, but he, though he would only merit the amount of heat that he gets if he was the starter.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah. That's not. So that's just how I feel about the moose thing. Like, like Like the number three striker, the number three striker is like, uh, it's kind of hard to find a good one because uh, if they were like really, really good or highly touted, they would be a number two or i just one striker. I think that if you're the striker, regardless of if you're the backup or not, and you're starting and you play 45 minute, 46 minutes and you only have 11 touches, that's problem.
00:27:25
Speaker
That's like, I just, what think? Where are you? Touches aren't necessarily an individual stat. Okay. Well, okay. Well, he was, he had nine passes and he went seven for nine.
00:27:37
Speaker
I don't know. Like I just, he just was not super. I'll like, I'll accept it as your, as your negative. Yeah. Um, Agenda check agenda. check We're doing agenda check one.
00:27:49
Speaker
So yeah, this is agenda check one. ah The Paul Rothrock is back. We can, we talked about it, but I think he's totally restored the, ah the Rothrock vibes of last year yeah with this game.
00:28:03
Speaker
And then frankly, I know he gave up the penalty tonight. he played well. You were, you were talking about it on stream, but like he was one of the only guys like making things happen out there, but save that for the yeah the second. So second half Paul Rothrock is back agenda.
00:28:18
Speaker
Yeah. I thought he, I thought he looked so good, man in this game. Like the, after he got that goal, Brian even said as much in the, in the post game presser, he said, you know, that first 45, this was after the question that I asked, he had said,
00:28:32
Speaker
you know, maybe we have something to talk about, about that first 45. But after that, he worked his ass off. He worked hard and he got his goal and he settled in and he's, he's playing like a man possessed.
00:28:44
Speaker
And that's the player you want. That's the player you want coming on at half at Cruz Azul. You know what I'm saying? that's ah That's the player you want in your back pocket where, yeah, maybe you have to rotate, but you know you've got a guy who doesn't care. He just wants to play. He wants to score.
Rothrock's Rising Potential
00:28:59
Speaker
He wants to win.
00:29:00
Speaker
And we were both a little critical. We said, you know what? He's not playing well. He was self-critical, but folks, the Paul Rob Rock, the the the hype train... It had already left the station. It slowed down. We picked up some new people and we're on our way. Bullet train style.
00:29:17
Speaker
Absolutely. Uh, LAFC owns Seattle. Uh, I wrote fucking dead, dead, dead. I don't who are yeah already talked about that, but I don't want to hear that, uh, until the next 10 game unbeaten run they have against Seattle. Yeah. Uh,
00:29:33
Speaker
The KKR is an MLS player agenda. This is actually a Schmetz agenda that he, he brought to the table, I think. Yeah, he did. He's in, he was saying even before this game, I think Schmetz was like, I really liked it. Like, I like this kid. Like, I really think he has something. And you never know if a coach is onto something with that until you actually watch them play in an MLS game.
00:29:58
Speaker
And I got to say, like, ah i was talking to Nico about this on Lobbing Scorchers kickoff every Monday at 8 a.m. But, ah you know, like we talk so much, Noah, right, about young players and the difference between a young player who's like blending in and playing not to make mistakes and a young player who is.
00:30:17
Speaker
making plays, playing without fear inhibitions and impacting the game, moving the needle. That is the difference between like a average prospect to a good to great prospect KKR. And what we've seen of him, he scored a game winning goal in the open cup and did a really awesome flip and Uh, but that was a big goal. That was a game winning goal in an elimination game.
00:30:42
Speaker
And then he went out there and did that against LAFC. And I'm like, man, this, this kid made more has made more plays in his like two games that I've watched him than lot of, uh, the Academy kids who have,
00:30:59
Speaker
come up in the last couple of years who have been, who've been like good. They become good players like Obed, but like Obed was a lot younger to be fair, but you know what I'm saying? Like he, uh, he's making not just an impact, but like a pronounced impact.
00:31:14
Speaker
That was an incredible individual play that he made against, uh, against that LAFC defender. So yeah, the KKR stock is up. Schmetz might've cooked with that. No, and I think even more than that, you can take away the goal in that game and he plays really well. Like, his passing was... at least he was He was literally, like, the heartbeat of that team for quite a few... I'd say quite a few minutes, but, you know, like, for for large periods of that game.
00:31:40
Speaker
Dude, the 10 minutes... I want to see... ah I know that they have all of the like heart rate data and all of the stuff. The 10 minutes after he scored, he was he was all over the field. He was running around. He wanted a second one so bad. You'd see him top of the box. Then he'd be all the way back defending. And then he was back out on the wing and back out on the left wing.
00:32:00
Speaker
He was like... playing like a man possessed it was that that just post game adrenaline. One more thing on KKR. Another great moment I thought from his post game scrum was when I think it was Jeremiah again, asked him like, well, why, why didn't you do the flip? Like you did the flip in the open cup flip.
00:32:16
Speaker
And he goes, uh, he goes, you know, I feel like the flip is more of a closer move. And then he's like, it was It was so early in the game, you know, I thought about it, but then i figured there's so much time for like this result to flip. Like, no, i'm not going to do the flip. Like lock back in, refocus and like, let's go.
00:32:34
Speaker
That was such a good answer. He's a Brian Schmetzer player, bro. No wonder. such a good answer i love I just love the idea of like, no, the flip is when it's it's when we close it out. Yeah. That's how we close it out. But that's such like a, that you can tell that's like another reason why Brian loves it. He's that Paul Rothrock archetype.
00:32:50
Speaker
He is that Christian Roldan archetype that just like knows in the grind, all of that kind of stuff. And like, he's just always going to be playing with his hair on fire. Yeah. And I love loves players like that. I love players like that. that's yeah That's the, that's a Seattle player identity. Yes. And he is a Seattle player through and through, man. Like,
00:33:09
Speaker
he He's not a just a Seattle player. He's an MLS player. Agenda skyrocketed. Should I lob my two that I have? Yeah. Well, I had to put this one in there because it's not necessarily your agenda. It's not my agenda. i'm just I'm just perpetuating the streets.
00:33:25
Speaker
Pedro De La Vega, always injured, bum signing, blah, blah, blah, all of the talk agenda. Uh, I mean, goes off in what the 30, 30th minute or something. I get why it's a thing because of what happened
Pedro De La Vega Injury Concerns
00:33:43
Speaker
last year. it was a muscle injury again.
00:33:45
Speaker
i just hate this agenda because i don't know. it just never sits right with me. Anything that feels like it's like blaming someone for getting injured, you know, like, uh, like you can have a bust signing because of injuries for sure.
00:34:02
Speaker
But like, it's not for lack of anything on his part, like as a guy or as a player. And in fact, like we were all so excited and happy about how he was looking to start the season. Like, I really feel like, I really feel like last season we never saw, that was kind of the issue is like, he was hurt all the time. And then when he wasn't hurt, it looked, it didn't look good.
00:34:24
Speaker
Like he was fully up to speed. It didn't look like he had chemistry. And we're like, well, even if he wasn't injured, would this be a good fit on this team? And then this year, like I thought he was, looking he was looking great.
00:34:36
Speaker
So I know that ah people are going to be down on him and giving him a hard time because it happened again. But ah so maybe the, maybe this agenda is strengthened in that respect, but I don't like it, man. It's not his fault that he tweaked his quad completely.
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, he could be. I think that two things can be true. He is injury prone. I think that or at least has been since he got here. I mean, he was. well And then, yeah but yeah, he's in. I think I think it's fair to say he's an injury prone player.
00:35:06
Speaker
And that said that I think he's also played well. But that was also another reason why I was trying to pump the brakes, because I was like, man, like. I don't know if he's going to be able to play the amount of minutes. I don't know if he's going to be able to do all of that.
00:35:23
Speaker
And that's like, that's a big part of being ah designated player. Availability. You have to be available. And so I think that. People questioning the signing, it's fair.
00:35:37
Speaker
It's fine. I think you you take a gamble anytime you sign a player, especially when they're young, especially when they've had an injury before. But that doesn't mean that they're down and out for the count.
00:35:48
Speaker
Now, okay, I'm going to say Jordan Morris, but look at Jordan Morris last season. He was Teflon Jordan, dude. That guy played every single goddamn match, and he was never injured.
00:36:00
Speaker
he had a history of being super injured, like of having all of these horrific injuries, right? Like things happen in your career. It doesn't define you until it does. But I think it's fair to say that like,
00:36:12
Speaker
there is a There is a ghost haunting Pedro de la Vega and the injuries. they're you know It just sucks, man. It just sucks. I was having so much fun watching him. like he was he's like a He's an exciting player, you know which is what this team needed so badly. so It just sucks.
00:36:32
Speaker
It sucks. My ah last agenda for this game was Sounders have no best 11 agenda. Let me explain this a little bit because I know that it doesn't really maybe make sense initially, but what this is to say is I have seen our starting 11 play some of the worst soccer of all time.
00:36:52
Speaker
And I've seen road dated 11 play some of the worst soccer of all time. I've seen them both play some of the best soccer of all time. I just don't think that there is a perfect...
00:37:04
Speaker
Like, I don't, I don't know. i Maybe that maybe there's just like not a huge drop off is what I'm trying to say in quality between all of these players. And I think a lot of these players can work well together.
00:37:15
Speaker
You see Paul Rothrock looking great. You see Danny Leyva coming in and and working on his own. JP has been playing really well. I think that that what I'm trying to say is like, they may not have their best 11 yet.
00:37:29
Speaker
it may still yeah i was yet to develop i was gonna say uh the amendment i would make would be like they haven't found yet not that they don't have right i think i think it exists in the astral plane uh and i think there's uh there's things to be figured out there i think ferrera's role is one of them you know Well, when he can play more than 20 minutes. Right.
00:37:54
Speaker
Like him, him playing more, whether that's fitness or whatever, it's going to be a part of that. I guess we'll talk about that in our, uh, in our next section, which unless you have any more agendas, I think we can, uh, talk some CCC.
00:38:11
Speaker
Let's do CCC. It was the highest of highs. And now Ari, it's the lowest of lows. Seattle Sounders. went to Mexico to play Cruz Azul for leg two of their round of 16 CONCACAF Champions Cup Series with it tied zero zero And I guess let's first just talk about how we felt going into the game because i would say, like, I try to be realistic about these things in the sense that even against a team, a Liga Imequi's team like Cruz Azul that isn't off to a particularly great start, didn't look particularly great in leg one,
00:38:50
Speaker
like You're always up against it on the road. Royal in turmoil. like yeah they were they were Exactly. They were roiled in turmoil, don't have a stadium, all that stuff. ah ever they Their fans were saying that they were rooting for Seattle because they want the coach fired.
00:39:03
Speaker
but i did see after the fourth goal that they scored, he was praying. And I'm like, yeah, dude, that is a fucking prayer answered for you. Even yeah. So like even with all those variables into account, i I still try to like keep in my mind like, all right, it's a CCC road game in Mexico. Honestly, like no matter what the circumstances are, like you've got to heavily skew your expectations to being the underdog like 7525 like you're going to lose the game. yeah And I think that will be true as long as MLS's roster restrictions are roughly what they are because Liga and Mechies teams are always going to have a lot more quality in their in their depth.
00:39:49
Speaker
And ah their top end players are always really, really good too. You got to play guys like Zignac, you know? ah Or Bogus. Or Bogus. So ah all that being said,
00:40:00
Speaker
i I would say I felt about as good going into this game as I have for a CCC game, maybe even better than the 22 one. I think maybe I got a little overconfident in that respect because they've won this competition before and they've shown that they can handle series like this. And we were all very, uh,
00:40:18
Speaker
not all, but we were excited about like the depth and specifically how that could function and help them in a tournament like this. Um, so I thought at the very least, even if they lost, it was going to be like,
00:40:36
Speaker
a really, really evenly matched game. That's, yeah that that's honestly, that's what the first leg looked like. Yeah, exactly. That's honestly what I expected, even with like, even knowing though that, that a road game is a lot harder than the first, you know, than the first game that they played. I mean, did you feel all that much different beforehand? No, I thought we had a chance.
00:40:56
Speaker
I thought if the Sounders came to play like they did Lumen, there was always going to be a chance because at the end of the day, all they had to do was come out with a scoring draw to advance.
00:41:08
Speaker
yeah And I think that... The way that this team was set up there, I, I fully expected like a one, one or a two, two to advance them. I never thought that they were going to go down to Mexico and blow the doors off and win three nil, four nil, even one nil. I didn't think that was going to happen. I thought it would always be a get punched.
00:41:29
Speaker
How are you going to respond type of thing? And, uh, I, I mean, we can run down the game quick, you know, four to one, They got punched and they did not. Well, so, okay. punchback I think we should start with the first half because yeah the first half was, it was a disaster.
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah. It was a freaking disaster. The first, we were talking about it on the post game live, but like the first, like actually three to four minutes of the game I thought we're actively good.
00:42:01
Speaker
Like, I don't know if I'm delusional on that, but I was like, okay, like this is actually going pretty well. Like they looked up for it. They had the, they had a couple of like good little sequences of play and half chances.
00:42:13
Speaker
They did not look like a team that was about to get overrun in the way that they ended up getting overrun. no So, uh, like, I think that's adds to the frustration of how it panned out because it actually like legitimately started out pretty well.
00:42:28
Speaker
Uh, but the rest of the first half, uh, they were as bad in possession as I've ever seen. And they didn't leave their own half.
00:42:38
Speaker
Like, yeah. They, ah I don't know, maybe it's just because they're the team that I follow the most and I've watched them in every big game that they've ever played. So realistically, you're going to have some good, you're going have some bad in there. But I swear when this team a plays in finals or big games like this that they lose, it's it's in large part because they just lose all ability to maintain possession.
Match Possession Struggles
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, they could. They couldn't keep the ball. That was really the story of the half. And the story of the game is that like the the how bad they were in possession and then the giveaways every single time. man They couldn't complete a pass. They literally could not come there like these stretches.
00:43:25
Speaker
And that is for anyone that didn't watch the game. That'll sound like an exaggeration. It's not like they couldn't. complete a pass. Like you're right. Or it was like, let's, let's sky this ball in the air. Like, let's not just connect some passes on the ground. Let's yeah flick the ball up in to a 50, 50 ball. It's because they were just under siege the whole time. And so like a lot of the times, the only recourse they had was just like,
00:43:50
Speaker
clear it. Uh, but then Cruz Azul of course has the ball again. And honestly, there was probably until like the 30th minute or so. I did think what I was going through my mind was like, all right, this is annoying to watch because they can't keep the ball. There's way too many giveaways, but it did kind of feel like possession without purpose for them for a while of that. Didn't it?
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah. I felt like, uh, they were until the, until the opener, So they might, there, there might've been a couple good looks right leading up to the opener, but I've, I remember feeling like, all right, like they have most of the ball, but it's not like fry is under crazy siege right now. They're doing a decent job at like keeping everything in front of them, keeping their shape.
00:44:34
Speaker
and then clearing it out and not giving up like crazy chances or anything. um But like at the end of the day, if you can't keep the ball, you're not gonna be able to score and they couldn't keep the ball.
00:44:45
Speaker
So ah that, ah that was really what did them in, in the first half. But then this add onto that first half, just because i it needs to be said, like you're playing at elevation and if you can't control any kind of possession and slow the game down,
00:45:03
Speaker
You're going to die. You're going to die. I'm sorry. That's just the way that it goes. They got gas because That's what I'm saying. You have a team that is relentless in pressure. Cruz Hussle is relentless in pressure. You watch this game.
00:45:17
Speaker
Relentless. I mean, it is impressive the way that they are able to press so hard. Literally every player on their team is forward in our half playing possession, holding the ball, right?
00:45:31
Speaker
It doesn't matter. And then, you know, their goalkeeper is basically just another center back. I love that guy. That guy fucking rocks, but and it does. But like, but like, you know what i'm saying? So it's like, you are essentially playing 11 on 11 on defense.
00:45:45
Speaker
Your whole game plan going into this is to spring counterattacks and push Jordan Morris forward. When you can't connect a pass, you're not going to connect a long ball. You're not going to connect to Jordan Morris.
00:46:00
Speaker
And it was just like he was not having a good day either. The balls would come to him. he would just not be in the right position. Things wouldn't happen. just like it felt not great.
00:46:12
Speaker
And then the 33rd minute, man, they get that goal and you can just tell that this team is gassed from then on. Yeah. Uh, to me, this game was lost in the midfield. I thought the midfield olds got absolutely obliterated. Probably the worst I've ever seen that double pivot play. That was the worst that double pivot is played. It was, I think the worst, and in Christian, by the way, just for, Yeah. yeah I think that was the worst game of Christian's career. I think he would probably agree yeah if you asked him, um which, you know, Christian has been one of the best players this team has ever had. So it's not like we're I'm not having to go with Christian, but he, it was, I don't even think he was the worst player on the field. He had, well, he had two really bad giveaways and then he got low key, high key, kind of lucky to not get sent off. Yeah. I,
00:47:00
Speaker
I would have been, stue Holden was saying on the broadcast, he was like, they're for sure going to send him off. I didn't think they were going to send him off. Well, it's just conky calf, so you never know.
00:47:11
Speaker
and But like, ah my thing is like, i don't I don't like reds where there's literally nothing the guy could have done to avoid it yeah Like he's literally, he's trying, he's kicking the ball as he has the right to.
00:47:23
Speaker
And then on the follow through, hits the guy's leg, which Stu was saying that he left his feet. So that, that arguably becomes reckless. I just don't think there's, don't know what Stu was talking about there to be honest with you. I don't think there's much of any of a way that he could have avoided the con the contact.
00:47:40
Speaker
So that's a 50, 50 ball at that point. Like if he won the ball, which I know doesn't technically matter, but like, he does. Let's be real. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Cause like the follow through happens because he won the ball. So don't know. Exactly. But still like it was a sketchy moment and, uh, in an, in an otherwise really, you don't want to put it up to a conca gaff ref. Exactly.
00:48:03
Speaker
But they, they give up the first goal, which, you know, like, I honestly don't really care about what happened on the sequence. Like they just, they deserve, they were asking for it. yeah Like they were fully asking for it. I was surprised it didn't happen sooner with how bad they were in possession.
00:48:18
Speaker
so that was honestly for as bad as they played getting to the half at one zero was ah good outcome. But, uh, but then you have the REL injury, which is really bad. Like he, it was non-contact.
00:48:34
Speaker
Uh, it's not announced what happened yet, but You could hear on the broadcast him scream. Like, I mean, it looked like he did his ACL. You could tell. i hotel I hope that that's not what happened. But just like based on what we saw, i think he was stretchered off the field. Like if ah if it's not an ACL, he's going to be out.
00:48:55
Speaker
He's still going to be out for a while. And that sucks, man, because he looked like he was going to be a really awesome addition to this
Injury Woes: Paul Areola
00:49:03
Speaker
team this year. he was balling. He was balling like he's a really good player.
00:49:07
Speaker
ah Part of the reason we were all as excited as we were about the depth. He was a big part of that. Uh, he scored two goals already in champions cup against Antigua.
00:49:19
Speaker
Uh, he's just like, uh, he and Ferreira both. I think their strong suits are just like how they're, they're team guys. They're unselfish. Paul Areola has like crazy work rate. And, uh,
00:49:31
Speaker
Another Brian Schmetzer-esque player. He's a very Schmetz player. I think we've mentioned that, but like losing him for an extended period sucks, man. There's just no way around it. So like for that, that half would have been a disaster anyway, in my opinion, it felt like a disaster. And like, didn't,
00:49:49
Speaker
I don't know Didn't it feel like at that point that even though they were down one, didn't it like already feel chalked? I think I literally so like posted on blue sky. I'm not reactionary like that. Like when I, when I'm, I'm, I've watched enough of this game to know that when you going down one zero does not mean the game is over. Like yeah a lot of people, I feel like when they see one zero, they're like, okay, well that's it. That's I usually am not like that, but that's how I felt in this game. The second, yeah, the second that Paul Oriola got that injury, i am well, one, I was crashing out online, obviously. I'm the one who does that because you're the pundit. You're the, like, you know, the the reasonable one.
00:50:28
Speaker
And, but you're right. It was over. Like, it just, everything was going so poorly. it would have literally taken a miracle to completely turn around what we had just watched. and Like, it didn't matter if you subbed every single player off who was on the field, changed everything, changed your formation. Like, you're gassed.
00:50:53
Speaker
It's, you're down one. You just lost a player to an injury. Shit's not working. Shit is not working. Nothing was working. Passing, awful. but People want to blame the field. Sure, cool. It's the field then. Like, it felt shocked from half.
00:51:11
Speaker
it felt shocked but it actually wasn't like yeah they still were in a situation at half if they scored one like on it like the way i was coping was uh and i actually said this before the game so it wasn't even cope uh but i really going into this game was telling myself if they score first like don't even panic like if the game state is as bad as it was then like yeah that's why i ended up Yeah. Panicking. But as far as just like the ah outcome of if they score first, it doesn't, it didn't matter that much. Like ah it mattered in the sense that it put Cruz Azul, like a goal closer to being able to create separation.
00:51:51
Speaker
But in terms of what Seattle had to do, it didn't change anything. They just had to go out in the second half and tie that game up. And ideally if they could, you score two, and they only score another one, then you advance. So like they weren't chalked there.
00:52:06
Speaker
it felt like they were, but like on the scoreboard, they were not. so ah The game wasn't over, but I think that the reality of you You can tell when a team is just just not there.
00:52:21
Speaker
Like, i i I don't want to compare this to the 20, the the the ah MLS Cup that we pretend doesn't exist against the Columbus Crew. The 17 Cup was the same thing. Yeah, but exactly. This did this felt actually more like the 17 Cup to me.
00:52:38
Speaker
It's just like, you can tell. It's just not their day. It wasn't their time. Nothing was working. It just, it the wheels fell off. The wheels fell off. Well, so that being said, um they they didn't really fully fall off until the very end of the game.
00:52:55
Speaker
Rothrock came in for Areola and he had a he had an eventful shift. Rothrock giveth and Rothrock taketh away. he was a key character in this game.
00:53:08
Speaker
um So basically though, like what I wanted to see in the second half was like, just, just like figure out how to keep the ball a little bit. Like that's it. But step one, so literally just stop, like cut down the giveaways, keep the ball a little bit. You don't even have to be generating chances. Just like right chill this thing out and like stop being under pressure the whole time. Keeps the ball. They couldn't do it.
00:53:32
Speaker
No, like it, literally There was maybe a pocket of 10 minutes where they where they did have a few chances like into the second half. But this was after the second goal. Correct. This was yeah. After after Christmas will had their cushion and they they felt comfortable pulling their foot off the gas.
00:53:48
Speaker
But yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, so ah they gave up the second goal on a penalty that Rothrock conceded, which it was a bad play by Rothrock, but like ah I'm really not aggrieved at him at all, and I'm not like aggrieved at the concession because, again, like they were asking for it.
00:54:09
Speaker
If it wasn't on the penalty, they were asking to get bammed some other way. He scores that. like like He probably scores that whether it's a penalty or not. Yeah, or or they scored. There was like at least at least three or four. like really like The one that Reagan headed down to the guy. that was terrible. Areola made an insane block. Otherwise, that probably would have been a goal. They had like at least they had a handful of other really good looks other than that.
00:54:40
Speaker
So... It just, ah like the penalty felt like to me, like something that like it was an outcome that was inevitable regardless of if he conceded that.
00:54:50
Speaker
um Yeah. So at that point it's two zero. And i I think we all were like, okay, this is chalk chalk. But to be fair, I guess this is where we get to the positive. To be fair, they brought one back and ah it was Moose. It was Moose who got one.
00:55:04
Speaker
And this was a nice goal. I have to confront you about this when you finish this, this statement. Okay. I mean, I was just going to recap what happened. contain It was a, it was a very good set piece by Rusek.
00:55:16
Speaker
He put the free kick right on Rothrock at the far post Rothrock heads it down into the mixer and it pings around Moose Moose gets one. And right there you are at one goal from advancing again, somehow.
Danny Musovski's Redemption Moment
00:55:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:34
Speaker
Here you tweet, you posted, not tweeted. You skeeted. If Moose scores one today, I'll buy his Jersey and shotgun, a white claw while wearing it live on stream. Now you will pretend that you tweeted this today. yeah You tweeted this, this weekend.
00:55:49
Speaker
I know. Will you follow up on this? Even though it was one game late. Yeah, like i like that i didn't say that about this game. Right, but like I feel like it's what the people want. You know what? Okay, here's what I'll say.
00:56:02
Speaker
I'm not ah because... Okay, if they had won, if they had advanced, like drawn and advanced or whatever, i would do that for Moose. I feel like shotgunning for ah a goal in a game like this, it just doesn't... Like it's not...
00:56:18
Speaker
He probably would want wouldn't want that. Yeah, exactly. he wouldn't want The whole point is that it was supposed to be celebratory. Got it. So i just it just doesn't feel right. ah But I'll make more stupid bets. Okay. Don't worry about it. We had the people. The people wanted to know. Um, yeah, no, that's fair. I saw everyone tagging me on blue sky, but like that was about the LAFC game folks. Like I did, I did not, i I didn't even think he was going to play in this game. So like, I wouldn't have said that about this game. Yeah. Uh, anyway, Moose makes it to one.
00:56:48
Speaker
And, uh, like I still was like, I don't think they're going to, I didn't, i turned the game off. You crashed out that hard. I turned it off at two one. You turned it off at at two at two nil. I turned it off and I had notifications on. You didn't see the moose goal.
00:57:03
Speaker
And then, no I got the notification of the moose goal. And so I booted it back up. Watch the moose goal said, of course, moose scores when I turn the game off. Classic. Wow. That's. And then I watched the rest of the game. So I only had it off for about 10 minutes.
00:57:15
Speaker
Wow, that is a that's a that's a good crash out. i had i do it was a It was a mental health preservation thing. That's fine. yeah I get it. um But I did turn it back on and I did rewind and rewatch those 10 minutes. So at 2-1, like...
00:57:29
Speaker
ah two one like They actually, despite everything we talked about, man, despite everything that we talked about, I know the narrative is going to be that they got boat raced in this game. I mean, like it ended like that because Cruz Azul gets two late goals, but this was literally like 2-1. And I do think it's fair to point out that ah they were lucky to not be getting boat raced harder by that point. Sure, yeah.
00:57:54
Speaker
But they had it they they competed hard enough in this game. to They had a chance in the second half. Those were two garbage time goals, man. like This game should have ended two to one Exactly. like like I'm sorry. like it you this This game fully could have been a disgusting one one draw.
00:58:12
Speaker
cruises who probably would have deserved to win that but i think if you were going to be real here this was like a two one threat and you could yeah you know you know you could say like oh well cruises will could have had a couple more but uh when seattle in the first five minutes uh jackson reagan they could have jackson reagan had that header uh and there was at least one other chance so like you you're starting to play hey okay here's the here's my my thing Jesus for our miss.
00:58:37
Speaker
Misses a sitter from Paul. rock yeah rock Okay. That was what I, uh, I, uh, forgot about that. Yeah. But that was, also wanted to forget about that. Ari. I wanted that washed from my brain. let's just talk about that because that was honestly, that was one of the moments of the game.
00:58:54
Speaker
Oh my God. Might've been the moment of the game. Paul Rothrock makes an awesome play to free himself up down the left side.
00:59:05
Speaker
He's all alone in acres of space. He totally lost his guy. He puts in a great ball, perfect ball, perfect ball. Ferreira has it lined up. He could even take a touch if he wants. He could have taken a touch. He tried to first time it. I don't really care. Just make He's a striker. He knows. Yeah.
00:59:23
Speaker
And he skied it. like Like, not even close. Not even close to on target. And I... A pet peeve of mine is when... like people point at one miss from a striker and they're like, Oh, well that like, how does he not make that? Like this stuff is harder than it looks. And, uh, every, the thing is every single striker, every single striker that's ever lived messy, man, you could go through all of their film and there's going to be plays like that.
00:59:56
Speaker
You know, like there's going to be missed shots, miss hit shots. Um, So it's not an indictment Ferreira as like a player or anything like that.
01:00:06
Speaker
But ah that was a brutal play. It's one you everyone wants back. The player wants that back. I sure as hell want that back. Roth robbed. He got robbed. They robbed my boy of what could have been a game-winning assist Rothrock really like he, he juiced, he did his thing. He had, he had the assist on the one goal that they scored and really could have had an assist on that play. Like he's balling right now. yeah So, I mean, that's the other thing. Like I'm not, I'm not going to give him a hard time about the penalty at all because he had the assist on the goal that they did score that gave them a chance to advance.
01:00:42
Speaker
And like, what's he supposed, he couldn't have done anything different to, uh, to give Ferreira a chance on that play. And he just, uh, even if you have that shot saved, man, just get it on target. Yeah. i'm Like, I don't know.
01:00:55
Speaker
I don't know. That was a, that was a huge play. Should we do our men of the match? Should we do a man of the match for this game? I mean, it's it's is it anyone other than Rothrock? Like, yeah, know. Probably. I think that's probably right you he's the only one. He's the only one. No, you pick Paul.
01:01:10
Speaker
I'll pick someone else, but you got to go through why. Well, I'm to surprise the people. He's the only player on the team that. played well, I guess maybe Danny Leva. Yeah. Danny Musavsky.
01:01:23
Speaker
Thank you. Danny Musavsky, Noah approved Lobbing Scorchers man of the match. That's my atonement for all the slander. I'm unironically happy for Moose. that it is good It's a good, it's a good, that is, and we'll jump into positives and negatives here. This was my positive.
01:01:38
Speaker
Moose getting a goal is great for his confidence. It doesn't matter the result. It shows that like, okay, like it takes that pressure off. That's a good thing. the pressure good thing That's a, that is objectively a good thing.
01:01:49
Speaker
Agreed. And you know, I already saw people being like, it doesn't count because it was office. set yeah yeah doesn't count None of them count. Uh, all right. Positives and negatives and agenda check. Yeah. Uh, this is my other positive, uh, no more fixture congestion Ari.
01:02:05
Speaker
Well, until leagues come until leagues come. Okay. But like for now, for like six weeks, no more congestion. We don't have to go and do 7,000 pods a week. Oh, let's go to negative. Sorry. Let's go to negatives.
01:02:17
Speaker
I mean, i don't need, I feel like we basically just covered everything, but I guess to me, like the biggest, did we talk about Morris going off injured? well, so yeah, like the areola injury and then, uh, Jordan Morris pulls up with the hamstring. You're right. We didn't even talk about that. tefllon morris So, uh, that means like, I think overall negative is that De La Vega, Jordan Morris and areola are all now injured. Areola looking long-term Morris and De La Vega looking like they're going to be out for at least a few weeks.
01:02:49
Speaker
Um, so that's really bad. And, uh, a very big negative. Uh, and then I think the most frustrating thing for me, about for me, the most frustrating thing about watching this game was just the possession thing.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I feel like if they could have just literally just kept the ball more, they would actually had a chance. They had a chance even with how bad they were in possession. So it's like, man, like why does that happen in these games? Like I, I can't like diagnose that. No, it's so frustrating.
01:03:28
Speaker
Agenda check. Okay. Uh, yeah, it looks like you wrote a you wrote some down here. Did you have any you wanted to cook on? I do. Yeah, go ahead. and you all ah Unless you're ready to cook or I can start. Well, I can read it and then maybe, yeah, let's do with that. So it looks like we got the Seattle Sounders depth is chalked agenda. I think, uh, the reasoning behind that is obvious with the injuries that we talked about.
01:03:52
Speaker
And then, just also how this game went in general. There's probably going to be that type of sentiment. Uh, flying around. um I would use the term compromised.
01:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. i like that better more than chalked. It's not chalked. Like we're going to find out a lot about the depth because guys like, I mean, Rothrock and Georgie you're starting now. yeah So, uh, we're going to, we're going to find out if it's chalked, but like, I mean, when we're talking about guys like Jordan Morris and De La Vega and Areola, it's compromised. It's compromised. I like that. I think I'm right there with you. I don't think we're fully chalked.
01:04:27
Speaker
I think that you're compromised and that's kind of why the depth matters. Do you know what i'm saying? So, yeah. ah The next one, do you want me to read this next one? Go for it.
01:04:39
Speaker
Jesus is the savior agenda. I mean, this is... ah The stock is down. This is going to be diminished. He's going to take a lot of heat. He's going to take a lot of heat for this one. Because people were already down on his arrival anyway. Yeah.
01:04:56
Speaker
Because he came from another MLS team. And like a miss like that is just going to fuel that. I think... I think that's, I get it why it's going to happen. I think doing that based off one shot is stupid. And I honestly think I'm just going to tune that discourse out.
01:05:18
Speaker
Like I can't do people talking about how unambitious Seattle is as a club because their guy they traded for missed one shot. I get that it was a bad miss in a really big spot, but one play is never why you lose a game.
01:05:36
Speaker
that if if If you really think that we lost this game because Jesus Ferreira missed a shot that was still going to be a little bit of a difficult shot, you you didn't watch the game.
01:05:49
Speaker
You didn't watch the game or you're being willfully disingenuous. Yeah, exactly. They lost that game because they played really bad the whole time. Not because of that one shot. Yeah, it was like that. I'm not definitely not trying to downplay how brutal of a play yeah that was, but like to make it all about one guy or one play is never accurate.
01:06:08
Speaker
But Jesus is the savior agenda. Definitely. Definitely. now He hasn't. He hasn't been. He's going to i think he's played well ah leading up to this game, but he's going to be he's going to be taking a lot of heat.
01:06:21
Speaker
Yeah. ah This one is more of just ah me atoning for my own takes and having the ah the Grim Reaper come for me. The winning CONCACAF Champions Cup is the the cup we're going to win agenda. I don't know. Something like that.
01:06:36
Speaker
I said we would win CCC. I said that it didn't matter how hard it was, but blah, bla blah, blah, blah. Well, that didn't happen.
01:06:46
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, this one's dead. This one is dead. I think your, uh, I think your reasoning was sound. It just didn't pan. I, you know what I would say is, uh, uh, speaking for myself, I got, I think I got a little overconfident about like, or like not overconfident, but not fully acknowledging how much of a beast this tournament is even for the deepest and the best quality of and MLS clubs. Like it's still that the problem is it's still so early in the season. You see all of those mistakes.
01:07:21
Speaker
Like, I'm sorry. i don't think this team plays like that in another month. I don't, I also don't think that I, people, people might, uh, people might not like this take. I don't think this Cruz Azul team is that much better than Seattle. No, no. I thought we played, i thought that both of these games were winnable. The first leg is, I think, roughly what the levels are. Cruz Azul destroyed them in this in this game, but like i really I don't think there's as much of a gap between these two teams as it like. But if they get it done in that first leg, the game plan going into the second leg is drastically different, and I think that they have...
01:08:01
Speaker
a way
Controversial Series Loss
01:08:02
Speaker
better chance. And I don't think that it's out of the realm of possibility that they're advancing to play, you know, and they America or Chivas. They had those chances in the first leg too, man. New who off the post, Jordan off the post,
01:08:15
Speaker
Called back goal that was maybe ah toenail offside, but probably wasn't. you can't the You can't blame the series loss on that, but that does that call still pisses me off. that That should have been a goal. I think this series felt cursed as hell.
01:08:34
Speaker
On that moment, yeah. On that moment and going forward and just like in series... I'm sorry. I love Cruz. That's like the, the Liga Mechies team that I love. I never want to play them again.
01:08:45
Speaker
This, this, this, these two teams playing each other cursed. Never want to play him again. Cruz. That's all is cursed. Agenda certified. Um, we already talked about this last one, but I thought we could hate it again just for posterity.
01:08:58
Speaker
Rothrock should start agenda. He's going to be starting. Yeah, I mean, exactly. That's not even like an agenda at this point. That's just literally what's going to happen yeah week in, week out. And honestly, with how he's looked the last couple games, I'm ah
01:09:12
Speaker
i'm i'm happy to have him starting every week. Obviously, like I wish Areola was available. But given that he's not, I think Rothrock in the form that he's looked like the last couple games is as good a contingency as I could hope for.
01:09:27
Speaker
Sweet. Well, Ari, we're going to take a break really quick. Thank God. We're going to take a break from all of this doom and this gloom, and you're going listen to some beautiful ads. So we will be right back.
01:09:42
Speaker
Welcome back. All right.
Listener Engagement and Ad Skipping
01:09:44
Speaker
Thanks for listening. If you, Ari, you just hit the line, Ari, you know the line. What line? If you skipped our ads, know. you skipped our ads, we know. do know that line. Don't skip the ads. Didn't we have that guy crash out on Reddit and he was like, I do skip the ads. Yeah, we did have a guy. And I care who knows it. I was like, I don't. We did have a guy crash. You know, Reddit is the place to crash out from what I hear. And we did have someone already left his first ever Reddit comment. I crashed out on Reddit and there was back and I'm making fun of a guy for crashing out on Reddit when I, uh, I did that as well.
01:10:20
Speaker
Um, all right, Noah, uh, I think that's enough of, uh, enough of that. We covered, uh, we covered that CCC game in about as detail as I care to. it wasn't a good game. No.
01:10:34
Speaker
Uh, feel free and leave your crash out comments on the video or wherever you like.
Vancouver Whitecaps' Strong Start
01:10:40
Speaker
And I'm sure we'll, we'll be discoursing about this CCC crash out plenty in the weeks to come. So don't worry about that.
01:10:47
Speaker
Let's just jump around the, jump around the league real quick. And then we got our blazing hot coach press conference of the week sponsored by hacks and ferments. And then we'll get out of here for episode 87. um Code LS at checkout. One free hot sauce match day.
01:11:02
Speaker
Yeah. What you say? Match day three winners. I got the Vancouver white caps. look good. Ryan Gould is injured. So he's out for Scottish. Messy Scottish. Messy is injured for a few weeks, which is ah not good for my fantasy team. ari It's not good for your fantasy team. It's not good for the Vancouver white caps.
01:11:22
Speaker
Um, but, uh, they're off to a notably good, I mean, they're three Oh no there and they advanced in, uh, CCC. So, uh, they could be fraudulent, but they're definitely off to a good start.
01:11:37
Speaker
Uh, the other three Oh no team, the Philly union who destroyed the reds. They don't look fraudulent. They, they really don't. They don't look like the, they look like the Jim C teams on steroids right now. It's kind of crazy.
01:11:48
Speaker
Um, Yeah. with Bradley Cornell, right? That's who their new coach is Yeah. Which that's sort of the thing with the Philly union is that they look, uh, they, uh, last year they missed the playoffs. They fired their coach. I think everyone kind of thought that there was no reason that they would be any different this year.
Philly Union's Consistent Performance
01:12:06
Speaker
And they look like they still look really, really good. They did. It it was against the revs who Caleb Porter might get fired, which would be like, It would be the second funniest firing in the league to me.
01:12:19
Speaker
Number one being Phil Neville. But number two, this like this would rock too. Doyle had a whole thread. And he wasn't even like doing any advanced stats. He was just dishing the ah points per game that Porter has put up in the years where he didn't make the playoffs. like so he's He's such a weird coach because he' he's got ah two MLS Cups.
01:12:39
Speaker
But then every all the years like outside of that, his teams are like bad Yes.
Caleb Porter's Coaching Record
01:12:43
Speaker
Anyway, the Rebs look like they might wouldn't spoon and Porter's going to get fired. But the Philly Union, they they look their turnaround has been impressive. They look awesome.
01:12:53
Speaker
And then i i do want to say one more thing about the caps. I know we're going backwards to go forwards, but Pedro Vitae. uh is that yeah pedro vite dude he's looked i know that he's been been pinned as this like potential superstar young guy you know but not the next like alfonso davies but you know what i mean like he's their next big youth come up right vite i thought he was a uh or is he a you twenty two or he's 23 okay i thought he was older than that yeah yeah no he's he's a young player he's been playing he's really good Yeah, but he's been, it's like, it's been kind of his breakout year.
Pedro Vite's Breakout Season
01:13:29
Speaker
It's been like his Pedro de la Vega breakout year. I think last year was sort of like, I don't know if it was full on breakout, but everyone was like, okay, this guy was on the up. Yeah. Yeah. And then this year he, yeah, he looks like he's kind of taking that leap. Yeah. yeah And one thing that's funny about him as well. um
01:13:44
Speaker
If you collect trading cards of MLS, he was a signer on a bunch of cards. His signature is literally just a capital P. Period. Capital V I T E. One of the worst signatures I've ever seen in my life, but I honestly respect it.
01:13:58
Speaker
I feel like that should make it more valuable. Yeah, exactly. So shout out to Pedro Vitae and the caps. I am happy. I hope that they beat Monterey and I hope that they advance and you know what?
01:14:10
Speaker
Fuck it. I think it'd be really funny if they won champions cup, the caps. Yeah. Oh, that'd be hilarious. that'd Just be funny. yeah Right? Like that'd just be good bit. Yeah, I really like, uh, I like this caps team. The caps are like, the caps are definitely a rival.
01:14:25
Speaker
Uh, but to me, it's not like a hatred rivalry. Like the Timbers one is it's not, I don't like the caps, but like their success doesn't move me either way. But they also did this shit last year where they were like that's insanely good at the beginning of the year. So I'll wait it out. But I'm not offended by the by the Vancouver Whitecaps. And, you know, my affection for Scottish Messi. I wanted to shout out the Chicago Fire.
01:14:51
Speaker
They so they beat FC Dallas three to one.
Chicago Fire's Comeback Victory
01:14:55
Speaker
They anti Chicago Fire. They actually held the lead. But ah no, didn't they come back? I mean, they might. Well, so they, uh, they scored twice late.
01:15:04
Speaker
yeah that's what it says Yeah. So it's like, i I think what it was is like, they didn't have a chance to blow the lead. Correct. Correct. Yes. But they did. Uh, they did win a game. Honestly, anytime the Chicago fire actually hold on to win a game, I don't care if they came back or if they, uh, how it happened. yeah They scored day that's a big story.
01:15:22
Speaker
They were down one nil in the 82nd minute they scored and then they scored another in the 84th and then in the 90 plus one as a penalty. they They anti-fired. They anti-fired. yeah But I like i think would what you said is true, though.
01:15:37
Speaker
given if they If you gave them another 45 minutes, they would have conceded four more goals. Probably. So, yeah so is that going to roll? Cause you know, this is their bit. Is that going to roll over to next game?
01:15:48
Speaker
Probably. Okay. Yeah. That seems, yeah, that seems about right. But for this week, winners got the plus three. there congratulations Congratulations to Chicago fire. is that a Shout out Greg Berhalter. Is that Greg Berhalter's first yeah win? Yeah. Congratulations, Greg.
01:16:02
Speaker
Congratulations, Greg. The rebuild is operational. Losers.
Charlotte FC's Missed Opportunities
01:16:06
Speaker
ah Charlotte FC, man, we gave them a bunch of pro positive press, I think deservedly. ah But they really like they had a chance to beat Inter Miami. Inter Miami went down.
01:16:18
Speaker
they They went down to 10 men like in the first half. Yeah, dude, they were down. Charlotte was playing up a man for so the 30th. Yeah. So most like the whole second half, the end of the first half and the whole second half, they were up a man and they got clean sheeted and lost the game.
01:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, that's not great, dude. Like you got Zaha, uh, like it's one thing, like it's inter Miami. They're the best team in the league. They're one of the best teams this league has ever seen. You got them down a man.
01:16:44
Speaker
Uh, Messi's not, he went, Messi wasn't out there. Nope. Um, Like if you draw them, that's still a bad result, but like I can maybe understand it to get shut out by a team that you're up, man, that long, especially on with like the, uh, the Zaha sign. I don't know. It just kind of, I thought it was
Inter Miami's Red Card Discipline Issues
01:17:07
Speaker
annoying. Cause like anytime Miami goes down or anytime Miami loses, it's like,
01:17:13
Speaker
a novel occurrence and they really had a chance. They couldn't have been given a better chance to at least take a result and they lost. Yeah. So also, can we talk about why is Miami have three red cards already this season? What are they up to do? They're, they're being nefarious as hell. That is ah that is definitely a storyline. It was three straight games to get a red.
01:17:35
Speaker
And they ah they won this time, but usually you're not going to win. That's not a winning recipe. Yeah, they drew New York City, won against Houston, and the Houston one was the 90 plus six. but And then this one. It's just like what they're not...
01:17:50
Speaker
Folks, red cards are a tiebreaker in MLS. Like, so I'm just saying, like, I know that they lose the shield. on Yeah. If you lose the shield on reds, how funny would that be? I mean, they're sitting in second, but yeah, the Portland Timbs, no, another, this is three weeks in a row. They're in the losers. I think,
01:18:07
Speaker
No, because they won one game. Okay, two in a row. They're in it a lot. They're in it a lot. I mean, they got... So they lost to Nashville It should have been way worse. Yeah, yeah. I was watching that one. think I'm not... I wouldn't mislead you guys. I'm not just saying this because it was the Timbs.
01:18:27
Speaker
I think that was the worst performance I've seen a team put on all season i out of a game that I
Portland Timbers' Poor Performance
01:18:32
Speaker
watched. It's worth ah it's worth like going back and watching the highlights. if you like So take ah how Seattle played tonight against Cruz Azul and make that, like I would say, way worse. Yeah.
01:18:47
Speaker
And that's how they played. And it was only 2-0, but like it should have been 5 6-0. zero It's bad. It was bad. It was really bad. Like, in fact, I'll tell you guys, uh, uh, my friend from Portland who, uh, who I used to live with in college texted me during that game. And he said, I'm actively, it was like the criticism guy. He said, I'm actively rooting for the Timbers to lose.
01:19:12
Speaker
They need to blow this up. Yeah, they do. And then I, I had texted him back and I was like, yeah, no, it's like bad or something. And then I got like four, four, Demi paragraph
Real Salt Lake's Continued Struggles
01:19:21
Speaker
to you. It was really Phil Neves crash out. That's like ah the state of mind there and down there right now. But so, yeah, that was really bad there and losers for the week.
01:19:31
Speaker
And then I put RSL in here because ah it it bothered me that like ah Pablo and company were saying that they there was anything to that Seattle game.
01:19:45
Speaker
Right at all. Like they really, they really thought they thought that they had something going that like, Oh, we're going to, we're going get on track now. And you know, we're, we're ex we're Pablo apologists.
01:19:55
Speaker
I have been historically, but he's been, he pissed me off that game. Yeah. He did. That was tilting as hell. Yeah. So, uh, so, so fuck you. paul yeah Well, so but come on the pod. This was a, we would, yeah, yeah. I got nothing against Pablo except for when he's complaining at the ref for really unbelievably stupid reasons.
01:20:16
Speaker
Real Salt Lake though, they lost to San Diego and it was one, one in second half stoppage time, I think. And then they got bammed on twice at the end of the game. So it just confirms what we thought about RSL, which is that the Seattle game did not signify that they were good.
01:20:34
Speaker
Yeah. I got to say like the San Diego, uh, the Denmark boys, they both bammed on, uh, on, on real salt Lake. And that's, that's an interesting little wrinkle to how the Denmark, the Denmark expats are doing here in MLS.
01:20:48
Speaker
Um, all right. That was it for winners and losers. Uh, let's do blazing hot coach presser. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it.
01:20:57
Speaker
We got a blazing hot coach press conference sponsored by hacks and ferments. Please buy their taxin for products. It's really, really good. We both were literally just talking about how much is it? I was putting it on my food today and I was like, God, this product is amazing.
01:21:12
Speaker
actually it's something like i would put my life behind yeah like like an actual product i yeah it feels good to be sponsored by a product that i like i you know but maybe the audience does i'm a big hot sauce guy yeah arias and uh i love it god i love it go buy it um Blazing hot coach presser. ah I haven't seen Schmetz's after this game. Yeah, it wasn't out when we were recording. It's not out as of this recording or it might be, but I haven't seen it yet.
LAFC's Press Conference and Criticism
01:21:38
Speaker
um But I'm going with Steve C man. Did you see this? I did. This was okay. It was hard to find. You know, it's bad when the official LAFC channel buries it so hard. It was barely only put one minute up.
01:21:53
Speaker
So this is what I didn't understand. The clip that I found was a minute and 10 seconds. Yep. I wasn't sure if it was just a, sometimes there's like these zoom calls for the road games where like there's no media on it and it's only one question. I've seen that happen with some of the smaller market teams. Yeah, but this a big market team. This is LAFC has a big media contingent. They have the best other than our podcast, the best podcast. Yeah. like Well, ah but also like LA is a big media market. They've got reporters that cover that team and are like on that beat.
01:22:25
Speaker
So they're not a team that usually has pressers where there's no show media and the coach only gets one question. So I wasn't sure if there was like a whole... know what it probably was? there were the wifi was down at Lumen field.
01:22:37
Speaker
So it might've been, they didn't do it. Oh, maybe that was it. regardless, either way, we got a minute and 12 seconds of it. Uh, should we, should we we play the whole minute and 12? Should we play it? Okay.
01:22:49
Speaker
um Here is. Steve C. Yeah, defensively, um you know, the unfortunate injury of Marlon and having to change formations after going through a match plan and um a first half of pretty solid defending, not not much going on either direction. You know, that that kind of threw us...
01:23:15
Speaker
off a bit and and then the reaction after that is what you know i'm i'm obviously disappointed in that the players in the field couldn't find solutions and that our subs who we subbed on were all pretty disappointing not just in performance but also an effort and mentality and that's something that cannot happen um yeah Olivier is it's not just about him it's about collectively the group moving forward and and attacking as a group and getting more numbers around him and around the opponent's box in order to be dangerous. It's never about one player um in LAFC. It's always about us as a collective.
01:23:51
Speaker
Okay, so what I thought was ah was interesting about that, it might not have... He he wasn't tonally tilted. Tonally, it was not the most blazing hot presser I've ever seen, but the quote that caught my ear now, and tell me what you think of this, when he called out his subs in no uncertain terms,
01:24:11
Speaker
And I think the terms that the words that he used were effort and mentality. I know mentality was one of the words. And basically what he was getting at was that the subs weren't up for it.
01:24:26
Speaker
And he said that they, yeah, they weren't up for the effort and mentality. He said that cannot happen. So to me, that's like a pretty harsh indictment of his subs. Who are his subs, Ari?
01:24:38
Speaker
One of them was a guy by the name of Denny Bawanga. Wait, the demon who pissed the on Seattle Sounders Field? The evil demon spawned from the gates of hell himself.
01:24:50
Speaker
I just think that ah there's no reason for him to specifically call out the subs when everyone knows that Bawanga was one of them. If there's not... not Like...
01:25:05
Speaker
he's, he's gotta be tilted about something else. Yeah. It's gotta be deeper with, it's gotta be deeper than just how Bwonga played in that way. yeah What do you, what'd you think of that? You know, at first I didn't get it. You sent it to me and you were like, look at this blazing hot press conference. And I was like, dude, he's not saying it. He's just, it's one minute. Like what? I don't, I don't get what you're saying. And you were like, no, like think about it, bro. You're like, think about it, bro.
01:25:29
Speaker
Use your brain. Danny Bawanga was someone to come off the bench who had a frustrating performance, didn't play well. got so mad that he thermoblasted a soccer ball into a photographer's face.
01:25:42
Speaker
Don't know if you guys saw that. i don't think it was on the broadcast. And then Christian Rodon went up and confronted him after that. But just like he hasn't been having the best start to the season. And I was like, oh damn. And like, there's been kind of rumblings that like this offseason. He kind of might want to leave. there Yeah, there was rumblings this offseason before that he was maybe on the outs. He ended up coming back.
01:26:06
Speaker
but like Bring him home. I just think when a coach... calls out a star player like that. And that is by design. Like there is no, yeah you don't do that without knowing. Yeah. Like Steve C knows what he's doing. He's not like doing that for no reason.
01:26:19
Speaker
I think I don't, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I think the Denny's Bwongas days at LAFC might be numbered. Do we think it's going to be like a Portland Evander situation?
01:26:30
Speaker
I don't know. i mean, I don't, without knowing the specifics of what's going on, why, what the discontent is, i don't know what the outcome is going to be. I just thought that was, that was hot.
01:26:41
Speaker
Well, LAFC did advance in the next round of the CONCACAF champions cup. Barely though, right? Barely by one day. They, well, I guess they, they scored one. Bawanga scored in the 90 plus six of their match. So it was four, two on aggregate.
01:26:56
Speaker
Um, I don't know, man. We'll see. We'll see how they do. We called in briefly to happy foot, sad foot before we started recording and they're not happy. They're not happy. Like the LAFC fans aren't happy. They are not happy. They just got slammed by Seattle and then didn't look good at all in the, in their second leg. So basically in general, LAFC might be on the rocks.
01:27:17
Speaker
the The West might be on the rock. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Which, you know, I know everyone's feeling negative about Seattle right now after that game. We are too.
01:27:28
Speaker
But ah any fall off drama or discord or discontent from LAFC, that only benefits Seattle and it's comedic. Exactly. So... No, I think we can call it right there. It's 1043 p.m. Pacific. We put in a lot of content today. We were in the minds. We put in a lot of content today. Watched the whole game. Streamed afterwards. Did this whole pod.
01:27:51
Speaker
My brain is pretty fried. We're going to get out of here on that. Like, comment, subscribe. Rate five stars. Rate five stars. Share with Denny Boongo.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
01:28:00
Speaker
Share with Denny Bwonga, with Steve C. yep You don't have to share with Brian Schmetzer because he listens. sirialism Patronize all our sponsors.
01:28:09
Speaker
Follow the Instagram. Tune in to the live stream on Thursday 7.30. think that's it. Is there anything else? That's yeah yelling and that's it Let's get out of here. Until next time, we out.
01:28:21
Speaker
Peace.