Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
LS Live: Belated fan reactions to Seattle Sounders L at Vancouver!
295 Plays1 day ago
We belatedly react and take calls following Seattle's 3-0 debacle at BC Place ahead of the start of their 2025 Club World Cup campaign vs. Botafogo.
SPONSORS
Haxan Ferments - Specializing in unique, small-batch fermented hot sauces and vinegars, Haxan Ferments is handcrafted in Georgetown and made with the best local ingredients from across the Pacific Northwest. Use Code LS for a FREE Hot Sauce w/ purchase!
Sounder at Heart - Our network host and biggest supporter, Sounder at Heart covers the Seattle Sounders, Seattle Reign, and MUCH MORE! Subscribe and Support to the BEST independent Seattle Soccer coverage.
Podium Edmonds - Located at 114 4th Ave N, just off Main Street in the heart of Downtown Edmonds, come shop and explore the best menswear in the Pacific Northwest. Tell them Lobbing Scorchers sent you!
Full Pull Wines - Founded in 2009, they the best boutique wines of the world to members, with special focus on our home, the Pacific Northwest.
My Data Removal - Data brokers are selling your personal information! Fight back with My Data Removal. Hunt down and scrub your sensitive information from the internet. Use code "LS" for $10 off your annual plan.
Seattle Sounders Tickets - Get tickets to an upcoming match straight from the club and help support the show at the same time.
MLS Season Pass - MLS Season Pass is back on Apple TV with access to every single MLS match—including Leagues Cup and the entire Audi MLS Cup Playoffs—with no blackouts! Subscribe today to support the show.
MLS Store - New year, new gear! The 2025 MLS jerseys are here, and MLSStore is the ultimate destination for every fan. Every purchase helps support our show!
Follow Lobbing Scorchers:
Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
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.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Episode Context
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
Postgame Show Delays & Challenges
00:00:43
Speaker
Good evening, everybody. Welcome in to our belated postgame call-in show. We did not do our postgame call-in show as as is custom after the great Vancouver debacle of 2025.
00:01:02
Speaker
So we're going to lay one down tonight. I'm going to drop the link in chat here shortly, and hopefully we can get some of you to hop in here and lay down some takes. um I can tell you what happened, ah which is that we weren't we were not we were not being cowards.
00:01:18
Speaker
We weren't being cowards. ah But we were in Vancouver, and after the game ended, was around, ah I don't know, it was like 8.30, 9 p.m. or something.
00:01:29
Speaker
We were like, if we if we rip this... postgame live. Well, first of all, we don't have mics, but second of all, we're not going to get back to Seattle till like 2 a.m. m And we didn't want to do that. So we decided to just hit the road and push the call-in show to next week. So that's what we're going to do right now. I'm going to drop the link in chat.
00:01:53
Speaker
And anyone who's, ah I know it usually takes a while, so Might wait for people to trickle in. So I'm going to hit a few things at the top of the show here.
00:02:04
Speaker
ah Maybe play the Schmetz presser or and the player pressers from after the game while we wait for people to cue in. and then And then the floor is your guys' to hop on and lay down some takes. There's a lot to lay down takes about right now. We're going to talk about that.
00:02:23
Speaker
But there you go.
00:02:26
Speaker
Link is in chat right there. Any and all are welcome to hop on and lay down some takes with me as our belated post-game call-in show.
Community Engagement & Events
00:02:36
Speaker
ah Before we do that, couple of housekeeping items, though.
00:02:41
Speaker
I mean, first of all, like the video and sub to the channel. We are on the road to 2,000 subs on YouTube, which is big. It's a big milestone for us.
00:02:53
Speaker
So we need about, I think, 12 more as we sit here and record this right now. So if you're watching this and you happen to not be subbed to the channel for whatever reason, sub to the channel.
00:03:04
Speaker
Let's get us to that two k Number two, we are having a Club World Cup watch party at Fast Fashion Brewery, which has hosted Sounder at Heart events in the past.
00:03:17
Speaker
But we decided... let's have a little, a little event to bring in the, uh, summer of soccer and the start of the club world cup. So we're going hanging out at fast fashion. And what we're going to do is we're going to watch inter Miami versus all Ali kick off the club world cup.
00:03:35
Speaker
And, uh, the plan is to do a watch along, which we're going to, which we're going stream. and then we're just going to hang out and hopefully, uh, mingle with our audience, which we've gotten to do a few times at a few of the live events that we've done. It's a lot of fun.
00:03:51
Speaker
ah So definitely come out to the fast day starting at 430. Come hang out with us IRL and join join the watch along our first watch along for the charity match.
00:04:06
Speaker
was a smashing success, I think. It got a lot of views. And it got us viral in a negative way on Liga Amechi's TikTok. ah So it's going to be fun.
00:04:20
Speaker
We love meeting our audience. Definitely come out to Fast Fashion on... On Saturday, get the summer of soccer, start it off right, watch some Messi, see if Inter-Miami can hang with Al Ali.
Match Previews & Viral Content
00:04:33
Speaker
we know We know the deal with Al Ali out here. ah That's who Seattle played in the last Club World Cup. and if they're And if their team is anything similar to that, which I feel like it will be, that might be yeah might it be a big test for the old guys.
00:04:51
Speaker
Al Ali are very... ah
00:04:55
Speaker
Fast and powerful, athletic. Inter-Miami's average age is 42.7.
00:05:05
Speaker
They don't necessarily handle a team like that that well. So I think you know everyone's expecting them to roll La La Lee, or at least a lot of people are. I don't know about that. Jake, we got spun up.
00:05:17
Speaker
In Liga Mecky's TikTok. if anyone if any If you missed it, I can just relay that story right now while we wait wait for people to queue in. Links in chat right there. if anyone If people want to start Q&A. I know people are shy at first. usually takes a bit. The link is right there.
00:05:33
Speaker
ah Yeah, we had a so we posted a few TikToks from our watch along of the charity match. And ah they did well. They all ah we've posted three of them, I think, and all three of them were pretty hot.
Player Compensation & League Dynamics
00:05:47
Speaker
But one really blew up and it was the one where we were reacting to the penalty kick call against LAFC that got Club America their first goal. And we were i was I was whining. I was whining about the call.
00:06:02
Speaker
It was weird. Like, ah I didn't really think I was going to have any rooting interest at all. But I think anyone who watched the watch along probably saw that we were very clearly, by the end of it, rooting for LAFC.
00:06:14
Speaker
ah I don't really know why. I don't i don't think it i don't think it was rooting for LAFC as much as it was ah rooting against Club America. I'm always down for a Liga Mechies crash out like that against an MLS team ah because their fans and media don't handle it well.
00:06:35
Speaker
They don't handle And they did not handle it well on the Lobbing Scorchers TikTok. ah To be fair, ah think my take my take was blatantly wrong.
00:06:46
Speaker
i had i thought I thought I was cooking. I was like 2.3 Modelo's in. ah saw that call. i had I had some soapbox. I had some soapbox about how like the mark Mark Delgado made contact with him, but he didn't have to go down, and it was a dive, and that the ref doesn't have to doesn't have to award the penny.
00:07:08
Speaker
I was passionate about it. I don't think it was an especially good take. It was not an especially good take. i i see like watching Watching it back, I saw what I was working with.
00:07:20
Speaker
thought I thought that I had something going with the take, with the benefit of hindsight. I probably wouldn't lay down the take that passionately again, but I did. And we posted it on TikTok and it went it went crazy viral. This thing, at least for our for our TikTok standards, our TikTok's not like that hot.
Documentary & Fan Engagement
00:07:42
Speaker
It's hot sometimes, but this was the hottest it's ever been by far. think it's sitting on 70,000 views right now, 4,000 likes, a lot of comments. And a lot of the comments,
00:07:54
Speaker
I'll just say they don't agree with my take about the penny call. They don't agree. They thought that I had that one wrong. I might have had it wrong. But either way, I guess it was good exposure for us on TikTok in a negative way.
00:08:12
Speaker
But really, ah when it comes to our TikTok, which we're trying to grow, I feel like it's like all publicity is good publicity. Plus, there were some people in the comments who were actually agreed with my take. So maybe it wasn't that bad a take.
00:08:23
Speaker
I think a lot of it was Liga and Mechies fans crashing out because one of their biggest clubs lost to LAFC in a charity match. I wouldn't be happy either. They were not happy with us.
00:08:35
Speaker
We got spun up pretty good.
00:08:39
Speaker
I would do it again. I stand by the take. ah I got an Obed Vargas feature coming out for MLS.
00:08:54
Speaker
we're We're doing Club World Cup content.
00:09:00
Speaker
And he there's a there's a documentary, Breakaway, Apple TV doc, coming out about him. So my written feature is going to accompany the doc
00:09:12
Speaker
Uh, it's a sick doc. They, they went to Alaska with Obed, got his whole backstory. Uh, so I, uh, did a little interview with Christian rolled on for it at long acres last week.
00:09:25
Speaker
And I got a Cody Bakes in there as well. I thought Cody Bakes actually would sneakily be one of the best guys to talk to for that. Uh, because i don't know if how many people know this, but Cody Bakes was Obed's host brother through the homestay program that they have for Academy players who are coming from elsewhere.
00:09:43
Speaker
So Cody Bakes and Obed lived together for a while when Obed first got here. Uh, so got, got some good Cody Bakes quotes in there. Got some Christian quotes in there. Craig wives has a couple quotes in there, not from exclusives, but, uh,
00:09:59
Speaker
just from around. And it's ah it's pretty much just a, like the standard Obed feature about his backstory. There's not like a a super novel angle to it, but the idea is sort of spotlighting players that fans who don't necessarily follow MLS super closely or who don't know all that much about the young up and coming players, spotlighting
00:10:29
Speaker
star players for fans who might not know about them. So that should be coming out this week, maybe tomorrow. Not sure, but, uh, keep an eye out for that. I will post it on my, uh, on my blue sky when it's out.
00:10:48
Speaker
Uh, what else, what else did I have to plug? 2k subs. Let's get us to 2k subs. It's going to be a big time milestone. Uh,
00:11:01
Speaker
Going to wait for people to hopefully keep trickling in here. Hopefully we get some calls tonight. I don't know. Maybe the Tuesday call-in show is just people aren't going to be feeling it. But usually once the first person taps in, it goes from there. So, again, links in chat.
00:11:21
Speaker
Let me see if I can.
00:11:25
Speaker
I don't know why it doesn't let me do that.
00:11:30
Speaker
It's trying to pin it, but when I click on it, it won't let me. Links in chat right there. So if you want to hop on, but like there's ah there's a lot to give takes on right now, guys.
00:11:41
Speaker
There's a lot to give takes on right now.
00:11:48
Speaker
On this topic in particular, any word about paying the players their fair share, Oklahoma kid asks. The last I heard, and i admittedly, i don't know, maybe something happened today that I wasn't paying attention to.
00:12:03
Speaker
the last I heard, ah an offer was made by the league to the, to the PA.
00:12:12
Speaker
it i mean, it was, it what it was not like a real offer. I feel like, I mean, you can look up exactly what the terms were, but it was, uh, it felt like one of those offers that you offer that, that you kind of know is going to get rejected.
00:12:28
Speaker
That was my read on it. Yeah. Christian, uh, MLS standing firm exactly.
00:12:37
Speaker
Tommy scoops reported yesterday they are farther apart than before the protest yeah that's my understanding of it as well from the reporting on it from Tommy Bogues Tommy scoops and J. Oh.
00:12:51
Speaker
So it sounds like negotiations are going great.
Team Performance & Strategy Discussions
00:12:58
Speaker
Going phenomenal. The games start on Saturday. Seattle plays on Sunday, and they are further apart than they were from before the protest.
00:13:16
Speaker
So we'll see if they can hammer out an agreement in, ah what is it, one, two, three, like four days.
00:13:28
Speaker
Doesn't seem like they are.
00:13:34
Speaker
Seems like this is getting, what's the word?
00:13:40
Speaker
Ugly, contentious.
00:13:45
Speaker
Unclear if Hanauer's still crashing out. I haven't heard anything to that effect since the original crash out. I can't imagine he's his mood has improved all that much since the protest, especially because of what happened in the last game, which,
00:14:06
Speaker
To me, when I look at these last two games, it feels like a lot of the stuff that's happened is stuff that happens when your head's like not not in the game.
00:14:23
Speaker
Talked about this on Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff. There's a lot of variables
00:14:28
Speaker
that go into that. But they've readily, like Christian Roldan and Stephen Fry have both described it as a as a distraction. I don't know if that's what's going on on the field, but
00:14:45
Speaker
when ah when you have things like two red cards in three minutes or the mental lapses that that led to the goals against Minnesota,
00:14:59
Speaker
That is stuff that I don't think is in character for this team, even with some of the struggles this team has had this year. ah
00:15:11
Speaker
Like, melting down and getting two red cards in three minutes. I would say, I think it's fair to say that that that's uncharacteristic of really any team. I don't know. I've never seen two red cards in three minutes. So, yeah again, it just feels like the kind of thing that
00:15:28
Speaker
That happens when you're not locked.
00:15:32
Speaker
Doesn't seem like they're locked right now.
00:15:36
Speaker
Which they're going to, I mean, if they are going to play against Botafogo on Sunday, they got to lock in.
00:15:45
Speaker
Can't be getting two red cards in three minutes ever, but especially not against Botafogo or Atletico Madrid or the UEFA Champions League winners who you're about to play.
00:15:58
Speaker
So
00:16:02
Speaker
we'll see.
00:16:05
Speaker
We shall see. Thoughts on De La Vega recently. um was thinking about this today.
00:16:13
Speaker
Actually, yeah we got Gianni in the queue, and we were we were talking about De La Vega last time that he was on, so perfect timing. I'm going to bring him on, and and we can start there.
00:16:27
Speaker
Gianni, if you got me, give me that thumbs up, and I'll bring you to the stage. Gianni, welcome into the show. Thanks for the call, as always. uh we can let's talk some de la vega but i guess to start off where's your head at right now the vibe the vibes are low morale is down ah the squad is protesting they just got two red cards and uh waxed by the canadians i mean doesn't feel like the vibes you want right before the club world cup how are you feeling about everything going on right now
00:17:04
Speaker
Man, we're going to be lucky if we can maintain any sort of possession in any of these games that we have coming up. We might see like 20% possession in any of these games.
00:17:15
Speaker
It could happen. That might be lucky. We might be lucky to get that, like after they let off and after they've scored three goals. Well, especially because... ah in there's a lot of precedent for situations when Seattle is like overmatched on talent or in a, in an individual game where that's exactly what happens. Like they can't keep the ball at all. 2017 MLS cup at Toronto comes to mind.
00:17:39
Speaker
ah Even in this like a champions cup this year, the Cruz Azul game that it happened again. it happened in the COVID cup. So it, that's, that is a concern.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I don't really understand. i ah Against superior opposition, absolutely. like Yeah, they they're pressed they've got their pressing triggers down. They know exactly when the ball goes to this person, press here, deny here, and we're going to pass backwards. And if eventually that press will get back to Stefan and then that ball goes long,
00:18:12
Speaker
We don't win aerials. We definitely don't win second balls off aerials. And then that ball just comes right back down the gut and we are pinned in. And this is what I'm expecting to see against Botafogo.
00:18:25
Speaker
I'm expecting this against Atletico. And holy fuck, are we going to be like, I don't feel good about that PSG game at all. Which i like, i i don't just there yeah yeah I don't think there was a... Yeah, even without ah without all the drama going on, i wouldn't have felt especially great about the ah PSG game, arguably the best team in the world right now.
00:18:49
Speaker
ah But do you feel like all the ah all the drama and stuff going on with the team is ah affecting how they're playing right now? Because i was I was getting to it sort of right before you hopped on.
00:19:01
Speaker
But, like, to me, i look at that Vancouver game, and... You know, I don't know what's going on in their heads, but it looked like a team, like I said, that wasn't locked. I mean, probably to a degree, but at the same time, when you're out there playing a game, do you really have time to be thinking about that?
00:19:19
Speaker
That's I mean, ah at that point in time, these guys are playing like these guys are in the moment there. If you have time to think about what's going on with a contract negotiation, you probably shouldn't be on the field.
00:19:35
Speaker
I mean, yeah think about it. Like, you are you're out there, you're anticipating, like, Nuhu, in trying to anticipate the flight of that ball gets completely caught off. Like, if he was thinking about, oh, we need to be, like, making more during, like, from these games,
00:19:53
Speaker
what are you doing? Yeah, I don't think it's... ah I don't think it's a conscious thing. Yeah, I don't think it's about like like when they're when you're on the field and making decisions in the moment, you're like, oh man, I'm so tilted about my my my Club World Cup money, and then you make a mistake based on that. I think we were we were kind of talking talking it through on Lobbing Scorchers' kickoff, but I think it's more about just when you have this general air of ah of negativity.
00:20:22
Speaker
and ah all this stuff going on that's not related to the game. I think ah it's more like a subconscious, like you're maybe you're not playing as a as free or just it affects you in some way that it's not like a conscious thing moment to moment, but it's more about like, just like I said, like the vibes. Does that make sense? No, absolutely. It does. And I'm sure like it might affect their their mindset, like while they're doing their prep too.
00:20:55
Speaker
That's entirely possible that they're distracted during their prep. And that sucks. It really does. There also needs to be like, if you're asking for more money when you're going out, like I fully think that they should be getting more than 10% of the 10
Designated Players Underperformance
00:21:13
Speaker
mil. That's, I guess it's like 9.25 after they take out the 750 the team. But yeah,
00:21:19
Speaker
um but they should definitely be getting more. You know, what would really help that argument is if you were also going out performing or at the very least, not getting so like, not like melting down like that to two red cards in three minutes is like, that is a meltdown. Like, yeah, I don't really knew who's is honestly the one that I think is more unforgivable. He makes a choice there to haul the guy down yeah as the last defender.
00:21:50
Speaker
That's just bad decision-making. You know you're going to get a red card when you do it. To be fair, like, Nuhu sometimes just goes brain neutral and will do something like that. Like, I feel for John Bell and that on that one i the one that he got.
00:22:05
Speaker
Like, he clips the guy's foot. he's not i don't think he's really mean to do It's like kind of incidental contact. And he clips his foot, though, and it causes the guy to fall, and he's the last defender.
00:22:16
Speaker
Like I understand like some people didn't like that that red car was given. If we were on the opposite side of that one, we'd be screaming bloody murder if it wasn't given. Yeah. And the guy goes down, the ball was going through John Bell again, last defender.
00:22:31
Speaker
I don't know what anyone can complain about with that. Yeah, no, I got no with that ball. Yeah. yeah It's just bad luck. Yeah. So I'm sure in some way that contract negotiation is impacting their play.
00:22:48
Speaker
I think it's impacting it on the margins. We're not losing these games on the margins. We're losing them pretty handily. Like, Minnesota, like, that game was bad.
00:23:04
Speaker
Like, let's, we can keep walking it back. I mean, we won, it was Dallas, And i forget who was before that. But those two wins, we were really- There was San Diego and Dallas.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, San Diego and Dallas. San Diego is a good team, and like that's a good win. Like, we got a little lucky, but that's a good win. Dallas is not that great a team. We still weren't generating chances. We were playing down to their level.
00:23:31
Speaker
And i don't know what it is about, and like, yes, Jordan's out hurt. That sucks, but you should be able to deal with one injury. And yeah they had they had been they had been, like, when ah when Moose was hot, but now he he got injured. Now he's not as hot. yeah And I think that's one thing. well let's so Let's talk about the ah the offense, because I think there's a couple things to talk about there. And I guess we can we can start with... ah De La Vega, because you were you were the one who brought that up a couple weeks ago, I think, on one of our ah post-game lives.
00:24:06
Speaker
And i was I was thinking about it today, like just trying to, like when i look when I look at the season on the whole so far, it hasn't been terrible, but I think it's fair to say that this team has underachieved from what we were hoping.
00:24:20
Speaker
yeah It would be CCC was a flop. And then coming off that Vancouver game, I mean, you are what your record says you are. And you're seven, six and five, 1.44 points per game. Just about as mid as you can get. that's It's like been like your record and your points per game are mid right now.
00:24:38
Speaker
And like there's still a lot of time for that to change. But I was kind of trying to diagnose in my mind, like, what's going on? Like, I think we all we've all seen what happened with the defense. But offensively, I think in these last few weeks, Ryan Kent has been way less effective, which is part of it.
00:24:59
Speaker
um But I was just looking at De La Vega's defense. career numbers on the stat sheet since he got to MLS and I'll pull them up right now.
00:25:10
Speaker
yeah But he, yeah he has played, Just over 1,000 minutes, I believe, in his career. Yeah, so he's played 1,349 minutes since he came to MLS.
00:25:25
Speaker
He has two goals, one of which was a penalty, and four assists in 1,300 minutes. And he's been a DP on the team for a season and a half now.
00:25:36
Speaker
Like, regardless of the circumstances, ah he um like he got injured last year and had a really unlucky year. That wasn't his fault. But, like, when you just look at the totality of what they've gotten for that signing up to this point, two goals and four assists in 1,300 minutes, if if any if you're if that's what you were getting out of a DP spot, you're probably going to see it in your points per game and on your record. like yeah ah So that's just, I think...
00:26:05
Speaker
the reality of where things stand there. What do you think? I mean, I've been, I was frustrated with the way they were using their DP spots before the season started. Like I'll just be honest. Yeah. Albert Resnack absolutely plays like a DP sometimes.
00:26:20
Speaker
He's not the one who's going to take over a game and just bend it to his will. It's just not who he is. Jordan Morris played up, played himself into a DP contract. There's no way around that.
00:26:33
Speaker
De La Vega was hurt for most of last year, came came in, um was injured before we signed him, or got injured as you're in the process of signing him, comes in, gets hurt, comes back, gets hurt, comes back, doesn't really perform.
00:26:50
Speaker
This year, comes in, hasn't gotten, did he get hurt? He might have gotten hurt at the beginning the season. Yeah, he did briefly. Yeah. But the performances just aren't there. And so we have not one, not two, well, I would say Albert's performing well enough.
00:27:08
Speaker
he at least He at least has the stat sheet. Yeah, he's on the stat sheet. Yeah. Which, to me, that's like step one for a DP. You have to have that first, and then you can get into how the stats come about. If a force multiplier DP style player.
00:27:25
Speaker
Exactly. But we basically have two underperforming players, DPs specifically. Pedro, statistically, and Jordan Morris, because he's been hurt, came back and immediately got hurt again. Yeah.
00:27:36
Speaker
You cannot be successful in this league when that is happening to your team. You just can't. And I think some of that is like strategical mishaps.
00:27:49
Speaker
Like you signed a player who you knew was like, who was hurt, who was coming back, I think off of an ACL in Pedro de la Vega. Yep.
00:28:00
Speaker
That before he got here. And I think he also had muscle injuries as well. Yeah. And then he had a hip or hamstring. Yeah. He had a strained hamstring. You probably shouldn't be signing damaged goods to a DP contract.
00:28:14
Speaker
And like, yeah, we were able to get them for probably cheaper than we should have, but that's not necessarily always good. And when you start going dump, like dumpster diving, you might end up with something like this.
00:28:25
Speaker
I wouldn't describe them as a dumpster dive. ah but i kind of It's kind of like the Seattle thing to go out and try and find kind of like gently used players. Distressed assets. Distressed assets, yeah.
00:28:39
Speaker
You probably shouldn't be doing that with your designated player spots. You can do that with your TAM spots because they're a little bit more replaceable. But I think that doing that with players that you need to be performing all the time is fundamentally irresponsible for an organization to be doing It's definitely ah like they just they haven't been able to keep him on the field enough to to justify the price tag to this point.
00:29:10
Speaker
I guess the good news is there's still there's still the rest of the season to go. And if he does come good ah for the rest of the season, they can still salvage this. ah But.
00:29:22
Speaker
He's got to stay on the field. And like you see it in flashes, like there's been some genuinely good moments this year. He's only got the one goal, but like that with that, like that type of type of play on that goal is like ah that's quality. He's shown his quality in moments as a playmaker as well.
00:29:45
Speaker
it But ah one goal, three assists, that's that's not it's just it's not enough right now. So that's got to be like priority numero uno, I think, going into the Club World Cup and looking ahead at the rest of the season is getting him going.
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't know if it's just the way that we're trying to play is not conducive to him playing well. Or if it's just that he doesn't have the vision to see the passes at the end of his runs.
00:30:20
Speaker
I think he also gets more shots blocked than like any player I've ever seen. that's fit I don't know if there's like anything to that skill-wise. Some of that can be just good defending, but some of that is shot choice.
00:30:34
Speaker
And like if his wind-up is too large so that people are able to get their legs in there and block those shots... That's a skill issue.
00:30:44
Speaker
It is. Zach says sell them ASAP. I mean, ah if there's an offer, I take it. There's a lot of ah ah information to suggest, including what I think Craig Wybes might have said it himself, but that he he is the most inquired about player, yeah like in terms of transfers.
00:31:07
Speaker
I think like maybe Obed's going to overtake him in that or has overtaken him. But the point is, like, he generates more outside interest than any but other player on the team. I think there was reporting that one of the teams that we're playing against has genuine interest. Yeah, and I was just going to say. I think Botafogo.
00:31:24
Speaker
Craig Wibes did say that one of the three teams, he didn't say which one, but he did say that one of the three teams that they're playing in the Club World Cup group stage have already inquired about him.
00:31:35
Speaker
And my guess was also that it was Botafogo. I'd be pretty surprised PSG or Atletico Madrid were making plays for him. So it sounds like Botafogo has shown interest in him.
00:31:47
Speaker
ah it It'd be interesting to see what they what they did if if offers came in because there's a lot, there's been a lot of precedent in recent years of teams getting huge transfer fees for guys that aren't necessarily like performing that well in MLS. Yeah. So honestly, like this is just a sunk cost.
00:32:09
Speaker
Like there is an opportunity for him to get better, but i just don't know that we're going to see it here in the next two years. Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
and like there's there is So you're ready you're ready to chalk the whole the whole operation? i'd I'd say go again. like we We need to see more in a year and a half than we have.
00:32:33
Speaker
It's not like ah like it's not an unfair feeling to have because this year, like last year, yeah, last year you could be like, all right, he didn't really get an opportunity to yeah like show what he could do at all. He was hurt the whole time. And even when he did play, it was like in spurts and then you'd get hurt again. He never really got in a rhythm.
00:32:52
Speaker
This year he did get, he yeah he missed a little bit of time with injury, but he's been on the field for the, ah for the most part. And the production just still isn't quite there. I mean, if you look at it, all comps, I think he had, he had the goal in CCC.
00:33:06
Speaker
And I think I want to say one more assist, ah but like that you're talking about like two and five or two and six in like 800 or so minutes, which, you know, it's not horrible, but like you needed him to pop.
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah. And I know I was, think I think was on the discord, but we were talking about how he looks at practice and there's like talk about how in practice he looks fantastic. He looks great.
00:33:38
Speaker
It's just not transferring over to the field. And part of that might be that in these practices, you're not getting like actual simulated game pressure.
00:33:48
Speaker
So he's got more time. He can do a few more things. But just because you train something doesn't mean it's going to necessarily come off. And I think we're seeing that.
00:34:00
Speaker
And it's not even just with Pedro. I think some of the team tax take see some of the team tactics just it's not working like we're We're seeing more and more possession for the sake of possession. That was a big issue in Vancouver, felt like.
00:34:18
Speaker
And we are incredibly slow through transition. And I think there was even a game that we were winning when Albert actually had Pedro screaming for the ball wide open, just ready for a tap-in.
00:34:33
Speaker
I think it was like the top of the 18. It three or four games back. forget who it was against. Albert takes the ball and turns around, faces back towards his own goal, lets people draw in. It's like, we need to have better vision when we're in our transitions.
00:34:51
Speaker
And I don't know if this is just, we have had a lot of rotation between the, like inside of the squad because of the injuries that we're dealing with, as well as some fixture congestion.
00:35:05
Speaker
i don' I'm not sure if we're what we're doing is just too complex for our players to really do at game speed? Do we need to simplify this?
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah, but I don't know. It's ah it's a good question. we got we We got no one else in the queue right now. So Gianni, let's keep cooking here. I'm going to and i'm going to ah drop the link in the chat again.
00:35:32
Speaker
rees says, De La Vega is not the main topic at hand, to be honest. I mean, he might not be the main topic, but he's definitely a topic. And look, I mean, I don't bring up the topic. I mean, someone in chat brought it up, but like, it's like not definitely not to like bag on the dude. Like, I definitely think it's clear that he's got talent and quality. And um I know he does. Like we've seen it at times, but I think like, like when you're,
00:35:56
Speaker
looking at it through a lens of why is this team 7, 6, and 5 and at 1.44 points per game, the fact that they've gotten two goals, four assists in 1,300 minutes out of ah out of a DP spot that's been on the books for a year and a half, that's like undeniably one of the reasons. like I don't think there's a way around that. And it's certainly not just – him and like we can let's let's uh let's talk about ryan kent because uh the uh the beginning was electric it was it's like it was funny we've uh we haven't gotten that much of this to be fair but we've gotten a couple comments to the effect of like oh you guys were saying he was like so good and like what happened like you misled us type
00:36:40
Speaker
Well, that there's there's ah there's that, but also, like, I i stand by ah how excited I was those first couple games. It was incredible. He looked like the greatest player I've ever seen. i think i think we were pretty clear at the time that that it probably wasn't sustainable and we would have to see what happens when teams scout him up and it evens out.
00:36:59
Speaker
a little bit, but like, I absolutely yeah don't rescind my analysis of those first two games because he looked that good. Like we were not exaggerating or being hyperbolic at all. ah But by the same token, you have to acknowledge that the last few games teams have scouted him up.
00:37:15
Speaker
They're sending multiple guys at him and Seattle is not, it's, I don't think it's just him individually. I think collectively as a team, they're not doing enough to take advantage of situations when he's getting attention. I mean, what do you think?
Player Impact & Tactical Adjustments
00:37:28
Speaker
No, I 100% agree. Like when he came on, he came on he came on fast, he came on hard. And it's like the way he was just megging people without touching the ball, like his vision with his passing, his ability to set players up with his movement.
00:37:45
Speaker
I don't think that's necessarily gone. And I don't think that is all gone because of scouting. I think some of it is they learned that he's got the ball. Okay. Who's around him? There's no one actually making a lot of the runs that he needs to support what he's doing.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah. so you need a bit more mobility in our midfield. i like I would love to see Albert make a few more runs. um It's not necessarily his game, but runs to set up space.
00:38:16
Speaker
Like the unselfish running that Christian does and that Jordan does. like I don't want him doing a lot of it, just some of it. but I think it would help
00:38:28
Speaker
It would help with when Kent is being double teamed, if he can move inside a little bit, that would create a pocket new who could slide underneath him. Something like that. Anything. Just movement.
00:38:41
Speaker
Like yeah we get stuck ball watching so often. Yeah. It's like, get it to 77 and just watch him run around. Yeah. It's like, okay. He's like, Oh, he's running up the field. I should probably be running up the field.
00:38:53
Speaker
It's like those two or three seconds of realization. like, oh this is what's happening. That should not be happening. like our guys are standing, like are on their heels instead of the balls of their feet, ready to do something.
00:39:06
Speaker
There's definitely place in the game plan for get the ball to 77 and watch them do cool shit. yeah But you got to be more like multifaceted, I think, than they have. Like it's getting it's gotten one dimensional. And again, like it's an issue of not like not taking what teams are are giving you.
00:39:26
Speaker
Vancouver wasn't doing anything that complicated on him. They really were not. They were just either sending a double team or having one to two guys in the space behind wherever he was trying to cook.
00:39:37
Speaker
That's it. So like there's got it when they're doing that, though, they're giving you options on stuff to do. just have to do If there's a double team on the field, someone's free. Yes, yeah. yeah yeah just There's only 11 guys, 10 outfield players.
00:39:51
Speaker
If you've dedicated two to one player, someone's going to be open. And yeah, it might require like us to be better at doing so like full field switches.
00:40:02
Speaker
It's not something we do very often from the midfield. that You see it a little bit from Christian, but we haven't seen it a lot recently.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah, that i mean, that's yeah switching the point of attack is one way to do it. ah Having him cut in and then have someone overlapping on the left is another way to do it. ah I wish it wasn't New Who.
00:40:22
Speaker
And it's not, I guess it's not going to do it. Yeah, except but like make it make it someone else then, you know? Yeah. Like try and you try and figure out how to, because they are like they are giving you that.
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah. They they are saying Ryan can't suck them in. Guess what? That's a free line. Just as free real estate directly up the line. And that will absolutely unbalance their teams.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Hopefully they are working on that in, uh, in training. I wish we had seen more of it come off because it's been like at least three or four games now since teams have made this adjustment.
00:40:56
Speaker
So, and there's still like, I think the quality and the talent that he has is still evident, even in the Vancouver game, that first chance that he generated like two minutes into the game to set up Alex rolled on, who, uh, if you just got the shot with that, like just, yeah,
00:41:12
Speaker
that So that is another... like when he What I like about him is when he does generate chances, i hes they're high-quality chances. like He is laying it right there.
00:41:23
Speaker
he couldn't have he couldn't have done i don't think he could have done much of anything better on that play in the Vancouver game. He also, ah in the ah in the Dallas game, I believe, he had what would have been another assist to Georgie, but Georgie was like a little offside. yeah So those moments are still there. The quality is still there.
00:41:40
Speaker
People were... uh already doing the ah like he he only looked good because it was st louis in houston so it doesn't count and this is like who you're james if you're watching i saw you doing the doesn't count because uh because it was houston and st louis thing i really don't think that we have to commit to that talking point uh like uh or just really at all because like the yes the opposition was weak in those games but the stuff he was doing that stuff that like transcends who you're playing against and he's done it against the better teams too there just hasn't been like the final product with it but i still fully believe in the uh in the quality that he possesses it's just that they're not they have they're not maximizing it right now
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah, I have a question though. Are we trying to play, are are we signing the right kinds of strikers? The way we're playing a lot of our games, we end up with a lot of cutbacks and crosses into the box.
00:42:41
Speaker
We're trying to play with like, like Jordan Morris is good because he's running in behind. These two player types aren't necessarily the same player.
00:42:53
Speaker
And so are we looking for someone that's a little bit more like Benteke, where we we're looking for someone to knock these headers down and in? Are we looking for someone who's going to hold the ball up? Because the style of play, that and yes, Jordan's been out hurt, but even when he was in here, we were doing a lot of crosses into the box, and Jordan's gotten better at those, but that was never his strong suit.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's, yeah. Are we, are we really like playing to our players strengths? Because it seems a lot of times we're not greater than the sum of our parts.
00:43:23
Speaker
And in fact, it seems like we have negative synergy sometimes. Like sometimes the players that we have on the field play worse with each other than they would in a vacuum. yeah i mean it's an interesting question about the uh the striker profile i think they they have one like very clear way to play based around like with jordan morris as the number nine that was like the uh like number one thing uh they were going for when they set up how they set up uh but
00:43:58
Speaker
I think, and I mean, if you're talking about this Vancouver game specifically, i think that it just got like too predictable in general. It was a lot of like, especially in the first half, it was like a lot of possession in the final third, spraying it out wide, pumping in the cross.
00:44:12
Speaker
Like that's not, a if if it's that predictable, think. I don't, I like, it doesn't really matter even like who the striker is like ah MLS teams are going to know how to deal with that.
00:44:24
Speaker
So, uh, like, and I think they were having, they figured out how to be successful with Moose in there for a period of time. And he's not really like a full, he's, he's, uh, not know. He's not like a Ben techie type.
00:44:36
Speaker
So, uh, I don't know. i don't know what's going on. Uh, with the number nine position right now i don't know who they're going to run out who do you think they're going to run out there against uh bodafogo ferrera or moose oh man it can't be jesus it just can't that has to be done like i get he used to play there for dallas i think the way they played played into his strengths and i think the way this team plays doesn't um
00:45:10
Speaker
Honestly, that signing has been, he's got a goal and I was really happy that he scored that goal. It was a big goal. It was a big goal, but I just feel mostly disappointed with the way that signing has worked out.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, i'm sure I'm trying not to like fall too much into recency bias. I mean, I was the one who had a big old take ah defending him. yeah but like the But the ah like, I think we kind of saw like two sides of it in the, like ah the San Diego game.
00:45:41
Speaker
That was an example of ah that acquisition coming through for you in a pretty big way. I don't think we should like discount that. like you Honestly, like i felt like that play was made by Paul Rothrock.
00:45:54
Speaker
Like he had a, it was, but the touch era had a great touch in the box to set himself up for a shot. But that ball, like Paul Rothrock's run in behind and early cross in low across the defense, which we haven't been doing, which is a really good way to set up your strikers.
00:46:15
Speaker
I would love to see more of that. And I think Jesus Ferrer, like awesome for his touch, great shot to get the goal. I think, like, I don't know Musovsky can do that.
00:46:27
Speaker
He probably can. I don't know that it's... I don't think that Jesus Ferrer is the only person who can do that on the team. No, but it was an example of him doing something that he's good at and that, like, doing something that he did a lot to great success at FC Dallas. So it was encouraging to see, but then you just have the follow-up be this Vancouver game, which was just an all-around...
00:46:52
Speaker
flop so i mean we'll just see what happens uh we'll see what his output looks like at the at the end of the year i don't want to uh lose sight of the fact that like he uh he got you a win yeah over san diego who's one of the best teams in the league so that's that's like uh i think there are examples of the of the depth of the team actually you could there's a lens to look at it like ah with with Jordan Morris missing as much time as he has with injury and all the center back injuries that they that they've had.
00:47:26
Speaker
Sixth on the table is like... It's not amazing, but it's better than a lot of teams would be doing. Exactly. how many other teams can rotate in two or three other center backs?
00:47:38
Speaker
Who can yeah go two or three deep center forward? Who can go without a designated player for six or eight months? Like, These are all teams that the the Sounders are dealing with, and the results haven't been pretty, but they've gotten some results.
00:47:52
Speaker
And yeah, they dropped one against Vancouver when they jumped out, but you know so sometimes you sometimes you do have a bad game. Well, yeah, and that was more... like I don't think the...
Ticket Sales & Fan Interest
00:48:04
Speaker
Even if you're down on the stock of the team after the Vancouver game, which would be understandable, like that they're not that bad.
00:48:12
Speaker
No, I mean, they're it could be a lot worse. You could be decent. Oh, yeah. That's like... I i try and... whenever Whenever things aren't going well, I like ah try and remember just how much worse a lot of other fan bases have it. Even at one...
00:48:32
Speaker
1.44 points per game this year. yeah um Well, Johnny, I still got no one else in in the queue. you I mean, you got any, any, any other takes you want to get out there either about the state of affairs in general club, world cup, whatever the topic may be.
00:48:51
Speaker
And I'm going to drop the link in chat one more time. Yeah. Um,
00:48:59
Speaker
So i I know that they the club, if you bought tickets to the, I think it was either the Atletico or PSG game, if you bought tickets, I think you just were given free tickets to the Botafogo game.
00:49:14
Speaker
If you were doing it through the, yeah. So my buddy and I purchased four tickets to the Atleti game and just got free tickets to the Botafogo game.
00:49:26
Speaker
wow what a drastic measure they must have really not sold much for that so i think i was reading something and i think they've sold like a grand total of 25 000 tickets for all of the seattle games is that uh i think so so that's not a lot no it's awful and it's a terrible look for fifa it's a terrible look for fifa but also like i don't like that's not a great reflection on us either I mean, those tickets were outrageously expensive, though.
00:49:56
Speaker
Yeah, like, it kind of, it's kind of mystifying to me, like, how that outcome wasn't anticipated when you, when your price gouging to that degree.
00:50:09
Speaker
Well, and games are off times. ah Yeah, that too. Yeah, there's, like, Sunday games, there's, like, midweek, like, noon games. PSG is Monday at noon.
00:50:21
Speaker
What are we doing? What are we doing? It's to accommodate, like, international broadcast stuff, but it's like, I don't know, there's got to be a better time than Monday at noon. Got to be. Yeah. Pretty much any other time.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, and I think even Miami is having, like, ticket sale troubles, which is ridiculous because every single Miami game that you, like, that's available is sold out, like, for MLS play.
00:50:48
Speaker
Yeah. and you can't get... no one wants go see Messi play?
00:50:55
Speaker
I guess not for probably like 500 whatever dollars that they're charging. I mean, is that actually any less than the MLS ticket prices? Because I think it was that last year when their clubs, their season tickets were like 10 or $15,000.
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah. And they like, they, they moved all the games to the biggest stadiums possible and then mark up the prices. Yeah. And people like, but they go, people go to those.
00:51:22
Speaker
People are, so it doesn't sound like people are going to these Club World Cup ones. Yeah, so the All Ali game was initially priced at $349 and now you can get a ticket. All Ali versus Enter was $349 and now it's down to $55. You just charge the $55 from the beginning.
00:51:42
Speaker
free advice Free business advice. Yeah, and like, I don't think that they really realize the price sensitivity of the market here. um For a noon kickoff game, in an area where admittedly soccer is not the biggest sport.
00:51:58
Speaker
Like you have, like, it is probably third to football and basketball at least, if not fourth to baseball as well. yeah So I think while FIFA is thinking, oh, we could sell these in any other nation at this price and probably do decently in sales,
00:52:20
Speaker
There's too much stuff going on around here. The cost of living, especially in Seattle, yeah is already exorbitant. And I just think that they're they're they're not using common sense for their marketplace.
00:52:36
Speaker
No, and the outcome has been, like again, I think pretty predictable. yeah like you I think it's pretty funny that they are they're like moving people all into the same section so like to make it look more full than it actually is. Yeah, they closed out the entire 300 section, didn't they?
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:53:02
Speaker
World Cup tickets were cheaper than this. yeah
00:53:08
Speaker
Yeah, it makes me like admittedly the Club World Cup and the World Cup proper are two very different tournaments and people travel in much in many different ways for those. But it makes me kind of curious how is.
00:53:21
Speaker
I wonder if this was kind of a dry run for the World Cup.
00:53:25
Speaker
Yeah, and if so, hopefully they take some take some lessons from that. I do think that the actual World Cup is such a vastly different... like I think part of as was Jeremiah was talking about this, but like the Club World Cup itself is not like a... no like Casual fans or rate like random people don't don't know what that is.
00:53:50
Speaker
like yeah you got to be kind of deep in the weeds to understand like have knowledge of what that tournament even is uh and i think they drastically underestimated the extent to which like it's just not a mainstream and thing that's known in the mainstream so that maybe maybe that means they'll have an easier time with it with the actual world cup is what i'm saying but uh I think in general, it kind of shows that when you're blatantly price gouging, doesn't always go well.
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, i mean, this was kind of going on before we even knew about the strife between the players and the league itself. Right.
00:54:35
Speaker
The whole thing is just such. It's just been one, mis like one mistake after another is like, you cannot get any of this right. Can you? uh like isn't it kind of isn't it crazy just kind of how fast the vibes have deteriorated like i feel like it was as recently as like two weeks ago where the vibes weren't that bad i would i think the vibes this season have been erratic like uh the season did not start off well conco calf champions cup was a flop
00:55:07
Speaker
ah Jordan got injured immediately. They started off like one, three and three. The vibes were the vibes were down. ah But then like they were pretty good for for a while there, ah like mid April until two weeks ago, they went six, two and two or six, one and two.
00:55:24
Speaker
They got back up the table and then going in as recently as going into the Minnesota game. I was like, all right, like ah started off poorly, but they brought it back a little bit. They're right there for top four spot in the West.
00:55:36
Speaker
Got a couple winnable games coming up. Loons never win in Seattle. Caps are going to be depleted from CCC. he Got a chance to rack some more points right here. The vibes going into Club World Cup should be ah should be fine.
00:55:49
Speaker
What happened?
00:55:53
Speaker
and To be fair, I think some, like, I think that there was a large portion of this fan base that was waiting to crash out. And I think... Well, that's always the case, though. Yeah.
00:56:04
Speaker
Well, that's fair. But I think the start to the season didn't help. um The lack of signings just in general throughout the summer, um there was an expectation that I think a lot of people were hoping that they'd bring in somebody, i like ah another DP team.
Management Challenges & Financial Pressures
00:56:22
Speaker
And I think when they brought in Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arriola, there were a number of people who were probably just kind of pissed. Underwhelmed, yeah. Yeah. And so, like, there was lot of underwhelming, like, just a lot of people feeling underwhelmed.
00:56:38
Speaker
And then you go you go through that start to the season. It's pretty – it doesn't look great. um You crash out of a major tournament.
00:56:49
Speaker
And then, yeah like, if I remember correctly, the vibes were pretty bad. we yeah ring it right we We bring in Ryan Kent. Oh, that was incredible vibes. Yeah, yeah. It, like, flipped the vibes, like, oh, is this what we need to get going? We have a couple of solid games.
00:57:05
Speaker
And I think it starts building it, but I think there's still that underlying tension of, like, I don't know, like, this feels a little... Feels a little fraudulent. And then you have...
00:57:19
Speaker
uh the game against dallas which is a one zero not very flashy you've got the game against uh san diego where it feels like we got out of that one with a point that was like three points stolen yeah then then you like then you give up your home winning uh streak against minnesota and then you just absolutely shit the bed against vancouver And I think you end up with people being like, ah, yes, doom.
00:57:48
Speaker
Here we are. Yeah. Yeah. To me, you i think i think all of that is ah is accurate. ah But there's also like a little bit of a
00:58:03
Speaker
last couple of weeks to like when the protest started. I don't know if that's like ah like how much it's caused like what happened in the last two games, but that to me feels feels like the start of when the vibes went from, all right, like things are things are pretty much fine, whatever, to like, this is about as not good of vibes as you could possibly have manifested before the start of ah the Club World Cup.
00:58:32
Speaker
like yeah so it's and and yeah it's just ah off-field drama red cards everyone's like the owner's crashing out in the locker room yeah it's the guys like the entire team is crashing out right now it's like it's not just the fan base it's like the perfect storm you've got the owner crashing out you've got schmetzer like what the fuck is going on guys you've got trying to make trying to keep his cool yeah yeah Schmetz is up there talking about ah Adrian Hanauer has his First Amendment right to to to crash out because he gave us this building.
00:59:10
Speaker
he's try He's doing his best out there on the mic. Yeah, he's just trying to both sides the hell out of this thing. yeah He's doing his best. like at some At a certain point, like you can't sit on the fence forever.
00:59:22
Speaker
What do you think of how he's handled it? Because ah you're it's yeah, he's trying to play both sides, but just like the the situation of a coach being in between like being the guy that's supposed to always have his players backs, but also has an owner now feuding with his players who that's the guy that he answers to Like, what do you think of how he's handled it relative to how you think you should handle a situation like that?
00:59:52
Speaker
It is the most unenviable an unenviable position I can think of. like That is terrible. like What are going to do? Are going to piss off your boss going to piss off your team? I think it's the craziest situation I've ever seen a coach. I think honestly Schmetzer at the end of the day will probably end up backing his players to an extent because you can be you can have a little bit of a tiff with your boss and you probably get through that just fine if the team is playing well.
01:00:21
Speaker
if you lose the locker room, I like your players will stop playing for you. And we've seen what happens when your players stop playing for you. You get fired like Ziggy Schmidt did.
01:00:32
Speaker
Yeah. Like your team will stop functioning. You'll get poor results. And that is the fastest way to lose your job. You, your boss can be pissed at you, but as long as the team's performing and you're doing your job, like the team is performing well, what are they going to do? Fire you for scoring too many points?
01:00:47
Speaker
Yeah. right so do you think behind closed doors he's telling the guys like i'm i'm on your side this is bullshit i gotta go out there and like do the both sides thing because we know hanauer the boss but like you guys are in the right and like on principle i have your i have your back like i would imagine so something to that at a certain point he's all like i know he's also probably frustrated with the team Oh, I know he is. Oh, well, I know he's frustrated with how it seems to be affecting their play on the field because he he was very like pointed about that after the Minnesota game. He was like, he said, like, if you're going do the protest, you've got to back it up and not and show that it's not affecting you on the field.
01:01:36
Speaker
And they've opened themselves up to the question of if it did affect how they played today. Like, he straight up said that. Yeah. so Yeah. So he's obviously pissed, but I think it's more just with the circumstances, like how they played that one game, as opposed to him being pissed that they're like trying to like secure like their financial futures.
01:01:59
Speaker
I mean, yeah he was a player at one point. Yeah. He's got to know what that's like, like seeing how ownership gets is getting their money and the players are getting a pittance.
01:02:11
Speaker
He does know what it's like. And you know you know who ah you know who doesn't know what that's like is Hanauer. When I look at how Hanauer has handled it and the crash out and everything, I mean, this is a guy who...
01:02:27
Speaker
he was he was born into like obscene wealth so he has he just has no concept or frame of reference for what it's like to ah need to worry about money like he's never once he's never had one moment in his life where that was a consideration for him so i think that like kind of
01:02:52
Speaker
Like that's sort of what impacts how he handles it and like goes into why he crashed out because like he doesn't like I said, he has no there's just a disconnect there.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, I've never met the guys, so I can't say anything to his mindset, but there was a, I'm just theorizing, but yeah, yeah, no. But, um, when he comes in and he's all hot under the collar because of the team's protest.
01:03:18
Speaker
And I know that there were some people from FIFA and think i heard that there were some people from FIFA in the building during that. So it was kind of like the team showing you up in front of your friends. Like, what are you guys fucking doing?
01:03:29
Speaker
Oh God. That makes it so much juicier too. It's yeah. mean, like I, I would have been pissed, but also, like, I'm not in the position where I have a level of responsibility to keep my temper.
01:03:42
Speaker
Yeah. like I don't know. Maybe it's just a personality difference. But if I was ah if I if I was in his position, I would care so much about the players liking me and feeling like I was like a good owner to them. And I think part of why he was so frustrated is because I think he feels like he has been a good owner for the players and providing like this new facility and giving them like, you know,
01:04:08
Speaker
giving them the chance to live out their dreams or whatever the case, like however he considers it so that he probably felt like unappreciated in a way, but like, and i like a normal ah a normal person would be able to understand why this money actually like matters enough for them to make this much of an issue over it. But like, again, someone who, someone who was born wealthy is just not going to understand that.
01:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, Like Adrian Hanauer also not the one who's necessarily making these decisions. I think he is on like one of the, uh, committees that is in charge of like, uh, contract negotiations for the league, but he's also not the sole arbiter of it.
01:04:52
Speaker
And if they were also not, and I think there was some talk about like, it might've been Steph saying, you know, Oh, we probably could have communicated better with him as well. Um,
01:05:05
Speaker
It's just not a great situation, like just in general. like I think the single entity thing just sucks for MLS as a whole. I
01:05:15
Speaker
i don't i don't love the way that they have to constantly renegotiate these CBAs because it puts you into situations like this where any other team can make an individual decision on how they disperse their funds.
01:05:30
Speaker
And so if there was an issue where, oh, the team is getting this much, you go to the ownership group and they there's a negotiation an easy negotiation to be had. But since you're dealing with a players union and a and a league entity that is now involved, and it requires basically three teams to negotiate on behalf of every team in the league for something that all the other teams in league aren't going to get, it it just makes the situation weird.
01:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, and it is It's always like this yeah with MLS. No, MLS got to MLS. Yeah, exactly. ah Gianni, no one else is in the queue. Apparently, you're the only one who wants to ah call in tonight. So ah what I'm going to do is ah
01:06:19
Speaker
I guess, uh, rip some, uh, USMNT takes and with the, uh, with the idea of, uh, of wrapping it up. Uh, and then, uh, like, while I'm doing that, I'll, uh, I'll let, uh, anyone else cue in if, and ah if anyone wants to, but if not, you know, uh, I don't mind making it a short night. We, I've been,
01:06:42
Speaker
Charging hard with the content, so no ah no sweat. But, Chad, I'm telling you guys, like there's you don't want no one wants to give takes on the ah um the protest in the Club World Cup or anything. But, Gianni, I'll leave it up to you. I mean, do you want to stay for the USMNT takes or do you want to bounce out?
01:06:58
Speaker
You know, I was just kind of surprised. I heard that once Bear Halter was gone, everything would be better. yeah like Like, honestly, I didn't watch the game at all. i it's I think it's well documented at this point that ah I'm pretty much out on my USMNT fandom. But and i I saw the score and it was funny. It was bad. 4-0.
01:07:24
Speaker
Yep. I didn't catch all of it. I i didn't even realize it was on until it was 4-0. Yeah.
01:07:32
Speaker
And then I was like, OK, I'm going to pay attention to this while cooking dinner. So I had half an eye on the game. I
01:07:41
Speaker
have just been pretty disinterested in this team for a little while now. like the uh the danger with the with the trajectory they're on right now is like apathy is setting in it know it already set in for me like a long time ago and then ever since then it's just been a tailspin and ah like you said it's it's just funny that uh it's It's so funny that Pochettino is the exact coach that like all of the ah anonymous accounts on Twitter and that whole culture. Like, this is what they wanted.
01:08:20
Speaker
This is what this is what you guys were asking for. And he's literally worse than Berhalter. Yeah. Like, I don't think a four game beaten street now. Yeah.
01:08:31
Speaker
And like just how since 1988. And yeah, and just yeah, exactly. And just how the team plays like it it's Berhalter. yeah This guy is making Berhalter look like he was cooking.
01:08:44
Speaker
You know what? Bring our ball. Bring Berhalter back. Bring him back. Exactly. People were like, ah you know, jokingly suggesting that in the replies to their tweets and stuff. But like, I mean, I i feel like it would be going better than it is now.
01:09:00
Speaker
The players at least seemed bought in with Berhalter. This is just like... Well, and now you've got, like, there's a situation where you've got a bunch of the European players, like, taking their own versions of sabbaticals.
01:09:12
Speaker
And then you've got Landon Donovan out here talking about how, oh, man, I can't believe these players are taking sabbaticals. And Clint Dempsey's just calling him out. He's like, well, I remember when you took a sabbatical right before the World Cup.
01:09:24
Speaker
Hey, there we go. We got James in the queue. ah Finally, so so someone else wants to tap in here. yeah so get James in here. Gianni, thanks a lot for hopping in and running co-host with me for hour here. Appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. I was like, Ari seems like might need someone to bounce off of. I'll just hop in be a warm body.
01:09:47
Speaker
I was not sure what the call-in level interest was going to be doing it like on a Tuesday as opposed to right after the game. Apparently not that much, but ah yeah, no, you did me a solid, so ah appreciate that.
01:09:59
Speaker
ah yeah Are you going to the Botafogo game? I'll be at Botafogo, and I'll be at Atleti. I decided I didn't want to pay money to You're not going to PSG at monday on Monday at noon?
01:10:11
Speaker
Shockingly, no. You know, I actually might to be at work. That's crazy. that like Oh, is that what people do on Monday at noon? All right. Well, thanks again, man. ah We'll ah talk to you on the next postgame, I'm sure.
01:10:26
Speaker
And have a ah good rest of your week leading up to this Club World Cup opener. Absolutely. I'll catch you later, all right. Take care. All right. We got, we got to James up next, James. If you can hit me, he's got me the thumbs up.
01:10:41
Speaker
I'm going to drop the link to join in. So if, while James and I are chopping it up, anyone else wants to hop in, just hit the link right there and you can hop in and lay down some takes. James.
01:10:54
Speaker
How's it going? The squad is protesting. They just got destroyed in Vancouver with two red cards in three minutes. What do you think of the state of affairs?
01:11:09
Speaker
Oh, no, I can't hear you. Are you on mute?
01:11:20
Speaker
Still muted. Wait, hold on. I'm going to ah take you off and then add you real quick. Sometimes that works. All right, again. no you're still you're still muted.
01:11:33
Speaker
ah yeah why Yeah, why don't you sign out and then try and call back in and maybe maybe that'll fix it
01:11:44
Speaker
All right. Waiting for James to call back in. I set him up so well there too. So we'll give him a second. See if we can get a, see if we can get his audio.
01:11:57
Speaker
Lay down some takes about the Seattle Sounders. Again, if anyone else wants to cue in, link right there.
01:12:09
Speaker
We're talking protest. We're talking the great Vancouver debacle of 2025. That was one of those games, I think, that needs like its own title like that.
01:12:21
Speaker
just because not Not because it was an especially notable L in the grand scheme of it, but two red cards in three minutes. I mean, that's that's a historic achievement.
01:12:38
Speaker
We're talking the great Vancouver debacle of 2025. The club world cup is starting in the throngs of a massive labor dispute between players and league players and owner are beefing.
01:13:02
Speaker
I think, uh,
01:13:06
Speaker
I think just vibe wise, this is the low point so far. There was the aftermath of the San Diego debacle. Paul Rothrock called that rock bottom.
01:13:19
Speaker
But I mean, I think this is this is worse. All right, James, going bring you on stage again. Let's see if I got this audio. All right.
01:13:30
Speaker
Let's see. ah Talk. Talk. No, you're still ah you're still silent.
01:13:43
Speaker
Going to take you back off the stage while you while you sort your headphones there. It's a classic, ah the classic Zoom zoom call mishap.
01:13:55
Speaker
It's like the Sounders postgame pressers. Jeremiah, why don't you why don't you start us off? Jeremiah, you're muted.
01:14:06
Speaker
All right, he's got the headphones on. Try it one more time. One more time. I hear something. All right, now I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yep, yep, I got you now.
01:14:18
Speaker
Hell yeah, okay great. All right, so now I just look like a dork with these big gamer headphones on. We'll call that good. mean what i'm That's what I'm doing too. I didn't have them for a long time, but then ah I had a bunch of audio issues that could have been prevented if I had them. So it's it's fine. We're... we're Headphoning together.
01:14:35
Speaker
James, yeah I'll set you up in the end. No, you're good. ah Protest. Whitecaps debacle. Red cards. Club World Cup starting.
01:14:47
Speaker
Vibes not good. How are you feeling? I feel like I've gone a journey this week. When we talked last week, I was saying that after the player protest, I was saying that I agreed. I want the players to get more money, but I thought there were problems with their messaging.
01:15:04
Speaker
Then I heard about the Hanauer blow up in the locker room. And I said, don't care about the messaging anymore. I hope they get all $9 million. dollars Screw Hanauer. This is ridiculous.
01:15:16
Speaker
And then after that Minnesota game, excuse me, after that Vancouver game, I'm thinking I might just become a Spokane Velocity
Ownership's Influence on Club Operations
01:15:22
Speaker
fan. um that That's the journey that I've been on.
01:15:27
Speaker
um I think that with the protests, I think that Hanauer is really showing that he's just not able to run the club on his own.
01:15:40
Speaker
ah we We've said often that he he's not able to compete financially with an Arthur Blank or with a Jorge Mas. We've known that for a while. That's not fatal, but being incompetent is fatal.
01:15:54
Speaker
And to go in there and berate your players was such a bad move because before that happened, we didn't really know what the holdup was with the negotiations.
01:16:07
Speaker
know, could have been Hanauer, but it could have been the LAFC owners, could have been all the owners combined, could have been Don Garber, could have been MLS. We didn't really know.
01:16:18
Speaker
But when you're going in there and screaming and cursing at your players, that kind of shows where the holdup is. you. and And so I think that for him to do that ah was just so unbelievably short-sighted.
01:16:32
Speaker
I don't know if he didn't think it was going to get out in the media. I don't know if he didn't think it was going to leak, but it's really removed all doubt for me. I mean, I was kind of saying last week, I don't think that Jorge Moss cares how much that money goes to the players.
01:16:46
Speaker
You know, one of the things I thought of it, Miami is a team that literally got sanctioned by MLS because they were playing paying their players too much money. with their fourth DP. I think. And so i this, it may, it could have been six. We don't know.
01:17:02
Speaker
um We don't know how thorough that investigation was. ah So I never thought that he was the holdup. I didn't, LAFC pay their players a lot of money. I didn't think they were going to be the holdup.
01:17:13
Speaker
um And now everybody just looks at this and says, it it has to be Adrian. If he's the ones raising up this much of a fuss, then it must've been him. And I think that's a That's just a really bad move from ownership to remove all doubt about what's really going on here.
01:17:30
Speaker
why did yeah Why do you think he did it? Like, is it just like he lost his head or like, because you're right, like ah optically and strategically, it doesn't seem like the play, no matter how mad you are. So why why did he do that?
01:17:45
Speaker
I think that ah I will, ah and again, i I'm sorry I'm late to the party. I had a meeting I couldn't get out of, but I caught sort of the tail end of the last caller. You were talking about how he's from a rich family. He's never had to worry about money in the same way that these players do.
01:17:59
Speaker
I think he worries about money a lot. um In a different way, though. like I'm talking about like actual hardship. like well i And I completely understand that, but i mean i think he's worried. ah You look at what's happened over the last few years.
01:18:16
Speaker
2019, Joe Roth sells his stake. He's replaced by a bunch of celebrities where Hanauer flat out says when that's announced, so to be clear, there is no new pot of money. So he's losing access to the money that Roth put in, which I think is was considerable.
01:18:31
Speaker
And he was really the driving force in a lot of our major signings. So he's lost a ah ah um capital there. He invests in the Kraken. I don't know how much, but it was something.
01:18:44
Speaker
Then COVID hits. That's driving down your revenue pretty seriously. ah Then Long Acres comes along. That's a $70 million dollars investment. I mean, I know it's split with other partners, but it's a good chunk of money.
01:18:56
Speaker
And then he buys the rain, which i know, again, was split with another group, but that's $60 million dollars in total. So he's been, and Pedro de la Vega, $7 million. dollars So he's putting out a lot of money.
01:19:10
Speaker
Well, at the same time, he's lost Ross money. He had that COVID ah downturn. And then the attendance is going down. And so the the revenue coming in from Match Day, at least, I don't know about the Apple deals, going down, he's expensed a lot of different things.
01:19:27
Speaker
And I think that he probably budgeted for ah most of that remaining $8 million dollars to help balance the books. And I think that's probably why he lost it.
01:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think think that all definitely plays into it, but it definitely it it it really it feels like it made the situation worse. And then you have this, did did you see about the offer that was supposedly made from the league to the PA that was... ah such such a bad offer according to the pa that uh it's left everyone seemingly further apart than they were pre-protest yeah i can't remember i can't remember if it was tommy scoops who reported that uh the mlspa thought that they were intentionally low-balling them as punishment for the protests that's what it seems like uh it could be i mean i um
01:20:28
Speaker
i I don't – was there some sort of offer before that that MLS – was MLS offering 30 and then came down to 20 in retaliation? I couldn't really – I didn't see anything about that. But – Yeah, I don't know. I just know that it was – it was such that the PA was like – Like no chance.
01:20:52
Speaker
And it's like, it feels like the type of offer you make when you're like trying to get them to reject it. That's like how it struck me. So, uh, seems like it's going great. It's a great negotiation.
01:21:06
Speaker
I mean, i don't think I, imagine that from and MLS's point of view, they don't believe that the players are going to strike. um which is, you know, the ultimate course of last resort. And I don't think they are either.
01:21:20
Speaker
um I say that because um the money issue is a big thing, but there's also the chance that some of these guys could be getting offers from abroad based on the club world cup. I mean, I don't think anybody's under any, loop I don't think anybody's any and ah under any illusion that we're going to go out there and beat PSG.
01:21:39
Speaker
But if Obed goes out there and, and just balls out, even in a losing effort, that could, set him up with a big contract. um You've got guys like Bell and Rothrock and Baker Whiting who are coming to the end of their Sounders deals.
01:21:54
Speaker
A good performance here is something that could set them up, not necessarily abroad, but with a good free agency offer within MLS. De La vga dela Vega is another one that like if he if he balls out, like that's he's got a lot riding on it.
01:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think Kent's done with Europe necessarily. If he stays here and is happy and ends up getting a bigger deal than what he's getting now, who knows? But I don't think he's shut the door on Europe. We know Jesus Ferreira still sees himself playing in Europe.
01:22:24
Speaker
So I don't think that they're going to strike just because, you know, one, you're potentially taking away the opportunity to showcase yourself on a pretty big stage.
01:22:35
Speaker
And two, you're probably not going to get a lot of offers. after you strike in a club world cup match. No. Uh, you know, I don't know.
01:22:47
Speaker
I, I, I, I can't get into the player's mind, but, but I mean, sort of speaking on those broader, um, you know, deals abroad kind of thing.
01:22:58
Speaker
What does the Hanauer blow up do for this U22 that we're supposedly after? Yeah, because I mean, it's I mean, that's that's a disaster, because if you're taking some and kid from Brazil or Slovenia, these are guys who have no concept of how American sports and collective bargaining and and agreements within American sports work.
01:23:23
Speaker
You know, you're not going to sit down this this 20 year old kid from from Ecuador, you know, from Moldova and explain to him, well, you know, they signed this agreement in twenty twenty one.
01:23:34
Speaker
that set the maximum amount of prize of money at 50% up to a, and they're going say, what are you talking about? All that they're going to see is that these are guys guys are getting paid $35,000 for the richest club tournament in history, and the owners berating them because they want more.
01:23:50
Speaker
It's a public relations nightmare. It is. Like, I don't understand how that doesn't enter into the calculation when you're thinking about whether you want to crash out or not. Like, it seems like there's stuff that should outweigh your frustration in the moment.
01:24:07
Speaker
I, as I said before, i don't, I think at the very least, Hanauer has simply taken on and more than he can handle. I think when the club was at its best, you had the three main owners who,
01:24:22
Speaker
who all represented three different approaches. Hanauer was financially and financially minded. Drew Carey was about the fan experience. Joe Roth was about winning trophies.
01:24:34
Speaker
And they all played off with each other. i think they all managed to control some of each other's worst impulses. And it made something that was really magical on all three accounts. We were profitable when most MLS teams weren't.
01:24:45
Speaker
We were winning trophies and we had this incredible fan experience. I don't know if Drew has just sort of lost interest or is if he's dropped off, but fan experience is is a common complaint.
01:24:57
Speaker
um I think that we're not ah shooting our shot for top-level players the way we were with Oba, Dempsey. And those were two guys that were really Roth-driven.
01:25:09
Speaker
you know ah do you Were you there at the the business meeting where Roth was saying, look, if if we find our own Robbie Keane, we're going to get him? And that's what became Oba.
01:25:21
Speaker
I don't know. i don't know if I was at that one. I was at the one where he got in trouble for going off the rails. Well, there was that. Yeah, I don't know that we can mention that on YouTube without you getting demonetized. So let's just leave the stereotypes out of it.
01:25:34
Speaker
No, that that was 2012. We got dumped by the galaxy and Roth. I mean, I remember. Okay, I wasn't there. Roth was visibly pissed off the whole meeting. And he just said, look, if we find our own Robbie Keane equivalent, we're going to get him.
01:25:48
Speaker
and so we got Oba. And then when Dempsey became available, you can read the Grand Wall article about it. Hanauer was kind of slow walking it and Roth was all in. And we lost him. and and And so we've lost sort of that motivation.
01:26:01
Speaker
And what we're left with is the owner who is really focused on making a profit. And it feels like all of the decisions are geared in that direction, raising the prices to a degree that causes Noah to cancel his season tickets, picking a sponsor that is extremely controversial,
01:26:19
Speaker
um all of these things, holding back money from the players, these are all balance sheet driven decisions that if Kerry was still involved, if Roth was still involved, I don't think they would be going the same way.
01:26:36
Speaker
It's interesting. The crash out is interesting though. Cause like, i mean, I don't know. I've, I haven't been around him all that much, but I've been around the team quite a bit. He's around a fair amount. I've been at a lot of his like interviews and stuff.
01:26:49
Speaker
He never seemed like a, ah like a guy where like temperament was like, I've never heard of him like doing something like that.
01:27:00
Speaker
So it's either, maybe he, maybe he is wired more like that than, we know about, or maybe like, uh, this type of situation is just what gets him going.
01:27:11
Speaker
Like, ah well, uh, maybe he's, and he's, let's be honest. He's probably under a ton of stress. Uh, look at all the resources that, that he's lost. I mean, Roth in terms of ownership for one thing, um, loggerways gone, Henderson's gone.
01:27:27
Speaker
um I, I, I apologize for forgetting the name of our, uh, analytics guru. Ravi. Yeah, Ravi. Yeah, yeah. And he just went to another MLS team, as I recall.
01:27:39
Speaker
Galaxy. And so all these support systems that were around him and really made it kind of a team effort, that that's kind of fallen off.
01:27:50
Speaker
um I remember Lagerwey and Hanauer have both talked about one of the reasons Lagerwey moved on is because he wanted a bigger role. He wanted more responsibility and he was never going to get that with Hanauer around um And so ah perhaps the stress is just getting into him.
01:28:08
Speaker
Do you think ah all this drama with the protest and ah the owner and all this stuff is is affecting the team on the field right now?
01:28:21
Speaker
I'll give you sort of the same answer that I gave last week, which was that I thought that the players were bad in the ways that I kind of expect them to be bad.
01:28:32
Speaker
Um, in other words, I, I didn't see sort of new problems. I mean, the new who read cards kind of out of character, um, him, him sort of making a hash of that situation as bad as he did is kind of out of character, but, um, you know, Kent being kind of isolated, seen that before, um, Jesus being really disconnected from his teammates, seen that before,
01:28:58
Speaker
um Alex not really not getting much going that seen that before. And it it it was rough because after we went down to nine and he did that quad yeah quadruple switch, I thought we looked better than we had in a while.
01:29:14
Speaker
um because he put runners on there. Mussovsky is a hard worker. KKR. um Rothrock. Rothrock. They're all hard workers. um And so I give those guys credit. I give those guys credit, actually, ah especially KKR and Rothrock.
01:29:30
Speaker
Like they they got thrown out there in like the worst circumstances imaginable. And I thought they they they did what they could. there's There's always glory in ah in a hopeless charge, right? Yeah. and so there's there's so there's It's always romantic to see somebody take on something they like the 300 from Sparta. you know there there's there's ah There's something very romantic about people taking on a doomed mission and doing it as hard as they can.
01:30:01
Speaker
um they god God love them, they tried. But yeah it was hopeless at that point. And I... I don't know. I mean, Schmetzer took a lot of the blame for it in the press conference.
01:30:14
Speaker
um But i I do think that if you're not going to be recruiting top quality players, I think that you need to find players who work really well together.
01:30:28
Speaker
And I still think that there are just a lot of disconnects that aren't working.
Team Performance Concerns
01:30:34
Speaker
I thought Jesus looked more lively than he has a some of his previous games. I think he was making some ah some runs that nobody really saw.
01:30:43
Speaker
um Which has happened a lot this season. Yeah. Well, i and i i early in the game, i I saw him kind of back in midfield. I'm like, oh boy, he's playing as the number six again. But no, he he did recover from that. And he was, I think that it's just with, with trying to play the forward in, i think Morris kind of made everybody a little bit lazy because he's so fast.
01:31:09
Speaker
I don't know if it's lazy or that they're just really, really used to playing in a certain way that they like can't deviate from as much as they need to.
01:31:20
Speaker
Maybe lazy is too harsh, but, ah but maybe maybe margin for error is a better way of talking about it because when Morris is so fast and so good at beating that line, and your, your passes don't have to be perfect.
01:31:34
Speaker
You can, you can be, ah you don't have to be peer low out there with your distribution. You can kind of hit it and let Jordan run onto it, and he's probably going to at least make something out of it.
01:31:44
Speaker
when you're Mussovsky can make some runs, and Jesus can make some runs, but you've got to be a lot more precise with it because they just don't have that same speed advantage.
01:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, no it's like that's a good point.
01:31:58
Speaker
But other than that, i you know there was that Alex Roldan volley chance in the beginning, and then there're just there wasn't really a lot after that. um it It feels like... The first half... Oh, go for it.
01:32:14
Speaker
ah yeah Schmetzer has had a couple of seasons where he's managed to turn around difficult situations by making big decisions. 2023, it was dropping Ladero and putting Rusnak in there. 2024, it was dropping ah ruy Diaz and putting Morris up top.
01:32:36
Speaker
And I think he's going to have to find it again. He's going to to figure out what that is. um Because what do you think? What do you think? it it do you have a theory on what it is? Drop Rusnak and put Jesus at the number 10.
01:32:49
Speaker
I, it's just, I, ah Schmetzer was talking about after Minnesota, they were talking about some of the changes and how they took Obed off. And Schmetzer said, we needed to get Osazi on there. We needed a second forward.
01:33:05
Speaker
It was nothing against what Obed was doing. I wanted to keep Ruznack out there for set pieces. And to me, that's kind of a damning indictment when you're talking about the designated player, or the highest paid player on the team.
01:33:17
Speaker
And he's out there for set pieces when you're chasing a game. that's not That's not enough. And if that's what he's out there for, I think somebody else could take set pieces. I think if you get Jesus in there, I think he's more mobile.
01:33:31
Speaker
I think he's a harder worker. I think he wants to be playing in that number 10 role and you're sort of challenging him to put up or shut up. I think he's going to connect better with the wingers. I think you're going to get more movement. I think he's going to crash the box more.
01:33:44
Speaker
And I think our attack is going to be a little less stale.
01:33:49
Speaker
Look, I have i definitely, ah I don't have anything against the premise of ah number 10. Hey, Seuss, I think that's where he was playing in the, in the Nashville game, right?
01:34:02
Speaker
Yeah. now Yeah, kind kind of that double number 10. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it is it is tough because it does seem like it's pretty clear that that's his most effective position.
01:34:18
Speaker
um But, mean, I don't know. what ah how How are you feeling about the ah but the Club World Cup?
01:34:28
Speaker
I was never all that interested in it just because I never had any hope. um as soon as so as soon as that draw came through, i mean, it was just, it reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer keeps falling down the cliff.
01:34:44
Speaker
It's like, all right, you've been drawing against PSG. All right, well, that that's brutal. Let's see what's that. All right, Atletico Madrid. All right, that's another blow. It's just, they the blows just keep coming and coming. Oh, Botafogo, that's not really much help, is it?
01:34:56
Speaker
So I never had all that much interest in it, but and now I'm worried that it's going to be embarrassing to the degree that it hurts our recruitment efforts. that's That's sort of my big fear with it.
01:35:09
Speaker
Do you really think that like even if they lose pretty badly, it would have that effect, though? I mean, I feel like most people who know how the sport works know that they're the the spending gap is such that it's like... Even being competitive is a feat in itself, so...
01:35:30
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I don't think anybody expects them to compete, but there's, I think that there's a big difference between valiant failure and the kind of collapse that we saw against Vancouver.
01:35:44
Speaker
yeah if if if um If mentally they're they're in that same state, if they put out that same kind of performance, I mean, that's, you against PSG, that's going to be a touchdown. Yeah.
01:35:59
Speaker
ah that they're going to score on us. um Whereas, ah you know, you can think of, ah I'm trying to think, i went to the World Cup in 2010 and there was, i think North Korea lost Brazil two to one and it was a loss, but it was still and incredible result for them. Now they went on to get hammered in their remaining games, but I think, I think maybe a seven nil against Portugal, but that was the, even though it was a loss, it was still the talk of the town.
01:36:28
Speaker
but Oh, if they lose 2-1 to PSG or Dutty Co-Madrid, I would be hyped. that that That would boost our stock. Yeah. You know, that that that would be that would be an incredible achievement. and And I don't think anybody would have any complaints about that. But if they, you know, if Nuhu goes out there and horse collars somebody again, and you know, you can't do something in a soccer match that gets you 15 yards in the NFL, for God's sake.
01:36:55
Speaker
You have to think that they will be more locked for the club world cup than they were for this white Cavs game. I mean, if i if i its yeah team it's the same like thing that happens in the club world cup, uh, that I think it's almost a whole new set of issues. I don't know.
01:37:15
Speaker
There have been matches in our, in our history, you know, the, the Austin one where the the kids went out there and, and handled Austin until Rudy as was able to hit it from 45 or whatever. Um, and MLS cup in 2016, you know, there have been yeah games where, where the guys are at their best when the odds are against them.
01:37:35
Speaker
Um, and maybe the problem with Vancouver was it was the opposite of that. I mean, I fully expected, um to be calling into the show this week and just sort of breeze past the Vancouver game because it's like half their team is on international duty.
01:37:50
Speaker
The other half has been sharding uncontrollably for a week. Of course we won. You know, maybe they went into that with that attitude and so they weren't mentally prepared. And and that's what was their undoing.
01:38:01
Speaker
Obviously, that's not going to be the case against any of the Club World Cup teams. So maybe they'll be in a better position there. Yeah, well, we got we got to hope because my I mean, my criteria for success in the Club World Cup has been just compete with dignity. That's the phrase that I've been using. Like, that's all I want to see.
01:38:21
Speaker
Don't do anything that sets sets the league or the club back multiple decades, which I think is a clearable bar, you know. If you go out there and lose by a couple goals to PSG or Atletico Madrid, but you acquit yourself well and do some cool stuff, maybe score a goal, any anything to that effect, I personally would be fine with.
01:38:45
Speaker
And I think that is an a attainable goal. It's just that when you're going into it with the vibes that they're going into it right now, it makes it just makes it feel like uneasy, like everything is kind of tenuous,
01:38:58
Speaker
in danger of spiraling. So that's just where we're at right now. And I guess the good news is that the, this tournament gives them a chance to turn the vibes around, show that they're not going to spiral. if they go out there and, and acquit themselves, well, I think it would help the vibes a lot, but like, as we sit here right now, like I said, it doesn't feel like everything's just kind of teetering right now. That's how it feels to me.
01:39:25
Speaker
it feels like we've been hit on, um sort of multiple fronts. I, this has been a tough season. It's certainly had its up, uh, you know, it's, ah it's had its high points. It's, it's had its, it's good wins.
01:39:38
Speaker
Um, but the injury thing has been just so brutal all year long. It feels like two steps forward, one step back. Seeing Morris coming out again was a bummer.
01:39:50
Speaker
uh, a big problem with, uh, with this is who are, is what the defense is going to look like. um You know, I, I'm, I, I think Hawkins has had some good performances. I don't really want to see it.
01:40:06
Speaker
yeah I was hoping that was just, I did see that he got called back. I was hoping that was something temporary, but I don't think he's going to play. Yeah. I mean, the vibes have been just tough because it feels like ah it everything is a bummer.
01:40:20
Speaker
you know, from the injuries to some of the results to the stuff behind the scenes, uh, to the, the seeming lack of transfer activity. Um, it all just feels like, uh, there's just a lot of problems and, and not necessarily, you know, we, we've had some bad seasons in the past, uh, in the past, uh, that loss to Kansas city that got Ziggy fired was maybe the saddest performance. I, you know, that,
01:40:51
Speaker
That game made this Vancouver game look like the 2019 MLS Cup final. I mean, that that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. And we turned it around. But what we did to turn it around was a big, shiny new player.
01:41:06
Speaker
It was Ladero in 2016. It was Rudiaz in 2018. And we all know that's not coming now. And so I think that's part of the the bad vibes as well, is we know that there's no cavalry coming.
01:41:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, ah honor on that happy and optimistic note, I think I'm going to start the ah process of wrapping it up here. We got no one else in the queue behind you. now noah no and No one wanted to call in tonight, I guess. I i was testing the Tuesday call-in.
01:41:37
Speaker
Apparently, apparently people were feeling shy, but appreciate you hopping on James as always. another And I appreciate you taking my call. Appreciate it. And of course, I didn't watch that.
01:41:49
Speaker
I didn't watch that U S national team game, but boy, am I disconnected from that organization right now? That's how I, that's what I was realizing.
US National Team & Fan Engagement
01:41:57
Speaker
I was like, I barely even remember that game was happening.
01:41:59
Speaker
Didn't watch. I saw that. I saw that they lost four zero. And i was like, good, good job. I had the coach. it's it's, it's so hard because U S national team was my first love even before the Sounders, because there was no MLS Sounders at that point. And, um, you know, I remember staying up at, uh, uh, staying up until four in the morning to watch games in, in 2002, I took work off in 2006. So I could watch those games.
01:42:27
Speaker
I went to the 2010 world cup. I was in the stadium for Donovan's goal against Angola. that's sick. excuse me, Algeria. um And now it's like, oh, there was a game today.
01:42:39
Speaker
it's It's just an incredible, it's an incredible state to be in this close to a home World Cup. And they've they've just managed to screw everything up in a way that is unfathomable.
01:42:50
Speaker
it's unfathomable. Like it's, you don't even have to do that much. Like if you supposedly had the golden generation. So like, and I realized that like this team that got called in was like, not, a well, I guess there was a lot of the golden generation guys. Wasn't there?
01:43:08
Speaker
or at least a few. There's a few, if few were injured. If you it didn't make it, it's just, you know, the problem is I think it's a golden generation. You know, when when Clint Dempsey was having his moment at at the 2006 World Cup, he was making $80,000 a year at New England.
01:43:26
Speaker
And the only way he could get a decent wage for himself was to ball out the team, get that move abroad. And now Walker Zimmerman, who has never played outside of MLS, he's getting paid $3 million dollars a year.
01:43:42
Speaker
Yeah. And it's it's i I think I'm never going to complain about people getting paid a fair wage. It's obviously a good thing and that and MLS players are making more money than they used to.
01:43:55
Speaker
But I do think that they've they've lost some of that. i ah Some of that identity were playing for the national team was the way they were going to secure their their fortune and their family security. It's a good point. Like there's, there's no, there's no motivation like that really. Like I was, I was writing this ah Obed Vargas feature this week and ah kind of, you know, ah diving into his backstory, which I know quite well at this point, but like he left home when he was 14.
01:44:22
Speaker
Like he had to leave his family behind in Anchorage to ah to go play for the Sounders Academy. and like, I was just thinking about like how crazy it is. Like the ah the motivation that he must've felt was just crazy. Cause it's like,
01:44:37
Speaker
I literally, yeah i have I have everything on the line here 14 years old. And like, it's based on like my performance, like how I play, like I'm in control of it.
01:44:49
Speaker
And i just have to go like tear it up because I have, there's so much like at stake for my life and my future. Like that's, that's the type of motivation that you can't like manufacture.
01:45:02
Speaker
That's like, yeah absolutely. Comes from within, you know? So yeah. yeah I think it's a good point that like the Golden Generation, like like a guy like Gio Reyna, he doesn't have that. like No, no. And and again, i'm I'm very happy for these guys that they're getting yeah you know they're getting scouted to Europe up as teenagers instead of, you know, Dempsey was probably 23 before he went to Europe or something like that.
01:45:28
Speaker
um So they're getting more years, making more money overseas. I'm very happy for them, but it does it does change it just changed your mentality. It's like, I can't remember the name of the boxer who said that it it's really hard to get up at five in the morning to go running when you're sleeping in silk sheets.
01:45:46
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, all right. I'm going to get out of here. I appreciate it. Thanks for calling in James. Appreciate you as always. Uh, we'll talk soon. Have a great night. And, uh, yeah, you too.
01:46:00
Speaker
Shout out to, uh, Gianni and James for, uh, for essentially stepping in as co-hosts tonight. Not a not a lot of callers, but that's fine.
01:46:14
Speaker
I just wanted to, to at least give people the opportunity to get their thoughts out there before the, before the club world cup, because we didn't get a chance to do it after the Vancouver game. So I feel like I, I've done my duty now.
01:46:33
Speaker
even though even though we only had a couple people. But great stuff from both Gianni and James. I think it turned out to actually be a great show. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this ah special Tuesday edition.
01:46:48
Speaker
ah Hopefully, i think I think for these Club World Cup games, I mean, I am going to be covering them.
01:46:58
Speaker
Uh, so it might be a situation where we do the, the live, like a couple hours after the game, but that's going to be what I'm shooting for. Uh, follow me on blue sky and I'll let you guys know for sure. Like what the, the, for sure plan is on that. But as of now, definitely planning on doing post game lives for people to call in, uh, after, after this Botafogo game and for the rest of the club world cup games.
01:47:23
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, I am, uh, I'm going to be they got me covering them on site for all three of them to keep track of any MLS storylines or, you know, anything basically good that happens to Seattle.
01:47:40
Speaker
If they ah if they get waxed in all three games, probably not going to be covering it that extensively.
01:47:47
Speaker
It's funny, we had our our Portland vlog come out, which I thought came out really well. the I honestly liked the Tacoma Defiance one a little bit better, but that's that's because I'm kind of a sicko like that.
01:48:05
Speaker
But the vlog came out and ah i thought it I thought it came out well and it got a good response. It got a lot of views. Most of the comments were positive. But we did have one crash out commenter on the vlog, which I thought was ah kind of funny. He said, like, this is the worst...
01:48:22
Speaker
rivalry video I've ever seen, which I feel like it's like not that common of a, but he was crashing out because he said, so he pointed, he said, a couple people actually pointed this out, but he was saying we should have ah like interviewed fans, like for it, like talked to the like actual people that were going to the game, which we we should have done that. I don't know. I'm not a documentary filmmaker.
01:48:46
Speaker
i didn I didn't really think of it. I guess it seems obvious in hindsight, but de most definitely like in the future when we're, when we're doing the vlogs, we'll, uh, we'll do interviews for him that are like outside of the, the Tacoma one. We had Wade Weber, uh,
01:49:04
Speaker
on so that was one interview but like i like the idea of us like talking to fans for the vlogs and like interviewing people for him so that was actually ah
Future Plans & Content Expansion
01:49:14
Speaker
fair fair feedback like we're gonna we're gonna do that for sure we're learning like we're learning how to make those the best we can make them uh but then the other thing he was like You guys didn't even sit sit in the stands. You were just ah sitting in your cushy press box. Like, you guys are not really of the people, you elitists, I think was his point.
01:49:37
Speaker
And i was I'm like, bro, you not understand that we're we're sitting in the press box like because we're working?
01:49:46
Speaker
Maybe people don't know that. i work i My job is i work for the I'm on the editorial staff for the league websites.
01:49:56
Speaker
So that's why i'm in the that's why I'm in the press box. I'm not like, ah i don't I don't get a credential to vlog for Lobbing Scorchers. Like I'm there for the game, to work the game.
01:50:11
Speaker
And Noah is a photog. So he's in the press box in on the field shooting the game because he's like working as well. That's that's why we were in the press box.
01:50:25
Speaker
Feel like I shouldn't have to explain that.
01:50:28
Speaker
Figuring it out as we go, exactly.
01:50:32
Speaker
To be fair, most of the vlog comments were we're positive. people People seem to like that content. We're gonna keep trying to make more of it. Vancouver trip was not one of one of those that we were filming like the, the Portland and the Tacoma one were just like filming everything, put it all together. We couldn't really do that for the Vancouver trip. So sorry, but we are going to keep making vlogs.
01:50:59
Speaker
We'll do some interviews next time. It's actually a fair point would have made it better, but I still think it came out good. Check it out. If you haven't, um, what else road to two K subs,
01:51:17
Speaker
Hopefully, hopefully we got a little closer with this show here tonight.
01:51:24
Speaker
People forget we've only been doing this for a year. Yeah. And we've only been doing, we've only done two of the vlogs.
01:51:31
Speaker
Can we get some slack here? We're learning how to be filmmakers. I'm actually pretty excited to get more into it and like, uh,
01:51:43
Speaker
really hone the uh the craft of like the documentary style film when i first saw what our uh what our editor did with the tacoma defiance footage was like dude this looks like a freaking hbo style documentary this is sick i love like being a part of something like this so we're gonna keep doing that keep fine-tuning it and it's only it's gonna get better and better
01:52:14
Speaker
Maybe we can vlog it up a little bit for the Club World Cup. I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud.
01:52:23
Speaker
ah
01:52:26
Speaker
Oh, sorry that for anyone who was watching kickoff on Monday and wondering why we stopped the show mid-sentence.
01:52:38
Speaker
It was not intentional.
01:52:42
Speaker
but was also not my fault. StreamYard, our streaming service, had like a mass crash. I looked it up on Twitter and apparently there's a bunch of streamers out there that we all had our shit crash at the same time.
01:52:57
Speaker
So that's why it ended that abruptly. But I didn't, like when it first happened, I was like, oh my God, what did I click? What did I do? What happened?
01:53:08
Speaker
What have I done? That's what I thought. I thought I assumed that I accidentally clicked and stream. That's what I thought happened. But then I looked into it and I was like, ah, not my fault. Not my fault.
01:53:20
Speaker
Not my fault. I had the tech. I had the tech churning. I was, i was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't misclick anything. Stream yard got me. But so that's what happened. Sorry about that.
01:53:32
Speaker
It didn't, I was worried it would happen again tonight.
01:53:36
Speaker
was funny. I filed like a little, like a, Like you can report it to them. And they sent me an email back and it was, it was clearly a form email.
01:53:47
Speaker
They said, we're sorry about your, ah your stream crashing at timestamp. It must be really frustrating for your stream to, or for your stream to crash, especially said, especially at and then it had the timestamp. And was like, you guys didn't, you guys didn't do anything.
01:54:12
Speaker
Hopefully that never happens again. Otherwise stream yard and I are going to have ah bone to pick. All right. I'm going to call it on that, guys. Thank you all for for tuning in to the special belated postgame live.
01:54:27
Speaker
Going to be a big week. We're going to lay down a podcast tomorrow, I believe. I'll be back at it on Thursday evening for Under the Lights as well.
01:54:40
Speaker
In the process of trying to ah line up a Boda Fogo guest, trying to have Nico help me out there. We'll see. i don't know. I don't i don't really have connects on that.
01:54:53
Speaker
MLS, I can find anybody.
01:54:59
Speaker
Botafogo.
01:55:02
Speaker
i don't i don't I don't know. I don't know anybody like offhand, so I'm having to bop around a little bit. you got If you anyone happens to know any reporters or content creators that cover Botafogo that want to come on Lobbing Scorchers, send them my way.
01:55:17
Speaker
But in the process of trying to line that up for Under the Lights. ah And then it's Club World Cup time, baby.
01:55:29
Speaker
The squad is protested.
01:55:32
Speaker
They just got two red cards in three minutes.
01:55:37
Speaker
It kind of feels like
01:55:41
Speaker
they're in danger of a tailspin, but they're not. They're not yet. They're not yet. They got the Club World Cup.
01:55:51
Speaker
kicking off on Sunday. First Botafogo. And before that, like I mentioned at the top of the show, watch party at Fast Fashion on Saturday starting at 430. Going to be doing a watch along.
01:56:04
Speaker
We're going to be mingling with the people. It's going to be a lot of fun. if you want to come hang out, talk to us IRL, watch some Messi,
01:56:18
Speaker
It's going to be a good time. Definitely everybody come out to Fast Fashion. We're launching the hot sauce. that's I mean, that's the biggest thing.
01:56:29
Speaker
This is the biggest passion project of my life.
01:56:36
Speaker
I actually think it's so fire that we're going to have our own hot sauce. Because I am famously a hot sauce We're going to launch the hot sauce. We'll be slinging it.
01:56:49
Speaker
And we're going to be watching messy and potentially lose to all. So, uh, I'll see you all there. Keep your eyes posted for all the content throughout the week.
01:57:01
Speaker
And, uh, we're going to get after for this club. Not everybody. Peace.