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Craig Waibel shares Sounders offseason plans
3.2k Plays1 month ago
Following his end-of-season press conference, Jeremiah sat down with Sounders GM Craig Waibel to go a bit more in depth. Waibel shared his thoughts on the Sounders’ season, some of the plans for the offseason and his excitement about an international-heavy 2025.
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Transcript
Fullpool Wines' Sponsorship of Nos Arietes
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Fullpool was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Will Bruin Joins the Podcast
00:00:25
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounder's legend. now i get to do voice reads for the sounder at heart podcast network
00:00:40
Speaker
about sell <unk> it
00:01:21
Speaker
we all got of sudden go
00:01:30
Speaker
We're seeing some of the hardwood commentary that we didn't take seriously.
00:01:41
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes.
Podcast from Sounders Training Facility with Craig Wybold
00:01:43
Speaker
I am Jeremiah O'Chan. I am here at Long Acres, the Sounders training facility. I am joined today by Craig Wybold, the Sounders GM, and Chief Soccer Officer, which we're contractually obligated to say Chief Soccer Officer. Oh, wow. That's that's a huge part of this, I guess. No, but so thank you for joining us, Craig. It's always a pleasure to do this and
Was the Sounders' Season Successful?
00:02:07
Speaker
chop it up. ah We just had your end of season ah press conference.
00:02:11
Speaker
ah I wouldn't say this is a controversial issue, but there is a lot of discussion and we talked about it at the press conference was the idea of this being a successful season or not. You know, I think you can make a very valid argument that it was. And i Brian, I thought, articulated this well. He said there were aspects of it that were successful. But like you said, it if the season doesn't end in or well, you know, in smiles, you're you're not ultimately satisfied. But how do you when you're assessing the season,
00:02:42
Speaker
I'm sure it's not as black and white as success or non-success, but how do you assess this season? I mean, look, there are successes in in any year. In the worst year, there's still some success, right? and And so it depends on how you want to spice it. Is your glass half full or half empty? And we all know someone who's half empty, and we all know someone who's half full. And I try and drink from both of those glasses. um Look, we we had a lot of success. we Obviously, we were the second best team in the second half of the year.
00:03:11
Speaker
yeah out of the entire league. And I think we finished with one less point than Miami. um You know, we went to quarterfinals, semi-finals, semi-finals of three competitions this year. Conference finals, sorry, not semi-finals. But, um you know, so we're we're knocking on the door of what ultimately we really want. But then, yeah, you know, I said it in the press conference. When your season doesn't end with smiling,
00:03:37
Speaker
It doesn't feel good. And it, you know, you you got to start back over and there's an emotional toll that that takes where you got to roll back down to the bottom of the mountain. and get back on your feet and start climbing it again. And so that's the job. That's where we're at. And I can look back and tell you ah you know a laundry list of successes in terms of the way we turned a season from what it looked like it was going to be, which was a very painful 10 months into, honestly, a painful three months and a really, really fun five months. um
00:04:11
Speaker
I can tell you about the young guys, Obed Vargas, Reid Bakerway, and Josh Tenzio, Danny Lee, Jackson Reagan coming through. And really, this year, not just being a guy that looked promising, but be kind of your finalists becoming, yeah, finalists. And ah Yamar being, ah you know again, named to best
Young Players' Contributions and Personal Bests
00:04:30
Speaker
11. And um Jordan having his best scoring year ever. Albert having a wonderful contribution year, his best scoring year.
00:04:39
Speaker
All of these are great successes in a micro ah level conversation. my position's more macro, right? And so my position is more where did we end? How did we get there where the puzzle piece is correct? We got a lot of the people right. And we got a lot of the environment right. We got a lot of the culture right. And it's hard because everyone doesn't get to be in these walls. so And they don't get to see the unification of this group this year and how the staff and the players worked through some difficult times and and got got it to where it got.
00:05:09
Speaker
but um But I also have to own and and I'm not blind to the fact that while we were an elite defensive team ah this year and last year, while we were continuing our success in terms of points, which fifth best the last two years ah overall, um you know, so confusing. More points this year, worse finish.
Offensive Struggles and Future Plans
00:05:37
Speaker
Right. ah You know, but overall, like, you know, two-year stretch, fifth best in league, best defense by a light year, and then struggling to score. Nineteenth, I think, in scoring, if you go on a two-year average, or 19th this year, 18th overall, something like that, right in the middle, um below middle. So we've got to address it. I mean, it's not a defensive problem right now. We can't
00:06:00
Speaker
run away from that, you know, because we're not going to go pick up seven attacking players or six. tech players but But we've got, we have to attack and we've got to go get some pieces that allow us to be more attacking more guys that ah we have a lot of guys that didn't like to score, but you know, it's a habit. We guys that enjoy that habit.
00:06:21
Speaker
And so I guess the question then is in some ways i could just I could see how the relative levels of success almost makes it harder to identify the areas for improvement because you aren't improving from, it's not like you have real obvious holes in the starting lineup. Right, right.
00:06:37
Speaker
But you know you have to improve in the aggregate. And you know in the big I suppose you can say even in the biggest games. So how do you go about assessing like where are our areas for obvious improvement? Because it's it's one thing to say, well, we need to add 10 goals. OK, so where are you going to get those 10 goals from?
00:06:54
Speaker
Look, if this is where it's it's important to remember we're in MLS. So we do have a salary cap. We do have roster structures as opposed to, if we ask that question and we were in Europe, ah basically anywhere else in the world without it, literally anywhere else in the world, we ask the question, hey, how do we go get 10 goals? We go, well, it costs this much money. right And then we go, do we have this much money?
00:07:17
Speaker
And that's it. That's the conversation. Then you go with Scouts. This is a little bit different fitting it into how we have our structures. So you've got the 3DPs and then you have the target allocation and all the different math problems that I am happy to go through, as you know, and dissect and try and break down and we will over time.
00:07:34
Speaker
but um Adding to this team is taking our current situation, our current resources, financial resources that we have, and figuring out how to maximize it within the constructs of what what our limitations are. And the limitations in MLS are not always money.
00:07:52
Speaker
sometimes their money, but we have a great problem. We had Jordan have a career year scoring, we had Albert have a career year scoring, and we have Pedro de la Vega, who unfortunately had so many injury issues that we just started to see at the end of the year his true style of play and his mobility and the way he breaks pressure.
00:08:13
Speaker
um and so we need to add attacking players. I don't think it's limited to position. I think it's we need to add attacking players that are goal dangerous, whether they be wingers, as Jordan was until this year, or strikers. And that also gives us an opportunity to play Jordan and another striker together. Can we pair them?
00:08:38
Speaker
And on the weekend, one drops into the wing position. Is it Jordan? Is it this other player? And are they interchangeable? And then we can also rest because that's one thing we were battling the entire second half of the year is how are we?
00:08:53
Speaker
possibly going to manage all these minutes on these guys. And we saw it. like you know We lost Jordan in the playoffs. right don't Don't forget that, right? Lost Albert. And lost Albert in the playoffs. And we were able to overcome that. Lost Paul. Lost Paul. And so we need to bring players in that give us the ability to rotate and maintain quality.
00:09:16
Speaker
But let me change that rotate and improve quality. And that's not a shot at our current players. That is acknowledging the fact that we haven't scored enough. And so I guess when you go into the marketplace and you start looking at players, does it make it easy? It sounds like you're almost agnostic, ah but positionally agnostic about what you need to do to improve. Does that help you go into the market or would it be nicer if you could just say we need a number nine and that would be like lee your laser focus.
00:09:42
Speaker
that would That would make it a little easier. um But then it then when you start talking about like true nine, only nine, it's a really easy conversation. You can theorize all you want. But if you have 15 million to spend versus 10 million to spend versus 7.5 million to spend, your profiles are determined.
00:10:04
Speaker
This is who fits in those categories. By the way, those are all huge amounts of money. right None of those are trivial. um so it's not necessarily It is a bit agnostic positionally. It is not agnostic in terms of player profile. I'm very specific.
00:10:25
Speaker
and specific we Lee, we are looking for players that fit and can play multiple positions if need be, because we are not going to go add six players.
00:10:39
Speaker
We are going to add a limited amount of players based on where we are on the cap and the promise that our young guys have shown. So we we need to be very, very careful on the profiles we're looking at that we don't lock ourselves into one formation of play with the amount of games we're about to play the next year.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, you alluded to this or you said it in the press conference that you you're you're going into the season expecting to play at least 42 games. That would be 34 regular season games, three World Cup, Club World Cup games, two Champions League games, and then presumably two Leagues Cup and one Open Cup until we hear otherwise, right? ah That's a lot of games to
Need for Squad Depth and Versatility
00:11:15
Speaker
start with. You played, I think, 47 this year, which included obviously four playoff games.
00:11:20
Speaker
So and three extra leagues come in right and so so you can it's not hard to imagine getting higher than 42 is my my brain That's a lot of it's gonna be a lot of wear and tear ah MLS teams almost never get over 50 and you guys are looking 50 pretty squarely in the barrel. I would say yeah ah if if you have a if you have a successful season I suppose but so does that do you Do you feel like you need to sort of expand the roster as well, not not necessarily in numbers, but in terms of players who you are expecting to play significant minutes?
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, we need I think a few things we need to add this offseason is obviously we need to add at least one attacking goal dangerous player. We also need to add an attacking veteran player that can be goal dangerous, but to be fair, we need to add balance in our in the selection of players that we have. So as Georgie develops and as Paul continues to develop,
00:12:19
Speaker
We also need to acknowledge that neither one of those guys are seven-year pros, right? And so, you know, we'd love to bring in a profile that complements an away match midweek. You know, we could easily start next year being involved in the Champions League if we are able to advance past the first round. We'll start next season with eight games in 27, 28 days.
00:12:43
Speaker
to start a way to start the season, to start the season yeah right? And so you you can't just throw paint at the wall in that scenario um and have fun press conferences, right, for the coach. So, ah you know, we've got some different profiles. We've got some different things we need to add. We have a lot of youth. We need to add some veteran, like, calm to the group in in the attacking half of the field as well, because some of the games, you're not going to go on the road and just attack, attack, attack. And so I think those,
00:13:12
Speaker
All those things add up to balancing out the the roster a little bit. But thankfully, we don't have to do a lot of work in the back half of the field. um You know, other than we'll be signing Travian Souza up from the Defiance, who's shown really well with his time there, and then bringing in one of our um one of our academy players kind of here we go back to the same the same mold that we've had with a couple other guys one of our academy players that we chose not to sign going into college goes to college does quite well he's played locally for Ballard over the last couple of years and had a great college career so we'll be signing Leo Bernie to come back as like ah another young center back and so we're complementing the back line
00:13:57
Speaker
But focusing up front so I would imagine those are two ah Defensive they're players that played farther back in the field whether or not yeah beyond is a defensive players We can get into that later and all that these are players who are playing defensive positions i Safe to say then that you're when you're talking about bringing players from outside. It's gonna be Farther up the field. is Yeah, you're not looking I mean in you're not looking to bolster your defense at this point No, no, I mean, him and barring the the fragility of getting into the semantics of soccer formations, you know, whether Travian fits as a wingback or an outside back, Leo's the center back. So we don't we don't have to debate that one. But look, we have the ability right now to bring some guys in and see if they're going to mature into first team contributors ah far more there than we than in the front half of the field. We've got to bring guys in that are ready to impact. And you know like I said in the summer, ah we're not going to sign someone to come and watch. If we're signing someone at this point with the team we have, they've got to come in and play. And that's a tough decision for coaches, but that's my my job is to challenge them.
00:15:06
Speaker
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00:15:39
Speaker
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00:15:56
Speaker
So it wasn't so long and we have a bunch of players on this team who were signed as young not just teenagers but like fifteen sixteen year old mid teen Right ah it sounds like maybe we're moving away ah I mean I would imagine you're open-minded to the idea of signing young teens still But it doesn't there's no imminent real like You want guys to be able to contribute to the first team if you sign them to a first team contract, it sounds like, is ah if I'm reading this correctly. Yeah, look. We've got another really young, talented player for those that have watched enough Defiance games and watched the Open Cup in Snyder-Bernal. Yeah, that's kind of who I was alluding to there. Yeah, I figured. I figured we were walking down the same path. But you know Snyder's a remarkably talented young man. And and it comes down to timing. And and we need to see him.
00:16:45
Speaker
um We need to see him step into the first team environment and not be overwhelmed, you know which he did a good job of last year. But there's no need to rush on a good player. um And and we're you know we're confident that our development system, given all we've seen over the last five, six years, is going to continue to get him ready. ah Whether it's sooner or later, we'll you know we'll make that call when we when we see the right qualities.
00:17:10
Speaker
um but other than you know, kind of what we already had in house yet. We're we not focused on young. right we're We're focused on contributing players at this point. um We still have U-22 spots open. So, of course, from a domestic standpoint, we look at that as young. Whereas a lot of other countries at 21-22, they're like,
00:17:34
Speaker
This guy should have been playing every minute of every game. yeah ah So we still have a couple of those roster spots open. We may designate some of the guys, if we renegotiate with some of our young guys now, may designate some of them into it. But yeah we have to be open and we need to be open as a club to still pursuing those opportunities and and really like keep taking What has looked across our league, if you look at all the U22s, it is a risk and it is a chance that this player is going to come in and truly contribute on a consistent basis. And that's what we've got. We've got to stay open-minded about the fact that we need to keep challenging ourself on that.
00:18:11
Speaker
on the, staying on ah these younger players, Stuart Hawkins was a player who got, he's now at what? 4,000 ish professional minutes yeah at 18 years old. He's getting youth national team call ups. Hasn't he he played two games for you in the open cup? It hasn't necessarily broken into the first team yet. Is he like, where would you say he is on the, his trajectory? Is he going to be someone who you're expecting to like compete with a Leo Bernie for first team minutes? Or is he still, is there still more of a building? it Like I know physically he's, he has some growth still. do Yeah, there's still some physical growth, obviously, with Stewart's age. But he's right about where we thought he'd be. I mean, we we wanted to get him all these minutes. He has been very successful with those minutes. He's he's developed very nicely. You know, it is a little difficult to find minutes when a GMR in Jackson, you know, a best 11 and a defender of the year finalist ah starting there. But with the congestion of games, and and I think one thing that gets lost when we say 40, 41, 42 games, possibly 50, we're not talking a calendar year.
00:19:10
Speaker
We're talking eight months. We're talking middle of February to middle of October. you know That's our regular season. And that's where all these competitions fit in and then playoffs. And so um there's opportunities, there's whether it's injury or or you know the tournament game or or wherever we can see it. But the other thing we' we're looking at now, too, is with the amount of depth that we have, we have to make sure our guys are getting competitive matches on a consistent basis.
00:19:37
Speaker
so If Stewart ah comes in prepared and gets some first team minutes, that's wonderful. If he's struggling to get first team minutes halfway through the year, we might look to loan Stewart ah you know to another country, a new challenge, physical challenge, cultural challenge, mental challenge, personal challenge to go grow in those ways. though Those are things that our club has never really had the opportunity to do because you never had the depth.
00:20:01
Speaker
We've always, our depth has always been, we got to play our depth. And so to have a spoil of riches, for instance, with a player like Stewart on the roster, I mean, he could easily step in and play this year. I think he could, I think he could get some games.
00:20:16
Speaker
I mean, if it doesn't work that way, I mean, if Yaymar and Jackson are healthy every game, those are probably the two names we're going to see. Jonathan's done a great job um for us. And so, you know, we'll be open-minded to making sure all our guys are developing, including, you know, even Jacob Castro. We need to make sure we get Jacob Castro, our, you know, our third choice goalie on the first team right now. We've got to get him enough games to prove if he can be the two.
00:20:42
Speaker
Well, it sounds like you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to to try to do this. yeah ah Just wanted to circle back a little bit onto the sort of the attack element and then sort of the big job this offseason.
00:20:54
Speaker
you know, in the summer, there was a fair amount of reporting on there just not being a lot of budget, frankly, to to do much to go out into
Transfer Budget Reset and Strategic Acquisitions
00:21:02
Speaker
the market. Do you feel any better about the state of sort of the transfer budget? and And like, are you talking to like, are you focused on players that are available, like available for free? Or is there some money out there that you can No, we've reset. I mean, there's there' is money to be spent now. um And in the summer for a myriad of reason, we you know we just it was a little tighter. I mean, that's kind of how it works when you get in the middle of a season. It's not always there laying around.
00:21:27
Speaker
um So we we've restructured, you know, rebudgeted. And so we have a we have a transfer of budget laid out. And now it's a matter of going out and really applying it within the cap. Right. So we've got to um we've got to look at ah Jordan's agreement, Albert's agreement.
00:21:47
Speaker
Pedro's agreement and we've got to work through like, how how do we line up in terms of designated players, max TAM players, target allocate, you know, TAM players all the way down through the U22 mechanism as well. So um once we get all of those senior decisions finalized, we can move into the next phase, which, you know, the investment might be on a U22, depending on how some of these other contract negotiations go.
00:22:12
Speaker
So yeah ah during the press conference, you mentioned Albert and you felt like, are you in the Albert and the Sounders feel reasonably aligned? Are you pretty confident that he's going to be back next year?
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, look, I'm apprehensive to overstate because um I've known Albert now for 10 years. And so sometimes you can mix familiarity with with solid sure agreements. Sure. um But when you know someone, as long as we've known each other, the the conversations between Albert and myself are really direct.
00:22:44
Speaker
um we're both uh, unafraid of truth. And so we, we kind of approach the conversations that way. So I'm optimistic because of the the way our conversations have gone. I think we both want to get something done. So now it's just a matter of kind of getting to that, getting those final pieces over the line and what makes him comfortable, what makes us comfortable. And you know, how do we project, um, with, I keep referring to limitations. I don't like using that word within the constructs of MLS.
00:23:15
Speaker
Like where does this best fit for the sounders? And does that make sense for him? Those aren't always a line, right? So we're working through those final details to see where we're all comfortable. And I'm i'm pretty sure we're going to find a resolution.
00:23:29
Speaker
When you're either talking to the guys who are already here, who have sort of put in the time and are looking forward to this, or you're going out into the market and seeing the response to people, does the Club World Cup register as a thing? I don't expect anyone to be giving you big discounts for this, but is that a selling point where you can, you know, maybe where where players seem genuinely excited about the possibility of getting on the field against, I know it's three games, but against a Botafogo, against a Atletico Madrid, against a PSG, some of the biggest clubs in the world. How could you not, right? I mean, this is, this is why players play the game. It's for opportunities like this. And so unless they've played in Ligon or, or Syria, or, you know, I mean, La Liga, like, of course, you know, I mean, give me a break. Like that's what players want, but does it get, it doesn't give us a discount. I can tell you that. It might even spike the prices because I like, Oh, you're playing in that? Right. Oh, okay. Here we go. yeah So there's no discounts.
00:24:29
Speaker
But it does definitely help in the conversations you know when you're like when you tell players, hey, not only are we playing the teams, we're actually playing them in front of our home crowd. And you know that I think is something that's gonna prove the most memorable and special part of this whole event is is our crowd. It's our home crowd mixed in with a true ah international love affair with a lot of these teams. And I think it's just gonna be an amazing experience for our players to be loved at home in front of these teams is um it's unique.
00:25:04
Speaker
And it's not going to happen not going to happen again in my lifetime, because even even if slash when we win the Champions League soon enough, most likely we're not going to be able to host the next one, are we? well i mean And that's sort of the thing. And it's it's sort of a pinch me moment. and I almost feel as if because the club because the World Cup is going to be playing games here, it's a little easy to overlook what an opportunity this
Club World Cup Ambitions and Challenges
00:25:28
Speaker
is. The Club World Cup has never been played in the United States. This is the first time it's ever been this format. this format i I mean, it is a true, you know, who knows how it registers this year, but it's not hard to imagine a world where this is the the most important tournament in the world, like bar none, right? and yeah and And so to have that opportunity of it being played here to be hosting games,
00:25:50
Speaker
it it It doesn't feel hyperbolic to say it's a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And I do kind of wonder, because there is a temptation in some ways to look at this as like, well, it's like three friendlies. And I understand in some ways,
00:26:09
Speaker
It's like the mismatch is what it is, but it's also an opportunity to put on a show, to show the fans that you are serious about this. And I guess the question is, how much responsibility do you feel to not just be happy you're there, but to treat it like the once in a lifetime opportunity that it is?
00:26:30
Speaker
um Well, i I hope the ah approach from the other teams is it's gonna be friendly. Because it's not. right I mean, we we won we will be respectful, but we won't be friendly. I mean, this is a real competition. It's not exhibition, to your point. ah In terms of how how much responsibility, I feel a lot of responsibility to make sure that we represent our fans ah well, that that we fight, right um that our coaches are aligned,
00:27:01
Speaker
as they always are with brian in charge you know on focusing on the day on what we can do and what we can control but we can't control is um it is two hundred million dollars salary spends on rosters. But again, that billion dollar valuation. Sure. Sure. I mean, we can't control some of that. But what we can control is the way we prepare, the way we focus and the way we go about it. And I think, um look, I would love to see our players be fans.
00:27:34
Speaker
of some of these wonderful players they're going to get to play against after the whistle. And I think we will see that mutual respect between the teams. But I don't think you're going to see ah us fan, fan boy out on anyone until we've had a chance to square up with them. And um that's the wonderful thing about sports. The reason you play the game is because surprises happen. And the reason we love it is because surprises happen.
00:28:00
Speaker
And for the soccer, whatever genre we want to go soccer, nerd, soccer, geek, soccer, expert, soccer, journalist, soccer, coach, so like big sicko is the soccer sicko. yeah there you go um You know, this opportunity is is not to be overlooked. This is for.
00:28:16
Speaker
the Oh, here's a good one. The the Euro snob. like there you go you know and you know This is not to be overlooked by anyone. this This is appealing to everyone. It is a draw for everyone. It is a time to go prove your point, if you will, on your soccer opinions. And it is also a time to be surprised because every competition like this has has some surprises.
00:28:37
Speaker
Do I don't know. I know this was this last year around this time. We were talking about all the the hype going into March to the 50th. And you made a joke about how if I hear that again, I might lose my mind or something like that. And and I can understand. And I understand. I mean, I get it. You are here to build a soccer team and you don't necessarily want to get involved in the marketing aspect. yeah But do I don't know how involved you like. Is it important for the organization to sort of put forth this message that it's You know, like that there is more here than come watch Athletic Code Madrid play, come watch PSG. No, come watch the Sounders try to take down the best teams in the world. We are the only American team, MLS team. That qualified to get in. That qualified to get in.
00:29:24
Speaker
And that that is not that is not a shot at Miami because every host country in this competition will have at least one team if not two. okay So this is no disrespect to Miami, but we are the only team to own every trophy in North America, in MLS.
00:29:41
Speaker
right And so that in and of itself is a statement piece. And that is, you know, when we talk about the march to the 50, all these other ah marketing things that yes, I do get a little lost in because my job is to make sure we are competitive on the field. It's not lost on me.
00:30:00
Speaker
what i What does get lost sometimes is how we got here right and what we're still doing. Not only are we playing in the Club World Cup, we are actually playing for the tournament and the championship that we won to get in the Club World Cup this year. right So it's it's maintaining that level of success and that level of competition that our fans have grown to um command, demand, and every other and word that there is ah from us.
00:30:26
Speaker
and so You know, there are a lot of other clubs that would tell you success has already been reached. And there are a lot of other GMs and coaches, you know, coaches and GMs that would sit in front of the same microphone and compliment each other until you're blue in the face just trying to prove their points. You know, Brian and I aren't those two guys. We're not going to sit in front of everyone and say we smiled at the end of this year. Yes, we understand what went well. We have a really good grasp on what went well.
00:30:54
Speaker
We also have a really good grasp on what didn't. And guess what? In eight, nine weeks, we check back in to start climbing the mountain. And that mountain is to win the tournament that got us in in the Club World Cup, to compete in MLS at the same time we are doing this, then to focus on the Club World Cup, and then to focus on the League's Cup, and then to come back, if we're in the League's Cup, that is, sorry, because You'll see we don't know yeah, but if we're asking folks on Lee's cup folks on Lee's cup and then flip all those switches off and Refocus on winning the championship, which is what our fans demand and command at the end of every season So, you know all of the marketing pieces I love it but at the end of the day all that marketing doesn't matter to me unless we have a reason to market and
00:31:41
Speaker
Well, and that's it on the same token. There's a Champions League draw tonight. Yep at four o'clock. I guess it'd be awesome if anyone is is looking at this ah Were you I have to imagine there's a part of you that was okay. We got another one But were you I know I was excited when you guys made champion by galaxy winning Yeah, were you was that like what was the emotion you felt when you realize that you were going back to Champions League? Oh Oh, yeah. So let me ignore all the other emotions that you have to go through to get there, because you also have to cheer for the opponent that just beat you. Although you used to play for the galaxy. Even having played for the galaxy and won an MLS Cup with the galaxy as a player. I think the last thing they won was when we were on the team. Yeah, that's a long time ago. No, I mean.
00:32:24
Speaker
the Like the Champions League is one of the measures of success that we hold ourselves to. It was painful not to be a part of it last year. Right. And so being a part of it um is very important from not only a measure of success, but also an identity for us. And, you know, it's it's of substance and should be noted that we're in pot one.
00:32:51
Speaker
That's the top 11 teams. Not pot two. We didn't eek in. We didn't sneak in. Yeah, we were the last team in. But the results over the last two years and specifically a year are how we qualified. And so we're in pot one because we're one of the top 11 teams. And that's what ah that's what we have to remember as a group too, that even through some disappointment comes some of these other glass half full moments. um And now we need to go prove it.
00:33:18
Speaker
You know, we need to go prove we're one of those top 11 teams that deserves, ah you know, home field advantage in the in the second leg. Well, thank you so much for doing this, Craig. This is awesome. This was a bit of a bonus for me. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to do it. I'm really stoked that you were able to kind of give some more insight. And I am i'm really excited about the Champions League draw tonight. I i think that's like then i'm one of these sickos. ah But i'm I'm glad that you i qualify as are excited as well. But thank you for doing this, Craig. ah best I hope you get a some off season.
00:33:51
Speaker
No, no, this is my end season. The team's off season is my end season. Your live season was this last ah stretch. but Yeah, my off season will come when the window closes in May. ah Well, very good, Craig. Thank you for doing this again. I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is No Saudi Yet This, and we'll catch you next time.
00:34:45
Speaker
one