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Episode 395: We really have to stop losing like this
75 Plays2 years ago
The Sounders seem to have a really annoying knack for losing to teams in really bad form. They actually played reasonably well in this one and created a ton of chances, but is there reason to be worried?
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor Highlight
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull 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, the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Sounders Achievements
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Here we go. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS co-pointers! Here comes Ray D'Ace from the middle to crowd it! The vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
00:01:04
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. This is a tiny f***ing doll.
00:01:34
Speaker
Is that why
00:01:38
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our Substec subscribers.
Episode Introduction and Sounders Performance Overview
00:01:45
Speaker
This is episode 395 and we're recording on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
00:01:46
Speaker
you young people call twerking?
00:01:55
Speaker
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. For the third time this year, the Sounders faced an opponent writing a winless run of at least six games, and for the third time, they managed to lose. This time, it was a home to Austin FC, a team that hadn't won since week three. The Sounders dominated most of the statistical categories and actually scored their most lopsided XG victory since dominating RSL in week two, but gave up the opening goal and then another before finally making a game of it on Freddie Montero's goal in the 70th minute.
00:02:25
Speaker
They got a couple very good looks at an equalizer, but ultimately couldn't convert, which was sort of the story of the
Sounders' Recent Challenges
00:02:30
Speaker
night.
00:02:30
Speaker
Still, the Sounders are in first place in the Western Conference, second in points per game, and are bossing a bunch of the advanced analytics stats. Yet, it feels like the wheels are coming off after they've scored just four goals in their last six games. Aaron, where do you fall on this sort of paradigm of it's all screwed up and we need to just put it in the trash, and actually, things aren't that bad.
00:02:56
Speaker
Oh, in the middle, probably slightly towards the things aren't that bad side. I do think this is a really good team. I think they're capable of winning pretty much every trophy they're still playing for. We know they can be much better than this. There's reasons when you look at the underlying data to think that luck is a factor, especially in this game.
00:03:22
Speaker
It's completely reasonable to be skeptical of all of that when they're losing games like this. And they did win midweek and that's great. That was a weird game. And I think anytime we've said pretty frequently, anytime you can win on the road, especially against a team that has been as good at home as Houston, you have to feel pretty good.
00:03:42
Speaker
But they did have to, you know, play against nine guys for a decent chunk of the game. Right. And barely managed to win the game and didn't really look super convincing in doing it. And so it's just it's it's one of those moments in time where things don't feel
In-Depth Game Analysis vs Austin
00:03:58
Speaker
real great. I thought in this game, if this game happens and the Sounders had not just lost a sporting KC at home, had not just lost to Portland the way they did and hadn't just been in sort of this period of malaise.
00:04:12
Speaker
I would probably say, well, you know, you're going to lose a game like that every now and again in MLS where a team that you know, you're better than gets a lucky win. And I think it's fair to say that Austin was very lucky in this game. You know, there are games where the underlying data can look misleading because of the game state, Austin went up by two goals.
00:04:37
Speaker
And if you hadn't watched the game, I think you could say, well, I'm not buying those numbers because Austin was protecting the two goal lead. Of course, they're not going to try to attack. But the Sounders were legitimately creating very, very good chances by both the numbers and the eye test. And they were whether you think it's luck or whether you think it's just bad finishing, they should have scored more goals and I think easily could have won that game on another day, but they don't get the benefit of the doubt.
00:05:02
Speaker
because they did lose to sport in KC at home. They did lose to Portland in that fashion. They did just have a game in Houston where they struggled to score against nine men.
00:05:18
Speaker
game state dictates XG is there is some truth to that. But I think one of the usually the way that comes to that plays out is that a team attempts a bunch of relatively low probability shots that end up padding their XG numbers just by volume of shots. This was not really the case. The Sounders created probably five legitimately good scoring opportunities and only scored on one of one of them, including an open header at the back post.
00:05:48
Speaker
on the game's final play that didn't even really come close to being a goal, but like I watched that replay 10 times and yes, the A-Bear feels, it looks like he is a little surprised that he gets that clean of a look, but I guarantee that was replaying in his head like all night because he had an open net and an open look on this shot. And that was sort of like the tale of the night. Like on the other example of that, A-Bear played
00:06:16
Speaker
Dylan Tevez in right before the goal that they gave up, the first goal they gave up, great pass, great run. Tevez makes a pretty good shot on his first touch, tries to go between a Suvers legs and it just barely gets a piece of his thigh and it ends up staying out of the net.
00:06:37
Speaker
but it was that kind of night. There are plenty of nights where the Sounders turn all those chances into three, four goals.
Impact on Conference Standings
00:06:45
Speaker
We've seen that happen this year. It's the kind of thing you see happen all the time. Another great example was Alex Roldan
00:06:55
Speaker
plays in a just absolutely perfect cross to Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris makes really good contact on it, happens to hit it basically right at Stuver who makes the save. That would have been the equalizer actually late in the game.
00:07:10
Speaker
And I think we're feeling a little differently about this one if the Sounders were able to get the equalizer, I think. But they didn't. And they have to sort of live with that. And they've now lost their last two home games against bad teams, against teams that were in a really bad place. And we talked about this last week, but I'll say it again.
00:07:32
Speaker
You look at the RSL game and you sort of go, okay, 00 tie probably should have won that game, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it because at the end of the season, you just, you look at the schedule and you go, yeah, 00 tie with RSL. I'll take that. Right. But you do not, there's no circumstances where you look at the sounder schedule and you say like, Oh, you just lost back to back games to really bad sporting Kansas city. And maybe not quite as bad, but pretty bad Austin FC. Those are absolutely games.
00:08:01
Speaker
you can't just afford to drop points in, let alone lose. And I don't know if it's going to cost them the supporter shield or if it's going to cost them seating. I would hope it's not a matter of them making the playoffs or not. And I don't think they're going to be fighting for just a playoff spot. But I really do imagine that this will cost them a spot or two in the standings.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that that's the thing that's very frustrating is that they got off to this hot start and they just really haven't taken advantage of it. I think if they were even playing, yes, like at a mediocre level right now, if they were if they had gotten two points against sporting Casey and and Austin, they would have twenty five and they would be right there in the sport or shield race to be leading the sport or one thing. No, Cincinnati is twenty seven. Oh, OK.
00:08:56
Speaker
If, but if they get a point in one and a win in one, which I think going into those games, I'm pretty sure we have this conversation. We said, those are games you feel like you should feel like you have to win at home. Yeah. If they win both of those games at home, that's 29 points. They are leading the supporter shield race. They've got a seven point edge on LAFC in the Western conference. LAFC only has two games in hand. So they're leading on points per game as well.
00:09:21
Speaker
And that's frustrating. And I think the scary thing is
00:09:29
Speaker
Right now, it's at a point where you feel like you're blowing your chance to take a pretty commanding lead in the Western Conference and to really stay right in the thick of this border shield race.
Strategies for Future Matches
00:09:37
Speaker
If they don't turn this around, you're just completely blowing that hot start. Even if you get the ship rated in a month or so after league's cup and you're finished well and you're comfortable, that's the difference between finishing first in the West, being in this border shield race, making the end of the regular season really matter, and going into the playoffs at like third or fourth,
00:09:59
Speaker
being one of the sort of middling teams on the year long, uh, you know, over the course of the full season. And that's not terrible. You can still win the MLS cup from there. You know, it's not the end of the world, but it does feel like a missed opportunity. And I think when you're a team like the Sounders that has achieved so much in the last few months, you know, five to seven God Jesus seven years, I guess, at this point, um, you want to start pushing the envelope and you want to say like, we don't want to have
00:10:29
Speaker
regular season after regular season after regular season where we're mediocre to good during the year. And then maybe we go on a playoff run, like we want to establish ourselves as one of the elite teams in league. And it's hard to do that when you're losing at home to sporting Casey and Austin FC.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah. And, and you know, I wrote about this in my column today, but you know, you sort of expect a lull in any season. And I suppose if this ends up being the worst part of their season and they got seven points in six games, that's a pretty acceptable like law as far as laws go and to their credit. And I think this is maybe one way where this does still feel different than last year.
00:11:09
Speaker
where during this sort of stretch the Sounders would have probably had more like two or three points but instead they've managed to win two games and so they're able to get two games one zero which they didn't look great in and that's sort of part of the frustration of this is that they've been managing to get some results during the stretch but they're just not convincing results and
00:11:30
Speaker
I was saying, if this is the law, you can live with that, but they have to pull out of it and they have to pull out of it soon. Vancouver is not a bad team right now. They've struggled in Vancouver, but they are going to Vancouver, not necessarily, I wouldn't say needing a win, but they need a good performance. They need to get a point out of this one at least.
00:11:52
Speaker
And and then sort of you started pick it back up and you start. Figuring out okay you got a week off and maybe you can put it back together but man.
00:12:02
Speaker
this should have been a gravy game. The dynamo game should have been bonus points, right? Instead, they're needing all of these results that should not feel like they must attain results. And they're going to probably be a little short-handed against
00:12:22
Speaker
Vancouver, I assume a handful of these veterans are going to have to rest. My suspicion is Jau Paulo is going to probably rest. I would assume one of the center backs. Maybe it would be good to rotate one of the center backs. And that's actually maybe a good segue into this next discussion. What lineup changes, if any, are you hoping to see going into this next game?
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's probably asking too much to to hope that Christian is healthy. Yeah, I don't I don't think that's going to happen. And I do think as hard as we're being on the team, I do think it's reasonable to acknowledge that they have been missing Christian. They've dealt with, you know, a bevy of other injuries and has been out. Yep.
00:13:06
Speaker
a month. Uh, knew who, uh, knew who just came back this last game. He, you know, and that, I don't know. He, I, I hope he can start, but man, he looked pretty gassed after playing whatever 15 minutes. It's, it's insane to think that he was capable of even playing, playing 15 minutes after having malaria like two weeks ago. It's, it's,
00:13:26
Speaker
It's crazy. I think like anything you get out of new who before the league's cup, you have to kind of consider to be a bonus. But yeah, I mean, that's not to excuse all of this form, right? It's their team that should be beating sporting hands the city in Austin at home at home.
00:13:41
Speaker
with the team they have without any question. But I do think it is reasonable to acknowledge that they've had some tough decisions to make. They've had to try a bunch of different things to try to get this working. I think that for me, and I don't know how popular this opinion is going to be, I would not mind seeing a change at the back. I wouldn't mind seeing Ariaga come in, I think probably for Yemar.
00:14:06
Speaker
I'm not in the camp of a Mars is done which seems to be an emerging. Perspective within the fan base but he is definitely recently had. A moment or two every game where.
00:14:22
Speaker
it's reasonable to expect the opposition to score. And, and that's not a good thing from, from your center back. So wouldn't mind giving him a night off because I just think that can sometimes happen to defenders where they can get into their heads. And, um, you know, he's, he's played a lot this year, so he could probably use arrest anyway. So I wouldn't mind, uh, Ariaga coming in, but I'm kind of okay with, with everything else, right? Like I thought the attack looked pretty good against Austin. Vancouver is not like a lights out defensive team. I don't think you really have to reinvent the wheel.
00:14:53
Speaker
And, you know, I think for whatever reason, the Sounders have just looked better attacking on the road this year. I think part of that is because they are so good in transition and it can be tough for them when they're not getting chances in transition. I don't think Vancouver is going to play like a super high press and leave a ton of space, but I do think the Sounders are maybe going to get the opportunity to counter a little bit more.
00:15:15
Speaker
So, you know, if, if they want to put Jordan at the nine and put a bear on the bench, I can certainly understand that. But I, I do think a bear has been pretty good at everything about finishing. Obviously finishing is a pretty critical part of his job, but I think it's reasonable to expect he's going to start finishing some of those chances. So I'm more or less fine with, with the team they put out there against Austin. Um,
00:15:42
Speaker
If NuWho can start, great. That's a huge bonus, but if not, I think running it back actually works with the caveat of maybe rotating to Naryaga for EMR.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, I, I also wonder, I suspect they, they have to make some changes, uh, maybe in the midfield as well. Like I, I would be a little surprised if Jeff Jaupalo can go three games in a week the way that he would have to go. So I would think maybe a tensio comes in there. Uh, I don't know if like Lidero is Lidero looks a little gassed right now to me. I wouldn't mind giving him a day off. And if you're going to do that, maybe you move Albert Rusnak at up to the 10 spot. Uh, if you, if you move.
00:16:22
Speaker
Morris to the nine, I suppose that does leave a little bit of a hole at right mid. I don't know if, you know, Tevez, I suppose I feel like Tevez actually looked pretty
Player Performance Evaluation
00:16:33
Speaker
good. He made some good runs. He looked dangerous in moments. He wasn't great in this game, but I thought he was serviceable, but I wouldn't mind seeing, you know, Reed Baker wider potentially get a start either at
00:16:48
Speaker
right back or right mid. Cody Baker, I actually have been very pleasantly surprised with him. I thought he, you know, one of the moments that struck me yesterday was he doesn't use his left a ton, but he's usually pretty good. The thing that he's able to compensate with is he's able to sort of like make that switch to his right foot pretty effortlessly. But one of the moments that stuck out to me about Cody Baker was that he really badly miss hit this left footed pass that he tried to take up the
00:17:16
Speaker
the sideline and it went out of bounds and I'm sure it was a little frustrating for him. But on the next possession, he hit a similar ball really well. And I think that he, just the fact that he's willing to, that he wasn't so put off that he was like trying to stay off of his left foot for a little while that he was willing to hit a, you know, a weighted ball.
00:17:37
Speaker
was a good sign of his confidence and his competence. And so there were, I guess what I'm saying is like, there were definitely some positives. I think there's gonna have to be some lineup changes just because I suspect guys need rest. But it's not necessarily changes that I feel like have to be made to send a message. Whereas in the past, maybe that's why you make those changes. That said,
00:18:06
Speaker
I think the thing that was most glaring to me about the that sort of is illustrative of the sounders struggles during these last four game or last six games is they were really really efficient at using
00:18:21
Speaker
pressure in the opposing third to not necessarily create scoring chances, but to disrupt other offenses and to not really let them get started in the way that the end and, you know, like have comfortable build outs. And that just seems to be gone right now. Like they are not turning teams over in their opposing third right now. And I don't know if that's
00:18:44
Speaker
I don't know what that's about. I know in the supporting Kansas City game, the thing I thought was the problem with that is that you just didn't have Ledero leading the press the way that you want. But that wasn't the case last night. He was leading the press along with a bear. It just wasn't done well. And I guess maybe that also comes from the midfield pressure not being where it needs to be. I don't know. What did you say?
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's something that Brian called out in the press conferences. He said we need to press effectively and definitely seemed to imply that he didn't think they were doing that. It was a huge part of why they were so successful earlier in the season. When teams weren't giving them a lot of space to transition, they were creating transitional opportunities for themselves.
00:19:32
Speaker
All of the goals that stand out to me this year are goals that happen in transition. It's just something that they're really, really good at and they look really comfortable doing. And if they're not getting those opportunities, they aren't finding the creativity to unlock defenses that are sort of packed in against them. I think that was a big part of the reason that breaking down Houston was so difficult was Houston really did not have any interest in having the ball at all. So you can't even press them into giveaways, right? So Austin.
00:20:02
Speaker
was okay with having the ball and the Sounders just didn't make them uncomfortable in the way that they that they were able to do so frequently early in the year. And I don't know if it's just an issue of they need more rotation to be able to effectively do that. There's a lot of guys have been playing a lot of minutes because the team has been so short handed. I don't know if it's not wanting to put maybe some younger more inexperienced defenders in a position where they're having to
00:20:30
Speaker
you know, go without having defensive cover because you've got guys pushed so far up and maybe they're trying to make tackles and, you know, get taken out of the play. I'm not really sure what it is. It doesn't look like it looks somewhat intentional to me.
00:20:48
Speaker
But it's just impossible to tell without knowing what the tactical instructions are. Whether it's a lack of intensity because they just don't have it in them to do that for 90 minutes anymore, or whether it is an intentional decision for the team to not press as much, or whether it's just a mental thing of the sounders have given up some really bad goals and transitioned themselves, and they don't want to give teams the opportunity to do that. Austin definitely had some pretty good chances in transition early on.
00:21:17
Speaker
Maybe that got into their heads, I don't know, but they're going to have to figure out how to do it effectively again, or they're going to have to change the way they play in the attack, I think, because the way they're playing now, they're just really...
00:21:32
Speaker
Despite the fact that they did create some pretty good chances against Austin, they're just really looking pretty toothless in the attack. And if they can't find a way to create those chances through pressure or through finding openings behind the defense and other ways.
00:21:48
Speaker
then they might have to just kind of dramatically change how the team approaches attacking. And I don't think they're really built to do it any other way than they do. I just think the personnel they have is really well suited to attacking that way.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think they got to figure out how to press effectively again. And whether they do it less frequently, but more intensely, or whether they keep it pretty steady, but just have different pressing schemes or whatever it is, they need to start creating those chances again.
Space Needle Event and Watson's Counter Reopening
00:22:23
Speaker
All right, well, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We're going to come back after the break and break down a little bit more of what we saw, but we'll also talk about, I guess you can call it a big event at the
00:22:40
Speaker
at the Space Needle today, the Seattle 2026 World Cup Organizing Committee unveiled their logo. But we won't talk too much about the logo, but maybe we'll talk about the event. And anyway, we'll be right back. Watson's counter wants to thank everyone for their patience, but now the wait is over.
00:23:01
Speaker
Located at 6420 24th Avenue, Northwest in Ballard, they've reopened in a brand new location with the same bomb ass coffee and the same dumb ass vibes. You can still expect their classics like the gochujang fried chicken sandwich and free pebbles French toast alongside their new soft serve program and their world class coffee. Make sure to follow them on Instagram for all the latest and greatest.
Maintaining Tactical Approach
00:23:27
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiates. So,
00:23:31
Speaker
I think we've kind of gone through the paces on this last game. But what are some things that you feel like you want to see from the Sounders in this Whitecaps game, even if it's not necessarily outside of the results? What are some of the things you're going to be looking for in this game?
00:23:55
Speaker
I think continuing to create chances, I think that one of the things that I've noticed as a pattern with teams that are struggling is they'll have a game like this where they don't get the results, but the process is pretty good. They're creating chances. They're doing the right things. They're just coming up unlucky. But the lesson they take from it is, well, that didn't work either. And they try something else. And in this game, I thought that it worked pretty well. I thought the tactical approach was pretty good. They just needed better composure and protocol and frankly, a little bit more luck.
00:24:25
Speaker
So I'd like to see them trying to do the same things. One of the things that struck me in this game was that a lot of time when we have there have been games like this over the years, especially when they're losing by more than one goal.
00:24:36
Speaker
and they're playing against the team that's pretty willing to seed possession is you just see ball on the box, ball on the box, ball on the box. They weren't doing that this time. They were recycling possession pretty frequently. They were coming with different looks. They were putting constant pressure on them. They weren't giving us any opportunity to just clear their lines and reset.
00:24:55
Speaker
And so I'd love to see them continue with that approach. I'd love to see them not come out flat. That's been a little bit of a theme over this run with the Houston game aside, but that was a freak game. So maybe not even worth dwelling on. I'd like to see them come out, you know, not give up an early goal. Ideally not go behind to start would be nice because I do think that that gets in there to the point where that's starting to get into their heads a little bit.
00:25:22
Speaker
We kind of remarked on that earlier in the year where they did give up early goals a couple times and it just was like nothing happened. That hasn't been the case the last few times they've conceded so I'd like to see them avoid that I'd love to see like we talked about last segment I'd love to see that press be a little more effective might be tough just given the congestion and given the rotation they have to do but.
00:25:42
Speaker
I'd really like to see that make a comeback. And I'd like to see Jordan get a goal because he's such a confidence player. I think he had a pretty good game, but he does not look the same as he did earlier in the year. We talked about how much swagger he had. We talked about how confident he looked and the results were coming and that's not there anymore. And so I think it's really important to get him back on track. And I think he's going to have to get a goal or maybe even an assist to get back to that level. And I think he's critical.
00:26:12
Speaker
at that level to the Sounders overall success. Yeah, it would have been nice for him to get that goal because that he he put on frame in part because it was just a well, it was it was well done. It was a great cross from Roldan. It was a great volley. Again, a little unlucky to be hitting it right at Stuver. But you know, you don't you don't oftentimes get to pick your spot on a on a volley like that. But in any case, I agree with you.
00:26:40
Speaker
pretty much across the board. I think the two big things for me are that press because I just feel like it was such a huge part of their success early on, winning those second balls.
Key Players and Fan Perspectives
00:26:52
Speaker
You know, it seems silly to get caught up in duels, but there is a good reason that Schmetzer likes that stat in part because it does show it's sort of like a good effort stat, but it also the duels are oftentimes what's creating those turnovers in the opposing end.
00:27:08
Speaker
and it just makes life so much easier when you're when you're frazzling the the opposing offense before they're even really able to to set up and and against the whitecaps whose underlying numbers are are actually really good uh they haven't always they haven't turned that into as many they've they've they're actually one of the only teams that's underperforming xg more than the sounders are uh but
00:27:35
Speaker
it would be nice if they could continue that. And the white guys, but the white guys are actually have been pretty good. So we'll see. It does not feel like a hopeless situation for them. Heck, I might even want to see Freddy Montero in this game. He, I don't necessarily love him starting, but he has looked good. And I really would love to feel like we can just bring him off the bench consistently because he does really seem to be,
00:28:03
Speaker
coming into this role really effectively where he is just doing his bit. You're not relying on him to be 90 minutes or even 60 minutes. If you can get 30 minutes out of Freddy Monteiro, you're looking pretty good. And the goal he had was a great goal. I mean, it was a good goal. It was a great goal. Yeah.
00:28:23
Speaker
to me, when he knows he only has to go 20, 30 minutes, looks like vintage ready. I think it's when he starts and he knows he has to conserve energy, that step that he's lost, that needing to protect himself a little bit more for bumps and stuff like that, that's when he's much more limited. When he can go full effort,
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's great. No, I totally agree. So yeah, I guess I don't want to see Freddie starting in this game, but I would not mind seeing him play because like I said, he's still a fun player to watch, even all that aside. A somewhat related note, this is more of a pet peeve and I hate to do this. I feel like we've gotten better about just sort of like,
00:29:08
Speaker
taking shots at random people who are commenting on our site and whatnot. But man, it drove me a little crazy today seeing how many people saying the sounders are just boring to watch right now.
00:29:23
Speaker
I definitely understand where that's coming from. It's frustration. It's frustration with results. And there's some truth to that in some of these previous games. But last night, man, if you weren't entertained from a neutral perspective,
00:29:40
Speaker
I don't really know what to tell you. Like the game was up and down. It wasn't necessarily pretty, but it was, there was action. There were chances. There were, you know, there were a lot of, there was a lot going on. And I think it just, it sometimes just drives me crazy when people, what I think people are frustrated with is the results not going their way and that's fair. That's totally fair to be like, I want to win games and I don't like not winning games. That's a fair position. And I think it's totally like legit to just admit
World Cup 2026 Discussion
00:30:10
Speaker
that you aren't being entertained because the sounders aren't winning as much as you'd like that's okay yeah i i don't think that fun and boring are necessarily antonyms right like it's not fun but that game specifically was not boring and and the sounders were entertaining to watch and you know if if xg were real g it would have been great
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah, if they'd won that game 3-2, I think we would be running around being like, yeah, that's fine. You got to win a shootout every now and then. And they created plenty of chances to win 3-2. I think that's what the killer is. In a lot of ways, this was their best performance.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, in some I would say offensively was probably their best performance since the RSL game. And that's saying something. They had a couple pretty good games in the meantime. And I don't know, I just it was it was a shame that it went the way it did. And I think they have to add.
00:31:07
Speaker
answer some tough questions and they've made their bed and now they got to dig out of this little hole that they've dug themselves and they got to start getting back to it. That said, if they beat Vancouver, you sort of hit the reset button, I suppose. You're never really going to get those results back that you just dropped, but you can make some headway.
00:31:31
Speaker
All right, well, we may as well transition. I don't have a good way of transitioning this, but there was a kind of a fun event on Thursday where the Seattle 26 World Cup Organizing Committee had the unveiling of their logo, which is just a sort of their version of the World Cup logo, which I imagine you agree sucks, right? It's really bad. It's really bad, yeah.
00:31:58
Speaker
It is extremely American and I don't mean that if you haven't seen it, I guess I would urge you to go to your nearest computer and just Google.
00:32:11
Speaker
World Cup 2026 logo. But it's essentially just a photograph of the trophy behind a very weird font 26. And that's it. And I guess the idea that they are pitching is, well, each organizing committee has plenty of room to make this their own. And I mean, OK, sure. But you could still give them a better can. There's a lot of ways to do that without me giving them such a shitty canvas.
00:32:40
Speaker
To their credit, the Seattle Organizing Committee picked a bunch of really, I think, attractive colors. There are like five of them, though, and I don't know that they really ever are coherently used together. I don't know. Have you seen this, Aaron? Have you had a chance to look at it?
00:33:04
Speaker
kind of a little bit. I definitely saw the flags and I saw that the scarves not only didn't adhere to the same color scheme, but actively flashed on very non-complementary sides of the color wheel, unfortunately. I like each of the colors individually, and I even think some of them could work together. Like I said, there's five colors. I'll find the literature that they gave us on this.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's sort of a like muddy rave green, a more vibrant rave green almost, or like halfway between rave green and electricity yellow, a nice like mid 90s Sonic screen. And.
00:33:55
Speaker
Are you done purple, I guess? Yeah. And then so this this so the one of the things I thought was interesting is they call this like a golden brown, I think is what they called it. And it's supposed to be evocative of coffee. And I was I was talking to Jada Evans about this and she was really struggling with this idea because it does not look like coffee. And then she realized, like, oh, maybe it's the raw coffee bean.
00:34:21
Speaker
And I can see that, uh, but of course that's also not the way that they pitched it. Uh, also most people don't know what a raw coffee bean looks like. Yeah, exactly. That's the other problem with it. Uh, but like I said, I do like these colors individually and I think some of them sort of work together, but it's.
00:34:43
Speaker
I don't know, it feels like a bit of a mess. There were, I'll add that we did get to talk to a few of the officials that are involved in this thing. And they did repeat that they're putting in permanent grass. That was never really a question, but it's always good to hear it. And they feel, there does seem to be this constant drumbeat of it's gonna be
00:35:13
Speaker
permanent grass. We're not going to just put it in for the World Cup. It's going to be there for at least the whole year. And at least my selfish hope is that it goes so well that the Seahawks fall in love with it and like, no, we've got to keep this stuff. This is so much better. Yeah. Or the NFL. Yeah, exactly. We didn't get a lot else other than they have big plans for the fan fest.
00:35:41
Speaker
This is stuff we knew. They are really committed to making this about the people of the Puget Sound and Washington and yada, yada, yada. These are great things to say. We still don't know how any of that is gonna come to fruition. I did ask, there's presumably gonna be some people displaced by this or adversely affected and they are saying all the right stuff about how well our goal is to make sure no one is adversely affected
00:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see how that goes. But these are things that I do think we have to keep an eye on to some degree. It's not going to be all.
00:36:19
Speaker
rainbows and unicorns. For just normal people living here, there's going to be some negative impacts, let alone people that are underserved already who are vulnerable in a variety of ways. These are things that are worth, I think, keeping in mind and hoping. I do think a lot of these people
00:36:42
Speaker
You seem like good people, and I know their hearts are in the right place. I just hope that they're ever they're able to actually fulfill a lot of these high minded ideals that they've, you know, pitched. Yes. Yeah, I think that the problem is is never. Well, I won't say never, but I think in things like this, it's a road to hell is paved with good intentions kind of thing where. It becomes this just like. Unstoppable monster that crushes people.
00:37:12
Speaker
And that's nobody's goal, necessarily. It's just sort of inherent to the whole process, unless you were very, very, very actively trying to prevent that from happening. And I don't think FIFA really cares about that happening. Exactly. And that's sort of the thing, is that unless your local organizing committee really cares,
00:37:29
Speaker
That's the only way any of this is going to get done. And you only have to do is look at guitar and guitar definitely didn't care. And they did whatever they wanted. And FIFA was effectively just a passenger on this thing. And if we don't want that to happen here, we have to be diligent about asking these questions and hoping these things come through. I will say that I think the waterfront is going to be
00:37:56
Speaker
really nice i i hope that it is nice in a way that makes it feel useful to residents of the city and not just to tourists uh but i think there's some potential there you know uh not to get all urbanist but you know western avenue just opened and that is effectively turned into a freeway i was actually just talking to someone that lives down in belltown and they were saying how it used to be pretty pleasant before this thing was open and now you have
00:38:23
Speaker
cars flying by and it's all of a sudden a very busy road. And they said they wanted to make it more pedestrian and bike friendly, but yet there's no real infrastructure to stop cars from driving 40 miles an hour through a city street.
00:38:41
Speaker
If you really care, these are the little details that end up making or breaking these sorts of projects. We haven't had a great track record of nailing these things yet. There was a lot of hope that our light rail system was going to be pretty much built out by 2026. There are a lot of reasons to doubt that's going to happen.
00:39:06
Speaker
Again, best intentions, but there's been all sorts of problems that hopefully we have a light rail system that does connect all the way to the east side because we're probably going to need all that hotel space and we're going to need ways to move lots and lots of people without them all driving into downtown Seattle.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Because it's not like we can add a lot of freeways or should be doing that. We literally can't. There's just nowhere to put any of this stuff. Whether or not we think people should be driving in or not, it's sort of irrelevant. We need to have transportation options for people. And if we don't have light rail running to the east side, that's going to create... You can only run so many buses.
00:39:52
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I mean, and that's the thing is that if you are going to have these events that are horribly disruptive just by their very nature for the time that they're going on and the time before and after for a few weeks or months on either side, but then also have a lasting consequences or social costs, you should at least get some kind of lasting social benefit rather than whatever theoretical money goes into the pockets of
00:40:21
Speaker
people that own the hotels that live 3,000 miles away or whatever. And so if you don't get that, I think you have to consider it.
00:40:31
Speaker
objectively to be a net loss for the city if you don't get these lasting benefits. And to their credit, that's one of the things that they're talking about. They want to leave legacy. They want to have presumably legacy infrastructure as well. And hopefully, again, I bring this up just to say
00:40:51
Speaker
we got to hold them accountable to making sure this stuff actually happens because there's a lot of potential for it to not happen. And it's very easy to just push that stuff aside in the name of making sure that this goes off how you wanted it to go off. But like, yeah. And it has to be stuff that's beneficial to people who do not care about the world cup. I think that's the thing that always gets lost is that people say, well, we have this great event and like it was raised the city's profile.
00:41:21
Speaker
Most of the people who live in Seattle don't care about that stuff at all, but they should get some kind of benefit out of it because they're going to be disrupted by it.
Rain FC Sale and Impact
00:41:28
Speaker
I'll say this, I'm really excited about the World Cup coming here. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum as far as that goes, but it just has to be more than just a sporting event. It's not just going to be here for a couple of days and then it's going to leave.
00:41:44
Speaker
And that's it. It's a huge, there's like four years of buildup. There's four years of investment. And then there is going to be like a month long of real impact that's going on here. And, and it's, and it's up to us, up to you, the listeners, up to everyone involved in this to make sure that, uh, these things do happen. And, uh, it'll be really interesting to see. Uh, but I guess I don't, I don't really have much else. Um,
00:42:15
Speaker
have been here I'll just throw this out there I don't have a lot to give you but uh somewhat related to the world cup I guess is no I don't know if it's really related though as we as you've probably heard the rain are effectively for sale right now uh john texter uh the guy who bought olympic leone apparently
00:42:38
Speaker
based his valuation on Leon making Champions League every year. And in year one, they're not going to make it. And they probably aren't going to make it every year, but he's having to sell off a bunch of assets. And right now, it looks like most of those assets are going to be the women's soccer parts of the organization. And yeah, shocking how that works. The the most like one of the most successful
00:43:04
Speaker
It's just so depressing, dude. These not to go off on another SJWS grant here, but like people getting involved in sports as purely investment vehicles that no shit about dick and just it's it's and it's always the.
00:43:22
Speaker
underserved elements of whatever they were, like community outreach, the women's club, all of it is what goes first. It's so infuriating. Yeah, exactly. So they're for sale and best I can gather, there are a couple groups in the Seattle area that are interested in potentially buying them. I don't really have much more to add to it other than
00:43:46
Speaker
I'll let people speculate what those might be, but, uh, yeah, it could be, could be an interesting, could be a net positive. It could be a net positive potentially, uh, depending on who gets this and what that ends up meaning.
Local Projects and Developments
00:43:58
Speaker
But, uh, you know, it adds, you know, I think it would be great if it adds a fuel to, you know, and if we can, if somehow it helps pave the way for a better experience at lumen field, that would be great. And, or.
00:44:14
Speaker
Who knows? Maybe even it turns into something at Memorial Stadium, which I'm a little skeptical. It seems like the rain aren't super enthused about going to Memorial unless it's like a 20,000 seat stadium. And in that case, that probably changes the conversation. But, you know, we'll see. It could be interesting times in the world of soccer. I'll also add that I have been asking about the Long Acres Project.
00:44:40
Speaker
And there was a report in the Renton Reporter, which I think is a newspaper. Maybe it's just a website. But it sort of seemed to hint at there being some holdups there. And I guess that's things are progressing as they're on schedule, apparently, at Long Acres. And they're going to even be putting in the grass, like laying the grass down pretty soon.
00:45:06
Speaker
And I'm supposed to be able to go check that out and I'll happily report back. I'm going to hopefully do a sit down with Hugh Webber, the new president of the Sounders, ideally around the same time. And yeah, we'll see. It could be interesting times in Seattle soccer, I guess is what I'm getting at. Well, I hope so because the on the field product maybe not as much lately. How dare you? Well, you know,
00:45:36
Speaker
one game right exactly Well, hopefully we have a more
00:45:42
Speaker
fun show to do next week. All that said, thank you to our Substack subscribers. I just want to give everyone a plug. If you are a fan of this podcast and you like reading things that I write, I would urge you to go to nostudyatthis.substack.com and become a paid subscriber. And it encourages us and keeps us doing these kinds of things. It supports
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:46:10
Speaker
local soccer media, and it'll make you feel good about actually, you know, paying for a service that you use, I suppose. But other than that, thank you to Watson's Counter, who, of course, just opened their new restaurant. It's pretty awesome. I happened to go there with Lickit last week, had a nice brunch. They have wonderful coffee. They're serving soft serve.
00:46:37
Speaker
ice cream. It's a fun experience. And of course, our long time supporters at Vocal Wines, hopefully people are still loving all these people that work with us. So anyway, signing off for Aaron Campo and Lick It. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. This is No Study Yetis. Remember, you will never yet alone.
00:47:55
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!