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Nos Audietis, Episode 268.5: It was fun while it lasted (The Lost Tapes)
56 Plays7 years ago
Remember when we said we lost the second segment? Well turns out that it wasn't lost to the ages! So as an early Xmas gift for you we present the second segment in all of it's glory. Have a wonderful holiday!
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Transcript
Introduction to Queen and Acupuncture
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adietes is sponsored by Queen and Acupuncture. Queen and Acupuncture has over a decade of experience healing the injuries of athletes. Marathon runners, snowboarders, yoga instructors and weekend warriors have all found relief from pain and have enhanced performance with the use of Acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Queen and Acupuncture has treated players from many of the Seattle area soccer leagues for a wide range of injuries.
00:00:30
Speaker
Acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com. Hey,
Greetings from Sounders' Stars
00:00:44
Speaker
this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this.
00:01:06
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
00:01:23
Speaker
Welcome back
Sounders' Off-Season Moves
00:01:24
Speaker
to Nos Arietes. So before we get to questions, we have a few off-season things that have already happened. The most notable of which I guess, I don't know, is probably the signing of Wayland Francis. But let's, I guess we'll use the personnel at, we'll jump off at the personnel parts. The Sounders have signed Wayland Francis. They acquired him in
00:01:47
Speaker
a trade with the Columbus crew. He is a left back. He is a left back who is 27 years old. He has, I believe, 15 assists in his MLS career. But 13 of those assists came in a two-year span from 2014 to 2015. Since then, though, he's dealt with some injuries and he's not played quite as much. That 50,000
00:02:10
Speaker
Allocation that the sounders had to give up is essentially is exactly the same that they got for losing Tyler Miller in the expansion draft so personnel wise Aaron this they also sounders also picked up basically everyone's option and
Team Stability for 2018
00:02:27
Speaker
This is an off-season that is so far looking like a very stable team. They have 22 players, I believe, that are on the roster and signed for 2018. The only players who were on the team last year who are not currently signed are Brad Evans, Lamar Nagel, Caleb Malice, and they even brought back Brian Meredith, who was out of contract. Not a lot of room, but
00:02:54
Speaker
Do you feel like the Sanders are better right now than they were when the season ended, I guess? Probably not. But I think that they're much better right now than they were when last season ended.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, losing Brad Evans kind of sucks if they do end up losing him because as much as he wasn't able to play this year, you know, he's a valuable depth piece, a valuable rotational piece that I think would be really helpful for next year. So that kind of sucks. Lamar Nagel is Lamar Nagel for all that entails, but
00:03:36
Speaker
You know, he's also somebody that got a fair amount of minutes down the stretch. Um, and so they're going to have to replace, you know, that time. I would love to see Aaron Kovar and Harry ship get that time. Um, I think they should have been getting it in the first place, but you know, he, he scored, he scored a couple of goals. Uh, goals.
00:03:56
Speaker
So, but I think that they're in a really, really good position. I mean, I think that compared to the roster that started this season last year, this, or started last season, this one's leaps and bounds better. And I think there's a pretty reasonable chance that.
00:04:13
Speaker
that they're going to end up adding at least one tan player. There's obviously a downgrade, you know, from Jovan to Nuhu and or Francis, and I really, I think Francis is a great addition, but I really hope it's Nuhu's job to lose.
00:04:28
Speaker
Um, because I think that it would be a pretty huge bummer for, for new who to, you know, end up kind of in that, that shuffle where he's not playing very much, um, building on what I think was a really impressive rookie season. So, um, I feel pretty good about the roster. Uh, I would really like them to make one or two impact additions in addition to Francis. I'm expecting one. Um, and then maybe some other sort of around the margins, um, moves. And I, and I don't expect a DP, uh, in the, in the winter.
00:04:57
Speaker
But with almost $3 million of new TAM to spend, that's not as big of a problem. I think that right now they're the best team in the West. And that's a decent place to be going into the offseason.
Brad Evans' Future Speculation
00:05:15
Speaker
Do you think Brad Evans ends up with the Galaxy?
00:05:20
Speaker
That seems to be what everyone assumes and my gut reaction with all those types of things like just like when everyone thought Jason Christ was going to be the next sounders coach and just like numerous other things that people just seem to think are going to fall into place because it makes sense.
00:05:37
Speaker
I'm resisting the urge to think that Brett Evans will end up in LA because it just seems a little too neat and it follows this narrative a little too closely, but it does seem like it could be a good fit, frankly.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead, Aaron. Oh, I was just going to say it would be kind of funny if after the trashing Freddy Montero for signing with arrival last season, if Brad Evans then as a free agent were to go to LA, I think it would be pretty, pretty amusing. How do we think Brad Evans feels about Ziggy Schmidt right now, now that he's had time to, you know, detach and reflect on what happened last year?
00:06:20
Speaker
I think that's a great question. And I certainly, I have never had the opportunity to discuss that with him. I know that he has discussed that with people. I don't think that that is like, I'm pretty sure that Matt Pence is working on a book in which he talks extensively with Brad about that very thing. But I don't actually know. I don't know. I don't have any insight information about what went down in that conversation. My suspicion is that
00:06:47
Speaker
That Brad probably would prefer to be somewhere else just because I think he's probably sensitive to the idea that that his career is so dependent on. Chances that city Smith gave him and frankly he's only played for one other head coach and that's branch Spencer who he.
00:07:06
Speaker
You know, only, you know, which I don't, I don't know. That's even a fair thing to say since Brian was the assistant coach for so long. Um, but I, if I'm Brad Evans, I think I would, if I had my choice of playing in Southern California, I'd probably rather go to LAFC just because, uh, it's a, it's a, it's, it gets you out of Siggy's kind of shadow. Um, but I don't know. It would be interesting to see what kind of options Brad has this off season.
00:07:33
Speaker
LAFC is also likely to be significantly less of a dumpster fire. So it's got to be, there's that factor. I hope, I hope Brad doesn't end up in another tough Ziggy situation, having to be a camera facing guy, making, not making excuses, but just trying to explain things because the galaxy, I just would not bet on them jumping back to the playoffs. Let's just keep it nice.
00:07:59
Speaker
No, I think they're in a lot of trouble. I'm impressed that Kurt Schmid wanted to, you know, wade into this situation as deeply as he's apparently willing to do. I'm still kind of amazed that Siggy Schmid seems to have kind of come out on top of the power struggle that went on, has apparently been going on there. No offense to Siggy, but I just would not have expected
00:08:26
Speaker
that to work, to go in that direction. It just did not seem like to me from the outside that that was going to happen. And it's interesting, you know, there's a, I think there's this kind of woe is me kind of thing starting to build up with the galaxy, like, Oh, LA is coming in here and, or LAFC is coming in here and they're building their downtown stadium and they, they have all this buzz and, and I just can't help but think that if the galaxy wanted to, they could have done all the stuff that LAFC is in the midst of doing right.
00:08:58
Speaker
Mm-hmm like nothing. No, I agree and I think yeah, I think that just adds to the to the To the entry behind it. I mean, this is something that so many people around the league are talking about and the LA FC versus LA thing but really most of them were talking about the galaxy because at this point they assume LA FC is gonna be and and
00:09:20
Speaker
atlanta-esque juggernaut so for a lot of people that have been around the league for a decade or more they're wondering what happens to the galaxy and the fact that they have given siggy this much power
00:09:33
Speaker
After
Siggy Schmidt's Legacy at LA Galaxy
00:09:34
Speaker
what happened in Seattle and after his lack of results, really it's more after his lack of results this season with the Galaxy, so many people in the league are talking about this as kind of like, look, if this is that team's last grasp at relevance in that market, boy, does it seem like a weird grasp. Yeah. That's a good way of putting it because it just is not, I mean,
00:10:02
Speaker
LA got worse, frankly, like, and I don't think that that's Siggy's fault. And it might just be, that's what happens on a sinking ship. But the situation that Siggy came into was really not that different than the situation that Brian Schmetzer came into last year in 2016. And that's the, that the results went into such wildly divergent directions. I mean, I'm not, like, again, I don't think that Siggy
00:10:32
Speaker
actively made LA worse. I'm just surprised that given how much worse they got, that he was kind of the one that was left standing. And it's just a very curious situation. It's weird to say for somebody that has the tenure and MLS that Ziggy does, but his legacy kind of rides on this because he has almost put himself in a situation to where
00:10:59
Speaker
He has positioned himself to where he feels like he was wronged by what happened in Seattle. And obviously, with Seattle winning the Cup, and as Aaron said in the last segment, really looking like the best team in the West at this point, even though they lost to Toronto, they look like the best team in the Western Conference at this point.
00:11:15
Speaker
And Siggy, when he left the team and his rhetoric after that, basically said, implicitly, I would have done different than Garth did. I should have been consulted on this stuff. I feel like Garth was wrong about these things. Well, now he has a chance to prove it. And to this point, he hasn't really proven anything. And if he does not succeed with the galaxy,
00:11:36
Speaker
He's going to be looked at as a coach that really racked up all his numbers on the weakest point in MLS history. And then after that, when MLS started getting stronger again in 2009 and 2010, he never could get a team over the hump and that will be his legacy. I don't know if that's fair, but he has contributed to that framing. So I don't think we can say it's drastically unfair. Well, you know, when he left it, when he left Seattle, he was saying like how one of the things that he really wanted to make sure to have at wherever he ended up.
00:12:06
Speaker
Was he had more control and he had more say over personnel and he clearly Wanted to be at the table if not actually making the decisions and that's exactly what he's getting in LA and and You know, maybe it works out. Maybe this is exactly maybe he's proven, right? Maybe the LA galaxy go on to be like I guess what I'm surprised though is that you know, I just wouldn't think that he wants to be Do like he's pretty old like Frank
00:12:32
Speaker
like he's pretty old and I don't know how many years he wants to be coaching and he's like kind of embarking on a rebuilding process and I just think from a math perspective that it's not the situation that he wants to be in but you know whatever good for him I guess
00:12:50
Speaker
Do you know that said, do you know much about Waylon Francis? I can't say that I was someone who watched the crew enough to have a really strong sense of him, but it seems like he's a decent enough player.
00:13:06
Speaker
I don't think anybody that's watched the crew over the last two years should have a real strong sense of him either, given his playing time. But based on his time internationally and his time before that, I would be really happy to have him be the person that can kind of come in and compete with NuHoo or potentially be somebody that can be there as a safety net if NuHoo doesn't develop the way that most people who follow the Sounders feel like he can. I think it's a really good move, especially for the
Champions League Draw Discussion
00:13:34
Speaker
cost.
00:13:34
Speaker
Yeah, so the other big thing that happened this offseason so far is that the schedule, at least the early part of the schedule, has started to take shape. The Sounders obviously took part in the Champions League draw. In case you don't know, they're gonna be playing a, their first game will be February 20th to 21st, no, 20th to 22nd.
00:14:01
Speaker
Against a Salvadorian team whose name I am currently blanking on Santa Help me out here Santa Tecla there we go and Then but they they're drawn actually seems like like on the scale of how how doable a Champions League draw is and
00:14:24
Speaker
They got probably the two weakest Mexican teams on their side of the bracket, and they wouldn't have to face Toronto FC until a final potentially. This is actually looking like a semi-manageable Champions League draw for them. Is that fair?
00:14:45
Speaker
I think it's as good as you can hope for. I mean, T grace are on the other side of the bracket. Club America is on the other side of the bracket. Toronto, who I not for competitive reasons, I just don't want to play them again, or on the other side of the bracket. So, and then, you know, first round opponent, they missed one of the Costa Rican teams.
00:15:06
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I mean, it's, it's still going to be very difficult, but, um, I feel, yeah. I mean, if they, if they win the, their first round game with the first round of 16 matchup, uh, they would most likely play Chivas de Guadalajara, who is.
00:15:21
Speaker
not a powerhouse right now in Mexico. And then the team that they would most likely face after that is Tijuana, who also is not at really a powerhouse in League of Emechis. This is, I mean, those are good teams. Don't get me wrong, they might be better teams than the Sounders.
00:15:41
Speaker
But as far as what you could hope for, this is about this is about as good as you can hope for. It's just like I'm I'm I was kind of surprised. I was a little surprised that it worked out that way. But I will certainly take it. Do you have any particular insight into either of those teams, Richard? It's like the Salvadorian team. Absolutely. No, I meant I meant to want to achieve us.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, well, Tijuana is a club that after every season, you have to wonder what they're going to be just because they're kind of a gateway club to not even like the big teams in Mexico, but the atlases and maybe teams of that level kind of picking off players from them. We've already seen like Joe Corona move away from the club, this window and a couple of other players.
00:16:34
Speaker
It always depends on how well they can replace those players. So I don't really have a lot of insight from them except for to caution people against reading too much into them either way. And then the other one was Chivas, right? I mean, it wasn't too long ago that Chivas was winning a title in Liga MX. So I would be really too... I would be really scared or wary against reading into one tournament's results regarding that team.
00:17:04
Speaker
You know, they won the, um, class soda last year. So that's only six months ago. So to look into one tournament's results regarding them, I think would be a little bit short sighted. Fair enough. Um, yeah, I mean, and I guess that's, there's a reason let's like these teams aren't in champions league by accident. Um, although I guess Colorado rapids make that, uh, maybe make you question that.
00:17:28
Speaker
But that said, I mean, as far as like, I mean, this is, again, this is like what they, what the possible draws are. Certainly not saying that the Sounders are going to be favorites against either one of those teams, but I was, I was pleasantly surprised to see that that's how it worked out. But otherwise, other than that.
00:17:46
Speaker
This,
Impact of New Champions League Format
00:17:47
Speaker
the beginning of the season is going to be interesting in that there is going to be, you know, this is a new challenge that MLS has created that Champions League has created. Um, on hand, it's, it's nice that the tournament is going to be relatively compact and it's, uh, in, in, it makes sense. There's, you know, it starts and ends in about two months and it's pretty straightforward.
00:18:13
Speaker
On the other hand, if you get to the finals, you're going to play eight games in the span of two months, eight competitive games in the span of two months that are coming in addition to you getting your season started if you're an MLS team. Based on what I can tell, the Sounders have 17 potential match days that they would have to be ready for between February 20th and April 29th. That would be seven more games they'd ever had to play that early in the season.
00:18:43
Speaker
Uh, chances are they will not have to play 17 games, even if they were to get to the Champions League final. But, you know, Aaron, you talked about this when they made this change that you felt like the change devalues the tournament a little bit because you really liked the league aspect of it and it's not a Champions League anymore. Um, but seeing this, do you, do you feel like it enhances, you know, actually seeing the schedule laid out as it is now, does it enhance it for you or does it really still kind of cheapen the whole thing?
00:19:13
Speaker
I mean, it's the extent to which not having the group stage cheapens things bothers me less than it did at the time, I guess, would be the way I would put it. But I would still prefer the old format, I think. But you know, I mean, it's still it's still the
00:19:36
Speaker
the Continental Competition or the Confederation Competition, you still have to beat teams from Mexico and teams from Mexico are generally better than teams from MLS. More importantly, I feel like those teams are actually taking Champions League a little more seriously than they used to. I'm excited about it and it's also the Sounders playing teams that aren't
00:20:03
Speaker
Vancouver and Portland, which is always something I'm really into. I'm less bummed out about the format change than I was. I was pretty hyperbolic after it happened. I was super annoyed about it. I don't know what was going on in my life right now that something like that bugged me as much as it did. I still would prefer it be an actual league, but
00:20:28
Speaker
I kind of get why it's not, um, and it's, you know, money as, as always. So yeah. Um, you know, I, I, I'm probably going to enjoy the first round more than the other ones. Um, just because I, I would really like to get off to a strong start this year. And I feel like they have a pretty good chance of doing that. Uh, you know, if they can, what do you think Richard, is this the good and dominant or bad around the 16 game, the draw kind of laid itself out. I, um,
00:20:57
Speaker
I don't know. You don't have a thought on it. I mean, people just didn't care about CONCACAP Champions League before and so... Right. I just don't...
00:21:07
Speaker
I don't find, I don't think there's a lot of reason to believe people will start caring about Chikankicap Champions League because essentially like this is just like just ditching the group stage of the tournament. But it's not like people all of a sudden started caring during the knockout stage of the previous tournaments. So I just, I guess I just don't see a difference except for on the team level, you're just paying for less travel and less hassle.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I guess what you're if, you know, what we end up with is a bunch of, of MLS versus the, uh, match ups in the next round. Maybe that helps. And especially if MLS teams win one or two of those match ups, maybe that helps peak interest a little bit more. But yeah, I think you're probably right that.
00:21:49
Speaker
the tournament is going to continue to be kind of an afterthought for fans outside of maybe the, you know, like, I think for Toronto, this is going to be a pretty big deal. Like, I think for them, they feel like they are playing for something really historic here. And it's probably a big deal for them. I think for the Sounders fans, it feels like a big deal for them. I can't imagine that New York Red Bulls fans or Colorado Rapids fans are suddenly going to start caring about this thing.
00:22:18
Speaker
I mean, we've seen teams before, be it RSL or Montreal, make a run to the final. We kind of cared for a little bit and then we stopped caring. Or even FC Dallas last year where they played Pachuca very well and Pachuca ended up winning it all. We kind of cared for a little bit and we just didn't. I mean, even if an MLS team makes a run all the way to the final, I think...
00:22:36
Speaker
It's possible in the short term, depending on the team, we'll really care about that. But there's nothing outside of an MLS team winning this competition that will change how we perceive this. And that's obviously our own biases and our own myopia, but it is what it is. I think that's true. I just think that in those markets is where it's going to like, I think Toronto FC fans are going to care big time. If, if they get to the final, I think that's going to be a big deal for them.
00:23:02
Speaker
I don't know that MLS fans at large are gonna care very much other than Being able to say like yeah, see they now they have the trouble now. They have the trouble
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm not even sure like an MLS team winning it once will be like waves. I think an MLS team would have to win it like two years in a row or two out of three years for people to be like, hey, all right, this is actually a thing now. And even then like the point in the calendar where this comes is just weird because it's like, obviously it's right at the beginning of the domestic season and people have
00:23:35
Speaker
developed other sports habits at that point, whether it be like you're investing more in basketball or you're getting into baseball season. I mean, it's a weird one. I don't have an answer for it, but I just, I have trouble believing that these kind of superficial changes to the tournament format really matter that much. And it probably is something as dumb as like US-based MLS teams have to start actually winning the tournament for people to care.
00:23:58
Speaker
You very, very might very well be right there. Well, that's a good place to end this segment. We're going to come
Sponsor Promotions
00:24:03
Speaker
back, take your questions. You're listening to no study at this there. Well, that's a good place to end this segment. We're going to come back, take your questions.
00:24:16
Speaker
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00:26:46
Speaker
Green Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:27:23
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!