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Episode 287: Talking Sounders with MLS Analyst
60 Plays7 years ago
It’s been a few weeks since we last recorded, and as they are wont to do as of late, the Sounders won all three of the games since then. One was the home game against the Houston Dynamo, and they followed that up with back-to-back wins on the road just four days apart in Orlando and Houston. They’ve scored nine goals in those three games, never trailed and generally look like a team ready to make a deep run in the playoffs.
They head into Sunday’s regular-season finale with the Earthquakes having won 13 of 15 games and are now in position to do no worse than fourth as long as they can get a single point at home against the league’s worst team and can still do as well as second.
We mostly got sidetracked and talked about the Sounders’ 10-year run of playoff qualification and got a bit ahead of ourselves talking about the postseason. But we also brought on href="https://twitter.com/MattDoyle76" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Doyle, aka MLS Analyst, to talk about the Sounders and give him a chance to admit how wrong he was about Brian Schmetzer.
This week's music: "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction and Wine Pairings
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. To eat those of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:20
Speaker
And there's food! Lots of it! Fullpool's unique writing styles apply to recipes like Leftover Thanksgiving, Turkey, Smaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Podcast Hosts Introduction
00:00:32
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.
00:00:49
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle
Episode Overview and Guest Introduction
00:01:05
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietes, sponsored by Full Pull Wines, Queen Anne Acupuncture, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 287, and we're recording on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018. I'm your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, and I'm joined as always by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett. Later in the show, we'll be joined by MLSSoccer.com's Matt Doyle.
Sounders' Winning Streak
00:01:27
Speaker
It's been a few weeks since we last recorded, and as they are wont to do as of late, the Sounders won all three of those games since then. One was the home game against the Houston Dymo, and they followed that up with back to back wins on the road just four days apart in Orlando and Houston. They scored nine goals in those three games, never trailed, and generally looked like a team ready to make a deep run in the playoffs.
00:01:48
Speaker
They head into Sunday's regular season finale with the Earthquakes having won a rather astonishing 13 of 15 games and are now in position to do no worse than fourth as long as they can just get a single point at home against the league's worst team and can still do as well as second.
Reflecting on Sounders' Season
00:02:03
Speaker
I suspect you're feeling pretty good about things, Aaron, but when you're looking back on the season right now, do you find yourself marveling at this run more or bemoaning the drop points earlier in the year that could have secured an even better finish?
00:02:18
Speaker
I definitely prefer to focus on the positives of the season. I think that it's really rare to have a run like this. It's really rare to have a winning streak as long as the Sounders did. It's really rare to have 13 or 15 wins. I mean, that's very, very
Playoff Potential Discussion
00:02:40
Speaker
rare. It's unheard of. It's literally unheard of. Yeah.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I hate ties. So, so that's that piece has been nice. Although I would have taken one in the game. It's crazy. It's been like three months since the Sounders tied a game.
00:02:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and there were a lot of those early in the season and that was no fun. So, yeah, I mean, it is frustrating that the season started so poorly, because with even a mediocre start, you know, the Sounders would probably be in the supporter shield conversation.
00:03:12
Speaker
But that's in the past now. There's not a whole lot that we can do about it.
Sounders' Regular Season Performance
00:03:18
Speaker
But this team has been a blast to watch since July. And it's October now. It's almost November. So I think all things considered, that's not a bad place to be as a fan of a sports team. I feel really good going into the playoffs about their chances of making a deep run and maybe getting back to MLS Cup again.
00:03:39
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I feel good about it. Um, I, I don't, I, I'm certainly not in the camp that I feel like, uh, every decision that was made early in the season has, has, you know, been justified by this run. Um, but at the end of the day, it's, it's a results business and the Sounders, you know, are gonna end up with their third best regular season ever. Um, it's, it's pretty hard to argue with the results. It is hard to argue with the results. And I think.
00:04:08
Speaker
one of the things that I come away thinking is on one hand,
Missed Opportunities Analysis
00:04:12
Speaker
It's an amazing run. It really is an amazing run. And I tend to think that if they had claimed, I look at the early part of the schedule, there's probably five games where you could say without doing anything better than scoring a goal here or there and just being a little better defensively, there was probably five games that they should have got a better result from. The LAFC game at home,
00:04:40
Speaker
There was the LAFC game on the road where they lost on a last second free kick that went through Seven Fry's arms. There was the 0-0 tie at home against Columbus where they were playing against 10 men for most of the game. There was the RSL home game that they lost 1-0 where they were the better team for the most part, but they just didn't get anything out of it.
Impact of Extra Points
00:05:05
Speaker
And then there was one more game that I'm blanking on right now. But in any case, I think that you can probably find five to nine points somewhere in there as saying like, they should have done better than they did. And that's not, and I don't think they, these aren't games where, you know, I'm not even counting games like the tie against the Chicago Fire at home or the loss to the Portland Timbers at home or, you know, games where they were,
00:05:35
Speaker
arguably outplayed. I'm just looking at games where they were the better team and they deserved a better result than they got.
Balancing Performance
00:05:43
Speaker
But at the same time, I do really wonder if they had gotten somewhere between five and nine points from those games
00:05:50
Speaker
Would that have adversely if like would have that had an impact on this run, like is part of what has made them so good during this run, that they've known they really had no room for error that they almost literally had to be perfect. And, and I don't know that you can definitively say that.
00:06:09
Speaker
do you think that there has been some games during this run where they probably got a result that was better than they deserved? You know, there was like the game in San Jose, they weren't great in that game. There was the, you know, the game at Portland where they won on a known goal. You can find a bunch of games. And so I think it's kind of has evened out. And at the end of the day, they're sitting on 56 points with a game left. If they get to 59 points, that's their third best season by points ever.
00:06:38
Speaker
If they win that game, they'll at least tie their second best ever goal difference. And so, I mean, it's been, you know, on the whole, if you look at it, it's also, they've also, like, the early part of their schedule, I think we also have to face, was a lot tougher than the second half of their schedule, certainly the last couple months.
Schedule Challenges
00:07:01
Speaker
They've had a very easy schedule for a couple months now. And if those games were sprinkled earlier in the season, maybe they get those results the same way. In any case, I think you look at the whole, you got to be pretty satisfied with 56, 57, 59 points somewhere in there, plus 15 at goal difference potentially, maybe better.
00:07:26
Speaker
I definitely have to be satisfied. I suspect that not everyone is, but that's always going to be the case. I mean, I think that if the season happens in a vacuum, there's not a lot of complaint. I mean, I think that it's the fact that it's happened a few times now. Yeah, that's the frustration for people. And I think the fact that there
00:07:53
Speaker
Were decisions made, you know, to not sign players that probably wouldn't have impacted the sounders ability to add players in the secondary window to add specifically role for ideas in the secondary window, and I get those frustrations but
00:08:08
Speaker
You know, no, no front office is ever going to make decisions that you 100% agree with and so, you know, ultimately, if, if the decisions that they do make ends up, you know, giving you your third
Playoff Positioning Importance
00:08:22
Speaker
best regular season ever.
00:08:25
Speaker
and a team going into the playoffs that looks as strong as this one does, I think you have to judge that to be a good performance. And I don't really see the case to be made that you can judge it any other way, frankly. And yeah, you're right. There were definitely some breaks.
00:08:43
Speaker
some lucky breaks during this run. And there were some results that they deserved, maybe didn't deserve three points and they ended up getting them. But as you alluded to, there were definitely results early in the season that went the opposite way. The first LA FC game, Sounders absolutely deserved to win that game. They ended up losing at 1-0. The LFC game down in LA should have been a draw.
00:09:10
Speaker
You can always point to those games and you can always point to runs of form.
00:09:19
Speaker
the way they determine playoff positioning, the way they determine all of that is the total number of points and the Sounders are within whispering distance of first in the Western Conference. No, they're not in the supporter shield race, but again, they would have had to put up a historically good season to do that. And I would love for the Sounders to put up a historically good regular season, but I don't know that that's a realistic expectation.
00:09:45
Speaker
And I do, I certainly understand the argument that, and I think it's a fair argument, that if they can just be decent in the first half of the season, that they've been so good down the stretch that it suggests that they have one of these historic kind of seasons.
Season Finishes Preference
00:10:02
Speaker
in them. That said, if I have to choose, and we don't, this is a false choice, I agree, but if you have to choose, like who would you rather be today? Would you rather be FC Dallas sitting on 57 points and effectively unable to win the, yeah, they are, they're unable to win the
00:10:23
Speaker
the Western Conference, but they had a very kind of even keel season. Or would you rather be the Sounders who had been on fire the second half of the season? Like, who would you rather be going into the final game of the season? I think I'd rather be the Sounders right now. And Dallas was among the supporters shield contenders for the first half of the season.
00:10:43
Speaker
They've not been so great during the second half of the season. And I guess my point is that if I have to choose between starting hot and finishing mediocre or starting bad and finishing blazing hot, I'd rather be playing my best soccer going into the playoffs. And I think, understandably, that's been the Sounders ethos. I don't think that they're, like Garth said on the last show,
00:11:06
Speaker
the idea that they're kind of tanking these early season games just isn't realistic. No,
Raul Rui Diaz's Impact Debate
00:11:11
Speaker
that doesn't absolve them at every decision that they've made. But I will say that when he was, you know, when Garth was saying early in the year,
00:11:21
Speaker
I think this is a pretty good team if we can just get healthy. I think that's really been borne out. As good as Rui Diaz has been, he's one guy. He's not the only player who's made a difference down the stretch. Now, as he turned them into an MLS Cup contender, sure. I totally would buy that Raul Rui Diaz is the difference between being a mediocre playoff team and potentially an MLS Cup contender. But he's not the difference between
00:11:50
Speaker
being one of the worst teams in the league and being one of the best teams in the league. Like that's just not one player and it's certainly not Reedus. He's been good. I mean, eight goals in 13 games certainly is not a bad scoring rate, but it's not like, there's more to this. It's Victor Rodriguez getting healthy. It's Nicholas Lidero feeling
00:12:16
Speaker
motivated and healthy. It's Kim Ki-hee coming into his own. It's Nuhu getting better. It's Lirdom getting healthy. You go down the list and it's just a lot of guys getting healthy, really.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and I think Harry ship, um, his way back into the rotation. I mean, he's been out for a little while, but for a while there, I mean, he was crucial to the winning streak. And, and so, yeah, I mean, I think, I think that all of the focus sometimes get put, gets put on the lack of signings, but I mean, it.
00:12:47
Speaker
Look at look at Toronto. Right. I mean, they had a short offseason. They had CCL just like the Sounders. They signed players in the offseason. They signed some some I think, you know, not stars
MLS Consistency Challenges
00:13:02
Speaker
necessarily, but, you know, there were a lot of people.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, they spent some money and there were a lot of people saying like, look, see, they're, they're signing players in the winter and, and they're, you know, and the sounders aren't and, and that's frustrating. And Toronto has been shit. I mean, they've been bad. They've been very, very bad this season.
00:13:21
Speaker
It's really, it's really hard to sustain a consistently good team in MLS. Um, you know, teams have off years and for the sounders and off year appears to be, um, what like 52, 53 points, you know, like that's a disappointing year. Um, yeah, I think you're doing pretty well. I mean, if you look at Toronto's salary, uh, lay out later, you're spending like $18 million on three players. Right. Right. And.
00:13:50
Speaker
And this is a team that has made the playoffs three times. Three times, literally three times in 12 years. And it's hard for me to see them getting back to being an elite team next year, frankly, because I think they have some pretty significant issues with their roster. So I think that we're very fortunate and I think that sometimes we
00:14:12
Speaker
As a fan base, and I think this is probably true of all MLS fan bases I don't think this is unique to the sounders but I think that we sometimes undersell how difficult it is to consistently be good, and you know, this is the
00:14:27
Speaker
third season in a row that I think the Sounders have a very good chance of getting to the MLS Cup. That's pretty outstanding. I didn't think they were that far off in 2015. I expected them to get there in 2014. They've turned over a lot of the roster. They've sort of rebuilt the nucleus of it. I think that we're very fortunate to be Sounders fans.
00:14:52
Speaker
I get frustrated by the team, and I get frustrated by decisions that are made, and I get frustrated by the slow starts and things like that. But on the balance, there's not another MLS team I would rather be a fan of. And I'm sure some people would say, well, what about Atlanta? Well, this is year two for Atlanta. So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, I think we're very lucky. And if we get back to a third MLS Cup final, I think this will be the best team we will have had.
00:15:22
Speaker
uh going into the playoffs so yeah i'm feeling i'm feeling pretty good about things right now yeah and i'll say i think that the west is is a better like there are more dangerous matchups i think for the sounders going into the playoffs than there have been the last like last year there was no one in the west who i thought was
00:15:41
Speaker
really a bad matchup for the Sounders. I was perfectly like any one of those teams I think the Sounders would have matched up well against. I thought they were deservedly the best team in the West. Their record in the playoffs showed that clearly they ran up against a very good TFC team.
00:15:59
Speaker
They were not better than TFC last year. We don't need to rehash that the year before that. I think they did get a little it was a little bit more about getting hot at the right time and and kind of a draw going their way to a certain degree, but
00:16:14
Speaker
It was, you know, and there wasn't really, again, there weren't, I don't think there were great teams really in the, in the West two years ago either. I think both Sporting Kansas City and the Timbers are probably teams who I'm not really looking forward to playing. I think the centers stack up well against both those teams, but I don't think that they are.
00:16:32
Speaker
clearly superior to either one of those teams. I'm definitely not looking forward to the prospect of playing the timbers in the playoffs. Although, weirdly, I guess if I had to choose between when I was going to face the timbers, I might rather play them at home in the playing round than do a home and home in the conference finals. But whatever, we don't have to really hash that out right now. But you bring up TFC.
00:17:00
Speaker
As the team, they spent something like $26 million in guaranteed compensation, according to the numbers that came out today. And Gia Vinko clearly is a player you're going to build around. Michael Bradley, I suspect, will be probably up to his old, he'll probably be back to where we thought he was going to be.
00:17:20
Speaker
Uh, for most of this year, he, this was a tough year for Michael Bradley. I know people are down on him. I suspect he'll come back and be very good next year, but Josie Altidore just went out for the year. He's going to, he went under, underwent surgery. I don't know what he's, what's going to happen to him. And then outside of that, they got Jonathan Osorio, who is a great young talent.
00:17:39
Speaker
This Lucas Janssen guy, I haven't seen enough of to have much of an opinion, but Victor Vasquez is probably gone. Gregory Vanderwill, who was their big defensive pickup in the offseason. I don't know how much he has left. Alex Bono was supposed to be this stud goalkeeper coming into this year. He had a very bad year. And then it gets really thin after that. You know, you got guys like Drew Moore. I don't know if he's back.
00:18:00
Speaker
you know you go down there the roster and this is they got some issues on that roster and and they're spending 26 million dollars and the Sounders are spending roughly half of that and I would be I don't think they have huge holes to fill you know they're gonna get Jordan Morris back next year uh Victor Rodriguez if he's healthy I think he's showing that he's
00:18:24
Speaker
frankly, a top player in this league. If this is the Victor Rodriguez that we get for the rest of the season, I don't see any reason why the Sounders aren't, you know, aren't able to go toe-to with really anyone in the league. I think Victor Rodriguez is the X factor that this team probably needed. And I don't think the Sounders have ever had a more talented trio of players, especially in the way that they interact with each other than Rui Diaz
00:18:49
Speaker
and Victor Rodriguez. And then you got a guy like Christian Roldan who is just like value add. Like he's not even someone you need a lot of production out of, but any production, but he's able to produce on a pretty regular basis.
Playoff Qualification Reflection
00:19:04
Speaker
I just like this team. I feel like we're maybe beating a dead horse on that.
00:19:10
Speaker
10 years in the playoffs, I think is a rather massive accomplishment. And I understand this perspective, but I do think that we need to remind ourselves that it's really easy to take for granted what the Sounders have accomplished because they've done it every year.
00:19:26
Speaker
And just making the playoffs is not a viable goal in and of itself. I don't want to make it sound like just making the playoffs is enough in any given year. But when you look at the big picture, 10 years in the playoffs, the only other team that did that was the LA Galaxy. And they did it from 96 to 2005. In none of those years did less than 66% of the teams make the playoffs. And in some of those years, 80% of the teams were making the playoffs.
00:19:54
Speaker
Uh, the Sounders have never had a year. I don't think we're even 60% of the teams made the playoffs. Uh, and, and most of these years it's been right around 50, 50, 50 to 55% of the, of the league making the playoffs. It's a much more competitive league. Uh, it's, it's an amazing accomplishment and I feel like at least for this week.
00:20:15
Speaker
I want to be able to enjoy that accomplishment and reflect on what really the Sounders have accomplished that is unlike anything else that, you know, Atlanta is good as they are.
MLS Competitive Landscape
00:20:28
Speaker
This is like you said, this is year two. They're going to be really tested next year when they are, when they have a new coach, probably a new star player in Miguel, because it looks like Miguel Almoron is also losing. Tata Martino, if you didn't hear this, the team announced that he was leaving at the end of the year.
00:20:44
Speaker
You know, they got some rebuilding to do. TFC has some massive rebuilding to do. The Red Bulls clearly very good, but I don't know that they're, you know, I don't, I don't know that that's the team that you, you look at and say, Oh, we can't keep up with the New York Red Bulls. Um, which is to say that I feel like the Sounders are going to be well positioned again next year.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, I mean, if you look at what this team has been able to do, and then remember that the odds are pretty good, they're going to be able to add two designated players next year, or one designated player. No, probably one designated player and one TAM. Right. At least. I don't know where I got two from, I guess, because I... They're definitely not adding a designated player. Right.
00:21:24
Speaker
But, I mean, they'll be able to replace, uh, Clint Dempsey, which is huge. They'll, they'll free up. I would imagine a fair amount of Tam, uh, cause it's, it's really hard for me to see Aussie Alonzo coming back on the kind of deal he was on. Um, yeah, I, I gotta imagine that Aussie is on a below Tam level contract if he's back here next year. Yeah.
00:21:46
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, they, I think that, and I would say the odds are not great that they add a DP in the winter, but I mean, they've played as well as they have without one. So.
00:22:03
Speaker
I don't think that's a huge concern I don't think it's, and they'll have Jordan Morris coming back so they're not going to be nearly as then a striker. And, you know, whether he's Jordan Morris that we remember right away is obviously it's, it's, you know, impossible to know but
00:22:20
Speaker
They're not going to be in a situation where it's Will Bruin and Lamar Nagle, you know, if something, God forbid, happens to roll Ruby Diaz. So, I just think they're going to be in much better shape, you know, at the start of next season and they won't have to play CCL, which I think everybody would prefer to be in CCL, but is going to, you know. It does give them a little bit more breathing room.
00:22:42
Speaker
Yeah, there's less congestion. There's less opportunity for players to get hurt. I mean, you know, Jordan Morris got hurt in a CCL game.
Sounders' Future Prospects
00:22:50
Speaker
Like it's, it's, you know, like stuff like that happens. Uh, and, and the more games you play, the more likely it is somebody gets hurt. So, um, I think that they're, they're well positioned going into next season, even if they don't do anything. Um, that being said, I would expect them to do something for sure.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you. Unless something dramatic happens this offseason where they cut some guys who I'm not expecting them to cut, I think you're right that signing a DP probably is not the tip-top priority of the offseason. If the right player comes available, I'm sure they would be willing to sign them, but I just don't
00:23:31
Speaker
I'm not going into this offseason assuming that a DP is going to be signed, partly because I don't know what position that DP would play. I mean, what would you like if you have Victor Rodriguez? Are you going to I mean, I guess you could sign another outside mid, but. If you bring back Svensson rolled on.
00:23:54
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I mean, I suppose that, but if you have, like, if you go into your off season with Jordan Morris, Raul Rui Diaz, Nicolas Ledero, and Victor Rodriguez as your front four, like, are you going to sign a DP to displace one of those guys?
00:24:11
Speaker
Right. I mean, the obvious place is at Winger, but then you're in a situation where one of Svensson, Alonzo, or Roldan is either sitting or not coming back. And I don't think any of those guys are going to want to sit. I mean, beyond what do they want to sit? I mean, is that even like, to me, what I would like to do is figure out like, what do we have in Jordan Morris? If Jordan Morris is, if he's a productive player off the wing,
00:24:36
Speaker
Right. We don't necessarily need to go sign a DP. We can, we can sign a different type of player. And I think, I mean, I think that the, the most likely scenario, um, maybe it's not the most likely, I don't know, but it seems to make the most sense to me is that they sign, um, another attacking midfield type wing type player at
00:24:55
Speaker
at a tan level contract that is not necessarily somebody that you're going to expect to start every game. And then they figure out at mid-season, OK, the signing isn't giving us enough, or we have XYZ long-term injury that we have to address or whatever. Or, hey, everything's going great. Let's go sign our long-term Aussie wands-up replacement. Right. Let's sign some 19-year-old kid from Peru who costs us $10.
00:25:21
Speaker
He's like a $5 million transfer. Yeah. And he's going to be a TAM player next year. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I like the flexibility. And I think, and it's easy to forget, right, that it's not like the Sounders didn't sign TAM players over the winter window last year. I mean, they signed Kim Kihi and Magnus Wolf Eichrum. Right. And Eichrum didn't work out, but it certainly wasn't like they were unwilling to sign players that they thought were going to help them.
00:25:48
Speaker
Um, the interesting thing too, I guess would be, you know, what happens with Roman Torres? What does that do? Does that give them the ability to sign multiple Tam players if he's not here next year? That's another, I mean, that's another good question because I think if Roman Torres isn't back, then I think another position you're probably looking at potentially signing a DP is a center back.
00:26:09
Speaker
Because Chad Marshall, probably back next year, but at some point he's gonna get old. He's gonna be 35 next season. I'm entirely willing to go into the season relying on Chad Marshall to stay reasonably healthy. But you really do need to sign another center back. And maybe at the DP level center back,
00:26:34
Speaker
But you're probably not going to sign a DP level center back who is an automatic starter over one of Kim Kihei or Chad Marshall. Unless you you're dramatically changing your formation, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, that's so yeah, it's it is one of those things where it's like.
00:26:50
Speaker
They're in a really good position, but they're not that far from being in a semi-paralist position. And so it's why I like the added flexibility to do things in the middle of the season. And I mean, that's true of an MLS team, right? Like there's not an MLS team in the league that is not one or two key injuries away from being in a bad spot. So, um,
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be an interesting offseason for sure, because there are things that do make sense as being areas that they might want to address right now. But we all know how quickly that can change. I mean, it's, you know, it's
00:27:28
Speaker
I think I feel like every time we've gone into a transfer window or we've talked well in advance about a transfer window, the people that seemed like obvious signings at the time ended up not really being that way. I think that Rudy Diaz was really the only one that seemed pretty apparent from, you know, well out that that was the position they needed to address and it ended up being the position they needed to address. So it'll be interesting. But we're also getting a little ahead of ourselves.
00:27:57
Speaker
We are, but we are. Is there still, you know, I guess the point that we're trying to make is that this is a good place to be. I, you know, if the Sounders lay an egg against the earthquakes, I might be seeing a slightly different tune as far as where I think they're going to go. But if they're if they win this game as expected, if they stay healthy,
00:28:23
Speaker
I just feel, even if they have to play a home game, even if they have to play in the playing round, it's not the end of the world. Especially where this team was, I definitely understand people's frustrations. I get it. But I also think it's important for us not to take for granted what we've kind of enjoyed over these last.
00:28:47
Speaker
10 years, frankly, it's been 10 years. And I will say, and I'll just end on this note that I think about this a lot. When the Las Vegas Golden Knights went on their Stanley Cup, run to the Stanley Cup last year, in some ways I actually feel, I don't wanna say I feel sorry for their fan base because it's always great to go on a run like
Atlanta United's Success and Challenges
00:29:09
Speaker
that. And as Seattle sports fans know all too well, you never know when, if that's your one chance to go on a,
00:29:17
Speaker
on a great run. But in some ways, I think that Atlanta is going to have a really, it's going to be very interesting to see how the next five, 10 years go for them, because they've set the bar so, so high. And, you know, when you set a, like, if they win this weekend, they'll set a record, they'll have the best season in MLS history.
00:29:44
Speaker
And like, where do you go from there? If they, like, even if they, if they go on to win MLS cup, if they, but if they don't go on to win MLS cup, I guess there's still that achievable goal of, of going even higher. But it's, it's, it's just, it seems like it's always, it's going to be a letdown. And I think in some ways the sounders, they clearly, it was good for their brand to be good early on. But I also wonder, you know, if I'm Minnesota United.
00:30:08
Speaker
I'm going into a new home next year, kind of rediscover things or kind of, I'm able to reinvent myself in some ways. I think that's a great position to be in if they can kind of put it together because like their fans are kind of used to not being great and it's, and it's, and they've been drawing. Okay. You know, they had 50,000 fans at this last game, their last game.
00:30:29
Speaker
a loss. But it's in some ways it's just easier to build off of that. And I think what we've seen, especially in terms of the attendance with the sounders, is that sometimes it's hard to keep up the excitement when you're just good all the time. Yeah, I definitely it is a double edged sword. And I think
00:30:50
Speaker
I think that having that early success and especially, I mean, Atlanta, I don't want to say that, that they're, that it's a bad thing for them. Cause like you, it's like, it's a weird thing to say, Oh, it's too bad that this team is so good. Like that must suck for their hands. Right. But like, if they have a historically good season and when I'm lost cup, you know, like you said, like, where do you go from there? Like it's gotta be, um,
00:31:17
Speaker
I just feel like you need to experience a certain amount of disappointment to really truly. I mean, for me as a fan, I certainly thought I appreciated the MLS Cup win more that it came in year eight than I would have enjoyed it if it had happened in year three.
00:31:37
Speaker
Right, right. And, and I think part of that too is just the whole, it feeds your own hype machine. Like if the Sounders had won the MLS Cup in 2011.
00:31:48
Speaker
I, we would have been more insufferable than everyone. It's just that we were like, you would have been worse than like 10 times worse than Atlanta fans are now. Um, and you just sort of get branded with, with that, you know, so I don't know. And I'm sure, you know, Atlanta fans, uh, I know they're all huge fans of yours, so they're definitely listening to this podcast. Yeah. My brand is huge in Atlanta.
00:32:11
Speaker
I'm sure that they would laugh at us. And that's fine. And it's not like Atlanta doesn't have its fair share of sports heartbreak in the even recent past. So I don't want to go overboard, but I do think that
00:32:28
Speaker
experiencing that disappointment makes, you know, makes winning. Yeah, it's just, it's a, it's a cautionary tale. It's not to say that it's a bad, it's not bad to go on these runs. It's, it's obviously great. It's just that it, I do think it's sometimes harder to like, when you're selling out 72,000 seat stadium in year two on a right on the regular, it's like, everything starts to feel kind of like a disappointment. Uh,
00:32:53
Speaker
You know, if you're not the best every year. Anyway, it's a first world problem. It's a first world. It is, yeah, for sure. But anyway, we're going to take a break. We're going to talk with Matt Doyle about all kinds of fun things. And then we're going to come take your questions. You're listening to NOS, Adios.
00:33:15
Speaker
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00:33:35
Speaker
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00:33:58
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietes. We are joined by the one and only MLS analyst, Matt Doyle, who I'm very sad that you'd no longer go by, you're no longer MLS analyst on Twitter. What happened? What's your name? I mean, you had to separate the brand from the man at least a little bit, right? I guess. Or are we all just on our way to becoming... We're just permanent brands. Yeah, I think so.
00:34:21
Speaker
I think that's the way it goes. Yeah, it's a modern condition. I appreciate then you pushing back against the modern condition and going back to a simpler time when we could just be Matt Doyle 76. Yeah, I mean, I am Gen X, you know, I haven't gone fully millennial. Yeah, you and I, you and I are like right on that, right on that.
00:34:44
Speaker
That border, pretty much. Yeah, you're like a 76, yeah. So like, you know how to write cursive and you microfiche.
00:34:55
Speaker
but you're broke and you're like 10th wave. So yeah, you're right there. You're one foot and two in each roll. Right, exactly. Exactly. So anyway, thanks a lot for doing this. I feel like we used to have you on more often and we haven't had you on for a while. So it was nice to get you on, especially as the sounders are putting together. I want to say a patented now end of season run, but this is what they're doing right now is kind of beyond anything that
00:35:24
Speaker
certainly we expected I can't imagine anyone in the national media saw what they're doing right now but they've now can put together you know if assuming they win this will officially be the best post shootout era second half of any season yeah yeah it's I mean they were way down the bottom of the well three four months ago I guess it was at this point and um
00:35:49
Speaker
It's taken
Sounders' Second Half Comeback
00:35:50
Speaker
literally that, like literally the best second half of a season anybody's put together in MLS history, I think, to climb out of it and to climb back towards the top of the Western Conference. And while I think everybody figured the team would get better in the second half, nobody really thought it was going to be this. This is unprecedented.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, you can't you can't predict what they are doing and obviously what they've done is they've kind of got into the playoffs with some wiggle room, you know, as it, you know, we're now seeing the way it all kind of panning out they could probably could have lost one or two games up to this point.
00:36:31
Speaker
But it's still amazing to see this turnaround and to see not just the performance by itself. And you take that in a vacuum. You go 14, 2, and 1, which is what they would be if they beat the sounds of earthquakes. We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. But you take 13 wins in 17 games, which is what they are currently on right now. And teams just don't do that. That's not something that happens very often. I think it's happened.
00:36:57
Speaker
three or four times in the history of the league, and especially teams that are so bad early in the year. Now, the Sounders had some changes. Obviously, we've talked a lot about these changes. I'm sure you've talked a lot about these changes. But for me, the biggest difference isn't necessarily Raul Rui Diaz and certainly not Brad Smith. It's just, on some level, it's getting healthy and putting out the team that they expected to be putting out for most of the season and being able to do it consistently.
Team Dynamics Adjustments
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing, right? Because the first half of the year, there was no Aussie. And the second half of the year, he's looked like prime Aussie or damn near it. Yeah. And that was one of it. And with Kim Ki-hee, it wasn't health. It was just adjusting to playing in a new league on a new continent with new teammates and all that. And he's looked like part of a guy who has international experience at this point. And then you go on down the list.
00:37:54
Speaker
I do think part of it was, you know, maybe finally cutting the cord with Clint Dempsey or having him cut it just because of the, you know, the personality and locker room issues that might have been there with him. And it's unquestionably Nico Ledero's team now. And just having that bit of clarity on the field and off the field, I think has led to better results. And you see it in their body language.
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah, and I would agree with that. And I've been kind of reluctant to pin too much of their straw. I was kind of pushing back against this idea that Dempsey was really holding them back. And I was kind of pushing to say, hey, this is still the best offensive player that they had. That was not the case by the time he left, but early in the season, certainly. But now you see the team playing. And it does, in some ways, seem like there is some addition by subtraction in that
00:38:50
Speaker
Dempsey, even though he was playing the 10, was not really a classic 10 in any sense of the matter. And even though Ledero, I don't think is a classic 10, and he was kind of serving as a 10, even cutting in from the wing, he has thrived in that role. And I think it's kind of been,
00:39:09
Speaker
on the defensive side where it's really made a lot of difference because now they have two players who are willing to press. They have two players who are willing to harass opposing defenses when they're trying to get out of the back. And we've seen that lead to some, certainly some turnovers, but even a few easy goals. How big do you think that aspect of it is? It's not even just the offense. It's kind of the way they're being, they're able to set up defensively. Yeah, it's, it's been,
00:39:36
Speaker
I mean, almost season defining in its way, because Roldan, who's not
00:39:44
Speaker
really a winger he he's nonetheless like smart enough to play the job to do the job on both sides of the ball especially playing off the ball and so a lot of the running he does is so unselfish and you weren't getting that from Dempsey obviously an attack and then defensively he does all the unselfish running that you would want from
00:40:07
Speaker
anyone playing on the wing and they've had you know good performances from ship and and Rodriguez now on the other wing as well and suddenly you're cutting down the amount of time and space that opponents have to play with and if you do that then just the whole game gets easier and that's been I mean
00:40:27
Speaker
That's been the big story, man. They're all running for each other and they're all working for each other. It's not, you know, Brian Spencer hasn't come up with any innovative new tactical approach. You know, he's not, he's not Pep Guardiola out there. And I don't think he's trying to be, I think he's mostly just got a lot of guys who have, have, you know, cast ego to the side and seem to have bought into the, you know, 11 is greater than one kind of approach.
Christian Roldan's Adaptability
00:40:57
Speaker
You know, you mentioned Christian Roldan, and I think especially among Sounders fans, there's a lot of questions as to where he really fits into the national team picture. And one of the questions we oftentimes get is,
00:41:11
Speaker
with his move to the wing, and he's, I think actually proven himself to be a pretty capable outside player, even if he's not a true winger, he's at least producing numbers. He's at least kind of being a value add, I think on the outside, even if his best position is in the middle. Do you think that that move though has kind of hurt his national team prospects, even if just in the short term? I don't think so. You know, I rolled down a good,
00:41:40
Speaker
at like three or four spots. He, from what I have seen, is not a great player at any spot. And that's, you know, that's fine. Maybe that changes, you know, maybe next year he gets to play a little bit more as an eight, or maybe he eventually shows that he can be a six, though I still don't see that in him. And I'll change my tune. But from what I can, you know, from what I've seen of Roldan,
00:42:10
Speaker
His superpower as a soccer player is his ability to understand how he could be a piece that fits into the greater puzzle. How he can, you know, play next to Ledero as a winger.
00:42:23
Speaker
and figure out how to use the space that Ledero creates. How he can play next to Ozzie Alonzo as a box to box midfielder and understand how he could fill the space defensively that allows Ozzie to seek and destroy. How he can occasionally play as a right back and understand how to take space on the overlap
00:42:44
Speaker
when the wide area sort of clear out and he presents himself as an option for a big switch. His ability to do all of that at an acceptable or above level to me makes it more likely that he gets called in repeatedly for the national team rather than less.
00:43:08
Speaker
So if I am to paraphrase what you're saying, it's that his future with the national team is not necessarily as a six or an eight, but as kind of all of the above. Like he's a guy you can bring in without necessarily knowing where you're going to put them and trust that you can put them into places as you need them and he's not going to screw things up.
00:43:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's he seems like an ideal guy for an 18 man roster. Because if you're, you know, ideal, in a perfect world, Weston McKenney's are eight for a long time. And we have way and ballistic and Iman and all those guys on the wing. And, you know, we have whoever we have it right back, I guess it'll be Evelyn at this point, maybe cannon. Well, if you have rolled on on the roster, then you have backups at four of you could back up four of those guys.
00:43:58
Speaker
So on an 18-man roster in a tournament grind, he's a guy that you want out there because you know you can just throw him out there and he's not necessarily going to win you the game, but he's not going to lose you the game. He's just going to go and do a pretty good job and I'm fine with that. Not every player in the world is going to get interest from Borussia Dortmund. It's just not how it works. And it's fine to be a really, really good cock.
00:44:28
Speaker
So there's two big questions I think about the sounders roster. One of them is short-term and that's at the left back position. And I'm curious as someone who sees the sounders kind of from a higher level viewpoint and not necessarily in the weeds, what do you think as far as Brad Smith versus New Who, assuming both are healthy? I really liked what I saw Brad Smith moving forward. Like he was, you know, his ability to complete
00:44:58
Speaker
dangerous passes in the attack is a few levels above news. He didn't defend much from what I saw of him. Maybe that's something that will come with time.
00:45:10
Speaker
But the injury in a way kind of shelves the discussion until next year because of the teams, you know out there defending well and getting enough in the attack and you News mostly like a known quantity at this point and is that kind of makes him reliable in its way? that's what you go to the playoffs with now if you're down two to one and
00:45:35
Speaker
in the knockout round and it's the 55th minute and you need to make an attacking change. You bring Brad Smith on and you do the like for like, that's the first thing you do and see if that can shake it up. But at this point, knew who's the starter. What happens in 2019 with both of them there, I would imagine I would put my money on Smith. Yeah, that's kind of my suspicion too. The other big question I think around this team is Jordan Morris and how he fits into it.
Jordan Morris' Impact Post-Injury
00:46:03
Speaker
You know, we, I think a lot of our thinking about Jordan is colored by last year, which was a down year for him. He battled injuries almost throughout the year, but do you feel like you're still, like, I don't know how high you were on him in 2016, but where do you find yourself thinking of Jordan Morris in terms of maybe not just the Sounders, but, you know, as a, as a potential prospect in US soccer? I mean, I haven't, I made my, I made my
00:46:32
Speaker
depth chart a month and a half ago and I completely forgot to include him. Um, speaks to that. Yeah. And it's like, obviously that's an oversight on my part. Um, cause Jordan Morris is the guy who scored, it was the game winning gold, the gold cup last year. Right. Like that's not, that's not that long ago. Yeah. And he did show some improvement in certain areas. Um, but he, you know, he, he played last year injured.
00:47:02
Speaker
and didn't look great for most of it. And he has been injured this entire year. And the Jordan Morris, who looks potentially game breaking at times in 2016, that's kind of a distant memory. And there are guys coming through the ranks at the two positions that he nominally plays well enough to be an international caliber player.
00:47:27
Speaker
who are younger and so far look pretty good. And so I think Jordan Morris is going to enter 2019 with no clear starting spot on the Sounders. And that means he has no clear starting spot or reason really to be included for the US national team, unless he goes out there from March 1st onwards.
00:47:57
Speaker
you know, earns the, earns the playing time with his club and, and makes it clear that he, yeah, actually he's a perfect winger for this setup. Yeah. He's actually a perfect number nine for this setup. You know, make that clear. And then that makes the case, but like it's, that's a long ways away at this point. Like in the minds of most us national team fans, Jordan Morris doesn't even register.
00:48:20
Speaker
So that's, I think, totally fair. The way I wanted to end on this is maybe some place that is not entirely fair.
00:48:29
Speaker
I've been holding on to it for 20 minutes. But early in the season, you were lighting me up on Twitter on DMs, basically saying, Brian Schmetzer in over his head, clearly the wrong coach for the Sounders at this point. You got to be wanting this guy to be fired. I don't know. I think you were probably giving me a hard time as much as you were sharing an honest opinion, but
00:48:55
Speaker
Here we are sitting again at the end of a third straight season where Brian Schmetzer has maybe not wowed anyone with his tactical acumen. Like you said, I don't think he's, no one's confusing him for Pep Guardiola. He himself has said someone like Patrick Vieira is probably a better tactician than he is. But at the same time, he's getting just about everything you could ask out of players when he needs it the most.
00:49:21
Speaker
How would you assess your opinion of Brian Spencer today? So I don't think anybody could argue against the fact that he did a pretty terrible job the first half of the season. I will agree with that.
00:49:38
Speaker
Part of the way I looked at it was coming off of that MLS Cup last year where he was so completely like the Sounders were played off the field and he was so completely outcoached and unprepared.
00:49:53
Speaker
for what Toronto did. And you could see the frustration on the players after the game, including Chad Marshall, being demonstrative in a way that Chad Marshall usually isn't. So from that game until about, I guess, July of this year, it looked a lot like the Schmetzer era was going to end with a whimper.
00:50:18
Speaker
And what he's done then, I mean, in retrospect, a lot of that was due to the stuff that we talked about in that first question, his injuries and, you know, guys in the locker room, maybe not entirely happy and just bad chemistry overall.
Brian Schmetzer's Coaching Style
00:50:32
Speaker
I think obviously Ledero had his mind on the World Cup, which had to be a disappointment. And now that's in the past, he's like, arguably the best player in the league again. So getting all of that sorted out.
00:50:43
Speaker
and not having the team explode because of it and then getting these guys into mostly what I would say are their best spots and Able to perform in a way that is again unprecedented I think that says what Brian Schmitzer is as a head coach like he he seems like he's got a pretty even keel he seems like he
00:51:09
Speaker
doesn't overcomplicate things and he seems like he understands that oftentimes the best the best plan is to just like you know create a really solid bank of four at the back and a bank of four ahead of them
00:51:30
Speaker
and defend with that. And then when you get the ball, put it on the foot of your best player and let them do something. And that's how the sound is of play for the last three and a half, four months. And you certainly can't argue with the results at this point.
00:51:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll say that one of the things that is impressive to me about what Brian Schmetzer has done is we can go on and on about whether or not he's doing anything innovative or whatever. And I think he's doing, I think their offense is a little more dynamic than two banks of four and give the ball to your most talented players. That said, I think that what he's
00:52:10
Speaker
He's actually done to me is keep together a group that a lot of coaches would have lost. And I think that that's sometimes undervalued when we're talking about coaching is that you can come up with all the great ideas that you want. But if your players ultimately don't buy into what it is that you're selling them, it doesn't matter.
00:52:30
Speaker
And that's the thing I think that maybe he does better than anyone else in MLS is that he just gets guys to buy into each other, to buy into the coaching staff, that he's willing to kind of be the bad guy to take some hits. And ultimately, if the team is kind of together, and that's so cliche, and it's so boring, and it's so like, coach speak, but at the end of the day, it seems like that's kind of what's working.
00:52:58
Speaker
I don't disagree with that. And the best example is Roman Torres being a bench player at this point. I don't think there are a lot of managers in MLS who, you know, Torres is, you know, a very big locker room personality. Everybody knows that. And he's a guy at the stage of his career where I think he expects to be starting and the fact that he's not, and that's not an issue. Again, that speaks to what,
00:53:26
Speaker
to what Brian Schmetzer is as a head coach. And you're right, it's not to be undertaken. And I would say this, if you gave me the choice between a guy who doesn't overcomplicate things and is a really good man manager,
00:53:44
Speaker
versus a guy who is a masterful technician but can't manage the locker room at all, I would take the first guy. Maybe not at the highest level, maybe it leads to games like last year's MLS Cup, when again, he was just completely outcoached. But you get there, you win a lot of games, and you get a lot of rolls of the dice, and you give yourself a chance, and if you do that enough,
00:54:12
Speaker
you know, you eventually, you'll win some trophies. Yeah, I would, uh, I still don't, you know, I don't know where he would rank in terms of like best coaches in all of MLS, but I, I have a hard time believing that there are very many coaches in MLS who would do better with the team that with the Sounders specifically and not like a generally assembled group of those guys in some random city, but
00:54:36
Speaker
I just I keep coming back to Schmetra just seems to like work here and I don't know I actually think that he has a lot of the skill sets that are needed for a national team coach I'm not gonna sit here and say he should be a national team coach
Schmetzer's Man Management
00:54:52
Speaker
But I do think he has some of those skill sets that could work. Like, again, I'm not saying he should be the next national team coach. But I think that man management and understanding personalities is sometimes more important at the international level than being a great tactician. I mean, hey, that was Bruce Arena's biggest strength, was man management and personality management. Until it wasn't, I guess, right? Yeah.
00:55:24
Speaker
Honestly, I don't even know where to go with that. I have not spent one second thinking about Brian Schmetzer as a US national team. That's the kind of high-level conversations you get when you come on a Sounders podcast. You get these crazy ideas that when you think about in 10 years when this whole era of US soccer has gone by the wayside, you know only if we had appointed Brian Schmetzer as a
00:55:49
Speaker
Yeah, and if only you were the GM, I guess. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the job's still open on the women's side, so you should throw a resume in there, see if Cordero will call you back.
00:56:05
Speaker
There you go. Well, Matt, I really appreciate you coming on, being a good sport. Obviously, you know where to find Matt. He's on MLSSoccer.com. You can follow him on Twitter if you aren't already. He's a better guy than you like to think, I have to tell you that. And so many people tell me what an animal you are, what a mean person. And I said, no, no, that's Bobby or that's Simon.
00:56:32
Speaker
I will say this, Simon and Bobby are both much better people than I am. There's no question about that. It's their personalities. It's very funny how that works. But I actually, I have to tell you, I find Bobby to be one of the more compelling listens on ETR. Even if I find myself disagreeing with him, I think I enjoy his writing style. I don't always agree with his conclusions, but
00:56:58
Speaker
You know, I think that's, and, you know, sometimes I find myself even missing Simon from EPR.
00:57:05
Speaker
Simon remains the king. He is the best content creator we have ever had and probably will forever be the best content creator we've ever had. Yes, I definitely miss him from rewind. Or not rewind, but from instant replay. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But anyway, thanks a lot, Matt. And hopefully we'll have you on again one of these days. Yeah, give me a call sometime. All right, you're listening to no study at this.
00:57:36
Speaker
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00:58:00
Speaker
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00:58:17
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietta, so hopefully you enjoyed that interview. Matt Doyle, definitely worth a follow on Twitter. I don't know how many people listen to this show and don't follow Matt Doyle, but if you don't, he's pretty good. I've actually found myself listening to a lot of Extra Time Radio lately. I actually think they put on a pretty good show, so there's my plugs. In any case,
00:58:42
Speaker
We got a bunch of your questions. Funny how winning seems to really liven this section up. And I'll get us started. We don't have Likit right now. He's working behind the scenes today. And I'll start off by asking this one from Colinsaurus Rex. He says, would you rather face Portland or LA in the playing game, assuming we don't jump all the way to second and why?
00:59:06
Speaker
Uh, I would, I would much rather face LA and the why is because I'm a big baby and I, I don't want to be as nervous and sick about playing Portland is, I mean, if we're, if we're playing either one of those teams at home, rationally, I think that we're heavy favorites. Um, but it would, and if we're playing the galaxy, there's so much to lose by playing Portland, I feel like.
00:59:30
Speaker
If we're playing the galaxy, I'm going to feel like we're heavy favorites going into that game. If we're playing Portland, I'm going to feel like shit. So yeah, definitely LA. Um, not rational. I think you could probably make a case that you, I think it is. I don't think it's that irrational. And I'll tell you why, uh, the Sounders played Portland three times this year. They were not blown out in any of those three games.
00:59:53
Speaker
But they also weren't clearly the better team in any of those three games. You know, they won the one that was frankly the most important, but it was on an own goal. I think even you go back to the game they played in Portland and they were competitive, they played their game.
01:00:11
Speaker
And, but, and I, it's probably worth noting that the centers have not faced Portland at anything like full strength, but I just think Portland's a much tougher matchup for them than LA is. And if you lose to LA, I don't know. I'm not going to like lose sleep over that, but you're going to have a lot of banter to deal with if you lose to Portland and I'm not, I'm with you. I, I, but I just think it's a little more of a rational fear than you do. Yeah. I mean.
01:00:39
Speaker
I think Portland's better than LA. I think they definitely match up better against the Sounders. I still think the Sounders are a much better team than Portland. Yeah, I do too, but it's a tougher matchup. Yeah, it is. So next one is from Jeffrey M. Williams. Though responsibility is always shared, how much credit should be given to Coach Schmetzer for strong finishes after three seasons of slow starts?
01:01:06
Speaker
You know I kind of talked a little bit about this with, with Matt, on the last segment, but I think Schmetzer deserves a lot of credit, and I think it's, for some reason, I feel like a lot of people want to blame him for the bad starts, but then not really give him credit for the strong finishes. And I think that's very unfair.
01:01:30
Speaker
He's got the third best winning percentage in MLS history is among coaches with at least two seasons worth of experience. That's not by accident. Yeah, he's had a talented team, but Greg Vanney had a talented team too this year. And Spencer's never gone through a season like Vanney had. He's been better than Vanney in two out of his three seasons or parts of when, you know, so it's like,
01:02:00
Speaker
I just think that people act like... Sure, you got it coached in the MLS Cup final last year, but I think he deserves a lot of credit. I think he understands this team very well. I think he understands players. I think he understands... It's not all sunshine and rainbows in the Sanders locker room, and he has managed to keep it together in a way that is...
01:02:25
Speaker
you know, that you don't see that at all on the field. And it's pretty impressive. I think he deserves a ton of credit. Yeah. And the thing that people tend to focus on in a way it makes sense because it's the only part that we can really be
01:02:40
Speaker
that we can really offer critical judgment on because it's the only part we see is the tactical side. And I don't think that Brian Schmetzer is a great tactician in MLS, but I think he's above average. I think that the extent to which he is tactically deficient is vastly, vastly overstated.
01:03:04
Speaker
you know, there have definitely been games where I feel like the tactical adjustments he made and the planning he put, you know, into play are what made the difference. And so, and it's like you said, it's hard for me to believe, you know, given the high profile players that aren't playing a lot, given the competition in the team for starts and places,
01:03:30
Speaker
It's hard for me to believe that that's an easy thing to manage, you know, that that's an easy locker room to manage, and that it's easy to get a ton out of these guys if they're dissatisfied, but he's doing it. I mean, Roman Torres is apparently not happy at all that he's not playing, and it's hard to blame him, frankly. I mean, he went to the World Cup and lost a starting spot because of it. That sucks.
01:03:52
Speaker
um but he plays his ass off every time he does play you know so um it's it's hard for me to think that that you know schmetzer is just locked into this um and it's
01:04:05
Speaker
It's endlessly frustrating that the way that coaches and MLS are talked about, you've got, you know, the people, everyone kind of agrees are, are the great ones like Vanny and, uh, Tata obviously, but Tata has, uh, I'll give, I'll give Tata. I mean, he has kind of a track record that predates him a less, but you know, Vanny bear halter, uh, Pareha, you know, everybody seems to think that those guys are the cream of the crop. And I'm not saying any of them are bad coaches. Yeah. Um,
01:04:35
Speaker
And, you know, it's just I don't see what separates them from Schmetzer. I really don't. And people kind of pretend like he's, you know, like he's just due to be Peter principled. And I just don't see it. I mean, it's I don't know. I feel like if he were a fraud, he would have been exposed by now. There have been. Yeah, it's been too long at this point. Like we're
01:05:00
Speaker
90 games almost into if you include playoffs into his tenure and it's you know like he'd be exposed he would be if it was just if he was just kind of getting by on you know two banks of four and and like you know one of the things that matt talked about in our segment is he's
01:05:20
Speaker
He and I kind of softly pushed back against this idea, but he's like, you know, you get two banks of four and you get the ball to your creative player and let them do their thing. That's not what they've been doing for the last.
01:05:31
Speaker
a couple months. And I don't think Doyle really believes that, but I do think that that starts to become kind of the narrative that this is like, he's kind of just rolling the ball out there and saying, get the ball to Nico and let him do his thing. But anyway. There are a lot of things Doyle doesn't believe. That's fine. But I don't know how you could watch this team play. No, I don't. I don't. Yeah. I mean, we did. It was at the end of the interview and I didn't want to keep him much longer. But yeah.
01:06:01
Speaker
uh anyway um this is from m jowman uh the sanders have never finished worse than fourth in the west so do these stories starts the season even matter or is this the last year we can tolerate being at a shield contention uh i mean we we kind of touched on this but yeah it matters um it matters because
01:06:25
Speaker
It matters for a lot of reasons. I think for me, first and foremost, the slow start is a bummer because I have a lot less free time when the sounders are playing, and I'm fine with that. But I do enjoy the extra free time I have when they're not playing.
01:06:42
Speaker
And it makes it a lot harder to get back into the swing of things when the team is shitty and boring to watch, you know? So it matters in that sense. It matters in the sense of people are going to wonder why they're even bothering, you know, after a while. You know, why am I
01:06:59
Speaker
watching these games early in season 5 and getting season tickets, blah blah blah blah. It matters in that sense. I think there is kind of a dangerous narrative that I don't necessarily blame fans for buying into. I think it's on the sounders too. When it becomes a reoccurring thing,
01:07:19
Speaker
I do think, you know, you hear fans say enough times, the team doesn't care about the first half, why should I? And on some level, I think that that's fans being unrealistic. But on another level, it's a reality that I think is important to recognize that that's the perception among some people. And the sounders can't take
01:07:44
Speaker
their fan base for granted. And I don't think that they do, but I think that it's important to remember that you need to be proving that there's value throughout the season and that the season ticket has value and that you want to be there for every game. And it's not just like a charitable donation that you're making.
01:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and yeah so in that sense it does matter, and I don't know that this is the last seat like I don't think that expecting your team to compete for the supporters shield every year is reasonable, just because there's so much that goes into determining, you know, who those teams are.
01:08:21
Speaker
I don't think it's as easy to say that the team that wins the support or shield is the best team in the league, as a lot of people want to make it out to be. And I think that that's true. Yeah. And, but I think that that's true in, in leagues that play, you know, a, a double round Robin home away.
01:08:38
Speaker
everybody plays each other the same amount of times. Like there are times the teams that are not the best team wins the title because the best team has injuries and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, um, but I do think that if there's another slow start, um,
01:08:58
Speaker
Every year, the slow start has the response to it has gotten a little angrier. Yeah. And so I think that the front office definitely needs to be proactive about not letting that happen again. And frankly, if that means that you risk having
01:09:14
Speaker
poorer form in the middle of the season, that it might be worth taking that risk. If you're giving guys more minutes than you ordinarily would, if you're putting out stronger lineups early in the open cup, things like that, it might be worth the risk just to prove like, hey, we're not going to let this happen again. So yeah, I mean, I think that ultimately, the goals get to playoffs when the MLS cup, et cetera.
01:09:46
Speaker
I don't think that bad PR would be an understatement if they have another start like they've had the last few years. Andy Fretwell asks, what does your perfect playoff scenario look like? Also, will BC Morris? So I think the perfect playoff scenario obviously starts with a bye. So you'd move up to two.
01:10:08
Speaker
And I guess you would probably get the winner of LA FC. You'd probably end up with LA FC in the second round. Or I'm guessing that the two games, if the Sounders finish second, the two games are probably LA FC and LA Galaxy and FC Dallas and Portland.
01:10:33
Speaker
probably, right? That's probably the two most likely match ups. And so I think the best case scenario is that either LAFC wins because they wouldn't, there's no scenario where the Sounders would play the galaxy in the second round and or else Dallas beats Portland. So the Sounders would play either Dallas or LAFC in the conference semi-finals. And then they would,
01:11:04
Speaker
be hoping for an upset of sporting Kansas City in the other conference final, and then they'd get probably LAFC or Dallas, I suppose, in the, and then potentially LAFC I guess in the conference final.
01:11:24
Speaker
And then I think the absolute best case scenario would be probably someone like DC United or maybe New York City FC in the MLS Cup Final because of the main host. Yeah, it's hard for me to find a lot to disagree with you about there.
01:11:45
Speaker
I mean, I don't want to play DC United. I guess that's the one place where I'll disagree. I guess I'm trying to be plausibly realistic as well. I just don't see Columbus coming out of the East or Montreal or the other teams, New York City. Who could bump
01:12:07
Speaker
Who can bump Columbus from the final playoffs? Just Montreal. So I guess the Union would be another potential one.
01:12:16
Speaker
Ah, yeah. I don't... Would you rather play DC or the Union? Yeah, I wonder which one of those seems to play. I would definitely rather play the Union. DC united the extent to how impressive their winning streak or just run of good form, I guess, has been. I think it's overstated. It's all been at home. Right. That's the other thing. I would still rather play the Union, even though they... I don't know.
01:12:42
Speaker
I'm actually I think I'd rather play United partly for the same reason that you don't want to play Portland in that I think the Union if you play the Union in the MS Cup final they come in
01:12:55
Speaker
playing with house money and you have the, and I think the Sounders are clearly better team than them, but this is also the same team that beat the Sounders in Seattle, not too long ago. DCU is a better team, but I feel like it's just a better, like it's a matchup that I could live with.
01:13:17
Speaker
Like if the center is in when I could, I feel like I could live with it a little easier. I guess I can see that aspect of it. Yeah. I mean, the thing that worries me about DCU that doesn't worry me about the union is that the union doesn't have a player like Wayne Ernie, right? They certainly do not.
01:13:32
Speaker
They don't have a player that can win a game by himself. You know, that's true. And DC, DC has some really good players. I don't want to, uh, but I feel like that's, that's kind of the dream scenario. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. I would, I really do want to play LAFC in the play. I think that that's like, there's part of me that really like genuinely is looking forward to playing LAFC in the playoffs, partly because I don't think.
01:13:57
Speaker
The fact that the centers lost twice to them, I find almost completely irrelevant. They were clearly the better team in one of those two games. And then the other, they were a fluke goal from pulling out a tie, um, like as talented as LAFC is. I just, I kind of, I don't know. I also kind of like the idea of like, I think she met her matches up with, uh, with Bradley. Okay. And I kind of, I just like, I, I like that. I like it.
01:14:24
Speaker
There are another team, too, that it wouldn't be as painful to lose to them, I don't think. At the same time, you're right. So EscapeTheShoe wants to know, do you think that Roldan being played out of position most of this year has hurt his stock as a prospect in the US national team aspirations? There are two negatives for Roldan, but good for the Sounders. Also, Svensson, Roldan are nailed on starters at CDM next year. And I guess we should probably
01:14:51
Speaker
add, since it's a very similar question, Nate Bowling had a similar question, about kind of the 6-8 players in the U.S. national team pool. He wants to know where you think Roldan ranks among Trapp, Bradley, Weston McKinney, Markey Delgado, Callan Costa. So I'll just kind of throw, we talked about this a little bit with Matt, but I kind of want your opinion on all this in terms of
01:15:17
Speaker
Rolled on his place in the national team in your view. So I don't think that it's hurt his his stock or his his aspirations because he's not he's playing as a wide midfielder, but he's not playing as a winger. He's playing very similarly to how he plays as a central midfielder, similar to how Brad Evans played the position.
01:15:37
Speaker
So, and I think that, you know, coaches with a national team understand that and evaluate them that way. Um, and, and frankly, having the ability, like showing the ability, Hey, I can play all these positions is going to be good for your stock, right? Like he's a capable starter at MLS at three positions for, if you want to, you know, get technical and split up the central midfield positions. Um, and that's a good thing, you know, that's, that's versatility is good if you're going to be a bench player on the national team. So.
01:16:05
Speaker
I don't think it changes much. And I think whether Svensson and Roldan are the starters at Central Midfield, depends on Ozzie. I think if Ozzie's back, he's probably going to be a starter. I don't think he's coming back if he feels like there's a chance he's not going to be a starter. So yeah, that's that piece.
01:16:31
Speaker
in terms of ranking the players, so trap is last. Well, no, I don't know. I think, no, I think, I mean, I'll say I think trap is the least of those.
01:16:43
Speaker
Yeah. Trap and Delgado. I also don't think he's really a sick date tweener. I think he's a six. He's a six, yeah. But he's not good at it. Yeah. I don't... Will Trap is... Will Trap is like a fine guy to have around in the pool. The fact that he's kind of been treated like a cornerstone of like the new makes me want to vomit. Delgado I think is...
01:17:07
Speaker
I would say that Delgado rolled in Acosta probably are kind of all around the same level. I think Bradley McKinney I think is at the top just because he has he has a really high ceiling. And then I put Bradley right behind him. I think people are way too hard on Michael Bradley, man. I feel like
01:17:32
Speaker
On some level, I don't feel bad for Michael Bradley. He's a very well compensated athlete. He has made a lot of big boy decisions that he lived with. So I don't feel bad for him in a like, Oh, he's been forced to eat all this shit. But at the same time, I do think he's kind of taken for granted. You know, like he,
01:17:57
Speaker
like he's still a very good player. He's still relatively young. I think he's probably, you know, if he, if he's been, if he struggles, his struggles this year have been frankly tied to him trying to do more than was realistic for a player to do, you know,
01:18:15
Speaker
Is it smart for him to get off a plane and play the next day or whatever for Toronto FC in a pointless game? Probably not smart, but I have to respect it. I appreciate that he wants to be on the field. Yeah. I'm not going to hold that against him somehow. Yeah. He reminds me of his trajectory has been Brad Evans-ish in a way where everybody hated him for a long time.
01:18:43
Speaker
And then it became undeniable that he was much better than he'd ever gotten credit for. And so people could sort of grudgingly respected him. And then as soon as there was anything to criticize him about, everybody went back to hating him. Right. Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. I think Michael Bradley is
01:19:03
Speaker
Like until proven otherwise, I think there's a pretty good chance he's the starter in the next World Cup qualifying cycle. Yeah. And I don't think that's a horrible thing. I would much a million times rather he start than trap for sure. Yeah. Like if that's my choice for sure. All right. So I guess we can go to the. Yeah. So the next one is from Stefan Hoggins. I'm assuming it's Hoggins. If it's Hagins, don't yell at me on Twitter about it, please.
01:19:32
Speaker
Is it just me or do we look shaky at the back sometimes? If so, does Brad Smith's return help us defensively? Definitely don't want to see those defensive mistakes when we play an LAFC or a Dallas.
01:19:46
Speaker
I love, as you know, I love the, is it just me questions? I'm sure it's not just you, Stefan. I think there are probably plenty of other people that share your opinion of the shaky defense, but this shaky defense, let's keep in mind, best in the league right now. Now, I suppose you could point to XGA, if you're that kind of person and say like, oh, well, they're, they're really overperforming their,
01:20:15
Speaker
their expected goals and it can't all be due to Stephen Fry's awesomeness, although I do think that's a big part of it. But, you know, yeah, they gave up. I think people are saying this because they gave up some like soft goals against Houston at home, Houston on the road and against Orlando.
01:20:36
Speaker
But those were also games where the games were reasonably well in hand. They had to stress at the end of those games more than they would have liked to have. But I think the defense is still very, very good. I don't think Brad Smith makes their defense better. I think Newhoo is probably the better defender right now. Newhoo has been great for me. I don't think there's any probably to it. I think that Newhoo is miles ahead of Smith defensively.
01:21:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean Smith puts in a nicer cross. I think even if the numbers don't prove it, I think anyone could watch them play. New Who might, Smith might be just as fast as New Who, which is kind of saying something, but there's no way that
Defender Comparison: Smith vs. New Who
01:21:21
Speaker
You can convince me Brad Smith is bang on a better defender than the new who is. Yeah. I mean, I think that, I think that Brad Smith is pretty clearly the better attacking player. I think that new who is pretty clearly to a greater extent, a better defender. I think Brad Smith was actually.
01:21:41
Speaker
pretty bad defensively, especially in his last few games before getting hurt. And I think New Who is... There are sounders fans that think New Who is bad defensively and it blows my mind because for me, he's one of the best one-on-one defenders in any class. Oh, I think one-on-one, I think he's... I mean, he just doesn't get beat defensively. I think he sometimes has mental lapses that lead to
01:22:06
Speaker
you know, like he misses an offside trap or he kind of loses a guy on the weak side. Like these things happen. He's not perfect. But I just, I feel much better when, like, if you're going to tell me you got an attacking, a player who's going to be attacking off the wing all the time, and I have Brad Smith or New Who to defend them, I think I'd probably rather have New Who. And I, and I'll add that if our left,
01:22:32
Speaker
Mid is Victor Rodriguez. I'm less concerned about building up the attack with new and new has been getting into the attack pretty decently. These last couple last few games and granted against bad teams. But yeah, I'm not. I don't think bread is the missing piece to keep us from having a shaky defense.
01:22:51
Speaker
Yeah. And he's been making, um, I think much better decisions with the ball. Like he's put in some pretty decent crosses. Like I think it's pretty clear that he's been working on that, but he's picked his spots. Like one of the biggest things that's always frustrated me with new his game is that he gets to the end line, he gets the ball, he's well-defended and he just kind of puts in a cross. It's going to be blocked or it's not going to do anything. Whereas I think over the last few games, he's been
01:23:16
Speaker
recycling possession, looking for passes inside, things like that, so that he's not kind of a black hole offensively. And I think it's made a huge difference. So on the same subject, I'll kind of combine two questions again. This is from Dudesby and Motley69. Basically want to know who we think is the left back starter, assuming both of those players are healthy going to playoffs.
01:23:45
Speaker
I would like it to be NuWho. I think I expect it to be Smith. Really? Yeah, and I think that...
01:23:57
Speaker
knew who gets yelled at by his teammates more often than most other players do. And I think that he's probably making mistakes that we're not seeing or doing things that he's been asked not to do or whatever. I mean, maybe they'll hate him. I don't know. Maybe he's a jerk, although that seems really hard to believe. He seems like a real sweetheart. That does seem less likely.
01:24:21
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I think, and I'm not saying I think that this is the correct decision or the correct way to look at it, but I think a coach is almost always going to be more likely to start the guy. He feels like he can trust more in the playoffs. And I think that there's a pretty good chance. That's probably Brad Smith. I would much rather knew who play in the playoffs, especially as you said, like if Victor is healthy, um,
01:24:45
Speaker
because I don't think that getting attacking from that side is as crucial. But yeah, if I had to put money on it, I would say that Smith probably starts. I'll add this caveat. If Smith isn't healthy enough to play this week, I have a hard time seeing how he goes from not playing for a month to starting in the playoffs.
01:25:14
Speaker
And so based on that, assuming New Who's health, because he did go out last game, but I'm assuming he's going to be healthy. God, I hope it's not Waylon Francis. I'll say that. But I kind of think New Who's going to be starting. Because I do think Schmetzer is kind of like a hot hand type of coach. And until New Who does something that gets him removed from the starting spot, I kind of feel like it's his. But we'll see.
01:25:44
Speaker
We'll see. We'll see. I do. I do also like having Smith on the on the bench. I really like the possibility of being able to bring Smith off the bench, even at like halftime or the 55th minute or whatever. And again, something Matt and I kind of talked about. But anyway, go ahead. So the next one is a very smooth question from T. Rob Thomas song, smooth by Rob Thomas. Where will we find the next Chad Marshall?
Potential Replacements for Chad Marshall
01:26:13
Speaker
Uh, you know, uh, this was pointed out by, uh, Nate Bowling on Twitter and he, I am not, who am I to disagree with Nate Bowling? Uh, he, he, he called out Sam Rogers as potentially the next, uh,
01:26:29
Speaker
the next Chad Marshall. And I don't think that's such a bad shout. Sam was looking extraordinarily good early in the S2 season. Then he got hurt and we didn't really hear much from him towards the end of the season. But now he's back with the U20 national team. Sam Rogers, really, really good player. I think he's still just 20 years old.
01:26:57
Speaker
I would say that's as good of a shout as you're going to find. Like we talked about earlier in the show, I think it's also possible they go out and sign a DP to be a center back. But yeah, replacing Chad Marshall, I'll say this. I don't think they're going to go out and find a center back in his prime.
01:27:17
Speaker
who's making 300, $350,000, that's probably not going to happen. Like that's, so it, like you're not going to be able to replace him that he like, Chad Marshall gives you a lot of flexibility. The fact that, you know, you've got this guy, like he's been here since 2014. He might win his second defensive player of the year. Pretty amazing.
01:27:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and I guess that kind of Sam Rogers is probably a decent answer for this next question, but if you have any other thoughts on it, I'm certainly happy to hear it, but this is from TRS PHD. I'm not going to try to pronounce that one now that S2 season season is over. Any thoughts on potential first team players coming from that from S2?
01:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, I don't. I don't for you. It is a tough one for me. I just don't get to watch us too as much as I'd like. I don't get to watch them as a ton either.
S2 Team Promotions
01:28:09
Speaker
I will say that Ibrahim Usman, who is a I think Nigerian left back. He's the guy who people seem the highest on in terms of their pro readiness. They're like MLS readiness. He's I think also 19.
01:28:28
Speaker
And I don't think he's going to be a starter for the Sanders, but I could certainly see them signing like a project type of player like that. Sam Rogers, I think is probably the easy answer.
01:28:40
Speaker
I'm not sure if there's anyone else that is likely to be signed next year. Yeah, I mean, it seems like, and I could be wrong on this, but it seems like they're kind of at the beginning of the cycle of players. They are kind of, yeah. You know, it's like they're, it's much more likely I think next year. Yeah, and they've got a lot of, I mean, they just signed, they have like eight guys that were playing in the U-17
01:29:07
Speaker
championship game last year, right? Yeah, but I do think they have a very like their rosters really young. Yeah, and I do think Rogers is a good shout.
01:29:21
Speaker
Because A, I mean, it's he's been in the org, I think for long enough now to think, you know, six years. I think he's been in the organization for like six years. But I think it's probably time to see what he's got, you know, at a higher level. He has played in the open cup, I guess. But but I also think that I don't want to see
01:29:46
Speaker
Tony Alfaro play anymore or as much. So, um, it'd be nice to maybe have another option at that force for center back spot. Um, so, yeah. Um, so next one is from Nick Denny, uh, is referring to MLS soccer.com as major league soccer, soccer.com
MLS Soccer.com Name Humor
01:30:04
Speaker
overplayed. Should I stop or lean into it? I mean,
01:30:10
Speaker
It's all about your audience, right? I mean, but this is now what, an eight year old reference. And I've never, this one has actually always annoyed me. Sorry, Nick, but because it's treated as though it's like the sign of MLS being Super Bush league. And it's like, well, they can't have MLS.com. What's better, major league, soccer.com. That's way too long. You know, I think it's fine. I don't.
01:30:38
Speaker
I don't know. I don't get why it's also the name of a website. Right. Right. And I like people say people say NFL football all the time, too. And like nobody ever says anything about that. I don't know.
01:30:55
Speaker
This one's from Undertablefan.
Referee Criticism and Defense
01:30:57
Speaker
Why is Geiger still paid to be a referee? How much money would you have to, would you have to be paid to take Mark Geiger's job to do his job? I think that that's probably why he is still paid to be a referee is because not a lot of people want to do it. You know, I will admit, I was pretty beside myself after the Orlando game when I saw
01:31:23
Speaker
what felt to me like definitive replays of Orlando's goal, which I think was clearly offside. But I got to admit, once it kind of got broken down with all the lines and everything else, it wasn't as clear as I thought it was. Yeah. And so and they don't have all those lines and whatever else.
01:31:49
Speaker
And so I guess, and I honestly, I don't put that on Geiger at all. No, because it's, it's the VAR's job. If he thinks it's offside, he's got to tell, like Geiger doesn't have the, like he's the, Geiger has nothing to do with that call. Right. I mean, there was plenty of other calls in that game. The boot to Jordy Delham's face being a particularly notable one, but that's one, the, the offside call is when I don't really, I don't hold that against Geiger.
01:32:17
Speaker
Yeah. And don't get me wrong, like Mark Geiger sucks, right? I wish that he wasn't so paid to be a referee, but, um, it's just, it's not a job a lot of people want to do. And, uh, you know, especially cause it's, it's something that you have to do as like a second job. It's sometimes amazing that anyone wants to be a referee, frankly. Yeah, for sure. So it's, it's stuck with thank yous jobs.
01:32:41
Speaker
Right, I mean if MLS or pro I guess in this case, starts paying referees a lot more, I think that they would probably get a better quality referee eventually. I think it would take some time, you know, because I think that they've got to be trained and blah blah blah but they're just, I mean, what you want.
01:32:59
Speaker
Radford to be a center of an MLS, you know, so I don't think so. So I also think that we have to, like every fan of every team in the world is convinced that their league has. Right. Or we're a freeze.
01:33:12
Speaker
Yeah, and there are definitely referees in the championship that are much worse than Mark Geiger. I mean, the refereeing in the championship, I think, might be worse than it is in MLS. The refereeing in MLS used to be almost criminally bad, and it's just ordinary bad now, the kind of bad that the refereeing everywhere is. But I do hope Mark Geiger retires soon, so I don't have to look out of him anymore. That would be good.
01:33:37
Speaker
Next one, and I'm really glad that this question landed on you because I think it's just perfectly made for you to answer.
Best Tacos for Game Day
01:33:44
Speaker
It's from Bill Jones Trumpets TRPT. What type of taco is optimal to eat during a San Jose game? Oh, wow. That's a good one. You know, I have to say, I have a lot of thoughts on tacos lately. And what we've been eating at home
01:34:04
Speaker
I'm not necessarily proud of this, but I have come to really appreciate what I'll call the American style taco or what you might call mom's taco or what kids might call dragon tacos because they are the tacos in the wonderful kids book, Dragons Love Tacos. But what I'm talking about, of course, is the hard shell taco with ground beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, maybe some tomato, maybe a little salsa if you're getting really crazy.
01:34:33
Speaker
And I feel like that somehow works really well for a game against the Earthquakes. I don't know why. I think because the Earthquakes are the most American soccer team possible. Maybe. Let's go with that. But I'm going to give a shout out to the old mom's taco.
01:34:55
Speaker
I like those tacos, man. As long as nobody is trying to pass them off as being authentic, I feel this way about a lot of Americanized food. I'll eat pineapple and pizza. I don't give a shit. It tastes good. Who cares? It's not authentic. I'm not going to say that. Don't get me wrong. A good carne asada or a good El Pastor taco kills that taco. But in terms of its accessibility and its satisfaction,
01:35:27
Speaker
Like the range of like good, like there's not that big of a range of those style taco. They're always going to be pretty good. And for me, like, so if I want a taco like that.
01:35:39
Speaker
going to, you know, go into a talk area and getting very traditional tacos is not going to scratch the itch and vice versa. Right. Like, um, so yeah, I mean, I had, uh, I had very authentic tacos last night and they were great. Uh, but if I've been craving, you know, like hockey tacos, they wouldn't have, they wouldn't have done it for me. So I think that's okay.
01:36:04
Speaker
All right, so this is what we're gonna end on, I guess. Actually, you know what? This is the one we're gonna end on, because I feel like you're really good.
01:36:14
Speaker
for this question. Okay, this is from not Rossi. He says, What's the appropriate playoff rain gear, poncho green jacket, or jersey and embrace
Playoff Game Rain Gear
01:36:24
Speaker
the rain? Why doesn't MLS release some nice green Columbia rain gear? That's a good that's a really good ending. Yeah, question. Yeah, they've got like that, that brand. I don't remember what it's called. But it's
01:36:36
Speaker
it like sounds and looks like something you'd buy at Walmart, but it all costs like $120 and looks like shit. And they've got I don't remember what the brand is. So hopefully they weren't like thinking about sponsoring the show. But yeah, it looks very bad. I don't get it. And yeah, I
01:36:57
Speaker
So it would be nice to have a competent outerwear maker making rain gear. I had a sounder's Adidas sounder's jacket once that I thought would work as a raincoat. And then I went to the first Timbers game up here. First in MLS, not the first this year, but the 2011 game did not work very well as a raincoat. So I normally just wear a raincoat.
01:37:24
Speaker
over whatever team gear I'm wearing. I'm at the game, and I'm cheering for the Sounders. So I think it's probably a pretty apparent that I'm a Sounders fan, even though I'm not wearing visible gear. Yeah, I feel like the most important thing is to wear a viable raincoat. It's OK. No one's going to judge you. Right.
01:37:50
Speaker
be comfortable, although I will say that if you're gonna wear a shirt and you're not gonna wear rain gear, wear the jersey, not a bad shout. I mean, at least that's made to be wet.
01:38:02
Speaker
Great. Moisture wicking cools down pretty fast. I mean, it's like a wick moisture, but at least it's not going to get super heavy. Right, right. Well, it dries out quickly, too. So you can go in half time and get dry. Yeah, I mean, and I know they're huge, which I'm sure are all over the feeling field. Yeah. And I know there are people that genuinely do enjoy just getting drenched. Yeah.
01:38:25
Speaker
And if you're into that, man, do it, but I'm not one of those people. I'm miserable. You know, the sounder, I feel like the sounders oftentimes on the sidelines are wearing rain gear that, or at like training, they'll come out and rain gear.
01:38:41
Speaker
that is, I don't think available through the store and I don't understand why. Cause I feel like that would be a really easy win is to sell sounders like quality rain gear, like sounder branded rain gear. They definitely have stuff like the players and coach and stuff where stuff that you can't get at the store and it drives me crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. And even like the Anthem jacket that I like this year's Anthem jacket and I bought it, but it's not the same one the players wear. I don't care what they say. It's not, you can tell the difference.
01:39:11
Speaker
Adidas is lying to us. And also, I just want one fitted hat once. While we're bitching about this, I know. Yeah. Why can't I have a fitted hat? Just one. Doesn't even have to look that cool. I just hate, I hate snapbacks. I hear you. I hear you. All right. Well, I think that's, that's where we're going to call it. Uh, thanks to Matt Doyle for, for joining us. Uh, thanks of course to our sponsors.
01:39:40
Speaker
purple wines, and Queen Anne acupuncture. I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and Lickett. This is no sade, no, this is no sade at this. You'll never yet alone. Green, Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and canyons you flew. Canadian Northwest, through the ocean so blue. It's roll on, Columbia roll on.
01:40:09
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!