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There’s interesting precedent for what players want from MLS
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It was an interesting week surrounding the Sounders, giving Jeremiah and Niko plenty to talk about. First off, they give some updates on the players’ protest and some of the reasoning behind why they believe MLS should be giving them a bigger cut of the Club World Cup prize pool. They also discuss the Vancouver Whitecaps’ situation, which has put at least some doubt into whether or not Sunday’s game will happen.
Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.
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Transcript
Introduction and Will Bruin's Legacy
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here
Seattle Sounders' Recent Success
00:00:11
Speaker
we go. Come on.
00:00:11
Speaker
one Hey, O'Shaughnessy. Let's go. What save by Frye. The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winning.
00:00:23
Speaker
Here comes Ruiz Dias through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. And now they truly can start the celebrations. It's the Sounders MLS Cup.
00:00:35
Speaker
Nico Lodero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Seattle, Sounders, it's got built.
00:00:52
Speaker
This feels fucking awesome. This is a tiny dog. Nice work on your little yacht yat thing. And Portland can't say shit.
Commentary and Sponsorship
00:01:01
Speaker
know, what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use who you didn't?
00:01:06
Speaker
Ever since Southert Hart wrote a commentary that we didn't take over coming seriously. Go, not Seattle!
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Content Creation Challenges
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nosarrietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. It's Friday. We are here at Sounders Training with Nico. This is what we learned this week. Nico, how are you doing?
00:01:55
Speaker
I feel exhausted, man. We've been doing a lot of work. ah It's been almost emotionally draining. I feel like the Sounders have, and this is, I said this yesterday on soccer down here, where I'm You know, it's it's always great when there's things to write about and there's things to, you know, provide content on.
00:02:13
Speaker
But it is kind of a, you know, roller coaster of emotions. Like, he was really good because the Suns were on a great streak. Now there's some conflict and some controversy. goes back and forth. So, man, i'm um um I'm a little tired. but But you know what? It is a beautiful Friday. It's sunny. It is beautiful. I got some nice...
00:02:33
Speaker
energy, sparkling sparkly ice Speaking of sparkling ice, if they want to call us up and, you know, sponsor the show, we'll talk about sparks or talking rain, i should say. Yeah, what' we what are we talking about here? yeah i have no idea. But what we're trying to say is that I need an energy drink because it has been exhausting. It's been kind of an exhausting drink. Yeah, it's been a lot of stuff going on. I'm sure that our listeners enjoy the amount of content, but man, it's a lot.
00:02:59
Speaker
Well, let's start with the source of a lot of that content.
Player-League Negotiation Tensions
00:03:03
Speaker
You know, we, this was a story that I suppose, i guess what I've been saying all along is, man, I really hope the next story I write about this is, okay, there's a deal and we can move on.
00:03:14
Speaker
It's Friday. We are a week away from the start of the Club World Cup. And as of now, there is still no new offer from and MLS to the em MLS Players Union or Players Association about a better share of the Club World Cup prize pool.
00:03:32
Speaker
When the sound, and and this has kind of been a illustration of why the players I think are so frustrated, is on Sunday when they went public, they had already gone public, frankly. like this was and But they had gone public in the most public way, and they wore the shirts of protest, and then they had the post-game thing.
00:03:53
Speaker
Their frustration was mainly that MLS keeps telling them an offer is coming, an offer is coming. They've been doing this for weeks and no offer material like materializes. And it starts to feel like they're just running out the clock on this, the whole thing.
00:04:08
Speaker
And yet here we are Friday and you know as recently as Tuesday, I think I was told, oh yeah, they might get an offer tomorrow from people actually in the league and there's no offer.
00:04:21
Speaker
Everything that we've learned is that the players have had every attempt, they've made every attempt to talk to the league by sending letters, by doing this on the private side and to the comment that you just made.
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, they had to ah be as impactful as they could be and they did it in a way that some people might find unorthodox, some people might find like it's a distraction away from, you know, the the task at hand, which on Sunday was beating Minnesota.
00:04:55
Speaker
But The reality is that had they not done this, I don't know if we would be this far along in what has gone on, what we've heard. i mean, even Steph yesterday said, look, it feels like we did the job, like that we we wanted to get her get our voice heard and we feel like it happened. It's And you know we have done our job at amplifying that.
00:05:20
Speaker
And I will say that to the degree that they wanted this, because I don't know the story had gained that much traction before Sunday.
Adrian Hanauer's Role in Locker Room Issues
00:05:27
Speaker
It's now everywhere. Every major outlet is talking about it. And every and I and want to give you ah your fair share of the credit. You and I both reported out this story about Adrian Hanauer lighting up the the locker room.
00:05:40
Speaker
And that really seems to be the hook, frankly, it is that has set this sort of story, given this a big boost where it went from being like, oh I guess the players are upset to like, oh no, here's a news here's like a juicy news hook that can drive the this news cycle. And in in reality, I mean, we both, you and I understand that this is not a necessarily straightforward, directly a club player situation. It's a league player. it's real And I think that's one thing that's become very clear is that it's not as simple as one owner saying, I want to give more money to these to my players. It's the whole league, whether or not legally it has to be that way, that's the way that it's going to work. Right. The whole league needs to make an agreement with the whole players association.
00:06:27
Speaker
And that's just the mechanics of how this thing
Complexity of League Negotiations
00:06:30
Speaker
is going to work. And it's become very clear that the league is negotiating. The players union is negotiating. Could the two sides on the could the Sounders players and the and and Adrian have maybe had some, you know, detente in between?
00:06:44
Speaker
Sure. But that wasn't going to make a deal happen. Right. It has to happen at the league and players association level. Absolutely. and And because of that, again, I am ah with the players and I don't know about the design of the shirt and and you know everything that how it came out, but the job got done. And that is something that you have to credit the players for.
00:07:07
Speaker
And then when it comes to the Adrian and players relationship, he was collateral damage in a way of that and that mission in terms of what he felt because... but was not targeted. It was not targeted for him. No, absolutely not. The Sounders have been very clear that they weren't trying to call out Adrian. Nope. Even if Adrian felt...
00:07:29
Speaker
called out or embarrassed or whatever. but um And that's why I call it collateral damage. And I was on Q13 yesterday and I said, look, what I want to make sure is to clarify that this is out of character for Adrian. And Adrian is is a nice guy. Both you and I have known him for years. many years and I believe that this was an impulsive bad decision because just because he this is out of character doesn't mean that it's okay but that impulsiveness does come from a guy that has put a lot into this club that cares a lot that's here
Responsible Journalism in Reporting
00:08:02
Speaker
I believe in most practices that most owners in this league I guarantee he watches more training sessions than any other owner in the league
00:08:09
Speaker
Exactly. So because of that, all that emotion, and I said this, it's a human emotion to feel that way. And he just allowed that to impulse him into making a really bad decision. So I appreciate you for being courageous enough to put that out there. And the reporting, we both knew that we had to do our due diligence. and And you'll notice no one has questioned the reporting. No.
00:08:34
Speaker
Not even... Not even like coyly. Everyone sort of acknowledged that the reporting is accurate. Basically like every other story that you and I have reported together. i mean that's the and that's the, like whether or not people want that news out there, the truth is that when you and I report stuff, it's You almost always like ironclad, like we might not have every detail, but the broad strokes of it absolutely are are solid. and And in this case in particular, no one has questioned even any anything. any i mean, we were I think we were appropriately vague about what actually happened. yeah But in any case, one of the other interesting things that's come up this week, and I've spent a fair amount of time talking to both people at the league level and at the Players Association level, is there is an element of this story that has not really been reported i don't think anywhere else and i actually have finally received what i would call like very firm confirmation that this is true we have also i have also
League Bonus Structure Changes?
00:09:34
Speaker
confirmed it with other sources that this is accurate but one of the reasons that the players felt so strongly about their ability
00:09:43
Speaker
to make these kinds of demands or expectations that the league would even hear them out. Because I've heard plenty of people say like, look, you have a CBA. What do you want? Like it's on paper. it's This is the deal. Well, part of the problem, part of the issue is that there is a very recent example of the league doing exactly that. And if you remember back in 2023, CONCACAF expanded the Club World or the ah the Champions Cup.
00:10:12
Speaker
And in with that, they also put a big boost of prize money. All of a sudden, the winning team could get $5 million. dollars I think before that, it was like a million dollars or something like that. So was a huge prize pool difference. Well, at the same time, the league came to the players union and said, look, we want to we want to incentivize you to win this thing.
00:10:32
Speaker
and so what they did is they basically drew up a new deal where previously mls player when the sounders won champions league back in 2022 i think they got like 400 or 500 000 the players did and that's spelled out in the cba well uh after they expanded the prize pool the league i don't know who came to who but the they came to an agreement ah essentially a side agreement that lays out a very different payment calendar and so the whitecaps were able to get about $850,000 in bonuses just from getting to the finals. If they had won the finals, they would have gotten ah like about 2.5, almost 2.5 million, which I don't have to tell you is a lot more than 1 million for playing in the the Club World Cup. So there's, Point being, there's precedence for this kind of change, and there's every reason that the players should expect some movement on this deal. And frankly, the league understands very acutely that one way to motivate the players to do well in this tournament is to give them a cut of the performance bonuses. So I don't really understand what they're dragging their feet over.
Comparative Analysis of Bonus Strategies
00:11:41
Speaker
That's... really the situation that I find hard to understand is this is ah currently a lose-lose for the league because in the court of public opinion, they look like shit. They look they're being cheap reason. They look like they're being cheap for no reason. it really taints the...
00:12:01
Speaker
Excitement. Excitement of... We should be all... All week, what have we been talking about all week? We've been talking about this issue. It's compensation. There is a huge game against the Whitecaps coming up. We barely talked about that. There is a massive tournament a week from that. We have barely scratched the surface talking about that. And it's because of this compensation Absolutely.
00:12:21
Speaker
And it's something that is only gonna get worse according to what I've been hearing because LAFC apparently is full on board on if there are no changes, there's gonna be some repercussions on their end. And Miami is the only one that's the dumb one that hasn't fallen completely. But regardless of, it is clear that if what you're telling me is true, which I do not doubt,
00:12:48
Speaker
then the league is basically kicking the can on the road when the result's gonna be the same, and in the meantime, they're damaging their own brand. Right, I mean, it my only, I can only imagine that what they're doing is they're trying to wait as long as they can so they can make as low of an offer as they possibly can, and the players are kinda like, whatever. And my suspicion is that gonna be in the 25 to 35% range,
00:13:15
Speaker
which i don't know I don't know if that's – it's not really for me to say if that's enough or not. The players will have to sort of decide that. But potentially that's a lot of money. Let's just say it's 25% of potential future earnings. If they if anyone gets out of the clo out of the group stage, that's another $2.5 million dollars that would be coming into the pockets of the players, which um you know which is two and a half times what they're already getting. So that's a pretty big boost. I mean that's that's the thing is there's ah there is a fair amount of money from a player perspective –
00:13:46
Speaker
I just don't know. i don't think I understand from a owner perspective. This is not an outrageous amount of money. No, it's not. These are way within the realms of losses that most teams are incurring over the course of a year anyway. So what are we...
00:14:03
Speaker
what are we fighting over exactly? i don't It's just very baffling. It is, especially because you do want your players motivated for this sort of situation. now i was just talking to somebody that works within League IMX, and he was telling me, look, here, when it comes to the players' contracts, a lot of it is bonuses based on how you do in La Liguita, right? And how you do based on the the playoff structure and how many games you win. so you know that that's going to help the product on the field. So the fact that they're basically saying, look, you're going get a million dollars, whether it you do good or bad, just seems counterproductive. That's like I told you yesterday, so's me bringing somebody in to do my bathroom and saying, look, man, here's a check for $2,000.
00:14:46
Speaker
I don't care what it looks like. Just give it back to me with something in it and you'll get this money. It just makes no sense. but So here's, okay, I think you mentioned League Mekis, and I think that maybe this is a clue as to what might be happening, is my understanding of the way that the CONCACAF Champions Cup bonus came about was Liga Ameckis basically made the same deal with their players, and MLS didn't want to be in a situation where there was more money on the line for the Liga Ameckis players than there was for the and MLS players. And so that's basically, they I think they basically matched the offer that Liga Ameckis. So as of right now, I don't think Liga Ameckis has guaranteed anything to their players. That is accurate. occurre But...
00:15:31
Speaker
I suspect that that might change and MLS might be waiting to see what that change is because they don't want to be in a situation where it's drastically different. I'm sure the worst case scenario for the league is they're paying MLS players more than what League of Mekis is getting. Right. But I think they also want to be careful not to be in a situation where they are all of a sudden feeling like they need to match League of Mekis. Because that is one of the things that's in the CBA.
00:16:00
Speaker
indirectly is an expectation that for these tournaments where they're competing in the same tournament that they're basically matched up and it's actually spelled out literally that way in leaks the league's cup bonuses it says it spells out one payment structure unless league ameckis is getting more and then they're they have to match that so that i suppose For better for worse, that might be what they're doing. But also, wouldn't it make sense for MLS to just say that? there's Yeah, absolutely. Like, why were they hiding the ball on this? That's what's so weird. And it all goes back to how we started this this show. And it is that this should have been the conversations a month ago. Months ago. at the very least. And we would be a lot further along, right? If MLS came to the players and just said, look, we understand that we're goingnna have to change this, but we need to figure... We we want to make it equitable with Liga and Mequis because that's the way we've set this up.
00:16:53
Speaker
We need to wait on what they're doing. And then we would be we would be in a different place right now. And we would at least have, everyone would be on the same page of like, why are we doing this? But instead we're here guessing and speculating and it's probably counterproductive.
00:17:09
Speaker
Anything else on the, go ahead. I don't know, what we're getting ready to finish. So what I would say, and the way I would like to conclude this portion of of the the segment is,
00:17:22
Speaker
These players have every right to at least want to have the conversation. Because I've heard yeah a lot of people with the tenor trotter, you know, thought process that these players should be just like, you know, fair ponies.
00:17:39
Speaker
And they should just be able to just dance for me, for me to be entertained. And they should just be happy that they get to play sports for money. And that to me is irrational. And I think that you're a bad person if you think that way.
00:17:53
Speaker
And maybe you're just ignorant. And I don't mean ignorant at something like- It's debate as old as time, but it never goes away. Yeah, I mean, it's just something that they have every right to, you know, bring up. And if you have any doubts, the reason why this team got here was because of the effort they put in in 2022 to win that CONCACAF Champions League. And they are still the only team that qualified by winning Champions Cup from MLS. Yeah.
00:18:18
Speaker
JP still has a piece of his ACL in Lumenfield that he left in the field for this team to get there. right Obert Vargas was like a kid working his body like a grown man trying to get there.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yemba Gomez-Andrade played with more pains and aches than Steve McNair in that entire tournament. Yeah. Christian Roldan played every position. He was the sea slitter in that one. i mean...
00:18:44
Speaker
Stephen Fry, you know, he was everywhere putting his body on the line. So these players earned that spot. And and just I want to bring that context and, you know, call me, you know, apologetic or whatever. Whatever it is that you have that comment, I just want to bring the context to contrast anything that people think in regards to how easy it is or how good these players have it. And that they should just shut up and play like Stephen Fry said yesterday.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's it's been kind of annoying. And is there anything else on the actual Club World Cup that we want to get into? Because otherwise we can probably put a pin in this conversation, move into some of the other stuff around the team. But anything else that you wanted to talk about Club World Cup? No, no, I do not.
Club World Cup Preparations
00:19:27
Speaker
You know, the training facilities were announced. They did announce the training facilities, and River Plate is going to be training here along with the Sounders. Correct. The teams that are training in the area, interestingly enough, are not the teams that are in the Sounders group, but they're in the group that will be playing
00:19:47
Speaker
some more games here. So Inter Milan is going to be training at VMAC, the Seahawks right Training Center, or they're going split there with training in LA. And then IRWA Red Diamonds are wegan training at the University of Portland.
00:20:01
Speaker
they And so each River, Inter, and IRWA all are going to play two games here each. Obviously not against the Sounders, but that's an interesting little, I would imagine people are going to be pretty excited about River. i don't know if they're going to be actually able come out here or not. Yeah, yeah, that's been a problem for sure.
00:20:19
Speaker
But you know it is interesting, just in case you know people had not read the story that's on Sandra Hart, I did wanna go ahead and mention that it is news because there was a big sense, and as someone that's been you know talking directly to a lot of media and in Argentina, they had been told or there was a a speculation that they'd be turning a star fire. And so that obviously is obviously not the case here, so...
00:20:45
Speaker
for what it's worth, I thought that that was interesting this week. Yeah. all right, well, we're going to take a little bit of a break.
Podcast Promotions and Sponsorships
00:20:51
Speaker
We're gonna talk about some of the developments in, i don't know, we'll call it Poopgate. I like that, that's gotta be a hashtag. Yeah, exactly. As well as sort of some updates around the Sounders. You're listening to Nosarietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network.
00:21:08
Speaker
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00:21:21
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Ticket Pricing and Fan Experience
00:23:03
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. We are doing what we learned this week with Nico. We're here at's at Longacres. One more thing I forgot to mention about the Club World Cup before we move on to the Sounder stuff is we've seen more movement in terms of the ticketing. Not only was there another price reduction, not for every game, but for the Botafogo game and then for, I think, at least the Irwa River game that's here. Prices are getting to be the point of like,
00:23:33
Speaker
i want I don't know, I'm gonna say cheap, but I mean you can get into the the River Urwa game right now for $25, which is, you know, pretty cheap. ah And you can get good seats for like 50, 60 bucks.
00:23:45
Speaker
The Botafogo game is a little bit more expensive. I think the get-in price is closer to 40, but you can get good seats for 70, 80 bucks. But what's more interesting is that this week the tickets were finally released. So people finally had them in their Ticketmaster wallets or whatever. And one of the things that happened was that if you bought tickets in the Westside apparently you've been moved into the East Side 100 and 200 sections. So theoretically they are better seats, but a lot of people bought seats with friends or with like associates, or they liked the seats that they, i mean, some of those seats the 300s are perfectly fine. And so they've been moved without any notification
00:24:31
Speaker
or without any notice or they certainly weren't asked if it was okay and i guess the idea is they just want to make it look as full as possible on tv and then i guess there's some element also of uh this is sort of like a make good gesture for for prices that for people that paid really expensive prices and so i'm guessing they're getting comparably priced seats at a lower section Now, one of the other things that's interesting is that if you bought tickets through the club fan program that FIFA was actually running, you apparently got you actually got a partial refund. Oh, nice. So that that is actually pretty cool.
00:25:07
Speaker
um But the the thing about them moving people without telling them is pretty pretty sketchy. Like, I'm sure some people were thrilled, but I know I've heard from a few people that were like, no, I wanted those seats. They were like ah aisle seats. or They were relatively low on the three hundreds and now I'm in the back section of the...
00:25:24
Speaker
100s or whatever. I'd hope that they would at least keep you know people in a row because I know that for me, sometimes i'll like hey man, I'm going to buy these three with the family. ah You get your family right next to me.
00:25:34
Speaker
And if you're not keeping that in mind and you're just moving people around, it sucks to watch it with your... Friends all the way up. I suppose people can just go back up to the Yeah, just go sit up there. Hey, man, I'm going to go there, all right?
00:25:47
Speaker
That's what I bought. I mean, it just kind of speaks to kind of the way this tournament is being. I just think FIFA really, really overestimated what the demand was, especially for, like, the non-marquee teams. I mean, there's there's some of these games that are between, like, a South African team and, ah and you know,
00:26:07
Speaker
a random European team that have like almost no ticket sale. It's just, some of these games are not attractive to the casual fan. Most of these games. course not. I mean, frankly, most of these games are just not that attractive to the casual fan. i No. And I don't know how much traveling support is actually going to be coming through.
00:26:24
Speaker
It'll be, I mean, because River is, I would presumably, a team that usually gets pretty good traveling support. I don't i don't haven't really heard anything one or the or the other. um i guess my understanding is basically or or ah Boca Juniors, Real Madrid, and to a lesser degree the Sounders are like really the only tickets that are selling very well. yep Yeah, and that was surprising to me because I've heard the same about um tickets at Hard Rock. where you know Yeah, like even may like that season, the opening game is not selling very well. which is crazy because sometimes Messi just gets house full just for a regular game, but ah whether it's the way, like we've been mentioning consistently, the way that it was marketed, the way that it's been moving, it's just not selling well. Yeah, the the way it's been marketed has been very off to me because it's just like they just, I think FIFA just assumed if we call it the Club World Cup, everyone will know that it is. And it's like, what do you mean no one knows what it is because it hasn't really existed before? and Nope. and it had it And to the degree it did exist, it was not this big tournament. It was...
00:27:22
Speaker
ah very much sideshow, ah essentially an exhibition. it was. And so no one comes in. It's never been in the United States before, so I only know that how much awareness people had of it. So, I mean, I guess you live and learn, but it's kind of a shame that, you know, because we really should be talking about full stadiums and all this kind stuff, and I don't know if we're going to have any full stadiums.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's unfortunate. If they're bringing people down from the 300s to the 200s, that's not a good sign, man. Not a good sign.
Health Issues Impacting Teams
00:27:49
Speaker
All right, well, we did have some news around the Sounders. ah The first big one is kind of this, like I said, I'm tongue-in-cheek calling it Poopgate. with the Whitecaps. But basically, they came back from Mexico, and like half of their plane had gastrointestinal issues.
00:28:07
Speaker
Now, it looks like that is something that happened after the game, so it may not have actually impacted their 5-0, was not to blame for their 5-0 loss to Cruz Azul, in which they took zero shots.
00:28:18
Speaker
Not a great showing. They were awful back in. Yeah. But they now have... you know They were already missing nine players for international duty. That took their, I believe I counted up, they only had that left them with 14 outfield players.
00:28:33
Speaker
And we don't know how it breaks down in terms of who's still sick, but I guess they were back out training today, still limited. they aren't quite They're not exactly brimming with confidence about their ability to play this game, but the Sounders, from what we understand, have not heard anything about the possibility of it being canceled. So as far as we know, it's the game's happening.
00:28:53
Speaker
And the game, i foresee that it will happen, even if there they have to bring up players in some sort of way or fashion.
Sounders' Tactical Preparations
00:29:02
Speaker
um And although it is unfortunate, I think Brian ah hit the nail on the head when talking about the subject because he said, look, that makes them dangerous because they're going to have an excuse of not just the fact that they were just playing a big tournament and the amount of absences, which to my understanding is seven starters that they're missing for the that particular game. because that was are you Those are the white cap split. For international games. For international games. They were missing seven, yeah, exactly. So I think it's nine overall, seven that are starters. And so that's pretty big. So they're kind of in a no-win situation where sometimes that's dangerous. Yeah, I mean, we the Sounders famously, you know, went to Austin in 2021 and used a lineup that was ah five teenagers and a bunch of other kind of reserves and and were all Ruiz.
00:29:51
Speaker
And they won that game. And I would imagine the Whitecaps are, this is going to be a game in Vancouver. So, you know, they have their home field advantage. It's a hard game to prepare for. And that was sort of the message that Brian was,
00:30:03
Speaker
ah preaching today was we cannot take this for granted. These are still professional soccer players. We don't have tape really on these guys. We don't know their tendencies. They can come out and surprise us and we have to just be the better team. We can't get over prepared for this game and we sort of have to just, because the reality is the Sounders probably going to have the talent advantage at every spot on the field. Yep.
00:30:26
Speaker
And you know to that, it's the fact that the players have to be up for the game right away. If there's something that I thought was lackluster about the Minnesota game here at home, they just came in so flat. And the intensity wasn't there. The tempo wasn't there.
00:30:46
Speaker
At BC plays that... I have a friend that lives in Vancouver, and he's told me that the the rallies before the game have increased, obviously, because how good they've been. The atmosphere has been crazy. It can get pretty loud. can get pretty loud. I have to say, when that when BC Place gets rolling, it's a I really like BC Place as a venue.
00:31:08
Speaker
I know players hate it because the turf sucks, but <unk>s I think it's a fun venue to go watch a game. And the turf's another thing, you know, Brian Smith talked about Ryan Kent and having to get used to a lot of things.
00:31:19
Speaker
and that's maybe some of the slowing down that he's had in terms of his overall performances, maybe not as flashy, not as exciting as it once looked when he was coming off the bench. And one of those things is the turf. So it's still going to be a difficult game, to to be honest. But Seattle also had, you know, some...
00:31:37
Speaker
They have some question marks. They do, and we may as well get into those.
Jordan Morris' Injury Concerns
00:31:41
Speaker
So today, b Brian Schmenzer confirmed that Jordan Morris is out for this game. He had what he termed a setback. We noticed yesterday at training that he brought himself off. It looks like it's a re-aggravation of his hamstring injury.
00:31:54
Speaker
We don't know how serious it is. Brian seemed to not make it sound like super serious, but he said he was out for the Whitecaps game. And he basically said he's questionable for the entire Club World Cup because he's not. He's basically said we're not going to rush him back. We're going to make the decision that makes the most sense for the long term.
00:32:11
Speaker
And as much as Jordan might want to play and as much as we want to perform well in the Club World Cup, we aren't going to risk him playing in one of these games if it means that he might not be available for a longer period during the season.
00:32:24
Speaker
That's a blow to the Sounders. It's blow. It's a blow. I mean, I think everybody was excited to just see him back. You and I, what we learned this week is that he looked good. I mean, early this week, he looked good. Yesterday, before that setback, he looked good. He was ah physically ah ready. He seemed like he was just aching at the moment to just get back. And the way he came off and the body language and the frustration just...
00:32:59
Speaker
Told you enough, and that's why we asked about it today. And it is a blow because what you have with Jordan Morris, as much as people wanna overreact to a lot of things, he's still the best player.
00:33:14
Speaker
The highest upside number nine the Panthers have. 100%. Yeah, I would totally agree with that. they you know And the thing is, he's been good this year. I think people have forgotten. i mean, because he's missed so much time, I think we've forgotten that he's got three goals in like four games.
00:33:31
Speaker
he's been He's been good this year. So it's not like he's you know it's not like he's been passed by for any reason other than he's just not been healthy. Yeah, I feel like people are just all about short memory. Like, yeah what have you done for me lately? All the time. Ryan Kent should be DP. and Now should be cut him. No, now just let him go. And then Musovsky, just ship him.
00:33:49
Speaker
yeah anywhere, I don't care where it is. he He could barely cut it in USL, I heard, right from people. And now a sudden, he's the guy. So don't know. So anyway, it looks like, but it does look like Jesus Ferreira is gonna get the start, at least from what we've seen and so
Player Selection Dilemmas?
00:34:03
Speaker
far. We haven't yeah seen the official starting lineup, but that, I would say based on everything we saw, that looks like it's gonna happen. I can imagine that doesn't sit real great with Danny Masovsky, who I think probably feels like he lost his spot due to not even like serious injury, just like missing a game and Ferreira coming in and doing okay. And i I think Brian is sort of trying to balance two things. One is...
00:34:27
Speaker
keeping Danny Masofsky's motivation and rewarding his performance, but also understanding that Jesus Ferreira probably offers you the longer-term upside. Absolutely. And if you can get him going as a number nine, that's probably more important than any short-term games you can get from Masofsky, who, let's be honest, his form is not, he has not just come back and continue to perform he's gotten you know he's gotten 90 minutes or so in the two games that he or since he since his last goal and i mean that's not a lot of time but he hasn't been super goal dangerous in those games uh i still like i still think you know i i think i might feel a little bit better about him in the short term but i also understand the reasoning why ferrero might be getting the start
00:35:09
Speaker
No, and I mean, if you've listened to what you've learned this week all season, that's something that we've been saying is that overall the potential there between him and Musovsky, you're going to have to give it to Ferrer. Now, as much as we do like the productivity and stuff, I feel like Brian, he gave some context in terms of two things. One, he said, ive you know, I've had to have some tough conversations about playing and not playing.
00:35:32
Speaker
I'm guessing one of those players he referred to was Danny Musovsky. And he also said that he called it plateaued. yeah He kind of just plateaued it in terms of his form.
00:35:43
Speaker
And, you know, that's just the way of that position. Unfortunately, we've seen the good and bad when he comes to that. So overall, to the injuries, it's it's a blow because now you are...
Challenges for the Sounders in Club World Cup
00:35:58
Speaker
I think what's so frustrating is that they were already obviously at a disadvantage going into the Club World Cup, but you take away Morris, you take away we don't know if Yamar or Kim gonna be available, but let's assume they're not available, at least for the Botafogo game.
00:36:12
Speaker
they're you know This is already a team who is playing at a talent deficit, and now they're missing three potential starters, probably their best defender and maybe their best offensive player. That sucks.
00:36:23
Speaker
This is what I've heard on background. and As somebody that I do take my time when I'm walking through the field sometimes, you know, you get to talk to players and stuff. Kim, ah first of all, nicest guy, you know, Kim's up to me.
00:36:36
Speaker
He's in this guy so so much better. He feels really positive. Oh, that's good. In terms of like his demeanor. Yeah. But then the workout that he went out and did tells me that he's not going to be ready. I mean, he don think he barely touched the ball. He barely touched the ball. Now, on the other end, Gamer Gomez and Gerard has kind of amplified his workout.
00:36:58
Speaker
I feel like it's probably driven by Yamar because he's such a guy that... You read between the lines of what Brian was saying in the post-practice today, post-training today. It sounds like Yamar is pushing hard yeah to play.
00:37:12
Speaker
Like he really wants to get on the field. And I think... He's got to tame it. And Brian is basically saying, look... I appreciate that you want to play, but if you're not fit, you're not fit. 100%. And look, that is honestly tough conversation to have yeah because you do got to protect the player from himself. We've talked about this before. You got to protect the player from himself.
00:37:35
Speaker
And the player is always going to be upset about it because he feels like he's ready. He wants to be out there. I know my body better. know my body better. But the science is the science. And again, nobody wants to miss out a game against PSU. When in the world are you going to be able to say that again to your kids? This is the biggest stage that most of these players will ever be on. And I can't.
00:37:57
Speaker
blame any of them for saying, let me get out there. It's my, I'm my own boss. If I get hurt again, that's on me. But the thing is, it's not. No, it's it's not. That's the coach's job is to be, to be the Jiminy Cricket and say, you can't do that. Absolutely. I can't put you out there in good consciousness. And as much as Jemar's, I think, physical attributes have ah played well in his benefit when it comes to the situation, because he's been able to come back from injuries more rapidly than most, you still want to make sure that...
00:38:37
Speaker
you You have to take up into consideration that maybe this time it's not just him feeling his body right, but his mind telling him that he's right when he's really not. So, yeah, I think, I guess what we're saying is we won't know for certain whether or not they're fit until they're on the
Injury Management Decisions
00:38:53
Speaker
field. like and and we kind of have And I hate the you know the appeal to authority argument, but when it comes to an injury, I kind of feel like you kind of just got to trust the coaches and the physios. And if they say a guy's not ready, you don't play them. And if they say they're ready, you hope that they are.
00:39:12
Speaker
and And just to add on, and I just realized how funny this was coming off of my mind, that when he comes to the standing back position, when he rains and pours, I was kind of excited when I heard Brian said that Stu Hawkins was back. And then in the next and then and next sentence, he's like, yeah, he had a quad thing that he's feeling.
00:39:31
Speaker
So for everybody, another thing that we learned is that apparently Stu Hawkins has a quad injury now. And he said he was questionable. He said he might be able to play for Whitecaps. So doesn't sound like it's super. Super serious. But he, yeah, he came back injured.
00:39:47
Speaker
He came back with an injury from national team camp. So it'll be Jackson and Bell.
Defensive Lineup and Potential Players
00:39:51
Speaker
And and he said that Jackson, he's hoping that he goes 90 on the bench. I don't really know what else they're going to have, to be honest, because he didn't say we're bringing up Leo. He said we thought about it.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah, although the thing with Leo, not that this is important at this point. Oh, you mentioned he, yeah. so the My understanding with the Leo thing is that it's not as simple as being able to bring him up because he is the he's a he's in the interesting part of the roster where he's on a full season loan to Tacoma Defiance. And my understanding is that the only way that he can be called up is for a hardship or an extreme hardship call up, which is not based on positional depth. It's based on the whole roster. Overall. So they would have to be down to like 15 healthy players, which I don't think, i don't I haven't done the math, but I don't think they're close to being at 15 players.
00:40:38
Speaker
He did mention that Cody Baker could get some time. He mentioned, he has previously mentioned that Nuhu can play center back. yeah ah But it's going to be thin at center back. Now, compared to the Whitecaps, that's not much of an excuse. You complain. And one of the other, I do wonder what his conversations are like with Kalani Kosarienzi, who had another really outstanding game against Minnesota.
Kalani Kosarienzi's Potential
00:41:01
Speaker
yeah it wasn't just the goal. He was...
00:41:04
Speaker
Just probably the Sounders' most dynamic player consistently in the game. And he is consistently doing that stuff. i mean, you look at his rate stats, which is like his per 90, how he's performing on a per 90 basis.
00:41:17
Speaker
He's like one of the best fullbacks in the league right now. Now, I'm sure that would equal out over a longer period of time. But he looks like a really dynamic player who I think the Sounders need to be finding ways to get on the field. And I think they played him at center mid at the end of that game, if I'm not mistaken. I believe you're right. they brought in Reed on the left side, and it was Alex still on the right. on the right And it it was Manungu higher up the field, and he pushed inside. So he's a guy that's just such a spark plug and such a physical guy. And not just that, but I feel like technically he's – done very well. And this is on the heels of him being a very good defensive player against San Diego to help close out that game. but
00:42:01
Speaker
So it's interesting. He's going to be a guy that, you know, it's I think he's going to get a lot more play time. You're hoping that, you know, we we don't put jp in the freezer though i i've had been a very adamant about making sure that he is in rhythm uh and i feel like he helps a lot of distribution from from the back end and um yeah i think you're just gonna have to rotate it but in this particular one you probably put your best team out there and that includes obviously obit and and k christian uh but do the sounders
00:42:37
Speaker
Are they expected to
Sounders' Must-Win Game Preview
00:42:39
Speaker
win? do they Do they have the need that this has got to be three points in your opinion? Absolutely. I think you go into this game and anything less than three points is going to be hard to swallow. And I think that you can sort of use that as a buffer of, okay, we thought we should. Because I think the Minnesota game felt like a game they should win. You can understand if they didn't.
00:42:58
Speaker
But the... you can really even that out if you can get this Whitecaps win because I think on paper, the Whitecaps game was always gonna be tougher. Although, I mean, I guess we always knew they were gonna be short-handed, but this is,
00:43:10
Speaker
it see these are three points they need to get. Right. I would absolutely agree. And I don't say that a lot, but when I do, I really mean it. Yeah, especially for road games. I think this road game is a must-win. It's a big one.
00:43:24
Speaker
it It kind of puts you in a different state of mind, moving into a small break and then into the Club World Cup. You just need to have this game. Everything is on your side to win it. I think that this has to be another big Jesus Ferreira game.
00:43:41
Speaker
I've put that on him before and he did okay against Dallas. But in this one for me, that's another big game for Jesus to contribute, to be dangerous, to be a lot more aggressive towards goal.
00:43:56
Speaker
Ryan Kent's another guy that I feel like he's looking for a get right game. And this is a good opportunity for him. I would agree with all that. Normally we would go through the Whitecaps roster and say, what are the players that you're watching?
Whitecaps' Strategies and Challenges
00:44:10
Speaker
I'm not gonna do that because i don't know who's gonna be available. No, just to make sure that you know that I did do my homework. they I definitely went back and I asked Brian about this. I was looking for a moment in time where they rotated heavily, but even when they did, it was against Minnesota yeah and it was an awful first half. There was a lot of young players in the midfield specifically and it wasn't until Berhalter came in, Vite came in, that they actually won the game at the end. So all in all... No, they tied that game
00:44:44
Speaker
No, no, they won that game 3-1 against Minnesota. This is way back. This is like before... Oh, earlier in the season. Earlier in the season. You're not talking about... I thought you were talking about the game against them right before the Champions Cup Finals. No, this is the only game that I could find going back 10 games in which you didn't have Kubas, you didn't have Vite, and you didn't have White. Those were the three players that I was looking for.
00:45:07
Speaker
Jalen Nelson was still part of that squad, which he's not going to be available for this one. yeah But I just thought that if I'm going to go as far as I can, I'm going to try to find that out. And that was a specific game. The team looked...
00:45:19
Speaker
bleak okay without those players. So Seattle, quite honestly, it's all on them. I think I could see them pressuring pretty high. I could see them wanting to be the protagonist right off the bat. I think that's the right idea.
00:45:31
Speaker
And it's all about execution. It's all about making plays. It's all about making sure that the runs are being made into the box and knowing that You are the better team out there, and you've got to prove it
Sounders' Strategic Focus
00:45:43
Speaker
on the team. I would say that's the thing. They really have to come into that mindset of we are the better team. We need to boss this game.
00:45:50
Speaker
We need to control the tempo. We need to control the possession, and we need to create scoring chances, most importantly, because that is the thing that the Sounders have. you know they They did against Minnesota a little bit. They they dominated possession.
00:46:04
Speaker
they dictated sort of the terms of the game. But when it came to actually creating chances, they really struggled to do that until Minnesota scored first. And then at that point, it was you know kind of a different game. But yeah, and then in terms of just Overall players, I mean, I think Daniel Rios is someone that has been very productive. He's a heavy contributor for the team. ah He could play out wide. He could play the nine.
00:46:32
Speaker
um i thought Preso had a pretty good game there against Minnesota. um And as far as I know, Blackman is going to be there as well. Oh, really? Because I don't. He's not gonna get called up anymore. So he's gonna be one guy that he's gonna be important for Vancouver in terms of what they do defensively. Takaoka is also another guy that I feel like he's a go goalkeeper. He helps in distribution. He's one of the guys that gets them going quick from point A to point C in terms of just let's get the ball forward. So Seattle will have to look into some of the things that they've struggled at times with the LAFC when they play Lloris. Well, whenever there's a corner kick or there's a set piece and the goalkeeper has it, you have to be ready for that ball to come behind you. With the center back depth stuff and how they're going to play it out, I think that's something where Vancouver is going to try to attack is how quickly can we turn them around, how quickly can we get in transition, and that's something and they might do with this younger team that you'll see yeah on Sunday. Yeah. Well, that's probably a good place to wrap this up. Nico, thank you again for doing this. we can
00:47:39
Speaker
Of course, you can follow Nico on Blue Sky ElRolo PNW. PNW. ElRolo NW. ElRolo NW. Blue it. Yeah, no, we'll get it. Pool So Sports on on ah YouTube, which we're going to be probably working together a little bit more on that. So that's kind of a fun thing to be watching. Of course, soccer down here. You're on Lobbing Scorchers.
00:48:03
Speaker
Thank you again for doing this, Nico. Oh, man. Happy to be here. It's lot of information today, so I'm hoping the audience really enjoys it. This is an info-packed episode. It was, it was, man. And, you know, keep the commentary going. I like to see it.
00:48:17
Speaker
I've seen it go down a little bit. So we like to hear the comments, good or bad. You know, let me know. Hit me up. You guys got questions. You guys want us to integrate things into the show. Man, I'm all ears, man. So I appreciate all your support. Thank you, Jeremiah, for always being here, promptly getting stuff ready. Sometimes we deal with some things, Mike's technical issues, and we make it happen.
00:48:38
Speaker
So thank you, man. All right, well, I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Nos Adietes on the Sounder at Heart podcast network, and we will catch you next time.
00:49:11
Speaker
I expect the LAFC who is motivated ah to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really ruin the party.
00:49:28
Speaker
i feel a lot better than Bob.