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Episode 396: Cascadia shambles
65 Plays2 years ago
After a few weeks of disappointing results but some play that was at least decent at times, the bottom kinda fell out in Vancouver. The Sounders started slow and never really got on track in losing to the Whitecaps 2-0, their fourth straight loss against Cascadia Cup opponents.
This one was among the most depressing, not necessarily because of the scoreline but because of how bad the Sounders looked throughout. The fight that has at least always been there was nowhere to be found, there were sloppy passes throughout, a lack of creativity on offense and just some generally uninspiring play.
The guys try to diagnose the problem and see if they can't figure out a way this gets better.
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Transcript
Sponsorship and Opening
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:21
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. Here we go. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS co-pointers! Here comes Ray D'Ace from the middle to crowd it! The vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations.
00:01:04
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. This is a tiny f***ing doll.
Episode and Hosts Introduction
00:01:34
Speaker
Is that why you young people call twerking?
00:01:38
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our Substax subscribers. This is episode 395, actually 396, and we're recording on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah Shannon. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our producer, Lickit.
Sounders vs Vancouver: Performance Analysis
00:01:55
Speaker
After a few weeks of disappointing results, but some play that was at least decent at times, the bottom kind of fell out against Vancouver.
00:02:02
Speaker
The Sounders started slow and never really got on track, and they lost to the Whitecaps 2-0, their fourth straight loss against Cascadia opponents, and more frustratingly, their fourth loss in seven games overall.
00:02:16
Speaker
This one was among the most depressing, not necessarily because of the score line, but because of how bad the Sounders look throughout. The fight that has at least always been there was nowhere to be found. There were sloppy passes throughout, a lack of creativity on offense, and just some generally uninspiring play. I guess my question to you, Aaron, is where do we go from here? Yeah, it's a good question. I think you said it pretty well in that
00:02:42
Speaker
The score line isn't terrible on its face. That's, you know, Vancouver's played pretty well to know on the road. All right. Not great. But but I think it really flattered the Sounders in this game. I think this was I think their worst performance of the season. They've had losses that maybe felt worse or were more lopsided, although.
00:03:03
Speaker
Have they? Have they had a box on a bus? But no, they just they lost for one to that. This was worse than that game, I think, for sure. It was because it was the sounders for long stretches of time against Portland looked pretty good. We were talking about this before we started recording. The sounders just did not look good. They didn't look like like.
00:03:25
Speaker
Previously this year, they've had games where they looked like a good team that was struggling to do X, struggling to create or struggling to defend or whatever it was. And this game, they did not look like a good team at all. They don't look dangerous in any way. They looked completely disorganized defensively. Just in every phase of the game, they looked just poor. And it reminded me for the first time this year of the way they looked last season.
00:03:52
Speaker
where not only were the results bad, but you didn't see anything from the performances that made you think this is a team that can turn
Challenges Faced by the Sounders
00:04:01
Speaker
it around. Now I'm not saying that's the case with this team, but if they have more games like this, if this becomes a trend, then I think you really have to have that concern.
00:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, it made me think, frankly, a lot of the last time they were in Vancouver, which you may remember was a 2-1 loss. And it was coming, I believe, right on the heels of a 3-0 win over Austin, ironically enough, or coincidentally enough. And that felt like, OK, this is maybe that I remember that 3-0 win felt like maybe this is where the season turns around.
00:04:36
Speaker
And it just, it didn't, it did not at all. And there may have, there, I may be misremembering, there may have been another game between those two, but this was the, that was the, I remember the game in Vancouver last year, late in the season really felt like where
00:04:52
Speaker
Okay. Maybe this isn't going to happen. Like the turnaround that we've been sort of waiting on that is seemingly around the corner just isn't going to happen. And the only difference was that time they were able to grab a very late consolation goal, uh, that sort of made the score look a little bit better. But this one, there was.
00:05:09
Speaker
But maybe just as well, you know, a bear came had a pretty decent chance in the 95th minute that could have made the score a little bit better. But I don't know that that would have been a net positive. This is a game they deserve to lose by multiple goals. And maybe that's it was like a better message that way. I mentioned that a bear shot that was the sounders first shot in the second half.
00:05:33
Speaker
Uh, since the 65th minute, they went 30 minutes without shooting in the, in the second half, uh, while they were down to zero, it was just, there was nothing there. There was nothing to build on. Uh, I thought there were maybe a few decent performances, uh, at right at the beginning of the second half, Cody Baker and, uh, who, and Dylan Tevez came in for Leo Chu and new who, who.
00:05:59
Speaker
I think we're both probably not quite ready to start for one reason or another. They did not look particularly sharp, knew who at least had some effort there, but he just did not look like himself. There was a little bit of an uptick in terms of energy and quality right at the start of the second half, but it was short-lived.
00:06:23
Speaker
There wasn't anything there. This is a team that's too good, too talented to just look as poor as they did, I thought, against Vancouver. And I suppose there's something to be said about playing on short rest. And you can come up with excuses, I suppose, to explain away the performance. But at the end of the day, it just didn't look like
00:06:48
Speaker
I'm not someone who calls out heart and effort that often because I tend to think it's a crutch that people use just when they don't like a result, but this was one where I can't blame anyone for questioning that stuff.
00:07:03
Speaker
I think that there's plenty of evidence to suggest that the mentality of this team is not one that's going to allow them to consciously dog it. But like you said, if you don't want people to think that, you got to do a little better than this. There have been games this year where they've been trailing and they haven't managed to get a goal, but they were
00:07:29
Speaker
creating chances they awesome game the awesome game is a great example and i think we talked about that pretty extensively where they didn't score but they were creating lots of chances they didn't just you know resort to pumping balls into the box they were making things difficult till the very end for austin and in this game they just they looked it looked like they were winning 2-0
00:07:50
Speaker
Like if you didn't know who the teams were and you saw the way the two teams were playing and
Cascadia Cup Importance and Rivalry Games
00:07:56
Speaker
you knew it was 2-0, you would assume the Sounders were the ones that had the lead because there was just no urgency. And whatever the reason is, I mean, frankly, I just am not.
00:08:07
Speaker
super interested in finding out like it's it's not it's none of my business. I just don't want to see the Sounders play that way ever ever ever ever especially against the Cascadia rival. And that's I mean that's the thing whenever we have these games against Vancouver that
00:08:25
Speaker
The rivalry is not the same level or anywhere close to the same level as it is with Portland, but you still want to win the Cascadia Cup. You still want to meet your rivals and they're still, you know, ostensibly teams you're, you're competing against in the Western conference. And so to just to come out this flat and never ramp it up at all, I think it's just inexcusable. I don't care what kind of rest you're playing on, you know, it's not like they had to fly across the country for this game. No, no, not at all.
00:08:53
Speaker
Um, just, I think I'm sure that if I were to really, you know, dig deep into the, into the back of my head, I could find some more disappointing games, more disappointing performances in this team's history. But this, I think was the worst one in a while to me.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it was, it was very bad. It was at the very least the worst performance of the year. And I don't think it was particularly close. It was sort of the mirror image performance of the RSL game earlier this year where they dominated the game and they only won two zero, but that was sort of like a.
00:09:27
Speaker
you know, we knew that they had outplayed RSL by more larger margin than that. And this was just, yeah, it was just, it was just, it wasn't good. It wasn't, it wasn't, there was nothing really to build off of. And it's the kind of game that makes you think,
00:09:43
Speaker
there needs to be some real changes. I don't know necessarily what those are. I mean, the reality is the Saunders are still dealing with somewhat of a short roster in that they're missing some key components, some of whom are supposed to be coming back relatively soon. We can talk about that later.
Impact of Roldan's Absence on Performance
00:10:01
Speaker
But like one of those changes you would hope, or two of those changes you were hoping would be maybe the reintroduction of Nuhu and Laochu into the lineup.
00:10:10
Speaker
And I don't know, maybe a week, they get a whole week of training under their belt and maybe they look a lot better, but nothing about their performance on Saturday made me think, okay, they got to get back into the lineup. That'll fix everything. Yeah, I don't, I don't think so. Uh, I think that the answers are probably going to be out for at least a couple more weeks. Uh, the answers is I see them, the, the, the changes, the players that are going to change things enough that you really feel like,
00:10:39
Speaker
It's more of a seismic shift, right? I think Christian is the key to this. It's harder and harder for me to ignore that he goes out and this team just falls off a cliff. They were 5-1-1 when he was in the first seven games, all of which were games he started in. They have been 2-4-1 since then.
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, and it's we thought last season as well. They had kind of started to turn it around coming out of the CCL. He gets hurt and they never looked the same again. And I don't know. I love Christian. I think he's a great and very underrated player. I don't think that his talent
00:11:26
Speaker
alone is enough to explain that. Like, I don't think he is such a critical piece because this, I mean, the Sounders looked great early this year without rule for ideas. Right. So we know that they look great at times without Joe Paulo. They've looked. Yeah, they've. Yeah, I agree.
00:11:41
Speaker
but so i don't know if it's something specific that he does in that role i don't know if it is a leadership thing i don't know what it is those pre-game speeches yeah i mean it could be like it it's it makes more sense to me than
00:11:59
Speaker
know, it's just a fluke, right? Like, right. I mean, there's something, there's definitely something to it. Uh, you know, and who knows, maybe this was a wake up call. I mean, I, I'm not convinced that this team is just old and, and past it. I still think most of these guys have something in the tank that they can pull together. And it's not like these are old, old players. Most of these guys are like in their early thirties. These are players who
00:12:24
Speaker
should still be perfectly capable of putting in good performances. You know, maybe Nico Lidero can't start three games in a week like he did last week. Even if the, and it's possible the data says otherwise, but his performance and none, like he, Nico Lidero has not looked
00:12:42
Speaker
himself during this, this seven game run at all. Like he has not had, you know, at the start of this, he was one of the, like he was a borderline MVP candidate. I thought, uh, after the first seven games, and he has not looked anywhere near that, uh, recently, uh, Joe Paulo did get a game, did get some rest on Saturday. I'm glad that he was at least able to, maybe that was the positive Joe Paulo got some rest.
00:13:05
Speaker
But he's been up and down. I think his performance dipped on Wednesday, and so maybe he's another guy. I do think the sounders probably need to look for ways to get Nico some rest. Maybe that means playing Albert Rusnak at the 10. Maybe that means using Joshua Tencio a little bit more in midfield.
00:13:28
Speaker
I guess another one, I wasn't displeased with Javier Arriaga, I suppose. He wasn't great, but I don't think he at least showed that he's capable, but there were a lot of bad performances.
00:13:47
Speaker
I don't take any pleasure in calling out because I do think that Alex has been mostly pretty good this year, but he definitely wears a bit of the blame on the first two goals.
00:14:03
Speaker
where it was, the Sounders looked, they got a huge break because Pedro Vite got the ball in the box and was in on goal, but then had a horrible, horrible, horrible first touch in which Alex is able to get to the ball first. And then I don't know what happens. Instead of clearing it, he tries to sort of shield Vite and I guess maybe trying to shield it for,
00:14:29
Speaker
fry to get but fry is a little slow off his line and vitae is able to sort of like work his way around uh alex and score that just a real kind of frustrating play and and that it also started when leochu failed to collect a
00:14:47
Speaker
to control a clearance or not a clearance, a goal kick. And then similarly on the last goal, Alex had a very bad first touch, turns it over, and then it's sort of like a counter attack that ends with Ryan Gold hitting a shot that Fry
00:15:08
Speaker
almost saves but hits off the post and then ricochets off the post off his head and in. There's some dispute as to whether or not that was an own goal or not but either way it was a very savable shot but also a mistake that Alex made in turning it over. But just to give up two goals on plays like that was very frustrating.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think that and that's sort of been a hallmark, I think, even though maybe the Sounders have not played this poorly over this whole run. I do think that that has kind of been a hallmark of this bad run is that they are just giving up goals and making mistakes that are uncharacteristic and I think unacceptable for how much experience this defense has. I think you can forgive Cody Baker to some degree, although he hasn't been making a ton of mistakes.
00:15:58
Speaker
But other than that, everybody on the team, Jackson Reagan, okay, he's not like a grizzled veteran, but he's a veteran. Yemar obviously has a lot of experience. Alex has a lot of experience. And they're just not playing up to a standard, I think, that is even the minimum level of acceptable.
00:16:16
Speaker
And that's when this team is good, when this team is at its best, there's so much strength in their defense and it allows them to do so much more in the attack. And they just have not looked comfortable defending at all. They're making really uncharacteristic mistakes. They're giving up soft goals. And Stephen Fry has been, I think, a pretty common topic of discussion this year. Yeah. And I'm definitely not a Stephen Fry is past it guy at all. I think that he's still
00:16:46
Speaker
easily in the top half of goalkeepers in the league, but he's definitely not at a caliber that he was when he was able to bail out the defense single handedly. He's definitely not. He hasn't been doing that much at all. Yeah. He had a couple games early in the season where he did that a little bit. He has not been doing that the last few weeks at all. Yeah.
Turning Point Debate
00:17:11
Speaker
And
00:17:13
Speaker
He shouldn't, I mean, he shouldn't, it's great when he, when he was at a level where he could do that, or he was doing that regularly, but that's not something you should have to depend on. Like your defense should not be playing as poorly as the Sounders defense is playing. And I mean, maybe, you know, we talked about.
00:17:28
Speaker
needing to make changes, needing to make maybe major changes. Maybe that's where some of the changes come. I don't really know who you put in it right back. If you feel like you need to give Alex a game or two off, I think that's a little easier.
00:17:45
Speaker
I wouldn't mind seeing Reed. I don't necessarily think that this is the game where you need to see Alex benched, but I wouldn't have minded to see Reed get a start in one of the games last week. Yeah, Baker Whiting, that is.
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, I do think and that's been I think a criticism that applies to most coaches in most sports and mostly because across the world, but I do think if there is a criticism I have of Brian and have consistently had it's that he's very much a these are my guys kind of coach and
00:18:19
Speaker
when they're available, they're going to tend to play. And sometimes riding the hot hand is the thing to do. But when the hand is not hot, it's tough to see the logic in doing that and taking that approach. I mean, it's putting Alex or Yamar or whoever on the bench for a game is not telling them you're not a starter on this team anymore. It's telling them you're not playing this game. And, you know,
00:18:49
Speaker
And that was one of the things I think last year that I, that I think we came to understand was there wasn't really this genuine competition in training and that sort of like, if certain guys were healthy, they were going to start. And I think the centers actually did a pretty good job of not doing that early in the year. And some of that was choice. Like they just, the reality was they had more players to choose from. And so they could afford to have a little bit more of an open competition.
00:19:19
Speaker
But it does feel like in the last few weeks, especially that we've kind of gone back into this trap of defaulting to the starters, wherever that may be. And to some degree that's understandable, but I just hope that this is sort of like, we have a lot of season left. I guess is, we have 20 games left in the season, plenty of time to turn things around. The centers have three home games coming up right now.
00:19:48
Speaker
it wouldn't be totally crazy if they won all three of these games and we are looking back on this like hey remember when we were freaking out a couple weeks ago i sure hope that's what we end up saying at the end of this yeah but point being there's plenty of time to turn this around but there's also plenty of time for it to just get even worse than this to be a
00:20:07
Speaker
a horrible ride. So hopefully we take some lessons from this that we take a hard look at why things went so badly last year and we just refused to repeat it.
00:20:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's about all you can do, right? Is to say we're not going to lose games anymore. We're not going to do that. Not going to beat ourselves. Yeah, figuring out how to do that. That's where the details are. But that's why they get paid the big bucks, right? Exactly. Not our problem to figure out. But I do think that this has to be a turning point in the year. I really do feel like if things keep sliding or even just reach some stasis,
00:20:52
Speaker
it feels like it could get bad pretty quickly. And after the way the season started, that would be very unfortunate, I think. Yeah. Well, uh, I think this is a good place to take a break. We're going to come back and talk a little bit more about where, uh, some of these changes might happen. Uh, some of the things that are, uh, I feel like they're in the works and, uh, you're listening to no Saudi at this.
00:21:19
Speaker
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00:21:49
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiatus.
Upcoming Home Games Preview
00:21:51
Speaker
So we have a week, a full week of training going into this next game. Sanders is going to be hosting New York Red Bulls. And then who do they host after that?
00:22:04
Speaker
Uh, I just had it up and then I, I should know that, uh, they, then they host San Jose and then they host the Portland timbers in that, uh, that double header. So they have a weekend game against red bulls midweek against San Jose and then weekend against timbers. And, uh, and then they, they go back on the road. Wouldn't need to worry about that. Look ahead to these three games. I think.
Jordan Morris's Position Discussion
00:22:30
Speaker
it's probably makes sense to do some rotation against San Jose. So to some degree, we're probably gonna get what we asked for at some point. But what I wanted to get into right now is some of the changes that we might, or maybe not even some of the changes, but some of the possible changes that the sounders could try. One of them, and maybe the most obvious is where to play Jordan Morris. We saw him play
00:23:00
Speaker
on the left, on the right. I don't know if he actually, I don't think he, he started at the nine last week or he definitely didn't start at the nine, but I'm not sure if he played at the nine last week, but where do you want to see Jordan Morris playing? He's now gone eight games without scoring. You know, he, he looked okay against Austin at times. He did not, you know, he looked like
00:23:20
Speaker
his effort was there against the Vancouver. He was tracking back a lot, but man, he seemed to be pinned. He was pretty emblematic of the Sounders struggles in that he, even though Vancouver was throwing numbers forward or committing a lot of players to the press, there was space in behind. If the Sounders could exploit it, they had Leo Chu and Jordan Morris on the field. They could not exploit it. They, it did not come close to being exploited.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I don't really know if it matters where Jordan plays right now because I don't think that this is a positioning issue with him. I'd rather not see him play on the right, all things being equal, because I do think that his skill set just works better in the middle or coming in off the left. But I think with Jordan, it's a lot more about confidence. And I also think it's a lot more about teams kind of know that
00:24:16
Speaker
Chu and Morris are not getting found. They're still making the runs.
00:24:22
Speaker
they're still doing some of the things off the ball that made them so successful, but the ball's not getting to them because the midfield has just been kind of a mess. And so I think that that's part of it. I think you got to figure out how to not only get those players into that space and behind, but also make teams think that they have to worry about anything else. And I think that that's what it is, is that teams know
00:24:47
Speaker
As long as we don't allow the creative players to find those runs in behind, we don't really have a lot else to worry about. And I think that that was kind of born out in this game. So, um, you know, I think I'm assuming roles not going to be back in time for, I guess, maybe Portland. I would think that's my suspicion is I kind of think they are targeting the Portland game, uh, today at training, they talked about how.
00:25:16
Speaker
Well, they mentioned that Raul is still not full into training that he's supposed to be closer to full in tomorrow. That's Wednesday. And then they'll, you know, sort of assess his, his status at that point. He hadn't been ruled out for this weekend.
00:25:32
Speaker
But that's sort of like, it feels to me like they're maybe not going to hold them out entirely from the San Jose game. But if I were to guess, maybe they, uh, bring them off the bench against San Jose and then sort of assess whether or not they think how many minutes he can go against Portland. Yeah. And so in that case, I think.
00:25:53
Speaker
I would be OK with seeing Jordan start up top if for no other reason that he's probably going to get more touches that way at least. And I do think we kind of talked about this in the last show. I think Jordan is a confidence player. And while I think that there are systemic issues, I don't think it's.
00:26:11
Speaker
fair to say he's not succeeding because he's in his head. I do think it's, it's an element. Like, I think, I think there's no question that that's the case. So if you can get him touches, ideally, you know, close to the box in the middle of the box, maybe that can help improve his confidence. Um, so I wouldn't mind seeing him, him up top, uh, a bear, I still like a bear. I still think he's a good player, but
00:26:37
Speaker
They just haven't done a whole lot with him starting in the last few games. And I think that if you're, if you're going to change things, like if you're going to make drastic changes in response to these results, that's a reasonable one, I would say. So, um, yeah, but I, I really do think that it's less about where Jordan is lining up and more about they're not getting him the ball. And he has almost zero confidence right now.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah, so the other big one that I think is, another interesting question is who's the 10?
Midfield Role: Lidero vs Rusnak Debate
00:27:10
Speaker
I think Nico Lidero probably is your default 10, but is it worth giving Albert Rusnak a look there? I don't know. I mean, I was, I think Nico could probably use a day off.
00:27:25
Speaker
Yeah, I would definitely I think one of the games I think my hope is that he is not the starting 10 on Wednesday and that the alternate the only other player they've started at the 10 I think is
00:27:37
Speaker
is a bear, which I really hope we don't see again. No, never again. Yeah, I mean, I like Albert in that position. I think that ideally, if he's starting on the right, he can do some of the same types of things that Christian is able to do. And
00:27:57
Speaker
because he plays a little bit less like a traditional winger. He plays like more of a box-to-box player that can cut inside a little bit more and take some of the pressure off of Niko in the center of the pitch. But I certainly wouldn't be opposed to seeing Rusnak play in that tin position. I don't really want to see Niko play on the right. I just think that that's
00:28:17
Speaker
I think that he has physical limitations at this point in his career that make that a little bit tougher of a sell. And in that case, if you're playing Albert with 10, you're not playing Nikko on the right, then is Nikko playing in the pivot with JP? Does that create other problems? I hope it's okay. I mean, I would think it's like, give Nikko a day off. Yeah, I'm completely on board with giving Nikko a day off.
00:28:44
Speaker
No, and I think maybe it's, maybe it's JP and, and, uh, attention in the middle instead. Maybe it's hell, maybe it's attention and key to horror. I'd, I'd actually be okay with that. Uh, not necessarily looking forward to that, but I don't think it would be a disaster if, if we gave that a look, uh, you know, I, I think it's, there's some things that we can change up there, I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah. And, and.
00:29:11
Speaker
I think it's worth giving a look because I'm not convinced that Rusnak is the better 10 than Lidero all things being equal, but I do think it's worth exploring. Yeah, I think most things are worth exploring at this point. Yeah, because it has been so long since they looked dangerous and attack even
00:29:32
Speaker
Even as we've talked about, it hasn't been this bad. It hasn't been great either. They haven't scored more than a goal since the St. Louis game. And I think too, that it's not
00:29:46
Speaker
It's not even just about the lack of creativity, the lack of goal scoring, although those are pretty big problems, but it's also about the fact that their midfield has just kind of gotten overrun consistently for a while now, which is not going to set you up for success. I mean, that's kind of the long term because they've dominated the midfield. Yeah. And, and so I think whatever you've got to do to, to at least get back on even, you know, even standing in the midfield, so where you're not getting overrun and you're not having to.
00:30:18
Speaker
play down the flanks almost exclusively and, you know, have your, have your full backs bailing out your center backs all the time because they're under so much pressure, whatever you can do to get away from that game state, I think it's worth whatever kind of experimentation you have to do or you're willing to do. Yeah. Any other changes that you're hoping to see? I feel like the rest is sort of deck chairs.
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't mind seeing Ariaga a little more. I wouldn't mind seeing Reed Baker. Why do you know? And I think at some point in this stretch, you need to give him a day off or give Alex a day off rather. Right.
00:30:57
Speaker
Left back is tough. I mean, who is either fit or he's not feeling he's not going to be capable of playing three games in a week for sure. Just considering what he's dealing with fitness wise. And I think Baker has been good. I think it's been
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, I've actually really liked Cody Baker. I feel like he could potentially be a long term starter. Maybe not an all star, but he is absolutely someone who's not going to lose you games from that position and can every now and then do something really positive. Right. It's definitely the kind of thing where you don't feel like you have to rush new back. I think he's been more than serviceable at left back. So I think I think it is less
00:31:45
Speaker
The personnel and more tactical changes and just changing mentality. There, there's definitely changes I'd like to see. I'd like to see a lot more rotation. I would like to see them try some different things in terms of which, you know, where Nico's playing, where Rusnak is playing. But I do think that they are going to have to take a different approach tactically. And I think that.
00:32:09
Speaker
what they were doing earlier in the year, they're not capable of doing anymore. And they're continuing to try to play that way. And whatever the issues are, whatever it is that they can't figure out or they can't get right, you can revisit that once you've righted the ship, right? But you've got to figure out a different way to not find yourself completely behind the eight ball from kickoff.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And and I was, you know, the Sounders catch the Red Bulls at an interesting time.
Red Bulls Match Preview
00:32:41
Speaker
They are coming off a midweek game in the Open Cup. They are also they just changed coaches. I can't remember the guy's name, but the guy who used to be in charge in New Mexico United and has been and then took an assistant job with Red Bulls seems to be doing a pretty good job. So they they've sort of
00:33:03
Speaker
corrected their early season form. But this is definitely a winnable game for the Sounders. There's no reason they can't go into this one feeling like they can sort of turn things around. And maybe it's good that they're not facing a team on a losing streak because teams facing on losing streaks have had sort of their winless streaks have been having their way with the Sounders. So maybe that's a good thing.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I do. Maybe there is something to that where if they have a game that they feel like is going to be a little more challenging, like maybe that changes the approach they take. I don't know. Although I feel like at this point you've got to figure, maybe we shouldn't be going into any games assuming we're going to dominate anyone. Right. Yeah. That's probably.
Closing and Acknowledgments
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
That's probably a good way of putting it, but all right, well, let's call this a show. Later in the week, we'll do an episode where we take your questions. We did get a bunch of mailbag questions, so you can look forward to that. But thank you to our sub-sex subscribers who, again, we really want to say thank you for helping support this podcast and the expansion of it. Hopefully you've been enjoying the newsletter that we've been doing.
00:34:18
Speaker
trying to put out at least two of those a week. And yeah, you can you can subscribe for as cheap as $5 a month or $50 a year. And yeah, that's that's that's what we're doing. But otherwise, thank you to our sponsors, full pool wines and Watson's counter who
00:34:38
Speaker
has opened, now reopened their new location in Ballard. It's over on 24th. I would absolutely recommend checking it out. Really good stuff there. And they've talked to us about maybe doing some events there at some point. So, you know, it's something to keep your ears open for. But other than that, I am Jeremiah O'Shan signing off for my co-host, Aaron Campo, and Lickit. This is no sardietes. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:35:42
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!