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Nos Audietis, Episode 288: End-of-season roundtable
62 Plays7 years ago
We tried something a little different this week. Not only did we record live at Optimism Brewing in Capital Hill, we welcomed Sounder at Heart writers Susie Rantz and Mark Kastner to the show to do a bit of a roundtable discussion.
The show was recorded before we knew we’d be playing the Portland Timbers in the Western Conference semifinals, so we mainly discussed the season as a whole and how we view it at this point.
This week's music: "What do tigers dream of?" - Cristian Roldan, "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 Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Fullpool 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 Fullpool 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. What do tigers dream of when they take a little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras?
00:01:16
Speaker
I think we're going to have to sign off on that one.
00:01:18
Speaker
like a beautiful child growing up.
Recording Venue and Future Events
00:01:23
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arna. Welcome back. Welcome to Nos Adietes episode 288, I believe. It is Thursday, November 1st, and we are recording at Optimism Brewing, which
00:01:39
Speaker
Don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it's looking like it's going to be the host of Yacht-Con 19. I don't know. We haven't officially named it. That's getting ahead of yourself, Jeremy. That's getting ahead of ourselves.
Guest Contributors Introduction
00:01:51
Speaker
So who you just heard is Mark Kastner, who is a contributor to Sounder at Heart. And I'm also joined by Susie Rants, another contributor at Sounder at Heart.
00:02:00
Speaker
And we are doing it a little differently this week. I should say that we are sponsored by Full Pool Wines and Queen Anne Acupuncture, now that that's out of the way.
Is the Sounders' Season a Success?
00:02:10
Speaker
We can just get to a casual conversation about the MLS playoffs, about the Seattle Sounders. I apologize if it's a little loud here, but we're doing something a little different. It'll be fun.
00:02:25
Speaker
So let me just start off this way with Mark and Susie's thoughts on the Sounders season. Let's just say hypothetically, this is as far as it goes. Does it feel like a letdown? I mean, it's a letdown, but does it feel like it is still a successful season? Have you enjoyed the ride up until now? Yeah, obviously if we ended here, it would definitely feel like a letdown to me.
Sounders' Playoff Journey and Comparisons
00:02:55
Speaker
I've enjoyed the ride. I was, I have some season tickets with my friend Danica who says, who in June told everyone they need to chill out because this happens every year. And this was actually the year where I honestly thought that Sounders fans are going to have to like accept that they're not going to make the playoffs. So did I. Yeah. I really believed it this year and here we are. So I,
00:03:24
Speaker
It's been an enjoyable season for the most part, especially obviously the last half. I would be sad if we if we ended after next week for sure. It wouldn't feel in any way complete to me. Yeah and I think the fact that there's two successive games like four days apart is gonna make it worse because
00:03:46
Speaker
the season will just be over. There's no, there's no,
Sounders' Season Achievements
00:03:50
Speaker
you won't be able to breathe. Like I was, I was thinking about this last night when the union went out and this has been the most successful season for the union in years. Ever. Maybe ever. Sorry, Philly. Yeah. Sorry, Philly. But for it to just, it's over before it even. Oh, and seven and like knockout games. So.
00:04:07
Speaker
right yeah it's it's not it's it's been it's tough you know if we're to go out this early it's it's tough but I don't know mark how are you feeling about this season support yeah it's what third or fourth time the sounders have finished first or second in the West so if you just kind of
00:04:26
Speaker
exit yourself
Team Resilience and Playoff Hopes
00:04:27
Speaker
out from the minutia of the season and just like kind of like look at the points total where they finished kind of how things are going yeah of course it's a successful season and if it I agree with Susie if it were to end in the next round of the playoffs I think that yeah I think it would be disappointing even though if you enter back into sort of
00:04:49
Speaker
the flow of the season in June and July and maybe even August, you wouldn't have thought they would have even been in the playoffs. But I think what's special about this team, we were kind of, you and I, before recording earlier today, we're kind of going through. Getting into the making of the sausage stuff here.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah. We don't talk at all off air. And we're here to talk about soccer. Right. Oh, shoot. We're kind of looking at what the team had said throughout like quotes and whatnot. And it was like if you think about like they had the belief throughout. So it was it was kind of strange to look especially after the Portland loss at the end of June.
00:05:33
Speaker
I think within the last four months it feels like we've lived an entire season. It does. And I think what that does is it gives Sounders fans like an entire new sort of
00:05:46
Speaker
confidence and a hope for the postseason. And I know that there are a lot of Sounders fans that are like, oh, the season starts in June. That's after we get kicked out of the open cup and don't really want to get any of that. Right. It's it's strange. It is really strange. And hopefully this is the last season like this. But it's been a
Impact of Post-Dempsey Changes
00:06:13
Speaker
lot of fun.
00:06:13
Speaker
It has been a lot of fun and I will say that it's different distinctly, I think, from the last two seasons because the ride that we went on this year, the centers got better to the last two years in the second half. They got dramatically better even.
00:06:31
Speaker
But there's never been from worst in the league to, you know, you go back, I looked at the numbers, you go back to July 1st. They've been the best teams since July 1st. Yeah. The best half season in MLS history. Best half season in MLS history.
00:06:48
Speaker
And that in itself feels like it's something. I agree. I don't think there's any way around that if it ends before MLS Cup that it won't feel like a letdown. Or even like if it ends in a Western Conference final that's competitive and close.
00:07:05
Speaker
Because I think you could argue seven, eight out of 10 times that maybe Sporting Kansas City is better than the Sounders team. But if we get knocked out by Portland, especially, or LA, that would be disappointing. Yeah. No, I think you're right. If you get outed by Sporting Kansas City,
00:07:31
Speaker
You shrug your shoulders, maybe a better team beat you. You go down to Portland or LAFC, it's different. Why do we do this? What was all this for? What feels a little bit different this year or two than 2016, for example, when we had at that, I remember we were like 7% chance of making the playoffs, and then we went to the MLS Cup, is like, Ladera was a game changer in 2016. There's no question about it. Getting him was really what changed the season. This season, it was just like,
00:07:59
Speaker
Yes, that helped a lot too, but I I think like player wise like without Ledera We wouldn't have been anywhere close to the MLS Cup that year this year It was not just one player really
Team Momentum and Collective Effort
00:08:10
Speaker
Dias to getting him was certainly like incredibly helpful But it wasn't just him so it was like getting everyone healthy winning some games I think actually may have been the most important thing so
00:08:21
Speaker
Scoring more goals in the opponent. Yeah, thanks like it I do think that there was this sense because I'm thinking back in I was looking at some old stories I wrote and
00:08:34
Speaker
After the tide of Chicago, it felt like, this isn't happening. After the loss of Portland, it was definitely, this just isn't happening. But it was amazing how quickly the mood turned. Even after that win over Vancouver, which was the first win of the nine game winning streak, it was following three unbeaten. But that was the first one of the winning streak. Already, it was starting to feel like something has changed.
00:09:01
Speaker
And all of a sudden, I thought, making the playoffs is suddenly realistic, even though mathematically it wasn't that different. And just winning games just changed everything so much that in a way that no one player really... It wasn't about a player coming back or a player joining the team. It was just the momentum of winning these games. And by the time you were halfway through that winning streak, it was like, well,
Coach Schmetzer's Role
00:09:26
Speaker
yeah, we're going to make the playoffs. Yeah. I like credit to Schmetzer because
00:09:30
Speaker
We've seen a lot of teams this season start to have bad games and then just not look like they want to be there. Orlando did not want to play defense when they played the Sounders whatsoever. They were a totally defeated team and this could have been a team that just gave up and they didn't. We talked about this a lot in the last show and so I don't want to get too into it but Toronto FC
00:09:51
Speaker
how different of a season they had on paper, very similar, same circumstances, blah, blah, blah. And yet, here they are. They didn't even come close to making the playoffs. There were six games, six points out. Yeah, and even if you want to talk about teams in the Western Conference, a month and a half ago, the Houston Dynamo won the Open Cup. They were in a couple of points at the playoff line at a plus 10 goal differential.
00:10:21
Speaker
And after the Sounders beat them in two weeks or within two weeks, three weeks of each other, like they were completely
Player Roles and Tactical Adaptations
00:10:30
Speaker
different team by that time. Yeah. And they were still in the picture for a lot longer than the Sounders were. So like you said, I think credit to Brian Spencer for
00:10:41
Speaker
just kind of sticking to his plan A. And I know they've gone through a couple of different lineup changes and tactical switches, but... What's remarkable to me is how similar the lineup looks now as to what I think they envisioned the lineup looking like.
00:10:58
Speaker
at the beginning, and sure, Rui Diaz is maybe a difference maker, but I don't think that the lineup really looks that different than what, like, Christian Roldan maybe being pushed up wide. I think they probably always thought that was a possibility with Alonso and Svensson. Kim Ki-hee maybe for Roman Torres, but you don't sign Kim Ki-hee if you don't think he's gonna play some.
00:11:22
Speaker
Kelvin Leardom, the right back, New Who, the left back. You go through that lineup, and I don't think it's that different than what they had originally envisioned. Maybe Clint Dempsey instead. But I mean, one thing that has struck me
00:11:38
Speaker
is how the team has changed since Dempsey left. And I was a big proponent of getting the most out of Dempsey while he was here. But yet, once he left, it did seem like there was this weight. It was no longer this kind of... It was just gone. It's Nico Ledero's team, and let's go.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah, I remember asking a couple weeks ago asking a friend of mine who's a Sounders fan about like, okay, you go into a coma after 2017 MLS Cup, you know, the Sounders lose.
00:12:15
Speaker
You wake up in September or October of the following year, eight months later, nine months later, I tell you Quint Dempsey is retired and the Sounders are fighting for a home playoff game. Tell me what you think happened. First thing he said was Dempsey probably retired after MLS Cup.
00:12:32
Speaker
You know, the sounders had kind of probably had a slow start like they always do. They kind of had a normal summer. Maybe they signed a DP in the summer and then they kind of go on a run. If you think about it, essentially that's kind of what happened. But in much more extreme terms.
00:12:54
Speaker
I mean, do you think it was a mistake to bring back Dempsey? No. No. I don't think so. There was a season he had last year. Like, you're taking a bet, but. I mean, I keep coming back to that. And it's hard to think. Like, he had 12 goals, five assists, I think, during the regular season. He had the best postseason of anyone really in the league. Is it five goals, four goals?
00:13:16
Speaker
I think he had three or four goals, but he was a dominant player during the postseason. Started in the MLS Cup Final. He was the only Sounders player who looked decent in the MLS Cup Final. He looked decent at the start of the season. We had, you know, some CONCACAF games. He had that goal against Chivas. Yeah, like potentially the same.
00:13:36
Speaker
It's hard to, I don't know that I can identify when it all came apart. I think it all came apart when he was asked to be the best player on the Sounders. And when you ask one Dempsey at 35 years of age to be the best player in 2018 on the Sounders, it's just not realistic. And I think all parties involved agreed and that's why you ended up
00:14:05
Speaker
I think too with the way that they're playing now and which I imagine
Defensive Dynamics with Kim Ki-hee
00:14:10
Speaker
is how they intended to play at the beginning of the season I mean it's a reason why Roll Dawn has thrived a little bit higher up the field is like
00:14:17
Speaker
So much fluidity in the attack. You have Ledero who is everywhere on the field. Rolled on who can put so much pressure up high. And like, well, Dempsey could have potentially fit into that. It just like the way they wanted to play. Yeah, I think it's hard to imagine Dempsey on the team the way it is now. Yeah.
00:14:37
Speaker
The big thing I think that Dempsey was not going to do is he just was not going to add any pressure at the top. And I was always a big proponent of Lidero out ostensibly as a wide player, partly because it seemed like that gave him some freedom. But that was in the context of Dempsey being on the field. You remove Dempsey, and all of a sudden that free roll is really a free roll. And it doesn't sacrifice that whole right side.
00:15:06
Speaker
and especially defensively. Exactly. Especially defensively. And it just makes them so much more of a complete team when the guy who's roaming can really roam from the center as opposed to roam from one of the wings. Roam like a South American number 10. Right. But what's funny is that he hasn't really played that role a lot. In anywhere. Yeah. That's true.
00:15:30
Speaker
So Victor Rodriguez, I feel like, is one of the unsung heroes of this team. I heard on Extra Time Radio, are we going to get to Kim Ki-hee or? We'll get to Kim Ki-hee. We can talk about how I wrote about Victor last year being the unsung hero of the team. You know, it's funny because he has been even better. I think we sometimes forget how good he was last year, but I do think he's been better. I think so too.
00:15:59
Speaker
And in a way that I don't know that we saw coming. It's hard to imagine, like you see him playing now and it's like the idea of hammer Harry's ship. Harry's ship has been great. But Victor Rodriguez is everything that you want out of Harry's ship. It's like Victor Rodriguez is a tan version of Harry's ship. Right.
00:16:17
Speaker
And I thought Harry's ship was exactly what they needed in the time where he was really helping the team out. He's still very useful. And he is still very useful. Hopefully he gets fully healthy for the postseason. But I think that for whatever reason, Ledero did not have the same connection to ship that he has with Victor. So those two really get each other. And I think that's a big part of it too.
00:16:43
Speaker
Victor this season is kind of a microcosm of this season that the Sounders can't have. We don't need to rehash his injury history throughout this year, but when he's on, he is arguably the second or third best attacking that this team has. And we saw in Orlando without Gudero how he can
00:17:11
Speaker
be that kind of fill-in when we can't play Odero or Ruby Dazz or whatever. He can be the player that we need him to be at the times we need him to be in. Not to be all John Madden about it or anything. I hear you. I do cringe every time someone goes in on a tackle with him though.
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like, no, don't hurt my little dineys being weird. I feel like all of his injuries have come from non-contact injuries. They have been, yeah. Anyway, so I feel like any time I see him in a training photo, I'm like, no, just go inside. No, just sit down. You're good.
00:17:49
Speaker
Well, you wanted to bring it up so we should end this segment on Kim Ki-hee. You know, I think there is something very attractive in my mind about the Twin Tower concept of Roman Torres and Chad Marshall. Maybe bad phrasing. Maybe bad phrasing. Kim Ki-hee, though, seems to add
00:18:12
Speaker
Rather than having two similar players, he's a different kind of player to Chad Marshall. He's a little bit more willing to roam. He's a little bit more willing to chase forwards up to the midfield line. What do you guys see as, what do you really just like about Kim Ki-hee? Which one of you superfans is gonna talk first about this? So I think the signing of Kim Ki-hee kind of, so Chad Marshall and Roman Torres are
00:18:42
Speaker
Great defenders. Chad Marshall will go down as the best defender in MLS history. Far none. Don't want to take any credit away from him. But I think with the signing of Kim Ki-hee this season, you see the type of center back that Brian Smatcher and
00:19:01
Speaker
Garth want to have on this team, especially with how they control the center back position so that the right back, the left back, and the central midfielders can push up the field. They can hold a higher line. He's better on the ball than any center back we've ever had. He's faster than any center back we've ever had. And that's just how the Sounders are going to play next year, five years down the line, 10 years down the line.
00:19:30
Speaker
And he's really good at social media. So that's really the key. How can you not love that? How do you not want to let champion with Kim Piye? Do you have anything to add to that season? I would just say, well, I think his...
00:19:45
Speaker
1v1 defending is like, I don't, I'm never nervous about him in a 1v1 situation. And I don't even know his passing stats, but the ability to possess out of the back, I'm sure they are because they're like the ability to possess out of the back is different. And Romontor is a really good and super defender, but he sent so many, he sent so many long balls over the top and not like focus on possession. I think that's like a really underrated part of Kim Ki-hee's
00:20:15
Speaker
His cripe turns are amazing, but his passing is also quite good. Any can step forward in possession like we saw against Portland, him causing the away rule, when you have nothing else going offensively. And I think that how you're seeing soccer played in MLS and also globally,
00:20:38
Speaker
That's what you need in the center back. You need somebody that can take the ball, push up 15 yards, cause the opposing defense to step forward, and kind of create a little bit of chaos.
Listener Questions Preview
00:20:53
Speaker
And he's so good at taking the ball, dribbling 10 yards, and then having a man come on, and then him passing it off to Ledero, or well done, and just something happening from there.
00:21:05
Speaker
I will say having both Spenson and Ozzy healthy too is a big part of that. And having them both being able to play, all of that adds up. Well, that's probably a good place to end this segment. We're going to come back, we're going to take some questions from our listeners. We just have a few. And we'll finish this special episode of No Saw to Get This There.
00:21:32
Speaker
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00:22:39
Speaker
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MLS Playoff Structure and Potential Changes
00:22:44
Speaker
Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com. All right, welcome back to NOS Adiates. We have a few questions. We don't have a ton, but we'll get through these and
00:23:06
Speaker
Call it a quick show. So the first one comes from Bill Jones and he wants to know if you have any thoughts on the team building as like I think as a whole club since Garth's arrival at the end of 2014.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think what you see with S2 and the Academy is kind of like what I talked about in the Kim Ki-hee segment of our show. And if we want to do another Kim Ki-hee segment. You're happy to do it. You see a way that the entire organization wants to play and what to expect from each position on the field. So we saw that in 2016 when you wanted to sign
00:23:52
Speaker
a South American number 10, and he was very specific about that. He was very specific about maybe not as much as Ledera, but very specific about what he was looking for in Gustav Svensson and the TAM signing. And he was very specific of what he wanted from the number nine that he was going to end up signing, which ended up being really nice. So I think you're seeing the identity and the vision of Garth Walker Way
00:24:19
Speaker
all maybe adapting a little bit with Brian Spencer being the coach that ended up falling in his lap kind of. Yeah, I think you absolutely see the identity across the team, especially at the fullbacks that he signed with Em and Smith and Jovan Jones and Newhoos.
00:24:39
Speaker
You know, it is funny because I think back to 2015, his first year with the team, and it's becoming more and more apparent that that was not a team he built. Of course. The signings that he made that summer were, I think, fine signings, but they did not fit very short term. They were definitely not big picture signings. And Roman Torres, I think, is one of those players who kind of
00:25:02
Speaker
became available and they thought, this is a great player who we can bring in here, but I don't think he fit a vision of where they wanted to go. And I like, I will say you see this, the pipeline that they're starting to build. I know there was some frustrations with S2 in terms of their results, but you can really see, I don't think it takes a lot of imagination to see what they're trying to do.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah, I watched some Academy games earlier this season, like when the Sounders were struggling, and I watched, it was some tournament that one of the U something teams won. And the way they played, I was like, that's how I want the Sounders to be playing at that point in the season. So even at the Academy level, you're seeing them trying to really establish an identity for how we play as Sounders players. So it's pretty exciting to watch at the youngest levels all the way up. And I also think, just shortly, Academy. I don't watch it.
00:25:56
Speaker
I watched the U17 tournament that they ended up winning. But you see how they develop players a little bit with, they might start as like pacey wingers or kind of creative number 10s or maybe even like kind of out and out strikers, but you can see how they evolve.
00:26:17
Speaker
When they go to S2 and then when they come to the first team, they build a complete player that can play in multiple positions. And Garth has talked about, time and time again, what to expect from Academy products is not DeAndre Yedlin. Right. But players that can plug in and be consistent role players on an MLS Cup winning team. More like Handwall of Wanna, then. Handwall or Henry Wingo.
00:26:46
Speaker
Aaron Kovar seasons prior we're in and that and better but those types of players where you can then use
00:26:55
Speaker
salary cap dollars to go after your key signings like a Chad Marshall or a Will Bruin or Harry Shipp. So this one's from Jim Kim. He wants to know if we like the MLS season the way it is now with the playoffs as is, or are there changes to the way that the playoffs are structured or the season is structured that you think might enhance what we're kind of going through?
00:27:23
Speaker
I wouldn't mind single elimination from the start. I think especially when you take into consideration the international break that happens right in the middle of the playoffs. That's kind of annoying. I think you could make the regular season a little bit shorter. Maybe not.
00:27:45
Speaker
not play a certain Western Conference team three times a year, especially if you're going to end up playing them in Open Cup automatically. You know, there's minor tweaks, but I also don't mind. I like MLS playoffs. I wouldn't get rid of them. I certainly wouldn't.
00:28:04
Speaker
Do you have any? No, I agree. The season is long. It is long. It's really long. And that just means when you win the MLS Cup, it's hard to repeat, which is maybe good for parity. But I think regular season length would be maybe the one thing that I would look at.
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah, the one thing that kills me about the way that the playoffs are structured, I actually don't mind the play-in round and then the two rounds of two. But there's two changes that I think would be kind of interesting. The big one is, I would love to see MLS Cup played after this break.
00:28:39
Speaker
So figure out a way to essentially either Black Friday or that weekend after Black Friday and have the MLS season end, I guess you needed to end a week or two earlier. And so either that means playing a few more games in February or it means whatever it means. I would love to see that break just be a feature of the playoffs instead of this, because I think all the momentum in terms of the way you pay, if you don't have a team in the playoffs,
00:29:08
Speaker
That break kills it. The way that that break is now before the conference finals, it's just so strange. It's weird. I think if that break wasn't there, I don't know if there would be very many questions about the playoffs.
00:29:29
Speaker
But it is there. And it tends to be a pretty important break for international teams. I think this coming break right now is the start of World Cup qualifying for some reason. Well, especially with Nations League, I think it's going to make it. So there's just so few wasted international breaks that every international break seems like has at least someone playing competitive games. And I think it just makes it so much harder to try to play through that. Yeah.
00:29:59
Speaker
The other change, I saw the suggestion and I kind of like the idea of it. I think it would look weird, but if you had a knockout round, a two-leg conference semi, a single-leg conference final, and then a two-leg final. That's interesting. I don't like that.
00:30:14
Speaker
The thing I like about it, I'll tell you, is that it rewards winning your conference in the regular season. And since the playoffs, since the regular season is so unbalanced anyway in terms of the competition that you're playing in the East versus the West, I like the idea of a two-leg MLS Cup final. But I also think like an underlying question about
00:30:35
Speaker
MLS playoffs is, for instance, a question that was posed of the Sounders in 2016. And Brian Spencer got a rep for this as being just bunkering, which I think that's complete revisionist history of what happened in 2016, even if you want to bring up the no shots on target thing.
00:30:53
Speaker
But especially if the conference final is a one-off, a one-legged affair, you would see stuff like that time and time again. So I think if you wanted to do that and the conference final was two-legged, then the final was the one-legged.
00:31:11
Speaker
I mean, yeah. The thing I like about the two legs is that I just think that creating meat to the playoffs is kind of important. And that's what I am a little worried about having a series of single elimination games. You end up only playing three games to win the title after playing a 30-40 game season just doesn't feel meaty enough. That's why I think shortening the regular season is probably the right answer.
00:31:38
Speaker
So this one's from Glenn White. It's a bit of a plug, but we're going to allow it. He says, how great is Cascadia Gamers and what does each person hope they'll win when they donate to support Seattle children through a Cascadia Gamers member on Extra Life for Kids? I think I got all the plugs in there. Cascadia Gamers is awesome. They raise so much money everywhere. It is amazing. I'm seriously jealous. We were literally talking about this today. How does Cascadia Gamers get all these amazing prizes?
00:32:06
Speaker
They have amazing people involved. They have amazing people involved. I want the Zach Scott, Roger Leveque, Taylor Graham... Duffleboard? Because I have a friend. She's not actually the founder of the Zach Scott Band Club, but she is a... She's not a member, but she... Secretary. She's like the hugest Zach Scott band, so I would like to help give it to her.
00:32:32
Speaker
I really like high-risk whiskey, and I saw that that's one of the prizes, so I don't have to buy it for myself. I donated $25 today, so I hope that that wins me some whiskey.
00:32:48
Speaker
Those are quality answers,
Jordan Morris' Return from Injury
00:32:50
Speaker
I think. This one's from Nick Arias. He says, how did the centers fit Jordan Morris back into the offense with Bruin Rodriguez, Ladera Ruideas? We sure have a strong front line anyway. That's a great point. And I think it's kind of
00:33:06
Speaker
It is an interesting question, especially going into, even if it's not for this year, I think this year it's easy. He comes off the bench. If he's ready, maybe you bring him off the bench. It's hard for me to see him having a real role with this team, but next year, where do you see him fitting in?
00:33:27
Speaker
That's a good question. I mean, that's kind of one piece of the attack that's been missing is like speed. Yeah. I think Rui Dias, he's obviously like a goal scorer and we've seen that 10 goals in what 14 games or whatever. But he creates so much space. And I think that leaves a lot of room for someone like Jordan Morris. I don't know positionally if that means Wing and that means Ladero or Rodriguez moves into the middle.
00:33:54
Speaker
But it also could mean a formation change. I don't see that, but... I mean, what I do think is it, at the very least what it does, is it allows the sounders the ability to not feel like they need to make a big signing this awesome.
00:34:09
Speaker
I also think it's a pretty good problem to have. Seriously. It's a good problem to have. I also think what's important about the problem that this specific question raises is it doesn't put pressure on Jordan Morris to be anything besides what he is in that moment because I think we saw
00:34:29
Speaker
towards the beginning of his rookie year when Ziggy was trying to shoehorn him out left or out right in that weird 4-3-3 thing he was doing and Obed, there was a lot of expectation put on Jordan Morris' shoulders. And even last year with his ankle injury,
00:34:50
Speaker
he was expected to be the player to stretch the field and he just couldn't. So I think for the first half of the season, I wouldn't mind if he was that super sub type player.
00:35:02
Speaker
And it gives the Sounders, and hopefully next season's a lot different than this one where not everybody's hurt, it gives the Sounders some flexibility to find out what is best, either formation, personnel-wise and whatnot to go and grab that DP or to am signing in the summer. But, honestly, if you're gonna ask me where his best position is, I think he is a winger. I know, especially Aaron on this show doesn't think he is a winger.
00:35:31
Speaker
But I agree with you. I think that's going to be his future. And especially with the injury that he's had, it's going to be tough to be that number nine, especially in the system that Seattle plays in, especially with the signing like Rui
Team Unity and Leadership by Schmetzer
00:35:46
Speaker
does. So I think coming off the left or the right, I'm not going to make any assumptions about who isn't on the roster next summer.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think cutting in off of the left, especially with Ladera floating wherever he is and Ruidau's creating the space that he does, I think that's the perfect opportunity for Morris to get a 12-goal, 15-goal season. All right, so I think we're going to end it with this one. This is from Stefan Hoggins. He says, how tightly knit is this team on and off the pitch? And how does that make them successful? I feel like this squad is just a really good team.
00:36:26
Speaker
Well, I don't like hang out with them or go to practice. Here's what I would say. There's obviously like niches of people that are obviously super close knit and you see that a lot. But I think what Brian Schmetzer does so well is just has everyone buy into the vision of the team and you don't have to be best friends. They're probably not all best friends off the field. You can see that, but.
00:36:47
Speaker
They know their role, they know what the team expects from them, they know the vision they're working for and I think that's more important than like how tight-knit and how much of a family they are. That's what I would say. I don't go to practice so they're probably all best friends and I don't know it. I think with any team there's always going to be some level of click and there's always going to be guys that like each other. But what I think what we're seeing now is we aren't seeing quite as much
00:37:13
Speaker
like, pitting against each other. And I don't necessarily think it's always a bad thing, but what I will say is that as bad as this season was, if the team wasn't really together, I think you would have seen it falling apart.
00:37:30
Speaker
And because it's really easy, I think, for a team to just start playing for themselves and did not be wanting to sacrifice. And I'm sure that there were guys that wanted to play more. I know there were guys that wanted to play more than they were playing. And I'm sure there were guys that were frustrated with the tactics. And I'm sure that there were guys that had all these little frustrations. But you don't go on a run like the centers went on if everyone isn't kind of pulling in the same direction.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think I kind of have a three-part answer for this question. I can't prepare it. So the first part I want to point out is maybe anecdotal, but I think it kind of makes sense. With the signing of Brad Smith, I thought he came in super quick.
00:38:16
Speaker
debuted in his first game, second game? Very quickly. Yeah. Within just a few days of coming to Seattle. And I think like the next week, he was in a piece of social media content playing Fortnite with Christian Roldon and Jordan Morris. I think like just having stuff like that is interesting and great. You have different personalities throughout the club that can kind of welcome in any different type of personality.
00:38:43
Speaker
Where that can be bad, however, is if we just look a little bit further north in Vancouver, I don't know if the listeners are aware of this press conference thing that happened earlier this week, but if not, just maybe Google Vancouver press conference blowout or something.
00:39:01
Speaker
you had players seeking out media members saying there are too many quicks on this team and I don't feel welcome and like that can be bad but like Jeremiah said and Susie have said like
00:39:15
Speaker
With Brian Spencer and the organization, a welcoming environment and a competitive environment to push forward is a good thing. And then you see even the last point I want to make is even the more introverted type of players who maybe aren't as charismatic as a Christian Roldan or whatnot, it seems like, especially on the field, you see that chemistry happening.
00:39:44
Speaker
in build-up and in defense and whatnot and like what Kim Ki here for example didn't speak English before he came here. I mean I think that's a player that you could very easily see kind of ostracized especially when he took the position of a very popular player. Yeah and it's like especially with with the Spanish speaking sort of
00:40:06
Speaker
for the lack of a better term, that has kind of formed on the Sounders, the five or six, seven players that come from South America or Latin America or even Spain and Victor Rodriguez's situation.
00:40:21
Speaker
They've all kind of become best friends. And Kim Ki-hee seems like everybody's favorite player. If you look at Instagram, or if you look at social media, it's like he's the one who gets the most players to comment on his stuff. It just seems like all sort of the best of every world.
00:40:40
Speaker
So I do think that's one of the underrated parts of what they've been able to build here is this bringing guys in from different backgrounds and convincing them all to. I think that they knew what they're going after with these guys, that it wasn't just a player with these attributes, but a player that
00:40:58
Speaker
was a certain way with his teammates.
Closing and Acknowledgements
00:41:00
Speaker
Guys that weren't going to just quit if things got bad. Anyway, I think it's actually kind of an underrated part of what they built here. That's probably a good place to call this a show. Thank you so much to Susie Rants, Mark Kastner.
00:41:14
Speaker
You're welcome. Read them all you can on Soundart Art and especially Ride of the Valkyries. Yes, you don't have to read me. You read my tweets anyways. Read Mark's tweets. But anyway, thanks to Susie and Mark, thanks to Optimism for unknowingly hosting us for this little ad hoc show that we're doing.
00:41:37
Speaker
And thanks to our sponsors, Queen Anne Acupuncture and Full Pole Wines. We recorded this in the Bootstrapper Studios, actually, kinda. Mobile Studio. Mobile Studio. I'm Jeremiah O'Shan. This is Noah's Adiettes. Remember, you'll never be out alone. Green, Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest, through the ocean so blue. It's roll on, Columbia, roll on.
00:42:07
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!