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Episode 374: Fourdan Fouriss
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The Sounders finally ended their 10-game road winless run in rather emphatic fashion, over-running Sporting KC 4-1 behind four, yes four goals from Jordan Morris. Leo Chu was also credited with four assists, tying a league record, including three primary assists. This was all despite the Sounders giving up an early goal, but the Sounders pretty much dominated the match from the 5th minute forward and now head into this week’s match with the LA Galaxy feeling pretty good about themselves.
Programming note: We've decided to try out breaking out the QA episode into its own thing. Look for that tomorrow.
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This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorships
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Fullpool 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.
Seattle Sounders MLS Cup Victory Celebration
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. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! I want to say bye-bye! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup winners! And Portland can't say he's cheating! Here comes Rudy Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle! They have climbed the mountain!
00:00:51
Speaker
And now our masters of all that they survey. Michael Adero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Seattle Sounders is confused. Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. Is that what you young people call twerking? How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome. Why do we win? Why do we win? This is Seattle Sounders, bro.
00:01:24
Speaker
the bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle and the hills the greenest green in Seattle like a beautiful child growing up
00:01:42
Speaker
Thanks to Watson's Counter for sponsoring this episode. Located in Ballard, Watson's Counter is your neighborhood specialty coffee shop, brunch spot, and now, coffee roaster. Sourcing exclusively high-scoring coffees, Watson's Counter has started their coffee roasting project to showcase amazing coffees grown around the world. Their first featured coffee is the beautifully complexed, washed Ethiopian Odola.
00:02:04
Speaker
Follow them on Instagram at wantsonscounter to keep up with all the upcoming releases or check out their website at www.watsonscounter.com. Whether you want to stop by for your daily coffee to go or sit down for delicious Korean inspired brunch, Watson's Counter has got you covered.
Episode Introduction and Sounders' Recent Victory
00:02:23
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and Watson's Counter. If you are previously subscribed to the Sounder At Heart podcast, allow me to introduce ourselves. This is episode 372, and we're recording on Tuesday, March 28th, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah Shannon. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
00:02:44
Speaker
The Sounders finally ended their 10-game rote winless run in rather emphatic fashion, overrunning supporting Kansas City 4-1 behind 4, yes, 4 goals from Jordan Morris. Leo Chu was also credited with 4 assists, tying a league record, including 3 primaries. This was all despite the Sounders giving up an early goal, but the Sounders pretty much dominated the match from the 5th minute forward and now head into this week's match with the LA Galaxy feeling pretty darn good about themselves.
00:03:10
Speaker
Aaron, is that about how you would describe your feelings as well?
Jordan Morris' Performance and Career Discussion
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's hard to not feel pretty great about an outcome like that. And especially on the road, especially sort of picking yourselves up after picking themselves up after, you know, a couple of tough results as encouraged as I think we were by the performance against LAFC, it was nice to see them.
00:03:33
Speaker
take that same quality of performance and translate it into, you know, a pretty lopsided win against a much worse Spurning KC team. And you have to feel great about it. They've scored four goals twice now. You know, they've scored more than two goals three times. That's pretty good. Makes the games where they didn't score at all a little more frustrating, maybe, but
00:03:58
Speaker
We're still at the point in the year where you can not care too much about those kind of results that are a little more frustrating. Just seeing Jordan weirdly a little later maybe than anybody would have expected, but I think really fulfilled his potential.
00:04:14
Speaker
this season has been just really nice to see. It's not shocking that it took him a little while to get back to playing his best after his second ACL tear, but it's very nice to see. I didn't feel like Jordan's done after last season or anything like that, but I thought maybe
00:04:34
Speaker
the player he was last year was the player he was. And to see that, no, he still has that extra gear and he can still just completely dominate games has been really, really nice to see. And he's completely dominated every game the Sounders have won this year. Yeah. You know, it's funny because he
00:04:53
Speaker
The two contracts that he signed since his original contract both came in off seasons where there were a lot of questions about him. His first extension was signed basically right after he did his ACL.
00:05:08
Speaker
And people were like, was that really the best thing to do? And then he goes out and has like a very solid year and then follows that up with an even better year. And then this last contract he signed, he also is coming off a not particularly great performance last year. And I think a lot, even more people were questioning whether or not this was a good move for the sounders to sign him to a long-term extension where he's making
00:05:38
Speaker
Not quite DP money, I would imagine, but pretty close in terms of max DP. And right now that's looking like a really, really smart move. He is playing probably the best soccer of his career.
00:05:57
Speaker
He's got seven goals through five games. He's never done that before. Only one player, in fact, in MLS history has scored more goals in the first five games of the season. That was Landon Donovan way back in 2008. He had eight goals in the first five games.
00:06:13
Speaker
And and he went on to score, you know, for what it's worth. He had 20 goals and 25 games a year. So, you know, if Jordan were to put together a season like that, I think we'd all be very happy with it. And and like you said, it would be sort of like finally fulfilling some of the potential that we have long seen in him. But this was I mean, beyond just his play, it does feel like Jordan is
00:06:39
Speaker
is just a different player. Like the way he carries himself, the confidence that he seems to be playing with, even in the two games where he didn't have as big of an impact, which were the previous two games against Cincinnati and LA, he's still doing things that positively impact the game. You know, he just isn't getting, I feel like it used to happen where he would get just sort of lost. Like you would forget he was out there, frankly, a lot of the time. And that just isn't happening right now.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we've speculated in the, you know, so far after some great performances this season, we've already speculated about what the causes could be. And I don't know. I mean, he just he really does look different, both from a confidence standpoint. Primarily, he's taking other players on again. It's been a while since we've seen him do that consistently and have success. He's seemingly become a much more creative player.
00:07:36
Speaker
Um, he's he's he's starting moves that are he's starting moves in a way other than give and go and just run past the guy, right? Which you know, nothing wrong with that and he's still capable of doing that for sure. He's making really intelligent runs. Uh, I wonder, you know, if it's having an extended run with the national team, uh, prior to the world cup, I wonder if it's having
00:08:01
Speaker
sort of the weight of I have to perform so I make the World Cup squad off of his shoulders that could be potentially part of it. I think that's I definitely I mean you know this is me playing armchair psychologist but I that feels like part of it. It almost has to be right like it almost had to have impacted him in some way I think it would be impossible for it not to for anyone that was on the bubble of the World Cup team
00:08:24
Speaker
Frankly, I think we maybe should have seen a little more of him at the World Cup, based on the way he's been playing. So, especially given the U.S.'s struggles. But in any case, maybe it's the whoever the left back is, primarily Newhoo, but in this last game, Kellen Rowe, taking a more stay-at-home
00:08:45
Speaker
role and freeing him up a little, who knows, but whatever it is, I hope it continues because I think with him playing anywhere close to this level, the sounders have got to be considered contenders for just about every trophy. Yeah, we sort of talked about this last week, but his
00:09:02
Speaker
His ceiling raises the sounder's floor immensely. I think this is what we said last week. He doesn't need to be an MVP for the sounders to contend, but if he is playing an MVP level, the sounders are absolutely contenders. There's just no doubt about it in my mind.
00:09:25
Speaker
the Jordan Morris podcast, but I did want to kind of go over the four. You mentioned how he was scoring in different ways and I thought what was really impressive about this game was all four goals were kind of different and showcased a little bit different aspects of his game. The first one, just a perfect
00:09:42
Speaker
counter attack or I guess it wasn't a counter attack, but a perfect transition goal where he gets out, he sees a ball going out into the left channel and he sees an opening between the two center backs and he just like makes his run. And it's a perfect delivery from Leo Chu. He slides in and finishes it well past the goalkeeper. Uh, the next one is a little bit more of a, of a kind of give and go,
00:10:06
Speaker
a little bit with Leo Chu where Chu puts on a nice move and gets it to Morris inside the box and he needs to you know it's funny because he gets dinged a lot for not using his left foot as much and this in a way you could look at this one and say like okay he's doing that again where he's
00:10:23
Speaker
contorting his body not to use his left foot. But I think the thing is that every professional player is capable of hitting that shot with his left foot. That's the obvious shot to take. But that's not necessarily the better shot because the goalkeeper is expecting that shot and that's where he's protecting the near post.
00:10:44
Speaker
And he opens up his body and he, and he just sort of hits it through him in a way that I don't think a lot of players are going to be able to do that. But because he is so used to contorting his body to hit that right footed shot, it's a, it's actually a kind of a natural position for him to do it in.
00:11:01
Speaker
And then the third goal was that volley at the back post from Nico Ledero where, you know, he doesn't celebrate at all, like at all on the hat trick, but then he gets an even better celebration after the fourth goal, which he, like just real rise up.
00:11:20
Speaker
and heads it in with authority. And that's another kind of goal that we hadn't seen in his bag previously. Like he was not the guy hitting that back post header. And, you know, he just looks like he's grown a lot in that way. And if that's a goal that, like he's had a few headed goals this year, but not like that one where he's just sort of out jumping everybody and finishing at the back post like that.
00:11:45
Speaker
And I just love that celebration where, you know, he just, he starts counting off the goals to the crowd and he gives them one kind of thumbs up. And then Sanders made this great video where they overlaid some music and they kind of put hearts over all the people flipping them off. And it was a great video, but the even better part of it was after the game, Jada Evans of the Seattle Times asked him about that celebration and he apologized for it.
00:12:13
Speaker
He says like, Oh, that's not me. I felt kind of bad, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it was just like, Oh man, that's so perfect. That's so Jordan Morris. It is. It is very Jordan Morris. It's very cute. Um, I do wonder how much of that is like just rubbing salt further in the wounds, but I'm going to kill you with kindness. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, it's a very Southern. That's a very Southern way of doing it. I suppose, isn't it? It is. Yeah. It's probably, that's probably not. He's probably being genuine, but, uh,
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think and I want to talk about the goal, you know, we talked about where the obvious shot, I guess, is with the left foot with the right foot. And I think one of the things where Jordan started struggling in the past was when he started trying to force himself to use his left foot more often. Yeah.
00:12:58
Speaker
And and it was almost like he was in his head. And, you know, when he was really feeling himself as a younger player in his second year, especially, and just really, I think, looking like he was not going to be here for very long, he was doing all sorts of crazy shit with his right foot.
00:13:18
Speaker
He was doing all sorts of outside the foot passes. He took several shots from like crazy positions with his right foot to test the goalkeeper. And then it was like he forced himself to stop doing that stuff and he became less effective. And then eventually I think he did become more comfortable with his left foot. And so it seemed like, okay, well, it was worth it.
00:13:40
Speaker
But, you know, he's physically, he's the player he is. Right. At this point, he's probably not going to develop an entirely new like physical trait. Just do what works. You know, if you can score that goal with your right foot.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's fine. There are lots of great attacking players who are more one-footed than, than Jordan Morris. Yeah. You know, and I was talking to, I was kind of going back and forth or I wasn't going back and forth, but I, so when there was some back and forth and on the center comments about how left footed or how right footed Morris is and
00:14:19
Speaker
That's always struck me as a perception issue more than a reality. And part of it is that he is so good with his right foot that he is able to do things with his right foot that make it look awkward. And I think that we read that as he doesn't want to use his left foot.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I don't know if that's entirely fair because he does actually hit a fair number of crosses with his left foot. If the finish is there, he's it's not like he's literally not trying to use his left foot. But I went back and looked. He's got 10 goals, 10 of his like 63 or whatever professional goals are with his left foot, which is not a lot, but it's you know, it's 17 percent. It's not nothing. Yeah. And if you go through and you just sort of like look at almost any player in the U.S. national team pool,
00:15:10
Speaker
And like, okay, Christian Pulisic, a more even distribution between right and left, but like outside of him, like all the goal scorers are heavily one footed. You know, like Ricardo Pepe, I think was like three of 30,
00:15:30
Speaker
33 goals or something like that. So like 10%, less than 10% of his goals are with his left foot. And I don't hear anyone talking about Ricardo Pepe's lack of a left foot. And partly because it doesn't matter. Like if you're scoring, who cares what foot it's with. Jordan Morris has for the better part of a decade.
00:15:51
Speaker
just driven people completely out of their minds. Yeah. And not just the weirdest reasons. Right. And so any anything that these people can find a pick at his game. And he's just I mean, he's just it's kind of insane that he hasn't turned into a bigger dickhead. Right. Hasn't turned into the kind of guy that would do the four goal celebration and not only not apologize for it, but
00:16:19
Speaker
rub it in a little more after day than you, because I would, I would have. He's had so many people in the, I mean, in the national, like former national teamer types who talk shit about him and like how many players in the pool have anyone
00:16:35
Speaker
talking badly about them, right? And for like, he's never taken a ton of minutes from anybody. No, he's never. He's gotten exactly the kind of national team minutes you would expect somebody with his career to have gotten. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of minutes again in the gold cup, lots of minutes against smaller concaf nations. Yeah. You know,
00:16:59
Speaker
weirdly some pretty good performances against bigger countries but mostly earlier in his career right uh when he was sort of and i and it's like the worst thing that he ever did was dare to be called up as a college kid and
00:17:16
Speaker
and sort of be anointed the next great American high product and then choose what was best for him and not what was best for the headlines, which was, he decided to play in Seattle. And it's like, you can't convince me that if he had gone to Germany at 19 or 20 or whatever it was, that he'd be in a better place right now than where he is.
00:17:39
Speaker
Even even if you would, even if you would, even if you could build me a time machine and say, look at what he became when if he goes to Germany in this alternate universe, he didn't. He didn't do it. He made a decision when he was a kid that turned out differently than people wanted it to. But it's like it's done. It's just the weirdest thing. It is weird. It's so spiteful. And I know like it sounds
00:18:10
Speaker
narcissistic when sounders fans say this, but it's undeniably true that sounders that play for the US national team get shit on more than other MLS players that play for the national team. Christian and Jordan drive people crazy in a way. Yeah, they do. Like all those guys will, they'll say, Oh, Walker's MMM shouldn't be starting or like whatever, but the existence of Christian and Jordan is like,
00:18:39
Speaker
you know, something like biblical torment to these people. And they're afraid that Jordan Morris might, uh, get a start in an important game or something horrible thing. Uh, and before we like, just to kind of close the book a little bit on Jordan, uh,
00:18:57
Speaker
I will say the other thing I really liked about this game wasn't just the goals. The goals were great. The goals were important. That's ultimately what he's there to do is to score goals. But what I really liked, I just thought he played as a number nine really well. He dropped back into possession a few times to help relieve pressure, especially against the press. He did a good job occupying the center backs. He tracked back on defense a few times.
00:19:23
Speaker
You know, he he just did everything you would want to do. You would want your forward to do. And maybe this is something we'll get into later, but it is. I don't I don't think he's the like the number nine. The sounders don't need to suddenly anoint him the number nine. The starter, especially when you have Raul Rodriguez and a bear, presumably healthy.
Leo Chu's Performance and Team Restructuring Debate
00:19:47
Speaker
But it's a nice.
00:19:50
Speaker
it's a nice piece to have at your disposal. Like those guys aren't going to be available every week. And again, certain kinds of defenses. I think Jordan's really useful.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And I think to the fact that he has when he's played on the wing this year, he hasn't scored four goals in any games, obviously, but he has scored. He's very good. And he's been a nightmare for defenses. He has a couple of assists like he's doing. He's he's played at winger at as high of a level as he played in this game.
00:20:22
Speaker
as a striker. So it's not like it doesn't feel like all your, you know, you're cutting this dominant force off at the knees by moving them back out to the way it doesn't feel that way, which is nice because I know that when, you know, the, the move, his move to wing initially happened. It kind of felt that way because he struggled to adapt a little bit because he played really well as a striker the prior season. And so, um, yeah, but it doesn't feel that way at all. He feels very comfortable on the wing, but
00:20:52
Speaker
I do, it does feel much better knowing that it's probably not going to be Freddy getting those starts when they bear and Rudy just can't go. Yeah. And, uh, this is maybe a good transition into this part of the discussion, but, uh, I suppose part of the other reason people want to see, or what they're not people, the other compelling argument for moving him to nine, I suppose, is that it creates an opening to put layout two on the field and.
00:21:20
Speaker
Leo was great in this game. I mean, he was everything I think we wanted him to be for the last two years, frankly. He was creative, he was effective, he was a danger both shooting and passing. He was stretching the field, he was clever in possession. I mean, he was great.
00:21:48
Speaker
I really, you know, it was and I think it was really important from his confidence perspective to have a game like this. That said, I'm a little and I guess kind of like Jordan, I'm a little disinclined to feel like he could do this against I think this is a good matchup for both of them.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I think Leo has looked really good this year as a substitute. And so to see him have a performance like this in a start was super encouraging. Yeah, but it's a really bad sport in Kansas City team. And he was just he was in a position to succeed. And that doesn't take away the fact that he did. There are plenty of games where he was put in a position to succeed last year and the year before where he.
00:22:35
Speaker
You know, kind of. Messed the bed and he didn't do that at all. He took advantage of it. I think he's definitely in playing time, but I don't I don't think we're at a point where we've got to restructure the team to get right in the field. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's there's just there's going to be plenty of minutes to go around. And I think as long as he's getting consistent sub performances,
00:23:00
Speaker
He's going to stay sharp. He's, he's going to get spot starts here and there. Jordan's going to need a day off eventually, most likely. Um, hopefully not too many, but probably won't be able to start every game. And yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's encouraging, but you know, sports fans have a tendency to, to get carried away a little bit. I think he's earned more starts. Like, I think he's got to be the guy that you start in any game when a bear or, and Ruby Diaz aren't unavailable.
00:23:30
Speaker
I think that's unquestionable and I think he's going to get plenty of other starts, but I'm not to the point where I want to completely restructure the team tactically to get Leo to Jordan and Raul on the field at the same time. I don't think that's a wise way to go about it. Yeah. That said, we might have an interesting opportunity this week. You know, it's a Tuesday.
00:23:52
Speaker
So we don't have a full assessment at this point, but Alex rolled on did come off the mat on Monday. He came out of the El Salvador Magic in the United States at halftime with some sort of muscle tightness. The indication from the Sounders is that they don't seem to think it's too serious. They haven't done a full assessment of their own yet. But, you know, it would be an interesting option if he's not fully fit to like leave Christian at right back.
Player Analysis and Squad Depth
00:24:21
Speaker
and move Jordan over to the right, let Raul start up as the forward, and Leocho on the left. That would be another interesting option.
00:24:34
Speaker
That said, I think Christian Roldan was pretty serviceable as a right back. You know, he got burnt pretty badly on the first goal where he let Daniel Shalloway sort of get goal side on him and that created a whole cascading
00:24:53
Speaker
run of issues where, uh, you know, players were out of position and whatnot. And, and of course, sporting Kansas, he ended up scoring, but that was the only dribble he got beat on all game. Uh, he won most of his duels. He, you know, got forward when needed. He put in some good crosses. He picked up the, you know, he, he drew the foul on, uh, Ben sweat to get his first yellow, uh, which was, you know, while he was tacking down the, down the last sideline, uh,
00:25:23
Speaker
I wouldn't have expected this, but Christian rolled on, especially with the way that the sounders have set up themselves, makes a lot of sense as you're back up right back, if that's what you need to do. Yeah, I mean, I think I'd love to see Reed Baker Whiting. So would I, yes. But. So I think his skill set also sets up well for that position. It does. And I think that Christian, I think he's very serviceable right back.
00:25:52
Speaker
but it's not his best position. I think it's fair to say. Yes. And the Sounders get weaker elsewhere, although, you know, they didn't look especially weak last weekend, but it ostensibly does weaken the team for Christian not to be in his regular spot. But I...
00:26:12
Speaker
I think it makes sense to do if you have to do it in this game at least just because you know it worked pretty well last game. And there's no sense to reinvent, like the sounders are going to have to rotate enough this year with the fixture congestion and everything. I think it makes a little bit of sense to kind of go with what is working when it's working. And Christian worked it right back generally in the last game.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, he did. And I thought it was, like I said, it was a serviceable performance. I'm definitely not ready to throw everything out. And it does create some tactical
00:26:54
Speaker
questions like one of the reasons I think it worked was Albert Rusnak was able to play the the right mid position very similar to Christian where he was cutting in a lot and and almost acting as a as another number 10 and Christian was sort of able to do the mimic his brother where he was getting high and wide whereas if Jordan is playing as the right mid
00:27:20
Speaker
It doesn't set up quite as neatly because he's not going to be playing as a defector number 10. He's going to be a winner. And so, I mean, I suppose maybe Christian would do more under lapping and would maybe occupy some of that space.
00:27:37
Speaker
uh that way although that seems like it creates some defensive issues uh so it might not be quite you know a lot of these things i it's like you can kind of get wrapped up in and putting all these names on paper and saying like oh yeah that looks great on paper
00:27:54
Speaker
It doesn't always play how you want it to play, though. Yeah. It also, I mean, it wouldn't be shocking. It's happened before. The role doesn't necessarily start immediately when he's back from international duty. It wouldn't. So it wouldn't be shocking. Maybe Jordan starts up topping and who knows. But I think it's nice to know that, I mean, we've seen Christian play right back 20, but not the sounders are playing a little bit differently this year. So it was good to see that he can still be effective there.
00:28:20
Speaker
And, you know, I just I do really want to see what Reed Baker Whiting can do. I think everybody does. Yeah, I do, too. And, you know, and unfortunately, we aren't getting a lot of visibility into his time with the national team. He's with the U.S. U-19. I don't even I think he started their first game. I don't I know they had two games. I don't know if I actually don't know what happened in the other one. But yeah, I mean, it's it is funny how
00:28:50
Speaker
These things work where a few weeks ago, I think there was some real stress about like, is this team deep enough? And now it's sort of like, oh, there's no.
00:29:02
Speaker
18 guys who I really like on this squad right now. And maybe we have three forwards and three starting caliber forwards. And one of them is 27, 28 years old. And a few weeks ago, it was like, man, we don't have no forwards under the age of 30. And it's just funny how these things work. You see a few good performances and it sort of changes your thinking on everything.
Sounders' Strategy and Upcoming Matches
00:29:32
Speaker
But one of the other things I was really pleased about in this game was just in general, you know, the way that the Sounders reacted to going down a goal, which to me was sort of like the biggest sign that this is a team that has turned the page on last year, especially when you consider that I was away from home. You know, the Sounders only got
00:29:56
Speaker
They only got five road results last year, which is a crazy thing to think of. They got three wins and two ties in none of those five results. Did they give up the first goal or not? I take it back in other than only in one of those games that they give up the first goal. And that was the LA galaxy game where they actually were down to zero. They came back to take a three, two lead and then, uh, ended up settling for a tie. But in all three of their wins and then the other tie, they, uh, they had to, they scored first.
00:30:27
Speaker
And I don't know, I just thought the way they reacted to that, which was, it was almost like a woke them up. And they realized like, wait a minute, we're actually the better team here and let's play like it. And then for the last 85 minutes of the game, they were pretty much dominant. I think there's a tendency when you first watch the game to remember it as, well, once they scored, they sort of were able to get control of the game. And that was sort of the narrative that they were
00:30:52
Speaker
giving on the telecast, which maybe is why you started thinking that way. But I watched it back the other day and it struck me. I mean, they were generating scoring chances literally immediately after giving up that goal and really took control of it right away.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it is a huge contrast to what we've seen last year, especially where they go down early on the road, especially and it just feels like you're not coming back from it. It did not feel that way at all. I totally agree.
00:31:29
Speaker
And I mean, sporting Casey is bad, right? That may have been the worst team the Sounders have played this year. And they look the worst. I think they looked worse in a lot of ways than Colorado or or RSL.
00:31:47
Speaker
But you can only beat who's in front of you, and if the team in front of you is that bad, you should beat them 4-1. You should probably beat them 4-0, but you can't always have it your way. It's encouraging that the Sounders are not having close games against bad teams.
00:32:07
Speaker
and that they are very, very clearly a much better team than these bad teams and seem to be playing like it. I mean, they were clearly a much more talented team than teams like Sporting Kansas City last year, but they weren't playing like it. They didn't look like they believed that they were more talented. They didn't look like they believed they were going to win the games.
00:32:24
Speaker
And it's just night and day this year, and I don't see any reason to think that that's not going to continue. Whatever it is, whether missing the playoffs was kind of a wake-up call for them, whether it's just the new season and new vibes, whether it's a tactical change, whatever it is,
00:32:43
Speaker
it doesn't feel fleeting. It feels like they are going out, being very intentional with how they're approaching these games and beating the tar out of bad teams. And it's nice. Even when the Sounders have been at their best, they weren't doing this regularly.
00:32:59
Speaker
No. And I, and I think, you know, if, if what it turns out is that the sounders are a team that are capable of dominating bad teams and sort of playing it very tight with the best teams in the league. I mean, I don't know, like that's not, that's not ideal, I guess, but that is kind of like the recipe of winning supporter shield, frankly, or a contending for the supporters. Like there's only so many elite teams in the league. Uh, they've played two of them and they.
00:33:30
Speaker
they didn't dominate either one of them, but they were every bit, you know, and they were, you know, going toe to toe with them. And, and like, you're going to win some of those games, you know, you might not go 10 and O against those teams, but if you can, if you can go, you know,
00:33:48
Speaker
hold your own if you can if you can if you can average a point and a half in those games you're you're in good shape especially if you're kicking the crap out of all the bad teams you're playing right and hey like that's okay that's that's that's an okay place to be yeah giving up two goals through five games while scoring at the clip the Sounders have been scoring at that's
00:34:14
Speaker
You got to feel very good about that. And if one of those goals was the only goal in a game that you lost and the other one, you know, was the only goal that a team that might as well not have been there managed to sneak by early, then, you know, I don't know. I think it's impossible. This is as good as I felt about the sounders in a very long time. Yeah. No, I mean, you better, better than app post post CCL last year. Cause I feel like the cracks were.
00:34:40
Speaker
a little bit there. They were and they had had some bad results and and and they haven't had like knock on wood. They haven't had any.
00:34:52
Speaker
bad results yet this year. They haven't looked bad. I didn't think they've looked bad in any game. It's just degrees of how good they've looked. And like I said, losing 1-0 at FC Cincinnati is not the worst result. Time LAFC 0-0 at home, not ideal, but like I said, we kind of set our peace on this.
00:35:17
Speaker
There's positive signs. There's positives to take away, I think, from every one of these games. For me, this was probably the most positive result of the season so far. Galaxy are a team who are in a very similar position as Sporting Kansas City. They looked like absolute ass against Portland last week. Chicharito, I think,
00:35:41
Speaker
It's still hurt. As far as I know, they're still sort of at war with their supporters section. So the vibes are not great in LA right now. This is a good opportunity for the Sounders to get down there, get another win, and then hopefully set up what would be a really fun encounter with St. Louis City when they come back home. So not to look past the galaxy, but
00:36:09
Speaker
It's shaping up like this is this is this will be I think we're going to learn a lot about this team in the next five games. I'll put it that way. Yeah. Yeah, that seems right.
Conclusion and Q&A Transition
00:36:17
Speaker
But all right. Well, we're going to we're doing something new. We have a question and answer session that we're going to do, but we're actually going to
00:36:29
Speaker
break it up into two episodes that ended up, people seem to really like that actually last week when we did it by accident. And so I think we're gonna do that again this week. Again, if you are new to the podcast, thank you. Just to give you a little bit of a rundown what happened.
00:36:49
Speaker
the Vox Media stopped supporting the Sounder Heart podcast. And so what we ended up doing was just folding it into the Nozodietes podcast subscriber feed. I would hope you are familiar with Aaron and I, if you're a Sounder Heart podcast listener. But yeah, so hopefully you stick around and
00:37:15
Speaker
And we won't judge you if you weren't listening to the No Sadietes podcast feed before this. But I imagine there was a lot of overlap. But for the few of you who don't know, this is, you know, we're going to be doing this a few times a week probably or doing podcasts. And one of the things we're going to do is break off this question and answer session.
00:37:39
Speaker
And with all that said, I'm Jeremiah Shan. I guess I should thank our sponsors. I got to get out of getting this new rhythm where I'm ending the show earlier than we expected. But thanks to our sponsors, Watson's counter and full pull wines. I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Aaron Campo and Lickett. This is No Saudi at this. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:38:05
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:38:36
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!