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Lobbing Scorchers: Thank You, FC Dallas
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Concacaf Champions Cup is off and running and the Seattle Sounders are off to a roaring start after Wednesday’s 3-1 Leg 1 triumph in Guatemala. Can anyone stop the FC Dallas boys? Did we just witness Pedro de la Vega’s breakout? We discuss that and more in our very first Dub Pod of 2025. Later on, we hit an Agenda Check that might ruffle some feathers among the anti-Craig Waibel community and hit a couple of other Sounders-related headlines, including rumors linking Obed Vargas to the Eredivisie.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Season Kickoff
00:00:00
Speaker
What's going to
00:00:11
Speaker
Noah
00:00:21
Speaker
what's going on everybody welcome to episode eighty four of lobbing scorchers i'm ari liianal noah We got a dub pod. We got a dub pod. How are you feeling?
00:00:33
Speaker
Second dub pod of the year, Ari. It was first a double dub pod. Now it's ah it's a real dub pod. It's a CCC dub pod. It's a Pedro de la Vega dub pod.
00:00:44
Speaker
It's a Paul Oriola dub pod. It's just, there's a lot talk about today. It feels good. It feels good to have a game to review. It feels good to have a dub pod to lay down. It's just, it's great to have the season back. It's great to have CCC back.
00:01:00
Speaker
And we had a, we have a heck of a game to
Sounders vs. Antigua Match Recap
00:01:03
Speaker
get into tonight. The Seattle Sounders have emerged. as three, one victors after leg one of their CCC series against Antigua.
00:01:11
Speaker
ah Paul Areola got a goal. Pedro de la Vega got a goal. Albert Rusnak got a goal. Shout out to the brigade. Tough day for the brigade. tough day We're going to break all of that down in our game review. We're going to hit our, we did our first agenda check on the last show. So, yeah We're going to get our first agenda check of, of, uh, when there's actual games.
00:01:29
Speaker
ah and, uh, we're also going to hit some of the other results from CCC and a couple of other headlines, uh, related to the sounders. Actually, um, we're going to preview Charlotte FC tomorrow on, uh,
00:01:42
Speaker
on lot watch under lobbying scorers under the lights, the live show that I'm doing every Thursday at 7.30 PM. I'm going previewing the Charlotte with the guys or one guy from top in 90 Charlotte FC podcast and YouTube show.
00:01:57
Speaker
So we're not going to preview Charlotte tonight. This will be just, just game review. And I think it's better that way because ah it's the first Dub pod of the season. And it's a huge dub
Podcast Growth and Community Engagement
00:02:08
Speaker
pod. This was a, this was a big time result for Seattle.
00:02:11
Speaker
um But before we get into all that, ah do have to let you all know that lobbying Scorchers is indeed ah part of the sounder at heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounder at heart.com slash LS sounder heart.com slash LS.
00:02:28
Speaker
Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show. Noah, do we have any new subs? We got four new subs, Ari. oh Are you ready? yeah Let's go. Yeah. Eric, k Casey Morgan, Beth Brundage, and Matthew Montgomery. Thank you all for becoming.
00:02:48
Speaker
members of our army. We have enough to field like a full roster, a full reserve team and a full like you 12 team. We're up to 73 sounded hard subs. Love to see that. Thank you all for the support. And, uh, thank you all for, ah ah Helping us grow on YouTube. The channel is doing really well. We did a ah Josh attention CO trade reaction live stream. That was super pop in. I think we had like 180 people in there. yeah that was crazy. That was it was going off. We had like the entire sound at heart staff going in and out. It was it was are our live shows. If you haven't been tuning in, you should tune
Sponsorship and Collaborative Opportunities
00:03:23
Speaker
into those.
00:03:23
Speaker
Also, Shout out to all of our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, Full Pole Wines. ah We have got a special project coming up with Hacks and Ferments that you all are going to enjoy. so And if you want to sponsor Lobbing Scorchers, send Noah an email.
00:03:41
Speaker
LobbingScorchers at JustOnceMedia.com. If you haven't done so yet, sub to the YouTube, follow us on IG, all socials, right review on iTunes, what Spotify, whatever. Okay. Let's let's do this. sub pot du po It's time for the dub pod.
Match Analysis: Key Strategies and Player Contributions
00:03:56
Speaker
Three, one. at ah At Antigua, going into this game, when Nico and I were previewing it, i i I tend to think of a first leg on the road of a CCC series like this, where youre go it's your first competitive match of the season.
00:04:11
Speaker
I was saying that if you draw this, if even if you 0-0 it or 1-1 it, it would feel disappointing considering how good the squad looked in preseason. But just on its face, like a road draw in circumstances like this, I never think of that as a bad results. So when you come out of it with three road goals and I had three, one on aggregate, that is a fantastic result. It's about as good a result as you could hope to get.
00:04:38
Speaker
ah i don't think the performance was as lights out as three, one, but like, I think it was a pretty damn good performance. You have to have a pretty good damn good performance.
Highlight: Paul Areola's Early Goal
00:04:47
Speaker
I think to get to that, right but we'll let, we'll get into the fine points of all that. But ah let's break down the goals we saw in this game as we always do at the top of our game reviews.
00:04:57
Speaker
Cause there was some really good ones. um First gold, three minutes into the game. No, we had barely, ah we barely sat in our seats and gotten situated.
00:05:08
Speaker
i mean, i I didn't even have my popcorn. in I didn't have my popcorn ready. i was just sitting at my desk and Paul Areola already, scored a goal. Uh, Jesus Ferrer and Paul Areola combined for, uh, for the first goal of Sounders season, uh, Obed Vargas with the secondary assist to put Jesus Ferrer in, uh, in on the right side.
Defense: Challenges and Improvements Needed
00:05:31
Speaker
he sends across back across the box. Paul Areola is crashing in. ah he gets his shot on target, took a deflection, but, uh, that goes in and Seattle's up one zero three minutes into the game. And Noah, at that point I was thinking myself, Oh, hell yeah.
00:05:45
Speaker
All right. Like, cause I think going into the game, my, what the biggest thing I was looking for was where the offensive improvements that we saw during preseason going to translate to real game like this three minutes into the game, it did not look like ah there was going to be any adjustment period at all. And I think,
00:06:08
Speaker
Any first game of the season, you're usually going to build in some kind of acclimation adaptation period, especially because you got a couple new guys. I saw that goal and I was like, man, they might have ah avoided that altogether. How are you feeling after that Paul Areola goal?
00:06:24
Speaker
I was cloud-nining, Ari. I was like, all right. This has already worked. Everything that we've been talking about, it's they've fixed it.
00:06:36
Speaker
we're winning the whole We're winning the whole tournament. We're winning MLS. We're winning MLS everything. We're just we're sweeping. and I was riding pretty high, but ah you know it it it came crashing down very shortly after that. Yeah, so ah I would describe the rest of the first half except for the very end.
00:06:55
Speaker
The way I looked at this first half was that the ah beginning, the very beginning of it and the very end of it were phenomenal. They looked they looked great. And then everything in the middle was a bit of a shit show. Yeah. Um, they, uh, I think they didn't do a good enough job at, uh, can, at controlling the game, controlling the tempo in the aftermath of the opening goal. Um, and there was, uh, there was just, there was so many, they had so many giveaways in this game. Yeah. i was there And especially in that kind of period between the fourth minute and about the 42nd minute,
00:07:31
Speaker
ah There was just too many giveaways. ah They, ah they lost control of the match for lengthy portions of that period of time, I would say. And in the 24th minute, ah Antigua got their equalizer, Oscar Santis,
00:07:47
Speaker
scored it. And if you watched the, uh, uh, lobbying scorchers kickoff preview show with Nico Moreno, that was the exact guy that he highlighted as the, yeah he is the best player on their team by no small margin. ah and, uh, it was definitely it was a situation. It was a nice goal. Uh,
00:08:07
Speaker
but it was definitely a situation where Seattle's defense got caught out and the cross, the low low cross comes in and knew who is on an Island with Oscar Santis. And he did not, uh, win that one V one.
00:08:20
Speaker
ah I mean, thought, I thought, I thought that that was his thing. yeah Okay. i knew you were going to do that. ah He did. He did lose that one V
Second-Half Performance and Adjustments
00:08:30
Speaker
one. I will say anytime your left back is on that much of an island against their number one best attacker, you're asking to have a bad time.
00:08:39
Speaker
And Oscar Santas, he made a nice play like to set himself up with that touch and get the shot off. But as apparently the guy who's become like the new the value of new who defender, I do have to admit that new who was, i would say, mostly to blame on that goal.
00:08:58
Speaker
he got put in a bad situation to be totally isolated against that guy. Yeah. But, uh, I mean, he lost the one. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Mar, yeah. Mar was nowhere to be found. Jackson Reagan got beat.
00:09:10
Speaker
He was one V one with, you know, their best player on the field and the games, the game state was just not, it was hectic. It was, it was hectic. There was way too open. Yeah. It was way too open. It was way too hectic.
00:09:21
Speaker
The midfield was a mess. They were they were asking to get bammed on. they were They deserved it, I would say. i would i think it's fair to say that based on how the game the game state was at that point, like ah I don't know. i wasn't ah yeah I wasn't aggrieved that they conceded from ah from a game state. this was you know This was the kind of thing, though, that I was worried about and talking about in the last episode when we were grading the preseason. I was saying, like you know this is kind of the thing that worries me is How is the defense going to settle in?
00:09:53
Speaker
Is it going to be situations like this? They looked so, so open to the counter. They just looked open in general. It looked like a feeding frenzy. And all I could see in my mind was Denny Bawanga.
00:10:06
Speaker
eating against whatever miscommunication and mismatch was going on there in the defense. And, you know, I think I also noted in the last podcast of about like knew who coming forward and and having, you know, some sort of scary feelings about that. Well, I guess it wasn't new who that I should have been worried about. It was every other defender getting caught out of position. and i think knew who got caught out as well, but yeah,
00:10:30
Speaker
it is a new formation. it is something that's going to happen. You're going to have those growing pains, but I mean, it was a little bit tilting in the first 45. forty five It was a, it was a pretty bad concession. And, uh, it felt like after the goal, they tried to take the sting out of it a little bit and slow it it down.
00:10:51
Speaker
it it just did not pan out like that. And like I said, I think it was a pretty deserved equalizer for Antigua. um i I thought the very end of the first half, they they brought it back and they looked kind of like they did to start the match.
00:11:05
Speaker
i thought to I thought the start of the match, it it looked pretty much like it did in preseason. And then at the end of the first half, they were able to like just keep the ball again. You're like, I call it the, uh, uh, what was the cup? The 2017 Toronto FC cup where that they lost like two zero. Right. Like in it's 2017 Toronto FC cup mode where they just can't keep the ball. Yeah. Like they literally like they just couldn't maintain possession at all. And like you said, they, they were too susceptible on the counter and, uh,
00:11:39
Speaker
It was 1-1. Yeah. which one I think it's honestly better that they're finding this out now rather than, you know, months into the season. Like, it seems very it seems very fixable. It seems like something where, and this is something that they changed, was you tuck your wingbacks back in to defend more, to kind of just get yourself more set.
00:11:58
Speaker
And then you're able to build out of that, and then those wingbacks can play more freely. But I think just that, like... movement and like settling in. I mean, these players have been essentially playing the same system for like the last three years.
00:12:12
Speaker
And this is something completely new. Brian Schmetzer swears that it's not, but that's, that's a lie. Yeah. I think, I think Brian's capping on that. So it's 1-1 halftime. And at that point, I'm already doing the rationalization to myself. Like, all right, it would have been nice to ah get out of that with the 1-0.
00:12:31
Speaker
ah But, you know, if you tie this 1-1, you're probably still going to win the series as long as you just get out of this level. Or even if they were...
00:12:42
Speaker
Honestly, man, even if they were down a goal going into the next leg, I think they probably still win the series. That's what happened against Santa Tecla that year. So I like my, ah my concern wasn't really at that point, whether or not they were going to advance or win the series.
00:12:57
Speaker
It was more just like, uh, I liked how the beginning and end of that first half looked, but honestly, uh, I didn't really like everything in between that, uh, that much.
00:13:09
Speaker
So the second half, I really want to see, see it look more buttoned up like it did during preseason and, uh, just not as chaotic and also go get, go get a goal or two, ah show that, uh, those attacking fireworks we saw in those exhibition games were, actually laying the foundation for
Highlight: Pedro de la Vega's Goal
00:13:26
Speaker
something. So,
00:13:27
Speaker
Uh, to their credit, that's exactly what they did. Pedro de la Vega gets the, uh, go ahead goal in the 61st minute, just past the hour mark. Uh, pretty ah people are going to say it's not a banger because it took a deflection, but I think it was a banger.
00:13:44
Speaker
Anyway, it was, it was from, from deep. It was from way outside, way outside the box. It did take a pretty wicked deflection, beat the goalkeeper.
00:13:56
Speaker
Seattle's up to one. We're going to talk about De La Vega's performance because that was ah polarizing topic, ah but he did get ah pretty sweet goal in this game. And Deflection or not, that was great to see because we all know the storyline with him last year and all the time that he missed and how much how excited we've been about him during preseason. So for him to get a goal in this game was great to see.
00:14:22
Speaker
and This game didn't really feel like 3-1 because it was 2-1 the last moments and, uh, Obed Vargas masterclass yeah this last goal here. This was a great goal. Uh, Obed Vargas, like you said, it was pretty much all him that made this goal. He wins the ball off a pretty bad, uh, goal kick from the Antigua goalkeeper, but it's so it was, I don't think he made like an amazing play to win the ball, but the vision ah to see the pass to Georgie and then the execution to hit it.
00:14:57
Speaker
And then at that point, it's just like a training drill for Georgie and Rusnak. It wasn't nice. I will say for the brigade, it wasn't actually a higher degree of difficulty. I think on the finish, then Rusnak made it look, he hit it back across and ah kind of out thuged the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper had that area covered, but Rusnak knew he was going to cheat. So he hit it far. But was a nice shot. It was a good goal, but it doesn't count because it was against Central American opponent. It was a breakaway against team. Stoppage time. doesn't count. And the areola goal doesn't count either because it was a deflection. Correct. And the Pedro one doesn't count. It was a deflection. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So none of them count, but they do count on the CONCACAF scoreboard. So Seattle takes a aggregate lead into leg two Lumen Field.
00:15:49
Speaker
excellent result, ah really as good a result, I think, as they could have helped to get in this game. Going into this game is their first match of the season against a team that's played eight games, making that bigger road trip.
00:16:04
Speaker
Doesn't get much bigger than that result wise. Noah, I wanted to introduce a new segment new segment. We got a new segment that we're going to do during the game reviews this year. ah may i might rename this if I can get more creative, but we're going to do Lobbing Scorchers, Man of the Match, like as an official got it thing.
00:16:22
Speaker
If you want us to sponsor... we need trophy? Do we need to make trophies and like in hand and mouth to players? Individual for everyone. yeah That might be a little ambitious, but we are going to award it, and if you want to sponsor that...
00:16:35
Speaker
Email Noah. My Lobby Scorchers man in the match for this game. I'm going to give it... ah but to give I'm going to cheat already. i'm going to give it to the double pivot of Christian you and Obed Vargas. i'm gonna i I was going to give it to Christian and then I was thinking about and I was like, I don't... bet The last goal happened. I'm like, I don't see how I can't give it to Obed.
00:16:57
Speaker
I thought Christian was a monster tonight. ah yeah Like so much dirty work that kind of goes unnoticed. I wanted to give him his credit for that. Obed $20 million. dollars That's all the price is going up.
00:17:13
Speaker
It's going up. price's going up it It went up. It went up. It went up. The league of Becky's teams that are upset about this, who are trying to low ball Craig wives. I mean, well, he's not going there anyway, buddy. So a, he's not going there anyway. 20,
00:17:27
Speaker
twenty million dollars. Give me that bread. $20 million. dollars If anyone wants to call about him, $20 million. dollars We actually personally have a percentage of his contract. That's why we're so hyped on it. We have a sell on clause from the hype that we generated on this podcast.
00:17:44
Speaker
Do you have a different pick for man of the match? I would have said... I really would have said Obed, but I think that I could come up with a unique one just for content here.
00:17:55
Speaker
um And I'm going to go with Paul Areola. I think that he showed from the jump, from the start of this game, his how dynamic he is and like where he can play. He was getting back and defending. He was, you know, playing up top and he's just like an energizer buddy. Yeah, he's like, he's everywhere. And I heard so much chirping about, oh, you know, whatever is Paul Areola. Like they're just getting him people were like talking about it like mockingly. Yeah, they were like, oh yeah, he'll be great on the the end of the bench. 2019 Gold Cup squad. Have fun with that.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. You think that's not going to play in CONCACAF? Right. Like get real buddy. Like Jesus Ferrer and Paul Areola have been doing this for years. The whole first half, all it looked like was the FC Dallas boys were cooking. I was like, so so maybe I'll do a co a co-man of the match to the FC Dallas boys. I thought Ferreira played really well. He had that nice assist.
00:18:51
Speaker
And I just think that like his his his movement and his space, like there was that one pass... that like i can see it in my head he receives the ball and it's like it doesn't even touch his body and he's able to just like turn on a dime and whip it across and make this beautiful pass from the center of the goal mouth with two defenders on him yeah and it just like lands you know it lands perfectly i can't remember who received the ball but it didn't end up in a goal but it was like No, i know exactly what play you're you're talking about. Dude, I mean, that's that's beautiful. So shout out to the FC Dallas boys.
00:19:26
Speaker
I will say they are the men of the match. Yeah, that's a good segue because one of the topics I had written down was assessing the debuts of the... they debuts, the debuts, the the debuts on the show are you already know the day we her now this debut of the FC Dallas boys?
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, I thought I thought Ferreira looks really good. I thought everything that we ah we saw just with his soccer IQ and his unselfishness and the way he combines with other players.
00:19:57
Speaker
was on full display. You know what I was thinking about watching him? Like why I enjoy watching him. You know how when you're watching a soccer player sometimes and you see the pass that they should make, yeah know but like on the field, it obviously looks way different. So they don't necessarily you get to see the whole field. Yeah. And so they oftentimes like won't make the what you think is the blatantly obvious pass. Right. Right.
00:20:19
Speaker
I feel like he always does make the like the pass that I can see on this. I'm like, like hit that guy, hit that guy right there. And then he does it and he
Debuts and Squad Depth
00:20:28
Speaker
executes it correctly too. And it's just very satisfying to watch.
00:20:31
Speaker
And, uh, I, it was, it's a pleasure to watch him play. And, uh, I thought i really, I really liked what I saw from his debut and, uh, Areola, uh,
00:20:42
Speaker
I thought that was good stuff too. He's just, uh, I think he fits in well on this team cause he, uh, uh, he's a work rate player. And I mean, that is as a cop, I don't mean that backhandedly. No, he is, uh, he's just got a nonstop engine.
00:20:58
Speaker
And like some of some of the great sounders we've seen over the years, ah Nico Ladero, Christian Roldan, those are characteristics, I think, of some of the great sounders is just those guys that never freaking stop running. And he has that quality.
00:21:13
Speaker
And he's just got like a little bit of an edge to him, you know, like he's great on the ball, too. He had that one play. like Remember when he was, ah he was like basically taken on three guys at once by himself. And he almost, ribble he almost got out of that. yeah They called a foul on him. I think he low key, uh, won a three on one. it wasn't even a two V one. It was a three V one. yeah So, uh, yeah, I thought it was notably actively good stuff from both FC Dallas debutants.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, I was... That was the fastest debut goal of any sounder ever, Ari. From... Rothrock and JP, right? Rothrock, yeah. Okay, I do... i am a little bit upset that Paul Arreola would take away...
00:21:59
Speaker
the history, the legacy from Paul Rothrock, but you know what? It's fine. He built the road so that, so that our real look could get there. ah but regardless, I mean, they're, they, they played lights out, man. I mean, and serious seriously, like the first 45 minutes of this game, i was sat there. Like there are three players on this. You were crashing out. You were crashing. There was, through there were like the first 45 minutes. I think we can all agree. There was three players on that field who I was like, these players are playing well. They're everyone else, you know, like,
00:22:28
Speaker
Well, they're not doing great. I thought a lot of the guys the guys who were struggling in the first half was ah guys that you're not used to, like the back line. Yeah, like ya more yeah Yamar. like a rough first half. Reagan wasn't amazing. And to be fair, though, it felt like everyone was just giving the ball away. yeah Anytime Antigua wanted the ball, Seattle was just ah right there to give it to them.
00:22:52
Speaker
but, uh, yeah, more, more positives from this game, uh, Roos snack healthy and scored. Uh, I was dead wrong. Nico and I were actually both wrong. We were reading between the lines of, uh, the, the Schmetz presser where he was talking about, he trolled me. He got your, he got my ass yeah because well, and like, I, he loves doing that. He does. I know he does it on like, I swear he listened to the show and did that just to Brian just to mess with us. Like we see your game Schmetz. We see you because ah i mean, i so I stand on the fact that every time it seems like that he does the thing where he's like, ah, ah he might be back for this one, but when I don't know, and he gets it.
00:23:34
Speaker
that usually means that the dude's going to be out for like three weeks minimum, you know? yeah and And he was doing that with Roostneck, but it's clear now that he was doing that as reverse psychology, uh, psychology to mess gamesmanship to mess specifically with lobbing scorchers.
00:23:48
Speaker
you So, uh, He doesn't give a shit about Antigua. He cares only about well played. Uh, but in all seriousness, Roosanek didn't start, but he came, he came on, looked good and scored a nice goal. So, uh, I think the consternation about the injury can be put on hold for now. Definitely. Uh, Georgie, man, Georgie, du Georgie looked insane. Georgie. i will Wait, can I dish my hot take already? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:15
Speaker
Georgie looked better than Pedro de la Vega. Yeah. I does not surprise me to hear you say that, but that, but that is, even if that, if true, that's a testament to how insane Georgie looked and not even a knock on De La Vega. No, that could be, that could very well be true. And De La Vega could have had a phenomenal game, which we're going to talk about. He did. He scored Georgie. or Georgie was on the field for like a few minutes at the end of the game.
00:24:38
Speaker
He ended like four careers. He had an assist. Uh, he was playing good at at like cutting out. I want to, I want to see him start the next game because The Antigua defenders and midfielders cannot guard him. No. Like, they can't stay in front of him. They were confused. They didn't know. They were stunned. You know, like, Pokemon, with when they stun your Pokemon? That's, like, exactly what was happening to the defenders of Antigua. He was just too much, like, physically for them. so That was, that was fun to watch. And also I'm just, I'm just looking at Georgie do stuff like that.
00:25:12
Speaker
I'm like, when, when are we going to start talking about how much money he's going to go for? Like, I mean, cause he, he just, so he's just so dynamic. I don't know. 14 minutes played one assist.
00:25:23
Speaker
I mean, and you know, like three recoveries Well, two duels one every any every anytime he was against a guy one V one, it was just, he was, I was most, it was over. They were done. It was over with. Yeah.
00:25:37
Speaker
Uh, I'm like, I'm gonna, think I'm gonna dub him the, the career ender. Although that makes it sound like he's like a slide tackler, but yeah, he really like which Jackson Reagan. I don't know if you saw this, the Jackson Reagan Brexit tackle. Well, so so that was bringing someone in the ah on the blue sky crowdsourcing brought that up. So we'll, we'll hit that. We'll get to that.
00:25:58
Speaker
um The other thing I was thinking about at the end of this game, Noah was just like the depth on this team is impressive but to be like bringing Roosnack, JP Rothrock and Georgie like off the, off the bench.
00:26:13
Speaker
That's amazing. That's potent. You basically, basically when this team is healthy and they're able to rotate like that, they are able to do a whole round of subs and have very little, if any quality drop off.
00:26:28
Speaker
And like with how George is developing, I'm like, you bring him on. that's you ah You might be increasing the quality in certain situations, you know? So yeah it's fun to ah to see this while while while everyone's healthy, no one's away on international duty, just for Schmetz to be able to like do that. this team is deep i mean to have albert rusnak coming off the bench that's insane yeah like in in in not even a drop in quality like just that's wild the lineup was just as good when they after the entire round of subs as it was before right that's you don't really see that that much that's wild yeah um
00:27:18
Speaker
i'll hit some ah I'll hit some negatives, I guess. I had positives and negatives. I mean, I can hit the negatives. I've been dumping the negatives. I rapid fire go through okay the negatives I had, and then you can get to yours, and we can ah talk about ah what we think of the positives and Beautiful.
00:27:34
Speaker
ah The negatives I had written down where most of the first half was a shit show. ah get And that was because the game management after the opener was bad ah and the goal concession was bad you know because they weren't managing the game very well.
00:27:50
Speaker
ah And just the amount of giveaways, it got it. It got egregious. Like at one point in the first half where it felt like every time they had the ball, they were giving it away. That is something that I would hope is attributable to it being the first game of the season on the road in Guatemala.
00:28:09
Speaker
Like I said, yeah, I'm our in Jackson. Reagan are not guys who typically are going to give away possession with the frequency that they did tonight. So ah anyway, that was what I had written down.
00:28:22
Speaker
ah But no, give your give your positives and your negatives. Just lay yeah lay them both down. I mean, positives for sure. i think you take away a win three one.
Team Resilience and Adaptability
00:28:33
Speaker
They have to score three.
00:28:34
Speaker
That's about as good as you can do on the road. ah And frankly, like, I think if you look at the performances it of ah of the team as a whole, as a in the context of this is the first match, right?
00:28:48
Speaker
There's definitely a lot of positives. There's definitely a lot of things to work on and take from from this game. I think that you are finding how to get through those like hard parts of having wing you know wingbacks or just wingers in general that are super high and being you know vulnerable to the counter. This team was really fast.
00:29:14
Speaker
They were pounding and pounding and pounding in the midfield. And it worked out for them on one goal. And then they were tactically able to shift and kind of shut that down in the second half. So I think the positives are, you know, bend not break.
00:29:30
Speaker
In the past, this team had not been able to come back from a goal down or two goals down or something like that. And it really does feel like... You know, okay, we concede a goal.
00:29:43
Speaker
We play a bad half of soccer. It's not over. Like, there's going to be more goals. There's going to be other things. And, like, that's kind of all you can ask for ah because that's what everyone was well demanding that we change because just the lack of goals was not only frustrating, but it just hampered you in so many ways.
00:30:02
Speaker
I will say the negatives, like... I was critical of Pedro de la Vega to some people's dismay. was that Would that be a fair thing? You were getting in de la Vega discourse. I wasn't really involved in that, but if you have thoughts on the... day Let's let's ah assess the De La Vega performance. We did that every time he played last season. We've been on the De La Vega beat, obviously, all preseason. He's looked phenomenal.
00:30:32
Speaker
This game, I definitely think it's fair to say, was a mixed bag. But ah why don't you why don't you give your takes on his performance, and then I'll tell you if I agree.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, i am happy with what he gave. I'm not like super excited about it. And I'm definitely not going not excited.
00:30:57
Speaker
I'm definitely not going to. Yeah. I'm definitely not going to evangel. ah I'm not saying I'm not like excited for what's to come and what he's to build on. I'm saying I'm not excited at what he put on the field exactly today. I think that there were good things, but there was also a lot of, you know, rough moments and, know,
00:31:16
Speaker
settling into a game has been a really big problem for him. And he took that whole first half to settle into the game. It took him, I think around the 50th minute, 40th, 40th, like after the break, 50th minute, I think.
00:31:31
Speaker
He settled in, he made that scorpion pass. Once he made that, he was like settled. And he played the best 15 minutes of soccer since his best last best 15 minutes of soccer. But that's my problem is like,
00:31:44
Speaker
There's been these small flashes of brilliance and these long periods of like, urgh, just gritting play. So I'm not ready to, you know, evangelize this performance as his coming out party.
00:31:59
Speaker
I'm just trying to be realistic. And I think that a lot of people are not liking that I'm taking that route instead of just immediately being excited.
00:32:10
Speaker
But that said, he put himself in a good position to score that goal. He scored that goal. I think there is something to be said that it was a deflection. I don't think that that's the end all be all because there's a billion goals in the world that are a deflection. It matters that that shit went in and it's on the scoreboard because guess what? XG isn't real.
00:32:27
Speaker
All right. A lot to ah unpack there. Also, Brian Schmetzer agrees with me. So that's all I'll say. I mean, i don't know about that. I think that's a ah bit of a stretch.
00:32:44
Speaker
I think... I think ah what you're referring to with the rough moments are where moments in the first half, basically, i think in the first half, he had a lot of heavy touches, which is something that was happening a lot last year. And I will grant you, it happened enough times to the point where the thought did enter my head.
00:33:12
Speaker
it did honestly enter my head like, oh, it looks like it did last year. That thought did enter my head. That being said, I think ah i think you're exaggerating like how bad the first half was a little bit.
00:33:25
Speaker
like there was the There was those moments with the ah heavy touches, um but I think... To like, uh, to use those as evidence that, uh, uh, super negative evidence against his performance is cherry picking the bad and not acknowledging the good, which I think there was a lot of good outside, outside just the goal, which as far as the deflection luck debate, you make your own luck. yeah Okay. that' You make, that's bullshit. I'll agree with you. That's bullshit. It's a goal. It is a, it is a goal that counts, but, uh, he should have had an assist right before the, yeah the he should have he really like Ferreira.
00:34:04
Speaker
If you give Ferreira that chance, uh, a lot of times this season, I'm pretty confident he's going to finish that like a decent percentage of the time and de la Vega could literally could not have done anything more to lay that ball, that ball on a platter for him for a really high percentage. Look, he had did a great job to body that guy off the ball, win the ball near the end line, take it into the box and lay it off for Ferrer. So he really should have had two, could have had two goal contributions in this game.
00:34:32
Speaker
He had the little scorpion kick moment, like you mentioned, which that was another one of those things where you're like, damn, that's some like type of the type of like creativity and dynamic play that we wish we'd see more of on this team in the last couple of years, you know? So I do, I definitely, i agree with you that it was a mixed bag and I definitely don't think you're wrong that the first half was not super great.
00:34:53
Speaker
And I would literally, I would be lying to say that, uh, that thought didn't come into my head watching him in the first half. But I am, I think I'm more hype than you may be on what we saw, ah in the second half to close out the game.
00:35:08
Speaker
I mean, I love what he did on the plate where he scored the goal to like, Just to like, just to, yeah, take that shot. Like, see if you can get that deflection, make something happen. Like, uh, I love seeing a Seattle attacker do that. And I also think I, I don't think there should be any narrative that like he got the goal, but was like totally sucks the rest of the game. Like I thought there was a lot of good stuff, uh, in the rest of his performance as well, including what should have been another goal contribution.
00:35:36
Speaker
So I'm very, I'm very happy with how he played. I'm not i'm not here to even debate that he didn' he didn't have a great flash of a moment. What I'm here to say is like the time in which he was really showing his talent and playing really well was so concentrated in that second half. That first half, he looked...
00:35:56
Speaker
hectic He looked frantic. He looked like he was playing stressed out. It was bad. it was bad. It was bad. And I'm I like there's people online who are telling me it wasn't bad. And you're like, I don't know what soccer you're watching. Like that was frantic.
00:36:13
Speaker
and stressful to watch. He was diving into stupid ass tackles. He's giving away balls that were a problem. And I'm sorry if this was a better team, if this this was LAFC, those giveaways are going to be way more impactful. You could say that another thing you could say that for everybody on the team though. If you're going to dogging for giveaways, you got to dog Christian. And I did. Yeah, no, I'm just saying like, uh,
00:36:41
Speaker
Yeah, but like to make that about him specifically... Well, I'm not. i'm just saying if we're rating his performance, we can't pretend that that whole first half didn't happen. All right. i didn't I'm not here to say he's a bad player. I think the only thing we disagree on is I don't...
00:36:59
Speaker
You see that first half as a lot worse than i did. It was bad. I definitely, ah I definitely, the heavy touches were a thing. ah but other than that, I didn't think it was the most disgraceful showing I've ever seen.
00:37:13
Speaker
ah I thought, uh, I'm, I'm much more. I mean, the last thing you want to say is, oh, I, he, he looks like he's playing like he did last season. Well, yeah, that's what i I, mean, that's what I thought too. And I thought that in the first half, but like, I don't, I um i wouldn't really, uh, I'm not worrying that much about that unless I'd seen them do that in the second half as well. Like, I think, uh, I'm more encouraged is what I was going to say. I'm more encouraged by what I saw in the second half than I am really tripping about, uh, about some heavy touches in the first, which let me tie it up into a bow and say like,
00:37:49
Speaker
I'm not here to say, Pedro De La Vega is bad. He's not going to be good. I am anti-Pedro De La Vega. I'm and anti the Pedro De La Vega. We never break out season agenda. No, I heard the sentiments. People were saying it.
00:38:01
Speaker
And it's not about that. It's about being honest with ourselves about... When he can play a full game, a full match, his he played 75 minutes. and When he can play 75 minutes of good soccer, hell yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
I'm going to be evangelizing it and praising it. Why are we getting ahead of ourselves? That's so silly. It's so silly. Not really because he looked like a demigod in preseason and then scored a really sick goal in this game and should have assisted on another goal, eliminated a couple more defenders. But he's been a preseason god.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah, but this ain't preseason anymore. This is 15 minutes of good soccer and 445 of bad. That's all right. I think that's my take. I think you're exaggerating, but we can. ah I think that's a that's a good impasse to be at because ultimately at the end of the day, we're talking about a game where he scored a goal and ah the discord is going to light me up for this one three goals. So yeah, you you you can take it. I can eat it. Um,
00:39:01
Speaker
Okay. Uh, why don't we hit some of the, uh, the, uh, takes from the people now? Do we have those? Do you have those pulled up? I put them in the, uh, the takes from the people. Absolutely. Questions.
00:39:14
Speaker
I see them right here. Do you want me to just pick people at random here? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Let's say I got them pulled up too. Okay, perfect.
00:39:25
Speaker
ah Let's start here with this one from Greyhound presidents. Ferrera and Areola were definitely big additions, both showing their class. Question for the dub pod.
00:39:37
Speaker
Have the Sounders mastered the dark arts between Areola's saltiness and Reagan's time wasting? This looked like a conca calf wise team. Yeah, so I noticed that too. They were... they were The boys were CONCACAF-ing it a little bit at the end.
00:39:49
Speaker
I think the Jackson-Reagan tackle was actually clean, but it looked very CONCACAF-y. Yeah, agree. So I enjoyed that. And then I think the Pauls are just kind of made for CONCACAF dark artsing.
00:40:05
Speaker
um And there was definitely a little time-wasting by Seattle, which... i have seen that done to them so many times in CONCACAF where when I do see them do it, I feel absolutely nothing.
00:40:23
Speaker
they've they've They've figured it out. They won CCC. You don't win CCC without knowing how to shithouse. Like I'm just saying. You have to. they've They've been to the final leagues cup. You don't do that without without a little bit of CONCACAF ball knowledge. This one is from Quadzilla.
00:40:38
Speaker
Brian was refreshingly active with his subs with the lead early on so ah with the lead in early season legs. That makes sense. But I still liked it. Yeah. I mean, like I was saying, he just has such kind of an embarrassment of riches at his disposal right now. Like I think in the past ah he's felt like he only has so many guys that he can trust you know? Yeah. And that's probably why he's been tighter on the sub ship than some people would like. I think with this team right now, I mean, when you're bringing Roosnack off the bench, like you can, uh, you can make a sub, make a sub earlier, save some, save people's legs. Like, I feel like, ah
00:41:25
Speaker
I don't know. there's ah There's just so much less dread for me, existential dread with the the prospect of fixture congestion right now, just especially after seeing how that for the first round of subs worked tonight.
00:41:38
Speaker
About that Quan and number one Obed Vargas fan asks, is this Obed Vargas' midfield? Led the game in fouls drawn in recoveries. And then number one Obed Vargas fan says, how does Obed do it?
00:41:51
Speaker
20 dollars 30 million Ari 30 million what did I say 45 million on the on the 45 yeah the number keeps going up and it will not come down Georgie looked really good should he be in contention for starting going forward this is from okb 04 um um ah he's He's not starting right now in the first choice 11, but he's one of the first guys off the bench.
00:42:17
Speaker
And ah i want to see him get ah thousand plus minutes this year. I want to see what he can do with that. God, like watching him in this game was was fun. Yeah, it was fun.
00:42:31
Speaker
Sam Fromwitz asks, some combo of a slippery pitch and first match Russ affected product. Biggest takeaway is that two creators looked really good, Pedro De La Vega and Rusnak. And Georgie looked awesome.
00:42:42
Speaker
Ari, are we back? Hopefully. I mean, i think... the biggest thing I was paying attention to, like I said, in this game was how much of the offensive improvements that we saw in preseason would translate to this game.
00:42:59
Speaker
And i think after watching that game, I'm, I'm, I feel pretty good about, uh, about the hope of the team being back, I guess. What do we mean by back? Like back, back to, uh, scoring 60 plus goals. I think back to being dominant, dark back to being dominant. Okay.
00:43:18
Speaker
It does feel... you can't crown that off one game, obviously, but ah if they play like that week week out, they could be. I think... This is a good a good point that I should add to my my whole former rant here.
00:43:33
Speaker
Obviously, there is there's some rust. It's early, you know, the defense learning and news. Everyone, it's just, it is the first real match of the entire season.
00:43:46
Speaker
And so everyone's going to come into their own as things progress. And I truly do believe that with every single person on the team, including Pedro De La Vega. ah And so, yeah, like, I think what is more striking to me and shows that we are back the most is that you had a first half that you had a stretch there where it was a little bit haunting. I was a little bit like...
00:44:10
Speaker
a thousand yard stare looking back PTSD it last season and the season before and then you know flipped the switch in the second half and were able to completely flip the narrative on on the head and I think that that's the the perfect example of that as much as I just dogged him Pedro de la Vega right like Didn't really have the best first half flip that narrative on his head by by playing lights out in that, you know, last 1525 minutes that he played in the second half. So that's way more important. I think when you look at the the grand scheme of things of being back.
00:44:47
Speaker
So, Ari, I think we might be. We might be back. I think that is a good place to wrap and head into the agenda check agenda. We should have a theme song for agenda. We got to, we got to do that where like we can press the button yeah and then it plays. Yeah. Uh, we'll work on that.
00:45:07
Speaker
We got, we got, uh, a lot of new features on the way. um All right. We have four agenda checks written down.
00:45:18
Speaker
ah do you want me to do mine first or do you want to do yours first? All right. This is a new one that I came up with. I haven't decided ah exactly what to call it yet. I have the Craig Weibel is kind of a dog agenda or I could be the Craig Weibel has that dog in him agenda.
00:45:36
Speaker
I was just thinking about this. You know, Craig Weibel's taken a lot of heat. He's taken a lot of heat from the vocal minority. He's been derided. He's been lambasted. people People use strong language when talking about him sometimes.
00:45:49
Speaker
They say he's incompetent. They say he doesn't know what he's doing. They say hashtag Craig out. Craig out. He's a buffoon. All this stuff. Like, people say that stuff. I heard someone call him a goober. people People, like, this is a thing from the ah from the vocal minority. from There's a lot of overlap in like a brigade and weible out.
Offseason Moves and Squad Strengthening
00:46:09
Speaker
I mean, if I'm just looking at what he did this off season, getting Jesus Ferreira on this team as a non DP in that trade and looking at how Jesus Ferreira looks tonight, which was really good. I think,
00:46:23
Speaker
And then this trade that he made with ah Josh Atencia, 1.3 million. I feel like it's not getting hyped that much because it's ah within the move league.
00:46:37
Speaker
I mean, he sold an Academy kid that was developed by the team like for a million, over a million dollars. Yeah.
00:46:48
Speaker
Gam, you know, I think he might have that dog in him. I think he might have that dog in him too. ah You saw it in this game. like The fact that he took a DP coming off the bench, huh?
00:47:00
Speaker
And they played just as good, if not better, once he came off the bench, but they were still like... Leading what he's got that dog in a man. And the, not only that transfer of read, but the deal to bring the FC Dallas boys here, you saw him cooking in the first whole half of the match. Like what the hell? Yeah. I said Ferreira, but also ah getting both the FC Dallas boys, both of whom had goal contributions tonight.
00:47:28
Speaker
Ariel has scored the first goal of the season, three minutes into the game. I mean, i just I just think that ah if you're going to dog the man all the time, you have to give him you have to give him his credit when thing when he does something well, right? Yeah, so you got to. You got to. you got your being If you're being honest.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we know that we know the brigades are. Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying. i think I'm going to stick with this agenda because it's ah not going to be popular. but i think we but But the thing is, we've been critical too.
00:47:58
Speaker
We've been critical of Greg. Yeah. You know, he, uh, he signed a bear, you know? Yeah. Like he, so he signed Danny Musavsky. I would describe my, uh, emotions towards the a bear in moose signings as like mild irritation as opposed to crash out Chris, but you know, yeah teach their own. I think my Musavsky takes might put me in crash out Chris they territory though, but I accept it.
00:48:22
Speaker
um All right. And then this one is dating back to last season. Yeah, but ah I can definitely report that the De La Vega is the savior agenda has been strengthened. ah And that's not just based on one goal tonight.
00:48:36
Speaker
ah I mean, he's coming off a demigod preseason, which we know. Uh, being, being a preseason practice, God doesn't mean anything, but danny levaco I was cautiously optimistic that he laid a foundation that he could, that could translate into these CCC games and into league play. And as a Seattle plays in 27 tournaments this season.
00:48:59
Speaker
And I really think, uh, that, uh, between that goal and the rest of the good the good plays he made that I was talking about, I mean, this agenda is definitely, you can try and tamp it down, but it's hot.
00:49:15
Speaker
It's hot. It's definitely hot. I don't i don't i wouldn't even deny that. i think that his combination of all of that, this was in the gutter, man. This whole take was in the gutter. It was abandoned. It was left it it was left at the Humane Society, and we have adopted it we we you know we We washed it.
00:49:35
Speaker
We gave him a haircut. And he's out there. And you know what? He may still have a little bit of a limp. He may be kind of a little bit of an ugly dog right now. But he's going to grow into his own. This is a hot agenda.
00:49:47
Speaker
As much as I gave him slack, I'm just being cautiously optimistic. And you know what I i think is funny is that, so and this is kind of a tangent, but ah I noticed ah a week or so ago, someone commented on one of our short videos ah and it was ah it was someone who's clearly brigade right and anti Craig Wives.
00:50:09
Speaker
And they were in the video. I said something to the effect of like, I feel like a lot of the fan base has already written La Vega off. Right. And the brigade guy commented, he said, who wrote De La Vega off? I've never heard any of the fan base say that. And I saw that and i was like, well, first of all, I mean, that is delusional.
00:50:29
Speaker
But why would Brigade, why would Brigade be saying that? Why would a Brigade member be saying, like trying to say that ah they were actually like,
00:50:39
Speaker
in on de la vega or that they weren't talking about de la vega as a bust it's because that if de la vega is good that is that means craig weibel did good right and that undermines the entire like these the this these members of the brigade have spent the entire last year and a half basing every take that they dish on the premise true that Craig Wives is terrible.
00:51:06
Speaker
And De La Vega being a bust was a critical talking point in support of that. If he's not a bust, that all comes crumbling down. So this brigade member was trying to get out in front of it and trying to say that they were like, oh, De La Vega. Yeah, De La Vega.
00:51:20
Speaker
I was in on it all along. No, you guys weren't. No, you weren't. And if he does break out, a lot of your takes... it's goingnna It's like a year and a half of work that you've put in that's going to go down in flames. I hope you understand that. And I'm going to point it out. I'm going to laugh at you.
00:51:35
Speaker
What's even worse for the brigade is that Rostak looks good. he and And is like, doesn't seem like a totally fine DP serviceable and doesn't need to carry the load. So like, what does it even matter? Like all the discourse was pointless. Yeah, yeah exactly. so I mean, you know, but hey, listen,
00:51:56
Speaker
i am i am ah i am I am very much conscious of my own takes. I'm very much able to be you know chirped at for them and own what i what I've said. and i have been a day I don't think I've been a De La Vega hater because I do want him to do well.
00:52:15
Speaker
But I think I've been very skeptical. Skeptic. Still am. Skeptic. I'm a skeptic. I'm cautiously optimistic. And I understand where he's at. I understand where he's where he could be.
00:52:27
Speaker
i have high hopes, but, you know, I'll own it. You know, there's people who are right now, like you, who are like, he's a god. It's happening. He's coming out. And I'm like, i don't know yet.
00:52:38
Speaker
I don't know yet. But when he does, just know. I'll say, you guys were right. But to the brigade... You guys, I kind of hope you're wrong. he He could. I mean, he could still be a bust for all we know. That's what we're going find out.
00:52:51
Speaker
But if he's not, that's what a lot of checks for baby. A lot of narratives are going to have to be assessed and people are going to have to take some accountability. ah Noah, let's keep going with your agendas. My agenda check as this was ah a lot of people were calling Jesus Ferreira, Paul Areola on ambitious signings. ari They said, oh, they're dumb. They're stupid. USMNT B squad. B squad. 2019 Cup squad.
00:53:19
Speaker
folks I'm here to present to you an agenda that I believe in very deeply. FC Dallas was fleeced agenda. Fleeced. Paul Oriola looking like a certified god where he was a DP for them, signed for millions and millions of dollars, and now is playing for pennies on the dollar for us.
00:53:39
Speaker
And Jesus Ferreira, same thing. DP was playing for pennies on the dollar and absolutely balling out and making it not only easier for players like Pedro de la Vega,
00:53:50
Speaker
to look good. Same thing with Morris and Rusnak and all of this, all this rotation that allows him to take a little break. Scoring a goal, any goal in a CONCACAF Champions Cup road match in a road trip that long in an environment like that, not a single goal in those circumstances is ever to be taken for granted.
00:54:13
Speaker
The FC Dallas boys linked up for one, three minutes into the game, three minutes into CONCACAF Champions Cup. They looked like they had been there before, man. Yeah. And I was looking it up. I don't think Ferreira has played in this with FC Dallas.
00:54:28
Speaker
Like I couldn't find, i don't, I feel like that has to be wrong. I think, I think they, they have played in one. Okay. Well, yeah either way, he doesn't have extensive experience in this competition.
00:54:39
Speaker
I mean, we, we've been talking about how perfect he is for specifically this yeah tournament. I think that was totally bear doubt in this game.
00:54:50
Speaker
ah You know, he did a, He did ah fluff the one chance that De La Vega set him up for. But other than that, I thought he looked sharp. I thought he was combining with everyone really well.
00:55:03
Speaker
He had a really good assist. He looked dangerous. ah He was finding space really well. I mean, I don't know. yeah i listen I think this is good agenda. is It's a good agenda. I agree. I think it's hot.
00:55:14
Speaker
And I think even more than that, They've integrated so well with this team. Like they, they did not look disconnected. In fact, I think that those two players looked the best in the first 45 out of basically anyone. I mean, Obed Vargas. and If I didn't know who hadn't played with the team before and I was just watching that. Yeah. I wouldn't, I would not have guessed either of those guys. Not, not when they're scoring a goal three minutes into the game. Me either.
00:55:38
Speaker
All right. Here is my steaming hot, spicy, spicy, Spicy like you put hocks and ferments on your food. We are winning CCC agenda. You've been on this one. I've been on this one.
00:55:51
Speaker
It's ah it's my it's one of my spice. This is actually ah you've you've dished some questionable takes tonight, but this take is yeah one that you have been on and actually looks better after this game. Yeah. And listen, you guys know that sometimes I like to dish for content, but this one I like do believe i do. You said it on SoccerWise. I did say it on SoccerWise, but I, you know, that's, you know, I was the least informed on that podcast. Let's be real. I'm more of the the funny guy, but.
00:56:18
Speaker
I think after this performance, it shows that you can have a really shit ass booty half of soccer and still pull one out against a team in a tough environment.
00:56:29
Speaker
And that grittiness, that level of being able to sub people in. I mean, we've literally just talked about this endlessly. It's what you need for a tournament like this. This team is built for tournaments, man.
00:56:41
Speaker
They're built for it. 3-1 in your road opener, man. That is... After a bad-looking first half, too. I was serious when I said I would have taken one one or 0-0. Yeah, I predicted 2-1. If 1-1 or 0-0 had happened, i think i would have ah I would have been honestly tilted about it, but ultimately stuck to my belief that that is actually a good result.
00:57:08
Speaker
This is a phenomenal result. It was a great result. Great result. you can't You cannot... You could not, the only way you could have gotten a better result if it was three zero, but that's kind of a nitpick, but like three, one puts you in three score.
00:57:21
Speaker
They were at the, it was destined. They, uh, they were at least always going to have a couple of chances playing at home as pumped up as they were. They were always to a couple of chances in this game. Also, this Oscar Santas kid is like, I don't know, like maybe some MLS team.
00:57:35
Speaker
I don't know. was looking him up. Nico said he's the best player on their team. He has 35 caps for Guatemala and 11 goals. Like and he was at Dynamo to build Tbilisi. He's a real player.
00:57:46
Speaker
So he's a Euro star. Like anyone who's going to be doing that. They should have beat him even worse thing. It's like there's some like they have some guys like Oscar Santas is a guy.
00:57:57
Speaker
Dude, he's 25 and he's played like 200 plus matches. Yeah. That's pretty damn good. Um, I think that's it. I think that's our agenda thats the agenda check. I felt good to, uh, be back on the agenda check game. Uh, there's some good, good stuff there.
00:58:12
Speaker
I'm excited to keep track of these throughout the season. And also I think we're going to keep trying to do the thing where we introduce ah at least one new agenda every show. So, uh, good stuff all right uh i only had a couple more things for us to hit here and then we can get out of here for episode 84 couple of seattle sounders headlines here and then i was just going to hit the other ccc results real quick and then uh call it a day or night um whatever time it is the first uh first seattle sounders topic here
00:58:46
Speaker
Nicholas
Debate: Nico Ladero's Potential Return
00:58:47
Speaker
Ladero. No, I ever heard of him ah once or twice. Nico Ladero has signed with the Houston Dynamo after being bought out by Orlando City SC, which would be notable ah regardless. Nico is obviously a club legend.
00:59:00
Speaker
Some might say the best player in the history of the club. I think we would both count myself among that group. Uh, but the reason that this was notable even more so is that as per reporting by sounder at hearts, Nico Moreno and lobby scorchers kickoff host lobbying scorchers kickoff with every Monday at 8 30 AM Pacific time.
00:59:21
Speaker
Uh, the sounders, uh, Nico Ladero was trying to come back to Seattle and the sounders, as I understand it, according to Nico, uh, Moreno, actively passed on the chance to sign it. Like his agent or maybe Nico himself, I don't know, was like reaching out to the club to try and make this reunion happen. Ladero, I guess, really wanted it to happen.
00:59:42
Speaker
And Seattle said no. So I guess the question becomes, should they have said yes ah to the Nico Ladero reunion instead of saying no?
00:59:58
Speaker
Do you want me to go first? I think you should i think you should dish first. Okay, here's what I think about this. You have to give a take that's going offend some people because I gave a take that's going to offend some people. I can't bring myself to get real riled up about this one. but what I would say is that I would have... if ah if nico leddero If they wanted to bring Nico Ladero back...
01:00:21
Speaker
on a really cheap number, as like a mentor type player in a rotational role, yeah with the understanding between him and the club that it's going to be a mentorship rotational role and not like a weekend week out every game starter.
01:00:36
Speaker
If they wanted to do that, I would have no issue with it. I love the guy. i think he's a club legend, uh, best player in the history of the club. i would be fine with it in principle. I think if they have, if they, they, it's hard to assess without knowing the locker room dynamics in the organizational dynamics.
01:00:53
Speaker
But I think if they, ah those who do know those things assessed it and decided that it wasn't the best course of action, then I have no way to say that they're like wrong for making that determination. And i also ah think that they probably, they probably know that there's good reasoning behind why they would not want to do it. So that's how I feel.
01:01:16
Speaker
I mean, i if I'm Craig Weibel, I'm not interested. Like, even at any number, you really don't have... What do they... they do they Does Ladero take up an international spot? I'm not sure if he had gotten his green card or not. I can't remember that. But they have one international spot. pretty sure he doesn't take one up because he was here for so long. That's true. He probably has his green card, so regardless.
01:01:37
Speaker
I just... i Sometimes you just got to move on. Sometimes it's like, it's not the moment anymore. And I think I would love to have him retire here. I'd love for like a Freddie thing. I'm fine. I would be okay with that. But you know, I also am okay with moving on. Freddie was like serviceable for like three matches. And then they had him on the team for like four years. He was actually really good his first year. He, they might not win CCL without Freddie. They don't win CCL without Freddie. don't think they do. They don't. yeah but And that's what I'm saying. Like those three, those three match. I'm being facetious with the three specifically, but I don't know.
01:02:14
Speaker
i don't mind it either if it's like on some understanding, but the way he left and the way that things were settled, like it just seemed like the locker room is very different now.
01:02:24
Speaker
And you brought in some, you know, these two big stars already. It seems like things were good. You've already got your eyes on potentially a new U22 in the summer. the midfield's kind of a log jam already.
01:02:38
Speaker
huge I don't know what he would do other than just like maybe come in for a few minutes here or there. And I don't understand why he would want that. Apparently that's sounds like he might've won. I mean, here's what do you want? Do you want me to read what his yeah source specifically said?
01:02:57
Speaker
um And this is by Nico Moreno of standard heart and lobbying scorchers fame. According to our source, Ladero had a deep desire to finish his MLS career in Seattle, but despite his efforts and after several attempts to negotiate with his former club, the sounders showed no interest in bringing him back regardless of the low salary implications.
01:03:16
Speaker
So it just seems like they didn't even think twice about it. Yeah, and ah without knowing the details, the dynamics of the situation, I am personally okay with that. Sorry that that is not an offensive take.
01:03:29
Speaker
um He shouldn't be here. Next topic, according to ah Tom Bogues, Bogues Bomb, Tom Bogues Sources. Several clubs in the Netherlands are interested in Seattle Sounders rising midfielder Obed Vargas.
01:03:42
Speaker
Ever heard of him? No. Dutch clubs among many keeping tag tabs on Vargas. so I guess let's just think or talk about what we think of the notion of Obed going to the Eredivisie.
01:03:53
Speaker
ah My first take? Nah. Like way way better league than that. $20 million. Yeah.
01:04:03
Speaker
I think 20 million. If a team in the air device, it has $20 million. dollars ios my ah if ox wants to drop a $20 million dollars bag, I'm cool. I'm cool with that.
01:04:17
Speaker
I mean, I think it's a good stepping stone for him regardless of what happens. I think obviously he could do. i think he could do better. I think he could probably go and play in the championship right now or in La Liga.
01:04:28
Speaker
But I don't think that's like a bad spot to land if you're on a team and you're going to be playing like if you're on PSV or Iox or Fenjord like he's on Iox. That would be pretty sick. But like those are teams that are you're playing you're potentially playing in Champions League. You know, you've got all of the Europe stuff with a real chance of actually playing good minutes immediately and not having that crazy, you know, culture shock of like if you're not performing, you're done.
01:04:57
Speaker
And I think that there's like a nice bump up to that, right? Like going straight from MLS into Europe is hard. It is. There's a lot of players who don't make it. And i think that I think that he has the build to make it.
01:05:08
Speaker
But like PSV has had, you know, Mexican national team players in the past play there. Wasn't Triki Lozano there? Yeah, think that's right. So i i don't know. I don't think that's a, I don't think it's a bad place. and Is he going land there? I have no clue, but I think the air to be say stylistically also, he i think he would play really well there. I,
01:05:30
Speaker
As long as it's not Liga Mechies. like As long as it's not Liga Mechies. I would i would ah id be really into it if it was one of the big clubs, like you said, like Ajax or PSV. yeah it's one of the random ones, like where Georgi Mihailovic or some of those other guys, or like where Ricardo Pepe, I think, went to like a really random one. Hey, didn't Rosanac play it in the to Vista? He did. He was playing in the to Vista. Yeah, he at like AZ Alkmaar or something. Yeah, before he yeah before he went to Real Salt Lake. That's yeah where he was playing. That's why I don't understand why the brigade and the bots don't like him. He's literally an air to VSA player. What are you guys talking about? Yeah.
01:06:05
Speaker
Um, anyway, I think that's, ah that's all the Obed transfer discourse we needed unless you have $20 million. dollars when That's basically all I have to say about that is 20. Bring me money. $20 If you 19.9 million, phone.
01:06:17
Speaker
dollars if you go night te point nine million i'm hanging up the phone Uh, brutal. All right. Let's just hit these other CCC results. CCC is going teams are playing games. Yeah. I think it just ended. I think the slate for tonight just ended.
01:06:32
Speaker
ah let's talk about, ah about these, what, what's notable out of these results real quick. Uh, you had the rapids at this was, this was interesting. Noah, this was interesting. This was an interesting one. Are you, Rapids 2-1. Pids?
01:06:47
Speaker
The Pids up the pit are up 2-1 against LAFC after leg one of their series. It was a bit of a yeah chaotic game. It was like in a snowstorm ice blizzard conditions. It was a little bit cold. It was like zero degrees. LAFC players, they're used to being in LA. They weren't ready for it.
01:07:09
Speaker
um Georgie Mihailovich, who I just ah brought up, actually, yeah he He scored a brace in this game, including a really sick free kick. That free kick was a... he's I woke up my whole neighborhood with that, dude. well That was sick. I think ah we all are hella rooting for the Rapids. Anytime LAFC crash out of a tournament, it's funny.
01:07:33
Speaker
But like if it's against the Rapids here, like that would even funnier. That's champagne worthy. What I will say is that the Rapids were up to zero. They couldn't stop LAFC from getting the road goal, which I think was on a penalty kick, which is done. Oh, it wasn't. Oh no, the rap is era. It was Aaron long. Yeah. Yeah. Aaron long. So, uh, I guess what I'm saying is that if the Rapids had actually seen out that two zero, I'd be like, oh damn, they actually might win this.
01:07:56
Speaker
The fact that they gave up the road goal. I'm pretty sure LAFC is going to take it to him in the, in the home leg and when that series pretty easily, but it's still like right now we can.
01:08:06
Speaker
We have the hope of the LAFC crash out against the Rapids alive. like Like the Rapids are ahead. They are theoretically better this year. Second year under Chris Armas got some reinforcements in there. Some defensive reinforcements.
01:08:19
Speaker
Come on Rapids. Let's go Rapids and listen, you can root for me. They got Josh Atencio on the team. You can, root yeah. Oh, maybe we can get Josh Atencio owning LAFC in the second leg. Oh my God. That would be one of the, that would be a bigger dub for lobbing scorchers than three, one at Antigua. Yeah. Um, inter Miami beat sporting Kansas city, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts only in sub zero only zero sub zero temperatures, messy, got her done messy got her done ah and honestly that's a really that's an impressive that's it is actually result like i gotta be like because i mean they're ah the la guys they weren't ready for colorado the miami guys definitely weren't ready for sub zero kc they're like didn't they literally move the uh game uh because inter miami didn't want to play and how cold it was yesterday I think it was just like too dangerous or something. I'm not sure, but I mean, you can imagine Messi's like 85, bro.
01:09:17
Speaker
His bones are brittle. You get him in the cold. He might just snap in half. Sergio Busquets? Like, come on. that dude That dude doesn't exist. That dude doesn't have knees anymore. FC Cincinnati mobbed on Montagua, Montagua, four to one. So they're of Sounders fam. Yeah. They actually FC Cincinnati got a better road result than Seattle did by one goal. So and Evander scored and oh, he did. Okay. So the other label Evander and Denke scored. So that FC Cincinnati is probably going to be insane this year. They actually, they might be pretty damn close this one out because, uh, the video went out and, uh, we got, we were going to out of here anyway.
01:09:58
Speaker
Uh, I did want to leave you all with our first blazing hot coach press conference. It's a mini one. It's a very mini one. ah ordinarily on this segment, uh, blazing hot coach press conference of the week sponsored by hacks and ferments.
01:10:13
Speaker
ah we'll actually be going into the into the presser and breaking it down, playing the audio and stuff. For this one, I'm just going to read this one from a Peter Vermees just because I thought this was kind of funny. It's good content. Peter Vermees, after Sporting Kansas City's 1-0 loss to Inter-Miami in CONCACAF Champions Cup, he says he was happy with the team's organization.
01:10:36
Speaker
He said last year they would have lost this game 3-0 instead of 1-0. instead of one to zero I mean, you know, at least he's being honest. Yeah, mean, ah baby steps. Yeah. Like, don't know. That's like, that's like if you're if you're doing a tier list of or you're like, what is it like the warning signs of ah of of Peter V? It's like he's he's at bottom. He's chill. This is a chill response from him. I know. I think he achieved this is Adderall. He out.
01:11:03
Speaker
He's achieved nirvana. like Maybe he realized that hes just he has
Episode Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:11:08
Speaker
impunity. so Anyway, we're going to call it right there for episode 84, our very first dub pod of 2025. What a start to the season for the Seattle Sounders. We laid down some some heater takes that are sure to age well. We laid down some some heat.
01:11:27
Speaker
The Sounders are off to a flying start in CONCACAF Champions Cup. It was great to see a a performance and a result like that after how much hype we were given to the preseason performance, which we gave...
01:11:42
Speaker
Someone commented, Noah, they said, like, De La Vega's goal doesn't matter. Did you see this crash out, Chris? No, I didn't. Was he sounding like me? He was talking about how De La Vega's goal doesn't count because was in preseason against Louisville. He said, it doesn't matter because it's against USLT. Yeah, it was a banger. Also, how many times, can we give that preseason caveat? Yeah.
01:12:04
Speaker
how many times guys could we give that preseason caveat We did say that like about a billion times. Like, i don't know. we need me me to say it like in a different way? Anyway, that's it for episode 84. Like, comment, subscribe, sub to the YouTube channel, write us reviews. Friday, Friday, Friday, we'll be at Fast Fashion Brewing with Sounder at Heart. They have a beer and merch they're releasing Friday from 4 to 10.
01:12:28
Speaker
They will be there. I'll be there around 7.30ish. I'll probably be there saying it in similar time. Yeah. We'll go into that. ah Also, ah streaming tomorrow at 7.30 p.m.
01:12:42
Speaker
with Toppin90Guys to preview the Charlotte game. All right. I think that was it. Yeah. We are going to get out of here. Catch you all next time. Until then, we out.
01:12:53
Speaker
Peace.