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Episode 362: An early look at preseason opponent Louisville City
73 Plays2 years ago
The Seattle Sounders will be playing Louisville City in their final preseason game on Saturday. To help give us a sense of what kind of opponent the Sounders are facing, we reached out to Vince Irvin. Vince is better known as a contributor to the Scuffed Podcast where he opines on the United States national team, but he's also a Louisville season-ticket holder.
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) Sponsor read: James Woollard
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Transcript
Introduction and Full Pool Wines
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fullpool's unique writing styles applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving, turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books. Hey,
Seattle Sounders MLS Cup Win
00:00:33
Speaker
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 win!
00:00:52
Speaker
important the KSA's genius. Here comes Rui Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. They have climbed the mountain and now are masters of all that they survey. Michael Odero leaves absolutely no doubt the Saldars rule the region. Seattle Saldars is convinced
00:01:18
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green in Seattle.
00:01:53
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:02:01
Speaker
I have no idea. I don't know.
Watson's Counter and Interview with Vince
00:02:26
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.
00:02:45
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Arietes. I am Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today is Vince of the Scuff Podcast, who you may recognize. Hopefully you do. This is a
00:03:01
Speaker
U.S. national team podcast they've branched out into covering both the women's team and they also cover the youth national teams but their their bread and butter is really the national team and and frankly what Vince's part in this is everything related everyone in the sphere of
00:03:18
Speaker
of the national team. Vince is specifically involved in the Monday Review. Vince, thank you for coming on. Hey man, thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. That was an awkward interview, an awkward intro.
00:03:36
Speaker
But especially considering the main reason I'm having you on is that you're a Louisville City fan. And I want to get to know Louisville City a little bit. That's a game, a team. The Sounders are going to be playing in their what will prove to be like their only preseason game between the club World Cup and the start of the regular season. But they're going to play on Saturday, I guess. Right. That's this coming Saturday. Is
Ray Serrano and Louisville City
00:03:59
Speaker
that right? I think so. Sounds good to me. OK.
00:04:04
Speaker
But yeah, so Louisville City coming to town, they're going to bring Ray Serrano, who Sounders fans may recognize as a player that came through our Academy, played for the Defiance. But it's an interesting team in a lot of other ways. Vince, first of all, let's start with Ray Serrano. How was he last year for you guys? Well, first of all, Jeremiah, as an outsider, the fact that you are able to proficiently pronounce Louisville
00:04:34
Speaker
Oh, is is is a plus. Oh, good. Usually, like being from Louisville, the first 30 minutes of meeting somebody is teaching them how to how to pronounce the city's name. So you got you got you got a down pen. I'm actually I mean, I would have thought you were a native, you know what I'm saying? So that I just want to get practicing that one.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, you really have to because it doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? No, I in all seriousness, I went to Louisville in like 1999 on some journalism endeavor that was putting on put on by the Kentucky Derby. And they were very like that was one of like the things they drilled into us is like, if you're going to talk about the Kentucky Derby, you got to know how to say Louisville properly. And and so, you know, that was that was a. Sounds like some proper little videos, right? Exactly.
00:05:25
Speaker
But yeah, Ray Serrano.
Louisville City's Success in USL
00:05:29
Speaker
Uh, well, first of all, Jeremiah, Jeremiah gave me the tip that, that Ray was coming to Louisville city, I think before, that's right. Before it was announced. And so just like, just from there, I had, you know, like high expectations because big thing about Louisville city and the, and the club was like, if you know anything, I guess about the USL second division soccer in America. Um, I like to think that we are, you know, one of the, one of the beacons, I guess.
00:05:57
Speaker
of success for second division soccer in America, for sure. I mean, there's a few more clubs up there that can join us, but it's a big point of pride for us, just being a pillar and being able to be something that shows that the second division is viable and can be stable in this country. But we had had success when the team was getting old. We had ran back probably like the same core
00:06:26
Speaker
for like a solid four or five years. And even to me, it was getting a little bit stale. It was getting a little bit stale. So to get an injection of youth, like Ray in, was great to see. And I was just very excited to see how it would go. And it went great. It went great. Ray, he's very small.
00:06:49
Speaker
He's a small man. He's a small man, but hopefully he can put on like a, like a little bit of weight, but just a little bit of strength, core strength or whatever. But, uh, that the talent, the talent is evident. He's very, uh, technical, technically sound, uh, was able to play inside for us, was able to play outside. So like attacking mid, winger, even a little wing back every once in a while. And he performed pretty well at, at, at every spot for us.
00:07:16
Speaker
I will say I'm looking at the roster page and he's listed at five, nine, one 39. And I think that is very generous. Yeah. He might be a strong like five, seven, five, six for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know that he he's tipping one 39 either. Nope. But, uh, yeah, so that was, I mean, that was one of the questions about him here, I think was just the physical.
00:07:43
Speaker
like the physical traits to compete at the MLS level. Cause it is a, it's a fast league. It's a physical league. And unless you're really, really technical, it can be, you know, you're going to have to have some differentiating part of your game, Riley. Right. And, uh, and I think that was always sort of the question about Ray, uh, in addition to it not being entirely clear what his position was, like he had played wing back here a bit. Um, and that looked like maybe it was going to be a decent spot for him.
00:08:09
Speaker
But I really liked him. Every time I saw him, I thought he was a really fun player. So I was I was excited to see how he would do it, Louisville. Yeah, yeah, we're happy to have him and and. I like I don't say this like as a slide, I guess, but and you just got into it, Jeremiah, but it does seem like his level, at least for the next, you know, two, maybe three years is within the USL. So, you know, just just having a young talent. That can help us with this roster turnover as I talked about and just something we can build on.
00:08:39
Speaker
And a player that, you know, hopefully we can, we can get them back to the MLS, but, um, a guy that's going to be here for, for a few years as he hopefully grows, uh, literally and, uh, you know, the, within the game of soccer. Yeah.
Josh Winder's Rising Talent
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. So one of the other players who, or maybe the player who is getting the most attention in all of second vision soccer in the United States is Josh Winder, uh, who is a center back who people absolutely love.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah, which is, it's funny because he kind of came up seemingly out of nowhere, you know, talking to, if you guys are familiar with Scuffed, we get in pretty deep as far as like youth, national team players, just the youth players coming up, U-17s, U-20s, all these types of things. And when Josh first started playing for, for Lou City, I started asking around, like, is he like actually rated?
00:09:38
Speaker
Um, or is this just, you know, did it's something I shouldn't really pay attention to. And, uh, to a man, everyone was like, yeah, you know, he's all right, but I don't know if he's gonna actually be like a difference maker or even be a national team player. And I was, and I was just, but because I'm, I'm at these games, I'm a season ticket holder. Uh, and I'm, I'm watching him in person and he, he broke into the team at 16 and.
00:10:06
Speaker
And I know it's second division, man, but Louisville city, we have a, we have a very strong roster. We, there's a lot of competition for spots. And he's winning those spots over. I would say in some ways it's more impressive than winning a S as a 16 year old on like a MLS two team, because he's competing against grown men who were fighting for paychecks. Yes. Grown men checks, uh, playing in front of 10, 11,000 in Louisville.
00:10:31
Speaker
Every every Saturday night or whatever and and the and he was putting good players good players on the bench and keeping them there. And I and I just kept watching kept watching and I kept asking the same prospect guys. Like, are y'all sure he's not in a like, no, no, no, but as it just kept going and just kept building momentum. I think it became undeniable started getting call ups until the it started off with the United
00:10:57
Speaker
the U-19 national team and then stepped up to the U-20s and then to the point now to where I think we should expect to see him in the U-20 World Cup this coming summer. And did he actually get a contract to go play overseas? Or what's his next step, I guess? Okay, he turns 18 this summer. So he played his entire
00:11:26
Speaker
He broke in two seasons ago, so at the end of that season, he was 16, then played his whole age 17 year, this past year where he started most of the games for Lew City, played very well. And so yeah, there's, and if you don't know, you can't make that move over to Europe if you don't have a European passport before you're 18. So he does not have a European passport.
00:11:49
Speaker
Um, turns 18 this summer and it's looking like as soon as 18 hits, then a transfer will be coming. We'll be coming loose city's way. We, we, um, loose city re-signed him this, this off season to a new contract, which basically, uh, I think just probably added some years to his deal just to ensure that loose city can get the most that they, you know, can get the most, uh, I don't know, juice out of that, uh,
00:12:18
Speaker
whatever fruit you want to. And so he's almost certainly, he's skipping, he's not coming to, he's going to go overseas almost certainly. Is that what you're saying? Yes, I think so. And the big, I've been here in Portugal for a while. Um, he went and, and trained over in Portugal last summer or last off season. Um, and then it came out, I think about a month ago that Ben Fico was, was really informed. And so.
00:12:48
Speaker
It seems like it's gonna be that it seems like it's gonna be it's gonna be a club in Portugal and Benfica is looking like the one that's gonna is gonna take him and so we're looking at a We're looking at a high high potential prospect here. Yeah, and I mean, I think he's pretty illest he fairly illustrates sort of the
00:13:09
Speaker
the need for a viable second division in that this is a player who you have to imagine could have easily been lost in the lost in the shuffle because there wasn't necessarily an MLS team like I suppose it's possible and FC Cincinnati could have discovered them.
00:13:24
Speaker
But I mean, he's a he's a kid that's from Louisville, who it's every reason to think that, you know, he could have maybe just gone the traditional route of maybe he goes to college and it takes him, you know, three, four more years to really get on the radar. Yeah, because soccer has been been big in Louisville, like even when I was
00:13:46
Speaker
Like, um, Andrew Farrell, Andrew Farrell graduated the same year I did. And as a matter of fact, he, uh, his high school played my high school, um, and soccer. And, uh, the, the soccer field to my high school was like right by the football field house. I played football in high school. And so I'm walking out and he walks by me and bro bros, like my height and like ripped. He looked like a D one where I received wide receiver to me. And I just like.
00:14:16
Speaker
I just had no clue soccer players could even look like that. I was like, hold on. I turned around like double tanked. I was like, bro, cause usually, you know, you see like a black kid like that, looking like that. Usually he's playing football, playing basketball. And I just, I had no clue. And you know, obviously Andrew Farrell turned out to be, you know, who he turned out to be, but we, he probably could have been better.
00:14:43
Speaker
You know, cause we didn't have that pathway. Like I said, he's, he's playing high school. He's playing high school soccer. He could have been, you know, in the, if we had Lucy back then could have been in the Academy in professional training, professional coaches, like the loose city Academy has only been operational, I think for three or four years. And, and already we've turned out a prospect like, like Josh Winder, actually his brother, Elijah was the first Academy graduate signed to the first team to loose city's first team.
00:15:14
Speaker
And then his little brother came behind him and was, I mean, Elijah, if you're listening to this, he's much better than you, I'm sorry. But yeah, man, like I said- Little brothers always are. Yeah, for sure. My little brother is better than me for sure. But we just have this path that we didn't have before. And like I said, we've had
00:15:43
Speaker
We like soccer has been a thing. We have an MLS next club here. Uh, Javanagh who, uh, by all reports is not good in MLS next. But, uh, just, just, just the fact that we had a soccer club that was pulled in by MLS next just tells you like that we've been playing soccer here for a long time, you know? Um, so yeah, it's just now that we have these, these opportunities to develop these players, I hope that, you know, we can, we can turn out a few more.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah.
Louisville City's Strategy and Challenges
00:16:13
Speaker
And, and if people don't know, Louisville has been a very successful USL championship team. Like, yeah, like maybe the, the best team in the, in the league for, you know, over the last five years or so. Right. Uh, like every year in Louisville city's existence, we have made it to the, at least the Eastern conference finals of the USL playoffs. Um, made it to the title game four or five times. We've won twice.
00:16:44
Speaker
One twice, we lost the final to David Ochoa and Darn it. Oh, Monarchs. Yes, Monarchs 2. Lost the final to Monarchs 2 in Louisville and then lost this past final to San Antonio.
00:17:01
Speaker
FC and yeah, man like like excellence is just something that's that's expected from the soccer team is just something that's that's that's happened from its inception and and and that's why I was I was kind of I was really like annoying the prospect guys get continually asking about wander because I'm like I
00:17:22
Speaker
dude, like Louisville city that I like to call it the biggest club in North America. You know, we can debate. We could, you know, we can debate about, uh, if it's Seattle or if it's Louisville, Louisville, those are the two, those are the two in the running, I would imagine. Right. Right. Right. But, um, yeah, like, like playing, playing here is not,
00:17:46
Speaker
It's not something to be sneezed at. Right. And win at a start spot if you're at 16-17. That's eye-catching, even for the second division. Yeah, and I kind of bring that up in part because I think it's worth mentioning that the sounders are going to probably get a decent test now. Louisville is, I assume, pretty early in their preseason, though. Yeah. Pretty early, probably about two weeks in, three weeks in. OK.
00:18:15
Speaker
Um, but, but it should be a decent test. I mean, I've been seeing these results coming out of, um, coming, coming out of preseason. We went down to Florida, like we do every year, tied, um, tied sporting Kansas city to, to, um, tied Nashville SC, uh, nil, nil.
00:18:36
Speaker
So, I mean, those are, those are two fine results. It gets MLS clubs. Uh, none of them as good as, as good as Seattle, obviously, but, but, uh, obviously, but, uh, uh, so I think we've, you know, uh, every time we've played an MLS team, whether it be in the open cup, like last year we played Nashville. We hosted Nashville and it like, like it wasn't until, um, who's the MVP?
00:19:05
Speaker
Hanyma Mukhtar. It wasn't until Hany came on that we lost that game. It was, it was 1-1 tied up and then they brought Hany on, probably promptly scored. Right. I remember watching that game. Yeah. Every time we played MLS, we've acquitted ourselves well. So yeah. And so what, what should we expect from this team? Like what is, what are some, who are some other players that are worth watching and, and what, like, what's their, like, what's a calling card of this, of this team?
00:19:34
Speaker
Um, Tom Carter this team is just an attacking 433 and attacking 433 we get our we get our we get our full backs up. We try and possess the ball through the midfield. Um, yeah we got.
00:19:52
Speaker
So I think that the biggest improvement that we made last year to our team was with our fullbacks. We brought in two new fullbacks. One, Manny Perez was right back. And on the left side, Amadou Diya. I think Amadou Diya was with sporting kids at City for a little bit. Manny Perez, he was also in the MLS and got taken, was with Rangers for a bit out of college. I think he went to North Carolina State or something, if you remember that.
00:20:19
Speaker
But both very good, very talented players. Manny, probably a little bit of liability on defense, but getting forward just has an incredible amount of sauce. Just a very, very, very impressive player. And then up top, we have the oft injured Cameron Lancaster.
00:20:42
Speaker
who is, is, is a, so he's, he's from London. He's from London, England, right? Came up in the Tottenham Academy and rumor has it that he was rated in front of Harry Kane at one point, but then injuries just kind of took over. He finds himself in the U S L, but he's also been like a record goal scorer in the U S L whenever he's been healthy, he's putting up a solid 20 goals, 25 goals easily. Health has been the main concern.
00:21:08
Speaker
Um, he also got a shot with Nashville SC when they were making that move up to MLS. But once again, the injuries crept in and, uh, kind of, uh, into that shot form. So he's back with Louisville city, but he's a very, very good striker. Um, and then the, the midfield, I would say, so we, so we had Corbin bone.
00:21:36
Speaker
who, he made the jump up with Cincinnati from USL to MLS that first year, played with Cincinnati in their inaugural MLS season and then dropped back down. So ended up coming to Louisville city. He retired. He retired this year. And I, and I mentioned that because now there is a massive gap in our attacking midfield.
00:22:02
Speaker
at this point and I personally think the midfield's been our weakest link just because of the fact like when we're playing the lesser teams in the USO, they're able to get around, control the ball very well. But you see it like in the championship game, we played in San Antonio, we're able to just get blown away with athleticism if a team has it. If a team has it, then, you know, when it comes to duels, winning second balls,
00:22:31
Speaker
All that type of thing. We just don't handle it that well in the midfield everywhere else. I feel pretty good. But yeah, that's So that's what I would say would be the weakness of this team right now against against higher level opposition.
00:22:45
Speaker
Well, it seems like it will be, I mean, it definitely seems like a good team for the Sounders to be testing themselves against, to be getting themselves into game shape. So I
US Men's National Team and Seattle Sounders
00:22:55
Speaker
was pleased. I was happy to see that there was this quality of team coming to Seattle. The problem for the Sounders has been that they haven't been able to get as many games as I think they had hoped to get during this whole preseason, in part because they weren't quite sure how to
00:23:11
Speaker
schedule around the Club World Cup, where it was either going to be one game and done, or if they had won that game, they would have automatically had two more. And so it's been a tough scheduling thing. But as it turned out, I mean, hopefully this will work out OK. And I'm glad to see another new team come to Seattle. We get to see too many of the same teams over and over again. So it's always fun to see a new one.
00:23:39
Speaker
But one of the other things I did want to talk to you about, and this is sort of your bread and butter, is national team stuff. I am a huge fan of the Scuff podcast. I have had Adam Bells on this show previously. I think he has put together a pretty fun community. I know that sometimes there seems to be this weird tension between Sounders fans and national team fans.
00:24:05
Speaker
which is sometimes hilarious because I think we're all kind of rowing in the same direction. But like, you know, we all have our favorites and and some of the Sounders players are not among the favorites for our national team people. And that's that's that's that's how it is. But I don't know what's your do you have a do you have a take on the the Seattle national team Nexus?
00:24:36
Speaker
Um, uh, well, well, first off, I do think it's, I do think it's pretty funny. Like just in general, I don't know, man, because I mean, oh, well, let me, let, let me get this out of the way. If I had to, I, I, I never have thought that Christian Roldan is like a great fit for, for the national team and what Greg Berhalter was trying to do. But it also seems like.
00:25:05
Speaker
He was just a great, like an excellent locker room guy. So, for me, that, like I value those things. And if Greg saw that as important, then who am I to go against that? Because locker room dynamics are always
00:25:24
Speaker
Always important when you, when you got a team, you know, who I bet is a big fan of Christian rolled on airborne 69, probably probably a big fan. I mean, no, for real. Cause I mean, you talk about something like a hundred percent all in mentality. Um, that that's probably something that Christian rolled on, uh, exhibits, you know, he's, he's all, he's all in. He's all in, man. He's not complaining about his role. He's just coming into camps. He's doing whatever's need to be done and keeps it moving.
00:25:55
Speaker
And for those who don't know, Airborne 69 is Weston McKinney's dad, right? Yes, his dad. Cold figure. And also a must follow if you are a Men's National Scene fan. Yeah, for sure. So I rolled on. And then Jordan Morris. Like I go back and forth on Jordan. I do go back and forth on him. And I was watching him in that
00:26:21
Speaker
club world cup game, not his best performance, not his best, not his best man. And, and it's maybe, maybe he actually has, you know, lost a little bit of that, uh, that sudden that said he used to have like, cause bro, but when he, before he left for Swansea.
00:26:38
Speaker
And there was a little bit of controversy going on back then, like, oh, Greg's relying on Jordan Morris. But I couldn't say anything about it because he was unbelievable. No, I agree. I totally agree. In the winter of 2020, I thought he had a decent case to be made for potentially being a starter on the National Dam. I mean, he was playing great. Yeah. Yeah. It was great to see.
00:27:07
Speaker
and just all those things that he was like kind of doing that speed like he used to be able to like he was playing like one twos of people just like like and while running as fast as Jordan Morris runs he was he was still able to do all those things with the ball and um i don't just just don't know if i've if i've seen that since and then the club broke up it was uh
00:27:30
Speaker
He was trying to get going, like, you know, if you give Jordan that runway, then he gets up to speed and it's over for you. But, you know, when he's just receiving the ball out on the wing like he was in that club broke up game, it just wasn't much going on. But like, I guess I say all this to say.
00:27:51
Speaker
I don't know. This is just a weird, just a weird US, US men's national team, Twitter thing, isn't it? It is. It feels that way. It does feel that way. And there are some just like very strange beefs that are going on. And I like, I don't, I don't know why. I mean, I guess it's, it's maybe a lot of it is born around just Jordan and Christian and Sounders fans standing for their guys and national teams, fans, not like liking them in the national team or whatever.
00:28:18
Speaker
But I mean, I don't know. I think that it's a it's a it's a funny little mostly it's a funny little aside. But I mean, but the the Seattle fans standing up is definitely understandable.
00:28:36
Speaker
especially like Christian and Jordan are both really likable people right like and so it's hard not to want to root for them and it's hard not it's hard to see people you know talking bad about people that you like and that have done a lot of good to them they're both like
00:28:50
Speaker
longtime players here. Christian's been here since 2015. He may end up playing his whole career here. I mean, it's almost unheard of in American soccer for someone to be a one club guy like that. And Jordan Morris, obviously, is a local and and he's and they they've won a lot. That's the other thing.
Criticisms of US Women's National Team Management
00:29:07
Speaker
I mean, and like, you know, you look at the
00:29:11
Speaker
talking about stuff people already know, but whatever. You know, Christian was among the best players in Champions League last year. And so it's like, it's not like it's from nowhere. But anyway, I am one of the other interesting Seattle connections recently that I was not entirely
00:29:29
Speaker
aware of. I'm sure a lot of our listeners are more aware of this than I was, but, uh, Blacko is the co, obviously used to be the rain coach. He went from rain to, uh, the women's national team coach. And, and it, I'm getting the sense that there's a lot of tension around his hit. And it's, this is not, this is not a Seattle thing. This is more just like, Oh, this is, I didn't quite realize how much tension there was, but a seemingly a lot of very valid criticisms of the way he's sort of run the team there.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah. And, and the thing, the crazy thing is, is I don't know if his seat is actually hot, you know, like, like it could just be, it could just be all of us like yelling into the void. But I have to say that as, as the women's national team manager, uh, the performance so far just hasn't been good enough, hasn't been good enough. Like, and, and, and it doesn't,
00:30:24
Speaker
Like, yes, he's implementing like a new system and all these different types of things, but it just doesn't see like I don't see the the incremental steps that are going to potentially like lead us to greatness when the World Cup comes around. So, yeah, it's the she believes Cup is coming up and this will.
00:30:47
Speaker
Like this is the last chance, in my opinion, that he has to save his public image. I don't know if he's gonna, like I said, don't know if his job is in peril or not. It's probably not. But yeah, he needs to get it together. The team needs to get it together. We need to show some, we need to really show something here and make a statement before the World Cup. And beyond the way the team plays, I think one of the more valid criticisms of him is that
00:31:17
Speaker
It's been sort of a thing with the women's national team, especially that the roster is basically set and it changes at a glacial pace compared to the men's national team, which, you know, we'll have 40 or 50 guys called up during a World Cup qualifying cycle. And, you know, maybe 30 players get called up during a women's qualifying cycle. And, and,
00:31:39
Speaker
and you would think that with the change in the way that the nwsl contract like the way that the contracts are set up you would think would allow for more uh fluidity in the way the roster is because it's not like because traditionally you know if you didn't know or i know you know but if our listeners didn't know uh then the national team
00:31:59
Speaker
contracts were set up to be almost like a club, like really like a club, because they were paid full-time wages to plead paying for the national team. They weren't necessarily getting paid bonuses by appearance. They were getting paid from the Fed. Right, exactly. And so now they finally changed that while also giving the women more money, which is good. But the benefit of that should be
00:32:22
Speaker
just call in the best players, call in the players that it makes the most sense for, for whatever reason. And yet we still have a whole generation of players that seemingly need to be getting cycled out who are basically written in pen for starting lineups and especially for call-ups. Yeah, I'm right with you. I'm right with you. When that CBA and everything came out, I was like, okay, here we go. Because, I mean,
00:32:49
Speaker
Covering the women's national team day-to-day the way that we do and comparing it to the men's team, it's like there's just not as much to talk about if we can't even debate call-ups and stuff. Because if you know who's getting called up, then what's it matter who a random NWSL player does in the league? Because she may or may not be able to work herself into the national team.
00:33:16
Speaker
So I'm, I'm, I'm definitely with you on that, but hopefully, so, so hopefully this is the last ride. Uh, and, and, and I know that we're talking about some icons here, right? Sure. Like, uh, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, true icons of the game. Um, hall of famers. I, uh, we, we have a soccer hall of fame, right? Yeah. Like, like, like all of that, they've done everything that can be done.
00:33:42
Speaker
And possibly, hopefully, maybe when they are done, then maybe we can transition into that phase, man, because we need to change something because the world is catching up. The world's catching up. And it's really not through anything that we've done as a nation. It's just these serious soccer countries are starting to take women's soccer series.
00:34:09
Speaker
And so with the infrastructure that they have already built up, the institutional knowledge of game that they have in those countries, all those types of things, you know, that it's going to build upon itself. We still produce top, top, top tier players, the best players in the world in my opinion. But I think that maybe the emphasis should be on them being sharper.
00:34:34
Speaker
Throughout the year if we're gonna it's if the level really does get up to that to that point where you know, we can't afford to but because I like I guarantee you they these players that Barcelona at Leon at PSG at the prestigious women's clubs in Europe like it's not treated the same way that Some players treat the NWSL
00:35:01
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Even though the NWSL probably has more talent from top to bottom than any league in the world, it's still sort of treated as this league where you just stay healthy for your national team. Whereas these other teams in Europe are playing highly competitive
00:35:24
Speaker
And maybe it's not week to week highly competitive, but they're playing in games. Certainly like, like the women's champion, there's nothing like that's comparable to the women's champions league in the United States, in North America. And there probably should be because it's like at a team like Barcelona, there's no, like their, their, their training sessions seem to be treated a lot more or like the perception there is that it's a much more competitive environment than it is in the NWSL. And that doesn't really make sense, frankly.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, it shouldn't be. It should make any sense, right? Because, yeah, I mean, these these rosters, the rosters are stacked, man. And then in WSL, you know, we only have. Right. Should we have 10 teams now? Well, is it 10 or 12? I know we added the two. Right. We should know that. Yeah, we should. We'll fix it in post-production. Hold on. Let me let me.
00:36:23
Speaker
12 teams. Okay. Okay. That's fine. I was thinking that was right, but all right. Well, I'm glad we know that. Uh, but yeah, I mean, it seems like it just seems like there's so much potential here and the NWSL is getting to a point, right? Like
Growth and Challenges in the NWSL
00:36:36
Speaker
on the, on the show, someone mentioned that this is shaping up to be one of the best NWSL seasons ever. And I mean, we're at a point in the league's history where maybe that should be a thing every year is like that year should be the best because it, it, it should just be raising the level should be raising exponentially.
00:36:53
Speaker
Uh, you have teams that are drawing, you know, 10, 20,000, 20,000, uh, on a regular basis. Uh, and Louisville also has a women's team who is, is one of those teams that's sort of like pushing that envelope in terms of it being, uh, you know, being its own thing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh, race in Louisville is in its third year, third year of existence this coming up season.
00:37:18
Speaker
Um, yeah, we we've been, been at the bottom of the league this past two seasons. Um, hopefully this, this third is the year that we push for some, we push for it to at least make the playoffs, you know, to at least make the playoffs made some big time acquisitions in the off season. And that, and that's the thing, the fact that racing Louisville, uh, a team at the bottom of the NWSL could have a player like Nadia Nadim can have a player like Savannah D'Amelio, Jalen Howe.
00:37:49
Speaker
who both have received national team call ups for the US. Hopefully we went through some things. I don't know if you've seen it. We were in the news, a part of that Yates report for sure, which don't get me going on that. I am furious at the club.
00:38:12
Speaker
that within two years of existing, we found ourselves embroiled in scandal, which is not ideal. It's not ideal and probably says something about the NWSL as an institution, but hopefully... So actually, if I can get into this a little bit,
00:38:40
Speaker
And I don't even know where to go with it. I just want to say, so like the news of this all hit, right. And I think it hit on a Monday. We had just recorded the Monday review. I see the, the Yates report actually comes out. I started reading about race and Louisville's involvement in it. And man, it just, it hit me like a ton of bricks, hit me like a ton of complete bricks. I just like laid in my bed for like an hour, just like staring at the ceiling and my wife was like, are you okay? And I was like, like, yeah, but.
00:39:08
Speaker
Cause you know, you put your, your time, your money into a club. And to be betrayed like that, man, just, just really hurt. So I did, I did take a break from going to from the Louisville city matches. I took a break last year. I didn't, I didn't show up to probably like the final seven or eight or so. Just like I watched them on TV, man, but I just couldn't.
00:39:32
Speaker
I couldn't stand to be there. I showed up to the racing matches just to make sure that the women understood that they were supported, or that the players understood that they were supported by us and everything. But yeah, I guess that will be the main thing this season. And just from the off season, we do have some promising returns of the fact that maybe we've turned some things around on that front.
00:39:58
Speaker
Like Jalen house have the mellow, our goalkeeper Katie London all signed long term deals to stay with the team. So so that that does show that we've, you know, made some changes to the environment to the culture, but yeah to get together to, I guess, a transition terribly back to the field that yeah hopefully they're they're just able to be free, and just
00:40:22
Speaker
put this, put this behind them or, or we can, or us as members of the club can help them put this behind us. But well, we'll get through it together, man, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can appreciate all of that. And, uh, you know, it's, it's a, it's a league that I think has a lot of growing to do. And I think it's maybe an example of the league growing a little.
00:40:48
Speaker
Not not controlling the way it was growing in every way and making sure that there were certain Safeguards in place everywhere because it couldn't it can't you know? And I think there was probably a lack of oversight at the league level that that allowed a lot of this stuff to happen Right and because it was like it like yes, we signed the coach that we that we signed that that did the bad thing but
00:41:13
Speaker
you know, we shouldn't have been allowed to to even interview this dude, you know, I mean, I mean, like ultimately the responsibility lands on Louisville's feet, you know, the front offices feet or whatever. But, you know, like a functioning. Organization that's doing what they're supposed to do, never even let's get to that point. But, you know, you know, you know.
00:41:38
Speaker
Well, all right well we'll close out on on this note, bring it back to maybe a sweet spot. This is
Future of US Soccer and 2026 World Cup
00:41:47
Speaker
shaping up to be a very interesting period in the national team.
00:41:54
Speaker
I keep seeing Brian Schmetzer's name mentioned as a potential national team coach. And I don't know, no shade to Brian Schmetzer, but this is, this is crazy talk. Right. Hey.
00:42:10
Speaker
well so once again with the federation you know saying yeah like like it all comes back to the fed really everything we've talked about has been about the fed truly but it's it's like are are we in it because before you know we were like
00:42:26
Speaker
During the Greg Berhalter hiring thing, one of the qualifications was must be able to speak English fluently. All those types of things. So are we limited the pool in the way that we have before? Or are we kind of being serious and really looking for something to
00:42:47
Speaker
to take us through 2026, which is going to be a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge opportunity for soccer in this country, as we know. So it's like if we are limiting ourselves to the pool, to the pool that got Greg Berghalter hired, you know what I'm saying? Like Brian Spencer wouldn't be bad. I can't. Yeah. Jim Curtin.
00:43:13
Speaker
But I don't know, man. Like I can't really call it right now. We just had a rumor come out yesterday that they're meeting with Jose Mourinho. Oh, that's a thing that they're meeting with Jose Mourinho. That's what we're hearing. That's what we're hearing. Never boring. Never boring, man. But we'll see. We'll see. Because we got Copa America next year, which is going to be
00:43:44
Speaker
I mean, that's going to be crazy. It's going to be absolutely crazy. I mean, that's, you know, that's that's really like a World Cup test run, you know, like, yeah, Copa America in the United States of America. Like it's going to be crazy with the diaspora of all those different countries over here. Oh, yeah. Yeah, insane. Absolutely insane. So I'm really looking forward to that for sure. It should be it should be a very fun
00:44:12
Speaker
three years to be a United States soccer fan. And that's where we're all about to scuffed. Yeah, I mean, it went it went from being potentially a very quiet three years where we're all worried about not getting enough competitive games to now there might be two pretty significant tournaments that get played between now and then with the with the Copa America. And then apparently there's this expanded gold cup that they're talking about bringing in six countries from outside the the the Federation.
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, so um So this tournament like so fifa gives you a a like trial run tournament to run before Uh, you get the actual world cup coming. So for guitar, it was the arab cup And you know, I I had proposed on the monday review that we should make the We should make the christian cup
00:45:06
Speaker
See if we can Yeah, yeah, see if we can pull that off get get some, you know historically Christian teams to come over here in America and have a have a tournament. I'm joking guys. I'm joking. Of course, uh, but well We'll see what happens with that because I I am a little sympathetic to the fact That it like if y'all have seen the rumors can grow sand like there'll be two teams from Africa two teams from Asia two teams from South America all that type of thing and and I am a little
00:45:36
Speaker
sympathetic to the fact that we don't want to get in the habit of people hosting baby World Cups. So we'll see what actually ends up happening. I guess there isn't something as natural as the Arab Cup that can happen in America, seriously.
00:45:53
Speaker
Um, so I guess it's kind of an expanded Copa America would be the closest thing like from a practical perspective, right? Yeah. Yeah. But they're already doing that. Yeah. Yeah. Already doing that. So I don't know, but, but we'll see. Uh, but yeah, definitely competitive games coming, competitive games coming. We got a, we got a nation's league final this summer, which, which if that's anything like the big final,
00:46:20
Speaker
Uh, that's going to be an instant classic, um, goal cut this summer. So yeah. Nations like, it was funny. Nations like went from something that everyone was didn't realize existed. And then all of a sudden, once it was Mexico, us in the final was like, it's on, it's on, it's on. And so if we can guarantee a Mexico, us game, and then also like that, that game before too, whether it's Canada or like Costa Rica, hopefully we can get like.
00:46:49
Speaker
Hopefully that you know the top four is Mexico US, Canada Costa Rica so if we get either Canada or Costa Rica, even though it's going to be in the US, you know we would like to see some of these games on the road. But that just doesn't happen because Kaka calf needs us to drive the money.
00:47:07
Speaker
But yeah, if we can get like a, either Costa Rica, Canada first, hopefully win that game, then move on to a Mexico match. Then boom, that that's, that that's really all you can ask for. And then supplement that Copa America, gold cup, the whatever other tournament that is. And we're going to be having a lot of fun. And if you, I don't know if you, if you all follow the scuff podcast or anything like that, you know, like throughout qualifying.
00:47:32
Speaker
We hosted quite a few tailgates at different sites, at different matches. We had one in Nashville, when we played Canada, had one at the Cold Game. I was going to say, famously. Had one in Minnesota. At that match,
00:47:54
Speaker
had one in Orlando for that Panama match. Oh, Cincinnati for Mexico, all that. So, I mean, you know, if I could speak for all of us, you know, me, I mean, you all probably know Waukee.
00:48:08
Speaker
I assume everybody here knows what I would hope so. God. Yeah. Also prestigious Scuff podcast member. We're about having fun. We're about having fun and just absolutely having a good time and bringing community to this space. So yeah. I guess with all these things to do, just be on the lookout because we will be
00:48:34
Speaker
hosting activities activities for soccer fans. Yeah, and I'll
Promotion of the Scuff Podcast
00:48:40
Speaker
maybe I'll maybe that's a good place to end this but I'll leave it with this note that if you are someone who is interested in the national team but finds the discourse to be a little
00:48:52
Speaker
toxic on Twitter. I think you'll find a much more accessible and fun side of it on Scuffed. And I think that's probably as good of a plug as any as I can give for Scuffed because I also find the discourse around the national team to be very
00:49:12
Speaker
hard to engage with, except when I'm listening to you guys. And I think you all do a great job and you do a good job of covering not just the senior men's team, but you get a lot of youth national team stuff. You've started doing a women's show. It's just a very well-rounded platform for discussing the team and you guys don't take yourself too seriously. On all seriousness, I thought the Gio Reyna episodes were some of my favorite podcast episodes of all time.
00:49:41
Speaker
I was just sitting there laughing and enjoying the whole thing immensely. And then I was bummed to learn how serious it got on Twitter, but it was a lot of fun. So you guys do a great job, Vince. And honestly, it was a pleasure having you on here. And thanks to you so much for doing this.
00:50:02
Speaker
Oh yeah, man. Thanks for, thanks for having me. I'll hop on anytime. Uh, Louisville is playing. Exactly. Which, uh, next time open cup final, you know, I like it. I like it. All right. You're listening to notice the audio at this and, uh, we'll catch you next time.
00:50:22
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Mountain 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.
00:50:59
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!