Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Nos Audietis, Episode 250: Talking about sample sizes
63 Plays8 years ago
We here at Nos Audietis take a fair amount of pride in a measured, reasonable approach. We know that one game does not a season make and that one performance does not define a player or team. We're well aware of the importance of sample-size, which is a recurring talking point in this week's show.
That said, it's hard not to be encouraged by the Sounders' 3-0 takedown of the LA Galaxy, a team that might not be what it once was but one that still has the kind of talent that should keep it from being embarrassed like that at home.
Once again, FourFourTwo's Richard Farley joins us to help sort through the mess. We also talk about the Seattle Reign's 5-1 win over the Houston Dynamo, Leo Messi, Darlington Nagbe and everyone's favorite MLS owner-coach combination.
This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Recommended
Transcript
Sponsorships and Episode Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of NOS Audiadis is sponsored by Queen and Acupuncture. Queen and Acupuncture has over a decade of experience healing the injuries of athletes. Marathon runners, snowboarders, yoga instructors and weekend warriors have all found relief from pain and have enhanced performance with the use of Acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
00:00:22
Speaker
Queen Anne acupuncture has treated players from many of the Seattle area's soccer leagues for a wide range of injuries. Acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Credit cards are welcome but Queen Anne acupuncture is also in network with insurance plans including Primera, Aetna, LifeWise, Cigna and Group Health Cooperative.
00:00:45
Speaker
Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com.
00:01:20
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle
Seattle Sounders' Tactics and Performance
00:01:36
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Full Pull Wines, Constellation & Company Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 250 and we're recording on Monday, April 24th, 2017. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo. Also joining us is 442's Richard Farley.
00:01:56
Speaker
Well, that was a bit more like it. Coming off of a frustrating loss of the Vancouver White cops, thanks a lot Freddy. The Sounders romped their way to a 3-0 win over the LA Galaxy, who looked entirely overmatched. The scoreline probably should have been even more lopsided, but Clint Dempsey hit the workwork for the 4th time this season on a gilt edge chance and Will Bruin decided not to feed Harry Shipp for what would have been a tap-in.
00:02:18
Speaker
Even without those goals, this was arguably the most dominant road performance in Sounders history. It seems like ages ago when the StubHub Center was the Center's house of horrors, but they're now riding a two game winning streak there in which they've scored seven goals. That's two more than they had scored in their previous ten regular season road games against the Galaxy and the same number they had scored there all time.
Jordan Morris' Position and Development
00:02:37
Speaker
How dominant were the Sounders? They completed an MLS record 83% of their passes in the offensive third. At halftime, they had completed more passes in the Galaxy's end than the Galaxy had completed anywhere.
00:02:47
Speaker
outshot them 10-2 and held 64% of the possession. Mind you, this was on the road against a mostly healthy galaxy team, while the Sounders had a mostly patchwork defense. The biggest change from the Whitecaps game was the decision to start Will Bruin. Move Jordan Morris to the wing and drop Harry Shipp to the bench. Bruin didn't have a goal or an assist, but he did have a ton of target forward type of stuff that seemed to pay off. So let's start there.
00:03:13
Speaker
How the Sounders unlocked their key to their offense and is that key named Will Bruin?
00:03:18
Speaker
I think the key is probably more just playing the galaxy. They looked rather disinterested at times, didn't they? They look like a team that is quit on their coach. And we saw exactly what that looked like last year. So I think we can speak with a little bit of authority on the subject. No, I mean, I think that it's the hot debate right now. And I think that
00:03:48
Speaker
On the pro side, I think that, you know, Will Bruin did a really good job of staying central and, you know, occupying that space and stretching the center backs and giving Quint Dempsey and Nico Ledero and Jordan Morris the opportunity to make good runs and exploit space. And that's not something Jordan Morris has been great at doing this year, especially in the Vancouver game when he had, I think, zero touches in the center of the pitch.
00:04:16
Speaker
So, you know, I mean, in that sense, I think it worked really well. And I think that there are things about Jordan Morris' skillset that make him pretty effective on the wing. You know, he can run right at defenders. He tends to drift wide when he's playing centrally. And so, you know, the obvious
00:04:36
Speaker
Following from that is just hey, we'll just play him wide where he's comfortable For me though. I think that the potential downsides still outweigh the positives. I think that You know for one thing there's nothing about Jordan Morris about his skill set About his you know, his physical size his strength is just this talent level in general that makes me think that he's incapable of playing as a loan forward because Clint Dempsey is nominally a striker but
00:05:05
Speaker
I think it's pretty clear that if you're playing striker with Clint Dempsey as the other striker, you're kind of a lone forward. And has Jordan Morris been great at that this year? No, I think that's fair to say. Is there any reason to think that Jordan Morris can't get good at those things? I don't think there is. I mean, he's a strong kid. He makes intelligent runs.
00:05:28
Speaker
He just needs to get a little bit better at picking a spot for making those inside out runs. He needs to get a little bit better at staying positionally disciplined and taking up that space in the center of the pitch instead of trying to, you know, get behind the defense with those wide runs a little more often. But, you know, he can mix it up with center backs. He can be a physical presence up there
00:05:49
Speaker
And there are things that the Sounders can do tactically to make that a little bit easier on him. And I think, you know, in the long term, it's really a disservice to Jordan Morris to put him on the wing and say, you know, like, well, this is where you're comfortable. So this is where we're going to put you. I mean, what's wrong with challenging a kid? You know, I mean, if he's going to develop into the player that I think everybody thinks he can be,
00:06:11
Speaker
it's not going to be on the wing.
Sounders' Roster and Strategic Decisions
00:06:14
Speaker
He can be effective there and in the short term it might even help the sounders a little bit in terms of results and in terms of keeping their shape, but in the long run he's not going to turn into the player as a winger that he can become as a forward. I don't think that's a really especially controversial opinion and I think that
00:06:33
Speaker
Even in the long run for the Sounders, it's better to have Jordan Morris excelling as a striker than to have him doing pretty well as a winger. I think right now Jordan Morris is an above average winger in MLS. That's probably going to score a little bit more often than most wingers and maybe not do some of the other things that wingers do quite as often.
00:06:55
Speaker
But I don't think his ceiling is that much higher than where he's at right now at that position as a striker. I mean, I think that, you know, this guy's the limit. So I'm okay with it as a short term kind of thing. Maybe if they feel like he needs to get some confidence back or if he's not fully recovered from his injuries and he's still playing below 100%, maybe it makes sense to do it. I fully expect him to stick with it for a couple more games, but I don't think it's the answer. I mean, I think it's a short term kind of thing.
00:07:24
Speaker
And I think it's just selling pretty much everyone involved short to just stick them there and keep them there. Yeah, so I think I mostly agree with that. I think it's pretty hard to argue that his upside isn't the... Well, I shouldn't say that. I think there are people that are arguing that maybe his upside isn't particularly high as a center forward. And they've talked themselves into thinking that maybe being a wide player is his best option.
00:07:52
Speaker
That said, I think what I found interesting in this game was that he had a ton of touches in the center of the park, despite starting as a left mid, a week after he had no touches in the middle of the park, starting as a center forward, which was such a bizarre thing. It was a very weird game for him in Vancouver, and I think, for me, what it really comes down to is that if he needs to be on the wing right now,
00:08:21
Speaker
because he's injured because you know and I think there's something to be said that as a as a winger he doesn't have to go bang bodies with center backs and that's probably one of the things that he is he's you know able to play
00:08:34
Speaker
going forward in a way that's a little easier on his body as a winger and he doesn't need to. There was this interview with Will Bruin after the game and he's talking about he's scratched up and he's tugged and he's doing all this stuff and I can see how if you're dealing with injuries how maybe playing center forward isn't the best thing for you. So maybe short term it makes a ton of sense to have Jordan Morris out there.
00:08:58
Speaker
But I would be careful in one of the, I've heard this suggested, I think maybe I've even bought into this a little bit at times, but if the sounders suddenly start looking for a center forward as their next DP signing, and then ultimately essentially pushing Jordan Morris out to the wing semi-permanently, that seems like a bad call. Now, and I don't bring this up to throw anyone under the bus,
00:09:26
Speaker
But when the lineups were announced in Sunday's game, Richard sent me a DM that said, I'll always try to hold back on this, but I hate Morris playing wide. I'd honestly rather just have Jovan on the left wing than do this. But obviously, there's other factors that are making this a dumb decision.
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'll stand by that. I mean, obviously, I preface that with, like, that's how I'm feeling. And I mean, I still feel the same way. It obviously depends, too. I think we talk later. It's like, obviously, not right now move Jovan Jones up because the back line is depleted. But I would much rather a scenario where Brad Evans is at left back and Jovan Jones is at left wing and Jordan Morris is up top than what we're going to see regular.
00:10:11
Speaker
if Saturday's lineup was regular. And I keep coming back to this. We've talked about this theory of Jordan Morris, and I think the three of us are on the same page, and Aaron articulated it, and all the scenarios around it better than I could if I tried to rehash it.
00:10:26
Speaker
I have no reason to look at what happened in 45 minutes in Los Angeles and how aberrational that was and change all the thought that a lot of us have put into that theory because Los Angeles was just so bad. It would be like going up against somebody in the first game of US Open Cup and you're playing against Phoenix Rising or something like that and Jordan Morris
00:10:47
Speaker
plays a left wing and you score three goals in the first half. And it's like, whoa. I mean, Los Angeles was that bad. So I don't want to close the door to potentially having to rethink what we've all said about Jordan Morris and his future and where his ceiling is the highest. But there is nothing from that LA game that I'm personally going to use to
00:11:07
Speaker
inform me about Jordan Morris, inform me about the Sounders ceiling, inform me about how the Sounders should start in defense. Obviously, we wouldn't look at the LA game and go, hey, the Sounders just start this back line all the time. They got the clean sheet. But if they try this a few more times, I guess I would understand it.
00:11:29
Speaker
I just think ultimately they're the longest game here to think about is how you're going to get the most out of your players. And I just don't think Jordan Morris is going to be as effective on the left wing as he will up top. I don't think we'll burn will be anything but a very streaky decent forward because that's what he's been for six years in the league. I don't think the Sounders would be well served by sacrificing the playmaking ability that you would have from a
00:11:52
Speaker
another winger that they would bring in for Jordan Morris's superior goal smoring over another winger. And so I just wonder what's the short term gain here? Yeah, and I think that there's something else that we said, there's two things. One,
00:12:09
Speaker
I do think that there's value in Jordan Morris becoming an effective wide player if only because it gives the sounders that much more tactical flexibility. I think it's good to know that if you want to put Morris out wide that he's capable of doing it, that he can be efficient, that he can be dangerous.
00:12:29
Speaker
and he did have a good game out there. I also think that as long as you've got a guy like Will Bruin on the roster that it makes sense to try to use him and for right now if the choice is between having Harry Shit play on the left with Jordan Morris up top or having Jordan Morris as a left winger and Will Bruin up top, I don't know that
00:12:50
Speaker
I'm comfortable with essentially rolling the dice with whatever decision they think that the coaching staff think is a better matchup. But if we're going to start making long-term decisions, if we're going to start talking about who we're going to invest a designated player spot in, who we're going to invest a transfer fee in, who we're going to bring
Clint Dempsey's Form and Impact
00:13:08
Speaker
in to build around, I think it would be a pretty colossal
00:13:13
Speaker
maybe that's overstating it. I think it would be a mistake to see what we saw and take, I don't think anyone's gonna look at this last game, but no matter what happens over the next few weeks, I don't think, I think it would be a mistake to then decide, okay, well, we need to go and get a target forward so we can stick Jordan Morris out on the wing.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think that if Clint Dempsey weren't involved in the equation, you know, maybe that is the best place to look because then Morris can play sort of as the secondary striker where I think is probably best suited at this point. But he still gets that experience of playing in the middle and upping his game, you know, in the ways that he needs to do that. But, you know, we know, I think from experience that Clint Dempsey is not
00:13:59
Speaker
the coin Dempsey that we you know really want to see when he's playing wide and he's probably going to be here through at least next year and you know if he keeps playing the way he's playing it's I think almost the lock that he's going to be here through at least next year so you know you have to think in those terms as well and you know really the thing that the Sounders are missing I think
00:14:21
Speaker
right now is a true wide player and I think we've been talking about that for a while and I think Morris can do a pretty good impression of that and maybe you know there's enough talent on the team that that it's enough to be an elite attack but I just don't think it's the best expenditure of resources because I think Morris can learn to do those things that you know that a good high forward can do.
00:14:44
Speaker
Well, speaking of Clint Dempsey, here's a guy who had somehow an under- I don't feel like enough people are raving about the game that Clint had. He had 93% passing and eight shots. He easily could have had two goals. He could have easily had two assists.
00:15:00
Speaker
I think he had four key passes. He was as effective offensively as you can really ask for. You look back, he's got four balls off the post this year. At least two of those, I think, are goals you expect him to score. He had that header against Atlanta and then he had this one where he basically took a cutback pass from Morris.
00:15:27
Speaker
And he'd be right there in the golden boot race if he converted all these chances that he's had off the post so far. But if he's playing like this, it's crazy. I think it's just, I don't know, I feel like he's been pretty good all year. But we really saw, I mean, am I overdoing it? He seemed like he was just everywhere in this game and I realized that LA was bad. But I think the Sounders deserve at least some credit for making LA look bad.
00:15:57
Speaker
It's not like they put out a lineup of scrubs, you know, this is essentially the team, this is as healthy as they're gonna, this is as, you know, all their best players that are gonna be available for the next few months at least, we're all out there. It's not exactly, you know, I guess it is kind of a stars and scrubs lineup, but that's what their team is right now.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that as bad as the Galaxy played, that's as bad as they've looked all year. I mean, that was atrocious. And in MLS, even terrible teams at home can be tough. And so I think that the Sounders definitely deserve some credit. I think that Alonzo and Roldan just pretty much shut down the game. Defensively, the Galaxy had absolutely no hope of really posing a threat on the counter attack until the second half when things got kind of packed in.
00:16:47
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, I think that as terrible as they were, you know, there were some really, really good sounders performances that led to that. And I think Clint Dempsey was probably the best player on the pitch, which is saying something because I thought Nico Lodero was tremendous. I thought Jordan Morris had a really good game. I thought Jovan Jones had another great game. Svensson had a great game as well. You know, there were some really, really good performances and I think Dempsey stood out.
00:17:16
Speaker
And, you know, it's funny because he, I mean, I feel like he has the reputation of being the super streaky one on this team. And it's not like that's an unfair reputation, but I mean, I think that he's consistently been the Sounders, you know, best attacking threat all season. I don't feel like he's had a really poor game yet, you know, and he's had, he had the ball cleared off the line. Like you said, he had the, you know, he's had multiple shots off the post. He's not getting,
00:17:46
Speaker
I don't feel like he's getting lost as much as maybe he has in the past. I mean, I think that he's just been kind of firing on all cylinders. He hasn't been the piece that wasn't working as often as he has maybe in the past this year.
Sounders' Season Overview and Challenges
00:17:57
Speaker
And this was really a culmination of that. And I think if anybody benefited the most from having Bruin, it was weirdly not Morris, but Dempsey to have somebody to kind of take some of that heat off.
00:18:12
Speaker
Richard, are we too much on the, do you need to reel us back in on Clint Dempsey or is this legit? I mean, Aaron is a little bit too complimentary of his season than I would be, but Aaron did say something that I agree with and he said, I don't feel like that Dempsey has had a poor game yet. And I absolutely agree with that. I just think Dempsey has probably spent more time closer to a middle ground than Aaron was implying there. And I definitely think that Clint Dempsey has shown
00:18:39
Speaker
more high points this early in the season than he did last year. And I realize that's a ridiculous comparison, because Clint Dempsey at the beginning of last year was the worst Clint Dempsey we've ever seen. But it is a meaningful comparison to me in that they're both years with the Sounders, and obviously that's the most recent one to compare it to. And this is what the Sounders are like when Dempsey is closer to his normal self.
00:19:02
Speaker
he's pretty much to me been normal the whole year with some points of being like very very good as as you guys are handing out we saw this weekend i i just i can't
00:19:15
Speaker
shrug off the jordan morris debate as saying always only forty five minutes that's not a change what i think about anything and then not do the same for clinton c i think that it was forty five minutes against a terrible team i will see this we see terrible performance is a lot of time and times in mls and they make it to have time and survive and change gears like montreal did this weekend against philadelphia
00:19:35
Speaker
We don't really see a lot of times where teams put a foot on somebody's throat, go up three nothing or so convincing, and then never let that other team breathe again. So like most dramatic halves, I think as much as we're saying LA which trash, we have to admit that a team has to be good to take advantage of trash.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's kind of what I've, I think that very much close, very close to what I've been saying. I do think it's funny though that the Sounders are now seven games into this season. They are, you know, they played five games on the road. They are in fifth place in the West, so solidly in playoff position. They've actually got like the fourth best goal difference, fourth or fifth best goal difference in the league. Their defense is standing up pretty strong.
00:20:24
Speaker
Their offense hasn't been putting up huge numbers for the most part, but their offense is actually, you know, solidly top third of the league in goals scored. Given all this, I actually feel pretty, and I realize that this is one game, and the three points in this game, the three goals in this game, the shutout in this game, all change the season-long statistics significantly. But I actually feel pretty good about where the Sounders are right now. They're gonna have four of their next six at home.
00:20:54
Speaker
And this is maybe not exactly where I thought they'd be seven games into the season, but I'm really okay with this. I mean, I personally thought Dallas and Seattle were the best teams coming into this season. I think Dallas is better than I thought they would be, mostly because Kellen Acosta is better than I thought he would be, and Mauro Diaz is still coming back. But of the three teams that I also think are very good teams in the West, that would be Seattle, Portland, and Sporting, I would be most positive about Seattle out of all those teams.
00:21:24
Speaker
What about you, Aaron? Looking back on this as a holistic picture of the season, how do you feel about it? I think it's all right. I mean, the heavy road slate, I think, is worth noting, and I think it's something that's kind of gotten overlooked.
00:21:41
Speaker
you know in terms of points it's it's not great but you know when you consider how many of those games are on the road i think it looks okay i mean it's the atlanta game i think is a huge really frustrating one because we absolutely should have won that game
00:21:57
Speaker
And, you know, I think an extra two points makes everything look a lot more rosy. But, you know, I think considering the weird injuries that we've had so far this year, in terms of, you know, having to play Jordy Dellum multiple times at right back, Tony Alfaro started multiple games, Gustavsson started almost every game. Every game, he started every game. At the beginning of the year, if you had been told that Jordy Dellum would start two games, Tony Alfaro would start two games,
00:22:22
Speaker
both Chad Marshall and Roman Torres would miss, I think, three games a piece. Is that right? Maybe at least two games. Well, Spinson didn't start the game that Torres got hurt in because he came out for Torres. Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. But he played Starters Minutes in every game, I guess, would be why I'm looking at it. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it's obviously I would love to have
00:22:47
Speaker
You know a point from the Vancouver game two more points from the Atlanta game But in terms of the performances, you know, I think it's I think it's been pretty solid New York is I think a great win because that was I think the best the team has looked all year Even you know better than the galaxy game And you know that happened before some some kind of tough
00:23:10
Speaker
tough down times. So, you know, there's a reason to think, I think, that the kind of performance we saw against LA is sustainable. So, you know, I don't feel great about it, but I also feel like this team could still be in the supporter shield next, you know, come September. I might be factoring in the back line injuries in my optimism more than other people are, because you kind of look at some of the recent games and it's like, yeah, you know, they haven't had, you know, even when they've been in their most healthy, they've probably had two first choice defenders for most of these games.
00:23:40
Speaker
It's just the left side and then the right side is completely makeshift. And I just wonder, especially when you have a midfield with
00:23:47
Speaker
uh... alonzo roll down that allows you know it allows your fullbacks release a little bit earlier allows me to you to take some risks that other teams can't take i just wonder when you get a real right back in there that's gonna be consistent and if torres comes back and isn't you know evil torres that sounders pants off of that first part of the season i just can't help but think that that distinguishes seattle from portland and kansas city and uh... it'll be interesting to see if they can get to dallas's level and mike but most people i'm really impressed with dallas and
00:24:17
Speaker
It would be a worthy challenge Yeah, I'm definitely impressed with Dallas. I'm not I'm I know people are talking about sporting Kansas City having this great defense I'm still not convinced that This is a great team that that sporting Kansas City has put together even though they've only allowed I guess what?
00:24:33
Speaker
three goals three goals they've only scored six sporting Kansas City has scored six goals in seven games uh but they do have a good defense I feel like there was a team that that kind of you know was similar last year that everybody's wondering whether or not it was sustainable and now they're in the toilet in the western conference so right maybe maybe let's not go crazy about the hyper defensive teams that can't score goals
00:24:56
Speaker
And they make so many sacrifices to play the style too. So I don't think it's just a matter of like flicking a switch and all of a sudden they're going to be scoring like 1.2 goals a game. Like they need to tweak how they're playing a little bit. Right. No, I would totally agree with that. Well, that's, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We're going to come back. We're going to talk a little bit about going on in the worlds of MLS and soccer in general. And then we're going to come back and take your questions. You're listening to NOS Adiatus.
00:25:30
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adietes is sponsored by Designers Marble. Designers Marble is the premier custom cultured marble manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest. Their synthetic marble products, made with patented true stone technology, offer the beautiful look of natural stone at a fraction of the cost, while maintaining exceptional durability and ease of maintenance.
00:25:52
Speaker
Their products have been used in beautiful furniture, custom countertops, and stunning shower enclosures. Designers Marvel is also a licensed general contractor that has over 30 years of experience in bathroom design and remodels. Give them a call, visit their website at designersmarvel.com, or stop by their showroom in Woodinville. They would love to give you a free estimate for your project, large or small.
00:26:22
Speaker
Verity is a local credit union and has been headquartered in Seattle since 1933. They have branches throughout the Puget Sound area and know what is important to you because they live here too. Verity is not for profit and puts any money they make into good rates, products and services for you, the members. They have credit cards with competitive rates, checking and savings accounts and loans for all sorts of things, even bicycles.
00:26:49
Speaker
Verity is federally insured by the NCUA and an equal housing opportunity lender. Anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in Washington state can become a member, and we would love to
Lionel Messi's 500th Goal and Spanish Football Dynamics
00:27:03
Speaker
have you. Learn more and apply at veritycu.com. Welcome back to Nos Ariates. So,
00:27:15
Speaker
ongoing theme we are doing this where but we don't have an interview for the second segment we are creating a second segment by trying to talk about more generalized soccer stuff we may as well start with what probably is the freshest piece of of news that we have Lionel Messi scored his 500th goal for Barcelona on Sunday in classic Messi fashion scoring a 90 second basically at the death winner at
00:27:45
Speaker
Real Madrid in the Classco and he's now averaging more than a goal per game over his last six seasons. He's averaging almost a goal per game actually during his entire professional career. It's pretty amazing. I feel like we had this discussion about Cristiano Ronaldo a couple weeks ago, but this performance was pretty amazing, especially that it was on the road against the biggest rival
00:28:13
Speaker
I don't know. Can we be too hyperbolic when we're talking about Lionel Messi at this point? His world celebration actually made me like him again. I sounded annoying for multiple years and that was just enough. It's kind of the culmination of his heel turn, isn't it?
00:28:31
Speaker
He's been like slow, you know, he dyed his hair, he grew the beard, he got all these tattoos. Evated taxes. Evated taxes, exactly. So this is perfect. So in case you somehow missed it, what he did is he scored his goal, he takes off his jersey, he holds it up the back of the jersey and shows it to the Madrid fans and points at it and he got a yellow card, but it was probably the most satisfying yellow card that any player has ever gotten.
00:28:58
Speaker
There's a great picture where when he turns around back to the field, the referee is there to show him the yellow and he's still holding up his jersey. So the picture is taken at the time where it looks like he's holding his jersey to the yellow card.
00:29:12
Speaker
It's the best thing, it's one of the best things Messi has ever done. It's mostly like, I think of Messi as like this prodigy kid that was, you know, had to be revitalized because of his growth deficiency and he was built by this uber club into this like super soccer player. For the most of his career, he kind of seemed like a very robotic kind of, you know, straightforward, almost emotionless guy, but that kind of just told me that he's just as petty and evil as I am and I love it.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah, I can only imagine what was going on in that game that prompted him to do that, but somehow I feel like maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just being... Well, he got busted in the mouth in like the 12 minute. Marcelo threw an elbow right into his mouth. Oh, that's right, yeah. And then also Real Madrid just came out for like the first 10 or 15 minutes and looked like they were gonna steamroll Barcelona too, so...
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess it now looks like Madrid this seems to be it's such a Spanish football is the most bizarre world because somehow it seems like what's the narrative that's gonna happen is that Madrid's gonna blow their lead in La Liga Barcelona's gonna win the league title then Madrid will go on to win Champions League and Zineden Zidane will be fired
00:30:31
Speaker
If Florentino Perez fires it at his dad after back-to-back Champions League titles, I'm surprised they have pants that can fit a man with balls that big.
00:30:40
Speaker
It's like on the one hand it seems like the greatest job in the world, but on the other it's just impossible. You're not going to do it for more than two or three years because unless you're winning the treble every year, and even then they'll find something to fire you for. I don't know. That's the thing. Winning a league title is not enough. Winning Champions League isn't enough. It's like you got to win the treble every year or you're not meeting your fans' expectations.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, but to fire Zinedine Zidane after the success that he's had is just would be like the ultimate power play. Like that's just where you're just you're really just seeing how much you can fuck with the world and get away with it. Right. But am I that crazy? I mean, that doesn't seem that crazy of a scenario to me. I would be shocked. But at the same time, like the moment that I'm shocked, somebody should just go, what did you expect? You're being naive.
European Football Pressures and Expectations
00:31:29
Speaker
This is real Madrid.
00:31:31
Speaker
Like, I don't know if I think it's going to happen, but I just don't think it's all beyond the scope of what could happen.
00:31:40
Speaker
If it wasn't Zidane, I would agree with you. If it was anybody but Zidane, I would agree with you. So I guess this is the, Aaron and I were talking about this the other day. What, so I think the three teams that are up for this debate are Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich. Of those three, correct me if I'm wrong, if there's another team I need to be throwing into this pile. But I can't imagine there being a worse team to root for than any of those three teams, not because they aren't,
00:32:09
Speaker
fun when they're playing well and not because they don't have great players, but because you don't seem to ever be able to enjoy anything that they accomplish.
00:32:32
Speaker
And, you know, Dortmund's a good team. There are other good teams in Germany's Leipzig this year. There's always good teams. Like Germany from top to bottom is probably the best league in the world. But the gap between Bayern and everybody else is just it's enough to make it so boring. Like if they don't win the title, it's a crisis. It's an absolute disaster if they don't win the title. So and I just don't see that like that hasn't always been the case.
00:33:01
Speaker
uh but i don't see it changing going forward um whereas you know with rial and barcelona at least there's always the chance that you're gonna you know that's gonna be interesting it seems to be that there's a very and i agree with that it seems to me there's like a very distinct difference between like the barcelona fans that i know and the rial Madrid fans that i know like Barcelona fans
Bayern Munich's Bundesliga Dominance
00:33:23
Speaker
Genuinely teens take a lot of pleasure in when their team does well no matter what and there is definitely a tradition ever since the the core even Michelle's era of like remaking the club Holding yourself to an aesthetic standard too, but I think they've gotten off of that ever since Luis Enrique took over with Real Madrid They're always holding themselves to this standard that is really nebulous They always think that they could be doing better they're always think that there's like a
00:33:51
Speaker
better, more, in a very artistic, pure way that they should be doing things. I mean, this is why the coaching job is so terrible there. And it just seems like that's a very miserable existence, that even when you're winning, you have to judge the aesthetics of your win.
00:34:11
Speaker
Right and I think that that's kind of to me what it seems like with Madrid is that it's not about playing a style. Like I don't know that there's a style that defines Madrid as much as having the best players playing in the most dominating like and it's not even about like a style like is domination a style because that seems to be what their style is. It's like we need to just
00:34:35
Speaker
own other teams. We have to make other teams not want to be on the pitch. And if we're not doing that, then we can be doing better. And that just doesn't seem like a fun way to, a fun kind of existence to have to root in as a fan.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah, I also, I find it weird, and I think you can lob the same criticism at Barcelona, but so much of Real Madrid right now is about kind of promoting Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi and Ronaldo's Club Futures
00:35:00
Speaker
And that just seems weird to me. Like, it seems like a lot of the club is tied into his personal glory, whether it be their tactics or the marketing or how much they are invested in stuff like Cristiano Ronaldo winning a Ballon d'Or instead of Messi and stuff like that.
00:35:17
Speaker
I guess Barcelona, too, to a certain extent, but Barcelona has also had people like Andres Iniesta and Carlos Puyol, Gerard Pique, Javi Hernandez, who represent, you know, the kind of Catalan identity of the club. And with Real Madrid, it's just like we're a super club and we have a superhuman being and we want him to get all the goals and all the glory.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, that said, I will say that it's fun to watch those two. I think it's hard to deny that Ronaldo and Messi being on the two biggest teams in the world, I think, I don't think that's controversial to say that, but to be on the two biggest teams in the world playing in the same league, that they face each other anywhere between two and six times a year, it seems like.
00:35:59
Speaker
Well, it does seem to drive them. I mean, it's kind of neat to watch from a distance. I just can't imagine trying to watch them every week. What I was wondering this weekend is if like the world was kind of with these two guys being so close in age and so good, is there
00:36:15
Speaker
Is there any viable vision of the universe that we can imagine where these guys didn't end up at Real Madrid and Barcelona? Was their gravity just so much that they had to end up in this proximity? Could Cristiano Ronaldo have gone to Chelsea or something like that? Or could Messi be at Bayern?
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, or could one of them have gone to PSG at some point? Or will one of them spend a year or two at Juventus or something like that? And I just can't imagine that being a world that we live in. It just seemed like these guys were destined to be the people they are now. Yeah. No, it definitely does seem that way. And it's kind of a surreal thing. But I guess, and this is
Mallory Pugh's Career Decisions
00:37:00
Speaker
Now I won't try to create a transition here, but moving over to women's soccer, Malpew just announced that she is gonna be skipping, I guess, it wasn't a formal announcement that she's skipping college, but maybe not coming to the NWSL.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah, so what happened was, I mean. Tell us about, our reader, our listeners may not know who Malpew is. There's so many levels to this now that I'm remembering it. So Malorie Pugh is a freshman at UCLA or was, I don't know if she's still enrolled in school, who from the Colorado area, who made a name for herself by when she was in high school, initially being named to the World Cup qualifying team two years ago. So you have the 17 year old who was immediately identified as the next wonder kid.
00:37:44
Speaker
And for a while, it looked like she was going to go straight to the NWSL, except she accepted a scholarship offer to UCLA and enrolled there last year. Well, she never did. I should add a note that the team, she wasn't just going to the NWSL. The Portland Thorns made a big trade to get her rights. Oh, it's more than that. The NWSL introduced this new rule for the Mallory Pugh situation because she wasn't
00:38:08
Speaker
she didn't kind of qualify to go for the college draft so they instituted an MLS like allocation system which would apply to Mallory Pugh and basically anybody else that came out outside of the draft system and it's just like an MLS there's a list it's generally inverse by order of finish you can trade your slot around and Portland immediately traded a couple of veterans to Boston to move number one
00:38:30
Speaker
because it was very clear that Mallory Pugh would come to the NWSL if she could go to Portland. Well, Mallory Pugh changed her mind at the last minute, went to UCLA, looked like she was going to play college soccer there, except for she redshirted her first year because of the U20 World Cup. Now, she gets there this winter and spring, and now she's all of a sudden ready to leave school. So basically, it just sounds like she doesn't want to go to college. But...
00:38:54
Speaker
bug out on the thorns. That's what I've never really understood. I think she thought she wanted to go to college, and when she got there, she didn't want to go to college. So I think a lot of people in Portland are wondering why she sent mixed messages, but I think the answer to that is probably she's 17, 18 years old, and it happens. Fair enough, OK. So now she wants to come out of the draft, only the thorns don't have the top pick in the allocation. It reset, and the Washington spirit have the top pick.
00:39:22
Speaker
Now, if you don't remember the Washington Spirit, they're the same team that did the anthem stump last year with Megan Rapinoe, where they played the anthem before the teams came out. They also traded away basically the whole core of this offseason in a complete teardown of the squad amid a bunch of player discontent. And Mallory Pugh doesn't want to play for them.
00:39:39
Speaker
now if you will want to play for the thorns and washington will not deal so now uh... now if you couldn't who has signed who according to that wall has signed with washerman sports and what's the sports has uh... deadly who is the crew agent for the national team about if he was actually signed with richard motskin who represents all the big men's national team players and is really uh... adept at getting those players to europe
00:40:08
Speaker
so one of the options is now puke going to play for leon or psg where she could earn a couple hundred thousand dollars a year maybe so we're in that stasis point right now where things are still developing because she realistically wouldn't be able to go to europe until the summer
00:40:25
Speaker
So there are a couple months here for Washington to decide what they want to do. I think the bigger story here is that the NWSL and women's soccer in general has become viable enough for not only Mallory Pugh, but the next five or six players down the road to really consider whether they want to go through the college system or not.
00:40:44
Speaker
And so I guess one of the questions that I have, and I'm someone who's pretty ignorant to the goings-ons, other than what I've seen in the news, is there any chance that Malpugh says, okay, maybe I can't play for the Thorns, but I'm willing to play for, I don't know, the Seattle Rain? Yeah, I think there's a chance of that.
00:41:04
Speaker
And I also think, you know, it's just, it's the beginning of a negotiation. I think there's a chance that Washington changes their mind. I think there's a big chance that Sunil Gulati actually gets involved and brokers something here. And, you know, conceivably, she could go back to school, although it seems like that's a pretty far... Well, she said with an agent, doesn't that kill her eligibility?
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm wondering if she has signed with that agent, but I think even at this point she's probably in trouble because she's clearly talking to those agents. But yeah, I mean, there are other teams besides the Thorns. I mean, I guess if you want to be traded, you start with the Thorns and maybe you accept Seattle or Orlando and you go from there. But the Washington spirit have gotten to the point where teams are willing to do a John Elway to avoid them.
00:41:50
Speaker
John Elway, in case you don't know, was a professional football player. So two weeks ago, I can't say National Basketball Association without you coming down a field. And now we're assuming people don't know who John Elway is. But they might not have known that John Elway was picked number one overall by the Colts and then refused to play with them and forced to trade to Denver. And he was going to go play baseball? Yeah, he had actually played with the Yankees during the previous fall.
00:42:19
Speaker
And George Steinbreiter wanted him to be their right fielder of the future. Yeah, funny story. I'm not going to get too deep in this. John Elway went to Stanford, as you probably know. What you may not know is that his dad was the head coach at San Jose State while John was going to Stanford. And they had some epic rivalry games during that period.
00:42:42
Speaker
and it was and so Jack Elway is kind of a legend at Sound of the State and anyway I went to Sound of the State so that's my story but uh anyway so this Malpugh situation though has been very is she worth all this trouble I mean she's a good she's clearly a good player but is it is it is this a good is this a good thing or are we making money I mean she's 17 18 years old
00:43:03
Speaker
Some people are super high on her. She has something like five goals and 18 national team appearances playing against, mostly against the weak schedule that the US plays against. She's a winger, so that's not a bad rate there. I mean, I think for me, the fact still remains that she has zero games at the professional level. She has zero games at the college level.
Seattle Reign's Victory and Rapinoe's Performance
00:43:21
Speaker
People are talking about the Thorns maybe giving up a core piece to get her like a Lindsay Horan type player, which
00:43:26
Speaker
to me would be crazy. But the Thorns do have enough depth on their team to give up a couple of decent players without compromising their squad and still improving Washington. I don't know. The NWSL is a really high level, too. You can look at international stats and go, oh my, wow, she's going to be great. But the NWSL is at a much higher level than most international games. So it's really hard to tell where she's going to fit in or how quickly she will.
00:43:52
Speaker
So sticking with the NWSL here, the Seattle Rain had a huge game or a huge win. They beat the Houston Dash 5-1, a team that they've absolutely owned during the Dash's brief history, which I guess is only a year shorter than.
00:44:08
Speaker
the rain, or maybe you're shorter than the rain. But the thing that I took away from this is if you haven't seen the goal Megan Rapinoe scored in that game, you need to stop what you're doing right now, pause this podcast, go find that video, and watch the goal. I think it's an amazing goal. It's a half volley over the, a pass over the top. She takes it off the, takes it first time with her left foot from the top of the penalty area.
00:44:36
Speaker
and just roofs are shot. It's an amazing goal. It's an amazing play and I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but Megan Rapinoe seems to be back.
00:44:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, based on our whole discussion in the last segment that kind of delved into sample sizes and what we really need to see, I guess I have a little bit about it. Yeah, fair enough. She has two goals and two games, albeit one of those is from the spot. But yeah, there's nothing we've seen yet that we should doubt. Megan Rifino is back. And that's after a winter where she kind of had admitted a couple points that she wasn't quite
00:45:25
Speaker
and she was just like,
00:45:28
Speaker
Why? You're being ridiculous. I'm like, well, Houston was so terrible that I'm kind of giving them negative points. But it's just the same thing with Seattle, too. On one hand, you can have a terrible team. But just because a team plays terribly doesn't mean that they're going to lose five to one. You have to have another team that plays well. And Seattle, after being the second best team on opening weekend, in my mind, they really flashed some of that 2014-2015 forum this weekend.
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah, and they, I guess they made a couple changes or they made at least one big change in the lineup, right? Yeah, so the first weekend, I think most of us came into the game expecting a Japanese international named Rumi Atsugi to start in midfield along with Christine Nairn, who they reacquired this offseason from Washington and then Jessica Fishlock. Midfield has obviously been the core strength of this team throughout
00:46:22
Speaker
the last three years of success, but they lost Kim Little and Keelan Winters this offseason. So how they replaced them was going to be the entry and opening game. But because Osigie was out, Laura Harvey elected to drop Christine Nairn into a number six role. She's not a ball winner, although she's a great distributor. So it's kind of like putting a Pirlo player back there and then juggle a few players in front of her. And it just didn't work. Sky Blue tore through their midfield as if it were hypothetical butter. This weekend, they had their
00:46:52
Speaker
roll butter well i mean to say like it was butter would even be a compliment to let me read that is to exaggerate how how good the rain actually work this weekend but but to be sitting behind it uh... jessica fish lock roving isn't eight and christine erin being a central mithfield distributor and everything all of a sudden start though look like roses again
Darlington Nagbe's Potential and Performance
00:47:13
Speaker
and so uh... this is how we are he wants to play and uh... i mean i'll say it's a better result than they've got they had at this point last year no matter how bad used to play
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, so the other topic that we wanted to get into today, and speaking of sample sizes, I feel like that's a ongoing theme in today's show, but Darlington Nagbee had an amazing goal this week. I know that, you know, I was so impressed by it that I actually
00:47:40
Speaker
put it up on the the sounder facebook page uh much to the degree and uh to some sounder fans which whatever i i get it but my attitude is game recognize game and that was a great goal uh i think we should be able to appreciate great goals from anyone that said uh what i find amusing is that everyone not everyone but twitters for sure seems to be all a light over darlington nagby suddenly being this offensive juggernaut
00:48:06
Speaker
And I feel like it's maybe pumped the brakes on this a little bit. Darlington Nagby is what, 27 years old, is that right? I think he's 26, going on 27, it's close. But he's in his seventh professional career, professional year. He's well into his pride.
00:48:23
Speaker
Right, he's a player who, you know, I'm not saying that he's incapable of making a leap like this, but we have a lot of data that says that he's maybe not a great offensive player, that he does a lot of really great things, but that scoring goals and racking up assists is not really one of the things that he does particularly well.
00:48:46
Speaker
And am I being a cylinders fan by saying, you know, let's pump the brakes on this a little bit? Or am I just being reasonable that we have a lot of data to suggest that maybe this is a good run of form and not necessarily indicative of a entirely new player? I mean, Aaron, what do you think? I kind of I feel like I'm
00:49:08
Speaker
having covered Darlington for his whole career down here, I feel like I have a bucket of cold water to throw on this. So I kind of want to try to let the water get to room temperature first. So I'm interested to hear what Aaron has to say about this. I think it's fair to say that you're being a little bit of a sounder fan. I also think it's fair to say that
00:49:31
Speaker
You know, Portland fans that wanted him starting for the national team four years ago were being equally, if not more, I'll go with more, ridiculous. I think it's entirely possible that he's turned a little bit of a corner. I don't think he's going to keep up this level of production. I don't think he's made a huge breakthrough in this game. I mean, I think he's a good player, getting better.
00:49:53
Speaker
This is... 26-27 is really like full on peak for players that are of his position, so it wouldn't be crazy if he has, you know, a couple years where he puts up really good numbers. But we're... there's been this thing with early in Nagby for so long where we just keep pretending like he's young, and he hasn't been a young player for four years.
00:50:15
Speaker
You know, this is not, you know, the beginning of, like, a 10-year stretch of Darlen Henangi being an elite attacking player. Like, these are his peak years. It would be a little bit disappointing if he wasn't, you know, performing at a higher level, frankly, considering all the hype that's gone into him, so...
00:50:32
Speaker
I mean, I think that what he's done so far this year isn't sustainable. I think he's probably going to have, you know, the best offensive year of his career this year. And I think he probably is, you know, better. But he's not an MVP candidate all of a sudden. He's not somebody that should be an unquestioned national team starter all of a sudden.
00:50:54
Speaker
yeah i think your cold water okay it's it's a heat up a little bit and their two ways that i basically am looking at this uh... like erin hinted at this is a new discussion around aren't any and if this isn't the first time to know if he has ever scored uh... remarkable goals in fact he's been doing it almost literally since he came into the league the question is always been consistency and while this year he does seem to be consistently more aggressive this is three weeks in a row now when he's taken
00:51:20
Speaker
Audacious shots from deep and they were shots that before he would kind of weekly lay off into, you know, just to the flanks and then, you know, kind of circle in after a cross got eaten up by the defense. So at least he's being a more aggressive now. But this idea of trying to bring out aggression and darling to nag be was actually it.
00:51:39
Speaker
you know, to my knowledge, part of the reason why Kayla Porter was so appealing to Merritt Paulson and the rest of the brass, because Darlington Nagy was a much more aggressive player in Akron. And at that point, Darlington Nagy going into his third year,
00:51:55
Speaker
they wanted to make him into a star. But at the same time, they also brought in Diego Valeri because they knew that Darlington Nagbee's personality was just not a very aggressive alpha athlete one. And so the next four years under Caleb Porter, I played out with Darlington Nagbee kind of shifting between a wing attacker to a number eight and now back to a wing attacking position. And even on the wing, he's been looked at as more of a possession player than a production player. You get what I mean by that difference.
00:52:23
Speaker
I think it's right to wonder.
00:52:27
Speaker
One, this really is a sea change in attitude. And if it is, two, how long we have to wait until we know for sure that this change is sustainable. Now, that kind of takes me into my second part of this. On a team level, we know that kind of results in terms of offensive production become the variance kind of gets teased out of them after like 14 or 18 games. That's what people have researched this far more than I do. And I'm trusting them because those papers sure do have a lot of big words in them.
00:52:56
Speaker
But that's with a sample size of shots that a team generates, not just an individual. So when you get down to an individual level and individual game results have more variance, you probably need more games than 14 or 18 to really tease out that variance.
00:53:16
Speaker
we were probably looking at more than a season's worth of MLS games, to be honest with you, based on the ratio of how many shots individuals generate compared to the team.
Podcast Sponsorships and Light-Hearted Discussions
00:53:25
Speaker
And when you look at how, you think of like a player like Jack McInerzy at the extreme, what his extreme seasons have been like. And we kind of do see that players, yeah, one season's worth of results for a striker aren't always indicative of what they really are capable of. So,
00:53:41
Speaker
I think we need to wait until about midseason to make sure that Darlington's, you know, Agro Darlington, as I'm calling him, is really like real Darlington. Yeah, and I think it's you bring up Jack McInerney. This is a guy who had a score 20 goals over a two year period for Philadelphia. He's now been in the league for seven years and he's got 43 career goals. So basically half of his goals came in a tier.
00:54:12
Speaker
to your run. That game at Seattle last year where he had to fill in at the last minute for Fonato Adi, that was just killer. I mean, sometimes we exaggerate saying that single players cost teams games. He totally cost Portland that game.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that was not a great point in Jack Mac's favor. But anyway, so that's probably a good place to wrap this up. We're going to come back, take some questions from you guys. You're listening to Nos Adios.
00:54:46
Speaker
Constellation & Co. is a letterpress stationery company and gift shop located in the Fisherman's Terminal, next door to Chinooks. Their storefront in the Magnolia Interbay neighborhood of Seattle is home to antique printing presses, unique greeting cards and locally made goods.
00:55:04
Speaker
They also offer design and printing services for weddings and special events. Mention NosAurieras for a 20% YNYA discount. For more information visit ConstellationCo.com
00:55:21
Speaker
These full pool wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nos adieres since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:55:41
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. And three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
00:56:04
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes. We have quite a few questions from you guys. We might as well just get started with bread, otherwise known as Beth mantle. Which duo on the team will you have the best handshake? Which duo on the team will have the best handshake by the end of the season? And the reason that this gets brought up is we saw Nicholas Ledero and Clint Dempsey do a shot glass celebration. And then right after that,
00:56:30
Speaker
Dempsey and Jovan Jones did another kind of fancy handshake. So what's your money on for your best handshake on the team? I think Torres and Dempsey seems like they can come up with some good stuff. Oh, that would be. I like that. Relationships go in full circle.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yes, that would be very interesting. I like that idea. MLS needs more handshakes, just bottom line. Everybody needs more handshakes. One, because they make white people feel uncomfortable and we deserve to be felt culturally uncomfortable. And second, the reason they make us feel uncomfortable is because they look super cool and we can't do them.
00:57:07
Speaker
So I hope they start a trend here. I hope other teams start trying to copy it. I hope they continue to be creative about this because, I mean, I'm honestly more excited about this than I am the actual games.
00:57:22
Speaker
What I find really kind of funny is that it feels like Clint Dempsey has one of these for basically every teammate. I'm seriously wondering how much time they spend practicing this stuff because they seem pretty well coordinated. Well, I mean, you joke about it. This was actually going to be my first answer before I came up with the white people are uncomfortable with things response.
00:57:41
Speaker
But it really does hint at a level of cohesion with a team because you just don't see teams that are new with each other that have this kind of rapport because it does take some time and it takes some intimacy to let down your guard and go to somebody and be like, hey, let's do this. If you don't know that they're on the same page as you, it can be a pretty embarrassing experience, stuff like that.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah. All right. So this one's from Peter Granlin. Did anyone see the Ashley Cole being tied for center's fifth best goal scorer this far? Did anyone see that Ashley Cole would be tied? It's kind of funny. I don't know. There's not very much. It's kind of a cell phone though. Cause like that means that, you know, that we have Ray that he's scored one goal. So he would be the fifth. Only four guys have more than one goal than, than him.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yeah. Oh well. Yeah, I don't know. Dave Clark. Dave Clark? Is that how you say the same? Dave Clark. What's an appropriate punishment for the person who keyed Christian's car? Wait, what?
Clint Dempsey's On-Field Demeanor
00:58:51
Speaker
Did you see this? Yeah, did you see this, Richard? No!
00:58:54
Speaker
So like on Thursday maybe Christian Roldan tweeted out a picture of someone keying FU into his car and I have to imagine that it was a mistaken identity or it's just impossible for me imagine someone being that mad about Chris unless it was Brad Evans. Maybe it was Brad Evans.
00:59:16
Speaker
So I think it was a mistaken identity because when I lived in Ballard, we had to park on this big hill that had a ton of different cars, a ton of different apartment buildings parking on it. And there was another, we had a silver on a civic and there was somebody else that had one that looked exactly the same, to the point where I tried to get into it a few times. And somebody carved fuck you into our hood.
00:59:38
Speaker
one night and we were like what the hell like that's super weird and then like two weeks later the other car had it carved into it pretty obvious that it was there was like shit we got the wrong one they should have carved sorry and ours but
01:00:00
Speaker
um yeah but i mean that seems like the most plausible thing like the i guess the alternative is maybe he like park like a dick but that seems really well especially during i mean because presumably it happened in the afternoon at starfire and there's just not that much competition for parking space and at starfire
01:00:16
Speaker
Yeah! Oh my god, I never associated Starfire with that kind of behavior. Well, and I guess there's the possibility that maybe it happened at his house, which I think he still is in the U-District. And he didn't notice it until he got to Starfire.
01:00:34
Speaker
but maybe- That does seem more, now I say it out loud. Whenever there's a possibility that something shitty happened in the U District, that's probably- That was honestly the first thing I thought of when you brought this up, when I said, what? I was like, oh wait, he lives in the U District, nevermind.
01:00:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's actually, now that I say it out loud, that does seem like- Maybe he's living some kind of double life where this is actually completely deserved. Right, maybe. He is super too nice, super too sweet, super too accommodating in his professional life to be that way in his personal life.
Coaching Styles and Impact
01:01:09
Speaker
Right, exactly. I agree. Good point. So we're going to get to the bottom of this one one of these days. This is from Jordan Ricard. He says, more productive soccer player, angry Clint or happy Clint?
01:01:22
Speaker
I actually think it's happy Clint. When he seems at ease, he can be pretty productive, but when he gets into funks, he can try way too hard to get out of him. Now angry Clint has better celebrations and better responses to opponents, but I don't think he's more productive.
01:01:40
Speaker
I will say this about Clint, when he scored that goal this weekend, my immediate response was kind of like, wow, it is so awesome to be able to speak positively about Clint. Because between what I wrote for 442 last year and then coming on this show, I was killing him. And I totally will defend that analysis at that time. It is much better to be rooting for a player, especially given some of the milestones that he's coming up on, than it is to have to point out a guy doesn't look good.
01:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, I would, I mean, I think, yeah, I mean, I don't know. It just seems like he's a player who when he's having fun, he kind of, it becomes like, like people feed off, his teammates feed off of it. It seems like he's one of those guys who can maybe be pretty unpleasant to be around when he's angry. And I kind of think that comes off sometimes in the way that the Sounders play, like they can be over deferential to him. But I also think that's what makes
01:02:36
Speaker
him more appealing to me than landed Donovan. Because to me, Clint Dempsey is real in a way that I would want to be real if I could afford to be like that, or if I was maybe more confident and left self-conscious about whether I deserve to act that way. Because when I'm in a bad mood, I want to be able to act like I'm in a bad mood. And when I'm in a good mood, I want to just be able to do what I want to do and
01:02:58
Speaker
not have to worry about, you know, how it's perceived, whether I'm perceived as being arrogant, or even if in some cases with Clinton, I'm crossing cultural boundaries that some people get intimidated by, like I want to just be able to be myself. And that's why I have always latched on to Clint Dempsey more than I have other soccer stars. Yeah, I think that's a little odd truth to that. This one's from Bill Jones, trumpet.
01:03:24
Speaker
He said, we look great against LA and the D did well despite using just one starter. How much of this juggernaut do we attribute to Schmetzer's coaching? I think that is an interesting thing with Schmetzer. I don't want to make it sound like Siggy was always offering excuses, but it does seem like
01:03:46
Speaker
Schmetzer is much more open about this kind of next guy up attitude than Sigi ever was. I think it's fair to say Sigi was pretty constantly offering excuses. I don't think that's an especially controversial opinion. I mean, whether or not he was doing it to protect his players or what, I mean, I don't want to say it like it's inherently a bad thing, but Schmetzer is definitely, I think, more willing to
01:04:12
Speaker
You know, if the team plays like shit, he's, he's going to pretty clearly allude to that. Um, so I don't know. I mean, we deserve better for ourselves. The fans deserve better. We can not play like that. Yeah. Um, yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think that there's a lot of stuff that like that Schmetzer has been able to accomplish as a coach that Ziggy wasn't that people make too much of a big deal out of, in my opinion. Um, you know, and, and so.
01:04:42
Speaker
I'm hesitant to try to give him too much credit because I mean, Sigi never played a Galaxy team this bad or anywhere close to this bad. But I will say that I think if Sigi is coaching the team, we probably don't win three, no. I think we probably give up a goal or two in the second half. If we get out to that lead, we probably are a lot more conservative coming out of the gate. I don't know.
01:05:09
Speaker
I think Schmetzer has an inclination to go for the throat that Ziggy really never did.
01:05:13
Speaker
I think, you know, if we want to go back to the sample size theme of the show, we're getting to a certain sample size threshold with Brian's coaching. Yeah. That makes it seem like, okay, last year wasn't just a fluke because I think that the Sounders are generally, you know, the Houston games suck. The Vancouver games sucked, but those are kind of like regular season ups and downs. It's not like they didn't have sucky games under Brian last year too. But we're reaching kind of a threshold where you can pretty consistently expect a certain level from the Sounders. And I think it reflects really well on him.
01:05:44
Speaker
And then, damn, there's another thing too that I just forgot. Oh, Siggy, did you guys see this conversation I had with Jeff Wilcox and a couple other people on Twitter last week when I quote tweeted something after Caleb Porter's press conference where he was whining about something and I was kind of saying, you know, now that Siggy's gone, the title of biggest whining coach in Cascadia is up for grabs and I just don't think Schmetzer and Rober are going to compete with Caleb Porter.
01:06:09
Speaker
And then I think Jeff rightfully came back up, he's like, you really think that Ziggy whined more than Kayla Porter? And the distinction I made with this, absolutely 100% yes. Like, Ziggy was an emotional guy in press conferences and that came off as whining, almost constantly.
01:06:26
Speaker
I think that some people, I don't share this view, but I think some people reasonably think he is very annoying, but his annoying isn't whining. His annoying is arrogance. His annoying is stuff like, well, if you really knew soccer, you know that we actually outplayed them today. That's Caleb Porter's little, you know, Bet Noir.
01:06:48
Speaker
You know, we, we, uh, speaking of that, and I think this is the incident that you were speaking to and we're at one point and maybe we still will try to get Julie's, uh, Stewart pinks. I'm going to blow it. Yeah, I think that's it. Okay. Uh,
01:07:02
Speaker
So it was this incident where she said she was the sideline reporter and she reported that Caleb had come over to her three times to tell her we're not gonna use a sub so you can tell that to the revolution or whatever and I don't think the implication was literally that he wanted her to go tell the revolution that but the implication was that he came up to her three times to brag about not using a sub and and then the the rate the
01:07:31
Speaker
the timbers obviously came out and were very adamant that that never happened. I'm curious though Richard, knowing what you know about the parties involved, what do you think happened there? I think that based on Merit Paulson's responses on Twitter, I bet one that Caleb said something slightly different that was reasonably interpreted as that and that
01:07:53
Speaker
Portland and merit are holding on to that slight difference to deny it happened to I think what might have happened was Caleb might have talked to Julie Stewart banks as the sideline reporter, but probably did it loud enough for Jay Heaps to hear it So he could kind of pretend he's not actually addressing Jay Heaps and it was just kind of playing that sideline game so I think
01:08:20
Speaker
I think it's just a version of Trash Talk that probably happens more than we know and Julie Stewart-Binks elected to go with it in that situation because it made for better on-air content than a lot of the other Trash Talk that sometimes gets thrown around.
01:08:36
Speaker
And I think that's probably true. I think that throwing her under the bus for it and trying to impugn her character is a really shitty thing to do. I think that's my problem with people like Caleb Porter and Merritt Paulson is that they're both arrogant pieces of shit, right? So own that. Make that your thing and own it and I'll respect you more.
01:09:00
Speaker
But they want to talk about how they're constantly being mistreated, and nobody's fair to us. Merit Paulson with his like, ooh, you journalists aren't fair to us rich guys that want government handouts to build safe. Fuck you, dude. Just own being Hank Paulson's spoiled brat of a kid. You know, Merit Paulson, or Kim Porter, own being in love with the smell of your own farts, and just like,
01:09:24
Speaker
That's fine. I can at least respect that don't but don't play a victim when you make your entire personality just like this odious shit bomb just I Will say that I don't think Caleb actually does wine that much I think he he consciously to use Aaron's language that I don't personally agree with but it's really colorful I
01:09:46
Speaker
I think Caleb consciously plays the odious shit bomb on camera because that's how he wants to interact in those situations. He would rather be an odious shit bomb than be Jim Curtin. I mean, Jim Curtin, whenever he talks to somebody really open about everything, et cetera, et cetera, Caleb doesn't want to fuck with that. He wants to get back to doing what he is in this profession and do merit. I think, I mean, when we talk about merit, we're basically talking about Twitter merit Paulson, which is completely fair given what he does on Twitter.
01:10:15
Speaker
But he is there to basically push back in a moat and be a voice that he thinks represents a certain impassioned part of his club.
Personal Stories and Listener Inquiries
01:10:26
Speaker
And, um, yeah, I can definitely see how other teams hate it. And I can definitely see how the Timbers fans make a connection through that. So I can, you know, I don't agree with anything Aaron just said, but I absolutely understand that.
01:10:40
Speaker
that is all fair game and uh based on what those two guys put out there yeah i mean they have to they have to own the repercussions of it at least i think richy you're gonna get a call from merit you have to agree that that mary paulson is is hank paulson's little brad of a kid right like that's not
01:10:59
Speaker
We have to find some fun. I've never found Merritt to be a brat. I think Merritt actually doesn't see why somebody like him can't talk to fans on their level. Unfortunately, a lot of fans are brats. Also because he's Hank Balsam's kid.
01:11:23
Speaker
The other like the common thread here like he he's not the common man and his desire to present himself as that really drives me nuts So anyway This is maybe the show now
01:11:40
Speaker
Right, exactly. You're going to be, we're going to ruin you. Speaking of ruining, Richard, this question I think you're really going to enjoy. This is from Tropic Sounder. He says, how bad does Richard Farley smell at this point? Will he have to burn his bed? Oh, man. The little things like that are a struggle because I can't, well, the doctors say I can't. I personally think it's a bad idea to stand on a wet surface right now.
01:12:05
Speaker
since I'm in a leg brace and I'm just coming off a leg injury. So like I have to scrub myself down every day instead of taking a shower. So stuff like that. I mean, and if I'm not taking a shower, that means my hair hasn't been washed in five weeks. So yeah, I mean, like, that's, that sounds fun. Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I was on another podcast with my friend Jennifer earlier today and I said, you know, I'm about five minutes and five minutes of twirling in a little purple funnel from having Kyle Beckerman here. Um,
01:12:35
Speaker
But yeah, little stuff like that, it just becomes such a pain in the ass when you can't keep your balance and stuff like that. But no, I don't smell terrible. I am kind of running out of sheets though. I mean, I've had to change my sheets somewhat frequently since I stay in bed all day. But I can't get to my washer and dryer.
01:12:57
Speaker
I kind of have to hand wash all of my clothes, which is fine for most things, but for like sheets and stuff, I don't have like a huge bucket in my house to hand wash like a, you know, like an old timey maid with a boat or steering it around. So I honestly... You gotta get an old timey maid with a boat or. But honestly, I think I'm just going to order sheets off of Amazon Prime. That's solid. That's good. That's a...
01:13:22
Speaker
That's a good question. So this is not really a question that we're going to have an answer to, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Aaron Bregel says, why hasn't the Sanders Community Trust published their meeting minutes since the election of new officers in July of 2016?
01:13:38
Speaker
So I don't think we know the answer to that, but that's an interesting question. That's a very good question. I think the people that do know the answer to that should maybe share the answer. You did that bit on S2 and the whole community trust last year.
01:13:58
Speaker
And as much as at the time it felt like we were getting closer to some resolutions, the reality is that I think we are farther away from having the core answers to a lot of the questions that were brought up in that show. And that's kind of crazy. Yeah. I mean, it feels like all of the questions around the trust or like, you know, a lot of the questions regarding the money have dissipated. Right. The money. Right. And overall significance of the project is in play.
01:14:27
Speaker
Right. Yes, very much that. I would totally agree with that. So I guess we answered the questions that we sought to answer with that. But in hindsight, we should have gone and said like, but really, what's the future of all this? I think Aaron kind of said it right at the time. It's like, you know, this is a nice thing for people who want like a value added in. You know, they have the money to do this and they feel like they want that connection. But unfortunately, I don't think that's really enough to sustain a project.
01:14:57
Speaker
No, and it's certainly a project that seems to be hurting in terms of engagement and connection and a lot of other things. And I don't know that we'll have time to kind of dig back into that, but it would be good if anyone involved in that project would like to come on the show and talk about it, we'd be more than happy to have you on. This one's from Peter Granlin. He says, has the Alfaro hype train left the station?
01:15:24
Speaker
People really, I will say it's funny, people really do seem to want Tony Alfaro to, there is a group of people that want to see more Tony Alfaro. I wish that we had the opportunity to see more Tony Alfaro because I think he's good. I think he had a solid game, but I mean he's clearly the
01:15:42
Speaker
at best fourth best center back on this team, probably fifth if you include Evans. It's a bummer of a situation for him because I think you can't really ask him to have done more when he's gotten a look at the MLS level pretty much every time he ever has. You're right, you're right. Yeah, but what's Tony O'Farrill's ceiling here, like a reliable third back in the league somewhere?
01:16:10
Speaker
I think he's his ceiling is probably a reliable second center back I mean, yeah, I think he's I don't know that he's the I don't think he's the second best I think he's probably not the third best center back on the on the roster might not be the fourth best Center back on the roster right now But that's not because he's not good. It's it speaks more to the veteran Quality that the Sounders have but I saw someone suggests I think it was Matt Doyle actually suggested the Sounders were gonna be in the market for a young center back and I
01:16:40
Speaker
don't see that happening. That seems insane to me. I mean, nobody's in the market for young centerbacks. Young centerbacks are usually crappy. Portland is. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't be in a market for a young centerback either.
01:16:57
Speaker
I mean, the only way I could see the Sounders adding a center back is if they move one of their veterans, but if you're in a situation where you're moving one of your vet, like no one's gonna trade a young, like the Sounders don't need another body. They need, you know, if they were gonna bring in a young center back, it would be someone that's like the guy in Atlanta, a youngish player that's been playing.
01:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, who, man, that guy, even though, I mean, he didn't necessarily look great against the Sounders, but he's had some impressive moments. Yeah, I've been impressed by him, too. It's kind of crazy. I think he has, like, he averages the most long goals per game of any player in MLS, I think I saw that, which is not what I would have expected out of Atlanta. But, I mean, his are really good. I mean, his distribution is really good. But that was, I was taken aback by that.
01:17:50
Speaker
And we've talked, you know, just this year, we've talked about the Sounders priorities as far as their roster so many times that I think it's telling that we've never really brought up center back as one of those priorities.
01:18:00
Speaker
Right. I saw that and I was a little thrown off. I was like, is there some blatant thing that I'm missing? I don't think there is. I mean, there's always that Chad Marshall retirement speculation that's been around for two or three years just because I think a couple of years ago, he probably was telling some people that just for his long term health that he was concerned.
LA Galaxy's Strategy and Coaching Comparisons
01:18:20
Speaker
But he seems to have gotten a second life over these last couple of years in Seattle. And those same people aren't whispering that anymore.
01:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, so this one's from Gritty City Sounder. He says, is it possible we're not excited enough about demolishing L.A. at home? Are we not ready to call it a turning point in the rivalry?
01:18:38
Speaker
I mean, I feel like knocking them out of the playoffs was a turning point a lot more than a win against a shitty Galaxy team in April could be. Yeah, since we beat the Galaxy in the 2015 playoffs, we've been pretty good against them. I mean, we went 1-1-1 against them last year.
01:19:03
Speaker
And then we won this game, I guess. So I mean, we're probably the better team against them most. I mean, it's it's definitely it definitely doesn't feel like the Galaxy are the Sounders bogey team. No, I mean, I think that's fair. And I just like but we I mean, we whipped them pretty solidly in L.A. last year, too. And so it's like.
01:19:22
Speaker
uh this was i think more emphatic but it's i don't know i just like i wish they were still good and we were doing this you know but because that makes it a little tougher to but i mean i guess in the grand scheme it's better that they're not still good so if anything it feels like if it's a turning point it's a turning point and
01:19:41
Speaker
the fact that LA might be in for two or three years, if not more, because of their in-market insignificance when LAFC comes around, it might be a turning point in that beating LA and even worrying about losing to LA won't mean as much going forward.
01:19:57
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think, I think it was Aaron that may have said this to me, but it's interesting that, and I don't want to harp too much, like I've made a lot of hay over kind of crapping on Kurt and Nolfo and I was, I actually, I think I went on Twitter and I said something along the line of being the least ambitious
01:20:16
Speaker
signing in MLS history And I and I think that it's right now it looks like a really really bad hire but what makes it even more confusing and I think and I'm hearing this also from from galaxy fans what makes it so confusing is that their window for being kind of the dominant team in LA is Potentially they're not gonna it's not gonna be like there's a sense that this window may be closing and that
01:20:45
Speaker
There's nothing that's going to stop them from being a good team in a few years, but the reality is that they're going to have a lot more competition. They're not going to be the default team that players want to go to in LA. There's going to be a shinier team that might be more attractive, that might even have more money to spend, and it just seems really weird that in some ways they're kind of
01:21:12
Speaker
They seemed so content to just kind of go with mediocrity this year when who knows what the future holds.
01:21:20
Speaker
It's weird too because they just, they don't seem to have really changed their roster construction strategy at all, like in the post-TAM era. Like the stars and scrubs thing they have going on, just, it's not the kind of rosters you're seeing in the league anymore. And, you know, they, I mean, they have some legitimately bad players playing a lot of minutes for them. And their star, I mean, they don't have Robbie Keane on that team anymore. You know, they don't, they don't have back on the met his MLS best on that team anymore.
01:21:49
Speaker
You know, as good as Giovanni Dosandos and Alice and Drini are, they're just not enough to carry the rest of the ship. And it's just for a team that has always kind of, I guess, prided themselves on leading the pack in terms of spending and things like that. It's just a really bizarre time to, like you said, to decide that you're not going to progress. It's just weird.
01:22:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a, it wanted to reminder that Bruce Arena really mattered, but also, um, to me, they seem to be, still be operating some of their decisions as if Bruce Arena is going to be the person to glue all the pieces together. And that's illogical to me. Like you can't both recognize that Bruce Arena is amazing and then just persist with the same kind of approach that he would have had when he's not there. Like that almost seems like by definition, it will fail because Bruce Arena is amazing. So.
01:22:48
Speaker
Like you and I talked about on Twitter, Jeremiah, I don't think every coaching hire has to be ambitious. But this one certainly was not ambitious at all. In fact, it was just pretty much the plan that Bruce Arena laid out. And it didn't seem like anybody ever went, hmm, well, now that Bruce is gone, do we really want to stick to this? Because it just seemed like they just did it. Yeah. And I know that the comparison has been made by plenty of people that
01:23:14
Speaker
that this was no less ambitious of a higher than Brian Schmetzer was for the sounders. The notable difference, of course, being that Brian Schmetzer hadn't won an MLS Cup at the time.
01:23:27
Speaker
of his hiring becoming permanent, but he had already shown some success at the MLS level and that was followed by a long track record as an assistant at the MLS level and that had been followed by a long track record as a very successful coach at the USO level. Kurt Anolfo, on the other hand, has had no track of success other than being decent at doing what he was tasked with doing at
01:23:55
Speaker
And I also think that, you know, if, if Kurt Onofo was Sigi's first assistant last year and filled in for the rest of the season for the Sounders, that would have been fine because when that move happened last year, we were all assuming that the Sounders would play out the string, go into the off season, hire a new coach, reset. And, you know, thankfully for the Sounders, that didn't happen. And thankfully for Brian Schmetzer, that didn't happen. He's able to kind of assert himself as a head coach, but.
01:24:21
Speaker
i don't think the sounders even need like could've been that ambitious at that time and that they could have they could be to play to bring somebody in or had been planning it sooner but there is really no need to where
Player Roles and National Team Potential
01:24:31
Speaker
is the galaxy were coming into the season expecting to contend again so that's a true mental off season yeah i mean it was only got blindsided by the right so like to go to the news to compare it to brian like the resumes yeah like maybe you can make some comparisons but the sounders last year were
01:24:48
Speaker
realistically, they were going into reset mode and everything worked out. That is absolutely not what the galaxy were doing. Yeah. So we've got just a couple more questions. This one's from SSFC Scuttlebutt, which is a podcast. So there's a plug for, I guess, a theoretical competitor.
01:25:09
Speaker
I don't know, that sounds awful. As another podcast. There's no such thing as competition. Wait, we're not competing for, right, there's an unlimited, you guys have an unlimited bandwidth for listening to podcasts. I know that. Yeah, I mean, I do. That's all I do. But they ask, what roles do you see Evans and Gustav have once we have a full availability? Second act of the back line raises some great talking points. I mean, I think that Evans is the starting right back. If he can stay healthy, if he can,
01:25:39
Speaker
you know, which is, I don't know, maybe that's, I would have thought that that was a, like, I've always thought it was unfair to kind of just label Brad Evans as injury prone. And I don't know that he, like, I don't know, injury prone, not injury prone, the term I think is kind of without meaning, but it is a little concerning that he hasn't been able to get healthy and we don't know when he's gonna get healthy.
01:26:01
Speaker
Yeah, if he were 27 or 28, it would be less of a concern for me, I think. But I mean, I do think he's the starting right back. Stenson, it's so much trickier because he's been the Sounders best center back this year. I don't think there's any question about it. But like, who do you bench? I mean, and we saw that Torres and Marshall started when everybody was healthy, but
01:26:26
Speaker
I mean, in a way it's nice because it lets you rotate guys, it lets you, you know, when players are injured, it makes you maybe not as concerned about, you know, getting the back into the lineup and they can fully recover. But if everybody's healthy, you know, all three of those guys have earned playing time. And so it's pretty tricky. And then, you know, you can put Svensson in the middle, but you can't bench Ozzy, you can't bench Roldan. So, I don't know. I mean, it's a good problem to have, I guess, but
01:26:55
Speaker
It's going to be interesting to see. Yeah, I don't think there's any question that under Brian Schmetzer that Brad Evans is going to get every right to earn a starting job somewhere. I think Brian has consistently been a voice that's valued the contributions of not only Evans, but like when Clint Dempsey before he got productive again, Clint Dempsey is an automatic, somebody we're building this team around, not just like a starter.
01:27:19
Speaker
he's clinton he's clinton c i don't know what for me sense in what i'd generally agree with like your guys assessments of his play and theoretically he makes like a better stylistic combination with torres or marshall in having to kind of like for like players in central defense but again here i think that if torres is healthy he probably with the what he means that team what he means the core that he's probably gonna get his chance to reassert himself in the starting lineup
01:27:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I thought it was interesting today. Brian Schmetzer made some comments about, you know, he was talking about Will Bruin not starting until last week and he was basically saying that guys who have been on this team who won MLS Cup last year are going to get the benefit of the doubt. And I just thought it was kind of an interesting thing. I think we assume that a lot of the times that coaches will
01:28:11
Speaker
you know, give certain, you know, veterans the benefit of the doubt or whatever it may be. But I don't know if I've ever heard a coach articulate it quite that clearly, like basically saying, yeah, this job is definitely Clint Dempsey's until he shows that he doesn't deserve it. Not the other way, not necessarily the other way around.
01:28:27
Speaker
You know, conversely, this was a big thing with the rain game this weekend. They, out of nowhere, decided to give their number two keeper a start, even though their number one keeper, who was a Houston, Houston this is, gave Jane Campbell, who was a freshman, who was a first year player out of Stanford. They bench their 100 time capped
01:28:46
Speaker
international Lydia Williams, Australian international, even though she was coming off a shutout victory the first week of the season. And a big talk around, not a big talk, but a talk around the people I talk to in women's soccer is just the fragility of Houston's team. And they've had problems in the past knowing who their coach is going to select. And so the second week of the season, after you just won and you thought everything was going well, a core member of the team is now not in the starting lineup for some reason. Now you contrast that with somebody like Brian, who's like, look,
01:29:12
Speaker
that people have earned things here and that's nothing against Gustav or O'Neill or Jordy or anybody else that plays well, but everybody here knows who our core is and we're gonna be honoring that core. There is something to that.
01:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see how that kind of plays out over the course of the year, but I did think that was an interesting line. So this is from Graham Condit. He's wondering if there's any chance that Jovan Jones has his contract extended before the end of the year.
01:29:48
Speaker
I mean, I don't know, I wouldn't doubt that he's looking to get a contract extension a few weeks ago. We heard about rumors that there were, like the Vegas, it was the funniest, kind of the funniest story, funniest rumor story I think I've seen in a while. It was showed up on the Trinidad and Tobago official site that there were teams that were scouting, Jovan Jones. They didn't give any specific names of teams, but they named basically every big league in the world as looking at them.
01:30:19
Speaker
obviously not collectively. I don't know how much stock to put in that, but I can guarantee this that Jovan Jones is probably ready to get paid. Yeah, he's one of the best bargains in the league right now. I don't know. It just, you know, everything seems possible here. It's possible that he wants to, you know, pursue every opportunity available to somebody at his point in his career. It's possible that he resigns. I don't know. I'm, I gotta admit, I'm not a,
01:30:48
Speaker
I'm not a Jovan Jones expert in his psychology. Right. I, I'm not either. Uh, but I would imagine that the sounders are very aware of the talent that they have and that they are probably going to, but they also aren't looking to spend money. They don't have to spend. What did they go? I was just going to say, they traded just a first round pick for him, right? Yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:31:15
Speaker
I'm gonna go ahead and say that if the interest in Jovan Jones from Europe exists, he's not gonna sign a contract extension. There's absolutely no way.
01:31:25
Speaker
And if it doesn't exist, the sounders aren't going to offer him one until they feel like they have to. It's Schrodinger's transfer, right? It's possible that he does, that the sounders want to just get them locked up if they can. But if there's legitimate interest in a big payday out there, he's not going to sign an MLS contract.
01:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, I always kind of come back to this. I don't know how many Senators fans remember this, but there was a transfer saga that went on in Riosselt Lake and it was, I think it was named Carlos Sisato, is that right? He was a center back. He's now playing for Viola, for Fiorentina.
01:32:07
Speaker
And basically he was wanting to go to Mexico or get an extent. I can't remember exactly what it was, but Garth was the GM and he definitely played hardball with him. He basically, I guess he wanted to go to, I think he wanted to sign for Chivas. And Garth wasn't going to let him go for less than market value, essentially. Is that right? I don't remember how the details played out. I just know he ended up in Mexico and then in Italy.
01:32:35
Speaker
You're kind of re-sparking some things here, so I think anything I remember here will just be me making it up, essentially. Yeah, no. In any case, my point being that Garth is not in the business of spending money. He doesn't have to spend. And I mean, that's how GMs work. So two more questions, and then we're going to call a show. This one's from Eileen. She says, when does Christian replace Jovan Jones on the national team? How about now? Yeah, well, Jermaine Jones, I think, is the...
01:33:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah, not driven Jones. Sorry. I got I kind of wish that Jones played for the US that would be actually we do need a left back. We really do. Jermaine Jones looks done to me. I mean, but it's tricky because he's such a different player from the national team, probably because he has a manager that knows how to use chalkboard at the national team level. So
01:33:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know. I, Jermaine Jones has that weird thing where he's a veteran that, you know, has played at a really high level that, that hasn't played poorly for the US. So he's probably going to keep getting called up, but there's, you could offer me Christian Roldan and Jermaine Jones for one season at the same contract and I would take Roldan every single time.
01:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, this is interesting because we talked a lot last year about what Christian Roldan's ceiling is, and I think we all talked about he doesn't have a standout skill, so he's probably just going to be kind of getting slowly better across the board, but he probably doesn't have a hugely high ceiling. And it seems like that's what's happened this year. He's just doing everything a little bit better, or doing everything on the same kind of progression that he showed last year, too. So I think it's easy for people not to really notice that he
01:34:16
Speaker
is not just like a really good player. I mean, he's not just like a good player that you can stick in there and not lose anything. He's somebody that you can actually get positive contributions from. And he's very wide ranging and versatile. And he allows Seattle to basically play two central midfielders and not have to worry about whether they're being outnumbered by a three-man midfield because they have him and Ozzy together. How that fits into how somebody envisions that with the national team,
01:34:47
Speaker
that becomes weirder, right? Because as good as Christian is, he does have like a very specific fit with Seattle that's also helping him. So it's it'll take a vision to see how that fits in with another team. So I don't know. I guess I can see all the arguments on this one. Well, let's look way into the future. What are the chances that in 2026, we're playing a US World Cup with Christian Roldan and Kellan Acosta next to each other?
01:35:16
Speaker
That's way too far in the future. I just wanted to throw that out there because we were talking about how it's too far in the future to even talk about a U.S. World Cup. But anyway, that was an awkward little segment there. Andrew Fraser said, I'm just gonna die. I'm gonna end on this one. He says, hello, my first and personal favorite podcast, why you no have a consistent schedule. I think that is an important element of successful podcasts.
01:35:42
Speaker
We do. We record every other week. Usually on the same page. But wouldn't you guys consider yourself a successful podcast? It's hard for me to imagine MLS team-specific podcasts being significantly more successful. You guys have sponsors, you have consistent sponsors, and you guys have been doing this for seven years or something?
01:36:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. 250 episodes, actually. Today is episode 200. It's funny that this question came on episode 250, actually. But I guess you have to respect the spirit of the question. Like, hey, maybe you guys could actually be better. You guys probably would be better if you guys recorded twice a week, but who the hell wants to do that?
01:36:25
Speaker
I don't. I mean, if we were making Trappo Trap House money, I would totally, you know, like if you guys want to put together a Patreon and give us 46 grand a month, I'll record it. That's fine. Yeah.
Podcast Consistency and Listener Engagement
01:36:38
Speaker
I mean, I guess if we could if we could if we could make this our full time jobs, we might do a daily podcast. So if people want to. Oh, God. But yeah, I mean, we record every other week. I think we try. We try pretty consistently to record on Mondays, but it doesn't always happen.
01:36:54
Speaker
Mondays are starting to feel though, this is like I feel like we're getting like last week we did Wednesday But man, I kind of like this Monday thing Get it out of the way, you know, yeah, but I get still fresh the the game's still fresh. We don't need to microwave our takes Right exactly But yeah, I mean the reality is like we we don't because we're we're busy. Oh
01:37:17
Speaker
Also, I mean, maybe you can talk about this, Aaron, since it sounds like you consume podcasts like I do, which is unendingly. Like, I just, whatever podcasts are there, I listen to. I don't, if it's Monday, I kind of know there's some that I expect on Monday, like, you know, the Black Opinions Matter podcast that ESPN does for basketball. I kind of want that one. The other ones, like, they just pile up and I just take them in order.
01:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. And I know that there are people that do have a set podcast listening schedule. But for me, I'm trying to listen to every episode of The Dollop, which there's a lot of them. So I've just been listening to that constantly. But when I'm not doing that, I just kind of do the same. I just listen to whatever's next in the queue.
01:38:03
Speaker
Yeah, well, yeah, I don't consume as many podcasts, but I appreciate it. I do think we are trying to do every other week and we're trying to do them on Monday. Your podcasts are your kids.
01:38:14
Speaker
Right, exactly. Exactly. I have kids. I have kids. Come on. But anyway, that's our podcast for this week. So thanks to Richard for coming on again. And thanks to our sponsors Verity Credit Union, Full Pull Wines, Constellation & Company, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios.
01:38:38
Speaker
I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and Lickit, who's here in spirit. So, uh, this is Nozodietis, and remember, you'll never yell.
01:39:03
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia Roll on.
01:39:37
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!