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Are the Sounders officially a ‘bad’ team yet?
110 Plays1 year ago
It’s hard to accurately describe just how frustrating Saturday’s result was, but I’ll try. Facing a team that was pretty awful by both the eye and analytics test, that hadn’t won in like three months, the Sounders managed to find a way to lose despite scoring first.
There were all sorts of problems in this game from subbing patterns, to a lack of discipline to a passive defense and a punchless offense. Jeremiah and Aaron do their best to look for ways forward, but are mostly frustrated with the state of things.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and our subscribers.
Episode Introduction
00:01:34
Speaker
We're recording on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. I'm your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is my cohost, Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
Analyzing Recent Losses
00:01:43
Speaker
It's hard to accurately describe just how frustrating Saturday's result was, but I'll try. Facing a team that was pretty awful by both the eye and analytics test that hadn't won in like three months, the Sounders managed to find a way to lose despite scoring first. This time it was on two goals that had a collective expected goal value of .04, which I am sure is some kind of record.
00:02:08
Speaker
The first was a shot from distance that Fry had covered but couldn't keep out. The second, which came after Reed Baker Whiting picked up a red card, was a sharp angle shot that somehow went through Stephen Fry's legs. The Sounders' season isn't dead by any stretch, but it sure feels like it's on life support, which is especially frustrating since it was only a couple weeks ago that it seemed like it was turning around.
Strategic Failures and Defensive Issues
00:02:30
Speaker
Aaron, where do you want to start with this?
00:02:34
Speaker
because I don't know how much we want to spend on the game itself or focus more on maybe bigger picture stuff, but I'll let you kind of, where do you want to go?
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, I don't want to talk a whole lot about the game. Everybody here watched it. We've watched it 10 times this year, too. I mean, and I think that that's the thing is, you know, all what is it? What's the what's the maxim? All happy families are the same. All dysfunctional families are, you know, dysfunctional in their own way. But every sounder's loss is the same, right? It flips the whole thing on its head. It's the same goddamn thing every time.
00:03:10
Speaker
It's a stupid red card. It's turtle into a shell. As soon as you have a lead, it's an inability to play possession football that your whole team has set up to play. Right. It's the same thing every time. And yeah, so there's not too much to talk about. Um, but I just, it's so frustrating to see them have a cohesive plan.
00:03:34
Speaker
look like they are going to totally take control of the game, get a great goal, get a great goal that says, boy, that Jordan Morris sure looks like he would be great in that central forward spot. Right. Right. And then just completely fall apart. Just completely fall apart after that. It's just.
Defensive Line Strategies
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I, it was interesting. I so one of the things I asked about at training today as Christian Roldon, like, there is a Twitter account, which, if you read Sundar Hart, you've probably seen their stuff. It's called MLS stat. And one of the things that they do is they basically
00:04:11
Speaker
collect all the defensive actions a team has and then they show what the average line of confrontation is to sort of draw give you a numerical value to how high a team is effectively defending and the sounders
00:04:29
Speaker
line of confrontation was at like 29 yards, which is the first time this year that they've been deeper than 30 yards. And I asked Christian if this was sort of by design, and he said it wasn't entirely by design, but they essentially what he said is like, they would try to press, but if that first line of defense sort of got broken, they would just immediately, they would, there was no mid block, essentially, they just sort of just dropped from whatever high pressing they were attempting to do all the way back into a low block.
00:04:58
Speaker
with the idea that, that, uh, sporting Kansas city wasn't breaking them down, that they weren't going to get in behind them and that they were sort of going to like make sure that sporting stayed in
Mentality and Performance Critique
00:05:09
Speaker
front of them. And I guess on some level, it kind of worked. Like if you look at the shots that sporting took, none of them were particularly dangerous. I mean, they essentially did not take, they had one shot, I think that had an XG value over 0.1. Right.
00:05:25
Speaker
and only like two others that were over 0.05 I mean whatever shots they were taking were not valuable but the Sounders were not being very proactive they weren't in that they weren't possessing the ball they weren't they weren't defending particularly proactively it was and so I guess in that way it was kind of new in that they kind of took some of the stuff they've been doing
00:05:47
Speaker
frustratingly in other games and tried to apply it to like a larger game for some reason. Right. I think that that's, I think that that really gets to the heart of it, right? Like we've talked a lot about how unlucky the Sounders have been this season and it's true. And I think they were unlucky to lose this game, right? It's neither of those goals should have been scored. They were both very low percentage shots.
00:06:10
Speaker
A game you'd like to think they would have won 1-0 previous season. Like last year. Absolutely. But the mentality, right, to say we're not going to be the protagonists in this game. We're going to get the lead. Great. We can ride this out. Yeah. Why are you trying to ride out a game against sporting Kansas City? Right. This sport is can't ever, especially this season after all of the evidence in the world that you cannot ride out these games.
00:06:36
Speaker
That's the defining thing about this season is this team cannot see out games. Why aren't you going to take the initiative? They were pounding sporting Kansas City until Jordan's goal. If you look at the game flow, it was extremely one sided. They had some really good chances. Keep doing that.
00:06:54
Speaker
Right. Because you know, they were getting behind. They were also getting they were getting behind sporting.
Impact of Red Cards
00:06:59
Speaker
Sporting is not a good team. No, nothing about what I saw in this game suggests to me that sporting is going to turn around their season at all. They have, you know, like we talk about how Raul Rui Diaz is sort of like a shadow of himself. Ellen Polito, a young is essentially like a younger, a younger version of that, except for he just signed a contract and he's like completely invisible.
00:07:20
Speaker
You know, I thought Reed Baker Whiting, for the most part, shut down Johnny Russell. And while we're talking about, I don't, we don't, let's talk sort of broadly about the red guard. First of all, I think we probably both agree. Reed picks up his first yellow at the 60th minute. I'm not saying pull him out immediately, but you have this very obvious stoppage in play at the 70th minute where, where sporting brings in three new players.
Roster and Mindset Concerns
00:07:51
Speaker
Sounders do nothing. Right. First, basically, as soon as the play gets, the ball gets back and put into play, they attack, read, and he picks up a soft, but a deserved yellow. He pulls on Oregon says, sure, you're going to get a yellow every single time that happens. And it's hard to escape the idea that
00:08:14
Speaker
Brian needs to be, like he needs to react to what he's seeing and understand that this is a young player who's sitting on a yellow card, who is playing him. He hasn't played this long in eight months.
00:08:29
Speaker
Get him out of the game. Yeah. Do the kid a favor. Yeah. Today at practice, he was talking about that. And he's like, well, yeah, well, what if he goes and he puts in a cross that wins us the game? Yeah. Yeah. What if I, what if you signed me to a one day contract and I score a hat trick and he hits the final?
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's man, I know we're gonna get into it, but that interview or those quotes from today were pretty rough in a few spots. Yeah, we'll definitely get into that. But I wanted to speak more broadly about the trend that we're seeing when the senators get a record, because they're getting a lot of those. And so we're actually, we're building up a lot of
00:09:08
Speaker
a
00:09:26
Speaker
But maybe I'm being too harsh. That's like 142 minutes. They've played down a man this year. So they've given up seven goals in 142 minutes. That is basically 4.3 goals per 90 if you were to play at that kind of pace for a whole year. Now, it's only for 142 minutes, a small sample. I get it. But so I don't want to draw too broad of conclusions, but
00:09:47
Speaker
Even if we're being really kind and we take out the two penalties that they gave up since, and maybe we should since those were penalties that they technically picked up while they were playing at even strength. They've still given up five goals in 140 minutes.
00:10:02
Speaker
No team in MLS has more than four red cards. I doubt any of them have given up more than a couple goals while they're on red cards. A friend of ours works at Second Spectrum, which is a stat company. They don't do MLS anymore, but he was able to pull some 2021 data. And yes, if you get a red card, you're much more prone to giving up a goal. That should not be surprising, but it's true.
00:10:32
Speaker
But even then teams give up about two goals per 90 when they are playing down a man. The Sounders are giving up about three goals per 90. If you discount the penalties, it's, it's dire. It's bad. Uh, that's, you know, I don't
Aging Roster and Fan Engagement
00:10:48
Speaker
know if this is all time, worse kind of stuff, but it's what's even more frustrating is that when they play.
00:10:54
Speaker
at even strength, they give up like 0.97 goals per 90. Yeah. Which is, you know, essentially like the third best defense in the league.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, I still think that defensively this team is elite, except when they go down a man. I would be very curious to see how many, and I just complained about hypotheticals, but I don't feel like pulling this data right now on air. But I would be curious to see how many of those minutes Raoul has been on the pitch, because Raoul is already
00:11:35
Speaker
I think fair to say an act of detriment. And I think usually pull them off almost immediately after they get a right. I think that I think you're right. I think you're right. Because I just I think that if you're playing with Raul and his only job is to get and maintain possession, that's probably not going to go too well. So but I think I do think you're right. Just anecdotally that it feels like he's usually one of the first guys to come off. Yeah, it's.
00:12:05
Speaker
I don't know that there's a good explanation. It does feel like there is a mindset issue with this team, though. They they. They don't believe that they can be proactive. They don't believe they can be the protagonists in games or something. I don't. It's very frustrating because these are these are players who know how to win if that's a thing. Like this team has enjoyed a lot of success. I think on the last show, even we were discussing how
00:12:33
Speaker
If you look at the roster now, it's not that different than what it was in 2022 when they won champions league, like the champions league winning roster, that is, and maybe, and, and that's probably a big part of the problem is that the roster has just gotten very stale and, and the players, so they, all these players are now just two, they're just two years older. That's the same players. They're just two years older and they haven't been bolstered by other, by players from outside the organization.
00:13:00
Speaker
They've only made one foreign signing since then. And he's not on the field. Right. It's a team that needs a refresh. And what worries me is that we might have to wait until the offseason to get it. Yeah. I definitely think that there was a conversation about this in the Discord today.
00:13:26
Speaker
I definitely think that this team is not in terrible shape roster wise. When you look up and down the roster, you look at the players that are locked up. I feel very good about most of this roster.
00:13:40
Speaker
But the guys that you need to push you over the edge, right, to take you from being a mediocre MLS team, and I think that's what the Sounders are. I think they are a average to slightly below average MLS team, which is not good enough for this team. I think if you make a couple of good signings and you get De La Vega back, that's enough to take you to right back to the elite, right? Yeah. But you have to actually do those things.
Loyalty vs. Performance Debate
00:14:10
Speaker
like you have to
00:14:26
Speaker
with different selections, I just reject. You can't tell me that their best option is to play Raul at the nine. We were talking about this today. One of the contracts that most often get talked about as being bad contracts right now on the centers are Rui Diaz because he's a DP. You can say Albert Rusnak because he shouldn't be a DP maybe.
00:14:53
Speaker
people gonna point to Christian, Jordan, that's all fine. But the one that is the real head scratcher to me, Alex Roldan signed an extension this last offseason, even though his contract wasn't due to be up until next year. I don't understand. I'm not quite sure what we saw there. And if you look at Alex Roldan's numbers this year, they are not good.
00:15:17
Speaker
They're not. No. And for a player who's supposed to be setting up one of your primary playmakers, he is not doing a lot of playmaking. He is not. And I think if he had been at a much better level last year, like he was much better last year, but he was not great in any regard last year. And so to give to reward him with an extension after signing one not that long ago,
00:15:45
Speaker
Um, is, is a pretty puzzling decision. And it is like one of, I think one of the questions a lot of people have been asking is, does this team have an issue with loyalty? Do they, are they too loyal? Yeah. Yeah. Do they place so much of an emphasis on, you know, being tight knit and being loyal and having a family feeling that they make poor decisions or they don't make difficult decisions when they need to be made. Right. And, you know, it wasn't that long ago that I kind of hand wave that away, but
00:16:15
Speaker
I'm starting to think there might be something to it, man. I don't know if it's an organizational thing from top to bottom or what, but I think loyalty is good. I think that treating people right is good. I think that doing right by guys that have given you a lot is good, but you're also in this to win trophies and you have to make decisions with that in mind. You have to do all of those things within the larger framework and context of we're here to win trophies.
00:16:45
Speaker
I don't know, maybe that's not as much the priority as it should be sometimes. Yeah, I, I want to say that they I still that they're, it's crazy to not think that their priority is still winning trophies, but it definitely, I don't know this. There's a lot of reason to be concerned about that. And I guess there's some there's, you know,
00:17:11
Speaker
I like a lot of these guys too. I like Alex. I don't think there's anyone on the team that I dislike. Anyone that I've met that I dislike. I think they have a lot of good guys on this team.
00:17:22
Speaker
but they're here to play soccer and to entertain fans and win
Attendance and Engagement Challenges
00:17:27
Speaker
games. And right now that's not happening much. It was good to hear Christian rolled on today. He was asked what he made, like what his reaction was to knowing that the Sounders had, you know, their worst attendance since 2009. And by the way, I looked this up. I think their attendance is probably going to get better just because it's, it's, we're going into the summer. We're going into the, you know, the time of year where they tend to get better numbers.
00:17:52
Speaker
But they're currently on pace to have their worst attendance ever, like a non-COVID season. Their average right now is actually worse than it was in 2009, even though they had a lower capacity for most of the season that year. And for all that, I think all the year they had lower capacity, or at least a good chunk of the year they had lower capacity.
00:18:12
Speaker
Not good. But anyway, we ask Christian what he thought of that. And he basically said, like, I don't blame fans for being frustrated right now. We aren't scoring goals. We're not entertaining. We're not playing entertaining soccer. It's on us to improve that. And he also, you know, of course, said something along the lines of like, we need the support. That said, we still want people to come out because we need you. And we really feel like we're better when fans are behind us. But I do wonder, it's an interesting idea. The sounders
00:18:42
Speaker
home form has started to dip along with the attendance dip, which I don't know that those are totally related. I doubt they are really related. But well, no, I think they're related in that. But I almost kind of wonder if there's a two way relationship like it's a feedback loop. A feedback loop. Thank you. Yeah.
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think that there is something to that because I think even with the crowds that are there now, a lot of teams and most teams in MLS would kill for the crowds the Sounders are getting right now.
00:19:16
Speaker
at least the number of tickets they're selling, but the atmosphere is not the same. The atmosphere is definitely, when it's loud, it's not loud in a celebratory way most of the time, I would say. It is definitely a tense atmosphere these days. It's not as energetic. It's not a pleasant game day experience, and I can't imagine that feels good for the players, but I also don't know what you can expect at this point either.
00:19:46
Speaker
No, I mean, the Sounders just aren't giving fans enough reason to like, I hope I didn't already go over this, but at the risk of going over something I've said previously, the other a couple of weeks ago, I went to a Mariners game and I want to state up front going to a baseball game and going to a soccer game are fundamentally different experiences.
Game Day Experience Comparison
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't expect them to be exactly the same.
00:20:09
Speaker
I don't exist, but it's hard to avoid the idea that when you go to a Mariners game, there is a lot going on. There is, and I don't mean just like, to me, it's actually almost sensory overload when you're out in the, in the, your seats. Like I'm not used to baseball games being quite this like in your face.
00:20:28
Speaker
But all the concessions, the concourse is fun. There's energy. There's all these different concessions and there's people milling about. And again, I get it. Baseball is not soccer, right? But hard to avoid how different those two experiences are. And if I am a casual fan,
00:20:52
Speaker
I want the energy that's like somehow the Mariners games feel more, especially when the fans are not as engaged as they once were at Sounders games. The Sounders, I guess what I'm saying is the Sounders need to give fans something to cheer about. They need to create an exciting environment and they're not doing that right now.
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, like, I went to a lot of Mariners games in 2004. I went to a lot of Mariners games in 2008. It was pretty easy to give ticket in those days. And it never felt as funerarial, I would say. Just the vibe around the games and the stadium never felt as bad. And I think part of that is the sort of built-in advantage of a baseball game where it's like, there's a lot of downtime. There almost necessarily has to be other stuff going on to do.
00:21:39
Speaker
And the Sounders don't have that benefit. The product on the field is why you have to get people there. But I also don't feel like the club is putting a lot of emphasis on making the game day experience feel special the way it used to. To get the people that are there, the people that are still coming to games to get them energized, to get them feeling good about how they're spending their time and their money.
00:22:03
Speaker
And it's definitely it has to be an all hands on deck thing and there just doesn't seem to be any urgency from the club. I agree.
Anniversary Event Concerns
00:22:11
Speaker
I mean, like even this week, you know, the Sounders this week are going into they're having the 50th anniversary celebration game this week and.
00:22:24
Speaker
It's going to be, you know, there's like going to be dozens, maybe hundreds of former Sounders players in attendance at this game. Best I can tell, like everyone that I have heard of, everyone that you've heard of seems like they're going to be there. I mean, I don't know if that's literally true, but it feels like a lot of people are coming, right? And so they're doing all this stuff and then and they're having some, you know, they're having some bands play and they're having food trucks and all this kind of stuff. They're giving away bobbleheads.
00:22:52
Speaker
And yet it feels like I've never, I don't know. I'm like, I mean, maybe I'm an old person, but I've never, I've never heard of any of these bands. None of the activity, like, I guess I'm, I'm a little worried that they are sort of creating the illusion of an event and not actually creating an event.
00:23:19
Speaker
And it's great that you're bringing in all these former players. And again, this goes to the loyalty thing. That's admirable. And I'm sure they're spending a lot of money to bring all these players in. And I'm sure they'll have a party for them, and it'll be great. But the fans don't care.
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah, like that. None of that touches the fans. None of that is going to make fans renew their season tickets. None of that is going to get fans excited once the game kicks off. I just feel like there somehow we've lost focus on what's important to fans. You know, they did this big rollout for the the new.
00:24:03
Speaker
the new visual identity. And I think they did a great job with it. But so little of it has touched fans. I mean, there's some merch, but the merch isn't anything like for the most part, the merch is not like anything spectacular. You know, like there's this they're doing this like varsity jacket thing this week, which I don't know, it's not my thing, but I could see people getting excited about that. But it also seems like something that every MLS team is doing best I can tell.
00:24:32
Speaker
Right. So I guess what I'm saying is like the sounders need to do more to stand out and they just don't seem to be doing that at all right
Focus Shift to Longacres Project
00:24:44
Speaker
now.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah. And I understand to some degree, right? How something like the long acres project is going to pull a lot of bandwidth away from the business side of the club and, and just sort of operationally, but you can't, you can't let that happen, right? Like I understand how that happens, but if your organizational priorities are in order and you have the right kind of leadership, you don't let that happen.
00:25:07
Speaker
Right. You, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. And I just, it, it does not feel like the people running this club are in touch with the way fans are feeling about the club right now. You know, I, I thought a lot of the stuff Adrian said in his interview was fair, but he definitely seems to have an attitude of like, eh, you can't win them all. Like sometimes the team's not bad and we're not going to do anything rash and we're not going to change anything too much. And I think that's all fine. Right. Like I don't have an issue.
00:25:37
Speaker
With taking an analytical long-term long-view approach not making rash decisions. It's the way the sounders have always been
00:25:46
Speaker
But you have to understand the way the fans are feeling and you have to do something and tell them something to make them feel better. You can have your organizational philosophies, you can have your guiding principles as a leader, whatever. That's all great. You don't have to tell the fans that shit. You can tell them what they need to hear to feel good about where the club is right now.
00:26:08
Speaker
And it's just, it's, it's rancid, it's rancid vibes, and it just doesn't feel like leadership fully appreciates it. Yeah, you know, I will say I
00:26:21
Speaker
I want to give them some degree of credit for one thing I've seen that I think is maybe working. I've noticed that a couple times a month at least, they've been opening up long acres to season ticket members. And I guess you have to make a reservation and you have to go through some of the hoops to be there. But there's reliably a couple dozen, a few dozen people there every time I've seen this happen. It was happening again today.
00:26:49
Speaker
And I would imagine most of those people come away from that experience feeling good about it and feeling like, okay, this is something I want to be a part of.
00:26:58
Speaker
But I still don't, I don't think that's happening at scale. I don't think that's something that they're able to replicate with 30,000 fans. And I just can't, I can't overstate how much, for a long time, I've been sort of like, not taking too seriously the idea that fans are sort of turning off for whatever reason, right? Because the numbers were always there to say, I don't know, like, I understand the anecdotes of why people are frustrated, but like, the hard data says that
Season Ticket Renewals and Cultural Issues
00:27:28
Speaker
You were not very representative of a larger thing, but the numbers now are starting to show something very different where the anecdotes where almost every single person I talk to says, I don't know if I can, I can justify renewing my season tickets. And, you know, I don't want to make too big of a deal out of one result, but it's results like.
00:27:50
Speaker
Like the RSL game where they blow a late lead, it's the results like losing in embarrassing fashion, frankly, to the worst team and one of the worst teams in the league. That's the stuff that makes people really rethink their priorities. And, and it is sort of like a, it's a, it's a real negative cycle that starts going because people
00:28:13
Speaker
People aren't season ticket holders just because they want to see the team win. There's a cultural element, usually, of wanting to be there. But if the cultural element starts to fade away, you're left with the results. And if the results aren't there, then what do you got? And I'm with you. I don't know if there is the level of alarm bells that should be going off.
00:28:42
Speaker
I think that that goes for the roster that goes for off the field, you know, and hopefully, you know, things
Coaching Critique
00:28:50
Speaker
will turn around. You know, I still think there's a decent chance they can figure out a way to beat Minnesota. Like that would not surprise me at all if they if they won this game. No, but. It's ultimately I think that that's the thing that's so frustrating about this team right now is that I have faith that this collection of players can get results.
00:29:11
Speaker
There's no doubt in my mind, because we saw it last year, we've seen it at times this year, we've seen flashes of it, you know, and I think pretty much every game, they haven't really gotten waxed at all this year, really. That I can recall at least. But nothing's changing. It's the same guys in the same spots, playing the same style.
00:29:36
Speaker
Week in and week out. And and you know, and then you get quotes like from from Schmetzer today, where he says, you know, it's got to be the veterans to pull us out of this. It's halfway through the season, man. Right. They're not doing it. Raul Ruiz is not pulling us out of this. Yeah, I mean, I guess on some level, I I do wonder who that's targeted for. I mean, I guess maybe he's saying it's Stephen Fry, not Andrew Thomas. It's.
00:30:10
Speaker
It's, it's Obed Vargas, not, or it's, uh, it's Joe Paulo, not Josh attention. I guess it's Alex rolled on not read Baker. Why? I don't know. I I'm not quite sure what, what exactly he means when he says that, because to me, it seems like there are promising young players on this roster who, and I, I feel like I've said this before, like previous seasons, the worst case scenario.
00:30:29
Speaker
You know, I...
00:30:37
Speaker
is that you go down, the ship goes down with the veterans getting all the minutes. There are promising talent on this team. You got to figure out what you have in it. Yeah. I've seen enough from Josh Atencio to believe that he is going to be a very good player. I've seen enough from Obed Vargas to believe that he's going to be a very good player. Reed Baker Whiting, his red card aside, I think he's going to be a very good player. These are players who need to be on the field as much as possible.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I like the worst that happens. You lose games. You just lost the sporting hands of City, right? Like how much? Yeah, maybe you lose the games worse, right? Maybe that's the fear is that at least the veterans are keeping it close. I don't care at this point, man. I've seen Alex rolled on play right back.
00:31:29
Speaker
It's not interesting to me anymore. It is not entertaining to me anymore. I haven't seen Ray Baker-White play right back that much, you know? Yeah, and we won't see him this week or on Saturday. Obviously. Maybe on Wednesday. Maybe on Wednesday. You know, I haven't seen Jordan Morris play up top by himself, where I think he's most well suited. I've sure as I've seen Rommel Readeus play it, you know, quite a lot this year. And it's just like, how much worse can it be genuinely? At least it's different.
00:31:59
Speaker
And I just, it's baffling to me that it's something that doesn't appear to be, to have registered with the coaching staff. Yeah.
Tactical Adjustments Needed
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't want to be too, too down, but at the same time we have, we do have to be, we have to be honest here. Yeah. I mean, I think everyone who listens to those podcasts and plenty of people that don't anymore,
00:32:25
Speaker
know that I'm optimistic about this team, that my inclination is to be optimistic about this team. But until they give me a reason to be optimistic that something's going to change, what's the point? I'm not delusional about this, at least. Other things, sure. But I know how bad it is. And I know it's been bad in the same ways for the whole season. And to some degree, going back further than that and
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, I just I don't really know what else there is to say about that aspect of the team right now. Yeah. Yeah, well, um, what you know, there, there was some allusion to a possible lineup chain or a raw formation change this week. What do you imagine that
00:33:17
Speaker
that I don't even know what that could be at this point. They're not gonna go three in the back, I don't think, with who would be your left wing back in that situation. Yeah, I mean, I guess, the thing is is that there are ways I can answer that question. There are no real plausible ways to answer that question with Brian Schmetzer being a coach. And that's not a dig at Brian. He's not gonna put Leo Chiu at left wing back, I don't think.
00:33:44
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, that just doesn't seem like a feasible thing to happen to me. No, it doesn't seem like a... I mean, it would be an interesting wrinkle, I suppose, but... It would. It would. I don't even know if it would be, but on some level, would it even be that much of a wrinkle? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I guess they could do a 4-3-3, maybe. I guess you could see Christian it right back.
00:34:05
Speaker
And, you know, maybe Chu and Jordan on the wings, but then that means you've got Raul again at the striker. And I don't know how great I feel about that. Maybe Mosavski starts, which I think would be a huge upgrade at this point, if for no other reason that it would be evidence that Raul is not going to be written in pen into the starting lineup for every game for the rest of the year, you know, but.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think the formation is the problem. Like I don't think that the overall tactical approach of the team is the problem. Like I have the kind of possession soccer that the Sounders play is not my aesthetic preference, but we've seen them have great success with it. You know, there's nothing wrong with their tactical system overall. It's.
00:34:54
Speaker
the nuance within the games, it's the substitution patterns, it's the lineup patterns, it's the mentality. Those are the issues. And so I don't know what formation change they're going to make that's going to address all that stuff, you know? Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Brian's comments, the thing that I found most sort of like eye opening was his
00:35:18
Speaker
He said something about wanting to, his intention was to sort of let the starters go as long as they could go. And I'm sitting there going, man, if there was ever a game that was dying for a 60th minute sub, it was this one.
00:35:33
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like that if, if there's one thing like in a nutshell, that is the issue that I see with the team from a mentality perspective and from just their general approaches that they are reactive to everything. They're never proactive about making changes about you said earlier, seeing what's boarding. Kansas city is doing. Hmm. They're bringing on a new left winger.
00:35:58
Speaker
uh, right-winger, uh, who is very speedy. Right. They're probably going to go after the young kid on a yellow card. Right. Maybe we should pull that guy off. That's just not something that they react to seemingly. Yeah. And, um, yeah, it's, it's always like, you're not reacting to what you're, like you said, I think earlier, you're not reacting to what you're seeing, but they're reacting to the changes in the game state that are the results of them not being more proactive.
00:36:27
Speaker
saying, okay, well, now we're down a man, so now we're really gonna pack it in. Now we have to make changes. Yeah, it's very frustrating. And I think...
00:36:39
Speaker
Everybody's shortcomings, everybody's idiosyncrasies that we don't like come more clearly into focus when a season is this bad and this frustrating. Um, I don't think anything has fundamentally changed in a lot of ways. Like I think this has kind of just always been the way Brian approaches games, but it becomes a problem when it's, I think pretty clearly having a detrimental effect, you know, based on the way the team is playing.
00:37:03
Speaker
When you're playing great, you can take this approach. You can let your veterans see out games. You don't need to be as proactive. That's not the team that we have right now. Yeah, I'm thinking like when was the last time the Sounders played a really good game end to end?
Upcoming Game Strategies
00:37:26
Speaker
Montreal Montreal I think you're right I think that's probably right I'm looking at it and it's like you know there's some decent results mixed mixed in there the only other one that could you could make a case for but I don't think they played a great game and that game it was the only game where I think their mentality looked good the whole way through but I don't think they were that good yeah yeah I mean
00:37:57
Speaker
Oof.
00:37:58
Speaker
Well, we still have the open cup for now. That's true. We do. We do. You know, we're not. It's a few weeks away still. But man, I sure hope this this stretch of games coming up. Pretty big. Yeah. Just to sort of look ahead, they've got home against Minnesota, then away at Dynamo and then home, home, home against Dallas Fire Rev. Four weekends in a row, four Saturdays in a row. They're at home. I don't know when the last time that happens.
00:38:29
Speaker
Uh, and then they've got the open cup, uh, after that, and then they're away at Austin. And then home, home St. Louis in LAFC. And then that takes them into the league's cup. Uh, there's season.
00:38:45
Speaker
Could be I mean, this is this is the stretch of games that's going to define this season. Yeah, almost unquestionably. So many points out there for the taking and the stretch of games. Yeah. And one way I mean, a lot of home games, a lot. I mean, they've they've got. Six home games between now over the next two months, basically. Yeah, they are going to be.
00:39:12
Speaker
playing a lot of home games. They've got to get a lot. I mean, they don't need to go six to know in those games, but they better have. Right. No, four or five wins at least, I think. You you cannot lose to Dallas, Chicago, New England at home. You have to beat those things. You have to. That is you don't. What are we doing? They they. Yeah.
00:39:37
Speaker
Yeah, you got to win. You have to win New England back to back to back. Those are almost three must win games. Yeah. If not from a. You have to win this game, these games to stay in the playoff race, just because people hope. Why should I bother watching you if you can't beat the New England Revolution at home? Yeah, you know. Like that feels like the lowest possible point not beating the New England Revolution at home.
00:40:08
Speaker
Uh, Dallas almost as bad too. Dallas has a one more point. Chicago has two more points. Um, that, uh, a total of 42 points from those teams. So seven more points from those three teams. Then Miami has, um, you got it, you got to be at home. And I know, I think that there's this, I understand the.
00:40:34
Speaker
mentality of saying, look, we're shitty at home. I'm not going to get my hopes up about those games. But I'm not willing to let my expectations of what this team should do slip. I am not a doomer at heart, man. You have to beat these teams. You have to go in with the expectation to beat those teams. The fans should go into these games without expectation.
00:41:00
Speaker
Uh, cause if, if the, like, if, if the fans aren't going to reinforce the expectations, nobody's going to do it. So yeah, huge, it's a huge stretch. I mean, like if they don't get 10 points from, from the stretch of home games and, uh, you know, maybe, I don't know, 10 overall is fine, I guess. Um.
00:41:25
Speaker
I don't feel very good about their chances to do anything this year in the, in the league. No, they better. The, the, the real, I was talking about this with someone today. The, the real gut punch would be if for some reason they don't feel a, a real lineup against in the open cup, which again, we're weeks away, but I'm sorry, you know, that, that game is going to fall between, um,
00:41:54
Speaker
a home game against the revolution and an away game against Austin. Yeah. 100%. I'm okay with punting the Austin game. No questions asked. I don't care. I don't care if all of a sudden that feels like a must win game. No. Yeah. The semifinal against the USL team is a must-win game.
00:42:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I think Austin is a, isn't a bad team. I don't care that they're in sixth. I don't, they're not a good team. I mean, six isn't that good. No, it's not. Uh, I mean, it's better than where we are, obviously. But their goal difference is worse. So, um, so I think that if it's like, look, if there's ever a game, you feel like you can get a point on the road with playing a sort of compromised lineup. And if there's ever a game, you feel like you can get three points at home.
00:42:43
Speaker
playing a rotational, you know, playing some, some second teamers or second choice guys. It's New England at home, right? Yeah. Yeah. You've got to, I'm not saying that they need to play what they consider to be their a number one best lineup. They better be bringing players off the bay. They, they better be playing, bringing veterans. They better be. Yeah. I, I, I agree with you. Yeah.
00:43:11
Speaker
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. I don't need to be beating anyone up over a decision they haven't made that's almost a month from now. But putting my stake in the ground on that one. Yeah, I think it's I think it's good to start setting that expectation. I really do.
00:43:27
Speaker
All right, well, I think that's it. Um, before we get out of here, I did want to give a little bit of a plug. We recently brought lobbing scorchers, which is a podcast run by Ari Lillian wall, which I imagine most of you guys know and know riff riff. I think that's how we say his last name.
00:43:48
Speaker
Riffy, I don't know. I don't know how to say his last name. I guess I'm realizing that right now. Noah, he goes by producer Noah on the podcast. Anyway, they do a great podcast. They're now part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. They do a lot of, their show usually comes out like on Mondays. So a day before we even record. And I think one of the things that Aaron and I have been talking about is we want to try to tackle some of the bigger picture.
00:44:11
Speaker
things and maybe get less in the weeds on an individual game basis. So I think this will maybe give us that opportunity to zoom out a little bit more.
New Podcast Segment Announcement
00:44:23
Speaker
And no one and Ari do a great job breaking down games and then looking at the individual games a little bit better than, I don't know, better than us, but that's what they do. They do it sooner than us, so it's more timely. And I'm happy to sort of see that too. I don't want to also go over, like, I don't want this to be a repeat of their podcast. Yeah. So we're going to be kind of adjusting in how we do things, but hopefully,
00:44:49
Speaker
You guys like where we're going to take this? We think we can take it in some interesting directions and give them a listen if you haven't already. They're on their own feed. It's called, again, lobbing squirchers. You might, I don't know if you could, might have to create a sounder at heart network on iTunes. I don't know how that works, figure it out. In the meantime,
00:45:11
Speaker
Thank you to Full Pull Wines for sponsoring us. Thank you to our listeners. Thank you to our subscribers. Aaron, it was wonderful as always talking to you. Absolutely. Signing off on behalf of Aaron and Lickett, I am Jeremiah Chan. This is Nosadietes. And remember, you'll never get out alone.
00:46:30
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!