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It’s Sporting KC ownership’s fault that Peter Vermes failed for so long
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Matt Doyle joins Jeremiah on another episode of “How the West will be won.” The first topic they discuss is the news that Peter Vermes has been fired as head coach for Sporting KC, something that was probably long overdue. But the real problem isn’t so much Vermes, as an ownership that allowed Vermes to have more control than he was capable of managing.
They also discuss the rise of San Diego FC and look ahead to Saturday’s match against the Sounders, dig into the success of Vancouver Whitecaps, are a little skeptical of Austin FC’s start and admit that the LA Galaxy could be in serious trouble.
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You can read Matt Doyle every week at MLSsoccer.com, watch his tactical videos on Bluesky and subscribe his new “Tactics Free Zone” newsletter.
“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Appearance
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go. Come on. Hey, O'Shawn.
00:00:13
Speaker
Let's go. What save by Fry. The Seattle Sounders have done it.
Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup Victory
00:00:21
Speaker
MLS Cup winning. Here comes Ruiz Diaz through the middle to cloud it for Seattle.
00:00:29
Speaker
And now they truly can start the celebrations. It's the Sounders MLS Cup. Nico Lodero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Seattle, Sounders, it's got built.
00:00:52
Speaker
This feels fucking awesome. This is a tiny dog. Nice work on your little yacht yat thing. And probably can't say shit. know, what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use and you didn't?
00:01:06
Speaker
Ever since Salter Hart wrote a commentary that we didn't take over seriously.
Sponsorship Announcement: Full Pull Wines
00:01:18
Speaker
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.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adietes on the Sounder at Heart podcast network.
Western Conference Analysis with Matt Doyle
00:01:48
Speaker
I am Jeremiah O'Shann. And joining me back in the saddle, Matt Doyle, the MLS armchair analyst.
00:01:55
Speaker
We're going to talk Western Conference. Thank you for joining me, Matt. This is neither a saddle nor an armchair. This is ah a fake Ames chair. Are you familiar with the Ames chair?
00:02:07
Speaker
I am vaguely familiar with it. That's and that's a nice chair. Well, it's a fake one. But it's... Yeah, go ahead. It's the type of thing that Don Traper had in his race apartment in season five, six ah of Mad Men.
00:02:21
Speaker
It was my wife's decision back during COVID. we were We were drinking a little bit. Yeah. I was like, I'm going to stand in the way of this one. This could work for me.
00:02:32
Speaker
the the she used the ams The Ames chair analyst never never really took off, though. no A real shame that... Yeah. ah So we i don't know. did you happen to I'm going to put on the spot. You happen to listen. Joe Lowry filled in for you last time we did this this show.
00:02:50
Speaker
I did not listen to that. I get a lot of Joe Lowry in my life. Yeah. ah Yeah. You know, I like between, ah you know, checked back healed pretty religiously. And then, know, every now and again, I listened to him on on total soccer show. And then i've I've wound up in like several different discords where it's a somewhat active member. So like, I get a daily dose of Joe Lowry, but Lowry and O'Shann together is a good, uh,
00:03:19
Speaker
It's good little group right there. Yeah, it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. But, you know, we're happy to have you back in any case. Well, I mean, you know, I'm the original Joe's the cover band. That's fine.
00:03:30
Speaker
That's how it is. That's how it is. That's that's his that's his ah his lot in life. Well, let's let's dig into this. There was big news in the Western Conference today.
Peter Vermees' Departure from Sporting Kansas City
00:03:39
Speaker
We may as well just open up right out of the gates with the news that Peter Vermees was fired by Sporting Kansas City as bad as they've been. I guess it's been like 200 days since they've won a match.
00:03:53
Speaker
and They had gone 0-12-1, one point in 13 games, dating back to last season across all competitions. You would think, oh, clearly, this is obviously, this is a guy who's gonna who's on his last legs.
00:04:06
Speaker
But he had gone through runs like this before and survived and come out of it. But this time, the axe fell. What made it different this time, do you think? They had just spent $9 million dollars in the the winter transfer window.
00:04:20
Speaker
Um, you know, I, I think that's probably the the biggest difference between now and a couple of years ago, they had a really terrible, maybe it was three years ago, four years ago, they had a really terrible year, but they were able to say, well, the one big signing we made was Polito and he got hurt and we didn't get reinforcements and got it. Kinda had a, I think he had compartment syndrome. And so there was like a laundry list of, of, i think viable excuses that season, this season,
00:04:48
Speaker
um you know they were bad last year they said we have a three window rebuilding project um in the first of those windows which was a summer window their only big addition was the Spanish fullback Joaquin Fernandez who's barely played um and then this window they went out and they bought Manu Garcia, the the number 10 who's been pretty bad.
00:05:15
Speaker
ah They brought in a a winger as well, which was a position i don't think that they particularly needed to fill. And now they have this guy who hasn't done anything, who is taking minutes away from Stephen Afrifa, who was one of the few bright spots last year.
00:05:30
Speaker
And then they went out and they spent $4 million dollars on Dayan Jovovich, who's a good player, but I'm not sure he's actually better than Willy Agata. um and none of what they did there obviously fixed the defense or fixed the midfield in fact I think the midfield has looked a little bit worse um though I have hopes with Jake Davis now playing in midfield that they could better get better but it just like it was bad decision after bad decision after bad decision um especially in these last two transfer windows but it's been a long honestly it's been a long decade of that and and I wrote a column about it it's up on MLSsoccer.com now about how what made Vermees so great 15 years ago was his ability to identify and develop
00:06:18
Speaker
primarily ah domestic talent acquired via the super draft is super draft run from 2007 to 2012 was the best six year run in super draft history. Beasler, Zussi, Espinosa, Chance Myers, Dom Dwyer, CJ Sapong, Teal Bunbury, Michael Harrington. Everybody forgets about him. He played 170 games for that club and he was very good.
00:06:42
Speaker
And then they picked up guys, like Seth Sinovic and Tim Melia, Kai Kamara, ah Benny Failhot are guys off the scrap heap. And he got them to play together and he got them to play really well.
00:06:56
Speaker
And they kept doing that. Um, You know, later on, it was Ike Parra, who may be the best three-year run of any center back ever. And for some reason, around 2015, just completely lost interest in the Superdraft, mostly lost interest in domestic products.
00:07:12
Speaker
And the signings have been pretty terrible. You know, one hit for every five minutes misses type of thing since then. And ah kind of this downward spiral.
00:07:24
Speaker
ended the way ah it it was kind of destined to end once he lost his ability or or interest in developing down. And so the in thing that I find really interesting about this is that they are still sort of in the friends of Peter Vermeer's business, frankly. Like the the organization is so deeply built around his vision of what this was. I don't know.
00:07:49
Speaker
I assume Mike Burns is not the guy who actually called him up and fired him. But it's kind of weird. Because Mike Burns was effectively hired by Peter Vermees to sort of help with some of this job. I think a lot of us were raising red flags. Like, why are you bringing in one of your buddies to do the stuff that you already that has he's been bad at before?
00:08:11
Speaker
And then that was to replace Gavin Wilkinson, who was another head-scratching hire, even independent of all the drama around him. It was, you know, this was...
00:08:22
Speaker
Sporting Kansas City primarily has been in the Peter Vermees business for the better part of his entire tenure. Let's not forget, Peter Vermees hired himself to be the head coach 15, 16, almost 16 years ago.
00:08:35
Speaker
This is this is an organization that was defined by one person more than any other organization. And now it's defined by one person. And and so i I'm I'm sitting here from the outside going like, does this even a start to address? I guess it starts to address it, but there's a lot to un unfurl here.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. Like the folks who I know who are are um
Vermees' Management Style and Influence
00:09:00
Speaker
more familiar with the day to day day to day workings with that club than I am said that like Vermees had his hand on everything down to like having to sign off on the hiring of like.
00:09:13
Speaker
front desk attendants at the training center. Like he was that micromanaging that involved in stuff that a coach and she is a chief soccer officer really shouldn't have to be doing like that should not be his remit.
00:09:28
Speaker
Shouldn't be allowed to do. Yeah. ah ah So my sympathy here is that like it was barely a professional soccer team before Peter Burmese. Like he had to institute this level of professionalism. And once you have that kind of power – then it's tough to let it go, i think, for anybody in any business. And i guys who are as competitive as professional athletes, I think especially, probably struggle with that. So around 2012, 2013, he probably, instead of saying, okay, I can let the the rope go a little bit and let the business side run the business side, and I'll be the soccer side, and maybe I'll get some better scouts in or you know expand the network a little bit, he started
00:10:14
Speaker
ah even more so having a ah concentration of power in his own hands as this team essentially grew into a billion dollar business.
00:10:25
Speaker
um And that's what MLS teams are now. And it it was too much very clearly by about 2017, 2018 or so. And it was just, it took too long for ownership to sort of rein him in or cut him off as it were. And now I think it's going to take 18 months at least three windows. Yeah.
00:10:49
Speaker
yeah Right. To unwind, to unwind all of this. It's, it's pretty wild. Um, it shouldn't overshadow what he did though, as a whole, uh, like there's no, there's never been a sport in Kansas city without Peter Vermees. And there's barely been ah Kansas city wizards without Peter Vermees. And he brought this team kicking and screaming into the modern era.
00:11:10
Speaker
Um, and just from a tactical perspective, I think he might be the single most important coach in MLS history. Yeah, and i you know it's funny because i was having some fun with this last night.
00:11:22
Speaker
I don't remember what the news was last night. that that this Oh, because the the supporters put out a letter basically demanding that he be fired. And on some level, I feel like it's funny. like I'm having fun with it. you know i was One of the things I pointed out was on the Onside series, one of the the kind of and more interesting little anecdotes is that they did this little vignette on him, and they show him getting up at – the crack of dawn and showing up to the office at, in the cover of night to just work extra hours and be one of the worst teams in the league just did strike me as kind of funny.
00:12:00
Speaker
But I also feel for the guy a little bit because he, he's not a, he's not an unintelligent person. He clearly, i think he actually does have some, ah ability to self self analyze himself. he He doesn't seem like a jerk, you know, and it's like you you have fun with them because he he, you know, he's complaining to the refs or whatever. And these are always the the the coaches that other fans love to sort of hate on.
00:12:25
Speaker
But I do feel like ownership at some point owed it to him. To step in and say, you can't do this. This is not a modern – we're not running a mom and pop shop anymore. This is ah supposed to be a modern sporting organization.
00:12:40
Speaker
And as much as we appreciate that you maybe want to be – you have your hands in everything, we just don't think it's good for you. And no one was there willing to save him from himself, I think. And that's what I think is too bad.
00:12:53
Speaker
Because they gave him a contract, a five something like a five-year contract extension two years ago. They've got three more years of Peter Vermees' contracts to pay off, which is just unfathomable to me. I mean, no one in MLS has five.
00:13:06
Speaker
Coaches don't sign five-year contracts in MLS. And this is a guy who is in the middle of a bad run who got an almost unbelievable extension. i just, i it's hard for me to comprehend how bad, like like ownership needs to own this.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah, no, you you you you've hit the nail on the head here, right? Like it was a it was a a situation where ownership needed to create all of like different silos or different buckets of responsibility within the org because it wasn't a mom and pop shop anymore.
00:13:37
Speaker
They didn't do it. And Vermees did what, again, he you know he was able to to sort of coalesce power um in his own hands. And the the other point that you... made that's a good one the vermise that people saw on the sideline every week that's not the peter vermise i knew now granted i'm not i don't know him particularly well i've only interviewed him a few times but every time i did he was thoughtful he was um almost gentle with with how he would approach things i think he's aware of how intimidating he can be
00:14:12
Speaker
um he seems like a really good guy. And I know that there are ah plenty of players who played for him and will tell you like, he wasn't the best guy. yeah He was actually kind of a son of a bitch.
00:14:23
Speaker
um But I think that's true of a lot of coaches, but this is not someone who, folks around the league were rooting for his demise. yeah I understand why fans would.
00:14:35
Speaker
I really do because it's like he has that kind of a bad guy air when he's on the sideline. But like, we got this up yeah, man. yeah Like he looks like a cop man yeah like he like he, that's not, that's not the Vermees that I think most folks around the league got to know.
00:14:57
Speaker
And I hope that some, you know, a year from now, like let this guy decompress 18 months from now, hopefully he's back in a job somewhere because I think, you know, on the whole, he was really, really good for MLS over the course of his 30 years now
San Diego FC's Impressive Season Start
00:15:11
Speaker
in the league.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think honestly, the the way once it actually happened, I started feeling a lot more sympathy for him and a lot more frustration on behalf of Kansas City fans at the ownership that sort of allowed this whole situation to ah Yeah.
00:15:33
Speaker
doing the best that he could and it's and it kind of sucks that he felt like he had to show up to work at six am and probably stayed till six or seven p m and just grind away doing no gar there no and No guardrails and no scouting network. And that's the big thing. Like at some point, you know, three months after you signed Johan Cruze to a DP deal, somebody in the organization needs to be able to go.
00:15:56
Speaker
We blew this so badly. We need to examine our processes. And that never happened. I don't think it clearly ever happened. And now it's on Mike Burns to to fix this. Like the this is the part that is going to take. I laugh because it's funny.
00:16:15
Speaker
It's going to take a while. Like if I was if I was a CSO of an MLS team, I would be calling up Sporting Kansas City asking about every half decent player on their team because ah they they seem ripe for the fleecing at this point.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. Well, moving into the other big sort of news and you know, as this is a kind, not really a Sounders show, but we are a Sounders We are a Sounders show at the same time.
00:16:41
Speaker
ah The other big news today was Ryan Kent, who I will ah freely admit is not a player who I had any familiarity with up until ah couple weeks ago. And then all of a sudden, it's like everyone who ever played football manager is like, oh, no, this or they played FIFA.
00:16:57
Speaker
It's like, no, no, no. Ryan Kent is like he's like the guy that you always end up you know pursuing. ah So I don't know much. Do you know much about Ryan Kent? He's the, of course the centers made the signing official today.
00:17:08
Speaker
ah i don't know if you have anything to say about him at all, but I, I'll admit I knew nothing about this guy before I started researching him too. Yeah. I don't play, I don't play FIFA or football manager here and i I do not watch the Scottish premier league. So I don't know much about Ryan Kent at all, other than it sounds like he has a made up name.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, it does kind of sound that way. So, you know, we're going to have plenty of Ryan Kent discourse on this network. So we're going to just go ahead and move beyond that and then focus on the other what I think big, big story of the Western Conference is who also happens to be playing the Sounders this week. So it it dovetails very nicely.
00:17:42
Speaker
And that's San Diego FC, who scored another really nice win this week. And as much as I was skeptical of what they were selling early in the preseason,
00:17:55
Speaker
And going into this year and talking about how they were going to stick to their principles and all these things that every expansion team says and very few of them are ever actually able to do. They are doing it. They are walking the walk and they are, you know, ah getting results in in not just kind of grinding in out either. They're they're looking pretty impressive right now.
00:18:17
Speaker
I don't know. I kind of want you to eat shit a little bit more on this because I remember a couple of weeks ago I had them seventh in my power rankings. And I thought it was too high. And you were you were running on social media chirping away like, oh I'm not going to use any any more foul language here, but come on, man.
00:18:33
Speaker
No, they played good. What else can I eat shit on as far as this goes? Every assumption I think I made about this team has so far proven incorrect. Is that is that fair? You know what? Me too, though.
00:18:44
Speaker
like ah Even after being there for part of preseason and talking to to Tyler Heaps and Mikey Varis, and they were you know doing the whole ah possessions in our DNA. We're going to have the ball. We won't don't want to do aerial duels. i was like, yeah, everybody says this.
00:18:59
Speaker
Come on. right like You're going to you know you're going to be no wins, three losses, two scoreless draws through five games. And you'd be like, we need to bunker. We need to bunker and counter our way to a one, no win, because that's the only way but we're going to do it. And it obviously it hasn't been like that in almost any way, even without Chucky Lozano for most of the season. Like they played really good ball.
00:19:23
Speaker
Um, After he picked up that injury, Andres Dreyer has been excellent on that right wing. The whole midfield has been just superb. Sverkov, the D-mid, he's like a a Kyle Beckerman regen.
00:19:38
Speaker
like he He just does the same things that Beckerman did at such a high level for 15 years. And then that gives the whole thing function and form on both sides of the ball. like You can crack them open. We saw Columbus do it.
00:19:51
Speaker
We saw ah LAFC do it on one of their goals. Um, but for the most part, they're able to make the game compact. They're really disciplined about how and where they get pressure to the ball. And then in attack, they have a lot of good guys who are guys who are good technically, and then guys who are unselfish in their movement. And so it's all, it's all f freaking working.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, so a 3-2 win this week against LAFC. They are 2-0 against their Southern California rivals. I don't think anyone, even even you, even you, correct of predicted 2-0 record against their against the two other Southern California teams.
00:20:29
Speaker
Is there any reason really at this point? No, granted, it's six games. A lot can change. But are you seeing any anything any red flags that are saying, okay, well,
00:20:40
Speaker
Sure, they're doing it now, but you know St. Louis was in a similar position a couple years ago and everyone was raising red flags. Like this is just totally unsustainable. it doesn't seem that way with San Diego. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. Right. Cause like St. Louis was getting gifts left and right. Everybody remembers those back passes and ah Roman Berkey was standing on his head. And to be fair to him, he continued to do so for two more years.
00:21:06
Speaker
um And, you know, rescuing points like that was unsustainable. Nobody's rescuing points. for San Diego. Like they're controlling games out there with the ball. And, you know, we saw last week when they lost to Austin, they can sometimes get a little bit, um maybe a little bit gappy defensively, which allows you to to counter on them.
00:21:29
Speaker
If they're not tight with those lines, then second balls can be a problem. And maybe as the weather gets hotter, then you know your legs get heavier and it becomes a little harder to stay as compact. like That is not like a red flag, but I think it's something to be aware of.
00:21:46
Speaker
The rest of it all tracks. Even as they've had to play without a true center forward with Marcus Ingvartsen hurt, they've gone to Oni Valakari as kind of a false nine.
00:21:57
Speaker
That gave LAFC so many problems because they didn't know how to account for his movement. And as Valakari was dropping in... you know, dryer in particular, and then might, and on the other side, they were running the channels and like, it looks natural.
00:22:11
Speaker
It looked really well drilled and, um, teams that are well drilled and are willing to run for each other tend to have a lot of success in this league. And, you know, even when it's not, um,
00:22:25
Speaker
simple running, like a counterattacking team. Like look at the crew, look at that great NYCFC team that won MLS cup a few years back. That team ran a lot in possession.
00:22:37
Speaker
And that's what San Diego are reminding me of these days. Is there any reason that Sounders should be confident going down to San Diego?
00:22:47
Speaker
Or is this a sort of survival situation? like i don't I still don't think the Sounders have looked bad in these first six games. The results haven't really been there. But I don't know. i was very encouraged by a lot of what I saw against San Jose. They had their best expected goal performance.
00:23:03
Speaker
They had a bunch of high you know high quality chances. They didn't find the back of the net as much as i think it felt like they deserved to, but there were some positives in that.
00:23:17
Speaker
And one of them, I don't know where you fall on this, but this has been a lot of the debate around the Sounders this week is, was Danny, did Danny Masofsky have a blinder of a bad game or was he actually good?
00:23:30
Speaker
I'm of the mind that he did more good than bad, but I don't know where, where do you fall on the, what do you do about the number nine situation for the Sounders? Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild.
00:23:47
Speaker
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00:24:06
Speaker
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00:24:21
Speaker
To find out more, just visit centeratheart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening.
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00:24:33
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:25:20
Speaker
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00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, i I was hoping for your opinion on this because i like i really like Jesus Ferreira as a player. i I'm not a false nine guy.
00:25:44
Speaker
Even you know three minutes after complimenting Onyval Akari, just... i just tend to think that teams function better with a true number nine out there and to me that's what i saw from the sounders the difference between that first half and the second half was musovsky yeah he's not a starting caliber player in mls really um but he mimics a lot of what Jordan Morris brings as a center forward. And that, you know, that opens up the pockets for guys like Rusnak and Ferreira and, you know, De La Vega is back. So that's one.
00:26:21
Speaker
And two is to bring it back. Like, I don't, Like, I think the Sounders are talented enough, even as they're struggling to pick up results. They're talented enough to go into any game with confidence. Like, this is MLS.
00:26:32
Speaker
Like, nobody you know nobody out there is 2009 Barcelona. So it's like, they should not go down to this game expecting anything except a win.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah, ah so I'll give my opinion on Masovsky. I agree with you. I really wanted Jesus Ferreira to work out and to be sort of like a And he might still.
00:26:56
Speaker
and he's still, right. And I actually think he if you watch that game, he actually was... It's funny how much better he was in the second half when there was a ah real nine and he was sort of allowed to sort of float out into the wings and and and get into those half spaces. He he still has all the...
00:27:12
Speaker
the on the ball skills that you expected. He sees passes that like his pass that sets up the goal is actually a really nice ball into Christian rolled on. He does a lot of good things, but for whatever reason, he's just not doing them when he's playing up top. And he was almost invisible in the first half in that game.
00:27:30
Speaker
And I think part of it is that the Sounders just really are not built around a team that has a false nine because they They need someone who's just going to like stay high and stretch the line and battle for balls in the box and do all the things that Masovsky was doing in this game.
00:27:46
Speaker
You know, maybe the most emblematic play of that was when he goes in for, ah I think it was a ah Georgie Manungu cross and he just ends up slamming right into ah Daniel, the goalkeeper.
00:27:57
Speaker
And he, it was a foul on Masovsky. Yeah. but whatever the point was that he was willing to just throw his, throw his body out there and sacrifice. And that's sort of what you need a number nine to do. And he is not going to displace Jordan Morris.
00:28:11
Speaker
ah I don't think in an ideal world, yeah I don't think this is a situation where he, you got to figure out how to get him and Morris on the field together. This is not that this is like, you just got to get to the point where Jordan is healthy and ready.
00:28:23
Speaker
And then if you can do that, you have enough talent around him where why not? Like if if you can get, Albert Rusnak and Jesus Ferreira and Christian Roldan and Obed Vargas and Paul Rothrock even and Alex Roldan to a degree.
00:28:38
Speaker
If you can get them sort of doing the things they need to be doing, Mussofsky can do a job. He doesn't need to save you. He just needs to like put the balls in the net that he should be putting in the net. And frankly, he had a couple of those looks in this game.
00:28:53
Speaker
But you don't get it into like spaces I don't even know. Like, well, obviously he needs to put the ball in the net. ah Yeah. More than he has been, but it's, it's the work, right? He needs to do the work to set the preconditions for guys like Rusnak and Ferreira and maybe Rothrock and Georgie do you know, sort of play the music kind of thing.
00:29:19
Speaker
um yeah And like, that was the big difference half one to half two for me to bring it back to Ferreira as a false nine. I do think it can work.
00:29:31
Speaker
And I think it probably eventually will to a degree. It's not going to work with Rusnak underneath. right? Cause like Rusnak is not going to run as a number 10. And sometimes if you're playing a false nine, you need your number 10 to stretch the field, to, to read the movement back into the pocket and then use that defense's, um,
00:29:52
Speaker
inclination to follow the forward against them and sort of burst through the lines and become a point of attack kind of
Sounders' Tactical Adaptations
00:30:01
Speaker
guy. Bruce Neck has, I don't think, ever done that.
00:30:04
Speaker
And I'm not calling him a lazy player, right? I don't think he's a lazy player. I just don't think that's his skill set. um So that that is a really awkward fit. Conversely, I do think if you're playing one-two,
00:30:17
Speaker
right? with With one underneath and two up top, and the two is Mussovsky and Ferreira, or Morris and Ferreira, and the one underneath Ruzdak. I actually think that could work really well, especially if you have two flying wingbacks.
00:30:31
Speaker
um So I think there's a lot of opportunities here for the you know coaching staff to figure it out over the course of the next couple of seasons because these guys are going to be on the team for the next couple of seasons.
00:30:42
Speaker
It just hasn't all happened immediately in the first six weeks. And um I understand why that's frustrating for Sounders fans, but you're in it for the long haul, folks. Yeah. Yeah. ah You also probably need more like real wingers. I think when if you're going have a false nine, you can't just have every like everyone can't just be sort of waiting for someone else to push the line.
00:31:05
Speaker
And that's not that wasn't really happening. for that's just not the personnel that the sounders have right now and so there's a variety of reasons it was funny because someone in the comments asked me i'm not sure if if rust neck and and for our work together in that way and i i sort of dismissed it and said i don't see and why they couldn't but this game felt like okay maybe you're right maybe they can't quite do it and i have to so yeah you're eating shit yeah Yeah, exactly. I'm eating shit again.
00:31:33
Speaker
ah you know, while we're talking about the the top teams in the Western Conference, though, Vancouver had got another like they're quietly putting together a really nice run here. I don't know if this week was the most impressive performance, but they're padding enough.
00:31:50
Speaker
Like but every week doesn't have to be an impressive performance if they're getting the results. they're just, they keep plugging along. They're playing better ball. They're playing better ball. I, and you know, it kills me to say it a little bit cause I really loved Vanny Sartini, but like it, it does look like a coaching upgrade has happened in terms of how they're using the ball through central midfield. Like they're up there with Columbus and San Diego ah in terms of not just possession, but the types of progressive passes that they're hitting, like how they're using that possession.
00:32:23
Speaker
Um, Sebastian Berhalter is among the league leaders in expected assists. Now, granted, ah chunk of that is from ah set pieces because he delivers a great dead ball, but he's actually um become like more than just a functional passer from open play. And the fact that they've stayed afloat over these past couple of weeks without Ryan Gould.
00:32:44
Speaker
If you if I had said to you, yeah, how many points? How many points were the Vancouver Whitecaps pick up over five games without Ryan Gould? ah And I had set the the over under at four and a half.
00:32:57
Speaker
Would you have taken the over? No, I was going to say I would have maybe set the over under at five, but still I would have. i would That would have just made it easier to go under. But even at four and a half, I think have been inclined to go under.
00:33:08
Speaker
i don't think there was any reason to think. when you know Ryan Gold felt like such an important part of what this team is. yeah And it's just proving a more resilient squad than I think we gave him credit for. it Yeah, absolutely. yeah Certainly more than I did. i think I picked them to miss the playoffs. I think I had them in 10th place in the Western Conference. And look, it's a long season.
00:33:33
Speaker
um And we've we've seen good starts fall apart before. But this is like the San Diego thing where it's like... the red, if there are red flags, they're not showing in the underlying numbers and they're not shown by the eye test either.
00:33:47
Speaker
Um, and granted they did have that, that loss last week against Chicago. Um, but they were like, that was the international date that it, The Whitecaps were missing five of their top seven players.
00:34:00
Speaker
think most MLS teams lose when they're missing five of their top seven players. ah it It feels like a really good team. And as a neutral, they've certainly been one of the most fun teams in the league to watch so far this season.
00:34:15
Speaker
Well, so far, you and I have both shown a lot of willingness to eat shit, which might just be yes the theme of today's... I'm going to go on on a limb and guess that maybe you're not quite as ready to eat shit on this team. And that's Austin FC, who, at least by my eye, seems a little more smoke and mirrors than the rest of these teams that we've been talking about, in part because this is a team who was built in the off season, frankly, to be better offensively.
00:34:48
Speaker
And so far have been one of the worst offensive teams in the league. And somehow I don't understand. I've been watching these games and i don't see how it's happening. Somehow they've only given up three goals. That does not feel remotely sustainable to me.
00:35:01
Speaker
So Nicholas Devez is a really good defensive coach. We saw that over his first two years with FC Dallas. Because remember, he took over that FC Dallas team after they had a disastrous defensive season.
00:35:14
Speaker
And then they immediately were one of the better defensive team. I think they were top eight defensive team his first year, even though they had a ton of injuries. um He never really figured it out in attack with Dallas, even though that team spent a lot of money on...
00:35:32
Speaker
questionable, but like ostensibly talented players. I kind of suspect that we're going to see the same thing here with Austin. The difference is so far, he's just being more pragmatic about um how he's lining up like Dallas, even when they were trying to improve defensively, he never had them full bunker encounter this first month and a half of the season.
00:35:55
Speaker
Austin is basically not possessing the Paul past midfield. They're saying to teams, if you're going to beat us, you're going to have to be all 11 of us. We're all within 50 yards of the goal. There's no space between our lines. it's you know, banks of four.
00:36:10
Speaker
And as soon as you turn it over, we're going to try to counterattack. And we have some guys who can really run that makes our counterattack pretty dangerous. It is a it is a very good formula to start the season uh it's not a formula in MLS that wins things it's really not um the closest thing to a pure counter-attacking side that we've seen win stuff recently in MLS is LAFC but LAFC definitely have a different club to play and they've
00:36:46
Speaker
played it pretty well at times in big games. Um, Austin have shown none of that yet. Now the, I guess, green flag, green light, I guess the green light for, as opposed to the red flag is that, um, Danny Pereira looked really good yesterday.
00:37:03
Speaker
ah St. Louis kind of stinks. So take it with a grain of salt. Um, and Owen Wolf has been really, really good this year. Like one of the best young players in the league. So if,
00:37:15
Speaker
Estevez is able to figure out how to meld that into something that can use the ball, then maybe this thing has legs. This start is more than just them absorbing and countering. Maybe this becomes something where they can be a team that has 45% possession and ah can play a second club, but it's still primarily a counterattacking team.
00:37:37
Speaker
And if that's the case, I think Austin fans will will be happy and and I think this team will make the playoffs, but we're stacking ifs. Now, um the other green flag i I feel like I should mention here, Brad Stuber is still one of the best goalkeepers in the league.
00:37:50
Speaker
And that if you're going to be a counterattacking team, have a backstop like that in there. um That makes all the difference in the world. And it gives you the margins to figure out the harder stuff upfield while still collecting points.
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess in in their defense, they also have one of the best defenses by XG allowed. So it's not like they are getting lucky, so to speak. They're even underperforming their their XG goals a little bit. So I don't know. Maybe I guess I'm just not.
00:38:21
Speaker
I guess I've just been really unimpressed sort of with how pragmatic they've been. And it doesn't feel like that was what they were going into this. I mean, how many how many try to do? Yeah. How many times did we see Gary Smith teams do this to start the season where it was like, okay, they're collecting points. They they have, ah you know, six wins in their first 11 and they've only lost twice.
00:38:44
Speaker
and Once it hits summer, they'll really figure it out and build on this. And then like they, they never did. And we were kind of saying that about Nico Estevez's FC Dallas teams as well. So I,
00:38:57
Speaker
tend towards skepticism about their ability to spin this into like a season where they're truly contending. um But wins are wins and points count as much in March as they do in September. And I don't think anybody in Austin is complaining all that much about where they are after five, six games.
00:39:15
Speaker
Yeah. So i don't I don't know how many more teams we'll get to today, but I do want to talk about one more. And that is another team who has just decided they don't want the ball. And that is Minnesota United, who has 35, who is averaging 35% possession this season, and yet are just trucking along, getting results, and looking pretty decent doing it.
Minnesota United's Low Possession Strategy
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah. why Like right now it almost feels like the teams that don't want the ball are doing like if you look at the ah league, the league losers in a possession battle, it's almost all playoff teams.
00:39:53
Speaker
Like it's all teams that are off to good starts. Yeah, so it's funny. ah Well, one thing is that this is the way it always is at the start of the season, right? the The teams that play against the ball tend to have better records over the first two or three months of the season and and it's because it's it's harder to have the ball than to not have the ball.
00:40:13
Speaker
ah sure It's harder to create than to destroy. And mistakes are more common as you're sort of knocking the rust off the first couple of months of the season. um But in the bigger picture, the weird thing that happened during the first half of this decade is that possession and points per game became completely decoupled in MLS. like the The last half of the 2010s, the high possession teams tended to have...
00:40:40
Speaker
um more points and to win more trophies Atlanta uh Toronto the Sounders even though they weren't as possession heavy as they've become since then like there there was a strong correlation and then COVID happened and possession became completely decoupled until 2024.
00:41:00
Speaker
And 2024, we saw Miami win the Supporter Shield heavy possession team. We saw Columbus second heavy possession team. We saw Sounders among the ah the league leaders in the Western Conference.
00:41:13
Speaker
That's a heavy possession team. We saw the Galaxy win MLS Cup. That's a heavy possession team. I have seen nothing. that convinces me that 2025 is going to swing completely in the other direction that's not to shit on minnesota united who have a a game model and it works very well for them but we saw what the galaxy did to them in the playoffs We saw what having the ball did to them in the playoffs.
00:41:43
Speaker
I need to see them solve for that before I believe that they are among the elite in this league. um I think they're very happy with their start. I love watching Yeboah and Bongi and Tani in the open field.
00:41:59
Speaker
Joaquin Pereira was excellent this week. That's the first time I've said that about him. um If he plays at that level, then that elevates them. I still need to see them solve for that against the best teams in the league before I think they've cracked this thing.
00:42:15
Speaker
Well, I want to give time for one more team. I just want to get you. Yeah, let's do it.
LA Galaxy's Post-Cup Challenges
00:42:20
Speaker
Let's do it. What, how concerned are you about LA galaxy? I know you were one of the team. You were, you know, like the theme of the show is eating shit, right? This is one of the teams you were higher on LA going into the season. Then I think a lot of people were, are you re considering that at this point? Or is it like,
00:42:38
Speaker
don't worry about my boys in uh no like so they were what 64 point team last year and i thought they i put their their over under at i think 54 and a half or 55 and a half so i thought they would drop about 10 points yeah from last year yeah um man i undershot that they might they might be a 40 point team this year. They might even be under that because I thought like the theory was that Surio, who's a good player,
00:43:11
Speaker
and their new additions um in the number eight position could do enough of the ball progression to let marco royce and gabriel peck and then eventually joseph painsell do the chance creation and paint will just got back this week and royce has basically not showed up like that guy is fully cooked and so it's all fallen on Gabriel Peck and it's been too much for him like he he just hasn't been able to do the job of essentially four different players and now it obviously hasn't helped that they went out and they got Lucas and uh Sanabria and he immediately got her and so they've been scrambling to fill the number eight spot it really hasn't worked all that well next to surreal um and it just proved to be
00:43:58
Speaker
like too much change year over year from what they were last season. And then on top of that, the, the real turning point for the galaxy down the stretch was when mural Garces entered the starting lineup, um, to play center back next to, uh, um,
00:44:17
Speaker
my Yoshida because Amiro Garces made it okay for Ricky Pooge to fuck up. It made it okay for him to lose the ball in bad spots because this is the fastest dude in the league.
00:44:31
Speaker
We saw it multiple times against the Sounders when he was actually faster than Jordan Morris on a breakaway. Yeah. um And that put out the fires, but in terms of defending in the box, Amiro Garces is a freaking disaster.
00:44:46
Speaker
And they're having to defend in the box so much more often this year because their possession sucks. So suddenly this guy who was, was manna from heaven for the galaxy, the way they played last year, like basically can't even start him in 2025 because he, he still doesn't know what he's doing in his own 18. So it's just one issue compounding on top of another, on top of another in this, like,
00:45:15
Speaker
and like ah Like if you're not a Galaxy fun if fan, it has to be the funniest thing you've ever seen have from winning MLS Cup to being as terrible as they've been in 2025 almost every way.
00:45:30
Speaker
Yeah, winning MLS Cup and then doing the entire everyone hated us, look at us now kind of thing. We're back. We're back, baby. I mean, I'll tell you, if you really want to enjoy some schadenfreude, ah go watch the last episode of Onside and just soak it all in because it just feels a lot different right now than it did at the time.
00:45:55
Speaker
It's almost... I mean, it's it's pretty sweet. it's pretty I'm not going lie. I'm not going to lie. And i I actually felt myself appreciating ah Greg Banny and being like, you know what? i kind of i kind of I do actually kind of like him. I think he is a... I think... Will Kuhn's also very likable. These are likable people. like i don't I don't enjoy...
00:46:18
Speaker
like seeing them personally suffer, but there is something about them being manifestations of the galaxy brain and it just sort of exploding. ah But anyway, that's a good note to end on.
00:46:32
Speaker
Matt, thank you again for doing this. ah It's been really fun being able to do this sort of like wider takeout. I actually liked today where we just focused on a few teams ah rather than going through the schedule like we have in the past.
00:46:45
Speaker
but Why don't you get you Joe on to maybe pick up the leftovers or something later on in the week. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But of course people should. Yeah, exactly. So make sure you're reading Matt's must read column every week.
00:46:58
Speaker
ah Make sure you're subscribing to a sub stack as well. I've enjoyed the sub stack. I also in love the animations that your doppelganger has been doing on your behalf. ah Of those, are you seeing these? Are you seeing what the. I i am.
00:47:13
Speaker
it's It's really incredible stuff. I do not know who runs that account. It might just be sentient footrest. It's really kind of incredible. It is kind of incredible. So anyway, I i am ah very much a fan of the Matt Doyle business.
00:47:27
Speaker
ah So I ah want people to to enjoy that content as well. But anyway, thank you, Matt, for doing this. um ah Maybe we'll talk in a couple of weeks if if ah Joe doesn't swoop ah swoop in
00:47:41
Speaker
Let's write it down in pen. I want to keep my spot. Okay. Okay. Good, good, good. All right. Well, I'm Jeremiah Oshian signing off for Matt Doyle. This is No Study Yet. This is part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, and we will catch you next time.
00:48:29
Speaker
I expect the LAFC who's motivated ah to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really brew in the party.
00:48:42
Speaker
You guys like that? and a what Awkward joke, dad joke right there, huh?