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Hair-pulling result or confidence-inspiring performance?
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Jeremiah and Aaron are back for their first “normal” show of the season and have quite a match to discuss. On one hand, the Sounders did a lot of really good stuff and even scored a couple of nice goals. On the other, a fully regrettable error cost them two points. Let’s dig in!
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:02
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.
00:00:16
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Will Bruin's New Role
00:00:25
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 Come on.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hey, O'Shea. Let's go.
Sounders' MLS Cup Victory
00:00:42
Speaker
The Seattle Sounders have done it. Cup winners.
00:00:53
Speaker
And now they truly can't start the celebrations. It's the Sounders MLS Cup. Nikola. so The Sounders rule the region!
00:01:05
Speaker
Seattle, the Sounders,
00:01:13
Speaker
it's going to be good! He's gone! That is good!
00:01:24
Speaker
That publicist ain't cheating.
Podcast Hosts Introduction
00:01:30
Speaker
since sounder hard commentary that you didn't take lo seriously
00:01:41
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Nos Adiates on the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Tuesday, February 25th, 2025. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan.
00:01:53
Speaker
Joining me today is my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett.
Regular Season Opener Performance Analysis
00:01:56
Speaker
In many ways, the CL Sounders regular season opener was exactly the kind of performance we had hoped to see. The Sounders dominated possession, were aggressive on the the attack, scored a couple of nice goals, and played what I think most would call attractive soccer.
00:02:10
Speaker
But after dominating the match for 90-plus minutes, a series of regrettable errors undid all the work, and the Sounders were forced to settle for a tie after Jackson, Reagan, and Yammer combined for one of the worst own goals in team history.
00:02:23
Speaker
As we sit here on the eve of arguably more important game with the Sounders already holding a 3-1 lead in their round one CONCACAF Champions Cup series.
Frustration with Late-Game Mistakes
00:02:32
Speaker
Aaron, are you focusing more on the result or on the performance from Saturday?
00:02:39
Speaker
I'm definitely focusing more on the performance, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty annoyed by by the result, pretty irritated by the result. And i think it's beyond just being irritated because they drop points in a game that they dominated and and clearly should have won. It's just the way they got there is much different and much more encouraging.
00:03:01
Speaker
But it's yet again, dumb mistakes late in a game that should have been well in hand that were just uncharacteristic, you know, at any other quadrant of the game, right?
00:03:16
Speaker
They only seem to make these mistakes late. And it's it's it's just it's super frustrating. And I felt the vibes were
Recurring Issue: Holding Leads
00:03:23
Speaker
were great in the stadium. I felt really good. we and that and mean, that that own goal just came out of nowhere and it's inexcusable. it You know, it took so many breakdowns, so many individual breakdowns o to get there, which.
00:03:41
Speaker
in a way, i suppose, is encouraging, right? Because it's it's unlikely to ever happen again. But I just... We've seen in the past um this team have results like this where...
00:03:56
Speaker
In isolation, you can say it's not a big deal, but we've also seen it snowball, you know? and And so that's always in the back of my mind, right? Is that because, you know, early in the year last year, they played pretty well and in the first few games and just weren't able to get the results they were looking for.
00:04:11
Speaker
And that pressing to get those results turned into, ah you know, that start that we all recall.
Errors and Defensive Lapses
00:04:18
Speaker
I'm not worried about that yet, really, but it's impossible for that not to be in the back of your mind. And I think that's yeah that's the part that's so frustrating about it.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think also the thing is is, that one of the recurring themes last year was this inability to hold specifically one goal leads in the 85th minute.
00:04:39
Speaker
It's a very strange stat, but it is true. Four times last year, they were leading or sorry, five times last year, they were leading by one goal in
Late-Game Goals Conceded
00:04:50
Speaker
the 85th minute.
00:04:51
Speaker
That's a ah key element of it. Uh, And four times, they managed not to win the game. you You know, that was the Colorado game where they gave up the ah the rebound off the free kick yeah when they were playing down a man.
00:05:08
Speaker
There was the Vancouver game where New Who ah was called for a
Mistakes Leading to Conceded Goals
00:05:14
Speaker
handball. They were also playing down a man, and Ryan Gold hit a ah ah penalty to tie it.
00:05:19
Speaker
There was the RSL game where they... where they gave up a 90, a 10th minute stoppage time equalizer, which kind of came under pressure.
00:05:32
Speaker
And then there was the San Jose game, which was another, which was kind of similar to this in that the Sounders were man, you know, they were playing with They had scored two goals in that game. Coincidentally, Jordan Morris scored two of them.
00:05:44
Speaker
And then just out of nowhere, they gave up a a ah ah late goal. And then finally, in the fifth time that came up, they managed to hold a 1-0 lead against Houston. And, you know, I'd like to think that we put that narrative to bed.
00:05:58
Speaker
But it was also sort of part of a more troubling trend broadly because they gave up a bunch of late goals in other games. Like they gave up a late equalizer against Louisville City in the Open Cup. They gave up that late game winner against the Houston or against the LA Galaxy.
00:06:17
Speaker
They gave up. you know some other They gave up a late winner against Sporting Kansas City on the road. And so there were just a kind of a worrying trend of late goals, not all quite you know that statistic, the 85th minute thing.
00:06:30
Speaker
um And I will say that they had five one-goal leads in the 85th minute on the road, and they held the lead all five of those times. So I don't think there's some sort of like inherently ah panicky thing that the Sounders are doing. Right.
00:06:44
Speaker
But for some reason, it is a recur. mean, they date they dropped eight points at home last year on situations very similar to this. Those eight points would have given them the top record in the Western Conference last year.
00:06:56
Speaker
They would have won the West, theoretically. Of course, you know, whatever. We're not going to get into all that. But... It's just a ah very frustrating trend. And i will say that I was mostly really encouraged by the quality of the play. And I will note that in none of the games that the Sounders ah had these leads, were they playing nearly as well as they were in this one?
00:07:15
Speaker
It wasn't just the goals. It was that they were they were bossing the game. I mean, the the goal came out, just to say the goal came out of nowhere somehow understates how out of nowhere it was.
00:07:29
Speaker
Charlotte barely had the ball on the Sounders end. They had a couple corner kicks over the last like 30 minutes of the game.
Criticism of Tactical Execution
00:07:35
Speaker
i think our Charlotte had two corner kicks. They had one shot. ah It was not on goal. They only had one shot on goal the whole game.
00:07:42
Speaker
ah And the Sounders were just sort of like, doing whatever they wanted. Really. It was, it was wild. And even on the sequence, ah I, I've seen this debated a fair amount. And, and it's funny because you see people arguing both sides on one hand, people argue the centers weren't aggressive enough and going for a third goal.
00:08:03
Speaker
And then there's another group of people that saying, why are the sounders playing the, you know, they were, they were, just holding on the ball. They were, they should have just been killing it more. Right. ah And this play itself is sort of a weird microcosm um because it starts with the Sounders kicking the ball long and then it going off of,
00:08:24
Speaker
the uh charlotte defender but called for charlotte and so it starts this whole like and it's kind of a funny you see the sounders on the field complaining oh no no it's off it's off charlotte off charlotte and then later on in the broadcast you actually catch jordan morris saying something to melanda and he's like oh yeah that definitely hit me and And whatever.
00:08:49
Speaker
Good, I guess.
Need for Tactical Adjustments
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He was not he was like not even like pretending. ah But, you know, at that point, the the game's already tied. ah But anyway, so that starts the sequence. And at first, when i in my head, I was thinking, God, two games in a row, they gave up a goal after on ah on a play that starts 90, throw-in that starts 90 yards away from goal. yeah that's That's kind of frustrating.
00:09:12
Speaker
But what's worse about this one is they don't even start a counterattack. All they do is they just kick it around and then they kick it back to the goalkeeper. And Kalina just sends a ball up to the midfield.
00:09:23
Speaker
And Jackson Reagan is there. Flat, like he's as rooted in the ground as you can be. And he has an easy header. He has two choices. He can, or he actually has three choices. He can hit it sort of just back to the middle of the field.
00:09:37
Speaker
ah He can, or hit it over to, to Yamar who's to his right. He can hit it to Christian Roldan, who's in the midfield, or he can hit it to John Bell, who's on the left sideline. To me, right, the safe play is you play it to John Bell on the left sideline because even if he doesn't get it, it goes out of bounds and you just, who cares, right?
00:09:57
Speaker
Instead, he tries to play it forward to Christian Roldan. It gets blocked. Okay, a big deal. It gets blocked. He's first to it. he has a He has a beat on it.
00:10:08
Speaker
And then he just totally fluffs. Instead of kicking it out of bounds, at that point, which would have been probably the smart thing to do, right? You've just misplayed a header. Don't get cute. Don't play it anywhere. Just kick the ball out of bounds.
00:10:20
Speaker
Instead, he gets cute. he He tries to play it back to, i don't know I guess he's maybe playing it back to to Fry. Totally fluffs it. The defender is able to race him to the ball. And at first... I was really worried. Sorry, I'm talking a lot here, but ah we're we're you're going to get a word in edgewise, I promise.
00:10:38
Speaker
i was i was a little worried because the defender has a gets there first, right? And if he hits an early cross, he does have an attacking player running into
Reagan's Defensive Errors
00:10:50
Speaker
the box.
00:10:51
Speaker
That could be trouble. But he doesn't hit the early cross. Instead, he he takes a touch and he plays it sort of down towards the sideline, which totally cuts off any angles that he has, though. And it allows both Yamar and Alex Roldan to make recovery runs.
00:11:06
Speaker
Yamar is able to cut off the front. And then even Alex Roldan is cutting in in front of the the the player who's making the the run down the middle.
00:11:17
Speaker
And they have this very well defended at this point. Yeah. And he puts in an okay cross and the AMAR just sort of like does the instinctual thing and sixes foot out.
00:11:30
Speaker
And if the, the irony is that if he whiffs on it, if he does really almost anything other than stick out his left foot and kick it, It probably is nothing and you go, oh, that was ah an annoying mistake, but you don't get too worried about it.
00:11:46
Speaker
But instead, yeah we know what he does. He just kicks it through Steph Fry's legs and and there you have it. um I don't know. I talked a lot, Aaron.
00:11:57
Speaker
No, I mean, you you you described it well, i think. I... As you know, because you've you've been in them, our seats are at the other end of the pitch. Yeah. And so I saw everything that happened in midfield.
00:12:10
Speaker
Right. I saw. saw Reagan misplay the header and didn't even really think about it because that happens a million times. Yeah, exactly. And then I saw him. Then I saw him fluff the clearance and I said, oh,
00:12:22
Speaker
And then, like you said, it looked like everything was settled. And so I kind of calmed down. And then the next thing I know, the goal is in the back of the ball in the back of the net. And it's like, and when I watched it back, I assumed I missed the Charlotte player, right?
00:12:37
Speaker
Like I assumed there was just somebody I didn't see that got a foot to the ball. And so when I watched it back, it was just so much worse than it seemed. It's so much worse. It's super frustrating and it's...
00:12:50
Speaker
I mean, it's a meme at this point that Jackson has one play like that a game. And I think it's fairly true. ah And ultimately, where he made the mistake should not end up in a goal for the other team in that situation.
00:13:08
Speaker
So much had to go to go wrong, which is both, like I said earlier, encouraging because it doesn't seem repeatable and also discouraging in the sense that
00:13:20
Speaker
it's really annoying to you know, to drop points in that, in that way where you just did it to yourselves, you know? Right. Exactly. It's, you know, and I will say I don't know if this is a defense or not, but there were a lot of,
00:13:35
Speaker
poor defensive plays that led to
Attacking Strength vs Defensive Lapses
00:13:37
Speaker
goals this week. If you are really interested, Joe Lowry did a super cut of all these unfortunate kind of when playing out of the back goes wrong. I wouldn't even say this is playing it out of the back though. This was just, no, this is just sloppy defense.
00:13:51
Speaker
You know, and there, you know, there was a fair amount of consternation over, Oh, you know, Reagan was on an Island. Why are the sounders pushing forward so much? Yada, yada, yada there. yeah I'm sorry, but there's not really a lot of tactical changes you can make to prevent a play like this, because ultimately you're talking about your last line of defense.
00:14:12
Speaker
making a play that you have to, as a, for you to create a game plan, you have to believe that your best defenders can handle this play literally every time, literally every time.
00:14:27
Speaker
If you are not pushing one of your center backs into possession when you're trying to just see out possession and in in the game, and you're then you're in a situation where the complaints are, why are they bunkering?
00:14:38
Speaker
Why are they bunkering? This is where all the problems start, right? so um it is It's not a tactical issue. It's a two guys made four mistakes that none of those, individually, none of those mistakes should have been made. And You know, I think you have to, at this point, chalk it up to just early season, you know, rustiness, maybe. I don't know. i do think that it's...
00:15:04
Speaker
I think because defending is so... Obviously, physicality and skill is a huge part of it. But it's so much more mental, I think, than attacking play a lot of the time.
00:15:14
Speaker
And it's it's so much... Because in attacking play, most of what you're doing doesn't actually come off, right? So when something doesn't come off, eh, whatever. Not a huge deal. Defensively, you have to be pretty spot on. You can't make mistakes like this because...
00:15:30
Speaker
you know, if you do, they can compound and you can end up in a situation like this. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I don't know I don't want to do all too much on this play, but i I brought all this up because I think it's important to just really understand how how many mistakes had to happen for this play yeah to unravel the way that it did. And it was not a simple matter of, ah you know, I mean, yes, it is a team game. Yes, there were other ways they could have prevented this. You can you can unravel all of that.
Tactical Approach and Defensive Missteps
00:16:00
Speaker
and this And the best way to un ah to event prevent it from happening would be to just have a two-goal lead. And the Sounders, I thought, were, you know, I thought that they were taking the right approach.
00:16:12
Speaker
You know, they they were aggressive with their subs. You know, we saw Pedro De La Vega and Jesus Ferreira come in ah We saw per Paul Areola come in.
00:16:22
Speaker
I was okay with John Bell replacing new who in part knew who had been playing for 86 minutes at that point with a yellow card. And yeah, and you would absolutely like why there's no reason to risk him picking up another yellow card. And then you're, you're maybe, you know, in a whole other mess.
00:16:43
Speaker
So yeah. i didn't I didn't mind that one either. Maybe you could have brought in JP for somebody. i don't i don't even know. Who who would you bring him in for? Maybe you could bring in Danny Masofsky for Jordan, I suppose. Maybe that would have... But the again, the problem wasn't that they weren't defending well.
00:17:00
Speaker
They had the ball the whole last 30 minutes of the game. but There was not... like I just don't see a lot of tactical issues with this. you know One of the other...
00:17:12
Speaker
ah moments that I saw people getting frustrated about was there was a ah play in like the 83rd or 84th minute where Albert Rusnak picks up a ah ball on a counter, a potential counterattack. And he's got runners. He's got Areola to his left. He's got Jesus for data making a run down the middle.
00:17:30
Speaker
And then there is an opening. Like if don't get me wrong, if he plays that ball, there's a chance he's able to play her in and you know, i don't know, maybe, maybe it works out. Right.
00:17:43
Speaker
But he, he, he sort of pulls it back and he doesn't, push forward as hard as maybe he could have, but this is, he's sitting 90 yards away from goal. This is not a play that was like happening in the Sounders half.
00:17:55
Speaker
And there are moments earlier in the game where you would want him to do it, but it's two to one. It's the 83rd minute hold possession. you know, and there's no reason to rush here. ah You know, I thought the Sounders were actually striking an okay balance of pushing for a goal, but not being dangerous about it.
00:18:14
Speaker
Yeah, i I felt like the Sounders were the most likely team to score for pretty much the entirety of the second half. Yeah, i they had played so well and done, created so many decent chances and looked so comfortable and fluid and attack that I honestly genuinely believed they were going to get a winner.
00:18:33
Speaker
um after after the Equalizer. They had yeah three minutes of of extra time left, and I said, well, there's no way they're not going to push ahead and get a winner because they've they've looked so good. um That's obviously game time emotions talking, but but it is how I felt like it because they had been they had looked so comfortable and so creative and so ah just so competent in attack. i mean i'm I'm willing to say ah they looked better and more confident and and more um capable of creating chances and and like they just had more ideas in this game than in any home game last year.
00:19:10
Speaker
Maybe. Including the one where they scored five against Vancouver. i mean, because in that game, that a lot of that was just brute forcing against the team that had kind of given up. Yeah. This was breaking down a team that's actually pretty good defensively. The second best defensive team in the league last year.
00:19:26
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I mean, I watched Dean Smith coach teams for a long time and, and this looked like a Dean Smith coach team and, um, they're, they're hard to break down when they're, when they want to be. And, um, I was really encouraged by the attacking play.
00:19:41
Speaker
Um, and you know, if you, if you play that well in the attack, you want to score four or five goals, obviously, but that's really hard to do. Like, that's just not a thing that happens that much.
00:19:52
Speaker
Um, And I think if they can repeat that performance in the attack, they're they're going to be fine and they're going to be fun to watch again, I think, um for for most people. And, you know, that's what I'm choosing to take away. Yeah.
00:20:08
Speaker
With a little, but like I said, you know, with a little bit of that, but I'm still annoyed. kind of i mean i mind i was I was definitely annoyed about the result. I don't blame anyone for being frustrated with the result.
00:20:19
Speaker
I would just hope that most of us can... sort of walk and chew gum at the same time where you can be frustrated with the result, but also appreciate that they looked really good. And from a holistic standpoint, I would rather my team look really good. And while scoring goals, you know, that's ah an important element of it. It wasn't just that they were passing the ball around and looking sharp and doing all this stuff.
00:20:43
Speaker
They had scored two nice goals. ah And that's a, that's a really important piece of this. I would be singing a very different tune. if They scored a penalty and then, you know, looked pretty good, competent ah in the attack, but ultimately didn't score. And then they gave up that goal. That's a very different to me. That's a very different conversation.
00:21:03
Speaker
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00:21:17
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:21:45
Speaker
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00:21:54
Speaker
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00:22:07
Speaker
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00:22:25
Speaker
Just to make things extra easy, we'll put a link in the show notes too. Thanks.
00:22:31
Speaker
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00:23:27
Speaker
Hacks and Ferments is a proud sponsor of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Part of the key of this was that they scored two goals that Jordan Morris looked, you know, as confident as we've seen him. I don't, I don't want to read too much into, you know, Jordan Morris, a big body language guy. I don't want to read too much into it, but I just love that pose that he struck after he scored the second goal. It was so good.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah. And open Vargas jumping on his back and Georgie Manungu jumping on his back. And it just felt like all of a sudden Jordan was, a different person. Like we've never really seen him be that kind of lift my team, like literally putting the team on his back type of guy. And i don't know, you know, again, don't want to read too much into it, but it did feel like there was some message going on there.
00:24:17
Speaker
i don't know if this was on his mind or not, but he did tie Raul Rui Diaz's franchise record for goals scored in all comps. So his next goal, he'll, he'll own that record, which is a cool little story. Yeah, which, you know, whatever, that's not important right now, but it is a neat story that the Sounders all time leading scorer going to be a ah local guy.
00:24:37
Speaker
ah But it was there was just so much to like in that game. I refuse to get too bent out of shape. I don't really feel like there's a lot of good reason to second guess this game tactically.
00:24:50
Speaker
I would say if there was one criticism, it was maybe that I could, I would have liked to maybe seen them rotate a little bit more. i am, a I'm getting a little bit worried as we go into, you know, we're, we're really going into potentially some serious fixture congestion here. Cause if they, assuming they don't absolutely crap the bed against Antigua, which people will be listening this to tonight, uh,
00:25:15
Speaker
The Sounders are going to go through to the round of 16 in CONCACAF Champions Cup. Then they have two games against Cruz Azul. Those two games are going to come between league games as well.
00:25:26
Speaker
Minutes are going to start piling up pretty fast here. And this seemed like a game. Maybe they could have gotten a little bit more rest for some guys. i'm I would say the ones I'm most worried about right now are the center backs because I'm still not until Kim Kihei is available. I'm a little worried about the depth at center back.
00:25:45
Speaker
ah John Bell, perfectly capable. Stuart Hawkins, I think, is going to be a capable player. He's still relative. He's untested at the MLS level. I hope he starts to get some minutes. Maybe the RSL road trip. Maybe tonight we get to see some more of him.
00:25:59
Speaker
But other than that, I don't think I have genuine criticisms of this game. No, i I think that anytime ah result is suboptimal, there's going to be folks that that blame coaching decisions.
00:26:15
Speaker
I actually thought that the tactical setup was great. um I was i did think it was kind of funny that for the Antigua game, the lineup graphic was in 4-2-3-1.
00:26:26
Speaker
is the game I think that...
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, which is very funny. it's It's a very funny bit. and i And I do appreciate it. It kind of reminds me of Siggy submitting a 433 for every game because he was pissed off at Garth, but like, and you know, less less ah testy.
00:26:42
Speaker
um But yeah, I thought the I liked the the way they attacked the game. ah i I liked the some substitution patterns. We had two relatively early subs. We had two subs late for for key players.
00:26:55
Speaker
Pretty much all we've we've been asking for, i think, from from Schmetzer. um I thought that they they looked a little bit... And there would be people who say this ended up costing them. And I don't actually think it's true because of the they're just flukishness of the way the goal happened.
00:27:12
Speaker
But one of the big criticisms myself and I think a lot of people have had in the past would be the Sounders playing at home, protecting a lead, just going to a shell. and give up a lot of late goals. And I really appreciated that they kind of kept their foot on the gas in this game.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah. um the the The other goal they gave up, I don't think we've talked about. ah we have not. Giving a goal on a corner. ah Giving up a goal on a corner unless somebody just blows something is never going to bother me that much.
00:27:42
Speaker
They're low percentage things. Sometimes a guy just gets a ah better jump. um Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's one of those things. um The Sounders, I think, generally are pretty good against set pieces. so Yeah, if you start giving up a lot of those, you get a little worried. But the first one or two you go, and don't know, sometimes yeah sometimes you you make a really good delivery and a guy gets a really good read on it and he puts a really good shot on You can definitely argue that Steph was a little bit out of position.
00:28:11
Speaker
You can argue that the Sounders need to do a better job of bodying Melanda on that. But that was not a that was much more of a Charlotte doing something right than the Sounders doing something. Correct.
00:28:23
Speaker
Yep. Yep, absolutely. And, ah you know, i i've I've been a person who said I enjoyed the way the Sounders played last year and I did. Um, but I liked this too. Like it was something different. It was a different philosophy.
00:28:36
Speaker
yeah it was, yeah, it was more fun. it was the same personnel in stadium. You know, that that's one of the things I think notable about this is that with the rotation, this was effectively the same lineup that they were rolling out last year. And they just looked so much sharper, so much more fluid.
00:28:51
Speaker
It did feel like there was a real mentality change. To me, it looked more like a four, two, three, you know, you were sort of talking about this, uh, the On the lineup graphic, they called it a 3-4-2-1.
00:29:02
Speaker
They called it Oh, 3-5-2. Yeah. ah But to me, it looked much more like a 4-2-3-1. Like, we're going to have this conversation a lot this year. I think we can definitely get lost sometimes in the nomenclature. Yeah.
00:29:18
Speaker
the reality is that they're going to attack with three center backs, but this was not a, I didn't think it was a three, five, two. I thought, you know, Munungu was really playing as a winger. i thought Rothrock was really playing as a winger.
00:29:30
Speaker
So. Knew who knew who got forward like a little bit more than you would expect to center back in a three center back setup, but not, not a lot more than he, than he would have last year. And the thing I. Go ahead.
00:29:41
Speaker
good ah go ahead. Sorry. I was just going to say the thing I appreciated. go, go. The thing I appreciated is that when New Who did get forward, he was staying central. He wasn't doing a lot of overlapping.
00:29:54
Speaker
you know and i And I did like that. And he he put ah he actually put in a couple of pretty decent balls from outside the box. But sorry, your your turn. Oh, yeah. was going to Roldan also was not really playing as a wing. but I didn't think Alex was playing as a wing back.
00:30:05
Speaker
he seems The way they seem to be using him more is tucked inside, which I think probably suits him a little bit better. Like he is... I think you probably want to lean more into his mobility and his defensive chops more than his crossing.
00:30:21
Speaker
And maybe his ability to sort of like, like he's, he's good at making that inside run as well. We saw that in the, in the preseason, I guess, where he, he, he made a, he made a run like that. So I, I think it's interesting the way that the sounders are using their personnel right now.
00:30:38
Speaker
My suspicion is that, We're going to see the three center a little bit more of a clear three-center back formation against Antigua. I think well you know that could be an interesting... I'm actually really excited about the setup if they run the way that they were doing it in training on Tuesday.
00:30:56
Speaker
i think that'll be an interesting wrinkle to what they've done in the past. So I like that they are thinking about changing things up. I've been really, really... like Over the moon, happy with the play of Christian Roldan and Obed Vargas in midfield.
00:31:14
Speaker
Yeah. Vargas had another secondary assist. Yeah. ah Christian, ah Matt Doyle has called Christian ah one of maybe the best six in the league right now.
00:31:25
Speaker
He's looking like it, man. He is. This looks like the position he should have been playing all along, which I'll admit I was someone who was a little skeptical of his ability to play this role.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's I think the league has changed a little bit to where in, you know, I don't know, 2018. I think he he would have needed you want somebody a little more physical in that role. And at that time in the league, I think now that's a little less important. The game is just a little more tactical and I'm less now.
00:31:57
Speaker
um it's It's a lot less about fear pure physicality maybe than it used to be. But I also think Christian has just matured as a player. I mean, he's he's lost some of his explosiveness, as everybody does as they age and and go through injuries and all that, you know, less fun stuff.
00:32:14
Speaker
But I think he reads the game exceptionally well. I think he he understands like the tactical... vision of the team and and how they want to play and where he needs to be and where everybody else needs to be in relation to him. And i think he's, he's going to thrive in that role. And I think, you know, if he can keep at this level, i mean, guys in that guys that can play that position well, can play for a really long time, you know, as they keep adjusting.
00:32:43
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I mean, I hate to compare Christian to to to that fella, but in this in this one instance, we'll we'll we'll let it slide. But I mean, I think that, you know, the key thing is just being able to adjust your game as you continue to age and and your body changes a little bit um and and making tweaks to your game. But I think he's a smart enough player to do that.
00:33:05
Speaker
And yeah, I think i think he's he's found a home for the foreseeable future, which is nice because I think that was a position that's as JP has aged the last few years has been kind of a concern of where we going to find that next guy that can play that role and having Christian play as well as he does takes a lot of that pressure off, I think.
00:33:26
Speaker
Well, I think that's a position that the Sounders would have been willing to go out into the marketplace and try to replace him with a, you know, a higher priced player. So if they don't need to do that, that's great because you can, you know, I would always rather see the money kind of put into the attack, I think, or at least farther up the field because ah it does seem like still in MLS, you can still find value in defense. You can still find value in, in number sixes. And if you don't have to spend money on it, that's, that's good. And the Sounders are in a position where,
00:33:59
Speaker
They need to spend smart money because they are not going to go dollar for dollar with Atlanta and Miami and the L.A.s and whoever else. So I think it's important that they they find value where they can find it Um, you know, one other thing that one other player who I wanted to talk about a little bit was Albert Rusnak, who this was his first start of the year. I think there was some probably overblown concern over the injury that he picked up in preseason. He seemed to be pretty confident that he was never going to miss the start of the season.
00:34:31
Speaker
But he he looked very good in this one. i i love the play that he made on the assist to Morris where he just sort of shrugs off a defender and weights the ball just absolutely perfectly for Morris who doesn't have to do anything other than sort of let it run and pick out his spot.
00:34:51
Speaker
And then he hits it well enough where even though Kalina got a pretty good amount of his arm on it, it was not there was no way that ball wasn't going in. Yeah, it was, i you could just, you could see it coming from the moment Russnak gets the ball and picks his head up.
00:35:08
Speaker
And it was just so beautiful because we've seen so many times that run happen and Albert or whoever else be in that position and not make that pass for one reason or another.
00:35:21
Speaker
to see Jordan hold his run, i got like that sinking feeling of like, yep, they're going to, They're going pull it back and play possession. And then when he hit it and he hit it just absolutely perfectly right to the spot, Jordan pointed to ah You knew it was a goal. I mean, there was no way that that wasn't going to end up in a goal.
00:35:39
Speaker
And I mean, that's my favorite type of goal. Just, you know, a 10 hitting and a nine inch right on the counter attack. It's it's the best thing in soccer. That's that's the good stuff right there.
00:35:52
Speaker
For sure. a great finish by Jordan. two Two great finishes by Jordan in that game. um And yeah, just a beautiful, beautiful goal. Yeah. ah This, ah you know, and I will say that bru there was some real concern coming into this game over what the crowd would look like.
00:36:12
Speaker
I know ticket sales were not quite as robust as the Sounders were hoping. The weather was absolutely... garbage. It was midwinter break. There was a lot of reasons that attendance could be bad and it wasn't great.
00:36:26
Speaker
Like, let's be real. This was the second lowest attendance that they've had in a in a season opener. So that's not good. But Speaking to how how well the Sounders were playing, the crowd was loud.
00:36:43
Speaker
It was engaged. ECS was packed. And that's something that yeah last year was, to me, one of the biggest concerns was ECS was starting to thin out. And that's where you really start to feel the energy is when ECS does design is not packing it in.
00:36:59
Speaker
You know, that's that has a trickle-down effect. yeah i Yeah, I was actually surprised to see that attendance was lower than last year's home opener because I was at last year's home opener and it it felt and looked pretty dire in the stands. I'm i'm genuinely curious if there were more butts in seats this year um because it yeah it felt a little more full to me, but maybe that was the atmosphere because the atmosphere was as good as...
00:37:27
Speaker
I've seen it in several years for sure. um it You definitely felt the energy in the stadium. You you could definitely tell. i mean, it was noticeable right away when I got into the stadium that ECS was back to being overflowing, which is just is great to see. ah and And I thought that the you know that people outside of ECS were a little more willing to so make noise than they have been. Like the last few years, man, especially last year,
00:37:54
Speaker
people were barely paying attention to the games a lot of the time. Like there were tons of side conversations going on people sitting in standing sessions, having, you know, chatting, not really paying attention to stuff and like who can blame them to some extent, you know, but there, there wasn't any of that in this game. People were super engaged and um it felt, it felt really good. and And hopefully they can keep that momentum up um because I think that would go a long way towards making that feel like a, ah can't miss experience again. And it hasn't felt like that in, in several years.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah, it it you know, so that's you know, i think that does speak to the ability of the Sounders play to sort of raise the atmosphere, which is been one of the problems in at Sounders games lately is that the atmosphere has taken a ah noticeable dip and that has a you know that has a cyclical impact on things that are going on around the team i think in terms of the energy and whatnot so you know hopefully i would say that it ticked a lot of boxes i guess that's what i'm saying i thought this game ticked a lot of boxes it was a it was a frustrating game not to get the result that they wanted but i don't know i'm just not
00:39:12
Speaker
I, I, like I said, I understand the frustrations. I was pissed off. I, you know, I'm sitting there tossing and turning in bed, but I'm also trying to be a little bit more analytical about it.
00:39:26
Speaker
And, and I think there was a lot of good things that happened in that game. And of course, if they win, if, if they look good on more than if they win, I think if they look good against Antigua on Wednesday, that sets them up really well for the weekend. Yeah.
00:39:42
Speaker
ah RSL looks like they might be bad. Who knows? Maybe the Sounders can actually end this. God, they have not won in regulation in RSL since 2011. That's
00:40:00
Speaker
that's pretty, that's pretty crazy. That is. And that was, I mean, and that was the first time they'd ever won there. Right.
00:40:09
Speaker
yeah that's you that's good So they've theyve they've won in 2011. They won that game. It was like a driving rainstorm. Then they won in 2012 in the playoffs. And then they won an Open Cup that game there in a shootout.
00:40:22
Speaker
Those are the only three times that they've gotten, you know, that they kind of come out with the with the win. Yeah, pretty pretty crazy. Seems like time, you you know Yeah, I think it is.
00:40:37
Speaker
And, you know, why not? Why not? Why not? And I think if they win, the if they win the if they can win on Saturday, that probably does a lot to take away the bad taste from the the tie this week.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. ah By the way, RSL got absolutely boat raced at San Jose in the season opener. They I don't know. This is not a team that looks particularly good.
00:41:06
Speaker
They also have a midweek game against Eridiano in CONCACAF Champions Cup. That game is so they'll be playing on short rest just like the Sounders, albeit both games are going to be at home. So that's a little bit of an advantage.
00:41:17
Speaker
But I don't know. This is this feels like the the Sounders. There's no reason this has to snowball, I guess, is what I'm I'm saying. Yeah, I'm with you, man. i don't I hope I didn't come off as being too negative or too doomcast-y in the opening, because i do I think this is a really good team, and you know i think this RSL team is definitely beatable. i mean Anytime you play at RSL, I don't care how bad they are, I feel fine with the point.
00:41:48
Speaker
ah And I feel pretty good about you know about them going up against LAFC at home. I think that LFC is a, I mean, that's who you've got to measure yourself against to to some degree.
00:42:01
Speaker
ah It doesn't look like it's going to be the galaxy this year. So um yeah, that was, you I think if you want to talk about bad results in the season opener, losing at home to an expansion team, pretty, pretty rough.
00:42:16
Speaker
Yeah. Pretty rough. Yeah. Especially when you get outplayed on top of that. Like it wasn't like San Diego stole one. San Diego was the better team in that, in that game. Yeah, absolutely.
00:42:28
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, the West looks reasonably well open. um But don't know. I think I'm I think I'm feeling pretty good. We'll see. You know, we'll see. yeah You can obviously wipe this smile off my face pretty quickly if things start to snowball, but it doesn't feel that that's where we're going.
00:42:47
Speaker
It doesn't. This felt much more like the annoying results that they have had every season that they've been good. They have results like this. And it felt a lot more like that than, you know, the ah RSL game last year or something like that.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, ah I guess that's a good place to call it. Aaron, it was good to actually do a real show with you. We haven't done this in. Yeah, it's been a while.
00:43:16
Speaker
I don't know that we've done a real like our a regular show since. They were eliminated from the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, I think we did a season recap and that that was it. Yeah, we did like a season recap and we did some shows together, but we haven't done like a proper, i guess that makes sense. Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
Because that makes sense. But anyway. But it's still nice to do one. Do it again, you know? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I guess with all that, ah thank you to everyone for hanging out and listening.
00:43:49
Speaker
ah As you have probably picked up by now, we have sort of re
00:43:56
Speaker
Jigger, the the the stream of shows that we have coming out, ah we have we've been doing a Friday show with Nico Moreno. We are doing our mailbag show still pretty regularly. I'm going to be doing every few weeks, getting together with Matt Doyle, talking about the Western Conference.
00:44:12
Speaker
Of course, other stuff going on in the Center at Heart Podcast Network, Lobbing Scorchers is ah firing off episodes live shows live youtube shows all over the place so lots of stuff in the podcast content world uh that you can dig into but aaron thank you uh so much again for doing this thank you to lick it for ah producing it thank you to full pool wines for being our sponsor once again going into 2025 i am jeremiah shan this is no study at this part of the sounder heart podcast network you'll never yet alone
00:45:20
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!