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Nos Audietis, Episode 312: We’re already on a roller-coaster
62 Plays5 years ago
We’ve only played on league game and this season already seems to be taking us on a roller-coaster. The Seattle Sounders were in prime position to come home with a lead in the Concacaf Champions League series with Olimpia, only to be forced to settle for a 2-2 tie. They then fell behind in their home leg, only to find themselves seemingly cruising to advancement only to fall in penalties.
The MLS home opener saw them fall behind the Chicago Fire, then storm back to win 2-1 on a 93rd minute goal.
In between all that, we hosted an exceptionally successful YachtCon that raised more than $10,000 for Seattle Children’s Hospital Autism Center.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Podcast Episode Kickoff
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hill is the greenest green in Seattle
00:01:31
Speaker
Like a beautiful child, growing up, I'm free and wise.
Sounders' CCL Journey: Highs and Lows
00:01:49
Speaker
It's been a pretty interesting start to the season so far. The Sounders grabbed what seemed to be a very good result against Olympia, hanging on for a 2-2 road tie that seemed to set them up well for the return leg. In that leg, the Sounders fell behind early but were seemingly comfortable in control anyway when the game headed into the 8-6 minute.
00:02:10
Speaker
That's when disaster struck in the form of Carlos Panetta Volley from about 20 yards out. Before you knew it, the Sounders had been eliminated in a penalty shootout, the only MLS team not to advance out of the round of 16 in CCL. I don't think it's hyperbole to call that the most disappointing result.
00:02:26
Speaker
Maybe in Sounders history. The Sounders then had to turn around a few days later for their MLS season opener, which was supposed to be a festive affair with the 2019 MLS Cup banner being unveiled. Things got off to a slow start, but ended well enough after Jordan Morris scored a 93rd minute game winner. With all that now in the books, Aaron, how are you feeling about a start to the season that has already taken us on a roller coaster? I feel fine. I mean,
00:02:56
Speaker
Getting knocked out of CCL is a bummer and especially getting knocked out of CCL to a Honduran club is a bummer.
00:03:06
Speaker
I don't care about CCL as much as I think most of our listeners probably do. And even I'm bummed out about being knocked out of it in that fashion. So if that's the competition that you care most about, that's got to be a shitty way to start the season. I can't even imagine. So it sucks. But in terms of what it augurs for the season, in terms of any meaning that it has,
00:03:33
Speaker
I'm just not super worried about it. You know, the Sounders were missing some key players. That Olympia team is probably the best Central American team I've seen in this tournament. It was legitimately good. Yeah, they were good. And they had a bunch of MLS quality players on there. I mean, they had a bunch of players who had actually played an MLS at one point. So it wasn't like the Sounders got rolled by a bunch of scrubs.
00:04:03
Speaker
you know, they basically played even over, I mean, they did play even literally over two legs. Um, and then they, they just did not do it in the shootout at all. Yeah. And that's, I mean, shootouts are one of those things that I just, I'll certainly be upset by them turning out poorly, but I also can't get actually mad about them. They're just, I mean, they are what they are. Um,
00:04:33
Speaker
I wish Christian Roldan hadn't put the ball, you know, 80 rows deep, but that's kind of the way it goes sometimes. It's certainly a bummer. I really, I understand the trend towards no extra time straight into shootouts. I don't like it though. No, it does feel kind of cheap.
00:04:51
Speaker
It does. I guess it's probably more fair than playing extra time at one team's home stadium, but it just, I don't know. I really feel like if the Sounders had had extra time periods to win that game, they probably would have, but, but they didn't. And that's the rules and both teams had to play by the rules. And, you know, it's where the cookie crumbles, man, it sucks. But, but I don't.
00:05:16
Speaker
For one, I don't think that the sounders can be criticized for not being prepared.
Strategic Moves and Player Signings
00:05:21
Speaker
I've seen some people be critical of that. I think in the past, my perspective has been, I understand that we've maybe not put forth the best possible team that we could in CCL because we're trying to maximize signings, but I think it's worth the trade-off.
00:05:45
Speaker
But I've certainly been able to understand the perspective that, no, I mean, I want the greatest possible emphasis on this competition. And I think that we should be prioritizing having players signed and ready for this tournament over getting the best possible deal. I think that that is a perfectly defensible, perfectly rational, reasonable position. That the Sounders didn't do that this year, I don't think is defensible. I don't think that you're being
00:06:15
Speaker
Honest and I don't think you're making a good faith argument to say that the Sounders did not do what they had to do to prepare for this tournament. Yeah, I mean that's kind of to me that's kind of the thing is that we've been talking about
00:06:29
Speaker
You know, you can look at, you know, you go back to any of their previous ECL runs and they had glaring holes in their roster that they were clearly satisfied to wait to fill. I mean, you can, you can criticize the Sounders for not getting the deal signed sooner in the off season. But I, I mean, I kind of think they got them signed as early as they could. Like, I think there were some reasonable limitations on what they were going to be able to do.
00:06:57
Speaker
that, you know, Jaymar was at all like even able to play in the first leg was in some ways
00:07:06
Speaker
A miracle, like it showed how much emphasis the soldiers were putting on this. I mean, they were able to get him into the whole portion of the Mexican training camp that he wasn't able to get everything finalized so that he could play in the return leg was definitely disappointing, but I don't think you can fault the effort. Like you can fault the results that didn't work out, but I also don't think he was the reason that they didn't win that second leg. Uh, similarly, Joe Paulo.
00:07:35
Speaker
I mean, they signed a DP in the winter. That's something they had literally never done in the Garth Lago way era. I don't think they had ever done it.
00:07:50
Speaker
Maybe Oba was signed in the winter. Yeah, you're right. He missed the first couple games of the season. So yeah, I mean, you're right. And I guess Ariaga technically was signed as a DP in the winter window last year. But yeah, I mean, they had never signed. I don't think they'd ever signed.
00:08:14
Speaker
a player in the off season that was ready for the beginning of the season, a DP. So it's, I mean, I think they did what they, I think they got ready. I think they, they put their, that Nico got hurt and wasn't available. I don't think as a fault of effort that Gustav Svensson was hurt and wasn't able to play was not a fault of effort. You know, it's very disappointing. Like I'm, I'm like, I'm still kind of annoyed that they,
00:08:41
Speaker
You know, we're now over a week away from, from that result. And actually we're not a week away. We're almost a week away from that result. But it's still, it's still kind of bugs me and it bugs me more because they were in position to advance like 86 minute. And I've seen some people suggest that the sounders weren't really controlling that game. And that's, you know, they gave up that early goal, but from the point of the early goal until the, until the second goal they gave up,
00:09:11
Speaker
Olympia did nothing. And I don't know, maybe they weren't trying to do much, but the goal they got came from really nothing. I mean, it was basically a free kick that didn't get cleared as well as it should have been. And the guy had goal of his life. On some level, it's like you just can't
00:09:32
Speaker
You can't really, like what they could have done probably is put the game away. I mean, they had playing a chance to put the game away. Um, you know, knew who had a goal disallowed for offside. Correct call, unfortunately. Uh, they had a couple other chances, you know, they had a penalty shout that, uh, wasn't given maybe act, maybe fairly, uh, but they had some other chances in front of goal that could have put the game away. Um,
00:09:58
Speaker
And they just couldn't quite do it. And I think that's the frustrating thing. And I think what's also frustrating is that you look at this team at full strength, I think they could have made a run to CCL. And I certainly would have loved to have seen that happen. But I think one of the things we were talking about in our chat room is the worst case scenario, I think, for CCL is not going out in round of 16.
00:10:25
Speaker
very frustrating. And like I said, in some ways it might be the most disappointing result in Sounders history because of like what it, because of everything it means and because of the quality of the opponent and blah, blah, blah. Right. Um, but the worst case scenario, isn't going out in the round of 16. The worst case scenario to me would have been going out in the semi-finals to Tigris or anyone else where you end up having to play six games. You still don't get even to the final. Um,
00:10:55
Speaker
you've now kind of waste, you've probably hurt yourself in the start of the regular season for MLS and you've dug yourself a hole. Like that's the worst case scenario to me where you get to the semi-finals and you kind of sacrifice, you know, a half dozen MLS games to do it.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think we've, we've seen what happens to teams that make deep CCL runs and MLS play. Um, it's usually not great. And so you've got to get your money's worth. You got to at least get to the final, right? Um, yeah, I'm with you. And it's like, it's one of those impossible choice things of like, if, you know, a wizard appears and says, you will definitely win.
00:11:35
Speaker
your quarter or your round of 16 game, but I cannot tell you how far you'll get. You might win the whole thing, you might lose in the second round. I think you're probably taking the win, right? Knowing what we know, knowing that you're not going to win the whole thing and that you're not going to get to the final, I think you're right, that it is preferable to go out. The upside of winning is obviously huge, but
00:12:00
Speaker
Right. I mean, you want to win. Right. You want to be in the tournament because it keeps you having a chance. But like I said, if you like, if you get to the if you get to the semi finals and you go and semi finals, who cares? Like no one remembers who went to the semi finals.
00:12:17
Speaker
And it wouldn't have been a great achievement if the Sounders had gotten it. What do you mean worse if they got to the semifinals and they were to lose to NYCFC or something, which is not a crazy scenario. And NYCFC is a very good team. They lost to Olympia. I mean, they could very well have lost to NYCFC. They could have lost to Montreal. I mean, frankly, I think in some ways I would rather the Sounders have lost to Olympia than Montreal.
00:12:47
Speaker
I mean, I don't know, I'm, I'm, I'm annoyed about it. I'm not going to try to act like it's a, it's like not a deeply disappointing result, but it's not the worst case scenario. Um, and I guess if there's a silver lining to all this, it's that they can be completely focused on, on MLS now.
00:13:03
Speaker
They have to take advantage of that. That's the big caveat, right? And assuming these games are getting played, they need to keep winning. At the very least, they need to win this game against Columbus. I'm forgetting who they play after Columbus. Yeah, I don't know. My brain still doesn't know the season started out. Yeah, so they needed to win that Chicago game. I wrote a column that ran today that said that
00:13:33
Speaker
It was clearly not a must win, like any kind of literal must win, but I think at least in the minds of Sounders fans, they needed that win really badly.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think that the, the Olympia game is in a vacuum is I think annoying is the right way to put it. Like, I think that result is annoying. If you get knocked out there and then lose or even get a point at home against the fire. Um, that's an inauspicious beginning. Um, I, I kind of think back to, um, I think it was 2012.
00:14:15
Speaker
where the Sounders went to the Santos Laguna, just got absolutely wrecked. I think like six months or something. And then came back and just, you know, absolutely wrecked Toronto FC. Same kind of thing, right? Where you have a super disappointing, super frustrating result in the Champions League. So you come home and take care of business in the first round or the first in the last game. It doesn't erase the disappointment, but I think it does.
00:14:43
Speaker
for me at least, sort of reduce the bitterness of the result. It makes it more of a footnote, I think, to feel like, okay, this team isn't bad, they just had an irritating result in international play, it happens. And I think
00:14:59
Speaker
The MLS result, the fire result was actually pretty encouraging in a way because I feel like that's a game the Sounders have lost a lot over the past few years or only gotten a point out of where they're playing well, but they're not finishing chances. They're missing some key players. They're playing an underwhelming team at home. They control the game and they still don't get the result they want.
00:15:20
Speaker
They found a way to win this game. It took them a lot longer than I think anybody would have liked, but I also think if you looked at the underlying data, if you just watched and saw the chances that the centers had and created and couldn't finish, you know that they played very well in that game and they probably easily could have won by three or four goals against the fire team that I thought looked better than I think most people probably would have expected, although looking not too bad and still losing a ton is kind of a hallmark of the Chicago Fire.
00:15:47
Speaker
Right. I know that's kind of put their last three seasons. Yeah, it's, I guess there are worse brands to have, but it's not a good one. Um, but yeah, I, so I think that, that, that was an important result as much as I would have loved to see the Sounders come out and score five goals and walk away with it. I think that it also is kind of nice to see them just sort of grind out that kind of win. Um, because they're going to have to do that, you know, at points this season. Um, and it would be nice to feel like they can.
00:16:16
Speaker
that we're not going to get the same kind of swoon that we've had the past few years that they can, okay, maybe they're not going to come out and break the points record again. But that we feel like they can be consistently pretty good throughout the season.
Sounders' Tactical Evolution
00:16:28
Speaker
And that, you know, maybe the valleys aren't quite as low this year as they have in the past few years. Yeah. So one of the things I think has kind of become a hallmark of the Sounders team, and you alluded to this, is that, you know, it wasn't
00:16:42
Speaker
It's always a given that the Sounders are going to get results in matches like this, but this is actually the fifth time the Sounders since midway through the exact midway point of last year, which was the Vancouver game at home where they won in the 95th or 96 minute.
00:17:01
Speaker
This is the fifth time in like, so their last 22 MLS games that they've won in the 89th minute or later. Uh, and I think that that's kind of becoming a hallmark of these Schmenzer teams that they just.
00:17:19
Speaker
find a way to get the most out of a game. They don't always look great, they don't always make it look easy, but they tend to maximize points that are available. And that was what was in some ways so weird about the Olympia game was that I was so used to them figuring out how to win those games.
00:17:43
Speaker
Like for so much of that, you know, for 86 minutes of that, that second leg, it just looked like, Oh, this is another kind of Schmetzer game where you, you don't necessarily look great, but you clearly deserve the result that you're heading towards. You know, it felt in some ways a lot like the or a cell playoff game where yeah, you know, in the end two zero was probably the fair result, but you know, they didn't get their first goal to the 70th minute or whatever. Uh,
00:18:11
Speaker
And, you know, they, they just kind of wear teams down a little bit and they're there at the end and they're still pushing forward. And, and then that, that kind of result, that whole kind of ethos comes back in the, in the fire game, I suppose. Uh, but yeah, they created a ton of chances. I actually was super encouraged by the quality of chances they were creating in that. I am loving Xiao Paulo, man. I just, he is.
00:18:38
Speaker
He is a treat. Like, he doesn't necessarily, they're like, there's not one thing that he does. Like with Niko, it's like there's this flash that he has about him. And I don't know that Xiao Paolo quite has the same flash, but he's got that same kind of like motor, but he also has like an edge to him. He's not afraid to get into tackles, but yet he hits this just wonderful dead ball. He's creative.
00:19:09
Speaker
He's a great player now. He's a lot of fun. I love watching him. He's the kind of player that I've wanted. I feel like we talked about this the last time we recorded. He's the kind of player that I've wanted the sounders to have for
00:19:24
Speaker
As long as I've been following the team, honestly, like that role, that sort of deep line playmaker role that that is not afraid, like you said, to mix things up that that can do a little bit of everything. That's just sort of the engine of a team. Nico is a lot of those things, but he's not he's not as grindy. I think as well, Paulo is he's not as capable of doing some of the dirtier work.
00:19:49
Speaker
Cause that's just not, it was just sort of strengths, but it's just kind of funny that they signed that player at a time. I was like least expecting it. So I didn't have time to get excited about it, but, um, but yeah, I mean, he's, he's just, he's a joy to watch. And I think that the sounders have never had a player like this in the field ever. And there's not a lot of players like this in MLS really. No, there aren't, there aren't. I mean, the closest comparison I can think of.
00:20:15
Speaker
is what I think TFC thought they were originally getting with Michael Bradley. But a better version of that, I think, like a little more skillful polished version of that. Maybe a Jonah dos Santos is maybe a little like, yeah, that's, that's not super far off, I guess.
00:20:34
Speaker
And I, you know, that's, that's a player just that you're right. Like there aren't that many of them in MLS. I think that we're going to start seeing a lot more of them more frequently now that MLS teams are, are.
00:20:46
Speaker
I think going after players in South America a little more heavily and are more willing to spend on creative players instead of just purely attacking players. The idea of having a DP that's not an attacking player is it used to be crazy. People wouldn't even really consider it. I think that's kind of faded away.
00:21:06
Speaker
I think we'll start to see more of them, but the Sounders definitely have not had this before. And I think with the roster that they have in place, it's going to make them so much more dangerous in so many more ways than they have been in the last few years.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it wasn't, you know, we don't have to look that far back. I mean, you can look at last year when the Sounders were missing Nico and the teams just cold. Like it just, like they were sometimes able to grind out results, but it was just never pretty. It was never, they were never creating lots of chances if Victor or if, uh, if Nico wasn't on the, on the pitch. And, you know, this, this, we just saw three games.
00:21:51
Speaker
The Sounders never were hurting for chance creation. You know, their finishing hasn't been stellar, but they've got six goals in three games. They've created probably enough chances to score eight or nine goals. And, you know,
00:22:05
Speaker
That's, I think a big part of that is having a player like Xiao Paolo, who was able to fill in these gaps and who's able to, like, if you told me the Sounders had to have six goals through three games and Ruidias would have zero. Yeah. I, I feel pretty good about like the prospects. Uh, and I do. Um, yeah.
00:22:26
Speaker
Like, that's the thing. It's like, like Rudy is, I still think is going to score 15 to 20 goals. If he gets enough, you know, if he gets his minutes, I, I every belief, you know, um,
00:22:38
Speaker
He probably should have a couple goals at this point. He doesn't. Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think this team is just gonna, I think they'll be fine going forward. I don't know. Defensively, like I still think there's some very fair questions defensively about this. I think on set pieces, especially they, uh, may struggle. They've, they've so far looked pretty. Questionable on set pieces. I mean, you wouldn't have expected a central American team to
00:23:04
Speaker
to like create that much danger on set pieces and and man every time every time olympia lined up for a free kick or a corner i felt like oh i don't know right yeah and that's not it that's not a good feeling to have um because you're right like there are definitely teams that are much more capable on set pieces than olympia playing in mls
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah. Although they did have some surprisingly like for a central American team, they had some big, big bodies. Uh, I do think though that that's going to get better with Gustav Svensson on the field and Jim are on the field. Yeah, that's definitely going to help things. Both of those guys are good, good set piece defenders. So, but yeah, it's probably not going to be a strength here. You're right.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like give an example, the equalizer that Olympia scores, that's Jordy Dellum, who is defending Arboletta. And I don't know what, if Dellum got it or not, but something tells me Svensson maybe doesn't let that clearance happen the way that it did. Like if that's Svensson instead of Dellum. Yeah. But anyway, so yeah, I mean, I think all in all,
00:24:15
Speaker
I don't know. I feel like as long as they can get results in these MLS games, I feel, I think that'll make me feel a lot better about whatever, you know, what happened. And, you know, they got this one. Hopefully we play a game. I don't know. Should I say hopefully? I don't know. I don't know how I feel. Should I say hopefully we're going to play a game on Saturday? Because I don't know if I am hopeful of it. Yeah, I'm with you. I hope if we play, I feel confident that we should be playing it.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. But yeah, we got a lot of, we got some questions we should probably get around to though, right? It's late. Yeah, it seems like it is late. It's very late. And I mean, we're going to be answering these questions for another hour at least.
00:25:03
Speaker
All right. Well, all right. Well, we'll come back. We'll answer your questions and you're listening to NOS Adiators. Full Full Wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans and have been sponsoring NOS Adiators since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:25:31
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing, and three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
00:25:52
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiatus. We have a bunch of questions. Likit is actually not with us right now. So we're just going to go ahead and do the whole switchy thing. And I'll just get us started. This one's from Chamber I Seattle. With no more CCL games, do you think the Sounders will sign the three Defiance Academy players that we've been hearing about to a first team contract?
00:26:19
Speaker
Uh, I don't, I definitely feel like there's less urgency to do so. Um, especially because with open cup games, they can sign them to loans. Um, but I do think that if they feel like they've earned a first team contract, I don't think there's preventing them from doing that.
00:26:34
Speaker
I mean, I think that's probably right.
COVID-19 and MLS: Challenges Ahead
00:26:36
Speaker
I mean, I don't think the primary reason they were signing these guys was just to fill in gaps for CCL fixture congestion. I think that they presumably thought they were qualified and capable of
00:26:57
Speaker
being on the first team and having a first team contract and they saw some value in that. And it should be said that the Sounders were kind of slow playing the need to get those done before they bombed out of CCL. So I don't know that anything really has changed, but I think you're right. If there was any kind of proverbial gun to their head to get a signing done, that's gone away. I do wonder if they're kind of trying to see
00:27:24
Speaker
where things shake out a little bit. You know, it was presumed that the three players were Sam Rogers, Josh Atencio, and Shannon Hopiel. And that might still be the three players that they were talking about. But it's been surprising that Chris Hagart, who is a player that I don't think was really on anyone's radar,
00:27:47
Speaker
that was observing the team from the outside like us, up until maybe GA Cup last year, which was like seven or eight months ago. And he's a player who is committed to going to college as far as I know, but he's got some time before he's got to go. And, you know, it looks like the Sounders are giving him a pretty serious look. So I don't know, it will be interesting to see what they would they do there. But
00:28:11
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, I don't, I think they're still going to make three signings. At least I don't think it's necessarily going to happen right away.
00:28:22
Speaker
All right, so the next two questions, I'll just go ahead and read them both because they're pretty closely related. The first one comes from BeamVon, and the question is, what's the likelihood we'll actually have a match on Saturday? And then the second question from NikitaBanana is, what do you think the threshold would be to hold closed-door matches, or would the games be postponed before it gets to that point?
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, so real life is a hurdling toward us in a way that I don't know that we've ever had to deal with on this show.
00:28:56
Speaker
But yeah, Seattle is apparently the epicenter of the United States coronavirus outbreak. And I can't say that I'm an expert on this. I know that as recently as Sunday, the attitude around the press box, I can't say that there is any sort of official word on this. But the attitude seemed to be like,
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they could cancel the game. But if we're going to cancel soccer games, shouldn't we be closing down shopping centers and all kinds of other things that where people are gathered? And that was kind of that seemed to me to be kind of sound thinking. But it seems like things have progressed since then. And there is a little bit more momentum behind the idea that maybe gathering people together in
00:29:51
Speaker
close proximity like a soccer match is maybe more, you know, more risky than others. I don't want to act like a health official or anything here. But my suspicion is that if it's a one or two week kind of thing, it would probably be
00:30:11
Speaker
uh postpone the match like move it to a different date find some sort of date that's going to be hugely inconvenient but i would think playing behind closed doors just has like
00:30:24
Speaker
some really, like frankly, I don't think that's ever happened in MLS. Is there ever- It hasn't that I can think of for sure. It feels like a very, it would be a pretty unprecedented kind of move in MLS. I don't know that, I don't even remember like American soccer or American sports ever being played behind clothes. Like this is not a thing that happens here. It's usually only a thing that we hear about happening
00:30:50
Speaker
in Europe because of various punishments. Obviously in Italy they've been playing some Serie A matches behind closed doors and I wouldn't say that it's out of the realm of possibility but it just doesn't strike me as
00:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, I, the only thing I can, the only thing I can think of is I think that it has happened in college sports is like a punishment a couple of times. Um, but that's, that's a different thing because, um, college sports are ostensibly amateur competitions. And so I think it's, it's just a tougher sell, especially in a league like the MLS where, um, teams I think are a little more dependent on game day revenues than they would be in other sports to
00:31:34
Speaker
Not to survive, but I think it's a much more important part of their cashflow.
00:31:41
Speaker
Go ahead. I was going to say, like, I, there's like, clearly there's a competitive factor to this, but I, like, I would think MLS would, like, if the Sounders were asked, would you rather figure out a way to play this game midweek in September or whatever, or on a, you know, during an international date at some point, like, I mean, I just think that's what they're probably going to do.
00:32:07
Speaker
I mean, it's got to be a couple million dollars in revenue, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a significant thing to play behind closed doors. And I'm not sitting here saying like, oh, you got to play the match, as is. I mean, if the health officials are saying,
00:32:24
Speaker
don't hold the match, probably shouldn't hold the match. But I just think you're probably going to postpone it and kind of hope things get figured out. But I think the issue, the sense I get in Italy is that they just don't, they have so few dates that they can move matches to.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's, I think that's a big part of it. I think that there is, it's just more of a contingency teams prepare for, uh, cause there's a lot of racists in Italy. So it's just like, Oh yeah, we were playing by closed doors. No big deal. Um, not that there are not a lot of racists here, but we just don't say it out loud as much. But yeah, I think, uh, I mean, from my perspective, I'm definitely not going to any games until this gets figured out, but my immune system is also not.
00:33:07
Speaker
all the way back yet. I'm not telling anybody else what to do, but man, it just doesn't seem worth it to me. I don't know. Just because even if you have a healthy immune system, even if you're not around people that don't have healthy immune systems, and you're fine with just getting sick and writing it out,
00:33:27
Speaker
I feel like there needs to be some kind of shock to the system to get people to take this a little more seriously. I feel like canceling sports and sporting events is maybe one of those things.
00:33:41
Speaker
The argument that while people can still go to the store and they can still get sick there, I think that's true. But if I go to the grocery store, I can try to stay away from people, grab the couple things I need, go directly to my car, put on hand sanitizer. If I'm in a game, I'm standing within five feet of 100 people for 90 minutes and in big crowds of people and touching handrails and stuff.
00:34:05
Speaker
I don't know, it seems bad. But I'm also not to get too political on here, but I don't really trust Americans to do the smart thing in situations like this. So even in our state where I feel like in general, a lot of our elected officials are fairly competent.
00:34:23
Speaker
I still, I just think that our society is not set up to do the kinds of, we're just a little too freedom obsessed to make the kind of sacrifices that we need to do and collective decisions that can really prevent this from getting bad.
00:34:38
Speaker
Um, yeah, so I hope you're enjoying our soccer podcast. I was just thinking like people, like in a couple of weeks, people are going to be like really stoked that we're recording because, uh, they're going to be stuck inside. Um, so this one's from Jeffrey Williams. Uh, our starting 11 looks pretty good on paper, but we haven't seen them together yet. What can we learn from these first three games that will help us through the absences during international columns?
00:35:05
Speaker
I think the big thing is that we're most likely
00:35:11
Speaker
Like one of the big things that's always been a problem with the Sounders during international call-ups is that they can grind out games, but there's no creative force at all. And they're going to have that now with Shaw Apollo. I think obviously this team is going to be much better when Nico is back. Having two players that can create in different ways is much, much better than having one.
00:35:36
Speaker
Israel Apollo kind of strikes me as a force amplifier to use Garth's term that he used to describe Nico in the same kind of way. So I think that we're actually going to see chances created that don't come from set pieces or just pure dumb luck. And that maybe hasn't been the case the last couple of years when Nico has been away on international duty. And that helps so much. That helps tremendously. I've never necessarily been one of the people that felt like
00:36:05
Speaker
It should be a prerequisite or a heavily favored situation where the next DP that you sign plays for a country where they're not likely to get called up as often. But I think it certainly helps quite a bit. It doesn't seem like a complete coincidence that the two big signings they made this offseason were players who are not in their national team picture, which is Jau Paulo and Jamar Gomez-Andrade.
00:36:34
Speaker
And we kind of got a peak of, I mean, the good, the good news is like that, I think that was actually the thing I'm most encouraged by these first three games is that the sounders got a kind of a pro close approximation of what, uh, their lineup's going to look like when in the summer, when potentially Nico is gone, uh, when Gustav is gone, they might also lose Ariaga and Raul Rui Diaz, but
00:37:03
Speaker
Rui Diaz and Ariaga weren't exactly the best players out there. I don't think either one of them were necessarily bad. I think the degree to which people have kind of made it out like either one of them were bad is probably overstated. But like, I think you can at least see, you know, maybe Will Bruin slotting in for Rui Diaz and you can see Yemar slotting in for
00:37:29
Speaker
for Ariaga and it doesn't seem like it would work too differently. And I think the most encouraging thing we saw in these three games does not just create a lot of chances. And in fact, the game against Chicago, they created more chances by XG than they had created in any game since 2016, like one of the first games that Nico Ledero played. So that's pretty encouraging. I thought that, you know, Roll Dawn and Morris looked really good.
00:37:57
Speaker
you know, Jones is definitely able to offer something in the attack, at least from deeper positions. So, I mean, I actually was kind of encouraged by the depth of the attack and I think we've kind of
00:38:13
Speaker
I know I had kind of forgotten that there's no gold club this summer. So there's no reason the Sounders are going to lose role Don and Morris to international duty in the in this kind of summer crunch that we've kind of got in a custom to at this point. But yeah, I mean, I think I was actually encouraged by by that part of their this three games.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm with you. And kind of on that note, because I think it's a good segue, this one from Hiro says, can we play well without Jordan Morris with this roster? I think not, but curious for your thoughts. I mean, I didn't think that the first half was bad yesterday.
00:38:57
Speaker
Uh, you know, it wasn't or two days ago, today's Tuesday. Uh, yeah. Um, you know, clearly they were much better with, with Morris on the pitch. And I, and I, and I sometimes think that when the team looks better, it makes the.
00:39:15
Speaker
time when they weren't on the field looked bad. But the Sounders were also creating chances in the first half. They weren't finishing them, obviously. But they had a few pretty good chances. Miguel Obara, I'm actually really happy with the chances that he's been involved in. I would like to see him do a little better finishing. But yeah, I mean, I think they'll be okay without Morris. And the good news is that
00:39:39
Speaker
There's no reason, like if Morris stays healthy, he should play in somewhere between 30 and 32 games. So there's not like a lot of reason to be worried about losing him. Yeah, I think that that's totally true. I mean, he's obviously a very special player and I think critical to the team's success right now, but, um,
00:40:03
Speaker
I think that over the past few years, probably not as much last year, but still to some extent, when we had international breaks, when we lost players, the Sounders went from being a good MLS team to being one of the worst MLS teams in the league. And I don't have that fear as much this year, even though obviously I would rather have Jordan Morris around and playing.
00:40:25
Speaker
I think you're right. I think they did look very good against Chicago in the first half. They just didn't finish the way you would like them to. And that's not a problem I spend too much time worrying about because I do think finishing is just inherently kind of flukey. I do think that the depth is in a much better place than it has been the last couple of years.
00:40:48
Speaker
I think, unfortunately, not having to play in CCL is going to mean that depth is not so severely tested as it has been. I think, you know, we are going to lose players, but like you said, there's not a gold cup over the summer, so that's going to help because, you know, Roldan and Morris are so critical.
00:41:07
Speaker
So yeah, I just think in general, we're in much better shape depth-wise, but specifically to Morris. I don't know. I feel pretty comfortable. I think that the team is built and playing in a way this year that they're not going to be as reliant on the counter-attack as they were last year. And as much as I love watching counter-attacking play, I don't think it's a good thing that they're going to be a little bit less one-dimensional.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, and there's a distinct lack of speed probably when Morris isn't on the pitch, but I'm encouraged by this idea of
00:41:47
Speaker
of Ziaopalo sitting deep alongside a Gustav Svensson and you know, Nico Lagero in front of him. And I don't, I'm not gonna say it doesn't matter who's on the wings, but that's a pretty good trio of midfielders that I think are gonna be able to open up some space no matter who's running into the channels. Yeah, I think that that speed is always a great thing to have, especially when it's attached to somebody that's as good of a complete footballer as Jordan Morris is, but
00:42:16
Speaker
I think it is much less critical to the team when you have multiple creative players that can exploit space in different ways. Raul Ruideas is not a burner in the way that Jordan Morris is, but he's very quick and he can turn a little bit of space into a pretty wide open chance pretty quickly. I think that's going to be something that offsets that lack of speed when Morris isn't on the pitch.
00:42:42
Speaker
So this one's from BT Weber. He says, despite what Schmetz said in the postgame interview, does Ibarra having 1.3 expected goals and not finishing any of his opportunities give you flashbacks to Nelson Valdez? Granted, he's not getting DP money, but still. Yeah, I mean, so kind of.
00:43:00
Speaker
related to what we were just talking about, finishing is just one of those things I don't spend too much time worrying about until it becomes a big time pattern. And I think that for a player that's, you know, occupying the role on the team that Miguel Abara is, which is as a depth, as a depth winger, I think that he's going to play a similar role to what Harry Ship played last year, because they they're
00:43:28
Speaker
They play in a lot of the same positions but do go about things differently. So I think he's going to get a fair number of minutes, but I don't think he's a critical rotational piece necessarily. If he was capable of getting into those positions like he did on Sunday and finishing all of them at a lethal strike rate, he wouldn't be in that role. So, you know, I think you've got to kind of
00:43:55
Speaker
have realistic expectations about how good of a player you're going to get out of that role and out of a salary cap hit. I think he's a much better finisher than he showed on Sunday, obviously, it would be difficult not to be better as a finisher than what he showed on Sunday. But yeah, it's just it's not something I'm super worried about.
00:44:15
Speaker
Nelson Valdez was a pretty good player, even without scoring a lot of goals. Um, I would be thrilled if Miguel Abara could be as valuable of the players as Nelson Valdez. So, um, yeah. And it should be said, like, I totally agree with that part of it that Valdez, if, if the bar turns out to be as valuable as Valdez, we're in great shape regardless of his finishing ability. But the thing about Valdez finishing was that, I mean, first of all, we're talking about one game versus like,
00:44:45
Speaker
I see like Valdez basically went a whole year without scoring.
00:44:52
Speaker
So, like, I don't want to get too, like, love the breaks on, on, uh, on those comparisons in terms of even his finishing ability. Um, he did have one, he had one bad miss that was very, uh, Valdez esque, but, um, I'm not like, I'm not totally freaking out about his finishing after, after one game. Um,
00:45:18
Speaker
Go ahead. Yeah, so next one is from Fossey, F-A-C-I-I-I 20. Why do people believe that playing in MLS means you are complete garbage and should never be on the US M&T? I wonder what this is about. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think on some level, like I think I've just learned to, like people want to hate on Jordan Morris and Christian Roldan.
00:45:48
Speaker
fine like it's not like I don't know I think I watch them every week basically I think they're pretty good players if they think I guess the thing about Morris especially is I do find this amusing
00:46:07
Speaker
This is a player whose goals and assists per 90 are like elite by US national team standards. Like he's, you know, right up there with Pulisic and Altidore and Donovan and Dempsey. In fact, I think he's got better goals and assists per 90 than for the national team than any of those guys do. And.
00:46:29
Speaker
And it's like, people act like he's, he's, he's a scrub, which I just think is absolutely hilarious. And, and they, of course they, they qualify that with, oh, he's doing it against Cuba. And it's like, I hate to break it to you, but all those guys were doing it against Cuba. That's, that's when the Donovan scored a goal against Cuba.
00:46:46
Speaker
Right. Most of these guys, I mean, the reality is that you're playing for the US national team. Most of the games you're playing are against CONCACAF. And yeah, like, I suppose, you know, Dempsey had some goals in big games, you know, he had three goals, four goals in the World Cup. So like that, like that, I suppose, changes the perception and that that changes things. But most of the goals he was scoring were definitely not in the World Cup and they weren't in, they weren't in, you know,
00:47:16
Speaker
uh confederations cup and they weren't against argentina and they and hey did you know that you never scored against mexico um not that something morris is actually done but um anyway this first game as a college player yeah i know yeah i mean i think it's oh i was just saying it's like a kind of thing i don't i don't know i just i think the advice there is just don't spend too much worrying about it that's the thing and and that's kind of what i was going to say is that um for one i don't think anybody
00:47:45
Speaker
is credibly pretending like Jordan Morris has reached the level of Dempsey or Donovan. And I think that that's definitely a common thing you hear where it's like these people are being like, he's not in that class of player. And it's like, well, I don't feel like anybody is saying that he is yet. I don't know if people have noticed, but the US men's national team is pretty bad.
00:48:10
Speaker
relative to the other people that could be getting play in time, I think he's pretty clearly quite good. But I think that the thing that's hard for a lot of people who watch a lot of MLS, who watch a lot of soccer that isn't the Champions League or the Premier League or El Classico,
00:48:30
Speaker
is that most US national team fans, that's their engagement with soccer, is they watch the US national team and they watch the Champions League. If they can sneak out of the office for lunch and they watch the Premier League, if they get up early enough on Saturday, and that's it, right? They don't have an accurate perception of
00:48:52
Speaker
what most soccer is like, what the level of play is, what the level of play that should be expected out of players is. They're just not very intelligent, well-informed soccer fans, but they like to pretend that they are because they
00:49:09
Speaker
They're like, well, I don't waste my time watching that MLS shit or whatever. And it's just like, well, that's, I mean, MLS is better than most soccer being played in the world right now. Like I hate to, hate to break this to you, but they have this very outdated, I think idea of what, where that level of quality is.
00:49:24
Speaker
Um, I think that they have an outdated understanding of how good CONCACAF is. I think that, that the bad CONCACAF teams, quote unquote, bad CONCACAF teams have gotten significantly better, um, in large part due to MLS giving them a competitive league to play, to send their players to. Um, so I think that's a big part of it. Um, but I also just think that they like to bitch, um, like US national team fans are the most aggrieved, whiny,
00:49:50
Speaker
I mean, you'd think they'd be used to being lousy by now, but apparently not. I could have just let it stand with what you said of just don't pay attention to it because that's really what I'm trying to get at here is that it's just not worth paying attention to.
Player Performances and Criticisms
00:50:06
Speaker
They're very dumb opinions that aren't coming from a well-educated place that are being spoken with all this authority that's just completely unearned.
00:50:17
Speaker
the people that know, know he's good. And that's, that's about all that matters, I think. Yeah. Uh, so this one's from X Andrew K X. How'd you guys think Danny Leyva did? Uh, not, not great, but that's okay. He's yeah. I mean, I thought he was, I thought he had a few good plays. Like I thought he made some good decisions, but he was at least by my eyes, he was pretty, um, pretty like he just wasn't involved. Um,
00:50:46
Speaker
I don't think, like I didn't see him getting overrun. I didn't see him having huge problems, but for a guy playing in a high touch role, he just wasn't, he wasn't involved enough, I don't think.
00:51:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I think that's fair. Um, I think that if he puts in that performance in a game where there's the, the team is more complete and you can sort of suffer a below average performance like that, that's, that's not going to be as big a deal, but the, they just definitely needed more of a spark. Um, then, then he was able to provide it, but that's fine. I mean, he's a kid like not worth being concerned over. And I think the fact that he got the start, um, is a good sign that, you know, the coaching staff still trust him. So.
00:51:30
Speaker
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's freakout time or anything. Yeah. The next one is from Narias24. With how good Jopalo is playing in current position, how would you best utilize him in a lineup with the healthy Lidero?
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think he, well, first of all, it's important to note that even though he started, I think, did he start again as the 10 this week? I think he did. He did. So even though he started all three games as the 10, he's been dropping back into the deeper part of the midfield a lot. And in fact, in the second half, he switched spot, or he didn't, yeah, he switched spots with Christian Roldan. And so he was playing as a,
00:52:17
Speaker
He was playing more as an 8 or even a 6 at times while World Dawn was playing up more as a 10. And so it wasn't quite the... I think you have to be careful about...
00:52:32
Speaker
the role he was playing because he just has been playing a lot of different roles and he's proven effective kind of wherever he's been. I've been really, really impressed actually with how much ability he is able to kind of move around the pitch and show off his flexibility. And he's obviously very good at serving in set pieces. He's already got two assists on corners in three games. He's got a goal.
00:52:58
Speaker
I think he's every bit the player that was advertised, essentially, and he's not a classic six. I don't think he's going to be playing as a classic six. The Saunders don't need him to be a classic six. He's just going to kind of be a connector who gets into the attack. Yeah, I don't really have anything to add. I think that pretty much nails it.
00:53:21
Speaker
So this one is from P. Val. Is it time to panic regarding Nikolo Dero's injury?
00:53:30
Speaker
I don't know that it's time to panic, but I've always been more concerned that it was a bigger deal than maybe it seemed. And I don't think that's because anybody's hiding anything. I don't think that it's, I don't think that it's, you know, he's going to be out all year and they're just not telling us. I certainly don't think it's a situation like that. I just know that tendonitis can be, I know that it's something that he's had in the past and the fact that
00:54:00
Speaker
coming into the season. It was still bad enough that he wasn't recovered enough that he couldn't even really take part in training, that he couldn't play in the Champions League. That gives me some serious cause for concern. I think he'll be back, but I think it could be a little longer than maybe people were hoping. And I think it could also end up being the kind of thing that he has to rest a little more often than I think anyone would like. So those are my concerns.
00:54:29
Speaker
So I guess it depends on what your definition of panic is and what your threshold for doing that is, but I'm not, I wouldn't call it panicking. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say panic is the right, I mean, I think it's fair to be concerned. He hasn't played yet and it's been three games and he's got an injury that is on paper, one that doesn't just kind of go away.
00:54:55
Speaker
But, you know, I suspect that he's going to play, if not this week, then the week after. And we probably won't be that worried about it after that. Yeah, pretty much. Um, next one is from Mindy Rice. Uh, what did you think of O'Neill's performance and his two starts, uh, with Jaymar? Is it, am I saying that right? Jaymar? I think that's right. That's kind of, yeah, that's the way that it sounds like it's, it's the correct way. Yeah.
00:55:22
Speaker
Okay. I keep like being surprised with how stuff is pronounced. Um, so I just want to try to make sure I don't get into bad habits. Um, anyway, with the GMR and full training slash not just off a flight, does O'Neill go to the role of CB3 for CB off the bench or is the starting spot his to lose?
00:55:38
Speaker
You know, that's an interesting question. I suspect he kind of moved to CB3 and that he's kind of a backup, but I think he was probably the better center back of the two against Chicago. I don't necessarily think that means that he's supplanted Ariaga. I suspect the Sounders are going to want to see, you know, they've got more invested in Ariaga.
00:56:06
Speaker
Ariaga I think has a higher upside there's Reason that they would want to let him Kind of like lose the job as opposed to you know Just kind of going with the hot hand and and I if O'Neill was better than Ariaga against the fire. It wasn't by a huge margin but I've been like I've actually been pretty happy with with O'Neill's play just the fact that I
00:56:32
Speaker
we're having this conversation I suppose is encouraging that you know this is a guy who the sounders brought in as a number three and he looks like he might be worthy of starting now I guess that maybe speaks to um ariaga not exactly grabbing the starting job by the throat but I'm also kind of sympathetic to the situation that ariaga is in which is you know he's a he's a guy who is
00:56:59
Speaker
You know he's he's kind of walking a tight rope a little bit as a as a center back in that you know he's a player whose best attributes are the ball at his feet. He's kind of aggressive.
00:57:13
Speaker
following, following attackers into the midfield. And he's a, he's a player who I think benefits greatly by having a really stable partner. And he hasn't really had that he hasn't even had a stable midfield in front of him. So I think Ariaga probably deserves a little bit more, you know, benefit the doubt, because I think once they, the center settle in, he's in a great position. But, um,
00:57:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's I've been I've been happy with him. I thought he was actually really good against fire, especially.
00:57:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was definitely concerned about center back death going from coming into last season, where it was at to, you know, to Shane O'Neill being the third center back was a little concerning, but yeah, he's, he's been great. He's, he's another one of those, I hate to use the term scrap heap because it sounds so cruel, but he's kind of in that camp with the Barra, although he's been, I think out of the loop a little bit longer, but where,
00:58:17
Speaker
I mean that was a player that people were expecting to be an international player. I think Shane O'Neil was pretty close to moving to the Premier League at one point and then he had some injuries and he had a move abroad that just didn't really work out.
00:58:33
Speaker
and came back and couldn't find a spot. So it's natural to think that that's not going to be a player that's necessarily going to set the world on fire. But he was a good player not that long ago. He's not old by any stretch of the imagination. So I think that could end up being a really good sort of bargain bin signing. And I think the reality of
00:58:56
Speaker
The Sounders are not going to be able to carry three of the best center backs in MLS or four. I guess for a very brief period of time before Marshall retired last year, that's just not going to be something they can do with regularity, I don't think. So as far as backup center backs go, I feel pretty good so far with O'Neill.
00:59:18
Speaker
So the next one is from Tommy Dose. When you interviewed Peter Tomazawa, it sounded like some sort of streaming partnership was imminent. Any updates?
00:59:29
Speaker
So this is something that obviously is growing in importance as we hurdle towards the first game that will be, that would be available to local TV audiences, which is on Saturday. The first one obviously was on, or the opener was on ESPN, so it didn't really matter. The two CCL games were on FS2, didn't really matter. But this one is gonna be on Joe TV, and as of,
00:59:58
Speaker
the recording of this, the sounders have not announced a deal for a streaming partner. I don't know that they have any solution in place for fans on the East side outside of Western Washington where you can get Joe TV on cable.
01:00:16
Speaker
What I was told was that even that they are very close to having a deal, that they are at the point, I think the term Peter used with me is they are crossing T's and dotting I's and that if this particular deal falls through, they've got backup deals in place.
Future Prospects and Fan Engagement
01:00:33
Speaker
They felt very confident that they're going to have a streaming deal that sounders fans can be proud of and happy with.
01:00:43
Speaker
but it's not ready to be announced. And so take that for what it's worth. But that doesn't make me, I don't think that probably doesn't make me happy. It doesn't make, I'm sure that's not of a lot of comfort to our friends on the East side. I totally get it. Frustration is justified. That said, I think as of now you can
01:01:11
Speaker
watched the sounders on ESPN+. I don't know that for sure, but I think that if you are outside Western Washington, there's no, like the reason that you couldn't watch the sounders last year on ESPN+, was because of the YouTube deal. The YouTube deal is gone. So I think you can watch it on ESPN+. I think this is probably something that we're gonna have to get clarification on, but that would be my assumption.
01:01:36
Speaker
I don't think that's the case, actually, unless that has changed, because I think part of the frustration in the past has been that it's still considered part of the Seattle market.
01:01:49
Speaker
Two years ago, my understanding is ESPN plus was working. And then when YouTube expanded into Eastern Washington last year, they, that's when the blackout started. But I think, I think so, like, obviously we need to get more information on this.
01:02:07
Speaker
But in the meantime, I was told at least for this game that the sounders have plans in place to make sure this game is available on local streaming, even if that, like what I was told is like, even if that means they have to basically be the stream provider. So, you know, we'll see how this all works out. I don't know why it's taking so long. It seems like a deal that probably could have gotten done in the off season.
01:02:33
Speaker
But, you know, I don't know what's going on here. I suppose I'm guessing what they would say is like we're not looking for a solution to get, you know, to be in place fast. We're looking for a solution that's going to be in place for five or 10 years. And so, like, if you have to muddle through a few weeks where it's less than ideal, you do it. But it's like it's it's annoying. I don't know what to like. I don't have a good answer for you and I don't have a good explanation for why it's taken so long. But
01:03:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think that, um, I think that when you're as forceful with saying that this would be handled as he was, if it's not, that's a pretty reasonable, um, reason. Yeah. You know, when we, I talked like the, I was just like, when we recorded that show was, or when we released that show, hell, I think when we recorded it, it was like,
01:03:27
Speaker
It was earlier than that, but we released the show on January 28th. And so that was over a month ago. Um, I would have been recording like, it'd been a week or two before that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been, it's been a long time. Um, so I get, I get the frustrations. All right. So, uh, we're going to end on this, on this note. Uh, this one's from Tommy dose. He says with no more CCL with the Sanders put a higher emphasis on the open cup this year. Uh,
01:03:59
Speaker
I don't think that they will, no. I think that the real... I was going to say, I think it depends on what... higher than what.
01:04:06
Speaker
Right. I mean, the thing is, is that last year, I think they played the lineup they did because for the most part, they could not feel any other lineup. They feel that their best possible lineup last year, frankly. Right. It was a very bad lineup, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't great. I kind of feel like that was the case the year before last too. I definitely don't think that the sounders are going to be playing
01:04:33
Speaker
first choice or anything close to first choice lineups.
01:04:37
Speaker
in the Open Cup early rounds anytime soon, if ever, again, I just don't think they're going to do that. I think there are multiple reasons for that. I think first, it's important to remember that they didn't do that even years they were winning. They were not playing lineups that are that much stronger than the ones that they're normally playing now. Second is that they just have a larger pool of players to pull from. They don't have guys like Cam Weaver on the bench for games like the Open Cup.
01:05:05
Speaker
to have youth players in those positions now. That said, I don't think that last year is just the lineup that they wanted to start. I think that you can expect to see a lineup that's a mix of the more talented, closer to ready younger players and some depth players and maybe a starter or two.
01:05:27
Speaker
Um, but no, I don't, I don't think that they're ever going to take it as seriously as they did when the red card wedding happened. Um, for example, I don't think they're ever going to take it as seriously as some people want them to, at least in the early rounds. Um, I think that's a totally defensible decision. Um, I understand the frustration because the open cup was such a big part of the team's identity in the early years, but the reality is that they bought home field advantage for all of those games.
01:05:52
Speaker
They also lost a first round game the first year that they weren't able to buy home field advantage for an early round game. There were just a lot of factors that went into that. They took it more seriously than other MLS teams did, the USL teams weren't as strong, etc. and so forth, so on.
01:06:12
Speaker
They should be able to be USL teams with mixed lineups like that. I think that's what we're going to see early on if they get deep into the tournament. Yeah, I think they should play strong lineups, but you've got to give the bench players, rotational players, and the promising kids a chance to play competitive games.
01:06:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that's kind of one of the things that I get hung up on a little bit is, is like the reason you have these guys on the roster is because you want to get the minutes, presumably. And if you're not going to give them minutes in open cup, like when are you going to give them minutes? That said, the first round of games this year is on a is between
01:06:56
Speaker
A road game against the Timbers, it's on a Wednesday, like presumably like a Wednesday between a road game against the Timbers and a road game against Sporting Kansas City. And yeah, I don't I don't foresee a lot of first choice players suiting up in that game. Like that's just like I don't know that any version of the Sounders were ever going to field first choice players in that kind of schedule situation.
01:07:27
Speaker
So that's yeah, that's, that's tough. That's a tough one. Yeah. Um, but yeah. Uh, yeah. I mean, I think maybe they take it slightly more seriously than they would have if, if they had been in champions league, because like, that's just mileage that they presumably wouldn't have had available. Um, but.
01:07:57
Speaker
Like maybe there's some hope of them. Like I don't think they're like, they probably would have had to call up a bunch of players from the finance just to like make that team like put out a team, uh, before. And maybe some of them would have been starting. Uh, whereas maybe now they don't have to start those players. They can just fill out the bench and, and the starters are going to be like the head and wall of Wanna's and, and, um,
01:08:21
Speaker
you know, Shane O'Neill and whoever else like guys that maybe don't start the midweek game, the weekend games, but are still first team players. But yeah, I mean, I don't I don't think that we're going to get first choice players in those early round games. Yeah. And I think this is and I should say this, I don't like the idea that it's like the number of stars you play determines how seriously you're taking the tournament.
01:08:47
Speaker
Yes. I 100, 100% agree with you. 100%. Yeah. Like you can take the tournaments, like when the Sounders went out last year, Schmester was pissed. The players were upset. Like they took it seriously. Like I don't think it was a matter of them not taking it seriously. It was just like they have to make personnel choices. And ideally this is a tournament that you can win a few rounds without fielding your first choice players.
01:09:18
Speaker
That's what you want, that's what you should be aspiring to do is build a roster that doesn't require you to play first choice players to win early round open cup games against, you know, U.S.L. opponents, probably. Except for the sounders who never seem to get to play U.S.L. opponents. Right? I digress. So that's it. That's the show. I guess we should probably end on a note about Yacht-Con, which was insanely successful.
01:09:48
Speaker
Like blue hour, like we set a goal of raising $10,000 as like a nice round number that seemed big and would give us something to shoot for. I don't think we had like a really discernible plan of how we were going to get there. And somehow we did, which is amazing.
01:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, it is. But I think all credit, well, we'll take a little bit of the credit, but most of the credit goes to our wonderful fans and Yacht-Con attendees for being so generous. It always really does warm my heart to see how willing y'all are to open your wallets to support a cause that's really important to all of us.
01:10:33
Speaker
and hopefully people have fun yeah i mean that's for me this was the most this is definitely the most fun one for me um that that we've had probably because we didn't have to do a lot of the things that professionals can do better so the like having most of the other logistics handled was i think super nice but the venue was super cool the folks um
01:10:56
Speaker
at Hales were awesome to work with. They really seemed to be in the spirit of things, which is always nice to have that kind of support from the venue. So yeah, it was a lot of fun. And yeah, hopefully we can outdo ourselves next year.
01:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have much more to add to that, but it was a huge thank you to everyone who came and hopefully if you had at the very least you listened to it on.
01:11:28
Speaker
the podcast stream or you watched it on YouTube. And if you did, any donation you can make to the Autism Center is greatly appreciated. But you can rest assured that we at least hit our goal. You don't feel quite as guilty if we don't, like if you would, if we hadn't hit that goal. But anyway, I really appreciate everything.
01:11:53
Speaker
Thanks to our sponsor, Football Wines, who once again helped us out with the donation in that. They, of course, support the show. I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and Lickett. This is Nosadietes. And remember, you will never get along.
01:12:12
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:12:49
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!