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Pre-season Mailbag
94 Plays1 year ago
With preseason set to begin next week, now seemed like a good time to get some our very full mailbag out of the way. Joining Jeremiah on the show is Tim Foss. They discuss what Raúl Ruidíaz needs to do in order to stick around; share when they think Longacres will be open to the public; explain when it's time to panic about the Pedro de la Vega transfer and so much else.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
Sounders' MLS Cup Celebration
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
Mailbag Segment
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Audio Disc, sponsored by Full Pool Wines. Today is February 12th. February, January 12th. And this is the first episode of 2024. And we're breaking out the mailbag for you. We're putting this one in front of the the paywall. Just to give you a heads up. Usually our mailbags are reserved for our paid
00:01:51
Speaker
but you know we're starting off 2024. Give you a little taste and and joining me today is Tim Foss.
Guest Host Tim Foss
00:01:58
Speaker
I'll give you want to say hi Tim. Hey, how's it going? Happy to be happy to be on the mailbag episode. Yeah, we don't. This is a you know this is a treat for everyone. Aaron would and I were planning on reporting this week, but I was supposed to go to MLS Media Day in Miami, but doors started falling off Alaska.
00:02:20
Speaker
I guess not. I guess Boeing planes. I don't want to play in Alaska. But they canceled my flight. And so I stayed here and our schedules got all jammed up. And so Aaron, I aren't recording, but Tim is filling in. So I want to say thank you, Tim. You probably know Tim. He's on. He's a parent. You know, he's been on the podcast before, but he is all over Sounder Heart. So thank you, Tim. I think you're going to be doing a great job today.
00:02:49
Speaker
Before we get into the question, so let's do a little bit of housekeeping.
Sounders' Roster Updates
00:02:53
Speaker
Literally, as we were pressing record, the Sounders announced that they had signed Jonathan Bell. You may remember him as the player they picked in the second stage of the reentry draft, someone that they say will give them a little bit more versatility on defense.
00:03:09
Speaker
earlier this
00:03:29
Speaker
thought had already happened because Sandra Hart reported them as being done, you know, weeks ago, in some cases. The other big thing that we are sort of waiting or actually I take it back. The other announcement that came earlier this week, and probably the most impactful actual signing they have announced was Josh attention, getting an extension that guarantees him through 2027 with an option for 28. My understanding is that they're planning on making him
00:03:56
Speaker
a U22 initiative player, that means that virtually whatever his salary is, he'll only hit the cap at about $200,000. So that's a potentially big move for a player that is expected to be a starter. And then the other sort of things that are flying around just out in the ether, just to get you all caught up is Pedro de la Vega. He's the young DP, the sounders are
00:04:21
Speaker
best i can tell have already signed they just haven't announced it yet i would expect that to happen next week uh that's that's a big one and then there's also this rumor that bloomin nce of all teams uh the big brazilian team is interested in signing leo 2 and they asked the sounders what it would cost and supposedly the sounders told them we want five million dollars uh tim were you what did you let's start with before we get into the questions i don't think anyone asked about de la or uh
00:04:51
Speaker
So let's start there. I don't know, do you have any reactions to any of this stuff that's been going on? I mean, I think a true to Brazil move makes a lot of sense. From his perspective, it does seem like most of the rumors and reports have
00:05:14
Speaker
Originated from his agents his camp, you know, he Had a child with his partner last year I
00:05:28
Speaker
I personally don't have kids, but I am aware that raising them with a support network around you makes raising them much easier. It does. Yeah, I can attest to that. His family is in Brazil. It would make sense for those personal reasons. I also imagine a young Brazilian guy who
00:05:53
Speaker
Started his career in Brazil. Probably wants to be able to like now that he's taken his career to. You know another level would like to be able to prove himself a little bit more back at home. For it to make sense from a Sanders perspective. Yeah, that $5 million figure is probably around what they're going to need to make it worthwhile for them.
00:06:23
Speaker
I think it's, it's definitely an interesting thing to watch over the next, probably next couple
Ruidiaz's Performance and Challenges
00:06:31
Speaker
weeks. I don't know how long it's. Yeah, I would, I would think that's, De La Vega saga has taught us that expecting anything to move quickly is.
00:06:40
Speaker
Now you may be unreasonable. Yeah, it was funny. I went back and looked at my Pedro de la Vega reporting. And it was like almost six weeks ago where the the report we had was that they were finalizing the deal. So so you can take that there had been a lot of work that had gone into it up until that point. And
00:07:02
Speaker
And I don't know, I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but it seems like there were some twists and turns. Some other teams sort of came in and were potentially interested in bringing De La Vega, but it looks like that one's going to get over the line. But yeah, two, the two ones interesting.
00:07:17
Speaker
I could see for sure the appeal. I mean, going back to Rio de Janeiro, sort of as a, at a very different place. Like when he came from Gremio, it was, here's this kid who hasn't really played, who's not really a, he was a little bit of a late bloomer by Brazilian standards, if I remember correctly. And he'd like never even played in front of crowds because his entire professional career had basically been played during the
00:07:44
Speaker
COVID pandemic or the height of the COVID pandemic. And for him to go back, I will say he's integrated himself well. His English is actually really impressive. I don't think he spoke almost any English at all when he got here and now he's reasonably fluent.
00:08:02
Speaker
But he would go back to Brazil, a very different player, a much more confident player, someone who can feel like he can hang in the top flight. So if that happens, I think it's great. But I will caution that the Sounders probably need... He's still a useful player to the Sounders. There's no reason the Sounders should be looking to just dump his salary.
00:08:24
Speaker
and bring in, unless they have, unless they have another sort of U 22 player that they have just ready to sign, it would be.
00:08:33
Speaker
maybe a slight disservice to sell them for anything less than $5 million, because at $5 million, they would get my by my estimations, they probably get about $1 million in general allocation money. And that's like a material benefit. Now, if you sell them for $4 million, you still recoup all your investment, but you don't really have any damn, you can go out and re spend that $4 million, which is nice. But
00:08:57
Speaker
You can't really fix your raw like you can't really do anything to fix your roster to help your roster so you need to be sort of convinced, at least from my perspective, the centers need to be convinced that it's worth. It's worth making the sale. The other thing I'd caution about the flumin and say rumor is they don't buy players, they sell a lot of players, a lot of expensive players they.
00:09:18
Speaker
They routinely sell players for $10 million, $20 million. So they might have money, but they are not normally in the business of buying a Leo Chu type of player. You have to go back to like 2017 to find the last time they even spent like three and a half million, let alone, they don't spend $5 million on players. I think they've done it once in their, at least according to the transfer market, they've done it once. So it would be a little weird for them to sort of like break the bank for Leo Chu, but I don't know, maybe it's a different world now for them.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, I the one other thing I would add there is they seemed on the reports like they were pursuing or.
00:09:58
Speaker
you know maybe they were a little bit farther in pursuing I think Luis Enrique who like plays for Batiste in Spain and stopped pursuing him and transferred their focus to two four sort of the same position they don't really have they have one guy who plays that spot currently on the squad
00:10:20
Speaker
It's a position they need to fill the fact that they seemingly were told five million from the founders and they didn't pull out at that point. Maybe with the fact that they do sell players, there is a persuasive argument that they can make for a smaller initial fee and meaningful salon clause. Again, that's a gamble for the founders to take if they don't have someone
00:10:50
Speaker
effectively lined up to fill a U-22 spot.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, I don't know, I guess it could get, if it gets to the point where layout two is sort of demanding to be transferred, I suppose that maybe changes the equation a little bit, but nothing I've seen is suggesting that we're at that point yet. This is still, you know, teams asking questions and getting the answers and taking it from there. But anyway, let's get into the mailbag.
00:11:21
Speaker
We'll start with one for you. This is from Ken W. As a reminder, all of our questions from the mailbag come from the Discord, which is something that you can get into if you are a supporter or above. If you are subscribing to Senator Hart at a supporter level or above, I guess the best way to say that.
00:11:41
Speaker
But anyway, Ken W submitted this question. He says, what do you suppose are the minimum outputs the front office will need to see from Ruby Diaz before opting to buy him out prior to the close of the summer transfer window? Did they get enough production from the rest of the team to decide to just keep him on the roster for the season, regardless of how much or little he's able to contribute? So I think, one, I think that decision probably happens
00:12:06
Speaker
earlier than the close of the summer transfer window, because if they buy them out, they're going to buy them out to bring somebody in presumably. So with that in mind, I looked at last year and Jeremiah, you and I, I think both have been pretty consistent on the fact that
00:12:27
Speaker
The issue last year was not really really as his perfection because on a per 90 basis he still pretty solid numbers his non penalty XG plus expected assists with
00:12:44
Speaker
like 0.56 per 90 or something like that which you know his first two seasons in MLS were absurd and were both over 0.7 i think but the last two seasons or last three seasons that number is around the same level as the two prior um
00:13:07
Speaker
The issue was that he just wasn't on the field very much. He made 18 regular season appearances. He played off the bench in all three playoff games.
00:13:19
Speaker
Assuming that. The point by which they will have made their decision is probably the opening of the summer window, which is early July. Looking at the 2023 season. By that point, he had missed 7 of 22. Regular season games to injury.
00:13:42
Speaker
He missed a couple more because of national team duty and one more when he was out of the country due to the passing of his father, which is not an absence that I'm ever going to hold against him. He took that game. He, by all means, could have taken more games for that. That's a terrible thing to have to navigate. And there is another question that touches on that later on. But I imagine
00:14:11
Speaker
Unless his production absolutely absolutely drops off a cliff, the real. Thing they're going to be watching is. Can he stay healthy and be available so that. He is there to contribute off of the bench or. Or Morris isn't available. I think if.
00:14:33
Speaker
you know, they're going into July and he's again missed a third of all games to even possibly appear with injury. It's probably not going to be a good sign for Rui Diaz being with the Sounders going forward. If he is available and is also not performing, that's a question that they'll have to answer internally, but
00:15:00
Speaker
track record shows that if he's consistently available, he ends up on the score sheet pretty consistently. Yeah, I would agree with you that I think it has more to do probably with how fit he's able to stay than it has to do with how much he's scoring in part because if he's fit, you sort of assume a certain level of scoring. And if he's not if he's, if he's fit, but he's not scoring, my assumption is that he's probably not
00:15:28
Speaker
playing a lot. And if he's not playing a lot, that's probably because Jordan is just doing that much better. And, and so you sort of, your thinking is still kind of the same. Like, look, this is, we have really ideas here as more of a insurance policy than as someone like, I don't think that sounders are like,
00:15:47
Speaker
in their pre-season calculations, putting him down for X number of goals. I think they're hoping, if he stays healthy, they just assume that there's gonna be some level of production out of them. You don't necessarily judge, I don't think you're so much judging him by the goals as you are by his fitness. You sort of expect one fall the other, but anyway. Yeah, I think if there's a benchmark stat, maybe it's minutes played. Yeah.
00:16:17
Speaker
you know just like 22 games available if he's you know played 500 minutes or fewer probably he's not going to be around going forward for one reason or another but that's that is just a guess yeah
00:16:43
Speaker
So you want to ask this one?
Sounders' Player Acquisition Strategy
00:16:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's next one comes from Ben. W zero zero zero zero one. I really had to focus to get the right number of zeros. Yeah, yeah, right.
00:17:01
Speaker
And the question is, has the Sounders player acquisition and targeting strategy changed since we acquired Ledero and Ruby Diaz? If you have to describe it, what is it and what are the guiding principles?
00:17:13
Speaker
You know, there's been such a small sample of notable acquisitions, not necessarily since Ruidias, because they've made a bunch of signings since Ruidias. You know, they signed Jau Paulo, they signed Yemar, they signed, I think, Ariaga, who are all sort of like relatively established players that they had to pay a transfer fee for.
00:17:37
Speaker
where I think it's harder to know what the acquisition strategy is in the Weibull era, and how much of that is Craig Weibull's philosophy, and how much of that is an organizational philosophy, and how much of it is just a general, like, we're filling holes differently because we've had fewer holes,
00:17:55
Speaker
And so I think this year we will start to see whether or not there's a real change. Right now it does look like, you know, the last two big acquisitions they made were Leochu, which was way back in 2021. And now this one with Pedro de la Vega, who, you know, between the two of them, that's about $10 million that they've spent. Both of these were on players who were 22 or younger.
00:18:21
Speaker
If that's a trend, that's definitely different because these are relatively unproven players compared to certainly Lidero and Rui Diaz who were very much known commodities. They had certain attributes. They were very much about winning now and they were not so much about
00:18:38
Speaker
thinking about potential sell-on fees or anything like that. They were players that, in fact, I think, in both cases, they were players that the expectation was that they would never sell these players, that these players might leave, or they would eventually leave, but they would most likely leave in the manner that Ledero is leaving, which is, at some point, they just were no longer the player that they needed them to be, and they allowed them to walk, and that's probably going to be the same case with where it is.
00:19:02
Speaker
Which is, and that's not a bad thing. It's just a different philosophy. Whereas with De La Vega and Chu, I think the expectation is that when they leave, the centers are selling them or moving them for other assets for one reason or another. And so that is certainly a change. I don't know how, you know, it'll be interesting. Next year, they have two more designated player contracts that are going to be coming up.
00:19:26
Speaker
Albert Rusnak will be out of contract. Raul Rui Diaz will be out of contract, assuming neither one of those players gets re-signed during the year. And then there's two senior DP spots that presumably you would want to fill with other senior DPs. And, you know, maybe we were off by a year by assuming that we, like I thought this was going to be a much more, I thought we were going to see some much bigger changes this offseason than we ended up seeing.
00:19:55
Speaker
Maybe I worked it up more in my head than like you look at it. There's not I don't know. I guess maybe one other player. I thought it would have thought maybe they would bring in one other player. But anyway, I don't know. I guess my short answer is I don't know if we see it, but it does look like it's trending in that way. I think just to your point that there was an expectation of a bigger
00:20:17
Speaker
Winter window. Going into the offseason, we were much less sure that Albert Rusnak was still going to be around, right? That's a good point and the decision to keep him. One seems to solidify their commitment to the way they played for much of last year. Yes, and limited how much change was going to need to be made. And then they obviously we also thought there was a chance that they were going to buy out Rui Diaz. They literally aren't or at least there's no indication that they're planning on doing it, but.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, in those ways, it's still pretty similar. Bringing back a reasonably productive player like Rusnak, who I think bought into what the team was doing and was a good element inside the team, that's sticking to their old ways of doing things. And it's sort of like what's always been successful for them.
00:21:11
Speaker
Rui Diaz, you know, this was a player who they have under contract for $3.2 million, at least, and they weren't dying to just
00:21:20
Speaker
flush that money down the drain, essentially, and see if they can get something out of them. Again, I don't know that that's really surprising. We'll see. Neither one of those things were particularly aggressive, but I don't know that previous ownerships would have done anything, or previous leaderships would have done anything differently. All right, this one's from Dorcas. He says, I was talking to my father about the lineup for next year.
00:21:45
Speaker
And he was saying that after Raul's father died, he never really looked the same. This, his wife being pregnant, by the way, I believe they just brought their daughter home from like two or three weeks in the hospital. So that was clearly not a totally straightforward pregnancy. And apparently moving his mother here made me wonder if this was also affecting his poor performance this past season. I, you know, I think we,
00:22:11
Speaker
I touched on this a little bit with answering the first question, but when he was on the field, I think there were definitely some opportunities that previous seasons of Rebel Rui DS, he probably would have scored, but they're also kind of the kind of goal that he has scored with seeming regularity
00:22:41
Speaker
but they require something magnificent to see him not quite pull those off. Part of that is because his season was so stop-start between injuries and other absences, it takes time to get into a rhythm and really fully shake off the rust when your season goes like that. I'm sure those various sorts of
00:23:08
Speaker
change and unsettling things happening in your life make performing in any other capacity much more difficult. I am sure anyone who has lost a loved one or experienced any kind of change, whether it's a positive or a negative, makes doing other things much more difficult. But I still think
00:23:31
Speaker
the injuries were a much bigger factor in how Rudy has performed this last season. And, you know, he still found a way to get on the score sheet a fair amount for how little he was on the field. Although those did kind of come in bursts. They did. I will say if I'm to be a little bit more
00:23:58
Speaker
sympathetic to this line of thinking is his lack of fitness is maybe due to his distractedness off the field also. That is probably a contributing factor. If he's having a harder time
00:24:17
Speaker
you know, doing the work outside of the field that he would have normally done. And even if it's, you know, these are things that are sometimes in the margins, right? Like that are, you know, the things that differentiate the best players from average players are not necessarily an underlying skill level. It's like those extra reps that they're willing to take. And it's, you know, it's like these finer points. And I suppose it's possible that
00:24:42
Speaker
That's the stuff that was impacting him in ways that are harder to quantify. And so I wouldn't discount that possibility. And it is fair to point out that he had a rough, you know, it was a tumultuous year off the field for him.
00:24:58
Speaker
And maybe that speaks to why the sounders were willing to bring them back and sort of give them, let them play out this contract because maybe they believe that's the case. Again, that might be a little bit too sympathetic of a viewpoint on it, but I wouldn't discount it entirely. Yeah, I do think just to add to that, you know,
00:25:20
Speaker
Sleep is a hugely important part of anybody's wellbeing just in general, but especially if you're trying to recover from an injury or an illness or whatever, if you aren't getting enough sleep or your sleep is not of the necessary quality, it's going to be harder to recover if you lost a parent.
00:25:46
Speaker
or having a tough time just performing in your job. Concerns about your wife's well-being while she's pregnant, the challenges of moving your mom to the country. For all that, it's probably really nice to have her here.
00:26:10
Speaker
relationships with parents are difficult. I think especially if like, you just lost your dad and you move your like, that's all going to be hard. That's going to affect your sleep. Yeah. All of these things are factors. And it does to his in his defense or to the point, he does seem like someone who, you know, family is a big part of his his life. So he's probably more involved in a lot of these things than, you know, some pro athletes might be. So yeah.
00:26:43
Speaker
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00:27:13
Speaker
Well, I think that answers that. So next question is for you. Comes from Everett Sounder.
New Long Acres Facility
00:27:21
Speaker
When do you think fans will be able to check out the new Long Acres facility? Will there be a grand opening event?
00:27:27
Speaker
My understanding is there will be a grand opening event. I don't know when. I know the Sounders are planning to start training there right around the middle of February, so February 13th, somewhere around there. I would imagine that there will be some sort of public event at the first day of training. I would imagine there will be sort of an open house event for season ticket holders outside of that event where they would give tours.
00:27:55
Speaker
You can go down there now and look at the land.
00:27:59
Speaker
Uh, w I was there the last time I was there was for the end of season press conference. We were only on the third floor, which is technically not a floor. The sounders are going to occupy once they are fully moved in, but they're, they're up there now. And it's, you know, it's a functional, it's a functional office space. Uh, but, and I, and I did get a tour of the training floor, but it's like empty. Like these were like, they're literally like hanging drywall and things like that.
00:28:29
Speaker
But it will be a nice facility, I think. But I don't know when fans will get to look at it. But you can rest assured that they are going to make it very accessible. Maybe not quite as accessible as Starfire was. But in a counterintuitive way, even by making it, it will be less accessible, but there might be more people visiting it. Because it will be more accommodating. It will be more of a destination, I think, that fans want to visit.
00:29:00
Speaker
Right. The parts that you will be able to visit will be much more sounders focused. Right. Then you can go to Starfire because you'd be in an indoor soccer league that plays there. Right. It could play there. Right. Yes. Access for sounders things is much more limited at Starfighter. Right. Right. And it's basically watching them train, whereas they'll have a little bit more infrastructure around everything.
00:29:24
Speaker
This is from Boomstick 315. Starting next year, according to the CBA, 25% of all media right revenue over a certain threshold will be going straight into the salary cap on top of the already scheduled increases.
Roster and Salary Cap Speculations
00:29:39
Speaker
Between the huge Apple deal and any potential increase in media revenue, revenue sharing due to Messi, this could presumably be a substantial amount of money.
00:29:47
Speaker
Does that affect how owners are thinking when it comes to the lack of roster changes? Is there any huge messy bump we're already on the hook to put 25% into the squads? I guess what he's asking from your perspective is, did we not see a big bump this year because they are already preparing themselves for a big bump next year?
00:30:12
Speaker
Maybe I think the lack of roster moves is probably because they really like their roster more than anything else. I think he's talking more at a league level on a league level. Yeah. Maybe I think I hadn't really thought of it this way myself, but it's an interesting possibility.
00:30:34
Speaker
It is. I think I'd have to go and look, but I feel like the, you know, the winter winter window isn't the busiest, even for the fact that it's the MLS off season. It's just not the ideal time to make moves by and large. Um, I think, you know, the fact that.
00:31:01
Speaker
Maybe you would expect more movement ahead of an Olympic year, but I think there's also some reticence from players who could go to the Olympics to move ahead of the Olympics unless they like really need to move away to get minutes.
00:31:22
Speaker
The salary stuff might be a factor, but I imagine it's a much smaller one. And yeah, I don't know. I tend to think of it this way is, you know, like there was a lot of expectation this year that people had that MLS was going to add a fourth designated player or, or even a fifth designated player, or they were going to.
00:31:45
Speaker
You know, like I had heard that one of the things that they were thinking about doing was unlocking all the U-22 spots for every team, regardless of who their DPs were. And, you know, those were all changes they certainly could have made and they wouldn't have been tectonic changes. But at the same time, I, on some level, like when it comes to fourth DPs or fifth DPs or whatever, I think that
00:32:13
Speaker
It was probably a prudent decision not to just add one high salaried player to the roster. If what your goal is to do is to improve the overall quality of play, what we need to do there is
00:32:28
Speaker
increase the overall flexibility in spending. And those are not necessarily things that you want to be done in like big one fell swoop things, because what the league is understandably reticent to do is create a system where the existing players are where you're giving all this new money to just the existing players, because that doesn't necessarily raise the level of the competition.
00:32:57
Speaker
And so I don't know, I guess there's, I don't want to, I'm not trying to run interference for the owners. I would have liked there to be more aggressive investment too, but it's possible that part of the reason they're like, this is an interesting theory that I had not really considered that basically they didn't want to dump a bunch of money into.
00:33:17
Speaker
into the rosters, a bunch of new money into the rosters this year because they were going to be forced to do it next year anyway. And then you start maybe overspending. I don't know. They were not very aggressive. I was much more disappointed about the US Open Cup thing and the way that whole thing played out, but we don't need to get into that right now.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah. All right. The next question comes from Claxon5. At what point should we worry if the PDLV deal isn't done? Pedro de la Vega, if that acronym was not one folks were familiar with.
00:33:55
Speaker
Everyone seems confident and it isn't unusual for deals to try gone, but when should we start to worry that it will fall through? So I'll note that this question came in like four days ago. So it was, I believe before the Fabrizio Romano report where he effectively said the deal is done. And if you don't know, Fabrizio Romano is probably the most connected
00:34:21
Speaker
person when it comes to like transfer news in the world and that he's even dating to cover MLS these days is feels in a weird way like a like a win.
00:34:30
Speaker
But the reports out of Argentina are that it's done. I have not been able to confirm it like in a way that I would feel comfortable reporting, but I've gotten a lot of indications that the deal is basically done. No one, let's put it this way. No one is running around saying that report is wrong and you should be really careful about what you're saying. And that's oftentimes what happens if we get out over our skis.
00:34:57
Speaker
So my expectation is that it's done. That said, if, you know, we get through the next week and there's still been no announcement, I would definitely wonder why that is. And I would be a little worried that something happened that has undermined it. So yeah, I mean, if we're, if we're sitting here next Friday and we still don't have an official announcement, I'd say it's fair to worry. I don't know. I won't be like, I'm not, I don't have crystal ball to say that there's definitely going to be something wrong.
00:35:25
Speaker
But it would strike me as odd because if the sounders, my expectation is the sounders want to get this done.
00:35:32
Speaker
before they leave to Spain because they're going to want to bring De La Vega with them. And they're not going to bring him with him unless he's under contract. And they sort of got a little bit of a break here when he had to leave the Argentina U23 camp with some sort of injury. I've been told that the injury is not serious and that their expectation is that he will be able to start training again in like a week.
00:35:58
Speaker
So I don't know. It could be like, they're just waiting to announce it until he's like in market and they can do a whole press conference and blow this thing out because it is a big expenditure and they probably want to make the most of like promoting it. I don't know. What's your vibe? Do you, they wouldn't, you get worried Tim when I tell you. Yeah, probably. Um, I think next week, end of next week is probably a good time. It's not unnotable that like,
00:36:25
Speaker
as we said at the top, they've made like four player announcements that we sort of knew, yeah, had happened weeks ago. Right. And we're much less complicated than international, like none of those deals involved in ITC or anything, or a transfer fee to a foreign club and negotiating salon fees. Right. I guess the
00:36:50
Speaker
Greg Delio Rodriguez deal involves some salon percentage with. New York City, but still a much more straightforward deal. I think yeah, the next week should be. A time that we would expect to hear about it. I think yeah, that that's.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah. If we're sitting here again, like if we're sitting here next Friday and there's still questions as to why, like that's, it'll be, I'm not going to tell anyone to not be, like none of these, these things are all oftentimes complicated. And it does look like if I'm reading between the lines, it looks like to me, what they were haggling over is sell on percentage. And that's sort of like what dragged this thing out on as long as it's gone. Uh, but yeah, if it's still going, that's, that's definitely, you know, it's not ideal.
00:37:44
Speaker
All right. Uh, this is from Eric NW says Jordan did both of his ACLs. JP did his both came back very strong, presumably in part based on recovery training programs specified by the sounders. Does this experience give them any advantage over clubs that might be less willing to sign guys coming back from ACL injury, like a Pedro de la Vega or a Nathan.
00:38:07
Speaker
Maybe having a team staff and medical staff who are familiar with the possible progression and how bodies are going to respond to different things over the course of that recovery probably helps. That said, there are best practices, but
00:38:35
Speaker
every injury is different slightly, every player's body is different, and the exact nature of the tear or strain or whatever is different. Pedro de la Vega's ACL was more than a season ago. I imagine that wasn't that much of a factor for them, but maybe all of the experience with Raul Ruiz Diaz's
00:39:03
Speaker
soft tissue injuries made them feel more comfortable navigating De La Vega's apparent hamstring struggles recently. I think that most professional teams
00:39:24
Speaker
feel pretty confident of being able to navigate a player who has returned from an injury. I don't know that that's unique to the Sounders. I don't know if it's unique to the Sounders. I will say that it is easy to sort of take for granted though that players come back
00:39:45
Speaker
similar to the player they were on ACL injuries. Like you hear plenty of, you hear anecdotally about plenty of players who just were never the same after doing their ACL. I will say one thing I would imagine gave the Sounders a little bit more confidence in De La Vega is that they do have a
00:40:02
Speaker
A very amount of experience with this, like they said, and he's going to be a year removed now from his injury. He's already played a full season. That's usually the timeline where you start to see players get back to their normal selves.
00:40:22
Speaker
That might, they might be, you know, that might give them some confidence that De La Vega is poised for sort of like a breakout campaign as opposed to Nathan. I would think their expectations are going to be a little bit lower as for the same reason, although. Injury, you know, defenders, you have a different perspective on that, but yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's not outside the question. I would say maybe it gave them a little bit more confidence to sign these guys. I don't know that.
00:40:49
Speaker
the players look at the centers is like, oh, they, they did a really good job with ACL. So that's where I want to go. Yeah. Let's see. So the next one is another one from Ken W. What are the chances first and goal decides to revisit grass versus turf decision and maybe opts for something other than turf?
00:41:13
Speaker
You know, my understanding is literally right now, new, new surface is being laid down at Moominfield and
00:41:25
Speaker
I think we would have heard if it wasn't field turf. Everything I'm hearing is that they are putting in field turf. I suppose it's possible that next year they might have a change of heart and say, we should put in grass. And I suppose it's possible that the prospects of the Club World Cup
00:41:48
Speaker
skipping lumen field, like I suppose it's possible that in the negotiations over the club world cup, that the sounders or FIFA or wherever else are able to appeal to first and goal and say like, look, we are going to not, they're not going to give us the club world cup unless we put in real grass. Let's just bite the bullet. Do it a year early.
00:42:08
Speaker
put them in, put it in now and we will deal, we'll, we'll just deal with that as it, it's, I don't want to say that's not outside the realm of possibility, but at the same time, the only reason first and goal I think is agreeing to put in grass for the world cup is because it's, it, I think that it's in the charter. Like they have the, the world cup is actually carved out in the, in the charter that, that, uh, built lumen field.
00:42:34
Speaker
And there is no carve out for the club in that. So they don't have to. And I don't know. I guess unless there's a change of heart with the Seahawks and first in goal, it's, you know, it's not going to happen. And I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I suppose it is. There is a possibility that there, I don't want to say that it's a 0% chance. I just don't, I'm not expecting it. I would love to be wrong. I hope that.
00:43:03
Speaker
It can't really be overstated how big of a miss it would be that the club World Cup is going to be played in the United States, that it's going to be played, that the Sounders are going to be in it. It quite literally might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Sounders host a club World Cup game against a real opponent. We're talking about the biggest clubs in the world potentially playing an actual meaningful home game.
00:43:28
Speaker
Like that's a huge opportunity, huge missed opportunity. If they, if they don't, if they don't get the club or cup and it would be a real shame for them not to get it. And so maybe, maybe that can, that case can be made and it will be compelling. And my, from what I can tell the sounders just were not really interested in going through the hassle of hosting the Copa America. So I don't necessarily know that, that like that may have been a,
00:43:56
Speaker
That may have been a cast has died kind of situation. I do think that there's hope that they're going to keep the brass for the 27 Women's World Cup if they can get that. But yeah, I don't know. I guess I think that answers it.
00:44:10
Speaker
Maybe Pete Carroll was just a really big turf guy. Right. Now that he's sort of out of the paint, they can. Yeah, exactly. Grass. There you go. Maybe they'll bring in a pro grass. A coach that yeah, maybe that's that's yeah. Who knows that that's more realistic. That might be like honestly that I could see that swaying the decision making process more likely is like whoever they bring in as the new Seahawks coach says I'm only going to come there if we have grass.
00:44:37
Speaker
That felt more real the farther I got into it. Right. Yeah. All right. Uh, this is from Chico Flores. He says, what are the chances that Aussie signs a one day contract to retire as a sounder? I haven't read too much about this, but it seems only right for him to come home.
00:44:59
Speaker
I have no sense of this, but I also, the sounders have never done it.
Ozzy Alonso's Possible Retirement
00:45:06
Speaker
And I'm not, oh, maybe a couple players from other MLS teams who have done it. But I don't think that this is really like a thing that happens in MLS. Maybe there is something in the somewhat Byzantine nature of MLS salary.
00:45:27
Speaker
and cap construction that makes it less likely. But other professional American leagues do not have meaningfully less Byzantine roster rules. And other leagues seem to have this happen at least somewhat regularly. If you were going to do it for somebody, Aussie is a good case for it. But yeah, I just don't know how likely that actually is.
00:45:53
Speaker
I don't know how likely
00:46:04
Speaker
Ozzie Alonzo will be involved in some way. I don't particularly care if it's a ceremonial one-day contract or it's a more meaningful, like I would much rather see him honored at a pregame ceremony or incorporated into some sort of broader celebration. I've never quite understood the point of the one-day contract, like
00:46:30
Speaker
Sure, I wouldn't mind it, but I would not put that at the I would like to think there's plenty of other ways to honor him that don't Yeah, I I imagine the one-day contract thing is probably more of a deal for like Major League Baseball where when you After you've retired and you get enshrined in the Hall of Fame you get enshrined with
00:46:56
Speaker
The hat or insignia of one of the teams that you represented and so that, you know, signing a one day contract to retire with.
00:47:07
Speaker
you know, the Mariners or whatever is sort of like a nod to when I enter the hall, I will enter the hall as a member of this team because I didn't do the same for one of the other teams I played for. I don't really think that's how it works for the soccer hall, like the soccer hall of fame just isn't as much of a big deal as the baseball hall of fame.
00:47:31
Speaker
But yeah, I am positive that he will be part of 50th anniversary celebrations. The opening of Long Acres presents them the opportunity to do some sort of like a Hall of Heroes sort of thing. And Ozzy can be the first member of that. But I wouldn't expect to see a ceremonial one-day contract.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. All right. The next one is from Quimberly23.
Defiance Player Sales and Impact
00:48:05
Speaker
With her as loan move reportedly having a loan fee as well as a transfer associated, how can each amount be utilized by the founder's organization?
00:48:15
Speaker
So I don't know for certain that the sounders, the first team sounders don't stand to benefit from this directly, but my suspicion is that they don't.
00:48:28
Speaker
The loan fee is probably low enough that it doesn't make a huge difference. My understanding is that if Chivas exercise the purchase option, it's only like $100,000, which again, is not a significant amount that would affect
00:48:45
Speaker
the first team. But this is all money that can be cycled back into Defiance. The sounders, you know, the Defiance have an operating budget, the sounders have an operating budget, everything that they bring in every revenue stream they bring in has some impact. But I don't I don't really don't think this is about the financial
00:49:01
Speaker
This is more about a proof of concept of showing we can develop players. We can move them into bigger leagues. We can move them into other opportunities and sort of laying the groundwork for, you know, if the MLS next pro, if you were able to routinely sell players from MLS next pro.
00:49:22
Speaker
You know, this price is not super is not like itself, the proof of concept. But if you can show that you can illustrate that the MLS next pro is a high enough level that we can. Produce players here and then move them on and they can be successful elsewhere that will eventually raise the level there. And that's sort of, you know, that's another revenue stream for the sounders. That's something that can be kicked back into the first team potentially. And so I think you sort of have to look at it more of a.
00:49:50
Speaker
long like a wide view of what does this mean in the big picture and less about what does it mean for like what does this understand again specifically by this move and it's not much is the answer but it it sort of potentially has this wider aperture where you're seeing you know the
00:50:13
Speaker
defiance as a tool that's not just about producing players for the first team, it's about producing transfer fees going elsewhere.
00:50:23
Speaker
Right. I think to your point, it is best viewed holistically and the more the Sounders organization in its entirety develops professionals and is able to move them on to other and bigger leagues, the better the broad perception of the Sounders organization is, the easier it becomes to sell players in general, whether that's
00:50:48
Speaker
homegrown or a Pedro de la Vega who comes here as a 22 year old and, you know, entering that transfer market more broadly is a positive step. Exactly. All right. Uh, this is from Eric and he says, I regularly hear the MLS talking heads confidently dismiss Josh attention as having quote, a low ceiling. Is this a shared opinion among talent scouts? Is it fair slash reasonable?
00:51:19
Speaker
Maybe I'm somewhat out of the loop, but I am not terribly familiar with MLS talking heads describing Josh Atencio as having a low ceiling. I think the broad perception seems to be that he's been a youth national team prospect, he's gotten
00:51:45
Speaker
now getting his second look with the potential Olympic age group. He is a consistent performer for one of the best MLS teams in the league and it seems like he's taken steps progressively since he first started getting MLS playing time. I happen to be of the belief that if he continues to grow and
00:52:13
Speaker
the things that he does flashes of makes consistent parts of his game. He certainly could be an at least elite MLS midfielder, which is a pretty high bar to reach. Um, I've, I feel like that's not a particularly unpopular opinion, but you know, he's not the flashiest player. He doesn't score a ton of goals or get a ton of assists.
00:52:41
Speaker
That gets those are the things that get the most attention. Compared to other, you know, some of the younger.
00:52:52
Speaker
like MLS players who play in similar roles. There are guys who do get more goals and assists. I think Benji Kramashi or Noel Buck, and I'm sure that I got Kramashi's name wrong. You know, those guys show up on the score sheet. They're a little bit younger. They have international interest. Yeah, maybe they have higher ceilings.
00:53:18
Speaker
Ultimately, I don't I don't know how much that really matters.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah, I, I would say that he is the low ceiling statement, I think is more in relation to a, you know, a relative to some of the other sounders prospects, like a Reed Baker Whiting or Obed Vargas. And I think it's more in the perception that this is like a 10 CO looks like a player who could spend his whole career in MLS be a very good MLS player. Maybe even being an outstanding MLS player, but
00:53:51
Speaker
No one you hear less chatter about him moving to Europe. Whereas, you know, Obed Vargas, Reed Baker Whiting to name two are players who are constantly talked about as potentially being sold to European teams. And so maybe in that way, he is a low ceiling relative low ceiling player. But I mean, I think his ceiling is.
00:54:12
Speaker
I would not be at all surprised to see him make all-star teams or to see him be in a contender for MLS Best 11. I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, to see him moving to Europe. I don't know. I think he hasn't had as much hype around him. He is now 21 years old. He only recently
00:54:34
Speaker
sort of, you know, he was really late in the season where he was starting enough to be seen by players that are fans that weren't or people that weren't watching the Sounders on an every week basis. So these are all contributing factors. I wouldn't read too much into it. I think he's he's a player who can be extremely, extremely good. Yeah, I think, you know, one last note on that is just that some of it is just the nature of
00:55:03
Speaker
Obed Vargas broke into the first team as a 15, 16 year old, like guys who are getting there, even if they're not playing as much as he has at a younger age are going to be talked about more. Um, it is just sort of the nature of these things. Yeah. So I think last question from pulls both sounder.
00:55:29
Speaker
Any word on the potential kit launch day and new merch launch? Thanks. You might actually have more insight into the merch launch. I would say with the kit launch, this has become pretty standard fare at this point. About a week before the season opens, the Sounders break out their new kit. All indications that I've heard are that it's going to be green.
00:55:56
Speaker
I don't know about the shorts. I will say that Jordan Morris appeared to be wearing shorts that matched his training top at the media day yesterday and Logic would suggest that if he was wearing blue shorts that they were probably to be paired with the
00:56:18
Speaker
Uh, primary Jersey, and that would be an interesting look. I would be, I am totally speculating that they might be paired with the new look. I would imagine leaks will come out before, you know, before anything else. So that'll be, you know, like, I know last year, the, one of the worst kept secrets was that the, uh, Sanders, New Jersey was going to be Bruce Lee inspired.
00:56:43
Speaker
although I don't think any actual leaks came out too far before it. Sounders for whatever reason have been able to keep a pretty tight lid on kit leaks. There was something on footy headlines that I believe was a complete artist rendition of based on the color they were told that it was gonna be, which is basically just the Pantone of their new Pantone, as best I can tell.
00:57:13
Speaker
So I don't know, but I wouldn't read. So I don't know. I guess a week before the season is the is the Amsterdam, the Jersey as far as when they are going to drop new merch. I don't know. I have no idea. Do you have any insight into that? Not really. I would expect as like. And maybe they'll wait until. You know, the team moves into long acres.
00:57:39
Speaker
Holy, which I think is happening sometime next month after they. Get back from Spain, um. You know, like, 50th anniversary related stuff probably is going to be the next. Like push election. Yeah, from their. Merch.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah, beyond that, I don't have any. Inside on like a timeline or what's going to be. Involved I'm sure that the merch that's been released so far is not all there's going to be, but. Probably probably closer to, you know, there'll be. New kit and stuff and.
00:58:21
Speaker
all sorts of things, but no idea when that's going to come out. Yeah. Well, I will say it's something I just thought about. I don't think there's a pro shop at Long Acres, which seems like a little bit of a potential missed opportunity. But there'll be all kinds of interesting stuff. I guess there's lots of other buildings that could still be utilized in sort of retail-y type of ways. So maybe I shouldn't speak too authoritatively on that.
00:58:49
Speaker
That said, thanks for hanging out, Tim. Good having you on here. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
00:58:56
Speaker
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00:59:20
Speaker
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01:00:43
Speaker
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