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Nos Audietis, Episode 303: Jordan Morris is actually really good
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Sure, the Sounders lost last week, but that was with a roster that was missing 13 players due to international call-up, injury or suspension. Both the left back and defensive midfield positions featured starters who had yet to start at those positions this year, Luis Silva was playing as a No. 10 for the first time since 2017 and the centerback duo had played together just once before. The resulting 2-0 loss was hard to watch, but also a rather pointless exercise in terms of trying to learn much from.
So, I think we’re probably going to focus more on the results of the two previous games: a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers that came after I was derided for even believing the Sounders had a chance and a rather bizarre 4-3 win over the LA Galaxy in which the Sounders blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before grabbing the late winner.
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 Sponsor Highlight
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! Fullpool's unique writing styles apply to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Seattle Sounders: Player Appearances and Team Challenges
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. Fuck! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Morris runs right by him and sticks in and slots it in for a roll! Fantastic for George Morris!
00:00:55
Speaker
Here's Morris! Morris! Think of an ant! What do tigers dream of? They take a little tiger's hand. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle.
00:01:24
Speaker
like a beautiful child growing up. Welcome to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Full Pool Wines. This is episode 303 and we're recording on Wednesday, September 11th, 2019.
Sounders' Recent Performance and Top-Three Seed Debate
00:01:37
Speaker
I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. As usual, I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett.
00:01:42
Speaker
It's been about three weeks since we last recorded and fortunes have gotten overall a bit better. Sure, the center's lost last week, but that was with a roster that was missing 13 players due to international call up, injury, or suspension. But the left back and defensive midfielder positions featured starters who had yet to start at those positions this year. Lewis Silva was playing as a number 10 for the first time since 2017 and the center back duo had
00:02:05
Speaker
played together just once before. The resulting 2-0 loss was certainly hard to watch, but also a rather pointless exercise in terms of trying to learn much. So I think we're probably going to focus more on the results of the two previous games, a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers that came after I was derided for even believing the Saunders had a chance, and a rather bizarre 4-3 win over the LA Galaxy in which the Saunders blew leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before grabbing the late winner.
00:02:31
Speaker
As we record this, the centers are actually third in the West. Technically, they are a tiebreaker behind RSL. But overall, in decent position to take a top three seed as long as they can win their home games. So is that, I don't know, is expecting a top three seed, is that a realistic expectation at this point? Do you think,
Injury Challenges and Roster Decisions
00:02:51
Speaker
Aaron? Yeah, I think so. I think that as the team is
00:02:56
Speaker
getting healthier, theoretically. I think that now that the international breaks are behind us, I believe, right? That was the last one of the season. Well, there is one more international break, but it's also during a mandated bye week because it's
00:03:12
Speaker
during a two-week break and after the regular season before the last season. So that was really the last one that's going to cause serious issues, hopefully, unless like everybody. God, no kidding. So yeah, I mean, I think that the line this season has been that when the team is healthy, when the team isn't missing a bunch of players from international call-ups, they're a very competitive team. They're very good. I think that that's true. I agree with that.
00:03:40
Speaker
Questioning that but that being the case considering where the sounders are in the stand in the standings right now They are as of 907 on 9-11 they are in third place Yeah, I think it's completely reasonable to expect them to finish in the top three I think anything less is gonna be a pretty major disappointment They're gonna have
00:04:08
Speaker
Most of their first choice players have the rest of the year bar in injury. They're probably not going to have Victor just because I won't believe it till I see it. But they've shown that they can be very good without him. So yeah, I think if they're not playing a home playoff game, it's very reasonable to be pretty irritated by that turn of events. Yeah.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, I would I would totally agree with that. So one of the stats I dug up for my column this week was inspired admittedly by a post on Sounders Reddit that was asking like how many games have the centers played with a full choice of
Impact of Key Players and International Call-ups
00:04:43
Speaker
players. And I think the answer was like four games or something that basically the first four games of the season.
00:04:50
Speaker
But I wanted to dig a little deeper and try to understand how they fared when they have half their preferred starters. And for the sake of this exercise, I stopped including Chad Marshall after he retired. And I think at this point, we can probably consider one or two of Ariaga, Kim, and Torres. As long as they have two of those players, they're pretty good. But anyway, digging into this,
00:05:19
Speaker
I found that the centers are 12, four and six with a plus 10 goal difference when they have at least six outfield or actually at least six of their preferred starters was not a high bar, I don't think. But then they fall to one, five and one when they're missing over half their starters, which includes this last game. And they had a couple of games where they only had like two of their preferred starters starting the game. And that was the actually that was only one game that was New York City FC.
00:05:47
Speaker
more of their servers available, but only two of them actually started. That was one of their worst performances of the season, as you probably remember, as a 3-0 loss. But I think it, to me, it suggests that they've done a pretty good job navigating having some players out. It's that when they get a critical mass of players out that they really start to struggle.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're doing what? That would be two points per game when they've got more than, was that the correct one? It's something, yeah. Well, let's see. I'm going to do some quick maths here. Let's see, 12 times 3 plus 6. So it's 40, 40 points, right?
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's almost it's not quite it's um, it's 1.91. Okay, so that's most seasons a supporter shield contending DM. It would be the second best record in MLS right now. Right. Of course, the
00:06:48
Speaker
you know, I guess the pushback against that is that every team loses players, but I think we can all agree that they don't tend to lose them at the rate that the 2019 Sounders have. So yeah, I mean, I think that I don't think that this team is as good as LAFC with everybody healthy, including
International Duties and Future Signings
00:07:05
Speaker
Victor, even if they had Chad Marshall back.
00:07:08
Speaker
But I mean, if we're to the point where we're expecting the Sounders to be the best team that MLS has ever seen every year, we should probably just stop doing this. So I think it's OK to not be as good as LAFC is this year. But yeah, I mean, they're very good when they have everybody. It's just that's been less than everyone, I think, would like.
00:07:38
Speaker
It's tempting to say, well, shit happens. You lose players for international breaks. You lose players to injury. You lose players to retirement. And there's not anything that you can do about that. And I think to some extent that that's true. I think to a large extent that that's true. But I will say that
00:07:56
Speaker
Choosing to hope that Chad Marshall could get through another year, that was a decision that the Sounders made that yeah, and there was risk involved in that. Hoping that Victor Rodriguez could be more durable than he's been the past few years. That was a decision that the Sounders made and there was risk and hoping that he could get healthy and that they didn't need to do anything more.
00:08:19
Speaker
significant for the attack during the secondary window.
Roster Risks and Fan Expectations
00:08:24
Speaker
That's a decision the Sounders made. And so I'm not criticizing those decisions. When you have a player like Chad Marshall, you're going to hope that you can play another year. You always are.
00:08:39
Speaker
But there's still conscious choices that the team is making, that Garth is making. And so we've seen this season. And the last couple of seasons, we've seen the downside risk of that pretty consistently. It's bad luck that they're consistently hitting the downside risk. And they're getting hit at the same position group multiple times. Like luck is a huge factor here.
00:09:01
Speaker
But they've also made, they've taken some risks and it's hurt them when those risks haven't paid off. And I think it's fair to bring that up without it being an indictment of the team or the strategy. I do think that it's important to say these are decisions that they made that had this potential outcome.
00:09:20
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it makes it the wrong decision. Every team has to take risks. And I think the centers made some calculated risks. And the ones that they took have not necessarily worked out well. That said, in the last year, essentially, they've lost the best American offensive player, arguably the best American defensive player, and arguably the best defensive midfielder in MLS history. And yet, here they are sitting at.
00:09:49
Speaker
the cusp of of an 11 straight postseason of again finishing in the top half of the not top half but in the
00:09:58
Speaker
of hosting a playoff game. So it hasn't gone all bad, but I agree with you that they made some risks. A lot of those risks have not played out well. I suppose you could also say that they made a risk on giving Jordan Morris a long-term contract while he was coming off an injury.
Strategic Decisions on International Signings
00:10:17
Speaker
That looks to have been actually a really prescient decision. I mean, can you imagine if the Sounders had
00:10:23
Speaker
not signed him to an extension and they were looking at potentially losing him for nothing this offseason or paying through the nose probably to keep him.
00:10:33
Speaker
But anyway, I think that one of the other things that they gambled on is that they've consistently gone out and signed players who are on their national teams knowing that those players could get called away and that the centers could negatively impact their team. I know you have strong feelings about this. Both of us in the past have said that that's a risk that we were comfortable taking. Have you started to change your tune on that a little bit?
00:11:03
Speaker
A little bit, yeah. I mean, I think that I don't think that it can ever be a black and white thing of we're not going to sign players that are in the national team picture because you're definitely closing yourself off to way too many good players if you're doing that. And the other factor, of course, is that, and I think we were probably going to get a little deeper into this, but you can never guarantee that players aren't going to get called up that were previously getting called up.
00:11:28
Speaker
But Brad Smith wasn't a Australian. I mean, he had spent some time with an Australian national team, but he was not
Jordan Morris' Comeback and Fan Expectations
00:11:35
Speaker
necessarily in the Australian national team when they signed him. Nico Lidero, on the other hand, was very much in the Uruguay national team and then has kind of been less so since he's come to MLS. So it is kind of an unpredictable thing, but go on.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think to another great example is Gustav Svensson, who is a player that hadn't gotten a sniff for Sweden in years and all of a sudden he's playing in the World Cup. Right. Because people pay attention to the Sounders now they pay attention to MLS, they put weight in those performances and if you if you sign good players, they're going to get noticed because they're getting chances maybe they weren't getting in bigger leagues or
00:12:12
Speaker
Christian Roldan was a player who was definitely not in the national team picture when the Sounders drafted him. And I mean, he wasn't to the extent that he is now in the national team picture when they gave him a contract extension. Right. Jordan Morris too. I mean, we were all stunned when Morris got called up before the season. Yeah. I think it was totally reasonable to be stunned at that time. But I mean, he's obviously earned it.
00:12:37
Speaker
At any rate, I do think that it has to be a consideration. And I don't know, I'm sure it already is a consideration for the Sounders when they're looking at players, but I've always gotten the impression that it's just not something they're super concerned about. I mean, they've said that. They've basically said that as much as it's a factor that they look at, I don't think that it's a disqualifying factor. In fact, I think that they look at it as a plus because they like this experience that the players get.
00:13:07
Speaker
you know, they like the idea of players being in high leverage situations like that. And it would be, now that I'm kind of talking to myself, I would actually be curious how players with that kind of experience, maybe if it has, if there's any kind of measurable effect it has on their playoff performances, for instance. Yeah, that would be, that would actually be interesting to look at. Because I would be shocked if there's not
00:13:36
Speaker
some kind of positive correlation to having players with a lot of international experience. In big games. But I do think when you look at, there are countries like Argentina, for example, where
00:13:52
Speaker
You could be the best player in MLS and not get a sniff of the Argentina national team. Diego Valeri. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's, he's probably the prime example. Brian Fernandez. Yeah. I mean, it's. Not just pick timbers. But I mean, I think that that is a conscious position that the timbers make, right? Like it has to be. And that's the other side of the coin where.
00:14:18
Speaker
Obviously, they've done very well with Valerian and Fernandez, but I think that there have almost certainly been times in the past where they could have done better than the player that they settled for, and maybe they were waiting. But I think it has to be a consideration, and I think that there's a case to be made that it should be a stronger consideration than the Sounders are making at this point. Especially, I mean, when they're signing players from Peru and from Uruguay,
00:14:45
Speaker
that don't have as deep of a pool. I mean, it's almost very deep that Ruby Diaz is going to get called in, right? You know, like that's, you can't really do anything about that. Yeah. And I think that's actually a good point that it's like, you look at the countries that these players are playing for now, Uruguay is obviously a very good
00:15:04
Speaker
country, but they don't have the deepest pool necessarily. But like Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Martinique, you go down the list of where these players are getting called up to. And it's not like they are the biggest countries in the world. It's like teams that have fringy national teams
00:15:29
Speaker
And that you'd like to think like, do you need to go out and find and sign a guy? But I mean, I guess on the other hand, Jordy Dillem was not a national team player when the signer
Morris and Ruidiaz: Playoff Chances and Team Dynamics
00:15:40
Speaker
signed him, you know, knew who was not a player who was in the Cameroonian national team picture when they signed him.
00:15:47
Speaker
So it is kind of a double-edged thing where it's like they play well and they come from smaller nations and now they're in the national team picture. And the fact that they are from smaller nations is part of the reason that they were available on the radar in the first place and cheap. It's definitely a more nuanced and complex issue, I think, than it gets credit for being because I think there's been a lot of anger like, well, the sounders just need to stop signing internationals.
00:16:15
Speaker
Um, and there's just only so much you can do to prevent that. But at the same time, when you're, when you're, you've got full position, I mean, the Sounders lost all three left backs. Um, which is crazy. I don't know what they can, I mean, they could have not signed Jovan Jones, I guess, but Brad Smith wasn't in the national team picture, as you said knew who wasn't in the national team picture. I mean, that's, that's bad luck, but.
00:16:38
Speaker
they know for a fact that they're going to lose Ruby Diaz and most likely given the way he's been playing Jordan Morris every international break now. So if they go to sign another striker at some point, should it be a consideration with that guy? I think it should be a much stronger consideration maybe than it has been. And maybe that's the answer, right? It's not
00:16:59
Speaker
Our core players aren't going to be internationals. It's the guys that we're going to depend on when those players are gone. We need to wait that a little more heavily. Right. And I, and it is also, but then, you know, as of a situation like Victor Rodriguez, who is probably a classic example of a player who comes from a talent rich nation, who is never going to get called up, but who's really quite talented player, but then.
00:17:22
Speaker
He gets hurt. I mean, I guess maybe that, you know, that's another risk factor that you have to look into. But, um, and like, I, as much as I'm, I think I've pushed back on this idea that the centers knew that they were bringing in a injury prone player. I don't think Victor Rodriguez was injury prone before he got to Seattle, but certainly they knew that he had some lingering injury issues when they brought him in this year. And.
00:17:51
Speaker
I don't necessarily think that they shouldn't. I mean, based on the way he finished last year, it would have been nearly impossible to not bring him back this year because he was so good for the Sounders down the stretch. But man, it is very frustrating to see the degree to which he struggled with injuries. And it's very frustrating that he missed so much of the beginning of last year and that he, you know, that it feels like this has been an ongoing issue for almost two straight years where he hasn't been able to stay consistently healthy. And
00:18:21
Speaker
I don't have necessarily a good answer to that other than it's very frustrating. And the good news, I suppose, is that we've seen the emergence of Jordan Morris in a way that I don't know. I do wonder if we would have seen this same emergence if
US Fans' Treatment of Players and Career Comparisons
00:18:42
Speaker
you know, if he hadn't basically been allowed to move out to the left, if Victor Rodriguez had been here and been healthy, because Jordan Morris looks like the player we all hoped and dreamed that he would be, and he's doing it right in front of us, and he's, you know, playing some amazing soccer right now.
00:19:00
Speaker
He is he is it's I think that Jordan has always been under appreciated, both by sounder sands and nationally, to a much greater extent nationally, but I think that people don't really consider enough that
00:19:19
Speaker
He was hurt for most of 2017. He obviously missed all of last season and people want to hold that against him somehow. It's very weird. I mean, he blew out his knee. Like, right. I don't know what the kid is supposed to do about that. So it's it's very people kind of act like.
00:19:40
Speaker
Jordan Morris was shitty since returning pro and this came out of nowhere. And I think that that's a really unfair way to look at it. I think that this is, if he had not been hurt for most of 2017, if he had not been hurt for all of 2018, this probably would have happened two years ago.
00:19:56
Speaker
So, I feel for him and the way that he did lose a couple years of his career as a young player, but, but it is really satisfying to see him live up to the promise he had and Kim McCauley during the US game. On Tuesday, I thought made a great point of like look if Jordan Morris was just like some kid that had been drafted out of college.
00:20:16
Speaker
everybody would love him. He would be beloved, but because he was Jurgen's chosen one and didn't end up fulfilling that potential right away, people hate him. And I think that's very true, and it was never fair. The pressure that was put on him was never fair.
00:20:33
Speaker
But I mean, US fans love to do this to to their young attacking players, right? Like, I remember when Josie Altador was the second coming and everybody was like, he's in he's in Spain, he's going to tear it up and, you know, wait till he gets in the Premier League because he's a physical player and that's going to suit him really well. And now people talk about him like.
00:20:53
Speaker
He's garbage. He's garbage. Right. And I mean, he's one of the best strikers that the U.S. has ever produced, right? He's probably the best. I mean, unless I'm mistaken, he's going to end up being the most prolific goal scorer in U.S. history by a decent amount. I mean, it depends, I guess, like, how much he keeps getting capped, I suppose. Yeah. Quentin Dempsey and Landon Donovan, I think we're better players. But
00:21:20
Speaker
And Brian McBride probably was also a better player. But he's been a great player for the US. And we're doing it again with Josh Argent. I hope Josh Argent lives up to the hype. And I think that he has a good chance of living up to the hype.
00:21:34
Speaker
But the odds are he probably won't. And so are we going to decide he's trash because he doesn't become Byron Munich's all time leading goal scorer? So anyway, it's one of the most. Just to go back to Josie Eldridge. He's 29. People act like he's 35. I know. I know.
00:21:53
Speaker
And like there are a lot of things about Josie that drive me crazy. But he's like he's a very good I mean he's a very good player and he has a skill set that the US desperately needs at the at the international level it, it's, it's super frustrating.
US Soccer Development and Fan Expectations
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that there are a segment of US fans that are never going to want to give an MLS player their due. There is a large segment of those fans who will never give Jordan Morris his due because he didn't go to Germany like they thought he should have.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've seen, like, the reason we hate him is not because he's bad, it's because he chose a dog over Germany. And it's like, what an asinine way to break it down.
00:22:47
Speaker
entitled to think you know for one there's he didn't choose the goddamn dog okay right he i mean he chose a situation that he thought was better for him nobody ever talks about the fact that like
00:23:02
Speaker
he has to manage a serious chronic illness. And that maybe he felt more comfortable. Or that he's just like kind of a homebody, or that he... Which is also fine. Right. And I mean, I like one of the things that I come back to is like, if you assume his career had taken a similar trajectory, if he had gone to Germany instead of the Sounders, and so he, let's assume that he started slow, his rookie year, do we think he would have kept starting games and he would have been allowed to kind of
00:23:30
Speaker
Have the breakout year he really did have his rookie year probably not but then if he comes back the next year and he's injured for a lot of the year.
00:23:40
Speaker
Do we think that he continues to get start? Probably not. If he then comes back for a third year and blows out his knee, what's the state of his, like, do people really think that he would be the player that he is right now if he was gone through the same struggles that he had in Germany? I think it's very easy for me to come to the conclusion that he's
00:24:00
Speaker
His career is better off. He's a better player that this that ultimately he made the right choice and what he ends up doing in a year or two from now, who knows like I actually would love to see him play one more season in Seattle, and then, and then see what he can do in Europe.
00:24:17
Speaker
I don't know if that's realistically how it's going to work out, but I think as selfishly, that's kind of what I want to see. But I mean, I, I think like right now we're seeing him turn into this player that is legitimately one of the best attacking wide players in MLS. He might be, you know, I don't necessarily think of Pulisic as, as a winger, but I think he is in the conversation
00:24:42
Speaker
on that level below Pulisic of the best outside attacking player that the US has right now. And I saw some people talking about they weren't really impressed by how he played against Uruguay and I guess he wasn't like an all world player in that game.
00:25:01
Speaker
He had two key passes. He set up the best chance of the game. He finishes. He has the one goal. He was in the middle of basically everything dangerous that the United States did. He was involved in it. And I just don't know what else people want. And he was, by the way, almost all of his touches were like along the sideline. He was playing like a true winger in that game. I just don't. I am really baffled as to what people want to see from him that they're not seeing.
00:25:30
Speaker
Because, like Kim said, if you cut out the part where he gets called into the national team as a college kid, and let's say he never goes on that trial to Germany, people will be losing their minds over his potential right now. They'd be talking about getting them out of MLS as soon as possible. Right, of course. It's absurd. The problem is that people want the US to be better than it is.
00:25:58
Speaker
Sure. And like, that's, that sounds glib, but it's true. Like we are not producing more than one world class player, a generation. We're just aren't doing it. We never have, we probably never will.
00:26:13
Speaker
You know, not in our lifetimes at least right like I the US is fully capable they produce good enough players of making like a quarterfinal, maybe semi final at some point if everything clicks around in the World Cup of having a golden generation, you know, of being a relevant soccer country.
00:26:33
Speaker
But we're not turning into a global soccer power. We're just not going to produce those players on a consistent basis for a very long time. Like I'm fully convinced of that. And until we do, we're going to go through this cycle of anointing the next great one and then being disappointed when they don't turn into that.
00:26:51
Speaker
Right. And it's not it's not fair to the players. It's not fair to yourself to have these expectations that are completely unrealistic. Like it's just it's the worst experience in the world to be like a miserable sports fan and not it's like you see somebody like Jordan Morris developing and becoming a better player. And all you can think about is, well, he'd be even better if he'd gone to Germany. Right. But our system is so messed up and it's just like, man, just
00:27:19
Speaker
It's like the reverse American exceptionalism of like everything about the American soccer experience is uniquely bad.
Sounders' Playoff Strategies and Team Dynamics
00:27:28
Speaker
And it's like, no, man, there's plenty of dysfunction in other countries. The FAs are just as bad. We just don't actually see them. Right. We don't see it firsthand. And I'm happy to sell for the kid. And look, here's the other thing, right? International soccer is about winning games.
00:27:45
Speaker
And let's say, let's just grant that if Jordan Morris had gone to Germany instead of going to the Sounders, he would have become a much better player. He would be on the level of Pulisic or Tyler Adams or Weston McKinney or whatever, Josh Largent, whoever people are currently foaming at the mouth about, right? Let's just grant that as true. He didn't.
00:28:10
Speaker
Right. He didn't, so it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if he, if he's one of the players that gives you the best chance to win, he should be getting called up and what you think of the decisions that he made in his own life that he thought were best for himself. Don't, don't matter at all. They're completely irrelevant.
00:28:27
Speaker
And if you think that players should be punished for not making the professional decisions that you want them to make, you're an insane person. You need to find another hobby because it's
00:28:44
Speaker
like personality disorder type stuff to feel that way. Like it's just, it's really unhealthy, man. It's really unhealthy. Like Jordan Morris, as he is the player he is now is one of the best players in the US pool and should be. And he's playing for the Sounders. Yeah. And so here's another stat I'm going to throw at you. This was, Casey Danow wrote a really great column that looked at the combination of, of Raul Ruy Diaz and Jordan Morris and how they're kind of turning into this.
00:29:11
Speaker
maybe they're very different than Oba Clint, but they're turning into that kind of level of production combination. And they have only played, started 12 games together, this, I guess ever, which is not a lot, but in those 12 games there, the centers are averaging 2.25 points per game, and they're scoring more than two goals a game. And it's, what's funny about watching them play is that
00:29:39
Speaker
The Sounders don't seem to suddenly look like a great team when they're playing together, but those two players give them the ability to turn virtually any situation into a goal scoring situation. And they have a level of dynamism that they didn't really have before. Last year, their offense was kind of predicated on this really clever movement of these players all being like kind of turning into more than some of their parts.
00:30:09
Speaker
And I don't know that Morris and Rui Diaz are doing that, but they do give the Sounders the ability to be competitive with just about anyone. Yeah, I think you can make an argument that Morris is currently the best American attacking player in MLS.
00:30:27
Speaker
And Ruby Diaz, I think, is in the discussion for best attacking players, period, in MLS. And so having two of those guys on your team, I think that they're complementary in ways that maybe aren't super obvious. Dempsey and Oba were complementary in ways that stood out and were obvious for everyone to see. Ruby Diaz and Morris, I think,
00:30:47
Speaker
the ways in which they make each other better maybe aren't quite as obvious. But I think that they do have complementary skill sets. Morris being a direct player and forcing defenders to make a decision opens up a lot of space. I think for Rui Diaz, who is just exceptionally good at finding space in the box and cleaning up rebounds and just being a general pest,
00:31:13
Speaker
But if you have two elite level attacking players, teams are going to have trouble stopping you, especially when you have an elite distributor like Nico Ledero. And I think, and the Sounders just have not had that in
Christian Roldan's Versatility and Midfield Impact
00:31:26
Speaker
a while. I mean, even when they've been good over the past couple of years, I don't feel like they've been a team that have like multiple guys that can just kind of put the team on their back and kill you in the attack.
00:31:37
Speaker
And I think Morrison Radie as both can do that. And it's very nice. I think a really nice complimentary piece to that too, because he's willing to do some of the work that you sometimes need from an attacking group. You need one guy who's willing to kind of do some of the grunt work and do things like crash the back post and, you know,
00:32:01
Speaker
make tackles and do things like that. And Rolled On, even though I know it's kind of a frustration of people that he's kind of being played out of position as a right mid, and I think we would all probably love to see a world where the Sounders have the ability to plug him in at his best position, which is probably is kind of a number eight, and then have these kind of world-class level players in the attack.
00:32:29
Speaker
I think that they can be very competitive with Christian Roldan as a right mid. And I almost wonder if they're better off with Roldan there than they would be with Victor Rodriguez. I don't, I would like Victor Rodriguez to come back. So maybe that's kind of a moot point, but I think there's an argument to be made, especially if Ceccini can settle in that maybe their best look right now is with Roldan at right mid.
00:32:57
Speaker
Yeah, so Christian Roldan, and I used to be dead set against him playing wide unless he had to. And I'm now coming to the point where I don't necessarily think it's his best position, but I don't think that he's clearly better as a central midfielder. And Roldan really is starting to remind me a lot of James Milner, who some people will probably,
00:33:24
Speaker
take that as an insult. But James Milner is a guy who made a career at an extremely high level on championship winning teams of doing the dirty work and attacking positions, of being that kind of player. He played for Manchester City for years and when they were spending gobs of money on every attacking player in the world,
00:33:47
Speaker
And yet he was pretty consistently getting played in time with Manchester City, because the things he does are valuable. They're not super glamorous, but they're extremely valuable and somebody has to do them. And I think having somebody that can kind of play that box to box role as a wide midfielder
00:34:03
Speaker
and do some of their dirty work and be a defensive presence and clean things up while also being a pretty credible threat in the attack. That's, I mean, that's huge. Like, obviously, if you can have, you know, another Raul de Ruida's level player to put there, yeah, that's probably going to be your preference.
00:34:28
Speaker
But just because Roldan is not a classic attacking winger, that doesn't mean that he's not making extremely valuable contributions. And the 2014 sounders, who was their right midfielder? It was Brad Evans. I was going to say that in a lot of ways, Brad, that he's kind of like a Brad Evans plus.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, and like Brad Evans was another player I can, I compared to Milder and it's, I think one of the most criminally underrated roles in soccer are these attacking players that aren't necessarily your biggest goal scoring threat and they're not necessarily your playmakers, but they're involved in the attack and they're doing the stuff that just gets overlooked as being important.
00:35:14
Speaker
And I think too that that him playing there helps the defense pretty significantly as well. So I mean, again, like if we can have a world class winger at that position, that's going to be an attacking like more of a purely attacking player. I'm all for it. But I used to think that him playing there was like a failure of. Yeah, some level.
00:35:37
Speaker
on some level like a roster building failure you're having to settle right or or just like you're having to plug him in there because there's nobody else to play there or we have to get him on the field or whatever um whereas now i feel like he's like a a plus at that position yeah i mean he's you know i just look at the the game he had against la and there's just not a lot of players that i think you can
00:36:02
Speaker
get like the two goals he scored in that game or the kind of goals that there's not necessarily a ton of the centers like Harry ship has scored some of those back post type goals but he's not consistently getting into those positions either.
00:36:17
Speaker
And I think he's got a much, you know, and I think Harry ship is another player who's a fine player to have on your roster, but I do think it would be tough to justify him starting in that situation. And like, I guess, given the way that the roster is right now, if I have to choose between sachini playing as an eight and roll dawn as a, as a, as a right mid and.
00:36:41
Speaker
Harry ship as a right mid and rolled on as an eight. I think I would probably prefer sachine. That said, I don't know what to make of sachine yet.
New Signings: Integration and Potential Impact
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, I don't either. I mean, I'm willing to be patient because the sounders are generally not bad at scouting. Like they don't tend to sign bad players with their, you know, bigger impact signings.
00:37:09
Speaker
But they have. I mean, they've definitely signed plays. Yeah, they've definitely made some bad signings. There's no question about it. Wolf was, I think, probably the biggest example, and maybe the one that could turn out poorly in the same way. But it's a difficult role to play.
00:37:30
Speaker
on a pretty short period of time being able to integrate. I'm not super concerned at this point. I obviously want him to play better. I don't think that that's because he's been bad. I mean, I would go so far as to say bad so far. He's done some very good things. He's clearly a talented player. But overall, I think he's been bad.
00:37:55
Speaker
You know, it's it's been what a game and a half of total playing time. Yeah, we haven't seen a lot of them. But I would say that there's reason to be worried at this point. You know, he's he's clearly got a good engine. You know, he's he's prone to making some. Like, I like his aggressiveness, I think, and his willingness to kind of take chances.
00:38:23
Speaker
And maybe that's just not serving him well though early on because he doesn't quite have a feel for the players around him. And so maybe as he gets more familiar, we'll see better, better decision making, but it will be interesting to see how he develops because I, you know, and maybe it becomes a moot point on some, like if Victor Rodriguez comes back and.
00:38:44
Speaker
You know he comes off the bench in this game he looks good and then he's, you know, who knows maybe starting in two games and, and who knows maybe he's able to put it together and stay healthy for the rest of the year. I suspect that role Don would move back to next to Gustav Svensson but
00:39:02
Speaker
You know, I'm hopeful, but I also can understand the concern over Sichine because I, even though you can point to some decent stats that he's put up, like in the last game, he had four, he was four for four on tackles and he was like 90% passing completion while putting the ball forward quite a bit. Yet when you watch him, there's this disconnectedness. And he's one of those players who I don't think the stats are really telling the whole story.
00:39:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that's reasonable. I mean, I think that when you look at, you know, the stats in your scene, okay, they've completed and the players completed X percentage of passes. If two or three of those passes are horrible giveaways that lead to goal scoring opportunities, which, you know, they have been, that's not great. But I think too that there is often
00:39:58
Speaker
I think especially for younger players whose career has maybe not gone the way that they wanted it to go, there's a tendency to try to do a little too much. And that kind of tracks with what we've seen and the kind of struggles we've seen. Sometimes those players can never really rein that in, and that's why their careers don't go the way that they were expected to go. But as often, if not more often, players get a little more comfortable and start making better decisions.
00:40:28
Speaker
It's definitely reasonable to be concerned. Uh, you obviously want new big signings to come in and set the world on fire. Uh, but we've had a lot of good players here that didn't look great their first few games. So I'm not, I'm not super concerned about it yet, especially because he doesn't have to be playing right now.
Defensive Strategies and Player Readiness
00:40:46
Speaker
Like he had to play against Colorado. He doesn't have to play the next game or the game after that or the game after that. So he's got a little more time to settle in and become more comfortable.
00:40:58
Speaker
Yep. Well, that's probably a good place to call it a segment. We have a lot of questions to answer from you guys, including one you're definitely going to want to tune into to hear pizza takes. Uh, cause that's, that's definitely the good stuff that you're, that you're listening to. Uh, but anyway, this is new study at disc.
00:41:18
Speaker
All four wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nos adieres 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.
00:41:38
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. Welcome back to NOS Adietes. We have questions and I'm just going to go ahead and let Lickit take it away.
00:42:06
Speaker
All right. D underscore height asks, the inconsistency in our defense seems to be one of our most major issues. What's the best way to help fry out with injuries, call ups, suspensions, et cetera, along the back four?
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that assessment very much. The defense has been frustratingly inconsistent. And I think you kind of allude to the core of the problem, which is there's been a lot of inconsistency with the personnel that they've been using. And so my hope is that just by stabilizing
00:42:41
Speaker
the group of players that are getting minutes there that, you know, with Svensson back, hopefully that helps. You know, I would like to think that him and Saccini can, can form a decent partnership. Uh, and if not, then him and Roldan, there's obviously not a lot of time to figure that out, but you know, if Brad Smith can stay healthy, if Kelvin Lirdum can stay healthy, I actually think that.
00:43:05
Speaker
For now, I'm okay with Ariaga and Kim as the center backs even. And I think if you can get those six players to consistently be on the field together, they're going to be better. Now, I don't think that's necessarily a shut down defense. They're clearly missing a Chad Marshall and Ozzy Alonzo type of presence who's going to kind of dominate and kind of put out fires. But I think that they can get by with that six and
00:43:34
Speaker
Um, you know, I don't know that there's anything schematically that they can, they can really do. Yeah. I mean, I think that if you try to change things up too much defensively, um, from a tactical standpoint to try to.
00:43:49
Speaker
improve things there, you run the risk of screwing with the offense, which has just recently started clicking pretty
Sounders' Business Strategies and Fan Base Expansion
00:43:55
Speaker
well. So I think you're right. I mean, I think it's just consistency. It's playing time together. Turnover and defense is really hard on teams. It's pretty well known and observed phenomenon across soccer at all levels. So it sucks because there's not
00:44:14
Speaker
there's not a good answer other than just wait and hope that things work out okay. I think that the center, I mean, I think that's always the least satisfying solution, isn't it? It is. And it's often the solution too, which is frustrating. But
00:44:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think the center back pairing will be okay long term. I think it could be good long term. It's always going to be a little weaker than the air, I think, than everybody would like. But I mean, you know, Atora's Marshall center back pairing was less mobile than everybody would like. So you're always going to have to kind of put up with with some shortcomings. So, you know, I think it's but I do think that
00:44:55
Speaker
When defenses, when those position groups get hit hard by injuries and absences and call-ups and things, it's really painful and it's really hard to plan around. It's really hard to do anything tactically. You just kind of got to take your lumps and hope people stay healthy.
00:45:13
Speaker
Okay. Speaking of Roman Torres, uh, Bill Jones, S T R P T asks, and also Michael underscore Lyper asks, do you think once Ramon is eligible and fit to play that he will play and improve our defense? And is it true that Torres can start training with the defiance is if he's fit, can he go for the San Jose?
00:45:34
Speaker
I mean, go ahead. Okay. All right. So my understanding is that he is now able to train with the defiance. He can't, I don't think he can train with the sounders until the week before the San Jose game. So he'll have something like, you know, three or four potentially training sessions with the first team before he's eligible to play. So I suppose that there is a chance that he'll
00:46:05
Speaker
be fit and ready to play. I guess my understanding is he was down in Panama, keeping up his fitness. And so he might be fit. I think the bigger question is whether or not the sounders see him as a, like him being off for eight or nine weeks or whatever it was, is that better than
00:46:26
Speaker
Ariaga or Kim, and I don't know the answer to that. I think that all things being equal, Torres is probably a starter in this group, and if you look at the way that the team has played with Torres on the field versus the combination of Ariaga and Kim, that doesn't seem like an outlandish statement to make, but I just
00:46:51
Speaker
I think it's gonna be tough to expect him to step in and be the starter against San Jose. And in fact, I would be a little shocked if that's the way it goes down, especially if Kim and Ariaga are healthy. Now, I suppose if the centers are playing poorly leading into that game, maybe that changes the equation. But yeah, I think the best case scenario is probably that he's maybe in contention to really be starting for the Minnesota game.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah, and I think too that if you feel like Kim and Ariaga are going to be your center back pairing next season, which who knows with Kim, you know, there's definitely been some chatter that that he might be on the move. But if you think they're going to be your center back pairing, I think it's worth obviously you have to balance it with winning because you know, the founders are in a playoff race and everything. But
00:47:46
Speaker
I think it's worth saying, look, we're going to go with these guys because we want them to get time together and we want them to get as comfortable with each other as possible. I don't think the upgrade to Torres is that big that you feel like you need to get him onto the pitch. But I do think that there are some games, I mean, if the sounder is in a plane, the galaxy and the playoffs, for example,
00:48:06
Speaker
having Torres in there against Ibrahimovic would be nice to deal with him in the air. But I don't think he's gonna come back right away and start, and I don't think he's a magic bullet, even if he were to do that.
00:48:22
Speaker
Switching to the front office, Chamber I Seattle asks, would love your thoughts on what the new president of business operations, Peter Tomozawa should or could be doing in his first 18 to 24 months to reinvigorate and expand the base?
00:48:37
Speaker
Well, hopefully he won't be crashing the global economy by going long on mortgage-backed securities. Just kidding. Where am I? Yeah, I think that the critical thing is that a lot of the newness with the Sounders has worn off over the past three years, I think especially after the MLS Cup win.
00:49:02
Speaker
once that mountain was climbed that some of the shine came off weirdly. It is kind of, it does seem kind of counterintuitive and yet it does seem to be the way things have gone. It was just like this thing that we'd been building to for so long and then it's like, okay, what now? And I think that part, I mean, that's ultimately that's natural, right? Like nothing can stay new forever. And so the sounders have just become more, I think, of a normal part of the background for a lot of people.
00:49:33
Speaker
I think figuring out how to engage new fans is gonna be critical. People don't tend to stay as fully engaged in their hobbies for their entire lives. People have kids, they get more demanding jobs, they move away, et cetera, and so forth. They just prioritize different things in their spending habits. I'm still a huge sounder fan, obviously, but am I as invested as I was five years ago? I'm definitely not, not even close. And I think that that's normal.
00:50:02
Speaker
and figuring out how to get new blood into the fan base. I think it's going to be critical. And also figuring out how to get people that are still fans, but maybe not as, it's not their primary
00:50:18
Speaker
You know, during the season, getting those people back and re-engaged, even if it's if they're not getting back season ticket holders, but, you know, getting them selling them half season ticket packages or what have you just getting folks re-engaged I think is going to be critical. If you can get people from, you know, watching
00:50:35
Speaker
90% of the games on TV to come into the stadium seven, eight times a year, that's going to be super beneficial. So, you know, I'm not a business guy. He obviously has the chops there and I, you know, I have no idea what specific things he could do, but I think that
00:50:53
Speaker
The Sounders fan base feels stale to me. It feels like it's largely the same folks that were fans five, 10 years ago. And it just seems less invested in figuring out how to solve that puzzle. I think it's going to be critical.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah I would say that that's that's a fair assessment that I think that that also speaks to the issue of needing to grow the fan base like it can't just be like I've kind of felt this way for a long time that there's probably 80 or 90,000 really engaged sounders fans and they're mostly in the like
00:51:27
Speaker
Seattle area if not maybe King County and parts of Tacoma but for the most part it's a pretty concentrated fan base and they've gotten a lot of mileage out of that concentrated fan base and I think that you have some casual fans outside of that and I think that
00:51:43
Speaker
the Sounders have some pretty decent like reach into the community and and you talk about the same like people are aware of the Sounders and and they're part of it. But I don't think there's as many people who are coming to a handful of games a year that and that's and those are really you need to have a ton of those fans. It's great to have
00:52:03
Speaker
you know, your fans that are showing up every week. But those fans will burn out. I mean, I think that we're seeing that. It's like after 10 years, there's just a natural cycle that it's like, you know, the people who, you know, I look at myself, you know, when I came to Seattle 10 years ago, I didn't have kids. Frank, I didn't have a regular job. And I could just kind of jump both feet in and be a hardcore Sounders fan without really any sacrifices.
00:52:31
Speaker
Well, now I have two kids. Now I have a job. Now, you know, I'm doing all these other things. And and I don't know that if I wasn't part of my job wasn't covering the sounders. I don't know what my level engagement would be, even though I think that they still put out a really good product. But could I go? Like, could I justify going to a game every single week? Probably not. You know, that's and I think that's that's kind of the challenge.
00:52:57
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's figuring out how to unlock that, how to make kind of people who aren't fans into casual fans and turning casual fans into partial season ticket holders and turning partial season ticket holders into, you know, your next generation of hardcore fans is probably, you know, that's not, that's a, I don't know if that's a howl, but that's, I think the pathway to getting there.
00:53:19
Speaker
I think too, this is something we've talked about in the past that I forgot to mention. I think figuring out how to engage demographics that are not people that look like Jeremiah and I, um, is going to be, you know, I mean, that's, there are so many soccer fans in the Seattle area that don't care about MLS. And, and if they can tap into 10% of that population, that's huge. Okay. Moving on. Slaughter Beck. See ignoring.
00:53:49
Speaker
the on any given day chances of randomness that happen in this sport what is a realistic ceiling for this team in the playoffs how about a realistic floor hmm let's see i a realistic i i understand what this this person is saying is that it's that you could basically argue that the sounders are capable of winning emos cup because frankly any team that makes the playoffs is
00:54:14
Speaker
capable of winning in West Cup. So I don't know. I think that the sounders realistically
00:54:22
Speaker
They probably need to hope that LA Galaxy squeak into the playoffs and knock off LAFC. And then I think once you put the centers up against those other six teams, I think they're right there. Like, I think that if they have home field advantage, I think they're the favorite against all six of those other teams. And if they don't have home field advantage, I think that they should, you know, be like, you know, of a 35 to 45% chance of winning.
00:54:49
Speaker
uh with you know the the gap being a tie possibility in there so i don't think the sounders need a miracle but i i think that you know i guess the other thing is that if lafc depends on what carlos villa's status is we've seen them suddenly become very mortal once carlos villa has gone down with injury so if he doesn't come back fully fit i think that the the west is wide open and there's no one in the east that i think is unbeatable for the sounders so you know i think that there's some variables but um
00:55:19
Speaker
You know, I think that the Sounders, if they get a two or three seed, which I think is pretty reasonable, I think you got to give them a decent chance. And I think that they're like the worst case scenario, I feel like they're going to get into the playoffs. Um, maybe famous last words, but, um, I mean, being honest, there's there a floor is any team in the Western Conference could knock them out of the playoffs. Um, yeah.
00:55:48
Speaker
Like I don't know that I would go into any matchup against any home or away against any team in the West and think like, oh, the Sounders are locked on. There's no question they'll advance. Yeah, I think in general MLS this year is there's LAFC and then there's 20 teams that are okay. And then there's some real crap. Right.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah. And so you're saying that the rapids, the rapids just beat the galaxy tonight.
MLS Playoff Unpredictability and Team Performances
00:56:20
Speaker
Granted, I guess it was a controversial result, but like the rapids just beat the sounders in the galaxy who were two potential playoff teams in fact, you know, in the span of four days. So yeah. And the rapids are now seven points out of the playoffs. Like this is crazy. Yeah. So yeah, I think that
00:56:43
Speaker
LAFC is clearly the best team in MLS. They're clearly the best team in MLS history. Sorry, last year Atlanta. And you before that GFC. Right. And New York Red Wolves last year as well, who actually weirdly finished ahead of Atlanta. Yeah, I mean, so it's like,
00:57:01
Speaker
If they don't win the championship, um, I don't think it's going to be a surprise because it's, it's actually comparatively kind of rare for the best team in the league to win the MLS cup. But, um, if they don't win, it's clearly going to be a team that's not the best team. But of, of everybody else, I think the Sounders have just as good of a chance as anybody else. But I also, like you said, they're, they're not clearly better than anybody else that could be playing. I think the nightmare scenario is getting like San Jose.
00:57:27
Speaker
were Portland in the first round of the playoffs, you know, San Jose, because they're a much better team than their seeding is probably going to end up being, although what they're in, like. They're getting lost tonight to RSL. They're fifth currently. Yeah. So who knows? But in Portland, just because nobody wants to play. We're going to be, we'll throw up if we have to play Portland again. Yeah, I wouldn't.
00:57:56
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think I'd be happy about that. Was that a real crap or is that real crap? Sorry, whichever, whichever you want it to be. All right. Moving on. Matt underscore cop asks, which was a worst experience on Saturday night watching the Sounders rapids match or dealing with the rain delay at the UW football game?
00:58:19
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I wasn't at the UW football game. I was watching it kind of. Um, but that, I mean, that was fine. I just watched the thunderstorm instead. So that was cool. I would imagine being there probably sucked a lot more. Um, although what did, what did they, did they, how late did they, how long of a delay did that end up going into? They restarted the, or they bought the game back at 10 30. Yeah.
00:58:43
Speaker
I watched the end of it because I couldn't sleep and it ended at like 120. It's like a Hawaii game. Yeah, exactly. It probably kind of sucked being there, but I would imagine if it sucked that bad that you couldn't enjoy it as being kind of a weird thing, you probably just would have gone home. It seems like most of the people that hung around had a pretty good time between when the game started again.
00:59:11
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, I, the sound, the sounders rapids game was, was garbage. I didn't watch the last 15 minutes of it. And I can't, I cannot remember the last time I was watching a game and stopped watching it. It was that bad. So did you wait until the second? So it was real after this last second goal, you turned it off. Yeah.
00:59:29
Speaker
I mean, cause like nothing, there's no way they were going to come back. I wasn't mad necessarily because like, like if that had been disappointed. Well, I mean, if it had been like a, a 70% first choice team, I probably would have been pretty irritated, but I knew they were going to get waxed. So it was just like, I've got better shit to do, you know? So.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, if you were stuck at the UW game and had to be there, even if you didn't want to, that would probably suck a lot worse. Yeah, like your friend was like, no, I'm staying. And you're like, come on, bro, let's go home. All right. And they're like, no, no, no. Or if you were stuck at the game and the only thing you could do is watch the Sounders Rapids game on your phone? Ooh. That would be pretty bad. Yeah. Yeah. That would be pretty bad. OK. Thunderstorm was dope, though. That was fun. That was a pretty awesome thunderstorm. Pretty cool until I lost power.
01:00:21
Speaker
Oh yeah, you're one of those people that lose power. Next question. Ken Oplinger asks, what will it take for MLS to prevent scheduling or in this last case rescheduling games during the international window?
Scheduling Solutions and League Policy Critiques
01:00:36
Speaker
So I wrote a column about this situation last week and I've kind of come around, for a long time I was pretty reluctant to essentially suggest that MLS should go dark, like just blackout dates that are during international windows, in part because I just felt like it's logistically really problematic.
01:01:02
Speaker
But I have to admit that I've kind of come around that if if you have teams like the Sounders who are going to be missing 10 players, I don't see how you can justify.
01:01:13
Speaker
playing games, like it's just too many players that are going to be missing. And the Sounders theoretically could be missing as many as 12 or 13 players if you, if every feasible player gets called up, uh, that is in contention for, for international call ups. And that's just, that's an absurd kind of situation to put any team into. And the Sounders I think had the most, but it wasn't like the most by a long shot. There were teams that had nine players, like
01:01:37
Speaker
sporting hands city i think had nine players the timbers had eight players so there's a bunch of teams that had a ton of their roster missing and i just don't see how that's good for the league to play and that's the main reason that teams in europe take take it off it's not because of some high-minded ideal it's because it just becomes very impractical to field a decent team that put out and put out a decent product
01:02:01
Speaker
when you're missing this many players. And it really messes with the competition and all these other things. And so I guess that's a long way of saying, I think MLS just needs to black out these dates. And the way that I think they can manage that is they got to start the season a couple of weeks earlier, which is now possible because the season ends almost a month earlier than it used to. And so I think there's room to start the game the season earlier.
01:02:31
Speaker
I suppose that might put some of the cold weather teams into a tough position of playing games in winter or in February. But I think you just got to figure that out one way or the other. Either give them the option of opening on the road for a few weeks. If they want to play in those temperatures, I think you let them play. And then the other way you clean that up, I think, is you've got to
01:02:58
Speaker
you might have to shorten the season by a week or two, or by a couple of weeks, go down to a 32 game season. And that would actually allow you to even take off every year for like the summer tournaments if you needed to. And I think those two things would come pretty close to getting rid of, like making it so you don't have to play a ton of midweek games. And I think that's a good trade off, personally.
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, and I would say too that every argument that I've seen in favor of maintaining the status quo tends to boil down to, well, what about the shitty teams who have trouble drawing? Right. I don't care.
01:03:41
Speaker
Right, and caring too much about those teams is part of the reason MLS can't grow to the quality that that it needs to grow to let them, let them starve, if they don't want to spend money, if they don't want to try to win. Let them draw 5000 fans on Wednesday night you know cares let them fail.
01:04:00
Speaker
That's not likely to happen, obviously, because the people who own those teams tend to carry a lot of water. But that's I used to be a little more sympathetic to that. But at this point, I just I don't give a shit anymore. Let them know that the league can't can the league is never going to grow to reach its its stated goals. If they allow the handful of teams that don't want to take
01:04:27
Speaker
that don't want to be in convenience, make all the decisions. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Everything is done with an outsized concern for the cheapest ownership groups. And it's, you know, it's, I'm tired of it. Okay. Uh, next question is, nationally, I'll see asks thoughts on Minnesota banning the iron front on t-shirts on shirts.
01:04:57
Speaker
I'm against it. Yeah. I think that with the banners and the flags and such, I obviously think it's total bullshit of MLS and of teams to ban them and to enforce the bans, but you can make a plausible case for doing it, right? Like you can make a reasonable
01:05:22
Speaker
case that says hey we you know we don't want this at our games we don't want it to be this blah blah blah it's bs it's it's not a compelling argument but it's a reasonable one right like it's not something you can dismiss out of hand um anytime you're telling people that they can't wear clothing of their choice that's just a bridge way too far way too far like i i haven't thought about can i wear this thing that i'm gonna wear
01:05:49
Speaker
that I want to wear to a place that's not work since I was in middle school, you know, like, because I couldn't wear a shirt that says socks on it or whatever, like.
01:05:58
Speaker
Um, it's, it's, it's crazy to me. It's patently ridiculous that, that a team would do this. Um, especially seeing the reaction, you know, to the, to the van on the flags and such, like, and then thinking that was a good decision. Um, it's, it's baffling and it's, it's definitely an escalation of it. That is not going to turn out well for, for Minnesota or for the league. If the league wants to try to make that the norm. Yeah. I, um.
01:06:28
Speaker
I guess I think I'm probably with you there.
Practical Advice and Personal Preferences
01:06:31
Speaker
I don't agree with the decision as far as banning the flags, but I understand the logic that's being employed.
01:06:44
Speaker
Um, I don't quite understand it just seems to be like mean, I guess is maybe like, I don't, I would, I, I haven't heard the justification that Minnesota is using for banning it on pins and shirts and things like that. And so I'm not quite sure what justification they're giving, but it, it strikes me as curious and, and I would think probably out of step with their fan base, but maybe it's not, I don't know.
01:07:16
Speaker
I think that the very rich out of touch people in charge of MLS teams have a very poor sense of what their fan bases are actually like and what normal people are actually like. I know that I'm really going out on a limb by suggesting billionaires aren't in touch with the common man, but I think we're definitely seeing some of that. Okay. Switching topics. Nick Gurney asks, my wife and I just bought a house. What do we need to know?
01:07:47
Speaker
Ooh. Pay your mortgage on time. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely pay your mortgage on time. It's less important to pay your mortgage on time than your rent, which I think is pretty funny. True. Cause you've got like what, like three weeks before it becomes a problem with your mortgage. Not that I've been testing that every month. Uh, something will go wrong. Yeah. At some point.
01:08:16
Speaker
things. Yeah, lots of things. Generally, get lots of numbers for plumbers and electricians. Yeah, I would say yeah, I would say you're the best thing you could do is talk to your friends about plumbers, electricians and handyman. handyman is a huge one. It's a huge one. It's way bigger than you would think, I think.
01:08:37
Speaker
Like the worst situation that you can get yourself into, and I've definitely had this happen to me where I've had to call plumbers basically out of the phone book and electricians out of the phone book, is like, you're just, it's so, it's terrifying. I feel like I've had pretty good luck with both those things, but if you can get a personal recommendation on anyone that does work on your house, I would, and I would treat those people very well and,
01:09:06
Speaker
Yes. Like, try to keep them happy as much as you can. Never call any company with TV commercials. And that goes double if they have like professional athlete endorsements, because they're going to be like six times as much money as everybody else.
01:09:22
Speaker
Um, like tech, we had to get a new roof, uh, right after we moved in and tech line, which is the company that John Ryan used to endorse on TV. And they're the only roofing company I've ever seen TV commercials for in Seattle was like 60% higher than the next highest bid. Yikes. Wow. And, and beacon plumbing as a nightmare. They're super expensive and they're, they're just generally pretty bad. So if you've heard of them, they're, they're probably not the best company you could, uh,
01:09:51
Speaker
you could call, which is kind of, you know, it's a little counter too. But I've found it to be true. And also, no matter whether or not your house is new or old, something is gonna break. Like before we bought our house, we lived in an apartment, we were the first people that ever lived there. And we had more maintenance issues in that place than we've had at our house that's like seven years old. So don't allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security.
01:10:24
Speaker
Fair. Also don't lock yourself out of the house. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's a lot easier to do in a house. I would, I would say definitely, uh, invest in a lockbox that you can key code like a key into. I've locked myself out of the house a couple of times and had to do some pretty harrowing things to get into it. That's a different podcast altogether. Yeah.
01:10:49
Speaker
Okay, this is a most important question probably of the night. Mark Kastner asked top five pizza toppings.
01:10:57
Speaker
So I feel like the reason that this question got asked, um, I feel like there's some context needed here is there's a podcast that Mark and I both listened to called blocked party. It's a very good podcast. I recommend it heartily. Um, but they have, they had a segment where one of the hosts, uh, Stefan heck, who, uh, he's the guy that got the Jeremy Renner app shut down. Cause he talked about watching a porno on it. Um,
01:11:22
Speaker
So he they were talking about this and he said that number one, that sun dried tomatoes were top five pizza topping, which is bad enough as a cake. Interesting. But then he also said that both sauce and cheese counted as toppings. Oh, come on. Which is just insanity. It's like and and makes the sun dried tomato take worse because that means he thinks it's a top three pizza topping.
01:11:50
Speaker
But so for the purposes of this discussion, cheese and sauce are given. They're there. They don't have toppings. So, yeah, without out of the way, I think Jeremiah, you should go first. OK, well, I'm a pretty like if I have to narrow it down to five toppings and if I mean, I'm I'm I like I'm a pepperoni guy. I'm an olive guy. I like fresh
01:12:19
Speaker
Tomatoes, I think on my, I think I'm a big fan of fresh tomatoes as opposed to any other sort of, you know, being on there. Huh? Nothing. Yeah. I don't like tomato. I don't like fresh tomatoes. I guess it depends on the pizza, but yeah. I mean, I guess talking about fresh tomatoes, like put on after the pie is baked. You're talking about baked on top. No, I'm talking like, like, uh, well,
01:12:44
Speaker
That's a good question. How do I want it? If I'm wrong, I guess I would want it cooked on there. Yeah. See that's awful. That's terrible. That's worse than a sundried tomato to me. Yeah. Oh, I like, I love tomatoes on pizza. Even with tomato can be, can be good, but yeah, I don't know. Now, now you got me thinking. Well, this is all about, I know. Uh, but I'm a bell pepper guy.
01:13:10
Speaker
And, uh, but then it's like, I guess, but I'm also someone who like, so I'm going to list all like really normal, like super normal things. And I'd probably like, like, I love a combination pizza that has just like all the normal shit on it, but, um, I will also, but I, I mean, I don't know. I guess.
01:13:31
Speaker
I could go, but if I had to pick five, those ones I guess in my fifth would probably be like mushrooms or something boring as F. Mine is super context dependent because if I'm getting like a wood fired, very traditional Neapolitan style pizza or something.
01:13:48
Speaker
I'm probably going to want to go with like margarita or something you know like like just basil mozzarella that's all I need, but if we're talking about, I'm going to order a pizza from Zeke's, which I can't do, but if I lived somewhere with civilization.
01:14:03
Speaker
Pepperoni, I think, is the obvious number one, especially when you get the pepperoni that's upturned. So that's the best. I got to have onions on pizza. I feel like that's a controversial one, like a lot of people do. No, I love onions too. Red onions, I think, is probably my preference. Sure.
01:14:25
Speaker
Sausage too. I mean, mine feels pretty boring also. I'm trying to think of one that's like out of left field so I can make this segment more interesting. Jalapenos are really good on pizza. Yes. Yeah. Jalapenos. They are. I agree. Is it zigzags? Pickled or fresh? Pickled or fresh? Either one I'm good with, honestly. I definitely would want pickled for what it's worth.
01:14:49
Speaker
So Zeke says a pizza that is pepperoni, fresh jalapenos and garlic. And it's really good. But outside of the context of that specific pizza, I think I would probably tend to go pickled. I do love pickled jalapenos. Are you a red sauce or are you someone that will do the, like to me, I wouldn't say I exit out, but with rare exceptions, if they're doing an olive oil base, I'm just moving on to the next pizza.
01:15:19
Speaker
So yeah, I'm typically that way with pizza and with a lot of other cuisines where, not cuisines, but foods where there's a very common version of it. And then there's a slight variation, like say a barbecue sauce pizza and olive oil base or whatever. It's not that I don't like those things. I just, if I want pizza,
01:15:44
Speaker
I don't, that's not what I want. I might want like a barbecue chicken pizza, but not because I'm like, Oh, I'd like a slice of pizza. You know, it's like, Oh, I'd like barbecue chicken and some bread. Right. Like.
01:15:56
Speaker
They're very different things for me. It's like, uh, I feel like we talked about this on the show once, but like, if I want Mexican food, I don't want Taco Bell and I don't want taco time. If you want Taco Bell, you want Taco Bell. Yeah, I want Taco Bell. Right. It's the same kind of thing for me. So I'm not saying that like a barbecue pizza or a, or a white pizza isn't pizza. Like I'm not going to be that dude, but I, I feel like they're,
01:16:22
Speaker
they're different enough genres, you know, where it's like, if you're talking about like, Oh, my five favorite metal bands, um, you're probably not going to talk about new metal in there, you know, like you're going to make an exception for that conversation. Like you wouldn't say corn is one of your favorite metal bands, right? Cause like that, that's just, that's not, that's no slam on corn. Um, I mean, I hate them, but they know it wasn't meant to the slate on corn. Right. Exactly. So yeah, I think I only did four, but that's okay.
01:16:51
Speaker
So here, here's the question. I actually, I, if I was going to throw in a weird one, I would throw pesto and I'm going to say, like, I think pesto on top of a red sauce pizza is
Closing Remarks and Audience Appreciation
01:17:04
Speaker
actually really good. I haven't seen that much out here, but there was a place back in, uh, Santa Cruz actually that does a pizza like that. Polyachis has, has one that's one of my favorites. It's a, uh, our truck hearts, mushrooms, pesto goat cheese, garlic.
01:17:20
Speaker
On a red sauce? Yes. Oh. That sounds interesting. I don't like pesto very much. Oh man, I love pesto. I don't tend to tell people that. I'm telling a thousand people right now. Because there's no good reason for me not to like pesto. I like basil, I like nuts. I like olive oil. Cheese, oil boil. There's a lot of good stuff in there. I don't hate it, but I'm never gonna
01:17:46
Speaker
Like I, if there's the pizza and it was a pesto base, I'm not going to, I'm never going to even consider ordering it. Oh, well. Yeah. I'm not proud of it, but. Okay. Uh, let's go a little last question here. Uh, so Silv, Sylvie Nari, sorry. Uh, is Aaron's cat. Okay. Just checking since it has not appeared on the show for a while. Oh, she's good. She, uh.
01:18:15
Speaker
The problem, and she's almost certainly going to show up now that I've said this, but the problem is that, so her litter box is in here. She likes to sleep on my office chair when I'm not in here, which is, I'm very rarely in here.
01:18:30
Speaker
So the problem is when the door is closed or even like slightly closed, she gets freaked out because she doesn't have access. She feels like she doesn't have access. So as long as I keep the door open, she tends to be okay. So, but yeah, she's fine. I mean, she's old and she's cranky as hell all the time, but she's fine. Yeah. She's still plugging along. Good. Good. Yeah. All right. That's it.
01:19:01
Speaker
Well, that was fun. Thank you for sending in questions. And, uh, sorry, we didn't record, uh, last week, but we're making that up to you. Hopefully you appreciate it for 20 minutes. Right. We just filled up 20 minutes of your very valuable time talking about that. So anyway, uh, that's our show. Um.
01:19:27
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's, uh, I don't, I don't get much else to that. Other than say thank you to our sponsor, uh, football wines, of course. Uh, and I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off on behalf of Aaron Campbell and Lickett. This is No Study Yetis. Remember, you will remember your own.
01:19:45
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.
01:20:22
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!