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Episode 361: Let's hope Sounders shook off rust at Club World Cup
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The Club World Cup came at a particularly inopportune time for the Seattle Sounders. Despite being about midway through their preseason, however, the Sounders acquitted themselves well and actually looked like the better team for much of their loss to Al Ahly. We discussed this game, expressed some frustration with Brian Schmetzer's substitution patterns and looked ahead to the regular season while also taking a wide range of questions from listeners.
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) Sponsor read: James Woollard
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fullpool's unique writing styles applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving, turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Meet the Hosts and Podcast Introduction
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. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! I want to say bye-bye! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win!
00:00:52
Speaker
important the KSA's genius. Here comes Rui Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. They have climbed the mountain and now are masters of all that they survey. Michael Odero leaves absolutely no doubt the Saldars rule the region. Seattle Saldars is convinced
00:01:18
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green in Seattle.
Seattle Sounders' Sponsorship Controversy with Providence
00:01:51
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking? I have no idea. I don't know.
00:02:01
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of Nos Adietes, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and Watson's Counter. This is episode 361, and we're recording on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023. I'm your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and Lickit P. Believe it or not, this is the first time that Aaron and I have recorded together since early December.
Seattle Sounders in the Club World Cup
00:02:22
Speaker
A lot has happened since then, but we'll mostly be talking about the Sounders' new sponsorship, and they're all too short experience at the Club World Cup.
00:02:30
Speaker
as well as taking quite a few of your questions. So thank you for doing that. So let's just go ahead and start there with the club roll cup. I thought the Sounders played pretty well, all things considered, and we're probably the better team through about 60 minutes. But tired legs seem to get the better of them. Brian Spencer was apparently reluctant to do much to address that, and they ultimately lost on a somewhat fluky goal, failing to advance past Egypt's Al Ali, who would go on to lose 4-1 to Real Madrid today in the semifinals.
00:03:00
Speaker
So, Aaron, what was your main takeaway from the whole Club World Cup experience? Yeah, I mean, I think that my main takeaway after the game was that looks like a team that has not played competitively in quite a while. And I think that it's to Brian's credit and the team's credit that they were insistent that they weren't using that as an excuse. I'm happy to do it for him.
00:03:29
Speaker
LLE is in right in the middle of their season. They're in, you know, fantastic form in the league. They're the best club in Africa, I think by a pretty significant margin. They they've, you know, have some success in this tournament in the past. They've been there before. Finished through the last two years, actually. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of pretty embarrassing
00:03:55
Speaker
takes on their status as a club and how the Sounders should expect to perform against them. I would say it's a great big world out there. And I think people maybe should sometimes entertain that it's different than they think it is. At any rate, that's a very good club. In mid-season, they have the experience. And the Sounders played very well with them. I mean, I think if those two teams play on equal footing, where both are at
00:04:24
Speaker
the same level of form. Both have had a similar level of games under their belt. I think the Sounders have a great chance of winning more than they lose. I don't think that LLE showed that they're just in a different class to the Sounders.
00:04:42
Speaker
I definitely think that not having that match fitness, not having quite as much sharpness as, you know, you would maybe hope a little further along, you know, made a big difference. And ultimately it was 1-0, right? Like it's not like the Sounders got.
00:04:59
Speaker
drummed off the pitch. It was a very close game that took a deflection to win it. So I think I can't be too upset about it. I would have loved to see them win. I think they played well enough that they could have gotten a result. But at the same time, I just think you have to be realistic about how much of an uphill climb that was.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, I would mostly agree with all that. I don't think that neutrals were probably blown away at the impressiveness of the game. It was a little plotting. I think the two teams combined for less than one total expected goal.
00:05:39
Speaker
And the sounders for all their like, they did, I think control the game, especially through the first 60 minutes. And they, at one point, I know they went into halftime with an eight to one shots advantage, but they, they weren't generating a ton of high quality chances. I don't know that they were really.
00:05:55
Speaker
generating any quality chances or really high quality chances. They had a decent shot from Josh Atencio. Albert Rusnak had a decent look on a shot that he shanked pretty badly. And Jordan Morris had a decent look at a header that he didn't really make good contact on, but he was in good position.
00:06:16
Speaker
But other than that, not a lot of great scoring chances, but I was impressed by their counter-pressing. I thought that their defense in general was really stout, like to the point where 60 minutes in, you just were wondering, like Ali hadn't really threatened at all. And, you know, they had one decent look before they scored. They had a shot off the cross ball right before they scored. And then the goal they scored, or the shot they actually scored on,
00:06:45
Speaker
I don't know that it was even going to be on frame. It wasn't hit particularly well. It takes a very unlucky bounce. You know, Stephen Fry, I thought made a good comment. And he said, you know, you feel bad for Alex because that's exactly what you want him to, Alex Rodon, the ball deflected off Alex Rodon. You know, it's exactly what you want your defender to do to get in front of a shot. And sometimes it just takes a weird bounce. And that's what happened in this one.
00:07:11
Speaker
and and the sounders didn't really have much to counter that and they didn't have much time to counter it um but it was a little you know this is one area where i sometimes roll my eyes at the criticisms of brian schmetzer's subbing because it does feel a little bit like the
00:07:30
Speaker
like the most easy thing you could criticize a manager for is his subbing patterns because it's this counterfactual that you can't really ever disprove, right? You can always say like, oh, if he had just made the move that I wanted him to make, it would have been better. But in this case, I think it just felt like a game where it needed fresh legs. This is the first competitive game of the season. They are essentially three weeks ahead of their schedule.
00:08:00
Speaker
They're playing against the team, like we said, that is in mid-season form. And I understand you want Niko Lidero out there. You want Raul Rui Diaz. You want Jordan Morris. There's a reason you want these guys out there, but first game of the season, just give me some fresh legs, right? Yeah, I mean, I think that if there is a consistent criticism of Brian Schmetzer that I have, it's that he really trusts his guys. Yeah.
00:08:27
Speaker
And that has paid off plenty of times. I mean, where, you know, you, you ask like, Oh, that guy is not playing well. Why is he getting all this time? And then, you know, if they end up squirting game, one goal or what have you. So I get it to a certain degree. And I think most coaches really like their guys and trust their guys, but I, I, there has to be a point where you recognize that the best thing for your guys is to get them off the pitch. And I think that this, this was for sure that game. And I think.
00:08:56
Speaker
You know, the Sounders, there's been like a real criticism, I think of the club, just their lack of depth in the off season. I don't think that I shared as much as some people do.
Sounders' Early Season Challenges and Tactical Analysis
00:09:08
Speaker
I'm pretty happy with the roster. Obviously I would have, you know, loved to see them make another big off season acquisition, but I'm not freaking out. But I do think that if you're in a position where in the first game of the season, you have a lot of attacking players that are clearly gassed.
00:09:24
Speaker
And your coach doesn't feel comfortable getting them off the pitch. It's reasonable to say, is this going to be like a consistent pattern throughout the season? Right. And it's like, you don't want to, and I, I've been really reluctant to read, get like, I see a lot of people expressing frustration out of the, the offensive woes, so to speak. And it's like, it's, it's one game. It's one game is one game. We're still in preseason. I don't want to get too wrapped up in it, but I do get.
00:09:50
Speaker
where this is coming from because it does feel like a continuation of last year and I can't really blame anyone for you know this is the data this is what we have to go off of until proven otherwise this is this is all we have and so I am sympathetic to this idea that like it does feel this way because it does feel it I just would say
00:10:12
Speaker
Let's let's give it a little bit of time before we freak out. But yeah, like that they weren't that Schmetzer wasn't willing to go to the use any of that depth. You know, Leo Chu is a great probably the glaring player, right? This is a guy who on paper is exactly the kind of person you want to put into this game. He's got speed. He can maybe stretch the field. You know, he's not the perfect player, but
00:10:38
Speaker
you know, maybe he can get in behind someone there, right? Even a Dylan Tevez, who we haven't seen a lot of, but he's looked okay when he's gotten in. And this just seems like the kind of game that maybe you wanna see what you got, right?
00:10:56
Speaker
Especially as LLE started getting forward a little bit more and leaving a little bit of space behind. Now, some of that is probably because of a recognition on their part that these guys are gassed. Like we don't have to worry about counter attacks. But does one guy that they maybe aren't even that familiar with like really change that calculus for them? Probably not. And I think it's at least worth a shot to go with something a little different in that situation.
00:11:22
Speaker
And I don't want to, I should say there were some positives tactically in this game as well. You know, Mark Kastner, our sounder, our colleague, uh, wrote pretty extensively about one of these tweaks or the main tweak from this game. And though, even though the sounder is lined up in a four, two, three, one, which was very familiar, the way it played was really more of a.
00:11:42
Speaker
of a 343 where you have where New Who would essentially drop back into a center back once the Sounders had possession. Alex Roldon would sort of become a fourth midfielder. And then Albert Rusnak was sort of supposed to flare out, I think, to the left and be more of that connecting piece to Jordan Morris, who really was quite high. Like he like the average position map had him as the as the had the highest player.
00:12:12
Speaker
which I don't think was entirely by design because Raul Rui Diaz ended up being almost in midfield by the average touch map, which I don't think it was, I would hope is not the design. But I thought it generated some good possession. It was very structurally sound in transition.
00:12:29
Speaker
And there were some positives there. I don't want to get too, I don't want to beat the sounders up too badly because it wasn't quite like one of the criticisms I saw is, oh, Schmetzer is so reluctant to change anything. And this was a significant change.
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was an interesting tactical approach. And I think one that, you know, I don't think that Brian Schmetzer is tactically naive. That's like something a criticism I've seen made against him. And I don't necessarily think that's true. But this was, I think, a little more progressive.
00:13:06
Speaker
of a shape and just system than we've seen from the sounders. And I think it suits the personnel well. I think that it's malleable. They're going to be able to, assuming they ever make attacking subs, they're going to be able to make a similar system work with a couple different looks.
00:13:23
Speaker
Um, and, and I thought it, you know, it was encouraging. Um, I think if knew who was going to be the starting left back on this team, he needs to be a stay at home left back. And if you're going to have a stay at home left back in the modern game, then you need to become sort of unbalanced, right? You need to have like fluid shape between possession and defense. And that's really, I mean, that's like sort of the, the trend and the way people talk about tactics now, right? Is saying like.
00:13:49
Speaker
you know, describing teams with the shape that they have in defense is really missing force with the trees, which I think is true. But you also, you can't really describe them with the shape they have in attack either, because that's not really the whole picture. So we'll have to, I guess, figure that out as we go along. But in any case, I do I did like what I saw. And I think there's a lot of potential there.
00:14:13
Speaker
And I do think that the Sounders, if they're playing with more than one and a half preseason games under the belt with more than two or three weeks of training or whatever it's been under their belt, they're going to be sharper because there were some nice attacking moves. They were just not quite in sync. And I think that was the thing is that
00:14:33
Speaker
You can set your team up however you want to, and their shape can change between possession and defense. That's all well and good, but if you're not actually making dangerous movements and confusing defenses and getting into good positions, none of that stuff matters. And I think the Sounders did not look like a team that didn't have the ideas or the ability to do those things. They just looked like a team that wasn't quite there in terms of execution yet. And so that, to me, is really encouraging because we have seen this team
00:15:03
Speaker
Look completely devoid of ideas. I mean that was really the the problem last season is that they had all this attacking talent they tried all these different things and They just couldn't create chances because they just didn't seem to have any ideas of how to break teams down and I I get the sense that that's what a lot of the offseason work has been about is You know trying to come up with new looks and new ways to attack
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, one of the other tactical tweaks I think that we're gonna see more of as we see it developing is Albert Rusnak being a little bit more involved offensively than he oftentimes was last year. I still think he's gonna end up being on paper in that sort of like eight role, but I can kind of see it evolving into something where you have sort of
00:15:58
Speaker
you know, both Ledero and Rusnak is sort of farther forward. And either Ziaopalo or in this case, it was Joshua Tenzio sitting a little deeper. And so you kind of end up with this,
00:16:12
Speaker
I don't know, you end up with almost three attacking midfielders, I guess, in that sort of formation, because you also have Rolled On. Or I guess Rolled On ends up being sort of more of a winger in that formation. But you also have Alex Rolled On coming up on the wing, who provides a little bit more in the attack. So I don't know, I thought some of that was encouraging. I was really, I thought Josh Atencio was outstanding in this game. You know, I don't think you're ever gonna,
00:16:41
Speaker
If you can get Jauh Paolo on the field, you're going to put Jauh Paolo on the field. And it was good to see him. Like, it was just good to see him playing. Like, and it was it would have been neat. Like, one of the other things that Zephry said after the game is, you know, it was a shame because we didn't really have anyone that was able to make the runs for Jauh Paolo, because by the time he came in, everyone was pretty gassed. And it just gets you back to like, you know, like, let's let's try some of these fresh legs, right? Yeah, absolutely.
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, you could see, though, pretty clearly, I think, even though the sounders were arguably worse after he came on for reasons that I think were completely out of his control. It was pretty apparent, even though he's rusty, even though he's got, you know,
00:17:26
Speaker
months of fitness to earn back or to build back to, he's pretty clearly what the Sounders were missing last season. It's just so obvious. As good of a job as I think the people that deputized him did, that rotating cast of guys, none of them are JP.
Impact of Club World Cup on MLS Season Start
00:17:48
Speaker
No, they aren't. And I do think that maybe my hope, and I think this is a realistic hope, the most positive development to come out of this whole club World Cup experience is that everyone seems to be farther ahead along in their preseason forum than they would otherwise be. And
00:18:10
Speaker
I have never really doubted the talent on this team. If they can stay healthy, I think they are a team that has potential to even contend for a support or shield. But if they can hit the ground running like this, they open with three or four at home.
00:18:25
Speaker
there's no reason they can't start strong this year. They should be in better shape than most of the teams that they play early on as a result of getting this early start. I've seen some speculation that this could be sort of like a hangover effect. I don't see that at all. To me, totally crazy if somehow
00:18:50
Speaker
Anyone tries to trot out the excuse that the Rangers are on some kind of hangover from the Club World Cup. Like this seems like it was a good experience for them. Maybe it sounded like it was a good team bonding sort of experience for them that they probably could use after last year.
00:19:07
Speaker
And yeah, I'm, I'm more optimistic. I was, I was a little surprised to see how much pessimism there was following that. And I think it's mostly just frustration that they didn't score and that the offense didn't look as dangerous as everyone wanted him to look. But I think we've sort of gone over pretty thoroughly the reasons for
Deep Dive into Providence Sponsorship Issues
00:19:26
Speaker
that. Um, and hopefully, you know, they scored a couple of goals in the season opener and, and we don't have to talk about that again.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, it does kind of feel similar to those years gone by in CCL where the sounders would kind of come out and mess themselves a little bit. And it would be a bummer, but then the season starts and it's all forgotten because they come out strong. Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
And it's similar to that. I know CCL has been such a thing for so many people for so long that it stings for the people that are super into it, and I get that. But the main event is still to come, so hopefully they can build on it.
00:20:15
Speaker
Well, it has been also a very, it's funny concurrently, while the Sounders were away for the club World Cup, right on the, almost at the exact same time, I guess the last thing they did before they left to Spain was they rolled out this new sponsor. And in case you are somehow unaware, the Sounders are now, their shirt sponsor is now Providence. The healthcare system, I guess is the right way to refer to them.
00:20:44
Speaker
And they did this big rollout on Thursday and then the Sounders left town on Friday. And I do wonder how much the players were exposed to the
00:20:52
Speaker
pretty loud uproar. You know, we just did like the last episode of Nos Aetis that we did actually was sitting down with a couple of Sounders officials and sort of like going through the thought process of how they ended up with this sponsor and sort of like the fallout from it. And we don't necessarily need to get into the fallout, but let's just talk about Providence itself. Aaron, you, I know, have some really strong feelings about this sponsorship.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I think that if the sounders had not made such a, I don't want to say show, because it's very easy to be cynical about this and to say things that, to assume the sounders are operating in bad faith. And I'm not saying that that's unreasonable to do, but it's not what I want to do in this event, because I do think that everyone involved
00:21:49
Speaker
means what they say generally, that they don't feel like this compromises their principles and their values and that they believe that good can come of this. And that's, I think that they're sincere, but I don't think they get it. And I was really hoping I would go into that interview and feel like, okay, I disagree, but I feel like they get it and I just don't feel like they get it.
00:22:17
Speaker
Because for me, and people can have their own positions on this, they obviously do, but for me, there's nothing that makes this deal okay. But if the Sounders were most other teams and they never really took much of a stand other than the milk toast,
00:22:40
Speaker
politically correct, but in the actual non-moded sense of the term. They have a pride night and they talk about inclusivity or whatever a couple times a year.
00:22:55
Speaker
and did this, it would be a bummer, but I don't think it would feel like as much of a slap in the face as it does. And I think if you position yourself that way, and if you talk about your core principles, and if you take stands, like if you take bold stands, which the sounders have done and deserve credit for doing, I mean, Taylor talked about, you know, the protect trans kids banner and the Brahmin during the CCL final. When you do those things, and when you set a high bar for your
00:23:26
Speaker
your, um, you know, your, your beliefs and your values and, and your willingness to follow through and live them. You set a higher standard for yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's all it comes down to. Right. So, so yeah, like it's a bigger deal that the sounders have a sponsorship and with, with Providence, then it would be if, I don't know, the Mariners did. Right. Well, and I think, I think one of the other things that really sets it apart, cause I've, I've given this a lot of thought and the reality is that,
00:23:55
Speaker
Providence or Swedish have sponsored a lot of things around town, and every one of those doesn't cause the same level of uproar that this one did. And I do think that a big part of it is just the simple fact that it's not on the building, it's not their healthcare partner, or it's not just their healthcare partner,
00:24:20
Speaker
it's that it's on the front of their shirt. It's just absolutely inescapably linked to their brand in this way. Fans are being asked to buy this piece of merchandise that is effectively advertising a healthcare system and that makes a lot of people really uncomfortable and I don't blame them.
00:24:44
Speaker
I'm not going to sit here and try to debate whether or not provenance is every bit as bad as most people making them out to be. Frankly, I think they are probably just as bad as they are made out to be. You and I had a good discussion about just how regressive their reproductive healthcare policies are. I have to admit, I was a little surprised to learn that they
00:25:12
Speaker
Drag their feet enough that, in fact, even though state law mandates that all healthcare insurers have to provide access to abortion care, they essentially got out of it. If you have Providence insurance, the state will pay for your abortion if that's what you said you need.
00:25:34
Speaker
And Providence just won't touch it. I found that to be pretty... That's not great. They are absolutely working to undermine a woman's right to choose in that way. And I think there's plenty of room for... I know that the youth mental health aspect of this is a huge part of it for the Sounders. And I do believe that the Sounders are
00:26:01
Speaker
gonna do something to like they're gonna do their best to like Make sure the best practices are being used but and I get it I think like there's room for a lot of skepticism over what that healthcare actually looks like to the people that are getting it in in high schools now, I think we have to be somewhat realistic in that like this is gonna be a counseling service mostly it's gonna be referrals and it's not like
00:26:27
Speaker
they have doctors and they're providing services, but like there's absolutely reason to be skeptical. And I, I, I tend to give the sounders the benefit of the doubt that they will hopefully be doing their due diligence to make sure that kids aren't being sort of like led astray and, and being told like, well, the way to get over your mental health issues is decide not to be gay or whatever. Uh, like,
00:26:50
Speaker
you know, worst case scenario we would be putting out there. But like, I get, I absolutely get why people are uncomfortable with this. I have to admit that listening back to that interview, I was a little frustrated at how much like,
00:27:07
Speaker
corporate speak there was. Yeah. Yeah. And that's like, that to me is, is why it's upsetting is that my takeaway was based on the things they were saying, they just feel like they didn't communicate well enough, right? All of the benefits here. And it's not, I'm not doing a cost benefit analysis about
00:27:30
Speaker
the sponsor on my team shirt. Either I'm okay with them or I'm not. And I'm not okay with them. And I think if you are a business person, and look, I have nothing but respect for Taylor Graham. I think he's a really good guy. I believe that all of the things he said about his personal beliefs and values are 100% true. I think this is just part of his job.
00:27:58
Speaker
If you were talking about an advertising deal, and that's what this is ultimately, right? And you expect me to believe that anything, but what goes into your bank account is the driving factor. I don't believe you. I do not believe you because they could have worked out some kind of deal with provenance to have some kind of, you know, to do all of the things without the sponsorship. Right.
00:28:28
Speaker
And I'm sure both sides would have gone for it. But they knew that there was going to be pushback. And it was clear to me from the way they answered the questions, they knew there was going to be pushback. And so they said, what can we do to try to offset that pushback? And I think that that was probably a good faith discussion.
00:28:50
Speaker
But ultimately they're having to offset the pushback because the pushback is valid. Yeah. And that was, I think that was the one question that I tried to get answered that.
00:29:00
Speaker
I don't know. I'm not going to sit here and say I did a great job of running that interview. I'm sure a lot of people were frustrated that I didn't push back more forcefully, but I didn't really see my role in that as being adversarial. To some degree, I think
00:29:24
Speaker
Like my job was to let them have their, like I was letting them have their, their explanation. I mean, that was what this was about. It wasn't about me getting into a debate with them. Right. Um, but one of the things I was frustrated by is I think I tried to articulate is you don't want to be having these discussions about any sponsor. Like if you're having to like explain away a sponsor, you're already starting at a deficit and
00:29:50
Speaker
You know, like a lot of people had, were frustrated by the Zulily sponsorship, but it's like their reasons for the, for the frustrations are like, those are absolutely the kinds of things that a company, that a team like the Sounders just says, like, look, people don't like the brand. Like it's just like a complete, like they, they find the brand off-putting for whatever reason, but it's not like morally, these aren't moral issues that people are struggling with. They're just, these are issues of taste. They don't like aesthetically the way the logo looks or something. Uh,
00:30:19
Speaker
but this is like a whole different level of discomfort. And I don't know, I still don't know if they, I will know. I think they pretty clearly misread what kind of, what was, people were upset by it. It wasn't that they were upset. They weren't just upset with the sounders giving up on their values. It was that,
00:30:48
Speaker
even if they hold those values, in some ways that almost makes it worse because it's like, how do you balance these two? How can you have these values, but then take money from an organization that really does stand in contrast to almost like every key point. Right. I mean, like it or not, if you have a brand's
00:31:10
Speaker
logo on your shirt, you are advertising the brand. Yeah, you're tacitly endorsing them and what they stand for and what they do. And like most companies have total BS, empty corporate values that they speak about or whatever. And most companies are not all that morally upstanding. That's just the way the world works. But there's a line.
00:31:36
Speaker
And I think this clearly crosses it. And I would have had a lot more respect for the sounders if they had said, look, we understand that people are upset by this, but this is a lucrative deal for us. And and they're never going to say that. Right. I completely understand that that's not something they will or can do for, you know, whatever reason, just because it's just not done. But
00:32:02
Speaker
It's more respectable to just say, look, we're in the business of making money and this helps us, this makes us the most money. And it gives us a lot of stability for the long-term. And you don't personally love all this stuff either, but that's the nature of the beast.
00:32:18
Speaker
At least that's honest, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I do hope that they understood, like, I think the other thing that, that kind of bugged me about the interview was when I asked him like, well, what's, what can we expect you guys to like, there was a lot of talk about like our, we need to show with our actions, uh, like how to make this all like pal palatable. Uh, but we also need to, and I,
00:32:47
Speaker
And I asked like, well, what are those actions? And then what do you think is a reasonable way for fans to sort of like hold you accountable? And the answer about holding them accountable, like really was very frustrating because essentially they said, complain through appropriate channels, which was like, complain to your ticket rep, complain to the Alliance council, or maybe join the Alliance council and then complain to us in person. I thought that was a little, like a little, a little rich. Uh, and then.
00:33:16
Speaker
There, there is no, like they did not have, they're not, they're a hundred percent not ready to like commit to any real actions other than saying things like we're going to still put out tweets. We're still going to have pride night. We're still going to do these things. And it's like, I hope you understand that that's really not sufficient. Like this is not about it without some kind of concrete action. It's going to make things worse. Right. Every one of those tweets is going to have just a mountain of responses saying, Hey, why, why is Providence? And they, and they just like.
00:33:45
Speaker
I mean, look, with apologies to the people running social media for the sounders, the sounders as a brand deserve it. They deserve everything they get. I love the sounders. I love them dearly. I think as rich guys go, Adrian seems about as good as you can get. I think all the people running the club are sincere and honest, but
00:34:07
Speaker
They messed up bad. They're committed to this mistake for a very long time. Yes, they are. And they're going to I mean, they're just going to have to take their medicine. Yeah, I think that's yeah. I mean, and I do think on some level, like.
00:34:22
Speaker
We'll eventually move past this. Obviously, we don't have a whole lot of games and it's like, whatever. I don't want to turn this into a weekly thing for us or anything, but I think it's important. It's not going to just go away either. It's going to come up and it'll be interesting to see how the sounders navigate this. I don't think they've covered themselves in glory navigating it so far. At some point, I suppose it might be interesting to hear from
00:34:52
Speaker
providence and who knows, maybe this affects some change for them. I can't imagine that they feel great about the publicity that they're getting, which is good. We haven't even gotten into the whole bilking
00:35:07
Speaker
low-income patients out of bills that they shouldn't have had to pay and some of their more repugnant billing practices in general, Providence is not a feel-good company. I know a lot of people in the medical field, none of those people have come to Providence's defense. In fact, almost all of them have said, I'm really bummed out about this, or the Sounders aren't the organization I thought they were, or
00:35:37
Speaker
You know, this is not like it's it's not been it like no one's no one's really looked great in this whole thing. But, you know, and I hope I hope people really do.
00:35:48
Speaker
I have heard some kind of pushback of this is anti-religion, and I don't think that's what's going on here. I think that this is much more about how people imposing their religion on you. No one's mad at
00:36:08
Speaker
Catholics in general over the same. This is about a Catholic healthcare provider imposing their Catholic values on the way that you receive medical care. That's an extremely, as someone who has admittedly some hostility towards religion, I think that's an extremely bad faith argument. Because look, I've had jobs where Providence was my healthcare provider.
00:36:31
Speaker
Right. And I didn't have a choice. That was the company that I got healthcare through. So they are imposing religion on their customers, because that's how healthcare works in this country. And so, I mean, yeah, that is an element of it for me, right? Not like I hate your religion, but I do not like it when people use their position of power to impose their values on others in that way. But
00:37:00
Speaker
I would guess that a lot of the people making those arguments have gotten very good at making those bad faith arguments. Right. Right. Oppression of Christians in America. So. Yeah, I mean, and that's and I do feel like there is there is a part of me that feels like sensitive to this issue because I don't I don't think that like I would hope that
Conclusion and Acknowledgment of Ongoing Debates
00:37:26
Speaker
that Christians feel perfectly comfortable talking about this issue. I feel awful if there are people who genuinely feel as if this is Christianity bashing. But I generally don't think that's going on here, and hopefully this isn't what this becomes. But anyway, we've set our peace on that.
00:37:54
Speaker
I think we've got a lot more soccer stuff to talk about, some stuff with the jersey, all kinds of fun things going into the last three weeks of the preseason. We're going to take a break right now. We'll come back. We'll answer a bunch of your questions. You're listening to Nos Arietos.
00:38:15
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:39:16
Speaker
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00:39:35
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietes. A bunch of questions. Before we get into that, I want to give a little bit of a pitch. I guess we haven't really done this pitch since we started updating our Substack. But in case you don't know, we launched a Substack. We've been updating it at least once a week with newsletters. It's sort of
00:40:01
Speaker
structured as like you get a column and then you get a whole bunch of stuff that if this is the like the idea of this sub stack is that if you only have time to read like a couple stories that you could probably get away with just reading our sub stack and getting like all the big news of the week.
00:40:22
Speaker
And once we get the season started, I think the hope is that we're going to do it like twice a week. So sort of like one that sets you up for the upcoming games and one that sort of like recaps everything that's happened since the game right now. It's everything that we're putting out there is available for free, but we are. If you want to support us, we're more than happy to take your money.
00:40:45
Speaker
It sounds horrible to say it out loud like that. But people have been asking us how they can support the podcast for a long time. And our thinking is that we're going to probably start recording more like every week. It might not be the two of us every week, but we're going to have shows that come out every week.
00:41:05
Speaker
Your support kind of like makes that feasible for us. So, um, and we, you know, keep you in mind, we don't actually know what the long-term future of sounder at heart is. Uh, things can be changing the world around us seems to be shifting rather rapidly. So this is sort of like getting us a foothold a little bit in, uh, what might be coming next. Um,
00:41:26
Speaker
But yeah, if you want to support us, great. If you just want to subscribe, it's nosadiettis.substack.com. And hopefully we'll get some calms from Aaron one of these days. Yeah, I was going to say it was very, very nice of you to say that we have been updating the substack. Yeah, you know.
00:41:45
Speaker
I try to be gracious, but lots of questions. So why don't you go ahead and, uh, yeah. So the first one is from a, from a subscriber, uh, which is pretty exciting. Um, and that is Joe. And his question is, this is Leo choose second season with the sounders. It's not clear what expectations we should have for you 22 player, as this is the first time the club is spending big to develop a high end prospect. What do you think are appropriate expectations for cheer this season? And how does the club feel about choose progress so far?
00:42:15
Speaker
I think that's a good question that I don't know we've actually asked. How does the club feel? I've talked to a lot of people and I don't know if ever actually, that's a good one. I think I'm gonna have to look into that one because I think that's actually a good question. We don't tend to put things quite like that. And so there's a promise. I'm gonna try to get a better sense of how the sounders feel about choose development.
00:42:43
Speaker
But yeah, it's, I think we're at the point now, it is second full season. Technically he's going into his third total season with the Sounders. And we're at the point now where I think we should be expecting something. Um, you know, he's acclimated. He, he has some physical tools. We, I think we have a better idea of what his limitations are, but.
00:43:08
Speaker
He, I think he's got to show something this year. Like if he's not, like it was, it was definitely a little disconcerting that, that he, that for all like, like Brian Schumacher has been talking about how he saw some good progress from him since last year in terms of like his commitment to defending and, and some of his offensive abilities that he didn't get into the game was a little, like I said, a little disconcerting.
00:43:35
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think it's totally fair at this point to have real expectations for him. Yeah. I mean, Leo, she was is 22 will be 23 in.
00:43:48
Speaker
April. So, you know, he's entering into the part of his career where he's not a young player anymore. In the, you know, in the like soccer sense, like he needs to start showing something, especially considering the transfer fee and all that. Because if he's not going to show anything this year, the Sounders probably have to
00:44:09
Speaker
cup eight, I mean, they probably have to just, you know, call that a sunk cost and move on. I don't think anybody wants that. I mean, I think he's going to get chances to fail for sure. Um, and hopefully he doesn't. I mean, he clearly has talent. Uh, he's, he's great on the ball. Um, he's, he's got great physical skills. You know, he's got, he's got good technical ability. Um,
00:44:32
Speaker
It just hasn't clicked. Sometimes it takes some time with a young player for stuff to click, especially a young player who hasn't had a ton of game time in his senior career. He's played more games with the Sounders than anywhere else, and he's only played 30 some odd games. Yeah, that's actually a good point.
00:44:51
Speaker
And so, you know, and that's, that's unusual, I would say for a player coming from South America, but you know, it is the reality. So, uh, I'm extremely hopeful that, you know, this is the year that he can become, I don't think he has to become like a starter. He doesn't have to score 15 goals, but if he can become a player that range, it feels like branch Metzer is happy to put into the game rather than somewhat reluctant to put into the game.
00:45:16
Speaker
who can get a start and you don't feel nervous about it, I think that's a pretty big win. And I'd say if he can get to 10 goal contributions, goals and assists, I think that's a pretty good target for him. If he's too far below that, I mean, I don't know how you justify, frankly, bringing him back for another year, but it seems like that feels like a realistic expectation to me.
00:45:44
Speaker
So this one's from Eric, who is another subscriber. He says, I realize attacking takes more time to develop, but I haven't really seen the sounders completely break down the opponent since we had Victor Rodriguez, which would be all the way back in 2019. Mike quibble with that one, but who has a heck of a catalyst for an inbox, who was a heck of a catalyst for in ball inbox ball movement. I was encouraged to see a bit of the whirling ball
00:46:08
Speaker
in the All-All-Lee game. I'm just wondering if we can see that kind of thing this year maybe with Rosnack in a more advanced position. I feel like really we haven't seen him looking completely in the flow yet. Yeah, I mean, I think I would also push back against the since 2019 assertion, but I get the point, the general point, the larger point. And I think that
00:46:30
Speaker
We, we saw a lot of, not a lot of that, but we did see some of that before as well. Paulo's injury last year, as Russ next started to settle in a little bit more and then JP gets hurt. Uh, everybody is kind of in positions that they don't feel super comfortable in. Um, and you know, it just wasn't, it wasn't great. I mean, I don't know what else to say. I think that's going to improve this year. Um, I think that, um,
00:47:00
Speaker
the addition of Iber, I'm probably, am I saying that? No, I think that's basically right. I'm always terrified of Portuguese names. So hopefully that's not too bad. But I think that's going to help. That's a different attacking look. And I think he's going to get a pretty decent chunk of playing time for sure.
00:47:21
Speaker
And I think the system that we saw in the Club World Cup is the kind of system that is designed to produce that kind of play, that specific style of play. And so if they can get that rolling and get that work, and I think that, yeah, we could definitely see some of that. They clearly have the talent to do it. They clearly have the right kind of players to play that way. They just got to do it.
00:47:46
Speaker
Right. Yeah. I hope, well, I guess the short version is I hope we'll see it. I think Rusnak has a lot of the same skills that Victor Rodriguez had. So, you know, there's some hope there that we can get another player who can do some of those intricate in the box movements that we sometimes saw for Victor Rodriguez. So, you know, we'll see.
00:48:13
Speaker
All right. Uh, next one is from JDB underscore two 19 on Twitter is Christian injured. He looked tired and was subbed in the well. He wasn't in the friendly. Oh yeah. I guess he was subbed in the friendly.
00:48:23
Speaker
Well, he was subbed in the club World Cup game. I don't know if he was subbed in the friendly to maybe he was. I don't know. But according to Schmetzer, you know, we haven't had any access to Smetzer since the game, but he did. Jada Evans asked if he was hurt. And I think I think he mentioned that he had some sort of groin and like some like
00:48:44
Speaker
quad injury or something like something that wasn't super serious, but that, that kept him from being able to play the full 90 minutes. It was a little surprising to see him come out, but he's carrying some sort of knock. It doesn't seem like there was any real concern. Uh, training is open tomorrow on Thursday. So we'll probably get something there. Um, oil here.
00:49:08
Speaker
Right. Well, the 10, 10 30 at night oil, I guess. Well, you know, when you got kids, uh, this is from, uh, J underscore SSFC. Uh, why can't the majority of our fan base be realistic about our squad? Do you think our supporters struggle with seeing other club signings and then put the pressure on ours? Well, this year's squad show us more or less quality than last year.
00:49:32
Speaker
Uh, I think no fan base can be realistic about the squad ever. Um, I, I just, it's, it's true in every sport at every level, but I think it's especially true in soccer. Um, just because there's like, there's so much emphasis put on transfer windows. Um, yeah. And in, in, in defense, how do you, you can't not get frustrated when you sit team like LAFC for sure. Like seemingly signing like this.
00:50:01
Speaker
How do you how do you say this guy's name? Bullying. I should know this. The very, very famous player from Chelsea, who is a bomb. Yeah, there. Yes, I don't know. I don't know. I don't watch the Premier League. But anyway, they're supposedly going to sign this guy and not pay any of his salary or something crazy like that. He's like making six million dollars a year. It's extremely obvious what's happening.
00:50:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's extremely obvious what's happening. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, I don't know. I mean,
00:50:39
Speaker
It was obvious when Mann said he was doing it too, right? So maybe six years from now, LAFC will get investigated and slap it on the wrist. Yeah, it's super frustrating. So on that, I agree with that. But I think generally when we're not talking about clubs that are obviously flaunting the rules and giving them like murder,
00:51:02
Speaker
I mean, I think everybody's always frustrated when their teams don't have players. I know a lot of people don't like it when I talk about Aston Villa on here, I'm sorry. But, you know, in this last transfer window, they shipped out a ton of guys that were on huge wages and, you know,
00:51:20
Speaker
cleared off a lot of space, made space for some of their good prospects, brought in a really promising player from MLS, by the way, which was pretty exciting. Made like a 15 million pound signing on like a... Yeah, John Duran. Yeah, John Duran. I mean, they did a lot in the window. They spent over 30 million pounds. They cleared off probably 10 million pounds in wages and people were just losing their minds about the transfer window.
00:51:47
Speaker
because they wanted a new striker and a new winger and a new midfielder. So it's like, you always want more. And I get that. And I think after last season,
00:52:00
Speaker
people really wanted to see like big signings, but the sounders did make a pretty big signing for one and an attacking signing. Yeah. That does seem to have been glossed. Like their biggest need was like a replacement for like someone who could spell Raul Rui Diaz and a bear. I look like on paper. I think that's about as good as you can hope for.
00:52:22
Speaker
We're big will broom fans here, obviously. Yeah, I'll swap a will broom for a bear on paper seems great. Yeah. And so, you know, I think I get the frustration. There are certainly areas of the of the squad I'd like to strengthen. We do still have what, like two months until the this one. Yes. Yes.
00:52:47
Speaker
Obviously, your windows closed, it's a little iffy and different. But I mean, there's still plenty of opportunities to add players, especially if we'll get to some dominoes that could fall maybe a little later on in the questions. But at any rate, you know, people are always going to complain. I don't think it's unique to the Sounders. I do think that when teams, when people see
00:53:14
Speaker
other teams, especially teams that they consider to be rivals, signing, making big signings. Yeah, that's going to be a little upsetting when you feel like you're missing out. But I think this team is going to be better than it was last year. I feel extremely confident in that. The window, I think, for this core group is closing. I don't think you can deny that. But I don't think there's any reason to think that it's closed yet. I think there are just a lot of extenuating circumstances about last year that
00:53:43
Speaker
explain it a lot better than everybody just got shitty at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm with you there. I yeah, I think the team, I guess the answer to the last part of it, I think I think the team is going to be OK. Yeah. So the next one is from G Willow Wilson. Should Ruznek play in the pivot or move up a line into the attack and why?
00:54:12
Speaker
I mean, I think he, you're wasting his skillset if you're, you're asking him to effectively play as a six. Uh, I think with it's, you know, one of the things that's a little frustrating, one of the discourse kind of things that's been frustrating is, um, Albert Rusnak has sort of become a,
00:54:34
Speaker
like this solution that everyone sees is like, well, clearly he was a 10 goal, 10 assist guy, like every year at RSL, we should be putting him in a position to do that. And one thing I'll point out is like, he was effectively playing as a 10 most of the time when he was in. And I don't know that, like, I don't know, maybe he would be better off. Like maybe you can swap him and Lidero, but I think more realistically,
00:55:04
Speaker
him and Jal Paulo actually looked really good together. They didn't get to play together that much, but there were a few games where they looked like an absolutely elite pairing and in central midfield. I also think we will see him pushed up farther. And I think that, you know,
00:55:22
Speaker
The question is, is alluding to a truth, which is you aren't, you got to get more out of him than you got out of him last year. Like there's a big gap between 10 goals and 10 assists and three goals and two assists, which I think is what he had last year. And if they can get something more like five goals and five assists out of them, I think that's a step in the right direction in part because it suggests that he's going to be more involved in the attack than he was. And he should be, you know, he's a, he's a talented player and there's no reason that
00:55:52
Speaker
the Sounders shouldn't be looking to get more out of them than they're getting. Yeah, I don't really have anything to add or to disagree with there. I think that he doesn't have to move up to be a lot more impactful in the attacking phase. All right. This one's from a man in 24. He says, what should our expectations be of Morris this season in our new tactical setup where new who stays back? Do we think he'll get into goal dangerous positions with regularity?
00:56:21
Speaker
I think that Morris is, um, is going to be a little bit of a litmus test. Isn't really what I'm looking for, but that's what I'm going with. Um, uh, a little bit of a, you know, how he goes, I think. So go to the Sounders. Um, same player last year, um, coming off, coming off injury. Um, especially the second half of the season, like I actually, he was, oh, I thought he was actually pretty good the first half of the season, but second half of the season, he definitely was struggling.
00:56:51
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there's no reason to think that that is going to continue necessarily. But if he looks the same way he did for a good chunk of the first part of the season, that's a concern. That's a big concern. The Sounders are committing to a decent number of years at a decent cap hit to him. I feel good about that. I think that that's a good bet to make. I think that
00:57:19
Speaker
The Sounders keeping their homegrown guys that can contribute at a high level, uh, is, is good. I think that's a positive thing. And, you know, he's, I mean, he's, he's a club legend at this point. How much of a legend is really the only question. And I think, you know, he's still, there's no reason to think that like that knee injury just made him 60% of what he was. Right. Um,
00:57:45
Speaker
But if it did, that's a big problem. I think that, you know, I would love to see him be like an eight to 10 goal guy playing as a winger. I think even if he is playing as a winger based on the shape that the Sounders used against LLE, and I think it's reasonable to think they're gonna play that way a lot, he's really gonna be playing as a striker just coming in from out wide. So, you know, if he can chip in 10, 12 goals, that's great.
00:58:13
Speaker
But if he gets eight and chips in with some assists and can just be that vertical threat that he didn't have the legs to be at times last year, I think that's gonna be hugely important to the way things go. Yeah, I think that there's every reason to think that Jordan Morris should be able to have a much more productive season. I was a little, like I don't think
00:58:42
Speaker
this game against Ollie was indicative of what we'll see from him. I hope it's not. Like the stat that jumped out to me from that one was he only received six passes, which tells me he was being probably like Ollie to their credit, I think.
00:58:58
Speaker
isolated him very effectively. But he's got to do a better job of getting on the ball. It's funny, it's become sort of like this. In the same way that he supposedly didn't have a left foot, it's now become sort of like
00:59:16
Speaker
canonized that he is essentially like only a speed merchant but he did actually used to beat guys off the dribble uh back in the you know so i don't know why that shouldn't be happening uh and he even did it a few times early last year like
00:59:35
Speaker
the way he ended last year I think is really stuck on and I don't blame anyone like he he faded pretty hard but I'm I'm definitely optimistic that he will bounce back yeah Jordan is and always has been a confidence player and I think
00:59:56
Speaker
there's probably a lot of room for self-doubt after your second ACL tear. Yeah. And so if he can shake that, I feel pretty good about it. Next one is from D underscore height. Can you clarify what sounders games one can watch and how without paying for the new season pass? Yeah. So first of all, remind everyone that if you're a season ticket, if you are the account holder for a season ticket account,
01:00:23
Speaker
you get MLS season pass for free and that you can share that theoretically with up to five people as long as they're in your family plan, which I realize is not an insignificant inconvenience in a lot of ways.
01:00:43
Speaker
If you are planning on watching games only for free, it sounds like at least 40% of the Sounders games will be available that way. And in three of their first four games, actually four of their first five games are outside the paywall, meaning all you have to do is create an Apple ID, log into
01:01:07
Speaker
the Apple TV website or app, and you can watch four of their first five games, which is great. But my understanding is that the way this is gonna happen is like every month or so, they're gonna release a new, like they're gonna release a schedule that tells you which games are gonna be outside the paywall. And some of those games will be in addition to being on Apple TV, they'll also be on Fox. But yeah, so you'll just have to sort of like
01:01:37
Speaker
check every week, which is kind of a pain in the butt. But that's, you know, if you're hoping to watch games for free, like 40% of them being for free is not too bad of a deal. Yeah. You know, I've been impressed too with the content that's on there. Yeah. I got a membership or whatever subscription a couple of weeks ago.
01:02:03
Speaker
I think I'm not going to try to talk anybody into feeling like this is a great arrangement and that they've got to sign up for it. I get why people don't like it and are pissed off and I'm not going to try to talk them out of that.
01:02:18
Speaker
I do think people should get used to it, because I think this is where all this stuff is going. And I don't think that that's good, but I think it's inevitable. And I do think that Apple is going to do a really good job. Like, I think it's going the product itself, maybe it's not worth it to you, maybe you don't care about anything but the broadcast, but I think the product itself that they're offering is going to be really well done.
01:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, time will tell once we start seeing games, it's, I think it's really easy for everyone to talk about how, uh, big of a mistake this was without, you know, before any games have been on there. But once I don't know, I, I'm starting to come around to believing that this might actually be a pretty good product. Um, all right. This is from 206 hometowners. Any smoke rumors, general vibes around Ariaga, the feels like a domino that if it falls actually has the potential to shift the cap calculus.
01:03:12
Speaker
Uh, so Jeremiah, you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I don't think there's anything currently percolating on the rumor front. No, like basically there's like the question will lose you. It's a lot of smoke and there might be like, like I'll say this.
01:03:30
Speaker
If Jackson Reagan is the starter and he started, you know, the, in the, in the must win game at the start of the season, Jackson Reagan was the starter. So like, that's a pretty good, that's a pretty big tell, right? Uh, if that's going to hold.
01:03:47
Speaker
It seems like a pretty poor allocation of resources to have a, you know, $800,000 a year center back sitting on your bench. And I got to think there's a market for him. So I would imagine like, he's on the, like, I think he's on the market. I just don't know. Taylor Twelman had said that if
01:04:07
Speaker
the Sounders had been able to complete the Aaron Long signing that the plan was to trade Ariaga to Miami. I suppose that still might be on the table. I haven't heard anything along those lines. It seems like a reasonable assumption to make that he is on the trade market, but as of yet, we haven't seen anything that suggests that it's an imminent move.
01:04:34
Speaker
What's interesting about this is that if you're going to get rid of one of the two highly paid center backs just from a purely tactical perspective, I don't know that Ariaga is the better one. I love Jaymar. It's not that. I just think that he and Reagan is maybe not as natural of a pairing as
01:04:59
Speaker
I mean, I guess I can see what you're saying. I tend to think that Reagan and Ariaga have more redundant. Like I actually would be it would be interesting to see what they would look like together because they're both pretty good passers and it would be interesting to see. But. And I tend to think that that Yemar is probably the best pure defender.
01:05:27
Speaker
I agree, yeah. I really like Ariaga's aggressiveness and his ability to disrupt and almost be like a second six at times. Yeah. And I don't think Reagan has that, but I mean, Nuhu is pretty good at that too, right? So if you're playing in a shape or Nuhu is going to center back, maybe that doesn't matter too much. I don't know. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't actually thought it out. At any rate, I do think it's clear that the Sounders would be happy to move him if the price was right.
01:05:51
Speaker
And I mean, everybody can be moved with the prices rate, but I think the price maybe might be easier to hit for Ariaga than, you know, than other guys. Um, they were, I trust Taylor was right about, um, you know, tend to have pretty good sourcing on that stuff. So, and, and, you know, I mean, like.
01:06:11
Speaker
I like Ariaga. I think he's a really good player. He's been part of some extremely big moments with the team. I would be sad to see him go on some level, but I think the meat of the question, or just comment, I guess, that does really shift the capital. It makes a lot of things possible.
01:06:30
Speaker
Because it wouldn't just be the outgoing salary, it would also be the incoming, presumably allocation money. You could theoretically see a shift of somewhere in the $1.5 million. They could go from being right up against the cap to having $1.5 million to spend, which would be a big change. That's another TAM level player and probably a little more flexibility on top of that.
01:06:59
Speaker
Um, yeah. Last question from not underscore Rossi. Uh, and this was one that's near and dear to my heart. Where are league cup games held? Are they part of the ticket package? Does anyone give a shit about playing RSL for a fourth time and some random league MX team? So, uh, yeah.
01:07:17
Speaker
So the Sounders are guaranteed two League's Cup games. They are the lower seeded of the two MLS teams in their group. They're in a group with RSL and Monterey and they host Monterey and they go to RSL.
01:07:34
Speaker
Good news is you don't have to worry about going to an RSL game, but yes, they are going to play another game against RSL. I don't think this is the worst thing in the world to play a game against Monterey. This is a tournament that I think the Sounders could potentially be competitive in. It will be interesting to see how competitive they are.
01:07:57
Speaker
But yeah, I, I, and it is, I think that game, the Monterey game is part of your season ticket package. If they advance and end up hosting future games, I don't think that's part of your season ticket package. Um, and I don't, I don't know, it'll be interesting to see what, like, I would imagine the attendance for that Monterey game will be good because it's part of the season ticket package. And you know, like there's some draw to playing a league, I make his team, but.
01:08:24
Speaker
beyond that I don't know I don't know it'll be interesting to see how like I would imagine if the Sounders get to like the semi-finals that that fans will be like hey yeah here's like I don't know it seemed like people were into when the Sounders at least made it to the league's cup final like it seemed like people were into it last time when you know was like a totally different tournament yeah I mean trophies are trophies if they make it deep enough you know I'll be into it but
01:08:51
Speaker
I would rather they not be playing in it. I'm not. Yeah, I don't know. I realize that I have maybe a little bit of an apologize, but I think this tournament has some potential. I'll say that.
01:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, it's not for me. It's not for me. I can't blame you. I mean, the reality is that like, there's going to be some teams that have to add like 17 games to their schedule and, uh, and like fitting this into this, like the sound, the sounders are, I mean, the MLS is essentially giving up its summer schedule to, to do this. Um, I, it,
01:09:30
Speaker
The US Open Cup is an actual competition with over a hundred years of history. And the Sounders are going to be expected to put out a much stronger lineup for this whatever. Yeah. I mean, that's a fair, that's a fair. It sucks. Like if, yeah, if you want to, if you want to merge with Liga MX. Great. I think that would be fine. Make a North American super league have promotion, relegation. Great. Do it, do that, do that. Don't try to convince me that this is.
01:10:00
Speaker
important because I mean it's like even if you think it's fun even if you don't mind it even if you're glad they're playing the games it's not important like it's not it's just there's nothing there's nothing to it you don't
01:10:14
Speaker
Like it's yeah, it's nothing. And the US Open Cup is important. Whether it's important to the bottom line, whatever, like it's a trophy with history. The Sounders won it four times. They're probably going to go out in the first round again this year. It would be nice if the Sounders could like make a nice US Open Cup run. It would be very nice. It would be. Unrelated to this question. But yeah, so that's the show.
01:10:42
Speaker
I'll give another plug if you want to support this podcast as well as get some fun newsletters, subscribe to our sub-stack and consider becoming a paid subscriber as well because it feels good that people want to pay for your stuff.
01:11:02
Speaker
But thank you to Watson's counter to full pool wines. I had some nice, I did actually, I just did a nice tasting at full pool. I had a lunch with Paul and he poured me, they have like a house label that they're doing right now. And he poured me a sparkling rosé. And I am not like a sparkling rosé guy, but man, that was pretty tasty.
01:11:29
Speaker
So, you know, there's there's my plug there's there's like a real life natural plug also I'll add Watson's counter is moving into a maybe already moved into a new location in Ballard and I happen to go there and have some coffee with With James and it was like it's a great place to get coffee. It's at the old What's it? I think was called auto Which was a
01:11:59
Speaker
Eric Rivera restaurant. Anyway, he's in that space. And yeah, so go support people that support if you can't, if you can't support us with your own money, at least go support the people that make this podcast. We got to get some, we got to get some sponsors in Tacoma. So there you go. Exactly. I can get Doyle's pub. We're calling you. We're putting you on blast. No, I'm just joking.
01:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. There you go. There's gotta be some people down there. I'm just like randomly listing off Tacoma businesses that I'm familiar with.
01:12:34
Speaker
Anyway, thank you for listening. We're gonna be getting back into a regular cadence of things, I think, these days. So, Aaron, it was good hanging out with you. Indeed. Likit, if you're listening, you know, thanks for sort of putting up with us. And I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off on behalf of Likit and Aaron. This is No Study Yet This. Remember, you will never get alone.
01:13:03
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's cut through. Mountain 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.
01:13:33
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!