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Nos Audietis, Episode 333: Is Leagues Cup good?
70 Plays4 years ago
Somewhat remarkably, the Sounders still find themselves coming out of the Gold Cup break undefeated through 13 games. They’re sitting atop the Supporters’ Shield standings with 29 points and have easily the best goal-difference at +15. More remarkable than all of that is they’ve managed this while missing as many as six potential starters for solid chunks of the season.
Their latest win over the Houston Dynamo came without Nicolas Lodeiro, Stefan Frei, Nouhou, Shane O’Neill, Cristian Roldan and Will Bruin, which isn’t even a complete list.
We talk a ton about that but also get into things like Leagues Cup and whether or not we should care.
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 & 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. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Sounders Game Highlights
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills, the greenest green in Seattle
Record-Breaking Performance Discussion
00:01:34
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adiata, sponsored by Full Pool Wines. This is episode 333, and we're recording on Thursday, July 15th, 2021. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me, as always, is Aaron Campo and Lickett P. Somewhat remarkably, the Sounders still find themselves coming out of the Gold Cup break undefeated through 13 games.
00:01:57
Speaker
That's an MLS record if you didn't know, but they're also sitting atop the supporter shields with 29 points and have easily the best goal difference in the league at plus 15.
Sounders' Success Despite Absences
00:02:07
Speaker
More remarkable than all of that is that they how they've managed to do this. They're missing as many as six potential starters for solid chunks of the season. Their latest win over the Houston Dynamo came without among others. Nicholas Lidero, Stephen Fry, New Who, Shane O'Neill, Christian Roldan, and Will Bruin. And that's not even a complete list.
00:02:25
Speaker
What I think I find most encouraging about this is that despite the impassive record, I actually think the sounders can get better and I don't even know that that's being hyperbolic. Am I crazy, Aaron?
00:02:39
Speaker
You are not crazy. I think it's extremely reasonable to expect them to get better once they have their core group all together. Once, assuming Nico Ledero gets back this season, assuming, you know, Seth and Prey comes back this season, assuming they make, you know, an addition or two in the second or the primary window.
00:02:58
Speaker
Um, yeah, I think it's completely reasonable to, to expect them to get better. Um, whether that translates to going undefeated and improving on like their core stats is, is right thing. But in terms of the talent and what the team's capable of. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think that what we've seen in this run is a team that's scratching out results, which is, I think more than you can ask them for. Um, and I think, you know,
Strong Season Start Analysis
00:03:25
Speaker
You can expect that to translate back into a little bit more stylish convincing results, a bit down the line but I mean this this run right here that the sounders are on these last few weeks, arguably months is
00:03:41
Speaker
the thing that happens every season and they fall apart and they just aren't doing it so far this year. And I think everybody very reasonably expected them to. Um, I think it was almost just something everybody was kind of prepared for, which is why the hot start was so exciting was it was like, well, we're going to lose a bunch of guys in a couple of weeks. So it's great that we're getting these points now. Uh, and they're still getting the points and that's, I think so far has been the thing that separates them from, from
00:04:07
Speaker
The very good but not great sounder schemes in the past and the main similarity they have with the great sounder schemes of the past is that they're getting the results even when they probably shouldn't be.
00:04:17
Speaker
Right. I would say that this team, I don't know that the number of injuries they've had is so out of whack with, you know, some of the, like, you know, I think back to like 2015 when Dempsey and Martins were gone for a bunch of time and they just completely fell apart and, and how, you know,
00:04:43
Speaker
That's kind of what you expect to happen in MLS teams. It's still now. I hear people talking about how, oh, well, of course Toronto FC is struggling. They were missing Alejandro Pazuelo and who's the other DP they signed from the little guy. Anyway, they were missing two of their DPs and they didn't have Josie Altador.
00:05:07
Speaker
And yeah, like most teams are going to struggle when they're missing their stars. And the Sounders in the past have struggled plenty without when Nico Ledero is out, but somehow this year they've managed to
Young Players' Development
00:05:22
Speaker
I mean, I don't want to say it's just cultural because that would be silly, but I do feel like there's a cultural aspect to what they've gotten everyone to buy into, and they haven't been able to
00:05:38
Speaker
Like it would be wrong to say that they've balanced the absences so that not too many guys are missing at once because a lot of guys have been missing all at once, but they haven't all of a sudden disappeared all at the same time. So there's been like, they've been able to bring in one or two players at a time and then they kind of rise to the level that they're expected. Like AB Sisoko, you know,
00:06:00
Speaker
it wasn't like he came in, he didn't have to play alongside a whole bunch of kids who were also just kind of getting started. He came into a team that was expecting to win by that point and same thing with Stephen Cleveland and you know you go down the list and now all of a sudden you have the Sounders getting a bunch of minutes for relatively young players
00:06:21
Speaker
And this seems like it could pay off really big down the line. I mean, you know, if you can get, you know, a thousand quality minutes out of AB Sisoko and a thousand quality minutes out of Josh Atencio and a thousand quality minutes out of Danny Leyva, you got to think that just means your, you know, your frontline starters are that much more fresh at the end of the season when you really want them to be.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there is something to be said for the culture of this team and the expectations of this team that, as you alluded to, these are not kids coming in. I don't think Brian Schmetzer is this unforgiving taskmaster that is telling them he's going to push them off a bridge if they don't perform well.
00:07:04
Speaker
But I also get the impression that the expectation is that they're going to do their jobs pretty effectively and that there's not going to be a ton of leeway if they don't. And I think that setting that culture in the right way, like in a non-sociopathic kind of way, is important to making sure that those guys feel comfortable, that they know they're going to have support, they also know that the standards are what they are, and if they don't live up to them, they're
00:07:29
Speaker
They're not going to have a job very much longer. And, you know, they're, but they also know that if they perform well, they're going to continue getting looks like it's not going to be as soon as you know the starters back I'm never going to play again no matter what I do.
00:07:45
Speaker
I think that there's an understanding that if you play well and show well and earn the coaching staff's trust, you're going to get opportunities to play down the line no matter who's around.
Tactical Flexibility & Player Roles
00:07:54
Speaker
And I think that that's something that you have to notice as a professional. I mean, these guys have like 10 years if they're lucky to play and to earn money. And knowing that you're going to be rewarded for taking advantage of that is probably a pretty strong motivator.
00:08:09
Speaker
Well I am really curious what happens to someone like a Kellen row who has been starting virtually every game, not always at the same position. And I think there's this sort of understanding that like he's keeping someone's place warm. It's not clear who, like, at which point.
00:08:29
Speaker
that is the place he's keeping warm is no longer but like how do you put a player like that on the bench who isn't just keeping the seat warm he's he's been playing well i mean i think uh you know really oh and his in his player ratings i think had him as his player of the week this week
00:08:46
Speaker
And that wasn't necessarily my pick for Player of the Week, but I think a valid case could be made for him being it. He had a great goal. He was active offensively. He's played all over the field for the Sounders this week. We're probably going to see him as a right wing back. I'm really curious to see what happens to a Kellen Rowe and how he gets used down the line.
00:09:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that he's definitely made that, carved out that sort of niche that like guys like Brad Evans did before, where you don't know where he's going to be in the lineup, but the odds are pretty good that he is. And that kind of flexibility is so nice to have because it allows you to keep putting out very strong lineups and also keep rotating guys at key positions. We were so worried about right back depth. And like, this is a great example of why having a guy
00:09:37
Speaker
like that is so critical because he provides you that depth there. And then he shows well and he provides you depth in central midfield and he provides you depth in attacking midfield. And there's just, there's so many things he can do at a high level that, you know, he's going to, he's going to get a lot of playing time. And that's a really good kind of player to try to turn yourself into, you know? And I think Brian Schmetzer also has to get a lot of credit for,
00:10:05
Speaker
he seems to be pretty good at identifying guys that have skill sets like that, you know, who are gonna be able to fill in and contribute in a lot of different spots. And Garth has to be, you know, probably get some of the credit as well for identifying guys like that. And not Chris Henderson, no, because he's not here anymore, so we don't get any credit. But, you know, I just, I do think that that's probably an underrated aspect of this, of how the Sounders are able to,
00:10:32
Speaker
compete being depleted like this is they do have guys like that that can play multiple
Key Player Contributions
00:10:38
Speaker
positions. Right, can play multiple positions so that you're never having to put somebody that's completely out of their depth out there. You might have to have them on the bench. You might have to call up like a 12 year old from Tacoma or whatever, but you feel pretty confident in your ability to put established professionals that you know are gonna perform pretty well out there because you've got so many of them that can play all over the place.
00:11:03
Speaker
I think back to how Brian was using Alex Roldan early on in his career and how he played him as a wide midfielder. He played him centrally at one point. The Sounders were looking at him as kind of a defensive midfielder. And I have to think that even though he wasn't playing at a starter's quality all the time when he was getting those minutes,
00:11:29
Speaker
there was something that they could see he knew how to play all these positions. And I think that they identified him as a player that was worth keeping around and that they just needed to figure out how he was best going to be used.
00:11:45
Speaker
And I think that in some ways kind of exemplifies this team. And similarly, Shane O'Neill is a player who had moved around a lot, hadn't really necessarily lived up to the hype that he had early on in his career. And they just kind of realized, well, we just can simplify his role a little bit.
00:12:06
Speaker
he can be a useful player. We can surround him with good talent. And I think that they've done a really good job of finding, you know, players that are sort of role players while also doing a really good job of identifying the high level players, two of whom I think deserve a lot of credit for the way that the Sounders have started this year. Raul Ruideas and Gio Paulo. Ruideas, I think is kind of an interesting one because he's tied for the Golden Boot lead. And yet,
00:12:34
Speaker
It feels very sustainable because he's left a lot of goals. I feel like he's left a lot of goals on the table. You know, in this last game, he had, uh, you know, he had one that went off the post, but then he had a great look off of a cross from Jimmy Madranda that he, he probably frankly should have finished. Um, and I, and I feel like there's a lot of those, like he just keeps getting himself into such good positions.
00:12:57
Speaker
And, you know, it's, it's, he's an interesting player because he seems to finish a bunch. He scores a bunch of goals from positions you wouldn't expect, but then you'll also miss goals from spots you would expect him to finish from, but that he keeps getting into those spots, I think is really encouraging.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, it absolutely is. And I mean I think we we've seen enough approval to know that eventually he is going to start finishing those chances. And, especially, you know when when knock on wood when he goes back. He's probably going to have even more of those chances so. And I think you know I think you're right, like we've definitely seen.
00:13:36
Speaker
Um, performances from guys early in season, uh, be they sounders or not, where they're lighting the world on fire early, but it just feels flutey. Um, and nothing about Raul feels flutey. Um, yeah, I'm trying to look up his, um, his expected, his expected goals. So he's at 9.88.
00:13:58
Speaker
So he's right on par. Yeah, he's overperforming it by a tenth of a goal, which is about as sustainable as you can get. But as you alluded to, he's finished chances that maybe you wouldn't necessarily expect him. He's not finished others, so that makes sense. And I think, if you take away, there's no reason to expect him to fall apart and drop off anytime soon. And that's pretty...
00:14:27
Speaker
pretty impressive because he's scoring a lot of goals. Yeah, he is. The other player who I've just been really, really impressed by, and for me, I think has been not just the MVP of the Sounders, but I think there's a good argument to be made that he's been the league's MVP is Jau Paulo. And you look at
00:14:48
Speaker
I realize this sounds like her hyperbole, but I do think there's a lot of truth to this comparison is that he's almost a blend of Osvaldo Alonso and Nico Ledero. He doesn't quite have the steel of Ozzie Alonso. He's not going to get into quite as many tackles.
00:15:09
Speaker
And he's not gonna, you know, have quite the creativity of Nico Ledero, but he does blend those two skill sets really well. I, I think he's, you know, he's he's in the top five I think in in key passes.
00:15:25
Speaker
He's one of the top progressive passers in the league. He's one of the top volume passers in the league. But then on the other end, he applies more pressure than almost anyone else in the league. He is, I think, fourth in tackles. He's got a bunch of interceptions. I mean, this is a guy who is really all over the field. And he's doing this while making 80 passes a game and getting into the attack and serving set pieces.
00:15:56
Speaker
I really liked Jel Paolo last year, but I think he's been much better this year.
00:16:02
Speaker
I think he has, and I think a lot of that is probably because he has had a little bit more space to do some of the more creative things. And, you know, that's not to say that I wouldn't be thrilled to have Nico Ledero back tomorrow, but I do think that that has freed him up a little bit.
Adaptability & Formation Strategies
00:16:22
Speaker
And he's just, he's the kind of player that we just don't see in this league, although I think we're probably starting to see more of them. That is just like that very complete midfielder that
00:16:32
Speaker
can do a little bit of everything at close to elite level, who is just like, you know, he's not a classic six, he's not a classic 10, but he's not really classic eight either. Like that's kind of underselling his skill set. And it's just, I think it's like, it's funny, cause it's like, we kind of have been dreaming of having a player like this on that team for years. And, you know, and we finally do and like,
00:17:01
Speaker
it's almost surreal. And I think part of that was like the circumstances in which he joined the team were not necessarily ideal. And I think, you know, you're kind of seeing like what his true ceiling is like this year and like now that he's a little more settled. And yeah, just a tremendous signing that kind of flew under the radar. Like I think people were excited about it, but- Not as excited as I think they should have been. Yeah, for sure.
00:17:29
Speaker
They I don't, I don't think a lot of people knew exactly what we were getting. And I think part of that is, you know, the sounders have been linked to Greg gory who ended up joining inner Miami this year and has actually been pretty good, but he's much more of a.
00:17:42
Speaker
Aussie type of player, like he is, he is not a, you know, a creative force. There's nothing like, he's not going to be replacing Nico Ligero even for a game, like, but he's a good player. Don't get me wrong. But I think people got really excited about replacing Aussie and they see his tapes and he puts in a hard tackle and he was an okay passer. And, and I think it felt to a lot of people like Jau Paulo was sort of like the second option. And I think,
00:18:14
Speaker
Inside, I know there was a lot of discussion in the Sounders about who really were their top target should have been. And there was a camp of people who thought Giaopalo was just straight up the better option, not the least reason of which was he was a cheaper option. But there was just people that liked his game better. I mean, he's a little older. So like, who knows how many, like he's, I think 29.
00:18:40
Speaker
He doesn't have a ton of time left where you would expect him to be a lead, but he still probably got two or three years at least. He has a skill set that only age well. Right, exactly. And so it'll just be very interesting to see how this team comes together. I mean, really, I don't...
00:19:02
Speaker
I'm really interested to see what this team looks like when there's something closer to a full array of talent at Brian Schmetzer's disposal. We don't know what's coming in the summer transfer window.
00:19:19
Speaker
my expectation is definitely still that there's going to be some players coming in. I don't know that they're the type of players that will kind of come in off the, off the plane and start, but I think they'll raise the overall talent level. But my, my assumption right now, my hope is that, you know, the starting center backs are new who Ariaga and JMR. I think all three of them have shown that they are
00:19:42
Speaker
starting capable players. I have no qualms with Roldan at right back. It's going to be interesting I think at left back because I really do think that Madranda has been the more promising player like per minute that he's been on the field. Where are you falling on the Jimmy Madranda Brad Smith sort of debate?
00:20:06
Speaker
Uh, I, I think I agree with you. Um, I think, I think I agree with you. I mean, I think that they're different players. They're not as different as maybe you would think, but they're, but they're different players. I mean, I think Madrid is probably a little more traditionally, uh, what you think of as a left back than Brad Smith, but the sounders are playing in a, you know, in a three, five, two or.
00:20:29
Speaker
Thereabouts, so, you know, that that maybe gives a little bit of an advantage to Smith I just, I like Madrid I feel like it's a little more predictable. He doesn't have the, the, like the physical tools, mostly the speed that the Brad Smith does but he's certainly no slouch in that department.
00:20:50
Speaker
Brad Smith, I think even most of his fans would agree can be an extremely frustrating player. And I'm trying very hard not to let how frustrated I can get at him color the analysis because ultimately he is still getting into good positions a lot of the time. He is still putting in dangerous crosses.
00:21:12
Speaker
Um, his defending is, is I think adequate, you know, for the position, um, he stretches defenses in a way that, that, you know, the Drando isn't going to do most likely, but I, I still think I lean towards you. I just, I, I, I think there's plenty of playing time for both of them. Um, but I just.
00:21:32
Speaker
I think that people have kind of to some extent fallen in love with the idea of the sort of asymmetrical attack where the sounders are like bombing down one side and maybe a little more conservative on the other side.
00:21:47
Speaker
And they've had a lot of success doing that. But there's a balance to the team when Smith isn't in there that I like. There's a little bit more predictability. I don't know. I think there's a case for each, and I think both of them should be getting plenty of playing time.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah. And it's notable that I think down this, we're getting into a period of the season where there's going to be a lot of congestion and that's, you know, we'll talk about this later, but you know, league's cup is going to contribute to some
Defensive Tactics & Player Development
00:22:15
Speaker
of that congestion. But even without league's cup, there's a bunch of three game weeks or as the pit ends would make sure I note like three games in eight or nine days. Uh,
00:22:27
Speaker
But there's a bunch of weeks where the Sounders have weekend, midweek, weekend, and then we got one actually coming up this week, I guess. The Sounders are going to play Minnesota, then they're going to go to Austin, and then at home against San Jose. Is that right?
00:22:47
Speaker
No, where my blank. I need to I guess I should have had that ready. But anyway, there's gonna be a lot of these three game weeks and I think we're gonna have the centers are going to be forced to do some rotation. And I think that we'll see a lot my suspicion is that they're gonna
00:23:05
Speaker
rotate that left back spot a lot. But what I think it gets a little bit more interesting is in, in the midfield, I think you can pencil in Jau Paulo pretty, or right Jau Paulo's name in with Penn, I think you can write Christian Roldan in as well.
00:23:21
Speaker
And then I think it's going to be interesting to see if they go with like a box midfield where you have, you know, presumably Nico Ledero and, you know, someone like Josh Atencio or Danny Leyva, or even a Kellen Rowe, or if you play with two forwards, uh, you know, whether that be Will Bruin and, uh, or
00:23:44
Speaker
or Freddie Montero. And of course we're all really ideas, but we're, I mean, I don't know. I'm just like loving the idea that the sounders have like real options, like not just
00:23:57
Speaker
not just personnel wise, but formationally and tactically. And they have a few different ways that they can break teams down. And like the difference between playing two forwards with one of them being Freddie Montero and going with a box midfield where you have, you know, maybe a Christian Roldan and a Nico Ledero lined up as dual tens. That's a pretty dramatic difference.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they have this ability to cater things to the opponents they're playing and just the game state that they really haven't had before. And I do wonder if having that kind of flexibility was an intentional choice with the way they put the team together. Because I think that that has kind of been a thing that's hurt them in the past was
00:24:49
Speaker
they were built to play a certain way and do it extremely well. And then if anything happened that prevented them from doing that, they could struggle at times. And I think maybe having that tactical flexibility has been part of the reason that they've been so good this year. And, you know, it's kind of like we had this discussion last on the last show about whether going to three at the back was a choice or whether it was just kind of what they ended up with and decided to lean into.
00:25:13
Speaker
Either way, I think it's worked out pretty well for them. And it's kind of nice to see like the sounders have always kind of had this attitude of like, you know, we're the sounders, we play our game. It's, I think, also been more like PR than anything because everybody changes what they do, but they can really kind of lean into that like, no, we're going to do what we feel like is the best thing to do in a given game to get the result we're looking for. And they really have the ability to do that effectively from week to week. It's pretty cool.
00:25:43
Speaker
Yeah, I love this. I mean, I love the idea that they've I mean, they've already this year played a bunch of variations of
00:25:51
Speaker
a three at the back sort of formation. You know, they've had games where they've been in more of a five, three, two. For the most part, they've been in a, I think you can legitimately call it a three, five, two, but then they've had games where it's like, you know, a three, four, two, one. They've had games where they've had it really more of a three, I guess, three, three, two, one.
00:26:16
Speaker
two one one is that how it breaks down where it's like you kind of have a withdrawn that's not right but they have like where they're playing with like a withdrawn forward and then two center center mids behind him and like there's just been a bunch of variations they had one game where they're in a three four three which is a formation that i'm intrigued by and i don't admittedly know a lot about the three four three but
00:26:41
Speaker
Like if you really cast this forward and the sounders, you know, like let's, if the season keeps going the way it's going to go or that the way it's going, if it keeps going the way it's going now, it's hard to imagine them abandoning this three center back formation that they've sort of started to build around.
00:26:59
Speaker
Where do you think Jordan Morris potentially fits into that? And do you think a 3-4-3 would make sense with him or is that not really a formation that suits his type of player?
00:27:11
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I think he's, he's been so good out wide that it's really tempting to want him to be there permanently. But like in a three, four, three, those, those white Fords have got to do a lot of tracking back and they've got to do a lot of defending. And I don't know that that's necessarily the strongest part of Jordan's game. Um,
00:27:32
Speaker
I think he is pretty good as a withdrawn forward. I mean, I think that was like the position that was sort of like the default and everything else was trying to see if he could be more of a player and then they moved him out to the wing and everybody's like, holy shit, he's pretty good out here. Right. So I mean, that's an option.
00:27:51
Speaker
I think he could lead the line. Like I think he could be like a center forward. Obviously, Raul's probably not going to move somewhere else. But he, you know, he could play the sort of the more will brew any role. And I think, you know, if you like, there's I think he's he's a flexible enough attacking player. He can play anywhere across the front line. So, you know, if you if you want to play three forwards and you you feel like you have the midfield set up the way that you need to, that you don't
00:28:21
Speaker
I have to absolutely depend on your wide forwards tracking back and defending a lot. I think he's great there, but I think he fits anywhere in the center as well. So one of the things I think has been really interesting is that you think about it and the 3-5-2 is formationally
00:28:43
Speaker
more of a defensive formation than a 4-2-3-1 because you're essentially swapping a center back for a wide midfield. You're losing wide midfielders, you're replacing them with wing backs, and then you're bringing in a center back to take a place of a midfielder essentially.
00:29:04
Speaker
And, and yet the Sounders have been playing it in a way that has been more offensive. And, and that's, I think speaks to the idea that the formations are neither inherently offensive or defensive, but what do you think's been allowing I mean, do you think it's
00:29:20
Speaker
And because I think what's fascinating about it is that their two wingbacks are not necessarily offensive dynamos. You know, Roll Dawn and Smith have both been productive. They've been very good in the attack. But it's not like they're camping out in the offensive third. What do you what do you make? Like, I don't know. Do you have any any grand insight into how the centers have managed to pull this off, you know, not looking like a an overly defensive team?
00:29:47
Speaker
I think that if you have a good defense and you're good in transition and you have really good attacking players,
00:29:58
Speaker
Um, you can turn being a very defensive team into not looking like being a very defensive team. Sure. Yeah. Um, and I think that that explains a lot of it. The Sounders are almost impossible to score against. They have, uh, roll Rudy, Rudy us who can create goals out of nothing. They may have gotten some pretty good contributions, you know, from, from other attacking players, obviously, um, teams have to respect them. The Sounders are, they're really good in possession. Um, so they can control the tempo of games and, you know, on the.
00:30:28
Speaker
the few opportunities where the opposition does get the ball and tries to attack, they run into an extremely well organized defense. Eventually teams are going to realize that they can be a little bit exploited down the wings and figure that out, I think. I've been waiting for it a little bit and it just hasn't happened too much.
00:30:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think I do think that this really is like this, like one of those like turning the the idiom on its head, like defense is one of the better forms of attack when you have the kind of talent they do in the attacking the attack inside of the wall. Well, and one of the things I think that's been sort of a stroke of genius about this formation is that
00:31:15
Speaker
I don't think you would necessarily assume that if you put your best center back into a wider, like you, like I think most people when they saw the centers are going to go into a three back formation, you think, okay, well, Yamar is going to be the center, center back because he is the best defender. And that's in your mind where you put them.
00:31:37
Speaker
But what we've seen is him being flared out to the right in some ways I think has been almost as much of a stroke of genius as trying New Who as a left center back because he's so good at defending the wide areas. It feels like almost nothing comes out of the right. I think New Who was so good on the left that that was
00:32:03
Speaker
you know, what we mostly talked about, but Yemar has just been really, really impressive, I thought, as a right center back. And it's, you know, when you have him and Nuhu, like, yes, there is space out there to be exploited. That's just, you know, geometry, I suppose. But they do such a good job of covering that space that it's not that it's not that easily to be easily exploited.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's definitely fair. I mean, I think that there are lots of different ways to effectively run a back three. But the way the Sounders have done it, it suits the I think the team and the league pretty well because they do have very athletic center backs for the most part.
00:32:47
Speaker
not all of them, but they have enough of them that they can cover a lot of space. They're not throwing three Chad Marshals back there and just shutting down everything to the center. Now, three Chad Marshals would be an exceptional back three, don't get me wrong. That's not the strategy they're taking. And that does allow them to push forward a little bit more. But I also think the wing backs have been, Brad Smith,
00:33:14
Speaker
has made some very high profile defensive mistakes. But in general, I think he's been pretty good about, you know, keeping to his defensive responsibilities, not getting caught out too frequently. The way the Sounders plays just kind of makes it difficult for that to happen. They don't get beaten transition that often, which is helpful, just because they're so good in possession. But yeah, I mean, I think that
00:33:38
Speaker
Brian Schmetzer knows his players extremely well and sets up the team in a way to take advantage of their strengths and minimize the weaknesses. And one of those strengths is that they have mobile athletic center backs that can cover a lot of ground, which allows them to get away with pushing forward a little bit more and does, like you said, make them a little less vulnerable down the flanks than it might seem like they should be.
00:34:04
Speaker
And I also think it's also helped cover up to certain degree the deficiencies of you know both Ariaga and O'Neill who have different sorts of deficiencies but Ariaga in a lot of ways has just been allowed to be a little bit more of a
00:34:21
Speaker
ball handling center back and he hasn't had to do a lot of, you know, fire like he, they're using that center center back as a, as like a sweeper, like he's not, they're not asking him to put out all the fires. And I think that's been, you know, really key to what they're doing. Um, you know, O'Neill is what he is. He's, he's a, he's a safe, predictable player. And, um, and I think.
00:34:46
Speaker
The player that has been in because of all this, the player I think that I've been most impressed with in terms of exceeding my expectations is AB Sisoko who.
00:34:56
Speaker
You know, yeah, he got beat for pace a couple of times. And, um, you know, but I thought that was what I liked in the, in the dynamo game was that he got beat in a very similar way that he got beat in the Vancouver game. But this time he took a proper, he took a good recovery angle and he was able to put himself into position to bail out Cleveland who, who whiffed on, you know, coming off his line.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah. He's been, he's been really impressive. I mean, I think that's, that's a tough adjustment for any player to make. I mean, that's a pretty, that's a pretty big jump in, in, in leagues. And he's still adjusting. Just, I think this is a guy that two years, a year ago was playing in USL league two. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, that's a, that's a big jump to make. And yeah, he's, he's done great. I mean, I think that like, that's one of the things that have been, that's been, I think really impressive about the sounders.
00:35:45
Speaker
is that he's probably never going to be like a superstar in this league. But just finding organizational depth like that that has upside, you know, that that you can maybe help develop into something. That's because that's like the white whale in every sport, right, is like finding the diamond in the rough. But the Sounders seem to do pretty good at it, you know, like,
00:36:14
Speaker
they're not maybe going after the high risk, high reward kind of guys in those positions, but that's the wrong kind of player I think to have like in USL, like you, you want guys that like, okay, probably not the highest ceiling in the world, but this guy could be a good solid MLS player and they're available to us. If you, if you're going to the USL looking for the highest
00:36:36
Speaker
uh the highest ceiling players you're gonna end up whiffing on a lot of signings and uh it and the sounders have done well i think in in finding guys that didn't necessarily have the highest ceilings although new who is maybe a counter example because i think he was signed someone who they kind of signed with the idea that his ceiling was high but like a jordie dalam is the perfect player you want to get from a
00:37:03
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. I think that they are good at identifying players like new who identifying like true, real prospects, but I think they're also very good at making sure that they have guys like to lend to Soko in the organization that they can call on, you know, if they need to, they always have a couple of those guys around and they tend to work out pretty well.
00:37:22
Speaker
All right. Well, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We're going to come back, take your questions. We're going to talk League's Cup, as well as all sorts of other fun tidbits. So we'll be right back. You're listening to No Samuels.
00:37:39
Speaker
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00:37:58
Speaker
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00:38:17
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietta.
International Scheduling Challenges
00:38:19
Speaker
So, a bunch of questions here. Why don't I start it off? This one is from BT Weber. He says, who should I direct my anger toward for there being so many international tournaments, quote unquote, during the season? Do Gold Cup and Nations League even matter? No, they don't, he says.
00:38:40
Speaker
I would say that Gold Cup and Nations League matter as much as you care about international soccer. Yeah, like I mean the Gold Cup is the continental competition, like, it's not the euros, or not the continental but Confederation. Yeah, I could do without I think I would be okay with the Gold Cup being
00:39:01
Speaker
every four years the way that the Euros are. Yeah, I would definitely be okay with that as well. And I think that they would matter more, for sure. Yes. That's fair. That's totally fair. And at the same time, you know, in Nations League, similarly, I
00:39:16
Speaker
I mean, I will note that no sounders got called up for nation's sake. So I can't, I don't know how mad we can really be about that, but you know, they lost some guys for Copa America, the World Cup. I'm also like, I will remind everyone that this is a weird year. Last summer essentially was completely lost for COVID reasons. So the fact that this year is a little bit more jumbled
00:39:44
Speaker
I'm inclined to give, like not be
Match Ticketing & League's Cup Overview
00:39:47
Speaker
too upset about it. It's frustrating, but I mean, designers have handled it pretty well. Right. I think that like.
00:39:58
Speaker
This is, that's, this is just soccer. I mean, I don't care that much about international soccer, you know, like it's not, it's not my bag. Um, I, I'm kind of getting back into the U S national team, the men's national team, um, to the point where I'm not like actively ignoring it, like I was for a while. Um, but it's, that's just, that's part and parcel of, of soccer. That's just a part of it. And, um,
00:40:26
Speaker
MLS is structured the way it is and I don't see that changing anytime soon and it's just you know it's just one of those things it's like you can get mad about it and I'm not telling anybody not to get mad about it you know but I just don't have the energy to get mad about it anymore.
00:40:40
Speaker
And I will offer this, if you want to be frustrated, I think there is some room to be frustrated with CONCACAF. And I'll just say that with Nate, like the main reason to have Gold Cup every two years is because there are a whole host of nations that outside of CONCACAF competitions are really struggling to get
00:41:05
Speaker
good games. The Caribbean nations really struggle to get games. The Central American countries tend to struggle to get games. And so I think we look at this oftentimes with a very US and Mexico lens, but the reality is that there's a bunch of nations that really need these qualifiers and whatnot just to make sure that they're playing.
00:41:28
Speaker
But with Nations League, that should fix some of this. So I'm more inclined to be like, I think we can pull back on Gold Cup now. Hopefully that's what happens in the future. I don't necessarily love Nations League, but I think Nations League has the benefit of being able to be spread out over a long period of time, whereas the Gold Cup has to happen all in one month. And that is kind of a pain in the butt. Yeah, I think that that's reasonable.
00:41:55
Speaker
Next one is from Grey Galahad. Are ticket prices for the T greatest game a good deal compared to regular season games? Well, if you've looked, if you were a season ticket holder,
00:42:08
Speaker
Apparently, you're getting a 30% discount on the tickets. And I'll just use an example from me. I bought some tickets for my kid's godparents. And I bought fifth row, center, like midfield, like the middle section.
00:42:28
Speaker
for 45 bucks. That's a pretty good deal. You don't get to do that very often, and they're going to be playing Tigris. I don't think the crowds are going to be very big. Yeah. Whether or not they end up being a good value is up to the person. But compared to what a sounders ticket would cost, a normal sounders ticket would cost, they're a good deal. Yeah.
00:42:57
Speaker
Like I I don't I don't have any qualms with with with spending that money. But is this a I guess this is a good jumping off point for talking Nations League and we have another question about it. This is from multi 69. Predicted total attendance and ratio of Tigers Tigris fans to Sanders fans at their at this Nations League game, which is August 10th in case you're curious.
00:43:26
Speaker
I'll take a stab at the ratio and I'll say 60, 40 Sounders fans. That seems fair. That's based on, I mean, that's based on when we played them in CCL, which was eight years ago. 2015. Oh, I guess we did play them in 2015. Oh, 13. Yeah, it was 13 because Yedlin, that was the game Yedlin scored that goal in.
00:43:54
Speaker
Or no. Did it was 13? No, it was 13. You're right. Trailer race school. Trailer race? Both. They both scored. That's right. They both scored really good goals. And Eddie Johnson scored the game winner.
00:44:06
Speaker
after the Sounders went down 2-0 on the aggregate in that game, if you remember all that. That's right. Is that the only time they played in Nations? I feel like they played again. In CCL, that's the last time I remember them playing. I remember there being a good crowd. I remember feeling like... I really like these games against League IMAX teams. I realized...
00:44:34
Speaker
there's a very valid argument to be made that this is a, you know, fake tournament and the trophy is not really meaningful. And I, I'm, you know, I'm willing to hear all that out, but I'm also like, I have fun at these games against League of MX opponents. I think it brings out really diverse crowds. I think that you, I, one of the things I love seeing is like,
00:45:01
Speaker
Like I have this image of this, of leaving, I think the Tigris game and there was a little girl on her dad's shoulders and the little girl is wearing a sounder shirt and the dad was wearing a Tigris shirt. And I think that's just like, great. Like I love that stuff. And I, I'm, I'm okay with like coming up with lame excuses to play more games against League of Max opponents. I'd rather do it in a trumped up tournament than in a friendly. Yeah. I mean.
00:45:31
Speaker
I don't know. I, there's no reason for CONCACAF to have two international club competitions, three, three international club competitions. Um, I, I just.
00:45:44
Speaker
I don't begrudge anyone that enjoys the games that is invested in the games. That's just not for me. It's just that I don't see any tangible benefits to these games. The best thing I guess you could say is that while the winner of the competition gets into CCL, but like... That doesn't start till next year. Well, and like the Sounders need to do that on their own. Like they should be qualifying for CCL through MLS. Yes, that's true.
00:46:14
Speaker
And also I think the Mexican teams are always going to win. I'm not going to piss on anybody's parade. I think this year's tournament is also imperfect and I think there is a little bit of
00:46:34
Speaker
own goal-ness to the things that are frustrating about this because I think the league didn't do a very good job of promoting this. I think a lot of our listeners frankly probably don't even know what league's cup is and I'll do a quick aside and say league's cup is
00:46:50
Speaker
A tournament that League Amex and MLS came up with. It's essentially the second tier. It's I realized this analogy is not perfect, but it's like the elevator pitches. It's like Europa League for CONCACAF where it's definitely not CONCACAF Champions League. It's a state. It's a step below that. So it's it's you know, like the the top four finishers from MLS that didn't qualify for Champions League essentially and it's.
00:47:20
Speaker
only a maximum of three games. It's eight teams, four from each league. The games are all played in the United States and the final is gonna be in Las Vegas, which actually I think is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the final is the week after the semi-final and it's between two other league games. And if the centers qualify for the semi-finals, they're gonna have to move
00:47:47
Speaker
a match against the whitecaps, which I don't know when they're going to move it to, but they're going to have to move that game. So there are some scheduling problems with this, I guess was my point. And so ideally in the future, I think you would want to have that final far enough away from the semi-finals so that theoretically you can travel to it. Like, I don't know how many people are just going to drop everything they're doing to go travel to Vegas on a week's notice. Yeah, probably not. I mean,
00:48:17
Speaker
I'd say probably not that many, but actually, I mean, sounders fans have traveled to weirder places on shorter notice. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we'll see how it goes in the future. I reserve the right to get super pissed off about it two or three years from now if it's still, but I think you're right that some leeway has to be given this year. It is kind of weird. They're still kind of figuring things out. COVID has screwed everything up really.
00:48:45
Speaker
scheduling-wise for everything. So, you know, they kind of get a pass this year. I just, I don't see, I see the point from a
00:49:01
Speaker
I work for the front office on the financial side of an MLS team or a Liga MX team where these are ostensibly competitive games against Mexican teams who draw pretty much universally draw pretty good crowds where there's
00:49:20
Speaker
a trophy and eventually qualification for Champions League. So it's not completely transparent, you know, money grab. And I don't like, this is another thing I just like am not as uptight about as I used to be.
00:49:38
Speaker
If I've come around on friendlies, which I have, I think it would be weird to draw the line at something like this, but it's decidedly not for me. And I'm curious if it's for enough people that it makes it financially
00:49:57
Speaker
We'll see. Well, and I think this year's tournament also, like, I think the point of this tournament is pretty blatantly to create inventory for MLS to sell. And, and I think that.
00:50:11
Speaker
They, you know, they aren't really doing that this year. They're probably, you know, to the degree that these games are televised, my suspicion is they're practically giving them away. But what they need to do is establish this thing so that they can kind of look back on and say, like, no, this is a thing that we do and it's interesting and it's valuable. And, and yeah, it's, it is a money grab.
00:50:34
Speaker
But the point of a money grab is to increase the amount of money in MLS. And I think the only way MLS is going to get better is if they're spending more money. And the only way they're going to spend more money is if they're making more money. So like I, I think there is like.
00:50:50
Speaker
I want to say a virtuous cycle because that makes it sound nicer than it really is, but I do think that there's like, it's all part of like trying to raise the bar of what MLS is and, and creating more games, more high, you know, high leverage games for MLS isn't, isn't a bad thing. It encourages teams to have bigger rosters. Uh, it encourages, you know, like I think.
00:51:14
Speaker
You know, like, we're never going to get to a point where we have teams that are as deep as Liga mx if teams don't feel like they have to field teams that are that right. And, and so if you have a bunch of teams that are in the secondary turn or in these.
00:51:31
Speaker
outside of MLS tournaments and they feel like there's real value in them, like you're gonna force teams to, like right now it doesn't make sense to spend a ton of money on the back end of your roster, but if you start having these, if you know you're gonna have these tournaments every year, it makes more sense, right? And that's also is gonna improve the, you know, the product on the field in league games.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's all true. I think there's a legitimate conversation to be had about whether or not the league improving is always the best thing. Because I think it's kind of taken on faith that the league growing and getting better and getting bigger is inherently good. And I don't know that I feel that way as much as I used to. But A, I don't think we're anywhere near that point yet. And B,
00:52:25
Speaker
That's a much larger conversation that I don't want to have a 1045 on a school night. So I didn't give my predicted total attendance or ratio. I think it's going to be, I think I'm being optimistic here, but I think around 10,000 is anymore. And that's mainly because I think there's going to be some Tigris fans that end up buying tickets. And I think the ratio might end up being
00:52:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if you're thinking that low, and I think you probably have a better sense of this than I do, I might actually bump the ratio to like 60, 40 the other way. Because I think like Tigris fans in this area are going to come to the game. Like they don't get that many chances to see their team. And it's a team that I think it's fair to say has increased their Halloween in the eight years since the last time they played in Seattle. So I think, yeah, I think they could
00:53:18
Speaker
a little closer to one to one, but we'll see.
00:53:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, there's a long time until seconds. Well, I think that's, that's the thing. It's a little hard to say right now, but based on like, I was surprised, like there's like tickets. I know tickets are selling slowly and, and my timeline tells me that people are sort of like.
00:53:48
Speaker
pretty down on this. So maybe things will turn around in the next few weeks. Maybe if the sound, you know, like who knows if, I don't know what the sounders can do to maybe change things, but I suppose maybe like the appreciation for this, like I'll tell you the way that I look at it is that this is probably only like the sounders are probably only going to be playing for three trophies this year because I don't think the US Open Cup is going to happen. They're not in Champions League.
00:54:15
Speaker
So it's supporter shield they're playing for. They're playing for, obviously for MLS cup. And then there's this, if sounders win this, you better bet your bill bippy. I'm going to be calling it a trouble if they win the other two. I mean, like people have claimed troubles for much stupider. Yeah, exactly. So it's a competition. I mean, you know, what are you going to do? Um, excellence from low key, low key. If you have to choose which team deals, the sounders, the first loss of the season.
00:54:45
Speaker
Well, I'll be honest, I think this game coming up is a decent candidate. They aren't favored in it, so I think there's a...
00:54:59
Speaker
a decent chance that what happens. I mean, they've got some tricky games coming up. I mean, yeah. I'd like to think that their first loss wouldn't come at Austin, which is the game on Thursday. Sporting Kansas City, by the way, is the team that they play after that and then San Jose. But Sporting Kansas City at home, I mean, that's going to be, that's a really interesting game. But yeah, I mean, I'd say
00:55:25
Speaker
any one of these upcoming three games, I'd say are decent candidates, but if they get through these three games, it opens up a bit. Then they have San Jose, then Dallas at home, those are two games they really should win, and then Tigris, and then they go to Portland, so that's gonna be a tough one too.
00:55:51
Speaker
I'm almost hoping that they lose before then, because I really... I know. But we're in Portland, so we're not going to lose, I guess. Let me flip this around. Let's flip this around. They have six games between now and Portland, six league games. What's the game in there you would most be willing to lose?
00:56:19
Speaker
Will you feel okay about losing the most? I think the One This Life Minnesota is a tough game. Austin, I think, is a tough game. They've not been that bad. They played the Sounders pretty tough at home. Sporting KC would suck just because that feels like a team. No, they gotta win that one.
00:56:40
Speaker
I don't want to lose to them for sure, but I, I think like removing emotion from from the situation that's a game that you probably don't feel terrible about losing, given the circumstances right like if you're at full strength. You don't want to lose to your biggest competition at home, but.
00:56:56
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I mean, Minnesota wouldn't be, I wouldn't feel terrible about that. You know, it'll be over early. So it's, it's, you know, it's not like I waited all weekend to watch it. Right. Austin's kind of the same way. If it happens on a weeknight, I don't, it doesn't affect me. I guess, I guess if you, like, if you look at it all as like, like you take the context out of all the games and you just pick one game that you would
00:57:21
Speaker
feel most comfortable losing Minnesota is the game for me because I think you can talk yourself into saying like you should win all these other games and Minnesota is the one where it's like well I don't know if should is the right word but the thing that would be tough is
00:57:38
Speaker
if they win this Minnesota game, you really don't want to lose. In some ways, Austin would be an okay game to lose. But if you beat Minnesota and then you lose to Austin, it's like, what are we doing? How did you do that? But I don't know. It's either this one or the Austin game that I think I'd be at first piece with. Everything else being equal and just in a vacuum,
00:58:05
Speaker
without considering the schedule, the team I would want to beat us would be Vancouver because I just feel so bad for the Whitecaps and for their fans. Like it's really gotten like existentially depressing. And, and I just like have never been able to find it in me to feel like a strong dislike for the Whitecaps, like their arrival. I want to talk about the game that's like eight, nine games from now.
00:58:31
Speaker
no I just like in it like completely like if if it was just like in jail yeah not all because like ideally I'd want to lose to them in Vancouver to give their fans something to feel good about but that's the last game of the season if it even happens in Vancouver which it probably won't and I don't want to go through the season undefeated and lose the
00:58:51
Speaker
But I just, I feel good about that. I feel good about the white cats, the DDS, I feel happy for their, for their, their poor fans. Cause it's never, it's not getting any better for them. No, it does not seem to be. All right. Well, we spent a lot of time on these first three questions. Emmett O'Connell or yeah, Emmett O'Connell says, how much is the next man up thing real or is it a convenient narrative for a well-run team?
00:59:18
Speaker
Um, I don't think those two things are, are mutually exclusive. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a mindset about this team that like, we kind of talked about this earlier. Like if you're on the team, you're expected to perform. Um, and, and I don't think anybody is being expected to perform above their station or what's reasonably expected, but they're being expected to do their jobs.
00:59:38
Speaker
And, uh, you know, to not screw up a whole bunch. And, um, and I think the, the squad has been built in a way to support that kind of thing. Um, but I think building a squad that can do that, that could plausibly have that kind of mentality and then making sure that the team have the mentality, those, those things go hand in hand.
00:59:59
Speaker
All right. Next one is from sounder follower. Uh, if you could sign a U 22 and a tan better in this window, which, which positions would you target for each? Oh man. I'm glad you said which positions and not which players. Cause I was going to be like, if it had been which players, I don't think I would have asked the question. Uh, yeah, I think. Let's see. My heart tells me if you're going to sign a U 22 player, you go for the upside.
01:00:30
Speaker
you may as well try to get your Nico Ledero replacement, right? And honestly, I think if you're going to sign a TAM player, like I'm not saying they should go out and sign Victor Rodriguez, but I would actually be okay with them signing two players, like the U22 player and the TAM player basically being the same position because I think the Nico Ledero spot is probably the one where they
01:00:55
Speaker
could use the most, like that attack-minded midfielder is probably the position where they could use the most.
01:01:03
Speaker
But maybe, maybe that's not right. I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe Freddie Monteiro is that player, right? Like maybe, you know, maybe Christian Roldan makes it superfluous. Uh, so maybe I'm, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I think for sure the U22 player, you know, I think all things being equal, I'd, I'd probably target a Nico Ledero type, you know, like a creative midfielder and maybe the Tam.
01:01:35
Speaker
I mean, you know, a wing back, I guess. Yeah. Maybe a second forward, maybe another forward. There's no position on the team where I think you say to yourself, it's a waste of money to spend Tam there. Yeah. And there's no position on the team where you think to yourself,
01:01:57
Speaker
man, we really have got to upgrade this position. I agree, I totally agree. It's culture, it's fit, it's who's available. If you're even spending that money. Yeah, no, it's a great position to be in. Yeah, it's the best position to be in. It really is a good... And I think it's the first time that I remember where the sounders could really go into a window and say,
01:02:27
Speaker
Let's talk about finding the best player. We really don't need to fill a hole. So this one's from Brian Mostrom. He says, well, Alex Roldan joining El Salvador instead of being a fringe player for the US national team cost the US points and or a trophy at some point. No.
01:02:45
Speaker
Well, it was weird to me that Alex didn't start the second El Salvador game after scoring in his debut. And he's, I think played as a central midfielder in both games. I think he, I mean, it's got it like he's never trained with him before. He's probably still getting into it. Like getting back to fitness, he probably didn't have a lot of region time. So I think he's going to be a very good player for them.
01:03:11
Speaker
I don't think he was especially close to the US national team. I don't either. I don't know that his absence is going to end up being the thing that makes or breaks a trophy for the Sounders. Well, I think he's asking for the US.
01:03:34
Speaker
Oh, you're right. And that's, that's why you're totally right. Yeah. Cause like, if it were for the Sounders, I don't think I would have been quite as emphatic cause he is a key player for the team right now. But, uh, yeah, I don't, I think that if you're the U S national, the men's national team and Alex rolled down as the.
01:03:54
Speaker
difference between a trophy and not. You're in the kind of shape everybody thought we were before. The reality is that I think he was at best like fifth or sixth on the like you know Shaq Moore got called up for this and he was probably seventh or eighth on the depth chart and I don't know that
01:04:21
Speaker
Like, for better or for worse, like I'm not saying that he's not better than Shaq more necessarily, but I don't think Berhalter rated him higher than him. I also think that he's in that, he's just kind of in that weird, I guess Shaq Lawrence too, but that just like weird sort of spot of like, well, he's
01:04:42
Speaker
probably the guy he is at this point. But, you know, Shaq Moore, I guess, is too. So I was thinking Shaq Moore was younger than that. Anyway, yeah, I think Alex made the right choice joining El Salvador. Next one is from Dave Clark. And I saved this one for you specifically because I have no idea what I would say. Which Defiance player do you want to clip to sign next?
01:05:08
Speaker
Oh, uh, let's see. I guess it depends on if we're talking about signing that player to be an emergency kind of call up just for the sake of filling out the roster, which is probably the next player that they sign or as a permanent signing. I think it's probably a more interesting question to think of it as a permanent signing. Yeah. And, um,
01:05:34
Speaker
I think the player who most intrigues me right now as potentially able to do a job for the Sounders this year is, and I'm gonna butcher his name, but it's the forward Samuel Adenerin, I think is how you say it. Probably not, but he is this big, if you've watched the Defiance, he is a big dude with great feet.
01:06:02
Speaker
He's not a great finisher, but he can do a lot of things in holdup that I think would be useful for the sounders. And I could see him actually contributing and being useful. Now, I don't necessarily, if he develops into a scorer, he's potentially, I think, a really good player, but.
01:06:21
Speaker
I think he's a really intriguing prospect. I think he's the player who is most capable of helping them now. I don't think he's the highest upside. There's a whole host of players who I think have potentially brighter futures. But if you're talking about potentially helping him this year, that's the guy I think I would want to see. Cause he's like, he's not as early twenties, right? Yeah, he's pretty young. He's not old, but he's, uh, but he's not like baby. No, he's, he's in his twenties. Yeah.
01:06:50
Speaker
Yeah, I shamefully have not had a chance to watch the Defiance at all. He's a fun player. If you get a chance, he's a fun one. I'm planning on actually going to catch a game here very soon. Oh, good. I have no excuse for not doing it, considering I can hear the games from my house. Yeah.
01:07:13
Speaker
And I'll say this, they've been much more competitive this year than they've been since 2015. And they're fun. They do interesting things. I think Wade Webber has them playing a really good brand of soccer. Emghamini says, do you foresee games being canceled rescheduled for air quality reasons in smoke season? Oh man, what a depressing question.
01:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. I mean, probably, probably like I don't see any reason to think that we're not going to have a pretty bad smoke season. I know.
01:07:47
Speaker
It's already like, I mean, we're already kind of prepping for it. I think just expecting some smoke days here soon. I mean, I sure as hell hope not, right? Like I, and, but I hope not because we don't get smoke, not because they decide to play games when they shouldn't. Um, I really hope the, the league wouldn't do that. Um, I know it's a huge pain in the ass to cancel a game. Um, you know, day of for something like that. I get that it's a logistical nightmare, but.
01:08:16
Speaker
I mean, everybody remembers what it was like last year. Like you couldn't be outside for more than five minutes. Like I cannot imagine doing anything physical in that. I just can't. Yeah. I mean, I will say that.
01:08:30
Speaker
only because they somehow managed to not cancel any games last year. Do I think that they could avoid that this year, but it, sadly, I, I, I feel like a repeat of last year is like, if all we get is like a week of really bad smoke, that might have to be considered like good. Yeah, it would be over the moon if we only got a week, but, um,
01:09:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, let's move on for that. It's, it's not a bad question, but I don't want to think about it anymore. Yeah. Next one is from third, third string star. Is there a reason MLS is keeping their litany of roster mechanisms other than to keep MLS fans talking about them? Are the rules a way to keep a specific quality on the field or does Miami's massive underperformance and the Sounders overperformance the season to get that idea? You know, I think those rules are somewhat like a,
01:09:32
Speaker
I do think there's a reason for them in that they, they're a way to keep the league competitively balanced and it's a way of not allowing spending to grow completely out of control, but there are definitely.
01:09:53
Speaker
a lot of ins and outs, a lot more ins and outs than I think there need to be. And I think they are more complicated than they have to be. I think they could achieve a lot of like, I think they could achieve a lot of what they want by having a luxury tax. Yeah. That would be much more straightforward and easier to understand than having, you know, 15 different roster mechanisms to sign players. Yeah. I mean, I feel like some of it has stuck around just through inertia. Some of it has stuck around probably as part of the collective bargaining process.
01:10:23
Speaker
it where there are things that are kept in place because it's a way to resolve some kind of disputes that we don't have insight into. Um, I hope that that's true because if not, there's just some, some stuff that doesn't need to be in there. But I will say this, I, I think there are not an insignificant number of people in the league who believe that the rules
01:10:50
Speaker
are good for them. And I think, like, frankly, the Sounders are one of those teams that because like the more rules there are, the more kind of creative you have to be, and it makes you think about things differently. And I think it benefits a team like the Sounders with who put resources into figuring that stuff out. And, you know, a lot of the people that are powerful in the league are people that have come up through the league. And so,
01:11:17
Speaker
you know, it does kind of insulate them from, you know, like one of the reasons foreign coaches struggle here is not because they don't know how to coach, it's because they don't necessarily understand all the limitations. And I think those limitations, you know, like I think it's a way of kind of protecting jobs too, to be kind of like a little bit more
01:11:42
Speaker
Blunt, blunt about it. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think you're right though. I think that it's very easy to talk yourself into thinking the way you've always done things is the way to continue doing things, especially when you've had some pretty significant success over the last five, 10 years or so, uh, and growing the league. But, um, there are some roster limitations and mechanisms that I think are good and should stick around, but for the most part,
01:12:13
Speaker
The thing I think that frustrates me is that so many of them are very clearly
01:12:18
Speaker
a decision of like, well, we want to spend money, but we want, we want teams to spend money on this very specific kind of player. So we're going to carve out a specific mechanism to allow us to spend money on that specific kind of player and structure it in a way and enforce it in a way that makes it impossible that those benefits will be spread out to the rest of the roster. Right. Like I think that's the thing that's most calling to me is like,
01:12:43
Speaker
where it's like, oh yeah, we want to pay players more, but not these players, like not the players that have actually helped us build the league. Right. Yeah. Like I could definitely see someone saying this during like one of the contract negotiations is I'm more than happy to give, you know, Christian Roldan a raise, but I'm not really that interested in paying Zach Scott twice what I paid him last year to do the exact same job.
01:13:10
Speaker
Right. You know, and I think there's a lot of players like that fit into those two buckets. Right. And, um, and like the league just doesn't want to, you know, like I, on some of I can't blame them, but, uh, they need those X gods too. Right. I mean, I, I think that that is a perfectly rational way for a business to behave, but that doesn't.
01:13:33
Speaker
Naked defensible, I guess is what I would say. And I think if you don't want to pay the guys like Zach Scott, then pay the better players what they're worth. Anyway. Yeah. This one, hopefully you like this one. This is from AdamP360. Laura Harvey's back in Tacoma. LFG or let's fucking go.
01:14:00
Speaker
Oh, we can go with both. That was great, man. That came out of nowhere for me. I knew I had absolutely no inkling that that would be happening. But I'm thrilled. I think that it made sense for her to leave when she did. And she did some cool stuff between her last time here. But I'm thrilled to have her back. We've been, I think, pretty lucky.
01:14:27
Speaker
for the most part with the rain with the coaches we've had. And yeah, I'm excited. I'm very excited to see her back here. Yeah. And I think it's really exciting that she might be here. Like I would like to think that she's here for a while. Yeah. And it would be great to see her be able to like eventually be playing. Like I love the idea of her coaching the rain when they come to CenturyLink.
01:14:52
Speaker
because I think that's the, like, I can only, I'm sure she's thought about doing that exact thing many times and it's exciting to think that she's going to get to actually do that, but that's a good transition to this next question. Yeah, it's from third string star once again. How does one dress for the double header? Rain gear, outerwear, sounders, innerwear, some mix, or between game wardrobe spot? That's a, you know,
01:15:20
Speaker
I think the, the easy way is to wear the Jersey of the team. You're there. Like that you're most into that you have maybe, and then the scarf of the other team, but there's a lot of good combinations. I think that you can, you can pull off. You could just full blown. I don't, I'm not against the idea of a full wardrobe swap. I kind of like that idea. Yeah.
01:15:44
Speaker
I'm not going to be doing that, but I think that if you're comfortable taking your shirt off in public, you know, go to town with that. I mean, I just generally try to avoid that whole thing and just wear things completely unrelated to the sporting of it because I'm lazy in general. But no, I think I'll probably...
01:16:07
Speaker
It's going to be August and I usually don't take scarves to summer games, but I might have to take both scarves to this one just because it's a special occasion. I hate doing that, but I think I might have to go that route. If you find this tweet, there are some good suggestions in their quote tweets and replies.
01:16:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think I mean, I am genuinely excited for this game. It's going to be a blast. It's going to be so much fun. Yeah, it's it's I'm stoked that's happening. All right. This is from our good friend, Dave Clark, who's going to close us out. He wants to know what is your favorite beer or food discovery after his what's what's the favorite thing you've food or beer that you discovered in Tacoma, which defines player. Oh, you're we already. Oh, we already got. Okay. What's your favorite food discovery? That's a good way to close us out.
01:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I feel bad because it's kind of a boring answer, but it's the truth. We have not gone out to eat yet since we moved. Our schedules just don't facilitate doing it very often. Like we've had to make the choice of like, do we want to go get beers or do we want to go out to eat somewhere? And frankly, we've chosen the beers.
01:17:18
Speaker
So there are a ton of places I'm excited to try. But yeah, we haven't had a chance to do much of that yet. The beer also is the same here. It's not that far away, so I don't know. That being said, Sig is a really good cucumber brewery. I really like their stuff. We've had some of their stuff, but
01:17:38
Speaker
Beer Star is right up the street from my place, and that place is awesome. I highly recommend that place. The patio there is great. They have a food truck that looks pretty good, but I haven't tried it yet. But yeah, I've been to Beer Star a few times, and it's pretty dope. But I'm definitely excited to get out to Red Hot here pretty shortly now that they, I think, are back up to full capacity, because they were having like two-hour waits and stuff for a while there.
01:18:04
Speaker
Woof. Yeah. That's, that's a long time to wait. I don't care how good the food is. That's a long time to wait for it. Yeah, I don't. Yeah. I don't, there's no food. I've, I've said this before. I probably said it on the show, but I say it all the time. Like I don't, I don't like line culture is not my bag. No, I think Paseo is the closest I've ever came to that. And I went like it very much off peak times to try to minimize that. Yeah.
01:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, I just yeah. But you know, now that like now that things are opening up a little bit more because like we just like stuck with COVID precautions later. And I think a lot of people it's COVID has been over in Pierce County for three months now. But yeah, but like for us like we just because Pierce County was over what you're saying I think what you mean is Pierce County has been over COVID for three months. Yeah, yeah.
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's that is more accurate than over with Pierce County. But yeah, I mean, so but, you know, we've been case numbers are low. I'm pretty confident that my immune response to the vaccine was was good to the point where I feel safe maybe going out to eat here soon. So, yeah, well, good to hear that it is. It is. It has been kind of interesting to see Seattle opening up as well. It's it's funny because
01:19:24
Speaker
It was in some ways the last place, it was the first place to close down and in some ways it was the last place to open up, but it does feel kind of like, there are definitely cases here and we're actually seeing a miniature little rise right now, but life has come back here for sure.
01:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely feels weird at first. And it felt weird at first, but once you're like, oh, that's right, this is safe. That's why I spent the day and a half in bed was because my body was reacting to the vaccine. And that's why I did that. I mean, for sure, I for sure feel great going out and being outside and not wearing a mask.
01:20:14
Speaker
you know I don't know how I quite feel about going to an indoor crowded place where everyone's the expectation is everyone isn't wearing a mask although I did go to a I went to the watch uh the Spain Italy, Spain Italy? Is that right? Yeah I wouldn't watch Spain Italy at the Georgian dragon and no one was wearing a mask there and it was a little nerve-wracking but
01:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, it was fine. I think, I mean, you have kids. So I think that that definitely changes the risk. Yeah. You know, the risk calculus for me, it's like, if I get it, I'm almost certainly going to have a little bit of a cold. I don't see anybody, you know, so I feel okay with it. Um, but I think, you know, it's definitely like, if I had kids, I would definitely, or if I saw my parents a lot or whatever, you know, I might have a different,
01:21:04
Speaker
Uh, feeling about it, but I think, I do think the fact that Pierce County has not maybe been as strict for a while has desensitized me a little bit more to it. Yeah. For sure. Once you start seeing a lot of people out and about it, it changes the way you.
01:21:20
Speaker
I think it changes your perception. Sure. I think a lot of it is just like, you don't want to be the asshole, you know? Right. No, I totally agree. And then once the asshole axis changes, not that you're ever an asshole for burning mass. No, I hear you. You know what I mean? I hear you. There's a tipping point. Anyway.
Closing Remarks & Sponsor Thank You
01:21:36
Speaker
All right. Well, that's a good place to call this. Uh, Aaron was, it was wonderful hanging out with you. Hopefully the people enjoyed hanging out with us. Uh, I am Jeremiah Shan signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and our engineer Lickett P. Uh, thank you to our sponsor full pool wines. They're great as always. Uh, but this is no sada yet. Just remember you'll never get alone.
01:22:02
Speaker
Green Douglas, where were the waters 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
01:22:39
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!