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Nos Audietis, Episode 289: Not quite a disaster
66 Plays7 years ago
Not exactly the result the Sounders were looking for, but a 2-1 loss in Portland is not the end of the world. The Sounders got the away goal and history tells us that heading one witha one-goal deficit isn’t that big of a disadvantage.
Of possibly more concern is the injuries to Cristian Roldan and Chad Marshall. Roldan looks like he might be able to suit up on Thursday, but Marshall could be out for the rest of the year after undergoing surgery.
This week's music: "What do tigers dream of?" - Cristian Roldan, "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
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.
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction: Fullpool Wines and '36 Bottles of Wine'
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. To eat those of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now should be familiar to Fullpool 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.
00:00:20
Speaker
And there's food! Lots of it! Fullpool's unique writing style is applied to recipes like Leftover Thanksgiving, Turkey, Smaltz of All Soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Introducing the NOS Adietes Podcast
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 do tigers dream of when they take a little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras?
00:01:15
Speaker
I think we're going to have to sign off on that one.
00:01:18
Speaker
like a beautiful child growing up. Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietes, sponsored by Full Full Wines, Quinn and Acupuncture, and her broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios.
Sounders vs. Portland: Match Summary and Concerns
00:01:29
Speaker
This is episode 289, and we're recording on Tuesday, November 6th, 2018. I'm your host, Jeremiah Shannon, and I'm joined as always by my co-host, Erin Campo, and her engineer, Lickett.
00:01:39
Speaker
So this wasn't exactly the result the Sounders were looking for, but a 2-1 loss to Portland in Portland is not the end of the world by any means. The Sounders got their way goal and history tells us that heading home with one goal deficit really isn't that big of a disadvantage. Of possibly more concern though is the injuries to Christian Roldan and Chad Marshall. Roldan looks like he might be able to suit up as soon as Thursday, although I'm not really holding my breath on that one.
00:02:07
Speaker
Marshall, on the other hand, might be out for the rest of the year as he already went underwent meniscus surgery. So all things considered, Aaron, how are you feeling heading into leg two, which is right around the corner on Thursday?
00:02:22
Speaker
Uh, I actually feel pretty good. Um, I think the way the second half played out made me feel really, really good because the sounders were playing without both of those guys. Um, they were playing without what I think most people would have considered the best option to replace, um, rolled on, uh, you know, and Harry ship.
00:02:44
Speaker
And for most of the second half they were the much better team and the team that I think was much more likely to score. I saw a lot of Portland fans and also just sort of national media folks saying that it was disappointing that
00:02:58
Speaker
Portland took their feet off the gas when the series was there to win. And I think that they did throttle back a little bit. They certainly weren't as aggressive in the second half as they were in the first half. But I think that the Sounders deserve a ton of credit for making them, forcing them to play that way. The Sounders early on
00:03:20
Speaker
were playing really aggressively. You know, they were trying to play with a really fast buildup. I don't know that they were necessarily looking to counter, but they were aggressive and going at the goal when they had the ball. And it got them goal, but it also, you know, allowed Portland to get right back into the game. And
00:03:41
Speaker
really grab a hold of the game. And so the Sounders, I think, in the second half, you know, they played a much more patient style. They kept possession. They generated chances, but they were much more meticulous about it. They, you know, did not allow themselves to get countered nearly as often in the second half. When they did, they were, you know, really good at rotating into positions and stuffing it out pretty quickly.
00:04:04
Speaker
So I think that's all really encouraging. I mean Portland had all the momentum. The Sounders were down to one sub. They had a lead. Portland had a lead at home. And I think probably would have liked to make the lead bigger considering the circumstances. And they just didn't really come all that close. And the Sounders I think came really close to making it 2-2 and I think being the odds on favorite to advance.
Sounders' Strategy and Playoff Scenarios
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it was not only as good of an outcome as you could have hoped for given the circumstances, but actually a pretty decent outcome, just all things considered.
00:04:40
Speaker
I would pretty much agree with all that, which I'm sure will come as a shock to our listeners. But I'll add that you take yourself back to minute 40 or so, which is right around when Chad Marshall had to come out of the game. And it really did feel like the world was starting to crumble around the Sounders. They'd already lost Christian Roldon to seemingly serious injury. I actually feel like the prognosis has been more positive than I had expected it to be.
00:05:08
Speaker
They'd just given up two goals. The atmosphere inside of Providence Park was so tense and so chaotic. It just felt like it was going to all come apart. And, you know, this understand the indoor 10 minutes of stoppage time in the first half. And I think
00:05:25
Speaker
Once they got through that, it was pretty good. I think they looked very good in the second half. They had, if not the better, the clearly better chances. I think they had some good chances. And I think you go back to the goal. I think that the first, the equalizing goal that
00:05:45
Speaker
Portland had, I think was at least arguably offside. I've been on record as saying that I'm not really upset about that call being allowed to stand, but I do think it's worth a discussion. Similarly, the penalty on that wasn't called on Roll Dawn. Again, I wasn't really shocked that it wasn't called. I certainly wasn't shocked after it went to VAR because I felt like it was a pretty, like, I don't know what he was going to possibly see in the replay to award the penalty.
00:06:15
Speaker
So I wasn't really surprised by that one and I'm not super up in arms about it, but I think it's worth noting that there were two huge calls in this game that both went against sounders. I guess you could argue that there was another offside call, but that was solid yard offside. It wasn't even close.
00:06:31
Speaker
But all things considered, I think the sounders acquitted themselves well. I thought they managed the game well. And you go home down 2-1 is exponentially better than like the marginal improvement of tying it 2-2 and going home down 3-1 is huge. I think you would rather stay like
00:06:54
Speaker
If you have to kind of balance the risk reward of those two options, going back home to one is really not that big of a deal. Yeah, I mean, frankly, I still don't think this Timbers team is all that great. I think they match up really well against the Sounders. And I think we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we were still trying to suss out who we would rather play. But I think a 1-0 is a pretty likely outcome.
00:07:23
Speaker
The one thing I think that is really frustrating is that the Sounders weren't able to score more than once against a Timbers defense that didn't have Larry Smabiala who is, I think that their goals allowed per game is like twice as high when he's out of the lineup than when he's in it. So that's a little disappointing and he'll be back for Thursday.
00:07:45
Speaker
You know, I think that the timbers are absolutely going to have to score a goal in this game. I don't think there's any way they keep it at zeros. And I think if the Sounders, you know, can score theirs early and kind of force the timbers to open up, that bodes really well for them. So 2-1 is not the best possible score line, but
00:08:07
Speaker
they're probably not gonna be like the bookies favorites with that score line, but I expect them to advance with that score line. And I think that they would probably expect to advance as well. So yeah, I mean, and again, considering the circumstances, I think it's a pretty tremendous outcome.
00:08:26
Speaker
I'll say this with a caveat that I would always rather be in a better position than they're currently in, but I do think that there's also some level of psychological advantage going
00:08:38
Speaker
going back when you're down two to one as opposed to tied, because let's just say the Sounders have tied it up to two, it feels almost like you've already won the series, when in reality, you're one goal away from being sent home. And this way, I feel like it forces the Sounders to be a little bit more aggressive. It forces the Sounders to come into the game knowing that they need to score and they probably need to keep a clean sheet.
00:09:06
Speaker
I don't know, I feel like there is some mental advantage to going in with that mindset as opposed to going into that game tied. And I think back to the FC Dallas series in 2014 when they tied 1-1 and then they had to basically slog through the second leg and it was 0-0.
00:09:26
Speaker
And I don't know, I guess you could argue that if they had lost two to one in that one that they would have not gone through. But I do think that there is some advantage to feeling like you need to score to advance. And hopefully that works in the soundest favor. I went back and I looked through the numbers.
00:09:48
Speaker
Since the away goal rules started to use, started to be used in 2014, there have been four teams
00:09:58
Speaker
four higher seeds to lose the first leg by one goal while still scoring at least one goal. And three of those teams ended up advancing. And if you take that all the way from 2003 to 2013, there was also four teams that were in the similar situation. They didn't have the own goal. I mean, they didn't have the away goal, but three of those teams also advanced. So you got six out of eight teams that have basically been in this situation that have advanced. That's a pretty good percentage, I think.
00:10:26
Speaker
And certainly, most of those teams weren't really in any better of a situation than the Sounders were. I'll add that the one team in the away goal era to advance out of the situation was actually the Sounders when they won the first leg against Colorado 2-1 and then they won the second leg 1-0. I don't know if that actually gives you any more confidence, but what it does tell me is that this is a very manageable score line.
Key Players and Match Tactics
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that you have to expect to win the home leg, right? And so if you don't win the home leg, you just have to go and do a series expecting that you're going to do that. And it's hard for me to see a 3-2 win or like a 4-3 win.
00:11:14
Speaker
And I think that if the timbers do score two goals, there's a good chance the Sounders score four. I mean, it's just the nature of the teams and the way they match up, the more scoring there is, I think that the Sounders are going to be able to edge it. So maybe that doesn't make sense. I don't know. It makes sense in my head. But yeah, I mean, I think that a two-nil, one-nil outcome is significantly more likely than a three, two, or a zero, zero.
00:11:42
Speaker
I'll also add that the player that I feel like the Sounders could have least afforded to lose may have been Real Rui Diaz, maybe Nicholas Ladeau as great as Christian Roldan and Chad Marshall are. I feel like if those two guys are on the field, they still have a chance really against anybody. Rui Diaz's goal was, I feel really underappreciated. It was a great goal. It was a really great goal.
00:12:07
Speaker
Just the way he tracked a deflection, hits it with the inside of his boot, roofs it over the goalkeeper who's kind of cut down the angle. It's not an easy finish. It's a finish that I don't think the Sounders have had a lot of players capable of doing that.
00:12:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the thing with Rudy Diaz is that he doesn't score a ton of goals that you would consider spectacular, but he kind of has that obelike quality of finishing from angles that a lot of people aren't capable of. And that's one of the discussions about whether or not finishing is a skill, right? Because, you know, the statistical case is that
00:12:45
Speaker
uh you know players finish at roughly the same rate you know but it's kind of like passing where uh Chad Marshall is not attempting the passes that Nico Ledero is attempting right and Raul Rudeas is attempting shots that other players aren't going to attempt from angles that they're not going to attempt um and it's it's why I tend to think that finishing is is actually a skill so
00:13:07
Speaker
And I think he's very good at it, and having a player that can do that that can, you know, create danger sort of on their own just by virtue of being able to put balls away that other players can't is a huge advantage, especially in a game where, you know,
00:13:23
Speaker
You're not creating a ton of chances, making sure that you're converting even the half chances that you get. You know, the flip side of that coin is that he had what I think was a nailed on chance that was right before Roldan got tripped up in the area that he totally scuffed.
00:13:43
Speaker
That's going to happen to everybody. But yeah, I mean, just there were so many games when the Sounders couldn't score this year where they were getting the ball into positions like that and nothing would come of it. And it never felt like anything was going to come of it. And with Rudy, as you just never know. Yeah, I would. I would.
00:14:01
Speaker
echo all that. That said, if there's something that you feel like the sounders need to do better in the second leg, what is it? I mean, they definitely have to control the counter. You know, they cannot
00:14:17
Speaker
When the timbers actually get that counter rolling like they did in this game, frankly. Yeah, like they did in that first game in the first half. There's not much you can do to stop it. You just kind of have to hope that they, you know, they screw up somewhere along the line because they are very, very, very good in transition. So they have to keep that in mind, especially if they do go up a goal, you know, and start feeling aggressive and want to put it away.
00:14:41
Speaker
So that's a big thing, but they did that really well in the second half. So in terms of things that I would like to see them do better that they didn't really do all at all in the first game, I would maybe like to see them be a little more threatening from set pieces, but that's sort of a no-brainer. I mean, really, if they play the way they played in the second half, that would be perfect for me, you know, because I think they're going to create enough chances to win.
00:15:08
Speaker
keep the attacking players from the other team in front of you, keep the ball in dangerous areas, and make sure the chances you're creating are high quality. I think that's going to be the key.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, it is a game where I think the Sounders, it's imperative that they get a goal early, I think, that maybe goes without saying, but this is not a game that sets up well the longer they, you know, I suppose you could always argue that just keeping the zero is gonna be the most important thing, but I don't necessarily think that's true because if you can get that goal first, it changes the way that Portland has to play.
00:15:48
Speaker
because Portland now can't just wait for the counter. The Sounders can kind of slow the game down. They can possess it. They've shown that they can do that. And if the Sounders get to a point where they're being allowed to kind of kill off the game, I think they can effectively do that. And that's going to force Portland out of their shell. And as soon as Portland has to do something other than counter, there's not a lot of other tricks in their bag.
00:16:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. If Portland's in a situation where they have to make up ground to win the game,
00:16:23
Speaker
you might be in a situation where you just say, here's the ball. And I think it's much easier to feel comfortable doing that if you get a goal early. And that sounds awful compared to what I think both of us usually get frustrated about in playoff games, which is the team playing defensively too early. But Portland really is not good from anything but counters and set pieces. If you can
00:16:48
Speaker
say, Hey, you know, you can have as much of the ball as you want. You just have to break us down with this defense and that Portland attack.
Impact of Scheduling on Player Fitness
00:16:55
Speaker
I think you're in a pretty comfortable spot. Yeah. Uh, I was actually surprised at how confident the players were afterward. Like there was some frustration, I think in general, but they, you know, they were.
00:17:08
Speaker
They weren't, there was no kicking of water bottles. There was no throwing of tape. It was more of a, well, that didn't go quite as we wanted, but I think that there was a lot of confidence that they picked up from that second half, especially. I was, you know, Stephen Fry, very confident going in. Kelvin Leonardin was very confident. I think that there's reason to be hopeful for this one. I'm very curious to see what kind of crowd shows up for this game. It feels like,
00:17:35
Speaker
I don't, I just don't know what to expect from crowds anymore, but you know, if we can get 40, 45,000 in there, feel like that bodes well, especially for the atmosphere. Uh, you know, playoff, playoff atmospheres is always great. Uh, it's, it is a shame. You know, it's funny because on one hand, I am glad that this game is being, I think that the short rest is playing into the sounder's favor because I don't, my suspicion is that if Christian rolled on can't play.
00:18:03
Speaker
he probably couldn't have played it if the game was on Sunday. And the same with Chad Marshall. And so aside from that, I feel like this is a chance for the Sounders to run at some tired legs. There is a theory put forward that part of the reason that Portland didn't attack more in the second half was because they were kind of saving themselves leg-wise, which
00:18:28
Speaker
I think that that speaks to good things that if they're worried about that at this point. And maybe they were saving themselves and maybe they were also just gassed. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And so I think that this potentially could put it to the owner's favor. I know Merritt Paulson was already kind of complaining about it. I do think that it is a justifiable complaint, especially since the Senders are having to move this game because of a car show, which only kind of needs the space.
Sponsor Mentions and Fan Engagement
00:18:57
Speaker
But we don't have to really get into that. That's a whole nother issue. I'll go off for like 20 minutes if we do. So it's probably better to just leave it. Yeah. Anyway, we can we can get into that maybe in the offseason. But yeah, that's probably a good place to call this a segment. We're going to come back, take your questions. You're listening to no idea this.
00:19:22
Speaker
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00:19:41
Speaker
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00:20:10
Speaker
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00:20:29
Speaker
Acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com. Welcome back to NOS Adiates. We have a bunch of questions and I'll just let Lickett get started with that.
00:20:54
Speaker
Not a ton of questions, but good ones in any case. You start with the famous Susie Rants. She asks, what's your preferred fry style when dining out? What's your favorite song about Friday? Wouldn't you love to be a fry on the wall when players voted for goalkeeper of the year? Yeah, that was a little shocking. I am not going to lie.
00:21:21
Speaker
It wasn't shocking that Stephen Fry didn't win because I want to say as, you know, it was a few months ago and I made a comment on Twitter, along the lines of, I don't think people realize how good of a season he's having. It's too bad. He won't win goalkeeper of the year. And all these like me, like, uh, Stan Shaskal and a bunch of other people were like, why do you say he's not going to win? I was like, well, cause you know, it doesn't seem like he's the kind of guy that wins. And sure enough.
00:21:51
Speaker
despite there being a seeming groundswell of support among people that I interact with on Twitter, he didn't win the vote. He lost to Zach Steffen, who I don't know is a top five goalkeeper, let alone goalkeeper of the year. And the reason he lost is mainly because of the player vote, which Zach Steffen won in a landslide and Stephen Fry got in fifth.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's, it's kind of appalling in a, like, I shouldn't be this upset about it, but I am. I'm kind of, I'm kind of appalled by this. It's, it's a gross, like if you had lost to Louis Robles or Tim Malia, I think I would have just shrugged my shoulders and been like, yeah, but you know, some other goalkeepers had good seasons, but Dak Stephan, he was barely in the top 20 in a lot of key statistical categories. I don't get it.
00:22:43
Speaker
You got anything, Aaron? No. I mean, I think that part of the problem is that player votes for every award and every sport are always pretty bad.
Stephen Fry's Performance and Award Controversy
00:22:54
Speaker
I think that's a, I think that's a huge part of it. The, the player vote was pretty heavily in Stefan's favor, um, because, you know, they're probably not going home and watching, uh, every MLS game after, after their games. So I don't think most media members are doing that either, but I think that media members are at least looking through statistics and making a point of knowing a little bit about at least things like goalkeeper of the year.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, you know, Stefan being the apparent number one on the national team, I'm sure has something to do with his reputation amongst the players and things like that. So, um, yeah, I mean, it's, I think it's ridiculous. I think it's a joke. Um, I, I liked Zach Stefan. Uh, I think he has a ton of potential, but he definitely had a down year. He had a 64% save percentage. He had something like 66 saves, which is both barely inside the top 20 his.
00:23:51
Speaker
I think we talked about this on the show before. There's a statistic that American Soccer Analysis keeps that's called XGA minus actual GA. So it's basically the number of goals you allow in comparison to the number of goals you should allow based on the quality of shots that you're facing. And Stephen Fry had the second best
00:24:19
Speaker
statistic in the statistics history, which was nearly 13 goals fewer than he should have allowed. Zach Steffen was plus one something, meaning he allowed more goals than he should have. Pretty amazing.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's very obvious that Zac Steffen did not deserve this award. We're obviously biased, but I don't think it's crazy to think that Steffen Frye was a clear favorite. You know, like you said, Roblesne Amelia maybe would be an easier pill to swallow because then maybe it's a question of
00:24:55
Speaker
Well, maybe we're overrating our guy or something like that, rather than people just not paying attention. And it's frustrating because that award means something material for the player that wins it. There's definitely a monetary benefit that goes along with it. You can use it in your contract negotiations and things like that.
00:25:14
Speaker
You know, it sucks for a guy that I think was clearly much better than Zach Steppen this year to miss out on it because a lot of people that are voting for the award, you know, just weren't paying attention. To actually answer Susie's questions though, I like the fries from this place called King Philly Cheesesteaks in South Seattle. They're the best fries I've had in Seattle. Really? Yeah, they're really good. It's like a real restaurant? No.
00:25:44
Speaker
It's a total piece of shit hole in the wall, but fries should be good. What's it called? King Philly cheese steaks. South Seattle, huh? Yeah, it's on MLK. I think I've only ever gotten it delivered, so I don't actually know where it is, but yeah, their fries are really good. Okay, good shout. And the cheese steaks are decent, too. I'm partial to the maxi fries at taco time. Those are also very good. I've always thought that Seattle had pretty good fries in general.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah. I came here from a place that was, I never felt like fries were outstanding anywhere. And I came here and I felt like everywhere I went, like even random bars had pretty good fries. Like they understand the basics of making a good fry.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think people tend to try to get too cute with it, you know, which is I think the problem at a lot of places. There's a place in Redmond that I used to have to go to for work lunches all the time. I don't remember what it's called, but they had like some shit called Hey Stack Fries that was just basically like
00:26:48
Speaker
a big pile of fries that were the size of a shoelace just kind of stuck together. Yeah, I've had that. It's garbage. It's garbage. It's total garbage. And it's like, only to kind of say, shit, you see it like super expensive restaurants. I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Right. Anyway, enough fragression.
00:27:08
Speaker
Nice. All right. Switching topics. Larian asks, will Roman Torres score the game winning PK and the MLS Cup final again? And how doomed are the Sounders without Chad Marshall?
00:27:22
Speaker
Uh, I really hope that if we get to the MLS Cup Final, it doesn't go to PKs again. I don't want that, uh, for a lot of reasons. Um, but if we do, I mean, he's not a bad guy to take the last one. Um, so that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but you know, I mean, Chad Marshall is the best defender in MLS and so losing him hurts, but
00:27:46
Speaker
I think people have kind of forgotten that Roman Torres is really good too. He's had shaky periods since he's been here, but for the most part, he's been a really good top
00:27:59
Speaker
I would say 10% of defenders in MLS. He would start on pretty much every other team.
Injury Impacts on Future Planning
00:28:07
Speaker
Maybe New York Red Bulls, he wouldn't start there. They've got a pretty good center back parent as well. He's really good and there is a drop off and it's a concern.
00:28:20
Speaker
It's much better than going to most teams, third center backs. So I would much rather have Chad, but I think to say that I'm worried is probably an overstatement because I trust Ramon to play well.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, I would basically, I definitely don't want to be in a situation where Roman Torres needs to kick a winning penalty, but I guess I'd take it. So I'm not going to complain there. But I do think Roman Torres, having Roman Torres on the roster is pretty nice.
00:28:56
Speaker
I don't think he is in his best shape right now, but I still will take, I think there's a lot of comfort in him being back there as opposed to, I don't know, Tony Alfaro. But I suppose you could put Gustav Svens in there and move Jordi Delham into the defensive mid, but I, I'm, I'm comfortable with Roman Torres and Kim Ki-hee for now.
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that if the other center back wasn't as mobile as Kim Hee, I would probably feel a little more concerned about it. But Kim Hee Hee might be the fastest outfield player on the Sounders. That's actually healthy right now. So I'm a lot less concerned about Tora's and his lack of speed than I otherwise would be. Kind of a follow-up question. Twinbearly23 asks, how does Marshall's injury affect center back planning for next year?
00:29:50
Speaker
That's a good question. And I, I think that's a very, it's a very big issue. I would assume that the sounders were planning, you know, as of Sunday morning, I'm sure they were planning on going into this off season with Marshall and Kihei as their center backs. And I know there's been chatter pretty regularly about
00:30:15
Speaker
Marshall wanting to retire, but I feel like that never came directly from him and it was more of an assumption. And he did an interview on, on sounders for the sounders, where he seemed to basically say he's gonna play as long as he can, as long as he's good.
00:30:29
Speaker
And I don't think this is the kind of injury that guys recover to return from, which I assume is a good sign. So I'm assuming they're going to still go into this off season with Kihei and Marshall penciled in the starters. But I think it does underscore the importance of having a reliable third center back. And if it's not Roman Torres, which I think is a pretty decent possibility of happening,
00:30:57
Speaker
You know, you gotta, I think you gotta spend some money and get a quality backup center back. Okay. Kind of sticking to the topic of injuries, the safety lemur ass, assuming Marshall and roll down are out for Thursday and expecting Torres and ship in.
00:31:20
Speaker
Then expecting Torres and ship slash Bona slash Dellum to replace who fills in the empty spots on the 18. The empty spots on the 18, uh, maybe Jordan McCreary. And Alex rolled on. Yeah, I think rolled on seems like a pretty good bet. I don't think cools or Brad Smith potentially can get in there.
00:31:50
Speaker
If Bradsmith's healthy, I would say him and Alex rolled on. If not, I think McCrary had rolled on. You have to have one rolled on in the 18 at all times. Yeah. Yeah. That is, I believe that is actually written in the rules. I wonder, you know, it'd be interesting if Waylon Francis makes the 18 or not. Yeah, I mean- That probably depends on Bradsmith, right?
00:32:20
Speaker
Yeah, like if Brad Smith is in, it seems a little pointless to have both Francis and Smith in the 18. They seem rather redundant.
00:32:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I think too that, um, maybe Francis's reaction to coming out of the game early did not, uh, endear him. Although it's, it's tough to say because it's like, can you really blame a player for wanting to finish a game and being competitive? Like, I don't know. So I think it probably has a lot more to do with whether Smith is healthy than anything else. Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
Speaking of Francis dirty DC town asked any idea why coach would sub Francis on and then off One more time can you repeat that sorry? Yeah, any idea why coach would sub Francis on and then off? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that So subbing him on was definitely a controversial Call which I think is probably an understatement. I
00:33:27
Speaker
To me, I was floored by it at the time. I've talked myself into thinking that it wasn't as bad. I still don't think it was the right decision. I think that we have to assume that Harry's ship was not an option to come into the game. That they just did not think that he had the fitness that he needed and probably looking ahead to the next game. And I think that's totally reasonable.
00:33:52
Speaker
So it's really between Boana and Francis or changing up the formation at that point. I probably would have changed up the formation, although if you do that, you know, it's going to be kind of a weird formation, right? Because, I mean, what do you do?
00:34:14
Speaker
bring in Bruin and go with the 4-4-2, and I guess move Lidero out wide, so it's not the crazier thing. If you go, I suppose, I hadn't really thought of this at the time, but I suppose you could have gone with the 5-4-1 and brought in Torres for Roldan, and then you'd have a back line of Torres Marshall, Ki-hee,
00:34:39
Speaker
And then you'd potentially probably, then if Marshall went out, you'd probably bring in Dellum to replace him. I don't think that that's the worst. That would have been an interesting way of doing it. Yeah. I mean, I think again, that probably would have been my preferred option. I think that having two strikers in that game probably would have been helpful.
00:35:02
Speaker
But at the same time, I can understand, given the way the game was going, I mean, the sound was getting down to death. They were getting worked pretty hard down the wings. And so maybe you feel like, OK, we've got to lock down the wing. And so it's not what I would have done. I don't think it's a good decision. But I don't think it's as bad as it's been made out to be, for sure. I mean, I saw someone comparing it to Shaul Re-Joseph at
00:35:25
Speaker
that striker the last time the Sounders were in Portland for a playoff game. And I don't think it's even on that scale.
00:35:33
Speaker
Waylon Francis is not the same level of out of position playing left mid, which is a position that he's been, even if he hasn't literally, he hasn't got, I don't think he's got maybe a handful of stars at left mid, but he plays as a wing back essentially all the time. So the, the assignment is not that different from playing left mid and left back. So I don't, I don't think that's particularly
00:35:58
Speaker
problematic for me. And I think it's important to look at the game state. The sounders had just given up a goal. The house was just going absolutely crazy there. If I'm Brian Schmetzer, I think I have a hard time bringing in Handwall of Wanna, which would have been a much more inspired choice, but I think it's the one that would potentially blow up far worse.
00:36:23
Speaker
I know the score wasn't two to one yet. And so it's maybe, you know, you're, you're kind of trying to manage things at that point, but I, I, I think the, the appropriate thing to do for him is to manage the game more than try to do something inspired. You want to get into halftime. You want to regroup. You want to put it together. And I don't love the way Lynn Francis move, but I think it worked out reasonably well. And.
00:36:52
Speaker
I don't know, I'm just not, I'm not worked up over that one that much. And I certainly understand taking him out of the game because he had played 50 minutes at that point, 60 minutes, and they wanted ship to see if they could get a goal there at the end. And it almost worked. You know, he set up two decent chances. So I wasn't really surprised that he came out. But yeah, I mean, I think there's room to second guess the choice for sure.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that there's a tendency among soccer fans to always think that the more aggressive move and more aggressive attacking move is the one that should be made. And I don't think that's the case here. Like to me, I don't think Wanna is really an option in that situation in that game, especially given how badly the Sounders were getting beat on the flanks with Rollman, who is a good defender.
00:37:44
Speaker
um you know already in the game so yeah I don't think Buano was really an option um I just think that I don't know Waylon Francis has played Winger this year before and has been pretty bad at it um but like you said I think it ended ended up okay and in terms of taking him out I think you're right like
00:38:07
Speaker
The Sounders had actually tipped the scales I think pretty heavily in their favor at that point. And there's nothing wrong with seeing if they could, you know, get a goal from it. I was a little surprised that it was Francis and not new who because new who looked pretty gassed and, you know, I certainly wouldn't expect Francis to play again next week, or not next week Thursday.
Speculation on Lineups and Player Returns
00:38:28
Speaker
You know, I get it. I think it made sense. And I think that saying, oh, we pulled a sub for a sub is a little, I don't want to say disingenuous, but I think it's a little inaccurate considering that Francis had played, you know, almost an hour and probably wasn't anywhere close to anywhere than that. He didn't come in like the 30th minute.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yeah, and came out in like the 80th something. So. Oh, I get. No, it was like the seventh. But you're right. I guess it was almost an hour. You're right. But I mean, this is a guy that hasn't played a full game in six months, probably. So there's no way he was anywhere close to 90 minutes. So I don't think it's I don't think it was that big of a deal, honestly. I think it kind of made sense.
00:39:14
Speaker
Plus, if they were pushing for a goal, I mean, he was decent out there, but every time he got a cross, his crosses were a disaster. Keeping on the same kind of framework here, Mindy Rice asks, does ship start? And I hope so. I really think he will.
00:39:39
Speaker
And if he can, he will. And I think my, my suspicion is that it's like 60 minutes a ship in 30 minutes, if you want to, depending on what the state of the game is. Or maybe Brad Smith. I mean, that's, that's a possibility too. Um, sure would have been nice to have him on, on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. Really would have been.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah, but, um, yeah, I think if, if ship doesn't start, uh, I think that it's fair to completely change your opinion of, or, you know, for us to change our opinion of the Waylon Francis sub. Okay. Changing subjects. Now we're Kyle asks, since we need something bright to look forward to, how much are you going to cry when Jordan makes his first post-injury appearance?
00:40:29
Speaker
I don't think I will cry. I don't know that it's quite as emotional. Like the most emotional return that I've ever seen was Zachawani playing, but that was such a different circumstance. Like this is a guy who nearly lost his leg. Jordan Morris's injury was a little bit more, you know, like athlete injury. Right.
00:40:55
Speaker
But if he scores a goal, if he scores like the winning goal in the MLS cup, that might be different. Yeah, that would definitely be different. I mean, I think, yeah, it's not. I'll be very happy that he's back, obviously. But mostly I'm just going to kind of be nervous until, you know, we see how he comes back. Yeah. And I and I also think the way the zacuani injury ended up going has made me a little more hesitant to get excited about players coming back from injuries.
Cultural Significance: Kits and Rivalries
00:41:25
Speaker
Right. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's funny, you kind of, you kind of assume that player, especially young players will come back and pick up where they left off in relatively short order. But you know, it's, it's funny, you think about like John Kennedy Hurtado basically had the same injury that, that Morris had. And he may have been a little older, but he wasn't that much older. And he was never the same player after that.
00:41:53
Speaker
It's almost a coin flip with that injury, with those kind of injuries though. Um, let's see, two more questions. Tropic Sounders asks, say something bad about white kits. I, I have always liked these white kits. They're fine.
00:42:11
Speaker
They're, you know, they don't have any back. I hated the original white kids at the center side because they were so uninspired. Like they were the most boring thing they could have possibly rolled out. I think he's more. I think he's probably referring more to the the curse. The way there is. How can you have it? There's no curse at this point. They've won like before this last game, they've won like four in a row. Maybe it's back. Could be. You never know. You know, you just never know with curses. I guess you don't. Right. It's just like Jason, you know.
00:42:41
Speaker
Think he's dead. He's not. Okay. Last question. Jim the keeper asks, how is it humanly possible that I can always find more hate for Portland? They do seem to sign a lot of players that seem purpose built to have their rivals hate them. Like, you know what I mean? Like they're not.
00:43:06
Speaker
Like Diego Chara isn't an especially dirty player. He doesn't seem like a huge asshole or anything, but he's just very easily hateable when he plays for your rival. Blanco is an asshole and very easy to hate. Liam Ridgewell, I've never been able to stand. Guzman. Guzman, yeah. I mean, they just have a lot of players that,
00:43:35
Speaker
don't necessarily stand out from a neutral perspective as being scumbags, but are really easy to hate when they play for the other team. Ridgewell is a scumbag and Blanco is a scumbag too, but I'm sure that they would say the same about Ozzy and I don't know, they'd find somebody else.
Conclusion and Sign-off
00:43:55
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it is very easy to do. Like I would imagine they don't like Lidero.
00:44:03
Speaker
They don't like. It's weird to me too, because they really don't like Lidero. Right. And it's like sounders fans in general seem to grudgingly like Diego Valeri. Yeah. And I don't see like a huge difference between them, like the way they carry themselves and the way they play. Like, I don't know. I don't either. I don't get it. I don't either. But no.
00:44:28
Speaker
That's also very likable. He is. They do all always kind of seem to have like the right number of likable players that it pisses you off to. Right. Less than zero. That's it. All right. That's it. That's it. All right. Well, thanks for sending in your questions, guys.
00:44:55
Speaker
That was a, that was a short one. We wanted to make sure to get on record though, for this game. Who knows? Who knows when we'll be recording again. Either way, I suppose we have this long break coming up. Uh, but, uh, thanks to our sponsors, full pool wines, queen of acupuncture and our broadcast partner bootstrapper studios. I am Jeremiah Shan signing off on behalf of Lickett and Aaron Campo. This is no study yet. This remember you'll never get alone.
00:45:26
Speaker
Green Douglas fir where the water's cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
00:46:06
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!