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Sounders FC - Real Salt Lake preview
84 Plays1 year ago
Frequent guest Matt Montgomery of Wasatch Soccer Sentinel is back to give us an insider’s look at Real Salt Lake, the best and hottest team in the Western Conference. He explains what’s behind RSL’s surge to the top of the standings but is sure to give us a glimmer of hope about their vulnerabilities.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Launch
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup Triumph
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
RSL's Surprising First-Place Standing
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adietes. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is one of my favorite guests, Matt Montgomery of Wasatch Soccer Sentinel. Yeah, that's the word. Okay, that's what I thought. And we're going to talk about RSL. Sounders are playing first place RSL. Is that sounding good to you, first place RSL? It's sounding surreal.
00:01:57
Speaker
I mean, cause I've been writing about this team since 2011. And it's happened just a handful of times, even when the team was really good. First place was always like just out of reach. And now it's not just in reach, but like happening. Yeah. It's very strange. I mean, I like it. Don't get me wrong, but I don't think we're quite supporter shield contenders.
00:02:23
Speaker
I think that pace now is two points per game and RSL is just under that.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you're certainly not leading the race, but it seems like that's within the realm of possibility. You know, it's funny. I feel like we were talking maybe around this time last year and and we weren't quite sure what to make of RSL at that point. Yeah, he had sort of a random seemingly random assortment of intriguing pieces. Pablo Mastroini was sort of all over the map in terms of his tactics.
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah. They totally throw out his entire coaching staff, force a new coaching staff on him, and lo and behold, magic happened, it seems.
Chico Arango's Impact on RSL
00:03:08
Speaker
How would you describe what is going on with RSL and this roster and tactics? If I have to do it in one player's name, Chico Arango,
00:03:21
Speaker
who is having like a career year and he's already been good in MLS, but he's racing toward that 50 goals number, like faster than, was it anybody but Taylor Twelman, which is a very fast point. He's at the peak of his career. Everything's going really well for him. And that's, that's the bulk of it.
00:03:49
Speaker
And I think that it feels like there's gotta be more, right? Certainly like Pablo Mastroini's game plan has changed almost overnight, which tells you a lot about what the role of the coaching staff was and is now. And his role as a tactician because he's not a tactical coach. And I think everybody knows that now and understands that. And having a good tactician with him seems to have made a big difference.
Mastroini's Tactical Innovations at RSL
00:04:19
Speaker
But it's also, it's just so hard to overlook like the, the role of form and the role that chichoranga is like preternatural ability to like score goals. I don't know. It's, it's really, it's really nice. I like it. It's got me worried, but, uh, not for any actual reasons, but more because I'm just not used to this.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah. So who is the architect of this new tactical setup? Um, great question. The club, nobody's out there saying like, Oh, so-and-so the assistant coach is the architect here. Part of that is because Paula Mastroani, when he, when he gives interviews is, um, not always straight forward. That's fine. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Uh, he's, he's a bit of a wildcard that way. Uh, but.
00:05:13
Speaker
I mean, in a way, like they're on field changes that are best explained by the roles players have taken Chichorongo is going between like a nine and a 10 and a half sort of role. Yeah. Yeah. But, but not certainly not a traditional 10 when he's playing a little further back and or maybe like that nine and a half role.
00:05:38
Speaker
It's all very esoteric to me. And it almost feels like that's by design. But we've seen players like Emeka and Nelly have an incredible start to his season. He played all but 20 minutes of the season now, maybe all but 30 minutes. And that all came in the last game, that step off onto the bench.
00:06:02
Speaker
And it's, it feels like it's just, everything's clicking at the same time. It's it's peak performance. And maybe in a way I've discounted the role of Pablo Mastroini there, because he's the sort of coach that will get the most out of his players. Right. That's, that's been his whole thing from the word go is he is the motivator. He is the one that can extract the most.
00:06:29
Speaker
And maybe now that some of the weird tactical things they were doing have been changed, like preferring not to possess the ball, for instance, was something in 2023 that was very clear. The team focused on switching play when they had possession. And the team now is possessing the ball.
00:06:49
Speaker
And those things feel a little common sense in MLS these days. There's not a lot of room for success with a team that intentionally bunkers and counters, right? That's something that you can do every now and then. Or if you have a team that's really geared toward that. But our cell is a team that's geared toward holding possession, moving forward, attacking.
00:07:17
Speaker
encountering when the moment is right. And I, I think you can see that across the league. So I guess the architect is, is probably Pablo messed raining, but there are a lot of factors going on there and we're almost halfway through the season. And then I recently told one of my podcast co-hosts, like, you know, I'll, I'll believe when we're halfway through the season, he said, Matt, we just played our 15th game. Right. Like, Oh, well, uh, all right. Fair enough.
00:07:46
Speaker
Well, and it's funny because you don't, like you said, you don't necessarily think of, uh, of master money as this tactical genius. And yet he, you know, his, his last really good team was one that was built really, really heavily on defensive salinity at Colorado.
00:08:05
Speaker
And, and it seems like really what this team is built on right now is, is sort of full guns blazing off. Now they've been good. They they're, I realized their goals against numbers are pretty good, but all the underlying numbers say they're X, like they're, they're more open than I like a stout defensive team would be. But this is a really like genuinely good offensive team.
00:08:28
Speaker
You know, you look at their, at their non penalty expected goals. They're fourth in the league right now. Uh, and they have, and if you look at who is generating that it's, it's not just Chicho Arango. It's Carlos Gomez. It's Diego Luna. It's, and it's players that are, uh, you know, young,
Balancing Offense and Defense at RSL
00:08:46
Speaker
there's old, you know, there's some players it's, it's, there's not really an easy to dial in.
00:08:52
Speaker
explanation for this. And it does seem to be sort of defying what we think of as how you build a competitive MLS roster.
00:09:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I think bringing up Diego Luna is key there. He's changed from a player who like, who the coaching staff thought of as an, like an option. He was young. We don't want to rush him toward the last five games or so he's been essential and he's been making a differentiator. That's really nice. I like that.
00:09:31
Speaker
But there's, there's a risk there because he's going out, you know, almost, almost certainly going off to the Olympics in the summer and missing a good chunk of time. And those things I think provide some risk. Now, Chitro Arango, you know, as a Colombian national team player, he's not like the best Colombian striker, right? So RSL is a little, like has a little protection because they've got this great player.
00:09:58
Speaker
who is not going to play all the time for his national team or maybe he will but but if he doesn't like that's that's good for rsl right it's like having a great brazilian striker in mls like for argentinian number 10 exactly like they are not going to be called up to the national team every time and maybe that's not the case with arango maybe he will be
00:10:20
Speaker
Um, but, but there's a history and pedigree there that is interesting at the very least. I am starting to worry a little bit about ourselves, uh, non penalty expected goals against. Yeah. Um, so I don't know if you use McClatch app. I do. Yeah. We, we have, uh, we, yes, we, we check their game data. We haven't necessarily dug into their stuff as much, but go ahead. Yeah. We're familiar with it. Our readers, our listeners should be familiar with it.
00:10:50
Speaker
So I mean, you've seen my forum guide and I love that rolling statistic, right? Yeah. Where we're looking at a period over time and comparing that period and then segmenting that, right? Like it's something they do in climate science all the time. And it's useful for showing trends that are not always clear from like a game by game basis. And what we see is ourselves expect the goals against has been steadily climbing over the last
00:11:18
Speaker
I don't know, eight weeks basically. And I think we see that reflected on the field as well with the last two games. I believe it was the last two games at least. Yeah, they gave up three goals back to back weeks.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah. And good teams don't give up three goals, right? That's a good hard and fast rule that you can almost always apply. And they certainly don't do it in back-to-back games. But Arsa also came back in those games. I mean, they won 5-3 against Colorado Rapids after being down 3-0. They drew 3-3 against FC Dallas. Like, I don't know. This is a weird team.
00:12:04
Speaker
And it is, it's to find some of the common sense sorts of things that I've held fast for a long time. And I don't know how long it holds. I would like to hold the rest of the season and certainly at least for Wednesday's match. That would be nice. And then maybe in the off season you can get around to addressing it. That would be great, yeah.
00:12:30
Speaker
I guess if we go full season, like performing like this, then I don't know. But, but it's, it's interesting to see this team on a, what an 11 game unbeaten streak, giving up three goals in back to back weeks and remaining unbeaten. But that, that doesn't happen in MLS, right?
00:12:53
Speaker
No, it definitely doesn't, but it is a team that is, that is just a lot of fun to watch right now. And that's not necessarily something that we would associate with RSL, right? Uh, over the years, or at least recently.
00:13:10
Speaker
Not since 2013, really. So I was watching highlights from Imagine 2012 and just watching how silky smooth that team was and
Ameka Anneli's Unexpected Rise
00:13:20
Speaker
how they attacked. And the match I was watching was a 1-0 loss against Chivas. So it wasn't like a great game, but we're starting to see that sort of thing again. And I'm very pleased, but I don't know. I've been hurt too many times.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, I hear you. Well, you know, you mentioned this person before earlier in the show, and I want to dig into this because this is someone who I had no idea who Ameka Anelli was before this season started. And he has become sort of the linchpin, it seems, of the RSL midfield. And
00:13:56
Speaker
And he, you know, when Paulo Ruiz went out, it seemed like, okay, this is, this is their xiao Paulo. This is, this is kind of like nice story and everything, but RSL is not going to do much without, without Pablo Ruiz. And, and here, Ameka and Nelly, I don't know if he was necessarily a direct replacement, but here he has stepped up and he is just this absolute rock. Like what's his story?
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. So he signed with ourselves after coming out of the draft last year. Uh, and, and he was drafted and we thought, Oh, okay. Another draft pick, whatever. Right. Draft picks come and go in MLS. And every now and then you get a player who like makes the team and they don't usually do much more than make the team. Right. Right. That's, that's the common wisdom. Uh, Emeka and Nelly defied that in his first year by being like a reliable figure.
00:14:48
Speaker
uh, by being a reliable starter in multiple positions. And when he started, he tended to be one of the better players on the field. Like he went to Cornell, his parents immigrated from Nigeria. Uh, and, and his story is, is unusual that way in the way that he's come up from like a college that doesn't produce
00:15:12
Speaker
great MLS players, right? Cornell is known for a lot of things, but it is not known for like a soccer pipeline.
00:15:23
Speaker
reasonably, right? Nobody expects that. But Anneli has been been really, really good. He's a very smart player. Like that makes a difference, right? Smart players are, I think, able to make that jump way more easily than the players who had unusual athletic abilities at the age of 14. Right. Not in an academy. And I think he came through as a crew academy. So it's not like he didn't play soccer in an academy system. But certainly like he
00:15:52
Speaker
He wasn't a homegrown player, like that's a pretty big mess, right? Right. I don't know, but, but players also peaked later. And, and, you know, at, at 24, he's, he's not a young player by any means anymore.
00:16:06
Speaker
Uh, he, he's that college age player who came out, who went to college at the normal times, did all four years and, and made an MLS roster. Um, and I think part of what we're seeing is he's, he's nearing that start of like being a genuinely good player in his career. And you don't see that until like 24, 25, 26 generally, statistically, right? Unless the player is like an unusual talent.
00:16:33
Speaker
Um, but, but I think we're saying just a player who's nearing the, the apex of his career already. And it's really cool to see he's got a great story. Uh, just a really fun player can play right back and play defensive midfield, uh, Heidi on the ball, like has his head up. Wants to progress. I can't say enough good things about him.
00:16:58
Speaker
Well, you've said plenty of good things about him. I'm not, and they don't make me feel real good about coming into this game.
RSL's Player Rotations and Injuries
00:17:04
Speaker
I got to tell you, uh, well, do you want me to say the three goal thing again? Yeah. Do they do tend to give up three goals, right? That's the, that's the rule now.
00:17:14
Speaker
Yeah, over the last two games, the average average goals conceded is three. Yeah. It's a good trend as those things go, at least as far as the centers. So what is the, you know, this is the middle game of a three game week for RSL. I don't know. Is this, I know the Sounders are in the, this is the last of a 10 game or a five week stretch where they've been playing midweek every week. Uh,
00:17:42
Speaker
Last time these two teams met was also a midweek game. The Sounders rotated pretty much, well, they rotated about half their starting lineup. What kind of rotation or of any are you expecting in this game?
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, I was looking at the injury report and it's not looking awful. Um, certainly Marcella Silva is going to be out for a long time. Uh, so I, I, and Brian Vares still listed as questionable. Uh, so, so there is a chance you don't see any changes at center back. That's probably the biggest area where if Brian Vares ready to go, he steps in, um,
00:18:19
Speaker
But there hasn't been a whole lot of optional rotation. It's been, hey, this player's injured. We need to rotate now. So I think that'll really dictate what we see. We could see now some Palacio start instead of Brian O'Hara or Emeka Enelie. I think not playing Enelie
00:18:41
Speaker
wouldn't be the best thing for the team's performance, but at some point he's got a rest, right? The college season is not as grueling as an MLS season. And I don't care how physically fit you are. The MLS season catches up with you with the way they condense these games. But there is a two week break coming or a week break coming up. So maybe RSL thinks, let's get the most out of these players now. Let's strike while this iron's hot.
00:19:11
Speaker
And then let's give him a break and take him off training. I don't know. So I guess the, the short answer is you don't know how much rotation there's going to be. You never know with Pablo mess training. Sure. Absolutely. Uh, that said the last time we saw Gavin Beavers started in goal for Zach McMath McMath basically gave away two goals against Dallas last week.
00:19:37
Speaker
I would say not just basically like he literally dropped one goal, one ball into the goal. Right. And then he also misplayed a ball coming off his line about as badly as it's possible to misplay a ball. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
So I don't know is is this a but Gabby was also pitched a shutout against the Sounders which he made a couple of good say at least one or two good saves in and he looks like for a 19 year old goalkeeper sure looks sharp.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, I, I am excited by him. Uh, he's got a great big frame. He's agile. He's smart. Uh, he will make mistakes, but I'm a lot more patient with a 19 year old with potential making mistakes than a 30, whatever old, making those same mistakes. Right. And that that's kind of to be expected. I expect the young player to make a mistake here and there. I don't expect veteran Zach McMath.
00:20:38
Speaker
I mean, I kind of do, but I don't expect like a veteran goalkeeper first place to do that once in a game, let alone twice. And I, I don't think it'll be a case of McMath being dropped. Uh, it, it could lead to that, but I, I do think Gavin Beavers will play in this one. Okay. And just, just because that's the pattern they followed with these midweek games.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah. The other player who came in last game, I'm just kind of curious about was Philip Quentin, who is a fascinating player just because he's like six six and he's playing right back. He had his hands full with Georgie Monongo in the last game, but he acquitted himself reasonably. Well, what is his deal?
00:21:26
Speaker
He is one of the stranger players I've seen. He's a very tidy passer, but he's not a great defender all the time. He sometimes makes big mistakes.
00:21:38
Speaker
I think what RSL did in that game was played like a lopsided three man back line. And I think he was playing not like a right back, but a center back who occupied most of the time where a right back traditionally would be. But I think his role is very much like a limited
00:22:01
Speaker
center back playing in a wide position. And I think that's where like he was able to defend with that mindset because he wasn't trying to win the ball and advance up the field, right? His goal was just to prevent that attack getting around him. And he's big enough and somehow fast enough that he's able to acquit himself there.
00:22:25
Speaker
I will say like he is my biggest worry if he plays a center back. He's just not, he's a backup and I think it's fine for backups to not be as good. But with RSL shoulder and three center back injuries right now.
00:22:44
Speaker
Like, I don't know. It puts me in a nervous position. Sure. Well, there's your happy feeling. Yeah, there's our happy feeling. Well, that's, that's a, probably a good place to call this what's going on.
Matt Montgomery's Board Game Insights
00:22:57
Speaker
So, uh, watch that soccer sentinel is where we can read you presumably.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, and listen to the podcast and listen to the podcast. Anything else going on in your world we should know about? You got any hot games you want to promote? You are, of course, my favorite board game.
00:23:16
Speaker
newsletter writer. Oh, thank you. There are a few of us out there. Yeah. Um, no, but I mean, uh, this week's newsletter, which I published weekly on Wednesdays. So if you want to read it, the meeples, is that right? Uh, don't eat the meeples. Don't eat the meeples would have been good too, but, uh, no, don't eat the meeples. It's like the name is sort of a Sesame street reference of all things. Oh, okay. There's a great, uh, I think late eighties.
00:23:46
Speaker
TV movie called don't eat the pictures. That's very weird. Like it's like it's fully narrative. And there's like an Egyptian prince who transcends the stars. It's really weird. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But I am taking one of my nerdier takes in this week's newsletter. And it's a little bit of a Star Trek thing. So if that's your thing, I don't know, you can read it, I guess. Yeah, well,
00:24:15
Speaker
I think we got some nerdy listeners on this, on this podcast. Oh, I promise you do. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Something about the Pacific Northwest. I don't know. Exactly. Well, Matt, thank you again for doing this. I wish your team the absolute worst of luck, uh, tomorrow. Uh, but you know, I hope I do like, I actually do like seeing RSL do well. Just, I would refer not to be at my team's expense again.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yes. Again, again. Thank you.
Future Matchups and Schedule Discussion
00:24:47
Speaker
Yeah. We didn't even talk about how weird it is that we're playing so soon. Yeah. This happened last year too. Yeah. I don't what's up with this and we're in two midweek games. What is it? What is the schedule maker doing to us? Nothing good. I I like to see these spaced out same on Saturdays. Like maybe I can make it up to Seattle for a game. Not midweek. What am I not made of money here? Yeah. I retired. Yeah. I would love to retire. But I'm like 25 years off from that.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah. Well, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't have anything to add to that other than, uh, thank you, Matt, for doing this and it's always a pleasure. And, you know, maybe we'll, we'll meet again in league's cup or something. I don't know. Oh, I hate league's cup, but I guess I'll see you there. Okay. All right. Well, uh, I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for no study at this. We will catch you next time.
00:26:36
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!