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There are no excuses against FC Dallas
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FC Dallas comes to Seattle in the middle of a three-game road trip that seemingly puts them at a significant disadvantage, coming a few days after they went to New York and played 120 minutes a few days before they head to FC Cincinnati. To make matters worse, they’re also missing star midfielder Luciano Acosta.
It all sets up quite nicely for the Sounders in general and Jesús Ferreira in particular. Jeremiah and Niko both believe the striker is due for a big game.
In the second half of the show, Jeremiah and Niko discuss a newsy week in the Club World Cup that saw players expressing frustration over the bonus structure and FIFA reacting to slow ticket sales by reducing prices for many games.
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“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.
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Transcript
Introduction by Will Bruin
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go. Come on. Hey, O'Shaughnessy.
00:00:14
Speaker
Let's go. What save by Frye. The Seattle Sounders have done it.
Seattle Sounders MLS Cup Victory
00:00:21
Speaker
MLS Cup winning. Here comes Ruiz Dias through the middle to crowd it for Seattle.
00:00:29
Speaker
And now they truly can start the celebrations. It's the Sounders MLS Cup. Nico Lodero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Seattle, Sounders, it's got built.
00:00:52
Speaker
This feels fucking awesome. This is a tiny dog. Nice work on your little yacht yat thing. And Portland can't say shit. know, what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use who you didn't?
00:01:06
Speaker
Ever since Southert Hart wrote a commentary that we didn't take over coming seriously. Go, not Seattle!
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines
00:01:18
Speaker
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 Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, c Pacific Northwest.
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes on the Center at Heart Podcast Network. It is Friday. We are doing what we learned this week with Nico and Moreno at Starfire at Long Acres.
Technical Difficulties Discussion
00:01:56
Speaker
I'm all thrown off. we aren't We don't have our normal recording equipment. So we are hopefully it sounds OK. Hey, man, sometimes it happens. We've got to adapt. We've got to move along. ah Like you said, we might be a little bit off today. I felt off in the presser today. So there's something odd about the week. It's been a little bit funky. because the noon kick on Saturday is throwing us off. It's effectiveness. Exactly.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, but, you know, there was a Tuesday day that we were were off. It's been a weird week. It has been a weird week. But coming off a stretch of games where the Sounders, I think, passed.
00:02:29
Speaker
They kind of did the bare minimum to pass the test. And, you know, I think we... This week... I don't know that we learned a whole lot this week, but we can talk a little bit about what we're seeing injury-wise and ah
Player Injury Updates
00:02:46
Speaker
lineup-wise. The big thing is Danny Masofsky apparently aggravated some sort of muscle injury. He got a cortisone shot yesterday.
00:02:54
Speaker
We talked to, he wasn't in training, he wasn't really in full training today. We talked to Brian Schmetzer. He basically said he was questionable for tomorrow and that Even if he's healthy enough to play, Jesus Ferreira, even if Mussovsky is healthy enough to play, it sounds like there's a good chance that Jesus Ferreira is going to get a start at the nine.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, a good thing in my opinion is that we'll get another chance at watching Ferreira play with a in-form squad with a couple of new pieces that I feel like complement his style of playing the
Jesus Ferreira's Role and Impact
00:03:31
Speaker
nine. And even with some of the things that he's going to want to do, we talked to Freddy Juarez about it, we talked to Brian, him being just closer to goal, being more assertive and a bit more aggressive towards goal.
00:03:45
Speaker
We'll talk a little bit about what he said here in a second, but the the bad thing though, and going to just put this out there, Mussovski's had some bad things yeah for, if not a couple of months. Well, since the San Jose game.
00:04:00
Speaker
Yeah. So is it chronicle? Is there something to worry about? Muscle injuries are something that a lot of people don't really realize how hard they are to, one, assess and to get over. I remember Tracy McGrady at one point, back spasms kill his career short.
00:04:14
Speaker
But you know, back injuries are a little bit weird. So kind of tough for a guy that had been kind of hoping to get in a great rhythm. He's in fantastic rhythm. Even in the Portland game, the assist he puts in just kind of tells you where he's kind of upped his game.
00:04:29
Speaker
So unfortunate that that he won't be around. Yeah, Brian called it a muscle injury, but he did not specify which part of the body the muscle was in. So it could be a back muscle, it could be a leg muscle, it could be An adductor. I don't know. He was very he was kind of coy about the exact nature of the injury. But the main takeaway here is, like we said, Jesus Ferreira getting another look at the nine.
Unlocking Jesus Ferreira's Potential
00:04:53
Speaker
I think it's funny because just last week we were sort of we've been talking a lot about Jesus Ferreira for a while. But we last week, someone was talking asking us. What do you think, you know, I'd like to see him in this, in effect of the formation they're going be playing today. And I sort of dismissed it like, i don't know if we're going get that chance because to me, I thought Osas de Rosario had sort of established himself as the backup.
00:05:16
Speaker
But clearly the Sounders are interested in trying to get Jesus unlocked. And maybe this game sets up really, not only is it against his former team, And it's not just any former team. I mean, this is a team he played for from as a little boy, essentially, and who his dad played for. So there's a lot of, there's, you know, motivation and baggage and whatever else. so But I can't, I really don't think it can be overstated.
00:05:42
Speaker
It looks like it's going to Ryan Kent and Pedro De La Vega on the outside and Albert Rusenek in the middle. We have not seen anything really like, there's been never, he's never gotten to play the number nine with that sort of collection of talent.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, and when you talk about guy that, look, we talked to him today, and he is not afraid to say that he feels like he has nothing to prove, but at the same time, he hears everything, he hears the noise, and I like that about him. you know he He's not lying to you. He's not shying away from the fact that you know he reads the comments, he hears what's going on, and I thought it was cool that Brian Smetzer brought him in, apparently talked to him, sat him down, and he said how much it meant to him,
00:06:23
Speaker
that he pointed out what he does do well and on the field. Defensively, he said, I'm one of the guys that, as ah a forward, do the most work, are more effective.
00:06:33
Speaker
You know, the connectivity, I thought, has been good. So I appreciate Brian bringing a guy like that, that although maybe doesn't want to show it, you know, confidence, it's a part of the game. And I don't know if it's at his highest, although...
00:06:47
Speaker
I mean, it helps when he feels like he has the confidence of his teammates and his coaches, even if he's not feeling totally confident in himself, even if he's hearing all the the chatter on the outside. If he feels like he can joke around with his team, you know, he made a joke today about how if someone puts in a header, if you could just put it on my head so I get the goal, I'd appreciate it. Just sort of like playfully understanding that he just needs to see the ball hit the back of the net. I wouldn't be totally shocked if the Sounders are in a position where they have a penalty. Normally you would expect Albert to take it.
00:07:17
Speaker
it taste Maybe it's Jesus. It's that kind of thing where I think that he seems to be liked by his teammates. He doesn't seem to be putting off this air of I'm too good for this. And he's talking about grinding really is what he's talking about doing. He's talking about doing the hard work that is required to get yourself sort of going again.
00:07:37
Speaker
i will say that my concern about him is not, he's clearly a smart player. He's very talented. He has an engine. there are a lot of things I think we can see about him. The main thing I've said this over and over again that is worrying me about him is that it's not it's not like he's gone stone cold in front of goal. It's that he's just not shooting. He's not in it. And so i I would hope that if he starts just if he can get the ball to hit the back of the net, maybe that sparks something. Yeah. We talked to Brian earlier this week.
00:08:07
Speaker
And I said, like, look, the guy's taking seven shots in 13 games. You got to be like, this has got to be a topic. Right. And he's like, yep. He knows he needs to shoot more. You know, we talked to it. So this is a thing where I think it can be solved.
00:08:22
Speaker
I think he's got the right mindset and would be great if he could do it this week. Yeah. So a couple of things there.
Jesus Ferreira's Expectations and Efforts
00:08:27
Speaker
One. The effort cannot be questioned, and this is something that at times is a wrong neck narrative or a misinterpreted narrative by people that they either look at what he does or doesn't do on the field, and because of his style of play, they might think that he is not putting effort. That is completely untrue.
00:08:46
Speaker
ah For me, he has been doing more than... The hard work of just plain old going through the the motions. He's really out there for the team as a teammate.
00:09:01
Speaker
ah You see how excited he gets every time there's a goal. I mean, the guy really wants his team to succeed. So... Let's make sure we put that to one side. But on the other hand, clearly there is a necessity for him to... Produce. Produce.
00:09:17
Speaker
And the fact that he was brought in with this level of... like expectations. I mean, i wasn't there's yeah there's no way around it. He was the big centerpiece of the off season.
00:09:30
Speaker
There's no question that most of the preseason was focused on get. And he looked, I should, we should say he looked really good in the preseason. He scored a few goals in preseason. So it's not like he's suddenly turned into a, like, I don't, I don't, it's hard for me to honestly understand how a player who seems to be as, know,
00:09:49
Speaker
sha I do think there's an element of him just trying to figure out what his role is. and they're And so maybe this a game like this simplifies it because he doesn't need to be... There's going to be no pressure on him to be a playmaker in this game.
00:10:02
Speaker
He's got Albert. He's got Kent. He's got De La Vega. He's got Christian. He's got Obed. There's plenty of guys to pick up the ball and move it forward. He should have the...
00:10:14
Speaker
confidence to just stay high and know that if he gets in the box, he's gonna get some service there. And that's exactly it. It's the service it's in. I think that's what ultimately this lineup gives him, right? You got the through balls when it comes to Albert.
00:10:28
Speaker
Same thing as the the triangles and the diamonds they're trying to set up. He's gonna not need to help out in the build-up. He's gonna have to be the guy that's running into those spaces. Pedro de la Vega is a guy that likes to put those balls through the the smaller spaces. So if he gets there, he's going to have those as well. Then Ryan Kent, with his ability on the ball, making teams collapse, making the defenses collapse on them, that's going to create space for him to kind of gravitate to. So for me, this is a great setup, but it's also a double-edged sword because he does create a level of pressure of saying, okay, this game is built up perfectly. You have a Dallas team that just played a bunch of minutes, 120 minutes with a lot of their main group.
00:11:12
Speaker
They were in New York. They were in Houston. Now they're flying to Seattle. They got another game on the weekend on the midweek against Cincinnati. You're at home. You got the motivation that is Dallas. They're missing Luciano Acosta. This is the perfect stone for you to Produce. but so If you don't produce, it's like, what else are we going to do for you? Exactly. And look, I absolutely love the guy as a person, as a teammate. You see it on the training field. We've been able to really, he cares. He gives a shit.
00:11:43
Speaker
He does. Every single time he wants to produce. So because of that, I am a little nervous for him in in like a human sense of, man, this is your opportunity. Can you deliver? I think he will, though. And I will say the thing that helps him in this case is here's yeah he's a 24-year-old, relatively young player, but he's been the star on his team for a few years. he he like In a lot of ways, the pressure is off. And I think that maybe this is also an adaption to him realizing that he's not the guy here. He's not even one of the top two or three guys, really.
00:12:18
Speaker
And so he just needs to sort of – and so it's I think he's finding his own role. This is but like you said, this is a good, um it's a big opportunity. i would like to think that he's got the mindset, he's that he's that he can succeed in this situation.
00:12:32
Speaker
it would be a nice, it would be a really nice time for it that to come through. And I'll add one more thing. i hope you know that it's not a problem, but I feel like the people like to know this because if I've learned anything from this Sounders community is that they yeah like a little bit of the insight and kind of humanized people.
00:12:47
Speaker
He's actually soon to be a first time dad. And I think all of that is kind of, it's also been, you know, things that are changing. You're changing to a whole new team. You're adapting to whole new city. Now, you know, soon you're going to be a dad. So all of those things are kind of have been, he's been working with that. And I feel like he looks more in control of things right now. I think things are starting to settle for him, and I'm hoping that you can see that on the field as well. Because look, the last thing I'll say about Ferreira, especially in Portland, is that when you look at the statistics, and we said this on Monday on 11th quarters, between Ryan and Ferreira, Verra the sticks is a very similar on the amount of touches the amount of accurate passes all those things but you kind of look at what Ryan can does and although he got this possessed a lot more he had a a lot more mistakes to be quite frank people still kind of gravitate towards it and even me I watched the game three times and there was one time that i had to focus completely on where Jesus was at and look honestly he's a guy that doesn't do a lot of
00:13:51
Speaker
wrong passes, doesn't do a lot of wrong moves, but it's maybe that necessity to be very conservative right now that might be holding him back. So I feel like in this one, like you said, you got all these playmakers. He doesn't need to do that. Exactly. He's going to to just do his job. Yeah.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. And one of the things that Brian said that he, and again, I think it's go, it does say something about Brian's willingness to keep putting him out there. Because Brian isn't a guy, i don't think, especially for a player like Ferreira, who isn't doesn't have a long history with Brian. No. who doesn't you know there's There's no reason for Brian to be playing Jesus unless he is seeing what he wants to see from him. I mean, he had no problem benching Pedro de la Vega last year. Yep.
00:14:39
Speaker
I don't see why this would be any different than that. And so it's it's ah it's, I think that's one thing that works in his his corner. ah Brian also made a point of saying he helped us out of a lot of jams last week.
00:14:52
Speaker
He does things that aren't always easy to appreciate on a first watch. So again. And just just looking at the roster is the right move. I've been saying this, and I think Ari has been with me on this, that it would be a mistake to completely pull the plug on Jesus Ferrer at the nine, the striker, and just figure out something else. Right. Because you're going to...
00:15:15
Speaker
needed at some point in time, whether it's the Club World Cup or anything, any variations of of items. And it's not an indictment in Osase. You still need him to develop. You still need him. You've got him because he's a guy that's going to be able to produce for you at one point, that he has the talent to do so.
00:15:33
Speaker
But why rush him? Why put so much pressure on him? Let's just make sure that Jesus gets another shot at it. Maybe he looks good. We'll continue to work with him, and and then we'll see how everything else plays out.
00:15:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Jackson Reagan's Fitness Update
00:15:44
Speaker
The other thing that other bit of news, I suppose, that we got from Brian today was that Jackson Reagan is getting close to fitness, but they aren't quite. they It sounds like they're really they would like to get him. So he's fully available for the next two games.
00:16:00
Speaker
I think the under like sort of the under the subtext to all that is he's just not quite ready. And so, you know, we'll see. It's going to hard for a player that sees ah teammate but yet your competition doing as well as Kim has. And now you're trying to get back in and the the coaching staff or the the science behind it is telling you that you're not ready. Cause he was in tough position. Cause he was in training all week yeah this week and, and last week. yeah
00:16:31
Speaker
So, you know, i was surprised that he was listed as out going into the, into the Portland game. We thought he might the bench. thought he would be on the bench. yeah We had been earlier this week. It sounded like he was going to on the bench this week.
00:16:44
Speaker
He might not be. But it sounds like he's, I mean, I think Brian point blank said he wasn't going to be available. ah in Yeah, in Brianology, yeah. You know, Brian's language, i knew that you're right. You're absolutely right. Because I don't remember him saying if he was out of. Maybe he did.
00:16:59
Speaker
I think he said he's, maybe he said probably, but if he says probably not going to make the bench, that means he's probably not going to. But long story short is that he's clearly not ready yet, and there's still some time for him to be back fully. So that is a piece of news.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, it is. So other than that, other than those key players, it does look like this is this is a game that sets up very well for the Sounders, I think.
00:17:24
Speaker
ah
Strategizing Against Western Conference
00:17:25
Speaker
You know, a few weeks ago when we we looked at the next five games for the Sounders, which included two home games, I listed this as the second most important game of that five-game stretch because it's... They got to win home games. They definitely have to win home games against Western Conference opponents.
00:17:39
Speaker
And they absolutely need to win home games against Western Conference opponents who are playing on short shorter rest than they are, who are traveling across the country. There's no reason the Sounders should not be looking at this as a win. a win and they and you know they and And they did not hide from that. And they said today, you I think you asked him about the importance of starting strong, which is sort of a throwaway. And in some ways, it's a little bit of a, sure, we'd like to start strong. But he was really like, no, this is we have to start this game. We have to put this game away as quickly as possible. There's no reason to let this team stick around. Yeah, and the word used or the the phrase I used was high tempo.
00:18:16
Speaker
yeah yeah You have to get out there and make them run. Take advantage of a team that clearly has a whole lot of miles both on the field and on a plane. Yeah, they're going to be something 8,000 miles. It is insane. And look, if you go back and and we'll talk about Dallas here in a little bit, but you know that that was a tough game that they played.
00:18:34
Speaker
But sticking to the Sounders, I really do think that, and I'm going to throw this out here. now No, not yet. We're going to hold this. out I'll talk about it later. Okay. But just a recount with the with that what they're going through right now, they flew Houston, and and I assume they went back to Dallas. Then they went to New York.
00:18:52
Speaker
Then they flew back to Dallas. And now they're flying to Seattle. And then they're going to have to go back to Dallas. And then they're going get a Cincinnati. They're basically doing a whole – they're hitting every part of the of the country. Yeah.
00:19:03
Speaker
ah They're hitting like the four corners almost of the country. It's a brutal stretch, four games in a row on the road. ah And this is definitely, i would I wouldn't be surprised at all if they come into this game saying, look, we just got to keep it close for as long. as This is not a game. Like, I don't think they're coming into this game thinking about three points. They're thinking about how do we keep it close and then maybe we steal something at the end.
00:19:27
Speaker
And they don't have a great record anyway in Seattle. I don't think they've won here since like 2011 or something like that, 2010. So this is a... Since the Oscar Pereja times, huh? Wow.
00:19:40
Speaker
I think since the Shellis-Heinman times. Ooh. Really? I'm pretty sure. It's been a long time since I actually think they won on, I mean, it's kind of a funny day for me, but I'm pretty the only time they won here was in 2010 on the day of the World Cup final because I had an accident where I busted up my face, fainted. This is good stuff. Oh, wow. I had no idea. That's interesting. Yeah, it's a whole other story that we can talk about. But anyway...
00:20:13
Speaker
yeah and Another thing that I think I want to point out and know I want to not let pass as we talk about what we learned this week and i have attach it to the Portland game and i don't know if it's necessarily has been said enough is the level of play that Albert Rustang is currently on. You have to praise him for everything that he's done and I hear the comments and i hear, you know, but what's the record of the team when he's starting and when he's playing? Look,
00:20:43
Speaker
Soccer is a team sport and at the exact same time, ah lot of each component creates and changes the result of of the end of the game.
00:20:55
Speaker
But when I look at what he's done specifically, when it comes to being a guy that understands the half spaces, that has been so good on keep key passes, being a guy that starts and helps so much in the buildup of situations on the quick passing, and specifically on goals this season, if it wasn't for Albert,
00:21:17
Speaker
The Seattle Suns do being a hell of a problem because he's being a guy that just like so many... not going to compare with Nico. But just like Nico did for this team so many times, when things weren't working up top, he was the guy that was helping out in that sense of being a goal scorer. He's everything. has well. So... I put on X, if you compare him to the Costa, to Lucho Acosta, to Evander, to Forsberg, all of these guys, he is just as or better than all these guys with even less minutes. He only has 800 and something minutes this season.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And he's been very good. I think he's been every bit as good as you could have asked him to be. um yeah i think if he plays like this, he's going to be he has to be in the MVP consideration because that's that's what his numbers dictate right now.
00:22:04
Speaker
And, you know, we talked to him this week and he was. as Albert as ever, which was basically like, sometimes you get into a hot form, sometimes you aren't in a hot form.
00:22:15
Speaker
Right now I'm playing well, I'm trying not to get, you know, he's not a guy who who is beefing himself up. He just sort of says how it is. He's cool like the other side of the pillow, baby. He's a joy to to have around.
00:22:29
Speaker
Well, ah anything else you want to say about Dallas? you I know you've watched them quite a bit. You you kind of do You got your scouting report. Oh, I do. Absolutely. Yeah. um so I wanted to get back to like the old school notebook thing, but I didn't feel like he was going to be too like, a so I've been doing it on my phone. But ah yeah, look, this is a team that is best in transition offensively, but struggles in transition defensively.
00:22:54
Speaker
Something that I think Seattle can exploit. If you go back all the way back to that big down that they got against San Diego FC, they've struggled against a transition. Even when they have been able to keep up in the score line, like that RSL game against Dallas, transition moments is what really got them into trouble.
00:23:13
Speaker
For some reason, although Shaq Moore is the more proficient player, attacker in the fullback side they struggle defensively on the left side both goals against Houston came on the left side um this is a team that in my opinion Seattle is gonna be able to dominate the midfield because look Romero He had an awful game against New York City this weekend. I mean, he was ah in the in the midweek. He was bad. I mean, he wasn't just a red card that he got, but he's the guy that actually deflects the goal in that is the equalizer. He's a bit of a hothead on on time challenges. I think that Seattle could really do a number on him.
00:23:57
Speaker
um Obviously, not having a guy like Luciano Costa really limits that team offensively. This is one of the worst teams on the XG for all you XG lovers.
00:24:07
Speaker
I think that they are that one of the last six teams in XG.
00:24:13
Speaker
Pedrinho, it's kind of funny because I'm pretty sure that he's taken, him and Kamungo are taking all of Leo Chu's minutes. But Pedrinho has been a guy that, you know looking back at the last couple of games, he's interesting. He's very creative. He's good on the ball. He's good on the one-on-ones.
00:24:29
Speaker
Not the final product, i don't think. not Not in my opinion. But he's a guy that's gonna have to do a lot more in this specific game without a guy like Luciano Acosta. Last thing I'll say is Aibiaga. For me, there are three players to look at in this particular game if Petar Musa starts this game because he played 90 minutes.
00:24:46
Speaker
So he played 45 against Houston, which was his first 45 since April twelfth because he was injured. He played 90 in his Open Cup game. He looked gassed. ah Hard to imagine him starting, although we you know we reached out to Big D Soccer, which is ah a blog that covers...
00:25:03
Speaker
FC Dallas. And they they thought he would start. I'm skeptical. I don't know why you would start him when you have another midweek game. but Yeah, so he's ah the guy that I would think that if he starts, he's your number one to look at. Number two is Anderson Julio, former RSL, a guy that has done it all for this team.
00:25:20
Speaker
Plays out wide, has played a striker. i would like I think that he's their most dangerous player, like on the ball and getting into space. So he's the other guy. And then be Aga, what he does in in the back end for this team. He's the anchor of that defensive line whenever they do decide to play in a lower block.
00:25:37
Speaker
He's that guy. And I think that's everything I got. This is team that needs some points. They've been awful at home, but they've been better on the road. they have been better on the road. And they have a funny, you know, they've... In their last eight games, I believe, they've only won one game. They've won two games, only one against an MLS opponent. they And the one they won was on the road against Inter-Miami, where they were trailing 3-1, and they won that game four to three Kind of a wild, very much a wild game, but then they followed that up with a 5-0 loss to San Diego.
00:26:10
Speaker
So it's it's a team that has... ah Hard to really nail down. I take it back. I guess they were at home against Dallas or against Houston on the weekend. But either way, they've been flying all over the place. so ah It's yeah, they they they they lost to New York on the road.
00:26:28
Speaker
ah They tied ah RSL at home. You know, this is just a team that's like all over the place. They they did tie Minnesota, you know. um So I don't know. They they also tied it. They tied atd Atlanta.
00:26:40
Speaker
Kind of ah just a weird team. Their their wins this year. were on the road against Houston, on the road against Dallas, or ah sorry, on the road against ah RSL, and at home against Sporting Kansas City. So it's not like their wins are yeah particularly high quality wins either.
00:26:58
Speaker
I'll just go ahead and say they're mid team or even below mid team. I mean, that they are they struggle offensively. There's no doubt about that. They're very slow paced. And I said this from the very first time that we played them.
00:27:09
Speaker
they're They're just so slow paced on the ball. And the last thing that have here in my notes, Paxton Tomoko came back. That's got to help out some. Not Leo Chu, but he's going to help out that that offense.
00:27:20
Speaker
ah He played 20 minutes against Houston, played from the 65th on against New York City this midweek. I expect them probably to either start or be a guy that's going to be on your first sub in.
00:27:33
Speaker
But yeah, that's about everything I got on on that. So I am curious. I don't know if you, if you track this, but the big breakout player they had last year was Logan Farrington was a player they got out of the draft who they had really high expectations for this year.
00:27:46
Speaker
He hasn't, quite picked up where he left off. He's got a goal and an assist. I would imagine if my suspicion is that if ah Peter Moussa doesn't start, that he's probably the guy that gets the the nod at the number nine.
00:27:59
Speaker
What have you made of of Farrington? I think he's good. I just i think that he has been kind of put into a position where now with Anderson Julio, you have a guy that might be able to stretch out Okay. it just So when in that RSL game, when Moussa didn't play, they played a very interesting kind of a 4-4-2 with a diamond in the middle. And it was Camungo and Anderson Julio as the strikers because he has that quality in him. And honestly, if I have to choose, ill probably go with him. But Ferry is a guy that's developing, that I think finds himself in some really good spaces.
00:28:31
Speaker
And you love the the the effort. You love the the drive that he provides on on that end. Yeah. Would I say that he maybe
00:28:42
Speaker
I don't want lucky, but I think he got into a really good start that maybe he didn't even expect. And now it's more of a reality check of where he's at. So he's probably in the middle of where he was at last season and where he's at this season.
00:28:53
Speaker
Interesting. All right. Well, that's probably a good place to take a break. We're going to come back. We have a whole bunch of stuff to talk about with the Club World Cup. There were some developments this week. ah The big one, two big ones, about the ticketing that's going on and as well as the way that the bonuses and sort of of the way that the players are starting to make It known that they are not happy with the way that the bonuses are working, but you're listening to Nos Arietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, and we'll be right back.
00:29:22
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Club World Cup Player Bonuses
00:30:14
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Arietes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. We're here with Nico Moreno, and we're going to talk a little bit about the Club World Cup, some stuff that has been simmering.
00:30:26
Speaker
for a while, kind of came to a head this week, both with the whole ticketing thing, but maybe more interestingly with the way the bonuses are being paid paid out.
00:30:38
Speaker
i we've taught i mean We've known this for a while. The CBA, just to give a little bit of background here. When the players and the league signed the CBA back in, or renegotiated the CBA back in 2021, there was no real, an MLS team had never played in the Club World Cup at that point.
00:31:01
Speaker
The expanded Club World Cup was an idea, but was not something that had been put to action. Certainly there was no talk of bonuses or anything like that. and But they did put a clause in the CBA that addresses other tournaments. And the way that it's spelled out is that players will get a bonus of 50% of the prize pool or up to a million dollars.
00:31:30
Speaker
which frankly is more than they get from playing in almost any other tournament. So it seemed like a lot of money. But then they announced this Club World Cup prize pool and the Sounders are gonna guaranteed $9.55 million. dollars That's just for showing up.
00:31:46
Speaker
If they get a tie, that's another million dollars. If they get a win, that's $2 million. dollars If they get out of the group stage, that's $7.5 million. dollars If they get out of the group stage, they're talking about maybe bringing home $20 million. dollars and the players are gonna get a million, which a million dollars is not a not an insignificant amount of money, but it's a pretty small percentage of the money that is being paid out.
00:32:13
Speaker
And I think the FIFA probably intends for the players, the divfa the whole part of the reason that FIFA is making this prize pool is to sort of incentivize teams, but also players to take this seriously, to to treat it like a big deal.
00:32:29
Speaker
And so, This week, we started hearing, you know there was a story in the Seattle Times that Jada Evans wrote, I would recommend going to read this, and I'll paraphrase some of what she said, but there was a quote from Christian Roldan where he basically said, we don't really love the idea of being of essentially playing for pennies, which is maybe a little hyperbolic, but Steph Fry also made it clear that They have been trying to talk to the league about raising the bonus, the the amount of money that the players get, and they've sort of gotten stonewalled by the league. They aren't really, they're basically, they the league's position is like, look, this is the CBA. This is what's in there. If you if we want to talk about this when the CBA comes due in 2028 whatever, they're going to start renegotiating it. We can do that. But this this is what we are right now. i
00:33:16
Speaker
And i I can kind of see both sides. On one hand, I see where the league's coming from. I really see where the players are coming from. i too would be frustrated if I saw a huge payday coming to my bosses that I'm gonna be getting almost nothing from.
00:33:30
Speaker
i don't know, what do what do you make of all this whole situation, Nico? Yeah, look, this has been a concern from the very beginning, like you said, contrary to popular belief in Reddit, which I don't try not to read a lot.
00:33:43
Speaker
I don't love drama. and And if I wanted to report on this, I could have a while ago. But there was something brewing within both Inter-Miami and Sounder players about what that position of the players would be if it was only a million dollars they got.
00:33:59
Speaker
Where do I stand? I think that the players should be compensated for a unforeseen, on uncharted waters of a tournament that has this sort of payout.
00:34:12
Speaker
Because yes, as much as I understand where the league stands from a legal sense, I think that it makes a lot of sense to keep your players happy, to provide the best product available, to at least have the conversation of saying, hey, what where can we meet?
00:34:30
Speaker
But if the stance of the league is, I don't care, this is what you're getting, then I have a problem. And I will say from a just from a practical standpoint, like, okay, I get it.
00:34:41
Speaker
The league has the legal position in this. right The players are bound by a CBA, and the and And if they were to not play, at least as far as I understand it, that would be violating the CBA. That's going to create problems.
00:35:00
Speaker
But at the same time, if I'm the league, I want to incentivize, I want my players to feel like they have skin in this game. yeah Because the league does stand to lose a lot of face, if nothing else. If they go out there and they get embarrassed, they if the if their teams lose all their group stage games, if they don't look competitive, that's gonna be, that's bad.
00:35:22
Speaker
ah There's already enough bad optics around this tournament that the last thing the league needs is to just get played off the pitch. It would seemingly behoove them, even if they say, look, we don't want to mess with the guarantee, but we feel like, I mean, I don't think it would be unreasonable for the league to say, like, look, any bonuses that you get, any performance bonuses that you get, we will share fifty fifty with you.
00:35:47
Speaker
or I mean, i mean that's yeah yeah, I don't see why they shouldn't say that. yeah and And so then that puts a lot of a lot of incentive on the players to perform. Of course. And I think i and it this is not a kumbaya, let's all get along kind of thing. I'm talking about, like, let's just be practical about this. it's To me, it's impractical for the league to say, no, you're going to get what you get and you're going be happy. Exactly.
00:36:11
Speaker
Because it's just not, like, the the players don't really, if if MLS gets embarrassed in this thing, that doesn't affect Christian Roldan. It doesn't affect Steph Rye. Their legacies are not going to be defined by whether or not they performed well in the Club World Cup.
00:36:28
Speaker
But could it do real damage to the Sounders reputation? Could it do real damage to the Inter Miami's reputation? Could it do real damage to MLS's reputation? Absolutely. yeah And in this time where and MLS should, MLS is definitely aware of where it sits in the global hierarchy.
00:36:47
Speaker
No one expects MLS teams to win this thing. I don't think anyone really expects MLS teams to get out of the, certainly no one, I don't think anyone is really expecting the Sounders to get out of the group stage. But that doesn't mean shouldn't be incentivizing them to do everything they can do it. To perform. And you don't want a situation where players feel like they need to, I don't know, sit and not dress. And then it becomes an issue.
00:37:09
Speaker
And it becomes a game of chicken. of We're not going to play. And you are going to play. And there's fines. And there's all these things. And I'll tell you right now, I think problem more than likely, what happens in Indian Miami probably runs the whole course of events. because They have a lot of juice. They have a lot of juice because if Alba, Suarez, Messi, Desai, Busquets were not playing, that's a big fucking deal for the league. i yeah that That just has a whole other movement.
00:37:36
Speaker
And, you know, we'll see what happens. But at the end of the day, I put it on the league to at least have the conversation and give these guys the money they deserve because they are the product on the field, because they are the ones that are more than likely for a tournament of this magnitude even if it's in Seattle, they might just be in in a camp, right? Where they're at a hotel, away from their families, that's extra minutes, extra training, all of these other things. And from a legal standpoint, I mean, I'm not like, you know, Harvey Specter here anything like that for suits, but with all of the series that I watch on lawyers and stuff on Netflix, it feels like because this is an unprecedented type of tournament, the biggest of its nature, one that is in a whole new facet
00:38:20
Speaker
maybe there's a stance on legally where even with the CBA, there should be some sort of component where you meet in the middle, right? Because this is not something that per the letter of the law is kind of being equated for. This is something that we've never seen before. So why should not it be treated differently?
00:38:36
Speaker
So, you know, again, I'm not sitting here trying to give you no fucking legal advice, but I think that there's something that players can stand on. But more importantly and more surely, the issues is going to be between players, the entertainment for everyone who's decided to buy a ticket for this thing.
00:38:54
Speaker
So I hope that the league handles it with tactfulness. I would agree with that. And again, i think even if the players play, you want them properly motivated. You don't want them treating this like a friendly...
00:39:05
Speaker
You don't want them going out there saying, like, look, I just don't want to get hurt. That's the wrong... I mean, obviously, they you don't want to get hurt, but they... You just don't... you You need to... I don't think you can just take for granted that they're going to put their best effort because it's a big game.
00:39:19
Speaker
Like you. Because you say it's a big game. Yeah. And that's the thing. If it's a big game, let's treat it like a big game. Absolutely. If it's not a big game, then let's... Fine. We won't treat it... If you that's what you want, we won't... yeah so So anyway, I think... I would hope...
00:39:31
Speaker
the league sort of makes some movement on this and at least is having real conversations because what it sounds like is they're just not even entertaining the conversation I think that's Best case, that's a bad look. Yeah, because let me let me say this. What if then I'm thinking, well, shoot, maybe I should just try not to play this tournament hard because what if I get injured in this one where maybe I could be getting paid more for playing Leaks Cub and getting far in Leaks Cub, man? So I'm like, I'm not gonna put my body on the line for this, man. I'll just wait for Leaks Cub. Right, exactly, exactly. All right, well,
00:40:03
Speaker
And that sort of leads into this next subject, which is the way that the whole tournament has been handled from a marketing perspective, from a ticketing perspective.
Marketing and Ticketing Critique for Club World Cup
00:40:13
Speaker
I don't think this has lived up to the expectations that FIFA has set out on virtually any level at this point.
00:40:22
Speaker
a You know, here we are 30 And we just got news this week that all of a sudden the prices for tickets for a lot of these games came dr down dramatically. All of a sudden you can ah you can get into like there's a game here between River Plate and Uruwa Red Diamonds, which is a Japanese team. You can get in for about 30 bucks.
00:40:46
Speaker
ah They're, you know, the best seats in the house are like 60 bucks. So it's basically priced like, you know, almost like a so a regular Sounders game. And that's probably the right price point. But why are we sitting here 30 days out and all of a sudden these prices are finally at a level that seemed to make sense?
00:41:04
Speaker
But beyond that, there's almost no market. I mean, if you... Almost all the marketing is that's being done, you would not be able to differentiate this between a friendly or any other sort of like fly-by-night tournament.
00:41:17
Speaker
This just seems like, i think FIFA really thought that if they just sort of flipped the lights on, everyone would fall into line. And that is just not the case at all right now. Yeah, look. I have been almost at awe and extremely disappointed on the marketing level.
00:41:32
Speaker
There's literally two commercials and I'm talking about like when is the exact same commercial. It's two different ones that that's all they're pushing and not adding what you look at on Facebook or Instagram. don't even around i mean think i've seen one of these commercials. I've seen a couple, and but it's the same two, 35 seconds and and it's not great. doesn't tell you anything.
00:41:52
Speaker
Matt Winters, and give some credit, he reminded me that when it was Super Bowl time, right I was almost sure that FIFA was gonna pay for a commercial during the biggest event in America for everybody's watching this to say, hey,
00:42:07
Speaker
Club World Cup, this is what it means, this is what it is. Explain it. Explain it short, whatever, or at least put something out there that's different. Have, you know, like you said, Bub Bunny and, ah you know, I don't know, Charlemagne and all these f freaking people just talking about it. It's cool. Come watch it.
00:42:25
Speaker
We said none of that. no And actually the marketing that I'm seeing now really didn't really start coming out until about 30 days or so. Right. Yeah. and it's And, you know, if you go around and you look at the inventory on Ticketmaster, I mean, I'm talking tens of thousands of tickets are available for virtually every single match.
00:42:44
Speaker
I don't think there's any I don't think there's any match that's even close to being sold out right now. We are seeing, you know, for games like. you know For a lot of these games that don't involve the highest profile teams, it looks like they've barely sold. They probably sold hundreds of tickets. there's there's no there like the It's hard to overstate how much the American soccer public seems to just be going like, yeah, all right. I mean, I was looking at the opener in between Miami and Fluminense maybe.
00:43:18
Speaker
probably about half full. Really? That's surprising. That's surprising simply because there's such a big Brazilian community in Florida and Miami specifically and in Miami, if they're able to fill out a stadium for whatever game Messi's on, why wouldn't they be able to fill something like I mean, think it's because tickets for game, it's because the tickets start at 110 bucks. Oh yeah, okay, that makes sense.
00:43:39
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense. It's different. And it's like, even for these games, like the PSG game that's here, I don't know if the prices have really, you know, you can get, the the only difference between now and at this when they first came out is now the whole stadium, you can buy tickets all throughout the stadium, but still the cheapest tes seats are like over $100. You know, you can get better seats for, you know, 300 or so, which is maybe a little bit more in the, oh, like if I'm the kind of person that wants to spend $300 on a ticket, I might do that. But,
00:44:09
Speaker
I mean, who who wants to sit in the upper deck to watch PSG Sounders for $110? mean, I realize that's they've sold some tickets for that. It just seems like...
00:44:21
Speaker
the The price and the value proposition for this thing is way off. um I will say credit some credit deserves to go to the Sounders, though, because about ten or about two weeks ago was when FIFA first started dropping the prices for this.
00:44:38
Speaker
And the Sounders at that point basically reached out to FIFA. They reached out to Ticketmaster and said, look, we have, you know, thousands of fans that bought tickets at these inflated prices.
00:44:50
Speaker
We have a bunch of people on staff that bought tickets at these inflated prices. Can we get a refund and buy at the lower price? And they've sort of been negotiating with the various bodies to come up with something. And it looks like what happened was They got FIFA to agree, if you bought tickets from the the fan club section or whatever, you can get a refund and then buy cheaper tickets if you want.
00:45:15
Speaker
Although I don't know if you can get still seats in the in the in like the supporters section. ah And then they also are now offering dis about 20% discount tickets to 700 season ticket holders to buy tickets for all the games that are here. So that's that's nice. That is good.
00:45:30
Speaker
and then the other element though and this is where it gets sticky is most of the tickets they sold were still through Ticketmaster and it looks like they still don't have a resolution on what they're gonna do there but they're collecting email addresses of everybody so if you bought tickets I would urge you there's an article actually right now on Center at heart you can go there there's a form that you can fill out and there's also a link to the discounted tickets and I mean, I don't know that you're gonna be able to make everyone happy at this point, but there's a lot of really frustrated people who bought tickets for sometimes two or three times what the same tickets are selling for now, who are sort of like feeling like they got they got kind of scammed.
00:46:10
Speaker
And I mean, I don't know how much of an impact this is gonna ultimately have on the World Cup, but I do know that it's putting a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths for a tournament that people should be really excited about.
00:46:22
Speaker
both this i mean when this first When we first got news that we were going to be hosting the Club World Cup this summer and then the World Cup next summer, I thought that was so awesome. I was really excited. i thought it was this great opportunity.
00:46:35
Speaker
And now it just sort of feels like we're being looked at like cash registers, which is not a great feeling, I don't think. And you don't want unhappy consumers when this is supposed to be the dress rehearsal to the World Cup. So it's already a bad start to it.
00:46:50
Speaker
ah you You'd hope that they will learn from the way they ran this thing that you seem to have wrong. And then they fix it. But that doesn't take away from the fact that we're missing an opportunity at this fantastic event, venue, opportunity for everybody come see and between the issues between the pricing, the lack of marketing, maybe the atmosphere won't be as good as it could potentially have been. I mean, this is one of the things I think about.
00:47:15
Speaker
We're going to get a game between PSG and Inter Milan for the UEFA Champions League title. Both of those teams, not playing each other, but both of those teams are going to be visiting Seattle this summer.
00:47:28
Speaker
There's almost no... I haven't seen anything about that. That's wild to me. This should be everywhere. Nope. We got River Plate coming here. I don't haven't seen almost any anything about that.
00:47:42
Speaker
You got some of the world's biggest clubs that are going to be playing in Seattle. and And it's like, oh, yeah, here's some Google ads. Maybe you see a billboard. Maybe there's an ad on your on YouTube or something like that. But...
00:47:53
Speaker
I don't know. it's ah It's a bummer. I think this has this tournament does, i believe, have some potential, but it's not the potential is not going to be seen if FIFA just comes in here and thinks people are going to get excited to pay outrageous sums of money to to watch these games.
00:48:09
Speaker
And I'm really hoping, and i have a yeah i have no doubt that for the Sounders games, there's still going to be all the Sounders fan base. I think it'll end up being okay. But it's really sad that, let's say, like River Plate, who, by the way, I've actually heard from a couple of people already, that they're not going to be able to make the game because of Visa stuff. That's...
00:48:29
Speaker
and then And that's the other thing is we've got all this other stuff going on outside it's not just ticketing, that the United States is actively making itself unattractive to foreign visitors with all this nonsense that's going on with visas and you know deporting people who are otherwise legally here. It's it's a really gross situation. and and And I literally just heard, I was checking my WhatsApp, they're literally, they had bought tickets already. Now they're trying to sell them because they already have been told that their visa situation won't be able to come in by the time of the tournament. Ridiculous. im um I don't know how I feel about how the attendance is going to be for yeah these other games yeah other games that are not sounder
Addressing Criticism and Maintaining Integrity
00:49:10
Speaker
games.
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah, well, I hate to end things on a down note, but sometimes that's the way, that's what we learn sometimes this week. That is what we learn sometimes. But in those being here for a second, speaking of just negatives, I did want to just comment a little bit on on a comment that we got in our last um on our last show podcast where, you know, with some sense that we're sort of saying that, you know, that what we're doing was just being negative.
00:49:37
Speaker
if not, you know, we wouldn't be hard enough for on the club. And let me just say that ah for me, at least as someone who has consistently, or soccer ball says, critical analysis of our current situation is what is needed.
00:49:51
Speaker
A candid evaluation of where we stand seems not possible because you have to protect your access to the team. Let me say this real quick. I am as critical as they come. I've actually been told that I'm way too critical. And the reason why I don't always criticize is because... This was coming off of a 3-1 win against Houston last week? No, off of the... I'm guessing... No, it was the 4-0 loss against LAFC. okay. Well... that that That's what it was. For your loss, we're talking about the the Portland game.
00:50:24
Speaker
and we were Oh, yeah, i guess you're right. yeah so yeah so we understand I understand that the discourse and why you're being negative, but as we said on that show, there is a level of... ah context that needs to be brought in.
00:50:37
Speaker
And when it comes to me as a journalist, I want everybody to know that it's not a bit. When I criticize it because it needs to be criticized. When I bring up a story because of the way Nico was treated or because of things happened in the locker room, it's because I feel those are Stories that need to be told, but it's not a bit right now The team is in the course that I feel like they need to be in There's nothing that I need to criticize at this time and therefore I won't because it is not a bit is just me doing the best I can of
00:51:08
Speaker
holding journalists like Jeremiah that are real journalists and I just try to abide by death professionalism. That's it. I try to do as best as I can to do so. So I love the comments, good or bad. I love that you guys listen, but I wanted to address it a little bit because you know we don't all just talk about good comments. I had a wonderful comment on Reddit that was shared to me by a colleague um and you know I put it on X. you know That's beautiful. I love it. I appreciate all of you guys.
00:51:35
Speaker
But some of these bad comments, we gotta put those out there. and explain them, I will do so. And thank you for indulging me on that there, Mr. Jeremiah. I did want end on a positive note because I was reminded of this just now.
00:51:49
Speaker
We are going to start sort of a partnership with Pulseau where we, so we' you did an interview with Andy Rose last week, last week? Yeah, well this week. This week. We're gonna put that on the Sounder at Heart ah YouTube channel. We're gonna start doing that more regularly. We're gonna start sharing a little bit more content ah from Pulseau.
00:52:10
Speaker
And because we you do a lot of good interviews that don't always get the attention they deserve. And we wanna shine a little bit more light on that. So if you are looking for a reason to subscribe to our YouTube channel, ah there's a good one.
00:52:25
Speaker
And i also want to help promote Pulso and the stuff that you're doing. ah You're of course still on soccer down here. You're doing Lobbing Scorchers. You're all over the place. Nico, thanks again for doing this. It's always good catching up with you on these ah these Friday afternoons. Thank you, Jeremiah. Thank you to the audience for listening.
00:52:44
Speaker
Yep. All right. Well, that is what we learned this week. I am Jeremiah Shan. This Nos Ariete as part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. And we will catch next time.
00:53:18
Speaker
I expect an LAFC who's motivated ah to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really ruin the party.
00:53:31
Speaker
You guys like that? and a what Awkward joke, dad joke right there, huh?