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2023 Sounders Roundtable
79 Plays2 years ago
Jeremiah, Mark, Tim and Susie get together to discuss the highs and lows of the 2023 season, as well as discussing what they liked, what they were wrong about and what they'd like to see in 2024.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
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.
Podcast and Guest Introduction
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?
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Watson's Counter, and our subscribers. We're recording on Friday, December 8th, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today for our special End of Season Roundtable are my sounder art co-contributors, Mark Kastner, Tim Foss, and Susie Rance. You may have noticed that I did not give an episode number today, and that's because we're finally removing, or we're finally moving away from that to Limic Fusion.
00:01:52
Speaker
as we're now putting a lot of episodes out that are both paid and unpaid, and it's always clear which ones should be numbered. So all that said, please say hi, everyone.
Roundtable: Sounders' 2023 Season Success?
00:02:03
Speaker
Hey, how's it going? Hello. Hi, everyone.
00:02:09
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, I guess we, I should have told you to guys to introduce yourselves too, but, uh, that first was, goes, that went Tim, Mark and Susie, but you know, their voices by now. We probably don't need to introduce them. Uh, this is, is.
00:02:24
Speaker
just the time to basically talk about the season to get, I guess this might be a new format for us. We haven't normally done this sort of like structured round table, but what I want to do is sort of open with a few different questions or open with a question and we'll go around and we'll just kind of discuss those and see how it goes. But let me start with a big one and I'll ask you, Tim, to weigh in first. Did you feel like 2023 was a successful season for the Sounders?
00:02:54
Speaker
It's a weird question because I think it's a reasonable question to ask. And I feel like in a more micro sense, looking at this season on its own, a season where you don't really make a run for any of the trophies on offer, kind of fell flat in club room cup and went out in the
00:03:23
Speaker
effectively the quarterfinals for MLS Cup, that's not a success by Seattle's under standards. I think if you look at it on a larger scale, the fact that they still played pretty well, they had a boring frustrating stress in the middle of the season, but even that the bottom never fell out, they
00:03:47
Speaker
credit water until they were able to turn things around towards the end of the season and they did it while transitioning to a new system of play. They answered a lot of questions during the season that needed to be answered during like by the time they reached the offseason.
Season Reflections and Resetting Standards
00:04:03
Speaker
I think in those terms it's a success. They fed themselves up really well to move into 2024 and beyond but
00:04:12
Speaker
Looking at just this season, I think it's kind of hard to call it a true success. So Mark, I'll point out.
00:04:21
Speaker
kind of, uh, getting on the bit on the writing that this was the first year since 2018 that the Sounders did not play in any finals. Uh, 2019, they obviously won MLS cup 2020. They played an MLS cup 2021. They played in a league's cup final 2022. They obviously won champions league. So in that sense, not playing for a, for a cup. And this is actually the second, only the second time during the Brian Schmetzer era that they, that they didn't play in a cup final.
00:04:50
Speaker
uh how much is that color you're you're feeling on this season i guess the way that i think about this season is it was kind of a kind of a resetting of standards right so i think pretty much uh we're all kind of comfortable with the assumption that
00:05:13
Speaker
Winning CCL in May of 2022 was effectively the end of an era. That era kind of stretched out into the season with certain players and whatnot, but
00:05:27
Speaker
if we're going to we're going to look backwards towards the Sounders in next year, several years, decades from now and be like this 2020 or this 2016 to 2022 ish team was an era, right? Yeah. And at the end of that era, they missed the playoffs for the very first time. And so this season was kind of all about like resetting the standards of the Sounders and
00:05:54
Speaker
you know, towards the end of last season, towards the end of the 2022 season, everybody in the organization said it was completely unacceptable to meet the playoffs or not make the playoffs. And so they reached their bare minimum of standard this season. Is that a success? No, it's not by their own standards. However,
00:06:18
Speaker
I think within the context of everything going on with this club and with this team, with this roster, with the upper management, it was a success to kind of like be able to say, all of these external factors are happening right now, but we can still do this one thing. And so I guess to kind of like agree with Tim,
00:06:45
Speaker
It is a success, but not really. It won't be kind of going forward. And so, yeah, hopefully next year, that's the, you know, 2024, the anniversary and everything, they start playing in finals again, and we can all just kind of be like, oh, that was weird.
00:07:03
Speaker
But a very clear reset needed to happen with this team because Garth Longaway left, Nico Odero's leaving, maybe Raul Rui-Diaz is leaving, you know, maybe some other kind of core pieces move on through one way or another. But what we know is like
00:07:25
Speaker
You know the manager can figure it out because he did like Tim mentioned it they like completely changed during the season and it like worked. You know you have this like brand new facility you're moving into you theoretically have like a new kind of cornerstone DP coming in.
00:07:43
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, they kind of reset everything. And now it's kind of like this season was either a success in two or three years, once they built everything on it, or if everything they've done to kind of reset the standard fails, it could, you know, it. Yeah. So, um.
00:08:06
Speaker
In the grand scheme of things, no, it's not a success, but it might very well turn out to be kind of this like cornerstone that the organization and us fans can kind of hold on to.
Sounders' Defensive Strengths
00:08:19
Speaker
So yeah, you know, this was actually an interesting conversation piece on the in the discord today where we were talking a little bit about this season and it kind of I think I've thought about this before but it did feel like 2023 on some level was always destined to sort of be a bridge to 2024 in that.
00:08:38
Speaker
Like you said, there was a clear delineation that connected 2022 to 2016 in that they kind of had their crowning achievement of winning CCL. And in that sense, Susie, does it feel like this year we saw sufficient, and if you have a different take on whether or not this was success, you're welcome to chime in, but to move it forward, does it feel like there was significant progress or was there enough progress from your perspective in 2023?
00:09:08
Speaker
I think it's hard to reflect like collectively because this season felt like so many different parts like with injuries to different players with just how the team was performing. So it's hard to say like to point out one piece of progress, but I will say like in this league.
00:09:29
Speaker
And, um, it's really hard to lose games when you're really defensively solid and defensively organized. Um, you give yourself a chance to score that one goal to win a game. And I, the team was just so defensively solid this year collectively. Um, and so like in terms of progress, it's not as if they weren't.
00:09:52
Speaker
Decent last year even even in a year that didn't feel like that felt like a failure for not making the playoffs But this year I just don't have a lot of memories of like those big breakdowns Consistently throughout the season and you know their goals against record their expected goals against record Like all of that was just across the board really promising you know and deserve to speak to your point when they were really
00:10:18
Speaker
playing poorly this year, uh, and there was a stretch of games where they, you know, I, they only won, I think one game or yeah, they, they won two games, uh, basically out of, out of nine, I believe was the worst stretch there.
Talent Progress and Key Performers
00:10:35
Speaker
And even then they only gave up three goals in a game once. And that was in a, actually in a tie and they gave up.
00:10:43
Speaker
you know, one or two goals in most of those games. So yeah, it was a defensively solid season. And in some ways, I think they sort of, they were able to lean on that even when things weren't going well. But for me, the areas where they made progress are in sort of talent identification. And the way that this came up in the discord was discussing whether or not it
00:11:07
Speaker
It was proven out to be a good decision to sort of not start the rebuild last year. And I suppose they could have done that by buying out Ledero or I suppose even buying or ridding themselves somehow of road radios and sort of like bringing in that new DP at the start of last year. Difficult as that may have been, it was at least within the vague realm of possibility. It was certainly something that people were talking about doing.
00:11:36
Speaker
And my argument was, I don't know if they would be that much farther along on the rebuild now than they were then, in part because let's just say they had replaced Nico Ledero as a designated player last year. Let's just say that's a standout player.
00:11:51
Speaker
That probably means that Albert Rusnak is playing a linebacker. And then everything else is basically the same around him. And to me, one of the biggest things that we learned this year was the emergence of Josh Atencio as a
00:12:09
Speaker
potentially elite MLS central midfielder. And that's something that we had been sort of championing a lot on this blog or on this podcast on Sounder at Heart.
00:12:25
Speaker
And, uh, and to me that, you know, along with the emergence of Jackson Reagan, who may have emerged either way. Uh, and as well as sort of like the re discovery that Yemar is still an elite defender, uh, that Jau Paulo was recovered from this injury. And, and frankly, that Albert Rusnak could still be an effective number, uh, number 10 were all things I thought that were really useful things that we learned this year. Uh, but Mark, although.
00:12:54
Speaker
In terms of progress, were there things that you, like, am I missing anything there that maybe we didn't see enough of, or you liked what we saw, progress-wise? Yeah, I think, like, we had conversations this summer, even, like, just a few months ago, three months ago, maybe around the time of the League's Cup Exit, or that, like, disastrous Atlanta home game, where it was like, this roster has so much
00:13:21
Speaker
It needs, it needs so much work done that it's going to make that 2013 off season look like child's players. So, you know, something like that. And just three short months later, you go toe to toe with LAFC and you kind of catch a poor break. And that's just kind of how that goes. And you lose the LAFC in the playoffs and you, but you leave that game thinking more or less like this could be
00:13:52
Speaker
the lineup that opens the next season, and you would feel pretty much okay. Let's say 80%. Okay. So yeah, I think there was a bunch of like, like talent identification, things that were identified, like,
00:14:11
Speaker
Rusnak should probably be the starting 10 or however you kind of want to make that midfield three work. You make that, that's your midfield three.
Season Highlights and Key Matches
00:14:18
Speaker
You want to probably upgrade or have some maybe options on the wings because Christian was out for a long time.
00:14:28
Speaker
crazy and consistent. You maybe do something with your fullbacks because that's an area where you're kind of like, are these the guys that like can really like elevate us the way that like a Brad Smith or Kelvin Lou Dam did. But then you look at everything else and you're like, yeah, Jordan Morris can be a starting striker in this league. Maybe we kind of do something with the depth behind him. But then, but then you look at the center back partnership and both
00:14:55
Speaker
Both center backs had a case to be first 11.
00:14:59
Speaker
players in the league and, and actually probably both being that good hurt each other from like, from like maybe making that sort of like, like in those things, they're like very, very, very silly on its like base, but that's the kind of the quality you have the best defense. You have the two best defenders. You have a very good goalkeeper. You have an incredible midfield, and then you're just kind of like sprinkling in some.
00:15:27
Speaker
mostly just like attacking options and then you have like a great team like we saw at the beginning of the year you know this team could like we saw that this team like had parts of a team that could probably go on and compete for a supporter shield obviously like kind of the sustainability factor wasn't there with this with this team
00:15:51
Speaker
But you have that core that was really good at the beginning of the season. You. And you can build on that. And then it was also really good at the end of the season. So, so yeah, I think there's like, there's a lot. There's a lot that doesn't actually have to be done to make this team really incredible. And that's so encouraging heading into such a pivotal losses.
00:16:17
Speaker
Let's start with you on this one. What was a highlight for you this year? I think you could probably pick. Really, particularly like any of those first. Three games as a highlight where they were just dismantling. Spotlight Colorado and. Saint Louis, I think that.
00:16:48
Speaker
The win over St. Louis at the end of the season is another potential highlight. I think because it featured a Josh Potentio banger, I will speak in particular on behalf of the home St. Louis win. That was just
00:17:13
Speaker
such a dominant performance. Josh's goal was fantastic. St. Louis had started the season by showing, you know, a level of quality that was a surprise to just about everyone, I think, and led them to first in the West and the Sounders were the first team to really get
00:17:35
Speaker
get one over on them and not somehow forget that Jerval Klaus doesn't play on their team. It was just such a fun game and felt like it made the two wins prior to that all the more meaningful, especially after
00:17:56
Speaker
You know, so much hype had gone into the Club World Cup and then that loss was pretty frustrating. To be able to start the season that well and have it sort of. Peek with that Saint Louis win. Was quite the highlight. Susie, what was the highlight for you this year?
00:18:19
Speaker
I can't think of one game, but just overall, I just really think Joe Paulo is an amazing player. I could talk about him forever and to have him return. Um, I mean, he was such a diff, like we missed him so much last year and it was just so evident to have him come back and slot in. So I would just say overall that his return definitely stands out for me. Did you have a, did you have a highlight Mark?
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think. Mine's a little kind of like abstract, if that's OK. I would I would say like the playoff performance as a whole, where the. You know, they they kind of entered the playoffs after like a pretty solid was it like 11 unbeaten, 9 unbeaten, something like that, but in. Three of the four playoff games that they played, they.
00:19:18
Speaker
Exuded the kind of like a dominance of control that you do not see in MLS. You just don't see particularly that third Dallas game where you don't see one playoff team in MLS play another playoff team in MLS and just like
00:19:36
Speaker
nothing happens, you know what I mean? And that's really boring soccer to watch. I understand that the stadium was like very tense the entire time, but watching on TV kind of removed, looking at it myself, I was just like, this gives me so much hope for
00:19:54
Speaker
the ideas that I think this coaching staff can continue to come up with. And then also the kind of their current sort of like resolve to take a very flawed roster and do what they did with it. It's just like, that's my highlight because I didn't have that confidence in them a few months ago. And that kind of like the run that they went on and then those performances really showed me that like,
00:20:22
Speaker
There's such a solid foundation here. And I know I'm basically saying the same thing with every answer. But yeah, that third Dallas game was probably my highlight. Because even though they lost the LAFC game, it was a very similar performance. But maybe the best player in the league gets away on one chance and he scores it. And you're just kind of like, well, shoot. What can you do?
00:20:48
Speaker
Oh, I'll just chime in to say, I would hesitate to call this a highlight, but it's worth highlighting, uh, was the Sounders became the first MLS team to compete in the club
Challenges and Disappointments
00:20:58
Speaker
world cup. Now granted that was almost a year ago. Uh, long ago.
00:21:03
Speaker
it's only I mean it's tempting to forget it and it and it was a disappointing way to go out you know they went out in frankly a very similar kind of similar way to the way they their season ended which was one zero despite probably having the better play overall against all Ali
00:21:20
Speaker
But just playing in that, I thought was a was a good step forward. It was nice that the Sounders ended up being the last MLS team to play or the last playing in the last iteration of this, the tournament as it was formatted. When it comes back, the Sounders will be in it again, which is, you know, even makes it even more important how how big of a deal was to win that 2022 CONCACAP Champions League, because eventually, effectively, they got to
00:21:49
Speaker
uh, club world cup buys out of it. And again, I don't, I don't know that I would, I would call that a highlight of the season, but it was a notable achievement this year. That's worth remembering. And, uh, it's easy to forget, like I said, because it was so long ago. Uh, uh, but Susie, was there, was there any, what was it, would you say was the biggest disappointment for you?
00:22:11
Speaker
Uh, for me, it was their performance at home just overall. Um, it was, you know, I do get to go to the games in person and it was a slog to get through a lot of those games, especially in the middle of the season. Um, and that's where the historically have just been so dominant. So, I mean, putting the playoffs aside to Mark's point that they played quite well at home there, but, um, otherwise it was, it was a struggle.
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll just I'll just piggyback that by adding some context. This was the Sounders worst points per game performance in their MLS history at home. Historically, they've never been necessarily they've never had like a great home campaign where they just you know, they ran the table and they were effectively unbeatable or anything like that. But if you take the entirety of their home record,
00:23:01
Speaker
They are one of the best teams in history. They've just been very consistent at home. And this year, they really struggled, especially to score. I think they barely averaged more than a goal per game. It was really a lot of ugly games at home this year. Tim, was there a biggest disappointment for you? I really feel terrible calling out a particular player.
00:23:32
Speaker
But I can't help but think that a bear is probably. Up there in terms of disappointments for this season, especially, you know, having already shouted out how good they looked at the start of the season, he was such a.
00:23:49
Speaker
an important part of a lot of the beautiful attacking movement that was happening. He picked up a couple goals and was integral to the way they were moving through other teams defenses just his hold-up play was fantastic and then he just I if I remember correctly he picked up a little injury and then just kind of
00:24:15
Speaker
disappeared. Couldn't really make his way back onto the field even when he was seemingly healthy and when he did get on the field he
00:24:25
Speaker
racked up the XG and that was about it. He, you know, they splashed a not insignificant amount of allocation money and gave him a decent salary to bring him in. And I think for good reason, there was plenty of excitement about having him as a backup option behind primarily Raul. You know, maybe the disappointment is
00:24:52
Speaker
tempered a little bit by the fact that it allowed certain Morris the opportunity to make that number nine spot his and take good effect but yeah still still a little tough to to swallow how a bear performed yeah again adding a little bit of context there he went 22 games without a goal uh across all competitions which is a
00:25:16
Speaker
I mean, frankly, almost unbelievable stat. And yes, I think he got hurt. I think it was after the second game, maybe even. He got hurt. He certainly never regained his form. But to me, there was a kind of two-game turning point in his season. And it was two games where he racked up a lot of XG.
00:25:39
Speaker
Which was the the loss to sporting Kansas City where you sort of played out of position he was he started as a 10 in that game and looked completely completely out of sorts. Nico I believe started on the right in that game and the first half was a complete disaster and then there was the Austin game at home where he.
00:25:58
Speaker
I may be confusing these two games, but in both those games, I think he had a bunch of chances where he just, you know, where the Sounders had a chance to equalize and he wasn't able to do it. And he really was never the same player again after that. Mark, did you have a biggest disappointment?
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, I would say it was both Portland games, um, where you can't like, you can't not be Portland. And then if you're not going to beat them, you can't just completely capitulate twice in the same season. Cause they go one zero up in Portland in like the 60th minute, 58th minute or something like that. I think it was 70th minute. Oh, okay. Even later. Great. And then Portland comes back with four goals and it's just like,
00:26:46
Speaker
We're supposed to, the sounders are supposed to be the team that does that type of thing to other teams. Like we have the, you know, the famous DC United game, the New England Revolution games. We have our own Portland games where we just kind of like, the players come off the field and they're like, I thought my teammate was speaking a different language. That's how we looked in that first Portland game. The second Portland game is even more like sends my blood pressure through the roof because they actually go up to zero.
00:27:15
Speaker
That was actually the third Portland game. Oh, there was also that totally forgettable 0-0 game. Yeah, okay. The two teams combined for like 0.5 XG.
00:27:27
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I guess all three Portland performances were, were bad then. But the, yeah, the, the other kind of famous capitulation is you go up to zero, Leo Chu is unbeatable, uh, and gets a red card and you get, uh, Dyrone Spried, which happens far too often to the sounders. Uh, is he, I hope he's retiring. Is he retiring? I don't think so.
00:27:54
Speaker
Um, okay. Yeah, it's, it's, it's those, it's those two Portland games in particular, but it's the performance against Portland as a whole.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of good candidates for biggest disappointment this year. And I don't know if I have, I guess I'll add one just for the sake of chiming in, but failing to score at home against LAFC in a playoff game, I don't know if it was the most unexpected or like it wasn't like they played a bad game, but just that they ended the season in a scorelet, not failing to score at home,
00:28:32
Speaker
just felt like a little on the nose. They didn't score against LAFC at all this season. They didn't score. Yeah, you're right. In three games against LAFC, they had a 0-0 tie toward the beginning of the season. Then they lost 1-0 where they gave up a goal in the first minute, I believe. And then they had the 1-0 loss at home in the playoffs. And what's even more frustrating about that
00:28:55
Speaker
I think it makes it even more disappointing in a way is that immediately after I remember consoling myself of saying like, well, I don't know if I really thought they were going to win Emma's Cup anyway, but what's really frustrating is is kind of.
00:29:07
Speaker
really knowing that they, they set themselves up to at least go to MLS cups so well for all this season. There was so much reason, you know, here we are on the day before MLS cup and Franklin, the sunner should be playing in this game. Uh, like if they had just found, I, I really believe that they had found a goal in that game against LAFC that they would be playing right now because they were definitely, I think they, they were going to beat Houston at home.
00:29:32
Speaker
And frankly, I mean, I don't know. I think Columbus is probably the favorite in this one. I think they're maybe being underrated a little bit, uh, by, by the pundits. I think this is to me feels a little bit like the 2017 final where, uh, everyone kind of taught, including us talk to ourselves into believing like, Oh, the sounders just know how to win this game. It doesn't matter that Toronto is the better team on paper and it doesn't matter that. And Toronto was, it seemingly was all in their own head, not to relive, re litigate old things, but, uh,
00:30:02
Speaker
In any case, I like the crew in this game. I would have liked the crew against the sounders, but it just feels like this is a game the sounders should be in. And I still am not quite over that the sounders aren't playing in this game. But then you would have to be in Ohio. So that's a fair point, a very fair point. And as it played out, maybe I wouldn't have been able to go because of things that are going on at home. So it was just as well.
00:30:28
Speaker
And then, but just think about the proposition of losing another final to an Ohio team. That's really another crew would have been potentially using another one to the crew. So maybe it's just as well.
Lessons from 2023 Season
00:30:39
Speaker
Um, I just have one addition to the disappointment and it's more of a personal one, which is just an.
00:30:46
Speaker
perhaps he'd comes back ultimately and it would be a miracle. But it just like hurts my heart. And I think a lot of other people that you didn't get like a true chance to thank Nico Ledero in some more meaningful way that it just is such a bummer to me personally.
00:31:02
Speaker
And I will say that would have been one nice thing about playing an MLS Cup is there would have been this whole week kind of tributes of talking about like the national media being able to weigh in on how important of a player he was. And as it is, I do think that got overlooked in a way that isn't entirely fair. You know, I think Seattle, I think was able to give him a reasonable farewell, but I don't think it felt very
00:31:29
Speaker
It was our thing only, and I think he deserves a little bit more than what he just got from the sounder. So that's a good shout, Susie. One of the things that I had on the run down here is the biggest thing we've learned. Does anyone feel like they want to chime in on something that maybe we didn't already go over in that sense?
00:31:55
Speaker
I think for me the biggest thing that we learned that we haven't really discussed a ton, although I have mentioned it is the system that the team implemented kind of starting at the beginning of the season and then really brought back
00:32:14
Speaker
when things got going again, not coincidentally with the reintroduction of Christian Roldan. But that counter pressing system, figuring out which players in particular worked really well, but I think that it also highlighted the effectiveness of Josh Atencio. I think when Christian Roldan was missing,
00:32:43
Speaker
It was clear that there was some. There were things that Christian Roldan does that no one else who played in that right wing spot really offers in terms of doesn't really leave the press, but he is a key figure in.
00:33:00
Speaker
getting the most out of Alex will gone on the right side, allowing the whoever is playing as the pen to function a bit more effectively. I think we saw that Josh Appentio offers a lot of the same things when he's played in the center of midfield. So even if you don't have Christian there on the right, you're still getting a lot of that things before and running that makes everything a little bit easier for everyone else. I think figuring out
00:33:30
Speaker
that system, seeing how well it works with Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak leading the press. I think just makes decisions that need to be made this offseason and going forward that much clearer. I think that is the biggest takeaway for me in those terms.
00:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, Matt Doyle, I thought did a good job of highlighting this and some of his end of season content, uh, and, and talking about how prior to this year, the sounder system really oftentimes felt like let Nico cook was sort of like their system, which was he's going to just go find the game and, and to the degree that he can make things happen. That's what's going to happen. And I never thought that was an entirely fair way of, of.
00:34:16
Speaker
Presenting it but the sounders did look like they didn't have ideas when nico wasn't out on the field and one thing we saw this year is that the system sort of did do a little bit better job of creating. Balance so to speak and yes you can point to christian the record without christian and say like well it's you just shifted the onus to a different player.
00:34:37
Speaker
I'm a little more optimistic that this system now that it's been fully implemented and because, like part of what threw off the system when Nico or when Christian was out was that Nico wasn't really being positionally disciplined and he was sort of just making the, he was still sort of trying to make the game while the other 10 players on the field were sort of playing the system. And my hope is that in the future with, when, when Christian goes out,
00:35:05
Speaker
which I would imagine inevitably he will, that they will do that, that if Rusnak is playing that 10 spot that they can sort of build around that a little bit easier, whether it be a Paul Rothrock, or hey, maybe it's this Pedro de la Vega guy who they're close to signing, or, you know, or maybe it's Albert Rusnak moving over, like there are other solutions, I think that they can maybe work that
00:35:31
Speaker
don't make it so reliant on Christian to create that balance.
Community Updates and Player Evaluations
00:35:37
Speaker
So, you know, we'll see. Watson's counter wants to thank everyone for their patience, but now the wait is over.
00:35:47
Speaker
Located at 6420 24th Avenue, Northwest in Ballard, they've reopened in a brand new location with the same bomb ass coffee and the same dumb ass vibes. You can still expect their classics like the gochujang fried chicken sandwich and free pebbles French toast alongside their new soft serve program and their world-class coffee. Make sure to follow them on Instagram for all the latest and greatest. All right, so
00:36:16
Speaker
This is maybe a related question, but I do want to get everyone's take on this or at least give some of you an opportunity to weigh in. Susie, which player do you feel like we learned the most about this year? I think I have two in my mind, but I'm going to go with one of them. Um, I actually think it's Leo Chu and I think it's that, um,
00:36:44
Speaker
I, at least I learned a couple of things. One is he truly can thrive with this team. Um, and he can create really big moments. Um, but two, he is, uh,
00:37:00
Speaker
a player with very, very specific talents and the team, I think, still doesn't know how to best utilize them. We haven't really had a player like him in the system and I feel like we're still trying to figure out if he fits in the system and if so, how do you best build a team around him so he can do what he does best?
00:37:21
Speaker
Um, so I feel like we saw some great moments of him, uh, from him. He took a huge step up from what people have maybe been had expectations from him last year, but the team just still doesn't seem like it's either, you know, it's has an answer to whether it's like, is this the player he's always going to be? Or can we really, um, build a team that really helps them thrive?
00:37:46
Speaker
I'm inclined to assume that both of you will say Josh Atencio, and we've kind of gone over Josh a little bit, but is there someone else that you guys, and I'll say that, or what was the other player? I'm sorry, Susie, you said you had two players. Well, my other was Jackson Regan, so I don't know. If someone else had him, I will let them take him.
00:38:09
Speaker
Well, do either one of you, do either one of you not want to talk? You can talk about one of you can talk about Josh, but I'll not talk about Josh. Okay. I feel like I've talked about Josh enough. People are tired of me talking about Josh. And I'm gonna kind of go like in like a negative way. And I think we learned a lot about new this season, in a sense that like,
00:38:36
Speaker
he probably shouldn't be solely responsible for that position to get the best out of him. And that's like a very political answer. But so like, you know, we've kind of referenced this like, ambiguous like system. And effectively, what what that ends up being on the field is
00:39:01
Speaker
new who is playing this kind of like not left back fully kind of in a modern sense but also not a committed third center back and he's this sort of like release valve on the back line.
00:39:14
Speaker
And he hates having the ball. He hates having the ball. I've never seen a left back hate having the ball more than he hates having the ball. And we had a- But he loves calling for it. He loves getting the ball, but then once he has it, he hates having the ball because then he turns around and passes it to Jackson Reagan and then yells at whoever passed to him.
00:39:37
Speaker
So with that said, it was very encouraging towards the end of the season when Reed Baker Whiting kind of came on as this like, this like almost antithesis to new who where it was like, he was not interested in defending at all. And he wanted to be as far forward as he could. But
00:39:58
Speaker
We've basically gone like three seasons now expecting new who to kind of take this like leap, so to speak. And maybe right off last season because of all the injuries and maybe right off this season, cause it's a transition and then maybe right off the season before that, because it was a completely different system that was like, Hey, we're made for him. But then you just kind of start like making all these excuses for a player that.
00:40:25
Speaker
isn't like good enough to make those excuses for, like on the flip side, you, you have people making a bunch of excuses for Albert Rusnak and then you moved in into his best position and he started, he scored seven game winning goals. So it's, it's like, do we really have, like, do we really have to be having these conversations about a player that is ultimately like not
00:40:50
Speaker
hasn't really become good enough to have these conversations about.
00:40:57
Speaker
like have a different thing to do. And I know we, I know we did this season and ultimately it was a very young person who really struggled, like his body struggled with kind of the, the rigors of like a professional soccer league. And maybe that goes away, but maybe he's also just kind of keeps experiencing growing pains until he's maybe in his twenties, like Josh, but I think like,
00:41:23
Speaker
specifically Brian Spencer teams are the best when he can have new who kind of do the quote unquote elite defensive stuff, which I will take a
00:41:37
Speaker
I'll argue about that. I don't think it's actually that elite, but it's, it's specific. He can do that stuff when he needs to, but then having a better kind of all around left back for. Let's say the 25, 20, 18 other games a season that you need that from. So I think this season was a huge missed opportunity for new who it started really well. Like he, he did that kind of release valve thing really well. And then he just sort of regressed.
00:42:07
Speaker
And when he could, when he could have like, I don't know, had more confidence or, or what, but ultimately I'm just like, kind of like this, this can't keep being the conversation we have every single season about this player that is like, just fine. Really? He's just fine. Tim, did you, did you want to chime in on this, on this topic?
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think, Susie, you may be included as well, but I think we're all members of the attention agenda. I think he, when he initially broke out and then was hampered by injury, he looked like he could really be a serious asset for the Sounders. I know one of Mark's major critiques at that point was that
00:43:05
Speaker
He's very good at the things he's good at, but he doesn't offer a ton going forward and he particularly didn't shoot. He learned how to shoot this year. It only turned into one goal, but he created a lot of really good chances. He showed an ability to make dangerous runs from that central midfield spot that
00:43:32
Speaker
other than Albert Rusnak playing in that spot. No one else who has played there recently is really effective at doing. He showed an impressive vision.
00:43:47
Speaker
When he's on the field, both for the runs that need to be made and the runs that are being made of his teammates, he showed confidence to be able to hit the passes that needed to be hit for those runs to be rewarded. He has continued to grow into his sizable frame and he offers a presence physically in that central midfield that the Sanders haven't had since
00:44:15
Speaker
Gustav. He just has like come on in leaps and bounds. It's really unfortunate that a stomach bug kept him from playing with the Olympic team. But I think just the fact that he got called in is a level of recognition for what he has
00:44:37
Speaker
accomplished and what the team has accomplished with him this season. I do want to throw a tiny little shout for the two of Cody Baker and Reed Baker Whiting to Mark's point.
00:44:52
Speaker
We did see that there are options in the team that are not new who at left back neither read or Cody is naturally a back neither of them in the left footed player. But when they played in that spot they both did really well they showed pretty well on the right side as well, I think, knowing that.
00:45:11
Speaker
If they can stay healthy and can continue to progress, the sounders have really good options, not only as potential starters, but as backups for both full back spots.
Sounders Academy and Player Development
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess I'll just add this sort of piggyback on that. I think the centers also learned or had the most proof yet that their Academy is producing MLS quality talent. And it has sort of turned into a little bit of a conveyor belt, not necessarily producing elite talent. And it may never get to that point where they're constantly producing players that are to be sold to Europe, but
00:45:51
Speaker
You know, I do think we saw some progress in terms of Obed Vargas, Reed Baker Whiting, Cody Baker. These are all players who, Josh Tatencio, who are proving themselves to be MLS quality talents, and they might have upside to bring in some money, but just the fact that
00:46:12
Speaker
that they can reliably fill out their roster with players that are internal promotions is a pretty significant thing that I think that we were sort of, that we got to put into practice a little bit more this year than, at least it felt like, than previous years. Because it wasn't just one guy piling up a bunch of minutes, it was a bunch of younger players showing that they could do a job when they needed to. And even if they don't even necessarily have to turn into players that are,
00:46:40
Speaker
good for the Sounders, or like sold for $10 million or whatever is happening in Dallas, they can be Hanwalla Ballona and be a valuable asset for another MLS team that brings in allocation money that frees up the Sounders to do other things. I forget what the corresponding move to the Ballona Nashville trade was.
00:47:03
Speaker
And I obviously it didn't really work out on the other side. I mean, even they got, I think they got $200,000 allocation and Jimmy Madranda in that trade.
Season Predictions and Reflections
00:47:12
Speaker
So the allocation money was really important. The other things, maybe not so much. Oh, I don't know. I guess Madranda scored like some really good goals. I think to add to the, you know, effective conveyor belt nature of the Academy, you know,
00:47:31
Speaker
Jackson Reagan is a bit more removed from his Academy days, but I think often, probably not anyone here, but outside of maybe the most in-the-know Sounders fans, doesn't get included in those conversations because he's not a homegrown player, because he went through the draft and, you know, spent four years in college, but
00:47:54
Speaker
he spent a year with Tacoma Defiance and since then I mean I know people like Wade Weber were talking about him as like the next Chad Marshall and that seemed like maybe a little bit of hyperbole and just a suggestion that well he's a really clean player and he's got these impressive tools but I think this year in particular he played really well last year but showed some
00:48:21
Speaker
potential to make mistakes and whatever but you know that's not to be unexpected in a player who's new to first division soccer. This year he looks like a legitimately elite MLS defender you don't have to go to Europe to be an elite player and be you know a huge credit to the Sounders developmental system not just the academy.
00:48:46
Speaker
Well, I'm going to start with this next one with Mark, because I feel like he's maybe the person who has put himself most out there in terms of having strong opinions. And I say that as a credit to you. But is there something this year that you felt like you ultimately were wrong about?
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think at the beginning of the year, I was pretty confident that this team would be fine for the whole season, like to a point that we started.
00:49:19
Speaker
uh, talking about a little bit earlier, there was obviously a huge discussion last off season that they needed to completely blow up the team and like completely rebuild it. And I was one of the people that was like pretty prominently outspoken and saying, no, this is a really good team. They just need to get healthy. And then the kind of table, tail that into like a very specific point is I was like,
00:49:45
Speaker
So ready to champion a bears 12 goals a season that was supposed to happen this year. Yeah. And I know that like kind of his big misses maybe in the middle or the first third of the season kind of started this like giant XG debate within the kind of Sounders fan base. And I was like pretty wrong about that because I'm a prominent believer that
00:50:09
Speaker
If you kind of got a good system and you're generating enough expected goals or just chances that you should score, it'll come good. And what ultimately didn't come good with this team is frankly, they just weren't talented enough and good players score goals. Good players also defend the goals, which we generally have good players back there, but we just didn't have enough good players to score the goals. And I thought we would have.
00:50:38
Speaker
Susie, did you feel like there was something notable you were wrong about? I don't tend to have really strong opinions. So not that I'm saying that I'm always right, but nothing comes to mind. It does make it harder to walk things back when you didn't. Yeah, but I will say that I
00:51:00
Speaker
I watching the team last year, I was still like convinced that it was okay to play Albert Rusnak a little bit deeper. I felt like he's such a smart player. He makes everything look really easy which makes people like not be able to see some of the things he does really well.
00:51:20
Speaker
even from a deeper spot, but I think seeing him play higher and be able to better be that connection in the attacking third definitely did prove me wrong with that assumption. Tim, did you have anything you want to put in there? Yeah, I think first I would sort of counter Susie's point that I think
00:51:45
Speaker
You weren't necessarily wrong to believe that Albert Rusnak was well used, a linebacker. It just was maybe not the most right.
00:51:54
Speaker
position, because I feel very similar to how you feel. I think at the time it made a lot of sense. It just is that other things made more sense later on when you figured out other things about how the team was structured and performing. I think the thing I was most wrong about is not something that I necessarily have ever tweeted about. And I probably wouldn't ever put it out
00:52:24
Speaker
publicly except right now um but i i have in several conversations over the course of this season particularly when things were not going well even before the start of this season and i have held this opinion at various other points in the past and then been proven completely wrong but i felt pretty strongly at various points that this was probably going to be brian schmetzer's last season but
00:52:52
Speaker
you know that like he deserves an incredible amount of credit for what he's accomplished in charge of the Sounders and you know maybe the 50th anniversary provides a good transition point for him to move into a different role in the organization and they bring someone else to freshen up the tactics or the team's approach to things but it seemed like the same issues kept cropping up and
00:53:21
Speaker
They'd implement a new system or approach and then teams would figure it out and they wouldn't really be able to adjust to other teams adjusting to them. And then once again, Ryan Spencer figured it out. Like he is even for his proponents, a better player, a better manager than we give him credit for. And I am very glad that he is going to continue to be in charge.
00:53:49
Speaker
I'll support that position as well. There was definitely a point this year where I kind of talked myself into I think even publicly I think I may have even said I thought there was an equally good chance that the Sounders could miss the playoffs and he would be back and that they could
00:54:11
Speaker
Oh, get to MLS cup and he wouldn't be back. And I just thought that it was basically saying there's no rhyme or reason to this, but I was, I was, I think I had kind of come become comfortable with the idea that maybe it was time to move on from Brian, but I thought he, you know, he did show me that.
Transfer Insights and Tactical Flexibility
00:54:27
Speaker
He can be more flexible than sometimes he gets credit for. I will say that the one thing I ended up being wrong about was I really did not think it was that big of a deal that the Sounders let Sam and Denerin go. I liked him. I thought he was a good player. I still think on some level letting him go was the right thing to do because
00:54:47
Speaker
there was no indication the Sounders were actually going to give him a shot. But I just didn't, I just didn't necessarily think it was that big of a deal. And in hindsight, it was maybe a more of a missed opportunity than I than I realized, because he, you know, we I think we all saw what he could do when he was playing for Defiance, whether or not he was ever going to be able to translate that to the MLS was sort of a
00:55:09
Speaker
I don't have the beholder situation, but, uh, clearly it was, he, to me, he, the player who, who has established himself as pretend as a, as a, a very viable MLS goals horror and.
00:55:23
Speaker
Whether or not it was the right thing for the Sounders to let him go, I do think it was a pretty big deal that they ended up letting him go for almost nothing. I think that was probably a situation where the Sounders owed it to themselves to give him more minutes. And I don't think it was an Eber versus a Denerant thing. I think that's overly simplifying it.
00:55:44
Speaker
But it's also not hard to imagine a alternate reality where they give the minutes they gave to ever to a dinner and maybe it works out better. Or at least they figured out a way to more effectively use his talents because
00:55:59
Speaker
You know, I think that's one thing that I really hope evolves within the Sounders is this kind of idea that you always want your best that you have your best 11 players and you want to get them as many minutes as possible. And you don't always give yourself the opportunity to
00:56:15
Speaker
use players off the bench to just sort of change the way you're playing. And I think at Denerin really offered the Sounders an opportunity to do that and they never really did it. And that's, uh, you know, I think it ended up being a bigger missed opportunity than, than I, than I realized at the time of when they would let them go. Um, it's easy to, to look at his season and reflect on all of those things. I also think.
00:56:38
Speaker
St. Louis's system just fits his style so well. So it's always so hard to compare. Like would you have had those results if you got the same amount of minutes in Seattle? To me, it's really hard to say, not to say I'm discounting anything you just said. I just think sometimes people don't take a step back and look at that.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I think this is the circumstance he was placed in in St. Louis set up really nicely for him. And it should be said he didn't have instantaneous success there. You know, he got loaned again, he again got sent on a mid-season loan. So it wasn't like they were these huge believers in him. But you know, when he did get his second chance there, he made the most of it. And
00:57:20
Speaker
I just would like to see the Sounders and Brian in particular be a little bit more open-minded about how he uses his bench because I feel like he gets stuck in these patterns of, well, I want Jordan on the field at the end of the game, so I'm always going to have him out there, or I won't roll on the field at the end of the game, so I'm just going to leave him out there for 90 minutes, when sometimes you just got to change things up. And I think that's one thing that the crew I think have done a really good job of during their run is figuring out creative ways to get
00:57:47
Speaker
their bench players on the field. I mean, it helps when you have a Julian Gressel or a or a Ramirez coming off the bench. But either way, I think that's just kind of the next the next step for the Sounders. Susie, was there anything you felt like you were vindicated on that you feel like you even if you didn't make some big public pronouncement that you
00:58:12
Speaker
that you even just internally felt like, okay, this is playing out exactly how I thought.
00:58:21
Speaker
It's cheating a little bit because it's so specific, but the game, the first game, it's like the third game of the season where A-Bear got hurt and they lost on the road to Cincinnati. There was a lot of talk after that game, like, oh, if A-Bear was in the game, we would have won. And I said at the time, it was our midfield that lost the game, not having A-Bear. And I feel very vindicated in that at this point in the season.
00:58:51
Speaker
That's very fair. Tim, anything you feel particularly vindicated on? I feel pretty vindicated by the performances of
00:59:21
Speaker
I shouted out Reed Baker Whiting and Cody Baker earlier, so I will let that stand, but I would also add Paul Rothrock. But I figured him coming to, him coming home after spending time in the TFC system, I thought it was gonna be a good addition, but, you know, maybe just
00:59:50
Speaker
basically as like veteran leadership for Defiance. And when he got his opportunities with the Sounders, he absolutely made the most of them and scored in every competition he played in. I think he is a genuine talent, maybe MLS fringe talent, but the kind of player that I think gets
01:00:16
Speaker
gets ignored a lot for having, you know, gone through college soccer and being a little bit older than people expect a prospect to be, but showed he still got a lot to offer. Anything, Mark, that you want to, you want to dump your chest on? No, I took a lot of L's this season.
01:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'll give a shout out for Stephen Fry's performance, who I sort of felt like there was a time early in the season where I sometimes felt like the public
01:00:54
Speaker
the public opinion was starting to turn against Steph. And I sort of kept pointing back to his, his, his numbers and, and kept saying like, no, I think this is still, like, he's still the same player he kind of has always been. And I do think that that was sort of born, that was born out. Like, I think that, you know, he wasn't necessarily
01:01:17
Speaker
The best keeper I, I, but I do think he's still in the conversation for a top five keeper in the league. I think that he's probably got, you know, he's got tread left on the tires. He seems motivated.
01:01:30
Speaker
And I think I'm really happy that the Sounders seem to now be placing a succession plan in place where one of Andrew Thomas or Jacob Castro is going to sort of have the opportunity to be his backup and to potentially be the next Sounders goalkeeper, which I think is really smart planning by the Sounders, but I think
01:01:53
Speaker
I'm really glad that he's going to be back next year because I don't know that there is a obvious improvement to be had over him, especially without trying to break
Podcast Reflection and Future Plans
01:02:02
Speaker
the bank. I know he's not the perfect keeper. He doesn't really do much outside of the penalty area. He's not a great passer, but man, he is reliable. And I think that's ultimately the thing you want out of your goalkeeper is you want a goalkeeper who's not going to lose you games and, and Steph Rye for, for, you know,
01:02:19
Speaker
his lack of perfection. He is not going to lose you games. And that's something I feel, you know, maybe I'm overstating how much opinion had turned against him, but.
01:02:30
Speaker
at times it did feel like it was going that way. And I thought he finished the season strong. All right, well, let's end it here. I'll start with you, Mark, since you kind of skipped on this last one. What's one thing you hope to see either this offseason, whether it be a player acquisition or a change or anything else? I feel like I'm not, like I shouldn't talk about the left back position here, so I'm not going to.
01:03:06
Speaker
The sounders either have depending on some roster mechanisms that may or may not be introduced this offseason. But as things stand, they currently have the opportunity to use two more of their U22 initiative spots, at least two more, let's put it that way.
01:03:28
Speaker
I would like to see two players come in with kind of the tactical flexibility we're talking about that allow sort of.
01:03:39
Speaker
you know, two younger players to come in and just give them, like, the freedom to change games. And it's not necessarily like, oh, you're coming in as Christian Roldan's backup, or you're coming in as the backup defensive midfielder, or you're coming in as Jordan Morris' backup. But it's more of like, yeah, you can play those positions if those players are hurt, but also you do it differently. And you're probably faster because those guys are getting older.
01:04:08
Speaker
Or, you know, kind of something like that and just get like, I want to see a lot more the way that this roster gets constructed over this offseason. I'd love to see a lot more tactical flexibility and options that the team can play because while I have been sort of like converted into a believer of this system.
01:04:29
Speaker
There are games where you just need Will Bruin to come on and score two goals against Columbus on the road and win a game. You just need to do the long ball thing. Funny enough, the one game that was very tactically fluid in that sense
01:04:51
Speaker
three defenders scored against Vancouver, right? Like Yamar went up and scored and all that. So I would just like to see, like towards the end of the season, the roster got so rigid and it was like these basically 13 guys are gonna play and nobody else will. So whether that's either through signings or as Tim pointed out, maybe Paul Rothrock makes some steps up and offers something different. I just think with like where this league is headed,
01:05:21
Speaker
the sound is neat, like need to shed some of like kind of the previous era where it's like these are the 15 guys and that's it, type of thing. And they need a lot of different options basically. And maybe a different left back. Susie, is there something you really want to see this offseason?
01:05:42
Speaker
I know I agree a lot with what Mark said. Sometimes it feels like they didn't have a player that could change a game in a different way or that they played the same way or like defended the same way every game versus like maybe just having the tactical flexibility to shift a little bit. So I definitely agree with that. One very specific thing that I would like to see though next year
01:06:05
Speaker
Is for the team to be a lot more ruthless on set pieces. I feel like we let so many set pieces go this year. That could have been goals and I would like to see that change. Get something cooked up Tim. Yeah, I think the one. One primary thing and then a secondary sort of similar thing elsewhere, but a.
01:06:33
Speaker
real viable, consistent, non-Christian rolled on option on right wing. As has been mentioned already, the Sounders struggles in the middle of the season really coincided with Christian suffering concussions and being unavailable for an extended period of time. Going to the Gold Cup didn't help with his availability, but
01:07:02
Speaker
really him picking up the concussion and then missing that Portland Road game started the troubles for the Sounders. I mentioned earlier that Josh Atencio sort of addresses some of the
01:07:20
Speaker
the role that Christian fills on the right that wasn't being filled by other players on the field. But having someone who, you know, down the road maybe can make that position their own, but in the intermediary time can be a legitimate, either game-changing option or when Christian is available for one reason or another, there at least is not going to be a huge drop. I think, you know, if the Sounders do sign Pedro de la Vega,
01:07:50
Speaker
he can play in that spot. I think he solves a lot of difficult issues, whether he becomes the starting left and then Leo Chu is an option off the bench, or he serves as that right-sided player, whatever. But similarly, I think establishing
01:08:14
Speaker
a succession plan behind, you know, behind draw Paulo. Maybe that's Joshua Tencio and one of the other players comes in alongside him but starting to use the
01:08:35
Speaker
you know, the steadiness of the current core of the team as an opportunity to start planning for the future a little bit more as we transition to this new era. Figuring out what is the future after Albert Rusnak? What's the future after Jaul Paolo? Those I think are the other big priorities.
01:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, I'll say this with the caveat that I think everything you guys said is probably more important than what I'm about to say, but it is something that I hope that we see this year is the sounders
01:09:22
Speaker
ability to put players into the foreign marketplace successfully, I do think is actually, you know, on some level, I think we sometimes talk about this sort of as a point of pride, but I do think there is actually a real practical matter to this. And I think we see it with LAFC, we see it with the Columbus crew, we've seen it with
01:09:46
Speaker
Dallas for that matter is that the ability to sell players Into foreign teams really changes the kind of player you can bring in to the Sounders, you know The Sounders do work on a budget. They they work as a team They try to keep it pretty their their soccer budget relatively if not literally in the black certainly they aren't in this to lose money in
01:10:13
Speaker
They're not lighting money on fire, so to speak. This is not an oil state that is running the sounders. And I don't think that's what we want, but I think what we want is for this to be a sustainable enterprise. I think that has real value in terms of the on-field product. And a big part of that, frankly, is going to be selling players or at least putting them into loans that potentially turn into sales. And I don't want that to be
01:10:43
Speaker
transactional, but it is it is a reality of the of soccer right now. And so the sooner that they can get involved in that marketplace, I think the better for them. And the better I think the better product that it will make here. So with all that said, I think this was a good
01:11:02
Speaker
A bridge season, like Mark said earlier in the show, ultimately, the success or failure of the season is probably going to be determined by what happens in the next few years. But it was an interesting one. It was a different kind of season for the Sounders. But thank you guys and gals for joining me on this show, for doing this throughout the year. It has been a really satisfying year for me personally.
01:11:27
Speaker
Just because we were able to take Sounder at Heart independent, it seems like we have a, you know, speaking of sustainability, it does feel like we've created something sustainable with the support of you all's content, but also with the support of our listeners and our readers. This has been really satisfying for me and hopefully you have enjoyed it as well.
01:11:50
Speaker
With all that said, signing off for Tim Fox, Mark Kastner, Susie Rance. I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is No Study at This, and we will catch you next time.
01:12:56
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!