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Lobbing Scorchers: It's Time to Start Danny Musovski
0 Playsin 11 minutes
The vibes got a boost in Matchday 6 as the Seattle Sounders pulled out a 1-1 draw at San Jose on the strength of a clutch equalizer from Albert Rusnak. With another road matchup against a good-looking San Diego FC side looming, we discuss Seattle’s attacking performance in Saturday’s match and what it means for their prospects going forward. Later on, we hit our Agenda Check, which featured a spirited discussion about the performance and role of Danny Musovski.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, sure, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well, it's gonna be a scorcher.
Focus on Seattle Sounders and Recent Match
00:00:22
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 90 of Lobbing Scorchers. We are recording on a sunny Sunday afternoon here in Seattle. And Noah, we're about to lay down a draw pod. How are you feeling? i You know what, Ari? It's a beautiful day outside.
00:00:37
Speaker
I'm ready to talk some soccer. I'm ready to talk some sounders. And I'm even more ready to shill. Yeah, we got some good shilling on this show, um but we also do have a draw pod as the Seattle Sounders went down to PayPal Park to play the San Jose Earthquakes, and they came back with a point after a 1-1 result on a second half equalizer from Albert Rusnak.
00:00:58
Speaker
We're going to break that down in our game review. We're going to hit our agenda check. We're going to react to some of the other results from around MLS in match day six. We're going to check the pulse of the streets. it's gonna It's a jam-packed show. I don't even know if I got everything there.
00:01:13
Speaker
Uh, but it's going to be a good show. and we have a goal to talk about. So that's, that's nice. That's always two games. We didn't have that. So it's basically a dub pod for that. You said multiple goals and you would be happy. I said one goal. Yeah. Okay. Maybe two goals, right? That's sort of, yeah, they did get one goal.
00:01:31
Speaker
Uh, But before we get into all that, I do have to let you all know, as always, Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder at Heart
Subscription and Sponsorship Updates
00:01:38
Speaker
podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderatheart.com slash ls Noah, what's that link? Sounder at heart.com slash LS. Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show.
00:01:54
Speaker
The road to 100 Sounder at Heart subs is still ah fully operational. And now more than ever, it is a great time to become a member with the season in full swing. Subscribers also now get access to the audio only versions of our live shows, which are a lot of fun. If you haven't been tuning into those, Lobbing Scorchers kick off every Monday at 8 a.m. Lobbing Scorchers under the lights every Thursday at 7.30.
00:02:15
Speaker
PM and live reaction post-match shows when we have the time. I have been putting the audio up as well. We did ah we did a post-match live last night. That was a lot of fun. We took, we've been taking calls on those. So if you ever want to jump on the feed with us and lay down your own takes, anyone is welcome to, as long as you're not crashing out fully.
00:02:35
Speaker
You can crash out a little can out respectfully. don't Yeah, respectfully crash out and ah anyone's... Free and welcome to come lay down takes with us.
00:02:45
Speaker
Shout out to our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, and Full Pull Wines. As well as our new sponsor, My Data Removal. My Data Removal, you'll hear about it, obviously, in the thing, but...
00:02:57
Speaker
new sponsor New sponsor. That's good. That's one good. We're good. Got another announcement coming at you guys later. And also we're going to be doing, we're going start doing members only content. That's the other thing to show.
00:03:09
Speaker
ah We've got 20 YouTube members, but we're trying, we're going to try and incentivize growing that number. So what we're going to do is we're going to lay down bonus content. That's going to be available ah exclusively to our YouTube members.
00:03:22
Speaker
And i don't know if we fully fleshed out, if we're going to like unlock it or if it's just always going to be, YouTube members only. We'll figure all that out, but that is something we are going to start doing. So if you want some bonus content from us, become a YouTube member. It is a phenomenal way to support the show.
00:03:38
Speaker
Noah, did we have any new Sounder Heart No new Sounder Heart subs, but we we are we're getting there. We're still at 85, so please. Sounder at heart.com slash LS.
00:03:50
Speaker
We literally... They literally broke news on there the other day. Yeah. The Ryan Kent news was broke by the one and only Nico Moreno. Who was streaming with me at the time. Yeah. So, but I'm just saying like, if if you want to support more of those kind of stories, all of that sounder at heart.com slash LS feeds us, feeds everyone else in the sounders journalism community. So we, we, we move.
00:04:17
Speaker
I think that's enough shilling. um Sub to the channel, like the video, all that. all right people People have to listen to the shilling beforehand. They're probably skipping, but you know what? It's fine. It's fine. ah All right. Let's get into this draw pod, Noah.
Seattle Sounders Lineup and Tactical Discussion
00:04:32
Speaker
I think... kind of, you know, for one, one draw, there's a lot to ah talk about with this game, given how it played out compared to the last couple of weeks, ah Seattle Sounders one San Jose earthquakes one. Let's hit our lineup reaction to start.
00:04:45
Speaker
ah You had Ferreira at the nine. Again, it was round two of that experiment with Jordan Morris out injured. And it was Christian at right mid again with Albert listed on the left.
00:04:56
Speaker
I don't think he's exactly playing like a pure winger in that setup, but that's how they listed Uh, that band of three, yeah Obed and JP double pivot and your standard back line.
00:05:10
Speaker
ah my first reaction when I saw this lineup was, you know, it was basically what we're all tracking right now is Ferreira at the nine, how that's looking. So I guess on one hand I was okay with them running that again, but I don't know, just, just from looking at a graphic where you got Christian at right mid and Albert on the left,
00:05:30
Speaker
I guess skeptical is the word that I would use. Noah, what was your first thought when you saw the lineup released? Well, it's classic Brian Schmetzer to just troll and put a random formation for the Sounders graphic. I'm not actually sure how they determine what the graphic is going to look like. If Brian actually draws something out or they just kind of like vibe it. But A 3-4-3 with Ferreira at the nine. i was like, okay, like maybe this makes more sense. He can drop back more. He can get some overlaps with Obed. Obed's going to get to go forward.
00:06:03
Speaker
You got Paul Rothrock who will be able to come in. You've got Christian Roldan who can drop back to swap with Obed and play. And then of course it did it didn't play like that at all because it really wasn't a 3-4-3.
00:06:15
Speaker
ah But lineup wise specifically, I don't know. I was like, all right. I think I tweeted something like, uh, Rusnak and rolled on flanking. Jesus Ferreira at the nine is that's something it's, it's something I guess.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you know, if they're admittedly in a, in a bit of a bind with the personnel and I don't mind, uh, I don't mind the experimentation, but it just, uh, I don't know. Like I, I feel like with how the first two games of Ferreira at the nine went, uh,
00:06:48
Speaker
I wasn't, I didn't see that and think, all right, this is where they bam three to five goals on the quakes, but I'll, I'll be open-minded and give it a chance. So let's get into the key moments from this game. ah And the first thing I wanted to talk about was just how it started, because I don't know about you, but I felt like in terms of things like game state and tempo and ah even chance generation.
00:07:14
Speaker
i thought the first 15 to 20 minutes were playing pretty well. I thought they were really, i thought they were really good, really sharp in possession. i thought they were good at, ah they, they, it was,
00:07:25
Speaker
Like it felt like possession with purpose in the sense that they weren't just knocking the ball around. They were knocking the ball around effectively, but also getting out and running a little bit. And they had a couple of, I feel like they had the better of the run of play in that first 15 to 20 minutes, which if you're the road team, that's always ah positive, I think, to start a game like that. So I was actually pretty pleased with how it was going in that respect.
00:07:50
Speaker
But what I will say is, uh, with that said specifically for error at the nine, I didn't think looked, uh, that different from how how it looked the previous two weeks. I thought the team as a whole, ah looked a lot better in a lot sharper in possession.
00:08:05
Speaker
And, uh, the offense looked better in that opening 15 to 20 minutes with the caveat that, uh, the number nine positions, it just still felt like a little disjointed in that the chemistry wasn't all there yet. Did you see that any differently?
00:08:19
Speaker
No, I agree with you completely. Like, I think that the Ferreira at the nine experiment is just that still. Like, I think that it's not... done yet like I think that you you signed this player to play this position it would be not only it would be not only like silly to count him out after three or four matches but it would not be doing right by the player who like I don't know if that's where Ferraro wants to play if he wants to play there then you should trust that he's gonna settle in there and do what he needs to do to feel comfortable
00:08:54
Speaker
And I thought with the, speaking about the lineup, you know, I thought putting guys around him where he could put in service to probably will work better. You know, when like Pedro's back and Morris is back, like I could see him and Morris playing a dual striker where Frera can also get on the outside and play like a winger most of the time.
00:09:16
Speaker
Cause you know, and and we'll talk about that second half of him his play, but The first half, it wasn't like great, but I wasn't, I wasn't sitting there like, oh my God, we're cooked.
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah. And like the first 20 minutes was good. It was fine. Soccer. it was good. So it was good soccer. And yeah, they didn't, they didn't
Game Analysis and First Half Reflection
00:09:33
Speaker
get a goal. So that's only worth so much, but, uh, I did, I did like, make your own lock I did like what i was seeing up until, ah the San Jose earthquakes got the first goal of this game in the, in the 32nd minute.
00:09:46
Speaker
uh, Bo LaBrew or i think he's some rookie yeah from San Jose state. I don't know. Uh, this goal was, uh, unfortunate to say the least, uh, is, uh, not good. You know, you never want to give the ball away, but especially like right there, that's, that's not a good place.
00:10:05
Speaker
<unk> There's never a good place to give away the ball, but that was an especially not good place to give away the ball. ah Alex rolled on kicks it. Basically. He never saw the guy. I think like he thought that he he was kind of like in the corner of his eye. Yeah. I think he didn't see him in his peripheral and thought he JP was flat footed. He thought that he had an easy pass to JP, but the guy turned out to be right there to pick it off.
00:10:26
Speaker
And then, uh, yeah, like you said, credit to, ah that kid for making his own luck. He takes the shot from outside the box. Jackson Reagan's trying to block it. It deflects off him. And just like bad goalkeeping by Frye too. Like really bad goalkeeping by Frye. Are you, you think that was bad goalkeeping? yeah, I think so.
00:10:43
Speaker
I mean, that floated like, like, do you think you should have not been that far off his line? Yeah. I mean, if you see, if you see a ball get picked off like that, he was kind of caught in no man's land. I thought, but maybe I saw it wrong. I mean, I'm, I'm happy. I yeah i don't know. I didn't even, i didn't even think about the goalkeeping on that play. I thought it was a pretty unlucky deflection for me more than the Jackson Reagan deflecting it or where Fry was positioned.
00:11:08
Speaker
That goal was about the giveaway. like Yeah, for sure. Which, And people were getting on Alex rolled on for that because he had the giveaway that led to the galaxy goal in the playoffs last year. And I think there's a a narrative out there that he's been like either declining or just not playing that well, really like the last year or two for me in these situations, uh,
00:11:29
Speaker
if you give up one goal in a given game, especially on the road, like you, you are going to give up goals. Sometimes it would be sick to, uh, give up zero goals and get a clean sheet every game, uh, over 34 games, but you're going to get punched in the mouth sometimes. And you have, you have to be able to score yourself. Like how many times did we have this discussion last year about the margin for error for the defense is practically nothing because the team's not scoring.
00:11:55
Speaker
So, uh, you can play well on defense and have one moment where you give up a bad goal. And, ah really, if you don't get a result in those games, to me, it's a lot more down to, ah the offense than it, I thought the defense was good in this game. Like that was, yeah that was a bad giveaway, bad moment, bad goal to concede.
00:12:14
Speaker
Definitely a little unlucky, but ah if you want to get a result in these games, you have to score yourself too, regardless of what happens on defense. And I thought the defense was pretty good. Yeah, and I agree completely with the fact that in your first half, Jesus Ferrer gets zero shots.
00:12:31
Speaker
Like, I was seeing that, and I was i was not super upset about the Roldan giveaway, because earlier he had literally had a ah header that was on target and saved off of a Rothrock ball, which, holy shit, Rothrock was good in this match. We'll talk about that, but...
00:12:47
Speaker
Your defense was solid. Yamar, fine. Jackson, okay. like He does what he can. It's a last-ditch effort save. But I'm sorry, man. like It's just a kid who's been hot lately. He's been getting a run, and he decides to rip a ball ah of the off of a good takeaway. And like...
00:13:06
Speaker
You score the, that's, that's soccer, man. That's good. Yeah. Sometimes stuff like that is going to happen in, uh, like throughout a season. So you have to, it's, it's about how you respond to it. Yeah. When you get punched in the mouth, how do you respond? And I think honestly, that was the first thought that went through my head when I saw that ball go in, I wasn't like, okay, good. But I was like, all right, let's see what, like, let's see what you got, like punched in the mouth.
00:13:31
Speaker
Go score one. Go score one. On road. Hadn't scored on the road. that Haven't scored in two games. Like, go get one back. Like, it's not that ah it's not that complicated at the end of the day. ah But it did it was 0-0 going into the half.
00:13:46
Speaker
There was the Rothrock to Alex Roldan. I thought that was a really good chance. I really liked what Rothrock did on that play, how he kind of let the ball keep going. Yeah. That was actually, ah that's ah that's a classic Rusnak move that did to ah ah free himself the space to get that cross off.
00:14:05
Speaker
And I mean, was going to talk about it for Lobbing Scorchers, Man of the Match, but not to spoil it. We'll save it. We'll save it. I'll save it. um But that was one of what I thought were a few good sequences and good chances in the ah in the first half.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i have to say too, like, it really showed that Paul Rothrock was trying to make something of nothing, right?
00:14:32
Speaker
But he like had he had some kind of feel for his position. I think this this just goes to say about Ferreira specifically, he was not comfortable in that position still. like In that first half, he looked lost.
00:14:45
Speaker
He would be way too far down the field on the break, on the counter, which was something that happened last last week and the week before that. It was like bad. It was bad.
00:14:56
Speaker
I think that we can both agree that Jesus for how really bad first half. i Like what was going through my head wasn't like that was really bad or a disaster. It was just not different than what we had seen, which was not great position. Yeah. i Like it it just, it looked, it still looked like disjointed and like the, the chemistry wasn't there yet, which I've been saying like,
00:15:18
Speaker
That's not the craziest thing in the, in the world to me, but like, you do want to see incremental improvements. And I would agree that I didn't really see that in the first half. And that was as much as I liked some of the stuff that we saw in the first half, that was sort of the thing where it's like, all right, but you know,
00:15:34
Speaker
you didn't get that part of it going, which is really the most important thing right now. So I think that's a good segue into the halftime adjustments that Brian Schmetzer made. He didn't wait till 55 or 60 to make these changes. And he talked about that after the game.
00:15:49
Speaker
And I guess that's the first thing I want to, uh, I want to give Schmetz credit because we have both, I think critiqued him at times for waiting too long to make those changes, yeah particularly in like games where it's really not going well.
00:16:01
Speaker
And ah you see the first half is just kind of ah disaster. Like the CruzaZool game, like the first half was ah pretty big disaster. And ah the changes, we i think we both felt could have come sooner. So credit to Schmitz in this case for being like, all right, I'm just going to do it at half.
00:16:18
Speaker
That's actually exactly what I've said. said that I would have liked to see him do in a couple of those situations is yeah, just do what it at half. Just, there's no reason to let this go to 60 or 65, uh, when it looked a certain way for the first 45.
00:16:33
Speaker
Uh, so what he did was he brought Moose on, uh, and started him at a center forward and then moved to Ferrer out to the right. And I thought that just immediately looked way better. Oh yeah. Way better. Like Ferreira, it still wasn't amazing, but it was, it was lot better. He was able to play so much freer. He felt, he looked comfortable for me. And you said this, you like, you completely have shaped my world already in more than one way. But with this Ferreira thing, he's,
00:17:09
Speaker
got this ability to pick out these passes that look impossible. He's got such good field vision. like The one to Alex was so sick. But like you know he's he's got that thing where he's got eyes in the back of his head. He's 360'd.
00:17:21
Speaker
He's
Tactical Changes and Second Half Performance
00:17:22
Speaker
360'd up. like He is so much more effective when he has some space to play people in or he can facilitate. His game is just not that lethal striker anymore, it seems like. And I saw that with this where like...
00:17:36
Speaker
He did take two shots. He was able to work in on attack and like be an option in attack more when he was out on the wing than when he was playing the nine. You could really see that he is a very talented facilitator. Some of the dimes that he hit, I thought were great. The one I was talking about, the diagonal one that put Alex Roldan in, that was done a great pass. We're going to talk about the role that he played on the on the goal that Seattle played.
00:18:01
Speaker
scored But I think the most, I think the most important takeaway from this game, which we're going to talk about in agenda check is just like how, how much better it looked in the second half with that tactical tweak.
00:18:14
Speaker
And I think to me, it's worth writing that moving forward as opposed to continuing to play him like centrally like that as like the peer nine. Yeah. I just thought this, ah this second half,
00:18:29
Speaker
It felt like, okay, this is how they need to be playing. 100%. It unlocked so much more of that field centrally. And I even thought you saw players like Rothrock able to cut inside centrally more and feel comfortable doing that because effectively they were like, yeah, I'm just not going to pass to Danny Musovsky. He's just kind of there.
00:18:52
Speaker
ah And I and I liked that. I liked that, you know, Paul cut inside and Alex cut inside and you had Obed making runs forward, too. And ah I don't know. It's just it looked so much more effective and credit to Brian for understanding and feeling like, hey, this isn't working.
00:19:10
Speaker
We're going to give it a run. We're going to you know, we're going to let you get more comfortable, give you minutes there. But we also need to win the game. yeah And it's not about tanking so that one player can figure it out. And he made that adjustment very quickly.
00:19:23
Speaker
And I mean, props to the whole coaching staff, but that was good. coach It was great. It was good coaching, not to glaze, actually to glaze, to glaze, to glaze. I'm happy to go. We liked that. We liked that move and and it worked. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
Other key moments in the second half knew who actually had a couple pretty good shots back to back every time he shoots. I think most people are like, Oh God. But, uh, he forced the goalkeeper into a ah good diving save on that first one. so I didn't mind him lining that up. And he actually, he tried to volley one right after that. Right. And, uh, that was also like a pretty good looking shot, not even for ruoo for anybody. Yeah. And then he, I think he had one more that he missed by a larger margin than those first two.
00:20:08
Speaker
But like, I didn't mind any of those, any of those shots. And I thought in general, he, he looked pretty good. Like that was he that was more of like a two way new who game than i we're used to. seeing Yeah, it was interesting the way that he was playing. i mean, he's ah like, this is my take. This is my agenda that's always seems to come true. But he always plays so juiced coming back from national team duty. Like, I think he just he's just able to play so much more freely on that team.
00:20:36
Speaker
And I think that it just it translates back into the game here. Like. He was just, he just was a man possessed and I love it. I love that he's able to come back and I'm, it's also sick that he clearly loves representing Cameroon and, uh, and he's a key player for them. Yeah, he is like, he's big and that they're not, they're not, they're a good team.
00:20:54
Speaker
Um, but yeah, dude, dude had two shots on goal. You know how many Jesus for her head? Zero. He had double the shots of Jesus Ferrer and yeah. And like the new shots were pretty like low percentage to be fair, but he, he hit him nice. You make your own. I don't mind him doing that. If he's, if he's actually going to put it on target, I don't mind that as much people. A lot of people were like really annoyed, I guess, at how many shots from distance Seattle took in this game. Cause knew who had a couple, ah Georgie had one. Ruth snack had one. So may, I guess maybe a little more, uh, shots from distance than,
00:21:29
Speaker
you would like, but, uh, I didn't think any of them were horrible decision-making, uh, Georgie, this Georgie substitute apparent appearance in the second half was very, very good.
00:21:40
Speaker
Uh, it's just, he's a lot to handle. Like, yeah especially, uh, when he's got guys one-on-one, it's very rare that they are able to keep him in front of them. Like it's almost, uh, I'm not, I'm not doing a player comp, uh,
00:21:57
Speaker
ah here by the way, but like when you watch Denny Bawanga play and he's got someone on an Island and you're like, that's already yeah chalked. Like you already know that he's going to just blow by the guy. Georgie's got like a little bit of that quality in his game where when, when he's taking these guys on one-on-one,
00:22:14
Speaker
It's like it's like almost over before it starts, man. And like his final product is obviously a work in progress and nowhere near a player yet of ah Denny Bwonga's stature and quality.
00:22:25
Speaker
But I think what's exciting, like every time he's on the ball, it's exciting. And it's it's exciting to think about a world where he does ah develop that final product more and becomes a player who can really turn those good looking chances that he creates into, into more goals. That's the next step in his game, but he's just, he's fun and exciting to watch, which God knows this team could use more of that the last couple of years and he's providing it right now. So a yeah shout out, shout out to Georgie and, ah and yeah, Georgie and Rothrock.
00:23:00
Speaker
I think that he is such a good deploy in the 70th minute, deploy in the 65th minute because he's so explosive and you've already got defenders who have been run on and run on and run on and run on by Rothrock and Rusnak and Ferreira.
00:23:16
Speaker
You just get this extra little bit of like technical ability where he can just kind of like do you. oh my God. like it's gonna When he dials that in, it's going to be...
00:23:27
Speaker
yeah A nightmare. He's like the perfect super sub player. Yeah, I agree with that. Like his skillset lends itself very well to that role. Like when, when he's brings on the fresh legs at like 60 or 70 and you got the ah opposing defenders and midfielders trying to stop them, they can't really do it very well.
00:23:45
Speaker
Houston, I think Houston actually had the, the tactic yeah just when they swarmed him with three or four guys and then ah like football tackled him. That, that might be the only way to defend him because what the quakes were doing, and he was kind of feasting, man. He was feasting and they looked like good opportunities. Like he was able to, and I think this is again, going like the sounders finding a way to play more centrally has been so interesting to me. I don't know if you've noticed this, but you know, they're, they're kind of famously a team that likes to blast the ball in from the wing and,
00:24:19
Speaker
Sure, that's great. But I don't know. It seems like there's been a new wrinkle where they've been able to kind of like have those wingers cut in more centrally and and take their chances when they can, which mean, I don't know. I like it Yeah, no, i think I think you did see that in the ah in the second half. I think that's a good shout.
00:24:35
Speaker
um All right, let's break this goal down, Noah, because this was this was an awesome goal. This was a Lobbings Quarters certified goal. And it was a very it was when the Seattle Sounders are playing to their potential and their level, these are the type of goals that they can score. This was an excellent team goal.
00:24:52
Speaker
ah It all starts with a corner from Rusnak, which...
00:24:57
Speaker
That is, ah again, like, I thought his set pieces... Schmetz said in his postgame that he ah thought that Rusnak set pieces at the at the very end there when they were pushing for ah winner that he wanted more ah from him on those. Yeah, they weren't good.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, those weren't good, but, like, I thought... ah For most of the game before that, they were they were pretty good, like they had some good looks off them, even though they didn't get a goal. And then like, I think this is an example of why it's ah it can pay sometimes to have a guy who's really nails on these.
00:25:29
Speaker
set pieces because that wasn't a play where he, someone got their head to it and scored like primary assist style. Like Roosanac has done a lot for this team, but it was, it was good delivery that allowed Ferreira to get the ball and then ultimately create the opportunity that became the goal. So I thought that was worth mentioning.
00:25:49
Speaker
Uh, but then this play really, it does not happen without Ferreira. This was an example of the type of stuff I was talking about when they traded for him and why I liked the trade soccer IQ, man.
00:26:00
Speaker
He goes out there and gets that ball and everyone, who was watching, I think thought that he was going to recycle that and they were just going to end up knocking at it. around probably a little bit of possession without purpose.
00:26:11
Speaker
That's what I thought he was going to do. No, he picks his head up. He sees that Christian's got some space at the, at the top of the box and he hits a really nice ball that kickstarts the whole sequence. So I want to make sure he gets his credit for that because, if he doesn't make that kind of heady little, it's a small thing.
00:26:29
Speaker
But it's one of those things where if he doesn't like have the the soccer IQ to like recognize that and hit that right away, this goal might not happen. So good play by Ferreira to set this whole thing up.
00:26:40
Speaker
He picks out Christian and then ah Christian cycles it around to Rusnak on the right side. And then Rusnak absolutely skinned Chicho Rongo on this play.
00:26:51
Speaker
that was so cheejo His haircut is not, like because it's like you know just skin on the sides. it's literally not That's from Albert Rusnak. Chicho was totally isolated with Rusnak, which also all Albert had to do was get around him, and he was going to have space to either put in some nice service or...
00:27:10
Speaker
take the shot, but it was pretty, uh, it was a really bad defensive play by Chicho. If you watch it back, like it felt like he, he way over pursued it. Albert got around him pretty easily. And then he wasn't busting it back.
00:27:24
Speaker
Like I was, I, what when I was watching it back, I was like, I'm going to be curious to see if Bruce arena doesn't Bruce arena hates that yeah stuff. Cannot stand it. Like any, uh, like defensive laps like that, or kind of, it felt a little bit like a lack of,
00:27:40
Speaker
effort or just kind of like losing, ah losing focus for just that second. And then Rusnak's got a ton of space. um But then what a shot, man, like perfect placement, the pace that he put on that.
00:27:56
Speaker
It's not an easy angle to hit that shot. That was a DP finish is what that was. yeah And ah just a great team goal and ah great finish. I loved everything about it. I mean, talk about how we were literally sitting here the other day saying, you know, Rusnak may not be the put the team on your back kind of guy, but like he has the qualities of a DP and every other possible way. Well...
00:28:21
Speaker
He's also got that too, because when you're in the thick of it, away at San Jose, a team where you haven't been able to get the best of them in a while. You're pretty undermanned. You're undermanned. You haven't scored a goal in multiple games. You haven't scored an a away goal, period.
00:28:38
Speaker
your Your vibes are looking down. And guess what? Guess who pulls you out of the rubble? He's like your Superman, Ari, with this just beautiful strike. That's a DP quality strike. That is a DP quality play for a DP quality player.
00:28:54
Speaker
And you know what's even better? What can the haters say about it? it was I literally got a response to my tweet that said, I am a part of the Rusnak Brigade. We've lost. that Oh, wow. that's a We've lost. That's a big development. In the postgame live, I wasn't even dunking on the brigade. i was trying ah I was trying to take the high road.
00:29:15
Speaker
but in i mean Regardless of ah what you think of his DP status, I think we can all agree
Impactful Performances and Key Players
00:29:21
Speaker
that that was... it Excellent, excellently taken goal. And really ah just from a psychological vibes and morale standpoint, they needed to have that. Like obviously a one, one against the quakes is not the most phenomenal result of all time.
00:29:38
Speaker
It was a winnable game that, ah that they ended up settling for a draw. So all that is true, but I just think, if you were going into this next game in San Diego, having gotten shut out again, having lost another game ah and having it be like just that type of situation, the vibes would have been very, very bad.
00:30:00
Speaker
And I don't think it's, I don't want to, you know, victory lap or read too much into one goal in one game in a one, one draw. But what I was saying after the game is it's like, I at least can look at that and be like, all right, that was,
00:30:14
Speaker
a just goal based on how they were playing in the second half. It was well worked. I loved everything about that sequence. Like I said, that is something that you can take, as a positive going into the next game and build on something to build on.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, I agree completely. Like it's, ah know. There's just this this game doesn't this one game doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things, but it provides you that basis of like, OK, we got it done away.
00:30:47
Speaker
This is in our this is in our the DNA of this season's roster. Yeah. Lobbing Scorchers, man of the match. I'll do mine first, Noah. I got Paul Rothrock.
00:30:59
Speaker
I thought Rothrock was excellent in this game. ah Really, like in the first half, he was ah he basically all the danger that Seattle had was running through him.
00:31:12
Speaker
Uh, he was, he looked dangerous from him out wide. His service was really good. He almost had, uh, the assist on that Alex rolled on header. He was bringing energy and in in intensity. He was winning his one V ones.
00:31:26
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I could go on. Like I thought this was just, a he was nails. He was nails in this game. I wish they would have found him more too. I mean, he was calling for it. He was getting frustrated and I was like, yeah, exactly. You should be like run this through him right now. That's what's working. Yeah, I mean, I literally... I normally try and pick another one just for content, but I literally cannot pick another Lobbing Scorchers man in the match because Paul Rothrock, so deserved. If he gets more service in this game, he scores, man. I'm sorry. That's my take. Okay, there the one knock was when he got out and running and he took the shot that missed to the far post, barely. He almost had that goal. But I thought he...
00:32:10
Speaker
i don't know I'll have to watch it again. I'm not sure about this take, but my first reaction was, oh, he probably should have laid that off. and said Sure. ah But honestly, I'm not even going to have that detract from his all-around performance because he was he was the best player on the field for either team, I think, pretty comfortably.
00:32:27
Speaker
yeah why Yeah. Other than Rusnak, maybe. Bruce snack would have a, would have a case and Georgie would have a case for after he came on. Georgie sample size that how effective he was in that short period of time was quite incredible. Yeah.
00:32:41
Speaker
Like I didn't, he was sold in anything. If anyone wanted to give Georgie a man of the match or Bruce snack man of the match, yeah you got, you got a few candidates from this game. Probably prime time. Welcome back kid. Welcome to live and scorters man match. Uh, all right, let's do positives and negatives. I'll lay down mine. You can lay down yours. Positives. Uh, they scored a goal.
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's a positive. And it was a good goal. It wasn't like a trash lucky. jack It was like a, it was a strong worked high level execution. Great team goal. Great finish by your, uh, by your DP number 10.
00:33:16
Speaker
the halftime adjustment really seemed to work again. Like we talked about it, but that's good work by Schmitz and the coaching staff to see what wasn't working, make the tweak at halftime, not wait for it, make the tweak at halftime.
00:33:28
Speaker
And then it worked. The whole second half looked a lot better. So I thought that was a positive, uh, again, Rothrock and Georgie looked really good. And I want, I want to just, uh, make sure they get their full credit full due for that because ah remember after the rsl game we got we were on them a little bit like i thought that was not a great game for either one of them georgie cost the team a goal with that offside play rothrock you know at that point he was still coming back from injury but he didn't you look in that game i think like the rothrock of uh of last year yet uh and in this in this game i thought both of them
00:34:03
Speaker
provided what, uh, what this team needs right now with the injury situation, they're going to be counted on and leaned on a lot. And if they play like that, I feel pretty good about that. Like I thought they were both dangerous.
00:34:15
Speaker
I thought they were both looked really effective from out wide. And, uh, it was, uh, it was good to see that after, after like what happened in that salt lake game earlier in the season. Yeah, completely agree.
00:34:29
Speaker
Okay. Well, I had a couple more positives. Sorry. I'm like, just like, I'm here to Georgie Roth, Georgie Roth. Give me that. That's good. Uh, Rue snacking for Rara stepped up. We talked before this game about how this was the type of situation where both those guys need to step up. And, you know, I think Ferreira is still, people are still negative on it because probably because of how the first half went and he didn't get a goal, but I, uh,
00:34:53
Speaker
I give him credit. He played a lot better in the second half. He created a lot more. He looked like he was combining with everyone a lot more effectively. And then he like again, played an integral role on that equalizer.
00:35:06
Speaker
And ah I thought that that play in particular was a good illustration of the type of stuff that he can bring to the table. Stuff like that is what he did for most of his FC Dallas career and what we you hoped he would bring to this team.
00:35:23
Speaker
So it was good to see him do that. And then my last positive, that like just the morale. Yeah, it feels better for me. Like, Uh, it would have been rancid if they had gotten, gone if they had gotten shut out and it's again, not the most amazing result of all time, but it was a good way to end the game and something that I think that the squad can build on moving forward.
00:35:47
Speaker
Um, negatives, um, Uh, they were XG merchant in the, in this game. well it felt like a situation where all, all the chance creation and the shots they were taking wasn't leading to goals until they got one. So they were a few minutes away from that talking point being very prevalent again. And I guess, uh, if there's something that you want to see moving forward, it's, uh, them continuing to play like that, but get the goals that it feels like, uh, they deserve for it, which is, In this game, ah i think getting only getting the one goal in this game, it's fair to say, based on how they played, you want that could have and should have been a multiple game goal game.
00:36:26
Speaker
ah ah The goal that they did concede felt needless. it was again It was a situation where they had possession. They had it under control. ah the giveaway didn't need to happen. It was unlucky, but I like, it's been a lot of preventable shoot yourself in the foot type concessions early in the season. Too many, I think I would say. And that was another one. So that, that was another negative ah for for at the nine in the first half didn't look much better. We already talked about that. Like,
00:36:54
Speaker
I think that turned into a positive with how the second half looked, but ah i don't think I came out of this feeling like any different about how that experiment has been going, which I would have, i idea in an ideal world, you would have seen like meaningful, tangible progress with that experiment.
00:37:10
Speaker
Uh, and then, uh, last negative you you did draw a game that was winnable. The San Jose team didn't play all that great. I don't know how great they are under Bruce, frankly.
00:37:23
Speaker
ah so this was a game where based on based on how it played out. And if you just look at the, uh, the stats and everything like they could have, and probably should have won this game. Yeah, I'm literally in alignment with like all of your positives and negatives here. I think this was a very like one-dimensional game in terms of punditry.
00:37:41
Speaker
You know what i'm saying? it's It's kind of black and white. like I don't know. you can You can argue here or there a little bit about Jesus Ferreira. I think my take is there was probably more good than there was bad. I think it's just yeah we have to come to a point of acceptance. Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
Is he a nine? Is he going to be a Jordan Morris replacement or a backup? Is he going to be someone who can start in front of Musavsky? I don't think so. And I think that's a negative. I think that the fact that he was just not comfortable there and has not been comfortable there, it's too much of a risk going forward with dropping points to keep him there.
Ferreira's Role and Team Adaptation
00:38:26
Speaker
I don't know who else you put there. i don't know if you try something else out like a Paul Rothrock at the nine or a Georgie at the nine or whatever it is. But that's my negative is like what we thought coming into the season was going to be this awesome, super versatile player Maybe it just isn't.
00:38:43
Speaker
And that's okay. He's still great player. Or at least not the that way. Yeah, exactly. But on his positive side, his facilitation is incredible. And he looked so good when he was comfortable.
00:38:55
Speaker
ah Positives is like the Rusnak Brigade can't say shit. The Rusnak Brigade cannot say shit after this match. And that made me feel good. I was not enjoying watching the first half of this game.
00:39:07
Speaker
And i was I wasn't tuned out in the second half, but I was just like, oh my God, come on. Like... I can't take another loss. I can't take another shitty draw. But the fact that the fact that Albert was able to just, that's a, that's a goal of the weak quality. I don't want to make it like a victory lap thing, but I did, I did feel a little validated watching that because we had, we had a whole segment again, like defending him the other, the other day. And then we even had people outside the brigade being like, okay, guys, like but ah calm down or whatever. We took a lot of that.
00:39:38
Speaker
And ah like watching that goal, I was like, Now see that like that proved the exact point yeah that we were making with that. So yeah, I was happy to see it from that standpoint too.
00:39:49
Speaker
Well, let's take the pulse of streets already. Let's, let's see what the people are feeling and how you, the viewer thought we've been kind of going back and forth cause we do the post game lives with taking questions, but we thought we'd bring it back for, i still like sourcing these in my mentions. Yeah, exactly. It's tradition.
00:40:07
Speaker
Always hop in Ari's mentions on Blue Sky, ari.lobbingscorchers.com on there. Jake asks, I asked this question a few weeks ago, and it was before we found out about Jesus' minutes restriction and before he had 180 at the nine.
00:40:23
Speaker
Now we've seen him progress progress towards fitness and seen him against Houston slash San Jose. I'll ask again. Is Jesus our backup nine or is Moose still our third string striker with no backup?
00:40:36
Speaker
It's a good question that I think we do have more data on which to assess at this point. And I was, I'm also going to hit on that in agenda check. But what I, what I, what I was, what I would say to that Noah is that ah my take on it is that what they did in the second half is, know,
00:40:57
Speaker
what they should they should try They should run that again against San Diego and see if they can do so to the same effect that they did in the second half of this game and just see how it works and then assess from there how you want to play that position.
00:41:11
Speaker
But I think i saw I saw enough in that second half where I want i want to see more of of that. Yeah, no, i'm I think that for me, it's obvious that Moose is the third string striker with no backup. It goes Jordan Morris, fuck, I don't know what to do, and then Musovsky.
00:41:31
Speaker
um i don't mind letting Jesus play there more and get comfortable, but... you're getting to the point where he's becoming a detriment to your attack.
00:41:42
Speaker
And that's also not good for the player. Like if he's not playing well in that position and also not feeling confident and kind of just like getting upset, what what is that doing for the player? That's, that's just not great. So, I mean, i think that's where I land on it is there's kind of no backup striker right now, which that might need to be addressed in the summer window. I'm going to talkm and talk about that in the agenda. Yeah.
00:42:07
Speaker
Phil asks, I asked this question a few weeks ago. We got a lot of people asking follow-ups here. So clearly you're not calling into the live show. Wait a minute. pasted in the wrong question. It's the exact same one. Next.
00:42:19
Speaker
Rerun. bill ah Bill asks, not Phil, but Bill asks, as someone who didn't watch the game, tell me at any point the last 10 years we got a point in San Jose and I'd be happy.
00:42:32
Speaker
ah Yeah, i think that's a good ah that was a good point because this Quakes team, no matter what quality of team they have, it's just like it's like a bogey team. It's yeah, it's a bogey team. And ah like you can't you can't look at it and be like, oh, the Quakes might not be good. Like this going to be an easy game. That's just never for whatever reason.
00:42:52
Speaker
I don't know why. ah don't know why. But like Sounders Quakes games, that's just how it is for. It's just the soccer gods. I don't know. I will continue with the point that I have made a million times and will continue to make. This is Major League Soccer. A tie on the road is usually pretty good, especially when you can score.
00:43:10
Speaker
If you can score on the road, that's a pretty good result. i That's just to be honest. I think, yeah, ah under normal circumstances, that is an actively good result. I think the only thing you could say is that like with...
00:43:23
Speaker
how the season has started sure and the points that you've already dropped. i I think it's fair to look at that and be like, eh, you know, the performance was encouraging.
00:43:34
Speaker
The result was not super great, but I mean, I tend to agree that especially this early in the season, you're basically, these road games, you're just trying to rack as many points as you possibly can, as many results as you possibly can.
00:43:48
Speaker
And, uh, if you, if you play well on the road in this league, you're usually gonna, uh, you're easily going to make the playoffs and you're usually going to be a pretty high seed if your road form is good. So, uh, I think it was a good result from that standpoint.
00:44:02
Speaker
phil asks Phil actually asked this. Even if the gods have deemed that Moose can't finish, isn't it a isn't it better to have him on as the nine with Jesus Ferreira on the wing and Christian Roldan further back instead of Jesus Ferreira, instead of this Jesus Ferreira-Christian Roldan thing we keep trying? Yeah. So that is actually a perfect segue into agenda check because what you said, Phil, is pretty much ah one of my exact takeaways from this game as well.
00:44:31
Speaker
ah But before we do so. Oh, you baited him. We're going to hit an ad break. We'll be right back.
00:44:39
Speaker
Welcome back to Lobbing Scorchers and Ari hit the emote, hit the emote. if you didn't If you skipped our ads, okay I don't know. that's one of the That's one of the words the kids use. Don't skip the ads. yeah um If you do, we know and all of that. It's funny, every time we do that, get comments that are like, I actually do skip the ads. It's like, alright, big guy. Alright, big guy.
00:45:04
Speaker
Alright. All right, let's get into this agenda check. Like I said, going off Phil's last comment there. And my first agenda coming out of this game is is that is the Moose should start agenda.
00:45:17
Speaker
Now that might sound funny in a game where this was, Moose was taking more heat after this game. Uh, then pretty much any other moose game, which is kind of saying a lot. He missed that. He missed a lot of, uh, I don't know if they were all sitters, but they were chances that you would, uh, expect and want him to put on target, you know, as a, as an MLS striker. And, uh,
00:45:39
Speaker
He didn't do that. So it's not that I'm shocked that ah the anti-moose stuff was flying around after this game. But I will say in his defense, after the change that Schmetz made at halftime, the offense ran exponentially better, like just the way everyone was combining and how fluid it was and a lot of the chances that they We're generating.
00:46:04
Speaker
Uh, and I don't think, I think it's clear that that's not a coincidence. Schmetz mentioned it in, uh, his post game press conference that he felt like Moose really gave the team a boost in the second half.
00:46:16
Speaker
I agree. And I think to Phil's point, uh, even if he's going to be missing sitters and not scoring the goals himself, if it's function, if there's that much of a difference in how well it's functioning compared to when he's not playing, then I literally, I, people might think it's crazy, but I think that you, I think that you should start him and, at least see if you can replicate how that looks, uh, rather than trying stuff that we've seen didn't work.
Moose's Influence and Team Dynamics
00:46:46
Speaker
yeah And I think, uh, I think moose Moose showed that in this game. To the moon, skyrocketed. Moose stalked to the moon by low, you know? It's whatever. I think that the Sounders are going to be good in spite of... It's not because of Moose that... I think... Let me... let be My brain just fell out of my head there, but like I think...
00:47:07
Speaker
The Sounders are good not because of Moose in that position, but because Jesus Ferreira is not in that position. He doesn't see. i don't know. He doesn't. He doesn't step Albert's space and Albert gets to be in a more in a better position for him. Jesus Ferreira is able to play balls in and work in better.
00:47:28
Speaker
ro i just I don't think that it's because of Moose. I think, okay, maybe, but how he's not going to score the opportunities that he gets, so like what's the point? The point is that... like yeah It can look better, but it doesn't mean that it functions better, and I think that it does function better with him. When it looks better, isn't that it functioning better? like i i guess i guess so, it looked but like I think the... yeah I understand what you're saying. like If you can't count on him to convert his goals, it like ah how well the ah offense is functioning might fundamentally matter less. yeah But i think you're much more likely to get goals from other sources if the offense is functioning that much better. And I really i think i think you're underselling there the ah the role that he played and why it looked better. i think he actually But it wasn't because of him, I don't think.
00:48:17
Speaker
ah How do you explain why how different it looked then? it's not what There's no way that it was just Ferreira out wide. I'm just saying if you put a core, if you rolled the corpse of, of ah of I don't know, who's a, like, I don't know. I don't know anyone if you just put them out there and like put them generally like in the penalty spot.
00:48:40
Speaker
I think the the offense sort of functions. I know you've got to do the anti-moose stuff. No, it's you're not even you're under selling. I don't like what what was he doing? He the way that he like. Uh, he's a good holdup player. He, uh, he, uh, can find guys as outlets. He's better at combining with other guys. He was good in possession. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that like, although like all those things that you want a nine to do in addition to score goals, I thought he was doing like all that stuff pretty well, which I understand.
00:49:08
Speaker
uh, isn't worth as much as it would be if he was actually scoring the sitters. Uh, but like, I don't think there there's a, I think there's a very clear delineation, ah between how it looked before he subbed on and how it did after. i think Schmetz was right when he credited Schmutz, uh,
00:49:26
Speaker
I think Schmetz was right when he credited Moose for providing that type of lift. And I would rather see, I would much rather see the team looking and playing like that than I would, ah running back what we saw in the, in the first half. So I wouldn't expect you to agree. It's not to hate on Moose. Like I said, I agree with you. I do think he should start, but I'm not, so I'm not going to sit here and say like,
00:49:50
Speaker
I'm excited about it. Or like the reason that the offense... Like he's not the turnkey. He's just there. he kind of was, anyone else there... he was. If you put Paul Rothrock there or you put Georgie Monongu there, I think they do the same thing.
00:50:05
Speaker
And probably convert. I disagree. I disagree. All right. I think... ah Like there is... Obviously scoring goals is the most important thing for number nine, but there is a lot allergic to, there is a lot more to the being effective at that position than purely just that.
00:50:22
Speaker
Sure. i agree with that. And like, I think the fact that he was doing those things well is it's at least, there's no way you can say that it had nothing to do with how much the team, even if you could say, you can say if didn't matter as much as I'm saying, and that's right. I think,
00:50:38
Speaker
you know, teach their own, but there's no way that you like anybody that you put in there is doing the exact same thing and you get the exact same outcome. That is, I think that's, I think that's underselling the role that he played in, uh, in how the team looked better. Here's what I'll say.
00:50:54
Speaker
Here's what I'll say. He was better than Jesus. Yeah. But like, I think it also allowed Jesus to go into a position that made him better. And like you were saying that Rosen, that goal doesn't happen without Jesus.
00:51:08
Speaker
If Jesus is in his position, i mean, Moose is nowhere to be found on that goal. That goal doesn't like that goal happens in spite of Moose even being on the field. It's just the fact that he is there. He's a warm body in that position. what did That's all I'm saying. What do you want him to do differently on the goal sequence? He was part of the group in the box. Exactly.
00:51:29
Speaker
that's that is his That is what he's good at, is being a warm body. That's all I'm saying. i'm not I'm not saying that he is not effective at being a warm body. He does all of the things that Jesus Ferreira is not doing.
00:51:41
Speaker
He's just not finishing. So he's not like... He's serviceable as a nine. He should start over Jesus Ferrer with no other option, but I'm not. I understand the frustration with the sitters he missed, and I'm not begrudging anybody that, but I'm i i'm going to give him credit for what I think is a pretty clear role that he played in elevating the attack in the second half.
00:52:02
Speaker
If you got takes on the ah on the Moose agenda, that was a good discussion. yeah you got takes on the Moose agenda, drop them in the comments. Interested to hear if I'm all alone on an island with that because... I mean, I'm a hater. I'll admit it.
00:52:13
Speaker
And a lot of people are. that's know A lot of people are. I'm not probably not. But I think if you're looking at it objectively, I think ah it's pretty obvious to me that ah in in spite of the four sitters that he missed, ah he did he did things well that ah helped lead to the goal that they did get.
00:52:33
Speaker
Um, or at least the offense looking better. Maybe not on that exact, I guess, but at least he's getting shots. All right. My next agenda, uh, it's the new, who has actually low key kind of improved in attack agenda.
00:52:45
Speaker
We talked about the, the good looking shots that he had, but even there's been a couple other times this year where he sends in a cross and I'm like, that wasn't bad. That was an okay cross.
00:52:56
Speaker
There's been a couple times where i was like, Oh, that was even like a little bit of a good cross. So, uh, I'm not, uh, you know, we have such a large sample size of new who contributing pretty much nothing in attack that I'm not going to get, I'm not going get fired up on this one yet, but I think like he might've actually, uh, added a little bit of facet to his game. Like it's possible. We're going to see,
00:53:21
Speaker
Uh, he's got to get on the stat sheet a couple of times this year for me to feel passionately about this agenda, but I liked the shots he took and it feels like, uh, his service while still not great has been better than it used to be, which is a low bar.
00:53:38
Speaker
But anyway, oh i mean it's it's not, it's you asked him, I think everyone asked him to improve on that. Like that's been the one thing where he's been lacking. So the fact that he's been able to improve and improve in a noticeable way, like Like, hell yeah, man.
00:53:53
Speaker
Hell yeah. What's what's the the I don't think you need to diminish it at all. I think that's ah that's real. And up to new who put him at the nine. He'd probably score more than Moose.
00:54:04
Speaker
um All right. No, you had a couple of agendas. Yeah. What do you got? Agenda number one. Jesus Ferreira is not a nine agenda. Should I lay it out? I feel like it's self-explanatory. I mean, I feel like we've taught we've talked about that a lot on this episode, um but I think from what I am seeing so far, it seems like him playing him playing the the position like Jordan does yeah and the team trying to make that kind of just a like for like and play how they did with him there the same way that they did with Jordan there.
00:54:44
Speaker
That seems like, I mean, it's clear that that's not working. I mean, i don't mind, I guess, the fact that they tried it, given the injuries to Jordan and De La Vega yeah and all that. And the fact that like ah he has played there with FC Dallas and ben there's there is a track record of being effective in his career at that position. But I just think as it stands with this team right now, especially with how ah how much better it looked after he switched off that position in this game,
00:55:14
Speaker
Uh, I think that they should, again, like I'm advocating for them to, uh, to run the same lineup that they ran in the second half, which is him not at the nine. So I just, for me, you know, if you look at to how SC Dallas used him in his last few years, especially after the injury, it wasn't like that.
00:55:32
Speaker
He hasn't played like that in a while. He hasn't played more like a false nine second striker, even a number 10. Yeah, he's way more of a 10. And I think that, you know, he's going to step on Rusnak's toes if he's on the 10. Well, I mean, he's literally going to take Rusnak's position. And I'm sorry, I'm not taking Albert Rusnak off the field for Jesus Ferreira right now.
00:55:51
Speaker
And so then he's like, okay, well, where do you put him? You put him on the wing. I thought he looked fine there, but... you know, how many wingers do we have? We have too many wingers. Are you? Everyone's a winger on this team.
00:56:02
Speaker
And then it's just like, well, how do you use Jesus for error? He is, uh, like the more I watch him play, he is, uh, he's a unique player. And I think, he needs so much space and freedom his uh yeah his skill set i think has turned out to be trickier to accommodate than certainly that i like expected or was hoping i i thought that his ah his soccer iq and his ability as a facilitator and experience in mls for reasons why the transition might be uh
00:56:35
Speaker
if not seamless, at least like pretty smooth. and that just hasn't been the case. So I don't I still think just in general with this discussion, we are only like three games into seeing ah how they're trying to use him with Jordan out And honestly, like I think when Jordan is back healthy and playing, i to me, it seems like the best way for him to be deployed is more of as a second striker playing off Jordan rise a peer nine.
00:57:05
Speaker
And then that way, like, yeah, he can, he can do stuff like drop a little deeper and ah play as a facilitator, but then also, you know, try and play higher and be gold dangerous and kind of be a hybrid type player. You know, that's sort of If it works out how I think they're hoping it will ultimately work out, that will be what his role is more than playing as a striker like Jordan does or like Raul did.
00:57:31
Speaker
Yeah, and i think it just sucks because like they were trying to fill that nine role with a backup with someone who's actually serviceable, goal dangerous, and it didn't work. And so now you're stuck in this place where you overwork your nine you're starting nine in Jordan, and he he gets an injury because of that.
00:57:49
Speaker
And then you're like, well, what do we do you know The whole team is in shambles because... I mean, yes, we three, three starters, losing three starters to anyone, any roster, any time is going to be devastating in major league soccer. I don't care how deep your roster is.
00:58:04
Speaker
That's just the reality of, of major league soccer, right now. It's, I just don't know, man. Like I, it just sucks that he's not a nine and it's something that they need to figure out who's going to be the backup there.
00:58:19
Speaker
I mean, I, you know, I, if we're talking purely about the roster and the depth chart, it is moose. Like, right. But I'm saying ah you have to, I mean, you would even agree that you've got to find a piece to upgrade there.
00:58:31
Speaker
Honestly, if anyone's are saying that they ah want to see them use the U22 spot on a striker, this is this is why I think what they did with waiting to fill that is actually prudent because because of a scenario like this popping up where the need might be different than what you thought it would be.
00:58:46
Speaker
Going into the season, i think I definitely was looking at it like, okay, if Jordan... gets injured or has to rotate out, you just move Ferreira there and then you're probably good to go. He's but he's a 50 plus goal scorer in the league. He's played there before and produced for FC Dallas.
00:59:03
Speaker
You know, this shouldn't even be an issue. Now with how it's actually played out in the games, we know that it is an issue and they can inform their approach to whatever additions that they make ah
Roster Needs and Striker Position
00:59:13
Speaker
on that.
00:59:13
Speaker
And, ah you know, we haven't even seen what this Ryan Kent character right could contribute to all this. Another winger. right I think we need more wingers. I think we should sign more wingers, to be honest.
00:59:25
Speaker
Yeah, put Jesus out there, sign Ryan Kent. Yeah. De La Vega coming back. Move Jordan back out there. Just don't play with no nine. No nine. No nine agenda. There we go. Jesus is not a nine agenda, but also no one at the nine agenda.
00:59:38
Speaker
ah Here's my last agenda. Obed Vargas is the best player in the entire world agenda. I like this agenda. this guy I love him. And I think that this roster plays ridiculously well with him and it's like mediocre without him.
00:59:54
Speaker
I thought his return was, yeah, we didn't even talk about that at all, but that was, that was a nice boost. Like crazy. Nice. I think he is one of the most underrated players on this roster. I don't think he's underrated, but I think not by Seattle fans, but sure. But I think that it's like one of those where it's so noticeable when he's not on the field.
01:00:10
Speaker
It's like crazy. yeah It's, it's, I don't know how they're going to replace him. Do you think they try and keep him? I don't, I would ask you this. but I just don't think that that's what he wants. I think he wants to test himself. And I think that's, uh, that's fine. Like that's, uh, that's kind of what he should want is to just see how far he can push himself and push his career.
01:00:33
Speaker
So, uh, I think even if they wanted to keep him and make him the U22 and throw a huge bag at him, Uh, if you're doing right by your players and they have dreams and aspirations to try and push themselves in, uh, in Europe or any different league, uh, you should let them do that.
01:00:50
Speaker
No, and they're going to get a huge bag for him. So, uh, that's another reason to do it, even though he is one of the most important players on the team. I just think, you know, we have that club world cup bag now.
01:01:06
Speaker
maybe you think Maybe you think, hey, Obed, listen, I know you want to go test yourself, but listen, there are people who have tested themselves before. One by the name of Jordan Morris. He exploded his knee immediately and never played another minute in Europe. And guess what?
01:01:20
Speaker
He's happy. He's a DP here. He is the beloved in the city. You're already beloved in the city. What if we just but if we just give you some fat stacks? You can take care of your family. You can take care of your life. You'll be good forever, bro.
01:01:32
Speaker
it's ah It's an interesting notion, yeah. I mean, i i would love to see him play somewhere else, but selfishly, I'm going to very much miss. Selfishly, I'm kind of curious what he could do in like the Bundesliga or La Liga or the Prem.
01:01:48
Speaker
Yeah. you know like i'm just I just don't do care about those leagues personally. Well, but i I care about ah Obed. oh Sure, sure, sure. it's yeah not about We're invested in Obed's stock, guys. This is actually why. Ari, has ah he has money on it. No, that's a good agenda. And it looks like we got one news item here and then we can hit winners and losers from from match day six. Absolutely. All right. Here we go.
Club World Cup and MLS Highlights
01:02:13
Speaker
Breaking news, Ari. Can you believe it? Club Leon kicked out of the Club World Cup because they're owned by some other. They own multiple clubs. It's not allowed.
01:02:25
Speaker
And there was a lawsuit brought by Alouense, which um I don't even know where they're from, but they're a club. I just tried to Google it and I couldn't even spell it. that was it I saw that. You just watched me do that. That was really embarrassing. Yeah. But anyway, FIFA has drawn up plans to hold a one game playoff between Club lay ah or club America and LAFC to determine the replacement for Club Leone in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
01:02:55
Speaker
This report comes courtesy of yeah ESPN, Jeff Carlisle and Lizzie Bocinaro. Shout out Jeff and Lizzie. Wow. So kick to the curb and now you get a charity spot match between Club America and LAFC. LAFC, who famously didn't win anything last year other than the Open Cup.
01:03:15
Speaker
Are we just so does that mean the Open Cup is the most important trophy in North American soccer? I don't know about that, but i will say I kind of I actually kind of like this idea.
01:03:27
Speaker
Let him let him fight for it. It's like, ah you know, i challenge you to a duel. The winner goes to the club world cup. I would actually, ah find some entertainment and watching them scrap for the scrap for the charity spot.
01:03:41
Speaker
Like if, if there's like a entertaining way to fill this spot, I think having, uh, having two teams duel for it is pretty funny from our perspective.
01:03:53
Speaker
And i would watch that. Yeah, I think it's kind of stupid. I think it's just funny the teams that they picked, right? Like LA Galaxy fans have to feel hard done, right? Like you win the trophy and then now it's like, we're going to pick the other guys. State of the Galaxy right now, you probably don't want to showcase them in this event. But you could say the same thing arguably for LAFC.
01:04:19
Speaker
ah They just lost to San Diego 3-2 and have really not looked like the big, bad, mighty LAFC of old all season. Like they've had a couple good games, but I mean, Seattle scored five goals on them.
01:04:32
Speaker
They've taken ah a couple of other tough results. Even the game, the games they've won, a couple of them have been one zeros that they didn't play particularly well. So I don't know how much hotter showcasing l LAFC in this tournament would be than the galaxy who arguably deserve it more on merit based on what they won last year. yeah i think it's just super funny because you have two clubs who lafc didn't comment on this story which is very classic but uh the club america coach did say he thinks that leone should have kept the spot and that it doesn't they should just be readmitted and the reality is that if they are going to be in this tournament they should earn it like he doesn't want the charity spot because they have more pride in their club
01:05:16
Speaker
LAFC, I don't think they have pride in their club like that. I think they they want that. They're that Los Angeles, like, just gimme, gimme, gimme, you know, we deserve it because we're cool and we've got cool kits and a cool logo.
01:05:30
Speaker
How you think Will Ferrell is paying FIFA right now? That's what I really want to know. there I mean, ah we were we were looking at the prize money, and it's a lot. Yeah. So I can understand why i would have no EO, honestly, about the charity spot thing if I got the opportunity, just because if you if you do go to it and perform well, you get a huge bag, and ah that can actually like meaningfully help your team and your roster if you play it right.
01:05:57
Speaker
So, like... Yeah, it's a charity spot, but I would not expect LAFC or frankly anyone else to pass it out just because of the money involved. like that's Yeah. No, absolutely. i you know I'm looking up here because I want to see the groups of where Leon is right now versus where LAFC would be. athe Yeah. Okay. It looks like group D. Yeah. Okay. So you'd be playing Chelsea, some Turkish team, and Flamengo. So that's... Dude, give us that spot.
01:06:28
Speaker
I want to be in that group. What the hell? Dude, that's ridiculous. You got Chelsea, which is ah a prem team, and Flamingo, which is like one of the biggest flainggo what clubs in Brazil. yeah but i don't think I think Seattle's group is harder, but that's still that's not like a cakewalk group.
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, but that's like you understand you get a million dollars for a draw. You get two million dollars for a win. And all three of Seattle's opponents are really, really hard. And this Turkish team probably an MLS club might be able to get a result there. I don't know of anything about that team, but I mean, not not to say that the Turkish league is is better or worse, but I mean, I'm sorry. Like.
01:07:07
Speaker
Botafogo is probably better than Botafogo is definitely without knowing anything about it. would say if I had to guess Botafogo is probably better. So you get a charity spot, you get a charity spot and you have, I would say not a terrible chance of getting a result.
01:07:21
Speaker
Yeah. Who do you want to be in that spot? Do you want Club America or LAFC? Duel for it and let the best let the best man go to the thing.
01:07:33
Speaker
Duel for it. Duel for it. yeah what if What if neither of them get to play? Who would you want? If you could pick any team in the entire world, any club in the entire world, who are you putting in there? uh sporting kansas city god that's such a good bit dude that'd be such a good bit yeah i think new mexico united actually new mexico united yo yeah because if new mexico united got a 10 9.5 million dollar bag i wouldn't really winning the usl for forever i like wouldn't really care how uh how they perform at it they might be able to beat chelsea the chelsea's not doing so hot you never know so
01:08:08
Speaker
Yeah. So club world cup is in shambles. We'll keep an eye on this. Uh, gotta love it. Uh, they, it starts on June 14th. It's April basically. And, um, LAFC charity spot, watch yeah on charity spot. You will get clowned if you lose this one-off game though.
01:08:27
Speaker
We are bringing shit. Yeah, absolutely. Like this, it is a, it is a good opportunity to clown on LAFC because I don't think they're going to beat club America in one-off. I mean, shot not not right now. i don't think so. Like, i they may you know, you never know what can happen in one game, but it, it's what I think the most likely outcome is, is that they play this one off against club of America and get kind of boat raced.
01:08:50
Speaker
And then that would be funny for us. Yeah. So it's, it's great content for the, for the gang. it's kind of a W for laughing scorchers, no matter what. Exactly. Well, that's all the news that I had. Okay. Yeah. No, I was, uh, I'm excited for a charity spot watch, uh, winners and losers for match day six in MLS. No, there's some, uh, there's some notable results from the other clubs in the league.
01:09:13
Speaker
Uh, winners, San Diego FC, uh, mentioned it already, but they'd be LAFC three to two and they scored all three of their goals in the first, like 30 minutes of the game. LAFC, like this is kind of, uh, like looking at the charity spot and it's like, man, this team just gave up three goals in like 32 minutes to San Diego FC, like a expansion side, which San Diego looked good. Seattle's going to play them next week. So we're going to get a good look at them.
01:09:39
Speaker
ah But ah it was kind of a shocker from LAFC. And to be fair, ah they went down a man and then were actually the better team in the second half, even down a man and really could have tied the game.
01:09:55
Speaker
ah One of the goals they gave up was an absolute howler from Hugo Lloris, which that was really funny. Has he lost it? Ari? I mean, I don't know. That was bad. That was bad. I mean, that was just a ball in the box that he could have caught easily and he fumbled and, ah the San Diego guy got what turned out to be like a game, the game winning goal.
01:10:13
Speaker
So that wasn't, uh, that wasn't great. And, uh, they just don't look good right now. Yeah. They don't look good right now, which is and again, a W for us.
01:10:27
Speaker
um The Colorado Rapids got a bounce back after getting destroyed by the Timbs. They beat Charlotte FC, who ah looked pretty good this year. We've been rating We've been rating Charlotte FC. And the Rapids got a big bounce back result. So they're my second winner.
01:10:40
Speaker
And then I thought the best game of the slate this weekend was Atlanta United versus and NYCFC. NYCFC went up 3-1. Atlanta United came back and won it. four to three, which they really needed that. Uh, I'm still, I don't know. I'm pretty skeptical of their team still every year. I'm like, all right, Atlanta United is going to be back back. I don't know if this is a game indicates that they're back back. They haven't looked back back so far this year, but, uh, they did get, that was like a fun game to watch combined seven goals.
01:11:14
Speaker
big comeback and ah they got a very much needed dub and lots of loss with an assist and a goal. I mean, he looks good looking pretty, looks good he pretty hot. They, ah you know, he's no Albert Rusnak, but he's pretty good. He's a pretty good DP. Also mirror and Chuck's been good to their, their 10 with a funny enough. I love he scored a go. He has not been good ah like up to these last couple of weeks, yeah but like you got to go in this game and he's looking better.
01:11:39
Speaker
It's I love that his number is 59. It's just so random for a number 10 to be number 59. Like that's so sick. It's not as sick as the league of Mackey's teams that do the triple digits for their trip academy kids with it.
01:11:50
Speaker
Now checking in number 325. You're bro. know we could do that. I always laugh at that.
Sporting Kansas City Struggles and Criticism
01:11:57
Speaker
Um, losers, uh, got a good one here to start it off. Noah. Oh yeah. Unfortunately, sporting Kansas city, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts have still not, I, what are they at? Like 14 games dating back to last year. yeah they had a One draw in all of the rest are losses. 13 losses, one draw. They, uh, Oh my God.
01:12:16
Speaker
but that I mean, that's one of the worst runs I've ever seen from an MLS club. Like it's incredible. Stop. Like that is really bad. ah but this is the development Noah with this. Uh, this is our, uh, this is going our blazing hat, uh, blazing hot press conference of the week brought to you by hacks and ferment brought to you by hacks and ferments.
01:12:34
Speaker
And it's not exactly a press conference this week, but it's going to qualify because I can read this. I've got it pulled up. Okay. You got it pulled up. So this is, ah after another loss for the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts, the cauldron, which is their biggest supporters group put out a scathing statement regarding a Peter Vermees and just the future of the club.
01:12:55
Speaker
Uh, this was red hot, hotter than a, uh, a bottle of hacks and ferments, hot sauce. Noah read this statement from the cauldron after the latest sporting Kansas city loss. Um,
01:13:07
Speaker
to Peter Vermees and Sporting Kansas City ownership. Addressed, yeah. As the official supporters group of Sporting Kansas City, the KC Cauldron and South Stand supporters write you today with urgency and frustration.
01:13:20
Speaker
We are at a breaking point. One of the demands decisive action to protect the legacy, culture, and future of our beloved club. For over two decades, Peter Vermees has been a defining figure in Kansas City soccer from his time as a player with the Wizards to his transformation of Sporting Kansas City to an MLS powerhouse, LOL.
01:13:42
Speaker
this The championship victory is the commitment to strong defensive identity and the winning culture he once cultivated will always be respected. However, history and loyalty cannot be shields against accountability.
01:13:55
Speaker
The trajectory of this club that a on the field has become unacceptable and we can no longer stand while mediocrity overshadows our once proud legacy.
01:14:06
Speaker
That was a bar, by the way. Year after year, we have watched this team stagnate. Its ambitions dwindled, Ambition Watch, and its results declined.
01:14:17
Speaker
Fans have been expected to tolerate repeated disappointment with no meaningful change to its approach. The lack of urgency, lack of adaptation, and lack of accountability have been glaring.
01:14:30
Speaker
Glaring Ari. This is not about going. It's is where there were only halfway through. This is not about a single bad season. It is about a pattern of failure that has been allowed to persist without consequence.
01:14:43
Speaker
We as supporters are the backbone of this club. We show up. We sing. We travel. We pour our time money in our hearts into this team because we believe in what it should stand for.
01:14:57
Speaker
But belief alone does not win matches and unwavering support does not excuse repeated underperformance. The Sporting Kansas City standard has been abandoned. And while we do not sit idly by, while this club fades into irrelevance.
01:15:11
Speaker
We got four more graphs here. I mean, do we keep, we got to finish it off. Okay. Yeah. I got to finish it off. I already started it. All right. We cannot accept this level of mediocrity. The hard truth is for sporting Kansas city to reclaim its rightful place as a dominant force in MLS, LOL, and change in leadership is necessary.
01:15:27
Speaker
Peter Vermees must resign as manager. This is not a request. It is a demand from the fan base that refuses to watch its club wither under the outdated tactics in unchallenged authority.
01:15:41
Speaker
His tenure has run its course and a fresh vision is required to lead Sporting Kansas City into the future. If you think it's going to stop, it doesn't. No. To the ownership group, the responsibility to act falls on you. You must decide whether Sporting Kansas City remains content with being a relic of past success or whether it fights to become a dominant force once again.
01:16:02
Speaker
The time for loyalty-based decisions has passed. We demand accountability. We demand ambition. We demand change. Peter, we acknowledge our contributions to the club and Sporting Kansas City community, but you know, whatever. Sporting Kansas City is bigger than any one person.
01:16:17
Speaker
The club's future must take precedent over past achievements. A fresh vision is required to carry this team forward. It is time to make the decision that serves the club's best interests rather than personal ones. We stand behind Sporting Kansas City, not just in words, but in actions, and we will continue to support this team, but we will not remain silent when legacy we love is at risk.
01:16:39
Speaker
sincerely the Casey Cauldron and Southstand supporters. Also folks, I'm sorry. You said the same thing about 12 times. Invest in an editor. it could That's all I got to say. it was, it was wordy. It was too long. It was too too long, but there was no hashtag Peter out too, which is like,
01:16:55
Speaker
that was about as hot as it gets. Uh, if you wanted uh, illustration of how things are going for our friends at the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts, it's, I mean, that's, they're not happy as you just heard.
01:17:13
Speaker
And, uh, I gotta say, Noah, uh, you know, we joke about the club of professional, professional wrestling enthusiasts a lot. And, ah you know, it's all in the, it's all in good fun, but I'm not going to lie. Like the extent of their downfall has both been like even greater than I could have ever imagined.
01:17:38
Speaker
And just also, ah I would be lying to say I don't take satisfaction in it because I know i know this is petty and people have asked me and ah told me that like I should let it go.
01:17:51
Speaker
But the ah this that's why that's why you don't suplex people on the soccer field, man. At the time that that happened, Sporting KC was still considered like a upper tier Western conference team. They had Johnny Russell at the peak of his powers. Shall we was like a borderline and MVP candidate that year? I think ah they were, ah there was no question, I think, as to their kind of status as one of the better teams and organizations in the league.
01:18:20
Speaker
Literally since that play, Tim Foss did a bit about this for years, literally since that play that the rock tweeted about it. They have become one of the worst teams in the league.
01:18:33
Speaker
And, the reason I still referenced that play is because, ah the way that their fans and the players on their team reacted to that whole situation was ridiculous. People called me like a crash out Chris at the time for calling out how ridiculous the behavior from the fan base and for the players was when they like scored a goal in their next game and they were doing like fakes miming suplexes on the, that's why you don't do that shit, man, because the soccer gods, they don't take too kindly that it's called karma.
01:19:07
Speaker
It's what you get. It's what you get is this. So zero sympathy for the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts get slammed. Like Tim Melia slammed Christian rolled on when a game it's been like what?
01:19:23
Speaker
13, 13 matches. one. And, uh, oh thirteen and one and we're gonna we're gonna laugh at them because this is what you get. It's awesome. It's awesome. It's like literally the the real life example of that meme where it's like me watching someone who I preyed on their downfall have that downfall. yeah This is it.
01:19:44
Speaker
This is it. They... gutted their roster, did a whole rebuild, sold their best player, he did nothing, all this kind of stuff.
Peter Vermees' Future and Team Analysis
01:19:54
Speaker
And to top it all off, Ari, you know who might get this man
01:20:01
Speaker
Leo Chu. Leo Chu scored a game winner for FC Dallas. Leo Chu is a villain to Sporting Kansas City. Famously has... for is Four assists game. I forgot about that. Four assists in one goal against Sporting Kansas Might have more.
01:20:15
Speaker
Might have more. I have not died don die dove into this, but... The rejected, the unloved Leo Chu goes to Dallas. He's been playing well in his in his two matches. More goals this year than Jesus Ferrell. Yeah, but goes there and may get Peter Vermees fired. So just know, sporting fans, that even when the Sounders are not beating you or when they're not in your head, we're there.
01:20:40
Speaker
We're there in heart and in love and we're going to find a way to needle you, beat you, and ruin you and ruin your life and your coach and his legacy. You shouldn't have, uh, you shouldn't have gleefully celebrated, ah You're suplexed to that degree it's because I will never let it go. People all people say like, you got to let it go. I'm not going to let it go. I will never let that go. I will call them the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts until the day I die. yeah That is what they are called to me forever.
01:21:11
Speaker
Like if we're going to be recording this show in 2058 and I will still be calling him that. I promise you. it's It's deserved. I got to cook on this just a little bit more. i I'm sorry. I have to. Like this is just, this is too good.
01:21:24
Speaker
Have you read the full statement yet or was that? That was my first time. So this was like, read the whole thing. I was like, oh my God, this is incredible. I think it's so funny because some of our first shows, Peter Vermees was on the hot seat.
01:21:36
Speaker
Like this was like years ago. And we were like, there is no way they bring him back. There's no way this dude must have dirt on somebody in the ownership. I really, because they came out and they were like at the beginning of the season, they're like, we have full trust in Peter.
01:21:51
Speaker
We don't want to hear it. He's going to run it back. We're not doing it. He's going to have this whole season to cook. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's, it even dates back further than when we were talking about it at the beginning of our show. Like this has been, he's the longest tenured manager in the league by a not insignificant margin. Like Schmetz has been the coach since 2016 and he's one of the longest tenured managers in the league.
01:22:18
Speaker
Peter Vermees has been their manager since 2009. That's crazy. 2009. And I don't even think it's like he has dirt situation. Like, I think for whatever reason, this owner he and this owner are like really tight, and the guy just has ultimate trust in him for whatever reason. But I guess, so this is where it becomes the question.
01:22:39
Speaker
like Do you think they're going to fire him? No. kind of think they won't. I don't think they will because I think what's going to happen, this comes out, bulletin board material, players players like him.
01:22:52
Speaker
Players do like him. like I know that they may not they may not be winning. He may not be able to get the best out of his players. I think a player like Shalloy needs to move on because he's just kind of stagnated.
01:23:04
Speaker
ah He scored in the FC Dallas match, but I don't know. it There's no way he gets fired, right? like it It would be too perfect for him to not be fired. I just, ah i don't think they I don't think they will either because I think what's going to happen is like as as ah statistically improbable as this winless run that they're on is, it rarely happens that your form is...
01:23:28
Speaker
one way, like good or bad for an entire season. So I think they'll probably string just enough results together and have at least one or two good enough runs of form where the owner is able to justify in his own mind to not, that just seems to be what the cycle has been yeah for the last few years for them. And honestly, uh, my opinion on it is that, ah they should sign him to an extension. Yeah, yeah it's a it's a rebuild.
01:23:55
Speaker
He needs time. He does. he needs time to make his imprint on the new roster. I agree. And implement his identity and tactics. So really, I think if they're being prudent about it, they will give him a five to eight year extension and let him cook.
01:24:10
Speaker
I mean, if he can make the playoffs, which ah again, you have to be terrible in major league soccer to not make the playoffs, which this team is, if he can make the playoffs, dude, he's, there's no way they get rid of it. They make the playoffs yet, but like, I don't think they're going to do that.
01:24:25
Speaker
That's true. They are spooning right now. They have one point in a minus six gold, five and one. Yeah. After the season they had last year, 0.17 points per game. That's so bad. That's awful.
01:24:38
Speaker
That's awful. What's his what's what was his his total last year was point nine last year. The year before that was one point three year for that one point. two So he's not even like he's not even a one point five points per game coach.
01:24:53
Speaker
Hasn't been for a while. Hasn't been hasn't been since twenty twenty one or at twenty twenty. He was a one point nine. But again, twenty twenty doesn't count. Not a real season. He's bad.
01:25:04
Speaker
He's awful. Sign him to an extension. Yeah. Sign him to an extension. Before we get to the next one, I did want to read a quote that I would put in from his post game press conference that I thought was a good quote.
01:25:15
Speaker
He, you know, he's getting grilled after the game about why the team hasn't won in 14 games. And one of the things he said was, I think it comes down to goals, the goals we gave up. There's so much more we could have done in those situations.
01:25:29
Speaker
So that was some good hard-hitting analysis on what ails the squad. Dude, I love him. I love him. Extend him. i extend him. I love him. i you know it's There's not a there's not a ah ah club in the league that I'm happier to see it happen to. Oh, my God. i You can call it petty. It is petty.
01:25:47
Speaker
i don't care. like That's how I feel. um All right.
Weekend Game Highlights and Episode Wrap-up
01:25:52
Speaker
That was incredible. Thank you for indulging us. That statement was yeah that was like 2K words of absolute fire. so Like you said, repeated the same point like seven times. But there were some actual there were some actual bars in there.
01:26:07
Speaker
Overshadows our once proud legacy. yeah Persist without consequence. Fades into her irrelevance. I mean, this is is like Hemingway yeah on the quill. they They were cooking. How much Chad GPT do you think they used on that?
01:26:21
Speaker
It looked like, I don't know. yeah actually, probably a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Now that I think about it. um And then my last loser of the week was just Nashville SC for losing at home to Cincy. I didn't really have much analysis on that. I figure you i figured the supporting KC statement would carry this major segment. Major losers.
01:26:37
Speaker
um All right. I mean, that was all i had. That's all we got. Unless you got anything else you want to hit, I think we can call it a wrap for episode 90. Thank you all so much, as always, for tuning in. Did you have anything to show? Yeah, I was going to say we've got members-only content for this episode. Become a member. I think it's like a post show.
01:26:56
Speaker
We're going to be doing some tasting of something. We're not going to leak it on this podcast. You have to become a member. Go watch. Or you follow us on Instagram, you'll get a sneak peek. There you go. Or and we're also going to talk about could Pogba be coming to the Durs?
01:27:12
Speaker
I don't know. That's good. Anyway, that's a member only content. Become a YouTube member. Bunch of different levels and help support the show. So yeah, I don't know. Cool. Leave a like. Like, comment, subscribe, sub to the channel. Rate five stars. Rate five stars. Please share this with Peter for me. I need him to listen to this episode. Share this with the entire Sporting Kansas City fan base.
01:27:32
Speaker
Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, whatever. Yeah, all of them. Just everything. just Google Lobbing Scorchers and follow on every platform and then write reviews. Yeah. i think that's it.
01:27:45
Speaker
We're going to be back it. I'm going to be back at it on tomorrow morning. Lalu Scorchers kick off 8 a.m. with my guy Nico Moreno. We're going be talking lot more sounders than MLS.
01:27:57
Speaker
And yeah. Oh, yeah. Until next time, we out. Peace.