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Episode 252: Losing is no fun
61 Plays8 years ago
We've been pretty good about sticking to an every-other-week schedule. But after the Seattle Sounders dropped an ugly 4-1 decision to the Chicago Fire on Saturday, we felt it was better to do a quickie and get that out of our system.
There’s no sugarcoating the situation the Sounders find themselves in, 10 points in 10 games simply isn’t good enough. But upon rewatching, this game was more frustrating than deflating. There were so many big calls that could have change the game that went against the Sounders and some actual quality play from the boys in Rave Green up until the third Fire goal.
Still, the Sounders find themselves needing a result badly on Wednesday against Sporting KC. Maybe this will get them there.
This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Music used in the sponsor reads: LASERS - "Amsterdam"
Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adietes is sponsored by Queen Anne acupuncture. Queen Anne acupuncture has over a decade of experience healing the injuries of athletes. Marathon runners, snowboarders, yoga instructors and weekend warriors have all found relief from pain and have enhanced performance with the use of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Queen Anne acupuncture has treated players from many of the Seattle area soccer leagues for a wide range of injuries.
00:00:30
Speaker
Acupuncture also happens to be one of the best treatments for stress. Located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, you can conveniently book an appointment online today at QueenAnneAcupuncture.com.
00:01:09
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
Sounders' Recent Form
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of NOS Adietta, sponsored by Focal Wines, Consolation & Company, Queen Anne acupuncture, Verdi Credit Union, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios. This is episode 252, and we're recording on Monday, May 15th, 2017. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo. We decided to go ahead and record a shortened version of the show this week, mainly to commiserate over that horrible result.
00:01:50
Speaker
That result was obviously a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Fire. It's the Sounders first multi-goal loss since Byron Symmetra took over last summer. It also leaves them on 10 points through 10 games. To put that record into a bit of perspective, the Sounders didn't go below 1.0 points per game after the fourth game last year, and if they lose to Sporting Kansas City, they will be below that number. All that said, the Sounders could still be in a playoff spot if they beat Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday. So, given all that, what is your state of mind right now, Aaron?
Game Analysis: Sounders vs. Chicago Fire
00:02:21
Speaker
It's not great. I mean, I think that, you know, I'm sure we'll get into talking about the game specifically, so I don't want to dwell too much on that. But as bad as the result was, I don't think that it was really a deserved result. And I think that it's pretty easy to see how it could have gone the other way.
00:02:38
Speaker
You know, really until the third goal for Chicago, I think that the Sounders were playing really well and could have had a point pretty easily. And, you know, if you go back a little further and maybe some calls would go on the Sounders way earlier, that could have been a win.
00:02:56
Speaker
That's not to excuse anything, but it's not like it was a disastrous performance from top to bottom. It wasn't anywhere close to the sporting KC game last year, or even some other results we saw last year. Even good teams in Alaska get blown out sometimes. I mean, that's just kind of the way it goes. There's so much parity and there's so much travel. The Sounders are dealing with a lot of injuries right now.
00:03:20
Speaker
So in a vacuum, it's not a result that I think it is worth freaking out about. But the problem is that the Sounders have had a lot of results that, out of context of the full season, haven't necessarily been that bad. But you can't keep piling up those results. The Toronto game was one. The New England game was one.
00:03:43
Speaker
The Atlanta game I think was on Vancouver, you know, another where in isolation, not the worst thing in the world, but when you have them, you know, in fully half of your games, it's a pretty big problem. The Sounders are playing really poorly at home in terms of getting results. And so I feel like the stretch right here with a lot of road games, it's important to
00:04:06
Speaker
to start making up a little bit of that lost ground and they're not off to a great start in that respect. So I don't think it's full on panic time yet. I don't think that we're in anywhere near as bad a shape as we were last year at the absolute sort of worst of things, but it's not great. I mean, they've got to start getting results and they've got to start playing better.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, I would totally agree with that. It's not the result that actually has me down. I went back and watched the game today and I was actually finding myself encouraged by the way they played and I remember feeling like the centers were arguably the better team in the first half and that they were pretty good up until the third goal.
00:04:50
Speaker
In watching it again, I felt even more so that case. I thought that they were clearly the better team. I thought that they were up and certainly in the first half. And then in the second half, I don't think that they were as dominant as they had been in the first half.
00:05:04
Speaker
But I think that they were still very much in the game. They were very much in the game even after the second goal that Chicago scored. What's frustrating though is, like you said, these results are piling up now. The Sounders are 2-4-4. They're 10 games into the season with just two wins. That's clearly problematic. They're starting to lose some of these games that they were at least getting ties in earlier in the season.
00:05:29
Speaker
And those are all bad signs. Now I definitely remember that, you know, maybe not this point last year, but at one point last year feeling like I was somewhat buoyed by what I felt was the reality that the sounders were playing better than their results were suggesting. Now that was over a longer period of time and it was
00:05:50
Speaker
with a roster that had some clear holes and they knew how they were gonna plug it. And so, and then ultimately the bottom fell out and they had to make a move. I don't need to rehash all that. But my point is that it's starting to become a same old song kind of thing. And it's very frustrating from that perspective. You know, the Sounders have kind of played themselves already out of a supporter shield. That's a trophy that I think the Sounders should feel like they can compete for every year.
00:06:18
Speaker
And, you know, again, this was another thing that we were talking about last year. I feel like right around the same time last year, we were saying how it made sense that the Sounders didn't make a move at the transfer deadline because they had kind of righted the ship and it seemed like things were starting to go okay. And then everything went bad and it was much easier to second-guess that decision to stand pat. Well, that's even more the case now because you look at their roster, they've only got 25, 26 guys under contract, depending on how you count, Victor Mansouri.
00:06:45
Speaker
So they have actual open roster spots. As far as we know, they have cap room. They have a designated player spot that they can open up if they want to. They have targeted allocation money. They have general allocation money. This is a team with some roster flexibility.
Roster Flexibility: Underutilized?
00:06:59
Speaker
And given the state of the roster the day that the transfer window closes, which is they still have two injured right backs. Aaron Kovar is still out, so that's another kind of midfielder that they don't have.
00:07:12
Speaker
They don't have Henry Wingo for a period of time. He's on a walking boot right now. They've got some banged up center backs. I mean, there's any number of roster decisions that they could make to just bring in someone to bolster the roster. And you can't tell me that they didn't have anyone, like if they didn't have anyone that they could sign, that's a problem. Now, that doesn't mean that I think Garth Ligaway or Chris Anderson or Brian Schmetter should be fired tomorrow. But I do think that they at some point have to answer
00:07:42
Speaker
Why didn't you make a move? You had roster flexibility. You weren't necessarily going to give up that flexibility in the summer to sign someone now, even if it was a little bit of a stopgap. And if you're not going to make a stopgap now, what's the point? What are you waiting for?
00:07:57
Speaker
And I kind of got it last year that they didn't want to Band-aid over a situation that they felt like maybe Sigi was was gonna not be their long-term coach So I kind of get that but I don't think that they're sitting Schmetzer up the same way So it's very frustrating from that perspective that said let's get into the game itself and
00:08:20
Speaker
I went back and watched the game today and there are a lot of moments that were both
00:08:29
Speaker
created by the Sounders and created by the referee, that if they go a different way, it's a whole different game. You go all the way back to the second minute, Nico Ledero gets a ball at the top of the box. Now he hits his shot, it deflects off
Controversial Calls Impact
00:08:43
Speaker
a defender and hits the crossbar, but I honestly, I look at that and I go, you gotta do a better job with that. You gotta put that on, you have to put that on frame yourself. You can't be hitting it off a defender, but then,
00:08:56
Speaker
You know, there's any number of moments that, and I guess I could, I'll tick off a few more of them, that the sounders were in control of. In the fifth minute, I believe it was, Clint Dempsey gets open for a header on a great cross from Christian Roldon. He doesn't put it on frame. Again, later in the, like, 65th minute, Dempsey had a great look at a header that he put wide again.
00:09:23
Speaker
Jordan Morris gets free at one point right after they had tied it up to potentially give the Senators a lead. He instead pulls it back and he makes a pass. The Senators had a bunch of free kicks in dangerous areas that they weren't able to really do anything with. So the Senators controlled a lot of that themselves. They didn't come through. That's a problem.
00:09:45
Speaker
But at the same time, I look back at the referee decisions, and it's mind-boggling. I counted nine big calls or non-calls that the referee made that had a significant impact on the game. These are all things that happened before Chicago's third goal. And that every single one of these decisions goes against the Sounders is absolutely infuriating.
00:10:11
Speaker
And not to say that they're all clear-cut calls, or that they weren't even technically the correct calls, but that they were so incons... In most of them, they were just so much inconsistency. Like, you just take for... Let's focus for now on the most prime example, which was the penalty that gets called on Tony Alfaro, then the kick being retaken because of encroachment.
00:10:38
Speaker
And then on the other side, right after the sounder's equalized, like seriously, like a minute or two after the sounder's equalized, Jordan Morris gets a ball in the wing, he gets taken down in the box, it's exactly the same as a Tony O'Farrill call, and there's not even a foul. I mean, I don't know, what do you make of this stuff, Aaron?
00:10:57
Speaker
I think the foul on Morris was actually worse than the Alfaro call. Alfaro came in from the side, won the ball. The tackle to Morris was from behind. I think just legitimately a dangerous challenge. The Alfaro call is one of those borderline penalties where, you know, like, do I think it's a penalty? No. If it gets called in the Sounders' favour, I'm probably not throwing a fit about it.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's within that realm of like, yeah, I can't really get mad about the penalty call, right? Right, sure. But it's definitely borderline and it's another one of those kind of like the penalty last week, the Josie Altadore one. It's another one of those calls where it's like,
00:11:36
Speaker
why does it seem like these borderline calls always go against us? And that's not a conspiracy theory thing. I don't think refs are out to get the sounders. You do have to not put yourself in situations where players are having to take a risk to try to make a play, which I think is what happened in the case of Alfaro. Joe Jones has a really bad giveaway. Alfaro has to make a decision. Probably wasn't the best one, but that's really kind of a no-win position that he's in.
00:12:05
Speaker
And then, you know, to have what I think is a much worse foul not called at the other end is just, it's frustrating. The retake.
00:12:14
Speaker
is it's insane. And I've seen a lot of people say that, well, by the letter of the law, Christian Roldan is within the circle. And if both teams are encroaching, then the penalty has to be retaken. I mean, honestly, if that's the case, then 98% of penalties that are taken need to be retaken because players are always coming in early. The reality is that Roldan was behind two Chicago Fire players. None of them impacted the play at all.
00:12:42
Speaker
And it's just, I think young referees, you know, we see this a lot with guys that don't have a ton of experience where they make all the technical calls as close to buy the book as possible. And then, you know, they don't call anything consistently. Otherwise, the stuff that's like judgmenty, they're still kind of rusty on. And I think maybe they know that. And so to try to make up for that, they call everything totally by the book.
00:13:08
Speaker
And, you know, if we lived in a world where every referee called everything totally by the book, okay, that's fine, but we don't. And, you know, it's just another one of those things where it seems like this stuff is going against us every time this year. Clinton Dempsey getting dragged down. That was right after Chicago's second goal, I think. Yeah, it was right after the second goal. It was almost like the next possession.
00:13:32
Speaker
Right. And that's another, you know, really, I think pretty clear penalty. I mean, he's pulled down in the area from behind. You know, it doesn't get called. So that's three penalties in the last two games that don't get called. And there's a lot of resistance, I think, to sports fans blaming referees. And I get it.
00:13:57
Speaker
especially in sports like football, where there's a ton of decisions, a lot of points scored, basketball kind of the same thing. But in soccer, there aren't a lot of goals being scored. It's a very low scoring environment. And when you've got that many calls that are
00:14:15
Speaker
What is it, like 75% of penalties are scored? So, you know, 0.75 goals or whatever going on the board or coming off the board. I mean, that's, you know, that has a huge impact. And it doesn't excuse the sounders collapse late in the game and giving up two, I think, well, three really, really bad goals.
00:14:35
Speaker
But it's easy to understand the frustration that would lead to the mental lapses and lack of concentration to lead to goals like that. So I think it's totally reasonable to look at the refereeing performance, how that affected the game state, how that almost certainly affected the mindset of the players, and to just kind of view that as another mitigating factor in this game about maybe it's not one we should freak out all that much about.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess to get onto the encroachment thing too, I think what really kills me about that is the spirit of the rule is about gaining an advantage. And when the goalkeeper saves the penalty and holds onto it, there's no rebound, you can't tell me that the encroachment had anything to do with the way that that played out.
00:15:19
Speaker
David Akam did not see players coming. That's not why he made a poor penalty. Stephon Fry didn't, you know, like if they want to say Stephon Fry was off his line, I think you could probably again technically say that he was off his line, but man, that was also very, very close and certainly well within the realm of what we normally see on a penalty. So it was, that was just, it was just very infuriating in that way because it did really start to feel like the referee just was kind of
00:15:50
Speaker
gonna have it his way like he wanted there to be a penalty and he wanted it to come out I mean that's the way it starts to feel like I'm not saying that's actually what happened but the other thing that there's always other littler calls like in the third minute I job it is the kind what is is it Pedro anyway the their their left back plows into into
00:16:14
Speaker
Harry ship on a on after drinking a loose touch and you want to talk about Jordy Dellum we had this long debate on Senator Hart about Jordy Dellums yellow card the first one he got against Toronto and I think we came down that most of us felt like Jordy Dellum didn't commit a foul but he put himself in a dangerous position to have a yellow given to him because of I guess because of his heavy touch
00:16:39
Speaker
But then you look at this play against Chicago, and not only was it a loose touch, but the guy leaves his feet, he comes in late on Harry's ship, flips him over, and there's not so much as a whistle, let alone a card. A very similar play later in the game, I wanna say like the 12th minute, when a player does the same thing coming from behind on Ozzie Alonzo, right at the top of the opposition penalty box, and then it's only a foul that gets called
00:17:06
Speaker
When Chad Marshall gets taken out on a similar play that the whistle gets blown again. These are Potentially I think red cardable tackles that aren't even getting called fouls And you can kind of go down the then there was two other ones that were very very frustrating There are two offsides and I think it's easy to forget that the Sounders actually put the ball in the net three times in this game. I
00:17:27
Speaker
One of them we didn't get to see a replay of at all during the game. We don't actually know what happened exactly, but based on what the commentators were saying, the sounders took a quick restart.
00:17:42
Speaker
uh... nickel and arrow found jordan morris jordan morris court it uh... and then jordan morris was ruled offside i actually tried to find a moment like where where jordan morris is or the defender is and man i have to assume that was a very very close call and it was a very confusing moment in the game but then there is another call where uh... nickel and arrow found morris getting in behind the defense uh... he ends up feeding clint Dempsey granted the defense had stopped at that point but if
00:18:09
Speaker
You know, it's definitely a chance I think the Sounders would have had a high probability of scoring on. And I mean, I can't know this for certain, but it sure looked like Morris was even with the last defender.
00:18:21
Speaker
Anyway, there's all these calls. You just stack them up. And I think that's kind of what I came away with feeling like the Sounders were much better than the scoreline suggested.
Upcoming Challenge: Kansas City
00:18:31
Speaker
Now again, the problem the Sounders find themselves in isn't so much this game though. It's that they've dug themselves this hole, they've put themselves in this position, and now they have to play a really tough game in Kansas City that is... They have a great record in Kansas City, but I don't think they've ever played an easy game there either.
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think anybody's ever played an easy game against Kansas City. I mean, I think that that's just kind of the, you know, the way it goes against them. You have to imagine they're kind of looking forward to this game too, especially with the way that last season ended for them. Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, it's not going to be pleasant.
00:19:07
Speaker
If anything, I feel like the Sounders are probably preparing for that kind of game to play kind of an ugly game. Maybe that's kind of what they need is to grind out a result. I would love to get three points in that game, but if they can grind out a draw and not have a defensive collapse, I think that's a huge win.
00:19:30
Speaker
for the mental state of the team and the fan base as well, I guess. But if they go out there and get embarrassed, it's time for some reflection. There's been a ton of focus on the offense this season, and I think that's reasonable. I think that the attacking talent the Sounders have on this team, I think you would expect them to score a little bit more than they have been. But the reality is that the defense has been bad.
00:19:55
Speaker
Um, you know, they certainly had a few bad games. Yeah. I mean, they've given up eight goals in the last three games. Um, they've had games where they didn't concede a lot of goals, but looked shaky. Um, you know, and they definitely have defensive talent. Um, I think, you know, when Brad Emmons is back healthy, he's going to be really good right back. Um, if that never happens, uh, then I think, you know, O'Neill Fisher is a perfectly serviceable right back. Um, Jovan, I think is, you know, he had a terrible game, uh,
00:20:25
Speaker
probably the worst we've seen from him since at least early in you know last season but he's been very good all year on both sides of the ball so I don't have a ton of concerns there Roman Torres and Chad Marshall obviously great center back so I don't have any
00:20:41
Speaker
huge concerns right now because I think a lot of it's explainable just by the absences they've had and you know the situations they found themselves in in some cases I think the Chicago game is a perfect example I mean I think if they're not you know chasing a two goal deficit they probably don't give up that fourth goal
00:20:57
Speaker
So, you know, I mean, it's just like, it's been the thing that's hurt them this year, I think it's fair to say. And if anything, maybe that's a positive because I have a lot more faith that the defense is going to get it together and figure out than I do, really, that the offense is going to up their production significantly. You know, the reality is,
00:21:17
Speaker
that surge that the Sounders won on last year was not fueled by the attack. I mean, Nico Ledero helped a ton because the offense was so putrid for most of the season that, you know, getting to average-ish levels was, you know, enough to propel them onto a really hot streak that, you know, went into the playoffs and onto the MLS Cup. But I just, I'm not convinced that this attack can be a world beating attack, that it can be like an MLS-best type attack. So,
00:21:48
Speaker
You know, they need to score more than they're scoring right now But I think the defense is really the key to it and you know a grindy Sort of chippy game against sprinting KC might be the place that that can start hopefully Yeah, I guess one of the
00:22:04
Speaker
You know, we didn't even talk about the fact that Jovan Jones got himself a red card and I don't necessarily know how much to make of. There was some debate again as to the second yellow, especially whether it was deserved. I thought it was pretty harsh. I tended to think that the referee probably thought he saw Jovan Jones getting his elbow up, which I don't think he actually did. He certainly didn't make any contact.
00:22:30
Speaker
you know whatever maybe joe and jones could use the day off uh... but that's just another that's another thing that's just kinda frustrating the centers are are seemingly getting healthier but they can't they still can't get with their
00:22:42
Speaker
preferred starting defense on the field together. We were going to go another game without seeing all four of their preferred defenders. We might see Brad Evans finally start a game. He did get into it. But I guess one of the things that a lot of people are going to be asking right now, and I don't know if it's like mainstream Sounders fans at this point. Like I'd like to think that most Sounders fans feel like you win an MLS Cup. The coach and the GM probably have
00:23:12
Speaker
gotten some wiggle room in terms of not following up right away but how much blame do we put on brian smitzer and conversely how much blame do we put on you know garth leg away i mean a fair share of it i think is reasonable um you know i i think that the lineup against chicago was uh questionable i mean it it
00:23:36
Speaker
It didn't perform terribly, but a lot of the things that I was concerned about, rolled on moving to right back, was a huge one. In hindsight, it was reasonable to be concerned about that. The defensive midfield was just not there to the extent that it has been for most of this season.
00:23:58
Speaker
I'm not really sure that Jordan Morris should have started that game. And it was just kind of a weird shape to begin with. It definitely was a weird shape, I agree with you there. It definitely was. And there have been other decisions that have been made this year that I think are questionable. And you know, with Garth Lagerwey, I mean, you talked about it earlier, they've got six roster spots open right now.
00:24:22
Speaker
I'm not even willing to entertain the argument that they were negligent by not signing a designated player in this window because the reasons not to do that are, I think, really solid, really strong. And I don't think it was crazy to expect this team to perform well enough to stay around mid-table before the summer transfer window. So I don't have any issues with them not signing a DP in this window.
00:24:49
Speaker
But I think having the lack of depth in certain positions, I mean, until Adekoya actually plays, I don't really consider him to be a part of the team. So functionally they have two senior strikers right now, because Clint Dempsey is an attacking player, but he's definitely not a striker. When they were starting Morris and Bruin, they got into a situation where they had no real
00:25:17
Speaker
strikers to bring in off the bench and I think it was a problem. They don't have a change of pace wing type player. They don't have the back end depth that you would hope that they would have. Jordy Dellum did I think about as well as you can expect him to do as an emergency right back.
00:25:39
Speaker
There's got to be somebody that you can get for U.S.L. on a minimum salary that can play that position better than Jordy Dellum. There has to be. I refuse to believe that there's not. So, I don't know. I mean, I think there's definitely blame to be had there.
00:25:54
Speaker
But I also think that people are just too fire happy about sports teams in general. I think that, you know, firing Schmetzer would be insane. I think firing Logger would be insane because there are a lot of mitigating factors that kind of got us to where we are right now. Clint Dempsey being kind of the question mark coming into the season, I think is the biggest one. And that's almost certainly why they didn't aggressively pursue a designated player.
00:26:18
Speaker
You know, I think they're still kind of working their way out of the salary cut must they were in after 2014 They have had legitimately bad luck with injuries of the last few years You know, I don't think anybody's done a terrible job and there are some things from a
00:26:35
Speaker
more holistic perspective that that uh that Garth Warder way is done that I really like that I think needed to happen and that I think were important so it's way too early to talk about firing people generally I think firing coaches um and unless it's like very clear that it needs to happen which I think it was last year with Ziggy um I just think it's a mistake so I don't think we're anywhere close to there yet um I think they've earned at least the rest of this season
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, and I would go a step farther and say that I would be almost regardless of how this season, I guess there's ways that this season could go so wrong that maybe your hands are tied and you just kind of have to fire Brian Spencer. But I would be, like I just, like it's kind of crazy to me that anyone is even seriously talking about that. And I also think that, you know, I got an email today from someone that was, you know, asked me a few questions of these things along these lines and they said, which of these three people deserve
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And I do think that there's this infatuation with, well, if we fire this guy, then that will fix the problem. And as it turned out, that's kind of how it at least played out last year. But I don't think that that's a recipe for success. I think that you're creating long, if you start becoming, that becomes the way you run your team. I think it creates a lot more problems than it fixes.
00:27:59
Speaker
the blame.
00:28:17
Speaker
And I would like to think that in Seattle we have a little bit more of an enlightened perspective. And I'll say this for the Portland Timbers. You can hate the Portland Timbers all you want. You can make fun of so many things that Merritt Paulson does.
00:28:34
Speaker
hate Kayla Porter for a million reasons. But I will give him this is that he's been given lots of opportunities to fire his GM and to fire his coach at various times. And he's been, I think, been very smart about resisting those urges. And for the most part, I think that the Timbers are better off because he's resisted those urges.
00:28:57
Speaker
Now, I'm not saying that the Sounders should use the Timbers as a model franchise in most ways, but I do think that it's a reminder that you can do things to fix your team that don't involve firing the decision makers and especially when you think that their process is good. And I think that I still believe that for the most part, the Sounders process is good. I happen to think that, like you said, leaving so much money on the table
00:29:24
Speaker
during the primary transfer window was a mistake for the sounders, especially since they didn't need to go out and sign like a world class right back. But if they just signed someone that was available on the MLS market, essentially, I think they would have been better off. Similarly, it would have been nice to add just a professional quality forward.
00:29:46
Speaker
That would have been, you know, just someone that could, like, a Hercules Gomez almost. Like, that kind of, like, I would have been, I think, saddest, maybe not Hercules Gomez, literally. But, you know, someone like, of that ilk, like, not necessarily a world beater, but just someone who can provide a little something potentially off the bench. Um, but yeah, uh, it's, it's been a frustrating start. Hopefully the centers will, uh,
00:30:09
Speaker
We'll figure a way to get it a little bit more right on Wednesday. Anyway, we're not going to do... Go ahead. Well, the other thing just real quick that I think is important to remember is that teams struggle a lot after making the MLS Cup Final. Toronto is kind of bucking that trend and obviously those Galaxy teams did as well, although most of those years they did not start especially hot.
00:30:31
Speaker
Um, but you know, Columbus and Portland last year, there were both a lot of people that wanted, um, you know, as you said, Caleb Porter fired, people in Columbus wanted Burr Holter fired. Uh, and they're, they're both playing really, really well this season. That, that short off season takes a ton out of you. Um, the grind that is the playoffs, you're more likely to have guys pick up, you know, just the kind of knocks that can take months and months and months to heal. Um, you know, it's, it's tough. It's really tough to do. Uh, and, and so.
00:30:59
Speaker
I think that's part of the reason you give coaches and GMs a leash after they win a championship, especially in MLS, where I think the effect is a lot bigger, is that they can't control how many miles their players have in their legs. And I think that we've seen that this year. And it's frustrating to watch.
00:31:20
Speaker
You know, again, Toronto seems to be doing just fine. So it's not a universal thing, but it's just another data point to suggest that maybe this isn't something that, you know, could have been avoided if they just made XYZ decision differently.
00:31:34
Speaker
Well, and also, you bring up Toronto, and I'll kind of, I've been thinking about this a fair amount, is that if given what we know today, would you trade places with Toronto FC? Would you lose in the MLS Cup final and then look like you're the best team 10 games into the following season? I don't think anyone would take that trade, would they? I mean, would... No, I wouldn't. And I think that there's probably a motivating factor to losing a final that
00:32:01
Speaker
you know, maybe it's easier to kind of relax a little bit more when you're the defending champion. And everybody would love to avoid that. But I mean, ultimately, we did win the final last year, and there's absolutely no way I would trade places with them. I mean, maybe I would trade rosters with them if somebody offered me that right now. But, you know, I just like...
00:32:25
Speaker
I wouldn't and you know it's it is one of those things where eventually I want this team to get back to competing in every game and actually being good for more than half a season but I kind of understand why we're at where we're at right now.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely want to get to that point, and I would love to be at that point right now, but I think, again, I think if you had told me last year that you can win the MLS Cup, or you can miss the playoffs, but you'll miss the playoffs next year, or you can not win the MLS Cup, and who knows when you'll win?
00:33:00
Speaker
you'll ever win it, but you'll maybe keep making the playoffs every year. I still think I'd take that trade. Now granted, no one ever forces you to make that trade in reality, and we can want our cake and eat it too.
00:33:15
Speaker
In any case, I am still trying to remind myself that maybe this was the cost of a strong run last year and that maybe some luck was due to go the other way.
Trade-offs: Past Success vs. Current Issues
00:33:29
Speaker
Maybe we exhausted some of that. I don't know. But I still feel pretty good about the state of the team.
00:33:35
Speaker
like not looking at where we are in week 10, but like I think in a lot of ways the team is getting closer to where we want it to be. I don't know if I guess we never really had a chance to talk about this or maybe we did. Do we talk about the S2 move? I guess we maybe did. Yeah, we did. Anyway, but this is probably a good place to call this a segment or a show. We're going to end the show. We're not doing questions this week. We did a short show this week.
00:34:03
Speaker
and we'll come back, I don't know if we'll do it next week, but we'll be back soon and we'll get back to our regular habits and we'll probably have an interview for you and do all kinds of that kind of stuff. But in the meantime, thanks to our sponsors, Full Pull Wines, Consolation & Company, Queen Anne Acupuncture, Verity Credit Union, Designers Marble, and our broadcast partner Bootstrapper Studios, I am Jeremiah O'Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo. This is No Study at This. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:34:34
Speaker
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00:35:12
Speaker
This episode of Nos Adietes is sponsored by Designers Marble. Designers Marble is the premier custom cultured marble manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest. Their synthetic marble products made with patented true stone technology offer the beautiful look of natural stone at a fraction of the cost while maintaining exceptional durability and ease of maintenance.
00:35:34
Speaker
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00:36:04
Speaker
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00:36:31
Speaker
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00:36:53
Speaker
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00:37:28
Speaker
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00:37:48
Speaker
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