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A little bit of everything
84 Plays1 year ago
It's been awhile since we did a "normal" episode and, frankly, this is not when we get back to it. Jeremiah is joined by Mark Kastner this week and they touch on quite a few subjects. They briefly discuss the LA Galaxy game, give their thoughts on Andrew Thomas' breakout performance and look ahead to the Timbers game on Sunday. Then they close it out by emptying the mailbag that had been starting to get a little full.
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"Diversions" audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music: https://despatchesfromseattle.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to NOS Arietes Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters.
Sounders' MLS Cup Celebration
00:00:20
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:27
Speaker
Welcome
Episode Recording Details
00:01:28
Speaker
to another episode of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Friday, May 10th, 2024. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today is my co-host, Mark Kastner and her engineer, Lickett.
Sounders' Recent Matches Overview
00:01:41
Speaker
Well, it's been a very busy week here in the world of the Sounders. They started off with a 0-0 tie against the Galaxy, followed that up with a shootout win over Louisville City in the Open Cup, and now have a road match against eternal rivals, the Portland Timbers on Sunday.
00:01:54
Speaker
There's a lot to unpack here, some of which I've already gone over on various episodes of soundbites this week. So we're going to give some broad overviews today while also answering a bunch of reader questions with all that out of the way, Mark. Did Wednesday's game do anything to change your mood or outlook on this team? Uh, sure. Yeah, I think so. You know, my bar is like really low right now for where this thing's at. And, um,
00:02:23
Speaker
basically to clear that bar is to like have fun watching a sounders game. And I think if you take the 120 minutes plus shootout in aggregate, I had more fun than I didn't have fun. There were definitely parts that made me frustrated for sure, like giving up a two goal lead, especially
00:02:48
Speaker
seeing the performances of some of the veterans that ended up playing in the game. But yeah, I think I had more fun than I didn't have fun by a pretty considerable margin, which is a cool thing to say without the seasons going.
00:03:06
Speaker
Yeah, so that leads kind of dovetails nicely into the next question that I had for you that's sort of related to this, and then we can kind of expand from
Andrew Thomas's Impact on the Season
00:03:15
Speaker
here. So it sounds like maybe I know the answer to this based on what you just said, but I'll ask it anyway.
00:03:20
Speaker
Do you think Andrew Thomas's performance in the shootout, like getting to see that, getting to see sort of him have this real moment, like a, like first real moment of the season that Sanders have had, uh, that ended the way we wanted it to end. And did that justify sort of the frustration that we felt getting to that point, which was, you know, having a two zero lead, blowing that two zero lead in rather ridiculous fashion, and then sort of slogging through everything that we had to get you to get to that.
00:03:50
Speaker
that performance where the enormity of it doesn't really resonate until he converts that kick at the end and then all of a sudden it casts the whole shootout in a different light. Yeah, definitely. I think it's really hard to not see that as a
00:04:12
Speaker
maybe like coming of age tale of Andrew Thomas because he signed his contract extension a day before. Yeah, they announced it a day, literally the day before. And then to have that kind of piggyback on top of some pretty solid leak performances in the absence of Stephen Fry this year, it is kind of like
00:04:35
Speaker
this is finally something that like us fans can like sink our teeth into in a season that's just been like very like, you know, and like in particular, I think the coolest thing, the penalty saves and you know, the goalkeeping antics are like one thing that's great. But for him to he was not
00:05:01
Speaker
slotted to take that penalty. He called off. Yeah. Um, I don't, I don't remember. Yeah, I don't. Yeah. He caught like, he like did this like shoeing motion with his hand to take the penalty. And I didn't notice that at first until, you know, the sound is kind of put out there, like videos of the whole thing. Yeah. I actually watched the shootout in bed on my phone. So, um, you know, small screen, you don't get, you know,
00:05:28
Speaker
I don't know that it was caught on camera to be honest with you because I think the video that they, the sounders had to me looked like something they shot and I haven't gone back and looked to see if it was caught on video or on the broadcast or not. Yeah. So it was just like.
00:05:45
Speaker
cool, you know, like was I think I think Tim Fosse's, you know, from Sounder Heart, the Tim Fosse tweeted like the only thing cooler would be if he went over to the beer garden and pounded a beer. Although
00:06:01
Speaker
I think it's like cooler that he just was like, no, this is what I do. And then he like in that same video, he runs to the center line and just like taunts the entire Louisville team, which is like kind of crazy to think about like, why are the sounders like
00:06:17
Speaker
stooping to this kind of level, but okay, whatever right users at this point, you know, and it was interesting. It was an interesting dynamic. I don't know. We haven't I, I, I went to the game with my, my eight year old daughter and at around the 85th minute, she just ultimately said, I think it's time to go. And I was, and I was, you know, you know, uh,
00:06:39
Speaker
I had a feeling that might be going to a shootout. It just had that vibe about it. And I thought, OK, if we get out of here, I might be able to get home by the time the shootout happens.
00:06:52
Speaker
And as it turned out, they equalized while we were walking to the car. But in any case, I say that because I didn't get to talk to Andrew after the game. I'm hoping that maybe we'll get to talk to him more today because there is more to tell. No one asked him about the talk. That shootout seemed to be like when the first penalty, which was by the guy who had scored the penalty in regulation,
00:07:17
Speaker
He hit it off the crossbar and Andrew just jumps up as if like he made the play of the tournament. And I don't know if that was in response to something or if that was like just an attempt to fire up the guys. But then as it turned out, like every single time he made a save, it was
00:07:37
Speaker
It wasn't just, I'm happy. It's like in your face type stuff. And, and I don't know if there was some actual trash that going on. Like, like it was, it was really a weird dynamic for two teams that don't seem to have a lot into, like there were some players from.
00:07:56
Speaker
Louisville who had ties to the Sounders. But as far as I know, there's not like this deep animosity. I don't know why they would have played in like a real game. Yeah. Yeah. So and right. So I don't know. I don't know if there was more to this or if this is just Andrew Thomas sort of like just finding
00:08:14
Speaker
something inside of him, which, hey, athletes have done weirder stuff. But I mean, he was he was spectacular. He was absolutely spectacular. And the way he you know, it's funny, because if you watch the the broadcast video, it almost looks like the goalkeeper, the opposing goalkeeper, who was who I think is from Bellevue and played for us to
00:08:38
Speaker
He slept in his car for a week or something that the progress was talking about. Is that what they said? I guess he went to try out. Yeah, I wouldn't be totally... I was sitting near some of his friends in the stands, but in any case, it looked like he guessed right. There was no guessing. That ball was hit so hard that he had no chance to react to it at all. Yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think the Brock that it was a very hard broadcast to listen to. I don't want to throw any professionals under the bus or anything, but it wasn't like the greatest listening event I've ever experienced as a soundest fan. But
00:09:25
Speaker
There was like a lot of trash talking throughout the shootout to one point where I think the last Louisville player to score, which would have been the seventh taker, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That had to be right. The referee had to like the assistant referee, you know, the one that like watches to make sure the goal. He had to step between Andrew Thomas and the guy to tell him to go back to the center circle or, you know, go back to the team or whatever.
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I, I, I'm like very curious about what was going on there because it's just the round of 32 in the open cup between two teams.
Sounders' Open Cup Journey
00:10:09
Speaker
And I think, I think what, if I were to like guess, I think Andrew Thomas might just be insane, which could be really.
00:10:20
Speaker
You either want your goalkeeper to look like he doesn't care about like being professional soccer or you want him to be an absolute lunatic. Yeah. And, and Andrew Thomas seems like he's going to be the former, whereas like, I think in points in Stefan,
00:10:36
Speaker
Ryan's career, he's a very passionate individual, but sometimes he just looks mad that he has to make a save. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yes. Yeah. He's definitely much more of a Casey Keller school, which is like, how dare you make me die, make this save. I don't want to make a, I shouldn't have to make any saves if you guys are doing your freaking jobs. Whereas like Andrew Thomas might, uh,
00:11:02
Speaker
do like some insane thing at some point and maybe we'll regret the whole thing, but who knows.
00:11:19
Speaker
Yeah, he was, uh, but yeah, I mean, this was sort of a star is born moment. It felt like to me and it'll be, you know, it went all of a sudden from, you know, like I'm always invested in the open cup. I want them to do well, but now I'm really like, I want to see how, and I'm glad that Andrew, my assumption is that the Andrew Thomas will get the starts as long as the sounders are in the open cup that, and I, and I would, you know, that's not always been the case. Usually the way it works is, you know, the backup keeper will get some reps early on in the tournament, but then eventually they turn it over to the starter.
00:11:49
Speaker
I don't think that's going to happen here. My suspicion is that as long as the Sounders are alive in this thing, it's Andrew Thomas's show. And that's how it, frankly, that's what I wanted to be at this point. I mean, that's what is maybe the most interesting thing about this, about this tournament now is just seeing what Andrew Thomas can do.
00:12:06
Speaker
Uh, and you know, the, the centers are going to play Phoenix rising next. They are traditionally a pretty good USL championship team. They are not great this year. Uh, and they're going to be missing one of their top defenders because he got red carded. They, they had a kind of a wild game against North Carolina courage, but all of a sudden I'm a little more invested in open cup than I think I would have been otherwise. And it feels, you know, setting aside all the like.
00:12:32
Speaker
crap with the open cup that's been happening between MLS and, you know, we don't have to get into that. But this year, it
Tactical Approaches and Rivalries
00:12:39
Speaker
feels so much more obtainable because it's like, Oh, they're in the round of 16. Yeah. If they win one more game, they're in a quarter final, which is like, you might as well just basically be in the final at that point, you know, just go all the way. Yeah. And I,
00:13:01
Speaker
And I do think it's such an interesting contrast with previous years in general, because last year, it never became great. And I think by the time the sounders were playing in the Open Cup, their form had kind of dropped off from their early season. Awesome. Yes, that's true. And then the year before,
00:13:27
Speaker
Who cares about the open cup right after you win CCL? Yeah, it was it was like the day it was like within days of them winning Champions League that they played open cup, right? Yeah, so I think I think what happened I think it was one week later because they they played the open cup and then they had to travel to Dallas and And and then they think the following
00:13:51
Speaker
the following Wednesday or Tuesday or whatever. Yeah, you're right. It was like San Jose. And that went to a shootout, which never felt like they were going to win. So this kind of feels like there might be something like live for once. Whereas I think for a while, regardless of what happens with
00:14:09
Speaker
league form it's gonna feel like a slog even if they start stringing together some wins but this like feels like a real live thing that they could kind of well right a slog in an in a cup tournament you can live with because
00:14:24
Speaker
it's
00:14:42
Speaker
weirdly, I came out of the, the galaxy game, not necessarily optimistic about the sounder's chances, because I don't know how that game could fill you with optimism. But there was a weird detail there that struck me is that it, they really feel like a cup team, like a team that if they can get into a cup competition, that they seem set up because they're not going to do a lot of things to
00:15:07
Speaker
undermine their like I do believe in their ability to like play relatively mistake free and you know granted the game against Louisville had some mistakes but I just it just feels like a team that can grind out results I guess is what I'm trying to say they're not a team that's going to light up anyone you know like we've seen that this year they're not going to score
00:15:30
Speaker
unless they're, unless they're, they're, they're opportunistic in that, you know, all three goals, I think to some degree were opportunistic against the union. You know, the, the, the five goals against Montreal were all sort of, you know, against a, a team that I think once they got the second goal was pretty much dead. And so I guess to some degree, they, they're, they're capable of scoring some goals, but they're in this, most games are going to be grinds. Most games are going to feel like they're just out there in the trenches and
00:15:59
Speaker
That might not lead to a big point total, but I could see it. I could see it maybe working in cup competitions. Yeah. Until it doesn't. Until it doesn't. Exactly. Which is the nature of cup competitions, right?
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's like you're perfectly suited for a cup of competition until you go out and then all of a sudden you're not. But looking ahead to Portland and then we'll, we'll come back and do a segment with questions. But how big is this game? I mean, it feels like we've been here before. We've said this so many times where, you know, the season sort of hangs in the balance for one or both of these teams, but this is a, this one feels like it could be.
00:16:38
Speaker
Could be big if the sounders go out and lay an egg against the timbers. I don't know what like, what reason is there for hope? Yeah, that should be too dramatic. But at the same time, if they, you know, the timbers are down bad right now, the timbers are maybe in worse shape than the sounders in a lot of ways. They haven't won since early March.
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, they started strong, but they're winless in eight. I don't know if people quite grasp that they've given up 19 goals during this eight game, win this run. They are, they are in trouble. Bill Neville is talking about how he's going to, you know, bench everybody and, and like kind of losing his mind a little bit during post-game press conferences, which I don't know. Maybe Saunders fans would like Schmetzer to do a little bit more of, but I don't know what's your, what's your outlook going into this one?
00:17:24
Speaker
I think Phil Neville is a really bad coach. And I think the Timbers are like really flawed team, maybe even more so than the Sounders are flawed at this point. And so there's there's obviously like,
00:17:44
Speaker
the voodoo, the timbers have held over the Sounders recently, but I think a lot of that, I honestly think a lot of that was like Gio Savarese, and he's not the head coach anymore. And then just kind of like looking at their squad, they've just had a bunch of turnover. And so like a lot of those guys that like are maybe responsible for like owning the Sounders in recent years are just like not there. Diego Char is gonna be suspended, right?
00:18:14
Speaker
No, I think he'll be back for this game. Okay. Okay. Um, which that's a bummer. Uh, yeah, you know, and then, you know, that'd been great, great one to miss him. Uh, Derek, uh, Dyrone Esprita is still on the team, which is a real bummer. Unless, yeah, he'll, I guarantee he's going to start. I don't know if he's done anything this year, but he's going to get, I guarantee you at the easiest start that, uh, that Phil Neville has on the sheet. That, that fills me with like fear and trepidation for sure. Yeah. Um,
00:18:43
Speaker
But yeah, and then just like, I still get the sense that like, their fans just hate the fact that Merritt Paulson still owns the team somehow, like, you know, where you're like, it feels like kind of one of those things where it was like, Oh yeah, somebody's going to take care of that.
00:18:59
Speaker
And then we're at this point where he's in this like most important position on the competition committee, making rules for the league still. And it's like, did nobody take care? Like I thought that was your job, that type of thing. We didn't mean to give him more responsibility. What's happening here?
00:19:19
Speaker
It's just weird. Beating them would feel
Crucial Matches for Playoff Hopes
00:19:22
Speaker
very good. I don't think it saves the season or anything because there's a lot more work that has to be done. Hey, real good start. Let's just start there and then worry about everything else afterwards. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, it would be really nice if the Sounders could, you know, they're coming to this game with a six game winless run against the Timbers, which is the longest in the history of this rivalry that goes all the way back to 1975. And so maybe the Sounders are just due, you know, if you believe in the due line as the gambling fallacy states. But I mean, if the Sounders,
00:20:05
Speaker
I don't know. Uh, it would be great. It would be, you know, the centers have so many games coming up and there's not a lot of games on paper that look really winnable. Like this is one of the ones that they got to figure out how to get points from, right? Like this is going to be salvage. This is where it probably starts.
00:20:25
Speaker
And then like winning this game, depending on how some other results go, they are in a playoff position, which feels like crazy. Crazy. Yeah. Uh, which speaks to like both how, how close they are to being able to salvage the season and yet how far away from respectable. Like if they, if they lose, it's going to be, you know, it's going to be really hard to like see the.
00:20:51
Speaker
see the end there, see how this comes good. I don't necessarily think that Bryant's mentor's job is on the line literally this week. I have not gotten really any indication of that being the case, but it starts getting pretty hot, right? It starts to become pretty tenuous. Yeah, there's a situation where if the Sounders lose this game,
00:21:19
Speaker
it starts a sort of cascading effect that this might end up being Brian's last Cascadia Cup match. Right, sure. I didn't mean to do the rhyming thing there. That was on accident. Oh, I didn't mean anything. Which, that's really moody. And I don't think anybody really wants to think about that. So just win the game.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, just win the goddamn game, guys. It's not that hard. Just four more goals than the other team. It's an easy game when you think about it. And the Sounders can make it a lot easier for themselves if they just won a few more times. All right, well, let's call this a segment. We're going to come back. We're going to take a bunch of questions that we fielded from our Discord. And we'll be right back.
00:22:18
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiatus. So we, as we often do, we have, we aren't doing the whole mailbag episode this week, but we are doing a mailbag segment of this episode. So I hope you appreciate this bonus content here that we're providing you. But just as a reminder, if you like.
00:22:38
Speaker
this segment and you want to participate you got to get onto our discord to ask questions to get on our discord you have to become a member at the $75 a year level which i think is what we call the supporter level you will also find that if you are frustrated by the experience the game thread experience on the website
00:23:02
Speaker
where it slows down and stuff. We have limited ability to address that without spending a whole lot of money, but it works great on Discord and we have game threads that go into the thousands of comments and it's a lot of fun. So if that's something you're interested in, I urge you to become a supporter on Sound Art Heart and help fund this entire endeavor that we're doing here. But with all that spiel out of the way, Mark, Bikes and Coffee wants to know, what do we think the status of the team's haircuts?
00:23:31
Speaker
Uh, you know, I've put a lot of thought into this question and I think that, I think it's really good that basically nobody on the team is bald. I think that's like really important. Um, I don't really have a bald player, which is good. Like you, you want, you want, you don't want that.
00:23:52
Speaker
really.
00:24:05
Speaker
Hey, look, you want your soccer players to have hair. Okay, the most for the most part. Unless you're unless you're in like this, like, you know, like a Vincent company situation where like the head then becomes like the story. Okay, sure. That's a different thing. But beyond that, like the hair is fine.
00:24:27
Speaker
It's fine. It's not it's not a world beater situation. You know, there's like really no world class haircuts on the team. I would say Pedro might have world class hair. Yeah, but he's got to play. Yeah. OK, fair. You know, Andrew Thomas. Come on. Andrew Thomas has got some pretty. Yeah, I. I I might like I might like.
00:24:52
Speaker
Bob here a little bit where a lot of people are weaving with Thomas. Sure. I can't quite put my finger on it. But the the leg mustache is not doing it with me. Okay, fair for Andrew Thomas for some reason. I don't I don't know if it's like the hair plus the mustache plus the accent.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, this is like a like, I have to do some internal soul searching on this like whole Andrew Thomas thing. But can I I just want to interject something I can now I'm curious. There's something about him that does not like he so I don't know if people know his background but he he is born to an American and a Russian parent he was born in Moscow, but he was raised his entire childhood in London. And that's why he has a British accent. I
00:25:41
Speaker
I don't know if he actually is a English citizen or not, but his accent is legitimately born and bred. It's a legitimate London accent, at least as far as I understand these things. But would his whole vibe, would that work in England? I don't feel like I see a lot of goalkeepers that capture that vibe that he's putting off. Definitely not, I think. Okay.
00:26:09
Speaker
For the better, you don't want to capitulate to what the British want. Right, fair enough. I'm just making all sorts of enemies right now. I went after the entire island of the British, I almost call it the British Isles. Overall, I think the hair is fine. I think you've got some standouts. Paul Rothrock's whole thing is chef's kiss, 10 out of 10, no notes.
00:26:36
Speaker
And then I don't think I can really like speak to like what the younger crowd is doing. Cause I'm not, you know, Gen Z I'm not Jen alpha. So like, I can't really speak to like, you know, does Josh attention is like, is that what the kids are doing these days? Like, well, I kind of like throwback thing.
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, there's a I think this came from a discussion that I started, which was I was very critical of the haircuts that Cody Baker and soda Kita Hara are rocking, which are the these kind of alfalfa esque middle parts. And I said that that was an awful I thought it was an embarrassing look. But I would got a lot of pushback saying you don't know what the kids are wearing these days. That's a look now that the kids do. The center part is back in. I had no idea.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, I recently went to like a little bit more of a center part after having the like Don Draper haircut for like a decade. Yeah. Um, you know, from businessman haircut. Yeah, so. And then I really, really like John Bell's like thing going on. He's got like a throwback.
00:27:47
Speaker
like early 2000s, late 90s, like NFL cornerback type thing, which I think really fits with his like vibe of like, he plays center back, CB, cornerback, and all works. And then Georgie's headband was like really doing it for me on Wednesday night. Just like the headband with like a really pacey winger type player, I think really works. And then yeah, I think like,
00:28:14
Speaker
I think and then just like Jauh Paula's beard could needs to be bigger. I think I think he kind of like trimmed it up. And I wish you want him to go more like, yes, not only. Yeah, I think I think that needs to be a little bit thicker. You know, obviously, I've got a really big beard. So I'm, I am partial to that. And then Alex rolled on and just needs to bring back the blonde hair. I think that was a good one. Yeah, he bailed on that, unfortunately.
00:28:39
Speaker
Uh, I understand that I bleached my hair last summer and my scout burned for like six months. So maybe there's like, uh, maybe that's what he's thinking about. So, um, but I would like to see somebody like do something this summer and like do pink hair, do green, like somebody's got to do that. I think.
00:29:01
Speaker
Um, I don't know. I think Jordan would look weird if he did something with his hair. Um, Raul's done like a couple of different things. Yeah. I gotta, I gotta tell you that we are like 15 minutes into this, uh, okay, into the haircut discussion.
00:29:18
Speaker
We might need to wrap it up. No, yeah, I mean, I just kind of went man by man and just said. Yeah, I know. I don't. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not criticizing you. I'm just I'm I get my producer. Lickett is signaling to me to to rapidly. All right. I'm done. All right. Go ahead. You're up now.
00:29:40
Speaker
Uh, so at least twice in the home match against the galaxy on Sunday, two old, two tired. Yeah. At least twice in the home match against the galaxy on Sunday, a galaxy player was attended to on the field by the medical staff. And, uh, you know, it's a pretty long question. I'll just kind of summarize it.
00:30:00
Speaker
There's this new rule in MLS where if it's a tackle that isn't like produces the yellow card, the player is supposed to go off for two minutes. Do you have any insight into like what actually happened there? Is it just kind of like it's up to right? Yeah. So my okay. So my understanding is that the way that the rule is written and more importantly, the way that it's being interpreted apparently is
00:30:28
Speaker
there's a lot of leeway in terms of basically it, even though the rule is written, if there's a serious foul, basically if they believe the foul legitimately caused the delay, whether or not it was a yellow card or not, that if essentially the referees are being asked to assess, do they think that the player is like,
00:30:50
Speaker
being dramatic or do they think it's a legitimate thing? And it seemed to me that what happened in this case is VAR may have actually radioed to the referee and said, no, that like Rusnak made contact with his knee and this is so like, give him some, some time. So I guess the, the, the short version of this answer is there's a lot of leeway and referees are not right now inclined to
00:31:19
Speaker
enforce this rule at its I'm looking at it sort of as the eight second rule in with goalkeepers. Yeah. Like I don't know how often we're actually going to see players forced to stand off to the side for two minutes and and teams get power plays.
00:31:34
Speaker
Like I just don't like the rule at all. Like I don't want it. Definitely brings into question the rule that if it's not going to get enforced, why are we at? Why do we make a big deal out of this? I just don't. I just don't want referees to have more things to care about in a game. Yeah, that's fair. Because I do think that the sub rule, I like the sub rule better. I think where you only have 10 whatever 10 seconds to get off the field or I don't even know what if it's 10 seconds. But there's a timer. There's now like a hard timer on the
00:32:04
Speaker
on how long it takes to get off the field. And I like that. And I guess this rule has the potential to encourage players to be less dramatic, but we'll see. I don't know. As this reader accurately points out, it wasn't enforced here. So who knows?
00:32:33
Speaker
Alright, this is from Mindy. She says, Do you have did you have Obed scoring a goal on your bingo card? I'm thrilled for the kid and thrilled for the increased competition between him and Josh that seems to be ramping up. Who is your preferred pairing now with Jo Paulo? And what do you think coach is leaning toward?
00:32:50
Speaker
I don't know who I prefer at this point. I think Obed's playing better than Atencio, but I also think a lot of the reasons why Atencio is perceivably having poor games is because he's being asked to do a lot of cleanup work that
00:33:10
Speaker
is just kind of papering over the cracks of like larger tactical issues I see with the team. And I think Obed's just being able to play with a lot more freedom. I will say with the caveat that I've been very impressed with Obed playing as a right midfielder. It's something that I've wanted to see all the way back
00:33:31
Speaker
to when he like he kind of came through in 2022. I could just think like with the wave. He's like a mini Christian hold on basically, which is funny because he's bigger than Christian hold on. But yeah, I think
00:33:47
Speaker
Uh, I think the goal that he scored was really great. Uh, it doesn't necessarily surprise me. So I guess if I had a bingo card, it would probably be a square on there. Maybe it would be closer to the edge or in a corner or something, but, um, he is in the type of midfielder that kind of arrives into the play and those types of midfielders towards end to score goals. So, um,
00:34:12
Speaker
I think that it's great. So I think for the foreseeable future, while the team is still playing poorly and is playing a lot of games, I should add, you'll probably see situations where both Josh and Obed start with Obed starting on the wing and Josh either playing center back potentially or
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of different like we could see a lot of permutations as listeners of this podcast may or may not know the centers are in a are once again in a little bit of an injury crisis. Yaymar is out for probably at least a couple games if not more. Nathan is out. So John Bell has now suddenly been thrust into a starting role, which, you know, leaves the Sounders without really much cover at center back. Josh attention has been mentioned as a possibility there.
00:34:58
Speaker
We could see Stuart Hawkins called up from Defiance or, you know, brought on to a full first team contract. We'll see how that works out. But it'll be, it's going to be interesting. I think at this point, I'm ready to say Obed needs to be on the field and I'm not quite as worried about where he is on the field. I know there's been some speculation that maybe he could play even as a 10.
00:35:22
Speaker
Brian seemed to sort of push back against that. He sounds like he would like to keep him at one or maybe two positions. He might move between right mid and sort of in a double pivot. But I think he's reluctant to sort of just hand the keys of the whole offense to him, which he's 18. I can understand his reluctance there.
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah, if he can play, if he can play on the wing, that means Christian can slot into the 10, which is, I think probably the best we've looked all year. So it could be. Yeah. Uh, D height. I believe I pronounced that D underscore. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, asks how bland is Jmo this season toast with nothing on it crackers with no dip. I'm always with no salsa. What do you think?
00:36:08
Speaker
Uh, well, you know, I gotta, I gotta say, I think that tamales with no salsa is an odd fit here. Cause I think a tamale without salsa on it, if a proper tamale, yeah, shouldn't need salsa. So like a handheld food. Originally. Yeah. Great. Yeah, sure. No, you're right. That's a good point. Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think Jordan has gotten.
00:36:33
Speaker
It's fair to criticize him. This is a player who's playing in a primarily attacking position who has one goal in 11 games. So that's just what it is. That's fair. Like he deserves criticism for not scoring more goals. But I also think that he's getting maybe a little bit more criticism than is justified in the sense that
00:36:52
Speaker
People are making out his performances to be, I think, individually worse than they are. Collectively, it's not enough. I think he's got a goal and an assist. He needs to be producing more. But I think if you look at each game, he does more right than wrong in most games. He gets a lot of criticism for recycling possession, but oftentimes it's because he's on a break by himself.
00:37:16
Speaker
Uh, I think he could attack the goal more, but that's not necessarily his game. I mean, he's, he's more of a, uh, you know, he's not a one-on-one player. That's not, that's not really his game at this point. Uh, I do think he, I still think that the Sounders are probably going to be at their best with him at the nine, at least until some additions can potentially be made. I think I've come around to the belief that probably a nine is their biggest.
00:37:46
Speaker
summer need.
00:37:49
Speaker
But I just like, I'm still very frustrated with Raul's inability to be dangerous in the box. Like he can conjure goals, which is a useful skill, but not a skill that I need on the field for 90 minutes. Uh, he's not stretching lines. He's not a particularly effective pressing player. He has the ball, his feet a lot, but he's not necessarily an incisive passer and he loves shooting from distance, which don't get me wrong. Sometimes you need, but.
00:38:18
Speaker
the percentage of time of his shots that are coming from outside the box way too high he's he's he has the average shot distance like one of the highest average shot distances of anyone any forward in the league and that's just i that's not what i want my nine doing yeah i think the
00:38:38
Speaker
It is almost impossible to talk about Jordan Morris because it's like what he's such a polarizing here in this team right now. But I am inclined to give him kind of the benefit of the doubt because the plan this season was to have Pedro de la Vega play off the left. Yes. And him as the nine. We have not seen that this year.
00:39:00
Speaker
battle. Right. He's not played a single he's not started a single game as a nine in a four, two, three, one. Yeah. So they're like, okay, if your entire preseason plan hasn't happened yet, and we're over a quarter of the way into the season, or maybe even a third into the season, that sucks. With that said, if you kind of take a look at Jordan Morris's shot, Matt,
00:39:26
Speaker
with the understanding that like most of this would come as a left winger, it's actually very encouraging. Pretty much every one of his 18 shots, or actually every single one of his 18 shots has come from inside the box. And a majority of them are between the penalty spot and the six yard box, which is exactly where you want somebody taking shots. And shots don't go in sometimes, unfortunately. And for some reason, it seems like
00:39:54
Speaker
that that is an annoying thing with Jordan Morris more often than not, which is a completely different conversation. And then actually, he is way more creative than I think people are giving him credit for. He has 16 chances created this season, which is the top 80th percentile in MLS. So that's good.
00:40:15
Speaker
That's like, that's good. That's what you, um, that's what you want from a player playing out of position is if he's not producing goals, he is creating chances. But yeah, there is this kind of overarching issue of like the sounders are not scoring enough goals. He is on the field and, uh, he's going to get criticism for that, which, and I want to be clear. I think he needs to produce more than he is. I just think.
00:40:44
Speaker
like there's a lot of there's a lot of criticism of him, which is like he is the problem. And I think he is more a his lack of production is more a symptom than the disease or not. Yeah, it's great. Yes. And then there's also this like, what do you do? What can you actually do? Because it's not like you can just like, go sign Muhammad Salah to like play
00:41:09
Speaker
instead of Jordan Morris. It's like the options are very limited. It's like, do we want Albert Rusnak out on the wing? Probably not. Do we want Leo Chu to play instead of Jordan Morris? No, not at all. Or at least I don't. And it's just kind of like he's, I think Christian Roldan is also one of these players that gets asked to do a lot of different things all at once. And then when the production doesn't come, he gets criticism. It's like, well,
00:41:39
Speaker
I think the conversation needs to be like, are we asking Jordan Morris to do the right things? And it's probably the answer to that is no, we're not because of the situation the team is in. And it's just kind of like, well, okay. But yeah, I do think like, if he's on one goal this season, if he were on like three goals or maybe even four goals, that would be way better. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:42:06
Speaker
All right, this is from Monroe Bailey. She says, what is going on with Christian? I actually don't know if this is a girl. What's going on with Christian rolled on this year. Last year, he was not, he was, if not our best player, then at least our most irreplaceable and his absences seem to correlate with our attack going from merely mediocre to outright bad. That impact has not been felt this year though. I think it's fair to say we aren't even seeing much of the dynamic.
00:42:30
Speaker
rolled on combination play down the right these days. I think we all would have hoped that more time removed from the concussions would help him even more. But are there any lingering issues still affecting him? I think that this is a very interesting question because I think the issue isn't even necessarily the player. I think it's just the tactical setup on the right side as a whole. The sounders are, last time I checked,
00:42:59
Speaker
still building up a majority like above 50% on the left side of the field. And basically what the right side of the field is being asked to do is to basically just hold shape. And that's probably not the best way to use Christian rolled on or even Alex rolled on. And then
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, I do think he's kind of suffered a little bit in the dip of form, but like maybe 10 to 15%. Very similar to the Jordan Morris conversation we literally just had. Could he be playing a little bit better? Yes, absolutely. But I think what he's getting asked to do is this like kind of like, he's just in no man's land all of the time. And that really sucks because what you want from Christian Roldan is like a very like,
00:43:46
Speaker
dynamic arrival in the box. And the way that the Sounders attack is working in the final third is just so slow, is so slow. And what ends up happening is just crossing the ball. And Christian Ron's like five foot eight.
00:44:04
Speaker
So he like, the crosses are just like missing him because he's short. And that's not what you want to do with the short team. So, and then I also just think like Alex Rodon's also playing worse. So that, that dynamism. For sure. The dynamism on the right has not been that, you know, that a lot of what their tactical setup seems to be predicated on there being this dynamism, this sort of like innate dynamism between
00:44:29
Speaker
those two players and we really have not seen it. And, you know, I don't know. I think Christian also is another player whose numbers look worse because there just hasn't been final product. Like he's been okay. I think at
00:44:51
Speaker
creating chances. But no, the dynamism isn't there. He's not he's not getting enough shot. He's not really getting into the attack himself. Like he's not generating enough offense through his own action, I think is is also part of the problem. You know, he's he's in the 10th percentile for shots right now for for attacking midfielders. That's obviously very bad. He's just not he's not shooting. He has he's only I mean, he's just not that's that's
00:45:20
Speaker
That is a problem. It means that he's probably not getting into dangerous parts of the field enough.
00:45:26
Speaker
And I don't have a good answer for that. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out though, because with Pedro de la Vega coming back with Obed Vargas sort of emerging as maybe a player in the attacking band, you wonder what that does for Christian Roldan. And I think it makes sense for me like that, that the way the Sounders use their right back to me makes a lot of sense for Christian there. And it's going to be interesting if it ends up being a competition between Christian and Alex, because I don't think Alex has exactly
00:45:55
Speaker
you know, won that job with much that he's done this year. You know, I did not think he looked very good against Louisville. He had the penalty, which to me was sort of a absent minded penalty. He seemed to be calling for the handball. I mean, the irony to be sort of like waving your arm in the air, calling for the handball and then for the ball to hit your arm while you're doing that or at least
00:46:19
Speaker
hit near your arm and your hand being up give the appearance that it may have struck your arm is there is an irony in that and then of course that comes on the heels of him having just completely mindless red card against Vancouver they got him suspended an extra game
00:46:35
Speaker
It's been a rough go for Alex. And I don't know if there's something else going on behind the scenes or what's going on, but I don't think either Christian or Alex can be written in ink as starters right now. And if that means they're competing for one spot, that's something I'm totally fine with. I think I like Christian at right back right now more than I like.
00:46:57
Speaker
Uh, then I like Alex, but like you said earlier in the show, maybe Christian at, at the 10 makes some sense. I still think Albert Rusnak is the, is the better option given those two choices. But I think there's a conversation to be had that certainly against certain kinds of opponents that Christian could be a really useful player there.
00:47:18
Speaker
Yeah well I will add I really liked Christian right back against the galaxy because he effectively played as like an auxiliary central midfielder and that just like in the moments where the sounders looked good against the galaxy which
00:47:32
Speaker
Let's be honest, there weren't that many, but at least I got the vision of the shape that was happening in possession, and I really saw something there. So I would like to see more of that. Or maybe even Alex playing the same way. They just played the position completely different. So I liked that.
00:47:52
Speaker
Ken W. asks, what's your starting 11 next week and are you going to play a smash and grab wide open soccer and much more conservative and hope to catch them in transition, presumably talking about the timbers? Yeah, you're talking about the timbers. Yeah, could a disaster showing be the end of Brian, even if he still has the locker room, which we kind of already talked about.
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah, we talked about that. I don't, I don't think this is a make or break game for Brian, but like I said, it, it could, it definitely will add a lot of, I think it starts turning up the heat a lot if it doesn't go well. So I don't want to, I don't, we don't need to focus too much on that. My starting 11. Well, there's a lot of unknowns right now. You know, the big one is whether or not Josh attention. Got hurt against Louisville. It was unclear in real time, whether he was cramping or if he was injured, but he did not finish that game.
00:48:41
Speaker
Uh, but aside, let's, so that that's, let's assume for the sake of this podcast that he's healthy because that's what I would prefer. So I think my starting lineup in this game is probably Christian rolled or Stephen Fry at goalkeepers Christian rolled on at right back. Uh, Jackson Reagan at right center back, John Bell at left center back. And then I, I guess knew who is my left back. Although I am getting to the point where.
00:49:12
Speaker
I don't think he's the written in ink starter. I think Cody Baker needs to be in that conversation. I don't know that Cody Baker has quite done enough to justify a automatic start against the timbers in a game on Wednesday night wasn't enough for you.
00:49:27
Speaker
I did like that. I did definitely like that. I have to admit I did like that. Uh, but yeah, like, you know, there, there's been moments where I, I think we can see some of the concerns about Cody Baker right now, but I, I think I'm inclined to go with the more conservative choice against Portland. So new who's who I'm going with, uh, Joe Powell and Josh attention and central midfield. Obed Vargas at right mid Albert Rusnak at center mid.
00:49:54
Speaker
And then I, I guess, I guess for another game, I want Jordan Morris on the left and roll Reed Diaz as the nine. And I, I realized this is, this is not the most adventurous lineup. It's probably a conservative choice. My Rui Diaz thinking is probably the same as Brian Schmetzer's, which is, man, he sure does score a lot of goals against the timbers. Doesn't he? Why don't we just see if that works here again?
00:50:21
Speaker
but I'm at the point now where, as soon as the Sounders have a chance to put De La Vega into the lineup, I think I would rather see him and put Ruy Diaz to the bench. Although, I don't know, there's a conversation to be had. Maybe Lao Jamez is a good game for Lao Chu to start at left mid. He didn't play a ton against Louisville. He didn't do a ton against Louisville. Yeah, he is bad.
00:50:43
Speaker
Uh, I would say he was one of the more, he only played in overtime, but he, he was one of the more disappointing performances. I thought like he, for a player who was coming in with fresh legs and you know, better pedigree, you would have thought he'd been able to do a little more against them than he did. But where do you, any, any changes you'd make to that?
00:51:05
Speaker
I would say, so the Sounders play at altitude on Wednesday against RSL and then they play again the following weekend against Vancouver. I think that this game is the one that you have to win. If, you know, if you only win one game this week, it's gotta be the one against the timbers. It's got, yeah. And I think that like, I know Spencer hasn't really
00:51:35
Speaker
sent a lot of messages to a starting lineup, but I think I would rather, so for like the left back conversation, I would rather Nu Who play against the team in 11th place than the team, or excuse me, the team in first place than the team that's like the sounders in 11th place because the Salt Lake's attack is just like way better than the timbers. Yeah, that's a fair point. That's a fair point.
00:52:03
Speaker
But then it's like, OK, Cody Baker, he played like 120 minutes on Wednesday night. Right. So maybe. Yeah, he's probably. Yeah. But you just got like.
00:52:15
Speaker
it's getting to the point where the sounders have looked so much better in possession on the left side when new who doesn't play. And that is partly a new conversation, but it's also partly a Cody Baker conversation. And then it's just kind of partly like what do different players do in different situations that I think you just got to like you got to do something there against Portland because that's the game you have to win. So
00:52:43
Speaker
I guess I'm kind of talking myself into a corner that like new who not playing on Sunday is the reason why the Sounders are going to win. But I don't necessarily think that but I just like Spencer's been talking about this like looming like sending messages to the starting 11 players.
00:53:02
Speaker
And I think the Portland get like it's Portland set like you don't start against Portland. That means I think XYZ of you like you got to do better. Again, I'm not a head coach. So I don't know if that's how anything works. I'm just a guy. So
00:53:21
Speaker
But I would like to see younger players given an opportunity over some veterans. And think about it, a lot of these veterans have played in the last like eight matches where they haven't beaten the tempers. Yeah, totally fair point.
00:53:43
Speaker
You know, I think Brian, Brian felt like he was starting to send a message when he pulled Rusnak and Joe Paulo out of the, the galaxy game. Like, I think he, he gave a pretty strong indication that that was, that was a reflection on how little impact he felt like they were having in the game. And he wanted to put sort of fresh legs out there. I wonder how many options they really, I mean, he sort of.
00:54:10
Speaker
I felt like he sort of painted himself into a little bit of a corner with the way that he used the lineup against in Louisville, because so many guys ended up having to play so many minutes that there's only so much rotation. There's only so many kind of young guys you can then elevate into the starting lineup for this game, because you're asking some quick recoveries.
00:54:34
Speaker
We should, I guess we should move this long. We might, we need to trim this down a little bit. We've, we've been going on. Yeah. All right. Uh, all right. This is maybe you can handle this one relatively quickly. This is from the Joshua says we're at the point where we are our record. What should fans do? This looks like it's going to be a long toothless season.
00:55:00
Speaker
I think fans should do whatever they think they should do. Yeah. There's no easy answer. It's really not that deep. I don't think there's like, uh, if they, if this quite, I don't, I don't know who this person is. So I don't want to assume that they're asking one thing or another, but if this question is implying like some sort of protest or walkout, sure. Do that. If this is like, Hey, maybe I should sell my tickets to the next few home games and go do something else. Yeah. Do that.
00:55:29
Speaker
Yeah, do what you got to do is the answer. Yeah, hey, like this is a leisure activity, like being a fan of a sports team is supposed to be fun. Yeah, and if it is not fun, you shouldn't do it. I can have fun when a team is bad, personally, I because they're interesting things for me to think about when the team is bad. And I have an obligation to your website. So
00:55:58
Speaker
Um, but if not watching the games is what you want to do, you do not need to make an excuse for that. You're not a worse fan than anybody else. If you need permission to respond, how do you feel like you should respond? Here is, here is no, Sadia just telling you, you can do what you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, did you want to answer that at all or no? No, I, I agree with you.
00:56:23
Speaker
When really 23 asks who's more at fault players or coaches early in the season, Brian felt more at fault from my viewing. While as the season has progressed, they think the players performances have been more at fault. What do you think? Yeah, I I mean, it's it's a little of both, right? Like I think Brian could definitely still be doing more to hold players accountable. I think he could be doing more to, you know,
00:56:51
Speaker
Create an environment of competition within the team. I still think that is maybe, you know, maybe still something that is a little lacking, but I do think that vague, the vague tactical setup. If we are to take Brian at his word, which is.
00:57:08
Speaker
We want them playing progressive passes. We want them counterattacking more. We want them to be playing faster. We are coaching this every weekend. And I see that in training. I see that those drills. I see all that kind of stuff. I can't really explain why that that stuff is not necessarily manifesting itself in games. You know, we saw it against the union. I don't necessarily think the union was a unique tactical approach for them. I think that it just manifested itself more
00:57:37
Speaker
it managed to best it itself in a more, you know, positive way. I, so I still think there's like a player performance issue here and, but it is Brian's job to get, so it's like, it's Brian's job to get better performances out of the players. I don't think this is an untalented team. I don't, I don't think this is a bad roster. I don't, you know, I look at this roster and I see a lot of useful pieces that just aren't quite fitting together yet. And I think, so I guess if that means it's a,
00:58:06
Speaker
I guess there's a third element in this, and that is, is it a front office issue? And sure, there is an element of that too. If there, I don't necessarily, like they could have done more to improve this roster than they did, but I still think this is a team, you know, I think most pundits looked at this roster and saw a roster that was going to probably win the West. And I don't think like literally every pundit was snowed over by that. Uh,
00:58:34
Speaker
Yeah, even the people that thought the Sounders got gifted the CCL title thought that they were good enough to win the West. But yeah, I don't know. If the players aren't performing, I think that's a coaching problem, just in general. Right. Yeah. Unless there's really stupid things that happen, like Alex were on thread card. But that's only happening once or twice.
00:58:59
Speaker
This one's from Chico Flores, and it's a little bit of dealing with his last question. He just, Taylor Duwam and on the broadcast talked a lot about, or not a lot, but several times he mentioned that he felt like the Sounders were complacent. And by that, I think he meant that in numerous ways, both in the way the roster was constructed, but also in the competition within the team. And Chico is essentially just asking what our take is on that. Is that a fair critique of this team?
00:59:29
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, they're not performing. So yeah, I think they're that when a team doesn't perform, that invites criticism. And Taylor twelman is regardless of what sounders fans think of him, like him, hate him, whatever.
00:59:47
Speaker
There is not a person who is more connected in MLS, so he has a very informed opinion based on the people he talks to. But it is just an opinion. It's not necessarily right or wrong. Because you could say the same thing if the sounders had 10 more points.
01:00:08
Speaker
right? Like, like, the sounders have not done enough to like raise them up to this MLS 3.0 standard, even with the same exact roster, they could have 10 more points. And you could have the same conversations. But yeah, I don't know. I did I don't
01:00:28
Speaker
Yes, I think he's right. Personally. Yeah. And I, I'll just add this that I think pressure like that is good. Yeah. It's good. Like the sounders should be hearing this. Like they should not be hearing national pundits singing the praises of them every week while they are struggling to get results. And I hope that we don't like, I would like to think we are applying that same pressure. We're trying to come at it. We talk about it every day. So there needs to be some.
01:00:55
Speaker
We can't just go burn it all down every day. That gets really tiresome, really fast. And I don't know, some people seem to want us to do that. But I think there is a lot of valid criticism of this team. I think that complacency is a fair thing to accuse them of. And I definitely think it's good to be hearing it on an Apple broadcast. And maybe that spurs some more action because action is good. I absolutely believe that.
01:01:24
Speaker
more people should know that the Sounders are bad, personally. That's just my opinion. Honestly, I'm not being like glib. I talk to fans of other teams and they're like, oh, I had no idea that they didn't have that many points. And it's like, yeah, they suck right now. More people should know about that. Bard asks, why don't we commit to counter attacking soccer? This roster feels primed to be an elite counter attacking roster.
01:01:53
Speaker
but it's hampered by a bunch of other things in the center. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that the...
01:02:03
Speaker
I don't know that this team is actually set up to be like a pure bunker encounter. I mean, it's set up to be a possession based team. So I guess if the, the, I think what people are saying is why aren't they getting on counters more? It's not so much that they want them to be a purely counter attacking. Like if the premise is they should be a purely account counter attacking team. I don't agree with that premise. Uh, they are not set up to be a,
01:02:31
Speaker
absorb absorb absorb spring guys on a break type of team. They have really two guys who are capable of
01:02:40
Speaker
of doing that offensively. And I don't know that even that's the best setup. What I think is more frustrating is that they don't find themselves in more transition opportunities. And that I don't have a good answer for because it seems like they do a lot of the stuff. Well, like they are a reasonably good team at counter pressing. They have they create a fair number of turnovers in the opposition end. And yet they don't turn those turnovers into shots at a very
01:03:09
Speaker
Good clip. In fact, if you look at the number of turnovers they create in the and in the opposition's defense of their what their offensive third
01:03:20
Speaker
They turn those into shots at a lower rate than I think almost any other team in the league. I don't have a good answer for that. And I don't think that's a coaching issue. I have to assume that's an execution issue because the turnovers are being created through, you know, are presumably the whole point of creating those turnovers is to turn them into shots. Like, right? There's no point in counter-pressing if you're not trying to
01:03:46
Speaker
Like if that, if the whole point, the whole point of the exercises is to get closer to goal. And, and so I don't know, I don't have a good answer for that. It's very frustrating. Yeah. And I think like, if I may be presumptuous about this question, there are a handful of moments this season where it seems like the Sounders have been able to.
01:04:11
Speaker
And then they've just turned around and passed the ball backwards. And that seems instructional for various reasons. I don't know why I could dig into that, but and then my last point about this question is it takes two to tango like the other team has to.
01:04:31
Speaker
has to be susceptible to counterattacks. And the best way to beat the Sounders right now is to not allow that to happen. Just let the Sounders kind of have the ball. And I think that that's what they're doing. That's what opponents are doing. So yeah. All right. So we're going to end on this note.
01:04:49
Speaker
And it's kind of at the heart of a lot of discussion on Discord lately. This is probably elicited the most discussion on this subject has probably elicited the most discussion. It's from G on E and they said, should Raul be on this team in the summer? Doyle mentioned the centers needing to make a big decision regarding Raul's future and the team. And I'm curious where you think the centers are at. I think that
01:05:18
Speaker
the sounders should just try to make their team better this summer. And that might sound like a cop out. It kind of is. I don't think
01:05:29
Speaker
I think I differ with a lot of people on this opinion or on this subject. I don't think the Sounders need like a marquee signing this summer. The marquee signing was Pedro de la Vega. He just hasn't played yet. I think the Sounders just need to make their team better this summer. And I also see a point where
01:05:50
Speaker
very soon, the conversation around like what the Sounders do this summer is actually a conversation about what they do next year, because they might just be bad enough that it doesn't matter what they do this summer. And I think if I just think the question is, do you think Raoul should be on this team next season? And the answer is probably no.
01:06:13
Speaker
And I think you probably just got to figure out the best way to facilitate that. Is there somebody that just takes him? Or is there even maybe a little bit of a transfer fee? You got to get creative. I think my biggest criticism of the Sounders front office brass over the last two years is they have not been more proactive about getting rid of players. Yeah.
01:06:41
Speaker
You know, we had this conversation about our yoga who just kind of basically left for nothing. Yeah, and there were very significant rumors, if not a downright offer last year that would have been a lot more than just cap space.
01:07:00
Speaker
You can just run down the list. Like, you can just run down the list. And I think that this is a broader conversation than just Raoul, but they need to be better at being proactive about getting rid of players. And that also comes down to selling promising players. They're just not very good at that right now. And they haven't been for years. And I also had that criticism of Garth, quite frankly, towards the end there.
01:07:25
Speaker
He wanted to keep the band together for a little bit longer than I think should have. But regardless, none of that really matters. I just think like probably Raoul's got to go this summer if you're going to do anything with this roster.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, I, my, my impression has sort of been there's a threshold that he probably needs to hit. Like it's great that he has six goals. He's, he's exceeded his goal total from last year. I don't think I'm breaking any news by observing that those six goals do not feel like six goals should. He has four penalties. He has two shots from absolute.
01:08:06
Speaker
kind of situations that are not really repeated like he's not going to score another goal from midfield and he's probably not going to score another fade away left footed volley from the edge of the penalty area and whether or not those are like he might score more crazy goals but those two goals are not themselves repeatable and we don't know how many more penalties he's going to get a chance to take so
01:08:29
Speaker
point is his his goal total is, if not inflated, it's unsustainable. He's not going to keep scoring at this clip the same way that he's been scoring. And so either he needs to score some more sort of like repeat, he needs to start scoring goals in a repeatable way. And by that, I mean, scoring goals from inside the box, he essentially is not sure he's not getting into the, you know, if you look at his shot map,
01:08:55
Speaker
He essentially does not get shots from inside the six-yard box, which is a hard place to get shots from. But historically, when he was at his best, that was where he actually created a lot of goals. And it's, I think, pretty indicative of the way that his game has changed is that that's no longer part of his game. He's not making that near post run on low crosses. He's not mixing it up in the box the way that he used to.
01:09:21
Speaker
He used to be really like a goal scorer's goal scorer, where he just got goals in a variety of ways. And that's part of what made him so good. He's no longer that player. And so unless he starts showing that he can get those kinds of goals, I am of the mind that it makes sense to buy him out. And maybe that's the last resort. Unless you're ready to replace him with a designated player, there's no reason to buy him out.
01:09:50
Speaker
But I'm with you, though. The sounders have been way too passive when it comes to changing their roster. They've relied on this idea that we don't have the cap space to make the moves we want to make that feels
01:10:06
Speaker
Like, yeah, you don't, but that's also because you're not creating cap space to do it with. And the way you do that is you move players. And so, yeah, one of the other, I think the sounders need to figure out a way to make some moves this summer. They have some cap space. They should, as it is, my understanding is they could probably bring in sort of like a low TAM player and a U-22 if they so desired.
01:10:28
Speaker
I would hope that that's what they do. I don't necessarily expect them to sign a DP this summer, but I wouldn't be against it. If they know the player they want in the winter, why not try to get them this summer, right? So I don't know. It'll be interesting.
01:10:43
Speaker
Yeah. I agree. Interesting. But all right. Well, that's, that's a good place to call this Mark. You thank you so much for hanging out with me and putting together this podcast. Uh, of course. Of course. Want to thank our sponsor full pool wines. Uh, I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for no Saudi at this. This is, uh, Oh yeah, this is this idea does. And remember you'll never leave God alone. Oof.
01:12:06
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!