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Under the Lights: Can the Seattle Sounders save their season vs. Minnesota United? (feat. Jeff Rueter)
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After a gut-wrenching PK defeat to Dayne St. Clair and Minnesota United in Game 1 of their Round One Best-of-3 series, the 2025 season is on the line as the Rave Green get set for Game 2 at Lumen Field on Monday. Can Seattle force a decisive Game 3 back at Allianz Field, or will they be the latest victim of Ramsey ball? Follow Lobbing Scorchers:
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction & Streaming Info
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
MLS Playoffs Focus: Seattle Sounders vs. Minnesota United
00:00:44
Speaker
Good evening, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Under the Lights. We got a big show for you all here this evening. We're going to be talking and MLS playoffs, both the Seattle Sounders ongoing series against Minnesota United and the other round one game one results. Jeff Reuter.
00:01:03
Speaker
going to be tapping in at some point to help us do that. ah Supposedly, I texted him. He said he's down. So we should get a Jeff Reuter cameo to talk MLS playoffs. A lot to talk about with that. I was going to give ah a few more thoughts on ah on Sounders Minnesota game one. There's been some the blazing hot discourse surrounding that game, as we're all aware of.
00:01:24
Speaker
And then also probably react to a few of these other game ones. And then also, Folks, we got stadium discourse to get to. I wasn't expecting that when I woke up this morning. Tom, I see i see in the chat already bringing it up. We're going to talk about that right at the top of the
Seattle's Soccer-Specific Stadium Exploration
00:01:45
Speaker
show.
00:01:45
Speaker
A new report from Sportico regarding Seattle's potential future soccer-specific stadiums. at Long Acres and Renton. ah There seems to be movement on that front, so we're going to talk about that at the top of the show, then to get into some playoff stuff.
00:02:00
Speaker
And I'm sure the playoff takes will will carry us through most of the evening here. so have a feeling ah there might still be some takes to be to be had regarding this this Game 1 in Minnesota.
00:02:16
Speaker
ah So we are going to get to all that. ah Before we dive in tonight, ah As always, like the video, sub to the channel, rate five stars. Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, all social platforms.
00:02:30
Speaker
ah And also check out our interview that we just dropped a few minutes ago with Katie Wilson. Mayoral candidate, Lobbying Scorchers, that's right, politics podcast, longtime political pundits.
00:02:44
Speaker
ah We actually, we it's our second interview with Katie Wilson. She actually, I don't know if, a lot of people probably know this, but not everyone might know. Lobbying Scorchers is actually actually responsible. We take credit for the rise of Katie Wilson's political candidacy.
00:03:01
Speaker
we were one of the first We were legitimately one of the first shows ah to have her on for an interview when no one knew who she was. Some people knew who she was, but she was definitely not as big a deal as she is now, and she was nice enough to to come back on the show. So check out the interview. was a good interview.
00:03:19
Speaker
was good to catch up with Katie Wilson. Election Day, November 4th, coming right up. Everyone go vote. I still have to go do that. But everyone everyone, go exercise your civic duty. Check out our... ah interview with Katie Wilson. There's some good stuff in there.
00:03:35
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, but we, we got a, we got soccer on the docket tonight, guys. We do, uh, as always, if you got comments, takes observations, agendas, grievances,
00:03:50
Speaker
Go ahead and drop in the chat. I'll get to as many as I can. I'll be hanging out for probably a couple hours here, and we should be getting that Jeff Reuter cameo at some point soon. ah All right, you guys want to do stadium discourse?
00:04:04
Speaker
that's what That was the impression that I got from ah looking at the chat before I went live. People are hankering. for the stadium discourse. And I think this is, ah this is actually, this is a big story.
Seattle Sounders' Stadium Debate: Fan Attachments & Challenges
00:04:15
Speaker
This is a big story. I don't know if you guys ah have have seen, I'm about to pull up the,
00:04:22
Speaker
uh, Sportico tweet right now. I'm not subscribed to Sportico, so I can't see this article, but their tweet, I think sizes up what we need to talk about here tonight, uh, which is that they're reporting, uh, the Seattle Sounders are seeking outside investors for the first time since the club joined MLS in 2009. Not going to be so broke now, are they?
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah. The team has retained Mollis and company. to explore a, quote, strategic capital raise, according to a statement shared with Sportico. More specifically, the Sounders are looking for a large minority partner that can lend capital and expertise to the club's big project ambitions, including real estate aspirations that could include a new soccer-specific stadium at its Long Acres development.
00:05:13
Speaker
So there you have it from ah from Sportico. It sounds like
00:05:22
Speaker
Sounders brass are taking steps at, ah at least, at least looking at this idea of building a soccer specific stadium out at long acres. That would be the team's home moving forward. Now this wouldn't happen for a while.
00:05:36
Speaker
Uh, but the fact that there's a, they're looking for investors and stuff, they got a, uh, what is this? What is this company? Mollison Company? the The fact that, mo I don't know what Mollison Company is, but I think the fact that Mollison Company, I don't even know if I'm saying it right.
00:05:53
Speaker
The fact that Mollison Company, that that's that's like a company that they do stuff, I guess, to invest and facilitate the types of projects.
00:06:04
Speaker
that we're talking about here. And really, i think it this this affirms what we kind of already knew, which is that, you know, the people in charge of things, their ultimate hope and vision is for this team to have its own home.
00:06:19
Speaker
That's all theirs. And the site for that, I mean, it's been proposed to be Long Acres, I think, this whole time. But this this kind of confirms that. ah So let's talk about that. What do you got what do you guys think, Chap? What do you think of the proposed soccer-specific stadium at ah at Long Acres? We've talked about it before.
00:06:39
Speaker
um But, you know, now that there's been movement on this front, it's worth talking about again. And, you know, I was thinking i was thinking about this because I've ah um been against the idea.
00:06:53
Speaker
I haven't liked it from the beginning. ah And is that sentimental attachment to Lumenfield a little bit? Perhaps.
00:07:04
Speaker
ah But the issue I have with this idea is just that I understand the drawbacks of sharing a venue. It's not just Lumenfield, but anytime you're sharing a venue that's not yours, there is a lot of dumb bullshit that you have to deal with. We we have talked about this, the monster trucks.
00:07:22
Speaker
When you share a venue and you're an MLS team, not the NFL team, and they got a monster truck rally or a Taylor Swift concert or whatever the case may be.
00:07:33
Speaker
you're down the pecking order of, uh, of the Lumen field priorities. Uh, you end up in situations where you got football lines on the field in past years. That hasn't been an issue as much in recent years, but that is something that's an issue for MLS teams that share NFL stadiums.
00:07:49
Speaker
You got monster monster truck rallies. You got T swift. You got the K pop bands. It's your, it's not your actual home. Right. And, uh, i remember I remember being very salty about the fact that the monster trucks were going to take precedent over the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals or whatever that situation was.
00:08:11
Speaker
They were about to not be able to host a CCC game because of the monster trucks. Okay, so when we're talking about why they want their own place, I think that's a huge reason why. And I get that.
00:08:25
Speaker
I get that. Like, you want to have your own crib. You don't want to be renting forever. Eventually, you want to buy a house.
00:08:37
Speaker
So that's where they're coming from with the ah with the premise of the idea. So I think we should acknowledge that there is there's like a ah logic and a valid reason behind that.
00:08:50
Speaker
But where I tend to come down is that ah Sharing Lumen Field is kind of the, it's it's the price you pay right now for having ah location to play your home games that is second to none.
00:09:08
Speaker
You're not going to be able to move locations anywhere in the state of Washington. To me, that wouldn't be a downgrade. from the Lumen Field location.
00:09:20
Speaker
The Lumen Field location is incredible. It's accessible. It's right in the heat of Seattle.
00:09:28
Speaker
The match days are incredible because of how the games like take over that whole surrounding Piner Square area. And for me personally, too, I used to drive to the games. i get We get parking passes for media, right?
00:09:48
Speaker
I used to drive to all the games and take advantage of my parking pass, but I realized like i taking the bus and the light rail is way better than driving. Would I be able to do that at a at the Renton Stadium, at Longacre Stadium?
00:10:06
Speaker
Maybe the plan is at some point to have accessible transportation out there, but I can't imagine it's going to be as as accessible to everyone.
Accessibility & Location Concerns for Seattle's New Stadium
00:10:18
Speaker
as the Lumen Field location.
00:10:22
Speaker
But this is what I was thinking about because honestly, guys, it seems like they're committed to this. It seems like this is going down.
00:10:29
Speaker
Like it ah it really seems like it's going down.
00:10:33
Speaker
So I've been thinking like, what are what are ways they could do this that that I would think would could make it work and make it still a good viable game day experience? There's two there's two ways that I can think of. Number one, they...
00:10:49
Speaker
i I think you need, you need a literally, you need a light rail station that takes you directly to the stadium. You got to have that.
00:10:59
Speaker
That's, that's the only way to even come close to the accessibility that we're talking about with Lumen Field. You'd, you'd have to have, I don't know if this is possible. I'm just laying out how, how I think they would have to do it to make it work.
00:11:12
Speaker
If you had a light rail, If you could hop on the light rail from Pioneer Square, for instance, and it could take you straight to a stop in Renton,
00:11:26
Speaker
you could, you could ah you know, you can still go to Sluggers and get lit and then hop on the light rail. I mean, i don't I don't do that personally. because I'm working the games, but people who want to go to Sluggers and get lit, get on the light rail. You could go hop on, takes you down to the stadium. That wouldn't be that bad, would it?
00:11:49
Speaker
It just wouldn't have the same vibe as having it in the centralized Pioneer Square area, which I still think is an issue. But at the very least, i like I wouldn't mind it that much if I could hop onto any light rail station.
00:12:02
Speaker
And if it took me right there, that'd be okay, I guess. But here's the other kind of issue, which is that I don't know how many of you have been out to Long Acres. I've spent quite a bit of time out at Long Acres at this point.
00:12:14
Speaker
I haven't been, haven't gone to training like on a daily basis since the Starfire days, but I've been Long Acres enough to know it's there's not like a lot around there.
00:12:26
Speaker
With Lumen Field, you got bars, restaurants, all kinds of stuff going on, all kinds of stuff to do close to the game, right in proximity to the stadium. The vibes are incredible.
00:12:38
Speaker
If you've been to Long Acres, it's like a, it's a Boeing building that they renovated and turned into a state-of-the-art soccer facility. But there's no, there's like, ah I think you drive by a storage facility to get there.
00:12:52
Speaker
like some strip mall. There's just not, there's nothing like the surrounding scene that Lumen Field has, which is pretty unbeatable. It's one of the better surrounding game day experiences in in MLS.
00:13:08
Speaker
What are you supposed to do in the surrounding area of Long Acres before the game? Now you could do what I was saying. If they have transit, you could pregame somewhere else and then hit the train and go, I guess.
00:13:20
Speaker
It just wouldn't be the same,
00:13:25
Speaker
It wouldn't be the same.
00:13:30
Speaker
So I have a hard time seeing how they execute this move in a way where they retain the game day experience that they have at Lumen.
00:13:42
Speaker
We were talking about this, ah J.O. and Noah and I, when we were pulling up to the League's Cup final.
00:13:49
Speaker
there's nothing when When there's a big game, a big Sounders game like that, and it takes over that whole area. There's nothing like it. i don't I don't see how you replicate that at Long Acres.
00:14:01
Speaker
I don't. I have a hard time getting there. I was trying to get there today because i i was like, we're probably just going to have to accept that this is happening. they ah been There's been rumblings behind the scenes on this for probably least a year or two now.
00:14:17
Speaker
And now they got ah outside investors, Mollis and company, Someone look into Mollison Company. what do they What's their story?
00:14:27
Speaker
I have no idea who they are. But they got Mollison Company involved. That's a step.
00:14:35
Speaker
Now, will this happen until like 2035? Probably not. But it is going to happen at some point.
00:14:42
Speaker
And it's weird to think about. It's weird to think about these home games being played anywhere but Lumenfield. I can't.
00:14:50
Speaker
I don't know if I can process that. I don't like it. If they do do this, they got to keep the turf because I'm not going to give up other fan bases complaining about the turf. I'm not going to give that up outside of the fact that it is legitimately part of Seattle's home field advantage.
00:15:10
Speaker
I love the tears of other fans and players complaining about the turf. It's great, but I don't want to give that up.
00:15:22
Speaker
But in all seriousness, uh,
00:15:26
Speaker
I don't know. what do you What do you guys think? I haven't really been keeping track of chat. but do you Do you think there's a way? I was doing these mental gymnastics. like you know If they put the light rail there.
00:15:37
Speaker
this's Okay, so this is my other idea. this is my other idea To make it work. You would need the transportation. and then Because the surrounding area right now is Renton.
00:15:49
Speaker
An area of Renton where there's there's just not that much going on around Long Acres. There's not. It's really like it's in a pretty random location. What you could do.
00:16:01
Speaker
Tell me what you guys think of this.
00:16:04
Speaker
We got what you guys think of this. St. Louis City SC. They have a thing where they basically the whole surrounding area of their stadium. It's like a campus.
00:16:14
Speaker
They like took over the whole surrounding area and kind of like dedicated it to St. Louis City SC, as I understand it. And they've decked it out with... There's like shops and bars and restaurants, stuff to do right there. I think it's the difference is it's like in downtown St. Louis, I think.
00:16:36
Speaker
I could be wrong about some of this. Correct me if I'm wrong. But the point is like they have... like sort of renovated the surrounding area to make it not the same thing as what the surrounding area of Lumen Field is now, but more more similar to that than it would be if the stadium was by a storage facility and rented.
00:16:59
Speaker
I feel like they'd have to do something like that. So that there's stuff to do nearby and kind of St. Louis city, I see is not the best example. I'll tell you guys a better example.
00:17:10
Speaker
Last year for the first time I went to Philadelphia with some friends had never been there, never spent much time
The Seattle Home Field Advantage at Lumen Field
00:17:19
Speaker
on the East coast. We went to a Phillies game Sunday night baseball.
00:17:25
Speaker
I don't know if any of you guys have ever been to Philly or Citizens Bank Park, but that was one of the sickest game day experiences that I've ever had. And the reason, and in both of those stadiums, it's the Eagles Stadium and the Philly Stadium.
00:17:40
Speaker
They're like out in some kind of, it's not like a centralized downtown Philly area. It's like out in its own location. But what they have is they built like, it's like a superplex area.
00:17:54
Speaker
of like bars and restaurants and stuff to do right on the same area as the stadiums. And it was one of the fucking coolest places I've ever been.
00:18:07
Speaker
It was so sick. Like, i I can't even, ah I don't even know why. It was just like, the vibes were incredible. There's plenty of stuff to do.
00:18:18
Speaker
The game day experience at the Phillies game was... um i don't i this i haven't done much East Coast sports. They like they they kind of they had it going on. They had it going on, and i think the reason I had so much fun was because there was so much stuff to do that they had put like right there.
00:18:38
Speaker
So, I mean, I'm not saying they have to like replicate something like that, but some sort of idea like that where they put... stuff around the stadium. I feel like you got to have that. You got to have that. It can't be like
00:18:53
Speaker
at a random location in Renton with nothing going on, can it? Can it? I feel like even if they take care of the transportation aspect of that,
00:19:04
Speaker
There's just not, it's not nearly as cool as like the surrounding area of Lumen Field. There's no way to do that where it's not a downgrade in the match day experience. And on top of that, i guess my concern would be like, if you put it out
00:19:20
Speaker
way out there,
00:19:23
Speaker
It makes it like, ah i think they there are probably new fans that have been gained from people who aren't necessarily soccer fans or Sounders fans being just being around there on a match day and being like, what's going on with this? Why are people so hype?
00:19:41
Speaker
You see the game on the TV at the bar where you're at, maybe you get into it. Like, I feel like it's kind of limiting accessibility.
00:19:50
Speaker
Or just, it you're not going to discover it by chance maybe as much. and People aren't. I don't know if that makes sense. But just the idea of having the games being played in this separate location that's away from everything and not in the middle of the actual city.
00:20:12
Speaker
I don't know.
00:20:17
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, it's hoping for the sake of argument. Exactly.
00:20:25
Speaker
it's not ah It's not making it like St. Louis. it's
00:20:30
Speaker
My point is, like I feel like to to approach the match day experience that you have at Lumen, you need stuff around the stadium. More than you have right now in Long Acres. Have you guys been Long Acres?
00:20:43
Speaker
No shade at Renton. Spend some time in Renton. It's fine. It's whatever. There's just not as much going on in that exact location of Washington as there is where Lumen Field is at.
00:20:55
Speaker
So, I don't know. Those are kind of just my, where my mind goes on the topic. There's a lot of sentimental attachment to Lumen Field.
00:21:07
Speaker
We've all been to the sickest games of our lives there.
00:21:12
Speaker
Also, This is the other thing, man. ah how What's the capacity on a long acre soccer-specific stadium going to be
00:21:24
Speaker
going to be? 30K?
00:21:28
Speaker
Lumen Field, you can pack 70.
00:21:32
Speaker
for, for like big games, you know, pack 70 every game, but they did for the league's cup final. They did for the CONCACAF champions league final. They did for MLS cup 2019.
00:21:42
Speaker
Maybe they do something where, you know, uh,
00:21:47
Speaker
If there's a game like the league's cup final that has extra demand, then you play that at Lumen. So you can pack in your 70 and rest of your home games where, you know, it's only going to be 30 K, which is what you get at Lumen. Now, I guess they could do that, but then it's like, don't you relinquish a little bit of your home field advantage because it's not the stadium that you play in every game.
00:22:11
Speaker
So even you're not as used to it anymore.
00:22:16
Speaker
Part of the home field advantage is that Seattle is so accustomed to playing on the surface,
00:22:26
Speaker
playing in the elements and how those affect the surface. All that stuff is what part of what makes it a fortress, right? i don't know.
00:22:37
Speaker
So,
00:22:40
Speaker
It's tough. It is tough because I understand why they want their own venue. The monster truck thing was tilting. You guys were all, I, you guys were all as tilted as I was about that. I remember that. We all heard that the monster trucks were taking precedent over cocky calf champions league and that didn't sit well.
00:22:59
Speaker
So like if that stuff does annoy you, like I know it does annoy all of us. That's why they want their own stadium.
00:23:10
Speaker
But to me, i i don't know. I kind of can't help but come down
00:23:16
Speaker
ultimately to a place where i feel like the drawbacks you have sharing a venue are the price you pay for one of the best locations and best match day experiences in A
00:23:38
Speaker
lot of stuff would have to change, man.
00:23:42
Speaker
where would the Where would the march to the match start from?
00:23:47
Speaker
They couldn't start it where they started now in Walker Renton. That's too far.
00:23:54
Speaker
So, I don't know, man. I just can't really i can't really get there on being gung-ho about it, even though I understand, too, that there would be there would be so many benefits to them having their own crib.
00:24:08
Speaker
There would be.
00:24:14
Speaker
by the West Seattle field from O'Day, build a stadium right there off the junction. That's at least still actually Seattle, but even that, even that, aren't you sacrificing?
00:24:27
Speaker
even Isn't West Seattle? West Seattle is like pretty hard to get to. There's no like transit out there, is there? This is the thing. This is the thing about Lumen.
00:24:38
Speaker
It's so easy to get to.
00:24:41
Speaker
So easy to get to.
00:24:45
Speaker
I love, I live in Madison Valley. I hop on the G line. Takes me down kind of in the Pioneer Square vicinity. Walk to the game. Walk through Pioneer Square. it's like my little ritual.
00:25:01
Speaker
If I had to drive out to Renton for every home game, I'm going to be pissed.
00:25:06
Speaker
Not be happy about that.
00:25:11
Speaker
So...
00:25:13
Speaker
I don't know. The sentiment that I've gotten from ah from the fan base is similar concerns. like i don't i don't It's kind of a hard mental hurdle, I think, for anyone to think of the team playing at Not Lumen.
00:25:27
Speaker
But they don't seem to be they don't seem to be taking that into account. They want to do this. and must There must be so much bullshit. like with sharing the stadium with ah with the Seahawks and the monster trucks and the concerts and having to, mean, can you guys imagine having to work with first and goal?
00:25:46
Speaker
i would i I would be trying to get out of that too. It's easy for us to sit here and talk about our match day experience. They actually have to work with first and goal on a regular basis. Like, can you fathom that?
00:26:01
Speaker
It's like one of the worst companies I've ever seen.
00:26:08
Speaker
like If you want to talk about infuriating, like i don't I don't know how many people know the lore of ah ah first and goal, but it's bad.
00:26:23
Speaker
It's bad. having to Having to work with that company every day. if I had to work with that company every day, i would probably want to move to Renton. So,
00:26:36
Speaker
I get that.
00:26:40
Speaker
Nate, what are your what are your complaints about the match day experience at Lumen? I'm curious. Because, I mean, i don't I don't sit in the stands. Like, I don't buy tickets. I don't drink before the games.
00:26:55
Speaker
I don't do any of that. So, I'm not kind of privy to what might have deteriorated.
00:27:04
Speaker
But to me, like, the League's Cup Final this year, kind of
00:27:12
Speaker
It reinforced how good a location Lumen is. It's so good.
00:27:17
Speaker
It's so good.
00:27:24
Speaker
Build a soccer specific stadium in Long Acres, but play home games at Lumen. But then why would you? Is it like a de facto Starfire replacement?
00:27:36
Speaker
You have Defiance play there. Yeah, you play your Open Cup games there.
00:27:43
Speaker
If it's like a Starfire replacement, I guess I wouldn't really have much of an issue with that. Starfire is a you know, it's a sentimental place in its own right.
00:27:55
Speaker
And the Open Cup games are still fire. But mean, if that's what it was, I'd be okay with that. But I don't think that's the idea.
00:28:10
Speaker
I'm pretty sure the idea is that the whole point is like they want the first team to play there.
00:28:17
Speaker
They want the first team to have just their own space where they don't have to deal with first and goal.
Challenges of Sharing Lumen Field & Future Discourse
00:28:25
Speaker
They don't have to worry about if they can. They literally, they were going to not be able to host a CONCACAF Champions Cup game because of monster trucks. I don't know what they...
00:28:38
Speaker
there was some There was some sort of... they may maybe they were I can't remember. How did that get resolved?
00:28:47
Speaker
How did that monster truck situation get resolved? But it's like they don't want they just don't want to have that. They want to be able to they have a CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal that is not on the original MLS schedule. They don't want have to deal with like, oh, the K-pop band is actually taking that over that day. You can't play.
00:29:07
Speaker
Like, I don't want to deal with that.
00:29:10
Speaker
That stuff happens all the time. So well keep a we'll keep tabs on this. I'm sure there's more news to come.
00:29:22
Speaker
More shoes to drop, as they say. And either way, i can't imagine it building a stadium takes like, they can't get there they can't get their act together on that for anything less than like,
00:29:39
Speaker
10 to 12 years, I swear. Like it's, we're probably talking about like 2038 by the time they build this thing.
00:29:48
Speaker
But, you know, maybe not. They seem pretty motivated to to get it done.
00:29:54
Speaker
They got outside investors.
00:29:59
Speaker
I think people are coming up with ah interesting ideas. It's just like, I don't know if there's a single idea that you can come up with that's going to be as good as Lumen.
00:30:12
Speaker
I don't know if that location exists. It's the best location. It's one of the best locations in the league. They've had some of the best, they've hosted some of the best games that have ever been played, not just for the club, but I would argue for the league there.
00:30:32
Speaker
The aesthetic of it, not of the ah playing surface. I get that the turf is not great and it's beat up. But I think Lumen Field looks awesome on TV, for both for for Seahawks and Sounders.
00:30:48
Speaker
And I think there's also an element of like playing actually playing in the heat of Seattle. Doesn't it kind of make the team feel more kind of authentic to Seattle? I'm not saying playing in Renton would make it inauthentic to Seattle, but I do think like when people make New Jersey jokes about the Red Bulls,
00:31:08
Speaker
They literally, they don't play in the state that, they don't play in the same state. This would be different. it would at least be in the same state. But like, there's, I think there is an issue there with, there has been an issue there with them not, people feeling like they're not authentic to New York.
00:31:25
Speaker
Is that fair or not?
00:31:28
Speaker
I don't know, but i if you if you literally play in a different... You call yourself New York and you play in New Jersey. You open yourself up to that. And that's kind of how the concept of NYCFC came to be.
00:31:42
Speaker
Like a team that was actually based in New York City. Now they play in the Yankees and the Mets outfield. That's their stadium situation. They're supposedly building one, right?
00:31:55
Speaker
But yeah, like the 49ers playing in santa Clara. That's whack. That is whack. And this is vi that this is that vibe. I feel like moving to Renton is that vibe.
00:32:08
Speaker
How are you going to call yourself the San Francisco 49ers and play in Santa cruz santa Clara?
00:32:17
Speaker
This would kind of be that.
00:32:21
Speaker
This would kind of be that. I'd argue not at playing in Santa Clara is egregious.
00:32:29
Speaker
But if people were going to say that playing and rented is egregious for the same reason, can I really argue that? LA Galaxy and Carson, exactly. Exactly. You're becoming that. that is That is what I would caution.
00:32:43
Speaker
was That's what I would caution people who make these decisions. Purely optically, you're making yourself looking like the LA Galaxy playing in Carson. You are.
00:32:56
Speaker
You can... You can say you don't care about that or that that's not a bad thing, but that is going to be the narrative. People are going to question the authenticity to actual Seattle.
00:33:16
Speaker
So, I don't know. Like I said, I've been thinking of ways that ah that they can make it work. I feel like if they if they create like a legitimately...
00:33:29
Speaker
good and viable accessible transit system to get out to this theoretical stadium and it's like super easy to just hop on a train pops you out right there
00:33:43
Speaker
that would be one thing that could I think at least make it viable and then also what I was saying about just I think you gotta have you got to have more stuff around the actual stadium than they got around Long Acres right now there's there's nothing really out there It's like office buildings, like I said, storage facilities, strip mall vibes. It's that kind of place.
00:34:12
Speaker
So
00:34:15
Speaker
I don't know. I can't really get there, but if you got any more thoughts on stadium discourse, ah you can keep cooking and chat. If you're feeling compelled, you can also lay down your thoughts in the comments.
00:34:30
Speaker
going to be a hot-button issue because they're very clearly they're trying to make this happen.
00:34:37
Speaker
They're trying to make it happen. That's pretty much all I had on stadium discourse. You guys want to do playoff discourse?
00:34:46
Speaker
Get a little playoff discourse. We got Sounders Loons to talk about.
00:34:52
Speaker
We'll talk about that with Jeff when he taps in. I have faith that he's going to tap in. Let's see if he's texting me. He hasn't, but... Oh, yeah, he has. 8.15. All right, we got Jeff in 10 minutes.
00:35:03
Speaker
Perfect.
00:35:13
Speaker
So I'll just kind of cook on my initial playoff takes until Jeff pulls up. And, ah you know, he's ah he's based in Minnesota. He knows what's up with the Loons more than anyone. I feel a little... ah Like the last time I talked about Minnesota United, I was not aware
00:35:32
Speaker
of how extreme Ramsey ball is. i knew it I knew about it. We talked about it. We talked about it before the first time these teams played because that was right around when the pundits and the the fil the stats people were like, this team doesn't ever have the ball ever.
00:35:50
Speaker
They have it like 20% of every game. What is this? So i I remember talking to Jeff about that. But i didn't I didn't understand the gravity of it, chat.
00:36:01
Speaker
I didn't understand the gravity of what we were dealing with with this team.
00:36:11
Speaker
The team that we're dealing with right now are ah
00:36:18
Speaker
menaces to society with how they play this game. And I don't even say that as a...
00:36:28
Speaker
I don't even say that in a derogatory way. I think that even their fans have to admit this.
00:36:36
Speaker
we all see We all see how these games are going. Not just when they play the Sounders, but they do that they do that every game. They do that every game. Every game.
00:36:49
Speaker
It's just how they play.
00:36:52
Speaker
So with that mind, I had a few things I wanted to talk about from game one that we ah that we we addressed on the post-game show.
00:37:03
Speaker
But I think there's there's more to be said. Let's start, ah let's start chat, with this Jackson-Reagan penalty discourse. Because this is we have lost the plot, I fear, on this, number one. We've lost the plot, I think, in a couple ways.
00:37:25
Speaker
But starting with this Jackson Reagan penalty discourse, ah which after a game that they won in penalties, Eric Ramsey and the entire state of Minnesota, evidently, are still steamed that Jackson Reagan wasn't called for a penalty on that ah on that early breakaway that Bongi had.
00:37:47
Speaker
they They think it it was a penalty and a dog so red. Minnesota should have been up a man for that entire game. That have guaranteed the win. I think this is this is how the thinking goes.
00:37:59
Speaker
They're steaming mad about this call. Eric Ramsey, in a game that he won, he dedicated like 10 minutes of his presser to this call. He said it was one of the most stone-cold penalties he's ever seen.
00:38:11
Speaker
Basically said it was the worst call he's ever seen in his life.
00:38:16
Speaker
Which...
00:38:21
Speaker
umll just ah I'll just reiterate, I guess, what I gave ah my original take from the post-game show on ah on this call, which, first of all, I think that ah I've watched that play several times.
00:38:36
Speaker
And if you want to argue that Jackson, Reagan, and and the Sounders kind of got away with one on that play,
00:38:46
Speaker
I mean, there's an argument there. i'm not he there is There is full extension and there's a push. There's a push.
00:38:59
Speaker
There's a push when he's shooting. He goes down. He's the last guy back. And like i when I say get away with one, if that had been called a penalty...
00:39:12
Speaker
it wouldn't have been like the craziest thing I've ever seen. I'll say that. And I'll also say, you know, i was ah i was listening to Nos Adieras with J.O. and Aaron, and they they were talking about they they were talking about it from the standpoint of how I always try to think of it, which is just if you did a role reversal and a Seattle player was on the receiving end of that and it was a Minnesota defender who perpetuated it, how would I feel?
00:39:37
Speaker
Would I feel aggrieved? They were saying they wouldn't feel that aggrieved.
00:39:43
Speaker
I could see myself being aggrieved. I know myself well enough that I could see myself that if the Sounders player was subject to that exact same play, I would be saying shit like, if it's a push, it's a push.
00:39:56
Speaker
He pushed him. You have full extension. He falls over. What are we doing? That should to be a penalty. That's a dog. So I could see myself saying that.
00:40:05
Speaker
So if you want to say that Seattle arguably got away with one on that play, I actually really don't have any issue with that take. They they probably, you could say they got away with one there. However, am I taking crazy pills?
00:40:19
Speaker
Or did Minnesota United in this exact same game get away with an equally egregious? It was more egregious. It was more egregious. I challenge any Loons fan or anybody from any fan base.
00:40:34
Speaker
To watch that play where where Jordan Morris has a header on target, and I think it was Pereira, blocks it with his hand off the line.
00:40:45
Speaker
That is a penalty. That is a dog so red. If you swat a ball off the off the line with your hand, that is a dog so red. It's a dog so red. The reason that that was not a penalty in a dog-so-red for Seattle was because they called a foul on Paul Rothrock for pushing over Michael Boxall before Jordan took the shot.
00:41:03
Speaker
That was not a foul.
00:41:07
Speaker
Go watch the clip if you're trying to tell me that that was a foul. There's no way. There is no way in any chance in any dimension. if you are If you are actually going to watch that clip and tell me that that was a foul on Paul Rothrock, you are delusional.
00:41:22
Speaker
like Like, we got to be serious here. We got to be serious. That's not a foul. He does not push him. Boxall goes down, and he drew the foul. He drew the foul.
00:41:36
Speaker
Little gamesmanship there for Mikey Box, okay? Fair play, honestly. Fair play.
00:41:45
Speaker
But if we're talking about Seattle getting
00:41:51
Speaker
getting off easy on that first call, That fully evened out. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. the The dog so red that Minnesota got away with was a worse call.
00:42:03
Speaker
It was a worse call.
00:42:07
Speaker
Now, you could say, oh, well, if they get the call right on the Jackson-Reagan play, Seattle's down a man pretty much the whole game. Minnesota gets a penalty.
00:42:20
Speaker
they're for sure going to win playing up a goal and a man for that long.
00:42:27
Speaker
The thing is, like, you don't actually know that.
00:42:33
Speaker
The Portland Timbies were down a man for, like, the last half hour of their match against San Diego, and they almost tied the game.
00:42:45
Speaker
So you don't know what's going to happen, number one.
00:42:50
Speaker
And number two, that whole situation fully evened out as far as I'm concerned. So that's my take on that. I was planning on giving a couple more takes before Jeff popped in, but we got him here right now.
00:43:04
Speaker
So on that, let's bring him to the stage, folks. It's Jeff Reuter. I want more takes. I want more takes. Sorry, I speak for the chat. We want more takes. More takes. More takes.
00:43:17
Speaker
Formerly of The Athletic, now got a new substack called Five Aside. That's the right name, right? Yeah, you nailed it. You're the first person to say it out loud. That's actually kind of nice to hear. It's fun. It's new. New substack. i Jeff, thank you so much for joining the show to talk some Minnesota United, Seattle Sounders, and MLS playoffs with us.
00:43:36
Speaker
How are you doing? And ah yeah, why don't you tell the people about Five Aside, your new new project? That's funny. I'm realizing right now, partly I set up lighting better. I look so much more rested.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah. Then when I was on the show last, which is, uh, yeah, I look, I look, ah you can tell that I haven't been doing much work lately. Um, I'm, I'm all right. Yeah. I mean, like, look, it's, it's, I've wrote about this already. I talked about this on the total soccer show. I, my final day at the athletic was on October 10th.
00:44:04
Speaker
So I am a 20 day free agent at this point. It's, um, it's an interesting experience. It's, it's weird. Like I, I wrote 15 to 25 pieces a month for The Athletic from 2019, 2018, really, until September.
00:44:21
Speaker
And ah you know when you suddenly go to like, no one is expecting me to write for them and I am not producing coverage for over a month, it does really weird things to the brain. So you know admittedly, shaking that up and open. like I was diagnosed with depression over a decade ago. so you know, that's a fun way to kick off the episode, but it's just, it's nice. Like this sort of things in a weird way, the sub stack needed to start because the playoffs were coming up.
00:44:42
Speaker
And I think it was just like such an obvious moment where I just needed to be able to just like cover something. Normally I know how to cover the MLS cup playoffs, even in this weird format. So like, you know being able to do that, continuing to do a total soccer show, getting appearances like this one, like I really do appreciate it.
00:44:57
Speaker
And five asides is just the latest kind of iteration of it. It's a free sub stack. I won't ask for any money through the rest of the year for a few reasons. um But yeah, i'm I'm covering my whole wide array. already did my playoff preview, ah my first one, and then I dropped one tonight that I'll post on social tomorrow ah that covers women's national team, men's national team,
00:45:19
Speaker
New York Red Bulls, NWSL and Football Manager 26. So a little of everything, I guess. See what sticks. Hell yeah. ah So how does Substack work? Like if you have it free right now, do you still, do people still go there to subscribe or is it just you go yeah and then when? Yeah. So the perk, if you subscribe and yeah I came up with it two days, you will get it like 12 hours before everyone else. And I guess they can find it. But basically if you subscribe, you get it to your email sent to you directly. It's free.
00:45:48
Speaker
And you can pledge. I still have no idea if I'll ever monetize this thing. I just have not thought that far ahead about it yet for a few reasons. But um yeah, just go ahead. Just follow it. I'll try to keep up with keeping something out every single week. Maybe I'll spread out the cadence so it's a little more regular. at This piece, I'm testing it with this one. Fair warning. It's like a 4,000 word post on five different topics. It's like insane.
00:46:11
Speaker
And it's probably a multi-sitting. It's definitely a multi-trip to the bathroom piece. So that's okay too. I hope it is. If it's not a multi-trip to the bathroom piece, then like I hope you're doing okay. That's the Jeff Ruger trademark. You got it. Going long form. now i know i've been I've been keeping up with Five Aside so far.
00:46:27
Speaker
It's great stuff. Everyone in chat, ah go check it out. Toss him a sub. Jeff Reuter, one of the best in the game. And ah he's got it he's got it going on on five-a-side in-depth coverage on ah on everything MLS and right now the MLS playoffs.
00:46:41
Speaker
So definitely show him some support. Jeff, thanks ah thanks for hopping on with us this evening. Let's talk some Major League Soccer and the MLS Cup playoffs ah because you're you're based in
Minnesota United vs. Seattle Playoff Series Analysis
00:46:53
Speaker
Minnesota. You've been on the show, I think, a couple times.
00:46:56
Speaker
to talk about Minnesota United. And they ah these two teams are currently in a best round one, best of three playoff series. And ah game one, there were there were no goals from open play, but there was discourse yeah coming out of this game. I feel like this is almost... a This is sort of kind of becoming a Western Conference rivalry, I think, in a bigger way through, i think, after this series, with how hot this discourse has been yeah so far.
00:47:25
Speaker
ah There's like some bad blood, some animosity brewing between the ah the fan bases. But I guess let's start with ah with why that is. Because, ah Jeff, we got to talk about Ramsey Ball.
00:47:39
Speaker
We talked about it. I think it goes back a little further than this year, but yeah, let's start with that. ah See, I guess I was not as aware of that. Well, 2020 Western Conference Final, I think it's just like this indignant... Oh, okay. You're talking about the rivalry.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm talking about the rivalry. Yeah. yeah let's Let's go in with the like why the ah the series has this weird tone to it. Well, I think you're i think you're right. like The playoff history has created the foundation of the rivalry because Minnesota United has...
00:48:07
Speaker
been eliminated by Seattle from the playoffs. like They bottled it in the Western Conference Final 2020. Yeah, it was a great day. We all look back on that and remember it fondly. Shout out Gustav Svensson. that was yeah That was actually not fun at all because that was the COVID Cup year. I know. That game was in an empty-ass stadium. And i actually i actually remember when Gustav Svensson scored that game-winning goal.
00:48:30
Speaker
And the emotion that I felt was literally, it was sadness. Because you couldn't be there. yeah I was there. They let media in. Oh, that's good. That's right. But ah that we were the only people there.
00:48:42
Speaker
That's very sad. That's worse. Exactly. That's comfortably worse. There was, it was like all those games. You remember that shit. That was weird. All those games in the empty stadiums. They had like the crowd noise pumped in.
00:48:53
Speaker
yeah but like, I just remember Gustav Svensson scoring that game winner and being like, this is like, God, I wish the crowd was here so bad. because this Was that one of the stadiums that had any sections with cardboard cutouts?
00:49:06
Speaker
Like, please tell me. No, we're in intent no, it was empty. Brutal. I remember it being empty. I think they were doing the the crowd noise stuff, but that made it worse. That made it worse. It was like, cause this isn't real.
00:49:17
Speaker
this It reminds you how like perverse the world around you is. Even when you have the most normal thing and the Sounders are making their like fourth MLS cup in five seasons. Yeah, exactly. It was such a was such a great moment, though, like game winning conference final goal. in a If y'all remember in that game, Seattle was down two to zero in like the 70 whatever minute. i think 70, 72, something like that. Yeah. And they equalized. Rui Diaz equalizes on 88.
00:49:45
Speaker
And then Gustav Svendt, they scored like three goals in the last like 17 minutes of the game. It was awesome. It was great. It didn't even need extra time. Yeah, it was just weird because no one was there to see it. And then there was no there was no subsequent MLS Cup that year. Nothing. We don't. There's no game. No, it was just crazy. They just was. There's just no reason. That was it. Tell you what. And even if you look at, OK, what venue is it No team plays there anymore.
00:50:09
Speaker
Like yeah it's a ghost town, you know, like it truly has been erased away. <unk> we never heard of it Roberto saying low-key one of my faves because you could hear the team celebrating. I didn't see it like that, but ah I did think when they had the MLS's back tournament in the ah Orlando bubble, it was kind of interesting getting to hear like what exactly what the players are saying.
00:50:30
Speaker
I wasn't there, but like when you were watching it on the broadcast. Oh, sure. I was going to say, we're going to have to pivot this entire interview to your experience in the bubble. You could hear what they were saying on the field, on the broadcast.
00:50:40
Speaker
And it was like, okay. This is like, there's literally just exactly what they say in the middle of a professional soccer game. Of course. Yeah. So that was kind of But ah being at Lumen for a conference final game winner with no crowd, that i just kind of sucked, honestly. I'll be honest. Yeah.
00:50:56
Speaker
ah But anyway, Jeff, ah looking at this series that Minnesota and Seattle are playing right now, fighting rivalry. And i think a lot of us here in the city of Seattle are ah are salty about how hard the Sounders got Ramseyed in that first game.
00:51:12
Speaker
We all knew it was coming. We knew it was coming. These teams have played twice this year. i would say the first game in Seattle was a little more of an open, normal-ish soccer game. I'd agree. And the subsequent two have been.
00:51:23
Speaker
The second one at Allianz Field was not. That was, ah I call it radical extremism. Okay. When we're talking over 70% of possession getting yielded, but it's not even just the stats of it. It's the way they do it.
00:51:37
Speaker
Like the whole, all of the sequences where they literally pretty much give the ball to Seattle. And then they kick off and all then they set up that they set up that block that is just so deep.
00:51:50
Speaker
And then they say, you just knock it around as ah as much as you want. And ah Seattle has really struggled, I think, ah finding the balance of the patience you need to go against the style with that, with like...
00:52:02
Speaker
picking your spots to be aggressive, but not getting wulled into what they want you to do, which is get frustrated and get reckless and get sloppy and make bad giveaways and let them get off on their, uh, on their counters. And they, I mean, they just lean into it to such an extreme degree that, uh,
00:52:20
Speaker
Look, it's i've seen ah I've seen Seattle play against a lot of teams that play quote-unquote negative soccer. I've seen them have to break down a lot of low blocks. It's not uncommon for teams to come into the midfield and in play like that.
00:52:34
Speaker
But this just feels different to me, number one, because they were the they're the road team in this situation. Minnesota, they do this at home. and They do this at home. yeah And me looking at that, i just I'm like,
00:52:49
Speaker
if When you're on the road, I get it. I get it. That's how that's a lot of teams do that. But to lean into it to that extreme of degree at home and, you know, see out a 0-0 at home and win on penalties,
00:53:07
Speaker
There's a, I don't know. What's the word I'm looking for? It just, there's something I think that feels dishonorable. Yeah. It just, you feel like it's like the grifter state failing to hit MLS cup play. What do you, what is your honest take on this ah Ramsey ball? like Like, do you, do you think he's justified in this or is, ah or does he take it too far? I,
00:53:27
Speaker
Because it's tough because I'm like, I think he takes it too far, but they won the game. They won the game. They got they this format. You can win game one in penalties like that. They won the game. So who am I to question the methods? I guess. Do you think the ends justify the means or is this is is this radical extremism?
00:53:43
Speaker
I mean, they do justify the means, right? Like, I think that you can say the ends do to a degree here. but Where I, so like, I'll preface this by saying I'm not a Minnesota United fan.
Minnesota United's Roster Strategy & Fan Engagement
00:53:52
Speaker
Like, I disavowed when they went up to Major League Soccer in 2017, and I've been indie on them since. Obviously, I cover them very closely, or at least they're my lens through which I've learned about other MLS teams as seeing them in Allianz Field, right? So I'm just saying that first. I'm not being like an indignant fan here. When I say don't really think that I think that ah they're doing it because it works.
00:54:14
Speaker
I don't think they're doing it because this is what they want to be doing, per se. Like, I get the sense. I got the sense when they brought in Julian Gressel. because So keep in mind, Inter-Miami, they weren't going have a senior roster soccer.
00:54:28
Speaker
Talking about a lot in the spring window where we're getting to May or whatever. And it was pretty clear that they were just going to have to like find one of those really stupid MLS procedural ways to get rid of him. So they waive Julian Gressel, Minnesota United picks him up, and then it's announced that Inter-Miami is still covering the majority of Julian Gressel's salary.
00:54:46
Speaker
which is just like, again, only in MLS do you run into this sort of stuff. Anyway, so when you bring in a player like Julian Gressel, it implies you want to do good things on the ball. At this stage of his career, Julian Gressel is much more useful in possession than out of it. I think that he'll admit it as well, right? It's one of those reasons why, like, in Vancouver, he was occasionally playing as a number eight, but ever since, you've kind of only seen him play as a right wingback, and part of that just his crossing is so good that you want to lean into that but it's also strong foot on the outside so the idea is you have a guy who rather than inverting and dribbling inward is going to get it on his strong foot dribble upfield progress play up there where there are fewer defenders and the rest of your team can move forward it's good for using possession right i assumed there would be two or three other players at the start of the summer
00:55:29
Speaker
come in center backs, maybe, but center back has always been one of their areas of strength this year. They have a pretty set back three with Nicholas Romero, Michael Boxall and Jefferson Diaz, who has started the majority of their games. So I thought it would be the midfielder. They bring in a defensive midfielder. They got super late. Nectarius Triantis scored a goal from beyond half field against San Diego in the regular season, looked really good, probably the man of the match.
00:55:50
Speaker
I think he was officially the man of the match, actually. And I think about it against Seattle, just in the 90 minutes and what he was able to do um from a Minnesota perspective. I think that Seattle outperformed Minnesota. So the man of the match is probably on the losing side in this one.
00:56:04
Speaker
um Where it gets interesting to me, though, is that those moves didn't come. And they wrote it out with the same players. I think that they were constantly in these, like, I think back half of the window, they were like, okay, we're going to,
00:56:19
Speaker
We're going bring in the players now. We're going to do it. And they didn't like the market valuations in Minnesota. It came out this week. Minnesota is still one of the lowest spending organizations. They spend even less on transfer fees to scale than they do on salaries compared to the rest major league soccer. They just are Philadelphia level with this sort of stuff right now to scale to the rest of major league soccer. Vancouver is spending bigger transfers like this now.
00:56:39
Speaker
Um, Players don't arrive. Late in the window, they suddenly do, like, a deluge of transfers. And this happens... kind Like, none of these are, like, Hyung-min Sun or Thomas Muller. So they're, like... It's Triantis, but it's also, like, a guy named Dominic Fitz and, like, a young Costa Rican winger on a team that doesn't play with wingers.
00:56:59
Speaker
And it's, um... It's a lot of these ah ah moves that don't look like their first team moves. They look like they're moves for the future. They look like the market presented these opportunities we had to bring in. And so then they get rid of some players. Daniel Oshayi, someone who really helped them in transition to hold the ball for maybe that extra 2% because it was like a two forward system with him and Kelvin Yeboah. He's gone. He's off to Villarreal. He's already in the bench for Champions League games. It's crazy.
00:57:23
Speaker
Um, you've got, Joaquin Pereira was rumored or was in talks to go to Trabz and Spor and ultimately turn them down. That package was rejected. So he sticks around. He signed an extension probably to boost his transfer value, but you didn't make the changes necessary to do more in possession stuff, which is what the team has kind of been clamoring for since last year.
00:57:42
Speaker
So you lean into the pragmatism. You look at their results when you, exit the window pretty soon after they lose in the open cup semifinal to Austin FC. And pretty much from that moment on, it's just been like, you know what?
00:57:53
Speaker
We've got our one trick. It's working really well. When we try to do other stuff and we overextend ourselves and Calvin Yopoak gets hurt by the way. And we, he's our only like and MLS level striker. So now we're playing with non-strikers. We just have to go into this sort of like, let's just not embarrass ourselves in possession. Let's, let's try to create some chances, all these sorts of things, but mainly our bread and butter is going to be, we defend and we do set pieces.
00:58:15
Speaker
And that's all they're doing right now. And I think it is as simple as the squad never got evolved to a point to do more than that. And I think that has more to do with Khalid Al-Ahmad, the CSO. You can read him in backfield this week kind of talking about, you know, it's budgetary. It's budgetary. You can get players who like the ball for cheap.
00:58:30
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like, it's it's just one of those things where I don't think you can say it's because of that. But I can say if you're doing that, and you're only viewing the transfer market through opportunism, CEO, he was the CEO of Barnsley previously, his last job. So he also has that sort of like market valuation sort of brain that I don't quite have tailored. It's why I'm not a CEO.
00:58:47
Speaker
I'm not even employed. um He goes through all of these sorts of things. And it's just like, no, you're offering me too little. I'm feel like I'm getting bought over. it So you wait till the final minute. So now you also don't have time to train these guys. in They're not getting acclimated through the League's Cup.
00:59:03
Speaker
They're not getting, ah you know, integrated before you had players making their full debuts for the team and in the second half of a semifinal of a tournament. Like that's not where you want to go on your bench.
00:59:16
Speaker
So I think this is squad management wise. And I think it's squad management that goes above the coach here. um it's just really funny. Like you look at their, their possession per game and it has dropped as the season has gone. Right. Like, I think that pretty much all of their games at this point, since I'm looking at a list of them, I think all of their games since August have pretty much been. It's 70, 30.
00:59:39
Speaker
Like 70, 30, 40, 60. Yeah. Yeah. Like 40, 60 is like, Whoa, why are you guys have the ball that much? 40, you're getting to 40 there. Like that's, I'm, I'm used to seeing this squad play at 70, 30, but like, like everything you laid out there, that that does explain it. And that is ah that's different than what I thought the situation was.
01:00:00
Speaker
I legitimately thought that ah Eric Ramsey was just a radical ideologue that ah has some... Because he's the set-piece guy for Ten Hag, right? Because keep in mind, that was his last job too. The set-piece guy and like, I don't know, I just thought like, okay, this guy must think he has some some ah way of playing the game that, ah you know, I think pragmatism is is a way to...
01:00:24
Speaker
describe it, but it's also just like ah like ah risk-averse maybe, conservative. If you're more risk-averse and conservative, you're harder to beat, and that gives you a better chance to win.
01:00:37
Speaker
And especially, like you know I thought the ah the budget stuff and the roster stuff that you're talking about is why i figured they thought a coach like that would be a good... fit for them but from what you're saying it sounds like it's more out of necessity because of where the roster is right now and if they had personnel where they could play a little more uh with the ball they would do that and they want to do that at some point they just kind of can't right now so they're doing the uh the absorb pressure and just be the greatest set piece team on the planet
01:01:09
Speaker
And that's what we're going to do for right now. And then we'll think about like evolving our style of play later. Is that essentially, you think they're going to try and get personnel to change this style? Cut out for a second. So apologies if I'm.
01:01:21
Speaker
Oh no, you're good. I, you did. just post I was posting the stream and I, sick I slowed my internet. That's such bad etiquette. Did you hear my, it does like it is pragmatism to degree, but I think it's also pragmatism that it hasn't been fully leaned into.
01:01:37
Speaker
Um, in functional ways, I guess. Does that make sense? Now I've like, there, I've got you back. um Like it's, it's not necessarily like this was all part of the plan.
01:01:52
Speaker
I think some of this was not part of the plan, or I think that they got to a certain step of the plan. They were ready to make the next step. Kelvin gets injured that Tani gets sold. They didn't bring in a backup striker. And the plan is suddenly, well, this part of the plan was kind of working, wasn't it?
01:02:05
Speaker
So I think that it was a lot of leaning into the bit just because it was what was working at that point. um But it's yeah, I mean, like it's weird.
01:02:15
Speaker
i i can tell you now, like going to I think I was probably at seven, eight loons games this year, which is solid. Like I try to go. I'd never make it to even half the games anymore.
01:02:28
Speaker
um Every game is kicking off at the same time and I have to watch other teams across the league too. Anyway, thanks MLS. um the The mood in the stadium. If they're playing an opponent that's perceived, if ah ah let's just make it easier, an opponent that's lower in the table, if Kansas City is coming to town, if the Galaxy are coming to town, whatever.
01:02:48
Speaker
And they're scoreless. It is like the most frustrated that a fan base has ever seemed when they're not losing. Cause it's just like, I don't see how we're going to do this until we knock it off a guy's shin towards the end line and get a corner kick.
01:03:03
Speaker
Or just pull a set piece, yes. Just a free kick out of nowhere. ah But then they always score, but they always, but then you get the set pieces and this stadium was designed really well where like the, the, it was trying to stay compact with the crowds. so The idea, instead of spacing the crowd out, like a lot of venues do kind of build the first and second deck atop each other so that it stays in.
01:03:24
Speaker
And it's like a very like old school English, whatever, to keep the sound in whatever, when they get a set piece of any kind, this could be Dane St. Clair right at the halfway line. This could be Michael Boxall taking a long throw from 35 yards up the touchline.
01:03:36
Speaker
It could be a corner kick. It started with corner kicks in 2010. The NASL era. Twirling scarves. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Everyone is so into it. And I think that it's tapped into this weird, like the bandwagon fans that are also going to two or three Vikings games in a year and know the skull and the stomp, stomp, clap and the flugelhorn. I don't actually know what the gel horn. I want to say I'm not a great Vikings fan.
01:04:02
Speaker
Um, when that atmosphere is happening it can happen in american sports because you know what the moments are it stops start it is actions that you're watching happen one after the other in sequence rather than constant motion a lot of americans don't know what to cheer for in soccer keep in mind they're not like up at 10 30 central watching us you know what mean like they they are not as plugged into it and so for those families who are taking the kids there on a saturday everyone's getting excited because the ball has stopped. Minnesota is about to lob it in. And sometimes they score and they do it more and their opponents look miserable while it's happening. Yeah. That sounds like a thing an American sports fan can get behind. Right. Like it's as simple as that.
01:04:40
Speaker
It's a decent bit. Like the fact that they, uh, have gotten this good at executing it. I can, I can respect the, uh, the bit, I guess, but it doesn't make it any less ah frustrating to watch.
01:04:50
Speaker
um Do you think they can win MLS cup like this? Because I just don't think there's any way, Jeff, i like they might win this series against Seattle maybe. and And they are so good at executing on this style that maybe be if they run up against Vancouver or in ah LA, you never know. There'll be single elimination games after that.
01:05:09
Speaker
So, you know, you can always penalty your way. to victory, but like, and just, I just think there's a certain point where you have to be able to play with the ball. Eventually right now you're playing a Seattle team that is down its best and most creative attacker, Pedro de la Vega.
01:05:26
Speaker
And ah when Seattle doesn't have de la Vega in the lineup, their ability to combat tactics like these is diminished. If you're going up against son young men and Denny Bwonga or Thomas Mueller and I've heard of them and the gang, you're,
01:05:43
Speaker
you it's goingnna It's going to run out. You can't you can't do it. like yeah They're going to try. they god God love them. They're going to try. but i just I think this is going to this is going to run out what how do you What do you think?
01:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. I mean, like I was saying on Total Soccer Show, i think we got to transfer deadline day-ish, mid-August, and we were saying it looked like there were still like 14 teams you could talk yourself into winning MLS Cup. And the idea was that it was all nine teams in the East. You can see what their paths are. All of them have more than one and a half points per game.
01:06:14
Speaker
And that was the strict cutoff. And then you had Minnesota and Seattle at the bottom of the West, so to speak, where it was like any of these teams, enough. I could see it. then Orlando kind of eliminated themselves by proxy, even before the play in game.
01:06:26
Speaker
Uh, I stuck with Seattle, uh, my preseason MLS cup pick. And part of that was just cowardly, not wanting to jump off of it. But part of it is I can still see the path for them. Right. And I think that the path for them is uglier than it was with Pedro de la Vega, but I can still see it. I know how the 25 sounders end up lifting the end shoots.
01:06:42
Speaker
I have a much harder time picking the scenarios and you got to it. It's the matchups more than anything else. Um, When you're looking down the stretch, the teams that they beat are other teams that are fully committing to their own gambit. So they know how to game plan the defense. Look at the San Diego game. It's a great example. I actually think whatever team advances from Minnesota, Seattle, no matter who it is, I prefer them over San Diego to get to the conference final.
01:07:06
Speaker
Because I think with San Diego, their model is so staunch and there's a lot of really good off ball movement and whatever. But if you set up your defense right, you can make those lanes. You can close the lanes that are most dangerous to them. And you have enough data after a full season where you can see if they make these runs, if they get in these spaces, they don't have the personnel, they don't have the technique to execute.
01:07:24
Speaker
and make you sweat. So put them there, right? It's the whole like, James Harden only shoots two pointers and everyone wanted him to shoot elsewhere. You know what I mean? like it's just like that. Find those lower efficiency areas and push them into there.
01:07:35
Speaker
And Minnesota did that very well in September. and They got a 3-1 win. Wasn't a fluke whatsoever. Dreyer was out there, I think. can't remember if Chucky was starting too. um But it worked really well there.
01:07:48
Speaker
I think you get to teams that have more talent and therefore more a greater ability. Notice San Diego. Minnesota's in this camp too. You get to teams like LAFC and Seattle, I would argue, and Vancouver, and you get to maybe two of the teams in the East, and I think that there's just too much...
01:08:08
Speaker
for this cute of a tactic to persevere i really do and i think that they're just limitations sincerely in personnel i i don't think that they have many players who can create chances from the run of play and i think that you need to do that i think that they really struggle if calvin yeboa can't be on the field and right now he looks like he's about a 30 45 minute player i don't know how soon he'll be better than that too um i don't know what the timeline is for a full recovery from the the kind of quad injury that he suffered in the Open Cup semifinal. So I think that there are limits too.
01:08:41
Speaker
Have we seen it work? Sure. Greece won a Euro, Portugal won a Euro. Both of them played the worst soccer I've seen in my life. If everyone ever tells you that Europeans are the only ones who know how to make soccer look pretty, like they're just, they don't know ball at all.
01:08:53
Speaker
um It can work. You can get through it. But I think that will have as much to do with opponents failing. Here's what it is. It's opportunism. If opponents kind of fail, to take their chances that they generate like the Seattle Sounders did, Minnesota can get past them because they have the ace in the hole. Other teams can't fully contain. If teams are less wasteful than the Sounders have been in their last two trips to Allianz field, uh, counting the one zero defeat where Osase skies two over the bar.
01:09:20
Speaker
Um, Seattle's advancing in two games. That's all it is. Seattle right now. The issue is that the attack never had enough time to calibrate. And by the time it finally looked like you could get your a team out there, Pedro's gone and you've lost a lot of your verb. It's a lot of players who don't know how to play with each other and certainly not in this situation and certainly not a defense as well organized as Minnesota. That's what it is. It's a lot of we're settling for the second
Seattle's Missed Opportunities Against Minnesota
01:09:41
Speaker
chance.
01:09:41
Speaker
um And they didn't really know how to unlock the first and the movement was just a little bit off and the passes were just a little bit off and the shots were just a little bit too close to body parts and all these sorts of things. And like, it is what it is.
01:09:54
Speaker
And sometimes ball goes in, sometimes ball doesn't. And lately ball has not been for Seattle when Seattle in St. Paul. Yeah. It did not go in, in, uh, in this game. And that's kind of, this is going sound like, uh,
01:10:09
Speaker
like me being salty, some Seattle salt, but I don't care. I'm going to say it even though it's salty anyway. I've seen a lot of punditry and takes to the effect of like, Oh, well, I mean, Minnesota United, they executed these, these tactics they have so well, what a, what an incredible defensive performance they put forth to shut out Seattle and given, given them, you know, all this credit for it, for it, which I guess is to be expected because they, uh,
01:10:39
Speaker
They won the shootout. But when I think about how well they actually actually executed their game plan, and ah I guess specifically their defensive performance as a whole, it was an okay defensive performance.
01:10:52
Speaker
It wasn't that good. It wasn't good by their standard, I'll tell you that. they didn't execute it that well. They gave up over two x g yeah Can you tell me any two much better chances that you could ask for than the ones that Musavsky had at the end?
01:11:08
Speaker
No, those are those are the exact types of chances that Seattle wants and needs to be generated. They generated two of them at the very end after they sub Musavsky on in the whole offense looked a lot better. They got two of the exact type of chances that they want. And that ah for Moose, he's been finishing those.
01:11:26
Speaker
All season. was to say, does he make those two months ago when he's starting regularly and he has the, just like the headspace of a striker who has less to It's a fair question. He hasn't been missing those. He hasn't been missing those. He got the looks that he needed.
01:11:38
Speaker
Minnesota gave up the looks that he needed and they just didn't make them any game where you put up as much XG as Seattle did in the, in this game and you get out of it ah with the other team, not scoring, you got lucky and that's all it was.
01:11:53
Speaker
That's a lot of what it was, yeah. they ah there They gave up those two chances at the end, but you have the one that the corner kick that Christian has cleared off the line. You had the header from Yamar that wasn't high by much.
01:12:08
Speaker
ah You have Dane St. Clair going God mode and making a couple of really crazy saves. And all told, you have a game where... Congratulations.
01:12:19
Speaker
You saw out 0-0 draw at home and won in penalties, ah but you did not execute the game plan and the tactics that you've been playing ah this season that well.
01:12:31
Speaker
And if if you're being serious and you're being and you're being real, you got lucky and it's that's probably not going to see you through an entire playoff run. It's just not. It got you through one game, so I can't argue with that.
01:12:45
Speaker
And, you know, Is that salty? Yeah. But, you know, we all had to sit there and and watch Seattle play that style of game. And it doesn't get more frustrating than that. And then on top of that, it was the exact kind of same story as the last game at Allianz Field, which makes it even more frustrating.
01:13:04
Speaker
But I will tell you this. If Minnesota United give up 2-plus XG at Lumen Field on Monday... They're not walking out of there having moved on.
01:13:15
Speaker
They're not. so they better they they better hope that they execute a hell of a lot better ah in Seattle than they did in Minnesota. You're saying that the team that won the shootout needs to execute better? My guy. okay see oh No, no, no, no, no. Here's the thing. Here's the one thing I will say.
01:13:29
Speaker
You're blaming Minnesota for Seattle losing? No, I'm not. Okay, no, but like here's here's the opposite case of all this, okay? Minnesota didn't execute. Minnesota didn't execute it as well as they usually do.
01:13:41
Speaker
you if they might execute it better the next game when they're not at home. They're on the road. Yeah. They're going to improve away from home. So Seattle needs to be better. Maybe the guy who led your team in goals is going to be a little bit pissed off in his head when he's starting the first, or when the first playoff game kicks off and he's on the bench.
01:13:59
Speaker
That might happen. better not be on the bench for this game. But I'm saying, like, these are the decisions that end up being made. Maybe that's not the right call. Maybe the, I don't know, the penalty sequencing. Maybe you just need to rotate in who that front four is. Maybe you need to put Manungu in just for something different. i'd eat But, like, you have to control your own here. Here's the here's where Minnesota beats teams.
01:14:18
Speaker
Because teams think exactly like you just did, Ari, where it's just like, it's so stupid. It's so negative. Why the fuck would anyone want to play that sort of thing? I can't imagine these guys even want to like hug and kiss their wives when they get home or anything like that. Tough shit, man. They got results.
01:14:31
Speaker
You're mad. No, that's you' that i that's what every team does against it. You're letting them win. It's not a any sort of thing like you fell for it. And that's OK. I get it. A lot of teams have been this year. Miami did in gruesome fashion. I know that they're one of the mentally weakest teams in MLS history when you look at like the 2025 inter Miami. So like that is not a good standard for it.
01:14:52
Speaker
But it's not just a thing that's happening in these elimination games. It's been happening all year long. And so I think if you're Minnesota, you're looking it you're just saying, look, Maybe Yeboah is closer to being a 60 minute guy.
01:15:04
Speaker
And now they're asked, they're going to have to ask questions for the rest of the playoffs. Pretty much what's more important to you having Kelvin Yeboah from the start. So your team functions for the longest period of the game possible, or having Kevin Yeboah on the field when the penalty shootout begins, because you probably can't guarantee both things.
01:15:18
Speaker
So the lineup is going to be a weird decision for Ramsey again on Monday as well. Yeah. ending yeah I mean, like overall, the only other thing I will say, I was just looking at the the data here. Um,
01:15:29
Speaker
Minnesota won 60.5% of duels. So just two guys going in who comes out with the ball? Minnesota came out with it 60% of the time. ah This is where Triantis was really like mopping up against Vargas and rolled on in a way I haven't seen them lose these battles often. That's their second highest rate of winning duels this year.
01:15:46
Speaker
And when you look at it ah from a Seattle perspective and you're looking at the duels, um so that would be 39.5% of my math checks out, right? ah That is their second worst showing besides a 2-1 loss at Austin in September.
01:15:58
Speaker
So like, it's as simple as that, man, like Minnesota had that dog in them, even if it didn't show up in the final third, but they neutralize what was Seattle's biggest strength all year, which was the two man tandem of the midfield is at least coherent enough where games are never going to get out of a hand. And Seattle is always going to get the ball back and rolled on and Vargas just did not do that.
01:16:17
Speaker
And they got beaten by a team that does that only got a defensive midfielder like two months ago. It, uh, they definitely, it was a good defensive performance in that way. You're right. The double pivot for Seattle was, I'm still saying Minnesota underperformed from their defense, by the way, but no they did got your midfield.
01:16:34
Speaker
Yes. They got the, they got the midfield and, uh, they, you're right. Like, ah it's not blaming Minnesota and crashing out over their tactics. Like we've all been doing. Uh, it might be satisfying. It's my fun its it's fine good to watch. It's good content. But like at the, uh, ultimately,
01:16:51
Speaker
ah If you want to beat it, you got to you got to score. And Seattle did not do that. And because of that, after they win the shootout, if their fans want to say, hey, we got the win, cry about it.
01:17:05
Speaker
score one next time. Can you really argue with that? No, you can't. And that might be frustrating to have to admit or or acknowledge. Uh, but the reality is like, uh, if you, if you're Seattle and you don't execute better, uh, on your chances in the next game, like you said, the same thing could, uh,
01:17:23
Speaker
Could happen to you again. But that brings that kind of that's a good segue into the next thing I wanted to talk about, which is um we've been there's been a lot of talk about. ah yeah ah Schmetzer's decision in the penalty shootout to leave Stefan Fry in there and not make any sort of specialist type substitution of ah of Andrew Thomas for the for the shootout. He left Steph Fry in there and that shootout was a mismatch.
01:17:49
Speaker
like I mean, it wasn't a great shootout either, right? Like, neither team was really kicking their best at all, right? Like, Seattle certainly schmetz at his comments, but Minnesota wasn't necessarily taking, like, anyone. No, but, like, to me, it's sort of...
01:18:06
Speaker
what What happened with the shooters is almost besides the point. like Like, like, uh, they, it's just that I feel like penalties are very, very like random and up to chance.
01:18:18
Speaker
Oh, I hate them as a decider after 90 minutes in a playoff game. I think it's the worst idea to have this in the first time. Leagues Cup is fine. Leagues Cup is a fake tournament, but like in the playoffs, you should make them play 30 more minutes. So yeah put me on the record on that too.
01:18:31
Speaker
But like you know the guys who missed Seattle's ah penalties, i'm not really goingnna I'm not going to crush them for that because missed penalties are part of the game. It happens. it's It's a gamble. It's a dice roll. There's not really like that much of a logic or a reason or science to it.
01:18:46
Speaker
However, I will say, in this situation with the goalkeepers, it is it is a tough situation. It's a hard situation.
01:18:56
Speaker
It's not an easy decision to make for a coach. And I honestly wasn't sure what Schmetz would do if it ah if it came to it. But i I've been saying that I think even before game one, I was saying like, if it comes to it and you go to penalties,
01:19:12
Speaker
You can, you can, it is an option. You can do the thing where you let Steph Fry start and play the game. If you think he gives you the best chance to win and you still want him starting your biggest games because he's your team captain, your club leader, your MLS cup MVP, all that stuff.
01:19:27
Speaker
ah You don't, you don't have to leave him in for penalties. Like teams do this. You can, teams have but PK specialists that they will put yeah this international exactly in like that. The Netherlands famously famously did that. Yeah. Yeah. yeah So you can do that.
01:19:43
Speaker
And to me, i have come down on, uh, I understand why it's a difficult thing to do. I understand why he didn't do it. And, uh, J O on the post game show, he kind of laid out the rationale of like, if you do do that, you were essentially, ah telling Stefan Fry that you don't trust him in a big situation in a penalty kick situation.
01:20:07
Speaker
And that's a reason not to do it, which I get that. But at the end of the day, i I, I don't agree with that rationale. I don't, I think that you have a unique situation here. Uh, not only just with the, uh,
01:20:22
Speaker
with the format, but, but mainly, ah Dane St. Clair is a demon. Okay. This guy in penalty shootouts, uh, he is a shithousery menace. Oh, he's, yeah, he's from the tribe of Debu for sure. Like he loves him a mind game on a He is, he's a demon. he plays the mind games as well as anyone in MLS, uh, all of the trash talking he's doing, all the stuff he's doing, making Alex rolled on, move it off the spot. Yeah. He won the shoot. He, once he got the ref to like, be like, no, yes, you actually do have to. it was own yeah
01:20:56
Speaker
It was like, exactly. He was never making that PK after that. No, he wasn't. After that, Dave Sinclair
01:21:04
Speaker
That's what he does, man. like if you Most goalkeepers going into a PK shootout against that guy, you've almost like lost already. it's ah It's at the very least a mismatch going into it. but and Any PK situation in this series is heavily skewed towards Minnesota
Penalty Shootout Strategies & Goalkeeper Decisions
01:21:20
Speaker
United.
01:21:20
Speaker
But you also have a situation where Seattle has their own demons. They're foil to that. Andrew Thomas has all that, that those exact same attributes.
01:21:33
Speaker
Andrew Thomas has been the goalkeeper in penalty kick shootouts eight times in his professional career, I want to say. Maybe it's dating back to ah college, but he's been part of decisive penalty kick shootouts eight times. You know how many of those he's won?
01:21:48
Speaker
I've got to say majority. That's nuts. That's crazy. He is elite at them. We have seen it. We saw it in the U.S. Open Cup. We saw it in League Cup. And yeah it's really, I think it underscores what makes a good PK shot stopper.
01:22:00
Speaker
it is It is guessing, but it's also ah demonic shithousery that Dane St. Clair is the best in the league at, and that tilts the scales so heavily.
01:22:11
Speaker
If you have a way to counteract that, which Seattle literally does, you can't like you You can't be placating egos here. like this Your season is on the line, and you there is a mechanism that you have that gives you a better chance to win. It's not about not trusting Stephen Fry or sending a message to Stephen Fry. course not. It's about track record.
01:22:36
Speaker
And a guy that's been around as long as he has, he should be able to understand that. you should You should. And this is where it comes in, where it's like, you need to decide this before the playoffs start.
01:22:47
Speaker
Like, straight up, this conversation with, like, Thomas and Fry and goalkeeper, like, just everyone involved, that has to happen. but Like, if you get to a point where you're in your head about it and you're not sure in a game, like, you're going to err on the side of consistency, right? It's like the...
01:23:03
Speaker
what is this gambling fallacy or whatever? Like, no, it's like the, well, no, it's leaning into the gambling fallacy, whatever where it's like, always stick with the option you have. Don't go for door number two, because it's like whatever percent more likely. And it doesn't work that way in a penalty shootout, right?
01:23:15
Speaker
Like, it's not going to be, this is two thirds as likely it's, it's going to be, Less likely statistically because we have all this data and we have careers and we also can check the calisthenics of the two guys and see how are their knees this week. Okay, well, Thomas's are probably a little bit more mobile at this stage of his career, no matter what.
01:23:31
Speaker
um And bear in mind, Seattle, and you know this, but like Seattle only used three subs. So yes, they did obviously have the window available to them. They had the. you can do it man there's numbers you don't have to you literally like it's not a situation where you're like oh well we we think fry uh the best option to start the game and play in regulation and if we do that we like have to leave him in like no you don't you literally can make that sub at the very end of the game like you can do that i think that they're i think you're right though like you you laid out his cv really well
01:24:03
Speaker
And that's where it gets hard. And maybe there is a deference for, you know, the the seniority at that point. There clearly is. Yeah. Right. And like that, maybe you're arguing that the benefits of that message are going to make it 2%. Maybe he has the message to give the guys, he hands them the ball that makes them 2% more likely to convert. I don't know. Right. Like there's just all these other factors I can see, but like at the end of the day, if you're looking at with cold analytics, yeah, probably make the change. i'm I'm still waiting to see, like, I think that there are maybe some papers coming out now, like,
01:24:37
Speaker
like from the more educated hive on like whether or not this is even a good idea, what the effectiveness ah of changing your goalkeeper before a shootout is. And I will be really interested to see what the data says on that one.
01:24:49
Speaker
But my feels like index on it is like, we saw it work really well for Australia, right? Weren't they the ones who was that before Qatar where it was, um, the guy who was kind of like dancing. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Like a, like a blue footed booby or whatever with his like kind high knees, whatever to get the guy really psyched out. And then ended up Andrew Redmayne. That was his name. Got them into the world. That's what you need a guy who does that shit. yeah the guy The best I ever have seen, honestly, the best I ever saw was, uh,
01:25:14
Speaker
no ah i'm blanking on his name argentina goalkeeper in the world cup final that ameliano martinez yeah ameliano martinez if you go back and watch that shootout it is the most legendary like unreal display of demonic shithousery and you know it's crazy he's won like two fifa goalkeeper of the year awards after that and if he doesn't have that shootout there's no chance i i honestly winning that trophy I loved watching him in yeah that shootout. Like, ah like I have gone back and watched it and just done like the real deep dive on everything that. How could you not? Yeah. It's psychological, yeah the psychological mind games he was playing, all the stuff he was doing, but like,
01:25:58
Speaker
There is an art form to that. And I really think like, this has kind of made me realize that's what separates ah a great PK artist from a a lot of like Fry doesn't, he does. He, it's just not really in his nature to be the guy who's strutting around talking shit to the guy. Hey, that, that ball is not placed correctly. Ref. Can you move that before the, before, and not before Danny Laiva's last PK, did you know this?
01:26:23
Speaker
Dane St. Clair went up to dan Danny Laiva and the ref to the ref and he goes, hey, so if he misses that, they lose, right? Like, that's that's genius, man. I can't... That's so funny. like that's Because that's just like, I'm not looking at the scoreboard. Can you tell me where we're at?
01:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, exactly. and yeah like he's It's so good. like This is something that Kelly Nacosta did this against Mexico once when Andres Guardado was about to kick. he's like, you know you're washed, right? And then Guardado misses the kick. And then ah this is like 21, I think it was.
01:26:54
Speaker
um Nations League. Like, You live for stuff like that. And if you have a guy like that, to your point, if Thomas is that guy, he and can match by the way, he has either the way.
01:27:05
Speaker
if you're convinced Thomas is the successor. Start building that experience because like you get to a point to where if if this isn't going to result in another MLS Cup.
01:27:19
Speaker
I don't know, man, like how many more years does Stefan Fry i have as an MLS starter? I think that was something we started to maybe ask a little bit more this year. like um I'm worried. wants to play next year. He wants year. Which is good and excellent. Let me pull up my and XG data and just kind of see what that says and the the the the wisdom of that. But um I think that you look and you just say at a certain point, you gave Thomas the cups and that's good, right? like That's how you start with a young goalkeeper is like you give them a cup. you They own the cup. They get to play in the final. If they reach the final, these sorts of things.
01:27:52
Speaker
And he's had that experience with League's Cup and that's good. but he needs more of those and they can't come once a year and they can't come in the summer in a competition that some teams aren't going to care about. And some teams are like, you need to be putting them in those situations. And this can be a scenario where if you trust Fry's head for 90 more minutes, and if you think he's going to be more locked in and he's going to be less swept up in the moment, that's great.
01:28:11
Speaker
But to your point, If this is what he does well, give him one success in a shootout and he'll be much more confident than the first time he has to come in and the run of play. I firmly believe that. So like I i see the benefits of it.
01:28:23
Speaker
I also i think I understand like certainly the ocean case of just like this is where you're you're getting into some murky territory and at that point you might as well make a wholesale change. I just think if you have that conversation before the game, if you sit down and you just say, look, this is why.
01:28:39
Speaker
Steph, it's your job to not make us even consider using this, right? Like, to be like, we're going to save our last sub window because you get three windows, right? Five subs, three windows, and you have to use a goalkeeper, one of those. This this isn't like extra time. You can do this in the 120th and you can do your three windows.
01:28:53
Speaker
So you have to choreograph that. You have to say our final subs of the game are going to come in in the 88th minute or whatever the case is, right? and And if the number goes up, don't pout, don't sulk. Don't do what, who was Kepa, Aretha Balaga did in that Leagues Cup against our Liverpool.
01:29:07
Speaker
You remember that, where he was like throwing a fit because he was giving himself an offer, right? like Yeah, yeah. Don't do that. like You can't have to exit with grace. Here's your nearest exit. You walk right by the supporters. You clap for them.
01:29:18
Speaker
You do this sort of thing. You do some sort of handoff to Thomas, make it look good for the camera, sulk at me when we to the locker room. No problem. You have to have that conversation advance. You cannot do this in the game. And you oh no can't catch a goalkeeper unaware. Hell no. I mean, I think they talked about it and decided that they're that they're not going to do it. They're just going to let it rip with Fry. But ah I don't know, man. I don't think I think that that's the ah that's the right call. I think you have a unique foil to a unique adversary with Dane St. Clair. this um I'm telling you, man. like Yeah, fair.
01:29:49
Speaker
thiss Totally fair. I mean, you he's been starting for Minnesota. He's 21, I want to say 22. Yeah, for a long time now. He took over for Tyler Miller. That's what it was. so there's Yeah, and you so I mean, like he's ah he's a swaggy he's a swaggy goalkeeper. That's like kind of his thing.
01:30:05
Speaker
But that like that pays dividends in these ah in these penalties. Just look at his his body language and disposition in in that shootout like comparatively. it's just it's a whole kind of different art form that you either you either kind of have that or or you don't.
01:30:20
Speaker
And I don't know. I don't think ah clearly they're not gonna they're not going to do it, but they they might have to. There's a decent chance they're going to have to go to penalties again. And if they if they have a Andrew Thomas is on the bench for that, I'm going to be...
01:30:37
Speaker
I'm going to be questioning. And I think I understand why he's here. By the way, here's your MLS season, like advanced data on fry. He pretty much was like the 15th, 16th best goalkeeper out of keeping mind. There's 30 of them now.
01:30:48
Speaker
So that's like mid pack, whatever. But that's, that's what you got this year in terms of like goals prevented in terms of, I'm not talking shootout rate because he just faced so many fewer shots per game because of the nature of how Seattle plays. But like in terms of effectiveness, when those shots came in, he was yeah looking at like Patrick Schulte, Daniel from San Jose, Romant Berkey this year, Chris Brady. That's kind of the company he kept. He was above your Hugo Larisa's and Michović and your Takeokas and your Crepo's.
01:31:15
Speaker
was kind surprised you Takeoka that low, by the way, because I thought that you would he was a finalist for goalkeeper of the year this year, wasn't he? Yeah, he was going off, I think i feel like at the beginning. He had a negative goals minus XG. That's really funny. okay I mean, ah like i thought I thought Fry had a ah had a fine year. like he Some people were talking about how much he declined. I never really saw that as much. I feel like he's been ah pretty much performing at the relative level that he usually does. but i The numbers back that up, yeah. I understand the argument of ah it's not just about shot-stopping ability and stuff. He's a leader on the field.
01:31:52
Speaker
Part of the reason they've been such a great defensive team since he's been the goalkeeper is because of how... He leads on the field, how he keeps everyone organized, the communication and the chemistry he has with ah with the center backs, that continuity with that. like that that All of that is makes sense to have him out there during regulation.
01:32:09
Speaker
ah But that's just that's where I come to, again, like you you this is a case where you can literally have it both ways. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills a little bit. But I mean, it also, I understand it is tough.
01:32:21
Speaker
It is tough, especially because of Stefan Fry's kind of unique status on the team. like he is... he is like this team in a way yeah one of the main leaders and faces and captains oh totally the team so to one of the last like links to the like pre-mls cup winning era even right it's certainly the first mls cup win right like it's exactly he's the mls cup mvp of their first ever mls cup he will always have that but uh it's definitely it's at least a uh compelling coaching dilemma for seattle's coaching staff and we'll we'll see how they uh
01:32:52
Speaker
handle it in, uh, in game two. What else did I have on this game? Jeff? I don't think I had anything else on Minnesota, Seattle, but, uh, well, what more is there in a scoreless game? I mean, like i yeah look, it's, I, I, I maintain, it's going to be a matter of Seattle actually executing what they're doing. Well, Seattle did enough to win.
01:33:10
Speaker
Like, I mean, I don't think that Seattle fans are under any disillusion that they did. I don't think Minnesota fans that I've talked to are under any illusion that they did not, fully deserve that result based on merit. However, this is a Seattle team that lost a playoff game without conceding a shot.
01:33:27
Speaker
So as the road team, It's not the worst result in Sounders playoff history. Oh, okay. The loss, but that way, what game are you talking about? ah RSL? Wasn't it ah RSL who got passed?
01:33:39
Speaker
Was this another COVID year? So it doesn't count. We don't know. No, no, no, no, no. You're, you're right. they This is David Ochoa's moment of magic. Another shithouse, and a demonic shithouser. Yes. i know Like that. i know That was a very, light of hooa mania yeah that was the that was, that started Ochoa mania. That was another situation though. We're like, honestly, like,
01:33:59
Speaker
I, I, I respect it. It's, you gotta have like a couple of screws loose to be like that. But you know, Andrew Thomas, he has those screws loose, which is what I love about him. And trust it. Right. And lean into it.
01:34:10
Speaker
But that's what I, that's what I would say for Seattle is like, I, when I was leaving the press box, I know I said, someone else won't be surprised if I see you for game three. Like I, I fully expect this one to go to three. I always did.
01:34:20
Speaker
i I see the path for Seattle. I worry that Minnesota kind of got the best version of the, if we aren't at our sharpest and if Kelvin can't go 75 plus, this is the result we can expect against a team of this count of this depth and talent.
01:34:35
Speaker
And I don't know if they have that game twice. They haven't been consistent enough down the stretch because of all the rotation changes and injuries and stuff that they've had to deal with since the window. Um, So I think, yeah, I think that Roldan and Vargas needs to be sharper. They just need to be back to their normal selves. I'm not saying that they need to go like Botafogo level.
01:34:55
Speaker
They don't. But they do need to get to you. just play how they played all all season. Like three weeks ago or whatever against ah not Austin, I guess. Bad example. You need to do what you did against ah RSL and Portland and New York City earlier in October. All three of those games. It was 55% plus dual win rate.
01:35:12
Speaker
Just do that. And they won all three of those games, if I remember right. So come I got to, this is what I was going to run by you, Jeff. Tell me what you think of this. This is an idea of one of, ah one of our callers from our call-in show, Hunch Punch came up with.
01:35:27
Speaker
It's called pre-case. It's where you have the penalty kick shootout before the game. And then whoever wins the pregame penalty kick shootout, if it ends in a draw, that decides the pregame shootout decides what who wins you So every game gets a shootout. No, it's not every game. It's for like a playoff.
01:35:46
Speaker
Oh, no. Okay. Sure. Yeah. No, of course you're not doing this for like, instead of deciding it by the post game shootout, you do it before the game. And then the teams know that whatever, uh, like if there's a tie.
01:35:58
Speaker
So basically it's a tiebreaker at the, in the event of one rather that you know about before. Yeah. Yeah. followed yeah So then a team knows they can't afford to. I mean, that's more fun for the 90.
01:36:09
Speaker
Like I can't, I can't dispute that. That's more fun. That is kind of fire. Yeah. Is it fair? i don't care. Are shootouts fair? It doesn't matter. We're asking the wrong questions at this point. Is it more fun if the shootout happens first and you have the dramatic, if everyone in the stadium,
01:36:27
Speaker
knows if it's a draw that team's going to lose and they are fighting like hell. That'd be exciting. That's a better final 10 minutes of a playoff game. he was He was pitching that idea. And ah when he was first talking about it, I was like, this is going to go off the rails.
01:36:42
Speaker
Then he got to the end of it. And i was like, that's actually kind of sick. Yeah. and po Pre-Ks is just amazing branding. Yeah. That's just is so funny. I actually think like child mascots deliver the ball.
01:36:54
Speaker
That's what you have to do. the the eque the The kids who hold the hands as they walk on the field, they are the ones to deliver the ball for the pre-Ks. I like that. I'm in favor of pre-Ks. I think they should do it. Jeff, I've kept you for like an hour, so we'll let you go it but here. But I did want to ask but before before I let you go.
01:37:12
Speaker
Any other of the ah these round one series catch your eye? I mean, we got Philly, Chicago, Vancouver are destroying FC Dallas. ah The San Diego Timbys one is interesting because, like you mentioned, I think ah the San Diego status in all this right now is kind of interesting because. It fascinates me. man They have not been in like great form for a while in the regular season anyway.
01:37:36
Speaker
ah But they also, that Timbys game, they were all up on Portland in the in the first half. And then Portland got one back. It was two one And then San Diego went up a man.
01:37:48
Speaker
did not take advantage of that to extend the lead in fact portland actually got pretty close to tying it so like that was not actually it probably should have been more one-sided than it was but it it didn't end up being like that in portland i think probably goes into game two still having some belief and then you got all these weird vibes with chucky lozano i know getting suspended like for a playoff game which whatever he did to if you're It's like Cucho getting suspended for Champions Cup. like You must have done something because they need you for a playoff game. And if they're going to bench you, you must have really been insubordinate. And so it's like, all right, so they have locker room and off-field drama. I'm glad that you remembered the Cucho thing because I didn't earlier today. i was actually trying to remember, like is there ever a time that an MLS team had its star player like throw a hissy fit right before the playoffs? And Wilford Nancy benched him.
01:38:40
Speaker
He benched him. Yeah, and to his credit, he did. And i think it's the right call at that point, right? It's not to send a message to the locker room, but to send a message to the player, right? Like, it's just like a no, like, stop, fuck off. We aren't paying you this much money for that.
01:38:53
Speaker
um I'm more, yeah, I have this, like, I think there are limitations to where San Diego can take this this year. And I think that they've already exceeded a lot of anyone's expectations, including probably their own internal expectations.
01:39:05
Speaker
I think luca getting Luca De La Torre back onto the field is going to do as much as getting you know, Chucky back into his head space. I think that having Delatore helps the midfield, his partnership with Tverskov and Godoy, I guess, beneath who is like just so I like.
01:39:23
Speaker
Yeah. Seracov, is that how you say it? Tverskov, yeah. Tverskov, he is so sick. My best 11 midfield, ah it it was just like, it was autopilot. was like Tverskov, Christian, Roldan, and Evander. Like, just no thought. Just like, yeah, that picked itself this year. It's weird. I think he might be like the best.
01:39:42
Speaker
I mean, yeah I think... It's one of those where it's like Roldan is like, he's a six now, but he's also like a very It's kind of different. They're different styles of They're very different styles. One stays at home, one moves around more. Yeah. Yeah. But like in terms of his like long passing and stuff and just how he kind of pulls the strings for that team, he's elite. So I, yeah, no, I mean, I think they had a hell of a year, but it just seems like between the Chucky drama and they they're kind of like not.
01:40:09
Speaker
Yeah. They're not St. Louis. They're not St. Louis in 23. Right. But like, I don't, I don't buy into them as much as like Vancouver, LAFC, Seattle. I still think are the top three in the West this year. Yeah. in terms of like high level and what other series I mean like I think Philly should be scared about game two and three against Chicago like I was a good team does not crumple the way that they do and the way that they did it also were like Chicago got exploited because Quinn Sullivan was hurt and he was the right winger so they were like
Chicago Fire's Unexpected Playoff Strengths
01:40:39
Speaker
Andrew Koopman you can just over commit like you always want to do down the left wing and you can stay down there and basically be a winger and defend when you want to and I think we'll be okay because we have the three center but or we have the team shape for it whatever
01:40:49
Speaker
it didn't work and they got bum rushed twice in five minutes down that right flank while gutman is backtracking and it ends in two goals and then they just stop playing and there's just all these weird mistakes and chicago gets back into it because they have individual talent and chicago was actually quietly the most effective set piece team in mls this year they scored more goals per 100 set pieces than minnesota did they didn't generate really but they were more effective at it which Again, fully flew under the radar. They just took so many fewer set pieces.
01:41:20
Speaker
like No, Berhalter has like got that... You can tell that team has like some belief about them right now. and they Their vibes seem like really good.
01:41:32
Speaker
They have like one of the best vibes of the whole field. This isn't just like of the underdogs that might hope like they're like, they have better vibes than Miami. They have better vibes than like both of the Ohio teams right now. They have better vibes than the Sounders and Minnesota. They have better vibes than San Diego.
01:41:49
Speaker
Like Chicago was like, low key, one of the most fun teams this year. And they're so flawed, which makes it even more fun to watch this year. And I think that they're going to be top six in the East next year. And I think that if they continue that progression, they should finish top three in the next year. And that's just a weird thing to think about where the fire is going, but that's how well they've done it.
01:42:08
Speaker
Watch the fire, appreciate the fire. have no idea where they're playing because they never know where they're playing anymore, but yeah, Definitely watch them against Philly. I think Vancouver is going to finish that one off. And too, I think Miami is going to finish off in Nashville. I just, Nashville just looks absolutely like shook from decision day and just, they can't, they can't mess with Miami. They can't, they can't mess the first game. Like, yeah, they might save face and get one game here, but I doubt it. um Since he, yeah, I think Columbus just doesn't have enough going forward to do it. I think that they got gauze dog at the wrong time and he's the wrong fit for the system.
01:42:41
Speaker
ah I think San sand Diego gets through the first round, losing the second round to Seattle or Minnesota, whoever advances. I think LAFC is going to get by Austin, and i think New York City is going to do it in two. so that's the bracket. ah We got one question for you from ah from Chad here. Jake is asking, does Jeff have any MLS Cup predictions still with Seattle from the West?
01:42:58
Speaker
I believe you did say ah you were. I did publish. at all But that implies that you still think you still think that ah Seattle is going to win this Minnesota series. But are are you, in fact, sticking with your Seattle MLS Cup? have to. They're still in contention. And I backed them. I had two points I could check in. One was in the summer. I definitely wasn't going to do it then.
01:43:17
Speaker
One was right before the playoffs. That was my last chance I could have walked off of them. And I'm just not going to do it because I think that if things still go the way as constructed, I don't I think the floor is higher on what the Sounders can do than pretty much any other team in this field.
01:43:29
Speaker
Because keep in mind, Vancouver is on center backs like five and six at this point, right? Like they are not playing with like the same defense. But they like, it's they're putting like Ralph Preso back there and it like works. Well, they're playing Dallas, man.
01:43:42
Speaker
Like, calm down. They're playing Dallas. But they've yeah they've had to do this a couple other times late in the season. No, they have, you know, and and to to your credit, you're right. And their model does keep the ball out of the defensive third a fair amount. So at least it's usually mitigated so long as they don't get too many set pieces.
01:43:59
Speaker
or transitions, but even in transition, they defend pretty well. Um, but Berhalter doesn't necessarily have wheels. So actually you can kind of get past them. So like, i this is what it comes back to is I think that LAFC and Vancouver the two teams that project to be most likely to get past Seattle.
01:44:16
Speaker
One of them will be eliminated. If Seattle gets to the conference final, you only have to get through one of them. The bracket through them are really good did on that side. Right? So that was already favorable. So that encouraged me to stick with the Sounders.
01:44:29
Speaker
um And then I just think if they get to the Western Conference Finals, they figured out their issues that made them so inconsistent and finished fifth in the West. And at that point, I trust them to win MLS Cup. That's what it came down to.
01:44:40
Speaker
It's like, if if I'm going to pick them um to get that far, I'm confident enough in them to go all the way. And I look at the East and Jeremiah and I talked about this on Nos Adietes last week, I think. Like,
01:44:51
Speaker
We don't like the teams in the East. The favorites in the East are all so flawed in ways that I don't think LAFC Vancouver and Seattle are to the scale. I think that they've had to adjust acclimate and kind of overcome their hardships this year in a way that Miami definitely has never been able to do period, but that ah Cincinnati hasn't really done anything.
01:45:11
Speaker
this year to you know Philly. They hit their big issue late in the year with Sullivan and his injuries. So like I still don't know what the best version of Philly can look like without him in transition.
01:45:22
Speaker
um Yeah. I don't know. I think that there's no truly great team in MLS. There's no one I put in the S tier champs. Like, you know, like you look at like late teens, Sounders and TFC, you'd probably cobble together like some mixed version of each and say that was one of the great teams in MLS 23 crew set 2018 Atlanta, maybe. And then you go further back, of course, with Galaxy, you know, you have those teams where it's like,
01:45:48
Speaker
you you played Madden, right? Like even just when you were a kid whatever, like, you know how like when when Madden was good, they would bake in unlockable teams and they were like, they weren't always like, the Super Bowl champs, but they were just like 98 Vikings.
01:45:59
Speaker
and Oh, yeah, that was that was so hard. Air Coriel, Chargers, so that you could learn who Dan Fouts was and all this stuff, right? Yeah, you're playing with like Marcus Allen or something. Yeah, exactly, right? It's like your only chance to play as Marcus Allen in a Madden game like that. the only reason I know who that is, is because of Madden. Perfect, but like that's that's part of the value, and I think MLS needs to do it's kind of capsule what their best teams are, what their best seasons are, whatever.
01:46:20
Speaker
It's not like every team gets one, right? Some teams might have multiple. of The Galaxy probably have three and Austin doesn't have one yet, right? But I think that you look at the field this year. I don't think we have a team we're going to talk about like that.
01:46:32
Speaker
And that's okay. But I think that we have like eight or ten teams that are just that cut below that are probably most people's like indie darling. Like the one that is just like, yeah, yeah, but most people didn't really pay attention to Vancouver Whitecaps with Pedro Morales. But if you watched him or like the Mauro Diaz, Fabian Castillo teams, right? Like that that next tier under where it's just like, you really appreciate how the play, you really like what they do. They didn't win the trophies. Jesse Marsh's Red Bulls maybe in time will go down as one of these. But I think the way that MLS has just continued to hire players from that team is going to make it really difficult to forget about them.
01:47:05
Speaker
Right? So I think that that's going to be one that will maybe elevate over time and over appreciate, but yeah. Long winded way to say it's an open field this year in a very competitive, entertaining way. I'm more excited for this bracket to progress than any year in recent memory.
01:47:20
Speaker
And I'm still as confident Seattle to win MLS Cup as any other team. So I wasn't going to walk off them. So I've got Seattle over. I think I put Miami through. No. Oh oh yeah. and i'm I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I looked at the bracket and it was, which would mean that Seattle would have to go to Fort Lauderdale to win it, which that sounds, I really hope that that doesn't that sounds fun happen.
01:47:46
Speaker
I, I think LAFC could potentially get talked about in that S tier you're talking about because of the Sun Hyung-Min effect. Like I think the, ah the vibes that he's kind of manifested down there with the, with the Bwonga partnership romance thing.
01:48:04
Speaker
And also he I mean, we all knew he was a great player, but just watching him week in week out, he's like even better than expected. I know, man. he's open but Have you watched Steve Shrendelow coach in the playoffs? It's true.
01:48:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. i my, ah I mean, I, I hope what you're saying about Seattle is right. If I was to, I guess my concern with Seattle is, I mean, they, Seattle has peaked.
01:48:28
Speaker
This year, we have seen the peak of them. I think the Reds have been. Well, I mean, I don't even think it's a question, not just because of like the vibes and the form that they were in in League's Cup, but there's there is no peak Seattle lineup that can reach its full potential that doesn't have Pedro de la Vega in it.
01:48:46
Speaker
There just that isn't. So that's any 11 that they put out for the rest of the playoffs is not going to be to the max level that the team could be. That's just how it is. That being said, that doesn't mean they they still have enough to make a run if they can get past this Ramsey ball stuff.
01:49:03
Speaker
They can do that. And I think they have a good, they still have enough and I've learned better than to doubt them in tournament settings. This is when they always turn up. And there's been so many games over the years where I've, they've, I've gone into it thinking that they were up against it and that they weren't going to get it done.
01:49:18
Speaker
It just seems like Brian Schmetzer always pulls it out. So I could very much still see that, but I do think we're we're talking about a team that has peaked and there's no way for them to salvage that peak because they're missing their best offensive player. yeah so Yeah. was talented and It's a shame, right? And he's also the one who...
01:49:37
Speaker
until this had maybe been the most consistently available throughout the year. Right. So it was also like, by his standards, yeah, by his standard for sure. But like, he was one of the touch points where it's like, Jordan comes back on a late. It's like, okay, well maybe I have this partnership or whatever. Like,
01:49:51
Speaker
Ferreira and the Club World Cup, you build some of that rapport. Like you lose a key player who has that interplay with all these people and it's going to change how the final third looks. And you just see it the past maps that have been coming out from that game and like how the Sounders team shape their average position.
01:50:06
Speaker
It just looks like a team that forgot to... the higher a striker that day. Like it truly is. Everyone's in the middle third. All the lines are so tight. It's like exactly what your coach would want, but there should just be one dude on an Island who's chasing after it at the end and scoring goals, hopefully.
01:50:23
Speaker
And there just wasn't that player in Seattle's team. Everyone was in. thought You're talking about gate this game one. Yeah, this game won. It was just like the tightest team. and Is there a way to like filter it from when Danny Musavsky came on the field? Because I feel like i'm that solved that.
01:50:37
Speaker
I think it did. And I fully agree. They looked exponentially better on offense. when just I don't know why you don't start him. think they actually might. I think... they actually they actually might i think they They're not going to do the ah goalkeeper PK specialist sub. They're not going to do that.
01:50:52
Speaker
But I think you might actually see the adjustment of pushing Jordan out wide and playing Moose up top. Just because I think it was it was pretty clear that to whatever extent it's possible to crack the code of Ramsey ball, that was the closest they got to doing it in that in that game.
01:51:09
Speaker
And ah the the last thing I want to say – there There was people giving ah giving Moose a hard time for those missed chances at the end of the game, which... with I get that they were really good chances, and you expect and MLS striker to make those. You do. You do. And i like I was just as frustrated to see him missing missing them.
01:51:34
Speaker
But like any any slander on Moose or on moose as ah as a player or Moose as a sounder, Moose led the team in goals this year. And not only did he lead the team in goals this year, he bailed this team's ass out.
01:51:48
Speaker
Jordan Morris, you know many games, how many minutes he played this year? Go look up. It wasn't the last I literally have in front me 842, 842 minutes. Okay. and When you get 842 minutes out of your DP nine, 98% of teams in this league are chalked.
01:52:02
Speaker
You know why Seattle wasn't chalked when that happened to them? Because literally because of Danny Mussovsky. All right. So I don't want to hear it about a guy who led the team in goals, bailed the team out, had 17 goals, all comps. Yeah, he missed a couple of pretty brutal chances.
01:52:19
Speaker
He's going to have a chance to make up for it in this game. Let's like let's dial down the ah Moose Slander. That shit is ridiculous. What are we what are we talking about? Yeah. I mean, it's just, he, he had one of the most effective years of a nine, just in terms of getting in the right spots, earning like extra at that point is a movement statistic, right? It's getting into the areas where the chances are actually going to hit your body. And he was very good at that too, right? He underperformed his XG, but he had it a really, really high XG. So like, and a lot of that i actually probably flipped in this last game, he probably did generate a very high XG for that little shift. And that's going to be part of his numbers. I just, I overall still think it's,
01:52:57
Speaker
This board is still largely designed where systems work to funnel towards something and Seattle's didn't funnel towards anything in game one until Moose got on to and I think that's where you need to bring in someone who does center forward things, gets into center forward spaces, does center forward work and good things can happen beneath it. And, and who do you take out for that? Like, maybe it is Boris. Maybe it's just as simple as that. Maybe it is. You, you pull Rothrock, you move Jordan out wide.
01:53:24
Speaker
And, uh, I think you roll Ferreira. you have too many, do you have too many alphas on that field at that point? No, I don't. I don't think too many players who are going to want to make the final ball or going to want to hit the shot players who aren't necessarily going to be doing off ball movement players who are going to be doing. I think, I think mo that's probably Moose, but like at the same point, he's also the top scorer. So he needs to be in spots to cash those chances.
01:53:47
Speaker
I think, Oh, the that's the, I think, ah man, you could ah make the argument that Georgie Minunga should start instead of Jesus Ferreira in this set up. And like, that would, that would bump Ferreira.
01:54:00
Speaker
Yeah. It's probably Ferreira, right? Like if you're just thinking of like, like he's had an inconsistent first year, I think he's actually been a lot better than some people given him credit for since like, I do too. Yeah. I've been around club world cup. I think we actually talked about this around then. I was like, I think around here is where he'll catch because he's finally used to his new home.
01:54:16
Speaker
Right. And right. We were right. And now the season's progressed. And I think it it kind of does come down to, Morris Ferreira and do you just say look because this isn't a this is an elimination game but this isn't an advancement game maybe it does make sense to keep Morris off the bench and just bring it so that you can have the calibrations and the options with the fresh legs you could decide that I'm not saying I would necessarily I understand the case for a couple of these guys um I still just think you maybe need a Manungu or Rothrock in there just to make the whole thing sing like I think you need someone who's in there who's doing harder not even harder yards it's not like any of these guys don't work
01:54:54
Speaker
it's It's just like you have your clear goal scorers, you have your clear chance creators. You do need some guys who are also going to be ball progressors. They're going to be outlets. they're going to be dribblers. They're going to be decoys. They're going to be doing thankless shit that's going to free up space in the box for these guys to cash in.
01:55:07
Speaker
And if you have all four of those guys, I think it gets too compact. They get into the same spots. They're all hybrid flexible players. It was something I really liked about the Ferreira acquisition. I wrote about it at my old outlet. But I think that you you risk cluttering it and making it less of a flow. And I think the last thing the Sounders team needs right now is for it to flow slower than it already was in game one.
01:55:30
Speaker
I'm not as concerned about the stepping on the toes aspect of it because Ferreira, if they do choose to put him out there, he he has figured out that that wide channel. like he is He's a super smart player.
01:55:44
Speaker
and yeah so it took him yeah like it took him a while to get it down and like how exactly it works playing with every one else but like his soccer iq is honestly off the charts like way more than i even thought from like watching him part like partially at fc dallas so like he really he learned how to play with uh with ruse knack with them it's it's sort of like a dual 10 situation he is not like a normal winger but they they know how to do it it works he was very effective at it
01:56:15
Speaker
And I think Moose and Jordan just tell them to do what they were doing in the Minnesota game. Just be like, do that. yeah And then I think they showed that that they could make that work.
01:56:26
Speaker
And then honestly, you know, you got people in chat saying um ah drop Albert Rusnak and put Ferreira at the 10. I don't think there's any chance that a first-way starting 11 wouldn't have Rusnak in it. But I like i don't hate that. like i I think Ferreira, when they have played him,
01:56:43
Speaker
centrally has looked really good like i and this this is uh i were i keep saying i'm gonna wrap it up you're good you're good i've got more moose uh to come up for too i just i ran some numbers for you so keep going like i know just like yeah when people when people talk about like oh uh Jesus Ferreira is like his statue production. Wasn't that great this year or Albert Rusnak? He's people have their, their, we call it the brigade. There's the anti Rusnak takes. And then also crashing out over the fact that Seattle got clean sheeted in, in game one, the way I look at it,
01:57:21
Speaker
I don't know what team some of you guys were watching this year, but this was this was the one of the best attacking teams in Major League Soccer. They were. Any way that you want to cut it. Like, you want me to throw some numbers at you?
01:57:35
Speaker
Want me to throw some numbers? Because I was looking at this. today oh do it today because we got a youtube comment that pissed me off because they were saying this team and or story this team has a trash striker in danny musavsky and it can never score goals and it's been a joke of an attacking team for years in the front office doesn't care and we can never score goals you want to know how many goals the seattle sounders scored this year how many Well, so they scored 58 in league play, which was fifth in the West. So they were a top five goal scoring team in the West. 58 any MLS season is a good year offensively.
01:58:12
Speaker
It just is statistically. you can't You literally can't argue with that. You know how many they scored all comps? You want to know how many they scored all comps? And you can you guys can go double check my math. I checked it a few times. You can sorry correct me if I'm wrong.
01:58:28
Speaker
ah Try 80.
01:58:31
Speaker
80 goals. I got 58 in league play, 15 in League's Cup, 7 in CONCACAF Champions Cup. and's a like so and you know I know people are going to say, oh, well, the league that's inflated by League's Cup, and League's Cup doesn't count.
01:58:49
Speaker
Yeah, does count. How does it not count? How does it not count? You're literally... I got a fight with an editor about this once on an Italian team. There's something that's like the Supercoppa Italia that happens in Saudi Arabia over the Christmas week. And it's just like, this is not.
01:59:02
Speaker
a real competition. He's like, look, it's all comps. Christian Palista scored a goal and got an assist. You got to include it So yes, it's all comps. If that counts, League's Cup counts. It counts. Like they're the only argument that ah where wouldn't count is this idea of like, oh, well, you you inflated it playing against weaker competition. With CONCACAF, you can make that sometimes. Like when you're playing these really random teams from ah like Central America that are just way overmatched on spending and stuff. And then you drop seven goals on them.
01:59:29
Speaker
Yeah, like that that, you can argue that that inflates it a little bit. Leagues Cup, I don't want to hear about how they're inflated it by hanging seven on Cruz Azul, who is second in the on the Liga Ameki's table right now. And we're ranked, yeah, they were ranked the best team outside of, like, the best non-European team or whatever. Like...
01:59:49
Speaker
you can, you can do the doesn't count stuff till, uh, till your heart's content, but it's not serious. It's not serious. Like this team scored 80 goals this year. They were one of the very best statistically, uh, most productive attacking teams in MLS.
02:00:03
Speaker
Like, so I, I just, I don't know what we're, uh, what we're talking about with, uh, some of that discourse and, uh, I'm with you on that. But like, I think part of it is just like you have games like these, right? Where ball don't go in. right Yeah. And I get that. I'll go in. We must've been shit all year. And you know, you want, you look at more. So here's Musavsky. Here's, here's what I've got for you in return.
Musavsky's Performance & Trade Speculations
02:00:21
Speaker
Right. Yeah. um I have filtered it to any guy who took at least 45 shots this year. Okay. So you have to take more than a shot a game and and not just like 35, like let's not get cute with it. You have to play 900 minutes. I just want to make sure you played in 10 full games.
02:00:36
Speaker
So it's a lot of strikers. It's a lot of wingers. It's a lot tacky. ah Danny Musavsky of this sample of 50 players. It's 50 players. It's a good number. It's more than one per team. He ranks 11th in shot accuracy, 48.2.
02:00:47
Speaker
forty eight print two This includes the playoffs and the regular season. Okay. Players, the player directly above him, Sam Serge, the player deck above Sam Serge, Denny Bawanga, the player directly below Musavsky, Kevin Denke, the player directly below Denke Anders Dreyer, the player directly below Dreyer, Ariel Alonso Martinez.
02:01:07
Speaker
Like, Yeah, you you might not like, I understand a lot of people might not like that Danny Musavski kept that company this year. He literally just, he did. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, that's how, that's the year he had.
02:01:18
Speaker
I'm not being funny. I'm not skipping plays either. It's not a bit. Like, he literally, like, when you're talking about Sam Surridge, Kevin Dankey, Alonzo Martinez, these are the best number nines in MLS. Now, do I think that Moose is the beneficiary of playing in a friendly system with great playmakers in Rusnak and Ferreira?
02:01:37
Speaker
Yeah. but like, what do you want him to do? Not score him? Like that's, great yeah he had a, ah he had an incredible year, like not just like gold production wise, but like the, all the underlying stats put him, they've been putting him with those guys all season.
02:01:52
Speaker
And ah you know, I get it. People don't want to admit it because it's Danny Musavsky and it's like a funny, but I, the other thing I've been saying a decade ago with DC, right? right one year That was just an absolute flyer. And everyone everyone was like, oh I don't believe it. and then some team paid way too much for him in the trade. But like,
02:02:07
Speaker
It happens. Guys catch fire. Guys score a lot of goals. And if the ball keeps going in, like, sorry, guys, he's your best striker. And like, i the other thing I've been saying about that is like, there's been a lot of talk. We've been started talking about like off season, future roster management type stuff.
02:02:22
Speaker
And trading Moose is just such an obvious theoretical thing that could happen over the off season because his value is at an absolute skyrocketed all time high right now. And you also, you You had Osaze come in and do pretty much the same thing, which sort of indicates that like the number nine position in this team on the system.
02:02:43
Speaker
Maybe it's a little bit of like plug and play where if you just get like a ah standard skill set, you can bank on a certain amount of goal production. But I will say like, um' i'm telling I'm telling you all right now, like, be careful what you wish for with moving on from yeah the Moose era. you Be careful what you wish for. There's no guarantee that who they replace him with on the roster, whether it's Osaze or anyone else, there's no guarantee that they're going to be as productive or efficient.
02:03:10
Speaker
Like, I remember because I wrote about it like in my moves. I like series. We talked about this last time, too. Mussovsky was someone I had shouted out as like a really good flyer because you would look at whether it was RSL or his other clubs. He was insanely consistent at getting into good striker spots.
02:03:23
Speaker
And so he was always generating XG because he's making the right run. He's good at finding that spade. He's good to shrugging off a defender and he's good at being able to set himself up for that. um that carried over. So to your point, if you find a guy who does that movement well and gets into those spots, I agree with you. It is kind of plug and play.
02:03:38
Speaker
I don't know if Osaze is that guy. don't look like it, but it was a small sample. Well, it was like a small sample, but it wasn't an MLS really either. Like he had 22% shot accuracy and MLS play, right? And that's like nine shots. But like,
02:03:50
Speaker
I saw that start against Minnesota. So I also was watching his movement there and he looked green. He wasn't doing the same sort of patterns of play and all that thing, but he was like getting there. But, and as, as like other sounder fans, like Mark will want to point out correctly, I will add, there were no designated players on the field for Seattle that day.
02:04:06
Speaker
Like Seattle was totally rotating out the league's cup. So like, it is a weird game in Osasley's defense, but yeah, I think you still need a little bit more sample. Could he be that guy? Yeah. Could you also just replace Musavsky with like a true, like, I don't know, complete forward, like Petar Musa, like build, but to scale.
02:04:25
Speaker
I don't know, man. You're not going to find that guy on MLS cap considerations. You know what i mean? Like, it's just one of those things where it's like, okay, if you're going to try to replicate the strengths of his skillset and find a guy who does all that stuff really well, he's going to probably cost more.
02:04:37
Speaker
That's just the reality of it. Goals aren't cheap. And you can say his value is high, but it also means that his effectiveness is really high. And sometimes this isn't always a stock market. And sometimes we can just want to keep a player who's on a hot streak.
02:04:47
Speaker
If we think that he can do it again to scale next year. Yeah. Jake is saying problem is can't afford Musavsky after next year. And if we don't sell him, we don't make money on his contract. And yeah, like trading him. You know, they always yeah and sell your stock at the highest point. Like it's rat it makes all the sense in the world. And there's so many teams that will pay up.
02:05:07
Speaker
So I don't think he would be a cash trade candidate. I think every MLS, I think he would. Why not? Because he's 29. So I think every team and he's due a rate. So every team in MLS is going to say, I'll give you allocation money. I know I'm going to spend some of it on this guy too.
02:05:23
Speaker
They probably get a lot though. Don't you think? What did ah Columbus didn't trade Ramirez? He left on a free to the galaxy. I think Minnesota traded Christian Ramirez at a similar age to LAFC for like 750 K allocation.
02:05:38
Speaker
Like that's solid money. And that's money that every team would have to offer and still be willing to bring him in. um I want a little more. i want a little more. Ed, that's your right. And the economy has changed and times is hard. and You need more allocation money to bring in your allocation food to your allocation table. man literally, that is he was playing like Sam Surge. 1.1 of allocation money seems fair.
02:05:58
Speaker
I don't think you're getting real money. i don i'm ah If I'm Craig Wives, I'm reading that exact list you were just reading. Sam Surich, Alonzo Martinez. Don't you want a guy who can produce like that?
02:06:10
Speaker
We got one. like but if yeah But if you and everyone else is going to say that he's already at his peak, then I'm paying for a past performance. I'm not going to do that. I'm giving you allocation money. It would be a fun little negotiation to... ah I'm giving you the other side of that negotiation, having just made the bull case for the guy. The MLMVM group chats are going to be going off on the Musotsky negotiations this offseason. So I don't know. I mean, I think he probably does does get ah get traded, but it's ah it's not the grass is not always greener. That's funny. Minnesota would be a good fit for him.
02:06:42
Speaker
They really would. yeah yeah Yeah, they would. I've been saying been saying Atlanta, San Diego, it could be their Ilovsky replacement. ah But like the teams that need to like floor culture setters like Atlanta or Toronto, feel like they should they should be jumping to overpay for a guy like Moose. like that's that's way It's way smarter to do that than spend $22 million dollars on Latte Loth or $15 million dollars on Insigne.
02:07:11
Speaker
like Getting guys like Moose, like value guys, is a much better, smarter way to like do those guys exist. There are ah like, there are more of those guys. Like you could, there's probably a guy in the championship who in three years could be that guy. You know what i mean? Like they're, they're around, they just need to be good space savants. They need to be good at off ball movement and first time finishing.
02:07:33
Speaker
That's your skillset. And I think that America can still develop those guys. Are they doing it at the scale to feel the national team right now? No, but yeah, Can they do it at an MLS level and score 10 to 15 goals?
02:07:44
Speaker
There's always been that guy like this. Yes, it's replenishable. I just, I don't think you're getting $5 million dollars cash. Not five. What about one? Well, okay. I don't think people are going to do cash trades. I mean, I guess didn't Aliou, Ibrahim Aliou go from Houston to Montreal for like 750K cash? and like Yeah, like it's, there you know, there's those guys that are in the tier slightly below that I feel like are in that like 700 range. And I would argue Moose is, yeah I would argue he's closer to like a million.
02:08:17
Speaker
I mean, like you and I are thinking about it like a like a functional transfer market. This is such a new market, the cash trade. We're like Dejan Jovovich. It's true. Yeah. For you and for four million dollars, I want to say to Kansas City. And it was like the bargain of a lifetime. What would you rather have one latte loth or five and a half days on the Ovalich's? This isn't how it works, but it kind of is.
02:08:35
Speaker
it's just like a no brainer where like, I think teams are going to look now and say, Oh, you're taking our starting striker. Okay. What do you want? Like, how much is it worth it to you? You know, he won't have to acclimate for a year. Like lot lot did, or like Denke did for three months even.
02:08:49
Speaker
Right. Like, I think that the, I don't know, man, I go back and forth. I hear it. I just think a 29 year old domestic striker, where this is his first, like true starting caliber nine. I think teams are going to, I don't think teams are going to treat him like the second coming of Wando. And I don't think Wando would have ever come,
02:09:05
Speaker
commanded that fee in his prime, which is a whole different conversation we should get into another day. But like, that's good off season chatter, actually. What would Wanda go for in the cash trademark? They're gonna, they're gonna try to do a whole, i would do a whole three hour stream with you of just name some guys and what would they go for the cash trade defend you take?
02:09:21
Speaker
let's let's do it, man. I'm down. We're going to have to fill the off season. know somehow, but, uh, well, Jeff, I, I mean, I could, uh, I could stay here talking, uh, talking ball with you all night, but honestly, i want to go to bed now. So, uh, let's, uh, let's, uh, wrap it up right there. Uh,
02:09:37
Speaker
Thank you so much for hopping on tonight and going for that long, man. That was ah that was awesome. We'll get you back on here soon. We'll see if there's a a Minnesota United Seattle Sounders ah game three back at Allianz Field. Doesn't that sound fun, guys?
02:09:50
Speaker
Another trip to Allianz Field to try and defeat Ramsey Ball. It might happen. Find out on Monday at Lumen Field. You can earn the right to go back. and do that again which we're all really looking forward to uh watching but uh jeff uh uh before we get out of here what do you got going on on five aside for the playoffs and uh any anything you want to uh plug or promote in particular or just uh tell anyone who wasn't watching earlier where to find your uh yeah so all my stuff now for now hopefully for now we'll see
02:10:23
Speaker
um is at five sides, which is my sub stack. You can find it through my blue sky and my Twitter. have links to it there. Otherwise I think it's just jeffreuter.substack.com. Nice and clean. R-U-E-T-E-R. People are spelling that wrong more again. I don't know why.
02:10:34
Speaker
um The ah otherwise every Tuesday i am on the total soccer show talking MLS. So it's me, Joe Lowry, Taylor Rockwell chopping it up. um we're We're covering every game and we already got through. You can listen to a whole five minute section on Minnesota, Seattle, probably that's already up there as well.
02:10:51
Speaker
um I recorded that one early in the morning rather than late at night. So maybe sound different. Who knows? And yeah, thank you. A lot of you have reached out lately. I think that actually I i'd like tracked metrics in Seattle is one of my most like followed. I have more people following me from Seattle and like a few people in Seattle have been very gracious with like, I hope you're okay after this. So thank you.
02:11:12
Speaker
Any of you have reached out. appreciate Seattle's including you, including you, by the way, we've, we've texted a about it a bit. I appreciate it. Of course, man. I mean, you do you do some of the best work of ah of anybody covering this league. So always great to ah pick your brain. And, you know, you got the ah you you watch Eric Ramsey ball every every week, so there's no one better to... I take some off weeks, I'll admit. but Well, here's to a ah more more goals, I guess, in ah game two. I don't know if it's going to look that much different. not I hope there's a goal at a minimum.
02:11:45
Speaker
let's get Can we get one goal? I don't even care who scores, but let's just get one goal. But maybe we'll, God willing, if there's a game three, maybe we'll get you on here for that. Or or just maybe to talk some playoffs as we get a little deeper into it. We can line that up.
02:11:59
Speaker
You name it. Yeah, thank you for for the time. I'm going to hang out for like five minutes just to say bye to everybody. Thanks for coming on, and we'll catch you soon.
02:12:10
Speaker
Take care. That was Jeff Ruder, formerly of The Athletic, now of the Substack. Five aside. Everyone go toss him a sub. Great stuff. I mean, I told him I would only keep him for 30 or 40 minutes, but we got cooking.
02:12:24
Speaker
We got cooking on ah Danny Musavsky cash for trade proposals, which the fact that we still got 50 of you guys watching that, that's that's awesome.
02:12:36
Speaker
appreciate you Appreciate you guys tuning in tonight. ah Another banger stream, as always.
02:12:44
Speaker
ah Let's see, what do we got going on this weekend? The game's on Monday. i think we're probably going to do what we did for this last Monday game, which is have kickoff 8 a.m. on Monday be the yeah be the sort of pregame lead-in show. It's not a lot of shelf life, but I thought that was kind of fun, the the day of match day stream. So we'll probably do that on Monday. ah And then we'll do our...
02:13:12
Speaker
our call-in show on Monday night, as usual. It's kind of crazy days. Two streams in one day. But Monday night footy, I guess, in the playoffs. That's how we have to do it.
02:13:24
Speaker
Are there other playoff games this weekend? Should I do some, like, watch-along stuff? I guess there there are games on Saturday, and it's a pretty good slate.
02:13:36
Speaker
We got Nashville, Miami, Portland, San Diego, Chicago, Philly.
02:13:43
Speaker
Maybe I'll do a ah
02:13:47
Speaker
bill'll do a Saturday watch-along for some of those games. Seven games this weekend.
02:13:54
Speaker
Noah doesn't always come on under the lights. He has it a couple times in the last couple weeks, but most of the time this is just me rocking solo or with random guests.
02:14:08
Speaker
But, ah yeah, all right. i'll I'll let you guys know about... ah
02:14:13
Speaker
about a watch along, but if not, we'll be back at it eight eight o'clock Monday morning for your game two pregame show.
02:14:25
Speaker
It could be, this could be a wrap folks. This could be a wrap for your 2025 season. Could be it for the boys.
Seattle's Strategic Adjustments Against Minnesota
02:14:36
Speaker
But I also will never bet against this team at home in a playoff game. I definitely will not be doing that. I've learned better than that. I think the team is going pretty pissed off too.
02:14:47
Speaker
I think as tilted as we all were watching that game, they're probably even more tilted. They're probably even more tilted. So hopefully they come out, channel that.
02:15:02
Speaker
Look more like the 2025 Seattle Sounders that we've seen at their peak in this game. than they were able to in Minnesota. I really think if you start Moose in this game and you kind of just run it how you were running it towards the end of that Minnesota game, I think you'll get one.
02:15:22
Speaker
I think you'll get one. And once you get one against this team, they will, they will wilt.
02:15:32
Speaker
They're not, they're not, they're not up for the smoke of playing from behind.
02:15:38
Speaker
They're not. What they're going to try and do, i mean, they're going to set up in that low block. I can tell you guys that. that's That's going to be the lowest of the low blocks.
02:15:50
Speaker
That block is going to be,
02:15:55
Speaker
if we're talking we're talking bus-wise, the status of what the bus is going to be, it's going to be parked. It's going to be parked. But, you know, it is what it is.
02:16:09
Speaker
They're not the first team to do that. They're the first team to be these radical extreme ideologues about it that I've seen in MLS.
02:16:21
Speaker
But it it ain't nothing new to see a team roll into Lumen Field like they're going to do and sit up, sit in that low block, give Seattle the ball, and try and troll farm set pieces. That's what they're going to do So, like, I guess at a certain point, like, we can complain about it. We can be salty about it.
02:16:44
Speaker
I've been complaining about it. I am salty about it. But you just, you got to score on them. That's it.
02:16:53
Speaker
If we have to do another penalty kick shootout against the Demon, Dane St. Clair,
02:17:01
Speaker
I'm not going to be happy about that.
02:17:09
Speaker
I'm not going to be happy. Let's get this shit done in regulation.
02:17:16
Speaker
Go back to Minnesota. All right. Fine. Why not? Why not? I'll hang out a little more. I'm not doing shit.
02:17:27
Speaker
What night is it? Thursday, 945. We'd love some chatter on the best setup and strategy to break their low block. Here's the thing.
02:17:37
Speaker
I think the changes you make are the changes that you made at the end of game one.
02:17:44
Speaker
But I also, this is, I i was sort of getting into this when I was talking to Jeff. I don't think they had this like crazy bang their head a wall, bang their head against the wall type game against the low block as people are are saying.
02:18:01
Speaker
they They racked to over two XG, which, you know, I understand some people are like,
02:18:08
Speaker
are going to say that that's that's meaningless if you don't score. Yes, but like would you deny that they had really good, really clear-cut chances in that game? Those Moose chances, what how much better of a chance do you want?
02:18:26
Speaker
what What better breaking down of the low block can you do then that? The chances were there. like You can do... Just do that again is what I'm saying. like You don't have to reinvent the wheel on that.
02:18:42
Speaker
I think you do start Moose because of how much better the chance generation looked when he was out there. I really do think you... You have got to make the adjustment.
02:18:53
Speaker
Be proactive about making that adjustment. Push Jordan out wide. And it's not like a he's not a nine anymore thing. Now he's we're putting him as a winger again. For this specific matchup, for this specific matchup, Jordan playing in that wide channel and combining with Moose, that's how you that's how you fight their low block.
02:19:17
Speaker
And you also, I would like to see them run at them a little more and get out in transition. It's very hard to do against that team. That is one thing that they are good at, is limiting those situations and kind of not letting game states get out of their control.
02:19:36
Speaker
They're good at that. They're genuinely good at that. And they also have a demon in goal. He's a demon. spawned from the gates of hell
02:19:52
Speaker
i say and i i say that in like a complimentary way i like you do you have dane st claire is uh he's a dog like i'm not gonna lie that dude watching him in that shootout like you are a freaking maniac
02:20:13
Speaker
That's how it's done though, man. That's how you got, that's how you got to go to that crazy place to be a PK specialist. You got to have a couple of screws loose like Andrew Thomas does.
02:20:31
Speaker
Does Jesus play the left? If you put Morris on the wing, that's kind of what I was thinking about. That's the, so that this is the, ah this is the tough thing because Jesus has been most effective on the right, but you got to put Jordan there.
02:20:46
Speaker
So do you bump, i like, because I want Asus on the field.
02:20:52
Speaker
I think you, but like he hasn't played or looked as effective as much on the left.
02:20:58
Speaker
But I also don't think that means he can't do it. It's the same idea, right? It's not like he would have to do... he also it's not like You can't you you can't think of him playing it as a conventional winger.
02:21:10
Speaker
It's not what he's doing. He's closer to 10, whatever side he's playing on. So at at a certain point, what it doesn't really matter what side he's listed as on the lineup graphic when he's kind of floating around anyway and playing that position more as a dual 10 than a peer winger anyway.
02:21:34
Speaker
See what i'm saying?
02:21:38
Speaker
Like, I could see why there would be hesitation to run him on the left because he hasn't done it a lot this year.
02:21:50
Speaker
But I think he can do it. I think you rolled Jordan on the right, Rusnak as the 10. Isis on the other side of that, on the other side of Jordan, moves up top. That's what I think you do.
02:22:04
Speaker
That's what I think you do. And you have Rothrock, Ryan Kent, and Georgie as subs.
02:22:15
Speaker
That's kind of nice.
02:22:18
Speaker
Here's the only thing I would say, man. Like, we're talking about playing matchups right now. It's not like, what is your best 11?
02:22:28
Speaker
I would almost argue Georgie is better for this matchup than Jesus. As far as to, uh, to the earlier question of how you break down the low block guys like Jordan and Georgie who have that pace and, uh, Georgie's got very, very good one V one ability.
02:22:51
Speaker
Jordan can stretch the field with runs in behind.
02:22:57
Speaker
Those types of skill sets, I think, are theoretically better in a matchup like this against a team like this than Ferreira's best attributes, what he brings to the table, which I feel like are more effective in against teams that ah actually try and play the sport, which most teams that Seattle plays do, but this team doesn't.
02:23:25
Speaker
So you could argue
02:23:28
Speaker
That
02:23:31
Speaker
in this case, Georgie could be the play there.
Analyzing Past Games & Conclusion with Season Hopes
02:23:40
Speaker
Runs him behind where, yeah, there's not going to be, therere there's going to be, ah
02:23:50
Speaker
that's sort of the thing. There's not going to be a lot of opportunities to do that. But when there is,
02:24:00
Speaker
It's good to have a guy out there who can do that.
02:24:05
Speaker
They do kind of there there is individual sequences in a game where they kind of try and play a little bit. It's like, you know, probably like four or five times in the game where they're going to think they have, what what what happens is what they're doing what they're doing is trying and trying to troll you into making a mistake and giving them counter attacks. That's what they're doing.
02:24:25
Speaker
And counter attacks to either score on the counter or try and win a free kick and score off that.
02:24:32
Speaker
So when when you have those individual situations in the game where they're they're busting it,
02:24:43
Speaker
and you have the elite double pivot that's so good at at pressing and winning the ball back in dangerous areas and springing you out the other way, that's when you pounce.
02:24:58
Speaker
That's when Jordan goes vertical, you hit him on that go route.
02:25:06
Speaker
ah Other than that, I don't see how you score against these guys. I don't know how anyone did it this year. Seattle scored on them twice the first time they played.
02:25:17
Speaker
One of those was a Georgie own goal.
02:25:21
Speaker
I don't even remember. let me look up that game real quick. Who the hell scored in that game other than the Georgie own goal?
02:25:39
Speaker
KK, KKR.
02:25:43
Speaker
Oh, okay. Okay. I remember that goal. Why don't we watch it chat? Why don't we pull it up?
02:25:59
Speaker
See how they did this.
02:26:07
Speaker
What happened in this game? OK, Minnesota went up 1-0, 2-0. All
02:26:17
Speaker
right, here's this KKR goal.
02:26:26
Speaker
What happened with this?
02:26:31
Speaker
Oh, they don't really show the sequence that led up to it.
02:26:37
Speaker
Well, there you have it. It did happen.
02:26:41
Speaker
Can we get a replay?
02:26:51
Speaker
Okay, see, I think this is actually a good example. I think this is actually a good example. i don't remember I don't remember what happened before this, but what you have is clearly there clearly there was a situation where look how disorganized they are.
02:27:08
Speaker
They're not in a block right here.
02:27:15
Speaker
Somehow Seattle was able to get them disorganized and loop this ball over the top to, is ah is this Jordan who puts in this assist? Who puts in this assist?
02:27:32
Speaker
Oh, it's De La Vega with hair? Yeah, that was De La Vega with hair. Okay, but this is this is what Jordan can do. this is See, I'm glad we pulled this up. This is De La Vega. This is but hair flowing De La Vega right here. But this is you just tell Jordan to do this, which is this is exactly the type of shit he and Moose were doing at the end of the game.
02:27:54
Speaker
you got You have them scrambling right here. You have them scrambling. it does There are going to be situations, very few, very few. Most of the time, you're going to see five of them just across the six right here, all just chilling.
02:28:08
Speaker
But like right here, you actually you have them. You got De La Vega putting it in, KKR.
02:28:18
Speaker
is how you do it.
02:28:22
Speaker
that's They can do it. They can score on this team. They can score on this team. They did score on this team. It can be done.
02:28:32
Speaker
You just... It's tough. It's tough. This is probably the most frustrating team in the league to try and score on right now. It is.
02:28:49
Speaker
All right, guys, I'm going to call it right there. I've been ripping for two and a half hours, so I'm going to call it a night. Great stuff. we'll ah We'll catch you on Monday for for kickoff if I don't see you for any watch-along content this weekend.
02:29:05
Speaker
And then on Monday, we find out if the Seattle Sounders season stays alive or if that's all she wrote for 2025. I'll be honest. When I was talking about how Seattle's peaking, like,
02:29:19
Speaker
If they lose this series, it'll be tilting, but whatever, man.
02:29:26
Speaker
I guess sometimes you're going to get Ramsey. It's the new way of Major League Soccer now. But we'll talk about that time when it when it comes. It's not over yet. There's at least one more game. So... um I will catch you guys for the next one. Thanks for tuning in. Please like the video if you have not.
02:29:48
Speaker
I don't know how many likes we got on this video yet, but it's not enough. Like the video. If you're watching and you haven't subbed to the channel, sub to the channel. Check out our interview with Katie Wilson that just went live on our...
02:30:02
Speaker
on our page earlier this evening. Great interview. Mayoral candidate. Long time political punditry podcast. Check it out. And I'll catch you guys for the next one. Love y'all. Have a good one.
02:30:13
Speaker
Peace.