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Kickoff: Club World Cup: Seattle Sounders compete with dignity vs. Botafogo
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Despite a spirited second-half comeback attempt, the Seattle Sounders fell 2-1 to Botafogo in their Group B opener of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
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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
Introduction and Viewing Options
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 real scorcher today. What, the scorcher today? Well, it's gonna be
00:00:44
Speaker
Good morning, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Lobbing Scorcher's Kickoff.
Seattle Sounders vs Botafogo Match Recap
00:00:51
Speaker
I'm Ari, that's Nico, and we have got our first Club World Cup match review to get into here this morning. The Seattle Sounders opened Group B play versus the storied Brazilian side, Botafogo at Lumen Field last night, and they end up falling by a 2-1 scoreline, concede twice,
00:01:13
Speaker
In the first half looked like it might get away from them. They ah they brought it back in the second half made a valiant comeback effort, but they come up just short. We're going to breaking it all down here this morning for you guys. Nico, how are you feeling?
00:01:30
Speaker
Hey, Ari and that wonderful Loving Scorchers
Debating Moral Victories
00:01:34
Speaker
family. i am feeling little tired. You know, it was a late night, but... not lot Not a lot of sleep.
00:01:42
Speaker
Not a lot of sleep, but I did get a lot of caffeine this morning. You know, the hair is not on point necessarily, but I said, you know what? The fans are going to want to hear what we got to say because it was a bittersweet type of... You know, I hate people that... um Maybe they're too extreme with their taste, as we've said many of times, but in this one particularly, can see the discourse being very extreme on either side, and i'm actually okay with either one.
Seattle's Performance Analysis
00:02:12
Speaker
So, ah you know, if you believe in moral victories and, you know, that the team had a lot of positives, I think that's fair. If you think that the Sounders should have done a lot more and, know,
00:02:23
Speaker
you know, with more quality in the final third of better striker per se, if you think that I would have made a difference than today, i'm okay with it. ah But for me, particularly, i thought Seattle put up a good showing and I think there were some positives.
00:02:43
Speaker
This was a tough Botafogo team, but at the end of the day, the results is kind of what drives this type of tournament. But we knew going into this Club World Cup that wasn't necessarily the be-all type of tournament, right? I mean, we knew that all we had to do was compete.
00:03:04
Speaker
all that The Sounders wanted to just showcase who they were, ah put up the style of play, look competitive. And I think in that regard, they did it. Is it unfortunate and does it suck that it feels like you were so close and maybe five or ten more minutes of that game, you probably equalized it?
00:03:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it does. It might hurt even a little more than if you got the doors blown out. So i right now, I don't know which way. It would have been better to be blown out. Not necessarily because, you know, you you want to look competitive. You want to look like you're outclassed at any point.
00:03:39
Speaker
But when it's so close and the fans specifically, you know, they're all over the comments, right? It kind of felt like they had it, like they could have done more. And when it doesn't happen, it is heartbreaking for them.
00:03:51
Speaker
Compete with dignity. That's the phrase that I've ah been using when assessing my expectations for this tournament's the phrase I used in the title for this show. And i think they did that, Nico. I did, I came out of that game after the second half ah proud of the proud of how the team played, proud of how they performed in the second half.
Attacking Opportunities and Defensive Errors
00:04:12
Speaker
ah because with how the first half went, like I said, it felt like this one could have gotten away from them. Like it was was teetering on the brink there. And I think there' there's, like you said, there's a lot of frustrating aspects.
00:04:27
Speaker
of this game. And I think there's a lot of positives, uh, but it felt like in the first half, it was teetering on the brink a little bit. And the frustrating thing about that is that I, I felt like up until they conceded that opener, um,
00:04:43
Speaker
I felt like it was going reasonably well. Seattle actually had a couple of of the first good chances of the game. There was the one that Alex Roldan put in like right at the beginning, and then I thought Ferreira had a great chance on that ah on that left footer from just inside the box that he he couldn't quite get on target.
00:05:04
Speaker
um But it was going... I think about as well as you could hope for considering, considering your opposition in the stage that you're on. And then of course, I mean, we are every, people are pointing out in chat knew who makes, ah makes the blunder of the game.
00:05:20
Speaker
And ah that was, ah that was unfortunate for me to see Nico because, you know, I've been the one I've stuck my neck out for the guy said that a lot of the heat he takes is, ah is, unnecessary and that he, he, I I've never been and never will be on the, uh, on the anti new who trained to the extent that some are.
00:05:39
Speaker
Uh, but like, if you, if you look at the totality of these last two games, when he got the, uh, red card in Vancouver, and then, the, uh, the error he makes to give away that free kick on that first goal. Uh, I mean, you just, you can't do it if you want,
00:05:57
Speaker
a realistic chance of, of taking a result in games like this. It's, he didn't need to do it. It's unnecessary. The, the guy was baiting him into exactly what he did. And the the frustrating thing, like if you get diced up from the run of play and they, and their quality outshines your quality, then, okay. Yeah. Like I can, I can live with that. Like the second goal, I think is a good example. That is flippant.
00:06:24
Speaker
$30 million dollars striker who puts a header in a perfect place, you know, could Fry have saved that maybe, but at the at the end of the day, that's one where a great player, you or Jesus gets the better of you.
00:06:40
Speaker
This opener
Second Half Improvements and Substitution Impact
00:06:41
Speaker
ah where new who gets baited into the foul, as soon as he did it, first of all, i was like, all right, they're probably going to score on this. and And they did and deserved.
00:06:51
Speaker
Like, if you give the other team, if you lay it out on a platter for them like that, give them, I don't care about what happened on the set piece. Like, that goal is all about, like, the opportunity that was given Botafogo on that play with with the with the free kick.
00:07:09
Speaker
And yeah he he didn't need to do it, Nico. He didn't need to do it. It was extremely avoidable. And look I am also someone that has time and time again, year after year, being a supporter of what NUHU does, being a defensive specialist, being your lockdown fullback. You understand his limitations offensively because you have one job, right? You gotta be physical, you gotta be great defensively.
00:07:39
Speaker
ah You're gonna provide some sparks with you know some of the flair that he does provide on the field at times, the way he gets forward. He's gotten a lot better actually offensively.
00:07:51
Speaker
But my biggest issue with the mistake is that it's rapidly and more consistently turning it into a pattern when you're just coming up from a game where you cost yourself a red card, possibly cost the team, the descend of that game in Vancouver because of a poor decision. And then you compound that by going into this game and I'm totally agree with you that look in the first half, there's a 20 minute span where Saturday is you're looking pretty well.
00:08:23
Speaker
theyre They're holding in possession. They're moving the ball well. They're switching the point of attack. They get a couple of chances. The Ferreira one you mentioned was nice. He gets rid of the defender, hit him with his left, can't really put it away.
00:08:35
Speaker
There's an Albert Rustock opportunity. ah There is a Musovsky opportunity. The Ferreira puts in a nice ball. he If he curls it a little bit, maybe Moose gets there. so they were moving the ball well.
00:08:46
Speaker
And this chance happens. And as soon as the free kick is given, I turned to Aaron Levine and I said, look, that's a problem. that This is a dangerous position.
00:08:58
Speaker
And sure enough, Jay Cunha, he's a guy that's going to be playing Fernando Tufouris here soon. He is a European talent playing in South America. Bigger, taller, stronger. He just gets there.
00:09:10
Speaker
beautiful header, there's nothing Steph could do. And that was a ripple effect that just took the air from the sales of the Seattle Sounders team that had been off to a good start. So when you become a liability to that degree, that's when I have an issue with it. And that's when, as I've told you and I've told the audience, there's times to praise, there's times to criticize.
00:09:35
Speaker
It's time to criticize this specific moment and the current form of decisions that new who has made over the last couple of games. Yeah. And ah you know, he comes out at half. I'm not sure how much of that was like disciplinary for the mistake he made or that he was on a yellow card for that foul. So maybe you don't want to ah risk him a getting the second yellow, which God knows that he's,
00:10:04
Speaker
Seems like it would have been a possibility if he had stayed in the game. ah But I thought one of the biggest positives of this game was RBW actually coming in at that left back spot in the second half.
00:10:15
Speaker
I thought RBW looked great. Like we didn't talk about him as one of the players who had an opportunity to boost his stock in this in this tournament. But, you know, like we're we're joking throughout the game, like the price is going up on this guy, this guy or this guy, because that's how it goes in tournaments like this sometimes.
00:10:33
Speaker
I think RBW actually did quite a lot to put himself... back on the radar of ah clubs in Europe who might have been looking at him at one point. Maybe they're still looking at him.
00:10:46
Speaker
ah But, man, didn't you think that was the best RBW has ever looked? i I loved what I saw from RBW, especially in attack. Regardless of New Who's mental errors, RBW brings a lot more in that aspect of the game. And I thought i thought you could ah you could see it in this game. What did what did you think of RBW?
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, I wish I would have mentioned it a little bit more post-game because you're absolutely right. If you go back and you look at that change by Brian Smetzer and you look at what was a big difference between the first half and the second half, it is the width that Reid Baker-Wyden provides you on the left side. It is another guy that can easily to get on the attack.
00:11:27
Speaker
He puts the guy on his behind, if I'm not mistaken. He broke somebody's ankles. I think it was –
00:11:35
Speaker
The right back, Ventino, I believe that's who he puts on his behind. And he was just very good on the way he adds on to the attack. the The way he overlaps seems almost effortless at time. And I don't know the way he glides with the ball.
00:11:54
Speaker
And I thought that he was just another guy that i felt like could associate in the final third. And Ryan Kent, but he had He didn't have a great game in this one again. So by having a guy like Reed Baker-Whiten that whenever Ryan Kent would kind of tuck inside of those inside channels and gave Reed kind of a highway on that side, it just started working a lot better. So ah for me, he was important.
00:12:21
Speaker
um But the biggest moment and the biggest change in the game came in when in the 70th minute, Paul Rothrock and Pedro de la Vega came onto to the game.
Referee Decisions and Game Flow
00:12:36
Speaker
ah They were the momentum shifters. They were the two guys that provided not just width, but a lot of dynamism. I've said it time and time again, you can criticize Paul Rothrock for a lot of things, but you can never criticize him for his effort and the way he creates havoc.
00:12:53
Speaker
And on the other side, that's your other having brother, because you can say what you want about Pedro's sharpness. And at times, maybe Brian wants him to be a little bit more disciplined and not get so far inside.
00:13:07
Speaker
But when you're playing a team like Botafogo, that's compact, that is beating you physically the way they were. Having a guy like Pedro... obligates you from having a guy like Alex tell us that if you allow him to get forward easily, he's going to give you nightmares.
00:13:25
Speaker
But with Pedro de la Vega, there was a necessity for him to just get pinned back a little bit more. So both of those guys, I thought they were fantastic. I actually said in the postgame show that I thought Brandsmechter was 10 minutes too late on those substitutions.
00:13:41
Speaker
He had to make one at halftime. Those were fine, right? Kim Kihi comes off. he's restricted on minutes. You bring in J Bell. We just talked about read for new. All right. You let her roll in the 60th minute. There should have been a change.
00:13:55
Speaker
And that was those two substitutions right there. Honestly, if it was me, might've pulled Moose off and left Ferreira just cook for a little bit longer before I brought in, um, Osase, but that's just me. So i'm not going to criticize that. But the moment in time for me was the 60th minute.
00:14:13
Speaker
So you could give those two guys a little bit more time to settle into the game, to create havoc and get you into this game, because that's what they did. Both of them were spark plugs. Both of them changed the game and they exposed the flanks in a way that the team did not before they got into this game. So ah those are some of the things that I thought could have been done a little bit better in terms of Bryant Metzer.
00:14:42
Speaker
Rosie says, is it just me or was the referee hesitant to give Botafogo yellow cards? Not saying we lost because of the ref, by the way. It felt like that. to ah Like, ah well, Botafogo was definitely they had an intent on. ah I like that foul like right after kickoff on Ryan Kent. That's like a statement.
00:14:59
Speaker
like tone setting type foul. Wouldn't be surprised if they were like, we're going to put someone on their ass, like in the first couple minutes of the game. And it it did feel like that the, ah that the ref was hesitant on yellows, but ah Paul Rothrock pointed this Paul Rothrock pointed this out after the game.
00:15:18
Speaker
ah like they they're They're very smart about like the timing of their fouls in the area of the field where they do it. He was like, yeah, there was times where it looked like you know we won the ball and we were gonna get on the break.
00:15:33
Speaker
And they commit the foul in an area that stops us from being able to counter, but it's in an area of the field where they're not going to get a yellow. Like, it's not like we're already out and running on the in transition, and then they do it. They, like, would do it. but So that's kind of just those, like, ah smart tactics, I think, in the game of chess. Like, Botafogo, they were tactical and intentional about when they were doing it.
00:15:58
Speaker
bank Oh, yeah, go for it. No, I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, they're a savvy team. And you knew coming into this game that, i mean, you don't win Copa Libertadores without having experienced players.
00:16:10
Speaker
You don't win the Brasiliao, one of the most competitive tournaments in America, without having experienced players. I mean, you're talking about Freitas. And ah Gregory both were huge fundamental for that 2024 run. We just talked about Gary Cunha. He's fantastic.
00:16:26
Speaker
ah You talk about Arthur, Alex Tellez. I mean, all of these guys are experienced players that know exactly when and when to foul.
00:16:35
Speaker
I think that the ref did fine. I mean, he he let, yeah he was consistent and and he let a lot of play go, which I kind of tend to lean toward. I'd rather have a referee that allows play rather than one that's on the whistle, trying to be a protagonist and trying to steal the show.
00:16:51
Speaker
so I didn't have an issue with the referee myself. Bad Sequels coming in with the $5 Super Chat. Thank you for the support, Bad Sequels. Appreciate you. ah Got one for you, Nico. Do you know more about Morris and Yamar's availability?
00:17:05
Speaker
Was Schmetzer playing chess with his injury updates?
Player Injuries and Impact
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah, I honestly, if I could say anything, is that he ah was probably... doing more of a poker-based type of situation there, where I think that he talked about Jordan Morris being a lot closer. I think he is closer, but I don't foresee Brian Smetzer risking him because he's just quite not ready.
00:17:34
Speaker
And he's been partial in training. He's been doing a lot of work off to the side, similar to Kim. And Kim was only ready for 45 minutes. And Kim looked, at least in terms of training, ahead of Jordan Morris.
00:17:49
Speaker
He just had a setback. He's an explosive player. ah Hamstrings are, and I've said this a thousand times, they're extremely hard to decipher. And so with that said, i just don't see a moment in time where set what where Brian's going to be like, I got to bring in Jordan right now.
00:18:06
Speaker
I'm going expose him to 45 minutes. ah I honestly don't think until the PSG game, you might be able to give him 15 or 20, but beyond that, I just don't foresee it. Now, Yamar, that's a tough one.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yamar had a hamstring and in the process of rehabbing, he ends up getting or picking up a new injury on the calf opposite of that hamstring.
00:18:32
Speaker
A lot of that happens at times because you're disbalancing your body when you... Yemar wanted to play this tournament. I mean, there's no doubt about that. he He's a competitor. I've said a thousand times that constantly plays and puts his body on the line because he has pains and aches, but he's a solid player. Look at the amount of minutes he's played since 2020.
00:18:52
Speaker
And that's why he's been so dominant. He's been so good for this team. And in this one, I felt like he may be... cause an additional injury. And that's just unfortunate because again, there's a disbalance on when an athlete, the way they run, the way they push their bodies, if they're trying to keep weights or force of a specific part of the body, specifically the hamstring, a lot of times you're overloading the other side.
00:19:20
Speaker
And I think that's why he ended up getting that calf injury. I believe is a grade two or something of that nature. ah But b Brian said three to four weeks. So I would expect them back after the Club World Cup, probably a couple of games into the next part of the season. He'll definitely be back by Leagues Cup, but That's not what you want to hear when he is without a doubt your most dominant center back.
00:19:45
Speaker
And if there was a time to miss him, was yesterday. When you got Igor De Jesus just being a monster, just dunking on people. i mean, he dunked on Kim twice and Kim Ki-hee was good.
00:19:56
Speaker
Kim Ki-hee was good. Kim Ki-hee, he saves, there's a save sliding tackle in the first half, in the first real opportunity that Botafogo had of a transition moment.
00:20:07
Speaker
Kim Ki-hee blocks that. I thought he was strong. I but that he created a couple of moments intercepting balls, but he's just not that guy when it comes to being physically important, right? I mean, Jamar, the presence he has on the 18, his ability to just match up physically with these guys would have been amazing.
00:20:29
Speaker
So you definitely miss him. He won't be back. We'll see ah in what type of format, how long does it take him to be not just fit, but game fit. There's a reason Igor Jesus just got sold to Nottingham Forest for $30 million. dollars Good player.
00:20:46
Speaker
Like, I don't really, I don't, he did dunk on Kim Kihee, but it's like, that's that's what he does sometimes. That's it's a great player. ah Nico, let's talk about the second half, because I think, ah you know, if there if there's a general positive to take away from this game, I think it was the second half response.
00:21:06
Speaker
It really felt like ah Seattle came into the game after halftime. And I thought the attacking performance in the second half was was really good. They end up, ah the number I saw was 2.1 or 2.2 expected goals.
00:21:21
Speaker
I think that's like that's about as good a like attacking effort performance-wise as you could hope to have in a game like this. And they end up getting getting rewarded with the goal for it, 75th minute.
Second Half Response and Substitution Analysis
00:21:36
Speaker
ah Christian rolled on, coming through in the big moment. I believe, I haven't even watched the replay back yet, Nico, but I think it was a Rusnak corner kick comes in, recycled, and that's what the chance was.
00:21:52
Speaker
came off of ah Christian rolled on's header deflects in. ah But really, it felt like they were on top of Botafogo for pretty much the duration of the game for for a lot of it before then. But then certainly after the goal, ah Seattle were the protagonists and God, they got so close to equalizing a couple of times. Nico De La Vega man had two really good looks. He had the one that slid to him right around the penalty spot where he just whiffed it.
00:22:20
Speaker
And then there was the one after that where he had another pretty clean look and the goalkeeper ends up saving it. But ah Nico, what did what did you see in the ah second half? what do you What did you make of how the team responded to a situation where uh, that they could have let that game get away from them. And, ah the vultures were, that we're circling, you know, there's, uh, there's, the there's a vocal minority of, uh, of this fan base that wants the team to lose.
00:22:48
Speaker
And they were, they were ready to, they were ready to talk about how much of a disgraceful embarrassment of a performance. The Seattle Sounders were, uh, were putting on in the game and they, uh,
00:23:00
Speaker
they don't They don't get that. They don't get that. This was ah this was a good response, and it was ah ah overall – I thought the performance in the game, it's like tale of two halves, right? The first half, not that good.
00:23:13
Speaker
Second half was good. what did you What did you make of the second half? I thought the second half was a team that kind of played without fear. They clearly added more numbers forward.
00:23:26
Speaker
They were a lot more effective in possession. um And again, I mean, if we break down the the game, I thought the first 20 minutes from Seattle were really good in the first half either way.
00:23:38
Speaker
ah So they were the better team for the majority of this game, but they just... couldn't put the ball in the back of the net. So in the second half, particularly, i thought they started with good tempo.
00:23:49
Speaker
They created a lot of opportunities. But i I'll reiterate, once Ferreira and, I mean, once ah Paul Rothrock and Pedro La Vega come in, it changes the game because they were able to stretch out the defense.
00:24:04
Speaker
They were able to occupy and expose the spaces that both Ventinho and Alex Telles were giving you when they got forward. i And you knew that was going to happen.
00:24:18
Speaker
In the first time you start seeing those fullbacks creeping in forward, and unfortunately Ferreira, just wasn't exposing or being direct enough because that's just not his game.
00:24:28
Speaker
Alex wasn't overloading enough or higher enough to expose that. And then Ryan Kent just was not good on the ball. He got dispossessed quite often.
00:24:39
Speaker
um And even when he was able to get into space, Ventino was just too quick and he was just closing him down. Not to mention that Jai Acuna was a guy that,
00:24:50
Speaker
had a reference on that side. And the whenever Ken would get the ball, you could see the line shift to Ken's side. So it was just difficult. When we Paul Rothrock, everything became ah lot more direct.
00:25:03
Speaker
We're going to go after that side. We're going to push it. There was a couple of times where you saw Paul Rothrock getting a ball over the top and very savvy-like, very smartly, he'll kind of slow it down and kind of hold the defender, let the ball get in front of him.
00:25:17
Speaker
So had that been... a more part of this game and had Seattle been better on the flanks, I think you would have changed the whole thing. And in the second half, you were able to do that.
00:25:30
Speaker
Let's not forget that Christian Roldan, man of the match and Ovid Vargas both had a great second half as well. I think that they matched step for step with two phenomenal ah South American center midfielders in Freitas and in in Gregory.
00:25:53
Speaker
And I thought that in the second half, they had more opportunities. They have more time on the ball. and They were able to ah get higher up the field, specifically Ovid. he He got a lot looser when ah those two players came in the second half.
00:26:06
Speaker
And I think it had a lot to do with Look, we're down, we're chasing, so we're going to be a lot more aggressive. And that aggressiveness turned into just pinning ah this South American great, this couple of Libertadores champions in their own half.
00:26:21
Speaker
I spoke to a friend and a, you know, one of the Botafogo players that I know, um off the mic, so I'm not going to say his name, but like he he told me that he felt like they couldn't get out of their own half in the second half.
00:26:38
Speaker
He was like, you you guys completely pinned us back. So that'll tell you of what this Seattle team could have done for the majority of this game, but just the way that you kind of started to creep up that ah line of confrontation, that's what Seattle did in the second half that was a lot different as well.
00:26:59
Speaker
Derek Richards coming in with the $5 super chat. Appreciate you as always, man. ah New who comes off and RBW comes on at halftime and the team is dynamic and attack and dominant in the second half.
00:27:11
Speaker
ah But James offers the counterpoint. He says it doesn't count because of game state two down two zero down. Nothing to lose. May as well attack. ah Nico, where do you where do you come down on that on that debate?
00:27:25
Speaker
I mean, it's a fair point. It's something that you are going to be able to bring up in court and that's going to be part of your, you know, the defense, right? But the reality of it is that in my opinion, in my humble opinion, you did not have the correct personnel to attempt on breaking down this Botafogo team.
00:27:48
Speaker
The Ferreira at the wing is not my favorite look um for one.
00:27:56
Speaker
I think Masovsky had 19, 21 touches on the ball, 21 touches on the ball. And he was not very good on the link of play. I thought that he got caged in by both Barbosa and Jerry Cunha.
00:28:10
Speaker
He just wasn't getting the ball enough. So,
00:28:14
Speaker
Hindsight 2020, I think with Ferreira being able to pull those center backs off and allowing maybe Ryan Kent and if you had Pedro Lavega inside to kind of become those other guys that additionally getting into the 18 would have been a lot more effective than just playing this team straight forward.
00:28:32
Speaker
because it just wasn't working. And look, 20 plus shots, absolutely. But how many of those were really on target, especially in the first half? There weren't many. There was a lot of half chances, which is great.
00:28:43
Speaker
Volume of play. thought they had long spots of possession. I thought the Seattle build, that was pretty good. But with the correct players on the field, I think that Seattle can could pull this game off.
00:28:54
Speaker
Even without Yammer, even without Jordan Morris, I feel like if Pedro La Vega starts this game, it may be, you know, you bring in Mussofsky off the bench rather than... haven't been starred and he's playing against, ah you know, tired legs and he's able to get in front of goal, maybe things changed. So look, I hate giving hypotheticals, but in terms of my analysis of the question, I think that it wasn't just game state.
00:29:21
Speaker
I think that the setup wasn't what I thought would have been a lot more effective. But again, Brian's mentor, he's the coach of coaches. He is a legendary coach. There is four other guys that are way more qualified than me to give him advice.
00:29:36
Speaker
So I'm just providing you my take onto the comments. Josh says this team should be held to a higher standard. Holding your own is not good enough. I mean, I just, I just think that, uh,
00:29:49
Speaker
you You need to take into account and respect your opposition in situations like this. this This team won the Copa Libertadores last year.
00:30:01
Speaker
They were the best team in South America last year. If you think you're going to go into a game against a team like that and impose your will the entire time and dominate them and win by multiple goals, that's ah that's just not how it goes, man.
00:30:18
Speaker
Like, you you you have to compete as hard as you can, show that you belong, go toe-to-toe with them, and then let the chips fall where they may.
00:30:29
Speaker
And I think in in in in the second half, I want to ah i want to acknowledge both things. The first half,
00:30:37
Speaker
you can't make the errors that they made, particularly the first one that knew who made to give up that set piece and expect to take a result in a game like this. You can't do it. You can't do it.
00:30:49
Speaker
But because if, if you do make mistakes like that, you can put in the performance that you need to for the rest of the game to take a result, which I think Seattle did in the second half and an error like that makes the difference.
00:31:01
Speaker
So they deserve the new who and the team as a whole deserve all the criticism they get for that in the, in the first half.
00:31:12
Speaker
ah But I, I, I want to acknowledge the response as well, which I thought was, ah was very good ah to James's point about the the game state. Yeah, like when you're when you're down by multiple goals and you're chasing the game, sometimes you're going to look better offensively than maybe you would in a different game state.
00:31:33
Speaker
ah But you still you still have to capitalize on that uh and i can guarantee you that botafogo didn't want to be pinned back in their own end and under pressure and hanging on for dear life fighting for their lives for the rest of the second half and the onus is on you as the team that's trailing to uh to to do that to them and seattle did that and they did end up having the deficit and they they almost tied the game so i want to uh i want to give them credit for that as well uh nico how do you see that
00:32:09
Speaker
Look, we've got to remember something.
Talent Disparity and Tournament Prospects
00:32:13
Speaker
This Botafogo team is a South American team with European backing. Ever since John Textor took over this team, we just talked about three players that are going to be playing in the Premier next year. So talent-wise, Botafogo is better.
00:32:28
Speaker
I mean, it' it's just that simple, right? that Just the overall talent, just put him on a transfer market scale, and it's going to tip. way over to the Botafogo side. so They spent $25 million dollars on players last week.
00:32:42
Speaker
you You know what Seattle's entire roster is worth? Less than that.
00:32:48
Speaker
I wouldn't doubt it. So because of... And this is something that we knew coming into this game, right? and And I'll say that it's okay to put this team to a bigger expectation. And and i even I did. I mean, I did...
00:33:05
Speaker
going back to the way the game started, the setup, everything, I thought that this team could have done more. So I'm with you. I do feel like you've got to put them onto a higher expectation, but we can also not be naive and blind and not act like the entire group they're above our weight class.
00:33:24
Speaker
and And I literally asked this question to Brian Smester, how do you strategize to play beyond your weight class? I mean, is that that there is nothing in sports that could possibly put you in this sort of situation. Maybe US Olympic basketball team would be one, but but aside from that, no other sport is gonna be able to give you any sort of analogy to the type of difference that you have when it comes to talent. now This was the game that you kind of had a very good chance on. I thought you played well on it, but that still doesn't mean that the resources, the talent was a lot higher from Botafogo. So although I do wish that this team would have been would have played better, and I wish that this would have been a healthy, all-in Sounders team where you could really see how they matched up
00:34:19
Speaker
100% to 100%, but that's just the way of of of of soccer. And that's just the way the the game played out. And so that's why there is nothing wrong with Ari and praising the response of the team that could very easily have just laid down and allow these teams to just play all over them. and again It's a game in which Fiatto was the better team for the majority of the game.
00:34:47
Speaker
Now, I use better with kind of quotes on top because the reality is is that the results a lot of time kind of dictate what team was doing what.
00:34:58
Speaker
You got a credit Botafogo for the way they play, for the way they defended. i mean, Igo De Jesus was everywhere. Salvarino had freedom to do what he wanted. he was up he was He was playing out wide on the left side, but he would come in all the way to the right. he Obviously, the 4-4-2...
00:35:15
Speaker
that that That's the the setup that they were trying to go off of. But a lot of times it was just one striker and Igor De Jesus almost being a false nine coming in, getting the ball. I mean, there was just so much movement that you've got to praise what Botafogo did.
00:35:31
Speaker
And that's why in the same sentence and in the same conclusion, you have to praise Seattle for holding on and for essentially in the entirety of the last 45 minutes and especially the last 20 minutes.
00:35:45
Speaker
They were the better team. And Botafogo knew it. So you guys should know it as well. If the Botafogo players themselves are saying, man, you almost had us there in a second half.
00:35:58
Speaker
That's all I need to know. That the team played well.
00:36:02
Speaker
I came out of it proud of how the team responded and proud of how they played. uh it was it was unfortunate that they they had such a real chance at uh at taking the result and they and they couldn't do it but uh as far as how they responded and competed in the second half and uh how how they attacked, the chances that they had. I really, i can't complain much.
00:36:27
Speaker
ah James with the $2 super chat. Thank you, man. Appreciate you as always. says, better DPs equals draw or win. Big money guys didn't finish. Yeah, I mean, ah it is, i would have liked to have seen how this could have played out differently if ah if Jordan Morris could have played.
00:36:45
Speaker
I feel like you could, You could see how how badly he was missed in this game. I thought Moose was doing what he could out there, but it was a situation where the quality disparity between...
00:37:04
Speaker
I think Jordan and Moose, but also like, like you said, this Botafogo team, it's just, it is, it's a different weight class. And if you don't have your full compliment of heavyweights in this case, Yamar and Jordan Morris, it makes it more makes certainly just makes it more difficult.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah. a hundred percent. I mean, just, just look at the substitutions coming in. I mean, this team had a, Quibano is one of the guys that's going to be playing for Northern Forest. um Joaquin Correa played in Inter Milan.
00:37:38
Speaker
Santiago Rodriguez was phenomenal with New York City FC when he was here in the MLS. He's soon to be playing ah ah in old, all-in in France alongside Tiago Amada.
00:37:50
Speaker
um I mean, this is a quality team, man. I mean, that the substitutions alone are just so much talented and and and just heavier on that end that When you have a guy like Paul Rothrock that you look at his trajectory and he's still getting out there and making a difference and being a game changer, i mean, you just kind of praise the team.
00:38:12
Speaker
However, however, like and and I'm going to agree with a lot of you, when it comes to this team clearly needed more depth at the nine position.
00:38:23
Speaker
And I'm not going to shy away from that. Whether or not use a 10-day window, I'm not gonna worry about it because the reality is is that as we mentioned,
00:38:36
Speaker
The Sounders team was not going to bring in a guy for this specific tournament. But I do wish that at some point there would have been an acquisition to help out what happens if Danny Musavsky gets cold. We mentioned that a bunch of times.
00:38:50
Speaker
I still don't believe that there's a a true answer to that question. Osatade Rosario, he got in there, did what he could, but he's still just not that type of reference up at the ninth position.
00:39:03
Speaker
Man, there was... ah Manuel, what was the name of the German guy that was in the press box? Manny Veth, transfer mark. Manny Veth. So the guy is, you know, a big deal. You know, you guys all have seen him.
00:39:14
Speaker
He kept talking about... If Seattle had a proper nine, they would have had a chance, right? A proper nine, right? A guy that could really put the ball in back of the net. So I do believe that that would have been ah big deal.
00:39:26
Speaker
um But at the same time, I do wish that the setup from the very beginning would have given Seattle a better chance. Because if you have your $7 million dollars player, your DP guy, i don't even have the stats in front of me and I don't have to...
00:39:43
Speaker
doubt in my mind that in terms of goals, assists, basically all goal contributions, Pedro in all comps has been way better than both of the guys that were at the wings in this one.
00:39:55
Speaker
So that was a bit of a head scratcher. I also to know that the best Ryan Kim we've seen has been coming off the bench. So maybe if you stole Rothrock and Pedro de la Vega, you would have had a better chance. Sure.
00:40:06
Speaker
Maybe if you start further at the nine and try to figure out if that was going to work, that would have been great. But I would have liked Seattle to have put their most talented players on the field just to see if that was going to be able to work.
00:40:17
Speaker
I understand. And I hear everybody see the keys typing. What happened in Vancouver? It was a setup. But at the end of the day for this one, i think that the,
00:40:32
Speaker
the proof is in the pudding. And when those guys came in, the chain, the game changed a lot. and that's why I just wish that that same lineup would have had a little bit more time to cook and eventually maybe get another result against Botafogo because now it's kind of over. And I got to go here in a couple of minutes, but they, I was asked yesterday in the postgame show, whether, you know, Seattle had a chance and look,
00:41:00
Speaker
there's always a chance in soccer, but it's not very high, right? Can Seattle go there and surprise Atletico Madrid? Sure. I mean, again, I've seen Argentina lose to Saudi Arabia.
00:41:12
Speaker
yeah i saw Colombia in the 90s beat Argentina at home five zero I mean, there's been a thousand of wonderful, you know, underdog stories against big teams, including Real Madrid, including Barcelona,
00:41:25
Speaker
So can it happen? Sure. But it's just not very likely. I mean, Atletico Madrid, despite them getting beat 4-0, the score line doesn't really tell the whole story. There was two late goals ah from PSG.
00:41:37
Speaker
ah This is a team that has...
00:41:41
Speaker
World Cup champions all over. Julian Alvarez, Rodrigo DePaul, Koke. I mean, the the list goes on and on. This is a very good atletico team. So, Seattle has the work cut out for him. But I feel like, if anything, the Sounders show that they belong on the field.
00:41:58
Speaker
I saw fire in the eyes of Christian. I saw fire in the eyes of Ovid. If they play with a ship on their shoulder the size of Washington State, perhaps they surprise some people.
00:42:10
Speaker
But all that we're hoping on in that game is that Seattle performs, that they show attitude, they show dynamism, and that they're able to, at at the very least, push back against a greater force in Atletico Madrid. But um all in all, Ari, I think that me and you are on the same page.
00:42:33
Speaker
Seattle could have done a little bit more, but at the end of the day, none of us really expected this team to get past the group stage. Still not over, but possibilities are slim. Maybe 5% chance that they get anywhere in the next couple of games.
00:42:47
Speaker
PSG is going to cruise control. So maybe in that game, do they just play with subs? well you know What's the reality of it? We'll see. I'm not going to, you know, I don't want to get anybody's hopes up, but I'm also not going to say that there's zero chances because the beauty of sports is that there's always an opportunity for the Cinderella story, for underdog story, and Seattle can get a result.
00:43:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Nico, I know you were in a ah time crunch. Do you need to... ah bop out of here. No worries. Yes, sir. I got to get out. I got a little something there at my daughter's school, so I got to be out of here, man. But thank you as always for having me on Audience, hit us up in the comments.
00:43:27
Speaker
Like, share, subscribe. Make sure you help out my guys from Love & Scorchers. And we'll see you guys next week. Thanks, Nico. Appreciate you, man. Have a good one. Oh, no. Oh, okay.
00:43:39
Speaker
Oh, man. We got ah Nico taking off and Noah checking in from his car. I'm in my
Event Atmosphere and Coverage Challenges
00:43:49
Speaker
car. Vroom, vroom.
00:43:51
Speaker
Hell yeah. Tapping in, helping out with some co-host duties from on the road. What's up, man? ah how How are you feeling? i was So my my plan for when Nico hopped off was to ah talk a little bit about our experience today.
00:44:10
Speaker
at the FIFA Club World Cup last night, which I was surprised that ah ah that you were still in the stadium by the end of it. But ah before we do that, I did have ah one comment from Chad here I wanted to hit, which was ah Baby Beluga says, so we're saying these teams are just better, so should we we should be okay with the dumb mistakes.
00:44:31
Speaker
That is not what we're what we're saying. um you need to be You just need to be able to hold two different thoughts in your mind at the same time, which is that, yes, the the mistake that knew who made that gave Botafogo their first goal on that set piece was ridiculous and inexcusable. And it just it can't be done, frankly, if you want like a realistic chance of taking a result against in a game like this against a team like this.
00:44:58
Speaker
up But the the other thought that you need to be able to hold in your mind is that the second half response was genuinely good. the The attacking play from the team that led to the goal that got it to 2-1 was genuinely good. And they also legitimately got...
00:45:14
Speaker
close to equalizing so it's just about uh it's not everything has to be either like the best thing ever the worst thing ever like there's there's there's i think more nuance to it than is being implied there uh anyway noah what's up man how are you feeling about uh what transpired last night let's get your thoughts on the game and then yeah then we can do the recap the uh the uh fifa debacle Yeah, um I really, i i enjoyed the match. Like the actual football itself. It was like a fun game. like it It was great. Like I've enjoyed all of these matches. I've watched basically every game.
00:45:53
Speaker
i guess i um I've only watched four of the games. But regardless, I've actually enjoyed all of the soccer that's been played. i thought that the grass looked awesome. It played so much better at Lumen Field with the grass. I thought that was cool.
00:46:05
Speaker
The players said the grass was like great. Yeah, it looked awesome. I think, like, for me, I was disappointed to not win that game, but I wasn't, like, upset or frustrated. It felt it felt really like, you know, you took a team that is incredible and worth so much more than you to the wire with players who have been...
00:46:35
Speaker
going through a lot and mentally, physically. um And, you know, you were missing your starting striker. You were missing one of your highest paid players or not missing him, but he wasn't starting.
00:46:46
Speaker
And i just, I, I enjoyed it. i enjoyed it. I don't, I don't really care what the result was. And I said this on the podcast. i was like, regardless of, what the result is if they perform if they have fun if i enjoy the match like that's a win for me i thought the atmosphere was awesome um i was surprised when they announced the attendance i was like oh this will be like 50 000 this sounds like 50 000 this feels like 50 000 it was not was legitimately like it was not it was legitimately like
00:47:18
Speaker
30 like so basically what they've been pulling for regular season games but that was honestly like with all the stuff we've been hearing about like the ticket sales and price gouging and stuff i was like is there even going to be 20 000 at this game and there was uh there was 30 and was it was lively there was a lot of bodafogo representation there they had their uh section in the upper deck where they usually put the traveling supporters but they there was uh like just walking around pioneer square in the stadium before the game tons of botafogo fans so that that was cool to see and uh yeah overall uh the game the game itself in the atmosphere i think it exceeded my expectations i wasn't really sure what to expect but uh you're right like it was a
00:48:03
Speaker
It was an entertaining game, too. It wasn't like a slogging it out. like there It was end-to-end. There was like chances, there was goals. like yeah It was like good soccer. and no one It didn't feel like any one team was dominating.
00:48:18
Speaker
um I think it felt like the Sounders, if anyone were dominating an attack, it just they weren't able to finish the chances that they had, which I've heard that story before. um so you know if If there's one thing to be negative about, I think it's that, but You know, I think i think the defense equated themselves very well. I thought Stephen Fry had a great performance.
00:48:39
Speaker
I thought he could have gotten out of hand if he didn't step up. I saw some people, like, getting upset with him about the second goal. And I'm like, I don't think you guys understand how great of a header that was and, like, the technique and placement of that. And I'm sure Nito already said this. The placement. We we didn't talk about that goal. and Well, I mean, I was talking about how...
00:48:59
Speaker
Like that, like a play like that is more, that's just down to a great player making a play more than like much you could have done differently. Yeah. It looked like Fry had, uh, had like an opportunity to, to move over there and maybe get to it.
00:49:16
Speaker
But I mean, when he places it that perfectly for me, it's like, all right, Like, the guy just hit a great header. It's a great header. Yeah. I mean, like, someone someone's pointing out here, you know, Kim got bammed on ah couple of times. Yeah, he got mossed.
00:49:29
Speaker
He got mossed. He got mossed twice. Like, he got bammed on. But, i mean... That's two strikers who are incredibly lethal, and i don't think that it, like, happened specifically because Kim made a defensive error.
00:49:43
Speaker
I think that it happened because they got they got broken down in, like, the defensive midfield and spread wide, and Kim was the last man there. And it's like, when you get a striker or someone with an attacking prowess in that position— And the bringer the winger or the right back put it right on his head. Yeah, it was like the the point you could see it was going.
00:50:02
Speaker
He was in position. You knew what was happening. Like, I saw that two passes before that was happening. i was like, oh, shit, that's in. And you know what? That's how it goes sometimes. And I thought that the Sounders, they didn't drop their head. They didn't drop their shoulder after either of those goals. Like, going into half, I was not i was like, oh, this is like...
00:50:21
Speaker
this is like ah This is possible. like This is possible. theycon I don't know if we're going to win. that I didn't think we were going win, but I was like, oh, we could we could pull out a draw. like i think I think this is you know this is this team isn't going to quit on this. It doesn't feel like it, at least.
00:50:34
Speaker
um And maybe that's just like the tournament football, right? like that's That's kind of what you get when you're playing. Regardless of what the tournament is, whatever the pedigree is, like you just you want to win. So that's you know that's part of it But...
00:50:46
Speaker
yeah I had a great time. I had a great time. i enjoyed I'm glad I didn't personally have a great time. had a great time watching the match though. I'm glad your, uh, your outlook, your personal outlook improved in the, uh, second half. Let's, uh, let's, let's just talk about this. Uh, uh, the, uh, let's give our audience a ah peek behind the scenes yeah as to what it's like covering a, uh, a FIFA event.
00:51:12
Speaker
which was, ah you know, we cover CONCACAF stuff. We know how it goes. I've covered FIFA tournaments before. ah It's always an interesting, it's always an interesting time.
00:51:23
Speaker
ah But, Noah, I think this was legitimately the worst planned and executed event of any sort.
00:51:35
Speaker
i it It was unbelievable. Like, ah i there It got to a point where like I couldn't even be mad. it was like a It was funny. I felt like I was living in a sitcom. and certainly Yeah.
00:51:49
Speaker
But I'll just i'll tell ah my story in a nutshell. yeah could We both had ah harrowing journeys. We did. Getting into the stadium for this game. i'll just ah i'll just i don't even know if I gave you the whole breakdown of exactly what happened to me.
00:52:04
Speaker
I don't think so because we didn't even see each other for like the first 70 minutes of the game. So it was just an absolute debacle from li the literal second, the literal second that I stepped into the stadium, nothing worked.
00:52:19
Speaker
ah Like, so the way they did it was we got our credentials and there's like a ah QR barcode or whatever that they, like they scan you in, which the first thing I'm like, why, like, why is the scanning component even necessary to begin with?
00:52:36
Speaker
Big tech, Ari, big tech. Like, every ah most tournaments that I've been to, they just give you the badge, and then it says what you have access to, and you just can visually look at it, and in what that system has worked fine for generations, as far as I can tell.
00:52:51
Speaker
ah But so, i'm i i'm I'm going through security to try and get in, and they try and scan me in, and the first thing I hear is, like... like Access denied.
00:53:02
Speaker
and I'm like, I what's ah what's going. So I go and they're like, OK, you go stand over there with those two guys who who also didn't get access in. And it's two guys from the Sounders design team, Ethan yeah Christian.
00:53:16
Speaker
And they I was like, what's up, guys? They're like, yeah, we they won't like scan us in. ah So they go up the entire chain of command. We had like six different people come through trying to like. There must have been a there must have been a furious WhatsApp thread, dude. I i can't even imagine.
00:53:32
Speaker
they So eventually, eventually they got, they got me in. ah But then the real show started when you get in there. And you're trying to figure out where to go. And I just went to the press box like normal.
00:53:47
Speaker
yeah And there's a guy standing there and he's like, oh, you can't come in here. I'm like, the press box? He's like, yeah, this is... This is Zone 6. This is Zone 6. This is Zone 5.
00:53:58
Speaker
And I'm like, well, but that's where... like that's I think I'm pretty sure that... And he's like, no, no, no. you're this This is Zone... Six. You got zone five. This is zone five. And I was like, well, I was like, where is zone five?
00:54:12
Speaker
And he was like, I i have no idea. I don't know. Yeah. No one, none of the staff there. had any idea, like you could tell no one had told them anything. If you ask them like a question of like, where is zone five?
00:54:25
Speaker
They didn't know. Like they they had they had no clue. And I felt bad for them because like they wanted to be able to answer my question, but like like they clearly just didn't know. ah But like the whole sequence of like, this is zone six,
00:54:38
Speaker
you're in zone five. I don't know where zone five zone five is zone five. This is ah like, am I in like Abbott and Costello skit? Right. Yeah. It was tight. It was tight. It was like, okay, no, you're a you're a writer.
00:54:50
Speaker
who should only have access to the press box and the post-match media area, but you're in Zone 5, which does not give you access to either of those two things, even though you very clearly registered as a writer.
00:55:02
Speaker
Zone 5, there came a part where I was like, i don't think I think Zone 5 is more of a concept. It is a concept. It's a vibe. not real... It's a vibe. It's not like a real zone. It's yeah.
00:55:13
Speaker
Because if you asked the average staff member there, what what is Zone 5? Where is Zone 5? What does Zone 5 do? Are there Zones 1 through 4? I didn't see Zones 1 through 4. Maybe when you went down to the tunnel, that was Zones 1 and 2.
00:55:28
Speaker
I saw a 3. I don't know what 3 means. No one had any ah any idea. Like, how is how is it possible, like, an event of this scale... absolutely no one there has any idea of what's going on, including when they went up the chain of command, they would come over and be like, I have no idea what's going on. They're trying to fix it right now, but we don't know how long it's going to be.
00:55:48
Speaker
And then I remember the guy who was like the the volunteers who were like scanning into the sections that weren't with FIFA. They're just like general, like Lumenfield people. They were super nice.
00:56:00
Speaker
And he just kept coming over like every three minutes and scanning Ari's badge. And it would go, yeah. Access denied. oh my God. It was incredible.
00:56:13
Speaker
but ah i mean, tell the people your harrowing journey. So get to this match about five hours early because I had to pick up my credential.
Media Mishaps and Final Thoughts
00:56:22
Speaker
I hadn't gotten it yet.
00:56:24
Speaker
i show up. I'm waiting in line for 30 minutes. I hand them my ID and I say, hello, i have a credential to pick up. And they say, absolutely. We see you right here.
00:56:36
Speaker
So they take my ID. They go back, and then I'm like waiting, standing there at the window for five minutes, and then they go, Noah Brandon? And I'm like, me? She's like, oh, sorry, that's your middle name. And I was like, yeah, whatever, it doesn't matter.
00:56:51
Speaker
Now you know my full government. But ah she's like, yeah, you need your passport to get your to get your ah to get your credential. Which I did not, by the way. i got my Yeah, Ari didn't have to use his his passport, but apparently I did.
00:57:04
Speaker
And... I normally wouldn't have my passport with me, but we had just gone to Canada and we were both really lazy and I accidentally left it in my car. So I did have it. So i run back to my car, which was like a 15 minute walk back up all the way around into the parking garage, into my car.
00:57:22
Speaker
I get my my thing, the passport, walk all the way back down, all the way back around, all the way to the to the thing, wait another 30 minutes just to go through the line. Because, of course, there's one person working for credentials on game day.
00:57:36
Speaker
yeah You know, because that's a good idea. That's all you need. That's all you need is just just one one guy. um And so I walk up to the window and I say, hey, i was just here. Here's my passport. And so I hand it to them. And she goes, hey, so... um Yeah, our credentialing system, ah it's broken. And we can't print any credentials right now.
00:57:57
Speaker
And we don't know how long it's going to be. And we don't really know if you're even going to be able to get into the game. And so I go, sick. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. At this point, I'm just like, you know, whatever. You know, like this, it it is what it is. Like, they can't do anything.
00:58:12
Speaker
So I go, i'd i give them my, I get my passport back. I'm like in the queue, whatever. And so I'm standing and talking to a couple of photographers who I know. And, you know, they're like, I'm supposed to be sending photos right now. There's like FIFA employees that are like, I'm supposed to be on the clock right now, but no one can get in. No one can get their credentials.
00:58:30
Speaker
An hour and 45 minutes after I had just waited an hour because I had to wait in line and then go, you know, get sent back, all of that. They finally give me my credential and it prints.
00:58:42
Speaker
so we're like i don't know an hour ish or more before kickoff i walk in i scan in whatever people behind me are getting yelled at because they're like leaving like normally you can bring in water like reusable water bottles as a reporter they weren't letting people do that for some people but some people were at other gates they were changing the rules on the fly I get in, i go up to the press box, and I see Ari just standing there, just quarantined, unaloud. Like, he was just standing in a corner. They, like, would not let him in. And I'm like, oh, I know this is going to be trouble for me. If Ari can't get in, oh, fuck.
00:59:20
Speaker
And so I have him scan my thing and he goes, when where and I'm just like, at this point I'm, I'm, I'm fed up. I'm fed up. I'm, I'm fed up. And so i I thought you were going to get it. I thought you were going to get ejected. Like it it was yeah sounders at BC place. I, I, I, uh, turned the FIFA official who was like trying to help Ari. And I looked at him and I said, i have photographed that.
00:59:45
Speaker
Basically every major sports event other than a FIFA event. And this has to be the most shittily ran bullshit service I have ever experienced in my life.
00:59:57
Speaker
The fact that I can't just go and go into the press box or get my seat or get my bib or do any of this stuff. This is amateur hour. This is bullshit. And so I'm not normally a crash out like that, but I had just I just had it man. I just bow had it and everyone around me was frustrated and um i and One of the sounders PR guys who were cool with he grabs me and he's like, bro Chill, they're gonna kick your ass out. They're gonna kick your ass out like I watched him do it like just chill And so he goes back and they're like oh did you deal with him? And he's like, yeah, I dealt with him.
01:00:32
Speaker
I told him how it was I got on his ass. So thank you Alex um And then we waited around for another 30 minutes to try and get into the they would every once in a while they would come up to us and be like, all right, we'll try and scan you again. Yeah. when access So I never got access to the press box.
01:00:51
Speaker
because i wasn't allowed apparently I wasn't allowed to be there so that's tight so I'm like all right I'll go down to the photo workroom which I do have access to so I go down to the photo workroom I get my bib and I have a seat I'm supposed to have a seat on the field to take pictures 10 minutes before kickoff I get an email Ari you know what it says Access denied.
01:01:16
Speaker
Your seat has been revoked. Your seat has been revoked. think it because you crashed out? That was my question. It might have been. i don't know. But the guy did have a photo of my credential that I crashed out on. think that's probably what it happened. I mean. um But I, so that's, so I, I'm like, okay, well, i don't know what I'm supposed to do now.
01:01:34
Speaker
And I'm like, where do I go? and they're like, oh, you can you can probably just go up in the 300s on the other side and whatever. And I'm just like, I'm so done with this day today. So I go up there with one of the Sounders ah video guys.
01:01:48
Speaker
And... I'm sitting next to him for a minute and then i get asked to move from next to him from the broadcast team. So I'm getting kicked out of another place for another thing.
01:02:00
Speaker
so i moved down like 20 sections and I'm literally the only person sitting there with this white t-shirt in the 300s. If you were at the game and you saw me across, that was me. That was me. was saying white t-shirt.
01:02:12
Speaker
Um, and i was literally just sat there 20 minutes later, security comes up to me and goes, what the hell are you doing? what What are you doing up here? Why are you sitting up here? And I go, brother, brother, please. What are and what are any of us doing?
01:02:29
Speaker
I have a credential. i am a i'm a reporter. I'm trying to watch this game. I'm trying to do this job. I just, I, I, just let me, let me, let me be, please. I'm like, I will do anything.
01:02:44
Speaker
I will do anything. Just please. And he's like, ah, you're good, bro. Control center just was like, yo, there's some fucking random person sitting up in the 300 section by themselves. You should go check on them.
01:02:56
Speaker
So I don't get kicked out of there. And I'm finally, I watched the first half and I'm like, okay,
01:03:04
Speaker
So I go back down to the press box at halftime to see if I can sneak in to get a seat. And I did. The security got a little bit more lax at halftime and I was able to just walk through.
01:03:16
Speaker
Like, cause sometimes you can just walk through like when you have, when you pretend like you're doing something. So I just walk my phone confidence walk yeah i just put my phone up to my ear and just walked with confidence. And I gained access to multiple areas last night, just walking with confidence.
01:03:31
Speaker
exactly and so that's what i just started doing um and i just blew past the the beep guy they stopped scanning them after a while i think they just gave up um and yeah and also we had to pay for press box food listen i know this is like champagne problems this is like you know we get to know it's like the cherry on top like yeah yeah but it was like made all media pay for their dinner And it was, you know, it would be fine if it was like a ah like a reasonable price because the food wasn't bad. i like you That's fine, you know? I get it, you know?
01:04:03
Speaker
um But it was $20 for a little boat of of orange chicken, bro. Like, what are we doing? I've just never seen that. I've honestly never seen that. Like, usually the idea is like you're ah you're trying to feed people that are working, not like yeah also gouge the people that are working the event for yeah you after you've already got. i mean, whatever. yeah Jake says Abbott and Costello is quite the boomer reference. It's like I literally with the with the zone thing, I felt like I was in like like, who's on first? I don't know. We literally were saying what's on second. Like, What's zone five? No, zoned the zone six.
01:04:39
Speaker
Zone six is not zone five. You've got to go to zone five. What is zone five? It's like, dude, this is... this Well, the best part, too, about the press box, there's a little... there's a So it's in the suite area. So all all the way around, you can walk in the suite um hallway.
01:04:57
Speaker
But then there's like a wall and then another hallway and then like a riser and stairs where the press box kind of starts, where the seating starts. You're allowed to walk in the hallway, but this you can't step up the stairs into the press box.
01:05:10
Speaker
yeah It was like the most absurd, like... i felt I felt like i just felt like they were doing a bit. They were doing a bit. They were fucking with us. They were like, we're going to, they were like, there was not enough content happening.
01:05:23
Speaker
We're going to give you some content. I mean, i I know I wasn't the only person to crash out. So it was, no, there's, there was a lot of crashing out going on. I heard a lot of people like didn't even get in.
01:05:34
Speaker
So again, just really well planned, well executed, logistical masterclass from FIFA. No, I mean, it was, uh, It comical.
01:05:47
Speaker
It was comical. and incredible But then ah the game itself was... Yeah. Yeah, an airplane bitch, Gianni. Exactly. It was. like that's what I felt like that is what my ah what is what my life had become.
01:05:59
Speaker
We'll see if they ah if they get their act together for these future games. I got to say, like you know i I grew up attending a public school in ah Santa Fe, New Mexico. So I know a thing or two about ah people running an operation that have no idea what they're doing.
01:06:15
Speaker
This was up there. It was. This was up there. it it It gave me flashbacks. It reminded me of ah Santa Fe High School. Shout out Santa Fe High. ah Claudio says, as a Botafogo fan, I can say it was a tough game.
01:06:27
Speaker
Sounders gave us a hard time. Great game. Yeah, great game, man. Thanks for stopping by. it was fun to watch ah fun to watch our club's face off and uh it was ah it was a ggs man it was a ggs the i think the botafogo fans uh that's mostly the sentiment that they've expressed and like nico mentioned the botafogo players expressed that uh as as well they ignored they were like damn that second half was kind of we were yeah we're kind of getting we're low-key getting cooked we're kind of relieved we made it out so that's the that's you know doesn't uh doesn't get you a point result but at least it's ah it's dignity it's dignity that is what uh
01:07:04
Speaker
I was hoping to emerge from this tournament with, and so far they've done that. And frankly, I don't know how you but feel about it, Noah, but like, uh, ah Dignity against Atletico and PSG is, I think, even a little different than dignity in the in this game. Because the Sounders are going to lose to PSG, and people are going to call them an embarrassment and a disgrace yeah to the game.
01:07:29
Speaker
I mean, PSG played Atletico yesterday, earlier in the day. And Atletico was a disgrace to the game, brother. Did you guys see what happened to Atletico? Where's their ambition to compete with PSG? Why didn't they make a signing?
01:07:43
Speaker
I thought i went on they were good. Why didn't Atletico go out and and and and sign a number nine so they could try and beat PSG? Why'd they get 4-0?
01:07:54
Speaker
I heard, i Ari, i heard that ah I heard that people were saying that this was the worst loss on American soil since the Seattle Sounders. ah Fuck, this is going to be a bit about Vancouver Whitecaps because they got a red card too. and i've Whatever.
01:08:10
Speaker
this That game looked like the Whitecaps game. like they PSG made them crash out. It was incredible. yeah I fear for the Sounders' lives. As long as the Sounders can stay level-headed, so basically don't play NUHU in that game. RBW starting. starting.
01:08:26
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I mean, ah this PSG game, I don't know. I didn i think there's you know two potential conclusions. Maybe ah the PSG game is going to be that bad. Maybe Atletico is a little vulnerable. i don't know.
01:08:42
Speaker
They got 4-0. They got 4-0. I'm just saying. Seattle got didn't get 4-0. Didn't get 4-0. Scored a goal. mobart Yeah, scored a goal. Someone in chat pointed out first MLS team to score in a Club World Cup ever.
01:08:57
Speaker
Yeah. And guess who assisted, motherfucker? Paul Rothrock. What did I say on the pod? Start Paul Rothrock. I said he's better at start at starts than Ryan Kent. You get Ryan Kent on later to sauce him up once they're already tired.
01:09:10
Speaker
Jeff Roots agreed with me. i was talking about it with him in the press box, too. So I just want to say vindicated. No, I think I'm with that. I'm with that take after. It's like at a certain point, if your offense just consistently always looks better with one setup.
01:09:25
Speaker
That might just be. You might just want to run it. You might just want to run it. like Just run it. And, you know, it's hard to say how much of that, like, overall attacking performance in the second half, like James was talking about earlier, was, like, game states easier to rack chances when you're chasing the game. Maybe Rothrock benefited from that.
01:09:44
Speaker
But i think we have i think we have, like, recent evidence and track record of him just being, like, that good. Like, I think he's just that good. i think he's, I think he's a talented player. I think he's like, actually but ah offense just clearly looks its best when he is on the field, regardless of game state, regardless of what time of the game it is. i think that, I mean, I don't know.
01:10:06
Speaker
um He also just, he fits the system. I think that's the biggest thing. It's like he may not be the best player in the world. He may never get sold to another team. He may never, you know, all these kind of things. But it's the same thing with Christian, right? Like he fits, they fit the system.
01:10:20
Speaker
They know how the Sounders like, ah like mentality and style is and they just they play to it and it works because it's what it's what they game plan for. And so I just think that like, that's great. I think it also helps that Nuhu wasn't on the field.
01:10:35
Speaker
But that's a whole ah that's a whole other story. We'll see what happens with that. Because I think played incredibly well as well. That was another takeaway that I had. Yeah, we we were talking some RBW earlier. The price went up, I thought. Yeah, price went up.
01:10:48
Speaker
I think that was like the the first time where for that like long of ah of a period of the game, I was like, okay, I see. You get the vision. i i Yeah, I get the vision. Yeah, you get the vision. Yeah, I'm...
01:11:03
Speaker
i do Okay, you have one last thing. I got to get out of here. Get out of here. No, we're good. Let's head out. Thank you, Chad. I got to get out of here because ah it's like I didn't get trolled by FIFA enough. They're shutting off the power in my entire apartment building. Oh, nice.
01:11:16
Speaker
So they can install new lights. So they have to shut off the power for an hour this morning and and for an hour in the middle of the day. It's not like I work here or anything. No, no, no, no, no. and Come on, guys.
01:11:28
Speaker
All right, make sure they turn your water off, too. Yeah, this is they always turn my water off and then raise my rent. It's a whole thing. But anyway, we're going to get out of here on that. Thank you all, as always, for tuning in to Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff. We will be back at it, putting out a bunch of content this week, leading up to this. Let it go. Game's on Thursday, right? Please drop a like, guys. I saw it when I was. It is. It is on Thursday.
01:11:50
Speaker
I saw that there was literally, like, like 11 likes and 100 people in here like what is that that's the game's gone game's gone like the video sub to the channel i'm about to go to a coffee shop where i have power oh yeah keep an eye out for all the content this week and we will uh catch you guys soon yep and let's go chelsea let's go chelsea bye chat