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Under The Lights: Inside the Vancouver Whitecaps' MLS takeover w/ Michael McColl of AFTN
362 Plays10 days ago
This week we catch up with special guest Michael McColl of AFTN to talk about the biggest story of the MLS season so far: The Vancouver Whitecaps, who are preparing for a Concacaf Champions Cup final while also emerging as early Supporters' Shield frontrunners. Then we get to the red-hot Seattle Sounders, who are gearing up for their most challenging test of the season with a stretch of three straight road games at Houston, LAFC and Portland. Can the Rave Green keep it rolling, starting with this Saturday's Matchday 12 tilt at Shell Energy Stadium?
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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 Casual Banter
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
00:00:45
Speaker
Good evening, everybody.
Seattle Sounders and Transfer News
00:00:47
Speaker
Welcome in to another episode of Lobbing Scorchers Under the Lights. We'll right back. this evening we're going to be talking some seattle sounders well go to talk about ah are lobbying scorchers adventure to tequla washington for tacoma defiance versus portland timy's open cup gonna be recaping That whole night, a little bit later, ah we got some Sounders news to get to.
00:01:11
Speaker
Osase De Rosario has signed. We're going to talk about that. Got some Craig Weibel sound to react to. the The people on the beat got Craig Weibes for a few minutes. I think it was yesterday. And he talked about some Obed Vargas transfer stuff and U22 strategy on how they're going to fill that spot.
00:01:31
Speaker
ah So we're going to watch that and react to that. Uh, then later on going to be looking at the hit rate of some of the other U 22s that clubs have signed from our lounge around the league. I thought that would be interesting to look at just to get an idea of what are the actual odds that Seattle can get an impact player with that spot.
00:01:50
Speaker
Uh, and then hit a little Jesus Ferreira discourse, had some people crashing out in our YouTube comments about Jesus Ferreira on a week where he didn't play. Uh, but I'm going to address that.
Vancouver Whitecaps Special: Michael McColl's Insights
00:02:01
Speaker
Uh,
00:02:02
Speaker
Before we get into all that, though, I do have a special guest to talk some Vancouver Whitecaps, who I'm going to bring on right now. But before we get into this interview, please, everyone, like the video, subscribe to the channel, rate five stars. What else?
00:02:20
Speaker
Follow us on Instagram, follow us on TikTok, follow us on all ah on all platforms. But, uh... Let's talk some Vancouver Whitecaps. That has been a big topic of discussion on our show so far this year when we cover the league from a national perspective, an unexpectedly big story.
00:02:39
Speaker
um We're not going to do... Yeah, but so we're doing it a little bit different this week, Connor. Usually i have been bringing on... Someone to preview the upcoming opposition. These two teams just played a few weeks ago, and I'll talk about the Houston Dynamo a little bit.
00:02:54
Speaker
I didn't think there was all that much new ground to cover as far as where the Houston Dynamo are now versus where they were ah few weeks ago. And I wanted to ah I wanted to talk some caps. So that's why it's it's a little bit different this week.
00:03:06
Speaker
um And that's what we're going to do right now. ah We have got Michael McColl of AFTN, the Vancouver Whitecaps podcast, joining the show right now. Going to bring him to the stage.
00:03:19
Speaker
Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to join us here this evening. How are you doing? I'm doing good. It's been way too long, Ari, since we've chatted. So nice to have this little catch up. Absolutely. I mean, yeah, we've known each other for, uh, for many years. I think I met you the very first Vancouver whitecaps game I ever went to up at BC place in probably like what, 2014 or 2015. And, uh, we've, uh, we've seen each other many times over the years because you usually make the trip down to Seattle as well.
00:03:49
Speaker
And, uh, i got I mean, let's ah let's just get right into it because this has got to be an incredible experience for you right now. ah For for the pretty much the entire time I've known you, the Vancouver Whitecaps, they haven't been bad.
00:04:05
Speaker
They've been solid playoff team at times, never really a contender. And... Now, this is without question the best team in Major League Soccer. They're going to the CONCACAF Champions Cup Final, where they're going taking on Cruz Azul, and also averaging 2.3 points per game in league play. Michael, I think it is no It is not an exaggeration or hyperbole to say this is one of the most impressive runs that an MLS club has ah ever been on.
00:04:35
Speaker
So ah as someone who is getting a front row seat to all of this, covering this team day in, day out, I'm going to start with the question that we have been asking ourselves and that has befuddled us all season, which is how are the Vancouver Whitecaps this good?
Whitecaps' Performance and Player Highlights
00:04:50
Speaker
What is going on? well out How did this happen? but i I mean, a lot of it is Jesper Sorensen. He's come in Nobody knew what to expect.
00:05:01
Speaker
We didn't know what to expect. But he's given this whole group a sense of belief. They've totally bought into his system. He's moved away from a lot of the things that Vanni Sertini did.
00:05:14
Speaker
The zonal marking, which I hate, it's gone. The centre-backs are allowed to... send long balls forward or get forward as opposed to you could only send it that way or that way. That was your only options.
00:05:30
Speaker
All with the players, because Vanny did a big chat with us before last season, showed us video and it's like... Players have two or three options when they're on the ball and that's it.
00:05:42
Speaker
So there was no freedom of expression. Jesper Sorensen's come in, ripped that up, and it's like, you play free, you do what you want to do offensively, be attacking, defensive sort of responsibility as well.
00:05:56
Speaker
But also... So many games means our whole squad has been used. And the guys that's come in have got significant minutes that they maybe wouldn't have had if it was just one game weeks, if they hadn't had this cup run.
00:06:11
Speaker
And now the whole squad's pretty much interchangeable. There's clearly some pieces that that you you miss, like Brian White, if he's not in it, there's a dip. If Anders Kubis isn't at the back, there's a dip.
00:06:23
Speaker
But pretty much everyone else is quite interchangeable right now. Yeah, ah like something that I think is so fascinating about it is, ah I mean, Jesper Sorensen definitely is clearly, he's apparently that guy. He's apparently the greatest coach I've ever seen. ah So there's that.
00:06:41
Speaker
um But it seems like he has elicited breakout seasons where you're seeing the absolute best of all these players all at the exact same time it's like a perfect storm the first one i want i want i want to ask you about a few of these guys but first one i wanted to ask you about sebastian berhalter i mean he is ah the best number eight in mls right now like i i don't see who's even else is even in the discussion with this guy right now he is unbelievable just what he's doing ah
00:07:11
Speaker
on both sides of the ball he's scoring these big goals uh he's suspended for the ccc final which i'm pretty upset about because i wanted to watch him play in that game uh but uh what if you made of the leap from uh sebastian berhalter in particular going from a pretty nondescript prospect right like this guy he was on columbus crew ah didn't really get much run there i feel like they moved him to austin fc and then he didn't really get much run there ah And last year, I feel like he wasn't even this good.
00:07:42
Speaker
And now all of the sudden he's the best number eight in the league. Like what is going on with this Sebastian Berhalter full breakout? I mean, a lot of it is just getting the regular minutes. I mean, that's been key. Under Vani last year, he wasn't a guaranteed starter.
00:07:58
Speaker
He was the guy that would come in when Kubis maybe was injured or away in international duty, and he would be playing the six, which wasn't really utilising what he can do.
00:08:09
Speaker
Sometimes we saw him last year out wide. And again, that's not where his strengths are. So... Alessandro Schopp moved on and I was quite pleased about that because he never really hit the heights number eight that we thought he could do and Berholt has filled that void and beyond he has elevated himself so much this year. Now, he he has grown year upon year, but this is now a huge leap that that he's gone up.
00:08:40
Speaker
And he's, as you say, he's contributing the assists. He's getting the goals. That was always something. He'd maybe get one or two a season. Now, whenever he's on the ball, you feel he can do something, either set something up or or go for a goal.
00:08:55
Speaker
Absolutely gutted that he's missing the final. Obviously for from a team point of view, but for him as well, I've got to know him a little bit the last couple of years. We've had a lot of chats and he's genuinely such a nice guy.
00:09:09
Speaker
And even after the semi-final, I spoke to him about missing the final and he he just took it in his stride. He's obviously disappointed, but that second half against Miami, that was his cup final.
00:09:24
Speaker
And I think that then shows his mentality because i harked back and a lot of folk watching this are going to be way younger than me. So Gaza for England in the 1990 World old Cup, booked in the semi-final, was going to miss the final, immediately went to pieces, crying, just wasn't coping.
00:09:45
Speaker
He got subbed off right away. Berhalter could have gone one or two ways. he could ah His head could have gone down because he was missing the final, oh but instead he came out this in the second half and had one of the best halves of his life.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's been incredible to watch. I really did not know that he had this in him. And I think it's so stupid that two yellow cards in a series ah leads to a suspension. I did a whole rant about that on ah one of my last streams, but ah it's just, I don't know how they haven't changed that. This happens every year where you have a star player who has to miss a big game like this for, ah you know, I understand accumulation suspensions for a lot of yellow cards too.
00:10:29
Speaker
Two? I mean, it's... I mean, they they reset it at the end of the quarterfinals, but like his first yellow card in the first leg was in the 94th minute. It was just a cheap yellow card.
00:10:41
Speaker
But if Miami had got through, Redondo was going to miss out because he also had picked up two yellows. I mean, no matter who got in the final, and if it wasn't the Whitecaps, I'd still feel the same way.
00:10:53
Speaker
You need to reset it. Yeah. that's it's it's I could go on ah about that grievance all show, but ah we'll we'll keep it pushing because I got, ah I mean, all right. So Sebastian Berhalter is one of these full-on breakouts, but let's just ah let's just go down the list of what's going on with this team right now because there are just so many.
00:11:14
Speaker
ah Pedro Vitae, MVP candidate, I think. Like, absolutely wonderful. probably the best player in the league at that exact role right now ah brian white the hottest number nine in and mls scoring goals for fun he's making it look easy out there and then the team the team ball that they're playing to get him those chances uh has been excellent tristan blackman defender of the year candidate scores that insane goal at the last second in monterey that really uh that was like one of the uh team of destiny type moments of that ccc run so far
00:11:46
Speaker
And then Jaden Nelson, obviously, had no idea that Jaden Nelson was one of the best wingers in MLS, but I guess that's a thing now as well. Out of out of like all of these breakouts, is there anyone that like stands out as the most significant or most unexpected?
00:12:06
Speaker
ah like Did you see any of these coming, or is this ah just all out of nowhere? Well, Blackman last year. I don't know what it was. Vanny just didn't seem to rate him. Then he got an injury and it it was clear at training his head had gone down a little bit.
00:12:23
Speaker
He was a bit grumpy, didn't really want to chat. New lease of life under Jesper. So, I mean, that's maybe not been a surprise because we knew how good he was.
00:12:35
Speaker
But I genuinely feel just now we've got the best number nine in Brian White, the best number eight in Bear Halter, Vite, ah you probably isn't the best in in the league when a league's got messy as as a creative person.
00:12:49
Speaker
But I think we've got the best centre-back pairing. Ranko and Blackman together, they're really close off the pitch. And that carries on to the pitch. I just spoke to Ranko in our last show and he said, we don't even need to communicate that much anymore.
00:13:05
Speaker
We know exactly what's expected of each other and where that person's going to be. But of of all those guys, Pedro Vitti, Now, Pedro was a frustrating player to me because he had the talent, but he didn't have the consistency.
00:13:23
Speaker
And i genuinely feel that Ryan Gould's injury has helped Pedro Vitti become the player that he now is. Because he kind of played a secondary role to Gould, whether that meant not starting or if they're playing together, Gould's the playmaker.
00:13:42
Speaker
Now, Vite's that guy. He's the guy that's making everything tick. He's pulling all the strings. So when Gold comes back, how do they coexist? I think when Gold comes back, we're not going to see him in the 10. We're going to see him out wide.
00:13:56
Speaker
And we'll have like Pedro being still that creative guy. His contract is up at the end of the season. There is a new contract on the table. He hasn't signed it yet.
00:14:08
Speaker
He could walk away for free. that Roma were said to be interested, but the Whitecaps have said if they're interested, they haven't contacted us. But he could sign a ah pre-contract agreement I hope he stays.
00:14:25
Speaker
There's a deal that I believe would make him like a maximum TAM player. So he could maybe be getting up to 1.7. So he'd be the second highest player on the team.
00:14:37
Speaker
He has to keep that consistency there. And if we can keep him to the end of the season and then lose him, fair enough. But if we can keep him and then build on on what we're doing just now...
00:14:50
Speaker
i mean this team could be strong for a number of years you hit on something there that i wanted to dig into more which is that i think one of the most impressive parts uh of all of this is that it's been done pretty much all without ryan gald or scottish messi as he's uh sometimes known uh we call him scottish messi uh but i was kind of wondering like uh you know when you have a team that's this hot and a player who's been a key player, the key player on the team who is injured.
00:15:24
Speaker
It seems like, you know, you don't you don't want to mess with something that's working, right? And p Pedro Vitae is legitimately an m MVP candidate playing a relatively similar role that Ryan Gould plays on this team when he's healthy.
00:15:38
Speaker
So are you concerned at all about like, ah you know, I was thinking more like Ryan Gould when he comes back, that's going to be a boon. Like this team could get even better, but like, it sounds like you might have some concerns the other way that a Scottish messy coming back could potentially be disruptive. Is that, is that accurate?
00:15:57
Speaker
Well, not not really disruptive. I just, I wonder how it affects Pedro and it depends what role he gets. But I genuinely think that Gold will play a different kind of role this year. he' He'll be out wide.
00:16:10
Speaker
It'll be kind of like a front three with white in the middle, Gold in one wing, and then take your pick, Sabi. Nelson, Ali Ahmed One of them will start each game The other two will come over off the bench I don't think it will be disruptive It will take him a couple of games To get fully up to speed His knee He keeps showing pain in it So they don't want to rush him My understanding is he will be good to go for the the cup final on June 1st, but he obviously needs to get some minutes under
Whitecaps Sale and CCC Preparation
00:16:45
Speaker
his belt. You can't just throw him in to to a cup final, especially ah in altitude and and in Mexico City.
00:16:52
Speaker
I don't think there'll be too much disruption, but as we kind of start to drop down to one game weeks, it's how you keep everyone happy and it's how you keep everyone at the top of their levels. And I think that's going to be the the really hard part for Sorensen.
00:17:07
Speaker
got michael mccall from aftn vancouver whitecaps podcast joining us to talk about the uh best team in major league soccer and potentially all of uh north america right now uh michael we got a listener or a viewer question from chat here for you uh mr ght asks what is the status of the sale of the whitecaps how does this insane run of form affect the sale That is the million dollar question, or I probably should say $500 million dollar question, because that's apparently what our valuation is.
00:17:42
Speaker
Although when you see RSL, what they sold for, and that was like three facilities as well, which we don't own. There's no news is the short answer. There are interested parties.
00:17:56
Speaker
We still... believe the team will stay in vancouver but there of course isn't a guarantee this run really helps that because if you get the fans out like packed out bc place yes it's messy but it was a very pro whitecaps crowd we were chatting a little bit about that before we started recording And that was good. Folk will have gone away from that excited and they would then come to games.
00:18:23
Speaker
So we have to keep a good team on the pitch. We have to get the fans in the crowd to make somebody think, yeah, we really need to keep this team in Vancouver. The great thing that it's done is it seems to have forced the city into working with the Caps to to build a soccer-specific stadium.
00:18:43
Speaker
and that would be huge for us and if they build that you can't really see the team leaving that the downside for us is we don't have tangible assets we partly own our training center which is like state-of-the-art but we're only a ah partner in it we don't own our own stadium we've got a lot of American markets that should have and deserve to have an MLS team.
00:19:14
Speaker
And if they only add two more, there's going to be some big ones that miss out, like Indianapolis, the rumors that Indy want the white caps or any team but will not go away.
00:19:26
Speaker
Phoenix should have a team. I think there's a strong case for San Antonio, Sacramento, and who knows Detroit, maybe even as well. But I,
00:19:37
Speaker
Although the rumours are out there, I think a lot of it's coming from the Indianapolis side. Axel Schuster has always said, and for those that don't know, he's the Whitecaps CEO, that the number one plan is to keep the team in Vancouver.
00:19:51
Speaker
And that is what they're striving to do. But it could be a process that takes a year to a year and a half. ah feel like with how this season has gone, that really should reinforce how much the team needs to stay there. And I know everyone here definitely rooting to keep the this Cascadia trifecta fully intact. I mean, you just – you never – i don't think you should ever have a team move in like if you look at what's happening with the oakland days or what happened with the raiders that just shouldn't happen uh and if that happens to the whitecaps that would be disgraceful but i hope uh i really hope it doesn't and i don't know if i i don't want to jinx anything if i had to predict it they got to find a way to uh keep them in vancouver we did have another viewer question from nick where uh who's asking how can we help keep the caps in vancouver is there anything that uh fans from other markets can do at all
00:20:44
Speaker
I mean, at this point, no. The Columbus to Austin thing back in the day was wonderful because it rallied everyone together. And like my English team is AFC Wimbledon.
00:20:56
Speaker
And as soon as they kind of rose as a Phoenix club, I've been a member of the Don's Trust from over 20 years now. So I know what it's like to to see a team move and have the heart ripped out of it.
00:21:09
Speaker
Now, if the Whitecaps were to move, they would probably restart. They'd probably be in the Canadian Premier League, but it's a big, big drop. But right now, it's just, I guess, tagging MLS and just saying, you need to make sure that Vancouver Whitecaps do not leave the Vancouver market.
00:21:29
Speaker
And for fans in Vancouver, you need to get out and support the team. We got another ah viewer question from KW that I think actually segues nicely into the next topic that I wanted to hit with you, which is CONCACAF Champions Cup.
00:21:44
Speaker
KW asks, how do the Caps avoid a similar disadvantage to that of the Columbus crew when they are at the final sack lunches brought from home? Yeah, can't get poisoned. Can't get poisoned. That's goal number one for this trip.
00:21:54
Speaker
yeah Can't get poisoned. But ah anything else that you want to see as far as how they tackle a road trip like this strategically? I mean, I think they will have learned a lot from what happened to the crew last year.
00:22:07
Speaker
And i' would imagine they'll bring their own chefs or, yeah, like overseas stuff. I don't know. I still don't know what the plan is yet.
00:22:18
Speaker
Because when they went down to play, let me get this right, Pumas, there's been so many games, but they went down to play Pumas. They traveled the day before. So they didn't get used to the altitude. They didn't train down there.
00:22:31
Speaker
and you saw it in the first 15-20 minutes that they were over hitting passes they were struggling a little bit then they found their feet so i don't know what the plan is like if they if they travel the day before then there's a lot less chance that something can go wrong but you're not acclimatized to the altitude now the thing is we have a game on the 28th of may And it's against Minnesota, so it's a big game.
00:22:57
Speaker
So that is on the Wednesday, and then the game's on the Sunday. So I thought that that game would get called off, but the Whitecaps want to play it, which I still think is crazy.
00:23:08
Speaker
But they feel that they're in a groove, two-game weeks. They've already kind beaten Minnesota with a weakened team. They want to ride this while they're going. So if they do that, then they're definitely not traveling until at least the Friday.
00:23:22
Speaker
But I think they might end up just travelling on the Saturday. Media might dictate it. I guess CONCACAF might want folk there on the Saturday for pre-match press conferences or or whatever.
00:23:35
Speaker
But it's just like being super careful. And what happened to the crew last year was terrible. And if that happened to to us, I think questions would need to be asked. i Do you think they got poisoned? Because I kind of do.
00:23:49
Speaker
I do. i literally i like actually do. Yeah. I mean, i i mean the same i like i've I've just been on a trip with my League One side, which is equivalent to USL 2.
00:24:02
Speaker
And the hotel we were staying in, we had to flag that the plates and the glasses that they gave us were like filthy. So it could just be bad hygiene in the hotel that's led to something. But it's like we were staying at a Hilton and it's like, this is not acceptable.
00:24:18
Speaker
So it's little things like that. It could be something in the glasses and it wasn't intentional. And I don't want to put a tinfoil hat on, but it felt intentional. it it It felt like something nefarious was afoot.
00:24:30
Speaker
you know Sometimes you can just kind of sense it, intuition. I think everyone got that ah got that feeling. I know the crew did. um Michael, I wanted to talk to you about, a well, obviously this CCC run that Vancouver's been on has been phenomenal, but I think The among the most impressive things about it is how they have balanced it with the league season.
00:24:51
Speaker
I have never seen ah team do this to be making a legitimate run in CCC ah where they make it to a final. But not only am not missed a beat in league play, but our Supporters Shield frontrunners playing at above a two points per game pace.
00:25:10
Speaker
That shouldn't be possible in MLS. It hasn't been possible in MLS historically. ah We know out here, as well as anyone, what a CONCACAF Champions Cup run can ah do to your... ah league season. The Sounders won CONCACAF Champions Cup famously, and then it tanks their league season entirely and they missed the playoffs.
00:25:28
Speaker
And there's just, I mean, multiple ah other examples throughout and MLS history, not just affecting Seattle, but every single team, ah the storyline is always that if you're selling out for CCC, you are going to pay a price in league play that is baked in.
00:25:42
Speaker
It's not even like a question. It's just a matter of how bad it's going to be and how much you're going to mitigate it. uh how are they doing this like not just staying afloat and uh holding their own in league play but playing at a shield pace while also making a ccc final shouldn't be possible how how is this happening i mean it's depth the depth is there we don't have superstars we've like i I mean, yeah you could arguably say that I guess we do now. Ryan Gold is very, very good, but he's not what a lot of people would consider to be a like a superstar.
00:26:21
Speaker
Brian White as well, he's had two career seasons. We keep thinking, well, can't have another one, and then he goes and has another one. But these are guys that They're hard working.
00:26:33
Speaker
There's no egos on the team. The locker room, they said this last year, and we've got to give Vanni Sertini a lot of credit. He's built the foundations to all of this. But the locker room, every single person and the new guys that come in all talk about this is the closest knit group they have ever been a part of.
00:26:52
Speaker
And it's just they've all bought into what Jesper Sorensen wants to do. And they are, as I said earlier, all interchangeable. And you don't feel that the team is weakened. The only game we've lost in MLS was Chicago at home, which was played in the international break.
00:27:08
Speaker
where we had four or five guys away on international duty and a couple injured. So to lose that many, that's going to take a hit. But if you're just losing one or two, there's enough quality and everyone knows what they need to do when they come in that we haven't missed beat.
00:27:25
Speaker
Now, seven-point lead at the top after 11 games is like crazy. And I thought playoffs, 48 to 50, and you're pretty much guaranteed that you're in.
00:27:37
Speaker
So we're halfway there. And we're just a third of the way through the season. So it also gives us some wiggle room. There will be a drop-off. Jesper Sorensen's already said this isn't sustainable.
00:27:48
Speaker
He's not like... somebody that's going to get swept along with this. He knows there'll be a dip. It'll probably come in July when the Gold Cup's on. We're going to lose players to that, possibly to the American squad now as well as the Canadian.
00:28:04
Speaker
mean, you have to think White and Berhalter will be... in the conversation, if not in the squad. So we are going to lose a lot of players in July. We're on the road for most of July. That's when we'll wobble.
00:28:16
Speaker
So I think that is also partly why they want to play this Minnesota game before the final. Ride this hot streak while they're hot. And then when the dip comes, deal with that when it comes. See, I've been waiting for the dip.
00:28:28
Speaker
I've been waiting for the dip all season. And it just, there is no, there is no dip. Like, I think ah what Jasper Sorensen is saying and what you're saying is probably correct. like I mean, you can't play 2.3, 2.4 points per game for an entire season.
00:28:45
Speaker
I mean, what I don't even know what that would put you at, like 88 points or something. I don't like nothing like that. has ever been done but uh i think uh we are definitely at the point between ccc and how far it is into the league season that there's definitely no part of this that's like a fluke or a flash in the pan like this is one of the elite teams in the league right now which has been uh i mean it's been it's been wild to witness i think for anyone who follows the league it's not what anyone expected ah
00:29:16
Speaker
How are you feeling about this CCC final? Just the fact that the club is in it, obviously uncharted territory, and then their prospects of actually winning it. Because I'll be honest, like i I love their chances of winning it, even if it's on the road.
00:29:30
Speaker
Cruz Azul, Seattle played them in CCC and beat them pretty bad in the second leg. But it was actually relatively competitive until it got away from Seattle past the 80th minute.
00:29:40
Speaker
ah But they I didn't see anything from them that made me feel like they were way better than what this Whitecaps team is. If anything, if this was at BC Place, Vancouver would be a heavy favorite, I think.
00:29:51
Speaker
So just how are you feeling about the the weight of the opportunity, but then also the club's prospects of actually seeing this out and getting it done? I mean, it was so close, 10 minutes away from being at BC Place, which is like so frustrating itself.
00:30:06
Speaker
i'm I'm confident. I went down to that second leg in Miami totally confident because I knew if we got the away goal, the tie was over. Now, obviously, there's no away goals in the final season.
00:30:18
Speaker
You're on home turf, although at the same time it's not Cruz Azul's regular stadium, but they are used to it because they're playing there this year. I watched the Seattle games.
00:30:29
Speaker
I watched the semis against Tigris. They're very good. They were the better team in their semifinal. They deserved to go through, but they didn't look world beaters. I don't think they're the toughest team we're going to have faced on this run.
00:30:42
Speaker
And in a single game... like anything genuinely can happen. Losing Berhalter is a massive blow, but if we get gold back, even if Pedro Vitti drops into Berhalter's role, then...
00:30:59
Speaker
Possibly were even stronger. ah I don't know. But I am very confident about this. and I'm still confident about the league as well. What I would say, as good as Vancouver have been, and like we've made teams look bad. We made Miami look bad.
00:31:15
Speaker
We made Minnesota look bad with a fringe squad that was out there. But we've got to be honest, the MLS West this year has not been good. No.
00:31:26
Speaker
And we've capitalised on that. And these early points in the bag are absolutely massive because they're set like Seattle's now turned it around. Seattle were my tip to to be first in the West.
00:31:38
Speaker
And I thought they'd be challenging for the supporters shield. And I still think they're going to have a very good run and they'll be right up there with Vancouver at the end of the season. But these other teams will just go out and spend and bring money in.
00:31:52
Speaker
or bring ah players in. And the Whitecaps, now, we probably need to add one or two pieces just to keep everything good. The advantage of being first, and if we win the the Champions Cup, you know that we've got the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in December.
00:32:11
Speaker
So players might be like, well, wouldn't mind playing in that. And Club World Cup in 2029, which is is crazy to even be talking about. But I don't know. I'm confident for for the final. I think we can do it.
00:32:26
Speaker
And if we do it, I think it really opens opens everything up for us to to strengthen, to bring in bigger quality talent and then just see where that takes us.
00:32:39
Speaker
Derek Richards coming in with the $5 super sticker. Thank you, man. Appreciate you. You're a maniac. We got more of viewer questions for you, Michael, if you ah can can take these. Appreciate everyone submitting these.
00:32:51
Speaker
this is This is good stuff. Jake is wondering, are Ryan Gould and Brian White projected to play either Minnesota or Cruz Azul? If Gould's fit, he'll definitely be playing Cruz Azul.
00:33:03
Speaker
White as well. The Minnesota game, I would imagine like Rios gets the start, and if needed, White will come off the bench. He's rested White and other players in games before, but he still likes to get them 10 or 15 minutes just so that they're moving about and...
00:33:22
Speaker
just there they're not just sitting up freezing up their muscles on the bench he likes to just get them involved so I think we'll see Gould and White at some point in the Minnesota game would not expect him to start
00:33:36
Speaker
Zach is wondering, how is the current political climate in the USA affecting away supporters' willingness to travel to the States? Any anthem booing at BC Place? There has been anthem booing.
00:33:47
Speaker
um it's It's dying down. It's nowhere near as much as it was initially. I mean, the whole situation... It's horrible. I'm still going down to the US.
00:33:59
Speaker
Anyone that knows me knows I love the Oregon coast. I go down there two, three, four times a year with my wife and the dog. We tie it around the Cascadia games. So I'm still going down.
00:34:12
Speaker
i don't think you can blame... the people in a country just because the the president's political ideas maybe aren't great and hurt in canada now fully understand those that don't want to travel but if i didn't go i'd be punishing myself and there are fans that have traveled There was like over 300 went down to Miami.
00:34:41
Speaker
So I think if it's a big game, they'll travel. But in general, for like day shopping or vacations, they're not traveling for that. Interesting. um Michael, I only had a couple more that I want to do a hit with you and then I'll let you go. Thank you so much for the, for the time this evening.
00:35:01
Speaker
ah We got Michael McCall from AFTN. Well, I, okay. I do want to ask you how much ah ah Scottish premiership do you follow? Are you pretty into that league or are you not? ah i I watched the highlights. There's a BBC show called sports scene. So I watched that on, on BBC iPlayer through my, my VPN. Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker
ah My team in Scotland's in the fourth tier, Scottish League 2. We were top and were going to win it and then we've blown it. Despite having five players in the team of the season and a 30 goal goal scorer, it looks like we're not even going to go up through the playoffs now.
00:35:37
Speaker
But do watch the Premier Well, so the reason I ask is because the Seattle Sounders have a yeah a new character by the name of Ryan Kent, who played for Rangers for about five years and was an excellent player in the Scottish Premiership.
00:35:51
Speaker
And he came here on ah on a free transfer ah in a bit of an odd spot in his career. He had a falling out with Jose Mourinho in Turkey. ah And he had some injury issues as well and really hasn't played that many competitive games in the last couple years. So it's kind of a speculative ad using the space freed by a Paul Areola's season ending ACL tear.
00:36:14
Speaker
And honestly, None of us knew what to expect. And his first two games looked really good, but it was brief cameo appearances. You couldn't really tell exactly how good he was.
00:36:27
Speaker
ah People were excited, but what it hadn't popped yet. And then Seattle's last game against St. Louis ah was about as good an individual performance as I've seen a Sounders player put together before.
00:36:39
Speaker
in a while and i think it really ratcheted up the excitement level around the player but also for the season on what he can bring to this team because he just looked that dynamic i mean did you see him all at all on rangers or follow his career at all when yeah I mean, he was excellent with Rangers. The the Scottish Premier, outside of Rangers and Celtic, you've maybe got two really strong teams and the rest, pretty much every team in MLS would beat them on a regular basis. So the quality's not there.
00:37:11
Speaker
I was stunned where when you guys brought him in because I didn't really think he was like an MLS, definitely not an MLS starter, but i'm I'm not even sure that I saw him ah as that quality because he was good in the Premiership, but It was on a team where most weeks you're you're going to win quite comfortably.
00:37:32
Speaker
but he' That is true, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he has impressed me and I still don't think he's at an MLS starter, but maybe it just needs it. It's like we've got guys like JC and Gando that you would never have thought, oh, he's now really pushing for a starting spot.
00:37:48
Speaker
He was in the USL last season. So sometimes guys can come into a new environment and just reignite all the best aspects of their career. And I think you might see that with Kent.
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah, see, like, i did i didn't know what it to expect either. Like, i was going into it with an open mind, like, ah whether he's a starter or not. But I'll say that if he um if he plays at the level that he showed in this last game, which obviously i don't know if he can sustain that level, but he definitely has the look of an impact player in the league. And I'm just hoping he keeps it up. We'll see if he can.
00:38:21
Speaker
ah But he was doing stuff out there just so creative, so dynamic that we we all here are like, oh, whoa, okay.
Michael McColl Reflects on Whitecaps' Season
00:38:30
Speaker
Okay. But anyway, shifting gears back to Vancouver Whitecaps and CCC, I guess ah to close it out here, ah just what's this experience been like for you getting to cover a team like this? I mean, ah you've been on the Whitecaps beat for as long as anybody.
00:38:47
Speaker
ah You've covered a lot of seasons that have gone all kinds of different ways, but Nothing like this. ah So this is you got to be having a great time. Like, you know, out here, I've been fortunate enough to cover some really good teams that have gone on some really good magical runs.
00:39:03
Speaker
And it always makes it a lot more fun. But what's it just been like for you to get to experience covering not just like a good team or one of the better teams in the league, but the actual clear cut, no question about it.
00:39:16
Speaker
Best team in the league, the Vancouver Whitecaps. very enjoyable uh it's like when we we do lot we do our shows we write it's the same with everyone around mls and all all the other so soccer podcasts around the world.
00:39:34
Speaker
And here in Vancouver, we have struggled. 2015 was probably our best season. We lost to the Timbers in the conference semis. We shouldn't have. It was just horrible tactics.
00:39:48
Speaker
And we all felt, and I still feel, that was our year that we could have won the MLS Cup. And I'm not going to lie. It's like you look at Seattle and you're envious.
00:39:59
Speaker
It's like what you guys have done, what you guys have achieved. MLS Cup, winning the Champions Cup, constantly making the playoffs, constantly going deep in the playoffs, reaching other MLS Cups.
00:40:11
Speaker
And then there's... There's envy because it's like, why am I watching a team that just seems to never be competitive at that top, top level?
00:40:22
Speaker
I'm just making the most of this ride. Like if you had told me at the start of the year that in May you'd be flying to Miami one week, And then I was in Winnipeg. I'm just back today following my my League One team in the Cup, which if we'd won that, we would have been playing the Whitecaps.
00:40:38
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, two-legged tie. That would not have gone well against an amateur team. But I'm now like flying down to Mexico City in a couple of weeks. i'm I'm just here loving it. I've supported the team, covered the team, written about the team since 2008.
00:40:58
Speaker
and pre-MLS days and my first year here we won the USL championship and then it's all been downhill since that so if we can win anything this year I mean it it's just going to be remarkable and it makes what we do easier when you're enjoying what you're doing when it's all doom and gloom it's not fun Yeah, no, I'm happy for you, man. You've ah you've earned this. And ah yeah, I mean, live it up, make the most of it. You get to go to a CONCACAF Champions Cup final in Mexico.
00:41:37
Speaker
that's honestly ah That's honestly so sick. ah Michael, that is all I ah all i had for you ah tonight. Thank you so much for the time. ah But before we get you out of here, ah could you tell our audience just about the work that you guys are doing CACAF?
00:41:51
Speaker
AFTN. And if you have anything that you want to plug or shill as far as your coverage of the team this season or of the Champions Cup final, um please go right ahead. The floor is yours.
00:42:05
Speaker
Well, you can find everything on AFTN.ca. I've kind of moved away from the written stuff the last couple of years. I'm trying to get more back into writing stuff and getting more writers on.
00:42:15
Speaker
So I've been concentrating on the podcast. We're the longest running English language soccer podcast in Canada. going since 2013. We would be the longest overall, but a French one started a week before us, which is really irritating because otherwise we'd be the longest running soccer podcast in Canada.
00:42:34
Speaker
But yeah, you'll just find all stuff, aftn.ca. We cover the game from grassroots level all the way up to the national team and very long podcasts, three hours usually.
00:42:46
Speaker
And that is too long for a podcast, I know, but I like to talk. Yeah, no, you guys do ah do great work covering the Whitecaps. Have for many years, and ah now you're covering the greatest team I've ever watched play the sport. So that's pretty cool.
00:43:03
Speaker
ah Michael, thank you so much for the time tonight. ah we'll get you We'll get you back on when these two teams play. Usually, i like either I've been doing guests that cover the team that Seattle is about to play. was like, you know what?
00:43:14
Speaker
I got to talk some caps. I got to figure out what's... What's going on with this team. So ah thank you so much for giving ah me and our our audience that insight. And yeah, we'll be, we'll be in touch soon. Enjoy the CCC final.
00:43:28
Speaker
I hope to, and I'll see you in June. Cause I'm planning to come down for some of the club world cup games. Oh, nice. Yeah. Well then I'll, ah I'll see you there. Let me know when you're inbound. Will do.
00:43:39
Speaker
All right. Have a good night, Michael. Take care.
00:43:44
Speaker
That was Michael McCall. AFTN Vancouver Whitecaps podcast really appreciate his time uh I feel like I have a ah better understanding of uh exactly what's gone down there this season how they became the greatest team uh we've ever seen and yeah still enjoying hopefully you guys are enjoying these uh weekly interviews that I've been ah setting up and really trying to uh learn as much as i can about the uh rest of this league and what's going on with all these clubs week to week and uh my the depths of my mls knowledge has become truly uh disturbing uh zach lewis coming in with the dollar 99 super chat thank you for the support see you june 8th at vancouver away that when seattle plays there
00:44:35
Speaker
I might try and go to that this year. I used to go to every ah game at BC Place, and I don't think I went. I didn't go last year, but it's always a fun trip. Vancouver is an awesome city, and ah BC Place, they might they don't really they don't pack all 27K every week, but like they get pretty good crowds, and the atmospheres are always really good. So might try and do that one this year.
00:44:57
Speaker
um all right let's get into some seattle sounders you guys want to get into some seattle sounders uh i got a lot i got a lot of other stuff to get to tonight uh so let's get into that uh let's hit this from lex before we get into this bit of in-person feedback could not hear a thing you said in person while at watershed would have loved have been able to hear you guys do the show in person yeah sorry about that uh it's a it's a bit of a tough setup at starfire and uh We don't have like PA mics. I honestly don't know all the tech that would go into what would have made us audible for the people that were actually at Watershed.
00:45:37
Speaker
we had We got little like ear things so we could hear ourselves, but the first time we did it, like I could barely hear myself. So we'll try and ah perfect the tech behind the live show.
00:45:49
Speaker
We're still kind of learning how to do that. I'm sure some of you might have noticed that. uh, the, uh, connection at star fire was a little dodgy. We had a mishap where, a dongle was forgotten that would have helped us get a better connection.
00:46:05
Speaker
But, uh, we're, we'll, uh, we'll figure all that stuff out. We'll get the live shows to a point where people that are actually there can hear us. Cause yeah, I mean, point taken, like people that were, that that came to like, see us record the show and then you can't hear anything. i Sorry.
00:46:22
Speaker
But, uh, We're still learning the tech. And yeah, hopefully we had we had people say ah that despite not being able to hear the actual show, that just the vibe was was great as far as just the whole event. And let's actually, let's talk about that because that was the first thing I wanted to talk
Tacoma Defiance vs. Portland Timbers Recap
00:46:43
Speaker
about.
00:46:43
Speaker
Thank you to everyone who came out and ah said hi to us after the show, before and after the show. was great to meet all of you. ah we had We've had we have had a great time both times that we've gone out there for these games.
00:46:57
Speaker
And then the game itself,
00:47:01
Speaker
they almost did it. They almost did it to them. They should have done it to them. Going into that game, my... My biggest hope was just that they would be competitive.
00:47:17
Speaker
Make these guys sweat it. You know, if you lose, you lose. But make these guys sweat it. And not only did they make them sweat it, not only were they competitive, they were they were in phenomenal position to win that game.
00:47:32
Speaker
They were down 1-0 at the half. Halftime response, excellent. Came out firing, get two goals. Osaze de Rosario gets one of them. And the crowd was just going off.
00:47:46
Speaker
you could kind of You could kind of sense in the building. People were really realizing as soon as the second goal went in, like, this is on the table. This is actually on the table. I i really, if if you, that we did predictions during the live show.
00:48:03
Speaker
And I was trying to be, you know, not predict like what I want to happen, but what I actually think will happen. And there's never been a situation like this where next pro side has played an MLS first team. So we had no really frame of reference.
00:48:18
Speaker
So if you just ask me any and MLS next pro side versus an MLS first team, I don't think I'm ever going to pick the MLS next pro side. So again, my mentality with it was more just like be competitive.
00:48:31
Speaker
And, uh, Oh, man, they almost won that. They almost won that.
00:48:40
Speaker
And you know what? I will say this. if ah If that game has VAR, I think they do win that. I seriously think they win that.
00:48:53
Speaker
Because ah the ref let a penalty kick shout go just a few minutes before Portland tied it. I actually haven't seen the replay of it, but I remember what I saw live.
00:49:07
Speaker
I remember what I saw live. And that one that he let go that the Timbs did to Defiance, I think that that looked like a PK to me. I'm not just saying that. thought that was a PK. I thought that was pretty stone cold.
00:49:21
Speaker
And I mean, I think the problem I have with the call is like, I don't know. I didn't see the one that he got Georgie for, but it's like, you can't call that and then not call the other one.
00:49:33
Speaker
Apparently, i'm you know I always say when i I've been complaining about the refs a lot the last few weeks, always say i'm not the ref guy. I guess I'm the ref guy. I'm the crash out about the ref guy.
00:49:44
Speaker
Every week i I get on here and I just have my list of grievances. That first one, if you're going to call the one on Georgie, the other one's got to be called too. that's That's what I think. But just the fact that it was coming down to margin-type penalty kick calls like that, it was great.
00:50:03
Speaker
The team played great. And watching the Portland Timbys have to sweat that out. They were they were playing for their they're playing for their careers and their reputations out there.
00:50:17
Speaker
That's exactly what I wanted them to have to do. You could tell that the possibility of losing was in their head a little bit. You could tell.
00:50:28
Speaker
and just They were going so hard because they knew that they couldn't let it happen, and then they got bailed out. They had to get bailed out to beat an MLS Next Pro side.
00:50:42
Speaker
VAR, they probably lose to an MLS Next Pro side.
00:50:48
Speaker
I haven't heard any ah many, if any, Timbi's fans chirping that much about it. I don't know if any of you who were at the game had ah similar or had different experiences and you heard them yucking it up about it.
00:51:02
Speaker
But just in case there are any, here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say.
00:51:08
Speaker
Why don't you put T2 against Seattle's first team? See what happens.
00:51:18
Speaker
see what happens. It's an alpha move to get that close to beating your rival with your developmental side. The Timmy's could not do that. I'll tell you guys right now they couldn't because
00:51:30
Speaker
they're one of the teams in the league that puts the least kind of priority on youth development. Like think about it. who's Who's like a big homegrown first team contributor that they've developed in house?
00:51:47
Speaker
Marco Farfan, who doesn't play for them anymore and is like, I consider him like pretty much bang average MLS fullback. They don't really, they have not gotten their youth development to a point where they're churning out first team players.
00:52:04
Speaker
If T2 played Seattle's first team, I don't care what the venue is. It would not go like that. They would not, Seattle's first team would not be sweating that one out.
00:52:15
Speaker
They wouldn't, they wouldn't destroy T2. So if anyone, ah I don't, I don't, i don't think any fan in their right mind would chirp barely winning against an MLS next side on very dicey PK officiating.
00:52:36
Speaker
I don't think they're flexing on it that much.
00:52:41
Speaker
The young CBs were stellar. Stu Hawks, give him MLS minutes.
00:52:47
Speaker
I thought the whole team was great, man. Georgie was absolutely destroying them out there. that That period where Defiance scored the two goals, Georgie was just going off.
00:52:58
Speaker
It was great. Georgie was going off. Snyder Brunel, I thought, was excellent.
00:53:04
Speaker
Osaze got his goal, got signed. We're going to talk about that.
00:53:12
Speaker
Cody Baker looked great during warmups, by the way. It was too bad he couldn't play he couldn't play in that game. That would have been a great Cody Bakes game. But ah it was good to see RBW out there. I thought RBW looked good.
00:53:27
Speaker
Andy T was doing his thing out there. Andy T got fouled, by the way, on ah on the Timbys' first goal. With VAR, that first goal probably comes off. I'm not um not blowing the smoke. That's just literally look at the play.
00:53:41
Speaker
that That goal probably gets... The Timbi's goals in this game were a ah set piece where they fouled the goalkeeper and it didn't get called. And then an equalizer, which with that was that was a good goal.
00:53:54
Speaker
That was a good goal. Good delivery, good header. But then a PK that was dodgy at best and also came on the heels of a stone cold PK that they should have been called for at the other end.
00:54:11
Speaker
It was a tough ending. It was a tough ending just because of how close they were. And I was at least, like, I was thinking of it like, all right, this is going to extra time. They actually are about to take the Timbys to extra time. And then that then that PK call at the end was just like, ah
00:54:30
Speaker
it was sad. It was sad. You wanted it for him. It would have been so good, and they got so close, man. If they had gotten a run in that game, no one would have really said anything. But I guess it wasn't to be.
00:54:46
Speaker
Just the fact that they were that competitive
00:54:50
Speaker
is a moral W, in my opinion, in and of itself.
00:54:56
Speaker
Like I said, making him sweat it that much, making them have to play for their lives out there against and bunch of 17-year-olds. It's great.
00:55:09
Speaker
was awesome.
00:55:13
Speaker
Kind of brings up the ah whole discussion we were having of like whether Defiance should have been playing in this tournament in the first place. I thought i thought the way it worked out was cool. I know everyone wants to see Seattle's first team in that tournament, and I don't disagree with that.
00:55:29
Speaker
But I thought having Defiance in it this year was pretty fun.
00:55:34
Speaker
I did.
00:55:38
Speaker
Bad sequels. $2 super sticker. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Genuinely not nervous once during the game, which felt weird. Exactly. i was I was like at the very start.
00:55:54
Speaker
Like you had the i the ah early game butterflies. But as soon as ah soon as it hit like the 10 to 15 minute mark and it was still pretty even and back and forth, I was like, all right, they're up for this.
00:56:07
Speaker
They're up for this moment.
00:56:11
Speaker
And they absolutely were.
00:56:15
Speaker
I think it's a great sign. And like more than that, it's like a that type of experience in a game like that is invaluable for a young player. It's invaluable. There's no substitute for actually playing in a game like that with that type of stuff on the line.
00:56:32
Speaker
That's why,
00:56:36
Speaker
i mean, you you can argue whether it's a better have Seattle's first team or whatever, but ah in terms of just like peer developmental aspect of it,
00:56:46
Speaker
That's so good for those players to to get a game like that under their belt and experience what that's like playing in elimination game against first team rival.
00:57:00
Speaker
That is phenomenal experience.
00:57:05
Speaker
um That leads me the bit of Sounders news that dropped today.
Osaze De Rosario's Journey and Seattle Sounders
00:57:14
Speaker
Osaze de Rosario. signed
00:57:21
Speaker
First team contract with the Sounders. Sorry, I'm pulling up the, uh, Sounder at heart report to a screen share.
00:57:31
Speaker
Sazay De Rosario signs first team contract with the Sounders scored 10 goals and eight competitive matches this year. So he's, uh, Cristiano Ronaldo in the MLS next pro just scored against the Timbs.
00:57:44
Speaker
And, uh, I think that that this was, uh, this was coming because Jordan Morris is out pretty long-term six weeks with this hamstring injury and they didn't really, they behind moose, they don't really have a like for like, we've talked about that a lot with, uh,
00:58:10
Speaker
Jesus Ferreira playing kind of a pure number nine role. It's not really been his thing. So they needed they needed a body there. And Osaze has earned it.
00:58:22
Speaker
He's earned it. He's banging in goals in MLS Next Pro. And his performances, like just outside of the stat sheet production, his performances have been really good.
00:58:33
Speaker
ah He seems like a very smart striker, guy who gets himself in good positions. I know he missed the sitter against St. Louis.
00:58:42
Speaker
But we've made the point. that's that's That's where you want him. That's where you want him standing. You want him to kick it into the goal instead of above it. But he was in a good spot.
00:58:53
Speaker
Good movement. It's a good sequence by the whole team there. So I'm interested to see what he can do. see if he yeah You may as well find out if you've got an MLS player. This is a good opportunity to do it.
00:59:15
Speaker
Good signing. You need someone to give Moose a rest even if for 15 minutes a game. Yeah, like you can't
00:59:21
Speaker
you can't have Moose play every minute of every game.
00:59:26
Speaker
He's going to be playing a lot. Moose is the most important player on the team right now, as has been documented on this show.
00:59:35
Speaker
But Osase is to play.
00:59:42
Speaker
As long as Jordan's out, I think they're i mean they're definitely going to find spots to get them run. They have to.
00:59:51
Speaker
And i think it'll be good for them to find out what they have because it's this is the type of thing where if you develop a player like this and it hits, it's such a great advantage. It's such a great leg up.
01:00:11
Speaker
Osaze is not technically a homegrown, but he is coming up through Defiance. So I think your point stands. It's not like he came up through the Youth Academy.
01:00:22
Speaker
They brought him in from the Canadian Premiership. But it would be cool to have a number nine who started with
01:00:34
Speaker
the MLS Next team, worked their way up and actually become like a reliable number nine at the MLS level, any type of reliable number nine at the MLS level, that'd be huge.
01:00:46
Speaker
It means that maybe money that you would have had to spend on that, you don't anymore, right? So
01:00:54
Speaker
let's see what he's got. Let's see what he's got. I mean, his dad, D-Ro.
01:00:59
Speaker
D-Ro is about as good an MLS player as i can name, and MLS legend.
01:01:10
Speaker
If Moose has taught us anything, missing sitters equals future four goals in four games. Exactly. Sometimes you have to miss a few sitters in order to make your sitters. That's not a saying, but I just made it one.
01:01:27
Speaker
How about Osaze's story came up the hard way even with his dad? Yeah, if you read J.O.' 's little profile he wrote on him in Sounder at Heart, he talks about that.
01:01:38
Speaker
It wasn't like necessarily a linear path. He's, uh, he's had to fight through a lot of adversity
01:01:46
Speaker
to get to where he's at.
01:01:50
Speaker
And he's a good player.
01:01:55
Speaker
How chill it is, is it that he's going to get some revenge against Portland in the next couple of weeks, put him in the game, put him in the game. I'm so curious to see how this road trip goes just in general.
01:02:09
Speaker
Like,
01:02:12
Speaker
this is such a difficult part of the schedule that ordinarily you go into it and you're kind of, youre like, I would i would ordina ordinarily say that four points, like one, one, and one, if you get out of it but with that, that's honestly pretty good.
01:02:30
Speaker
um But with how the team has been playing the last few weeks, they're in good form.
01:02:35
Speaker
Moose is the hottest non-Brian White number nine in and MLS. And Ryan Kent looked like the greatest player alive against St. Louis.
01:02:46
Speaker
So I'm not saying they're gonna that they should 3-0-0 this road trip. Obviously, that would be ideal. But I guess I'm hoping for 1-0-2. I would take that.
01:03:05
Speaker
I'll take a little one Oh and two and maybe a little two Oh and one.
01:03:14
Speaker
And I think when we're talking about how attainable that, uh, that might be this Houston game is actually pretty big. This is, you got LAFC and Portland coming up on the back to back after this Houston game.
01:03:28
Speaker
If you can pick off this Houston game to start it off,
01:03:33
Speaker
that That checks off one of the biggest, it's like your biggest opportunity
01:03:43
Speaker
to get a win here, I think. LAFC away is always tough.
01:03:49
Speaker
Portland away is obviously always tough. Neither of those teams are at their like apex form. I don't think LAFC really has been so far this year.
01:04:01
Speaker
And the Timbs got really hot for the last few weeks before their last game, but their last game, the San Jose earthquakes destroyed them. So they're, they're a little wounded right now.
01:04:14
Speaker
Maybe more vulnerable than, i than I would have thought. I was, uh, I was and still am, uh, I concerned is the right word, but i was I was thinking that they might just have one of the best offenses in the league, which they might.
01:04:32
Speaker
They might, but watching them get destroyed by the Quakes ah gave me like a little bit of reassurance that, all right, it's still the Timbys. It's still the Timbys. They'll play well for stretches. They'll score a bunch of goals, but they're liable to give up.
01:04:49
Speaker
three or four goals in any given game. Seattle once scored six at Providence Park, famously. And Derby games?
01:05:01
Speaker
It doesn't even, it it really doesn't matter. Like, nothing matters in a Derby game. Everything else goes out the window.
01:05:15
Speaker
If this team is going to be top two in the West, is bare minimum. Yeah, I think 1-0-2 would be my low bar for this. 2-0-1.
01:05:26
Speaker
2-0-1 is what I'm looking for. Let's see if they can do it. See if they can get a little 2-0-1. I mean, if they can do the 3-0-0, that would be sick. But ah just, you know, with the with the knowledge that that is...
01:05:42
Speaker
would be really hard to do. That would be... I mean, if they win all three of these, that would be...
01:05:51
Speaker
a pretty impressive little accomplishment given how fast these games are like how, close how close the turnaround is and all the travel and all that.
01:06:04
Speaker
We've not watched the Craig, ah Craig presser yet, Pat. We're going to get to that. Actually, that was the, that was the next thing that I have coming up. So we're going to hit that in just a, just a minute here.
01:06:17
Speaker
I'm going to hit a couple other questions in chat here first now before we do that. The Rothrock-Kent drama is going to be super fun this season. We're going to talk about that too. ah Good reminder, actually, ah because i had this planned but forgot to put it on my outline.
01:06:34
Speaker
ah We're going to listen to some Paul Rothrock sound. He had a really good interview at training this week where he talked about kind of ah his journey in a way that I hadn't really like his journey from last year to this year that I hadn't really had him heard him talk about in that way before. So, and he talks about like,
01:06:56
Speaker
what impact having a player like Ryan Kent coming in and competing for his minutes can have. So ah we'll we'll get into that. i don't really see it as drama because, i mean, my thing is like, it's fine it's fun to debate, you know, the lineup week to week or what it should look like, who should start, who should be the starter and who should be the backup.
01:07:19
Speaker
But in this league, like, everyone plays. my's We're seeing that this season.
01:07:28
Speaker
just with how physically demanding it is and how many injuries you invariably get. Like Ryan Kent Paul Rothrock will both be getting their minutes
01:07:42
Speaker
without a doubt. um' i'm really I'm really not concerned about ah Ryan Kent, like cutting into Rothrock's role on the team. Rothrock is one of the most important players on the team irrespective of Ryan Kent's presence and with how many games they're playing this year, with how crazy the schedule in this league gets at times, they will both be playing a lot.
01:08:07
Speaker
And the good thing for Rothrock is that he's been playing really well lately. He's been contributing to this ah resurgent run of form that the team has been experiencing in recent weeks.
01:08:20
Speaker
I thought even in the St. Louis game, you know, ah maybe not the end product that we're that we know we know and love from Paul Rothrock, but he won the penalty, and he's really just menace. He's just a menace.
01:08:34
Speaker
he' just a menace
01:08:41
Speaker
Healthy Albert and healthy Jesus, we start Jesus. I mean, i would expect that to be ah to be your take, Reese, but I will say, i mean, Noah and I were talking about it.
01:08:53
Speaker
I really thought that of all the players that Ryan Kent appeared to be a force multiplier for, Roostack was up there. like i thought the way they were playing together looked great.
01:09:07
Speaker
I mean, that was the that was the look for that entire insane second half where they racked up most of their 4.47 XG who was with that look. So I want to see more of that.
01:09:22
Speaker
That was the best chance creation I've seen from a Sanders team in a minute. So whatever they got to do, I don't honestly, I got no got no skin in the game as to who's technically starting.
01:09:38
Speaker
as long as it looks something like what we saw against St. Louis. That's, I just want to see that.
01:09:46
Speaker
I just want to see that.
01:09:51
Speaker
See, it it was all Kent in a way, but what I'm saying is like, what that what that did is it made everyone else better.
01:10:02
Speaker
I don't think that just applies to Rusnag. We talked about it, but... ah
01:10:08
Speaker
I thought Obed looked incredible with Ryan can on the field. but knew who i mean, I don't even I think part of why knew who looked that good was Ryan can't like the way that they were combining. Obviously, Ryan can't got him the assist on the goal, which I mean, I guess that's how good he is.
01:10:24
Speaker
You know, good you have to be at soccer to create a new who goal like that.
01:10:31
Speaker
That was unbelievable.
01:10:37
Speaker
To be honest, I don't see Paul Rothrock being in as much danger as Georgie in terms of Kent coming in. People have literally said Kent is like a more polished Georgie. Yeah, that's ah I think that's a good way of describing it. And also, I mean, I think we've already seen that Georgie's been the one that's ah more affected by it.
01:10:55
Speaker
And I don't really think that's even... ah knock on georgie or how he's played this year i think georgie has looked really good at times this year but uh in theory with ryan kent with what we've seen and just his pedigree that he brings the experience that he has compared to georgie think you're probably looking at like more consistent week-to-week performances than you're getting from georgie at this point and i think rothrock has been a very consistent player as well um but you know georgie got on the field
01:11:30
Speaker
in the St. Louis game. They were already ahead, but I think there will still be minutes for him here and there, but I think if there's anyone that it might affect,
01:11:43
Speaker
it's probably him. All right. Let's ah get to this Craig Weibel interview.
01:11:55
Speaker
This was, I don't know where... It wasn't like at their usual media spot. I think this they just gave them to a few of the people on the beat to talk about Defiant stuff. So i might skip around this a little bit. It's pretty long. i don't know if we need to watch the whole thing.
01:12:14
Speaker
ah But I'm going to play the parts where I'm going to let Craig Weibs riff on Defiance a little bit. And then I thought the real interesting stuff was when he's talking about how they're going to use the U-22. He gives like a little update on how they're thinking about it.
01:12:30
Speaker
So I'm going to pull that up right now.
01:12:36
Speaker
Let me know if you guys can't hear this, but you should be able to. going to play this, and then I'm going to go fill my water up. What is your assessment ah of some of the talent that you witnessed yesterday yesterday from the Tacoma clients?
01:12:49
Speaker
I mean, it was ah it was a great game. I'd say overall we had the better of the chances and probably just didn't reward ourselves with the win. But I'm really proud of quite a few of the guys. I actually don't think anyone underperformed on the field. And we had a couple guys stand out. And I think Snyder Brunel in the middle. That's a big task when you're playing when you're playing against an MLS team. But um several guys. I mean, obviously goal scoring is important. But you go back into the defensive line.
01:13:14
Speaker
And they handled every bit of that and barring a few missed opportunities for the official, you know i think that result could have been different. Kelvin Kelsey is a guy that's probably worth more than most of the guys that were on that field for the Tacoma Define side. And you guys were able to limit it. important is that for you guys? Yeah, i mean, look, they I think they threw out over 400 500 MLS starts and well over you know, 10 to 11 million players dollar players. And so, you know, when when you match that up, I think we look at the competitively, we we take care of ourselves first, right? And so what we were asking of our guys was to go out, stand up, get your shoulders square and treat yourselves the way you deserve to be treated, which is you belong here.
01:13:55
Speaker
And for the most part, you know our body language was fantastic from the whistle. And I think that's what carried us through. The guys went out and they they played the game. they've been playing week in and week out with Defiance. They combined well.
01:14:06
Speaker
Some of the chances last night were absolutely fantastic. you know we We didn't get every finish. Of course, every we want every half chance and full chance to be a goal putt. um you know overall it's it's a 10 out of 10 in terms of performance in terms of players who you this was a particularly big you know we've been talking a lot about you know georgie having the final ball we've been talking about how sause would look when he's going up against mlf talent yep uh you uh tsukunome uh it's kind of the same thing kaito stewart right travion says that yeah i mean reed baker whiting on his first game back like
01:14:42
Speaker
Good, good, good opportunities for these guys. And so developmentally, do you think it would, I mean, is it one of those kind of like a plus, like you just don't really have notes developmentally almost? Well, I mean, you know, from my perspective, I usually walk away from those games with like, oh, this one or two players stood out.
01:14:58
Speaker
You know, last night was really collective. And it was ah it was a phenomenal night in terms of development from a sounder perspective. As I told the coaching staff last night after the game, you can't ask your guys to do more than they did.
01:15:11
Speaker
And so the preparation was obvious. The preparation was clear. The game plan was clear. It was executed very, very well to five or six really, really good scoring chances. So to get to walk away in my position saying, well, usually I have one or two guys that I can focus on and walk away and go that collectively and individually was above standard and quite competitive against that group was, I mean, it's a good day for us.
01:15:40
Speaker
All right, let me see if I can, i I forgot to take the timestamp on this, so I'm just gonna look for a sec, hold on. If there was a need to sign somebody from the Defiance side, how much would that affect what you're looking into bringing in in the summer window or with that 10 day period? None, no. no I mean, you know, players that are with Defiance on Defiance contracts,
01:16:04
Speaker
like Even if they're signed, there has to be a continued pathway of development. it's not a It's not a clean jump from MLS Next Pro to MLS. it it is a It is still a process to get there.
01:16:16
Speaker
And so even when we sign players, that it comes with a... an elongated process and plan. we' seen You see it right now Stuart Hawkins. He was very good last night against that Portland team.
01:16:28
Speaker
That was his first time playing against top-level pros in an actual match as opposed to and MLS Next Pro where there's some, not all. If you're on the road, it's different than you if you're at home and and all that good stuff. So it all comes with a plan, but it yeah won't impact any of the senior roster decisions.
01:16:43
Speaker
And you know Yamada is an interesting situation because he's here on loan. he's on He's owned by a first division team what' How would you assess or how would you describe the way you're looking at him specifically? Is he just here to get minutes or is there a pathway? I mean, is that complicated? i don't know. How would you describe that?
01:17:05
Speaker
What I would say is there there aren't very many guys on the Defiance roster that are just here for minutes or to fill. The guys that are know they are because we've told them, and they've accepted that role.
01:17:16
Speaker
He is a player that we're evaluating. We have him on loan for a reason because we rated him before he got here, and he's done very, very well. So we'll continue to evaluate. It's early in the year, but he's been impressive so far.
01:17:29
Speaker
And I would feel a little remiss if we didn't ask, like, what how would you describe the – the status of the pursuit of a u twenty two It's challenging. You know, one of the things I've learned that's been humbling over the last three months is we're a really good league.
01:17:46
Speaker
And so, One of the biggest challenges is finding a 21 year old that can come in and impact our team and and actually play. So not just go spend money to spend money and do an interview with you guys in a month where I'm explaining why that player isn't playing at all, but to go get a player that can contribute.
01:18:03
Speaker
And what we're finding is the level of our league it it commands a very significant spend in order to attract the type of player. And but we're also finding is a lot of the players that that have the ability to come MLS now and contribute immediately,
01:18:19
Speaker
are choosing top five leagues because <unk> not that we're not that far behind. We're probably at nine, 10, 11 in the world league now. And so big separation between us and the top five, six in terms of finances and and prestige.
01:18:34
Speaker
But it's a big challenge, but we're in a lot of conversations.
Challenges of U22 Signings in MLS
01:18:38
Speaker
you know we've we've approached 12 13 14 guys and sometimes it comes down to the money you know we do have restrictions with our u22 rules in mls sometimes it comes down to earnings sometimes it's transfer fees and sometimes it's personal choice but um we've been in a lot of fun conversations i will tell you that because we're not getting in conversations with players that we don't think can contribute we're not really interested in signing a reserve i've said it before and you know we're I'm very much lacking interest in spending money on a player that's going to sit and watch games.
01:19:10
Speaker
When you look at the roster, Bill, do you feel like there is a position like, let's say, striker that is definitely going to be where you're going to be hitting that U22? Or is there still conversations about where going to use that U22? Yeah.
01:19:22
Speaker
yeah i' i Look, I'd say there's a goal and then there's a reality, right? So anytime you're going to go pick up a player, you're going to target the positions that are naturally the most important on the field. And so that's where we've been focusing a lot of our energy.
01:19:37
Speaker
But in fairness to a couple guys here, they're making us reevaluate that strategy because Guys like Danny Mussovsky are making this make it a second second guess whether or not that's something we need and fair play to him.
01:19:51
Speaker
you know So it it freezes up to go look at some other players and in some significant positions as well. And we can't have you here without asking you ah about Ryan Kent. I mean you were able to turn a bad situation into what could look like a X-Factor player and a game-changing player here.
01:20:07
Speaker
you know First of all, how proud are you of that? And what have you seen out of Ryan Kent for now and for the potential future? Yeah, part of the group, you know, I don't do any of this on my own. It's far from it.
01:20:18
Speaker
So, you know, the conversations that Shawn Henderson was able to have with Ryan Kent, you know, Andy Rose introducing us to Ryan Kent directly because they had a ah little bit of overlap in their careers.
01:20:29
Speaker
It all adds up. But um credit to Ryan for stepping out of his comfort zone and and coming here and fitting in. And to be fair, Everywhere in the world, great players show up, and not everywhere in the world do they then perform.
01:20:45
Speaker
It has a lot to do with locker rooms. It has a lot to do with coaches. It has a lot to do with tactics, but mostly it has to do with the individual and how they fit and whether or not they're happy. So from the looks of it, Ryan's happy, and that's the goal.
01:21:00
Speaker
All right, that was Craig Wipes covering a lot of ground there. talking about Tacoma defiance and Ryan Kent there at the end.
01:21:14
Speaker
But what I wanted to talk about was what he the update he gave on the U22 search. I mean, so he reiterated what he's been saying, which is that ah whatever player that we land on to fill this spot, it's not the idea is not for it to be a developmental spot.
01:21:34
Speaker
It's for someone, we need someone that can contribute, that's going to play, elevate the level of the group, which is ah is a challenge. And he was talking about how it's challenged getting a player like that to come to MLS compared to other leagues. It's a player that's that young with the type of upside to contribute like he's talking about. It's hard to convince those players to come to and MLS.
01:22:00
Speaker
LAFC, what they did with ah Davi Martinez is a good example of some of that is very difficult to do. And even David Martinez, for as good as he is and the upside that he's showed, he's not... I don't know how consistent he's been as far as like really week in, week out, helping carry the full load for that team. I mean, he's had some incredible moments. He's clearly...
01:22:25
Speaker
ah of this mold. I think he's the most talented. We saw it when the, when the Sounders played LAFC and he ran down half the damn field through every single Seattle player that was in his path. And he scored a goal.
01:22:37
Speaker
That was one of the sickest goals I've seen in MLS this season. And that was by a, by a 19 year old. um But the trick is you got to find a player of that profile
01:22:51
Speaker
of that age and then convince them to come here. So that's what they're trying to do right now. But what I did think was interesting ah is that he said that they've been involved in a lot of fun conversations.
01:23:03
Speaker
So that means they're on the hunt. And if he's calling it a fun conversation, then i think that that means that they at least are thinking that these guys that they are scouting up and talking to, they've they've talked to guys that they think, all right, if we actually could convince this guy to come here, we think he could contribute.
01:23:27
Speaker
So what i want what I want to do ah do with this is, i was this kind of got me thinking like about just the general hit rate of U22s since this mechanism has been introduced to the league.
01:23:42
Speaker
How difficult is it, or not difficult, for teams to find players like this, get them to the league, and have them Move the needle.
01:23:55
Speaker
Contribute week in, week out. And luckily, MLSsoccer.com has a list of every U22 that I'm about to share right now.
01:24:09
Speaker
So what I wanted to do is look at this list and, uh, I already looked at it a little bit, but, uh, but with you guys, wanted to go through this league, uh, this list and, uh, see how many of these guys are actual impact players or even look like they can be impact players.
01:24:30
Speaker
You see the picture right here, Diego Luna, that's, uh,
01:24:35
Speaker
That's an example of, I mean, he is carrying the load for Real Salt Lake. ah But I'll tell you guys, I went into this little exercise thinking that the hit rate was going to be extremely low.
01:24:51
Speaker
Because if you think about it, ah players coming to this league from overseas, like
01:24:59
Speaker
it's kind of a crapshoot anyway. And then when you take players of this profile who have less and less experience, it see it would stand to reason that the hit rate would be inherently lower, right?
01:25:12
Speaker
That's how I was thinking of it. um But I will say, before we look at these names, on on first glimpse at it, i actually ah i was actually like, okay, there are actually more guys on here that I would have thought that have been good.
01:25:29
Speaker
that have actually meaningfully contributed and in some cases moved the needle a lot. So ah let's take a look without further ado. Let's see, can I zoom in on this?
01:25:40
Speaker
Oh my god. It still won't let me zoom. All right, you so you guys going to be able to see this that well. um
01:25:53
Speaker
OK, there, that's a little better. That's a little better. Can you guys see that?
01:25:59
Speaker
Maybe I can get it a little even more. There we Okay. Okay. So that's how you do it. Good to know. See, I'm learning the tech here. I'm learning the tech here. All right. Yeah, the control plus, ah it like doesn't let you do it anymore.
01:26:15
Speaker
Okay. So let's start with ah Atlanta United. I don't know if ah this list is like fully up to date of all guys that are on every roster right now, but it's most of the guys that have been signed under this mechanism since it got put in place.
01:26:33
Speaker
So you got Atlanta United with Edwin Muscara. Not that good.
01:26:40
Speaker
I would say that that's been a miss for them so far.
01:26:44
Speaker
Austin FC, Dubersar Sarkski, not good. Don't, I mean, barely know barely know who that is.
01:26:57
Speaker
Charlotte FC, you've got Petkovic, Toklamati, who I barely know who those guys are. And then you've got Kerwin Vargas, who's been solid. That's actually a solid one. Chicago Fire, Barroso, who looks okay, not amazing.
01:27:14
Speaker
Gutierrez, that's a little different because he's homegrown for them. So that's another way to do it. Like Seattle could use this on Obed. That's been talked about. ah But that's not, I'm kind of thinking of this. I was kind of thinking of this as more guys who came from outside the league.
01:27:30
Speaker
That's kind of what I was more interested in because I think that's what ah Seattle would be looking to do.
01:27:38
Speaker
I don't know who this last guy is.
01:27:43
Speaker
Flores, I think has been solid for FC Cincinnati. So like just these first few teams, I'm looking at it and I was like, this is sort of what I thought. Like,
01:27:56
Speaker
This looks really hard to actually find an impact player. You keep going down the list and you've got 10 CO in there for the Rapids. Now who he's playing well. I think that was a good get for them, but that's more intralig and Cole Bassett's also a homegrown.
01:28:12
Speaker
None of these Rapids guys really fit in the criteria that I was looking at. The crew don't have any. So that's what that's one approach. Then you're getting into your layout shoes.
01:28:26
Speaker
Patrickson, Delgado, Giovanni Jesus.
01:28:32
Speaker
These last two guys. Uh, I don't think that's a very amazing group for FC Dallas. Leo Chu was, uh, considered, i think considered more of a bust than he deserved in, in Seattle.
01:28:48
Speaker
I maintain that he wasn't like a total bust, but he definitely never hit the, uh,
01:28:56
Speaker
upside that the sounders were hoping when they uh when they signed him and i think the leo chu example is kind of uh that kind of shows how difficult it can be you know like he that that was a play leo chu had some pedigree coming from brazil he was considered a distressed asset but like ah That was one where when they did it, I was like, okay, i I can see why they would think that this is a good use of this spot. And he had some good moments. He
01:29:28
Speaker
has 21, 22 goal contributions for his MLS career. So he's not like a total zero, but definitely didn't pop a pop. These DC United guys, not that good.
01:29:43
Speaker
uh the dynamo group is a little better jack mcglynn's sort of tbd if that pops the way they hope it's gonna pop uh that could really work but i don't think you can say that it has yet and nolly hasn't popped yet uh i don't think all you has popped yet queen onus is pretty good i think but not uh not a mega hit
01:30:07
Speaker
So going down the list, like this, this whole like first part of it was kind of reaffirming my priors. And it was honestly making me feel like, man, I just don't know how much, like how likely it really is that Seattle is going to,
01:30:28
Speaker
find someone who's like a real impact player with this spot which is what craig wives that's his stated goal it's not a developmental spot where you give him a year or two he wants whoever it is to be able to slide in and play right now ah so a few of these guys that we've looked at um are definitely getting minutes and contributing are they like stars though are they carry the load players they're not not that many that we've looked at so far uh the skc duo not, uh, not super popping the galaxy group. Uh, okay. So this Julian out day guy, he's really good.
01:31:11
Speaker
And they also are the ones that got the, the crown jewel of this mechanism, which I think is day on your village. So day on your village is the one that everyone points to have like, Oh yeah, see, you can, uh, you can use this mechanism to get,
01:31:27
Speaker
a carry the load type striker. That, would that, that is the outlier though. Like Jovo, which is the outlier. i think he's the only striker at least that I could think of, which everyone is saying Seattle's got to use this on a striker.
01:31:41
Speaker
Like I, I said that at one point, Nico has said that, but going through this list, like Jovo, which is the only one that I could think of.
01:31:54
Speaker
That's like, really popped the way that they wanted him to pop. But then you go down and it gets, it starts to get better here. I mean, Davi Martinez was a, that like, if you can pull something like that, that's what you want to do with these spots. I think is a player like that, who
01:32:16
Speaker
has the combination of pedigree and and upside that, I mean, they're going to sell him for an incredible bag.
01:32:27
Speaker
So any player of that mold, it's just, i't I don't, I, that would, that's an impressive one from LAFC that they pulled that off because Davi Martinez is like, he was on the ah radar of like Bayern Munich and clubs like that.
01:32:45
Speaker
And they got, they convinced him. I don't know how they did it. They convinced him to go to LAFC. um But again, like I said, if you ask an LAFC fan, if he's truly been a needle mover for them,
01:32:56
Speaker
I don't think they would say that he has. He's had some unbelievable individual plays, but and as far as his total body of work, I mean, he's 19. So that's like the situation that you get with players like this. Sometimes inter Miami, he's got a really good group here. Avila's excellent. Redondo, one of the most highly rated prospects coming out of Argentina when they got him. And Segovia has looked ah pretty awesome at moments for them so far this year. Although,
01:33:25
Speaker
It seems like, don't know, I was reading on Reddit that some of their fans might not like Segovia and Allende as much as I did when I first watched them play this year. But either way, like this, this Inter-Miami group, and but like this is the thing.
01:33:38
Speaker
Inter-Miami was able to, and they did it with Diego Gomez too. And they, Inter-Miami has been cooking with this like as much as anybody. ah But like, It makes it a lot easier when you are able to say, hey, come to our club to develop, and you get to play with Lionel Messi and the Barca boys.
01:33:57
Speaker
I think if you look at the success they've had with this mechanism, it's a lot to do with that. like how they were able to leverage Messi and the Barca boys to get just so many of these elite prospects on their roster.
01:34:11
Speaker
um So if you can figure out a way to ah assemble a group like they have without Messi and the Barca boys, i don't know. When I look at their group, I think it's the best all-around work that has been done when you ah throw in Diego Gomez and a couple of the other guys.
01:34:34
Speaker
ah This Minnesota United group, a not that impressive.
01:34:44
Speaker
CF Montreal, George Campbell, I didn't even know he was – I forgot he was still in the league. that's See, that's not a that is not a good use of that spot. That's someone who had up who sought to have upside in like 2021.
01:34:57
Speaker
two thousand and twenty one
01:35:01
Speaker
but what are the real odds George Campbell is going to be a week in, week out, impact player? Jalen Neal, I like that move, but it hasn't really worked out for them this year.
01:35:16
Speaker
Nashville, this Kossam guy, Ahmed Kossam, has been playing for them.
01:35:24
Speaker
He looks like he could be good, but it hasn't popped yet. Not sure about these revs or Red Bulls guys other than okay Noah Elay for the Red Bulls. He's been really good. He's like what CF Montreal would want George Campbell to be I think.
01:35:40
Speaker
um So that's it. That's a good example of using it to get a really good defender. NYCFC is another team that is really good at this. I think if if I was to to
01:35:54
Speaker
look at the clubs that I want Seattle to emulate with their use of this mechanism going forward, inter Miami and YCFC and LAFC are the ones that stand out. And then obviously,
01:36:07
Speaker
Joblich. I looked at, Pat, I looked at the list very briefly. So my early take on it was going off just like first gut reaction.
01:36:18
Speaker
um But yeah, it's not, it's, it's actually, I'm kind of going through it with you guys right now. I'm kind of getting back to feeling like, man, it might be pretty hard.
01:36:30
Speaker
the degree of difficulty you're threading on, ah on a signing like this feels pretty high, but like Fernandez, uh, uh, Mia Tovich, Oh, Heyda. And there's been a couple others in the last couple of years for NYC FC, where they actually get these guys and they come in and help carry the load score goals, move the needle.
01:36:54
Speaker
They've been pretty good at it. Uh, Ramiro, Enrique Rodriguez for Orlando city.
01:37:01
Speaker
Enrique is pretty good. Quinn Sullivan, homegrown for the union. oh okay. there I think so here. Here's a lot of them that where I think started to look better. The Timbs have done well with this.
01:37:14
Speaker
They have.
01:37:16
Speaker
This is, this is an impressive group. Anthony has been playing pretty lights out for them this year. Ayala has been really good.
01:37:26
Speaker
Santi Moreno. Is he still on their team? Yeah, he is. Santi Moreno, I'm not sure if he's having as good a year this year, but he is a very good, he's been a very good signing for them, at least production-wise.
01:37:39
Speaker
And then Kevin Kelsey, you know, yeah got pocketed by Stu Hawks, but that's a $10 million dollars type player. So the Timbys have done good work with this. That's one of those ones where I look at it and I'm like, okay, like maybe ah if you play your cards right, you actually can, you actually can cook with this.
01:37:58
Speaker
obviously Diego Luna is one of the highlights of this so far. And he's, he had an interesting path cause he came up through USL before he went to um RSL. So that's a little of a unique situation.
01:38:16
Speaker
I would say that's not one where I really look at it and I'm like, okay, Seattle can emulate that. And then you got San Diego FC and,
01:38:26
Speaker
uh with tomas on hell and bruce set none for the quakes none for the sounders
01:38:36
Speaker
and then ah not really sure about st louis and toronto but then you get down to the caps uh and the caps have probably the best duo pure duo on this list ocampo excellent been really good, been contributing to their Champions Cup run.
01:38:57
Speaker
And Pedro Vitae is not just the best player on this list. He is a top, like, three to five player in MLS right now. So that shows that it can be done. Shows that it can be done.
01:39:11
Speaker
I don't know. What do you guys think? After seeing that list and hearing some of those names, are you feeling...
01:39:19
Speaker
Better worse about the – I guess, ah you know, I feel like going through it made me a little less confident. But then you do look at some of the individual names. If you think about Jovolic, Ocampo, Vite, the guys that the Timbys have, Antony, a player like that, it can be done.
01:39:45
Speaker
it a The degree of difficulty on it is really high for a lot of the variables that we heard Craig Wibes mention. And just the notion of getting week in, week out, big time contributions from players of that age doesn't happen as as much.
01:40:10
Speaker
Hit rate's lower in those situations. but there were names on that list. There were names on that list that really did pop inter Miami, Portland, Timbs, New York city, FC. You got Diego Luna, you got day on your village.
01:40:31
Speaker
Ocomp and Vitae for the white caps. That's almost 10 names right there of all like impact players.
01:40:41
Speaker
So I think it's basically a long way of saying that I've come back around to my original take, which is that it is hard. The degree of difficulty is high. um But if you play your cards right, you scout it up right, you find the right guy that fits into your system, your culture and everything.
01:41:01
Speaker
You can cook with this.
01:41:06
Speaker
You can cook with this.
01:41:11
Speaker
Let's see what Craig Wibes has got here. This will be a good little, there's been a lot of Craig Wibes discourse this season. lot of critiques, a lot of criticisms.
01:41:24
Speaker
if he ah If he hits on this one,
01:41:30
Speaker
ah that would that would be, there would be a lot of ah lot of narratives that he could undermine.
01:41:38
Speaker
I'm on record as a saying that I feel like the Wibes discourse got way too hot.
01:41:46
Speaker
It still does get way too hot sometimes. feel like a you could definitely argue his tenure has been a mixed bag, but it definitely hasn't been like a disaster.
01:41:59
Speaker
And it's also, i think the main thing I've been saying about it is it's a lot of it is TBD. There was a long period of time where he hadn't really got to make his mark yet. And we justin we're just now with De La Vega finally playing with stuff like the Ryan Kent thing happening.
01:42:19
Speaker
with Moose now with more time on the team starting to play like they hoped he was going to play. there's like these This is an ongoing evaluation. It's an ongoing evaluation.
01:42:30
Speaker
ah But what he does with this slot will be a big ah determining factor.
01:42:39
Speaker
Seattle was not able to get out of Leo Chu what they hoped they were with that attempt.
01:42:49
Speaker
But maybe this time they have a better idea of what they're what they're looking for.
01:42:57
Speaker
I'll have to ah compile a little list of all of the Craig Wibes moves. Maybe do another little exercise where go through that and talks about talk about the hits and misses.
01:43:14
Speaker
He is a distressed asset merchant because Hanauer's broke. Okay. He's broke.
01:43:23
Speaker
So you got money ball that. And it seems like he actually did with, uh, with Moose. The Moose signing is the Moose signing was like a big, uh, talking point with the, anti wives crowd.
01:43:39
Speaker
That was like the bit we, we could have filled the backup nine spot with someone way back, but now Moose is actually on fire. So, uh, that's why you, uh,
01:43:49
Speaker
I know people don't like being told to ah to wait to make definitive and conclusions, but that's why, because like stuff can change, right? ah I'm going to talk about this in a bit, but like we're seeing it happen with Ferreira right now, where people are already calling it a bust, which I don't think I would characterize it as such anyway, but it's also there's so much of the season left.
01:44:16
Speaker
There's so many games for the story to change. If he gets to the end of the season and he goose eggs on goals,
01:44:26
Speaker
then yeah, but like we haven't, that hasn't happened yet. There's still two thirds of the season to go.
01:44:35
Speaker
think people were understandably unexcited by Wybe's signings until recently, and I'm excited for it, but Chu, Hebert, De La Vega now starting to cook. Oh yeah, Hebert, Hebert was in, I think, so that was a,
01:44:50
Speaker
That was part of the Wibes consternation was that
01:44:57
Speaker
the Hebert signing directly into the Moose signing and then having it like ah be the exact same scenario where it was like the guys getting in the good spots but not finishing the chances type narrative.
01:45:09
Speaker
So that was part of it. So... Among the many reasons why I'm happy to see Moose doing what he's doing. It's more that he's helping the team score every week.
01:45:23
Speaker
but he But he's breaking the curse of Hebert.
01:45:28
Speaker
He's breaking the curse of Hebert.
01:45:34
Speaker
People talk about GM versus coach versus players, but honestly, GM versus ownership is such an important consideration. It's probably the biggest consideration.
01:45:44
Speaker
Probably the biggest consideration.
01:45:50
Speaker
But being a good owner isn't all about dropping bags.
01:45:59
Speaker
Hanauer's broke and he ah and he's won two MLS Cups in Concaf Champions League, four U.S. Open Cups, been to two more MLS Cups.
01:46:12
Speaker
Won the West a couple times. I mean, that's a pretty good track record for a broke guy.
01:46:18
Speaker
It's really more, makes it more impressive when you think about it like that.
01:46:32
Speaker
What else did I have to get to tonight coming up on two hours if you guys ah got any questions or topics related to the Seattle Sounders major league soccer or anything else. Feel free to drop them in chat probably start wrapping it up relatively soon here but good to hang around for a few more minutes if you got everything that ah or anything that you want want to hit before we get out of here, I did have one more topic that ah and I'm going to get to.
01:46:59
Speaker
Pretty surprised, to be honest, that Moose makes the team look quite good, even regardless if he's scoring or not right now anyways. He comes off and we struggled. Didn't expect or appreciate him. He's... A lot of the good stuff that Moose is doing right now is outside of just the goal scoring, which I would say is actually ah always been the case, to be fair.
01:47:22
Speaker
It's just no one... didn't mean anything to anybody because he wasn't finishing the chances he was getting into, but like ah part of the benefit of a striker like Moose is what he provides and like all the other aspects of the game. I think he's a pretty good hold-up player.
01:47:40
Speaker
it see It just seems like... the offense and the chance generation just by the eye test at least, and by the underlying numbers, a lot of the times as well, both for most, most individually and the team, uh, look good with him on the field. The goals just weren't coming with it. So, uh,
01:47:58
Speaker
that is That is why he was not getting credit for it up until now. So that's another reason why I'm happy about it is because he's getting the credit for that other stuff that he's doing to help the team because he's also a man possessed and banging in goals like there's no tomorrow.
01:48:19
Speaker
Joel, can you send me the list of who's expiring? I don't know that like fully off the top of my head. If you hit me with the names, I can answer that.
01:48:29
Speaker
How did Craig pull off Ryan? Like even distressed, this was an insane pickup. I think a lot of it, and I think he would even tell you this, is like fortuitous circumstances.
01:48:42
Speaker
Like,
01:48:45
Speaker
It's kind of just the stars aligning where you had this player who ah was out of favor with his current club, but has a lot of pedigree, was a a was a very good player in the Scottish Premiership. I think Michael McCall earlier was underselling it a little bit.
01:49:01
Speaker
Like, well, I shouldn't say that because he actually watches that league and I don't. But like from what I read about it, he was considered like a pretty electric player in in for Rangers.
01:49:13
Speaker
Like the stuff weve we saw him do against St. Louis, like he was getting their bums off seats like that. He was. So you're usually like not going to see a player like that. fall out of favor at the exact time that you need a player of that profile. But that also has a connection to one of your coaches. Andy Rose played with him briefly, I think at Coventry city.
01:49:37
Speaker
So he had the interpersonal connect on it as well.
01:49:44
Speaker
And then the timing of it, he's just, he's looking for a new team falling out of favor at a fender Bocci.
01:49:54
Speaker
So I think Andy Rose was a huge part of it. I think we got to credit him for a lot of it. Uh, but then, really, I think you got to credit Craig wives too. Cause he, he made it happen.
01:50:07
Speaker
They had the opportunity, the connection with this guy, but you still got to go out and, uh, close the deal. You got to sell your organization, sell your locker room, sell your team for, for a player like that to want to come here.
01:50:23
Speaker
And I think Ryan Kent's kind of looking at as an opportunity to rejuvenate his career. But I think you, he's talked about this a little bit, just like having fun playing the game again. Didn't he look like he was having the goddamn time of his life in that St. Louis game? The guy was ah vibe and a half.
01:50:39
Speaker
mean, think about it. He has not been playing a lot in the last couple years.
01:50:44
Speaker
There was a falling out at his previous club. Doesn't sound like he was happy there. Doesn't sound like he was having fun.
01:50:54
Speaker
The talent is evident. It's not really about that. It's about like,
01:51:00
Speaker
and getting him an opportunity where he can showcase that. So good on Craig Wives, good on the, uh, on the club brass for making it happen.
01:51:11
Speaker
We'll see how it ultimately pans out. I do. I think that he's going to dominate every single team that they play every single week, uh, like he did against St. Louis. No, but if that's even like somewhat indicative of his level, they added, uh,
01:51:30
Speaker
they might've added like one of the best players that we've seen come through this team. I really, I said it on the, uh, on the dub pod and I don't think it was an emotional take. Like I left the stadium that night of the St. Louis game.
01:51:44
Speaker
And, uh,
01:51:48
Speaker
like I don't know if I've ever seen a Sounders player like do stuff quite like that. J.O. ah comped him to Dempsey in terms of the like kind of flair and swagger that he plays with.
01:52:05
Speaker
And I think that is the closest comp. But it's like if Dempsey was just an absolutely... Electric presence from out wide as well You know The same sauce and creativity I think the sauce and creativity Are very comparable But uh Deuce was like a You know he was a more central Player right More direct he wasn't gonna like Cut in and like cook these guys From out wide like Ryan Kent was doing
01:52:39
Speaker
that that like That dummy he did at midfield, I know I've talked about it on every so show since it happened, but it was so good.
01:52:53
Speaker
Seems humble. Yeah.
01:52:57
Speaker
he seems He seems humble. He seems bought in. He said it was the easiest time he's ever had fitting into a new locker room. So I think that stuff like that, it's actually, it matters. It's a credit to like the culture that exists.
01:53:11
Speaker
The vibes, right? That stuff matters.
01:53:17
Speaker
Here's a good one. Who's the better GM? Craig Weibel at Seattle or Garth Loggerway at Atlanta?
Management Strategies: Seattle vs. Atlanta
01:53:22
Speaker
I mean, here Okay, here's something that, ah and I've been talking about Atlanta United a lot, and I haven't really acknowledged this as much, but Garth's job at Atlanta, and probably a reason that he's not on the hot seat at all. I think Ronnie Dial is on the hot seat, but I don't think Garth is.
01:53:43
Speaker
Garth's job for Atlanta, what he was hired to do, goes so far beyond Atlanta. like roster construction. He's, he's not the, uh, the GM or sporting director really. It's that's Chris Henderson.
01:53:55
Speaker
He's more of like a CEO type. He does like business stuff when they're building new facilities or renovating stuff that, that he's doing stuff like that.
01:54:07
Speaker
His role is so much... ah He definitely has ah input in personnel. like Don't get me wrong. I'm sure he's involved in all their scouting and talent acquisition and all that.
01:54:17
Speaker
And he definitely... if they If they stay this bad, he's going to get a lot of criticism for it. But like it's just... like He and Craig Wibes have way different roles within their respective organizations.
01:54:34
Speaker
um However... Seattle has stayed pretty good since Garth left, and Atlanta United hasn't gotten any better since he got there.
01:54:45
Speaker
I'm not saying that ah I know if that means anything, but it is true if you're just talking about on-field results. so
01:55:01
Speaker
Yeah, so Craig Wives versus Chris Henderson would be a better comp. I don't know. I feel like it's a little Hendo did get there pretty recently.
01:55:11
Speaker
I don't want to, uh,
01:55:16
Speaker
blame something on him that I, I honestly, I don't follow them close enough to have any idea really like what his hit rate has been like. All I know is that that team is bad.
01:55:27
Speaker
Like they're not just losing games. They've been non-competitive in a couple of their last few games. Uh, when we talk about stuff like culture and vibes, theirs are way off right now.
01:55:43
Speaker
The players don't seem to fit together on the field. They look like they've never played with each other, but it just seems like there's some toxicity flying around. There's, they got guys fighting at practice.
01:55:55
Speaker
I don't know.
01:55:59
Speaker
I don't know, but that's why, uh,
01:56:05
Speaker
That's why stuff that we're talking about, like how they were able to sell Ryan Kent on the culture of the organization on the locker room makes talent acquisition so much easier when you have that to fall back on. And you also, yeah you can you can look point to the trophy case.
01:56:26
Speaker
You bring a player to Long Acres and you say, look at that. See that?
01:56:32
Speaker
That could be you putting those in there. That's what we do here. We put those, see that case with all the shiny metal objects in it? We put those in that case here.
01:56:44
Speaker
If you come here, we're going to put in some more.
01:56:51
Speaker
I don't know if they pitch it exactly like that. That's how I would pitch it. would just point at the case.
01:56:58
Speaker
Come here.
01:57:01
Speaker
You're some of those.
01:57:05
Speaker
How does a team that knocked Miami out of the playoffs make moves this year, $30 million dollars of moves, and drop all the way off?
01:57:15
Speaker
Your guess is as good as mine.
01:57:19
Speaker
I got no idea.
01:57:23
Speaker
Did Kent come here because of Long Acres? I don't think it was because of Long Acres specifically, but I do think having a state-of-the-art facility like that, it definitely doesn't hurt.
01:57:38
Speaker
I don't know if Starfire was like actively detrimental to their talent acquisition, but I don't think it was like a selling point. It can't have been. a lot of you have been out there.
01:57:50
Speaker
no shade at starfire had some great times there, but it's not, uh, it's not state of the art.
01:57:59
Speaker
It's not state of the art.
01:58:02
Speaker
So they had to upgrade that. Um, but I do think like, uh, think there's something to what you're saying in terms of like a guy like Ryan Kent.
01:58:13
Speaker
If you show him long acres, It's like it speaks to credibility. I think it actually it honestly does it makes a difference.
01:58:24
Speaker
Any player would look at that and be like, Alright, well, a baseline, I've got an awesome state of the art facility.
01:58:32
Speaker
The great locker room. And a packed trophy case.
01:58:42
Speaker
Atlanta got lucky with their coach and previously unknown players their first two years. With that success, they all think that is just expected and will always be, but they have done nothing to retain it. Couldn't have said it any better.
01:58:53
Speaker
thatla That's my exact Atlanta United take. And I think the further we we get removed from it, it really seems like ah
01:59:05
Speaker
it was lightning in a bottle early on.
01:59:10
Speaker
they haven't been able to recapture it. It's just, I don't know. I know I talk about it every week, but it's just wild. like
01:59:16
Speaker
Like, even their even their last game, they ah dude it they drew Nashville 1-1. It might have been there their worst performance out of their last three games, which the previous two, they lost back-to-back.
01:59:30
Speaker
But they literally, I'll fill you guys in because I watch it Atlanta United for schadenfreude.
01:59:38
Speaker
they They scored a goal. They scored a goal. They got ahead. It was 1-0. Almiron scored it, which that's like, you know, they need that to happen more. Almiron scored a goal. They're ahead 1-0.
01:59:50
Speaker
And then they bunkered. Like, I kid you not, they literally bunkered the rest of the game for like 70 minutes or something. Nashville SC looked like the home team.
02:00:03
Speaker
Absolutely. Like, for the entire rest of that game.
02:00:09
Speaker
And of course tied at 1-1, but really should have won.
02:00:14
Speaker
They really should have beat Atlanta at home, like at a Mercedes-Benz, at the Benz.
02:00:24
Speaker
I'm telling you, man, if you guys think that ah
02:00:28
Speaker
things were tough at the beginning out here in Seattle, they were.
02:00:36
Speaker
But it could always be worse.
02:00:42
Speaker
Because they spent $30-plus million. $30 million. They still look like that.
02:00:59
Speaker
Feel like ah every expansion club has a first season or two. Good luck. Yeah, sometimes. ah But it can also go the other way. I mean, remember FC Cincinnati and Minnesota United?
02:01:11
Speaker
That's what you don't want to have. It seems like San Diego has done a good job of avoiding that fate.
02:01:21
Speaker
St. Louis 3.0 will handle St. Louis' high press. it is just it is funny how that stuff ages sometimes.
02:01:32
Speaker
Um, all right. Last topic I had for the night and then I'll start wrapping it up. Uh, I was, I just wanted to address some of the, uh, Ferreira discourse because we had more than one person,
02:01:48
Speaker
crashing out about how Ferreira is a bust in our comments oh when he wasn't even playing. he's He was hurt this last game and didn't even play. So I don't even know why that popped off like that.
02:02:01
Speaker
um Maybe that's part of why I'm like, oh, this guy, now he's injured. ah But people were Noah and I a hard time. i think think with the Ferreira thing, we were proponents of the trade the whole time. As soon as I saw that it was happening, I was like, hell yeah, I love that move.
02:02:21
Speaker
think that's a great trade. um Happy to have him on the team. I think he's going to bring a lot to the team. Spoke highly of the trade. ah So now that it's been a mixed bag, people are like, yeah you see, you were wrong.
02:02:39
Speaker
You guys were wrong. You misled us. You said it was a good trade and it's already a terrible trade. and Look.
Debating Jesus Ferreira's Role and Contributions
02:02:47
Speaker
Okay. here's what i'll Here's what I'll say about this.
02:02:52
Speaker
Some of you, some of you just need to get a grip. on this topic. We had one guy talking about how, uh, Ryan Kent has two assists in 58 minutes.
02:03:06
Speaker
Jesus Ferreira has three assists in 600 minutes. Uh, therefore Ferreira is a bust. Um, which first of all, I think Ryan can't getting, yeah I wouldn't compare him to Ryan Kent. Ryan Kent is apparently just him.
02:03:20
Speaker
Okay. It's very, very, very rare for a player to come into a new team like that and look that good that fast. That is the exception. That is the exception.
02:03:33
Speaker
ah But the person in question was saying, you need can you bring me point to me stats that show that Ferreira hasn't been a bust? And he said that like it was a dunk, like I wasn't going to be able to do it.
02:03:46
Speaker
He said, show me the numbers. Show me the numbers. Explain it to me. You know how when you know that you're right about something, so you hit the other person with the explain to me how this because you know they can't. That's what he was trying to do.
02:04:01
Speaker
He was trying to get me with a show me stats that show he's not a bust. Show me the stats, okay? First of all, he doesn't have three assists.
02:04:12
Speaker
He has five assists. MLS counts secondary assists. You all know my take on that.
02:04:21
Speaker
i I think that secondary assists are entirely valid. But even if you don't, regardless of what you think of the validity of putting a secondary assist on the stat sheet, MLS counts them. A lot of leagues don't.
02:04:33
Speaker
but Whatever your opinion on that is, when I look at it, a secondary assist is an example of a play where he was involved in a sequence that led to a goal.
02:04:48
Speaker
So regardless of the stat sheet, it's a positive moment. It's a good moment. his secondary assist in whatever game that was where I think the Colorado, the Colorado game where he played KKR in and KKR got the primary.
02:05:05
Speaker
That's a great pass. That's a good moment. It's a good moment for the guy. You have to, I can acknowledge both things. Okay. I can acknowledge a game like a St. Louis away or San Diego away.
02:05:23
Speaker
where he didn't look good. It didn't look like it was, didn't look like it was meshing. It was off. Wasn't there.
02:05:32
Speaker
But I can also look at a game like the Nashville game where he had two primary assists and be like, that looked good.
02:05:43
Speaker
I thought he was really good in that game, not just with the assists, but just overall. I thought he, I thought he looked sharp. I thought he was dangerous. I thought he was combining with everyone a lot better. I thought he looked a lot better getting that role to himself.
02:06:00
Speaker
Where, I mean, we've talked a lot about how Ferreira and Rusnak haven't like popped together so far. i thought I thought the Nashville game, he looked a lot better in that position. He got on the stat sheet twice.
02:06:15
Speaker
And he looked dangerous the whole game. So there was that game.
02:06:20
Speaker
thought his secondary assist in the Colorado game on the Moose goal was great. I thought his primary assist to KKR in the LAFC game, ah you know, you had people at the time saying that that one didn't count because like KKR did all the work.
02:06:34
Speaker
KKR doesn't have work to do if Ferreira doesn't put a nice ball over the top. That was a good pass. Why are we not acknowledging that that was a good pass?
02:06:46
Speaker
So anyway, the number one is the, I don't know if this guy is watching or if he cares, but I'm going talk about it anyway. Number one, your assist numbers were wrong. MLS counts secondary.
02:06:57
Speaker
He has five. And you want another stat?
02:07:02
Speaker
want another stat?
02:07:07
Speaker
He has seven. All comps. Bet you didn't even think about all comps. Didn't even think about it. He has seven.
02:07:16
Speaker
Two primary in CCC. You can say it doesn't count because it was Antigua. I know that's probably what you're going to say doesn't count. as against the Guatemalan team. Whatever. He got the assists.
02:07:30
Speaker
And I think a lot of his best moments so far have been, were like, or at least at the beginning of the season, were when he was playing with Areola. You could really tell that they already had like a built-in thing. So I think, uh, Areola going down that, I mean, that, uh, took away his ability to kind of like hit the ground running in that respect with them coming from the same team.
02:07:58
Speaker
Uh, but my point is that, uh, if you're crashing out about how he's been a bust, I feel like you're just being a little melodramatic.
02:08:12
Speaker
For him to be a bust, he'd have to be a total worthless zero, contributing nothing, being a detriment to the team.
02:08:21
Speaker
I don't think that that's been the case.
02:08:25
Speaker
I think there's been some not so good games and moments, and I think therere there's been some better games and some good games and some good moments. Can both of those things not be true?
02:08:37
Speaker
It's been a mixed bag. But I don't think it's been, i don't know, i don't I don't think it's been as bad as people are saying. think we're being
02:08:51
Speaker
we're being dramatic here.
02:08:55
Speaker
think we need to get ripped.
02:08:59
Speaker
Secondary assists are not ridiculous. We can have this conversation if you want to have it. It's not ridiculous. It's ridiculous because you don't like the player that I'm talking about. and You don't want to give him credit for anything.
02:09:11
Speaker
So if you acknowledge the secondary assists, you have to acknowledge that he did something well.
02:09:19
Speaker
Secondary assist makes perfect sense. The logic is fine.
02:09:26
Speaker
I think it's completely logical to reward the guy who plays the pass that sets up the primary assist. I think Ferreira's, the assist that the secondary he had on that goal in Colorado is a perfect example of that.
02:09:41
Speaker
He hits KKR right in stride, perfect weight on it, puts it in a place where he can hit Moose. Why shouldn't he get credit for that? Why?
02:09:55
Speaker
Like, this is the thing. People just take secondary assists or like Mickey Mouse Bush League as gospel.
02:10:03
Speaker
But like,
02:10:07
Speaker
if you actually think about it, there's nothing like illogical about it. it makes absolute perfect sense.
02:10:14
Speaker
And all your favorite leagues that don't count them, they're the Mickey Mouse ones. How about that? You're a Mickey Mouse league if you don't count secondary assists. You should give credit to the guy who sets up the guy who gets the primary.
02:10:29
Speaker
Why not?
02:10:36
Speaker
Secondary assist should be standard and awarded to everyone that connects uninterrupted passes before a goal. I'd go full secondary assist. See, I don't even think you need to go that far. That's the other thing about this secondary assist discussion is people say, well, if you're going to give the assist to the the secondary guy, where do you draw the line?
02:11:00
Speaker
Where do you draw the line? Do you have to give it to the one before that too? You draw the line at the second guy. That is the easiest question to answer of all time. That's the line.
02:11:11
Speaker
I drew it.
02:11:14
Speaker
The second guy, that's the line. you don't have you don't have You don't even have to do anything where you credit the whole sequence. The guy who sets up the guy, those are the the two guys who set up the goal. Those are the guys who get the assist.
02:11:30
Speaker
Makes perfect sense.
02:11:34
Speaker
makes perfect sense. so But you like I got on a tangent there. It doesn't matter as it pertains to this Ferreira, to what I'm saying about Ferreira. you can You can not believe in secondary assists. You can count them or not count them in your own mind, in your own heart.
02:11:52
Speaker
What I'm saying is that when I look at it, when I look at a sequence where Ferreira plays the pass before the pass and it leads to a goal, I consider that like, okay, he did something good. He had a yeah had a good pass.
02:12:07
Speaker
He was part of a buildup that led to a goal. Good. That's what I want to see from him.
02:12:13
Speaker
That's what I want to see from him. if he's a
02:12:20
Speaker
If he's not part of dangerous sequences like that, That would be concerning. But if I look at it i mean and I'm like, all right,
02:12:32
Speaker
he's got three primary assists in league play and then two secondary, which are both additional plays where he contributed to goals. That's pretty good.
02:12:44
Speaker
It's not nothing. Now I will say, i will say i get why some people are, uh, I want to be dismissive. I've been pretty dismissive. I want to be dismissed. I don't want to be dismissive of the fact that he hasn't scored yet.
02:12:57
Speaker
That's not good. Part of a big part of the reason he was brought here was to score goals. He scored a lot of them in his MLS career, 50 plus of them.
02:13:10
Speaker
So he's got a pretty proven track record of doing that. And, uh,
02:13:15
Speaker
If he's not scoring goals, then you're not fully maximizing what you're just supposed to get out of the player. wasn't He didn't come here to be Steve Nash.
02:13:24
Speaker
He's not John Stockton.
02:13:28
Speaker
yeah he's got He's got to put the ball in the net.
02:13:33
Speaker
But I'm not as as ah concerned about that as some people, maybe. Maybe. I think that that will come eventually. Maybe I could be wrong. I could be wrong if I'm wrong and we get to the end of this season and he's still sitting on a goose egg. I will eat my words and you can call me out on that and I will admit that I was wrong.
02:13:54
Speaker
I'm pretty sure he's going to start banging in some goals. I've watched him enough in his career. He's got a lot of them.
02:14:05
Speaker
I think he's going to start to score some of these.
02:14:10
Speaker
He's had some chances, we know. He's hit two of them into the 47th row, one in Mexico, one in Colorado.
02:14:25
Speaker
I've also seen him score goal a lot of goals like that in his career. I see this is the thing. I'm coming at this from a place of someone who has watched a lot of FC Dallas over the years with him as a centerpiece. So I know he can score goals.
02:14:38
Speaker
You, you, everyone should be able to see that too, from looking at the stat sheet over his career.
02:14:47
Speaker
Scoring goals has not been that big of an issue for this guy throughout his career.
02:14:52
Speaker
So i think I think, and this is just a prediction, again, could be wrong. I think we're looking at some some finishing variants here over a small sample size. I also think we're looking at a player that's not entirely fit in on his new team yet.
02:15:10
Speaker
And we're looking at a guy who had a couple of good chances that he put into the 47th row. But I've also watched enough of this sport over the years to know that if you have someone with a proven track record that is not performing up to that, sometimes that means that they've just lost it. But a lot of times it also evens out.
02:15:32
Speaker
And they...
02:15:36
Speaker
go back to more like their career norms. So is he going to bang in 15 goals this year? Probably not, but I don't think he needs to on this team. I think it's honestly fine if it turns out that his best role on this team is more as a facilitator than a goal scorer.
02:15:54
Speaker
But I'm definitely not a naive to the fact that they need him to start scoring goals to
02:16:02
Speaker
for the signing to be considered like truly a hit. But i do I think we are being dramatic about this. We're being dramatic about this. It has not been that bad. It really hasn't.
02:16:15
Speaker
I even know there's brigade members that have been have started to be like, all right, it hasn't been that bad.
02:16:25
Speaker
Hasn't been that bad. Seven assists, all comps is not nothing. Even if you want to take away his secondary defense, Five assists, all comps, is not nothing.
02:16:40
Speaker
It's something. It's not a zero. It's not a bust yet.
02:16:46
Speaker
What would have to happen for me to consider it a bust? Look, even if he... ah
02:16:55
Speaker
even if he has if he Even if he only scores a couple goals this year, if he puts up double-digit 10 to 15 assists, i would take that. like I would not think that's a bust, even if the goal-scoring numbers aren't there.
02:17:07
Speaker
For it to be a bust, you understand, bust means like you're you're zero, you're nothing.
02:17:14
Speaker
So I guess if he doesn't get a single, if he doesn't get any goal contributions for the rest of the year and is playing a lot of minutes and contributes like pretty much nothing to the offense, nothing to the team, we get to the end of the season and we're like, man, Frera had some assists early, but after that he was pretty much a zero.
02:17:33
Speaker
Then I will call it a bust. Yeah.
02:17:39
Speaker
If he ends up at like,
02:17:43
Speaker
four four goals, 13 assists or something. It wouldn't be as many goals as we all hoped or wanted, but that wouldn't be a bust.
02:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, five, six goals, 12 assists, especially on this team where like he doesn't like he doesn't need to be putting up crooked numbers like he did for FC Dallas to be successful. He doesn't have to do that here.
02:18:11
Speaker
That's why I think like it's not Cope to say that his best role might just be as a facilitator on this particular team. It just means they got a lot of other good players that can score the goals, like Danny Musavsky.
02:18:28
Speaker
I want him to start scoring goals, though, but mainly just so we can stop this bust talk. hasn't been a bust. It hasn't popped. It hasn't popped.
02:18:43
Speaker
Hasn't been a bust. Over, under on 3.5 goal contributions for Jesus in his next three matches.
02:18:53
Speaker
ah Over, but all assists apparently.
02:19:01
Speaker
De La Vega needed a year here to figure it out. This is Ferreira's first career move. He needs time to figure it out. I'm glad some people are willing to give that to him, you know?
02:19:12
Speaker
I'm a benefit of the doubt type of guy. Okay. Never going to condemn anybody for an 11 game sample size on a new team. Like you said, first time moving teams in his career.
02:19:27
Speaker
And it really, it just, it hasn't been as bad as the comments that we are getting are saying. I know everyone wants to like, has been itching to dunk on us for that. Cause we had the audacity to say that we liked the trade when it happened.
02:19:44
Speaker
But my thing is also like,
02:19:48
Speaker
you have to look at process over results sometimes.
02:19:53
Speaker
just in the sense of like, even if something doesn't work out, it's like, can you at least understand why it was done? i mean, I'll tell you just from my perspective, if i you told me that they had that deal on the table and they didn't bring Ferreira onto the team below a DP threshold for whatever reason, we don't want to bring in a guy who's already played in MLS.
02:20:21
Speaker
That would piss me off.
02:20:26
Speaker
that would have been That would have been, that's why it's good that fans aren't GMs, man.
02:20:33
Speaker
That's why it's good that fans aren't GMs.
02:20:39
Speaker
Some of you were running the show. You'd say, no, we're not taking Ferrer. We got to go ah we got to go so sign a manual latte loth with our Hanauer money.
02:20:51
Speaker
we can't do that, then this is chalked. Then you end up like Atlanta United. Atlanta United's roster building is low key. Like if they let, if they let a fan do it and just gave them as much money as possible, just buy the most expensive guys, put them all together. Don't think about team building at all.
02:21:22
Speaker
my God, I'd pay to see a comment coach have to actually coach a team for a game or, ah or like be a GM, like do actually do Craig Wab's job. We all think that we could do Craig Wab's job better than he could. and
02:21:41
Speaker
think if you actually get into the reality of it, difficult.
02:21:53
Speaker
Latte Loth has been good. Marinchuk and Almiron, not so much. That is true. well that's that's sort of the okay That's part of the point, though, Derek. is ah like
02:22:06
Speaker
You can spend as much money as you want on a number nine. like And they might even score goals for you. Look at ah Latte Loth. Look at Hugo Kuyper's.
02:22:19
Speaker
Like, getting a number nine that bangs in goals. Sorry, I've got an itch on my nose. Getting a number nine that bangs in goals is not like a ah ticket to winning necessarily.
02:22:33
Speaker
A ticket to winning is building a really goddamn good team and then going out and getting Brian White. Apparently, that's what you need to do to dominate MLS.
02:22:44
Speaker
So...
02:22:49
Speaker
Next call-in show, yeah, we'll do one. Let's see I think we'll be able to do one post-game on Saturday. It's always a little bit touch-and-go. But generally speaking, we've been able to hit road games.
02:23:07
Speaker
right right Generally speaking, the way it's been working is after road games, we're able to fire it up right post-game, stream the pressers and all that, and then take calls.
02:23:18
Speaker
so you can call in and uh make your make your little jesus bet with noah i don't know why you're uh so confident that he's not gonna get to what is it like six like just purely based on on track record uh
02:23:42
Speaker
i don't know i'm firing up the lo-fi sorry
02:23:47
Speaker
wait. That's not the right lo-fi. Here we go. This is the lo-fi. but to About to wrap it up here. Went for two and a half tonight.
02:24:01
Speaker
Appreciate you all tuning in Hope you enjoyed the whitecaps talk.
02:24:09
Speaker
Looking at some U22s. I don't know if the U22 exercise was...
02:24:14
Speaker
as illuminating as I hoped it would be but I thought it was still kind of instructive to go through the names
02:24:25
Speaker
if you got any final uh questions topics agendas grievances go ahead and drop them in chat stick around to I'll go I'll go to this 2 30 mark right here about five more minutes Is building a team that is supplied by a pipeline, ideally with youth academy and international networking with strong existing relationships.
02:24:51
Speaker
I think you're advocating for type that type of team building. But yes.
02:24:59
Speaker
In a salary cap league, you really can't emphasize enough how important youth development is.
02:25:13
Speaker
You're good, Hunchpunch. I figured it out.
02:25:20
Speaker
What else happened in MLS this last week that was worth hitting on? There was a round of Open Cup results last night.
02:25:32
Speaker
No one got Cubs set. Man, the Philly Union
02:25:38
Speaker
almost got beat by Indy 11. They only won that on PKs. Just seeing that.
02:25:48
Speaker
No cup sets.
02:26:00
Speaker
Derek. Love you, man. Thank you for the $2. Glad you enjoyed the, uh, Vancouver content, you 22 content.
02:26:15
Speaker
I love my under the lights crowd. These these are do not perform ah at our top capacity, but ah that's why I like it.
02:26:28
Speaker
That's why I like it, because it's like, this is where the real diehards hang out. And we just get to, i like getting I like using this one to get guests from around the league on here.
02:26:41
Speaker
learn about other teams also do more like national oriented stuff. Look at other teams, roster buildings, like, you know, that's why I had the idea for the U22 stuff. That's sort of, if you got, and also you guys have stuff like what I was doing with the U22s tonight, like thought exercises like that, that you think would be interesting.
02:27:06
Speaker
Feel free to send them to me on, uh,
02:27:10
Speaker
on a blue sky or wherever else. And I'm down to, uh, dive into stuff that you guys might be interested in. And it can be like, doesn't have to be sounders related.
02:27:26
Speaker
Point total over the next three matches. okay.
Seattle's Upcoming Matches and Player Expectations
02:27:30
Speaker
I'll, uh, well, I'll reiterate what,
02:27:36
Speaker
I'll reiterate what I, okay, I'll give the optimistic and then the more realistic take.
02:27:45
Speaker
What I'm hoping they do is a 2-0-1. I'm
02:27:53
Speaker
hoping they ah beat Houston, wrangle a draw at LAFC. I mean, obviously, if they won all three, that would be sick, but like in a in a more realistic scenario because winning all three of these is not wholly unrealistic, but it'd be really hard.
02:28:16
Speaker
Beat Houston, wrangle a draw at LFC, beat Portland. I think if you do that,
02:28:23
Speaker
that would be a smashing success of a road trip.
02:28:27
Speaker
What do I think is more likely to happen?
02:28:32
Speaker
I think one, one, and one is the most likely outcome. which wouldn't be horrible.
02:28:40
Speaker
That'd be okay. Wouldn't be great, but it wouldn't be disastrous. I think they probably won one and won it.
02:28:50
Speaker
ah But if they, want if if they want to into it, i would take that.
02:29:00
Speaker
It's not just the competition you're playing. It's the schedule, man. It's like pretty brutal.
02:29:05
Speaker
the games are so close together
02:29:11
Speaker
so but it's this is going to be a good test the degree of difficulty on an mls road trip like this is very high so if you can get out of it with uh if you can get out of it at a 201 that would be fantastic and really uh man i'm just so intrigued to uh to keep watching ryan kent is he that good
02:29:37
Speaker
Is he actually that good?
02:29:41
Speaker
Was that just like beginners, MLS beginners luck? Light it up right at the start, and teams figure you out, and then you level off? Or is he just that guy?
02:29:56
Speaker
I think he might just be that guy.
02:29:59
Speaker
He looked like that guy.
02:30:03
Speaker
But he's only played 58 minutes, so we're going find out. But that's why this stretch of games coming up is so... It's pretty exciting because we get to see more of this guy.
02:30:18
Speaker
We get to watch him in a you a derby. Exactly. get to watch him in a derby.
02:30:28
Speaker
And it's against some of the best competition in the West. LAFC... Houston's not having a good year, but LAFC are LAFC. That's a hard road trip no matter what. And they're not like the peak apex version of LAFC, but they're still a good team.
02:30:43
Speaker
And you got the Timbs who they they lost last week and almost lost to a bunch of 17 year olds. But the Timbs are the Timbs. They're going to be, they're going to score a lot of goals.
02:30:56
Speaker
And the other thing I can tell you is that they're going to play this game like it's the last soccer game they've ever played. They're going to play like Real Madrid. This is the only game they care about.
02:31:10
Speaker
this Some teams want to win MLS Cup. Some teams want to win CONCACAF Champions Cup. Some teams qualify for the Club World Cup. The Portland Timbies circle the games against the Seattle Sounders, and they that's play for.
02:31:27
Speaker
that's what we play for
02:31:32
Speaker
And there was a long period of time where they were owning the rivalry because Seattle would not match that.
02:31:42
Speaker
Like the way they the way they they play Sounders games, like they're going to die if they lose. Which is how you should play a rivalry game. Like not even shade.
02:31:53
Speaker
It's just that you always have to prepare for that because the whole thing is like, especially this is their narrative too. They just got destroyed by the quake. So their narrative is going to be, all right, we got to beat our rival to like course correct. It's always a course correction for them.
02:32:07
Speaker
Like, oh, we're not playing good right now. We just lost. ah We got the Seattle game. All right, time to play like the greatest team on earth. So there that game, they are going to come out playing like godforsaken maniacs.
02:32:25
Speaker
Seattle's got a mat. It'll be good for the squad to be thrown in to that type game. Pat becomes a YouTube member.
02:32:37
Speaker
Thank you so much, man.
02:32:41
Speaker
Sorry I didn't get to a catch you at the Defiance game. There's so many ah like more people there. It's way harder to make the rounds. Thank you for becoming a YouTube member. Everyone follow Pat's lead.
02:32:58
Speaker
Become a YouTube member. Best way to support the show.
02:33:06
Speaker
Watched him, Ryan Kent with the Liverpool Academy and then Stevie G brought him to Rangers. He's that guy. All right.
02:33:14
Speaker
Like I've been hearing conflicting reports on if he's that guy. Listening to Michael talk about him a little bit at the top of the show, he seemed like he didn't consider him that guy.
02:33:24
Speaker
i think he also didn't see what we saw against ah St. Louis. i think he I think there's a decent to good chance that he might just be that guy. Which if he's that guy, i was talking about this on the dub pod too, but like if he's that guy,
02:33:42
Speaker
they could finally have a player that can actually put up like, you know, like a real crooked stat line. think one of the points I was trying to make on that show was like,
02:33:53
Speaker
Like as good as Ladera was, his game wasn't putting up a crooked stat line. His stats were great. The guy churns out still to this day. don't know about this year, but as recently as last year, it'll still churn out a double digit assist season for you like it's nothing.
02:34:08
Speaker
But he was he never ripped off like a 25 plus goal contribution season. You know who's put up the most crooked stat line on the team in the last few years is is Albert Rusnak, funnily enough.
02:34:24
Speaker
He had something resembling like the type of year I'm talking about last year, 10 and 16 with 30 goal contributions, all comps. But man, how sick would it be if they had a player who could put up like Lucho Acosta numbers or Haney Mukhtar numbers?
02:34:44
Speaker
He might be that guy. He also might not. But I like the excitement of getting to find out
02:34:58
Speaker
The Timbs thing goes before Phil Neville, though.
02:35:07
Speaker
Man, I just wanted to stop by to crash out about the ref handing Timbs the game against Defiance on Tuesday. Still mad about it. Also, it was great to celebrate with you and Noah after the second. Hell yeah.
02:35:19
Speaker
Thanks for stopping by. Valid crash out. The Timbs got bailed out.
02:35:25
Speaker
They know it, too. They know it.
02:35:30
Speaker
Their fans know it.
02:35:35
Speaker
Their fans know it.
02:35:40
Speaker
All right. I'm going to call it right there, guys. It's late. About to go to bed.
02:35:48
Speaker
enjoy your Enjoy your weekends coming up here.
02:35:54
Speaker
Enjoy the, uh, this Houston game on Saturday.
02:36:01
Speaker
I, uh, gonna tentatively, tentatively say that we're gonna fire up our post-game live soon after Final Whistle. Um...
02:36:12
Speaker
We're absolute worst case scenario if we can't do that for some reason. We will ah we'll do it Sunday AM m like we've been doing when we haven't done it right after. there will be one.
02:36:23
Speaker
we'll ah We'll take some calls. We'll react to the match.
02:36:29
Speaker
If you haven't done so yet, like the video. Like the video. Like the video. Sub to the channel.
02:36:42
Speaker
Rate five stars. Follow us on Instagram. I'm trying to
02:36:49
Speaker
trying to get us to credibility on Instagram, and we're actually on our way. On the road to 500 follows. Okay, that's pretty big for us.
02:37:02
Speaker
But yeah, postgame Saturday, hopefully. Logo Scorchers kick off with Nico on Monday. Pod Tuesday. back here for Under the Lights Thursday.
02:37:15
Speaker
The content don't stop. Alright, have a good night everybody. Catch you on Saturday. Peace.