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Home-field advantage suddenly in sight
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The win over the Whitecaps changes the math considerably for the Sounders. Jeremiah discusses that win and then brings Burgundy Wave’s Matt Pollard onto the show to preview the upcoming Rapids game.
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Transcript
Sponsorship and New Voice Talent
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Fullpool Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Fullpool was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the sounder at heart podcast network.
00:00:40
Speaker
about sound dominatmin it
00:01:16
Speaker
This is fucking awesome. This is a Let's go to Southern bro.
00:01:30
Speaker
ever since our boarder commentary that we didn't take look seriously.
New Format and Sounders' Performance
00:01:41
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of NOS Audio Discs, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Thursday, October 3rd, 2024. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. We're trying something a bit different today. I'm going to be doing the first segment solo, and then we'll be joined by Matt Pollard of Burgundy Wave to help preview the Rapids game on Saturday.
00:02:01
Speaker
Well, the sounders are, once again, on a bit of a roll, and that tie with the earthquakes is looking a bit more like a blip than a warning sign. Fresh off beating the Houston Dynamo 1-0 at home, the sounders turned around and handled the Whitecaps 3-0 on the road. They got goals from Georgi Minungu, Albert Rusnak, and Paul Rothrock, with Jordan Morris picking up a couple of assists. It was a pretty impressive performance, even accounting for the Whitecaps' various absences.
00:02:28
Speaker
Although Rusnak and Morris were probably the most influential players, it's hard to ignore the contributions of Rothrock and Minungu, who were both outstanding. Minungu got things started when he put himself in perfect position to score off a knockdown header from Morris from a Rusnak corner, kneeing the ball in for his first MLS goal. The Sounders continued to find opportunities over and and around the Whitecaps press, and probably should have had another goal just before halftime when Rothrock slid a ball across the goal that Morris just barely missed.
00:02:58
Speaker
Defensively, the Sounders gave up some decent looks, but Seven Fry made one huge save, and the Whitecaps weren't able to do much with their other chances. The Sounders looked strong in the second half as well, but nearly conceded the equalizer when Fry got a bit fooled by a ball in the box and was nearly caught, but Nuhu recovered and cleared a shot off the line. About eight minutes later, Rothrock drew a penalty that Roston converted to essentially seal the game.
00:03:23
Speaker
It was a pretty massive change in momentum right there. And then the Sounders rode that to an insurance goal. This time it was Morris flicking a header into space, Roastneck collecting it, and then feeding it to Rothrock who sort of slid it in at a tight angle for a really nice counter-attacking goal.
00:03:49
Speaker
ah The win gives the Sounders a 5-1-1 record since returning from League's Cup. They are a league best 11-2-2 since June 15th, and they are 14-4-5 since that 1-5-3 start. No one in the MLS has more points in the that time, no one has more wins in that time, and only The Columbus Crew have a better goal difference than the Sounders plus 16 in those games. That is two thirds of the season that we're talking about now. ah And they've climbed into third place in the Western Conference and they control their own destiny when it comes to home field advantage in the first round of playoffs. They can also reclaim the Cascadia Cup by beating the Portland Timbers in the season finale. Of course,
00:04:36
Speaker
or this now gives them consecutive wins over teams who had previously been considered to be among that second tier of Western Conference contenders with another opportunity to score a statement win on Saturday.
00:04:47
Speaker
I don't know that I'm quite ready to embrace the idea that the Sounders are truly capable of an MLS ah aealous Cup run at this point, but we now have a rather irrefutable body of evidence that they are at least among the best teams below that top tier of teams like Inter Miami, the Columbus Crew, LAFC, and the LA Galaxy.
00:05:07
Speaker
I'll also note that the Sounders have wins over two of the three teams of that group that they've actually played. So it's not like they aren't beating decent teams.
Team Dynamics and Listener Support
00:05:18
Speaker
ah They're doing this with a defense that by any reasonable metric has to be considered among the elite in MLS, having allowed fewer goals per game than anyone else and posting the most shutouts.
00:05:29
Speaker
Offensively, I still think there are some reasonable doubts, but Albert Rusnak is now on 24 contributions in MLS play alone, Morris is on 18, and they may have even found a reliable 3rd option in Rothrock, who has 8 goals and 4 assists across all competitions. so Their biggest problem might actually be trying to balance playing time as Zhao Paolo is getting ready to return from injury and Manungu is emerging as an as a legit option. My suspicion is that Christian Roldan will continue to start in midfield and Pedro de la Vega will continue to get chances as the nominal right winger, but I'm not sure that any of that is set in stone.
00:06:06
Speaker
Brian Shmetzer recently talked about how one of the things he's really excited about and he's sort of embracing is this idea of internal competition. And he doesn't want anyone to sort of feel like they have their spot, set in stone on this team that seems to be serving this team really well. They are playing with an energy and an excitement that really we haven't seen from them in quite some time.
00:06:33
Speaker
They are fun to watch, which is obviously a lot of fun to write about and talk about. And they are, you know, you know, this has been a weird, weird season because it has been filled with so much frustration and frankly, anger in in various capacities. But I think it's is also a good time to maybe take a step back and realize that for six months almost now, this team has actually been pretty, pretty good. And I don't know if they are, like I said, I don't know if they're quite ready to go toe to toe with inner Miami, but, you know, they're at least giving, giving us reason to think that it's possible. Uh, Brian sch Spencer is maybe doing the best job of his career. I don't think that he's going to get any love at all for coach of the year. Uh, I also don't think that Stefan Fry is going to get much love for goalkeeper of the year. I'm not sure that.
00:07:31
Speaker
yeah margoma andra is gonna get much hope for much hype for a defender of the year I'm sure Albert Rusnak and Jordan Morris will not earn mentions for MVP. I could go down the list of things that are not going to probably happen with the Sounders, and yet they're right there.
00:07:50
Speaker
looking like a team that could make some real noise in the playoffs. ah And with that, I think I will call this a segment. We're going to come back. We're going to talk to Matt Pollard about the upcoming game. Thanks for listening. ah Yeah, stick around. Thank you for listening to the Sound Rithart podcast network, which now includes no sunny at this lobbing scorchers and the cooler yield.
00:08:16
Speaker
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00:08:35
Speaker
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Colorado Rapids' Season and Strategy
00:08:59
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adietes. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me right now is Matt Pollard of the Burgundy Wave, are ah my former colleague at SB Nation. They're covering the the Colorado Rapids. Welcome to the show, Matt.
00:09:15
Speaker
Jeremiah, thank you so much for having me. a Nice to see you again, because I know it's yeah been a while. I don't know that we've had a conversation since ah everything that went down at our former outlets. I don't think so. Yes. So it is nice to hear your voice. It is nice to see your vase. It is nice to be discussing soccer with you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, ah while we're while we're there, let's how are things at Brigandy Wave? You guys are also have gone independent.
00:09:42
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about your your ah how things are going. ah It's been fun to have full editorial control and kind of that and the ideas that I had around what that would look like from a website design standpoint and a type of coverage not to be beholden to maybe a larger outlet or like how it was for me at Last Word on sports when I was covering the rapids for them. I'm not making as much money as when we were at SB Nation. I could admit that there's a lot more administrative costs associated with it. ah This is not my day job. I'm an engineer. We were talking about that before Jeremiah. I think there's a lot of people.
00:10:15
Speaker
in this space who are um who do this as a hobby who do it as a side hustle or as a passion project and that was always the intent for me when i got into this as someone who has a master's degree in chemical engineering i don't know that sports journalism was going to be a viable more financially lucrative alternative but uh It's still fun, even when there are frustrating games. I enjoy the process. I enjoy the people that I interact with at the club. I enjoy the um wonderful group of misfits that is Rapids Twitter. Absolutely. And regardless of the results recently for the Rapids and what could be coming in on Saturday when the Sounders show up, um this is still something i I still enjoy it. I still have fun going out to
00:11:00
Speaker
soccer and thinking about soccer and using my left the left side of my brain as well. So that's fun. um We are on mostly on Patreon right now. We are doing a little bit of embedded ads on Google. So um ah we broke even in 2023, which was kind of just the base goal. And I think we'll have enough money um to where at the end of the season, regardless of when that is or how good or poorly it ends, um I'll be able to take out all of our staff for ah some beers for Premier League or something else as well. So in that regard, we are succeeding as much as the rapids have already succeeded by qualifying for the playoffs, making a cup run and most importantly, beating RSL in the Rocky Mountain Cup.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's been, it's been, ah it's been pretty impressive from a distance to see what the rapids had done expectations. I think we're, I don't know what they were internally, but I know, you know, I i saw they were very active in the off season, but it didn't necessarily strike me as a, the kind of activity that would push them toward the top of the Western conference. But for much of the year, that's exactly where the rapids were. They have,
00:12:03
Speaker
been one of the top scoring offenses in the league. They obviously went on this league's cup run where they, they took third in in league's cup, qualified for champions league. Very impressive stuff all around. yeah And yet here we are in with two games left in the, yeah, two games left in the season. And it does feel a little bit like maybe it's It's starting to fray a little. Is that is that fair to say? Yeah, I think the I'm starting to wonder whether or not there was some fic um fatigue going on or not. There was ah Rapids Jason, Jason Maxwell, who's in another person in the Rapids blogger, fandom space was commenting. He looked up some numbers and so, um you know, Cole Bassett was up there in terms of number of minutes. If you include Georgie Mihailovich's minutes,
00:12:50
Speaker
from the Olympics. He's now over 3000 minutes with the results um last night as well. And then it's not just the minutes played in that it's been, you know, a lot of starters, not as much squad rotation, kind of the same 14, 15 guys who've been involved in it as well. I think it's also the style of play, which has been extremely effective and something that Chris Armist has done a really, really good job.
00:13:10
Speaker
of implementing, but at the same time, I don't know what this number is now. Cole Bassett's missed the last two games with a precautionary quad injury that missing two games in a row that you kind of needed to win. Makes me wonder whether or not it's more precautionary. We'll see when the injury report comes out on Friday. We're having this conversation Thursday evening, listeners. um But so, uh, Colbassett was number one coming out of League's Cup in terms of number of miles covered in MLS. Andreas Maxu was top five for center backs as well. So, um, there's, there's not been a lot of squad rotation. There's not been a lot of injuries that have kind of forced some of that squad rotation. And so I'm wondering if
00:13:48
Speaker
between that and the running league's cup, whether or not this team is kind of fizzling out Jeremiah, I feel like every single year there's always a team that has a really good regular season kind of goes maximum effort on that and then kind of crashes and burns in the playoffs. I feel like Houston might have been that if we're looking at Western conference teams as well. So um ah Chris Armist and the players ah last night after the loss to Galaxy said that Um, that's something that they can fix that they were world beaters in the first half and then it kind of fell apart later on in the second half. And that's something they can certainly address, but like, there's no, there's no getting back the 300 minutes that Keegan Rosenberry played in league's cup. You know, the the time to rectify that would have been getting Sebastian Anderson more minutes or Mike Edwards at center back or something like that. So. ah Yeah, i am I made the joke on holding the high line last week that um we thought everything was fine, and they were going to beat Minnesota, and then they lost to Minnesota, and I made the joke that I pulled the panic button out of the drawer that was buried under a bunch of other stuff, but I put it on the other end of the desk. like It's not sitting here ready for me to completely smash it, and now I think it's on my side. It's not closest to my water bottle or my phone necessarily. A three-nail lost to Seattle, and it's going to be on top of my keyboard.
00:15:02
Speaker
fair Fair enough, fair enough. Well, ah that that maybe it wellt we're not quite ready to to hit that yet, though. ah This last game against the galaxy, you you had a lead, correct? And you end up losing, the rapids end up losing 3-1.
00:15:20
Speaker
What was the, I guess, what, what changed in this game? ah Well, uh, I, LA galaxy had two really good open counter-attacks. One, I think the goals were in the 50th and the 58th minute. Otherwise, you know, if you take out those two moments, Colorado had most of the ball, Colorado had most of the touches in the final third, they had had some half chances. I don't think that Colorado would earn a second goal at that point. They were up one nil at halftime through a screamer from Han and Ronin, his first goal of the season. And then Galaxy just kind of get two open counters and Gabrielle Peck kind of whiffs on a shot that he was trying to find pain cell and it gets past Zach Stefan. I don't think Stefan was most at fault for that. And the other one was just an open counter attack. And you give the galaxy who Greg Vanny loves his wingers and Ricky Poog likes doing stuff at the top of the box, like a super saying you give them those kinds of opportunities and they're going to punish you. I think there's a very reasonable argument here for the rapids to make that LA Galaxy had. had four really good chances last night. And it just so happened that three of them ended up being um goals. um Where I was maybe disappointed is that you didn't see a reaction or a immediate response to fix it after you got punched in the mouth five minutes into the second half. And then they scored again. And then Colorado kind of woke up as well. you know ah They were throwing numbers forward in stoppage time. That led to a counter attack. I think in the third minute of stoppage time, they were given eight minutes of ah extra time last night in the second half. so
00:16:45
Speaker
You know, I can forgive the context behind the third goal that was conceded because you're chasing to try and make it 2-2. I'm frustrated that we didn't see urgency quicker. We didn't see them continue the momentum from the first half. um Was that something the galaxy did really well? Was that maybe Colorado taking off the brakes out of fear or out of respect of the galaxy? Or was that maybe fatigue or something else going on? Or the galaxy just, you know, an absolute cheat code on counterattacks and Ricky Pooges, I don't know, he's not David Beckham in this analogy, but, you know, You get what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. So before we get in, so now that we've we've sort of touched on some of the stuff that's gone wrong, the reality is that the rapids are much higher in the table at this point in the season than most would have given them a chance for. they' Like you we've said, they've already achieved a pretty massive goal, which was getting into Champions League and another pretty massive goal, which is getting into the playoffs. So what has gone right for this team?
Rapids' Defensive Challenges
00:17:43
Speaker
Uh, so many things. Um, there were a lot of really good signings in the off season. I think Porek Smith for all the criticisms about his inaction or maybe tearing down that 2021 team that then led to a regression in 22 and then really bad stuff in 23. I think they certainly got that right. And even though their spending was kind of moderate, like it was, uh, I guess compared to, you know, other teams, I cannot remember what the transfer fee was for Pedro de la Vega, but Colorado broke there. Transfer fee record in january with georgie mihailovich there were some performance incentives behind that so i haven't been able to confirm what that final number is going to be or was but it was between three and four million before that you have to go back to one ramirez twenty fifteen ah for two point seven million for the record transfer fee.
00:18:27
Speaker
And then it was three and a half million that they played for half a on the baho and so i don't think there's any question there too highly productive dps and while you know i would not take no baho over in his prime role re diaz or maybe let's say jordan morris a few years ago like the neither of those dps is kucha hernandez certainly not were messies in its own category on.
00:18:49
Speaker
But by rapid standards, I don't think there's any question that they're probably the two best DPs that the rapids have ever had. And they're also ones where I don't know if you were to go in the open market this coming January and say, we're going to spend between three and four million at those positions that like you're getting much better. Navajo is on goals right now. i think he'll get to i think he could hell I think he could get to 15.
00:19:14
Speaker
um You know and then george mihailovich is one assist away from breaking the club season record for most assists in a season and one and then also one goal contribution is away from breaking diego rubio's record season of twenty three goal contributions as well i don't think for three and a half to four million dollars you're getting like you're getting much better than that on Chris Armist has done a really good job in terms of building a culture and a togetherness that I think had frayed under Robin Fraser in the final months of his time at the club. And I think every single player who came back from last year improved. So for all of their failings, or as much as Colt Bassett might have had a bit of a hangover,
00:19:55
Speaker
coming back from europe and that really not working out for him he's been absolutely fantastic the rapids have missed him in the last two games are calvin harris who i think gradually worked his way into being a starter by the end of the season i think there's an argument right now he's the best winger on the colorado rapids kevin cabral has nine goal contributions i'm sure the l.a. galaxy would love that two or three years ago. So there's a lot of players who came back this year with a chip on their shoulder, who raised their game. Massive culture overhaul with Chris Armist being the right hire. I'd be shocked, that you know, I passed Matt from October of last year, would be shocked to hear President Matt say that right now. um They've done good work in terms of the players that they've brought in overall. And for the most part, they've taken care of business at home. um They've also been, I think, an incredibly resilient bounce back team.
00:20:42
Speaker
that hasn't happened so much ah recently. um and Jeremiah was looking up the stat the other day. um The Rapids have had six losses on the road this season that then their next game was a home game and they had four wins and two draws in those six games prior to last night. Last night was their first loss of that and just the second time that they've lost back-to-back games since the end of May, early June. So it um it speaks to how great So much of this regular season has been it also speaks to where rapids fans are looking at the form table and everything and seeing a path forward where the rapids finish eighth after decision day and are concerned about what that means for their playoff hopes. Sure. ah And you know, one of the players who has gotten a fair amount of attention and I guess I'll back up first. This team is almost a exact
00:21:31
Speaker
mirror image, meaning opposite of the last time the the rapids were yeah near the top of the West, which was in 2020. Well, yeah, what was that? That was 2021. That was really a defense first team, right? That was ah a team that really did it. That kind of grinded out when this is it. This is a team that's giving up a ton of goals, but scoring a ton of goals as well.
00:21:55
Speaker
ah yeah Like, how would you describe the way they play? I mean, is it as wide open as the numbers make it look? Um, I mean, it's not, uh, it's, it's not chaos. It's not like Manchester United and under Eric 10 hog in that regard. But no, I would say it's very, it's up tempo and it's very aggressive. And at times it can turn into high risk, high reward. I think if you're looking at goals and it's like XG and everything as well, Jeremiah, some of those stats maybe get a little bit distorted because of how good the team is on set pieces. So from the run of play It might be a little bit more controlled. um They've won a number of penalties. They've scored a lot of penalties. Novaho, I think, has three or four. Kolbasset took that penalty to win the Rocky Mountain Cup in the final game before the break for League Cup. And Georgi Mihailovic has been the um PK tick taker right now. But no, they're definitely, um Chris Armist said it in his opening statement in his opening press conference 10 months ago. They are going to be an attacking team. This is a team that wants to be on the front foot. um I would say that they they finally, I think going into Lee's Cup, they finally found the balance in terms of ah when do we press and understanding those pressing triggers, um or at least just the the general, the macro. When do we want to have the ball? This is a good time for us to build out of the back through um Andreas Maxu, Colbassett.
00:23:15
Speaker
Um, uh, Zach Stefan through the spine of the team. And when do we really want to go after, when do we want to attack and pressure teams and put them under siege? And when do we want to hunt them without the ball? And so I think the middle third of the season, you really saw that when they started climbing up the table, won the Rocky mountain cup that led in perfectly to what they were doing. Um, in Lee's cup granted Lee's cup against some really good Mexican teams. They were more compact and kind of relied on Zach Stefan and Zach Stefan found himself that now it's gotten him back in.
00:23:44
Speaker
with the US men's national team. um So, you know, I would say that the style of play certainly has some flexibility, I would say very much at home, they want to be on the front foot, you know, go back and watch the highlights, Sounders fans from the first half against LA Galaxy, that's what the the rapids want to be at home and maybe look back at um I don't know if there's a good, there's not a good road game recently, but maybe see the, the non-club America Mexico games in League's Cup are a good example of how the rapids are comfortable without having the ball and trying to control the game or dictate and make things difficult for their opponent um when they don't have the ball. I have to imagine that um with the frustrations from last night,
00:24:23
Speaker
that Chris Armist is going to double down on that. um The Rapids are going to try and have the ball and put Jackson Reagan and Stephen Fry under pressure on Saturday. What did the Sounders do in transition and how is the Rapids rest events able to handle that? um We'll see what Reggie Cannon can do against the Royal Dons on that flank.
00:24:40
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Uh, but it's, it's like, yeah it's kind of wild that you look at the, their goal total, they've 115 goals have been scored in rapids games this year, which is basically, which is second most in, in the Western conference behind only the timbers who who do play truly.
00:24:59
Speaker
chaos yeah Chaos wide open. And it's it's ah it's very different. They're getting there in very different ways, it sounds like, where the rapids are are doing a little bit more pressing and and the the timbers just don't really like to spend time defending. And they just want to get the ball back as quickly as possible. and ah and attack. But yeah, the there are more goals in in rapids games than earthquakes games. And this is ah in the in the earthquakes are a team that are on pace to give up the most goals in MLS history. But ah and anyway, this is it's been it's been fascinating to see this transformation from from a distance. And one of the things that I'm i'm fascinated by just is
00:25:41
Speaker
Zach Stefan is is getting, just got, caught you alluded to this, he just got called into the US national team. And I'm digging into his, the data on him. Yes. And it is, it's it's shockingly bad. Like it's like I think you you probably, I would imagine this is not news to you. No. By PostShotXG, he is the 60th, 60th.
00:26:04
Speaker
6-0. 6-0, worst goalkeeper in all of MLS. if you and that's Now that's accumulative, but if you go even by ah by per 90 minutes, it's still you know very low.
00:26:19
Speaker
ah And yet he is generally regarded as having this real bounce back season. You alluded to it as well, that you've been really happy with his play. What are we missing? If we're only looking at the data and and ad admittedly I have not watched a lot of Rapids games, what what are we missing here?
00:26:39
Speaker
Yes, ah to quote a a fun extra time ah bit, are you watching the games or are you just looking at the stats, Jeremiah? Yeah, I'm definitely just looking at the stats, I'll be honest. Yes. So um i I would say that so ah the the numbers relative for i I looked at this a couple of weeks ago, so um I'm not sure if maybe this was changed slightly with Minnesota and then the Galaxy game recently, both of which the rapids ah conceded more goals than what their XG was at. If we're trusting both MLS soccer dot.com and I'm a fot mob truther. I think their algorithm is better. That's just me. In any case, um you know if you look at it, Stefan's mostly been like balanced. So it's not like the it started off absolutely horrible and it got to like being average or it went kind of the other way. It's kind of just been consistently like a standard deviation below the mean throughout the season. um he There were shots that he was giving up that were really soft in like the first 10 games of ah the season. Um, I will say that, um, I i don't know, I haven't looked at the stature of my to see whether or not we're accounting for a lease cup, obviously where he outperformed all the, wo the, for sure. The numbers I was looking at were just, we're just, um like wrapped so so i think it was a nigs cup yeah, it was like 2.3 XG that club America had when he pitched a clean sheet against them. And then he had that save in, um, I think he made two saves against club America in that shootout. And then it was the goalie versus goalie in the around and, uh, and club America's goalkeeper missed that. So we're missing some of that context or maybe the, the metrics as well, which obviously the rapids are tracking. They love their advanced analytics over there at Dick's sporting goods park. And so if we look at that in all comps, I think those numbers look better. And I think if you look at that, the trend as well is also better. Um, the rapids were conceding more goals post shot in the first 10 games of the season. Um, a lot of that was Stefan finding his footing. making some poursées, some defensive changes as well. You had Mois Bombito entering into the um starting lineup when Andreas Maxu had kind of had a carousel of different center backs as his partner as well. Bit of a language issue there as well that had since been resolved. um And then in kind of that middle third, he got better, the team got better, but still, they're a team that there's a they're a team that's comfortable winning games 3-2, even if they're at home.
00:28:50
Speaker
um And then kind of Lee's Cup was better analytics and numbers wise. That's not necessarily being captured in stuff that Opta has or that Matt Doyle's posting in his articles for completely understandable reasons as well. um I think if you also look at it, um this is true for Stefan. And I think this is generally true for the rapids as well, where when it goes south, it goes really, really south. Look at both. yeah Sounders fans don't do this. Go look at the highlights from the two games that the rapids have played. at Portland this year, opening game of the season for one ah garbage goal at the end, sandbine zone goal to end the first half as well. And then also four nil in least cup as well. Like when the rapids are bad, when they, they have not been very, very good. When they give up a second goal, they kind of just ah crash and burn. and that leads to a lot of high quality opening opportunities. I will say even in those games where they get schlacked with a bunch of goals, if you look at it, there's a lot of open looks where you say that should probably be a goal and Zach Stefan is making those saves. Go back and look at the replays of the first ah up until the first goal that Minnesota scored in the 3-0 last Saturday. And I think it was a 15th minute goal, kind of a fluke thing off of the off of the striker's head that he wasn't expecting the shot to come in at that angle. Nothing Stefan could have done that wasn't his fault. And every single highlight that and MLS and that
00:30:13
Speaker
Apple put out in the seven-minute highlight before that was Minnesota getting an open look and Zach Stefan bailing out his defense. So, um the numbers never lie. Stefan's defense hasn't been particularly good. He's been better. I think it warrants him ah getting that opportunity. um Galaxy, like go back and look at any of the three goals that the the Galaxy scored last night. You are not pointing the finger at Zach Stefan this morning. Sure.
00:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, and I and i will admit here, post-shot XG is not a perfect metric. There are no perfect metrics that per that capture goalkeeper play. ah There's always a million things that are not quite captured purely in numbers that really you need video analysis and and and you know more thoughtful ah looks than you're going to get I tend to think there's a lot of truth in in a lot of the data, yeah but at the same time, if it's not one thing, it's another, right? And the other thing that you sort of alluded to is that this defense tends to be, when things go bad, they go really bad. And and as much of a ah a breakout player as Bombito was this year, he is no longer there and it does feel like their defensive decline has sped up.
00:31:30
Speaker
since his departure, is that a fair thing to say? No, I would say so. I think Lola Sububokar, I mean, we know what he is. Rapids fans love him. He's a really hard individual to hate. He's super popular with the fans. But you know, it's like the, I wish he was slightly better than he was. Like he's a slightly above average replacement center back right now. I do not think he would, you know, if he was magically transferred to the Sounders, I don't think he's starting over Yemar or Jackson Reagan, who I think has been fantastic this year. By the way, so lawless is really good at the physicality. He is really good on set pieces, both attacking wise and defensively. um Sounders fans maybe will notice he's cleaned up his hair. It's less of like ah a tree that's kind of outgrowing and he's got more of like a palm tree like um ah like ponytail growing out at the back. So there's more there's more consistently in the frontal lobe for heading the ball that maybe is a factor there. but so There's no question. Moise Bombito is the fastest player on this team. And that includes Cole Bassett, who was setting beep test records for the team, went over to the Air de Visé with Firenord and was one of the top five most fit teams ah you know on a very analytics-heavy, relies on on fitness and everything, yeah physical, up and down.
00:32:43
Speaker
league as well. um And he was faster than Kevin Cabral, who's really, really fast. He's faster than Jonathan Lewis, who I believe had the fastest 40s time sprint time on the team in 2021 as well when he was very good as well. So you know, and of course, Mois had that um I had that breakout moment where, uh, inner Miami had that counter attack in the first half when messy was on the bench earlier this season. And, uh, that is the fastest sprint that Opta has tracked for an MLS player this year. So no doubt, Jeremiah, you look at it, the rapids focusing on the rest of fans. They want the full backs to go forward. They've got the double pivot. They want Cole Bassett to crash into the box. They want the other midfielder to be up towards, you know, the top of the final third as well. And they're kind of relying on us the center backs and.
00:33:27
Speaker
usually one of the fullbacks or one of the other midfielders to kind of be there and you can get away with that or you have the ability to recover that when you have a freak athlete who's the fastest center back that MLS has ever seen and one of the fastest players in the league. I don't think there's any doubt if you take out Lal Sububakar and put Mois Bombito in there, he catches up to one of those three counter attacks for the Galaxy. Does he prevent the three goals to the Galaxy and win the game 2-1 instead of three one, but certainly, you know, that looks better. And so I'm wondering, do we have to see something tactically changing there? It should be said as well that you've got Reggie Cannon embedding in with the team as well. For the first time, Sam Vines came back um and came off the bench last night. And that was his first appearance since getting subbed out against Philadelphia in the final least cup game. He had a hamstring injury as well. So maybe there's also some tinkering with the fullbacks and some shopping and changing there to where if you have Sam Bynes who ah the coaching staff is trusted in, Ben the starter, the majority of the season, and then maybe Reggie Cannon who's certainly faster than an aging Keegan Rosenberry as well. Maybe you've got more cover or at least more options in terms of how you go about high risk, moderate to high reward.
00:34:37
Speaker
And so on the other side of the ball, this has been a, ah you know, as we said, it's been a good offensive team. What, what do they do that's so effective? Obviously, Jordy Mihailovic has had a, you know, a dark horse MVP level ah candidacy. I know Fafan Novajo has been ah very well regarded this year. He's putting up some impressive numbers, but what are they doing? I guess tactically that's, that's worked so well.
00:35:06
Speaker
they do a really good job of I think finding and creating space particularly when they're not going up against a low block that has happened in possession that has happened when they are pressing as well when they've won on presses Jeremiah like they've absolutely owned seems like I would be willing to bet if you were to ask the I don't know if you know the Twitter account when playing out of the bat goes wrong but if you You were to ask them to put a highlight reel of the top 10 of like most spectacular fails of those in MLS. I think the rapids have solidly two or three. There was a, there was a league's cup game against a camera, which team it was. Francisco Calvo, the former MLS center back was there.
00:35:46
Speaker
And he he like he narrowly made a defensive play on Navajo to force a corner or to force a goal kick. And then right off of that, Navajo just takes the ball to him, passes it to somebody who's open and passes it into the back of the net. Georgi Mihailovic, absolutely like pick six.
00:36:02
Speaker
um Roman Berkey for St. Louis at St. Louis earlier this season as well when he caught the ball off of a long throw and then thought he was distributing for a counter-attack. And Georgie totally baited him. So they've done a really good job with that. Georgie is the straw. This year's the drink. Colbasa has done that as well at times. I think he's the the Robin um to um maybe Georgie's Batman. I suppose that would be the, I think he'd be the the Jordan Morris to maybe Nucolodero two years ago for the Sounders maybe, to make that analogy. um And I haven't talked about this. They've also been, not recently, but they've been really, really good on set pieces at winning free kicks, at winning corners, and then executing on that as well. Georgi Mihailovic has taken the majority of those as well. Bambito scored goals. We haven't seen a center back goal yet this season, other outside of Bambito. They found Joffe on the wahoo in those. Colbas has been involved. ah ah
00:36:54
Speaker
um Oliver LaRoz has had two off of corners that have been absolute worldies as well. um And they've also started to resort to long throws as well. I don't know how they didn't, I don't know how Robin Frazier didn't identify this for four years, but Keegan Rosenberry apparently has a really good long throw. So he'll put one like right on the dot at the top corner of the box that'll usually go to Maxu and then they'll um he'll either flick it on back to goal or that he'll play it in kind of short for Calvin Harris to take it to the end line. So they've got a bunch of different options that they can hurt you with um in transition, in possession. Most of the time, I think that's the weakest of their three kind of um phases of play with Matt and they've been really good on set pieces. Again, albeit with a lot of that happening with Mois Bambito playing out of the back or on set pieces or using his speed in some way or another that's been diminished since he was transferred.
00:37:44
Speaker
Well, Matt, ah thank you so much for for all of this.
Independent Media in MLS
00:37:47
Speaker
This has been super informative, and I know you know the sounders have actually enjoyed a fair amount of success in Colorado over the years. They've also had a few quite a few spectacular failures there, so we never know what's going to happen when when ah the sounders head to mile high.
00:38:06
Speaker
but or yes ah know Is Commerce City a mile high? Is it also a mile high? Is it even higher than a mile? I think it might be. so i was um If you look at downtown Denver, Jeremiah is actually like a couple hundred. I think it's like 5,000 and change. I think Commerce City is maybe slightly above it, but yes. good as as an engineer who sometimes deals with surveyors um this is certainly um a good question but so ah you could call it um you call it Dix you could call it DSGP ah Richard Fleming famously didn't want to have a Freudian slip with that so he always called it DSGP he never referred to it as Dix as well um And then I don't know how we didn't connect that sooner with Richard Fleming being the head commentator for on altitude for um seven or eight years as well. But Rapids fans just starting this year, we started referring to it as the Richard as well. So um ah when when Sounders fans come out to Dick's Sporting its park in Commerce City, Colorado, right next to that wonderful Suncor plant emitting all of that radiation, um they can come out. ah Don't call it mile high because we um might ah automatically think the stadium obviously. course um and thinking about the Broncos right now and them being a not fun attacking team. They're they're rebuilding, it's looking okay. um They're not as good as the Seahawks, I'll admit that. but then that it's always That's always good to know. What have the crowds been like this year, just out of curiosity? um they've been What are we expecting on with on Saturday, more importantly? Yeah, um the crowds have actually been really, really good, to be honest with you. I think the ticket sales has certainly been really, really, has been really, really good. um
00:39:39
Speaker
Early season is always really tough. there wasn't you know there were There was some hype with some of the national team guys, obviously, but you know it's the ah it's Denver, it's ski season, you know the 730 kickoffs. I've hated the rollback 30 minutes as well, Jeremiah. That has not helped for the ah someone who's leaving the stadium an hour and a half, maybe two hours sometimes after. They've got to do something about the flexibility of these kickoff times. yeah I think there is there has to be some common sense that prevails at some point and it feels like we are forcing way too many 730 kickoffs in places that should not be kicking off at some point. Yeah, so I'd i'd love 7 p.m. I would love some early on in the season and I have spoken to like Chicago Fire fans have said this Montreal fans like you're if you're and I don't know how it is in the Pacific Northwest certainly but if you're in the middle of the country and your Kansas City or north like could we do like
00:40:32
Speaker
five o'clock for like the first two months of the season, maybe that would at least be, you know, it it'd be better. I would not mind some your some English 3pm kickoffs, especially that opening game of the season as well. But you know, it's just it's, it's brutal when you know, it's late February, early March, and it's, you know, and it's like 45 degrees, maybe a kickoff, it's going to drop below freezing. And then I see the highlights from Chicago fire. And there's 7000 people bundled up, like it's a snowpocalypse at, um at my life. But so um Excuse me, add soldier field. So um it was a little rough to begin the season. Part of that was weather. Part of that was Denver's always going to focus on the abs and the nuggets until their playoff runs are over. I think then as the team started to round into forms, I talked about that with Georgie. um
00:41:18
Speaker
ah With Zach Stefan as well I think a lot of the fans who are out on the team after last season and maybe like were one back or at least like Came back for a game and then had fun and then now we're coming back ah more recently So certainly by the time we got to 4th of July Which is usually when the rapids are at their best in terms of hype around and being the the main um play in town um Assuming the Rockies don't have a a home 4th of July game like I think everybody was already back on board at that point Anybody who was and was two home games later when they won Rocky Mountain Cup. League's Cup was a little bit tough because you know you didn't know it was going to be a home game, an away game. You're looking this on you know on three days notice when you have a game on Friday and then another one on Tuesday. You're not really surprised when there's only 11,000 people there. and
00:42:01
Speaker
three or four thousand of that are the mexico fans but you know it was 15,000 last night for um park at the park as well and certainly the final regular season home game as well i would expect 16 plus but no they've they've had a couple sellouts and they've had that um even when it hasn't been a drone show or fireworks or anything and the support's been i think really really good the supporters group has been filled back in with c38 taking over two sections now of of section 117. So I think the the vibes got, you know, it took a while to get there, but the the vibes are certainly back from the fan base. And I think certainly the um the the club's trying to engage the community and has done a better job of that, even normalizing for what happened last year and how results have been this season.
00:42:47
Speaker
Well, that's good to hear. ah And it's also good to hear that Brigadier Wave continues to truck along and we need more, you know, more independent media covering MLS teams.
Rapids' Fan Engagement
00:42:58
Speaker
Yes. I am a big believer that the only way that MLS is going to reach its potential as if there are outlets covering this league that are not literally being paid by the league. And ah here we are yes as proof that it's possible. And so thank you, Matt, for for doing your part. And thank you for joining me on the show today. Thank you for bringing me on to Burgundy Wave. And I know, Jeremiah, I don't blame you or you're you're not who's at fault for everything that happened afterwards. But you know, I think there's, you know, if if I don't express interest at that time that there was the opportunity or if maybe you wait a couple months, you know, because You know, is is Burgundy waving the same, ah ah you know, way back machine as Once a Metro? So, you know, if nothing else, thank you for realizing the talent and the passion that I brought, giving me the opportunity. I'm grateful for all four months of the stipend that I got at SB Nation um as well. And so, you know, I view it this certainly. I i went down a rabbit hole um a couple of years ago. Actually, it started during COVID where I was looking at words
00:44:01
Speaker
ah in other languages that like don't have an easy translation in English or like bring about like a concept that you don't necessarily know about ah in English like Ubuntu in Africa, for example, Ikigai in Japanese. And one of the words that I stumbled upon after Moana came out actually was this concept of Kahu.
00:44:21
Speaker
And it's referred to like honored guardian. And so that's a word that you can use to describe a grandparent. The you don't refer to yourself as a pet owner in native Hawaiian, if you have a dog or a cat, or I don't know what else they have in Hawaii, that would be a a natural pet. um But so the CAHU is like the the honored guardian in in that regard, that and as opposed to being the pet owner. So um I'm the managing editor of Burgundy Wave, I legally now Own the rights to the website link burgundy wave dot com but i see myself as the car who of a rapids community platform that exists that at one point i will be able to hand off and should continue to exist it started organically.
00:45:01
Speaker
joined as a part of a group of a community fan blogs at SB Nation and has since gone back to its roots as well. And there's a bunch of other that that have done that as well. And so I'm glad that we're still interacting with each other and that most of these outlets still exist and the fan bases recognize their value and want them to exist or want to contribute or want to interact with them. And the fact that we're not part of a major conglomerate that's funding some of the stuff in the admin with um the with chorus and everything. ah will be okay. And I think that's a testament to the grassroots nature of the league. And I'm grateful that happens even when a bunch of plastic supporters groups in Miami don't actually join the supporters coalition actually legally get the supporters shield when they win it.
00:45:41
Speaker
Okay. ah I got it. So this is a divergent. well i i got I heard rumors of something like this. but Can you give me the backstory real quick, like the 30 second backstory of what happened with the supporter shield and Miami? I have just seen this on Twitter. This is none of my reporting. This could just get people. Yeah, we we could see community notes about something like this, like when Elon post fake news or whatever.
00:46:07
Speaker
So supposedly in order for like the the supporters shield is managed by the supporters council yeah and there are members of the supporters council apparently the um was the the shirtless guys the ultras in san jose apparently like are not a part of that apparently so and ah Supposedly, none of the inner Miami supporters groups that are official supporters groups recognized by either the league or the club were actually have joined as membership of this organ is of the supporters council and apparently the actual transferring of the supporters shield is from a supporters group that's a member of the supporters council for the ah incumbent
00:46:46
Speaker
supporters shield winner handing it off to the supporters group for the ah winner when it happens as well. And so apparently, there's a whole question. Now, maybe this is just like bylaws and jargon and everything. So maybe this isn't actually like official or necessary. um You know, it could be unnecessary rules that'd be very MLS for the supporters group to have that like the link. But so we weren't sure like it came up relatively quickly or faster than expected that Miami was potentially going to clinch the shield. And then that happened via, I believe it required Cincy losing last night. And then of course that was also, it was a six pointer because I think Columbus was in third with that um as well. So the the results had to go that way and was maybe a little bit unexpected or you know ah for that to happen. So in an extremely petty act by some member of the one of the supporters groups in the Bailey at FC Cincinnati anticipated this and an effort of extreme pettiness drove the two hours past the hell is real sign to have the supporters shield ready to hand off to inner Miami in their rivals own home, which is a whole and nother level of hell is real parody, which I can totally appreciate.
00:47:56
Speaker
Uh, but so that is, that is the summation of my understanding from scrolling Twitter and having people banter about this. And I have no idea whether or not all of that is true or the whole truth or exaggerations. All right. Well, I guess I have some re I guess I have some research to do, but, uh, Matt, again, thank you for for joining us. Uh, please listen to it's holding the Highline is the podcast, correct? Correct.
00:48:21
Speaker
Please listen to Holding the High Line. Please read Brewing Indiewave. Thank you for joining me. This is No Sadi at Dis, and we will catch you next time.
00:49:09
Speaker
one