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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Ep. 23
70 Plays1 year ago
Ari and Noah talk about the rained out Seattle Sounders vs. Philadelphia Union match, preview the upcoming Colorado Rapids match and give their winners and losers from around Major League Soccer.
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Transcript
Introduction and Technical Challenges
00:00:09
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome in to episode 23 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lilianwall, and I'm joined virtually today by producer Noah. Noah, say what's up to the people. We put Ari in the quarantine box. He was too sick to come out, and so we stuck him in his basement, plugged in 14,000 cables, and we're here.
00:00:32
Speaker
it's been a heck of a week for me folks it hasn't been my finest hour i've had the flu all week it's been tough um but i'm feeling well enough today to lay this episode down so we're gonna let it rip uh man we just had a
00:00:49
Speaker
Huge battle with technology to get this set up, but I'm pretty proud of us for getting this functional I'm hoping the audio all sounds good, but I think we're cooking and We're ready for
Seattle Sounders vs Philadelphia Union Preview
00:01:00
Speaker
a good one today. This is this is gonna be there's a lot of novelty to this episode we're gonna talk about the Seattle Sounders riveting road match against the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park, which you know
00:01:14
Speaker
This is one of the more fascinating matches you're ever going to see a true chess match on the field. Just a lot to dive into.
00:01:24
Speaker
on the tactical battle that took place at Subaru Park. So we're going to get into all the nuts and bolts of that. I can't wait for that. And then I think we're going to keep the same format that we've been rocking with. After we're done with our Sounders takeaways, we'll hit some winners and losers from the rest of the results that took place in MLS yesterday.
PSRA Labor Dispute and Referee Compensation
00:01:46
Speaker
Uh, and uh, and then we're going to get out of here and that'll be it for episode 23 Um, but before we do that, uh, I wanted to hit a hit a little bit on uh, while I was out sick uh, noah did a really great interview with uh, psra president peter manikowski who was uh gracious enough to give us his time, uh to talk about the ongoing labor dispute, uh between the psra and
00:02:11
Speaker
and a lot of really good stuff in there, Noah. I thought Peter gave a great breakdown of the PSRA's perspective. You asked him some good questions. And, you know, I mean, I can just kind of get my takeaways from after listening to it, if that's all right, which is that, you know, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a labor expert. I don't pretend to know the fine points of these things.
00:02:38
Speaker
But I do think it's an example of a situation that gets made more complicated than it needs to be. To me, this is very simple. The solution to this problem is very easy and that's pay the refs. I thought Peter really hit on it, which is that they're not really asking for anything unreasonable. They just want, you know, basic travel accommodations, good pay to be treated well.
00:03:09
Speaker
for the work that they do, which is really important work. You know, we all want the standard of officiating for the league to be high and whatever you want to say about the job that pro referees do. Um, I think it's been pretty clear from watching the replacement referees that they might do a little bit better of a job than people give them credit for it. So I know refs are a punching bag a lot, but, um,
00:03:35
Speaker
You know, I just really want to voice my support for what they're fighting for because it's not unreasonable and it could easily, easily be given. That's, that's kind of the thing about it to me is like, if, if anyone's contending that these are impossible or unreasonable demands, that's just, that's just not the case. And, and so I thought your interview did a good job of highlighting that and, uh,
00:04:06
Speaker
I thought Peter had a lot of really good things to say on that topic. Yeah, no, he was he was a great interview very, very thankful that he took time out of his busy schedule to chat with us. You know, I think the biggest takeaway for me was just the fact that, you know, these are very basic things that have already been accommodated for players and, you know, other staff within MLS. And, you know, if you want
00:04:33
Speaker
good quality officiating, you should probably keep the standard of quality of life up for officials as well. And also I think it's quite embarrassing that Major League Soccer is essentially throwing a temper tantrum and giving the finger to its best officials over what amounts to 25 cents per ticket sold. So that's pretty funny to me.
00:04:59
Speaker
Agreed on that point. Yeah, um Anyway, I I really encourage everyone to go listen to that interview with Peter Manikowski for episode 22 of lobbing scorchers Good stuff. It was about a 30 minute interview now. So and it really it dove into it.
00:05:15
Speaker
more than I could effectively recap the nuts and bolts of it. Um, you know, that's a guy who knows the ins and outs. So, uh, good informative stuff there.
Match Abandonment Due to Weather
00:05:24
Speaker
Um, no, why don't we go ahead and just dive into this, uh, sounder's Philly game because there's so much to take away from this. This was a spectacle. Um, you know, uh, if you're listening to lobbing scorchers, you probably already saw what happened.
00:05:27
Speaker
I
00:05:37
Speaker
But this game took place in an absolute torrential rainstorm slash monsoon out in Chester, Pennsylvania. So I didn't realize how bad the elements were until like a few minutes before kickoff. I hadn't really been paying attention. I pulled up the match feed.
00:05:59
Speaker
five minutes before the game started. And that's when I realized the extent of it. And everyone's walking out there. The field is totally just soaked. And the whole vibe felt like
00:06:15
Speaker
Is this really going to happen? Are we doing this? Okay. It looks like we're doing this and the game kicks off and it's just an abject disaster. Like the thing about trying to play soccer when the field is that wet is, you know, you can't
00:06:33
Speaker
You can't pass or combine or anything like you normally would. The ball is floating on the turf literally. Exactly. You try and pass to somebody and the ball just comes to a dead stop. You can't lead anybody or anything like that. It basically becomes just hoofing the ball as far forward as you can.
00:06:51
Speaker
back and forth, which is not really soccer. So, and, you know, guys were Charlie Brown slipping on the field. And about five minutes into the game, the referee, and I think most of the players realized that this was a pretty untenable situation. Yeah. So, it didn't surprise me that they delayed the game at that point. I thought that was the right thing. But,
00:07:21
Speaker
what i didn't understand is why they stood there for like 15 minutes yeah they were just standing out in the pouring rain for like 15 20 minutes and it seemed like he was like asking the players their opinion on if they should keep going and he's like you guys sort of like you guys want to play or like you guys want to do this and then it you know it seems like some guys were like
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, we want to play, but it, but I don't know. I got the vibe from looking at the broadcast that a few of the guys were like, this is impossible. We can't, we can't do this. Um, my favorite was when the ref picked the ball up and this was probably like 10 minutes into them, just like standing around. He just picks, he has the ball in his hands. He just looks at the ground, drops it. It doesn't move. It just sticks into the turf and he just shakes his head and shrugs. I mean, that's, that's basically exactly how this game.
00:08:10
Speaker
Anyway, needless to say, they ended up calling the game, which was not a surprise to me, but I think the funniest part about this is that, you know, we, we talked about how LAFC and real salt Lake played in, uh,
00:08:28
Speaker
similar conditions to this last match day, but it was snow, instead of rain. And they went ahead and they played that entire game. And we talked in great detail about Steve Turundolo's reaction to that, which was, he was, I mean, he was not pleased. And Andy got fined for that. He got fined 10K for his reaction to that. So, but like, I don't really understand
00:08:55
Speaker
how you cancel this game but not that game like to be fair to Steve C. Yeah. You know I don't really see the consistency with that. It makes total sense to have to have canceled this game but I mean isn't
00:09:16
Speaker
It's definitely a little bit more playable in my own experience, but it's not by much. Like it's still pretty bad, especially in that situation where it was snowing so hard where it was accumulating like multiple inches at a time on the field.
00:09:30
Speaker
It didn't see it didn't seem much more tenable to me. So anyway, I'm not even I think I think that's funny Yeah, no, it's a good bit I think like it adds some comedic value to what we were talking about last week with how LFC we're talking about how they got job and then the Sounders game gets canceled
00:09:49
Speaker
Um, yeah, it was a good, it was a good, um, it was definitely, uh, the other good content I thought was the guys with the mops, the mops. Yeah. Yeah. The mob. So the mob guys, I think they were out there before the game, obviously like trying to clear it off, but obviously it was still raining the whole time. So it just got soaked again immediately. Um, and then during the initial delay, which was, it was originally dubbed just a delay.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah. And it seemed like they might have had the intent of restarting the game if they could get the field cleared off. So the guys with the mops are out there. They're scrubbing it. But I kind of felt like I was taking crazy pills watching that. It's still raining.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's still raining just as hard So you're clearing it off and it's just going to get the same amount exact same amount of soaked again immediately because it's still a torrential downpour so I don't know if there's anything to trying to get the field cleared off to like just to uh, maybe Save the condition of it. Um more long-term than trying to restart the game that could be the case, but it just didn't feel like they were
00:10:53
Speaker
The mob guys were they were fighting a losing battle right there. Yeah, they know I think for moving the water around the biggest thing is like there's there's specific drainage points that are better in certain parts of the field. So like it was all congregating kind of towards the middle.
00:11:09
Speaker
And so getting it moving it out to the outside so it'll at least spread it around and it should theoretically drain faster, but you're right. It's like flash flooding. It's not going to change. It was going to keep raining the same amount all night. It was literally. If you look at the weather, it was 100% precipitation.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, so so one of the Philadelphia Union beat reporters Jose Roberto Nunez who shout out great reporter. He said he spoke with like four or five different turf management people with like huge experience and they were saying that turf in February and March doesn't move water well as compared to like May through September.
00:11:50
Speaker
And because it had rained earlier in the day and the week, the soil was already so saturated. It was like impossible for it to drain. And then also that a source shared with him at 7 p.m., it was communicated that the field was playable in between kickoff and five minutes. Things deteriorated so quickly with like the root zone, which is, I guess, how they move the water in between like the sand and the dirt.
00:12:15
Speaker
Uh, it was so bad. It just, it just like basically backed up and was impossible to drain anything. Right.
Seattle Sounders Tactical Discussions
00:12:22
Speaker
Awesome. So yeah, great game. Um, obviously nothing to take away from this. Unfortunately, you know, uh, I was looking forward to seeing how it went to seeing if the team could score multiple goals, but
00:12:38
Speaker
Unfortunately, we got no data points from this in that respect. But I did figure, Noah, that there was one aspect of this that we could talk about from a soccer perspective, which is just our reaction to the starting lineup, which
00:12:57
Speaker
Which they came out in the same four four two that they came out with against austin fc I know you were none too happy about that. I mean we were talking about on the last episode uh about a lot of Radical changes that we would like to see just just to start to throw some curve balls. Try something different Yeah, see if you can spark an offense. That's uh been
00:13:21
Speaker
Stuck in neutral for much of the past calendar year. I've I've been feeling like I'm ready to see something like that. I know You've been feeling like that even even more so than I have you were tweeting out some lineup graphics last night where I was taking the piss a little bit to know yeah, yeah, I know and I I definitely get that but uh
00:13:44
Speaker
I mean, I'll give you by lineup that I settled on here. It's pretty fire. I got to say it's called the S lineup for those who didn't see it on Twitter. It's got Morris on the right wing. Paul Roth rocking a false nine with Musofsky as as the as the true nine.
00:14:00
Speaker
leochu on the outside he's only playing so he pulls his hamstring uh so that was just you know that's just a little wrinkle in there and then we got joshua tencio christian rolled on holding down the midfield alex rolled on on the uh outside right reagan and havi holding it down on that back line and then on the left cody bakes and uh andrew tomasson goal so i'm just saying i couldn't be austin with that lineup that's just my take i mean uh that's a little more radical than uh than i might go i i
00:14:31
Speaker
I think the point I was trying to make on the last episode is that I want to see something different on the left side of the attack, primarily first and foremost, rather than blow up the entire 11.
00:14:46
Speaker
I definitely wasn't surprised to see the 442, but I think in general, like my desire for change is less related to formation and more related to personnel. So like the notion that the 442 already was a new wrinkle, which I saw, I'm kind of diving in here. You had a little back and forth with our friend Jeremiah O'Shannon, Sandra Hart.
00:15:12
Speaker
Shout out Jeremiah. Shout out Sounder at Heart. You know, nothing adversarial. Just a nice little tactical debate. But he was kind of taking issue with the notion that we raised on the last episode that the team had kind of been banging their head against the wall.
00:15:30
Speaker
doing the same thing over and over when, you know, you could argue that the four four two that they've come out with these last two games is a bit of a new wrinkle. Jordan Morrison, Raul Rui Diaz have not played as dual strikers very much. And so.
00:15:43
Speaker
I understand that argument, but like I said, like, formational tweak isn't really what I'm talking about. Like when you have the left side of Nuhu and Leo Chu with Jordan at the nine, that's just a look that I feel like I've seen regardless of if you have the dual striker look with Raul.
00:16:02
Speaker
Or you run the four two three one with Jordan by himself up top or whatever you could run that with Raul up top, too That's just all stuff that I feel like we've seen struggle to score multiple goals in MLS games a lot over a pretty big sample size now, so You know if people think that the four four two is enough I guess it's you know, it's TBD we don't have a big big enough sample size on it, but I
00:16:32
Speaker
I'm at the point where based on what I've seen dating back to last season with the look like this, I've become radicalized on Paul Rothrock. And I don't think that makes me wrong, you know? No, I don't. I stand by what I said about Paul Rothrock. Is it radical? Yeah, but you know, these are radical times.
00:17:06
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support. Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gets you access to everything we produce.
00:17:32
Speaker
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00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, I kind of described it in the O'Shan conversation with changing parking spots in a shitty car doesn't make it a better car. You know what I mean? It's like, if there's issues with Nuhu and Leo Chu in the way that they're playing,
00:18:16
Speaker
shifting them into a slightly different formation isn't going to change their output. You know what I mean? I don't mind a 4-4-2. I mean, I guess we're playing elementary school football, but you know, I appreciate it. And if it's effective with the dual strikers, once we get back, you know, Rusnak and JP, fuck me.
00:18:38
Speaker
Sounds good to me. Score some goals. I don't care. Maybe we should be more open-minded and give the 4-4-2 more of a chance. Maybe we're just cynical and jaded. I'm open to that possibility. And I'm willing to be proven wrong on all of this. If they go out there in the 4-4-2 and they start cooking and this offense starts meaningfully
00:19:02
Speaker
Generating high quality chances consistently in scoring multiple goals in MLS games I'm happy to take that out. You know and to be fair. I'm just going based off what I've seen dating back To last March is that when the Charlotte FC game we were talking about was and that sounds about right I won't vote you on it though the The it was March or April. Yeah, I mean a while ago in my opinion this offense
00:19:32
Speaker
has been stuck in neutral pretty much since that time. And if it takes Paul Rothrock, not to belabor the Paul Rothrock point, but it's less about Paul Rothrock, honestly, like it's more about it's more about just
00:19:51
Speaker
trying something new if what you have been trying isn't working and you know maybe i'm not giving enough credence to the 442 with that but um either way uh it seems like that's what they're going to try until they get jiaopalo and russnack back and i think
00:20:08
Speaker
You know, we can talk about Paul Rothrock, Cody Baker, and all the other, your S lineup all day, but I do think there is an ultimate reality where if you don't have Zhao Paolo and Albert Rusnak, your ceiling is inherently capped. And like, I do acknowledge too, like,
00:20:34
Speaker
a lineup that has Paul Rothrock and Cody Baker in it over a large sample size. I don't know that there's huge odds that that's going to average more points per game than what they've been running over the last year. In fact, I would think the most likely range of outcome there is that
00:20:53
Speaker
That ends up averaging fewer points per game, but I would like to find out just for the intrigue. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I feel like I already know what the ceiling is with option A. So I would like the intrigue of option B, but that's just me. I don't think anyone's necessarily wrong for looking at it differently because
00:21:18
Speaker
Your your hands are tied with personnel in this situation. And it's unfortunate that we have to talk about that every week. It's unfortunate that we had to talk about that every week last year with with Christian and Raul missing all the time that they did. One thing I was going to say that I forgot to mention about the Philly game, though, if I could go back real quick, low key, not even low key, high key. Raul almost scored. Oh, Raul scored. He was. I was going to say, first of all, if it wasn't raining, he probably would have scored that, I think, or or hit the post.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it was gonna be a high percentage XG, especially for him. An XG special. It was gonna be a good look, but he didn't get that far from getting that shot off anyway. And that would have been really funny if he had somehow managed to do what Real Assault Lake did and put that away.
00:22:09
Speaker
Cause like, what if they had had to call the game after that? What would they have done without it? Well, you just pick up right where you left off, I think is the, is the, okay. So they're not going to start it over. They just pick up. Yeah. Your rosters are locked in your personnel that you brought. Okay. So I knew the bit about the rosters. I saw that tweet from Tim floss of sounded hard. Shout out Tim floss. But.
00:22:33
Speaker
I actually wasn't sure if this was a situation where they pick up the game in the six minute or whatever, or if they just chalk it and start over. I guess I remember instances in the past where they pick up in whatever minute that they were in, but that was like just such a shit show. Yeah.
00:22:50
Speaker
I wasn't sure if maybe this was I think I think this one won't be that bad because it's like six minutes and You know with stoppage time and the game will probably end up still being a 90-minute game If not longer, so I mean To kick off was pretty funny though. Yeah, the fact they kicked this off was pretty funny It was it was it was good content. But anyway, like I actually still looks pretty good if he can keep his hamstring
00:23:18
Speaker
in manageable condition. I think that it's still within a very feasible range of outcomes that he has a bounce back year here and starts to look like the player that we've been used to over the years again, which I don't think he ever has really lost that ability. I don't I don't I don't see him necessarily declining that much. You just can't stay on the field. Yeah, but like honestly, like
00:23:47
Speaker
From what I've seen in the Austin game and like I don't want to read like into the Philly chants at all, but I'm just saying like There's a couple data points now where I'm like, okay, maybe maybe this
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, maybe maybe he's been I mean we talked about it last game too is like he looks he looks way better than he did for stretches of last season whether that's just like coming in with a fresh head in mind on on the situation and you know.
00:24:19
Speaker
But yeah, like one of the things I brought up with ocean was how realistically, how many starting minutes, how many, you know, 70, 80 minute, like performances shifts can we expect out of Raul and still be healthy. That's, that's just, that's the only question about it to my mind. Um, you never know, but,
00:24:46
Speaker
into a theoretical world where he is able to stay healthy, that could solve a lot of problems right there. We might not even need to be talking about Paul Rothrock in that situation if he can start scoring goals consistently again. But I think for now, man,
00:25:07
Speaker
You just have to wait for JP and Russ snack to get healthy and see if that kick starts things. Um, because, I mean, I don't think we've talked about this, uh, since the last episode, but Pedro de la Vega is out six to eight weeks with a bad hamstring injury. So that's not good. Um, that.
00:25:30
Speaker
That was the most exciting part of this season, Noah, was getting to watch Pedro de la Vega week in, week out and seeing how he grew and integrated in with this team and what influence he could have. It was supposed to be the thing that kind of took what had been a struggling attack and elevated it to a contending level in an ideal world. And I feel robbed of
00:25:56
Speaker
of getting to see if that would happen. You know, that was the main thing I was excited to watch this season. And now they're going to have to go without him for two months. Um, but if you can get Resnak and JP back, I think you can stay afloat. Um, it might not always be pretty on offense. I doubt it will be, but I think you can stay afloat in that 1.4 to 1.5 points per game type of range. Like I did last year.
00:26:26
Speaker
And then I hope that whenever Pedro de la Vega does get healthy at that point, he can offer you that boost. And if you're hoping on contending this year, that's what you need to happen. And a lot of this season really comes
MLS Team Performances and Upcoming Matches
00:26:40
Speaker
down to that. I mean, we talked about it when he signed, right? Like there was a lot of pressure on this because it's sort of been billed as the difference between contending and not contending at least, you know, among a lot of the fan base.
00:26:54
Speaker
Uh, and in my mind, so, um, we're going to have to see how these next eight, eight week, eight weeks go until he gets back. Um, Colorado rapids up next, next Saturday at Lumen field. Uh, the squad will be returning home. Uh,
00:27:13
Speaker
I can give you guys a little scouting report on the Colorado Rapids because they had some of the most active offseason of any club in MLS. This was one of the worst teams in the league last year. They fired their head coach Robin Frazier, brought in new head coach Chris Armas, which was a pretty widely panned hire, I would say because
00:27:33
Speaker
Chris Armas used to be the coach of the New York Red Bulls and did not have a great deal of success there. And also had a very brief tenure as the head coach of Toronto FC that went even worse. So it wasn't like a widely lauded hire.
00:27:59
Speaker
But this is a guy that knows MLS. And from everything I've seen from Rapids Beat reporters, he's saying a lot of the right things about connecting with the fan base and supporters in a way that I think a lot of supporters of that club have felt like has been lost in the last few years. So it remains to be seen how much of an on-field effect he can have.
00:28:29
Speaker
But they did do a lot of roster movement over the off-season that got a lot of positive press. They brought in Georgi Mihailovic back from the Air Divisa, who Georgi Mihailovic, when he was with CF Montreal before he got transferred over there,
00:28:44
Speaker
He was looking like one of the best playmakers in the league. So that's not an insignificant signing, nor is the Zach's definite goal, who's a former US international goalkeeper. He was our presumed starter for the World Cup for a while before injuries and I think kind of spotty form had him fall off the World Cup roster. But I mean, this is an international caliber goalkeeper. They made a few other moves too. So like, I guess what I'm saying about the rapids is that
00:29:12
Speaker
they were a trendy pick to be an improved team this year a lot of the pundits you know we love the pundits here they were they were talking about how the colorado rapids were in for a big bounce back i wasn't as sure about that but i could see where they were getting that just uh based on the amount of moves that were made i mean this was this was a roster overhaul uh and the types of moves that they made and george mihailovich in particular uh
00:29:41
Speaker
I think it's shown to be a very good MLS player that you can feasibly build a good MLS attack attack around. So it didn't look like it to start the season. Uh, they lost their first game four to one, I believe. Portland though, to be fair, who's at the top of the table right now at Portland. So, but, and they're also, uh, they're coming off a big win to one at real salt Lake, which, uh, it's a rivalry game for them. And it's always one of the toughest road venues for anyone to play.
00:30:10
Speaker
Goals from Rafael Navarro their DP striker and their homegrown midfielder Cole Bassett who they brought back from I believe he was also in the air to visa Yeah, he's a home grown for them. They loaned him out there. It didn't really work out He came back, but he's another good MLS player. It seems like every time the Colorado Rapids do score goal Cole Bassett's like he's got his fingerprints on it, you know And he scored the game winner in this game so
00:30:39
Speaker
They're going to be riding some good vibes coming into this game. So it might be a seemingly inferior opponent, but the Seattle Sounders are going to have their work cut out for them a little bit to score multiple goals in a game, which that's kind of my litmus test right now. Can you score multiple goals?
00:31:03
Speaker
in a game at home. Can you score a goal in the run away? You couldn't score a goal at home against Austin FC, who I don't think are any better than. The Colorado Rapids, they might not be worse, but they're probably worse. I think they're probably way worse. They probably are. Yeah. But it's a similar quality and a bone in, I guess, is what I'm saying. So down on them.
00:31:33
Speaker
You're not so down on Colorado? I'm not so down on Colorado, I think as you are. I think that they made so many changes in the post, in the off season that kind of like we were saying, it's going to take a minute to click. But I think we're seeing, especially in this last game, we're seeing the quality that they can play with.
00:31:56
Speaker
Even away so Okay, I I don't I don't think they're gonna have a bad season this year. Maybe maybe they'll finish middle of the table bottom of the you know Right right on the playoff line, but I don't know I think I think the end of this season if they can get it clicking they could be a good team and next year who knows who knows I guess I would qualify myself as
00:32:21
Speaker
still a little skeptical of the Colorado rapids, but open-minded, open-minded. Maybe this Chris Armas thing works out. Maybe Georgie Mihailovich becomes a 10 in 10 guy. Maybe Zach Stephan is a goalkeeper of the year candidate. Like these are all things that could happen. And I do think like I definitely don't dispute that there's reason for
00:32:45
Speaker
their club and their fan base to feel like the arrow is pointing more up certainly than it had been in recent years for them. So I'm happy for them for that. And we'll see what happens next Saturday.
00:33:01
Speaker
on can the Seattle Sounders score multiple goals in an MLS game? Watch on lobbing scorchers. Yeah. Hey, home game. You know what? Let's let's let's win one because I keep going to the games with my girlfriend and she keeps saying, why is this team so goddamn boring? I just want to see a goal. And you know what? I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. How about how about we start with one goal?
00:33:27
Speaker
And then once the first goal happens, see if you can get to two goals. Yeah. Baby steps. We don't need, it's, you know, no pressure. Just take your time. Just take your time. But don't take too long. I feel like we're being a little petulant at this point, but you know, uh, I think, uh, I think that's about enough on the, on the Seattle Sounders for this week, unless you had anything else, no, we can dive into some stuff from around the rest of the league. No, let's, let's get into the real stuff. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. So I think, uh,
00:33:57
Speaker
We're going to keep doing our new little segment winners and losers, uh, where I take a look at a few of the other results around MLS and I give you three winners, three losers. Um, so we'll start with the winner section. No, a Minnesota United hottest team in the league right now. I think three, two at Orlando city SC. This was a great game. This was probably my favorite game of the slate. Uh,
00:34:22
Speaker
Okay. I'm going to try and get this right. Bongo who clay who long one a with the game winner. He's one of the most fun strikers in the league right now. He's, uh, he's scoring goals for fun for Minnesota United, very dynamic player, uh, stoppage time, 96 minute game winner after. So Orlando city had Duncan McGuire scored the tide for the fifth fastest goal in MLS history, like 14 seconds into the match or something. Yeah.
00:34:47
Speaker
And then Minnesota United ended up going up to one and then Dougie McGuire got a brace in around like the 83rd minute to tie it and then Bongo scored at the very end to win it. So just super exciting game goals going back and forth. But balloons are flying right now and their new coach still hasn't even gotten here. He just got to the country, Eric Ramsey from Manchester United a few days ago.
00:35:11
Speaker
And he's coming into some great vibes. Like, I don't even know if they needed a new coach. This Cameron Knowles guy seems like he knows what's up. I think I think they might like whenever you have an interim coach that.
00:35:27
Speaker
Has the vibes going like that? I always feel like they should just keep them. Part of that is because I feel like the Red Bulls did my boy Troy Lissane a little dirty. But Cameron Knowles seems like he's done a good job. But I guess a lot of that is probably a credit to Minnesota United's run office and scouting department.
00:35:48
Speaker
For what looks like a pretty nice roster that they put together. You know what I mean? Like I would know they just they look like they look like one of the better teams in the league right now And they've been playing without a without a full-time coach
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, I would kill for this roster. I mean, Pookie, you know, trap, uh, just everyone, dude, like, I don't know for a Will trap. Yeah, dude. I'm a Will trap fan. Okay. How some respect. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just making sure. Yeah. Will trap. I mean, he's, he's, he played for Columbus. He's a and enter Miami. He's, he's like always one year off, uh, winning, uh, another ring. You know what I mean?
00:36:26
Speaker
I don't know. I like this. I like this. I like this club. I like this lineup. I think they have good vibes right now. They have good vibes there. They're in the winner's bracket for the week. Um, next winter Portland timbers, unfortunately.
00:36:40
Speaker
They have to go in here again. Evander with the game winner at NYCFC. That was the most heartbreaking thing of the week. That was the most heartbreaking. This was also in second half stoppage time and Portland was down 1-0 in the 85th minute of this game. Anthony scored again, so that's another good thing for them. That guy can't stop scoring. And then in stoppage time, Evander scores like
00:37:05
Speaker
I don't know how he hits these distance goals from these angles. And it doesn't seem like he only scores this type of goal. Yeah, it's the only type of goal that he can score. He can't score unless it's the most insane goal you've ever seen. Yeah. He's a complete bot the rest of the time, but you put him 65 yards outside of the box, he's going to do a bicycle kick and it's going to hit a missile. He's just going to hit a missile right by you. What are you going to do? You can have one out. I don't know.
00:37:32
Speaker
Um, but anyway, the Phil Neville era, uh, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your allegiances, uh, continues to get off to a good start for Portland. They're kind of cooking earlier in the season, early in the season. And you know, we're going to, I'm going to talk about NYCFC in the losers section. Um, but that stadium is so hard to get road wins at, uh, they have, they have the.
00:37:58
Speaker
the most infuriating home field advantage in the league. I've been to that field and the dimensions are such that it's just so narrow that they're the only team that's used to playing on it. So it just gives them, it skews everything towards them every game that they play there. Anytime the Sounders play there, I look at a draw as a victory, essentially.
00:38:22
Speaker
Um, trying to win there has proven pretty much impossible for most teams in this league since, since they started to play there. So, I mean, credit to Portland for getting that win. That's a good dub. Can't hate.
00:38:36
Speaker
Um, they look good too. They uh, no and they look they look they look legitimately good They're probably going to the playoffs this year. Um, yeah Toronto fc1 zero over charlotte fc. Um, so not like the Most impressive result of all time, but lorenzo and cine with another game winner He's starting to cook
00:39:03
Speaker
And I mean, I think I think this is kind of another repeat of last week's winners, but Toronto FC are.
00:39:10
Speaker
I think they're defying the pundits right now more than anyone in the league. When we talk about teams that have a right to point to the screenshots, which is, that's always an important storyline to track. Who is delusional when they're pointing at the screenshots, Josh Wolf? And who actually has a right to have a bone to pick with the pundits? Everyone had Toronto FC, wooden spooning again. Honestly, myself included, I didn't really see anything different about
00:39:39
Speaker
their roster from the one that won the wooden spoon, won the wooden spoon, quote unquote. Um, so good job, John Herman, honestly, like this guy, this guy's kind of a guru. Like if you have a club that's in the mud or a national team program, such as Canada, that's in the mud, I guess hire John Herman because
00:40:03
Speaker
He'll turn you right around. Um, I don't want to, you know, it's still early. I don't want to call Toronto FC resurrected, but like you got to give him credit for, for the start that they've had. They have three straight clean sheets. This is a, this is a team that gives out goals for fun. They love, they love handing out goals the last couple of years. If you needed a goal, you should go. You just needed to go hit up Toronto FC and they would give you a few like three to five in every game that they played.
00:40:33
Speaker
and now they're just ripping off clean sheets like it's nothing and Lorenzo and Signe is scoring game-winning worldies every week so what's up with that? I don't know what's happening up in the north but honestly it's kind of kind of sick I'm not gonna lie because they do have they have two talented players that
00:40:54
Speaker
They literally have two talented players. It's kind of sick. They literally that's it. They're just they're cooking with two dudes, two dudes being guys and smoking. Yeah, like two talented players, both of whom drastically underachieved last year and one of whom was vaping on the. Yeah.
00:41:13
Speaker
One of them has an FAA complaint against them. And now they're both tearing it up this year. Insinie has been scoring the goals but Bernadeshi is cooking too. Their social team clipped up this one pass he had. It was just like a laser.
00:41:30
Speaker
to the left side. It was probably, it was probably the nicest ball I've seen an MLS player hit this year. Yeah. Well, Italy junior is, is cooking over there. So good for them. Um, for honorable mentions, I've got St. Louis city SC for their two, two draw at Austin FC who have choked away another home lead. Um, Colorado for their two, one
00:41:53
Speaker
victory at real Salt Lake good dub for them and I thought the New York Red Bulls deserve to mention 2-1 over FC Dallas and Emil Forsberg their big offseason signing one goal one assist I mean I'm telling you this guy is nasty like
00:42:08
Speaker
It was, it was widely acknowledged as a big signing when he got here, but he was balling out in the Bundesliga, like in his prime type stuff. So I saw a pretty little reason why he wouldn't come here and do the same. And this game seemed to support that. Yeah. The one goal, one assist and was pretty much cooking in all game or for at least the portion of the game that I watched. So that would be a big boost for, uh, for the Red Bulls. They haven't had like, uh,
00:42:37
Speaker
you know, a feature carry the load, really premiere type talent like that in a couple years. All right, losers for the week. NYC FC.
00:42:54
Speaker
This is just, this is probably the worst start in the league, you know, for, for, for as much as we've complained about, uh, how Seattle's offense has looked through there for their two actual games that they've played. NYCFC has been worse. Um, you, I mean, you credit to the timbers, I already gave it, but that was an egregious choke. And, uh, Nick Cushing, man, like he might be on the ropes. Cause like it was not supposed to be like this. We had a piece on MLS soccer.com. Uh,
00:43:24
Speaker
had an interview with David Lee where he was talking about all the young attacking talent that they brought in and how highly rated they were and how it was going to gel and they were going to be like it was going to be a new thing this year. Not so far like I don't I don't know I don't know and I think you know you always want to see it over a larger sample size but
00:43:46
Speaker
When you sign these highly rated like 18, 19 year olds, sometimes you just like don't know, man. Like you're really, you're, you are throwing darts. They can have as much pedigree.
00:43:56
Speaker
as you think that you want in a player, but they don't always hit. And it feels like what's kind of happening within YCFC maybe, I'm kind of just speculating from the outside, but they've signed a lot of these U22 players in the last couple of years. And it doesn't seem like a lot of them have hit their ceiling.
00:44:19
Speaker
And when that happens, you can end up in a situation like this. And they really, they just, they have nothing on offense right now. Like if we were an NYCFC podcast, we would be going in on them like even harder than we go in on Seattle. Yeah. We would be touching the third rail if you know what I mean. San Jose earthquakes, two zero loss at home.
00:44:43
Speaker
to the vancouver white caps too that's a good dub for the caps by the way they're both of the cascadia teams uh other than seattle got big duds this week hey well we didn't lose or draw so
00:44:54
Speaker
It's true. Yeah. You know, you can't really assess whether Seattle should be in the winner or loser section this week. But they did keep a clean sheet. They did. Yeah. Six minutes. Anyway, the Lucci Gonzalez era. This was supposed to be like the year two leap. Not seeing that so far.
00:45:14
Speaker
Like you got to be able to at least take a point against the caps at home, right? And then this is probably being petty, but I'm just going to throw LAFC in here. 0-0 at home to sporting KC, which it's a little misleading. I watched most of this game. It was one of those 0-0s that was pretty exciting. There was a lot of back and forth action. There was high quality chances, a lot of sequences that could have been goals for both teams. Hugo Loris, who
00:45:42
Speaker
It's already looks like one of the best cold keepers in the league made some, uh, made some good saves. So it's probably, uh, inaccurate to put them in here, but you, you still, even with all that said, like you pretty rarely see LSC get shut out at home. Like that just, so anytime I see that, I'm like, whoa.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. Really? Like it wasn't even snowing. No, it wasn't even, there was, there was no rain, no snow. It was just, it was in LA. Yeah. So, um, I guess sporting Kansas city. Yeah. I guess more than a loser for the week. I was just surprised to see that. Yeah. That was pretty funny.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:46:22
Speaker
Anyway, uh, that was all I had for that section. Uh, unless you had anything else you wanted to hit on Noah, I think we might be able to call this one a wrap for the week.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think this was an interesting week in MLS. Definitely not the, I feel like last week cooked a little bit more, but man, I'm just so glad soccer's back. I've been, I've been a freak. I've been just laying on my couch for hours watching MLS. It's, I'm so happy. It's great. It's great having the games back. The off season is, is brutal. Um, it like, yeah, I agree. It's like, I mean, you know, for me, I'm working the games, but like,
00:46:54
Speaker
That's, it's like my ritual, you know, I sit down, I get my, I get the whip around show. I pick what games I want to watch. If Seattle was playing, I key in on that. And it's just, yeah, I just kind of like drown myself in it and it allows me to, uh, kind of like not think about anything else. I just like get lost in the little world. So it's, yeah, it's great to have that back. Agreed with that. Um,
00:47:18
Speaker
On that note, I guess we'll get out of here then. Thank you everyone as always for tuning in and thanks for bearing with me through this episode as I recover from the flu. I know I might not have been like my normal energetic self on this episode.
00:47:35
Speaker
Appreciate everyone bearing with me through that, but hopefully we still got some good content out for this one I'd like to think that we did The novelty of a monsoon game is always going to be fun to talk about so I enjoyed that absolutely give us a rate and yeah like comment rate subscribe Unfortunately, it's come to my attention that
00:47:58
Speaker
A couple lafc fans gave us a negative some negative ratings noah, which oh no What are we gonna do? Fair enough, but you know if you want to counteract that And give us some five stars that would be much appreciated And we'll be back in action next week after this this colorado game Until next time we out please