It's Time to Have Nouhou Discourse - Ep. 86

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This episode of Lobbing Scorchers is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based cellar. Not only are they a local company, but they've been supporting independent Seattle soccer media since 2011 and are run by Sounders fans. They offer the best boutique wines in the world to members of their mailing list with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple.

One, they email compelling offers. Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. Three, your wine arrives at their Soto warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their Soto Tasting Room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit FullPullWines.com. Scorcher today quite the scorcher today. It's gonna be a scorcher What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 86 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall and Noah.

we are about to lay down our first l pod of 2025 how are you feeling we got an l pod we got a draw pod we got a win pod we're slowly sliding into a little bit of a decline aria i don't know how to feel about this We have gotten El Pod to lay down as the Seattle Sounders went down to Real Salt Lake and absolutely blasted the ball into their own goal yet again, leaving with a 2-0 defeat at America First Field.

We're going to talk about that in our game review. Unfortunately, we're going to dive into the new who discourse. Unfortunately, we'll hit our agenda check, take the pulse of the streets. And later on, we're also going to talk some CONCACAF Champions Cup. round of 16 the seattle sounders start the round of 16 on wednesday at lumen field against liga mecky side cruz azul nico moreno and i previewed that uh in in pretty

Good detail on Lobbing Scorcher's kickoff earlier this morning. But we're going to talk about it here as well because I think, Noah, we all want to move past. what we saw on Saturday and get back to CCC because that's exciting right now. As tough a game as that RSL game was, there is a very big, exciting match coming up on Wednesday. So we're going to talk about that. And then later on.

We're going to hit some of the other results for Match Day 2 in MLS, maybe talk some of the other CCC results. So it is a jam-packed show this evening. But before we get into all that, I do have to let you all know...

That Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderatheart.com slash LS. That's sounderatheart.com slash LS. Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show.

It appears we are closing in on 100 Sounder at Heart subs. So now more than ever, it's a great time to become a member with the season in full swing. Subscribers also now get access to the audio only versions of our live shows right to your podcast feed. That is a big perk. Noah, have we got any new subs to thank? We do. Oh, hell yes. We have one new sub. Let's go. Let's shoot for two this week, but we got one for this week. Ryan Van Liar. Ryan?

Thank you so much for becoming a Sounder at Heart member. Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate all the support. Love to see that spreadsheet just always growing. Music to my eyes. Music to your eyes. Also, shout out to our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, and Full Pull Wines. If you haven't done so yet, like the video, sub to the YouTube.

Follow us on all socials. Am I missing anything? I think that's it. Let's get into it. I don't know. Probably. We're always missing something. Let's lay down the L pod, Noah. Real Salt Lake 2, the Seattle Sounders 0. Let's do our lineup reaction. before we get into the key moments of this game. Pretty rotated, but not fully rotated, right? You had a John Bell start. You had the Cosa Rienzi debut, and you had the Georgie Rothrock duo on the wings.

What was your lineup? What was your reaction when you saw this lineup, Noah? I was a little confused. I mean, I understood the reasoning behind rotating here, but I was just a little bit... I was a little bit surprised that they would throw this much of a rotated lineup out to be honest with you. I thought it was less rotated than I would have thought. And now that I know how it panned out, I wish they had rotated it more. Because you essentially got a game that you punted.

While throwing out more of your, you know, like this, Jordan Morris was out there. Albert Rusnak was out there. You had the wingers rotated, but you had Christian out there. You had Obed out there and you had the first choice back line. Sands, Alex rolled on. who KKR went for him. But I mean, I don't know. I think in actuality, it's pretty much about as rotated as I would expect.

but certainly not a first choice 11 with De La Vega and Ferreira. I was shocked that Ferreira didn't play. He played at the end. I mean, didn't start, I guess is what I meant to say there. I was really thinking that this is his time to eat. You know what I mean? He was like an oil baron against this team in the past with FC Dallas. I was just expecting Brian would be like, okay, yeah, Jordan Morris, you are getting a break. Here you go.

I think the explanation there is simple, which is just that they're saving him for CCC. I don't know if there's fitness issues that necessitate him not playing a full load. on the weekend ahead of a Wednesday match. That's fair. But either way, I didn't mind in principle. putting a rotated lineup out there. In fact, I think that was a necessity in this situation with CCC on the horizon. And frankly, I think it was a good opportunity for a depth test to see how this team would...

handle a situation like this. And I think if I have a concern coming out of this game, it's that they did not handle it well. No. At all. No. So let's get into why that took place. Go over the key moments in this one. I mean... Obviously the moment of this game was the eighth minute opener, courtesy of an own goal from new who clinical finish. Let's just break down this play because it really is an unbelievable play. Um, there it was, there's a throw.

in right and the guy hits in a rsl guy hits in a cross that um there's uh there's no runner there right It was right within proximity of Stephen Fry where he could easily come off his line to swoop that right up. And Seattle could have just gone about their day. Yeah. Instead, knew who. flies in out of nowhere.

I think he said he, or he indicated that he didn't hear Stefan Fry call him off. That is a very basic, like goalkeeper defender communication moment where the goalkeeper says that he has it and the defender lets the ball go. He must, he must not have heard him. I still. don't understand what he was doing, even if you didn't hear him. He's in your line of sight, is he not? He must have somehow not seen him or heard him.

Or even known that there's supposed to be a goalkeeper in the goal, because I don't understand. Even taking that into account, it was like a flicked header.

It was clinical. It was a clinical finish. If you look at the picture they took of it, he looks like a striker. Yeah. He looks like a striker in a 1v1 with the goalkeeper. Diego Luna is in the background with his mask, but he's nowhere near either Fry or... knew who knew who was a better finisher in this game than diego luna yeah well by by like a million years uh you don't want that to be the case folks no you don't uh and i think what is especially uh

kind of mystifying about this is, uh, no, I, the own goal against Charlotte. I, uh, I just missed it. I said it was a fluke. I said that that probably isn't going to happen one time again for the rest of the season. I also called it one of the top two to three worst goals conceded in Sounders history, if not the number one worst. And literally in the next league game. they conceded one that was worse. Okay, let's debate this. New Who Said, Ari, I listened to the podcast. Please hold my beer.

I will go down in history. Let's debate, honestly. Let's debate which one was worse. Because I think there's arguments for both. I think there's no question that the raw sequence of events, the new who won, is worse. The silent one... I can understand why it was a chaotic moment. I could understand, uh, like it was a horrible giveaway by Jackson Reagan, but he's not the first CB to have a bad giveaway like that. And then yeah, I'm art like, uh,

I understand what he was trying to do. He smashed it into his own net, but he's trying to clear it. This one is a totally inconsequential cross that's going right to the goalkeeper and then knew who. comes in and scores in his own goal, almost looking like he was...

Trying to so it's worse that is the worst one from that perspective the argument I think in favor of the in favor of the argument for the for the Charlotte one would be the the timing of the game Honestly, if you're gonna concede an own goal The eighth minute is a better time to do it than right at the end of the game when you don't have an opportunity to salvage the situation. Seattle didn't end up salvaging the situation, but they at least had a chance to.

I don't know, though. I mean, I guess it depends what your criteria is. But, like, you could also say that the New Who one, it really... Didn't it just feel like it chalked the game like immediately? Yes, they had time to salvage it, but it just felt like you already put yourself...

so far behind the eight ball in a stadium where you never win anyway. So it almost might, might as well have been in the 90, whatever minute to lose the game. Yeah. I listen, I have to be honest with you. 100% the new who won is worse.

Yeah, it did feel like he chalked the game. I mean, the way that RSL play at home, too, is they're just going to run you. They're just going to run you and run you and run you down and try and break you with the altitude and their pace and whatever. And the problem is... When you're doing that already on a short rest, plus you're down a goal that they didn't even really earn, that's just demoralizing, man. That's just so...

Demoralizing. And frankly, I got to be honest with you, Ari. If we're talking about clinical finishes, you know, I have to give the new one over the Yamar one because the Yamar one, it's like it's defensible. It's a freak. He's getting back to defend. There's a reason for it to be defended.

You don't know if there's a trailing runner. You don't know if the ball is going to get there. It's a hectic situation. This is just run of play. Yeah. This is just like everyone is in position. This cross comes in and it was like, you know what? I'm going to score today and then scores. Yeah. You know, I already made this joke to Nico, but when we said score more goals, yeah, this isn't what we meant. No, it's not what we meant. Uh, second own goal against RSL, uh, for new who were for Seattle.

I think for New Who. That could be true. I think he had one other one. I think it was in 2020 or something. Either way, it felt back-breaking. But I would say it didn't necessarily need to be. They had so much time left. in the game. Uh, they almost, they, they got inches from equalizing when on the play where Jordan was offside. I guess that's a good segue into the other key moments of this game. Um, to me, Noah, this game,

was obviously lost on the own goal. I would argue it was just as much lost a few minutes before when Seattle had a corner kick that Albert Rusnak put into the box. Jordan Morris. goes up, wins the header. That ball looked like it was going in to me. We'll never know. But Georgie from way, way offside position comes in to make sure it goes in, but it obviously doesn't count because he was way... offside, uh, in a road game like this, where you are rotated, tired, got fixed your congestion.

You're in a building where you never win. You're probably only realistically looking at two to three chances in a game like this that you're going to have it all. No matter like... No matter what lineup you have out there, like just with the physical demands of what was going on and the heavy legs that we're talking about and just all the circumstances that we're talking about, you're probably only going to get...

Two to three of those chances at most, more likely, more like one to two. You can't be offside there. Like you really can't. And it's the second time that it's happened to Seattle this season where they have laid down a perfectly executed corner kick routine. And the last guy has been offside. Yamar did it. earlier this season and Georgie did it this time. That literally, I know no one is going to talk about it as such.

That cost the game just as much as the own goal. It did. If you realistically want any sort of good chance at attaining a result in this game, you can't be offside on that play. I think Georgie had a kind of a brutal one. I'm not going to lie. This just shows the reality of a player like Georgie who's not necessarily fully... like fully fledged out yet like he he has so much to work on shows a lot of raw talent but you know the thing we always say all the time is like

in those moments are you going to be consistent are you going to be impacting the game you want to be impacting the game but not like this i mean it's yeah you you have to know your positioning on a set piece that's like so basic, man. How many times have they been drilling these routines at Long Acres? I understand things are going to happen as one-offs, but now you've got...

Two instances where you thermoblast the ball into your own net. Yep. And two instances where you ruin really good set piece routine. I guess the Yamar one. He actually, that one I think went off the poster. He didn't even make it even with the offside, but he's still like, it was still. If it had gone in, he would have blown it by being offside. And then this one from Georgie, he's just so far offside that, yeah, I have no doubt that...

awareness stuff like that will come with game experience for Georgie. And I'm still excited about what I've seen from him so far this year. He's been exciting. He's been fun to watch. But I think the reality is... that play cost the team a result as much as the own goal did. And that might not be a popular take, but I think that's a fact. I mean, I don't think that it was the, I don't think that it costs them as much as the own goal. I think that that's.

That's probably not the case because I got to be honest with you. I don't know if that ball from Jordan is going in. If Georgie makes a better run on it, then he can finish that. Absolutely. But I just don't know. I just don't know. People are saying that it is, but I just don't know. If you're that far offside, you have to let it go to find out. That's it. That's fair. But, you know, I think that if we're talking about more consequential...

the new thing just can't be overlooked, man. That's just, well, I'm not, I'm not overlooking it. I'm just saying that, uh, there was, uh, a play on the table where if they executed it, the new goal could happen and you still have, uh, you're tied. You could, you have an exponentially better chance at getting out of there with a point. If you either let that ball go in the net or stay on side. So, I mean, I don't know. It was just a, it was another brutal play.

And again, like in succession with them doing that pretty much exact same thing in another game, which Yemar is a veteran by the way. So, uh, You can't chalk that one up to inexperience. But yeah, no, I mean, not to bag on the Georgie Rothrock duo, but it just wasn't. They were bad. It wasn't effective. No, they were bad. I don't even think that. That's bagging on him. It was bad. They both looked bad. And I think that is the concern coming out of this game is that.

You know, we've spoken very highly of how the team has played so far this year, and we've spoken quite highly of the depth that they've demonstrated. This was a situation where we got a case study. on what it looks like when they need to lean on that depth. I don't want to use one game to fully define anybody or say that this team doesn't have depth or anything like that, but.

I wanted to see them go into RSL, the depth, have a good show in, have a good chance at taking a result and kind of show that. They can lean on a rotated lineup like that when they need to, especially because they're juggling with CCC right now. And I think the concern coming out of this game is, I think they kind of showed... They kind of showed the opposite if we're being honest. So yeah. Other key moments in this game, obviously Jordan, the Jordan to roost snack goal where, where Jordan was.

offside on that ball over the top. Uh, you could say the exact same thing. I think about Jordan on that play, as you could say about Georgie, which is that there's kind of, there's just no reason to be offside there. Uh, I think he missed time to run a little bit, but Schmetz even said today, like part of your job as a striker is to time those up so that doesn't happen. And I think he was slightly offside. Some people, it was close for sure. That's the thing is that one.

I think is a little more understandable because it is very tight, close call. Whereas the Georgie one, it wasn't close, but either way, if he is literally like, you know, two inches. back and onside Seattle ties the game right there and they could have won the game if that had, if that had counted. So that was just another crucial moment in the game where really, like I said, you're only going to get two to three chances in a game like this.

Those were your two, and you were offside on both of them. Can't do it. I mean, you're kind of asking to get clean sheeted at that point. There's one rule, Ari. There's a lot of rules, but there's one rule. It's where you're not actually allowed to be behind the last.

offender and like so like you just you really shouldn't do that because that's like basically the one rule where you're not allowed to do i mean if you know what i mean it's like well if you do do that and you score it's not going to count yeah it doesn't count so but like you know Does that go into XG? I'm not sure. We'll have to dive into that. I have to make light of this somehow, Ari. I don't know. This was such a... I talked about the Charlotte game being brain-breaking.

This was 10 times more brain-breaking, which I guess before we get to the positives and negatives, I wanted to ask you this. Does this make the Charlotte game look better or worse? I just I kind of don't know how it relates to anything else like that, because I don't know how much of this just. Real Salt Lake away curse. Real Salt Madrid. But okay, they really did not look like that in this game. They are bad. They look so...

Well, I'm going to save that for my negatives because I have I have takes. All right. So I only had one more one more moment that I wanted to talk about from this game. Well, OK, it's actually a couple of moments. Pablo Mastroeni. was kind of on one in this game in a way that was...

Kind of pissing me off, honestly. I'll tell you what I mean. Our ex-dog. There was, yeah, our ex-dog coach. We love Pablo here, but he was acting a little ridiculous, in my opinion. He was acting a fool. So there was a play where... The Real Salt Lake guy was trying to make a run in behind. He and Yamar are going at it. It was like a physical 1v1 that they were in.

they were in the box and the guy, uh, the striker grabbed Yammer's Jersey, pulled him down and, uh, was, went down trying to sell a penalty. But the ref actually made a great call to realize that it was a foul on the forward and not Yanmar. Pablo Mastroini on the sideline is losing his mind. that it should have been a penalty kick, which first of all, if you watch the replay, that is not the case. The guy very, very obviously fouled Neymar.

But on top of that, how is Pablo going to see that either way from where he's at on the sideline? He's melting down and throwing a tantrum. We literally know for a fact that he has... He has no clue. He has no clue. He has a 50-50 chance at knowing what happened there at absolute best. And what he's doing, Noah, is throwing a tantrum for the cameras because he knows his team is overmatched. talent wise, even with Seattle rotated and crazy shit, like own goals.

And penalties and set pieces are the only way his team is going to win the game. So he's he's getting ahead of it and throwing the tantrums. So if his team blows the game, he can go and be like, oh, well, it should have been a penalty. And it makes him. Amanda's team look better. All right, whatever. That's one thing. But the one that honestly drove me even crazier than that was there was a play where...

It was the Jordan Rusnak offside play where the AR let the play go. They let Rusnak score the goal and then put the flag up. Right. They cut to Pablo on the sideline. He's throwing a tantrum again for the fact that they let the play go. And you can read his lips and he's saying, that's so embarrassing. That's embarrassing. Dude, there is no way.

That he does not know the rule that the AR is supposed to let those go and then put the flag up after. That's like the whole point of VAR. There's no way. Well, and it's also... everyone knows this rule. Yeah. RSL had a player who was screaming at the AR. Oh, that was so funny. And she was like, she literally was just like, what, what do you want? She was like, what do you, what do you want? Just for the record folks. She was absolutely right. Yeah. In fact, uh, I was,

I had the reaction of, yes, that is what you're supposed to do. Right. And Jordan was offside. They correctly, I think, probably, I mean, I don't know. I think he probably was either way. There were some people trying to argue he wasn't, but I don't think so. Assuming that he was, the AR handled that exactly correctly. So for him to say that it's embarrassing, you know what's embarrassing is either...

There's two options here. He either doesn't know a rule that has been in place for like two years now. Which you're a head coach. That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing. Or he's pretending. not to know the rule when he does and throwing a tantrum anyway, which is also embarrassing. Why are you crashing out Chris, bro? Pablo was crash out Chris-ing, which I understand coaches do that sometime. But he was leading! Especially...

Especially with the offside one. It's like, Pablo, what are you talking about? He's a certified chirper. I just didn't know what. i was watching man like he's yeah that's that was embarrassing for him it was yeah um all right positives and negatives i'll just read off mine then you can give yours

All right, negatives. Here's what I had written down. We're hitting negatives first, folks. That's how you know how this result was bad. I guess for a negative result, we'll do that. For positive results, we'll do positives first. I like that. I have written down here, the own goal was just insane, and it's now happened two games in a row.

league games in a row uh rotated offense with rothrock and georgie on the wings i said c minus at absolute best that's generous absolute best that's generous i mean we can talk about the offense a little bit more uh my take was that like Obviously, it was not a good performance in the attack at all. In all phases of the game, frankly.

They, yeah, but specifically talking about the attack, they didn't play well on offense, but I thought I did think for whatever it's worth, which is not a lot, but I did think. Uh, there were more, there were more moments where it looked like there was functioning attacking movement and like half chances and stuff. Then, um, then there would have been, if this game was played like early last season, where they, where they would have like produced.

absolutely nothing. I didn't think the offense produced absolutely nothing. Uh, like chance wise, like they, they produced absolutely nothing on the scoreboard, but like chance wise and just how it ran, I thought it was, uh, there was at least semblance of life. That's why I landed on C-. If you were going to give it in the D range, I wouldn't.

argue with that. I would probably argue with F just because of what I said, that there was semblance of life. But yeah, I mean, if you were going to give it a D, I would not argue. Jackson Reagan made another error on the second goal, which... That happens because of game state, you know, Seattle's pushing equalizer. Yeah. They were not in it, but like that's still, um,

That's still an error by the center back to step that high when there's no one back. And he's not been performing too hot, Ari. Neither of the... None of them. This is my overall... kind of takeaway, which is that the defense as a whole, it's not even just the CBs. I'd say the defense as a whole is just off to a pretty notably bad start. Oh, I have an agenda for that one. These concessions. are past the point where... I can write off the Charlotte one as a fluke, but you've now conceded...

a set piece goal that, I mean, we talked about the Charlotte one. It was, it was well done by them, but that's still a set piece concession. You've got what I described on Lobbing Scorchers kickoff as two of the top five worst own goals in the history of soccer.

as a sport. And I understand that that is like a recency bias exaggeration, but not that much of one, like two of the worst own goals that you're ever going to see. And then there was also a set piece at the end of the first half in this. RSL game where they didn't mark the guy. And that really should have been a goal. They got lucky to not be down to zero on a first half stoppage time goal, uh, because Stefan Fry bailed them out. So, uh, that's a negative.

Taking an L at America first field, the stupidest. Yeah, you could. Yeah, you lost at the worst name stadium. I hate L's at America first field. And yeah, defense. It's not even in Salt Lake, Ari. Yeah.

Sandy? Sandy, yeah. Sandy? You lost to Sandy Cheeks? America First Field is not only the stupidest stadium name in MLS, it's the stupidest stadium name period period out of any sport in the entire country took an l there um all right i'll do my positives not that long list wait i gotta hit my negatives well i was gonna do both okay okay all right all right that's my positives were just like uh

like result wise this it doesn't matter that much like there's so many games left to make up the points that you dropped and really this season is all about like more than that this season is all about ccc right now yeah if Uh, making a run in CCC comes at the expense of bombing a couple of league games like this. I'm okay with that, but I guess just to get back to being negative, um, my thing is like, you know, We've seen MLS teams bomb a billion times while they're trying to...

juggle champions league. It happened to Seattle in 2022 when they won it. It didn't make the playoffs. It destroyed their league season. It completely destroyed their league season. I don't know. I don't expect that to happen this year, but I came out of this game. feeling a lot more like them juggling the league play with CCC is going to look more like a team that...

is struggling to do that than what we hoped would happen, which is that the depth would come through and they would actually be able to take results in games like this when they have to rotate. I come out of that and this is probably, this could be, they can prove this wrong. Because it is only one game and it is in a venue where they famously can't win. But it was hard for me to come out of that and not be like...

this might kind of tank the league season again. Like that's what it looked like. So it's up to them to go prove that wrong. And I'm fully willing to be proven to be like a reactionary on that. I'm just, I'm just expressing how I felt. Um, but that was my one positive is that like CC sees the focus. Uh, it's early enough in the season where you can make the points up. It was a rotated lineup. You do have to, there's, there's been some commentary on this. Uh,

And to be fair, I just did a lot of commentary on it without bringing this up. But like you have to acknowledge the context that Ferreira and De La Vega didn't start the game. Right. You know, I am disappointed that the Georgie and Rothrock duo flops. uh in uh in substitution for them but like to make a conclusion about this team or this offense as

a hole in a game where De La Vega and Ferreira aren't out there is, uh, lazy. It's bad analysis. Um, anyway, okay. Uh, Noah, what are your positives and negatives? My negatives to start it out here. RSL looked like absolute dog shit. Terrible. I mean, I was watching this match and just increasingly getting more tilted. It was like we were playing to the opponent.

It was like we were up here, right? Like, you know the quality that Seattle can play with. You had just watched it like three days ago. And then you watch RSL walk out with... Basically, I've seen college soccer played better than this Pablo team. I mean, they are bad. Diego Luna looked bad. Everyone looked bad, dude. He's a good player, but that's like pretty much it. But he's so streaky. He's so streaky.

He's on or he's off. You know what I mean? And I'm going to tell you what, that whole team looked turned off. They didn't even know what was going on. They didn't even want to be there, man. I swear. They looked terrible. That's what kind of bothers me the most is they got... They got bailed out. I don't think either of these teams deserved to win this game. No, exactly. Neither of these teams deserved anything. This was...

Such a painful watch. They should appeal to the league and have RSL points rescinded. Deduct RSL points and just... yeah but yeah no i see what you're saying like uh like if rsl was even like an average team i'd be like all right if you're playing them on the road rotated you're fighting an uphill battle to get a result against them

This lineup should have been able to get a result in this game. It sounds so dumb because it's Real Salt Lake, but when they play the Sounders, we literally did this as an episode title, Real Salt Madrid. When we play there, we cannot beat them. And this was supposed to be the match where the Sounders, they finally have this depth. They're finally like by and far the best team in the West. They're like, they are this behemoth.

And they played like it was RSL 2 versus RSL. My brain was melted from this match. It was... so bad and then of course you know i saw that we would have to do new discourse and i was like i we're gonna do it yeah it's uh anyway that was my first negative point my second negative point the pundits were actually watching this game Ari I know that it sounds stupid but we have to hear from all of these

big-brained, you know, East Coast pundits all the time. They just, like, don't watch the Sounders, or they say they do, but let's be real. We know when Tom Boger goes to bed. We know he's going to bed before the Sounders kick off. We love you, Tom, but we know. Andrew Wiebe, I think he goes to bed at 6.30. Got to be honest with you. But this is just like this is the performance you put on.

when you are the only match on, when you are being praised, when you are being talked up, and you can't even be held to the standard that people are... talking about you as like that's just so frustrating and brutal and I know that it's aesthetics and I know that it's silly

But when it comes down to it, it's like people are always complaining, oh, why do these coast pundits never talk about the Sounders? Why do they never talk about the Sounders? Because every time they talk about the Sounders, this is what they watch. Third and final negative from me, the games don't get any easier, man.

the games don't get any easier. And if you want to win the shield, which I keep seeing people say the Southers is a shield contender. I never thought so. I think that was the same thing to say. I mean, I can see why people would like anyone who was high on them coming into this season might pick them. My argument just would have been.

There's just too many games, too many competitions. Yeah, if they were not NCCC Club World Cup and Leagues Cup, then I for sure might pick them to compete for the Shield. They're like, especially like with what we saw with how the depth played in this game, they're definitely not winning the shield if they can't get that turned around. Right. And or home field advantage in the West.

if you can't get these results like the season is long but last year it came down to one or two results for playing at home or winning the west with a team that you know maybe if you win the west and you're playing the galaxy At home? Maybe you make it to an MLS company. I mean, this is all questioning. And we're in last season now, but let's go to my positives here. I know people were shitting.

On KKR, Kosarienzi. But I think that once he shifted positions a little bit and came out of that second half and really settled into the match, he looked really good. He looked like he did in preseason. He was making really good progressive plays. His vision is so good. I just think that he needs more reps. He needs more time. It was the same thing with Pedro early on where, like I was saying, he's not settling into games. He's not looking.

amazing but once he gets settled in he's gonna be so much better and once he can calm down and feel that he's gonna be great and he has been and I feel like it's gonna be the same for Costa Rienzi I know he got shit on. He looked really bad in the first half, but my positive take from it is he grew into it. He grew into the game, which is what you want to see from someone who has never played an MLS match ever. Sure. So I like that. Yeah. And then my last my last positive here.

MLS season is long. Let's be real. This result might not matter at the end of the day. Honestly, like results kind of don't matter to like June or July in this league. You know, like you don't want to punt points. like they've done these first two games. But if it happens this early in the season, you can't you at least right now can say that there's time to make those points up. And I would imagine usually the way it works is that.

There's a couple of results that when you look at the schedule, you think, oh, that might be a tough game or I don't see any way that they're going to win that game. Maybe you catch someone else rotated and win like that. Maybe. Maybe the opposing coach doesn't feel the backup goalkeeper and then their goalkeeper gets a red card and you have Sean's watskin. Well, I'm not, I'm just kind of doing a theoretical situation. But like, uh,

There's going to be games this season that we think that they probably aren't going to win that they do. Right. Hopefully they got to hope that that can make up whatever points that they've dropped at the beginning of this season. And I got to know, like if they win against LAFC this weekend, how does, how does it like, what does that do to change the narrative?

Well, they're going to have to do it with a rotated lineup again because they're going to empty the tank for this Cruz Azul game. So, yeah, if they can go out there with the rotated lineup and beat LAFC at home.

I would, if they put in a good performance in Cruz Azul, take an aggregate lead, put themselves in good position to advance, and then go out and beat LAFC with a rotated lineup and... look a lot better than they did at rsl i'm kind of willing to look past this rsl game entirely if they do that uh and sample size i'm basically i'm basically

uh, hoping to be able to write it off as like the, uh, well, I mean, yeah, they lost that game, but that's the, they, it's apparently physically impossible to win at America first field is the biggest fortress. They have under the professional sports. So, uh, that was,

game was impossible to win. If they, uh, if they ball out against Cruz Azul and then beat LAFC, I'll feel empowered to have that take. Uh, and that, that would be recency bias too, but that would be, I think that would be a great sign if they do that. Yeah. Well, I just think that what I'm trying to bring up, I guess, is that it's all about the context, the context that we do have. We don't have that much context. We've played really well against a Guatemalan side.

And then in league play, we've just looked sloppy. But the thing is, if you look back at years past, the Sounders always look sloppy at this point in the year. And then, you know, you move on, you settle in, you figure it out. It's just... So much harder when you have this level of expectation. I feel I feel confident still that the first choice 11 of this team.

is going to be a very productive and dynamic, fun to watch offense this year, all that. I still think that. I think the concern I have coming out of this game is, you know, We were all under the hope and impression that a rotated 11... would be able to maintain maybe not, maybe not like the exact level as the first choice 11, but something close to it. And you did not see anything even remotely.

in the ballpark of that until uh honestly uh one positive that i didn't mention is that de la vega came on and i thought he i thought he was looking pretty good again yeah so um i i uh i don't know about you i still feel Uh, I still feel good about the first choice 11 and I feel good about, uh, the first choice team having a chance at making a run in CCC and having a good chance in this Cruz Azul series. I think.

I saw a lot of people too saying like, well, this RSL game, I mean, if they do that against Cruz Azul, they're going to get boat raced by Cruz Azul. Yes. Yes, but De La Vega and Ferreira are going to be playing against Cruz Azul. And I think that is going to, I would hope that's going to make the offense look better. And probably Paul Areola. Yeah.

which I think is a underrated point in this. Also, Alex Roldan should potentially be back. His wife was having a... i mean they were having a kid obviously together but like congrats to alex congrats to alex we love alex on this podcast as i literally gave him my my man in the match last match he was playing like and you know what i gotta say this

A guy who has a kid on the Sounders is good for one goal right after. Yeah, that's a good one. There is historical precedent for that. So Alex Roldan, because he only scores absolute bangers, right? Absolute banger against Chris Azul. Fill that.

in my pocket um i don't know man this is this is all this is all very doom and gloom but we gotta feel it we gotta feel it as a club and just move on because like the season's so long dude i don't know i'm just i'm just glad there's ccc on wednesday and uh hopefully thankfully hopefully you never have to think about this game again

It's a new year, and that means new gear. The 2025 MLS jerseys are available on MLS Store. It's the ultimate destination for every fan, whether you're repping the Seattle Sounders. or, you know, any other club you secretly root for, MLS Store has it all. From jerseys to exclusive team gear to championship gear, it's all there. They are always running some kind of sale, whether it's free shipping, 20, 30,

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with your order. Hoxon Ferments, proud sponsor of the Flaming Hot Press Conference. Trademark pending. All right, let's get to our agenda check, Noah. Let's do it. All right, we're going to do the New Who discourse right here. What's the official agenda for this one? Is there a name? We're just going to do the New Who discourse and hopefully...

Well, okay, so my agenda on this, let me explain. Yeah. Let me get out a pen and a paper. We all know that Nuhu has been a polarizing player on this team for many years now. He's a fan favorite. to some. I'll always remember Garth Loggerway describing him as exciting to watch and then saying, that's not necessarily the attribute you want. in Defender. But Nuhu, he's fun to watch. He does the step overs. He runs really fast. He's got an affable personality. He does like acrobatic

bicycle kick clearances and stuff. He likes spicy teriyaki. He likes teriyaki, exactly. So he's been a fan favorite to some for all of those reasons. There's also a segment of the fan base that doesn't just not rate New Who. but like really, really think he's like a horrible player, like an awful, awful soccer player. And that's not like a niche take. That is like, there's a heavy contingent.

people out there that think that my take on that has always been that the new who hate it. I'm never really subscribed to it that much. I understand why he can be frustrating. to watch and i definitely think the the flaws in his game are obvious he never developed as an attacking threat whatsoever and uh he also he is Known as an excellent 1v1 defender and he is an excellent 1v1 defender. There are...

There are times where like he, he's sometimes like he's marking people in the box and not marking them kind of stuff. His positioning is bad. His positioning can be bad at times. I don't know about always bad. That's kind of one of the things that I think is exaggerated. Like, yes, his position. is bad sometimes is it more frequently than any other defender on the team a lot of people would say yes frequently for sure a lot of people see i just don't necessarily i really in the last two weeks

Probably not. Probably not. In the last two weeks, but I'm just saying on the whole. But either way... I understand why people get frustrated watching him, and I definitely understand why he is taking heat after this own goal. But... I think that the discourse around him gets overblown. I've been saying this for years and I, uh, I think people act mind blown at like,

Why does he start week in, week out? Why is he still playing? He's so terrible. And people dish those takes when I think the value that he provides to the team still is quite obvious to me. And you know who else sees value in him as a player is Brian Schmetzer. So I think the first thing I want, I would. point out is that if you're saying that new who is if you're really saying that new who is this

horrible of a player. Like he's awful at defense. His one V one defending isn't even good. That's all propaganda. He never developed as an attacker. So he's just this like massive net negative every single time he's on the field. Why is he not benched? If that is your honest take. then you are also arguing that Brian Schmetzer is completely out of his mind and doesn't know what he's doing.

You are because Brian Schmetzer has been new has been on the team for like seven or eight years now at this point. And he has been a written in pen starter the entire time. And through a lot of, like, there's been professionalism incidents, like, remember last year where he missed his Uber, and he never developed one attacking skill, and yet...

Brian Schmetzer starts him every single game, every single week. He started him in the biggest games. He started him in MLS Cups. He started him in all the biggest Champions League games. He started him in some of the most important matches in the history. of the club. So are we really to believe, first of all, that Schmetz is just completely out of his mind on that and he's just starting this player that totally sucks and has no value?

I think that strains credibility. So what value does Schmetzer see in New Who? Why does he start him every week despite all the shortcomings that we all see? I'm just going to... I'm going to explain this in a way that this isn't even necessarily what I believe. This is what I am... Passionate about. No, this is what I am... What's the word I'm looking for? This is what I'm assuming that Schmetzer... believes for why he continues to play why he continues to play New Who which is that New Who

All right. Okay. Let me, let me, let me start this over. Okay. When you're the Seattle Sounders, for instance, which the Seattle Sounders are the Seattle Sounders, you got to play guys like Denny Bawanga. Got to play guys like Gabrielle Peck. Got to play guys like Ricky Pooge when he's healthy. Let's take Bawanga, for instance. Seattle, when they're going into a game against LAFC...

Nuhu gives them an edge that most teams don't have. Denny Buonga, just from a physical profile standpoint, there's pretty much no defender in the league that can... that can keep up with him, both in terms of speed and the moves that he's got. Those matchups, those 1v1s for most teams in MLS are lost before they even start because they don't have someone who's fast and athletic enough to win those 1v1s. New who can't.

Whatever else you want to say about him, do you ever wonder why when the Sounders play the LA Galaxy, they actually do kind of good defensively? Do you ever wonder why when they... When they played LAFC, uh, LAFC boat raced them a couple of times last year for sure. Don't get me wrong, but there have been games where, uh, even the, even the playoff game where Bwonga scored the game winner.

He wasn't doing all that much for the rest of that game. Do we think Nuhu has nothing to do with that? The whole back line deserves credit for that. This has been the best defense in the league for the last two years. But that underscores my point. This has been the best defense in the league the last two years with Nuhu as a week-in, week-out starter every single game. Are we really saying that that is...

in spite of New Who and not in part because of him. I just think that we are being a little disingenuous to suggest as much. And the idea that he's a net negative and brings no value. defensively, I find that a little ridiculous. I'll be honest. Why would like Brian Schmetzer has been coaching this game a long time, just on a base level. Why would he put a defender out that is that horrible? But I also think from watching Nuhu go up against team's best players week in, week out.

I could come up with just as many clips of him making like incredible plays to break up counters and winning one V ones against these guys, just as much as you could clip up all his mistakes. There's an example in this game, five minutes, maybe even less, like three minutes before he scored the worst own goal I've ever seen. He made a freaking incredible play to break up a counter where the RSL winger.

had him one V one. And if he gets by knew who, like, uh, it's probably going to be a really dangerous opportunity and knew who snuffed it out. He got the ball off him and he won possession back. So that obviously is not, that is vastly overshadowed in this. game by the fact that he bammed that ridiculous own goal. However, my point is that like this Cruz Azul game, for instance, you got to go up against some guys.

You got to go against Matius Bogus. You got to go against Giacomacchus. You got to go against, go down the list. This is a good-ass team. I legitimately, I'm putting Nuhu out there for those matchups. every time, man, every time. Because like I said, when you are going into those matchups, he actually has a chance at winning them in a way that a lot of defenders just don't. That's why.

He is still a starter on this team, uh, for, uh, after seven or eight years. And honestly, uh, the skillset that I'm talking about that he brings to the table defensively, it must be, uh, more valuable and harder to find than we even understand. Otherwise Schmetz wouldn't play him as much as he does. And in conclusion, that's why I think the new who hate is overblown. Noah discuss. Wow.

That was, that wasn't, you should have, you should have written a post about that. Maybe you should. That's my take on it. I think you should do a sound and hard article about that too, because that would, that would cause even more discourse. I'm just trying to tell people who don't get why he still plays, why he still plays. And it's. because he is a very good 1v1 defender who...

has the best chance on the team or really of any defender in the league going into a game against these alpha attackers and actually helping you neutralize them. Like that's what he can do here. All act is the, all act is the bots that are going to come after you. You don't even have to because I know you're part of the anti-new-who. Well, I think that's unfair. Okay, yeah, that was unfair. You used to be.

I wouldn't say that I used to be. I think that he got better last year, and I think that I acknowledge that. I think that he had a rough patch of time, and he's having another rough patch of time. I think that it's fair to criticize your center backs and any kind of back. to criticize him but like uh i mean we'll get to it in the pulse of the streets but like you got his mistakes get blown out of proportion compared to others in my opinion yeah he scored a horrible own goal

Yaimar and Jackson Reagan combined for one of the worst own goals I've ever seen the game before. They took criticism for that too, but like... Not in the way where it blows up like new. Yeah. Let me, let me go. I, I, I'm getting into, no, you're, you're, I'm here for it. We're hot on laughing scorches today, but we got, we were having too much hacks and hot sauce today. You know what it is. Um, here's what I'll say.

This is what someone will say. Well, Schmetzer can be wrong. Schmetzer didn't rate Jordan as a nine. Schmetzer never, he constantly told Jordan, you're not a nine. You're not a nine. You won't be a nine. And guess what, Ari? He's a nine. He's the best nine that this team has and has had in a long time. People might not like that, but he's a designated player nine that is really good on this club. So Schmetzer can be wrong. How would you respond to that?

I mean, do you like, yes, any coach can be wrong. You really think that he's that wrong about this to where he's putting out like one of the worst players of all time for like seven years straight and somehow winning like. six trophies while doing so like you think he's that wrong i mean i think if you're coming from the fact that someone thinks that he's the worst player of all time you're already cooked you're already not having a conversation but i do think that that if you think that

Nuhu's positives negate his benefits. Sorry, his negatives negate his positives. Then... I think that there's a conversation to be had there. Because while I agree with you, there are times when this defense would not function without Nuhu. I think that he does do a great job against players in pace. And he has... literally in this last season, done so much to work on his passing.

And you can tell that he's not just super eager to put his head down and rip a ball. He's looking for passes. He's putting in good balls. He's had assists. He's looked better. He's looked like a more dangerous attacking threat. But the thing is, and... Most people's biggest gripe is something that you've even talked about. I wish we had an attacking wingback. I wish we had a wingback that was actually capable and dangerous in the attack.

Frankly, Nuhu isn't, and he never will be, and that's okay. But when he goes forward and gets caught forward and then doesn't make it back or gets out of position because... I don't think that he's good with that. I don't think he's good with that going forward, attacking movement, and positioning on the return.

It's it causes problems. And I think that if you put him on another team and he's not getting covered by two of the best center backs in the entire league and two of the best defensive mids in the entire league, I think that.

He looks a lot worse. So my argument would be, what is it? High tides, raise boats, all boats or whatever. He is surrounded by an incredible core. And I am not saying that he is a bad player or that his... um the things that he doesn't bring to specific games are literally like the core of the whole defensive model i think that people's frustrations uh are are you know quite valid in that we can agree on the pace we can agree on those you know

efforts of just bodying people off the ball or you know his classic shielding the ball i even love his conca caffery man the way that he brings that kind of shithousery to this team is awesome you need someone like that you know but

I think something you have to ask yourself is, does that negative stuff in the system that you're playing, does that outweigh those non-poised... flashy to a fault uh moments and i think that is a valid question and i uh i don't deny that and i honestly do ask myself those questions and i understand Trust me, I understand the shortcomings. My contention is that with him specifically, it gets blown out of proportion.

I mean, it does with a lot of people with Alex Rolled On, too. Yeah, but he knew who, I think, he brings that on himself to an extent with the antics, you know? So, I get it. But I'm just trying to explain the perceived value. Yeah. I think he brings to the table, whether like, honestly, whether you agree with what I said or not, that is why he's playing is because when Schmetz is looking at it and he sees.

I've got freaking Mateos Bogus bearing down on the squad this week. Who do I want out there? He wants the guy that actually can have a chance at locking that guy down. And he's a practice guy. And I think he... I think I would probably, I think a lot of us more than you would think if we were in the position of assembling the lineup might come to the same conclusion. The world will never know.

Schmetz, let us coach for one day, dude. I swear. We'll at least get it. We could get a draw with this club. I did have the one blue sky, one skeet that... This discourse was going on in my mentions, so I wanted to read what this person wrote. This is from a user, it looks like OKB04, so don't have a name on that. But he wrote an essay on this topic that I'm just going to...

read because there's a couple of things in here that I think illustrate kind of what I'm saying. And I also disagree with a couple of the points, but he says knew who's by far the most scrutinized player in Sounders history. Don't know about that, but he's definitely up there. We've seen really bad mistakes from both others.

center backs this year, but they haven't seen nearly the same backlash. Is it fair to blame this game on new when our DPs ghosted the entire game and couldn't produce any offense? Use the word ghosted. So that last part, I don't agree with. I'm sorry, man. He is right about the first part. He is.

He is. He's the most scrutinized player inside our history. No, that we've seen mistakes from both of their center backs, but they haven't gotten nearly the same backlash. That's not true. That's absolutely true. That is not true. That's absolutely true. Then you're not looking online. Not in the same way Nuhu gets backlash. It's not the same.

That is not true, dude. People have been clowning. Listen, I am a connoisseur of all things reactionary content when it comes to the Sounders. I consume it all, folks, because I like to be... misinformed personally uh and they have been there there has been an anti-jackson agenda Forever. I think Yamar doesn't get it, but I don't even think he's been that bad this year. He made one mistake that I would...

put on Jackson more than I would put on Yamar. He had a ton of giveaways in the first Antigua game. Absolutely. And we talked about that. And guess what? He got a lot of criticism because his level is higher than that. People are used to seeing this shit from New Who. difference if you're criticized constantly maybe it's you maybe it's you man i'm sorry he he does to get criticized it's not it's not that he's above reproach or beyond

criticism. It's the temperature of the criticism and the discourse that I'm, that I'm pointing out. But anyway, I think we've, I think if you got takes on the new discourse, I know my takes aren't going to be that popular with, with some of you out there. That's fine. Talk about it in the comments. Noah, finish your thought on the New Who discourse and then let's get to your agendas. I'll finish it with don't ever use the word ghosted.

I'm canceling that word. If we're not allowed to use agenda, no one else is allowed to use ghosted. I read this guy's take because I agreed with that part. Let's talk about the second part because I... agree that the term ghosted is uh your least favorite commentators will use that well also uh they they didn't ghost in this game they had uh

They had a perfectly executed set piece that could have and should have been a goal, if not for a mistake from another player. And then they also combined for a goal that was. also waved offside but like it was a good play and the offside on that play was marginal so to say that they like ghosted and this game is all on them I don't agree with that at all. Well, yeah. I mean, maybe Morris didn't have the best game, but saying Albert had a bad game.

is just stupid he went 30 for 33 on his passing he had four chance creations how many shots did he have i know he had at least he had a dynamite corner kick on the play where georgie was off three shots two of them were on target he had I mean, what are we talking about, man? Three of five accurate crosses. Rusak was a Georgie offside.

and a Jordan marginal offside from having two goal contributions in this game. And neither one, neither one of those were his fault. I'm sorry, like, I'm sorry, brigade like that. It is not his fault that Georgie was offside. It's not his fault that Jordan was offside.

No, it's not. There was... someone from the brigade victory lap in and saying that the brigade like wins the debate now you could not be what are you talking about more off your rocker on what are you talking about i had to i had to leave the brigade group chat again they added me back in and i had to leave again, Ari. I couldn't take it. I couldn't take it. Should we hit our actual agenda check now? Yeah, I liked the new who discourse. I like it when we disagree. It's sick. Yeah.

It's good content too. You guys don't see it, but we turn the cameras off and we fist fight each other. What's the Skip Bayless show with the first take? We're like first take right now. Can I be Shannon Sharp? Is he on there? I thought he was on there. I don't know. I just want to be Shannon Sharp. The new thing was my agenda, so you can run the rest of the agenda check. I spammed some agendas here because I've been thinking about it all day.

Agenda check, baby. Seattle best defense in the league agenda, Ari. I think this one's... It's on notice. It's on decline a little bit. I've perhaps been... Thinking about this one since that first week and even in preseason, it's not looking good. It's not looking good. I mean, yeah, there's the, like I said, one of my conclusions from this game is that like, uh, it went from me dismissing it as a fluke to know the defense is just having a bad start to the year. They can, there's

plenty of time for them to turn that around. This is by and large, the same defense that played at the best in the league level last year. So I have every expectation that, uh, they will improve and it's not. unthinkable. It's not the craziest thing that a defense is, has a couple of mistakes like this early in the season. But as for the agenda status, like it's definitely on notice where if.

this type of play continues it's gonna torpedo that's for sure yeah tough scenes for the boys in the back but what about the boys in the back of the back of the back sounders best depth in the league agenda Did this take a hit this week? I think I personally want to see them play a lineup like that at not... to get like a better read on that because I still don't know if this was attributable to their depth not being as good as we thought or if it was attributable to

The cursed field. An off day at a cursed field when you're playing on a short rest. I don't know. We're going to find out. I know it's a boring answer, but I feel like we need more games to know that. I think that that's like a lot of this, but we're here and we're in the business of rash decisions and flaming hot takes. So I'm just going to go for it. Maybe the depth isn't as good as we thought.

That's sort of the question. Maybe the depth isn't as sort of... It's stewing. You know, I like to use a lot of cooking analogies on this segment. And I feel like, you know, when you put your garlic in the pan early so it can get a little...

brown and you could smell it a little bit more that's what i'm feeling that's what i'm feeling it's we're starting to make something here of this agenda but i don't really think that it's there yet i don't want it to be there oh i i want to believe that this depth is good but How do you not get it done at RSL against the worst team in the world, I guess, because it's cursed. Because it's RSL. That's literally the answer to that is cursed field. Yeah.

Seattle Sounders winning the shield agenda. Well, if we're looking at the points, apparently, apparently it's San Jose still up there. I think San Jose might be up there for the shield race, which.

Yeah. That's a twist. I guess I, uh, some people really are into the shield. I, I am way more, I guess it's union. I'm way more into CCC. Uh, this year that i am the shield like i would easily easily 15 times out of 10 take a ccc win this year over a shield win yeah and you know what you could be the galaxy you could be the galaxy right now You could be two losses for the Galaxy looking the worst I've seen the Galaxy since they had to fire their GM owners, head coach, everyone. So...

I don't know if that adds anything positive, but I also just don't think that's going to happen. Like, I don't think they're winning the shield. I don't think that was ever something that was realistic. We were never on that agenda. No, I saw some national pundits picking the Sounders. I was like, this is how you know they don't watch, man. This is how you know they don't watch.

But you don't even need to watch to know that they're in so many competitions that it makes the degree of difficulty on winning the shield higher than it would be otherwise. Yeah, like, what are we doing? I don't know. I don't know. And my last one, this is my only player agenda for the day, but I felt like it needed to be addressed as the purveyors of the Rothrock agenda. We needed to check in.

I think it's not looking too good, Ari. But I have to put the caveat with coming back from an injury is hard. I was just going to say. Coming back from an injury is really hard. It's a major injury. I think he's even acknowledged that. It's affecting him as far as getting his confidence back. It can be a mental thing. We talked about it with Pedro all season last year. I'm not going to chalk Rothrock or Jordan. orgy off of one game. I know it's been a little hot, but...

We do need to keep a recency bias and not judging things off one game in mind. I know that was a bad game, but like if we're talking about, uh, the depth being terrible and Georgie and Rothrock being chalked. I would, I would slow down on that. Let the steep, let us get into the season a little bit more and give them a chance to.

show that it was a one-off i'm willing to give i'm willing to uh to accept that it might have just been a bad day at the office i mean yeah it's to be honest like paul has not looked great this season but We've even given this caveat to the best of players. We gave this to Pedro last year. We said, listen, dude, coming back from an injury, it's not only mental, it's physical, it's everything. You have to re-trust your body again.

And for him to come off his highest highs, to be this insane momentum player, to literally just kind of have your season end, that's hard. And... he's still probably getting back to fitness and still getting back to where he was in his headspace. And so while the Rothrock agenda has taken a little bit of a hit, we will continue to update it. And I'm still positive on the Rothrock agenda.

Yeah, I'm definitely not chalking it on one game. No, no. Absolutely not. Thanks for listening to Agenda Check. All right. All I had left, Noah, was... Match day two winners and losers from around MLS. We can talk about some other results and then get out of here. Let's do it. My winners from MLS match day two.

No, the Philly Union look like the best team in the league. I mean, other than Inter-Miami. They might be better than Inter-Miami. They have the most goals in the league. They've scored four goals in each of their first two games. And outside of the production. and they've looked like a buzzsaw. They were playing a Cincy squad that was also rotating and tired from CCC.

Caveat acknowledged, but they did exactly what you should do to a team that's in that situation and absolutely destroyed them. And Kavon Sullivan got on the field. Oh, did he? I didn't even know that. Well, anyway, the Bradley Carnell era for them, I kind of was like, I don't really, that seems like a lateral move from Jim C.

But they're off to a good start. And it was kind of it's kind of a reminder that like, you know, we were going into this season and not even really thinking of the Philly Union, I think, as much of a factor. I wasn't because they were pretty bad last year. They fired their coach. I was uninspired.

by their new hire. It's not like they overhauled the roster all that much. I don't really see why the Philly Union would be all that much different from where they were last year. And with the new coach... With the new coach uncertainty, they might even be worse. They could be back to being like the Philly Union of the peak Jim C days.

Give it a few weeks. We'll see, but they definitely look good to start. They're a winner for the week. I mean, 4-1 against, for all intents and purposes, the best club in the league right now. That's... That's pretty good, no matter rotation. You have Cincy as the best team in the league? I mean, maybe not over Inter-Miami, but I'm saying... They don't count, but even... That's what I'm saying. I don't even think about them. Cincy...

Since he's pretty good. If they're not the best team in the league, they're one of the three to four best teams of the league guaranteed. You're right. It's a big dub for Philly either way. San Jose. They beat a sport of Kansas city, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts two to one. So their Bruce era is off to a, a good start. Joseph.

Bruce put something in the juice, man. He's got the Michael Jordan juice. That's sort of my takeaway is that it looks like Bruce is just kind of actually... He's kind of him. He's kind of him. He's the MLS guru. But in the Quakes, like, they've looked good, too. Yeah, they don't look... These aren't Mickey Mouse results where you're like, oh, that's going to... It's like, oh, okay. I mean, it was SKC and RSL, but like...

Yeah, but like last year, the Quakes couldn't beat anybody but the Sounders. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. I'm not looking forward to playing them. No. Personally. We can't lose to them again. Not again. Then my last winner was Orlando City. They had a really horrible match day one result and then they bounced back and smashed on a really bad.

Toronto team, but they're still back on track, and honestly, I was just kind of having trouble finding a third winner, so I went with them. I would have put Charlotte in the third winner. Well, see, that brings me to my losers section, which is... Atlanta United. They lost... Atlanta. So they lost 2-0 at Charlotte, which I think you're right. You have to give...

I think Charlotte. Charlotte looked good. Charlotte looked good. Zaha looked phenomenal, dude. Yeah. Well, so the first half, he kind of was tanking, and I was like, maybe he's bad. Right. And then the second half, I was like, ooh. Yeah. I see what you're getting at that. He looked, I mean, he was pretty much unstoppable in the second half and, uh, he looked exactly like the player that Charlotte FC need, but, um,

I brought it. I bring Atlanta up because look, man, like I was on their bandwagon of they're going to be good again this year. Finally, they're going to go back. They got Latte Loth. They got Almiron back. I love the Almiron move. I still think that's going to turn out to be a great move. But that looked like the same Atlanta United as the last three or four years.

Um, and honestly, they won their first game and latte loss scored twice. So, uh, they ended up getting positive press for it, including for me. But, uh, if you looked at the, uh, like best attacking performances from match day one, like the underlying numbers, not even just XG, all the underlying numbers. CF Montreal in that game against Atlanta was like... Comfortably the best like performance wise, like attacking performance.

statistically in the league and i saw that and i'm like all right so that means atlanta like honestly got kind of they were giving up hella chances and uh not really controlling the game state that well at home and got kind of bailed out to win that first game it seems pretty clear me seeing that. And then this game, they, uh, they flopped in Charlotte. So I take place to play, but regardless, they looked good. And you're supposed to be back. If you were spent.

$22 billion. You bought $750 million billion of players. I thought that money was the name of the game, Ari. So that was kind of the point that I was getting to. DP Jordan Morris is what you were getting to. Yeah, exactly. Everyone's hailing. The 22 million Latte Loth signing. He looked good in the first game, and I have no doubt that he'll be good.

We'll see if he scores more goals than Jordan Morris this year. We'll see. I'm tracking it. They're tied right now. The Morris Latte Loth agenda. I might start that, but either way, I definitely caught my eye to see Atlanta United looking like that. Um, oh my God. Oh, I see it on the dock, dude. The Chicago fire. Incredible. Incredible. I just, they, they know one, they know one mode Ari.

They know one mode. They out Chicago fired themselves, which I every single week last year, I would say that. And I didn't think it was possible for them to outdo it. They would out. They might have. This has got to be peak. I always say this is no. This one was peak. So what happened was they were winning two to one late in the game, playing DC United. Not a good team. Not a good team. One good player. One good player.

Uh, it's two to one late in the game. And you are, I mean, you already know, I was watching and I was like, I mean, they're going to give up the. equalizer. Like I'm not even, I literally, I was barely watching cause I already knew that that was going to happen. They of course concede the penalty to give DC the look at the equalizer. Benteke goes to the spot. And so I was like, Oh, okay.

uh, game over. Like, uh, DC is tying this. That's it. Benteke steps up to the spot. Sky's the penalty. That was crazy. Misses. Chris Brady's going crazy. And I was like, oh, wow. The Chicago Fire are actually going to get out of this with the dub. They held the lead. They didn't deserve to. They tried to Chicago Fire it, but Benteke missed that. They're going to win this game. It's like the 88th minute. Yeah.

like two or three minutes later in stoppage time or maybe right before stoppage time, but literally like right at the end of the game, some 20 year old kid for DC United, who I'd never even heard of Jacob Murrell, I think his name was. Yeah. Uh, scores one of the most insane bicycle kicks I have ever seen to force the Chicago Fire to settle for the 2-2 draw and choke the lead again. It's honestly...

some of the most incredible content I've ever seen. I don't know how to explain it. I don't know what to make of it. But I can promise you I was laughing my ass off when he scored that bike because it's just like, what are you even supposed to do? Chicago Fire getting owned by a Georgetown University kid is just incredible. That ball doesn't go in against any other team. There's no way.

It's predestined. The Chicago Fire do not deserve to win games. They did something. They pissed some kind of deity off, and now they are forever cursed to blow leads. It's incredible. Yeah. Go watch the Jacob Morello Bowl if you haven't seen it. It's an insane highlight. And when you take into account that Chicago Fire context, it's even crazier. How long do we think that our boy is around coaching the Chicago?

go fire see uh like i greg berhalter perfect place for him i think they're going to give him a long leash and with his name value they can probably get away with giving him a long leash my question is like when like uh Blowing leads, which is what the Chicago Fire are known for, is such a mental thing. We talked about this with the Sounders and how they blew the lead against Charlotte.

Closing out a game is like that's where stuff like mentality and those intangibles, you know, that we like leadership, like all those things that I kind of make fun of sometimes is not being actual. like things that you can measure, like that's when that stuff like really matters. Yeah. When you have been blowing leads for as long as the Chicago fire have.

there comes a point where it just becomes like a part of you. Like it's your, in your DNA. I think we said they need an exorcism last week, but they need an exorcism. And like, that is. so hard to undo. I don't even know how you do undo that because they're just at a point where even with the roster turnover that they've had...

Everybody in there knows when it gets to the 88th or 89th minute and they're up a goal or maybe even the last 10 to 15 minutes or leading at any point during the second half. That's got to creep into your head, doesn't it? Like, all right, it's going to happen again. We can't let it happen again. We can't let it happen again. And that's when you start to psych yourself out. things go against you like that i don't know how bear halter like undoes that like i don't know i don't think he does

He didn't do it with the U S men's national team. I'll tell you that much, buddy. Hey, my last loser of the week, LA galaxy. They're bad. They might be like, they're bad. They're on. it's not fraud watch. It's bad watch. Yeah, it is. Watch for being bad. Um,

It's like, you know, we have to caveat everything with the early season small sample size, but doesn't the galaxy feel like you can kind of see the writing on the wall of what's happening? Like, that's the vibe I get, at least. I could be wrong, but just... Looking at their injury situation with Ricky Pooj out.

pretty much all this year. If he comes back, it'll be towards the end of the season ending injury list. That was some of the, for a club that is really good at business. That was some of the dumbest possible business they could have done. They had to sell their whole team because of it. I didn't really actually think of that, but yeah, you're right. Joey Paints is also hurt, so that obviously doesn't help. I know, our king. He's back to making music. They have a horrendous...

injury situation. And that's not even mentioning, you know, that they traded Marky Delgado or sorry, he goes by Mark now. Yeah, it's Marky. They traded Delgado to Marcus to LAFC, which hurts. They had to trade Jalen Neal, who was their highest. side young defender. They had to trade Jovulic, who was their best number nine. Who looked good. I'm missing one, too, that like a big time departure that they...

that they had to absorb. So it just, it feels like a situation where, um, they kind of sold out for the one cup and they might have to pay the price for it. I'm not going to call them chalk two games into the year, but. It's looking like it. It's looking like bad. I'm interested to see what happens in CCC. I am praying that Club Sport Ardario, they beat...

Were they the ones that beat Vancouver or something? No, Vancouver Advanced. Ardonio beat RSL. RSL, yeah. So I'm hoping that they also beat the Galaxy. I think that that would be... Just peek. Chef's kiss. Just peek. All right. No, unless you got anything else, I think we can call it right there for episode 86. That was a good one. I enjoyed the new who discourse.

Leave your thoughts in the comments if you want to get in on the New Who Discourse. We always love to hear from our commenters. Like this video. If you're listening to the podcast, subscribe to the YouTube. Write us a review, please. This is all I'm asking. Go on there.

Give us five stars, please. And write something that you enjoy. Write your own agenda check on us. And the best one... I said to write a poem in the last one, and someone wrote a poem in the YouTube comments, which I forgot to bring, but I'm going to bring it next week so that we can read the poem because it was so good. Don't do it in the YouTube comments. Write it in the review. Anyway, continue, Ari. Sorry. Good points, Noah. Good points. We didn't really preview Cruz Azul in this one, but...

Honestly, the intel that I got from Nico on Lobby Scorcher's kickoff this morning is better than anything I could have provided. Really, all I know about them is they have Bogus and Giacomacchus. Nico had all the... All the intel on them. Where can you find that? Go find that on the Lobbing Scorchers YouTube. Or if you're a Soundert Hart member. Oh, yeah. Plug this.

on the private feed. Sounderatheart.com slash LS. Another reason to become a Sounder at Heart member. Anything else? Yeah, like, comment, subscribe. Like, comment, subscribe. Whatever. That's it. We're out. Peace. Thank you for listening to the Sound at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and the Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues.

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