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... bullpullwines.com. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 68 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall. Got producer Noah here with me. And Noah, as I understand it.
You didn't catch the Sounders game this weekend because you were at a wedding, which that's a move that I've become famous for this year. But you're still here for a dub pod. How are you feeling post-wedding, and what were your thoughts when you saw that it was a dub pod? Well, one, Ari, I'm feeling full of love. Got to go see my best friend get married, and that was incredible. And number two, yeah, I really do. I'm in the Ari spirit. I'm wearing my...
Ari hat today and I'm going to do my best to... get through this podcast and not look like a complete dumbass yeah no i think it'll be good uh you know you can just kind of react to the uh the recap that i give you of the game because i did watch it and uh you know yeah we're just wedding guys i've had a few this year that have
ladar pods. Noah was at one, and then I'm actually going to one this weekend. So it is actually conveniently timed because the Sounders are on a buy next week. There's an international break. So we are still going to record, but you guys can keep an eye out for that episode.
slightly later in the week than usual as I'll be out of town through Sunday. And then I think we're going to, let's try and get one out like Monday or Tuesday. So keep you guys surprised of that, but did want to let you all know about that scheduling change for this. week, but for tonight.
It is another dub pod as the surging Seattle Sounders went to the thriving metropolis of Commerce City, Colorado, and came back with a solid 1-0 victory. Albert Rusnak with the game winner. The Sounders moved up to third in the West.
Three straight dubs, five out of six. And they look to be getting hot at the right time. We're going to talk about their form recently heading into the playoffs here. There's only one more game. There's decision day to go. Against Portland of all teams. Against the Portland Timbers.
That will officially decide the seating, but Seattle, I believe they've clinched a top four spot, but they could finish as high as second, depending on how decision day goes. So that'll be exciting to track. We're going to break down this dub over the Colorado Rapids.
game review. We're going to hit our agenda check with a new agenda for the week. We'll be taking your questions as usual. We're going to jump around the league, do some winners and losers. So all that's coming up here on episode 68. But before...
We get into all that. I did want to let you all know 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.
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And Ryan Boone. We got some new ones. All right. What's that bring our total up to now? We are at 37. 37. All right. The drive to 38 is alive and well. I know that there's at least one of you out there listening right now.
That will go to sounder at heart.com slash LS and toss us a sub. Thank you to everyone as always. And thank you to all our listeners. Thank you to our new audience on YouTube. We appreciate you guys as well. And we're sorry we didn't get the video out. That was me again. I was at the wedding. Some people said that...
their pregame ritual now is to toss up the... I saw that. I appreciate whoever left that comment. That's awesome. We love to hear that. And we'll be trying to put more videos out. And if you haven't yet, sub to the YouTube. We're on the drive to 600 subs there. there.
We're at 570 something, whatever. So the drive to 600 is alive and well. And we appreciate your support as we try and grow our presence on that platform as well. All right. No, we're going to do this game review. It'll be a little different this week with you kind of playing catch up.
here but i think it'll be a good bit like yeah like you'll get to just kind of you can ask me like what went down at certain points i can tell you what happened i'll still have more information than the anti-wrist snack brigade so it's okay you can react based off that and i'll just i'll just tell you what went down But first...
I mean, we can do a lineup reaction as we normally would because, I mean, it was a pretty simple one, which is that it was a De La Vega start with Georgie coming off the bench. But other than that, it was your standard Rusnak at the 10 with Jordan Morris. at the nine paul rothrock uh on the other side of uh of de la vega then you had your uh rolled on uh, Obed double pivot with JP healthy, but still coming off the bench. Then your standard backline and Stefan Fry. Um,
We're going to do the De La Vega takes. I'm excited to tell you about what I saw from him because I thought it was good stuff. But overall, again, I don't think much to analyze with this lineup. This is the starting 11. I think I think the debate. which is one that we might have on this show, is do you start Georgie or De La Vega right now? I think there's credible cases to be made for both. So, yeah, well, let's give our opinion on that. But as far as the lineup goes,
There was no standout shockers or anything like that. Yeah, no. I did see the lineup, I will say. I snuck my phone up to see the lineup because I was interested to see if they would give Georgie a rest or just give... I mean, what probably happened was give De La Vega a start. So it was cool to see him get minutes. And I want to know. How did our boy do? Okay, yeah. Well, it's a good week for the De La Vega takes. But I'll just give the recap of the game first, as we normally do.
The first half of this game I thought was actually excellent. Seattle didn't score the goal. That could have put them ahead in the first half. But I thought basically in every other capacity, they played extremely well. They had full control of the game. They had the better chances. They were dictating tempo. They were good in possession. They were good in transition. Man, it's honestly a bummer. this one because
This was one of the more electric Paul Rothrock games. He was cooking throughout the entire game, I thought. He's really become just a consistent menace on that flank. The runs he's making, his delivery. He and Jordan just missed one. He could have had a couple assists in this game. There was one transition moment in particular where he just made a great run, kind of just dusted his defender, put in a great cross, and Jordan had...
Almost an open net. I think it was harder to control the shot in the cross than it probably looked like. But like Jordan was pissed that he didn't score it. It really should have been a goal. So another great Paul Rothrock game. And they got the one goal just after the halftime whistle in about the 48th minute. It was Albert Rusnak, but it was really Jordan who created this goal. He pounced on a bad giveaway at the back by the Rapids, rounded his defender, got a good shot on target.
on Zach Steffen, who... who saved it off Jordan, but the rebound came to Rusnak, who was charging onto it, and he just put it on target. And they had a defender back who was trying to deflect it before the ball could get over the line, and it bounced off that guy. to the net, but that's Roosnack's goal. And that was the game winner. Good game management from Seattle to close it out. I really liked what I saw as far as the moments of time where they...
knocked the ball around, took the sting out of the game, kept possession, slowed it down when they needed to. They didn't give up any super clear-cut chances to the Rapids that I remember. The Rapids had a couple of moments. It's not like they had zero chances throughout the game. But I thought this was...
Pretty good clinic in how to take a smash and grab three points on the road. You know, I think there's going to be some people out there that say that a one zero is like doesn't count as a real victory or whatever. I mean. aside from the fact that I don't think, I think a one zero is, I mean, that happens in soccer, but especially on the road in MLS, like any three point result is a good result. And also I think there are some one zeros where it's like,
The one that you get is really against the game state, against the run of play, and you're kind of hanging on for dear life, trying not to concede the equalizer. This was not like that at all. I felt like Seattle controlled this front to back. I think if you wanted to nitpick...
anything so that they couldn't quite add the second goal. But if you see out the clean sheet, especially on the road, and you get the one goal and that's enough, more power to you. So that's another plus three points. Like I said, three wins in a row. and five out of six up to 56 points third in the west and i think things feel pretty good going into the playoffs here the only thing i'm
a little bit frustrated with is the fact that they weren't able to close out that San Jose game now. Cause you know, that, that, that one point from three, like from what should have been three points. Oh. We would have been sitting pretty. Well, and it's honestly not even just that game. It's a handful of games this year where they dropped points late. Honestly, the first Rapids game at home way early in the season comes to mind. They had a...
couple games in that during that really tough start uh where they only won once in their first nine games there were games in there where if they like you said if they had just taken those points they could be up with the galaxy for the number one overall seed like pretty feasible Yeah. So that is a little bit frustrating. But I do think, you know, winning five out of six, it takes some of the sting out of.
That Quakes game, and that's why I try to judge the overall body of work as opposed to just one game and one result, because yes, that Quakes game in isolation was a poor result. Both of them. Yeah, exactly. But this most recent one. But I think... On the flip side of that, you have them taking positive results around that that have mitigated the negative impact from that to an extent. Obviously, it's still a bad result. But this was a good dub. Any notion that this is a bad dub, I don't know.
agree with that. I couldn't even lay that down if I wanted to. My rapid-fire takeaway is I'm just going to lay these down. You can tell me what you think. But like I said, it feels like the team is getting hot at the right time. Seattle kind of always does this. There's points of the regular season where it feels like it's dragging or they're just...
not taking the points that they should or that they need to, but then come playoff time, they turn it up and that sort of just feels like what's happening right now. I think we talked about it on the last show, but...
I don't think anyone in the West other than LAFC wants to see Seattle right now. And if you listen to the broadcast, they were talking about that exact same thing, how the team seems to be coming into form at the right time. And that kind of segues into my other takeaway, which is that.
that this defense is playing lights out right now. I mean, all of these wins were clean sheets and they're not like cheap or lucky clean sheets at all. I think the whole back line has been pretty good, particularly the CBs. Yaimar and Jackson Reagan have been excellent over this last stretch, especially Jackson, in my opinion. People are talking about Yaimar for Defender of the Year, which is a good take. But I think the...
the really enlightened take is that Jackson Reagan should be defender of the year, maybe, which is funny because I was the one questioning Jackson Reagan earlier in the season. And now I'm saying that he should be defender of the year, but, uh, both of the, both of the CBs are, uh, I should have put that.
in the agenda check both of the cbs are playing well right now i think both fullbacks are playing well right now you know i know a lot of the the new who uh i feel like that that notion has been quelled though like even from my own perspective i was uh i was a very hard on new who person some might even say a anti new who agenda pusher but i have had nothing bad to say about new who
In months, basically since he came back from international. There was takes flying around again this game because he had a couple of kind of classic new moments in attack. look i mean i don't know maybe i just have a skewed view of it compared to some people i thought he uh was fine to good on defense in this game which that's his primary job and really like i think any stretch of the season where you have
multiple clean sheets in a row where you're locking other teams down and keeping them off the score sheet. I think you have to credit the whole defense for that. So I credit the back line. I definitely credit Stefan Fry quite a bit as well. He had a couple of big saves in the Whitecaps game. And I think you have to credit the holding bids as well. The double pivot of Christian and Obed have been very good over the stretch, too. And that's why I think a good debate, you know.
is where jp slots into all this because uh jp is back now and you would assume that he would be um slotting right back in as a starter but i don't know if you break this up right now i think you ride the hot hand um and that creates a pretty funny situation because you would have both JP and Rui Diaz, two out of your three DPs, as subs, which is obviously...
Not ideal, but that's just kind of the situation that they're in right now where their best 11, I don't think, includes either of those guys. Clearly doesn't include Rui Diaz and hasn't for a while now. It may not even include De La Vega. Right. Well, that too. Yeah, that's a good point too.
Uh, so that, I mean, that could be a nice triple headed monster coming off the bench if that, if that, uh, happens. And obviously you don't want like your DPs coming off the bench, but I will say like it does create, uh, A sort of like embarrassment of riches type feel to the situation where when you're closing out a game or.
looking to bring a game changer off the bench to change the complexion of the game. None of the three of those guys are bad options. Rui Diaz hasn't played in a few weeks because he's been injured. But De La Vega coming off the bench in scenarios where Georgie... is on the field that's I mean that's a pretty good spark plug substitute and
Georgie coming off in the bench in this game. I thought that was great. So I think the rotation is good right now. But I think JP is a backup as it stands, which, like I said, is crazy to think about. Yeah, that's wild. I mean, I don't.
I'm not really super shocked because we've talked about the... This is really the change in JP's career, right? Like, it's not like a... super big downturn but it's like he's had his moments this season where he's self-admittedly been like this is not the type of player that i have been in the past and not the type of player i want to be and uh yeah honestly like Good on Schmetz for sticking with what he has. And I'm kind of, if I'm going to lob my scorcher here.
I don't really think he fits in this starting lineup right now and going into the playoffs. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of how I see it right now, too. Like, it's a if it's not broken, don't fix it type of situation. But it's like you're never mad to have him come off the bench. In any situation. Not at all. I already talked about it, but it really was an electric Paul Rothrock game. I mean, this guy is, he's kind of changing.
How I think about the roster, you know, I, I've thought about wide production and signing a new DP as a, as a key part of what they need to do. And with him producing like this, like, I don't. I don't know. He still has to sustain it, but he's been sustaining it all season across all comps. I would honestly go back and watch this game just for the Rothrock performance. He was great.
Rusnak a 10-10 season. He's a 10-15. I saw he was like the first person to do it since Klin and Oba and he's like the only person to do it with no penalties since... Was it Oba or Clint? He has a couple penalties, though. Secondary assists, maybe. Secondary assists, that's what it is. I'm sorry. 11 of his assists out of the 15 have been primary assists, so he is not a secondary assist merchant. And, you know, I'm...
long time on record as being pro-secondary assists. When people try and diminish guys' assist numbers because some of them are secondary assists, I don't agree with that. I think the secondary assist is a good stat, and the guy who plays the pass before they pass should get statistical credit.
I know some people see that differently, but either way, I think it's an earned 15 for Rusnak based on the chance creation that he's done this year and how he's run the offense. But anyway, yeah, I mean like... Nico Ladero for all the great seasons he had. There's been this comparison thing going on. Maybe we should get into that in agenda check. We can get into that in agenda check. But I will say, I think they're very different.
skill sets and players to the point where it's difficult to compare. But Rusnak... did something that Ladero never did with a, with a 10 and 10 season. Um, so it's kind of just like another milestone in what's been a very, it's been an excellent year for him. Um, Dale Vega takes, I'll tell you what I saw. I'll tell you what I saw because. This was, and I'm curious to see if other people agree with this and saw this the same way. Go ahead and leave your takes in the comments section.
People on our show last week were telling us that we were being a little too hard in judging De La Vega, a little too harshly. And I don't really agree with that. I think just assigning of that stature and that pedigree, there's just a standard to which... you are going to be judged. I'm sure he's judging himself to that standard as well. And it's pretty clear cut, like whether that standard is being met or not. There's two things you judge it by, I think, which is, you know, the eye test.
sheet production and then you know I like to look at the underlying numbers to see if they match what the eye test says too but I think like if if one or both of those things are not being met, the eye test or the stat sheet production. And in this case, I don't think either of them have been really met yet in the minutes that he's played. I mean, that's what you're going to be judged on. So that's just the reality. But I will say.
While it is true that that standard had not been met to this point this season, I thought this game, to me, was the closest it was. And I thought this was clearly his best game, and I'll tell you why. It's because we saw individual moments that were not just like, oh, that was a nice play. Oh, he looked good on that play, or that was a nice pass. The moments that he had in this game, it struck me as stuff that was...
unique and that other players on the team don't necessarily have in their bag or bring to the table. And that's kind of the kind of stuff that we haven't seen out of him enough and that you need to be seeing out of him is that.
With a signing like this, right, you need something that differentiates them, that makes them special, that they have that other players don't. There are a couple examples of that in this game, two that come to mind off the top of my head. Number one, there was a play where he got the ball.
out wide and instead of controlling it and trying to like set up across and letting the defender get set or close out the space or react like he kind of made it look like the ball was going to just come to his feet and he was going to trap it and then maybe set it up or keep dribbling or pass it back or whatever. And he just lit the cross in like straight up before anyone could react like, or the defender could do anything about it to stop it. And he put it like in a very dangerous area. No one.
quite got on the end of it but just the way he read the pass that was coming to him and reacted and put the cross in before the defense had a time to react i was like oh okay like That's like something that I didn't know was in his bag. And that frankly, I really, I haven't seen a Seattle attacker from out wide really do.
In a while, like just it was just a different type of move. And then he had another one later on in the first half, which was even better, which I hope I can find the clip of at some point. But what happened was there's basically.
kind of a through ball coming towards him that was going towards the end line and the defender was kind of trying to do the new who and shield it out for a goal kick and de la vega just turned the jets on and just blew around this guy so fast and just swooped in and took the ball, kept it in before it went out over the end line.
the defender was dusted and he's in for like a pretty dangerous looking run into the box where he can cross it. And there was no goal on the play, but just again, the read and the run, it looks great. Once again, like I saw it and I was like, OK, that's that's something that we haven't seen yet. And that like other guys on the team, I haven't seen them do. And I kind of just I felt encouraged by that because.
Like I said, we haven't seen enough of those moments from him. And it just gave me hope that there is something special about this player. There's stuff that he can bring to the table that can elevate the group that other guys might not. have you know so i was excited to see it uh you know it wasn't uh i'm not gonna say it was like a fully full-on breakout performance but i legitimately did
like what I saw. And I say that as someone who's been underwhelmed by the whole experience so far. You know, I try to give benefit of the doubt with the caveat that... He has been injured all year, and he's probably not fully fit. The sharpness isn't there. The chemistry with other players isn't there. But I did really like what I saw from him in this game. I'm not saying it's guaranteed to happen, but I feel cautiously optimistic that he could actually...
make like a needle moving impact for this team in the playoffs, which would be, I mean, that would be great. That, that could be the difference right there between their ability to actually make a sustained run in the postseason or not is just that. Like if he, I think the defense. is going to play up to how they've been playing and they might get scored on a little bit but like I don't think there's going to be games in the playoffs where Seattle is shipping like
three or four goals. I have faith that they can do that. It's can they, can the offense play up to it? And we're going to have to see, but De La Vega coming good would help. And I saw some good signs in this game. That sounds great. I'm excited to, okay, now I got to watch. I should have, I should have. done my due diligence and uh you know watched this match but you know what are we gonna do what are we gonna do i would go i would go back through the film
Look at the Rock highlights, deep dive, see if you agree. I saw some people in my mentions after the game saying that they were still down on De La Vega, and I came out of it feeling a little differently about that. other instance where i kind of had the same reaction that i can't like quite remember off the top of my head but i remember one other instance where i was like uh
that was something in his bag that I hadn't seen yet. And I don't think anyone else on this team has. So I don't know. It was just good to see, like I said, like a player like this, um, can't just be like average run of the mill like they have to have that special quality about them they have to have something unique about them that uh
that makes them different. And I thought we saw our real first pronounced glimpses of that in this game. Um, all right, let's, uh, let's update the anti-roost snack brigade, uh, because uh it's been increasingly comedic to me the like the deeper we get into the season and the more he produces and the better year he has like the mental gymnastics that they have to do to keep brother i know i'm in the group chat yeah no so like but like
I mean, I see the tweets too, you know, but like, you know, he scores the game winner in this game. I think these things are not as complicated as like... The people who are trying to undermine him make it seem sometimes like I think any year where you're starting number 10 puts up 25 goal contributions in league play and more than that across all comps is a pretty good year.
for that player. And we're going to talk about the only does it against bad teams agenda, but the white caps in the Rapids, these last two games, not that bad. They're mid, but they're not bad. They're not wooden spoon teams. They're playoff teams. They're actually pretty good. And these were both road games. So I think Roosnack deserves credit for playing up to the moment.
in these last two games at a point where they're playing for seating right now. So it's a big part of the season. But again, I think the brigade after this game, you know, they're going to have their, you know, it was just the Rapids. It was only 1-0. He could have done more takes. But, I mean, it's been an objectively, statistically good year for Albert Rusnak. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, all of the haters and the bots, they know me.
They know me. They know I'm a menace to them, but also a lover to all of them. And they were cooking in the group chat just to say they kind of ignored... We're a stack a little bit, and we're bamming on Morris for some reason, but I will say I sent them Tim's...
tweet about being the first Sounders player to put up double-digit regular season goals since Clint Dempsey in 2015. And they were all like, stat padding merchant, stat padding versus bad, weak Western Conference teams, stat padding, ease trash. So, folks, it doesn't matter, I guess, if you actually do the thing that you're paid to do. It matters if you're doing it against random teams that you're not even playing. I would argue that as a...
professional soccer player in an attacking position, stat padding is kind of your job. You're trying to get stats. I would hope. I would hope that you don't not go for stats to avoid padding them. I think if you pad them, that's... That's good, actually. But...
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. We can do the Burt versus Nico thing later if we want. Yeah, we'll hit it in agenda check. Anyway, let's hit it. Okay, that's a good segue. Let's hit agenda check right now. Noah, this first one comes from you, actually. I saw you tweeting about this. So all three of this, I'll kick this to you and then I'll get, I have a take on this as well.
The Brian Schmetzer should be coach of the year agenda. You debuted this on the timeline. I think you were testing the waters. I thought it kind of cooked. Yeah. But make your case. I will tell you what I think. Yeah, no, this was a, this tweet banged. I won't even lie. I was seeing, you know, all of these rumors about like, oh, who should be coach of the year? Is it Wilfred Nancy? Is it Tata Martino?
all of these names where I was just like, why is nobody talking about Brian Schmetzer right now? I mean, you had the worst start in the history of an entire football club happen. Then, through a managerial decision of player personnel, he completely flipped the script. And this was not an easy decision to make. This was benching your highest paid player. Club legend. Club legend. And like face of the franchise to play a guy who was playing in Tacoma and was.
One of the last people to not get cut from the entire team and roster. You play him over your DP nine in a league where you're only allowed three players like that. That's a gutsy decision. But what it did was completely flip the script. changed the entire season, and now the Sounders are moving in to decision day in third place in the West. With a chance to get second. With a chance to get second, home playoff games right there in their hands in the hottest form in the...
entire league down the stretch. If you are going to sit there and tell me that Wilfred Nancy, who threw an absolute fucking temper tantrum because he didn't want to sign a goalkeeper and lost his potential to win the supporters shield. Because of a coaching decision, he lost the chance to win the supporters shield.
He should be coach of the year? Absolutely not. He fumbled CCC. I mean, his tactics got played off the field on CCC. Whether you believe that all of his players were... suffering from diarrhea or not he's supposed to be this tactical genius who can play with any player he could be given a 15 year olds just a group of you like youth soccer kids and they're supposed to be able to play
anyone off the field. You know who could actually make that happen? Brian Schmetzer. Tata Martino, great coach. I actually think he has a... He should... be more in the conversation than Wilfred Nancy. But Tata Martino has a fucking super team, man. The depth of that team, he shouldn't even be allowed to be for any of these awards.
If I had Messi on my team, yeah, you better win. He probably should have won more games. He probably should have won every game. You got Messi. Anyway, that is where I come and I say, Brian Schmetzer not only deserves coach of the year if he doesn't win it. It shows how much East Coast bias there is in MLS. Damn, yeah. You really cooked on that. There's a lot to unpack with that take. I agree.
with the premise of the take that he should at least be, he's not going to win it. He's just not like, he's not even going to, I don't think he'll get a single vote. Maybe I'll vote for him. I don't know. I think, you know, there's other guys that. This award sometimes is like the coach who had the best record with the team that was expected to be the worst.
So that's why you have Chris Armas who's being mentioned in this category as well. Which is stupid. But I think there's a lot to the notion that... This season has been Schmetz's best. coaching job. Like I really think there's a pretty strong case to be made, uh, that it is. And it's got me feeling like coach of the year. Uh, you know, uh, I think he has a decent case. He's not going to win it. Um, but like, as far as any sort of.
Schmetz out sentiment. Some people might still be on that because of some of the struggles that have happened this season. But where I stand on that at the moment is I'm just not on that at all. I think he really cooked this season. I mean, you broke it down, but being in a situation where you have... One DP who is disgruntled and benched and not producing and hasn't played in a few weeks now because of injury and has pretty much said that he's leaving next year.
Clearly was upset with his diminished role or what he said was the lack of communication regarding his distant, his diminished role. But either way, you're getting nothing from that DP spot. JP. has been slowed by injury and not quite the player that he was even when he was playing. And De La Vega was injured all year and barely played at all. And you look down at the end of the season, this team has 56 points. They're third in the West. going into decision day.
1.7 points per game they're up to now, which is very good. If you told me they were going to play at 1.7 going into the year, you take that going into any year. Yeah. I mean, LAFC is at 1.8. So like that's the 16 wins, which is also. So the third most in the West, a plus 16 GD, which is good. An eight, seven and two record on the road, which is excellent. That's...
That's an elite road record in MLS. Eight road wins is an elite number. I think, you know, if there's one thing to nitpick, it's there's too many drop points at home and the record could have been even better. But for a team with two out of their three DP spots... not really producing and having a young DP barely playing at all, only just now coming back. Yep. To get that production made up for and... Arguably exceeded from Paul Rothrock, who was at Georgetown.
a couple years ago. And like you said, played for an MLS Next Pro for Toronto FC2 and Tacoma Defiance, producing like a DP winger. Yeah. I think you got... Ari, as a dedicated fashion expert, how do you do it? Day in and day out, I see you rocking the best fits. I need your help. Noah, I'm glad you asked. People ask me that a lot, and I can tell you need an upgrade.
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You got to give credit to the coach. How could you not? Like what's the even counter argument? Like that is a beast of a coaching job with the situation that this roster was in to end up at 56 points and one seven per game. That's great work. And I think you're right, man. I think there's a lot more of a coach of the year case in there than it's getting credence for. And the national pundits would never, never acknowledge this.
The narrative with Schmetz, I think, is that he is the beneficiary of a great organization that always gives him one of the most talented rosters. That's been true at times throughout his career. Not this season. Not this season. He was playing with damn peanuts. Yeah, at times, for sure. They didn't even make a summer signing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, not to say that that crushed them, obviously, but you can't tell me that...
this team was stacked with talent like Columbus was or like inner Miami was the way like they didn't, they didn't make any moves. They made an outbound transfer of a defender who. was like a depth piece defender. And somehow the defense got better. The whole fan base was up in arms because he didn't get any extra roster moves to get a boost. So, yeah, I think...
It sort of felt like a slow grind back up to... back up to prominence for this team like there was like the beginning of the year was a drag even when the results got a little bit better the offense wasn't playing that well earlier in the year and it's really only in the last like month or two that they've really heated up and looked like the team that we
thought they would be but like like i said man you look down they're at 1.7 points per game so you got to give credit for the coach for that and uh i like the agenda uh that's a good segue into uh The BWP, shout out BWP, Sounders only beat bad teams agenda. I only bring this up to point out a stat that Jeremiah posted, which he posted their record.
for uh against teams currently in playoff positions okay um go ahead i'll give you guys a second guess what it is all right guess what it is in your head Eight, seven, and five. That's pretty good. That's not bad. No. That's not bad. Oh, but Ari, everyone makes the playoffs in Major League Soccer. That's 12 out of 19 games that they've played against teams in current playoff position. They've taken positive results, and they've won eight of them.
That's just, I mean, that's just not that bad a record. You know, I think they're definitely, like, it doesn't come from nowhere. They did have a stretch. like a month ago where they feasted on a pretty soft part of their schedule. That's like where this all comes from. But again, like I, I look at the, I try to look at the full body of work as opposed to just one game or one stretch of a season. And, uh, they actually fared decent.
well against playoff teams this year just by the record so and like the only team that they really have had trouble with is the san jose earthquakes you know It's funny, I thought you were going to say LAFC, but there's two California-based teams that this team can't beat. It's LAFC and the San Jose Earthquakes. I fear the Earthquakes more, honestly.
the Earthquakes way more than LAFC. That's not even close. And the Earthquakes didn't make the playoffs, so Seattle's not even going to have to deal with them in the playoffs. Thank God. LAFC, I think if there is another... criticism of the or like a critique of the season that Seattle just had other other than the overall home form not being as good as you would like. It's just that.
they got absolutely bammed on repeatedly by specifically LAFC. Yeah. That's really when, when I look at this season and I look at, I think the biggest thing that went wrong with it, it's that specifically LAFC, uh, looks to be on a different level than them in the head-to-head matchups.
If you look at the records, the goal differentials, the points per game, the total points total, the home records and the away records, Seattle and LAFC actually had pretty similar seasons. LAFC is slightly ahead of them on the... table right now, but not by a crazy amount. They have 58 points. Seattle is 56. They've won 17 games. Seattle's won 16. I know I've made this point before, but even the idea that LAFC is like...
lapping Seattle overall, it's very, very true in the head-to-head matchups. I could not and would not deny that. But as for the seasons that...
they had overall, it's pretty much the same season. Look at the record, look at the table. Even LAFC has bad losses too. LAFC got... bammed on by dallas 3-1 they they lost to they had a chance to make a statement against the crew and got beat played off their own home field they barely beat fucking the the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts in a cup final i mean like
Let's be real. They got taken to extra time by Johnny Russell and the boys. That's tough. That's brutal. I mean, they won 3-0 this week. I'm not excited to play them, but, you know. Yeah, you know, if it happens, it happens. If that matchup happens, we'll go on Happy Foot, Sad Foot. We will be in L.A. if that game happens. If that game happens, we'll be in L.A. And, you know...
I would not be looking forward to it, but I also wouldn't fear it as much as you would think. Yeah. All right. You wrote down two more agendas here, so let's hit these and then... There was a little bit of a proliferation. Yeah. You guys are going to hit me in the comments for mispronouncing that, but whatever. Albert Rusnak having a...
Better season than any season Nico Ladera has ever had in his entire career with the Sounders. This one was lobbed by Mark Kastner on the Twitter. And frankly, this one was spicy. There was some... lovers and there were some haters. I want to hear where you land on this. Okay. So what Mark was saying was, I mean, he was talking about purely stat.
output yeah like nico never had a 10 and 10 season uh nico was a double digit assist machine every single year that he played a full complement of games you could pencil him in for 12 to 15 assists And he was a goal dangerous player too. He took all of Seattle's penalties, barely ever missed a penalty, which was an underratedly valuable skill. Like he was perfect on penalties for a very long time in his career. One of the best pastors I've ever seen in MLS. So...
I think Nico is the Sounders' goat, especially when you take into account trophies won. But I just think he and Rusnak, they're different styles of player. When I was talking about...
seeing stuff that makes De La Vega special and unique. I think both Rusnak and Ladero have different qualities that make them special and unique players. Ladero was a uniquely gifted passer, like with his three... balls and with his switches and just his vision and ability to him the chemistry he and Jordan had with his ability to hit him on those runs over the top spray those passes all over the field he's very good at that but I think what made Ladero special
What made him unique and then by proxy what made the team special around him was the two-way presence that this guy had. I've never seen a player run more. than Ladero or work harder on both sides of the ball. And you really don't see a lot of attacking midfielders or number tens that bring that. quality in particular to the position at the same, in the same way at the, with the same consistency that Nico did. And Rusnak is.
Definitely not that type of player. No, he's not. I don't think, I don't know. Some people think he's like super lazy or bad on defense. I don't see that, but like his work rate and just the lung busting presses and, uh, how aggressive the marking was. Nico has him on all that stuff. Nico was such a machine with that in a way that like not...
Pretty much no 10 that I've ever seen in MLS had that the way Nico does. And that was just so valuable because not only did he move the needle very positively defensively, but that mentality and that kind of just... will to win and feverish desire to compete and to just go as hard as he can every second he's on the field. That stuff permeated throughout the rest of the team. And it gave this team an identity. It made everyone on the team better. So that's what I think made Nico...
special outside of just the attacking stat sheet production was the two-way skill set, the work rate, and just the effect that that had on the team. That being said, Rusnak brings a lot to the table in his... own right that i think um makes him an excellent number 10 that's been very good for this team this year i mean outside of the staff uh the statue production i think that he's had this year speaks for itself um
But Rusnak is an excellent facilitator as well. Like his through balls, his switches, his field vision, some of the diagonal passes he hits, I would say, are like even more impressive than some of the ones that... Nico hit. And I think a big thing that Rusnak brings to the table is his set pieces are better than Nico's by a mile. I think Nico's set pieces were good. They're not as bad as people said they were, but they were hit or miss. For sure.
Sometimes he would lay them in and they looked great. Rusnak, every free kick he sends into the box is... Dead high. For the last three or four months, man, every corner kick is dangerous. Every time they have a free kick from a dangerous spot, he's putting it right where he needs to be. His connection with Jordan on those is way better. I think then Nico and Jordan had like on corner kicks and on free kicks his service into the box.
even not on free kicks, but from the run of play, he has a lot more range, I think, than Nico did on those. Like Rusnak can send his service in on a dime from way, way outside the box. As well, I think, as... Any attacking mid in the league right now, he can range out and Steph Curry those dimes from just deep in a way that Nico didn't really. And I think he's more goal dangerous from the run of play than Nico was. Nico was elite.
an elite penalty kick taker, um, and occasionally would score a goal from the run of play. But Rusnak, I think he gets, he, he gets more goals and, um, his set pieces are better. And I think. In terms of their play as a facilitator, I see them as players that kind of run the offense to a similar effect. I don't think there's all that much difference in that case. But... I don't know if I was choosing, I know I'm going, I'm cooking. Um, uh, if I was picking between the two of them, like.
I mean, it's tough because Nico is on the team for way longer. His trophy haul is more impressive. It's just hard for me to go against a player. I think Rusnak is more... like specialized whereas nico was just an all-around freaking beast man um like the The work that he did on defense was like second to none compared to any attacking mid I've ever watched in MLS. But it's a better debate than I think people would give credence to. And ultimately...
I think it's a difficult comparison because they're not very similar players in terms of skill set and like what they do well that contributes to the team. I don't really think there is a good way to put it other than they're...
they're not playing the same position. I know that on the field, they're in the same role, but they're not playing the same position. I mean, like, to me, Nico was a... position defining defying player like he was he was he was an incredible abnormality of someone who was honestly good at everything and therefore you could like Not everything, but, like, you know, he was this, like, just, like...
I don't even have a good word for it. I'm like struggling to find a word for it. Like a Tasmanian devil, right? Like he was just bouncing all over the field, did so much work. And then like his impact off the field was seen even more like. He shaped Obed Vargas into the player that he is. We joke about it. You see it in him. It's weird. We joke about it, but seriously, the way...
Obed's work ethic, the way he gets back and goes forward. The foul drawing. Nico's the best foul drawer I've ever seen. Yeah, all of this stuff. Nico mentored so many of the young players. Is something that, you know, you also have to count. I think Nico is the best player to ever play for the Seattle Sounders. Hands down. I don't think we'll see another player like him. Maybe ever just. That's just the type of player he was. But that said...
Obviously, I love the Albert Rosnack agenda, and I think that he's a completely different player, and I just don't even think it's valuable to compare them because that's like... that's just it's not either like neither of them are we're doing the same thing and they're not they're not being asked to do the same thing either and i think mark's point was more just pointing out like how good
Rusnak's just pure stat sheet production has been this year because Ladero's was always elite, especially in terms of assists, and Rusnak has been just as good. This year, which I think is definitely fair to point out, even if it's not like a like for like comparison to their skill sets real quick before we move on. Yeah, just to illustrate the points we're making about Nico quick story. I mean, so The night famously that we first met the night before CONCACAF Champions League final.
uh in 2022 i was talking to someone in the sounders organization who was at the media mixer that we were at and we were talking about how we felt about the game the champions league final coming up the next day and he was like oh we're gonna win we're going to win. I'm not like tripping. I'm not worried at all. Like we're going to win. And I was like, well, why are you so sure? And he said, the captain, he's not going to let us lose.
He's just not. He's going to go out there and he's going to just do whatever it takes for us to win this trophy. It's just force of will. And that turned out to be true. It sounds corny, but that's like... the type of impact that Ladero himself.
had, man. That's why they won so many trophies with him as the centerpiece. We'll have to see what Rusnak does, but I would say in terms of moving on from that era and having someone be a replacement, I'm pretty happy with how Rusnak's done this year, but there's going to be... more debate on this, on this topic. I agree. That's a, it's a fun agenda to talk about, but statistically speaking, absolutely. Albert has put up close to, if not better than anything Nico is able to put up.
on purely stats uh but i think we both are in agreeance that a comparison isn't really fair and nico is just like just an anomaly the club go yeah i don't think there's much of a question about that exactly but don't don't get it mark he was He was having fun. Mark made a good point. He made a good point. All right. This is my last one here. I just wanted to bring it up briefly because I think it's a little silly. The moose is dead. The moose is dead agenda.
We haven't really even been talking about it. Yeah. He has less goals than Hebert did. Yeah. And, you know, we've been joking. He's probably got a lot less minutes. Yes. But, like, you know, the... The Memorial A-Bear Award, I think it's been signed, sealed, and delivered here. Well, and if Rui Daniels is ostensibly healthy, he's the backup nine right now. So it's like third on the depth chart. But every time I've seen him play, I've been less impressed.
But, Danny, we love you. It'll be an under-discussed storyline for the offseason, but a backup nine that, like... I don't think this team has had a consistently productive backup nine since Will Bruin. Will Bruin was such a luxury on the roster. He was so good. You would sub in and you knew he was going to score. Exactly. Or at least get close.
to it and give you like elite hold up play and like work rate and just uh just bang with the center backs like he was a great depth nine man like he was chill with being a depth nine yeah and he was great at it like this team used to have great depth nines chad barrett and uh kenny cooper god those are legends yeah like this that used to be a strength of this team and the hebert moose days they've gotten away from
that so hopefully they can get back yeah and on and on the note a little bit i think if they did sign a nine like a they went out and blockbuster nine jordan morris that's not a bad backup nine clearly Yeah, I mean, we'll have to see what happens. All right, let's hit questions. Thank you, as always, to everyone who submitted. I put one from YouTube in there this week. Really encourage anyone who has any takes on our takes to throw down in the comments. We love it.
So I've got one from YouTube, a couple from Twitter. Noah, what do we got? This one comes from Steve. from the YouTube channel. We do read all your comments, so if you lob questions in there... I unfortunately read them all. Yeah, we do see what you say. Steve says, it's been cool seeing the Sounders pathway deliver starter plus level talent to the first team.
a la Paul Rothbrock. But given the Sounders FO's recent unwillingness to open their checkbook during the recent transfer window, I wonder if Adrian sees the pathway as an excuse to save money. if he can get de la vega level production for pennies on the dollar by signing a homegrown player he can deliver better returns to the owners thoughts yeah so i uh i wanted to address this one because i think it's an interesting point
But I think, and so thanks for the comment, Steve. I think you're thinking about it the wrong way, though. You're right that the pathway delivering starter plus level talent. is a bit of a it's a bit of like a hack but i think it's in a good way yeah like that's what you want because it allows you to kind of get around some of the limitations of the salary cap, which this league has one of the weirder, more limiting salary caps out there. The best hack, I think.
To get around that is to have a really good development and academy system that gives you that, like you said, starter plus level talent that doesn't, if you're a homegrown player, you don't count against the cap.
What it does, I don't think it gives the owners an excuse to try and save money. I think it makes the roster... even stronger so that the additions that you do make don't necessarily like i think the great thing about this rothrock thing is he's if he's honestly giving you dp level production which who knows if that'll sustain but literally right now he literally is yeah like just purely based
Based off what he's producing and the individual performances he started to put in every week, like in this game, like if you got the exact same performances and production that Paul Rothrock is giving you right now, but you slapped. insert U22 signing DP, young DP signing, you put a different name on it, you'd be like, that signing hit. If De La Vega had the season that Rothrock is having, we would all be like, hell yeah.
newcomer of the year award question mark yeah but like uh exactly exactly and so that's how he's producing right now if in theory if you believe that he can sustain that and produce like at that starting level plus starter level clip. Like you can take your DP spots and maybe Just take your big money, your TAM, your DP spots, whatever it is, focus it elsewhere, and your roster is stronger.
I think, than it would be if you focused on an area of the field where you're getting elite production from a homegrown or just from your pathway. I don't know if Rothrock technically counts on the books as a homegrown. But he certainly counts as going through the pathway. He was in the academy, played for Defiance. And either way, that type of stuff is how you get a leg up in this league. And I think Seattle has...
Use that to great effect, man. That's part of the reason they were able to stay afloat this year without their production from their DP spots is because Paul Rothrock kind of saved their asses in that way. You could go back. to uh like the production that they've gotten from jordan morris even though he doesn't count as a homegrown anymore he still was brought up through the organization and uh that's really been like a bigger boom for
the roster than I think people realize is his development. So I would not think of it as like an excuse type of thing. I would think of it as that every player that... comes up through the pathway and hits on the first team and contributes at the level that obed and that paul rothrock are contributing at
That makes this team stronger. That's why this team is able to do something like rack 56 points in a year where two of their DPs aren't producing and one of them isn't even playing for most of it and their young DP isn't playing at all. It's because of that infrastructure.
that pathway man and that's what seattle does better than a lot of teams and that's like why they were actually able to uh cop a top four spot in the west this year despite all of the stuff that happened there's really two ways to go about managing a roster in Major League Soccer. There's you front load with a bunch of superstars and filling your gaps. whatever way you think possible. Usually with just like vets and stop gaps. Right. Sometimes it works, you know, sometimes it doesn't.
The other way is to try and build a team around your youth products that you've developed and brought up because this is a league that is... concentrated focused and invests more money and makes it more accessible to bring younger players in and to bring players up than a lot of leagues do so like yeah
The Sounders, for a long time and have always been, we don't really give a shit to sign Marco Royce. We want to sign Paul Rothrock. And, like, is it a little bit of money ball? I think that's fair to say. Like, there is a, like... an air of we don't want to spend money we don't have to but it's also made them successful because it allows them to I mean they haven't done this either but in theory sell Obed Vargas and get a big
chunk of money. Who knows? Maybe Paul Rothrock gets a deal with a championship team or something. I don't know. It's like you're allowing yourself a ton of flexibility. And you're also building up players that you can then theoretically, if you want to...
replace them with someone even better, move them and get a shitload of money for. And you have a smaller investment in. So I don't think that it's penny pinching. I think that that is how this team has been since the beginning, or at least that's been the vision.
for this team since the beginning. And I think it makes this team fun to watch and it makes it feel so much easier to connect to. Like, for me, being from Seattle, yeah, I'm fucking stoked that R9 is... a guy who grew up here i'm stoked that paul rothrock grew up in capitol hill where i live now like
That's super fun too. Yeah. I think we were talking about it on the last show, but it gives it like a, it gives the team like a Seattle identity. Yeah. So yeah, I think that's a good point too. But yeah, good, good point, Steve. It's definitely that. That take got me thinking. This next one here is from Matt Drumdog. How many players have noticed, sorry, not how many players, how many people have noticed that we're currently sixth in the Shield standings, tied on points with fifth place Cincy?
impressive is it that we have accomplished this? with effectively a single DP. And of course, Brian will once again be slept on for coach of the year. Yeah, we already talked about the coach of the year aspect of that. But yeah, no, it's a good point, Matt. Sixth in the Shield standings, tied on points.
We fifth place Tennessee. And like we were talking about, man, like there was a lot of dropped points this year. Like this team realistically with a couple of different bounces of the ball would have been over 60 points, which is, it is crazy to think about like they are. at 1.7 points per game uh now which is bordering on an elite number at least i consider i consider 1.8 to 2 to be an elite number so they're on the precipice of that sort of uh
1.8 to 2 is what I think of as what you ideally want to be playing at for a full season, if you can all help it. And they almost hit that with no Rui Diaz. Joe Paolo playing part-time and De La Vega busting his hamstring every time he jogged 10 feet for the first like six months of the year. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. I mean, and who we've been talking about is elite. Inter Miami, LA Galaxy, Columbus Crew, LAFC.
fc cincinnati those are the only teams that are above the sounders in the shield race right now that's impressive with the roster that they have again brian schmetzer coach of the year put it down lock it in I don't know who votes for that. Andrew Wiebe, lock it in. I mean, I vote for it. But you think we could court Wiebe? I don't think any of our editorial staff or writers are going to...
Vote for Schmetz. I think it's going to go to Wilford, Nancy, and Tata is going to be the runner-up. Sad. Anyway, Andrea, Andrea, Andrea, sorry, whatever your name is, I'm so sorry, asks, what three players... other than Rothrock, Aaron Sounders, Mount Rushmore of hair. All right. I got a few for this. I'll be interested to see what you think of this. But I've got Roman Torres. I've got DeAndre Yedlin.
And I thought of a third, but I can't remember it off the top of my head. But those are the first two that came to mind. Who am I missing? Ooh. I like Patrick Ianni. He had that sick haircut for a while. I feel like we're missing somebody. The blonde Jordan era was a moment. That was a moment. It's not Mount Rush, though. We're talking about Mount Rush. I personally love Paul Rothrock's hair.
Yeah, but she specifically said other than Rothrock. You know, so that's hard to cut Rothrock out. If I was doing the Mount Rush, it would be Rothrock, Torres, and Yedlin. Because Yedlin at his peak, I think, might have been the Sounders hair goat. I think that might have been MLS hair goat.
for a while, like at least. Other than the... You could put Ozzy Alonso and Jimmy Traore on this Mount Rush as a bit. That would be a good bit. I like Ianni. I think Ianni would be my... That's a good part of course. I like that. I would go Torres-Yedlin for my first two picks. I dig it. Maybe...
Maybe Yamar braids. I don't know. I have no clue. Also, I think Dark Horse 2 would be Jordan bleach blonde hair because I feel like that was the start of the era where they all started bleaching their hair. Remember that? Or was it Nika? I don't remember who bleached it first. Whatever. That was, yeah. All right. This next one from Ben. Do we resign Rusnak?
Dude, I can't read today, folks. Oh, my Lord. Do we re-sign Rosnak as a DP or Tam? Earlier this season, I would have said Tam, but he continues to deliver at a DP level at the moment. Yeah, I concluded this because this is what we're probably going to be debating all offseason. And I think how this team does in the playoffs is going to inform a lot of how people think of it. If Seattle goes into the playoffs and immediately gets bounced out and has a few...
offense in whatever game that they lose. The answer to that question, the conventional wisdom is going to be Tam, if at all, he's going to take a lot of the blame if that happens, for sure. Personally, I think he has more than justified his DP status.
This year, I like how he runs the offense. I like watching him play. I think the stat sheet production is there. I think he passes the eye test. I think he's the lead on set pieces. I think he's probably the best free kick taker in the league right now if you take... and maybe a couple of other of the best guys out of the equation, but he's one of the best free kicker, free kick takers in the league right now. So, uh, I don't,
Obviously, they need to do some roster turnover. They need to bring in a couple new DPs. Ruiz Diaz is in all likelihood going to be moving on. I don't think JP's back as a DP, so we'll see what happens. But as of right now, I really would not hate it. if they brought Rufsnack back as a DP and then made a couple of other signings.
around him uh and then ideally get de la vega healthy going into next year and i think you would be pretty loaded up to have solid expectations for another 60 point year with that roster like i guess i haven't been as down on the roster
as some people recently, especially with the resurgence in form that's happened over the last couple months, save for the matches against LAFC, which I think rightfully overshadowed some of the good stuff they've done over the last couple months. But anyway, it's a good question. talking about it a lot more yeah i think for me if i'm the sounders front office i'm looking to bring him back next year on a dp but structure his contract so he maybe ends up as a tam in two years uh or in three years
Basically, you lock him up because he's 30. You know his play is going to degrade. But I don't think there's any possible way that he re-signs for anything other than a DP. Nor should he. Nor should he because I think... Probably any team looking for a DP would happily sign him after a season of production like that. And how are you going to find a player to replace that much production immediately? All the people who...
want to replace him so badly. Like you do realize that you just have to be clear-eyed about the fact that... If you move him on and are searching for a new DP, you are looking for a player that can give you 10 and 15 and run the offense and develop chemistry with the other attackers that he already has. And you know the sounders aren't going to spend...
money on them right i mean i mean like realistically okay even if they do you don't know that whoever you find is going to be able to do that i'm just telling you i'm just telling you like he is giving you the production that you would be looking for if you hit the market looking for
someone to fill that position. So I think that, uh, you're better served if you already have that player to, uh, to keep them, especially cause he already has like that chemistry with everyone. Uh, and 30 is not like. that old for, uh, an MLS attacker. But anyway, that's just how I see it. I do recognize that there's, uh, there's, there's different takes on it. I did think it was funny. Um, uh, did you see his Gino quote?
Yeah, I did. That was fire. I hope he listens. I hope he listens to the podcast. I don't know if he was talking about us, but he probably said that... He saw what a lot of people were saying earlier in the season and that he knows that people wrote him off. I was happy to see him say that. I was like, yeah, talk your shit. We said that stuff earlier this year when the offense didn't look good. And, uh,
I'm always, when I'm critical like that, I'm always willing to be proven wrong. And I think he, despite what the brigade out there might tell you, like he's proved a lot of people, those people wrong, including us. So credit to him for that. Like fair play. Yeah. in my dream world again like I said you get him back on a DP this next year and then you see where it takes you after that there's a million you know roster things you can tricks and things you can do but
I don't know. Let's move on to our blazing hot coach press conference of the week. We didn't have one for the last show, but I got one for this week, which is because we had another coach firing in MLS. Always an exciting day. lobbing scorchers when there's a coach firing um i meant to mention that in the intro but uh josh wolf out at austin he lasted way longer than i thought man yeah i mean the fan base has been clamoring for that one for a while um but
Josh Wolf is officially gone. They let him go with one game still left to go in the season. And the Blazing Hot press conference is not actually from Josh Wolf. Although I did want to acknowledge that he's been one of the best providers of Blazing Hot. hot coach press conferences since he got that job before their first season. God, I'm going to miss him, man, because...
His post-loss pressers in particular, there was one media member down in Austin in particular. Oh, you would needle him, dude. That would just needle him. Like this guy, I'm not sure who he is, but he just does not give a fuck.
He grills Josh Wolfe at these pressers as hard as any media member grills any coach to the point where for months he's been asking, why are you the right person for this job? And you can tell Josh Wolfe just... hates this guy oh yeah but it's funny to watch because the guy like i respect a media member like that that doesn't care about being liked right no like he's asking what he thinks is fair to ask right based on the results that he's seeing which have been
bad for them for two years now. And when he sees something that he thinks is wrong, he let Josh Wolf hear about it. And he didn't let the fact that Josh Wolf reacted with hostility stop him from asking those questions. I definitely always respect that, and it also made for some entertaining content. But the blazing hot presser that I wanted to refer you all to, we're going to play a clip from it as well. Rodolfo Burrell, Austin FC sporting director.
he was giving his, uh, his why I fired Josh Wolf presser. And, uh, he, uh, It got a little spicy at certain points, specifically the clip that we're about to play. He was asked about if Josh Wolfe's firing affected Owen Wolfe's future with the club. Owen Wolfe, son of Josh Wolfe, who played.
for Austin. He did not take kindly to that question. And I think it seemed like there was something that he felt had been unfair of the coverage of Owen Wolf. Like maybe the media down there had been suggesting that there was nepotism at play there. I really don't think there was Owen Wolf, by all accounts, is a pretty highly rated prospect who's off to a good start to his professional career. He's been a good player for them.
He plays for Atlanta United. The Wolf Boys are good players. The idea that they're nepotism kids that don't deserve to be pros is not correct. But either way, Rodolfo Borelli... didn't take kindly to that uh we'll just go ahead play this clip right here uh this is your blazing hot coach press conference of the week except it's with austin fc sporting director rodolfo burrell after the firing of josh wolf How does this decision affect Owen Wolf's future in Austin SC? In nothing.
I have to say, I have to say, now that you've made me this question, I think it's one of the young players with more potential in the country. And I think Beric League has been completely unfairly treated. This is what I have to say. When you originally came here in this room you talked about how excited you were to work with Josh Wolfe and you mentioned he was even a big part of the reason why you took this job with this club. What changed in a year and a half?
It's not changed. I came very clearly and I still say the same thing that I mentioned at the end of the day. Unfortunately, guys, I don't know why you make me this question. You're the first guys that... that everything is about results and everything is about, you understand? So I don't know why you make this question, if that makes sense. Because you are the ones that you are pushing for this and this and that, so now making this question is a little bit, you understand?
So I came here and I said I was very happy to work with him. Yes, and I still say the same. I was very happy to speak with him. At the end of the day, there are some expectations. He has been at the club for a longer time than my period. And there has been analysis of the overall performance of all the years, and we came to that conclusion. But this doesn't mean that I was not excited to work with him. And it was 100% your decision, there wasn't a collaboration with the ownership? Which one?
to make a change at the coach? Was that 100% your decision? At the end of the day, I'm the sporting director and this falls on me. Obviously, the board has to be, so obviously ownership has to be on board. in any MLS club and in any club around the world. But ultimately, yes, I'm the sporting director and it falls into me. So there you have it. That's Rodolfo Burrell.
End of an era at Austin FC. Shout out to Josh Wolfe for the blazing hot pressers that he's provided us with over the years. I'm going to miss him. I do think it was probably time for Austin FC to make this move. And their fan base, I mean, they were like, remember, they paid for the plane.
to fly over the game that said hashtag Wolf Out with one F, even though he spells it with two. The disrespect. I don't know if the Austin fan base, what they're going to do without the Wolf Out content. We will be watching the... the Austin fan TV, one of our favorite watches. Absolutely. Oh man. I haven't dove into that yet. Yeah. Dive into that. Oh, shout out, uh, Austin fan TV on YouTube. They're going to have some good stuff on this.
All right, let's do some takes on the results from around the league and then get out of here. Does that sound good? Let's do it. All right. Inter-Miami, still alive for the points record. They're playing Toronto. Bessie didn't start. But they needed to win both of their final two games to break the Rebs point record that they set a couple years ago. It looked like it was about to be 0-0 at last minute.
Your boy Leo Campana, BAMS won, second half stoppage time. So if they win their final game of the year, which is against, I'm about to pull it up right now, which is against the Revs, interestingly enough. That's a perfect final matchup for them. Yeah, they will set. the points record which um i mean that would be uh
That would be not surprising given how loaded they are. But I think, you know, we were talking about Tata's coach of the year case and like how he shouldn't have one because their team's so loaded. He has not had their full arsenal.
for a lot of the year. And I do think he has done a good coaching job. That being said, they are... Even with their backups, that's a tough team in the league. It doesn't really matter. No, exactly. That's a good point. Leo Campana's coming off the bench, dude. Leo Campana. Pono would be a star in Seattle right now. He was already on that pass. He was a star, man. He's got eight goals off the bench. That's crazy. Yeah, their moose has eight goals. Think about that. That's the equivalent.
If Moose had eight goals. If Leo Campano was our Moose, like... Whoa. That's like, I think that kind of illustrates the life that their team and their fan base are leading right now. It's just different than the type, like no one else in the league can even, even having Olivier Giroud as your depth nine.
37 has not paid off for LAFC. Like having Leo Campana in that role has for this Miami team, which like every guy you name, Diego Gomez is about to win 22 under 22. Matias Rojas is like, would be the best player in the league. If the, four Barca boys. He's so good. They signed Julian Gressel because they were like, oh, let's upgrade on DeAndre Yedlin. Yeah.
julian like the guy the best guy in the league with that skill set yeah it's just ridiculous um and then they have like the best like young players around you know kermashi obviously as well who's been a breakout that's just yeah well they're gonna almost come Orlando City beat FC Cincinnati 3-1. They're low-key.
One of the hottest teams in the league, if not the hottest team in the East right now, Inter-Miami notwithstanding. Inter-Miami hadn't been that hot really lately. They were trolling draws. They were trolling draws. Orlando City is blazing hot. Nico Ladero... We talked about him a lot already on this show, but did you know he has 11 assists for them this year? I did actually know that. Not a bad year for them at all. Anyway, they've really been...
as hot as anybody lately, so keep an eye out for them. And then LAFC, man, they absolutely destroyed the club of wrestling professional professional wrestling enthusiasts on the road three zero so uh as much as i think a seattle lafc matchup um might not be as much of a bloodbath in lafc's favor as as people might think. LAFC look pretty damn good right now. And it's definitely a scary proposition. And then I guess the last result that I thought was notable.
Columbus beating Philadelphia 3-2. That was a pretty crazy game, but Cucho, man. I think I'm probably going to vote for him for MVP, even though... I stand by what I said on the last show. Some people disagreed with me. I think if we're being real with ourselves, everyone knows that Messi is the MVP. He just shouldn't count towards the discussion. He's not only the most valuable player in MLS, he's literally the most valuable player that's ever played the game.
anybody. So like, how are you going to give that reward to anyone else? Especially when he has 32 goal contributions in like 980 minutes or some shit. Did he hit the minutes mark? I mean, uh, I don't, I mean, I don't know, but like, does it matter when you rack 32 goal contributions? It shouldn't, but I just don't think you can like win it. Anyway. Yeah. Let's call it right there for episode 68.
Sounders are on a bye next week, but we're going to still lay one down. I am going out of town this Thursday to Sunday, but like I said, we're going to try and lay one down Monday or Tuesday of next week. What I want to do is go over with the knowledge that we don't have a Sounders game. I do want to go over my 22 under 22 ballot. I filled that out.
I'll let you guys know who I put on there and what I think of some of the best young players in the league. And then we'll do my end of season awards votes as well. I get a vote for all the MVP comeback player. They don't give me one. smartly but so we can go through who I voted for for that as well and you guys can let me know like what you think of who I voted for and your thoughts on 22 or under 22 one thing I will tell you is yeah is that
Obed Vargas is going to be on it this year. I mean, I would be... I guarantee he is. 100%. We'll see where he ranks, but I think that'll be good content for next week to see us through without a Sounders game. Any other news or anything that pops up, we'll talk about that as well. So keep an eye out for that. Probably about a week from today with me going out of town later this week. But as always, thank you all for tuning in. We really appreciate it.
Every one of you who tunes in on all your preferred podcast platforms and on YouTube every single week, like comment, rate, subscribe, please sub to the YouTube. Tell, uh, Share with Opef Vargas. Rodolfo Burrell. Tell him that he's on the show this week. If you know anyone from Inter-Miami, tell them as well. Tell Messi's bodyguard about us. Whatever. We'll see you for episode 69 next week. Oh, it really is the perfect episode to do an award show episode on. It is. Until then, we out. Peace.