Thank You, FC Dallas - Ep. 84 - podcast episode cover

Thank You, FC Dallas - Ep. 84

Feb 20, 20251 hr 13 minSeason 3Ep. 84
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Episode description

Concacaf Champions Cup is off and running and the Seattle Sounders are off to a roaring start after Wednesday’s 3-1 Leg 1 triumph in Guatemala. Can anyone stop the FC Dallas boys? Did we just witness Pedro de la Vega’s breakout? We discuss that and more in our very first Dub Pod of 2025.  Later on, we hit an Agenda Check that might ruffle some feathers among the anti-Craig Waibel community and hit a couple of other Sounders-related headlines, including rumors linking Obed Vargas to the Eredivisie.

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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.

Transcript

The Seattle Sounders brand new 2025 kit is here, inspired by two traditional Southern Coast Salish weaving techniques, twilling and twinning. These techniques, passed down through generations, honor the resilience, deep rooted ties, and creativity that define the cultural fabric of this region.

the striking deep blue jersey will be worn by the sounders for the next two seasons to honor the club's deep connection with the puget sound and shared responsibility as stewards of the greater salish sea watershed backing up that commitment the seattle sounders will donate up to $50,000 to benefit community charities around the Puget Sound region. To get your very own Salish Sea kit, visit lobbyingscorchers.com slash kit. That's lobbyingscorchers.com slash K-I-T.

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 84 of Lobbing Scorchers. I'm Ari Lillianwall. Noah, we got a dub pod. We got a dub pod. How are you feeling? Second dub pod of the year, Ari. It was first a double dub pod. Now it's a real dub pod. It's a CCC dub pod. It's a Pedro de la Vega dub pod. It's a... It's a Paul Oriola dub pod. It's just, there's a lot to talk about today. It feels good to have a game to review. It feels good to have a dub pod.

to lay down. It's just, it's great to have the season back. It's great to have CCC back. We have a heck of a game to get into tonight. The Seattle Sounders have emerged as 3-1 victors after leg one of their CCC series against Antigua. Paul Areola got a goal. Pedro De La Vega got a goal. Albert Rusnak got a goal.

goal. Shout out to the brigade. Tough day for the brigade. We're going to break all of that down in our game review. We're going to hit our, we did our first agenda check on the last show. So we're going to get our first agenda check of when there's actual games. we're also going to hit some of the other results from CCC and a couple of other headlines related to the Sounders, actually. We're going to preview Charlotte FC tomorrow on...

under the lights, the live show that I'm doing every Thursday at 7.30 PM. I'm going to be previewing the Charlotte with the guys or one guy from top in 90 Charlotte FC podcast. YouTube show. So we're not going to preview Charlotte tonight. This will be just, just game review. And I think it's better that way because it's the first.

Dub pod of the season, and it's a huge dub pod. This was a big-time result for Seattle. But before we get into all that, I do have to let you all know that Lobbing Scorchers is indeed... 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 sounder at heart.com slash ls sounder at heart.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. Noah, do we have any new subs? We got four new subs, Ari. Are you ready? Let's go. Eric, Casey Morgan, Beth Brundage, and Matthew Montgomery. Thank you all. for becoming members of our army. We have enough to field like a full roster, a full reserve team. And a full like you 12 team. We're up to 73 sounded hard subs. Love to see that. Thank you all for the support. And thank you all for.

Helping us grow on YouTube. The channel is doing really well. We did a Josh Atencio trade reaction live stream. That was super popping. I think we had like 180 people in there. Yeah, that was crazy. It was going off. We had like the entire Sound It Heart staff. going in and out. Our live shows, if you haven't been tuning in, you should tune into those. Also...

Shout out to all of our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, Full Pole Wines. We have got a special project coming up with Hacks and Ferments that you all are going to enjoy. And if you want to sponsor Lobbing Scorchers. Send Noah an email. Loving Scorchers at JustOnceMedia.com If you haven't done so yet...

Sub to the YouTube, follow us on IG, all socials, right? Review on iTunes, Spotify, whatever. Okay. Let's let's do this. It's time for the dub pod. Uh, three, one at, uh, At Antigua, going into this game when Nico and I were previewing it,

I tend to think of a first leg on the road of a CCC series like this where it's your first competitive match of the season. I was saying that if you draw this, even if you 0-0 it or 1-1 it, it would feel disappointing considering how... good the squad looked in preseason but just on its face like a road draw in circumstances like this i never think of that as a

bad results. So when you come out of it with three road goals and ahead 3-1 on aggregate, that is a fantastic result. It's about as good a result as you could hope to get. I don't think the performance was as... lights out as three, one, but like,

I think it was a pretty damn good performance. You have to have a pretty good damn good performance. I think to get to that, but we'll let, we'll get into the fine points of all that, but let's break down the goals we saw in this game as we always do at the top of our game reviews. Cause there was some really good ones. Uh, first gold three minutes.

into the game. No, I, we had barely, uh, we barely sat in our seats and gotten situated. I mean, my, I didn't even have my popcorn. I didn't have my popcorn ready. I was just sitting at my desk and Paul Areola already Scored a goal. Jesus Ferreira and Paul Areola combine for the first goal of Sounders season. Obed Vargas with the secondary assist to put Jesus Ferreira on the right side.

He sends a cross back across the box. Paul Ariel is crashing in. He gets his shot on target, took a deflection. But that goes in and Seattle's up one zero three minutes into the game. And Noah, at that point, I was thinking to myself, oh, hell yeah. All right. Like, cause I think going into the game, my, the biggest thing I was looking for was where the offensive improvements that we saw during preseason going to translate.

to a real game like this three minutes into the game. It did not look like there was going to be any adjustment period at all. And I think any first game of the season you're usually going to build in some kind of uh acclimation adaptation period especially because you got a couple new guys i saw that goal and i was like man they might have uh avoided that altogether how are you feeling

after that Paul Areola goal? I was cloud-nining, Ari. I was like, all right. This has already worked. Everything that we've been talking about, they've fixed it. We're winning the whole we're winning the whole tournament. We're winning MLS. We're winning MLS everything. We're just we're sweeping. And I was I was writing pretty high, but, you know, it came.

crashing down very shortly after that. Yeah. So, uh, I would describe the rest of the first half, except for the very end. The way I looked at this first half was that the, uh, The very beginning of it and the very end of it were phenomenal. They looked great. And then everything in the middle was a bit of a shit show. I think they didn't do a good enough job at...

at controlling the game, controlling the tempo in the aftermath of the opening goal. And there was, there was just, there was so many, they had so many giveaways in this game. And especially in that kind of period. between the fourth minute and about the 42nd minute. There was just too many giveaways. They lost control of the match for lengthy portions of that period of time, I would say. And in the 24th minute...

Antigua got their equalizer. Oscar Santis scored it. And if you watched the Lobbing Scorchers kickoff preview show with Nico Moreno, that was the exact guy that he highlighted as the... He is the best player on their team by no small margin. And it was definitely a situation. It was a nice goal.

but it was definitely a situation where Seattle's defense got caught out and the cross, the low, low cross comes in and knew who is on an Island with Oscar Santis. And he did not, uh, win that one V one, uh, I thought... I thought that that was his thing. Yeah. Okay. I knew you were going to do that. Uh, he did, he did lose that one V one. I will say, uh, anytime you're left back is on that much of an Island against their number one, best attacker you're.

asking to have a bad time. And, uh, Oscar Santos, he made a nice play, like to set himself up with that. touch and get the shot off but as apparently the guy who's become like the new the value of new who defender i do have to admit that uh knew who was, I would say mostly to blame on that goal. He got put in a bad situation to be totally isolated against that guy, but

I mean, he lost the one. I mean, yeah. Yamar was nowhere to be found. Jackson Reagan got beat. He was 1v1 with, you know, their best player on the field. And the game state was just not. It was hectic. It was hectic. It was way too.

It was way too open. It was way too hectic. The midfield was a mess. They were, they were asking to get bammed on. They were, they deserved it. I would say, I would, I think it's fair to say that based on how the game, uh, the game state was at that point, like uh i don't know i wasn't uh yeah i wasn't aggrieved that they conceded from uh from a game state this was you know this was the kind of thing though that i was worried about and talking about in the last episode when we were grading

the preseason, I was saying like, you know, this is kind of the thing that worries me is... How is the defense going to settle in? Is it going to be situations like this? They looked so open to the counter. They just looked open in general. It looked like a feeding frenzy. And all I could see in my mind was Denny Bawanga eating against whatever miscommunication and mismatch was going on there in the defense. And, you know, I think I also noted in the last podcast of...

about like Nuhu coming forward and having, you know, some sort of scary feelings about that. Well, I guess it wasn't Nuhu that I should have been worried about. It was every other defender getting caught out of position. And I think Nuhu got caught out as well. It is a new formation. It is something that's going to happen. You're going to have those growing pains. But I mean, it was a little bit tilting in the first 45. It was a pretty bad concession.

It felt like after the goal, they tried to take the sting out of it a little bit and slow it down. And it just did not pan out like that. And like I said, I think it was a pretty deserved equalizer for Antigua. I, I thought the very end of the first half, they, they brought it back and they looked kind of like they did to start the match. I thought to, I thought the start of the match, it looked pretty much like it did in preseason.

And then, uh, at the end of the first half, they were able to like, just keep the ball again. You're like, I call it the, uh, uh, what was the cut? The 2017 Toronto FC cup. where that they lost like two zero right like in it's 2017 Toronto FC cup mode where they just can't keep the ball. Yeah. Like they literally, like they just couldn't maintain possession at all. And like you said, they, they were too susceptible on the counter and, uh, it was one, one.

Yeah. Which I think it's honestly better that they're finding this out now rather than, you know. months into the season like it seems very it seems very fixable it seems like something where and this is something that they changed was you tuck your wing backs back in to defend more to kind of just get yourself more set

And then you're able to build out of that. And then those wingbacks can play more freely. But I think just that movement and settling in. I mean, these players have been essentially playing the same system for the last three years. And this is something completely new. Brian Schmetzer swears that it's not, but that's a lie. Yeah. I think Brian's capping on that. So it's 1-1.

at halftime and at that point i'm already doing the rationalization to myself like all right would have been nice to uh get out of that with the with the one zero uh but you know if you tie this if you tie this one one that is on you're probably you're probably still going to win the series as long as you just get out of this level. Or even if they were...

Honestly, man, even if they were down a goal going into the next leg, I think they probably still win the series. That's what happened against Santa Tecla that year. So I like my. my concern wasn't really at that point, whether or not they were going to advance or win the series. It was more just like, uh, I liked how.

the beginning and end of that first half looked, but honestly, uh, I didn't really like everything in between that, uh, that much. So the second half, I really want to see, see it look more buttoned up like it did during preseason and, uh, just. not as chaotic and also go get go get a goal or two uh show that uh those attacking fireworks we saw in those exhibition games were uh actually laying the foundation for something so uh

To their credit, that's exactly what they did. Pedro de la Vega gets the go-ahead goal in the 61st minute, just past the hour mark. People are going to say it's not a banger because it took a deflection, but... I think it was a banger. Anyway, it was, it was, uh, from, from deep. It was from way outside, uh, way outside the box. It did take a pretty wicked deflection, beat the goalkeeper. Uh,

Seattle's up to one. We're going to talk about De La Vega's performance because that was a polarizing topic, but he did get a pretty sweet goal in this game. And Deflection or not, that was great to see because we all know the storyline with him last year and all the time that he missed and how excited we've been about him during preseason. So for him to get a goal in this game. was great to see uh this game didn't really feel like a 3-1 because it was 2-1 until the last moments and

Uh, Obed Vargas masterclass on this last goal here. This was a great goal. Uh, Obed Vargas. Like you said, it was pretty much all him that made this goal. He wins the ball off a pretty bad goal kick from the Antigua goalkeeper. But it's so I don't think he made like an amazing play to win the ball. But the vision. to see the pass to Georgie and then the execution to hit it.

And then at that point, it's just like a training drill for Georgie and Rusnak. It wasn't nice. I will say for the brigade, it wasn't actually. a higher degree of difficulty. I think on the finish, then Rusnak made it look, he hit it back across, uh, and, uh,

Kind of out-thucked the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper had that area covered, but Rusnak knew he was going to cheat, so he hit it far. It was a nice shot. It was a good goal, but it doesn't count because it was against Central American opponent. breakaway against a team. Stoppage time. It doesn't count. And the areola goal doesn't count either because it was a deflection. Correct. And the Pedro one doesn't count. It was a deflection. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So none of them count, but...

They do count on the CONCACAF scoreboard. So Seattle takes a 3-1 aggregate lead into leg two Lumen Field. Excellent result. Uh, really as good a result, I think, as they could have helped to get in this game when going into this game is their first match of the season against a team that's played eight games, making that bigger road trip. Uh, Doesn't get much bigger than that, result-wise. Noah, I wanted to introduce a new segment. A new segment. We got a new segment.

that we're going to do during the game reviews this year. I might rename this if I can get more creative, but we're going to do Lobbing Scorchers, Man of the Match, like as an official thing. Got it. Do we need a trophy? Do we need to make trophies for everyone? That might be a little ambitious, but we are going to award it. And if you want to sponsor that, email Noah.

My Lobbing Scorchers manned the match for this game. I'm going to give it... I'm going to cheat already. I'm going to give it to the double pivot. of Christian and Obed Vargas. I was going to give it to Christian. And then I was thinking about it and I was like, I don't bet the last goal happened. I'm like, I don't see how I can't give it to Obed. I thought Christian was a monster tonight.

He liked so much dirty work that kind of goes unnoticed. So I wanted to give him his credit for that. Uh, Obed $20 million. That's all the price is going up. It's going up. It went up. It went up. It went up. The Liga Mechies teams that are upset about this, who are trying to low ball Craig Wipes. I mean, well, he's not going there anyway, buddy. So a, he's not going there anyway. B.

$20 million. Give me that bread. $20 million. If anyone wants to call about him, $20 million. We actually personally have... a percentage of his contract. That's why we're so hyped on it. We have a sell on clause from the hype that we generated on this podcast. Do you have a different pick for man of the match? I would have said.

I really would have said Obed, but I think that I could come up with a unique one just for content here. And I'm going to go with Paul Areola. I think that he showed from the jump, from the start of this game. his how dynamic he is and like where he can play he was getting back and defending he was you know playing up top and he's just like an energizer yeah he's like he's everywhere and i heard so much chirping about

Oh, you know, whatever is Paul Areola. Like they're just getting people were like talking about it, like mockingly. Yeah. They were like, Oh yeah, he'll be great on the end of the bench. 2019 gold cup squad. Have fun with that. Yeah. You think that's not going to play in CONCACAF? Right. Like, get real. Buddy.

Jesus Ferreira and Paul Areola have been doing this for... The whole first half, all it looked like was the FC Dallas boys were cooking. I was like, so maybe I'll do a co-man of the match to the FC Dallas boys. I thought Ferreira played really well here. had that nice assist and i just think that like his his his movement in his space like there was that one pass that like

I can see it in my head. He receives the ball, and it's like it doesn't even touch his body, and he's able to just turn on a dime and whip it across and make this beautiful pass from the center of the goal mouth. with two defenders on him yeah and it just like lands you know it lands perfectly i can't remember who received the ball it didn't end up in a goal but it was like no i know exactly what play you're you're talking about dude i mean that's that's beautiful so shout out to the fc down

I will say they are the men of the match. Yeah, that's a good segue because one of the topics I had written down was assessing the debuts of the... The debuts. No, this is debuts on this show, Ari. You already know. We don't pronounce things right. Assessing the debuts of the FC Dallas boys. Yeah, I thought Ferreira looked... Really good. I thought everything that we we saw just with his

soccer IQ and his unselfishness and the way he combines with other players was on full display. You know what I was thinking about watching him? Like why I enjoy watching him. You know how, when you're watching a soccer player sometimes and you see the pass that they should make but like on the field it obviously looks way different so they don't necessarily you get to see the whole field yeah and so they oftentimes like won't make the

what you think is the blatantly obvious past, right? Right. I feel like... he always does make the, like the pass that I can see on this. I'm like, I'm like, hit that guy, hit that guy right there. And then he does it and then he executes it correctly too. And it's just very satisfying to watch. And I, it was, it's a pleasure to watch him play.

And, uh, I thought I really, I really liked what I saw from his debut and, uh, Areola. I thought that was good stuff too. He's just, uh, I think he fits in well on this team. Cause he he's, uh, uh, He's a work rate player, and I mean that as a cop. I don't mean that backhandedly. He's just got a nonstop engine.

Like some of the great Sounders we've seen over the years, Nico Ladero, Christian Roldan, those are characteristics, I think, of some of the great Sounders is just those guys that never freaking stop running. And he has that quality.

got like a little bit of an edge to him you know like he's great on the ball too he had that one play like remember when he was uh he was like basically taking on three guys at once and he almost he almost got out of that yeah they called a foul on him i think yeah that was funny he low-key uh won a three on one it wasn't even a two v one it was a three v one so uh yeah i thought it was notably actively good stuff from both fc dallas

debutants yeah i was that was the fastest debut goal of any sounder ever ari from from rothrock and jp right rothrock yeah okay i do i am a little bit upset that Paul Areola would take away the history, the legacy from Paul Rothrock. But you know what? It's fine. He built the road so that Areola could get there. But regardless, I mean, they're... They they played lights out man. I mean seriously like the first 45 minutes of this game. I was sat there like

There are three players on this field. You were crashing out. The first 45 minutes, I think we can all agree, there was three players on that field who I was like, these players are playing well. Everyone else, they're not doing great. guys who were struggling in the first half was guys that you're not used to, like the back line. Yeah, like Yamar. Yamar had like a rough first half. Reagan wasn't...

To be fair though, it felt like everyone was just giving the ball away. Anytime Antigua wanted the ball, Seattle was just right there to give it to them. Yeah, more more positives from this game. Roosnack healthy and scored. I was dead wrong. Nico and I were actually both wrong. We were reading between the lines of the Schmetz presser where he was talking about Roosnack.

trolled me. He got your ass. He got my ass. He loves doing that. He does. I know he does it on. I swear he listened to the show and did that just to mess with us. We see your game. Schmetz, we see you. Because, I mean, I stand on the fact that every time...

It seems like that he does the thing where he's like, ah, he might be back for this one, but I don't know. And he gets it. That usually means that the dude's going to be out for like three weeks minimum, you know? And he was doing that with Rusnak, but it's clear now that he. was doing that as reverse psychology uh psychology to mess gamesmanship to mess specifically with lobbing scorchers so yeah not antigua he doesn't give a shit about antigua he cares only about uh but

In all seriousness, Roosanek didn't start, but he came on, looked good, and scored a nice goal. So I think the consternation about the injury can be put on hold for now. Definitely. Georgie, man. Georgie. Georgie looked insane. Georgie. Wait, can I dish my hot take already? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Georgie looked better than Pedro de la Vega. It does not surprise me to. hear you say that but that but that is even if that if true that's a testament to how

insane Georgie looked and not even a knock on De La Vega. That could be, that could very well be true. And De La Vega could have had a phenomenal game, which we're going to talk about. He did. He scored. Georgie was on the field for like a few minutes at the end of the game. He ended like four. careers. He had an assist. He was playing good at cutting out passes. I want to see him start the next game because...

The Antigua defenders and midfielders cannot guard him. No. Like, they can't stay in front of him. They were confused. They didn't know. They were stunned. You know, like Pokemon, when they stun your Pokemon? That's like exactly what was happening to the defenders of Antigua. He was just... he was just too much like physically for them. So that was, that was fun to watch. And also I'm just, I'm just looking at Georgie.

do stuff like that. I'm like, when, when are we going to start talking about how much money he's going to go for? Like, I mean, cause he, he just, he's just so dynamic. I don't know. 14 minutes played one assist. I mean, and you know, like three recoveries, two duels, one. Anytime he was against a guy 1v1, it was just, he was, the guy was lost. It was over. They were done. It was over with. Yeah. I'm like, I'm going to, I think I'm going to.

dub him the the career ender although that makes it sound like he's like a slide tackler but yeah he really like which jackson reagan i don't know if you saw this the jackson reagan brexit tackle well so someone that was someone in the uh on the blue sky crowdsourcing brought that up. So we'll, we'll hit that. We'll get to that. Um, the other thing I was thinking about at the end of this game, Noah was just like the depth on this team is impressive.

Like bringing Rusnak, JP, Rothrock, and Georgie like off the, off the bench. That's. That's potent. You basically, basically when this team is healthy and they're able to rotate like that, they are able to do a whole round of subs and have very little, if any quality drop off. And like with how Georgie's developing, I'm like, you bring him on. That's your, you might be increasing the quality in certain situations, you know? So, uh, it's fun to, uh,

To see this while everyone's healthy, no one's away on international duty, just for Schmetz to be able to do that, this team is deep. I mean, to have... albert rusnak coming off the bench that's insane yeah like in in not even a drop in quality like just That's wild. The lineup was just as good when they after the entire round of subs as it was before. Right. That's you don't really see that that much. That's wild. Yeah. I'll hit some.

I'll hit some negatives, I guess. I had positives and negatives. I mean, I can hit the negatives. How about I just go rapid fire, go through the negatives I had, and then you can get to yours, and we can talk about what we think of the positives and negatives. Beautiful. The negatives I had written down where most of the first half was a shit show. And that was because the game management after the opener was bad and the goal concession.

was bad because they weren't managing the game very well. Uh, and just the amount of giveaways it got, it got egregious. Like at one point in the first half where it felt like every time they had the ball, they were giving it away. That is something that I would hope is attributable to it being the first game of the season on the road in Guatemala. Like I said,

Yaimar and Jackson Reagan are not guys who typically are going to give away possession with the frequency that they did tonight. So anyway, that was what I had written down. Give your positives and your negatives. Just lay them both down. I mean, positives for sure, I think. You take away a win, 3-1. They have to score three. That's about as good as you can do on the road.

Uh, and frankly, like, I think if you look at the performances of the team as a whole, as a, in the context of this is the first match, right? There's definitely a lot of positives. There's definitely a lot of things to work on and take from from this game. I think that you are finding how to get through those like.

hard parts of having wing you know wing backs or just wingers in general that are super high and being you know vulnerable to the counter this team was really fast they were pounding and pounding and pounding in the midfield and it worked out for them on one goal and then they were tactically able to shift and kind of shut that down in the second half so

I think the positives are, you know, been not break in the past. This team had not been able to come back from a goal down or two goals down or something like that. And it really does feel like. You know, okay, we concede a goal. We play a bad half of soccer. It's not over. Like, there's going to be more goals. There's going to be other things. And, like, that's kind of all you can ask for because that's what everyone was.

demanding that we change because just the lack of goals was not only frustrating but it just hampered you in so many ways i will say the negatives like i was critical of pedro de la vega to some people's dismay? Would that be a fair thing? You were getting in De La Vega discourse. I wasn't really involved in that, but if you have thoughts on the... Let's assess...

the De La Vega performance. We did that every time he played last season. We've been on the De La Vega beat, obviously all preseason. He's looked phenomenal. This game, I definitely think it's fair to say was a mixed bag. But why don't you give your takes on his performance and then I'll tell you if I agree. Yeah, I think for me, I am happy with what he gave.

I'm not like super excited about it. And I'm definitely not going to. Not excited. I'm definitely not going to. Yeah, I'm definitely not going to evangelize. I'm not saying I'm not like excited for what's to come and what he's to build on. I'm saying. I'm not excited at what he put on the field exactly today. I think that there were good things, but there was also a lot of, you know, rough moments and settling into a game has been a really big problem for him.

And he took that whole first half to settle into the game. It took him, I think, around the 50th minute, 40th, 40th, like after the break, 50th minute, I think. He settled in. He made that scorpion pass. Once he made that, he was like settled and he played the best 15 minutes of soccer since his best last best 15 minutes of soccer. But that's my problem is like.

There's been these small flashes of brilliance and these long periods of like, urgh, just gritting play. So I'm not ready to, you know, evangelize this performance as his coming out party. I'm just trying to be realistic, and I think that a lot of people are not liking that I'm taking that route instead of just immediately being excited. But that said...

He put himself in a good position to score that goal. He scored that goal. I think there is something to be said that it was a deflection. I don't think that that's the end-all be-all because there's a billion goals in the world that are a deflection. It matters that that shit went in. and it's on the scoreboard, because guess what? XG isn't real. All right. A lot to unpack there. Also, Brian Schmetzer agrees with me, so that's all I'll say.

I mean, I don't know about that. I think that's a bit of a stretch. I think what you're referring to with the rough moments... are, uh, where moments in the first half, basically I think in the first half he had a lot of heavy touches, which is something that was happening a lot last year.

And I will grant you, it happened enough times to the point where the thought did enter my head. It did honestly enter my head like, oh, it looks like it did last year. That thought did enter my head. That being said, I think... I think you're exaggerating like how bad the first half was a little bit. Like there was those moments with the heavy touches. But I think to like...

To use those as evidence that a super negative evidence against his performance is cherry picking the bad and not acknowledging the good, which I think there was a lot of good outside, outside just the goal, which. As far as the deflection luck debate, you make your own luck. That's bullshit. I'll agree with you. That's bullshit. It's a goal. It is a goal. That counts.

He should have had an assist right before the, he should really like Ferreira. If you give Ferreira that chance a lot of times this season, I'm pretty confident he's going to finish that like a decent percentage. of the time. And De La Vega could literally could not have done anything more to lay that ball, that ball on a platter for him for a really high percentage. Look, he had did a great job to body that guy off the ball, win the ball near the end line, take it into the box.

and lay it off for Ferreira. So he really should have had, could have had two goal contributions in this game. He had the little scorpion kick moment, like you mentioned, which that was another one of those things where you're like, damn, that's some type of creativity and dynamic.

play that we wish we'd see more of on this team in the last couple of years, you know? So I do, I definitely, I agree with you that it was a mixed bag and I definitely don't think you're wrong that the first half was not super great. And I would literally, I would be lying to say. that thought didn't come into my head watching him in the first half. But I think I'm more hyped than you maybe on what we saw.

uh, in the second half to close out the game. I, I mean, I love what he did on the plate where he scored the goal to like, just to like, just to, yeah, take that shot. Like, see if you can get that deflection, make something happen. Like, uh, I love seeing a Seattle attacker do that. And I also think I, I don't think there should be any narrative that like he got the goal, but was like totally sucked the rest of the game. Like I thought there was a lot of good stuff.

in the rest of his performance as well including what should have been another goal contribution so i'm very i'm very happy with how he played i'm not i'm not here to even debate that he he didn't have a great flash of a moment what i'm here to say is like

The time in which he was really showing his talent and playing really well was so concentrated in that second half. That first half, he looked hectic. He looked... frantic he looked like he was playing stressed out and it was bad it was bad it was bad and i'm i like there's people online who are telling me it wasn't bad and you're like i don't know what soccer you're watching like that was frantic

And stressful to watch. He was diving into stupid-ass tackles. He's giving away balls that were a problem. And I'm sorry, if this was a better team, if this was LAFC, those giveaways are going to be... way more impactful you could say that another thing you could say that for everybody on the team though if you're gonna if you're gonna dog him for giveaways you gotta dog yamr you gotta dog christian and i did yeah no i'm just saying like uh yeah

But like to make that about him specifically. Well, I'm not, I'm just saying if we're rating his performance. we can't pretend that that whole first half didn't happen. All right. I'm not here to say he's a bad player. I think the only thing we disagree on is I don't... You see that first half as a lot worse than I did. It was bad. I definitely, I definitely, the heavy touches were a thing. But other than that, I didn't think it was the most disgraceful showing I've ever seen.

I thought... I mean, the last thing you want to say is, oh, he looks like he's playing like he did last season. well yeah that's what i i mean that's what i thought too and i thought that in the first half but like i don't i i wouldn't really uh I'm not worrying that much about that unless I'd seen them do that in the second half as well. Like I think I'm more encouraged is what I was going to say. I'm more encouraged by what I saw in the second half than I am really tripping about, about some.

Heavy touches in the first half. Which, let me tie it up into a bow and say, like, I'm not here to say, Pedro Delvega is bad. He's not going to be good. I am anti Pedro de la Vega. I'm anti the Pedro de la Vega. No, I heard the sentiments. People were saying it. And it's not about that. It's about being honest with ourselves about when he can play. A full game, a full match. He played 75 minutes. When he can play 75 minutes of good soccer.

hell yeah i'm gonna be evangelizing it and praising it why are we getting ahead of ourselves that's so silly it's so silly not really because he looked like a demigod in preseason and then scored a really sick goal in this game and Should have assisted on another goal, eliminated a couple more defenders. But he's been a preseason god.

Yeah, but this ain't preseason anymore. Yeah, but he played 15 minutes of good soccer and 45 of bad. That's my take. I think you're exaggerating, but we can... I think that's a good impasse to be at because ultimately at the end of the day, we're talking about a game where he scored a goal and... The discord is going to light me up for this one. Three goals. So yeah, you can take it. I can eat it. Don't want to give money to the oligarchs, but love lobbing scorchers. Do we have a deal for you?

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Why don't we hit some of the takes from the people, Noah? Do we have those? Do you have those pulled up? I put them in the... The takes from the people. Absolutely. Questions. I see them right here. Do you want me to just pick people at random here? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Let's say I got them pulled up too. Okay. Perfect. Uh, let's start here with. This one from Greyhound Presidents

Ferreira and Areola were definitely big additions, both showing their class. Question for the dub pod. Have the Sounders mastered the dark arts? Between Areola's saltiness and Reagan's time-wasting, this looked like a CONCACAF-wise team. Yeah, so I noticed that too. They were... the boys were conca caffeinate a little bit at the end. I think the Jackson Reagan tackle was actually clean, but it looks very conca caffe. So I enjoyed that. And then I think the Pauls.

are just kind of made for CONCACAF dark artsing. And there was definitely a little, a little time wasting by Seattle, which I have seen that. done to them so many times in CONCACAF where when I do see them do it, I feel absolutely nothing. They've figured it out. They won CCC. You don't win CCC without knowing how to shithouse. Like, I'm just saying. You have to. They've been to the Final Leagues Cup. You don't do that without a little bit of CONCACAF ball knowledge. This one is from Quadzilla.

Brian was refreshingly active with his subs with the lead early on, uh, with the lead and early season legs. That makes sense, but I still liked it. Yeah. I mean, like I was saying, he just has. such kind of an embarrassment of riches at his disposal right now. Like I think in the past, uh, he's felt like he only has

so many guys that he can trust, you know? Yeah. And that's probably why he's been tighter on the sub ship than some people would like. I think with this team right now, I mean, when you're bringing Rusnak off the bench, like you can, uh, You can make a sub earlier, save people's legs. I feel like... I don't know. There's just...

So much less dread for me, existential dread with the prospect of fixture congestion right now, just especially after seeing how that for the first round of subs work tonight. About that Quan and number one Obed Vargas fan asks. Is this Obed Vargas' midfield? Led the game in fouls drawn in recoveries. And then number one Obed Vargas fan says, how does Obed do it? $20 million. $30 million, Ari.

$30 million. What did I say? $45 million? You said $45, yeah. The number keeps going up and it will not come down. Georgie looked really good. Should he be in contention for starting going forward? This is from OKB04. He's not starting right now in the first choice 11, but he's one of the first guys off the bench. And I want to see him get a thousand plus minutes this year. I want to see what he can do with that. God, like watching him in this game was, was fun. Yeah, it was fun.

Sam Fromwitz asks, some combo of a slippery pitch and first match Russ affected product. Biggest takeaway is that two creators looked really good, Pedro De La Vega and Rusnak. And Georgie looked awesome. Ari, are we back? Hopefully. I mean, I think the biggest thing I was paying attention to, like I said in this game was how much of the offensive improvements that we saw in preseason would translate to this game.

And I think after watching that game, I feel pretty good about the hope of the team being back. I guess, what do we mean by back? Like back to scoring. 60 plus goals. I think back to being dominant. Back to being dominant. Okay. It does feel... You can't crown that off one game, obviously, but if they play like that week in, week out, they could be. I think... This is a good point that I should add to my whole former rant here. Obviously, there is some rust. It's early...

you know, the defense learning is everyone. It's just, it is the first real match of the entire season. And so everyone's going to come into their own as things progress. And I truly do believe that with. every single person on the team, including Pedro de la Vega. Uh, and so, yeah, like, I think what is more striking to me and shows that we are back the most.

is that you had a first half that you had a stretch there where it was a little bit haunting. I was a little bit like a thousand yard stare looking back PTSD. last season and the season before, and then flipped the switch in the second half and were able to completely flip the narrative on the head. And I think that that's the perfect example of that, as much as I just dogged him.

Pedro de la Vega, right? Like didn't really have the best first half flip that narrative on his head by, by playing lights out in that, you know, last 15, 25 minutes that he played in the second half. So. That's way more important, I think, when you look at the grand scheme of things of being back. So Ari, I think we might be. We might be back. I think that is a good place to...

rap and head into the agenda check. Agenda check. We should have a theme song for agenda check. We gotta do that where we can press the button and then it plays. We'll work on that. We gotta... A lot of new features on the way. All right. We have four agenda checks written down. Do you want me to do mine first or do you want to do yours first? Go for it, yeah. All right, this is a new one that I came up with. I haven't decided exactly what to call it yet. I have...

The Craig Weibel is kind of a dog agenda, or it could be the Craig Weibel has that dog in him agenda. I was just thinking about this. You know, Craig Weibel is taking a lot of heat. It's taking a lot of heat from the vocal minority. He's been derided. He's been lambasted.

People use strong language when talking about him sometimes. They say he's incompetent. They say he doesn't know what he's doing. They say hashtag Craig out. Craig out. He's a buffoon. All this stuff. People say that stuff. I heard someone call him a goober. People like this is a thing. from the vocal minority. There's a lot of overlap in like Brigade and Weibel Out. I mean, if I'm just looking at what he did this offseason, getting Jesus Ferreira on this team...

as a non-DP in that trade. And looking at how Jesus Ferrer looks tonight, which was really good, I think. And then this trade that he made with Josh Atencia, 1.3 million. I feel like it's not getting hyped that much because it's within the move league. I mean, he sold an Academy kid that was developed by the team like for a million, over a million dollars. Yeah. Gam, you know, I think he might have that dog in him.

I think he might have that dog in him, too. You saw it in this game. The fact that he took a DP coming off the bench, huh? And they played just as good, if not better, once he came off the bench? But they were still, like, leading? What? He's got that dog in him, man. Not only that transfer of Reed, but the deal to bring the FC Dallas boys here. You saw him cooking in the first whole half of the match. Like, what the hell? Yeah, I said Ferreira, but also getting both the FC Dallas boys.

both of whom had goal contributions tonight. Ariel has scored the first goal of the season three minutes into the game. I mean, I just think that if you're going to dog the man all the time... You have to give him his credit when he does something well, right? Yeah, you got to. You got to. You got to. If you're being honest. Yeah. Well, we know the brigades are. Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying. I think I'm going to stick with this agenda because it's not going to be popular.

But the thing is, we've been critical, too. We've been critical of Greg. Yeah, you know, he signed Hebert, you know? Yeah, he signed Danny Musovsky. I would describe my... emotions towards the a baron moose signings as like mild irritation as opposed to crash out chris but you know yeah teach their own i think my musovsky takes might put me in crash out chris territory though but i accept it

Um, all right. And then this one is dating back to last season, but, uh, I can definitely report that the De La Vega is the savior agenda has been strengthened. Uh, and that's not just based on one goal tonight. I mean, he's coming off a demigod preseason, which we know being a preseason practice god doesn't mean anything.

But I was cautiously optimistic that he laid a foundation that he could that could translate into these CCC games and into league play. And as Seattle plays in 27 tournaments this season and. I really think that between that goal and the rest of the good, the good plays he made that I was talking about, I mean, this agenda is definitely, you can try and tamp it down, but it's hot.

It's hot. It's definitely hot. I wouldn't even deny that. I think that his combination of all of that, this was in the gutter, man. This whole take was in the gutter. It was abandoned. It was left at the Humane Society, and we have adopted it. We washed it. We gave them a haircut.

And he's out there. And you know what? He may still have a little bit of a limp. He may be kind of a little bit of an ugly dog right now, but he's going to grow into his own. This is a hot agenda. As much as I gave him slack. I'm just being cautiously optimistic. And you know what I think is funny is that, so this is kind of a tangent, but I noticed A week or so ago, someone commented on one of our short videos, and it was someone who was clearly Brigade and anti-Craig Wibes.

And they were in the video. I said something to the effect of like, I feel like a lot of the fan base has already written De La Vega off. Right. And the brigade guy commented, he said, who wrote De La Vega off? I've never heard any of the fan base.

say that. And I saw that and I was like, well, first of all, I mean, that is delusional, but why would brigade, why would brigade be saying that? Why would a brigade member be saying, like trying to say that, uh, they were actually like in on de la vega or that they weren't talking about de la vega as a bust it's because that if de la vega is good that is that means craig weibel did good right and that undermines

These members of the brigade have spent the entire last year and a half basing every take that they dish on the premise that Craig Wives is terrible. And De La Vega being a bust was a critical talking point in support of that.

If he's not a bust, that all comes crumbling down. So this brigade member was trying to get out in front of it and trying to say that they were like, oh, De La Vega. Yeah, De La Vega. I was in on it all along. No, you guys weren't. No, you weren't. And if he does break out.

A lot of your takes, it's like a year and a half of work that you've put in that's going to go down in flames. I hope you understand that. And I'm going to point it out. I'm going to laugh at you. What's even worse for the brigade is that Rustack looks good. and is like doesn't seems like a totally fine DP serviceable and doesn't need to carry the load so like

what does it even matter? Like all the discourse was pointless. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, you know, but Hey, listen, I am, I am, I am, I am very much conscious of my own takes. I'm very much. able to be you know chirped at for them and own what i what i've said and i have been a day not a i don't think i've been a de la vega hater because i do want him to do well but i think i've been very skeptical

Skeptic. Still am. Skeptic. I'm a skeptic. I'm cautiously optimistic. And I understand where he's at. I understand where he could be. I have high hopes, but, you know. i'll own it you know there's people who are right now like you who are like he's a god it's happening he's coming out and i'm like i don't know yet i don't know yet but when he does just know i'll say you guys were right but to the brigade

You guys, I kind of hope you're wrong. He could. I mean, he could still be a bust for all we know. That's what we're going to find out. But if he's not. That's what a gender check's for, baby. A lot of narratives are going to have to be. assessed and people are going to have to take some accountability. Noah, let's keep going with your agendas. My agenda check as this was a lot of people were calling Jesus Ferreira Paul Areola on ambition.

signings are they said oh they're dumb they're stupid 2009 b squad 2019 gold cup squad folks i'm here to present to you an agenda that i believe in very deeply fc dallas was fleeced agenda fleeced Paul Oriola looking like a certified god where he was a DP for them signed for millions and millions of dollars and now is playing for pennies on the dollar for us

And Jesus Ferreira, same thing. DP was playing for pennies on the dollar and absolutely balling out and making it not only easier for players like Pedro de la Vega to look good. Same thing with Morris and Rusnak and all of this, all this rotation that allows them to take a little break. Scoring a goal, any goal in a CONCACAF Champions Cup road match.

in a road trip that long in an environment like that, not a single goal in those circumstances is ever to be taken for granted. The FC Dallas boys linked up for one, three minutes into the game. Three minutes into CONCACAF Champions Cup. They looked like they had been there before, man. Yeah, and I was looking it up. I don't think Ferreira has played in this with FC Dallas. Like, I couldn't find... I feel like that has to be wrong. I think they...

They have played in one. Okay. Well, either way, he doesn't have extensive experience in this competition. I mean, we've been talking about how perfect he is for specifically this tournament. I think that was totally, uh, bared out in this game. Uh, you know, he did, uh, he did a fluff the one. chance that de la vega set him up for but other than that i thought he looked sharp i thought he was combining with everyone really well he had a really good assist he looked dangerous

He was finding space really well. I mean, I don't know. I think this is a good agenda. It's a good agenda. I agree. I think it's hot. And I think even more than that... They've integrated so well with this team. They did not look disconnected. In fact, I think that those two players looked the best in the first 45 out of basically anyone. I mean, Obed Vargas. If I didn't know who hadn't played with the team before.

and I was just watching that, I would not have guessed either of those guys. Not when they're scoring a goal three minutes into the game. Me either. All right, here is my steaming hot, spicy, spicy like you put hocks and ferments on your... Food, we are winning CCC agenda. You've been on this one. I've been on this one.

It's one of my spicier takes. This is actually... You've dished some questionable takes tonight, but this take is one that you have been on and actually... looks better after this game yeah and listen you guys know that sometimes i like to dish for content but this one i like do believe i do set it on soccer wise so you i did say it on soccer wise but i you know

I was the least informed on that podcast. Let's be real. I'm more of the funny guy, but I think after this performance, it shows that you can have a really shit ass booty half of soccer and still pull one out. against a team in a tough environment. And that grittiness, that level of being able to sub people in, I mean, we've literally just talked about this endlessly. It's what you need for a tournament like this. This team is built for tournaments, man.

They're built for it. 3-1 in your road opener, man. That is... After a bad-looking first half, too. I was serious when I said I would have taken 1-1 or 0-0. Yeah, I predicted 2-1. If 1-1 or 0-0 had happened, I think I would have been...

honestly tilted about it, but ultimately stuck to my belief that that is actually a good result. This is a phenomenal result. It was a great result. Great result. You can't, you cannot, you could not, the only way you could have gotten a better result if it was three zero. But that's kind of a nitpick. They were always going to score. It was destined.

They were at least always going to have a couple of chances playing at home as pumped up as they were. They were always going to have a couple of chances in this game. Also, this Oscar Santas kid is like, I don't know, like maybe some MLS team. I was looking him up. Nico said he's the best player on their team. He has 35 caps for Guatemala and 11 goals. And he was at Dynamo Tbilisi. He's a real player.

So he's a Euro star. Like anyone who's going to be doing that. They should have beat him even worse thing. It's like there's some like they have some guys like Oscar Santos is a guy. Dude, he's 25 and he's played like 200 plus matches. Yeah. That's pretty damn good.

I think that's it. I think that's the agenda check. I felt good to be back on the agenda check game. There's some good, good stuff there. I'm excited to keep track of these throughout the season. And also I think we're going to keep trying to do the thing where we introduce at least one new agenda. everyday show. So, uh, good stuff. All right. Uh, I only had a couple more things for us to hit here and then we can get out of here for episode 84. A couple of Seattle Sounders headlines here.

And then I was just going to hit the other CCC results real quick and then call it a day or night. Whatever time it is. The first Seattle Sounders topic here. Nicholas Ladero, no. Ever heard of him? Once or twice. Nico Ladero has signed with the Houston Dynamo after being bought out by Orlando City SC, which would be notable... Regardless, Nico is obviously a club legend. Some might say the best player in the history of the club. I would count myself among that group.

But the reason that this was notable even more so is that as per reporting by Soundert Hearts. Nico Moreno, who I host Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff with every Monday at 8.30 a.m. Pacific time. The Sounders, Nico Ladero was trying to come back to Seattle, and the Sounders...

as I understand it, according to Nico Moreno, actively passed on the chance to sign him. Like his agent or maybe Nico himself, I don't know, was like reaching out to the club to try and make this reunion happen. Ladero, I guess, really. wanted it to happen. And Seattle said no. So I guess the question becomes, should they have said yes to the Nico Ladero reunion? Instead of saying no. Do you want me to go first? I think you should dish first. Okay, here's what I think about this.

You have to give a take that's going to offend some people because I gave a take that's going to offend some people. I can't bring myself to get real riled up about this one. But what I would say is that I would have... If they wanted to bring Nico Ladero back on a really cheap number... uh, as like a mentor type player in a rotational role, uh, with the understanding between him and the club that it's going to be a mentorship rotational role and not like a weekend week out.

every game starter. If they wanted to do that, I would have no issue with it. I love the guy. I think he's a club legend, best player in the history of the club. I would be fine with it in principle. I think if they have, if they, It's hard to assess without knowing the locker room dynamics and the organizational dynamics, but I think...

If those who do know those things assessed it and decided that it wasn't the best course of action, then I have no way to say that they're wrong for making that determination. And I also... think that they probably know that there's good reasoning behind why they would not want to do it. So that's how I feel. I mean, if I'm Craig Weibel, I'm not interested. Even at any number, you really don't have...

What are they? Does Ladero take up an international spot? I'm not sure if he had gotten his green card or not. I can't remember. But they have one international spot. I'm pretty sure he doesn't take one because he was here for so long. That's true. He probably has his green card. So regardless, I just I.

Sometimes you just got to move on. Sometimes it's like, it's not the moment anymore. And I think I would love to have him retire here. I'd love for like a Freddie thing. I'm fine. I would be okay with that, but you know, I also am okay with moving on. Freddie was like, serviceable for like three matches and then they had him on the team for like four years he was actually really good his first year he they

might not win ccl without they don't win ccl without i don't think they don't yeah and that's what i'm saying like those three those three match i'm being facetious with the three specifically but i don't know I don't mind it either if it's like on some understanding, but the way he left and the way that things were settled, like it just seemed like the locker room is very different now. And.

You brought in these two big stars already. It seems like things were good. You've already got your eyes on potentially a new U22 in the summer. The midfield's kind of a logjam already. I don't know what he would do other than just like maybe come in for a few minutes here or there. And I don't understand why he would want that. Apparently that's. sounds like he might've won. I mean, here's what do you want? Do you want me to read what his source specifically said? Um,

And this is by Nico Moreno of Soundert Heart and Lobbing Scorchers fame. According to our source, Ladero had a deep desire to finish his MLS career in Seattle, but despite his efforts and after several attempts to negotiate with his former club, the Sounders showed no interest in... him back regardless of the low salary implications so it just seems like they didn't even think twice about it yeah and uh without knowing the details of the dynamics of the situation

I am personally okay with that. Sorry that that is not an offensive take. He shouldn't be here. Next topic. According to Tom Bogues, Bogues Bomb, Tom Bogues sources, several clubs in the Netherlands are interested in Seattle Sounders rising midfielder Obed Vargas. Ever heard of him? No. Dutch clubs among many keeping tabs on Vargas. So I guess let's just think or talk about what we think of the notion of Obed going to the air to Vise. My first take? Nah.

Way better league than that $20 million. $20 million. If a team in the air device has $20 million. I mean, Iox might. If Iox wants to drop a $20 million bag, I'm cool with that. I mean, I think it's a good stepping stone for him regardless of what happens. I think obviously he could do... I think he could do better. I think he could probably go and play in the championship right now or in La Liga, but...

I don't think that's, like, a bad spot to land if you're on a team and you're going to be playing. Like, if you're on PSV or Iox or Fenjord. If he was on Iox, that would be pretty sick. But, like, those are teams that you're potentially playing in Champions League. You know, you've got... all of the Europe stuff with a real chance of actually playing good minutes immediately and not having that crazy, you know, culture shock of like, if you're not performing, you're done.

And I think that there's like a nice bump up to that, right? Like going straight from MLS into Europe is hard. It is. There's a lot of players who don't make it. And I think that he has the build to make it. But like... PSV has had, you know, Mexican national team players in the past play there. Wasn't Tricky Lozano there? Yeah, I think that's right. So...

I don't know. I don't think it's a bad place. Is he going to land there? I have no clue. But I think the Eredivisie, stylistically also, I think he would play really well there. As long as it's not Liga Mekis. As long as it's not Liga Mackey. I would be really into it if it was one of the big clubs, like you said, like Ajax or PSV. If it's one of the rando ones, like where...

like Georgie Mihailovic or some of those other guys or like Ricardo Pepe, I think went to like a really random one. Hey, didn't, didn't, uh, Didn't Rosanac play in the Eredivisie? He did. He was playing in the Eredivisie before. Yeah, he was at like AZ Alkmaar or something. Yeah, before he went to Real Salt Lake. That's where he was playing. That's why I don't understand why the Brigade and the bots don't like him. He's literally an Eredivisie player. What are you guys talking about?

Anyway, I think that's all the Obed transfer discourse we needed. 20 million dollars. That's basically all I have to say about that is 20 million dollars. If you go 19.9 million, I'm hanging up the phone. Brutal. All right. Let's just hit these other CCC results. CCC is going teams are playing games. Yeah. I think it just ended. I think the slate for tonight just ended. Uh, let's Talk about what's notable out of these results real quick. You had the rapids. This was interesting, Noah.

This was interesting. This was an interesting one, Ari. Rapids 2-1. Pids? The Pids are up 2-1 against LAFC after leg one of their series. It was a bit of a... chaotic game it was like in a snowstorm ice blizzard it was a little bit cold it was like zero degrees lafc players they're used to being in la they weren't ready for it um

Georgie Mihailovic, who I just brought up, actually. Yeah, he did. He scored a brace in this game, including a really sick free kick. That free kick was a... I woke up my whole neighborhood with that, dude. That was sick. I think... We all are hella rooting for the Rapids. Yeah. Like anytime LAFC crash out of a tournament, it's funny.

But if it's against the Rapids here, that would be even funnier. That's champagne worthy. What I will say is that the Rapids were up 2-0. They couldn't stop LAFC from getting the road goal, which I think was on a penalty kick, which is dumb. No, it wasn't. Oh, it wasn't? Oh, no, the Rapids.

Aaron Long yeah yeah Aaron Long so uh I guess what I'm saying is that if the Rapids had actually seen out that 2-0 I'd be like oh damn they actually might win this the fact that they gave up the road goal I'm pretty sure LAFC is going to take it to them in the in the home leg And when that series pretty easily, but it's still, uh, like right now we can.

We have the hope of the LAFC crash out against the Rapids alive. Like the Rapids are ahead. They are theoretically better this year. Second year under Chris Armas. Got some reinforcements in there. Some defensive reinforcements. Come on, Rapids. Let's go. And listen, you can root for me. They got Josh Atencio on the team.

You can root. Yeah. Oh, maybe we can get Josh Atencio owning LAFC in the second leg. Oh my God. That would be one of the, that would be a bigger dub for lobbing scorchers than three, one at Antigua. Yeah. Um, inner Miami beat sporting Kansas. City, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts. In sub-zero temperatures. Only one zero. Sub-zero temperatures. Messi got her done. Messi got her done. And honestly, that's...

a really, that's an impressive. It is actually like, cause I mean, they're the LA guys. They weren't ready for Colorado. The Miami guys definitely weren't ready for sub zero. They're like, didn't they literally move the, uh, game uh because inter miami didn't want to play and how cold it was yesterday i think it was just like too dangerous or something i'm not sure but i mean you can imagine messi's messi's like 85 bro

His bones are brittle. You get him in the cold, he might just snap in half. Sergio Busquets? Like, come on, that dude doesn't exist. That dude doesn't have knees anymore. FC Cincinnati mobbed on Montagua 4-1. Montagua of Sounders fame? Yeah. FC Cincinnati got a better road result. than Seattle did by one goal. And Evander scored. Oh, he did? Yeah, he got a late goal.

Evander and Denke scored. So that FC Cincinnati is probably going to be insane this year. They actually, yeah, they might be pretty damn good. To close this one out because the video went out and we got, we were going to get out of here anyway. I did. Want to leave you all with our first blazing hot coach press conference. It's a mini one. It's a very mini one. Uh, ordinarily on this segment, uh, blazing hot coach press conference of the week sponsored by hacks and ferments. Uh,

We'll actually be going into the presser and breaking it down, playing the audio and stuff. For this one, I'm just going to read this one from... Peter Vermees, just because I thought this was kind of funny. It's good content. Peter Vermees, after Sporting Kansas City's 1-0 loss to Inter-Miami in CONCACAF Champions Cup, he says he was happy with the team's organization.

He said last year they would have lost this game 3-0 instead of 1-0. I mean, you know, at least he's being honest. Baby steps. Yeah. I don't know. That's like, that's like if you're, if you're doing a tier list of, or you're like, what is it like the warning signs of, uh, of peter v it's like he's he's at bottom he's chill this is a chill response from him i know i think he achieved this is adderall He's achieved nirvana like maybe he realized that he's just he has impunity so anyway

We're going to call it right there for episode 84, our very first dub pod of 2025. What a start to the season for the Seattle Sounders, Noah. We laid down some heater takes that are sure to age well. some heat. The Sounders are off to a flying start in CONCACAF Champions Cup. It was great to see a performance and a result like that. after uh how much hype we were given to the preseason performance which we gave someone commented though what they said uh like

De La Vega's goal doesn't matter. Did you see this crash out, Chris? No, I didn't. Was he sounding like me? He was talking about how De La Vega's goal doesn't count because... It was in preseason against Louisville. It doesn't matter because it's against USL. It was a banger. Also, we gave how many times?

How many times, guys, can we give that preseason caveat? We did say that about a billion times. I don't know. Do we need to say it in a different way? Anyway, that's it for episode 84. Like, comment, subscribe, sub to the YouTube channel. Friday. reviews friday friday friday will be at fast fashion brewing with sounder at heart they have a beer and merch they're releasing friday from four to ten

They will be there. I'll be there around 7.30ish. I'll probably be there at a similar time, yeah. We'll go into that. Also... streaming tomorrow at 7.30 p.m. with the top 1090 guys to preview the Charlotte game. All right. I think that was it. Yeah. We are going to get out of here. Catch you all next time. Until then we out. Peace.

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