The National Pundits LOVE Albert Rusnak (Feat. Jeff Rueter) - Ep. 104

This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to youtube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube. You scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be a scorcher.

Good evening, everybody. Welcome in to another episode of Under the Lights. I got a great show for you all planned this evening. We got Jeff Reuter from The Athletic. He's going to join us in just a minute here to preview this weekend's matchup against Minnesota United. We're going to be talking about... Another Seattle Sounders win. We did the postgame live last night, but I'm going to give some more thoughts on that game versus San Diego FC. We might even do a little all-star ballot.

later. I was thinking about doing that. And I got a couple other topics lined up as well. So it's a jam-packed show. Got a lot to get to. But before we get into all of it, like the video. Like the video. Subscribe to the channel. Rate five stars. Write reviews. Do all that stuff. Help us with the algorithm. All right.

let's get into it let's just get right into it like i said big show hey tom uh we'll get to the next segment uh at the end we'll do a next segment for you but that means you have to stay up and watch all of it uh let's get right into it

We have got a very special guest this evening once again to preview Seattle's upcoming opposition, and we'll be talking about some national storylines from around Major League Soccer as well. Let's bring him to the stage. We have got Jeff Reuter, senior writer. at the athletic yeah covers major league soccer covers the uh the game globally as well one of the best in the game

Very excited to have him on the show tonight. Jeff, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Talk some Minnesota United, talk some Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer. How are you doing this evening? i'm good this is great like this is it's weird i don't get to do night podcasts anymore like everyone's always like here are your hours here's our corporatized way to do it and it's like no this is

This is where the magic happens. Like, I'm so good to be back. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, no, it's the upshot of being a West Coast show. We can stay up late. And it's like, you know, we're the originators of MLS After Dark out here. Amen. Jeff, excited to talk about this game with you. It's a matchup between two teams that are pretty high up on the table right now. So I'm excited to watch it. But before we get into all that, I do like to give our guests a little chance to talk.

their background and the work that they do uh so why don't you just give us the uh the abridged version of your path to the athletic and then what is your uh day-to-day role is there as a senior writer i got the title right Right. You did. Yeah, you did. Yeah. I guess I appreciate that. No, I mean, it's I am a homegrown of the Minnesota United podcasting system. um they got no solidarity payments they never do and uh yeah so i started off i was going to loons games in 2015 with my brother and

We were talking at halftime and some guy nudged me and was just like, hey, sounds like you know what you're talking about and you have a good rapport or whatever. Do either of you want to hop on and, you know, come on my podcast. I need a guest host until I can find a real one. My guy just quit. The nature of fan podcasting.

And so I hopped on for a few episodes. My brother didn't want to do it. I'm glad he didn't in hindsight. And yeah, so I started on being that regular host in the two United fans show. And then Wes Burdine and I launched the 55 one podcast. About two years after that, I was writing independently for the 55.1, which was our local website, doing some really good work at the time. And yeah, and then eventually started freelancing for the Guardian ESPN. The Athletic launched in 2018.

Yeah. And then I've been on staff since 2019, got promoted senior in 2024. And right now I cover MLS, NWSL, men's, women's national teams, international club. I was watching the conference league final with like working intention, like an absolute sicko yesterday. So, you know, it's a bit of everything at this point, but it's a lot of game coverage and it's a lot of kind of like big picture.

You know, what does all of this mean? Try to do the 10,000 foot look on a lot of things. So it's been a weird, fun path to get there and kind of a weird point. plateau right now to be at where it's just like, yeah. And I just watched the conference league and then like, I'll go to a press conference with Emma. Hey, it's two days later, but it's a, it's been a blast and it's a very, very grateful for what I get to do. That's a, you know, I never knew that.

origin story and that's one of those ones where it's like uh just a random moment of fate it seems like like do you ever think about like your entire path in life was Sounds like created by just like a random fortuitous moment at a soccer game.

Some guy on his third strongbow in Blaine, Minnesota. Yeah, I think so. I do think about it. I think that website's launch was crucial. And I think I would have tried to like, get involved with that. But I had a little bit of an inroad because I was, you know, I think Wes and I

I did our first podcast. It was like a an overlap there was an older minnesota show with wes and then bruce mcguire called the denord podcast and we did like a crossover episode like it's a 90s sitcom and uh yeah it was it was really cool to meet him at that time and i got into the website with him and brand course dead but um yeah i mean just Can't take it for granted, right? Like he said, it was just if I went to a different section that day.

might have ended up in a different place. So I have no idea what else I would have done. I got a degree in playwriting. So this is much better than the alternatives I had. Playwriting. I was an English major. So you get it. I was going to be. I was going to be, but then I realized I could get out in seven semesters instead of eight if I did a theater arts program. So I did mostly English classes and called it playwriting. And they're like, whatever. Sure. All right, Jeff, let's get into.

Seattle Sounders versus Minnesota United. The way I like to start these off when we're doing our kind of scouting the opponent portion of these interviews is I like to give my... perception of the team as an outsider and then uh i have watched okay so you know you'll tell me if it matches up with uh what is actually going on with the team day in day out uh you're not like

on the loons beat every day but you're still very plugged in with the team you know what's going on yeah and it's actually really nice like nationally i can't stress enough like if you're not in an mls market i don't know how i could do this job because i go to loons games and i will often if i'm not in the box i'll stand at like the top

it so i can watch how the team use width but then you have your like baseline so it's easier to scout other teams when they come to the stadium so i still go but yeah you're right like i haven't been a loon's beat writer for four years now. Yeah. Wow. That's, that's crazy. That's where you cut your teeth. It is. Yeah. Minnesota United. All right. My, my impression of Minnesota United is that they are, they're having.

a very very good year so far that is not really it's it's quietly they're not really getting talked about that much uh when you're talking about like the teams that are near the top of the table their name doesn't come up with the other teams that are up there it feels like as uh as often but they're clearly doing something right because they're third in the west

right now uh but as i was i admittedly i'm guilty of it i haven't watched all that much loons this year i know the basics but i can't say that i've been watching super closely week in week out there are too many teams this league exactly yeah but uh like i'm a sick

for the whole league i'd like to think my knowledge of every team is pretty good but so there's definitely some uh that i know better than others and despite how successful the loons have been this year they're i would say on the end of teams that i haven't followed as closely as i i probably should

following them closer because things are going pretty well in the Twin Cities. But what stuck out to me, Jeff, when I was doing a little bit of research, digging into Minnesota United, how did they get to third in the table? That's what I was trying to figure out. Sure. like they are employing some tactics right now that are highly unique, almost historically so.

when you look at the history of mls at least the recent history and what i mean by that is uh they apparently have a passionate hatred for possessing the ball they don't want it they don't want it they want you to have it if you want the ball You take the ball. Minnesota. Right. Yeah. You can have it for like 70% of the game most of the time. And we're just going to dice you up on the counter and be.

So hard to break down that it doesn't even it's possession without purpose. We'll let you knock the ball around all day. But so that those tactics in themselves aren't that novel, but just the amount that they have leaned in. to those tactics and that strategy is uh it's well it's really unprecedented i'll let uh the armchair analyst matthew doyle take it away he laid it out in his uh in his column about uh our preview column for the games this weekend I'm just going to read how he sized it up.

he said i'm doing a matt doyle impression i'm really excited i we do a lot of matt doyle impressions on here i'm not gonna do his uh i'm not gonna do that yet i'm just gonna read what he wrote uh he said he said consult any mls database you can find and this year's loons will be bottom of possession charts doesn't matter if you go back five years 10 years 15 or 30 eric ramsey's side will be propping up the entire table with just 38.3 of the ball 38.3

It's mostly served them well as their third in the West entering the weekend, but they've also got some limitations because of their allergy to knocking it around, which we'll touch on below. Jeff, I'm very curious as someone who has watched this team a lot more than I have. what do you think of these tactics first of all and what is the reason is there a reason personnel or just eric ramsey's beliefs about the game why are they leaning so so heavily into this anti-possession strategy

I think, yeah, it's twofold. And they're very chaotic neutral with their possession. Like Doyle said, it's 38.3% possession. It's also 38.3% field tilt.

i have the their stats up in front of me as well in opta um which means and field tilt is like the comparing the attacking third touches between each team so it's not even like they're just like we're gonna set off sit off the ball as long as we can but like red bulls like think about them like they try to win the field tilt and have like a very advantageous field to try to keep the ball in that area right like this isn't that um i think part of it is personnel

right to be fair like they have two good transition goal scorers who are also okay at doing hold up work which gives each other time to work they are like the first fully functional strike tandem two true strikers that i've seen in mls in quite some time as well which works but it also means you have one less body for defensive or midfield lines, which also help you with possession, right? So you can see where some of those trade-offs come from. They're quick. Kelvin Yeboah and Tani Oluwasehi.

And they're good at scoring and they are pretty selfless. Both of them are the type of personality where if their team won and they got an assist, they'd be happier that their team drew and they got a brace. So that mentality generally plays well.

Michael Boxall gets better with age every single year. I think I saw him absolutely muscle Brian White off the ball in about the 80th minute when White had come off the bench 20 minutes earlier and Boxall had been on an 80-minute shift. So he's putting in the best work of his career the last two and a half years.

absolute veteran one of the oldest field players in the league at this point um the other personnel factor in here is their midfield's really bad by the standard of like i thought there might be something yeah explain explain

No, it's this one weird trick, right? And it's this thing where it's like everyone focuses on like good midfield play and good defensive midfielders who like to take the ball off of opponents and midfielders like to progress the ball and break lines through the central channel in the half space. Right. All this is baloney. It doesn't matter where you get the ball upfield in their mind. Right. And so they have.

generally two water carriers in the midfield no true hardman but two players who will like sit on the ball a little bit and then say i don't like where this is going and send it back to the back line they'll recirculate out wide or okay let's end up the channel or let's try to go out to the sprint to the wings for them to run

onto, right? They don't like doing back and forth passing triangles. They don't like trying to bypass a midfield block whatsoever. They try to go around it or over it, not through it. So you'll see two water carriers and then one creative fulcrum who kind of plays like a 10, but a free roaming 10. So it's been Joaquin Pereira lately, who I think most systems would say is like a good.

box to box playmaker you generally do want him further back in the field but his finishing is really good so they've been trying to unleash him in the attacking half a bit more as well and like keeping him there which means that they have those two other guys so

it's it's a weird midfield trio it isn't one of those like classic peter vermis like there's a six there's an eight there's a ten sort of thing that like at the height of skc they were running out and it's just very we have three bodies there and they rotate and the roles are different every single week

I think the next place my mind goes when I see a team that's employing tactics that are so far outside the statistical norm is, well, first of all, I think like. Like there's gotta be a reason that most teams don't do that.

to that extreme so if it is working and they are getting results and they're uh they're high on the table more power to them but i guess the uh the question becomes uh when it comes down to it and you're playing for trophies you're in the playoffs the deep in leagues cup whatever the case may be like is there a point where playing like that uh

stops being as tenable as it might be during the regular season. So my question is when you look at just how, how they're playing so far this season and how kind of just extreme it is. do you buy minnesota united as a real contender uh with the other top teams in mls depends on the matchups in the bracket

And like, I know that feels like a cop out, like a wait and see. I don't mean it like a general. I'm saying there's like two or three teams in the West that they cannot get past if they're at full strength. And, you know, one of them, right? Seattle has always had Minnesota's number. That's no secret. The 2020 wrestling conference final is like the highlight slash low light, depending on who's talking about it. But like it's been throughout.

Minnesota's time in Major League Soccer. There's no opponent that they've played worse than the Sounders, and that's, I think, a huge credit to Brian Schmetzer and the continuity of the team shape, even as they're going with a 3-4-3 more now.

It's a very difficult matchup. The other team that has continually done it until this year, but they're not doing well against anybody, is the Galaxy with Ricky Pooge, right? And that's two very different sort of styles in midfield, but you can see that these are teams that know what they want to do.

in the heart of the park right whether it is like having a good trio with roldan and joe paulo and obed and whoever's playing that day right like you you generally like let's keep the ball moving let's move it around whatever and everyone knows what their role is depending on the combination right um with the galaxy

Obviously, that whole thing is just we have a player who can't take the ball off his foot and he's running around everywhere with it. And every time you think you've got him cornered, he's going to spray it. You know, just do a little flick over to another guy and then he'll get on the ball two seconds later and you're out of shape. Right. So those sorts of teams. will always pose a threat to Minnesota United as currently constructed. But when you look at teams like LAFC...

who also want to do a lot of transition work and don't want to keep the ball for long. Even if you look at Vancouver, frankly, which was a bit of a surprise, but a team that's kind of cross heavy where they're going to be playing it. to wide areas anyway, like, OK, well, that's fine because they're going away from the heart of the park that you're kind of sacrificing. So there's like gambles and trade offs. I actually do like the Minnesota matchup.

from their perspective against teams like lafc and vancouver a lot more than seattle if we're looking at like kind of the relative projected top four right now um beyond that like you know you can see where there is

Potential for an upset where this is a team that could lose a best of three series if they come up against a team that's just like, hey, let's just fortify bodies. Let's keep the ball in the middle of the field. And they really know how to take it off of us. Yeah, that's kind of how I was.

thinking of it is like, uh, specifically as it pertains to a matchup against Seattle, Seattle is a team that's traditionally very good in possession. That's like one of the hallmarks of their identity. Uh, man, uh, Seattle played San Diego FC last night. uh they might have been the best MLS team in possession I've seen all season it was yeah it's pretty unreal to be honest like when they have the ball

It's all right. Well, they have it now. I guess that's just what life is like. We give up. We can't get it. Yeah. They're not going to make any mistake. They never do the thing where they pass it to the other team. When they have the ball, they just have the ball. But it seems like that, like a Minnesota United versus San Diego playoff series or playoff game, I would like...

I would be worried about that if I was Eric Ramsey. I mean, do you think he's like dug in on this and it's like, we run our stuff no matter what or playing like. looking at this game where you have a team that is a lot more inclined to dice you up in possession. Like, does that change anything or is he more like dogmatic, I guess?

He's willing to be flexible. He doesn't want to be known as one of the young coaches who's like, I don't know, a spreadsheet manager. And so I know this is my system that works best. And I refuse to move off of it because the data says it'll work out, right? Like even our tether or whatever. Right. Like he's not that profile per se. He is going to be someone who wants to be pragmatic. He will work with a four man back line. Most often he did last year, actually. But for that matchup, like.

You could also convince me that this is a team that's working on it. Second look last year, they made a pretty dramatic reinvention from a team that just kind of rolls the balls out and sees what they do for the first 20 games. And it worked for the first eight.

And then it really didn't work for the middle 12. But given MLS's format, you have some wiggle room with those first 20. And then they came back like around the start of August. And they really figured out after a loss to the Sounders at home, actually, that they figured out.

This is how we should operate. And it looks a lot more like what you see now. That's very much how Minnesota started to play around start of August last year. So it wouldn't surprise me if there's an evolution again. And at that point, though. they do need personnel because the flip side of this is it isn't just that Ramsey like designs tactics go around and over a part of it is, I don't think that you can really win MLS cup. If your midfield trio is, um,

Yeah, I mean, who have they been starting lately? Because they've had Hassani Dotson injured. You know, Seattle favorite son. They've been playing, I think, Owen Jean, who's a new signing, and he's not very used to it. Robin Lude and Joaquin Pereira have kind of been alternating in that free creative role. Will Trapp's getting a ton of minutes. I think most minutes of the field players this year.

I just don't think that that's a core Carlos Harvey, Panama international, who also plays center back sometimes as well. That's pretty much who they've been rolling out with. And it's just, it isn't a midfield. that i think can contend with someone who is as confident on it as san diego like you're alluding to as an example like i just i don't really think they have the personnel so it's going to be a big summer for them but the

It's one of the lower spending on transfer fees organizations in MLS since they joined in 2017. But if the incentive is this is a pretty good year to try to take on the entire West, and I think we can make a good run to the conference final again or further.

I think that they would recognize the opportunity. Tom, I just sent out the Blue Sky post. So thanks for the reminder. I'm really bad about that. Thanks, Tom. I just sent it out. So re... posted or whatever the the blue sky reskeet is that it's a night show you can say that right yeah i i guess i guess that's what uh what we're going with so yeah i guess all right uh eric ramsey

That's I wanted to ask. We've talked about his tactics, but I wanted to ask about your impressions of him in general, because I actually when he was first hired, I read up on him a little bit, but then I actually got assigned that day to do the. to pick up the audio from the zoom call so we could write our little uh minnesota united's new coach uh article so uh i was like all right i'm curious like coming from manchester united and he's my age let's see what this guy is all about and uh

I'll be honest. I came out of that presser and I was like, I don't usually necessarily feel like this. I feel like an opening press conference. Oh, my God, I know. A coach press conference? Yeah. We're going to take it to opponents. We're going to get the fans out of their seats. We're going to give them a winning team. Exactly. It's usually all lip service.

You can't really tell much about the actual coach or the guy. But I came out of that Eric Ramsey intro presser, and I was like, that guy seems real sharp. I think they might have... uh done real good here with this hire uh like he was 31 or whatever 32 when they hired him and uh it seems like he's just this really uh genuinely uh well thought of up and coming

coach not just like he's got a global rep a little bit he literally was coaching for man you before he came to mls with and chelsea yeah yeah and then so after he took over uh the results weren't necessarily super amazing but you know it's his first year taking over the team he's working with uh infrastructure and a roster that somebody else put together didn't really have a chance to put his own stamp on it this year it feels like it's more like

his team and i mean you know i can say what i want about uh skepticism regarding the tactics but the side is taking results they're playing really good offense and uh they look like they're going to be contending for a top four spot in the west all season so how do you think he sort of uh put his imprint on the team in the organization in the time that he's been there and just what, what is it about his style or just how he does it? That's made him successful so far. Yeah. I think that he's.

It was interesting speaking with him about like, why did you come to MLS? Why didn't you go to the championship? Like so many English managers do, right? You just start with Millwall or Darby or Swansea, one of those three, always one of those three. And then either they get, they avoid relegation and your career may continue.

or they get relegated and they'll never coach in England ever again. And you'll never coach anywhere, frankly. It's incredibly harsh. And he'd seen that happen with one of his peers, who I've signed in football manager as my assistant coach on multiple occasions.

And he got the Millwall job, I want to say, and he got relegated and he hasn't coached since. And so he was like, maybe I should go somewhere else, build my stock before I take on England, take on the richest football system in the world. Okay, no problem. So he was genuinely interested in the opportunity of Minnesota, but also interested in it as like a, I have a lot of work to do.

And so it's not like this is the safe landing place to try it, but also this is a league that's going to have world-class facilities where I can learn what I want to do at the highest level. So he's an ambitious dude. He's also very personable. Players... As you've alluded to, he's around our age, right? He's in his young 30s. So a lot of players would say like, okay, it's...

You know, he could be one of the boys, whatever. And so how are you going to have authority in a locker room? Right. And he always kind of stops the short of that. He likes rapport, but he is still going to stop short of like. going out for, you know, a happy hour or whatever after the season ends and all that sort of stuff. Like he's going to be very.

Very much leaving some of that to his assistants, but also really trusting his captains like Boxall and Trapp and really like their kind of liaisons and Robin Lode. They'll have their meetings kind of like how Berhalter was doing with the men's national team for a while with that like leadership core where it's like I have my kind of service. against where i understand what's going on in the locker room without having to like hang out and kick my feet back right um

And tactically, I think he's still learning what really moves him. But one thing that he told me last fall when I sat down with him during the five-month break between the first and second round of the playoffs, I asked him just like, you know, that whole like system.

soccer like are you someone who like really eventually wants to get to the point where in 25 you're installing like a really strict thing he was like honestly i don't think fans come for that like i don't think fans come to watch the chess game like they want to see someone take a wild shot and it was like right when like prime barclays was like becoming a big And he was just like, yeah, it's like fans want that sort of stuff. And I want my players to know like.

i know that you grew up wanting to do that so do it if you can do it but don't lose us games doing it and so it's like finding that sort of happy medium of all of it so like he he's someone that's really endeared himself to a lot of players in an organic way and not in the sort of like

do you do fellow kids sort of way which i think will always play a lot better how long do you think he is for uh minnesota because when i look at it like if he keeps on this trajectory uh i I'm having trouble, honestly, seeing any way some really big club doesn't swoop him up. Yeah, but at the same point, we said the same thing about Wilfred Nance after 2023, right? And he's still in Columbus. And part of that, again, is what the coach wants. And I think...

Nancy sees a lot of value in staying at Columbus for a while until he feels like his project, however he'll define that himself, right, is done. I think with Ramsey, he is still... He recognized opportunities. He was linked to the Southampton job, you know, didn't want it. I wouldn't. It's fine. Like, I think I'd rather coach MLS than a recently relegated team, but that's just me.

But I do kind of have a difficult time. Let's see if they won a major trophy this year. So they're in the quarterfinal of the Open Cup. I don't think they'll get the shield at this point. And they have MLS Cup to play for possibly still. to play for it still to play for for the galaxy as well. So if they won one or two of those, it might be.

a lot quicker that he'd feel like he could go but i think that he wants to give it two full years maybe three um i didn't get the sense that he was just like no like a Like, like just kind of taking jobs. Yeah. Total mercenary about it. Thank you. Yeah. I almost said merchant and that was categorically wrong. So I use that term a lot too. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't seem that way about it. I'll say that.

All right. I'll be, I'll be interested to see how long he is, how long he is in the league. Cause when you got to have like 32 year old former man, you assistant, who's like, like if he wins a trophy, like you said. I think his stock is going to be real high. Well, and Ten Hag got a job now, too.

Right, like, don't forget, like, that might actually matter, because I think usually the head coach someone was an assistant under, they're kind of, like, assessed as, like, do we see success there? And if Leva Cousin's willing to give Eric Ten Hag the job, like, I think it's easier for, like, I don't know. Portsmouth in two years if they're pushing or wrecks them because he's Welsh like to look and say like, hey, there might be opportunity here. Joined by Jeff Reuter.

Senior writer at The Athletic. If you guys have any questions for Jeff, drop them in chat. And if they're not stupid, I'll relay them. to him. We haven't had any chat questions yet. You can ask a stupid one. You can ask stupid questions. Until we get other questions, the stupid ones. We got a national writer here who would be happy to...

answer your questions um what was my next one uh this julian gressel trade uh yeah what do you think of it i because The whole, whatever was going on with him at InterMiami, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I was like, is he playing pro soccer this year? Is he a podcaster? Unclear. Still feel like he, like.

It's not like the last time he played, he looked washed. He's not that old. And at the peak of his powers, and frankly, I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise. This is one of the best. He has some of the best wide service. that i've ever seen in mls to be honest yeah i agree and it's just it adds such like a uh

unique dynamic to any team that he's on. He's a specialist. He's such a specialist, and he is so good at that one thing. He was incredible at it for Atlanta United. He helped the crew win MLS Cup. He did it when he was on the Whitecaps. well and uh really it's a guy that uh for years i've been like man i would love seattle to get that guy just because he's so good he's so good and and he's uh he's always always seemed like a great tactical fit as well

But now he's on Minnesota United. He scored a goal. Was that his first game, second game? Second game, yeah. He scored a goal in his second game. How has he looked so far? Just what do you think of what this trade, do you see it as a big ceiling booster? Maybe does it not move the needle as much? How do you size it up? I think, look, it doesn't fix the midfield issues, right? And that's...

Not every move has to address your biggest need, right? You don't always have to draft your need at the top of the board. And I think that ultimately they wanted more flexibility with what they could do at right wing back. And a little bit more help with like that playmaking, especially outside of midfield. Cause again, scary midfields can't have that. That's their whole thing this year. I don't, it's been their whole thing since Ozzy Alonso left, honestly, which is just.

hilarious when you compare it to what's happened in Seattle since Ozzy left, but I digress. The Gressel thing helps. A lot because Longwane hasn't been a natural fit at right wing back. Boggy Longwane is a South African international. He's a converted center forward, played some right wing as well. So he's fully right back now.

Yeah. And he's been playing as like, it categorically lines up as a back five. Like it's one of those where it's like, okay, is this Antonio Conte 343, right? Or no, this is like a true, like he is a right back.

right who runs up the wing and provides all the width and he looks bored there was a time um what team were they playing against and he was dribbling out to end a game whatever and he was far from the corner and so he just started doing dribbling tricks like right at midfield and then he got kicked which good uh but like that's that's the sort of thing it's not a natural fit for him he could be better as kind of an auxiliary strike

or if, again, in a new shape, you see something of like a three-man front line, he'd be a good kind of off-ball runner who could also finish in his own right. I think he's the second-leading scorer in their MLS history already, which happened really quickly. So there's opportunity there. And I think Russell is a more natural tactical fit. I think he has more restraint.

uh whether he's playing against inner miami or he's uh playing against his non-ex employers he still like is very willing to recirculate and keep the ball um moving within their own half rather than make a stupid mistake that'll ship a goal even if to blow out, right? Like that kind of player where he's going to be really big picture about it. So I think it's just a really good fit.

one of those players you don't expect to see available and only a few clubs like granted, like Miami had to eat a lot of his salary. Right. And there's the waiver process with all of that as well with the buyout, but. I think that there was a very thin number of clubs that could still afford a senior roster slot as well as the salary necessary to bring in Gressel. So that really limits your pool of suitors.

You know, he's a guy who likes to win. And I guess Minnesota looks like one of the best opportunities to him. yeah when i saw that trade i was like oh that oh that's a good yeah that's a good fit uh that's a good fit for the loons all right we got a few in uh in chat here here we go so uh let's knock these out uh we got one from pk

Is Dane St. Clair okay? He looked like he got kind of... banged up last night last game do you have any uh updates on the status of dane st claire for this uh i have no updates on his status but i will say he's been looking really good this year and so there's every understandable reason like look dane's one of those goalkeepers he's a he's a maryland goalkeeper actually so like Zach McMath and Zach Steffen um

Sometimes they have random little 10 game spells where they look like they haven't played much goalkeeper lately, right? And it'll be in the middle of the season and it will cause results. And he had a couple of those spells in 2023. And since the start of 2024, and Loons fans would be like, what changed between 2023 and 2024, right? But like, since then.

He has looked more comfortable. He has looked more assured and like just like has that sort of like command of area and eccentricity and stuff that will play. So big loss. They don't really have a good backup at this point this year. um but yeah i would say check andy greeter and john moth martholler they're the ones going to training every day uh

this one's from north sound jeff any aussie stories uh yeah you tell yours and then i can tell mine i i have a famously good aussie story i was gonna say you'll have a better one i promise because i think by the time like it was one of those things where it's

His heart was, it was no joke, the whole Corazon thing, like his heart was Seattle, right? And so it was a very different sort of like post-hype. But I will say the way that the locker room talked about... him like the first interactions with him was they it was like him and Aikapara came in within a week right which is just like an insane influx of like late 20s 10 MLS

best 11 threat every single year defensive stout to bring in a year and the work of like Ozzie and Ike like more than anything else probably transformed Minnesota United as a club.

like yeah all together having that professionalism um he was one of the first guys to work with the academy kids and like minnesota's never had a good academy uh they've punted on their academy twice already since going to mls so they're on the third try of an academy in last eight years not a good rate but ozzy was like there working with the young kids uh like the family

sort of family-friendly atmosphere of minnesota as being a smaller market and all that sort of stuff so nothing really audacious he's got the first goal in allianz field history so like that's the thing yeah yeah that's the thing that he'll he'll always be beloved for by minnesota fans and yeah

To date, he's still the only actual defensive midfielder the club has employed since coming to MLS, which is also a weird thing for him to hold on to. Yeah, I think, honestly, if I were naming my... all-time favorite sounders he if he's not one he's like in the top two to three there's other candidates

oh man we actually did this is like an entire episode like we actually did we literally have done content on this on uh mount rushmore but uh but it's gotta change right like i mean yeah i don't know like we we eliminated we did all field players for it but On my personal one, Ozzy's on it. Ladero can't not be on it. And then beyond that, there's just so much. There's so many guys that have. Yeah.

cases for it i'm sure i admit like naming just those two guys there are like 10 other guys that people are going to say i should have named no question here yeah yeah but uh my aussie story i'll keep it i usually uh go into the details on this story but uh he uh he one time uh screenshotted one of my articles and uh posted it on his instagram because uh There was something in there about his injury history. And at that time, he really wanted a new contract and really didn't want...

He didn't want any narrative out there that he was injury prone. And so he screenshotted it and wrote this caption that was like, I've been taking injections in my knee every day to be able to play and lay my heart on the... It's not a good thing to admit, by the way. I mean, I know. I mean, exactly. But he my name was in it. And, you know, of course, in that situation, when.

when you have like an athlete calling out the writer, no one's going to take the writer's side. It's all the evil media is out to get you. Yes. But anyway, that wasn't like a super fun day on the internet, but. but it has a happy ending because I got a call from PR and they said, Hey, he like, didn't realize that was your article. Like if you, when you come out to training today, we'll set you up with them and, uh, you, uh, you guys can, uh,

squash this or whatever i was like okay i don't really uh want to do that but like because you know where was sounders pr when drake and kendrick dropped the first track it's all could have ended so i appreciated that like he was willing to do that i guess but anyway they uh they set us up and he was like hey man like sorry like i didn't if i he said if i didn't if i'd known you wrote it like i wouldn't have posted that i think it was the first time he ever made the connection

that uh like the people who are at training every day asking him questions are the same people who like write the articles that he's reading it didn't seem like he'd ever he he was like oh that was you like sorry man you don't all have the hats with the placards with the typewriter but anyway he was like if i had known that was you i wouldn't have posted that like my bad and then we actually hugged it out

so oh my god yeah that's great okay so like tell me it brought us closer hugger is ozzy alonzo is he like a kind of like an x shape you do that you do that is he a fist bump and like clap clap i think i think it was uh like a a clap and then a like one of those strong yeah that's captain's material right there exactly exactly yeah yeah still respect some boundaries but the same point we're brothers that's yeah

But anyway, that's my, that's my Aussie. That's a good one. That's a really good one. I actually, that's, I told that story recently when I was talking to, I was speaking at a middle school career day where at a school where my friend teaches and they, that. A lot of them were very disinterested, but they liked that story. Is he ahead of their time already? Of the player getting... The kids don't know Ozzy Alonso. Yeah, exactly. That's sad. Well, I didn't think they were much...

sorry yeah i'm just realizing that's like yeah the kids sure sure sure yeah um all right we got two people who asked a question on the same topic one from pat one from jake i'll just pull uh jake's up here and actually i uh i was gonna ask you about this well i don't know how uh familiar

familiar you are with the Albert Rusnak discourse that goes on in the Sounders fan base. I'm a gawker. I'm an Albert Rusnak truther, to be fair. He was on my best 11 last year. I want to say that out loud. So you went, you went that far. You went best. I had him over Ryan gold is my last pick in midfield. All right. So that's kind of gets into the question that Jake had here, but he said, Jeff, there's a debate here in Seattle about if Albert Rusnak is worth his.

dp slot do you think rusnak is really in the conversation for mvp if not why are you in the anti rusnak brigade wrong and i would i guess i would add to that like uh what what do you make of the fact that there's a debate over his dp status at all because like i honestly there is a point where i was like all right obviously the people who are saying that he's like terrible like an actively bad player are pretty delusional but i suppose there is a debate to be had as to whether this uh is

guys worth bringing back as a dp or if uh if you should tam or walk it offer him tam and if he doesn't because is he that good like is he like as should you be paying him like a lucho a cost or something like that that's like more of a that's more of a debate I still think especially with how this season has started and how he's still producing I think even that has become not a debate but that's just my opinion what uh what are your takes on the yeah I am

my my distracted look like it's not that i'm like nervous can't make eye contact about talking about albert rustock it is i am loading my op the data console to do some fun with numbers just to back my case because that's a ridiculous clamoring uh If you look at attacking midfielders since the start of 2024, only three have more non-penalty goals and assists.

in major league soccer competition so that includes the playoffs evander lucho acosta hey that's fun that those guys are linked together and diego luna who is the second coming of christ so yeah like that is generally good company to be in for major league soccer um

If you're looking at the players, I actually pulled this because I'm doing our team guide because I have to write about the Club World Cup, which is too bad. But I am and I'm going to the Sounders game against Botafogo, which is going to be a blast. Jeff's coming to Seattle. I am coming to Seattle. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait. And I wrote 41.7% of the goals that he has scored since the start of last year won games. Yep. Which is one of those things that's like...

OK, well, it's just timing is everything. Right. But like if you look at it, that is a rate where very few players who score multiple game winning goals. will actually hit that rate. That's like Lucho Acosta level. That's just above Jordan Morris if you're looking against forwards and wingers. So that's a really good sign that someone's worth a DP slot.

Because I would argue that the most important job of a designated player is to greatly improve your team's chances of winning soccer games. More than anything else. Like, I don't care where you do it. I kind of care. I wouldn't use a TV slot on a fullback ever, but like probably not a goalkeeper either. But like, I think that when you're using them in the right area on the right player, your chances as a team, your ceiling.

will fluctuate because it depends on the rest of the team around you, but your floor is going to get higher. you're going to have fewer opportunities to lose games because you just didn't have that game breaker like Ricky Pooj or Tiago Almada. Right. Just like guys who aren't here anymore, I guess. Like you don't have that guy. You can't.

win as close of games and i think albert rusak is that guy i think that he's been that guy with rsl so he has a track record i think that if you wanted to play devil's advocate a little bit you would point out that he's 30 right

He's hit 30. So how long are you extending him? See, my argument for that is like... he it's it's not like his game is super reliant on speed or athleticism it's he's a more cerebral player so that's why i i didn't mind uh them bringing him back when he was 30 because it's not like a it's not a player that's like oh, if he's not like max level explosive, his level is going to drop that much. Like he has a game that will age well, I think. Absolutely.

He does. And you've seen it in Seattle, right? Like it's just if you have the right playmaker who knows how to like turn athleticism into guile, right? Because that makes it a little bit easier if you're like bag of tricks and like knowing the game enough to. predict tendencies of opponents and exploit them before they happen like that stuff you can't really do in your 20s not as well unless you're like a prodigy so i i still think there's a dp contract in there for him

I will say I do understand the hand-wringing about the last offseason. I liked a lot of the moves Seattle made. I thought Craig Weibel had a hell of a window. I really liked... The Ferreira pickup. I have a series that I do on The Athletic called Moves I Like, which is exactly as it sounds. And I don't try to sensationalize it. And it's just like, I like this. And I got Danny Masavsky right in 2024. Feels really good right now. And Jesus Ferreira finally came good.

San Diego is kind of needing that one. But I like the fit overall because I think that this evolution of the Sounders kind of needed to get, I think, that versatility. of different looks is going to be a massive help because it's just a little bit harder to do what atlanta did to miami last fall and just say okay well i know exactly how you're gonna play and i know exactly how i'm gonna stifle it rsl did it a few years ago that was scary right so like

you've got to find a little bit more don't change too much but make sure that you have a shape that can kind of unsettle opponents based on the matchup and and so i thought for really helped with that another guy where it's like between him de la vega rothrock um you know, Paul Arreola, we thought was going to play a little bit more of a role this year, unfortunately. But like when you have all those guys, plus Jordan Morris, Andrew Stock, it's like, okay.

There's so much you can do with that front four. There's so much you can do with a three and then one of your midfielders.

it's just worth having that flexibility because of the gold cup this year and injuries that always happen and potential for transfers elsewhere so um i liked the moves a lot i think you need that versatility and so i can understand where if someone says i like the versatility too but are we sure rusnak is like i don't think he's ever made the like the top three top five of mp mvp voting so yeah exactly that's a prereq like fine but

I mean, I would rather have a guy who's proven it for most of a decade already and is still only like 30 years old than gamble on a guy who's never lived outside of Europe before and hope that he hits the ground running. yeah so i was actually i was thinking about this uh this topic today and i was going to talk about it later but we're on it right now so i'm i'm curious your thoughts on on this which is that i think uh I think the main reason that moves like...

albert rusnak joining the sounders in the first place or them going out and getting uh jesus ferreira they weren't necessarily received that well by uh not like the majority but a fair amount of the family fan base felt like yeah they felt like they were underwhelming and i'm pretty sure that the primary reason for that is because they are coming from another

mls team and i don't think there's that much more to it than that albert rusnak had played for real salt lake for a few years so he was established in mls uh when the sounders went out and acquired him and you know the anti-rusnak people they don't they really don't like it when i point this out but literally like i always said just like just pretend the rsl uh

like tenure never happened literally just pretend that he didn't play for rsl and they signed him from the air to vca where he was playing before he went to mls uh and and then If you just put that out of your mind, then you'll look at the production and be like, if this guy didn't come from another MLS team, we would be talking about what a hit this signing was. That is absolutely true. They know it's true too. And that's why they don't like it when I bring that up. But I think the same thing.

I was thinking about how as it applies to Ferreira, you know, there's been a lot of discourse the last few weeks because Ferreira took a really long time to score his first goal for the Sounders. And there are people saying that the signing was looking like a total.

bust but you know i'm looking at it and i'm i'm seeing a guy that yeah he hadn't scored a goal yet but he had done some genuinely good work for this team as a playmaker this year he has five assists in league play two of those are primary but like still five assists in league play seven across all comps because he had a couple in uh ccc as well so like the uh the playmaking production has been fully there

If Jesus Ferreira did not come from FC Dallas, say they got him from name whatever league you want to name. Like if Jesus Ferreira came to this team from a different league like that with pretty much the same production and pedigree.

uh and he had seven assists all comps but hadn't scored yet the the narrative around him and this is true would be damn this guy's kind of lighting it up with the assists like he's really doing i can't believe brentford didn't sign him yeah like yeah he's doing awesome as a playmaker and uh like i

You know, he hasn't scored a goal yet, but that'll probably come. He's got like a good track record. So this is like a really encouraging, awesome acquisition. That is how it would be talked about if these guys didn't come from other MLS teams. So optically, that's what happens when you.

when you acquire guys like that however this is what i was thinking about in actual practice don't you drastically increase the odds of a signing or a trade acquisition hitting if you're getting a guy who already has been provenly productive in the league with rusnak like i one of the reasons i liked the move when they originally made it was because like well i watched him play for years but also it's like you pretty much already know

what you're going to be getting uh production wise because you've already seen him do it in the league ferreira had 50 plus goals uh in the league before he got here so i actually years ago yeah i actually think that there's like something like strategically smart about sound about a yes sound in uh

targeting guys when you can that have already been in the league and shown that they can do it so while it might not be exciting because you're not going out and getting them from some other league that people perceive as superior you're actually putting yourself in a situation where the

odds that you're going to hit on the acquisition are quite a bit higher i think we've seen that with rusnak and i think that it's gonna when when it's all said and done we're probably going to be saying the same thing about carrera like what what do you think of that strategy i think that's like

the biggest reason i was very excited about the cash cash transfer or cash trade is such a silly way to say we have a transfer market in this league now but only if it's for like good players right like and just like don't start doing like we're gonna spend less than the $50,000 minimum allocation money and spend $20,000 on your third goalkeeper just to say piss off to Don Garber's rules, right? Like, it's not that, but like...

Seeing Jack McGlynn like that be the next step in his evolution before he goes abroad. That's really fun. Like if Sporting Kansas City wants to like bail out the Galaxy a little bit with their cap situation and spend a lot despite the team behind him not being ready for. striker of his profile. Great. Let him do it. But I think that there's an actual opportunity like the Jesus Ferreira trade where you look at it and trade. I just said it. They won.

Damn it, Ari, they got me. The transfer, like, it does help a lot to be able to actually look and say, like, he's worth this much to us and the fee is going to be lower. because it's mls and it's our own league so we're still building the ecosystem i don't think any team there's like very few players in this league that i think that if like seattle called and was like we're interested in blank

How much is his price? They would give you an eight-figure valuation, right? And think of how many times you've seen an MLS team named Atlanta United spend over $10 million on a very mediocre Argentine. right so like six times yeah exactly right and that's just one team so like you're right there is value there because inherently the market hasn't been established enough to establish a baseline

that is higher than the actual return you'll probably get compared to alternatives, right? Like you said, the the fake guy who's just Albert Rusnak, but like with a time glitch who comes from the air to busy, he is going to be like. So much more expensive, right? Because you're competing. Exactly, exactly. And you're competing at that point, not just for, I think that that player is worth $10 million. You're competing against the club that has that guy saying, yeah, but I know if I wait.

until the summer instead of the winter i can probably get 15 out of a la liga side so no i won't sell him yet right but like with an mls i don't know there's an opportunity there they have real cash that they can reinvest like And if they, sometimes there are teams that just get twitchy and say, we need a new DP because it's like one of three things we can do every off season that actually gets a fan base excited, right? There's like three things MLS teams can do.

from the months, like if you miss the playoffs, from October until March that you can do to actually keep your fan base engaged. You have a new coach, you have a new stadium, and you have a new DP. The stadium one shouldn't happen too often. The coach one, unless you're St. Louis, isn't going to happen terribly frequently either, or Montreal. But if you are most teams, designated players are the surest way to do it, or a jersey, but then you're putting a lot of faith in Adidas at that point.

I just think it's a no brainer. Like if you see a player who doesn't quite work in a different system or is available that you wouldn't expect, why won't you want to kick the tires on that? Like it's just, it makes no sense to me why that would be.

underwhelming unless you're expecting the second coming of obafemi martins right like but at the same point who's that guy and is he going to be better value or a better fit than someone who already knows how to take i will say like the one other thing with ferrera i'm not surprised it took this long Because it wasn't just that he...

You got to move with an MLS and he wanted to go to Europe and was so close to going to shot car or what was it? Sporting. It was Moscow. Moscow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Last year. And he almost went there. It's not that it's also his first time living away from home. Yeah.

yeah of course it's gonna take a minute for any homegrown to like adjust and acclimate like of any caliber it just it makes total sense and i think he's got the right people around him it looks like he's finally you know on his way to to begging the goals or whatever. Yeah, the the timing of him getting his first goal was absolutely phenomenal for me individually, because we started a miniature firestorm of discourse with a clip that I had talking about how

I thought everyone who was calling him a bust was like being way, way melodramatic about the whole situation. And you know, I, on the live shows, I'm just ripping, I was ripping for like 12 minutes. So yeah, like I, it's just 12 minutes of me being like, yeah, he has some.

assists guys he had some assists he's got a lot of goals it's gonna just call it's gonna be fine like i was doing that doing that whole thing and then the next game the next game he scored uh god you know he heard you he listened to that in his locker room just threw on the headphones in just 12 minutes. I can take credit for it for believing. But it's one of those things where it's actually not hard to predict.

like when you like literally all i was doing was just going off track record so like it's uh it's just funny to me that we've seen situations like that happen like so many times and people just kind of still don't learn uh we got wes in the chat Wes, welcome in. I think first time Lobbing Scorchers chatter Wes. He says, just logged on. Jeff, have we already hit Heath to St. Louis? What is he talking about? Did that happen or is that just an idea?

It's an idea that people are talking about. What are you thinking? There are many people who are talking about Adrian Heath of St. Louis City. I kind of like it. I kind of like it. Tell me why. Let's start with that. Yeah, I'll give you some context. Basically, the idea is St. Louis just fired their coach and they need a coach. And there is a guy who has maybe helped a team outperform.

In the past, compared to ownership investment. And he would like to coach again. He just... I mean, you would know better if he was actually a good coach or not, but I do know that he had some pretty good Minnesota United teams when he was the coach, and they did a little bit of punching above their weight, which is what a club like St. Louis would need to do.

He struck me as his strength as a coach seemed like kind of culture building, like sort of setting a foundation, setting a standard. And he kind of built the loons.

up from the one of the worst expansion launches ever into like a legitimate uh team which i i always thought that that was like probably not the easiest thing to do and even if like his uh like in-game decisions and substitutions and tactics sometimes i was like i'm not fully sure he knows what he's doing in terms of the uh uh yeah like the other stuff that you need a coach to be good at it it seems like

a club like St. Louis could actually benefit from a coach of that profile. That's what I was thinking. But what are your takes on whether he's actually a good coach or not? Because I honestly don't know. Yeah, I think there's like... good value and what you're saying to like, that's that's what a club like that needs like. Cincinnati kind of over. That overcorrected like.

There's a certain benchmark you expect a team to hit when you have no culture, when you continually are going to the European well and no one knows what's going on because it's MLS. And so all they do is they spend all their meetings complaining about the roster rules instead of trying to navigate around them. That's Cincinnati before Chris Albright. and pat newton right and obviously they got a genuine like franchise changing coach who can be there for over half a decade but

I think that most teams would settle for a guy who will stabilize, get you some wins you wouldn't have won before, and maybe in the second year, get you into the playoffs. And then once it looks like the message has kind of stopped, then you move on to your sexier hire that you had. kind of in the back of your mind all along. At this stage of his career, that's probably more likely just because I think eventually Adrian would also like to be a sporting director.

just full time with that. I don't think he got double duty. He was like, it was like one of four guys or three guys. It was like him for me's and Bruce arena at one point. And Bob Bradley, I think we're the only four who had like. both the sporting director responsibility and head coaching. I would say if you make him focus on one or the other, he'll do better. And I know players liked him a lot.

like there are a lot of veterans who like michael boxall and robin load who will say like our careers are much much better because of him um i i think though like your your concerns of in-game management like that's a viable counterpoint. And so too is like his team's defending when they didn't have two best 11 caliber, like a center back and defensive midfielder. And then that year's goalkeeper of the year in 2019, like every other year outside of that.

they struggled a lot defensively and they were known to like ship goals at weird times for one reason or another. So I think that there's, it's understandable why like. Austin, Houston, maybe decided to go or not Houston. He was still there in the job, but like Austin and Dallas, whatever. Like I get what they wanted to do differently, but like, yeah, I think in the right circumstance, there could be.

I don't know. I think it makes sense. I think that there are, you know, how it was like a meme for almost half a decade in MLS circles. Like, well, they should just hire Dom Kinnear. Right. Yeah. It's just like he knows the league and he'll, he'll get the boys to listen and he'll, he'll tell them to trust their instincts and it'll work.

for at least a year and a half. Like, I think he's at that point where like, yes, if he got the right core of players and could tell them to trust their instincts, like I think they'd outperform what they did under Olaf Melberg. Got a couple from Steve here in chat. Let's talk about these. And Jeff, I'll have you weigh in here as well, because I think this is actually an interesting topic.

The Sounders are great at making solid moves that don't excite their fan base. At a certain point, exciting the fan base is actually an important thing on its own, Ari.

And then he says, Oh yeah, that was aggressive. The Ferrer haters were way premature and calling him a bus. Let's see if the Ferrer fans are also premature and victory laughing after he scores one goal with nearly half an MLS season gone. It's coming in hot, but, uh, i'm uh i'll uh i'll i'll i'll take on these uh the first point like uh making moves that excite the fan base actually is important i i agree with that to like to an extent and i actually uh

i was advocating for them to like try and make splashier moves like for that reason because i do think it's important when uh to like uh when you're making an acquisition to try and have people actually be excited about it However, that should not.

faces like if you're faced with a situation where albert rusnak or jesus ferreira are available you shouldn't not get them based on that and furthermore i would i think like the idea that they never have made like exciting moves i don't think i would with that i think nico ladero and raul rui diaz were both uh very exciting high pedigree moves that uh you know not you know it wasn't like huge names necessarily but they were

players of exciting profiles. And I think even this year Ryan Kent has generated a lot of buzz from what he's done on the field, but also just when they got him. they uh it generated some excitement because of you know where he was coming from the type of player he was so uh like I understand the premise but I just I don't think you can use that approach to like inform whether or not you acquire a player like the excitement factor can't be like the difference between

going and getting albert rusnak if you can yeah or getting it going and getting history if you can uh and not doing it you still got to do it even if it might not be the flashiest thing and as for the victory lapping thing i was very clear on the post game live that i wasn't victory lapping i know that it's only one goal uh i was just remarking that the timing is pretty funny in that uh like yeah i'm not validated yet

but I think him getting his first goal combined with what he's done as a playmaker this year, my take that he hasn't been a bust and probably won't be a bust is looking a lot better right now than the people who were crashing out three days ago about how he's a bust. didn't have a goal yet so sing it totally agree and on the first point i will say like i get what you're saying about like are these exciting don't you need to excite your fan base but like one you're still here

I'm sorry. Like there's a certain point where if you're that diehard, it's going to take like an off field scandal to kind of, or the team just being like unbelievably bad. for like 10 years like i think they're probably still a good number of galaxy fans okay there's a profile of galaxy fan that because they were irrelevant for four years found it very easy to jump ship

and go for LAFC, right? That's a weird factor in this hypothetical I just tried to reference. But the fans who stuck with them probably loved the 2024 MLS Cup. more than like any of the previous ones because of the weight. And I think that payoff is the intoxicating thing that keeps all of us coming back. Right. But I will say for like relevance within Seattle.

uh kids wanting to play for the academy and or just wanting to play ball right and like actually like pick it up you know what does that more than signing david da costa like portland did who like most people in portland hadn't heard of before he showed up and they're all like who right

Cause there's a learning curve and acclimation with that. This isn't like the NBA where it's like, okay, we just traded for this guy. Look at his highlight package in the same league. We've played him. We know him. Right. You know, it does more than, than that. Having the emergence of Paul Rothrock. Like I kid you not like that probably moves the needle more for Seattle specifically having someone who is from Seattle.

like actually step in, step up and like suddenly find his best and be like hardworking. I can see myself out there when he's on the field. And like, I think like, I know that there's some eye rolling and there's some like, come on, but. you didn't spend anything for him, but like that genuinely is the sort of thing that gets that excitement to a like meaningful, sustainable level. The people who are really upset about which club, which league they brought in are probably already like there.

So, I don't know.

What you hit on with youth development there, I think, is an important point. What I love about what they've done with the commitment to the academy and really developing these players and having them be impact players for the first team, it makes it... it makes the team like really feel like it's Seattle. Like it's a, it's a Seattle.

team it's got a lot of Seattle athletes they put a lot of uh time effort resources and money in like having there be like a real Seattle identity on the team like Jordan Morris has obviously been a huge part of that you could down the list like jackson reagan seattle guy paul rothrock like you mentioned in this game like i thought it was so sick at the game last night uh when stew hawks

got called it got called on called into duty and went out there and helped the team keep a clean sheet and it's like yeah that's why you uh that's why you invest locally like that and bring these guys up because you can be in a situation where you have like five center backs hurt and you can put the homegrown kid out there and he's gonna

perform so like and if he makes a mistake i'll tell you what your fans would be a little more forgiving than if he was a guy that you signed from columbia for a transfer fee who has a similar background right it is true yeah Jeff, I got a couple more for you. I don't want to keep you up too late, but if you do need to jet at any point and I'm rambling, just go ahead.

i guess uh let's let's hit a couple of other more national storylines and again if you got any any other questions or topics you want us to hit go ahead and drop them in chat uh but you mentioned you mentioned it very briefly but like what do you make of

what's up with the la galaxy right now like both in terms of uh like just how like historically uh bad this run is but also just the strategy of going all in like that totally all in putting all your chips in the middle of the table and knowing knowing that it's you're gonna pay the bill's gonna come due you're gonna pay a price for it

And like, has what's happened to them changed the way you think about that at all? Because I've been saying the whole time, like from the beginning of the season, when they didn't start off that well, all the way to when it went fully off the rails. It doesn't say when did it start going well?

I just, I thought that once it went off the rails, I was like, it's still worth it. It was still worth it. Like sometimes you got to sell out, go get the ring. And if you get it and you pay a price for it, it's worth it.

shiny trophy shiny trophy still shiny you know i gotta say they are like pushing the limits of what of what i if i think that trade-off was actually worth it just because of how much it's gone off the rails and like i get it like i have no issue with them uh going all in and putting their chips in the table like that but for it to be this bad uh it's almost like they've already

sacrificed a lot of the equity they got from the cup it really does feel like that greg vanney who just got extended walked over there and like was apologizing to the fans and stuff last night that's the type of stuff that was happening when they were doing the chris klein out yeah that's right How are they already back in that situation after literally just winning MLS Cup? I'm surprised they're in that position. Not for the reason. I'm surprised that there's this much disdain for it.

This is actually one of the most fascinating things for me that's made me like, shit, am I a contrarian? Like, I don't understand all the fervor and upsetness about this shit. Like, it's funny, man. Like, if... The league's commitment to parity is as good as they try to make it. You will only win MLS Cup once every 30 years. It doesn't work like that. I know. I'm really sorry, CF Montreal. It doesn't work like that. But...

If it did, it would still be too long between MLS cups. So you should probably celebrate them when you get them is my point. I think it made a ton of sense for them to go all in. I think it was reckless in the sense of their inability to keep guys five through 14. On their roster, which is too many guys to have to like make compromises on for your next season. Right. Like, I think that's the part that's reckless. But.

yeah, if I had a chance to win MLS cup with a Ricky Pooge guy at the heart of it, I'd do it every time. Cause that's the sort of stuff that like fans are going to love. Fans love possession. This is my, my big thing with like watching Minnesota is like,

No team in MLS history has been more allergic to possession, right? And how do you get fans excited? You have to win. If you don't win... you better be entertaining if you're not entertaining why are they still here right there's just like that's the the symbiotic relationship sort of with teams and their fan bases and i think that when you get to the galaxy you did it and

I think you did it in a way that was so reliant on one player that once he tore his ACL, this year was always fucked. But this fucked? This fucked. No, not this fucked. 0-12-4. Yeah. And that's what goes back to the five through 14 issue, right. With their squad management. And that's, that's where I think the more interesting discussion lies and that's not the discussion I've been seeing. But like, yeah, they were never going to finish higher than fourth.

without Ricky Pooge. And even then fourth would have been like, how did you do that? Because that entire team operates around him to such an extent that every player in their midfield is playing out of position right now because Ricky Pooge isn't there and there are squad limits. So they need to make sure they keep.

the spot available for him. And therefore the, you know, whatever your whole midfield calibration, there's no second Ricky pooch that you can just install and the whole thing operates similarly. Attackers, Paintsville and Peck look a lot worse without him. I'm not surprised. They're both better off the ball. They're having to do more on the ball. That's just going to happen. Everyone is worse with more of the ball, given the amount of shares that he has. You can't discount.

how unique not just how uniquely important he is but how unique of a player he is and how difficult that's going to be to like make the whole thing work when you've already kind of made half of your commitments for the next season before his knee goes. I don't know. I just like the other thing is if the guy who won you a championship likes playing for this coach, like.

Yeah. Maybe don't announce the contract renewal. I've actually, I've actually come to the conclusion that keeping him is perfectly defensible and might even be, it might be, it might even be like the active. right move because uh with greg van you have a situation where like he like lives and dies by that club he loves the la galaxy he it's he's it's a little similar to schmetzer in a way in that like there's i don't think anyone on the planet earth that cares more

about the success of la galaxy than greg vanney and when you have someone who's got like that deep of loyalty and passion and devotion for something i can understand like sticking with them through tough times especially when they just won you a championship but Just back to the whole topic of the trade-off. Seattle people can relate to that exact trade-off because when they won Champions League in 2022, it tanked their season.

And they missed the playoffs for the first time in club history. And I said and still say and will always say that. There's literally not even the remotest, faintest of a hint of a debate about whether that tradeoff was worth it. Couldn't agree more. You take Champions League over the playoffs any time if that's the tradeoff that has to be.

made but the difference is like when seattle was struggling in 2022 after winning champions league uh yeah like they lost joe paulo with the torn acl There was a lot of like fatigue, additional injuries, and the team just kind of fell apart.

uh and it was bad but it wasn't like that bad they they ended up at like 1.2 to 1.3 points per game which is bad but it's like whatever it's not like the worst you were contending until at least the second yeah like it's not the worst mls season i've ever seen uh this galaxy team has they haven't won a game jeff they literally haven't won a game that's not 16 games through the season like it just it uh

yeah even even with the knowledge that the trade-off is worth it like i said they're like pushing the bounds of like and what i consider to be worth it and maybe i am getting like way too like trust the process of all of this and like I don't know. I just think. There are so many worse mistakes that they could have made if they tried to like panic and course correct. Right. Where they could try to.

I don't know, force a sale for Gabriel pack on the back of his newcomer of the year trophy and hope his value is high enough and bring in a totally different guy who now you have to get used to. Okay. He spends six months.

being a DP on the LA Galaxy, which is, yes, one of the few teams in MLS where that actually has cachet to international signings, right? Beckham and Keane and whatever he sought on. So like, sure, if he gets to continue that lineage, that's great. He's gonna be excited. And then all of a sudden, Ricky Pooch comes back. and it's like okay how do these guys get along do they get along do they fit

Like you would hope that you did your scouting and like they will fit tactically, but personality wise, is this the sort of thing where the locker room has started shifted? Like that would be the end of your championship window, but a very understandable. alternative that i think a lot of fans would have liked to see like okay can you just get griezmann can you just get kevin to burn it whatever the case is like uh

Or you let your doctors do their thing. You let your recovery staff do their thing. This year looks really bad. But if you're back in the Western Conference Final in 2026, no one's really going to remember it except for as like a nudge nudge sort of joke. Like, yeah, we punted on this year, but it's MLS, whatever. We came back and we made the conference final. There's so much worse that could have happened than what the Galaxy have brought on to themselves.

which is still very very bad to be yeah it's just like uh i don't know i never thought like a trade-off in my mind and like that my mind would even be a question but at 0 12 and 4 and uh it's just like uh the ways that they're finding to lose these games it's uh it's incredible content for me totally i say it's it's almost become like uh like a league-wide bit at this point like everyone's like don't lose to him don't lose to him keep it going

Let's keep it going. And every week, I'll tell you what, I wouldn't be surprised if sporting directors or coaches have like a little side pool going on. Like who gets the first loss to these guys? You can't be the first one. You can't, no one can be the first one. Yeah.

event i don't know when coaches even all get together anymore media day that's sad yeah i miss the super jeff jeff a couple more for you here and then i'll let you go i mean we're we're gonna be pulling up on like an hour 20 here soon so uh Can't stay up all night.

Yeah. Thank you for spending this much time with our audience. Really, really appreciate it. Yeah. It's been a lot of fun. We'll, we'll, we'll get you back on again soon, please. And you're going to be in, you're going to be in Seattle for club. It's going to be great. um okay all right i have one that i have to ask back to minnesota united which i would be i would be remiss uh if i didn't ask this one which is uh on the minnesota united beat

You had the opportunity to cover who I consider one of, if not the most mysterious players in MLS history. And his name is Emmanuel Reynoso. Ooh, not the guy I thought you meant. Okay. This guy has, I think, one of the more fascinating... mls legacies of any player that uh i can think of he uh he rolled up in what what year was it 20 like 18 or 19 or something it was 2020 so that also has the mystique right like he started playing in empty stadiums and all this sort of thing yeah

So yeah. Yeah. He rolled up with a lot of pedigree from, was it Boca Juniors? Yeah. He wrote like, like Nico Ladero rolled up as like the number 10 from Boca Juniors to Minnesota United. It was a big signing at the time. And on the field, he was just fantastic. I mean, I think one of the best pure dime dishers I've ever seen in MLS. The vision and the passing, the passes he could pick out, the through balls, the switches.

the long passing, the set pieces, just a absolute wizard out there. But his time with Minnesota United ended up colored by. a lot of very bizarre situations where he would, he would just not come back from Argentina in the off season. They'd be like, Hey, right now. So it's time to, we got camp and he'd be like, I'm not.

and then sometimes uh sometimes they would be like no you really got to and he was just wouldn't answer wouldn't answer at all yeah where is he the story the stories became like where is emmanuel reyno so And no one ever knew. And that would have been weird enough if it happened one time.

It happened like three or four times. There was like multiple times. There was one time where he showed up for the first day of preseason. It's like, oh, I have to go get my passport. And then it's like, and then they're like, people are like, well, did you talk to him? Do you know where he is?

like no we don't know right no and so you know from the outside perspective uh my biggest question would always be you know where is this man can can someone go find him is this is feels concerning at at this point and really well first I wanted to pitch my idea about this which is Like in HBO.

style series good about emmanuel reynoso with him as the main character but like the the storyline of the series is like what he was doing while while he was away away from minnesota united and no one knew where he was and you just because on it like based on what I got myself some mate yeah based on what did come out about it like it sounded like stuff was

pretty crazy at times like we don't need to get into the exact like what he did but like going to parties getting in fights like getting photographed holding a pistol by a bag of cash yeah yeah stuff like that so as someone who was covering the team uh day in day out while the uh while this was going on i guess what was that like and how do you how do you sort of tackle it as a reporter when you have a

really like bizarre situation like that. Yeah. I think that's, that's one where you just gotta like, you gotta trust your relationships there and also respect them. Right. So it's like that thing where you don't push too hard and not out in this case. It wasn't as a like, just just go easy, man. They'll tell you when they're ready, except that's not how it works. But like, it's more of a oh, they're not talking for a reason. OK. And what I vividly remember.

because I remember a lot of that was virtual for that first year, but by the time he started his kind of Ray no show routine. Like it was one of those, I can't take it. Like 50,000 people came up with that joke. Like at the same time when he didn't show up for camp. So I've made, I've made that joke, but it's, it's still good. It's still, it's still bangs. Yeah.

Really, it will play for the ages. When that started, I remember there was a lot of eye rolling for a while. And it was just like, are you kidding me? This is the guy who almost brought us to MLS Cup.

until stuff happened in seattle and then 2021 happens and yeah we hit some kind of rocky waves there was a little bit of a turnover with the roster kevin molino left and i think people kind of have already forgotten how good kevin molino could be in the late 2010s through like 2020 between like acl tears one and three like he was

So good. And that was the best he ever looked in MLS and probably his entire career was like 2020 when they made that run. And so he suddenly was gone. He went to Columbus, I think at the time. And he was finding it a little harder to have his allies. So there weren't many people in the locker room who were still going to be like, hey, just give him time, whatever. Right. Like a lot of those guys in his corner, maybe at the locker room had already left. And then he stopped showing up.

And at first it was just a, yeah, I know total diva. Like we ran into this with Johan Venegas. It's ridiculous. Like, but whatever, he'll show up before the season to like a. we're to a point now where we're really upset and like, we're assuming that we need to look at contract termination and maybe legal action against this guy or whatever. Right. And I went out to that years. It was 2023.

was like the most prominent time of this, I think. And it was deep in the preseason. He still hadn't reported. I don't think he ended up reporting until like April, basically, or like March and then didn't play until April. And I went to the Coachella Invitational to cover like half a dozen MLS teams at once, which is just such a rare opportunity post-Super Draft now.

And I went to interview Hassani Dotson for a like, just real quick, sort of like he was coming off his own injury and he became a dad. Yaddle native. Exactly. Right. So I was just like the local angle. Right. The twice local angle. I was writing a profile on him.

And I remember asking him and it was the first time where I saw someone's body language change when I brought up Reynoso and not go in like a like whatever sort of like place or like frustrated. And like, I hope you don't ask me because I'm going to like punch something if you do.

his name because i've heard it too much in bad context lately instead it was like him being like i want him to know that we are here for him and that we hope he's okay i was just like oh and then it started to come out that like his family had like history in the barrios and they were being like

The HBO series would have content. I'll put it that way. They would have plenty that they could work with. And once that became the case, the sort of Minnesotan empathy of just like, man, I just hope that you're. all right because you're not just your career like at this point fuck your career right yeah like your life could get like really damaged and it like i mean

the photos came out, they were all over. Like it did get damaged to an extent. He's, he's still playing, but he's like a squad guy in Liga Mequis. I think at this point, I was going to ask if you knew what he was, what he was back in Argentina now. I think he's at his, um,

is he at a what was it starts with a t but it's his boyhood club uh tenure not tenure if that's in spain anyway um he's back in argentina and i hope that that's a good move for him to be close enough but not too close but at the same point Hit it. Is it crossing? Tiaris. Tiaris. Yeah. Okay. Good. It did start with a T. Okay. There's some credibility. But yeah.

It is a really sad story of like if you have the wrong people in your corner and you get to a point where your own team is going to give you a little bit of leeway and you don't know how to respect it for what it is and you take all of the leeway like. it got really really bad for him unfortunately yeah it is we we uh you know i'm guilty of uh i made the rey no show joke but uh it is sad uh because of like you know all the stuff you mentioned and then also on top of that just uh

excellent player like he really oh my god yeah like the the list of guys who you're pretty confident from anywhere on the field could hit it to anywhere else in the field like on a dime is like so small like even like some of the best players were like up against him and like assists like espinoza carlos heel like now there's something there's something different about a reynoso dime i don't really know I don't know either. I think it was just like the effortlessness.

Like it was one of those things where it just like, like I was watching a really good, like foolish baseball episode yesterday where it was just like Hank Aaron's power came from his wrists. And it's one of those things where he wouldn't swing the pretties. He didn't have like a Griffey swing or anything like that, but like he could just like.

whatever with anything and always hit it to like deep center 425 like it's one of those where it's just like if you just have that strength and that like nimbleness with like your footwork you can just do whatever you want and i think he truly could have done with like the right people in his corner that was the kind of talent where he could have played in any league in the world and started but you know really uh

I think Minnesota feels still, I don't think anyone will say many kind words about him at this point among the Minnesota fan base, but I think within the locker room, the holdovers and the organization, it was just like a pleasure to play with him and a shame that it ended like it did.

Yeah, I do remember it getting to a point where there was quotes coming out of like preseason camp where the players were kind where they were fed up with it. They were like, we don't want to like it's like you're either in or you're out. And if you're not showing up, then if you're. out you're out like so that is uh it's yeah the whole situation was really sad and i did uh i did really enjoy watching him play

It is a crazy story that I think the HBO series is. They should look into it. One of my better takes. You just give any good screenwriter the details of that story. Have a showrunner, though. Don't just give screenwriters. have a showrunner to oversee this whole thing from start to end. You're the playwriting major. Yeah. Hire me for one episode, right? And I'll set the tone episode one and then we'll just send them loose and people with better ideas.

All right, Jeff, one more topic here for you, and I'll let you go, which is just – let's talk a little bit about this Sounders game on Sunday Night Soccer, presented by –

Fun concept, by the way. They're doing it pretty well. Yeah, no, I agree with that. And it'll be fun. I don't know if Seattle's been on Sunday night soccer this year. I think you're going to be on two weeks in a row. It's like Vancouver. Cause I was watching the Minnesota Vancouver game before I watched the Seattle San Diego on Wednesday. And.

They were like, oh, yeah, both of our next two Sunday night soccers involve the Sounders because Minnesota is playing Vancouver. So they're doing plugs for both, which is funny. Anyway, I digress. I think it's your first time. What do you make of this matchup with where these two teams are at right now? And I guess if I could add on a little bit to that, what is...

Your more general perspective on the Seattle Sounders as they stand right now, like from a national lens. I think people will be interested to hear that. Yeah, I think for the matchup. I have a tough time seeing Minnesota winning at Lumen until they've done it. Like I just I wouldn't.

I know that they have that style that's really exploitative when you're away from home and against teams that want more than 50% of the ball. And I know those are two. So like, could this be a time where it could shift? Yes. It could, right? Like there are, I think Jordan Morris scored a lot of goals against Minnesota over the years. Like that's a.

change, right? So I think that having him gone maybe gives Minnesota a little more confidence that they can avoid past mistakes, but I still think at this point I'd have more confidence in Seattle. But I've had confidence in Seattle all year. They were my preseason pick to win MLS Cup.

so oh hell yeah hear that chat yeah yeah so i'm standing by it i will say this is the longest in a season in recent memory i can remember where i felt good about my mls cup pick

Yeah, usually it goes off the rails like match day four. Yeah, I think last year I had the crew, which felt really good until the first round of the playoffs. And this year, much better so far. And I think part of that is also like... I knew it would take a little bit of time, but this is a coach who understands how to get the pacing of momentum.

understand not to panic too soon. Right. And throw out the entire plan and keep building to something. So like, I think Seattle is a really good spot. They're fourth in the league and expect goal difference, which is just general underlying numbers bullshit for like,

They're actually better than the opponents they play in terms of chances created and chances conceded. And they're at a level that looks really sustainable, man. Like it's, I still think the Western conference goes through Seattle this year. I think that LAFC.

He did get a bit of a shot in the arm with Sherundalo announcing this would be his last year because I think there are a lot of players in that locker room who will want to do something for him this year because they've struggled so much in big games under him. So it's like not just his reputation on the line, but kind of theirs.

with lafc anyway to scale uh so i i think that's different obviously the galaxy or shit so like there's there's one less contender to really worry about rsl fell off in a big way people forget they finished third in the conference last year like you know so it's just like it's a very different west you've got vancouver but

competitive on all fronts we'll see uh if eventually like there's something yes for sorenson said last week where it was kind of like we have to keep evolving no matter how good we are because we do recognize teams are starting to learn what we're doing And we'll see if they can kind of outpace opponents with that. I still think they have the talent to pull it off, but it's just, it's always interesting. The team that starts the season strongest, I don't think often wins MLS Cup.

Right. Like I'd have to go back. The Whitecaps are not going to win cup this year. I don't think so. I don't think so. Not, not because they're of like any drop in quality or fall off. It's just the best team usually doesn't. Yeah. And they're clearly the best team. And that's fair. That's totally fair. They might win CCC, but they're not going to win. That's actually a really good point, though, because I think people forget, even in 2023, Columbus didn't win the East.

much less the supporter shield you know i mean like that's that's kind of one of those teams where as soon as you see it it's one of those that just kind of stays in your memory is like this is a very very good to like no this is a great to excellent

MLS team right and and they stick with you like 2018 Atlanta I think kind of had that verb about a 2017 Toronto 2016 Seattle they're just sort of like versions of these teams that you just kind of retain it's like it's like in old Madden games when Madden was good right and they would have those

like historical teams that they would bring back and be like do you want to play against the like greatest show on turf or do you want to play against the 85 bears like those sorts of teams where it's like these are the ones that like are kind of the benchmark that's what columbus 23 is But you're right, they weren't the best team for most of the year. And so I think that there is still time for someone else to kind of step into this conversation.

And I don't know if I would say it's Philly either. I still think that like, are you not sold on Philly? Not, no, I'm not. Why not? I'm sold on them as a team. That's going to get a lot of regular season points. But I'm also not sold on that ideology as one that wins MLS Cup, because I think that we've seen other teams with better squads and more established cores plus coaches. And I'm specifically talking about Jesse Marsh's Red Bulls not do it.

where I just think that teams can figure it out, whether it's him, Chris Armis, or Bradley Carnell. So I don't think that they'll win MLS Cup either. Yeah, I think... i think that's a good point i really like what the philly union have going on right now i really like that uh the jean jacques guy that they signed yeah he's awesome and uh and uh quinn sullivan as well it's been great his breakout's awesome yeah yeah

No, they've got some like Ty Buriba winning the golden boot race so far. It's just like it's one of those where it's like the meme potential of Christian Benteke winning an MLS golden boot over Messi and Suarez was irresistible. So I'm glad it happened. Like that's one of those things that I'm just like grateful to have witnessed it.

because I don't think the European mind can comprehend Christian Benteke winning a golden boot, but it certainly can't ideate the concept of Tiber Evo winning a golden boot over Lionel Messi. So I truly hope that that continues. Yeah. But I still don't believe in the Philly union as like, I think they're a top four team in the East this year, bar none at the end of the year. Like, I think it's like them since he and Columbus are the teams I'm most confident in entering the bracket.

But yeah, that's, you know, I still think I'd take a team from Ohio over them. Who you got in the CCC final? Do you think the caps closed this out or do you think they, it ends in heartbreak? I think it might end in heartbreak, but I do think I actually have more. If I had to choose a winner from one or the other, I think I would go Caps over LAFC. in the Club World Cup playing game that night against Club America. Look, I think that the run that they've been on, they...

They need this feeling again. Like they fed off of like where the underdog absolutely no one pays attention to. And we know that we're good. So let's just fucking show them. Right. And that was like their entire thing in February, March, April. may hype train got them in a big way, right? Like and whatever, like they've been like leading.

I almost said extra time that got sad. They've been like the one of the like bring back extra time. Can I just bring back extra time where I can say that? Please bring it back. The ecosystem misses it so goddamn much. It needs extra time. It really does. But they would be leading every episode if this was a just world. I also think that they are.

like the the Brian White Sebastian Berhalter like I think Sebastian Berhalter is suddenly becoming one of those like the streets know it guys like Nagby was when he was in Portland right where it was just like if you know ball you know that he's actually good at it he's really quickly getting into that because he's like

he's a superstar man like i don't know how else to put it like and i don't know how or why that happened but it apparently it i mean it did happen he's that good blew my mind talking to him because i did a piece uh with him before the second leg against miami and

did a one-on-one and we talked about like his dad and all this sort of stuff and i i kind of like it was just like hey we're going to talk about the world cup i know you're at the 2022 world cup i know you know what happened right after it with a close family friend we'll get into that so i was expecting that to be a little tense and he was he was good about it like he addressed it had on applied directly to forehead so that was awesome

um but the other thing with him was like my dad didn't want to roll in my career development even when i was a kid he was like obviously no should i have to drive you to practice it's me or your mom right but like

I'm not going to call coaches and say, you got to play my son. I'm not gonna, I'm not going to trade for you. If I ever work in this league right away again, you know what I mean? Like you've got to kind of earn this on your own. So the first time that they really got reps together was during.

covid where greg was already in the job and seb was with columbus and they ended up winning mls cup this year that was his first homegrown year and he was like it was him and aiden morris were kind of the new homegrown midfielders which is just a hell of a pairing to graduate at the same time And it was just Greg and Seb working on a park in Chicago and just like working on his speed.

predominantly which is funny because i still don't think of speed as like one of like said berhalter's things but when you think about it it's probably one of those things where you need to get it to a certain level so that the rest of your skill set sings right like if you eventually can't outmaneuver a run away from an opponent it's going to be a lot harder to go into your bag of tricks so i think that he's been phenomenal yeah i mean i'm glad he got a gold cup

Look, I'm really glad. Yeah, I mean, that's, it would have been insane, honestly, if he hadn't with the form that he's in. I mean, yeah, you could just go down the list with what's going on with that team right now. But like Pedro Vitae, one of my favorite players in the league.

obviously everyone knows about brian white so i uh i i actually been one of the best defenders in the league yeah i mean yeah like you can't jayden nelson's apparently like the best winger i know it's nuts takeyoka is like i think he's like that level of goalkeeper where it's just like if you

on my team, I'd probably feel really confident. One of the, like, you just kind of know when you feel like I'm a Bournemouth fan. I'd kept Arisa Balaga this year. I was never confident. Yeah, no, honestly, I think they, I think they have a... Great chance of getting it over the line. I don't want to jinx them. It's going to be a really hard game. They're traveling for it. Berhalter's not playing because of a bullshit CONCACAF policy.

rule if i'm ever fifa president is going to be that like there's only like certain suspension you can't get a yellow card accumulation suspension in a tournament for a final uh but you can get a straight red so don't do that

They got to do something about that rule. I already did a lot of soapboxes about that because I'm pissed about it. I want to watch. Berhalter needs to be playing in this game. For it to be like... a true the true game that it can't be who is the actual champion right like yeah because and if they lose you know i'm gonna be saying i mean if burr alter you and me both men like that so that's yard i there's already a baked in narrative there

All right, Jeff, that is all I got for you tonight, man. Thank you so much for taking all this time. I mean, you just streamed with me for an hour and 38 minutes. So yeah, yeah, we'll absolutely get you on here again soon. Uh, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks, I guess for, uh, Seattle Sounders. Yeah. Um, before, uh, before you get out of here, any work with the athletic that you have, anything you got coming up that you want to.

plug or promote or just anything uh of that yeah i would say yeah i mean one thanks for having me like shows like this are like the best the best so like appreciate being able to come on to a late night recording and hit a couple of highlights quick.

The Athletic, I mean, like, I've covered Club World Cup, so I'll be writing about the Sounders. I'm kind of the token, like, yes, I actually know and watch the Sounders a lot guy. So, like, I will, I swear to you, I will try my best to actually convey to the team and not just they are in an MLS. so as i cover it that is my pledge um i think that there are others we're focusing on miami more um

And then, yeah, US Women's National Team is in town, so I'll be doing something there. But Total Soccer Show, I'm on that every Tuesday. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that, yeah. That's fine. It's new this year. It's informal. I just happen to show up every single Tuesday. I'm not. With a friend of Lob and Scorcher's, Joe Larry. Man, he's awesome. Yeah, yeah, with Joe. It's Joe and Taylor and I. Every Tuesday, sometimes Graham.

riffing as well but like it's been a blast just to actually be like back to podcasting you gotta miss a lot and I say um a lot more than I used to and I'm working on it and I probably did too much tonight but you're not so that's always for the best All right. Well, thank you. Thank you again, man. Much appreciated. And we'll talk soon. Sounds good, man. Thanks for having me.