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Welcome to episode 93 of Lobbing Scorchers. Noah, we're about to lay down an emphatic L-Pod. How are you feeling? Ari, I want to start this episode with a breathing exercise. I learned this from my therapist after she had to kick me out of her office for talking only about the Seattle Sounders. She said, Noah, I think that you should probably just stop watching. And I said, I'm sorry, ma'am. I can't. I can't. So breathe in. And out. Let's crash out, Ari. Wow, yeah, we got a...
peek into the behind the scenes of your life right there that I wasn't really expecting. But no, that's right. We have an emphatic L pod as the Seattle Sounders went down to sunny San Diego, California. And it did not go well. That was not good. They got absolutely smoked by San Diego FC after giving up a goal in the second minute of the game, which that's not like when you're starting out a game. That's not how you want to start it out. It was really chalked from the jump.
but it all fell apart from there. We're going to break that down, unfortunately, in our game review. We're going to hit our agenda check. and then mercifully move on to some league-wide coverage where we'll give our winners and losers for Match Day 7 in MLS. And we're also going to be laying down some more exclusive members-only content. That's something that we've been doing and we're going to continue to do.
So if you want to get that exclusive content, become a YouTube member. Before we get into... I do have to let you all know that Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderatheart.com slash LS. Noah, what's that link? sounderatheart.com slash LS.
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Shout out to our sponsors, Hacks and Ferments, Podium Menswear, and Full Pull Wines, My Data Removal, and BodySpec. We're stacking. We're stacking. It's great to see. Noah, do we have any new subs to thank this week? We sure do. We have three new subs. That's a great haul. Edward Geiger, Amy Semler, and Peter... Listen, Peter, I'm so sorry. I'm going to try your last name. Y'kompate? Y'kompate? Something like that. Hit us on the email. We'll get it right.
Always feel free to send us the correct pronunciation of your name. Thank you to our new subs. What does that put us at? Like 80 something? 85? All right. The Robo 100 is alive and well. If you haven't done so yet, please sub to the YouTube. Like all of our videos, write reviews, rate five stars. Is there anything else that I need to get to here? Should we just do this L-Pod? Yeah, I wanted to plug. We did an interview with Tom Bogert. I think a lot of you have probably already listened.
But if not, we had a lot of fun doing that. And our post show. special that we did with him where we we did another 30 minutes just talking about how he got to where he's at and uh some really funny just like inside baseball stuff it was really fun to talk about so become a youtube member watch that and with that San Diego FC three, Seattle Sounders zero. So that's not great. No. Needless to say, Noah, let's do our lineup reaction before we get into the key moments.
This was a lineup that I saw and was not sure what was going on. What to do at the number nine with Jordan Morris injured has been a topic of discussion because I think the idea going into this season was that in any situation where Jordan... was either injured or rotating out, Jesus Ferreira would slide in there. And I was thinking, I was like, oh, that's a great rotation right there. That's like if Jordan misses a game, that's problem solved.
And I think it's pretty obvious at this point that that's how the team was thinking of it as well. That is not. panned out um obviously moose is next on the depth chart but he hasn't been scoring goals for about two years now so uh as i mean you know he played well against the quakes we talked about that and that was the uh
I was advocating for him to be the starting number nine, but he picked up a back injury in that game. He ended up subbing on in the second half. It seems like he was only good to go 30 minutes. So what do you do? What do you do in that situation? Do you plug Ferreira back in there? That's probably what I would have done. Do you, you know, throw Paul Rothrock in there? I don't know. Georgie.
Georgie was the selection to play up top at the start of this game. And I think my eyebrows were raised right. From the jump, Noah, what was your reaction when you saw Georgie, the number nine? I said this on our post-match live stream. Another plug. Feel free to go check that out. We had people call in and crash out with us. Thought this was a like a mess up by foot mob because you know, I normally get a lot of my
score updates from foot mob and they always have the wrong lineup. They have the right players. They're just in the wrong places usually or the wrong formation or something like that. And I saw Ferreira on the wing, Georgie at the nine and Rusnak on the other side there. And I was like, oh, OK, you know, I guess, you know, Georgie's starting, Ferreira's playing the nine, whatever. Then I saw it line up and I was like, Ari.
Ari Ari Ari no they're this is wrong this is wrong what are we doing here what is this Yeah, so needless to say that... That did not work. Georgie looked really out of place playing that position for the entire like 12 minutes. that he did it before he and Ferreira switched. There's two plays. One where he got a ball at the top of the box with his back to goal where he had space if he had been able to like control it and get turned and wasn't able to do that. You know, that's something that...
number nine by trade might've been able to do. And then they Jackson Reagan hit him with a perfect through ball. That would have been, if it was Jordan Morris, that would have been a phenomenal play. But Georgie couldn't get on the end of it and control it to make that a meaningful chance. And that was right about when they switched. Brian Schmetzer was asked about this after the game. And I think this is...
This was an interesting answer because he basically said like, oh, you know, we are pretty strapped for personnel right now. Jordan's hurt. Moose was hurt. So we're basically just grasping at straws. That's the exact term that he used, grasping at straws, which. Like he's right. That is true. They were grasping at straws, but I guess my thing is like, uh, As an MLS team or really a professional team at any level, like if you're using the term grasping at straws.
You should never, like, regardless of injuries or absences or anything else, I understand MLS can get. wonky like that, but you should never... Straws should never be grasped at in that way. Like if you're in that situation, something's gone wrong.
Either with your roster build or with how your roster is playing compared to how you thought it would play. I think in this case, it's the latter. When they were doing their offseason roster tinkering, Ferreira was supposed to be the easy money like second. strike her up if Jordan goes down. Uh, and when that didn't work, and Moose was out also, you're grasping at straws, and that's not great. That's not good. But it's also silly because...
Is Jesus Ferreira, even in the form that he's in, better at the nine than putting a player who's literally never played that position in his entire life? Well, and you need, like, you're still at a point where... playing Ferreira at the nine and get more reps and more time that it could get better so I guess that's why like I would have just done that from the start and maybe it wouldn't have worked but you know you already know Moose is coming in at halftime you're giving him 30 minutes like
You're game planning for it. But so on one hand, I do want to acknowledge that we have you and I specifically have said a lot of times in the past, like. If something isn't working, just try something different. Who cares? It might be a not good idea. It might not work, but at least you're trying something. Yeah, just let them cook. Yeah, so I guess I can... see it from that perspective.
But it didn't work. They should not try that again. At least he switched the formation very quickly. I think when it was like... As much as we're kind of getting on Brian here, at least he acknowledged it very quickly and made that switch. Literally during the first 20 minutes of the first half, they were already... switched back. So, and like Schmetz, uh, went into a little more detail about it after game. He said the way that they wanted it to play was that they would be more kind of like,
switching and it wasn't like he was supposed to play like a pure Benteke target striker. It was supposed to be more fluid between the two of them than that. But it just, uh, It just didn't work. And for whatever happened offensively, the defense was, I mean, it was just a disastrous game defensively. Second minute of the game, the Sounders concede the opener, like right after kickoff. And I think the thing with that is...
When you're a road team in this situation, playing in a team that's in as good a form and scoring as many goals as San Diego. You can't go into their stadium and get caught up in a track meet. You just can't. Like, if you do that, that's what happens. You have to do whatever you can to make those first 15 to 20 minutes. Not that, you know, like, and really like literally from the first kick of the game. it looked like a track meet. It was just way too open, way too frantic of pace and energy.
zero control of the game or the tempo or the game state. at all that played exactly into San Diego's hand, uh, hands as the home team, who's trying to come out and get on top of them. And they're executing at like an extremely high level right now. So I think the first thing that went wrong in this game was just the game management was way, way off. Like, I'm sure they didn't intend for it.
to get out of control like that, but it did. And there was no gradual buildup to that. It was literally from the first kick of the game. All of that was just... I mean, you can't play like that in a road game against a team like this unless you want it to end up how this one ended up and you get run on. Yeah, it was bad. And the one thing I want to highlight too is...
San Diego was always the better team coming into this game. So you always knew San Diego was coming back into full strength. They were getting a DP back. All of this. They have the momentum. They're at home. You know they like to play like this. They've been lighting up the league. You know they're an attacking threat. And you play them...
exactly how you shouldn't. Yeah. Like you, you, you see all of this. If I can see it, I know the coaching staff can see it. You see all of this and you're like, you know what we should do for the first five minutes. The thing that we tell you not to do and Brian even said, you know, Brian said They're a great team. Coach is great. His players actually did what...
They made plays. He said they made plays and my players didn't. Yeah. And I mean, I really do think that that is true on one hand. And also there is some blame that Brian did take of like. it's just, it's, it's a tough watch. It was not good. Yeah. I mean, even, even in that, uh, two minute span between kickoff and when the first goal was scored, it popped into my mind right away. It was like, this is not.
Like if they, if this is how the whole game goes, this is bad. Like that's just, uh, again, like when you're the road team, you're undermanned, you're playing a team that looks like one of the best teams in the league right now. Um, You need to make it through those first 15 to 20 minutes at 0-0, if nothing else, and really just manage the tempo and the game state. way differently than that. And that was the first thing that went wrong in this game. The first of many. The first of many.
So after the goal in the second minute, minutes, you know, minutes two to 40, to be fair, I thought like the game management and all the stuff we were talking about was still not what it needs to be in these circumstances. but I wrote reasonably competitive on the outline. Like, uh,
Seattle, there was some okay sequences in attack. They were giving up chances, but they didn't give up the second goal yet. But it did feel like it was coming. To me, it felt like it was coming the whole time. And then in the 41st minute... San Diego just, this was a sick counter. That was a good goal. This was a beautiful buildup. I'm not even going to lie. It was a really good buildup. This made me so envious. This made me so envious. I'm like, this is the soccer I want to watch.
Yeah, I mean, their whole team right now looked like we were on the post-game live. I was talking about how it really reminded me of... The just buzzsaw type teams that just overwhelm you that we've seen a couple of in MLS in the last few years. I always say 2019 LAFC is the...
as the comp, but I mean, you can like inner Miami of last year had that attribute to them. The Philly union the year that year that LAFC did it had that attribute where it just, it looks like they're playing at a different speed. than the teams that they're playing against. That's what this looked like. It looked like one team was kind of playing. at a level and a speed that the other one just couldn't.
keep up with that's that's what it looked like there was yeah there was probably a 10 to 15 minute stretch like if i'm looking at the um that chart you know where it charts like momentum yeah from the 18th minute to the 31st minute the sounders were in control of the The rest of the game, nothing. I mean, yes, they might have had possession, but they were not in control of that game. No. And this six-minute period where Godoy scored and then Chucky scored was one of the worst.
six minute stretches in the history of the Seattle Sounders. Yeah. And I say that without hyperbole or exaggeration. Well, you are not alone in believing that, by the way. Paul Rothrock literally said this is rock bottom. He was talking about this season, though. I'm talking about that specific stretch. I've never seen this team get like they gave up four breakaways in a row, four in a row, like back to back to back to back. That's like.
Chucky finally scored the one right before halftime, but they could have, all four of those literally were chances that could have or should have been goals. Like I couldn't really believe what I was watching at that point. Like there's, you know, there's going to be. stretches of games where you're going to get outplayed the other teams are going to get theirs but that was crazy man like four in a row like super high percentage breakaways. Uh,
the last of which two of them were from, uh, from their best player. Yeah. And the, the what, like when he finally scored it, it was like, yeah, okay. That was, you're basically asking for that. And then at that point is three zero and the game is chock. Seattle comes out. And my thing, I think I said this on Blue Sky, but it's like about dignity.
At a certain point. Yeah, you did say that. Like, you know, you're going to lose the game. You're playing a team that is just, let's be honest, much better than you. You're not going to get a result. Like you have no chance at that. But just. Maybe score a goal. I mean, they didn't, but maybe that should have been the goal. Get something to... get some sort of positive anything out of this game.
I was thinking of it like, you know, if you can go out there, get a goal, maybe make it 3-1, have some good sequences of play. Obviously, it's a horrific L, but at least you leave Snapdragon Stadium with... So that was my criteria for what I wanted to see.
in the second half. Uh, but then they get out there and Rusnak has been subbed out of the game. I didn't know what to make of that at first. I guess I figured it was probably, well, I was like, I thought it was kind of white flagging it. Like same. All right. Like We shouldn't even have our DP10 out there right now. This game's over. Let's just get him out of there and chalk it to next week. Because it was like...
Another thing that entered my mind was like, this could be like sending a message of Schmetz not being happy with how he played, but I didn't like, they're definitely, uh, I thought he was fine. Yeah, he wasn't good, but he didn't do anything that was benchable. He was not the worst player on the field. I can tell you that much. He didn't do it like like a benching to send a message like that. That's like when someone.
does something like lazy or isn't hustling or it looks like their effort isn't there. I don't think, uh, I don't think, I didn't think that was the case. So. Take Rusnak out there. I don't really get that. But then after the game, he obviously got asked about it. And he said that Albert Rusnak came out with an adductor injury. So that's awesome. Another muscle injury.
Adductors usually are at least a few weeks. So don't expect him to, unless it's like super minor and it was precautionary, maybe he doesn't miss. that much time or any time, but I mean, they knew to know right away. Yeah. Like, uh, for me, if I had to guess right now, you're probably not going to see him on the field for
at least two to four weeks, depending on severity, maybe four to six. So that's not, that's not good. And maybe, you know what? Maybe he'll be playing next week because last time Brian trolled us with one of those. The player trotted out. Yeah, I don't know. I did. I'm not. We're not certified medical professionals. I'm not saying that this is what happened, but there was a tinfoil hat part of me when I heard that answer that was like...
what if there is no injury in there? What if they like got into it at halftime about something? And Schmetz was like, you're coming off again. Like I have no reason really to believe that happened other than that's just like what popped into my head as a possibility. But, uh, I mean, again, Depending on the severity, I would not expect to see him on the field, at least for the next few weeks.
The way he announced it too, man. Yeah. Jeremiah asks the question. Jeremiah's like, oh, you know, we saw Rosenak come off at halftime. Was that like, you know, I don't even think he had an idea that he was injured.
that's the thing like there was no point where he came up lame or was limping yeah which usually that's what you what you see but so that's that's one reason maybe it was like he felt like a little tweak and they're like and that's the white flag that so i mean That would be the correct decision, but we're just going to have to wait for the update on that.
as far as salvaging dignity goes there was none yeah like let's i guess that's a good segue into positives and negatives obviously most most of this is going to be negatives um I'll give my positives because I had two. Yeah. De La Vega came on in the second half, and I thought he looked good. He looked pretty much, I think, how he was looking before he got injured.
And that's like, I guess, a ray of hope that that could be a boost in the short term here. Especially if Roosnack's out, you're definitely going to need him to step up. So that was... That was something, and I think he was playing hard, and I think he has dignity. I mean, but he didn't do anything.
He played okay. Yeah, he played fine. I don't know if that changes any dignity here. I'm grasping at straws here. De La Vega came back and looked pretty good. The sun was out in Seattle. It was a beautiful day. I went outside. And my, my only other positive is that it's, it's April and there's a lot of time. Like, I know I keep saying that every week, but really until June, that is.
true in this league. Like, uh, and they're like, I guess in general, We've seen this movie with this team a lot of times where they... They start really slow and then they pick it up as the season goes along. It's annoying that that's what it's going to have to take again to get this team anywhere close to the potential that we thought it had.
But that's just the reality of the situation. That brings me to my negatives, which is that, I mean, right now, like you're off to a bad start of the season. CONCACAF Champions Cup was a bust. You crashed out of that in emphatic fashion. Pretty terrible L on the road in Mexico. And you got one win in seven.
to start your league season which is which is bad you're like healthily below the playoff line uh outside of the lse games the offense doesn't look like it's working with ferreira as uh as one of the focal points In the LAFC game that they won, I think we can both caveat. They were heavily rotated. They did not have. Okay. I actually hate that caveat because Seattle was too.
Absolutely, but I'm saying, if you look at the quality that LAFC had on the field versus what the Sounders had on the field, I think there was a pretty big talent gap, even with backups. There wasn't. That's not true. It was the exact same idea. The only thing you could say is that Rusnak and Morris came on in the second half, but Bawanga came on in the second half for them. That was two teams equally rotated. And so like the, that, that caveat is actually.
That's, you're reaching for something to discount it. I'm discounting that win. I mean, that's an incorrect take, but that's why you're still better than Drew. You're entitled to, yeah, okay. Still better than Drew. The lineup thing with Georgie didn't work at all. I mean, you know, tried something, tried it. That didn't work through it at the wall. Didn't stick. Uh, again, the game, the game management really all night, but just especially to start the game, you, you can't play.
a road game. It fell apart, man. You can't play it like that. That I'm sure that that wasn't the game plan. And like, it just got away from them on the field, but like You can't let it get away from you to that extent. Like you're basically predetermining your own fate. uh, looked vastly inferior to San Diego, which a couple of people pointed this out. And I think they're actually right about this. Like we've been talking about how, uh,
Getting Jesus Ferreira adapted in this team is like this process that is taking longer than we thought. But like eventually it could get there, but it hasn't gotten there yet, despite like them, you know, drilling it all preseason and in training this season and everything. This San Diego team, their entire team just got together in the same timeframe. Yeah. Like this Sounders team still has guys that have been playing on it together for years now. Most of the team. Yeah. Most of the team.
So like for there to be that big a gap between your team and an expansion team, like. They got everyone fitting and clicking right away, you know? So clearly it can be done. So that's not good. You got shut out again. The Freire thing doesn't seem like it's making much progress. It looks the same week after week. And you got one win in your first seven games. So that's not good.
Yeah. Don't worry. I've got more for you. Yeah. Keep them going. Here's my positives to start. Cause you know, this is a, this is a, we always do both. No matter what. Do both. No matter what. Get on us. But guess what? That's what we're here for. I know I was reaching, but that's, yeah. Anyway, I think. you are right in the fact that it's, it's early and this team is injured and this team is a little bit snake bit, a little bit of their own fruition, but like.
If you want to look ahead, you do have a lot of things coming, like in terms of Pedro is back healthy. Jordan is getting healthier. It seems to be less of a severe injury than they expected with Jordan. He's been... training i believe uh ryan kent ryan kent is basically fit from what i've heard yep um and this isn't about the game this is just about the sounders because there were no positives about this specific game
I like this like more season-wide box. Yeah, like if you want to be like, I'm crashing out, but I want to stop. Yeah, like there's things to look forward to. This team does have a lot of pieces coming back. And that's great. Like that rocks. The other positive, dude, San Diego like might be the best team in the league. They look like it. Like I want to see them play. I want to see them full strength versus full strength under Miami and see who gets that done.
You know what? Get all these bullshit losses out of the way now. Get hot when you need to get hot. You know what I'm saying? It sucks that that is what it's come to because I've seen this movie so many times. Every year it's like we hope to avoid that movie and every year it's kind of the same thing. But like, no, I agree with what you're saying.
I have no doubt in my mind that when Jordan Morris is back, when De La Vega's back in the fold, and then hopefully with Ryan Kent getting involved, like... The level will get higher. The results will be better. They'll start scoring more goals. I have no doubt about any of that. But the disappointing thing about that is that... This team is supposed to be the deepest team in the league. Like we spoke very highly of the depth over the offseason. We liked the.
Ferreira trade. I still think like the process behind that trade made sense. And I still think that as much as everyone's writing it off right now, there's a chance that he could come good and be a good positive contributing member of this team there is time for that definitely yeah and so like in the short term especially he's going to be able to play where he's more comfortable and he'll probably look better when he's doing that but like
Uh, this team was supposed to be built in a way where even if you had a bad injury situation, you could. Maybe not be a 1.8 points per game team, but definitely not get the doors blown off like that in any game. We don't really see Sounders teams get blown out like that that often. That's just not something that happens. to this team even last year when they were boring not taking results
getting zero, zero draws at home. They were at least defensively good. They were defensively good. And in general, they were competing. Like they were. These were like hard fought, close games that they weren't getting results from. And it was very frustrating to watch, but they weren't getting embarrassed out there. They got embarrassed. I don't even think.
I don't think anyone on the team or the coaching staff would contest that. Anytime you get rolled to that degree, that's embarrassing. And we're not really used to seeing Sounders teams. get embarrassed so anyway i kind of stole your no i'm there i'm here for it i i think to add on to specifically getting embarrassed it feels like A lot of these losses have been embarrassing losses. We do not have a defense that is preventing these embarrassing losses anymore.
I think that there's enough time to say this is not the best defense in the league anymore. I had this on a agenda. Okay. We'll save. I will save it. I'll save it. But. Jackson Reagan was bad. New Who was bad. I don't know. He's literally Jesus Christ. reincarnated. That's my negatives. Defense played awful. The defense has been bad all year. Midfield played didn't do shit. They played bad. They actively played bad. This was... embarrassing to watch this was one of those games where
I was frustrated, but I wasn't mad. I was just sitting there laughing like this is really bad. So like this is. This is just awful. Like this is not good. This team looks bad. There are multiple players on this team who it just feels disjointed. I think that's something you even said. Like no one seemed to know what to do. Yeah, there was not there was there was not a single person on the field where I was like, hell yeah.
I don't use the term embarrassing lightly. I feel like you use that more liberally than me. Some people, not you, but some people... Any time you take an L, they say it's embarrassing. I think when you're playing at this level, first of all, it would be sick to go 34-0-0 every season with a plus 87 goal differential, but you're going to have negative results. You're going to have L's.
And really, to me, it's about like competing with dignity. You know, you compete with dignity and it's a hard fought, close game and you still take an L, you can tip your cap, give it a GGs. On to the next one. That's not embarrassing, but like anyone who wants to use that word to describe this. I don't disagree. That was embarrassing. It was terrible. And I, I don't know, maybe we don't seem as upset as people want us to be, but like, I think we're both kind of.
I don't know. Maybe we're trying to hold it back a little bit because I mean, it was objectively awful and it was awful coached. It was awful played. The players look bad. The coaches looked bad. It was just a failure. Like I said, we're not used to... Like even when they're not taking results, it's usually not like that. Yeah. Like that was okay. Anyway, we're going to hit our agenda check. But first.
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Welcome back to episode 93. If you skipped the ad. We know what you did. We know. Okay, we have your IP address. We're coming to your house with the ad police. Noah, let's get into this agenda check. I got a few written down, and these are not my own agendas. These are... These are ones that I've seen out there. Cowardly. He doesn't even want to take them on. Chat. Get him. The agenda check has long been not necessarily my, like, our own agendas. It's just, it can be our own or it can be...
agendas that we just see out in the fan base. Yeah. The first one is then this is agenda that a lot of people were dishing last night, which is that the Jesus Ferreira is just bad agenda. strengthened based on another game where he was ineffective. No, I think that take is ridiculous. like that he's bad at soccer yeah people say this stuff sometimes and like i get it like heat of emotion and he hasn't been playing well he hasn't fit into this team at all
The guy has 50 plus goals in MLS. You literally like can't be bad at soccer and score 50 plus goals in MLS. Like that's not possible. I've watched him play enough to know he is good at soccer. you're saying two different things. Like if he's bad at soccer or if he just isn't fitting into this team right now, he's not fitting into the team right now. He's not producing and he's not playing good. right now. He is bad right now. Yeah. So that's the caveat you used when I was pushing back.
last night was like right now okay yeah he's playing poorly right now that's obvious like anyone can see that but like the take which i saw this you didn't dish this take you gave the caveat but the take that he just sucks and is bad is i think that's ridiculous like He was a best 11 player in the league. I think that he is bad as a number nine. I think he is a bad striker. I think that he is undisciplined as a striker. I don't think that he should be put at the nine.
But the problem is you signed him to play there. And so there is some sort of... Did they sign him to be a pure nine? I don't think so. That's what he's ended up playing out of necessity. Absolutely. They planned to play him off of Jordan, is what I assume. Craig, come on the podcast. You have to acknowledge that Jordan is not going to be able to play every game. Who is your backup striker? That's where the planning was suspect. Who is your backup striker? You.
If you're looking at the depth chart, it's Jesus Ferreira. Jesus Ferreira doesn't fit in there. Yeah. I could have told you that. If you play like Jordan plays. revisionist because I think I thought that I was a good idea I'm saying if you're trying to play the same system of Jordan Morris right okay if you're playing the Jordan Morris system
of him at the nine, it was never going to work. I mean, you've known, I've long known, he plays the nine and had in the past very differently than a poacher, center forward. I think that there, I dished this take. I think Paul Rothrock would be way more effective in that position. and having Jesus out wide to play off of him because he understands the space better and he is happy to move over, give that space to a player.
like Jesus Ferreira to kind of come in and overlap him. He can also be out on the wing. Jesus Ferreira is a space goblin. And I'm not talking about, what's that movie with Michael Jordan? Space Jam. I'm not talking Space Jam. He's a space cop. Dude just wants to be everywhere on the field. That's a good thing, but it's also a bad thing when you're a Target 9. He's not a Target.
He's bad at that. He is bad in certain moments. He's played bad regardless of where he's played. He's played bad on this team this season. He is not a bad. Okay. Yeah, I can, I can accept that. Next agenda. The Sounders defense is just bad agenda. Similar agenda, but talking about the defense now, which. You know, it's really enough in the season where I'm not gonna, like, uh... Call that. Yeah. But they are off to a bad...
Start just way too many shoot yourself in the foot type concessions. It was happening again in this game. And this was the best highly touted best defense in the league last year. Only gave up 35 goals. And that's really what carried this team through those rough times. And like you said earlier, like they don't have that to lean on right now. Last year, you could hang your hat on that to an extent through some of that stuff.
And I think the ominous thing about what's going on right now is it's like, oh, no, like they're actually not playing well on that side of the ball. either. And like, if they played like the Sounders defensive last year, maybe you're able to stay in a game like that. I mean, San Diego looks good enough that maybe not anyway, but, uh, You're not getting embarrassed like that if you play defense.
somewhat competently. Exactly. And then, you know, if this was just this one game, that would be one thing, but it's not. Every game you get one of these, these gaps. It's been the, it's been every game pretty much. Houston, San Jose, all, all. There's a lot of time for them to write that ship and prove this agenda wrong. So I'll say that. But right now it's looking kind of hot.
Next one I have written down here. I got to cook on the defense. I'm sorry. I was processing. I was taking a deep breath before I released this. Sorry. Yeah. They're bad. They're bad right now. They are bad. I don't know what it is, but I think also you got to realize the formation is different. Right? Like they're playing more counterattacking. That was what I said in the beginning of this season. I said, I am interested to see because we saw them give up a ton of goals in preseason.
on those counterattacks, on this stuff, these weird defensive breakdowns centrally and outside. That's right. It did happen in Brazil. I mean, I literally said that. I said, I am nervous. I am nervous about this. I'm nervous about when you have new who going forward. What's he going to do when he has to track back?
What's it going to happen when Jackson Reagan gets caught up because he's helping in the central, you know, like a defensive midfielder? What's going to happen with these three center backs? It's bad. It's not working. And I'm... Frankly, I'm kind of shocked that we haven't gone back to a more defensive formation, knowing that the offensive production is just not there without Jordan.
You might have to start grinding zero zeros and one zeros again. Well, and that's what you did last year. And that's why I'm so confused because Brian literally said. The last home game, I believe it was, in the presser, he said, we need to start getting points before it's too late. Okay, well. Sometimes you have to grind it out. Most of the time, you have to grind it out on the road. Why are you playing counterattacking soccer against San Diego FC?
That's fucking stupid. I just don't think that that was the game. I think how it played out on the field had to have been vastly different than what the game plan and the instructions were. You don't play a Western conference road game like that ever. Like when you're especially against a team like this, this team.
This team has been a good road team pretty much for the whole Schmetzer era. They know how to play these games. They've taken a ton of results in games like this. They won eight road games last year. They haven't scored on the road. This year, you mean? Yeah. They haven't won on the road. They haven't scored on the road. This year, they've been awful on the road. But I'm saying historically. But that's just why I don't think they were instructed to...
go out on the field at Snapdragon and get into a track meet like that. That had to have been a plan that went off the rails. But that's what they've been doing. Not to, like, what was the game that was comparable to how that played out? I mean, that's basically what they did with LAFC.
Right. But that was a home game. Sure. But I'm just saying like they scored five goals in that game. Absolutely. And that's the high of it. Yeah. I, I'm not, I'm not going to discount. You just can't do that. Yeah. That's, that's, that's what I'm getting at. It's like. I'm very confused as to why this...
What made Brian successful last year and what brought them to where they were was when they were struggling, they just focused on defense. They just played defense and they made their opportunities. Why are you not playing like that? I understand that you want to play attacking soccer. You want to play interesting soccer. You want to do all of this stuff. And that's what we were. But there's times when you have to grind out results when you're shorthanded. They're shorthanded.
Very. They're very shorthanded. Why are you trying to play attacking soccer right now? See, I guess there's no way for us to know. For me, if we're doing blame pie... I think that's got to go on the, on the guys on the field like that, because again, like there, there's enough experience on this team guys who have been on this team playing together for years now to know that.
you don't play like that on the road. Unless it's like a team that you think you have way overmatched, but that was obviously never the case here. So I don't know. Next agenda. The San Diego is the best team in the league agenda. No, I'm not going to lie. Like we've, we've, uh, We've obviously been ripping on Seattle this episode and I think deservedly so. But I mean, God damn, that team looks really good.
Just the way that the way that they were moving the ball around and that might be our new slicing and dicing. This might be the galaxy. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, because again, like. They had that buzzsaw type look to them where they looked like they were playing at a different speed. The one touch. passing and one touch play is my favorite type of soccer to watch. I think it's everyone's favorite. Like when they are just locked in, man. And I mean, it's also easy when you get out early in school.
It's easy to play like that. It's easy to play a little bit more free when... You know, there's not this like weight on you of we need to get one. We need to get one. We're in a scoring drought. That's part of the Sounders problem, too, I think is like there is a big weight on every single one of those players on the field. They know they're playing bad. They don't want to lose.
And you have San Diego who's just been ripping it up and they're playing a lot more freeway. They're playing with confidence. They got the vibes on their side. The city has embraced them. The home games look lit. I mean. Tip of the cap. Tip of the cap. They got it going on right now. And San Diego is a great city. Yeah, I like San Diego. I've only been there a couple times, but I got nothing against it.
Um, so, uh, best team in the league, uh, early to say that, but they, they like, they literally look like they're in that tier of like the Columbus's Cincinnati's inner Miami's. like whoever you want to name, they are earning their place in that. So good for them. I'm interested to see if they hang on, but...
It looks sustainable to me. It looks sustainable to me. If the injury bug comes... I can spot a fraud. Everyone knows my fraud watch meters look pretty good. And it's not going off at all. It's really not. St. Louis, I could tell right away. That team... I think they're that good. Yeah, it's tough too because they literally said how they were going to play. from committed to it committed to it and are playing that way and everyone clowned on them
There was a lot of people who clouted on him like, oh, you think you're just going to come into MLS and play this way and tell everyone? And they're like, yeah. I was skeptical of Tyler Heaps. I was like, is that... Like a guy with no MLS experience who's like my age? Is that like the best guy to lead you into MLS? Apparently it was. Give us a call because we are both available. We will coach. At least two wins in the season. We'll be better than Peter Vermees.
All right. You have a couple of agendas here. What do you got? My first agenda here. I saw some discourse online. This is not my agenda. See, now I'm using my asterisks, but... There were some people being a little hateful on one of our fellow Sound Art Heart members who wrote an article, said, Craig's cooking, you just have bad taste. People were saying, Craig's not cooking agenda. Craig's ass. Craig burnt the food. He's taking a lot of heat right now. Yeah, it's fair to say. But...
How do you feel about that, I guess? Because I don't really see this as a Craig Weibel issue as much as I see this as like... There's a lot of underlying problems stopping this team from performing to their top quality. There's certain things that obviously I think you could pinpoint on Craig for me. Jesus is one of those deals where you like can't really say no. It's too good of a deal to pass up. And also...
It doesn't fit in. He's not fitting in with this team. And his best position, or what seemingly would be his best position, he's not first on the depth chart. And does Brian have the balls to not? I think there are three things that will determine this agenda. Number one is how the Ferreira thing... pans out like if that doesn't if that doesn't get better and it's like this all year uh craig wives is going to uh
take the blame for that. We need to see what happens with Ryan Kent. That's where I'm like. If he hits and is an impact move the needle type player for this team and elevates this team. So we have to see how that pans out. And then we have to see how De La Vega makes it through the rest of this season. If he keeps going in this injury cycle and can't contribute and can't be an impact player because he can't stay on the field. Craig Weibs is going to take the blame for that because the...
The narrative will be that he just, he might've signed a talented player, but a player that had an injury history. Had trouble staying on the field earlier in his career. And you put yourself in a situation where you spent a lot of resources and capital on a guy who can't really play. So. I think this is our first year where we're getting a really good assessment on Craig Wimes because I feel like a lot of the heat he's taken up to this point, it's for...
You know, like it's like a bear and moose or whatever that stuff like that. is not what I judge a GM on. Not buying outright wool was one. Okay. Yeah. But like you, to me, the biggest thing that you judge a GM on is like their big signings, like the big swings that they take, the big money that they throw around. Do you get difference makers and impact players?
that can help you compete for trophies with those resources. And this, the Ferreira and Ryan Kent and now De La Vega, those are the determining factors, I think, on how to judge that. the rest of this season is going to tell us like there are, uh, There are clear outcomes that will tell us the answer to this. And I think we have to wait and see. I also think for me, I get annoyed with this. talking point consistently because
People think that this is just some gem, some like, you get a different sporting director and immediately the team is going to be signing the next Messi or is going to be signing Ricky Puj 2. Yeah, no, your issue is with the owner. Your issue is with the owner. I'm fine with that.
He's cheap as fuck. He is. He's broke. He's broke. We will both say that. I think he would admit that. That he's broke? We'll ask him. I think he would admit that he is not going to compete with Atlanta. He's not Arthur Blanking. He's not. And like we've said, if you like that kind of spending, be an Atlanta United fan. They're fun to watch. They don't win, but they're fun to watch and they sign cool people.
And that's not to say that Craig doesn't have to, like, work within those means, but the reality is... The budget that's set is shitty. It's shitty. And... Banking everything on a U22 player who has an injury history because that's what you have available to pay for. or signing a free agent, a distressed, this is distressed asset FC. Okay. And it's hard. It's hard because. If you look at it through that lens, right, of...
This is the reality of this football club. This is how we operate. This is our modus operandi is we find good deals on players. We have good pedigree within the international market. So we're able to like. Get those distressed assets to pick us over other clubs. Good youth development. Good youth development and a coach that can generally integrate anyone into the locker room and solve problems, right?
What do you think they're going to get? Like there is inherently a higher level of failure that's going to happen because of that. And so if you're constantly beating Craig's ass about this. You could argue just devil's advocate. I think you could argue that with all the constraints that you mentioned, it's not about even Craig. It's just if anyone is...
showing to be ineffective at moneyballing, then give it to someone who you think could be more effective. But we don't know yet, I don't think. And I'm here to hear that out. But if I'm looking on paper... I'm sorry. A general manager, 99% of their job is on paper. Right? You're prospecting. You're prospecting, bro. You're playing football manager. You don't know what's going to happen. On paper, every single person loved the Jesus Ferrer trade. Why? Because he wasn't a DP. He was Tam.
Okay, that's where people get mad is like Jordan Morris, DP Escalator, Albert Rusnak, DP. Fine. You have, but then everyone's stoked about the Ryan Kent deal. Even national pundits are like, I'm shocked that he was able to get that deal. Even fans who are critical of everything that Craig Weibs has done, like the Ryan Kent deal. Yeah.
So that's my defense of Craig. I don't care either way. I'm going to be honest. Whatever sporting directory you put in there, I think they're going to do a fine job. I don't think that they are the reason. that you lost other games, that the team's not performing, whatever, because... He was in charge last season and they made the Western Conference final. So I don't really... I do think you have to judge these things on process over results sometimes. The process on the Ferreira deal...
Makes sense. Anyone who's saying that they don't get why they would do that or they have superior ball knowledge so they knew that Ferreira wasn't going to fit on this team right away or whatever. When you have a 50 plus goal scorer, best 11 player in the league who you can swing on Tam money, not as a DP, like. You can't not do that like that. That's bad. It's bad process to not do that, even if it's a player who's a little trick trickier tactically to fit in as he's proven to be.
You still got to make, you got to make that deal. Like there's no way you don't make that deal. Yeah. And there's conversation fair enough to be had about. How it's working. How it's working. And maybe Craig. Craig's relationship in the trio of owner, coach, and GM, that is fair.
But I think that, like, the things they're pointing to is like, oh, my God, they lost this game. Craig out. What the fuck are you talking about? The players that are on the field are to blame. The coach is to blame. What are we crashing out about Craig for? He brought in reinforcements. What are we talking about? Again, I'll say like, I think, I think for me, what it is, is like a lot of the issues that people express towards him are more to do with.
on high. Like you mentioned, he's working with what he's given. Listen, instead of Craig out, go do Hanauer out. That's fine. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. Dude, I'm sorry. Do it. Do it. I don't care. That's fine. Do that. This team has proven very effective at the money balling over the years. And what I've been saying the whole time is that...
Whatever their approach is, whether it's spending big or not spending big, I don't care as long as they're winning and contending. I really don't. And to this point, they've done a great job of that in their history as a club. They have a better trophy case than just about anybody besides the Galaxy. So they've done it to great effect through the years, but... Right now, as we sit here today.
It looks like it might not be working as effectively. And again, like I'm going to let this season play out before I fully judge it. But like, I mean, I definitely understand where the. frustration comes from. But yeah, I mean, I basically agree with what you're saying. Yeah. It's listen, change your hashtags, go hand our out instead. I don't want to hear the Craig out shit until the end of the.
Um, and until we get more on De La Vega and. So you're in our cell. Wow. That's even, that's even a more radical position than Craig. I'm not saying that I am. I'm just saying, I think that that's a more logical take because. you're getting mad at the fact that, I don't know, you go and try and have a budget of under $10 million a season, basically, working within already stringent MLS budget. I don't think that it's a secret fact that Brian has more sway than Craig.
I don't think that's so secret. I think Brian has more sway. He has more tenure. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I'm just saying that's where it is. Maybe I'm wrong. Brian, you listen. You tell me. You give us a call. You know how to get us. You know, I don't know. I'm just putting that out there. Maybe there is a conversation to be had. If you got thoughts on this topic, drop them in the comments.
it's a good debate it is i think i'm good with that i think we hit my other one that i had in here we're good with that okay uh you had something in here on the summer window what is this uh i don't know speaking like we'll just go back into craig weibel here more signings i'm interested to know we've been talking about The U22 spot that's going to come in the summer, how this is a big signing, all of this.
San Diego FC were looking to sign Kevin De Bruyne as he's leaving Man City. They're no longer going to do that because they're just goaded. Because Anders Dreyer is better. Yeah, like unironically. My question is... Do you make a play for him? I know that it's hard. I know that you would have to do some crazy business and move some people around, and you'd probably have to negotiate down Jordan Morris.
I think that's one where if it's even a possibility, you move absolute heaven and earth. And I say that. I think I've been very clear that I don't value name recognition or big names.
as much as I value the substance of your game and what you can actually contribute. I think KDB is one of the goddamn sickest players of all time that I've ever watched. I think he makes... any team that he's on way, way better because he has some, he has the best passing vision I've ever seen, uh, watching him, like how he sets other, like plays that point guard, uh, as the number 10. Uh, he he's one of the best ever at it. He might be the best ever just purely at, at that. Uh, and then.
He also scores incredible goals. He works hard. All his teammates love him. He's one of my personal favorite players to watch. especially those Belgium teams. Those Belgium teams with Lukaku and Hazard were my favorite international teams that I've ever watched, I think. So I'm just personally a huge fan of the player. Like if they, if they ever got him on the Sounders, I would be like,
Hell yeah. Like I would not knock that for being name chasing at all. Like I think he's that good in every facet. of the game on and off the field. I don't know what he's been doing lately, but I don't believe that he wouldn't be able to come into MLS and be successful. I really do think that if you make a big name signing, it would make a lot of people happy. It would help the vibes. We saw it with Ryan Kent. Even Ryan Kent helped the vibes a little bit. Here's what I'm going to say.
I think that there is a truth to the matter of rosters can get stagnant. Rosters can feel the same. Things can feel the same. Momentum can halt. And bringing in someone with that pedigree to transform a locker room, to transform a club, to bring more people out to matches, to do all of this, it's not a necessity.
But it can help. And I think a player like De Bruyne absolutely would do that. I don't care how much he plays. It doesn't really matter to me. The reality is he would make this. He would make. That guy makes any team he's on better, like way better. And I think that... They should be doing anything they can to. Maybe it's not the Breyna. There's also Mueller's available, but he's like 800 years old. I don't like that as much. I just think like...
There are players available in the market right now like him. I think that from what I've seen in the beginning of this season, it's got to. I'll say this. If they actually got KDB, I would go from pretty down on the season right now to just locked right the fuck back in. I would be like... Again, I'm someone who's critical of teams that name Chase like that, but I think just in this situation specifically, I would be so about it.
Maybe he doesn't play every match. Maybe, you know, he rotates with Albert and whatnot, but you don't think that that's going to give Albert more incentive to go off? I'm not saying Albert's lazy. I don't believe that, but that is a talking point that he only performs when he has heat on. You don't think KDB wouldn't put some heat on him? KDB is only 33. Dude, come on. Come on. JP's like 45. And he plays great. Oh, man. Like, I...
I mean, it's probably not going to happen. It's fun to talk about, though. But that's so sad, man. Why can't we have that happen? Like I think the reaction from the fan base, if they, if they did that, or even just a player of similar name recognition and stature, it really would like. whether it made as big a difference as people think it would on the field or not, it would just give like a jolt of like, like, like I said, um,
I even felt that little bit of a jolt from Ryan Kent. Even from the most disgruntled, bitter cynics in the Sounders fan base, when the Ryan Kent stuff happened, they were like, oh, that's tight. They're like, oh, another injured player. Classic Craig. But also it's tight. Like, yeah, he could, he seems like an exciting, fun to watch player. So yeah. I just love KDB. I think he's, he's. he might be like my favorite player of all time because, um,
Because of how big a fan I was of watching those Belgium teams. And him and Hazard were the most important players on those teams. And I just thought the way that those teams played, man, like that golden Belgium generation. I know they're like kind of thought of as... a letdown because they didn't they never won the world cup but like god when they when that team
With those guys all at their peak playing at the same time, when they were going, that's some of the most beautiful soccer you'll ever see. That's childhood football for me. It was phenomenal. It's so good, dude. And that's kind of where I do agree with the argument of signing a big player will... is important it is important to pedigree culture all of that like they did it with Dempsey they did it with Dempsey they changed the league with Dempsey they they they
They were good. They weren't amazing. They weren't winning anything. Listen, Dempsey didn't ever... I guess he technically did in 2016. He won an MLS Cup, but like... They were in a slump and they signed up. He's legendary, man. You know what? This conversation has... Made me think of a new agenda that it's my agenda. It's my agenda. They should sign some, they need to sign. They should sign someone like that. It doesn't have to be KDV, but like.
some sort of signing sort of like that. They should do that. I think it would help like morale, which that's not necessarily reason to do it in itself, but like. whoever it might be would ostensibly help you a lot on the field as well. And, uh, you shouldn't do it. I don't want to say you should do it like purely off name value like that, but, uh, It wouldn't hurt matters if it was a name like that. You are playing in the Club World Cup and you're getting...
$10 million, Ari. You are playing in the Club World Cup and you are getting $10 million. Spend that money. Spend more than that money. Spend as much money as you have to. You are playing in the most important tournament you will ever play in. Ever. Ever. There is not a single bigger tournament. I don't know about most important, but most high profile. Sure. Absolutely. Important implies that if they lose, I would care about it. That's fair. I mean, if you're going in terms of...
of the tournament. Like the teams you're playing against. Exactly. I want to beat Botafogo. I want you to do everything that we can to beat Botafogo. I want you to do everything. I want you to score against PSG and Athletic Cup. Do whatever you can to get there. Compete. Do it. Compete with dignity. Do it. Also, go sign KDB. Sign Kevin DeBruyne. I wasn't expecting that to come up on this show. I knew you were KDB head. Yeah, I'm one of the all-time KDB heads. He's like one of the...
Like I was watching those Belgium teams, right? Like 14, like right when I was first getting like obsessively, obsessively into soccer. And those teams were the ones I was watching. And I was like, the sport fucking rules, man. Like the way these guys play is just. It's beautiful. Move heaven and earth, Craig. Please. Heaven and earth. How many frames do you have to sell, Adrian, to get this guy? I will personally get more jerseys framed.
You heard it here. Lobbing Scorchers will fund the transfer. All right. I think we can hit these match day seven winners and losers from around MLS and then call it a wrap for episode 93. And then we were going to lay down some YouTube member content. Yeah, let's do it. All right. Winners and losers for match day seven. Uh, I just, I didn't watch this game. I just saw the score today. Yep. San Jose earthquakes, six, one on DC. I know ball. I mean, God damn. I know. I know. Uh,
DC isn't any good, but still six goals. It kind of makes the Sounders result against San Jose not as bad as I might have thought. Benteke got... This DC team, it's like... He must be pretty fed up of being the only guy on that team that... Can play. Yeah. But it is probably pretty tight to know that you're going to get one goal basically a game no matter what. Even if you lose by five still. If I'm him, I've got $10,000.
Every 10 goals or like a thousand dollars a goal because that dude is I want to know how much he made from like escalators from gold Probably a lot. Yeah. Um, six to one and Joseph had a hat trick. So that's, uh, are San Diego or San Diego or San Jose back? Yeah. Like that's, I think that's a fair question to. to ask after that. And they've looked, to be fair, like...
a lot better this year so far than they did. It's still been like a little uneven from them, but they're not going to spoon this year. Bruce Ball is in full swing. Bruce is the guru, man. Like you can put him on any sideline in this league and he'll get it competent. Next winner, San Diego FC. Absolutely obliterated the Seattle Sounders. I mean, Jesus Christ. No, I don't think the Sounders played the Stigari at all. I mean...
Again, I said it earlier, but like as much as we all are ripping Seattle and like I get it, everyone in our comments and in our little ecosystem is ripping Seattle. You do have to hat tip a team that. is in his first year in MLS and is already playing like that. I mean, they dog walked us. Yeah. They straight up remind me of like when Atlanta United came into the league and frankly, like even LAFC's first year.
They blew up their second year. Even their first year didn't look like this. This is... impressive expansion launches I've seen. I think it's Houston. Houston won it in their first season, right? Well, that was before my time to be able to say like, like how they were playing. Yeah. Well, I mean, that was what, like 2004 or five or something. So yeah, maybe not.
in fully modern times. But also, I don't know if they destroyed the entire league that year. That could have been a situation where they were pretty good and then got hot in the playoffs. I honestly don't know. That's too old for us. Yeah, that's too old for us. But I think... This might be the most impressive expansion launch I've seen relative to expectations because Atlanta and LAFC... They came in with the glitz and glamour and the big money and like the star power. Whereas this.
San Diego team was built like more under the radar than that. And like, it's not like they spent like insane money on like this dryer guy or. uh like all these other danish guys who i hadn't heard of like they really it's you can tell that tyler heaps like had an idea and a vision of what he was trying to do. Like you said earlier, they committed to it. They got the players that suited it.
Now they're executing it at as high level as anyone in the league right now. You got to hat tip that man. You do like they are really onto something. Yeah, I think that. For one, I will say, if you have a vision and if you want to build to that and if you have the money behind it, it's a lot easier to do that from zero than it is from a base.
especially like if you look at Seattle when you already essentially you have a DP locked in you you had another DP locked in and whatever but man hat tip to them they're so good and to be like for i've watched a lot of them this year because i out of curiosity any expansion team i'm gonna watch that's just how they play man like that's that wasn't like a
a game where they were randomly playing like real Madrid, like out of nowhere. Like that's just literally, that's what they do week. They've been doing like weekend week out. So, uh, Like you can't dismiss it as a fluke either. That's just them. That's just them. Sporting KC, the club of professional wrestling enthusiasts, has won a game. Congratulations to them. Look what happens when Peter Vermees gets kicked to the curb and the one and only... We didn't even talk about this.
But the man himself retired the biggest wrestler of all, their goalkeeper, who I'm now forgetting his name. Oh, yeah, Tim Melia. Tim Melia because he's not even important in my head. uh, Tamellia retires. Tamellia retires. It's really the end of an era with, uh, the wrestler himself retiring. Um, people were posting that video in tribute and I just will say.
Watch it. Because Roldan is going to outlive you, buddy. First win of the post-Peter Vermees era. New coach bump. Dejan Jovalich scored both of their goals. It is like... interesting how every time there's a coach firing, the team wins the next game. It seems like it's always... The new coach bump is something that I was kind of agnostic on when I first discovered the concept. And then...
The more I follow it, the more I'm like, I think that is actually a thing. I mean, Seattle famously benefited from it. Correct. They won a cup. They won a cup off the new coach bump. So I don't think Sporting KC is going to do that. They won for the first time in 14 games, so you definitely get in the winners. Bracket for that. Losers for Match Day 7. Seattle Sounders absolutely obliterated by San Diego FC. And we, you know, we talked about we've talked about the positives.
and negatives from both sides and San Diego. I think it's a situation where you... Credit San Diego more than you drag Seattle, but Seattle also needs to be clowned on for this. The game plan was all wrong. The offense. still can't get going. And they made a lot of defensive errors. They had one of the worst performances of this slate this weekend. Like that's. Reality. They're bad in this game. They lost. Loser. Loser. LA Galaxy.
Lose again this time at America first field. That's always a loss. I think I said this on the, on the live, but like they are cook. Like Seattle, there's still, or like not even just Seattle, but like there's teams that are not playing well to start the season that you can see a path to course correcting. Like Seattle in my mind, I'm like, all right, you know.
If when Jordan Morris gets back, when De La Vega gets healthy and Ryan Kent gets in there, maybe it'll look better there. You know, you don't know that for sure, but it's possible. It's not like the most delusional thing I've ever heard. Definitely not. When I look at the galaxy, I'm kind of just like, I don't really know what you do to.
solve this. Third spooning. There's no shot. Like they might actually, like I would be, it'd be crazy if the MLS cup champion, reigning cup champion spoon, but like that. Dude, they had to offload everybody. And then you lose the best player on.
to an injury like the guy who you like let people go probably because of because of all the incentives that are in his contract i guess that's the one thing maybe i guess he's a dp that's the one thing that they could say is like When he comes back, but it's like.
So like him coming back, yeah, that'll make them a little better, but maybe even a lot better, but a lot better from one of the worst teams in the league right now. Where does that leave you? So we were talking to a Galaxy fan in our chat last night about it. They sold out for the ring and they got it. So that's honestly mission accomplished. I think if you...
get a ring. You make that trade for a season like this every single time. Like if you told them, if you told Greg Vanny last year, you're going to get the cup this year, but next year is going to be rough. He takes that. You take the ring easy. That's not even a discussion. Well, they literally played the game, which is... In the salary cap league, you could be sustainable or you can win. You can go all out and win. We've seen this before, right?
sounders went all in on champions cup that's what they wanted to win and they won it yeah right it's a it's a it crushed their season it's a good comparison like like and people can say whatever they want. I make that trade every single time. And I don't even have to think for a microsecond. I make that trade. I would trade winning MLS cup. What do you mean? Like both cups for that? For CCC.
Sure. I think I would. Yeah, I think so. That's actually a good debate. That's tougher to say. That is tough. Well, because the thing with that is that you need cup in your trophy case for it to be like fully. Yeah, they would say, oh, that's a flu. If you've never won MLS Cup, that hangs over you. Yeah, Timbers fans would be the most fucking annoying.
Yeah, well, you won the Champions Cup, but actually, we won the... They still like to do the, we won MLS Cup first, which is like... Yeah, it's like, all right, bro, okay, whatever you want. Next loser, LAFC. This feels good to be able to do. Happy foot, LAFC lost. Sad foot, the Sounders also lost.
So the Sounders lost, they got absolutely destroyed, but they were playing one of the best teams in the league. So at least there's like that aspect to it. If they had gotten blown out like that against like the Galaxy of right now or something, that would be even worse. The LAFC lost to the Houston Dynamo, who are not good. Seattle only tied down 0-0, so it's not like we can say all that much. Without the point. It's still pretty funny that LAFC lost to Houston. And, you know, they're in...
Champions Cup right now, and they got a phenomenal result, honestly, against Inter-Miami. There's really actually no reason at all for any of their fans, I think, to care about this game or this result when you're 90 minutes away from toppling Messi. And 90 minutes away from potentially being in Club World Cup.
Oh, is that actually confirmed? I think it got confirmed. Okay, I wasn't sure about that. Reports were confirmed, but it hasn't been announced. Yeah, so honestly, any LAFC fan who's like, I literally don't... care at all about that game. You guys can clown on that all you want. That is valid. You're still a loser for losing the Dino. I still think it's funny. Speaking of Inter-Miami... They got to get the messy keyword in here in this article. Yeah, they well, they tied Toronto.
which Toronto is also not good. And so Messi scored. It was like Messi and Bernadeschi both scored in first half stoppage time. And that was the only two goals of the game. But Inter-Miami was coming off a Champions Cup game where they lost to LAFC. Like, they are down 1-0 in that series. And then they tie Toronto. I mean, they're very clearly... the best team in the league by a country mile in terms of talent and results, frankly, so far.
they don't seem to be at their, the peak of their powers right now. And I'll say it right now. I still think they're going to win the, the champions cup series. even taking into account that they got eliminated from the playoffs by Atlanta last year. So, and they crashed out of champions cup last year. So there's precedent for them choking in this type of situation. I think.
And I could be wrong, but I think LAFC needed to put at least one more in to feel at least to feel good about their chances. LAFC has gotten praise far and wide for that result. And I get it. It was a great result. And honestly, the performance was great, too. It was a good performance. It was not a fluky performance. But with that dust settled, the reality is...
Messi could score in the second minute of leg two, and basically all the work you did in that last game means nothing. This is what I will say, though. the inner Miami love to give up goals. That's their favorite. Not as much this year though. That's true. But I'm saying when you are working on a margin like that, If LAFC score, they win on a way goal. If it's 1-1 or 2-2, the thing is, there is a lot of momentum for LAFC going into this match. It's just a reality. And they...
The fact that they held Inter-Miami without an away goal, that's big time. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And honestly, I'm rooting for LAFC because that will mean that no MLS teams will win Champions Cup. because it will be LAFC versus either Pumas or the Whitecaps. And then whoever wins that would go to the final. Let's say LAFC go to the final. Doesn't matter who they play. They're losing.
Because that's their favorite thing to do is lose in CONCACAF Champions Cup final. That's literally their whole thing. Honestly, the further they make it, the funnier it is for us. That's what I'm saying. It's the whole thing that their club is built on is losing that final. Yeah. And like three would be amazing. I would be down for them to make the final. They're not. I also, if Inter-Miami does win Champions Cup this year, it doesn't count.
because they cheated by signing Messi and the Barca boys. They're not like a real MLS team. Well, they also had an easy path. They didn't play anyone. They played LAFC. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Easy path. All right. Unless you add anything else, I think we can call it right there for episode 93. Thank you so much, as always, to everyone for tuning in. I know that was a tough game, but... We bring the content regardless of what happens. That's our job. That's our job. That's why we're here.
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