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Hi, I'm Will Bruin and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. This is a tiny f***ing dog. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Audietis sponsored by Fulpool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Wednesday, October 30, 2024. I am your host, Jeremiah Oshan joining me
today or my co-host, Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit. Look, I'm not going to try to convince anyone that the Sounders were particularly fun or exciting or even good, but this is the playoffs and that stiff simply doesn't matter. The Sounders, of course, won Mondays Game 1 in a shootout and are now one more win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals. So without puffing this up or doing too much more of intro, Aaron, let's just
start there. How much do we even care how the Sounders played in this game? Yeah, I think that scoring would have been great. Obviously, winning in regulation would have been great. It would have been really good for the confidence. But Houston is a very good team, defensively especially. They're not a great scoring team, obviously. And they came into the game with the idea of going to penalties. And it's going to be really difficult
to score against them when they set out with that in mind. And are there teams that I think probably would have had a better chance of breaking them down, sure? But I also think there are teams that would have been more vulnerable to the times that they did actually attempt to counter attack. So I'm not super worried about it. I think that it's totally reasonable to expect this Sounders team is going to have difficulty scoring against this Houston
team when Houston sets out to play the way they did. I think in the second game, if it's as difficult where Houston knows they have a win in their at home, maybe that's a little more cause for concern. Although the Sounders got to get too far ahead of ourselves, the Sounders are going to be most likely, I think, certainly at this point without Jordan
Morris in that game, which certainly hurts. But yeah, I don't know. I think it's not that I don't care that they weren't able to score, but it just doesn't unduly worry me, I guess I would say. Yeah, I guess that's a fair way of putting it. Another thing I was thinking about is like, let's just say the penalty that had originally been called on that Christian rule, Don Heter had been rewarded. The Sounders converted and they win
1-0. I don't know that that would make me feel any different at all about this game. I mean, so they just scoring wasn't the problem. They didn't create a whole ton of scoring chances. Now, if Christian converted that header, maybe I would have felt a little better.
But I just don't know that there's a lot to be said about getting to, I actually saw I think even one of our partners on the Center for Podcast Network were actually seemingly mad about this result and feeling like the Sounders and all of us should be apologizing
for needing penalties to win this game. I think that's, I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but there is definitely a sentiment on Twitter and somewhat on the site of people being really frustrated with the result or with the way they played and I don't know. I don't know that there's any value in being frustrated. The Sounders know they need to score some goals and they're probably going to have to score some goals to win
MLS Cup. But, you know, playing against a team who, you know, I don't know if they came into the game just fully expecting to go to penalties. But for sure, it looked to me like they came out in the second half without any real intention of pushing the game. And then once they went down to 10 men, it was game over in terms of them looking for a goal. Like there was a stretch at the end of the first half Houston had 55% of the possession.
Something like two thirds of that possession was in their own half. They just were not, they were not pushing at all. And I think the Sounders deserves some credit for that. I thought they played well defensively, but it was just a very conservative game plan. I thought from Houston. And given that, the Sounders have struggled like a lot of teams do when teams just pack it in. And, and you know, there wasn't their night to break down the, you
know, the Center's had some good opportunities on set pieces. I would have liked to have seen them do better on those. But, you know, nothing tells me that this, the Sounders shouldn't advance from this series. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the way the playoffs have gone so far, RSL and Minnesota was a no-no shootout. And Minnesota, we had the road team won that shootout. Yeah. Columbus was held scoreless at home. NYCFC on the road, but they were held
scoreless. I mean, it's, you know, good teams, good attacking teams have been held scoreless against teams who are trying to hold them scoreless in the playoffs. And that's kind of just the way these things go. It's definitely frustrating, I think, to have what feels like positive momentum, you know, at the end of the season, obviously the last game of the season wasn't a great outcome. But I think generally people felt pretty good going into
the playoffs. And I think to have a no-no at home like that where, you know, the Sounders couldn't create a ton. It takes a ton. Air out of the balloon. It does, for sure. But I think that right, wrong and different, this is just, this is the Sounders team, you know, and we have seen them score over the course of the last two-thirds of the season. They're not offensive dynamos, but we know they can score plenty, right? Like we know
they are not the dynamic team we saw last year or in the first third of the year. But it's really, really difficult to score against teams that are playing that defensively. Fortunately, that's probably the only time they're going to have to deal with a team playing that defensively in these playoffs. Right. I mean, Houston is going to have to open up a little bit in the, like I would think that Houston doesn't feel comfortable just playing for penalties again. Right.
Not the least of which is the Sounders looked great in that shootout. Like let's, I don't want to, like, let that get lost. Yeah. Rueidee is opening the shootout with a pinnacle that I have to imagine Steve Clark scouted as a real possibility. And just sort of, he, I mean, that's how good role is at this. I mean, I think that's a third or fourth pinnacle of his last five or six attempts. He's doing this a lot. Like this is kind of his move.
Yeah. I mean, if it's working, not well, I don't really have any problems with it. It's, you know, it's, it's difficult to save if you pull it off. Like it is, I think people think of it as being risky. I'm not convinced that's any riskier than just trying to hammer the crap out of it into the top corner because you're, you're a lot more likely to miss the frame entirely trying that. So I mean, if you are, if you are good enough
to disguise, disguise it. It's not a particularly risky move. It's, I think it, where it becomes risky is when you're not as good at disguising it. Right. But then, you know, Russ Neck was clinical. You know, he, he had a, you know, totally clinical finish in inside the, the right pose. I guess, I don't know, right left. He hits it across his body. And then the last three centers, penalties were all just like absolutely roofed almost like one
better than the one before it. Totally unsavable. All three of those, those penalties. It was, it was very impressive. Yeah, it was. It's the best I've ever felt coming out of a, a sounder shootout, I think 2016 and last couple final, obviously, you know, accepted, but it was just, you know, stuff for us, not a great penalty stopper. I think we can
all admit that at this point. You can admit that. So you're, you know, you're going to have to convert them because I just don't foresee a reality where branch messers pulling stuff right to put Andrew Thomas in. It was like penalties are on the cards that just, I mean, he was asked about it at training today. And he basically said, no, I'm not going to do that. And, and I think that's somewhat Brian Chimester just sort of being an old school
coach of, I don't want to overthink this. And, and, and I don't know, it's, we can make too much out of how good Andrew Thomas is at stopping penalties, but he has stopped three of four penalty temps in his professional career. He, and then in the shootout earlier this year and against Louisville, he had two saves and he converted his penalty. So there's, I, I understand why people are excited about Andrew Thomas. And I think you can make a pretty
valid argument that he should be that's, that's a worthwhile move. But then you also have to save a sub you have, you know, there's risk associated with it. Absolutely. But, you know, it was, you know, Steph guessed right on, I think three of the attempts, he probably should have saved the first one. And I think, you know, you, you can sort of give him some credit for guessing correctly on the one that was ultimately missed
in the guy, you know, who knows if, if that was part of why he missed it. But yeah, he only has five, he only has five penalty saves and 63 attempts in his, in his career, which is, it's just not good. And he hasn't had to face a lot of penalties lately. But I'm pretty sure that's the first time since I guess the, I want to say since the 2010 shootout with the timbers that the sounders converted all five of their attempts.
Yeah, it definitely had been a while. I will take your word on it on the actual date. But it felt like it had been longer than that, even somehow. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I, I'm, I'm pretty sure they converted or maybe they only had four attempts in that they might have only needed four attempts against Portland that time. I don't think they missed any though. But this, so this might be the first time in the
MLS era that they've converted all five of their attempts. Yeah. And they were all, I mean, they were all no doubters, I would say. Yeah, they were, it was great. It was, it was the most enjoyable penalty shootout I've seen the sounders participate in. I'll say that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But let's, okay, let's, let's put it aside though. If it's up to you, do you sub in Thomas? Like, let's just like not, we're not, I think we know what Brian's going
to do, which is not sub it. But would you do it? I think that if there's a reality where you know that's not going to hurt stuff for ice confidence, I probably would. Yeah. But that, that's just like that unknowable thing, right? Of like, what, what, how is he going to react to that? It's not going to affect of this. Exactly. Exactly. And I, you know, I think there's
a great chance stuff, the kind of guy that's like, yeah, I suck at penalties. Let's, you know, I, I will say that one of the risks of doing it, I suppose is if you do it in the first game, the playoffs, you're sort of committing to like doing it always, always. And that, that seems tough, you know, because there's going to be instances probably where you can't do it. And now you've sort of telegraphed that you don't believe in your guy to, right,
to pull it off. No, that's a great, that's a great shout. And I, I think I would love to see some data on it too. I don't, I don't know that I've ever actually seen data on, you know, what's the percentage of times the teams do this where it works. It pays off. Either they win or, you know, the, the guy that gets subged in makes a couple of saves, right? And it totally, I feel like it's, I don't know how, how often I've seen it work.
There was, I know the, in the, the Netherlands national team had like the, was it like the new castle goalkeeper who was really good at, yeah, penalties. But that's, I think that, when you see it, it's usually because the guy on the bench has this reputation for being, like a penalty expert, right? It's not just a, okay, this guy is, you know, it's not a
70, 30 thing. It's like, no, this, it's like, you have Tim Malia on the bench. And it's like the whole reason he's on your roster is to stop penalties. Right. Yeah. And that's, you know, who knows maybe Andrew Thomas will develop into that sort of player, but he's, he hasn't faced a lot of penalties in live action yet. He's only been in one shootout for the first team. I didn't go back and look at what his record
was for the defiance. I'm sure he's been a handful of shootouts with the defiance. But, you know, it, there's a, this is sort of, there's a logical brain that says, you just, even if it's 70, 30, you put in the, the better goalkeeper. But I do think there is some knock-on effects that have legitimate, that need to be legitimately considered. And, you know, if, if Steph fries your number one goalkeeper, I think you sort of have to, it does make sense,
I think, yeah, to keep him in. I think so. And I, I do think there's a fundamental difference between the MLS Cup playoffs and the World Cup or something of that nature, right? Yeah. Where it's, it's not your club team. It's not the coach that you were on a day to day basis. It is, you know, you're representing your country and this guy is good at this thing. So you're just going to have to deal with it. Right. The whole
reason he's on the roster is for this moment. Right. You know it's coming and you're just going to have to live with it. And, and I think that's just the fundamentally different to it. It's a paradigm, you know, at the club. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I know people have said this has happened. I don't remember this exact like I know there are situations that are like this. Like a player came in late and had to face penalties or something like
that. But I don't know how many times a coach has made a conscientious decision to do it in MLS. You know, and then the other, the other big thing to come out of the, or there's a few big things to come out of this game. One of them, another one was Jordan Morris went down with an injury in the 52nd minute. Just today, right, actually shortly before we started recording Brian Schmitzer went on KJR and said that they got the MRI results
back. It's not anything serious, but that they are still inclined to not use Morris on Sunday, which I think makes sense. You have a game, a buffer. Why not? If you can, you know, if you can give them a little extra rest, why not? And I don't feel great about the op. You're like, I've, I've got especially on this roster. I really love Jordan. I think Jordan Morris gives them the best chance. I will be shocked if it's not Rawrrew Ideas
who gets to start. But I think there's a valid case to be made for Danny Misowski getting to start. If for no other reason, then I think there is something to be said about keeping making sure you have Rewidious available for the shootout. And I don't think he's a 90 minute player right now. Yeah, he's not, although that doesn't mean he's not going to play 90 minutes, unfortunately. Right. Yes. We have seen it at times this year. Yes.
I definitely think that if I'm Brian Schmetzer and I'm inclined to start Misowski, that is what I try to sell Rewidious. Just like, hey man, we need you for penalties. We're going to try to get penalties. Danny is probably going to take a beating. And we'd just, you know, rather whoever's playing a striker in the scene is probably going to take a beating because we're not going to be old, not do a lot of possession. So we want you fresh and
we want you not to beat up when it comes time for penalties. But I think the real reason is that I just think Danny Misowski is a better player than Rewidious right now in most facets of the game, especially in terms of the things that I think are going to be important from the striker position in this game. Misowski's not a great hold up guy, but he's much better
than Rewidious. And I think it's going to be important if it's having an outlet when you're under pressure because I think Houston is going to be pretty dominant possession-wise in this game. Yeah. Yeah. Both just in terms of that's the way they like to play. And also I think the sounders are going to be happy to let them try to play that way. And so in situations like that, you need somebody that can take some of the pressure off, keep
some possession up top. And that's just not a role strong student that hasn't been for a while. And yeah, it's, and I think also like I don't think Rewidious is any more likely to score a gold and Misowski out of anything, but one of his white-a-hell-mott sort of shots, right? Like, and that's more valuable to me with 15 minutes left in the game. Having a guy that can create something out of nothing, especially if you are, if you do give up a
goal and you're chasing the game, right? So, I don't know. I think I don't think Misowski has been bad this year. I think most people think he has been bad because he hasn't scored a goal. He's like played a ton. That's really what it is. He hasn't played a ton. And I think all of the other stuff has been good when he has played. I think he's been effective and hold up. I think he's been decent at winning aerial balls. He's had some good combination
play with guys. The goal that we thought they scored against RSL at home in that game that would have iced it, he was great on that play. It just shows that he's capable of, right? And so he would be absolutely who I'd be starting in this game, but I think you're right, unfortunately, that it isn't likely to happen. And I think there is a better than average chance that he is going to play on 90 minutes if it looks like it's headed for
penalties. Yeah, I would hope. Yeah, I don't know. I would like to think there's some more thought that goes into it than than that, but you you might be right. Thank you for listening to the Sounder Heart Podcast Network, which now includes no sunny at this, lobbing scorchers and the cooler yield. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible
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just visit senderheart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening. Yeah, he just to give it a little bit of context, he has, I'm looking at his stats right now. He's made four starts this year. He has played in 24 games, but he only has five, I mean, his 500 minutes. Yeah, he gets a lot of garbage time. Right. Where he's not being asked
to go out there and score a goal. Right. If you look, I mean, that's not what he was mean asked to do against Houston on Monday night, I don't think I'm sure they would have loved it if he had, but I don't think he was being put in there for that purpose. He's not been put in positions to succeed. I think we can in terms of he's never been out there. Like and when he started, it's not like he's starting with the first team, like he's almost exclusively
started when they're heavily rotating the lineup. And so it's it's it's not like he's had a, I think it's a little unfair to judge him on his, you know, like on the balance of his play. Yeah, I think I think that's fair. Yeah. But I would, yeah, I would, I would be inclined to start him as well. I think that they've sort of painted themselves into a corner a little bit where it they almost have to start readers based on sort of the managing the egos and
what not, which I don't love. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it is what it is. And then the other big, the other really big moment of this game, obviously, was the the red card, which ended up not being super consequential in the context of this game, but it does have knock on effects for the second leg. Coco Karraskiya, who just won Conkey, half player of the year. This is a very good player. I don't know if people like how many people this is this is like maybe
their best player. It was a weird incident where Jalpalo pulls down an attacker. He gets a yellow card rightfully so. And then Jackson Riggins sort of like picks up the ball, which one is want to do, right? And Karraskiya responds by shoving them to the ground. And then that starts a whole melee. And in the melee, Karraskiya sort of like son, it kind of swings at somebody, but the thing that I think he ends up getting kicked out for is he kicks at Albert
Roussnack. Originally, it's not caught originally what it goes in the book as a yellow card for Jalpalo, a yellow card for Jackson Reagan for delaying the restart, a yellow card for Karraskiya for pushing him down. And then that was going to be it. But then VAR inner seeds says, Nope, you need to look at this ends up kicking Karraskiya out. And now he's going to miss the next game. Like I said, it didn't have a huge impact on this game because Houston
was able to see it out. But he this is a big absence for them. Yeah, absolutely. He's a very good player that is prone to some really boneheaded decisions. Yeah, it kind of seems like his is a mo. I think that Houston is not great at home. I think that that's one of the interesting things about about the dynamic in this in the series is that Houston's record at home is actually worse than the record on the road in terms of wins and losses.
They have seven wins at home, eight on the road. They don't lose at home very often, right? But I do think that it really is like last year's sounders. It's uncanny. How similar to the how similar they are to last year's sounders. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think losing somebody that is such a key part of what they do arguably their best player.
Like you said, is really makes this game interesting to me. I think if Jordan was available for this game and the sounders could kind of do their normal thing, I'd feel really, really good about their chances in this game because Houston's not going to be able to just sit back and absorb pressure in this game. They they have to score. They can't depend on any dependencies. And I think, you know, a team with Jordan Morris leading the line is
going to be extremely happy to be in those circumstances. But I do think Houston losing one of their key pieces and especially a guy that's so important to what they do in the attacking phase where they are not good at all. They they have fewer goals in the sounders this year by by by by four. They scored for. Yeah, you're right. You're one not as much as I thought, but you're right. But still, I mean, the sounders did not score
for like three months to start the year. And Houston has been this sort of a tepid offensively the whole year. So. So yeah, that's going to hurt them quite a bit. I'm I'm not sad about it. I'm glad that once a bar because I thought it was pretty egregious. I think there's there's honestly a chance that they could have had two red cards on that play. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also came in pretty hot. They had several players that came in pretty
hot. Yeah. If if they lost both of those guys for this game, I would feel I would be on cloud nine. They're there too unquestionably. They're two most important players. That would be that would be pretty good. But. Oh, yeah, it's a last one. One is better than none. So it'll it'll be it'll be interesting. I feel very good about the sounders chances
to get this penalties. The thing that I worry about honestly, the thing that I think that makes them getting it to penalties most difficult is somewhat counterintuitively. I think if role was playing up top, they're just not going to be able to keep the ball. And it's going to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is the first start. If assuming role starts, this will be the first time he started since the game at Kansas City on June 8th. That really
sort of is the it was the literal midpoint of the season. But it also is sort of the symbolic changing of when everything sort of turn around because Roth Rock started playing the next game. Jordan Morris got installed at forward. And the team that we that they are now effectively started coming together after Ruidia's went to the bench. And he hasn't started since then.
He's only played in about half the games since then as well. And it and the biggest thing that I was worried about from that Kansas City game that would I don't know if you how much people remember about that game, but that was the game where it just didn't look like he was interested in leading the line. Like he wasn't making runs. He couldn't hold the ball up. It just like he just looked so. So done. And yeah, you know, I do think that he in his subsequent appearances
has looked less like that. But again, we haven't seen him try to start since then. So I do think there's legitimate questions about, you know, how many minutes he has in his legs. He and he did do his credit, I suppose he managed to get off four shots in relative, you know, in about 40 minutes against Houston. But none of them were even close to being on target. Now, he the one the best chance he had. Sorry to interrupt the best chance he had. I did actually
think that that run was really encouraging. The right move was finding Rothmark at the back post. Yeah, that was he had Roth. If you had been able to square that ball, it was I want to say it was early on in the in his appearance, right? Pretty shortly after he came on now. Maybe seven years, minutes, something like that. Yeah. He had a chance to he had Rothrock wide open at the back post. And if you had been able to square it would it would I don't want to make it sound like it was
an easy pass. But it was a pass that he's certainly capable of making. And if you had squared it across, you know, it had to hit it with some pace. There was a good chance that Rothrock was there. And instead he ends up, you know, shooting it into the stands. But it was you're right. It was a good run. And, you know, we have Jordan a lot of credit for good runs as to so it's I don't have a problem giving him giving him credit for a good run. But there is another big line up decision that
the Center is going to have to make. And that's what they do about Pedro De La Vega who started in this game. I think it was maybe overblown how bad he was. I know a lot of people were were frustrated with his performance. I thought he actually looked really good on the counter press. Like he was very active defensively. And he just was not, but he really wasn't sharp offensively. He, but he, I think he had the right ideas. He just wasn't quite connecting. He ends up coming out
after 52 minutes. He clearly was upset to be coming off. I thought Brian had a perfectly fair explanation, which was with Raul and there we wanted to have two real winners who are, you know, more playing to his feet and whatever that I thought that made sense. But it does beg the question. If you were going to use Georgie with Raul last game, should you be doing the same thing? Like, should you be bringing De La Vega off the bench in this game too?
Yeah, it's a fair question. For the record, I agree that the assessment of him being terrible in this game was kind of bizarre to me. I think that it is totally fair to hold him to a higher standard because of the position that he holds on the team, the resources they've spent on him, all of that stuff, the expectations. But I think if once he's on the pitch, right, there's no point in evaluating his performance any differently than anyone else's. And I just didn't think he was
actively bad. He's definitely not the kind of performance you want from a designated player that cost, you know, eight figures in acquisition costs. But I just, it's not like he was an isolation. It's not a big, right? Yeah, I would say an isolation, it's not really a particularly notably bad performance. It's just that he hasn't been, you know, it looked like he was making a lot of progress the last few weeks in terms of looking sharper, looking better, looking like he was on
the same page with teammates. And this felt like a, like you reverted, you know, he backsled a little bit in that sense. But the reality is he doesn't have a lot of sort of goodwill built up with the fanbase right now because he hasn't, he hasn't scored. He hasn't set up a bunch of assists. So at some point, he needs to start producing. I'm kind of coming to peace with the idea that it might not be of this year. Yeah, it's, it is funny. I've read this a few times from various national
pundits who have said, well, the center's are going to go as far as De La Vega takes them. I don't know if I buy that at all. Like, no, he's not important to this team right now. At all. I mean, he hasn't been important to their success down the stretch. Right. Like if he, if he starts putting it together all of a sudden, I think that raises their level. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think they need him to be a, you know, be a star for them to continue to be very competitive and to keep putting
up zeros, frankly, this is, I, it is, I think it's gotten lost a little bit. They've given up one goal in their last five games. Yeah. They've given up three goals in their last eight. This is a very good defensive team. It's not a fluke that they held Houston scoreless. I think it's entirely possible that they will do it again. Yeah. I think it likely even. Yeah. I totally agree. I don't, I think that the De La Vega is a really fun media narrative. I think it's compelling story.
Like, oh, can he finally deliver and it's just like, I'm just not spending a lot of time thinking about him because he's just, he hasn't been part of the team's success. To your question, though, I think that even if if Pedro had not been below par in the last game and even if, you know, Raul wasn't starting, you can make a case that this is a, just Georgie is just a better fit for what this game is like. This kind of game, sure. And yeah, I, I, I would probably be inclined to
start Georgie. I think that having somebody that can get out on the break on his own, somebody who can be guys on the dribble, having one of those guys on each side is going to be important to this game. I don't think there's going to be a lot of patient build up play resulting in good chances. Yeah. And we were sort of talking, there was some talk of this on the discord about playing. Maybe you play Pedro or even Rothrock as sort of a false nine. And, and that allows you to
get Pedro, Rothrock and Georgie all in the field together. And I guess there's you, you could maybe talk yourself into that. But honestly, Ruidia's effectively is going to be playing as a false nine. Like they have to game plan with the assumption that and they, they should almost embrace that, I think, like send your wingers up high and let if, if Ruidia's inclination is to drop back and to not be pushing the line, don't ask them to do it all of a sudden. Like that's not the,
like that's not playing to his strengths. That's like it. You, I understand what you want that. I understand why they built their team around a player who can do that. But if it, if you're going to start Ruidia's, don't ask him to be something that he's just no longer is anymore. Right. That's, I think that's the key to it. I think that he can still be good at some stuff, but you, you absolutely have to change your game plan. And he cannot be central to your game plan.
Like he can't be the guy that's team revolves around. He has to do a job just like you'd be expecting out of Danny Mazzowski. Uh, he's going to do it a different way, obviously, because he's not, he's not a big tall guy that can hold people off. Um, and, and one of bunch of headers, but he's still capable of doing it. I think he just can't play the way he tends to play. Uh, and, and you do have to make tactical adjustments. And now you do have to plan on your attacks coming down pretty
much entirely coming down the wings. You've got to hope that your goal scoring can come from there. Um, or, you know, maybe you're putting in enough shots that you're getting rebound opportunities because that is one thing you're able to can still do is, is go check all in the box. Um, but if he just goes out there and tries to play the same way he didn't 2018, it's, it's not going to be great. I don't think. Yeah. Uh, and I, so I guess to sum up what I think
we're both agreeing probably should happen. I don't know that this will happen, but it could. Uh, I think you either start Pedro and Mesovsky or you start Ruidia's in Georgie. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I agree. And then in the midfield, I assume Obed just replay it like Joe Paolo was not bad. I didn't think he was good enough to feel like you have to put him back on the field though. No, definitely not. He's very slow. He's never been fast, but he's, he's, he's, he's definitely not,
yeah, he's lost a step. Uh, and when you just when you're the kind of player he is losing a step is pretty disastrous, I think. Well, and I think I would rather, again, if we're sort of gaming this out, I think he's much better used as a late a player to help see out a win at this point, then he is a player who's you want starting the game. Like I feel much more comfortable with Obed and Christian in the midfield than I do. JP and Christian or I think JP can still be very effective in a pure
stopper type role where he's not trying to get forward. He's not trying to contribute to attack. He's just trying to break things up and keep possession. Uh, he can be very good at that. And I think either if you are able to grab a goal and you want to see out the win like you said or you're just trying to get to penalty's late, I would love to have him on the bench rather than having come off it, you know, 50 minutes or whatever. Right. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that that covers just
about everything. I should add, we went pretty hard on the ref last game. And I don't think Ted Uncle was great in this game, but he was way better. Yeah. Like I found him mostly un, unoffensive. I will also add that we submitted a question post game about the red card incident. And he gave a perfectly clarifying answer. Right. The yellow card that Karriskiy got was a completely separate incident or was a separate from his red card and that the red card was for basically kicking the
the attacker or kicking RISNAC. So like, Hey, that's all we're asking. Just give us, give us a little something. Yeah. There are a lot of reps that sounders fans hate that I have no idea why they, like they're definitely somewhere. I'm like, yeah, I know I understand why we hate that guy. But I've never thought Uncle was, I'm sure he's had bad games against this, but I think he's just getting a bad vibe. I think that's like he has this sort of like kick me sort of vibe about him.
He definitely has like a gym teacher kind of vibe to him. Yeah. Yeah. Which, you know, fair enough. But I just, I, I'm always trying to remember what he did that made people hate him so much. And I'm sure he's given a silly red card to us or not call the penalty or something. But I just, I never, I'm never that upset when I see him in the center. I don't know. Yeah. I, that was sort
of my reaction to I wasn't really worked up about it. And I didn't think he, like there was some odd, uh, advantage calls, but there's always going to be like there's, you can, if you get focused on disliking a ref, you can find you, it's never hard to find for sure calls that are bugging you. But I felt like it was important to give some, you know, to acknowledge when a ref
does not piss me off. Yeah. No, I think it's, I think it's good to do. I think it's just always good to remind ourselves that MLS refs on the whole are actually quite good compared to a lot of other leads. And the line that I've been using is that MLS refs are better relative to the quality of play than probably any league in the world. That doesn't mean they're the best refs. But, you know, you look at the Premier League just to use a, a easy example.
Best, you know, maybe the best league in the world. No, we're near the best refs in the world. No, I would take, I would take MLS refs over Premier League. Like if we could do a straight swap, there's no way I'd do it. Absolutely not. They're, they're, they're, they're, they're, what, actively bad. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, so like I, I just think that sometimes it's, like, I think it did what kills me is when people say like, oh, it's the refs that are keeping me from
being more into MLS. And it's like, you don't want to watch soccer. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is so subjective. And it varies from game to game in a way that I think few sports do. American football is probably the next closest, but there are so many refs calling so many different things that it's just like, it feels like there's some, you know, homo, geneticity. I have so much trouble with that word. That just isn't present. Like it feels like
in soccer, referees are encouraged to manage the game their own way. Whereas in other sports, it's like, no, you have a job to do as a referee. And this is how you do the job. And, um, and that's part of why, you know, soccer is fun feeling out of referee. And as long as it's consistent, I'm, I'm good. Yep. I'm with you. All right. Well, that's a good place to end this. Uh, I want to thank our sponsor, full pool wines. Of course, I want to say thank you to our subscribers.
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