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Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adietes. This is Friday. I am doing another episode of What We Learned This Week with Nico. And of course, I'm Jeremiah Chan, joined by Nico Moreno. Funnest day to be doing this show. It's a little bit, you know, it's cold out there. There's some clouds in the sky, a little bit of rain. There was some hail yesterday.
I think that's kind of what we're seeing if we were to put that into this metaphor of what's going on around the Sounders right now. I mean, we'll get into everything that's going on with the team, but it wasn't just... getting bounced out of CCC at, you know, Stadio Universitario against Cruz Azul, but it's much more than that. So that's what we're here to tell you. We're here to just more of providing...
our opinions, we're kind of giving you a broadcast of what's going on, kind of the weather. We're telling you how things are going, what we're hearing, but it's definitely not good, Jeremiah. It's not good. So the big news today... was sort of a quadruple or even a quintuple whammy of unfortunate availability news. First and foremost, Paul Areola, they confirmed, has an ACL tear.
They did not say he's out for the year. They said he was out for an extended period, but he's out for the year. Yeah, you and I can both say that we can... Give an educated guess, if you will. He himself has done this injury before other leg. It took him 10 months to return. Players do not suffer this injury in March and come back the same year. That's just not how it works. And it would make sense for Seattle to put him on the end of the year.
list season ending season ending injury yeah and be able to get some of that cap for him back go get another player so that's the reason why everything that we can positively and accurately look at indicate that he's more than likely, almost surely, out for the season. Yeah, and I would think that... And I suppose that provides some sense of relief. I actually think it would be a little bit of a mistake for them to even hold out hope for him because not only is there a short-term cost of...
If you don't put him on the season-ending list, you can't recoup his salary cap hit, which is something like $650,000. It's a significant amount of money. But it also just creates an unfair expectation. of a player coming back i mean he would have to come back in eight months or something like that to even get in for the playoffs which would be uh almost unprecedented time frame to come back in so i don't think that's a realistic
thing to put on him. I don't think it's a realistic thing to put on fans. It's an unrealistic thing to put on the Sounders organization. But the other bits of news were also kind of disappointing. Jordan Morris has a strained... Hamstring. Hamstring. They clarified that Pedro de la Vega has a strained quad. And then Yamar is also out with personal manners. I don't know if you want to...
get into that at all, but he's going to just miss this one game. He went back to Colombia. He went straight to Colombia from Mexico. And then on top of that, Brian Spencer has missed the last couple of days with an illness. He may or may not travel. It sounded like he's probably... not traveling to st louis you know that's a more of a minor
Frustration, inconvenience. It looks like I would assume Freddy Juarez will probably be the coach. He's who talked to the media yesterday. I don't know why they didn't make him available again today, but whatever, they didn't. But yeah, that's a lot of unfortunate news to come out in one day. Yeah, I think they were still hoping that Brian can make the trip or maybe just making it seem like there was a way that he could make the trip.
Well, you and I know that it's very unlikely. Again. Yeah, what are we doing here? Yeah, I don't really see it. We do wish Brian Spencer our best. We hope that he is not dealing with anything beyond maybe some, you know, flu or something.
minor. I really do. He's been under a lot of stress and things like that. He has sounded a little under the weather recently. He has. And we know that he's had, and that's where my mind went when I heard about it. He's had some things with like his skin where, I don't know if you remember that. with a scab. So from the bottom of my heart, I did kind of got taken back by the news where I'm hoping that it is something minor. I mean, it sounded like it's on.
that serious because they were still saying like there's a possibility he could like he's day-to-day is basically what they're calling maybe i was thinking way too far into it but we do wish him our best um the gamer situation yes there was a family matter uh It's what it sounds like. And he's obviously not going to be at the St. Louis game. But he should be back. But he'll be back. He'll be back. The biggest ones here are Pedro de la Vega, Jordan Morris. Pedro had been very good.
Yeah, I think he looked great. He looked fantastic. He looked the best that we've seen him since he arrived. And he's unfortunate. Having fun. Having fun. And, you know, with all of this, like, hunger. And that's what I really like. Me and you were both, I think. In various parts of the preseason and during the regular season, we both kind of pointed out at moments, it was like, man, this guy is hungry. He wants to get out here and play. And that's something that they're really going to miss.
To the other end, there is that... Man, is he injury prone? I hear it all over. God, this guy is broken. This guy, he was soul broken. He's a lemon. Return him to the, you know, like auto shop, whatever it is that people are saying. I feel like at times it's a bit unfair. but I do understand where he's coming from because there has been a history of injuries and regardless of how good he was when he was healthy...
In some ways it almost makes it more frustrating because you think you've turned a corner. Exactly. He came in so much better shape. He looked better. He was playing better. And to sort of go through this cycle again. after only playing in five games or whatever, six games, it's just, it's disappointing and it's frustrating. You know, I would say I draw some hope from, you know, he was out training today on the side.
Which I think is a sign that it's maybe not the most serious injury and that maybe they're just being a little cautious in terms of giving a timeline. And it should be said it was four to six weeks.
from his original injury. So he had now already been out for a week. Actually, yeah, he's been out for a week. And so you can say it's maybe three to five weeks. I had heard originally that they thought he would be out two to three weeks. That's still in... the ballpark of, of possibilities, you know, but it's a blow and it's, it's a bummer, but you know, fingers crossed on a more positive note, Reed Baker Whiting did participate in, he was a partial, but he did.
participate in parts of training today. So you'd like to think he's maybe a week or two away from coming back. That would help, especially with the Paul Areola situation. Kim Keehee still is not training in full. But my suspicion is next week he'll be training in full. So, you know, there's some more, you know, that doesn't necessarily impact. It would be nice to have him this week with Yamar out. He is. It would be. But just like you...
Put it perfectly, I've been hearing the exact same things, is that he is still weeks away. They're definitely being... cautious as well with not putting him in a position where he's going to be exposed or have a bad first game, if not worse, an injury. So there's enough depth there. I mean, I feel like J. Bell has been...
decent enough. I thought that he hasn't made this team look any worse. I know that a lot of people like to point to certain moments where I think it was the LAFC game, the Perla Martinez goal that was...
All Martinez, by the way. That was fantastic. Where he loses the ball. But, I mean, that happens to absolutely anybody. And he beat a bunch of guys in the box, too. He beat everybody. That was an amazing goal. I mean, he was fantastic. And, you know, he's a guy that has this quality. So, I don't... want to put that on JBL. I think he's been good. He has the right qualities. He's physical. So I think he can provide some of that gamer-ish.
attributes that he brings to the field. So there's obviously a drop, because he's no Yammer Gomez-Andrade. I don't want to say that. But he definitely holds... He's a good placeholder for it, especially over one game. The big one, though, and... It'll probably serve as a segue here before we talk about the Cruises tool game very briefly. Jordan Morris. Clearly... Man, it's unfortunate the way it happened, when it happened. But it does bring us the biggest question out of any of this.
injuries, if you will, because there's only one really main starter with a long-term injury in this, I don't know. grouping of injuries, and it is Jordan Morris. And he played the most. He had the most minutes. He'd been the guy that started. He did not start one game, I believe. Yeah, the only game he didn't start was the LAFC game, and he played half. He played half. He had to.
Yeah, and, you know, I'm sympathetic to the idea that they could have rotated more there. I'm also sympathetic to the idea that the Sounders have been monitored. I mean, I assume that they... Everything we've been hearing is they've been monitoring. They believe that he had the...
He had the capacity to do this stuff. He has been one of the healthiest players on the team really since his ACL injury. He had gotten himself into a position where he could handle multiple games a week. He had been playing all last season down the stretch.
He was playing all these games, but maybe it was a little early in the season to be pushing him like that. I agree. And I think it's fair. It's a it's a fair thing to ask. I don't think it was some horrible mismanagement, but it does tie into the way they're using Jesus Ferreira.
which is not at the number nine. That might change this week, but they have been, for whatever reason, not wanting to use him in place of Jordan. They had not been wanting to, you know, they just, they hadn't been doing it. And... He has not really gotten a lot of looks in front of goal. He did get one very good look against the Cruz Azul. He's got some boo-boos.
But, you know, it does call into question what they're seeing out of him, why he isn't playing more. You sort of asked Brian, you directly asked Brian about that in the postgame. And I would say he answered the question. I don't know how straight with you he was.
He basically said it was a tactical choice and they wanted to make sure he was available for St. Louis. But that sort of comes back to, is it a fitness issue? Because they have not said that. But it does seem like that must be part of it, is they just don't trust him to play. a lot of minutes yet, but then of course, who knows? So I was frustrated because he was very vague, but then because you are my, you know, counterbalance and you keep me, you know, straight lined.
I do think that he answered the question, and maybe it was my fault for not asking... a follow-up question to that, but that's what I wanted to hear. I just want a reasoning and understanding why the biggest signing that you had in the offseason, the guy that has been portrayed as the guy that was going to... Put your team from being a...
An offense that struggled to score to be in an offense that was going to be prolific at that particular part or aspect of the game, or at least the one that brought the answers to those unanswered questions. as the nine. And he's played zero minutes instead of... Jordan Morris. People have said, well, you know, let's not worry about Mosovsky because he's the third option. He's the second option. He's been the second option. Or that's the way that Bryant sees it. And look.
I want to give Brian the benefit of the doubt. There is a lot of things that Ferreira does that you can say, hey, man, I'd rather have him... a little bit deeper, bringing the ball up, being creative. You saw that wonderful ball he put into Kalani in the LAFC game. He has three assists. He's got great vision. He's a guy that could definitely do a lot in the creative components. He almost set up Jordan on a goal in the...
Cruz's tool game. He put a great ball for Jordan Morris. His link of play is very good. We've talked about his IQ, but at the same time, the depth in that area of the field is a lot... broader than it is at Striker. You could... basically put Ovid Vargas a little bit higher, put JP next to Christian. You could play Danny Leyva. You could play Manungu, where he's played him there in the past. There's just so many more options there.
And that's my frustration. So if there's something wrong with Ferreira, if there is a conditioning concern, if there's whatever it is that they're thinking behind not. Having your biggest acquisition play 90 minutes in six games of 2025, I want to know. And that's all I was going for. Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see how they use them this weekend.
And more importantly, it's going to be interesting to see how they use them in the following weeks because after this game, they have basically two months straight of single game weeks. And that's going to be a lot, you know, there's going to be, you know, several, you know, three or four, maybe five games that Jordan isn't available in those times. And hopefully this is all building up.
The argument I made in the column I wrote this week is as much as you built this roster to withstand the rigors of multiple competitions, you also built this roster to withstand injuries. 100%.
And so it's frustrating to be knocked out of this tournament. Don't get me wrong, I would... love to be going on in this tournament but the reason you but the reason you built the roster you did is not just for those tournaments it's four times exactly like this one yep is that if you have a deep team you shouldn't have a big step back because the way I look at it right now is hopefully we see Jesus Ferreira starting at the number nine.
And then all of a sudden, the roster around him looks okay. If you have Albert Rusanek, if you have Georgie Menungu and Paul Rothrock as wingers, and then you go all the way back, and it's like, okay, this is not that different than the roster that went on a really good run last year. So we'll see. And that's exactly where my frustration falls sometimes because...
This might just be my personal opinion, and I don't know if people hate to hear me talk about me and my opinion, but that's just what I do. Not the listeners. Not the listeners, but maybe there are people outside of the listeners. are frustrated with me providing my opinion, but there seems to be some sort of miscommunication when it comes to the roster build.
on what Craig and the front office see to what Brian sees. Because when I talk to Craig, when I talk to anybody that decided to bring in Ferreira, they're like, hey, this is going to be... our second striker. This is going to be the guy that's going to facilitate and help out the fact that Jordan Morris was the only one. And that just hasn't been the case because... whether Bryan rates him up there or not, or he sees more things from him playing deeper, it still goes to the depth component.
And that's exactly what you just said. When we were talking about how good this team was, the floor was as high as it was, the depth was as good as it was, we were putting things in certain places. And that's just not where I have seen it. When everybody's falling on Craig Weibel, because I hear it, oh, this is exactly it. Oh, well, you know, it's interesting that Paul Arriola and Ferreira weren't the answer to getting to the next RNNCC.
Shut up. That's not what it is, right? I mean, it just, it's very circumstantial. And it is about where players have been played. But I do understand the frustration behind it. I mean, I understand the frustration. Going out against Cruz Azul is definitely a blow. But, I mean, the reality is that the reason you sign these guys isn't just, like I said, it's not just for Champions Cup. It's for, you know, to me, this is really the test of the roster build.
It's not so much whether or not you advance past Cruz Azul. Cruz Azul has a more talented team. Yes. Club America has an even more talented team. There was no world where the Sounders were going to just go standing toe-to-toe with these two teams. They might, I mean, they'll get me wrong.
they are capable of beating those teams on their day. But there was no roster build that you were going to put together that's going to be a better 1-30 roster than those teams because that's just not how this works. But the real test of this is right now. When they go through this next stretch of games and they're all of a sudden in the Supporter Shield race, you say great roster build. Absolutely.
If they don't, then I think there's a lot of fair questions to ask because the whole point of having depth like this is to withstand an injury to a Jordan Morris, to withstand an injury to your starting left wing back. So let's see how this works out. And it's going to be interesting to see how the Sounders manage it, too, because I do think it makes sense this week, especially with Yamar out, that they'll go to a 4-2-3-1 because it puts...
John Bell in a better spot to be next to Jackson Reagan than to start getting wild with trying to fit three center backs in there. But after that, once Yehmer comes back, my suspicion is that they'll go back to the... three, four, two, one. I think so. And that would, in that, and so it'll be interesting to see how, you know, how that looks.
You know, this is this is a blow to the depth of the roster, no doubt. But I don't know. I think it's going to be it'll be interesting. And I think it's it's I'm not freaking out yet about. this the situation because i do look at the roster and i still like what i see i still i still see guys coming off the bench who i'm i think can be can do a job uh not as much as it was before admittedly yeah But this is your straining test or your tension test. Yeah. And you...
The more I talk on your platform, I hope that people get used to my analogies because I'm all about analogies. But this is one of the things when you put a product out and you say, this is how much- Stress test. Stress test. That's what I was looking for.
Please forgive my English. But that's what I was looking for, right? I have a product in their safety glasses. I need to make sure that they can withstand this X amount of force. This is what the sounders are going into. And they're going to have a big one here against a... very good, very disciplined, difficult to break down St. Louis. And we'll talk about that later on. But this is what you're getting into. And this is where...
Whether you or I or the pundits were right or wrong about how deep this team was, this is where... It meets. This is where the threshold is going to be set. The bar is going to be set here going on out. And I'm just curious about it. Again, all these injuries are...
Unfortunate. There's no doubt about that. But we're hoping that this roster is built to its statement. Yeah. And I do think that one of the challenges is going to be like what they do to change. I do think the starting lineup is actually pretty solid. Yeah. But the question is.
how do you change games from here? And I'm not quite sure what game changes there are coming off the bench right now. Danny Masofsky suddenly is elevated into your top offensive player off the bench, which is a challenge. Not my favorite. He got a goal. And I'm happy for him, but he's not what I want to see. But, you know, otherwise you're looking at bringing in Danny Leyva, who's a fine player who I actually like a lot, but is maybe not the most offensive player.
But we're probably going to see Obed Vargas moving up a line sometimes. We're probably going to see Kalani Kosarianzi coming off the bench and trying to sort of alter things a little bit. So it'll be interesting to see how they manage this.
This next stretch of games, like I said, I'm not down in the dumps about it, but there are going to be some challenges, and it'll be interesting to see. Was there anything that you felt like you learned about this team out of the Cruz Azul match, or are you... You know, you talked about the idea that there is some sense of people sort of blowing off, being eliminated. You didn't like that.
You didn't like the idea that people were just saying it's no big deal that we got eliminated from CONCAC. No, that was my biggest... complained or pet peeve about the way people were taking this. And again, this is just my opinion. But when... The fan base is complacent with saying, hey, you know what? It's all right. I did not expect the Sounders to get through this round of CCC, and maybe we should just focus on MLS, and that's okay.
Look, and again, this is just me talking, but I have seen this team lose their eliteness and their... Overall thought as an elite team in MLS over the last four to five years, I've seen their commitment and investment in players. decline over the last four or five years. Let's not decline and lose the expectation and standard of a team that every single time that they go into a tournament, they want to come.
with silverware. Because I believe it, because I know Adrian says it, and every player in that locker room believes it. I believe it. And I think that fans should believe that as well. We should not see a decline on everything surrounding that. I look at that stadium and I see... The attendance decline and experience declined to what it was just five years ago and
I find myself thinking, as someone who's covered this team as long as I have, why is that happening? Why should that be the new standard? It should not be. So if we've already lost that physically... I don't want to have that be the new mentality for this squad. These teams should go into every single tournament trying to win it. And again, this Cruz Azul game was... was difficult to watch. But at the end of the day, I expected this team to do better. And that is what it is.
I still believe that you lost this series at home. Yeah. Where you had every single opportunity with six players out at home with things in your most controllable... atmosphere to win this series. And you didn't. You didn't put him under pressure. And then in the second game, every single one of those players that I told you were key components, they came to play. Rotondi was amazing. Charlie was great.
Sepulveda was on every ball. I mean, all those guys that we talked about, they were game changers. So should that be the responsibility for the Sounders to have taken more of a... aggressive approach. We asked Freddie Juarez about it. He said, look, there's a disrespect on the overall roster. I get it. I respect his thought process on it.
But it was a missed opportunity, and it makes me frustrated. It was a missed opportunity, and I'll say two things can be true. One is that Cruz Azul was a better team, but the Sounders had an opportunity to put them under it at home, and they didn't do it. Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and the Cooler Guild.
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And if you look at their run in 2022, they basically held serve every time they went on the road. They tied Olympia. They tied Leone. They tied New York City. And they tied Pumas. All... uh on the road but what they did at home
is they smashed every single one of those teams. They put themselves in a position. Great point. And that's what they didn't do in this one, is that they had the opportunities. And I don't think it was from a lack of aggressiveness. I just think it was from a lack of execution and a lack of sharpness.
that, you know, they should have had two or three goals at home. And I think you and I both said this on the last show, that 0-0 was technically a better result than 1-1. Admittedly, Vancouver got 1-1. and move through. They did. And it was, even though it may have been technically a better result, I think emotionally getting that goal.
but especially just not scoring at home, I think put them under it a lot. And even they, you know, they had a decent five, 10 minute start to the road leg. And then once they didn't find a goal, they were really under it from minute 10 until. really until the miss that Ferreira had at the 58th minute where that was a killer because if he hits that... which was a great run by Rothrock, a great piece of service, and he just skies the shot essentially from the penalty spot. That was a bummer.
And really, from that point forward, the Sounders were in trouble. And let's talk very briefly about that. I have a couple of notes. One... That was Christian Rodin's worst game that I've seen him play since I started covering this team. He was not good. I do not expect him to have a repeat of that. I mean, it was bad in terms of possession. precision passing, overall spacing. That first touch was just not there. I thought Ovid Vargas was...
just as bad, to be honest. I mean, he was not very good. He seemed like he was rushed, like he was pressured. Everything about those two pivots, which is such a big component in the system. Yeah, the system needs those pivots. pivots they were both very poor and the fact that overall as a team you're just sloppy
Coming out of the back, the center backs... They could not possess... They could not hold possession. No, they could not... I mean, how many times did they connect five or ten passes in the same sequence? Almost never. Never. Almost never. Yeah, it was a very sloppy game. And Brian talks about this sometimes, is you get into this cycle of defend, defend, defend, and then as soon as you get the ball, you just give it away.
And that was sort of the cycle that they fell into this game. And I don't know that it's it's I think it stands out whenever it happens to the Sounders because they're so good about it. And but when it does happen, it's like, oh, geez, this is one of those games where they just cannot connect past. and they're sending clearances when they have connecting passes that they could make or they're just missing...
connecting passes or they're turning it over in bad parts of the field. And it just is this cycle that repeats and they end up, especially at altitude like they were, it just bears down on you. And I know it's funny, there's this prevailing narrative that the Sounders are...
particularly bad at altitude. And playing at altitude is a challenge. It is. Talk about it. Playing in Mexico City is definitely a challenge. These are real challenges, but the Sounders, I don't think, are any worse at dealing with it in general. most teams if you ignore the RSL game they actually have a pretty good
If you ignore all the RSL games, they actually have a pretty good record at altitude. They've been very good against the Rapids. They looked good against Antigua, which is at altitude. But, man, when things go bad, it's very easy to... steamroll, like a snowball, sorry, and to sort of get into this habit of like, we can't catch our breath, we feel like we're drowning out here, and that's sort of what ended up happening against Cruz Azulay. No, that's exactly it, right?
Steph talked about it today. He was very clear. If you don't think that altitude makes a difference, you just have no idea. You're not an athlete. You don't go here. It's not just... that the oxygen and how difficult it is to run but is the the way you strike a ball the way a ball Drives through the air. The way your legs feel. Everything about it. Look, as someone who has grown up in a common ball where Bolivia, one of the most limited national teams in our area.
seems to have only a chance to play well at La Paz, at the highest possible altitude that we have in South America, it's because they have an advantage, because it is different. I'm telling you, the way you kick the ball. When you look at this game, there were so many times where there was a through ball to Jordan and he felt like he had just a little too much. That's that altitude. And it's just a little bit more. And you could practice on it. You could do anything on it. But it does have...
It is a factor on it. So let's not go too much into it more beyond that. That's kind of what happened. Cruz was a rightful winner in this one. They ended up... Make an account. Maybe the last goal, the last two might have been... Letting it down a little bit. Yeah, letting you down. Sounders are trying to push for a score, and you get caught up in a certain way. The really frustrating goal, though, was the...
the rothrock uh penalty which yeah there was no they were in the there was so frustrating they were in the game they were they had just you know they they were looking like they were starting to get define the game a little bit and then all of a sudden uh paul just runs up the back of a player. There was no danger. It was just sort of a sloppy play and...
And again, look, I didn't love Bryant's substitutions, and I don't want to Monday quarterback. I heard somebody say that, by the way. Keep giving me stuff on comments. I love that. I read it. I live off of it. I really do. I'm not trying to Monday quarterback. But when I was watching that game, I felt like JP was a guy that could have brought a little bit of possession, of experience, of let's...
just hold it down a little bit. Christian was, like I said, he didn't have a good game. I feel like he should have came off. He was lucky, lucky not to get a red card on the VAR call that he did because I thought he was a little bit... I will say that... I think he was lucky because VAR recommended a red card. And I actually was frustrated with that because, I mean, to me, he wins the ball. He clearly wins the ball. It's maybe a sloppy follow-through, but...
I don't know. I just don't like to see... It wasn't like a dangerous tackle. It just was sort of... But it could have been taken as reckless. But it could have been taken as reckless. And so in that sense, he was lucky. Obed was also lucky not to get sent off. for a second yellow card really lucky frankly not to be second a second yellow card so it was just a it was just a sloppy
all-around performance from the Sounders. And that's why I don't, you know, this is not an indictment on the team. And I don't want anybody to think that the season's over, let's crash out. There's no more, you know, silverware that is going to come out to the team. No. It's okay to be upset about being, you know, bounced out of CCC, but I expect the team to do better. And I expect Obe to learn, Christian to learn. Yeah.
Christian is one of the greatest sounders of all time, in my opinion. I mean, I've watched them and I'll never forget when... I was asking Siggy why he wouldn't play him more, and Siggy would be like, you don't know shit. That's right. Siggy was serious, man. What I loved about Siggy is that he told me straight up, you don't know shit, man. I'm the coach. from then on to here, I mean, Christian has been outstanding, so I'm not trying to like...
dog him in any way. I just, he had a bad game and I expect him to do better next time. And that's just the way circumstantial games go. So now we'll move on to St. Louis, which we'll talk about and we'll see how this thing plays out. Yeah. So St. Louis comes. The Sounders go to St. Louis. They have never lost, actually, to St. Louis. They're 4-0 against St. Louis, including two wins in St. Louis. But this St. Louis team is different. 4-0 in Wentz?
Yeah. Oh, wow. I think they've had an own goal in every game. Okay. I'm going to put some juice boxes here in a second. I'm getting out to the muck after this. Well... This is a different team. St. Louis looks very good, and it's not necessarily in the way that they have... This is a team in the last few years has been very press-heavy, sort of a Red Bull-style approach. And Olaf Melberg has come in and been very defensively sound, but not necessarily in the same way.
Yeah, and you could definitely tell that this team, they haven't conceded a goal. He's got a notebook. Yeah, they haven't conceded at all. And I have some notes on this, but they haven't conceded any goals. And I feel like... This team, after that 3-0 win over the Galaxy, can also...
Bring them all up. They're very... Well, they're good on set pieces, especially. Very good on set pieces. I thought Klaus was good. Hurdle was the best player in that last particular game. I think he gets himself some really good positions. Klaus is a very good link-up play, and he's a hold-up striker where he's going to create habit. He's going to make teams collapse or the defensive line collapse on them. So, Seattle's going to have to be very polished.
when it comes to the way they attack, but they're also going to have to be very good at how they break this team down. And that's why I'm so curious on how Brian's going to set up for this one. Or Freddie. Or Freddie. I'm sure Brian... Although Brian has probably set him up. Brian's sending some notes at the very least on how he once had played. I think Freddie... It's going to be interesting seeing how Freddie maybe handles...
in-game substitutions. Yeah. But in terms of the way it's set up, I expect it to be brown. And the other thing is, I do, I mean, I don't know how big of a deal this is, but Freddy is the guy... during games where he'll sit up in the booth and relay notes that he's getting from the broadcast. So it'll be interesting to see how they manage that. I wonder if Andy will go up there or if they'll just have one of the other assistants.
handling that. I don't know. But it is an interesting little quirk. What else have you liked from St. Louis that you've seen? The midfield play. Lewin, because I always have a hard time with the German. It might be a Hispanic thing, but Lewin, I feel like he's so good at getting players... into space. So when we're talking about a four-man back line, but three, when it comes to the buildup, anytime that you lose the ball, it's going to be those three. The way Bell...
Reagan and knew who'd react to that, I'm curious of. Because Lowen could put a ball anywhere he wanted. He's like this guy that could put the ball into a dime any... any moment in time. So I do want to see some discipline and awareness on where the line is. We've talked about consistently that this Sounders team seems to play with a pretty high line.
most times. I don't expect that to be any differently in this one. I'd be surprised if they play more of in a mid-block for this particular game. But that's what we're going to be looking for. So, Lohan, very good. Harlow's the guy. Tuchard? Tuchard, he's another guy that I feel like gets in great position. So overall, if I'm being honest here... My biggest question is, can the Sounders break this team down?
Because right now, without Jordan, without Pedro, is Ferreira going to be the guy up there that's going to be... He's going to have the responsibility to provide either that speed behind their own back line or create... as a false nine, as everybody believes Ferreira to be his best position, and how much the wingers can provide. How much can they really stretch out that defense? there's a lot of things that I like about St. Louis, specifically at home, because they do have a great...
record at home. And they're a great atmosphere. And they're a great atmosphere. So regardless of what you just said, because like I said, they made me kind of question some things because of how good the Sounders have been against the San Luis team. Yeah. But this is a different squad. And it seems to be a team that plays from the back.
to the front where we're going to figure out how we're going to be disciplined, how we're going to be hard to break down, and then everything else will just fall forward. Yeah, you know, a funny little detail about the last time, the Sounders actually, the last time they played St. Louis at home. John Bell started and scored in that game. Oh. Off a set piece, I believe. Interesting. And I feel like that's somewhat what the Sounders need to take my advantage of.
They haven't, you know, it's funny. They've been pretty good. They have like 14 goals this year across all comps. All 14 goals, I believe, have come from open play. I don't think any of them have come off set pieces, have they? Oh, no, I guess technically the goal is... No, the Paul Rothbach one...
Yeah, that's true. The Rothrock one and honestly the goal that they scored against. Pumas. Cruz Azul. Yeah, I mean Cruz Azul, yeah. Yeah, that was a step he used to. Yeah, but Paul Rothrock on that play. Yeah, you're right. It's a setup play. No, you're 100% right. You're going to play it at the top of the 18. He puts it away. Yeah. But all in all, it's going to be a difficult game. And I'm curious on, is JP going to get more time? Are you going to be able to just...
Because it was Tuesday. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that you played Christian 90, Obed 90. Do you kind of flip those two? You got... I would imagine this is one of those games where we will see Leyva come in and they'll either move Leyva up into one of the kind of dual tens or they'll move Obed there. Yep. And give him a little bit more of a...
an opportunity to get into the attack. Obed has not been, you know, it was funny when we talked all, there was a lot of talk this off season about Obed raising his offensive game. And I don't think he's been bad this year, but he hasn't been nearly as dangerous offensively as I think a lot of us expected him to be. And it might have to do with the system. And it could be the system. And that'll be interesting. That's another thing that could come out of this.
stretch of games where he's maybe being they need him to be a little bit more putting himself out there offensively because they Their offensive depth is taking a hit. There's no question about it. Whether or not you like the starting lineup, and I think I feel good about the starting lineup.
The options off the bench just aren't the same anymore. No, no. They had been able to bring Paul Rothrock off the bench. They'd been able to bring Georgie off the bench. They'd even been able to bring Jesus or Pedro at times off the bench. None of those are going to be bench options at this point. So most of your, you need to get more productivity out of
the rest of your roster. Yep. And the reality is they lost eight of the goals they scored this year are now injured. Sure. That's a blow. That's a problem. Big blow. 100%. Yeah, they need Jesus. They need... Rusnak's actually been, I think, very good so far, but they need these players to continue to be productive and to maybe even step up. Yeah, Umbra's been good, but I expect him to be great.
And that's me, right? When you have that DP role, when you have that... When you're that cam, right? People a lot of times get caught up on, oh, you know... Pedro was the 10. He was the guy. Don't worry about that number. He might have 11 on his back, but he's the guy that's supposed to be the Nuneco. He's supposed to be the guy that puts this team on his back. So I expect him to be better.
that he has. I thought he was a little bit MIA in the Cruz Azul game. He was not good in the Cruz Azul game. There's no question about that. And again, nobody was good. Nobody was good. But he was MIA. And that's the guy that I'm expecting. Clap in his hands. Let's go. Let's get ready. Now, that's not him. But maybe just with his play, he could do that. And he didn't. And, yeah, and so this is an opportunity for him to sort of do that. And, you know, we'll see.
Anything else from this week that stood out to you? I think one of the things I wrote about this off of the press conference last week, I wrote a little bit about how... My concern with the Sounders getting so adamant about getting their own stadium, this is a completely different subject, is that I don't want them to lose sight of the current problems. They can't look to seven years from now and say, well...
We're going to move into our own stadium eventually, so we don't have to be worried about what's going on right now. And I think that would be a huge, huge mistake to just treat the current environment at Lumen Field as something that's just going to...
sustain itself in any way, because it's not sustaining itself. It's getting worse. And for all the good words they're saying about knowing they need to improve it, I don't know that we've seen a lot of that in action. And that's my concern, is that this team... I don't want to lose sight of... Going back to one of your earlier points, this is a team that's got to where it is by holding itself to a very high standard, and I don't want to see them lower that standard.
especially when it comes to home atmosphere and sort of the entertainment value of coming out to a game. And, you know, part of that, I do think that the soccer side, the talent identification side is actually doing a pretty good job. I think they put together a very competent roster, but they aren't being given the same resources.
that a lot of the top teams in MLS are being given. That's why we haven't, we've seen the Sounders pay two transfer fees in the five years since COVID. That's a, that's a... appalling level of investment into the roster. They've invested in other ways, but they need to be, and especially right now... when they have these injuries, they need to be willing and dealing. There are moves to be made maybe even before the transfer window closes.
that maybe don't even require transfer fees, but they need to be prepared to spend some money and to do some stuff because this is the time to kind of capture the imagination of fans when you're getting ready to go into the Club World Cup. Let's close this podcast there because I love that...
brought that up, and we started with that. Let's do a full circle. I'm not going to say anything. The F word almost comes out, but let's do a circle on it because that is the reality. Look, I have, for better or for worse, been... judged on saying, look, this team is not ambitious. And I'm not afraid to say that they are not ambitious because maybe they're not ambitious to the point of Miami or...
LA Galaxy, when they brought Beckham and all these stars, but they've been successful. This team has been successful, and there's no doubt about it. Look at the trophy case. Look at what they've done. There is an infrastructure that has worked. However, do I believe that the investment has been less? Absolutely. Do I feel like Craig Weibel today has a lesser budget than... Garth Lagerwey did? Undeniably. It's undeniably, right? So that's where...
Me and you, you especially, I feel like you take a lot of heat by people who believe that you're like this apologetic person towards the club. You are not. You are someone who believes that this team can do better. And a lot of times... people just take that notion and run and people have put me in both places, whether, you know, hey, man, you're just there for the team. I've been told that I get paid by the team, and then I've been told that I'm this a-hole that is a negative Nancy. Right.
The reality of... That's the sweet spot right there. I'm trying to be right in the middle. You know? I'm trying to be right in the middle. And I feel like that's where we both lie, but we cannot deny.
is that there has been a decline on what you just talked about, the experience, the fan base on the stadiums, the investment into this team, and that needs to be figured out because when... I see a team that in 2016 won a championship, that in 2019 had a full stadium of people, an atmosphere that I've never lived. Even in Colombia, going to Bogotá, Estadio El Campín, Millonarios Nacional.
full stadium. The atmosphere I left here was amazing. 69,000 plus that day. And I think we sometimes lose sight of the fact that it was 2022 post COVID. They packed Lumen Field for a CONCACAF Champions League final. There is a huge fan base here. I see it every day on Sounder at Heart. We have... A huge, sizable subscriber base. These are people that are willing to pay real money to read about the Sounders.
No team in MLS has a audience like the Sounders do. No one has a fan base that is this big and just ready to be activated and ready to get excited. And for them to sort of treat it like, well, what are we going to do? We don't own our own stadium. think is such a defeatist and uh i i hope they don't go down that road of thinking because there is uh energy to be mined this in the club world cup
They're not going to go win the Club World Cup, but you can get people excited about the Club World Cup. And more importantly, you can use it as an excuse to build a roster that can compete for MLS Cup, that can compete. for League's Cup that can go out and maybe even win the Supporters' Shield.
But they got to actually put some resources into it that go beyond. Like, you can't moneyball it forever. No, you cannot. At some point, moneyball catches up to you. And I think that's what I'm a little worried about is.
Use the talent identification strengths that you have and let them actually cook. And use everything else, right? In today's day and age, we're talking about... three u22s that you should be able to go out there and get something off go use it like they need to use this like if areola is has to have his ACL done, he's out for the year. Put him on his injury list. Replace him. Yeah, 100%. And then in the summer, if not already, go get a U-22.
For me, it's got to be a striker, in my opinion. But whether it's not or whether it isn't, just go get somebody. Make me excited. Make me want to go to the... made me want to spend $600 to sit in a club seat for the Club World Cup or whatever it is. I think you told me that. I mean, that's what I want to see from this squad. So, again, all I want to...
Put out here on the record is that a lot of times people have certain conceptions about you and I, and I want to make it very clear because we don't hide from shit. Me and you don't. And excuse me, the S word. It's okay. Me and you don't hide from anything. I read every comment. I laugh at every comment. I've been... By the way, I got...
I don't know if I said this here. I said it in Love is Courageous. I got crapped on by the Messi fans because I said something about Messi. Oh, really? In Miami, and I got some crazy bots coming at me. Oh, my. But I don't mind, man. All I know is that you and I both are thick-skinned, and we're going to talk about things the way they are.
We're going to be as objective as we can. But again, we're going to be true to ourselves. That's the thing. We've got to face our readers every day. We have to face the sounders every day. We are here to receive the feedback. And we just got to be honest about what we're seeing. And sometimes it's good. And sometimes it's bad. And sometimes it might come off as apologetic. And sometimes it might come off this way or that way. But I assure you that it's.
coming from a place of honesty. And right now, what I see is a team that needs to invest and get people excited. And I hope that that's what they do. I've got to face Brian every day. And I love the comments on people between me and Brian Weiss, Brian, me, you know, whatever. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about me. Believe me, me and Brian, you know what, we got our thing going on, but this is the reality, man, and this is my favorite quote from my favorite movie, one of my favorite movies. remember the titans it is i don't dance unless i hear some music I don't scratch my head unless it's itching. And I'm not going to be intimidated by anybody to say what I need to say. That is me. I'm going to call it like I see it.
And we'll handle it beyond that there. So I appreciate all of our listeners. comment i hope you guys like this we're getting way beyond i know i don't know where we got i have no idea man but i'm excited man i am hyped about this red going on the recording yeah all right it is late I know that. I know. But anyway, that's a good place to call this. Thank you, Nico Moreno. You, of course, can find him on El Pulso. You can find him on all the socials, ElRoloNW. And, of course...
Listen to him on Lobbing Scorchers, where he is cooking always, especially on Mondays. Yes, Monday mornings. At 8 a.m.? Yep, 8 a.m. 8 a.m. I can't believe you guys are up at 8 a.m. I can't believe I'm up at 8 a.m. I know. I got second cup of coffee. I got... burgers. I mean, it's bad, but I'm out there. I'm out there with my guy, Ari, trying to make it happen. Absolutely. That said, I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is Nosadietes, and we will catch you next time.