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We're recording on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shann. Joining me today is a friend of the show, Mark Kastner, and our producer, Lick It. Mark, you have been on the show maybe more frequently than Aaron and I at this point. It's good to have you back again, though. Thank you. Yeah, I feel like a pretty decent super sub. Yeah, this is last month or so. Yeah, this has been this has been fun. Aaron, in case you guys are curious, he had a concert to go to. So, you know.
Love some rock and roll music. Yeah, so the Sounders are coming off a 1-1 tie with the Colorado Rapids. They are now... unbeaten in three which is you know i i suppose a fair way of putting it recently i saw a There's all kinds of different power rankings out there. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on this because I actually thought it made a lot of sense. So the Sounders were 12th in the 615 soccer power rankings. And why I found that notable is because they use a series of metrics.
to sort of come up with their rankings it's not so much opinion based as it is uh It's stat-based, essentially. And so they break it down here. And they take points per game. That counts for 25%. Goals added. That's G+, if you're so inclined. 15% form. So they weight the last four matches. Then goal difference.
Strength of schedule, expected goal difference, and then home and away form rounds it out. So anyway, the Senators come in 12th on that list, and that felt right around where I feel like is a fair place to put them. Not quite. in the elite, well, not in the elite, but somewhere in that middle chunk of teams. Maybe with the potential to trend upward, like Nashville, I guess.
is all the way up to second in this list on the strength of their last game. They jumped five spots, which is pretty remarkable. But what I thought was interesting about this also is that the Sounders have a really... a pretty good record against the teams in the top half of this thing. The Sounders are 3-1-3 against teams in the top 15.
And all of that sort of, I feel like does a good job of summing up where the Sounders are right now. Like we've seen them at their best. That may have been Nashville. They look dangerous. They look like a stout defensive team. And then we see them the next week against the Rapids. And I don't think they looked bad, but they certainly weren't great in that game. And they were probably a little fortunate to get out of there with a 1-1 tie. How do you assess this team right now, Mark?
12th best in mls feels right just in like kind of my gut yeah that's yeah You know, I think like, so for instance, Portland has like five or six more points than the Sounders. No, actually fewer than that, I think. But anyway, go ahead. It's jumbled though, for sure. Well, I'm talking about like actual points that they have. You're right. You're five. They have five points. You're right. I was I was I was I was thinking they had less points than that. But you're right. They have five. I watched.
I watched their game against LA on Sunday night, and I thought they actually look pretty terrible. But they score a lot of goals. I think that the Nashville win that the Sounders had... was like very understated in a really weird way because the next week Nashville goes and like beats the breakout breaks off like I would say a pretty okay to good fire team. Yeah. At least for adjustment. Not down 7-0 bad, that's for sure. Yeah. And so, like, yeah, I think the Sounders have had...
Some things go their way this season. They've had a couple of setbacks. We may talk about another one of those setbacks in a little bit. Yeah, it just it feels like probably not as bad as we felt a few weeks ago and maybe not as good as it could be. But. It is kind of like getting in the rhythm, sort of like early on in a marathon where you're just trying to find your pace. That's an interesting way of putting it. Yeah, I think, you know, to go back to these rankings.
Of the teams who are ranked above them, the only teams who I would say I feel like the Sounders are almost, I think, are really better than are the Quakes. And they come in at 10. I think they're better than the Rapids, but they're 11. So they're only one spot ahead of the Sounders. Maybe Minnesota United, who comes in at 8. But other than that, I have a hard time arguing with anyone else over them. And I don't know if I even feel aggrieved that the Sounders would be below any of those teams.
I'll add about the Timbers, not because I want to make this about the Timbers, but they gave up two goals to LA, which doesn't seem like that big of a deal, I suppose. But LA have scored two goals exactly twice this season. And granted, this was on the road at LA, but... The Timbers defense is not very good. The Timbers, by the way, are way down at 16 in this ranking in large part because...
Their strength of schedule is they haven't played anybody. And the underlying metrics do not like them really at all. The underlying metrics think they're maybe a bad team. But I don't – this is not a Timbers podcast. I don't want to spend that much time about the Timbers. I was just sort of interested in – It's apparently a power ranking podcast. It is a power ranking podcast. We are going to have a power ranking later on in the show.
But I did think this was sort of a good time to sort of take stock a little bit of the team. I wrote my column this week. It was called Things I Think I Know About the Sounders. We're going to get into a few of these. We may as well sort of go through some of these items because they were already sort of on our list of things to talk about. But of all the positives that have come out of this early start, I think...
At this point, the biggest positive is the emergence of Danny Masovsky as a very good, you know, very viable backup forward who and this is a player who like a month ago, people were ready to throw out a window. And now it would be a little scary to think where the Sounders might be right now without Misovsky's contribution. Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, Moose, as he's affectionately known. Now it's affectionately known. Yeah. I think you were calling him moose angrily before.
Oh, I've never. No, I don't think that's true. I was just joking. I've never heard the word moose in like a negative connotation. Yeah, I think. His insertion in the lineup, like Aaron and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, it allows the Sounders to play their best way, even if he's not. as good of a player as Jordan Moore. And I think that because the Sounders are able to play in their best way, like their attack is able to do the things that they do the best, he's found himself in...
really good positions to score goals. And I think that that may sound a little bit like... like a backhanded compliment, but I do really think like... the positives he brings to the attack, especially in like, let's say like a set situation, not necessarily a set piece, but in a, in. The Sounders have the ball in the final third. The defense is kind of set in their position. They're not in a transitional attack. I think his movement, I think what he does, especially...
In sort of like, let's call them chaotic situations, like on rebounds and stuff, like the goalie scored in Dallas and stuff like that. I think he's just perfectly suited for this role. And I think as Pedro de la Vega comes back from... Injury gets more comfortable. Jesus Ferreira gets more comfortable. I think those three really do form like a very interesting kind of like band of attack. And that allows...
That allows Brian Spencer to do some interesting things with the lineup, I think, over the next few weeks, especially if they're going to continue to miss Jordan Moore. Yeah, I think, you know, you illustrate something I think is very that's been very good about Mussovsky is that he is making. I don't know if predictable is the right word, but you know he's going to make the runs that you need someone to make. He's not worried about making the near-prost run.
So how many times do we see the Sounders put it in a cross and you go, gosh. You'd really like to have someone at the near boost there. And it's like, if Masovsky is on the field, he's going to make that run. Like he's just, he's going to make the run that you want him to make. And I think one of the things that has jumped out at me over the last couple of weeks, especially is, is once you start digging into the data around him.
is that he's doing a really good job of putting himself... in dangerous areas and you know when when he wasn't scoring it was easy to say oh this guy's an xg merchant merchant or whatever the whatever the uh the the term the kids are using is and But when he starts, once he's actually scoring, it's like, well, no, no, he's doing all the stuff you want him to do. He's putting himself in dangerous areas. You know, like there's a stat in that American Exoticer Analysis uses.
called G+, which I alluded to earlier in this thing. And basically what it is, it compiles a bunch of different data points. And it gives you like a metric that says how good of a player is compared to like the standard player. And Danny Wasofsky, his main, his best attribute. is in an area called receiving. And he is essentially, you know, at the top of this list, you've got Christian Benteke, Brian White, Hugo Kuypers, Anders Dreyer. These are all...
like some of the best players in the league this year. And then you keep going down the list and you have. Bongi from Minnesota. You have Daniel Gosdog who just went, he just made this move to Philadelphia. Max Arvston, here's another player who the pundits just love. Joseph Martinez. I think everyone knows in Jersey. And then you have Danny Masofsky. who is basically a top 10 player when it comes to receiving the ball.
And I think that does a pretty good job of illustrating what he's so good. He just always seems to be in dangerous spots on the field. It was maybe best illustrated in the San Jose game where he missed a bunch of good chances. But to miss good chances, you've got to be in good spots. And he is just so good at that. And it's not like he is. Oh, I mean, he had a really nice finish against Nashville.
I think you could say the finish against Colorado was a pretty decent finish in that he had to reach behind him a little bit. But it's not like he's hitting 20-yard ropes. He's always in and around the box. Yeah. And I think everything you just talked about alludes to like, he's a highly coachable player. And I think if.
That's kind of the ideal type of player you want as like a backup striker to a DP like Jordan Morris is somebody that's just... going to continue to make the runs the coaches are telling him to make because that's the way that... The team needs to play to be successful. I think the downside of playing Jesus Ferreira at the number nine for a few games was like Ferreira is the type of player that goes and finds the game. Very similar to...
Similar but different to, let's say, a Raul Ruiz Diaz who, if he wasn't getting his touches, if he wasn't getting his shots, he would go find the game. Clint Dempsey was very similar in that sense too. Danny Mazofsky doesn't need to find the game because... he doesn't really have a game to find like the game that, and to your point, the game finds him. So it really is kind of been, I would say a,
A nice reprieve from just the conversation that happens around the Sounders attack whenever Jordan Morris gets hurt. So I think he's really coachable. He will do exactly what... He plays the position in a very selfless way, which is kind of an oxymoron when you're talking about strikers because of all the sort of connotation and stuff that comes with that position. Yeah. And I'll add up. And again, I don't want to make I don't know how much I love the stat G plus, so I don't want to.
lean too heavily on it but i do want to i just think it's interesting by on a per 96 minute basis and that's the way that american soccer analysis does their their sort of breakdown. He's the second best player in the league by G plus on a per 96 basis. That's right below a guy named Leo Messi. Which is kind of why I'm definitely not comparing the two. I just think it's very interesting. Yeah. G plus one always makes me think of Google plus. Yeah. I can never not think about that. Tin two.
I don't know if I'm smart enough to fully get it. I'm with you. I'm with you. And I do think that the other thing I don't love about G+, is that there's some players that you know intuitively are playing well. who end up grading out very poorly by this metric for a variety of reasons. And the opposite is also true. Players that you are pretty sure are bad. Or at the very least frustrating. And they end up scoring really well because of some outside. scoring in a certain metric.
But XG, on the other hand, I do like. And that's that's that's easy for me to understand. Yeah, that's that's a little bit more intuitive to understand. And I think and again, the point I'm trying to make here is not that Danny Masofsky is. a superstar. It's just that he is... Like you said, this is the exact type of player you want backing up your superstar striker. You don't need another superstar striker. That's just not how MLS is built. You don't get to have...
two Jordan Morris's on your team for the most part. But what you can oftentimes do is have a guy behind him who is going to... do the dirty work. And right now, Masovsky is averaging 1.27 XG per 96 minutes. Which among players who have played at least 300 minutes, that is a full third of a goal more than anyone else is averaging per 90 minutes, which I think at least tells you he's playing really well and he's putting himself in a lot of really dangerous.
And I'll also say that the top four of this category are all the guys you would probably expect. It's Hugo Kuyper, Sam Surridge, Christian Penteke. I mean, these are players who you intuitively know are playing well. Sam Serge, by the way, coming off a four goal game, which I'm sure boosting those numbers. And Benteke has the...
the DC United tax. He's basically playing with a team that would be like the worst in the USL. Right, exactly. And I should also, Jordan Morris is also doing very well by a host of these same matches. Uh, but again, that sort of illustrates why it's nice to have a player like that, backing him, backing him up. Uh,
I also think like one of the things I also am appreciating more and more about Masovsky is that I just think he understands the game really well. And I look at how often he finds himself to receive rebounds. He scored off a rebound in the Dallas game. He would have scored a second goal in the Dallas game if he hadn't been flagged offside. He almost did it against... The Rapids. He seems to just always be in the right place. And.
And it's tempting to say, if it happens once or twice, you go, okay, well, you know, sometimes... Sometimes you get a little lucky, but if you're consistently finding yourself in these spots, that's, that's something you're doing well. And I, I just want to, I guess I'm, I bring this all up just to say that. I feel oddly OK with Jordan Morris's injury situation right now. at least until we know how long he's out. We still have not gotten an update as of Wednesday, how long he's going to be out.
I guess Brian was on KJR yesterday and he gave them a range of three to eight weeks, which is a very large range, basically saying we don't know how serious it is yet at this point. But those are that's sort of the scope of. of what we're talking about. On the other side of the coin, I don't know quite what to make of Jesus Ferreira. He is, you know, we've talked about him a lot over the over this season. He does seem to be a pretty good playmaker at this point. You know, maybe not.
elite level, but he is He's got five assists in MLS play. He's got seven assists overall. He has five primary assists overall. He's on pace to have a pretty solid season from an assist. But he is, to a shocking degree, not creating scoring chances for himself, not getting on the end of scoring. should say and it's at the point now where i am i am getting a little worried about his his goals Yeah, I think that's probably fair. I don't share.
i'm not like fully ready to board that boat with you yet um and and i think there are people that are willing to like captain that boat already out there yeah for sure i don't love everyone who's in the boat with me i'll be honest with you yeah yeah i'm i'm i'm chilling on the dock for now um And the reason why I'm not too worried is I...
I'm trying to work out if this is player inefficiency. Is this role inefficiency? Is it a little bit of both? Is it a little bit of just unlucky? I think that that chance he had. They were playing at Alto. He had a really bad miss against Colorado. I think that most people would realize that. That's at altitude. And like, if that was happening. Pretty much in any other stadium in MLS, it at least probably hits the bar. So it's just kind of like...
Well, that's annoying. But I guess what's also annoying is he's not doing that two or three times a game. Right. I think that's more my concern. It's not the miss that I'm concerned about. It's that he's not getting enough chances like that. Yeah, and that's where my thinking starts going. Like, what is this role that he's playing? Like, what's the purpose of it? Because he might...
He might be missing chances. He is. He obviously, he hasn't scored a goal in MLS yet. So, or maybe at all. I can't remember. Yeah. And so he. isn't scoring. And I'm, I'm, I'm not able to really figure out like, what this position is that he's playing. It's like not a winger. It's not really a reserved striker. It's also not really a number 10. It's a little bit of all three. To play a position like that that doesn't really exist... Because if it existed, we'd see it like a lot more.
It takes a high amount of concentration. It takes a very highly intelligent player to do so. He seems like the type of player that could do this. In the long run... I feel pretty good. And I feel like we're going to end up having a very similar conversation at the end of this season about him that we've had over the last three years with Albert Rusnak, where it's like...
Oh, he actually ended up being pretty productive overall, but it just felt weird. And that's just where my head is at with Ferreira right now. I think he is just like... He's really incredible at Like seeing a play. One of the criticisms I had early in the season is I thought that the Sounders left. a lot of vision on the field i didn't know he had this in his game and it makes me feel a lot better that if you're pairing him with uh de la vega you're getting
And then maybe we see a lineup with Ferreira, De La Vega, and Rusnak. So you're getting like three players that have this ability. That makes me feel really good, especially when you kind of... take Jackson Reagan out of the equation for a little bit, like his ability to kind of build up and use the ball and stuff like that. I feel, I feel great about. So all in all, like.
The lack of goals doesn't really bother me right now because of the lack of stability around him. He's been asked to do some different things. But if, you know, let's say four or five more games playing with the same striker. the same kind of wingback partner on his left, the same midfield behind him, and then like the same dual number 10. And if we're still having this conversation in let's say three, four or five games.
maybe i'm maybe i'm more kind of willing to get into that boat but i just think with The uncertainty and the kind of the unstableness of early in the season, it's going to affect a player like him the most because he's new. So I think that's a that's a fair way of looking at it. And I would say that I'm inclined to – certainly I'm inclined to want to agree with you for sure. And I'm inclined to agree with a lot of what you said. I just think that – I mean he has – he's taken seven shots.
in MLS player that is just that's indicative to me of something is wrong uh because I don't think this is not a player who you know, half a shot per 90 minutes essentially is almost like what we're at. And well, I shouldn't say that's true. He's on 650 minutes or so. So he's taking about one shot per 90 minutes. That's just not.
He's not doing enough dangers, I guess, is what is concerning me. And in some ways, it seems similar to what Albert Rusenek was doing his first year, except for the excuse that Rusenek had was that, well, he's just farther back in the field. And I guess maybe... Relatively speaking, that's a similar situation. I think it's similar to a degree. And then I think if you look at his like most productive seasons, he is taking like about two and a half shots a game. So I do think I do kind of.
That said, I agree with you. I do think he seems to be a very intelligent player. He seems to understand spacing really well. He is a good – he's a really good passer. I think he's a better passer than I had anticipated him being. And I think if you and I I think as long as Morris or.
Musovsky are on the field I feel really good really about almost any combination of the midfielders that they could put together because I do think Musovsky and Morris do a good enough job of sort of creating space that you you'll give those attacking midfielders more of it uh at this but i am curious your opinion here Because I think this is one of the things we really don't know yet is what the best both formation and best.
grouping of players is in especially in that midfield where they you know on paper it seems like they they really have Ferreira, De La Vega, and Rusnak, who all have really strong cases to be starters, I think, on this team. But with the way that they're playing right now, which is essentially a 3-4-2-1. They only have room for two of those players.
And then that's not even accounting for a Ryan Kent who very well may, you know, we've only seen him play for about 30 minutes, but he looks like a player who will be pushing for starters minutes as well.
and maybe doesn't fit quite as neatly into one of those two attacking, those two midfield spots. I am curious of what you think is the... ideal grouping there like which two players would you like if you had to let's assume all three of those players are healthy this week who would you want to see starting i would probably still go with Russnack and De La Vega, just because I think at the beginning of the season,
That's what we expected to be the first choice 11 or like the first choice partnership. Unfortunately, Russ neck gets injured and that kind of changes things. And on top of that, given everything that is new and everything that has kind of not gone Ferreira's way, I don't mind him not being kind of a nailed on starter. I think part of... Part of being a really intelligent player like he is and part of being the new guy is...
You don't need to be the guy that just plays through it. I think there are several seasons in our memory that a guy like Jordan Morris just needed to play through a slump. He just had to. He had to play most of the game. get it out of his system. I don't think Ferrer's game isn't just like, okay, If he just plays enough minutes, he'll score type of thing. I think you could pull him out of the starting 11, three out of the next five games, have him come off the bench.
Maybe he scores two goals in that time and we're having a completely different conversation about it. I do think he's on... The little bit of the short end of the stick, given like the injuries around him in particular, he's the one that ends up being kind of left on the field for the longest amount of time out of any of the attackers.
naturally fans will just get more frustrated with that player so for instance yeah that's a fair that's an interesting for for instance like musowski comes off at halftime which i thought was uh not a good idea but i realized Smetzer wanted to get minutes into Jordan Morris' legs, which also ended up not being a good idea. On paper, it's not a good idea. Yeah, sure. Get him back into fitness. He probably should have maybe started. I don't know.
De La Vega comes off early. And then probably the most frustrating 15 minutes of the game, it's... It's Jesus Ferreira's attack right there. And I think that that just also ends up.
being kind of a lasting memory you have a from the colorado game but i i think that that has happened four or five times this season too where he's just the one that's kind of left out there to deal with like the really annoying um Yeah, I know that one of the other big talking points out of this game has been concern over. ferreira and rusnak playing together and i'm just not as i don't
But as long as it's just, if it's the two of them and Mussofsky or Morris, I just feel like that'll work itself out. Like I don't, there's not a lot. We don't have, I actually added up the minutes that they've played together. I think they've played together for about 200.
30 minutes or something like that in those positions. And the center has been outscored three to two. That doesn't strike me as particularly compelling data set. But I am just not as worried about them on the field together as long as there's a real number nine with them. But I'm with you. I think Rusnak and De La Vega make the most sense as those two. as if you have to pick two of those players.
Where I do think it's going to be really interesting is that once Ryan Kent is fully fit, you know, again, we've only seen him for 30 minutes. It's not been a whole lot. But I do like what I see. I continue to really be encouraged by his play. He just seems to have very good feet. He seems to have good ideas. He has a little bit of sauce to his game.
I don't know what his best position is at this point within the Sounders, but I feel like if he's given some freedom, he's going to be a fun player. Yeah, I think I want to make one point real quick. I think outside of the Nashville game and maybe the LAFC game, the best the Sounders attack has looked. was the second half against San Jose and the attacking trio in that.
half was Ferreira, Rusnak, and Musovsky. Yeah, that makes sense. That's a good point. I think Ferreira was just kind of unlucky in that game. we're probably talking about different things if he scores in that game. So yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair. I never, I never want to let a good point go wasted. So I wanted to make that, but as for Ryan, I appreciate it. Ryan Kent seems like the supersized version of Paul Rothrock. So just play him where Paul Rothrock's playing because Paul Rothrock...
is a useful and I would even say good player, but at times can be frustrating. And probably like none of us were anticipating Paul Rothrock to be playing this much. use the like supercharged twin turbo version of Paul Rothrock in the Paul Rothrock position. That's kind of how I think about Ryan Kent. I don't, I don't know. Like I, I obviously worry there about like.
What does he do defensively? Because I think an underrated aspect of Paul Rothrock's game is his defensive contributions. Even if it's just his ability to run the line, he's essentially playing as a... a real wing back where he, he is very much in the, when the Sounders have the ball, he is, he is a winger, but when they don't have the ball, he is, he's able to defend and be part of a back line of five. Yeah, and I think Ryan can play there. I don't know, to be honest with you.
He's been a further forward attacker his entire career, but so was Paul Rothrock before this season. Or you can kind of just do a little bit of a... 4-4-2 situation if you're really worried about it. They kind of play that against Colorado. The formation that they are in can easily morph into a 4-2-3-1 without really doing too much heavy lifting. Yeah, and especially if you look at how it was playing with Paul Areola.
He was at times on that left side, like the highest forward player. Yeah, absolutely. That's where I want to see Ryan Kent play. I'm a little bit worried that... Brian is more conservative than me in that aspect. And I don't know if we'll see Brian Kent play there, but I would really like to... Yeah, I think that's a fair point.
Anything else that you are in, by the way, in the last segment today, we're in the final segment, I should say. We're going to the second segment. We're going to power rank our. The next five games, which the Sounders have another three-game road trip after this home game.
I don't know if I fully appreciated that they had two three-game road trips this close together to start the season. But we're going to power rank the five games in terms of most important to least important games they need to win. But was there any other anything else that you feel like we got from this first 10 games of the season that you feel like are either you feel pretty strongly or are going to be big issues going forward?
I think that we have two very legitimate starting right wing back options. Yeah. And that is to my surprise. Yeah, that's a good point. Coming into this season, I think. most Sounders fans had worries about. And one of them would be Nuhu and the other one would have been Alex Rodon, just based on like- how fullbacks played last season. I think Nuhu has been 7 out of 10 this season, which is probably...
Coming from you, you're basically building a statue of the guy. I think he's played good. I think he's been fine. I think there's been really frustrating moments, but that's just new him. And then I thought Alex Roldan, this right wing back position really, really suits him. And then Kalani Renzi is a real big surprise to me. And I love what he has to offer.
differs from alex's game yeah and i think i think that you really you really have two options depending on what type of game you want to play and i just am really kind of been pleased with that so Yeah, I think Kalani has maybe been the biggest surprise of this early season. He has been... I wouldn't say... I think Alex is still the clearly superior defensive option, but Kalani is...
I mean, he's a very good attacking player, and he's no slouch defensively. He's been caught out a couple times, but he uses his body well. He's obviously very athletic. He can get up and down the field with no problem. The pass that he had to Masofsky to set up the assist I thought was a good example of the type of play he has. The goal he scored against Nashville or against LAFC was a good example of his ability to find the goal.
to find, to make something out of almost nothing. And that's, you know, not something the sounders have been able to say about wingbacks really for a very long time. Uh, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like a Kelvin Ludo-esque play there. The Sounders have just gotten a lot more productivity out of their wide players this year than they got last year. Like really outside of Rothrock, they got almost no production from wide players and I'm putting wingers and... and fullbacks in that category.
This year, they've gotten quite a lot of production from from wingers, whether it's Georgie Minungu, whether it's Kalani Kosarienzi, whether it's Paul Areola. They are getting. they are getting goals and assists from more, like almost all their production came from through the middle of the field last year. And this year they are much more. diversified in their production, which is great to see.
One of the main points coming into this offseason was like, is the outside of Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak, where does a goal or assist come from? Right. It has been very shared, which. pleases me. So far, Morris and Rusnak have been productive when they've been on the field, but both of them have missed more time this year than they missed last year, I believe. Certainly Morris has.
And so the fact that they've been able to be reasonably productive without them carrying so much of the load is a good sign. I suppose one other... We don't need to get into this, really. But I guess the other concern at this point is, I'll just ask you, how worried are you about the way the Senators handled Jackson Reagan's absence? And he's probably going to be out another week or two. I thought it was...
Fine. I don't think Kim Keehee played his best game, but you never really want... to be starting a lot of games that are older than me um so i think that that's uh Like, hey, that's just a thing, you know? Yeah, sure. You don't want to be too reliant on 35-year-olds these days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I'm at the age now where you start. People say some funny things about the athletes that are the same age as me. And I don't even want to bring up your age. So there's that. Yeah.
I do think the Sounders kind of missed an opportunity early this season to see about Stuart Hawkins. And that... Because because you don't know how you would fill in for Jackson Reagan, you're now kind of at the point where you can't really figure that out. especially in the stretch of games that the Sounders have coming up. So if it's Kim Kihee, that's great. I really, really don't want to see the John Bell new who.
tandem there ever so yeah i don't and so if kim ki he gets hurt then i think you really worry or if While Reagan is out, EA markets hurt. That's a real big concern to me. Yeah. Well, that's probably a good note to end this segment on. We're going to come back. We're going to take a break and we're going to discuss the next stretch of games. The sound of five games coming up. Two of them are at home.
Three of them are on the road, but the three on the road are all in a row. We're basically going to give our idea of how important each of those games are. You're listening to Nos Audietes on the Center at Heart Podcast Network, and we'll be right back. Ready to kickstart your fitness journey? Whether you're an athlete, a fitness enthusiast, or just getting back into shape, BodySpec has you covered. For less than the price of a haircut, you can access DexaScans, the world's most accurate body...
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Welcome back to Nos Adiates on the Center at Heart Podcast Network. So before we get to our power rankings, I did want to share a little bit of a note. A friend of the show, a personal, I guess a friend of mine as well, Tom Bureau, you may know as the ECS co-president, longtime ECS co-president, was apparently in a pretty bad...
accident the other day. He was a victim in the hit and run down in Pioneer Square. Apparently, he was on a scooter. Wrong way driver hit him. And he's been in the hospital for the last couple of days. I think I heard that he is. conscious, although it's unclear as to how serious his condition still is. So it's a pretty scary thing. I'll just share a note.
Please be mindful of if you're a driver, I myself drive a car. Please be mindful that people that are on bikes, that are on scooters, that are on. that are walking, they might annoy you, but that does not like they are far, far, far. So much more vulnerable in those situations. And we need to all be mindful at all hours of the day of sharing the road.
and being responsible drivers in this case, this is a hit and run situation. Obviously this is like a criminal situation at this point. So I would hope that I doubt the person that is the, uh, perpetrator is listening to the show, but I would hope that they at least turn themselves in and not make a bad situation worse. He has a GoFundMe page. I think he's raised about $8,000 at this point to help cover medical expenses and any lost wages. We'll put the link to that in our show notes.
And if you can help out with anything, it's greatly appreciated. And with that, on that really wonderful note, I guess we can move on with the show. Do you want to add anything more? Yeah, I think Bloodworks Northwest is doing a blood drive. I think some friends organized that in honor to support. Tom, so if you can't give financially, give your blood or do both. If I lived in the Pacific Northwest, though, I would love to donate blood.
uh kind of in in tom's honor but yeah i'm just kind of hope tom pulls through obviously we're all rooting for him and he's just a really kind of really important member of like the sounders community so absolutely Yeah. All right. Well, that said, it always feels awkward to transition from that, but the show goes on, I guess. We have a bunch of upcoming games here.
I'll just read through the schedule. And I think we have enough of a differing opinion on how important these games are relative to one another that we'll each sort of give. I'll let you go first and I'll sort of commentate on that. But essentially, here's the way the schedule lines up. They are playing at home against St. Louis on Saturday. Then they go on the road to play Houston. And then they have a midweek game against at LAFC.
And then at Portland, which that is a brutal back-to-back short rest road game, but that's how it is. And then they close it out with a home game against Dallas. So, Mark, in terms of importance, what is your least important game? What's the game you feel like the Sounders could, you know, obviously we want them to win them all, but which one do you think is the one they can most afford to drop points in?
I am going to go with the Houston game being the least important. And that is mostly because... It is a road game in MLS in Texas. Honestly, I wrote that down as... as least important thinking that they haven't played very well in Houston. After I wrote it down, I kind of looked at their head to head in Houston and they played fine. And like they've won playoff games and stuff there. So, but.
If I'm nothing, I am committed to the bit. So I'm going to say that the Houston game is the least important. If they lost the Houston game, I would be annoyed, but I would just kind of be... Well, that's playing in Texas for you. Yeah, I'm going to agree with you on that one. I think... If you can afford to drop points, if you can sort of drop points and not be stressed about it, it feels weird to say because that feels also like a very winnable game.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's probably the easiest game. It's the it's the worst opponent for sure. It's the most beatable opponent. So but yeah, I'll agree with you there. Who do you have next on your list? Okay, the... The fourth most important, the second. I don't know. There you go. Fourth most important. Yeah. Fourth most important game. I have written down as the Dallas game. Mostly because. That game is the most in the future, and I don't really know. That's pretty good logic, actually.
We've totally forgotten what we ranked, where that ranked on this list. That game is basically in a month. I will personally be out of the country for that game, so I don't know if I'm going to watch it. And then, but in a more kind of serious, like actual, like analysis point of view, I've already seen the Sounders play Dallas. I'm relatively confident that that game will be comfortable or at least should be. And when it comes down to...
If for whatever reason, the Sounders end up playing Dallas in the playoffs. I know what to expect, and I know that the Sounders should be... a lot should comfortably beat Dallas in any sort of like playoff matchup. And so if for whatever reason they lay an egg at home or Dallas gets lucky. or it's just kind of a drab 0-0. I'm not too worried about that because they just played Dallas and they played really, I think they played fine against Dallas in...
in interesting circumstances. So I'm just not worried about Dallas. They've already played Dallas and it just doesn't, it doesn't really excite me at the, at the heart of it. I can't care about it. I'm going to disagree with you here. But before I do that, I want to add more fuel to why I think you could argue that it's not. It's the first of a three game homestand. You have the ability to make up for that in the... In fact, the following Wednesday, they have a home game against San Diego.
They can make that up if they were to stumble there. But I actually, I'm going to put that all the way up to number three. I think that's the third most important game. I just feel like the Sounders are at a point where they need to be winning home games. I think maybe your perspective on this is how they should prioritize it in terms of like...
game planning, and I think that's a fair way of putting it, but I'm looking at this from which games do I think the Sounders need the most points from, and it's a home game. I'm putting that number three on my list. But who's number three on your list, Mark? Look at that transition. Yeah, so number three on my list is the game on Saturday against St. Louis.
A little bit of the same, like, well, maybe St. Louis is the worst team that the Sounders play in the next stretch. Certainly the least effective offensive team, that's for sure. Yeah, but. I have it third just because it is like a very like middle game of the next five. It doesn't speak to me in any way other than. I would like to see the Sounders win the next game that they play and that this is the next game that the Sounders play from when I am talking currently right now.
like St. Louis a little bit. Their coach is so interesting to me. He's a very throwback type of manager and coach. He's very... looking i don't know if he's actually german but he's like talking about olaf melberg yeah yeah he's swedish Oh, okay. I can see what you mean. Yeah, I can see the, I see what you mean though. He's just very, like very burly. Like, and I, and I guess, I guess now that I think about it a little bit more kind of Viking-esque then.
than German. Common ancestry. Hey, just depending on when you're talking about history, very similar. It's a couple hundred miles either way. So what's the big deal? uh and ultimately like again already played uh I don't, I don't like how I'm talking myself into this criteria too much. Yeah. No, this is perfect. This is why we have. Yeah. Four of the five teams they've already played. So that just shouldn't matter to me, but it apparently does. And so I have St. Louis there.
All right. Yeah, I actually, again, sort of illustrating the way we approach this differently. I had St. Louis number one. A, because it's the game this weekend, so that's the most important game. I'm a Brian Schmetzer acolyte at heart, really. The next game is always the most important. But also, again, this is a home game.
The Sounders need are still I think they're still very much in a we need to convince fans to care about us sort of thing. And winning home games is the best way to do that. So, hey, put on a good show against St. Louis. And then let the chips fall where they made once you go on the road. But I feel like this St. Louis game is a super important one to get three points. Not necessarily because of...
you know, any other, it's just, they need to get, they need to win home games. That's at least as far as I'm concerned. So who do you got in at number two, we're getting into the, the meat, the meat of your, of your list. Yeah, I have the LASC game as number two. Okay. Off the top of my head, I don't think they play LAFC a third time this season. Is that correct? No, they don't play anyone three times. So this is the last time they'll play LAFC. In the regular season.
Yeah. So I wasn't, I don't even know how many MLS teams there are anymore. And I just, I know that sometimes. I believe there are 30. are there really? Cause there's like DC United. Right. Yeah. Fair. Not really an MLS team. You cannot convince me that like Charlotte actually has a team. Anyways, we don't have to get into that. I have LAFC second on my list because.
If you beat LAFC, you've beaten LAFC twice this season. Yeah. And you don't have to worry about them until October and you get to win on the road in LA. They've got like a weird. vibe going like the coach wants to quit and move back to germany um they do and They have just a weird, their vibes stink. And I think more people would be talking about their stinky vibes if the other LA team didn't have stinkier vibes.
And I think just beating them could be another nail in the LAFC coffin. And I'm a big fan. They've had a weird season. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that, like really helping construct that coffin in particular. So beating LAFC twice on the season and hopefully in convincing fashion. and then you don't have to think about them again until october i think it's great i think i'm like
You're a big fan of that. It was a real toss-up for me between two and one. Okay. Well, I had them down at fourth. I'm not going to stress about this game. They've already beaten LAFC once this year. feels like they've sort of like accomplished that main point i can appreciate what you're saying about sort of like kicking them when they're down it was like a heavily rotated lafc it was That's a good point. This will also probably be heavily rotated, but again.
That doesn't speak to my point. So I'm not going to. Yeah, I'm I think I'm more inclined just to give the Sounders a pass just because I think they're going to have they are almost certainly going to rotate for this one in part because. of who your number one game is, Portland is going to be... Right after that one, which I hate that they scheduled these two so close together. It really sucks, to be honest with you.
I am going to be going down there with my daughter. I am going to be watching the game with my cousin and daughter. It's going to be a family outing out of this game. That's why it's number one for you, right? That's why it's your most important game because of the stakes that I have put on it. Yeah, it's the Ocean Derby. Yeah, exactly. Is your cousin a Timbers fan? You know, I don't think I should say because we might be sitting in ECS and they might have to be agnostic for the day.
But they might be Timbers fans. I don't know. This is a don't ask, don't tell situation. I have told them not to wear Timbers colors. I don't know if they would have otherwise, but I have instructed them to behave. I think you have a lot of leverage in this situation, given what you do for a living. I agree. Yeah. Where they're going to be sitting. So if I were you, I. I would be kind of twisting the screw on my family member to be like, no, you actually need to wear the sounders.
No, I, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be like forcing them to wear anything. It would, it would be more. Maybe I'd give them some sounder heart gear. There's that. Yep. But I would be doing like emotional and mental manipulation on my family member if I were you. Okay. In the sense of like.
Like, do they really want to be a Timbers fan? Like, sure, they live in Portland, but really? I mean, there's a lot of reasons not to want to be a Timbers fan, and I could certainly go through that. And one of the people that are going is my cousin. son who is at an age an impressionable age i think he's nine so he's at a perfect age to like convince him that he needs to not root for the timber
Yeah. And when I was nine, I wanted to become a sports journalist. So maybe you can like be his hero. Yeah. I think that's a great idea. Love that. So I'm glad we've got that figured out. But the reason why I have the Timbers as number one on my list. Nothing to do with me. I mean, I'm talking myself into it more and more. And like I said, I'm nothing but committed to the bit. It's... It's a game in Portland, and I think over the years... This rivalry has been in a weird spot, but...
For whatever reasons, the games in Portland tend to matter a little bit more, or even in most cases, a lot more than the games in Seattle. I'm not having that this Portland team is actually good. It's annoying that they have more points than the Sounders. I think Phil Neville's face is like deeply unpleasant. That's true. And then who he is as a person is even more unpleasant. I think it's so hard.
to have replaced Gio Savarese with a more unlikable man. And they found a way. God bless Merrick Paulson and his ability to find him. that type of person to lead his soccer team. I got to probably be careful with what I say. Yeah, I just think like... Coming off of this road trip and ending it with a win against Portland.
And with how I just talked about the LAFC game, you're talking about like at least six points out of nine in my kind of fantasy. And I'm kind of really looking at like seven points in this scenario. I think that that's really, really good. And you've beaten LAFC twice. You've already gone to Texas and you've come away alive, which is good. And then you beat Portland at the end of it. It's really kind of cool to me. Yeah, I mean, it would be a nice run.
For what it's worth, I have the Timbers second on my list behind only the St. Louis game. I agree that this is a big one. I think every game against Portland is big, but especially when I'm going to be there in person, that makes it even bigger. Are you...
Yo, yeah, you're in the stand, so you don't get to see my... memorial press box seat unfortunately i will i i think i'm gonna do some work while i'm there but yeah i'm gonna be sitting in the stands mostly i will go say hi to your seat of course it's the it's like one of the best seats in all of MLS where you're sitting behind an accordion window and you can only see about 70% of the field. Oh, it's like 30% of the field.
It's really better. Yeah. No, it's, it's a pretty, pretty bad seat. I am taking the train. One of my favorite things to do is take the train to Portland. So. Yeah. I think another kind of like. Another thing that kind of factored into my ranking is There is really nothing better in my kind of Pacific Northwest experience than, like you said, taking the train down to Portland for a weekend.
Drinking their drinks, eating their food, enjoying what little... enjoyable aspects of their culture they have and then going to that baseball stadium and winning a game oh it's the best coming home There's just nothing better. You have 72 hours of just bliss. I really want that for a lot of my friends that are going, just Sounders fans in general. And most importantly, I want... the people in Matt Doyle's mentions to be upset.
That is one of my favorite ongoing bits of the year is, which I don't know how much of a bit it is, but he's definitely leaned into it either way. Just every week, putting the timbers behind the sounders, no matter what the table says. So we'll see. We'll see how that goes. But Mark, as always, thank you for filling in. It's always great to have you on here. Yeah, of course.
But yeah, this is a thank you to our sponsor, Full Pool Wines. Thank you to our subscribers. If you are on the fence about becoming a subscriber, I would just say you shouldn't be. You should join us. It's a lot of fun over here on the subscriber feed. Of course, you can. Yeah. It's tariff free. It's tariff free. Exactly. Exactly. We don't charge tariffs. We don't have to charge. We're a American made podcast. Yeah. It's no, it's yeah. It's fantastic money for the book.
Exactly. Exactly. Whatever that phrase is. Well, with that said, we should probably get out of here. I'm Jeremiah Shan signing off for Mark Kastner. This is No Sadietes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. And remember, you'll never get along. I expect an LAFC who's motivated. to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really ruin the party. You guys like that? Awkward joke, dad joke.