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Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adietes on the Sound at Heart podcast network. I am Jeremiah O'Shan and joining me back in the saddle, Matt Doyle, the MLS armchair analyst. We're going to talk Western Conference. Thank you for joining me, Matt. This is neither a saddle nor an armchair. This is a fake Ames chair. Are you familiar with the Ames chair? I am vaguely familiar with it. That's a nice chair. Well, it's a fake one.
Go ahead. It's the type of thing that Don Traper had in his apartment in season five, six of Mad Men. It was my wife's decision back during COVID. We were drinking a little bit. Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to stand in the way of this one. This could work for me. The Ames chair analyst never really took off, though. a real shame that yeah uh so we i don't know did you happen to i'm gonna put you on the spot you happen to listen joe lowry filled in for you last time we did this this show
Uh, I did not listen to that. I get a lot of Joe Lowry in my life. Yeah. You know, I like between, uh, you know, I checked back healed. pretty religiously. And then every now and again, I listened to him on Total Soccer Show. And then I've wound up in like several different discords. where Joe is a somewhat active member. So I get a daily dose of Joe Lowry, but Lowry and O'Shann together is a good little group right there. Yeah, it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad, but...
you know, we're happy to have you back in any case. Well, I mean, you know, I'm the original Joe's the cover band. That's fine. That's how it is. That's his lot in life. Well, let's dig into this. There was big news in the Western Conference today. We may as well just open up right out of the gates with the news that... Peter Vermees was fired by Sporting Kansas City as bad as they've been. I guess it's been like 200 days since they've won a match. They had gone 0-12-1.
One point in 13 games dating back to last season across all competitions, you would think, oh, clearly this is obviously this is a guy who's going to who's on his last legs. But he had gone through runs like this before and survived and come out of it. But this time, the axe fell. What made it different this time, do you think? They had just spent $9 million in the winter transfer window. I think that's probably the biggest.
difference between now and a couple years ago they had a really terrible herb Maybe it was three years ago, four years ago. They had a really terrible year, but they were able to say, well, the one big signing we made was Polito and he got hurt and we didn't get reinforcements and Gatti Ginda had a, I think he had compartment syndrome. And so there was like.
laundry list of i think viable excuses that season this season um you know they were bad last year they said we have a three window rebuilding project In the first of those windows, which was a summer window, their only big addition was the Spanish fullback, Joaquin Fernandez, who's barely played. And then this window, they went out and they bought... Manu Garcia, the number 10 who's been pretty bad. They brought in a winger.
as well which was a position i don't think that they particularly needed to fill now they have this guy who hasn't done anything who is taking minutes away from steven afrifa who was one of the few bright spots last year and then they went out and they spent four million dollars who's a good player, but I'm not sure he's actually better than Willie Agata. And none of what they did there obviously fixed the defense.
or fix the midfield in fact i think the midfield has looked a little bit worse um though i have hopes with jake davis now playing in midfield that they could get better but it just like It was bad decision after bad decision after bad decision, especially in these last two transfer windows. But it's been a long, honestly, it's been a long decade of that.
And I wrote a column about it. It's up on MLSsoccer.com now about how what made Vermees so great 15 years ago was his ability to identify and develop. primarily domestic talent acquired via the Superdraft. His Superdraft run from 2007 to 2012 was... the best six-year run in Superdraft history. Biesler, Zussi, Espinosa, Chance Myers, Dom Dwyer, CJ Sapong, Teal Bunbury, Michael Harrington, everybody forgets about him. He played 170 games for that club, and he was...
Very good. And then they picked up guys like Seth Sinovic and Tim Melia, Kai Kamara, Benny Failhaber, guys off the scrap heap. And he got them to play together and he got them to play really well.
And they kept doing that. Later on, it was Ike Aparra, who may be the best three-year run of any center back ever. And for some reason, around 2015, just... completely lost interest in the super draft mostly lost interest in domestic products and uh the signings have been pretty terrible you know one hit for every five minutes misses type of thing since then and uh kind of this downward spiral ended the way it was kind of destined to end once he lost his ability or interest in developing down.
And so the thing that I find really interesting about this is that they are still sort of in the friends of Peter Vermeer's business, frankly, like the the organization is so deeply. built around his vision of what this was i don't know i assume mike burns is not the guy who actually called him up and fired him but it's kind of weird
Because Mike Burns was effectively hired by Peter Vermees to sort of help with some of these jobs. I think a lot of us were raising red flags. Like, why are you bringing in one of your buddies to do the stuff that you already... has he's been bad at before and then that was to replace gavin wilkinson who was another head scratching higher even independent of all the drama around him it was you know this was
Sporting Kansas City primarily has been in the Peter Vermees business for the better part of his entire tenure. Let's not forget, Peter Vermees hired himself to be the head coach almost 16 years ago. This is... This is an organization that was defined by one person more than any other organization in NMLS is defined by one person. And so I...
I'm sitting here from the outside going like, does this even start to address? I guess it starts to address it, but there's a lot to unfurl here. Yeah, like the folks who I know who are... more familiar with day-to-day workings with that club than I am, said that like Vermees had his hand on everything down to like having to sign off on the hiring of like...
front desk attendance at the training center. Like he was that micromanaging that involved in stuff that a coach and she is a chief soccer officer really shouldn't have to be doing. Like that should not be his remit. Shouldn't be allowed to do. So my sympathy here is that like it was barely a professional soccer team before Peter Vermees. Like he had to institute.
this level of professionalism and once you have that kind of power then it's tough to let it go i think for anybody in any business and Guys who are as competitive as professional athletes, I think especially probably struggle with that. So around 2012, 2013, he probably, instead of. saying, okay, I can let the rope go a little bit and let the business side run the business side and I'll be the soccer side and maybe I'll get some better scouts in or expand the network a little bit. He started...
Even more so having a concentration of power in his own hands as this team essentially grew into a billion dollar business. And that's what MLS teams are now. It was too much very clearly by about 2017, 2018. or so and it was just it took too long for ownership to sort of rein him in or cut him off as it were and now i think it's going to take 18 months at least three windows
Yeah. Right. To unwind, to unwind all of this. It's, it's pretty wild. It shouldn't overshadow what he did though, as a whole, like there's, there's never been a sport in Kansas city without Peter Vermees and there's barely been. at Kansas City Wizards without Peter Vermees. And he brought this team kicking and screaming into the modern era. And just from a tactical perspective, I think he might be the single most important coach in MLS history.
Yeah. And I, you know, it's funny because I was having some fun with this last night. I don't remember what the news was last night that this, oh, because the supporters put out a letter basically demanding that he be fired. And on some level, I feel.
I'm having fun with it. One of the things I pointed out was on the Onside series, one of the more interesting little anecdotes is that they did this little vignette on him, and they show him getting up at... the crack of dawn and showing up to the office at, in the cover of night to just work extra hours and be one of the worst teams in the league just did strike me as kind of funny.
But I also feel for the guy a little bit because he's not an unintelligent person. I think he actually does have some ability to... self self-analyze himself he he doesn't seem like a jerk you know i and it's like you you have fun with him because he he you know he's complaining to the refs or whatever and these are always the the coaches that other fans love to sort of hate on
But I do feel like ownership at some point owed it to him to step in and say, you can't do this. This is not a modern, we're not running. a mom and pop shop anymore this is a supposed to be a modern sporting organization and as much as we appreciate that you maybe want to be you know the you have your hands and everything we just don't think it's good for you and no one was there
willing to save him from himself, I think. And that's what I think is too bad because they gave him a contract, something like a five-year contract extension two years ago. They've got three more years of Peter Vermeer's contracts to pay off. which is just unfathomable to me. I mean, no one in MLS has five coaches. Don't sign five-year contracts in MLS. And this is a guy who is in the middle of a bad run who got an almost unbelievable extension. I just.
It's hard for me to comprehend how bad, like ownership needs to own this. Yeah. No, you've hit the nail on the head here, right? Like it was a situation where ownership needed to. create different silos or different buckets of responsibility within the org because it wasn't a mom and pop shop anymore. They didn't do it. And Vermees did what...
Again, he was able to sort of coalesce power in his own hands. And the other point that you made that's a good one, the Vermees that people saw on... the sideline every week that's not the peter for me as i knew now granted i'm not i don't know him particularly well i've only interviewed him a few times but Every time I did, he was thoughtful. He was almost gentle with how he would approach things. I think he's aware of how intimidating he can be.
He seems like a really good guy. And I know that there are plenty of players who... played for him and will tell you like he wasn't the best guy he was actually kind of a son of a bitch um but i think that's true of a lot of coaches but this is not someone who folks around the league were rooting for his demise yeah i understand why fans would i really do because it like he has that kind of a bad guy air when he's on the sidelines but like this was not
Yeah. Like he looks like a cop, man. Like he, like he, that's not, that's not the Vermees that I think. most folks around the league got to know and I hope that some you know a year from now like let this guy decompress 18 months from now hopefully he's back in a job somewhere because I think you know on the whole he was really really good for mls over the course of his 30 years now
Yeah, I think honestly, the way once it actually happened, I started feeling a lot more sympathy for him and a lot more frustration on behalf of Kansas City fans at the ownership that sort of allowed this whole situation to.
uh, go the way it went because it just was like, there was no one there to tell him. No, there was no guardrails. There was, he was just sort of like doing the best that he could. And it's, and it kind of sucks that he felt like he had to show up to work at 6am and probably stay till. 6 or 7 PM and just grind away doing no guard, no, no guardrails and no scouting network. And that's the big thing. Like at some point,
You know, three months after you signed Johan Cruze to a DP deal, somebody in the organization needs to be able to go, we blew this so badly. We need to examine our processes. And that never happened. I don't think it ever happened. And now it's on Mike Burns to, to fix this. Like the, this is the part that is going to take. I laugh because it's funny.
It's going to take a while. Like if I was if I was a CSO of an MLS team, I would be calling up Sporting Kansas City asking about every half decent player on their team because they they seem ripe for the fleecing at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, moving into the other big sort of news and, you know, as this is a kind, not really a Sounders show, but we are a Sounders. We are a Sounders show at the same time.
The other big news today was Ryan Kent, who I will freely admit is not a player who I had any familiarity with up until a couple weeks ago. And then all of a sudden it's like everyone who ever played football manager is like, Oh no, this, or they played FIFA. It's like, no, no, no. Ryan Kent is like, he's like the guy that you always end up, you know, pursuing. So I don't know much. Do you know much about Ryan Kent? Of course, the Sounders made this signing official today.
I don't know if you have anything to say about him at all, but I will admit I knew nothing about this guy before I started researching him. Yeah, I don't play FIFA or Football Manager, and I do not watch the Scottish Premier League, so I don't know much about Ryan Kent. at all other than it sounds like he has a made up name
Yeah, it does kind of sound that way. So, you know, we're going to have plenty of Ryan Kent discourse on this network. So we're going to just go ahead and move beyond that and then focus on the other what I think big, big story of the Western Conference is who also happens to be playing the Sounders this week.
week so it dovetails very nicely and that's san diego fc who scored another really nice win this week and as much As I was skeptical of what they were selling early in the preseason and going into this year and talking about how they were going to stick to their principles and all these things that every expansion team says and very few of them are ever actually able to do.
They are doing it. They are walking the walk and they are, you know, getting results in not just kind of grinding it out either. They're looking pretty impressive right now. I don't know. I kind of want you to eat shit a little bit more on this because I remember a couple of weeks ago I had them seventh in my power rankings and I thought it was too high.
And you were on social media chirping away like, oh, I'm not going to use any more foul language here, but come on, man. No, they played good. What else can I eat shit on as far as this goes? Every assumption I think I made about this team.
has so far proven incorrect is that is that fair you know what me too though like even after being there for part of preseason and talking to to tyler heaps and mikey varis and they were you know doing the whole possessions in our dna we're gonna have the ball we don't don't want to do aerial duels i was like yeah everybody says this come on like you're gonna you know you're gonna be
no wins, three losses, two scoreless draws through five games, and you're going to be like, we need to bunker. We need to bunker and counter our way to a 1-0 win because that's the only way we're going to do it. And obviously, it hasn't been like that in almost any way. even without Chucky Lozano for most of the season. They played really good ball.
After he picked up that injury, Andres Dreyer has been excellent on that right wing. The whole midfield has been just superb. Shverkov, the D-mid, he's like a Kyle Beckerman regen.
Like he just does the same things that Beckerman did at such a high level for like 15 years. And then that gives the whole thing function and form on both sides of the ball. Like you can crack them open. We saw Columbus do it. We saw... lafc do it on one of their goals um but for the most part they're able to make the game compact they're really disciplined about how and where they get pressure to the ball and then in attack they have a lot of good guys who are guys who are
good technically, and then guys who are unselfish in their movement. And so it's all, it's all fricking working. Yeah. So three, two win this week against LAFC. They are two and O against their Southern. California rivals, I don't think anyone, even you, even you predicted a 2-0 record against the two other Southern California teams.
Is there any reason really at this point? No, granted, it's six games. A lot can change. But are you seeing any anything, any red flags that are saying, OK, well. Sure. They're doing it now. But, you know, St. Louis was in a similar position a couple of years ago.
Everyone was raising red flags like this is just totally unsustainable. It doesn't seem that way with San Diego. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. Right. Because like St. Louis was getting gifts left and right. Everybody remembers those back passes and Roman Berkey was standing on his head. And to be fair.
to him he continued to do so for two more years um and you know rescuing points like that was unsustainable nobody's rescuing points for San Diego like they're controlling games out there with the ball and you know we saw last week when they lost to Austin they can sometimes get a little bit um maybe a little bit gappy which allows you to counter on them. If they're not tight with those lines, then second balls can be a problem. And maybe as the weather gets hotter, then.
you know your legs get heavier and it becomes a little harder to stay as compact like that is It's not like a red flag, but I think it's something to be aware of. The rest of it all tracks. Like even as they've had to play without a true center forward with Marcus Ingvartsen hurt, like they've gone to Oni Valakari as kind of a false nine. That gave LAFC so many problems because they didn't know how to account for his movement. And as Balakari was dropping in, you know.
dryer in particular and then might and on the other side they were running the channels and like it looked natural it looked really well drilled and um Teams that are well-drilled and are willing to run for each other tend to have a lot of success in this league. And, you know, even when it's not... simple running, like a counterattacking team. Like look at the crew, look at that great NYCFC team that won a MLS cup a few years back. That team ran a lot in possession and that's what.
san diego are reminding me of these days is there any reason that sounders should be confident going down to san diego or is this a sort of survival situation. I still don't think the Sounders have looked bad in these first six games. The results haven't really been there, but I don't know. I was very encouraged by a lot of what I saw against San Jose. They had their best expected goal performance.
They had a bunch of high quality chances. They didn't find the back of the net as much as I think it felt like they deserved to. But there were some... positives in that. And one of them, I don't know where you fall on this, but this has been a lot of the debate around the Sounders. This week is was Danny. Danny Masofsky have a blinder of a bad game or was he actually good? I'm of the mind that he did more good than bad, but I don't know. Where do you fall on the.
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I was hoping for your opinion on this because I, like, I really like Jesus Ferreira, um, as a player. I, I'm not a false nine guy, even, you know, three minutes after complimenting on Ivalakari. I like, I, I just tend to think that teams function better with a true number nine out there. And to me, That's what I saw from the Sounders, the difference between that first half and the second half was Mussovsky. Yeah, he's not a starting caliber player in MLS, really. But he.
mimics a lot of what jordan morris brings as a center forward and that you know that opens up the pockets for guys like rusnak and ferreira and you know when de la vega is back so that's one and two is to bring it back like I don't like I think the Sounders are talented enough, even as they're struggling to.
pick up results they're talented enough to go into any game with confidence like this is MLS like nobody you know nobody out there is 2009 Barcelona so it's like they should not go down to this game expecting anything except a win. Yeah, so I'll give my opinion on Masovsky. I agree with you. I really wanted Jesus Ferreira to work out and to be sort of like a... And he might still. and he's still right and i actually think he if you watch that game he actually was
It's funny how much better he was in the second half when there was a real nine and he was sort of allowed to sort of float out into the wings and get into those half spaces. He still has all the... on the ball skills that you expected. He sees passes that like his pass that sets up the goal is actually a really nice ball into Christian Roldan. He does a lot of good things, but for whatever reason, he's just not.
doing them when he's playing up top. And he was almost invisible in the first half in that game. And I think part of it is that the Sounders just really are not built around a team that has a false nine because they need someone who's just going to like stay high. and stretch the line and battle for balls in the box and do all the things that Masovsky was doing in this game. You know, maybe the most emblematic play of that was...
when he goes in for, I think it was a Georgie Munungu cross, and he just ends up slamming right into Daniel, the goalkeeper. And he, it was a foul on Masovsky. But whatever, the point was that he was willing to just throw his body out there and sacrifice. And that's sort of what you need a number nine to do. And he is not going to displace Jordan Morris. I don't think in an ideal world, I don't think this is a situation where he...
You got to figure out how to get him and Morris on the field together. This is not that. This is like, you just got to get to the point where Jordan is healthy and ready. And then if you can do that, you have enough talent around him where why not? Like if you can get.
Albert Rusnak and Jesus Ferreira and Christian Roldan and Obed Vargas and Paul Rothrock even and Alex Roldan to a degree. If you can get them sort of doing the things they need to be doing, Mussofsky can... do a job he doesn't need to save you he just needs to like put the balls in the net that he should be putting in the net and frankly he had a couple of those looks in this game but he was getting into the spaces
I don't even know, like, well, obviously he needs to put the ball in the net more than he has been, but it's... It's the work, right? He needs to do the work to set the preconditions for guys like Rusnak and Ferreira and maybe Rothrock and Georgie to, you know. sort of play the music kind of thing um yeah and like that was the big difference half
one to half two for me. To bring it back to Ferreira as a false nine, I do think it can work. And I think it probably eventually will to a degree. It's not going to work with Rusnak underneath. Right? Because like Rusnak is not going to run as a number 10. And sometimes if you're playing a false nine, you need your number 10 to stretch the field. to read the movement back into the pocket and then use that defense's...
inclination to follow the forward against them and sort of burst through the lines and become a point of attack kind of guy. Rusnak has, I don't think, ever done that. And I'm not calling him a lazy player, right? I don't think he's a lazy player. I just don't think that's his skill set. So that is a really awkward fit. Conversely, I do think if you're playing a 1-2. with one underneath and two up top, and the two is Mussovsky and Ferreira or Morris.
and Ferrara, and the one underneath is Ruzdak. I actually think that could work really well, especially if you have two flying wingbacks. So I think there's a lot of opportunities here for the... you know, coaching staff to figure it out over the course of the next couple of seasons because these guys are going to be on the team for the next couple of seasons. It just hasn't.
all happened immediately in the first six weeks. And I understand why that's frustrating for Sounders fans, but you're in it for the long haul, folks. Yeah, yeah. You also probably need... more like real wingers i think when if you're gonna have a false nine you can't just have every like everyone can't just be sort of waiting for someone else to push the line and that's not that wasn't really happening
That's just not the personnel that the Sounders have right now. And so there's a variety of reasons. It was funny because someone in the comments asked me, I'm not sure if Rustek and Ferrer work together in that way. And I sort of dismissed it and said, I don't see why they couldn't. But this game felt like, okay, maybe you're right. Maybe they can't quite do it. And I have to. Yeah, you're eating shit again. Yeah, exactly. I'm eating shit again.
While we're talking about the top teams in the Western Conference, though, Vancouver got another... They're quietly putting together a really nice run here. I don't know if this week was their most impressive performance, but... They're padding enough, like every week doesn't have to be an impressive performance if they're getting the results. They're just, they keep plugging along.
They're playing better ball. They're playing better ball. I, and you know, it kills me to say it a little bit cause I really loved Vanny Sartini, but like it, it does look like a coaching upgrade has happened in terms of how they're using the ball through central midfield. Like they're up. there with Columbus and San Diego in terms of not just possession, but the types of progressive passes that they're hitting, like how they're using that possession.
Sebastian Berhalter is among the league leaders in expected assists now granted a chunk of that is from uh set pieces because he delivers a great dead ball but he's actually um become like more than just a functional passer from open play and the fact that they've stayed afloat over these past couple of weeks without Ryan Gould if you if I had said to you yeah how many points
How many points were the Vancouver Whitecaps pick up over five games without Ryan Gould? And I had set the over under at four and a half. Would you have taken me over? No, I was going to say I would have maybe set the over under at five, but still I would have, that would have just made it easier to go under. But even at four and a half, I think I would have been inclined to go under. I don't think there was any reason to think.
Ryan Gold felt like such an important part of what this team is. And it's just proving a more resilient squad than I think we gave him credit for.
Yeah, absolutely. Certainly more than I did. I picked them to miss the playoffs. I think I had them in 10th place in the Western Conference. And look, it's a long season and we've seen... good starts fall apart before but this is like the san diego thing where it's like the red if there are red flags they're not showing in the underlying numbers and they're not shown by the eye test either um and granted they did have that
that lost last week against Chicago. But they were like, that was the international date. The Whitecaps were missing five of their top seven players. I think most MLS teams lose when they're missing five of their top seven players. It feels like a really good team. And as a neutral, they... certainly been one of the most fun teams in the league to watch so far this season well so far you and i have both shown a lot of willingness to eat shit which might just be yes
I'm going to go on a limb and guess that maybe you're not quite as ready to eat shit on this team. And that's Austin FC, who at least by my eye. seems a little more smoke and mirrors than the rest of these teams that we've been talking about, in part because this is a team who was built in the offseason, frankly, to be better offensively.
And so far have been one of the worst offensive teams in the league. And somehow I don't understand. I've been watching these games and I don't see how it's happening. Somehow they've only given up three goals. That does not feel remotely sustainable to me. So. Nico Estevez is a really good defensive coach.
We saw that over his first two years with FC Dallas. Because remember, he took over that FC Dallas team after they had a disastrous defensive season. And then they immediately were one of the better defensive teams. I think they were. top eight defensive team his first year, even though they had a ton of injuries. He never really figured it out in attack with Dallas, even though that team spent a lot of money on.
questionable, but like ostensibly talented players. I kind of suspect that we're going to see the same thing here with Austin. The difference is so far, he's just being more pragmatic.
about um how he's lining up like dallas even when they were trying to improve defensively he never had them full bunker encounter this first month and a half of the season austin is basically not possessing the paul pest midfield they're saying to teams if you're gonna beat us you're gonna have to beat all 11 of us we're all within 50 yards of the goal there's no space between our lines it's
you know, banks a four. And as soon as you turn it over, we're going to try to counterattack. And we have some guys who can really run that makes our counterattack pretty dangerous. It is a, it is a very.
good formula to start the season uh it's not a formula in MLS that wins things it's really not um the closest thing to a pure counter-attacking side that we've seen win stuff recently in MLS is LAFC, but LAFC definitely have a different club to play and they've played it pretty well at times in big games. Austin have shown none of that yet. Now the, I guess, green flag, green light, I guess the green light for, as opposed to the red flag is that, um, Denny Pereira looked really good yesterday.
uh st louis kind of stinks so take it with a grain of salt um and owen wolf has been really really good this year like one of the best young players in the league so if Estevez is able to figure out how to meld that into something that can use the ball, then maybe this thing has legs.
this start is more than just them absorbing and countering. Maybe this becomes something where they can be a team that has 45% possession and can play a second club, but it's still primarily a counterattacking team. And if that's the case, I think... Austin fans will be happy, and I think this team will make the playoffs, but we're stacking ifs now. The other green flag I feel like I should mention here, Brad Stuber is still one of the best goalkeepers in the league.
and that if you're going to be a counter-attacking team have a backstop like that in there that makes all the difference in the world and it gives you the margins to figure out the harder stuff upfield while still collecting points
Yeah, and I guess in their defense, they also have one of the best defenses by XG allowed. So it's not like... they are getting lucky so to speak they're even underperforming their their xg goals a little bit so i don't know maybe i i guess i'm just not i guess i've just been really unimpressed sort of with how pragmatic they've been and it doesn't feel like that was what they were going into this i mean how many how many try to do see how many times did we see gary smith teams
do this to start the season where it was like, okay, they're collecting points. They have, uh, you know, six wins in their first 11 and they've only lost twice. And once it hits summer, they'll really figure it out and build on this. And then like, they never did right and we were kind of saying that about nico estevez's fc dallas teams as well so i tend towards skepticism about their ability to spin this into like a season where they're truly contending um
But wins are wins and points count as much in March as they do in September. And I don't think anybody in Austin is complaining all that much about where they are after five, six games. Yeah, so I don't know how many more teams we'll get to today, but I do want to talk about one more, and that is another team who has just decided they don't want the ball.
And that is Minnesota United, who has 35, who is averaging 35% possession this season and yet are just trucking along, getting results and looking pretty decent doing it. like right now it almost feels like the teams that don't want the ball are doing like if you look at the league the league losers in possession battle
it's almost all playoff teams. Like it's all teams that are off to good starts. Yeah. So it's funny. Well, one thing is that this is the way it always is at the start of the season. The teams that play against the ball tend to have better records over the first two or three months of the season. Because it's harder to have the ball than to not have the ball. It's harder to create than to destroy. And mistakes...
are more common as you're sort of knocking the rust off the first couple of months of the season. But in the bigger picture, the weird thing that happened during the first half of this decade is that possession and points per game became completely decoupled in MLS. The last half of the 2010s, the high possession teams tended to have more points and to win more trophies.
Atlanta, Toronto, the Sounders, even though they weren't as possession heavy as they've become since then, like there was a strong correlation. And then COVID happened and possession became completely decoupled. Until 2024. And 2024, we saw Miami win the Supporter Shield heavy possession team. We saw Columbus second heavy possession team. We saw Sounders among.
The league leaders in the Western Conference, that's a heavy possession team. We saw the Galaxy win MLS Cup. That's a heavy possession team. I have seen nothing that... convinces me that 2025 is going to swing completely in the other direction that's not to shit on minnesota united who have a game model and it works very well for them but we saw what the galaxy did to them in the playoffs
We saw what having the ball did to them in the playoffs. I need to see them solve for that before I believe that they are among the elite in this league. I think they're very happy with their start. I love watching Yeboah and Bongi and Tani in the open field. Joaquin Pereira was excellent this week. That's the first time I've said that about him. If he plays at that level, then that elevates them.
I still need to see them solve for that against the best teams in the league before I think they've cracked this thing. Well, I want to give time for one more team. I just want to get you. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. What?
How concerned are you about LA Galaxy? I know you were one of the team. You were, you know, like the theme of the show is eating shit, right? This is one of the teams you were higher on LA going into the season than I think a lot of people were. Are you re... considering that at this point or is it like don't worry about my boys in uh no no like so they were what 64 point team last year
And I thought they, I put their, their over under at, I think 54 and a half or 55 and a half. So I thought they would drop about 10 points. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I undershot that. They might be a 40 point team this year. They might even be under that because I thought like the theory was that Surio, who's a good player. And their new additions in the number eight position could do enough of the ball progression to let Marco Reus and...
Gabrielle Peck, and then eventually Joseph Painsill do the chance creation. And Painsill just got back this week and Royce has basically not showed up. Like that guy is fully cooked. So it's all fallen on Gabriel Peck and it's been too much for him. Like he just hasn't been able to do the job of essentially four different players. And now it obviously hasn't helped that they went out and they got Lucas Sanabria and he immediately got hurt.
They've been scrambling to fill the number eight spot. It really hasn't worked all that well next to Surio. And it just proved to be. like too much change year over year from what they were last season and then on top of that The real turning point for the Galaxy down the stretch was when Amiro Garces entered the starting lineup to play center back next to Maya Yoshida because Amiro Garces made it.
okay for Ricky Pooge to fuck up. It made it okay for him to lose the ball in bad spots because this is the fastest dude in the league. We saw it. multiple times against the Sounders when he was actually faster than Jordan Morris on a breakaway. And that put out the fires. But in terms of defending in the box, Mira Garces is a freaking disaster.
And they're having to defend in the box so much more often this year because their possession sucks. So suddenly this guy who was mana from heaven for the Galaxy, the way they played last year. Basically can't even start him in 2025 because he still doesn't know what he's doing in his own 18. So it's just one issue compounding on top of another on top of another in this like.
If you're not a Galaxy fan, it has to be the funniest thing you've ever seen. To have them go from winning MLS Cup to being as terrible as they've been in 2025 in almost every way. Yeah, winning MLS Cup and then doing the entire everyone hated us, look at us now kind of thing. We back. We're back, baby. I mean, I'll tell you, if you really want to enjoy some schadenfreude.
go watch the last episode of on side and just soak it all in because it just feels a lot different right now than it did at the time. It's almost. I mean, it's pretty sweet. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. And I actually felt myself appreciating Greg Banny and being like, you know what? I kind of – I do actually kind of like him. I think he is a –
I think Will Kuhn's also very likable. These are likable people. I don't enjoy seeing them personally suffer, but there is something about them being manifestations of... the galaxy brain and it just sort of exploding. But anyway, that's a good note to end on Matt. Thank you again for doing this. It's been really fun being able to do this sort of like. wider takeout. I actually liked today where we just focused on a few teams.
rather than going through the schedule like we have in the past. Why don't you get Joe on to maybe pick up the leftovers or something later on in the week. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But of course, people should... Yeah, exactly. So make sure you're reading Matt's must read column every week. Make sure you're subscribing to his sub stack as well. I've enjoyed the sub stack. I also love the animations that your doppelganger has been doing on your behalf.
Of those, are you seeing these? Are you seeing what the... I am. It's really incredible stuff. I do not know who runs that account. It might just be a sentient footrest. It's really kind of incredible. It is kind of incredible. So anyway, I am very much a fan of the Matt Doyle business. So I want people to enjoy that content as well. But anyway, thank you, Matt, for doing this. Maybe we'll talk in a couple of weeks if Joe doesn't swoop in. Let's write it down in pen. I want to keep my spot.
Okay. Okay. Good, good, good. All right. Well, I'm Jeremiah Oshian signing off for Matt Doyle. This is no study at this part of the sounder at heart podcast network, and we will catch you next time. LAFC who is 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 brew in the party. Yeah, you guys like that? Awkward joke, dad joke right there, huh?