Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. He truly can start the celebrations. Nico Lodeiro leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Seattle, the Sounders is going to build it. Nice work on your little yacht. No, seriously. This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011.
Polpo was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adiates, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. I am Jeremiah Oshan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo and our engineer Lickett. This is the mailbag episode for March 2025. And we got a lot of stuff to talk about.
We just had a game on Saturday. The center's tied 0-0. Very frustrating result. scoreless ties are that one was that was frustrating there's a good nice little rumor though that we have to talk about Paul Areola not great news but Paul Areola had his surgery It was successful. That's great. But he was also put on the season-ending injury list. And we'll be talking about all this stuff. But Aaron, how are you doing? How are you? You know, I'm chilling. I'm doing something, I suppose.
Yeah, it's, you know, it's another lovely day in March in the Pacific Northwest. So today was lovely. Today was actually lovely. It was. It's supposed to be terrible tomorrow, but today was beautiful. Got a nice five-mile walk-in and, you know, soaking up the vitamin D. That's a good walk.
Where do you go walking, Aaron? When you go for a walk, where are you going? I'm usually going to stroll up. I don't want to dox myself too much, but I stroll up Proctor, and I live on the south end of Proctor. I'm not one of those bougie types. But I stroll up Proctor and then usually take a right at 6th Avenue and just cruise down 6th Avenue. Okay.
pop into the record store maybe if i'm feeling feeling froggy and uh there you go yeah it's nice you know i'm getting i need to mix it up a little bit i'm getting a little a little bit burnt out of that route so i might I might switch back to walking up all the way up Procter. up to like 26 or whatever at some point but yeah but that's my current my current route takes me down six usually
I'm realizing I've never visited you at your house in Tacoma. It's true. It's true. Well, you didn't visit me at my last house either. You did once, I think, actually. In Skyway? That's right. Yeah. I did visit there. You came over once. You did come over once. At least one. I came over every time I was invited, I think. That's probably true. Well, you're definitely invited to this house since it's not 600 square feet.
Okay. Well, I may take you up on that, Aaron. We don't really do banter on this show, but today apparently we're feeling bantery. I guess so. I guess so. Yeah. Uh, you know, anything to distract ourselves from our crumbling democracy that I don't want to get too into, but, um, let's get into it. I don't know. Can you imagine? Just pivot to a politics podcast 15 years in. I know we've been steering clear of politics for the most of the last 15 years, but what if we just dive in today?
Yeah. Good times. Good times, Aaron. So, we got some questions. We do. Do we want to get into those? Might as well. The first one is from MCB. The Sounders regularly played with two strikers in past years. Why haven't we seen it yet this year? Well, I guess it depends, right, on how you're defining two strikers. Because the Sounders have rarely, if ever, played with two like high strikers where they were sort of like tandemly moving, keeping high lines.
They did do that kind of, I mean, I guess you could kind of say they did it with when they had Raul Ruiz Diaz and Will Bruin for parts of 2021. But even then... Bruin dropped in a lot and was sort of acting as almost like a second playmaker.
So I don't know. I guess I bring this up because they have played with Morris and Ferreira on the field together, some. And I think this question did come in before. We've been taking these questions for... almost two weeks frankly and i think this one may have come in before jordan got hurt But maybe not. Maybe he's talking. I guess now I think back, he might have actually been talking about Herp Ferreira and Masofsky playing together.
They played a little bit with them together and it might help. Like I will say that I think Nico asked Brian at training today. about that possibility, or someone did. Maybe it was Jackson. Brian admitted it might help, but... I don't know. I'm not of the mind to think that that's really the main problem.
Because I think even if Ferreira had a second striker on the field, it wouldn't necessarily mean that he's going to stay high. That just means that he can drop in and play more naturally. They just don't have to. striker to real like are you gonna play masofsky and morris together even if they're healthy that doesn't i don't think that's what this person is asking for right
Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, I think a lot of the two striker setups we saw last year, in addition to, as you alluded to, the fact that they were really
It was kind of like a throwback to the early, early days of the MLS Sounders with Jaqua and Montero, where you got one more of a target forward, one guy who's kind of playing in behind. But I think that was... as much to do with trying to keep Raul in the lineup long enough to let him play his way out of the lineup while also, you know, trying to get Jordan in more dangerous areas. Rather than really like a purely tactical decision.
And I think I just I think it's like you said, I think if you play Masavsky and Ferreira together, more often than not, what you're going to end up with is Ferreira. sliding back into that 10 role that he seems more comfortable in and Musavsky playing higher. And we've got a more in-depth question about Musavsky's performance so far this year coming later. So I don't want to, you know.
give away the story just yet with that one, but I don't think anybody is really under the illusion that Danny Mazovsky is going to be the guy that... Unlocks this offense. I think what's so frustrating is that the Sounders look pretty good offensively through six games. They had 13 goals through six games in all comps. And then they had the... the loss to Cruz Azul where they had the injuries and then they haven't scored in the two games they have since then. So they've been sort of.
You know, it's hard to balance, I guess. Are the genuine struggle, like is this roster just not well constructed? Is the offense not good? Or are we sort of like trapped in a moment of time where things just aren't really clicking? And then once guys get. familiar with one another things will start to come together i'm a i'm inclined to want to believe that i don't know if i like i i frustrated is as everyone is right now with the sounders lack of scoring but i i just don't
I guess what I'm saying is I agree with you. I don't think Danny Masofsky is the key to unlocking this. current struggle right uh yeah and i i will add before i ask this question that all these questions come from our discord community and if you want to get involved in our discord community you can do that by becoming a subscriber at the $75 a year level or above. That's the supporter level.
Of course, we love our backers as well. That's the $25 level. But you don't get access to the Discord, unfortunately. This is sort of the perk of getting in. One of those perks are getting to ask questions. We also do AMAs, which we're lining up one right now. With Frank McDonald of Washington Legends of Soccer. In case you need more reasons to join us on Discord. And if you are a supporter.
at the $75 a year level or above, I would urge you to join the Discord and check it out. It's pretty fun, even though we sometimes get heated in there and it's a little wild. It can. It can. Yeah. It can. All right. This question's from 509er. The price is heavy and the rewards are few. Can we opt out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup from here on out? I'd much rather see us in the Open Cup. If we could and chose to do so, I think that would be it.
Well, let's just say hypothetically that we could like, I think you're right. I don't think this is a, I don't think this is a genuine option that the Sounders have, but let's just say they did. Would you rather the Sounders compete in the open cup than the champions league, essentially championship? No, I would not either. And I understand there's a lot of challenge that, that come with this tournament and we learned it this year, big time.
But I want to keep competing in it. I think there's a lot of truth to the idea that this is an important tournament. We're going to be able to gauge... the progress of MLS more accurately and the Sounders, frankly, more accurately through this tournament than any other tournament. I think the idea of let's not do this because it's hard is... the complete antithesis of what you want from your sports team like yeah it's it's hard but but it's also the the highest
most important competition the Sounders can play in. And I am including the Club World Cup in that. It is the most important, most prestigious competition they can play in. Them winning it was maybe the best moment of my life as a sports fan.
Yeah, I mean, it sucks when guys get injured. I do think that maybe the... I don't really think they get injured anymore in the... champions league than they do in any other competition uh i think if if there's a calendar switch that's gonna help a lot because i think yeah guys playing a lot of minutes early in the season
can't really uh i think that's really that's really the challenge and if you go back to 2022 the year the sounders won this tournament One of the big things that happened that year was... MLS was able to work their schedule so that they had a lot of bye weeks. while they're competing in Champions Cup. That's not something the calendar allows for them to do anymore because, frankly, of League's Cup and because it's just a much more crowded calendar now than it ever was.
And so you could move games around, but it would just be so much more. You're really robbing. Paul to pay Peter? I don't know. Peter to pay Paul? I don't really know how that saying goes. I don't even understand it. But... Whatever reason, they don't let them move the schedule around. They don't give them the same flexibility that they gave in previous years. That's a challenge. it's a challenge but again just because it's a challenge doesn't mean you shouldn't be trying
Agree. Next one's from Ken W. Are we likely to fill any of the open U22 spots prior to the end of the current window? Positional priorities in the event we do? I don't think that's going to happen. I get the sense the Sounders are sort of fine with waiting on that, which is a little frustrating, I'll admit, because the argument is that... These players aren't going to come in and compete right away.
So you may as well wait. But of course, that means that they're probably not going to compete late. The longer you wait to bring them in, the longer it's going to take them to bet in, right? And I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what the Sounders do with these spots. I have heard that they've been looking around in intra-league to sign someone from another team with a cash transfer, which would be an interesting move.
I'm not sure how many guys out there I'm dying to get. Honestly, I don't know what the Sounders are targeting, but the question really was... What do we, well, what do we think they're going to do? I still think looking for a forward makes the most sense, but I would be.
totally lying if i said i knew that's what the sounders were targeting i think it's a i think the sounders are still sort of assessing what they need Yeah, I kind of go back and forth on it because forwards or just attacking players in general make more sense. for I think a lot of reasons. But there's also the fact that defensive-minded players tend to... And so I think you can probably get defenders or defensive midfielders a little bit more cheaply that have a little bit higher upside.
Because the attacking players are getting a lot of attacking players by the time they're 19, 20, 21 years old. who are going to develop into really, really good players have already started playing regularly, competing for first team minutes in good leagues. And so that means they're either going to be really expensive.
And there's a limit to how expensive they can be with a U-22 mechanism. Or they're going to be really, really raw. And it's kind of a crapshoot. And so I do wonder if maybe the ceiling is higher with more defensive-minded players. It feels like a best player available to me. It feels like a guy that they identify, who they think is a good cultural fit, who they think has a high ceiling, who they think maybe they're prioritizing.
contributing sooner than later as well whatever their criteria are i just think it's going to be whoever the best fit is regardless of position Yeah, it's not the most satisfying answer, admittedly. No, it's not. I mean, it's... I do think, though, the U22 mechanism is something that people are more excited or worried about, I guess.
then I think is really justifiable on the merits of it. Yeah. I want them to try to do something with it, but I think anything that like, I kind of think you're playing with how. Yeah, I mean, Backfield, I think it was Backfield, or maybe it was even Brian McKay who writes for Sound at Heart as well. But I'm pretty sure it was in Backfield that there was a story that looked pretty extensively at the... success rate of U22s.
It's a crapshoot. These are not players that are hitting at a particularly high rate. And the players that do hit oftentimes are players who are signed from within the league and elevated into those positions. it does sound like the Sounders are going to use, like, I will say it's a little, it's definitely frustrating that Sounders have three open U22 spots and they're talking as if they can only use one.
uh, like almost openly. And I think that means because they're going to probably sign one or two players internally to you 22 constructs, but it's, it's not the most, you know, uh, imagination inspiring it's not it's not the most fun way of running using the roster mechanisms like these are kind of hope casty spots and the centers aren't giving us a lot to work
which is kind of unfortunate. This is from Woodbushery. It says, Cody Baker has been on the bench a bunch so far this year, but he doesn't seem to have made an appearance. How does Cody get on the field this year, and do you see him going back to defiance for minutes? I don't know where he's going to get a lot of those minutes unless a spot opens up.
I think that if he were likely to be high in the pecking order for minutes, Areola getting hurt means he would have... probably been getting some um and and he hasn't really and i think that that kind of i think that says a decent amount maybe about where he is in the pecking order right now um you know i think that When Leagues Cup comes around, there are going to be minutes to be had, unfortunately. So, you know, I wouldn't be shocked to see him get some minutes there. But I...
I don't know. I mean, I don't know what he gets out of going back to Defiance, really, other than staying sharp, I guess, which is, you know, there's certainly a bit of that. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's. He hasn't aged out of relevance or anything like that, I don't think. It's starting to feel like maybe it's not going to happen, at least as a regular in Seattle.
Yeah, he's still he's still only 21. So I'd say there's some is a player who in a previous era would be considered a young MLS player who is just. He'd likely be coming out of college this year. So it's not like he's old, but I agree with you that I think it's... Tough to see a path forward for him, at least at right back, where it sure seems like Kalani Kosarienzi has passed him on the depth chart. I mean, he has. He clearly has. He's played multiple games. He's started multiple games.
Baker has not. Cody's a nice player, but he's also a little bit of a throwback player. He's a defense-first fullback. Now, could he maybe work out as a right center back or even a left center back? He had played left back previously. sort of in a new who style role i think that's possible but i don't know how high he is
on the depth chart there either. You know, he's, he's not, I don't think he's ahead of Stuart Hawkins. He's probably not, he's surely not ahead of Kim Kihe. So he's got competition all over the field for him. And I think he will get some minutes at Defiance just to keep him sharp. I think he may have played a little bit more if the Sounders were protecting more leads, because I think that's kind of his role right now.
But, you know, Reed Baker Whiting is getting, he should be available this week. and he seems to be behind him as well. It's tough. I don't think there's a pathway. I don't see the path forward for him in terms of getting real minutes here. I would think he's a good candidate for... Maybe a loan out somewhere, which maybe transitions us into this next question.
Yeah, it's from South Sounder, and it's a similar question about a different player. Stu Hawkins hasn't yet received any playing time. Is having him on the bench hurting his development, and might the Sounders actually loan him elsewhere so that he can continue to grow, especially once Kim Kihee is fit? I think he has played very briefly since this question was asked, if I recall correctly, right? Just to hallucinate that. I think he played in the Open Cup.
So maybe that's what you're thinking of. He did start the open cup. He played 45 minutes in the open cup for the defiance, not for the first team. And I really like Stuart Hawkins. I think he's going to be a very good player. I think he probably needs to... Like if he was going to break into the first team, I think that. period where through that period where he, there was opportunities to play him and the centers didn't play him for whatever reason.
I think it's probably does make sense to send him on a loan and it probably makes sense to send him on a loan outside of the defiance because he's proven that he can. play in mls next pro he was one of the best center backs in the whole league last year as an 18 year old he needs to be tested at a higher level and if that means sending him to someplace like sweden or
I don't know, Denmark or something like Belgium. I don't know if they can get it. These are how realistic these... But if they can find a loan like that for him, I think that's a great option because I think he needs to play against adults. on a regular basis and he needs to play in meaningful games. And I don't know that he's going to get those with the Sounders for like for better or for worse.
yeah i i wonder i wonder what the canadian premier league is like in comparison to mls next pro i i don't know that it's that big of a like yeah it's dwayne it's probably like I was going to say, I look at Osase De Rosario, who was one of the top young players in Canada and then came to MLS Next Pro as his sort of hope to get more noticed. So I don't think he's going to get... I would be kind of disappointed if he got loaned to...
to the Canadian Premier League. I would, I would hope it's like a first foreign for, you know, like a outside of North America kind of situation. I mean, and that's, that's a really valuable experience for other reasons, just the level of competition as well. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's the guy who, as far as I know, still lives at home.
Which, hey, he's 19 years old. I don't begrudge that at all. But in terms of like becoming a pro athlete, sometimes moving out of your comfort zone is a good thing that you hear people talk about that all the time. But this is one of the drawbacks of MLS playing an MLS Next Pro versus the USL Championship.
In the USL Championship, you could maybe justify playing him there. And I don't know, maybe that's where he ends up getting loaned. USL Championship, probably a better test, I would say, than the Canadian Premier League. But yeah, even then I would, I don't know if you're raising his profile, like, cause ideally you're going to send him someplace where you not only.
make him better, but you're also raising his profile a little bit on the chance that he's not going to play here. Yeah, that's a great job. Next one is from – oh, go ahead. i was gonna is it uh i think it's me reading it right oh it is you're right gosh sorry it's okay This is from DoubleCubed. What, if anything, would you have done differently to manage the schedule? The players look gassed against Cruz's soul, and I think we believe too many minutes contributed to Morris's hand.
I believe that, but I don't know if it's like... I think they probably did, but I don't know that you can credibly say it did, right? Guys that are fresh hurt their hamstrings all the time. I think that playing the starters as deep into the game against Antigua is like the biggest criticism I have. because when you look at the other games, they rotated a lot against RSL. They rotated a lot against LAFC, which was the game that preceded the Cruz Azul one. They did. And I just you can't.
You can't throw away league games entirely, especially against LAFC. Like, yeah, they could have started an all, you know. Bench guys and defiance loanees line up against LAFC. But that's not a good thing to do, you know? And I don't think Pedro's injury didn't look like an overuse injury to me necessarily. It just looked like he kind of twisted his. Well, they were also, I thought they did a good job with Pedro too. Like they weren't playing him a ton.
And Morris – like I will say this about the – to defend the Morris situation. is he had been really healthy. Like he'd been remarkably durable since his second ACL injury. You know, the last season he was playing. He started basically every game regardless. He was playing on short rest all the time. And maybe it was too early in the season to push him as hard as they pushed him.
And I think it's easy in hindsight to say that's the case and that might be true. But on some level, I kind of trust the technical staff to... or the physical staff. Yeah. Yeah, another great segue, actually. I'll stop you right there and go to the next one. There you go. This one's from Spencer. There have been a lot of justifiable and parents.
Comments slash questions about minute management. I'm thinking specifically about Morris's heavy load, relative lack of Ferrera, and even the slow ramp up of PDLV last year. How much of the lineup subs with regards to fitness is an art versus a science? My assumption is that the team is doing all sorts of tests between coaches, physios, and we should apply some Chevron deference because it's a data thing. Or is it more subjective and therefore more critique?
I think it's critiquable because it's sports and you get to talk about the results that are separate. We get to, right? That's the glory of sports is that you get to debate the results even if you... As much as you can debate the process, even if the process was sound, it's not going to lead to the results you always want. And, you know, I'm inclined like I think I agree with this person that there is some deference that you pay to the the analytics that are feeding their.
their decision-making process in this case now who knows maybe maybe the physios were throwing up red flags and telling Schmetzer that they needed to hold off and not let Morris run as much as he did. If that's the case, that's news to me. But as far as I know, they were in alignment. As far as I know, Schmetzer was following the guidance of the physios. And it's fair to criticize it because it didn't work out. But I...
I think they practiced mostly reasonable caution. I think there was one game where they probably could have rotated out Obed and Christian. when they played them back-to-back games one time where they probably could have rotated that. Morris obviously started, I think, all but one game in that stretch. Yeah. Maybe you could have one game. He didn't start. He played 45. Right. The Ferreira thing. I don't know. I think that they probably were being appropriately careful. I mean, it was.
Like he only played 90 minutes for the first time on. on Saturday. And, you know, I tend to trust that there was a reason for his minute restrictions. You know, that's a tough one. I don't know. Yeah. It is one of those things where... I know that I know very little about the Sounders and Turtle Analytics, but I know that they put a lot of effort into them. They have a really well-respected analytics department and that a lot of their analytics are.
So I do, like you said, I trust that they are doing the best that we could possibly expect them to be doing with fitness data. And I know that Schmetzer has talked in the past sometimes with... feigned maybe annoyance. about adhering to the data and the recommendations of the training staff and what the data is telling them. I think that there's a tendency of sports fans to think that their team's injury struggles are uniquely bad. And I actually...
I think the Sounders have been a little luckier than other teams in that regard, which seems hard to believe because they've had like high profile injuries. They've had these bad runs that coincided with injuries. But, you know, in general, like it feels like it's been a while since they lost a key player for like the season. I guess Pedro last year, but was he really a key player last year? I don't know.
So I don't know. It's frustrating. The timing of it is certainly frustrating. The fact that it happened last year is certainly frustrating. But I really do kind of trust that. They're making the best decisions that they can based on the information that they have. Yeah, well, another question about the fitness. This is from Kenny, and he says, I've been surprised by Schmetz's apparent reticence to play Jesus Ferreira at the nine and slightly disappointed by...
J.F.'s contributions on the whole to date. What have you heard about and how he's been training and what his coaches and teammates have made? Yeah, I don't have any insight into how he's been in training or what his coaches and teammates have said about him. That's really more your department. But I think that... There's definitely two schools of thought about Jesus Ferreira and his positions.
And one of them is that, look, he had a couple of great seasons playing as a nine. He played in a World Cup as a nine. There's no reason to think he's not still. And then there's the other school of thought. And I increasingly kind of find myself in the school of thought. That is, he has changed. His game has changed. He's had some injuries. And FC Dallas had that guy and decided not to play him as a striker last year.
and played him as more of a 10. And you kind of have to wonder why they made that decision, right? Like that's, I would say, you know, a striker that could put in goals the way he did earlier in his career. is a little more valuable than the player he was as a 10 last season. So I wonder if there is a reason for that. And similarly, if there's a reason that Schmetzer seems, you know, like Kenny says, reticent to play him at the nine.
Yeah, I mean, I would guess that Schmetzer, when he's season nine, he wants someone who's going to. body defenders and be physical and that's not you know that i guess that wasn't really diaz's game and so maybe that's unfair but I think the Sounders have sort of adopted, have worked their system a little bit more around Jordan's game right now. And it's pretty obvious that best, you could say all the nice things you want about Herrera, but...
He's not the same. He's a different kind of player than Morris. They just fundamentally want to play the position differently. I think in that sense, I can see why Brian specifically would like to play with Jordan at the nine as opposed to Ferreira. I don't know. I'm not totally shocked by... his reticence to play him there in part because he's actually looked pretty good as a 10 like he's got good feet he's got good vision he he sees plays uh yeah it's just
You know, he's not, but the, you know, the last two games, he's had two shots or no, sorry. He's had one shot and total. And so that speaks to an inability to get them into positions where they want to get them. So I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how that evolves because I think we're going to see them at the number nine, at least for another game or two.
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Uh, this one is from almost cool. Why do the sounders always play better in the second half of games? Or I guess it was your question, but I'll ask it anyway. Is it just down to coaching and adjustment? Yeah, I guess, Cash, we're just doing a bad job of keeping track tonight. I'm not sure that I agree that they always play better in the second half of games. I thought they were actually better in the first half against Houston.
I thought that they were much better in the first half on the road against Cruz Azul than they were in the second half. I do think they tend to make good halftime adjustments. They definitely do. They definitely do. I do think that when they do have those games, like against LAFC is a great example of that, right? They looked like a different team in the second half.
And so I think when the initial game plan hasn't really gone the way they wanted it to or has gone the way they wanted it to and they were just trying to get half to half time to make the adjustments, I think that. It is down to tactical adjustments and personnel adjustments at halftime, but I guess I just don't think it's an always thing, right? I think it's a little more evenly spread out.
Yeah, I don't know what – if I had to choose, would I rather have a team that starts strong and struggles in the second half or a team that – struggles a bit in the first half and then finishes strong. I guess I'd probably rather have the one that finishes strong, right? For sure. Ideally, it's both.
It is. It is. I also think there's something to the idea that the Sounders are playing against teams who want to play in a low block and just play for a point a lot of the time. And it's hard to do that. I mean, it should be. It's not always. It wasn't that hard for Houston to do. But I do think that that can kind of contribute to that perception. It's just it takes a while to break down teams sometimes.
This one is from Bill Jones TRPT. If first and goal somehow agreed to change the plane surf from turf to natural grass. What would be the ramifications for them? Would that mean limiting what kinds of events they could lease the building for, i.e. no monster truck rallies? Would the maintenance costs be prohibitively higher? Can you discuss the negatives for first and goal as well as any potential benefits?
So I think we can safely say that if they were to decide to put grass in permanently, that that would limit the number of non-sporting events that they have at. Lumenfield. Maybe entirely. There might be a concert or two or something that happens. In the short period of time between the Sounders and Seahawks seasons. But I would imagine that it would make it very difficult to have events during the season.
And I think there is a real challenge, I think, to even maintaining it for the Seahawks. There aren't a lot of NFL stadiums. I don't know if there are any NFL stadiums that host soccer games that share a field with the soccer team and play on grass. I don't know if there are any, at least in like the, I think the best example is like Brentford, I think is the team that's in England that has a rugby team and, and Brentford.
And they have a really nice pitch. It's a hybrid. They even host some concerts in the offseason. But there's just not that many good examples. So yes, I think that that's the first trade-off is that there's going to be fewer events there. And I think the maintenance cost is probably higher. I don't want to make it sound like it's an easy decision. There's a pretty valid reason that...
first and goal is not putting grass. And I think it's that it's a, there's a host of challenges, uh, like even when they bring in, so they're going to bring in temporary grass this summer for the club world cup. I don't know how long it's going to be there. That'll actually be an interesting test. But then next year, they're going to have real grass in. And as far as I know, the Sounders might not even get to play on it.
frankly which is so funny yeah like there's a possibility the centers might have to like open the season not playing at home and then when they come back the grass may already be gone like it's It's going to be interesting to see how they manage that. But yeah, I mean, I guess the answer is there's a real challenge.
Yeah, there, there definitely are. I mean, I think that, I think that concerts would still largely be okay. I mean, like they probably can figure that out. In Europe, generally concerts are at soccer stadiums, you know, big ones.
but they're also not sharing the grass with NFL teams. But I think the most plausible scenario in which there is ever... grass at lumen while both the seahawks and the sounders are playing there is a the nfl players association succeeds yeah and winning the right to to play on grass which I don't know how big of a priority it is for them, but it seems like it's much more of a priority than it used to be.
It's a thing they talk about. Yeah, they do. I'm guessing it's a bargaining chip more than anything else. Probably. Maybe they deeply care about it. And I think also Lumen would have to be remodeled extensively and they would probably put in some. you know, tray system. Yeah. Yeah. Like they have in Arizona or what have you. And maybe, maybe they even have it, you know, double-sided where put in grass for Sounders and turf for the CR.
Although they wouldn't do that if the NFLPA wouldn't let him, I guess. Maybe you have two grass surfaces, right? Maybe you have two trays, one for the Sounders, one for the Seahawks. that pays for itself in the, you know, reduced maintenance costs. I don't know. But it just seems far-fetched to me for a lot of reasons. And I guess what... Bill brings up a fair question. What are the benefits? There's aesthetic benefits. The Sounders would like it.
You might be able to attract more high-profile soccer games. But it probably doesn't, there's probably no way to justify it from a dollar and cents way. There's no business justification for it. The justifications are entirely the athlete. preferred it and that's it um and you know i mean it's
The argument against that is who cares? It's a publicly funded stadium making first and goal as much money as possible should not be the aim. Right. And I agree with that, but too bad. Right. So. Yeah, it is what it is. Be cool. It would be cool. It'd be really cool. Yeah. All right. This is from Aria. Silly, but no pyro during the national anthem anymore. Curious. Thanks.
Yeah, I think that they have just kind of done it with Pyro generally, right? And they're just using drones and LEDs and stuff. Yeah, I suspect that the LED thing is... I mean, I guess there's no reason they couldn't do both. Yeah. But, yeah, they did a lot more LEDs this year. I don't know if that's even a cost-cutting thing. That might just be they may have made an aesthetic choice that they liked.
Stuff other than Pyro. I don't know. Maybe they were getting complaints. I'm sure some people were relieved to have fireworks not going off. I'm curious if they do it for the Hawks or not. But they've done a lot of stuff presentation-wise. Yeah. If I remember correctly, all of the fireworks for the Hawks have been replaced by drones, I believe. Oh, really?
I could very well be wrong about that. If I am, please don't get mad at me. Um, but I know they were doing drone shows last year a lot. So, okay. Interesting. Well, and that is me. That's way preferable to. Yeah, that's fair. I think for the Sounders, they have seemingly done away with more of the presentation elements. Like I know they...
I want to say they stopped doing the March, supporting the March as like during COVID and they never brought it back. I'm not 100% sure on that, but I feel like that that's true. Like they never brought back the pregame rally, which is kind of a shame. And that is, I think that kind of speaks to sort of a thing we've harped on over the last year or so about there's just elements of the presentation that have just.
Diminished. Whether you like the pyro in pregame or not, I think the reasonable minds can disagree. There's just less there. There's less meat on that bone. And I think that...
sort of made the whole event feel less like a big event. And I remember saying a few years ago how great the Sounders presentation felt. Every game felt like a big game. They'd have these big... you know the flags and do all this like some of which i could give her i don't necessarily love every element but just that they did all this stuff made it feel uh grandiose but yeah they treated it like a big deal and and yeah it felt like
This one's from the Joshua. If we get a replay, and this is a great, great opportunity for us to talk about the answer to this question, which ended up being answered before we got a chance to answer it. If we get a replacement for power, Paul Areola, would they get a short term replacement? I imagine we still want to keep Paul for. Yeah, I think they are looking at Paul as a... as a keeper, you know, like the keys signed for, I believe at least two more years after this one.
So I think whoever they bring in. Now, the rumor is that they're talking to Ryan Kent, who is a player who I was not familiar with, admittedly, before this came across my desk. But he's an interesting player. He was very good for Rangers for a period. He went to Fenerbahce on a... on a free transfer, but he had basically, I think he, his last season at Rangers was cut short by a knee injury. And then he went to Fenerbahce and he.
Kind of fell out of favor with Jose Mourinho. And then he had to go through like a, he threatened, I believe, like a court case to get out of his contract because he was, felt like he was. sort of being held against his will in Turkey. And anyway, he's an interesting player, but my understanding, he's 28. My understanding is that the Sounders are only signing him on a guaranteed deal through the end of this year. They're talking about, they haven't done anything, but they're talking about.
bring him in just for this year and then he'd have an option for next year. And I think that makes sense because they don't want to get over committed to, you know, a player who is ostensibly replacing someone who they expect to be back. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. I mean, he's definitely. A like for like player, but also different enough. I think that you don't feel like you're it's he's duplicative once. Yeah, he he's a winger, like a real winger, whereas earlier was kind of more of a wing back.
But I don't know. I looked at his highlights. His highlights look like he's the kind of player you can put together a really compelling highlight reel of because he's very dribbly. He has a lot of dynamic actions. He's a pretty good passer. He's scored some cool goals. I've never watched him play 90 minutes, so I'm not going to sit here and say I know a lot about him, but I watched a highlight reel just of his game against Dortmund in Champions League, and he was tearing them up.
He, I mean, he's definitely a player who was exceptionally talented, who, for whatever reason, just didn't live up to that potential. It happens a lot. Sometimes those guys just lose it completely and they can't stick anywhere. Sometimes they just lost a little bit of it and they can be really effective players in a league like MLS.
I think the potential upside is like a guy like Johnny Russell, right? Who could be a cornerstone piece on a really good attacking team. I don't think that's the most likely outcome necessarily, but, um, To me, this is an exciting signing for the kind of signing it is. It's a guy who's all upside, who I think it's pretty reasonable to expect is going to be able to, at the very least, eat some minutes and give you decent performance.
And has some real, real attractive potential. If, you know, he's a good cultural fit and if it was really just down to him not being comfortable in Turkey. So I'm all for it. I hope it gets over the line. Yeah, I will say if you compare him, he's a similar age to Johnny Russell. Johnny Russell was 27 when he came to MLS. He was coming from Darby County, who was in the championship.
Russell had put up some decent seasons, not necessarily great seasons. He was two years removed at that point from his last really good season. You know, I would say that's a good comparison, actually. I would say he has a broadly similar profile. And Russell had a lot of really good years in MLS, like whether or not you liked him personally. I was not the biggest fan of his necessarily, but he. He put up numbers. Certainly, he killed the Sounders a few times.
Yeah, he definitely did. And, you know, I mean, obviously it's been a while since he was that player that he was in. that 10-goal season for Rangers. Yeah, I mean, the Rangers are a weird club. I think going from Scotland to Turkey could be a challenging move for sure. especially when you're playing for Jose Mourinho. So...
Yeah, I think it would be about as exciting as a, oh God, one of our key players just got hurt. Let's go find somebody to sign. I think this is about as exciting as one of those signings could be. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think that's the thing is that people have to sort of just accept that he was. a sort of different like this is not this is not the player that they're signing to be the permanent like this is not a traditional big time signing. That's not what this is supposed to be.
No, this is someone who we need a guy. Right, exactly. And you know what? They needed a guy last year and they didn't go get him. So that's an improvement. Big time. Right. Yeah. If they can, if they can actually. Right. Yeah. All right. This is from Ben W0001. Are the tactics and the squad right for each other? I think the tactics and the squad when the squad is... close to full strength are a great fit for each other. I love the way that they were playing earlier in the year.
that's kind of the best you can do right you can say this is how we're gonna play and if guys get hurt um now obviously if key players get hurt and they're out for the whole year yeah you're probably going to need to change things or if you know your star designated player striker completely falls off a cliff, you might need to change up your tactics. But I think that
Jordan and Pedro are going to be out a few more weeks. I think you said earlier today, two in Pedro's case and three in Jordan's case before they're back. I think it makes sense to largely keep things the same, try to do as best as you can to keep the tactical approach the same until those guys are back with some tweaks here or there, obviously.
because I do think that the way they were playing against LAFC, against Charlotte, even though they only got a point out of that game, was a great fit for the players. Yeah. I think that's one thing I would like to not lose sight of is that if assuming Jordan and Pedro can come back in relatively short order when that seems to be the indication. this team should be in decent shape. Like they are not. too far off, I guess. We've seen them beat LAFC 5-2 two weeks ago.
So it's not that long ago that they've looked good. Yeah. Yeah. Next one is from Ian Mitchell. How are the locker room vibes right now? You know, I think they're OK. I think this is a locker. Even last year. players seem to be sticking together. Like there was this... notorious locker room or players only meeting. But I think that even then, this was a sign of players who did believe in each other and had each other's back and sort of saw each other as... pushing in the same direction but
You know, it was a. I think it's still like I don't get any sign. I've seen no sign at all, frankly, that the vibes are bad in the law. All right. This is from Coffee IPA Beards 206. Can you give an analysis of Masofsky's performance this season and how you see him being utilized during and after the injury period? Do you see him getting a lot of playing time when Jordan returns if he is playing exceptionally well?
I think he's been fine. He's not going to score a ton of goals, but I think the things he's been asked to do... fill fill certain spaces um you know be a physical presence up top when duels um provide some hold up play he's been pretty good at i don't have any real complaints um The thing about Masovsky is that he is a third-choice striker who has gotten a lot of second-choice striker minutes the last few years. And...
Last year, I don't really think you could fault the roster construction too much because... I think people expected Rowell to be a little better than he was. He clearly lost a step, but he didn't show any signs in 2023 of being a total black hole like he was. Can't fault the roster construction too much this year. I mean, if Jesus can't be that guy that can be a reliable second choice striker, I think that's...
then it is fair to criticize the roster construction because you kind of knew what you had in Masovsky. And I think it was pretty clear that wasn't good enough to be your second choice striker. You know, all the best Sounders teams have had... reliable goal scorers that they could count on that weren't the starters. Kenny Cooper, Chad Barrett, Wilbur, and all guys that could provide you something off the bench, and they just don't have that right now.
I think if his performance continues to kind of be where it is and Jesus doesn't... click as that second striker i think that's a clear opportunity to upgrade um you know in the in the second the the uh summer window so
If he's playing exceptionally well at some point, if he starts playing exceptionally well sometime in the next two, three weeks, I think that that is great. And maybe Brian trusts him to give him some more minutes to see if he can keep that up. I just think... I think we kind of know what Danny Musovsky is, which is a perfectly serviceable third choice strike.
Yeah, and I understand the frustration because it would be nice if the Sounders were getting more production out of that spot. And it feels like he is... sort of doing the same thing that Aber did in 2023. And so I get it, but I'm with you. I feel like you sort of have to remind yourself this is the third choice player here now. Maybe they could have tried to upgrade that position. And maybe they did. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if they did try to upgrade it. But $350,000, you know.
Striker is like, you're getting kind of what you pay for. There's just not a lot of sure things at that level. I guess you could argue, go out and get Kai Kamara. Sure. Who's currently out of contract. But, you know, I don't know. It's it's a tough one. But if I guess the question this person actually seemed to be. spinning it positively and saying like well what if he is playing well how much should we expect him to play once everyone wins healthy and
I don't know. And probably not a lot, frankly. Yeah. I mean, if he goes nuts in the next couple of weeks and he is finishing all of his chances and just looks like a different player, maybe that means Brian is a little more comfortable pulling Jordan at 75. and giving him a rest. Or maybe he feels more comfortable rotating, although there's really not any need to rotate until the League's Cup. But he's not going to be starting.
Yeah, no, I don't think there's not a world where the Sounders are shoehorning him into the starting lineup. They're not going to go to a 3-5-2 so they can get Jordan in. and masovsky on the field together i guess is sort of yeah like that's the All right. Last one is from Dorcas. Jordan has fought his way onto the MLS Sounders Mount Rushmore. Is there any way Christian can knock off anyone from up there and take a place himself? And I'm going to expand on this.
and say, what is your Sounders? Not Mount Rushmore, because I don't like the Mount Rushmore framing. So we'll go with your four pillars of heaven. And I'm not going to explain what that is. The one person that is listening to this that knows what that is, is having a great time right now. But yeah, who are your four guys?
I'm going to stick with MLS era only. And frankly, I think that probably is what it should be. Like, I think if we're being honest, like the best era of the Sounders is the MLS era. So it's Steph Fry's got to be on there, right? yeah, man, I guess so. I mean, he's like started 60% of their games. He's going to, uh, has to be on there.
I don't. Does he? Maybe he doesn't. Okay, Nico Ladero. Nico Ladero has to be on there, right? Yeah. Nico and Steph have to be on there. Right. Nico and Steph have to be on there. Jordan. It's Jordan or Raul or maybe Jordan and Raul. I mean, I think I'm okay with putting them both over there over Clint. I think I'm both. Yeah. Because Clint wasn't here that long. Oba definitely wasn't here long enough. Freddie. I think they're better than Freddie.
Yeah, maybe Raul. So it's like, I think the last two of these three probably need to be on there. Ozzy, Raul, and Jordan. And I would put Christian over Ozzy. Okay, so I guess that's... Ozzy was... A great player in the period of the Sounders history where they really didn't.
Yeah, well, I think you could probably argue. So like, I think a good way of looking at this is that you want players representing different things of those four. So I think it's probably a competition between Raul and Jordan, frankly. And a competition between Christian and Aussie. So if you look at it that way, I think he's got to do something to...
Push him past Ozzy. And maybe you already, if you already, if you're convinced of that, maybe he's already on your Mount Rushmore. I don't know. I mean. I think Christian at his peak is a better player than Ozzie at his peak, just in an absolute sense, right? I think Ozzie was more important to the Sounders when he was at his peak than Christian was. But I think Christian's a better player.
And Ozzy won the four Open Cups. He won the Shield. He won the 2016 MLS Cup. Christian... didn't win the Shield, hasn't won an Open Cup, but has won everything else with the team. I think it's close, man. I would not blame anyone for saying it's clearly Ozzy, but I think it's close. I really do. I mean, I think it's an interesting that we could probably do a whole show.
Yeah, and I think Jordan and Raul is interesting, too. I mean, Jordan is all-time leading goal scorer, and that has to count for something. But he's had a lot more time to do it. He's had, you know, his ups and downs, but he's a homegrown guy. He's still got, you know, several good seasons ahead of him. You kind of almost have to have a, you got to have at least.
You do. I don't know. It depends on how you want to put together your, I think it's an interesting conversation. It is. It is. I mean, I think the peak role years are clearly better than peak. Morris years but the peak role years aren't that there's not that many of them that's the thing is that he was really good like 2019 was really the only year that he was here all year, right? I guess you could say he was here all year during COVID, but...
You know, Raul, like, let me just put this three. 2019 was the only season that he played. Whoops. No. Okay. So in 2009, he only played 22. He only made playing 22 games in 2019. His highest, the most he ever played for the Sounders was. 26 games in 2021. He had 17 goals that year, so that was his best production year. He didn't have any assists. He also had a few, let's see, how many panels did he have that year? He had...
He had five penalties that year. Yeah. Or four, sorry, four penalties. So... I don't know. I think the thing with Raul is that so many of his best years were his best performances. He came up in the best. He had so many big game performances. And in the playoffs and, you know, he scored. I mean, he's he's scored some some big goals in playoffs as well, but clearly he has. I'm just saying that that's that I think sometimes we conflate.
Peak Raul with like a 20 goal scorer. And he never even came really that close to scoring 20. No. And I mean, we, we definitely had conversations on this show about how street. Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, it was something people complained about. I think that the really the arguments are between.
Jordan and Raul and Christian and Ozzy. I think there are really good arguments for both of them. I'm going Jordan and Christian just because I think they were around for more of what I consider the... best years of the team. I think the 2019 MLS Cup was a more impressive season. I think obviously the Champions League win, you know, was... was the peak. So that's why I put Christian above Ozzy.
And I just like Jordan more than I like Raul. I mean, it's really, sometimes it is that simple, right? Like I just, I love Raul. Raul is one of my all-time favorite sounders, but Jordan is my all-time favorite sounder. You know, so guess who played played more games for the Sounders between Ozzie and Chris? Because they just honored him on Saturday for having the most games with any outfield player. I wasn't paying that much attention to that game. I was hosting a dinner party. You're right.
But yeah, I, that's an interesting, it is an interesting little tidbit. It's going to count for something. It does have to count for something. I think it's, it's, I think Christian's in the conversation. I think that's what we can say. More than three times as many goals, too. He's a more balanced player, for sure.
What's funny is I think if you had asked this question in 2015, like Brad Evans would have been on there. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's interesting. I think the other thing that is interesting about this conversation is I think you are invariably there's a lot of recency bias. I think these conversations always have some recency bias. Absolutely. But I think what's tough is that the Sounders are...
The nature of MLS is that the league is getting better. And so the best players now are usually better than the best players in the previous era. And for the Sounders who have been consistently competitive all this time, that's especially true. So you can say like, oh, well, Mauro Rosales at his peak was better than Nico Ladero. People aren't really saying that. But I think that those are... You know, it's tough to compare Eddie Johnson to Raul Rui Diaz, even if...
Well, I guess maybe these aren't. The Sounders had some really great seasons before the Nicoladero era, but I feel like the Nicoladero era really defines what the Sounders are. Like, and so it's maybe not, it shouldn't, maybe it's not unfair to have everyone on the team on this mount, on this four pillars or whatever we're calling it, be relatively recent players. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think it's really it is an exercise in what is.
the most important thing to you and i mean for me like there are so many people who the 2014 Sounders were the peak of their fandom and their answers are going to be a lot different than I think. But I mean, I think. one of the realities is that that team just wasn't together very long. And so none of them, like their best players just not like Dempsey was the longest tenure was ascent. Well, I guess Fry is still from that era, but.
When we think of that team, we think of Oba and Clint. And Oba and Clint only played something like... 45 games together or something like that. uh it's kind of crazy like they they were sort of just a a flash in the sounders history but we remember them very fondly i think in part because it was such a short thing and we and it was cut off earlier than we were ready for it to be cut off and that's kind of that plays into it all as well whereas
Jordan has been around forever. Christian has been around forever. And so we have. mixed emotions about them because of because of yeah but that's no that's fair totally fair anyway uh this is a good one good mailbag uh thank you to everyone who's listening uh i did want to share a little bit of of sort of...
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Thanks, of course, to Aaron, my co-host. Thanks to Lickit, our producer. Thanks to you, our subscribers, and everyone else that is listening. I am Jeremiah Oshan. This is Nos Adientes, and we'll catch you next time. 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 now? Awkward joke, dad joke.