Maybe we got a bit ahead of ourselves - podcast episode cover

Maybe we got a bit ahead of ourselves

Sep 17, 202539 min
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Summary

This episode discusses the Seattle Sounders' recent setbacks, including a disappointing draw against LA Galaxy due to defensive errors and a predictable loss to Inter Miami. Hosts Jeremiah Oshan and Aaron Campo analyze critical lineup decisions, particularly regarding Christian Roldan's rest and the ongoing goalkeeper debate between Stefan Frei and Andrew Thomas. The team now faces a challenging "must-win" stretch with virtually no margin for error to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Episode description

The Seattle Sounders lost 3-1 to Inter Miami, a game they played on two days’ rest and required a cross-country road trip. The result was pretty predictable, if we’re being honest. But what Jeremiah and Aaron point out is the degree to which it’s a problem is mostly a result of dropping points on Saturday.

That sets up a final five-game stretch in which the Sounders have virtually no margin for error if they want to secure home-field advantage through the first round of the playoffs.

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Transcript

Intro / Opening

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The Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. Here comes Ruiz Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. The Sounders. process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't? Ever since I heard about a commentary that we didn't take outcome 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. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder 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.

Welcome & Current Frustrations

We are sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Hacks and Ferments, all that good stuff. I'm Jeremiah Oshan. Joining me today is Aaron Campo. Sounders, we're recording this right after a loss. I think this might be the first time that we've recorded the same night of a loss, at least in a long time. But I'm here with Aaron Campo and, of course, Lickett on our engineer.

Second straight frustrating result, Aaron, are you panicking? We haven't asked that in a long time. I feel like we haven't asked ourselves if we're panicking for months, maybe not all year. I'm not panicking because I think that...

these results both fall into the characteristics of this team, right? They went on a great run. And then they, you know, they had a... disappointing, but I think fairly Sounders-esque result on Saturday against the Galaxy, where they looked good on an attack, they scored some goals, but they had some really inexcusable defensive lapses.

And then, you know, the one tonight, I mean, a lot of people have said this and it's because it's true. I don't think anybody cares too much about this game if not for the results on Saturday. that made this one you know of greater urgency it led to the decision to maybe start a slightly stronger lineup than i think people might have been expecting uh and you know and then they just couldn't

couldn't hang with a very good Miami team. I mean, I think it's, it's easy to forget because we just pants them in a cup final that this is a very good team. Yeah. They, they haven't lost at home in quite some time. I don't believe so.

Sounders' Recent Setbacks

Yeah, but they didn't get the one against the Galaxy on Saturday, and so now they've got one point from the last two. It's going to be really, really hard to hang on to that fourth spot down the stretch without some help.

so i'm not panicking but it is disappointing because i think that you know this was a pretty important stretch of games here uh and a galaxy game was not a must win but it was a must win for me to feel really really good um going into the stretch run and and i don't now so that's a bummer but i still think this is a good team that's capable of making a run in the playoffs they've just made it a little bit harder on themselves yeah i think i would agree with all of that uh you you

take away the drop points against the galaxy. And I think, you know, we've been talking about this game as a likely loss, you know, probably from the, I said this in the discord, I'll stand by it. This was probably the most predictable result. of the entire season when the schedule first came out. Playing on short rest at Miami, traveling across the country, there was a million reasons why. this was not going to be a great performance.

That said, after they dropped the two points to the galaxy, all of a sudden there was a little bit more urgency to this one. It was like, oh, if they can get a point out of this one, maybe that solves the wound a little bit from the galaxy. I do wonder what some of those lineup decisions were that Brian Chmester alluded to sort of making as a result of...

The Galaxy game. I would imagine Christian Roldan was one of those players who would have otherwise gotten a day off. Maybe there were some other ones in there. I'm kicking myself because I meant to ask him about the Pedro de la Vega injury situation. I was a little surprised that he traveled and then didn't even make the game day roster. We were not able to get any clarity on that.

So that's a little bit of a concern, I would say. But yeah, it's on one hand, a totally predictable result. The first half was bad, but the second half was really not that bad, really. The one goal they give up in the second half was frustrating because it comes when Kim Kihee is off the field, essentially because he's getting his hand fixed after it got stepped on. I'm sure we're going to find out that he broke a...

dumb or something like that. But other than that, other than that goal, I thought they looked okay in the second half. Right after they scored, actually, it seemed like they had some momentum and they looked okay.

Dissecting the LA Galaxy Draw

But yeah, it's a frustrating result mainly in the context of those drop points against the galaxy, which is really sort of the original sin of this little stretch here where... They're up 2-0 at home against the Galaxy going into the end of the first half. And then they just give up a goal that they can't give up on a set piece right at the end of the first half. And then...

They really dominate the second half. And I do want to bring it back and talk. We didn't have a chance to record after the Galaxy game. And I feel like it's important to talk about that one too. The Sounders were controlling the second half really until... They inexplicably were like, I just don't understand the defensive setup that they're in, in the 87th minute. Why is, you know, why is Steph Rye kicking a ball into touch? Why aren't you just playing that ball?

down the middle of the field why aren't you just kicking that out like just boot it as far as you can there's no reason to give up a throw in in your end of the field and then defensively they're all out of position Jackson Reagan, to me, looks like he's way, way overcommitted to the sideline. Christian Roldan looks like he's too far. He's overcommitted forward. It's just a mess of a defensive sequence.

And you take out that, you know, really, if you take out that play, this whole game sort of almost doesn't matter. You just shrug your shoulders and you go, eh, you're going to lose that game against Miami. yeah and that and that i think is the thing that makes it so frustrating um because that's not a good galaxy team in the best of times and they were missing a lot of key players and

They're playing on the road, and it's a team that you have handled your business against this season. So that's a game you should fully expect to win. And it almost felt like... at the end that's kind of what happened is they just didn't really see a way that they were going to lose that game uh and and let their you know their their mentality lapse or it's the it's

The best explanation I can come up with, right? Like, I hate to try to play guessing games about the mental state of the players or what they were or weren't assuming, but...

Missed Offensive Opportunities

It seems more likely to me that they just kind of let their guard down than they just completely forgot how to organize the defense in a pretty critical moment. And, you know, there were a lot of opportunities that... It felt like they should have put away, but ultimately at the end of the day, I don't think the attack was a problem in this game at all. I think you should...

Expect to win games when you score two goals against LA Galaxy at home, the 2025 LA Galaxy at home to especially when you're up to two zero. That to me is it's not like, yes, they had chances to add a third goal. There were a few moments in the Galaxy game that really frustrated me on, you know, I didn't get to watch it live. I watched it on rewatch after knowing the result, but there were two big.

plays that sort of stood out to me as missed opportunities uh one of them was a chance in the 78th minute or so when Alex Roldan drives makes a nice play and he drives into the center of the field And he beats his man, and he makes a good play. But unfortunately he has Paul Rothrock absolutely wide open on the left side. He just feeds it to him. And I'm not saying that's an automatic goal or anything, but it's a really good, it's a much better look than, than Alex Roldan's going to get.

And that ends up getting saved. A contested shot ends up getting saved instead of an uncontested shot. And you sort of take your chances with. And then there was another play right under the 85th minute, essentially right before the equalizer. where the Sounders drive down the field and...

And Georgie Manungu ends up with the ball near the top of the penalty area, about 22 yards out. And he has a bunch of different passing options. No one with a better look, but lots of open players who he can extend the possession. with and instead of extending the possession he kicks it you know he takes a shot from 22 yards out it misses uh and it wasn't immediately it was but essentially the that's what starts the sequence that ultimately ends up leading to

the equalizer. But it's not that he did something that led to it. It's more that he had an opportunity to waste time to burn clock. And I think that was probably the play that Brian Schmetzer is thinking of. most acutely in the post game when he's talking about how we had opportunities to extend positions and we were just sort of dead set on getting a third goal, which.

I like the mentality of, I do appreciate the mentality of let's try to get that third goal, but you got to be smart about it. Right. And I just don't feel like the Sounders were not at their sharpest. They were not their smartest and it bit them pretty badly. And again, it makes this Miami result seem a lot worse than it really should be.

Reality Check After Winning Streak

Yeah, I think so. And it's just like it's a vibes thing, too, which has kind of been the theme of the last couple of years, I guess. But it's like you come out of the high in the League's Cup, Christian getting called up, which I think a lot of people were really happy to see him finally get rewarded. And, you know, you're on this four-game winning streak in all competitions and you've been the best team in the league since, you know, early summer, early mid-summer.

And then to have just these two bad results back to back feels bad. And that's the thing, right? At the end of the day, these are only two results. But it's kind of a reminder that for all of the good soccer the Sounders have been playing, and for the fact that I think most people still think that this is a very legitimate MLS Cup contender, they still have a little bit of a hole to climb out of.

And I think it's been easy to forget that because they just have been so good, but they were playing a little bit behind. They were playing a little bit of catch up and they needed to not waste opportunities like the one against the galaxy to be able to improve their position. and you know we went through that whole rundown of where we thought the sounders were going to end up and we were sort of assuming that

the teams ahead of them would not play as well as they have been. And I think that was a fair assumption at the time. But, you know, Vancouver and Minnesota have have kept it up. They've they've been good. And LAFC is a point behind and they've got two games in hand.

You actually have to get the results in your game's hand to make that stick. But, you know, I'd probably put my money on LAFC finishing in that spot. So I think... after all the good feelings we've gotten in this regular season and after how enjoyable it's been for a few months to get to the playoffs and not be in the top four, you know, to be fifth, most likely.

It does feel like kind of a bummer, especially when we were trying to talk ourselves into winning, you know, finishing first in the West not that long ago. Yeah. And, you know, it is a reminder of just like how quickly this stuff can turn.

The Playoff Position Dilemma

And and it feels like when it takes a turn for the bad, it happens a lot more quickly than, you know, when when you're trying to get it to turn the other way. But. Yeah, and I think it's also a reminder that for all the good feelings that we've had since the Club World Cup, a lot of that good feeling was concentrated on their League's Cup performances. Because the reality is that outside of League's Cup, they are now, I think, six.

6-2 and... I don't know their exact... I would have to... Look, I know coming into this game, they were averaging 1.9 points per game outside of... the league's cup which is good it's not it's not a bad like i don't want to make it sound like they've been anything short of good in league play but they just haven't been spectacular They've dropped a bunch of results. They had the 3-0 lead against the Rapids where they had to settle for a point in that one.

They had the late goal against Atlanta that got wiped off the board essentially when they gave up another one. They've dropped six very winnable points in this stretch where they've been playing really well. And those six points are huge. They're especially huge for the difference between how comfortable they are. They would be comfortably in fourth place right now. They're still in fourth, but they would be comfortably in fourth if they had.

secured those six points and i think that we would feel a lot differently about their position overall and yeah it's going to be a dogfight now from here on out to get to the four or five spot and i don't even think like there is a real If they lose to Austin, which is definitely on the table, this is a road game in MLS. There are no... gimme's in MLS but this is suddenly a really really big game against Austin on Sunday and you know Austin is not that far behind them in the standings

And it's not outside of the realm of possibility that they could finish sixth or even seventh. Like, the gap from seventh to eighth is big. But they, you know, the, and I guess. The difference between finishing fifth and seventh from a practical perspective is maybe not as that big of a deal. But there is something like mentally about finishing seventh that feels a lot worse than finishing fifth. But finishing fourth is really what the goal should be.

Upcoming Must-Win Games

And they have essentially taken away their room for error at this point. Almost every game from here on out is close to a must win if they want to finish fourth. And the New York city game is maybe the one place that the season finale, the one place where there might potentially be some give, but I don't, you know, they've got, they've got six games left. four home games is that right or yeah uh let's see they've played 15 away

Yeah, 15 away and 14 at home. Yeah, so they have five games left. Three of them are at home. Those three home games are absolutely must-win games. The Austin game is going to be big, though. This is a big game. They just can't afford – they just don't have a lot of room for error. That's my point.

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Use the code sounder at heart at checkout for a free hot sauce with your order. Hacks and ferments is a proud sponsor of that sounder at heart podcast network. Yeah. And unfortunately, Austin has only lost twice at home this year. They just have not done themselves any favors the last month or so. The only teams that have lost at home less than Austin are Philly and Seattle. So I guess that's good.

I think that's one of the most frustrating things, too, about the Sounders probably slipping into that lower half of the playoff bracket is they've been so good at home and they have been so mediocre on the road. They've been very mediocre on the road. That's absolutely true. They're not doing themselves any favors there. And obviously, you know, if you finish fourth, is it really that much of a difference than finishing fifth or sixth? Like not really.

um in terms in terms of your chances of going all the way right but it's still yeah um i mean yeah it's just i think finishing fourth is absolutely a admirable goal having home field advantage even if it's only for the first round is important. And then you sort of take your chances after that, right? The good news is that the gap between... first and like for in terms of quality of the teams the gaps between first and fifth in the west is not that big like i'm not that

like Vancouver looks good. Minnesota looks good. San Diego looks good. LAFC looks good. The Sounders look good too. I think all five of those teams in terms of quality are, you know, you sort of take it. on any of those teams could win on any given day. And what the Sounders really need to do though, from here on out is separate themselves from the rest of the pack. And that's going to be the trick. The trick here is going to be.

If they win against Austin, you can kind of forgive the Galaxy result a little bit more. But they still have some tough games at home. Their last three home games are all against teams in the playoffs right now. It's against Vancouver, Portland, and RSL. Those are all effectively must-win games. Again, if the goal is to finish fourth or maybe better, it's not really that much in play.

but these are suddenly very important games and it doesn't, you know, and I want to be clear. None of this takes away from my belief that this is a really good team. It was only, you know, two games ago that. We were talking about these guys being among the MLS Cup favorites. I think on their day, they still are. But like you said, the margins are really, really small.

Team Quality and Expectations

Yeah, they are. They are. And it's, you know, it's MLS is competitive. And I think that we probably we and I include myself in that. I'm not including you in that because that's that's not nice to do. But I think we we probably overrate the sounders at times. Yeah, sort of overlook some of their flaws. And that's the fun, you know.

Yeah, and they're a lot of fun to watch, right? It's easier to ignore the fact that they have regressed horribly defensively and are a pretty mediocre defensive team this year because they're scoring a bunch of goals and they're winning games in lopsided fashion. But by goal difference, they're the fifth best team in the Western Conference right now. Right.

I don't think that that necessarily speaks to ultimately their quality. I think that they're a better team than Minnesota. I think that they're on equal footing, at least with LAFC. But this is sort of a... coming back to earth kind of moment, right? Where it was very easy to convince yourself after the league's cup win that this was the best team in MLS and they were going to make an MLS cup run. And I think it's a little harder to.

talk yourself into that being a certainty at this point. Yeah. I don't think it's a, I think the certainty with which we felt those emotions is probably diminished.

Schmetzer's Lineup Decisions

It doesn't diminish their, like they've shown that on their day, even without their best players, that this is a very good team that is capable of getting results. I really do think that. this was a team capable of getting results against my result tonight against Miami, but they were not like they, the way they played was not, was not up to their standard. And I think.

And Schmetzer sort of owned that to a degree. It's hard to say if you put in Snyder Brunel for Christian Roldan, is that going to change this result? I don't know. Honestly, though, I would have felt better about it. I would have felt a lot better about it if Snyder Brunel... If they lose 3-1 and Snyder Brunel starts this game, I'd feel better. If they lose 3-1 and...

You know, Yamar, I did not like Reagan looked a lot better than Yamar. I, in hindsight, I wonder if it would have been better to flop them. But Yamar didn't, didn't look up for it. New who did not look good. And that's one that's a little bit more tough to handle because he should have the legs to, you know, he did not play in the in the league's cup final. Presumably, he would have been a little bit better.

I think his mistakes were more mental. He kept guys on a couple times when he shouldn't have. He seemed to be a little out of position on a couple of the goals. That's a tough one. Rothrock, you know, you can kind of go down the low. I don't know that anyone who started on Saturday looked entirely up for this one. And that's sort of what's frustrating.

Yeah, no, I would agree with that. And I think you make a really good point about the it's not that Brunel would have fixed things. It's that because, I mean, honestly, Christian looked. very bad by his standard in this game. I had like four giveaways that are just not his. Yeah. Not his stuff, which directly led to a goal to the first goal. Yeah.

But he did have a couple of like pretty good defensive plays. He had, you know, some decent looking attack. He's a good player. Yeah, he's a good player. I think that that's exactly the half that. not even the half hour that Snyder Brunel had, right? They looked pretty similar. They did some really good things. Snyder had a really bad giveaway that led to a goal. Almost led to a goal. Not a goal, but a really good chance.

And, you know, it's I just I don't really think it matters, but would have been nice to get Christian a little more rest because now that Austin game is so much more important, you probably need to start him again. I do think it's going to be a little easier to recover from this one just because, you know, he's he didn't play for the US a couple of days ago and he's going to get most of the rest of the week off. I'm assuming not off, but.

um maybe they'll go a little lighter on them in training this week because it's a short week so yeah i honestly i i feel like this is one of those ones where

The easier thing would have been maybe to not start him against the Galaxy at home. Yeah. And then let him rest. I don't want to get too much into second-guessing Schmetzer. He has pressed a lot of... the right buttons but there are a few lineup decisions between these this game and the galaxy game that feel a little too easy to second guess one of them being starting christian twice like i really think they needed to choose

One of those two games to start them. Yeah. Obed. Like I saw a fair number of people complaining about Obed. I actually thought even before his goal, I thought he was fine. I thought, I think he would on the list of players who I, I was frustrated by Obed was not on it. Frankly, I think that the Sounders looked or I thought Obed looked fine. Not maybe not great, but he was he was not one of the players who I was stressing about. You know, Minungu, I thought had.

Goalkeeper Controversy: Frei vs. Thomas

you know, was okay. But again, this is a player who was fresh. But we, I feel like we have maybe not talked enough about the player who a lot of people are going to want us to talk about in this game. And that's Stefan Fry. I asked. I asked Schmetzer about him, and I thought his answer was actually fair, which is I don't know if he – look, you can argue he got a bad read on the second goal.

But I also have to give him a little bit of grace in that the reality is Leo Messi had a look right in front of goal. Like the biggest problem on that goal. was probably not Steph Fry's read of Leo Messi's shot. The bigger problem was... the cross that comes in and messy being all alone in front of goal. Like on some level, like, could he have done better? Sure. But that's not the main culprit of.

why that goal happens similarly on the first goal he gets a leg to it but he does you know let's give him credit he takes the right angle and he gets his leg on the ball and sometimes that that goes in and sometimes it doesn't. It went in this time. Hard to put that one too much on him. And then the third goal, again, he gets rooted to the ground. You'd like to see him make a better effort on a ball that is right over his head.

But on the other hand, it's an open header from point blank range. It's not that realistic for him. So it's like he looked bad, like in ways he looked bad on all three goals, but he also made a bunch of good saves. I don't know. I'm, I'm a little bit of on a, I have a mixed feelings about this because on one hand, I, I don't understand why you start Steph on short rest. This seems to me like a perfect example of, look, it's an excuse to, to let Thomas play.

And instead you sort of end up in a situation where you're like, like Thomas wouldn't have been worse. I don't think. No, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I think that some of the calls for just the immediate benching of Steph and declaring him done for were a little over the top because he did have that great save against Messi. He had a couple other nice saves. And honestly, he plays the...

the one where messy is all in on goal. I thought like he doesn't save that one, but I thought he actually did a good job of creating, like of creating, of staying big essentially, but go ahead. I'm sorry. I think, well, I think that the thing with the second one that's so weird to me is that there's nothing about.

The way he reacted to it made me think that there's just something from the camera angle we didn't see, because it's not like he reacted in a way where he just reacted too slowly, like he moved the wrong direction initially. And and so I'm just like, that's just one of those that I'm willing to chalk up. Like, I think it's very bad to not make that save because it was not a very good shot. And he went in a weird direction. But I don't think that that.

That goal specifically is evidence of him being past it. Right. And the other two, you know. I don't know that Thomas makes those saves. I don't I think like you said, like, I don't I don't think he. I don't know that he's going to do any worse in those situations, you know, right. But.

Navigating the Goalkeeper Dilemma

It is just one of those things where I think that it is weird to not give them a start because now you're in a situation where everything is getting second guessed. And I think if ultimately if this game plays out the exact same way and Andrew Thomas is in goal, and I think that that's a reasonable assumption to make. Yep. Yep.

That now you've made your job a little easier because you can say, look, you know, like we want we want to rotate these guys and Andrew's going to get his chances. But like he had his chance and he didn't do a great job. And, you know, Steph hasn't made any big mistakes since. And now.

you know, it makes it a trickier discussion. I mean, I'll be very curious to see who starts against Austin. I will too. And I think it's sort of like the Brunel situation where like no one's expecting a standard Brunel to take.

Christian Roldan's job Christian Roldan let me just say Christian Roldan has been the Sounders best player all year I'm willing to give him some grace but I I just also feel like Brian could have done him a solid and given him a game off in one of these two games and instead he sort of is playing you can't tell me he doesn't look tired like he he looked like he had he was not himself in this game and i think that's a lot of it is like he had just played 90 minutes for the u.s or

close to 90 minutes for the U S and then he played, he played, I believe 90 minutes against galaxy. And I just, it's just, give them a break. Like you don't need them to start. You don't need the, like, yeah, it would have been nice to get a result from this game, but it just feels like you, you can make your life a little easier. And the Thomas one falls into that same situation where.

just make your life easier. Like I just thought Andy Tom, starting Andrew Thomas in this game was an easy, like an, it was an easy, it was like a gimme to me of like, look, give them the game. It doesn't. And if, and I honestly, I. I hate to say this, but I think maybe part of the reason why he doesn't start him in this game is if Andrew Thomas plays well, it makes it tougher. But instead, you're sort of stuck on the...

Like if this was a no-win situation, sort of like if the Sounders came into this game thinking, you know, this is probably a loss, it doesn't help you to put Steph in goal. Again, I think too now. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no, go. No, no, no. Well, now you've put yourself into a situation where if you give. Even if the plan all along was to give stuff this game and give Andrew Thomas the Austin game. Now you put yourself in a situation where by doing that, you're setting the.

the expectation that it's Thomas's job now and that Steph is getting benched for a bad game against Miami. Like it's just, and to me that suggests that Andrew Thomas is just not going to play. the rest of the year like that the plan was just to give Steph the job until he lost it right and unfortunately that seems to be the situation and I don't know on some level maybe that's unavoidable

The idea that Schmetzer is going to bench Steph for all that he's done while he hasn't really done any. And to be fair to Fry, he has not been bad. It's not that he looks... I don't think he looks past it. He made two or three really good saves today. If you look at the XG on Miami, he did not...

They didn't have quite three, but they were very like they had a lot of good chances. And Fry was, for the most part, made the saves that you'd expect. He made a couple maybe that you wouldn't expect. He didn't make one that you would have liked them to have made. It wasn't a bad game. But Andrew Thomas just finished winning League's Cup best goalkeeper of the tournament. And...

He's the young guy and he's clearly more athletic and you kind of like the idea of him playing in a penalty shootout a lot more than you like the idea of Steph playing in a penalty shootout. And all of a sudden it's like these decisions just are going to get harder. I don't envy Brian Schmetzer, I guess is what I'm saying. And I felt like this was, this was, he could have given himself a little bit of a break and instead he didn't, you know, and that's what's, that's the bummer about this game.

And these are the situations I think he's done a really good job of handling over the years. Because we've questioned similar things in the past. Although I do feel like this is a slightly different situation where... Stephen Fry is older. He's coming back from injury. This is a very short rest game. You've got another game coming up on the weekend.

So you've got all the cover in the world you need to say, no, this has nothing to do with this is just we need we want to make sure stuff is fresh for the stretch run, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But but I do think, you know, I'm willing to give. Brian the benefit of the doubt on this kind of stuff but it's I'm just assuming there is something that it's one of those right where it's like there's something I'm not seeing here because it seems so obvious to me yeah

I mean, I just think it's a very similar situation to Nico and Raul, where they're in there probably last year as a starter, and it's just tough to put them on the bench. The difference being... that it's different for goalkeepers. Like it's just, it is an inherently, it's one thing to bench Raul Rui Diaz for Jordan Morris when there's very clearly a role that Rui Diaz can play off the bench. It's one thing to bench.

Nico Ladero for Albert Rusnak when there's still very clearly a role he can play on the team. If you bench Steph for Andrew Thomas. It's like your role as cheerleader, essentially. Or if you come in in case of an emergency. And it's a tougher decision. I don't envy. I don't envy Brian. You know, he talked about this at the last time we talked to him about this is a real this is a real controversy. And it's and it's a it's a good kind of controversy, but it's still.

gonna cause some issues you know it's it's there's still questions here uh yeah but uh

Looking Ahead to Austin & Playoffs

Hopefully they can put it together for Austin. I mean, Austin should not be striking fear into them. This is a game, very much a game the Sounders can win. Yeah. But they need to go out and do it now because they put themselves in that situation.

They can win, but I think like a week and a half ago, it would have been they can and should win. And now I'm not so sure about the should. And that's that's kind of a bummer. You know, it's yeah, it's but, you know, they've still got time to figure it out.

Maybe maybe it's time where Brian Schmetzer starts getting into postseason mode and we see them approach these games a little bit differently. Because I will say last year's team, I felt very good about their ability to go on the road in the playoffs and grind out a result. This year, I don't feel as good about that.

And so I think they are going to have to make some changes to the way they play, at least on the road. And maybe you want to start making some of those adjustments now instead of, you know, three days before the first playoff game. So yeah. Big game should be interesting, would feel real good about a win if they could get it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're doing sort of a short show today, so that's that's basically it.

uh aaron has a concert i believe to go to and that's correct yep and you know but we wanted to make sure we were on the record for the galaxy and allison game and or whatever Who did they play today? Miami, something like that. Miami, yeah. But anyway, we'll come back and we'll be back next week for sure. Get back into our normal routine.

I am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Aaron Campo and lick it. This is no study at this part of the sounder at heart podcast network. And remember, you'll never get alone. Let's go at Sounders.

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