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. Here we go. Come on! Hey, O'Shaan! Let's go! Here comes Ruiz Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. And now they truly can start the celebrations. It's the Sounders MLS Cup. Nico Ledero leaves absolutely no doubt. The Saunders rule the region. Seattle Saunders is going to fill it.
This feels fucking awesome. This is a tiny dog. Nice work on your little yacht thing. You know, what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't? Robert Hart wrote a commentary that we didn't take the overcome 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 Pole 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 Adietes on the Center at Heart Podcast Network. This is Friday. We are doing what we learned this week with Nico. I am Jeremiah Oshan, joined as always by...
Nico Moreno, man. I am right here. Yes, I did come. I did show up. We are excited about what is going on. Well, you know, it's Friday, sunny out. You know, I decided to take the day off from every other responsibility because I wanted to just be here. collected just for our fans, man. That's the commitment that people have come to know and love. Man, I did a little film study last night from San Luis game, of course. I'm starting to do that more often than not.
Kind of interesting to get a little bit more on St. Louis. So just excited, man. Probably should not be as excited as I am because It's not necessarily good news and it's not the best week necessarily for the Sounders, according to what we've learned. Yes. But we are here. So we can jump right into that. The big thing we learned this week is there are some injuries. and not necessarily good news. You know, the Sounders had a nice little run there of about a week.
where they were pretty much healthy. Actually, I don't know if they've had a week where everyone's healthy. But they had a week where it seemed like they were getting to a point where it's like, ooh, we have too many. It's almost there. We have so many options on offense. And they do not, there's a lot of choices being made for them right now. First and foremost, we learned that Jordan Morris
His hamstring injury was considerably more serious, I think, than the previous one. There seems to be some concern. They said they hope he's out for about six weeks. They had to do a second MRI. That MRI revealed more significant tearing, I think, than they realized or they had hoped for. It's the same injury, the exact same injury he just returned from, which I guess...
leads to more concern. And now I guess going forward, they say they're going to monitor it on a regular basis with regular MRIs. I actually was curious because there was some responses that said like, wait a minute, they weren't doing this already. And so I felt like I needed to reach out to some experts in the field. And I did hear back that in England... in the Premier League, it's becoming more common practice.
to do these sort of like regular mris to establish progress but outside of england it's almost unheard of and certainly in mls it's not a normal thing And when they do start doing it, it's when there's concern of a more significant injury that they're monitoring. And so this person told me that it was totally understandable.
Not surprising at all that they weren't monitoring Morris' progress before because, A, he had been so healthy. I mean, this is a player who has been remarkably healthy over the last three-plus seasons. And we'd been talking to Brian Spencer about how durable he'd been and maybe they over indexed on that. But in any case. He's going to be out for six weeks at least. It looks like they hope that he's back for the Club World Cup. It's not good news.
But I don't know, what was your take from this whole... from this whole thing? Because you did a good job, I thought, of pushing Brian a little bit on what do we miss something? Yeah, I asked about the root cause because that's where I really want to pinpoint what And I don't know if that was the right wording, but I just kept saying, what was misassessed? What did you guys miss? And Brian, I thought he did a good job at saying, I don't think we missed anything. He said that...
he had made 90% of his sprint? Yeah, what he said is he had reached 98% of his top speed multiple times in the national game, which is usually an indication that he's feeling totally fit. Right. And so it sounds like the studies, the work behind was done adequately. And he did mention, you know, it's just the sport and it just happens. I don't think he's an out. And I don't think he's lying. I think he's being very honest about we were very careful.
He would have never played him 45 if he wasn't ready for 45. So for me, it was good to see and hear that... enough was done to make sure that he was ready to go. Yeah, I think that that's, I think that I felt assured and I think if you can look at the, you can look at the reality of what happened. I mean, he got hurt on March 11th. He took a week or two off where he didn't do anything, but he was fullback in training for two whole weeks before they were going to play him against Dallas.
He feels some discomfort in Dallas. They pull him from the lineup. They're being careful. He goes through a whole another week of training. They plan for 30 minutes against Nashville. He looks great. He looked so good against Nashville that they thought, okay, maybe we'll start him. But for not fitness-related reasons, they decided to start Danny Masofsky, who had just been playing well. And then they bring Morris in at halftime, and then he gets hurt essentially.
After for like right at 45 minutes of playing you get hurt in the 90th minute It's hard to really second-guess too much of what they did in his return now now if you want we want to go back We talked about this last time. We've talked about this before, but I think you can definitely credibly argue that he was overused early in the season.
a somewhat separate conversation from the the the care with which they brought him back this time which it seems like they were very careful they went through like and i know people get frustrated when a player hurts himself again especially they go well they should have given him more time off well I guess in hindsight, maybe they should have, but you do sort of have to play when they're ready. At some point you have to play them. Like that's just.
You can't just rest guys forever. And then I also got an insight on why, because another question that was consistently asked was, Why take out moves at halftime and why not wait? Well, the reason of that is because if I have a guy that is coming from an injury and that I'm being careful. during the halftime, I can reactivate his muscles and I can warm him up a lot. comprehensively than I could if he's just warming up on silent, getting ready to come in in the 75th or the 60th minute.
So that makes a lot of sense. So all I wanted to do was just kind of cover my bases and figure out if something was missed again. But it seems like there wasn't. It seems like they did everything correctly to get him going. which was a necessity, get him going on the right way in order to have him ready for, I don't know, these next three games on the road. And, you know, they were counting on Jordan Morris. So now does that fall more on Jordan? And, you know, is it?
Is it his age? Is it, you know, the injuries? Those are things that we cannot answer. We can't answer, but there are things that are going to be sort of hanging over his head. We talked to Christian today about sort of the mental state of Jordan. And Christian also said, you know, part of what's so frustrating about it is that it felt like he was beyond this.
He's not an old player. He's 30 years old. He's at a point in his life where he is at his... he is in his prime right now this is when his body should be the most durable when he should be the most where he's at his peak performances and it's very frustrating, I'm sure, for him above all else. that he's losing this time. And he was playing well. He was playing great. Let's not lose sight of the fact that when he's been healthy, he's been mostly extremely good this year.
And, you know, he's in by some numbers, he's having his best per on a per 90 minute basis. He's having one of his best seasons ever. So it's it's very it's a bummer that he's out because he looks like he is a. Very effective, very useful player. And it's just too bad. And I've actually added that he's actually... progressed and grown in his game as just
Retaining the ball and that hold-up play and playing with his back-to-goal. All these things that I know that the kid, well, I can't even call the kid, but as the player that he was at one point and now. he's really progressed. So it's tough to see it happen. And when you side against Nashville, as much as he didn't pull a couple of those balls away, it's so easy for him to get to those places. In the Colorado game, literally the injury.
He makes such a good play. He makes such a good play where he gets injured and he sets up Paul Rothrock beautifully. But that's what he does. And those are things that he's learned over the years. So that's why he's so hard. He's such a big blow for the Sounders. It is. The one thing that maybe gives some comfort is the emergence of Danny Masofsky. You know, we talked about this on the show. We don't need to get too into it because we have sort of explored this, but it does bear repeating.
Danny Masofsky is not on a traditional heater where he's just suddenly finishing all of his shots, right? He's consistently putting himself in dangerous positions. He's taking a lot of shots from dangerous spots. And as a result, A fair number of them are going in, but he's just consistently so effective at being in dangerous spots. He's getting on the end of rebounds all the time. He's always in the box. He's always making those near post runs.
I think if you're going to, like, he's not going to replicate everything Jordan does. but he can replicate specific things that Jordan does, and one of those is just getting in the box and being available. I think he's a very unselfish player, and he is okay making six runs with everything he has.
when he's not getting the ball. And all he's doing is opening space. And he's pressing. He doesn't need touches. All he wants to do is eventually one of those runs, the ball will be there. And I feel like he's building and has built a better rapport with the wing bag. Kalani specifically, he talked about it after the Colorado game. There had been a ball in the 24th minute that was similarly to where he gets that goal.
that maybe just didn't come in with the accuracy that Kalani wanted. So the keeper got it. But then after that, it happens again. And there is Mussofsky. So you got to credit him that. Credit him for that. I feel like his confidence has built. We talked to him as well. And he said that he feels like his body. is finally completely fit. And I feel like... Feels as healthy as he's ever been. Feels as healthy as he's ever been. He even talked about...
Maybe it's the fact that I'm engaged. I mean, the guys and, you know, people might just think that's just something someone will say. But when someone's feeling good, I mean, when it comes to being a striker, man, I'm telling you, the confidence, the mindset, the clarity of things is so important. And I see it in Danny Mussovsky. And that could potentially help.
lessened the absence of Jordan Morris with one other player that we'll talk about here because, you know, we learned a lot of things about, or at least I did specifically because I know that you follow him a lot more than I do. Sticking to Musawski before we finish, just you got to credit him for the effort that he's putting in. If anything at all, you have a guide that right now is...
connecting and it's finishing. I had heard somebody talk about the difference between what the Sounders have done over the last couple of games was getting to prime assist zones. I don't think that's it. I think that the Sounders have created a lot of chances all over the season. I think the difference is that they're actually finishing those chances and that maybe those extra runners are getting to the right places.
But I don't think it had to do anything with the amount or volume of opportunities. It's more about the way they're finishing, and Mussovsky is a big part of that. Yeah, and I think, I mean, Mussovsky is... I think what is so good about Danny Masofsky is that he is reliable. That you know, when he, you know, and Alex Roldan spoke to this, is that when coach...
When the coaches tell him, make the near post run, he makes the near post run. Exactly. He's not getting caught up in... getting involved in the game and doing all these kind of things and there's just different kinds of unselfish play one of those types is
You just do the dirty work. You're doing all these other things in the midfield or whatever. We don't talk a lot about strikers who are unselfish in that they don't need touches. They just want to be at the end. All they got to do is they just want to shoot. And they don't need to, they'll make those runs 10 times, but if they get the ball one, knowing that they might only get it one.
But if they make that run 10 times, that they only need to finish one for it to matter, you know? And let me get ahead of the comments here real quick. Let me get ahead, okay? Yeah. You and I are not here painting. or we're not saying that Mosovsky is the future, because I can hear it, I feel it.
My spidey senses are just going off. So what I will say is this, is that if anything, all we're saying is that, look, the work rate has always been there for him. He's always tried so much. He's still a very limited player. The only difference right now is that there has been some continuity.
and that he's on a streak. And like you said, it's by no means like this huge, incredible streak, but it's good enough to where he's being effective and he's being rewarded for all of the effort he's put in. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's, I think Jordan Morris, like there's no question to me that Jordan Morris is the starter on this team. I don't think he's going to do everything that Jordan Morris does. But if you just need a guy to put in chances when he's getting, it's going to.
force the defense to react to his runs, this is a good type of player to have. He's a player who has averaged about a goal every other game throughout his MLS career. And if that's what he continues to do while Morris is out, that should be sufficient to bridge the gap.
uh the other player who might be asked there's two more players who might be asked to fill this but the one i want to talk about first is osazi de rosario now this is a player who if you listen to the show you're probably familiar with if you read sounder heart you're probably familiar with But for a lot of people, have no idea who this guy is. He has never played in an MLS game at all. He's a 23-year-old Tacoma Defiance player.
He is the son of Dwayne De Rosario, who you may remember as maybe the greatest Canadian player of all time. He was an MLS superstar for a long time in the previous era of MLS. He is... Soccer royalty, at least from an MLAS perspective. Sure. Osaze is his oldest son, and he has been playing professional soccer since he was, you know, 16, 17 years old. He started out in the Toronto FC Academy. He moved to the New York City Academy. Then he got his first...
Pro gig was in Ukraine. Ukraine got invaded. He left there. He came back to Canada. He played a couple seasons for York in the Canadian Premier League. And then he had one really good year at York. And then his second year, he did not have such a good year. He had some maybe like little personal issues. And he came to Tacoma Defiance sort of looking to...
get a fresh start and start things over. Last year, he was good, not necessarily great for Defiance. I think he was not necessarily a bang on starter. I think he had six goals last year, but he was in and out of the starting lineup. And then at the end of the year, he is. And one thing that he has, he's been getting consistently called into the Guyana national team. Guyana is like a, you know, a third tier CONCACAF team.
But they play competitive games. And at the end of last year, he got into, I think, a Nations League qualifier where he had a hat trick. Oh, wow. Yeah, against either Barbados or Bahamas. So it's not exactly the highest level competition. No, no, no. But he got a hat trick. He ended up four goals in this two-legged tie.
And he's basically taken the momentum from that and carried it into this season. He now has eight goals in six games, and he looks like, frankly, a different player. And it's not because he has great feet. He's a good finisher. But the parts of this game that have really developed this year, and I talked to Craig Dalrymple, who is sort of like...
a floating assistant coach within the Sounders organization, and he mainly just works with individual players that they consider. He worked with Georgie before, he's worked with other players, and he sort of works on individual skills. And the thing that he's been really working on with Osaze is... He's helping him understand his runs better. He's helping understand the importance of defense in terms of chance creation. It's in his best interest to be a good defender.
and we're seeing a lot of that right now and his you know basically all the metrics are basically off the charts in terms of his His expected goals, in terms of his receiving ability, in terms of his defending is way up from what it's historically been. And, you know, he's a 23-year-old striker who has never really...
put up huge numbers, but all of a sudden looks like he may have actually put something together. You also had a really good conversation with Freddy Juarez about Rosalze. What did you learn about him? Well, basically... I have obviously known, because I'm with Sandra Hart, I follow enough, I've watched enough Takama Defiance games to know that there's something there. But my question to Freddy was about how difficult it is to...
Take what a player does at the Tacoma defiance level and for it to translate immediately into MLS play. It's not easy. It's not simple. Not easy at all. But this week, but this week, man, I have seen him and I've had him. in you know just a reference point every single time and the The thing that Freddie, let's start there, Freddie Cotton was talking about how good he was.
on Wednesday. He said, look, Wednesday, I told him, look, you did basically everything right. He said, I want you to get the tape of that session and go back and look at it. for whenever you're having a bad day or whenever you think that you're not doing enough because And that's why he had a goal. He had a pressing moment where he completely dismantles Kim Ki-hee.
If it had been a real game, it would have been a PK, but Kim Ki-Hee literally nails him from the back, just kind of upset about how things kind of played out. Then he talks about his link-up play, and there was a ball over the top. He holds it. He waits for the winger to get through. There's the overlap. He passes it. Definitely a standout on Wednesday, and we saw this, but it was even more interesting to hear Freddie say,
And he's showing me that he has those capabilities. Now, can he stay motivated? Can he be as excited? Because he said, look, I've had this all the time where I have a player that comes in so excited that he plays at a top level. But how can you keep that up there? For me, what I did learn from him is that, one, He has all the tools to be a contributor for this team.
Two, although he's not the biggest, broadest player, he's a tall guy. He, and he's not the fastest, like he's not a guy that immediately stands out, right, physically. One of the concerns about him is that he doesn't necessarily, like he's... a tall player, but he's not necessarily big or fast. Exactly. But what I did learn is that What you just said probably is the fact that he is learning how to play the position better. And there's a couple of times where he makes...
a stunt or like a fake run to one side, gets completely clear into the near post, finishes this. Or he had a one on the post. So if you have that capability of understanding the game enough where you know where to be. Whether it's being a poacher or a target striker. Field awareness is incredibly important, and I feel like he has that. If that AQ can continue to grow. I'm more than happy to have him on a bench as a potential guy to come in.
specifically, and we won't touch too much on it, but Ferreira was also not available all week. He's also injured. An adductor, sounds like they're being careful with it. So now, if it's not Mosovsky, now you got a guy like the Rosario ready to come in. And what does that prevent?
that prevents you from trying Paul Rothrock up top and trying Georgie up top. Or doing these other things that are just sort of like throwing shit against a wall. Exactly. Which I think is a situation that is fun to talk about in the abstract but is sometimes frustrating to watch. in person or to watch in action because throwing shit against the wall, especially if you're not training in it consistently, is not usually a good way of... generating cohesive play in MLS where
people know what they're doing. This is not a rec league. It's not like just go up in there and try to make chaos. It's not usually a good plan. But yeah, I think the thing about Osaze, another thing I'll say about this is that if you, the transfer window is closed right now. There is not really a realistic path to bringing in an outside player, even if you wanted to.
the good news is that from what i'm hearing the sounders are hopeful that they so they have a window from june 1st to 10th that's going to open up specifically with the hope you know that people have created that basically allow players to sign players for the club world cup sounds like the sounders are hopeful that they'll be able to get That's a month away, though. And realistically, if they bring that player in, they probably are not going to be ready to play right away.
if they were to actually but whatever like put that aside in what you can do right now is you can find a player probably from mls next pro and bring them into the team and create some depth and if you were looking at MLS Next Pro, I say this without any hyperbole, Osazi de Rosario is the player.
that you would look at and say how do we get that guy well turns out you can get him by just calling him up for the tomo goodbye that's a pretty sweet little position for the sounders to be in now that doesn't mean he's going to be a superstar But if you just need someone to sort of help bridge the gap between now and when Jordan Morris is getting out, between him and Danny Masofsky, those are pretty good options.
we'll see how it works out but the other thing i like about osaze kind of similar to what we were saying about Danny is that they seem to just really understand spacing and being in the right place and not over complicating this stuff they don't need to hit 25-yard bangers. They just need to get in the box and finish chances. And that they're willing to put in the defensive work. I mean, that's something that has been a common denominator with what the Sounders want from that.
nine position is you've got to be able to press. You've got to be able to run. You've got to be the first defender right off the bat. I mean, that's just Schmetzer ball. So he has the capability. I mean, like you said, he has eight goals in five games in MLS Next Pro. That is great numbers right now. You obviously cut that in half compared to MLS or whatever. But in reality, all you're doing is bringing yourself a guy that's going to be an option.
Another option, and I don't know if you're ready to move on, but I did want to talk about another point of conversation that I had with Freddy Juarez, and you can find the full length of that conversation at Pools of Sports. The fact that De Rosario right now, as far as we know, he's only going to be called up temporarily in those contracts. He's going to be on a short-term loan. Short-term loan. Which would be the second of...
He can be called up four times. This would be the second of those four. He can only play, I believe, twice. And so this will be the first time he's played. But anyway, go ahead. So with that in mind, and the fact that Jordan is out at least six weeks, at least, at the very least. Best case scenario, he's back somewhere around June 8th, but that's a week before a Club World Cup.
It's not, I would say it's not likely, but it's definitely within the realm of possibility that he is out for a couple weeks after that. So you need to come up with a more sustainable, better option to... one, provide an option to Mosovsky. And that's whether or not he's, hopefully he stays completely healthy. Hopefully not. If it was to happen, you need a better option. So my conversation with Freddie was about... how confident and what is it that they're doing.
with Ferreira so that he can play the nine for their system. Because look, there's no question that the guy is a talented player, but there's also no question that Bryant Smetzer and the coaching staff know that they feel more comfortable with him. in the pockets behind the nine, in their current formation, right? Yeah. That's one of the dual tens, if you will. But Freddie talked about
Look, we want to use his strengths, but we're also adding more to his game. He's only 20-something years old. He's going to need to get better. And one of the things that we need him to get better in is just being more aggressive as a player, wanting to score. He always wants to be the facilitator. He also wants to be the pastor. So I'm glad to hear that. because that needs to be emphasized even more now that Jordan's going to be out as long as he has.
And you need to have some long sessions with him playing at the nine, doing film study, making sure that he does what you need him to do. Because the last thing this team needs is for something to happen. or for Mosavsky to go cold and not have a real option. And if you look at this roster, the only other player that has... SD or forward FW next to him is Ferreira. So whether you like it or not, I heard somebody talk about, he's a mute point to talk about Ferreira and
Albert coexisting. It's not a midpoint, especially not right now. You need that to work at some point. Yeah, exactly. But you need it right now. You need it eventually when you're waiting for Jordan. And look, I hate to say this, but... I also don't know if the six weeks is enough. They're going to be extremely careful. I think there is absolutely fair concern that...
it's possible that he is out longer than six weeks. I think so too. I think that there is some, like anytime a player re-injures himself, there is concern that there's something else going on. And so if there is a tendon issue or if there is something more serious,
As of now, the Senators have said, look, we hope he's back in six weeks. So I'm willing to take their word at it. But I think we need to be realistic that there is a chance that something else is wrong and that he's going to be out longer than six weeks. And I don't need to speculate on how long that might be. But he...
We should not count. We should not be game planning for him to be back in six weeks as if, well, he'll be back in six weeks. It's no problem. Look, if you re-injure something the same, there's always concern that it's a longer. I mean, you're not discovering fire here. I mean, just common sense will tell you that even if the best case scenario was to happen and Jordan was just like, man, he's sitting in six weeks and that hamstring looks solid as steel.
you are literally going to think twice about putting him back in early. So to me... The eight weeks is probably the shortest length of time that I would see him being out before he's... And that would likely mean he misses the Club World Cup. He misses the Club World Cup. Which would be a real... A real bummer. But we don't need to... Yeah. stress on that too much. I will say one other nice
upshot to all this is it does look like Georgie Minungu now has a path to getting back into the game day roster. There was a very nice story in the Seattle Times today about Georgie. He is an absolutely wonderful person. He has a great story. He has a lot of upside. He has looked great, frankly, playing for the Tacoma Defiance the last couple games. It'll be interesting to see if you can get back into the picture.
The main reason he hasn't been on the game day roster is simply a numbers game, as best I can tell. And Ryan, they've essentially chosen... to give his spot to Ryan Kent, and then they've had other sort of players in the, because they want other flexibility. I would have thought this week he would have likely been on the bench anyway, just because...
I would think that that's an opponent where you're not super worried about having to bring in a, you know, like a read big or why you don't necessarily need defensive cover. It more likely you want to be a way to press the offense in this game. uh but so that's that's you know a nice little upshot uh georgie i really do like georgie uh and and ryan kent also like if you're looking for reasons for optimism Ryan Kent continues to look really good every like there's no reason not to be
optimistic about Ryan Kent's trajectory. I think he's still probably at least two or three weeks away from being a starter just because they're going to bring him back slowly. There's no reason to press him into the starting lineup. he looks good i mean he looks sharp he looks fit he looks everything you really want and you know it could end up being a real coup to get i mean every time i see him play i go like why was this guy available
No, and look, another thing that Freddie kind of mentioned about Ryan Kent was his professionalism. And I got to say that for a guy that's coming into a lesser league, you know, as a lot of people think of MLS, because he spent his whole career in Europe, he... As far as I know, one of the first guys in the clubhouse, one of the first guys out here on the training field takes every drill as... Seriously, as a game, and you could see that in his play.
When it comes to being on the pitch and his competitive minutes, I think he's been really good. I think he adapts to moments. I think that he is extremely effective with his movement. And, you know, if Georgie's suffering right now because he does deserve to be out there. Having a guy like Ryan Kent is only going to help him as well. I mean, that competition, just learning from a guy like that, but sticking to Ryan Kent.
One thing that we learned this week is that the guy can obliterate a ball like no one's business. There was a moment in time where we were in the middle of, I don't know if we were in the middle of a scrum. but they were practicing free kicks. He wasn't really practicing. He just took one. I think they just had a bunch of balls out, and he just decided to take a whack.
But go ahead. No. And, you know, for those who, you know, know what the training fields look like for soccer, there are those like wall plastic, you know, like. Right. tools that you use that looks like little guys that are made out of plastic. And this guy shot the ball so hard. I'm not talking about he cracked the plastic. It shattered. It shattered. Yeah. Like he got hit by a car. So, man, the guy's just...
The quality, man, if he could do that on a ball, I mean, it'll take a goalkeeper's handoff. I mean, the guy, his quality with both feet. It's just exciting to have those players. And the reason why I did that talk with Freddy Juarez is because I do believe that with the absence of Jordan Morris, all of these players that we just mentioned are going to have a hand in. that issue in that absence, because Jordan... Doesn't just mean everything that he does well, but on the stat sheet, his goals.
It's assists, it's all these things that I think as a collective, all these guys can bring. Right. No, I would agree. That was a very, and again, I just thought that was so funny because it was, there was like four or five guys who were taking pre-kicks. And he just kind of walked up and took one.
do that and just sort of like walked away like that's my thing we're done that's what I needed to do but alright well let's take a break we're going to talk about some of the more off field not necessarily off field stuff but the less tactical elements. We're going to talk about some of the milestones that some players are reaching. You're listening to No Sarietes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, and we'll be right back.
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At checkout, you will get a free hot sauce with your order. Again, go to hacksandferments.com, use the code sounderatheart at checkout for a free hot sauce with your order. Accent Ferments is a proud sponsor of that Sounder at Heart podcast. Welcome back to Nos Arietes. So we are going into this week. It seems like every week we've had one milestone after another. The one this week is Stephen Fry is going to become just like, I think the sixth.
player in mls history to reach 400 appearances across all competitions for the same club it's a pretty you know a pretty small club right now you've got diego chara at the top of the list And then you go Nick Raimondo, Jaime Moreno, Graham Zussi, and Kyle Beckerman, and that's it. That's the list. you got stefan fry right there he was the second only the second goalkeeper to reach 400 appearances with one club
He talked to us this week. We talked to Tommy Dutra today. Talked to Christian Roldan sort of about it. And I don't have a lot to say other than it's been sort of an amazing journey with Steph. I mean, you go back to when he showed up in 2014. It's easy to forget. He had only played one game in the two years before that combined. He basically lost the entire 2012 season to a broken leg.
he comes back first thing that happens that is he breaks his nose so he loses his starting job and then he basically doesn't play the rest of 2013 so he lost basically all 2011-12 and all 2013. Before that, though, he did manage to win three Canadian championships. But as of now, you know, now that he's been with the Sounders, he's the only player in MLS history to have won the Canadian championship, the U.S. Open Cup. the Supporter Shield, MLS Cup, and obviously CONCACAF Champions League.
That's a pretty impressive trophy haul. He does not have a lot of individual accolades. Most of his individual accolades are things like MLS Cup MVP or Player of the Tournament in CONCACAF Champions League. But he's got plenty of team accolades, and that seems to be a repeating theme in his career. And one of the things that Tommy Dujo talked about today is that...
As a goalkeeper, you're oftentimes, you know, you don't go into the season saying, we got to win goalkeeper of the year. You talk about the trophies you're going to win or you want to win. And he sort of exemplifies that pretty perfect. For me, adding to what you just said, and I agree with all of it, the most impressive thing from when I first started covering the team...
every day, which was 2015. He has grown as a leader vocally, but he's always been a leader by example. He is probably... inspirational to the point of how... serious and professional he is and You know, Tom talked about it today. He's the first guy here every single morning, still till today. Right. Takes care of himself like nobody else. And one of the things that was interesting that Christian said is that he's also been an example for at the end of the season.
get away. Yeah. Don't be, you don't have to be a soccer player 24, seven, 365. You can have a life. You can, I think that's one of the things that probably helps his longevity is that he has all these outside interests. He's an artist. He designed his house. He is you know, he gets into social causes.
He's living a real fulfilling life outside of soccer. Soccer is not his whole existence. I think that probably helps his longevity. Absolutely. The intellect that it takes an individual to say, look. Part of that mental health, it's all part of it. Being a goalkeeper sucks. I'll tell you right now. Because you could stop every single ball of every single game. You let one through your legs and you are...
crucified by absolutely everybody. You're a meme. You go viral. And look, Steph has been fantastic, consistent, but he's had some boo-boos. And his ability to just set this behind him, learn from him, but then completely turn the page on him, I think it has a lot to do with who he is as a person. And that for me...
It's been amazing to see and watch. And now he's more of a vocal leader. He's the captain of this team. Nico chose him. He wanted him to be the captain because of everything he's meant for this organization. I was surprised today that Tom said that he's had some competition. I've never felt like Steph's ever had any real competition. I just thought that he's just that guy that he practices like it's the last day every single time, and he just...
That's just the way he handles his business. But he talked about, you know, having a guy like Tyler Miller behind him. When he first came here, Marcus Hahnemann was on the team. Marcus Hahnemann. Trent Perkins came in 2015. I mean, he's had... You know, like you said, like Tyler Miller, Steph Cleveland, Andrew Thomas. Now, I mean, I think there was a lot of people still that say, oh, I'd rather have Andrew Thomas. And I think one of the things that I appreciate about Tommy Ducha is.
If Andrew Thomas was a better option, I'm pretty sure he would serve. Because that's, like, the Sounders aren't, like, I don't get the sense that Steph's being handed anything. No, no, absolutely not. And, look, people get so caught up on... mobility in a moment like whoever blamed you know, where the shot went through.
against Colorado because he didn't go try to make that save. The mistake was just not having an alligator, like you say it in Spanish, I don't know what you call it in English, but just having that guy just laid down, that was the mistake, but nobody was getting to that ball.
So people are like, oh, he looks, you know, other goalkeepers would make that safe. Come on, let's be real. Yeah. And I feel like almost every goal that he gives up, it's like, oh, someone else would. But the thing is that you look at the. body of work and you know i thought it was this was kind of an interesting thing i was i was researching this today and if you just look at his time with the sounders
all time, he would have the fourth best goals against average in MLS history. If you just look at that. that stretch of time. He would have something like the sixth best save percentage all time. like the second most wins all time. I mean, you just go down, you've got the second most shutouts. He's going to end up basically finishing second on the all-time list on everything. And even on rate stats, like goals against average and save percentage, he's very, very good with the all-time best.
That doesn't necessarily mean, and I think it's somewhat understandable. that he hasn't won a goalkeeper of the year because outside of 2018 he hasn't had a out of his mind type year but what's been so impressive about him is how consistent he's been just every single year he's among the top
five to eight goalkeepers across the board in basically every metric. I still feel like he's been snubbed for at least one goalkeeper of the year, and he's been snubbed multiple times for at least making the... Damn All-Star game. I mean, at the very least, get this guy in there. I think the only year he made the All-Star game was 21.
When like six sounders. Alex and Yamar and Raul. Alex. Alex. So that's exactly why I just, you know, praise this guy. The last thing I'll say about it is that he's so. Fifth all-time in regular season minutes. with 37,181. He's only behind Raimondo Beckerman, Dax McCarty, and Kevin Hartman. So, I mean, that's impressive for a guy to last as long as he has him. That's including his time with Toronto. Correct. That's including Stamwood, Toronto FC.
For me, the only thing I need to see, because I'm not the guy that puts all of the... all of his eggs in the stats basket. Give me a guy that shows up when... The heat is on and a championship is on the line. And I'll show you a guy that's got a legacy behind him. And that's what he has done time and time again. Champions League Cup.
Everything that he's been able to do, he's shown up in the big games, and that's good enough for me every single time. Yeah. And then I also wanted to mention Obed Vargas reached 100 appearances at 19 years old. Impressive. I guess is not the youngest that's ever happened in MLS, but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. I mean, he is, the amount of time that he's playing at a high level is almost, I mean, it's not literally unprecedented, but there are not a lot of examples of this across.
the world of soccer i mean there are not a lot of 19 year olds that are in their third season as starters yeah no 100 um and i would say it's even more impressive in my opinion, in MLS. Because in other countries, kids start playing a lot younger. For a team that is expecting to contend every year. Correct. This is not a team that's just throwing away results in order to develop players. This is a team that every season goes into it thinking we're competing for trophies.
No, 100%. So when it comes to Obed, I just think that his growth has been... Incredible. And, you know, last year I thought, you know, he broke out. Christian talked about just physically how big he was compared to when he was 16 years old. All of the praise in the world for a kid that, to me, is going to continue to be a contributor, but he's...
Time here with the Sounders probably limited. Yeah, although it's starting to look like maybe he's here for the rest of the year. I don't know. It could be. You know, I think the Sounders were expecting to be getting a lot more interest in him from Europe specifically.
There is no question that there are teams that would be more than happy to pay a fair amount of money for Obed Vargas. Most of them right now there are in Mexico. He doesn't seem particularly interested in playing in Mexico, at least not right now.
Or South America, for that instance. Right, or South America. He really wants to play in Europe, and he's not talking about playing in Europe. He wants to play for a team in a big five league. If he's going to move, he wants to go someplace where there's like... very clearly an upward trajectory. He wants to be, you know, he wants to be competing with the Atletico Madrids. Because he's hit the Raiders of a couple of scouts in South America.
I plain old asked him, you know, and he's like, no, I want to go to Europe. So whether it's South America, whether it's Mexico, he just wants that. hop across the, you know, to Europe, which is all good and well. But we'll see what happens with that. I mean, I feel like eventually there'll be a good...
But then the Sounders, I don't think they're in any rush to do it either because replacing a guy like Obed is going to be difficult. Right, exactly. As much as the Sounders talk about they know they need to start selling players at some point. They don't also seem that the actions suggest that they are not.
pushing anyone no they're not like like i don't know whatever like the i don't know we don't get into the finances here but whatever they they just don't seem that motivated to sell players until they And that's a fair criticism. And you and I have both criticized that whole point of there needs to be a biggest investment because it is a tool that you have this sustainable way of bringing in guys. But then because you do have that. that edge on other teams, then you should be
making moves to optimize that and get that even bigger because you're not having to pay for a whole bunch of players that you can bring in. So where's all that other capital going? It should be going to a big time player that you're bringing in. And I'm hoping that's a U22 striker that they're going to hopefully bring in in the summer. Yeah, hopefully. Fingers crossed.
All right, so before we get out of here, we should talk about this Saturday's opponent, St. Louis City FC. This is the first time that the Sounders have played, or I guess SC? Are they in SC? St. Louis City. Yeah, some of the SC, I think. Yeah, I think you're right. And this is the first time this year that they've played a team for an MLS opponent for a second time, so they have a little bit more of an idea of what...
going up against. It looks like Ben Lundt, which is the goalkeeper that they faced last time, will be again going this week. Roman Berkey looks like he's still another week away from returning from the broken hand he suffered. They have a few other injuries. Scott are... Kessler is out. Henry Kessler was probably their best player in the first game. Best defender. Yeah, definitely the best defender. So that's a big blow for them.
I don't know. This is a team that does not want the ball. Nope. They play... I mean, they're a good defensive side, but there's not a lot of scoring in their games. That's just the reality. Except for the last one. Except for last week, they tied 2-2. And it was an interesting thing because they got a late goal that looked like they were going to win. They got an 89th minute own goal. And then basically they decided to stop defending. And Denny Mwanga basically made a...
you know, a one-man show goal there right in the 95th minute or something like that. Yeah. You broke down some capes. I honestly have not paid super close attention to St. Louis City. Tell us about this week. Additionally to what you just said, Alfredo Morales got a red card, so he won't be available. Ostruck, which is the German edition they brought in last year. He only got 45 minutes in this one. He's been dealing with some injuries, so actually his first game back.
against LAFC, so I would expect them to be on some sort of mini restriction in this one. Another one that was interesting was Connor Wellham, who was their left winger in this particular game, came off with a concussion in the 32nd minute. So I wouldn't expect him to be available for this one. So lots of injuries, the team dead. they're going to do one thing, and it's make you uncomfortable and not allow you to get goals.
They've only given up seven goals all season. They're one of the best defenses in the league. They are second for the least amount of possession in the entire league. So they're going to give... All of the possession that the Sounders won, but the issue or the challenges is going to be how do you break this team down? I thought it was interesting that they kind of modified in the second half and to your point against LAFC. The reason why they've been so hard to break down is because
Whenever you hear about a 3-5-2, you're talking about three defenders. They defend with five. And they are in a deep block consistently. And sometimes it looks like there's eight players back there. I counted. Because there are. I counted. No, no. I paused. I paused it. And there was one point in the game where there was eight players behind the 18. In the box, there was eight players. So they're not afraid to just...
Hold on and defend for 75 minutes. Now, they are selective on when they press. This is the way they do it, right? Long ball looking for Klaus or Batcher, depending on who they have at the nine. and they're going to look for the secondary ball, right? And once the secondary ball is there, they'll repress, and then they'll push their lines up. That's when they got kind of caught up by a guy like Denny Buanga that you can't give him a...
enough space because once LAFC got the ball and they were able to get a long ball, it was too late. He was behind them. So LAFC was able to create a lot of opportunities that were able to use the half spaces and their speed, particularly to beat them down. But this is a team that, once again... You have to not give them or gift them any goals. And this goes back to the last game. Set pieces. is going to be the one way that they're going to hurt you.
And if you allow that to happen and you let an early goal in, they're not going to just park the bus. They're going to park semis and cars and just shut it down. Hardo, for me, is the one player that makes it all happen for him against LAFC. In the second half, they moved to...
A 4-2-3-1, which was interesting. They've never really played all season with the four-man back line, but they did it because they needed to get some goals. And I thought Hardell played very well. He's a nice little player. He doesn't have the big numbers. He hasn't done much numbers-wise this year, but that's a lot because... Nobody on their offense has numbers. That is just not their game. They are not. This is a defense. This is a defend first team.
that's that's it that's like and you can have they have some okay offensive players hurdle toiker uh the bachelor klaus klaus if they get into if they get chances they are capable of scoring There's just not a very main, it's just usually two guys that are attacked. I actually like Celia Pompeo a lot. I think he's the one guy, aside from San De Silva, who they got in the transfer window for Atlanta. I think that's another guy, but he's got one week of practice.
So we'll see. Obviously, it's going to be another week this one. They'll have two weeks of practice. I expect them to be available for the Sounders, against the Sounders. So these are two guys in the entire roster that are willing to take on players, that are willing to do things differently. So, to me, this team plays to Seattle's strengths. The way they play, I feel like it makes it easier for Seattle to defend. If we heard anything from Obed and from Freddy...
and even from Christian, is that when it comes to beating a team like this, you've got to be patient with the ball. You've got to be disciplined with your spacing. You've got to be able to create those triangles a lot quicker and in lesser space. And that's the way you break them down. So for me, I am confident that at the very least,
a result by a draw of a 0-0 game that people are going to just be like, what did I just watch? Or they're able to get a goal in early via set piece or what we just talked about, maybe mid-range shot.
and then make them get out. Because that's what happened against LAFC. They had to get out. They had to open up. They had to go to a foreman back line. And that's when they had their issues. You talked about giving up a goal late in the game. I mean, they allowed LAFC to just win that game at the end. So that's kind of the...
In a nutshell, what we're going to see from this team, Olof Milsberg is not a guy that's afraid of winning or getting a result in the ugliest fashion. So that's what people should expect. Hopefully that doesn't... turn people off from going through the game. But that's just what it is. They should feel like they need to win. They only have two home games in the next month. This and then they play the next three on the road and then they have another home game against Dallas.
I believe. They do. Dallas and then San Diego. They need to win home games. They've been pretty good at home. They're 2-0-2 at home right now. But it is an important game, I'd say. I mean, you just mentioned it. It's a three-game road trip. You got to go to Houston. You played the El Clasico against Timbers. And they have LAFC. And they have LAFC. That's a tough, tough run. They need to get home results. They need home points, as many as they can get.
And honestly, I said this on the show earlier this week. This is how you get fans back in the stadium. Put on a good show at home. Maybe sounds a little simplistic, but... No, it is. That's how you do it. You put on a good show and you do it at home and everything else will flow from there. so get this win you know maybe maybe a little two zero action take that And we'll go from there. And I think we'll see more Ryan Kent in this one. I feel like Pedro's going to be a huge, important part of...
Anytime you have a team that plays in a deep block, you need somebody to kind of break lines with the ball and make them collapse on you and create spaces for other players. So for me, what Albert does with his through balls and his passing, maybe not even through balls, more of that link-up play.
and forcing this team to move around, that's how you're going to be able to break him down. But for me, Pedro has got to be a key component. For me, he's been great, both in the mid-range department as well as his decision-making with his passing. If you're going to unlock San Luis effectively and you're going to get that 2-0 that you want to see, Pedro's going to have to be a big part of it. Yeah, and I would imagine the way they'll do that is they probably will move into a 4-2-3-1.
That'd be nice to see. Kent will probably replace Roth Rock around, I don't know, a minute 50 or 55. And then hopefully it's fun. Fingers crossed. I think that's it. I think that's what we learned this week. I think that is. We said a lot. We learned a lot. We did. We said a lot of things. From milestones to injuries to, you know, overall the feel, I still feel like it's still positive. I will say that the group.
Seems very together. I saw it today. I thought that maybe I was going to see some frown faces and stuff. But even Christian, when talking about Jordan, I think they're all going to wrap around him and they understand that this is the way of the world. But I feel like as a unit, they're very together. Even with all of the competitions that are going on across positionally, I feel like this group is there for the long run. I do too. I do too. All right. Well, let's call that.
i'm jeremiah shan signing off for and you can actually nico give it another plug also sports soccer down here lobbying scorchers No study at this. That's it. That is all I got going on. I've never been happier with all of my projects the way I've been this year. I really appreciate all of the audience commenting on everything. Soccer down here. From yesterday, we'll be on Pulso Sports.
So if you missed it live on SDH, you'll be able to watch it on Pulso Sports. Thanks. And Lobbing Scorchers is your Monday show that's up on YouTube. The kickoff. Yep. Kickoff. I believe it's also on the subscriber feed for... for the Sounder Heart Podcast. It is. So, you can listen to it there. I'm Jeremiah Chan, signing off for Nico Moreno. This is No Study at Dis, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. I expect an LAFC who's motivated.
to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really ruin the party. You guys like that? Awkward joke, dad joke.