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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. This is a tiny f***ing dog. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Audietis. Today is Wednesday. We are match day minus three. I guess for the Sounders coming up with for their Western Conference semi-final against LAFC. I am at Long Acres in Renton with Niko Moreno, friend of the show. This is
the second time we've done this show on site here in Renton. How are you doing, Niko? I'm doing great, man. We're using the facilities so they continue to keep us here. Exactly. We should have got drinks. We should have got coffee. We could have had a whole thing today. We should have. I've been thinking about it, getting some water, some soda, some coffee out here, getting ready to go for us to just dominate this space. But man, I'm excited.
It's playoffs in MLS. There's some crazy news going on around MLS. It's a good time to follow this league, in my opinion. It's getting more, not just globalized, but it's just an exciting time in MLS. I don't know why. I'm more excited right now than I've been in a very long time when it comes to them.
The only shame, we will talk about the game, but I will say the frustration that I have again, I'm reminded at this time of every year, this break between the international break falls at the worst time for the MLS season, for the MLS playoffs because luckily, I think the league is doing a better job of bridging the gap between the end of the first round and the start of the semi-finals because there's been a steady stream of news that we had
some announcements today. The, or I guess yesterday, was the coach of the year yesterday? No, it was today. It was today. Today was the coach of the year announcement. We'll for Nancy, somewhat of an upset. I thought over Tatum Arteno. Yes. But then a day earlier, Tatum Arteno announces or it's announced that he's leaving Miami
for quote unquote personal reasons. I don't know. Again, I promise we will get into L.A.F.C. sounders, but I feel like this is a good transition to talk about this situation. Do you know anything about what's going on in Miami?
Nothing that I can share necessarily on the mics. What I do think when it comes to a project that was based around a group of individuals, one who, Tatum is a key component, there is no way that I can believe that there was a personal reason big enough for Tatum to just abandon ship in a project like this one when he is just a year in when he's has been so involved, he's done so much to get the team where they've gotten where he's
built this relationships with Academy players. He has a relationship with all of the veterans and messy and friend types. So all I will say is that there has to be more. Tatum Arteno is a strong personality type that does not take any S from anybody. The mass brothers and that ownership group also is very in your face. I've called them the Jerry Jones of MLS. They are very big when it comes to their personality and they were the handled things.
So if I had to guess, and if I was a bedded man, I would say that there was an issue beyond control and Tatum decided to jump ship. And so what kind of ramifications did this have for the project for lack of a better term because it was it wasn't entirely predicated around Tatum Arteno, but he was like you said, a central figure. They already had messy so I don't know if it means that messy is leaving, but they're probably going to have to bring
in a coach who messy approves. 100% they're going to have and that you would think that there are other players on the roster who were here. Again, messy is a huge part of it, but so was Martino. 100% and look, I know this is probably the wrong platform, but I do know that Center for the probably very happy about any type of turmoil with the messy project. So
I will go ahead and say that. Yeah, it creates an incredibly uncontrollable almost problem that it has to be nipped and the buddy immediately because job number one is keeping messy happy. You know he's going to have to be around and messy is going to want a guy that he can deal with. I think a savvy type situation is possible. I think maybe I don't know even iguanín maybe you know bring him up. I mean, I don't know, but he just creates a huge problem.
Yeah, I believe he's with the second team. So maybe you can do that, but whatever it is, it's not going to be packaged in such a way in such a manner that he had been because with Tata, you have certain credibility with Tata, you have the strategic component, the recruiting component. It was kind of the perfect hire. It was the perfect hired. All of these guys that were brought in.
Yes, of course, Chris Henderson and that team of scouting has a lot to do with it, but it's very easy for Tata to pick up the phone and say, hey man, come play for me, rather than any other coach in the league. So now you got to figure out what's that balance. And I don't know if there's a big enough name that's willing to come to MLS that's willing to have that has a good relationship with messy and friends that could work. So it's I think it puts a huge dent in this project and he
starts to lose some credibility. Well, and it's not necessarily directly related to the sounders, but there is sort of a sounders component to this whole thing. And that's Chris Henderson, who has my understanding never signed like a full-blown contract extension after his contract expired last year. So he's sort of, I mean, he's getting paid. Obviously, I'm sure he's being well compensated, but he is in a situation where he can leave as far as I understand it.
He's been very heavily tied to Atlanta, the Atlanta United job, which is a whole other situation. What do you imagine? What do you see this going with Chris Henderson? Look, and I'll go ahead and say this. I've talked to people and I do know that maybe it's not 50-50 that Chris leaves, but it's definitely not something that would surprise anyone in that organization. There is a desire to keep him without a doubt, according to people who have talked to,
but they understand that Atlanta can provide the economic part. It provides more of a front man look to the project, because I think I've said it in our last show that I was with you on here that Chris just hasn't been the face of that project. His back come is the Mass Brothers. He's always kind of in the back end. What you just said about his contract is always kept kind of
underlines, under the table type situation. As me and you both know, and respect that guy like Chris and know that a lot of the right moves that were made ever since he got into that club, are Chris type of moves? Guys that sound that was a mess when he took over. It was a mess. It's easy to forget now, but they had just gotten docked a bunch of allocation money.
They had, I mean, the roster situation could barely have been worse than what Chris Henderson inherited and that he was immediately able to get them to be competitive and really create a foundation where then when Messy showed up, they could build off of it. A hundred percent. So Chris went, proved that he was worth the money, that he was the guy that we all knew he was here in the Pacific Northwest, and another project. Would I wish and hope that he would
come back to the sounders? Absolutely. But that's not going to happen because the money is elsewhere. And I think he's outgrown what he could do here. So the perfect place is Atlanta, the perfect place is. I mean, it's the easiest movie he can make. So I do your question. I think Chris does end up leaving. I think this Tata Martino thing complicates that project even more because again, the people that you're going to hire for that job are going to be very limited because you do have to consult
Messy because that's just the way the world is. The way sports is spent. Someone told me this is kind of like the LeBron situation, right? I mean, you just got to accommodate yourself to certain people. And that's what going to happen in Miami. And I don't think Chris wants to deal with it. And this is just me giving an opinion. I'm not saying Chris told me that. I'm just saying no in the person he is and the professional he is. It doesn't seem it's always seemed like a somewhat odd
fit for him in that whole environment. Other than they had a bunch of money and they had high aspirations and he is very good at what he does. And in that way, it made sense. And they made it like I did understood the league right that had the knowledge of players within the league that was well networked and the kind of player that would come to Emma as well. 100%. So so he was the right hire for that. But absolutely, you're right. In fact, that he seemed like an adduck to
everything around that. For lack of a better word, I'm going to call it a circus at times. It is kind of a sort of if you see if you saw that when they want to shield, it was a circus. Man, he was a circus that the way they framed it and the Moss brothers all over talking to camera people like, come on, man, it's a little circus. This is a digression. But I don't think I've ever seen a team celebrate winning the shield the way that Miami, I mean, to credit to them,
they turned it into an event. But it was almost as if they wanted to make sure they had some trophy to celebrate. And that if that was it. Like when the sound, it's a pretty stark contrast of the shield. The sounders won in 2014 where they didn't even do like celebratory drinks in the locker room. I remember Marco Papa being sort of like, oh, we're we're really not going to do anything. Marco would ask that question. So yeah, no, and that's exactly it. So I just feel like regardless
of Chris Henderson is going to be the one that dictates what happens next week. They want to keep him. I think he's going to ask for a little more respect to my name type of situation. Yeah. But if not, man, I think Atlanta has a really good built. You have guard laggerway, having starts you and huts together in MLS again. Wonderful. They have a big wallet. Arthur Blank is a guy that's willing to put in some money. So you know, why not?
Anyone else that you're hearing that might be up for that Atlanta job that, I don't know, maybe has some sounders ties. Yes, that that question has been asked a couple of times. And soccer down here's a show of doing Thursdays. And yes, I think that Craig, it would be naive of anyone to not think that Craig Weibull is a candidate for that job. It would be naive not to assume he's a king. Not to assume. That's what I mean. So it'd be naive
not to assume that Craig Weibull is and would be a candidate for that job. Obviously, in a perfect world, Chris Anderson is your guy. But if not, I think Craig Weibull is a guy that and maybe some of our families are your fan base here would be excited to hear that Craig is all right. All right. You can send me go that Craig would be gone. But at the same time, I think that it is a possibility. You know, and in our prep for this, I'll just say one of the names you floated
as a potential replacement. I think which is just speculation, really. You mentioned the possibility of Wade Weber as a as a replacement if Craig were to leave. I was fasting. I had not really given that any consideration, but it makes a lot of sense on paper that you would bring in a guy like Wade Weber who is very, you know, very knowledgeable. He understands the league as well as
anyone. He understands the sounders more importantly as well as anyone. He has relationships. He has been doing a lot of the groundwork that it would take to hit the ground running when it when it comes to a job like this. Yeah. And look again, this has done me and Jeremiah sitting here hashtagging Craig out. Let's let's make it very clear because I can see where that might be
misinterpreted. This is not it. This is just what I've been asking Jeremiah and I to do sometimes is we'll just talk and it was like, man, if you were to put a mic, it wouldn't be a good conversation. So I appreciate Jeremiah just allowing us to just rant. And I think this is things that you guys want to hear as an audience. But yes, you know, if there was in a scenario where Craig needed to go,
I think that Chris Weber is a guy that I'm sorry, Wade Weber, I'm sorry, Chris Weber. That's a Sacramento guy who's Wade Weber is a guy that would be a fit for what the sounders are looking for. In terms of the culture, the ideology. And I believe I just happened to think that the last time we talked to Wade Weber about Jackson Reagan. And he, we got to ask him a whole bunch of questions about the growth of league. And it's sustainable for this team to do certain things that they're doing
now with all of the Seattle and Washington talent being such a big part of the roster. And I thought his answers were on point. And he understands exactly what the club would need to do. So because of that, I was like, man, he sounds like a GM. Yeah. And it does dovetail nicely, especially with the way that the sounders have where they are right now. I've just been doing a lot of research on a story that I hope to write before this weekend. But has been ruminating in my head for a while about
the contributions that the sounders have gotten from players they developed. And if you, especially if you include players they drafted as well as players that came from defiance and players that came from the academy, something like 65% of their minutes and 60% of their goals and 55% of their assists have come from players that they developed themselves. And if you are going down that path, Wade Weber makes a lot of sense to sort of lean into that. I do think they need to do a
better job of diversifying that. I think that's something that's going to hopefully happen this off season where they bring in some more talent from outside the organization. But it does create a really strong foundation that you can build off of. And it's pretty remarkable that they're sitting here in the conference semi finals with this kind of internal production. No one I did run the numbers on everyone else that's still alive. And I think the Red Bulls were the highest at
something like 25% of their minutes. And no one I don't think is even at 20% of their goals or assists coming from internal players. So it's it's pretty remarkable. It's a pretty remarkable story that we haven't really dug in too much. And the founders don't get a lot of credit for the developmental work that they do. 100% and the way like you said, the everything seemed to work in order to keep the roster successful no matter what was going on. And that goes, you know, even
beyond Craig. And that's why, you know, we've I've been critical of the season. I've been critical of Brian and at times of Craig, but it's hard to continue to be too critical when they're getting the results. That's exactly. And I think even internally they'll tell you we think we could do more to bring players in. We think we would like everyone would like to have more budget to bring in players. But at the same time, it is tough to be too critical when the results
keep going the way they did. I mean, they finished with 57 points. That's a really good point total. They're sitting here in the conference semi finals. Now, this is maybe a good transition into talking about these conference semi files. They are the underdog. Let's not. No, there's let's not beat around the bush. They are LFC is the favorite in this one. They are the host. They have absolutely dominated the sounders in their four previous meetings this year. I really think only
the last three of them are relevant to understanding this game. But in those three games, the LFC has has a seven to zero scoring advantage. It's they haven't been I mean, I guess you could say the open cup game was close and what was competitive. But really, the sounders have not looked good offensively at all. What do you think they need to do to sort of turn things around offensively? Man, it's a it's a it's a it's a big question for me. And I'll start by saying a little bit about
this specific game. I mean, Seattle. I think has been on this quest to prove that they are still an elite team in the West and that they continue to be a team worthy of that throne that the LFC club is currently sitting on that. I think it's fitting that they're facing them right now and that they're going to need to get through it. What needs to change is a question that is very complex to me because I respect the fact and I understand I am aware that I am not a head coach
and that I maybe I'll say things because I have a certain understanding of the game. I do like to counsel a lot of real coaches about situations such as this one. But I spoke specifically to a coach that is a former Western Conference coach in Emola's. And my idea for facing a team of fifth time was to change things out, change the formation, change the concepts, change the look of the field. Even if it doesn't work just for the sake of changing things, that's what I would
do. This specific coach told me look two out of ten coaches would do that because eight coaches are going to go with what they've been doing all season long. They're going to die on their concepts. They're going to die on that hill with what they believe was right whether it worked or not. That's just the way I thought this team should have been set up. But to me and to your question,
just to answer that as always, super long when it answered, I would change the formation. I would give them a specific look where Jordan Morris has been ineffective and that's to say the least against this LAFC team. Nine to one they've asked for the whole season. They've not allowed Jordan to do absolutely anything. Why not Raoul up top? And I know that I'm going to get killed on social
media for this. But why not? Why not just do it to see how different what kind of lanes he opens for Jordan, taking that pressure off of Jordan, taking that necessity to do dirty work to press, to move, to come inside to try to link up opens up Jordan Morris who right now could be your biggest threat on the offensive event, whether he has not found the back of the net is another thing.
But I feel like he makes the right movements to get in front of go. So why not up that by making Raoul for lack of a better word this decoy that's going to hold up should know that's going to hold down Murillo that's going to ask for so much respect because there is a certain respect for Raoul already as whether he's old older whether he's not the role of old there is a certain respect to his name. And I think that that would open up some lane. So the way I was set it up is Raoul up top with
Jordan on that left side. And you know we'll talk about the line up a little bit later. But to me giving them a different look maybe they are so good playing against the ball. Maybe you concede the ball a little bit maybe you played a counters maybe you try to explode those moments where Murillo likes to come up with the ball as a center back. So that's what I think should happen is given LFC something completely different to look at then what you'd fail at the last four times.
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in the first game that they played this year but notably no rust neck. Right and so now you would present now you would have him. I don't know if they're going to go to a formation change necessarily but they might go be forced into a personnel change. It's been you know Paul Rothrock has not been fully in training. I think going maybe all the way back to the Rapids game where he where he
looked really really good. I think he's been if I my memory is correct. I think he's been somewhat limited in training almost ever since then but for sure he's been very limited in training ever since the playoffs started and now we are here we are Wednesday. He wasn't outside training today or he was he was outside but he wasn't training with with the ball. Unless he comes out next tomorrow and is all in. I think we have to assume he's not going to start and that creates an
opening to do something. Maybe it's moving Christian up to right mid. Maybe it's moving you know maybe it's starting George Emanone who may there's a lot of options but one of those options in your mind clearly should be in my mind. Yeah, it should clearly be starting role. Yeah and and leave in Jordan on that left wing. He'll use that pocket to come inside. If you look at the Vancouver game, Fafopiko gave this LAFC team so much problems working his way outside in
and shooting the ball from that side that I feel like it's worth looking at. Brian White is very different than than Royal Red Yes but he has that savviness. He has a way about some of his movements inside the 18 that could be similar to Royal. So why not use that? Why not expose that? Why not try to get Jordan inside in those inside channels? So I think it's worth a try but to the reality
coming back to the real world and away from Nico's head. Brian's probably not going to do it and and and I think that if there's a guy that I feel like it's barking at starting this game by proving himself throughout the week is Joe Poggle. I feel like Joe Poggle has the sharp. He has like very sharp week long. Yeah, on the ball shooting. He had a couple of bangers in in scrimmages or at least in the in the short side of games that they play. Today he had a couple
of gray looks on goal. I feel like he's sharp. So if Paul can I go and I really don't know if he will. I don't know. Yeah, we don't know anything. I mean, you know, the last time we talked to Brian which was Tuesday. So I guess yesterday he made it sound like, oh, no, Paul is fine. The fact that he wasn't training today suggests that it's not that something. It's telling. I mean, he literally just walked around the outside of practice today doing nothing else. So to me, that's something
to monitor as I say put on Twitter. When he comes to that side, I feel like you almost have to start Christian role down on that side for two reasons. One, he's done it. You trust his IQ. You start his ability. You trust his ability to hit the right spaces to understand the right triggers defensively. But when he comes to Danny Bhuwanga, who else would you want pressing, pushing, holding on a guy like Christian that has a V8 engine in this, you know, Honda Civic frame and he's going
to be behind him all time. So I just I think that you almost have to do that. And then you start JP and Obed at center midfield and you look pretty good if you ask me. When you also have the added maybe motivation is the right word. You know, JP is very much like as much as Rauwool is sort of in a way. I think we have everyone seems to have accepted that he's probably not coming back this year. I don't know if the door is literally a hundred percent shut, but he there's no indications that
either side is super interested in making and having him back. JP on the other hand, he's also entering for the agency. He is probably a little it's a little easier to figure out a way to get him in financially. It seems like he wants to come back. There was just a you've done some reporting that we saw. I think he maybe even gave interview in in Portuguese with a Brazilian out or yeah, whatever. He gave an interview where he sort of made it sound like he hasn't been in contact. What
do you know about that situation? And maybe the undercurrent of what that means for the rest of the season. Yeah. So a couple of months ago, maybe even beyond them, maybe three months ago, he said that they had been conversations with Craig Whiteball and you know, the front office. But as I've asked some sources around recently, there's been nothing but radio silence with JP. And it was a little confused in me because I had the understanding that the sounders do want him back and that they
they want him back as a player because of what he's been able to do. And there was even some thoughts that maybe in the future, he could be a coach that he could follow that trend of the Andy Roses, the Lonsa Lopineda. I mean, he seems like he's going to cut out. Right? He has that look. He has that look. It's very similar to Lonsa Lopineda. When I talk to him, I get by legal or triangle, I suppose in his case. Yeah, he's on paper. You could easily see him being a coach within a year or
two of him retired. Yeah, but radio silence is never a good way to keep a plane. No, it's never. And we've seen that with Nico and you know, we don't need to go into any any of that right now, but there's if you could look at a thousand cases that are similar that when you are quiet and you don't at least pull the trigger to tell a player, yes, you're coming back. No, you're not coming back or hey, we're working on getting you back. It creates some animosity and he just kind of doesn't
go the way you want it. So I think he's motivated. I think I see a motivated player out there. He looks really good. He looks much like the thing that's been tough about JP this year is that even when he's healthy, he doesn't look like he doesn't look like he seems like he's struggling to get through it. He didn't I thought he looked okay in the second leg against you. Somebody wasn't sharp, but at
training this week, he's looked he looks like old JP. Yeah, and he had a goal today where he did the spin that kind of backheeled spin move off of a cross that was about as slick of a finish as we've seen from anyone let alone from JP. I mean, it was and it but it just sort of seemed to tell something about the way his confidence about feeling confident in his body that he can hold up. And you know, that's like those are good things because he does he is a player who I think can
raise the sounders level when he's at his best. 100% and look, he's been working on the lateral movements and all these things that you you could see at times are like, oh, JP looks a little flat foot and he's been working on that because I think he sees an L.A. of C and opportunity to say,
I'm still here. Right. And that's the type of guy I want on the field. That's the type of guy that I want going against either a Brian or Tillman or Ilya, whatever formation in that midfield that you see from L.A. of C. I want that guy not to mention the fact that he's distribution and his ability to find players is better than Christian Christian is right now he's looked so good defensively covering
space doing all these other things. But if there's one thing that he hasn't been really good at is been finding players to get services to whether he's Jordan, whether he's on wide, he just hasn't looked at sharp where I think that a guy like JP can really do that. And maybe he finds a question all that under wing. And maybe that just changes things a little bit. So I feel like between his veteran ability, his leadership, his physicality and his ability to pass the ball and distribute
it better. To me, he's a candidate to start this game. The other player who I think has the potential to raise the sound or ceiling is Pedro de la Vega, who a player who we have been waiting all season. And I think he had a pretty mixed bag of performance against Houston. The first leg he did not look good in the second leg. I actually thought he looked more like himself. We talked to him today after
training. You, I think, understood you got a little bit more out of it than I did because he was in Spanish. What did you, what, what, what were your takeaways from that interview? I see a guy that's finally feeling like himself on and off the field. He is a guy that still understands and knows that what he believes his potential is is still some play away, some rhythm away. He mentioned and I quote, you know, I can still give more, but I feel in better rhythm. And I asked him about where he's
grown defensively offensively. He mentioned, you know, I'm always grown. I'm always learning. But if although he did not say specifically what I kind of wanted him to say, because I see it is the defensive component. He's repressed his ability to, if not get the ball back, kind of push that player force him onto the next guy pressing. I think he's doing that a lot better and that has to do with the understanding, the game rhythm and the game time. He mentioned, look, the fact that I was
able to finish and he said this in Spanish, I was almost a whole game. And yeah, maybe I got pulled off the last eight minutes if you count extra time. But I need that. That's what I've been used to. That's what I was used to last year in my other team and getting those full time, the full minutes, that's giving me confidence. And you could see it on his play. Yeah, he looked, you know, that was the most encouraging thing I thought from the second leg was just the raw number of minutes. And he
has been sort of ramping up and ramping up and ramping up. But like he had been pushing, you know, into the 70s. But this was an 88 89 minute performance, something like that. And he, the thing I'd like about him is that no, he's not giving us the production that you need from a designated player. There's no question that at some point he needs goals. He needs assists. This is just how
we measure success. But what I do like about him is that even when he is not producing, he's still able to influence the game through effort through like silly things like effort and but is he is actually, I think pretty good at repressing. He is always, he never takes plays off. He makes good runs and he makes good runs with the ball at his feet. He doesn't always make the right decision at the end. But he is doing things that I think you can appreciate. You don't worry about him giving
up on plays. You don't worry about him hanging his head. And I, he also just strikes me as a thoughtful person. And that's the thing I'm really looking forward to getting more out of him is when he's able to, when he's confident enough to like do these interviews in Spanish. And so I already in English and he's able to sort of articulate these ideas in it himself as opposed to going through a translator. Yeah. And today he kind of wanted that to be the focus. Yeah. He was literally saying
not just right now. It's always important. But right now, especially, we need to think of the collective and not just me because we're asking him about Pedro. Hey, Pedro, Pedro, no, let's let's worry about the collective. That's what I'm worried about. I'm trying to do whatever it is that I can do. That's his quote. I want to do whatever I can do for what that coach is asking me for what my teammates are asking me. And that unsolvable and thoughtfulness of the team is
important for a young guy. A lot of young guys are playing for a team meet, you know, FC Nico or FC Pedro FC, whoever. That's what that's what it is. I'm trying to shine up. Right. And a lot of the difficulties I feel like he had in a couple of games before the last one where I thought he would look pretty good is that I feel like he had this pressure to just show himself and he was just too rushed to shoot to pass to, you know, maybe take an extra touch that he should enough.
In this one, not only does he provide you some other things that we just talked about, but you don't have a guy that can dribble in tight spaces the way he did against Houston. You saw it. There were moments where maybe he should have finished that a little bit better. But that's what you want. And going back to this game, that's where he can elevate the potential of these teams because you don't have another Pedro De La Vega. You don't have a player that's going to be able to break down
and have this LFC team collapse on you to open up other players. And maybe he worked a lot today on finishing that that that right foot inside. He also hits it with his left foot. I think he's done with his gestures. He could hit it just as well with his left. He was working on that finishing. Can he be that guy that would give Seattle the best potential way to win this game again for me.
It isn't upset for me. It would be an upset there. Obviously that the underdogs they'd have to play a perfect game and everything we just talked about has to go perfectly for them to win it. But it's a possibility because of the potential there, right? And that's what we're looking for is the potential that the sounders play to the highest expectation that we've had all season. That maybe they haven't been able to reach, but maybe they're doing now.
Yeah. And ironically, you know, you go back to the season opener, which is, it's interesting that the season started with a road game against L.A. And here we are potentially with the last game of the season also being in L.A. But the takeaway I had from that game was Pedro De La Vega looked like the best, he was the best sounders player that day. And he never really was able to build off that because the next game he got hurt. And so he and I don't think he has
ever quite felt the confidence that he felt in that game, but he did. He seemed like a different player. And it's been tough to watch him sort of regress a little bit. And I think that's a lot of that is confidence. A lot of that is him being in his own head, maybe trying to do too much. But it would be fitting if he was sort of able to rediscover that player. And he does seem to have the mentality of being able to get back there. It would be a great story.
A hundred percent. And I don't want to focus too much on this part, but this is another reason why I want to roll in the field. Some of the best moments that I've seen him have, at one point for a couple of minutes or whatever has been, is being where I will, he wants to play where I will. They feel like they find each other well that they compliment each other very well on the field. So seeing that, maybe that's another reason why you would wonder what a little
bit more in this game. So I'm excited for it. I really am. I want to see how it plays out. It's hard for a team to beat you five times in a year. It's it's it should be and you mentioned that. I know it's almost impossible. It's almost impossible. And it's kind of a statistical fluke almost because at some point you figure you just it doesn't go. I mean, you don't play a team five
times in a year that often, but you definitely, you know, you it's just it's tough to do. It's it doesn't mean it's it doesn't make the sounders like the favorites because they're do or anything like that. It's just it's it's a very hard accomplishment. And I don't know, I'm I'm taking the trip down there. I'm I'm hoping for the best. Hopefully we'll we'll see a good game at the very least. And
it'll be interesting to see how that ends up informing this off season. I don't think the sounders are waiting to see what happens in this game to decide on a budget or decide what changes that are going to make, but there will invariably be some impacts based on, you know, what they see in this game. But when I'm hearing it, it seems like this offseason promises to be active. Yeah. And it seems like it's there. There are there are good signs coming from there being
a budget to make some some additions. But I don't know, it's been a it's been an interesting ride for sure. Look, and when he comes to this game, me personally, I'm going to stay consistent. And that's something that I keep myself very high on it. And I hope I saw what kind of would be consistent. So I still have LAFC win in this game. But I am less confident on that analysis than I was two
weeks ago. And the reason of that is because of the attitude that I've seen from this team, the character, the desire, the the little things about certain players that just feel like they're starting to. If not peak, but they're they're ascending rather than descending. And that's not something that I saw two weeks ago. As much as I've criticized Brian, I got to give him credit because he has put that chin up. He's taking the shots. And he's been able to hold these team together.
Whether I believe Christian saying that this is the best most together team has ever been on. And I would never believe him. Maybe if he had his hand to a Bible and could have been processed for perjury, I was still not believe it. But the fact that he and this team has been able to stay together that along with himself is something that I give them credit for and Brian, you got to give him credit for where this team is at. And now if they pull it off, man, I mean, it'd be a
huge success story. It would be it would be a huge success story. Well, Nico, as always, it's great having you on. We can fall you on Twitter, Elrolo and W are you you're not a blue sky yet? I am not. I got to get you on blue sky. Jackson asked me about it. I said, man, I just don't know if I have the strength to rebuild. It took me a long time to build. It is emotionally taxing. We'll do, you know, if you get on there, I just want to say, we will do our best to get the audience
to you as well. We on board. Yeah, there we go. On board. If I get your my sponsorship, my campaign to move to blue, I am ready for it. So, yes, I will find it. You can help me out after this and see how I can have said that up. And yeah, because I've been looking for a new platform, but I just I hate to leave that following. It's tough to start a scratch, but the good thing is that, you know, we can, well, whatever, this is
not this is not great podcasting content. We'll we'll talk about this offline. But anyway, thank you for coming on here, Nico. Where else can you you're everywhere these days? You were just on Fox 13. I haven't watched this, especially yet. You were on the Fox 13 Sounders preview. Yeah, I've been doing a couple of things with Aaron Levine. We did an in studio one. We did one here that has a chemical story. I'll tell you later. So I've done three shows with Q 13. The last one
was a special where we had Kellen Roe, Ms. Vita. And it was great. It was it's always fun to be there and sound our hearts always in the bottom of my name. There we go. Pulse of sports. We push at heart. So yeah, it's been really good. So you could find me when he comes to local coverage, there definitely at some point we'll probably do something with Aaron again. I do a Thursday show in English that I always like to commit and tell people to go listen to 730 to about a 15
sucker down here from Atlanta. He's on Twitch is on Twitter. You could follow me on there. Always on Thursdays with Nico. It's really fun show. And of course, my YouTube channel at Pulse of Sports. Great. Well, thank you again, Nico. I am Jeremiah Shan, of course. Thank you to our sponsor full pull wines. Thank you to our producer, Lickit. This is No Study at Des. And yeah, we'll catch you next time. We love you. Let's win another one.