Understanding Sounders' injury situation

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Welcome back to another episode of Nos Arietes. It is Friday, and even though I didn't make it out to training today, our good friend Nico Moreno is here with a report from training. We'll talk about sort of what's been going on this week. This is, of course, what we learned this week with Nico Moreno. Welcome back, Nico. Always good to have you. Hey, what's up, Jeremiah? Coming to you directly from our lovely media room.

the providence swedish performance and clubhouse i love that you always get that mention in there i do i i i feel like it makes it sound very professional very like Yeah, exactly. So we are here. And it was a really fun day of training. Definitely a lot of intensity. So ready to talk to you about what we learned this week and what we could expect from the game at Minnesota.

Yeah, so let's dig into some of the discoveries from the findings from this week. Earlier on this week, we talked to Brian about the injury situation with Albert Rusnak, with Ryan Kent. Jao Paulo specifically. Ryan Kent looks like 10 to 12 weeks, not quite out for the year. Brian was very insistent when you pressed him on it that... He he's not done for the year. We still think he has a role to play for us. And, you know, beyond that, we'll see.

I thought that was a fair line of questioning though. You wanted to basically say like, this is a guy who is basically out of contract at the end of the year and he's not hardly going to play. How do you handle that? And he basically just said, no, he's still got, he's still got a role. So we'll see. Yeah, but that's kind of Brian when it comes to me particularly. But no, I thought that he was probably being careful about.

I don't know, but just making any pre-assumptions on Rankin's future. I thought that's what he was trying to do was avoid the fact that, you know, once. So logically for you and I, you know, 10 to 12 weeks absolutely puts you at the end of the year. But I think he wanted to give it a possibility, a sense of hope.

Yeah. With the fact that he is here on a short term contract. That's kind of what I was trying to get out of him. But, you know, it's got to be hard, right? When you got some cameos from him, you were just starting to maybe see him. get some traction, maybe not brilliantly, but getting some decent performance, some solid performances. And so I think that's what he was trying to avoid was maybe not making any rash.

statements on rank kent per se i think that's exactly right i mean i i you know i and i guess for him the upside of saying of sort of writing them off there's just not upside to it you know he from his perspective it's like if they can get this guy back even if it's only for the playoffs or only it's for a couple games you want to have that that

added piece that you can choose from and you want to give them motivation to get back and who knows what happens next year like i i would be shocked at this point if the center's picked up his option his option is probably for a million plus but it is i mean it is funny to think that

you know, after two games, everyone was talking about like, Oh, this guy's going to have to be a DP bubble of law. And, you know, I don't think he played badly in his last few appearances, but he just wasn't the same player. Although, you know, I would think the Sounders would be open to bringing him back at some number. There's got to be a number where it makes sense. It's not a million dollars. It might not even be half a million dollars, but there's somewhere.

There's something where it makes sense for the Sounders. I don't know if it makes sense for Ryan Kent. Ryan Kent might have proven enough in the relatively short time here that he can go back to Europe and find someplace that he's happier. But presumably... Those options were available to him before. So I don't know, maybe he is open to returning, even if it's on a lower number. Look, I would be surprised if they were to pick up his option as is.

I would be okay, but still slightly surprised if it was to come back at a much lower salary in the $400,000 to $500,000 range. Has he done enough for me to make it an absolute lockdown? No, but he also hasn't played himself out of just being dismissed completely. So it is a very. difficult situations that I'm sure that we'll have some additional conversations to it, depending on his health and how, how he recovers, because it is a serious injury and that has to come into part of that.

equation is, you know, how does he come back from an injury that difficult? And specifically knowing that, look, in today's training, George Minungu was lights out. I mean, he was so weak. All week, Georgie was balling. He looks like a player who is very hungry, who sees an opening and is planning on bursting through it with.

all his might. The knock against him for a long time was he didn't have the finished product. Then he started getting assists this year. And then it was, okay, but he's not really getting goals. He scored the goal. Obviously, he just has that one goal, but it was a great goal. And in training, we've seen the same thing. He's finishing with his right. He's finishing with his left. If he can get a run of time, even if it's not as a starter.

I think he can be a really, really effective player. And because this is a... numbers game and we are in a club that wants to maximize the resources. That is another reason why I don't know if bringing Ryan Kent would be worth it. You know, you got. Paul Arriola, who essentially is going to be filling a spot as well. He could play high. Same thing goes for Reed Baker-Whiten. He could play the winger position. So, you know, there's just so much.

of a competition and players that you can add in those positions that I just don't see why instead of. you know, bringing him back for X number, you wouldn't go out there and get yourself a center midfielder or, you know, you would try to go and occupy other positions that this team, you know, could have some voice.

You know, me knowing and understanding that this is the deepest soundest team that I have ever covered. And when we hear Doyle talk about the deepest team in MLS history, I will, you know. I probably think that I know more about the team, but he knows more about the league. So I'm going to take his side on that and agree with it. And so not even knowing that I would have to say that. you know, that there is a level of competition that you probably want to add some pieces.

down in more of that center midfield, you know, a striker, you know, we've talked about this before. Yeah. And I think that's a good point. It's a good reminder that it's never no. Personnel decision is made in a vacuum that every personnel decision is not just about the player himself, but it's about the opportunity cost of having that player on the roster. It's part of why, you know, someone yesterday was asking me what happened to Brodelio Rodriguez. And I said,

look, he's 25 and he was taking up a developmental spot on the roster. And so that's sort of what happens. It wasn't that he did anything wrong. It's that if you sign Brodelio Rodriguez, then you aren't signing a Snyder Brunel, maybe. And you want to have the same thing with Ryan Kent. If you bring Ryan Kent back, that's one more senior roster spot that's locked up into a position that's frankly, you're already probably pretty deep.

you probably need help somewhere else on the field. Central midfield, like you said, is a great candidate. I'm not ready to quite close the door on it, but I think it's worth keeping in mind that these are all related decisions. Moving into the next player.

Albert Rusnak, he looks like he, you know, it was funny because depending on how you look at the report, it's either three to four weeks, which seems bad or three to four weeks, which means, oh, he might actually make it back for the. the leagues cup semifinals, which would be pretty nice. If he, if he, if he's backed by the semifinals, he would only miss two more games after I should say three more games total, but that.

It doesn't seem quite as bad as maybe we feared when we last talked. No, and he was out here today, obviously just doing some light jogging, nothing that is worth saying. you know anything about but he seems to be he's going to be in good spirits he um I mean, to a certain level, right? I mean, you know, he is a guy that wants to be out there. You and I both know that he wants to play the games. And although he's probably okay with not practicing, you know, he wants to be out there in the games.

And, you know, it was just good to see him for a bit. But I would just be cautious. There is no reason to rush him. So, you know, even the Leagues Cup semifinals seems... early for me i would think maybe the final uh if that would be one that you say is worth playing albert dad game um and that's a good point yeah it's uh him being such a

pivotal part of the offense. And with having a guy like Jesus Ferreira filling in the spot very adequately and effectively, I just feel like, you know, you probably slow down on, on not bringing him back so quickly.

And then the other player who, I guess there's a couple more players, but the other one I wanted to talk about right here was Jao Paulo. His situation is, fair to say, complicated. There was a glimmer of hope. when we first found out that he was only going to be out or that he didn't do his ACL. But I think we also have to keep in mind that there's a roller coaster of emotions that he is going through.

that is adding complication to this because on one minute he was, okay, I'm finally getting to the point in the season where I'm maybe going to get some minutes. He hurts his knee. He thinks his ACL is done. OK, do I even want to go through an ACL recovery? I'm 34 years old. What am I just coming back so I can sit on the bench? What's the point? Right. And I think he starts getting into the mindset of.

okay, I need to start planning my post-playing career. And then comes the news. Actually, you haven't done your ACL, but it's still a pretty long recovery process. You can't just get out there and start playing again. And so here we are. It's been, you know, it's already been six weeks since he suffered the first injury. It does not look like he's getting particularly close. He was outside at least, but he's not like his return is not around the corner.

What are you seeing there? How do you see this situation playing out? What do you think realistically, what role do you think he can play this year? I don't see him being a guy that will be... a consistent rotational player at this point in the season with how well the team is playing and look the the reality that brian wasn't necessarily playing them

consistently as a rotational player when he was healthy leads me to believe that you know at this point in time the best case scenario is that you make and you work on getting him 20 to 30 minutes fit and being a guy that can come in and close a game, that can be a guy that if necessary, you need to break the glass and bring him into a game because somebody went down or there's a situation. then you do that but i just don't see him having enough time to really

being ready to play 90 minutes or even Brian making that call of playing in for 90 minutes. Obviously we still have to see it. There's plenty of time before the season is up, but. Today, he wasn't even out there. He was out here a couple of days, right? Yeah, just doing light work on the outside. That's right. Zero ball work. It's all, you know, resistance, speed, strengthening, things of that nature. So I would put them probably not until.

another two weeks before you're even doing more of the full-on trainings. Brian said today that next week they're going to... you know, hiking up his training session. So what does that look like? Maybe more on the ball stuff, it'd be my guess. Maybe he does partial stuff in training, but I just think we're not going to see him.

even go through half or a full training for a couple of weeks uh clearly and you mentioned this the human part of it is is important and As a guy that wants to do right by the team, wants to do right by himself, right to his standard of play, I do feel like it'd be very difficult to.

I don't know, come in and play 90 minutes. However, he would have that heart. And if the team needed him to do so, he probably would. But we're probably thinking that if that's even a possibility, you'd be looking closer to the end of September, early October.

if that was the case when you got to wonder for him it's like what's the what's the point of getting 90 minutes fit if he can't really if he's not going to be allowed to play 90 minutes right and and what are you risking and what are you are you going to be at your best and you got to do a lot more work to get to that point and then he doesn't know what's happening next year

And so these are all complicating factors that make it very tough. I have to think that the Sounders are actively looking for options to... supplement the roster probably from within MLS. And because they're at the point now where I just don't think they can afford to rely on JP coming back. If he can come back great, but they just can't count on that as a.

They just can't assume that's actually going to happen. No, not at all. And I think he knows that as well. He is a very self-aware individual. And yeah, that's all part of the... the mathematics that i'm sure the team is doing difficult decisions is something that has been a a trend here at the facilities. Brian has talked about it with Stefan Frey and Andrew Thomas. He's talked about it on the wings. He's talked about it. I mean, the competition and then the situational things.

with a difficult, you know, circumstance like the one that JP is going through is all part of those tough decisions.

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Absolutely. Well, that transitions us into the whole Stephen Fry situation, which is about to get a lot more interesting, it seems. It sounds like he may be... training with the ones right now, which is to say that he might start. But how much should we, A, is that an accurate read? And B,

How much do you even think we should be reading into that at this point? Does that mean it's just his job now? Or do you think it means, okay, let's, we're going to go week by week and we're going to kind of assess. Look to me and I'll give you my opinion and then I'll. Tell you what I think will happen. Adding what Brian talked about today. I feel like it should be his job. And I appreciate that Andrew Thomas has been.

great phenomenal even in in a lot of times during this you know tense stretch of you know undefeated games and uh his shot stopping has always been something that i feel like he does better than uh stefan fry but when it comes to overall body of work and what I look at in a goalkeeper Nico Moreno still feels like Stephen Fry is the solution there and he gives you the safest most

influential guy on the field. Now, that's not a knock on a guy like Andrew Thomas. I just think that the goalkeeping position requires a certain level of leadership and a lot of it and a lot of times comes with experience that's why you see goalkeepers play as long as they play and You know, even in national teams, a lot of times they'll go with the older, more experienced guy. Right. Rather than maybe the young and comer, regardless of how fun that player is or how athletic he is. So to me.

his job to however talking to brian smetzer today he used the term i'm gonna i'm gonna dip my toe in bringing in stefan fry which yes to me it means that stefan fry will probably starred this weekend. He looked phenomenal today as well. He looked very good. What I was kind of going off or what I was focusing on pinpointing was, is he going to be afraid to go? into a 50-50 ball to go to the ground to, you know, those things that maybe you can revert and just kind of feel that pain or, you know.

everything that goes in with what happened to him and no he looked fine he looked decisive a couple of big big saves uh you know when they play the seven v sevens is reduced space so you know heaters right coming out for him he's by making save after save, going at the ball with no problem. So I see Stefan Fry 100% ready to be back, but I did hear some apprehension in Brian Smetzer today.

saying, hey, I just want to make sure that I deal with it correctly. It's a conversation. He continues to say that. And Andrew Thomas has been very good. And we've got to make sure that Steph is... you know, ready to go. He's ready to go, but I think he was talking more about the mental component of getting back into the game after something like what he endured during that collision.

And so but your impression is that staff is probably starting this week. Is that fair to say? Yes, that is absolutely fair. Olivia loves a challenge. It's why she lifts heavy weights and likes complicated recipes. But for booking her trip to Paris, Olivia chose the easy way with Expedia. She bundled her flight with a hotel to save more. Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

You were made to take the easy route. We were made to easily package your trip. Expedia. Made to travel. Yeah. I don't think you can get him off the field, really. I mean, he looked like that. And that's why I would love to talk to him. I want to hear from Steph. I really do. Yeah. Yeah, I do too. I do too. Cause I think it's, it is, it speaks a lot to his mentality because the reality was, is before he got hurt, he was playing great. Like this was a

a very, very good season by any standard, not just, well, he's been pretty good for a veteran, you know, a 38 year old goalkeeper, 37 year old goalkeeper. He's been enjoying a very good season. So it does feel a little harsh. to move on from him or for him to just sort of lose his job through really no fault of his own. Like he, he was like, there was no question that he was the starting goalkeeper when he got hurt.

And and so how do you take him out at that point? Right. It's it's tough. And at the same time, there is a reality where. Andrew Thomas is now 26 years old. He's showing you everything he needs to show you. You've already sort of anointed him as the heir apparent. And you can't just, you can't just.

keep him sort of waiting forever. And he's now gotten this run of games where he's actually, he seems to be getting stronger. And I think that's sort of one of the key elements here is that, you know, in the first few games, he was, he wasn't necessarily giving up soft goals.

But the team just didn't seem as organized when he was back there as opposed to Steph. But over the last four or five games, he's looked much better. It looks like they know what they're doing. It seems like they're playing a little bit more of a... He seems to be growing into the position as both a leader and a shot stopper. And so I think it's a complicated situation. I guess that's what I'm saying. And that's credit to Andrew Thomas, of course.

right exactly uh exactly so you know we'll see we'll see what happens my my you know we were talking yesterday at practice what we would set the over under at for stephen fry appearances and The over-under was set by, I'll just say, Jackson Feltz of KJR set the over-under at 11. And this is, of course, assuming...

They are going to, you know, they have, I think that's 11 games they have left to play, but that's assuming they have, they play more games. So they make the playoffs and do all these other things. I thought that was a very aggressive over under, I would have taken the under. I don't know how far under that is, but I think I probably if I was setting the line, I would have probably set it at like six or seven because I just don't I really don't know what's going to happen.

Yeah. And I was with you and I said it immediately that I would take the under no problem on that because one in, you know. I can make assumptions and I could give you an educated guess on. Stephen Fry still wants it to be his job, but I don't know that with certainty. And a lot of times when something like this happened at this point of a career of an intelligent, well put together family man like Stephen Fry that. has no need to be glorified or.

be ashamed of, or not ashamed, but be scared of the next step after his career, you know, maybe that's something that goes through their mind. I don't know. But, but what I did know was that Brian Smetzer was going to be very careful with bringing him back. And that put me. well below that 11. So is that going to happen? You know, is Steph going to come in and have a baller of a game against Minnesota? And that just gives him the confidence and everybody the confidence that is just...

It's my job. I'm here to stay. And the only games that Andrew Thomas gets is Leeds Cup. That's a possibility. But at this point in time, I don't have the certainty and I would be more than OK to bet on that under. Yeah. And like you said, Andrew, the fact that Andrew Thomas is going to be getting the league's cup games, that's potentially three more games right there. So, you know, I guess that maybe makes the transition piece a little bit easier. Maybe, maybe.

Schmetzer doesn't feel like he needs to really make a choice until the league's cup is over. And then you have, you really just have one goalkeeper at that point, but I don't know. It'd be interesting to see. So I do want to.

get your sense of Minnesota United. But before we do that real quick, has anything changed from your perspective in terms of the, the transfer window? You know, the last time we talked, we basically were opening the umbrella. for lack of a better term, about girding fans for there not being a big signing. Since then, I actually was able to get a name of a player who they came.

Close enough to signing that they felt like they had it all, like all sides had agreed to it until, you know, someone higher up at the Chelsea Strasburg. apparatus basically nixed the deal it's a it's a serbian player who frankly looks amazing like if they had been able to bring in this i i feel like i need to go look his name up again but uh

This would have been an amazing signing. He's 19. He's a forward. He has a very similar build and profile to Jordan Morris. And he already has a couple solid, productive seasons under his belt. in, I believe, Milos Lukovic is his name. And he's already got a couple of productive seasons in sort of like non-premier type of European leagues. But first...

you know, like first divisions. But again, it looks like that deal fell through, not going to happen. Where does, are you hearing anything to give us hope that there might be a U22 signing still in the offing? No, not at all. My expectations as yours have dropped down dramatically. Everything that I'm hearing is that we'll see what happens. But it sounds like there is no real.

commitment to continue to chase down, and I said this on Love & Scorchers, your sixth or seventh option, because logic will tell you that they went for the target that they wanted. and they have been unsuccessful and in my tally sheet i have five players that they have unsuccessfully approached sat on the table and weren't able to secure. So if now you're that far down in your list.

And you are coming off from a game where your young guns, a guy like Osas de Rosario, was very good against the LA Galaxy. He's been very successful. He gives you a different profile of striker. Maybe you're not getting that Jordan Morris-esque player that is what you were trying to get, but you get a target forward, which is different than the poacher that you might have in a guy like...

like Danny Masofsky, and that if you needed a little bit more mobility or a false nine, then you have Ferreira as an option. So when I look at the need there, and I do feel like the U22... that they're looking for needs to be a striker. I feel like they're just going to pocket that in and just wait to figure out what you get out of this current group. And you revisit that in the winter window. It's not what you want to hear. I still, you and I both were.

Very frustrated by the fact that I guarantee you that even the guy that you just mentioned that I think he's he's in the second division of La Liga. If you went out there with a. I think that loan just went, I think he, so I just, I was looking him up right now and it looks like he, the loan just got made like right after, I think after the deal with the Sounders fell through, they worked out a loan to send them to Les Palmas of the.

the second uh whatever what's to la liga whatever they call it yep yep la liga 2 and so when i look at that uh it makes me realize that if the sounders had to go let's just say that it was a money thing if they or if it wasn't a money thing you could add money to make that team change their mind

And they just didn't have that. And maybe if they had that budget, maybe they're not looking for this guy and they're down in South America bringing in a top prospect or, you know, down in Erevedice and getting the guy that they wanted. But that's just not the case. Because of that, I just don't see that happening moving forward. I said 30-70 at one point. I'm all the way to 20-80 that nothing's going to happen with that specific player. There's just much more decisions.

to be made. I think Ovid Vargas is a priority to get him a U-22 contract, to sign him to a max contract, because... the ball and the pressures on the club. If, uh, open bargain doesn't sign with any team, the loss is going to be on the sounder. So that's going to be a priority. Uh, you got the priority of what you're going to do. If you're not.

going to bring back Ryan Kent. You got to figure out what's going to happen with the extension of Yammer Gomez-Andrade. You got to figure out what's going to happen with Danny Masofsky. I mean, there's just so many more things that in the near future need to be...

figured out that, you know, if you're not sure about you, you 22 right now and your future there, you just don't do it. Maybe you go out there and get yourself an MLS player to fill that midfield position, like we mentioned, and that's it. Yeah, and I'll echo that. I think the number one priority, frankly, the number two, maybe the number three priority needs to be getting Obed Vargas signed to an extension because it's...

very obvious that this is a play. And if that means the Sounders need to max out what they can pay him as a U22, which is basically a million dollars a year, they need to do that. That to me is such. so much more important than any new player they can bring in that like the budget that they, if they, if it's a matter of budget, they that's where the budget should go. So.

Yeah. And look, I talked to Ovid Vargas this week and I haven't posted the video on Puso Sports, but it will be in Spanish. And, you know, I talked to him about, you know, how difficult it is for him to mentally be ready to play at that level. that he's played with the insecurity of not knowing your future and i was very surprised that you know usually when i ask that question

The answer is yes. You know, it's difficult to play because, you know, I don't know about my future. But I'm usually asking a 28, 29, 30 year old. When I asked him, he was just like, yeah, well, you know, I just got to keep playing. And but I got to figure out.

My side, I got to make sure that I talk to my agent and my family and all these things. He was more like, yeah, you know, it's I would love to sign an extension, but, you know, I'm not like super worried about it. And that made me a little bit nervous. Right. He's a guy that knows that there's a lot of interest in him, that he's playing at a phenomenal rate, that he could essentially leave in December and very easily find another club.

That puts a lot of pressure on the Sounders. And, you know, I'll translate. He didn't say, like, I want to leave. I don't want to put that out there. I'm kind of reading in between the lines. contrasting when I usually add that question to an older player, because he definitely wants to be here. He wants to remain here. I even asked him about, you know, the World Cup for the U-20s that...

is coming up here at the end of the year. And he is very likely going to be called that by Mexico's U-20. And, you know, he talked about, yeah, well, you know, it's all about me playing good here and that will lead to other things. So he was very focused on the sounders and remaining here. But I also saw him being very chill and, you know, without any like urgency to get that extension. And that's just because of his position right now.

From what I've heard, the situation with Freeman, who's the Orlando City right back, he's got 18 months basically left on his contract, which I guess is about the same as Obed, essentially. And he's talking about like, well, they don't want to resign because they just want to be able to go to Europe on a free.

Because they feel like they can end up pocketing that money. And Obed doesn't seem to literally be saying that. But it's one of those things where it's got to be on their mind where, look, why do I want to sign an extension? if all that's going to do is complicate my move. Now I think he probably has a little bit more of a, like the Sounders seem to have a better relationship with Obed than, than Freeman does with Orlando city, but.

It's the point being, you can't just take it for granted that he's just going to sign an extension sort of out of the goodness of his heart. You got to make it worth his while. You got to pay him like a real player. And so anyway, I would hope that that's sort of the priority for the Sounders right now.

If they can sign a U22, great. But like the reality is that I don't see a U22 coming in and contributing right away as it is. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see. All right. Well, before we have about 10 more minutes.

Before we get out of here, though, let's talk a bit about Minnesota United. What do you see in this game? This is a potentially... Christian Roldan essentially called it a playoff game. How do you see this one going down? I think that, and I asked Brian this today, if this was the biggest challenge this team has faced. after Club World Cup, and he didn't give me a yes or a no, typical Brian, but he said they're a very good team. However, I do think that Seattle consistently has had issues.

breaking down teams that play with deep blocks in the fashion and the effectiveness that Minnesota United can do it. So this is, to me, one that maybe doesn't match up as well as perhaps the LA Galaxy. game did. But I've seen a couple of games for Minnesota that haven't been up to their standard. Go back to the San Luis game in Leeds Cup, they lost 2-0.

And it's not like they didn't have some of the better players out there. And then you go back to the Colorado game that was even more telling. And in both of those games. Surprisingly, they were the attacker. They led shots. They led possession. but they did not leave the scoreline. So is that a blueprint into what the Seattle Sanders could potentially do, which is just conceding a possession and saying, hey, you left the net half the ball, well.

You're going to have it. And then, you know, going off of that, maybe tinkering with that, flipping the script on them with that sort of mentality or approach to the game. But, you know, they have a quality squad. although they have not been able to get, in my opinion, to the back of the net as well over the last couple of games. But, you know, Tani O'Shea is a guy that is...

very fast, can get from point A to point B very quickly. I think he's a good finisher. You look at a guy like Yeboah that is more the physical, stronger guy that has put a couple of pretty good goals on the Sounders when he's faced them. I talk consistently about Joaquin Pereira and the volume that he brings, the through balls, the connectivity, the creativity.

The creativeness in his game are very dangerous to what the Sounders would like to do. We talked to Albert Vargas and he mentioned that he got to be poised. They got to be disciplined. They got to be able to defend well. And I think that's all going to be. part of this game. I do see this being more of a battle, more of a, you know, knife in your teeth sort of, sort of game where one goal might make the difference. Seattle has to be immaculate defending set pieces and that goes.

without saying, I'm not, you know, I don't want to add to what everyone knows already, but I also think Seattle can try to create on set pieces. They've been amazing. And this is always good, right? That you're scoring. off of regular play and you know just through transition and high press moments which I think is going to be important in this game as well but you know

When in League's Cup, you scored a couple of goals in set pieces, man, I want to see more of that. I want to see those flicks to the near post. I want to see them. Ferreira seems to be very comfortable taking that role from...

Albert Rusnak taking those set pieces. So I do want to see a little bit more where a guy like Yemar, who has consistently gotten at the end of some very good crosses, but just hasn't put it in the back of the net, can... the Seattle Sounders do it a little bit more and get the lead early and force Minnesota to be the protagonist and to have to get out of their shell, that's going to be key against this Minnesota team.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that that is getting the early lead seems to be the main thing about Minnesota. They also seem to they do have a little bit of a tendency to concede some late goals. They struggled to close out Club America in League's Cup. They lost to San Luis. So they're not a perfect team. They're also not quite as good at home as they are on the road.

So maybe this is an opportunity for the Sounders. I will say I liked everything I heard from the Sounders in terms of their confidence. They seem to have a good game plan going into this one. But yeah, I think this is going to be a really good test. And sort of like what...

Aaron and I said on Nosarietes earlier this week is if they win this one, all of a sudden the rest of the schedule really sets up pretty nicely for maybe getting into one of those top two or three spots in the West. But if they don't win this one...

You know, fourth or fifth, this might be really a competition for fourth or fifth. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see. I do like the way the standards are playing, right? Go ahead. Oh, no, no. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, please finish. I was just saying, I like the way the Sounders are playing right now. So I feel like this is a good place for them to be. And I do too. I have to praise the team and Brian for having this offense.

in all cylinders running as smoothly as I've seen it. But this game also has a little bit of an underline that we need to... taking consideration, which is the Puebla game midweek. So there is likely going to be some rotation. You're probably not going to have your best 11 for lack of a better word, I guess, because this is a team that I feel like. They have 18, 19 players that are consistently coming in.

It's also something that we're not I'm not accustomed to seeing from Brian. That's not something that I can go back and think of being covered in this thing for a long time. And I can't think of. a moment where so many players have been rotated into games so consistently. But at the same time, I do feel like the Seattle is going to want to win this game. And I'm not saying that they're not going to, but.

the Puebla game is a big deal for this club and this organization. And I would think that that's going to get probably your best 11 at home against Puebla with a chance to move on to the next round. Oh yeah, that's a priority.

Absolutely. Well, this is probably a good place for us to get out of here. Nico, thank you again for joining us. You can, of course, listen to Nico on. Lobbing Scorchers. You can listen to him on soccer down here. You can follow him on Pool Soul Sports. He is, of course, El Rolo NW on Blue Sky. Nico, thank you again for joining us. And yeah.

Should be a good one this week. And other than that, I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. We will catch you next time. I expect an LAFC who is motivated to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really brew in the party.

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