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 episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime 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 Adientes. I am Jeremiah Shan, and this is what we learned this week with Nico. So, of course, I am here with Nico Moreno of Pulsal Sports, of Sounder at Heart, of Lobbing Scorchers. How are you doing? Hey, man. I'm excited. It's been a good week.
It's crazy what a little report, a little bit of like glimmer hope will do for the energy of the fan base and everybody. I'm excited that you and I were able to provide. this sort of glimpse of, wow, maybe the team... does care and maybe the team, you know what I mean? It was so down in the dump. So I just want to start by saying that I'm happy that everybody has been so engaged with our story, that everybody seems to be in a way better mood.
Whether you think this is a home run or not, we'll talk about that. But in general senses, I just get people that are excited. The ads have been all over. People have been talking about this right and left. I'm just excited to see people so into the Sounders after, you know, some bit of a slow, rough start. So before we get into the move itself, I want to go a little bit behind the scenes. So I woke up.
on monday morning and i have an email from you that was sent at 4 30 a.m and i'm like what is this and i open it up and i'm like oh my gosh he got and we had talked about this This did not come completely out of the blue for me, but that you had the report and that you were ready to kind of put pen to paper on it or whatever.
That was news to me. You did not tell me at midnight, hey, I'm going to be writing this story. And then I was like, oh, you did send me a text message at 4.30 in the morning. But I was like, so I'm scrambling. Getting it together, I was actually almost late to get my daughter to school because I was trying to get this story edited. Because I was like, if he sent this to me at 4.30 in the morning, he is worried that someone else is going to get this story.
And then the funny thing about it was not only that, but then, man, this story, I don't think I was prepared for it. It got picked up a lot of places. Like we don't – I'm not – like we have been doing this a long time. We were – Getting cited by like the Daily Mail, BBC, the Seattle Times. I mean, all kinds of places were.
TransferMark had us linked in there. I mean, it was all over the place. It was, this was, and it sort of like was, oh, this is a guy who has some real name recognition. I don't think I appreciated that one. No, and I didn't. I mean, like I said, me and you had been working on it. We had talked about it the week before. I've been making sure that I did my homework as I tend to do. It's a little bit harder these days because...
Tom Booger is so good. There's so many other people that are ready to go with this information that I was trying to be as thorough and quick on the story as I could. And I think it was at midnight. It was a little bit after midnight when I got... the confirmation of everything. So I think I texted you at that time. There's no way he's up. So then I started getting all cut up. I tried to go to bed. And so I laid down in my bed and I'm just like,
You know in my head about is somebody gonna get it is somebody good or not I literally could not sleep. So I got up and what did I do? I started just watching videos of Ryan Kent. Highlights, full-on games with Rangers. I mean, whatever I could put my hands on that had him on just so I could have a better idea of him as a player. Because like you said...
I didn't really know he had this sort of... I had no idea. I'd never heard of him, to be honest with you. I'd never heard of him before this came across. Me neither. And, you know, my son, he's a FIFA guy. Apparently he knew him because he's a pace abuser, as the kids call it, in the FIFA game or whatever. And that's why he knew him. And what all of that just was like, man, I got to really get into this. And.
All of a sudden, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, I should just write it. Because if he wakes up to it, he's going to have something to go off. We'll get this as soon as we can. Yeah. And that's what happened. I just started writing, writing, writing. And it was 4.30 when I finished it. And I sent it away. So I got zero sleep. I bet. But it was... It was great. It was just exhilarating just because, I don't know, I was a little bit of adrenaline. I did love it. It's gorgeous.
Ari had no idea that he was me. It was the funniest thing. I was watching it, and he's like, oh, it looks like Senator Hart is reporting this story, and I'm sitting there watching you, and I'm like, he doesn't realize that Nico wrote this story, does he? You know, honestly, I had not mentioned it to him because...
I just wasn't there mentally, to be quite frank. And I was just trying to get prepared to watch the game. So I ended up watching the Sounders-Houston game one more time. So I was just, like, not there necessarily. I had dropped a couple of... Like...
hints at him that, oh, you know, I've been up all night. Maybe we'll get some stories. But I don't think he really realized what was going on. But all in all, it was fantastic. We got it out. And I love to hear that he got picked up by so many people. It did have such a big impact. It had a lot of traction. It had a lot of traction. I'm just going to go just tell people. So I'm looking at my text messages right now. 11.52 p.m., which is...
Honestly, normally I'm awake. I'm surprised I didn't see this. But he says, hey, contact me ASAP. And then the next message is at 424 a.m. Send you an email, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then at 7, hey, did you see the story? And I'm like, yep, yep, yep. I'm looking at it now. So just very funny. That's a little how the sausage gets made sometimes. But, like, you know, you mentioned Tom. He was very – That was sort of an aha moment, too, for me when I heard him talking about it on SoccerWise, and they were very complimentary to you and to us.
And he was just like, yeah, this is a guy who a year ago I was thinking should be an MLS DP type of player. I've been waiting for some MLS team to reach out to him. And I think people are a little surprised that it was the Sounders. I'm not. which, I don't know, makes sense, I guess, in some ways. But it does feel like a very Saunders move. And to get a little bit more into it, it...
It looks like it's happening. I mean, everything we're hearing, it sounds like it's going to happen. Yeah, and again, thanks to Gaz and Tom for being as nice as they were. Those are two guys that are, you know... top of the line media guys. So I was happy to get that shout out from them. And yes, can I go into updates on it? Yeah, go ahead. So definitely, it sounds like...
There's been an agreement, a verbal agreement. It's not signed yet, but they are confident that it will get signed today. So we're recording here on Friday at noon. It's going to get through today. So I've also gotten confirmation that this is going to be a one plus one situation where just as we reported initially. And I think that I was wondering if that was going to stick or not, because I. perhaps felt that
Maybe Ryan Kent would want a longer term. I don't know. Yeah, we can talk about that. But it definitely got confirmed 1 plus 1 through December with an option for 2026, which gives Seattle all of the leverage to manage. the deal. How does he do? Does he fit? Does he not fit? Does it make sense economically? So to me, it's a fantastic, brilliant move by Craig and of course, Sean Henderson, who is the guy who's always keeping tabs on this sort of...
So I think the way to think of this deal is very similar to the Paul Areola move where here's a player who has a pretty high ceiling who... not that long ago, was considered a borderline elite player. I mean, he was, like, the reality is that he was good enough to be signed by Fenerbahce.
is like one of the biggest teams in Turkey, which is a regular competitor in European competition. He made six starts in European competition for him. So it wasn't like he was completely left out of the team. It was really not until Jose Mourinho showed up that he... He fell out of favor. And and my understanding, essentially, like looking through what happened is just for whatever reason, him and Mourinho did not see eye to eye at all on what they were doing.
stashed him deep in the roster wasn't playing him and he was so he was trying to engineer his way out in the process of that he felt like Some deals didn't get made that he wanted to get made, and he was ready to basically sue them to get out of his contract, and they eventually mutually parted ways. So that happened in October. Correct. And I think there is – I would say if there's trepidation.
It's that here's a player who's been out of contract since October and still hasn't found a place to play. Now, part of that, from what I can tell, is he was really trying to get back to Europe. He looked at some Saudi teams. He looked at an Iranian team called Persepo.
Persepolis, something like that. Something like that. And so he had some... off some options but i think his top choice was to get back to europe and so maybe and so i don't know it's interesting how he ends up back in mls i don't know maybe the sounders had some relationship with him i don't know about all that stuff
But I would imagine he's looking at this as a way to sort of revive his career. He's still only 28. He's still got potentially, I mean, there's no reason that he can't get back in form and be a very good player again. But that's probably going to take some time. A couple of things on that. You're absolutely right. And, you know, we added some of that in the story. Part of the stuff that after reading so many things that night.
Some of them are coming back. There was one incident in January where there was a deadline trade day where Lazio ultimately had him in a bag to move from Furnavachi to Lazio. That falls apart, and a lot of people have indicated to me that that's kind of the start of the issues for him with Furnavachi, and that essentially creates... a bad toxic situation between club and player and essentially he's kind of
blacked out, blacklisted. Because he didn't really play the second half of the season. That is correct. So that's kind of what I remember from that. And in terms of... The relationship with the club, and again, this just came up because you mentioned that, and I did so much reading that day. I don't know why I thought that...
Andy Rose was the one that had some sort of connection to him. Yeah. Oh, you know what? I was trying to draw the lines, but it was so late that I just, I don't remember much. Well, he was bouncing around in the same leagues that Andy Rose was playing in.
Like in League One and stuff, because he was originally a Liverpool Academy player. And like a lot of Liverpool Academy players, he went on loan a lot early on before he ends up settling in at Rangers. And so it's possible that he and Andy Rose cross paths. in england at some point because of course andy rose spent several seasons playing in england uh but that'd be fun to look at that would be fun to look but i do remember that in some sort of way or form i thought that day
at 3 o'clock in the morning that Rose was the connection. I was like a madman. I'm telling you. You had your board up like always sunny in Philadelphia. Yeah. It was like one of those things where I just... I don't know, I saw red, but I did remember that. So we'll look into that. But all in all, I think you hit it spot on, right? I mean, this is, quite honestly, an out-of-the-box...
innovative move for the sounders who had been criticized for being too conservative, only looking within MLS, yada, yada, yada, this and the other. I feel like this is a move where... The potential is as high as it can be. This could essentially and I don't want to get anybody too excited. And I'm not going to say that this is a for certainty of it. But this is kind of like that parlay that I like to play where, you know, I'm putting on 35 and I could potentially get like a big.
change back. This one could... In my opinion, this guy could essentially be a Denis Buonga type of player. I mean, the thing is, you mentioned Denis Buonga, and I actually went and compared, because I was curious. So the two players that strike me as similar profiles to him... Johnny Russell, Denny Buonga, both players. So Denny Buonga was coming from a mid-table French team. Johnny Russell was coming from the championship. So these are maybe not exact analogies, but...
They came over at very similar ages. And if you compare their last three seasons before they came to MLS, they have very similar production numbers.
They are sort of – there are kind of similar players. There are wingers who like to cut in. They are – Pacey. They're pacey. Exactly. They like to dribble. I mean, if you go and watch – Ryan Kent's highlights they are he's the kind of player where you can cut together a really impressive highlight reel because he does his high moments are really high now it should also be said that he has not
panned out everywhere he's gone his production has gone up and down you know he didn't play a lot at Fenerbahce so there are it's not a guarantee I'm not going to sit here and say this is a DP player that they're signing on a
on a sub-TAM contract, but there is that potential. Absolutely. It's also possible that he does nothing. So I don't want to get too far out of our skis. But when you're talking about what the Sounders could do... the the the 100th percentile performance is a very very high performance even if it's not the likely you know the 50th percentile performance is maybe not that good but
This is a player that has real potential. So, I mean, there's reason to be excited about it. I think anyone who knows who he is can tell you there's reason to be excited about it. There are obviously red flags, but they're not paying a premium price for him. They're not. They're not. And again, this is a guy that at one point was worth $20 million.
on the transfer fee. I talked about Lazio wanting him. I actually ended up talking to a couple of people in Spain who, actually, I got some friends in Spain right now, you know, working with Sevilla. And they were, you know, Villarreal and... and a couple of other teams wanted him in Spain. He's a player scouts know. Yeah, scouts know him exactly. Right. He's definitely someone that everyone who's involved deeply in the game...
This is a guy, a name they immediately know exactly who you're talking about. I think he moved actually from Liverpool to Rangers for like $10 million. So he's a, I mean, he is a, that was a long time ago, five years ago, something like that. But he's definitely an intriguing player. I think, again, if you're talking about the Sounders shooting the moon sort of with this, they have almost this free play. I think you actually may even use that analogy.
previously and they're they're gonna they're make they're treating it like a free play and i think that's great yeah because so many times we've seen them be conservative in a movement and this is not a conservative no no this is ambitious and you know i don't want to get into the ambitious war in general but the move specifically
It's not ambitious maybe in terms of the money aspect, but the potential and kind of like the risk-take sort of situation. This is not conservative. This is not your Julian Gressel or Juwan Jones or any player that we kind of mentioned that might have been more of a... but the ceiling would not be as high, this one is on the other end of it. So in terms of the move, I think it's positive. For what you're getting him, in the moment that you're getting him, you're basically adding him as a depth.
piece and is going to create competition. And we'll talk about that here afterwards in this show. But all in all, I just want to say that the move to me. is a good move yeah i i like it too i think the other question it asks it forced you to ask though is what do the sounders see as where are they where is this all heading right because the reality is that he is not i should this is not a immediate
for anything that's currently ailing the Sounders this week. He's not going to suit up this week. He's not going to suit up next week. The reality is that he might not even make his debut for another month. And who knows when he's regular. He's regular. I would think the Sounders would be very happy if they told you if they if we told you that they had him.
ready to go fully fit by the Club World Cup, which is in June, they'd probably be thrilled with that. And I think it's entirely possible that he had maybe not even made more than one or two starts by then. That's two months. two three months almost from now so i think they they are looking at this as a move that's down the road this is not a fix for anything that's happening right now so that's one thing to know but the other thing is that he's a winger he is not a
He is an attacking winger. And how that fits into this roster is an open question because right now they don't really play with traditional wingers. Georgie Manungu is essentially the only...
real winger that they've been playing with. Paul Rothrock a little bit. Rothrock is really playing as a wingback right now. Yeah, and he's excelled there. Yeah, and he's looked pretty good. So it'll force them to ask some questions, and maybe they don't even see him as a starter right now. They might just see him as an option off the bat.
But he is a piece that they don't have right now. They don't have a real analogy for him on the current roster. No, no, absolutely. And, you know, we can talk about this as well. From the point that he hasn't really had a professional game, competitive game. Since July. Since July. He's been out of contract since October. So what sort of shape he's in, it's concern number one. Concern number two is not even a concern. It's just a reality of a circumstance.
The visa process for his P1 visa to be able to play here will take at least a month. And we have no idea if it could be longer than that. So that's exactly why this move. It's interesting. It's ambitious. But it's, like you said, potentially more leaning towards Club World Cup. How are we going to compete there? Leagues Cup. Leagues Cup. And playoffs, really. Sure. And that's where you're going to get the best out of this move. And that's honestly where...
The best teams that have done it over the last couple of years in MLS, that's what they shoot for. That's what LAFC got Garrett Bell when they did and when he played, although he got that one great moment. That's what they brought him on for. The thing I think you have to almost think about this is...
This is really a summer transfer type of move. Because that's when he's going to come online. I mean, if you get anything before the summer transfer window opens from him, you almost have to look at that as a bonus. But if things... go reasonably well he should be ready to go by the time the summer transfer window opens which is good you know this is a player who you know it's going to take a little time it's going to be a little bit of a slow burn but there's real potential there
On other things related to that, I think that's – are we good to move on from that, you think? Yeah, I think we're good to move on. Maybe I just thought if potentially he is as good as he is, how would you shape that?
final third of the attack? I think that would be a good question. And I think that sort of... dovetails a little bit into the other bit of I think good news that came out this week is it does look like Jordan and Pedro are closer to returning than maybe it seemed it was funny we asked Brian about it on Monday and he was sort of like
I don't know. And then he goes on softy on KJR and is like, no, they're actually they're looking really good. And they're like, we might get him back. And we might get Jordan back. maybe next or pedro back next week and then jordan back the week after that and it was like oh and then yesterday when we talked to him he sort of said the same thing which was like yeah it looks like they're getting closer but that's
Also good news because even though they're not going to be back this week, they're both out there doing stuff training-wise that shows that they are closer to returning than not. Yeah, and I think right off the bat, we have talked about... Pedro being able to do some work on the ball, being able to shoot kind of totos, it was an asset here. But, you know, in my opinion, I hope that they don't rush him in. I feel like you have enough depth where you'll be fine there. But I will say that...
I'm hoping that Brian and Softie are like besties or something because he not only... went all out to confirm injuries with him, but he also talked about the Ryan Kent thing. When Jada Evans asked about Zach, same question here, and he was super cagey about it. And then on cagey, I don't know if people missed it. It's worth listening to because it's kind of funny. He says, well, you might want to check the TSA website to see if a player named Ryan Kent came through CTAC today. And then, oh.
I don't know. Maybe he's been at the facility. I don't know. And then he did this whole scouting report on him. And it was just very funny because he definitely did not say that with us on Monday. Oh, no. He was cagey. We just didn't want to talk about it. I mean, I have no idea. And he was like a cat that caught the – ate the bird on Thursday. Exactly. 100%. I mean, come on, man.
And then he went and went and talked about it, got super open about it. But anyway, I just wanted to point that out. That was kind of fun for Mr. Brian Spencer. Yeah. But that does. Lead us into this weekend. San Jose is a team who went through a pretty significant overhaul in the offseason. Bruce Arena obviously is a big part of that. And he...
changed their formation. They're now playing a 3-5-2. They brought in a bunch of big players. Chicho Arango, the top one, but Joseph Martinez as well. And this is really a different team. They started off kind of gangbusters. They won their first two games. But they've now lost three in a row, and they lost 4-1 last week. I don't know. What do you make of San Jose as the Sounders go down there? A place where they've had a lot of – the Sounders have weirdly struggled against San Jose.
especially at home, but in San Jose as well. Yeah, no, look, this team has two sides, two sides to the coin. In one end, I feel like they are a dangerous team. offensively. I felt like that 4-1 against Charlotte didn't really tell you the whole story. Chicharango, for some reason, just had a bad game in this one. He could have started the game off with a goal like in the sixth minute where he gets a game in front of the goal. He doesn't put it away.
I counted six chances that typically Chicho Arango would put away, and he didn't in this one. Interesting. And you cannot give Charlotte that sort of... ability to just settle into the game. Now, I don't want to take anything away from Kalina because he was great. Kalina was all over and he stopped some great shots. But at the end of the game, their issue in San Jose, I'm saying, is transition defense. They got exploded with direct balls behind the defensive end.
The pivots couldn't keep up. And once the first goal fell, they just really laid on thick on San Jose, where the goal... that they actually get back ends up being on a PK that Chicharango puts away. But other than that, Charlotte kind of dominates the game at a certain point. So that to say that I think this team...
Although not balanced, they are a team that could put Seattle under pressure and they could pin them back and put them under their own third. And Seattle has had moments where they... do play a little bit too deep at times, so I'm hoping that they don't, and they do keep that line of confrontation as high as Bryant has wanted it in specific times. I think about the Charlotte game here at home, where...
that could have been the perfect game plan for that specific game. The results didn't come around, but I feel like if Seattle can keep that sort of intensity, they can really affect the game against San Jose. It's not an easy game, though. It's always been a rock on the shoe for Seattle. It's just as RSL, where...
You know something bad is going to happen. You know they're not going to play at their best. So how do they kind of manage that? That's interesting. But I really like what I've seen out of this San Jose team with Kay, who's an experienced player.
who can control the ball, who knows exactly what he wants and how to get the ball out of the back. And Harx is kind of like that disruptor, that guy that's all over and is going to make it difficult. So I feel like they have a really good sense of how they want to play the game offensively.
Defensively, they have their issues. Yeah, Christian Espinosa has been an interesting one there because he was one of the top wingers in MLS, and Arena moved him to wing back. And I don't imagine he's doing a lot of defending back there, but he's... You know, he definitely creates some problems offensively. But I would think that's an exploitable hole in their defense because... I just can't imagine that he is much of a defender back there. Yeah, and look, to be honest, they've really...
They have had issues and they've really missed Hernan Lopez. He's their 10. He was the guy that amplified everything. And he's out now. And he's out with a shoulder injury. Yeah. So now they have to drop Chicho because Chicho could do a little bit of that false 9 or 10 sort of situation with Judd. in front of him judd will give you a little bit more of that a high energy pressing uh occupy space and then chicha will get into those half spaces and be that guy that
really is the dangerous guy. He's the one that's getting in front of goal. He's the one that's going to be dangerous. So how does Seattle kind of manage that? That's going to be interesting. But Espinoza, to me, is by far the most consistent and quite honest. the most fully talented player that team has. He could do it all from where he stands. He could come outside. He could come inside. He could link up. He put a couple of beautiful balls this season.
whenever he's been able to have the ability to play with Chicho Arango up at the 9. So this is a team that's quality. Seattle's going to have to do a lot more on the offensive end. And that's where kind of my question mark is for Seattle is... The magnifying glass for me is going to be on how well they move offensively, how engaged and active Jesus Ferreira is. Because three games now at the nine, I'm ready to see a... bigger upgrade and improvement on his play.
Because he is a guy that, to me, can really be the key to sparking the season in the right direction for this team. Yeah, I mean, Jesus is a player who clearly has a lot of talent. We're seeing... glimpses of it but he has not really put it all together you know we talked about how he only has one shot and two starts at the number nine that is not enough but that is i think at least partially the result of
him not really meshing with his teammates as a number nine. He moves differently than Jordan. You know, Jao Paulo talked about it this week, about how he's just not going to be the same player, and we have to recognize that, and we have to play him differently. He wants the ball to beat.
wants to be able to combine with teammates he wants to do stuff around the top of the 18 yard box whereas jordan is crashing the box he's running in behind he's doing a lot of things these are just different styles of play it doesn't make one better than the other but the sounders have to recognize that this is their danger player and they need to be feeding him and so that means they have to adjust the way they're playing
They need to adjust to where they're playing. So I have high expectations still for Ferreira. I'm not ready to sell on this guy. I think he's still... a very useful player, but this is a game where you would like to see him shine. No, 100%. And look, I don't mind the criticism because I've said this a thousand times. It comes with the role. It comes with...
the reflectors that the move was made under, where he was kind of labeled as the answer to what Seattle was missing. So he's going to be criticized. But I am with you in that I believe in his talent. I believe he'll... find his rhythm with this group, and we'll put it together. My eye will also be on Ovid Vargas this game around. He's likely going to play a little bit higher.
in my opinion, this week, and how in the past I've seen him do very well whenever he played at the wing or whenever he played a little bit higher because he has a lot of dynamism. He understands the game very well. I think that if he... him and jesus who had some sort of connection uh in the preseason yeah can harness that that's going to be interesting to look at so how that association between those two comes around
I'm interested on because we know what we're going to get out of certain players. We know what we're going to get out of Albert. He's going to be dangerous on set pieces. He's going to be the guy that puts guys through. He's going to have a solid to decent game. But those other guys, that's what's really gonna make this whole puzzle kind of come together.
Yeah, all right. So we're going to take a break right now. We're going to come back. We'll talk a little bit more about Obed. Again, he had a nice little interview. You had some good exchanges with him. I wanted to talk about that a little bit more. We're going to talk about the Club World Cup money and sort of what that means.
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Welcome back to Nos Adientes. We're here on what we learned this week with Nico. Nico, we had another good interview with Obed Vargas today. I always love that you guys get to have these little exchanges in Spanish because I feel like he opens up a little bit more. But one of the things I thought was kind of a fun little thing was we were talking about the interpersonalness of the way that he is.
So he was in Mexico or he was in Spain this last week with the Mexican U-20 team. And one of the things I thought was interesting is he talked about how... This is sort of when he's with the Mexican national team, that's sort of the first time he's in a social environment where he is has to speak Spanish and he's around other Mexicans like he is when he grew up. Obviously, he spoke Spanish at home.
But outside of the home, he was English speaking all the time. Even though he went to a Spanish, we were asking about this, even though he went to a Spanish immersion school, these were all gringos who were learning Spanish. He was the guy who spoke. So his friends back in Alaska, speak English. That's his language among friends. So when he's with the Mexican national team, it's like, oh, these are different guys.
Yeah, no, and I thought it was interesting to know that he, I think you asked the question about how he integrated like culturally. Yeah. And, you know, they seem to have taken him in. I mean, he's Spanish. You can tell he's not. native. He wasn't born in Mexico. So at times that can be a little bit of a, if not an issue, you kind of get labeled, you know, a little bit. So it was nice to hear that, you know, he, he maybe does things different. He said he doesn't like the loud, the loud music.
And he's like, yeah, but whatever. But it was funny, like little things like that. He's like, they just are a lot more free with how, like he is much more of a, I kind of sense is that a little bit of a rule follower. He's more into his routines. He just.
lives differently than these guys do. And they come in and they're blasting their music at night. And he's, I kind of get the sense he's like, I'm maybe like, yeah, can we chill? Yeah. Can we bring it down, man? We've got a game tomorrow. No, I know it is kind of interesting. And, uh, it was. funny that you know he talked about here
He mainly speaks English. And even with the guys who speak Spanish, all those guys kind of speak English. Pedro's English is very good. I think he gave way too much credit on his English. But according to him, he talks to him in English. I seriously doubt that. But you think of who is... friends are on the team like Danny Leyva probably Jesus you know these are guys who
are gonna are probably defaulting to english as well immediately immediately and and you know he mentioned how hard it is to understand guys like pedro and i feel like gamer he has a little bit of argentinian accent and if you're not a fluent speaker and Anyone who is a bilingual understand this. Spanish accents are very different. Dominican Republic, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Argentinians. And it's difficult to understand just...
The way you call a pop, a soda pop. It could be gaseosa. It could be oca. I'm not going to bore you with it, but this means to everybody differently. Well, you were talking about the way you say socks. Socks, yeah. It's different than it's like this word in... I think he said that he uses for socks is the word that Pedro uses for socks.
pants. Yeah, exactly. Medias. Yeah, he was backwards. Medias for Pedro's socks and for him is leggings. So that part is interesting. So it was kind of cool. I feel like people would like to know that sort of thing. Because, you know, those are the things that a guy like Obey kind of has to deal with moving back and forth from club and international play. It was kind of funny. Someone asked him about what he made of the U.S. struggling.
And he's just like, that's not my problem. I think whatever. I'm not going to touch that. He said, Pochettino got it. He got it. But it is interesting to see how that goes. also thought it was a little interesting he didn't seem to be angling like he seemed to almost accept that he might not be in the world cup plans which i guess makes sense
and obviously a lot can change, and he's been very good about this, is that his club form is going to determine his place in the Mexican national team. If he's not... balling out here he's not going to be getting called up to the senior national team he doesn't seem upset about that he seems to accept that this is where he is in his career right now and if that means he's got to prove himself with the u20s that's fine And he's but I think that he knows that.
His best path to getting into the World Cup picture is to be as good as possible with the Sounders. And that's got to be great news for Sounders fans. Yeah, and I wonder if that's going to at all influence his decision of... where he moves, whether or not he moves. Because we both know, you and I, that there's a good chance that he's gone by the summer, perhaps, if the right offer comes along.
But him as a player, if it is, you know, maybe a Turkish team or maybe a team from Belgium, like, do you make that move or do you just wait and see before the World Cup? I don't know.
was interesting something we could probably touch with him in the future because it is kind of a big decision for him it is a big decision for him and i do think that the club world cup is probably a big part of that too because that's his chance to line up against some of the frankly some of the world's best players some of the best clubs in the world and
show off a little and put himself in the shop window and attract some attention. And I think, you know, he's not, I don't think the Sounders have any illusions about what they're going to be facing in the Club World Cup. The reality is that they're playing. Three very, very good teams. Paris Saint-Germain is one of maybe the most talented rosters in the world. Atletico Madrid is a very, very good... european club botafogo obviously is coming off the uh exactly and
This is they're also a very talented team. So they're going to have their work cut out for them. But one of the things that we finally learned this week about that is how much money is. both guaranteed and on the line for this, the Sounders are going to be guaranteed $9.55 million just for showing up. And to put that into a little bit of context, they have never paid a transfer fee of that much. That's wild. That's essentially the equivalent of signing another front of shirt sponsor.
That's essentially the yearly, that's a little less, but around what they get a year from Providence to be their main shirt sponsor. It's a lot of money. And on top of that, they can get $1 million for every tie in the group stage. They get $2 million for every win in the group stage. Another $7.5 million if they get out of the group stage. And then it goes up from there. I don't think we want to get too far.
ahead of ourselves. Getting out of the group would be a huge deal. So we don't necessarily need to talk about what would come after that. But that's a lot of money. It'll be interesting to see how that gets both spent, but also how much of that the players get. Because if you look at the way the CBA is written, it looks like they're guaranteed about a million dollar prize pool to share amongst the players. But this is a bigger prize pool than I think anyone envisioned as possible.
In 2021, when this was signed, no MLS team had played in the Club World Cup. This version of the Club World Cup was not even really conceived of. There was no idea of a billion dollar.
prize pool uh coming into this thing so i would think that the players union players association went to mls and was like hey we anything we could do about renegotiating this because that's a lot of I mean, you're asking a lot of the players to go into these games and you want them to feel like they are playing for something too.
Yeah, I mean, that's that's so interesting. I would honestly think and I mean, obviously, it's not my money, but you know, at least double the million dollar. I mean, that doesn't seem outrageous between the players because you also don't want to have. group that thinks that they're not getting worth what they've put in because every single one of these players has
made this team get to where they got to with blood, sweat, and tears. So, yeah, man, I think that doubling up that would be the bare minimum. But it will be interesting how much of that moves around. Does that... Obviously, that's not going to come immediately so that if there is going to be like a big move for the U22. But they know it's coming. They know it's coming. Now they know it's coming and they should be able to budget for it. And that's I think the real next question is let's just say.
Call it seven or eight million dollars is coming to the club itself. I would hope that they are looking at that as a almost immediate reinvestment. I would agree. Like there's no reason that they shouldn't be lining up at least. one U22, and being able to spend a little bit more than maybe they were originally planning to spend. But theoretically, that could fund...
A very significant U22 transfer. I'm sure there's going to be other monies. They can take some of that money. I'm sure they'll spend it on other parts of the organization. And it is important to note that that money does have to be, through MOS rules, that money has to be reinvested. So it can't just go into Adrian's pocket. Not that I would necessarily expect that to happen. But it should.
go into the transfer budget. Some of that money should go into the transfer budget. I would hope that the Sounders are seeing this as an opportunity, not necessarily to bolster their roster specifically for the Club World Cup, but to make a holistic move that is going to help them. this season and down the road yeah no and you do want to see that and whether because i do expect the u22 to be used in a striker i really hope that is either
Someone who they've been targeting where they could be just a straight up cash out buy within MLS. Or if they're going to go with somebody abroad, that it is somebody that you pay an actual transfer fee for. Right. And that you're looking for that person to be a. centerpiece of the team moving forward. We've talked about the need to just understand that Jordan, as good as he's been,
He is 30 plus. You do want to make sure that if you're not looking at Jesus as your second option striker because he does better things back aligned, then you need to bring somebody in who's going to be that second guy. You need to do that now. You need to bring him in immediately. And that would make me feel like this team is looking at this 2025 campaign as we got to win something.
They should. Right? They should. Right. Absolutely. They have said all season long, all building up into this, is that the success in this club is defined by winning trophies. And the way you win trophies is not directly correlated. related to how much you spend, but that the amount you spend is sort of a statement of purpose. And I think that's been one of the frustrations in the fan base is that they talk about winning and they do do some winning. But part of this is.
More than just results, it's sending a message to the fans that they are invested as they are giving you a reason to be excited. And to circle this back around to the Ryan Kent thing, I think that's what's so exciting about the Ryan Kent thing is that it's an exciting movie. It's something that you can get.
you can get into, that you can get your teeth around, that you can watch. I mean, as simple as something, be able to watch the highlight package and imagine him in a Sounders uniform balling out like that. And I think that's one of the things that we've not been able to do as much in the last. years is just get really excited about new players because the reality is that this is an entertainment business and they need to be entertaining and i think sometimes that's what we get lost in
during admittedly a run of success, but a run of success that hasn't felt as fun as it should have. Absolutely. And it's always great to have a sustainability. with the guys you bring in from the academies and the way you kind of build your roster. But those guys, those X factors, that's what sometimes sells. And look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Ryan's... Acquisition is going to put butts in the seats and it's going to be like Messi came to town. But I feel like there will be.
a increase of people that want to come watch there there's a big fan base that uh follows rangers here i know that for a fact uh how much do they know about him do they want to go watch them there's english Friends of mine that I was like, oh, I've heard the name. I want to go check him out. So I do expect that to kind of.
get there a little bit bigger and it all goes back to what you said entertainment plus value plus people get excited and that's what we want to see and of course hopefully that comes along with wins right exactly exactly well uh nico i think this has been a very productive week. I think we learned a lot. We did learn a lot. This was a good week for having this podcast, I think. Of course, Nico Moreno, you can find him on Blue Sky.
ElRoloNW. You can find him on Pulso Sports. You can find him on Lobbing Scorches. You can, of course, read him on Sounder Art, and you can hear him every week on this podcast. Thank you for joining me again, Nico. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. It's great.
that I also wanted to add is that people were asking and I didn't want to not not not answer they were wondering about the um potential international slot for oh yeah ryan just so everybody knows he would occupy one yeah and he'd be the last one that the sound and they'd have to go out and find it they'd have to acquire another one but
Honestly, the reality is that that's something you can do. The sounders have the flexibility that they should be able to go out and find. It usually costs you between $150 and $250 in allocation money, which they have done a good job of. of creating space for that. So I don't think that's something that fans should get too worried about. Absolutely. And that's what I wanted to make sure that you brought up because it is something that, I don't want to call it easy, but it's...
Very doable. It's very doable. Yeah. It's very doable to do. So that's the one thing that I think I had in my notes that people were really concerned about. But I appreciate everybody listening, all the comments, everybody engaging. Make sure that you do follow. to see Sandra Ajar continue to provide, become a subscriber, get behind all of our sponsors. And I'm just happy that this was a great week. It was a great week. It was a fun one. A lot of good stuff going on.
Nico, thank you for doing this. I am Jeremiah Shan. This is Nos Adietes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, and we will catch you next time. AFC 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 ruin the party. You guys like that? Awkward joke. Dad joke right there, huh?