Which Western Conference contender helped themselves most during transfer window?

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Welcome back to another episode of No Sarietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. I am Jeremiah Oshan. Joining me again, very happy to welcome Matt Doyle back to the show, reviving how the West will be won. Welcome back, Matt. It's been a little while. Yeah, it's been a minute. What was our take last time on how the West will be won? What did we come down on? I don't remember. Probably that the Sounders were going to run away with it or something.

Probably that San Diego was definitely not going to maintain the pace that they were on. That Minnesota was on the verge of falling apart. That the Sounders and LAFC were going to surge to the top of the table. Uh-huh. I mean, it wasn't old. I would still take the Sounders and LAFC against the field in the West, though. For sure. I think I would, too. Vancouver's legit. The fact that they invested the way they did.

This summer, the fact that they held on in spite of having that absolutely ridiculous schedule and losing their best player to an injury and then losing their best defender to an injury and selling their second best chance.

creator like the fact that they're still there i think now atop the west on points per game and then obviously went out and signed thomas moeller as well um man i'm i'm just happy for them and i'm happy that like it confirms my priors about the right way to play soccer because they've been a beautiful team to watch all year uh so they're like they're very clearly in that top group in the western conference

Yeah, I mean, I think that you can argue that there are at least five teams in the West who look all perfectly competent. And if any one of them came out of the West, they would probably be fine. And it's, I don't know, it's to me, maybe I'm a homer here, but I look at the, I realize that there's a point discrepancy between the top teams in the East and the top, or not the top teams, but like the top half of the East and the top half of the West.

I think the Sounders would be in seventh place or something like that in the Eastern Conference. I guess I could just pull up a table and look at that. But that would be too easy. Okay, yes, seventh. no eighth sounds would be eighth in the west if uh in the east i mean in the east but i just don't i don't know if i buy that the east is actually better than the the west like i think there i understand

There's depth there, but like, give me Columbus crew and LAFC on a neutral field. And I don't know that there's a lot of daylight there. Yeah. I guess, I mean, the East is 10 deep with playoff teams. Yeah, that is, that is, that is, that is a blender, you know? And then like what 11th is, is. New England. And I actually like that roster. Like that's a roster that's held. You like the roster. You keep saying that.

It seems to imply something else about the team. What is it that you're trying to say, man? You know, Carly Seals said the other day that changes needed to be made. And if you look at it, they've changed the front office and they've changed the players. What else could they change? What else is left to change in the last two years, huh? I think that in the West, outside of the top five, it's really bad. I really do. And now maybe, you know, Portland.

I give them credit for being super aggressive and bringing in like Felipe Caballo is not really a DP, but like. he'll help and i you know maddie rojas i think is a pretty good player in this league he'll help and then they went out and they they bought that dp winger like that's not a bad team but like that's a team that's scrapping in the eastern conference they are at best scrapping

with the Red Bulls and Chicago for the ninth spot. I'll buy that. I guess that's maybe more what I'm saying. The top five in the West, to me, compare with the top five of the East pretty favorably. But you're right. Yeah, but that's... The top five in the East extends to eight or nine. That's fair. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. I guess that's a fair point. This is a show that we talk mostly about the Western Conference, so we're just going to...

Focus on this and we may as well start here with the transfer window because it is the biggest. It's still the biggest news item, I think, from right now that's going on. And everyone. Everyone in the league really was pretty active. The Sounders were not the Sounders. I'm going to give them credit. They did sign Snyder Brunel technically in the summer transfer window. I don't think he really counts.

in a large sense, but I'm going to count him anyway. But he also has had two goals. He's been more productive than a lot. If they went out and they signed some Dutch kid for three and a half million dollars and he played this well in his first handful of first team games. Yeah. All of Sounders fandom would be like, this is the biggest heist ever. We have the greatest front office in the world.

And somehow it's like a black mark on the ambition of the team that instead they're developing players like this from within. I think people need to get their priorities. a little bit more in line. They need to understand the business, the best business to do in the game is to build these guys in your academy and in your reserve team. And the Sounders are doing that as well as, if not better than anybody.

in mls anybody in north america right now other than maybe fachuca yeah you know so i had a little bit of fun today and i was putting together i wanted to see if i could put together a lineup of players the sounders had just produced or had uh had had brought through defiance specifically as and and what kind of lineup you'd end up with here's what i ended up with andrew thomas and goal even though he was drafted most of his development happened at defiance

I was putting Alex Roldan at right back, but then I got into a discussion with Dave Clark and he pointed out that he really, even though he played a fair amount for Defiance, it was sort of like going back and forth between the Sounders. He only trained with the Sounders. So we'll ignore him. But you could either put Kalani Kosarienzi or Reed Baker Whiting at right back. You could put Jackson, Reagan, and I guess Stu Hawkins. You maybe lose a little there.

But then you would have Nuhu at left back. You could have Obed and Snyder Brunel as your double pivot. You could put Danny Leyva as your number 10. Georgie Manungu and Paul Rothrock as your wingers and Osase De Rosario as your forward. And I'm not saying that team's going to barnstorm into the playoffs, but I think that might be a playoff team. Yeah. Well, in the West, which is only five deep, as we established. Exactly, in the West.

But I do think it illustrates sort of the Sounders are using Defiant. And that's not even giving them credit for like a Jordan Morris who came through their academy. And we can kind of debate how much he really played in the academy or whatever. But it's.

Point being, they are developing players in their second team in a way that really no one else is doing right now. Well, I mean, Columbus did a lot of it. a couple years ago if you look at that team guys like patrick schulte sean zawodski and a few others um you know jason russell rowe got a ton of minutes with crew too and like nancy made that

a priority of his. Taha Habrun's another one who's a true homegrown for them. And I think there'll be more coming into the team next year. And it's probably not a coincidence that those are two teams that I write about somewhat glowingly. throughout the course of the season i think it's the right way to run um a soccer team for one and for two look man i'm still a u.s national team fan i still

hold out hope that someday in my life that is now more than half over, I'd like to see us win a world cup. And the only way we do that. is if we consistently develop players from the ground up in our own academies in the way that Argentina has done, in the way that France has done, in the way that Spain has done, in the way that Germany has done, and so on. and so forth back through the dawn of time. So I am naturally going to be more appreciative of the teams that are doing that.

Like we said, like, Snyder Brunel is yet more proof that... The Sounders are doing it well. And oh, yeah, you're going to win a bunch of games if you do that too. And oh, yeah, you're probably going to be able to sell a guy like Obed Vargas for $10 million in the offseason, which helps your business overall and then helps you.

invest more in youth development with facilities and coaching and outreach and everything on down the line it becomes this really virtuous cycle um and i like to see that our teams are kind of on it in a real way

Yeah, I mean, and that has been one of the nice stories around the Sounders. And I do think that sometimes we get caught up a little bit. Like I had a pretty lengthy conversation with some Sounders personnel. yesterday about this. And there's sort of, I think even within the organization, there's some genuine debate about whether or not it was

I guess where the blame should go or even if there's blame to be given for them not signing anyone. And I think where I come down on this is that there is some level of failure that happens when you don't. The Sounders clearly had budget. They had. They had everything. They had the roster space to make a signing this summer. And they tried to do it. And they talked to a lot of interesting prospects. They got pretty far down the road on a few of them. Apparently...

essentially came down to whether or not guys were ready to come to the United States and sort of leave Europe or not. And I guess the one criticism I would have is that they were maybe too focused on finding European players who the far too... convincing to come to mls is going to be higher than maybe shopping in south america but i do have to give them credit for sort of sitting standing by their principles of saying look if these guys aren't going to help us

And if we don't really believe they are, you know, if we can't find a forward prospect who we think has a higher ceiling than Osase DeVosario, if we don't feel like we can find a central midfielder who we think is an improvement over Danny Leyva or Snyder Brunel.

Then what are we doing? Why are we spending money? Let's let's hold out and spend money on the guy we really want. And so I guess there's a balance there, right? Like you can be frustrated that they didn't sign anyone. But I think you sort of do like there is something to be said about. not buying someone just to satisfy people like me or people like fans in general. Yeah. I mean, look, they should have spent $7 million to give Sounder at heart all the clicks.

You know, that is, that is the number one priority. That's, that's what, exactly. Like you got to have a talk with Craig Weibel. Um, I know, I know. If you have a developmental track record and developmental pathway that's proved to be as good as what Seattle has, and at the same time, you know that Albert Rusnak is 31.

Steph Fry is approaching 40. Yemar Gomez-Andrade is not getting any younger. Neither are Jordan Morris or Christian Roldan. And you don't have Arthur Blank with his pocketbook as your owner. I think you... owe it to yourself to be choosy about what you're spending out and where you're spending. And I think that's what they did. And I understand why. Some of the fans would be upset with that because spending on players isn't just building a roster. It's also marketing. Yeah.

We've all seen it. You and I, we've been in this business for a while. We know what happens when a club spends $7 million on a player. Casuals. tune back in you get coverage that matters it builds excitement and the sounders haven't done that for a while now and i so i understand the frustration but like i look at this team and if you tell me they win the leagues cup and you tell me they finish second in

the Western conference and, you know, then go win MLS cup. I wouldn't be shocked at all. And I don't think that $4 million on Nolan Ohio or whatever the hell his name was is. would have changed my perception of what, you know, like, like the only knock I have is what happened. Like there is no backup for Christian Roldan. They're like, absolutely. He's out.

it's rotary it's it's man city without rotary you know like that's that is what i think happens to the sounders and i like could they have maybe be gone and been a little bit more aggressive in finding some insurance for that. Yeah, I think that to me is probably a little bit more of the frustration. And to your point, you know, that's not...

that wasn't going to move the needle from an entertainment perspective. And frankly, neither was Noah Ohio. Like they could have signed Noah Ohio for two or $3 million or whatever it was going to cost to get him. And I don't know that the casual fan would care. It would satisfy some. need that we have to say, just spend some money. Please remind, please show us that you can spend some money. Something they really have not wanted to do recently. But on the other hand, if you are limited to one.

three million let's call it three million dollar roll of the dice you got to make sure that you are really happy with what you're getting and i don't know if if you know no ohio wasn't maybe not the guy there were some other guys that i was really excited about that

They apparently recruited and came reasonably close to signing. But in any case, do you, more relevant to the chase, the Western Conference race, Do you feel like the Sounders inactivity does anything and the other team's activity does anything to sort of like change the power structure in terms of who you think are the favorites going into this stretch run? I think San Diego may have harmed themselves. I think that Vancouver and LASC obviously really helped themselves.

Minnesota, I think, is better positioned for the long run than they are for the short run because, you know, Tani's a big loss and they're doing the right thing by selling him because I... you know they did it they did a great job like they have to sit down at the table of the global transfer market and start playing some hands and i think they're doing that here um but like that to me makes them less likely to win the thing the sounders

are in the same position that they were in at the start of the year, which is, I think they're a really good team. They're maybe the most solid team in the league. And as we've seen with their goal scoring over the past three months, they can also be spectacular. are they going to have the guys who can do that in the biggest moments in the biggest games? And we won't know if the answer is yes until, um,

They make the answer yes, and they got a chance to do it on Wednesday on the road in a game that would, if they win it, they're back in CONCACAF Champions Cup. And then if they win that, then... they have a chance to actually win a trophy. And that's something you guys haven't done since 2022. Right. No, absolutely. And it's a shame that Danny Masofsky...

who we are calling both Musifer and the Musiah, will not be there to participate in this one. But I will say, if you're going to get a red card and get yourself suspended for the rest of League's Cup... I suppose the least you can do is go out and score a hat trick. And what, frankly, I mean, it was kind of a must-win game in terms of their Western Conference hopes. They're not going to win the Western Conference, but just even to stay in the top four.

Like this was an absolute, a game where they absolutely had to win it. And Mussofsky came up massive. I mean, he scores the penalty, but then the two headers were great. Yeah. No, I mean, they were pure. you know, center forward goals, getting inside on the, on your defender and shielding them off and one-time finishes. And it was, it was the, the. Perfect way to bounce back from really a dipshit of her red card. Oh, my God. Like that. Yeah. I know from the.

the quotes that schmetzer are still kind of pissed and i think he's right um yeah no i you know i It's just impressive. The way that the team continues to function throughout all the injuries, all the absences, all the suspensions now, it's just really, really impressive. And it's part of why, like, I like it because it's all confirmed by priors. That is nice. It's always nice when a team just comes out and says, actually, Matt, you were right.

And then on the other side of the coin, we have Minnesota United, who is continuing to troll you on blue sky. And I imagine Twitter with these Dune references, which at first I really was confused as like I'd seen the movie, but I just I didn't quite. get it like it required so much reading and so much like understanding of the lore that I was just it was over my head the first time they posted this but then I got it this time it was a little bit more synced and a little bit more

Like to the point I was like, Oh, I get it. I get it now. And it's, it's good stuff. It's like, uh, like almost like this is about as good as blue sky gets when it comes to banter right like this is this is really good oh yeah yeah the the minnesota united men is doing really good work with that especially because i'm a you know i'm a sci-fi dork

Right, of course. No, that's part of what makes it so good. You probably get it better than they get it. Yeah, delighted by it every time it happens. Are you kidding? But no, for the listeners who aren't aware of it, Minnesota United have dropped, I think, 13 points from leading positions. They have...

When they're ahead, their possession percentage is down below 30%, as is their field tilt. They actually have a negative expected goal differential when they're ahead, which is something of an outlier among... playoff teams. I personally do not think.

You can win something substantial by anytime you have a lead, just dropping 16 dudes into your goalkeeper's lap and defending cross after cross after cross. I think that will come back to bite them in the big... games and my criticism and like they're a good team they are absolutely excellent at what they do the long throws the set pieces of the counter attacks they should have more to that if they had just a little bit more I'm not saying they need to play like the Columbus crew

I'm saying there needs to be just a little... bit more ability to get on the ball and take the sting out of the game so that they're not spending the final 15-20 minutes defending all of those crosses and you know being camped in their own box if they had that I would consider them among the favorites in, you know, to win MLS cup, but so far they just haven't developed it. And it might be because the coach is English. I don't know. It could be. He also says things like.

football pitch which to me is just like what are we doing here what are we doing here you cannot say the word football pitch first of all it's unnecessary and second of all that's you sound like such a dork when you say that in the united states anyway i don't want to get too in on uh eric ramsey's choice of language but i do think it's interesting that he's been shown as this sort of like savant and i i don't know i guess there's a savantness to

what they're doing and that they are sort of breaking the wheel for lack of a better term. But is this really like, is this, I guess if you're looking for a championship team that is going to like. punch above its weight maybe that's really a that kind of coaching is really attractive but is this actual like is is this really is there something really genius about what if we're good at set pieces and

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with your order. Again, go to hacksandferments.com, use the code sounderatheart at checkout for a free hot sauce with your order. Hacks and Ferments is a proud sponsor of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. I mean, no, no, but there is like the ball really far into the box. They are. They are extraordinarily good on restarts.

And they are extraordinarily good on those long throws. I think they have like eight or nine goals off those long throws this year. And like that's they identified an inefficiency. and they have exploited it and they have the personnel to exploit it because michael boxall has a good long throw and they have a lot of big fellows they you know send up there every single time and like there are

Like there's real competence in all of that. I hesitate to call it genius, but like there's, they're not where they are by accident. Like this is a good team. They are really, really good at what they do. I just think the scope of what they do is too limited. And I think that if you are playing in a big game and you're inviting the Sounders or LAFC or Vancouver or San Diego.

To just come into your box a million times over the course of 20, 25 minutes, poor Dane St. Clair is going to be picking the ball out of his net. It's like you can get away with it a little bit in the regular season. I don't think you really can in the playoffs.

Well, you know, I look at that game that Sounders played against them and I realized there was sort of this, at least among Sounders fans, there was sort of this narrative is like, well, sure, we did some good things, but this is exactly the game Minnesota wanted to play. And I don't know if I. quite buy that the sounders had probably four really good looks that on most days you would expect them to convert and they didn't convert any of them and then

Minnesota got a goal off like let's be real it was a fluky goal whether or not it was a set piece yes but it was let's just throw a cross into the box and see what happens and you know, chaos happened and they get a goal. I don't think that's a model that they're like, even less so than their normal games. That to me is not how they, that's not how they want to win games. Like broadly speaking, set piece, don't give up a goal.

Sure. But like the way it actually happened, that's not, that is really not a recipe for success. I, I agree with you. I think that if this game plays out like this on balance, I think the Sounders would be pretty happy with it. Yeah, I'm looking at the stats now, and they had three or four chances around .2. to 0.35 xg which is like not oh you can't miss it but like if you're generating four of those a game right exactly you're you're probably in in in good shape so

Yeah, I mean, and I guess to sort of move on to another team, I look at the way the Sounders matched up against Minnesota, even though they lost both those games. And I feel like if they met in the playoffs, I wouldn't be super stressed about it. I mean, whatever. Minnesota is a good team.

but I'm not, I'm not like freaking out. Whereas the Sounders went one and one against San Diego. And frankly, San Diego was the better team both times. And this is like, I think they are what San Diego is doing. It's so impressive to me, not just because they're an expansion team, not just because they have the ball all the time, but they really do seem to have bought into a really expansive form of playing.

And they're pulling it off as well as anyone has really ever pulled it off in MLS. And I don't know if it's – I'm not going to sit here and say they're going to be the – favorites to win the West but even if they bomb out I think that this is a Undeniably impressive performance, and they've built themselves a really wonderful foundation to build off. Love espresso, drip coffee, and cold brew? With the Ninja Luxe Cafe, if you can crave it, you can brew it. Espresso.

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and you know tyler heaps and mike ivera said it to me and weeby we were down there in kaylin carr we were down there um in december last year for the expansion draft and they were like we want to be brave we want to have the ball we you know we're gonna play the kids and i was like uh-huh sure you do because like every coach every gm we've ever talked to has said the same thing and like

Very few follow through on it, but these guys have followed through on it more than literally, I think, anybody in league history. And it's working. The thing I like about it most is, like, they... want to use the ball to bring opponents upfield um and then they want to play through those opponents um in order to get out on the break

And it works. They actually spend more time in transition than any other team in MLS. And that's like, I got that from John Muller had an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago. And I, you know, it matches the eye test, right? Because like if you watch them play, Anders Dreyer and Chucky Lozano are somehow always out on the break. And it's like, how are they always doing this when they have 60% possession? Those two things really don't.

together but they hit so many passes in their own defensive third in their own middle third and they will literally watch them their goalkeeper their center backs they'll put their foot on the ball and wait until the opponent comes to press them and then they'll start playing because they want that engagement because they just have this rock solid belief that they can play through anything. And they mostly have all year long.

I will say they have seven points from their last three games. They have not played particularly well in those three. They've actually looked a little bit vulnerable. That makes some sense when you look at their back line. They're missing some big pieces. You know, the back line. combined age, I think in a couple of games in a row was 80. If you think about that, it's four players. That's probably the youngest back line in MLS history.

They made a really bold call in parting ways with Milan Ilovsky in the middle of July when he had scored like 10 goals in 500 minutes with them. I understand. that they didn't want to overpay. I, I don't know, man. Milan Oloski looks really good in San Diego and he already looks really good in Philly again. So I, I think they, um,

It might have been a little bit too much of a heat check to say, no, we can't give you a penny over whatever it was they were offering. God, I have a weird take on this and I. And I don't know. This is maybe my blogger brain a little bit, but I've always sort of felt like there is a degree of success that can almost be counterproductive.

for an expansion team where you raise the expectations so high that you fail that you you can't help but like fail to achieve it and i think that i'm not saying that they are sandbagging but i do think there's something to be said about like look we don't want to overpay even if even if overpaying in our mind keeps elosky around and it makes us better right now and it gives us a better chance of

going far in the playoffs if the cost of doing that undermines our ability to build for the future it's more important that we you know we've already set a really high standard and it's going to be a it's going to be a lot to over shoot what they've already done but like I think they would be doing themselves somewhat of a disservice by sort of going all in on year one and they're better off sort of leaving something to be achieved now

That doesn't mean they shouldn't try to win everything, but I'm just saying that they have to be careful about what they sacrifice is, I guess, the point I'm trying to make. I get what you're saying, and I would have felt the same way if it was like a DP. Right, okay. And if they had already spent all of their gam.

But they haven't. They have a smog-sized pile of cam that they're sitting on. They were really parsimonious about how they spent. They didn't use all of their premium roster slots. We're talking about a guy who was... is a lawsuit that we think, I mean, we'll, we'll find out in a couple of weeks when we get the, the PA numbers, but like, I would be surprised if he even had a full, you know, a full cap hit. So it, yeah, we'll see.

I would feel a lot more comfortable about picking San Diego to go far in the playoffs if they had retained him. But we'll see. They've spun silk out of ship.

multiple times already this season. Yeah, no, that's a fair point. So moving into the other team that I think was, had one of the more, or there's two other teams, two other teams in the West had really interesting. transfer markets and that's vancouver and lafc uh we'll close with lafc because that would be fun they're your favorite team yeah yeah exactly they're my favorite team but vancouver you know they

They got rid of Pedro Vitae, which I guess you could say is a pretty good piece of business. What did they collect for Vitae? I've heard as low as $3 million. I've seen reported as high as $6 million. Okay. I tend to think it's the former. I think it's probably closer to three. Right. That would make – still, it's a decent little – You know, a decent little bit of business there. But more importantly, they get Thomas Muller and they get a couple defenders who I thought you were.

I think it was you who pointed out that Belgian and German defenders do not have a great track record necessarily coming into MLS, but they were – That's because they were all signed by Lutz Fan and Steele. Right. Kicking dirt on the grave of the great Luke Vaughn and Steel, who was just, in case people don't know, he was fired today, which closes the story of a pretty fun little run.

I thought it was very big of Manuel Veth to come out and say I was wrong on this one when it came to the assertion that he could give him. a team from Putin to Bundesliga and he would, uh, run the table or whatever his silly saying was anyway.

Vancouver Whitecaps are they better are they undeniably are they better now than they were at the start of the window or do you think they basically just stood pat I mean I know they also had some injuries it also looks like Brian White may have gotten hurt in the last game yeah I think they're better most obviously because it looks like Thomas Mueller has something left in the tank and he's a match winner. He is, you know, he gives them.

a guy who in the biggest moments you, you know, he's not going to be afraid to take 114th minute, you know, penalty kick without looking at the ball. He was staring down Roman Berkey the whole time. It was awesome. That was amazing. Then roofed it. You know, Veselinovich is one of the best defenders in the league. and having to replace him on the fly.

like there might be no way around that this just might be a worse team because of that injury and then you you add in vitae going out and maybe white being injured as well and it's not a it's not a cinch that they are a better team than they were in, you know, six weeks ago. But I just respect the hell out of the fact that they really went for it because when they, you know.

the vancouver whitecaps do not have a history of really going for it they sure do not and when they were when they were put up for sale at the start of this year. And even that has changed a little bit because now Jeff Mallett and one of the other owners are saying like, well, it's not really a full sale because we're still going to be looking for more partners. Yeah. Yeah. We all thought it was going to go in the other direction. Instead, they've been. I just like everything that they did.

know they're they've been forced into bad situations all year long and they've kept finding uh the right answers and um you know jesper sorensen has been as impressive as any coach in the league including mike iveris at getting these the team to buy into the way they play and then developing the players that they have like getting the best versions of those players on the field whether that's a 29 year old like brian white or a younger guy like Tate Johnson, the draft pick.

they got who's played huge minutes for them at left back. And it's just like across the board. It's what you want to see from a team that really has embraced its identity and knows how it wants to play and how it wants to be perceived.

Yeah. I got to say, though, the penalty in the game, the one at the end, that's bullshit, right? That should not be how we're using VAR. Am I being too... prescriptive here that i don't care i don't care you don't you don't care or you don't think it was a i don't care the call the call is the call i'm sick of people talking about reps

complaining about officiating. If you want to have that discussion, I'll give you Weeby's number. You can get him on the show. Fair enough. Fair enough. I mean, you're right. You're not wrong. I just can't. Every time I see that play, I'm just... losing i just don't understand it like whether it's a penalty or not you're just sick of of giant market clubs like vancouver getting all the calls exactly exactly that's exactly uh

So LAFC, though, was maybe the sleeping giant in the West. They have games in hand. We knew that they would make some kind of move in the summer. And one of the things I think that they illustrated them and sort of Cincinnati, this window, both sort of illustrated is that. There are two types of teams in MLS, I feel like. There are teams who use their salary cap position as an excuse, and then there are teams that go out and actually do stuff. And if they...

that sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but they are able to make moves. If they want to make moves, they will make moves. Cincinnati. Figured out somehow how to unload DeAndre Yedlin and went from having like literally zero cap space to signing Brenner on alone and bringing a couple other sort of like notable moves. I don't know if they're really better, but...

They wanted to make moves and they did. LAFC came into this window, not with a ton of salary cap space. They lose Aaron long for the season. They feel they're, they have a good roster, but they feel like they can make it better. And they go out and they sign arguably the second. make the second biggest signing in MLS history and then add in a couple other pieces just for good measure. They seem to me to be...

I don't know. They have to be the favorites in the West right now, right? Like to win, not necessarily the regular season, but to come out of the West. Yeah, probably. Maybe. I don't know. I like them. I'm not sure the pieces fit perfectly. I will say that the underlying numbers, they are the best team in the Western Conference. But...

You know, there's no guarantee that the center backs are going to like, that's not going to be like, there's no guarantee that's going to be a position of strength. Hugo Lloris has not been particularly great at goal this year. They have a history of getting huge goals from Ryan Hollingshead, who's in his mid-30s now. Other than midfield, they don't really have the depth, I think, that some of the other teams that we've talked about have.

Gun to head. Giving me hope. Giving me hope. I would probably pick LAFC, but it's like, it's, it's nose and nose with. them and the Sounders and Vancouver, not, not really that far behind. Like this doesn't feel like 2022. Right? Like 2022, I think everybody knew that there was really only one team that was going to come out of the Western Conference. This feels much tighter. But, you know, if...

Sun and Bwonga start developing more chemistry and i've been encouraged by what i've seen from those guys and their brief run and this new irish kid that they got can actually hit line breaking passes out of central midfield then that maybe changes the complexion of things a little bit because one thing that they haven't had is that sort of creative line breaking.

you know, progressive passing. And if you give that to Belonga and you give that to son, there's no defense in the league that's going to stop them. So we're stacking ifs, right? Like if this, if that, if this, if that. if those ifs stack correctly then yes no like nobody in the west is going to stop that um but it's

We haven't seen it happen on the field yet. And so I think it's right to be a little bit skeptical and keep some of that powder dry. And did Eddie Segura get... Do we know how serious his injury was? I haven't seen yet. Okay. That would seemingly be another problem for them to have to solve. And that's a team that doesn't have the pipeline.

You know, they don't have they haven't done a particularly good job of developing players from within. And I suspect that that's one of the things. Southern California is a notoriously bad place for. talent right so you really can't blame them or the galaxy from not just churning out talent from from there because you get it it's no i get it it's uh no it's exactly it's no bellevue

Right. So I want to before we before we close out, though, I did want to get a little bit of your League's Cup thoughts. It's kind of remarkable that here we are. In August, the Galaxy are probably going to end up being by far the worst defending champion in MLS Cup history or MLS history. And they might just.

fuck around and qualify for champions cup. Even if they don't beat the sounders, they're going to get two shots at this thing to get into champions cup. Uh, how serious, I guess start here. How serious, like how. When you're handicapping the semifinal between these two semifinals, who do you have in the final and how do you see this thing playing out? I think it'll be Seattle versus Miami.

And if Messi is healthy, I'm picking Miami. If he's not, I'm picking Seattle. Okay. Yeah. I could get down with that. It would be pretty funny if the Sounders end up hosting Messi. in the leagues cup final uh that would be quite the and a year where they had the club world cup where they played uh the defending concaf champions cup winners they played the reigning

South American winners, the reigning UEFA Champions League winners, that they would also play Miami, who is somehow the champions of the world. I don't know if that really makes sense, but somehow it fits into that.

paradigm uh it would be pretty pretty amazing run of games they've hosted in the last few months um it would i think it would be nice for them if they uh you know won this well I guess they beat Cruz Azul but yeah if they play the way they did against Cruz Azul yeah against Cruz Azul if they play the way they did against Botafogo if they play the way they did against Atletico Madrid

they'll like their chances whether Messi's playing or not. But you got to go down to Carson and it's tough to beat a team as great as the LA Galaxy twice in a row, you know? Yeah. Does that help? I don't know. I guess it's irrelevant that they beat them 4-0 in their previous meeting in Carson just a few weeks ago. And then they're going to play him again very soon.

I think in two weeks they're going to play in Seattle. What do you make of Galaxy turning in one of their best performances of the season with a fully rotated lineup against Colorado this week? Does that mean, does there anything to take away from this team? Are they totally unpredictable? What, like, how do we, how do you approach this game? They're not as bad as their record. They're obviously not going to play a rotated lineup. Greg Vanney has never been like that.

Like, this is just a blip, right? Like, he's never been a coach who says, oh, this young player really put in a good shift. You know, we're going to start seeing him in the 11 more and more. It's like, no. that's not who he's ever been. If you look at their first choice guy, like the guys who work their way into his lineups are like 34 year olds that they got from Denmark. So I don't, I don't think it.

I don't think it really means anything. I also don't think the Galaxy are anywhere near as bad as their record. They're not particularly good, but... That first half of the season, first of all, the MLS Cup hangover is real. Second of all, they had the most incredibly bad luck I've ever seen a team. I mean, they lost a game in which they didn't give up a shot. They sure did.

They sure did. So it's, you know, it's not a 16 point team or whatever they're on. It's not a 16 point team that the Sounders are facing. And it's not a, it's not a four nil layover, you know, roll over and die team. that they're facing and i think they they know that you know they're big boys in in both locker rooms and i expect it to actually be kind of an awesome game you know like this is this is

And it's knockout, do or die. And people are cynical about the League's Cup, and I completely understand why. But it's produced a lot of good soccer and a lot of teams going out there and throwing. everything they have at winning the thing. And, you know, when you understand that the prize purse is gigantic, kind of makes a lot of sense.

I feel like it's a bigger prize purse than even winning MLS Cup for the players, if I remember correctly. I believe that's correct, yeah. It's kind of an interesting group of teams here. One of my pet theories has been that teams who... Score and generate the most expected goals from open play have sort of like an inherent advantage in these kinds of tournaments. And Orlando and the Sounders both have done that very well this year.

But I don't know. That's probably a totally cockamamie theory that has no basis in anything other than hope. I mean, teams that... and create the most chances from open play tend to be teams that are good at playing soccer. Right. And so I think those teams have an advantage when it comes to winning soccer games. Okay.

I like that. I like the way you wrote that down. You heard it here first, folks. I like that. We go way inside the numbers. Exactly. We got really, really deep in there. Well, Matt, thank you again. as always, I love your, your newsletter. I'm going to keep trying to talk you into getting off sub stack at some point, but I will allow it as long as you're.

giving it away for free there's no real harm and you continuing to be on sub stack but where can people subscribe to you if i yeah if i ever monetize i will not be on sub stack i promise you that um you could uh subscribe to the newsletter it's tacticsfreezone.com substack.com. And of course you could follow me on blue sky, uh, and still writing for MLS soccer.com. You can see me there too. You.

are still doing that and of course you're showing up on on places like soccer wise and uh reliving the extra time days which i thoroughly enjoy it i just wanted to share that you and we be going on soccer wise to do a you you seemed unplanned you seem to just show up because you were hanging out in comments and they're like why don't we have matt come on the show which i loved i thought it was a very

organic, like early 2010s vibe of this is what the internet used to be like. It felt a little bit like that. Yeah, it felt a little bit like that. I've been trying to live my life like it's 15 years ago. Before the dark times. Before the dark times. Very, very good place to end this, Matt. But thank you for joining us on. how the West will be won. I am Jeremiah Shan. This is Nos Audientes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, and we'll catch you next time.

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