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. And now they truly can start the celebrations It's the Sounders MLS Cup! This is a tiny dog. Nice work on your little yacht thing. You know, what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't? Ever since it sounded horrible to... commentary that we didn't take the outcome seriously.
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder 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 to another episode of Nos Adiates, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, our subscribers, and our newest sponsor, BodySpec, who we will be talking about later.
We're recording on Tuesday, April 1st, 2025. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today is my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett. Well, the Sounders tied the Earthquakes 1-1 on Saturday. They dominated the second half, ultimately needing an 80th minute equalizer from Albert Rusnak. But really, at this point, I don't know how much there is to say about that match. It's been sort of gone over.
in various places. The talking points have been exhausted, I think. I don't know if we really have a lot to add. But what did happen today was we got to meet Ryan Kent, the Sounders' newest signing. His signing was officially announced on Monday. And I thought it would be a little bit more interesting to sort of discuss this now that it's actually happened and kind of go over what this all means.
Aaron, what did you make of this signing? I'm pretty excited about it. I think that expectations should be tempered, right? I think that...
players that are a great bet to come in and be, you know, MVP caliber players are probably not going to be hanging out there on a free transfer at this time of year, most likely. But I think considering the... the reality of what they were trying to do, which is replace Paul Areola with a player who would fit into his cap hit and could provide a lot of the same.
skills play the same positions playing the same you know spots on the field uh that was available and has upside i think this is about as good as you could possibly get and i and i think there is real upside there like i think there's a chance that he could become
you know, a Victor Rodriguez level player, perhaps like, I think that, I think that's maybe better than Victor Rodriguez. I mean, Victor Rodriguez is high. We remember Victor Rodriguez for his goal and MLS cup, which is certainly relevant, but. You know, I don't know how consistent he was. And, you know, it remains to be seen how consistent this guy can be. But I think there's potential that he's even better. You know, I would say, you know, looking at his resume, I don't think it's out at all.
crazy to say that two years ago he's 28 years old keep in mind but two years ago i don't think he was even like i don't know that there was a price point that you could bring him to mls at but if you if there was He was almost certainly a designated player. This is a guy who had European football on his mind very much, so he was...
He was a very good player for Rangers. And his next move, which came after a knee injury, was to Fenerbahce, who was a team that competes for Champions League all the time. He actually has a bunch of Champions League appearances. Like, I think the upside potential for this move is real.
But like you said, there's concerns. And those concerns are this is a player who effectively has not played consistently for two years. He hasn't played at all in eight months. He's been out of contract since October. You know, even if we take him at his word and that he was, you know, turning down offers. In the last during the in the last few months, still.
Like this couldn't have been his top choice. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a guy who has like very recent high level experience. And yeah, you know, it's it's true that. There's a lot of guys that Jose Mourinho just didn't like for whatever reason that went on to have great years afterwards. But, you know, there was a coach there before Jose Mourinho that.
Didn't love him either. And, you know, all of the successes come in a league that is not great compared to, you know, a lot of European leagues, albeit in a very good team. But, you know, I mean, there's certainly reason for optimism. There's also reason for that optimism to be tempered. But I like his skill set a lot. You know, I think that he brings a little bit of directness that I think the Sounders could really use, especially, I mean, Jordan will be back before he's ready to go, obviously.
you know, Jordan might miss more games in the future. And so it'll be nice to have another player besides Georgie that can provide a little bit of that direct play that can take guys on. You know, I think that he's going to be a really good fit. I'm interested to see, and we'll get to this later, I think, but I'm interested to see how he looks as a wingback, whether that's a position he can be comfortable in and if he has the defensive chops to play there.
But I think given the remit that the Sounders had, which was we got to find somebody that can take the spot on the roster and fit in with the cap hit and everything like that, I think they hit it out of the park with this one. And I think that the odds of him being, you know, just kind of a guy that's around for 18 months and can eat some minutes are real. But I think the odds of him being a real impact player are also very real.
And even if he just hits that midpoint and is just like a good, solid rotational guy, I mean, that's great because that's...
That's kind of what you were expecting to get from Paul Ariella, right? So I'm excited. I'm really excited to see how he does and how fast he can start getting some minutes in. Yeah, a couple things that are worth noting about this move is, and I didn't... fully appreciate this before today and when we talked to craig weibel he basically explained that the way this mechanism works that the sounders use to bring him in and so basically what happened is
Areola was placed on the season ending injury list and the Sounders are allowed to replace him with basically they are given that cap hit to use on a different player. Now, if they sign someone who costs more than him. they can't use that mechanism to sign someone who costs more than Areola. If they sign someone who's less than Areola, they can't then...
take the savings from that and apply it elsewhere. So this is sort of like a one-shot deal and you need to find someone that essentially takes the same cap hit as Areola. Areola, my estimation is something like $700,000.
cap hit for the Sounders. So I'm assuming that's what Ryan Kent is on, which is not an outrageous amount of money. But the other thing that's notable about this acquisition is it's a one-year guaranteed contract with a... option year next season so if he's not playing if he's not looking good this is a you know essentially this is a free a free roll like they
you know, you're no worse off really because you didn't have, he's replacing a player who you didn't have anyway. And if he doesn't do well, you don't have to worry about it. And then if he does play well, that does create some.
potential problems because you also have areola under contract for i think two more years so you you know that but those are good problems you know you'd love to have too many players that you you want to keep around so I think it's a good bit of business, like just purely from a upside potential and downside risk.
perspective, but I do think there's real upside here. And I think the upside is that this guy turns into a starter. And I think, you know, he compares pretty favorably to guys like Johnny Russell to Denny Bwonga.
before they got here. Now, I don't know that he's going to be able to put up those types of numbers. There's also a gap between those two players, but there's reason to think he could be a very good... player here and i i'm i applaud the sounders for actually taking a swing here and and the other thing that's worth noting is that this is money that had to be paid for this is
essentially discretionary spending. So this is money that actually came out of ownership's pocket, which is, again, it's not an outrageous amount of money, but when you're not spending money on transfer fees, it's the kind of money you should be able to afford to. to yeah you know spend sure for sure yeah yeah it's it is uh i think too the reason that i'm
most excited is that this is just the kind of signing the Sounders have hit out of the park over the years. They've found these guys that are available and the reaction. Pretty much every time they've signed them has been the same of like, well, if this guy's so good, you know, why are they available? And it's I mean, it's a fair question. It's a reason to have some some doubts that, you know, they're going to be a slam dunk. But.
They just have done really, really well identifying these players, making sure they're a good fit. Gustav Svensson's a great example. Victor Rodriguez, I think, is a good example. Kelvin Leardom. There are just a lot of these guys that they've done really well with. I think the only real failure I would say that they had was when they signed...
the guy whose name I'm blanking on for some reason in 2020, Magnus Volk of Icrum. And by all accounts, that was less of a bust on just like... talent identification and more of a he had some stuff going on in his personal life and also just wasn't like necessarily a great fit for the way the team wanted to play because he went on to have a couple of pretty good years elsewhere so
I trust them to get these signings right. Yeah, at Molde. Yeah, which, you know, obviously not quite MLS level, but still, you know, I think he's played in the Champions League and played pretty well. I trust them to do a good job identifying good players. And, you know, obviously they were, they had some constraints. They were a little bit under the gun to try to get a signing that.
would work. So maybe it doesn't work out at all. And he's, you know, like you said, he's just a guy who doesn't give you what you need, which is a bummer. But you're also, as you said. not hemmed into any kind of long-term deal. Hopefully it can be a mutually beneficial thing where he's around for another 18 months and then either he stays here a long time and becomes a key player on the next great Sounders team or he...
can go have success somewhere in Europe and, you know, spread the good word of the Sounders is a great place to restart your career. You know, I also, the other thing I liked about this move is that it happened quickly. I really only had surgery last week. It was when he went on the season-ending injury list, and the Sounders essentially had this move lined up and ready to go. I don't know.
We didn't get a lot in the details on how it came together quite so quickly, but supposedly they'd had Ryan Kent on their list of players that they were sort of following for quite some time. And Craig Weibel had sort of insinuated that this was a player that they were looking at last summer. And, you know, he wasn't ready to come here for whatever reason last summer. But...
It's a move that, again, on paper, I really like. I also was encouraged by a few things after meeting him. One is he seems to be in genuinely good shape. Now, is he game fit? Surely not. The guy has not played a match in eight months or so. So I don't expect him to be. hitting the ground running quite like that. But he was able to train right away. So he's in the kind of fit. He was training with the Sounders with his new teammates on his first day here, which...
I'll note is not something that Kim Kihee was able to do. And, you know, this is just a recent example of a signing the Sounders made. And it looks like really the only hang up in terms of him making his debut. is how long it takes to get his P1 visa, which, you know, the Sounders were pretty political, I guess, about it. And they said, oh, it's not an administration issue. It's just a thing that takes time sometimes.
But it can take anywhere from a week to a month, essentially, depending on how quickly those things get processed. And I would imagine those things are not getting processed as fast as they used to. I thought that was pretty encouraging that he was essentially able to train on his first day here. And, you know, he looked reasonably sharp. You know, I'm not going to sit here and break down his training performance, but.
He looked like he knew what he was doing and it looked like he didn't look like he was out of shape by any stretch. I also thought it was interesting that, you know, they offered him the opportunity to have sort of a. meet the press in their press area, in like their theater space.
And he wanted to do it outside and be a little bit more humble about it. And I kind of liked, you know, we don't haven't had a lot of English players here. I think Tyrone Mears may have been the last English player that played for the Sounders. Yeah, I was I kind of liked.
his whole vibe. Like I was, you know, I feel like a lot of players, especially that are coming from big European leagues, don't really know how to handle the press or they don't really, they're not interested in dealing with the press. And he seemed. like pretty normal frankly like he talked highly of of see you know he said all the right things i guess is what i'm saying and i like that he's coming you know he talked about trying to rediscover the joy and he seemed to
vibe with his teammates so far. Just a lot of encouraging signs, I guess, generally speaking from him today. yeah and like that stuff is all secondary obviously but it's i feel like it is it can be a good indicator like i used to be really cynical about that kind of stuff and be like who cares it's what what they do on the field right but like right
As you get older and wiser, you recognize that it is like a good indicator of the kind of attitude that a player has. And I think especially coming from the heights of his career to MLS, where, you know, he was what like a... 20 25 million dollar player not that long ago transfer mark had him as a 20 million dollar player in 2021 22 i believe yeah and uh and then you know and then
having a really bad time in his last year at Rangers and that leading to him going to Fenner and having a bad time there. That's got to be hard. And I think that a lot of players. would not have a great attitude about it. And they would view themselves as being too good for MLS, or especially since it was an option for him apparently last year and he decided against it. And so I think that him coming in and having a positive attitude and...
Saying all the right things is an indicator that his mindset. you know, is right and that he's going to take things seriously and that he doesn't think it's going to be a walk in the park or that it's beneath him. And that's, that's nice. I mean, realistically, the reputation of MLS abroad, especially in Europe.
has not increased along with the quality of play, I will say. I think it's still thought of by a lot of folks as a backwater retirement league, whatever you want to call it. Until they get here. Until they get here, right? And then all of a sudden, it's like, I'm really excited about MLS. Right, right. But I think that, but you can still tell a lot of the time with those guys, you know, when they get here that they think it's going to be easy.
And so for somebody to have like come in and give indications that they're just taking it as seriously as they would any other club, any other gig they've had is, is I think a really positive sign. Yeah, I would totally agree with that. The other thing that came out today, and interestingly not at... but on Brian Spencer's appearance on KGR, he made it sound like Pedro de la Vega is at least in contention to be available this week.
and that both he and Jordan Morris are potentially available for the Dallas game next week. So the Sounders, I will say at training today, Everyone was in at training that, you know, maybe not for the entire training session, but that was De La Vega. That was Morris. It was even Leo Bernie who.
I don't even know if you know who Leo Bernie is, but he is the homegrown player they signed at the beginning of this year who has not been available at all. He hasn't even played for Defiance. I guess he's been dealing with a hamstring injury. Sounders do seem to be getting healthy. And this week, I am sort of expecting Danny Masofsky to get his first.
I don't know. I guess it would be as, as I'm not sure if it's his first start of the season, but a rare start. And we may as well talk about it a little bit. What did you, where do you come down on the Danny Masofsky discourse? I have already. put out a video talking about it i've written about it but i am curious where do you fall in danny masofsky like discourse from his last game i think that
Danny Masovsky is a much better player than he gets credit for being. I think that it's not an accident that when he came on on Saturday that the Sounders instantly looked better. I think that he plays, he takes up space and plays forward in a way that fits the system much better than Jesus Ferreira does. He puts himself into dangerous positions. He gets into dangerous positions. I think he's been really unlucky in front of goal.
Having said all of that, he's looked really bad in front of goal. I mean, I don't, there's no other way to put it, right? Like, I think that the one chance he had that I thought people were a little unfair to him on was the one where Obed. played him in behind and he had a 1v1 with a keeper, but it was not as good or nailed on as a chance as I think. Oh, really? I thought that was a pretty good chance. I mean, I don't know. This is the one where he.
This is the one where he cut it back to his left foot and sort of just like kicked it at the keeper. It was. I'm not saying he made a great decision. I'm not saying he looked good. I am saying that. There was a defender trailing where if he cuts it back the other way, he's going to have trouble. The keeper, I thought, played it really, really well. Probably the right move there is either to try a chip, which, I mean...
I don't know if Danny's got a chip in him or to try to round the keeper. But rounding the keeper is not an easy thing to do. I'd love to see him get off a better shot, obviously. But I think people were treating that as like. you know, a nailed on goal when I think Jordan doesn't score that half the time. Now, Jordan is Jordan is probably. And he's probably on the keeper a lot faster.
Right. Like he's probably causing more problems for the keeper than Danny is physically capable of causing. But the other one he had from the corner. where he just had a wide open net right in front of him and he put it 10 feet over the bar. I mean, that's, that sucks, man. I don't like, I don't have any, there's no better way. I think he kind of got his feet wrong on that one too, where he, you know, and it was, I saw a few people suggest like, Oh, I think the, that.
shot got blocked there is a replay later in the broadcast that just shows it's he like the goalkeeper is so far out of position on that that he he's essentially looking at an open goal and he just shanks it very badly And the reality is the best strikers in the world will miss chances like that. Yes. The problem is that Danny has done that with like every chance he's had pretty much. Now he had, he had the goal against Cruz Azul. That was actually kind of like a similar situation, really.
where the ball just kind of fell to him and he puts it away. I think that he suffers from, he's getting most of his minutes at a time when the Sounders are really struggling to score goals. And he's just had some really bad misses. But you also have to take advantage of your time, man. He had the goal against Cruz Azul. That's great. That's what his second goal as a sounder, I think.
But his only one this year, it's just he's got to start taking advantage of putting himself in those good positions. And I don't blame anyone for being frustrated with him. I do think you have to give him credit for getting into good positions.
Doing all of the other stuff that's not putting the ball in the net, I think he does it really well. I think his hold-up play is good. I think he's pretty good in the air. He's a good physical presence up there. His positional discipline is good. He makes pretty good runs. But none of that matters until you can actually convert a chance. And he just he had a couple of real nice ones that he was not able to do a whole lot with. Yeah. And I will give him this is.
Again, and I think we agree on this, is that there is something to be said about just being a willing runner, just putting yourself in those spots. And you can see the way he opened up the game when he came on. Like one of the first things that happens after he gets on the field is Paul Rothrock ends up with a run down the left sideline. I'm convinced his run helps open that up because he's occupying the center backs and he's giving a little bit more.
daylight to rothrock and then he puts himself in a really good position actually to receive a cross i don't really blame rothrock for for shooting there but no that's exactly what you want a number nine to do is is sort of do the dirty work and I think it's notable that Ferreira looked a lot better when he moved beneath the striker and was out on the wing a lot of the time. I do think it creates...
Some potential headaches for like, I don't know what you do with when page like, let's just say Pedro is back next week and you don't have Morris. I don't know how you get everyone you want on the field on the field together. Like I think that's going to be a genuine challenge. I suppose you could go to a four, two, three, one. I don't know if that's necessarily solves all your problems.
No, I do kind of feel like we might have run into a situation where the three at the back is not going to be. I don't know. And we asked Brian about that and he sort of, he kind of admitted like, we'll see. We're not. It sucks because I think the roster is built to play that way in a lot of ways. But I mean, if Kent can't play wingback.
If, you know, and he and he plays really well and needs to be on the field. Like, what are you going to do? I guess you could play with like three tens, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. I'm glad you brought this up because.
I think you brought it up. I don't know if you brought it up, whatever I brought it up. One of us brought it up. I'm glad we're talking about this because what we're going to do in the final segment is we're going to do, we're going to have another power rankings discussion and we're going to power rank.
The lineups that we'd like to see now that Ryan Kent is here and we can kind of wish get, we can imagine this is not what we want to see this week. This is the lineup that we see when everyone is available. and assuming reasonably good fitness or reasonably good form. So we're going to take a break. We're going to do a little introduction to our new sponsor, and then we're going to finish out the show with a power ranking of lineups we'd like to see.
But you're listening to Nos Audietes, and we'll be right back. All right, so... Welcome back to Nos Audietes. We're doing something a little different this time. We have a new sponsor. And in part because this sponsor is a product that... Aaron is actually familiar with. It felt worthwhile to kind of give a little bit of our experience with this product. If you don't know, BodySpec is a DEXA scan service. Essentially, it takes about 10 minutes.
You go in there and they give you a reading that what does bone density, muscle mass, things like that. If you are someone who is. In a fitness journey, anywhere in the fitness journey, it's a pretty useful thing. But Aaron, you've done this thing. What can you say about it? Yeah, I've been using body specs since... gosh, it's been almost two years now, I want to say. After my cancer diagnosis and recovery and everything, I decided I really wanted to start taking my health more seriously.
That's been a process over a few years. Recently, I got into weightlifting, started hitting the gym quite a bit, started working with a nutritionist. Having some struggles seeing progress on the nutritionist side, and my nutritionist said, well, it's probably because of the weightlifting and you need to go get a DEXA scan so you can start tracking your actual body composition. If you are putting on muscle and losing fat, the scale is not going to change. It's not going to tell you a whole lot.
So I resisted doing it for quite a bit because I didn't really necessarily want all of the information that you get from the Nexus scan. But I eventually relented and went and I'm very glad I did. It's been a great tool for me. It showed me that I was on the right track, that I was making progress. It's given me a lot of good information about not only my fitness goals, but also just my overall health. It tells you not only how much body fat you have, but where it is.
And that is better to have some places than others. And so it's good to have that information to try to change your diet up. And yeah, it's just been a great tool for me. Recently, I took a little break from going just because I've been traveling a lot. I haven't, you know, haven't been quite as active at the gym, haven't been quite as nailed in nutritionally. And I picked back up and...
as helpful as it was to show me that I was making progress. It's also been really helpful to show me, you know, when your your life happens and you maybe backslide a little bit, which is all, you know. that's going to happen, right? I think to anybody who has sort of long-term fitness goals, it's not always going to be straight path. It's never going to be a straight path. It's going to be up and down. And so having that information.
knowing, okay, this is where I've slipped, this is where I'm still doing okay, is super beneficial. It's just really nice to have insight into all of that to keep me honest and to keep me encouraged when things are going well and get me right. back on the right track when they're not yeah it's a fascinating thing to to watch from a distance seeing your like if i'm to
It's been fascinating to see your sort of fitness journey in this. And I can only imagine that having a tool like this is particularly helpful. I will share that, you know, so if you want to sign up. Go to bodyspec.com slash sounder at heart. There's hyphens in between the at there. And you can get a $10 discount off of the service. Ends up bringing it down to about $50. And you just use the code sounder at checkout. We'll get some credit for sending people there. And it doesn't really...
I guess the downside is just you have more information about your own body, right? This is not a cure. It's information. The information is good to have, I suppose, especially when you're being mindful about what you're eating and what you're doing to yourself. And it's good to know what the results are, right?
Yeah. And I think too, part of my skepticism, you know, was, well, this is a thing for serious athletes. Like I have done a lot of work and in terms of body recomposition, but I'm still ultimately. uh fat guy in his in his mid 40s right and that's probably that's gonna be i'm gonna be a fat guy yeah and i'm gonna be a fat guy in my mid 40s until i'm in my late 40s um
So it's not just serious athletes that can benefit from this, right? Like if you are, if you're doing any kind of work, like if you're, you know, just doing. maintenance cardio and you're and you're maybe trying to eat a little healthier and you just do this once just to see where you're at that's great um if you have longer term goals and you just want to make sure you're staying on the right track
that's, that's great too. Um, if you are a serious athlete, it's obviously great. I mean, all of the big guys, uh, who are competitive lifters at my gym, they all, they all hit up the body spec truck as well. But, um, you know, plenty of other folks like me. are using it as well. And it's been super, super helpful. Yeah. And I guess that's another good note. It's not just, they have physical locations that are around the Seattle area, but you can, they also have.
mobile units that travel to various gyms. So it's pretty easy to get set up and find out where this is going on. And you can probably find one that's close to you. And yeah, if you're inclined to do it, go check out bodyspec.com slash sounder at heart. Again, hyphens between the at or on the either side of the at there. But yeah, thanks, Aaron, for sharing that story.
Thanks to BodySpec for sponsoring the Sounder at Heart podcast network. You're probably going to hear their ads for the next, you know, we'll see how long this goes on, but for at least the next month and we'll see where it goes from there and help support. sounder at heart by, by doing that. Uh, and thank you to everyone involved. Uh, all right, well, we're going to come right back. We're going to talk about the, uh, power rankings for sounders lineups. Uh, you're listening to no sorry at this.
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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. Welcome back to Nos Adientes. So we've been trying to get this last segment kind of going. We're calling it Power Rankings. And this time we're just going to Power Rank.
some lineups for you. And with the idea that the Sounders have a lot of options right now. And I guess the first thing that. I'll ask this. We're winging it on how we're formatting this, but I'm going to ask you to sort of rank a few different things, Aaron. Looking at what they have here. Do you want to see them at.
with using a four in the back or three in the back kind of set up. Like, I think that's a good baseline. So we're, we're building up from there. I think if, if Ryan can't can play wing back. i really like three in the back i really do um i think it suits the personnel well i think it allows them to get more guys on the field that they want on the field it gives them a little more flexibility um
But we don't, I mean, we don't know if he can, so, you know. Yeah, my suspicion is no. Like, I think he's probably a winger, like a real. So I guess if the choice then becomes, do you want, and I guess maybe it's a little bit of a false choice because on one hand, you could say, look. New Who is going to be playing the role New Who plays. And so what you're really talking about is what role do you want Alex Roldan playing as the right back for now? Well, I guess that's actually a good question.
Who do you want back there? Is Nuhu a starter for you? I assume we both agree Yamar and Jackson Reagan are in this starting lineup. But in that back line, is it...
Would you rather see a John, but would you rather see a Reed Baker Whiting potentially? Would you rather see Alex Roldan? This is where the numbers on the... cheat start kind of breaking down right right four two three one versus because i think you can play a formation that i i think if you're playing with four in the back i'd love to see reed baker whiting
play it left back if you're doing it in the traditional well we've got two fullbacks and two center backs and then we've got but there's i mean a lot of teams play on balanced formations and i think i mean alphonso davies is a wing back right is he on paper a wingback you know and like and there's a lot of there's a lot of players like that the number of players who can be truly elite playing both ways out of that fullback
wingback slot there's not a ton of them out there and i think a lot of teams play ostensibly with three center backs and two wingbacks but really they're playing with three center backs a traditional fullback and right And they just play sort of an asymmetrical setup. And so if you're doing that, I like Nuhu as the left-sided center back. If you want your left-sided fullback to get forward.
I don't want new doing that. So as, as good as his shots looked on Saturday, he did have a few. He did actually, he had three good shots. Uh, three of the best shots I've ever, frankly, seen him take, uh, All including the goal he scored. Yeah, for sure. Including the goal he scored. The goal he scored was, you know, like.
Anyway, but one thing I do think that helps the Sounders here is that Alex Roldan's role has sort of evolved over time. And I think what you can do, what he allows you to do is he sort of allows you to play. ostensibly three in the back, even if you're in a four, you know, four, two, three, one or whatever, because what he can do is he can slide. He doesn't have to be a winger in that, in that formation. He's.
perfectly capable of sliding into the defensive midfield and sort of creating a fifth defender a little higher up the pitch. And it allows you to have... more traditional wingers, I think higher up the pitch. Right. And in, so in that way, I, I am okay with a back four, no matter what way they are formatted of knew who.
Jackson Reagan, Yamar, and Alex Roldan. And I would imagine you and I both feel like the defensive midfielder pairing probably that makes the most sense is Christian Roldan and Obed Vargas. But sort of in this... It allows Obed to get a lot more attack. One of those two defensive midfielders to get to join the attack a little bit more freely if Alex Rodon is sliding over into more of a defensive midfielder spot.
And then it gives you a little bit more of a cleaner choice when you're talking about your attacking formation. And I think it really comes down to who among Ryan Kent, Albert Rusnak. Pedro de la Vega, Jesus Ferreira, do you want sitting essentially beneath Jordan Morris, who I assume we both agree is your starter? Yeah. Yeah.
It's an interesting question. I mean, obviously the caveat here is Ryan Kent has to play well. I mean, if he comes in and he's not giving you much more than Paul Rothrock, then, you know, it becomes much easier to answer. But I think that the... The way that I kind of have been thinking about Ryan Kent, I don't know why I'm saying his full name every time. Because what do you just say, Kent? Kent feels so boring.
And he's not my, I mean, I don't know the guy, so I can't call him Ryan. He's definitely not Ryan yet. No, he's definitely not. uh so yeah so the way i've been sort of conceptualizing best case scenario ryan kent is he is polished georgie right he's very direct he's very fast um he's not afraid to take guys on but he ostensibly has a little bit better final product and so i think him playing on the left is uh if he can hit that right
I'm pretty happy just setting up a rotation. I think Rusnak is probably going to be a guy who is on the team sheet every week. I think that what he does, the way he plays, the way he controls possession is just kind of the thing that makes the system work. I know a lot of people don't love that, and they think that the Sounders would be better suited with a different kind of player in that spot.
but I just don't think that's realistic. Like I think this is, he's the guy that Brian Schmetzer wants doing the things that he does in his role. But I do think Ferreira gives you an interesting second option. He does. He definitely does, because I think I said this during the game on Saturday. I think Jesus Ferreira has been really, really good this season. I just don't think he's been good in the way the Sounders have needed him to be good.
Yeah, they've got plenty of guys that can create chances. What they have needed since Jordan's been out is somebody to finish him. Yeah. And he just hasn't. he just hasn't looked good at all being that guy and i don't know if it's a system thing or if it's just that he's not that guy anymore thing but but he has been i think really really good as a creative player whether he's been sort of playing in that
you know, underneath the striker position or on the wing. I think he's, he's looked, he, he's like the opposite kind of a 10 from Rusnak where Rusnak is very controlled. makes killer passes, but he's not trying to force killer passes. He's always going to opt for keeping possession. And I think Jesus is kind of the opposite of that, where he's a little more of the sort of like classic trying to push the envelope sort of player.
So I guess you could set them up as dual tens, you know, and I don't know. I don't know what the rest of the team looks like if you do that. I think you can set them up as dual tens. I think that means Ryan Kent probably isn't on the pitch in that. But I think it makes sense. And then I think the other thing is that it allows Pedro de la Vega to play more on the right. And I think that is the role the Sounders kind of see for him.
I don't know. I actually, I'm with you. I think this sets up an interesting sort of rotation situation for the Sounders. Like I think they can, it gives them a little bit more variability. It'll be interesting to see how Georgie Manungu. and Paul Rothrock both sort of fit into this because I do think Manungu right now is best used off the bench. He just looks so much more effective when he's coming in against tired legs.
And, you know, to the degree that he – and he looked – he had moments where he looked like an elite player against San Jose. You know, he had moments against LAFC where he looked like an elite player. And if you kind of go through his – appearances this year, his best appearances have been for the most part when he's come off the bench. So I think that that's kind of an exciting element of this.
You know, I don't know exactly where Ryan Kent fits, but I do think if I'm going to choose my theoretical ideal lineup, I think it's probably a front four of Ryan Kent. Albert Rusnak, Pedro De La Vega, and Morris. And Ferreira is sort of more your backup 10 than anything else. Yeah, that's interesting. That's interesting, man. I mean, I... I think I put, for now, I put Jesus there over Kent. A, because we just don't, I mean, we don't really know. We don't know. Right.
But I think even if he hits his, let's say, 80th percentile of what we think he could be, I still think I opt for Ferreira once Jordan is back. I think if Jordan is out for any reason, having Kent's pace... even though he's not playing centrally, but having another guy who can play in behind, that's maybe a little more polished than, than Georgie is going to be really, really beneficial along the same lines. I also wonder if.
Kent allows Ferreira to be more effective as a nine playing as sort of a false nine. Because I think that was one of the things that they, one of the things that they really struggled with, with Ferreira as a false nine is there was no one really providing that.
vertical threat. And I guess it was theoretically supposed to be Paul Rothrock and Christian Roldan, but they were not doing that in the first half for one reason or another. Whereas Kent, you would like to think Kent and maybe even Pedro. You could imagine a world where they're creating a lot more verticality on the wings and it allows Ferreira to not necessarily have to be that player. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that it's, it really is. It's not that long ago that Paul Areola got injured. And I think that the most likely outcome is we see kind of what we saw. before he got injured which is everybody's getting plenty of minutes but they're not getting 90 every game right different guys are starting and that seems like the most likely scenario to me um
But I think for me, right now, based on what we know, Ryan Kent is probably on the bench. But I don't think you're crazy for thinking that he's... the preferred starter over Jesus if he can, you know, hit a certain level because he does bring something a little different. And I just think he, he might fit what Brian Spencer's ideal sort of. playing style is and i don't know if ferrera is fits the mold quite the way that kent potentially does right which if that ends up being the case long term
is an interesting thing to talk about in terms of roster construction. Yeah, it does. It definitely does. But it's, I think that there was a lot of hope that Jesus could be. the player he was in was it 2023 that he had as 2020 2023 and i just i don't see the evidence that Yeah, I don't see the evidence that he's that player anymore. I still think he's a really good player. I still think that what the Sounders paid for him was a great deal. But I do think that if they...
got him with the assumption he could go back to being that guy. I think it was a bad decision. Well, we'll see. I mean, I think the bad decision, I don't know, but I mean, the jury's out. I think it's. early to call it a bad decision but it you're right there's not a lot of it doesn't look it doesn't look like he is gonna be playing as a nine
for the Sounders. Although, who knows? I mean, in a month, it could be a completely different situation. But anyway, I do think it looks like shit for like six months. Right. Exactly. You never know. Exactly. Well, I think that's probably a good place to call. I'm glad we figured out the Sounders lineup situation. Brian, feel free to, you know, let us know what you thought of our choices. I'm sure he's listening, right?
I've seen some people say that he has played, Ken has played as a, Ryan Kent has played as sort of a withdrawn striker before, and that could potentially be interesting too. That would be interesting. I think Jordan being kind of a bruiser and having like two just total speed demons up top could be kind of fun to watch. Not as a regular thing, but as an option. Yeah. I do like the idea of the Sounders kind of...
stockpiling some offensive weapons and potentially being more varied when they're like, I like the idea of what they could look like when they're fully fit. Let's hope we, we actually get to see it. I really I think that's a key point because the Sounders have a lot of guys who are good at doing a lot of the same things right now. And so I think having another player that could potentially be a high level player that brings something different is.
could be really, really helpful. Yeah, no, I would totally agree with that. Well, I think that's probably a good place to call it. Aaron, thank you again. Thank you to our newest sponsor, of course, BodySpec. Thank you to Full Pool Wines. Thank you to everyone who is a paid subscriber as well. It's been really, we keep growing. I keep pinching myself every time I see new people signing up.
I will note that we've also started inserting more ads into the show. And if you are a subscriber, this is another reason to use the private RSS feed because there are fewer ads in that. I'll just give a plug to the private RSS feed. I'll also encourage anyone who wants to get involved to get on Discord. We plugged it a lot the last show. We don't need to get into all that again. But anyway.
Good talking, Aaron. Thank you to Lick It for producing the show. I am Jeremiah Oshan. This is Nosadietes. And remember, you'll never get alone. 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. Yeah, you guys like that? Awkward joke, dad joke right there, huh?