Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJRFM. This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts. Good evening and welcome into Sounders Weekly, Jackson Felts here for what is going to be a season wrap up edition of Sounders Weekly, and we have a big episode here tonight to react to the Sounders one nothing loss to LAFC in the playoffs, a loss that sends them packing and sends LAFC on to host the Western Conference Final, and a busy, busy offseason to look ahead to probably what
will be the biggest in Sounders history. A lot of decisions for head coach Brian Schmetzer, who said a couple days ago that he needed a couple of glasses of wine in order to, you know, come off of and figure out what went wrong in that one nothing loss, Craig Wibel and all of his coaching staff and everybody involved. Adrian Hanauer of course, included lots of things to figure out for the Sounders Looking Ahead twenty twenty four special special show.
Tonight, we are going to have a group long roundtable. I love doing these at the end of the year. Because we really can just get a bunch of minds and voices and thoughts together to really share our perspective on what's going on with this team. And I mean listen, if if you were listening in tonight and you wanted some sounder apologists and you wanted a lot of positive sounder talk, You're probably not gonna get that tonight. I mean
listen. I woke up at four forty five this morning in Phoenix, Arizona. I was on a flight. I got home, rushed or got to the airport, rushed home thirty minutes later, went back to here work, ran the show here for data, Softy mall Or and Dick Fane. Now we're doing sounders because I am delirious. So I just got to remind myself and guys andrews Hurst, Ari Leanwall, Nico Moreno joining us in here just a couple of minutes. I'm gonna keep it clear, concise and clean because
I might say something that I shouldn't say off the rails. Tonight. It will be that sort of a night where we got pizza here, we're sharing our thoughts, just trying to have you know, four guys sitting at a bar'say top talking about the soccer team that we love that we watched now go out in the playoffs. So let's take a couple moments here to just set the scene. I'll tell you quickly at Sounders FC and Boeing team up to
support the Washington Youth Soccer Community Corner. On matchdays this season, you can join us in stadium as welcome Washington Youth Washington Youth soccer players and coaches to cheer on the Rave Green a courtesy of Boeing. This season, also, Sounders EVS Soccer is presented by Providence Swedish, the official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. So I mentioned Ari leonwill MLS soccer dot com. You've heard him all season with our around the League perspective. Ari, it's good to have
you in studio today, buddy. Yeah, thanks for having me. And we'll have Nico Moreno joining us in a few moments. I told him to get to the studio at six forty, so naturally he is currently thirty minutes late and missing the hot pizza. And of course you know his voice. He's appeared on our also, we did a World Cup weekly podcast when the World Cup was going on. You've for him a couple of times on Sounders Weekly. Need to get him on more. And of course he's a producer
on KJR. Anders Hurst Andrews, thanks for one and the same. I so much for having me Jackson. It's a pleasure to be here. So, guys, there's how I want to divio up this show is a few different things. Let's start on the LAFC games specifically, and Andrews. You were there, I mean all of you guys were there. I was. Weirdly enough, I missed my first home playoff game in a decade, first home regulation lost for the Sounders in a decade in a playoff game, So
I guess that coincided. You know, I've had a family trip that couldn't move. It is what it is. Y'all were there. I wasn't there. But we need to talk about this. And Ari I'll start with you because I think the storyline of this game. You can bring up Ted Uncle, a referee, you can bring up how good lafc's goalkeeper Maximum Cropole was. But I think the biggest headline that really should be emphasized in bold more than anything, is the fact that the Sounders once again had chances. They
created chances, but they just couldn't score. Yeah, I think, uh pretty much exactly the type of things that afflicted them throughout a lot of this season, where the exact things that afflicted them in this game. This is a team that for most of the season just hasn't had enough on offense. I mean, we've been talking a lot this season about the difficulties that they've
had scoring multiple goals in a game. They just never really found their stride in attack, and you know, there's a lot of things you can attribute that to. Early in the season, I think it's very clear that the extended absence of Christian rolled On really really hurt this team, particularly on offense. But even after they got him back, it never felt like they really
broke out. Things looked a lot better down the stretch when you had Albert Russknak given the full time ten role in Christian coming back, and they put together an improved run of form down the stretch and into the playoffs and not I think that's kind of what gave people hope that this team did have a run left in them. But at the end of the day, when when you get shut out at home in a playoff game. I mean, you're the chances you're going to dance past that are not very high. That's right,
Anders, go ahead. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And it's not even just a full offensive problem to me, because there's multiple parts of the offensive game that you know, all go into making a team successful. You have the possession, you have to actually progress the ball, which the Sounders have been very good at the last couple of years, including this year.
Then you've got to create chances off that possession, which again I think the Sounders do a very good job of, you know, creating opportunities for their goal scorers. And then you got to finish. And I think that's the disconnect that we're going to talk a little bit about today, and that showed itself in the game against LAFC. Had lots of chances. You could say, you know, Jordan got unlucky in the first five minutes with that chance to go up one zero, but you know you got to score that.
You expect someone of his quality to finish that off. Well, let's talk about that chance because that moment exactly, because that moment's in the game and he comes in the fourth minute where Jordan does a phenomenal job of getting around it was a killing thin or Chilean so so does a great job of getting around him, which I mean, like, listen, that speed, against that speed, you should do that. But then he sets himself up, I thought, with with a pretty decent chance where he's deciding to chip
the keeper Cropo and Cropole is able to get a hand to it. But I think there's the question of of a what could Jordan have done to get himself in a better position to score that ball, if anything, And then also be what that might have done to him and the team mentally, you know, from a you know moment, you mean, you you get that
goal right there in the fourth minute, everything changes everything. So a lot of people were getting on Jordan for missing that chance, and I get it, you know, it was that would the most important moment in the game for Seattle. That was the game right there, That was the game.
If he scores that, then lafc's entire game plan, which they wound up executing perfectly is out the window because they're chasing a goal, and that increases Seattle's likelihood of getting a second goal because they're going to be pushing for that goal, and you inevitably open yourself up in that in that situation where you're chasing a goal that early in the game like that. On that play, I I don't think there's much Jordan could have done differently. That is an
insane save by Crapo, insane save. If I watched the replay again, and you know, a breakaway like that, that becomes a mind game. It's almost like it's almost like a penalty kick. You got. The goalkeeper is trying to guess ahead of time what the striker is going to do, and the striker is trying to figure out what direction the goalkeeper or thinks he's gonna go and then do the opposite of that. And if you watch the
play, they Jordan actually guessed correctly. People were saying he should have gone with his left and that's a big talking point because Jordan Morris's left foot is always a big talking point. Crap Out cheated to his left. He he guessed that's what Jordan was going to do. Jordan guessed correctly and tried to chip it to the to the opposite side, and he somehow, while while cheating one direction, extends his arm reaches the opposite direction. And still makes
the save even though he guessed the wrong direction. That's a great play by the goalkeeper. Uh, it's it's really uh. I mean, it's a high level play on both ways. And it's a situation where he gets pretty unlucky that the goalkeeper manages to make that save even know he correctly decided what direction plays the shot. But that's the game. That's the game right there.
And there's a couple of ways you can look at it. Number one, I think the fact that that was your one chance quote unquote to make the game a different uh you know, look outlook, it tells a lot about the team. I think you need to create more than that one big chance to be able to be successful on the bigger issue. Yeah, and I completely agree with that. Uh. But if we are going to look at that one play as the kind of turning point in the game, I
agree with you one hundred percent. Like Jordan did everything right. He and I think one on one is are actually one of his biggest strengths. He finishes those more often than not, which is why I was expecting him to score that. You could look back on it and say, as soon as he got the keeper down while opening up his body to use his right foot. He could have almost like faked the shot and gone around him and then pass it in the open net. Again, that would have been a tight
angle. You don't know how much Kilini was going to be sprinting back to maybe get a touch on that. So I actually think again he did the right thing and just trying to chip it over him. It's just a great save. I just for someone who is a forward, I guess sometimes he can play wing, sometimes he can play forward. I need to get him involved in the game more often. And I just don't know the ways that you can do that besides just getting him in behind. And once the LAFC
goes up one zero, that's not gonna happen. They're gonna be sitting back
the whole time. So yeah, I just I think that the Azari just mentioned that the bigger issue is that that is the one chance, and you need to have more than that, right for sure, and you look it overall, I mean a lot of chances for Seattle repoted a great job denying him on where you had, you know, in the I'm just looking at the notes here in the eightieth minute, you had rolled on with a shot from d Alex rolled on with a shot from distance with his left foot that
got saved and poked right above the bar. A lot of them where you know you just needed just a foot inside of a post or a bar because they were that close, you know. So I C repoted a nice job. I think, a really really nice job, and he was probably the player the match yeh of for RELAFC and Bowoga great goal, you know, like listen, that's the thirtieth minute where you make it one mistake defensively and the guy who has thirty nine goals for club and country this year, thirty
nine, Danny Bowoga has. He's he has the biggest and already tell me if I'm wrong here, but this is he has the most pace and power together combination that this league's seen, maybe ever, because the dude is fast and he can hit a ball like a rocket. And that play from Bowoga, I mean, well deserved, well taken one mistake defensively and he made him pay on that side. Yeah, I mean that that was the difference in the game. Is LAFC has that guy, Yeah, Seattle doesn't have
that guy right now. Well, in that conversation of not having that guy. When we get to later in the show and talking about what the Sounders need to do this offseason, finding that guy might be point a. But while we have a couple of minutes before we took a break, listen, we do and should mention Ted Uncle the referee, because boy, what a game did he have? He lost the plot more times than I can count.
I mean, where do we start with Ted Uncle? From the lack of yellow cards, from the lack of discipline on time wasting, to the fact that LAFC would do something and get away with it, Sounders would do something and you'd get a foul and or a card. From the sixty second minute where Christian Roldan is fouled at the edge of the box and there's a no call that you know, causes as much booing as I've heard on a broadcast ever, that was I mean, Ari, and you've watched a lot
of MLS and you've watched a lot of Ted Uncle. Yeah, that was a Unfortunately, yeah, that was a pretty bad outing. Even even to his standards, Ted had a rough one. He did have an accomplishment, though, which is that that's easily the loudest I've ever heard the refuse suck chant as the first time I've heard it, honestly, Yeah, I mean I've heard it, I mean, and it's like a pretty common I feel
like I hear it more like when I'm watching NBA games. Yeah, yeah, But the first time that Sounders game was but not only was that the loudest I've ever heard that particular chant at lumen that might have been the loudest chant like any kind. And I covered the Seahawks for a year too, so I've been in that building when it's very loud, and that was a very loud chant. But I mean, for me, I understand why everyone
is upset with Ted. I don't think that's what cost Seattle the game exactly, the call on Christian that everyone's mad about, to be honest, like, when I saw it live, I was with everyone else. I was sure it was a foul. When I saw the replay, it was more of a fifty to fifty call for me. And the thing is it was outside the box, so it's not a penalty kick. So the odd Seattle scores off that set piece, it's from a very good spot if they get
that free kick. But you definitely can't guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that they would have scored off. Yeah, considering other set piece opportunities in that game, and the quality of those deliveries were very suboptimal. As our friend would say, I don't think again, yeah, that call is not what changed the game or anything like that, And they can't review it obviously for var because it wasn't in the box. So yeah, I mean it
was tough. It was tough to be there and be a part of that, and it just kept compounding. Ted uncle loves being the center of attention, as we all kind of figured out, and he has become it now. Obviously that's kind of the story of the game. But again, I don't think that's the reason the Sounders lost the game. You can point to a couple calls here and there that he missed, but I don't think I don't think that changes a win versus a loss. I think you're absolutely right
there. Well, you are listening to the season recap edition of Sounders Weekly, Jackson Feltz. Here alongside are Lean Wall anders Hurst, and now downstairs about to come up is Nico Moreno of l Pole. So I'll tell you that Sounder fans Bud Light was brewed to be delicious and easy to drink. Beer. Bud Light, easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Pick up bud Light at your local retailer today, Please enjoy responsibly. We'll come back
and we'll talk about the season overall. Set pieces right there, you know, set pieces to just chances created, to expected goals, to what actually happened on the field. Is soccer stats. You will dig into a few stats, but I just have general conversation on the season as a whole, which was I mean, listen, Brian said it. In some ways it is a disappointment, and I think right now there's a right to be disappointed. So we'll talk about overall twenty twenty three before talking about the offseason,
the busy, busy offseason ahead. A lot to get to here on Sounders Weekly on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Pow back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC, Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back to the season rap edition of Sounders Weekly. Jackson Feltz
here alongside Ario Leonaal of MLS Soccer and the podcast Lobbing Scorches. Our producer andrews Hurst and now into the studio a little bit late, but he's like in the pineapple pizza and maybe we'll get that's where the arguments maybe start. We haven't argued yet, but maybe we're starting there that pineapple deserves a spot on pizza pineapple pineapple is an S tier pizza category or a pizza topping category.
Maybe that's where we begin the arguments. But Nico, it's good to have you in here, buddy, Nico Moreno of l Polso sounder at heart, Nico, you came in firing. Like the first words you said through the door was can you give me a couple of minutes to rebuttal? So we gave our takes in the previous segment about l a f C. We'll obviously dig into the twenty twenty three season overall that has ended for your Seattle
Sounders. In case you haven't heard a one, nothing lost to l e f C in the conference semis, l f C is through and Seattle is done. So listen. All right, well, let's let's get into it. Then, what's your rebuttal to our takes there on the la FC loss? Go ahead? Well, first of all, thank you for having me, love being on KJR, I love your audience, love the studio, and being conciseent to the point is not really my fortale quite honest. So
uh, just simply two things. Jordan Morris on that one on one I heard someone say one on once are his forte I don't think that's true. And I think that's one of the reasons why. And depending how far you want to go back in the season, how many times do we remember saying that exact same thing. Had Jordan taken that extra touch, had Jordan hit it with his left, had Jordan really been able to do a B or C, he would have scored that goal. Brian Smetri said a couple of
times. Yeah, maybe if Jordan would have pulled it or the Dallas lost there. And that's not the only game, if you go back in the season, that's because he's not a finisher. There's a lot of things that I love about Jordan Moorees. He's electric, he gets behind defenders, he's physical, he's dynamic, he stretches out defenses. That's why Niko Morando likes him as a winger. That's why Niko Moreno buys him as a guy.
Other things not a nine under this formation needs to score goals. He needs to do a lot of link up play, and that's what didn't happen here. So when you have the responsibilit and opportunity like that happens and you don't score it, that's detrimental for a striker, especially when you don't have that gene in you and goalscorers killers Mattoris, they're wired differently when it comes to being that goal scorer. So that's a big one that I wanted to just
rebuttal. The other part is that reasons behind it. I just think sat it was a little too predictable. I'm sorry to say, but Bryan Smeetzer, over the course of the three games against Dallas continue to play little Chew on the left. He didn't work out. He was missing. Look, I love the guy. I think he does a lot of things right. But if he didn't work in three games and you never try to do something
different to change the outcome, then what are we doing? Because I gotta tell you the more than one player in this league told me, we all knew how Seattle was going to have set up. We knew how they were gonna play, So that means that Charundalo, of course he knew, he knew exactly what was going to happen when he comes to generating goals, has mentioned that it's not just about generating goals and not just about getting to the
end line and trying to get an opportunity. LAFC forced Seattle to nothing but mid range shots after the first twenty minutes, nothing but that. Why is that? Because when you don't have a ninth that links up play and you can get those series of passes that is either pulling the marker or stretching out
a defense. And back in the day in twenty twenty two when the Seattle Centers won that kunkof Champions League, every time I did a show in Mexico or in Colombia or whatever, the Nico, what's the forte of the Sounders? They play by memory. This team plays, they know where everybody's gonna be. They know exactly what happens. Somewhere along twenty twenty three that got lost and they became a very mechanical team that it wasn't no longer instinct,
It wasn't anything that was just fluid. It became okay, I gotta be in this pocket. I gotta be in this pocket. If I'm pressing here, I'm gonna go. And that changed the fluidity of the Seattle Sounds. So I think there's a couple things. First up, that's a great kind
of leapfrogging place to talk about twenty twenty three overall. But also it's a great door open to our next segment, the last that's night what we're going to talk about then the twenty twenty four offseason ahead and how to fix that, because if that is the problem, then the natural next question is how do you make sure you don't go into twenty twenty four with that same sense. But let's talk about twenty twenty three really quick, and the Sounders unveiled.
There are twenty twenty three team awards today. Stephen Fry was the second consecutive MVP, won a last year, wanted again this year. Defender of the Year as we can all guess, Yamar Gomez Androti for the fourth consecutive year, and of course Jordan Morris had the Golden Boot for the team as well. So this twenty twenty three season, I think we can all agree that it was a success defensively. Defensively, they gave up thirty two goals.
Yamar led the league interceptions. He was a rock Jackson. Reagan's development at the ender cet of back position was fantastic. You now have your two and you have I think decent depth to with guys coming through. Stuart Hawkins as a kid, I know the club is high on and he's a young player coming through. I think that this team is solid defensively, Alex knew who. Of course, the development of a kid like Reid Baker widing defensively
very very good. We can all agree we don't need to spend much more time Stephan Frying gol and of course, according to Sounder at heart the report Stephan Fry to your contract extension, he'll be back for the next couple of years. What that means for Stephan Cleveland who knows. But the big whole culmination of this argument, in this discussion of twenty twenty three is the element of looking back at what could have been offensively, because you look at the
numbers. I mean, this is a team that was in the top ten and expected goals and then finished with the seventh least goals in Major League Soccer. This is a team who led according to the stat I'm seeing on the analyst dot com. They led the league in set piece expected goals and they finished in the middle of the pack in actual goals. Ari the Nico and
anders will go around the room. Conversation about twenty twenty three, I think revolves around needing to be better offensively and just on a both game by game and then stepping back and looking at the view from thirty five thousand feet, they just weren't good enough. It's like, Andergy, you told me before the show, like, I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. I definitely.
I feel like just going to Jordan Morris and you know, putting my hand on his shoulder and saying, Jordan, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed in all of you guys. You know, it's frustrating because this team could have been. The talent seems to be there, I think, Niko, what you're talking about, Leo Chu. The talent seems to be there, but the goals just aren't. And that's where twenty twenty three I think is summed up by not only in this last game, but the season overall.
Well. To Niko's point, the offense was too predictable throughout the entire season. When Christian rolled on is healthy, the entire offense runs through the right side basically, and it's Christian and Alex combining to create chaos on the right side, and it works too great effect. But when Christian got hurt, they really didn't have anything other than spamming Leo Chew down the left side over
and over and over again. And there were games where that worked. There was individual moments where that worked, but kind of like Nico was saying, like when other teams and other coaches when they know what's coming, it makes it a lot easier to game plan against. And I think that's part of what happened is when they lost Christian's presence on the right side, there's no there was no replacing that, and it kind of became a void on that
side of the field a lot of the time. And you can only play through balls to Lao Chu and have him cross it so many times before it's going to stop working. It worked four times in one game against Sporting Kansas City, Uh, but I think the predictability of it is part of what did them in. And then you also had a couple issues with just with personnel where you didn't have guys on the field that are in in their usual roles that can help with that. And uh, you know Raul Ruy Diaz,
that's your that's your killer, that's your finisher. He played about a thousand minutes this year. He had five goals in the league play. Uh. And then his backup who you signed to produce if he if he wasn't playing a bear. He scored two goals at the beginning of the season and then wasn't heard from again. So you have your the top two strikers on your depth chart ostensibly going into the season combined for seven goals. That's not
enough. But to talk about Christian rolled On, I mean even when Christian rolled roll Don return from his second concussion, the team didn't score three goals in a game after his return. Know, it's the most It's a great point. Even even when Christian was back, they couldn't score three pl scores Nico go ahead and the all miss talent. I mean, we just talked about playoffs, right and every team that's in there right now has game changersco
Hernandez, Luciano Acosta. I mean, there are guys that are just with one tick they take you over Dennis Buongo was dominated and was limited, and Yema did a great job on him to the point where he was switching sides with Olivera. But all he took was one pass to break it all down. Because that's who one guys is, a guy that's gonna completely finish you off. So to your point, I think you're Rodan is crucial. He's important. You've heard me say it here a thousand times. His IQ,
his two way ability on the ball. Nobody defends and attacks and creates and is poisoning's disciplined the way Christian Rodan is. But when he comes to talent, Look, I understand everybody saying, hey, look, Nicolas Dadero has lost a step. Brolready as he's just not looking. He's not in good rhythm. You could see it when he gets on Look. I understand that. But if I'm a coach, I'm gonna try to get the most talent on the And I'm not saying I'm better than Brianbster by any means or Freddie
Wares. I've talked to him. The guy's genius. What I'm saying is that when he comes to the talent level, if I know that these two guys are struggling. If I know that these two guys maybe are not on their best, I need to recover that talent and somehow put it on the field. And that's what you constantly heard me say. You need to have Jordan in there where Raoul and Nico and Albert because I need to create and have the most amount of people that can change the game in a second.
So the question is for you guys, I think, and you guys mentioned Christian rolled on and I think a great point about his two way ability. Is he naturally a winger because to me, it kind of seems like he's a center midfielder that kind of plays on the wing and someone with that ability to defend and create, and it seems like you want him in the middle of the field. So that goes kind of towards the next segment that we're
going to talk about where you want to upgrade in the offense. Is he someone that you think of as a long term center midfielder because I want my best players playing in their best positions. The same thing with Christian Roldan and
then with Jordan Morris too. Is he a striker or a winger? Because this was the season also twenty twenty three, and it may also be last year as well, but we've seen over the last two years Christian Roldan has now established himself as your right wing player, and a lot of that I think because of Brian Schmenzer's system. He wants the wingers to be able to play defensively as well. He wants them to be strong, defensive minded.
He wants to see him play in good shifts defensively. And if you have out there a guy like Leo Chu who doesn't do a lot of great work defensively, you need to make sure your other winger puts in a lot of good work defensively. Where is it that you don't really have a right winger that is effective, so you have to put Christian there just to fill the
hole. Now, I think it kind of goes back to the Brian likes wingers that can play both ways, but you'll be defensive players, mean, Nico, go ahead, yeah, And it is a system thing, and you're right. Look, we've talked about that a thousand times. I thought that there could have been an emergency break buttoning which you would maybe bring Christian world aagnist to JP and then added Leo one side, Jordan and Raoul I
mean, yeah, something of that. But at the end of the day, the guys who know more than all of us set it in his table had decided that in order to play with this system, it was better to let Roll down be your widest player on the ride. Christian with that ability, like to your point, to play centrally and in those inside gaps where at times Alex would do the overlap sometimes the underlap, and and it would work. But your widest player was always going to be Alectro then, so
that kind of fit to Christian playing a little bit more central. I went back and forth a lot of times on their debate as to what Christian's best position is because earlier in his career, when when he got drafted, they put him as a defensive midfielder beside Ozzie Alonzo, and he became a standout in that role. And it was kind of hard for me to get over the mental hurdle when they moved him higher up the field of you know,
are are you playing him at his best position? And uh yeah, yeah, and well and they did that times as well, but it's like, like you were saying, is that out of necessity, or is that because that's his actual best position. I've come around on the notion that right mid is in fact his best position because yes, because because of how creative he is in that role. And it really like Seattle's offense without that was I
mean, it was pretty helpless. I watched a lot of games this season when he was out, when he was in concussion protocol where he was not at that spot on the field, and it was it was like point teeth and attack a lot. And then you see just how big of a difference it makes when you plug him back in the lineup, and they just look so much better on offense, so much better. But still, I mean, they need to be able to create more offensively even with roll Don in
that right spot. So then that of course leads to the question of where do we go from here? Twenty twenty three. Great defensively, you got the number two seed in the Western Conference, you face the defending champs, you go down to him. It's disappointing in a lot of ways. It's disappointing in some ways to the season. Great defensively, poor offensively, I think, or it is not good enough offensively. It's sort of is the it goes to the I'm not madam, just disappointed, just not good enough
guys offensively. So where do we go from here? Uh? This will be the maybe the biggest offseason in Sounders FC history. Before we get there, I'll tell you Sounder fans that it was there last season and it's back for next season. Sounder Fans, if Sounders FC scores anytime after the eighty eighth minute during a home match, you'll have the chance to win free Lasik surgery from Sharp Vision, Modern Basic and Lens Saunt today at soundersfc dot com
Slash Laser Focus. As we Look Ahead There two twenty twenty four. As we Look Ahead of the wild offseason will continue our season wrap Roundtable Jackson Feldts, Ari, Leonoil, Nico Marino, anders Hurst. It continues next on Sounders Weekly Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC, Seattle's Sports Right three point three kJ r FM. Welcome back. Final segments of the final episode of Sounders Weekly for
twenty twenty three. Jackson fell As, Ari, Leon Wall, Nico Moreno, and andrews Hurst here with a special Roundtable edition looking back at this last year and now looking ahead of twenty twenty four, I'll tell you that Sounders FC Socker is presented by Regent's Blue Shield, where connection is the heart of a healthy life, Regent's Blue Shield. Together we help Well, we got pretty critical, I think, and we got very real on the state of
the Sounders coming out of twenty twenty three and then the scoring issues. But now the question becomes what next. You know, I mentioned earlier Stephen Frye reported from Nico Your Your Sounder at Heart publication that Stefan fry back on a two year contract. Who knows what that means? On Stephan Cleveland, we know Jay Margomez Androt's back, we know Jackson the Reagan's back. We know Alex Rowdon's on a contract. We know knew who's on a contract. We
know Joel Paulo is on a contract. We know Josh Atanzio is on a on tracked. So that's kind of there's your there's your defense. That's done. The interesting then thought is what happens with your front four, your band of three doacing minfielders and your striker position. And that's where we're going to to spend the last fifteen minutes here Sounders quickly this year is looking ahead to the offseason ahead with those four spots and where this club will be come five
months from now when the next mL season starts. So let's start it off with this. Nico Ladero and you know Nico Moreno, and we had a great conversation about a month ago when he told you in a in a one on one interview that this would be his last year playing for the Sounders, And we thank Nicholas Lado for all that he's done. His time in Rave Green is now done. So then now we move on from here. Albert Russknack is your number ten. We all just watched him take over that spot
over the last couple of months. He has a contract option. That option is you know, two plus million dollars. It's a lot of money. But the question we start out with, and it's a two parter for each one of you, so we'll keep this tight and so we can keep rolling, is A do you pick up the option if you are Craig Wibel and company? And B do you think Craig will pick up Albert Rutsknak's option? All to start with, you will go around the room. It's a great
question. It's a great question. What would you do and what would Craig do? I said, I'm torn on it. I'm torn on it because I do think that Albert played pretty well in that role going down the stretch of the season, and the attack looks a lot better. But I would say the argument on the flip side of it would be like is it a good not great situation as far as his profile as a player. So that's what they have to weigh, and you have to factory if you can fill
in that role, if you don't pick up the exactly. And that's where I think I actually would lean towards bringing him back, because once you get into replacing him, you don't know that that whatever whoever you replace him with is gonna hit. You know, you're you're you're upping your your risk factor right there by quite a lot compared to a known commodity, commodity that you know can be productive. So you would pick up the option. Do you
think Craig picks up the option? I think you will. You think will Nico Uh. It is a very good question, and I will add to what a just said is that he's the one that I think understood the new system the best, and you could see that by the way his play started to get better and better. However, would I pick it up. I wouldn't. I would try to talk him down away from out of a dp UH position, a roster spot, which would probably go pretty south quickly.
But I think that the guy they're looking for is a ten, and I think that whether that guy can play the whole band and can be on the right side of the left side. Look, Albert had some really good things, but I don't know if he's that creative game changer that this league needs. If you compare him to other tens that are game changers like Muktar and I guess Almada, you could say that those creative players. I just don't think he hasn't. So I think they will pick it up just because he's
a guy to understand the system. He's a Craig Wibole guy as well. They know him well, and I think they want some sort of continuity and have a core group within Anderson. I think yes, and yes, I think they will, and iowa it as well. The main reason is I agree with everything Nico said. I just don't think you're going to be able
to go and upgrade that and get a goal scorer. So I'd rather focus the resources in keep what you have, keep something that's familiar, and then go get someone who can score some goals, because, like we talked about earlier in the show, I don't think this team has an issue with creating
chances. He just needs someone to finish him off. So if they have that game changer up front or maybe out wide with Christian inside, however you want to go about it, I think that's the more important addition in this offseason, so I focus all of our resources on that. Personally, I would agree too. I would personally pick up the option because of that exact
point. But I think we're going to make up four for four that Craig Wible will pick up the option simply because I think you look at this offseason where either way you're going to have either two things happen. Either a MLS adds anotherdesignated player spot they make it the Lionel Messi rule, and we're saying, okay, we're now are allowing four designated players so Miami doesn't get in trouble again, and suddenly you now have Raul and Albert are your two dps
and you can add two more or MLS stays away. They are with three designated player model. And there's the one little kind of weird thing where if you only have two of your three designated player spots filled, and by the way, designated players are players making one point six something million or more, if you only have two of those three spots filled, then that allows you to have three young designated players. So it's players under the age of twenty
three who are of that financial stature. Leo Chu is currently the sounders one designated player. Now that the Sounders would only have two designated players since Ladero's off the books, they can have three young dps, not just one, so Leo Chu, you could get two more essential Leo chews. So in that sense, either this offseason you're going to have two full regular dps that you can go get or you'll have two young dps that you can go get.
That is a lot of space. Your TAM contracts of a Bear Ariaga both coming off the books, this team is going to have money money money to spend, whether it's designated players or TAM players. Targeted allocation money, which is players making anywhere between six hundred thousand to one point six million. That is the target allocation money. You're going to have money, and you're going to have the ability with roster spots to go completely redesign this attack.
Ari. And if we're already putting Albert Russneck in the ten, you already have Jordan, Leo and Christian all under contract. There is your four. The question then is how do you add to that? Where do you buy a designated player and where do you fill in that spot who can get the upgrade. Yeah, so, Nico, I think your your point about Russnach was, you know, I've been thinking of it in a very similar way.
But I also think of it as if, you know, assuming that they do keep Russnak, if you make a huge splash signing on your bow Wonga basically a player of that profile, you can have Russnak as your ten.
Raoul is under contract for next year. Now Valero being a starter or not, it's a whole nother question next year it is you know, I'm you know, given the history of the of the hamstring there, that's not something that uh uh, I would I would feel all that confident in necessarily, but just if you just grant that that is how they are planning to attack it with Russnak as your ten this theoretical wide player DP that I'm talking about also on the roster, okay, and then if you have Raoul and
Jordan you know, as your first choice forwards, I think you can rock with that. But like, what they need, what they need more than anything, is that game changer, you know, that dynamic attacker that did them in in the playoffs that they didn't have themselves. Yeah, it's kind of hard because we don't really know what's going to happen. But look, if you want, if I can pitch you guys in this scenario right here, if there's something that I think this staff failed to do was, like
I said, recovered the confidence of rowdy Diez. They completely put all their eggs on the Jordan Morris basket. So if next year you have a three million dollar player and he's obviously all the way till December, he's that's his contract. Anybody who said he's going on University Tario was completely misled. I
don't know who started that room, but that's not happening. But what could happen is that very much like Joseph Martinez, you can maybe loan out Rowridiaz, you open up the DP spot, You have somebody take half of that salary. You save yourself some money because you're not gonna have a three million dollar player in the bench now. If you're gonna have Rowridiaz through December of
twenty twenty four, he better be your starter. Agree. So if that's not the way they're thinking, my guess is that they might move him, open up the DP spot. You stick with al Rus because your only DP, and you go find something else. Wow and scoo, wow, we are moving some pieces here. Yeah. Really, I didn't even I honestly didn't even think of that. That's that's a really good, really good thought
there. I think the reality is that he could be coming back next year with some new confidence with the full off season regimen to kind of get himself healthy. And if that that's your that's your goal scorer, that's your difference maker that we didn't really have. I actually thought he had a really good cameo appearance in the playoff game as well. I wanted him to come on
the field earlier, really really did. Uh Leo Chi was just not cutting it, so they needed to bring him on, move Jordan to the left and kind of do what they did there. But if he comes back rejuvenated like we saw in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, I think that changes a lot of things. Then you can go for a more dynamic right winger. Think about that Christian Rolldon moving into the middle of the field. And you're not gonna have the same starting eleven every single game. You need people to
rotate, so you need people in different spots. You need coverage at right wing, you need coverage at striker, you need coverage at left wing. You're not gonna play the same eleven players every single game. So it's good to have. And we talked about how predictable the Sounders were. It's good to have different players or different situations, whether you know you're going up against a team that maybe you need to be a little bit more physical with or
if your team you can play around a little bit more. That's that's what really good teams do, is they have death in those areas. So yeah, and I do what to clarify that, I agree, I really I would like that to be the case that you start and you go back and you give Rau Ridiez the keys to the car once again, those that you
took away the Brian Master took away and his confidence got shut. My worry is that that lack of confidence and what that can do to our relationship between a player and a coach is just too much to bear and to and that managed that's it, because that's the situation right now where you know, obviously, this is a guy, as all great players have, is an ego
and ral his mental state. I mean, Nico, you obviously have had a lot of conversations with him, but you wonder how he's going to and Andrews you mentioned, well, you wonder how he's going to approach twenty twenty four mentally and physically and emotionally, right, and if he does end up getting loaned out, then really all cards are out because at that point every
you have all these spots in every capability. But interesting to go back to Andrews, you said, and this is kind of what we'll wrap here is the specific I think that this can can bring in one designated player in this winter off season and another in the summer window transfer window. So I think that we're gonna see one come in in the winter and one come in in the summer. I don't think you'd see two dps come in at one time. That would just that would blow my mind. I think it'll be one
in one over the next you know, twelve months. So where we'll wrap this is is what that one position is. Because if you have Jordan's slash roll, if you have Christian on the right and as you mentioned just a second ago, can slide into the ten. He did it great at the University of Washington. We haven't seen much at all of that at MS level of sliding in for Christian at the ten. But then you have Albert, and you have Leo Chew and Slash Jordan Morris even off on the left wing.
So with all of that, then on the table you have one designated player spot that I think that this team is gonna fill in the next number of months. What spot is that as we round out here of the episode tonight, well, I mean I kind of I kind of just said how I would tackle it, but all all, I'm gonna throw a spicy one
for you guys. I got a spicy So the the DP spot is on a left winger, Like like I said, in the ilk of a bowonga a player of that profile and skill set that can rack you fifteen to twenty goals from that spot. But here's where it gets spicy. And I'm actually stealing this from Matt Doyle, who writes for our website MLS Soccer dot com, and he wrote a sounders Uh. He writes post mortems about every team
that gets eliminated that I recommend diving into. But he was talking about this and he had an idea of He was talking about Leyo Chew and he said, when I watch him play, I see I'm paraphrasing a little bit. He said, when I watch him play, I see more a full back than a winger. And that got me think. That got me thinking because it's a little counterintuitive because Leo Chu is not what any of us in this
room would describe that would describe as a defensive defensive player. However, However, if if you grant a scenario where they can coach him up and hone that part of his game to like an MLS average level on defense, that skill set at left back, if you put a a DP winger in front of him, you might be cooking with that, all right, Speaking of cooking. What's in that pizza? Did you have something that made you go a little bit? I want to I want to legitimize this a little bit.
Alex Wildon was not an outside back before he came here, and now he's one of the best in the AD. A lot of work defensively. When he was playing in the midfield, he wasn't a DP. It was obviously a player that really really cheap and you could do that and he had that. Now for me, go ahead. For me, I think it's going to be an attacking midfielder that can play the whole band I because you have no idea what system you're going to be playing with next here, because
you don't really know exactly the way things are going to play out. That's going to be your first DP, without a doubt, someone that could be versatile up there. And especially I'll add these for you guys right here. I'm not sure if you guys are aware of it, but Haava Raaga is gonna get traded. He's they're gonna pick up his option, and in my
opinion, he's gonna get traded. You cannot keep a guy with that salary and that wants to go out and play, and that honestly has a market in MLS because of he's a veteran, he's been there, done that, national team player. At some point you're gonna he's gonna be your trading chip. So you're gonna have to go and replace a center back because maybe he's so's gone, baby, he's out of here, So where's your debt at center back? So because of that, I think you're gonna get a one
attacking me for their player. You're gonna have to pick up some low level or some tam levels center backs to figure that part out. But that's about it. And then the striker is gonna be Jordan and in the summer maybe that's when you get your big guy because I just see them so all in on this Jordan thing that there's just no go. So already has a left sided player left side of winger Nico. You have a guy who can play any of the band of three Andrews. Where do you go for that one
spot? I go similar to Nico, but I'm gonna emphasize I'm just say, a versatile forward, but emphasize goal scoring ability. I don't want as much of a creative player because I think we have that in our team. I want someone who gives you a threat on the wing but can also play striker, So you know, probably an emphasis on a right winger slash striker that can score goals. That's what I'm going for from my one DP spot.
Yeah, I think I'm kind of with you there. I think I'll get me a forward, especially I didn't think about the loan for role. That's an interesting thing because if they do that, absolutely you need forward. But somebody clearly who can play the number ten spot, because I don't want to have to rely on Albert Russneck to be the one guy there. So
somebody absolutely that plays the ten. But then also I would say I would I would want a right wing specific player gives Christian a little more flexibility too, but to play the ten and then and then use next summer that second spot in the summer. Then you go get a four because at that point you are looking at you know, your next three years post roll Ruydias. But listen, we'll see what happens. Lots of interesting discussion here. We
might need another offseason emergency podcast when that one spot is filled. We are way late, but I will say this has been awesome. You know, this is a season where, just like Brian said, in some ways it is a disappointment. I think offensively it is a disappointment because this team, with the talent that they have and the money that they're spending on certain offensive weapons, they should have done more, plain and simple, they should have
done more. And losing one nothing to lafc emphasis on the nothing is a really really tough to stomach. You got to figure out the goal scoring situation and hopefully this team does that in twenty twenty four and you know, onward and upward and forward and all that good stuff. Brian Schenzer and Craig Wible have Hecker work cut out for him. Ari luanwell MLS Soccer dot Com, your podcast, Lobbing Scorches. Thanks for coming in, buddy, It's great
to see you. Yeah, thanks for having me. Jackson, it was a lot of fun. Nico Moreno l Polso and Sounder at heart. Always great to have you in. Buddy. It's good to see you and we'll be talking more. But thanks for as so much for coming in, Thank you for having me, and my final that would be this one. What Brian was unable to say when he was asked about it. Yes, this is the end of an era. The role in Nico era is over. You guys are gonna see how hard this is to go from a golden generation
and the learning curve that he takes. So I'm just gonna say that the era is over. We'll see what's ahead. Anderson than huge always again as well. Yeah, Jackson, thanks so much for having me on you guys. Was awesome to talk to you all, so I appreciate you guys having me peep part of this. We will talk to you in twenty twenty four, if not a little bit sooner. But for everybody out there, we
appreciate you listening all season long to Sounder broadcasts and Sounder matches. I'll tell you Sounders FC Soccer presented by Reasons Blue Shield, where connection is at the heart of a healthy life. Regions Blue Shield together we Health. Thank you so much for listening tonight. Everybody'll relate to it, but we'll get to it. Fox Sports Radio is coming up next.