RSL will be taking on Toronto, coming up a rough result over the weekends against Nashville with a late penalty kick and stoppage time after taking a lead off of Don mark suit goal.
Our next guest the sporting.
Director from the club who drew the short straw again this week, and Kurt Schmidt is forced to join the program.
Kurt, Happy Monday, Sir, How are you?
Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Sorry, Yeah, I guess I'm being forced, but good to be here.
No, it's good to have you. Do you like VAR? Are you a fan? Are you a proponent?
Oh? Man? Hitting the questions that might get me in trouble? First, No, I really don't like VAR, and more specifically, the ways it's so often used. I think when it can determine things that are clearly black and white beyond doubt, I think then that's useful. But in a lot of situations it's an opportunity to inject just another level of subjectivity onto things. And I am not a big fan of that.
What changes would you make to it?
You know, because I understand why it can be a valuable tool, But if if Don Garber called you, Skurt, what should we do with the R the VAR.
What would you.
Say, Yeah, I think there's a couple other leagues that do it a bit differently. You know, one way that you could tweak it is you take it out of the referee's hands in the game, which I know a lot of people don't like. But if you if you let the var make the call, who's not you know, in in the emotions of the game, you know, getting yelled at by the crowd, getting pressured and also doesn't have to you know, put his ego aside and admit
that he made a mistake. I think that could help get things correct if you just remove that that element of things. I think that's one way. I think, you know, another way, like I said, if there's ways to make things that are you know, clear, black and white, objectively true and false, whether that's you know, the way off sidelines have been used in England at times, much to a lot of people's sugar in it's at least accurate. I think those are some some ways that could probably improve it.
So I will admit to not seeing in real time the Berea goal that was called back after a really good cross by Mark Zuke. What what happened there? And upon review, did they get it right?
You know, I don't know, because there wasn't an angle that was right down the line, you know, looking at the angle, you know, can I can you say that it was probably or it could have been offside, or it was probably outside maybe, But the standard for overturning call is it's supposed to clear an obvious error and and that you know, that's to overturn the call on the field. So essentially it grants the call on the field in the moment a lot of weight, right, It
takes a lot to overturn that call. And so if the call in the moment was that it was not offside, I think it becomes very difficult from from some of the angles provided to say it was clearly offside where versus it could have been or was probably offside. And it's not just that goal. I think that goal is an example of a lot of situations that are very similar. But you know, you find a lot of these situations, and I think the penalty call was another one where
you know it was a really maybe soft penalty. But again the weight, the weight given to the initial call on the field is such that you know, when you look at it look at that on video you say, well he definitely, you can't say he definitely didn't, you know, touch him or foul him or whatever it might be. And so you give weight to the call on the field. So it it worked against this in that situation and
the other situation. You know, I thought maybe the weight of the call on the field should have been a little heavier.
So you know, you reference the term soft penalty.
I'll take it a step further because it was clear that Mouktar and maybe this is just a veteran move because certainly NBA players and NFL players drop penalties by or pretending like they're being held. But it was clear that he saw that Nelson was kind of beside him. And then from my vantage point, Kurt, I'm not trying to be a homer. I felt like Mouktar created the contact and then just fell.
It was just a dive. Tell me, tell me what you saw.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a pretty accurate description. I don't think he's he's making a play on the ball or is within reach of the ball. I think he does have a and like you said, it's a
veteran play. He has a pretty good awareness of of where the defender is and where Nelson is and he puts his body in a place that's going to cause him a problem, and it did, and you know, he got he got lucky or you know, he did the right he I don't know if I was gonna say full referee, but I don't know if that's a proper way to say it. But yes, he he got what he wanted and he got the penalty. And again when you when you look at that in review, uh, it's
not it's not clear. It's not obvious that he didn't you know, foul him necessarily because there was contact and the player did go down and you know, so it's it's really hard to overturn that situation on review. And yeah, it was. It was savvy by him in the moment.
It's just you kind of wish, you know, when when the players, when a player's running away from goal, when he can't you know, touch the ball or play the ball within his grasp, you'd hope the referee would have a little more discussion in those moments, especially especially given the time of the game and how impactful, you know, a penalty at that moment of the game could be.
So when you look at the numbers.
Oh, let me ask you this, Are you a fan or do you believe in possession?
Telling a story?
Because you guys have fifty possession compared to their forty six. I have some other numbers I want to throw out at you. But I've heard this debated as to whether or not it actually means anything if a team has more possession throughout the course of the game.
But are you a fan of that stat?
I mean yes, And though as a as a pure indicator, like it's not correlated with winning games. So from that sandpoint, just cold possession, just raw possession, doesn't doesn't really illuminate anything. I think if you're playing most most statistics in soccer do a good job of describing what's happening rather than predicting. So it's going to tell you, you know, this team is is playing in a way that's going to control the ball for a majority of the game and more
often than their opponent. And now that is the stat that we look at because we do like to be more of a possession based, possession heavy team. But there's a lot of other metrics that tell us that that possession is happening in the right ways and in the right parts of the field, you know, because again passing it around in areas that are easy to possess the ball and don't help us. But are we are we playing balls between the lines? Are we getting into the
right zones in the final third? You know, those are things we look at on top of just the raw possession to see if our game model is being followed. Other teams play game models where where possession is irrelevant to it, and you know they're trying to you know, they're trying to hit you in transition or or draw you out or whatever it might be. And so it's it's more descriptive than predictive.
Expected goals Nashville three point one, RSL one point two.
They had twenty two shots.
You guys had twelve, seven on target for them, five for you. And the expected goals, I mean another you know, I know it's a loss, and I know it's two goals.
Allowed, but another great game from cabral.
So which of the numbers that you believe in or you lean into most most actually tell the story about what happened against.
Nashville, honestly, I mean expected goals is one you know you've just brought it up. Is one that doesn't tell the whole story always, but it does tell it does tell a good part of it. And you know, it's one where you know you might be having a good possession, you might get any good parts of the field, you might be creating good chances, but until you get the shot off, you know, there's no there's no XCU if there's no shot, and there's not going to be a
goal if there's no shot. So you know, it's one that I find relevant. And for whatever reason, I think it's you know, our x G was too low because we had this great chance but he couldn't get a shot off. Well, it don't really matter because if we didn't shoot, and we've worked in the score anyway, So without the shot, you know it's it's relevant. So x x G is something that that we do rely upon. And you know, over long enough sample size, a long enough you know, sample of games, you know it can
tell you. It can tell you if you're if you're being more dangerous than your opponents. Essentially is what it is in any one game. You know, as it correlates with the actual goal sport, it's it's all over the place, but over over a larger sample of time, I can tell you if you're creating quality chances and if you're limiting the opponent from creating chances.
Since I brought it up, you know, and we'll get to what could potentially be next. I know you're really excited for that portion of this conversation, but I you know, the the Rafa, the Cabral signing has to be something that you feel very good about throughout the portion of the first half of the calendar. First portion of the
counter is what I should say. And you know, the goal is allowed are a little bit conflated because as you allowed four against San Jose and then three against San Diego, and I know we're not allowed to just throw those out, but if you do, it tells a much different story about who you haveing goal. What what's it been like to witness how he's played, and what has he meant so far to that locker room.
I mean, look a lot like he's been very good. He's been a good goalkeeper, has been good in terms of his shot shopping, in his defensive play, he's been good with his feet, and he's been good in his in his role in our build up and our possession on the ball. So he's he's been really helpful in both sides, and in the locker room is where maybe he's he's the biggest help and he brings a lot of age and experience to the team into the club.
You know, he he's a leader in the group. And even though he's new and he's he's played in some big leagues and he's he's played in a lot of different places, and so he knows what you know, what certain players may need in this or that moment. He knows when things are are meeting a standard, he knows when they're not, and he's not afraid to tell people about it.
So when you look at where we're at now, you're tied with Seattle with nine points, you know, three five and zero, no no draws, a goal scored, thirteen goals allowed, tell me, Kurt, whether it's your analytics, the numbers you look at, or simply you, as a guy that's been around this game his entire life.
What do you guys do well so far? And where do you need to improve?
So I think we what we're doing well right now, I think is playing a little bit of a light version of what we did last year, and so we're respective of personnel choice and you know, roster building and all that. You know, I just look at what's happening on the field, and I feel like we're doing you know, what we're doing hints at what we did last year and what I thought brought us a lot of success.
But we're not quite doing it with the same confidence, at the same high level and with enough regular already to be performing as well as we did last year. So we are, you know, more ball dominant, We are more possession heavy, you know, we we we can create chances. But you know, again everything is just is just to
shade less than last year. And you know, one area where I think that we are falling the shortest relatives to last year is on the defensive side of the ball, where last year we did a really good job back to you know x G and actually conceded. We did a really good job of limiting the quality of the opponent's chances, and you know, this year, we we haven't.
You know, so you mentioned Rafa, and it's it's tough on Rafa because you know, he he doesn't play as big a role in in limiting the chances he you know, he's kind of called into action once the once the chance occurs and he's got to he's got to do something about it. But you know, it's it's the group in front of him that you know that, and that's all ten, you know, ten guys in front of him that need to do the heavy lifting as it comes to keeping the opponent in safe areas and preventing them
from getting really good looks. And we've got something that I know we're capable of, as we did last year, but we have not been doing it as high level.
So talk to you, talked to Jason, talked to Pablo, talked to John Kimmel. I mean, you know, last year about this dynamic with Brian Vera after another incident where this time he you know, spin out a player forced to miss a portion of the playoffs, and that obviously hurts you guys a lot. But I think Kurt, and I want you to take us into this because I'm
not in the locker room. I think he's been really really good this year and there's clearly talent there and I thought he handled Muktar really really well.
What What would you say.
About, you know, your thoughts on the way he's responded to what was not a good look for you at the club last year and how Vera's played so far this year.
Yeah, we we had to sit him down, you know, after that and make it clear to him, you know, it wasn't acceptable and things needed to change going forward. And I think he has responded well. You know, I think this year he's he's been solid. I think that last game was maybe his best defensive game for us, you know, since he's joined the club, So you know, defensively he did he did a really good job in
a lot of different areas. But you know, I think if you just watch the game, you see the number of defensive plays he makes, which is, you know, ultimately what we measure those guys by. You know, it's nice to be good in possession. That's really important as well. But you know, you're you're if you're a center back, you're on the field to defend and stop the other team from scoring.
When it comes to you know, the defensive issues, what would you identify? And look, I know, these things happen as a team. You can't just blame the keeper, you can't blame the back four, and so much of the attention on you guys has been about Okay, the attack and you know where are the addition is coming from? What Why do you think that the defensive issues have manifested the way they have Kurt, Yeah.
I mean I I'd be lying if I told you I had all the answers to that question right now. I mean, it's it's still something that's ongoing, and it's it's likely not the same cause in every game, because every teams doing something a little bit different. But it's not it's not a back line thing. It's not even always an out of possession thing. It's it's sometimes it's our our rest defense when we're when we're possessing the
ball and we're attacking. It's sometimes where we where and when we turn balls over when we have it, you know,
in terms of creating transition operations for the team. So it's it's not always out of psession stat just the backline thing, but you know, it's the whole group working together to stay compact, to recover the ball, to press together and make sure that again we we win the ball back as quickly as possible, and if we can't that we stay compact and we don't let the teams play through us, I had not.
I don't think I've asked you about Lachlin. I want to ask you about Lachlan because last year when you sat him during the summer window, and we have seen moments here or there when he's had opportunities, and it just doesn't seem like I don't know if it's him not being able to acclimate to MLS or he's not
doing what Pablo's asking him to do. We just and maybe this is my fault for expecting uh, you know, because when I would talk about the club prior to the season, I would say things, you know, like, well, let's see what Diogo looks like with the training camp and don Mark soup in Lachlan and Lochland Brook. Any inside as to why maybe he hasn't been the player, I guess I'll just say that I was expecting him to be.
I can't speak to your expectations.
I thought he was going to play a lot more than he's played, Kurt, I guess I'll just say.
Like that, Yeah, that's you know, that's that's fair. I mean, look, I think every day he is a chance certain playing time and training and obviously Paba wants to win games. So if you feel that he's someone that's gonna help him win games, then he's gonna play. And then you know, ultimately, when when players got on the field is up to them to earn more playing time. So I think he's had some some ups and some downs. He had a chance in the Champion the League and you know, probably
didn't perform at his highest level. I think he's had a few sub minutes since then where he's done better, you know, And it's it's a little bit up and down. So I don't know if it's so much that he hasn't been good, but I think, you know, and he admit this, that he's been a little bit inconsistent and you know, but he's a hard working kid that is going to keep keep working on what the coaches ask him to do until he gets it right. But you know, it doesn't always click instantaneously with guys.
Unfortunately, in the midst of a little bit of a road heavy schedule, stretched to the schedule, but you will have a bit of a respite at home coming up on Saturday against Toronto. Uh tell me about Toronto. They're fourteenth in the East, so they're not off to a good start. But this is a weird league. So tell me about your opponent coming up on Saturday, Kurt.
Yeah, it's it's a weird league. They're a little bit of an enigma. You know, they've they've obviously got sort of a high profile kind of roster issue that they've dealt with this year where where one of the I think he might be one of the highest paid player in the league learns the signe it was was out and he refused the move or two and that he was you know, he's on on the side. But now he's back in and you know how that plays into there was actually very good player, but you know, wasn't
fitting into what they wanted to do. So now he's he's reincorporated, and how that impacts them and changes them as a team is is obviously super relevant. You know, they're a team that plays a slightly different system than than us, and you know, in terms of usually going to come with three or five depending out how he will stay in the back and and maybe come with uh, you know, challenging the back line with an extra guy.
So it's it's a little bit of a unique thing for us that we don't see often in that way.
But yeah, I think they're they're an enigma. They're a team that invests, you know, has invested heavily and in some high priced players that has you know, maybe not quite performed as they expected, but we know they still have a ton of quality, and you know it's unfortunate, but you know, teams like that that aren't performing but you know they have that kind of talent are always teams that are very dangerous, and you can't really sleep on them because as soon as you take for granted
the fact that they're maybe not getting the results that they want, that's that's maybe when they can have some success and gain a little bit of momentum because they do have the quality on the roster.
All right, Kurt, onto your favorite portion of the interview. Since you and I last spoke, I check my email every day and hoping I get a release from Trey that isn't your practice schedule and it's an announcement about a player that you have signed. You joined us last when the Tom Bogert report, the day it came out that you were looking at a Slovakian and an international Ague number nine named Robert Bosnik. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, don't tweet at me. According
to the reports, he would be a designated player. It is April fourteenth, we are nine days away from that window closing, so just let's get an update. Where are we at with your project of trying to bring in some reinforcements.
We're we're working on it. Things don't come together instantaneously, and like I said last time, you know, working on a couple of different options for for a position and hopefully you know an additional player that we can add as well. So there's still a lot of irons in the fire. As soon as something gets over the line, you'll get that uh, that hallowed email from Trey.
Oh, Kurt, all right, all right, Well, I don't know what else to ask you other than that.
So we're all hoping it happens good.
Definitely working on it. We're you know, it's obviously uh you know these things, these things can be roller coaster as well. But you know, I'm I know we're getting closer on on something, so I'm I'm hopeful to have some good news for for you shortly.
All right, my friend, Well, I appreciate the time, have a good week and we'll see you soon.
It sounds good.
Schmidt from Rail saw Lake their sporting director. I know you guys want me to hold his fee to the fire. What else you want me to do? I mean every week it's the same thing. A month ago, Pablo hopped on, He's like, yeah, like four days we're gonna have an announcement. Jason, Tony, Kurt, They've all kind of said the same thing. But Tom Bogert has reported that RSL are in advanced talks to sign a Slovakian international forward and I believe it's Robert Bosnik.
If it's not, it's something like that. According to Tomm, you would be a designated player. But we are nine days away from that window closing, so it's kind of time to, you know what, or get off the pot.