He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the point
I can't say is CHEAT! And that would mean it's
time to start Sounders Scuttlebutt. I don't know
if anyone heard that, but that's our start time,
I guess. How's everyone doing? I'm here with
Nicholas Biela, your Alliance Council extraordinaire,
and your Alliance Council Secretary, Cameron
Collins. I, of course, am Aaron Lingley. Pretty
good weekend. Yeah, not bad. Rain got a winning
win against Portland, and then Sounders had a
3 -0 win. had a game? They did, and what is that
alert? Who's got some... That's my computer yelling
at me. It's fine. There we go. But I didn't know
the Sounders played. I didn't go to a game this
weekend. Well, you did go to a game this weekend.
I mean, I went to a rain game. I didn't go to
a Sounders game. They had a game. They did, and
maybe that's why... Maybe you're not allowed
to go to any more games today. Maybe you're not
allowed to do a Sounders podcast. I'm afraid
of not being able to go to any more games. Although
it hasn't worked on the road this year. Yeah,
Aaron. Yeah, that sucked. Wait, you went to a
game, Aaron. Yeah. The complete opposite as this
one did. So maybe I'm the lone one standing.
I'm the only one that's allowed to go to games
anymore. Did San Diego get their first three
goals in the first half? Yeah. Weird. I will
say that there's only one of us that has seen
the Sounders lose an MLS Cup, and it wasn't me.
Yeah, it wasn't me. Oh, that's a bigger game
than a random Saturday at Lumen Field. Anyway,
there's only one of us that saw them win the
first. No, never mind. We're just moving on.
We're moving on. Put your grape greens back in
their pants. We are. Hey, you know what? Let's
crack some stuff open, shall we? I'm not going
to crack mine. I'm going to pop mine. Ooh, why
don't you start us off? I've already really had
half of it. It's just On the Rocks Old Fashioned.
I didn't want to go back to the store. Aren't
you a fancy lad? Wait, it's a remade Old Fashioned?
I'll try again. Yeah, you've never heard of On
the Rocks? No. So, I'm going to show you a picture.
I'm going to show you my can. I'm sure the listeners
love this in an audio format. Okay, I'm going
to describe what that is. That is Vladimir Putin
with a micropenis. Is that Mr. Bean on his lap?
No, that is the president of Russia on his lap.
And this is a Ukrainian beer. My buddy brought
to me today from, he's in town from Norway. It's
a dry hop golden ale called Putin Huilo. And
I'm going to read this little description about
this because it kind of brings together some
really fun stuff. So Putin Huilo has become a
worldwide slogan for the president of Russia,
just like Hitler and other dictators whose imperial
ambitions led to the deaths of innocent people.
Huilo isn't just a tyrant. He's a Russian billionaire
that dreams himself a czar. In 2014, Russia annexed
Crimea and occupied a part of Ukraine. This action
violated world order, which was established after
World War II. On February 24, 2022, the terrorist
Russian state began their invasion of peaceful
Europe. Putin Hulot is an international chant,
which was first performed by football fans of
FC Mentalist and FC Shakhtar on March 30, 2014.
Hulot, loosely translates to dickhead in English,
but it's much more slanderous. It's root word
hui, which is Russian for dick. So I'm about
to crack open Putin dickhead, a dry hop golden
ale. Yeah. That's quite the... Some Ukrainian
propaganda there from... It's very much so. So
let's see how this tastes here. Okay, that's
definitely a golden ale. Reminds me a little
bit of some of Fremont's stuff. It's a golden
ale, like the pee tape from Donald Trump. Oh,
my God. Wow. And now that I'm looking at Putin's
micro penis while I'm eating while I'm drinking
this. That's funny, there's a Lenin statue in
Fremont. Thank you. That's a different thing.
That's pre -stall. It's still Russia. Sure. But
now this leaves a bad taste in my mouth now that
you say that. But you know what? I am drinking
it anyways. All right. Cameron, you got anything
today? No, I don't even have a non -alcoholic
beverage for me to sip on. All right. Nicholas
took your time. I'm clean out. Cameron, we're
going in dry. Oh, God. Jesus. We're not even,
like, at least five minutes in, but half of it's
been terrible. Oh, man. Cameron just lifted up
his Aveeno moisturizer. Why is that by your computer?
Do not ask questions you already know the answer
to. Because I am a very dry boy, and so I constantly
use it. I have one in my car as well. I believe
people paid us money to be... part of the show.
Yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited. Yeah. Why don't
you talk about it? Why don't you talk about it?
Shout out to your surprise of last week, Dan
and Alex, uh, who, uh, will soon be a regular
part of the show. So I know they're excited for
it. So we will start working with them, uh, this
week to figure it out so that they can be on,
uh, future episodes. Fun side note, both of them
came down to the bottom of 121 and watched the
game with me this weekend. And if I hadn't been
ill, I would have been there too. I know, I know.
We were really missing you. We had Eric13 as
well. So we had a good old Scuttlebutt Discord
party down in the Bromend. And what a great day
for that. I do want to get Scuttlebutt on the
back of, just make a custom jersey. I think that
would be kind of cool. Yeah, it's doable. Well,
I mean, I posted to the Discord. Unfortunately,
all the good sizes are sold out now. But I did
post to the Discord. The Adidas official store
had the Heritage kits, the home green kits, for
$29 with shipping for the Authentics this week.
Is that like a typo, or are they just trying
to get rid of their stuff? Yeah, they're just
cleaning house because the new kits will come
out next season. And they were really on sale
for $53, but they also stacked a special 40 %
off coupon. I wish I had seen that because I
didn't get it since it was $53, but at $29 I
would have gotten one. How did you not see that?
I texted you. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I just said,
I thought it said they were for under $30. You
had too many words. You said use a promo code.
I don't know what that means. What do you mean
using the words new home kit authentic being
heavily discounted for under $30 with shipping?
And I have the link. Period. Literally every
word was good. He didn't give a promo code, so
I thought it was just automatic. But now I went
there and it was 53. In all fairness, Cameron
was a little preoccupied around that time. Yeah,
that's true. That's true. No, I just couldn't
leave. I just couldn't leave home. Nick just
spit out his toothpick. I couldn't leave home.
Well, I mean, yeah. I drank a bunch of Pepto
-Bismol to feel better. We'll say that. Oh, my
God. Again, we were just a TMI all over the place.
I believe that's coding words for he was shitting
his guts out. I lost at least five pounds. It
was glorious. There you go. There's the silver
lining. I think it was a brown lining, but that's
another story altogether. Moving on. This is
the most disgusting thing we've ever done. Which,
like, okay, which part's the worst? You know,
me drinking Putin's golden shower. Thank you
for that, by the way. Each one of these, as I'm
looking at naked Putin, as I'm drinking it, it's
like at eye level. You know, don't, we're done.
We're moving on. Let's talk about some, oh, hey,
hey, we actually, one bit of scuttlebutt, all
cutting aside. RIP, it's our weekly segment of
who's died. I didn't know we had that. Well,
it's been happening. But this is bigger than
a celebrity, I suppose. I mean, he is a celebrity.
But, yeah, RIP to Pope Francis. I am going to
say I went to a Jesuit college. I know, Cameron,
you did as well. You did Jesuit high school,
I believe, as well. And law school. And I worked
at a Jesuit school since 2010. I've been in Jesuit
institutions since 1994 at this point. But the
Jesuit education, and I'm fairly agnostic, but
what I respect about the Jesuits is their mission
of educating the individual so they can go out
and make a positive impact on the world. And
Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope and also
the first pope from Latin America. Also likely
the last Jesuit pope, sadly. As he fought thousands
of years of conservatism and people are always
like, he's not doing enough. And I'm like, you
don't know enough about the history of the church.
You think that to make, to make those, those
are some major changes. The last Pope that did
stuff like he did was murdered. Allegedly John
Paul, the first. So, yeah. And, and so, and so
I actually got to see Pope Francis speak when,
when I was in Rome with Bernadette and. Well,
he gave this really interesting diatribe on the
proper uses of hand lotion. No, no. But it was
in nine languages, so it was really impressive.
No. Wow, this is gone. I'm trying to be serious
here for a second, though. You brought it up,
yeah. But, no, seriously, Pope Francis, I had
a lot of respect for him. And and just wanted
to just want to acknowledge that that that that's
one that, you know, I think if things go right,
you know, 20, 30 years from now, people will
look at him as a turning point in in the Vatican.
But we'll see. Yeah. And I think it's important
to note that. He decided to let himself die after
meeting J .D. Vance. I was going to let you lay
that one out. He was like, this guy sucks. I'm
dying. I mean, the only question is, did he have
his bishops going, let him die, let him die?
Or were the cardinals going, death, death, death?
I don't know. Did you listen to that episode,
Aaron? I clearly did not. We'll give you a little
information then. And for anyone who didn't listen,
I was complaining about Cruz Azul's chant because
they just chant Azul, which means blue. And I
was like, this is really dumb. Blue. It'd be
like if we were like green, green, green. It
was the dumbest chant ever. And so we decided
that they should say. Death. Death. Because that
would be far more scary than blue. Yeah, blue.
Cameron's got some opinions, and we're going
to have to revisit this when Cruz Azul comes
to town for League's Cup. So this will be fun.
Matter of fact, let's just sound clip that. That
should be our show opener. That'll be the intro.
Yeah. Cameron. He's a tough kid. Blue! Portland
can't say shit. Yeah, because he said blue, not
bool. There's a deep cut for you. Okay, so RIP
Pope Francis. Shout out to Pope Francis. And
yeah, bummer news. Yeah. I guess we should mention,
acknowledge historical figures dying during our...
when we do these shows. One can hope that we
continue this trend. Oh, I'm sorry. Wait, no.
Can we edit that out? Let's just move on. I'm
now on a list. Great. Yeah, you're the government's
favorite friend today. Putin. Should we get in
the mailbag? Yeah. Oh my god, I almost choked
my... Do we have any non -sounders mailbag questions?
I don't think we do. I think they're all sounders.
We can go through the questions, but we can also
decide to take a break whenever we want. That's
true. A 3 -0 win is something to talk about.
The way the season's been going, it seemed, I'll
just start my first take on it, it seemed like
LAFC was looking like it was just an anomaly.
This seemed a little bit more like the, because
we hadn't had any really multi -school games,
right? So this game really felt like, okay, I
mean, Nashville's not, they're, I think, what
were they, eighth or sixth in the East? Pretty
similar to us. Didn't we go through their table
stats? Well, yeah, they were. I think they were
a good competition, and LAFC seems to be having
a weird season. Not LA Galaxy weird, but... No,
not LA Galaxy weird, but yeah, just a weird season.
So it's like, I don't know how much I could...
To me, it seemed like LAFC was an anomaly, even
though we've had injuries to make excuses for.
It seemed nice to see the team get that connected
at home with Jordan not starting. Yeah, and you
heard it. I'm sure Nicholas didn't because he
was at the game. But the Apple TV broadcasters,
who I did catch a little bit of, I was listening
to a little bit of ours as well, but commented
on how this is the best victory of the season
for the Sounders because in that LAFC game, we
were both playing backups. And in this game,
it was us against mainly their starters minus,
you know, basically their injured defender. Yeah,
I mean, Hollingshead took a rough. kick to the
face a few weeks ago um now with that said i
mean let's point out this is one of the craziest
benches i've ever seen for a sounders match we
had rusnak morris rolled on xiao paulo ryan kent
andrew thomas jonathan bell reed baker whiting
and danny leva all on the bench it was such a
deep bench that Georgie Manungu did not even
make the 18. Rightfully so. Who's he going to
be in there? I didn't even think about that.
Yeah, because you need to have some midfield
and defending. So you're really looking at Albert,
Jordan, and Ryan Kent. And yeah, he's just not
going to supplant any of those right there. But
that's just... Going back to what we talked about
at the beginning of the season, I still believe
in the depth of this team. We just got really
nailed on that injury bug at the wrong time with
the wrong people. And hopefully this is kind
of a portent of good things to come, but we'll
see. We've got to take it game by game. This
maybe is related to Eric13's question, kind of,
because we'll get into it when we talk about
formations, ideal formations. I could see a situation
where we do not see Georgie in the 18 anymore.
Like he might get a bone. If people are healthy.
But if people are healthy, there's no one there
who I think he should be in there over. I mean,
while that's true, I think that with the return
of the midweek games that will be coming up starting
next month, I do think. they will do some rotation
where there will be some times that someone that
started on Saturday won't even be in the 18 for
the Wednesday game. So I would expect to see
something like that. But hopefully we'll see
because that means we have a healthy squad. Yeah,
I mean, we just saw it. still not at full strength
so i yeah but i do see that what you mean by
like when the wednesdays because how many how
long how large is the roster right was it 30
30 30 something like that okay i think we are
using 28 of the 30 something like that because
i know we have one under 22 slot available and
we we may no longer have the other one available
when we sign uh Kalani, Kosa, Ramsey, we may
not have that. I'd have to double -check, but
if we do have another spot outside of that under
22, it is the lowest supplemental that can only
be like a DiRosario or... I'd be curious, because
I wonder if you can revamp your supplemental
roster places. Plus, the people that are on the
supplemental roster, I mean, they're all... They're
starters that are on the supplemental roster
just because of the way their contracts are structured.
Like Jackson Reagan is on the supplemental roster.
Interesting. Is there a suite outside the 18?
Is there an outside the 18 suite? There has been
in the past. I don't know that they still do
that. That would be a fun game to sit in, like
a suite. I mean, to be honest with the Mexico
City League of the Champions League final, all
of the entire first team was flown out to the
game, and anyone who was not in the 18 was standing
two rows behind me for the first half and just
kind of hanging out because they wanted to experience
the first half with us, the 120 of us that went
to the game. And it was just really cool. We
were all kind of watching and cheering together.
And then they went to somewhere else for the
second half. I don't know where they went. Somewhere,
yeah. Guys, we did have some news we didn't hit
that I think is relevant to us in a few different
ways. Back on Friday, the Colorado Rapids traded
Omer Fernandez to Portland. in exchange for up
to 250K GAM, assuming that's conditional on how
they play. So it's 200 ,000 for this year and
could get another 25K for next year. And then
San Diego made a trade, or I guess a loan, but
it counts as a transfer. So Oscar Verhoeven went
from San Jose to San Diego, and then San Jose
got 100K in GAM. There was also... San Jose grabbed
someone that worked with Bruce Arena. Who did
they pick up? They picked up... Oh, I don't know
who. Oh, wait. No, that wasn't the Verhoeven.
I don't remember. The Verhoeven's a loan -to
-buy offer, but the important thing is Verhoeven
played 36 matches for San Jose's MLX Next Pro
team. and represented the U .S. at the 2023 FIFA
U -17 World Cup. So there's a kid who has a bright
future that just got sent down to San Diego.
Sounds like me. A kid who has a bright future.
Wow. Sent down to San Diego. Yeah, so I think
that's the big news. We do have new power rankings
I guess we can hit on real quick. We usually
look at the ESPN ones. With Vancouver staying
at one Columbus losing. So they dropped to Miami.
So they dropped below Miami. So they flip flop
to three Charlotte up to four. And then we usually
take the top five, which is now Cincinnati with
San Diego losing and dropping down to six. So
the Sounders move from 16th to 10. So we're seeing
some movement there. Yeah. So we're up to 10th,
which is a jump is a pretty big jump. And, um,
I think they give credit to Stephen Fry for being
electric, but we'll see. LAFC went up to 11th,
though, despite their interesting game against
Portland. I'm very happy with Stephen Fry this
year. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I feel like
there was talk, just feelings at least, vibes,
as the kids say, of just like a decline kind
of year, you know? I mean, last year he had a
bit of a decline, for sure. But this year he
seems at least on par with last year. I don't
know if the difference we're seeing, though,
is the fact that this year you can blame some
of the goals allowed in on defensive mistakes,
as opposed to that being anything he's done,
versus last year our defense was largely flawless.
He didn't allow any goals when Nuhu made a bunch
of mistakes in the first 15 minutes. I don't
know how Nuhu goes from some of the worst 15
minutes of his career to then dominating after
that. Because of the long season, things are
going to happen. I'm talking about one game.
One game, yeah. His first 15 minutes was very
bad, and then he was incredible after that, including
that almost assist to Jordan Morris. Yeah. I
was actually very impressed with him. I was curious
what your thoughts were going to be. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, everyone had a bad first 15 minutes or
so of that game, but no one as bad as New Who.
No one as bad as New Who. Yeah. Well, let's knock
out some of these questions then, huh? Yeah.
Let's do it. All right. Alex Diaz. That's not
a question. That's a statement. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
I'm reading it. Oh, I'm reading it. And I'm like,
I'm curious if, cause didn't, isn't Alex, didn't
he want his, uh, didn't he pay to have a segment?
Yeah, but we'll, we'll do it. Uh, I'm curious
the way this will lead to my questions of the
week. I don't know. Sorry, Alex. I don't know
if you want us to read these or if these are
what you want to talk about or my crazy guys.
Oh yeah. I get what you're saying. I get what
you're saying, but we'll go ahead and answer
all the questions. I don't want to spoil them.
No, let's ask them. All right, fine. Number one.
We'll make a segment. Are you benching Moose
for Morris after his confidence is high after
scoring two goals in two games? Nick, what do
you think? Well, I mean, part of the reason that
the lineup was what it was to start was Brian
said he wanted to reward the players who started
in Dallas and made those efforts in Dallas, which
is why Moose started over Jordan. He said partially,
but yes. With that in mind, you have a responsibility
to start your best lineup at that time. But that
includes minute. That does. It takes all that
into consideration. Absolutely. Absolutely. And
I think it was the right call to start Moose
in this game and give Jordan those minute restrictions
on the back end of that. Now when you're going
to Colorado next week, I think we're going to
see the inverse. I think we're going to see Morris
start. I really do. Yeah. Sorry. If Danny Mazzotti
is starting when anyone's healthy and there's
no minute restrictions over a designated player,
I'm going to be annoyed. Yeah, I mean... At the
situation. If he's starting over, it's because
either Jordan's terrible or he's playing well.
Yeah, I would be annoyed because that was the
situation, not the fact that we would get production
out of said player. But scoring two goals is
not the be -all, end -all of playing well. You
know what I mean? And again, I've been very much
on Mussofsky's side about doing a lot of that
work, but the reality is when I see what Mussofsky
did in his time and the opportunities that Jordan
got in his time in this last game, I think Jordan
had really good opportunities, and that's not
the shit on Mussofsky at all. Again, I remain
steadfast in what I said earlier in the year,
which was that i think musafsky can have five
to ten all all goal competitions and he's definitely
they actually put them and this is not going
to happen but i think the numbers have you start
mazovsky over jordan because jordan's not scoring
he has three goals on the season um and mazovsky
has two and i imagine if you look at their minutes
they're pretty similar um i i would think jordan
had more But I don't know that based on the last
few games. So we'd have to... Well, if Jordan
had about the same minutes and more goals, wouldn't
you start Jordan? I mean, it depends on the numbers
and expected goals to me. I mean, we can look
right now and tell you. Well, Jordan had... Two
shots and a .69 expected goals in 28 minutes.
Musavsky had three shots and a .99 expected goals
in 62 minutes. But again, Jordan unlocks different
things with the defense. The reality is, even
by performance, Jordan... I think was creating
more opportunities in his role. So I would expect
to see him. Ryan Kent gets his first goal within
30 seconds of being on the field if Jordan Morris
had not been off the field for so long and wanted
to score because that was a nearly – if he got
that to Ryan Kent. Do you know what I'm talking
about? I do. I do. And that – I don't know if
I see that the same way because at that moment,
if I recall correctly, Jordan's 1v1, and as a
striker, you take that opportunity. Danny's expected
goals are 3 .8 on the season, and Jordan's are
only 2 .5. And goals plus assists suspected,
2 .9 for Morris, and Danny is 3 .8. So in all
metrics, he is outperforming Jordan currently.
Jordan certainly was more dangerous when he was
on the field, but if he's under any minute restriction,
I think you have to bring him off the bench for
one more game. I agree with that. Especially
based on the kind of injury it was in his history.
From 30 ,000 feet, I don't want a DP on the bench
when everyone's healthy, all things considered,
right? Right. I totally agree with what you're
talking about. I want production more than anything.
Yeah, exactly. That's the question. Is he? If
he is, if he's 100 % ready to go, yeah, you start
Jordan Morris, of course. I don't care their
designation. Make him bench himself. I mean,
if Paul Rothrock continues playing like he is,
he needs to be starting too. So, I mean, you
figure out a way to start. Well, because you
just said that, and I've also skimmed the mailbag
here, and I don't see anything about Ryan Kent,
who just made his debut. Let's talk about Ryan
Kent and Rothrock. Because, honestly... I mean,
they're different sides of the field, aren't
they? Ryan Kent didn't... No, he came on for
Rothrock. They came on the right. Yeah, he was
left wing. He came in on the left. Kent did?
100%. Oh, okay. Yeah, he came on for Paul. I
mean, you start... Ryan Kent is so much more
talented. You could see that in two seconds of
play. Well, that's when we hadn't mentioned him
yet, and Rothrock doesn't deserve to start if
Kent is healthy and available. I mean, more in
two seconds than we've seen magic from Rothrock.
Shortly after, I don't want to get too hyped
up, but I will say one thing that really impressed
me with Kent, besides the explosive speed right
on that initial run with Morris where he came
flying off the wing, was a few moments later,
around 88th, 89th minute, he slipped this pass.
between two defenders right to the top of the
box that just missed the runner. It might have
been Christian. I'm not sure. But, yeah, I mean,
the pass was incredible. I think people didn't
expect that pass to be coming through, and it
was very impressive. So, hey, you know what?
Take those little wins. Take that. Okay, I can
see some excitement. I'd like to see more of
that. But it's a long season, and I don't want
to get too high. I don't want to get too low.
I just want to see more. I wish we had seen more
minutes. Schmetzer said he had to earn the minutes,
but, I mean, come on. He's replacing Paul Areola,
who was our best player this season. And if he's
not like for like in terms of positioning, but
if he can go out there and do what he's doing,
until you see him on the field, you're not going
to – we have plenty of players that are amazing
in practice that are crap on the field and vice
versa. Hey, the reality though is this, is it's
really easy for Schmetzer to say that when we're
up 3 -0 at home. it's really easy for him to
say that and to give Paul that extra bit of time,
give him that reward, and to say, oh, and also
to send that message of, hey, Ryan, nothing's
earned. We want to do that. If it was a one -nothing,
his playing time's not guaranteed. That's what
I mean, yeah. Where if it was 1 -0 Nashville
or a 1 -1 game, yeah, maybe we would have put
him on earlier to see if he could create a spark
maybe. So I think game state really had – it's
easy for him to make that decision. I think the
opposite. At 3 -0 with a player that's never
played live on the field with any of these players,
I would want that safety net. No, I think – Right,
where he has 15, 20 minutes. Look at the first
game of the season, the Carolina game, where
we had the 2 -1 lead. We had ECS chanting, go
for the kill. And our subs and our tactics were
still aggressive. And instead of just locking
it down, we wanted to put on that show for the
fans, and it kind of bit us in the ass. I think
in this case, it was a, you know, we got a 3
-0 lead. I want the clean sheet. I want to make
sure that we're doing things. How does Rock Rock
change that? I guess I don't... see the difference
between Rothrock and Kent in that in that position
because neither I mean they have to track back
but yeah because Rothrock did a great job of
shutting down Hanny Mukhtar him and and and knew
who and knew who really shut down Mukhtar on
that on that side so so Rothrock was definitely
putting in and and I haven't seen I haven't seen
any of Ryan Kent to know what kind of defensive
actions he's going to take I think that's why
at three nothing you what what Aaron is saying,
you put him in so you can get, you can find out
what he is on the field. You have two insurance
goals. Yeah. I mean, and ultimately, and he's
on the offensive side of the field. These are
great problems for center back. I just, to me,
it's just emblematic of how Schmetzer runs the
show, which I don't agree with a lot of the time.
And I don't mean earning minutes. I mean, I think
he makes poor subs quite often. I don't see any
problem with that. I think this needs to be a
merit sub. I think this needs to be, you need
exposure. And Rothrock didn't do much in the
second half offensively anyways, so no one did.
We kind of shut it down. Yeah, I mean, like I
say, this is, I mean, if this is what we're complaining
about at the end of a 3 -0 victory at home, I'm
not, this doesn't rank anything on my concern
meter. I mean, I think it does for me because
we're going into a Colorado stadium that's tough
for us to win in. We struggle there, especially
historically. They are fighting us for points
based on their positioning, and they've had a
couple of rough games at home that they're not
going to want to repeat. And so getting him more
minutes with the team would have been great to
see because it could have a larger impact in
a game like that. And so, I mean, we've seen...
It's taken 0 .5 games, but we've seen Jesus grow
in his ability to mesh with the team. And although
he hasn't meshed as a nine, you know, he's had
a couple of brilliant games. You can dish it.
And I think we should jump to the next question.
Are you going to bench Jesus Ferreira for Rusnak
to start despite Jesus getting two assists in
the last match? Again, that's from Alex Diaz.
No, I. I think he finds a way to put both of
them on. Yeah, I think they're both on the field.
Yeah, I think you bench Moose. We're talking
about Moose. I mean, they'll start Morris up
top with Jesus and someone. Can't be good. Yeah,
that's what I would hope, but you never know.
Yeah, I mean, I think Jesus stays in the same
position. I don't think Resnack can handle fighting
for the 10 right now. I don't think you start
Kent in this next game because when you're playing...
No, you only gave him seven minutes. You're not
starting. If you had given him 30 minutes, then
yeah, maybe you start him. I don't think you
do it either way because you don't have that
kind of altitude in Europe. You're not playing
at that kind of altitude. You don't set up Ryan
Kent for failure. by by doing that you know i
mean again it goes back to his fitness and where
he's at and we don't have enough knowledge i
mean i'm not i'm not going to immediately say
that's not something he can do when he's not
if you're extremely fit then yes it'll be harder
but it's harder for everyone there's no one out
there that it's going to be okay for that place
i mean it's an unfair advantage there and rsl
for every sport yeah now now with all that said
i will say um So this is basically the playbook
that we've always had when we're integrating
new players, as you start them off with a quick
appearance in the last 10 minutes of a game,
and then you ramp them up. That's just kind of
the predictable nature, for the most part, historically,
of what we've done when we integrate new players.
Okay. Do you keep KKR? And I don't think I'm
ever going to say his... Kalani Kosarianzi? Kalani
Kosarianzi. No. Over Alex, since he has been
playing great and is all over the right side
of the field. I have no problem with Alex not
playing for the Sounders ever again. I mean,
I think he's good, but if Kalani's out playing
him, I don't think we should play favorites.
I think we should have the best player out there.
I don't know if he is playing better than him
because, I mean, honestly, Kalani got beat quite
a bit in the first half. Now, with that said,
what I was really impressed about, and I was
actually commenting to some of our Scuttlebutt
Discord users who are sitting next to me, I was
very impressed with him tracking back to make
sure that when he got beat, it didn't impact.
the team negatively. He got back into position
and recovered, but he was getting beat on his
side a little bit in that first half. You saw
a little bit of that in that first 15 minutes
where Nashville was really dictating a little
bit of the play. You saw it a little bit in the
last five minutes of the first half where they
got a few good shots. Surge got a good few opportunities
where Stephen Fry made some good saves. Again,
I was very pleased with what he brought on, but
I do want to... I'd rather have Alex over him
at this time, but I'm not going to be concerned
if he's in the starting lineup over him. I mean,
goals and assists -wise, they're the same player,
pretty much. Alex's expected goal is .1 higher.
Alex is in the attic, though. And Kosa has...
He's got a ceiling that is much higher. Kosa
Ramsey is 22 years old. He's 22 years old versus
28. That's why I want him to play. And I get
that. And I would have no problem with him playing.
But I think... I expect to see... Alex starting
the next game? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a different
question. This said, do you keep? Not what will
Schmetzer do? This is what do you do? And I think
those are always, I would say it's very rare
that I'm on the same page with Coach Schmetzer
lately. So for me, do I keep starting him? Probably
not. No, I'd like to see Alex in there because
I feel much better. With the two of them, I feel
much better with Alex starting a game and KKR
coming in off the bench because he can provide
that spark from there. That's a good point, especially
when players on the other team are tired. With
his speed, he's able to exploit it a little more.
And in Colorado, where legs are going to get
tired, I think I would rather see Alex start
for that and KKR come in off the bench. So that's
just my thought there. But I'm okay. Honestly,
I'm... going to be okay with whichever one of
them starts. Let's keep moving on these questions
since we are on time restriction here, so we
need to make sure that Schmetz can sub us out
at the appropriate time. Eric13's question. Eric13
said, what's more likely starting 11 before club
workup or play the hot hand because there's a
lot of depth in the attacking band? I mean, I
think... Schmetzer answered this. He said, we're
far away from the club world cup. We need to
get our players back from injury. We'll address
that a lot closer to the club. I mean, we're
two months away. The low hanging fruit is in
high abundance, but none of them are club world
cup right now. I think we need to, we have literally
just brought in someone. Yeah, I mean. Part of
the clubhouse for, do you say clubhouse for soccer?
Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure, why not? Yeah. So let's
take his question then, and number two there,
and let's shift it a little bit. What is the
ideal formation in your view? Rather than answering.
Oh, no, he said y 'all's view. He said y 'all's,
and that's what I would say as well. That's part
of being a teacher, not being able to say you
guys anymore. I had to switch to something else,
so I say y 'all. All y 'all. All y 'all. Used
guys. Used guys. Hey, used guys. Hey, bring me
some gabagool. Rather than going through an entire
formation, I think what is, for you, if we don't
have injuries, who's your front, or what is the
formation? So not the players. Is it playing
five at the back, or is it going back to four
at the back and playing more traditionally like
we did in that four? two two one one or staying
in a three four two or saying that three yeah
three five one three four two whatever you want
to three four three four three or yeah but do
you think do you think we go back or do you think
the success we've had with this is something
we should keep looking into honestly i think
it really does come down to the question of is
ryan kent an ideal starting 11 player? And if
so, how does he integrate? Because I think we
know with De La Vega, with Jesus, with Albert,
we kind of know how all of them can work around.
And I think this 3 -4 -3 type of rollout can
be very dynamic. What I don't know is with Ryan
Kent, I don't know. especially if he's coming
in on the same side as Nuhu. If he's coming in
on that side, I don't know how that's all going
to work together. So it's tough to tell it right
now. I do suspect that come the end of the season,
Ryan Kent will be taking the same way we looked
at Paul Rothrock at the end of last season as
someone who was not. a lockdown starter at the
first half of the season, I think he'll be a
lock. He could potentially be a lockdown starter,
uh, on the back end of the season. That's my
thought. Aaron, what do you think? I think it's
just basically, I mean, you have to go by what
our plan is. Yeah. Um, no, Margo's awake. Wonderful.
Uh, she, she has an opinion. Margo's my one year
old. But it has to go down to, I think, really
what the plan is. And the plan is to get Kent
involved. He's a replacement to a high -impact
player, Paul Arriola. And I basically agree with
most of what you said. It's just like we can't.
No, his last name is Kent, not can't, Kent. Let
me have some more of that Putin piss. Yeah, right
now it's just such a fluid time in our lineup
to come home. I'm proud of that one. Now I've
lost my train of thought. It's a fluid time in
our lineup because we have multiple people that
can be an ideal starting 11. Yeah. And that shows
with our bench that we just had, right? Exactly.
Like how long has it been where we had a true
debate on who's our ideal 11? We haven't had
that in a long time of more than maybe one position.
Oh, I like this person versus this person. But
here you have multiple options because it's like,
oh, do you start? Jesus Ferreira over De La Vega,
you know, like over Albert, over where do different
players fit in this role? Paul Rothrock, once
again, you know, is he going to be a starter?
Is he going to come in off the bench? Who knows?
You know, and it just makes that the fact that
we have so many options makes it really hard
to. what that ideal 11 looks like. And that's
a great thing. Welcome back, Cameron. Yeah, I
didn't know what it did to Aaron last episode
where it kicked me to the green room and I was
just kind of stuck there. So you were responding?
No, I knew you couldn't hear me because of the
experience you had last week. I wasn't sure if
you were in the green room, so that's why I quickly
summarized what we were just saying so you can
kind of catch in. No, I mean, yeah. I mean, I
think... For me, it depends on who's healthy
and what's happening. I think you stick with
the three at the back for now is what I think,
just because it's working. I think that's the
right answer, and it's really nice to get back
-to -back clean sheets. I think getting them
some confidence there, because we talked about
this in preseason where we talked about, hey,
if we're changing this formation, we're going
to be a little more aggressive because we want
to score more goals, but we do know that it's
unrealistic to expect. the same defensive numbers
that we had last year. Now we weren't expecting
us to shoot ourselves in the dick multiple times
this season to start, but hopefully we're going
to stop doing that. Hopefully we realize that
kind of hurts. Jesus Christ, Cameron. Literally.
Cameron in the chat with the Pope. I was actually
looking for a shoot in the dick gif. Right when
he said that. The Pope blessing us instead. Is
that the Pope giving us the shocker? No, it's
the blessing. Are you sure? Look at those fingers.
Look at those fingers. These are things you don't
do on a podcast. I would argue I actually think
the ideal level might be a good Patreon because
we just did Fantasy Draft that was a fun episode
if you aren't a Patreon member you can join we
didn't maybe just find a place to cut in the
ad since we didn't really take a break I don't
know I think we can summarize it real quick we're
going to take the ad right now No, we're not.
And we're back. You asshole. It was pretty fun.
I know that the patrons, I guess they're called.
I don't like that. Patrons of Patreon. Patrons
of Patreon. I come from the planet of Patreon.
I believe we call them... I believe the preferred
nomenclature is we call them our Johns. Our Johns.
Oh, John, what doth hast thou done? I thought
it was the King James Bible for a minute. Anyway,
let's start pulling in. He has risen yesterday,
Cameron. Yeah, he has risen. Oh, happy Dingus
Day, everyone. What's that mean? Dingus Day.
It's a Polish tradition, Easter Monday. So what
happens is in Polish culture. The boys go to
the houses of the women that they like, they
sneak into their bedrooms, and they dump water
on them. Now, the girls... Now the girls go around
and they chase the boys they like with pussy
willows and they hit them with pussy willows.
This is Dingus Day. D -Y -N -G -U -S or D -Y
-N -G -Y -S, depending on where you are. Did
you know your elbow skin? Because we're going
to just not talk about that anymore. Did you
know your elbow skin is your weenus? What? Yes,
I did. In fact, I know my weenus. I rub my weenus
regularly. Good lord, gentlemen. Good lord. I'm
rubbing it right now on camera. I mean, I suppose
that's where I was putting lotion before the
show. No, that was your penis. No, it was not.
Literally, you saw me do it. I know, that's why
I'm telling you what I saw. The second show in
a row where we need to have James come rescue
us. We need to talk about Colorado and predictions.
Yeah, let's make a quick prediction before we
get out of here. Sounders traveling to Colorado.
Colorado has been pretty good of late other than
I think they had a blip against Vancouver. Everyone's
had a blip against Vancouver. Yeah, and it was
in Vancouver, but they beat San Diego earlier.
They tied Houston this week. They tied Houston.
They beat San Diego. Of course, lost at Vancouver,
but they beat Charlotte at home. But Houston
also scored a plus -six -minute goal, a very
late goal. It was very unfortunate for Colorado.
Their one big misstep this year, I mean, they
did tie Dallas at home, but their one big misstep,
and actually they were way behind in that Dallas
game and came back, if I'm remembering correctly.
Their one big misstep was losing 3 -0 to Portland
at home in a game that, according to... and fan
of the show, Dan Boniface, was one of the worst
games he's ever seen. Ooh, we should have Dan
on next week. Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. We'll
try and work that out. I think it can be done.
Now, I will say, Josh Atensio has been playing
a lot for Colorado. He's been in eight matches.
He's been really kind of their number eight,
maybe their number six, I think more of an eight.
What does he think his number should be? Wow.
Wow. But so he's getting, you know, I'm really
happy to see him get regular playing time because
he deserves it. And we just, unfortunately, we
just had more talented players than him. That's
just the unfortunate reality. Excited to probably.
Yeah. I want him to do well. I want him to do
really well. Sure. So Colorado has two wins at
home, one loss and one tie. What are we doing?
What are we doing? We're going to struggle. We
often do. It's going to be a low -scoring game.
Mihaljevic is doing great this season for Colorado,
but we have had a hard time in Colorado. I think
it is going to be a lower -scoring game. I think
it's going to be closer to what we saw in Dallas.
I do think we're going to be happy. I think you're
going to bust out the lotion, Cameron. You're
going to bust out that lotion, Cameron. You're
going to bust it out. I do think that I was going
to say 1 -0 again, but I don't know if we're
going to get three back -to -back -to -back shutouts.
So I think I'm going to change that to a 2 -1
victory. How about you, Cameron? Me? Okay. 2
-1 loss. 2 -1 loss. I think the pendulum swings,
do you? We're not going to get enough minutes
out of Ryan Kent, and I think we're going to
regress back to how we've been playing all season.
I'm going to go 1 -1. I think our defense will
give something up, but I think they'll play pretty
well. I think we'll figure out a goal. I think
it'll still be frustrating, but there's no stats
in the history to suggest we're going to score.
multiple goals in Colorado with a lineup that
has been various in every single week that we've
rolled one out. So I'm not confident, but I'm
also not wary of a loss. But in the same vein
there, much like the RSL games, Colorado is one
of those games that historically it feels like
We constantly are putting in a rotated lineup
against them when we play in Colorado, just the
way that it lines up in the schedule. I remember
I think even you saying that last year. You joined
the show where we were just talking. It just
feels like that happens a lot with those two
high -altitude Rocky Mountain teams. Last October,
we beat them 1 -0 at home, and we tied. their
last March 1 -1. What was the lineup? What was
the starting 11 for that one? The tie? Yeah.
The one in Colorado. They were both. Oh, that
one. No, the 1 -1 was in Seattle. That was the
one where Kevin Cabral scored in the 87th minute
after the Josh Atencio red card. So essentially
2 -1 -1. 1 -0. The other 1 -0 game. Let's pull
this up real quick. Dix. You don't know Dick's
Sporting Good Park, as they say. Rusnak had a
great game. The Sounders, of course, didn't give
us the entire lineup. Jordan Morris played. Alex
Roldan played. Rusnak played. And Christian Roldan
played with Obed and Nuhu. So this is an article
written on the Sounders website. They should
be giving us the lineup at the bottom, but it's...
poor uh reporting in their match recap so uh
yeah we scored in leading into this game we had
scored 30 goals and 13 uh conceded just 13 so
it'd be fun to see us go back to that it would
be fun yeah yeah um with that in mind i mean
keep putting in those match day predictions because
this most recent match day prediction congratulations
to cedar who had four points in this Nashville
game. I believe the only thing he missed, he
got the score correct, he got the over -under,
but he chose Jesus Ferreira to get that first
goal. I initially actually put in three, nothing,
and then before submitting, I changed my mind.
I'm not joking. Not joking, guys. Womp womp.
But I think I had to calculate what the year
to date looks like and put those standings up
in there. But just a reminder, at the end of
the season, we will give some prizes out to the
top performer overall, but we'll also give out
another good prize to a random guest submission.
So keep putting them in even if you haven't done
it in a few weeks because at the end of the season.
It's like a raffle ticket. It is. It is. And
I'm debating on what at least some of the stuff
that I've got around the house. I'm thinking
about maybe a team signed jersey. I'm thinking
that might be one of the prizes. Would love your
guys' input on that. I've got some game used
gear. Cameron's got some used lotion. No, it's
all. Don't show a solution next to your computer
on a podcast. You literally watched me use it
to refresh my elbow. I get ashy elbows. We saw
you rubbing it on your weenus. You did. This
is directly on your wieners. Both of them, actually.
Both your wieners. I'm the only single one here.
This is the last thing I need, guys. Come on
now. That's terribly true. Nicholas, you just
mentioned something that you're basically managing
for the show. Cameron, why don't you talk about
what you brought up and surprised us with last
year and if anyone else wants to do it. Last
episode? Yeah. We added a new... Patreon tier
for $19 .74, which guess what? That's the year
the Sounders performed. You can come and be a
part of our show and we will record segments
with you to come on the show. And we have two
of the three, I believe. I don't believe the
third is gone yet. So there's one spot left if
you want to come be a part of our recorded family
and join us. So definitely check that out on
the Patreon. Search for Sounders Scuttlebutt
over there. Nicholas, do you have something to
say for the class? You are such a child. I am
because someone googled what is J .D. Vance's
full name and it's just killed the Pope Vance.
Oh no. I hate and love the internet so much.
Oh gosh. I'm coming in to port. That's the end
of our program. Yeah, if you want to learn more
about all the great deeds of the Pope, dead and
alive, check out JesuitsWest .org. Way to balance
this shit. Thank you. Well, James, take us away.
You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast
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BritVoxUS. We'll see you at Lumen, and go Sounders!
Alexa, who's the best MLS team of all time? The
Seattle Sounders are both unequivocally and incredibly
the best MLS team of all time. Hey, everybody.
This is one of your hosts, Cameron Collins. Now,
I know we said this time's time for a break.
But really, it's a time for me to talk to you
about our corporate overlords. And our corporate
overlords are us. That's right. We would love
it if you would head on over to Patreon .com
and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast. We
will put the link here in the show. And subscribe.
You can subscribe for as little as $1 .74. Now,
what will that get you? Well, I guarantee you
get at least one extra episode per month. It'll
be a cool interview or something like that that
otherwise you would not hear. Now, we might put
out promos or other things that include that,
but the whole episode intact will only be available
for you Patreons, at least initially. Now, there
will be other stuff that we put in there, but
this is where we're starting at. Why, you ask?
Well, we have bills to pay. And we need to make
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So head on over to Patreon, go to Sounders Scuttlebutt
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it. That's Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast over
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-M. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.