Lobbing Scorchers

Jordan Morris is Unstoppable - Ep. 51

• Ari Liljenwall & Noah Riffe • Season 2 • Episode 51

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It’s yet another Dub Pod as the Seattle Sounders have once again emerged victorious, this time with a 1-0 victory at Austin FC in Matchday 26. With Noah sidelined due to sickness, Ari lays down a solo pod recapping the win at Q2 Stadium. It was also a banner week for the Agenda Check, as Paul Rothrock and Obed Vargas each picked up an assist on Jordan Morris’s game-winning goal – his ninth in his last 11 games.

Later on in the solo pod Ari gives his take on the USMNT’s firing of Gregg Berhalter, the flawlessly executed work from CONMEBOL at the Copa America final and winners and losers from Matchday 26 in MLS.

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This episode of Lobbing Scorchers is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based seller. Not only are they a local company, but they've been supporting independent Seattle soccer media since 2011 and are run by Sounders fans. They offer the best boutique wines in the world to members of their mailing list with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers. Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. Three, your wine arrives at their Soto warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their Soto tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit FullPullWines .com. What's going on everybody? Welcome to episode 51 of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillian Wall and I'm not going to have producer Noah here with me today. I'm flying solo for this one. Noah is sick. He was traveling all week before this and then we were trying to record remotely and folks, the battle with technology. was unfortunately lost. came to the conclusion that it would be easier just for this one for me to solo cook this. And then Noah will be back with his co-hosting duties on the next one after the game on Wednesday. So just bear with me. I've done a solo one before and it actually, I thought it came out pretty good. So you're just going to have to listen to just me talking today. Unfortunately, I know that's not the greatest outcome, but we're to have to do what we have right now. And that's just me, flying solo. On the positive side, it is yet another dub pod as the Seattle Sounders have emerged from match day 26 in MLS with a 1-0 victory over Austin FC. Folks, that's our fifth straight dub pod, fourth straight win for the Seattle Sounders in league play and fifth straight across all comps, including their open cup victory at Sacramento. They're climbing up the table. They're now nine, seven and seven with 34 points. and are in seventh place in the Western Conference. But that's just four points shy of the Colorado Rapids for a top four seed in the West, which is very much in play at this point. And this team's one of the hottest teams in MLS right now. There's a couple of other teams that are flying high, but Seattle's flying just as high as any of them. So really just a stark contrast in vibes from earlier in the season, isn't I got a lot of other stuff I want to talk about today. It's kind of going to be a jam -packed show for this solo episode. We hadn't recorded this since Greg Berhalter got fired by the US Men's National Team, so I'm going to give my take on that. I'm not going to spend too much time on that because we basically recorded a whole episode already where we gave our thoughts on what could and should happen if that were to take place. But now that it actually has officially taken place, I did want to touch on that a little bit and give a quick take. We also had the Copa America final that took place in Miami last night, which really went super well. It was really like a masterpiece in logistical planning for a big event like that. Conmy Ball did just a great job. Nothing bad happened. So we're going to talk about that. And then there's a lot of stuff went on with the around the league this week. The Columbus crew absolutely slammed LAFC. That was a notable result. Charlotte FC went to FC Cincinnati and absolutely punked them in their own building. There's a few others too. So we're going to get to all that in the winners and losers section. And I'm going to get to your questions as well about the Sounders game. So yeah, like I said, jam packed show. But before we get into all that, I did want to let you all know that Lobbing Scorchers is a part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. If you want to get the best independent Seattle soccer coverage, consider supporting us by going to sounderatheart.com slash LS. That's sounderathart .com slash L S. Scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show. Um, on that note, as always, I really wanted to give my utmost thanks and appreciation to all our paid subs. We love and appreciate you guys so much, especially those of you who have made the migration with us over to Sounder at Heart since we launched our partnership with them. Um, we really appreciate the support and that's what keeps us going. So thank you. And lastly, if you're listening to this and you have not done so yet, subscribe to the Lobbing Scorcher's YouTube. We have summited 260 subscribers at this point, I believe, and we're seeing some good growth on there. I think we're reaching a lot of people outside of our normal listener base, which can be a positive and a negative, but I think ultimately it's a positive. We've summited 10K views on there. So thank you to everyone who has. us on there and hope helped grow our presence on that platform. Okay, enough of that though. Let's get into this dub pod and talk about this Sounders match at Austin FC. It was a really good win, so I'm looking forward to talking about it. We'll do my lineup reaction first, as we usually do for these game recaps. This was a heavily rotated lineup, at least in the attacking end of the field. Coming on short rest, you had Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak start this game on the bench. Pedro de la Vega got the start at the 10, so that was exciting. I believe that was his first start in an MLS game since he came back from this hamstring injury that's kept him sidelined for most of the season. He was flanked by Paul Rothrock, so you already know that we support that on this show, and Leochu. And then you had Moose up top. So pretty rotated front four there with Jordan and Albert starting this game on the bench. They would go on to sell in the second half. The back six pretty much your standard back six. The one other note was that Christian Roldan stayed back home awaiting the birth of his baby, which is coming any day now. So congrats to Christian on fatherhood. What a good milestone in his life. But your back six was JP and Obid and your double pivot. And then your standard back line of New Hoo, Jackson Reagan, Yamar, and Alex Roldan. So this was a classic kind of MLS game where You're playing on a short turnaround. You've got a rotated lineup out there. These games in MLS are all about just grinding it out, staying solid at the back, hopefully keeping a clean sheet at all costs. So the worst case scenario is a 0 -0. But ideally, poaching a goal for three points or getting a 1 -1 and taking a road point home. I think that would have been an acceptable outcome in this situation. But Seattle got all three points. This was a really excellent result for Seattle. They did just enough to keep the clean sheet. If you know, I think if you're nitpicking, it got a little nervier at the end than you probably would have liked. I thought they managed the game in the second half with the lead pretty well until the very end when Austin really could have equalized a couple of times, even though they were down a man. They had a couple of really close opportunities at the end. Stephen Fry made some good saves and they had at least one chance that I can remember off the top of my head that did not miss by very much. But in the end, Seattle does get the clean sheet. And with that, they get the win because they got their goal in the 61st minute, I believe, just after the hour mark. This was a great goal for the Seattle Sounders, but also for lobbing scorchers. This was honestly one of my favorite goals of the season. So I'm looking forward to breaking this one down. Jordan Morris and Albert Rysnak, like I mentioned, they subbed on at the half. And that paid immediate dividends. They both looked excellent once again great sequence that led to the opener Let's talk about this whole sequence one of the great goals in lobbing scorcher's agenda check history. Okay, so Obed Vargas Once again a regular character on this show He had the run that created this whole thing actually he was just dancing and weaving and gliding through Austin FC's whole defense They did not really They didn't step to him very well. They gave him way too much space to make that run. But still, mean, he has to make and execute that run and execute the pass. He lays it off to Paul Rothrock. I thought this was a good example of what Schmitz was saying about Paul Rothrock. I think a week or two ago is when he gave the quote, when he was saying, you know, he's just like a really smart player. You know, and I think what he meant by that is like, you know, it's kind of the same stuff that I think we all sort of notice about Paul Rothrock, which is that, You're not, it's not like there's this abundance of elite level technical skill or physically dynamic athleticism, but he's just a very intelligent player. He understands the game. And I think you could see that on this sequence with his body positioning, where he received that pass from Obinn, where his body is positioned as such. So the defender is pretty much fully shielded off the ball. And Paul Rothrock has, just an easy lane to lay that ball off to Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris takes the ball from Roth Rock. He does some dancing in the box to shed his defenders and free up that space. And then just a clinical finish with the left foot. Great finish in the box. So just a great team goal. And that would be enough to see out the win. Austin FC got a red card in the second half. And they almost tied it late. Like I said, Seattle was hanging on for dear life a little bit at the end of the second half. But they do end up getting the shutout. They end up getting all three points. And they move to nine, seven, and seven, 34 points. Still seventh in the Western Conference, but they're climbing right now. They're climbing right now. I wrote down somewhere their record over their last 12 matches or something. And like I said, if you're just judging it by the results, this is one of the hottest teams in MLS right now. So I'm just going to rapid fire go through my takeaways. from this game after watching Seattle beat Austin FC at Q2 Stadium. First takeaway, isn't it nice just on a base level to be watching competent, dynamic, and productive MLS offense? I mean, there's so much of this season where it was such a slog on the attacking end of the field where I pretty much resigned myself to like, okay, and this is what life is gonna be like this season. We have a team here that... has some underperforming DPs, just guys that aren't producing. Even when they are getting good chances, they're not finishing them. The backup striker is an XG merchant again, but isn't scoring goals. The DP number 10 is not putting up the numbers you need. The US international forward slash winger isn't putting up the numbers you need. The $10 million or whatever number nine is scoring penalty kicks. and occasionally insane bangers from distance. That's about it. And that's just where we're at this season. That's kind of how I had come to accept our collective fate. But over this last stretch, this run of form that Seattle has been on, it's just been fun to watch a team again that is getting out in transition, executing these counterattacks really well, clinical with their chances, great combination play, really dynamic one -two punch formulating. to lead the offense. then you also, you're seeing the depth of this team, which is something that I'm going to talk about in another takeaway. The Jordan Morrison -Albert Rusnag duo is, I think it's the hottest duo in the league right now. I mean, this is the team that I watch the most, but I follow the whole league very closely every week. there are some, I mean, there are some attackers that are hot right now, don't get me wrong, but I don't think you could name. a duo that's been as statistically productive as this one over the last, I guess, eight to 10 games of the season at this point, including the Open Cup games. Specifically referring to this game, Jordan had one of the best shifts, honestly, that I've ever seen him play. that second half cameo was electric. And frankly, I think Seattle should have had more than one goal to show for it based on how him and Rusnak played again. And I think someone asked a question to this effect, so I'm not going to get too far into it, but I think this is arguably the best form that he's been in in his MLS career. I mean, he's had heaters before, but nine goals in 11 games? Come on now. Man's on fire. And speaking of that, Rysnak was cooking again. Absolutely cooking. He subbed on just for the second half, and he should have had at least one goal and one assist, two more goal contributions in that time frame. He set up a really great chance for Leo Chu on a counterattack where Leo Chu missed the shot, but I mean, he's absolutely wide open. He hit it right at the goalkeeper. Basically, if he hit it anywhere else on target other than where he hit it, that's probably a goal. Rusnak gets another assist. And then, this one pained me that this wasn't a goal. He had a free kick from the top of the box that was just absolutely dead eye. and just smashed the crossbar. looked like it hit the crossbar in a place where sometimes when it hits the crossbar in that place, it will deflect down into the goal. But he was not so lucky on that one. I thought that free cake really shows just how locked in this guy is right now. He hit that so nice. that's just. How good his set pieces have been lately has been so nice to see because that was one of the things that I was most excited about when Seattle signed him because I watched him on Real Salt Lake for years, hit free kicks like that. And I just feel like that element of his game has not fully surfaced during his time in Seattle. But his set, I really think like watching as much of the league as I watch, his set pieces over the last few weeks have been the best in the league. been, he has been the best in the league at that. at that set piece delivery and just his delivery into the box in general. He's had, there's been a couple of other corner kicks that he's hit to Yamar where the goalkeepers have had to make insane saves to prevent goals. mean, man, if you, if you throw in some of the like near misses that he's been, he's been part of his stat line could look even better than it does right now. I mean, that's the kind of form that he's in and He deserved a goal for that free kick and he deserved an assist for that feed to Leo Chu. Jordan's first 20 or 30 minutes of that half after he subbed on were insane and that's where I get to the story of Brendan Hines Ike in this game, which was a tragic story. My guy had a rough one. So he was in the vicinity on the goal that Jordan scored. He was one of the guys that would have been tasked with stopping it and he unfortunately for him could not do that. But he also got two yellow cards and set off both on plays where Jordan absolutely cooked him. They were both plays where when you get beat by a run in behind and if you don't commit the foul, it's very likely going to lead to a dangerous chance. so Brendan Hines -Ike got beat twice on plays like that, pulled Jordan down both times and earned himself two yellows and ascending off for it pretty early. in the second half Austin FC had to play quite a bit of this game down to man, which is like, you know, what are you the early season 2024 Seattle Sounders getting ill -advised red card? What's going on? But he got sent off and I just thought it was the manner in which he got sent off was pretty funny. mean, he Brendan Heinz Eich was no match for Jordan Morris in this game. That was a mismatch. I wanted to get my takes on De La Vega's start. I thought it was solid, one spectacular. You can still see these glimpses of it. He's very clearly a talented guy, very clearly a talented guy. But I think it's just mainly good to see him healthy and playing. And I'm going to withhold any sort of definitive judgment until there's more of a sample size. But based on what I have seen, not just in this game, but as he's worked his way into action here, I am still very excited to see what he can do. think there's pretty good reason to believe that he can be a difference maker that really elevates this team in this attack like he was supposed to be that when he was signed and like we all hoped he would be going into this season. I did think this was a good showing of the type of depth that this team was supposed to have going into the year and looks like they do have now. know, like it's a pretty big luxury to be in a situation where you need to rest Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak. You can't play them. full 90 minutes in this game and you can just plug in De La Vega at the 10. And then even a guy like Leo Chu who has taken a lot of heat this season, like I think in a game like this where you're rotating, is like, that's kind of the value that he has on this roster at this point is when you do need to rotate or rest a guy or you have someone pick up a knock, like he's a good guy to be able plug in there and soak up those minutes. And I thought Leo Chu, I know everyone's on him for missing that shot, but he got himself in a great position on that play. And overall, I think his last couple appearances have been better, if still ultimately unfulfilling. The last thing I wanted to mention here is that the national pundits still really aren't talking about this. mean, like I mentioned, Seattle has been one of the hottest teams in the league for, I mean, it's been... It's been about 10 games now where they've been one of the hottest teams in the league and they're in the semifinals of the open cup. But like, have you heard a single national pundit talk about the Albert Rusnack to Jordan Morris connection? No. And, you know, honestly, fair enough to this point. mean, Seattle hasn't done all that much this season until recently to merit a lot of national attention. And, you know, to be fair, you know, I work for the MLS website and we actually did do some Jordan Morris content. But it still was not, certainly not like a prevailing storyline compared to some of these other teams that get all the attention. And then even if you tune into an MLS season pass, Bradley Wright Phillips was on there once again talking about how it's like fake and he doesn't believe in it. not getting any respect from BWP and just kind of in general flying under the radar right now, which I think is fine. But I do think that if they keep up this type of run, It's gonna come to a point where the national pundits are going to have to they're gonna have to take notice They're gonna have to take notice but I just I do think it's interesting that it's now been a relatively sustained sample of this type of form and They're still not talking about it. So I'll be keeping tabs on that without a doubt Let's get into the agenda check and then I'll take some questions I have four written down for the agenda check this week Paul Rothrock agenda strengthened strengthened Another assist, and like I said, like a really good assist. He just makes stuff happen. His soccer IQ is so high. He plays with energy. He plays with intensity that this team has really needed. He's only gotten like a few hundred minutes this year and he's got three goal contributions, two goals, one assist. I think there's honestly plenty of reason to believe that if he keeps getting run... he'll keep contributing like that. think Seattle just might've found a pretty good MLS player here. So definitely not a week where the Paul Rothrock agenda gets diminished in any sort of way when he gets the game winning assist. I mean, come on, what are we talking about? Obed Vargas, same thing, strengthened again. I mean, these two, strengthen it every single week. Like usually there's some fluctuation with the agenda check, not with these guys. Just such a good run. to set up that goal. That sequence doesn't happen without that run. It's a huge play. He gets the secondary assist, so he's up to one goal, six assists this season, which I'm very, I'm looking forward to seeing what his stat line looks like at the end of this season because, I mean, getting numbers like he's putting up like this from a guy who's been playing in your defensive midfield for most of the year, I know there's that brief period where he got the run at right mid. But he's been a D -Mid for most of this year and he's got six assists. I mean, that's excellent production. That's exactly what you want to see. And especially for a player that is still just 18 years old and is ostensibly not really that close to his ultimate ceiling yet. Just a great, great year from Obin and another great play in this game. The Andy T. should start agenda diminished and frankly on life support and teetering towards. dying altogether. It's not even because Andy T looks shaky in the Open Cup. It's just that Stephen Fry has been back to being Stephen Fry the last couple games. like honestly, man, if you ask me like, who do I trust more in a single game, in a playoff game or any in an Open Cup final, anything like that between Andy T and Stephen Fry, I'm still taking Stephen Fry all day, every single time. I mean, the track record is just too proven for me to really feel any differently. about that. And to be fair, you know, I was never all that much on the Andy T should start agenda. A lot of people were. And I got I got sucked into that briefly for a little bit, I would say. But in general, I've never really I never really felt like goalkeeping was all that much the issue with the struggles this team was having earlier in the season. I really personally attributed most of those struggles to the lack of production. on offense, even though there were, think Stephen Fry himself would probably tell you there's been a few goals this year that he wishes he could have back. He probably should have saved, but I think this game once again showed why he's still the number one in between the posts. Then I had the Moose agenda written down here. Moose agenda diminished, sadly. I mean, I think whenever you have an agenda with a backup striker, it's basically fully. predicated on whether or not they score goals. So if they're not scoring goals or if they're helping generate crazy good chances or just doing stuff that's really undeniably of no in attack, a backup striker's, unfortunately, their agenda is always going to be diminished until they start getting on the score sheet. I mean, that's what you need to be doing as the backup number nine. So unfortunately, with another scoreless appearance. We have a diminished agenda there. All right. Let's get into questions here. Aaron asks, should I care about the Leagues Cup? I mean, you don't have to. A of people don't. Or a lot of people say they don't and then probably watch it anyway. A lot of people think that it's a money grab. Here's what I would say about the Leagues Cup is that I really believe. I'm not chilling here. I really think that our teams, MLS teams. getting as many reps as possible against league MX competition is good for their level. And my evidence to support that would be what I watched when Seattle made a run to the league's cup final and then went on to win CONCACAF Champions League the following year. I really believe that the reps that they got against those teams, that got them prepared and it helps them in Champions League. And I just think playing teams at that level, it makes you better. It makes you better. You're playing against a lot of these teams that offer just as high, if not higher, opposition than the best teams in MLS. And when you play better competition, that makes you better. So I personally am fine with a setup where MLS teams are getting this much run against these League MX teams. I think it's great way to up our team's levels. So that's how I see it. I enjoy watching the games because it's high level competition. I was honestly, I didn't think I would care at all about leagues cup during that year that the Sounders made the run to the final. I mean, I was not as exhilarated as I was during a Champions League run. But by the end of it, especially at the final in Vegas, which I went to, I was locked in and I was all about it. That's how I feel about the leagues cup. I know a lot of people don't agree with me on that and think it's just a cynical money grab and it's not like a real tournament or whatever. That's not how I see it. I'm looking forward to it. Peter asks, was an AT believer Andy Thomas believer but fries to monster saves one us this road game. Can we put him on the bench for open cup? I mean, yeah, I just touched on that in the agenda check, but I completely agree. Steph drive was Like they don't take all three points in this game without his heroics. So he's definitely solidified his case as the number one on this team. Ryan asks whose form is most improved from the start of the season, Jordan or Albert? That's a good question and a really tough call. I mean, I think the honest answer to that is they've pretty much both equally improved an incredible amount. I'll tackle that though from the perspective of who's been like whose improvement has been more impactful and I think the answer to that is Rusnak because Jordan Jordan's he's been playing as a number nine and he's in great form his finishing is really good right now. He's making dangerous runs but like the number ten Rusnak that's like the engine that makes that go right like if you don't have the attacking midfielders that can combine with Jordan and find him making those runs or set him up with those chances like Obed and Paul Rothrock did. Then a number nine that's in good form doesn't mean as much. But Rusnak, mean, he's pinging balls all over the place. He's being goal dangerous himself. Like I said, his set pieces are lights out right now. Like honestly, some of the best free kick taking I've seen on this team since Andreas even shits, you guys remember him? That guy, always like whenever I saw anyone ask me who the best dead ball player that's ever been on this team was, I mean, like there's been a lot of really good ones. Like Clint was really good on free kicks. Lidero, a lot of people said Lidero was bad at free kicks, but honestly, like a lot of his dead ball service was very good. He just would hit. like a couple corners a game that would go like way out there. But Lidero was a good dead ball player, but Rusnak, I mean this run he's on with these free kicks, just really good stuff. think he's been like the, if I had to pick one out of the two of them, which I think they're really both carrying the load right now. But if I had to pick one, would say his resurgence in his form lately has been more impactful because like I said, he's like the engine behind the whole thing. And then finally, Kenneth asks best form of Morris's career. Yeah. So I was going to get to that, but yeah, good question. I think you could argue that it is. I think you could really argue that it is. mean, I don't know if it is statistically. I mean, the stats are lights out nine goals in 11 games. But I don't know if I can remember an 11 game span where he's been this productive playing with this much confidence where his finishing has been this on point. He's making those classic runs in behind defenses like we've seen him do for years and he wasn't doing as much earlier this year or at least he wasn't getting found in those spots. Now he is and he's making like it feels like every time he gets an open look he's finishing it right now. So I'm sure there are other heaters that he's been on that you could put up there with it but I was thinking about this exact question and I think this is this some of the best ball that he's played with Seattle. All right, let's jump to around the league stuff. Quick news item before we jump into a couple of the news items that I wanted to hit. It's been confirmed that US soccer requested RBW for the U -20 CONCACAF championships, but the Sounders rejected it, saying that it will be needed with the first team. So no national team duty with RBW, you know, I think that as people watch the Sounders every week, that's a dub for us because RBW is a guy who we're finally getting to see get consistent run. And we're seeing some of that tantalizing upside that has been talked about with him for so long. So with that news, I'm excited to keep watching him play. All right, I had two news items before we get into winners and losers. I wanted to talk about the big news with the US Men's National Team, which is that Greg Berhalter officially got fired. Like I said, I'm not going to go too long on this, but I did want to give just my thoughts on that now that it's actually happened. And I'll just start by saying, I just think it's kind of funny that the performance from the team at the Copa was so bad and so embarrassing and indicative of such an egregious lack of progress from this player pool. that they actually felt like they had to do this because fan sentiment was so negative. Burlter had one of the longer leashes, honestly. If you asked me before the Copa, what coach at the Copa or just what coach in general has the longest, the most job security, Burlter would have been one that I would have mentioned just because they stuck their necks out for him to rehire him after the 22. World Cup and they had remember the press conference that like Matt Crocker and them gave and They were like they were like Okay, like a lot of people are gonna have stuff to say about this higher right but the amount of data that went into this Well, it's the most data that's ever been used To make a hire we dove into like like the science the science behind this is It led us right to this guy that we already hired Previously, it's the data like he kept talking about Crocker kept talking about data So it looks not good to tout like your genius scientific data driven process And then have to fire the guy like pretty soon after that rehiring in like the biggest tournament that you're gonna play in before the World Cup in 2026 that's hosted here and then you have to fire him because they have a performance that's frankly embarrassing So I mean, I already give him my take on who I want to see replacing him. My first choice, I mean, my first choice, I guess, would have been Jurgen Klopp, but like with the knowledge that that was never really happening because he basically, like he's leaving Liverpool because he wants to like get out of the game for a while. So that was never really happening. But it seems like Steve Turandolo is the one, the name that's been floated the most as like an obvious front runner. Like he seems to be the one that's the front runner as far as I can tell. I don't know how functionally different that is than Greg Buralter. And honestly, Steve Turandolo, if you've listened to this show for a long time, you probably know, but he's kind of the example that I bring up like for a coach where I can't tell how good he is because he's been given, it's his first MLS coaching job and he was given one of the best rosters, if not the best roster. in the league when he was a head coach of Las Vegas lights and had no roster. He didn't have them punching above their weight. They were terrible. So I'm not saying he's a bad coach at all. I think he's actually he's shown that he's a pretty, pretty good coach, maybe even a really good coach. But I just I think it's just pretty hard to assess because of the talent level that he's been afforded at L .A. F .C. Makes it makes it harder to judge. My first choice would still be Wilford Nancy, because I think he showed at CF Montreal his ideas and understanding of the game can get a roster that's not very good and doesn't have a lot of talent to punch really far above its weight. And now we're seeing what happens when a guy like that moves to Columbus, gets a really good roster, and now they're lighting up the league. They're probably the best team in the league right now. mean, they won MLS Cup last year, went to CCC final this year. if Seattle's not the hottest team in the league right now, like Columbus is. I'm a Wilford Nancy guy, you know, I know there's different schools of thought on this, but I guess the last thing I wanted to say on this was that no matter who the coach is, I really think that ultimately the onus, it falls on the players to change this. The couple was a debacle because of, pretty much primarily because of a really just idiotic, stupid mistake by Tim Weah that just like can't. The fact that that happened is mind-boggling to me. And frankly, until shown and proven otherwise, this is not the US men's national team. This is the US men's national fraud squad. That's basically what I think of them. That's what I consider them based on. We always talk about how talented they are. We always talk about the golden generation. And then you look at the results. what they've actually put on the field, like what they've done. Yeah, they've won some Conquick, they've won like Gold Cup and Nations League, but like they got in the Copa and completely embarrassed themselves. And they really, if you size it up, they're not getting any really that much better or different results than when it was Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, and a bunch of MOS grinders. In fact, they've gotten worse results. They've gotten where this Copa was what we didn't we got grouped. We got grouped at the Copa. The golden generation got grouped at the Copa. So. Until like I said, until proven otherwise. This is the US men's national fraud squad, and it's incumbent on the players to change that no matter who the coach is like. There's some stuff that doesn't really have to do with game planning or tactics or X's nose. Not getting dumbass red cards is one of those things that's happened like four times in the last year. So I went longer on that than I meant to, but that's what I think about that. My first choice to replace Craig Berhalter would be Wilford Nancy. Okay. And then I wanted to hit on the Copa America final debacle really quick. Argentina beat Columbia in the Copa America final last night, but that got completely overshadowed by what was really devol it devolved into a complete disaster at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The security for the event of this scale was clearly not sufficient at all and you had really - you had - from the videos I saw, thousands upon thousands of people basically storming Hard Rock Stadium like it was the US Capitol. Like, they they stormed the field. They were all over the place in there. And like what happened was people who didn't have tickets, like thousands of them got into the stadium and they were sitting in seats for people who did have tickets. So it was like a huge mess. was a huge safety issue as well. You had people fighting with cops. You had people who were clearly like dehydrated and passing out and stuff. It was like a stampede in there. Just absolute chaos. So what I wanted to say about this was it's just an example of like human greed creating a situation that doesn't need to happen. Conmigol, the federation that put on this event, like they easily could have spent the money to create a security plan that would have been sufficient to handle this event. It could have been done, but the people who run it are cheapskates and they're greedy and They clearly were trying to cut corners and get like the cheapest security planning that they could possibly do for the event. And obviously that's going to backfire, especially when it comes to a game like this that's got national teams with two huge and very passionate fan bases. Could have seen it coming a mile away. And it just didn't need to, it didn't need to go down like that. And you guys realize, like, with the amount of money that these people have, they're... You know, I always wonder, like, what are they doing with that money that they're not... They're just... keeping it. They're keeping it. They're spending it on, I don't know what, rich people things. So... It's just, It's just like, every time I see something like that, I just think about how easily preventable it would be if rich people just the required amount of money that it takes to avoid the situation. And I don't know, it just boggles my mind. So that's what I wanted to say about that. All right, we're to get into winners and losers from around MLS this week. And then we're going to get out of here. I have four winners this week. I usually do three each, but there's a lot going on. So I threw down four here. The first one. I'm gonna do it folks, I'm gonna do it. Seattle Sounders, fifth straight win across all comps. Here's the stat I was referring to earlier. Eight, one, and three I have them at over their last 12 across all comps. That's a good pace. One of the two or three hottest teams in the league right now, if not arguably the hottest, which like I said, it's just been fun to see them playing this well after what a grind and what a slog it felt like earlier this season. Next winner, Columbus Crew. I mean, I just talked about Wilford Nancy, but this was an interesting result, folks. This was interesting. So the Columbus Crew were playing away. They playing away at LAFC, at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. And in the lead up to this game, it was billed as this, I mean, we were hyping it up on the website. MLS Cup rematch could be an MLS Cup preview again for this year. That's how good of form both these teams are in right now. We really build it as like Goliath versus Goliath of MLS right now. And you had a lot of the pundits, the national pundits picking LAFC to win this game because LAFC as hot as Columbus have been, as hot as Seattle have been, mean, LAFC, they're the other one of those teams that were just that hot. So a clash of the Titans, was built as, a clash of the Titans, it was not in practice. I mean, the crew absolutely steamrolled LAFC. I've never seen LAFC get worked like this. They lost to Seattle in the playoffs in 2019 in the Western Conference Championship, famously, but that game was competitive. It was only decided by, I mean, it was 3-1, but it was a competitive game. The crew beat LAFC 5 -1, 5 -1. They hung five goals on them in their own house, and they could have had more. I watched the whole game. could have, like, the first 10 minutes of the game, the crew absolutely looked like the home team. They were all over LAFC, dominating play. generating the only reason they didn't score a couple goals within the first 10 minutes was because Hugo Lloris made a couple crazy saves But then the dam broke floodgates opened and Columbus just absolutely smashed on him So I think it was it was definitely a statement from the crew Like, you know, I'm over here talking about how Seattle has been playing like one of the better teams in the league LAFC have been getting attention recently as the best team in the league The crew after their Champions Cup defeat in the final, they weren't getting talked about as much in the couple weeks after that. But I think this was the crew making a statement like, we're the best team in the league, Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi, they're the best one -two punch in the league. I would put Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak's form at the moment, like in their output at the moment. up with them, but honestly, like if I'm being real about it, if I was ranking the best one, two punches in the league, like it would be hard for me to not say Cucho and Diego Rossi. So, I mean, the crew were already back, but God damn, I just, I, like, I would not, if I predicted a hundred outcomes for this game, like either one of these teams beating the other five one, I would never predict that. Like I really thought Columbus could win, but I thought it was going to be a competitive game and it just was not. It of throws a little cold water on the old Stevie C to the USMNT talk, doesn't it? We'll see how that pans out. Unfortunately, a lot of our listeners, I'm going to have to give the Portland Timbies their due this week. They won 3 -0, over a very, really good. RSL team that's been top of the West basically all season and is contending for number one seed. there in the ourselves in the shield mix. That's how good they've been this year in Portland. Boat raced him and really honestly it's funny like Seattle and Portland have had like mirror image seasons but just in a little bit different ways. They had the exact same kind of middling record in points per game to start the season. And then, but Seattle's problem was they couldn't score. Portland's problem was they were scoring a shit ton of goals, but couldn't defend at all. They were giving up even more. But now it seems like Portland has shored up that defense a little bit. And honestly, I mean, I don't want to like, I don't want to upset anybody, but their front four with Cabecito and Evander. and Felipe Mora and you know, they got Eric Williamson and Santiago Moreno like that front four with Moreno, Jonathan Rodriguez, Evander and Felipe Mora pretty nasty. Like that's one of the better attacks in the league over pretty much this exact same stretch that Seattle's heated up. So, cascading on the rise because the whitecaps had a big win this week too. And so there was a while where it wasn't looking so hot for Cascadia, but all three teams are coming off big dubs this week. And then my last winner, Charlotte FC, this was almost, if not more, intriguing of a result as the Columbus won. Because the crew steamrolling to a victory, they were already considered one of the elite teams in the league. even if you wouldn't expect them necessarily to do that to LAFC. But Charlotte FC, really, the national pundits have not talked about them all that much, even though they're kind of quietly having a pretty damn good year under their first year head coach, Dean Smith, not the Tar Heels guy, but a British guy named Dean Smith. They went into FC Cincinnati, who are a supporter shield front runner, another one of those teams that's considered among the very best in the league, rightfully so. And they absolutely, they punked FC Cincinnati. 3 -1 on the road. And this was just a really good game. So Charlotte FC scored two goals early to go up 2 -0. Lucho Acosta had a really sick goal to make it 2 -1. And then FC Cincinnati won a penalty where Lucho went to the spot and could have made it 2 -2. And if he makes it 2 -2, I mean, I'm probably picking FC Cincinnati to win that game every time. But the Charlotte goalskeeper, Christian Kalina, I his name is. He made one of the, one of the like penalty saves of the year so far. Like when you combine who he was going against last year's MVP, who's in Albert Rusnak type form right now, you have him at the spot for an equalizer in the second half on the road and he denied him. He stuffed Lucho from the spot. That's, mean, he got, that must feel so good. He's probably been walking on air ever since because FC Cincinnati didn't score again in the game and Charlotte FC ended up taking a huge, huge result on the road at FC Cincinnati. All right, let's get into the losers and then we'll call that a wrap here for this SoloPod episode 51. I mean, got LAFC, like I said, like they didn't just lose to the crew at home in front of their home fans. They got clowned They got clowned on. This was probably the worst performance from them I've ever seen. And I'm including the CONCACAF Champions League final in that. They lost that pretty badly and decisively over both legs. But even that was like more competitive. Like this really looked like a team This looked like the best team in MLS playing against a team that was playing soccer for the first time in their lives. That's what it looked like for most of the game. And I'm just not used to seeing LAFC like that. I'm really not. But they'd been the hottest team in the league, arguably, going into this. And to put up a dud like that, even against Columbus, is surprising. And it's kind of funny. I think everyone knows that. we on this show always take happiness and enjoyment whenever LAFC struggles or has a poor performance. this was probably, mean, Steve Cirundolo pretty much called it their worst performance that he's seen, at least at home. So I don't really think that it changes my long -term outlook for them. think if I had to guess, that's probably just a bad day at the office more than anything is gonna mean anything for them long-term. But for this week, I thought it was funny. I enjoyed watching it. I watched that whole game. The Philly Union have done it again. It was more of like, I guess, a normal loss, quote unquote, this week. Like, pretty much for five or six weeks straight leading up to this, the Philly Union have made this section of the show every time. And each week, it's escalated in Hilarity and just kind of craziness in how they managed to lose these games I think most notably when they Chicago fired against the Chicago fire that It just it blows my mind because the three or four weeks leading up to the Philly Union's Chicago fire against the Chicago fire I had already been talking about how they Were finding like new and creative in amazing ways to lose That I didn't even know were possible for three or four weeks before that game. And then they went out and went 3 -1 up against the Chicago Fire. And Chicago fired it and lost 4 -3, giving up both the equalizer and the game-winning goal really late in the game. I think the equalizer was scored in the 88th maybe, and then the winner was in stoppage time. So just absolute crater shows. They lose a way to Toronto FC and it's gotten to the point where this is a large enough sample of the Philly Union looking like this, where it's starting, it's kind of past the point of writing it off as a blip and they're just gonna go back to the Philly Union of old. This like just might be like where the Philly Union are at right now, which that is surprising. That's surprising. They've been one of the most consistent teams of the last. four or five years at least, you know? So I don't really know what to make of it, man, because I mean, they sold Carranza, but that was already after they were torpedoing. But like a guy like Daniel Gosdawg was at one time one of the more prolific attacking midfielders in the league. They were always like a really, really good, really solid defensive team. Andre Blake has been goalkeeper of the year like six times. Glesness is a really good center back, you know, and then all their home groans. I just, I don't know what to make of the downfall of the Philly Union. It's interesting. I'm curious to see if it continues as such. The LA Galaxy lost 2 -0 at FC Dallas, I feel like I've been kind of leading the LA Galaxy bandwagon. Like, you know, as someone, I'm leading the LA Galaxy bandwagon as much as someone who isn't a fan of and is not invested in the LA Galaxy can be because I still, I think they're my favorite offense to watch in the league when you have Jovalich healthy, which he hasn't been. But when you have that front four of Jovalich, Joey Paints, Ricky Pooge and Gabrielle Peck who've been tearing it up lately. That's like I exclude Inter Miami from these discussions. Like Inter Miami aside, I think that's the nastiest front four in the league on their day. Like when they're healthy and they're firing and they're in form, I think that's the nastiest front four in the league. And even when they take these bad results, I still believe that because I've seen them play at that gear enough this year that like I believe in it as like who they are and sustainable. But then they come out with like a result like this and undermine me, you know, FC Dallas has been better the last few weeks and they definitely, quietly have a guy, Peter Musa, they're number nine. He's kind of low key been one of the hottest, like he's been Jordan Morrison lately. Like he has, he has like 12 or 13 goals, I think this year, maybe even more than that. He's been really hot. So I get that FC Dallas, especially at home isn't necessarily easy a matchup as It might seem like earlier in the season when they were legitimately one of the worst teams in the league but like and also I don't think the galaxy have had Joe village for the last like few weeks and I don't think like I don't I think they're backup strikers like Miguel Berry or something so That's not good. Like that's a big drop -off there that front four with Miguel Berry or whoever they're rocking whoever they're starting there right now without you over which Like that is a huge drop But they still, I mean, they still concede too many dumb goals and It's just disappointing because I've been trying to lead the bandwagon and they keep undermining me with stuff like this. And then finally, last last loser of the week, Chichol Rongo of Real Salt Lake suspended for. Yeah, we had this news item drop on the website today, suspended for violation of the league's anti harassment policy and no further details beyond that. So I honestly have no idea what he did, but he got four games. What's funny about this suspension is that they're including the All -Star game in it. So he's missing one league game or two league games, the All -Star game and a leagues cup game. But why is the All -Star game included in that? Like you're suspending him for it's an effect. It's an exhibition match. It's an exhibition match and his suspension is covered by it. So anyway, if anything comes out on what he did. We'll give you an update as that comes. that's all I had folks for winners and losers this week. with that, I think I'm just going to get out of here, keep it short one under an hour for this episode. did want to say, I wanted to say, you know, sorry that this one's coming a little bit late. We had a little trouble getting our schedules aligned. was traveling, then he got sick, then we had a battle with technology. So we should be back more on our normal schedule after this. appreciate everyone bearing with us through that and bearing with me while I went through this solo pod. I thought it went pretty well. So as always, really appreciate everyone for tuning in. Like, comment, rate, subscribe, sub to the YouTube, sub to the TikTok, sub to anything on social media, subscribe to it. Until next time, we out. Peace.

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Ari Liljenwall

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Noah Riffe

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