Lobbing Scorchers

Saved by the Bell - Ep. 52

• Ari Liljenwall & Noah Riffe • Season 2 • Episode 52

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We have our sixth straight dub pod as St. Louis CITY SC became the latest opponent to meet their demise at Lumen Field on Wednesday, falling 2-0 to the Seattle Sounders. Even Jon Bell is getting in on the action these days. We recap the festivities, dive into this week’s Agena Check, debate the merits of this red-hot run of form and preview this Saturday’s blockbuster matchup against LAFC.

Later on, we discuss the historic debut of Philadelphia Union phenom Cavan Sullivan and the winners and losers from the Matchday 27 slate 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 in Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One that email compelling offers to request bottles that sound appealing. Three Your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit What's going on everybody welcome to episode 52 of lobbing scorchers This is Ari Lillian wall. I got producer Noah here with me and Noah we've got a dub pod today, but It's actually a tragic and somber occasion as we lay down this dub pod How are you feeling man? I mean we've been corresponding over the past hour So, I mean, you know how I feel, but now that we're back together again, how are you feeling about what just took place? Well, you know, Ari, I've been in some tragic situations, but none more tragic than laying down one of the best podcasts we've ever recorded just for it to get corrupted. We both emotionally went through a lot, but just like the Sounders, we will be rising from the ashes and putting together. Probably a performance even better than this six game win streak. Yeah, that's right folks. We already laid down this entire dub pod. It was actually our longest pod in history. It was an hour and a half and we both looked at each other right as we were done recording and we both were like, I think that was the best audio we have ever laid down. And of course, that's the episode. That's the episode that gets corrupted and it will never be heard. It will never never be heard, which is it's kind of it's kind of profound to think about. in a way. But we're definitely not going to let us that stop us from putting out the dub pod. That's how dedicated we are to the dub pod. We're going to just lay it down again. Our sixth straight dub pod, by the way. Some may say too many. Not me, though. It's just dub after dub after dub over here. We're stacking him. The Seattle Sounders, that's right, have won yet again. What else is new? This time cruising to a nice little 2 -0 victory at Lumen Field over St. Louis City SC. As I said, it's their fifth straight MLS win, sixth straight across all competitions. And the vibes really couldn't be much better at the moment. We're going to break down the result. We're going to break down the goals. We're going to hit the agenda check. It's a good agenda check this week. We've got some new agendas after the conclusion of a couple of our other previous agendas. So looking forward to that. We're going to take your questions and also preview Saturday's upcoming matchup against LASC. That's a huge game. And then later on in the show, we've got some big news to talk about around MOS. We're going to talk about Kevin Sullivan's debut for the Philly Union. youngest ever player to debut in a major sports league. So that's obviously generating a lot of headlines, not just within MLS, but just around the sports world. And so we're going to talk about that. And then as always, we're going to hit our winners and losers from around MLS on episode 52. But before we get into all that, I wanted to let you know that Bobbing 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 sounder at heart dot com slash ls at sounder at heart dot com slash ls scroll down to subscribe and support to get 30 days completely free. Every sign up through our link helps support and grow this show. Yeah it's even better now because there's more podcasts being added to the sounder our podcast network by the week. Two of our friends have their own podcast about the rain now that just debuted on the sounder heart network. It's called the cooler guild. Go check that Love have been loving it. But man, you get you get such a good deal. Thirty days for free. Go over sound or heart dot com slash L .S. We get money. You get content. What more could you need? Well said, Noah. As always, we'd like to thank all our paid subs. We love and appreciate every single one of you. Those of you who have made the migration with us to our with our new partnership at Sounder at Heart. It's much appreciated. The support means a lot to us and we appreciate everyone who tunes in every week. And lastly, if you're listening to this and you haven't done so yet, subscribe to the Lobbing Scorcher's YouTube. Sub to the YouTube. Sub to the YouTube. We're up to 270 subs. The road to 300 is alive and well. We've summited 10K views and you know, No, I was doing some math. was doing some math on this. Little bit. We get. You're not a bunch of a mathematician, so I know this was hard for Neither of us are math guys, but I know enough math to know that we get on average about 700. Seven to eight hundred people who listen to every episode we have 270 YouTube subs, right? And a few of those you a lot of those YouTube subs are random people outside of our normal listener base So that means that there's probably around Conservatively about 500 to 600 people who are listening to this right now who haven't subbed to the YouTube So if every single one of those people We'll have 28 ,000 subs. That's that's flawless. That's just math. That's how it goes. So anyway, in all seriousness, appreciate everyone who has subbed to the YouTube and helped us grow our presence on that platform. All right, let's get into this dub pod in our game review. before we do that, we did have an MLS news item that broke today that is quite significant for the future of the league. MLS announced its updated roster rules today. And there's some big stuff on there as far as giving teams more financial flexibility and giving more leeway as far as adding more talented players to these rosters. I'm just going to read off what I thought was the most important tidbit and then we can talk about it a little bit. All MLS rosters can now feature six prime roster spots. This adjustment eliminates previous limitations, allowing clubs to utilize all three designated players and all three U-22 initiative player slots, increasing their ability to acquire or retain world class players and emerging talents. So, you know, I'm not a super big expert on the I'm not the forefront person to talk to about the minutiae of the MLS roster rules. You're no Tommy scoops. No Tommy scoops. Not my area of expertise. You know, I know like the basic idea of it. I I know how the DP rules work in the Tamm and game and what they are, what they represent, all that. But there's so much to it that like I can't really explain to the average layman and frankly don't understand myself. But as I understand this, this is essentially It's essentially just adding mechanisms for teams to add more high level players than we currently have right now. as it stands right now, if you have three senior designated players signed to your first team, you can only sign one U22 initiative player. This means you can have those three DPs and three U22 initiative players. And what you spend on those players doesn't count against the salary cap. So I'm all for anything that frees up teams to be able to bring in more players like this. And it'll be interesting to see how different teams use and strategize these new mechanisms because there's if you if you go into the post on the MLS website that details it there's a lot of different ways that you can wrangle it and it's always interesting to see how different teams kind of do that. Yeah I'm stoked to see specifically I think about teams like field the union or FC Dallas who have been so youth focused in the past. If they stick with two DPs, they can sign for U22 players and then also get a million dollars in allocation money. So it opens up this like really fun door to experiment with the way that rosters are built in MLS by going super heavy on youth. Like we've seen New York City FC do this as well. And I don't know. I'm stoked. I'm excited for it. I know that it's not the big adding a DP change that a lot of people wanted to see. But at the end of the day, man, this this is more talent in MLS. This is investing more in bringing players here in their prime or prepping them for their prime. That's a pretty big deal, but also just like it shows the growth of the league. Well, and I think the idea of the U -22 initiative makes sense in that, like when you think about where MLS is at right now. It's a selling league in a lot of ways. And so I think the U22 initiative is a mechanism that, you know, the idea is it's you're there trying to incentivize teams to bring in younger talent and develop them here and maybe, you know, ideally move them on to a bigger league at some point and then use those transfer fees that they get to further invest in their roster roster. And it can be create a cycle like that. So I think it's a positive development. I think everyone who follows the league, ultimately wants to see these roster limitations loosened up and teams have more financial flexibility. Realistically, I think everyone knows that's That's the main way that the league is going to grow ultimately. So I think this is a good step towards that even if it's not like the ultimate step we all might want to see it take. Yeah very stoked. All right. Let's get into this game review because this is another good dub for Seattle. Excited to break it down. Let's do our lineup reaction first. Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnak were back in the starting eleven for this game. Paul Roth Rock was once again in the starting eleven so you already know that we support That Leo Chu was also starting again. You had Christian rolled on back in there along with Oban and your double pivot and then the one change was it was a standard back line except Yimar was on the bench in with John Bell in his place We got a John Bell cameo in this game, which that would turn out to be significant later on But yeah, Yimar JP de la Vega all on the bench De la Vega didn't play at all and I'm assuming that's with an eye towards this LAFC game on Saturday The fact that he didn't feature at all in this game that makes me hopeful that we might get to see de la Vega for maybe you know, hopefully something like a 50 to 60 minute shift instead of these second half cameos that he's been doing and the fact that he didn't play in this game makes me hopeful that we might see that on Saturday as for the game itself I thought Seattle controlled this game pretty much throughout and Albert Rysnak at the forefront of it again He is so locked in couldn't be more locked literally the dimes that this guy is hitting right now He really he could have had an assist pretty early in the first half on the free kick that he sent in that Jackson Reagan won the header and Tim Parker who becomes an important character and all this later Tim Parker cleared that one off the line But another just dead-eye free kick from Albert Rusnack That was inches from being a goal and another assist that the ball he put in for Leo Chu where Leo Chu was making a run down the left side and he just the angles that he's hitting these passes with right now like the one the one in the Rebs game where he hit Jordan from that crazy angle perfectly in stride. This time it was one through Leo Chu where just the vision to see that pass technical ability to execute it world class. So. He could have had a couple of early assists Seattle get their opener in the 27th minute on an own goal. However, it was Alex rolled on who sent in the cross for Jordan and Tim Parker tragically for st. Louis City had to deflect off him into into his own net and this was a hilarious stat and honestly one of the craziest MLS stats I've ever seen. This was the fourth straight game between these teams that had a St. Louis city own goal, two of which were by Parker, but that is an MLS record. And I don't think that's ever going to be broke. No, there's no way that's like, and it's a new bit. We literally get to unlock a new bit about a team. That's, that's even better. The odds of four straight own goals against the same team are infinitesimal and it's crazy. too, when you think about like, that's the first four games that these two teams have played against each other. And St. Louis city has scored on themselves in all four games, including two of them coming off the same guy. It's even funnier to knowing our, our history with St. Louis city fans and the fraud watch that we had the fact that like, yeah. You know, they're just bamming on themselves while we bam on them. I don't know about that. Yeah, not too popular in the city of St. Louis. Seattle got their second goal of the game in the 49th minute from an unlikely source. John Bell, John Bell with the goal Jamaican legend Rusnak again with another perfect. That free kick was. So good. So good. was the both that one and the one that he had to Jackson Reagan. Like you can't place those any better. And the way the way I I watch a whole lot of the league a lot. So I have a pretty good read on like who's excelling at what at any given time. And I really think like his dead ball service right now is the best in the league. In this last period these last eight to ten games where Seattle has been on fire and he's been on fire. his dead ball service has been the best in the league. John Bell, he, he went up for that. He went up for that. He got air bell. He got my attention. We're going to talk about him. He was ringing to check. But I feel like he did really well on defense in this game. can't think of any egregious mistake that he made. And then the play he made to sky over his defender and finished that to the far post. great finish. So that was good and intriguing to see from John Bell not who I would have picked to get on the score sheet. His game he almost scored again as well. Yeah he did. Great game from John Bell. It was unfortunate that Seattle didn't get a couple more goals in this game. There's a couple pretty tragic sequences that could have been additional goals but weren't quite. There was the one where Jordan got out and transition and he He could have waited off to Paul Rothrock. That one killed me. I think that killed both of us as purveyors of the Paul Rothrock agenda. Jordan Jordan and Paul Rothrock are basically on a two on one against that guy. And. You know Jordan made the wrong decision. I saw some I saw some takes out there that. Like he actually couldn't have laid it off or or is the right to say, mean, you lay that off, you lay that off every time. But I do think there's two sides of it because there has been. I think it's been a theme in Jordan's career at times where he is too unselfish, you know? Yeah. So as much as it pained me to see Paul Roth Rock not get an open net goal, that would have been like probably the easiest goal he's ever scored. I don't mind Jordan shooting in that situation. I like to see him aggressive and also with the context of the game in Seattle being up two goals at the time. I'm not going to get on him too much but I am pretty sad that we didn't get a Paul Roth Rock goal. Yeah our agenda is I mean listen he's a starter Paul Roth Rock has cemented himself. He doesn't need anyone else. You he doesn't need any help to to you know advocate for him but. Man, when I when if you were standing next to me in the stadium, I was screaming, Pastor Roth Rock, Pastor Roth Rock. I felt bad for my for my neighbors. It was. Yeah, we were all thinking it. But unfortunately, no goal on that play. Then the other one was. Jordan got out running again. found Rudy Diaz for a wide open shot off a cross that Roman Birkey made in a pretty insane save on Rudy Diaz is he's snake bit right now. He's had a couple of these where you know he hits it pretty much as well as you can hit it. And in those situations if the goalkeeper makes the save on you you kind of just tip your cap. He's had two of those in the last few weeks. So he seems like he he's getting in good spots. He's getting good chances like that chance. For instance, that's more of the Rudy Diaz like bread and butter type chance that you want to see him getting. So that was nice to see even as he continues to play in this super sub role. But that kind of a, feel bad for him on Berkey. You know, guy's one of the best goalkeepers of like this recent generation, as I understand it. And he's just, he was under siege in this game making all these crazy saves. That's basically what he's been doing all season. That's all that when we talk about the reasons why St. Louis City overachieved last year. That's honestly probably the biggest reason is because week after week he was making these crazy game changing saves. But the guy he can only do so much. Seattle really could have had three or four goals in this game. Berkey was playing out of his mind again. I mean, he's just a very good goalkeeper. I can't even lie. But that was that pretty comfortable win. Seattle's 10th win of the season. They're now 10 -7 -7 with 37 points and sixth in the Western Conference. Now just one point off a top four seed. All right, so I'm going to lay down my rapid fire takeaways on this game we can talk about a little bit. And then I had a take from the National Pundits. We're gonna debate better get in there. Yeah First takeaway, I mean wrist snap is still just he's so locked. Oh, dude. He is He's I think he's been like his dead ball service I think has been the best in the league But I just think his form in general like he's as hot as any number 10 that you could name right now And you know, it's not getting talked about that much but if you just look at how he's producing and like he really could have had It should have been at least two assists and maybe one more on top of that. Like he's had so many near opportunities where he could already be up at like 15 to 20 assists with like a little luckier finishing. You know. So that was one takeaway. Also Schmetz low key kind of locked in. Jeremiah wrote about it on Sounder Heart which is a great website. But it just seems like. Schmitz is this is what Jeremiah was saying. Like Schmitz is kind of just pressing all the right buttons right now between his lineup decisions and his substitutions, which he's shown a propensity for making a little bit earlier subs, which I think is something that we both had talked about. Yeah. So I wanted to give him his credit on that because you know, people were on Schmitz a little bit earlier this season and that's an understatement. We were on him too. We were on him too, but there was, know, there was like a little bit of a Schmitz out sentiment for sure. going on and we, we, we never really, I don't think either of us were ever on that train, but I think it kind of what it underscores to me is it's just like, you should be careful about being reactionary over one bad run of form. You know, I know if you looked at Seattle's points per game dating back a while, it would still, it wasn't really good, but I mean, just when you have a coach that's as proven as Schmetz's that's a local legend. I don't know. I just think it's going to take more than one middling run of form to to make a move like that. Because if you really I know how much we complained about it this season, but realistically, this team was more on like a one point one to one point three points per game pace, which is not great and not up to the standards that we expect from this club. But I think for Schmitz, for that to ever actually happen, it would have to be like catastrophe where the team is like way down on the table and like below a point per game type stuff. But I could have seen like a potential this season for him going. But it's very clear that he was able to turn it around. And like I mean we've mentioned this in the past with all the drama the TV the intrigue the way that he was able to handle that and man manage all of those players if he had been basically around that time is when most of the people were calling for that or even before then. I can't even imagine what some new coach coming into a locker room and you've got to deal with new who and Raul, you know, going into the locker room, throwing a tantrum. You've got Leo Chu throwing a tantrum like that could have legitimately made the season so much worse. Yeah. And I think looking back on it now, it seems like the all the drama kind of galvanized the team, you know? I don't know if there's anything actually to that, but it does seem like some of the turnaround in form that we've seen kind of started around all the time that the team seemed to be devolving into a reality TV show. So maybe that was just the boost that they needed to come out of this. Other takeaway, the depth that we're seeing is just really impressive right now. I mean, in this game, you had a situation where Rudy isn't JP both came off the bench. Yeah. Yamar and De La Vega didn't even play. And I feel like it's the first time in a few years where this team has been healthy enough to actually employ the type of squad rotation to manage this fixture, the fixture congestion that you always get in MLS. Like, pretty much you always go into a season. you're going to like that you have all this plan on how you're going to rotate and handle these games and then guys get hurt guys go on international duty and your plans just kind of blow up in your face. This is the first time in a while where we're actually getting to see the things we like think about in preseason in action where you know, like you have a game where Rusnak has to rest you can plug in De La Vega at the 10 you have a game like say there's a game where Jordan had to rotate out you could put Raul and like stuff like that It just feels like we seldom get to see them actually employ that. And right now they're getting to and you're kind of you're kind of seeing what the result of that is. Yeah, it's impressive. Like you have people. Everyone has stepped up to the plate. This is something that Spencer even said in one of his postgame pressers that look, you have a man like Paul Rothrock who went from the depths of the Defiance bench to a starter, a contributing member and an important member of the team because he's working hard day in and day out. He appreciates what he has in terms of like, hey, I don't know how many games I'm to get to play, but I'm just going to work my ass off and I'm going to I'm going to work on my role. And he said that he said everyone's been willing to give that, you know, even Raul, you know, whether he's been hesitant or not or been frustrated, he's he's now starting to accept, OK, this is my role at this moment, you know, and you need that, especially in MLS with this insanely congested schedule. You had. that whole lead up in the Open Cup where they were able to play all their young players who contributed significantly to now they are almost in a final for the Open Cup. Like everyone is playing their part and everyone's healthy. And this was exactly what the national pundits were kind of saying at the beginning of the year when they were predicting the Sounders to potentially be a shield contender. They were like, look at all this depth they have. If they can get this to like work like it's working right now, man, like no one can stop them Here you go. Six six wins six game win streak man like that's crazy. New who was on one in this game. This was a this was a classic new who game if there ever was one. There are a lot of antics my favorite one was the. bounding run that he embarked on down the left side. He had the arms pumping. He had so much space. The crowd behind him. The crowd was doing the new who chew chew. It was all building up. And then he whatever he did was not a shot or a cross. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but he absolutely smashed the ball somewhere. didn't get it got nowhere close to the goal and it got nowhere close to a runner for a cross. So but I think like the new who antics in a game where you're winning are comedic whereas the new antics in a game where you're losing or tied and like chasing a game winning goal. That's when they're infuriating. But for this one since Seattle was ahead for most of the game like I thought that the comedy outweighed how infuriating it might have been. Yeah it was pretty silly. I don't know. I felt like he didn't play his worst game or anything, but he was definitely on one and well, Brian, you said after the game, I believe the exact quote was like he subbed him off for playing with too much pizzazz. Bro has too much swag, too much pizzazz. That's that is one way to put it. That is. Yeah. I also I was going to ask, how did you I felt like his play his interplay with Chiu was awful this game. I mean, it kind of, is, I feel like it is every time that's the setup and that's sort of that's a problem. they've been able to, work through that, but I mean, we were talked about that a lot earlier this season, how, when it's the two of them on the left side, it's sort of a black hole in attack and that problem that was the case this game again. all right. I had this take from the national pundits that I wanted us, to debate because, you know, I've been tracking the national pundits. I pay attention to what they say. So you all don't have to. And they still don't care about the Seattle Sounders, which is something I mentioned on the solo pod last week. But I feel like I've gotten a little bit of a better idea on where they're coming from with this. And I think they have they've made some points that have some validity, but also some that I disagree with. So I'm going what I'm going to do is I'm going to lay out what they have to say about all this. And then we're just going to talk about like whether we disagree or disagree with what they're saying. So basically, the national pundits, Bradley Wright Phillips as one of them, they're acknowledging Seattle's recent winning streak and turn around in form of late. But the caveat they're bringing up is and it's one that I have thought about a little bit but not in super great detail is it's basically that Seattle hasn't beaten anybody over this stretch. They're basically beating up on bad teams and that when they they want to see them play good teams and prove it against the good teams before they really believe in and put stock in the idea that Seattle has fully turned around and gotten past their slow start to the season or that you know that could be a true contender against the league's heavyweights. know, like LAFC, FC Cincinnati, Inter Miami, the Galaxy, Roussell Lake, whatever it's like. Do they deserve to be in that tier? lot of the national pundits are still saying no. So let's look at this. I have the opponents that Seattle has beaten over this last little stretch here written down. FC Dallas. Embarrassing. Terrible. Chicago Fire. Terrible. New England revolution. I mean, they, at the point Seattle had played them, they had been doing a little better. They had one four straight, but on the whole this season, terrible sack pub, pretty good, but us L squad. yeah, gotta give it. Yeah. It's not like a win that people are going to be giving you all kinds of credit for Austin FC Wolfout, terrible Wolfout St. Louis city. S C pretty bad, terrible fraud, pretty bad fraud. Fired their coach like two weeks ago. Yeah. So It is a fair point that this has been a soft part of the schedule. They're not wrong. And I think that is something that makes this game against LFC all the more intriguing because you definitely for however much LFC has not looked like themselves the last two weeks. You definitely can't call them a cupcake opponent. So it definitely adds a storyline for Seattle. going into that game. And I do think there's an element of that talking point that's a bit of a bullshit caveat though. First of all, you can only play who's on your schedule, who's in front of you. And also, you know what good teams do when they're playing teams that they're better than and have a talent advantage on? They take care of business. That's what Seattle's been doing. They've been taking care of business. haven't been drawing these games. They've been taking all three points in all these games. They've been winning on the road. So the point is taken from the national pundits. But I would say I don't think that I don't think that's as much of a slam dunk talking point as they might have you believe. Yeah. I mean the B and BWP stands for bad takes. So I mean we should have seen this one coming. I'm not saying that the Sounders are equal to L .A. F .C. in any means. We'll find out this weekend. I think that they have a pretty good chance of contending but you can't tell me they've they drew the galaxy. They you know they beat the Timbers who looked pretty good. They lost to RSL but they also drew to RSL and that was back when they were playing terribly you know and then now you look at their run of form and they haven't lost a game and what is it nine or ten. What like I don't understand what more you want. You you talk about turning a season around, turning, turning your form around, showing your potential. I think, you know, like you have people who put them up super high on this pedestal at the beginning of the season. They underperformed at the beginning of the season, and now they're performing up to the standard that everyone expected them to at the beginning of the season. it's a little confusing how people aren't giving them at least a little bit of credit. We'll see this weekend genuinely and Schmetzer seems to understand this and same with the players that like this is a big game. This L .A .F .C. game is a proving ground because you do this and then you're going straight into League's Cup after this. You can ride that wave. You can ride that momentum. You literally could go win this game. Take that off. That's seven game win streak. Go into League's Cup. Who knows? Maybe you go win League's Cup. You know, come back out and then you get to play L .A .F .C. again. in an open cup and like that could be like a pivotal pivotal pivotal moment for the season. Absolutely and I'll be keeping track I'll be on national pundit watch you know for the rest of the season like I always am. keep you guys apprised of what they're saying and what they're thinking and when it's necessary we'll address their talking points here on the show. Let's get into the agenda check Noah. That's a good agenda check this week. We had a brand new one. It's a brand new agenda check. There's there's new stuff in here. There's a couple of agendas last week that I think reached their conclusion in my written content for Sounder at Heart which you should subscribe to Sounder at Heart read that. I do a written version of the agenda check every single week. But you know I declared the Rue is terrible agenda to be fully dead, which I did. I did see a little bit of pushback on the someone was trying to contend that the Rusnak is terrible agenda was like not a thing. They've clearly never been on Twitter. Yeah, but it was a tweet that I saw. And I mean, I'm just you know, they were saying like it was a good faith debate about whether about his DP versus Tam. roster status, which that was a good faith debate. had that good faith debate on this show. The people who were having that debate were having it in good faith, but there was a lot of Rusnak is terrible takes out there. In fact, no, I saw one tweet from someone who said, Wrist neck is the worst sounder of all time. That's insane. All time. That's that's a crazy day. I realize one tweet is not like you can't generalize a whole subset of people who have a take based off one tweet. But I mean that type of stuff was out there. This is a team Noah that had a manual Chachini on it at one point. Yeah. I mean wrist neck whatever you want to say about him like worse sounder of all time. I it's just it got over the But that agenda shall read Joseph. Do you remember shall read Joseph. mean shall read was actually pretty good wasn't he. But he was just he just famously got started at striker in the playoffs when he was like a defensive mid. That's true. Yeah I guess he wasn't that bad. Maybe I'm just remembering we could go through the list. There's that guy who was friends with OBA. I can't remember his name. Yeah that guy like so. I mean Even even before Russ Nagg turned his season around this season. He was nowhere near that discussion You know, the Jordan Morris is the number nine. I think that agenda is over. So we've come up with I got four written down here. So let's get into it. The first one, the John Bell should get more minutes agenda. I have this marked agenda status. Intriguing. Yeah. He got my attention. He got my attention. He's only gotten a few hundred minutes this year, but I feel like he's played pretty well defensively and he scored a goal. in this game and that's like an element of his game that he might have more of than Jackson Reagan and Yamar who I think are Yamar is a decently goal dangerous center back Jackson Reagan. He just scored his first MLS goal a couple of weeks ago. It was a great goal but that's an element of his game that I feel like is not fully refined or part of his game as much yet. John Bell this was his like third or fourth career MLS goal already and he only has had one season. believe where he really played a full compliment of minutes with when he was with New England last year was St. Louis. He didn't really play all that much at all. So I get that game for him now. Yeah. Against his former team he talking about how he decided not to celebrate. So I definitely I mean this CB group looks strong right now. I still think that I'm our and Jackson Reagan whose form I think has improved the last few weeks. That's your first choice pairing. in a first choice 11, but John Bell, that's great depth to have and also, you know, Nathan, we forget, but Nathan was considered a pretty solid upper tier starting MLS CB when he was on the earthquakes. So that's it. It's looking like a strong and deep center back group. And I think John Bell, he's shown enough, not just because of the goal, but how he's played defensively that maybe he should be in the rotation a little bit more. Yeah. It's so nice to have that rotational depth to like the only game that I really remember him playing kind of poorly was that Houston game that to to draw back in June. But even then it really wasn't that bad of a performance. And you know there's been times where we've seen Jackson struggle and if you know that you can slot in John Bell and maybe even have a little bit more attacking presence and threat like that's so nice to have like it is honestly a blessing to have such a stacked CB room and led by Yamar who's like genuinely one of the best CBs in the entire league. The Christian rolled on should start it right back agenda. This is not an entirely new agenda. We have talked about it a little bit but not super extensively and I think this is one that I think is going to be interesting. going forward because I mean you would be starting him over his brother Alex and I have it marked as intriguing and I think strengthened. The more I've thought about this the more I think that this is actually a great idea for the first choice 11. With De La Vega getting healthy and the kind of log jam you have in the in the attack in the front four I think this is the way to get him on the field first of all. And you know I've alluded to this before but I also think that fullback is actually like perfectly tailored to his kind of two way skill set. Absolutely. He can use those attributes attributes that he's honed as a right mid the same attributes as well that he honed during his time as a defensive mid. And you know the energy and the work rate that you always know Christian is going to bring, I think it's actually tailored pretty perfectly for the position. And when you have all your weapons healthy in attack, I think this is, this is how you get him in the starting 11. And like, I don't think that you can have a starting 11 without Christian in it, both because of what he brings on the field and in terms of his leadership and his presence. So I was against this at the start, I will say. When they first started doing the Christian at right back thing again, I was like, we're doing this again after having already done it five years ago. It was a good novelty thing at the time, but you're taking him out of his best position. It's OK as a temporary thing, or if he has to drop back there during a game, but as any sort of long -term starting position, no. And that's how I thought of it for a long time, but I gotta say the last couple weeks here I've come around on it and not only have I come around on it. I think if I was making like an ideal 11 I Think I would put him I would put in there. Yeah. No, dude He's like he's looked so good there and he's so much more dynamic than Alex and not to say that Alex isn't good in that position I mean he was one of the best last season The way that he'll just get up the field, he has that attacking minded positioning as well. So if he gets caught up the field, can, he's not really in the way of anyone. makes really good interplay with everyone and will track back. mean, dude, he has to be on the field and I'm loving this right back world on thing. I will put a caveat. I know you're the official agenda setter, like in terms of like levels. I would do this is near completion. This is near cooked. This is this is near like it's got to be because he's starting their game in and game out. And I think Brian is realized like this is this this spot. Yeah it's definitely one worth keeping tabs on going forward. I'm curious to see if they keep rolling with it. OK. This is this is a good one. I actually learned a in my research regarding this next agenda. I'm just reading this on the paper and I'm like, boy, this is going to cause some stir. The RBW should start at left back over new agenda. OK. Now, when I first. You know, when I first posed this agenda, I thought I pretty much thought that I knew already what my take was. And, you know, I think most people know that I'm I've never been and fervently anti new who as the purveyors of the anti new who agenda of which you've been a part at times correct which our colleagues some of our colleagues at sounder of heart have been at the forefront of at times I've always just I've defended new who from the standpoint of I think it's pretty clear honestly what the value he brings as a player is I understand the frustration of watching him in attack at times. I share those frustrations, but I think he's quite obviously a very good defensive player and you know, that's been shown and proven a lot over the years. mean, this team has been a great defensive team over the last three or four years. Last year, they were one of the best defensive teams in the league. They won MLS cup in 2019 and CONCACAF Champions League with New Hoo as a first choice starter. like you really think a team that's been that good that consistently on defense over. that long a period of time you think new who really just has nothing to do with that. Like I mean I doubt it and you know who understands that I think Schmitz understands that because I don't I really don't think Schmitz would be starting new who in MLS cups and CONCACAF Champions League games and finals if he didn't realize the value that knew who brings on. the defensive side of the ball. And not to mention, like, just take looking at this LAFC game, for instance, where you're going up against a guy like Dennis Bawanga. If you're asked me just off the top of my head, who am I starting between New Who and RBW in a game where you have to play against Dennis Bawanga, I'm picking New Who. Every time both because of experience his experience but also because he has the speed and the athleticism To keep up with a guy like that and like he actually he did pretty well against Denny Spalonga in the playoffs last year except for the one play the one play where he scored a goal and it lost them the game which like did that really lose him the game because They got shut out. they got shut out. Yeah. going to get you for one most times. Yeah. Play him. That's just how it goes. For the most part, he did a good job. And that's, that's a lot. A lot of the time he's been the starter, the starting left back on this team the last few years. That's the level that he's played at on the defensive side of the ball for whatever is attacking shortcomings may be. Okay. So all that being said, all that being said, I decided to look at the metrics, the underlying numbers for both both new and RBW. I because I looked at new whose first. to see if it would validate what I was saying. And I looked at New whose underlying metrics for obviously his attacking underlying numbers are are terrible. But like that's not really that's not his role. He's a defender first and foremost. And his defensive metrics are all pretty good. Some of them are very good. And so I was like OK I think that basically supports what I'm saying as far as you know I was going to advocate for new who being the starter over RBW for the time being. And I felt like what I saw more or less matched up with what I was saying. But then I looked at RBW's metrics and they're they're even better than news is defensive metrics. But what I was struck by just was how good they were compared to anyone. I mean, I'm going to I'm just going to read some of these off because It was eyebrow raising stuff for me when I saw these are RBW's underlying defensive underlying numbers. Passes attempted. Seventy seventh percentile. Very good. Damn pass completion percentage. Sixty second percentile. Yeah. Pretty solid. Progressive passes. Sixty eighth percentile. Pretty solid. Progressive carries. Ninety third percentile. Excellent. Successful take ons. Ninety sixth percentile. Excellent. Touches. 49th percentile, but I don't really think that matters as much. Progressive passes recorded 87th percentile. Excellent. Tackles 91st percentile. Interceptions 71st percentile. Really good. Blocks 99th percentile. Elite. Clearances 81st percentile. Very, very good. Aerials one 85th percentile. Very, very good. Pretty excellent. So RBW Actually, he's like just looking at those he's been playing much better, especially on the defensive side of the ball than I even thought. Yeah. And with that in mind, I'm not going to say that I necessarily am going to be the purveyor of this agenda. But I think anyone who who would advocate for the RBW should be starting at left back over new agenda would have actually quite a good leg to stand on. so I actually feel like I learned quite a lot in my research on the topic of this agenda. You could say that it is statistically strengthened, right? Like I mean, nuts. Yeah. Wow. I'm like shocked because I, can see from the eye test at least that RBW is way more dynamic and attack. And I feel like he has some of the similar one -on -one defending chops as new who like I've That first game back, he slide tackled three players and won the ball, you know? But man, that's like the numbers. Listen, I'm going to we both know I'm not a numbers guy unless they support my cause. So folks, listen to the numbers here. I'll be the purveyor. All right, I'll be the purveyor. Yeah, I was just I kind of couldn't believe what I was seeing. I think what it what it What it brings up too is like an interesting debate over what exactly RBW's best position should be because, you know, there's been talk over whether he should be a winger or a fullback. And when I see numbers like this, I'm thinking, OK, I understand why he's kind of being seen as a fullback more than an attacking winger. But I also think there might be something to the notion that That a two -way skill set like that can be very valuable as an attacking player. Like we saw that with what Christian brought when he was at right mid, right? So I think there's a discussion to be had still over whether RBW should be a fullback or if they should play him higher up the field. But for now, it very much seems like he is not only a viable starting MLS fullback. It seems like he could be a very, good one. Yeah. Get him in there more. Let's get more. Let's get more minutes. Let's start him. This agenda is just starting, but I'm down to be the purveyor. The last agenda check I have here, this is a new agenda that I don't I'm not. Saying that it's taken hold yet, but I'm gonna lay the groundwork. Okay It's the Albert Rysnack and Jordan Morris is the best one to punch in the league This is somehow spicier than the last one. I think Ari. Well, it's very it's very spicy and I understand. Okay, so You can't call this You can't call this agenda complete or anything Until we see them do it over more of a sample size like I get that they've only done it over the last like ten games or so and There are other duos in the league who have been doing it all season or even dating back to last season. You got guys like Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi who have been doing it over a much larger sample size. Bawanga and Matias Bogus for LAFC who we're going to see this weekend. They've both been doing it over a much larger sample size. I'm not including Inter Miami in this. They're essentially cheating like the Messi and Suarez obviously like they don't count like they're not factored into this discussion. But for the non -Inter Miami team, There are definitely one two punches that you would have to put over Rusnak and Morris right now Just on the basis of that they've done it over a much longer period of time however the reason I wanted to lay the groundwork for the agenda is because there's still a lot of games left this season for them to maintain this pace or even all they have to do is maintain 75 to 80 percent of the pace that they've been on over the last couple weeks throughout the rest of the season and then they'll have they'll Theoretically have playoff games to add on to that If they're able to keep cooking at this level through that stretch of games Who knows? I mean Maybe there will come a time where they have to be acknowledged up there with some of the better one, two punches in MLS at the moment. And I think the longer they do it, the longer they do it, I'll tell you this, the longer they do it, you're not only going to just hear me pushing this agenda. The national pundits will start to take notice as well. The only reason that they're not. they're not taking notice already is because it's only been like this most recent set of games. So without falling victim to recency bias, I'm just saying that this agenda could actually take off if they continue to play. It doesn't even add the pace they're on right now is ridiculous. Like, no, it would be impossible to sustain that. But if they keep in roughly this form, I think it could have wheels. I feel like Albert isn't slowing down though. Like maybe Jordan slows down a little bit on his scoring production. But I don't know dude like Albert's a man possessed. I could see this. I could see him potentially you know being nominated as a finalist for for an end of season award if he keeps you know at this pace like something something has been unlocked in him. And you know one of the things that while we were both frustrated with the not laying it off to Paul Roth Rock. It shows how also locked in Jordan is and trusting in his own ability. Like when those two are on and focused, man, that's some that's some scary football right there. All right. That'll do it for the agenda check this week. I think that was I think that was a good agenda check. Like I like I said, I actually got some more depth of knowledge from it. And I'm interested keep track of these more moving forward. if you have any agendas that you would like to push and that you want to hear us talk about, go ahead and hit us up on Twitter. if we think that they're good agendas, then we'll talk them over and tell you if they're. Diminished or or strengthened? All right. Let's get into questions Noah. We have we have a few here Thank you as always to everyone who submitted we really appreciate you all getting the discourse flown No, we can't get to every single one of you every week, but We try our best to get it to as many as we can. So let's dive in here. Let's dive in or did you miss me asking the questions this past week when you had to solo pod it. I did actually. Yeah, it felt weird. Yeah, it's I was listening to it and I was like, man, I should have been there. But I'm here now and we're going to get things rolling here with Mikey six strings asks Rothrock brings that drive to the field that has been missing since Lodaro left. He's got that engine and also takes a plethora of fouls, just like Nico used to do. Yeah, that's actually a good comp that I hadn't thought of before, we hadn't really done our big Roth Rock segment yet. So thanks for getting that going, Mikey. Let's do it now. Yeah, we better dive in. so Jeremiah also tweeted the stats on this, but He actually, he didn't get on the stat sheet last night and Jordan didn't lay it off to him for the goal, but he had a great game. He drew five fouls. He drew the foul that set up the free kick that Rusnak put in for the John Bell goal. And that is very much an attribute that I think Nico is. probably the best foul drawer that I've ever watched easily. was one of his best skills was his ability to draw fouls. And he actually taught that to Obed. Like that's one of the first things I noticed watching Obed play is that how good he is at drawing fouls. And I always felt like he probably got that from Nico. But Roth Rock was definitely doing that last night. And yeah, he's just he's just kind of he's a pest a little bit in the in the same in a similar way. And really, me, me, he, you know, he's talked about how when he first got here and was playing for defiance, you know, he might have been his last opportunity. And he was saying, like, all right, if this doesn't work out and I don't break through with the first team here and I end up kind of just spinning my wheels like I might have to go get a job and. I think that he kind of channeled that into a mindset of, you know, fuck it. Like I got nothing to lose. I have nothing to lose. And I'm going to play like that every single time I'm on the training ground, every single time I get into a game, like I'm just going to play with my hair on fire because like, if I don't make it like that's it. So like, what's it matter? I'm just going to go for it. And I think that's manifested itself in, Just like the energy he brings the juice that he's playing with the swagger that he's brought to the team and I Like that I like that Lidero comp because the way he was the way he was buzzing around and drawing those fouls It was it was reminiscent, you know, yeah, dude. It's so fun to watch him play like it is genuinely fun to watch him play He reminds me he reminds me of like a million different players, but I love the I love the Lidero comp I love it even more because he's becoming such a fan favorite like Everyone around me was so stoked when he was starting and everyone around me was like just eyes glued to the field every time he would get the ball. You know, I saw someone tweeted at me a whole family with Roth Rock jerseys, which might have been his family, but we're going to go with the agenda that it's just a fan favorite and even better. We are purveyors. Sorry. We're purveyors. The first ever episode of lobbying scorchers was literally titled. play Paul Roth Rock or whatever. Like it was Paul Roth Rock needs some help. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know dude. It's been so fun to watch this kid and he is genuine. He's genuinely a good player. He's genuinely a good player with incredible like vision for the game. And Brian even said that last night after the match he's just I don't know dude please please please never stop playing Paul. Please never stop playing. Next question comes from Dan Tolar. Dan asks What do you think about Schmetzer's recent comments that the Sounders were just getting unlucky early in the year and that now things are falling their way? Were the Sounders OK and unlucky to start and now are they just OK but lucky or has there been genuine improvement in form? Yeah, I think there actually is something to what Schmetz was saying with that in the sense that, you know, when you go through a stretch of the season where where nothing seems to be going your way. Those things do tend to even out over the course of a whole season. And earlier this season, you know, Seattle were ex -G merchants. all the breaks are going against them. And now over this last stretch of games, feels, really feels like the exact opposite. Like everything is going their way. They're, they're getting insanely lucky right now. But I think what you're seeing is what happens when your luck turns around and your form turns around at the same time. And that's what's been fun to watch. But I mean, to answer the second part of your question, there has been genuine improvement in form. think it's both things. their luck has turned around as those things tend to do over the course of a full season and they're playing much better and the result of that has been the huge change in results and it's been super fun to watch. Yeah it's not every day when a team is really bad or just performing pretty bad and nothing is going their way and I feel like the beginning of this season it felt like that I was watching those games and I was I never really stopped and was like, we should be winning these games. It was like, wow, we just look terrible. And there was there was a switch. There was a turn. And now you're like, OK, yeah, this team looks really good. And also, they're getting lucky. So, you know, maybe they drop a few points here and there because they get unlucky. But they were still able to keep themselves afloat enough through those really rough times to where now it doesn't even look that bad. And yeah, I agree with you. think there genuinely has been a big improvement in form. And a United Ghost asks, is Obed Vargas the best midfielder on this team right now? I mean, I guess I don't know if you are separating attacking midfielders from defensive mids, but assuming we're talking all midfielders, I mean, I've still got Albert. But I mean, the fact that Obed's in the conversation for that should tell you about the type of ball that he's been playing this year? I'll prove I'll purvey this one. I you know what? I'm going to go for it. I think he might be just the the growth that we've seen from him in the consistency from the beginning of the season till now. You know, Albert Albert kind of started off slow and now he's super hot. We'll see over the rest of the season, but I'm to miss him when when they sell him for like big bag. Cause he's good. It's a good point. Russ Russ next form has really been over like this last smaller stretch of games. Whereas open it's kind he's been playing like this all year. So I mean, that is a point in favor of, that agenda. You know, you got JP in the mix there as well. It's a good debate, but I like that agenda. Yeah. All right. Next up here, we have a question. from Jim C. Not not that Jim C. But could be could be that Jim C. Jim C. asks new agenda Jordan Morris for the USMNT number nine too soon. Don't tempt me with that agenda. I've been down that road and I actually I became a main character among the USMNT bots for a while being a purveyor of that agenda. It was really only for a day. And I actually, I actually regret that because I sort of, threw gasoline on a fire with that when I didn't really need to. It was during like peak COVID quarantine. And I think I was just angry and bored and needed something to do. And that's more why I did it than anything. But Don't back off. I've been double down. I mean, here's here's what I'll say, If they had called him in for the Copa, maybe the US men's national fraud squad wouldn't have gotten. I mean, couldn't couldn't have been much worse. I got to say he might have provided a little veteran leadership that was needed. I'm going to you know, I'm purveying that one to Jordan Morris. Number nine. They would have won. They would have won the whole tournament if he was playing for them. But you can't disagree with me because it didn't happen. So Sammy asks, is the Sounders trade with Toronto FC for Stephen Fry, one of the greatest in MLS history now, they traded a conditional draft pick for Stephen Fry. So they basically traded nothing for the greatest MLS goalkeeper of all time. Yeah, I always I always forget that that was the trade that brought Fry to Seattle. It's funny to look back on that. I wonder who conditional draft pick turned into. Yeah. Someone figure that out and tweet us. It's it doesn't get talked about enough that the that the goalkeeper that you know I think Frye if you just look at if you're just going by trophy case you know you've got you've got Nick Romando and who's considered the consensus MLS go goalkeeper you know Tim Howard played here but like in terms of just Decorated trophy case I'd fry is one of the best he's probably the best MLS goalkeeper ever like by that Criteria when you take into account the two MLS cups with the Congo calf Champions League with the supporter shield with the open cup I don't know how many goalkeepers have that many trophies. So I Think like I don't know I'd have to go back through the history of lopsided MLS trades But that's gotta be up there for among the most lopsided. I don't even yeah, I don't even think I could conjure up a better trade or a more one -sided trade that is in MLS history Well, thank you all for your questions. We love you We kiss you on the mouth if you didn't get your question answered. I'm so sorry go scream at Ari in the mentions next time We appreciate all of you for getting the discourse flowing as always. All right, let's get into this LAFC preview and then jump around the league, talk some Kevin Sullivan and winners and losers, and then we'll get out of here for episode 52. Does that sound good? Let's do it. All right. So LAFC, what I can tell you guys about LAFC is that they're actually down pretty bad right now in their last two results. I talked about it on the last show, but they lost to the Columbus crew at home and they didn't just lose. They got flat out. They got boat raced. They got embarrassed at their home stadium. Five to one gave up five goals. And then in their in their game last night, they tied RSL at home who, you know, you could look at it and say RSL is also one of the best teams in the league this year. They've been up there competing for the supporter shield all season. But RSL didn't have Chico Arango and. I would expect LFC to be able to handle Chico Arango lists RSL. I think if there's one kind of flaw with RSL right now, it's that they're kind of giving me the vibes of. like a Nashville SC relying on any Mootar or Austin FC with Sebastian Drey you see you take a wrong go off that RSL side. There's suddenly a lot less potent and LAF's a 1 1 at home verse Chico list RSL for LAFC. That's not a good result. No 5 1 against the crew. Obviously a very bad result. So they're not playing well over these last two games. So if there's anything working in Seattle's favor as the home team. There you're catching LFC ostensibly at a time where they are not playing their best soccer. However, I'll just say I never feel good about facing LFC. Dennis Belonga in particular, he terrifies me. I think he is the most uniquely terrifying player in the league when he gets out and running. You shouldn't be able to run that fast with that much power. and then also be able to shoot that accurately. He does when he when he shoots it on target it pretty much always goes in. He doesn't miss. I see that goal that he scored in the playoffs in Seattle last year in my nightmares. Yeah literally. He is an evil demonic force of nature and I want nothing to do with that guy. I don't want to see him. I don't want to see him outside of. soccer context or anything like I just I want no part of that. But unfortunately he's going to be here in Seattle and anytime he's involved in the proceedings I'm not looking forward to it. Like with him on the team I'm I he scares me even more than the twenty nineteen L.A. of C. team that had Carlos Vela score thirty four and fifteen because just the. just the physical power and speed that he possesses. mean, it's like if you it's like if you took Jordan and souped him up with like a bunch of steroids and then gave him like a turbo jet pack and put him on the soccer field and gave him a better finesse touch. Yeah. More technical ability. And I just don't want to see that guy. If I never saw him again, I would be happy. Dude, he's so he's he hasn't even hit a hundred matches with L .A .F .C. and he has fifty five goals, eighty four appearances and fifty five goals. That is that is like that is that will haunt you. It's scary. But I mean, yeah, with all that being said, I do think that a result is attainable for Seattle in this game. And, you know, with with LSCs form right now, I don't think a win is out of the question. think a lot of it comes down to to what degree New and company are able to slow down Dennis Bawanga or neutralize him. If you can do that, your chances go way up, certainly. And I just think you are definitely you're catching them in a moment where Like right before this, set of games before this, they were the hottest team in the league. They took 28 out of a possible 30 points. um, like if you, if you, if you had been playing them at that point, then, you know, I think I would feel differently about it, but looking at these last two results, they have looked more vulnerable in this most recent period of time. But you know, that could also mean that they're going to come in here pissed off and that they're going to play even better. We'll see how it pans out. But LFC they have not looked like the juggernaut LFC the last two weeks. Yeah I'm hoping we can get a get back game like that. That Western the fight. Whatever you know the playoff match that was I'm literally losing my words because I was so frustrated at that goal in that game but I couldn't be mad because you know Danny Bwang is basically Jesus reincarnated. I'm hoping that we can take a draw from this one. guess I'm a little less confident than you. I think that it's going to come down to the new who and company slowing him down. But I don't know if they can completely. I they'll probably get one. I think it's going to come down to Jordan and Jordan and Albert and Pedro really making an impact in this game and scoring multiple goals. Yeah. And like we mentioned earlier I'm definitely hoping that we get to see A lengthy de la Vega shift in this game, you know I obviously you got it. You got to make sure he doesn't do his hamstring but theoretically he he should be in a place having rested for this last game where They can they can run give him 50 to 60 minute run and see what he can do and that could be an X Factor in this game as well All right. Let's jump around the league here and then do winners and losers to close it out and then we'll call it a wrap for episode 52. First thing I wanted to talk about was I mean this was the biggest headline that that went on and matchday twenty seven and MLS and really one of the biggest stories in in pro sports yesterday. Kevin Sullivan made his debut for the Philadelphia Union. 14 years old, 293 days. Wow. were you doing when you were 14? Breaks the long -hold record of Freddie Adu, who was 14 years, 320 days. So this was obviously a big milestone moment for the league. know, Kevin Sullivan, he's the brother of Quinn Sullivan, who's another Philly union homegrown. Their dad was a former professional player, so they're just this born and bred. Philly family. There's like two more of them. It's like an army of Sullivan's. They're the U .S. team taking over. But Kevin has long been considered at least in the last couple of years. I mean to be the to be the best one. But he made his debut last night and there was a lot of discourse about it and a lot of it was more negative than I would have thought. You know there was a lot of people saying He was being overhyped. They shouldn't be doing this. He's too young to be debuting. They're Freddie -doing him because, know, as we all know, Freddie -do is like the name you bring up as a cautionary tale for hyping an athlete when they're too young before they're ready. But I'll just give my take on some of this because I do see both sides of it. Like when I first saw he was debuting, you know, we were told a little bit beforehand to get our content planning going. So we knew that this was likely to happen and that it was likely to happen in a time frame where he would end up breaking Freddie's record. And so when I first saw that it was going to happen, I'm not going to lie. I did. There was part of me that was like, this feels like a potential safety hazard. He's not, he's not like a big kid. I, Freddie you do was 2004. So I don't remember that that well. was 12 in 2004. I was literally for, but yeah, I've been, I've been going, I've gone back and watched the highlights and I've, uh, I've seen like the DC United days and stuff. And he looked like a big kid, know, Kevin looks, he looks like he's 14, like he looks like he was, uh, he's in ninth grade because he is. Um, so like the thought of him going up against MLS, like, you imagine him going up against YMAR? I was low key a little worried about it from that perspective. But I mean, as for his debut itself, I actually like he he more than held his own. He like he definitely looked like he belonged out there. He had one play in particular where they got him out and running on the break and he made a run down the left side and he lined up a shot from distance. and it got saved, but it was like a pretty good looking shot. And he definitely, he didn't look like overmatched or out of his depth in the brief time that he was on the field. know, five, Philly was ahead five one by the time he got on the field. So it was relatively low stakes in that sense. But yeah, he still got out there at, at 14 years old, like definitely historic record breaking moment. My take on all the hype, like if he's being overhyped and and all that, like the only thing the what I'll say about that is like. Pedigree like this, it comes along every so often, and it's never going to just come completely out of nowhere. OK, there's a reason that. Manchester city has already made a deal for him to come join their club when he turns 18 and he would probably, I think he would be headed over there sooner, but it's like, you can't legally do that. Manchester city has scouted him and watched him play and they've decided that they want him and That kind of speaks to like what the scouts and the pundits say about him is that he's not the best player for his age just in the US, just in this country. He's the best player for his age in the world. That's not like me saying that. And then, or me. You're not agenda pushing that I'm not agenda pushing and bestowing that on him from like what I have watched of him play. That's just what the scouts and the pundits are saying that he's the best prospect for his age in the world. And I mean I think that's pretty that's supported by the fact that he's already signed with Manchester City. So the other thing is that like Jim C Jim Kurt and the Philly staff they know ball. Yeah. And they specifically they know youth development. So if they watch him train and they think that he's ready to play in an MLS game, they're not going to just say that for no reason. And they're certainly not going to put him out there in an MLS game. they absolutely, if they didn't absolutely believe and were convicted in their thought that he was ready to do that. And that if they put him out there, like not only would he hold his own, but that he could positively Contribute I've heard Jim curtain talk about it. I saw his quotes, you know, he had a quote the other day where he was like, yeah, I mean we have him training with the first team and Every time he's in first team training. He does two or three things where I'm just like like what did I just see like and you know, I went and you looked up his highlights on YouTube a little bit because you know when he signed with Manchester City, I was like, okay, I have to Manchester city. All right. I have to, have to look, got a lock. I got to see these highlights for myself. What's this all about? And I will say like the, think the thing that stands out more than anything is his unselfishness and his vision and his ability already at 14 to find and hit these passes that That's just it's it's a type of thing that's like God given like you can't really teach that you either have it or you don't and not not only does he have it like I definitely he seems to have it at at an elite level like already. So that's basically what I had to say about that. I'm curious to see if he can live up to this level of height because It's definitely a lot like don't get me wrong like for a 14 year old to be kind of taking all this on his shoulders I can see why some people might think it's too much, but I guess my point is just that It's not it's definitely not for no reason it's not for no reason you don't get signed by Manchester City when you're 14 for no reason the Philly Union Don't put you out there in a first team game when you're 14 for no reason. Like you have to have shown some stuff to do that. Yeah. And I've seen, you know, funny enough, actually, I saw a lot of the USMNT bots getting absolutely triggered by them playing him and in this, whole idea that like the promotion and the MLS, like doing a sit down interview with him and like doing some silly Twitter video about it is, is somehow going to like ruin this player. Shouldn't they be hyped? Yeah, shouldn't they be excited? Like, I really don't get the hate. You know, the bigger thing to me is like he's surrounded by people who are fully aware of his situation and how to handle it. Like he has an older brother who has been playing in MLS. for multiple years now. He scored a banger right before he said done. Yeah. And like, I think that if anyone is in a position to succeed and do well with young, not that anyone's going to do well with young fame, but like with, with this, like weight on their shoulders or perceived weight, I feel like he's in a pretty damn good position to, hold up his end of the bargain. And even if he's He's he looks really excited to be out there. He was vibing. He was having the time of his life. You could tell. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't understand the hate. I'm so stoked to see him play and I'm even more stoked. You know once he goes to city it'll be great. But we are we're definitely lucky to be able to get to watch him play. I'm just I'm just curious as much as anything because like you know phenoms like this it can go one of two ways for sure. Like people point to Freddie I do as the reason that like that you should never hype an athlete like that. But, you know, there's there's stories on the other side of that as well. You got guys like if we're doing cross sport comparisons, you got guys like LeBron was hyped in a similar way to this, like in baseball, Bryce Harper. I remember when I was in high school, we're the same age, like he was hyped like this. I kind of I put sort of this situation is he's kind of the MLS version of that. And I think Pulisic is probably the closest young phenom, but even he didn't need go to Germany. He went to Germany when he was 16. But I don't think he was even being talked about making like a senior team debut when he was 14. I mean, so this is a little bit different territory than we've seen for a prospect in this country. I've never like when I heard that the scouts and pundits were saying he was the best player his age in the world. mean that raises eyebrows. These are scouts from other countries. You understand that. These are scouts from other countries who watched him play and said that. So I mean I don't know. I'm not a scout but like they're not going to just say that. No. And dude it's not unprecedented for people who start at the age of 14 to go on and have an incredible career maybe in soccer. It's less surprising but Serena Williams turned pro when she was 14. And she went on to be one of the best in the world. Not that, you know, not to compare apples to oranges, but like it's possible. The age thing is one thing. The way that he plays and watching him play, he clearly has a level to him that can be expanded upon and built on to be one of the best, one of the best, least in his class. Yeah, we'll certainly be keeping. tabs on how much he plays for Philly down the stretch here and what other milestones he checks off the list. All right. No, I think you had one news item here you wanted to hit on and then we can hit winners and losers. yeah, we got some slamming Sam news. hell yeah. Big slamming Sam news. This is dude. I feel like we've become like a partial union podcast. The amount we ban on that and the amount we we've brought up with the news. think in a lot of headlines. They are this. Yeah. Slamming Sam is apparently in a potential trade with the union from St. Louis and could still potentially be going to Austria after that. The Sounders retain their cell on for another year and it was confirmed that they've already been paid out 200 K and Gams so far from slam and Sam in the trade. I just thought that was interesting because that's That's a good bag for slam. Yeah. So slam and Sam went through a bunch of drama in St. Louis this year. He had a really good year for them last year after the Sounders traded him there. It seemed like he had a falling out with the coach and that coach got fired. But now he's on his way to Philly. But seeing that the Sounders have collected 200 K and game from that trade makes me feel a little bit better about that trade. Like when we spent a lot of time last season talking about how you know a bear was being an XG merchant and how much better things would could have been if they had just not traded slam and Sam but kind of based on how things ended for him in St. Louis where he's at in his career now and the amount of game that Seattle is stacking with his latest development. I think it kind of paints that trade in a different light. It makes me feel a little better about it. Yeah I'm not too upset about it anymore but I we wish slam and Sam. the absolute best. It's a pro slam and say yeah it's a pro slam and Sam podcast but all right let's hit these winners and losers and then we can call it a wrap for episode 52 winners and losers for match day twenty seven match day twenty seven my first winner Chicago fire no they took a one zero lead at FC Cincinnati and they didn't blow it didn't blow it didn't blow it it was a very depleted FC Cincinnati squad they didn't have Lucho Acosta Matt me Oz goes out for the season miles I was out with a red card suspension. I think they had a couple other guys out too. And then their coach Pat Noonan had one of the better sideline temper tantrums that you'll ever see and got a red card in that game. But either way, Chicago's homegrown Brian Gutierrez scored the game winning goal and they did not concede the equalizer, which as we know, that is what the Chicago Fire typically do in that situation and they didn't do it. For that, they get in the winner's section. This week. Congratulations, Chicago Fire. job, Chicago Fire. You kept the lead. Inter -Miami, so they lost to FC Cincinnati 6 -1 in their last game. But if you look at their whole body of work since Messi and Suarez went to the Copa, they won every single game except that Cincinnati blowout. And they won the first five of them 2 -1. And then this time, coming off that since he lost, They got a pretty easy 3 -1 win over Toronto. And it just kind of reinforces that. mean, this is the most loaded MLS roster I've ever seen. Like, before you even get to Messi, Suarez, Busquets, and Jordi Alba, like, the kids that were carrying them in this game, Federico Redondo is like, was one of the best prospects coming out of Argentina. And they got him. That would be like a big time signing. like independent of all the other stuff they've done. But it doesn't even get talked about because of all the other guys that they got. like he scored a goal in this game and looks really good. Diego Gomez, same thing. That would be a big time signing for like any other team. those guys like without, I think Suarez was back for this messy busted his ankle at the Copa. So he didn't play. And I mean, I think We'll see what happens like with Messi's health and if like all these barça boys can make it through a full season intact but inter Miami is pretty easily the supporter shield front runner in my opinion like I don't I think people can like kid themselves into thinking there's any other outcome there and maybe there is like if they have a ton of injuries but it's just it's just too much firepower at a certain point. Yeah I didn't even mention Matias Rojas. Yeah yeah it's crazy and like messy. I saw some articles that were saying, my God, inter Miami season is, you know, with this messy injury, it's, you know, it could be, it could be over. Their supporters shield base could be over. I'm like, have you guys not been watching this team over the last month? And then they have one more game and then they go into a month of leagues cup, which I'm sure they care to contend for, but like at this point, they already won it last. They want it in there going for MLS Cup and supporters shield right now, which they very like they have a good shot of winning if they can keep healthy. So let's say they sent Messi for a month. He heals. They're bright back at it and they're not, you know, they may never lose a game again. Yeah. No, like you're right. Like after the six one, people were people were talking about it. I just I just don't buy it for a second. Maybe the last winner of the week, L .A. Galaxy beat a pretty good Rapids team. three to two Ricky Pooj and Joey Paints both scored. Mike Kings. Yeah. If you haven't watched it yet, go watch the goal that Joey Paints scored. It was all Gabriel Peck that made it happen. He made an incredible run down the right side and then a perfect pass to find Joey Paints for a tap in which he roofed. Gabriel Peck has is up to nine goals, 11 assists this season and Joey Paints has eight and eight. I mean, that's just fantastic production from your wide attackers. They really, mean, their front office deserves a lot of credit for those signs, those two signings in particular. mean, the fact Ricky Pooja doesn't really get talked about kind of how crazy it is that this 22 year old Barcelona kid came to MLS. Like usually it's they're not that young when they do that. So that was a great signing in itself. But I think I'm going to free. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. But now now you you flank him with Joey Paints and Gabrielle Peck. They need they need Jovald back. But they've also been linked to Marco Roos. Yeah. So that I mean imagine that as your super sub like they could they could be getting if they pull that off they could be getting even better. But that was definitely a good dub for them this week because the Rapids are actually having a pretty decent year. losers, Minnesota United, they're in the gutter, dude. They are down about as bad as any team in the league. They let DC United come back late and beat them three, two at home. They were up to one in the 90th minute. They're up to one in the 90th minute. Let, let Aaron Herrera score the equalizer in the 90th. And then Christian Ben tech, a score the winner in the 91st. That's you're down bad. You I touted their head coach Eric Ramsey when he first got there. I think he's been dealt a bit of a tough hand with where their rosters at. think losing Emmanuel Reynoso like with him going missing and then no longer being on the team and Timo Pukki being injured and not really producing. It's caught up with them pretty decidedly. But that was they pulled a They pulled a Philly union essentially is what the Chicago fire Philly union and all that. They pulled a Philly union against the Chicago fire. Yeah. That's they did against DCU who DCU is one of the been one of the worst teams in the East this year. So that makes it even worse for the loons down bad. Nashville SC lost 3 0 at home to Orlando City SC. They're down horrendously bad. Orlando City are. They're heating up in the same way that like Seattle and Portland and like a lot of some of these other teams that have been got off to slow starts and have been turning it around lately. Orlando is kind of doing that right now and they're also flying under the radar of the national pundits a little bit I would say. But still Nashville SC ever since they fired Gary Smith they they've kind of torpedoed there in the tank. This was a now such a silly firing too. I feel like well Yes, I could see both sides of it because Gary Smith gave he established a very solid floor for them, but it seemed like he also had a pretty capped ceiling. And the story with them is that they were very solid defensively. They're hard to break down, but then they had Haney Mukhtar and that was pretty much it. They added Sam Surge, but that didn't turn out to move the needle that much. know, I could see why they probably felt like they needed a new voice and new blood to kind of take them into a new era. But what's happened for this season is they've, they've totally tanked. look like one of the worst teams in the league right now. And anytime you lose by three goals at home, that's tough. That's tough. Yeah, that's not good scenes. And then finally Austin FC three, one Copa Tejas. This was spicy to FC Dallas. This was very spicy. Sebastian Drey, UC ended up getting a red card in this game after it was originally given to Julio Cascante. What happened was a FC Dallas striker, Peter Musa converted a penalty kick. He started talking trash. The teams were drawing back and forth. Cascante the ref thought that Cascante punched a guy, but then it turned out that it was actually, Drew UC. So Drew UC got sent off. Austin FC lose again. And Austin FC, their fans are, think, are the most disgruntled in the league right now. a really hilarious YouTube channel called, it's like Austin fan TV or something. And I was watching the video that they made after the Seattle game. And it's just this kid standing outside with a microphone and he just goes up to random fans and he says, you know, he literally says the same thing every time he's like a one zero loss to Seattle. What did you think of the game? And then he just lets the fans just pop off. So he was talking to the guy who actually paid for the plane to fly. Austin fans deserve better Wolf out that's in that's all for the Seattle game. And that guy was defending his probably like $10 ,000 purchase. mean, it can't have been cheap. it also only it was Josh Wolf is spelled with two F's, they only put one F on the banner. That's fire. But then pretty much had to pay an extra thousand for the other. Yeah. Just like people will get it. Yeah. But anyway, Austin FC fans are there. They're really locked in on the Wolf out train and it doesn't seem like they're getting off it anytime soon. I mean, I feel bad for them because we were on Wolf out at the beginning of the season and we thought he was on the hottest seat of them all. And you know, somehow, somehow he has survived somehow. All right. I think that can just about do it for episode 52. Thank you all so much for tuning in and bearing with us on the delay. We're sorry about that. This is easily the worst technology debacle that we've had in lobbying squatters history. We had a had a rough technology week. Yeah. Losing an hour and a half of really good audio was among the more painful experiences I've had in my life. Certainly the most painful podcasting experience to date. But we powered through it and we appreciate you all bearing with us and on the delayed timeline. I mean, We'll be back on our normal schedule after this episode. This was just a freak confluence of events. But as always, thank you all so much for the support and for the increased listenership that we've seen in the last few weeks. Like, comment, rate, subscribe, share with you. Josh will want to share with Josh Wolf. Share with everyone you know. We'll see you all for episode 53. Until next time, we out. Peace.

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