Nos Audietis Episode 29: Looking Ahead To Kasey’s Last Dance

by Jeremiah Oshan on Oct 12, 2011 9:15 PM PDT in Sounders: Podcasts

Kind of a weird week in Seattle Sounders-land. The loss to the Philadelphia Union was definitely disappointing, but it's hard to get too worked up about it. The Sounders, just like us, are still kinda basking in the glow of another piece of silverware.

We spend more time talking about how the rest of the season is shaping up and looking ahead to Saturday's "Date with Sounder at Heart", which also happens to be Kasey Keller's final regular-season home game. There's also a CONCACAF Champions League match coming up, which we discuss.

In all honesty, this show was much lighter on analysis than it normally is. We try out a new feature that incorporates new engineer DanO where he asks us the readers questions. The highlight of which is probably "which Sounders player would you most like to see open a food truck?"

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Ending Music: "Lazy" - Gosprom ("Lazy" Single)

"Lazy" is used under an Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0) License and is provided by FreeMusicArchive.Org

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Sounders Top 3

You make an interesting point in your opinion that the Sounders are/would be an above average MLS team without Alvaro, Fredy and Mauro.

While my problem with that argument might indeed be more with the existential nature of it – whether it’s prudent, economic or in any way desirable to make such a statement when the whole of it is so hypothetical and and any way to you try to distill it down or qualify it it remains so – I think that’s wrong.

I think one of the things we and others in our position would experience in a great season with enormous success is to start take certain things for granted. We get content. We start to nitpick about strikers. Our biggest arguments are about who 1 of 4 defenders should be.

Forgive us Sounders fans for having lost a bit of perspetive this year.

We had a special season no matter what happens now. Don’t ever for a second it will be this easy to do as good next year. Montero, Rosales, Fernandez make it happen. They are our goals and assists. Whether other players would be capable of doing this without them is at best fun conjecture and speculation but at worst myopic to the fact this IS our team, period.

Rosales’ injury is a big problem. We need him healthy and back in a rhythm with the team if we are going to go deep in the playoffs.

by RalfZakuani on Oct 12, 2011 10:43 PM PDT reply actions

I'm dreaming on having Rosales out right and Zakuani back on the left next year.

With Fredy up top. My question then is where does Alvaro play, but that’s a problem for next year.

by CMC_Stags on Oct 13, 2011 10:25 AM PDT up reply actions

I'd love to see Flaco commit to central midfield

He has everything he needs skill-wise to be successful as the more attacking CM alongside Ozzie. That would be a pretty amazing midfield.

The SAH Links Guy

by Dizzo on Oct 13, 2011 11:01 AM PDT up reply actions

Agreed

I’d love to see him in that central attacking role, but I’m not sure if he’s physical enough for it in MLS.

by CMC_Stags on Oct 13, 2011 12:52 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't think having him occupy the attacking midfield space is a good idea, because he and Montero do such similar things.

To me he seems like the perfect fit for the creative deep-lying mid in a 4-2-3-1 type arrangement.

by Aaron Campeau on Oct 13, 2011 2:28 PM PDT up reply actions

If he can do a Brad Evans

meaning run around all over the midfield and then occasionally run into the box and take a shot, that would be an upgrade. Especially if his shots go towards the goal.

Nos Audietis

by sidereal on Oct 13, 2011 2:32 PM PDT up reply actions

I love what Evans provides

But I doubt he’ll ever be healthy enough for play a full season in MLS much less the added CCL and Open Cup games. I’d much rather have Fernandez hold down the center midfield spot for league play. I think he can handle the physical play much better than Evans. His problem is mental not physical, IMHO.

Evans and Friberg are both versatile enough to be super-reserves allowing Sigi to rotate starts and sub players across the midfield to keep everyone fresh across all competitions. Hopefully, breaking up the midfield minutes keeps everyone fresh and injury free.

The SAH Links Guy

by Dizzo on Oct 14, 2011 10:49 AM PDT up reply actions

The 4-2-3-1 is a very interesting thought

Is Montero in the middle of the 3 or is he the 1 in that scenario (assuming he’s still on the team)? Are Zakuani and Rosales your wingers/outside mids?

by CMC_Stags on Oct 14, 2011 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions

Montero is that central mid, yeah.

Honestly it’s not that different than what the Sounders are doing now; I know it’s usually called a 4-4-2 but when you look at there Fredy is in terms of how the shape actually plays he looks a lot more like an advanced mid than a striker.

The only appreciable difference would be Fernandez playing less of a box-to-box role than Friberg or Evans, but for the most part he’d have fewer defensive responsibilities.

by Aaron Campeau on Oct 14, 2011 12:33 PM PDT up reply actions

So something like...

1 Target Forward (OBW, Ochoa, maybe Neagle)
1 CAM/Withdrawn Forward (Montero)
1 Left Winger (Zakuani)
1 Right Attacking Midfielder (Rosales)
1 Deep Lying Mid (Fernandez)
1 CDM (Alonso)
4 Defenders (probably with a more attacking RB as the LB is going to have to have more defensive responsibilities)

What would be interesting about it is that both Montero and Fernandez would be left in roaming type roles where they could move to exploit what the defense offered.

by CMC_Stags on Oct 14, 2011 1:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Why would Fernandez need to be at a deeplying

when the standard shape of the Sounders just involves a box2box CM in Evans or Friberg?

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Oct 14, 2011 4:58 PM PDT up reply actions

He looked amazing against LAG

My preferred midfield goes Zakuani-Fernandez-Rosales, with Honey Badger playing CDM.

by Tohoya on Oct 14, 2011 8:01 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

To your point

If the opinion on the Sounders being above average without the 3 (Montero, Rosales, Flaco) is hypothetical, so is the argument that they would not be.

Ultimately, we don’t know what the team would look like had they been playing without the 3 from the beginning of the season and the point was they would be above average, not elite. Average being a team like Colorado, Columbus, Portland, I think it’s absolutely correct to assume that the Sounders without the 3 from day one would be as good or better than those teams.

I agree that with the 3 on the team and being without them for a game or two makes our team average at best because we’ve come to rely on them for good reason. But we’ve also seen that even with one or two of the three on the field we can still be elite.

Sounders Fanatic | Editor Nos Audietis | Follow me on Twitter

by dano_seattle on Oct 13, 2011 10:26 AM PDT up reply actions

by mistuhp on Oct 13, 2011 10:22 AM PDT up reply actions

by Dizzo on Oct 13, 2011 10:49 PM PDT up reply actions

His first ever tweet in english was one word

Tacos!

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Oct 14, 2011 8:03 AM PDT up reply actions

Having tasted Swedish food at Ikea

I’m sure tacos were a revelation. By the way, for my money the best tacos and tortas in the city are at the El Camion truck. They often set-up outside the C-Link before games.

The SAH Links Guy

by Dizzo on Oct 14, 2011 10:54 AM PDT up reply actions