Speaker 1: RSL will be taking on Toronto, coming up a rough
Speaker 1: result over the weekends against Nashville with a late penalty
Speaker 1: kick and stoppage time after taking a lead off of
Speaker 1: Don mark suit goal.
Speaker 2: Our next guest the sporting.
Speaker 1: Director from the club who drew the short straw again
Speaker 1: this week, and Kurt Schmidt is forced to join the program.
Speaker 2: Kurt, Happy Monday, Sir, How are you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Sorry, Yeah, I guess I'm
Speaker 3: being forced, but good to be here.
Speaker 1: No, it's good to have you. Do you like VAR?
Speaker 1: Are you a fan? Are you a proponent?
Speaker 3: Oh? Man? Hitting the questions that might get me in trouble? First, No,
Speaker 3: I really don't like VAR, and more specifically, the ways
Speaker 3: it's so often used. I think when it can determine
Speaker 3: things that are clearly black and white beyond doubt, I
Speaker 3: think then that's useful. But in a lot of situations
Speaker 3: it's an opportunity to inject just another level of subjectivity
Speaker 3: onto things. And I am not a big fan of that.
Speaker 2: What changes would you make to it?
Speaker 1: You know, because I understand why it can be a
Speaker 1: valuable tool, But if if Don Garber called you, Skurt,
Speaker 1: what should we do with the R the VAR.
Speaker 2: What would you.
Speaker 3: Say, Yeah, I think there's a couple other leagues that
Speaker 3: do it a bit differently. You know, one way that
Speaker 3: you could tweak it is you take it out of
Speaker 3: the referee's hands in the game, which I know a
Speaker 3: lot of people don't like. But if you if you
Speaker 3: let the var make the call, who's not you know,
Speaker 3: in in the emotions of the game, you know, getting
Speaker 3: yelled at by the crowd, getting pressured and also doesn't
Speaker 3: have to you know, put his ego aside and admit
Speaker 3: that he made a mistake. I think that could help
Speaker 3: get things correct if you just remove that that element
Speaker 3: of things. I think that's one way. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: another way, like I said, if there's ways to make
Speaker 3: things that are you know, clear, black and white, objectively
Speaker 3: true and false, whether that's you know, the way off
Speaker 3: sidelines have been used in England at times, much to
Speaker 3: a lot of people's sugar in it's at least accurate.
Speaker 3: I think those are some some ways that could probably
Speaker 3: improve it.
Speaker 1: So I will admit to not seeing in real time
Speaker 1: the Berea goal that was called back after a really
Speaker 1: good cross by Mark Zuke. What what happened there? And
Speaker 1: upon review, did they get it right?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, because there wasn't an angle
Speaker 3: that was right down the line, you know, looking at
Speaker 3: the angle, you know, can I can you say that
Speaker 3: it was probably or it could have been offside, or
Speaker 3: it was probably outside maybe, But the standard for overturning
Speaker 3: call is it's supposed to clear an obvious error and
Speaker 3: and that you know, that's to overturn the call on
Speaker 3: the field. So essentially it grants the call on the
Speaker 3: field in the moment a lot of weight, right, It
Speaker 3: takes a lot to overturn that call. And so if
Speaker 3: the call in the moment was that it was not offside,
Speaker 3: I think it becomes very difficult from from some of
Speaker 3: the angles provided to say it was clearly offside where
Speaker 3: versus it could have been or was probably offside. And
Speaker 3: it's not just that goal. I think that goal is
Speaker 3: an example of a lot of situations that are very similar.
Speaker 3: But you know, you find a lot of these situations,
Speaker 3: and I think the penalty call was another one where
Speaker 3: you know it was a really maybe soft penalty. But
Speaker 3: again the weight, the weight given to the initial call
Speaker 3: on the field is such that you know, when you
Speaker 3: look at it look at that on video you say,
Speaker 3: well he definitely, you can't say he definitely didn't, you know,
Speaker 3: touch him or foul him or whatever it might be.
Speaker 3: And so you give weight to the call on the field.
Speaker 3: So it it worked against this in that situation and
Speaker 3: the other situation. You know, I thought maybe the weight
Speaker 3: of the call on the field should have been a
Speaker 3: little heavier.
Speaker 2: So you know, you reference the term soft penalty.
Speaker 1: I'll take it a step further because it was clear
Speaker 1: that Mouktar and maybe this is just a veteran move
Speaker 1: because certainly NBA players and NFL players drop penalties by
Speaker 1: or pretending like they're being held. But it was clear
Speaker 1: that he saw that Nelson was kind of beside him.
Speaker 1: And then from my vantage point, Kurt, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to be a homer. I felt like Mouktar created the
Speaker 1: contact and then just fell.
Speaker 2: It was just a dive. Tell me, tell me what
Speaker 2: you saw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a pretty accurate description.
Speaker 3: I don't think he's he's making a play on the
Speaker 3: ball or is within reach of the ball. I think
Speaker 3: he does have a and like you said, it's a
Speaker 3: veteran play. He has a pretty good awareness of of
Speaker 3: where the defender is and where Nelson is and he
Speaker 3: puts his body in a place that's going to cause
Speaker 3: him a problem, and it did, and you know, he
Speaker 3: got he got lucky or you know, he did the
Speaker 3: right he I don't know if I was gonna say
Speaker 3: full referee, but I don't know if that's a proper
Speaker 3: way to say it. But yes, he he got what
Speaker 3: he wanted and he got the penalty. And again when
Speaker 3: you when you look at that in review, uh, it's
Speaker 3: not it's not clear. It's not obvious that he didn't
Speaker 3: you know, foul him necessarily because there was contact and
Speaker 3: the player did go down and you know, so it's
Speaker 3: it's really hard to overturn that situation on review. And yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. It was savvy by him in the moment.
Speaker 3: It's just you kind of wish, you know, when when
Speaker 3: the players, when a player's running away from goal, when
Speaker 3: he can't you know, touch the ball or play the
Speaker 3: ball within his grasp, you'd hope the referee would have
Speaker 3: a little more discussion in those moments, especially especially given
Speaker 3: the time of the game and how impactful, you know,
Speaker 3: a penalty at that moment of the game could be.
Speaker 2: So when you look at the numbers.
Speaker 1: Oh, let me ask you this, Are you a fan
Speaker 1: or do you believe in possession?
Speaker 2: Telling a story?
Speaker 1: Because you guys have fifty possession compared to their forty six.
Speaker 1: I have some other numbers I want to throw out
Speaker 1: at you. But I've heard this debated as to whether
Speaker 1: or not it actually means anything if a team has
Speaker 1: more possession throughout the course of the game.
Speaker 2: But are you a fan of that stat?
Speaker 3: I mean yes, And though as a as a pure indicator,
Speaker 3: like it's not correlated with winning games. So from that sandpoint,
Speaker 3: just cold possession, just raw possession, doesn't doesn't really illuminate anything.
Speaker 3: I think if you're playing most most statistics in soccer
Speaker 3: do a good job of describing what's happening rather than predicting.
Speaker 3: So it's going to tell you, you know, this team
Speaker 3: is is playing in a way that's going to control
Speaker 3: the ball for a majority of the game and more
Speaker 3: often than their opponent. And now that is the stat
Speaker 3: that we look at because we do like to be
Speaker 3: more of a possession based, possession heavy team. But there's
Speaker 3: a lot of other metrics that tell us that that
Speaker 3: possession is happening in the right ways and in the
Speaker 3: right parts of the field, you know, because again passing
Speaker 3: it around in areas that are easy to possess the
Speaker 3: ball and don't help us. But are we are we
Speaker 3: playing balls between the lines? Are we getting into the
Speaker 3: right zones in the final third? You know, those are
Speaker 3: things we look at on top of just the raw
Speaker 3: possession to see if our game model is being followed.
Speaker 3: Other teams play game models where where possession is irrelevant
Speaker 3: to it, and you know they're trying to you know,
Speaker 3: they're trying to hit you in transition or or draw
Speaker 3: you out or whatever it might be. And so it's
Speaker 3: it's more descriptive than predictive.
Speaker 1: Expected goals Nashville three point one, RSL one point two.
Speaker 2: They had twenty two shots.
Speaker 1: You guys had twelve, seven on target for them, five
Speaker 1: for you. And the expected goals, I mean another you know,
Speaker 1: I know it's a loss, and I know it's two goals.
Speaker 2: Allowed, but another great game from cabral.
Speaker 1: So which of the numbers that you believe in or
Speaker 1: you lean into most most actually tell the story about
Speaker 1: what happened against.
Speaker 3: Nashville, honestly, I mean expected goals is one you know
Speaker 3: you've just brought it up. Is one that doesn't tell
Speaker 3: the whole story always, but it does tell it does
Speaker 3: tell a good part of it. And you know, it's
Speaker 3: one where you know you might be having a good possession,
Speaker 3: you might get any good parts of the field, you
Speaker 3: might be creating good chances, but until you get the
Speaker 3: shot off, you know, there's no there's no XCU if
Speaker 3: there's no shot, and there's not going to be a
Speaker 3: goal if there's no shot. So you know, it's one
Speaker 3: that I find relevant. And for whatever reason, I think
Speaker 3: it's you know, our x G was too low because
Speaker 3: we had this great chance but he couldn't get a
Speaker 3: shot off. Well, it don't really matter because if we
Speaker 3: didn't shoot, and we've worked in the score anyway, So
Speaker 3: without the shot, you know it's it's relevant. So x
Speaker 3: x G is something that that we do rely upon.
Speaker 3: And you know, over long enough sample size, a long
Speaker 3: enough you know, sample of games, you know it can
Speaker 3: tell you. It can tell you if you're if you're
Speaker 3: being more dangerous than your opponents. Essentially is what it
Speaker 3: is in any one game. You know, as it correlates
Speaker 3: with the actual goal sport, it's it's all over the place,
Speaker 3: but over over a larger sample of time, I can
Speaker 3: tell you if you're creating quality chances and if you're
Speaker 3: limiting the opponent from creating chances.
Speaker 1: Since I brought it up, you know, and we'll get
Speaker 1: to what could potentially be next. I know you're really
Speaker 1: excited for that portion of this conversation, but I you know,
Speaker 1: the the Rafa, the Cabral signing has to be something
Speaker 1: that you feel very good about throughout the portion of
Speaker 1: the first half of the calendar. First portion of the
Speaker 1: counter is what I should say. And you know, the
Speaker 1: goal is allowed are a little bit conflated because as
Speaker 1: you allowed four against San Jose and then three against
Speaker 1: San Diego, and I know we're not allowed to just
Speaker 1: throw those out, but if you do, it tells a
Speaker 1: much different story about who you haveing goal. What what's
Speaker 1: it been like to witness how he's played, and what
Speaker 1: has he meant so far to that locker room.
Speaker 3: I mean, look a lot like he's been very good.
Speaker 3: He's been a good goalkeeper, has been good in terms
Speaker 3: of his shot shopping, in his defensive play, he's been
Speaker 3: good with his feet, and he's been good in his
Speaker 3: in his role in our build up and our possession
Speaker 3: on the ball. So he's he's been really helpful in
Speaker 3: both sides, and in the locker room is where maybe
Speaker 3: he's he's the biggest help and he brings a lot
Speaker 3: of age and experience to the team into the club.
Speaker 3: You know, he he's a leader in the group. And
Speaker 3: even though he's new and he's he's played in some
Speaker 3: big leagues and he's he's played in a lot of
Speaker 3: different places, and so he knows what you know, what
Speaker 3: certain players may need in this or that moment. He
Speaker 3: knows when things are are meeting a standard, he knows
Speaker 3: when they're not, and he's not afraid to tell people
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 1: So when you look at where we're at now, you're
Speaker 1: tied with Seattle with nine points, you know, three five
Speaker 1: and zero, no no draws, a goal scored, thirteen goals allowed,
Speaker 1: tell me, Kurt, whether it's your analytics, the numbers you
Speaker 1: look at, or simply you, as a guy that's been
Speaker 1: around this game his entire life.
Speaker 2: What do you guys do well so far? And where
Speaker 2: do you need to improve?
Speaker 3: So I think we what we're doing well right now,
Speaker 3: I think is playing a little bit of a light
Speaker 3: version of what we did last year, and so we're
Speaker 3: respective of personnel choice and you know, roster building and
Speaker 3: all that. You know, I just look at what's happening
Speaker 3: on the field, and I feel like we're doing you know,
Speaker 3: what we're doing hints at what we did last year
Speaker 3: and what I thought brought us a lot of success.
Speaker 3: But we're not quite doing it with the same confidence,
Speaker 3: at the same high level and with enough regular already
Speaker 3: to be performing as well as we did last year.
Speaker 3: So we are, you know, more ball dominant, We are
Speaker 3: more possession heavy, you know, we we we can create chances.
Speaker 3: But you know, again everything is just is just to
Speaker 3: shade less than last year. And you know, one area
Speaker 3: where I think that we are falling the shortest relatives
Speaker 3: to last year is on the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 3: where last year we did a really good job back
Speaker 3: to you know x G and actually conceded. We did
Speaker 3: a really good job of limiting the quality of the
Speaker 3: opponent's chances, and you know, this year, we we haven't.
Speaker 3: You know, so you mentioned Rafa, and it's it's tough
Speaker 3: on Rafa because you know, he he doesn't play as
Speaker 3: big a role in in limiting the chances he you know,
Speaker 3: he's kind of called into action once the once the
Speaker 3: chance occurs and he's got to he's got to do
Speaker 3: something about it. But you know, it's it's the group
Speaker 3: in front of him that you know that, and that's
Speaker 3: all ten, you know, ten guys in front of him
Speaker 3: that need to do the heavy lifting as it comes
Speaker 3: to keeping the opponent in safe areas and preventing them
Speaker 3: from getting really good looks. And we've got something that
Speaker 3: I know we're capable of, as we did last year,
Speaker 3: but we have not been doing it as high level.
Speaker 1: So talk to you, talked to Jason, talked to Pablo,
Speaker 1: talked to John Kimmel. I mean, you know, last year
Speaker 1: about this dynamic with Brian Vera after another incident where
Speaker 1: this time he you know, spin out a player forced
Speaker 1: to miss a portion of the playoffs, and that obviously
Speaker 1: hurts you guys a lot. But I think Kurt, and
Speaker 1: I want you to take us into this because I'm
Speaker 1: not in the locker room. I think he's been really
Speaker 1: really good this year and there's clearly talent there and
Speaker 1: I thought he handled Muktar really really well.
Speaker 2: What What would you say.
Speaker 1: About, you know, your thoughts on the way he's responded
Speaker 1: to what was not a good look for you at
Speaker 1: the club last year and how Vera's played so far
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we we had to sit him down, you know,
Speaker 3: after that and make it clear to him, you know,
Speaker 3: it wasn't acceptable and things needed to change going forward.
Speaker 3: And I think he has responded well. You know, I
Speaker 3: think this year he's he's been solid. I think that
Speaker 3: last game was maybe his best defensive game for us,
Speaker 3: you know, since he's joined the club, So you know,
Speaker 3: defensively he did he did a really good job in
Speaker 3: a lot of different areas. But you know, I think
Speaker 3: if you just watch the game, you see the number
Speaker 3: of defensive plays he makes, which is, you know, ultimately
Speaker 3: what we measure those guys by. You know, it's nice
Speaker 3: to be good in possession. That's really important as well.
Speaker 3: But you know, you're you're if you're a center back,
Speaker 3: you're on the field to defend and stop the other
Speaker 3: team from scoring.
Speaker 1: When it comes to you know, the defensive issues, what
Speaker 1: would you identify? And look, I know, these things happen
Speaker 1: as a team. You can't just blame the keeper, you
Speaker 1: can't blame the back four, and so much of the
Speaker 1: attention on you guys has been about Okay, the attack
Speaker 1: and you know where are the addition is coming from?
Speaker 1: What Why do you think that the defensive issues have
Speaker 1: manifested the way they have Kurt, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I I'd be lying if I told you
Speaker 3: I had all the answers to that question right now.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's still something that's ongoing, and it's
Speaker 3: it's likely not the same cause in every game, because
Speaker 3: every teams doing something a little bit different. But it's
Speaker 3: not it's not a back line thing. It's not even
Speaker 3: always an out of possession thing. It's it's sometimes it's
Speaker 3: our our rest defense when we're when we're possessing the
Speaker 3: ball and we're attacking. It's sometimes where we where and
Speaker 3: when we turn balls over when we have it, you know,
Speaker 3: in terms of creating transition operations for the team. So
Speaker 3: it's it's not always out of psession stat just the
Speaker 3: backline thing, but you know, it's the whole group working
Speaker 3: together to stay compact, to recover the ball, to press
Speaker 3: together and make sure that again we we win the
Speaker 3: ball back as quickly as possible, and if we can't
Speaker 3: that we stay compact and we don't let the teams
Speaker 3: play through us, I had not.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've asked you about Lachlin. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you about Lachlan because last year when you
Speaker 1: sat him during the summer window, and we have seen
Speaker 1: moments here or there when he's had opportunities, and it
Speaker 1: just doesn't seem like I don't know if it's him
Speaker 1: not being able to acclimate to MLS or he's not
Speaker 1: doing what Pablo's asking him to do. We just and
Speaker 1: maybe this is my fault for expecting uh, you know,
Speaker 1: because when I would talk about the club prior to
Speaker 1: the season, I would say things, you know, like, well,
Speaker 1: let's see what Diogo looks like with the training camp
Speaker 1: and don Mark soup in Lachlan and Lochland Brook. Any
Speaker 1: inside as to why maybe he hasn't been the player,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll just say that I was expecting him
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 3: I can't speak to your expectations.
Speaker 1: I thought he was going to play a lot more
Speaker 1: than he's played, Kurt, I guess I'll just say.
Speaker 3: Like that, Yeah, that's you know, that's that's fair. I mean, look,
Speaker 3: I think every day he is a chance certain playing
Speaker 3: time and training and obviously Paba wants to win games.
Speaker 3: So if you feel that he's someone that's gonna help
Speaker 3: him win games, then he's gonna play. And then you know, ultimately,
Speaker 3: when when players got on the field is up to
Speaker 3: them to earn more playing time. So I think he's
Speaker 3: had some some ups and some downs. He had a
Speaker 3: chance in the Champion the League and you know, probably
Speaker 3: didn't perform at his highest level. I think he's had
Speaker 3: a few sub minutes since then where he's done better,
Speaker 3: you know, And it's it's a little bit up and down.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if it's so much that he
Speaker 3: hasn't been good, but I think, you know, and he
Speaker 3: admit this, that he's been a little bit inconsistent and
Speaker 3: you know, but he's a hard working kid that is
Speaker 3: going to keep keep working on what the coaches ask
Speaker 3: him to do until he gets it right. But you know,
Speaker 3: it doesn't always click instantaneously with guys.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, in the midst of a little bit of a
Speaker 1: road heavy schedule, stretched to the schedule, but you will
Speaker 1: have a bit of a respite at home coming up
Speaker 1: on Saturday against Toronto. Uh tell me about Toronto. They're
Speaker 1: fourteenth in the East, so they're not off to a
Speaker 1: good start. But this is a weird league. So tell
Speaker 1: me about your opponent coming up on Saturday, Kurt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a weird league. They're a little bit
Speaker 3: of an enigma. You know, they've they've obviously got sort
Speaker 3: of a high profile kind of roster issue that they've
Speaker 3: dealt with this year where where one of the I
Speaker 3: think he might be one of the highest paid player
Speaker 3: in the league learns the signe it was was out
Speaker 3: and he refused the move or two and that he
Speaker 3: was you know, he's on on the side. But now
Speaker 3: he's back in and you know how that plays into
Speaker 3: there was actually very good player, but you know, wasn't
Speaker 3: fitting into what they wanted to do. So now he's
Speaker 3: he's reincorporated, and how that impacts them and changes them
Speaker 3: as a team is is obviously super relevant. You know,
Speaker 3: they're a team that plays a slightly different system than
Speaker 3: than us, and you know, in terms of usually going
Speaker 3: to come with three or five depending out how he
Speaker 3: will stay in the back and and maybe come with uh,
Speaker 3: you know, challenging the back line with an extra guy.
Speaker 3: So it's it's a little bit of a unique thing
Speaker 3: for us that we don't see often in that way.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think they're they're an enigma. They're a
Speaker 3: team that invests, you know, has invested heavily and in
Speaker 3: some high priced players that has you know, maybe not
Speaker 3: quite performed as they expected, but we know they still
Speaker 3: have a ton of quality, and you know it's unfortunate,
Speaker 3: but you know, teams like that that aren't performing but
Speaker 3: you know they have that kind of talent are always
Speaker 3: teams that are very dangerous, and you can't really sleep
Speaker 3: on them because as soon as you take for granted
Speaker 3: the fact that they're maybe not getting the results that
Speaker 3: they want, that's that's maybe when they can have some
Speaker 3: success and gain a little bit of momentum because they
Speaker 3: do have the quality on the roster.
Speaker 1: All right, Kurt, onto your favorite portion of the interview.
Speaker 1: Since you and I last spoke, I check my email
Speaker 1: every day and hoping I get a release from Trey
Speaker 1: that isn't your practice schedule and it's an announcement about
Speaker 1: a player that you have signed. You joined us last
Speaker 1: when the Tom Bogert report, the day it came out
Speaker 1: that you were looking at a Slovakian and an international
Speaker 1: Ague number nine named Robert Bosnik. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's how you pronounce it, don't tweet at me. According
Speaker 1: to the reports, he would be a designated player. It
Speaker 1: is April fourteenth, we are nine days away from that
Speaker 1: window closing, so just let's get an update. Where are
Speaker 1: we at with your project of trying to bring in
Speaker 1: some reinforcements.
Speaker 3: We're we're working on it. Things don't come together instantaneously,
Speaker 3: and like I said last time, you know, working on
Speaker 3: a couple of different options for for a position and
Speaker 3: hopefully you know an additional player that we can add
Speaker 3: as well. So there's still a lot of irons in
Speaker 3: the fire. As soon as something gets over the line,
Speaker 3: you'll get that uh, that hallowed email from Trey.
Speaker 1: Oh, Kurt, all right, all right, Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: what else to ask you other than that.
Speaker 2: So we're all hoping it happens good.
Speaker 3: Definitely working on it. We're you know, it's obviously uh
Speaker 3: you know these things, these things can be roller coaster
Speaker 3: as well. But you know, I'm I know we're getting
Speaker 3: closer on on something, so I'm I'm hopeful to have
Speaker 3: some good news for for you shortly.
Speaker 1: All right, my friend, Well, I appreciate the time, have
Speaker 1: a good week and we'll see you soon.
Speaker 3: It sounds good.
Speaker 1: Schmidt from Rail saw Lake their sporting director. I know
Speaker 1: you guys want me to hold his fee to the fire.
Speaker 1: What else you want me to do? I mean every
Speaker 1: week it's the same thing. A month ago, Pablo hopped on,
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, like four days we're gonna have an announcement. Jason, Tony, Kurt,
Speaker 1: They've all kind of said the same thing. But Tom
Speaker 1: Bogert has reported that RSL are in advanced talks to
Speaker 1: sign a Slovakian international forward and I believe it's Robert Bosnik.
Speaker 1: If it's not, it's something like that. According to Tomm,
Speaker 1: you would be a designated player. But we are nine
Speaker 1: days away from that window closing, so it's kind of
Speaker 1: time to, you know what, or get off the pot.