Episode 108 - Owen Goal, Charlotte Attacker - Sounders Scuttlebutt

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
He's a tough kid.

(00:25):
All I gotta say is, Pogba can't say she.
It's sensational.
It's Seattle's service FC soccer.
Robert Boll!

(00:59):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Sounders Skuttlebutt.
I am your host for today, Cameron Collins, and I am here with my other host, Nicholas Biela.
What's up, dude?
Y'all ready for this?

(01:19):
Now I'm gonna have the jock jams stuck in my head.
All right, I love that.
That was a go-to when I'm roller skating, you know.
This next song will be for boogie skaters and bouncers only.
If you don't know how to boogie skater bounce, now is definitely not the time to learn.
Please take a seat.

(01:41):
Once again, this next song is for boogie skaters and bouncers only.
Back in the day when I was a DJ at Skateland.
Yeah, yeah.
That rolls off the tongue.
Don't forget, Gary Glitter was on there.
Ooh.
The hockey song.
Yeah, yeah.
That's not the...

(02:03):
Yeah, we're not gonna talk about Gary Glitter or his criminal mischief.
Yeah, we will not.
How you doing?
Good, good.
I do want to say real quick, just so everyone knows, we do know that last episode there was a little bit of audio fuckery.
And we're working on it.
We're figuring it out.
And today, hopefully, it will be fixed.

(02:25):
But don't worry, I did spend hours trying to fix it.
We'll get there.
Well, that's the kind of stuff that's gonna happen.
The episode before there was too.
Because remember, it was recording through my...
For the first half of the show, it was recording through my camera instead of my mic.
And so the quality for me for the first half of the show before was terrible.
Terrible. Just terrible.
Terrible. Just terrible.

(02:47):
I'm doing okay.
I had my radio show tonight, so I did that.
And I got 26 needles shoved into my head today.
That doesn't sound very fun.
I'm not gonna lie.
No, it's not. But it's the only thing that fixes my Botox and TMJ.
I mean, fixes my headaches and TMJs.
They give me Botox.
So it's not the same level that you get when you are trying to smooth out your face or whatever it is that people do.

(03:13):
But I got a lot of shots all over my head and shoulders and neck and jaw.
It's pretty wild.
I had to take a nap.
You're back?
Yeah.
Everywhere.
No, no, no.
All those places.

(03:35):
And muted.
So you know what helps after having a lot of procedures like that?
I think a beverage might help you out.
Are you still doing the good old fashioned PBR?
I am. I still have a few to go.
So I'm gonna keep on rocking on that.
What have we tried?
Keep on rocking in the free world!
What have we tried simultaneous?

(03:57):
Okay, are we doing 3, 2, 1, go?
Are we going full lethal weapon here?
Like 3, 2, 1, go? Yeah, let's do that.
Okay.
You wanna count it out?
3, 2, 1.
Is there a delay? What happened there?
I don't know.

(04:17):
We'll see how that sounds.
We'll see. Cheers.
Mmm, seltzer water.
Too late for me to drink a beer.
Yeah.
I do have Guinness in the fridge.
Maybe next episode.
You know, same thing is coming behind the corner.
So you know, it's coming up before we know it.

(04:39):
We had a busy week.
Yeah, we gotta talk about that.
Other crazy news.
I got to meet.
Alex Diaz from our Discord.
Who was at the match, sitting a section over from me.
He grabbed me and said hi, which was really cool.
And it's funny because Alex looks just like his avatar on Discord.
Even though that was taken many years ago.

(05:01):
He looks the same.
I mean, you can tell it's the same person.
So I recognized him immediately.
I was like, I know you.
That is awesome.
Good to see Alex or good to hear that Alex found you.
Yeah, yeah.
Super fun.
It was a wet one.
It was.
It was not fun.

(05:23):
My feet were so soaked that I bought new socks.
I got actually they had stride line.
I think it was stride line.
Yeah, socks were the new print of the New Jersey.
Oh, very cool.
Very cool.
No, I treated it.
I treated it like a winter game.
So I wore three pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, boots, a couple jackets.
And just stayed nice and warm the whole time.

(05:45):
Stayed nice and dry.
That was definitely the way to go.
So it worked out for me.
Smart.
I didn't wear my Gore-Tex shoes.
I should have.
I mean, come on.
It's opening day.
It's going to rain.
What did you do for the rest of your weekend?
I feel like I did very little.

(06:07):
I mean, I did have to go to SuperHawks training camp.
And the rosters are now effective for the first game.
Which is this weekend.
I think we're in Wenatchee to start the season.
But only, I think, five or six players from the 12 from last season made the roster.
So we got even better rosters coming in.
But I did get my butt kicked by that rain.
I had to sleep in the next day.
And I actually went to bed at 11 and woke up at 11.
Because of that rain.
Well, I'll tell you what.

(06:29):
When you're ready for me to come to SuperHawks mascot training camp, you let me know.
I'll be there.
I'll be there.
I'll be there.
I'll be there.
Okay.
Oh yeah!
Trust me. That WILL be happening.
Oh, it is literally
a dream come true for me.
You know how I feel about mascots.

(06:53):
Did you ever tell me about the time that I had a friend in high school
who we didn't know was the mascot
and he was dancing the vanilla ice
and he was breakdancing and we were the Panthers
and so he was dressed like a panther
and his head fell off.
And that's when we all discovered that one of our good friends
friends who we thought was just cutting class because he lived across the street actually was the panther.

(07:13):
That is amazing. I love it. Yeah, no, you have told me that. That's amazing. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah. This
weekend, I watched a lot of MLS like 360.
caught up in great matches. You know, a lot of scoring, there was a lot of chaos going on a lot of chaos. Some of

(07:35):
those games were drunk. Really? Yeah, just yeah, yeah, the messy the messy match afterwards. He said
that he was complaining about the referee called him a coward.
Well, he did get a post game yellow.

(07:57):
That's I mean, that's what he got it for. I think he was yelling that at the ref.
He also very well may end up getting he'll definitely get a fine. If he was anyone not named Leonel messy, he
would probably get a suspension for putting his hands on another team's coach.
I know he grabbed his coach. Did he grab someone from the other team he grabbed an inter Miami assistant?

(08:18):
No, I believe it was the other team. But you got one. Wow. That's the way I understood it. Maybe I misread that.
But I don't think it'd be a story. I don't know. Hey, guys. Um, what did you like? What did you like from around
the league? Let's let's do that. Want to start with scuttlebutt with like MLS General scuttlebutt or going to go
nonstop? Okay, let's do some around the league.

(08:38):
I don't know if we have a ton of stuff other than the courts, or not even the courts government agency ruled that
the courts are correct. And that all of the firings that Doge has been doing are illegal.
Actually, you know, that's some good stuff. But there's there's there's some fun news we could be talking about stuff
that we did not bring up last week. Tell me. Yeah, so we will. Well, first off, let's talk about let's just talk

(09:03):
about some around the around the horn. So if one Josh Atencio started for Colorado in their debut, that was that
was good to see for him. Yeah, they got his final stats. But Dan Boniface reported to me that he looked great in
the first half. 76 minutes, he went 76 minutes, something around there. And Colorado got the clean sheet 00

(09:25):
against St. Louis. So that's a good start. That San Jose game was interesting. That arena. That could be for
nothing as Salt Lake. That could be interesting because neither of the two primary DPs scored. Everyone else

(09:46):
seemed to. So San Jose may not be such a pushover. That could be quick, although hey, first first game of the
season, like, lot to sort out. So we'll see San Diego as well. Yeah. Sam Rogers was not did not play for Chicago.
I was trying to keep an eye out on some former sounders. Yeah, yeah, they're hurting defensively for sure. What

(10:15):
was the other one? I feel like oh, Leo Chu was on the bench but did not get in for Dallas. Again, season 18.
No, yeah, it was better than he was doing here. Yeah. Yeah. So that was that those are the ones, you know, those
are the ones that I was curious about this year. Those three are, I think the three primary players at this time,
that I kind of have my eye on. Yeah, those are the three that I kind of have my eye on. Just because I am curious

(10:46):
to see if those, you know, those those changes do good for them. The other one player, obviously Nico Lodero.
But I do not believe I do not know if he made it into the actual game. I know he was in the 18. But I could not he did get in.

(11:08):
Yeah, he got it in the 60 second minute. So okay. Okay. Good. Yeah. So how do you how do you feel about that, by the way?
How do you feel about Nico? Reaching out to the Sounders to see if there was a spot for him in the Sounders
and politely saying there's just not at this time? Yeah, I mean, I think when we talked about it, we all said he would have to be making league minimum

(11:36):
to be a veteran minimum, not league minimum, to be able to do it just because of our situation.
And clearly he wanted more than that. And also he's more than a year. It's a year plus a club option for another.
So I think based on the contract he got, we have not seen the numbers. They didn't release them publicly. And I think it's another couple months before they all get released.

(11:57):
So we don't know the actual numbers. But I would be surprised if those numbers are not higher than would have been worth it for the Sounders. So I'm not too worried about it.
Well, I mean, honestly, in this case, I feel like it's definitely I'm going to trust the front office on this one.
Because a few things. One, we don't know what that locker room was like at the end. And this staff knows Nico very, very well.

(12:28):
So they know what they're getting out of that. And they know if I trust the staff to make that assessment of whether he is a good fit for this team.
We certainly have how many captains do we have on this team? I mean, if you're counting Christian Holden,

(12:55):
Paul Ariola has been a captain for many times. Jordan could easily be.
Joe Palo has been a captain for his team. Kim Kehoe has been captain of his team for the last multiple years.
We have a lot of leadership. That's not a problem. I'm not sure if Russ Knack was a captain in Salt Lake.

(13:19):
I don't recall that. I don't think so. But I just want to throw that out there. I don't think that was the case.
It's possible, though, because he was in that era post post-Romando when he became a DP.
And Beckerman, post-Beckerman. But yeah. And post-Beckerman. So the two legends of RSL were gone. Possibly.
OK. But one thing we did not talk about. Well, first of any other any other results surprise you or interest you?

(13:46):
I mean, well, San Diego. Yes, San Diego is the big one because. Lanking LA at home.
I mean, LA, they didn't lose a single home, a game at home all last season. So that's a big thing.
But at the same time, it's the first game. They they'd only been shut out.
I think there was like one zero zero game, if I recall. But but they it was a big deal that they weren't getting goals in this game.

(14:10):
But yeah, yeah, yeah. But but you know, they have a lot of changes, so they're going to have to deal with it.
And they're missing some key players from last season. So, yeah, we can take some time.
Just I wouldn't worry about them too much. I think they're they're going to be fine making the playoffs.
I do want to say real quick before we move, though, on non-MLS news, Roberta Flack passed away today.

(14:32):
I know I was really disappointed to see that. I was really bummed to see that.
Yeah, I never saw your face. Great song.
I can't leave me softly. Yeah. Died at 88.
I mean, she was she had ALS.
And so she lived quite a three almost three years with it.

(14:56):
Oh, wow. Some years. So pretty impressive.
That's a hard to a hard disease to deal with, especially at that age.
But also, I mean, we can look back at her, not just music career, but she was a huge advocate for people of color and for ending racism and a huge advocate just for tons of amazing causes.

(15:16):
So her legacy goes beyond music.
And it's you know, everyone has to die.
And I think we're going to have to face it a lot coming forward as as as elder millennials, as we see all our heroes pass away because they're all getting old.
But it and I think celebrity is so much bigger now that it'll be a really regular thing.

(15:36):
But, you know, it still kind of sucks. Definitely.
So poor one out for Roberta Flack.
And if you're not super familiar with your discography, definitely listen to some some really great old school soul R&B, timeless stuff.
I heard a thing on the radio today.
Her first album came out in 1969 and originally the label didn't want to do anything with her.

(16:02):
And so her the guy that was kind of like managing her in her band recorded an entire album by himself and gave it to the label.
And they were like, oh, this is what you want to do. OK.
And that's how they got the record put out.
You know what? I mean, many people have followed that model since.
So, you know, it works for sure.

(16:25):
Moving on to some Scuttlebutt that we did not talk about last week, and I'm surprised it just didn't come up.
I think we were just so focused on the preseason ending.
We weren't really. Yeah.
But did you see USL's news that they want to form a First Division and Institute Promotion Relegation?

(16:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be interesting to see if they're going to do that from year one,
because how do you tell someone they're going to have to pay all this money to join and then you can immediately get relegated?
Well, I think that's part of the I think that's part of the draw.
And part of the theory is that they're not asking for the expansion fees that MLS is asking for.

(17:15):
And I think that's part of the that's part of the draw.
Another question I have, and I hadn't thought about this until I saw other people mention the history of, you know, two tier one divisions,
because the last real tier one division was maybe USFL and NFL in the 80s.

(17:36):
You know, for two years, for two years, that was two Division one.
What are you saying about the Seattle Sea Dragons?
And XFL isn't the same as the NFL, man? No, no.
But but honestly, the one that was a little bit more appropriate and maybe the long term goal.
I don't actually I don't even know if it's a long term goal of USL, because I don't know if USL is actually looking to merge in with MLS in any way.

(18:03):
I don't I don't know if that's their game plan.
I think they may just legitimately want to have a full, true pyramid.
But the last league it's happening. Yeah, I mean, we're looking at the 70s with both the NHL and the WHA with teams like the Winnipeg Jets came over the Hartford,

(18:24):
Wailers, the Edmonton Wailers, like the ABA and the ABA MBA.
Yeah, same same idea. You know, so so those are the ones that so be interesting.
And then obviously before that, the AFL and the NFL.
Yeah. But so I don't even know, though, I don't know.
I don't get the sense that the USL is looking to do that.

(18:48):
I mean, USL has been there.
So when the investors and if MLS is going to pay for it, the investors are going to go for it.
I mean, when it comes down to it, but it'll come with the requirement that pro rel happens.
And so I think and I've been saying for years, this is the only way pro rel comes.
I didn't think they would try to do a first division first tier league,

(19:10):
but set it up in the USL.
And when it's successful there, then you can convince the MLS to do it.
But until there is a threat, they can't.
I don't know if this will be a true threat, because look at the teams that are in the
the women's league, the women's Super League. Yeah, there is they have Dallas and they have DC.

(19:32):
And then it's a bunch of second rate American cities.
We love you, Spokane, but no.
So but but here's the thing.
Here's the path for that to go forward is right now.
If if the USL is doing that, I presume they would start with teams like,
you know, markets like Sacramento, Indy, that are not MLS.

(19:53):
Indy is already listed as one.
But I don't Detroit, who I wish their fans suck.
I wish they did not. Madison, Wisconsin.
But but but anyways, but the point that I'm making here is what I could see certainly
as a potential thing happening is, you know, if you're an owner and you're thinking of this

(20:14):
as an investment, it's like, OK, well, I can spend three hundred million dollars to
buy an expansion rights and MLS, or I could spend twenty five million to do expansion rights
in USL and spend a hundred million on a roster.
And now the cream rises to the top and people are going to come see our teams because the

(20:35):
roster talent is going to be higher than in MLS.
That is a path that could happen.
How likely is it to happen?
I don't know, but I wonder.
I wonder how that's going to go down.
And in the end, do I feel threatened by that?

(20:56):
Not particularly, because let's just say worst case scenario, let's just say
this is the direction that becomes the first tier of the US soccer pyramid.
If that was going to happen, teams in.

(21:18):
Current MLS markets, especially teams that are historical soccer communities, are not
going to let that just sit back idly and they would either or some.
So for example, I guess what I'm saying is Seattle will be in whatever league is deemed
to be the top tier of US soccer.

(21:40):
I feel pretty.
And the money in MLS means it's never going to just die.
I mean, it's like the NFL was never going to just die.
They were able to kill the USFL mainly because Donald Trump was a giant dick when he was
running that league.
If you haven't seen that documentary, you can see what a terrible business Donald Trump

(22:01):
is.
I mean, it is great.
But yeah, I mean, so I welcome more competition.
It's good because it can only make this league better.
I just challenge whether or not they'll be able to pay the players enough to move there
to make it actually because if it's not as good as MLS quality wise, no one's going to

(22:25):
flock to that outside of the cities it's in.
I will.
Because I'm a super fan.
Depends on who's investing.
You know, it all depends.
I mean, it all depends.
There's a lot of ways it could go.
I'm just interested to see the swing being taken.
Yeah.
I have the threat that say I know a lot of NWSL fans were really upset about the women's

(22:47):
Super League.
And I think it's because they feel like NWSL is stable for the first time ever.
And now an upstart league comes in that could because of the ecosystem, they don't get the
support they should.
It could totally upset that ecosystem.
And yeah, and for people that are not super familiar with that, there have been multiple

(23:08):
iterations of professional top flight professional women's soccer leagues.
And when NWSL made it to their 10th year, that was a big deal because there was multiple
leagues that had happened before that.
USL with the Pro-REL could be awesome because I could see Ballard being up in the championship

(23:28):
within three years if they two or three years.
They did it right.
If they decided they wanted to go in that market.
Anyway, they firmly USL too in their current standings because of the fact that anyways,
but yes, you're not entirely wrong.
Yeah.
I could see them easily competing up.

(23:48):
They would never be on the sounder stature because it's a neighborhood team.
You know what I mean?
Like maybe, I can't say never 50 to 100 years in the future.
Yes.
Any other scuttlebutt on your side?
I don't think so.
I mean, there's probably been news, but a lot of it I think is outside of the realm

(24:12):
of soccer.
Sports wise, Russell Wilson, they don't know if he's getting resigned to the Steelers.
That's local news as you see my Russell Wilson behind me.
I don't know.
Will you please unchain him and get him some food?
He's not chained.
He's standing right there.
He's fine.
I will say that they aren't on sale yet and it's the same night as a Sounders match, but

(24:36):
I think I might have to miss that Sounders match on June 28th.
Wu Tang Clan and Run the Jewels are performing at Climate Pledge.
So Wu Tang, are they doing enter?
Anyway, yeah.
I haven't seen anything specific about what they're playing, but it doesn't matter.

(24:57):
It'll be good no matter what.
I saw them last time they were here, last two times they were in town at least.
So looking forward to that.
I think it's the same night as the Pride match.
But it's Wu Tang.
Oh, it's at the end of June?
I think that's June.
Yeah, they have to remember it's the day of June 28th.
Yeah.
That's a tough decision to make.
Yeah, we'll see if I can get pre-sale tickets or not.

(25:18):
Yeah, I saw the Chateau Saint-Michel lineup get announced and there are a few shows that
looked really interesting to me, but right now I need to better my financial situation
a little bit.
You've been going to a lot of shows though I've noticed.
Well, a lot of those I purchased before in the before times.

(25:43):
James Taylor, huh?
If anyone knows someone who needs a dedicated customer success manager, come find me.
Rilo Kiley?
Yes, they are returned.
That's the big one.
That's a big one that I would love to see.
I'm shocked that they can play a venue of that size, but okay.
Oh, Rilo Kiley is, yeah, they're reuniting for the first time in almost 20 years.

(26:07):
Yeah, those albums still slap.
Well, but that's different for me, except for their last album, which was like a pop,
weird something different record.
I mean, this is the band that...
Yeah, that's probably it.
This is the band that I spent two hours sitting outside a venue that could fit 50 people standing

(26:30):
all crunched in the middle together with Blake after Jenny broke his heart and they had broken
up from when they were dating.
I remember he cried on my shoulder.
I mean, it's the same way of thinking about how Big Macklemore has gotten.
This is a dude where I used to work the door when 10 people would show up to his shows.
You know, why don't we talk about, want to do the predictions and the results of the

(26:56):
predictions?
Okay, so for those of you keeping track and those of you not keeping track, before every
game, home and away, every league game, cock a calf game, club world cup, any Sounders
game this year, we will be posting a prediction thread and we're going to keep a running tally
of the scores throughout the season.

(27:16):
We're not going to announce the running tallies each week, but we will announce the winner
of each game.
And so today we're going to announce for the Sounders versus Charlotte FC game, the winner
with three correct answers out of five is Paul.

(27:42):
I do need to start matching people up to their discord name.
Actually, I think Paul's discord name is just Paul.
Yeah, I think it is Paul.
There might be a niche there, but yes.
No, it is just Paul.
So congratulations, Paul, you are the big winner.
You are better than all of us.
And I guess a special shout out for Los who got no correct answers.

(28:07):
The only person who did not get any correct answers.
I'm sorry.
Womp Womp, that's just the courtesy sad trombone.
But yeah, so we're going to do that.
So we're going to keep doing that all season long.
I will be posting the Antigua home match probably later today or tomorrow, depending on how

(28:33):
long we take today and how late we go.
But it's going to be the same questions each time for consistency's sake.
Keep it simple.
Should take you all of 30 seconds to fill out.
So make that part of your pregame function.
Sure, for sure.

(28:54):
And on that note, before we take a break real quick, if you happen to have extra tickets
to My Chemical Romance at the T-Mobile Park, I was going to say Safeco Field, hit me up,
give them to me for free.
Not because I want to see My Chemical Romance.
There's only two songs of theirs I want to see.

(29:15):
But because Violent Femmes, one of my favorite bands who I've seen probably eight or nine
times in concert is opening and I have to go see Violent Femmes.
My Chemical Romance is cool, but Violent Femmes, one of the best bands in US history in my
opinion.
Can I tell you real quick on that one?
They're one of the few bands and my top 10 bands that I have not seen live.

(29:38):
Holy cow.
That I like.
They were on a long break.
Well, I'm specifically waiting.
I am specifically waiting for them to tour on their debut album, which is one of the
top five debut albums of all time.
2028 will be the 45 year anniversary.

(29:58):
They've been doing it a few times, because they've been doing it a few times, but each
time Seattle has not been one of those cities.
So I'm just waiting just because I want to see it all.
They were the final band I saw before COVID shut down.
So I think I saw them end of February of that year.
It was the same night as the Oscars.

(30:19):
Let's take that break.
Let's do it.
Hey everybody.

(30:42):
This is one of your hosts, Cameron Collins.
Now I know we said this time's time for a break, but really it's a time for me to talk
to you about our corporate overlords.
And our corporate overlords are us.
That's right.
We would love it if you would head on over to patreon.com and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt
podcast.
We will put the link here in the show and subscribe.

(31:05):
You can subscribe for as little as a dollar and 74 cents a month.
Now what will that get you?
Well guarantee you get at least one extra episode per month.
That'll be a cool interview or something like that, that otherwise you would not hear.
Now we might put out promos or other things that include that, but the whole episode intact

(31:27):
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Now there will be other stuff that we put in there, but this is where we're starting
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Why you ask?
Well, we have bills to pay and we need to make sure that we can keep this show going.
You would not believe the going rate for PA announcers.
So head on over to Patreon, go to Sounders Scuttlebutt podcast and subscribe.

(31:52):
You even get a cool little downloadable membership that has our logo on it.
That's Sounders Scuttlebutt podcast over at patreon.com.
Go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

(32:19):
Come on Cameron, give me the car tonight.
I got this cast.
I wanna.
I think I'll leave that in.
As we come back from break, people can hear you're singing in Violin Vamps.
That's amazing.
Yeah, do what I said.
Join our Patreon.
Shout out to all of our Patreon members.

(32:40):
We really appreciate you.
Another thing we should say is go give us reviews on everywhere you get podcasts, but
particularly iTunes slash Apple podcasts.
We had someone give us a one star review because they didn't like our analysis.

(33:03):
And then still participate in our community for some reason.
So don't do that.
So come give us five star reviews so that you can outlast that person.
Hey, but with that said, if you are that person, you gave us a one star review and feel free
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Talk to us.
Like what is it in particular that you didn't like?

(33:23):
We're also welcome you to, you know, if you want to.
We know you didn't like it.
But talk to us.
We're happy you know, you're perfectly welcome to be here.
We're not we're not about gatekeeping in any way because you know what?
That's the beautiful thing about being a Sounders fan, whether it's your first match ever, like
that kid they had on the field before the match, you push the button.

(33:45):
Love it.
Or you've been to I haven't been to every Sounders match, but I've been to on average
every one but two per season.
Hey, and you know what?
That brings us to a great, great segue.
And that segue is some really big news that dropped today from the Sounders.
And this is something that Cameron and I have been sitting on a little bit because it's

(34:06):
some of the that we have been alerted to and cannot wait to advocate for this.
It is the first match on us.
It's a groundbreaking fan engagement program.
They're basically designed to provide two free tickets and some merch in the form of

(34:28):
a scarf to fans who have never been to a Sounders game before.
This is something that is near and dear to my heart with soccer for all.
I know we talked about soccer for all last week, in fact.
But these are things that are really important.
I strongly believe that getting out to games, seeing what it's all about in a live setting,

(34:50):
participating, being a part of that community, which also kind of ties into our whole podcast,
give us five stars thing.
All of this is tied together.
It's like, hey, agree with us, disagree with us.
Come out, come participate, be part of this.
This is this is one of the great things about this community, about the sport and about
this team is that we band together and it brings out the best in all of us and unites

(35:15):
us in this common ground, no matter whether it's a socioeconomic background that's different
or race, sex, gender, anything, all of it.
We are all soccer fans.
So please, please learn about that first match on this program.
It sounds like what's going to happen is there's going to be a website to register.

(35:38):
There will be 11 matches that will be part of this.
And you would be able to kind of choose different areas that might be more appropriate for you.
For example, you might want to sit with me in ECS.
You might want to sit in the general seating areas.
You might want to sit in a family friendly area.

(35:59):
You'll have different options based on that.
And it's such a great program.
I want to see this succeed really well, not only just for the Sounders sake, because I
want other teams around this league to copy this.
I want this to be this is how we grow the sport.
This is how people become fans.
And I'm very, very excited that the Sounders are doing this.

(36:22):
So huge shouts out.
I believe Ashley Fossberg is is definitely one of the architects of this.
And I know Hugh Weber, this is right up his wheelhouse with fan engagement with some of
his other clubs that he was he was in charge of in other sports for sure.

(36:44):
So really excited.
What do you have to say about that?
Yeah, I think it's great.
I hope it's done in a super good way.
I'm a little frustrated with what they've done with the student one where it's now limited
to college students, but this could be a good way to bring in more people as long as then
you have accessible tickets after they come to the first game, because not everyone's

(37:06):
going to be afford able to afford full season tickets, especially at the price.
So if they want to capitalize on it, this is amazing.
But what's that next step?
Yeah, well, we got to let in.
And obviously, they are.
You know, it's a process.
It's all a process is how do you how do you get people to come on out?

(37:27):
How do you get people to participate?
And first step is you got to get them in the door the first time.
You know, so start with that.
I feel like most people to do come back.
I mean, except for I know a few people that were so annoyed because they didn't they got
stuck behind ACS and didn't know there was going to be flags.
And I hate that because that communication should happen long before you buy that ticket.

(37:52):
And they've done a much better job over the years of communicating that in.
They have visual ticketing channels, not necessarily if you're going to buy on StubHub or SeatGeek
that may not come across the same way.
But that's very true.
But again, you know, you you you aim for perfection.
And when you miss on that perfection, that sounded great.

(38:15):
When you miss on that perfection, you you reach as many people as possible.
Speaking of not communicating, though, was a little disappointed to see my seats for
the rain gone in the stadium.
Yeah, no problem.
We'll be back by the time the rain are there.

(38:37):
And this is one where I get it from a customer service perspective.
But I actually side with the Sounders.
They communicated here.
Well, let's back up because we got asked about it.
Alex asks us, can we find out more about the situation involving season ticket members
that had their sections just disappear due to modifications for FIFA World Cup 2026?

(38:59):
Are more sections going to be jackhammered away and are those season ticket members going
to be compensated?
So I mean, I got a check for three hundred thousand dollars.
I hope you guys don't mind.
But you know, no, I did.
So every single Sounders ticket holder was communicated on this via the method that they

(39:21):
asked to be communicated on.
So whether that was email, whether that was a phone call, whether that was a text message,
you received contact about this.
That doesn't mean you got it.
So maybe there is a lesson there.
But if you're asking to be communicated with a specific way, then make sure you're following

(39:44):
up with those communications because they're happening.
They just are not happening or not.
Everyone got the information.
Similarly, and I don't know if you got this email.
You did get this email, Nicholas, not you personally, but your seatmate did.
Yes, yes.
Yes, because they're the primary account holder for the rain.

(40:06):
But there was a message that went out to all rain season ticket holders that also talked
about it.
And I'm trying to I have the exact email here somewhere.
If I can bring it up, I'm not sure where it went.
But it basically says it is possible that your seats will be impacted, in which case

(40:28):
for those games, you may be having to move.
The rain start late enough that it's unlikely, but it could.
Players wise, they expect five games total to be impacted.
So I get it.
It's five out of what 20.

(40:49):
Well with 17 MLS games.
But it's like 20 ish altogether with the first one you get for free for the CONCACAF.
And then potentially I could see them giving us a friendly or something, depending on what
happens with or free Nations League match or something.

(41:10):
So that sucks.
But there was communication that went out and I'm sure people who did communicate back with
the club.
I mean, if you're getting seats that aren't in the same section, I understand that or
with the same value, you would want some value back.
But it sounds like most people just got moved away a few rows from where they were.
One fan I saw on Reddit was complaining that his wife couldn't see because they got moved

(41:33):
back two rows and they're no longer in the front row.
So I get it for sure.
That would be frustrating to me.
But also I'm sad.
That's why I'm in a sitting section.
I think sitting sitting standing should be readdressed.
And it also should be readdressed because of the people in the front row stand, everyone

(41:54):
stands.
So there is no actual majority.
This is a sitting section.
This is a standing section like they're supposed to be.
It's like a conference.
Yeah.
So I think that they need to find a way to pull fans in a section to figure out if they
wanted to be a sitting or standing section, if it's truly going to be sitting versus standing,
which that's the rule.
So then then I think they need to figure that out.

(42:17):
But I guess but I think I am in the minority there.
But I sit all game because I'm in the club.
By the way, some more news that came out recently involving the Sounders.
FIFA wants that the teams wear their home kits in the 2025 Club World Cup.
FIFA in the official regulations wanted to make sure that each team wear their home kits

(42:43):
at least once.
So they do not want them just wearing like their third jerseys during that.
Now obviously with the Sounders being the home team, I wonder, wonder how that's going
to work for us.
I don't know if it will affect.
I don't know what Athletico's home jerseys look like.
I mean, they're not going to affect us.

(43:04):
But both of those black, Perry is blue.
It just kind of sucks because Paris's main jersey kind of sucks.
It's a one of their old styles that they revamped to look modern, but it looks kind of crappy.
And so I would rather as them being one of my favorite teams, I'd rather have them wearing
third kits.

(43:25):
Well, it's the at least once is doing some heavy lifting.
So I mean, that could be the Sounders could just be like, no, we're going to wear our
we're going to wear our our new Salish C kits.
But then again, the Sounders could also be like, no, we want to wear our red greens.
We want to showcase who we are with the Seattle freaking Sounders.

(43:45):
And since blue, that might be the match where they do it.
Yeah, it'll be it'll be curious to see what happens there.
But just some news, I wanted to pass along some fun, fun stuff.
Why don't we talk about that match, by the way, the Sounders versus Charlotte?

(44:05):
Real quick, let's let's get a couple more questions that are not related to the match.
I think there might be one more out of the mailbag.
I need to switch back to the show here and get to the mailbag.
We can talk about that in RSL.

(44:27):
I guess a lot of them we can look at as comments on what we saw.
So this is the only one that will do for now.
Asian man 1974 says draft picks or MLS and X Pro, which one is more successful path for
young players, MLS in general and an opinion on the Sounders?
I think we had this conversation when I had that debate with Dan Boniface about the trade

(44:49):
where Colorado got like five draft picks for a good player or something like that or does
money make Garber bucks?
And I think clearly having a homegrown system where you can bring up players is far a far
better way as we've seen Sounders youth continue to develop for us.

(45:12):
And for other teams potentially as well, I suppose now.
Some teams aren't investing in their academies.
So I mean, like some teams are just trying to buy their way in with their draft picks
and such.
So, but right.
But I think you're right.
Because when I look at the last eight, nine years now, really, the successful draft picks

(45:34):
for the Sounders can start and end with the Roldan brothers.
Yeah, I mean, you got to go back 11 years for I guess Alex is a starter now, but you
got to go back 11 years to get to Christian and that's in the 20, 2015, wasn't it?
Yeah, because he was 15.
Those guards first full seat first full draft.

(45:55):
So and so before that, we did see times where it happened.
But after that, not so much.
I mean, people that you thought would like Jimmy Oxford.
I mean, you would have expected him to break through and he never did.
I mean, we've had a bunch.
Darwin Jones was amazing, you never broke through.
So I think it's a hard transition.

(46:16):
I wonder how much this changes with the potential and this could completely change the USL to
where if they're bringing in a League One, but the announcement earlier this year where
college might be moving in and playing in USL.
Yeah, in which case, I mean, it's funny because you're missing some of the best teams in college

(46:38):
since you're only taking the major conferences and outside of those, you've got Seattle,
you, Santa Clara and a bunch of other powerhouses that won't be included.
Actually, I think I think we're misinterpreting this question because of the way he wrote
it and I think now that I'm rereading it, I'm better understanding what I think he meant

(46:59):
when he says draft picks or MLS next pro.
That's not exactly the question because draft picks would often go into MLS next pro because
for Tacoma defiance is what I think he's actually asking is college students or college players
or MLS next pro, which is a more successful path like staying in MLS next pro.

(47:22):
Yeah, I agree.
That's how I was reading it.
You go to college, you become a draft pick or you go through the academy and go to MLS
next pro.
And that's how I was reading.
Okay.
And I think I think I guess I miss.
Don't go to college.
Yeah, no.
Well, I don't know if that's even the right answer.

(47:42):
I guess what's more successful path for young players going to I think they're showing that
you could if you've got the talent, you could do it either way.
I think college would play the wrong way.
Yes, you don't get the proper development.

(48:03):
It can happen.
I think if you're not as talented, you go to college because then you get that education
gives you a few more years.
You get an education and gives you a few more years to develop and become bigger, stronger.
Not everyone's Obed.
Most 16 year olds can't play and he couldn't play.

(48:23):
Not that he not talent wise, but he broke his spine.
Remember?
Like he could not man up against grown-ass men.
Yeah.
So not his fault.
He was just a kid.
So I think if I think college is still a great opportunity.
But if you true the team is going to be looking at you and the ceiling you have based on what
you're doing in the academy and then MLS next probe is unless next pro is where you get

(48:47):
your 10,000 minutes that make you be able to come up like Stu Huckins and like Sam Rogers
was supposed to do and then didn't keep developing.
Yeah.
But then you look at a Jackson Reagan.
You look at Leo Bernie, who you know.
Those were players that were coming out of high school though.
Those, you know, they didn't weren't, they were in academies, but they weren't blowing
up the academy.

(49:07):
We never heard of Jackson Reagan before he went to college.
I mean, we had him in our academy.
So sure.
But I mean, he wasn't like he wasn't blowing up the academy as a star player.
Oh yeah.
No, it wasn't like when he left for college, people were like, oh man, I really wanted
us to sign him.
No, no.
Whereas AOC is the opposite.
AOC is the total opposite where he was and now no one you don't hear from him at all.

(49:31):
Is he in is he in Europe?
I know he went away.
Yeah, but it's like one of the those one of your people's countries.
Oh, he went there.
You went there.
You know, like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, up there somewhere.
I'm Polish.
So so so.
Yeah.

(49:52):
Why do you always wear a Sweden jersey then?
This is not a Sweden jersey.
This is my college hockey jersey.
No, not that you have a Swedish jersey.
No, actually, I don't anymore.
I gave that I gave that to I gave that years ago to Molly Wagner.
Yeah, cool.

(50:14):
But and in return, she gave me as a thank you for that.
It wasn't a trade, but she gave me the original ECS tap handle from Big Al's Brewery.
So like the the original ECS beer.

(50:35):
So I actually have a collection over here of a whole bunch of the original tap handle
from Gorilla FC from Big Al's Brewery right behind me in this closet back here.
See, there we go.
Yeah, I've got I've got I've got three of the foosball ECS tap handles and ones on my
kegerator right now.

(50:56):
One is promised to our colleague in the Alliance Council Carmen Hall.
And one is well, that's kind of my backup in case I ever want to give it away as a prize
or, you know, just just have it just to have it.
Yep, for sure.
All right.
So let's let's talk this match on Saturday.

(51:18):
Your Seattle Sounders played against the Clit and tied two to two in a match that was the
fourth time in five times where the Sounders since the beginning of the twenty twenty four
season where the Sounders have led by one with 80 minutes left in the match and did
not win the game four times out of all five.

(51:39):
So five times in this time now all last season, the first game this year, did they lead after
the 80th minute?
Only four of them did they walk away with three points.
That's pretty well.
That's wait, Reifers.
So you're saying we've only led in the 80th minute five times.

(52:00):
No, no, no.
By one goal.
But one goal.
OK, at Lumen Field since the beginning of the twenty twenty four season, the Sounders
have led by one goal in the 80th minute five times and four of them, they've only they
have not they've given up at least a goal.
I don't know.
I don't know if we lost in those matches, but I guarantee you we only got three points

(52:21):
in one.
OK, so it seems like there might be a little problem going on with Sounders defense late
in matches.
I mean, first off, that's some that that's some mental.
I get the point that it's trying.
I get the point it's trying to make.
I get it.
I mean, it's 80 percent of the time when you're only up by a goal, you're not winning.

(52:43):
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
But just keep in mind that in those scenarios, that's like that's like it's like the onside
kick scenario where the teams are desperation and they're you know, there's going to be
a higher chance of scoring because of that desperation as a one goal game.

(53:05):
So it seems are not losing or giving that up an 80 percent clip.
And also, I we are now I want to go.
I would be surprised.
Most teams can close out.
Not not not this weekend, apparently.
But but generally teams can close out.
The Sounders cannot.
And that's the problem.
I I will say this.

(53:29):
I am not overly concerned about.
The end of that game because I do look at the whole second half of that game and we
had a lot of chances.
We're also going up against the goalkeeper of the year who, you know, makes it seems.

(53:50):
Yeah, but but easily should have had had another three or four goals despite this.
This is this is true.
Which is another reason why it feels like last year to me.
Brian Schmitzer said in his post game press conference that the way you deal with giving
up those late goes is through coaching.
Well, you didn't do it last year.
So when are you going to start coaching them not to do it?
That's what I want to know.

(54:10):
We're one point above the z-line right now.
One point.
OK, like that just one game into the season.
We are going to stop.
I know.
Honestly, honestly.
Wait, I don't even want to.
I don't even want to.
I'm going to shut down that conversation right now.
I mean, that part is fine.
But to me, because the reality is.
I have a short.
Well, I get that.
The problem is, the problem is when you set that up over this result and I don't see a

(54:33):
I thought we played exciting attacking soccer.
I was very winning.
I was.
I I get that.
But what I'm saying is now you set up with all the Ziggy line.
Well, let's be honest.
But I do.
If he can't figure it out, I want him gone.
We've already done this twice before.

(54:54):
If by the World Cup, we're still doing this, he's got to be gone.
We need a new coach, a world class coach.
All tomatoes one game into the season.
I know this is me being the voice of.
Yeah.
If this hadn't been the exact same thing we'd seen all last year, this would be a different
thing for me.
This is the same problem.
I don't.
That's why I'm coming.

(55:15):
I just.
I mean, problem.
I disagree.
It's the exact same problem.
I do.
I completely disagree.
That's the exact same problem.
We're going up against a very good.
I do believe Charlotte's going to end up finishing in the top four in the East.
I'm going up against a very good Charlotte team.
Very hard goalie to score against.

(55:37):
And I thought offensively, we looked really good, really dangerous.
Now it's one thing is if we eke out two goals, look uninspiring and this happens.
I think that's a little different.
I'm not dismissing.
Bad subs, late subs were the problem here.

(55:59):
You put on people so late that they didn't have time to get into the run of play.
Granted, the two people that made the mistakes at the end had been in there, but the people
around them couldn't recover.
Why even put some of those players on if they're only going to play six minutes?
I mean, 11 with the injury time, but I just, I didn't understand that some of the subs,

(56:19):
I didn't understand the way they went.
And I think continuously we've seen Schmetzer do late subs and bad subs and it's just continued.
And if that's going to be our weakness, we need to score more than two goals.
Scoring two goals should be enough for the Sounders.
That's where I'm at with it.
To me, this is the same old shit as last year.

(56:39):
Am I impressed with Jordan Morris?
Yes, it's one game, but from what we just saw, he's proving he's that DP.
He's proving that he is who we said he had to be.
You were right.
Rusnack continues to be incredible.
Can I go on my You Were Right tour with the Georgie, the variety of Georgie beating people?

(57:01):
He's a real one team.
Even after the game, people were saying he was a one note player, which I was blown away
by because no, yes, do it.
Do it.
Go on your go on your victory tour right now.
All right, here we go.
I have been saying people over here and I know why they're doing it.
They're doing it because they see him come up off that wing, get to the end line and

(57:24):
make a move because he keeps getting by people and he's doing it in different ways.
Sometimes he's watching him cut back inside and because they're trying to cut off that
touch line.
Then he's throwing that pass in just before he's doing it in so many different ways.
It's really, really entertaining to watch.

(57:46):
Having a blast.
I was having a blast watching him.
I mean, he had one assist in the game, but it felt like his impact was much greater.
You know who else I really, really liked watching it because I was right in the front of ECS
right in that the right side.
So the front of 121 was really enjoying watching Paul Arreola with the pace of his crosses,

(58:11):
watching the way those crosses were coming on.
They're coming on with pace and at a beautiful level where those are the kind of ones that
are really tough to defend against.
It starts the way he receives the ball.
Oh yeah, there were some.
The way he receives it is incredible.
He can grab it with his foot and move it before he even starts running and he knows what direction

(58:36):
the other player is going.
This dude is going to kill for the Sounders.
It's awesome.
And what's crazy is he's not a locked in starter.
And that's just because I'm so excited.
I really am.
I saw a lot to feel excited about this team.

(58:57):
I do want to caution people.
I do expect us to kick the shit out of Antigua tomorrow or Wednesday.
I was surprised at some of the substitutions we made to start the match.
There's players that we changed considering I thought maybe we would play more backups
against Antigua because we don't need the same kind of result against them that maybe

(59:21):
we needed in MLS.
I thought we would have seen a little flip there, but maybe they're thinking more lines
of RSL is going to be harder.
That's exactly it because we have not won in RSL since 2012.
And this happens, it feels anecdotally like this happens all the fucking time where we
end up playing RSL in a midweek game on short rest.

(59:46):
We never get to have our full strength RSL, which is part of the reason why we haven't
won in RSL since 2012.
But we always have some weird situation where we make the business decision where we go,
well, we're not going to put our full starters in at 6,000 plus feet altitude on short rest
and it's just not going to happen.

(01:00:07):
I'm sick of that.
Thankfully they're on short rest as well because they're playing Haradiano at home.
Unfortunately at that home, it would have been really nice if they had to travel.
I will ask you that was that match the one where Manny Martinez hit the game winner in
the playoffs or was that earlier?

(01:00:29):
The win there because remember we beat them one nothing in the playoffs and it was like
the one thing that Manny did for us.
No you're thinking of Mario.
Oh sorry, yes.
I'm like, why did that not work?
Yeah.
I know what you're talking about.
Not entirely sure.
Not entirely sure.
I would be lying.

(01:00:49):
I remember a lot and I soak up a lot of stuff.
That's not what I remember.
By the way, that Haradiano game is going to be really tough for RSL because it's currently
aggregate of 0-0.
So a tie, Haradiano wins because of the way goals.

(01:01:11):
Only if they score as low as they can.
I'm assuming it's not going to be another 0-0 tie.
But any tie that's 0-0.
I mean if you're RSL you're happy going home though.
If it is a 0-0 tie that's 90 or 30 more minutes of soccer and that bodes well for us as well.
Yeah absolutely.

(01:01:33):
I would be excited to see that go long for sure.
Maybe I'll put that game on before the Sounders game because that starts at 530.
Mario Martinez was on that roster so that might have been the match.
He had that one banger.
He only scored three goals for us.

(01:01:54):
That was the one that we remember.
It's kind of like who's that handsome guy in the team?
Valdes.
Yes.
Nelson Valdes.
Who helped us get to our MLS Cup in 2016.
So I was very impressed by a lot of things.

(01:02:22):
Little less impressed by some others.
For example, that first goal from Charlotte.
It looked like Fry wanted to come out and started to come out and then took a step back.
It just looked like some preseason decision.

(01:02:45):
Even that, we played a high line.
It got exploited in such a poor defensive way that it left Nuhu on an island.
It wasn't fair to Nuhu but then Nuhu made the complete wrong choice out of any choice
he could have made.
He read the worst one and just flailed at the opponent nowhere near him when it was

(01:03:06):
too late.
I think there were mistakes all around on that from our left back, from our right back,
from our center backs probably, from our goalie.
It was rough.
I was bummed.
I was bummed because that felt like it was against the run of play.
What did you think of Alex Roldon though?

(01:03:26):
I thought he had a pretty good name.
Excuse me.
I just went back to Antigua in my head.
Was that the head of the game?
No, that was Yemar.
Yeah, that was Yemar.
Yemar didn't cover his hand on that run.
Later Nuhu didn't but it didn't affect anything.
Nuhu had a super solid game overall.
The first minute red card.

(01:03:51):
I was worried that maybe they should take him out.
But yes, Yemar, excuse me, did not.
I even saw it on the wrong side of my head.
On that header, yeah, Yemar didn't cover his man.
It was a very un-Yemar-like day because he also then got the own goal later.
I mean, hopefully.
Well, with that own goal, very unfortunate.
But that is the exact kind of ball you want to throw into the box if you're a Charlotte

(01:04:16):
where Yemar has to try and stop that.
Yeah.
And by the way, it was the playoff game where Mario Martinez scored was the last time we
won down there in 2012.
We won nothing.
Jesus, that was so long ago.

(01:04:37):
And you want to hear the worst stat about the 2-2 loss?
Well, you know what?
Freud.
It felt like a loss.
The 2-2 loss.
Sounders had 18 shots, 7 shots on target.
Charlotte had 7 shots, 1 shot on target.
And yet they got 2 goals.

(01:05:00):
I mean, even their goal, and I don't actually blame the Sounders for this initially.
It was against the run of play, their first goal.
The Sounders were dominating.
I do think there was a few bad referee calls early on.
They didn't lead directly to the goal.
So they were not involved in the goal itself, but they kept killing the Sounders' momentum

(01:05:22):
in a way that prevented the Sounders from continuing to dominate the run of play completely
and allowed, I mean, it was just a bad foul call.
It wasn't a foul.
And they put it the other way.
And your Canadian brethren there in the goal pulled some bullshit.
I mean, in the ref, he was a ref in the center circle, pulled some bullshit and kept calling

(01:05:43):
fouls on us.
The second half was a much better, I wonder if he got talked to at halftime or something.
Second half, much better ref game.
First half was insane.
I did not know what was going on.
Maybe even just preseason jitters for everyone, just kind of chalk it up to.
You know, the other thing that was really weird is, you saw, well, no, I was going to

(01:06:04):
say you saw around the league a number of red cards.
But no, I'm not going to open that can of worms of maybe there was something going on
with MLS, MLS, or I'm sorry, pro referees wanting to emphasize certain things.
But no, because those reds were very much reds.
You know, it wasn't like there was the one the one that people are arguing.

(01:06:27):
They're arguing a foul rather than the wrong foul.
They're arguing the one in the box rather than dog.
So so yeah, yeah.
So it's just me talking out realizing, no, it's not that.
So I mean, it just it seemed it wasn't as egregious.
Well, I think it was more egregious than some we saw last year where people were up in arms

(01:06:47):
and booed.
I think the second half calmed some people down because like I didn't think it was the
it was specifically the right winger, the right mid for Charlotte kept pretending like
he was getting knocked down and they kept they gave us two cards for it and they didn't
give us a card on three or four other fouls where he was knocked down that way.

(01:07:07):
And in the second half, the ref was like, uh, let him go.
Even on somewhere, I think the Sounders maybe did commit a foul.
So I'm wondering if someone got in his ear in half time said, you're screwing this up.
And then he got too cautious the other way.
Yeah, I I don't know.
I don't know.
But I do know that we were just we were just attacking at a really beautiful clip as far

(01:07:32):
as like the stats reflect that, you know, 13 shots inside the box.
41 touches in the opponent's box versus Charlotte's 12, you know, 41 touches.
We're touching the ball 41 times in the box.
I wonder how many of those were Georgie.

(01:07:53):
Just a lot of them were going to be Arreola, some are Russnack too.
I mean, we've seen time and time again, cycling through the box over.
I mean, all the players, it was impressive.
And I mean, Obed should have scored.
Yeah.
Five saves.
Or Jordan almost scored another time.
Yeah.
And I would say probably at least three of those saves were great saves that should have

(01:08:15):
gone in.
And then the other two were ones that the Sounders made four shots on when they should
have put in a better place.
But hey, if we keep if we keep attacking like this, you know, or in this vein throughout
the season, good things are going to happen.
I hope so.
We've seen it in the past, though.
I can't remember how many one goal games where we had 18 shots.

(01:08:38):
It's been a lot.
I think we have more talent this year, though, so that shouldn't be the case.
We have a lot more talent on the attacking end.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what was your favorite thing that you saw on matchday?
I mean, the ECS Tifa was pretty sweet.

(01:09:05):
I know you couldn't see it because you were under it.
I did.
I did enjoy it.
You know, it's never going to live up to what was it, LA Galaxy, they made the one for the
firefighters.
That was super cool.
Obviously, we're not going to make one for LA firefighters.
But I just want to give a shout out to that.
Like that's awesome.
Like I feel like it was LAFC, actually.

(01:09:27):
I'm pretty sure because I think Galaxy were doing championship rings on opening night
and they weren't doing the fire.
They should have done the fire because that's incredible.
Good for them.
But yeah, I was a big fan of it.
You know, a lot of work went into that.

(01:09:47):
I did not.
I can tell you what I didn't like.
When Arreola came on and then we were told, I mean, it was a little bit of a different
announcement, which I didn't like, but that's me personally.
But then we have to say his name when he comes on.
And that's going to be a regular thing this year at matches.
I don't like it because sure, we do it pre-match, but during the match, that's usually reserved

(01:10:11):
for when people score goals.
I get why because we do it before the match for players that are on.
So for me, maybe this is what I told when he asked about it, when Mr.
James.
Yeah, I ran into him at the pro shop at the end of the game and we had a moment.
When he asked about it, I said, you know, I don't like it for the reasons I just explained,

(01:10:35):
but you know what?
Not everything's for me.
So maybe it's not a big deal.
I'm not going to be annoyed or whatever, do whatever we want.
I just won't partake in it.
One person not chanting doesn't matter to me.
So I just, to me, it takes away the sacredness of what happens when we score a goal.
You know what I don't know if I liked yet?

(01:10:56):
Those green spirit fingers on corners.
It was kind of kind of a little weird.
I didn't see there were spirit fingers.
They're like slimy, like these little like, like, watch my watch my camera.
It was these fingers came up like this and were like, like, but they're like these green
real people's fingers or were they like, no, it was like a green.

(01:11:18):
It was a weird graphic.
It was weird.
Are you sure you want the Columbus match seeing goosebumps?
I don't believe I was taking LSD or acid.
I don't believe but no, it was a little weird, a little weird.
Yeah, that is odd.
I did not see that.
But usually I'm not looking at the screen.
I'm looking at the corner.

(01:11:38):
So and you're directly across the screen so you can see it easily.
You know what I did like seeing?
I did like seeing Jordan Morris tie Raul Rodriguez for most goals scored and sounder history.
I mean, yeah, just just nuts from from Academy to.

(01:11:59):
Yeah, I mean, you're going to Germany just crazy.
Just it's really impressive.
Yeah, I mean, he's he's going in the pride he took in tying it, putting his hands up
in the air.
It was incredible.
And you can tell you can tell he listens to the show and is like, fuck you guys, I'm going
to score.

(01:12:20):
I mean, not Nick, but everyone else.
Fuck you guys.
I'm going to score.
Nick knows what's going on.
And he did it.
And you know what?
We had a question come in about that, which was to do to do.
Does JMo become the Sounders all time leading scorer at RSL next Saturday?

(01:12:40):
This is not MLS, it's all competitions, I'm going to say he becomes the all time leading
scorer on Wednesday against Antigua.
If he plays, he might come off the bench, he might not.
He may not.
This may be a break for him having played in the first two games.
Do you think Danny Mussovsky is enough to get us some goals?
You know what?

(01:13:00):
That would be great to see him just get off the Schneid and just get some confidence.
This could be a great.
Yeah, and he scored at San Jose last year, but I think he was on the wing for that match,
not as a forward, but still, we know he can score.
He's done it for other MLS teams.
So it's just frustrating that he hasn't been able to do it for us.

(01:13:24):
Yeah.
We'll talk about that at the end of the show here.
But let's finish up on this Charlotte match.
Was there anything else that you were a big fan of that you saw?
I mean, I liked for me, Paul Ariola's play.
It continues to be a revelation.
I knew he was good, but like I said, Rusnak, his pass to Jordan was truly incredible.

(01:13:48):
It's what we expect from him, but it was world class.
You see why they sign him as a DP despite his age, because if you can make passes like
that, we're going to score so many goals this year.
Yeah.
I mean, I think it's a little filthy and a little bit unfair, but that's the advantage

(01:14:11):
we get.
I mean, you don't see it.
There's not a lot of teams that have that ability in the MLS.
I mean, it's the top three or four teams from each conference that have a player that can
do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At least for now.
Let's see, other thing that I liked Obed.

(01:14:34):
Obed, by the way, was named for the upcoming Nations League for Mexico, was named to their
60-man roster.
So he's eligible to play in Nations League.
Will he be selected to the final 28, whatever it is?

(01:14:55):
I think if he's healthy, there's a very, very good chance he is.
He's just playing at such a different level as many other players right now in that position.
Yeah.
It's just such a bummer that...
Who's the Chicago coach?
What's his name?

(01:15:16):
Burr Halter.
Burr Halter mismanaged that whole thing so badly that he switched to Mexico because he
could have been back there with Tyler Adams on...
I mean, Tyler Adams plays three different positions for the US, but he could have been
incredible for the USA and they weren't willing to give him serious consideration.
You know what?

(01:15:37):
Let me be honest.
I'm okay with this.
I'm okay with this because one, I am exhausted sometimes when it comes to a certain side
of the US national team fans who basically will criticize anyone who's in MLS.

(01:15:59):
And you know what?
Just let him have his joy with his family.
His dad is a huge Mexico supporter.
Let him have this.
And honestly, it might be the best path for him to make the World Cup roster.
Yeah, I think that with two years, that's probably true.

(01:16:25):
But I do think that it would be like...
To me, it's like Jordan Morris being like, I'm going to go finish my career in Portland.
That's what it feels like to me.
You're going to our biggest possible rival.
Now, Jordan doesn't have the allegiance to Portland that same way.

(01:16:45):
I know, but that's what it feels like as a Sounders fan, as a US national team fan.
Yeah, I'm not going to...
There's no team that plays dirtier than I've seen than them.
There's no fan base that sucks more than their fan base.
A bunch of homophobic pricks.
Not their entire fan base, the ones in the stadium, we should say.

(01:17:10):
It's really frustrating to me that now I have to watch games of theirs if I want to see
them play.
It's like I never want to see another Yankees or Red Sox game ever again.
It's the same shit.
I never want to see Mexico play ever again.
I don't care.
That's fair.
That's fair.
I do have a big problem with the chant, but hey, that's neither here nor there right now.

(01:17:32):
What do we got in the mailbag that relates to...
We have some mailbag stuff that is a little bit related to the Sounders game.
The cedar, Jordan's first goal, the cross from Georgie, possibly the most Jordan Morris-esque
goal he's ever scored.
He kind of gets it in his legs and kind of deflects it in.

(01:17:59):
I'm going to say no personally.
When I think of a Jordan Morris-esque goal, I kind of think about Jordan run right by
him and just using his speed to burn someone.
Yeah, I think it depends on which Jordan Morris we're talking about, 1.0 or 2.0.
The new Jordan Morris, I view it as the goal from last year where he kind of bodied a defender

(01:18:23):
off of him who was pulling on him and the ball fell behind him and he pulled it forward
with his foot.
That was incredible.
I think it's a goal that we've seen him miss a lot in the past and he wasn't going to miss
this time.
This was an announcement from Jordan, I am here.

(01:18:44):
I'm going to score goals, get used to it.
So I got two Georgie-related questions.
Cran my man or Cran me man, not sure which one.
I'm going to go with Cran my man.
Cran my man, if Georgie continues progressing at the rate he is and stays healthy, what

(01:19:06):
kind of future do you think he holds?
Save the Sounders, become a club legend, go to Europe, another MLS team like Miami or
Atlanta, offer a bag and swoop in from us.
Well, first I'll say Miami or Atlanta, probably not just because I think if an MLS team is
going to swoop in from us, it is going to be someone that does a bad job of developing

(01:19:28):
their own talent and also is going to play it cheap and not go export or import talent.
So like a Colorado, like a Houston, a Dallas, someone like that.

(01:19:50):
But he is from the Ivory Coast, so I think that means he's got ties to France.
Is that correct?
Ivory Coast, France.
Not people like that.
Not people like that.
Okay.
Well, no, no, no, but like he can go play in France is what I'm getting at.
I think there's something about being Ivory Coast that makes...

(01:20:13):
Anyways, so who knows?
I would love to find out that answer by seeing Georgie succeed.
We saw his number, I mean, for playing in Europe that is a little older.
Like by the time you're 23, you're usually over in Europe.
That was one of the knocks on Jordan going there so late.
But he had the chance with...

(01:20:36):
Oh, with Swansea you're talking about.
With Swansea, yeah.
But here's the thing is honestly, because he is usually going to be second in that position,
I don't think he's going to get enough chances this season to become a regular starter unless

(01:20:56):
he pulls a Rothrock, which is absolutely possible.
But even then, I don't think Rothrock's starting regularly this season because of upgrades
we've done.
And so he will get a bunch of starts, no doubt, because of how many competitions we play in.
But I just think that he's not going to become a club legend if he wants to become a superstar.
If he wants to stay with us and keep growing and do it slowly and realizes this is where

(01:21:20):
he wants to be, yeah, he will.
But if he wants to succeed, eventually he'll go to another team like you mentioned and
we'll show how good he can be.
Like we did for Atencio, we'll keep a sell-on clause and then make money from when he goes
to Europe somewhere after that, which I don't think he'll go to a big league there.

(01:21:40):
But you know, France is interesting.
I mean, France, a Netherlands, a Norway.
But there's more teams.
I mean, Paris now has two teams in France that are going to be the... because Paris,
SC, I think, just made it up into League... it looks like they're going to make it into

(01:22:05):
League One next year.
So there's going to be two Parisian teams.
And so that's going to start changing the landscape because there's going to be a fact
that more lower division French teams, if they can get investment, are going to start
buying young upstart players in order to try and get into League One.
Yeah.
I mean, so in the end, let's find out.

(01:22:25):
Keep succeeding because he's showing some great talent.
He's showing some great promise.
And I think he could be one of those players that could open some eyes at the Club World
Cup.
For sure.
I'd be very curious to see him pulling a Deandre Jadlin.

(01:22:50):
I wonder how much teams worry about his eyesight.
That's something that he's always going to be a knock on him.
We obviously see that's not an issue.
But yeah, it'll be interesting.
I think he could easily be successful in a championship team in some of the lower tier
European leagues.
He could definitely be a top player if he continues to develop at this current rate.

(01:23:15):
I don't think he is the ceiling that Deandre Jadlin has.
But I don't think he's going to be on the US national team or the Ivory Coast national
team.
That being said.
But let's find out.
He could be successful.
Yeah.
I mean, Ivory Coast is a little down right now compared to where they used to be.

(01:23:35):
They're no longer in the greatest generation.
No.
Dan the Bastard, will I ever get to see Pedro and Georgie on the pitch at the same time?
Or did Brian see them like a like for like swap?
I think we will just not right now.
I mean, I think we have too many other players vying for minutes.

(01:23:56):
I think you're going to see Ferrera come on.
You're going to see with Pedro.
Right now they're the perfect sub.
But yeah, we know that Pedro can play on the left.
We know he can play center attacking mid.
But they like him to play on the right traditionally, although during the prezes and he was all
over the field.

(01:24:16):
What was interesting is the weather was not conducive to Pedro starting too.
So I was not surprised he didn't play.
I was a little surprised the Albert play, but I guess that means that his knock was
much cleared up.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.

(01:24:37):
Alex Diaz, I also referencing the first match on us feels like the club is heading in the
right direction to bring in more fans at an affordable price to home matches.
What can the front office do to continue heading in the right direction?
Well, I think I think better keep up the outreach, especially to our diverse populations, get

(01:25:12):
down to South Seattle, get down to Rainier.
Get outreach to 26 fields by 26 is one way to do that for sure.
Well, now it's 52 remember, it's I do know that but it's the 26 by 26.

(01:25:34):
It's just easier to say that because that's the official name of the program.
But with the hiring or the promotion rather, I should say of Ashley Fosberg to I believe
her new title is director of fan engagement.
That's going to be a big deal for the club, I think, where she I think she's probably

(01:25:58):
still lead of the rave foundation.
I don't know for sure.
No, they don't have an executive director.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
I wasn't sure about that.
But get seeing what she was doing with rave foundation, I think having a director of fan
engagement is a role that she is very suited for.

(01:26:19):
So that'll certainly be something that you and I might have to just ask her next time
we run into her.
I saw yesterday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I mean, here's the thing.
I think there's it's several things.
Thing you talked about it last up.
So things have changed a lot since you took over.
These things have been in the works for several years now.

(01:26:42):
They know what's going on.
They are trying to change the fan experience.
I don't think I think the loudest voices that are screaming about the fan experience are
people that are already fans and the average fan doesn't give a shit about that kind of

(01:27:04):
stuff.
The things that people complain about the average fan doesn't care about.
They just want to have a good time, have their kids have a good time and see a win.
And I think the Sounders continue to deliver on that and their complaints are small.
The reason there, I mean, there's obviously missteps, but they know that and they're continuing
to try and change that.

(01:27:25):
And they've completely restructured the Sounders organization internally in order to deal with
some of that stuff.
So I think that's just going to continue to get better and better.
Yeah.
And for full disclosure on the Sounders Alliance account, on the Sounders Alliance Council,
we have a committee that's devoted specifically to fan engagement.

(01:27:50):
And as we meet with the Sounders specifically on that topic, we'll probably have some more
insights on that.
We haven't done so yet for this season, but these are things that, you know, keep asking
these questions.
Keep coming up with solutions because that's stuff that myself, Cameron, I know we have

(01:28:11):
a number of fellow Alliance Council members who listen to this podcast.
Tim Hamilton, you know, we, these are the kind of the Tom Eggerding, you know, I know
they're they're listeners.
So these are the kind of things that you have ideas, pop them up in here, you know, generally

(01:28:31):
speaking, if you're listening to this podcast, if you're engaged in discourse, and discourse
on Discord, you are not always going to be the target audience for a lot of these things.
Yeah.
And but you have a voice that is being listened to.

(01:28:53):
And you can help.
We have a direct line to the office.
Yeah, you can you can help successfully make an impact.
So we want to hear these things.
We want to hear these voices.
We are, you know, on the Alliance Council, we're a representational democracy, you know,
so we take what we're hearing, what we're seeing, we pass that on, we share that we

(01:29:15):
also add our own personal insights.
And largely, there's a lot of good that comes from it.
So please keep asking these questions.
Yeah, I mean, I know you are similar with me on this, Nicholas, but we will bring stuff
up with the right people at any given time.
I mean, I'm now on a first name.

(01:29:35):
I mean, I guess I have been for a while with Craig, but it was never felt the same as it
was with Garth.
First name basis with Craig, with Hugh Webber, with, you know, pretty much everyone in the
leadership team now, except for the two new people they've hired.
And I'm not afraid to say, hey, this is an idea that we've been hearing from fans.
What do you think of this?

(01:29:57):
And we saw, you and I saw Peter Tomazawa do that.
You talked about it last episode where we came to them saying this is what the Washington
Huskies do with the Husky plan.
What was that called?
Husky Pass.
Husky Pass.
And they ran with it.
And that is the reason why today we have the student tickets.
And I think this in a way, there is a level of, you know, everything evolves.

(01:30:25):
And so I think our voices collectively matter.
But I try to, my own personal thing is I try to not use hyperbole.
I try to try to be reasoned and measured in my responses.
And I know sometimes Mr. Schmitzer out here, Cameron, I know.

(01:30:49):
That's what people are talking about on the field, Blake.
I know.
When it comes to commenting on the Sounders and stuff like this, people are so hyperbolic
and people are so angry that it's like, it's, it's people are, what's, what's the phrase
when you're crying wolf because they treat small things the same as giant things.

(01:31:12):
Everything's in emergency.
Nothing's in emergency.
Correct.
And so I think that sounded good.
There is a disconnect in that kind of stuff.
And your voice is not going to be heard the same traditionally when your message is delivered
that way.
And that's something that's one of the reasons that when I took over as president of the
Alliance Council, we had to have a lot of conversations with the front office.

(01:31:36):
You and I have sat down with the front office and said, this is what you're proposing.
This is what the fan response is going to be.
You must have a plan prepared for when people are going to respond this way, whether it's
to other Alliance Council members when we're in leadership, whether it's the general fan.
This is how people are going to respond.
So if this is the plan you want to go with, whether we agree with it or not, expect this

(01:31:59):
kind of response and be ready for it.
And Kimberly, is that who came in last year on the revenue side?
Or she, I know something like that.
Gosh, I should remember her name.
I've met her at least three times.
But she, I swiped right on her on Bumble, but she did not swipe right on me.

(01:32:24):
And muted.
But she straight up said one thing that the stories, one thing that the Sounders have
been poor at at times is storytelling and explaining why things are the way they are
through storytelling.
And then that gets lost.
I mean, we saw the outrage at the Jimi Hendrix jersey from a segment of the fan base until

(01:32:48):
they finally learned the story.
And that was different.
That's a completely different situation.
That is people seeing a leak and making assumptions, but there's always things that Sounders can
do better.
And it's important that we continue to push them to do better.
Like we talked about the student tickets, obviously we're frustrated that they're only
for college students.
Obviously there's a limitation.
If you're going to sell them online, how do you prove your student not having an EDU website?

(01:33:14):
There's ways to do it through, you probably have to pay for it though, where people can
verify by sharing their schedule or something like that.
I've had to do it as a professor many times.
And honestly, there may be, the Sounders certainly have the details of how many people are requesting
the student tickets per game.
And they may be making the business decision.

(01:33:37):
So ultimately my advice would be, hey, reserve, take a look at the historical data of people
that are requesting these student tickets.
Let's just say it's a hundred people a game.
Let's just, let's just draw on that number out there.
Okay.
Then sell 90 of those tickets online and reserve 10 for game day, just for specifically to

(01:34:00):
hold back.
So there's at least some assort, allotment of that.
It would be a suggestion that I would maybe have.
Yeah.
And maybe the problem is, well, how do you let a middle schooler in with tickets if the
parents can't get tickets at that price and then wouldn't be in the same section?
It becomes problems there.
But that's the change in the past.

(01:34:21):
You know, the student tickets, you had to prove you were a student and you get that
ticket.
But here it's clear they're changing that up because your EDU address can get you six
tickets.
And the problem is those student tickets, that solves that problem for that.
So my guess is that the box office, oh, there's the kid, but I don't really know.
And so, yeah, we definitely, we have questions about the same thing and we'll be addressing

(01:34:48):
them with the front office, along with lots of other stuff that I already have inquiries
into for, with Dwayne Nakamura, the Alliance Council President to ask, because he will
have a conversation more rapidly than we will.
So, are we going to see more giveaways this year, like last year, Sammy the Sounder, Bobblehead?

(01:35:09):
Well, usually when it comes to Bobbleheads, we get Bobbleheads.
Before the Sammy the Sounder Bobblehead, our last one was the Zach Scott retirement one,
and that would have been 2016 because he retired after MLS Cup.
And the other one was Kasey Keller?
Well, before that, Kelsey Keller.
We also had the Drew Carey.

(01:35:29):
Oh, yeah, Drew Carey.
And I think that's about it.
We haven't had a lot.
I do have a Jordan Morris one, but that was from the...
No, that wasn't a giveaway though.
Yeah, that was different.
Yeah, correct.
That was from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame, and it's him holding the...
So, should we be told our next one...

(01:35:51):
I mean, they could.
That was a success.
They could, but the question is, what would they give?
Well, it would have to be...
I mean, an Aussie one would be amazing.
Bring Aussie back for a day and do an Aussie one.
I mean, bring in a legend.
That would be fantastic.
Maybe...

(01:36:11):
Oh, you know what?
Oh, I think we're about to say the same thing.
Hall of Fame?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's have a conversation with the Sounders.
Who makes it in Hall of Fame?
We get Bobbleheads.
Well, the problem is there may not be enough time to...
Let's find out what the lead time is on producing and let's talk about that.
But yeah, because I have to also remind myself, because this will be the first year that we're

(01:36:35):
doing the whole process from start to finish.
So from the time we finalize the voting to the time it's announced and then what kind
of timeline is that?
We don't even know what the process is going to be because they have not totally developed...
They didn't use everything we told them to do, which is fine.

(01:36:57):
But we got 90% of what we wanted from them in terms of when you and I and Daniel Rhodes
were...
Correct.
And I'm very pleased with that.
But yeah, that would be a great idea.
But the other thing is you've set that precedent.
One year you have one Hall of Fame, a circle of legend.
One year you have five.
You're not going to give away five Bobbleheads.
The entire 1995 team.

(01:37:18):
Well, you know, so I mean, this is just us.
This is how ideas get formed.
You just kind of you kind of go back and forth like that.
So Alex Diaz, does Jordan Morris hit 100 goals in all competitions this year?
So he's currently at what 86?
Yeah, I'm going to say yes, he does.

(01:37:40):
Oh, I was thinking 100 on the season.
I was like, no way, dude.
No way.
Easy.
Yeah.
I mean, that's how I get 100 goals.
I mean, I was like, he's at 86, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think yes.

(01:38:01):
If your career 100 in all competition career, I would agree.
Yes.
But if you mean, is he going to get 100 between MLS Club World Cup and Leagues Cup and Concacaf
Champions League?
No, I don't think so.
No, he's talking about he's talking about 100.
Did we have the same ref on Saturday that went viral for the However clip in the St.
Louis versus Atlanta game?

(01:38:23):
No idea.
I can tell you actually, because he was one of the two refs that when I mentioned earlier,
those two pro refs that went on the soccer wise, he was one of the two refs.
I just got to look up the two-check.
It might have been, might have been.
Maybe I don't know.

(01:38:43):
I'm full of it.
Was he Canadian?
Did he say a boot?
What are you talking about?
It was a penalty.
Did San Diego's win something for us to watch out for and will they be a good squad or was
it a one-off game because it was an inaugural match?
Inaugural matches, you get a lot of energy.
Yeah, but it wasn't at home.
Wasn't at home.

(01:39:04):
No, but LAFC in their first season, they were not great and they were playing against us
and they fought us really hard.
They ended up winning.
Of course, there was some shenanigans in that game, refereeing wise, but hey, who's counting?
But you know what?
I saw enough out of that San Diego team to say, I regret taking the under.

(01:39:32):
I think they might be a playoff team.
They might be a playoff team.
I can say this.
I don't know enough about that team.
The players on the team to me are nobodies from a bunch of MLS squads and I don't know
anything about the players they brought in.
I think if they make the signings they're talking about still, absolutely, they'll be

(01:39:54):
a playoff squad, but I don't think they're there yet.
And also if RSL is as bad as they looked the other day, if Portland is as bad as they looked
the other day, that kind of allows a San Diego to jump in a little more.
Would I like them to see them make the playoffs?
Actually, yeah, that'd be fun.
Imagine getting to fly to San Diego in October to enjoy a playoff.

(01:40:15):
Oh, they play here.
But regardless, if we did home and away, are we home and away in any of those games yet?
Yeah, we are.
After the first round.
So yeah, I would love that.
Well, the thing is though, I mean, they got Chuckie Lozano from Mexico.
They got Luca de la Torre is their center mid.
So yeah, but this Anders Dreier from Denmark.

(01:40:43):
That could be quite the surprise.
That could be quite the surprise.
Oh, did you watch that Portland Vancouver game, the absolute drubbing?
No, I was you.
You were keeping me updated.
I was at SuperHawks training camp.
I was having to live stream because the assistant GM plays for a team in Mexico right now.

(01:41:09):
So I was having to turn the camera left and right every second for three hours.
So I did not see it.
But I was surprised Portland scored at the end.
Yeah, was it was do you think here's my question for you about that match?
Was Portland as bad as the score or was it that they were down a man and so they were
chasing the game the whole time?

(01:41:30):
Yes.
I mean, you know, I was Vancouver as good as they the score says or did they was it
just because they were up a man that let them exploit the poor defense of the Timbers.
There is a little bit of that.
The second goal was crazy, though, because Portland was asking for a handball on the

(01:41:50):
box.
And before anything could happen on the counter, dude did like just a 80 yard run by and just
makes a beautiful pass lays off to to to give it an easy tap in.

(01:42:14):
And one of my favorite soccer celebrations I've seen in a long time.
The two of them basically were on the end line.
And he just kind of does like a roundhouse kick to his face and he goes down.
But like, you know, but they're, you know, they're a good foot away.
But it was just like, wait, did he just do that?
It was it watched the highlights on that one.

(01:42:36):
It was entertaining.
But but here's the crazy thing.
Vancouver put up a four spot.
And they put up a four spot and Brian White had no goals, no assists.
Ryan Gold just had one goal.
You know, their their high scores weren't really as involved as you might have thought.

(01:43:01):
So so Vancouver, I don't know.
I don't know what to expect.
I mean, they were playing Portland, so they were going to be up for that game, especially
after you're going to expect Portland is going to come in and want to destroy them.
And so Portland was probably too up for it.
I mean, Portland's been outscored by Vancouver nine to one in the last two games in their

(01:43:24):
last two games.
They've been in their last one.
Yeah.
No, just crazy stuff there.
Just crazy stuff.
And then and then I guess I'll say Patrick, Patrick G.C. What's our ideal attacking midfield,
assuming the other eight positions are Fry, Newhoo, Reagan, Yamar, Christian, Obed with

(01:43:48):
Morris at the nine.
So so that means we got to decide is Alex rolled on in there?
Those are right now, despite the fact that they say we're playing three at the back,
we're playing four at the back.
It's just they're shifting.
I think they're shifting more in a way similar to what Columbus has done and what Nalsi did

(01:44:11):
there where you're shifting up and then anyone can move up the field.
So it's similar to what we've done in the past.
So we're playing four at the back, but with only three back at any given time.
Yeah, I mean, basically it looks like one, two, three, three, four, five, six, seven.
So he's asking us to pick four players out of out of Georgie Pedro Jesus.

(01:44:41):
No, no, no.
Because he give us eight.
Yeah, but he's also including Fry.
Yeah.
So it's three left because there's 11 on the field with Fry.
Well, then his math is hard because he said the other eight positions, but he only named

(01:45:03):
seven.
He only listed seven.
You're right.
So maybe he forgot Alex.
So let's just assume he's including Alex because he's not attacking midfielder and he's asking
about midfield.
Yeah.
I just thought maybe he was thinking knew who Reagan, I don't know, because I don't
know if he's asking if new who Reagan, Neymar are playing a back three.
So yeah, that was the way.

(01:45:24):
And even if they are Alex is back with them anyways on the outside.
I mean, either way, either Alex is probably one of the yeah.
So so I mean, you're talking about between.
So for the for the three positions, you're talking about Pedro Jesus, Paul, Ariella,
Paul Rothrock, Georgie.
RBW and comes back.

(01:45:47):
Well I think RBW is competing for Alex's spot, isn't he?
I would hope.
But last year we played him on the wing a lot.
Well he's not going to be any of those five that we just named in my opinion.
So so so so basically three out of those five.
So once again, Rothrock, Ariella, the two Paul's Pedro, the three P's.

(01:46:16):
Oh my god, did we not even I didn't say oh, I mean, it's like, enjoy.
It's like, for me, it's like Pedro and Ferrera.
Those are your starting three.
Yeah, I think I'm agreeing with you there.
It's just crazy that that's a lot of attacking talent.
Mm hmm.

(01:46:37):
I know.
All right.
That's that's that's oh my god.
I love this.
I mean, we didn't miss a beat with the backups in.
I mean, Rothrock and I would I actually would prefer it usually if we had Rothrock or Georgie
playing rather than both, because I would like us to be able to cycle our starters out
a little more because Rothrock wasn't.

(01:46:59):
At all, by any means, but he also wasn't having an impact on the left side of the field the
way Georgie was on the right.
There was no reason for the players to come to the left and cover the same way.
And part of that was he got a yellow card early on, so he couldn't be pushing forward
the same way.
Well, well, just keep this in mind, though.

(01:47:21):
I mean, just just keep in mind that Charlay only allowed 37 goals last year.
For context, we're the best defense we allowed 35.
Sure.
So so their goalie one goalie of the year, despite driving in every category, but say
percentage and he was only one percent better than Fry.
Yeah, yeah.

(01:47:41):
But but but what I'm getting at there is.
Is.
That's a very good defensive team.
And sure, but what we saw in the field was we exploited them time and time again, and
we should have more goals.
Exactly, so if we're doing that against one of the top defensive teams.
Antigua is going to be the first time I think because I'm going to look at Antigua as this

(01:48:08):
is how we would play against a Chicago.
This is how we're going to play against a not San Jose maybe anymore, but traditional
San Jose type team.
We've only got a few minutes left here, probably five or so.
So let's do a quick preview of the Antigua match.
Yeah, so we are up three one.

(01:48:30):
So first and foremost, what that means away goals count.
So we need to not lose by two.
Unless it's two nothing.
That was a no, that doesn't work.
Yeah, no, it does to nothing.
We would lose.
Oh no, because we scored three.
You're correct.
Yep.
Three away goals.

(01:48:51):
Yep.
Correct.
Here's what happens.
They have to score three goals or at least three goals.
If they do not score at least three goals, we advance.
We can start right now.
Correct.
Now that's correct.
So the first step is they have to score three goals.
If they score three goals and we score none, they advance for three.

(01:49:11):
If we score a goal for every goal we score.
That basically makes their work that much harder.
So if we score a goal.
So they have to score one and a half basically after the first.
Correct.
Yeah.
If we score one, they can score three and we can go into penalty or overtime and penalty

(01:49:33):
kicks.
Yeah, it's going to be very difficult for them.
I mean, three one.
Yeah, scoring three goals in Seattle against our defense would seem incredible because
even if we decided to push everyone forward and play like we did in that first match,

(01:49:53):
I can't see Schmetzer not locking it down if they score a goal and going, okay, we need
to take a step back.
Yeah.
Do you think we are going to go out there and park the bus or do you think we're going
to go out there and use our offensive players to try and get that fourth goal, which essentially
would make it almost impossible for Antigua to advance?

(01:50:16):
I feel like we're going to put.
I don't think it's going to be Jordan just because he's done a lot of minutes already.
But I think we're going to put one of our players that can beat you with pace.
I mean, is that going to be Rothrock?

(01:50:37):
Is that going to be Georgie?
Is that going to be Georgie?
I don't.
Georgie or Jesus are probably the two that can be.
I don't think Rothrock can beat you with pace the same way those two can.
I think Brian's messaging is going to be along the lines of they are going to push.

(01:51:00):
We can kind of play our style, our possession style and do what we want to do and wait for
our opportunities because we're going to get them.
And the longer that game goes without a goal, the better we are going to be.

(01:51:23):
So we don't have to do much other than just be smart to start that game.
We very we easily could have multiple goals in that first half.
I don't know if we're going to push for multiple goals in that first half.
I think we're going to kind of take what they're giving us.
Yeah, I think that's probably true.

(01:51:46):
I think it's going to be harder for them.
The weather is going to be shittier.
They've had to travel all the way up here.
And I don't know, it just seems like it's going to be difficult for them to play.
And so I think the Sounders should win this.
I do think if the Sounders don't advance, this could be a catastrophe.

(01:52:08):
That means we lost three nothing for one plus.
If we're giving up that many goals at home, something's gone seriously wrong.
I don't think it will.
To me, that's not possible.
It technically possible.
It would be.
It would be one of the biggest elements in the PongaCaf history.

(01:52:29):
It would require an early red card and a dog so red card in the box, so a one nothing penalty
lead.
And then just.
Yeah.
It would have to be.

(01:52:50):
It going full conca-calf.
Because even if Fry got a red card, I am confident that Thomas would come in and hold us in that
game.
It's not like you're coming in with a rookie or a bad backup.
You're coming in with a guy who could start.
And we have subs available all over.
There's no world where I see even in that situation, we don't advance, even though we

(01:53:15):
should.
And I don't want to just squirgle and make it easy.
Yeah.
Score prediction.
This one's tough because I think I agree with you that we're going to sit back a little
more, but that will give us the ability to counter.

(01:53:35):
And we've got the speed.
For me to largely depend on the lineup.
If we're starting Misovsky up top, I just I don't think we're going to score.
And so I could see us either going 0-0 or one nothing.
That doesn't actually.
Losing one nothing?
Yeah.
Okay.

(01:53:55):
Yeah.
Because if you give up a goal, it doesn't matter.
Like you still in.
But that's a win.
And I think Sounders fans need to remember that.
Yeah.
Because we're part of the team.
I would prefer to score and we have enough talent to score regardless of who's playing
forward, I think.
But I think my I think ultimately I think it might be two one Sounders.
I don't with with us scoring first or them scoring first.

(01:54:19):
I think with us scoring first, if they score first, I think it changes a little bit.
Because we will we will lock down.
I could see it being one nothing.
If they score first, I could see the game ending with nothing really easily.
Okay.
I just think the I just can't see a situation where we play content to lose one nothing.

(01:54:40):
I just it's just not at home against this.
I mean, here's the problem though, is you start pushing forward then and then you give
up another countering attack goal and now suddenly it's two nothing.
And and we know how we are holding one leads at home since 2020.
I get that.
But I think against this team, I think we don't have to push.

(01:55:01):
I don't think we have to push particularly hard.
That's true.
To break away with two players ourselves.
We can we can hold our back line and tell our back line to play smart and still have
enough talent to get a goal.
Agreed.

(01:55:22):
Agreed.
So what's your score prediction?
I'm going to say two nothing because I think once we get to two us or them us us to nothing
else because I think once we get to two, we're just going to be like, all right, we we got
two goals.

(01:55:42):
This game is put away.
Stay healthy.
Let's just be you know, we're not going to we're not going to quote unquote go for the
kill or going to we already got the kill.
The kill.
They're dead already.
Stop it.
They're dead already.
You know, just there.
Yeah, I'm going to say two nothing else.
Awesome.
Um, looks like we're about to go over time.

(01:56:04):
So I'm going to do a little fancy editing.
So where can they find you on the Internet?
Come find me on Instagram at Cascades to see what about you, Cameron?
Legal minded punk everywhere that you find social media.
What should we do next?
What should we say?
James, you beautiful man, take it away.

(01:56:28):
You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt podcast on Twitter at SSFC Scuttlebutt and for all
inquiries, including questions for the gents or sponsorship opportunities, please email
contact at Scuttlebutt productions dot com.
Be sure to subscribe to the show for new episodes following every Sounders FC match.

(01:56:50):
And don't forget to share your feedback by rating and reviewing.
And you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at Britvox us.
That's Britvox US.
We'll see you at Lumen and go Sounders.

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Episode 108 - Owen Goal, Charlotte Attacker

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 108 - Owen Goal, Charlotte Attacker