July 9, 2026 • 17 mins
Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Brian Schmetzer joins Dick Fain and Jackson Felts to talk about the United States loss to Belgium in the World Cup on Monday, the overall tournament takeaways for the USA, Cristian Roldan picking up an injury while on duty with the team, the World Cup action in the entire tournament, and Portland coming up.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One week, Dick, one week away from the return of
Sounder soccer. Love it, but it's good that we've haven't
we haven't had Sounder soccer, and yet we've still got
to talk to our man, the head coach of Seattle
Sounders FC, Brian Schmetzer, because his sport is the most
prominent sport on Earth right now, how are you, coach?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing good, Dick. And look you guys are talking.
Shugh Millen's talking about being a soccer fan. So I
love the last segment. I loved everything about this entire
World Cup in Seattle. And you know your poll. I
think your poll's correct. I think the World Cup has
dragged a few more people to pay attention, at least
(00:40):
to our sport.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No, I think you're I think you're right, and it
certainly worked for me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, let's talk about this US men's national team run
in the twenty twenty six World Cup. How would you
answer the question that the run in the World Cup
was a blank? How would you fill in the blank
of the US men's national team, not just the way
it ended, but the.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Entire Yeah, Well, you know me, Dick, I'm a hate
to lose type of guy. So it certainly ended with
a thud, and that took a lot of the enthusiasm
out of what was Look, i'll use the word successful, Ron.
(01:21):
I mean, it wasn't a great run. It wasn't a
horrible run. There was a lot of good moments that
caught the attention of the people in the United States
and hopefully people overseas. You know, the euro snob they
don't think we can play. I thought there was some games.
I thought there were some good moments in our games.
(01:41):
But you know what, we got punched in the nose
by Belgium and it wasn't pretty. So overall, I think
the World Cup is a smashing success. The play of
the United States men's national team, I'd call it a success.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Well, Brian, you said it wasn't pretty. I want your
coaching eyes on that game from from the first ninth
minute goal from Belgium all the way until the end.
What did your coaching I see went wrong with the
US in that game.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, it's good question, Jackson, but I'm not going to
say exactly what went wrong with the US. I'm actually
going to flip the script a little bit, you know,
Rudy Garcia, I got to know him, he's a coach
of Belgium. You know when he played a little bit
more direct at the beginning of the game, you know Quoteois,
(02:33):
their goalkeeper was just pumping balls down the field. It
bypassed the US press. We had committed numbers forward and
then there was a little gap between our back line
and the press higher up the field, and they collected
these loose balls and they put us under pressure. And
that was I think the starting point of that of
(02:56):
that performance. Now we had to established possession, like we
did wrong Jackson was we didn't establish any possession. You know,
we gave some balls away, and you know, the US
was really good when we had possession of the ball
in our opponent's half, and then we were able to
counterpress because we had numbers around the ball, and we
(03:16):
just didn't get into that flow of the game. And
that's what cost us.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Talk about what happened in the sixty one seconds after
the Tillman goal, because the place was going nuts, the
city was going nuts.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But it did not last long.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And my my novice, I saw like all of a sudden,
US be like maybe overly aggressive on defense and just
pushing up too hard and at backfire.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
What did you see, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The first five minutes after you score deck, those are
the critical moments. You got to continue the momentum without
yes risking, you know, but you don't want to You
don't want to play too passive either. I actually thought
when Belgium got the ball down in our end, you know,
we had a chance to double team. The guy that
was crossing the ball. Tsaw it. He's a tremendous player,
(04:07):
plays at Arsenal was he was, you know, having a
good game and in the box it's life or death.
So that ball was crossed and you know their man
went up for Tim Reim. I know took a lot
of abuse for not being there. He was, he was
right on him, but their guy actually made a play.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Brian, looking at this World Cup overall, you I mentioned
at the United States run successful, you know, I think
one of the big topics that we've been talking about
over the last three days is where the national team
program is now and goes from here and will it grow,
can it get to the next level. I mean, we're
in this run right now where just kind of feels
like you can't get back to the two thousand and
(04:48):
two level.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The quarterfinals.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Do you see like a blockade, that a tangible blockade
keeping this team from getting past the round of sixteen
in four of the last five of their World Cups.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well, we're still a new sport in many ways, you know,
I think that, you know, our country is so big,
it's it's a complex situation. There's other sports that maybe
some of our better athletes pick up other sports, but
that's no excuse because look there's you know, pull Usitch
is a decent athlete, and some of the guys we've produced.
(05:25):
I think it's complex. My take on it would be this,
if you watch the very very top players and Dick,
you saw and Bope score that goal today, Well maybe
you said you had to miss the second half, but
he had like about a six inch window. He had
the vision, he saw the goal, and he had the
(05:46):
technical ability under pressure to put a ball exactly where
he wanted it to go. And so until the United
States develops players that have consistent technical ability under pressure,
you know, I think we're still going to be good
because we're good athletes, and we got good tactics, and
(06:07):
we you know, we we throw a lot of money
at our sport. But in those little moments, the cream
of the crop, it comes to the surface.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You mentioned im Boppe, what you make of the the
icing of the kicker by the officials for his penalty
kick in the first half because he was clearly frustrated.
He was like, can I kick this ball please? So
what I mean? And then he ended up getting it,
getting it blocked by the goalie, getting saved by the goalie.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So would you have been going.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Crazy on the sidelines if they were holding your PK up, guy,
guy up that long?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I would have I would have been concerned, Yes, Dick,
I would have been concerned. Uh. Look, var has its
its qualities and its benefits, but it also has you know,
it's it's uh downside as well. And and Boppi was
clearly rattled. So he's been greatest goal scorers in the
World Cup. Was rattled by that, and it caused them
(07:05):
to have a you know, not a good penalty.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
So we got France in the semi final. We're going
to see if they play Spain or Belgium tomorrow. Then
you got England, Norway, you got Switzerland, Argentina. If you
were to redo your bracket right now, Brian, I know
you said France at the very start of this thing, thing,
are you sticking with France?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, I had France and then after the first game
or two I had Argentina, and those are still my
top two choices. But look, Argentina has put a lot
of physical energy into their games. I mean, they had
to go to overtime twice. They've got some obviously, they've
got a deep squad, they've got messy so don't ever
(07:46):
count them out. Some of that might catch up the
teams here in the semi finals and finals. I think
Norway England is just a tremendous story saga of two teams,
you know, King versus Holland and look, Spain Belgium. I'm
gonna I'm going to root for my my buddy, Rudy Garcia.
(08:08):
I hope Belgium gets through there. I think that would
be a good matchup Belgium France because I think Belgium,
you know, they started off a little bit shaky, but
they're finding their footing and they're founding finding some good
run of form.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You mentioned Norway, and you know, we talk about hot
goalies in hockey all the time, right and the Stanley
Cup playoffs is like, yeah, I mean, you can ride
a hot goalie all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
How long can you ride a hot goalie? Because Neiland's
about as hot as it gets right now.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, yes, absolutely, the goalkeeping has been tremendous. Obviously Holland
is the bigger story with you know, scoring goals. But
you need, you need a complete performance at this stage
of the game, Dick. You can't have like, you know,
four of your guys have an off days. You need
every single player, all eleven guys that step on the field.
(08:58):
You need to have them play their games. And some
of those guys have been carrying their teams when there's
a little mistake here, mistake there. But as it gets
down to nitty gritty, the teams that don't make any
brutal mistakes, they're going to find themselves going through.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Seattle Sounders FC head coach Brian Schmenster joining us here
on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM. Brian,
I want to go back to the conversation about developing
better players in the United States, and I think we
spent so long we spent God, Dick, what was it
about thirty minutes yesterday talking about the youth soccer system
in America, and Brian, I'd love for you to help
(09:36):
shed light on how it works, at least for you
guys there with the Sounders, when you bring in and
you find and you recruit and you work kids through
the academy system, and you can just kind of shed
some light on how an MLS club's academy system works
that brings kids in from a super super young age
and works them through the system, and how that works
(09:58):
with families and all.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, it's a it's a long conversation. I don't know
if we have time for this segment, but I'm happy
to explain it in some level of detail. We look,
we throw a lot of time and resources at that
particular project, if you want to call it a project.
I mean, we've had some really good success obviously, you
know Obed Vargas, you had Josh Attencio, Reed Baker Whiting,
(10:25):
We've had you know, Jackson Reagan and Paul Rothrock were
Academy products. Earlier than that, we had DeAndre Yedlin, Jordan Morris.
And it works something like this. So we have like
scouts that you know, will scout down to as low
as you twelve, you thirteen. You know, they run little clinics,
so they run training sessions. People are able to showcase,
(10:48):
for lack of a better word, their kids. It really
doesn't get serious at our academy levels. Were joining the
academy till they're you know, fourteen, fifteen years old, and
then it became you know, it's business. It's like, you know,
the kids have to perform. We pay for their schooling,
their high school. We had a home state program a
(11:09):
while ago. That's how Obed Vargas came here. You know,
we had host families and you know, you get them
to go to training in the morning, they got to
go to school in the afternoon or vice versa, depending
on the schedule and the team and the age group,
and we immersed them in soccer and soccer the sounder way.
(11:31):
So when the kids come up to me on the
first team level, they've already heard some of the you know,
we never quit Northwest grit. You know, they've been, they've been,
you know, taught the fundamentals of soccer to the best
of our abilities.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, it seems like that you've got it covered pretty
well from the teenage years up. It's my question is
how about the eight year old kid, the nine year
old kid that parents can't afford fifteen thousand dollars a
year to send their kid to these elite academies or
elite to select league teams or what have you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
How do we how do we bridge.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That gap where because other countries are getting that eight
year old kid, they're playing soccer all the way through
and they've got a running start by the time they're thirteen,
fourteen years of age, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Dick, that's that's the problem that this country has to solve. Again.
It's a it's a it's a massive country. And you know,
back in the day, you know, we used to go
down to John Rogers Elementary School and we'd kick the
soccer ball around, you know, just by ourselves when we
were eight, nine, ten years old. A lot of parents
don't let their kids walk down to this corner drug
(12:39):
store and or you know, down the street to get
an endy bar or some you know, because it's just
a little bit different. We got to drive them to practice,
and the practice has to be organized. I think kids
have missed out and if you look at kids from
different countries, I'm I'm sure I don't know this for
a fact, but I'm sure in Brazil, where a lot
of this skillful players come, they're still kids playing out
(13:02):
in the street, you know. Out in Ali They're they're
they're kicking a ball whenever they can. Some of these
African countries that are doing well now in the World Cup,
their players don't have you know, a nice manicured select
soccer field, you know, where their moms and dads take
them to take them there for two hours. They got
(13:23):
to they got to figure out stuff out on the streets.
So that segment of the population that you bring up,
I think we have to figure out a way how
to get them more involved and give them opportunity.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Absolutely, Brian, seven days away, seven days from right now,
I imagine you're going to be sitting in your office
in the locker room, or maybe you're out on the field,
walk in the grass, pitch one final time before it
goes back to turf there at the Seattle Stadium. We
still have to call it right. And I'm wondering the
big question in Sounderlands that I think every single Sounder
(14:00):
fan wants to know. Everybody saw Christian Roldan pick up
his injury with the United States. Do you have any
information on Christian Roldon's injury status.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I can. I can give you this, Jackson. I'd
like giving you guys some scoops every now and again.
Christian did have a quad strain that he suffered in
training after one of the games in the World Cup,
and he won't be available for that first game. And
you know, we've also had to give him some mental
(14:32):
downtime as well. So between the combination of those two things,
our guy's got, you know, eighteen days off for the
World Cup. So we're going to give Christian a little
bit of time off. He's going to use that time
to get away a little bit, but also rehabilitate that quad.
And you know that trip to you know, when we
go to Austin in Philly, that's probably more realistic time
(14:53):
frame for Christian.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Gotcha. Well, I know Jackson Brice wants one more on
Portland coming up. I do want to ask you, speaking
of injuries, I got to ask you about the heat
that Christian Poolisic is taking.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
He and his camp won coming out of the game.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then also you know, his camp made sure they
made it known today is as wide to media as possible. Ah,
you know, he's got this microfracture and what have you.
I think there's a lot of people rubbed the wrong
way that A he came out of the game and
B he was so kind of nonchalant about explaining coming
out of the game.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What did you think?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I mean, look at the time, everybody's emotional and look,
including myself, Dick. You know, I was like going, what
the heck? I mean, why is he coming out of
the game. He got kicked and you know, the report,
the medical report that came out afterwards certainly isn't solid
explanation as to why and how the injury. You know,
(15:45):
how bad the injury was, So you got to give
the kids some credit. I don't think that he wanted
to come out of the game, but you know that
that was something that he had to own because, look,
he was the face of the national team and with
that comes that pressure to perform. And if you looked
(16:05):
at his performance, whether it was through the injuries or
whether it was through his play for the first sixty
eight minutes against Belgium, you know it wasn't it wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Well, Brian will let you. We'll let you go because
we'll talk to you again before Portland.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right, we'll have Brian on again before Portland, so we'll
get we will talk about the Portland Portland Bastards, and
we're gonna get your game plan and everything.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
All right, all right, okay guys.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Thanks coach, Thanks coach. We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
All right, take care, see you.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Bet Brian Schweitzer there with a lot on the US
men's national team and a little little Scooby snack there.
Jackson on Christian roll don So you know that's not
great great news that he won't be available for Portland.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Yeah, you know, they have probably somebody who's going to
be on the twenty thirty United States team, Snyder Burnell,
he'll play and next to probably Hasani Dotson. But not
having your injured room, not having the motor of your midfield,
not having the guy who's coming off of being able
to not play in the World Cup, but being on
a roster for the World Cup.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
That really sucks.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Stick.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
That was ruined my whole rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I know, I bet, I bet it did.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Why.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I hope that that this city can you know, their
their newfound love for the game.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I hope it carries through the World Cup.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then carries into the Sounder season because we got
great soccer here with a member of the US men's
national team going through and hopefully all the way to
the MLS Cup.
One week, Dick, one week away from the return of
Sounder soccer. Love it, but it's good that we've haven't
we haven't had Sounder soccer, and yet we've still got
to talk to our man, the head coach of Seattle
Sounders FC, Brian Schmetzer, because his sport is the most
prominent sport on Earth right now, how are you, coach?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing good, Dick. And look you guys are talking.
Shugh Millen's talking about being a soccer fan. So I
love the last segment. I loved everything about this entire
World Cup in Seattle. And you know your poll. I
think your poll's correct. I think the World Cup has
dragged a few more people to pay attention, at least
(00:40):
to our sport.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
No, I think you're I think you're right, and it
certainly worked for me.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, let's talk about this US men's national team run
in the twenty twenty six World Cup. How would you
answer the question that the run in the World Cup
was a blank? How would you fill in the blank
of the US men's national team, not just the way
it ended, but the.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Entire Yeah, Well, you know me, Dick, I'm a hate
to lose type of guy. So it certainly ended with
a thud, and that took a lot of the enthusiasm
out of what was Look, i'll use the word successful, Ron.
(01:21):
I mean, it wasn't a great run. It wasn't a
horrible run. There was a lot of good moments that
caught the attention of the people in the United States
and hopefully people overseas. You know, the euro snob they
don't think we can play. I thought there was some games.
I thought there were some good moments in our games.
(01:41):
But you know what, we got punched in the nose
by Belgium and it wasn't pretty. So overall, I think
the World Cup is a smashing success. The play of
the United States men's national team, I'd call it a success.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Well, Brian, you said it wasn't pretty. I want your
coaching eyes on that game from from the first ninth
minute goal from Belgium all the way until the end.
What did your coaching I see went wrong with the
US in that game.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, it's good question, Jackson, but I'm not going to
say exactly what went wrong with the US. I'm actually
going to flip the script a little bit, you know,
Rudy Garcia, I got to know him, he's a coach
of Belgium. You know when he played a little bit
more direct at the beginning of the game, you know Quoteois,
(02:33):
their goalkeeper was just pumping balls down the field. It
bypassed the US press. We had committed numbers forward and
then there was a little gap between our back line
and the press higher up the field, and they collected
these loose balls and they put us under pressure. And
that was I think the starting point of that of
(02:56):
that performance. Now we had to established possession, like we
did wrong Jackson was we didn't establish any possession. You know,
we gave some balls away, and you know, the US
was really good when we had possession of the ball
in our opponent's half, and then we were able to
counterpress because we had numbers around the ball, and we
(03:16):
just didn't get into that flow of the game. And
that's what cost us.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Talk about what happened in the sixty one seconds after
the Tillman goal, because the place was going nuts, the
city was going nuts.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But it did not last long.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And my my novice, I saw like all of a sudden,
US be like maybe overly aggressive on defense and just
pushing up too hard and at backfire.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
What did you see, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The first five minutes after you score deck, those are
the critical moments. You got to continue the momentum without
yes risking, you know, but you don't want to You
don't want to play too passive either. I actually thought
when Belgium got the ball down in our end, you know,
we had a chance to double team. The guy that
was crossing the ball. Tsaw it. He's a tremendous player,
(04:07):
plays at Arsenal was he was, you know, having a
good game and in the box it's life or death.
So that ball was crossed and you know their man
went up for Tim Reim. I know took a lot
of abuse for not being there. He was, he was
right on him, but their guy actually made a play.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Brian, looking at this World Cup overall, you I mentioned
at the United States run successful, you know, I think
one of the big topics that we've been talking about
over the last three days is where the national team
program is now and goes from here and will it grow,
can it get to the next level. I mean, we're
in this run right now where just kind of feels
like you can't get back to the two thousand and
(04:48):
two level.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The quarterfinals.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Do you see like a blockade, that a tangible blockade
keeping this team from getting past the round of sixteen
in four of the last five of their World Cups.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well, we're still a new sport in many ways, you know,
I think that, you know, our country is so big,
it's it's a complex situation. There's other sports that maybe
some of our better athletes pick up other sports, but
that's no excuse because look there's you know, pull Usitch
is a decent athlete, and some of the guys we've produced.
(05:25):
I think it's complex. My take on it would be this,
if you watch the very very top players and Dick,
you saw and Bope score that goal today, Well maybe
you said you had to miss the second half, but
he had like about a six inch window. He had
the vision, he saw the goal, and he had the
(05:46):
technical ability under pressure to put a ball exactly where
he wanted it to go. And so until the United
States develops players that have consistent technical ability under pressure,
you know, I think we're still going to be good
because we're good athletes, and we got good tactics, and
(06:07):
we you know, we we throw a lot of money
at our sport. But in those little moments, the cream
of the crop, it comes to the surface.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You mentioned im Boppe, what you make of the the
icing of the kicker by the officials for his penalty
kick in the first half because he was clearly frustrated.
He was like, can I kick this ball please? So
what I mean? And then he ended up getting it,
getting it blocked by the goalie, getting saved by the goalie.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So would you have been going.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Crazy on the sidelines if they were holding your PK up, guy,
guy up that long?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I would have I would have been concerned, Yes, Dick,
I would have been concerned. Uh. Look, var has its
its qualities and its benefits, but it also has you know,
it's it's uh downside as well. And and Boppi was
clearly rattled. So he's been greatest goal scorers in the
World Cup. Was rattled by that, and it caused them
(07:05):
to have a you know, not a good penalty.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
So we got France in the semi final. We're going
to see if they play Spain or Belgium tomorrow. Then
you got England, Norway, you got Switzerland, Argentina. If you
were to redo your bracket right now, Brian, I know
you said France at the very start of this thing, thing,
are you sticking with France?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, I had France and then after the first game
or two I had Argentina, and those are still my
top two choices. But look, Argentina has put a lot
of physical energy into their games. I mean, they had
to go to overtime twice. They've got some obviously, they've
got a deep squad, they've got messy so don't ever
(07:46):
count them out. Some of that might catch up the
teams here in the semi finals and finals. I think
Norway England is just a tremendous story saga of two teams,
you know, King versus Holland and look, Spain Belgium. I'm
gonna I'm going to root for my my buddy, Rudy Garcia.
(08:08):
I hope Belgium gets through there. I think that would
be a good matchup Belgium France because I think Belgium,
you know, they started off a little bit shaky, but
they're finding their footing and they're founding finding some good
run of form.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
You mentioned Norway, and you know, we talk about hot
goalies in hockey all the time, right and the Stanley
Cup playoffs is like, yeah, I mean, you can ride
a hot goalie all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
How long can you ride a hot goalie? Because Neiland's
about as hot as it gets right now.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, yes, absolutely, the goalkeeping has been tremendous. Obviously Holland
is the bigger story with you know, scoring goals. But
you need, you need a complete performance at this stage
of the game, Dick. You can't have like, you know,
four of your guys have an off days. You need
every single player, all eleven guys that step on the field.
(08:58):
You need to have them play their games. And some
of those guys have been carrying their teams when there's
a little mistake here, mistake there. But as it gets
down to nitty gritty, the teams that don't make any
brutal mistakes, they're going to find themselves going through.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Seattle Sounders FC head coach Brian Schmenster joining us here
on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM. Brian,
I want to go back to the conversation about developing
better players in the United States, and I think we
spent so long we spent God, Dick, what was it
about thirty minutes yesterday talking about the youth soccer system
in America, and Brian, I'd love for you to help
(09:36):
shed light on how it works, at least for you
guys there with the Sounders, when you bring in and
you find and you recruit and you work kids through
the academy system, and you can just kind of shed
some light on how an MLS club's academy system works
that brings kids in from a super super young age
and works them through the system, and how that works
(09:58):
with families and all.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, it's a it's a long conversation. I don't know
if we have time for this segment, but I'm happy
to explain it in some level of detail. We look,
we throw a lot of time and resources at that
particular project, if you want to call it a project.
I mean, we've had some really good success obviously, you
know Obed Vargas, you had Josh Attencio, Reed Baker Whiting,
(10:25):
We've had you know, Jackson Reagan and Paul Rothrock were
Academy products. Earlier than that, we had DeAndre Yedlin, Jordan Morris.
And it works something like this. So we have like
scouts that you know, will scout down to as low
as you twelve, you thirteen. You know, they run little clinics,
so they run training sessions. People are able to showcase,
(10:48):
for lack of a better word, their kids. It really
doesn't get serious at our academy levels. Were joining the
academy till they're you know, fourteen, fifteen years old, and
then it became you know, it's business. It's like, you know,
the kids have to perform. We pay for their schooling,
their high school. We had a home state program a
(11:09):
while ago. That's how Obed Vargas came here. You know,
we had host families and you know, you get them
to go to training in the morning, they got to
go to school in the afternoon or vice versa, depending
on the schedule and the team and the age group,
and we immersed them in soccer and soccer the sounder way.
(11:31):
So when the kids come up to me on the
first team level, they've already heard some of the you know,
we never quit Northwest grit. You know, they've been, they've been,
you know, taught the fundamentals of soccer to the best
of our abilities.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, it seems like that you've got it covered pretty
well from the teenage years up. It's my question is
how about the eight year old kid, the nine year
old kid that parents can't afford fifteen thousand dollars a
year to send their kid to these elite academies or
elite to select league teams or what have you.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
How do we how do we bridge.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That gap where because other countries are getting that eight
year old kid, they're playing soccer all the way through
and they've got a running start by the time they're thirteen,
fourteen years of age, you know.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Dick, that's that's the problem that this country has to solve. Again.
It's a it's a it's a massive country. And you know,
back in the day, you know, we used to go
down to John Rogers Elementary School and we'd kick the
soccer ball around, you know, just by ourselves when we
were eight, nine, ten years old. A lot of parents
don't let their kids walk down to this corner drug
(12:39):
store and or you know, down the street to get
an endy bar or some you know, because it's just
a little bit different. We got to drive them to practice,
and the practice has to be organized. I think kids
have missed out and if you look at kids from
different countries, I'm I'm sure I don't know this for
a fact, but I'm sure in Brazil, where a lot
of this skillful players come, they're still kids playing out
(13:02):
in the street, you know. Out in Ali They're they're
they're kicking a ball whenever they can. Some of these
African countries that are doing well now in the World Cup,
their players don't have you know, a nice manicured select
soccer field, you know, where their moms and dads take
them to take them there for two hours. They got
(13:23):
to they got to figure out stuff out on the streets.
So that segment of the population that you bring up,
I think we have to figure out a way how
to get them more involved and give them opportunity.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Absolutely, Brian, seven days away, seven days from right now,
I imagine you're going to be sitting in your office
in the locker room, or maybe you're out on the field,
walk in the grass, pitch one final time before it
goes back to turf there at the Seattle Stadium. We
still have to call it right. And I'm wondering the
big question in Sounderlands that I think every single Sounder
(14:00):
fan wants to know. Everybody saw Christian Roldan pick up
his injury with the United States. Do you have any
information on Christian Roldon's injury status.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I can. I can give you this, Jackson. I'd
like giving you guys some scoops every now and again.
Christian did have a quad strain that he suffered in
training after one of the games in the World Cup,
and he won't be available for that first game. And
you know, we've also had to give him some mental
(14:32):
downtime as well. So between the combination of those two things,
our guy's got, you know, eighteen days off for the
World Cup. So we're going to give Christian a little
bit of time off. He's going to use that time
to get away a little bit, but also rehabilitate that quad.
And you know that trip to you know, when we
go to Austin in Philly, that's probably more realistic time
(14:53):
frame for Christian.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Gotcha. Well, I know Jackson Brice wants one more on
Portland coming up. I do want to ask you, speaking
of injuries, I got to ask you about the heat
that Christian Poolisic is taking.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
He and his camp won coming out of the game.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then also you know, his camp made sure they
made it known today is as wide to media as possible. Ah,
you know, he's got this microfracture and what have you.
I think there's a lot of people rubbed the wrong
way that A he came out of the game and
B he was so kind of nonchalant about explaining coming
out of the game.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
What did you think?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I mean, look at the time, everybody's emotional and look,
including myself, Dick. You know, I was like going, what
the heck? I mean, why is he coming out of
the game. He got kicked and you know, the report,
the medical report that came out afterwards certainly isn't solid
explanation as to why and how the injury. You know,
(15:45):
how bad the injury was, So you got to give
the kids some credit. I don't think that he wanted
to come out of the game, but you know that
that was something that he had to own because, look,
he was the face of the national team and with
that comes that pressure to perform. And if you looked
(16:05):
at his performance, whether it was through the injuries or
whether it was through his play for the first sixty
eight minutes against Belgium, you know it wasn't it wasn't there.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Well, Brian will let you. We'll let you go because
we'll talk to you again before Portland.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Right, we'll have Brian on again before Portland, so we'll
get we will talk about the Portland Portland Bastards, and
we're gonna get your game plan and everything.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
All right, all right, okay guys.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Thanks coach, Thanks coach. We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
All right, take care, see you.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Bet Brian Schweitzer there with a lot on the US
men's national team and a little little Scooby snack there.
Jackson on Christian roll don So you know that's not
great great news that he won't be available for Portland.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Yeah, you know, they have probably somebody who's going to
be on the twenty thirty United States team, Snyder Burnell,
he'll play and next to probably Hasani Dotson. But not
having your injured room, not having the motor of your midfield,
not having the guy who's coming off of being able
to not play in the World Cup, but being on
a roster for the World Cup.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
That really sucks.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Stick.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
That was ruined my whole rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I know, I bet, I bet it did.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Why.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I hope that that this city can you know, their
their newfound love for the game.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I hope it carries through the World Cup.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then carries into the Sounder season because we got
great soccer here with a member of the US men's
national team going through and hopefully all the way to
the MLS Cup.
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