November 4, 2025 • 46 mins
Tonight on Sounders Weekly, Jackson Felts talks with Paul Rothrock after Seattle's 4-2 win over Minnesota in game two of the first round of the playoffs to force a game three, then Ari Liljenwall, Niko Moreno, and Noah Riffe join the show for a roundtable of reporters as they discuss the win on Monday plus game three ahead on Saturday.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good even everybody, welcome into Sounders Weekly. Jackson Felt's gonna
be with you here on this special Tuesday edition of
the show. We got to crack in on Wednesday this week.
So Sounders Weekly and Rain Weekly coming up at eight pm.
Both moving here to Tuesday this week and it is
a fun, exciting show for the next hour talking Sounders
(00:33):
FC soccer as the season is still alive. I had
planned kind of two different versions of this show, and
we're still gonna kind of do a little bit of both,
but it is a celebratory one because the season's still going.
The Sounders have forced a deciding Game three in the
first round of the MLS Cup playoffs. It's a best
(00:55):
of three first round. Minnesota took game one at home
in penalty kicks. Game two last night at Luminfield. I
was expecting it to be a downpour of rain and
a very defensive, ugly game, and we even talked on
last week's show about how an early goal for Seattle
could change everything, and we got it, and not only
(01:17):
did we get one early goal, we got two early goals,
and we got three first half goals for the offense.
We can touch on what happened for Minnesota towards the
end of the first half in a moment, but the
good news is is a four to two win, three
first half goals for Seattle, an offensive explosion against a
team in Minnesota who, in three prior games against Seattle
(01:41):
this year, had limited to the Sounders to two total goals.
You get three and forty one minutes, and really, I mean,
other than those two goals that Minnesota got right before
the halftime break, it was all Seattle. An awesome game
by the Rave Green. The season is alive, and now
this leads us into a deciding Game three back in
(02:02):
Minnesota this Saturday. Quickly broadcast details on that before we
talk about the game two win last night. All right,
This Game three will be available to watch via MLS
Season Pass on the Apple TV app. You can listen
to it in Spanish language on Lray thirteen sixty We
hear at KJR. We'll have the broadcast for you over
(02:24):
on nine to fifty KJR AM that will have a
twelve thirty Provident Swedish premat show and a roughly one
o'clock kickoff there from Allion's Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
That is the situation for Game three Saturday afternoon, twelve
thirty pre game one o'clock kickoff nine to fifty am
(02:46):
here for the KJR radio side. All right, let's talk
some game two. Oh before we do that, let's set
up the show tonight, shall we, Because we have Paul Rothrock.
He's gonna be joining us out. I spoke with him
last night actually in the locker room. Paul Rothrock, we
talked about him on last week's show and I said,
(03:06):
I think you need to put Danny Mazowski in the
starting lineup. Jamie Watson and I were talking about it,
and Jamie and I both agreed that the primary reason
is because Paul Rothrock will be a better person off
the bench than say A Heyesu's Ferreira or anybody else.
And I think we saw that come to fruition because,
as you'll hear in the interview with Paul Rothrock coming
(03:27):
up in just a few minutes, he came out like
a bat out of hell in that for a second half,
he plays about thirty minutes of soccer and he just
leaves it all out there, and you knew that was
coming from him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
He helps create and gets the ess Well, I don't
know if he gets the assist.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
He should get the assist on that fourth goal there
in the eighty sixth minute that Obed Vargas used it
a deflection to put into.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
The back of the net.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So what you end up getting there is Paul Rothrock
having a great addition off the bench. He and I
caught up in the locker room last night after the game,
and he was pretty honest about what it was like
going back to the bench and having to, you know,
take that spot.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Clearly he was.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Affected by it and that news that he wouldn't be starting,
and really talks openly and honestly about that and how
the Sounders are a damn tough team to play against
and now nobody wants to see them in the playoffs.
That entire conversation coming up in a matter of seconds
here on Sounders Weekly. After that, for our next two segments,
(04:32):
it's gonna be a round table with Sounders reporting greats.
Noah Rife and Ari Lillianwall from Lobbings Scorchers Nico Moreno
from Sounder at Hart and Sports Polso the three of
them and I will get together and the four of
us will have a round table for the final half
hour forty minutes tonight as we talk all things Game
(04:52):
two win Game three ahead. So Ari, Noah and Nico
coming up here in just about fifteen minutes. But let's
take a couple of minutes before we hear from Paul
Rothrock talk about Game two. I mentioned that we knew
that this was going to be the best chance the
Sounders had is making the flip for Danny Mazowski for
Paul Rothrock and the way that Brian Schmitzer utilized that change.
(05:17):
He listed it as a four to four to two,
and at times it did function as a four to
four to two diamond, with Jordan and Danny Mozoski next
to each other at the top of the formation. But
it was so fluid that you would have Obed playing
out wide right, you'd have him tucking in. At times
it looked like the classic four two three one with
Jordan Faraw on the right wing. At times it looked
(05:39):
like three different formations, and it was that fluidity that
gave the Sounders attack. So much unpredictability and an entirely
new dimension that clearly Minnesota was not ready for. They
weren't ready for Jordan to be able to drift and
play fluid and go in a whole bunch of different spots.
They weren't ready for Obed Vargus to do what he did.
(06:00):
Christian rolled on played excellently, getting in the primus cist
zone over and over and over and putting lots of
really dangerous balls in. Obviously that led to a couple
of goals. Overall, there's really no faults to make for
any of the offensive players. I think you can look
at that Minnesota first goal and if that passed from
Obed to Jordan, that starts the team on the breakaway
(06:23):
on the you know, this is on Minnesota's end, going
towards the south end, the bro end of the stadium.
And if that pass from Obit to Jordan is just
a little bit better, it could have been for nothing
there in the forty sixth minutes. It's not a good
enough pass. Jordan has to come back to the ball.
Then Jordan gives it away, Minnesota's on the break and
they get their first It's a poor defensive play by
(06:44):
a few different parties that leads to their second goal
three to two. I think we were all feeling pretty
nervy and saying, all right, suddenly, game on. But I
really you gotta credit the entire coaching staff, everybody on
the field. Kalani Cosa Rienzi, who came in for Alex
Shroldn at halftime, credit all of them. That they came
out in the second half. They had their heads about
(07:06):
him and they said, we played such perfect soccer for
forty five minutes before the two Minnesota goals.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We just have to get back to that.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
And they really did, and it was an absolutely beautiful
thing to watch them play soccer for that last forty
five minutes because defensively it was great. Offensively they knew
they could capitalize on just one chance to make it
back to a two goal game, and when Minnesota got
out of their shell late in the game, they put
it away. Great job by Danny Lava to get it
up to Paul Rothrock as well for that fourth goal.
(07:37):
But really, it was just an excellent game other than
two moments I think for Seattle, and it's that type
of mentality and it's that type of strategy I think again,
crediting the coaching staff. It's that type of strategy that's
going to allow you to win Game three because young
thirty three year old Eric Ramsey, the head coach of Minnesota,
he's gonna have to take but four days and figure
(08:00):
out how to stop that diversified and fluid Seattle attack.
That is not much time to figure out an entirely
new offensive system. And this is just another wrinkle that Minnesota,
Yes a great defensive team, They're going to have to
take time and they're going to have to figure out
how to stop Seattle, and they have very little time
to do so because four goals against a team that's
(08:22):
given up well, was it thirty eight to thirty nine
goals the entire season? Yeah, pretty damn good showing last
night from Seattle at home in what is hopefully not
the final home game of the year. It could be
the final home game of the year, but nonetheless a
great game for the Sounders, and we force a game three.
Cutting up will preview that with our entire roundtable of
(08:44):
Noah riefe Ari, Lillianwall, and Nico Moreno coming up here
in a few minutes. Before we get to them, let's
hear from Paul Rothrock. He was joined me in the
locker room after the game and we talked about the
emotions after a four to two win in Game two.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Just great, we're still alive and I have a good
feeling about you know, how we've changed.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The tide a little bit head into Saturday.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
The momentum does feel quite different considering four goals, but
also considering how the game went right. I mean, like offensively,
a lot of things seem to work for you guys.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, you know, credits to the guys who got the
game started and thought it's great to get a number
of different guys on the score sheet. Obed's first two
goal game credit to him. I thought we came out
with a different energy, at different fervor, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Think the home crowd really helped us tonight too.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
And hopefully that's not our last game at home this year,
but it could be given our seating and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But yeah, it was really great to be back at.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Lunan and to have a performance like that. And it
wasn't without some tough moments, you know. I think, yeah,
going into halftime, what was it like in here? It
was quiet? I think, yeah, you know, I'd be lying
if I didn't say we there was a there was
some nervous energy in the air that we hadn't, you know,
giving up the lead the way we did, you know,
(10:12):
two slopping goals and the moment and had kind of
turned their way a little bit. But credit to the
guys like held strong. We were able to find another goal,
which I think was big and yet tested our character
tonight and it was a it was a great bounce
back from last weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Let's talk about that other goal, the goal that you created. Uh,
talk about the fight that you put in to win
that ball on the left wing.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean that's that's a play that we've worked
on a lot in the practice where I kind of
running off the inside shoulder of the guy and I
think it was Danny who played a great ball in
behind and and then getting good numbers into the box.
It's something we've worked on all week. And as I
would pick out Obed as he's kind of arriving late, and.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, big relief getting that fourth goal.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
This is a great feeling, great feeling, and so yeah,
once is Saturday, man.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, So you talked about the energy that started a game.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know what I feel like you're one of the
guys that can be completely open and honest with and
you're not gonna you're not gonna blame me for it.
So last week on the show, I was talking about
how I thought we need Mizovsky on the field to
start this game, and the.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Question was, well, who comes off the field?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And I said, I think Paul comes off the field
because I think he's going to be better as a substitute.
And that's kind of how I approached the lineup for
this game. When going into this game knowing you weren't starting,
what was the mentality, what was the thought probably, I
mean that was my thought prob What was your thought
process going into this game knowing that Brian had to
figure things out for maybe to try to get the
(11:48):
offense going.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, obviously, you know that was a hard decision to
take personally.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, during the week, it's.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Never easy to be the guy that's taken out of
the lineup. But you know, that's also it's not something
that's it's something that's not new to me, and I
understand that sometimes for the better of the team, that
needs to happen given the matchups and you know, momentum
and whatever, and.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know I had I just had to.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Control what I could control and the decision was made
and I then my role became a substitute and I
had to be the best version of that that I
could be, and you know I had to I had
to deal with that well. I had to deal with
that positively. I had to keep good energy throughout the
week and training when I was back on the you know,
(12:38):
the the bibs team and the subs team, and you know,
push the starters, and you know, that's a different that's
a different vibe that you've got to focus on.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
That's a different that's a different way of being.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
But yeah, I think I stayed focused on my role
and continue to try and be a good teammate with
the guys, to push the starters in training and you know,
be positive with the guys starting the game. And each
game is going to be different whether I'm a starter
or a bench player or you know, by not even feature.
But you've you've got to bring your best stuff week
(13:13):
in week out.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, let's wrap with this, Uh, the mentality and the
culture that this team instills, win or go home, do
or die, These types of games that you played in tonight.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Why is this team so good in games like this?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He saw in League's couple. We've seen it in years
past in the playoffs. What is it about the culture
in this locker room where you guys are so successful
in games like this tonight?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
And I think we have a lot of guys who
have been there before, our vets. Our vets lead us
in that. I think they're they give us a steady presence.
Steph Christian, Albert Jordan, to name a few, show Paolo,
you know, these guys have seen big games and won
(13:58):
big games, and they know what it takes. And I
think tonight was a show of just our resilience as
a group like that, coming off that loss against Minnesota
Way it was hard. They beat us three times in
a row. They hadn't beat us ever before that, and
we had to regroup. We had to change a few things,
(14:20):
but also keep you know, remember that we're a good team,
and keep a lot, you know, stay true to who
we are and our identity. And I think we did
that tonight. And We're a damn hard team to play.
So I'm kin'd excited for Saturday.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You're rooting for the Timbers, so you can get one
more game here at home against potentially Portland.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I don't think I'm ever rooting for the Timbers, but
you know, I'd like to play Loomin again, sure, but
not against them. I don't think anybody wants to play us,
so we'll see.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I think that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
If San Diego and Portland are looking ahead to the
second neither of them want to face the Seattle Sounders
after they just dropped four goals on one of the
best defensive teams in the league. But to see them,
it requires Seattle to win Game three, and we're gonna
be talking about that a lot for the rest of
the night. It's a big Sounders reporter roundtable. It's gonna
(15:18):
be Nico Moreno from Sounder at Heart and Sports Polso,
Ari Lillionwall, who always joins us MLS Soccer dot Com
and the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. He does that podcast alongside
Noah Rife, and the three of them will join the
show next for a roundtable to talk Sounders and look
ahead to Game three on Saturday. That's next year on
(15:38):
Sounders Weekly Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC,
Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Welcome back, Sounders Weekly.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Good to have you here on this special Tuesday night show,
A night after the Sounders kicked the butts of Minnesota
in Game two four to two, an offensive explosion in
the first forty one minutes of that game, and Seattle
forces a deciding Game three on Saturday. Couple quick notes
before we begin the greatest Sounder roundtable you've ever heard.
(16:14):
Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence Swedish, the official
healthcare partner of Sounders FC. Also, michelob Ultra has ninety
five calories and two point six grams of carbs. It's
only worth it if you enjoy it, all right. We
have two thirds of the crew with us right now.
We hope to add that final piece in a few minutes.
But joining us right now as he always does here
(16:34):
on Sounder's Weekly. He's a writer and editor for Mlssoccer
dot com. He hosts the podcast Lobbings Scorchers. His name
is Ari Lilienwall Ari.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
How you doing, Buddy, I'm good, Jackson, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Thanks for being here. And then also you know him
you love him. He's been on Sounders Weekly so many times.
Nico Moreno of Sounder Heart and sportspolso at l Rolo
NW as I always plug is. His information is unparalleled, Nico,
How you doing today?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Buddy Hery was.
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Going on Jackson, happy to be on. Thank you as
always for having me on so I could just share
some of this Sounders takes and excitement to your KJR
phenomenal audience.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Uh and you are phenomenal with all of your takes
as always. My friend Noah Rife, who also does the
podcast Lobbying Sources with Ari. Hopefully he'll be popping on
here soon to join us here for tonight's show. In
this roundtable. But gentlemen, it's celebratory. You know, it's funny.
As I mentioned at the top of the show that
the plan was to do this roundtable in person if
(17:38):
the Sounders lost, I was like, well, let's just still
do the round roundtable over the phone and celebrate. Accordingly,
let's just start with the initial thoughts on a four
to two game two win.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I'll start with you, Nico jumping after on what you
think about Seattle taking game two pretty handily outside of
two moments.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Yeah, I mean it was a lot better than Game
one offensively. I think the first thing is you have
to credit Brian Schmetzer for making those adjustments from the
start of this game. It felt like they were starting
to crack this Minnesota United code at the end of
Game one when Danny Mussovsky came on. But not every
coach is going to go right to that look from
the start of the next game. So I liked that
(18:21):
he did it from the start of the game and
it worked. I'm not going to say they've for sure
cracked the code, but I mean, you get four goals
against a team that's packed in like that with I mean,
we've all seen how they've been playing with those numbers
behind the ball, so to get four goals against them
in this scenario with your season on the line, I
thought that was fantastic. Obviously, the way that the first
half ended made it way nerviier than it should have been,
(18:43):
But then I thought they really actually did a good
job of locking it down in the second half, and
then they also got the fourth goal. So obviously the
blemish is the two goals. They can see it in
first half stavage time to make it way nerviier than
it should have been. But you gotta like the response
to that, and you gotta like the attacking output and
the momentum that that gives them going into Game three.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yeah. Look, I thought that you gotta give credit to
Bran Smetzer, not just because of the tactics, but the mentality.
It wasn't just a tactics. It was the way that
he challenged his players. He told us during the week,
I'm gonna challenge over bargains to the more he didn't
have a great game, I'm gonna challenge Hiss Ferrera and
Jordan Morris. And that showed because that intensity from the
(19:25):
first minute was there, and that's what gives Seattle that
huge key component, which was an early goal. Jackson and
I talked about it right before the game. Those first
thirty five minutes were going to be so important, and
Seattle ended up getting on the scoreboard in the eighth minutes,
So that just created this great momentum for the team,
(19:46):
and it forced this Minnesota team that's usually so deep
to have to get out a little bit more. But overall,
I thought that Seattle played a perfect game for about
forty five minutes if you take away the extra time
in that first half, and then with things got rough
and there were some softballs, some soft goals given of
with some mistakes, some mishaps. Seattle had the character and
(20:10):
the composure to get back into the second game and
the second half and just be professional about it and
go back to what was working, go back to the session,
and just close to the game in the best way possible.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I think that the word professional, Nico.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I think you nailed it there that second half where
you don't allow Minnesota anything too awfully dangerous. It just
felt so professional, especially with Koloni Cozerienzi coming in for
Alex and Jackson and Yemar did a great job.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think those two moments at the end of.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
The first half, the first one where it is sort
of the giveaway by Jordan and the poor pass to
him and Minnesota's coming in really quickly, not even like
on the other end of break. It's they're on their
own end breaking. And then the second one just a
couple of poor defensive plays. I guess there's the two
part question of ares starting the Nico jump in if
(21:01):
it is any concern to you those moments looking ahead
to game three, and if you do have to, I
guess make any note of you know, if you if
you let Minnesota get those in Game three, you very
well could be on the other end of the result
because those were two moments that you know, sounder teams
defensively that's not normal, but but Minnesota is just so
(21:25):
good at those two moments well.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
And it's also moments that specifically in this matchup against
this team that the getting them getting those chances in
transition in the attacking end, that's one of the only
ways that they're gonna score on you, the other way
being set pieces. So it's kind of when you when
you make those giveaways, it plays into specifically this team's hands.
So yeah, you gotta clean that up. You got a
(21:49):
short up. But I do think the reality is that
in any playoff run, there's gonna be moments, there's gonna
be sequences in games where you face adversity, and it's
kind of it's how you respond to it. So I
honestly I take more from the response to the adversity
that they hit than the fact that they do hit
adversity and know, it'd be nice to go through a
whole playoff run just sailing right through it with no
team counterpunching and not competing any goals. That's just not
(22:11):
how it works. We've all watched enough playoff runs to
know you're gonna have moments like this, so you just
have to be able to respond to it. And they
did that very well in this game, to their credit.
So even though you do, you can't have that in
game three, especially multiple times. But I did like how
they responded to it in this game.
Speaker 7 (22:30):
I'm not concerned specifically about repeat situations or more individual mistakes,
but I'm gonna try to look a little bit outside
the box of the question, and I'm going to say
that I am concerned that Minnesota might have gotten a
little bit of confidence of saying, look, we put them
under a lot of pressure when we just pushed our
lights up, and when we played a little bit more open,
(22:52):
we pressed them a lot more. And does that kind
of change some of what Eric Ramsey does at home
in Minnesota. I like to think that that is a
little bit of a concern if there's some sort of
wrinkles in Eric Ramsey is very predictable and uninspiring play
(23:12):
at times, you know, by some measurements, But I do
think that Minnesota was more dangerous when they've played a
little bit more open and they pushed for Salas a
little bit higher, and they were able to get some
moments there for u A don't want it and lot
and obviously you got a guy like Gioboa that's likely
going to start that game that gave Sattle some issues.
(23:32):
So there is a little bit of that concern, but
not necessarily the repeat of individual mistakes.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, I think we're all on the same page here
that I think it's there. It's the response to the
situation and it's the specific things that it doesn't it is.
I think Nicola, you do point out perfectly that that's
going to give Minnesota the confidence to say, all right,
even when Seattle is playing really really well offensively, they're
still going to make mistakes and we're still going to
be able to capitalize on their mistakes. I think it's
(23:59):
in interesting that you can kind of see both ways
there for sure. Right now you're listening to a Sounders
FC reporter a roundtable. Here on Sounders Weekly, we have
Ari Lillenwall. He's a writer and editor for MLS Soccer
dot Com. He also hosts the podcast Lobbing Scorches. We
have Nico Moreno from Sounder at Hart and sportspolso you'll
catch them every Monday morning on the Lobbing Scorches kickoff
(24:21):
show on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe to the Lobbing
Scorches YouTube page where you can be notified when they
go live on Mondays and you'll hear Nico and Ari
do their amazing shows together. You also can get Lobbing
Scorches wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Make sure to follow Ari only.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You're no longer too big on Twitter, but you have
Blue Sky of course, Ari, Lillienwall and then l Rolo
NW for Nico.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Nico.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Let's start with you this time and we'll get back
to Ari here and then I'll have you guys answer
the opposite way. This time, let's fast forward to the
sixty first minute, and I think that Sounder fans and
you guys will know where I'm going here. So in
a sixty four first minute, we saw a really nice
ball through to Danny Muzovski. He is sort of you know,
(25:07):
I say, bumped off the ball shoulder to shoulder and
then stepped on in a bang bang play. It is
being reviewed. The var referee is Daniel Radford, of course,
of red card wedding fame. And there is no dog
so given, no red card given. Play on, no not
even a foul, and on we go. The first question
(25:31):
to each of you, and we can kind of take
it from here, is how ridiculous was it that no
dog sow was called nico.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
I can even explained or try to elaborate how ridiculous
it is that Dad wasn't called a foul in a
red card. There is a straight up collision. The defenders
never playing the ball, he's playing the man. He's clearly
affecting a potential goal of two unity. It has all
(26:01):
of the elements. And you know, looking from the transmission
booth that you know we were doing l ray in Spanish.
I could not yell enough things to the mic just
watching that play out because it was so simple, it
was so easy. I even went out to say that
maybe the rev us and the glasses he might need
binoculars or a telescope to figure out how you don't
(26:24):
see that. I mean, it was just beyond believe. But
I thought that overall the referee was pretty bad. I
thought that he allowed way too many fouls. I thought
that Jefferson Diaz got away way too many just clear
pushes on a Sounders player. So overall, I think it
was poor. But to your question, it was just a
clear cut foul red card that should have been given
(26:44):
for the Sounders.
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Yeah, that's pretty clear dog though for me. But what
I thought was funny is, you know, there was all
this controversy over the Jackson Reagan play in game one
in Minnesota, where it's a little bit of a similar
situation where you have the runner in behind on the
one v one. He arguably put a little bit and
Minnesota United fans were losing their minds that that was
dog so after the game not acknowledging that they arguably
(27:08):
also got away with the dogs. Read in game one
when whatever that defender was cleared a header off the
line with his hand and the only reason that that
wasn't a dog so red was because Paul Rothrock got
called for a phantom file on Michael boxall that if
you watch that clip, you can watch that clip one
hundred times, you will not see a foul one time.
So to me, that evened out in game one, and
I thought it was a little silly that the discourse
(27:30):
was that Jackson Reagan in Seattle got away with one
when Minnesota got away with one that I would argue
was worse. The Jackson Reagan call was at least debatable.
The Paul Rothrock foul that's not even debatable for me.
So now that the Minnesota United has gotten away with
another dog so red, they've now gotten away with double
the dog so read in the series. So we'll see
(27:50):
what happens with Game three. But I like their chances
of coming up and top on top of that department.
So that means we don't have to do a discourse
about the Jackson Reagan call.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
If they loved the series, please, I hope we don't
have to.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I wanted to take a break here and we'll get
Noah Rife on who does lobbing scorches with Ari, and
get his take on the play as we look ahead
to Game three, because like Ari, as long as we
don't have to have that be a talking point, that
would be great coming out of this series. And hopefully
we don't have Daniel Radford on var again coming up,
so we'll take a break here. We got Nico Moreno,
(28:23):
we got Ari Lillenwall. We're gonna take a break. We're
gonna add Noah Rife as we talk about Game three
ahead the Sounders here in the first round of the
MLS Cup Playoffs, Minnesota. Game three on Saturday at one o'clock.
That'll be over on nine to fifty KJR here for
KJR Radio. By the way, we will bring in Noah
and we'll continue our roundtable and start really deeply looking
(28:44):
ahead to Game three that's next here on Sounders Weekly
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Now back to.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders fc cll's Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Welcome back Weekly, Welcome back to the Sounders Round Table,
looking ahead to Game three here of the MLS Playoffs,
first round, Sounders Minnesota. It'll be a one o'clock kickoff
out there at all EON's Field. We'll have the broadcast
nine fifty k AM starting at twelve thirty this Saturday afternoon.
(29:19):
Let's continue the Sounders Roundtable. We'll continue it with Ari Lillienol.
He is a writer and editor from mlssoccer dot Com.
He also hosts the podcast Lobbing Scorches once again. Get
that wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app.
Also subscribe to Lobbing Scorches on YouTube. You'll be notified
when they go live for the Monday Morning show and
(29:39):
also for Under the Lights on Thursday nights. That Monday
Morning show features another person here on our roundtable, Nico
Moreno of Sounderheart and Sportspolso. And we're also adding in
right now the other person who does Lobbing Scorches next
to Ari, Noah Rife. Noah, welcome to Sounders Weekly for
I was shocked to hear the first time last night,
(30:00):
and I thought you I had you on before, but
welcome to the show man.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Well, you know, I appreciated Jackson, thanks for having me on.
You know this. We're all sitting at a table in
front of each other right now and they haven't even
given me a chair, so you know it's a hawk.
Doyle welcome here at the roundtable. But I'm glad to
be here. Jaxsent thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It's great to have you.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Noah, Hey, really quick before we start dialing in on
game three and breaking this thing down. Nico and Ari
just shared their two cents on the non dog so
call in the sixty first minute.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I know you were pretty enthralled about that as well.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Share your two cents on that no call for the
for the dog sew and for the red there in
the sixty first Yet last night, well, you.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Know, Jackson, I felt like I was going a little
crazy honestly sitting there in the press box because everyone
to my left and to my right was telling me, Noah,
I don't know what you're seeing. That's shoulder to shoulder.
That's shoulder to shoulder all day. And so I brought up,
I brought off. I said, listen, in Vancouver, when the
Sounders played in Vancouver the famous double crash out red
card game, John Bell gets a red card for essentially
(31:03):
tripping the attacker. He's the last man back and gets
a red card. And I was just saying, you know,
let's be consistent here. Is that not the same thing.
I don't care if they win shoulder to shoulder, if
that's the first point of contact, he gets taken out,
he gets clipped. That was a good scoring opportunity. That
should have been a red card. And I think we
should be asking more questions about this. Well, that's all
(31:24):
I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
No, your first fault there is assuming that there's any
consistency in officiating in our league, and there's clearly not.
But that's a debate for I think our year end
roundtable when you can just laugh about how the officiating
is in this league, and also Daniel Radford being on VR.
All right, gentlemen, let's go all three of us now,
and let's go around the room.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I'll start with you, Nico, then Noah. The big question
as we look ahead to game three is, considering the
offense you got in game two, do you stick with
the same tactics and the same offensive plan Ari that
you rolled out for game two? So Moose starts Pauls
on the bench to start this game. Do you roll
the same thing for game three?
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Yeah, you run the.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Exact same thing until they show that they can stop it.
They didn't show that they could stop it in game two,
and you got four goals out of it, and you
really you should have had a much more comfortable win
with those four goals than you actually ended up having.
So again, like I don't know if they have cracked
the code, and I expect Erin or Eric Ramsey to
make some sort of adjustments and how they try and
(32:27):
handle that. Look, So we'll see if any of those work.
But when you find something that works to this extent,
even dating back to the end of Game one, you
run that back and then take it as it comes
for the next series. If you're able to make it through.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
Yeah, Look, I think if it's not broke, don't fix it.
Part of me does want to see Paul Rothrocks start
that game because of the energy, because of the dual
ability both offensively defensively. But then I look back at
what he did coming off the bench, and I think
to myself that there is no player in this roster
(33:00):
and actually in Sounder's history that I could think of,
that can have such an immediate impact come in off
the bench in the way that Paul Rothrock has samps
he started with the team. So when you have that
sort of power, when you have that sort of tool
in your shed, I think you just use that one
(33:20):
more time and have him come in against tire Legs
and change the game if necessary. If not, you can
manage it any other way. But I do think that
because of that factor, as much as I would love
to see him start. Maybe for this particular game you do.
Just keep it ass this.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
The reality of the situation, Jackson and Roundtable is that
Eric Ramsey knows one one thing and one thing only.
That's bunker ball. That's no one is going past the midline.
No one is to pass me as a coach on
the field. If it works, don't change it, keep it,
let it cook. I love Paul Rothrock off the bench.
It's quite funny because I did see Minnesota look like
(33:59):
a team that could score goals and break down a
high line when in stoppage time where they got their
two goals. But frankly, it's never going to happen. It's
never going to be like that. When Eric Ramsey wakes
up and he brushes his teeth in the morning, he
makes sure that all ten men are behind that line.
Keep it the same, keep it pressing. I think it
worked really well.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Why not well, you know one of the things, Noah,
I think coming out of that, you have Noah Riefe,
Ario lillionwill Nico Moreno Here Sounders Roundtable. My name is
Jackson Feltz. You're listening to Sounders weekly on ninety three
point three KJR FM and Aria. I think that Noah
has a point there that Ramsey plays his style of soccer.
But if Eric Ramsey is going into this next game
(34:40):
three knowing I mean, because I think we're all on
the same path here. Of you keep the same system,
you run the four four two that has the fluidity
to turn into a four to two three one that
has the fluidity to turn into a four to three three,
you just know how it's going to shape up every
single attack. Eric Ramsey is probably understanding this as well.
And if Eric Ramsey use a smart guy who was
(35:02):
an assistant at Manchester United, he's going to have to
make changes and ari that's going to change the chess
match in this game, because inevitably he is a smart
enough soccer mind to make what he thinks are necessary
moves both defensively and offensively to not let Seattle have
three first half goals.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
See I'm the reason I'm not quite sure about that
is because of what we saw a playout in game
two where they went down three zero and then they
get two goals right away, having to chase the game
a little bit, and then once they brought it back
within one goal, where one more goal would have brought
them within two pks. They reverted right back to their
old old game plan and dropped right back deep. So
(35:42):
that's one reason I think that he might just stick
to his gun. The other reason I think that is
because I was listening to his press conference today from
postgame and you want to you guys want to know
what he said that they need to do to win
Game three because they need to be skin gier defensively. No,
I mean that indicates that, well, there might be there
(36:03):
might be some minor tactical adjustments in how they approach it.
At the end of the day, I think he's in
a situation. I was talking to Jeff Ruder on my
show about this leading up to Game one. He's in
a situation where he feels like his roster can't really
hang with the teams that have more firepowers than them.
There was moves transfer moved that they wanted to make
(36:24):
to be able to change their style that they didn't
end up making. And it looks to me like he
looks back into a corner and he's playing like this
out of what he sees as necessity, and it's not
something that he feels like he can adjust and have
the team remain competitive. That's what it seems like he's
thinking to me. So while I think there might be
small changes that he makes as far as like a
wholesale different tactical approach, or any notion at all that
(36:46):
they're going to try and play proactive attacking soccer, I
don't think it's happening. I don't think he thinks that
they can do it.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Niko, what do you think? Do you think changes are
coming from Minnesota at all?
Speaker 5 (36:55):
I do.
Speaker 7 (36:56):
I think that, like I said, Eric Ramsey saw that
he could make sett uncomfortable by doing a couple of
things different. I do think that the personnelity will change.
I think both Jabbo and Hassani Dotson will start that game.
I think that you might see March to come out
and play Hung Jue as a wing back and be
more aggressive when he does selectively push forward in transition moments.
(37:21):
So I think that you'll see more of what he
did in that first half at home against the Sounders
in Game one, where they created a lot of opportunities
against the Sounders. I see the better chances in the
first in that first game happened in the first half
four Minnesota, So I do believe that that's a lot
more of what you will see rather than a team
(37:42):
that here at Lubinfield was just so deep, so just
ready to just bunker down. You will see some wrinkles
in Eric Ramsey's tactics.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
In my opinion, I think I think that's true. No,
let's shift gears here. And it is a little bit
concerning to me that Eric Ramsey has been able to
come into our league and in a year and a half,
and really just a year because this system started, you know,
from the jump this year, since he's instituted it been
able to get everybody he wants on the same page
(38:13):
with this scheme to a fourth place in the Western Conference,
the best finished in Minnesota history. And I know you
hate this style of soccer and you can talk about it,
because I love your takes on specifically this style. But
I do have a concern that you may see other
teams start to maybe replicate this and say they had
(38:33):
such success. We have better personnel than Minnesota and we
can do the same thing. I'm concerned that this style
of soccer might try to catch on a little bit
throughout the league.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
It's like a virus. It's like a virus.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Jackson, you never know, like.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
One day you're taking a long throw. In the next
day you have twenty percent possession, and you know you're
trying to sell two hundred dollars playoff tickets to watch
your team bunker. It's not going to happen. I'm not
too fear that this is going to catch on. I
think Eric Ramsey is short for this league, truthfully. I
mean I can give him his flowers because of where
(39:08):
he has put this team right like you, you have
to give them credit for that. But at the same time,
they're not going to be able to hold up with
a Sounders team. If they I mean, going back to
what we were talking about last time, if they play
counter attacking soccer, if they try and push those lines,
they try and go forward, a team like the Sounders
is going to destroy them. It's gonna rip them apart.
(39:28):
They have the attacking firepower. That's what's gonna happen. I
don't think. I think maybe that there are certain individual
aspects of the game that Ramsey has crafted that it
will it will catch on in this league. But I
don't even think Eric Ramsey wants to be playing this way.
I think I think even he knows this is bad soccer.
I think the reality is they just have a roster
(39:49):
that is kind of like not the best, and he's
doing with it what he can. And I'll give him
his props for that. He's still ruining the game of soccer,
though he is still ruining actively the games.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So Ari Nico, go ahead and respond, that's a short
for this league.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Eric Ramsey, No, I think.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
It's been I think it's happened before. I think Gary
Smith did that with Nashville when he first took over.
I thought that New York Red Bulls has done it
in the past. This is not new. This is something
that happens. It's just a part of soccer, is a tactic,
just like in any other sport, and it's about, you know,
getting results. You know that Eric Gramsey doesn't get paid
to entertain He has played to give his team championships.
(40:28):
And I don't think that the Sounders fan base can't
relate because they have had decades of success with one
of the best teams in MLS. Most protagonist. But I
guarantee you that if Ipe tell Atlanta United fans right
now that if they can win a title next year,
playing this soda soccer with Eric Ramsey leading that team,
(40:49):
they'll take it in a moment's notice, so you know
it's it's about winning games. So I do think that
there are teams in this league that would benefit from
playing like this, and I think that we've seen it
sporadically across the league. It's just that it's never been
so in New face as it is now with Eric
Remscin's mall go ahead.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
Well, what he's doing is something that has been done
in the league before. But what he is doing is
showing that he is very good at getting a team
that doesn't necessarily have a great roster to punch way
above their weight. They've got some talented players. I don't
think this is the worst MLS roster I've ever seen,
and the fact that they have an okay roster is
why they were able to still finish fourth in the
(41:27):
West while playing these kind of unique tactics. But I
think the reason he might not be long for the
league is because you could see teams like like in
the Championship, who see how what he's been able to
do in Minnesota, and they might say, we'll pay him
a lot of money to come do that for us,
because maybe we can get in the prem like I could,
I could see that happening, because well we might, we
might not like watching it, but like Nico said, it's
(41:48):
effective and it's something that teams who don't have the
firepower of other teams can do to keep up. A
example of people have given is Diego Simioni Epthotico Madrid.
How do you keep up with Real Madrid and Barcelona
while not having the resources and the rosters and the superstars.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
That they do.
Speaker 6 (42:07):
You play those tactics. He does kind of similar stuff.
It's not extreme as extreme as Ramsey Ball, but it's
the same idea and Ramsey is very good at getting
his players to execute on it. You gotta give that
much to.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Them, all right, boys, let's see.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
That's why he's the pundit. That's why he's the pundit.
He said exactly what I was thinking, in a way
better way.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
All right, gentlemen, let's go around the room and wrap
this thing up with some Game three predictions because it
is Saturday once again, for broadcast details really quick for everybody.
We're gonna have the game at Sports Radio nine to
fifty KJR AM, Providence, Swedish prematch show of twelve thirty
kickoff right around one o'clock there in Allan's field. Sounders
Minnesota Game three folks. You can also watch at MLS
(42:48):
Season Pass on the Apple TV app. Listen in Spanish
language l Ray thirteen sixty, where Nico had to call
for Game two last night as well, should be mentioned.
All right, let's go the opposite order. Noah then Nico
then Ari. Game three predictions for this Saturday, go, oh.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Boy, it's gonna be a barn burning, one nail victory
for the Seattle Sounders. Why not, let's give it. Let's
give it to Mussovski. He's gonna put the team on
his back like he has done all season, and we're
gonna have to have the uncomfortable conversation do you re
sign Moose? Do you keep him? That's what I'm on.
Speaker 7 (43:24):
Uh, well as somebody who thought that Musaski had a
very modest game. I don't know if there's you know
that that huge debate, but uh, you know, I do
think that the Sounders are gonna go with the right tactics.
I think that they're gonna be able to find some
of the holes that I think Eric Gramsey will give
him by shifting his team a little bit, uh, and
I think that they'll win with a late goal to
(43:46):
one in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I love it, Ari.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
Yeah, I like Seattle's chances here as well. I think
they they showed in Game two that they're able to
break They're actually able to break this team down and
uh and score goals against them. And if you can
get one or two in this game, that should be
all you need to get by this team. You know,
there's always a chance that it could play out like
it did in Game one, where Seattle has some good
(44:10):
looks and none of them come off and it ends
up in penalty kicks. That could happen Minnesota United. They
also they're a good counter attacking team and they're an
elite set piece team. They could always get one or
two on you that that could happen. But Seattle just
plays how they played in Game two, runs their offense
exactly how they ran it, and just kind of just
(44:30):
do the same thing. I feel like they should at
least they have a very good chance in this game,
and I like their chances of getting a two zero
or two to one out of this. I think they
can get it done.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I love it well.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
I will say that I thought Seattle was going to
lose Game two underneath a terrible conditions, and it didn't
end up raining.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
But I said they would lose and they won.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
So I'll say that the Sounders lose, and hopefully they
do the exact same thing they did in Game two,
which is make me look stupid and make all of
you look smart, because you all are smart gentlemen. It's
been a pleasure. I you know, I blow smoking, and
this is not blowing smoke. I think that Ari your
takes are unparalleled. Nico, your knowledge is unparalleled. Noah, your
(45:15):
hilarity and your wit is unparalleled. All three of you.
It is a pleasure to call you both coworkers and friends.
And I thank all of you for giving your time tonight.
I know we're gonna do an end of the year
one of these as well in person, and I'm gonna
buy a bunch of dinner and it's gonna be a
lot of fun. But I thank you all for forgiving
your time today because it's just a pleasure to get
you on here the show.
Speaker 5 (45:37):
And honor thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
I love having all that time over At the same time,
that's exactly what I wanted all right, gentlemen, we'll drop you.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Noah Rife.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
You can follow him on social media Noah Rife and
then I or sorry, I just take dot photos on
Blue Sky, l Rollo, nw Is, Nico Moreennio on socials
and Ari Lillianwall. Check him out at our Lillian Wall
as well on his socials. Follow all of them, Lobbing
scorches great stuff on all of them, and Nico does
(46:06):
great content as well. For Sounder at Heart, we thank
all of them that'll do it for tonight's show. Thank
you all for listening. Coming up next, we will have
rain Weekly, but we will talk to you on Saturday
at twelve thirty over on nine fifty KGr four Sounders
Minnesota Game three. Have a good rest of your evening, everybody,
and rain Weekly is coming up next
Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good even everybody, welcome into Sounders Weekly. Jackson Felt's gonna
be with you here on this special Tuesday edition of
the show. We got to crack in on Wednesday this week.
So Sounders Weekly and Rain Weekly coming up at eight pm.
Both moving here to Tuesday this week and it is
a fun, exciting show for the next hour talking Sounders
(00:33):
FC soccer as the season is still alive. I had
planned kind of two different versions of this show, and
we're still gonna kind of do a little bit of both,
but it is a celebratory one because the season's still going.
The Sounders have forced a deciding Game three in the
first round of the MLS Cup playoffs. It's a best
(00:55):
of three first round. Minnesota took game one at home
in penalty kicks. Game two last night at Luminfield. I
was expecting it to be a downpour of rain and
a very defensive, ugly game, and we even talked on
last week's show about how an early goal for Seattle
could change everything, and we got it, and not only
(01:17):
did we get one early goal, we got two early goals,
and we got three first half goals for the offense.
We can touch on what happened for Minnesota towards the
end of the first half in a moment, but the
good news is is a four to two win, three
first half goals for Seattle, an offensive explosion against a
team in Minnesota who, in three prior games against Seattle
(01:41):
this year, had limited to the Sounders to two total goals.
You get three and forty one minutes, and really, I mean,
other than those two goals that Minnesota got right before
the halftime break, it was all Seattle. An awesome game
by the Rave Green. The season is alive, and now
this leads us into a deciding Game three back in
(02:02):
Minnesota this Saturday. Quickly broadcast details on that before we
talk about the game two win last night. All right,
This Game three will be available to watch via MLS
Season Pass on the Apple TV app. You can listen
to it in Spanish language on Lray thirteen sixty We
hear at KJR. We'll have the broadcast for you over
(02:24):
on nine to fifty KJR AM that will have a
twelve thirty Provident Swedish premat show and a roughly one
o'clock kickoff there from Allion's Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
That is the situation for Game three Saturday afternoon, twelve
thirty pre game one o'clock kickoff nine to fifty am
(02:46):
here for the KJR radio side. All right, let's talk
some game two. Oh before we do that, let's set
up the show tonight, shall we, Because we have Paul Rothrock.
He's gonna be joining us out. I spoke with him
last night actually in the locker room. Paul Rothrock, we
talked about him on last week's show and I said,
(03:06):
I think you need to put Danny Mazowski in the
starting lineup. Jamie Watson and I were talking about it,
and Jamie and I both agreed that the primary reason
is because Paul Rothrock will be a better person off
the bench than say A Heyesu's Ferreira or anybody else.
And I think we saw that come to fruition because,
as you'll hear in the interview with Paul Rothrock coming
(03:27):
up in just a few minutes, he came out like
a bat out of hell in that for a second half,
he plays about thirty minutes of soccer and he just
leaves it all out there, and you knew that was
coming from him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
He helps create and gets the ess Well, I don't
know if he gets the assist.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
He should get the assist on that fourth goal there
in the eighty sixth minute that Obed Vargas used it
a deflection to put into.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
The back of the net.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So what you end up getting there is Paul Rothrock
having a great addition off the bench. He and I
caught up in the locker room last night after the game,
and he was pretty honest about what it was like
going back to the bench and having to, you know,
take that spot.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Clearly he was.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Affected by it and that news that he wouldn't be starting,
and really talks openly and honestly about that and how
the Sounders are a damn tough team to play against
and now nobody wants to see them in the playoffs.
That entire conversation coming up in a matter of seconds
here on Sounders Weekly. After that, for our next two segments,
(04:32):
it's gonna be a round table with Sounders reporting greats.
Noah Rife and Ari Lillianwall from Lobbings Scorchers Nico Moreno
from Sounder at Hart and Sports Polso the three of
them and I will get together and the four of
us will have a round table for the final half
hour forty minutes tonight as we talk all things Game
(04:52):
two win Game three ahead. So Ari, Noah and Nico
coming up here in just about fifteen minutes. But let's
take a couple of minutes before we hear from Paul
Rothrock talk about Game two. I mentioned that we knew
that this was going to be the best chance the
Sounders had is making the flip for Danny Mazowski for
Paul Rothrock and the way that Brian Schmitzer utilized that change.
(05:17):
He listed it as a four to four to two,
and at times it did function as a four to
four to two diamond, with Jordan and Danny Mozoski next
to each other at the top of the formation. But
it was so fluid that you would have Obed playing
out wide right, you'd have him tucking in. At times
it looked like the classic four two three one with
Jordan Faraw on the right wing. At times it looked
(05:39):
like three different formations, and it was that fluidity that
gave the Sounders attack. So much unpredictability and an entirely
new dimension that clearly Minnesota was not ready for. They
weren't ready for Jordan to be able to drift and
play fluid and go in a whole bunch of different spots.
They weren't ready for Obed Vargus to do what he did.
(06:00):
Christian rolled on played excellently, getting in the primus cist
zone over and over and over and putting lots of
really dangerous balls in. Obviously that led to a couple
of goals. Overall, there's really no faults to make for
any of the offensive players. I think you can look
at that Minnesota first goal and if that passed from
Obed to Jordan, that starts the team on the breakaway
(06:23):
on the you know, this is on Minnesota's end, going
towards the south end, the bro end of the stadium.
And if that pass from Obit to Jordan is just
a little bit better, it could have been for nothing
there in the forty sixth minutes. It's not a good
enough pass. Jordan has to come back to the ball.
Then Jordan gives it away, Minnesota's on the break and
they get their first It's a poor defensive play by
(06:44):
a few different parties that leads to their second goal
three to two. I think we were all feeling pretty
nervy and saying, all right, suddenly, game on. But I
really you gotta credit the entire coaching staff, everybody on
the field. Kalani Cosa Rienzi, who came in for Alex
Shroldn at halftime, credit all of them. That they came
out in the second half. They had their heads about
(07:06):
him and they said, we played such perfect soccer for
forty five minutes before the two Minnesota goals.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
We just have to get back to that.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
And they really did, and it was an absolutely beautiful
thing to watch them play soccer for that last forty
five minutes because defensively it was great. Offensively they knew
they could capitalize on just one chance to make it
back to a two goal game, and when Minnesota got
out of their shell late in the game, they put
it away. Great job by Danny Lava to get it
up to Paul Rothrock as well for that fourth goal.
(07:37):
But really, it was just an excellent game other than
two moments I think for Seattle, and it's that type
of mentality and it's that type of strategy I think again,
crediting the coaching staff. It's that type of strategy that's
going to allow you to win Game three because young
thirty three year old Eric Ramsey, the head coach of Minnesota,
he's gonna have to take but four days and figure
(08:00):
out how to stop that diversified and fluid Seattle attack.
That is not much time to figure out an entirely
new offensive system. And this is just another wrinkle that Minnesota,
Yes a great defensive team, They're going to have to
take time and they're going to have to figure out
how to stop Seattle, and they have very little time
to do so because four goals against a team that's
(08:22):
given up well, was it thirty eight to thirty nine
goals the entire season? Yeah, pretty damn good showing last
night from Seattle at home in what is hopefully not
the final home game of the year. It could be
the final home game of the year, but nonetheless a
great game for the Sounders, and we force a game three.
Cutting up will preview that with our entire roundtable of
(08:44):
Noah riefe Ari, Lillianwall, and Nico Moreno coming up here
in a few minutes. Before we get to them, let's
hear from Paul Rothrock. He was joined me in the
locker room after the game and we talked about the
emotions after a four to two win in Game two.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Just great, we're still alive and I have a good
feeling about you know, how we've changed.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The tide a little bit head into Saturday.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
The momentum does feel quite different considering four goals, but
also considering how the game went right. I mean, like offensively,
a lot of things seem to work for you guys.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, you know, credits to the guys who got the
game started and thought it's great to get a number
of different guys on the score sheet. Obed's first two
goal game credit to him. I thought we came out
with a different energy, at different fervor, and I.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Think the home crowd really helped us tonight too.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
And hopefully that's not our last game at home this year,
but it could be given our seating and stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But yeah, it was really great to be back at.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Lunan and to have a performance like that. And it
wasn't without some tough moments, you know. I think, yeah,
going into halftime, what was it like in here? It
was quiet? I think, yeah, you know, I'd be lying
if I didn't say we there was a there was
some nervous energy in the air that we hadn't, you know,
giving up the lead the way we did, you know,
(10:12):
two slopping goals and the moment and had kind of
turned their way a little bit. But credit to the
guys like held strong. We were able to find another goal,
which I think was big and yet tested our character
tonight and it was a it was a great bounce
back from last weekend.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Let's talk about that other goal, the goal that you created. Uh,
talk about the fight that you put in to win
that ball on the left wing.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean that's that's a play that we've worked
on a lot in the practice where I kind of
running off the inside shoulder of the guy and I
think it was Danny who played a great ball in
behind and and then getting good numbers into the box.
It's something we've worked on all week. And as I
would pick out Obed as he's kind of arriving late, and.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, big relief getting that fourth goal.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
This is a great feeling, great feeling, and so yeah,
once is Saturday, man.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, So you talked about the energy that started a game.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
You know what I feel like you're one of the
guys that can be completely open and honest with and
you're not gonna you're not gonna blame me for it.
So last week on the show, I was talking about
how I thought we need Mizovsky on the field to
start this game, and the.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Question was, well, who comes off the field?
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And I said, I think Paul comes off the field
because I think he's going to be better as a substitute.
And that's kind of how I approached the lineup for
this game. When going into this game knowing you weren't starting,
what was the mentality, what was the thought probably, I
mean that was my thought prob What was your thought
process going into this game knowing that Brian had to
figure things out for maybe to try to get the
(11:48):
offense going.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Yeah, obviously, you know that was a hard decision to
take personally.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, during the week, it's.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Never easy to be the guy that's taken out of
the lineup. But you know, that's also it's not something
that's it's something that's not new to me, and I
understand that sometimes for the better of the team, that
needs to happen given the matchups and you know, momentum
and whatever, and.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know I had I just had to.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Control what I could control and the decision was made
and I then my role became a substitute and I
had to be the best version of that that I
could be, and you know I had to I had
to deal with that well. I had to deal with
that positively. I had to keep good energy throughout the
week and training when I was back on the you know,
(12:38):
the the bibs team and the subs team, and you know,
push the starters, and you know, that's a different that's
a different vibe that you've got to focus on.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
That's a different that's a different way of being.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
But yeah, I think I stayed focused on my role
and continue to try and be a good teammate with
the guys, to push the starters in training and you know,
be positive with the guys starting the game. And each
game is going to be different whether I'm a starter
or a bench player or you know, by not even feature.
But you've you've got to bring your best stuff week
(13:13):
in week out.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, let's wrap with this, Uh, the mentality and the
culture that this team instills, win or go home, do
or die, These types of games that you played in tonight.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Why is this team so good in games like this?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He saw in League's couple. We've seen it in years
past in the playoffs. What is it about the culture
in this locker room where you guys are so successful
in games like this tonight?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
And I think we have a lot of guys who
have been there before, our vets. Our vets lead us
in that. I think they're they give us a steady presence.
Steph Christian, Albert Jordan, to name a few, show Paolo,
you know, these guys have seen big games and won
(13:58):
big games, and they know what it takes. And I
think tonight was a show of just our resilience as
a group like that, coming off that loss against Minnesota
Way it was hard. They beat us three times in
a row. They hadn't beat us ever before that, and
we had to regroup. We had to change a few things,
(14:20):
but also keep you know, remember that we're a good team,
and keep a lot, you know, stay true to who
we are and our identity. And I think we did
that tonight. And We're a damn hard team to play.
So I'm kin'd excited for Saturday.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You're rooting for the Timbers, so you can get one
more game here at home against potentially Portland.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I don't think I'm ever rooting for the Timbers, but
you know, I'd like to play Loomin again, sure, but
not against them. I don't think anybody wants to play us,
so we'll see.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I think that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
If San Diego and Portland are looking ahead to the
second neither of them want to face the Seattle Sounders
after they just dropped four goals on one of the
best defensive teams in the league. But to see them,
it requires Seattle to win Game three, and we're gonna
be talking about that a lot for the rest of
the night. It's a big Sounders reporter roundtable. It's gonna
(15:18):
be Nico Moreno from Sounder at Heart and Sports Polso,
Ari Lillionwall, who always joins us MLS Soccer dot Com
and the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. He does that podcast alongside
Noah Rife, and the three of them will join the
show next for a roundtable to talk Sounders and look
ahead to Game three on Saturday. That's next year on
(15:38):
Sounders Weekly Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC,
Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Welcome back, Sounders Weekly.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Good to have you here on this special Tuesday night show,
A night after the Sounders kicked the butts of Minnesota
in Game two four to two, an offensive explosion in
the first forty one minutes of that game, and Seattle
forces a deciding Game three on Saturday. Couple quick notes
before we begin the greatest Sounder roundtable you've ever heard.
(16:14):
Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence Swedish, the official
healthcare partner of Sounders FC. Also, michelob Ultra has ninety
five calories and two point six grams of carbs. It's
only worth it if you enjoy it, all right. We
have two thirds of the crew with us right now.
We hope to add that final piece in a few minutes.
But joining us right now as he always does here
(16:34):
on Sounder's Weekly. He's a writer and editor for Mlssoccer
dot com. He hosts the podcast Lobbings Scorchers. His name
is Ari Lilienwall Ari.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
How you doing, Buddy, I'm good, Jackson, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Thanks for being here. And then also you know him
you love him. He's been on Sounders Weekly so many times.
Nico Moreno of Sounder Heart and sportspolso at l Rolo
NW as I always plug is. His information is unparalleled, Nico,
How you doing today?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Buddy Hery was.
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Going on Jackson, happy to be on. Thank you as
always for having me on so I could just share
some of this Sounders takes and excitement to your KJR
phenomenal audience.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Uh and you are phenomenal with all of your takes
as always. My friend Noah Rife, who also does the
podcast Lobbying Sources with Ari. Hopefully he'll be popping on
here soon to join us here for tonight's show. In
this roundtable. But gentlemen, it's celebratory. You know, it's funny.
As I mentioned at the top of the show that
the plan was to do this roundtable in person if
(17:38):
the Sounders lost, I was like, well, let's just still
do the round roundtable over the phone and celebrate. Accordingly,
let's just start with the initial thoughts on a four
to two game two win.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I'll start with you, Nico jumping after on what you
think about Seattle taking game two pretty handily outside of
two moments.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Yeah, I mean it was a lot better than Game
one offensively. I think the first thing is you have
to credit Brian Schmetzer for making those adjustments from the
start of this game. It felt like they were starting
to crack this Minnesota United code at the end of
Game one when Danny Mussovsky came on. But not every
coach is going to go right to that look from
the start of the next game. So I liked that
(18:21):
he did it from the start of the game and
it worked. I'm not going to say they've for sure
cracked the code, but I mean, you get four goals
against a team that's packed in like that with I mean,
we've all seen how they've been playing with those numbers
behind the ball, so to get four goals against them
in this scenario with your season on the line, I
thought that was fantastic. Obviously, the way that the first
half ended made it way nerviier than it should have been,
(18:43):
But then I thought they really actually did a good
job of locking it down in the second half, and
then they also got the fourth goal. So obviously the
blemish is the two goals. They can see it in
first half stavage time to make it way nerviier than
it should have been. But you gotta like the response
to that, and you gotta like the attacking output and
the momentum that that gives them going into Game three.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yeah. Look, I thought that you gotta give credit to
Bran Smetzer, not just because of the tactics, but the mentality.
It wasn't just a tactics. It was the way that
he challenged his players. He told us during the week,
I'm gonna challenge over bargains to the more he didn't
have a great game, I'm gonna challenge Hiss Ferrera and
Jordan Morris. And that showed because that intensity from the
(19:25):
first minute was there, and that's what gives Seattle that
huge key component, which was an early goal. Jackson and
I talked about it right before the game. Those first
thirty five minutes were going to be so important, and
Seattle ended up getting on the scoreboard in the eighth minutes,
So that just created this great momentum for the team,
(19:46):
and it forced this Minnesota team that's usually so deep
to have to get out a little bit more. But overall,
I thought that Seattle played a perfect game for about
forty five minutes if you take away the extra time
in that first half, and then with things got rough
and there were some softballs, some soft goals given of
with some mistakes, some mishaps. Seattle had the character and
(20:10):
the composure to get back into the second game and
the second half and just be professional about it and
go back to what was working, go back to the session,
and just close to the game in the best way possible.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I think that the word professional, Nico.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I think you nailed it there that second half where
you don't allow Minnesota anything too awfully dangerous. It just
felt so professional, especially with Koloni Cozerienzi coming in for
Alex and Jackson and Yemar did a great job.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think those two moments at the end of.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
The first half, the first one where it is sort
of the giveaway by Jordan and the poor pass to
him and Minnesota's coming in really quickly, not even like
on the other end of break. It's they're on their
own end breaking. And then the second one just a
couple of poor defensive plays. I guess there's the two
part question of ares starting the Nico jump in if
(21:01):
it is any concern to you those moments looking ahead
to game three, and if you do have to, I
guess make any note of you know, if you if
you let Minnesota get those in Game three, you very
well could be on the other end of the result
because those were two moments that you know, sounder teams
defensively that's not normal, but but Minnesota is just so
(21:25):
good at those two moments well.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
And it's also moments that specifically in this matchup against
this team that the getting them getting those chances in
transition in the attacking end, that's one of the only
ways that they're gonna score on you, the other way
being set pieces. So it's kind of when you when
you make those giveaways, it plays into specifically this team's hands.
So yeah, you gotta clean that up. You got a
(21:49):
short up. But I do think the reality is that
in any playoff run, there's gonna be moments, there's gonna
be sequences in games where you face adversity, and it's
kind of it's how you respond to it. So I
honestly I take more from the response to the adversity
that they hit than the fact that they do hit
adversity and know, it'd be nice to go through a
whole playoff run just sailing right through it with no
team counterpunching and not competing any goals. That's just not
(22:11):
how it works. We've all watched enough playoff runs to
know you're gonna have moments like this, so you just
have to be able to respond to it. And they
did that very well in this game, to their credit.
So even though you do, you can't have that in
game three, especially multiple times. But I did like how
they responded to it in this game.
Speaker 7 (22:30):
I'm not concerned specifically about repeat situations or more individual mistakes,
but I'm gonna try to look a little bit outside
the box of the question, and I'm going to say
that I am concerned that Minnesota might have gotten a
little bit of confidence of saying, look, we put them
under a lot of pressure when we just pushed our
lights up, and when we played a little bit more open,
(22:52):
we pressed them a lot more. And does that kind
of change some of what Eric Ramsey does at home
in Minnesota. I like to think that that is a
little bit of a concern if there's some sort of
wrinkles in Eric Ramsey is very predictable and uninspiring play
(23:12):
at times, you know, by some measurements, But I do
think that Minnesota was more dangerous when they've played a
little bit more open and they pushed for Salas a
little bit higher, and they were able to get some
moments there for u A don't want it and lot
and obviously you got a guy like Gioboa that's likely
going to start that game that gave Sattle some issues.
(23:32):
So there is a little bit of that concern, but
not necessarily the repeat of individual mistakes.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, I think we're all on the same page here
that I think it's there. It's the response to the
situation and it's the specific things that it doesn't it is.
I think Nicola, you do point out perfectly that that's
going to give Minnesota the confidence to say, all right,
even when Seattle is playing really really well offensively, they're
still going to make mistakes and we're still going to
be able to capitalize on their mistakes. I think it's
(23:59):
in interesting that you can kind of see both ways
there for sure. Right now you're listening to a Sounders
FC reporter a roundtable. Here on Sounders Weekly, we have
Ari Lillenwall. He's a writer and editor for MLS Soccer
dot Com. He also hosts the podcast Lobbing Scorches. We
have Nico Moreno from Sounder at Hart and sportspolso you'll
catch them every Monday morning on the Lobbing Scorches kickoff
(24:21):
show on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe to the Lobbing
Scorches YouTube page where you can be notified when they
go live on Mondays and you'll hear Nico and Ari
do their amazing shows together. You also can get Lobbing
Scorches wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Make sure to follow Ari only.
Speaker 6 (24:38):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You're no longer too big on Twitter, but you have
Blue Sky of course, Ari, Lillienwall and then l Rolo
NW for Nico.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Nico.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Let's start with you this time and we'll get back
to Ari here and then I'll have you guys answer
the opposite way. This time, let's fast forward to the
sixty first minute, and I think that Sounder fans and
you guys will know where I'm going here. So in
a sixty four first minute, we saw a really nice
ball through to Danny Muzovski. He is sort of you know,
(25:07):
I say, bumped off the ball shoulder to shoulder and
then stepped on in a bang bang play. It is
being reviewed. The var referee is Daniel Radford, of course,
of red card wedding fame. And there is no dog
so given, no red card given. Play on, no not
even a foul, and on we go. The first question
(25:31):
to each of you, and we can kind of take
it from here, is how ridiculous was it that no
dog sow was called nico.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
I can even explained or try to elaborate how ridiculous
it is that Dad wasn't called a foul in a
red card. There is a straight up collision. The defenders
never playing the ball, he's playing the man. He's clearly
affecting a potential goal of two unity. It has all
(26:01):
of the elements. And you know, looking from the transmission
booth that you know we were doing l ray in Spanish.
I could not yell enough things to the mic just
watching that play out because it was so simple, it
was so easy. I even went out to say that
maybe the rev us and the glasses he might need
binoculars or a telescope to figure out how you don't
(26:24):
see that. I mean, it was just beyond believe. But
I thought that overall the referee was pretty bad. I
thought that he allowed way too many fouls. I thought
that Jefferson Diaz got away way too many just clear
pushes on a Sounders player. So overall, I think it
was poor. But to your question, it was just a
clear cut foul red card that should have been given
(26:44):
for the Sounders.
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Yeah, that's pretty clear dog though for me. But what
I thought was funny is, you know, there was all
this controversy over the Jackson Reagan play in game one
in Minnesota, where it's a little bit of a similar
situation where you have the runner in behind on the
one v one. He arguably put a little bit and
Minnesota United fans were losing their minds that that was
dog so after the game not acknowledging that they arguably
(27:08):
also got away with the dogs. Read in game one
when whatever that defender was cleared a header off the
line with his hand and the only reason that that
wasn't a dog so red was because Paul Rothrock got
called for a phantom file on Michael boxall that if
you watch that clip, you can watch that clip one
hundred times, you will not see a foul one time.
So to me, that evened out in game one, and
I thought it was a little silly that the discourse
(27:30):
was that Jackson Reagan in Seattle got away with one
when Minnesota got away with one that I would argue
was worse. The Jackson Reagan call was at least debatable.
The Paul Rothrock foul that's not even debatable for me.
So now that the Minnesota United has gotten away with
another dog so red, they've now gotten away with double
the dog so read in the series. So we'll see
(27:50):
what happens with Game three. But I like their chances
of coming up and top on top of that department.
So that means we don't have to do a discourse
about the Jackson Reagan call.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
If they loved the series, please, I hope we don't
have to.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I wanted to take a break here and we'll get
Noah Rife on who does lobbing scorches with Ari, and
get his take on the play as we look ahead
to Game three, because like Ari, as long as we
don't have to have that be a talking point, that
would be great coming out of this series. And hopefully
we don't have Daniel Radford on var again coming up,
so we'll take a break here. We got Nico Moreno,
(28:23):
we got Ari Lillenwall. We're gonna take a break. We're
gonna add Noah Rife as we talk about Game three
ahead the Sounders here in the first round of the
MLS Cup Playoffs, Minnesota. Game three on Saturday at one o'clock.
That'll be over on nine to fifty KJR here for
KJR Radio. By the way, we will bring in Noah
and we'll continue our roundtable and start really deeply looking
(28:44):
ahead to Game three that's next here on Sounders Weekly
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Now back to.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders fc cll's Sports
Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Welcome back Weekly, Welcome back to the Sounders Round Table,
looking ahead to Game three here of the MLS Playoffs,
first round, Sounders Minnesota. It'll be a one o'clock kickoff
out there at all EON's Field. We'll have the broadcast
nine fifty k AM starting at twelve thirty this Saturday afternoon.
(29:19):
Let's continue the Sounders Roundtable. We'll continue it with Ari Lillienol.
He is a writer and editor from mlssoccer dot Com.
He also hosts the podcast Lobbing Scorches once again. Get
that wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app.
Also subscribe to Lobbing Scorches on YouTube. You'll be notified
when they go live for the Monday Morning show and
(29:39):
also for Under the Lights on Thursday nights. That Monday
Morning show features another person here on our roundtable, Nico
Moreno of Sounderheart and Sportspolso. And we're also adding in
right now the other person who does Lobbing Scorches next
to Ari, Noah Rife. Noah, welcome to Sounders Weekly for
I was shocked to hear the first time last night,
(30:00):
and I thought you I had you on before, but
welcome to the show man.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Well, you know, I appreciated Jackson, thanks for having me on.
You know this. We're all sitting at a table in
front of each other right now and they haven't even
given me a chair, so you know it's a hawk.
Doyle welcome here at the roundtable. But I'm glad to
be here. Jaxsent thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It's great to have you.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Noah, Hey, really quick before we start dialing in on
game three and breaking this thing down. Nico and Ari
just shared their two cents on the non dog so
call in the sixty first minute.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I know you were pretty enthralled about that as well.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Share your two cents on that no call for the
for the dog sew and for the red there in
the sixty first Yet last night, well, you.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Know, Jackson, I felt like I was going a little
crazy honestly sitting there in the press box because everyone
to my left and to my right was telling me, Noah,
I don't know what you're seeing. That's shoulder to shoulder.
That's shoulder to shoulder all day. And so I brought up,
I brought off. I said, listen, in Vancouver, when the
Sounders played in Vancouver the famous double crash out red
card game, John Bell gets a red card for essentially
(31:03):
tripping the attacker. He's the last man back and gets
a red card. And I was just saying, you know,
let's be consistent here. Is that not the same thing.
I don't care if they win shoulder to shoulder, if
that's the first point of contact, he gets taken out,
he gets clipped. That was a good scoring opportunity. That
should have been a red card. And I think we
should be asking more questions about this. Well, that's all
(31:24):
I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
No, your first fault there is assuming that there's any
consistency in officiating in our league, and there's clearly not.
But that's a debate for I think our year end
roundtable when you can just laugh about how the officiating
is in this league, and also Daniel Radford being on VR.
All right, gentlemen, let's go all three of us now,
and let's go around the room.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Ari.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I'll start with you, Nico, then Noah. The big question
as we look ahead to game three is, considering the
offense you got in game two, do you stick with
the same tactics and the same offensive plan Ari that
you rolled out for game two? So Moose starts Pauls
on the bench to start this game. Do you roll
the same thing for game three?
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Yeah, you run the.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
Exact same thing until they show that they can stop it.
They didn't show that they could stop it in game two,
and you got four goals out of it, and you
really you should have had a much more comfortable win
with those four goals than you actually ended up having.
So again, like I don't know if they have cracked
the code, and I expect Erin or Eric Ramsey to
make some sort of adjustments and how they try and
(32:27):
handle that. Look, So we'll see if any of those work.
But when you find something that works to this extent,
even dating back to the end of Game one, you
run that back and then take it as it comes
for the next series. If you're able to make it through.
Speaker 7 (32:39):
Yeah, Look, I think if it's not broke, don't fix it.
Part of me does want to see Paul Rothrocks start
that game because of the energy, because of the dual
ability both offensively defensively. But then I look back at
what he did coming off the bench, and I think
to myself that there is no player in this roster
(33:00):
and actually in Sounder's history that I could think of,
that can have such an immediate impact come in off
the bench in the way that Paul Rothrock has samps
he started with the team. So when you have that
sort of power, when you have that sort of tool
in your shed, I think you just use that one
(33:20):
more time and have him come in against tire Legs
and change the game if necessary. If not, you can
manage it any other way. But I do think that
because of that factor, as much as I would love
to see him start. Maybe for this particular game you do.
Just keep it ass this.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
The reality of the situation, Jackson and Roundtable is that
Eric Ramsey knows one one thing and one thing only.
That's bunker ball. That's no one is going past the midline.
No one is to pass me as a coach on
the field. If it works, don't change it, keep it,
let it cook. I love Paul Rothrock off the bench.
It's quite funny because I did see Minnesota look like
(33:59):
a team that could score goals and break down a
high line when in stoppage time where they got their
two goals. But frankly, it's never going to happen. It's
never going to be like that. When Eric Ramsey wakes
up and he brushes his teeth in the morning, he
makes sure that all ten men are behind that line.
Keep it the same, keep it pressing. I think it
worked really well.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Why not well, you know one of the things, Noah,
I think coming out of that, you have Noah Riefe,
Ario lillionwill Nico Moreno Here Sounders Roundtable. My name is
Jackson Feltz. You're listening to Sounders weekly on ninety three
point three KJR FM and Aria. I think that Noah
has a point there that Ramsey plays his style of soccer.
But if Eric Ramsey is going into this next game
(34:40):
three knowing I mean, because I think we're all on
the same path here. Of you keep the same system,
you run the four four two that has the fluidity
to turn into a four to two three one that
has the fluidity to turn into a four to three three,
you just know how it's going to shape up every
single attack. Eric Ramsey is probably understanding this as well.
And if Eric Ramsey use a smart guy who was
(35:02):
an assistant at Manchester United, he's going to have to
make changes and ari that's going to change the chess
match in this game, because inevitably he is a smart
enough soccer mind to make what he thinks are necessary
moves both defensively and offensively to not let Seattle have
three first half goals.
Speaker 6 (35:22):
See I'm the reason I'm not quite sure about that
is because of what we saw a playout in game
two where they went down three zero and then they
get two goals right away, having to chase the game
a little bit, and then once they brought it back
within one goal, where one more goal would have brought
them within two pks. They reverted right back to their
old old game plan and dropped right back deep. So
(35:42):
that's one reason I think that he might just stick
to his gun. The other reason I think that is
because I was listening to his press conference today from
postgame and you want to you guys want to know
what he said that they need to do to win
Game three because they need to be skin gier defensively. No,
I mean that indicates that, well, there might be there
(36:03):
might be some minor tactical adjustments in how they approach it.
At the end of the day, I think he's in
a situation. I was talking to Jeff Ruder on my
show about this leading up to Game one. He's in
a situation where he feels like his roster can't really
hang with the teams that have more firepowers than them.
There was moves transfer moved that they wanted to make
(36:24):
to be able to change their style that they didn't
end up making. And it looks to me like he
looks back into a corner and he's playing like this
out of what he sees as necessity, and it's not
something that he feels like he can adjust and have
the team remain competitive. That's what it seems like he's
thinking to me. So while I think there might be
small changes that he makes as far as like a
wholesale different tactical approach, or any notion at all that
(36:46):
they're going to try and play proactive attacking soccer, I
don't think it's happening. I don't think he thinks that
they can do it.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Niko, what do you think? Do you think changes are
coming from Minnesota at all?
Speaker 5 (36:55):
I do.
Speaker 7 (36:56):
I think that, like I said, Eric Ramsey saw that
he could make sett uncomfortable by doing a couple of
things different. I do think that the personnelity will change.
I think both Jabbo and Hassani Dotson will start that game.
I think that you might see March to come out
and play Hung Jue as a wing back and be
more aggressive when he does selectively push forward in transition moments.
(37:21):
So I think that you'll see more of what he
did in that first half at home against the Sounders
in Game one, where they created a lot of opportunities
against the Sounders. I see the better chances in the
first in that first game happened in the first half
four Minnesota, So I do believe that that's a lot
more of what you will see rather than a team
(37:42):
that here at Lubinfield was just so deep, so just
ready to just bunker down. You will see some wrinkles
in Eric Ramsey's tactics.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
In my opinion, I think I think that's true. No,
let's shift gears here. And it is a little bit
concerning to me that Eric Ramsey has been able to
come into our league and in a year and a half,
and really just a year because this system started, you know,
from the jump this year, since he's instituted it been
able to get everybody he wants on the same page
(38:13):
with this scheme to a fourth place in the Western Conference,
the best finished in Minnesota history. And I know you
hate this style of soccer and you can talk about it,
because I love your takes on specifically this style. But
I do have a concern that you may see other
teams start to maybe replicate this and say they had
(38:33):
such success. We have better personnel than Minnesota and we
can do the same thing. I'm concerned that this style
of soccer might try to catch on a little bit
throughout the league.
Speaker 5 (38:43):
It's like a virus. It's like a virus.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Jackson, you never know, like.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
One day you're taking a long throw. In the next
day you have twenty percent possession, and you know you're
trying to sell two hundred dollars playoff tickets to watch
your team bunker. It's not going to happen. I'm not
too fear that this is going to catch on. I
think Eric Ramsey is short for this league, truthfully. I
mean I can give him his flowers because of where
(39:08):
he has put this team right like you, you have
to give them credit for that. But at the same time,
they're not going to be able to hold up with
a Sounders team. If they I mean, going back to
what we were talking about last time, if they play
counter attacking soccer, if they try and push those lines,
they try and go forward, a team like the Sounders
is going to destroy them. It's gonna rip them apart.
(39:28):
They have the attacking firepower. That's what's gonna happen. I
don't think. I think maybe that there are certain individual
aspects of the game that Ramsey has crafted that it
will it will catch on in this league. But I
don't even think Eric Ramsey wants to be playing this way.
I think I think even he knows this is bad soccer.
I think the reality is they just have a roster
(39:49):
that is kind of like not the best, and he's
doing with it what he can. And I'll give him
his props for that. He's still ruining the game of soccer,
though he is still ruining actively the games.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So Ari Nico, go ahead and respond, that's a short
for this league.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Eric Ramsey, No, I think.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
It's been I think it's happened before. I think Gary
Smith did that with Nashville when he first took over.
I thought that New York Red Bulls has done it
in the past. This is not new. This is something
that happens. It's just a part of soccer, is a tactic,
just like in any other sport, and it's about, you know,
getting results. You know that Eric Gramsey doesn't get paid
to entertain He has played to give his team championships.
(40:28):
And I don't think that the Sounders fan base can't
relate because they have had decades of success with one
of the best teams in MLS. Most protagonist. But I
guarantee you that if Ipe tell Atlanta United fans right
now that if they can win a title next year,
playing this soda soccer with Eric Ramsey leading that team,
(40:49):
they'll take it in a moment's notice, so you know
it's it's about winning games. So I do think that
there are teams in this league that would benefit from
playing like this, and I think that we've seen it
sporadically across the league. It's just that it's never been
so in New face as it is now with Eric
Remscin's mall go ahead.
Speaker 6 (41:05):
Well, what he's doing is something that has been done
in the league before. But what he is doing is
showing that he is very good at getting a team
that doesn't necessarily have a great roster to punch way
above their weight. They've got some talented players. I don't
think this is the worst MLS roster I've ever seen,
and the fact that they have an okay roster is
why they were able to still finish fourth in the
(41:27):
West while playing these kind of unique tactics. But I
think the reason he might not be long for the
league is because you could see teams like like in
the Championship, who see how what he's been able to
do in Minnesota, and they might say, we'll pay him
a lot of money to come do that for us,
because maybe we can get in the prem like I could,
I could see that happening, because well we might, we
might not like watching it, but like Nico said, it's
(41:48):
effective and it's something that teams who don't have the
firepower of other teams can do to keep up. A
example of people have given is Diego Simioni Epthotico Madrid.
How do you keep up with Real Madrid and Barcelona
while not having the resources and the rosters and the superstars.
Speaker 5 (42:06):
That they do.
Speaker 6 (42:07):
You play those tactics. He does kind of similar stuff.
It's not extreme as extreme as Ramsey Ball, but it's
the same idea and Ramsey is very good at getting
his players to execute on it. You gotta give that
much to.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Them, all right, boys, let's see.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
That's why he's the pundit. That's why he's the pundit.
He said exactly what I was thinking, in a way
better way.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
All right, gentlemen, let's go around the room and wrap
this thing up with some Game three predictions because it
is Saturday once again, for broadcast details really quick for everybody.
We're gonna have the game at Sports Radio nine to
fifty KJR AM, Providence, Swedish prematch show of twelve thirty
kickoff right around one o'clock there in Allan's field. Sounders
Minnesota Game three folks. You can also watch at MLS
(42:48):
Season Pass on the Apple TV app. Listen in Spanish
language l Ray thirteen sixty, where Nico had to call
for Game two last night as well, should be mentioned.
All right, let's go the opposite order. Noah then Nico
then Ari. Game three predictions for this Saturday, go, oh.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Boy, it's gonna be a barn burning, one nail victory
for the Seattle Sounders. Why not, let's give it. Let's
give it to Mussovski. He's gonna put the team on
his back like he has done all season, and we're
gonna have to have the uncomfortable conversation do you re
sign Moose? Do you keep him? That's what I'm on.
Speaker 7 (43:24):
Uh, well as somebody who thought that Musaski had a
very modest game. I don't know if there's you know
that that huge debate, but uh, you know, I do
think that the Sounders are gonna go with the right tactics.
I think that they're gonna be able to find some
of the holes that I think Eric Gramsey will give
him by shifting his team a little bit, uh, and
I think that they'll win with a late goal to
(43:46):
one in Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I love it, Ari.
Speaker 6 (43:49):
Yeah, I like Seattle's chances here as well. I think
they they showed in Game two that they're able to
break They're actually able to break this team down and
uh and score goals against them. And if you can
get one or two in this game, that should be
all you need to get by this team. You know,
there's always a chance that it could play out like
it did in Game one, where Seattle has some good
(44:10):
looks and none of them come off and it ends
up in penalty kicks. That could happen Minnesota United. They
also they're a good counter attacking team and they're an
elite set piece team. They could always get one or
two on you that that could happen. But Seattle just
plays how they played in Game two, runs their offense
exactly how they ran it, and just kind of just
(44:30):
do the same thing. I feel like they should at
least they have a very good chance in this game,
and I like their chances of getting a two zero
or two to one out of this. I think they
can get it done.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I love it well.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
I will say that I thought Seattle was going to
lose Game two underneath a terrible conditions, and it didn't
end up raining.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
But I said they would lose and they won.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
So I'll say that the Sounders lose, and hopefully they
do the exact same thing they did in Game two,
which is make me look stupid and make all of
you look smart, because you all are smart gentlemen. It's
been a pleasure. I you know, I blow smoking, and
this is not blowing smoke. I think that Ari your
takes are unparalleled. Nico, your knowledge is unparalleled. Noah, your
(45:15):
hilarity and your wit is unparalleled. All three of you.
It is a pleasure to call you both coworkers and friends.
And I thank all of you for giving your time tonight.
I know we're gonna do an end of the year
one of these as well in person, and I'm gonna
buy a bunch of dinner and it's gonna be a
lot of fun. But I thank you all for forgiving
your time today because it's just a pleasure to get
you on here the show.
Speaker 5 (45:37):
And honor thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
I love having all that time over At the same time,
that's exactly what I wanted all right, gentlemen, we'll drop you.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Noah Rife.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
You can follow him on social media Noah Rife and
then I or sorry, I just take dot photos on
Blue Sky, l Rollo, nw Is, Nico Moreennio on socials
and Ari Lillianwall. Check him out at our Lillian Wall
as well on his socials. Follow all of them, Lobbing
scorches great stuff on all of them, and Nico does
(46:06):
great content as well. For Sounder at Heart, we thank
all of them that'll do it for tonight's show. Thank
you all for listening. Coming up next, we will have
rain Weekly, but we will talk to you on Saturday
at twelve thirty over on nine fifty KGr four Sounders
Minnesota Game three. Have a good rest of your evening, everybody,
and rain Weekly is coming up next
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