He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the point
I can't say is CHEAT! Hey, welcome to Sounders
Scuttlebutt. I'm Aaron Lingley, and as usual,
I'm joined by my two friends, air hosts of Sounders
Scuttlebutt, the Alliance Council Secretary Cameron
Collins. Yo. Yo. And the Alliance Council extraordinaire,
Nicholas Biela. What's going on, man? Howdy ho.
Yo and howdy ho. Well. Yo, what's going on? We
are recording the 14th. This is Monday. Feels
like we actually have our shit together. Our
three -body problem was not a problem this week.
We're recording after we just defeated FC Dallas
in Frisco. We are sitting 11th on the table for
the Western Conference, and they are at 8th.
We won one goal to nothing, so we won. There's
a positive. We haven't won a game in what feels
like... Two months, but it's really, I think,
been, what, five matches since LAFC? Yeah, that
sounds about right. It was a month and a week.
So, I mean, it was five weeks, so it feels like
a long time, but it is a long time. I mean, it
was essentially we didn't get a win the entire
time that Pedro and Jordan were out. True. That's
true, and both were there, actually. One started
and one watched from the bench. I mean, it kind
of... I mean, that's a different story altogether,
but yeah, that happened. That was a thing. That
was a thing. You know what else is a thing? A
beer. I'm going to grab mine. Well, while you're
grabbing yours, I'm going to open mine because
I've been really looking forward to this. Ooh,
that was solid. No, no. It's still liquid. Hilarious.
I know. I try. All right, I'll do mine. My Elysian
Space Dust, which they have here in San Diego.
I mean, it is owned by Budweiser. Bud. Weiser.
Nice. Do that one more time. It's funny. I'm
drinking Elysian Space Dust, but I'm wearing
Rainier. I'm wearing my Rainier sleeping bag
with arm sleeves thing. And you're drinking a
Rainier. I am drinking a Rainier. And he's wearing
space dust sleeping bag. This is not true. But
I had to look down because I was wearing my stoop
sweatshirt earlier today. So I had to see if
I was still wearing that. We've just been very,
very confused. But not the case. And then there's
Cameron, who's neither drinking a beer nor wearing
beer paraphernalia. No, I'm wearing Zipper's
paraphernalia. You are. That's true. I'm wearing
game -worn Sounders shorts that Nicholas got
me. My testicles are currently sitting where
Chad Marshall's testicles once sat. And then
I have a... One of those... What were these called?
The Prime... They're like recycled jerseys, whatever,
you know. The Parlay. Yeah, Parlay. I'm wearing
a Parlay jersey as well. We're not even four
minutes into the show and... Two sets of testicles
were brought up. Yes. I mean, is it really a
show? We don't even have consent. Yeah, we didn't
talk about Chad Marshall's testicles. Is it really
a show? I mean, in all fairness, Chad Marshall
apparently had a reputation for doing naked cartwheels
in the locker room. Okay. So, yeah, we have a
lot in common. Tracks. Okay. That's me after
Pub League. Oh, no. Yeah, Pub League, another
good weekend of Pub League. Very sunny for me.
For you, you were early, so it was probably cold.
But I got sunburned. We had one game because
we had practiced for the first half and tied
1 -1. And I got to play. I played one shift at
center back. And otherwise, I played two shifts
at right wing back and two shifts at forward.
Oh, moving up a little bit, moving around a bit.
Moving around, and forward was super fun, and
I didn't get a goal, but I did draw someone away
when a goal was scored, so that was fun. Cool.
We had two games for us, one game in goal for
me where we had a 1 -0 shutout, and then one
game out in the field where we also had a 1 -0
shutout. We had a 1 -0 this weekend. We are 6
-0, our team. So we're off to a good start. What
about your team, Aaron? Oh, that's right. You're
a quitter. You quit Pub League. You could fly
up every Sunday for it and you don't. You're
not wrong. I could. But I don't. Yeah. Because
it's not financially feasible. I'd get a divorce.
It wouldn't be my choice. But you get to play
public with us. But it is an option. I'd probably
be up in the season 6 -0 since I was on Nick's
team. I think only one year I wasn't. I could
be a victor right now. You were a newcomer of
the year, weren't you? That's true. I didn't
even score that year. But you had badass shoes.
Yeah, I think that's pretty much the only reason
I was allowed in public is my shoes. I had Lego
Adidas. Like Lego bricks. They're still awesome.
They're right there. The funny thing about those
is what's more uncomfortable than stepping on
Legos and your shoes? That was the point. That
was the fucking point. And I would say that after
I was done swearing, after I'd get stomped on.
Oh, I got stomped on so bad. You're not supposed
to step on these fucking shoes. My toe was so
swollen after the game. Someone stomped on my
foot. Oh, man. We're on time constraints, actually,
here. Because we have a special night tonight.
We do have a special night. What are we doing,
Nicholas? You designed this. Scuttlebutt orgy
night. Yes. Jesus, Cameron. I'm surprised you're
wearing clothes. I don't know what you're wearing.
That can be arranged. You just put ideas in there.
No, no, no. Nicholas, what are we doing? Well,
my plans have suddenly changed. What's the name
of that bakery by your house? Oh, no. Yes. Yes.
The coffee shop that had the orgy shut down.
Yeah. Okay. For the Patreon episode. Let's talk
about that. Well, they were selling it through
brown paper tickets. Anyways, this is a true
story. This is a completely true story. The coffee
shop right a block away from my house was doing
an after hours BDSM night. And, well, we. we
may have to post that into the discord we'll
post a discord because i'm not going to have
the conversation about it not when i'm drinking
a beer because it was fecal matter and i didn't
know you were going to actually say it okay come
on let's go i mean i don't mean to yuck anyone's
yums but no thank you okay so after we're done
with this episode which we are going to do we
will be an abbreviated episode yeah i mean we'll
be recording a uh a nice little um Patreon episode,
yes. Yeah, so what we're going to do is we're
going to do an all -time Sounders draft where
each of us will take turns choosing from the
Sounders rosters and create our own Game Day
18. And we'll kind of compare and contrast and
see who ends up having the best team that they
can put together. Fun little... Yeah, we could
actually put the teams in the Discord, actually,
and we'll see who... Had the better team from
the community discussion. Might have to do that.
Speaking of, if you haven't joined the Discord,
do so. It's in the show notes. Indeed, we get
to do all sorts of fun stuff. Some quick scuttlebutt
today. Did anyone catch the WNBA draft? Yeah.
I mean, I'm only disappointed because the Storm
had the number two pick and not the number one
pick. I'm pretty excited about who they took
with their number two pick. It's got some...
You know, it could be a game -changing pick.
19 -year -old, so right there, that got five
years of extra time than most of the other players
coming out of the draft. And the more I learn
about Dominique Malanga, the more I'm like, okay,
that's a reason to be excited. Six foot six.
youngest player on the French national team that
won silver in the Olympics last year, can dunk
the ball, just would be, is now the second highest
player, second tallest player on the team. So
some good, you know, some potentially good stuff
there. Should be compared to Victor Wimbanyama.
That's what I've heard, yeah. Yeah, who is a
fellow French person. Yeah, but I hope it works
out. Obviously a project pick, not someone who's
going to immediately have an impact on the roster.
I think the big reason is Aaron Levine of Q13
was talking today on Twitter and pointed out
that the three number one picks that the storm
have had are three of the greatest players in
WNBA history. Whereas the number two picks, they
haven't been busts, but they haven't been all
timers. Can understand that, you know. And plus
Paige Buckner is amazing. It would have been
cool to figure out a way to get her. Yeah. But
she was not falling past the first pick. Yeah,
true, true. Only other news I think that I can
think of is Vancouver Whitecaps have moved up
to number one on ESPN's power rankings from three.
I'm surprised they were as low as three. Columbus
stayed second. Inter -Miami dropped from one
to three. San Diego stayed at four. Minnesota
went up a spot to five. And we got to go all
the way down to, wow, this is far, 16th to find
the Sounders. That feels fair. And we were 16th
two games in a row. Portland has now jumped us.
They were 18th and now they're 15th after a win
over Kansas City, the worst team in the league.
They are fourth in the Western Conference, but
yeah. God, that sucks. LA Galaxy might be the
worst team in the league, if I'm being honest.
That's crazy. That is crazy. I mean, not really.
Ricky Puge is that good. Yeah, totally. That's
the huge difference there. Yeah. That's nuts.
Anything in the mailbag that we can look at here?
Oh, definitely. Definitely. If we pull up the
mailbag. We actually had some stuff come in after
the last episode, but we had some – I think I
mentioned this on the last episode, but you all
hadn't heard about it yet. But with Rusnak possibly
being out this week, will we see Jesus at the
10? Jesus did not play the 10. He played a wing,
right? Against Dallas? Are you asking? yeah i'm
asking you yeah i know yeah no they didn't yeah
because i think paul was actually right that
got me that got me off for a second it's like
wing right no wing comma right yeah so uh we
didn't see that i would have liked it i think
that's a role that he thrives in um but we won
so you know what do i know yeah i mean let's
i mean we'll get into how we feel about that
game but um I was expecting him to be up top.
I mean, trying to gauge the whole match, but
I mean, he still played up top. There was movement
up there, but yeah, I don't think that was his.
Trying to pull up the questioning now. It kind
of felt a little like the old days of the Amoeba
back in 2013, where a lot of undefined... um
just kind of flowing with the game state and
the you know just just kind of a little more
free flowing it's what it's felt like at times
yeah yeah um i think we got two other scuttlebutt
both sounders related as well that we should
hit uh in the mailbag i guess three uh so i'll
just i'll bring them up and both you can both
answer uh in turn and then i'll follow up uh
with reagan most likely out for at least a game
asked alex diaz with a pulled hamstring who would
you rather have slotted into his place kim kihi
or bell well aaron do you want to start us off
i think yeah sure i mean right now i still i
think bell's had a number of good performance
i'm stoked to see kihi that's just you know sentimental
value right there but um and we got a half out
of it yeah he didn't get a full match yet i think
he's bound to get one um but right now every
point we can't let points slip right now um because
of our injuries yeah and the consistency that
bellows had at least um from the performances
i've seen he hasn't been terrible he's made mistakes
but so is you know reagan and Yamar for that
matter. So I'd rather go with what we know until
we have a little bit of a cushion where we can
play around a little bit to give Kihei more minutes.
And that being said, if Kihei has to start for
some reason, I do have confidence in him until
he doesn't show me he's got it anymore. You know
what I mean? Yeah. Because I like the guy. Yeah,
I can see that. I just think that Kihei's...
Game translates a little closer to Jackson Reagan's.
Reagan's, one of his biggest strengths is his
passing, his progressive passing. And at least
in Kim Kihee's first time around with the Sounders,
that was one of his strengths was those progressive
passes and being a little bit of... a little
bit more of an offensive defenseman looking for
those forward balls. So I wonder if that's why
he was... I knew that was going to happen. Cameron,
come on. You were talking about mailbags earlier.
Jesus Christ. Yeah, I mean, I think Nicholas
is right. Kim Kihee's game plays more to it.
The question will be, is he... you know, 70,
90 minutes fit or is he not? So I think we probably
will see both. The question will be who starts.
I do. I do wonder if the roles were reversed,
if it was a game are that went out in the first
half. I wonder if we would have seen Jonathan
bell instead of Kim key. Just kind of curious
about that would obviously we won't know, but
I mean, I think they definitely wanted to get
Kim some minutes. I think so. Yeah. And second
question there from Alex Diaz then. And maybe
you all know more news than I did. I did not
watch the Brian Schmetzer press conference on
Monday. So Nicholas will know the answer to this,
hopefully. How many minutes do you expect Ryan
Kent to play on Saturday? And or do you think
he gets the start? I did not realize anything
about his visa was finalized. Do you know news
on that? Yeah. So he was still in Vancouver.
The way that Brian answered the postgame presser
was if Ryan Kent gets a full week of practice
in, he is expected to feature in the game. Cool.
And how much time? Obviously, going off of Brian's
history with integrating players into the team,
I would expect to see a 15 -minute appearance.
is what I would expect to see. However, at home,
maybe a little bit of excitement. Everyone seems
to be really excited about Ryan Kent. So maybe
he might go a little more than normal. I think
we'll probably get a better idea come Thursday's
press conference, to be honest. Yeah, and I wouldn't
want anything more than 15 minutes. I mean, we
got him because we were injured. and this guy
hasn't played in nearly a year. Yeah, it'll depend
on his shape. All indications. He could be fit.
He could have been working out this entire time.
All indications are he is very fit. That's true.
But all indications is he's very sharp. I mean,
if he's been out there working out every day,
running 20 miles and lifting weights, then you
can easily be game fit. Yeah. I see nothing.
I see nothing from Jackson Feltz on it, but maybe
he was too busy tweeting about the Harry Potter
being released 14 years ago today. Oh. Oh, speaking
of which. The movie. Yeah, Deathly Hallows Part
2. Speaking of which, I am going to say, the
other night I watched on Max the documentary
about John Williams. is fantastic. The composer?
Yeah. So if you're looking for just a really
good watch, I intended on it to be kind of background
noise. I ended up getting really into it. Highly,
highly recommend it. Very, very good. And do
you know who John Williams' son is? Yes. Tolu,
lead singer of Toto. I just found that out about
a month ago. The what now? The band Toto? The
band Toto. No, John Williams' son played Toto
in Wizard of Oz. Yeah. I don't know why I was
picturing Frodo, actually. He did provide the
singing voice for the adult Simba in the animated
feature Lion King as well. That's correct. I
did know that. Put that on your mantle. Yeah,
yeah. No, I have Totoro on my mantle, not Simba.
Totoro, you're a Snorlax. That's just like a
Snorlax. I called you a bastard, which is a nice
segue to the next scuttlebutt question from Dan
the Bastard. Wait, real quick, just because I
said it, and so people will have heard me. Lil
Nas X just announced an hour ago that he has
been diagnosed with Bell's palsy. He's lost control
with one half of his face. So not good for someone
who sings for a living. It's pretty sad. Oh,
wow. Wow, that seems young. Yeah, yeah. I'm not
sure how that works. It seems like stroke symptoms,
but I don't know anything about it. Interesting.
So, yeah, go ahead and read Dan the Bastard there.
From your bird's eye view running the Discord
and the Alliance Council, do you see any of the
fan anger, disappointment, frustration, whatever
you want to call it with the slow starts, turning
into apathy? I'm in several Sounders -related
groups, and it seems where last year the start
was met with anger, this year it's being met
with, oh, well, I'll do something else instead.
I'm not. I think people are either angry or...
are like well they can pull it out uh but i think
that's only because there's nothing else to root
for in the past when things like that have happened
the mariners have been playing well uh the kraken
have been on a playoff run that's not happening
right now the kraken have one game left and they're
the like second worst team in the nhl uh are
you caught up on the mariners aaron um not tonight
but i don't think they played tonight Okay. Yeah.
But they swept Texas after taking the series
from Houston. So maybe things are starting to
look up. I will say that Cal Raleigh has hit
quite a few home runs with the torpedo bat. He's
one of the few players on the team that is using
it, but there was a thing on Twitter going around
today saying now that the Mariners are playing
well with it, they'll probably ban them. Very
major league baseball, but I haven't seen, I
mean, I think people. People are still largely
going to the games. I don't think the show rate
has dropped significantly. And I think that the
big fans are still like the people who are really
into it are still mad. So they're still talking
about it. I think other people don't have another
bandwagon to jump on yet. So they're just kind
of there. I don't know if apathy is the word
I'd use. I think you're right that there are
people that are angry, people that just are.
not fans of craig weibel are just going to use
this as more ammunition to you know to self -fulfill
prophecy not yeah and that's okay you know as
we talked about those are low information fans
because they don't understand what craig weibel
has to deal with well but i mean in in sports
in general you know ultimately you're going to
have your opinion and you're going to have some
sort of confirmation bias to a degree. And that's
okay. We all have that. We all have that in different
ways. But what I'm going to push on is that I
don't think it's apathy. I think that a lot of
people are recognizing that, yes, while the wins
and losses are very similar going into the Dallas
game as last year's slow start, the way it's
happening is different. And the way it looks
on the field is different. Because if you played
those games, those first six games, if you play
that 10 different times, the results we currently
have are probably going to be on the low end
of those results. I feel like we have been incredibly
unlucky. Because I think the exact opposite.
I think we've looked so much worse than last
year. I think last year you had individual performances
that were bad and individuals making a mistake.
This is the entire team making mistakes. We don't
look dangerous in the final third. There were
a few like missed chances on goals, but largely
we're not creative. So for me, this is way worse
than last year. I think it's recency bias because
I do think like the San Diego game, that was
just a shit show, period. You're going to have
those every year. You're telling me. That one's
going to be a shit show. I'm not even going to
try to defend that one. But the other games,
the Carolina game, even the Cruz Azul home game.
The Carolina game is the only one I thought that
was good outside of LAFC. The Cruz Azul home
game, we should have scored. two or three. And
this is what I'm, this is what I'm saying. Like,
like we had, we had a goal. We had no ability
to finish again. That's what we did. We scored
goals in that game and, and got, you know, you
know, and. So I think what I'm getting at is
I think, and that's kind of the confirmation
bias that I'm talking about, on both sides, you
know, me with my optimism and the other way around.
Like, I think the team has looked a lot better.
And even this Dallas game, 1 -0, but we were
getting a lot of good chances, multiple shots
off the crossbars. That second Mussofsky goal.
How was that not reviewed? It looked like the
offsides was the AR was looking at the guy next
to Mussofsky. I think it was Leyva and thinking
he was offside, and he was, but I don't think
Mussofsky was offside. I agree with that. In
the end, it doesn't matter. We won. Great. Maybe
that's a sign of everything kind of coming true.
uh because we we just have had some unfortunate
luck uh in the in the first half of the first
quarter of the season um but i think i think
that i think the talent's not there but it's
not because we don't have the talent it's because
they're hurt i think since they've gotten hurt
we've been absolutely terrible and so now that
they're back as they get brought in and then
you're bringing in ryan kent all of this can
be remedied that's why i'm not worried necessarily
but i think that you saw how much it hurts to
lose your best players and the real question
will be is there is ryan kenneth replacement
for paul areola probably was playing out of his
mind and i don't know at this point i i mean
it's a it's a high risk high reward his his ceiling
is honestly Ryan Kent's ceiling might be the
highest on the team. I think it's probably the
highest of any player we've ever had on the Sounders.
Potentially. Potentially. The ceiling. The ceiling.
Not where he's at right now. Not where he will
go necessarily, but his ceiling. This could be
just the right fit that it all clicks for him.
Definitely. He's super fast. And that's exciting.
Now, is it going to come together? Who knows?
I'm excited. But I wonder, you know, if I give
you an over -under, not seeing him play at all,
if I give you an over -under of five goals for
him this season, are you taking the over or the
under? Five? Goals for him or goals for him?
Just goals. Just goals? I think I would take
that because we've got 20 games left. I would
take that as well, yeah. Five goals in 20 games,
yeah. Okay. In all competitions too, I mean.
Yeah, especially with Paul Areola not coming
back. He essentially will slot in not the same
type of player at all and will be playing differently,
but he will slot into his minutes. Yeah, but
I mean it could be a situation. I mean there's
a lot of unknowns. One, his fitness. Two, the
way he fits with the team. Three, the fact that
we may need a formation change to get him to
get the most out of him. But he also. The other
side of that could be that he's got the talent
level that just exceeds where even in a weak
formation to his strengths, he can still make
things happen. We just don't know. I think it's
more likely there's going to be another player
left out. There's going to be a player currently
starting or in our ideal starting lineup that
will not be starting. I have a very strong opinion
on who I think it is, despite the fact that I
love him. I think Rusnak is going to be the odd
man out in here. Not a fan of that. I just don't
know where you can move Jesus to the 10 and that
opens up a slot on the wing for Ryan. I don't
know where else, unless you're going to go to
one defensive midfielder, which of course I would
love to do, but I don't think Schmetzer will
do that. I mean, step one is get him some playing
time on the field and see what we've got. Because
honestly, the other side of that is it's soccer.
Injuries are going to happen. Who knows how many
times we're going to have our ideal 11 even healthy
and game fit. If not, we've already dug ourselves
a pretty big hole. Yeah. I can't even remember
the last time we had a conversation about what
the 11 should be or where people should be this
next match and had everyone available. Well,
before we move on to this topic. Aaron, I want
your opinion since you are a little bit more
removed in that you are not living in Seattle
anymore. So your stuff is kind of when you decide
you don't like to read stuff on the Internet
sometimes because you might get spoilers to other
games you're waiting to hear. So I think you're
not as engulfed in it. And, of course, it was
a hot take after a loss. But after the San Diego
game, you, for the first time, started questioning
whether or not Coach Schmetzer should be on the
hot seat. Where do you now? removed two weeks
removed i think where do you where do you see
yourself now i mean i might if it got fired tomorrow
i wouldn't be happy no um yeah we're not there
yet um i need to see some gross mismanagement
of the resources that we have and i've had i
feel like there's been some terrible decisions
And at least in the substitution tactics realm
and just reacting to games, at least from what
I think I should do, you know, because I'm a
genius, but so many things have not been his
fault so far to start the season. I'm just not
exactly happy with the way they've been managed
so far, but I haven't seen anything that's my
jaws hit the floor. And I think that's going
to get to the point where we start having that
discussion. how could he possibly like some,
something just terribly. I don't know if we ever
saw that even with Siggy though. Right. The only
time was in that playoff game when Showery Joseph
put up, but that was not the end of his career.
But even that, but I think it would take more.
You're going to put in for Brian. Exactly. Yeah.
All those injuries, but yeah. I mean, anyone
but a defender, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, to
me, I think the question isn't whether or not
he should be fired. It was whether or not he
should be in the hot seat and I have no problem
being on the hot seat. He's been on the hot seat
for two years since we didn't make the playoffs.
He was already on the hot seat and we saw him
turn around last year. If he had missed the playoffs
two years in a row, he wouldn't have been our
coach anymore. It's that simple, but he did it.
He got that team together. They turned it around
and put together an incredible run. And I have
no doubt that we have the opportunity to do that
again. And Ryan Kent will play a key role in
that. Yeah. However, if we're playing like this,
despite. Even with injuries, I think it's going
to be hard not to have that conversation in two
months, right? If we're sitting outside playoff,
losing every other match, it's going to be...
I don't see that happening. I just don't. I didn't
say fired. It's just like... Oh, no. I mean the
losing every other match type of thing. I do
not... I think this is... Let's quickly look
at the schedule. Just to see. Nashville's at
home next match. They are pretty good, but ranked
higher than us. They're not great. Colorado just
beat San Diego. We're at Colorado. The matchup
could be a loss. Then we host St. Louis. That's
a win. Then we have to go to Houston. Always
tough for us there. But at least it's in May
and not the summer. Then we have to go to LAFC.
They're having a tough year, but always good.
Then we go to Portland. Could easily be a loss.
Then we host Dallas. You never know. Then we
host San Diego. Like, literally, we could look
a month from now and have really – I would say
Dallas is a win. Right. But San Diego could be
a loss. Then we play Minnesota, who's highly
ranked. And then we play Vancouver, who's the
best team in the league. So we actually could
lose every other game. I hope not. We could also
win every game. But those are teams that not
only are better than us this year, they've been
showing up. So the question will be, can we put
it together enough to – With what we've got,
yeah. And I think we can, but they need to prove
it on the field. So I don't think it's unrealistic
to think that we could lose every other game
through June 8th. I'm going to do a comparison.
De La Vega and Julio Rodriguez, except not so
much the injuries for De La Vega, but they kind
of have the same, right now, when they play well,
we're going to win games. If you're not going
to play well in that game, we're not going to
win. And De La Vega needs to play like that deep.
He's pretty much starting now to prevent that
up and down. Or defense just needs to play like
this. Can I ask this of you both? One nothing's
a win. This season, let's ignore last season.
This season, when De La Vega's been on the field,
I think he's been most times the best player
on the Sounders. including in our most recent
game. That first half, I thought he was absolutely
lights out. Yeah, I think there might be one
or two, like maybe not the second Cruz Azul game,
but that was just a shit show, right? Maybe not
St. Louis, but no one was really good. But no,
the second Cruz Azul game, he wasn't in because
he got injured. Oh, that's right. He got injured
in the game before. And so he wasn't in St. Louis
either. So, yeah. Definitely. I mean, he was
the best against Antigua both times. He was the
best against LAFC. I don't remember that Salt
Lake match at all. Oh, that was a terrible match
all around. But we were also rotating our squad
pretty heavy. He was pretty good against Charlotte
in a match that they were mad to not win, but
I thought they were lucky to even get a point
with the late own goal. Yeah. No, De La Vega,
I think, to me, he's been proven. He's been proving
why he's the DP and what he's capable of. It's
just, is he going to stay on the field? And these
injuries are unrelated, so I think yes. I mean,
that hit he took last match and got up from,
to me, that was the gut check for him. By the
way, that Salt Lake game, he did play just the
second half of that game. But let's move on to
our next game. Let's do a quick preview against
Nashville. and um stick the patreon ad first
sure sure we'll tease the patreon ad because
if you sign up pause the whole the show right
now join patreon you can listen to the other
half of the show that we're gonna do regarding
our the best best 18 yeah draft our game day
draft our patreon episode we're gonna record
after this so yeah i guess we will uh Listen
to you tease us, Cameron. I haven't. Hey, everybody.
This is one of your hosts, Cameron Collins. Now,
I know we said this time's time for a break.
But really, it's a time for me to talk to you
about our corporate overlords. And our corporate
overlords are us. That's right. We would love
it if you would head on over to Patreon .com
and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast. We
will put the link here in the show. And subscribe.
You can subscribe for as little as $1 .74 a month.
Now, what will that get you? Well, I guarantee
you get at least one. extra episode per month
that'll be a cool interview or something like
that that otherwise you would not hear now we
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that but the whole episode intact will only be
available for you patreons at least initially
now there will be other stuff that we put in
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You would not believe the going rate for PA announcers.
So head on over to Patreon, go to Sounders Scuttlebutt
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it. That's Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast over
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-M. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
All right, so let's talk about this game more
in detail, not distracted by ball sacks and mailbags.
Who was that? I wasn't looking. Oh, Cameron.
Okay. So, yeah, 1 -0. 1 -0. Yay, we won, but
1 -0. I mean, it felt like, even though we had
less possession, it felt like, to me, at least
in the first half, we were the better team. I
agree. I agree with that. Playing in Dallas is
always tough. I mean, it was historically, we
were not winning in Houston or Dallas. Like we,
yeah, it was 70. You were off by like one degree.
I think, I think you said 75 and it was 76. And
it was like 50 % humidity or some crazy, not
90. Like we would get in the summer, but humid
enough. 64%. I think it was humid enough that
you play our players by halftime. Not they weren't
spent because they could keep playing, but you
could tell how hard they were exerting themselves
in that weather. Because it's still winter here.
I mean, granted, today was a beautiful day, and
I got sunburned and had an allergic reaction
to the sun, like I do as my Irish self. But as
a whole, it's been cold here. And so you take
a team that's practicing the cold, and suddenly
you're playing in humid and heat. And I think
it was a trial for them, but you saw us when
we had possession, move the ball. And, um, you
know, I don't, I don't, I think the, the goal
Danny was in the right place, but we've been
talking about all the time that moose is good
because that's what he does. Yeah. I mean, I,
I agree. I think we could have easily had, it
was one of those matches, two, maybe three goals,
um, or shots on, Goal, I think, 14. Was I looking
at that earlier? Which is insane. Without more
than one goal. Yeah, shots. Yeah, but I do think
we actually played pretty well. I just also think
Dallas didn't play very well themselves. It got
chippy. It got real chippy. It did. It did. And
I coast is a good player too. I think we did
what we needed to do with him. So it's, I think
I'm just happy that we got the win when we're
in these like turbulent times. I certainly, I
wasn't expecting it. I think I said to nothing.
Yeah. So I just didn't see where our goal was
going to happen. But Della Vega that, I mean,
Brilliant. Beautiful shot. Inches away. That
was gorgeous. He's a lefty, right? Yeah. Southpaw.
Yeah. I mean, speaking of which, let's give some
credit where it's due to our game prediction
challenge. We had two people with four points.
They got everything right except for who scored
the actual goal. And that would be Eric13. And
then the other one's some asshole named Cameron
Collins. Yeah, finally! Yep, instead of my prediction
where I thought we'd lose, I changed it up day
of because I had a good feeling. I just got the
scorer wrong because I thought Jesus was going
to show up against his own team. And he did.
I mean, he had a nice look. I thought he was
a scorer, I should say. So yeah, so congratulations
to both of you. And just a reminder real quick
about that game prediction challenge. Every match
day, I do post a link to a Google Sheet documentation
where you answer five quick questions. Just who's
going to win the game, what the score will be.
I'll give you an over -under and who's the predicted
first goal scorer for the Sounders. At the end
of the season, whoever's got the most points
is going to win a prize. We'll also have a prize
for... We'll do a random draw of everyone who
is submitted. So if you enter 20 games of the
year, you'll get 20 entries. And so already keeping
my eyes open for something, some fun stuff to
give away for that. So keep participating. We're
getting a lot of entries each game. We're having
a lot of fun with that. And then on the Discord
this week, I'll update our overall score to date.
Yeah. So I've got a question for you all. I'm
doing terribly. Well, I was too until this past
game. But Danny Leyva comes on, subs in for Pedro
de la Vega at the half there. Tremendous second
half from Danny. I saw a stat today where he's
got more minutes this season than he does any
other season already, and that he's on pace for
1 ,000 minutes this season. That's so great.
It was great to see. And he's played very well.
And some people felt he was the player of the
game, actually, based on... I think he might
have actually won player of the game from the
club. So despite Moose scoring, that's how impactful
he was. De La Vega under minute... Restriction.
Do you think that was the right place to take
him out? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, taking him out then
at the half, one, so you're not burning your
substitution. And again, it's a minutes restriction.
I am sure it was always going to be 45 minutes.
So no complaints about that. I really like that
the club, all season long, right from the start,
has been really trusting the data. And the one
area where they maybe got it wrong is it could
be argued that that kind of led to Jordan Morris's
injury just because he had been pushed a little
bit hard. But for the most part, I think the
club's been really good about managing minutes
because we do have a lot of good depth in a lot
of positions with, as it turns out, the one exception
being Jordan's position. But great to see Moose
get a goal and then a second goal the same way,
which I think should have counted. But so he's
up to two goals this year. What did I say? I
said now that he's going to get off that schneid,
he's going to be good for five to ten all comps.
So he's certainly on track for that. I'm really
happy to see that. I do believe that's going
to only get better. You could see just the happiness
on his face after both goals, even the called
back one. So that's really great. And if I understand
correctly, did I see somewhere that he got engaged
today? Oh, I didn't see that. Wow. Am I breaking
news here? I am pretty sure that I saw that he
got engaged. Cool. Yeah, Moose is getting hitched.
Scored a goal and got engaged in the same week.
Congratulations, Danny. I've said it before.
I got to have dinner with him at the Rave Gala.
The dude is one of the nicest people I've ever
met. He's just incredibly cool. Well -deserved
for him. He's having a good week. That's what
happens when you become a sounder. Damn, it feels
good to be a sounder. Your life resets. Ryan
Kent's going to get a third crocodile. So let's
talk about Ryan Kent and Nashville. So we got
that game coming up at the end of the week. Should
be a fun back -to -back night of soccer in Seattle.
The rain will play on Friday night against the
Portland Thorns. And then on Saturday, the Seattle
-Nashville match. I thought you were talking
about the Seattle -Nashville match and then my
Pub League match the next day. against one of
the other three teams. No, no, no, no. This weekend's
the TST tournament, but that's another story
altogether. That's true. But you know what isn't
this weekend is, or is this weekend, not that
day, is what you mentioned, the rain. Zombie
Jesus? Yeah, it is Zombie Jesus weekend. But
the rain get to go up against the Thorns, and
likely we will get to see, I cannot pronounce
her name, but the woman who wears the leg sleeves
who came out and dominated in that game. on saturday
that we went to yeah it was a good game um didn't
get the result we wanted but it's always good
to see marta play and barbara banda is the real
deal for orlando um so it's just good to see
uh just fun soccer uh rain games are a good time
so glad you were able to join me in roma and
uh yeah so can i do a quick before we go in it
can i just give a quick um I don't have testimonials.
Look, people, check your emails. Check your emails.
I just happened to pull up an email account that
I do check regularly, but I somehow missed that
I was invited to the unveiling of the World Cup
Seattle poster and could have been hanging out
at the World Cup headquarters with a bunch of
cool people, and I didn't see the email. Check
your emails. Sometimes there's cool stuff in
there. Oh, man, that sucks. Yeah, it's so sad.
Oh, my God. That was 10 days to 12 days ago.
I missed it. Oh, man. Anyways, let's talk about
Nashville coming up in the Music City. Yeah,
they're sixth in the East. Yeah, they had moved
up from 15th to 10th in ESPN's MLS rankings this
past week with a nice win they had there. But
I will say they're a little bit of a different
team because Walker Zimmerman is currently hurt.
Oh, yeah, that was a nasty kick that he took
to the hand a couple weeks ago. Real nasty. He
was just defending, putting his body in legs'
way. It was not pretty. Well, on top of that,
they're already not a very good away team. One
win, two losses. To their three wins, one loss.
One draw at home. Yep. That's why I'm currently
in sixth. Absolutely. But definitely a big win.
Oh, I guess they lost to Cincinnati and Charlotte,
but then they pulled it back against Salt Lake.
And Salt Lake has been surprisingly good this
year. But they had 22 shots in that match with
seven on target, less possession. Definitely
were the more dangerous team there. 90th plus
one penalty. 91st minute penalty to beat Salt
Lake. 2 -1. Yikes. Yeah. 90 plus one. We saw
their lineup. Andy Nahar in the back, who I'm
actually surprised is still in the league. I
had no idea. With Palacios, Maher, and Levitz.
And then... Hani Mukhtar, obviously, yeah. At
center attacking mid with Mule on his left. I
don't even know who some of their other newer
players, like Kasim, I don't know. And their
forward, Suraj, who scored the goal. Sam Suraj
is a newcomer to me as well. So this is a different
team than they've had in the past. Not something
that you necessarily see a team change that much
up. Yeah, so what do you expect to see this weekend?
Do you expect to see us coming out firing? Do
you expect us to see us fired up with return
of bodies and playing in front of a home crowd?
What are your expectations? I mean, if I'm going
to just say a prediction, I think it will be
a 2 -1 win, but I don't know if they're going
to come out firing on all cylinders. I still
feel like they're figuring out the right way
to move. And we're getting more and more glimpses
that they're figuring it out. Because De La Vega's
had time on the field. I think he is just so
key to making sure everything else works. And
in my opinion, and I know Cameron's too, Rustak
as well, I think needs to be on the field for
us to actually score multiple goals. Absolutely.
I think the one... Thing for me that is questionable
is what impact will their manager have on the
game? Their manager this year is BJ Callahan,
who of course was the assistant to Chicago's
coach. What's his name? The guy that I dislike,
Burr Halter, at USA. And so he's the former USA
assistant coach who took over as the caretaker
manager. When Berhalter was out and let's see,
he went one, two, three, four, five wins, one
loss and one draw in that time. So fantastic.
He did everything that Berhalter couldn't do
with that team and made them better. And then
they reinstated Berhalter. So he didn't get the
job after that. And he's moved on to Nashville.
So that's a guy with some good experience there.
So we have seen times where we've been out coached
by. creative coaches so i don't know enough about
his style but i'll be interested to see what
happens i'm hoping we come out firing because
to me that's the way that we win is get ahead
and then try to hold the lead rather than falling
behind and trying to come back because it seems
like our confidence is not high right now interesting
i uh i think our confidence is actually doing
okay I do. I think the club was really putting
some stuff together against Dallas. I think having
De La Vega on the field energizes them. I agree
with that. I just meant like when we make mistakes,
they start to compound. And because they're trying
to overwork to get back to places. And so I want
them to keep their head up. Yeah. I agree with
that. So what's your prediction, Cameron? Aaron,
you said 2 -1 Nashville? I mean Seattle? Seattle,
and it'll be dramatic. I'm going to go 1 -1.
I think it'll depend on how much Ryan Kent plays,
but until I see a multiple -goal game, I won't
believe we're capable of it. Well, I think you're
going to get your wish. I think it's going to
be 3 -0 Seattle. I think we're going to be singing.
We're having a fucking party over here towards
the end of it. And it's going to be a lot of
fun. I mean, Nashville is a plus -four goal differential.
But in that time, they've scored eight goals
and given up four. So it's not like they're giving
up a lot of goals, but they're not scoring a
lot of goals either. So definitely could easily
be held. To no goals. Well, I mean, they've given
up five in their last three. So, you know, we'll
see. Yeah. But I think we're primed. I think
we're primed. And I think the ball is going to
be falling our way after hitting way too many
posts and getting on the wrong end of some really
close off sides. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, that's
exciting. I hope that all happens. And I think
because we do have a Patreon episode, it's time
to start pulling everything into port. But before
we do that, you two don't know about this because
I did it without asking you first. But we will
see what you think of it. I have added a new
level to the Patreon. that people can join for
$19 and 74 cents a month. What this gets you,
there's only three of these available, only three.
What this gets you is we will work with you on
the show to give you your own short segment.
We're talking like 90 seconds and you, it's gotta
be appropriate. It's gotta be branding, but we
will work with you then that you can have your
little 90 seconds of say. In the episode where
your voice gets to be a part of our show and
you're a guest producer with us. So Bob's corner.
Yeah, exactly. Corner is exactly what I was thinking
in my head the whole time. That's so funny. Whoever
it is corner. So if you want to give us 19 and
it's only available for three people. And when
we are super famous, this is going to be like
500 a month. So you better get on. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, you're not the president anymore. Cameron.
This podcast is going to be the biggest Sounders
podcast in the history of the world. We're on
our way there already. I'm for it. Yeah, that's
news. Yeah. And I'm glad I get to do this for
free. In fact, I actually know I'm paying a lot
of money to do this. I understand. That's why
it's more than 90 seconds. That's why it's more
than 90 seconds that we get to speak on here.
Yeah, yeah. But you'll get your say and, you
know. Yeah, that's cool. So it's a chance for
you to become a regular part of our podcast and
not just yelling at the void in the Discord.
You will be our Sounders Scuttlebutt correspondent.
Yeah. Yep. Oh, man. Look, it did wonders for
John Oliver's career, did wonders for Stephen
Colbert, Steve Carell. Look what it's going to
do for Dan the Bastard now when he goes all in.
Oh, yeah. It's going to be great. Yeah, let's
go into port and let's do this draft because
I'm ready to drink another beer. Sounds good.
So where can they find you on the internet, Aaron?
They can find me on Instagram at Aaron Lingley
and same thing at Twitter. I think I'm Aaron
Lingley on Instagram. See, you probably won't
find me there, but that's where you'll find my
handle. What about you, Nicholas? Come find me
on Instagram at Cascades2C. Find out what I'm
up to, what kind of events I'm doing around town,
what kind of trouble I'm getting into, what kind
of glory holes I'm taking my daughter to. Oh,
without someone understanding, that's going to
be a very confusing and maybe child -taking -away
reference. Come to my Instagram and you'll...
I'm going to let you quickly... give you, just
say something else before I say it. Smashbutt.
Smashbutt. It's a miniature golf apocalypse.
And you can find me at LegalMindedPunk on most
social media sites. I don't think I'm on Mastodon
or Hello, but I might be. I don't even know what
Hello is. It was the Facebook replacement. I
mean, are you... No, no. No. No, you're done
talking. James, take it away. James, take it
away. You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast on Twitter at SSFCScuttlebutt. And for
all inquiries, including questions for the gents
or sponsorship opportunities, please email contact
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at BritVoxus. That's Brit Vox US. We'll see you
at Lumen and go Sounders. Alexa, who's the best
MLS team of all time? The Seattle Sounders are
both unequivocally and intuitively the best MLS
team of all time.