He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say it's cheating. All right, so we are
back here on Sounders Scuttlebutt. I am one of
your hosts, Cameron Collins. And today is the
very first segment that we are recording that
is part of our new segments that we have through
Patreon. And I'm super excited because I don't
know if you want your last name in it. I'll let
you do that, but I'm just going to call you Alex
for now. We are here with Alex, who is now part
of our show. What is up, Alex? How are you doing?
I'm doing pretty good, Cameron. How are you doing?
Not too bad. Just excited to finally get you
on and record with you and talk sounders. You're
one of the strongest and best voices we have
in our Discord. So to have you on here is super
cool. Yeah, I feel like I might be one of the
younger voices, too. Yeah, definitely. So let's
start letting people know who you are a little
bit. Where you live, and you don't need to be
too specific if you're worried that people on
the internet will find you, but what city you're
in and how you got into soccer in the first place.
So I'm from Yakima, Washington, on the other
side of the pass. I've been involved with soccer,
I want to say, almost all of my life. I've been
playing since I was five, going through the whole
pyramid of soccer, starting at the rec level,
then transitioning to club, and then playing
high school. And after that, just keeping up
with the game. I don't know if they still do,
but over the years, the Sounders have tried to
have a presence out there in Yakima. Do they
still have stuff out there? Any camps or anything
like that? Yeah, they used to have a partnership
with a club called CWS. So they were the Central
Washington Sounders. But then once Sounders started
their MLS Next Academy, they sort of pushed CWS
aside. So this past year, they transitioned from
Central Washington Sounders to Central Washington
Soccer. Since the Sounders have a lot of clubs
within the Seattle area. I know Yakima a little
bit. My cousins all grew up in Sunnyside, so
I used to spend a little time out that way. It's
a nice place, nice place. Why Sounders? Is it
just because it's local, or do you have a connection
somehow that you formed in another way? Yeah,
I want to say it's more so local, because Yakima,
the closest team that we have, is going to be
either the Sounders. You have the Timbers, and
then you have RSO. But I think just the Sounders,
because ever since they came into the league,
they've been having great seasons, winning, making
playoffs, winning trophies, going on incredible
runs. Yeah, for sure. And it's not that long
of a drive for you to come visit games, which
you do pretty frequently. Yeah, it's probably
like two and a half hours. Dedication. That's
about how long it used to be to drive to Portland.
Now it's a little bit longer. Yeah, I think that
stems from the passion that I have for the game.
Nice. That's awesome. I think one of the things
that I like on Discord is that you really take...
You take to heart the questions and come up with
great questions and just have a lot of opinions
on it. What do you want to do with a segment
like this on the show? In general, what do you
hope to be able to bring to the show? I know,
obviously, you had already said that a younger
voice than maybe we're hearing, especially since
me and Nick and Aaron are all roughly the same
age and pretty old. What are you excited about
bringing to the table? I think it's just another...
Another set of eyes, a different perspective
to what we're seeing. Maybe try to see it from
what's working, why isn't it working, what are
they trying to do, giving players grace or giving
players constructive criticism, and just trying
to find a balance of not being too negative but
not being too positive. Nice. Why don't we get
into it then? You know, we had a 1 -1 draw at
Colorado. Maybe should have been 2 -1 Colorado.
I mean, I'm fine with their goal being called
off once they called it, but it was a pretty
soft foul. What's your takeaway from that game
and kind of what you saw? I think that's a game
that we had the chance to win and that is going
to leave a bittersweet feeling in our mouth because
that's... two points that we dropped and away
from home. It's tough to win in the league away
from home. Yeah. Well, a draw is good. And, but
if you have the chance to win, you have to, you
have to take it. Yeah, absolutely. Defensive
foibles, difficulty passing. How much do you
think the, the, you know, how high up in the
atmosphere Denver is affected them? They struggled
this year with altitude. We've seen it at Cruz
Azul where they got absolutely ran off the pitch.
It was boys against men that game. And the first
20, 30 minutes that we've seen it was just sloppy.
It looked like we were watching probably a wreck
ball. It's just they take a touch and it's just
the first touch is horrible. Passes aren't connecting.
But it was both teams. They weren't connecting
passes. We were just lucky that. Danny Musoski
is playing on fire and put one away right at
the end of the half. Should he have gone subbed
off at halftime? That's, you know, debatable.
I understand that he's on a yellow, but how many
times have we seen forwards get a second yellow?
Yeah, it's not common. And I mean, I think part
of that was they promised Jordan Morris time.
And so if you're only going to play one forward,
that's kind of, what you have to do, unfortunately.
Yeah. And I understand like where the coaching
staff is coming from. During halftime, you have
more time to really activate that muscle, especially
the hamstring, to get them warmed up, which would
be easier than having them come off and come
on in like the 60th minute or like the 75th where
he has to do like some little warmup. We've seen
how they warm up on the sidelines. They're not
really warming up per se. They're just doing
it. jogging you know maybe they'll do some sprints
but not really you know activating those muscles
properly yeah i think they just they're just
doing the the fifa mandated warm -ups it's not
they're not out there running like they would
be pre -game or um you know at halftime when
they can do that of course he got hurt in the
in the game unfortunately and is now we know
six to eight weeks he's gonna be out Where do
the Sounders go from there? Yeah, that injury
is very concerning because it's the same spot
and the same hamstring, and it's more severe
than last time. That's what we've seen from the
second MRI. I think it's going to be six to eight
weeks, maybe even more, because, I mean, why
rush them back? Global Cup, yeah, it's going
to be a good opportunity, but I am a firm believer
that you have to play. the hot hand you got to
play the guys that are in form you can have the
names but if they're not producing you got to
play the people that are producing and when he
comes back it will be actually probably club
world cup time so it'll be interesting to see
what happens there and he does i feel like he
doesn't need the exposure that some of the other
players do because he's not going to move on
from seattle the same way you know obed might
yeah or like a pedro de la vega or maybe yeah
Maybe a Nuhu or a Kalani. You know, we have some
younger players that can have a good opportunity
here to really make a name for themselves. Yeah,
for sure. So why don't we finish with something
that came out of the mailbag, which was a question
you actually asked, but I want to know what's
behind this. So you asked, what's worse, the
Puto chant or throwing beer on everyone? Of course,
the Puto chant is for those that don't know.
It is banned in at least CONCACAF, but it still
happens. But it's a chant versus basically having
beer thrown all over you. Where do you stand
on your own question? I think that legally it's
banned, but we heard it in San Diego. You hear
it in Mexico all the time. It's not going to
go away. It's not. But as far as people throwing
beer on you, I've seen videos online where they
record themselves. They put the phone down on
the floor and then they start throwing beer around.
I'm like, that's just uncalled for. Yeah, I would
not be happy. I don't want to get wet. I don't
want to get wet with beer. But also, beers are
expensive. What are people doing? They can just
light money on fires. Give me the money. Well,
a beer at Lumen is like, what, $16? Yeah, unless
you, they have, I think they, pre -game they
have a few cheaper beers, but. Yeah, I have like
some 12 ounces for like $5, the value beer, but.
Yeah, but no, yeah, it's, I mean, I remember
my old roommate would go to, we'd go to Seahawk
Games and he'd eat 10, 12 beers deep and wouldn't
remember the game and be like, you just paid
150 bucks for it. ticket to a game and now you
paid another 150 plus for beers and you're not
even going to remember your experience. I mean,
if the Seahawks lost and I don't blame them.
That is true. That's true. They didn't, they,
well, they didn't use to do that a lot at home.
Now they do. Uh, yeah. So, um, what, what's,
uh, what's your prediction for the upcoming game?
We got St. Louis at home. It's going to be, it's
going to be interesting because now we learn
that Jesus Ferrer is probably out. And he's been,
I think he's been doing pretty good. He's not
scoring. He missed a sitter, but I think he might
be, he just needs to score one and then, you
know, the floodgates will open. So I think that,
you know, we're at home. If our defense, you
know, keeps playing the way they have been at
home, Fry has a good game, makes the stops he
needs to make. I can see us winning 2 -0. Nice.
I like that. I like that. I didn't get to make
my prediction since I wasn't on the show this
week, but that is a prediction I can get behind.
It's a good time. So where can they find you
on the internet? If you want them to know, if
you just, if it's just discord, say the discord.
No, they can find me on the discord at Alex Diaz.
And then they can find me on Instagram at Alex
underscore DS five Oh nine. Nice. Awesome. So
everybody go give Alex a follow and. You'll be
on here every week with us. So I'm excited. It's
going to be good times. Yeah. All right. Catch
you soon. Sounds good. Hey everybody, this is
one of your hosts, Cameron Collins. Now, I know
we said this time was 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. Now, what will that
get you? Well, I guarantee you get at least one
extra episode per month. It'll be a cool interview
or something like that that otherwise you would
not hear. Now, we might put out promos or other
things that include that, but the whole episode
intact will only be available for you Patreons,
at least initially. Now, there will be other
stuff that we put in there, but this is where
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-T -R -E -O -N dot C -O -M. Now back to your
regularly scheduled programming. Hello, Scuttlebutt
listeners. This is one of your hosts, Cameron
Collins, and I am here right now with a very
special segment. You know what? I'm going to
just use your first name, Dan, and then let you
decide how you want to refer to yourself from
there. For privacy purposes, I'll leave it up
to you because I just realized we did not discuss
that before we hit record. But as listeners know,
we've decided to bring a few, I guess they're
called patrons. uh people who subscribe on patreon
along with us and um i'm super excited i've been
really looking forward to this and i'm here with
one of those people who is now going to be joining
us on a regular basis hello dan welcome to the
podcast hey what's going on and i'm good with
dan the bastard if you can put that on your podcast
yeah my uh my stuff's all over the internet it's
fine awesome dan the bastard uh definitely uh
a great voice in the discord someone who has
a lot of opinions and that's what we like yeah
i you know i i am a fan of uh hyperbole and uh
i'm okay with it it's sports let's let's go let's
have fun and just say some stupid stuff i i get
you there's there's times where i have tweeted
out so -and -so is the worst player ever, and
then they score a goal, and I'm like, I told
you they were the best player on the team. You
know, I have to be on point and smart in my work,
so I'm going to let it hang out and say dumb
things about sports, and I'm okay with that.
So let's talk about you, and how did you get
into soccer? I know sometimes soccer and Sounders
fandom do not go hand -in -hand, especially for
people our age where we didn't have... Sounders
as a pro team until we were older, since they
were, I think they left when I was like four.
So you were probably maybe not born yet or close
to that. How did you get into soccer? Dude, I
am brand new as far as sports fandoms. In fact,
I'm so new, it's almost embarrassing engaging
with it. So I started in 2022, late 22. We moved
back to Seattle. We moved around. I had a job
where I moved around for 20 years and come back
here. And I actually grew up in Texas. So I know
American football, played baseball. Soccer was
not even on the radar. I got a 15 -year -old
kid, Joe. They wanted to watch the World Cup.
And I'm like, yeah, I'll drink beer and watch
sports with you. That sounds like a great way
to spend a week. And really, Joe fell in love
with soccer. introduced me to the Sounders. And
I think it was the first match in 23 that marching
to the match, that's whenever I fell in love
with the Sounders. And really, it was less about
soccer. And I think growing up, we called it
recreational running. But it was really the supporters
community that got me attracted. I just fell
in love with the atmosphere. It was cool being
around people that I share so many other interests
in because Sounders fans are so diverse, and
I just really enjoyed it. So that's what got
me into the Sounders. That and the players. There's
no way you can watch these guys and not love
them, right? Yeah, totally. You want to root
for every single one. Yeah, and I'll say – I
think World Cup, I'm not sure if I've mentioned,
I'm sure I've mentioned it in the podcast in
some capacity. I don't know to what degree. World
Cup, definitely. I played soccer growing up,
so I always play, but what really transformed
me into a huge soccer fan was the 94 World Cup
in the United States. which I did not attend,
but I was at fat camp in San Diego at the time.
And that, and then I would sneak off and instead
of exercising, I would watch world cup with the
people who worked at the university. And so that
was my soccer fandom going from, Oh, you know,
I play sometimes to like, Oh no, this is epic.
Yeah. I actually tried to play last summer and
pull my hamstring. Uh, you know, and, and I,
I felt like it was karma just for all the, all
the crap I was talking about De La Vega being
hurt. And then here I am, I go out there one
time and humble myself. So, Hey, just got to
take it easy. I know we talked about it in the
podcast, but that, that ECS pub league is fun.
And, and, uh, I've got, I've gotten so much good
exercise from just running around on a field
now without, uh, too many injuries. Yeah, I should
have, I should have stepped it up, but no, I'm,
um, you know, I just, I just didn't. Well, let's
get into some Sounders talk then. I know you
are on a time limit here because you have real
life duties that don't include talking Sounders.
So we'll get you going here. But we just had
a match against Colorado, which was a very interesting
match. I know I was not on the most recent episode
of the podcast, so this is kind of popping into
that episode. Colorado won, Seattle won in a
match where Colorado actually scored another
goal, a goal which I think if they hadn't called
the foul would have stood, but because they called
the foul, didn't. Pretty soft foul, but I'll
take it. What were your takeaways from that match
and how you thought the Sounders played and what
they could learn from that? I thought the Sounders
deserved to lose, and we're really lucky to not
lose. You know, it was a soft foul, but the Colorado's
players should have been sent off with a second
yellow at the same time, right? So it all balances
out, but I thought there were some other looks
on goal early that what rolled on had that clearance
there at the goal that if it wasn't for him being
at the right place at the right time, the Sounders
are down early. I thought Moose looked good again.
And that's my big takeaway going forward. I think
set pieces, some of the stuff can be a little
bit fluky. With that, the guys jumped instead
of going on their tiptoes like Brian wanted them
to. So that's not huge there. But my big takeaway
is I think Moose looked good. And I'm feeling
a little bit better with Moose being up there,
knowing that Morris is going to be out. more
weeks. Yeah, six to eight weeks. So yeah, that's
a big blow coming out of that. And Jesus potentially
could be. Yeah, he's got that strain too. And
the more he plays in that retracted 10 position,
the better he looks. Yeah, absolutely. Do you
think there's anything the Sounders can learn
from that game? Or do you think, I mean, I feel
like playing at altitude and just... The sloppiness
that isn't normal for the Sounders maybe was
unique to that game. Yeah, it was one of those
games where you could tell by the second half
that they looked pretty gassed. Musla, honestly,
he looked disappointed to be taken off, and who
knows how that would have turned out if he'd
have stayed on. Isn't that crazy to say? Yeah.
I feel like in the opposite world, but yeah.
Usually you're not taking someone off who scored
a goal in the first half. If it weren't Jordan,
I think if it were any other player, weren't
Jordan Morris, that wouldn't have happened. Yeah.
You take away the halftime and he's taken off
30 seconds after he scored a goal. Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. That's wild. So what do you think then as
we move into the upcoming match this weekend
with RSL? Excuse me, I said RSL. I don't know
why I said that. St. Louis, a different STL.
What do you think of the Sounders coming in?
It's a home match, but no Jordan Morris. Questionable
whether Jesus will be there. How should they
line up and how are they going to play? So I'm
pretty sure I'm the leader in our prediction
game so far. Yeah, you're killing it. So far
ahead of everyone. You know everything. Are you
trying to get tips? Like, are you trying to copy
off of me right now? Is that what this is? Yes,
yes. Because I am way down the list. I've not
decided yet. I don't decide to the last minute.
I'm looking at, I'm thinking either we're going
to get a 1 -1 draw or a 1 -0. but Moose is going
to score the goal again. He's going to go four.
We're going to have four games in a row. If I
can throw out there a hot take, get some of my
hyperbole going, Moose is going to have the best
career of his year. He's going to have the best
year of his career this year, and he's going
to do it by the end of May. He's going to score
more goals than he's ever scored. by the end
of May. I was looking at it before our call.
He scored five goals, was the most. He's done
that twice. He's going to break five by the end
of May. If not, go ahead. I'm sorry. Oh yeah.
With Jordan out, that's a real possibility. Yeah.
And if he doesn't, then the Sounders are in a
world of hurt. Yeah. Yeah. Or they've signed,
they've somehow signed a U22 -9 that has had
immediate impact. You know, fun things happen,
but that's... I don't think that's likely. Yeah,
it seems unlikely to me as well. You don't want
to put that kind of pressure. I mean, look at
how long it took Pedro de la Vega to kind of
balance moving to a new country and, well, and
Chu before him and a lot of the young players
we sign. I mean, it's not just about learning
to play with your teammates. You're moving to
a whole new culture. Yeah, I mean, look at Jesus
taking a little bit of time to get. uh into this
game and you know he came from the mls and came
from dallas so it's you know it soccer is a unique
sport and i think as a new fan it's taking me
a little bit of time to learn that that you know
this isn't playing left guard for your football
team it's this is a little bit more nuanced soccer
is a very nuanced sport so um which which makes
all the hot takes a little bit harder to harder
to do right with with the nuance in the sport
Yeah, they're not Keystone Light drinkers. They're
drinking something a little fancier. Yeah. I
like that new guard for the Seahawks. I'm ready
to see him. Oh, I love that. In his interview,
he's like, hey, what are you doing? Yeah, I'm
drinking some Keystone. Yeah. Good for him. Amazing.
So, yeah. Anything else you want to hit before
you get out of here? Well, you said RSL in the
text you sent me and then here. And I just got
one point on RSL. Because we have RSL coming
up in a few matches. Yeah. And I can't wait to
– I can't wait, especially after just as poor
as we looked against them. But here, I got to
pull it up. When's RSL coming up? Well, I think
we got them. It's a little while before we play
RSL again. Yeah, because we have all the road
games, and then we have to play San Diego again.
So anyways, looking at the RSL, just thank goodness
we're not RSL. They bring in Johnny Russell.
I mean, that was my nightmare, was for Russell
to come in and play for us. That seemed like
maybe the route they were going to go before
they found Ryan Kent. Yeah. I was a little worried.
I mean, Johnny Russell had his day, but it's
not now. Yeah. And so as much flack as the Sounder
community gives Craig Weibel, it's so unfair
because he's cooking with the ingredients that
he has. And Ryan Kent, I think it's got Sounder
Nation excited. The last home game, it sounded
like folks were. pretty happy to see him trot
out on the field so i look forward to seeing
him more yeah i mean even in the limit you didn't
see it as much in this last game just because
i think he was forced to play a little differently
but in the limited minutes we saw at home there
was some danger there which is very exciting
yeah there's a there's definitely a scenario
where you got ken on the left pdlv on the right
and you got jesus feeding the ball from that
uh um false nine position where that could be
that could be a lot of fun to watch right yeah
i think so i mean i that makes it feel like that
lafc game or the uh nashville game to me is the
kind of ball movement we would end up seeing
with that yeah and so we got we got some more
of that coming up even with morris out we we
have some more we're not going to win them all
um but uh we're going to win some here in this
this next six weeks Excited. I'm excited for
that. So where can they find you on the internet?
They just, should they just Google Dan the bastard
or you, you on any of the other social media?
The only one I'm on is blue sky. So yeah, I think
it was like November 8th. I deleted my Twitter
account and, and that's haven't looked back.
So blue sky, Dan the bastard. I talk a little
bit more politics on there. So if you want to,
you know, get my terrible political takes, you
can come over there and see. Yep. That's what
I always have to say too. If you came for the
sports, be ready. To me, they're somewhat intertwined,
but to most people, they are not. Yep. You're
going to be offended. Awesome. So go check out
Dan the Bastard there. And I'm really excited
we're doing this segment and I'll be excited
to have you moving forward as well and make this
a regular part of what we do. No, I enjoyed chatting
with you today. It was a lot of fun and even
more so. I'm just... uh very happy to be able
to support uh scuttlebutt it is um it's it's
my go -to pod i feel like i'm i feel like i'm
part of the friend group group even though i'm
not because i listen to you you know once or
twice a week going to work but uh so it's really
cool to chat with you thanks thanks for this
i mean i feel that being able to interact with
everyone on discord like it's bigger than just
us talking at you all like y 'all are part of
the community for sure and we're all friends
so and we see i mean that's the thing if you're
at a game if you're at a game and you see us
say hi everyone was hanging out last match i
wasn't there obviously because i wasn't feeling
well but there was like four or five different
people hanging out right so yeah it was a blast
had a lot of fun yeah totally cool so thank you
so much appreciate you so much and uh Looking
forward to doing more of this. Thanks, dude.
Have a good one. You can follow the Sounders
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see you at Lumen and go Sounders. Alexa, who's
the best MLS team of all time? The Seattle Sounders
are both unequivocally and inexorably the best
MLS team of all time.