He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the point
I can't say is CHEAT! 117 of Sounders Scuttlebutt.
I'm your host Aaron Lingley and as always I'm
joined by your Alliance Council Secretary Cameron
Collins and your Alliance Council and just soccer
community extraordinaire Nicholas Biela. Hey,
how you doing? I'm ready for beer. You know what,
let's do it. I've been thirsty. Wow, Cameron
wasted no time. That one's perfect. All right.
You got your Ronye West. I do. I have local to
San Diego. Oh, stone. Yeah. It's delicious. Delicious
IPA. Did you hear that? Remember, we can't call
it Ronye West anymore because of the new, I mean,
there's lots of reasons, but after the new Kanye
single, we're just not, he doesn't exist as far
as we know. I don't even, I don't even know what
he's doing. Oh my gosh. Vitamin R. Yeah, I'll
type the name of it in the chat, and then that'll
be the end of that. We won't even discuss it
on the show. Have you ever had the Stone sell
-by or drink -by, where it's an IPA series where
they put the date that it needs to be consumed
by on the bottle? Anyway, I haven't had it in
probably about a decade at this point, but it's
kind of like their version of a fresh hop. Probably
not good anymore. Okay. Yeah. The name of the
song. Yeah. You know what? Okay. So little side
note, I lost all respect for Kanye in 2007. I
was at Bonnaroo and he was doing his, he was
doing his up all night. I guess no 2008 Bonnaroo
2008. He was doing his all night tour. And he
was performing. Pearl Jam went on and did a three
hour set. Absolutely crushed it. They were amazing.
But Kanye had a had a big issue with, you know,
the fact that he was being upstaged by Pearl
Jam. So he refused to go on. He was supposed
to go on at like, you know, 11 o 'clock at night.
He eventually came on at five in the morning,
making everyone wait for him. And just completely
lost all respect. I was like, okay, I'll check
out a little bit of this set. You know, that's
the cool thing about a festival is, you know,
you get to check out some music that you normally
wouldn't necessarily pay to go see. And eventually
I went to the late night's tent to go see Ghostland
Observatory, which was amazing. And I was texting
my brother like, hey, did Kanye go on yet? He's
like, no, we're still waiting. Watched the entire
Ghostland set. checked out another band after
that, and then I walked over to kind of catch
the end of Kanye's set, and he hadn't even started
yet. It was like, wow, just absolute... Yeah,
so that was it for me, so I don't know really
what he's been doing since 2008. Yeah. No, he's
put out some good songs since then, but he also
is a Nazi, so we can write him off completely.
Oh, geez. I just saw the next message. I'm just
going to close our chat, and we're not going
to talk about Kanye or his new song anymore.
Yeah. We should talk some soccer. I mean, obviously,
we're coming on. No, no, we got more. We got
more. More scuttlebutt. That's not that. Before
we get there. Duh, Bears. Yeah, unfortunately,
George Wendt has passed away. Ah, Norm. I know.
Such a bummer. I think people remember him from
Cheers, but he did so much more. He was in his
mid -70s, I believe. 76. 76. And I didn't realize
this until today that he's Jason Sudeikis' uncle.
Oh. Oh, I didn't know that. His sister is Catherine
Sudeikis, and that's Jason's mom. Well, you know
what's really crazy about the 80s and sitcom
TV is you look at... norm george went as norm
in in cheers and uh you realize he was in his
30s during those portrayals and he looks like
which is crazy which like i'm i'm 44 and i feel
like i look much younger than basically the entire
cast of cheers minus woody harrelson and they
were all much much younger than me and yeah and
i'm like what happened and i That's how people
look back then. It's crazy. 20 -year -olds from
the 70s. Norm Peterson was in 275 episodes of
Cheers. He also appeared in the spinoff series
The Tortellis, in an episode of Wings, and an
episode of Frasier. I think I read a study just
this week where it was something like in 1995
or so, 27 % of high school seniors were regular
cigarette smokers. And today it's like 0 .7.
Not 7%, like 0 .7. Vaping. Well, that's a good
question. But I wonder how much that has to do
with people looking younger, longer. Is the lack
of cigarettes. Because you're smoking rat poison.
Yeah. And it's RIP George. He was in Max. He
was in Taxi. He was in Alice. He was in St. Elsewhere.
He was in an episode of Twilight Zone. He was
on SNL twice as a host. Like, of course, Tales
from the Crypt episode that was classic. So well
-known, well -beloved actor. It's a bummer that
he passed away. But like we said, it's going
to keep happening. And the Sporting Kansas City
player. We'll keep happy. Yeah. This morning,
Kansas City, former SKC player died after a sickness,
which believed probably cancer, but he'd been
playing over in Maccabee, Al, I forget the name
of the team right now, but in Israel. And he
passed away after a couple weeks of a battle
of something in the hospital. So very young,
born in 94. So rough, rough thing. Shout out
to all our SKC friends who are mourning the loss
of one of their former players. Yeah, we should
talk some positivity. I think it's only been
seven minutes. Like how Messi's negotiations
with Miami are falling apart because he's so
upset over how they're playing? Sure, let's talk
about that. I mean, or we can talk about the
news that came out today. Oh, go ahead. No, what's
that? What's that news? Cristiano Ronaldo. is
in talks with a brazilian club to play for club
world cup um the the word is the coach from botafogo
who are the sounders first appoint opponent um
stated uh he he had been asked about the reports
and he did not deny that the team was his um
but yeah so thank you uh anyways i don't particularly
care to see that guy he's not even he's not even
in my top 10 players of all time he's kind of
a scrub he's overrated well i mean one i didn't
know if he was even allowed to be in the united
states without getting arrested uh but i don't
think so he's never been he's never been convicted
of anything no but i believe there were charges
pending uh if he was But that might have also
been resolved. I haven't really kept up on it.
At the moment, you could probably get arrested
for anything. Yeah, I mean, they're arresting
people with legal green cards at this point that
are in bans. Yeah, unfortunately, a Filipino
-American with a green card here in Washington
got taken by ICE. has been detained. His family's
trying to get him back, and it's just ridiculous
right now, but I don't really want to get into
that side of the scuttlebutt. What would you
think about Ronaldo signing with Botafogo in
his first match with them being against the Sounders
in the Club World Cup? I mean, I think that guarantees
we will not advance out of this. the group stage.
I thought he was a scrub. No, he's a scrub compared
to the top 10 all time. He's overrated in the
same way that Dwight from The Office is overrated.
Yeah, he's a funny character, but he's not the
best in television history. That's hogwash. Wow.
You're just coming in hot, just slandering Pacific
Northwest Rainn Wilson. Rainn Wilson, he's better
in other shows. I loved him in his cop show where
he was the weird Crime -solving dude. I forgot
it was called, but I loved that show. Wasn't
he one of the aliens in Galaxy Quest? I guess
he was. Yes. Fantastic. I don't think he spoke
English. I don't think so. He was in the car
initially, but what a great film that is. Yeah.
Galaxy Quest is top ten. I could watch that forever.
Is there air? You don't know. He holds his breath
like he's going to do it. No, it's untouchable.
He don't touch that one. That's why it didn't
get remade because they refused. They wanted
it to be like a... If you did a series that was
within the world, it would have worked out, but
they wanted it to be like the same people and
they were like, no. Everyone was cast perfectly
for that, for every role. There's a fantastic
documentary. called Never Surrender about Galaxy
Quest. I highly recommend checking it out. Oh,
yeah. I think I've seen it. Very, very good.
Yeah. I think that's on Amazon Prime. And one
more bit of scuttlebutt here. I don't know how
much more you guys have, but I do want to mention,
because I mentioned this later in this episode,
but I'm not sure if you all saw this. I mentioned
it in my conversation with Alex, I believe. But
it's that if you listen to this on... Wednesday
the 21st before 5 .30 p .m., then you can go
see Jesus Ferreira over in Woodinville. Correct.
Soccer West. For all those details, keep listening
to this episode. It's not called that anymore.
It's called something else. It's like post -soccer
or something. Okay. Soccer post. But, yeah. Cool.
Sure wish he'd score. He's been... Pretty much
I've been banking on his first goal coming on
all my predictions. It's been like three goals.
I've been going over 2 .5. And I've always been
putting Jesus most of the time. Because I'm just
trying to will that first goal. Hopefully that'll
happen. We definitely need some more goals. One
goal a game is not enough. We're scoring goals.
Nope, nope, nope. We'll get there. We'll get
there, fellas. So what else should we talk about?
What you got? Any other scuttlebutt there, Nicholas?
Not right now. We got our Discord. Anything in
there? Sounders news. Nothing. I mean, Sounders
question from Cedar. Nothing huge. I know that
tonight was the Canadian championship in Vancouver.
played against I can't even remember the name
of the team of some team I've never heard of
so they must be from the CPO they drew I'm guessing
they drew with a late goal against Valor FC 2
-2 draw in their quarterfinal series and then
Montreal actually lost 1 -0 to Forge FC in their
leg so it's a Interesting little take there where
the MLS teams maybe weren't taking it seriously
enough, and it might come back to bite them.
Well, the Valor game was in Winnipeg, so it was
at their home. So 2 -2 on the road. I don't know
if the Wiggles count in Canadian Championship,
but then the Forge. Montreal game was also in
Hamilton, so that was a road game for Montreal
as well. But Montreal has been horrible all season
long. And that Valor Stadium holds 33 ,000 people,
so it's no joke. It's owned by the Blue Bombers.
Oh, the CFL team? Canadian Football League team,
yeah. With that in mind, they are in extra time
in San Jose, the U .S. Open Cup, Portland, San
Jose, 0 -0. Ooh. Open Cup today? Yeah, Open Cup,
round of 16. Chicago beat New England 3 -1. So
Chicago has advanced in the Open Cup. And so,
you know. San Jose is 26 shots on goal, including
seven on target and 60 % of possession, and they
have not been able to score. 12 corners to two,
and it's at home. Well, at least they're going
for it. They're attacking. Tomorrow, Red Bulls,
Dallas, Orlando, Nashville, D .C., Charlotte,
and Philly, Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Pittsburgh
Riverhounds. Yep. I remember we were talking
about USL a couple of years ago. It's just like,
I think the USL teams have had the coolest names.
Yeah. Well, minor league, I would extend that
to minor league sports. Minor league sports.
That's true. That's true. And our next opponent,
FC Dallas, they actually play tomorrow in the
Open Cup as well. So we'll see what kind of...
Yeah, it's the Red Bulls. Yeah. So they might...
I'm assuming they'll play their starters in that
match since it's against an MLS team. I don't
know. In the round of 16, you're still usually
seeing a mix. Think about those. It's really
not until you get to the final eight that you
start seeing a lot more starters. But... I don't
know. This game's also on the road in New Jersey,
so it'll be interesting to see what Dallas brings
to the table there. Absolutely. Anyhow, want
to start talking about this weekend? I just like
to play in midweek. Want to start talking about
this week? Speaking of midweek, we had three
games in seven days, all on the road. We talked
about it in our last episode where we thought
a good result would be a win -loss and a draw,
and that's exactly what we got. Not the order
I wanted them, but it's still a good result.
This was, I think, my order. I think I said we're
going to draw against Houston. I think this was
the order I expected. This was not what I wanted.
Correct. If we had our ideal, it would have been
reversed just because of the standings. Yeah.
But, I mean, four points out of a three -game
road trip, I don't think I have a reason to complain
about that. Yeah. No. That's solid. I mean, I
think... the lefc game was very frustrating but
i think it it taught us a few things which we'll
talk about the most frustrating thing though
from it was that we recorded an entire episode
live during it but because of audio technical
difficulties uh that will never surface although
talking to dan the bastard about it he's kind
of happy that it will never come out and also
i was wondering about that because i wasn't available
to join that one um but it was it was fine it
was just it was audio issues i mean i think i
don't know if i'd want to listen i mean but you
are we already know that you are not the target
audience of this podcast but shout out to to
dan the bastard and alex diaz for joining us
on that it was a it was a nice conversation and
it was it was uh helped ease the sting of that
game and made the game more tolerable Yeah. A
lot more fun. San Jose almost scored. That was
my reaction. If you saw me throw my arms. Yeah.
But you also, your camera froze. Oh, it looked
like you just got scared. They're in the 105th
minute. They're now 106th in San Jose. Okay.
Yeah. Four points. I'm, you can't be upset with
it. I think. Yeah. Like you said, the standings,
if it were mix them up a little bit to different
results on different matches, but. It was just
in. Three games in seven days, all on the road,
right? Yep. And now we have three home games
in eight days, I think. A lot of soccer, and
then the Club World Cup is right there. So we've
got a lot of soccer on our horizon. That is correct.
Can be some good times. I couldn't record with
you guys because I was at Disneyland. I know.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about what
you thought? First, did they change it back to
the happiest place on Earth yet? Because they
at one point changed it to where the magic begins,
which is the stupidest, stupidest name. I mean,
what do you mean change it? I was at the park.
I wasn't watching a commercial. But it's written
as you enter. It's the 70th birthday. That's
all. That's like all of the. My mom went there
when it opened. Yeah, really? Yeah, for the opening.
Her dad took her. Oh, cool. My grandma is five
minutes away, so I've been there 16 times probably
in my life. I've been to probably Disney World
that many times. Maybe not that many times. I've
probably been there about eight. Did you go on
the best haunted mansion there is there? That's
the best of all the ones, although the Japanese
one looks pretty cool. The Japanese one is pretty
awesome. I mean, I'm not going to rate the parks
like rides, but I could go on for days about
my opinions because Tower of Terror is one of
my favorite rides and they've changed the one
at California Adventure to be Guardians of the
Galaxy. Oh yeah, that was a long time ago. That
was like 20 years ago they changed it. Definitely
not 20 years ago. Yeah, not 20, but close to.
I mean, it was at least 10 or more, I'm pretty
sure. I wouldn't say about 10. I went on it right
after I proposed. Well, when I originally proposed
to my ex -fiancee, why are you laughing? I'm
thinking about the movie Out Cold, where he's
proposing during the... You're real high. Step
back from your mic a little bit. Where he's proposing
during the shark where Jaws comes out of the...
Yeah, okay. I mean, similar, similar. So originally
I proposed on stage at the show box in front
of a sold out 1200 person show where they called
me on stage and then I called her on stage and
I proposed. But we didn't tell her parents or
our parents because her parents were going through
a nasty divorce at the time. So a few months
later, we couldn't tell them. We didn't tell
them. And so I ended up re -proposing and had
to act it out. She's an actual actress, though,
so she was good. I was not. The Pirates of the
Caribbean ride where they're auctioning off winches
for brides. I turned to her and got on one knee
on the ride and proposed to her. And it didn't
work out, you say? Well, that wasn't because
of that. You never even got married, did you?
I did not. I did not. Well, anyway, I had fun.
Yeah, it's great. I had fun. Gracie, I mean,
I was all... I'm a Disney freak, but I was so
excited for Gracie. Did you go to Star Wars Land?
Oh, yeah. You have to basically get a reservation
for the cantina because it's just... Yeah, I
still have not been to the cantina. It's this
only other place. There's two places in Disneyland
you can drink, and both are kind of like restaurants,
even though the cantina is not really a full
-service meal restaurant, but they do serve your
table. Do they play Jats music there? Since they
renamed it from Jizz to Jats. Well, I mean, sure.
Yes. I didn't know that. Yeah. Originally in
Star Wars, that music was called Jizz music.
Yeah. And now it's Jats. Did you get one of these
Death Star popcorn buckets? I don't. See, I'm
a popcorn bucket guy. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a popcorn
bucket guy, I guess. I am if they're cool. I
have the Dune one that looks like a sex toy right
behind me up here. Yeah, Tokyo Disney had some
really awesome ones. Was that the... Yes, that
was it. It was the worm monster. That's why you
have it. There was that great Wolverine and Deadpool
popcorn bucket that was very inappropriate, but
yeah. Somewhere down here, I also have the Ghostbusters
popcorn bucket. They had several, but the one
I ended up getting was Slimer, which was super
fun. Slimer? Yeah. You don't know who Slimer
is? Ghostbusters was one of the earliest films
I can remember seeing in person. in the theater
yep me too ghostbusters and uh that was 84 i
want to say uh 85 and gremlins and that was 86
but yeah like uh 101 dalmatians the re -release
of that was was another one that was early for
me like that not the re -release the live action
but like the original animated re -release ghostbusters
was 84 oh was it 84 okay yeah I just remember
hiding under a seat and then looking, popping
up at Slimer. But then he was in the cartoons,
and I loved him after that. We should talk some
soccer. I think so. Why not? Why not? With that
said, though, last thing about Ghostbusters is
it holds up and going back 100 degrees, talking
about Galaxy Quest, I wanted to make a mention
of, and now this whole Ghostbusters thing reminded
me. Highly underrated film from the late 90s,
Evolution, which was David Duchovny. And it kind
of had a very big Orlando Jones. I think Julianne
Moore is the girl. Big Ghostbusters vibe to it.
Really, really funny Ivan Reitman film. So I
highly recommend checking that one out if you
haven't seen it. All right, let's get to the
one Scuttlebutt question we have because we forgot
to mention we were recording tonight. And that
is, who on the current squad would you consider
to be a likely candidate for becoming a coach
or manager after they retire from playing? That's
a good question. Aaron, you want to start that
off? I know. Yeah, that's kind of my first thought
as well. Although sometimes amazing players don't
have the ability to coach because they're...
mentality that they have to have to be great
prevents them from being able to teach it to
other people. Yeah, but he's a captain. That's
true. I think Fry could be a coach, perhaps.
I think that's a good one. But honestly, this
is going to sound... Just hearing Chris... Jordan
Moore. Hearing Christian talk about his brother
and his analytical mind, going back to a couple
weeks ago, they were asking, oh, who would be
the best referee on the team? And Christian was
saying, oh, it'd be Alex. He's so analytical.
He knows all the rules. So I wonder if Alex Lowkey
might be like an Andy Rose type of person that'd
be a good coach. Or be a good tactician, yeah.
Yeah, maybe not head coach, but like what Freddy
Juarez does. Yeah. Christian just seems to have
the je ne sais quoi for coach, right? If it was
going to be a player. He's been fighting for
the PR part of it since he was a young player.
He used to go around with Ross when he was our
announcer to events. Fletcher? Yeah. was like
the face of the Sounders, even as a young player.
So he knows the right thing to say at all times.
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. What's really crazy
about the... Nick, did you say yours? I agreed
with Christian, but I'm going to switch it to
Alex just for different reasons. But yeah, you
know, it's crazy to think about with this team.
It's very unusual to have so many players on
a squad. that have so many caps with the team.
But you've got New Who, Christian, Stephen Fry,
all with 200 -plus appearances with the team,
and it's just really, really crazy. Yamar at
this point. Yeah, he's getting up there. San
Jose just had a one -on -one forward on keeper,
and he couldn't score. What's your time clock?
I'm at 111 .24. Cause I think I'm, I think I'm
ahead of you. One 1120. Yeah. I don't know why
you're at how you're at. Okay. Cause I, and I'm
not watching it because you're watching on paramount.
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know why you're hitting
me, but that's why not having cable and having
all the internet services sucks because nothing
is synced anymore. Yeah. Oh, it's all a simulation
anyway, man. That's true. It all costs more too.
You have to buy all the services. They just unplugged
the matrix, man. Let's do it. I actually had
a friend in college who I knew from high school
who got put in a mental institution because he
thought the matrix was real. Let's move on. We've
got about... That did happen. We've got about
seven minutes before our break. You know, I'd
love to shed a little light into the behind the
scenes where before we started, we said to each
other, you know what, let's do the first half
for about 35 minutes. And we spent the first
28 minutes just talking randomness. I love this.
I love it. So that's why we're going to talk
about Portland right now. Once I hit record,
we lose all control. The Sounders, well, also,
you guys talk slow. You talk like this. And I'm
like, because I haven't talked to any real people
today except for a doctor. Because you're just
in the basement all day until we hit record.
Just barrel. We let him out. You're like Iggy
Pop. Just be happy I'm not telling you the Mariners'
story. Yep. So the Sounders tied Portland 1 -1
in a game that I thought was a fantastic first
half and a disappointing second half. What did
you all think about it? I mean, honestly, I was
so exhausted the second half of that game. I
watched. I had my eyes open. Were you running
along with Christian the entire first half? Is
that why you were tired? Well, no, just I hadn't.
Hadn't gotten a lot of sleep this week. And when
the second half ended and the game was over,
I remember kind of looking at myself and thinking,
I couldn't tell you much about what happened
in the second half. I had to rewatch the game.
Just the second half was just this blur that
just existed. I just, yeah, I don't know what
it was about the game, so I had to rewatch it.
I call that a Brian Schmetzer special. That seems
to, in big games, his teams don't show up often,
and that's what I feel like happens, until they
sometimes do late. I don't know. Think about
all the MLS. I thought that was. A lot of those
MLS cups are like not much happening. The first
half was the best half I think we've seen from
the Sounders all season. even though they didn't
score more than one goal i mean i definitely
like the pressure but i i think overall you did
what we had to do we were not necessarily trying
to get a win per se you know i mean yes we're
trying to score but we're also being very cognizant
of shutting down that very potent offense of
theirs and i thought we did a good job of that
I would hope that they weren't not trying to
win. They weren't bunkering. After losing 4 -0.
No, I mean, but when you out -shoot them 13 -4
with 6 -1 on shots on target, you should not
be a tied game. No. That's where I'm at on this.
I actually thought I was fairly entertained.
First half. I was fairly entertained by the match,
yeah. Especially the first half was fantastic.
Mostly because Christian was fantastic. So good.
He was, he was, that was one of the better full
matches I've seen from him. And that's saying
a lot because he's, he's so consistent and, and
just so good at just kind of, but I think that
he's good at everything. He's, he's, he's not
a master at one thing though. Like he's just,
he's just so consistent. And to your point, he
was, he was a foot mobs player in the game. he
was rated as the player of the game so so definitely
passes not just your eye test but but the underlying
numbers as well well i mean that pass from the
defensive third that facing the sideline, one
-touching it. That was one of the better passes
I've seen. Breaking news. San Jose scores in
the 116th minute to take a 1 -0 lead over Portland.
I'm glad it was that. I'd be mad if you had broken
the news that Portland had scored before I had
to be sad about it. Good for you, San Jose. Bad
for you, Bruce Arena. It'll make an interesting
final five minutes. But going back to our game,
yeah, Christian was absolutely dominant. And
I feel like a lot of our, when Christian and
Obed are on, we look really good. And that's
kind of been the trend all season long. And Alex
had some pretty great crosses as well. It's nice
to see that again. Yeah, it's been a while. I
feel like there was a dip in his curlers. We
haven't seen a lot of that. Yeah. He's been looked
really good lately. A couple years ago, he was
just fantastic. He made one of the best in the
league, and it feels like he fell off, so I'm
glad. It was like his breakout year, right? He
came back and really just killed it for a full
season because it was just like, how was he pinpoint?
Well, I wonder how much of that is tactical.
I wonder how much of that was, you know. Schmetzer
loves the cross. But asking him to play out.
I don't think that was tactical at all because
he was still trying to do the cross every game.
He just couldn't get it over. It was like never
get one above waist. Yeah. He just looked. Anyway,
yeah. And I think it was because his brother
was no longer in front of him. And so I think
that really hurt his game. And so I think maybe
that makes a huge difference then. I don't know.
I mean, the cross or just his overall performance?
His overall play. He probably doesn't play the
same way and can't move forward in the same fashion.
So he can be in the right position to make crosses
unless he's doing. overlaps with his brother
because clearly he dropped off as soon as Christian
was out for all those months. You're not wrong.
And I, and we have, everyone's talked about this.
Obviously there's a brotherly connection there,
but I would really hope that his like general
performance doesn't just drop precipitously when
his brother's not playing. Cause I was just stuck
for him. So I think it was less about his brother.
Not, I mean less about. Because it's his brother,
but more about they played together for decades.
And so then when you put a new player there,
they have to figure it out. And whomever was
playing in front of them, they just weren't figuring
it out. Wait, what's that? Do you hear that?
Ooh. Hey, you know what? There are two other
pieces of news that we didn't talk about that
I really wanted to bring up real quick, just
as fresh in my mind. When you were talking about
a couple years ago, it made me think about it.
One, the... league the league failure uh the
wooden spoon leading la galaxy who 14 games into
the season who have still not won a game announced
christ there was like four episodes that we were
talking about how terrible they are um they're
still terrible they they they have set a record
an mls record for the worst start to a season
can you move off your mic a little bit there
you were way over modulating over modulate um
they have re -signed their coach greg vanney
to a contract extension um yep yeah but more
importantly what's the other news the other news
why they're actually turning around uh well the
other thing is that they also announced that
they signed ravi ramanini to head their analytics
department in the Galaxy. Who's that? He was
the Sounders vice president of soccer analytics
and research before he left to get out of the
soccer world a little bit. And I believe he left
after the 2019 season, if I have my... Numbers
correct. But he basically created the template
for clubs, not just in MLS, but in soccer worldwide
to do analytics and research and take data. He
really kind of led the ground on that. He used
to work at Microsoft analyzing large -scale data
sets of user behavior. um just really smart guy
analytics and i'm really happy for him to be
back in soccer really not happy that it's with
the la galaxy i mean the sounders were the worst
team in the mls in july of 2016. so think about
that galaxy are not that far back they can easily
still make the playoffs and make a playoff run
and we know that's how they get hot late they
always do it And San Jose has won to advance
to the quarterfinals of the U .S. Open Cup for
the ninth time in club history and the first
time since 2017. Yeah, don't care about them
now. I'm just glad it's not Portland. Yep, agreed.
Also, if we're talking about teams that we like
to throw a little shade at, Miami, there's a
lot of struggles in Miami. You mentioned earlier
in the show that Messi was not happy. Maybe the
wheels are falling off for a first -time coach,
maybe not doing what he needs to do. I'm very
curious to see how that situation resolves and
plays itself out. How pissed are you if you bought
your exorbitantly priced season tickets after
they stopped being good? Just watching this product
and this vitriol and whatever that's going on.
This was fucking funny. I mean, think it's LA
tradition to be sketchy with season tickets now.
With the LA Sparks, the WNBA team, two weeks
before the season, canceled every single season
ticket and then raised the price. You're saying
no, but every single new sports. That was debunked.
That was debunked. Okay. Well, I haven't seen
any debunking, but I saw it reported in Yahoo
and ESPN and lots of other places. Yeah, that
was debunked. because I was also, uh, trying
to find that out, but, but yeah, like, like the
links, the headlines were there, but you'll notice
that you, you couldn't actually click on the
article. Like they, they, they pulled down the
article. Uh, so I think it was a sporting news
still has it up. Yeah. So, uh, we'll see. Allegedly
we can just go with that. Uh, AXS says it's misinformation.
but that's all they have from that's the latest
I see on it. Yeah. Like they access says they
inadvertently canceled some season tickets that
appear to be purchased fraudulently. So not all
tickets somewhere, but, um, but yeah, so, uh,
that cause cause that headline got me. I feel
like that can't be like that. I mean, you're
just asking for it. teams are not that smart.
No one in their right mind would be green like
that. Last year, Cameron and I went to go to
the... As a matter of fact, I'm wearing my Seattle
Storm sweatshirt right now. Last year, we went
to a Storm game to see Caitlin Clark play. I
had a great time. You went too. All three of
us went. That's right. On my birthday. But what
did we pay for those tickets? We paid like $70
for those tickets, if I feel about right. It
was like $65, something like that, yeah. So I
checked this year. I checked, and they raised
the price to get in the door price for all of
the Indiana games were like $150. So they doubled
that. For the same tickets. Same tickets, same
seats. We were at the very top. We were like
six rows from the top. Well, no, we were in the
lower upper deck because we had that. Anyways.
It's pretty small up there. Now, with that said,
Cameron and I did end up getting tickets to see
Angel Reese this year. And I think we paid, what,
like $35? She's a punk. Yeah. So it's definitely
crazy. After this week. I'm sick of her now.
She's annoying as hell. Hey, I said it last year,
and I'm going to continue to say it until I'm
proved otherwise. It's the WNBA equivalent of
1979 with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Two of
them coming into the game at the same time. Competitors
in college and bringing it into the pros and
just getting eyeballs. And changing. The problem
is Angel Reese is not as good as either of those
players. She's maybe Ricky Pierce. I mean, I'm
just saying. Just saying. But no, it's good for
the game. It's great for the game. You'll have
to remind me when that game is because I think
it's not in my calendar. But I think we have
several months. I've got to collect money from
everyone for that too. But it's August, I think.
Yeah. I think this is a good time to take a break.
Kit Kat time. Yeah. And before we get to a break,
should we get one of our, I was going to say
hooligans, one of our hooligans in here? Not
a bad idea. Our ultras. Yeah. Should we get some
ultra talk going on? Yeah, I think it's their
turn. It's time for Scuttlebutt Ultras. takes
from our Patreon Ultras, sharing their soundest
thoughts straight from the heart. Your voice,
your moment. Hello, this is one of your hosts,
Cameron Collins, and I am here with our third
and final Ultra. Super excited to have you here,
Cedar. How's it going? It's going alright. Thanks
for having me on. Yeah, we're super excited to
have you and to fill out the team. Yeah, totally.
You can join Alex and Dan, and we've got everybody
now, and so it'll be fun. And before we get into
actually talking Sounders, I want to do with
you what I did with the other two when they were
on a few weeks ago for the first time, and that's
to ask you, what got you into soccer in the first
place? It's funny. Growing up, I mostly played
Little League. I'm from Seattle originally. I
live down in the Bay Area now. Growing up in
Washington State, obviously super into the Mariners.
My dad had season tickets to the Sonics. He would
literally take me as a kid when I was a baby
all the way up until they obviously got stolen.
I remember watching the Seahawks as a kid too.
and I played rec soccer for a couple of years
when I was around like 10 or 11 and I remember
you know there being some talk like like oh you
know Seattle has a professional team now but
it never soccer like watching soccer like I pretty
much remember you know the Zidane headbutt in
the world cup and that's it you know like as
a kid it was actually when I was in high school.
I was a junior and I went on a drama trip to
London and we watched a ton of plays. It was
super cool. But one of my classmates' dad had
a friend who was able to get a group of us a
bunch of tickets to go see a Fulham match at
Craven Cottage. And this was in 2014. They were
in the Premier League at the time. I know they
had bounced up and down the past couple of years.
It was really cool. It was my first time watching
a professional soccer match. And I don't remember
much from the game other than we were sitting
right behind the goal when they scored a goal,
which was awesome. But it was even more than
that. It was like the atmosphere, like walking
into the stadium, the songs that they would play
before the match. Like they played Can't Take
My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli. And I was like
on a big Frankie Valli in the Four Seasons kick.
So I was instantly hooked. You know, and then
they played London calling at halftime. And it
was it was a it was a truly like, you know, kind
of eye opening experience. I was like, OK, like
soccer is cool. And then coming back, I like,
you know, I was like, wait, you know, because
I love all my Seattle teams, even though I've
lived in the Bay Area for, you know, about 13
years now, I'm still loyal to all my teams. And
at that time, you know, 2014, 2015, I was like,
hey, wait a minute. I think Seattle has a soccer
team. So we started, me and my dad, we started,
you know, watching whatever games were televised
in our market. But I think it was especially
because they had. you know, they were, they were
fighting for the supporter shield in 2015. So
they were on TV pretty frequently on like FS1,
FS2, whatever it was. So we lucked out in that.
And yeah, I mean, just watching Clint Dempsey,
Oba, it was awesome. And then the, the next season,
obviously that really, what was, what, you know,
kind of made me a fan for life, like going from,
you know, that first half, everything was terrible.
It was so, you know, so. Everything was so down.
Siggy, Siggy gets fired and then Nico comes in
and the rest is history. It was like, after that
I was, I was hooked. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's
kind of how I got into it. And, and yeah, I,
the other thing I wanted to say is, is especially
because I'm, you know, I'm living in the Bay
area and, you know, I don't always get to. see
the Sounders play, you know, either I'll, I'll
go down to San Jose or I've, I've flown up once
or twice to Seattle. You know, the podcast is
a big, it's a big thing for me because it makes
me feel like, Hey, I'm connected. There's a community
here, you know? So it's, it's fun. Well, we're
glad to have you. I mean, I, my experiences are
somewhat similar to you. I mean, I played soccer
as a kid, but I really got into it when I went
to fat camp right before high school in San Diego
during around the time of the world cup. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. And so, and then I lived in Paris
and Paris Saint -Germain. It was before they
got bought out. But the first match I ever went
to was against Bayern Munich and the champions.
Well, it was the precursor to the champions league
and Paris scored a goal. We were second row behind
the goal with no one in front of us. And they
scored the game in gold and like the 81st minute
or something. Wow. Right in front of us. So it
was like, I was already a fan. I'd been to Sounders
games, but it's not the same until you get that
professional atmosphere. Oh, totally. And so
then when we got a team, I was super excited.
And then the first Sounders game, it clearly
was the same feeling that you had when you were
in Europe. You were like, this is the real deal.
Yeah, yeah. So that's really awesome. And yeah,
we're so happy to have you. Why don't we get
into discussing this past weekend's game because
it was a derby match. And so we played against
Portland, of course, and won one draw. What was
your takeaway from the game? My takeaway was
that it's funny, like Portland, they look really...
it's weird i feel like their team is has been
kind of yo -yoing a little bit and right now
they look really good but it's funny like i was
looking on around on the field and like i don't
know i mean i recognize like super rich but like
i was like a lot of these guys i'm like there's
no one i really like strongly dislike maybe crapo
you know but usually like there's always a few
guys on portland where you're like i just where's
the villain guts i know i know i was like Oh
man, they're just like, they're just like a pretty
good team. They're a pretty decent team. But
you know, I thought, I thought we played, we
played super well. Oh my God. We had so many,
so many chances that, you know, I don't know,
man, it was, it was, it was a good game. I'm
glad we didn't lose. You know, it feels like
we could have won if, if one or two of those
chances had gone in, obviously, but. Yeah. A
lot of shots, but just. Couldn't get it in the
goal. I honestly was like a little worried going
into it after midweek at LAFC just because I
know that, you know, we rotated a bunch, but
so did LAFC. And, you know, LAFC handled us just
fine. Again, game state kind of stuff. It was
level and we had some stuff go off the crossbar,
blah, blah, blah. And then once they got, once
they went ahead, it kind of fell apart from there.
You know, I was just thinking to myself, and,
like, I don't know more than Brian and the coaching
staff, but I was thinking, like, is there something
to be said for, like, carrying that kind of,
you know, momentum, especially when you have,
like, you know, you win on the road against Houston.
Yeah, it's short rest. It's a quick turnaround.
But, like, don't you want to, like, I don't know,
not tweak the lineup too much, right? And kind
of, like, you know, really go for another win
because then. what happens in portland yeah you
want to beat portland always but um i would prefer
six points out of those three road games than
four you know even but but on the flip side of
the coin i mean you know not losing to your big
rival and you know getting a hard -fought result
on the road that does that does mean a lot you
know outside of just the sheer number of points
you get it does mean a lot for uh the vibes of
you know playing well against your rival for
the rest of the season so there is something
to be said for that so i don't know but uh yeah
four points out of three games i mean better
than you know i mean what are the galaxy have
they've got like zero zero wins but they did
go tie la or lafc that was another good one that's
good for us yeah that was a good game But yeah,
I mean, I think on the podcast we said, you know,
we'd prefer at least five points, a win and two
draws. But realistically, four points would be
a solid way to come out of it. I think the LAFC
match kind of gives you a sour taste. But, you
know, three points would be like if you win at
home, lose on the road. I mean, tie on the road.
That's three points if you would have just assumed
what you want to do. So coming away with four.
It seems like the Sounders are in a good position
and they clearly left that loss in LAFC behind
them. Yes, definitely. Definitely. Well, and
is there anything up with that, you know, with
JP? Because I know he wasn't even in the 18 for
Portland after playing at LAFC. I haven't heard
anything. That's a good question. Decision or,
you know, probably. I mean, he is one of the
older players, field players on the team. So
that may just be he needs a break. He can't go
out there and run the field as much as, you know,
Obed. That's fair. Or Christian, Jesus. Yeah,
yeah. But, I mean, and you saw Christian and
Obed together, and what a difference that made
in that game. Oh, it's completely different.
I mean, I love JP, obviously. I love Danny Leyva.
But them as a midfield pairing just doesn't –
it doesn't excite me. Not that they played poorly
in LA. It wasn't getting the job done. Now this
weekend at noon on Saturday, noon Pacific time,
if anyone's listening anywhere else in the world,
Sounders are hosting FC Dallas, a team that we're
quite familiar with. What are you thinking heading
into this match? A home match against a Dallas
team that... On paper, looks similar to us, but
I'm not sure if the plays is there. Yeah, I'm
not... I mean, I feel like... I feel like Dallas
should be... Like, where are they in the standings?
But I feel like they should be playing better
than they are, especially because they have...
They're currently 11th, and that is four points
behind us. So they could get... one get point
behind us with the win yeah and and okay okay
so yeah they're they're hanging out right there
but i feel like they should be better with uh
with lucha acasa it really feels like he hasn't
you know found his stride there yet um and they've
got they've got some really exciting players
too like out on the wings they've got uh pitar
musa up top um You know, it's not a bad team,
but, you know, they don't they don't scare me.
And unfortunately, in saying that, you know,
it's like, oh, watch them come up and beat us
or something. But no, I'm feeling good about
it. I think especially after three really tough
games on the road. I mean, Houston. Yeah, they
got the red card. So that changed it. But boy,
Houston, they always just play so physically,
too. I mean, all these three games pose their.
challenges for sure so so we'll see i mean we'll
probably be a little a little tired but um it'll
be good to be back up at home absolutely what
uh i guess we want we beat them one nothing in
dallas last time so that that would give me hope
that we could then do something uh even better
at home yes yeah definitely um yeah that uh That
was definitely a good road win. If I remember
correctly, it should have been like, I don't
know, maybe 2 -0 or 3 -0. But, you know, hey,
I'll take the three points. What are your thoughts
on Steph Fry this season? Because I was listening
to another podcast that kind of covers, you know,
MLS in general, and they were talking about how...
based on the analytics and this was a few weeks
ago so obviously things changed but that Steph
Fry was he was kind of like below average in
terms of his analytics compared to other MLS
goalkeepers and I'm just wondering what your
take is on on his form and the eye test and like
yeah yeah I mean I think I felt like last year
he had lost a step his reaction time wasn't that
good And then he ended up having a phenomenal
year as it went on. And so I'm not sure what
changed there, if he was just, you know, it took
a little while, if he had some knocks or something.
This year, I have felt he's been largely solid.
And I'd be curious what the analytics look at.
You know, his defense has made so many mistakes
that sometimes as a goalie, you're beholden to
what your defense is doing in front of you. And
sure, I mean, especially I think the goal against
Portland, I know the announcers said that he
could have had some better positioning on that.
So that might be an example of one that it could
be different. But largely, I think he's been
fine. I guess I'll put it there. He doesn't seem
like superstar Steph like he has in the past.
But I also don't think he's ready to hand it
off to Andy Thomas. And I don't know what LAFC
tells us. That game where, you know, is that
really what we expect from Andy Thomas? Or, you
know, is it just that he doesn't have the reps
with the people in front of him so they're not
communicating as well? Totally. Yeah, I hear
you on that. I think, yeah, it was interesting
watching that LAFC game and seeing kind of the
differences. And obviously we've seen Thomas
play for a handful of matches now. It was interesting
just seeing how stylistically they're different.
I think he's a little bit shorter. He seems a
little bit quicker, but not as sure -handed.
And I'm sure he's only going to get better the
more he plays. And I'm excited for him to be
the future. But yeah, no, I personally think
that Steph still got it. But it was just interesting
to hear. And I don't have the numbers up with
me or the analytics or what they were saying,
but I was like, I don't know. I don't think he's
been that bad, you know? No. And being, you know,
being slightly below average is, I mean, when
you have a phenomenal defense doesn't matter
really, you know what I mean? Like if the Sounders
defense can play at all, like they did last year,
we'd be fine. Yeah. And yeah, there have been
a few mistakes. I do like. I do like Kim Kihee
coming back. He seems pretty solid. Obviously,
Yamar is pretty solid, but there have been a
few lapses here and there. Do you know of the
timeline for Jackson? He should be pretty close.
I mean, he had two full weeks of training now
since coming back. Okay, cool. Unless he had
a setback, he can play. The question is, who
will he play over? If we've seen Yamar now look
really good against Portland, he's been shaky
at other times, but looked great against Portland,
and if Keehy's really solid back there, it's
going to be hard for him to get in there and
get a spot. But we'll have more time to rotate,
so I would imagine that it... they'll figure
it out we have we have oh yeah it's a good problem
right and especially now that we've seen two
hawkins out there although of course uh arguably
he gave up a goal within the first few minutes
of coming on the field for the first time no
totally totally and that's that's rough that's
a that's a that's a rough uh welcome to the league
i don't know if that was that his debut with
the first team yeah that's a tough uh welcome
to the league kind of moment but hey at least
it was in a game that At that point, we probably
weren't going to win anyway. And, you know, that's
a good moment to learn. So maybe you need to
get out there as soon as possible and start playing
again. Exactly. 100%. Short -term memory when
it comes to all the mistakes. But, yeah, like
you said, it's a good problem to have. I really
do like our roster this year for that reason
because we have had key injuries. to like big
money starting players. And yet, you know, I
mean, look at Danny Masovsky, man. Yeah. Like,
you know, and then signing Kent. That's the other
thing I want to talk about, man. He is so fun
to watch. I mean, obviously everybody's going
to say that, but he really, I watch, I watch
these games with my dad. We watch, you know,
all the Seahawks games together. We'll watch
Mariners games together. And he. he's not, he's
not like a Jersey kind of guy. He's more of like,
well, maybe wear a Sonics ball cap or something
like that. And he even said, he was like, he's
like, I'm probably not going to buy a Sanders
Jersey, but if I did, I think I'd get a Ryan
Kent Jersey. I was like, yeah, yeah. Cause he's
the, he's the real deal, man. I really think
that, you know, obviously I think everybody has
realistic. expectations for Club World Cup and
how we're going to fare against the likes of
PSG, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo. But I think if
our expectations are for us to not embarrass
ourselves, I think that Kent is a big part of
that. I think when he's on and everybody else
kind of wants a piece of the action, he seems
to elevate everybody around him. I'm excited.
Absolutely. So why don't we wrap it up there?
I'm sure earlier in this episode, people will
hear about my broken brain, but it needs a rest.
Yes. Yes. Well, thank you so much for having
me on. I'm so happy to contribute. Obviously,
I love the podcast. We're excited to have you.
Do you want to share any where people can find
you on social media or in the Discord or anything
like that? I am in the Discord. My name is Cedar.
you can find me there. Awesome. We're, we're,
I don't know. It's exciting to have you. I'm
glad that you're part of our community and hopefully
you can come up and go to a game with us one
of these times. Absolutely. I do have tickets
to go see Atletico Madrid on June 19th. So I
will be up there. Yeah. Make sure we all meet
up then. Let's do it. All right. Thanks so much.
Go Sounders. Yeah. Talk to you next episode.
And we are back with another segment with our
ultras. This one, oh, if you don't recognize
the voice, of course, I am one of your hosts,
Cameron. And I'm here right now with Dan the
Bastard. What is up, Dan? It's good to have you
today. Hey, good afternoon. How's everybody doing?
Yeah, it's a nice day, I think, because we didn't
get a loss against Portland. We got a point on
the road. Yeah, I'm really excited for the team
to come back home. Three, do these schedule makers
hate us? I can't think of any other reason that
there would be three road games in a row traveling
to Houston on top of it to start. I mean, how
many miles did they travel this past week? A
lot. A lot. You figure they went Seattle to Houston
to Seattle to L .A. to Seattle and then probably
drove to Portland. Yeah, it's just so much travel.
I think Kent even mentioned it in one of the
other, you know, Seattle based shows I watched
that he was he was tired by the time he got to
the Portland game. And I think it's fair to say
that it showed a little bit. Yeah, they were.
That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, you saw him
not maybe able to take on players one -on -one
like you usually see him do. And if he's fatigued,
that makes sense because that's more travel than
he certainly would ever do in England. Yeah.
And it wasn't one -on -one. To be fair to Ken,
it was more like three -on -one because every
time he got the ball, Portland just mobbed him.
You would hope that... You know, overloading
one player like that would set up opportunities
for other individuals to sneak into the box.
But he just kept trying to drive and that's that's
fine. My overall takeaway is this is fine. Yeah,
I mean, I think and perhaps that's why Christian
was always open in the middle in the first half.
Yeah. Oh, Christian had a oh, Christian had a
great game. He was. if you watch the first 45
minutes of the portland game and you didn't come
away with the problem against la was christian
wasn't on the field then you probably had drank
too much before you started watching the game
yeah i mean it made such a huge difference in
that match did you feel like we should have gotten
away with three points there or was one point
so uh you know i think i have a reputation for
being a little bit more more negative or um you
know just um Looking for, yeah, more negative.
Let's call it hyperbole and negative. My concern
coming out of this game, and since being a Sounders
fan, I've just seen so many games where we control
the possession, we control the shots, and we
still walk away with a draw or a low score. That
was another one. So as somebody that's been following
soccer hardcore for three years, Explain to me,
is this something that's normal across soccer
altogether, or is this something specific to
the Brian Schmetzer Sounders that we'll have
20 shots and one goal? I think it does happen
in other teams too, but it feels pronounced with
the Sounders. It's probably one of those things
where it's like everybody thinks the refs hate
their team. And a reality that's confirmation
bias. And that's probably what we have going
on here. Because, you know, a normal scoreline
in soccer is one, two goals. You get three goals,
you had a good day. But that was my takeaway
is I get tired of seeing shots and nothing happen.
But let me rephrase that. I don't get tired of
it. I get concerned that that's going to become
the big trend again. But overall. I think we
were talking before it started that four or five
points is a good result, something we'd be happy
with. And now we're going to come back home,
which we've been really good at home. I'm going
to be on Whidbey Island for this game, watching
it on my phone while we're at the parade on Coopville,
which is our family tradition. So don't tell
my spouse, but I'm going to be having it on my
phone while we're watching the parade. That's
awesome. Yeah, maybe it's because it's a holiday
weekend, but I don't love the noon start. I know
a lot of fans do, but as someone who has to get
there three and a half, four hours early to set
up and not being a morning person, yeah, I'm
not excited about being at the stadium at nine
o 'clock in the morning. I like the later games
because the end of the game is the end of my
day. By the time the game's over, I feel like
I'm inebriated enough that I don't want to do
anything else. I don't want an adult. I don't
want to go home and cook dinner. I want that
to already be over with. So I do like the nighttime
games myself. So what do you think are some takeaways
we can take from this Portland game heading into
hosting Dallas this weekend? Uh, I think, uh,
one of the takeaways that we can have is that,
um, they now have a week's worth of rest and
they're back home. Um, yeah, they, they did what
they needed to do. It was clear. There has been
some, I've heard some scuttlebutt, if you will,
that, uh, Rothrock was maybe one of the people
that took it more serious than everybody else,
and the team lacked some of the drive during
the game, and I disagree with that. I think everybody
brought it. I think it just shows. I go back
to, remember last year, the 5 -0 win against
Montreal, I believe. Is that right? We beat Montreal
5 -0. Early in the season. Early in the season.
And that was one of the few games that was in
a really rough stretch, and we just dominated
them. And one of the takeaways I had from that
game was Montreal had just got done with a three
-game road trip, and Seattle was its last destination.
It's something unique to MLS with the distance
that they travel, and it really takes them out
of it. And to be able to go in there and have
a 1 -1 draw rationally. I think it's great emotionally.
I'm a little sad because I want to win. Sure.
Yeah, I think if you had told me we were going
to come away with a win, a draw, and a loss,
I mean, we talked about this on the podcast,
that would be a successful trip. Of course, I
wish we would win against teams higher in the
standings, but hey, it is what it is. Portland
wishes they could beat teams higher in the standings
too. Yeah, and it helped that LAFC tied LA Galaxy.
yeah but our loss not as painful the galaxy was
on the scoreboard and what the first eight minutes
yeah yeah they uh but then they were down two
to one and had to come back so uh a galaxy team
that has yet to have a win this season still
but hey they tied lefc wow i uh i wonder how
long i wonder what's what's the line for when
they're going to get their first first win i'm
sure vegas has a line for that right They must
be. It seems like they have lines for everything
these days, but you got to go to the right sports
book to be able to find it. I mean, I think that's
a good question. I pull up the schedule here
real quick. I can give you my quick takeaway
because their next matches are against San Diego,
San Jose, Salt Lake, St. Louis, Colorado, and
then San Jose again. So, I mean, I think they
could probably. potentially san jose because
they're going to be up for it that's that's the
original rivalry match um and maybe salt lake
salt lake hasn't been super stellar or i mean
st louis only has two wins on the season they're
right above them when do we play them uh that
is a great i mean did did the schedule makers
decide to just let uh ricky puke come back you
know like hey this guy's gonna be out for 95
of the year but we're gonna make sure he's filed
for the sounders play august 10th so uh we play
at la galaxy so i think that should be okay he'll
probably be back for september 13th when we host
them which is our that's their oh they won more
road game after that but then they have four
out of five at home uh wow they finish with uh
five out of seven at home so they i mean here's
the thing is la galaxy always turn it around
they may be it may be too late for them to turn
it around for playoffs but hey the sounders a
month after right now the sounders were last
place uh and still found a way to win the mls
cup in 2016 yeah yeah so it's uh it's possible
it's a long season and uh you you just got to
stay balanced in seasons like this there's there's
not a whole lot of reasons to get super out of
whack emotionally for anything in May. Yeah,
but I'll tell you, if we had no wins right now,
the crowd, the fan base would be absolutely apoplectic.
It would be a nightmare right now. Yeah, I would
be sad. You know, I'm a little bit disappointed
deep down that we weren't able to beat Portland.
So yeah, I can only imagine just how beside myself
I would be. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So Dallas
coming in, what are you expecting out of the
game that you'll be watching at the parade? So
last time, so we're going to play in a four back.
It's what I expect. I expect them to have a four
back. I think that we, I'm hoping for a Kent
PDLV start. I don't know if that's too much chaos
on the field for a Brian Schmetzer team at any
one time. Because both of them will – they'll
kind of move out of their position. They will
maybe be out of place and not try back the way
that Brian wants players to and be as disciplined.
But, you know, somebody that's a fan of Loki,
I really enjoy the idea of just having chaos
all over the field. But I expect – I expect a
win against Dallas back at home. How many goals
have we scored the last two games there? Seven?
Seven, yeah. Three and a half per game? Yeah,
so I think we can get two to three and keep them
to zero or one. Now, you've been at the last
two home games, correct? Yes. I won't be at this
one. You won't be at this one. No, and you will
be, right? I will be, and I haven't been at the
last two. So the question is, are we jinxing
it by me going and you not? Yeah, so our option
is to either take a loss or you have to go to
a parade on Whidbey Island. Well, we'll find
out. We'll see how it goes this weekend. This
will be a big test. Yeah, big test for Scuttlebutt.
Yeah, I agree with you. I think we should win,
hopefully, especially since we won 1 -0 in Dallas.
And I think the Sounders probably still feel
a little bit something about the loss at LAFC.
Yeah, I think they'll be ready. They're going
to be back fit. And I think that the narratives
that we had after LFC in Portland, particularly
with Kent, and I think they're going to be all
gone again and the fans are going to be on top
of the world. Absolutely. So anything else you
want to hit before we get out of here for the
day? you know just just maybe go home think about
this uh next time you get a chance to talk to
pro why uh why can't a player on a yellow get
a second yellow against us that's you know yeah
i i don't i don't understand where that's in
the rule books but i guess it is that's awesome
uh where can they find you on the internet yeah
um Pretty much just on the Scuttlebutt Discord.
That's the only thing I'm active on anymore.
Only thing I'm active on anymore. So Dan the
Bastard, come say hi and let's find something
to fight about. Yeah, thanks, Dan. We'll see
you next week. Hey, thanks for having me. This
is one of your hosts, Cameron Collins, and I
am here with another Ultra Segment. With the
one and only Alex Diaz, what's up? Pretty good,
pretty good. Not bad for a Tuesday. Yeah, happy
Tuesday to you. We just came off of a weekend
where the Sounders drew 1 -1 in Portland. Big
rivalry match coming away with four points on
the road trip. How are you feeling coming out
of that road trip right now? we would get a win,
a loss and a tie in that road trip. And it's
essentially what happened. Yeah, I'll take it.
I mean, I think we talk about you want to tie
on the road, right? So three points would have
been acceptable, but four, especially stealing
a couple of points from Timbers there is ideal.
Yeah, especially when it's Seattle -Portland.
It doesn't matter where they are on the table.
Where they're playing at is either here or in
Portland. You just throw the game out the window.
It's just a whole different ballgame. Yeah, it
doesn't matter. I mean, I feel like even the
years where we've been one of the best teams
in the league, Portland can find a way to beat
us. Yeah, they'll find a way to steal points
from us. I've seen that happen, I think, twice
now. Absolutely. So never fun. So 1 -1, what's
your takeaway from that match? So I wasn't able
to watch the game because I was at my friend's
wedding and then I had a soccer tournament too.
And I was watching the game last night and then
our Wi -Fi went out. So I got to watch about
like 60 minutes of it. Okay, you saw the most
important parts. I don't think anything after
that was really... Anything different. In fact,
I think the first half was probably the most
impressive part of the match to me. Yeah, I was
honestly really impressed with how Christian
played. The way he was pinging the ball. Those
long pings. He looked like a quarterback out
there. Do you think not having him against LAFC
was a part of our issues in that game? I think
so. Because when he's in the midfield, I feel
like he's the glue guy of the team. Like his
engine, he just runs up and down the pitch. The
way that he's able to win the ball back by using
his body to get in front of the forward or the
midfielder just to shield them away and then
we gain possession. And we've been gaining possession
high up the field, which has caused us to get
more shots off. The attacks are more faster,
which is different than against LAFC when he
wasn't there. We didn't see him as fluid, as
quick. It was just more like side to side instead
of playing more vertical balls forward. Do you
think there's anything from what you saw? I think
the last 30 minutes or so were more of the same
that we can take away moving forward as we come
back home. I think Kent, we're starting to see
how the players are defending against Kent. They're
double teaming him really early. which is why
he's not been as successful as we first saw,
because now teams around the league are starting
to get a game plan for him. Once they see him
put his head down a dribble, you see the second
defender come right away on the help side. Yeah,
yeah. And it made it, I mean, it made him have
to go, try to go one -on -one against one of
them and couldn't really get through when you
have the second person moving over. I asked,
I think it was Dan this, but do you think that
helped open up Christian, though, as they're
moving players over? Because it seemed like Christian,
especially in the first half, was just wide open
in the middle of the field and can do whatever
he wanted. Yeah, I think it does help because
when essentially you have one player occupying
two to three players, that means that there's
going to be people open on the other side or
there's going to be gaps. And there was a play
that I think Kent was played in behind. and then
he had three defenders around him, and then he
could have taken the shot, but he laid it off
to Wazowski, and he had an okay shot that was
blocked, but it was still good to see him make
something out of nothing, essentially. Yeah.
I mean, I definitely felt like the Sounders were
the better team, but I don't know that the score
was unfair in the end. No, yeah. Portland School.
essentially was that no one picked up the runner
from midfield. He ran from midfield after he
gave the ball off, just basically jogged all
the way into the box and was unmarked for a tap
-in. Yeah. So we come out of Portland, 1 -1 draw,
stole two points on the road against our rivals,
coming home against a Dallas team that we beat.
1 -0 down in Dallas. It's a noon game, though,
so the players are not always used to playing
those early games. What are you predicting is
going to happen this coming Saturday when we
face off against Dallas? I think, what was it,
last year we came back to beat them 3 -2 at home.
So I think it might be a similar game. I think
since it's early and knowing Brian, he's probably
going to start his zoos. Even though I don't
think he should start just given the performances
we've seen. I think we go down early, but then
we claw back to either steal a point or take
all three. Nice. Yeah, that would be great to
get some more points, especially if it's three
at home. By the way, mentioning Jesus, he will
be... If you're listening to this... the day
it comes out before 5 .30 p .m. and are in the
Seattle area, he will be at Soccer Post in Woodinville
at 5 .30 p .m. 17313 140th Avenue Northeast in
Woodinville. I just saw Nico Moreno post that
earlier. So I wanted to get that out there that
you get a chance to go meet Jesus out at Soccer
Post if you're in the area. And to also add to
that. If you bring a pair of usable cleats, you
can get raffle entries. Oh, wow. That's super
cool. I should bring some of my ones that I used
to jam my feet in. I wonder, do they take football
cleats? I still have my football cleats from
high school that I haven't worn since high school.
I'm not entirely sure. It just says usable cleats
from Stephen Fisher on X. But Nico Moreno reposted
it. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Yep. So that'll be fun.
Get a chance to go meet Jesus. From everything
I've heard, he's a pretty great guy. Yeah, I
think he's still trying to settle into Seattle.
It's not as easy as people think. Living in Dallas
his whole life, he bled Dallas, and now he has
to move to a city all the way up in the little
Pacific Northwest. Start. Guns blazing. I didn't
realize his dad was a player. And not only that,
but won MLS MVP one year until we were watching
the broadcast and they talked about it. Yeah,
so it's kind of ironic that now we have Ozaze
de Rosario. His dad was also an MVP in the league.
In fact, they were back -to -back years. Yeah,
and then we have Asus. And they're both attacking
players. That's pretty cool. So anything else
you want to hit before we get out of here for
the day? No, I think we hit everything. It was
a pretty busy week for me. Yeah, busy week. And
as I've been talking about all episode long,
I've been dealing with my concussion. So I'm
not even looking at you right now. I have my
eyes shut while we talk. I'm just listening.
No, I wish you a speedy recovery and hopefully
by Saturday you're feeling better. Yeah, I'm
not looking forward to having to be at the stadium
at 8 .30 in the morning. Stupid noon starts.
Are you coming out for the game? Not this Saturday,
but I'll be there for Wednesday's game. Nice.
That's San Diego, correct? Yeah, San Diego. I'll
be in ECS. Awesome. We've got a run of good games
coming up that we've got to get some points out
of. Where can they find you on the internet?
So they can find me at the Discord at Alex Diaz,
and then they can find me on Instagram at Alex
underscore Diaz 519. Awesome. Thanks a lot, Alex.
We'll talk to you next week. All right. I hope
you have a better time. 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. a month now what will
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you would not hear now we might put out promos
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patreons at least initially now there will be
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Scuttlebutt Podcast over at patreon .com, P -A
-T -R -E -O -N dot C -O -M. Now back to your
regularly scheduled programming. Hey, we're back.
Nicholas, it was your turn, sir. He wasn't looking
at us. Was it my turn? Yeah, I said you should
bring us in. Oh, well, hey, we're back. Tell
them what else they've won. Speaking of what
else they've won, I wanted to kind of give up
the Sounders Scuttlebutt prediction challenge,
the game prediction for the Sounders Portland
game. We had two people. get the most correct.
And those two people are Julie Z and Bernadette.
Bernadette taking the lead. I don't know Julie
Z. Who's that? I do not believe they're on the
Discord, but I do post it on the... The link
got out. No, I post the link to... like someone
sets up a Facebook game thread and I always post
it there and people ask for it there. So I always,
yeah. Um, but Bernie, Bernie, give her some Bernie.
Um, she's not going to let me live that one down,
but Hey, has anyone ever gotten a perfect prediction?
Yes. Oh yeah. Dan, the bastard done it a couple
of times. Yeah. That bastard. You're not wrong.
Not just a clever name. Your kitty sounds like
a crying human. God, Hook. Yeah, he's an old
fart. Rufio. Rufi. Bangarang. Okay, so now we're
on the back half of the game. Anything else you
want to add about that Portland game? How are
you feeling about it overall? I mean, take a
draw on Portland. Yeah, we're 14 games in. We
just got a three -game run. road trip um i think
the the jp news is something we should mention
where he had uh stomach ache or food poisoning
or something which is why he did not travel with
the team that is true i think that was a god
damn you i think that was a huge uh i think i
think we win that game with him for sure yeah
and i don't think he's starting over oh better
christian that and i was just thinking it's like
but they have been playing really well together
so i don't think he's starting Because I still
like Christian and Obed right now. I think that's
the pairing for that formation. But still, I
don't know. We were on the edge of a win on that
one. And there's a couple of frustrating moments.
And honestly, a couple of moments that were frustrating
defensively. But overall, again, yeah. Dude,
I'm going to punch that cat in the face. Hi,
we're the ASPCA. We're here to take away your
gap. So we're about a third of the way. We're
a little over a third of the way through the
season. Yeah, 14 games. 14, right? 14. We're
currently sitting in sixth, but there's just
a lot of, you know, Hey, Nicholas, talk into
your mic. There's just a lot of cluster in that
three through eight spot. I mean, Dallas has
a game in hand on us, and they're only four points
behind us, and they're way down there. So they
win, suddenly they're right there with us. Yeah,
I mean, how are you feeling about our standing
and where we are a little over a third of the
way through the season? Considering where we
started, I think it's pretty good. If you had
told me before the season this is where we would
be, I would be pretty disappointed. But with
the injuries we've had and how mediocre we've
been at times, I am highly impressed with where
we've gotten in the standings at this point.
We are eight points away from Vancouver. Yeah.
Well, Vancouver's on a different level, yeah.
I'm not talking about quality team. I'm just
talking about position on the table. right like
just just rank the team number one is 28 points
we are team number six at 20. and we play them
we played them already once right so we have
one more game against them have we played them
yet we haven't played them no so we have two
games against them that's six points right there
we can steal away yeah so they're catching that's
wishful thinking at this point it's possible
we would have to have a full healthy lineup to
do that Wouldn't it be nice? You're not wrong.
The bastard's walking into the room and he's
just looking at me. He's just like, I'm going
to do it. How does your dog feel about this misfit
cat? God, my 75 -pound black -like German Shepherd
is a little wimp. She just cowers in a corner.
I'm like, it's a 15 -year -old cat. Winnie, just
give it a look. Yeah, I mean, I think the Sounders
overall have been impressive considering what
they've been able to do. I still think they are
missing a forward. I mean, I don't know. I hope
Danny keeps doing it. But even if he, I mean,
I still think they need a Will Bruin style forward.
Late Will Bruin will say they can come off the
bench and score goals who's slightly above Danny
in quality. Will Bruin gets that header. Yeah,
yeah. And I love Danny's doing it and I hope
he continues to do it. I mean, it's, it's been
a real breakthrough. I like that. I wanted to
ask you guys a question actually. Describe this
team right now in like a word. Frustrating. I
think they have the most talent in the league
and they're underperforming the talent, even
with the injuries. This is the deepest, most
talented team in the MLS. I don't know if I'd
call it frustrating. I think just it's more deep.
Deep is the word I would use because that depth
is really bailing us out. For example, last season
at this stage, we were 10th place. We were in
10th place in the conference. um and and you
know but last season we would have i mean maybe
not you the rest of us would have considered
a failure had they not got really hot the last
three weeks of the season and then were hot throughout
the playoffs i mean it was it wasn't the worst
season but it was at one point it felt like it
could have become the worst season and then they
figured it out Credit to Schmitzer and Freddy
Juarez. Mine would be sturdy. I was actually
going to say agile at the last minute just because
we have had the injuries. But when you said we
were in 10th place this time last year and we're
in 6th place now. And the ability to react to
Paul Ariel's injury and get a quality player
like Ryan Kent that quickly, that's where I started
thinking Agile. And I think I'd go with that
one. But Sturdy was more on the point that, yeah,
we're not in the – if he said like what you said,
Cameron, this is where you're at sixth place
right now with 20 points at this point in the
season. You were told that two months ago, three
months ago. You'd be disappointed. But we're
not 10th and we're eight points from first. We've
weathered storms. We're weathering storms. Jordan's
got to come back. There's a huge possibility
that we go from agile to sprinting. I hope so.
I still have not seen from Jordan what I think
we need to see from a DP. So to me, him coming
back is good, but it doesn't mean we're going
to become as good as Vancouver. In my opinion,
if he comes back and plays like a DP, we will
be as good as Vancouver. Does Jesus start scoring?
Does he, does he figure it out? Cause that's
a game changer. If Jesus can get some goals in
or assists, you can get back to assists. Yeah.
We're, we're scoring three goals a game. I mean,
he's leading the team. He's tied for a lead.
Well, here's the crazy thing. He adds goals to
that. Yeah, Jose Ferreira is tied with three
assists with Albert Rusnak and Ryan Kent. Yeah,
but those three assists came in two games, right?
Well, I mean, same for Ryan Kent. But, yeah.
I think Ryan Kent. Substantially less minutes.
Yeah, we need to see more from him, too. I think
he maybe was a little wake -up call. The MLS
is better than he thought they were. He lost
a few one -on -ones. Yeah, but he also created
some good opportunities. But he also created...
He was pulling a Georgie where he was running
at players and then they were stealing the ball.
I think he just... And also, he admitted it.
He was tired. They don't have travel like this
in England. And I can't speak to Turkey because
I don't know anything about the geography of
Turkey. I'm an ignorant American. But... Yeah,
but at the same time, just keep this in mind,
though. This is what you're going to get when
you take on players. If you want a player who's
going to take people on on the dribble, you've
got to be prepared that it's not always going
to work. You're not going to play FIFA on beginner
mode. So I'm okay with that. What that shows
is the difference between LAFC and the other
teams in the league. That's the difference between
playing bottom teams versus top teams. And I
also think when it's three or four times in a
row, it's more about he's probably tired. On
top of also the league kind of figuring you out,
right? Georgie looked fucking unstoppable in
his first few matches. And he's starting to get
figured out a little bit too. He still has a
lot of tricks in his pocket. Because he's physically
so fucking quick. He's like Gumby and Usain Bolt.
But that goes back to why I chose the word depth
in my work. Because... Last year, there were
times where it's like, okay, where are we going
to get any kind of creativity from? Okay, well,
I guess it's Leo Chu trying to do something.
Well, you look at it now. Don't dare. Don't dare.
You look at it now. I don't know where my son
is right now. And you've got opportunities with
Ryan Kent, Georgie, Albert, Paul Rothrock, the
emergence of Paul Rothrock. Jesus Ferreira, Pedro
de la Vega. You have all these different people
who can make a difference. Where last year, if
you're like, okay, well, if Jordan and Albert
aren't doing much, where are we going to get
that creativity? You're like, well, I guess we're
going to rely on Christian to give us a spark
of offense, and that's not his game per se. But
now we have... He is, but not on the level of
what we're potentially seeing here. And so I
think I'm very encouraged by a lot of the way
we play, where even when we're getting a 1 -1
draw against Portland, I like the way we're possessing
the ball. I like the way that we're looking dangerous.
I'm just tired of looking dangerous. That's my
problem is I want more games. Soccer is hard.
Like the two that I missed, the last two that
I missed. Then stop going to games. Then I'm
not there to see them. You know what I mean?
Those games were great at home, and I hope we
repeat it. Did you sneak into the LAFC game and
not tell me you were an hour and a half away
from me? No, I wouldn't have told you. I would
absolutely not go to that game. That's the problem.
It would ruin my trip if I went and the Sounders
lost, so I try not to travel to away games unless
it's drivable. Or I happen to be in the city.
How long have we had a team that puts up 20 shots
and scores one goal? This has been happening
year after year after year after year. We have
the talent now that that doesn't need to be the
case. We can be putting up three goals. you know,
two out of every three games, we're just not
doing it. We did, we had that home stretch. I
want to see them do it more. And if they can
keep doing it, we are going to finish second
in the West. It wasn't where I want us to be.
It wasn't too many episodes ago that I said that
I want a dominating season. Yeah. That is, that
is a team that I want. I want a team that just
dominates like what Vancouver is doing right
now. And it's just, I just want to feel that
I want to sit up there again. and I want to be
insufferable again. I want to go thinking we're
going to win every game. I don't feel that way
anymore. I haven't felt that way for three years.
I feel like we're on the cusp of it right now.
We're close. We're very, very close. Then an
LAFC happens. I know we rotated, but still. I
mean, look at the last six games. In half of
the games, we scored three goals or more. Yeah,
it's good form. And then at least two of those
other three, and maybe all three have been pretty
miserable. Soccer is a difficult sport. Well,
what concerns me is we've had two massive, just
complete brain farts. Yeah, I mean. You don't
want too many of those. One a season is okay,
right? But remember the infamous LA Galaxy refund?
Yeah, I was there. Yeah, LAFC. That LAFC match,
I don't really want to talk about it, but that
was one of the worst matches I've ever watched
by this team. Particularly the end. Yeah, it
was complete shutdown. Fuck it. The funny thing
about that is, especially if you look at that
game, you take away three long through balls
from LA Galaxy. That game is a close game. It's
1 -0. Can I do a thought exercise for you, which
is trying to prove my point here? We know your
point. I prefer a foot massage. Yeah. Well, thank
you. Give me a number 1 through 30. We're blindly
going in. Hi, Katie. Any number? 26. Okay. So
starting with the 26th game. Starting with the
26th game. That's actually my favorite. It happens
to be my favorite number. Sorry. So starting
with the 26th game of the year last year with
the supporter shield and MLS historical making
Miami team last year. So starting with, I'm just
going to give six games in a row to give you
the number of goals they're scoring. Just to
kind of give you like the all -time. record setting
pace versus what we're seeing right now just
give you some context here so uh starting with
august 24th miami scored two goals then four
three two one and one so I'll take a score of
4 -3 -2. We're not doing that. But our last six
were 3 -1 -4 -3 -0 -1. So not terribly off. What
are their shots in those games? Tell me their
shot totals in those games. That's what I want
because they're not shooting 20 shots and only
getting one goal. My frustration is when we dominate
a game and we can still only get one goal. I
think your frustration is with result. And we
are scoring goals. It's just not the goals at
the right time. It's like the Mariners. The Mariners
will win a game 9 -0 and then lose a game 5 -6.
You know what I mean? Save some of those runs
for that other game. I just feel like you're...
I feel like sometimes you're so negative. thinking
on it, that you're not appreciating what's actually
going on in front of us. And right now, I think
we have a very exciting offense. We have an offense
that's really fun to watch and is creating opportunities.
Goals are fun for me, though. Opportunities are
great. And that first half against Portland was
the most fun I've had watching a tie game in
a long, long time. But I want to see some goal
score. We're not... I mean, I wasn't at those
last two games, so they don't exist as far as
I'm concerned in my head. But my argument is
goals don't just materialize. This is the same
thing as what we were talking about at the beginning
of the season with Danny Mussofsky, where I was
arguing that he's putting himself in good positions,
creating great opportunities, and the goals are
going to come. The Sounders, as it is right now,
are scoring goals, and they keep creating great
opportunities. You keep creating opportunities,
defenses are going to break. So stay the course.
Get more time together. Get Jordan healthy. Get
Ryan Kent some more time. And we're going to
be okay. Jesus, once he starts scoring, you know,
things are okay. I think that's the problem.
Can I break your brains for a second? Yeah. Can
I break your brains? Don't look anything up.
Cameron, you go first. What team has the most
goals in the Western Conference so far this season?
Well, the goal leader is from Vancouver, so I'll
say Vancouver. Okay, Nick, go. I'll say San Jose.
It's San Jose at 29. That's not surprising. They're
in eighth place. The Seattle Sounders have 21
goals in sixth place. Vancouver, 24 goals. So
I am now just going to go ahead and jump into
the bath with Nicholas. We are in a terrible
position. We are sturdy. I would like to see
what's our goal in the game, though, because
that is my problem. Yeah, that's not enough.
It should be two. Actually, funny enough, I did
check. That's exactly the same pace as what we
had all season last year. It was 1 .5. Of course,
that was also a really bad first half and a much
better second half of the season. And I don't
think any of us are thinking that we're happy
with where we're at right now. No, but if you
go back, the Colorado game was awful. And then
you had two amazing games on either side of it.
The San Diego game too, before that was awful.
You know, if you just, we're having, we're inconsistent.
We're having one amazing game, one mediocre and
one bad. Except for lately, it's gotten better.
So I want to see. I hope we keep going. I'm just
saying you guys are using a small sample size
of the last few games. That's great. I wasn't
at those games. I wasn't at those games. For
me, I'm looking at the whole season, and we've
got our ass beat quite often. But my sample size
is 42 % of the season. Right. That's fine. 42
%? Six games is 42 % of the season? Six of 14.
Six of 14. We played 14 so far. We haven't played
18. Okay. Still, I mean, to me, I just, okay.
But we got destroyed by LAFC. We should have
beat Portland. We didn't. Without the red card,
is the Houston game the same? The Colorado game
was awful. That Nashville -St. Louis game is
what's good. So this is where we have to go now,
and this is a good transition. I think we've
been on the edge. We need to win the next three
games at home. I don't think we're going to,
but we need to. Just three wins, nine points.
Yep. I want nine points from the next three.
Because if we're going to be as mediocre as we
are on the road, we have to be unstoppable at
home. I'm unstoppable today. By the way, we're
not mediocre on the road. We actually have a
pretty good... Have you been watching the games
we played on the road? Like, they're bad. Outside
of the Houston game where there was a red card,
we have played... I mean, that Colorado game
was one in which we should have lost 2 -1. One
of the worst games I've seen us play. Outplayed
on every front. You know, we did beat Dallas
on the road. We were lucky. Absolutely destroyed.
by San Diego, a San Jose game that was a bit
of a stinker. We lost to St. Louis in St. Louis.
We lost 4 -1 to Cruz Azul. I mean, we lost 2
-0 to Salt Lake in another one of the worst games
I've ever seen from the Sounders. We are terrible.
What is the axiom? I don't know what that word
means. I'm a lawyer. I'm a professor. I have
no idea what the fuck that word means. You win
your games at home. You draw on the road. Okay,
and we've been losing on the road. The Sounders
have gotten nine points in nine games on the
road. That comes out to a draw. Because they
beat a red -carded Houston. You can't have it
both ways. No, absolutely. The point is, if they're
going to win a game, they can lose another game.
You tie those other games. You should be tying
every game on the road. It's not a point total.
You should be tying every single game. If they
tied all nine games on the road, they'd have
how many points? Nine. The same. I understand
that. Okay. But you know what? They're not playing
well. I don't care. I'm not talking about results.
I am talking about they look like shit against
St. Louis. They look like shit against Cruz Azul.
They look like shit against Colorado. Yeah, me
too. That's what I'm talking about. This is not
a team that is ready to make a run for the MLS
Cup. Can they get there? Absolutely. Are they
getting there? Are they getting better? Yes.
But they need to start winning on the road to
make up for the losses they've taken. And it
should also be noted that... It looks like two
different teams. It should also be noted... Over
the course of the season, you need to do better
on the road. That's absolutely correct. And we
are not even 50 % there. So there definitely
needs to be improvement. And we're at a good
position on the table, even at that. I'm saying
we're going to finish second if Jordan Morris
comes back and can actually score goals. I'm
saying if you're not watching the games, if you
don't think we've been shit on the road. And
to your point about winning the games at home,
there are 30 teams in MLS. How many teams have
not lost at home? Probably two. Aaron? You know
what? I will say we're the only ones. I bet Vancouver's
got one. There are two teams that have not lost
a home game. The Sounders and Cincinnati. Yeah.
That's right. That's why they've got to keep
winning at road. If they're going to play mediocre
at home, if they're going to play mediocre on
the road, they've got to win at home. Because
like you said, they have nine points in nine
games on the road. Well, then they have to win
every home game. Because that's the only way
that maps out to win at home and tie on the road.
You're not giving you any chance to lose at home
then. So if they're going to be mediocre on the
road, they have to win at home. Yeah, undefeated
at home is not sustainable. We're going to lose
some, which means we're going to have to balance
on the road. But I don't think we're going to
lose a lot. I think we're going to lose a handful.
I'm not counting FIFA or the Club World Cup because
I think we probably lose all three of those games.
But I mean, the point that I'm making is that
the sky is not falling. We are playing well.
And we're going to be getting better. We don't
have Jackson Reagan, a best 11 or MLS Defender
of the Year finalist. I would be surprised if
he gets a spot back. There'll be rotation, but
I don't think he's now the automatic starter.
And Yamar figured it out, too. He was one of
the best players against Portland. I'm going
to disagree there for one reason. And you were
there in the Alliance Council meeting with me
when they announced, when we were told that Kim
Kihee was being signed. weeks before it was announced
i i squealed i squealed with joy i was really
excited i love kim kihi what did it sound like
it i i i got giddy i got giddy i went i went
up in a falsetto it was you're not wrong it was
something like that um and i did the little you
know the little clapping hands motion yeah um
but With that said, yeah, yeah, pretty much.
That's exactly it. That's exactly what it was.
You were a little lad who liked Kim Ki. I was
a little lad. I love Kim Ki. What I'm getting
at is Jackson Reagan. is the lockdown starter
when he's healthy because of one key reason.
And he can make a line -breaking pass better
than anyone else on this team. And with this
offense, when we've got all these pieces firing,
Jackson Reagan sending that line -breaking pass
to dynamic players like Pedro or Ryan Kent, that
is a difference maker. What if all three of them
were on the back line? Then we're playing five.
I mean, we have to start playing four at the
back. We can't play three anymore. We're just
getting worked with three at the back. I think
that's the difference between LAFC, another big
difference between LAFC and Portland. We played
three at the back, and we got burnt time and
time again by through balls. But also the challenge
was, though, with three in the back, we didn't
have Obed and Christian. We were using JP and
Danny. So that's... Danny can make those passes
just as well as Reagan. I don't know if he was
being stopped from doing that or if he just wasn't
trying to do that because of the way they were
telling him to play. We've seen Danny. He's one
of the most incredible passers on the team when
he gets the chance to get those balls going.
But that's the crazy thing about soccer, though,
is because it's so fluid and so dynamic, because
it's so fluid and dynamic, sometimes when you're
analyzing these things... The balls are fluid
and dynamic? You need to figure out, okay, is
this because of the formation? Is it because
of something the other team's doing? There's
so many variables. It's hard to quantify at times.
If it was easy, everyone would do it. And that's
just not the case. But the eye test for me is
saying that I am enjoying watching this team
a lot more and I have a belief that this team
can score goals. I don't disagree with you. I'm
just tired of believing. I am an atheist. I want
fucking results. Yeah. That's where I'm at. I
can go spend money on the Mariners. The Mariners
going in to today are three games back from the
best team in baseball. Talk about a frustrating
team. You guys knew I went and we haven't even
talked about it, but I put money with going to
a Mariner game. Are you going to the Better Cup?
It's over. I went to it. You went to the Better
Cup. With my Pearl Jam Seattle hat on. I feel
similar about the Mariners as I do about the
Sounders right now. They have moments where they
clearly are the best team in baseball, and then
they have moments when I can't even understand
why they're in the same field with the professional
team. See, this is the curse of being born and
raised a Seattle sports fan is you get that negativity.
And I've somehow gotten out of that growing up
in Buffalo. No. Defeat. I have achieved defeat
from taking away from the jaws of victory so
many times in my life. There is nothing worse
than being a Seattle sports fan. Nothing. At
least Buffalo made it. Buffalo still hasn't won
it, so I think I'd rather be Seattle. What about
being a Maple Leafs fan? I could have told you
it was going to end painfully. I celebrate Leafs
elimination day every year. Not since 1967, and
that can happen again. The thing that makes me
the happiest is now Blue Jays fans get to be
sad. Oh, I mean real Blue Jays fans, not all
the ones from Vancouver who pretend they're Blue
Jays fans and they should be Mariners fans. Fucking
dolts. Also, people don't choose, really, to
live in Buffalo. I left. Hey, I will say this.
Buffalo's known as the city of good neighbors.
Buffalo is a great place to live and be from.
I just... But it's not for me. It's just not
for me. However, if I was going to live in that
area again, if I was going to live in that area
again, I would go back to Toronto and live in
Toronto. I do love Toronto. Toronto is an amazing
city. I love Toronto. People don't realize Toronto
is literally 90 minutes from Seattle or from
Buffalo. Like driving Everett to Tacoma is driving
Buffalo to Toronto. Yeah, when I went to Toronto
and they were like, welcome to the great white
north. And I was like, Seattle's north of you.
Well, that's like don't stop believing when Steve
Perry sings, you know, just a small town born
and raised in South Detroit. Well, South Detroit
is Windsor. South Detroit is Windsor, Ontario.
Detroit, that is true. So it always makes me
laugh every time that song comes on. I kind of
want to add an A after South Detroit. So we're
playing Dallas, speaking of. We are. That's a
great, great segue. Yeah, we're playing Dallas
at home at noon, which I'm very disappointed
about. One, because the players hate playing
day games. Hold on, it's that high noon. And
two, that means I have to be there at 8 .30 in
the morning, and I'm not excited about that.
Well, you're just going to miss the game anyway.
Yeah, perhaps, perhaps. So they're coming in.
They are four points behind us in the standings
with the game in hand. What are we expecting
to see Dallas do in this match against us? Destruction
will occur. You're right. There's no reason for
beating the shit out of them. Well, if we beat
them 1 -0 there, we should beat them by quite
a bit more here. Let's be honest. They do have
a good team. They do have good players on that
team. Our team should be angry. If you're going
to jail. With that in mind, Yeah, I would love
to see them come out into a shell and try and
play that defensive road, going for the win or
going for the draw. That would play into our
hands and us to take that aggressive stance and
just take it to them. We need to shoot from distance
and pass with precision. That's because they
are going to bunker. We're going to have to try
to break them down, which has been... You think
so? They tend to be an offensive team, don't
they? Just in terms of their makeup, not in terms
of they're not scoring outrageous number of goals.
Well, Leo Chu's going to be out, so he's still
injured. But they do have Lucho Acosta. They've
got Peter Moussa. both of them can combine for
some stuff. They got Pedrino. So, you know. I
guess the comment is not so much that it's Dallas.
It's more that we just have a problem breaking
any team that plays defensively down. True. Right?
So I would like to see more shots from distance
that are accurate. We're not even attempting
shots from distance, but that's what kind of
helps kind of break that up. I mean, I think
in that Houston match we saw, something that
works and, and, and maybe this isn't possible
without Reagan because we haven't seen it as
much lately, but it was when the Houston home
match, I should say it's when our center backs
move up into the opponent's half and can kind
of, we can move from the back and yeah. And then
disrupt stuff. Like it, it, it is a different
team and we seem way more dangerous. I think
that's where Nicholas was mentioning. Reagan
being the better option. I don't know if we can
do it without him there, although he should be
back. I mean, he's taken part in practice. Unless
he took an extra knock, I don't see why he wouldn't
be back. With a week off, I would hope to see
him. But, yeah, I mean, Kim Key, he's been playing
great. It's just, I think with this match against
a team that's played midweek with, I think, a
performance that they would hope they would walk
away with a win in Portland. I would hope that
they're kind of a little peeved and they're healthy,
right? Yeah. So that's why I think this should
be domination. We're at home. We haven't lost
at home yet. It's not going to start this weekend.
Yeah. And coming off a three -game road trip,
I think the idea will be to come out swinging
early. and to really be aggressive to start off
and try and get that early lead and really put
it to them early. I hope so. I hope so. That's
what I'd love to see. I am curious to see what
their lineup looks like tomorrow for the Open
Cup game. I think it'll tell us a lot about what
they might do here. Do I do my Muppets thing
now? Yes, yes. We are very curious about what
your Muppet saying is. Perfect way to finish
the show. Yeah, let's be silly. That's my job.
So shout out. And we've mentioned podcasts we
like to listen to from Discord questions before.
And one of them that I like is Shift F1. And
so shout out to them for this idea. Because they
had a listener call in and say, or email in and
say. For an F1 team, what Muppet characters would
be in their roles? Verstappen is Elmo. Terrible
and obnoxious. Is Elmo a Muppet or is Elmo Sesame
Street? Sesame Street is Muppets. But specifically,
think Muppet show. Because I think they're the
more fun characters. You can go with the band.
Floyd Peppa. Janice, you got Gonzo the Great,
you know, we're talking Kermit. So Kermit's got
to be Adrian Hanauer. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
We didn't tell us what. Yeah, you didn't tell
us. I'm so excited. So excited. So I think we
should assign Muppet characters from the Muppet
show. Yeah, like the classic Muppets. Yeah, the
Muppet show theater. Their roles on the Sounders.
Okay. From manager, so Schmetzer, to goalkeeper.
Not assistant coaches or bench players, right?
Let's try to be... I think it would just be a
fun thing to do. So are we going to tell Adrian
Hanauer you're calling him a Muppet? You're a
real Muppet, Adrian. You're a real Muppet. Yes,
that's exactly what I'm doing. And who are you
getting? Okay, so you give us a member of the
Sounders organization and we got to come up with...
Adrian Hanauer and Kermit has to be that, right?
We could just kind of choose it together. I mean,
I would see Kermit as... Yeah, but I think more
of like a team leader. I don't know if I'd put
him there. I might put... Who's the big hat guy
in the band? Dr. Teeth? Yeah, I think Dr. Teeth
is Adrian. Really? I don't know. He just seems
like he'd be in charge. I mean, because when
I think Kermit, I'm thinking that's like a Lamborghini,
right? Well, Kermit literally has to corral all
of these Muppets. No, see, Kermit is the heart
of the Muppets. So for me, Kermit has got to
be... is got to be like christian christian or
steph fry like that that that's that's my kermit
like the heart of the of the of the group i think
it's because for me the owners and the i mean
maybe coach but the owners aren't in my everyday
equation even though like i know them they're
just not so less so less like for like but more
the position so not steph and fry but goalkeeper
who would be the best goalkeeper that was a muppet
Who would be the leader of the team? The best
goalkeeper is probably... The best common...
Dr. Bunsen. For me, it's either Animal or Sweetums.
For who? Goalkeeper. Animal's the center defensive
mid. He's Aussie. He's got to be in the middle.
He's chasing people down. Give me Sweetums. Big
guy. I'm not going to get Big Bird. Sweetums
would be great in goalkeeper as goalkeeper good
size, but I think Miss Piggy actually with her
hi -yah might actually be the better. I think
my dislike of Miss Piggy is too much. Piggy's
a left back. No, she has to be center of attention.
Oh, perfect. She has to be, but isn't really,
and always demanding to be the center of attention.
Nicholas set us up perfectly for that. Wow. I
will tell you who my Brian Schmetzer is, though.
Wait, what's that? Wait, one more time? Well,
I was saying Gonzo would be striker. Okay. I
think Schmetzer's Beaker. No, no. Schmetzer's
Scooter. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a good one. Schmetzer's
totally Scooter. But again, it's not like for
like. I would just say we have to build a soccer
team out of Muppets. Okay, so we're switching
the rules. I mean, Rizzo the Rat is Rothrock.
What a wily guy. So who do you want up top? You
want animal or who do you want up top? Gonzo,
you said? I was thinking Gonzo as a striker.
Yeah. Are we having just one? Because I feel
like Beaker would be a good striker too. Just
kind of chaotic, always moving around, you know,
just kind of. And target striker with that fucking
head. Yeah, okay. So who would be good midfielders?
Well, defensive midfielder, I think you got it
right with Animal. I think you got it right.
Just kind of a destroyer there. But then, like,
who's your metronome? Who's going to be, you
know, really kind of holding it down? Swedish
Chef. Swedish Chef. Why? Why? What's he doing?
Just organization. What about Rolf? Ooh, Rolf.
I like Rolf. I like Rolf and Animal because you
got Animal being the destroyer and Rolf being
the kind of keeping things cool. Rolf is a pianist.
He's a pianist, yeah. He's handsy, though. But
he owns the tavern, too. Keeping time, keeping
time. Oh, Luzeland. Oh, geez. I think Lucille
is a serial killer. I'm actually going to say
our goalie. I'm going to go back to what you
were talking about before. I don't know if we
were sold on the goalie, but Sam Eagle to me
is the goalie. See, I think he would be the manager.
He definitely could be the manager. I just thought
because he's a bird, he could really dive and
get that ball. But he could also be a manager.
Yeah. Originated by Frank Oz. Yeah. Captain Link
Hogthrob. I don't even know who that is. Link
was the handsome captain of the USS Swine Trek,
which was the spaceship in the Pigs in Space
segment of the Muppet Show. He didn't think highly
of Miss Piggy because she was a woman, but she
literally knocked him down a peg or two. I feel
like... Piggy's got to be in the band of three,
though. ECS is Statler and Waldorf. There you
go. That's actually great. And then what would
make Gorilla FC? Oscar the Grouch? Yeah, Oscar
the Grouch, for sure. There you go. Who or what
is Pepe the King Prawn? Pepe. Who? Pepe the King
Prawn? Yeah. That's got to be our right back.
That's our right back. I do know who that is.
Yeah, that's a right back. You know who our stadium
announcer is? Fozzie Bear. Yeah, I can see that.
And what about Bobo the Bear? He was a big bruising
dude, right? He could be a center back. Dr. Teeth
and Bobo the Bear, center back. And Zoot. You
know what? I like Dr. Teeth as a center back.
Hey, man, everything's going to be good. Just
really kind of keeping everyone calm and collected.
Yeah, Dr. Teeth as a center back. Oh, it's got
to be Beauregard. Who the heck was Big Mean Carl?
I think I was too old when Big Mean Carl got
introduced. Oh, yeah, I've never even seen that
character, but he would be a great ball player.
Oh, he's big, too. Yeah, he would be a good center
back as well. He's definitely Chad back there.
I think Janice would be a good midfielder. Just
smooth operator. Yeah. Chill. Do we miss anyone
major? I mean, I think there's lots of other
minor characters, but of the major characters,
I'm trying to see if we... We got Waldorf. Sam
Eagle, Miss Piggy. Beaker. What did Beaker was
again? Target striker? I think Beaker, yeah.
Beaker up top. Yeah. Beaker and Scooter and Gonzo
are the three at the top with a couple on the
bench and one starter. So who is Dr. Benson Honeydew?
Because I also like him for manager, but I said
Sam Eagle. Dr. Benson Honeydew might be the goalkeeper
coach. Or, no, the tactician. Yeah. The tactician,
whatever. Yeah. Who's the Robbie Vanilli? So
who's our goalie then? That's the one we're missing.
We're missing goalie. Did we decide Sweetums
or are we moving on from Sweetums? I don't know
who Sweetums is, so I'm going to go wrong. Sweetums
is the big, big, gigantic. Oh. Google it. That
sounds good. A large organ. org muppet despite
his fearsome appearance he's actually quite friendly
yeah he's nine feet tall yeah yeah yeah he's
he's it uh oh sweetums yeah sweetums looks very
similar to that other monster i was just talking
about i i recognize something sweetums has good
uh range well i mean it's kind of a really big
tall wobbly thing but you know what We'll never
find out. That's Fry. Hey, Fry's got good range.
He did. The greatest goalie save in MLS history
is quite... Hey, I find it really interesting
that what's going to end up number one and number
two on the all -time shutouts list are Nick Raimondo,
Stefan Fry, and neither one has ever won goalkeeper
of the year. And one is a giant and the other
is a tiny little man. Not going to lie, Raimondo
is always one of my favorite non -sounders in
Major League Soccer history. I think Raimondo
is clearly the greatest goalkeeper in all of
his history. There's no question. He was suave
in some of his saves, too. He had some one -handers.
He was... I was just like, did you just... purposely
one hand that he was like dominic hasik in that
he would get in opponents heads and opponents
would change the way they play instead of just
reacting to normal they would overthink things
and that would that would make aaron are you
nodding because you understand hockey talk or
or are you just nodding because because i i mean
i've heard dominic hasik but i didn't even know
he was a goalie to be honest no i was just going
with it man yeah yeah man Can you put it in terms
we can understand? Because I would say like Raimondo
is kind of like Kobe. I was going to say Black
Mamba. You should hate him, but you respect him
because he's so good. But he would get in your
head as well. Yeah. Do you have any non -hockey
or current hockey players? Who is he on the Kraken?
Well, there was this council member in Buffalo
that was very serious. I'm serious. I don't know
hockey that well. Irv Weinstein? You've lived
it forever. We just got a team here. I mean,
I know Sharks and I know Kraken. We got a hockey
team and I left the state. That's how much he
hated hockey. Okay. I think that's kind of our
cue, I think. I think that's our cue. Yep. I
agree. Want to do predictions for Sounders Dallas?
What do you got, Aaron? I'm going to do the same
thing I do on our prediction score in our Discord.
Thanks to you, Nicholas. I'm going to do 3 -0
Sounders and Jesus Ferreira scores. He's got
to start this match, right? He's got to. Yeah,
against his old team, they have to start. Yeah,
he's got to start. Give him every opportunity
to get that fucking goal right now. Like, seriously.
Yeah. So it's happening this week. Aaron's the
next. I'm standing next to Dan the Bastard as
a perfect prediction this week. 3 -0 Sounders,
Ferreira. Boom. Cameron? 1 -1 Ferreira. Ken?
4 -1 Sounders. Could be a fucking party. And
I think starting it all off is going to be Albert
Rusnak. Love it. You're probably right. Nicholas,
you're probably right. I need to be right. Cameron,
boo you. I mean, I can't. I need it proven to
me, and I haven't had it proven to me because
I haven't been at the games. I do want to say.
Good. I like the Rusnak choice. On the broadcast,
when they were talking about the different way
that Rusnak kicked the ball from a normal shot
and yet how much power he can generate was really
fascinating. I'd never heard that breakdown of
his game before. So you don't like Ronaldo, but
Google, there's like a sports science. It was
the ESPN. It was like a British one with Cristiano
Ronaldo. And the way he kicks the ball is the
way they described. uh russnack but it's like
these incredible headers uh ronaldo he can jump
higher than like any human yeah there's that
and in this show they turned the lights off on
a moment like an instant after contact of a corner
and he still got it in dang i mean he's he's
one of the greatest of all time he's just not
hopped in okay just like putting kobe athletically
can we end this we end this right now I'm only
not ending this right now because you got me
Kobe's with the Bruce Lee colors. So yeah, you're
just fucking trying to Nicholas, take us home
to, to Jamesy poo. Hey, where can they find you?
Aaron? I'm in San Diego on our discord as the
scuttlebutt. And yeah, that's it. Cameron? I
can be found at LegalMindedPunk on all social
media. How about you, Nicholas? Come find me
on Instagram at Cascades2C. Would love to say
hi. Would love to say hi. Slide into my DMs.
Slide into my DMs and I'll just say hi. You're
listening to Late Night Scuttlebutt with Nicholas,
Aaron, and Cameron. It's 11 -11. This is the
time to text a woman because she'll be like,
oh, it's meant to be because you texted me at
11 -11. It's one of those magical times. That's
my birthday. So 11 -11, it's all about me, Cameron.
It's all about me. It is. That makes sense why
it's a magical time. Yes. That's why I always
tend to look at the clock at 6 .27pm. I don't
know why, and that's my birthday. Oh! Well, Nicholas
is getting naked. I think James should take it
away. Take it away, James. No, no. 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 at scuttlebuttproductions
.com. Be sure to subscribe to the show for new
episodes following every Sounders FC match. And
don't forget to share your feedback by rating
and reviewing. And you can follow me on Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook at BritVoxus. That's
BritVoxUS. 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 irreparably
the best MLS team of all time.