He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say it's cheating. Hello and welcome to
a special World Cup Club Stuff Cup World Beer
Time. Does that work? Yeah, that's good. Alright.
Special Club World Cup edition of Sounders Scuttlebutt
with Nicholas and Cameron. Aaron is not with
us because A, we're recording late at night and
B, he's got to be up at work at 5am. Yeah, he
would have been really pissed off when we were
like, oh, we'll record at 10 o 'clock, and it's
now 11 o 'clock. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, the
Mariners game ran long because they put up eight
runs, and Wu had a no -hitter into the fifth
inning, I think. Woo! And so that was super fun
tonight. That's where I was. It was a long day
of sports ball for me. Man, it was a fun day
of sports balls. Great to see you at the Club
World Cup game. We're going to talk a little
bit about that. Why don't we start right there,
actually? We'll do some relevant scuttlebutt
today. That's right. We've completed, what, four
days of the Club World Cup now? Yeah, this is
the second match day in Seattle. So today was
the Arawa Red Diamonds against River Plate. So
Japan versus Argentina. Wow. And why don't we
start with this? Well, let's just start with
walking up the north steps and coming up from
there to just kind of scope out everything. And
the first thing we see is we're. in the what
do they call that bar up there um whatever it
is a name now but the one that's under the hawks
nest yeah so the bar under the hawks nest and
that's the river plate section and you've got
all the river fans just really excited i didn't
realize how full it was though until we got to
the other side like i knew there was a lot of
people there but i didn't realize that the entire
section in front of us when we walked up there
was all river plate fans Yeah, it was really
well done, that entire north section. So they're
having a great time, but what catches my eye
is looking across into the Broem end and seeing
the Urara red diamonds showing. That's my first
takeaway. And the first thing I see is a big
banner that says, this is Urara, and they took...
Like a card TIFO where they basically take a
two foot by one foot piece of plastic and they
tape them on every chair in the brome end. So
all you see is red down on that end. And it was
very impressive. I was very, very impressed with
that. Yeah, I mean, it was a... There was 11
,000 people at the game and it felt like 60.
Yeah, I was saying 30 just from recognizing that
supporter sections are always going to sound
a little bit louder. But the energy was great.
I feel like it reminded me a bit of the Champions
League final with Pumas in Seattle. It felt really
good. It just made me happy for soccer. yeah
yeah absolutely and it was just fun it was i
mean we were all how many people ended up in
our little group they're like 15 at one point
it felt like yeah yeah it really did because
i counted it out so it started off with you me
and my daughter roma and then we were texting
people that we knew were at the game and and
and then ran into people that that that knew
us and next thing we know our little pocket we
we went and sat next to the red diamonds uh we
wanted to be in their supporter section or next
to their supporter section and next thing we
know at one point we had 13 people in our pocket
it was just and just a celebration of soccer
we definitely the sickos if you will um and you
got a scarf yeah yeah yeah so i brought a one
of my scarves with a Red Diamonds fan. Lars mentioned
he wasn't able to get anyone from Botafogo to
trade, and I wasn't able to get anyone from River
Plate. So I'm curious if that's a South American
cultural thing, because I didn't see as many
scarves on River Plate fans as I did with Red
Diamonds fans. So just kind of a possibility
there. The game actually very strongly mirrored
the Sounders -Bodafoga game. Yeah, yeah. Other
than the late goal. The third goal, yeah. Yeah,
made it 3 -1. I mean, it was so much fun. And
I just shout out to both groups of fans. Like
when I was leaving, I think you saw the video
I posted. Just walking through the tunnel. Not
the tunnel, but like the... That little pen area
where everyone gets pushed in together, right?
Yeah, right outside the stairs. Yeah, and then
the River Plate fans all singing. And it was
just, the atmosphere was something. I mean, we
have a good atmosphere in Seattle, but usually
it's only one supporter group that's bringing
it, right? You might have another supporter group,
but there's just not enough fans. Like, we've
never had a traveling fan have that many, fan
base have that many fans in the stadium. oh as
far as here in seattle yeah in seattle yeah portland
doesn't bring that many people as as we saw from
those two teams so we've never had that kind
of true battle in seattle oh god i hate that
i put those words together yeah that that i i
will say the only two times the three times i've
seen it mls cup 2019 with toronto fans uh pumas
champions league final and then the chivas game
from a number of years ago i wasn't at that one
yeah and maybe the club america game uh the club
america there weren't there weren't that many
though i mean river plate had the entire north
side plus people all 100 yeah and and anyways
it it got me i was simultaneously excited for
world cup next year yeah and really upset that
fifa has bungled this roll out so badly that
it's doing such a disservice yeah like if if
so the two key points for me were that they when
they put tickets on sale they won overpriced
it but two only sold tickets in not desirable
locations first yeah and so And people were like,
OK, well, I'm going to hold off and I'm going
to wait till, you know, you know, us sickos who
like sitting in the supporter sections. We're
like, great, we'll sit in those sections. Those
are going to be the cheapest tickets anyways.
Not that we had tickets there. I guess we did
have tickets technically in the River Plate section,
unbeknownst to us. But no, it's to everyone else.
Speaking of which, Spaceballs 2 coming to movies.
Okay, so ultimately they bungled that. And as
a matter of fact, Cameron, you and I, we ran
into the head of FIFA in Seattle. And I don't
mean Johnny. I mean the Seattle FIFA office.
Yeah, we ran into him. Super nice. Yeah, and
we were having a really good conversation. And
we talked a little bit about that and talked
a little bit about that ticketing situation.
And Cameron, you had a jersey on that you didn't
bat an eye at. Nope, my free Palestine jersey
on that at halftime, I was asked to turn inside
out by security. So the head of FIFA, nothing.
But security, the alcohol guy, yeah, made me
turn it inside. He said, I agree with it, but
we can't let you have anything political. I wonder
if it had been different, if it would have been
considered political, but that's neither here
nor there for this podcast, I suppose. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, yeah. Which actually brings me
to a funny story from the Botafogi game. Botafogi?
Botafogi. I am at the top of ECS, the bro amend,
before the game, talking with my friends and
talking with colleagues in ECS security and that.
And one of the ECS members has a TIFO, a two
pole that says we are all not here. And a FIFA
lady comes up to me in an Italian accent. English
was not her first language, but she comes up
to me and says, I have a question about that
TIFO over there. And she's clearly badged up.
So, you know, in a suit. I have a question about
that TIFO I need to ask you about. We are all
not here. Is that a political TIFO? And without
missing a beat. No, no, it's because here in
the Brougham section, we normally have all three
of these sections. And today we only have this
one section. So this is a banner for all the
people that couldn't make it today because of
the... because they couldn't get tickets and
so it's our way so that when they're watching
on tv at home they know that we're here supporting
in in their place she's like she's like oh okay
and then she's like texting my answer to to someone
else um i saw the t i saw the two pull up there
for a while so i don't Think they took it down?
No, the one they got upset about and called in
the head of stadium. At the start of the second
half? Yeah, that was the ice, the anti -ice banner.
Yeah. I'd be curious to see what, if anything,
that means. I don't know if you've heard, but
what, if anything, that means for, is it Thursday
when we play again? Yeah, we play Atletico. Well,
to my knowledge, they didn't catch who had the
banner. They were trying to find them. I mean,
the Sounders would obviously know who it was,
but they're not going to cooperate here in that
situation because they don't. How do I put this?
I can speak for former employees who do not like
FIFA and will not work with them unless they're
helping out the supporter group. So I'm assuming
that. How about we say we could speak for former
employees who have gone against FIFA during Champions
League. multiple times so yeah so but we can't
speak for i don't want to speak for current well
not only that but i also don't want to speak
directly for ecs on this one oh yes no of course
i was just wondering if you had heard but it
was an interesting it was an interesting moment
but i have not heard of anything let's let's
talk a little more club world cup but before
we get there we have had mls games this week
which is kind of weird right like uh Portland
tied San Jose 1 -1 in Portland. San Jose had
a red card. St. Louis and LA Galaxy tied 3 -3.
I don't know. LA Galaxy back to their losing
ways. It's not that weird. I mean, not everyone
can be as cool as us and be in the Club World
Cup. Cincinnati beat New England. Columbus beat
Vancouver, doing us a solid. Philly beat Charlotte.
Is there any other games of note? Houston lost
to Montreal. That's huge. San Diego beat Minnesota.
That's pretty great for us. Dallas beat supporting
KC, unfortunately, and Orlando City beat Colorado.
I mean, at the end of this, are we going to have
a few games in hand with the rest of the league?
We should, and it looks like the teams ahead
of us are currently losing outside of, I guess,
Portland Tide, but they're not winning outside
of Dallas, who I assume is now ahead of us in
the standings after that win. But I have not
looked, but I know they were right near us. But
this was a pretty beneficial score overall for
the Sounders not playing. But let's go back to
Club World Cup. I just wanted to touch on that
real quick because we had some exciting games
this evening after our match that we attended
where, of course, we said it was 3 -1 River Plate
with former... Austin FC player, Drew C. Drew
C, yeah, he got it all. But the Mamelody Sundowns
from South Africa beat Ulsan from Korea 1 -0.
Their star player makes $39 ,000 a year. That's
crazy. That's nothing. And interestingly, I saw
a tweet with a picture of the stadium in Orlando
at kickoff, and the person said there were 78
people in the stadium. Yeah, I did see that.
I'm just thrilled that... Okay, so let's talk
about this for a second here. So you know the
three... There are six games here in Seattle.
You know the three that involve the Sounders
are going to be well attended for obvious reasons.
The Botafogo fans were in force and were great
to see. i don't know what to expect from psg
and atletico madrid fans but i suspect given
that they're two of the top 20 teams in the world
that they're going to show up um then looking
at the other three games there are three games
between three teams so uh river play Red Diamonds
and Inter Milan. So those three teams will be
playing permutations against each other over
those other three games. Today was River Plate
and Red Diamonds. Saturday will be Red Diamonds
and Milan and Inter. And then the other game
will be Inter versus River Plate. Yep. Red Diamonds,
their fans are traveling and they're fantastic.
River Plate, I've seen them all over. for the
last week downtown have been traveling and are
great. They were a bunch of River Plate fans
at the Mariners game tonight. I can only imagine
that Inter is going to show up as well. I'm really
thrilled that Seattle fans are getting some really
quality supporters coming out to these games.
i hate doing this because i'm not a fan of fifa
as an organization but the soccer fan in me is
begging you buy a cheap ticket get in the door
come to these games they come to one they are
amazing they it's it's a truly i mean here's
the thing is fifa fifa fifa is a there's no other
option right there's no alternative to fifa this
is what we've got yeah and it's just It's so
exciting to see these fans, see these games.
And to celebrate the sport. Yeah, yeah. The other
games today, of course. Monterey Inter. Yeah,
Monterey Inter tied 1 -1. Fluminesi and Dortmund
tied 0 -0. And then I think the Flamengo game
was last night, right? So Flamengo beat Tunis
2 -0. And LAFC fans. were happy about their result
against Chelsea. Lost 2 -0, but they thought
they were the better team in the second half.
I don't know if I'd say that, but they didn't
look terrible. Hey, I will say this. The Sounders
are the only MLS team to ever score in a Club
World Cup. That's true. Inter -Miami tied Al
-Ali 0 -0, and LAFC lost 2 -0. There hasn't been
any total upsets. Bayern Munich winning 10 -0
over Oakland City is... rough for them but they're
not uh pros they are amateur players so you know
what that is that is almost the equivalent of
pub league all -stars playing the sounders yeah
seriously like uh and and we'll get to that botafogo
seattle sounders match uh next year before we
move on and talk about other things but i do
want to quote this is a quote i saw on twitter
uh it doesn't say where it came from okay so
it might not be true but it is from And it says
it's from Thierry Henry. And he said, I think
that what's going wrong is that there are too
many smaller unheard of teams like Oakland City,
Chelsea, and the Seattle Sounders that no one
is interested in watching. I'm sorry. The shade
is great. Yeah. The Arsenal fan bringing that
up. I mean, because I think the Sounders, I mean,
getting 30 ,000 for a game against Botafogo is
pretty good. I think the next two will be, well,
I think the... PSG match could potentially be
bigger because it's PSG, but it's a Monday at
noon. But it's a Monday at noon. And the other,
is it Thursday at three? Thursday at three. I
mean, the timing, do they, I know in other countries,
people just leave work and go to jobs or leave
their job and go to games. I've done, I lived
in France. I know what that's like. I've been
to weird match times, but I just feel like maybe
FIFA has underestimated a few things like One,
Americans work until 5 p .m. Two, the economy
is fucking terrible right now. But, I mean, they're
also trying to cater to the European market,
the television audience. I get that. But, I mean,
they could have done so much, even just by lowering
ticket prices on the upper decks, to get the
stadiums full. And I think the way they handled
it, like you mentioned, only selling the top
and charging way too much in the beginning. yeah
uh and just it is created in a you know atlanta
got a bunch of people in their stadium so that's
awesome you know people have been showing up
they showed up in miami but it it's just we could
have easily gotten 60 000 in seattle for had
it been handled right yeah had it been handled
right yeah but but also keep this in mind as
well keep in mind that these these start times
uh obviously like we said are catered towards
the european market for for obvious reasons but
also that originally this tournament was supposed
to be entirely on the East Coast. Yeah, that's
true. So these 12 and 3 then would have been
3 and 6, which sound a little bit more reasonable.
It feels like maybe some rescheduling, so we're
always the later window. Well, the Olympics did
that for ice hockey when it was in Vancouver
where they would be like, oh, the U .S. team
always plays at 430. The other teams play at
noon. And anyways, that's not either here nor
there. I think where I'm really, you know, what
I'm really looking forward to is. Again, I just
recommend if you're on the fence, if you haven't
gone to any of these games, come. Here's the
reality. The Club World Cup, it's not going anywhere.
It's going to continue to happen. It just is.
It does make a lot of sense to me. I want a competition
like this to see. Teams from all over the world.
Playing against each other. I want that. Look
at how seriously Botafogo took it. Look at how
seriously. How do you say it? I believe. And
River Plate too. Both Botafogo and River Plate.
When the game ended. All fell to their knees.
And were praising the skies. Let's not sell our
own team short. The Sounders obviously are taking
it seriously. I'm taking it seriously. But it's
not. but they're not a serious contender yes
and so they these other teams are potentially
going could go through and so it's important
to them the teams from brazil are usually they
usually i feel like have one team in the final
i mean yeah that and that's why i'm really really
excited to watch that river plate uh inter milan
game especially if they're intertied 1 -1 today
against was it monterey yeah I mean, that's going
to create a very interesting situation there.
Could it be Monterey and River Plate that go
through now? Anything can happen. It's World
Cup things. Anything can happen. Yeah, so again,
if you're on the fence, go. Get the cheapest
ticket you can get. Take advantage of the fact
that this... has growing pains so you can get
in the door cheap and then just kind of go sit
where you want so if you have a cheap seat in
an area you don't want to sit in there will be
options for you it reminds me a little bit of
the 2015 Women's World Cup where I went to all
nine games in Vancouver it was right on the cusp
of women's soccer really taking off so I got
all nine games and the final For like $250 per
ticket. Like for nine games. What's that? $250
per game per ticket? No, for all nine games total,
including the final. That's not what I paid way
more than that for my one ticket to USA Nigeria.
I mean, not more than $250, but more per game.
Yeah, but I bought the stadium passport. Nice.
And then looking at the next World Cup after
that was France and then Australia. And it's
just the attendance have been going up and up
and up and women's sports has been great. So
I kind of feel like this is that kind of same
thing where you're not going to get another opportunity
like this. And there's been some great matches.
That's the other thing I think is that if you
think this is... just yeah i am i i was so thirsty
i'm sorry do it i've been in the sun all day
yeah that's true me too i uh i'll speak to that
second but i mean boca jr has been fika 22 with
uh i think was there three red cards in there
like it was pretty pretty wild games i mean it's
been some interesting stuff i have seemed to
have developed and i talked to the skin doctor
about this earlier this week uh or yeah last
week, an allergy to the sun that you can't really
see it on the screen here. It started, uh, in
San Jose in April of last year, when I went down
to give them the heritage cup. And ever since
then, whenever it's sunny out, my hands start
to break out in hives. Uh, if I'm out for any
length of time, no matter how much sunscreen
I use, you know, how much, uh, allocane or whatever
solar cane or whatever I put on, uh, the doctor's
just like, yup. you're going to have to deal
with that now. And, uh, interesting. Cause I,
I get the same thing where I'll get like a little
bit of like, like almost like a, like a zit on,
on, on the hand. Yeah. I get them all through
here now. And in my right hand, it's bigger than
on the left, but it's, it's pretty, it's pretty,
uh, I'm very white is what I'm saying. I'm very
Irish. It was Irish night at the Mariners game.
I couldn't get those tickets cause they, they
stopped selling them last night at five, but.
It was Irish night and they're giving away the
Irish jerseys. They were ugly. They were white.
So I'm not mad. I didn't give it away. Yeah,
it wasn't really particularly. Last year was
green. And so that was the good one. I wish I
had that one. Though later this year, think about
during Ichiro's Hall of Fame weekend. uh they're
doing japanese heritage night where it's in ichiro's
number with jet with mariners and kanji across
it it's gonna look and it's in like the city
blue and yellow yeah that's amazing yeah uh so
do that yeah even if it's the game i already
have tickets to i'll just buy one and then go
get the jersey yeah because exactly exactly there
but but yeah i mean those giveaways we've talked
about them before on here the the filipino ones
uh they're they're awesome i have the taiwan
jersey from uh when yes the super hawks went
to the taiwan game oh that's right you were i
met up i'm like so do i and i remember you were
there with me yeah matter of fact i gotta give
i gotta give the ticket to you ran into daniel
at halftime of the Botafogo game. He's the one
who I bought that for. He was in town from Amsterdam
for the Club World Cup. Exactly. So why don't
we take a break here real quick and listen to
our Patreon ad. And when we come back, we will
talk Botafogo versus Seattle Sounders and we'll
get into the mailbag. Yeah, let's do that. Hey
everybody, this is one of your hosts, Cameron
Collins. Now, I know we said this time was time
for a break, but really, it's a time for me to
talk to you about our corporate overlords. And
our corporate overlords are us. That's right.
We would love it if you would head on over to
patreon .com and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast. We will put the link here in the show.
And subscribe. You can subscribe for as little
as $1 .74. Now, what will that get you? Well,
I guarantee you get at least one extra episode
per month. It'll be a cool interview or something
like that that otherwise you would not hear.
Now, we might put out promos or other things
that include that, but the whole episode intact
will only be available for you Patreons, at least
initially. Now, there will be other stuff that
we put in there, but this is where we're starting
at. Why, you ask? Well, we have bills to pay.
And we need to make sure that we can keep this
show going. You would not believe the going rate
for PA announcers. So head on over to Patreon,
go to Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast, and subscribe.
You even get a cool little downloadable membership
that has our logo on it. That's Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast over at patreon .com, P -A -T -R -E -O
-N dot C -O -M. Now back to your regularly scheduled
programming. All right, we're back. Yeah, you
should listen to me. Sign up for a Patreon. Shout
out to our ultras. I let them know earlier tonight
that I think it was your idea, Nicholas, but
I'm going to work with them to come up with a
new... What we're doing is good, and I like to
get their voice on here, but it's wrong, right?
Yeah, we want flow. Mini episodes. Mini episodes,
and if we can get everyone together, cool. If
not, we'll figure it out. and just record and
have some great discussions and not just hit,
you know, oh, what happened in the game? We can
do that. But just the last, they're unaired because
we didn't end up recording because Aaron wasn't
available and then it just didn't work out. But
we had a really great discussion on Club World
Cup and pay for the Sounders. that we did on
our episode, but it didn't really make it, the
ultras didn't get their say. And I know both
Cedar, we talked a little bit about Alex, but
Cedar and I spent quite a bit of time on it.
And then I think Dan and I talked about it for
10 to 15 minutes. So super, super great combo
that just didn't happen, which reminds me, I
totally missed the Alliance Council meeting tonight.
Did you go? We're not going to talk about that.
It was the executive. Oh, my gosh. I was driving
to the Mariners game, and I meant to pop on as
soon as I got there. Yeah. Oops. I will have
to call our glorious president and apologize.
It was a weird day today. Yeah. A weird day.
A lot of soccer. Speaking of soccer, speaking
of fun stuff. We'll hit up the Botafogo Prediction
Challenge to kind of talk about who got some
points. We had four people tied with the most
points this time around. Alex Diaz, super, super,
super subscriber. And we sat with Alex at the
game. Yeah. Bryson. Bryson was there. Bryce Tejefe,
really good guy. Silo Tom. What is his... Paul.
Paul also, who I think was at the game today,
but I didn't run into him. Oh, yeah. So, Paul.
And then some jackass named Cameron. Ooh, yeah.
I think I got the score wrong, but I think I
picked 3 -1 Botafogo. I had the score transposed.
I had 2 -1 Sounders. That would have been nice.
You know, it's... I'm an optimist. So talking
about the game, what's your... Wait, how many
points did we all tie with? Oh, two. Two, okay.
It was a rough one, yeah. Oh, that's right, because
I picked the wrong... I picked JP. I thought
they were going to put JP in against his old
team. I also boosted the over -under to 3 .5
for this game. Yeah. Yep. I did the over, I think.
I don't know. So... Yep. So from the aerial view,
from up above, how do you think... Literally,
I was on the 300 level for the first half. How
did you think the game looked? I felt like in
the first half, until they scored their goal,
we were pretty equal and maybe slightly the better
team. They obviously had better opportunities,
but our XG at the end of that game was pretty
high, if I recall. Very high. 2 .2 to .91. Yeah.
And their goals, neither of them were flukes
because they were both great goals, but absent
a just kind of boneheaded play by Nuhu that gives
him a foul in that position. Usually I feel like
I'm mad at the ref for giving a foul in that
position, but that was clearly Nuhu just losing
his mind. the they knew i mean i think teams
know to get him mad right teams know to get under
his skin uh and it it it gave them a free kick
in a dangerous spot that i think went against
not totally against the run of play but i felt
like maybe it was just because the sounders were
hanging with them it felt like the sounders were
playing better they had more sounders definitely
had more possession at that point well Well,
you could see in the momentum meter, my infamous
momentum medium, Sounders had a lot of momentum
throughout the match. I mean, the second half
was definitely better for Sounders. Absolutely.
Because Botafogo sat back and kind of took on
that pressure and then were lucky to not give
up. Four goals, if we're being honest. How many
goals, right? Because we moved down and sat next
to you, right? How many goals where the ball
was just sitting there wide open in front of
the goal? And if we had just gotten there first,
maybe it goes in. Yeah, it was a little frustrating.
A lot frustrating. It was a lot frustrating.
I mean, you look at it. You finish the whole
game. Botafogo had 12 shots, six on target. We
had 23, five on target. We had possession 60
-40. We had 183 more passes than them. Our pass
accuracy was 87%. There's 82. We only had six
fouls. They had 18 yellow cards each. And then
we had four corners. They had zero. Yeah. I mean,
the, the big thing for me, the big thing for
me is they had eight blocks shots. So they were
there putting themselves in that, that position
really well. The, the big thing for me is when.
the quality gets higher. And we're going to see
this with Atletico Madrid. We're going to see
this with PSG. When these quality of play gets
higher, the differences are going to be found
most in the execution of the key moments. So
set pieces, finishing is going to be key. First
touch. Eager Jesus. Eager Jesus. Eager Jesus.
He's Eager Jesus. I wanted the Sounders to sign
for a year, who now has been sold to Nottingham
Forest. Now, that sale was announced yesterday.
Do we know anything about it? Do we know if he
gets to stay with Botafogo for the rest of the
Club World Cup? Or is he gone now and has to
move? My guess is he gets to stay with them.
They probably would have negotiated that throughout
this, but I do not know for sure. He did have
the game -winning header in the match. Yeah,
but that's the difference. I mean, when you've
got these kind of players that can finish like
that, you're going to run into problems. But
I thought the Sounders played really well as
a collective. This is one of those few moments
where I am going to believe in the idea of a
moral victory. Because realistically, we are
not expected, never were expected to get out
of the group stage. No, I agree. This was the
game we needed three points in if that was ever
going to happen. Without things getting really
weird. Yeah, and I think without Jordan Morris,
there was going to be zero possibility of us
getting through. Because we've talked about it
all season. We're short on forwards that can
score. Danny's doing his spurts, but Danny's
not playing against MLS caliber defenders here.
He's playing also against a defender that was
also sold to... to Nottingham Forest after the
match. So it's tough out there. But we saw –
I think – I thought Rusnak was the best player
in the field for large swaths of that game. People
were upset that he was missing shots. I don't
have as much problem with that because he's –
while he does score, his job should be putting
the ball through to forwards and wingers to score
if we're playing with – people up top who can
score. Yeah. And we saw him have some great possession.
Obed had a great game. Hopefully he's not hurt.
Did you ever hear any more news? I know he was
training on the side at, came out late, was training
on the side at practice today. Did you read anything
more on him? I have not. I have not seen any
update on that. Hopefully it was precautionary.
And we did hear today that Jordan was in practice,
partially at least. I don't think. I don't think
we see him for this next match, potentially PSG,
but I don't think you rush him back for that
match either unless somehow we get a result against
Madrid. Exactly. Exactly. But I'm just laughing
because it's only going to get tougher from here.
But with that in mind, realistic expectations.
I mean, When you look at the Sounders, our squad
value is $55 million. If you look at PSG, their
squad value is something like $1 .something billion.
yeah like like they have one two three four five
six seven eight nine ten players who have an
individual value higher than our entire value
yeah i mean in in botafogo even is much more
i mean they were valued much higher than us even
before i think they're at 15 million more than
us maybe okay and that was even before they just
sold one player for 20 million. And then the
other two players went for 20 and one was from
them. So it was about 10. So they sold 30 million
worth of players that was hired. One was only
15. So their value technically is even higher.
Their value was 163 million. Geez, way more than
us. Yeah. So, so, so that's kind of. for context
and then and then just kind of just out of out
of funness uh red diamonds for example uh their
value was 19 million and and that felt about
right from what i saw today um about 19 million
that they could beat us and that's not a knock
on the sounders no just the heart and fire they
had this is these teams outside of auckland city
any team that was in pot three and four are probably
going to be able to beat each other. You know,
it might be easier or harder, but it's doable.
And River Plate's value is $114 million. So,
for context. Yeah, I mean, that's almost $100
million more. I mean, and that's not even talking
about Atletico, which is our next opponent, which
is, let's see, Atletico Madrid. They are... Let's
see. 508 million. So, you know, 10 times our
factor. But I love it. I love what I'm seeing
because it's soccer. You know, the ball is a
great equalizer sometimes and fun things can
happen. I want to see what we do. I want to see
how we perform. And we'll find out. I will say
two things. One, we are not in last place in
the group. We currently sit third out of four
ahead of Atletico Madrid because they lost 4
-0 to PSG. So if we can somehow get a point against
them, maybe we can non -finish last in the group.
Wouldn't that be incredible? I mean, yeah, let's
get out of... Let's just show well. Yeah. I mean,
I think that's the other team. Other thing is
this team could have easily quit down to nothing.
Yeah. To nothing against a Botafogo team with
some real stars on it. Wouldn't have been shameful.
And they didn't, they pushed. I mean, especially
once Rothrock came on, I can't, Kent was playing
well. That's not a knock on Kent. I enjoyed watching
him a lot, but there's something about Rothrock
where it almost feels like. He's got that Christian
rolled on energy, extra fire. And I think partially
it's because he's from here. This is his club,
right? This is, this is him going out there and
doing the little extra things that, that maybe
not, not again, not a criticize of Ryan Kent.
He's still coming back from having not played
a lot, but we've seen Rothrock in the last year,
just playing incredibly for where his ceiling
was. You know, I mean, both things can be true.
You can see Rothrock's do -not -quit attitude,
which is in that vein of Brad Evans and Zach
Scott and Christian Roldan. But you can also
very much see that Ryan Kent's got this technical
ability that Rothrock just doesn't have. Right.
No. Rothrock is the... To date myself, and this
is before your time, but... He's got that Joe
Jarzynka, like University of Washington football,
the little guy who becomes a star because he
puts so much effort into it and so much work
into it that it pays off. He's a workhorse. I
love those kind of players. Yeah. By the way,
we'd be remiss if we didn't mention how happy
I am that the Oilers lost the Stanley Cup Finals
because I hate the Oilers and how they ended
the one best chance for the... uh sharks to win
the stanley cup when they deliberately injured
antonin niemi uh so i never want to see them
ever win so uh oh did i ruin something for you
were you waiting to watch the highlights no nope
i was just going back to the other regular uh
regular occurrence of this show is death watch
yeah oh gosh and some we've had some big hits
this year i mean there's so we didn't talk about
any last episode when there was a bunch. So let's,
let's put that on hold for a second. We'll get,
we'll get to death watch because sadly there's
way too much people to talk about too many people
to talk about for death watch, but let's wrap
up this Botafogo. Yeah. Versus Seattle match.
Who, who do you was the best player on the sounder?
So I was saying Russ snack was great, but Roth
rock and Obed and Christian. really showed up
for me down the stretch. Yeah, I mean, I thought
the center of the field was great. I thought
Roldan and Vargas were fantastic. And Roldan
got the goal, so yay. An assist from Rothera?
Yeah. At the same time, it's really hard to...
did not give it yeah uh either obed or or christian
um yeah it was just it was just so good so good
what i'll leave it i'll leave the scratch until
mailbag we'll go back to that one okay um what
do you think we see the sounders do moving into
the madrid match then I think the rest of the
way, what we're going to see is a more defensive
shell. I think so. So five in the back. Yeah.
So I think that might change. I want to ask you
a question, though. Now, I want to frame this
by starting by saying that, hey, I have often
championed knew who's defending. and I've even
said this year that I thought he looked a lot
better going into offense and made some more
dangerous offensive sides. I was really impressed.
I'm nervous to... Well, not nervous, because
no skin off my back in the end. I want the best
team we can put together. I'm curious, curious
is the word I want, to see if... Knew who coming
off at halftime, if that's a final straw type
of situation or a message type of situation.
Basically, I do believe that Reed Baker Whiting
has an opportunity here to usurp. Knew whose
role on that left back position, because I look
at it as he's better. We've seen the stats. He's
better moving forward. move, not moving forward
as in moving forward from this moment on moving
forward into the attack. Yeah. Just making sure
that I understand that. Yeah. And that's actually
the question I was going to say for mailbag.
So this will seamlessly go right into it. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, here's, here's the thing. I think
you're right. This is a chance. I think, you
know, when I, when I was talking with. with our
GM recently, and we sat and listened to him talk.
And he said what he does during the game is he
doesn't watch the TV camera. He sits at a TV
and watches the above camera that shows everything
to make sure our left back stays back and plays
defense. And we saw time and time again in this
game, Nuhu pushing forward, which is fine if
everyone shifts when we do that three at the
back. But then when Alex would push forward and
Alex... I would say for the first half, was one
of the best players on the field. Alex had a
good game. The stats bear it out. The foot mob
bears it out. Opta bears it out, but yes. Yep.
Nuhu was slow getting back at times because he
wanted the ball, and he was pushing a little
bit further forward. I think we've seen, like
against LA Galaxy in the Western Conference Final,
when Nuhu stays back, he is... the best left
back in the league. But he doesn't stay back.
And so I think if we're doing five at the back,
you throw him in as a third center back and then
put Reid out wide, maybe that allows for it to
happen a little easier. Interesting. I mean,
if we're going to do four at the back, I don't
want to see Niu Hu on the field for the rest
of the season, in my opinion. Four at the back.
What? With four in the back. With four in the
back, yes. I would rather see RBW. For me, this
is all of the things that we've been critical
of Nuhu for. He keeps doing the same things.
And sure, it was just two games in a row where
he made mistakes. But I think it's more than
that. You see the team regularly get frustrated
with him on the field. You see their reactions
to him. You see the way they talk to him. They
don't talk to other players on the field like
that. And so clearly... And they like him as
a person. So you're talking about body language.
Yeah. They like him as a person, obviously, because
we've seen them interact together in public.
We've been to events where he's talking to other
players. So I don't think it's that. But we've
had multiple players tell us in confidence that
there is some frustration with Nuhu from other
players. I don't want to go any further into
that. I knew who, I don't want to create, I don't
want to create drama. No, but if you watch Instagram
reels, when they're doing like the team interview
things like, Oh, who's the one that's most likely
to do. He is a whipping boy. Yep. Whether it's
all in good fun or if there's some level of truth
to it, I don't know. I mean, and usually it's
both right. Yeah. And so I think new, who is
one of the most talented players on the team.
But if he can't do what the coaches want, he
shouldn't be out there. And I think this is Reid's
chance to take that job. I also think if Nuhu
starts staying back a little more and only going
forward when it's opportunistic and learns to
play better with whomever's on the left with
him, I think he could have that job. for a long
time. I just don't. He has had the job for a
long time. He's had the job for a very long time.
2018. Yeah, how good Brad Smith was before he
basically wrestled it away from him. Yeah. I
mean, we also had Joven, but Joven 2 .0 was not
as good as Joven. No, but they also moved him
up into the mid to try and keep him on the field
and try and make that work. Even when they had
him back there, it just wasn't the same. Yeah.
You know, it's really fascinating. And, you know,
what's really interesting is, so I think it's
fair to say that New Who has a personality that
can be considered somewhat eccentric. Would eccentric
be the right word for you? Eccentric, and he's
got a little bit of a hot head. He's a little
bit of a hot head, too. I mean, here's the thing.
I think one of the reasons I'm so critical of
him is I would play like that, too. I do play
like that. There's been multiple times in public
where there's been discussions about me. Well,
haven't you been – aren't you nominated for year
-end award for most fun player to play with?
Am I? I think so. I think you're the finalist
for your team. I didn't see that. That's cool.
Well, you are one of the – so you are the winner
for your team, and you are one of the four. uh
finalists for the league yeah well yeah and this
this season was a lot better than last season
i had some frustration early on learning you're
learning the league you know it's a unique league
but so with that in mind here's my theory we
signed new who when he was what 17 yeah i mean
yes so he came here from cameroon when he was
17 didn't speak english didn't speak english
fortunately we had jimmy triori there who's speaking
french can And who else? We had another player
who could speak French, Benazé for a bit, but
also I feel like someone else. But anyways. And
I'm sure some of the other Europeans spoke French
as well. But context. So he's a little hard to
figure out sometimes, personality -wise, I think.
I'd be curious. I'm curious just on a psychological
profile side. I'd be curious what that's like
growing up in an area kind of by yourself. When
you're trying to figure things out, figure out
how to be an adult. We've heard people on the
Sounders speak to how alienating it was for him
to move to this country and know nobody. And
there still may be some trust issues for him
with just... Or even like personality development
interrupted. So now reverting to personality
traits that you might be when you're 17 to 24.
Video game. And this is not a critical thing
of New Who. It's more of an interesting, like
when people look at him and can't figure him
out. He was 19 when he came over to the Defiance.
No, 18. So when you can't. When people are like,
oh, I can't figure out his personality, thinking
about that context is that he's been asked to
kind of figure out how to be an adult through
the lens of this. Of being a professional athlete.
And let's not forget, I think it's easy to say,
oh, he's 27. He's been here eight years on the
team. He's a veteran now. I feel like I was 40
before I figured myself out. Yeah. And so that's
why I'm usually – I'm not as critical of his
– and this is a long -winded version of me saying
why I'm not so critical of his – when his personality
shows up on the field. And I actually don't usually
mind it. It was in this instance it led directly
to a goal. And I'll call it out when that happens.
Yeah. And those are things that I will call out.
Now, the red card dog. So I'm not sure if he
thought it was only going to be a yellow, you
know, like if he thought the other people were.
He may have not known exactly where in the field
he was at that point because he was just trying
to get back as well. So I'm actually really surprised
they didn't overturn the John Bell red. In fact,
they find him. Well, yeah, they find him for
not leaving the field in a timely manner. But
that was just, I don't even want to talk about
that game. That was just, that was just. But
yeah, I mean, I think I don't, I think knew who
could easily earn his way back into the trust
of the team. I just think it's. As he gets older
opportunities for other people to. to take it
over will be there. And this is one of those
opportunities. I do think if we go to five at
the back, though, he may still have the opportunity.
I mean, he's great at center back when we have
five at the back, right? And at the same time,
this is also a situation where we're also short
at the center back position right now. But opportunities
are there. So I'm curious to see how it plays
out. Yeah. And I was just noting. that, uh, where,
where did I see? I'm looking at his, uh, contract.
It expires at the end of the season. I don't
know if there's an option. Oh yeah. There's a
club option for one more year. Okay. So, but
it does expire at the end of the season. So it,
they're going to have to have some serious conversation.
So I think actually, if you're the Sounders,
you want Reed to have a little more time to see
if that's a position he could, could potentially
start at one day. And, and so this really is
his chance, uh, In multiple ways. In multiple
ways. And Nuhu left that door open, unfortunately.
People get mad because I rag on Nuhu, but it's
because... I mean, I have a Nuhu jersey. Who
knew? I want him to... It never gets old. Oh,
yeah, that's right. I wish he had come for us
after Minnesota, though. Then we'd have Who Knew
and Nuhu. But I want him to be successful, but
it's the stupid little things that... get you
in the end and that's why yeah we the sounders
don't need to beat themselves right they there's
enough talent on the other teams we play regularly
to to we don't need to beat ourselves yeah so
uh why don't we jump into the mailbag here yeah
let's do that before we finish up the show because
i know we had uh some stuff There was some questions
before this date. There's so much conversation
in there, though, so it's hard to stay up with
it. So let's start with Dan the Bastard, one
of our ultras, asking, is Jordan Morris coming
back from injury like getting a new DP signing?
Depends on what version of Jordan we get. Potentially,
yeah. I mean... If he can go up there and score,
yes, absolutely. Yeah. And will he play against
PSG? We don't know. My money is on no. Yeah.
Because that is only, what, six days away? Yeah,
Monday. So, yeah. So it comes up fast. I know
he wants to play, but I think it's one of those
things. He had the setback in training last week.
So the thing is, he was on track to play. Yeah.
He probably would have played all three matches.
you probably not full, not starting. Yeah. Yeah.
But you're potentially right there. He would
have subbed on if we needed him to score. Yeah.
Yeah. So I think I want, I, Jordan Morris is
such a great story and he's a good dude. You
know, I think I've said this before, but he went
to high school with my cousin, my cousin who
is on the spectrum and he was so wonderful to
my cousin. Like, just such a good dude and and
maybe it's because uh jordan i mean he is just
a good dude in general but you know he's he's
got family members with disabilities and it just
knowing that and knowing what how successful
he's been i want a local player to succeed like
him and it's just frustrating but he has i mean
like let's also keep in mind that he's had a
He's had one of those careers where he's quietly
just been putting away goals. He's our club's
all -time leading goal scorer. But I also feel
like he's Ken Griffey Jr. at the Reds. He is...
If he didn't have injuries, he would have reached
such higher levels. Even if he just stayed in
Seattle. But he probably wouldn't have, right?
He would have been at Swansea and moved on from
there. He would have been like... I just think
that it's frustrating to see how injuries can
sideline such a high -flying career. Speaking
of Ken Griffey Jr., I ran into him on Sunday
for Father's Day at Pier 62 because Roma and
I, you are looking at a Guinness Book of World
Record holder. Yeah. I am a full -fledged Guinness
Book of World Record holder, which is such a
dad thing to do on Father's Day. I mean, yeah,
it really is. So we did the record for world's
largest soccer clinic. I was actually surprised
that only 1 ,000 people showed up, roughly a
little more. Didn't beat by San Jose as much
as I thought they would. Largest football soccer
lesson. Great crowd. It was really, really good
to see. A lot of fun. You'd be surprised how
big a thousand people to try and organize a soccer
lesson is. So big shout out to the Rave Foundation
and their team for really putting this together.
It came out really well. Roma looked at me about
halfway through and was getting a little frustrated
because we were doing drills. We were doing soccer
drills. They would explain what the drill was
going to be, and then we'd do it, and then we'd
do it again and try and beat our score from the
previous time. And once we started getting to
some advanced stuff like... Bounce it off your
knee. Let it hit the ground. Flip it up with
your foot. Catch it. Lather, rinse, repeat. And
Rowan would get really frustrated because she'd
bounce off her knee and they'd go flying and
she'd have to go chase it. I'm not good at this.
Is that why she's been so violent the last four
days? I've been beaten to a pulp by her with
that little Coca -Cola clappy loud thing. She's
been a rare form lately. i don't know i don't
know but yeah yeah i heard it was even pretty
repetitive for adults who were not regular soccer
players like that that ended up leaving because
they were like cool it's the same thing over
and over again well that's the thing but the
thing is so there were actually more than the
announced crowd you had to participate for the
entire session to count towards the record. That
makes sense. So we probably lost somewhere in
the neighborhood of maybe three to 500 people
through attrition on that. But great event, great
times, had a lot of fun. Yeah, that's cool. And
I got down there and I watched Travis Thompson.
Yeah, Travis Thompson. And the rapper who was
before him was pretty good, too. Local kid. I
forget his name right now. I want to say Nelly,
but that's clearly not right. No, no, he's Atlanta.
But it was something like that. So it was a fun
time down there. And they had the Club World
Cup trophy down there. And at the 90, they, of
course, had. Not the Club World Cup trophy, the
Champions League trophy. The Champions League
trophy, correct. And they had the four Western
Conference finals and the two MLS Cup championship
trophies over at the 90. Yeah. Where if you do
want to get a Sounders kit with a Club World
Cup patch on it, you can do that. They are for
sale there. Which looks really good. Oh, you
know, a big thing to note, there is no pro shops
during Club World Cup. pro shop is not open there
are fifa club world cup little sections where
you get like little scarves and they refill those
because they had a ton the first match they didn't
have today that honestly that's kind of one of
those lessons you learn um that's kind of what
happened for all the women's world cup games
in vancouver i went to the nigerian match they
had nothing But yeah, I got a really cool scarf
that has all the nations that were in the Women's
World Cup. That was only available on match day
one. They never replenished it. For such an organization
that's basically only about making money more
than the integrity of the game, you think they
would be better at that? You would. You would
think that. They were not. The Occidental Park
was nice. I did a really nice walk from Pier
62 to the stadium. Man, that waterfront is just...
I haven't been there since they opened up the
new part. it's nice it's really nice but then
they went ahead and put that five lane freeway
right through the middle of it that that took
the place of like they put the tunnel and then
it was supposed to be like there's cool stuff
on top it's not going to be oh no there's just
five lanes of driving now that was the that was
my that was my snarky feeling until i walked
it when i walked it i was like oh okay because
driving it i'm i'm a little bummed and and also
They basically built it so that you can't ride
a bike on it when it was supposed to have its
own bike lane. But you could definitely bike
along the waterfront. Because the way they angled
everything, it's not even a full sidewalk's length
at times. Just, again, trust me on this. Walk
it. It's frustrating that they didn't make it
more pedestrian -friendly, considering. Yes,
but also... Yes, but... It's very pedestrian
-friendly. Walking from Pier 62, where I think
they're going to have some World Cup events all
the way down. It had me going, oh, it's been
a long time since I've been down here. This is
actually much cooler than I thought it was, for
what that's worth. The last time I was down there,
I think, was when they announced that we got
the World Cup. Yeah, when we went to that party.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, much different. Which does
remind me that, let me see here if I can pull
it up here. Oops, I think I clicked the wrong
thing. I saw some pretty cool announcement of
things that neighborhoods are doing. So I'm going
to type in my neighborhood here, or at least
the gathering hall in my neighborhood and see.
Nope. So I'll just type it. For next year for
the World Cup? No, for the World Cup. They're
showing the final. Here we go. They are having
Seattle Parks and Rec are having three watch
parties for the Club World Cup this year for
the quarterfinal, the semifinal, and the final.
Quarterfinal on July 5th up at Bitter Lake. July
9th for the semifinal down in South Park. probably
five -minute or less walk from me just across
a greenway here. The final will be at Van Asselt
Community Center just right up the road on July
13th. Food trucks, activities, games, prizes
all put on by Seattle Parks and Rec. So pretty
fun. I think I might go check that out. Yeah,
I saw for this game, Roma and I got our picture
in front of the Champions League trophy. Then
we got pictures in front of the MLS Cup trophies
for her. We got balloon animals made for her
for free, tip situation. I think there are artists
doing caricatures, which I imagine were also
free. Occidental Park was really done really
well for this. And the stage wasn't in the park
area where it usually is. It was in the next
block up in between all the restaurants and galleries.
Yeah, it's a good dry run. For next year. Yeah,
and I will say nice beer gardens, including booze.
Yeah, I saw how they did that. They did those
little bands in that, right? They did in the
one in the main Occidental Park, and then they
had people in home team gear bartending at the
other one where they had both beer and booze.
You could buy mixed drinks. They didn't have
Diet Coke, which is weird, so I had to drink
soda water and vodka. able to sit there, watch
Travis Thompson perform while drinking some vodka.
It was really nice. Very cool. Yeah, so definitely
thumbs up to the Sounders for putting that together.
Inside is mainly FIFA, but outside, that's all
Sounders. And the Downtown Association, the Downtown
Seattle Association was also doing some really
good stuff with that, so I want to make sure
I properly acknowledge that. So why don't we
hit these other... questions in them yeah before
we get out of here i really like this one from
cedar uh which i think you will like as well
uh shout out cedar i think cedar's coming up
for a match soon we should find out uh when that
is although it might be the one you have to work
for so oh uh found out today that bernie was
offered three free tickets to saturday's game
so you're gonna go after all I think I am going
to go after all, especially with the big thing
was I wasn't going to get out of work, go up
north, then turn around and come back. But if
we're able to go and Bernie wants to come, then
I can just meet up with them down there. So that
changes the narrative completely. Because I just
have a solo ticket for that match. Yeah, so I'll
keep you posted, but it's looking like we will
be there for the Red Diamonds Inter Milan game.
Bernie said, hey, do you think it's okay if I
wear my Roma jersey? I'm like, well, as long
as you don't mind pissing off some of the Milan
fans. Don't sit in the intersection. No, I think
that might be another Red Diamonds night. Yeah.
Oh, I mean, I love sitting with the Red Diamonds
fans. That was such a blast. It definitely reminded
me of the Women's World Cup in Vancouver, where
I think Japan played at least four games. But
I think they played five of the nine games I
went to in Vancouver because they played a knockout
stage game. Super fun at that time. Oh, yeah,
definitely. And Naho Kawasumi was on that team,
and they were great. They made the final, and
then they just, it was almost, it was definitely
anticlimactic, but you almost felt bad for them.
Was it the Olympics that they won? When they
surprised everyone after the, or was it the club?
No, they won the previous World Cup against US.
Yeah, I don't remember if it was the Olympics,
but it was after the Fukushima disaster. Yeah.
Um, but yeah, so, so that team was great and
I got to watch a lot of them. Um, but I also
got to sit, I was sitting in the, basically the
supporter section area. Uh, so I was like 10
rows behind the net for all the games. That's
amazing. That's way up on the top. Oh, except
for the final, the final, I was in the front
row of the 300 section. Because the thing was
with the – Didn't the U .S. dominate that one?
Yeah, that was where we scored three goals in
15 minutes. Including one from like the halfway
line. Yep. Carly Lloyd put one in and it was
4 -0. I think it was 4 -0. Actually, no. Yeah,
it was 4 -0 within the first 20 minutes. And,
yeah. But yeah, so it was one of those things
where if you bought a stadium passport, you would
get tickets to all the games at that stadium
and you would have the ability to purchase tickets
to the final. So even though the final was in
Vancouver and I bought tickets there, I didn't
get guaranteed access to those same seats for
the final. But they did put me in the front row
of the 300 section. zero complaints about that
whole experience. It was amazing. But yeah, so
I got to see, I think, five games with Japan.
And I got to really take in their supporters.
It was great. They were so cool. They would hand
out those Karate Kid Japan headbands. I saw some
kids wearing them today. They would hand those
out to anyone that was in the sections before
the games that wanted to wear them. So welcoming.
This was pre -Roma. Yeah. And they did exactly
what you think they did, which was clean up that
section after the games. And then last year we
went to Japan and we went to a Kyoto game. um
and sat in the supporter section and then today
so every time the japan supporter culture is
exactly the kind of supporter culture that i
like to participate in it's wonderful so yeah
um highly highly recommend please this is an
advertisement for you come on out to the games
as you know this week yeah once once in a lifetime
opportunity i don't think we'll get the club
world cup again in seattle anytime soon And it's
going to expand and it is going to hit and it
is going to be harder to go to. So you won't
be able to get to a game for 30 bucks in the
future. So make it happen. Yeah. So Cedar asks,
if Salute to the Olympians by Henry Mancini wasn't
our goal slash victory song, what would each
of you want it to be? Wrong answers only. Man,
that Uraro Red Diamond song today was very anticlimactic.
Did you hear that? Yeah, yeah. I took a video
of it, actually. Very Perry Cuomo, but not upbeat
like the Seattle song. It was like a crooner
song. Hey, can I let in a little bit of a confession
here? Our 74th minute anthem, Sounders Till I
Die, sounds like a horrible church hymn. it's
just musically not an interesting song oh yeah
i mean and it's hard to say it's different than
a recorded crooner singing red diamonds i'm in
the club singing to you in las vegas a lounge
singer you know um now with that in mind maybe
oh no um maybe Maybe it should be a really cool
cover of Diamonds Are Forever, Shirley Bassey.
We want the Sounders victory song. Here's the
thing. It can't be this because, number one,
It's associated with hockey. And number two,
we don't like Gary Glitter because he's a pedophile.
But this is where I was originally going with
when I said wrong answers only. I knew you were
going to go with Mr. Pedophile. Just because
the ability to chant Portland sucks, no matter
who we're playing during the breakdown, is worth.
it for me. You can fit a Portland sucks in just
about anything, including one of those red diamond
chance today, which you did quite, you did quite
beautifully. I might add. So, so let's not make
that be the, you know, let's not make that be
the, I mean, here's the thing. Kraken use a Nirvana
song that is, which is great. And it, it, it
works great. I don't like that. It goes up, up,
it goes up, up, up, down, up, up, down when it
should be up, up, B -A -B -A select start 30,
30 lives. Yeah. It does. It's too much. Select
start is if you're doing the two players. Contra.
Yeah. But, but musically that one does bother
me because it should be altered in the second
one, but it's still fun. One of my favorite things
happened ever at a Mariners game where someone
came up to bat and they played that Dr. Dre song.
And it only happened every once because I think
the Mariners nixed it after this. And it went,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And it cut off. And
the entire crowd smoked weed every day. And then
the Mariners never did it again. Yeah. Okay.
I mean, I guess the question is, do you go with
like a rock song, a pop song, or do you go with
something more instrumental? Do you change the
lyrics? Do you go with something relevant? Don't
go full jock jams. Here, I can tell you what
I don't want it to be, and just saying this makes
me really angry. My least favorite song of all
time, not sung by Ace of Base, Cotton Eye Joe.
rednecks yeah the original 2x yeah oh no i've
heard that song way too many times they did they
did the seahawks were for a while playing like
a country cover of it which the rednecks are
kind of metal country but uh they were they played
it hero dance but yeah but i mean the the way
they look yeah uh but they were playing like
a country version of it for a while at seahawks
games and it it drove me mad i hate that song
But, yeah, I mean, I feel like there's got to
be some good jock jam. Is there a Seattle band
that we should be? I mean, Magic Man by heart.
I mean, I always like the guitar intro of Barracuda,
but that's not necessarily something you chant.
I mean, you don't really need to chant. It's
just like because you don't chant along with
salute to the Olympians. I mean, I guess I go.
I made Lodero's on fire. Your defense is terrified.
No, but it's a good question. No diggity was
considered a jock jam. That's crazy. No, no,
no doubt. No, I don't. I don't think I would
like a no doubt song. No, I was. No diggity.
No doubt. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Don't make me do
that. Oh, I mean, it harkens back to Griffey,
Hip Hop Hooray. He used to come up to bat to
that. That would be fun. I mean, if I'm being
honest, an even better Naughty by Nature summer
jam is Feel Me Flow. What album is that? I didn't
even know that one. It's not on the first album.
Oh, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is.
I mean, Jamboree is another great one. Naughty
by Nature had some great... They were great because
they would balance... the street cred. I would
want them to do ghetto bastard. No, but, but,
but both feel me flow and jamboree, I think are
vastly superior songs. What about every time
there's an own goal, they play. It wasn't me.
Thought I caught it as a header. It wasn't me.
Tried to clear it, but I failed. It wasn't me.
oh my goodness that's great oh my god uh did
you know that that's not even shaggy's voice
oh no yeah it's not like he was um he was using
that voice to mock someone for mr boom bostic
yeah but but that story of that song do you know
the story it's incredible it got yeah it got
it was a flop yeah and then some radio dj in
hawaii downloaded it from LimeWire illegally
and played it, and people liked it so much that
he ended up playing it four times a day. You're
talking about it wasn't me or Mr. Boombastic?
It wasn't me. Okay. I'm like, Mr. Boombastic
is a decade earlier than LimeWire, so yeah, okay.
Yeah, no. No, it was his first single. No, his
first single was Mr. Boombastic, Summertime.
No, no, no, no. That was 1993. well then maybe
he was getting, maybe, but he had his resurgence
with, it wasn't me. That was around the same
time as Cisco's song song. And yeah, but okay.
Yeah. So he was getting dropped, but they didn't
even send out promos to radios. That's why the
guy had to legally download it. That I watched
a whole documentary on it. Actually. It was pretty
interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't, you
know, this sounds funny, but I don't, to me,
The salute to the Olympians has been associated
with the Sounders and NASL since the 70s. So
it's hard to think of a song like any other song
because we don't really have a goal celebration
song. You know what I mean? It's more just like
that's the Sounders song. That was the TV broadcast
song leading into every game for the NASL Sounders.
Hmm. I mean... I feel like it would have to be
a Seattle band, though. Oh, 100%. And that's
where I'm kind of thinking about, like, you know,
Presidents of the United States of America. Thinking
about, you know, bands that... Supersounders.
Oh, yeah. Going, you know... Dicks is the place
where the cool hang out. I mean, I am a... I
mean, I created a public team around Posse on
Broadway. So... Yeah, so you're not going to
get an argument from me on that. Buttermilk biscuits,
here we go. Sip the flour, roll the dough, feels
good. Oh, you could do Seattle Ambulsion. I was
raised in the S -E -A -T -T -L -E. Seattle, born
in the C -D. 19th and yes, aboard the Pippin
was hard. Cadillac was the car and I'm rolling.
In sixth grade, my mom used to let us drive around
just blasting that on the speakers because she
didn't like censoring me. You got some swaths
right there. I mean, I think you've got to go
something classic like Sir Mix -a -Lot. You know
what? UCS should do like a Geordie Got Back or
something. Oh, my God. Geordie, look at him.
Oh, speaking of looking at his butt. Whoa. No,
I am actually going there. um reed baker whiting
oh my god yeah i texted i texted him he was like
i can't unsee this now what was up with his 70s
booty shorts reed baker whiting is pulling out
the ghosts of john stockton who's not dead um
but might as well be he is going with oh yeah
he did he did but um Going with the super short,
who wears short shorts? Reed wears short shorts.
Did he lose a bet? Because did the trainers accidentally
give him a youth large instead of an adult large?
I don't know what was going on there, but something
was very, very wrong with his shorts. They were
so high. I've never seen any player. consistently
had and it wasn't like oh he slid tackled and
uh and it went up and then he could pull it back
down you know both were like yeah sitting up
booty short height and and I am not one to criticize
the booty shorts I have worn gold booty shorts
to public yeah so so I am not kink shaming um
but he did it on purpose I'm all for it but it
was very surprising it it was a choice And you
know what? He played well, so maybe he needs
to keep doing it now. I mean, Javi had the tuck.
Yeah. Reed's got the stuff. I think he had a
different tuck going on, considering how high
those shorts were. He's got the right stuff.
Oh, my goodness. All right, what song do you...
Just pick a song. What do you think you would
do? Okay. Let me see here. I... Yeah, it's tough,
right? I mean, you can go with some funk. You
can go with some Quincy Jones stuff. You can
go with some MC5. That's Detroit. You can go
with the Sonics, the punk rock band. You can
go with Louie Louie, which I think the Mariners
kind of have. And they went back to it when they
got rid of Macklemore. And no one gets hyped
up for it. And it's an awful techno remix of
Louie Louie. It's just. Yeah. Um, so I think
I would just be happy if all of a sudden we were,
we were singing, uh, uh, like, like the lost
verse, the lost verse. I would say the last verse
of this land is your land. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. No, uh, fascists are bound to lose every
time we score. I mean, there you go. You know,
that's one that I'm going to have to maybe think
about. Yeah, we'll think about it. This is a
great question, Cedar, and you asked the right
people. Oh, I mean, we've already name -dropped
how many bands. I think we've just spent like
20 minutes without deciding. So maybe Soundgarden,
maybe... Well, the thing is, I'm trying to think
of alternative that... That isn't the obvious,
so that's where I'm coming up with heart, coming
up with Presidents of the United States of America,
trying to stay away from the Nirvana, Pearl Jam,
which I love, but I want to kind of stay away
from that. Nick, Jeff Aument at the Oklahoma
City Thunder game wearing an OKC hat. No. So
frustrating. No. He's not a Seattleite anymore.
We were sending him back to Montana. Oh, no,
no, no, no. So frustrating. No. Yeah, I mean,
I think there's a lot. I would love any of Adam
Sizer's bands would be really good. There's some
good stuff there. Maybe some Pedro the Lion.
I would say Flagpole Sitter. Ooh. You know? Man,
Sean Nelson used to hit on my ex from that time
period. So anytime we were at a show, it was
so funny. um she was like oh there's the harvey
danger singer again looking at me all creepy
do you know who i am uh yeah so we'll get back
to that cedar uh summer signings do we expect
anyone i i think we should but i'm not including
the we are promised to you 22 i don't think the
expected u22 has lived up to the hype maybe at
the defiance level so i don't know if he's coming
in I don't think that's exactly what we're having
in mind when we're expecting a summer signing.
Well, we don't, but I think that's what the Sounders
might have in mind. We'll see. I mean, we could
have signed someone already. Only LAFC made any
signing in this window between us and Miami and
them. Yeah, but it's kind of one of those things
where if LAFC made that signing... That tells
me they're already ready to go for it with the
summer transfer window, and they just bumped
up the timetable. Well, also, Under's hurt, right?
His loan was ending, and he got hurt, so he's
definitely not coming back. So they had to replace
him. Yeah. And so that's what that move was.
So, I mean, that's what I mean, is they're already
kind of prepared to do that. But I think we should
be... We got extra room in the cap. for it and
i hope that money continues through to the summer
window i hope it wasn't just an open window for
this cup uh no wait wait wait we got extra money
for qualifying for a club world cup we use that
money as part of the trade to bring in jesus
ferreira and and also paul areola so that money
is pretty that money's been spent okay so that
money was spent but so they were but lafc and
and Miami didn't spend it, though, then. Well,
I don't know if Miami did. They said all three
teams have this extra money to spend in this
window. It was national writers. No, but they
didn't understand that they were given this money.
LAFC is the only one who unexpectedly – Then
we have no money to bring in anyone this summer.
No, no, that's not entirely true. That's where
we can bring in an under 22 because that counts
against the cap differently. Sure. So that's
why the under 22 is where we have the money because
a normal senior roster slot, we've already spent
that money. We don't have the money to bring
in that. I just can't see us doing it because
– Other teams are already doing it. They already
have announced who that player is going to be
that they're bringing in in the summer window.
Multiple teams have now, it's come out who they're
signing. There's some big, big players coming
over and we need, we need a fucking forward.
Well, I don't know if you can announce. I mean,
they may not have announced it, but it's public
because they've already pre -signed the contract.
So someone leaked it. Well, that's the thing.
The Sounders have, to their credit, been pretty
tight under control. They still haven't had any
leaks of our third jersey that's coming out within
the next month. I think the only one that I'm
aware of... Yeah, because today, I think another
one got leaked today. At least one got teased
today, for sure. So to their credit, they've
gotten a lot better. And honestly, this goes
back for 10 years because the Sounders were basically
a chance encounter away from surprise dropping
Clint Dempsey. A chance encounter at an airport
is the only reason that didn't get leaked. But
ever since then, we've known in advance of pretty
much every player. There's been like no surprise.
Because we'll see people. at the airport and
also usually their agents leak it because they're
using us as leverage to get more money from another
team. Yeah. Yes. No. Um, but, but so I guess
what I'm saying is, is I, I am not getting upset
and I am not getting excited. I am staying neutral
on the idea of a U 22 signing and what that signing
might look like. So I'm not, frustrated at lack
of rumor. Oh, I'm not frustrated at lack of rumor.
I just don't see... There's no thing that tells
me they're going to do anything. I don't anticipate
seeing a $5 million signing. I expect... Because
what did we get Leo Chu for? Like $2 million?
I think we paid for a transfer fee somewhere
around that neighborhood. Yeah, but then all
the money they put into him made his value up
around $5 or $6. Exactly. And so I think best
-case scenario, you'll see someone who has an
upside like a Leo Chu will probably be able to
contribute for the first team, hopefully a little
more than a Leo Chu. But in that kind of vein,
you're not going to be getting a lockdown starter.
I don't anticipate. Oh, I wouldn't either. But
I would expect it to be someone who would develop
into a starter for sure. I mean, I would expect
it to be someone better than Danny Mazovsky.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good. I think that's
a good target of what a realistic expectation
can be. I want a Will Bruin. level player not
the year he started yeah yeah like when we first
brought him in when he came just from houston
yeah yeah someone who could come off the bench
and score goals that's fair i think i think that's
fair um now depending on what they're going to
do with other contracts maybe they don't do it
with a forward because it because i don't know
maybe maybe you view this year as muddle through
it. And then next year, when you have more flexibility,
you can do a lot more. We don't know what they're
going to do. Yeah. But we've needed a forward
for the last two years now in terms of goal scoring.
So if we don't sign one, I think the fans are
going to be pretty upset. Probably. But. But
just because we sign one doesn't mean, I mean,
you got to be careful because now you're setting
expectations on that person. I mean, we'll cross
that bridge when it comes, but we'll see what
happens there. I just want people to have a realistic
expectation of what to potentially expect. Yeah,
absolutely. I would not expect anyone. That's
going to blow your mind. I would expect it to
be. I mean, I wish it was going to be a JP level
player, but it won't. So we got some, we got
some fast and furious things coming down the
pipeline. So we've got the Atletico Madrid game
coming up on Thursday. We've got the PSG game
coming up on Monday. We're going to try to maybe
feel if we can figure out a recording in between
those two games. But with everything that's going
on, including going to another game at Lumen
in between those, it could be a little tricky.
Yeah. What do you think is going to happen for
Atlético Madrid? I mean, I would expect them
to right the ship. I don't. Them being Atletico
Madrid? Yeah, they dropped 4 -0 to PSG in the
first match. I would expect the Sounders to lose
somewhere around 3 or 4 -0 if I were just a betting
man right now. I don't know. We'll see what the
rosters look like the day of. But the Sounders
are going to need to play some dolo ball. They're
going to need to... counter attack based off
of strong defense and hope they can get a good
cross in there and score some goals and if they
can do that then you know they have a shot to
i mean these next two games these next two games
the sounders are going to have to kind of develop
a a late 2000s usa style of attack against you
know the brazils and the spains of the world
yeah Weird, weird comparison, but that's the
best I can come up with where we aren't expected
to get a result. But I would say against Atletico
Madrid that you can put the odds of getting a
result around maybe 25%. Maybe at the best, like
if we're playing like very cynical bunkering.
I think that maybe against Atletico Madrid, but
PSG's third squad would destroy our starters.
They're just... So there's so much depth there.
It's insane. Again, like I mentioned, like I
mentioned what the first 10 team, the 10 players
on the roster all have salaries, values higher
than our entire team. And I'm just going to read
the next level of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10. I'm going to read the next 10. So we're talking
about the 20 deep. So the next 10, $40 million,
$40 million, $40 million, $35, $25, $25, $25,
$20, $15. Triple our highest paid player. Exactly.
So their 21st highest player is still having
a higher market value than our best player. And
I mean, my God. Okay, can I be honest here for
a second? Watching PSG destroy Inter Milan in
Champions League Final made me happy because
that 100 % means house money. There is literally,
I'm going to not say literally, there is practically
no result. That is going to make me disappointed
as a Sounders fan. Even, let's just say, the
10 -0 Auckland result. I mean, that's kind of
like the high end of bad. I don't see a game
going to that level. I wouldn't want to give
up more than six. I'm going to say that. Agreed.
I don't want to touch down. If we give up seven.
I think Adrian needs to give us all our money
back for the whole season. Oh, stop. Stop. I
could feel his eyes rolling right now. But I
think that's probably about right. Again, this
team beat Milan in the Champions League final
5 -0. Yeah. um not like weeks ago this isn't
like oh back in 2024 no like back in like three
weeks ago i don't even think it was three weeks
ago um i think it was two weeks ago but so with
that in mind it kind of works to our advantage
because because we can play somewhat looser knowing
that hey we're going to do our best to keep it
tight, and to see if we can make something happen.
This isn't hyperbole to say that the difference
between these two teams is not so dissimilar
to the miracle on ice where a bunch of college
teenagers from the U .S. played against seasoned
pros in the Soviet Union. um not so dissimilar
but this is why i love sports things can happen
so get this the bottom six players in terms of
pay on their roster are the only ones within
sounders price range yeah you have their third
goalie who's 24 he's worth around three million
yep you have uh their 17 year old last center
back who's worth two million yep you have Their
19 -year -old right back is worth $2 .5 million.
You have… 17 -year -old right back. Yeah, him.
Yeah, 17 -year -old right winger who's worth
$3 million. And then I saw… Who was it? It was
Kempembe. Yeah, center back. Is their center
back who's worth $5 million. And he's been around
a long time. He's a solid… I could see him coming
to the MLS soon. He's a solid player who can
continue to have a career. He's played for the
Congo and France in his 28 appearances with the
national team. His highest value is 2021. Or
even 2022, he's still worth 40 million euros.
He's dropped a lot in the last three years. And
he's at 5 million. So for context, our highest
market value... Using the same metrics as Obed
Vargas, that's 6 million. Jordan Morris at 4
million. Yeah. And I think Jesus might be at
5 as well, is he? 4. He went down, so he may
have updated it. Okay. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
players at 4. Pedro, Alex, Jesus, Christian,
and Jordan. Right. So take with a grain of salt.
So other than Kipembe, they have... five 19 year
old or younger that four 19 year old or younger
players that would be on our roster value -wise
like This team is so good and we're not meant
to compete against them But it doesn't mean we
can't have fun and watch like we did today. Yeah
Yeah, and so so enjoy it for what it is In the
World Cup you always got those teams are the
happy to be their teams they're not expected
to be finalists or not expected to be that i
mean that's us and that knowing our role in world
soccer right now um oh he had a ruptured achilles
for the first half of the season so he only played
two games the whole the whole season that's why
his values dropped so much but with that said
i could tell you there are 27 teams that would
change places with us in a heartbeat yep yep
Actually, I'm probably going to say 29 teams.
I would say every team would change places with
us because even Miami's not getting all three
games as home games. Oh, really? I didn't realize
that. No. Yeah, we're the only ones getting all
three games as home games. Cool. I think that's
a good place to leave it other than to say...
I don't even want to make a prediction, to be
honest. Oh, no, I was going to say Cal Raleigh
should be the MVP of baseball. He is... He's
having a year. Leads the major leagues in home
runs. Which is crazy. Yep. He's been the last
three years. I think he's fourth in baseball
in total home runs over the last two years and
however far we are into the season, almost halfway.
So go Seattle sports. Yay. Where can they find
you on the internet? Yeah. come find me on Instagram
at cascades to see. Um, and yeah, just kind of
adds up. Yeah. The Miami Porto game will be in
Atlanta. Um, but yeah, so cascades to see, uh,
what about you, Mr. Legal minded bunk. Yep. That's
it. You can find me at legal minded punk everywhere.
Uh, the internet is, uh, located now earlier
today, I showed you the mountains to CFC that
actually is located. In Cary, North Carolina,
where the TST just took place and was so much
fun. I don't think we really talked about it
much on the show, but I loved watching all those
TST matches. I watched some live on YouTube and
I watched the replays as well. But it was a lot
of fun. And seeing Hope Solo out there again
was super cool. I know she's a lightning rod,
but I do enjoy a good old -fashioned Seattle
athlete. There you go. Let's let James take it
away. You're going to fall asleep. No, I mean,
I was just about to make a comment about how
maybe we can get James to lead us into a chant
with some song and dance and kind of take in
some inspiration to what FIFA is doing for their
in -stadium announcing. Yeah, he already said
he won't be dancing. God. In stadium announcer,
I do not like. I would prefer James. I mean,
we're creatures of habit. Yeah, the walk -ins.
I don't mind the walk -in. I was saying that
today. My problem with the walk -in is that they
don't do anything. They just walk in and mean
mug the camera. Like James said, well, how about
this? And he showed me a video of Chris Farley
entering on Letterman Show. Yes, it would be
amazing. But even just hype up, jump up and get
the crowd going, especially if you were like
the Red Diamonds or the Sounders where you're
coming in right in front of your fans. Yeah,
yeah. None of them did that. Although I noticed
the Red Diamonds afterwards came and stood in
front of their fans and like didn't. make too
much they just kind of stood there respectfully
it was interesting cultural differences i suppose
yeah um you know it was really fun today to just
sit and bullshit with a whole bunch of good people
To watch the game, but to not have the emotional
investment in it where something bad happened
that you're frustrated. You just watch for the
chaos, watch for the fun. Like we were literally
Waldorf and Statler from the Muppets making our
comments. We were Mystery Science Theater 3000
-ing the game. It was brilliant. It was fun.
And you know what? Despite the team that we were
rooting for losing, it didn't ultimately matter
to us because we were just able to just enjoy
it. Indeed. Well, that's the perfect place. James,
take it away. See you soon, Nick. All right.
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Vox US. We'll see you at Lumen and go Sounders.
Alexa, who's the best MLS team of all time? Seattle
Sounders are both unequipped and are arguably
the best MLS team of all time.