He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say he's cheating. Welcome to Sounders
Scuttlebutt. I'm Aaron Lingley. And, as usual,
I'm joined by a few of our Alliance Council friends.
We have Secretary Cameron Collins. How are you
doing, my friend? I'm doing good. I was told
earlier today by someone on Alliance Council,
they're here for my I -don't -give -a -fuck era.
And that's where I'm at. Oh. For the record,
it wasn't me. No, it wasn't. It was not you.
And for the record, that is Alliance Council
extraordinaire, the title I've given him. Nicholas
Biela. Hello. How are you, my friend? I'm doing
okay. I also was in the Alliance Council meeting
tonight. And so we are recording rather late
to start off for this Thursday or Tuesday night.
Scuttlebutt late night. It's your favorite. Brown
liquor special. That's not my pants zipper. Yeah,
are you sure? What's happening? We can't see
it. It is below the screen for us. That just
came up. That's my beer. It just popped up. I
mean, I am wearing sweatpants. Oh my goodness.
I'm going to open my Liquid Death first because
they should sponsor us. I was going to say, at
this point, I think you're 9 out of 10 times
drinking on Liquid Death. Sorry, everyone. This
is a zipper that goes all the way around. Why
don't you talk to me a little bit in that nice
sultry voice you've got there, Aaron. Open that
beer. That had serious tell -em -large -marge
-sensha vibes. Oh, there's a movie reference
I get. All right, I have a new one. I went to
my local BevMo. I love BevMo. I love it, too.
It's like Toys R Us for adults, now that Toys
R Us isn't there anymore. Total Beer and Wine
is like the superstore, though. Toys R Us as
in it being a kid where a kid can be a kid? Yeah.
Yeah, but most of an adult can be an adult. Oh,
okay. Yeah. Anyway, so I found this. I like IPAs,
even though you think it's a fad, Cameron. Didn't
you say that? I don't think it's... I mean, I
think it's a fad in that it got very popular
and people put out too many. Cameron's a non
-believer. I am. Although I will say... I will
say the other day I had a pale ale that was not
an Indian pale ale that was a different kind
of pale ale from... What's the name of that bar
that Haley's husband works at, Nicholas, where
we had our... Sea Pine? Sea pine. I had a sea
pine pale ale. It was a different kind. And holy
fuck, it was fantastic. Sea pine does good stuff.
Sea pine. They are good. Go check it out. Not
very far from the stadiums. No, it's right behind
another great place, Westland Distillery. So
I want to drink my beer. So I found this 15 -pack
1 .5. Jesus. Never seen that before for $19 .99
in this economy. Come on. I'm going to do it.
It's from Founders out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
So the Midwesterners made this all -day IPA.
It's a Session IPA. Citrusy, crisp, and refreshing.
So, Nicholas, can you tell us what Session means?
This is a word that comes up a lot. Well, I feel
like it means that you're going to get a lisp.
Because... What was that? It just exploded all
over him and started foaming out of his mouth.
You know, this is not good for founders. I've
had this in the fridge for at least two hours.
There's no reason this should be happening to
me. But to answer your question, usually sessions
are lower in alcohol so you can crush them. I
was going to get there until I got soaked. And
that's kind of the point and why I wanted this.
That's kind of cool. So like on a hot day, that's
what you'd want to drink. Yeah. I mean, for me,
hot day, I'm looking for the Rattlers, which
are even lower than that, you know, under 3%,
usually mixed with fruit juice, like a grapefruit
Rattler, Stiegel, Schoffenhofer, those are my
faves. You know what I've been having lately
with a friend of mine who is... Every other week
staying in my guest bedroom because they're going
through a divorce and needs a place to live every
other week while custody issues happen is both.
You heard it here first, folks. So we've been
drinking a lot. And we had. I should come over.
What are those? We had fresca with tequila, so
we made our own Palomas, basically. Yeah, okay.
So that was good, but light tequila. Or you grab
one of those fancy ciders everyone loves. Oh,
I was going to say squirt. Yeah, tequila squirt.
Tequila squirt. The fresca for the grapefruit
one. But no, the white claw. Get a white claw,
and you throw some fresca with it. Get it a little
bit less alcoholic, and then you can just drink
it all day long. Fresca is so underrated. I lived
off that at my grandpa's house. Such a fantastic
beverage. I mean, if you're going Midwestern,
then it's more like Burners. Burners has a lot
of sugar in it. Burners? Burners. Oh, Burners.
Is that delicious? Wow. We are just all over
the map today. Well, I'm going Midwest for you.
Okay. Gosh. All right, yeah. Anyway, it's good.
I mean, it's 4 .7. I wanted to have, like, more
than two beers, and lately when I've had alcohol
on the show, it's been high ABVs, and I've just
been like, I want to crush them with you as I
watch you drink your Rainiers. I mean, that's
why I drink the Rainier, because I can have a
few. You're immune to them at this point. I like
them. The big thing, though, is just when you're
drinking, you know, now that I'm in my 40s, when
you're drinking those, you got to make sure that
before you go to bed to empty your bladder, because
if you, if you don't, you're going to wake up
with like a sore back and it takes like an hour
of sore back. Yeah. Yeah. That hasn't happened
to me yet. I get sore just from sleeping, whether
I'm drinking or not. So I don't know what you're
talking about. Cameron, you get sore from walking
by a bush. I don't understand, but what happened
to you today before the show you told me? Oh
yeah. I mean, I have like poison Ivy on both
of my calves right now. Oh. Yeah. And that's
sore, is it not? That is sore, you're right.
Yeah. I am inflamed. All right, soccer. Let's
talk soccer. What's going on? You guys were just
at Alliance Council, so I know. Tell us what
you can tell us. Before we get to that real quick,
Club World Cup, Chelsea won 2 -0 today over Fluminense.
How do you say that? I'm a little bummed about
that. No, it was absolutely amazing. Both goals
scored by a guy who used to play for them. So
that was kind of interesting. Like Clippy Ploppy?
They each... Same guy scored both. Oh, never
mind. I heard it differently. So it was a 2 -0
win, meaning one half of teams that I've supported
for 25 years, and them I've supported since 1995.
So what's that, 30 years ago? is in the World
Club World Cup final. And tomorrow at noon, PSG
plays against Real Madrid to give me a chance
to have a team I've supported for 25 years make
it into the Club World Cup final. And then I
don't know who I root for. I guess Chelsea, right?
Probably. Because PSG did win Champions League,
so they got their trophy. Oh yeah, you've got
to balance out your portfolio, right? That's
why you have a diverse one. Instead of just loving
one club like me. Maybe I'll share it in the
Discord. If you are not a member of our Discord,
please go join it. It's fun. There's lots of
cool people and conversations going on. But you
can actually buy a replica of the Club World
Cup trophy with a picture of the Sounders behind
it that says qualified. Yeah, I like the trophy.
I don't know if I need that considering we just
qualified. I view it as more of an event because
I was there. Yeah. No, and that's completely
fair. And with that said, I've got a great picture
of me with the actual trophy and Roma and Bernie,
and I love it. But yeah, I think I'm more likely
to buy the World Cup trophy thing that you showed
me earlier this week. The World what? The World
Cup trophy. Yeah, they're selling a little...
I heard World Cuck. Yes, the World Cup trophy.
Have a seat in that chair. I would say about
two to three inches tall, maybe two and a half
inches. That's probably why he's a World Cup.
World Cup trophy, but it is heavy -duty metal.
It was a really cool trophy. It's expensive,
but they have them over at the... What's that
shop directly across from our pro shop? On the
Field? On the Field, correct. So that was cool.
We did... We did have an Alliance Council meeting
tonight, though. That is correct. A lot of private
stuff coming up, but a few things, I mean, stuff
we can't make public yet, I should say, but a
few things we can talk about is that the Council
is taking part, of course, in the scarf vote
for the scarf that season ticket holders will
be able to choose with their season ticket package,
so keep an eye out for information on that moving
forward. We had some great discussion around
the fact that people only get one account. Per
account, they only get one MLS season pass code
rather than per ticket. And so we're going to
look into whether that is a Sounders thing or
if that's how all the teams are doing it or if
that's Apple, is it the league, what's behind
that. I mean, the reality is there's an argument
to be made that if you have two tickets, you
might even be better off just putting them on
two separate accounts as two single tickets.
I mean, especially if... I mean, that's what
people will do. Some. Others will just be too
much of a hassle. But I mean, you could just
put ticket in Roma's name then. Yeah. You know,
so... then you're getting to account things.
But the question is, if you do that, if you split
it off to someone else, do they lose their status
in terms of how many tickets they have and how
long you've had them? So that, of course, is
a question. Well, that would affect for the inaugural
season, but everyone else shouldn't matter too
much. Although I know you can split accounts.
You could be like, hey, this is going to be my...
This is my burner account. My seatmate. I mean,
I used to have three tickets, but two were original
and one I picked up later when Rich was sitting
next to me. And they did not give me original
season ticket pricing for all three tickets,
only my two original ones, and then I had to
pay more. for the third ticket, which was kind
of frustrating. You'd think if you added one,
you'd be able to get it at your other price because
you're adding to the same account. I disagree.
I think that would be the legacy purchase. I
think they would have sold a lot more tickets
if they'd done it the other way. I think they
made a huge mistake because people would add
more tickets. That's not the hell I'm going to...
I'm okay with that one. That's like when you
buy your house in 1972, but you add an addition
15 years later. You can't just be like, this
is the house we grew up in. The difference in
price isn't that much. It's like $10 a game.
I mean, the ticket next to me that I let go...
It's a sentimental thing. The ticket next to
me that I let go, except for the two seasons
I had it, has been empty every season but two.
So there's literally a seat that's going unsold
every single game. Because the Sounders don't
want to give it to me at the inaugural season.
That's not true. There was a sellout. They've
never sold that ticket, so it's never been a
true sellout then. So you'll be our sellout debunker.
Nope, it was empty today. Although I am going
to buy it for Wednesday against Colorado for
my nephew, who got in trouble and is being shipped
off to Seattle for being a bad boy. Or... So
they send them to the punk rock parade. Or you
could just buy the cheapest get -in -the -door
ticket since no one's in that seat. Yeah, that
is something I could do, but... You could. I'm
not going to pay for the ticket. My parents are,
as his grandparents, so I'll let them decide
that. This sounds like a really good lesson learned
here. You do bad and then... My grandpa will
buy a ticket for you and you'll be able to go
to a game together. Here's the thing is, he doesn't
get to hang out with his friends now because
he's here and that's what he's mostly upset about.
So your time out, how does that make you feel?
Yeah, I don't know. That's weird. I mean, this
is like the plot of every 80s teen comedy. I
know, yeah. You guys are going to go back in
time. Are we going to get, like, young Demi Moore
for, like, one crazy summer? Or are we going
to get, like... Or, like, a Ferris Bueller type
thing on your way to the stadium. Just in the
car, march the match. Anyway. Okay. Was there
anything else? I think that was predominantly
what's going on. I mean, there's a few other
small things. You know, of course, the Circle
of Legends Hall of Fame. It's happening soon,
and there will be votes on it. There's no information
to be public about that, but keep an eye out
on that if you're a Sounders season ticket holder.
The new, what's it called, the throwback week
is coming up. That just got announced, didn't
it? They announced that they're having a throwback
week, yeah. Today at 2 .40 p .m. on their website.
Yeah, so they're going to do a lot of cool events
for it. I don't know. I haven't seen any information
about that that I can neither confirm nor deny.
I'm literally on the website right now. SoundersFC
.com, the archive collection. Okay. Okay. So
whatever it says, you can publicly speak to it.
Speak to it publicly. Sounders FC today announced
its first ever throwback week later this month
as the club turns back the clock and brings a
wave of 90s nostalgia to Lumen Field during the
home matches. A third kid that connects the club's
past to its future. Yep. Yep, exactly. Cool.
So it's not showing the kit. So that's probably
where the demarcation is. It is saying news that
they're saying, cue our shocked Pikachu face,
Cameron. The new kit is debuting at Seattle Throwback
Week home matches on July 16th versus Colorado
and July 19th versus San Jose. I had no idea.
What the heck? Did I just break this and I'm
not in the landscape? Even though it's on their
website. I broke it to you. Yes, I did not know
this could be happening. Aaron, this is such
a shock to me. Oh, my goodness. It should be
the president. Yeah. Never mind. I'm not going
to go there. So here's the deal. If it is publicly
announced by the club, we can start talking about
it. We still can't talk about any details about
the jersey because that is not public information.
The fact that they're... wearing the jersey on
these days we can talk about that so it's kind
of griffey's wearing the jersey in the picture
griffey's wearing something that looks like it's
from the 90s uh this isn't fun for me anymore
And Cameron's in full lawyer mode, just turned
to stone. He's just looking down at his penis.
When you sign an NDA, you live up to the NDA
you signed. That's exactly right. Teachers, pet.
No, that's not how it works. That's not quite
how that works. Really? But I will say this.
So, as they state, items from the archive collection.
will be available for purchase at the Pro Shop
and MLSstore .com starting on July 16th. Now,
this is your reminder for anything related to
awesome items from the club. Go to the store.
Go to the store. Go to the Pro Shop. Call them
if you can't go in person. Call them. They will
ship it to you. They will hold onto it for you
at the store. They can take your card information
over the phone. One, the MLSstore .com, I believe,
is partnered by Fanatics. Yep. And every single
time I hear issues of, oh, I ordered this, and
then two weeks later they told me that they dropped
the order, canceled the order, and now it's not
available anywhere. Just don't do that. Trust
me, if you like what you see and you're interested,
call the store. Not only that, but also there
are... the the it's just the finances for that
go directly to the sounders yeah they go to the
club rather and the sounders don't get anything
from the online sales yeah yeah now i will say
last time we did buy our shoes directly from
adidas because remember they accidentally launched
them early and they took it down but they still
honored our orders and sent them early yes so
i showed up to the uh annual business meeting
that i was hosting with the shoes on before they
were supposed to be publicly available but adidas
released them so it wasn't ruining anything the
gazelles right yes yeah yes and so just just
know occasionally people let things out early
so keep an eye out uh we won't tell you that
but maybe our discord might because we we obviously
will never break an nda but other people could
yeah they didn't sign one so fans fans have all
this speculation but i will never comment on
a jersey leak or anything like that because it's
not something that we do because even if i say
it's not then i'm confirming that it's not right
yeah like we just don't comment on it like oh
like even oh it that's not that's not accurate
or oh the yeah it's just and then usually i can
tell you in general they're just not accurate
but we won't comment on them after the fact it'll
be like yeah look how bad that was but that's
often the case that they get it wrong. Yeah.
For example, we can look to the Salish Sea Kit.
The previews that footy headlines were not even
close. They're completely wrong. Colors were
close, but not even right. Yeah. So it's just
interesting on that. So take things with grains
of salt, but be excited and have fun with it.
Part of the fun is the speculation. That's the
trade -off for us is we get to have our hand
involved in the process, but we don't get to
be part of the speculation. So there's the trade
-off there. Yeah, that is the bummer. But you
know what? It just means that the Salish Sea
Kit comes out, and we're excited that you get
to see and enjoy something that... not only have
we known about for several years, we had direct
input on and did some really important things
to ensure it wasn't enhancing certain parts of
our body that we didn't want enhanced. I mean,
you're not wrong. I mean, it doesn't need enhancing
because it's so awesome. We're talking about
my dick. Okay, then. Well, I was trying to time
that specifically for Aaron in the middle of
a drink. I didn't need a spit take. McCann is
doing it for me for the third opening in a row.
Yeah, so founders all day. So I think that's
everything from a community perspective we have
to talk about, yeah? I can't think of anything
else that... Right now, yeah, I think that's...
Oh, no, no, no, no. I have some big news. that
at the last Sounders match, the Sounders had
signs up and a tent set up for the Vamos Sounders
Club, which is a club specifically tailored towards,
all fans are eligible for this club, but it's
specifically tailored for Spanish -speaking Sounders
fans. And so really excited about that. And basically,
it's a fan club launch to celebrate the Spanish
-speaking community, invite new fans into the
Sounders FC family, similar to the first match
on us. And it's an expression of, you know, belonging
in our... in our community here. Some of the
benefits will include a Vamo Sounders Club member
cap, some access to exclusive events, experiences
with Spanish -speaking Sounders players, which
is great. We definitely want to see more stuff
like that. We want to see more outreach in the
Latin community, Latin American community here
in Seattle. So it's really, really cool to see
that. And it is a free membership, so feel free
to join in. And there will be QR codes at the
Sounders matches for that. I don't think they've
launched it on their website outside of if you
had the QR code. Did you just hide a burp? I
did. I did. That was really impressive. You,
like, breathed in when you, I was, that was a
dance. Yeah, I was in the middle of that for
sure. But that's also going to be big if you're
a fan of League's Cup. So if you want to see
Sounders taking on Cruz Azul, don't do it, Cameron.
There you go. There you go. There we go. And
then all communications. You can sign up to the
website, though. Correct. And all communications
for this will be in Spanish. So that's fantastic.
It's soundersfc .com slash vamos dash sounders.
And so the League's Cup offer will be two free
tickets for a League's Cup game and additional
tickets will be $15 each limit to up to four
tickets per member. And do you know what? I'm
not going to get exactly right, but there's something
to do with the Sounders match September 13th
against the LA Galaxy as well. Correct, yeah.
So there's going to be a Vamos Sounders Club
-themed gathering on September 13th against the
Galaxy. The club, to my knowledge, if I remember
correctly, are specifically targeting specific
games that will be... um of higher interest for
for the community yep and and uh i all i have
to say is because i don't speak spanish i'm sorry
my i i took i took four years in high school
i took three years three semesters in college
thank dude the problem for me is that with my
hearing problem hearing Spanish is always really
tough for me, and it always was. So I can read
and write it better than I can speak it. Interesting.
But it's also I don't use it enough, so I never
feel super confident in it. And I always feel
like an awful person. That's a problem with the
way we teach our children languages. We wait
until they're in their most self -conscious period
of their life. to practice another language versus
elementary school. I started in third grade.
Well, okay. Most public schools don't. It's usually
high school. I do think, and that's usually too
late to start learning a language. I mean, you
can do it, but you usually want to start earlier.
I will say, though, and part of it is because
I have a degree in French, but living in California,
I do understand the gist of Spanish at times
and can occasionally read it. but I cannot speak
it. Hey, guys. I live on Rancho's Peña Esquitos
Drive. I am basically bilingual up here. By up
here, I mean in San Diego. I do want to take
a moment to shout out the awesome James Willard.
I said this earlier tonight that in a very terse
tone that I get frustrated that James Willard
might as well pronounce his name correctly. Willard.
It's okay. I spelled it wrong when he won a public
award a few years ago. But he got criticized
for the way he was pronouncing someone's name
when he's pronouncing it exactly like it says
to pronounce it on the pronunciation sheet given
by our club and or other clubs. And so for me,
you're going to do the official pronunciation
you get. That's his job. His job is to literally
read it as it's. So if you have a problem with
it, I mean, go talk to the club. Don't get on
James' case. Don't go on Facebook and Twitter
and start harassing him. It's armoire. Yeah,
I mean, at least he's not saying tacos like that
first British guy they tried to give us. His
fake British accent is much better than that
guy's. Who is that? I don't know. The first year,
they had a different British guy who said tacos
instead of tacos. Was that? Really? Yeah. We
got James. You're just being relegated to that
British guy. No, not James. No, I know, but you're
just lumping him in. No, that other British guy.
There's James, and then there's some other British
guy. But no, but wasn't Arlo our first? No, he
was our first. No, he was actually our second
announcer because our first announcer was in
stadium. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait. I got a fun trivia question for you.
As Cameron said, Kevin Calabro was our first
announcer. So legendary, legendary play -by -play
announcer in American sports. Who? Well, he said
British. That's why I brought up Harlow. Was
his color man in the first year? Well, he was
actually the color guy for... the guy that was
before him with the Sonics. Eventually, Marcus
Johnson took over and was his... Oh, you're not
talking about when he was first working for the
Sonics? No, I am talking about when Greg Vanney
was... Never would have gotten that. No way.
Greg Vanney was on the broadcast for the Sounders
in the first year. Greg Van... And was his nephew
on the Sounders at that time? Was Eric Zavalletta
on the first season Sounders? Or did he come
later? No, he was later. He was later. Wait.
What? Like coach of Toronto and then eventually
L .A., Greg Vanney. Yeah. Yeah. Eric Zevalet
is his nephew and has followed him to all his
teams after he left school. That makes sense,
actually. Toronto, but also what? Yeah. Greg
Vanney. That's interesting. The Toronto connections.
Well, it's crazy because he had just recently
retired. His last season was 2008, so 2009. In
2009, he was with the Sounders and then went
on to his professional coaching career. That's
great. I love Kevin Calabro, though. He's still
doing it in Portland, as far as I know. They
replaced him for a year, and then he came back.
Oh, Zavaleta? No. Wait, who? Wait, what? Kevin
Calabro. Oh, Calabro. Yeah. Arlo, if he came
back, would do the Chicago Fire. Unfortunately.
Well, he did, actually. He did a few games with
them. He did some games, yeah. But he didn't
do full -time. Yeah. But doesn't he know that
he's in our intro? Yeah. I'm sure he does. One
of the best calls. Yeah. I don't even know what
goal that was, but just the... It's incredible.
So, yeah. So that's still homework for you, by
the way. That's still homework for you, Aaron,
that you need to take our intro and kind of give
little bookends and where the Easter eggs are
for each of those moments. I was actually thinking,
how do we create... That should be our listeners.
Yeah. How do we create a cool little intro for
the Ultras episodes that are going to come out
that's different? I was going to use the same
one. I'm like, you know what? We should make
a different one. Yeah. No, I have... That's actually...
That's happening. Yes. That's what's up. It's
happening. I just need to... Are we good on the
Almost Sounders Club? Yeah, yeah. The big thing
is I don't think we can link to it just yet.
It's live on the website. I understand that,
but the club did mention that they want to...
Yeah, they're promoting... Being in control of
their initial promotion. So for now, if you're
at the games, go to the tent and scan the QR
code, but we're not going to post the link just
yet. Yeah, most, I mean, if we posted it, most
web traffic would probably flow through us, based
on our... And how important we are. Aren't we
the number one podcast? Three, I think, number
three. In the world. So... Before we start, because
we'll take a break here and then we'll come back,
I do want to hit one thing. It was part of our
mailbag and it should be something that we talk
about at the top of the show is Stephen Fry.
We should also, Nicholas... I was expecting to
just save that for the second half. Let's get
to it, but I will say, Nicholas, do note that
we need to get to Death Watch, unfortunately,
as well, because so many people have died since
our last episode. Stephan Fry, we did have a
question. Let's space those two things out, by
the way. Stephan Fry is alive. Stephan is alive
and well. Let's clarify. Listener Yaya asked,
how's Stephan? And so the press conference today
with Brian said that he tested negative on his
CT scan, which is wonderful news. He is in concussion
protocol. He could be in it for a while. We saw
how long it took for Christian to come out of
it, but that doesn't mean it will take that long.
It could be as soon as five to seven days in
theory. I mean, three to five really, but come
on. So for the foreseeable future, he will not
be playing for us, but he came and he was told,
hey, you don't need, Schmetzer was texting him.
Hey man, take your time. You don't need to show
up. He showed up at practice today. He came out
and was a leader. was there to support the team.
And so such a huge looming presence for our team.
And just, I'd be interested to see what you think,
Nicholas, but I know for me, that was a difficult
moment when he went down and wasn't moving. And
then you saw him get turned over and he did,
I forget, you might know the name, but when your
hands involuntarily come up, like towards your
neck. Yeah, the fencing response. Yeah. And so
when I saw that, I was like, oh, God. And, you
know, it's not just that he's our goalie. It's
not just that he's a good person. It's also that
I've got to spend time with him. You know, I
was on the COVID relief committee with him. There's
a reason he's our captain. He has done so much
in the community. He has done so much for ECS
publicly and privately. Come and talk to you.
I've come out to events, and he's been there,
and he's open about it. Even when he was doing
his contract docs, talking to us about what he
was going through and where he was at. I mean,
this dude is such a giving, amazing person. So
it was more than just watching. an athlete go
down and and you saw the way not only the sounders
reacted columbus yeah they were they were distraught
too yeah i mean yeah the other the other things
that were i was not in the building when zakawani
got injured yeah that was in colorado but that
did i mean as i was there for his first game
back but yeah yeah with steve every single day
that was the first thing or not that day sorry
every week uh because i was helping run his uh
non -profit at that time that's the first thing
i thought of was it took me right back to steve's
injury and it was very upsetting yeah um one
of the things uh that i thought was really something
and you can see see it on some of the videos
that are posted when they're they're looking
at his you know him being loaded on the ambulance
is hearing the stadium Stefan and that just gave
me chills. Yeah. But I think the video didn't
do justice to exactly how loud it was. Well,
given that the video was being taken from the,
the, that North end of the stadium, I think that's
pretty impressive. I mean, I sit on like the
45 year old man in that sign and it was as loud
as any other chant I've ever heard in that stadium.
The whole stadium was going like, I mean, I was,
I was obviously I'm in San Diego. I was watching
it on Apple TV. It was. It was pretty, it's pretty
apparent how loud it was. I think also in contrast
to how silent it was. Yes. Because every single
human being in that stadium, like you were saying,
has a connection with Stephen Fry unlike most
other sounders. There's only probably one hand
we can count for the ones that are. Well, yeah,
I mean, he's literally the longest tenured sounder.
Even one Christian? Yeah, he came in 2014. Christian
came in 2015. Wow. Yeah, because keep in mind,
we acquired Stephen Fry the same day as Chad
Marshall. Interesting. That was a good day in
Sounders history. And it was interesting because
he had been hurt and had been hurt several times
and lost his starting job in Toronto. So it was
his second chance for a first chance, really.
And he took it on. Although early on, remember
his, his distribution was not the best, but everything
else he did perfectly. Which is keeping balls
out of the goal. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, that
was, it was, I think I'm hoping based off of
the last couple of days that, you know, it looked
worse than it did. It looked worse than it was,
than it was. Because it looked as it was weird
though, too. It's like that. didn't seem like
a typical, I mean, he didn't need to get anywhere
near the ball. You know, it was almost like he
ran into a crowd of, of, of players versus. Yeah.
He ran and looked odd. Like I'd never seen him
do it that way. I was surprised. And maybe that's
why that they called it a. Corner kick rather
than a foul. I thought, well, of course, like.
I was like, why wouldn't they stop the game?
Because all they're going to do is bring in Andy,
and he's just going to kick it, and the game's
going to be over. This is stupid. But then the
discussion was around, well, it's because it's
a corner kick, and Columbus should have had one
more. I think technically that is the right call,
because Stefan made contact. That's what was
weird about it. It wasn't like he went up and
got undercut or anything like that. No, yeah,
like Columbus did nothing wrong. Like, did nothing
wrong. The player. No, no, no. I didn't know
that at the time, though, right? This was my
live thoughts. Yeah, yeah. And I'm using Columbus
as a whole because I definitely want to talk
a little bit about Wilford Nancy being just yet.
That's pretty cool. We were already talking about
how much we respected him last week in last week's
episode. Take the respect I had going into the
game for how great of a coach and how he's probably
the best coach in MLS. I think that match as
a whole showed that was the pudding to that proof.
He's a very talented coach, and he's also a class
act. So they've got something good over there.
I think we have something good over here. It
was exactly the kind of responses I would want
to see from my club and from the people involved,
with the exception of the ref. I mean, I will
say this. Someone in my section started chanting,
you suck, ref. when everyone was silent and that
that one frustrated me because this is chris
i mean uh stefan's moment that we need to worry
about yeah but also i thought the ref overall
besides that flub at the end was fine and we'll
get more into it compared to the average mls
ref i mean i think he messed up i think christian
deserved a second yellow and should have had
a red and i think kalani did not deserve a second
yellow and shouldn't have got a red but beyond
that I mean, he was better than 90 % of the MLS
refs we get. I mean, my theory is very much that
he realized in the moment that Kalani's second
yellow was soft. Because it looked to me like
he was reaching for the second yellow with Christian's
foul and pulled it back when he realized, I don't
really want to send off a second player. So I
think that was kind of a... His version of a
make -up call. And was that not the foul that
led directly to the free kick where Stephan got
injured? I didn't think about that. I think that
was. I think you're right. I'm pretty sure because
that was one of the last moments of the game.
Although it might have gone the other direction
and then came back the other way. I'd have to
look at it again. It's been too long now. It
was very late in the game. But anyways, want
to go to break? Yeah. Yeah, let's go to break.
Yeah. Listen, Patreon. Do it. Woo. Woo. Hey,
everybody. This is one of your hosts, Cameron
Collins. Now, I know we said this time's time
for a break, but really... It's a time for me
to talk to you about our corporate overlords.
And our corporate overlords are us. That's right.
We would love it if you would head on over to
patreon .com and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast. We will put the link here in the show.
And subscribe. You can subscribe for as little
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Well, I guarantee you get at least one extra
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Podcast over at patreon .com p -a -t -r -e -o
-n dot c -o -m. Now back to your regularly scheduled
programming. Before we get to the Sounders match,
we're going to try to see if Aaron can drink
more beer without getting soaked. So I'm going
to do the whole house party trick of tapping
it. You guys really wanted me to hit record before
this happened. Have you seen the shows about
how the tapping doesn't actually work? No, I
haven't seen the shows about tapping beer. I
still tap it, despite the fact I know scientifically
it does not do anything to help it. So when are
you going to tap the beer? Because right now
you're just jerking off in front of us and it's
really awkward. That's inappropriate. Yeah, I
agree. Always making it inappropriate, Nick.
I would have said this is inappropriate. Oh,
what a weak sauce. Opened it slowly. Uh -oh,
uh -oh. It's foaming. I put it slowly because
I saw the phone coming. All day. It doesn't work.
I should have watched the shows. No wonder it
was $15 .19. You know what? You might as well
have just gotten the Walgreens brand beer they
used to have. I would love to have a Walgreens
brand beer. That would be so interesting. They
did. I think it was like $4 .99 a 12 -pack or
$5 .99 a 12 -pack. Well, that's probably worse
for you than any other beer. It was incredibly
not good, but... Guaranteed to get kidney stones.
Oh, Big Flats. Here you go. Big Flats. Big Flats.
$2 .99 for a six -pack. That's like 1980s prices.
He got 1980s prices right now. Wow. Okay, no.
No. It's the water that makes it. So let's get
to the match. Let's get to the match. Wait, wait,
wait. Do we want to real quick answer the question
here in the Discord mailbag or do we want to
leave that for after? Do it. Okay. With Morris
healthy, what's the optimal starting front four
and sub pattern? I really felt they fell off
a cliff when Ferreira moved to the 10 after Albert
subbed off last match. Should they try PDLV or
Leyva at the backup 10? You're not going to put
Leyva as the backup 10. There's too many talented
attackers ahead of him. I also thought Pedro
was playing the 10. When I was watching him out
there, he was at the 10. Patrick, by the way,
GC, shout out for the... the comment, but maybe
that's, maybe I wasn't watching closely enough.
Yeah. I mean, I, I, this is a question that,
that was answered at the annual business meeting
by our GM, which asked, why aren't our DPs playing?
Uh, for me, that's what I was. Yeah. I mean,
I, I would like to see Ryan Kent and Pedro de
la Vega out there. I don't know how you bench
Rothrock at this moment though, but I think both
of those players need more minutes and they should
be starting because until you get them consistent
minutes, they're not going to be able to do anything
because they need the damn minutes to do stuff.
So to me, I guess it's Jordan up top, Kent on
the right, Rothrock on the left with Pedro coming
in at the 10 to back up Russ Mack. Yep. Yep.
That's what it is. I mean, Leiva's great at passing,
but I don't know. He's more of a center mid,
center defensive mid than a center attacking
mid. So he'd be more of a six or traditional
10, and we don't play the traditional 10. Considering
our inability to consistently score multiple
goals, I want consistency at the top. four, five,
three, whatever is going to be the right sequence
of players. And we haven't figured that out yet.
But that's the lineup I want to see because we've
invested in Pedro de la Vega. We've invested
in Ryan Kent, who is replacing Paul Areola, who
was doing exactly what we need that area to do.
And then you'll have to... I will die on the
hill if that Rusnak is our... is our heartbeat
of any sort of offense that we can do right now.
I think he would be better in a different system,
but he's still, he's still the best we got going.
Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, he's got seven goals,
three assists. Yeah. He's, but if we played through
the middle more, instead of going through the
wings, he would have more goals and way more
assists. So I want to see consistency with those
four. And Jordan should be healthy enough to
start. And with Obed announcing the U22, we're
not bringing in a U22 number nine. So that dream
is dashed. I guess not announced. Sorry, we're
being reported by Nico Moreno. I don't think
that's accurate. We might bring in a number 9,
but he's not going to be a starting number 9.
Well, that was never really... Well, I don't
follow how that would... If Obed's a U22, that's
a starter as a U22. Obviously, we can't bring
in... We have the space for multiple U22s. Okay.
Because if we are using... If we are making Obed
a U22... it's giving him a salary bump but presumably
that would not take place until after his option
is exercised which i think they said they were
going to exercise they're exercising an option
that's what i mean yeah but but we still had
two other u22 spaces and That wouldn't give him
an immediate pay bump. It would just give him
a pay bump at the end. Well, I guess I'd have
to see how things are structured. It's all about
the structuring of it. There is a way that they
could do it where it doesn't kick in until next
year. Exactly. And I think that's how you would
do it. When people are announced to contract
extensions, they don't get a raise immediately.
They get it at the end of their current contract.
It depends on if you're dealing with contracts
that are guaranteed or not. Oftentimes, you will
front load a signing with money because then
the guaranteed money up front allows you to hit
the cap in a different way, especially in certain
other sports. That's how Tom Brady was never
the highest paid quarterback and yet still making
bank. It's not quite the same, but there is ways
to do it. NFL might be the simplest. Miami's
bringing in a $30 million player, potentially
in this window, not as a DP, who then will be
a DP next year once Sergio Buckets is gone. Sergio
Buckets. I mean, for me, it's... I mean, honestly,
I'd like to see MLS do what the NHL did with
Ilya Kovalchuk, where... Basically, Atlanta tried
to sign Kovalchuk to, this is how long ago it
is, we're talking about a team that no longer
exists. Atlanta tried to sign Kovalchuk to like
a 10 -year contract and back end all of that
to the end of the contract, clearly circumventing
the intent of the rule. And NHL just stood and
said, nope, nope, we're not allowing that. And
they got to stop that with this. with what LAFC,
Miami has done, where, yeah, it's in the technicalities,
but it's not the spirit of what these rules are
for. I don't agree with Miami. Miami had to trade
players in order to get those spots. I blame
Minnesota for trading them all that extra money
space. You know what I mean? They had to develop
that money. from getting rid of players. Yeah,
but I'm talking about the Gareth Bale bullshit.
Yeah, Gareth Bale. When they send Batman down
there. When Christian Bale was signed to the
LAFC. Dude, the dude is a hell of a method actor.
He was going to take in his latest role. I know,
that's what I'm saying. I believe it. I mean,
I agree with you. I think what that does, though,
is usually has... long -ranging ramifications.
That's the question, though. The Dodgers are
never going to have to get punished for the Otani
contract. Correct. Despite the fact they're going
to owe him money forever. The Mets are still
paying Bobby Bonilla. No, no, no. I think Bonilla
Day is finally over. Was this the last one? Yeah,
it was last weekend. I'm pretty sure Bonilla's
contract is finally done. Brian Bosworth is finally
done. He was paid for decades afterwards. But,
I mean, yeah. To me, I mean, okay. Oh, no, I'm
wrong. 2035, my bad. Oh, my God. I think this
comes down to a question that we got before,
which is, is it time to move on from both Adrian
and Coach? This is from Tim Hamilton. Long thing
to it, but that's basically what he said. How
do you tell the landlord to move out? I mean,
I have heard from many people, including people
in the press who would never say this publicly,
that if Adrian isn't going to invest in this
team so we can win, he needs to sell the team.
I think Nicholas and I get to see a side of Adrian
that other people don't. We know how passionate
he is. We know how much he loves the team. I
don't agree with him necessarily that spending
money wisely... He doesn't think spending money
has any correlation to winning. I was going to
say wisely is your key component to that. And
I think you should spend money wisely. I agree
with the overall concept that both Garth and
Craig has. That's why I don't blame Craig. But
I do think we are underspending and we're going
to have a Pete Carroll situation where the Seahawks...
just eking into the playoffs every year and never
winning championships and we haven't won a championship
i mean we've won two in the last decade okay
and this is where my counterpoint is people are
reading what they want to read they see what
they want to see and Since our last championship,
our last MLS Cup, we're going to just completely
ignore Champions League winning, apparently.
But since our last MLS Cup championship in 2019,
we finished second, second, 11th, the year we
won Champions League, second and fourth. How
many MLS Cups did we win? We've been in an MLS
Cup final. We've been in the final four. Go ahead.
No, back up an inch. Physically from your microphone.
Yeah, I gotcha, I gotcha. I'm just, I, there
are 30 teams in Major League Soccer, one gets
to win every year. How many times have we been
in, say this number, because this is the impressive
one, how many times have we been in the Western
Conference Final? A lot. It's most of those years.
Yeah, including last year. So I would rather
be in a strong position to make a run every year,
finishing top. Our average since 2019, our average
finish is 3 .8, and that includes the year we
finished 11th. And I think our all -time finish
is... probably high twos because it was two before
we missed the playoffs. Yeah. And so, so, so
the consistency is, is definitely to me, it trumps,
I would rather be us than LA galaxy who had just
won a championship. I would rather this than
the bipolar winning MLS cup and being an absolute
fucking embarrassment. I. Aaron, where are you
on that? Would you take being terrible? I lean
more towards Nicholas mainly because I like to
watch more often winning than losing. And there's
hope every season when you have a team that can
reach a quality team that can reach the Western
Conference Finals. If your team can reach the
Western Conference Finals every year, there's
always hope that you're going to win the cup,
right? You're one of the favorites. In hindsight,
it's frustrating to look back and be like, God,
we just finished and don't. We get there and
don't actually finish. We just finish high. I
think in terms of just the health of everything,
we kind of need a little bit of that Joe Roth,
Dempsey. We need a little bit of splash that
it still sounders. That's, I think, where the
wisely needs to come in, because I think there's
a lull right now, and I think it's mostly visible.
The easiest thing to see is the stands. We are
still a lot of... We're still a lot. I think
things are different if Areola is playing, though,
based on what we were seeing out of him. I mean,
so... I hope so, but that... But then we'll never
know that. But here's the thing, though. And
Kent's not the same thing. You know what I mean,
though. There needs to be something splashy but
still sound. My argument about the consistency
and the fact that we're doing really well, I
will acknowledge this, that we have to be making
moves. We have to keep making moves and smart
moves because in these years, we've always had...
Since, let's say, since Clint Dempsey, we've
had Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Nico Ladero, Raul
Ruiz Diaz. We've had these splashy attacking
players who have been top five in the league.
Who do we have now? That's where I'm a little
concerned. Who's our Cal Raleigh? It's supposed
to be Jesus. It's supposed to be Jordan. They
think it's Jordan. but it's not happening so
that's that's a problem but even even okay let's
just say for the sake of argument that it is
even if it is jordan let's say jordan's been
healthy all year long let's just let's just say
just for the sake of argument um so let's say
that it is jordan well the thing is though jordan
30 So you're now coming out of the prime. But
Deuce is also coming from the Premier League.
Deuce is also Deuce. Whereas Jordan is also the
greatest American player of all time at the time.
So my thing is right now, we need to find our
next big talent. Agreed. Could be Pedro. It could
be. I think it amplifies how frustrating that
journey has been. But I want to give amazing
props to the depth that we built. We have so
much depth. We are seeing that play out this
season. We really are seeing the depth where
we're against PSG. We had... We're using our,
what, six -choice center back against PSG for
the last 15 minutes, and Alex rolled on? It wasn't
a choice before the match. But Alex has now played
multiple games as center back and has been fantastic.
But the point is, even if you're going to take
away that dig, you're talking about John Bell,
you're talking about players... Here's the difference.
Every one of those players... is a starting level
center back in this league. Which is great. We've
raised our floor. We don't have a single starter
level forward. With me saying Jordan is a winger.
You know that's what I say. He scored all his
goals from the wing. Even when he started forward,
he moved to the wing. That's when he scored.
We don't have a starting... Mazovsky is a starting
forward. For one of the bottom five teams. There's
30 teams. There's 30 teams. He's a starting forward.
If we're in the court of law, my friend. And
Danny, like Nicholas has said, is always in the
right place. But if he was a starting level on
a good team forward. he would have double the
goals he has right now, considering how often
he's in the right place, how often he gets to
where he needs to be. If he were Raul, he would
be leading the league in goals. So he shouldn't
be starting for the Sounders right now? No, I
don't think that's exactly what he's saying.
No, I think he's... In the perfect world. In
the perfect world, correct. Jordan should be
starting right now. He should not be starting.
In the perfect world. But I would rather see
Jordan playing left mid and us have an actual
number. And there's the problem. So Jordan goes
up top, and he's kind of a one -trick forward.
I disagree with that premise, but because you
need... I mean, they've said they couldn't find
a number nine, and that's why Jordan stayed at
it. Which means they're not happy with him at
number nine. That doesn't mean he's a one -trick
forward. It just does mean that the style of
play that the Sounders play require a forward
like Jordan Morris. I'd like to see a little
more agility out of our forward. He doesn't...
I'd rather not gum up our wings even more at
this point. I don't know. He can play left and
right. We know that. But maybe having more than
one forward on the field at the same time. Or
just a 4 -4 -2. Bring in another starting level
forward, even if he's coming off the bench, then
you have a super sub that is coming in. If it's
a young player who needs a chance to start over,
like Ryan Kent, someone like that, obviously
we're not going to get someone of Ryan Kent's
quality. Ryan Kent, despite his struggles here,
is the best player on the Sounders, talent -wise,
ceiling -wise. He needs to be on the field as
often as possible. But again, let's just say
this game, this game are subs. jordan morris
pedro de la vega ryan kent john bell and the
john bell was after the red cards so that's better
than those subs that people have no no this is
this is what i'm saying yeah but my problem is
but we're still not having a forward who can
score goals in the game to start and that's the
problem we we know danny's scoring but like we
said he's not scoring at the level that you want
He's not scoring at Raul levels. He's not scoring
at Dempsey level. He's not scoring at Oba levels.
That's what we need. Yeah, I mean, but what I'm
getting at is the fact that, okay, so in MLS,
you cannot be deep at every position. Correct.
You just can't. I agree. We are very deep in
the midfield. We're deep in every position except
for... Well, right now, we did not talk about
this in the first half of the show. Oh, yeah.
I mean, we're still deep, but... We are, but
Jaupalo tore his ACL. Yeah. God damn it. Totally
forgot about that. Same ACL. Well, a lot's happened
this week. The Steph injury was a big thing.
Yeah. But we're still deep at that position.
That's crazy. Yeah. No, it's crazy, but it just
bums me out. It's heartstrings. I'm not concerned
about the performance of the team long term.
No, but I don't know if it may mean that. That's
the last time we see JP as a sounder. The comparable
is Ozzy tore his ACL two years later at 36 instead
of 34, and Ozzy came back for Atlanta, obviously
lost a step and was doing spot minutes at that
time. Was this the same knee, though, for JP?
It was the same that he did the ACL the first
time. Sometimes there's just a mental component
to, like, that's what I'm concerned about with
Stefan, with all the, like, how dramatic it was,
and I don't mean that. But I think he doesn't
know that. That's the thing. He said he doesn't
remember any of it, so he doesn't know how dramatic
it was. Yeah, but his wife does. Yeah, but he
doesn't. I don't know. She's not going to be,
like, retired. He is close to the retirement
age, but I just don't think he's ready. Now,
with that said, I will say with uh jp what that
probably does mean is i would not be surprised
if um and by the way steph rides 39 um yeah but
goalies can stay around forever i would not be
surprised if um with steph or with uh jp if he
is one of the sounders doing autographs in one
of the next few games or so or maybe after surgery
like paul probably after surgery now what is
talk to me about roster ones real quick what
yeah i'm just curious just a real snippet what
has there been any paul sightings around here
uh last time i saw him is when i got a chance
to meet him before game um i think he's still
around i'm almost positive he's still around
and doing... Yeah, because he's running with
the team now. He can't... Yes, I think he's doing
off -field training. Roster rules. Roster rules.
With JP, because we are still in the open transfer
window. He just opened up. Yeah, so JP's injury,
does it allow for us to put him on the IR and
open up space? A spot, but no cap. No cap relief
despite the fact that he's not. But the space,
correct. That is quite frustrating. And I know
because the reason why I brought it up is because
we had that discussion where JP's last injury
was a day too late. The day after, yeah. So that
seems like a rule that MLS, I mean, that fucks
a team who has an injury when you can put a player
on the IR. No, not necessarily, because we already
use it. I don't feel like that's any different.
You get one use of the salary come back, and
we did that for Paul. Right, but any player that
gets put on the IR, if they're out for the season,
I think you should get the money back. If they're
out for the season. Not if it's like, oh, they're
out for a few weeks, and you're just trying to
make room. I don't want NFL style PUP lists.
But if a player's out for the season, why is
he counting against your cap? He's not. I don't
know. Their contract is intertwined with the
cap. You're only able to bring in a rental. But
if it's not a guaranteed contract, you don't
pay him. Insurance does because of the injury.
So why is it counting against the cap? I think
that's something MLS needs to look into. I'm
not against it, but I get it. Who do we have
next? Oh, okay, wait. We have a very beneficial
lineup over the next month. We're actually, we
got sport in Kansas City at home. In Kansas City.
I'm sorry, yes, in Kansas City. Then we've got
a home match against Colorado, a home match against
San Jose, and then we travel to Atlanta before
leagues come. San Jose, I don't, San Jose's tough.
They've always been tough for us, and they're
actually good this year. But, yeah. We have.
Let's not forget Heritage Cup. We have four games.
Against teams that are all below us in the standings.
Yeah. So, and of those four, three of them, sorry,
two of them are outside the playoff picture.
Here's the thing is, if you had told me we were
going to tie with Columbus 1 -1 at home, I would
have taken it every day of the week until I lived
through that game. Where we again could not score
goals. So I have no confidence we're going to
score more than one goal against any of those
teams, which I think San Jose can easily score
multiple goals. Especially this is Andy Thomas'
time to sit out there and prove it, and he hasn't
been able to do that yet, unfortunately, outside
of, I mean, in MLS play. So I don't think there's
any given here. I think this could be a tough
stretch, and holy cow, League's Cup is going
to be a nightmare. It could be a nightmare or
it could be, you'd hope, an opportunity if we
just say, I don't really give a shit about the
outcome of League's Cup, but it's free minutes
for MLS Cup. And my concern is, and it has been
for a while, is there's no identity for our offense.
We are a possession team. We've heard it a thousand
times. I hear it all the time watching because
I can only watch Apple TV. That's all they talk
about, and this matchup was very, a 1 -1 draw
is two possession teams hitting each other square
in the forehead, and that's what we saw. At least
there was actually, I don't know, there's been
some, May was a great month, and I have hope.
Like, obviously, we're doing well. We're not
in dire straits, but I'd like to see. I'd like
to see an average of two goals a match. And I
don't know why we can't come up with that identity.
And I think those minutes in the League's Cup
could help. But this stretch, maybe with Andy
Thomas in, we'll galvanize ourselves. I hope
so. This is his chance right now. Let's go. Take
this job. I mean, the thing about League's Cup,
though, to your point on that, is our first game
is against Cruz Azul, which is great. I, we take
them on first because Santos and Tijuana, Santos
was the worst team in league Amex last year.
Oh, so they're not as good as they traditionally
were. That's good to know. No Santos is, are
you confusing Santos league Amex with Santos
in Brazil? Okay. But, but Santos and league Amex
has been good in the past. They were bottom of
the table. And Tijuana was also not great. They
were kind of below what we would call the playoff
pace. They used to, again, another team that
has a history of being good, but it's been a
while. And they've come here before for a friendly.
I live like 30 minutes from their airport. If
you need me to do something. Santos currently
is first in Liga MX at Berger. No, no, no. They
haven't even started the season yet. They're
all tied for first according to Google. I Googled
them and they came up and said they're in first
place. I was like, what? Season has started.
So they were last in Klasura? Yeah. I think you
start your best choice lineup in game one of
League's Cup. Because you do want to advance.
You do want to keep that going. You want to qualify
for Champions League. Always, always, always
qualify for Champions League. I mean, that's
just how it is. We had to need LA Galaxy to win
MLS Cup for us to get into Champions League this
year. Yeah. I always want to be in Champions
League. Absolutely. So, take League's Cup seriously.
I want a little bit of revenge as well on, on
Cruz Azul. That was not great. We could have
won the home game and, and obviously the, the
away game changed our season. Yeah. So, so just
going back to real quick Santos Laguna from 2018
to 20. 22 -3, they had some pretty great seasons.
They had one where they finished 14th and one
where they finished 8th, but otherwise, first
place quarterfinal, fourth place quarterfinal,
fifth place got the runner -up, fifth place got
the quarterfinal, third quarterfinal, 13th place
got to the quarterfinals, but the last four...
Could they call them seasons? Is each Apertura
and Klasura a season? Or how do we... Yeah, they're
two separate seasons. They're 23, 24, and 24,
25 seasons. So then they have two in each. They
got 9th, 15th, 18th, and 18th. So they've fallen
way off. Yeah. Lots of change. Lots of change.
Yeah. And then we know how good Cruz Azul is,
of course. And Tijuana, if we look at them, their
mascot's a dog, right? Yeah, the Zolos. And Chihuahua.
They... Whoa, they've played all over. That's
interesting. Which makes sense that they would
play games in San Diego sometimes. They do not
have... Wikipedia's not as good on saying their
history, but they... They still have Joe Corona,
by the way. Oh my goodness. They won the title
in 2012. They're runners -up in 2019, 2020 in
Copa MX. So they have not been great for a while.
Didn't Landon play for them? I think he went
to them when he left for his last year. He played
for them for a short time. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah, they do Celeb Joe Corona, and I don't
see any other names that... Oh, they have Raul
Zuniga, a Colombian forward who... Club Leon,
by the way, Landon Donovan. 2018, signed a one
-year contract with Mexican Liga MX side Club
Leon. There we go, that makes more sense. But,
yeah, Raul Zuniga is a good player for them.
But outside of that, yeah. So Cruz Azul is the
big matchup, right? Yeah, I think so. So keep
in mind, we'll talk about this more as we get
closer. They're going with the Swiss method.
The idea being that we did not want to have any
MLS versus MLS games in League's Cup. That kind
of defeats the purpose. In the first round overall?
Yeah. Well, kind of a little bit of both. So
what's going to happen is you're going to play
your three games against Liga MX teams. And theoretically,
all four teams that are in our group could advance.
Theoretically. Because how it's going to be is
a Swiss method where we will take the total number
of points that we get and compare them to all
of the other MLS teams. the Liga MX teams. And
it's so... It's league versus league points.
Yeah. So you're not... So if you're an easy group
overall, like in the MLS, or either one... If
you can't beat Liga MX, you won't advance. Basically.
If your club isn't good. Yeah. So it's going
to be a little different this year. um interesting
i like i like that yeah i mean ultimately i i
want to see more league mx mls games that's kind
of the whole point um and so so there will be
in the eastern and western regions Well, it's
all 18 Liga MX teams and 18 MLS teams. Because
before it used to be all MLS teams and all Liga
MX teams. So that's where you would have, oh,
we're playing Salt Lake. Like, yay, great. So
that changes that. So what's going to happen
is once everyone's played their games. then you'll
be competing against teams from your own league,
and then the top four teams from each league
will advance to the quarterfinals. It doesn't
have, because the regions are broken down by
tiers, and then within them, we're tier... two
of western three so our our western three is
la galaxy cruz azul us uh tijuana rapids and
santos laguna well well basically it's it's like
pots like teams ranked one through three from
each league teams four through six and seven
through nine and you play each you you you're
drawn against each of those groups Yeah, so at
the end of Phase 1, the top four clubs from each
league will qualify for the quarterfinals, which
will take place midweek August 19 through 20.
Semifinals will be the next midweek, 26th, 27th
of August, with the final on Sunday, August 31st.
Three qualifiers for the CONCACAF Champions Cup,
so I assume that is the winner of the third -place
game and then the two teams that make it to the
final. Yeah. Interesting. So, fantastic. And
no draws. Goes straight to penalties, or do we
have overtime? I believe it goes straight to
penalties, but each club receives one point if
the game is tied after 90. and then the winner
of the shootout will get an additional point.
So I hate that, by the way. Every game should
be worth the same amount of points, but that's
just me. Wait, so you actually benefit by going
to penalties? No. If you win in penalties, you
get four points? Say that again? No, no, no.
You win in penalties, you get two points instead
of three. Oh, you get an I plus one. Yeah. Oh,
okay. Yeah, but the losing team gets one point.
I love that in hockey, though. I don't because
the team could theoretically lose every single
game of the season in overtime and go 0 for 82
and make the playoffs. Good. Let's go Kraken.
I almost want to do that in video game hockey
just to show the absurdity. Let's go Kraken.
That's the only way we're making the playoffs
since we're not signing big name free agents.
There will be virtual offside lines, by the way.
Oh, interesting. Oh. And are we doing the traditional
offside rule or the new one that they're trying
out? I don't think the new one's been. I think
it's still in hypothetical state at this point.
Okay. Goal line technology, anything on that?
Yeah, VAR technology. So, no, it's not like Club
World Cup where the watch went off when it went
over the goal line. It will feature VAR technology,
including virtual offside lines, so I assume
that if it's got that, it'll also do the goal
line. But I don't know for sure. Because for
Club World Cup, I think there must have been
something in the ball, because if it went fully
over the line, it buzzed on their watch. Yeah.
Cool. Well, we haven't talked about the match
yet. Yeah, I was going to say, are we going to
win? What, League's Cup? No, I think he's talking
about the next match. Cameron's talking about
the last match. I'm talking about Columbus. We
haven't even talked about a 1 -1 draw versus
Columbus. Really? I mean, yeah, I guess I'm blending.
Let's just do quick takeaways. First off, let's
do this. Let's talk about the winner of the score
prediction challenge. The predictions. The prediction
challenge. Where can you find those, by the way?
You can find those on Discord. You can predict
on Discord. Come to our Discord. I think I'm
stopping. I used to put them on a few different
places. Honestly, it's just staying in the Discord
from now on. It's just staying there. It's just
too much to kind of put it out in other spots.
So come to the Discord. It will be there if you
have participated in the previous week. I will
send out an email with your score, and that score
will have a link to the next prediction challenge.
So check your emails. And I usually send out
that email the day of the following match. And
it's a possibility of scoring five points. It
is a possibility of scoring five points per match.
Oh, interesting. If you get the correct score
for each team. the result whether the sounders
win lose or draw and predict the over under and
get the correct score um so did you could try
and game the system you could try and say oh
i'm going to predict a sounder's win but then
in the score i'm going to predict a sounder's
loss and and so you could try and game it but
you're not going to get a perfect score did someone
with a perfect score win at this time no oh interesting
because i know that i got four four points i
believe You did. Spoiler alert. I won? Yeah.
I picked 1 -1. I just missed who scored. I did
2 -2. I did 2 -2 as well, to be honest. That
was my prediction. I'm on the errand train that
I have seen nothing that lets me believe that
we're going to score two goals a game. I'm all
hope, man. I'm very hopeful, especially against
our upcoming matches. A non -Peter Bernese KC
team? I want like 20 goals against them. That
could happen. Aren't they terrible? They are
terrible, but I just... I don't know. The fact
that Peter Bernese is no longer in the league
as a coach is one of the best things ever to
happen to the MLS. I'm surprised we didn't really
make a... What's the opposite of a stink? But
I... I could smell about it. I totally forgot
he's not in the league. We must have talked about
it when he got fired. I don't think so. He was
one of the main reasons why the game is not a
beautiful game in the MLS. The way he played,
the way he would have his thugs go foul people,
the way they would injure people was emblematic
of... everything that was wrong with the MLS
and why players didn't want to come here. And
with him gone, there's not that voice constantly
telling refs to let people play that way, which
is a good thing. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't
still have influence, but he has a different
influence. And so hopefully the game starts being
reffed in a manner that benefits teams that actually
play with finesse and possession instead of teams
that just come up to you and foul you as hard
as they can. Yeah, I mean, the Peter Vermees
coaching tree, and I've said this before, is
one of the worst things that it's kind of set
back American soccer and MLS soccer for quite
some time. So you're talking about the Dom Kinnears
of the world, the Peter Vermees. I actually kind
of like Dom Kinnear, but that's just because
he was such a great coach for San Jose when I
lived there. But it's the same style of that
kind of physicality. True. And it was really
frustrating when you'd have a team that wanted
to play some free -flowing soccer, and they would
just dare the ref, like, oh, you're not going
to call every one of these fouls? You know, and
just I hate that. I hate that. You remind me
of Lute Olsen, who used to be the head coach
of Arizona men's basketball. It was the same
kind of, he would work the refs and just drive
me crazy. Did you know that Peter Vermees scored
two goals in the 1991 Gold Club, including one
against Mexico in a 2 -0 win? Wish I hadn't.
Wow, in the final, the U .S. beat Honduras 4
-3 in penalties after a 0 -0 game at the Memorial
Coliseum. And Dominic Kinnear scored a penalty
in that. Peter Vermees missed his penalty. Yikes.
Yeah. I did not realize that Dom Kinnear played
for the Sounders. What? 1995. Oh, shit. His experience
is too old. 95, so that was... A -League. A -League
championship. And then he went. He's a Seattle
champion, Don Kinnear. Because he played for
NACAXA. I don't know how to pronounce that. I
apologize. And then once he left there, he came
straight to the Sounders. And we won the championship.
And then the next year, he went over to play
for the Rapids. And he was on the mutiny, probably
with Garth. Funny. The web is thick. Yeah. Yeah.
So are we going to win this week? What's going
to happen? Against SKC? Mm -hmm. On the road?
Yeah, I think we're going to win. I do. I think
we're going to win this game. I do think we're
going to score two goals. Oh, my bad. Real quick.
Garth scored, played for Miami Fusion, not...
I get those teams confused sometimes. I apologize.
Yeah. You think we're going to win, though? I
do. I think it's going to be... I was about to
say 2 -0, but then I remembered it's going to
be Andy Thomas' goal. And then I realized it's
probably going to be 1 -0 because we're probably
going to play a little bit more defensive than
I would like to see. They have scored five more
goals than we have, but they have given up 12
more goals than we have. They're 11th in the
conference standings, too. They have played the
same amount of games as us? No, one more than
us. So they have 10 losses on the season. There's
only two teams with more losses in the Western
Conference, Salt Lake and St. Louis. There's
no Vermees. There's no Vermees. There's no real
history with this current... SKC team, this is
all about us and our identity and figuring the
shit out and not floating. Do we even know who's,
is there anyone on the roster even that we think
about for Kansas City that we think of as a Kansas
City player? Now that Johnny Russell's gone?
Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I'm not sure that I even
know anything. I mean, let's looking at it now.
Sure words have never been spoken. Oh, you know
who they have is one of my favorite players,
Jovalich. How do you say it? Nico? No, Dijon.
The guy who came over from the LA Galaxy. Wait,
the basketball or the tennis player? No. I'm
all confused right now. Yeah. No, no. And then
they have, I know what I want to say his name,
Daniel Saloy. That's not how you pronounce his
last name. They only have one designated player,
and that is Tommy. Eric Tommy. No, it's Eric
Tommy. From Germany. Ulm, Germany. Well, in 18
games this year, Djokovic has 11 goals for them.
And I don't know how he's not a DP. That's crazy.
Yeah, what does he consider? They played a $4
million transfer fee for him. He's an international
under -22? No, that's why they had to get rid
of him. That's why LA had to get rid of him is
because he... came out of that program. Yeah,
because he's 25 now. Yeah, so they had to...
I'm on MLSsoccer .com, so... It does classify
him as a senior. That would make sense, yeah.
He's a senior roster. Yeah, for sure. Serbian
national player. He's dangerous. That's a guy
I'm watching out for. I don't think we get a
clean sheet here. They yawn more like, damn,
he dangerous. Yeah, yeah. That was good. Thank
you. We'll see. I mean, if we're going to pull
out this win, I would think it was 2 -1. I'm
going 1 -1. I don't see us scoring two goals
until it's proven to me. So I'm going 1 -1 draw,
unfortunately. I want another form. Well, they
beat Colorado, then they drew against Salt Lake,
beat Charlotte, lost to Dallas. What order is
that, though? I'm going in recent to oldest.
So they've won two of their last three, unbeaten
in three. How many goals scored? And they beat
Charlotte, who's good. Yeah. But it was at home.
It was at home. Yeah, so they've had a pretty...
great run here where they only have what, two
losses in their last since May. A lot of draws.
So they might be on the up. Yeah, they've got
two losses in their last nine. But we'll see.
I think we're going to play an inspired match.
That'd be great. Yeah, I would hope so. There's
enough Kindle for that, right? You want to be
on the field, make something happen. So let's
see it happen. Connect, get, figure out what
synapses need to be fired in the right order,
who you need to connect with. But I want to start
seeing some just cohesion. just so I can start
identifying what this team is other than just
a possession team that has good depth, that gets
decent results. Like, okay, we're productive.
That's great. I want to be excited. I want to
be excited again. You were watching on TV who
was primarily at fault for the Columbus goal.
People around me thought it was Nuhu, but I did
not see enough on who was supposed to be covering
the man to know that for sure. I kind of want
to rewatch it. To be honest with you. It felt...
It honestly just felt like one of the... I'm
trying to find it real quick again. Which is
a waste of time. They sliced us off at that passing
there. It was just really well done. I mean,
that's something we've seen teams eat us alive
with this year, unfortunately. Yeah. But, like,
we were... We were pressing. Unfortunately, Nagby
makes a great move to get around Christian. And
when he did that, he unleashes a pass to break
the lanes. And I think if anything, Jackson Reagan
was in this weird spot where the pass came across
where if he tried to clear it, he's running dangerously
into own goal territory. So he had to let it
go. and knew who couldn't get back from his spot
in time. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily
new. No, that's exactly right. Anytime we're
sprinting backwards, it's hard to really point
fault at anyone other than they found the lines.
I feel like it's like who started it. This started
in their third and went all the way back. Sure.
And kind of dissected through everybody. But
at times, we've seen giveaways. Two great passes.
Yeah, and times we've seen giveaways on our own
side that have led to goals just because of incredible
passes down the field. And that can be a great
play by them, or it can be one of our players
misplaying it, not getting back. You know, there's
lots of reasons. And without knowing the communication
that was going on between Fry and his defenders,
that's really hard for us to tell. Well, with
the running backwards, Kalani... got himself
a little bit out of position. One, though, this
goal was set up by a beautiful secondary assist
from Nagby. It was just, he did what he's done
all his career. Against us. I mean, he does it
against everyone. This is why he's in the league
so long. And Jackson, it basically became a...
You know, the winger had two passes to pick from.
Jackson had to decide which one to go for. And,
yeah, it's just really well done by Columbus.
It's more about their quality on the offensive
break there than, oh, well, this is the defensive
miscue that we did. Right, because they put Reagan
in a place where he was damned if he did, damned
if he didn't. Sometimes it goes the other. Sometimes
everyone can seize their lane, their passing
lanes, and once that happens, you just see a
boom. That goal started, it was maybe four seconds,
five seconds? I mean, it was three passes, but
it was when Nagby made a move against Christian
in the middle of Columbus's half and then takes
two steps forward. makes a really nice... Yeah,
it was just a 1 -2, bang -bang play. Like, it
was all transition. It's just really frustrating,
but... I think the frustrating part is that I
don't know if we necessarily go for those kind
of transition goals as much. It seems like if
we don't see the perfect pass, we pull it back.
And we have players that can do that. Danny Leyva
can do that. We've seen him do that multiple
times. Obed... has done it. But Leyva, I think,
is one of the best players on our team at those.
He's just not getting minutes right now. And
that's also not the style we play. We play through
the wings. Yeah. And our possession and kind
of the building up, and so not complaining about
that. I do think that it would be nice if we
mixed it up a little bit and tried those things,
though, at times if things aren't working. I
think we do with Jordan Morris. It's that over
-the -top ball and let him use his speed. Sure,
we did it once last game, though. We've got to
try it more than that. I mean, let's talk about
the goal we did score. Dude, fantastic. I mean,
incredible. I mean, was it the secondary assist?
Was that Rusnak who got that over to Kalani?
Yeah, I think he pulled it down on the right
side. Incredible for him to get it to Kalani,
who then get it through to Rothrock. I mean,
across the board, when I saw the replay, because
I was in the bathroom when it happened, it was
fantastic. Nicholas, where were you when it happened?
I was in the bathroom. By the way, it was Alex
that passed it to Kalani. Okay. It was? Yeah,
Alex did like that over the top from the back.
It was kind of similar where it really was similar
to the Columbus goal where it was kind of three
passes and in. So that was an example of us doing
to them what they did to us. And that's not a
goal you see us score very often. You see us
get balls through on the second pass there that
went through, but that first pass is something
that I think we don't see a lot of. I know he
got the red card. I do think it was a bullshit
second yellow, like I said. Guy was already going
down. He ran directly into Kalani. Kalani, I
think, has earned the starting job at right back
at this point. I mean, it's really interesting.
You don't assist someone who assists like you
don't. Well, it's really interesting to see Kalani
on that assist watching him. cut to the inside
to the top of the box from his position just
really yeah his low center of gravity his his
agility and he's jacked by the way yeah he is
but just the way he was a well of course by the
fact he could do that flip he did uh was it last
year yeah but i mean the the way he ran he opened
up that lane for rothrock but through his run
by the way burning nagby so nagby nagby had had
kind of responsibility on both goals i know you're
excited nicholas but back off that mic because
you're in the red oh i get really in the red
when i talk about nagby fucking up man yeah i
mean fantastic goal we need to see more of that
creativity throughout the game uh i don't know
what's stopping us from seeing it uh I don't
know if we need moments of brilliance, but Rusnak
would have those in the past, right? We've seen
him have those passes. Is it something on the
way? I wonder if sometimes our players' talents
don't match the style we play. I don't know if
that's true or not, but sometimes it feels that
way because when we switch it up a little bit,
we... have success but maybe that's because we're
just switching it up so teams aren't expecting
us to play that way so that's why this sex is
happening it's like when a running back does
a lot of like two yard runs in the first half
but because of the way he's cutting this is what
sean alexander always did it would open up big
holes later and that's why he was dominating
as the defensive line got tired uh that i don't
know it seems like when we're trying to follow
the set list It's just not quite there. But if
we're just jamming, it's there. I feel like that
goal, it was similar to Columbus. It was also
in reaction to Columbus. That only had happened
10 or 15 minutes apart, right? Both in the first
half. Let's equalize before halftime. Yeah, it
was like, how cool was the second half? It was
the first half because that's why I was in the
restroom. I was on my way to see Nicholas. You're
on the way to see me in the bathroom? In the
restroom, huh? No. Roma needed to go to the bathroom.
I was visiting a friend near Nicholas, and then
I brought Roma some Dippin' Dots. That's Gracie's
go -to every time I bring her to a game. I'm
just very excited to learn that Rainbow Ice Dippin'
Dots are vegan. I actually had some for the first
time in like... I don't know. When did I turn
vegan? 14 years ago. You know, Dippin' Dots,
still the ice cream of the future. Space ice
cream. Anyway, yeah. Cool. Well, I feel better
now that we talked about that goal. Should I
say we're going to win 2 -1? I think we're going
to win 2 -1. Do you know? Yeah. Well, there you
go. It's got to be fair. I can't believe I'm
doing a loss prediction. I don't normally do
that. But I do think we're going to lose. You
think we're going to lose? 1 -2. 1 -2? Is that
what you said? Yep. Okay. Kansas City has not
always been the nicest place for us to play.
They like to cheat. They got Ziggy fired. Referees
like to cheat on their behalf. One time Arlo
screamed, get the Mexican off the field during
a game. One of the players got a red card and
he was a Mexican national player that he was
telling him to leave. But because the British
speak differently than we do, he didn't maybe
understand culturally why it matters to say the
Mexican national off the field. That is a moment
I will never forget in Sounders history. Arlo
White. Yeah. When he was an announcer. Get the
Mexican off the field. Well, I mean, I guess
that's better than. Duh. No. I don't think you
should say... I'm trying to remember what Mark
Birch... I was thinking Mark Birch. Yeah, when
he slurred. Yeah. Yeah, so, okay. So we have
a couple two -to -ones and then a one -to -two.
We will find out. And who knows? Maybe we will
differently day of. The shadow knows. Hey, you
know what? If we lose this match, if my prediction
is correct, maybe... Wait, are we trying to send
off right now? I think we're getting there. I
think we're getting there. I think we need a
new forward. And his name is Nate Jaqua. Nate
Jaqua? You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt
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MLS team of all time? The Seattle Sounders are
both unequivocally and intuitively the best MLS
team of all time.