It's time for Scuttlebutt Ultras. Quick takes
from our Patreon Ultras, sharing their soundest
thoughts straight from the heart. Your voice,
your moment. Hello and welcome to another episode
of Scuttlebutt Ultras here. Part of the Sounders
Scuttlebutt Network, I'm Cameron Collins. I am
here with Your Ultras, the group of gentlemen
who are here every week for you to break down
what's going on with the Sounders in their own
unique way. We're going to start just randomly
in the bottom right corner. What's up, Dan? How
are you doing? Hey, what's going on? I'm hoping
somebody can explain to me why I woke up this
morning feeling like we lost yesterday. So maybe
we can get to that by the end. Middle fingers
up to everybody. Cedar, how are you doing today?
Everything's good. Happy to be back talking this
game. Yeah, I will echo Dan's sentiments. I actually
haven't seen the video, but I heard it was the
saddest, most somber Jingle Bells of all time.
It came up and I moved along because I wasn't
feeling it. We do have the man of two names always,
Alex Diaz. Hey, how's it going? How you doing,
Alex? I mean, I'm probably on the same boat as
everybody here. I think we... Yeah, we'll find
out. I'm interested to see how hot the takes
are. 12 plus almost 24, about 22 hours removed
from the end of the match as we are actually
recording before the regular Scuttlebutt show
this week because... We often record on Monday
nights, but I think that might be a regular thing
because we might have a little bit of a cadence
down here now that we have a bunch of games coming
up recording here on Sunday nights, a night of
the Club World Cup final where Chelsea shockingly
came out and destroyed PSG. Who's got thoughts
on that surprising outcome? I'm pretty sure we
all said that Chelsea was going to win, so we
could probably just move on and not bring it
up anymore. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, I mean, as a
Chelsea supporter for 30 years and a PSG supporter
for 25, I was as shocked as everyone. Of course,
Cole Palmer did Cole Palmer things, but you wouldn't
think that a young Chelsea team could just take
out a young PSG team like that, one who had been
gelling really well together. All right, let's
talk Sounders. Let's just go. Let's just go into
it. It helps to have superstars, I think. Cole
Palmer scoring twice. Messi scoring twice. The
Sounders, do we have a superstar back in our
midst as Jordan Morris gets a start and, of course,
scores a goal on a beautiful assist from Paul
Rothrock. Where are we at, Dan? What do you think
about Jordan Morris' return to the starting lineup?
Yeah, 15 minutes in and he had already put it
in the back of the net. And I was watching the
game with my kiddo, Joe, and I just could not
remember, and I just didn't have the bandwidth
to go look it up. But when is the last time we
scored a goal off of a Seattle Sounders head?
I feel like it's been a while. And besides his
speed, that's something else he brings, is the
ability to take in a high cross and put it in
the back of the net with some force. That came
off of his head fast. He might have had one in
the Club World Cup, but... It's been a while.
But that was off a deflection. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's, you know, definitely something to see,
Alex. What did you think about Jordan's return
to the starting lineup? Only 45 minutes, but
a pretty good shift considering what we saw.
Oh, yeah. I think it was great for him to get
on the score sheet. Like, that was basically,
like, his on -back moment. Like, this is why
I'm the DP. And it was a beautiful cross from
Rothrock, and it was just... That header, all
you have to do is put it on frame, put it anywhere
on the side. As long as you don't hit it straight
at the goalie, it's going in. Nine times out
of ten. Yeah, we saw Rusnak have a shot that
nine times out of ten is going in, and the defender
beat the goalie, and the defender stopped it
a little bit after that. But, yeah, I was pretty
happy about that. Cedar Morris is back. Did you
see what you wanted to see out of him, especially
at the number nine? Yeah, he was stretching the
field. He's a little bit, you know, obviously
he's a little bit bigger than Masovsky. He provides
that physical presence that maybe Masovsky doesn't
quite have. And he was dropping into the midfield,
collecting balls, distributing as well. He's
good at that. We all know this. And man, yeah,
I wish he could have kept on the field there,
but he looked so, when they went to halftime.
they cut to him and his face was so red. Like
he was, he was totally winded. So he's still
ramping back up, but yeah, it's great to see
him. Let's see everything click right away with
him back on the field. I got to say, I don't
know how he does it as I have type two diabetes,
which is in remission because I got diagnosed
and immediately did everything I needed to do
within a year to make my A1C and everything get
down to levels where it doesn't really affect
me. because I take my medicine every day. But
Jordan having type one diabetes, just the fatigue
I feel alone. I can't imagine being an athlete
and running that much and then having to deal
with, you've seen tons of baseball players, especially
that in the way it can affect them. So being
a soccer player, it's gotta be pretty draining.
It's impressive. Yeah, absolutely. So could Jordan
be the answer to what we need? I mean, We haven't
been scoring goals. I don't remember which one
of you mentioned it, but we were expecting goals
in this match. We got three all in the first
half. It almost felt like a tale of two halves,
though, where the second half was just holding
on. Took our foot off the gas. Partially, Danny
Mazovsky had a rough second half, including what
Sounders fans were complaining about. But upon
replay, it seemed like a pretty clear penalty
on Danny, taking out the guy's lower leg. The
other one is a little more questionable in my
opinion, but I don't know. How are we feeling
about the team with Jordan up top just in general?
Is this something you think is sustainable, three
goal games and something the Sounders will now
be able to do regularly and help out the defense
a bit? Take it away anyway. No, I don't think
that we're going to see three goal games all
the time. I think the two -game goals are going
to be more common instead of the one -game goals.
I think that could help. But I still have a concern
that with Morris on the field, you're taking
Danny off. Previously, Danny's been the one scoring
the goals. He's got six on the year, and we don't
have two goal scorers on the field, even with
just Morris. Maybe Rothrock can get it here and
there. In this game, Jesus, he got his goal.
It was a tap -in, but I was texting back and
forth with some folks, and there were some chances
earlier that Jesus just again kind of flubbed
a little bit before he did get his goal. So I
do not expect going forward that we're going
to get three games more times than not. I would
expect a little bit more of two games, but three
is – I think that's asking a lot. So after last
night, I should say, Rave Green TV noted that
Danny has one goal in his last 11 games. And
he's continued to be in the right position, it
seems like, over and over again, but has not
really been able to score. Do you think that
that is a Danny problem, or is that an inability
to get Danny? I mean, it seems like he is getting
some dangerous position balls to him. Is he going
to get those goals if he hasn't been able to
do it without Jordan? Does it open up another
path to him if we're playing two at the top?
I don't know how often we're going to see two
at the top, but I think it's a Danny problem.
I think there's a reason that he is a career
MLS backup, even with the position that he gets
in. And we got our six goals out of him. He helped
us through this patch, and so I definitely am
grateful. for the services that he has provided,
but I'm also extremely glad Jordan's back. I
still want one more dead -eye dick, if you will,
that's going to score some goals. Yeah, I know
our colleagues over at Lobbing Scorchers talking
about, I think it was earlier today or yesterday
on their YouTube page, how NOAA Ohio doesn't
want to leave because they only have one forward
there. And so the Sounders are going to have
to offer upwards of $10 -11 million to bring
him in to the club, which doesn't seem like something
the club is willing to do for a player that won't
be starting unless they see him with a long future
here. So what we have is what we're going to
get, at least for the short term. I don't know,
Cedar, what about you? How are you feeling with...
How we're going to do moving forward with Jordan
Morris coming back and hopefully playing more
and more minutes every game. Yeah, I feel pretty
good. I mean, it probably is a little reductive
to say, but we scored three in the half that
he was playing and we scored none in the half
that he wasn't playing. So I think he just not
only with the actual opportunities in the box,
do I think he's, you know, probably a little
bit. better than Masovsky, but also you see him
again, drop into the midfield. You see him receive
the ball, distribute it back out and then go
find space. He's, he's really good at that. He's
been doing it for years. So I think he, he just
stretches, not only stretches the field vertically,
but also is able to kind of almost be a, you
know, a drop back into, to the, to the top of
the box when we're in possession and help facilitate.
more of an attack. So I'm, I'm, I'm excited to
see him be back at full, full stamina because
I think, I think he, he may be the missing piece
for us scoring, you know, hopefully more than
one goal game or any. Yeah. No, I think it's,
it's good to see him back on the field because
he offers. a different sort of attack than danny
musovsky does like we're able to play him in
through and behind he's able to run out defenders
like you guys said earlier he's a big much bigger
body than than danny and like you say i guess
he's able to score headers now too you haven't
seen that in a while and it's just I think he
might be the missing piece to the formula that
we need to be able to unlock defenses and score
more goals. Was there anything else that happened
during this game that might be worth discussing?
Anything controversial or surprising? I mean,
at this point, I'm not surprised by what happened.
Surprising? Yeah. I don't think anything surprising
happened. I think it was more so it was a matter
of time until we saw it happen. Yeah. I mean,
knew who receives a red card for throwing a ball
at a fan. In our Discord, if you join the Discord,
you see Nicholas posted the video. of him picking
the ball up off the ball stand and just chucking
it directly at the fan as hard as he could, according
to Brian Schmetzer, for giving him the finger,
which I think is also what he was trying to tell
the ref in what has become one of the funniest
pictures I have ever seen, which is the ref running
at Nuhu and him just giving him the finger because
he's trying to say, look what he did to me. What
gives? Like, what is Nuhu doing here? They lazed.
Well, I mean. Someone to go. Yeah. So on one
hand, I get that what he did is he's probably
going to suffer some consequences. The team may
even suffer some consequences with him being
absent because I still think he is the best to
man that. left back position, especially if we're
going to play with a three back. But I do, part
of me, the, so my, I'm a real big fan of Loki
and I really enjoy the, you know, I really, it's
my background already. Him flipping the ref off
is the background of my computer and part of
me does enjoy it. The lizard part of my brain
enjoys seeing New Who. act a fool and cause problems.
I just hate that it is going to hurt the team
in the long run. Alex, what do you think? I just
don't even know what to say. I think as a professional
athlete, or just a person in general, you shouldn't
be reacting that way. Who knows? Maybe the fan
crossed the line. You know you're going to go
into places, hostile environments, where fans
are going to try to heckle. And that's where
you have to have a strong mentality and be able
to not react. Because that's what they want.
They want to get a reaction out of you. They
want to throw you off your game. And as we've
seen before, it's very easy to throw Nuhu off
his game. There's a lot of examples of mental
lapse where he did something that led to a goal,
led to a card. And at this point, I'm not surprised
that he did something. It was just like, Oh,
what did he do this time? I feel like if it had
been something more than just the finger Schmetzer,
like if it had said something racist or something
like that, because you know what? I'll be honest.
I'm fully for going full Eric Cantona and kicking
a fan in the head. If they say something racist,
I don't have a problem with that. I would support
new who in that instance, but you, you just can't
let someone because go look at the replay of,
Jordan Morris' goal. The entire crowd behind
him is giving him the finger after he scores,
if you watch that. It's insane. And he's not
going over there and chucking balls at him. It's
just, I mean, obviously a point of frustration.
Cedar, where are you at on this? Yeah, I think,
you know, you can't control other people's behavior,
right? And especially if you're... I wouldn't
know what it feels like to be a professional
athlete and have people boo heckle you or, or,
you know, throw the finger at you. But again,
you, you can't control their behavior. All you
can do is control your own behavior. And I think
that, you know, it seems like the Sounders under
Brian Schmetzer, he really, he really tries to
set that standard that he, he got set upon him
when he was a teenager, you know, at the club
way back in the day. Of, you know, being a certain
level of person in your conduct and being responsible.
And I just don't see how Nuhu throwing a ball
at a fan, which, you know, I mean, technically
that's assault. It doesn't seem like that's not
Sounders behavior. And, you know, he was away
from the team too in that moment. The whole thing
is just. It's unfortunate. That was weird. There
was a couple sounders by him, but why were they
way over there and not with the team? That was
kind of weird. Right. It's like, dude, just focus
on your team. Focus on the game. And it put us
short staff for some really critical moments
because Sporting KC had been putting us under
pressure, and they were only down a goal. And
then you take a man off the field, it makes it
that much harder to close out. potentially a
road win fortunately we did get it but it's just
like oh man like what you know what are we doing
what are we doing let's we gotta we gotta all
behave as a team we gotta we gotta be together
and and he was he was literally physically separate
from everybody else and yeah it was it was disappointing
to see um but hopefully hopefully it gets uh
rectified and you know maybe he'll maybe he'll
learn and not do it again i don't know but yeah
it's it's uh it's frustrating for sure i was
just watching footage of the brawl on the field
at uh after at the club world cup final after
the game ended where uh luis enrique the coach
shoved gel pedro of chelsea because he was getting
the face of uh dunorama dunorama and uh uh some
other people but The way it went down, it looks
like Luis Enrique. Yeah, he slapped him. He's
been watching some slap boxing. Yeah, yeah. I
can't imagine Schmetzer ever doing that, although
there's probably some times I wish someone would
have done that to a few opposing players. Yeah,
I mean, what do you do with Nuhu at this point
if you're Schmetzer? I mean, he said, we'll deal
with it internally. See, the thing is, this isn't
the first time. This isn't the second time. This
isn't the third time. This isn't the fourth time.
This is the seventh or eighth time that there's
been NUHU issues of late over the last few years.
And if you look at his whole career, even more.
I know he doesn't have the support system that
a lot of the other players have. He moved all
the way across the world on his own. But it seems
like... Because of that, and he feels like he's
on his own, he's acting out in ways that aren't
just going to not help the Sounders, aren't going
to help his career. What's the next step for
the Sounders here? What do you do if you're the
coach? So since Jerry Epstein and Trump being
on the client list is back in the news, I have
a hot take or a conspiracy theory for everyone
for the Sounders. And it goes like this. What
we're seeing with New Who this year and last
year in particular. So I think the team. I don't
think anybody's going to disagree that with the
fans, there has been some issues where maybe
the vibes are down. That's whatever that means.
I'm probably too old to be using that phrase,
but I think the team itself is filling some of
those vibe issues with the vibes being down.
And I think new who here is the canary in the
coal mine type of deal where. Every time we see
this happen, it is where we're in a game state
where things are pretty bad. In the Vancouver
game, whenever he got that red card there, the
diarrhea boys were taking it to us. So I think
that what we're seeing with Nuhu is maybe a little
bit of what's going on behind the scenes with
some of the team. there because I know there
was some discontent reported last year with Raul
or Nuhu too and that just didn't clear up over
the offseason so that's my conspiracy theory
was zero evidence whatsoever except for my gut
but hey that's good enough for Kash Patel so
it's good enough for me Cedar where you at on
this like what are you doing if you're Schmetzer
or the GM or how do you handle this and this
is a different type of issue than some of the
other petulantness we've seen from him because
this is violent conduct, not just an on -the
-field play where you kick someone in a stupid
position or something. Yeah, that's to me where
I'm really disappointed because it's one thing
to have a reckless challenge against a fellow
sporting competitor, but I think to cross that
line and deliberately throw a soccer ball at
a fan. I don't know. I mean, I haven't, I don't
recall seeing really any incident like that in
MLS in the past few years, or if ever, I know
there have been many incidents in world football
for sure, but I can't remember seeing that in
this league. Yeah. It's, it's to me, that's,
that's just not. that's not okay that's not the
kind of behavior that we want to see out of anybody
and especially not one of our own players um
as for how it gets dealt with i i would be the
worst person to ask i have no idea what kind
of um uh you know i don't know what kind of the
the disciplinary kind of culture um a head coach
would have to does actually cultivate in moments
like that. But, you know, for the most part,
I trust Brian in terms of how he runs the team.
So I'm sure he's got his own ideas that he's
probably already enacting. So, you know, other
than that, it's, you know, if Nuhu gets suspended
by the league, the team gets fine, Nuhu gets
fine. I mean, it'll be next man up, obviously.
I like Reed Baker Whiting. I like what he brings
to the team. So I'm excited to see him get more
playing time. And yeah, it's just unfortunate.
I hope that New Who is able to get back into
the good graces of the team and the fan base
and be the best version of himself that we know
he can be. I mean, we all know what his potential
is. insane amounts of potential. And I think
that's really the frustrating part too, is like,
we know how great of a guy he is. We all like
new who, and we all know how good of a soccer
player he can be. And right now, you know, both
are like, you know, and both are down, like clearly
he's not in a good spot and it's tough to see
somebody, you know, struggling with their mental
health, emotional health, all of that. So it's,
it's just like, all right, hopefully. He's able
to get things right. And, you know, things will
be better moving forward. That's what I would
hope for. I mean, he's such a good player that
you can't have a player of his caliber that is
going to get kicked out of the game every other
game. Right? Like, you need, it's better to have
someone who's not as good if you know they're
going to be able to play the entire time at this
point. Alex. Contract ends at the end of this
year. They have a club option for next year.
Do you think this affects that at all? Do you
think this is just a bump in the road? Or are
the Sounders rethinking about what they're going
to do moving forward here and whether they're
going to exercise the club option on them for
2026? I think it doesn't help his case for the
club to exercise their option. I mean, if he's
bringing bad publicity to the club, it tarnishes
their reputation. It just, it isn't a good look.
It isn't a good look for the club. It isn't a
good look for the league. And apparently, I guess
the fan is going to press charges on Nuhu. So
it's just, I think the fan is going to press
charges on Nuhu. That's what I heard. I mean,
I'm sure he can because it is outside the bounds
of playing the game, but goodness gracious, that
just seems like a short -sighted thing to do.
His response was over the top, but come on. You
did something to provoke it, right? You're not
innocent in this. I mean, sure, you did what
the fan got under his skin enough. And like I
said, if it comes out that something else was
said and there was something else that happened,
but I feel like Schmetzer would have said that
first thing if that was the case, and we would
have already got a notice from the league saying
they're looking at an incident involving racism,
because that's what we see when these things
happen. And I think if Nuhu... Well, then can
Roldan go back and retroactively charge their
goalie for body slamming him? That was not a
soccer move. It was during the games, though.
So was this. Actually, the play was stopped.
Wasn't it the VAR check? Or was it a cooling
break? It was a penalty. No, it was a penalty.
It was after the penalty. But yeah, I mean, it
was still part of the game. Yeah, I guess we
need those now. I don't know why the Kansas City
fans are so mad. I mean, they love professional
wrestling so much. This is straight out of...
Something that you would see in WWE or wrestling
now is some fan engagement and interaction. I
just watched the video. The ball got thrown in
the stands, bounced up in the air, and somebody
behind him caught it. I mean, it's not fun to
get hit in the head with the ball, right? I got
a concussion earlier this year, so I don't recommend
it. But yeah, Cedar, what were you saying? Oh,
I wasn't saying anything. Sorry. I'm not here
to speak. What are you talking about? Yeah. I
mean, so what do you think happens? Is this a
three -game ban and then, you know, he does whatever
penance he needs to do behind the scenes and
he's back out there? Is this Reed steals his
job like we thought might happen if the PSG match
hadn't fallen on his birthday? I don't know.
Is this, you know? What happens here now? Isn't
this new who's job or might he lose this? How
does he go? How do you put him back on the pitch?
Yeah, I agree with Dan. I don't, if I'm a coach,
I'm not putting a player out there without a
serious consequences. He's got to sit a few matches.
I mean, Reed is, is out next match too, right?
Since he got, didn't he get a second yellow in
the match? No, did he just, no, he just got that.
He didn't get it on the, that was last week.
See, it's so hard to keep track with all the
rest. That was AKR. Yeah. So who's going to get
the next red card? Who are we putting money on?
I mean, it's guaranteed at this point we're going
to get one at least. Maybe not next match. I
think Jackson will get the next one. I say Thomas.
I think Jackson. Oh, I bet you Christian. I would
say Christian. He's probably due. He got bailed
out the last time. Well, how much are we putting
on this? Because I'm excited now. I'll go with
Thomas. So, hey, we all, you, Cedar's got Christian.
And then who did you have? I got Jackson. Alex,
you got Jackson? Okay, yeah. We put 10 on it.
The winner walks out with the money. I like it.
I like it. Honestly, I mean, Nicholas should
put this. as you know one of the one of the categories
in the will there be a red prediction yes like
an over under on like yellow cards will there
be a red yeah will there be a red you get a point
you know if you're right i certainly was wrong
with my one one prediction this week although
i guess i took one one yeah I came on the show
last week and was talking about it's going to
be 3 -1, and then I put 1 -1 when I filled out
my form. I was wrong both ways. It was 3 -2.
I think, Dan, you were the closest, right? No,
I don't know ball. I have no ball knowledge.
I feel like with the Sounders, it's hard to tell.
All right, let's finish up this match and then
take a break here. 3 -2 seemed like a tale of
two halves. Dominate the first half and just
hold on in that second half. Of course, both
goals were penalties. Did you see other goals
coming for them? Or do you think that it was
just tactical errors and the Sounders that led
to those penalties and really we should have
finished that game 3 -0? No, I mean, I want to
give credit to Alex for his save that he had
that he cramped right after. That save saved
us two points. For sure. And it was awkward enough
that you saw, was it Jovalich? One of those players
on the other team run up to him immediately and
check on him because of how awkward it was. I
was like, oh, don't tell me he did his knee.
I was like, don't tell me he did something to
his knee. It looked gnarly, but it was just like
he saved it with the tip of his cleat. Well,
I've never seen somebody move their body like
that. The way he did. I've never seen anybody
do that. I think we can make the assumption that
he's been going to yoga with his wife. Well,
probably a lot of these guys do it. It's good
for you. Otherwise, you're going to break something.
Not only did he save two points, he also saved
the fan base from probably one of the largest
crash outs. Could you imagine? how upset people
would be if we drew that game at 3 -3. Being
up 3 -0, I would have crashed down. It would
have felt like that Mariners game where they
blew it the other day when we were recording.
It turns out that Munoz was tipping pitches and
the Yankees figured that out, which is why they
blew him up. That's typical Mariners. They start
off good and then at the end of the game you
look and they lost. They just destroyed Detroit
three games since then. Yeah, we'll always lose
to the Yankees, right? Except for 1995. And we'll
play down to the really bad teams, but then somehow
we'll beat the best team in baseball and look
incredible. And then we'll get a rough patch.
And then we're all crawling into the playoffs.
Big shout out. To Cole Palmer, who Trump showed
up to celebrate the championship with Chelsea,
and then you see a video of Cole Palmer being
like, why is Trump here? He's like, get this
guy out of here. Yeah, basically. Why is Infantino
trying to take him off when he didn't move? He's
Trump. Hey, somebody let Trump take a free kick.
Just let him kick the ball. I just want to see
him kick the ball. He can't walk up airplane
steps. He might get a hard attack. Hit a PK.
Let's get him on the crossbar challenge at halftime.
That is a tough one, hitting it off the crossbar.
I will say that. I've always wanted to see him
try to run five feet. He's going to say, I won't
run five feet, but I'll run for office. So one
last thing. I kind of had questions for everybody
else about this game. Something that I picked
up on and I was thinking, and so I was wondering,
at the end of the game, we looked absolutely
gassed. And I know the weather was in the 80s,
70 % humidity. And we got a bunch of Seattle
boys as in like, hey, we live in Seattle, but
half these guys grew up in Seattle anyway. And
we looked gassed. I thought there at the end,
before the last PK, there was a sequence where
Christian started stretching his calf in the
middle, waving at the sidelines. The ball goes
out and he doesn't get taken off. And, you know,
the camera's not following around Brian or Christian,
so I can't really see. But, you know, it went
back to Christian and he's still on the pitch.
And I was like. Why didn't we take him off at
that time? And then right after that is when
that weird sequence happened where he just tried
to follow the ball like he was fouled. And then
off of the, you know, he didn't get the call
and then the ball bounced into the penalty box.
And so was y 'all seeing some fatigue that like,
hey, our midfield probably should have got rotated
out there in the 80, 85th minute? Or was y 'all
happy with letting them write it out and taking
a chance? I'm not sure if you noticed that. Christian
cut his socks. He had two big holes on the back
of his socks. Normally, players do that to relieve
compression and pressure from the socks. I think
that he's either battling shin splints or fatigue.
As I was saying in the Discord, join the Discord,
is that we should have subbed him off around
the 60th minute just to give us rest. We were
up 3 -0. That's when we have to be rotating.
I mean, who are you rotating in at that point,
though? I mean, we were deep at that position,
but now with JP out, who would have been next
in line, I mean, it's Danny, right? You move
Riosnack into a deeper midfield role, then you
put in someone that can play the 10. Yeah. I
mean, we did see last year when Schmetzer would
do this late in matches, it came back to bite
us, but that was, of course, Atencio and Danny
that were coming in, including in the Heritage
Cup. where we were moments away from winning
the Heritage Cup, and instead I had to go give
it to San Jose in the locker room. Oh, boy. And
Wednesday is the next match in that Heritage
Cup. If the Sounders win, we'll present it to
the captain on the field. Otherwise, back to
the locker room. I don't even remember, what
did we do down there in the opening match? I'll
look that up while Cedar says what's happening.
What am I saying? What's happening? What's going
on? The subs. Yeah. Look, I mean, Christian runs
his ass off every single game. So I feel like
it's not like you're going to fully. I don't
feel like we're at the point where you're like,
oh, let's give him a whole game off or anything
like that. But I mean, give the man some rest.
So I wouldn't mind seeing Danny out there more.
I forgot before he got subbed on. I like forgot
he was on the team, you know, this past game.
I was like, oh, yeah, there's Danny Leyva. I
haven't seen him in like, you know, a fucking
year. So last year he was good, right? Like he
had some really good player. We cannot. replicate
with any other player yeah he's a good player
and you know he's hungry to play well i mean
put him out there he's gonna run his ass off
and yeah if christian needs some i mean the last
thing we would need is for christian to you know
pull a calf or a hammy or something knock on
wood you know and that's that's what happens
when people are really really gassed so yeah
i i don't know i mean this has been this has
been a topic of conversation Ever since Brian
took over being head coach, it's his substitution
patterns. I don't know. He's going to do what
he wants to do and what he feels is the right
thing to do. There's nothing that we say that
will change that. It's definitely a little puzzling
at times. Game down in San Jose was 1 -1. Rusnak
hitting an 80th minute goal from the right wing.
to tie that match. Noting now that the Quakes
all -time against Sounders, this is MLS era,
15 -15 -11. But since 2021 in all competitions,
they are 5 -0 -3, so they have not lost to us
in eight matches. So it's quite surprising. I've
been at a few of those matches where we were
winning late and then blew it. either making
it be a tie or a loss down in San Jose last year.
So it'll be interesting to see. Heritage Cup,
both Seattle's won it eight times. San Jose's
won it nine times. Oh, no, also eight. So San
Jose's aiming to keep it for a fourth consecutive
year. We'll find out on Wednesday. If it's a
tie game and it's higher than 1 -1. San Jose
gets it if the Sounders win or it's a 0 -0 tie.
It's coming home. It's coming home. It's the
one we've all been waiting for. This is the one
poker we're going to win this year. Wait, is
it just us and San Jose? It is right now. That's
not the plan long term. So the deal is the Heritage
Cup is a trophy that celebrates teams that played
in the NASL. and Vancouver and Portland both
turned down the opportunity to be a part of it
because we already had the Cascadia Cup. So they
were like, it's just Cascadia Cup plus San Jose.
But I think that was short -sighted because there's
other teams out there that exist. And so we're
probably in the years coming forward as we've
formed a nonprofit, and it's going to be a 501c3
around this. there will be the opportunity to
add cities that had, so we may not see this same
team name, but cities that were in ASL teams
we can add into the process. I don't think that's
finalized because we have to vote on it, but
that's my feeling is we may see San Diego join.
We may see potentially one of the LA teams, Minnesota
teams like that may come into the fold and try
for this cup of. celebrating the NASL heritage
of our soccer teams and the league. Yes, exactly.
I'm not old enough to have attended. I guess
I am technically old enough to have attended
a match, but I don't think I ever did. That's
cool because if that becomes more of a thing,
just like I asked, like, oh, who's in it? begs
the conversation like, oh, yeah, these are the
teams, these are the cities that have that heritage,
literally, of NASL. Yeah, absolutely. And then
you get to talking about it. That's cool. Yeah,
and Portland and Vancouver can join later, but
I think maybe they need to be punished a little
bit and not be allowed in until last. So we will
see. Did you get your question answered there,
Dan? Yeah. that was it my i at in my thoughts
at the moment was oh god christian is is hurting
he we just did to christian what we did to morris
earlier in the year so that's that's always one
of my fears i mean if a cramp if it's cramping
though you know like he's going to be okay number
one and number two he can waste time by going
down right i just didn't know at the time if
it was cramping if he had popped his calf or
his hamstring as he's stretching you know i I
just didn't know. Oh, Alex, I thought maybe Tor.
He did that. An accounting note, though, we actually
play Colorado this Wednesday. Oh, sorry. I switched
the two games. Colorado is Wednesday and San
Jose is Saturday. It is throwback week, of course.
On Saturday, I have a chance to see the Heritage
Cup. So you're saying there's a chance? Maybe
you're saying there's a chance. Absolutely. No,
I think we've seen enough to duck 10 points from
Everton. That's good. Wait, so are we all in
agreement on the... I thought that first penalty
for Sporting Kansas City, I thought it was kind
of weak. I did too. That was the moose kill.
Oh, the moose one? Yeah. I watched, what was
the second one? Who fell, the peddler? No. Who
was it? Was it RBW? Yeah, Rebecca Whitey. One
of them, now I've got them backwards. One of
them was weak, and the other one looked weak,
and then when you rewatched it, he just straight
up took out his legs. I think, so as... As somebody
that's new to soccer and, of course, from Texas
and grew up with football, if I have one complaint,
now that I understand the offside rule, if I
have one complaint, it is players going down
with just the most minute touch. And, like, yeah,
I think Danny hit his leg, but he didn't have
to go down. It wasn't he was knocked down. He
fell down after filling contact. And, no, just
the sports that I grew up playing, that's some
bitch -ass shit, man. Stand up and play. But
that's the game. They got a PK and a point out
of it. Welcome to soccer. Yeah. Yeah, you can
thank the Brazilians. Neymar. Neymar specifically.
Yeah. Well, here's the thing. The refs are supposed
to be calling that, and they often will just
not call it a foul when really they need to start
giving cards for simulation. It's on the rule
book. It's on the rule book, but then again,
it's at the discretion of the ref, and that's
where the issue is. Right, but you start doing
that, you're going to see a lot less diving.
I mean, Josie Altidore dove more than anybody
in the history of sports, except for Manu Ginobili,
maybe. Josie's a big dude. He is a big dude,
but if the wind hit him, he would blow over like
he was this tiny little thing. uh it drove me
crazy so i don't know it's it's it is an interesting
thing i i don't know i just it just looked like
danny like sidled up to him like yeah there was
contact but it wasn't like he tackled him from
behind or anything yeah i thought it was i'd
have to re -watch it because when i did watch
a clip again it seemed pretty good uh i mean
it seemed like it was a penalty but I don't know
that it was the first time I watched it. And
the second one was, Reeds was, once they showed
it again. It was like, oh, yeah, Reeds is fair.
Here's what I'm asking for. If Danny and Reeds
was both penalties, then how come it wasn't a
penalty with Obed in the box? It was pretty much
the same thing. Obed kind of slows down his run
a little bit. forces the contact from behind,
and then goes down after receiving the contact.
So if that's not a penalty, then the other two
should have been penalties. Yellow for simulation
on Obed. That's what we would get. Seriously.
It's a red for simulation. We don't get those
calls. Oh my God. Oh, also every time they cut
to Danny Masovsky, like in a closeup of his face
during a game, I swear to God, he reminds me
so much of Napoleon dynamite. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Oh my God. Anyone was not, you're right. The
Danny one was, was the one that was not the penalty.
Like that was a ridiculous call. You can see
his face reaction after he knew what he did.
He's like, fuck. He looks just like Napoleon
Dynamite, his mouth kind of open there. I don't
know. He does. Reid was the one that was clearly
a penalty. Yeah, Reid tripped the attacker. He
hit his knee and knocked him over, basically.
Yeah, I mean, it's a rough one for Danny. You
can't put yourself in that position, especially
as a forward. What are you doing defending in
your own box? That's Brian Smith's ball. No,
you don't see forwards back that far. Jordan
was back there. They do defend, but not usually
back that far. Well, that's because, what, our
defense isn't good enough? Get some good defense.
We've got to worry about getting a nine first.
Yeah, true, true. Let's take a break. Let's listen
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-N dot C -O -M. Now back to your regularly scheduled
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the Patreon. Join us on the Discord. Do all the
fun stuff. All four of us here are Patreon members
for this podcast. We talked about it last episode.
We've got to do some more Patreon stuff coming
up here, but I think we can have some fun stuff
going on. The next two matches are at home, though,
so I don't think we can record live from them.
You know what would be fun is to... do a day
in the life where you just carry like a little
GoPro with you around and film what it's like
to go sit with ECS. Alex, can you do that? If
you guys give me a GoPro, yeah, I'll do it. Yeah.
The problem is they won't let you, we can, but
they don't, we probably have to clear it in advance,
but that's something to think about. My buddy
has the meta glasses. So if I were to get those,
that could work. It wouldn't be like consistent
video, but it would just be. Some clips. Especially
in a game where we should win. Before we get
into our top lineup of all time, let's talk about
this upcoming match. We have a Colorado team
coming in that just dropped a match to... Oh
no, that's their last match? They beat Vancouver
yesterday 3 -0 at home, but lost 3 -0 at LAFC.
the match before where they got a six minute
red card and then played the whole game down
a man, basically. So Colorado seems to be a team
of ups and downs, I guess we'll say with some
great performances and just getting demolished
by Portland a few times. How are you feeling
about this Colorado Seattle matchup? A typically
tough matchup for us. In Colorado, but maybe
not so much at home. We've played good at home
this year. That's when we've really been able
to score the most. But if Jordan's back, you've
got to think that he's probably going to get
another 45 start again. I don't know, with it
being a midweek game, maybe they bring him off
on the 60 -minute just to make sure that he has
enough time to rest. But, man, I'm looking at
the stats right now, and the goal difference
for Colorado is negative six. Yeah. That is not
good. They've been blown out. I think Portland
has beat them 3 -0 twice maybe. They gave up
three goals to LAFC. Yeah, it's been a rough
go of it for them. Two goals to San Jose, two
goals to San Diego. Oh, two to one was the first
Portland game. That's right. So, yeah, they've
been giving up a lot of goals. Is this a chance
to put another three up? Yeah, well, I'm interested
to see what we're, you know, because there's
some talk that we are going to get some rotation
with our attacking band. And I would like to
see Pedro. But with Jordan, I would like to see
Pedro with the starters at the beginning of the
game and kind of get an evaluation. The last
two or three times I've actually, you know, we've
seen Pedro play. It's been late in the game.
The game state is already in the endgame, and
we just haven't seen what we wanted. So for the
entertainment, for the fans, I want to see it.
And I think Pedro needs to start immensely. I
think throwing him a start would be important
for his psyche. And again, this is just me going
off the Kash Patel gut, so no evidence whatsoever
to suggest this. But his body language and demeanor
just from the TV against Kansas City, I think
a start would be beneficial to him, and I would
be excited to see him start again. Yeah, he looked
really tentative. He looked really tentative
on the ball. He looked like he was a little hesitant
to make decisions. And yeah, sometimes his spacing
seemed a little weird. He seemed like he was
ball watching a few times. Like I saw, I saw
certain points in the game. Schmetzer was like
yelling at him to like, you know, track this
guy, pay attention to this guy. You know, this
is just super anecdotal because I'm sitting at
home watching, but you know, I, I was like, Oh,
that's interesting. Like, is he not, you know,
is he not playing the way that they want him
to? And also just like Dan is saying his body
language. Yeah. Maybe, maybe he wouldn't feel
a bit more. juiced up if he got a start. Could
we see Ryan Kent out there as well? Oh, I hope
so. Oh, you want to know what my lineup would
be? Yeah, I mean, yeah. First, Pedro, do you
think he should get some time? And what about
Ryan Kent? Oh, yeah. In the Napoleon Dynamite
voice, vote for Pedro. So, let Pedro start. Have
they used that? If no one's used that, they need
to be using that. I'm using it. I put a patent
on it. Okay. I'm going to start using it now.
No, I think you start Pedro. You start Morris,
but you take him off at half again. I guess you
do play Rusnak, and then you play... Give Ken
a run out there. If not, it'll be Rothrock. Same
midfield. And then we'll see Kalani come back.
Hopefully. Who's starting at left back, though?
Reid. Or John Bell. No, not John Bell. I start
Reid. Because I think we're going to be at home.
We'll have a lot more possession. We'll do the,
like semester says, play when we're in possession,
have the three center backs. And then the midfield
be high. I don't know. He's just going to roll
out the same lineup as before. And then someone's
going to get hurt, and we're going to have this
cycle all over again. Yeah, go ahead, Dan. I
think a big question is, are you starting Alex
at center back again? Are you going to run with
Reagan and Alex at center back and let KKR fly
up that right wing? Put Alex back and maybe play
Bell there in center back instead so that you
would have Reed, KKR out on the wings. How are
you going to do that? Let me give you some stats
real quick before you all decide on that. In
the game against Vancouver, Colorado had 16 shots,
including seven on target, both better than Vancouver,
but only 41 % of possession. and only 82 % pass
accuracy. They did commit only eight fouls to
16 for Vancouver, but they did have two yellows
and three offsides more than Vancouver. Vancouver
also had more corners. So here's a low possession,
high shot team. What does that mean for our lineup?
Does it change anything for you? Are you sure
we're not playing Minnesota? These are not that
bad, possession -wise. No, it's kind of – I would
say it almost sounds like Sunder's kryptonite
with the team sitting back and then going when
they get the chance. No, it doesn't change. I
mean, I would start – I think I would run with
Alex back at center back again if I was the one
making the choice and then have KKR. I had to
let KKR push up the field and hopefully we see
Morris and getting the ball fed to him. I think
there's a lot – that gets me excited. Cedar,
what about you? Yeah, to your point, Colorado,
their possession, it's kind of varied over the
season. Some games they've had over 50%, cracking
60, 66 during one game against Sporting Kansas
City just a couple of weeks ago. And then they've
also, Then the next week they have 28 % against
LAFC, a team that doesn't want to have the ball.
So I have no idea what to expect. I mean, I haven't
watched really any Colorado games this year except
for our 1 -1 draw against them on the road. So,
yeah, I don't know. I don't think they're going
to be – I don't know. I feel like Sporting Kansas
City – we'll probably end up being more dangerous
than we'll have been more dangerous against us
than Colorado will be. But I mean, I just trust
in our, in our talent. If we're able to play
the way we want to play, I'm not, I'm not concerned
about Colorado. I feel like they're a team that's
kind of, you know, all over the place and a little
streaky. It seems like they go on losing streaks,
you know, then they'll win a couple of games.
They'll draw one and then go on another losing
streak. So I, I'm not, I'm not super concerned
about them in particular. I think what I'm concerned
about is like, hey, can we play with the energy
and the capacity that we know we have? Because
if we don't, then any team can beat us. Yeah,
makes sense. So give me a score prediction. For
the Colorado match on Wednesday, it's very funny
that I was talking about San Jose being Wednesday
when I had already pulled up all the Colorado
stats ready to go to discuss with you. But what's
your score prediction then if we are assuming
starting Jordan and coming out firing? I think
we're going to get 3 -1, and Jordan's going to
have a brace, and Pedro's going to get that goal.
and it's going to be a very exciting night. So
that's what I'm going to go with, 3 -1 Sounders.
Cedar? I also think 3 -1 Sounders, I think they're
going to get, I think Colorado's going to get
a really stupid penalty late, and Georgie Mihailovich
will sink it home, and we'll end up with a win.
Alex, where are you at? Also 3 -1 Sounders. I
think Jordan scores. Kent gets his first. And
then Pedro scores. I'm going to be the Discord
vote for Pedro. Yeah. I'll go 3 -2 then. I think
Sounders probably take a 3 -0 lead and then give
up two goals. And then, of course, we have a
nervy finish because, according to Schmetzer,
A win is a win. So three points, you take it
anywhere. I would rather discuss how to not allow
three goals in a single half, but yeah, I'm going
three, two sounders for my prediction may change
by the time I record with the, the, the scuttlebutt
dudes, but you've all convinced me we're going
to win the game. So I'm going. Wait, wait, wait.
I actually want to change mine. I now want to
go three, one Colorado. I can't be the same as
everybody else. I'm going to add that Ree's going
to get a red. Oh, no. Again? Again. This time
it will be a straight red. Oh, gosh. As long
as he doesn't throw the ball in the stands, we
should be okay. No, he's going to throw the ball
at the Colorado bench. Yeah. That's better. That's
probably less of a penalty. I mean, that you
just get a yellow. It's not a straight red. No,
because he's not Argentinian. So he's going to
get a red. Yeah, but weren't you the guy who
said that Suarez was done and then he looked
brilliant again this week for Miami? That's all
I'm saying. I didn't watch the game. Can we still
call him the city van? I don't watch Miami ball.
Let's do a little game here before we finish
up. We talked about it last show. It was my homework
for all of you. And if you haven't done it, I'm
an easy grader, so you can do it as we're going.
but we know Dan has done it. So we're going to
start with you, Dan. All -time Sounders 4 -4
-2 lineup. So this was a lot of fun because it
gave me an opportunity to kind of dig into some
of the players that I missed coming into the
Sounders just a couple years ago. So I really
enjoyed this and watching some of the highlights
of these players. Let's go from forward backwards
because I think... Oh, forward backwards? Yeah,
because there's some that will be obvious, and
I think there's some that might be a little –
But my forwards, I think that's where people
are going to get upset. Oh, no. This is going
to be fun then because you see your forwards,
and then we can talk to everyone else. Yeah.
Okay, so if I'm playing the top two, I'm playing
with Ryle and Oba. Oh, okay. Okay. Nice. Nice.
Then moving into the midfield, I got Morris on
the left. Ladero, Alonzo, and then Christian
on the right. And then with the back four, I
got Brad Smith, Zach Scott, Chad Marshall, Yedlin.
Wow. Interesting. Interesting. There's definitely
some differences that I have. Some debates that
I had there. Who you got a goalkeeper? Yeah,
that's true. Have we had a goalkeeper before,
Fry? I thought we played with 10 men before Fry
played with us. Spurning, your obvious choices
are Spurn, and it's not a difficult – I mean,
it is a difficult choice. Spurning and, of course,
Casey Keller versus Fry. We've had other goalies,
but those are the main ones, and they all – an
argument can be made for all of them. Absolutely.
So we're assuming you go with Fry there? 100%,
yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty good lineup.
I've got to say, Cedar, what are you thinking
here for your lineup? Up top, I've got Raul and
Clint Dempsey. And I'd have Dempsey kind of be
more of a shadow striker there. And then basically
same midfield as Dan, Morris, left mid, Lodero,
Alonzo, and then Christian on the right. And
then back line, I've got Nuhu left back. I've
got Chad Marshall, Yamar at center back. And
then Kelvin Leardom at right back. And then Fry
and Goal. That was my debate at right back. Leardom
versus Yedlin. Tough. I know. Tough one. I know.
Alex, what's your lineup? So I'm going to do
Raul and Clint up top. Yeah. Same midfield as
Cedar. Dan with Morris, Nico, Alonzo, and Roldan.
All right. So right back, I'm taking Brad Evans.
Oh. And then I'm taking Yamar, Chad Marshall,
and then Leo Gonzalez. Interesting. Interesting.
So I got. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I forgot you got goal.
And then goal, I'm taking Casey Keller. Okay.
Not a bad choice. Not a bad choice. I have Raul
and Deuce up top. I originally was going to do
Oba and Deuce, but then I remembered that Oba
never scored a playoff goal in his entire career
and would always fizzle out by then, so couldn't
do it. Midfield is the exact same. Jordan, Nico,
Ozzie, and Christian. I did go with Nuhu at left
back. Chad Marshall. I had a big debate between
Roman and Yamar at center back, and I went with
Yamar. And then I had a big debate between Yedlin
and Leardom, and I went with Yedlin. And then,
of course, I went with Fry just because of his
longevity and just what he's done for our team.
But I will say Sperning was pretty amazing. He
just wasn't here enough years. I think it's telling,
though, that for the MLS, we have quite a few
players there. That could potentially and should
definitely one day be in the circle of legends.
But we'll have to see because you have to have
to qualify. You have to meet certain criteria.
And Jordan, Christian, Yamar, Nuhu are all years
off. And Raul are all, it's like four to five
years after they retire. So they won't make it
for a long time. But I think Ozzy's eligible
first ballot, if I'm not mistaken. So we could
see Ozzy. Deuce might be, I'd have to look at
the number of games he played. Also, there may
be a question of, was he involved with the championship?
Because he was on the roster, but he was, remember,
injured when that happened. But I think he was
there for, oh, I was going to say US Open Cup.
But another year, maybe. Chad Marshall, we'd
have to look at the timing. And Yamar, of course,
is still active. So Roman is the type of player
who does not get in on straight numbers, but
there are special categories that could get him
in. But he also may be the type of player who,
just based on the criteria, which... nicholas
and i wrote and then was adapted by the sounders
uh he wouldn't get in because he didn't meet
some of those numbers but he could get in in
like as a moment like his penalty obviously is
the biggest moment in sounders history maybe
the save but yeah so that's fun i mean i think
trying to decide that was tough and i also think
we all went with MLS, which is interesting because
we had this discussion at the end of the last
show. Who might have we included instead? I don't
know enough about the NASL Sounders, which is
why there is representation for those people
on the circle of legends. I know some of the
players are, but I don't know of their true impact.
So we'll be able to look at those numbers. And
USL, although it was minor league, I mean, there's
still some legends there that potentially could
be involved. I looked it up. There's 40 players
who've played defender for the Sounders all time.
There's probably more now, but that was as of
like three years ago. So I guess it's more at
this point. Does that lineup that y 'all picked,
since they're largely the same with the exception
of a different center back, different right back,
different goalie, does that lineup and left back,
does that lineup win a championship? And the
MLS. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah, of course it does.
Wait, who's the one that has Nuhu at left back?
I do. Yeah, you're getting red card in the final.
You're losing on a PK. Oh, no. I mean, I just
don't. Most red cards go to you. I don't see.
To me, Nuhu, player -wise, is the best left back
we've ever had. I think he just. It's hard with
what's going on right now, right? How do you
decide? Also, we wouldn't play them in a 4 -4
-2, right? I mean, we'd probably have – you'd
drop Alonzo and Roldan, you know, as defensive
midfielders, right? I mean, you'd play Christian
on the right and have Ozzie back. If you're playing
two forwards. If you're only playing one forward,
then you drop Christian back and bring in a different
right mid. My guess is if we're playing with
two at the top, I mean, you do the diamond in
the middle, and then you got the four at the
back. You could go four triple two. Say that
again? Four triple two with the two CDMs, two
cams, and then two strikers. Jordan can play.
That was Schmetzer as coach. That's not happening.
This is where I'm the coach, and we're playing
FIFA. We can't score from the wing in that instance.
Well, if we're playing FIFA, I'm doing three
at the back, which is my always lineup. Three
center backs, and then I don't put anyone at
wing back. I want extra attacking players up
top. So that's why I put Brad Evans as my right
back, because in possession, we're going to be
three in the back, and you just have Leo Gonzalez
running up the line. Yeah. Yeah. Leo played 137
matches at the time. It was the fifth most in
club history. I think it's now probably the eighth
or ninth most in seven seasons from 2009 to 2015.
And he won the U .S. Open Cup in 09, 10, 11,
and 14 in the Sport Shield. More than 10 ,000
minutes. I happen to have that open on another
window here, so I did not memorize that. No,
I just Googled left backs in Sounders history,
and that's the one that came up. Yeah. I was
like, I don't want to pick new who. Chad Marshall
got four best 11 honors. Of course, only two
with the Sounders. But isn't the award named
after him for best defender in the league? Isn't
it the Chad Marshall Award? I think so, right?
See, so when you guys think of Chad Marshall,
do you guys think of him in his time in Seattle
or his time in Columbus? Was it Columbus? Columbus,
yeah. Because I heard that on another podcast.
He did 10 years in Columbus, but the Sounders
didn't exist before then. So MLS didn't exist
until 2019. 29. He did five years with Columbus
while the Sounders were a team. And then he came
here. So I definitely think of him as a Sounders
player before a Columbus player. I mean, and
plus he's still around in some capacity. We saved
them from Columbus. Brad Evans came that same
year. Or no, a couple years. Yeah, same year.
Nice. That's pretty good. So the MLS didn't start
until 2009. We invented soccer, right? Seattle
invented soccer. Well, that's why the ball this
year is Seattle colors. Green and blue. Absolutely.
You guys see we have a fourth kit? Yeah, we have
a fourth kit. It's already dropped. The All -Star
jersey? Yeah, the All -Star jersey. I don't think
we have any All -Stars, do we? No, because there's
an East Coast Spice. I mean, that is true, but
I'm not sure if there's... Okay, that's a good
question. For the three of you, who on the Sounders
roster deserves to be on the All -Star team?
I would say Fry, but he's hurt, so we can't count
him. Well, I mean, he could come. Christian,
for sure. And Rusnak. Yeah. It's a tough position,
though, for him based on what other people are
doing around the league. Yeah, I don't think
he's producing enough. Yeah, but it's subjective,
and that's who I think. Your eyes deceive you.
The Austin coach, what's his face? Is it Nico
Estevez? Well, he picked Brandon. Yeah, Vasquez
is done. Yeah, exactly, right? No, but what I'm
saying is the Austin head coach, I forgot his
name, but he had initially picked Brandon Vasquez,
his own player, to be an all -star over. Sam
Surridge, who leads the league in goals. It's
just like, okay, well, that's stupid. That's
really dumb. And that's why karma came in. I
will choose who I want. No, because we don't
want Ruznik to tear his ACL. No, we don't. It's
fine. I honestly don't care about... I mean,
they care. The players probably care a little
bit, but I don't care about who's an all -star
or not. less games for us to have our guys get
injured in. Are they playing League of Mechies
All -Stars? Yeah. That's a better game. We did
get a player in the MLS Next All -Star game,
Ronan Learning, who I don't even know who that
is, but he's a Sounders youth player, apparently.
The only Sounders player we know in the Academy
is Omar Hassan. I don't know. I've never heard
that player in my life. So Sounders FC Academy,
Ronan Learning. MLS Next announced that he is
on that. He joined the Sounders Academy in 2002,
scored in 18 matches, 15 starts during the 2024
-25 MLS Next season, scoring three goals, including
a brace against San Jose. He recently played
with Sounders FC Academy in the 2025 Generation
Adidas Cup at the U18 level, finishing third
in Group F. I remember when he used to win those
against like Real Madrid and teams like that.
Oh yeah. It's rough. It is rough, but yeah. So
we have one youth player that made the all -star
game and wasn't Alex, the highest rated Sounders
player in the all -stars for right back for all
positions. He was the highest on the list. Yes.
Yes, he was. He was the only one that was top
three at any position. Dan, how many votes did
you submit? For MLS or for 2024 elections? For
MLS. Oh, none. I guess you can blame me for the
Sounders not having anybody in there. I mean,
the midfielders are Sebastian Berhalter, David
DaCosta, Evander, Diego Luna, Jeppe Tverskasov,
and Philippe Zinkernagel. The three of them,
including DaCosta, being coach selections. It's
hard to argue. Not surprising. It's a pretty
good midfield, and they went heavy on the forwards.
And no defenders. The coach selected a Cincinnati
player, a Nashville player, a Union player, and
a Columbus Crew player to come in. Man, Andy
Nahar. I didn't even know he was still in the
league. Wow. I think it would be way more fun
if they just did East versus West. No money.
Is there money in this? I don't think there's
money. No one's paying to go to see. The league
that makes fans. perhaps, but they're already
going to have to go to Leagues Cup a week later.
This is July 23rd. Leagues Cup starts literally
a week later. The cartel sponsors them. Could
be. They send their taxes to the U .S. and it
pays for them. I did not realize that Andy Nahar
went and played at Olympia, meaning the team
in Honduras where he plays for the national team.
or several years before coming back. In my head,
he's always a DC United player where he's done
two stints with a total of 152 matches. Long
time player. That's a lot. Yeah, he did go to
Anderlicht as well. So quality player that maybe
the United States should have done more to get
on the national team since he moved to the US
at the age of 13. Isn't that always the case?
Who did I learn? Who's the second best player
for Canada? I found out today he was born in
the United States. Jonathan David? Yeah, Jonathan
David was born in the United States and does
not play for the USA. Come on. I think he had
the one -time switch too. Oh, did they put him
on our team for a little bit? Maybe at the youth
level. Yeah, well. It would sure be nice if we
had a player of his quality on our team. It looks
like, no, he's been at Canada since U17. Born
in Brooklyn, New York. They moved to Haiti when
he was a baby and then immigrated to Ottawa.
Should have brought him in. Big mistake. Damn
it. Especially because we need a nine at the
national level. Right. That's for our U .S. men's
national team edition of the show. How do you
guys feel about Pochettino? Fine. I mean, I think
he did pretty well considering we had a bunch
of trash players on the field and all our starters
were gone. They didn't want to go. Remember,
Pulisic needed some rest. He wanted to go to
Cancun. Yep. I think he should have not let them
go. I think they should have said, well, then
you're not going to be in the World Cup. Landon
Donovan was talking about it with the goalkeeper,
Tim Howard, saying that in our day, the Gold
Cup before the World Cup was when, okay, these
are our rotations coming up for the World Cup,
and we're going to run them now and see how they
work. And he should have just said, you got to
come. So my guess is that U .S. soccer is let
them be babies and not do that. Yeah, I think
it. the entitlement that they feel just because
they're in Europe. Yeah, my excitement for the
U .S. Mints team is probably at a record low
right now. Terrible time for it to happen with
the World Cup coming up. In the United States,
no less. Oh, yeah. Don't worry, Dan. It's not
too late to do the one -time switch to root for
Mexico. Yeah, it's that easy. Or Canada. That's
actually hilarious. Are you going to one -time
switch like you did from Portland to Seattle?
Is this what we're talking about? Moving from
Seattle to Portland is not even the closest going
from U .S. to Mexico. I haven't even gone to
a Portland game. You're going to keep bringing
that up until you burn the jersey. I know. You
said you're going to burn that jersey. I haven't
seen any pictures of that jersey burning yet.
I said I was going to burn it on the 4th of October
when we play against the Timbers. That's a long
ways away, but it's a good birthday present.
Better be on YouTube as soon as it happens. Yeah,
I'm going to get arrested. Are you guys going
to pay my bill? Oh, this should be for the Patreon.
Yeah. There you go. Or a little jersey roast.
Yeah, but we all got to do it together, so whenever
that happens. So here we go. Here's the Patreon
episode. We're going to go to downtown Portland
and we're going to watch Alex. Oh, he just, I
think he just got off. Yeah. He didn't like the
idea. Hold up. I'm looking for something. He
was excited that we weren't going to hold him
to it. So we didn't know he was a Portland fan
to begin with. While he's looking for that, I
will say I did see a post right now from yesterday
of someone posting the Sounders logo, but the
two stars on the top are red. Red cards, we keep
getting. That's because I was actually going
to give it to you as a gift, Cameron. I was going
to give you the Portland jersey. I would not
have any use of a Portland jersey. Well, you
said you were short on toilet paper. Yeah, that
is true. Oh, there it is. Oh, that's so ugly.
Yeah. What do we do with that? We're going to
burn it. All I'm going to say is I'm glad that
people are listening to this podcast instead
of seeing the podcast. Right. They didn't see
that. They didn't have to see one of the olders
holding up a Portland jersey. I will say that.
If you were a Portland fan and want to become
a Sounders fan, you're more than welcome. You
know, there's people that have done wrong in
their lives and they've repented and become better
people. It's understandable. Maybe you were confused.
You grew up there and it took you to realize
that Portland is just like that petulant little
sibling that is not as cool as the older sibling
up North. So come root for the Sounders, real
soccer city, USA. There's a small fee, though,
for the Switch. You have to join the Patreon.
Yeah, join the Patreon. Perfect. And join the
Discord. That's when we'll know you're legit.
Yeah, that's when we know you're a real Sounders
fan. It was on clearance, and I'm a... I was
young. Those are the other teams. I have other
teams' jerseys. I have a Nashville jersey. I
have a Washington, D .C., D .C. United jersey.
I just bought a St. Louis jersey the other day.
I didn't buy a St. Louis. Who did I buy? An Ajax
jersey. Trailblazers, I would buy a Trailblazers
jersey, but that's it. No, I wouldn't. I saw
the weirdest Jersey. Cause I looked it up after
I was like, wait, did he ever play for them?
I saw, I was in, I was in a, I think it was Fremont
at like the, like one of those, you know, basement
kind of thrift shop, like, you know, vintage
stores. And I saw an IX Jersey that was black
and it had red and green. Like it was, they're
doing some kind of Rasta thing. Oh yeah. And
on the. on the back it the the name on the jersey
was areola like paul areola and i was like wait
what like he never played for them did he so
i looked up you know his career and i couldn't
find anything and i couldn't find any any areola
ever playing for iax you know i didn't look too
hard but i was like what is this jersey like
it looked legit too it was adidas it was you
know it looked nice It said Ariel. I think it
was the number six or something. I was like,
did somebody just mock this up? It might have
been like a fan press where they do custom names.
You probably came across a Sunday League jersey.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't know. They did a Bob
Marley -themed jersey. Yeah, I remember that.
It's rare, so if someone got rid of that, they're
crazy. They are crazy. Hold on to that. Well,
I didn't buy it, so it might still be there.
Yeah. For all you bargain hunters. I think it's
time to get out of here. Any final words before
we move along? No. Sounds like there isn't. All
out of words. Okay. We'll leave it there. They
can find you all on the Discord. Oh, look at
that. A Pulisic jersey. AC Milan. AC Milan. Yeah,
I have a Chelsea one of his. I have a whole bunch
of jerseys. Mr. Glass. Always broken. But I think
it's a perfect time to say farewell. We'll be
back in a week or so. And everybody have fun
this week. Two Sounders matches. Good times.
I look forward to talking to you all next week
with six more points. Perfect. Let's do it all.
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We'll see you at Lumen and go Sounders! Alexa,
who's the best MLS team of all time? The Seattle
Sounders are both unequivocally and irreparably
the best MLS team of all time.