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 Sounders Scuttlebutt
Ultras Edition. I am Cameron Collins, one of
your hosts, and I am here with the one and only
Dan the Bastard, with Cedar Banks, and with Alex
Ferreria. Is that your last name on your jersey,
man? We don't talk about that. Oh, man. Team
Store doesn't know how to spell Ferreria. as
it turns out, but Alex Diaz is here as well.
Welcome, gentlemen, to another week of Sounders
soccer. How are y 'all feeling right now? I'm
pretty good. Yeah, I'm feeling like we're less
than 24 hours away from being tied for third.
Yeah, it's all good in Sounders land. And who's
good at speaking Spanish? I know Alex is. Anyone
else? Let me check my Duolingo. You want to read
us the thing I posted in the Sounders Scuttlebutt
there, Alex? I don't speak Spanish. Yeah, I'll
read it. You can translate it for us. Because
it is quite the deal, so it is the place where
we should start off because not this weekend,
but on Wednesday, the Sounders are playing back
in the League's Cup against Puebla, who's actually
playing right now. But the Sounders have a deal
for members of the Vamos Sounders Club. All right.
Disclaimer, I was born and raised in the U .S.
Never been to Mexico in my life, so don't hate
my Spanish. You still speak it better than us,
I think. So, nuestro estreno de Jesús está lleno.
Yeah. Gracias por tu interés. I don't know what
it means, but I know how to pronounce it. Pronto
habrá más invitaciones para miembros de Vamos
Sanders Club. Thank you for your interest. Right
now, we have more invitations for members of
the Vamos Sounders Club. Is that the gist of
it? Is that what Google Translate told you? No,
I'm using my French skills and my five years
of living in California to use Latin languages
to figure it out. Yeah, pretty much is that they're
appreciative of the people that are interested
in joining the Vamos Sounders Club. That's my
fault. Sorry, listeners. And that there's more
things to come. Sweet. So, no te olvides. Este
miércoles 20 de agosto enfrentamos a Club Puebla
and Leagues Cup. Por fiesta especial, seis boletos
a 1964. Yep. You can get up to six tickets for
a flat fee of $19 .74 for the match on Wednesday
against Puebla, which is part of the league.
With taxes and fees, it's like $23. You're paying
$24 a ticket. No, that's total. Not per ticket,
that's total. $19 .74 and you can get six tickets
for just that flat fee. What? Put them in ECS.
Or Gorilla. I think they're sitting behind ECS
or in the... corners or in the club. What's the
Hawks nest? The green zone. Yeah, the bleachers
that don't have the backs yet. Yeah. And then
it says, Unforgettable. An unforgettable Wednesday?
Yeah. That's the one thing I learned from Duolingo.
I was doing Duolingo Spanish for a little bit
when I was dating someone who was a Spanish first
speaker. Then I went back to French since I have
a degree in it and I thought, well, I should
probably be able to speak a language that I have
a degree in. You would hope, right? But yeah,
so we will make sure that it is in the show notes
for this. Man, what a deal. Come out Wednesday,
August 20th, which is we're recording on Friday
the 15th. So five days from now, almost to the
minute. I think the match starts around 7, right?
I think it's 8. 8? Oh, okay. Yeah, Wednesday,
8 p .m. kickoff. So probably 8, 07, actual. Yeah,
8 or 9, depending on how they flex that out.
But get up to six tickets for a... a total of
$19 .74. You can get two at that price, or you
can get six, or you can get one, but why not
get six and give them to your friends and get
them to come out to the stadium? Yeah. Oh, no.
I'm looking at the website right now. They're
$22 per ticket. No, you're not looking at the
right thing then. It says get up to six tickets
for just $19 .74 each. Oh, well, we should start
this whole show over because... That was very
confusing. I had it. It's still a great deal.
I had it right at the beginning. You were like,
no, no, no, no. Yeah, you did. Well, I don't
speak Spanish, apparently. I misunderstood. No,
I mean, come on. Do you think they're going to
give out six tickets for $20? Yeah. There's going
to be no one there. They damn well should. They
should give out free tickets. Well, you should
still get a ticket for $19 .74. That's a good
price. If I was in the Seattle area, I'd for
sure go to that game. Same. Dan? Yeah, maybe
you should just be in the Seattle area. I was
talking about you being in the Seattle area.
That's Tacoma's official name. Seattle area.
But yeah, definitely go get that. $19 .74. You
can buy up to six tickets. They'll all be together.
And looking at it, you can get them. Let's see
if we just click through it here. I can tell
you. Yeah. Corner of the 200 level and upper
south end zone, 100 level north corners or the
green zone, which is the what we were talking
about, the hawks nest, the grandstand seats with
no backs. So definitely get those. To put it
in perspective, you know, 19 bucks for a ticket.
And if you go to Ticketmaster right now, you're
looking at 45 per ticket. to be an ECS. So that's,
uh, my ticket, my ticket was a hundred bucks
a piece. No. Yeah. For that. I mean, it was 50
for the last match, but this one hundred bucks.
So double the price from the last round. No,
I think, you know, it breaks all the rules of
supply and demand with the ticket prices for
these, but, uh, yeah, at least they're rolling
out some deals for you to get in with a, uh,
with a good price ticket. Yeah. Yeah. So don't
listen to me. I'm a dumb ass. Listen to everyone
else in this, in this, uh, podcast. Buy a ticket
and then go sit with Nicholas and ECS. If he'll
be there, yeah. That's a good question. I think
Dan will be there. Yeah, probably. Good chance
I'll be there. Now if you can just convince your
little one to... enjoy club seats instead of
sitting with ECS. Yeah. No, she was not about
it. We were offered a chance to go to the club.
She's like, nope, I want to go sing and dance.
And you can sing and dance from anywhere in the
stadium. It's just, you don't feel like your
ears are getting beat out by those drums. Maybe
I'm just sensitive since I got a concussion and
then the next week punched in the head and popped
my eardrum. But man, those drums, I had to wear
earplugs last time I sat down there. They're
a lot. Huh? Yeah, exactly. Also, they sent an
exclusive invitation out to Bamos Sounders members.
So if you are a member, go check it out. It's
a pretty cool event taking place. I believe next
Friday. Next Friday. So two days after that match,
they're having members. And it's first come,
first serve. So if you are a member, go out and
look at it right now. And remember, being a member
is free. So you can join at any time. In the
show notes, we have, of course, the link for
it. But they are doing a thing where you get
to go to training down there at the center, the
training center where they all practice and everything.
And then they're going to be screening the new
mini -docu -series episodes that they have done
about Jesus Ferreria. Ferreria. Are we going
to explain why we call you that? Yeah. So I ordered
the Orca kit with Jesus as the name and, you
know, the number nine. And I did it through the
phone because I was like, I'm not going to drive
two and a half hours to go place an order. So
I do it over the phone, this and that. The guy's
like, all right, it takes two weeks. I'm like,
okay, for sure. Give him my card information.
He charges me. two weeks passed by i come home
from work i'm excited because you know i got
the jersey in i open it the r's are messed up
and then they spelled his name wrong i'll put
a picture i'll put a picture in the discord too
nice and my rothrock's supposed to be mailed
out today so i imagine it'll arrive in the next
day don't be surprised if it says pop rocks i'm
gonna keep that one though that'd be a good no
i'm getting it from uh i got it directly from
the fanatics folks rather than from the sounders
offices because uh through them you can pay over
four payments like every two weeks and so let
me earn some some time to earn some extra money
and spend it on a jersey instead of bills so
it worked out the things that i do to help out
the club i'm trying to help us get up the budget
but so you bought that from the club and not
timu and they still spot it wrong yeah Yeah.
And then the lettering was off center, too. I
mean, they tried to spell your other jersey you
got from them wrong, too. Yeah, they wanted to
do Rothrock number two. Or they wanted the wrong
number. Yeah. Rothrock number two? Yeah. No,
not a second Rothrock. Just they were giving
him number two. We could take a second Rothrock.
Hell yeah. Yeah, that would be great. I feel
like Schmetzer would love that, right? Is there
a baby Rothrock he can bring in? Can he play
the six? That would be great. That would be great.
But lots of fun stuff going on right now around
Sounder stuff. So, yeah, we have a match this
Saturday. Is it Saturday night? Yeah, tomorrow
night. 5 .30. 5 .30 p .m.? Yeah, that's nighttime.
On the East Coast. It's nighttime here, too.
Just early evening. And then Wednesday we play
Puebla in the... probably the easiest match of
the knockout stages that we're going to see or
any team's going to see. So let's hope Sounders
can prevail in that one. Yeah, don't say it's
easy. No, I didn't say it's easy. It should be
the easiest. Currently, Puebla is losing to San
Luis, 1 -0 at halftime on a penalty in the 45th
plus five. But they do have seven shots on goal
and have 54 % of possession. I'm not sure. It'll
be interesting to see if they started their...
starters, which I want to get to a discussion
about that. But before we get to that, I also
want to say that last time I checked, the Mariners
were up 11 -9. And it looks like they still are.
What inning is it? Oh, no, they won 11 -9. So
they gave up a three -run dong in the eighth
to make it from 11 -6 to 11 -9. But they beat
the Mets today. Uh, currently Baltimore is no
hitting Arizona. So the Mariners have a chance
to get back into a tie for first place. And let's
hope they do it because, uh, after losing two
straight to Baltimore, they kind of, they gave
us those couple of days of hope before they fell
off like a typical Seattle sports team, like
a typical Mariners team, like someone that cheated
on you in the past. And then you, everything
was wonderful. And then you caught them texting
some other random person flirting with them.
And you're just like, Oh, it's like this again.
Okay, Mariners. I don't know if you were meant
to say Mariners at the end. I thought you were
about to say Maryland or something. No, I do
think the Mariners is the most toxic relationship
I have in my life. I mean, that's fair. That's
fair. Have you guys seen the John Blod documentary?
So good. The history of the Seattle Mariners.
Oh, it's phenomenal. It's funny because there's
not real video or stuff like that. It's graphics
for most of it and pictures. I think the whole
thing ends up being eight hours long if you watch
all the parts. It's truly a must -watch film
for anybody who's a fan of the Mariners or just
a baseball fan in general because he really lays
out a great... Just all the reasons why the Mariners
are... Even if we're not, you know, it's such
an up and down story. But he makes the point
that they're the protagonists of baseball. And
that's a really, really interesting lens to put
them in. And it makes me feel a little bit better
about, you know. Yeah. So you and I have the
Mariners. Dan has the Cowboys. What does Alex
have that lets him down regularly? His brothers?
Yeah, my brother filled his baseline concussion
test. Jesus. He's lucky that it got cleared.
So whoever's doing the stuff at MLS Next is not
doing their job. Hey, no, it's the baseline.
You could be forgetful and just a dumbass, and
that's your base. So that means if he gets a
concussion, they'll know whether or not they
got to start with where his brain actually is
at. And you know what's crazy is that he's, out
of the two brothers, he's the one that's more
talented. Yeah, at soccer. At learning, I guess.
Or life in general. He's like, when we see him,
he's the more responsible one, but the test says
something different. That's got to be rough to
be. It's rough enough to be, I think, to compare
yourself to your siblings and realize that you're
lesser than. I've never really experienced that
in my life, but I hope my sister's not listening.
But when it's a twin. That is what blows my mind.
When it's a twin, how do you handle with your
twin being more talented than you? Oh, they just
start socking each other up. You just let them
be sometimes. What do we have? Any other non
-soccer stuff we want to talk or non -sounders
specific stuff we want to talk about before we
get into sounders? Oh, I don't know if the listeners
can hear that, but my neighbor's dog is barking
so loud that I can hear it through my mic and
that's not. a thing that normally happens in
my studio. I think we should give a little shout
-out to Liverpool. Cedar with the Liverpool hat.
Yeah, shout -out to Liverpool for being maybe
the ninth or tenth best team in the Premier League.
Hey, I mean, all the pressure's on, right? I
mean, they have to win the league again this
year. Anything else is just a complete failure
with all the money they've spent. Liverpudlins,
that's about all. You can't understand what they
say there. They're kind of like... They always
walk alone. They're the Fresno, California, or
maybe Modesto of England. That's, that's funny.
My mom is from Modesto. No, but she would, she
would agree with any. Unfortunately, I've spent
enough time in Modesto to know this is not a
place you want to spend time in. Unless you're,
you're just there for the dry heat and swimming
in a pool outside some good taco trucks. Oh yeah.
Keep it simple and you're having a great, great
time. But yeah, that's. Those are the highlights
for sure. They start and stop there. But, yeah,
good for Liverpool. A nice win over Bournemouth
to kick things off. We'll see what happens. Was
that the first official match of the season or
was that Carabao Cup? Well, no, that was the
first official match of the league season. They
had the community shield, which they lost to
Crystal Palace on penalties. So good for Crystal
Palace. They've been kind of dealt. You know,
all the fans have been dealt a crappy hand with
the whole, you know, relegation from making whatever
it was, Champions League. Yeah, Europa, right.
They were even kicked out of that because of
all the stupid ownership crap going on. I don't
know if you've seen that they say that the teams
that win the Community Shield, they don't win
the league. So they're saying Liverpool dropped
the ball on purpose so they could win the league
again. I mean, you could see that Crystal Palace,
their players were much more juiced up for that
game. They were playing with a lot more energy.
I can't remember what Community Shield is set
at now. Is it FA Cup winner versus Carabao Cup
winner? I believe it's FA Cup winner versus League
winner. Yeah, it's a glorify friendly. Yeah,
of course. But I mean, it goes to charity. So,
I mean, we had that before. The Sounders played
Colorado one year in the Community Shield in
Seattle. And then I think we were supposed to
be in it another year because I think it was
U .S. Open Cup versus winner of the league. And
they ended up canceling it the next preseason.
I can't remember why. Maybe snow in Colorado
or wherever it was supposed to be played. Sounds
about right. I want to look more into that. That's
kind of a cool idea that I wish we had, Community
Shield. Well, I like the fact that the Premier
League is back. This weekend, they had all the
matches for the Carabao Cup where Chelsea advanced,
Wrexham advanced. Wrexham, that match, you see
the highlights for that? Down 2 -0 in the 90th
minute. Sorry, 4 -2 in the 90th minute. They
scored two goals to tie it and then won on penalties.
Damn. Good for them. So that was super fun to
see them. have some success in the, in the championship.
I'm sure it's going to be a long season for them
though. Seattle's up 7 -0 against the Chiefs.
Oh yeah. I gave away my tickets. I was, I wanted
to record with y 'all instead of go watch a preseason.
Go see the thirst ringers. Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
In other, in other non -sounders news, I am going
to see. I've got tickets for next weekend. I'm
going to go see Bay FC, the local NWSL team.
They're hosting Washington Spirit at Oracle Park
where the San Francisco Giants play. And I'm
really excited because I will get to see, hopefully,
get to see Trinity Rodman play in person. Yeah.
He is fun to watch. So I'm looking forward to
that. Where does Bay FC usually play? Down in
San Jose? Mm -hmm. But I like that they were
like, hey, we're calling ourselves Bay FC. Their
inaugural season, I mean, I live in San Francisco.
I would see ads for them on bus stops and stuff.
They market all over the Bay, it seems like,
whereas San Jose Earthquakes, they do not market.
No. Up in the city or North Bay or East Bay,
I don't think. The Santa Clarita 49ers do, though.
Yeah, oh, boy. I know. It's like, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That's a whole other – Jesus. So it's cool
that BFC is like, yeah, we're going to go play
here. I'm sure that they have or will play at,
you know, Oakland Coliseum. I just like that.
They're, you know. coming up and uh it's just
a quick uh train ride away until oracle park
which is actually not a bad place to watch a
soccer game i went there a couple of summers
ago to watch a la liga showcase and uh yeah it
was kind of cool it was fun so yeah i'm looking
forward to that that's super cool yeah i um the
only thing that would have been better and actually
this is probably better but i kind of wish you
were going to kizar oh man yeah that would be
great i mean they've got a bunch of renovations
slated like we talked about an episode or two
ago so that would be fun especially once they
get an mls next team have the tacoma defiance
come down love to go see them uh yeah i would
man i would love it if the actual city of san
francisco of san francisco would get a uh mls
team i think it'd be I think it would really
take off here. It's a big soccer city, but it
doesn't have a dedicated pro team. And San Jose
is just so far away. I guess San Jose owns the
rights to soccer in the region. Same way Portland's
trying to have a baseball team. And I'm just
like, why would the Mariners ever agree to let
Portland have a baseball team? That's Seattle
area. In fact, when the Mariners were good in
like 2001, Seattle was the number two baseball
market in America and Portland was number nine.
So the Mariners had two of the top nine baseball
markets. So there's no reason for the Mariners
ever to give it up. Money, I guess, but you'd
have to give a lot of money. Well, more money
to buy some yachts, right? Not players. Well,
Trailblazers sold. Oh, yeah. I was just going
to find out who bought it. Owner of the Carolina
Hurricanes. But his wife used to live and work
in Oregon. And there's a clause in there that
you cannot move the team. Oh, that's good. I'm
just calling it right now. The Sonics are never
coming back. They're not going to expand the
league. Well, there are teams that are talking
about this, but we're the boogeyman, right? We
are the useful idiot. We are like, hey, look
what we did to Seattle. If you don't make yourself
a brand new stadium, we're going to do it to
you. And so as long as they – I mean, I feel
like it's still as effective if they're like
they didn't have a team for 20 years. But still,
just give us a damn team. Go Thunder. I can mute
you, you know. I can just cut you off right here.
No more. Those are fighting words. I think half
the people just turned off the podcast. Fuck
Oklahoma City. Years ago, my family and I were
driving through. We were moving across country
and we were like, all right, we got to spend
the night in Oklahoma City. We could not find
a single hotel room within the city limits. Because
there was a goddamn Rascal Flats concert in town.
And so we had to stay on the outskirts in a Motel
6. And this was after the whole Thunder debacle.
It was just like, you know what? Fuck this place.
There was nothing redeeming about this city.
Have you ever been to Oklahoma City, Alex? I
barely go out. The farthest I've gone is to Salt
Lake City. I'm sorry. That's not a fun place
to go. I mean, there's some cool stuff. What
was it? The whole Mormon? Yeah. Mormon squared
thing. That block was interesting. I was like,
when I seen some of the Mormons they had, I was
like, that's interesting. I didn't know they
came in this colors. Hey, I'm a Latino. I could
say that. Dan, where's the furthest you have
gone? Have you got to go overseas? I had an assignment
when I was in the military to England, and they
took it away from me. Yeah. We did not get –
I don't know. Is that something I can talk about?
Sure. Okay, so my oldest kid is non -binary.
They're 15, and they took away the assignment
from me because my oldest kid, according to the
United States military, did not meet the exceptional
family member, and they were afraid they wouldn't
be able to get care right outside of London.
So I am still here now, like five, six years
later, bitter as fuck about that. Yeah, that's
insane. Especially, I mean, I know plenty of
military folk. So even like students of mine
that were Republicans who were like, yeah, if
you're serving next to me, I don't care if you're
trans, if you're straight, if you're gay, it
doesn't matter. You know, if you're cishet, whatever,
like you're my brethren and we're fighting together.
So the notion that then like. Somehow, yeah,
it drives me crazy. That's your child. That's
your family. Absolutely. And we can't go to England.
And what's really messed up is we were living
in Texas at the time. And in Texas, doctors could
deny health care. And we were being denied health
care and having to go to Oklahoma City, actually,
to get health care. It would be okay if you were
a Thunder fan. Go Thunder, baby. Not a Thunder.
I wish I remembered the name, but there was a
really good vegan pizza joint in Oklahoma City
that we made a point to go to. But besides that,
there's not a lot of redeeming factors in Oklahoma
City or North Texas, in my opinion. I was always
disappointed they didn't name the team the Bombers.
I like the Bombers. They just changed their name.
Yeah, that's quite disgusting to me. That's just
absurd. Although now, London even is a place
you probably don't want to be if you're trans
based on the laws that are being passed. There's
some really draconian shit that's way worse than
anything in the United States happening in the
UK right now. It's just not a good environment
right now all the way around. And then one of
the things for me is you lose a childhood hero
being a millennial growing up with that debate
too. So yeah, it's just pretty disappointing.
Then you – I know this isn't a political podcast.
I don't want to turn it into one, but you see
the military is denying – for the trans people
they're kicking out, they're denying those that
are over 15 years of service retirement too.
And so to point, it's – It's just becoming cruel.
And that's the point of it is to be cruel to
people that don't look like you or act like you
or fit gender norms. And it gets me all fired
up. It should. I mean, it should anyway, but
it's especially personal for you. And that's
one of the things that attracted me to the Seattle
Sounders is how supportive they are of all their
communities. Very cool. Not that you had to get
there, but still. It's cool that the Sounders
are. So I mentioned earlier, Puebla, whether
or not they were starting their starters. What
do you think the Sounders should do this weekend?
Sounders are playing against Minnesota on Saturday,
and then four days later are playing in a meaningful
match in Leagues Cup versus Puebla. I think Minnesota's
probably a better team than Puebla. But which
game are you rotating players? Or do we rotate
at all because we've had this week off between
matches, which is a change for us lately? I think
you don't have to rotate. In Minnesota, they're
going to give us the ball, so we're not going
to have to run as much unless we lose the ball
and then transition. That's when we really got
to sprint to get back. So I think you have to...
Play Minnesota hard because if you beat them,
then you're basically going to be tied on points
and you have a game in hand. And then you have
four days rest or three days rest until you play
Puebla at home so you don't have to travel. Whereas
they have to travel down from Mexico. Yeah. What
about you, Cedar? uh yeah i i would agree with
that assessment i mean i mean and and honestly
the the whole thing about you know rotation and
i mean i don't have any numbers up with me right
now about like oh you know how many different
starting 11s we'd have had this year it's probably
quite a few right with just with all the injuries
and all that but i mean we it would just echo
something that nicholas was saying in the Discord,
it feels like we have the deepest roster of definitely
any current MLS team this season. I just feel
like I trust whoever we put out there because
so far it's been working. I would say... You
know, we can switch out a few people for Minnesota
or not. I think it's going to end up being okay.
Especially if Puebla isn't the most, you know,
formidable team that we've faced in the League's
Cup tournament so far, right? I mean, we dismantled
Cruz Azul. And then, I mean, for a little bit
there, Tijuana was looking scarier than Cruz
Azul. So, you know. It's all relative, but yeah,
I'm fine with whatever they roll out. I don't
care. I'm just ready to watch whoever's out there.
I'm glad I don't have to make the decision. This
Minnesota game is really important for the standings.
We're coming into the home stretch. you know,
have a chance if we win to be tied with Minnesota
for third place. And I believe we will have a
game at hand as well. So the standings are important.
We've been, we've been good since club world
cup, but all year we've been better at home than
we've been on the road, which is, which, which
is normal. And I think having those home playoff
games is super important to increase our chances
to get to a cup final for MLS, but it's Minnesota
plays a game that we struggle with. We struggle
against teams that put everybody in the box and
then counter super fast. And that scares me.
I mean, that's why we looked worse against Tijuana
than we did against Cruz Azul, because that's
exactly what Tijuana did. They played chicken
shit soccer and defend, defend, defend, go. And
it came back and it bit us. I think there's a
chance Puebla is going to play that way as well.
I'm glad that we have somebody like Brian to
make those decisions instead of somebody like
me. And hopefully he gets it right. But as far
as, you know, he also was talking about this
week in one of his press conferences, something
that's concerning is De La Vega. He said he's
dealing with some tendonitis. And so, I mean,
you want to play somebody, it depends on how
bad the tendonitis is. But with the way that
our injury bench looks, you know, playing him
60 minutes Sunday and then again Wednesday is.
Is that something that's even in the cards with
his status? So we'll probably see some rotation
against Puebla, would be my guess. But, you know,
hopefully we're able to withstand whatever counters
that both Puebla and Minnesota do, and we can
continue to dominate because this has been a
really fun month, hasn't it? Yeah, and I think...
We can say, because we haven't had an episode
since the news has come out, but we got some
good news that the Rusnak injury is only three
to four weeks from the injury itself. So he's
going to be back sooner rather than later. They're
saying 10 weeks, 10 to 12 for Ryan. I would be
surprised just based on how bad that injury is
when, since they're not doing surgery on it,
but we'll see. I mean, these are the same people
that said that JP was done for the year and he's
turned out not to be. Well, but that's different.
That, that was because the images showed that
there wasn't, I mean, when they went in there,
there wasn't actually a tear. That's not, that's
not the kind of injuries we have here though.
So yeah, it's correct me if I'm wrong, but Brian.
Ken, he tore the muscle from bone, right? Isn't
that the basic nature? The muscle tore in half
and it came off the ligament. Oh, my God. Or
sea tear. So it's a bad one. It's a long road
to come back from. And just the way it is, is
we've probably seen, I would be surprised if
we see him playing as a sounder again. I mean,
I'd love, what kind of contract did we sign him?
to the club option? Yeah, there's a club option,
but I think the club option makes them a little
bit expensive, you know, with some of our cap.
And then, you know, and we're using Areola's
cap space this year to pay for Ryan Kent, and
we're going to lose that next year and we'd have
to find a new, and that's a hard sell for me
if you're talking about your third or fourth
best winger. And maybe best isn't the right word,
but sitting on the depth chart, your third or
fourth winger. Yeah. Although, talent -wise,
he may be the best. Yeah, he was really starting
to look good. I don't know. How do you feel about
that, Alex? Do you think he's the best winger?
Oh, no. You know where I stand. Or is there somebody
you want to free? No, I think... I'll probably
get hate for this, but I mean, if you're telling
me to pick Kent or Georgie, I'm taking Kent.
No, I think that's accurate, because Georgie...
George is good. His ceiling isn't as high. George,
he's probably done more for the club. Not, I
think not based on minutes, but based on actual,
just like things he's done. I think Ryan Kent's
probably been more productive based on minutes,
but played, but I mean, George, he's never going
to be playing for top teams in Europe. Ryan Kent
can, if he can get his form back. No. Yeah. And
I think, I don't know if you guys have been seeing
like areolas. posting some clips of him, like,
you know, rehabbing. Like, he looks like he's
ready to go. Like, I think he's going to be a
monster next season. And, like, he has to come
earn his place back because you have four other
wingers that are, you know, playing ahead of
him now. He can play as a back, though, as well.
Over New Who? I mean, I would. Yeah. So you think
a little rotation in some of the matches. A De
La Vega injury is a little concerning. I think
you rest him on Saturday and you play him on
Wednesday. Yeah, I guess it depends on where
he's at because if you want him to play the following
weekend, you probably don't want to play him
on Wednesday. You want to give him a week between
matches. Of course, Schmetzer doesn't really
care about that kind of stuff. At least he didn't
when Garth was here. Garth had laid out a very
strict plan for when Nico Lodero could play based
on his knee injury in order to make it so his
career would last longer. And then Brian would
be like, nope, I'm playing him because I don't
want to lose. So I don't know that any injury
plan would be followed, but we'll see. We have
seen more of a conservative approach with Pedro.
I don't think he's played a 90 -minute game for
the Sounders yet in his career. No. No, I think
he might be right. But still, but even if he
has, it's minimal. I mean, and I think part of
that is probably because they brought him back
too early from his original injury, and he had
a setback. And ever since then, they've had to
be a little bit careful with him. Yeah. And in
fairness, you know, Brian did mention that Pedro
was dealing with some tinnitus, but Brian also
mentioned that if he could do it again, he would
have kept him in longer. So that's a good sign
that maybe this isn't very serious as far as
the tendonitis goes, and we'll get to see Pedro
Saturday and Wednesday. That would be exciting.
Personally, I think we should prioritize Leafs
Cup a little bit more because if we win on Wednesday
and we're given a 50 -50 chance to get the CONCACAF
Champions League berth. Because even if we lose,
we just have to win the third place game. And
more than likely, we will host. We host everything
but LA. Yeah, but I think LA is going to crapshoot
against Pachuca. I don't know. I kind of feel
like going to play at LA would be better for
us than having to play Pachuca. What do you all
think? I mean, that's a tough one. I never like
to anger the soccer gods. You know, we whooped
LA's ass, what, last Saturday, Sunday, whatever
day it was. Yeah, last Sunday. And, you know,
it's not a guarantee that we go back in and we
do it again. You can see what a fired up team
can do whenever Cruz Azul came in and we just
smashed them. So, you know, that to me feels
like I'm tempting fate. I'm superstitious as
all hell. I think it's just really hard to beat
a team multiple times throughout the season.
Like we've seen it with LAFC. They beat us all
through the regular season. Then we got down
to LA and we beat them in the playoffs. Sure.
But that was like five matches. We've only played
LA Galaxy, what, twice this year? And then we
got to play them again later on. Yeah, I'm fine
with losing that later on one if we can beat
them in League's Cup. In a knockout round, yeah.
Yeah. I think either way, like getting the first...
The number one seed really helped us as far as
putting us in a favorable bracket. Yeah, I just
don't like the rule that because LA Galaxy won
MLS, they can supersede the position that we
are in in this tournament. I think it's good
for seeding to get in the tournament, but if
you're going to reseed once you're getting into
the knockout rounds, it just seems stupid to
me. Yeah, that part is weird. It was weird. So
that's definitely somebody, some genius in MLS
cooked that up. I mean, it's because they want
the big money teams with the shot, especially
like I think it was probably because Cruz Azul
had that as well. Not that it affects us anymore.
St. Louis just went up 2 -0 on Puebla. You know
what? Maybe Puebla's resting their starters to
get them ready for Wednesday. I mean, they weren't
resting their starters. They're resting a few,
but not most of their starters in their last
match. They lost 7 -1. I think they're just a
really bad team. I think they're LA Galaxy, a
bad team that showed up for the tournament. Yeah,
they're 16th right now in their standings. They
have their starting goalie in. They have their
starting left back. I don't know if they're playing
three center backs or whatever it is, but at
least two of those three defenders are starters.
Two midfielders are definitely starters. Their
forward is a starter. And then they've subbed
on, it looks like, their other starters. So they
were slightly rotated, but yeah, they're getting
their butts beat now. No, I think they're going
to make that game really frustrating for us.
I think, yeah, I think lots of teams can make
the games frustrating for the Sounders because
we don't have the ability to... I say this noting
how many goals we've scored over the last month,
but... Traditionally, we don't have the ability
to score goals, and without a number nine out
there who can score, you've got to figure out
other ways to do it, which we've been doing.
Shoot outside the box. Yeah. That's how you beat
a bunker. I think that's how you beat a team
that's bunker. You just take shots from outside
the box, so they have to respect it and start
pushing up and closing down on that space, and
then that's when you're able to slip impasses
into the premises. It's the same reason you cross
the ball into the box constantly from the wings,
though. It's that when the ball is in the box,
anything can happen. Yeah, as long as you have
the numbers. And the more bodies bouncing around,
just put it in the box as many times as possible.
And I think we've got to give credit to the Messiah
that he's able to be in the right position for
those rebounds to get those easy tap -ins. Like
they're considered easy tap -ins, but you have
to look at the run that he made to get to that
position. It's kind of like Dennis Rodman. He
knew where the rebound was going to be just based
off the way the ball hit off the rim. Were you
even born when Dennis Rodman was playing? Hey,
I watched the documentary. Okay. I watched that
documentary. Michael Jordan is my goat. Yeah.
I mean, if you've never heard of LeBron, that
makes sense. Why don't we take a break right
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right. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody. This
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Off mic here, Alex said, Dan, you've been a little
quiet. That's how you know the Sounders have
been playing well. But I feel like that's Dan
of June. Dan of July. That's not Dan of August.
No, I'm pretty positive right now. I'm actually
coming up with this whole idea that I'm selling
myself on that the offseason excitement or the
roster construction excitement is more about
what badass young player we're going to bring
up next from Tacoma and integrate them in than
if we're going to bring in Noah Ohio and let
him ride third after paying a transfer fee for
him. Yeah, he's done anyways. He was set the
same year. Well, yeah, that's over. So I'm trying
to get excited about, well, hey, okay, so we
didn't get Noah Ohio, but Niter Brunel came in
on his first appearance and scored a goal. And
that was just as exciting to me as getting in
an unknown player. Sure. Although he was a player
that I think they definitely planned on bringing
up at some point this season. Just weren't very
public about it. I have not heard anything that
lets me believe that there's someone who's next
up in line because the next two up in line were
Georgie and Snyder. And I think just our injury
concerns is how we ended up with Osaze. And then
Osaze took the bull and ran with it. Looking
good. Grabbed the bull by the horns. I'm going
to make some metaphors. And you know what? I'm
going to do this. He looks like the type of center
forward that we need on the field with the way
that we want to play ball. I think so. I think
especially if he had a second person next to
him to be able to make the quick runs, to draw
players away from him, and then he can utilize
his size, I think he's perfect for what we want
to do. So speaking of... No, I think I remember
when we were in the offseason, we're like, we
want a nine that's tall, physical, and fast.
That's what I'll say. He's not that great technical,
but I think there's a lot of room. for improvement
like he's showing flashes of what he can turn
into it does feel like the ball gets lost to
the feet at times and that whenever he's in traffic
he just maybe controlling the ball in traffic
isn't his greatest skill but that's something
that playing with the pace that mls has is is
something that hopefully can continue to develop
Yeah. Now, you had something that I was like,
no. Yeah, okay. Here is, yeah, let's get some
instant reaction. We'll go around. I'm going
to give a statement. Young, just give me true
or false. Okay, you ready for this? Danny Musoski
is having a better year this year than Jordan
Morris did last year whenever he reached his
DP accelerators in his contract. Is there any
other caveats to that? No. Danny Musoski is having
a better year. I'd say true. True. Based on the
opportunities he's gotten, right? He hasn't started
all the time, but he seemed to have made the
most of it. Yeah, true. You can just look at
the stats and see that they're pretty similar.
It's also a matter of expectation, right? I mean,
he was, what, second or third string forward
coming into the season? And now he's like, he's
our first choice because he has to be. And he's
playing well. And he's not a DP. Yeah, I remember
last year, people were mad at Craig. Why did
we bring in Danny Masovsky? He's not doing anything.
I bet they're happy this year. Yeah. He might
be saving our bacon. Dope. The Messiah for a
reason. So last year. Jordan Morris and MLS play
only had 13 goals, five assists. Right now Moose
is sitting on 10 goals and two assists. So just
taking those with – hold on, I've got to do math
in public. With 18 goal contributions for Jordan
Morris last year and 12 right now for Moose,
does he have more goal contributions by the end
of the year MLS play? It depends on if Jordan
comes back. I mean, my thoughts on it are most
of those goals by Jordan were not at a forward.
This is my whole problem with thinking of him
as a nine where 11 of those goals came from the
wing after he had someone subbed in at forward
and he moved over to the wing. So if we're just
talking about goal contributions in general,
I think Jordan may end up with more just because
I think opportunities, especially if Osase continues
to play like he is. I mean. But you could say
the same thing about Moose. I think they may
not be as many if Jordan comes back. That being
said, he's certainly a better number nine for
us right now than Jordan was last year. Yeah,
I think so too. Well, I mean, if you think that
Jordan is better on the wing, which I don't disagree
with, I mean, how complicated does that make
it? Because we do... obviously if everybody's
healthy we have so many options on the wing does
that just make it just such a bottleneck it's
like you know who plays where right do you put
Jordan at his at his position of you know not
his greatest strength just because there's so
many good options out on the wing too or I mean
what what's what's the what's the calculus there
when he comes back Yeah, I mean, they went all
in on wings already, right? But I think it depends
on if Ryan Kent comes back. Or you'll look him
back. Or, I mean, it leaves an odd player out.
Georgie. Oh, Georgie's so far down the list.
I don't see him. If we're healthy, he just gets
zero minutes. There's no reason for him to even
be on the 18. Other than chaotic injuries. I'm
thinking more along the lines of if you only
play one center defensive mid, you can play two
forwards. You can play Jordan as forward with
another real forward. Yeah, but I think in our
system, the double pivot is very fundamental
to the way that we're trying to play. The thing
is, is that are you willing to bench Morris?
No, not bench. Are you willing to play Morris
over a Pedro de la Vega or a Rothrock? That's
my problem. I don't want to beat him. Well, I
think in our system, Rothrock can play on the
right, and we've seen what being on the left
in our system does for Pedro, and Morris in our
system is going to be on the left. I know he's
had some last year and the year before previously
on the right, but I think he looks best on the
left kind of doing what Pedro does as a wide
winger and then coming in inverted and scoring
goals that way off of his right foot. So, yeah,
but he said as much that, I mean, I think Jordan,
I mean, I think you have to have Pedro de la
Vega on the left. To me, that's the only lock
position on the team. Yeah. Pedro on the left.
You see the way that he bends the ball in that
side netting. Like what other player hits the
ball the way that Pedro does? Yeah. I mean, that's
the thing is I, I, I mean, I own Jordan Morris
jerseys. I love Jordan Morris. Jordan Morris
has been, when he was in high school, was so
kind to my cousin. You know, like, such a good
dude. Means everything, but... To me, he's another
dude on the team. He is not our superstar player
because he can't stay on the field. We need to
bring in some real superstars to play alongside
De La Vega, and then he becomes a piece of the
puzzle, just like Rothrock, just like Georgie,
just like any of these other players. Yeah, his
DP tag is doesn't play. Right, well, I think
they need to figure out how to move on from that
DP tag or they're going to be in trouble. Yeah,
I think it's either you drop them back down to
a TAM. Or you sell Pedro. I think that's the
only way they make it work is you sell Pedro,
play him on the wing. The drop -off there is
incredible. It is. That, to me, that's why I
hate the idea. You just made me very sad when
you were saying sell Pedro. I mean, I know. Yeah,
that's the opposite of free Pedro. I know it's
going to happen. You're going to set him free.
Yeah. It's just like the way that I see it is
that we want to become a top 10 league in the
world. But we're not trying to retain our best
players. Yeah, I just don't think Pedro's getting...
I don't think they're getting offers for Pedro
that'll be worth selling him yet. I think next
season, maybe in the summer, once he's had a
full year of starting without injuries, yes.
But I don't think he's back to a position where
they would jump on selling him just yet based
on what they've invested in him in the first
place. I don't think they would get nearly enough
to make up for... Their initial fee plus the
amount of money they've already invested in him.
So I don't think he is – same reason they haven't
sold Obeg. They're not offering enough. I mean
both those players in theory could have been
gone by now had they played well enough leading
up to now. No, I think if it's not more than
$20 million, I'm hanging up the phone. How about
– We let Pedro lift the League Cup trophy this
year, MLS Cup trophy this year, and then Cockacaff
next year. and then we can talk about selling
them in the summer. Love it. Yeah, as long as
he goes to Europe or South America. If he stays
in the league, then we're going to have an issue.
No, they're not going to. I mean, they're not
setting him anywhere in the league, and no one's
going to offer that much in the league. I don't
know. Atlanta might come in. I don't know. This
front office gets very excited when Gam's mentioned.
Pedro's current value on transfer market, which
is obviously not, but it's usually in the realm
of possibility has his value at 4 million euros.
So if someone's offering 20 million. Yeah, I'm
taking it. Yeah, of course you are, but no one's
offering 20 million. I mean, when he came in,
he was worth 6 .5. I mean, I got an offer for
30 on FIFA. Well, yeah, on FIFA, I signed both
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to free transfers
to join the Sounders. Smart move. I mean, technically,
Messi did come on a free. Yeah. He just went
to the Pink Phone Club. I mean, they seem to
be the realest club around right now, except
for against Orlando. Orlando has their number.
And if they beat Toluca, they have to play Orlando
if Orlando wins. Yeah, it's a lot of ifs. A lot
of ifs. I mean, I worry about the future of the
Sounders. I mean, yeah, you want to sell players,
but the point of that is to invest money in new
players. If you're selling Pedro and you're not
investing it in another young player at his level
when he came in, then what are you doing? They're
going to invest it in research of hamstrings.
What was it? Curtains, Dan? Yeah, curtains. That's
my euphemism is we're going to get new curtains.
And the gold -plated toilets. But right now,
it's super hard to complain with what Craig has
done in building the team, building depth. If
he'd have listened to me, we'd have went out
and got a big name. then we would have been in
a situation where we'd have a lot of people injured.
We wouldn't have the depth to cover it. So, you
know, we just lost Rusnak. Maybe. Depends on
what position. Yeah, well, I mean, bring it in
Jesus, for example, right? He's really been able
to come into his own and hold down that right
wing. And I thought that him playing at the 10
was one of the best games he's had for us. I
thought he looked really good this last Sunday.
And, you know, when he's not the starter there,
Rusnak is. So we lose our – DP that has the most
minutes on the field, and we're able to just
seamlessly, without an issue, slot Jesus over
and be fine. I think that, you know, we have
good depth when we lose our top goal scorer and
one of our highest goal production from Rusnak,
and you don't really see the drop -off. Yeah,
I mean, I think we're seeing Ferreira actually
At the 10 before, he was okay. But really, when
he was on the right is when he started picking
it up. And now, being back at the 10, clearly
it worked. He has confidence. He's playing with
confidence. He's trying things. Yeah, he gave
some passes that maybe if he takes a touch or
he plays it differently, it's a better opportunity.
But he's willing to try those things. He's not
playing scared. You've got to try the pass to
complete the pass. Yeah. So Ferreria's playing...
He's playing... I think he's playing... He's
playing great. Like, there's... Like, I was a
fan of the move when it first... Like, when it
first got announced, I was excited for that move.
But we all thought he was going to play the 9,
but... Clearly, he's a playmaker and not a finisher.
Which I have no issue with. Yeah, I mean, he...
The fact that he can step in the 10 makes it
really easy when you have an injury. But I don't
know what you do when he comes back, when Rusnak
comes back, if Ferreira continues to play. I
think that Brian will be loyal to Rusnak and
move Roos back to the 10 and then slot Jesus
back to the right. You know, but talking about
our depth, there's a really good chance that
either tomorrow or Wednesday, we're going to
play a game without any of our DPs on the field.
You know, if Pedro can't go both days, and I
think that we have a chance to win both those
games, even with all three DPs sidelined. Yeah.
I think, because what, you have Rothrock and
you have Georgie. You play Georgie on Wednesday.
I'll give him the start against Puebla. And I'll
play Pedro on Saturday and then have him come
off the bench. Rothrock can play both games.
Why would you worry about... You mean on the
left? Yeah, on the left. I'll play. I'll bench.
I mean, he has played on the left a few times
lately. Or you just swap them either way. But
you play Georgia on Wednesday and you start them.
You've seen the past couple weeks, whenever Georgie
does come on, that Brian is moving him to the
left and wanting him to do the role that Pedro
is doing over there and try to take the ball
and dribble in. So I just wonder if Brian is
kind of settling into that attacking pattern
where he wants to have a goal -dangerous person
on the left that's good at dribbling. Oh yeah,
Georgie's goal came off the left. It did. where
he took his shirt off. Pedro taught him how to
do it. It was the Pedro move. It was the Pedro
move. Question. So, Georgie Celebration, before
he took his shirt off, well, okay, before he
lifted his shirt and you could see the shirt
underneath and possibly... It's because he pulled
it over his head. If he just pulled it up to
his neck, it would have been fine. This has been
a rule in soccer for decades. The fact that he
didn't know or... I mean, he knew. The fact that
anyone – that he did it is frustrating. But regardless,
before that though, did he cover his eye? I think
his celebration before that was he ran up to
the stands and covered his eye. I look like he
did. I think he covered his ears. I'm going to
have to go back and look at it because I thought
that was his celebration with him covering his
eye because that's one or the other. What did
his shirt say? Jesus is king. I think it's at
Christ's King. Yeah, he was talking about Jesus.
Or was he talking about Jesus Christ? Yeah, I
think it's at Christ's King. Yeah, he always
wears that shirt. Who? Oh, the Christian guy.
Oh, yeah. The guy that's outside the Mariner's
stadium. No, not that guy. He's about as anti
-Christian as they come. He's never even read
the Bible based on the hate he preaches. Have
you seen the guy standing next to him? Take a
big dump for him. All I got to say about that
is like, you know, and I'm not I'm not I do find
Christianity fascinating. I'm not a Christian
myself. I just find it really funny. Like if
if you truly believe that your God is omnipotent.
Right. And is the one. Right. Like. why do you
need to help him out with your shitty fucking
sign and your you know like your loudspeaker
like how little faith do you have in him right
if it takes you doing that to like spread the
word like come on that's ridiculous clearly we're
not operating with uh all a full set of marbles
here part of it is to make money because they
have been removed by police uh off of the uw
campus and one time down by the stadium and they
sued the city and the city settled each time
so That's why the police won't touch them. They're
clearly violating the law. What I've learned
to see is that because of the reports on the
news lately, the public is pushing back against
them and calling them out. I mean, I once, this
guy, that guy was out there, and I once reminded
him that in Leviticus, it says that you cannot
have multi -blend fabrics. And he was wearing
jeans, which is a multi -blend fabric. And for
three years after that, he went to wearing cotton
pants because he couldn't wear jeans. And then
finally he went back to it. And clearly someone
convinced him because I was like, hey, man, you're
wearing jeans. What's up? You're preaching hatred
from the Old Testament. Why aren't you listening
to Leviticus? And this this dude said, that's
rabbinical law. I'm not a Jew. And I was just
like, oh, cool. You're a bigot, too. All right.
Good job, man. um so uh the thing that these
people don't like uh all my years of catholic
school have paid off for me is that uh they are
hypocrites and uh i would say just be careful
uh the bulge that you see behind his uh back
is because he carries a gun so he's he's not
uh he's packing i haven't seen him pull it but
he is packing but i did also see him tell a homeless
man he was going to hell once and the homeless
man went over took off his shirt, ran all the
way across the parking lot and had a flying fist
and knocked him out. Just like, and the entire
crowd cheered. So, and the funny thing is probably
99 % of those people are Christian. It's not
because they're anti -Christian. They're anti
this asshole who's out there barking at the top
of his lungs. Breaking the sound. What is it?
Oh God. I'm of the opinion. This was my opinion.
That's not being a true Christian. like doing
being a fucking asshole in public you know i'm
sorry that's not whatever being a true christian
is i like it we've hit politics and yeah yeah
this will be a patreon exclusive how many losers
are gonna piss off all the people all the all
the people in pedo land oh hey no no no muted
whoa whoa whoa yeah hold on are you bringing
up the trump files No, we're talking about Portland.
Okay. No, I mean, none of that is a political
statement. It is a read your damn Bible statement.
It's do your research. Yeah. You're entitled
to your own opinion. We are living in a society,
right? Of entitlement. We all got to do this
thing together, right? That's a good question,
though, based on what Alex just said. I've always
been frustrated with Sounders fans because they
tend to live in these fits of entitlement. That
we're owed this, we're owed that. They overreact
to everything. And I don't, and I'm not saying
that about people who necessarily, like we haven't
signed a summer, you know, we haven't had a DP
transfer in forever or whatever. Like I actually,
if it's a thoughtful critique, I have no problem
with it. But do you think that as, as fans of
the Sounders, we expect to win all the time and
that's why we get so pissed off when they don't
make, go out and make moves to keep us as one
of the halves in the league with the top four
or five teams? I think that we get this new toy,
and it's like when you're little or you give
your kid or your nephew or your niece, you buy
them a new toy. Ooh, they play with it for about
a week, and then they just toss it. They get
tired of it. And then they see their friend at
school, show and tell they bring a new toy. Oh,
now they want that because it's shiny and new.
I feel like that's how we are as a fan base.
We see LAFC go out and drop $26 million. on human
son why can't we do that whereas like if we only
got four million dollars i'd rather save it because
you're not going to go get a player that's going
to walk into the starting 11 for four million
dollars especially a u22 you're not for 16 million
you're going to have a player that's still not
going to start every game no and i mean if we're
broke just like be honest we're broke like we
dropped the bag on pedro he didn't pan out the
first year because we rushed him back The fan
base is calling him a bust, and now they're calling
him a king. Thanks to the free Pedro move, of
course. I've been saying that since day one.
I've been on the Pedro hype train since day one.
That's why it makes me happy that he's performing
at this level, at the position that I wanted
him from the beginning. When he was in Argentina,
he was on the left wing. When we were scouting
him, he was cooking on the left wing. We bring
him in, and now we want to play him on the right
wing. And he can play the right. He can play
the center. We know that, but obviously the left
is where he has had the most success. Now, I
want to hear from Dan, because you came in after
the Sounders had been successful from day one.
You were not here when they won their first championship.
I turned around a little bit, the question a
little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm less concerned
about what other fans think and more concerned
about what the owner thinks since he's the one
that holds the key to the lockbox where we keep
the $3 or $4 we have for a transfer. And I worry
that he, the organization, they... Like, hey,
we're the Sounders. We always win. We're going
to continue to win. And therefore, we don't need
to make the investments that we need. Again,
I have, you know, I left the NFL as a diehard
fan, but I still have Jerry Jones PTSD, where
you have somebody that thinks they're the smartest
person in the room and they are going to do it
their way regardless. And they think that their
success is all about what they've done. And whenever
you're talking about soccer, there's there's
a. The line between beating Cruz Azul 7 -0 and
losing 4 -1 to them is pretty thin, and there's
a lot of ball bounces that go into affecting
how that happens. Like Brian says, goals score
games. So I worry that our organization, that's
where a lot of my angst comes from when we sit
on the sidelines during these transfer windows,
is that, hey, does the Sounders organization
think that they're going to continue to win because
they're Sounders and they've always won? Yeah.
I mean, that's a real question. We were just
discussing this with the head of the World Cup
Seattle, Peter Tomozawa, who used to be the president
of the club. I had this conversation with him
three days ago. Because part of it is that fans
aren't showing up to the games like they used
to. And there's a lot to that. I think COVID
killed professional sports for a lot of people,
especially in a place like Seattle. that's a
great question uh and because and then cedar
i'll throw it over you because you have to balance
this notion of we have built a youth system maybe
better than anyone else in the league based on
the success we're seeing from our youth players
so should we be complementing them with higher
level players or is the way we're doing it what
what is the ultimate way to succeed now Without
a name like Dempsey, without a name like Oba,
without a name like some of these other players,
you're never going to have... I mean, Nico Lodero
was a superstar, but he never is going to be
a household name like Dempsey. So should we be
going after players of that caliber? Because
that's something the Sounders don't do anymore.
But even with Oba, even with Dempsey, we didn't
make the playoffs with... We made the playoffs,
but Oba never scored in the playoffs, right?
We didn't do anything in 2015. That was the first
year that I was conscious in following the Sounders.
Then in 2016, you have a guy like Ladera come
in, super gritty, completely reset the culture
in the locker room from day one, turning off
the pregame music. He's like, why are we listening
to music right now? We need to be locked in.
and going from such a low in that season to making
the playoffs. But that whole run in 2016, it
was so magical because it was just the thinnest
of margins. I mean, we had, what, Nelson Valdez,
right? Who was supposed to be like, oh, man,
he's going to be scoring goals, blah, blah, blah.
Did not do anything. during the season. And then
he scored what? It was like two. One goal. I
think he's a big one that won the game. Come
back against right. Dallas. Right. Was it? And,
you know, and watching that as a fan, like, you
know, a new fan, I was like, that is like, that
was, that was pure magic. I mean, that was amazing.
And then, you know, making it to MLS cup, winning
it on penalties after not having a single shot,
you know, I mean, that's, that's insane. Right.
So it's I mean, knowing knowing the history of
like, you know, where the success generates from,
it's it's like, well, you know, sometimes it
takes a lot of just hard work and luck. Right.
I mean, the big names are fun to watch. And,
you know, is there anybody who's as talented
a pairing as as Clint and Nova were? I mean,
fun to watch. Probably not. But. That didn't,
that's not what won us the MLS cup. And I think,
I think it's, I think it's interesting to balance
like, okay, you know, they're not the richest
owners in the world, right. Our ownership group,
but you do have to give them credit in that the
youth Academy that's been built up and, you know,
they do spend money, right. It's just, it has
to be a lot more targeted. And if those things
can align, I mean, I'm, you know, looking at
the roster for the Sounders right now, we only
have two, teenagers, current teenagers who have
played games for us this year, Snyder Brunel
and Stuart Hawkins. Obed is now, he's now 20
and he's been around for what years, right? It's
incredible. The same way. They're veterans at
this point and they're 20 years old. It's, it's,
it's really, yeah. And they're really good players.
And we're talking about Obed, you know, potentially,
I mean, you know, money aside, like just the
fact that he has that, the the talent and the
ceiling and his age like to potentially make
a move to atletico madrid i mean that's not outside
of the realm of possibility i think that's that's
huge uh in terms of you know where our academy
is at so i think i think it's a pretty good setup
for what it is for the money that they have to
spend i think you know they just they they have
to be smart right we don't have I mean, it wouldn't
even take oil state backing, but like, you know,
they're, they're not the wealthiest ownership
group in the league and they have to, you know,
use the rules, the MLS roster rules to their
advantage. That's why we always sell what international
roster spots. Right. And, you know, we have to
do, we have to use all the tricks of the trade
to, to stay competitive. And we do, but, but
yeah, it is, it is kind of fun to fantasize about
like. Oh yeah. Getting, getting all sunny. That
would be fun, but it would be a lot of money,
you know? And again, is it, is he, is he worth
the money based on the players that we already
have in that position? Right. Isn't it pretty
crowded there already? Like, I mean, I mean,
LAFC is operating on a different, you know, they're
on a different stratosphere. I'd rather have
two 12 million, 13 million players than him.
Right. Like I'd rather have two, players that
are as good as Pedro de la Vega, who's not even
worth close to that. He's worth $8 million less
than that. And Sun's fun to watch, right? And
he's going to sell a ton of shirts, right? I
hear what you did. I think they sold out. Give
me two Gabriel Pecs rather than one Sun. So,
I mean, I'm not totally sold. I'm not totally
against the Sounders' methods. I just think...
They can do things in an economical way while
spending a little more money on our DPs. No,
and I think also, too, to add back to the LAFC,
welcome to the Bay. Mute. I don't know how to
mute myself here. But I think you have Dennis
Buonga as a left winger, and Son is also a left
winger. So do you want to play him out of position?
You dropped over $25 million, and you're paying
him. However much you're going to pay him. Are
you willing to play him out of position? Or are
you going to move off Buonga? And then guess
what? Their coach is gone at the end of the year.
I think that's why they're making moves. They
probably already know who they're going to hire.
Yeah, but the thing is, you want Son to be your
number nine? He could play it, but that's not
the position he excels at. To me, it's all about
where's the drop -off, right? If you can play
someone in their secondary position and they're
still better than anyone else you have on the
roster, I'm playing them in the secondary position.
I mean, it's not that hard to top Giroud's numbers.
Giroud's tearing it up now that he's back at
Lille. So clearly it's an LAFC problem. I think
it's an MLS problem and just the talent's so
good that they were able to shut him down. I
think it was just the traveling so much. It is
traveling. It is his family was unhappy. There's
a lot to it. But I also think they didn't play
him the way they didn't play the ball. They didn't
have players play him the ball the way he needs
to have it played to. If you watch how he played
at Chelsea, if you watch how he plays for France,
that they weren't using him correctly. And that's
what kind of drives me crazy about what we were
doing with Pedro before. Now we're seeing him
used correctly and he excels. His family's in
town. I think his brother still might be in town.
Yeah. So, I mean, the real lesson is here, don't
throw a subway sandwich at cops and you won't
get arrested is what we're talking about today.
Right. If you're going to attack a cop, make
sure that you're on state capital grounds and
you have a Donald Trump American flag in your
hand. That's the way to attack a cop. Do it in
an interesting way. Unless they're from Yakima.
Oh, gosh. That's insane. The cop shot up a car
there, and Alex sent me the picture, and I counted
73 bullets, I think. Wow. I think it's, what,
15 officers are on leave? Including the chief
of police. Yeah, the chief made sure to get his
in. And what's crazy, too, is right in front
of the police station. Yeah, that's wild. Dan,
are you still with us? Because you froze on our
screen. Well, we'll let him come back and we'll
just keep talking Sounders for a few minutes
here until we can get him back into the scene
of it. So we're talking about transfers. We're
talking about the future. Let's talk about now.
What are we expecting this weekend against Minnesota?
We already talked about the lineup a little bit,
but do you think this is something we can do,
something we can win on? I think so. Look, we're
in a better. We're in a better spot now than
we were the last time we played Minnesota, I
would say. I mean, I think everybody would probably
agree with that. I feel like everybody who's
on the field, they're playing with a lot more
confidence. We've got some really good performances
under our belt, whether it's playing well in
the Club World Cup against some of the best teams
in the world or just kicking the shit out of,
you know, the former Kings of CONCACAF, Cruz
Azul. Everybody knows that they can do the thing
and they know. kind of the highest gear, that
extra level that they can hit. And I think it's
like why, you know, earlier in the season, I
would be like, you know, the first time we played
Minnesota, I'm like, yeah, Minnesota's good.
This is going to be a tough one. If we don't
make silly mistakes, right, and we don't take
ourselves out of the game, we're just as good
and probably better than Minnesota is. We just
have to play like it. I think we can. So I'm
not scared. I don't care who's out on the pitch
for us. I think we're going to take it to them.
With the caveat being that, yes, our Achilles
heel, the bunkering, being hit in transition,
that's always there. So we have to be aware of
that. And hopefully the coaching staff has come
up with some ways to combat that. because we've
seen it time and time again be a real thorn in
our side. What's your score prediction then?
Are we home? No, it's at Minnesota. It's at Minnesota.
I'm going to say we win 3 -2. Nice. Alex? I guess
I got to switch it up. I was going to say 3 -2.
No, you can keep the same. I think, you know
what? I'll go 3 -1, Saunders. Oh, yeah, there
we go. What's leading you to that? I feel like
we're going to learn from our mistakes. We're
not going to give up a PK. They're going to score
off a set piece. We're not going to get a red
card. Rothrock will get a goal, and then he's
going to smack someone with his club. And the
Moose will get a brace. Or Ozaze. Ozaze will
score. Depends what the minutes look like. But
I think we'll learn from our mistakes. And I
say if Minnesota doesn't want the ball, you just
give them the ball. And we'll play bunkered.
We've done it before. We should do the PSG kickoff
where we just punt it to them. Yeah, just play
it. Here, here you go. Take it. All right, Cameron,
make the call. Tell them. I got an idea. And,
I mean, they're playing at home. The onus is
on them to entertain the home crowd, right? And
they just lost to Colorado at home. Yeah, we're
not obligated. The pressure's on them to take
the ball and dominate the game, right? They're
supposed to be the ones putting on a show for
their fans. They're the ones in third. It's not
our responsibility. Exactly. We're in fourth,
so we're under them. They already beat us, right?
Yeah, they beat us. All the pressure's on them.
Yeah, I think the one -way pressure is on us
because usually a point is okay on the road,
but with the standings the way they are, I think
we've got to go in and get these three points
with the way we've been playing. I'll take a
draw. You've got to beat the teams ahead of you.
I mean, I'll take a point. It's true. No, it's
true. But I also think that, I mean, if I had
to choose right now which competition to focus
on, obviously League's Cup. With MLS, like, look.
everybody makes the playoffs knock on wood we're
gonna make the playoffs right it would be way
more advantageous to get the second or third
spot but like winning leagues cup even winning
the third place game that gets us back into the
competition that we really want to be in and
i i know we're gonna make the playoffs in mls
so I, I'm like, I'm so, I'm so, I'm very, I'm
much more concerned about Pueblo than I am Minnesota.
Yeah. I'm looking, I'm looking forward to Wednesday's
game more than I am Saturday's. I really want
them to win league's cup. Like, and then like
we'll complete North American football. Yeah.
I mean, everything like that we could win, we
won. But really I just want top three. Give me,
give me that champions league spot. That's what
I'm worried about. Yeah. I mean, you just have
to win two games and you get top three. Yep.
Yep. So let's keep it going there. We may be
back before then since we usually record on Sundays.
We'll see how everyone's schedule is. But I will
say two to one Seattle and Minnesota. I'll give
us the win too. I hope that happens. And just
want to say to everyone before we leave, happy
Felix Day. Yes. Today is the anniversary of Felix
Hernandez pitching a perfect game. Let's see,
how many years ago was it? 13. 13, yeah. So 13
years ago tonight, I thought I was going to a
Mariners game, and I didn't because it was a
day game, and so I had tickets and ended up missing
out on the Felix Hernandez perfect game. You
were at the dentist, no? Yeah, I was at the dentist.
That's okay. That's important. I was like chromosomes
or cells probably. You're older than that, thankfully.
I looked at the box score and I was like, man,
that is such a classic Mariners -Felix game.
We had one run on five hits. I was like, man,
that's prime Felix Hernandez Mariners baseball.
So happy Felix Day to all who celebrate. You
can catch Cedar and Alex on the Discord. And
Alex, you're also on Instagram, yes? Yeah, but
I'm... You guys can catch me on the Discord.
Oh, not promoting it anymore. All right. You
can find me at LegalMindedPunk on all social
medias that I'm active on. And yeah, take it
away, James. You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast on Twitter at SSFCScuttlebutt. And for
all inquiries, including questions for the gents
or sponsorship opportunities, please email contact
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at BritVoxus. That's Brit Vox US. We'll see you
at Lumen and go Sounders. Alexa, who's the best
MLS team of all time? Seattle Sounders are both
unequivocally and intuitively the best MLS team
of all time.