He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say he's cheating! And welcome to another
episode of Sounders Scuttlebutt. I'm one of your
hosts, Aaron Lingley, and I am joined by one
other host today, different from our last episode.
We got the drunk one and the sleepy one for this
one. Hello, Nicholas Biela. Hey, that's me. I
will try to stay awake this time, and I will
not be drinking alcohol. I do have a beverage,
though, so why don't we get to that? Yeah, you
start with your boring one. Oh, yeah. Still sounds
good. Oh, that had a little hiss at the end.
It did. It did. Sassy. We are going to be drinking
a tropical cherry sparkling water. I got too
much going on tonight, so I can't. I'm going
to be getting like 90 minutes of sleep. What
brand is that? Good and Gather. So I think that's
a Target brand. Yeah. Okay. I didn't know. I'm
having also a sparkling water, but I have a whiskey
on the side, but that doesn't make any noise
because it's in a neat glass right now. Ooh,
you know, that's a nice echo. It has a nice little
echo that reverberates through my ears. Very
nice. All right. What are you drinking? Yeah.
So that's just a lime ginger to go with my bourbon.
So one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer. One
beer. Okay, moving on. A lot of stuff to talk
about. This has been a busy week in Sounderland.
Of course, we are still buzzing after the League's
Cup victory. We are still rocking and rolling
on that. Thank you to everyone for listening
to our last episode. you know just hit the wall
i that that's a live look at me hitting a wall
and hitting a wall hard you actually fell asleep
recording it was awesome i think i think i think
i fell asleep in the middle of a sentence i i
it was very unprofessional it's funny well we're
very well actually we're getting a little bit
of money but um it's funny because you just your
general cadence sometimes you have pauses sometimes
you close your eyes and think just because you
like to really process your words before they
come out of your mouth so we're both like looking
at you like this is normal and then nothing happened
and we're like hmm did he freeze no we see him
nodding off it was great and then and then i
of course um i felt I got a little drunker than
I thought. I was perfectly fine in the beginning,
but I had been drinking whiskey during the match
and beer, and then I had some Elysians. It's
a final episode. Yeah, it was not the final episode,
a final episode. We'll see how the stats do on
this one. That might have been our final episode.
But no, it was definitely a brown liquor special
for sure. Brown liquor special. Okay, so. Things
that have happened since then. Obviously, the
post -game fracas, the brouhaha, the Donnybrook,
as one might say, the ruckus. Could you describe
the ruckus? It was some suspensions had been
handed down. And so it started first with the
League's Cup disciplinary committee. They had
to send their suspensions down first. And they
suspended Luis Suarez for six games of League's
Cup. Sergio Busquets for two games. Tomas Saviles
for three games. And then the Sounders, Stephen
Lainhart, one of the Bash brothers from the Alan
Gordon. No, not Alan Gordon. Who was it? It was
Stephen Lainhart. And who was his partner? Was
it Alan Gordon? I think it was Alan Gordon. It
might have been Alan Gordon. Some of those San
Jose earthquake teams. Steven Lenhardt's the
one that stomped on Sprining's hand. Yes. Steven
Lenhardt's on our team? He is our mental health
coach. No. Yeah. I won't allow it. Funny enough.
Interestingly enough. Okay, so a couple things
about that. First off, he's getting a five -match
suspension, trying to separate Cody Baker in
that brouhaha. He threw some punches. So first
off, we'll just address the Stephen Leonard thing.
Players love him. The big thing about Stephen
Leonard is that he has an interesting story.
His father committed suicide during his playing
days. And Steven's playing days or just Yeah,
during his Yeah, during his playing days. And,
and he got his master's degree or PhD in sports
psychology, something like that. Oh, fuck. Well,
hire him. He sounds like he's well qualified.
And that's kind of an awesome story. With that
said, though. thinking about it like if you're
gonna have anyone on your team throwing punches
you want someone who's not going to cost your
team major um major on the field issues so so
steven steven leonard and cody baker well no
i feel like well i feel like um You know, I'm
a hockey guy. So like the enforcers, the tough
guys, they're always the ones that stand up for
their team. You know, the ones that will will
will sacrifice themselves for the good of the
rest. And, you know, that is kind of what I saw
to Stephen Leonard. Anyway, so that's the league's
cup. Now, granted, so that would be sounds like
you're about to clarify what I'm about to say
is that obviously would be carried over to next
year. Hmm. Maybe even later next year, because
the world cup, there's a good chance the league's
cup will not happen next year. Cool. So Suarez
gets are really pissed off about that. I'm sure.
Yeah. About not, not playing in games, you know,
two years down the road. Yeah. Yeah. Big team.
But MLS, once that happened, they came down with
their suspensions and. I named four names in
the last one, and this time only two names. So
Luis Suarez suspended three league games for
spitting. Although I love how they just keep
talking about spitting only and not, you know,
the choking and not the stepping on Gene's foot
so he couldn't get away when he spit. That's
just absolutely despicable. But nevertheless,
three games for Luis Suarez, so he will miss
the Sounders versus Inter -Miami rematch. But
then Stephen Leonard had his credentials revoked
for the remainder of 2025. So he is not allowed
to be on the field, in the locker rooms, anywhere
where the MLS credentials are needed on game
day. Thought a lot of people are kind of pushing
back and like, oh, what the hell, Stephen Leonard?
That's such a shocking punishment. First off,
do you have any initial thoughts on that? One,
it's I don't I can't believe I didn't know Stephen
Leonard was on our staff. But honestly, I think
that seems a bit harsh, I guess. But I think
you are held to a different standard. That's
certainly a huge part of it, yep. And one, his
role. But two, I don't think they're classifying
as you are the mental health coach, but I think
you're part of the leadership of this franchise,
which is a reflection of our league. So being
held to a different standard. Doesn't sound like
he can't be in the stadium, but he's going to
be watching from a box or joining ECS. Yeah,
really? Well, as much as we like to welcome people
into our section, I'm not sure I'm going to see
that. I'd be surprised if I see that. That'd
be interesting. players you know if you're an
admin if you're a coach you're going to be held
to a higher standard than a player for your actions
on the field so so that's just gonna and i think
there's some grace to the fact that all their
adrenaline's pumping right they're they're playing
a sport and they're being emotional and reactive
because they're not Sitting on the sideline,
taking it all in. That's what I think as well.
And the Sounders got fined for misappropriation
of credentials. What does that mean? Well, what
I think... Did the staff member have one of those
fake glasses with the rubber nose on the front?
Well, Stephen Leonard, he had no business being
on the field. So he didn't have a reason to be
on the sideline. Even at the end of the match?
When did he come down? I guess this doesn't really
matter. So for example, when I go to the field,
when I've been on the field, I have to have like
these temporary game day credentials. I don't
have like the, the permanent badges, you know,
Lenhart did have, you know, full access. So I
think that's kind of the issue is normally no
one would bat an eye on it, but when, you know,
he gets involved in a fight, they're going to
have to come down hard on it. I just don't, I
want to see the footage specific. Everything
I was hyper -focused on was Lennart, or not Lennart,
sorry, Suarez. Oh, yeah, the sounder, the sounder
staffer with the white hat wearing the sounder's
hat, that's Lennart. You know who he reminds
me of? Side note, sorry. Yeah. Martin Gore. From
Depeche Mode? Of course. Of course. Steven Lennart,
at least playing days, Steven Lennart with the
blonde curly locks. Just reminds me of Martin
Gore. Anyway, carry on. Yeah, I mean, you know,
I just can't get enough, so please keep going.
You know, with that in mind, one of the things
about the whole thing is the suspension is pretty
consistent. Leagues Cup suspended Lionel Messi's
bodyguard from being on the field for similar
reasons. He put his hands on another player at
the end of the game. Earlier in the League's
Cup, I think at the first game of the League's
Cup, and he was suspended for the rest of the
tournament and banned from being on the field.
Okay. So Leonard's out for the season. Cool.
It was just them two? Yeah, from game day. It
was just Suarez and Leonard. It was fallout from
MLS side of things for the rest of the season.
Okay. And that's three matches. Who are they
playing? Well, us. Who gives a fuck? Miami's
not in our conference. Whatever. Who gives a
fuck? They mean nothing to me. With that in mind,
I wanted to also talk. I was crunching some numbers
because you know me. I'm a data guy. I like to
screw around with numbers. Data. I was curious
just how dominating were the sounders against
little messy so i'm going to use foot mob as
my source so foot mob always puts out player
ratings after every game based on you know the
the data that's shown so that's that's my source
here i went back a full calendar year and that's
going to be 50 games Exactly 50 games, including
Argentina, League's Cup, Champions League, everything.
What a nice sample size. I know, right? So crunching
the numbers, his previous 50 games, including
with Argentina, Messi, and I took out games that,
there were actually like 56 games, but I took
out games where he didn't appear. for more than
35 minutes i wanted to make sure because when
you're doing ratings you got to give them a chance
to actually be on the field you know yeah so
that was kind of my methodology how many of those
50 games do you think leonel messi fared worse
than how he did against the sounders in the league's
cup final and i'll and i'll tell you this for
the sounders his rating was a 6 .1 So going back
as far back as September 2024, 50 matches, how
many matches did Lionel Messi play more than
35 minutes and get a rating lower than 6 .1?
I'm going to say that there has been no more
than four other times. However, I want to say
this is the worst. This is the first. he's ever
scored that low but i'm going to say there's
been at least three or four other shots it's
a handful so the answer is two right in the middle
of my two game right right damn it um one was
actually uh last month uh against cincinnati
where he got a 5 .8 against cincinnati and then
last september against new york city fc he got
a 5 .9 against the sounders he had a 6 .1 every
single match since then outside of those three
matches he scored higher than a 6 .1 most of
them were in the sevens eights and nines i mean
it was really kind of shocking to look at all
that but To me, that really highlights just how
dominant Obed Vargas and Christian Roldan were
in the middle of the pitch. I was just going
to say that because that would be a nice little
bridge to the next storyline. But yeah, that's
been a very consistent duo, and it's clear that
that's their best spot on the field. Obviously,
we knew that Obed, that's his position with JP.
rolled on has been christian has been playing
in two or two other positions for the last couple
years so i've always wanted him back there he
needs to be in the middle he's yeah you know
a captain and it's just so steady eddie well
it's been so interesting because for the long
for i guess it would have been around 2021 2020
2021 when we were playing with three men in the
back and jp was up uh, was just getting started
with us. Uh, Christian. Yeah, I did feel like
was, was really good in this as a center defensive
mid. And I thought that was his best position,
but then going up to the 2024 world cup lead
up, he was getting a lot of winger minutes because
they were trying to get him into the national
team and, you know, and trying to, and it worked,
he, he made it to the world cup, but I kind of
felt, you know, it was, it, wasn't the best use
of his talents. But again, we had, you know,
Danny Leyva and Josh Atencio and, and, uh, obviously
Lodero was feeling that role back there, sitting
back at times, you know, so, you know, we, and
then even Albert Rusnak. Um, so yeah, so now
that he's kind of settled into this role, I think
it's really allowing him to shine and it's just
really nice to see, but that also leads us to
today. Christian Roldan got called up to the
U .S. Men's National Team camp, international
break, the squad this international break. He
got about 30 minutes in action against Korea.
Korea was already up to nothing. He didn't allow
any goals in his time in mop -up duty. But today
he got the start against Japan in Columbus. And
the U .S. national team won 2 -0. I watched the
game. I thought Christian did a good job. But
more importantly, he went the full 90. One, don't
read U .S. national team's Twitter. It's toxic
as hell. It's funny to read the player grades
from some of those sources. You know, one calling
Christian the worst player on the field, which
is really interesting when, you know, we won
2 -0 and he had the most touches of anyone on
the team. You know, but worst player on the field,
you know, as that center point of the possession.
So, you know, it's just tough to not, you know,
are you watching the game or are you just looking
at the stats? But with that in mind. Or are they
seeing green? Well, you know. In this case, part
of it can be seeing green. Part of it can be,
oh, MLS player. You know, it just annoys me to
no end. But I thought he did really well in the
game today. Looked good. I thought. um the u
.s team looked great uh at times they got two
really well -taken goals and you know he did
what he needed to do he basically it was a workmanlike
performance um again using foot mob as our our
source of truth here just for consistency um
they had him at a 7 .3 uh on the field right
well in in the field that's right around the
back line of Blackman Richards and Reem had a
7 .1, 7 .2 and a 7 .5. His band of four in the
midfield, Freeman, Tyler Adams and Arfsten. Arfsten
had an 8 .1. He also had an assist. Adams had
a 6 .9 and Freeman had a 6 .3. So, you know,
I think. The assist is going to definitely bump
up Arfston's rating. But yeah, Roldan did what
he needed to do. Very pleased about that. I hope
it gives him more call -ups. Yeah, World Cup's
obviously being in Seattle next year, so that
would be phenomenal if he was able to make it
on the team. But also, I'm not passionate about
the U .S. Men's National Team. I watched every
match of every world cup and of the Olympics.
Well, I guess not the, not so much the Olympics,
but is now, should I start trying to follow them
through this winter fall winter leading up to
the, I want to, I want to be excited about the
men's national team again. Like I was in 2016.
Well, here's the thing. One. When was Rio? 16,
18. We're not talking about 2018. When was Rio?
When Brazil was 2014. 14. Okay. That's the year
that was like most. When Yedlin came up, we had
Dempsey, Yedlin, Eddie Jones. I watched the Belgium
match at Wamuu. Oh, God. Yeah, that was so much
fun. Even though we lost, it was still a fun
match. With that in mind, that leads us to our
next talking point. No, you just have to say,
should I start following the men's national team
again? Should I start being excited about them?
Yeah. A decade later. Yeah, why not? Because
the Sounders are getting consistently good now.
They're kind of boring. You need more chaos in
your life? No. But anyway, what were you going
to say? In T -minus 11 hours and 20 minutes,
T -minus 11 hours and 20 minutes, you can sign
up to get on the wait list, or not the wait list,
you can get on the lottery to buy World Cup tickets.
So, from tomorrow at 8 a .m. All the way until
I believe the 29th or well, the 29th is when
you will be when you will be selected or not
selected. So you OK, you have until the 19th.
OK, there we go. You have 10 days to sign up.
You have to have a Visa card to sign up for this
first wave. If you don't have a Visa card, there
will be other opportunities for you to sign up.
But this first wave, because Visa is the sponsored
partner of FIFA, there you go. You have to go
to FIFA's website. You need a FIFA ID. If you're
selected, you'll be notified on the 29th. You'll
have a date and time window where you can buy
tickets. Just because you're selected does not
mean you will actually get tickets. You'll just
be one of the people that is eligible to try.
So that is getting closer and closer. It's now
18 minutes and 11 hours. Yeah, I know. Being
that it is the 9th of September. And I still
haven't heard anything about my, I already have
the right to buy two tickets to any game of my
choice with the exception of the final for the,
because during the club world cup, they had a
promotion where if you bought two tickets to
any two club world cup games, you would get a
guaranteed right to buy a ticket to the world
cup. So theoretically I have my right to buy.
the usa game here in seattle nice um but of course
fifa is gonna fifa and they haven't been releasing
any details on that so who the hell knows how
that's gonna work well i'm hoping for the best
for you that's pretty exciting though yeah because
if i feel like i'm gonna see the us national
team in the world cup in my hometown this is
great yep i mean that that's the thing is if
i've already seen enough sounders finals and
stuff so let's let's finish your bingo card Well,
I went to all nine games in Vancouver for the
Women's World Cup in 2015, watched the U .S.
women win the World Cup. It was amazing. But
I've never seen the Men's World Cup. I've been
to Copa America, obviously here in Seattle, saw
Messi play, saw the U .S. play. Great times,
but never the World Cup. So definitely a big
bucket list. Bucket list item, yeah. So it's
been a good week for soccer. I think I mentioned
to you, just thinking about bucket lists, getting
to play with the League's Cup trophy. So that
was fun. Looks like you're drinking out of it,
pretending to. well that's that's certainly what
it looks like either i'm really good at photoshopping
or yeah uh so that was a good week okay so that's
what i got for sounder scuttlebutt you guys think
you guys think scuttlebutt you wanted to talk
about anything else that we haven't buried in
my 85 degree hole here in san diego is that hypothermia
maybe you should get that looked at it's fun
it is it's just funny to see the locals react
to both heat and cold here it's insane But yeah,
no, I don't have anything. This is my outlet
and this is also my resource. And that's why
I love doing it. Do we have anything? Have you
reviewed Discord? We didn't tell anyone we were
recording, did we? I made a mention of it, but
I don't think we really, I didn't ask for, I
didn't ask for anything in the mail. We got to
get better. We got to get better at that. We
got to get better at that. Although also good
reminder to join our Discord. Yeah. So with that
in mind, we do have the winners of the League's
Cup Final Prediction Challenge. The Prediction
Challenge. The Prediction Challenge. So we had
one, two, three, four, five people get four points.
And some familiar faces. We had Dan the Bastard.
Dan, Dan going with some optimism and it paying
off big for him today. Good job, Dan. We had
Jesus M509, Cedar, Patrick GC, and my very own
daughter, Roma. So once again, Roma has been
killing it. Is she actually picking? Yeah. Yeah.
So what will happen is I'll put in my predictions.
And then I'll reload it, put in her name on it,
and then I'll ask her, do you think the Sounders
will win, lose, or draw? She'll give me the answer.
Then I'll ask her, you know, how many goals will
the Sounders score? How many goals will the other
teams score? And I need to say, there have been
times where she said seven. There have been times
where she said knew who would score, and she
was right. There have been, like, she has been,
she's won what, like four times in the last month?
When she said seven is when we scored seven.
I have to double check on that. I think, no.
That would be, I would quit my job. No, no, no.
For that game, she got seven goals right. She
said five to two. But she did say knew who would
score first in that game. That's insane. Um,
but she also won that game because no one else
had, uh, some of those numbers, uh, against Cruz
Azul. But, uh, but yeah, so like, uh, I've only
been having her do the prediction challenge for
like the last month and she's, yeah, she's been,
she's been killing it. So I think she's won at
least four times that I can remember. So good
job Roma. who's also now in kindergarten. I know,
dude. It's weird. If you think you're smarter
than a kindergartner, join the prediction challenge.
Win some prizes. We've got some great prizes,
including a team -signed Bruce Lee jersey. I've
never heard you say what the prizes are going
to be. Oh, well, give me one second here. Let
me just pull that up. Why don't you just kind
of talk about some other potential prizes that
you might have? I don't have anything. Oh, come
on. Make something up, you know. Two round trip
tickets to the MLS Cup final, wherever that may
be. No lodging. Not going to provide any of that.
We don't have that kind of funding, but we'll
definitely provide the flights. Just please come
back. I can't think of anything. Wow. Yeah. I
said two round -trip tickets, but no logic. Oh,
no. It's real. It's a real jersey. Yeah. There
it is in all its glory. That's legit. Okay. Yeah.
So I got that. That'll be one of the prizes.
And I'm sure we'll come up with some other stuff.
Honestly, the other stuff. What my thought is,
some of the other stuff will be depending on
who is chosen as the winner. Connect with the
winner and pick something that they'll like.
The team -signed jersey, that's an easy one.
Everyone's going to be happy with that. But for
some of the other prizes, it'll be, okay, here
are some options. What would you like out of
these options? I still want Brian's notebook.
I want, I want really, I want pages of his notes
all laid out and then sealed as a coffee table,
you know? So you just sit there and just kind
of be like, Oh, what game was that? Oh, that
was the final. You know, then that'd be cool.
That's fun. That's fun. Anyway, my birthday is
coming up, Brian. In two months. Oh my God. Two
months to the day. How about that? How about
that? Actually, that's right because you and
I are like two days apart. Yep. We had a lot
of people in November thanks to Valentine's Day
fun. No, that week it's you and then me and then
Roma all within like four days of each other.
Gracie's the 25th. My mom's the 6th. My grandpa
is the 9th. My grandmother was the 6th. My dog
is the 5th. All of November. The gestation is
still the same for dogs? I don't want to think
about that. No, I don't know. Unless there's
a Valentine's Day. Dog sex. No, we're not doing
that. Anyway, we should get to the second portion
of the show, which is a little bit more game
match set point. Match focused. We are playing...
Miami in a week from today. Actually one last
little bit of scuttlebutt news that just came
out yesterday is that the Sounders have sent
Cody Baker speaking of Cody Baker has sent Cody
Baker and Trevion Sousa on loan for the rest
of the season. So Cody Baker, I believe, is going
to Sacramento, if I remember correctly. And Trevion
Sousa is going to maybe Tulsa. I will confirm
that. Also, Georgie Minungu got sub minutes today
for Burkina Faso against Egypt in a 0 -0 draw.
Burkina is in position as of right now, eight
games into a 10 -game World Cup qualifying cycle.
They're in position for a play -in opportunity
to qualify for the World Cup because Egypt's
leading that group. Wow. And yes, Sacramento
Republic for Cody Baker and FC Tulsa in the USL
Championship for both teams for Trivian Sousa.
all right so it'll be good you know because they're
they're both making playoff pushes uh and the
coma defiance are not really doing so hot so
it'll give them both a chance to to step up their
competition and really build off of especially
cody baker he had a really good game a few weeks
ago for the sounders i think against skc and
uh and i remember that and i was like man i haven't
seen a lot of them lately which is because we
think we're starting a year yeah yeah What, a
year? Yeah. I could have sworn there was like
early season matches. He made an appearance,
but not a start. Wow. Well, I wouldn't, I guess.
Yeah. I wasn't really thinking start. I was thinking
just seeing him play at all, but yeah. Okay.
Well, good for him. And yeah. All right. So let's
get to the second half of the show. We'll talk
a little bit about the upcoming match. No, you
want to, we're kind of at a hard limit here for
the time anyway. So let's get to that. You mentioned
playoff push. Let's talk about the playoff push.
Sounds like a plan. Why don't we go to break
and come on back after these words from our absent
co -host. I guess he's not absent now. Hey everybody,
this is one of your hosts, Cameron Collins. Now,
I know we said this time was time for a break,
but really, it's a time for me to talk to you
about our corporate overlords. And our corporate
overlords are us. That's right. We would love
it if you would head on over to patreon .com
and look for Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast. We
will put the link here in the show. And subscribe.
You can subscribe for as little as $1 .74. a
month now what will that get you well i guarantee
you get at least one extra episode per month
it'll be a cool interview or something like that
that otherwise you would not hear now we might
put out promos or other things that include that
but the whole episode intact will only be available
for you patreons at least initially now there
will be other stuff that we put in there but
this is where we're starting at why you ask well
we have bills to pay And we need to make sure
that we can keep this show going. You would not
believe the going rate for PA announcers. So
head on over to Patreon, go to Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast, and subscribe. You even get a cool little
downloadable membership that has our logo on
it. That's Sounders Scuttlebutt Podcast over
at patreon .com, P -A -T -R -E -O -N dot C -O
-M. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
And we're back. Anyway. Oh, yeah. I'm actually
watching the show, The Studio. Oh, how do you
like that? It's pretty good, actually. It kind
of reminds me of, did you like... God, what was
the one with the Pied Piper? Silicon Valley.
Oh, yeah. Obviously, that's kind of like they
brick and mortar, they started something. This
is... movie studio but it just it's the story
the way it's written is just very similar to
that it's really funny i like it anyway they
do a kool -aid movie in it that's kind of the
central theme of their project throughout the
first season is they're trying to come up with
a kool -aid movie oh yeah anyway i digress so
soccer soccer soccer we're playing la galaxy
um when is that saturday saturday at 5 30 here
at lumen field Saturday the 13th. Currently the
Wooden Spoon leading LA Galaxy, but they have
punched their ticket to Champions League next
season. Such a weird season. Due to a victory
against Orlando City in the third place game.
Interesting. Yeah, it reminds me of the year
a few years ago when DC United won the Open Cup
but won the Wooden Spoon as well. sometimes when
that's all you have to play for you just put
all your eggs in one basket that's what made
them so dangerous i didn't i was nervous about
playing them um the second time yeah and they're
i mean they are they're bad they're bad but they
have good moments Yeah, but they do have quality
that can show up. Now, I do have some news, though.
Gabriel Peck will not be playing in this game
because he picked up a yellow card in their last
game, giving him yellow card suspension. Okay.
Yeah, and he picked it up in the 90th minute,
too. So, oops. Oh, that is frustrating. It sure
is. Oh, darn. So we're playing them on Saturday,
then Miami the following Tuesday. Yeah, we're
just going in reverse. Everything's happening
over and over again. I just realized that. We
played Galaxy, Miami. We're playing Galaxy, then
Miami, Austin, Vancouver. It's just basically
Groundhog Day all over again. uh hopefully we'll
get the similar results but yeah so so basically
our last five matches after tuesday because we
played um we played miami on tuesday we will
have played we'll have played the galaxy miami
galaxy miami in in our last four matches yeah
and then and then Three matches before that,
I think we played the Galaxy again. We did. We
played them. Galaxy, Minnesota, Puebla, Kansas
City, Galaxy, Miami, Galaxy, Miami. Hey, see,
we're familiar. We'll have a... Squad, it sounds
like Albert Roseneck is close to full fitness.
Danny Mussofsky will be out of his suspension.
Georgie and Christian Rinaldo will be back from
national duty. And then we've got Nuhu back from
his suspension, and he's been playing with Cameroon.
Yeah, actually, Cameroon. uh lost today i think
i think um i think knew who started uh double
check that they lost one nothing to cape verde
um and cameron's in danger of not qualifying
for the world cup actually so um but yeah knew
who did start in that game and the table right
now they're in second place so They are four
points behind Cape Verde with two games to go,
and they will need to get some help. They also
would be qualified for potentially play -in games
based on that. They're in the same boat as Burkina
Faso, so right now it sounds like the best second
-place teams. also qualify like the four best
second place teams right now Burkina Faso is
the fourth best Cameroon is the fifth best but
they're on the same amount of points so it could
come down to one or the other could be out it'll
be really interesting so we'll see yeah you'll
have to tell me all about it like if I'm not
in the men's US men's national team I'm certainly
not following Burkina Faso No, but this is actually
a really good point that I was trying to make
when I was talking to people about World Cup
tickets. Listen, FIFA is going to try and gouge
people with prices. It's just going to happen.
The U .S. game, if you're trying to target the
U .S. game, just be prepared. My guess is get
in the door price, even at the cheapest seat,
is probably going to be about $150. Get in the
door at best. And that's if you get them. if
you win the lottery if you're going secondary
pricing it's just going to be ugly i'm sorry
it's just going to suck with that said go to
these kind of matches yeah well that's the thing
you just want to get to understand yeah where
they came from yeah if you want to go to a world
cup game the here are the four teams that are
currently um but yeah yeah but these are the
four teams in africa um The teams that are qualifying
right now, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Cape
Verde, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia,
and Ghana. Now, the four best second place teams
that are qualifying as of right now are Gabon,
Madagascar, Congo, and Burkina Faso. Because
the World Cup is now 48 teams, some of those
teams have never made a World Cup. We are inevitably
going to get World Cup games with teams of that
kind of nature, where you're going to get a team
like Burkina Faso versus Vietnam or something
like that. So what I'm getting at is don't overpay
for World Cup tickets. There will be opportunities
for some of these games to drop. I saw it happen
here in Seattle for the Copa America Centenario
where everyone was excited about seeing Messi
or potentially the U .S. They made you buy tickets
in a package before they announced which teams
were coming. Sound familiar? And then when you
had to buy the whole pack for all the games here
in Seattle. And obviously we did get Argentina.
So we did get to see, we did get to see messy
place. So yay. But we also had to pay for like
Peru versus Cuba or Peru versus Haiti. That's
what it was. Peru versus Haiti. And it's like,
that was not a marquee game at all. So, I mean,
that's going to have, you're going to have those
games and you could have gotten in the door for
like $10 on resale for that game. So, so just
be aware that don't. fret now if you get a chance
uh they have published the matches for the world
cup they've um uh trying to see if i can look
it up real quick they publish the matches and
in the matches they just have it as like match
uh 16 match 32 match 52 match 63 somewhere i
have to go find it there is a match schedule
that will say like match 16 is group a three
versus a four or or something of that nature
um and so if you can find that you probably want
to dial in and try and get anyone that's a group
one team because that'll be the the argentinas
and the germanies of the world And I could be
wrong about that. They may have only posted the
group, but not the slots within the group. Actually,
now that I'm looking at it, that is only that's
been posted. Anyways, moving on. We'll have more
about that as we get closer to the top. I know.
But we're getting close to that. The presale
starts tomorrow, so we're going to have a lot
of World Cup coverage over the next six months,
eight months as we get closer to that. Scuttlebutt,
your number one source for World Cup coverage.
Not really. But moving on, we are talking about
Saturday's game. No Gabrielle Peck. And are the
Galaxy going to have any real motivation? Yes.
what would their motivation possibly be if you're
proving to them because if we were any other
team almost any other team no okay but because
we just beat them twice and we are the first
club to win every trophy and we have this you
know this rivalry and and we've made them look
silly they they're gonna want to prove something
yeah you know because this has been a very very
good year um we are we have one loss in our last
what 16 games we're averaging 2 .7 goals a game
we are doing exactly what i have wanted since
we basically started recording this podcast not
today like the episode one first iteration it's
like i've wanted a consistent dominating team
to just like like being a Seahawks fan in 2013
and 14. I just want to go in and be like, we're
going to whoop your ass. This is going to be
fun. Of course, you'll lose one game out of every
16, but we're averaging two goals. We know the
product. We know what our style is now. The fact
that Rosario is arguably our best striker right
now, and I love his game with the rest of the
team the way he fits is exactly what we need
it's been really exciting football to watch not
just the fact that the results are you know getting
us trophies which it's it's actually fun to watch
for 90 plus minutes well you know the thing about
it is that Deversario offers something that none
of the other strikers do which is that physicality
that size that I mean but Jordan has that but
in a different way His physicality is more speed
versus like... He has the physical ability to
be more target. And I think more aggressive physically.
He's just not an aggressive physical player.
And he does have the speed and he uses that.
That's my opinion. But he's ripped. He's 6 '1",
6 '2". He's ripped. Yeah. It's really interesting.
I mean, we talked about this at the beginning
of the season. And spoiler alert, what I wanted
to do for today's episode is I wanted to review
our preseason predictions. But I would like to
have all three of us on when we do that. Yeah,
for sure. And with it being an international
break, I thought it'd be a good time. Just trying
to get schedules to line up is always a challenge.
One of the things I know we talked about at the
beginning of the year, we saw in preseason, we
are so excited, especially with the Paul Areolas
and the Jesus Ferreros of the world, on top of
what Albert Roseneck's been doing previously,
is that this team can find people in the box.
This team can pass. We had concerns about who
was going to score, but we knew this team could
set people up and put dangerous balls into the
box. So it doesn't shock me that Danny Mussofsky,
believe it or not, very well might break the
all -time Sounders single -season scoring record,
all competitions. He's only a few goals away.
Oh, my God, really? It's crazy. What number is
that? I want to say 19. And he's at 15? He has
15 all -competition goals. Holy fuck. Okay. Yeah.
But we talked about it. He kept putting himself
in dangerous spots, and we have a team that can
find those spots. And you're seeing Osase's got,
what, four or five goals all comps already? Danny's
got 13. I'm pretty sure he's at 15. Oh, wait.
He has 13 regular season goals? Yeah. Shit. And
he's got four leagues cut. Oh, wait. Sorry. No.
I should stop talking. But he also was the only
one who scored against Cruz Azul in that infamous
Mexico City game. But yeah, so with this team,
it's, you know, both of these strikers, Osase
and Danny, are... putting themselves in dangerous
positions, and yeah, they've left some on the
table. They've left some shots off, but they
keep getting chance after chance, and I just
totally respect what they're being able to pull
off, and I'm really happy for them. So what do
you expect to see against LA Galaxy? I hate to
say it, but I think they're going to try to disrupt
the match. They're typically, I feel like they
want to play their style, but I feel like there's
going to be a little bit more like a reaction,
like you were saying, something to prove, but
I think they're not going to be playing within
themselves, and I don't think it's going to be
a very clean match. I have that sense. I think
we're going to try to play our game. I think
they're going to try to disrupt that, almost
in a Burmese -sported KC. kind of way. They've
tried to beat us at their game and they couldn't
multiple times. So I feel like there's going
to be something drastically different. And I
hope it's not that way. Well, they did announce
that Rosendo Mendoza will be the center ref.
Not to give me context on him. He's done League's
Cup, Open Cup. Yeah, so... I'm not super familiar
with him, to be honest. One of our LA Galaxy
colleagues has sent me some information, including
that he's refereed 11 MLS regular season matches
with the Sounders. Sounders have had five wins,
two draws, and four losses. Four wins, one draw,
one loss at home. It doesn't really mean much
to me. His last match with the Sounders was the
2 -0 win over Minnesota United last year at home.
I remember that game. I think there was a penalty
in that game. But I don't really know too much
about him. It sounds like he hands out a lot
of yellow cards. handed out 96 yellow cards this
season average of five a game wow okay that seems
really high so uh he's awarded six penalty kicks
this season so i don't know um we'll see we'll
see i just want us to keep that momentum going
i hope i hope we don't have that lees cup hangover
i hope we don't look ahead to miami And that
rematch. But I hope we bring our A squad for
this game. And you know what? Fuck Miami. Give
them our rotation. And beat them with it. Yeah,
well, we've already done it at League's Cup.
We beat them with our B to C squad. Third string
striker. Second choice left back. Second choice
10. Yeah. We don't need to, you know. rehash
that but we're going to because it was fun yeah
and i and i and if there's going to be a match
that's going to be in miami too right yeah yeah
if there's going to be a match that we kind of
maybe take the midweek the furthest flight you
can possibly take in the continental united states
like maybe we've proven our point to them let's
get in the rhythm of the weekend matches that
are coming up, right? So it's Galaxy, Austin,
Vancouver, boom, boom, boom. That Vancouver match
is going to be a big one for playoffs. I'd rather
just, yeah, our main starters should play LA,
play on the weekend, rotate as necessary, and
be juiced up for the following weekend because
I don't care about the Miami match. We've proven
our point. Yeah, we're playing with house money
at that point. Yeah, and to your point now, right
now we're sitting in fourth place, 44 points.
Third place is Vancouver, same amount of games
played. They're at 49 points. Minnesota's at
51, but they have two extra games, and San Diego,
we're not catching San Diego. They've played
two more games is what you mean. Yeah, correct.
if we were to win our next two games, we would
be one point behind Minnesota. You say we were
not going to catch San Diego. They have to play
two more games than us. They're up by 12 points.
That's a six point difference. If we win our
two games in hand, there's only a handful of
games. There's only a handful of games left,
but that is, but they, they haven't shown any
signs of slowing down. I feel like that's a,
what do I need to do? I'm down here. Tell me
what to do. Okay. I can find their houses. I
can't publicly say that. But with that in mind,
and behind us, we have LAFC directly behind us.
Three points down, but they have one game in
hand on us. Austin, three points down, but we
have a game in hand on them. Portland. I feel
bad for completely skipping over Austin, and
they are in the playoff race. I'm just so used
to them not being in the conversation. Yeah,
so we're going to have a busy September. We've
got one, two, three, four more matches in September.
Two of them at home this weekend and then at
the end of the month against Vancouver. Then,
yeah, so we've got Galaxy, Inter -Miami, Austin,
Vancouver, Portland, Salt Lake, and New York
City FC. The Cascadia Cup is still on the table,
so we've got a chance to win another trophy there.
Man, I want to be home right now. A Vancouver
followed by Portland in one week. All at home.
I know. I know. So right now we are, um, we do
need to win both of our games. Uh, the one against
Vancouver, the one against Portland, because
we are currently, uh, we're currently in second
for Cascadia cup, uh, with, um, uh, Vancouver's
Vancouver's one against both of us. So, and we
have to be Vancouver. Yeah, and we drew Portland.
So we need to win out any result in anything
less than a win or if Vancouver beats Portland
or draws against Portland and they win the Cascadia
Cup. Well, if there's any time to have the momentum
to... Oh, I'm sorry. Let me scratch that. Vancouver
wins. If we drop any points or Vancouver wins,
then they win the Cascadia Cup. Which we would
be dropping points if we lost to them. Yeah,
but they also played Portland one more time.
Oh, so they have any wins. So we would need to
be Vancouver and Portland beat Vancouver or draw.
Yeah, both Seattle and Portland lost to Vancouver
and we drew each other. Would that count as a
treble if we won the MLS Cup? No. Okay. No, because
we've done that before. 2014, we won the Cascadia
Cup, the Supporters Shield, and the U .S. Open
Cup. Anyway. And I believe the Heritage Cup as
well. But, you know, we've won that as well.
Hey, you know, it's been good. I've gotten to
hold the Heritage Cup. I've gotten to hold the
League's Cup this year. So bring me more trophies.
I want all the trophies. Let's go. I've held
MLS Cup and Champions League or Champions Cup.
But I have not. US Open Cup I haven't touched.
Touched the glass that separated me in those
four when they were at the 90. Is that still
around? Yeah. They didn't move everything to
Long Eggers? The trophies aren't in there all
the time. But the 90 is still a thing? The 90
is still a thing. What is it now that no one
has offices in Pioneer Square? Yeah, so usually
the downstairs is being used for meeting and
gathering spaces before games, especially with
VIPs and a lot of things. Like a hosted event
space pre -match. It's a better commute than...
and then rent yeah okay well let's save our predictions
prediction i think we should well if you want
to go through them it's fine but we do a prediction
thing so like no no but so we you know because
we always kind of kind of feel it out right now
and then obviously we change based on what we
see in the lineup and and and go from there so
i guess my question to you is oh By the way,
just forthcoming down the stretch, we may lose
Obed Vargas to World Cup duty. The under 20 World
Cup is coming up. And that may be the best chance
he gets for showing well to be able to play for
Mexico next year. When is that? It's coming up.
He'd miss about five games towards the end of
the regular season. Give Danny Leyva a chance
to shine, you know? And not only Danny Leyva,
but let's be honest, not Stu Hawkins, that's
our center mid, but... Taylor Hawkins. No, he's
not going to be much use as a... Stephen Hawkins?
Even less useful than Taylor Hawkins. How's it
feel? I'm done. I can't believe you set me up
for that, but I walked into it. You almost walked
into it, turned around, said, you know what?
Fuck it. Turned back around and walked right
through it. I came back. I came back for another
bite. I was trying to say Snyder Brunel. Snyder
Brunel has shown really well. Dee Snyder Brunel.
No, Dee Snyder, we're not going to take it. And
that twisted sister. Oh, you said the Snyder.
No, I said the Snyder. I was sticking with the
rock theme. Okay. And I'm almost done with my
whiskey. So this is part of the show where I'm
starting to get like. It devolves. Yeah. Go to
bed. It's probably time. Go to bed. So your prediction
for the game on Saturday against the LA Galaxy.
I think it will be 2 -1, but it'll be like 1
-1. We won't be winning until. the end of the
match. Okay. Interesting. I think it'll be like,
we're clawing out of like, God, this is just
like, we're fighting them off. Almost like we're
crawling out of a hole that has arms, just pulling
us down. And it's LA galaxy. You don't come to
hell with us. We're at the bottom. And we're
like, no, God damn it. I don't want to go to,
you know, I like, I like your, I like your narrative.
I think it's very fun. Uh, I think it's wrong,
but I, I, I like it. It's better to be fun than
right. You're not wrong. It's better to be fun
than right. You're not wrong. No, I mean, earlier
in the season, our winning 4 -0 against the Galaxy
in the first home match and the second time winning
2 -0 in both cases, I thought we showed rather
well. I just don't see... I just don't see them
being able to get it down. I think we have a
lot of momentum. We have a lot of belief in each
other. And I think we're going to roll. I'm going
to call it 3 -0. Stefan Frye is going to come
back in net. He's going to want to... Ooh, actually,
huh. No, yeah, Stephen Fry is going to start
in that. By the way, there's no goalkeeping controversy.
No? Like, I'm just going to put a kibosh on that.
Well, I mean, there's only a controversy if people
want to try to start one. Brian Schmetzer has
already put the kibosh on it, and he was clear
before the get -go. I love how transparent he
was at the start of the season about who gets
what. There's no conversation. It's not going
to be a distraction. We're playing fucking football,
and we're going to focus on winning. And that's
his tournament. This is seven prize. They know
where they are in their careers on this club.
It's I, now when it comes to the off season,
we're going to have a lot of conversations, but
this is not, this is not that time. Even if you
believe that, even if you believe that Andy Thomas
is the goal, the better goalkeeper right now,
I do not think. that the difference between Andy
Thomas and Stephen Fry warrants not giving Stephen
Fry the opportunity to see out the season as
a starter. Yeah, I don't think that there's a
negative war that's that big. that would affect
our outcomes wins, wins above replacement replacement
being Andy Thomas. Right. So I don't think, I
don't think whatever difference I know I, I could,
I would probably, if I had to pick Nerf gun to
my head, that it would be if, for who I'd want
to start, just no strings attached, just based
on performance that I've seen. No, no heart strings.
I would, I would probably pick Andy Thomas. And
he's going to be our goalie of the future, 100%.
I'm so happy he's ours. The amount of just memorable
moments he's already had for us. It's just, you're
already, how lucky are we? We had Keller, Sperning,
Stephen Fry, and we're going to have probably
Andy Thomas, who's already become a cult hero.
Oh, Marcus Hanneman. Well, I was going to say,
yeah, I was going to say, you know who else had
a good? Cup tournament moment? Hanneman. Does
that mean he was... But that's a false equivalency
because Hanneman was never... And he came out
of conversation to be a starter. At that part
of his career, he had a better career than all
of our goalies except for Casey Keller. Arguably
even better than Stefan Frey. Hanneman had a
wonderful career in Europe long before he came
back to the Sounders. He was a back up on multiple
World Cup teams. Yeah. Or the U .S. So anyway,
I'm excited about that. But yeah, no, I appreciate
that it's not going to be a distraction and it
shouldn't be a debate. Let's just enjoy who we're
watching. They're both going to be good. They're
not going to affect the outcome of the season.
The only argument in which I will say that I
can understand a debate is if a game's going
to penalties sure i don't think stephen fry would
have to agree with that but at the same time
that's just not that's not a tactic that the
sounders have ever done switching a goalkeeper
right before i'm and i think we i would want
that considering funny enough we actually cameron
and i actually asked that exact question to andy
thomas last year right after the playoff series.
That was right when we got to spend some time
with him. I forget what. And he was like, the
thing is, the thing that people don't really
always think about about that, it's easy to armchair
quarterback that. But if you make that move as
a coach, your goalie better fucking perform.
Because you make that move and you don't win
that shootout. Ooh, that is a hot seat. Now,
granted, you know, Brian's seat's just fine.
But the better way to deal with it is to not
get the penalties in the first place. That's
fair. I think in this particular situation, recently
seeing what Andy's done in penalties and knowing
that Fry just is incapable of stopping a penalty
kick. Even when he has, it's been called back
for coming off the line. He had to go against
someone who was even worse than him in Brian
Clark, former Timber, what is his name, for Houston
last year. Yeah, no. I'm not going to come up
with it, but you're going to say it and look
it up. Steve Clark. Yes. There we go. Steve Clark.
Steve Clark Gable. Well, no. No. Not rock and
roll? No. No. No, that's a song by the Postal
Service. That's not the same. Steve Kelly Clarkson.
That's much better. There we go. Steve and Kelly
Clarkson. Oh, my God. You're breaking me. Stop.
All right. So it's 930. I think we should stop.
That is. Cameron, we miss you. Discord, we miss
you. Keep an eye out. We're going to have the
Ultras episode drop this week as well. So you'll
get double the content, double the fun. Doublemint,
Doublemint, Doublemint, Scuttlebutt. That was
a lot of doubles. Was that four doubles? I don't
know. There is a double -double here. In -N -Out.
Which, surprisingly, we've only gone to twice.
It's five minutes away. Yeah, but you're wearing
your Dick's soccer jersey. Oh my god, I am. We
know your loyalties lie. Your ECS Pub League.
In -N -Out's pretty fucking good, though. Yeah.
So, refocus. We're ending the show. Discord,
get on it. Patreon. get on it the show will be
on patreon before it's published live now that
we are famous enough to have advertisements so
if you don't want to hear those advertisements
pre and post show then jump on the discord to
help support the show um and and it's it's been
really helpful and i'm just really excited to
see where where we're going with this. It's been
obviously a hard moving away from Seattle, both
by heart and by mind. But I think with our trifecta
that we've perfected since last year, I think
we've been able to publish some good shows and
it's really showing and we're growing. So, and,
and, and special shout out to all the scuttlebutt
listeners who we get to hang out with on game
days. Saw a lot of you at leagues cup final,
big, big shout out to Eric 13. eric took good
care of me saving a saving a spot for for the
fam um really appreciate that big shout out uh
to alex diaz for for hanging with us sitting
with us and and we just had a great time for
the leaf cup final um got to see dan the bastard
quite a bit in the brom end uh didn't get to
connect with, um, with Paul. I, I know we're
trying to, he came up from, um, trying to, trying
to connect with him. So just good, good times.
We see you all out there. We appreciate you all.
Um, unfortunately I don't see you. And then also,
uh, also Pat came out from, from the Bay area.
Um, Pat's trying to show me up. I know, I know
he came out from California. yeah so so where
you at where you actually um this is i've been
thinking this is the time of year the time of
year i haven't even been here a year yet but
i can tell this is going to be the time of year
that i miss home because it's nice here all the
time but there's something about a seattle summer
right with there's green is it the green that
they think is green it's not green here it's
like the green of your poop when you have a salad
for like a week You know? It's like, that's really
brown. But there's some green in there. That's
San Diego. Yeah. Wow. We all know what I'm talking
about. Everyone, picture it. Picture it. I put
the butt in the scuttlebutt. Anyway, but I also
do love and miss wet, crisp air so bad. Like,
I want dark. I want it to be 10 p .m., I want
to be on First Avenue. I want it to be drizzling,
and I want to be buzzed, and I want it to be
after Sounders' victory. So I think possibly...
Possibly? Possibly. When is the... How deep does
the playoff go? December? It goes balls deep.
Inappropriate. It's true? If it's... Well, one,
if the final works out at home, I'm there. That's
happening, whether I make it in the stadium or
not. but I think I can manage an off, not busy
weekend to fly down and fly back. This year's
MLS Cup is December 6th. Ooh, that is doable.
Let's make it to the final at home. It's probably
going to be hard, but we've had less of a chance
before, and it happened. You do realize that
we could see a conference final Seattle -San
Diego. Yeah, I have realized that. And whether
it's in Seattle or down here, I think one, it's
a great opportunity that I get to see. Right
now it's San Diego. Yeah, obviously it would
be down here. I don't know what I'm thinking.
So I actually thought about that and you guys,
people would be coming down. So you get to see
me and be like, welcome guys to America's finest
city. That's what, that's what they're called.
You just spent. 30 seconds talking about how
your shitty salad poop of a city. That is their
nickname. Where the evergreen will stay, but
the Emerald City, they're America's finest city.
Just like Scusa down south of Seattle. With the
consistency of a fro -yo machine just shitting
out salad green poop. Okay, just making sure.
Actually, you could do that. Probably a mint
chocolate. We have gone so far. Throw your scuttlebutt
life for me. All right, let's wrap it up. Another
good program. We're about just over an hour.
Not too bad. Not too bad. All right. Well, you'll
find me really right here. And where can they
find you on socials? Yeah, come join me on Instagram
at cascades2c. Or you can come join me on Discord
at nicholas .bluesky .bsky or whatever they do.
They do the thing that you know. So nicholas
.bluesky .social. All that good fun stuff. And
Cameron is in legal limbo. legal -minded punk
in legal limbo because they have revoked his
Twitter access. Of course they have. Gotta make
fun of him for that. I don't even know what that's
about, but I'm sure it's fucking bullshit. His
account is suspended. I love it. I love it. I
can't wait to hear about this from him. Alright,
the next person we'll hear from is James. James,
take us away. You can follow the Sounders Scuttlebutt
Podcast on Twitter at SSFCScuttlebutt. And for
all inquiries, including questions for the gents
or sponsorship opportunities, please email contact
at scuttlebuttproductions .com. Be sure to subscribe
to the show for new episodes following every
Sounders FC match. And don't forget to share
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can follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
at BritVoxus. That's BritVoxUS. We'll see you
at Lumen and go Sounders. Alexa, who's the best
MLS team of all time? Seattle Sounders are both
unequipped and they're arguably the best MLS
team of all time.