It's time for Scuttlebutt Ultras. Quick takes
from our Patreon Ultras, sharing their soundest
thoughts straight from the heart. Your voice,
your moment. Welcome to another edition of Scuttlebutt
Ultras. It's Ultras Only today. It's me, Cedar,
with Dan the Bastard and Alex Diaz. What's up,
guys? Where's Cameron at? Yeah, did he get kidnapped
or something? Well, he got hacked again. We hacked
him again because we really wanted to record
and he's busy. He said something about a comedy
show and I don't know whether he's performing
or... He's just going to one. I don't know, but
we need to, we have some stuff to talk about.
So I think we can break pretty big news. He gave
us the password to the podcast. And so I'm going
to just share it with everybody. Let me pull
it up. I believe it is. I love Liverpool forever.
One, two, three, four. So anybody that wants
to get on the pod, that's all you got to do.
I didn't realize he was a Liverpool fan, but
I guess secretly deep down, everybody is. Deeply
closeted. But that's okay. Now that the secret's
out, you know, just come on over. Either that
or he's still on a bender after drinking that
whiskey during the last game. So maybe he's just
been sipping whiskey this entire time and that's
why we can't get a hold of him. I wouldn't be
surprised. I mean, wouldn't you be on a bender
after that? Victory? Yeah, I'm still on a bender.
I've been completely... If I was worthless at
work before the game, you should have seen me
afterwards. So I'm assuming everyone did enjoy
the game, right? Oh, yes. Top five best moment
of your life? Definitely top five Sounders viewing
experience. I, the last, the last, I, I didn't
get to travel up to go see the game, but it was
okay. Cause I got to watch it with my dad. And
the last time that we were in a, in a big cup
final was a CONCACAF champions league. And at
that point in my life, I was, I was down visiting
my now ex fiance and we were watching it and,
you know, it was fine, but like, she's not. sounders
fan in fact i think she's a messy fan i think
she's a pretty big messy fan and uh knowing that
uh feels pretty good to have won on sunday so
it was great that i got to watch it with my dad
i mean you could feel the energy from even just
watching it on tv like all the people there uh
they broke the attendance record you know they've
they've packed in every single person they could
into that building and you could feel it and
it was awesome Yeah, it was electric watching
it on TV, but Alex was there. How did it feel
in the stadium, Alex? Man, it was like a blur.
The game felt that it went by so quick. And I
know earlier we talked about how do you feel
about getting beer thrown on you? I'm like, I
didn't care that I was covered in beer at the
end of the game because it was electric. That's
my first cup final, and seeing the stadium as
packed as it was, I was amazed. And it was mainly
green. There was a few pink, but not as much
as I thought it would. I was going to ask that,
because from the TV, you could... the pink jerseys
really stood out on the broadcast. And so I was
just wondering, in fact, in the intros, I saw
some pink jerseys in the ECS. So I was wondering
if you see pink jerseys in ECS or do they get
kicked out? Oh, they got kicked out. That is
great to hear. Yeah, they were. The ECS security
was doing a good job. That is that is outstanding.
So. With that said, this was your first final,
right, Alex? Yeah. First final as a Sounders
fan of mine, too. I'm still riding high on a
buzz, and I just can't believe that we beat Messi.
Well, I can believe we beat Messi because I felt
good about the game. I just can't believe that
we bossed Miami the way that we did to the point
that we caused them to crash out. and cry at
the end of the game and, you know, just act full.
So that was outstanding. And the thing that gets
me, too, is that that wasn't even our full -strength
team. Like, we're missing two DPs. No Ryan Kent,
no Danny Mussofsky, right? These guys who have
been in our starting lineup. No knew who. Fry
doesn't play this tournament. And if you were
going to say that we were going to shut down
Messi and the Barca boys, you would think Nuhu
would have been on the field from a defensive
perspective, right, with just his ability to
completely close down the left side of the field
for us. And so Reed Baker Whiting did a wonderful
job. All these young guys stepped up. And afterwards,
as I was reflecting on it, I – this is – I'm
sure this is hyperbole, but I felt like it, with
the story of the game, it was kind of like the
American story. I felt like I was watching FIFO
Goes West, where we have all these young players,
local to Seattle. And the way they beat Messi
and the Barca boys was they worked harder. They
worked harder in the practices leading up to
this. They worked harder the entire year. And
you finally got to see the fruits of the labor
and the idea that... Work actually does hard
work does does provide victories and you can
win off of cohesion, hard work and beat some
of the most talented soccer players. Regardless,
they're all old now, too, and maybe they're they're
finally on a decline. But that was one of my
big takeaways was it was a it was a Brian Schmetzer
win because they did what Brian said. They believed
what Brian Schmesser's principles are, and it
really worked on the field, and it was exciting.
And, well, I mean, they deserved it. These boys
deserve every accolade that they get. How do
you all feel about the – so the narrative coming
out of this is, if you watch the national news
or even the world news, it's less about Seattle
and more about what happened after the game.
And so do y 'all feel like that is taken away
from some of Seattle's accolades? In a way, no,
because I feel like that's for anybody who is
going to see that story who wouldn't otherwise
have known about the week's cup. I feel like,
you know, they weren't going to, aside from it
being messy in the final. Unless they're tracking
Messi's every move, which there are a lot of
people who do that. For anybody else who's just
a casual worldwide soccer fan, that might have
kind of spurred them on to be like, oh, well,
why did Miami crash out? And then see like, oh,
because the Sounders skunked them 3 -0. So I
don't mind it from that perspective, because
I think anybody who's watched that game as a
Sounders fan, you know. you know what that feels
like, you know, to win that big game. I mean,
it really felt like a, an MLS cup final with
just a lot less run up. That's kind of what it
felt like. It's like, Oh shit, we're playing,
you know, MLS cup basically against inner Miami.
Even though it's not obviously, but it, that's
kind of what it felt like in a very compressed
amount of time. So I don't think it takes away
from anything. I think it just kind of, adds
to the lore of it, of just how deep under their
skin that we got. Reportedly, Messi was saying
stuff to Pedro de la Vega and Obed on the field
during the game. Apparently, it wasn't just standard
trash talk, but another Sounders podcast reported
that, he said to obid um during the game you
are shit and you'll never leave mls and whether
or not that uh i mean i don't know if i i i mean
i want to hear what you got your guys's opinions
on this are because i just like not that i'm
a messy fan or anything i don't really i don't
really care about messy before and now i i'm
like you know afterwards i'm like okay uh but
It just feels like a very surprising, if that
were to be true, that just feels very surprising
to me. I wouldn't imagine him to be capable of
an extremely dick move towards a young footballer
who's building their career and probably grew
up idolizing Messi. I mean, what do you guys
feel like? What are you thinking about it, Alex?
How did you feel? They're in the stadium. Seeing
the clash and then the aftermath of all the BS
that's coming out with sounding like, if you
believe the reports, it sure sounds like Messi
and his friends maybe got their bitch game on
really high. No, I think that basically the run
-up to the game was that it was Miami's final.
They were going to win. They expected Seattle
just to bend over and let them do whatever they
were going to do. and win League's Cup. And when
they saw that Seattle was on their ass the whole
game, and Messi was getting frustrated because
Obed was on him the whole game, he would give
a pass, and Obed would give him a nice little
bump. I don't know if you guys caught that. And
then the team was complaining the whole game
about they were touching Messi too hard. And
he's over there crying, asking for a foul. And
I think... They got in his head, and we saw that
in the second half when he missed that one -on
-one chance. Nine times out of ten, I see him
make that shot. Yeah, and how much was that shot,
just him missing, because even the best players
do miss, or how much of it was you have Thomas
charging at him, making himself big, and then
everything going on with the atmosphere of the
crowd, which... Even though you saw pink jerseys,
you could hear that it was a Sounders -friendly
crowd. You could hear the boos every time Messi
touched the ball. I want to thank you, Alex,
for being there and helping with those boos every
time Messi touched the ball. I think that some
of the environment helped with getting in his
head and putting that ball over, right? He sold
it? Yeah, he sold it up to the Hawks' nest. Yeah,
he put it in the Hawks' nest, gave somebody a
gift, said, here, take that. Yeah, I don't know.
I think we will never know exactly what Messi,
some of the shit talk that was on the field.
We probably shouldn't know. That should probably
stay between the players. But you can tell by
watching, especially after the fight, there's
that one clip where they're getting in the line
so that Messi can go get their participation
trophy for getting their asses kicked by the
Sounders. You can see Messi join with Pedro from
from across the field and Pedro turn look and
just be like, what's happening? What are you
doing? What are you saying? And so you it just
it was in their heads. One of the big takeaways
for me, too, is, as I said before, this game
that the MLS should have. So I feel like the
advertising for Messi coming to the league is
come look at Messi, come to your hometown and
do fancy things with the ball. Right. Come come
look at the circus. Come come look at the Harlem
Grove Trotters of the MLS, if you will, as they,
you know, do something fancy and put the ball
in the back of the net. There's nothing your
team can do to stop. And they should have said,
hey, come support your team as they take on the
best, because if they beat the best, they will
be the best. And I think we finally got to that
arc where that's the overlying statement that
people are saying is the fans have turned on
Messi a little bit. It started with Minnesota
and their Pink Phony Club. And you saw it now
after this game. A lot of people are, I think,
MLS fans sided with Seattle or happy with Seattle's
performance, but just finally getting to see
Messi and company whenever they don't get handed
whatever they expect to be handed to them. And
it is a thing of beauty. And we beat the best.
So I think that makes us the best right now.
I think so. Yeah, I think we've been one of the
best post -Club World Cup. I think we're 9 -1
-4 since Club World Cup. It really makes those
people like myself that was begging for a summer
signing feel a little silly now coming out of
that. And maybe we should give Craig his flowers
in the way that they built this team and saying,
hey, yeah, a deep team is able to compete and
maybe miss underestimating what Brian could bring
to the table and getting these boys energized
and ready to go. So I should probably stop questioning
what they're doing. a liver as a liverpool fan
also you know it's it's nice because then you
get that satisfaction of like all these big signings
over the summer right and then on the flip side
as a sounders fan you get that trophy with you
know the the hometown heroes right i mean it's
it's it's kind of the best of both worlds so
well yeah i guess we we can't really complain
you know what i'm saying that's probably why
cameron chose that password then and so that
he could have the best of both worlds oh absolutely
he just wants it both ways yeah yeah he wants
to be a fan of the best uh premier team and the
best mls team Oh, well, you guys didn't hear
that his ex, his Twitter account's password was
WeHavePaulRothrock? Oh, is it? Yeah. That's why.
That's why he got hacked, huh? Yeah. After Brian
leaked it, it all went downhill. Can we just
talk about Brian Schmetzer for a second? I mean,
if... If you guys haven't watched his post -game
conference, his press conference that he gave,
I mean, it's incredible. I've always enjoyed
Brian, but, I mean, he is just so impressive.
He is, like, absolutely so impressive. He just
keeps cementing. his legacy here I mean it's
it's really really incredible it's it's really
incredible to step back and kind of look at the
totality of of what he's helped build and then
you know think about like the future too I mean
what are the I mean what are the kind of the
realistic heights that do that you guys think
this team could achieve come say next club world
cup you know what I'm saying like Like, if we
win Champions Cup again and punch our ticket
to Club World Cup in 2029, I mean, with this
kind of organizational momentum and just the
sheer buy -in from the staff, the front office,
the players, you know, the owner, right? the
fans like everybody's bought in and we have our
disagreements about you know certain things how
things are done but like i mean that was a sunday
was a moment of just sheer unity and like you
know being the underdog but like making inner
miami just look It wasn't even about making them
look bad. I mean, we were just better. I mean,
we were just better. They wanted it more. We
wanted it more. They wanted it more. With second
-string guys, third -string guys in a lot of
instances, what kind of heights do you see this
club going to in the next kind of Club World
Cup cycle, right? Is Brian going to be here for
the next Club World Cup? That's a good question.
Honestly, I hope he is, but if he moves on to
becoming the manager of Team USA, I would not
be mad at that. Well, it would probably be one
of the best things to happen to the U .S. men's
team. What's the show on 93 .3 that he talks
on every Tuesday? Soft Dicky or whatever? Softy
and Dick, I think. Interesting choice of names.
Yeah, I don't necessarily listen to them much
because, well, I mean, who listens to the radio?
I'm under the age of 50, so that's probably their
target audience. But I did see the clip where
he was saying, you know, he mentioned again,
this is the second time that he mentioned that
he would love to coach that team. I think that's
a natural, that would be a natural. progression
for him otherwise i don't ever see him moving
on to an another mls team i don't see him coaching
in europe or any other league right i mean that
would be very shocking to me i feel like coaching
the u .s would be a natural progression or he'd
just coach the sounders till he you know kicks
the bucket i could also see a world where he
decides to retire at some point too maybe have
an advisory role in the front office. But that's,
you know, here, there. I think if, you know,
it's, this is just what this club does. They,
every three years, they win a trophy, right?
I think someone asked him, asked Brian in the
press conference how. how meaningful this one
is and where does where does this league's cup
rank as far as everything that brian's won and
brian said uh ask me again in 2028 basically
right i'll get you an answer in 2028 which is
i guess when they're scheduled to win their next
cup so so uh yeah it i i i would hope the next
club world cup One, that we're able to get to
it, but we're on the right path to get back.
We're doing all the right things to get back
to the Club World Cup. I would hope that maybe
we would be in a little bit more of an even draw
bucket with some of the teams, not the group
of death. If we were in Miami's bucket, I think
that we would have won game, right? Like if we
would have been in a different bucket, you have
to say that we would have at least won a game
and possibly even moved out with the way that
we played. I think we win. I think so, but I
also think it was almost better that we were
in the group of death because it really pushed
our guys to the limit and also gave them confidence
where they're able to play against some of the
best teams in the world and see like, oh, I can
hit that extra level I never knew I had because
they hadn't been tested like that. And I think...
maybe if we were in an easier group and we make
it out right but obviously the chances of moving
on winning the whole thing are slim to none i
think in the long run it probably turned out
in our favor even better to to get our asses
kicked right but not not so badly you know what
i'm saying but like to give them that confidence
of like wow we can hit that extra level what
do you think alex No, yeah, I think even though
we didn't get a result in Global Cup, we saw
that our players were able to compete and keep
the game competitive. We saw, what was it, a
2 -1 or a 1 -0 against, I think it was 2 -1 against
Botafogo. It was competitive the whole way through.
We played Atletico Madrid and it was 3 -1, but
it was still competitive. And then we played
PSG and we lost 2 -0. But that game was also
very competitive. We didn't get blown out. The
Pink Phony Club played PSG the next round and
they got blown out. So I think that's just a
testament of our coach, of our team, of our players,
our organization. And this team has bought in
to the whole culture of we're together. This
is a team. like you see the guys in the interviews,
they ask them, well, how do you like, they ask
Pedro, Oh, how does it, how do you feel about
being the player of the league's cup? And he's
like, this is a testament to, to a team. Like,
this is a, like they're, this is not a me, a
me team. This is us. This is we like this. It
wouldn't be possible for me to get this award
if it wasn't for the team. One of the biggest
testaments to that point is whenever you listen
to the players talk, they're repeating the things
that you know Brian has said. Because that's
what they believe. So that's a big testament
to that. For the game. On the field, it got testy
in the crowd. Did it get testy in the crowd,
too? Like, was there that same energy with having
Miami Jersey's around? And as we just continue
to, you know, there by the 80th minute, you kind
of had an idea we were going to win. How did
that feel in the stadium, Alex? It was, you would
hear, like, the O's, like when Miami missed their
chances. And, you know, during the stadium, it
felt like the energy felt good. Like being an
ECS, we just felt like we just kept the energy
going. I think we helped push the team. And I
went ahead and rewatched the game. I rewatched
it twice now. I watched it in English and then
I rewatched it last night in Spanish. And I was
in the second half, Miami really like put us
under the pressure. And, you know, Brian Smetcher
made subs. He put in Georgie. And right away
he went and he won us that penalty to help, you
know, ice the game out a little bit. And then
we get the third, Rothrock. Rothrock ending the
third is just storybook ending. Playing from
the nine too. Playing as a nine. And as I'm celebrating
the goal, I can't finish celebrating the goal
and the referee blows the whistle. Incredible.
And then I get emotional because it's just like
I'm proud to be a Saunders fan. And it almost
felt like I was also a part of that game. So
that win was not only for the players, but it
was for us, the fan base, and the whole city.
Yeah. So do you think it's we're going to, with
that win, do you think that's going to spur more
people coming in and we can reverse some of these
declining numbers in the stadium trend? Yeah,
I think so. I think with this one, there's probably
people that it's their first Sounders game and
they live in Seattle and they're like, oh, let's
go because Messi's coming to town. They're like,
oh, they're playing the Sounders. Let's see what
the Sounders have. And then they see, you know,
Sounders skunk them 3 -0. And they're like, you
know what? We can watch this team every week.
And starting next season, they're going to have
a new supporter plan that you can come join us
in ECS. For only $19 .74 a game. Nice. There
we go. Get butts in seats. That's what it's all
about. The front office has been doing a great
job with bringing people in and making people
feel like they're part of the club and giving
you that experience that you felt like you are
part of the club. I couldn't imagine. I don't
feel like I missed out by watching the game at
home. I feel like I missed out with the postgame
celebration and the interaction that you had
there in the ECS with the players. And I'm sitting
here watching the highlights and stuff of the
players coming up, holding the trophy up to the
fans. And I bet that was just an amazing feeling.
Yeah, it was great. It was great that the players
came and were willing to share this moment with
us. Because their families were all on the field,
but they took time to come, you know, come give
us a little speech. you know, hold up the trophy
and give us, give us our little moment with them.
That was, that was great. That's so cool. That's
awesome. So I think this is a good spot for us
to take a break. So we're going to let y 'all
listen to Cameron for just a couple of minutes
and then we will be right back. 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'll guarantee
you get at least one extra episode per month
that'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
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You would not believe the going rate for PA announcers.
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-M. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
And we are back. So we were just chatting off
the air while Cameron was telling you all about
the benefits of all the cool things that you
get to experience whenever you're a member here
at Scuttlebutt. But we were talking about, so
I wanted to ask a question for you, Alex. With
everything going on and League's Cup has now
come out and give punishment, do you think there
should be punishment from MLS or do you think
League's Cup kind of just covered it? I think
MLS has to do something. And I think that League's
Cup set the bare minimum or they set the standard
that MLS can follow. But if MLS doesn't do anything,
then that's going to raise a few eyebrows. It's
going to be... What I want to know is, isn't
League's Cup property of both MLS and League
of Mechies, right? Yeah, I think it's convenient
for Dawn. That's like halfway MLS's decision
already, right? They had to have been involved
in that decision. I mean, I know nothing about
the corporate structure of all of that, but I'm
assuming. that they were involved in some capacity
in that decision. So you would think that, I
don't know. I'm of the opinion that Suarez should
get just kicked out of the league. Yeah, lifetime
bans. Get him out of here. This is ridiculous.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Look, you have,
especially because it's Messi, you have children
all around the world watching this game. These
are their role models, right? And if they're
allowed to behave like this and get away with
it... Look, nobody gives a shit about a League
Cup suspension. Half the posts I've seen online
from Reddit, it'll be the soccer subreddit, whatever.
Half the people are calling it the League Cup.
They don't even know what this competition is.
They don't even know the proper name, right?
So I'm like... The point being, a lot of people
are tuning in. They're not seeing what is, you
know, blah, blah, blah. If Luis Suarez is being
broadcast all over the world, him spitting on,
you know, Gene Ramirez, our head of security,
then that's reprehensible. That's morally bankrupt
behavior. He needs to be out of the league. That's
not okay. We can't normalize this. And again,
no six game leagues kept suspension. Whatever.
Like, who cares? They gave Dempsey an MLS suspension
for US Open Cup, right? For a much less... For
helping the referee with his notebook. Know what
I mean? Like, the referee did not know how to
use his notebook, and Dempsey fixed it for him.
Yeah. Dempsey was in... He was morally right
to do that. That was a righteous action, even
if it's against the rules. Right, yeah. It was
okay for him to do that. And no bodily fluids.
No, it wasn't. Exactly. It wasn't against the
rules. They made a rule for it now. He created
a new rule. He's inspirational. He set the standard.
There you go. No, but talking about Suarez and
Busquets suspension, they're going to retire.
Suarez can't even run. You seen when he was chasing
Pedro? Yeah, but those passes, though. I mean,
look, that's the thing. I mean, Miami had those.
chances and boy were they really really good
i mean we kind of all thought that they were
going to get a couple of chances and you know
probably put them away and they got really close
to doing that well you know putting away chances
isn't isn't something for everybody we had our
fair share we exactly yeah hey sue should have
had a goal but i will say on the second shot
that they missed that i think By looking at the
body language, especially last night, it looked
like he was going to go near post, but he saw
Thomas go down, so he switched it up last minute
and he hit it wide. So he just got in his head.
That's big boy Thomas. They also looked like
after they missed the second goal, they kind
of looked like they knew that it's not their
day and that's pretty much it too. There was
a lot of negative body language they had the
whole game, but you could see it there, at least
from the TV. that that was their chance and they
lost it. No, but I'm glad that they broadcasted
the brawl on the national TV. Now, what about
the second brawl, the brawl with the fans outside?
Have you all seen those clips on Reddit? Yeah,
I've seen the clip, but I was still in the stadium
at the time that it allegedly happened. i i'm
really surprised that we haven't heard heard
more of that because you know it's it's i have
not seen it on i think the only news outlet i've
seen it on is like the new york post which is
i mean that's that is a um i don't believe anything
they ever write so i i don't know it's uh right
yeah it's like you know no so maybe it could
be mls you know trying to put this under the
rug because they just want to deal with one brawl
and not two? It wouldn't surprise me. They want
the spitting to be the worst thing that happened
there. Not the trash cans being thrown afterwards.
The traffic cones, the unconscious man in a Sounders
jersey on the ground getting repeatedly beat
by a man in a pink jersey. over and over based
on this video. It's a violent video. It's really...
Well, you know. You know. Yeah, I mean, it's...
I almost want to... I almost wish it was just
AI, right? Because it's horrible. I mean, it's
horrible to think about that kind of violence
being right here in our home stadium, right?
I mean, that's terrible. We don't want to see
that anywhere, right? But especially when it
happens in your backyard, you're like, wow, that's
really not okay. And I get everybody's like,
oh, games back. People are finally taking soccer
seriously in America. And I think one of the
hallmarks of American soccer culture, it's...
so far is that it's blended so many different
kind of supporter cultures from all over the
world with drums and stadiums, chance, um, scarf
culture, TFOs, all this kind of stuff that that's
been, you know, it's, it's really this great,
like amalgamation, this really great hodgepodge
of everything from out, out, out in, you know,
worldwide soccer culture. But this is the, this
is definitely one of the parts that, hasn't really
seemed to be present compared to other american
sports in this country and it's definitely one
that you know we don't want to be propagated
whatsoever you know it's it's one of the nice
things about going to a soccer game in america
you you know it's a family friendly atmosphere
you know yeah you don't get excited you know
things get heated you know especially you know
you're going to a rivalry match I watched a video
of, I think it was either Toronto fans going
into CF Montreal Stadium, right? And everybody's
shouting at each other and flipping each other
off and all that. That's great, as long as there's
no physical harm done to anybody. I love the
vitriol. That's awesome. That's what makes rivalries
so great. You expect that at a Timbers game,
something like that. You know, when it when it
devolves into violence, I mean, it's horrible.
And if you let if you let players, you know,
the people that we're all here to see get violent
outside of the confines of the game and not get
punished properly for it, then that's a problem.
Because, again, you have a lot of not just kids,
but just everybody. I mean, everybody's watching
a lot of people who are. impressionable are going
to be influenced by that. And if, especially
if there's a lack of consequences, bringing it
back to like, Oh, you know, how, how, how does
MLS deal with Suarez and Busquets throwing his,
you know, really weak jab, right? Like it's not
even a punch, but still he tried. I mean, he
tried, he really tried his hardest. And by that
token, like, like, even though it's in defense,
like, I mean, Reagan should face consequences
for what he did. And I think he had every right
to do what he did by throwing the guy to the
ground, right? Because they didn't start it.
They finished it. Yeah, John Bell. Was that Bell
that suplexed somebody? Bell was doing his Seahawk
trial. He's ready for Sunday. There should be
consequences. Here's what's going to happen.
MLS is going to suspend Gene Ramirez for the
rest of the season. They're going to ban Steven
for life. And then what they're going to do is
they're going to take Reagan's ACL and they're
going to tell John Bill that he can't play for
two years. And then they're going to deduct 10
points from Everton. I've seen enough. Deduct
10 points from Everton. And then they're going
to take away the trophy. Knew who will get suspended,
deduct 10 points from Everton. And, yeah, they
may just take away the trophy from us and give
it to Miami, right? I mean, that's who it was
supposed to go to in the first place. That was
the plan. They already had Miami's name in grade.
Did they really? I heard that. I don't know.
That's been going around, and I don't know if
I believe that. They were ready for it. No, it's
AI. They got the 23 when they won in 23. That's
awesome. So the game's over. It was one of the
greatest games that I've watched as a Sounder
fan. As an admittedly young Sounder fan, it was
still one of the greatest games. And listening
to other people talk about it, too, I get the
feeling that a lot of people feel like it was
one of the best Senators games of all time. You
know, we made Miami crash out. They're still
probably in their mansions back there crying.
And good for them. Oh, maybe they got some golden
tissues or something. The game's over, but the
year is not. So we do have more games coming
up this year in MLS play. When's our next game
coming up? Wait, before we move on, there was
another crash out. Oh, was there? By the Barca
boys. Messi crashed out, I want to say, two days
on Wednesday against Venezuela. Oh, did he really?
Yeah, once they got back out of the dressing
room, he went straight at one of the players.
And I put a comment. I said, oh, the guy must
have told them what happened in Seattle. Oh,
that's good. Yeah, so I mean, I think we're still
in their heads. We got to charge them for rent.
Oh, man. Well, in this economy, absolutely. Jesus.
Yeah, I'm looking at it now. One of the headlines,
Lionel Messi in tears before scoring goal in
emotional Argentina versus Venezuela. Yeah, look
at that. There's Messi still crying a couple
days later as he plays Venezuela. Man, boy, they
really had a tough job beating a baseball nation.
What a monumental task. Good for him. Good for
Messi. Yeah, good for him. I'm just glad we're
finally at the Miami's a bad guy arc. It took
a little bit, but we got there. Sounded like
the start of the downfall. Look at us. We're
always setting the trend. Hey, just like my Cowboys
ending Tom Brady's career there in the playoffs
at Tampa Bay. Maybe this will be the beginning
of the end of Messi and the MLS, and we can move
on. Dak took one for the team against the Eagles,
too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, look, hey, a league
knows how to handle somebody spitting. Yeah.
Did he get did he get fined or not? No, he got
he got I don't know. I have not seen the long
term punishment, but he was removed from the
field immediately. And that was kind of one of
my questions about this whole thing is these
these guys, you know, they threw punches and
then then spit on our head of security and then
just got to go and get there. second place medal
like nothing had happened like and i was just
like beside myself like yeah why are they still
on the field why why weren't they removed from
the film i think and uh it's hard because it
didn't technically happen during the game that's
kind of where it's in the gray area so i feel
like i feel like that that it almost like makes
it even worse right because because in the in
the confines of uh of you know professional athletic
competition right when when violence happens
like that you can kind of chalk it up to oh blah
blah heat of the moment the referee is directly
responsible for discipline you would imagine
some kind of uh repercussions either in the form
of talking to yellow card red card blah blah
in the nfl i you know when you see when you see
like when you see like the spitting incident
when Jalen Carter spat on Dak Prescott, you know,
before the game even started. Right. Because
it wasn't in the, you know, the confines of play.
They, they're say what you want about the NFL
because they're not above criticism at all, but
it feels like. If people were throwing punches
after a game, you know, there would be in the
NFL, there would be immediate and swift consequences
towards the involved parties, right? Yeah, you
wouldn't just go get your second place medal,
right? Yeah, exactly. Like that wouldn't happen.
Well, they don't have second place medals in
the NFL. But, you know, I get your point. Your
first or last in the NFL. Yeah, exactly. It's
really interesting to see how two different professional
sports leagues in this country handle similar
situations. I just wonder what would have happened
if it had been one of our players spitting on
them. Oh, exactly. And nobody's even asked that
question. You're the first person I've heard
ask that question. Exactly. A hundred percent.
Like what if somebody spat on messy, right? Oh,
they would've got shot. Right. Like you still,
I I'm still on online, you know, and I'm watching
Miami inter Miami posted some highlights of,
of messy taking some corner kicks in that game.
And then, you know, you go read the comments
and nothing was about, everything was about messy
the goat. And I'm trying to figure out why, why
to me, he's messy the ghost in this game. So
that's a, you know, not messy the goat. I mean,
that was his only highlight, was taking those
corners. Did they put the shot that he missed?
No, no. Well, we all know who the real GOAT is.
Paul Rothrock. Yeah, Brian said so. So, speaking
of Brian and Paul Rothrock and the GOAT, we have
LA Galaxy next, right? Yes, next Saturday. Next
Saturday, okay. We got to play them again? A
week from now. How many times do we have to beat
them? Oh, and then after that, we play Miami
on Tuesday. We have Miami coming up. Short rest.
So you think that we're going to go throw starters
at LA Galaxy, especially since it's a Western
Conference team and the points mean a little
bit more in the West. Well, I guess not since
LA Galaxy is, what, last in the West? They're
one of the worst teams in the league this year.
Got a CONCACAF berth. I think... What should
happen in a perfect world is MLS suspends all
of the culpable parties from inner Miami. Right.
And, you know, in fairness, you know, deals out
consequences for Jackson Reagan, John Bell. Right.
Because that's, you know, even though they were
right to do what they did, in my opinion, there
still should be consequences for violence. And
what happens then is you have a very neutered
inner Miami team that we go and play down in
Fort Lauderdale. They don't even play in Miami.
And we should literally just roll out our starting
Tacoma Defiance lineup. Like, seriously. I know
that they probably won't and can't because of
roster rules, but in a perfect world, that's
what you should do. And that's my opinion. So
as much fun as I would like to see Tacoma Defiance
beat a neutered Miami team, looking forward,
we're sitting fourth in the West right now with
LAFC points and hands right behind us. The season's
not over with, and I think we still need to rack
up some points here. And I think we can. I mean,
there's no indication that we're going to, now
that we won a cup, that we're just going to stop,
right? There's no indication of that. No, yeah.
Even the boys came out and said, we're worried
about the next one. We're worried about the next
game. And I think it's, one, I think it's kind
of fun that we get to go back and we get to play.
You know, it's just going to create a lot of
narratives whenever we get to go back and we
play Inter -Miami, hopefully without some of
their worst offenders on the field, if MLS is
just. But I'm excited for that game. Especially
since the stakes are low. We lose that game,
we're going to be like, yeah, we got the trophy,
right? You want to see the trophy that we got
from y 'all? And then if we win that game, it's
just proof that we own the vault culture, right?
They tried to buy their way championships, and
it hasn't worked except for that one Leagues
Cup that they won. They did win the Shield, too.
But, you know, the shield wasn't super important
until they won it. And then the MLS is like,
oh, well, that's how you get into CONCACAF. Look
at that. Yeah, right. I think this kind of leads
me into a question for you guys. Because the
only season that the Sounders have won two trophies
in the same year while being in MLS. was back
in 2014 when we won both the Supporter Shield
and the U .S. Open Cup. And it's the only time
it's happened for the Sounders. And I'm asking
you guys, if we were to win MLS Cup this season,
would the League's Cup plus MLS Cup be a more
impressive double? than the Supporters' Shield
and the U .S. Open Cup, in your guys' opinion?
I think it would, just based on where the league
is now compared to where it was 10 years ago.
10 years ago, we didn't have... I don't know.
You could tell me yes or no, but did we have
as many big names in the league now as we did
10 years ago? And with the new teams, we have,
what, 30 teams in the league now? I don't know
how many teams were there back then. So it's
just harder to win an MLS Cup now. Yeah, I'm
going to give it a resounding yes, absolutely.
One, because I'm paying attention and so it matters
to me. Two, the law of recency, recency bias.
Yeah, it's happening now. So I'm feeling the
emotions now. But also, I think, you know, we're
playing soccer, right? We call it soccer. We're
playing soccer, but we're in America and we as
Americans look at the... end of the season trophy
as the apex of what, what it is to win. Right.
And so the, the winner of MLS, the MLS champion
is the winner of the MLS cup because, and that's,
that's the way we do it. That's one of the things
that we held onto. We keep the supporter shield
because you know, it, it does measure really,
if you think about it measures how well you did
throughout the whole season. But we're not playing
every team. We're not playing every team. So
it's not an apples to oranges comparison to the
Premier League's championship because they play
every team twice. So it's a little bit different
than us. And so I think, yeah, getting two trophies
out with it being the League's Cup and the MLS
Cup would be... probably one of the best Sounders
years, if not the best Sounders years we've ever
had. And then with who we do it with too, right?
This, this is a team made up of Seattleites.
This is a team made up of our neighbors and that
should really get Sounders fans excited that
this, this team represents the heart of Seattle,
right? Seattle is a really cool city once. I
think Seattle is a really cool city. I was going
to say something mean about tech bros, but then
I stopped myself. So that's what that little
vocal pause was. Don't you work in tech? Yeah,
I work in tech still. That doesn't mean that
– Well, that means he knows what he's talking
about. That's friendly fire. Yeah. That's tech
on tech violence. Yeah. That's another podcast
about how many rich people are in Seattle and
how many homeless people are in Seattle. But
that's – Um, that's a different podcast. I'll
save that one for my, my other podcast. That's
after hours. Yeah, that's, that's the after hours
podcast. Okay. So we, um, so we're, we're approaching
an hour of us talking. So I got, I got one more
question before we get out of here then. Uh,
and it's kind of in your same vein. And so this
is a, uh, say something happens. Say we go to
LA and we, we throw up a stinker, right? Say
we go to Miami, we throw up a sticker, we start
piling up some losses. Maybe we don't lose every
game, but we end up squeaking into the playoffs
and getting kicked out of the first round. Would
you consider this season a success with winning
League's Cup? I would have to say yes to a degree,
just because we're a club that wants to compete
for trophies. And this team, the way that it's
been playing, for them to just fall off a cliff
and go through another hangover like they did
in 2022, I just, it would be a disappointment
not only to the fans but to the players themselves
because they know what they're capable of. Like,
how are you going to go from beating the best
player in the world to getting kicked out of
the first round of the playoffs? It's just, personally
me, I would be disappointed. and the season like
yeah leaks cup i'm gonna remember it as one of
the highs but to just crash out of the playoffs
in the first round it would just you know that
would be a very very low point of the season
so let me rephrase the question for you then
we uh finish out the rest of the year good but
we still fall out of fifth. I think there's scenarios
where we can still have a good remainder of the
year, but we still finish at fifth with LAFC
behind us, right? And so then we, for that best
of three, we have two games in Minnesota, one
game in Seattle. Are we beating Minnesota? We
would know because if we're at the fifth seed,
we play LA, I think. Oh, you think we'd play
LA? Yeah, we play LAFC because I seen a graphic
earlier because we're basically switched. It's
flip -flop and we play them in the first round.
But I think they have enough games in hand that
they could end up third, right? And so there's
a scenario where Minnesota's fourth and we're
fifth, I believe. I mean, if we play Minnesota,
I like our chances in a best -of -three. I'm
sure we're going to be able to beat the bunker.
We'll have Morris back, and the way that these
guys are playing, I don't know if Minnesota's
style of play can actually... win an MLS Cup.
Who went and beat them at home? Colorado went
and beat them at home the week before we went.
They're beatable. It's not like they're unbeatable.
They looked much better against Colorado than
they did against us. It just so happens they
got an amazing shot. we just couldn't get the
ball to go in, even though we had a lot of shots
to target. Cedar, what about you? We're out the
first round of the playoffs. Is this season still
a success? Man, first round, I mean, I think
I'd, I mean, obviously I'd be disappointed, but
I think, I think we've now shown that we are,
I think we've shown that we're probably, capable
of being the best team in MLS just based on our
play even though the results lead up to you know
in the totality of the season we aren't on paper
the best team right it's not like we're gonna
win supporter shield right or you know get the
one seed realistically at all but I think we
are gonna make the playoffs And I think if we
crash out of the playoffs in the first round,
I think it's going to leave everybody feeling
like there was so much left on the table, even
with all of the injuries we've had, suspensions,
all this kind of stuff. We've really tested the
depths of this team, and we won a trophy with
that, which is incredible. But I think, you know,
the League's Cup is a competition that kind of
appears out of thin air every year, right? And
then it kind of vanishes, right? And we won it
and we made it. I think we gave to that competition
kind of the best energy that it may receive for
a long time based on the circumstantial factors
of us hosting, us making it. it being against
messy packing the house. I mean, is there a better
atmosphere in major league soccer than a packed
Lumen field? I don't think so. So we kind of
gave it all the juice that we could, and that's
amazing. And that's going to be like you guys
are saying, I mean, that's going to be a great
memory. One that we're going to be, you know,
we're hardly going to forget for the rest of
our lives. Right. But I do think that given that,
the main prize every MLS season is MLS Cup. If
we don't make a genuine, concerted, real push
to it, I mean, I think it's honestly, we need
to make it to MLS Cup and then see how that game
plays out. I mean, and if we don't get over that
hump, I'm going to be disappointed. And maybe
you can point fingers at... Maybe not signing
somebody who could have helped us in the stretch
towards the playoffs from the summer. Maybe it's
Brian Schmetzer. Maybe his tactics are off. Maybe
it's the players not caring. Whatever it might
be that eventually takes us out if that happens.
Or maybe we just get beat by a better team. I
don't think that there's a team capable of being
truly better than we are at this point. I'm going
to be super disappointed. And I think that as
a whole, the season will be, it'll be again,
another kind of failure, not a fake. I mean,
this is so hard to say like success failure.
It'll just be gravely disappointing, but I, I
don't think it'll be like, Oh, okay. Now we got
to fire everybody or anything like that. It'll
just be. extremely disappointing which you know
as a seattle fan that's you get used to it but
you know that season of what f's what could have
been i mean but the sounders are you know that's
our that's seattle's golden child right now you
know for men's professional sports in this country
so i think that you know yeah i'll i'll be disappointed
and i will feel like there was something left
on the table there that's a good answer i think
i'd be disappointed too but uh Getting the trophy
in the way that we did it is going to keep me
high for a long time. Yes. So with that, any
last words, any parting words that y 'all got?
I got to go feed Cameron, so I need to go let
him out of his basement. You need to get him
some chicken noodle soup. All right. Well, everybody
out there listening, thank you. Join the Patreon.
It's cool. And if you don't want to do that,
come check out the Discord. Come chat with us.
It's a lot of fun. And we're expanding the Discord.
We now have, you know, we talk about other things
besides the Sounders, too. There's a lot of just
Seattle sports going on in there. So come check
it out. I'm going to feed Cameron, and we will
talk to you all after we beat LAG. You'll never
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at Lumen and go Sounders. Alexa, who's the best
MLS team of all time? The Seattle Sounders are
both unequipped and they're arguably the best
MLS team of all time.