He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say he's cheating. Hello and welcome to
another episode of Sounders Scuttlebutt. I'm
your host Cameron Collins. I am here with my
co -host Nicholas Biella. What's going on everybody?
Welcome to a special edition of Sounders Scuttlebutt.
We are live post -game after the Cascadia Derby
against the Portland Timbers. We've got the Ultras
here with us. You want to all introduce yourselves?
Yeah, please do. Yeah, Alex. Dan, and I guess
that's what it feels like to be Portland at home.
And Cedar here. Yeah, it feels pretty good. What
is up, Cedar? Welcome to Seattle. You are here
in person right now. I'm here. I made the trip
up from the Bay Area, and I'm glad I came up,
especially for that game. That was a nice reward.
Yeah, absolutely. It's good to see you in person
instead of across a computer screen, sometimes
with mad sirens going on outside. apartment in
san francisco yeah that's san francisco for you
yeah it's great to meet all you guys in person
hang out you know chant and sing and ecs together
and yeah we had a blast yeah it's been good and
actually i think about it all three of you traveled
to be here which is probably why we always record
online where i mean san francisco obviously the
furthest but yakima and olympia right so oh tacoma
i thought you why did i think you were olympia
i don't know it's it's tacoma still uh you know
far Especially with traffic. I think Dan moved
to Olympia at this point. Yeah. Maybe it's because
you work adjacent to things that happen at Olympia.
Yeah, I work in Olympia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
we're short on mics here, so make sure you grab
mics, pass them back and forth. And I'm going
to hand it off to Nicholas to talk about. Do
we have any scuttlebutt beyond them being here?
I mean, yeah, we have a lot of scuttlebutt going
on, including we have some special guests here
today that since this is an audio only format
today, we are being recorded right now as we
as we speak. Copa 90 has been here doing some
special stuff today. So welcome to our Copa 90
guests. Just kind of highlighting Seattle and
as we get ready for the World Cup. This week
has been big with the World Cup. Did anyone get
into the Visa lottery? Anyone win? Anyone? Does
anyone know someone who's won? I signed up, but
I haven't even seen an email if I won or not.
I do not know anyone that's been chosen. Anyone
else in the room? Anyone? Oh, we got one! The
one, the one. Okay, well, congratulations there.
All right. There will be plenty of chances. We'll
talk plenty about that going forward. Yeah, I
mean, I was sad. I didn't get chosen for that.
I didn't get chosen for ALCS tickets, if the
Mariners make it. But after tonight's loss, who
knows? But we do have that chance, the right
to buy for one match in Seattle because of the
Club World Cup ticket. participation we did and
so hopefully still we can get that uh usa match
although five hundred dollars a ticket might
be a little cost prohibitive if we're stuck with
the top two tiers well yeah that's that's category
three and four or i'm sorry one and two uh i
think 180 for for basically the upper deck uh
the category four is an absolute joke where it's
literally maybe 500 seats the the top you know
half of one section it's it's a joke but I digress.
Some other scuttlebutts have been going on. Obed
Vargas played another full 90 today for the U
-20s World Cup for Mexico. Mexico beat Morocco
1 -0. So they advanced to the knockout ground.
I think they're playing Chile. I think that's
who they're playing, but I'm not entirely sure
on that. And then Reed Baker Whiting has gotten
some time, some significant minutes with USA.
So hopefully both of them can continue to shine
and move on to the knockout rounds and, you know,
put that bid up a little higher. What do you
guys think? Have you been watching any of those
games? Yeah. $10 million for Vargas now? Is that
where we're at? I heard it should be $25 at this
point. I'd take it. We could sign two more Pedro
de la Vegas with that money. If we had two more
Pedro de la Vegas, we may never lose a game again.
If the new Pedro's are allowed to be on the field
and Coach Schmetzer decides to play them. Well,
maybe if we have three of them, we can get 90
minutes out of all three. Yeah. Why don't we
jump straight into the game here? Because I know
our special guests have to depart eventually.
So we should talk some Derby. This is the first
time that Seattle's beat Portland at home since...
2017. Since 2017. Dan, I don't think you even
lived in the state then, did you? No. No, I think
I was in Wichita Falls or some god -awful place
like that in 2017. Yeah, that's wild. And, oh,
Cedar, you had probably already moved by then,
but barely. Yeah, I've been in the Bay Area for
over a decade now. So, yeah, no, it's been a
long, long time. I'm glad I got to be here in
person for this win. I mean, my daughter wasn't
even born at that point. And although today was
today was fun. Today was her first. She's five
years old, turned six next month. And today was
her first F -bomb and her first middle finger.
Neither of them were prompted by me. She just
kind of went with the flow because she is very
much. She belongs in the supporters section.
She's very much in ECS, so I'm pretty proud of
her. Cameron, you took a great photo. Thank you.
I can't wait to share that with my family. So
are we going to get a Ref You Suck chant from
her next week? I think she already knows that.
Yeah, she probably knows that. Pretty sure I
started this Ref You Suck chant, just for the
record. So why don't we talk about this match?
Let's get right into it because, like we said,
the Sounders had not won at home versus Portland
since 2017, which did that include 2018 playoff
loss at home, right? Technically, that was a
draw because it did go to extra time and then
penalties, but that was a draw. Right, that's
right. That was a draw in the final kick of...
Ozzy's Sounders career, right? He missed a penalty,
sadly. He and Will Bruin, I think, missed the
two in that. Man, two Sounder greats who had
a rough ending. Will may have been around another
year after that. But yeah, I mean, this was huge.
I actually had watched a video I was in where
I had said Caleb Porter has the most punchable
face in the history of the MLS after that match.
But the good news is he's no longer an MLS, so
scuttlebutt there. So you don't have to worry
about that anymore. That's true. New England
has fired him. Somehow he's no longer able to
fail up like he has his entire career, but you
expect that from someone who coached Portland.
This is a great time to be a Seattle fan. We've
been in kind of free fall after the... after
the League's Cup, correct? We were awesome after
the Club World Cup. This is our first win after
four straight without a win. What do you think
was the difference in this match, Alex, versus
other matches that the Sounders have been playing
lately? Was there a starter who was on the field
who I told everyone was going to score a goal
today that was different than all the other matches
where we haven't played well? All you've got
to say is Pedro. That's right. The originator
of the Free Pedro movement right here, Alex Diaz.
Alex Diaz played for the Mariners, so I get to
mispronounce your last name like his name, Alex
Diaz. No, because we're winners over here. Yeah,
but we will say, like I told you, I told Pedro
all about it at the Rave Gala, and so he knows
all about the Free Pedro movement, and either
him or his social media team responds on Instagram
whenever we post Free Pedro. And once I saw Pedro,
Pedro starting, I was like, okay, we're going
to win 3 -1. We won 1 -0, but we'll take a win.
And I picked Pedro to score. Yeah. I'm like,
enough said. I think I said 2 -1 with Pedro scoring.
Pedro might drop. Yep. I mean, that's the difference
in this game. Cedar, what else did you see besides
Pedro? I mean, we had Rothrock and Ferreira starting
up top. And Rusnak dropped back to that number
six position. And that was a place we used to
see him with. Russ snack with that back there
with I think Obed at times and he was able to
play that a little differently since He had a
veteran next to him in Christian yeah, absolutely
and from what I saw you know with flags in my
face and you know getting to getting to see glimpses
and You know focusing on the words of all the
chants and everything mess this up It just felt
like What we saw on the field was the same kind
of energy and intensity and every single player
getting up for this match like they did for the
League's Cup final. And that kind of energy felt
like it had been missing from the past few games.
And the results were... Kind of mirroring that.
So that was really nice to see. Before I give
the mic over here to Mr. I look at the bright
side of everything and I have nothing but positive
things to say about the Sounders and that everything
is fine. Do you think that the doom and gloom
is over because we're actually playing Pedro?
Or do you think we have more doom and gloom to
come? I mean, I don't know. I think we have some
interesting challenges because we've got... Rusnack
is going to be out. We'll probably talk about
the red card later, but he's going to be out.
We've got Obed at the U -20 World Cup, right?
Keep going. That's two of our midfielders. Keep
going. Snyder Brunel, right? He got called up.
Who else we got, right? Christian Roldan. Yeah,
Christian Roldan. That's poor. He's at USA. Oh,
yeah, that's right. Jeez, it just keeps going
and going. So who do we have left? So we got
Jalpaulo. Who do we have left? And we've got...
Danny Leyva. Yeah. That is our midfield for the
RSL game. Well, you know, Jackson Reagan, he
grew up playing midfielder, so why don't we move
him up a line, you know? I think it's more likely
that we'll probably see Jesus drop down. It'll
depend on Kihei, because remember, Kihei left
at halftime with an injured tight calf, so if
we're down another defender with Yamar still
out, oh my goodness. So that means you put Snyder...
No, I'm sorry. John Bell will go back over, so
I'll be there. Can Rothrock play in the midfield?
So we're going to take a quick break so that
we can de -mic on the video side, and then we'll
just hop back in. Hey, everybody. This is one
of your hosts, Cameron Collins. Now, I know we
said this time's time for a break. But really,
it's a time for me to talk to you about our corporate
overlords. And our corporate overlords are us.
That's right. We would love it if you would head
on over to patreon .com and look for Sounders
Scuttlebutt Podcast. We will put the link here
in the show. And subscribe. You can subscribe
for as little as $1 .74. a month now what will
that get you well i'll 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
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You even get a cool little downloadable membership
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Podcast over at patreon .com, P -A -T -R -E -O
-N dot C -O -M. Now back to your regularly scheduled
programming. And we're back. Again, big thanks
to Copa90 for hopping in and doing some really
cool stuff. Can't wait to see final product there.
What are we all drinking now that we're kind
of, you know, getting back into this? So why
don't we go around the room? I'm starting with
you, Cedar. Moonshine. Wow, that's some strong
stuff. For celebratory occasions. No, I'm drinking
water. I was going to say gasoline because we're
building a bonfire, but, yeah, water because
our waiter is nowhere to be found. Well, we did
shut the door. So, yeah, no, the service has
been outstanding here. So the door is just shut.
I am drinking the tears of Portland's fans. And
I'm drinking a cider, which is laced with the
tears of Portland's fans and their coach. Was
it Phil Neville? Which Neville is their coach?
Phil Neville. Phil Neville, who was crying as
he came off the field and got into it. I thought
it was with the little kid, but apparently the
guy behind the little kid is who he was fighting
with. But what? You know, this always has the
explicit tag. What a fucking dick. What are you
doing going out and arguing and getting the face
of fans while you're walking off the field and
being like, meh, meh, meh, meh? Crash outfield.
I mean, you know, could be worse. Could have
threw a ball at him. I mean, he could have spit
at him. That's also true. That's also true. I
mean, I remember last year he celebrated a day
in time like it was the World Cup final. So,
I mean, that just shows you how much ahead Seattle
is to Portland. When you're Portland, what do
you get to celebrate? The COVID tournament. Yeah.
You know, I just don't trust a soccer coach who's
Phil Neville's age wearing an oversized hoodie.
You know, our coach, he dresses for the occasion.
A lovely suit with a sweater underneath. I will
not have this Bill Belichick slander. I mean,
to be fair, I guarantee you if Dan or I were
a coach, we would be wearing an oversized hoodie.
We would not be wearing a suit. Maybe Phil Neville
has a 20 -year -old girlfriend who's doing the
behind -the -scenes stuff, maybe. We're just
going to drop that. I am watching that with great...
just as an outsider that does not care. You wish
that was you, huh? No. He does not, but you're
also a Bills fan, so you relish in the failure
of anything related to the Patriots, I imagine,
much like we do in Seattle. Yeah, pretty much.
Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, you know, Kronk is
cool. I'll give Kronk a pass, but for the most
part. And I also like that Aaron Hernandez guy.
He was... Oh, whoa. Pause. Wait, wait, wait,
wait. Did I miss something? Is he not cool? Is
he not cool? He's the Jeffrey Epstein of the
NFL. You mean he's well hung? That's funny because
Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself. But, I mean,
he may not have done it, but he was still hung.
So, yeah. But, yeah, I mean... We have some scuttlebutt
real quick that we should get to before we get
back. Now that we've all talked about our drinks,
like we'd like to talk about before we get back
into the game. And I just wanted to say what
a great Chelsea match today against Liverpool.
Two to one victory, late win in a match where
it felt like Chelsea should have won anyways.
And it felt like this is going to be the same
old Chelsea. They're going to blow this. And
then it was Esteval scored 89th minute or something
like that. Late goal put Chelsea ahead two to
one. So that was super fun. I feel like this
is going to be just kind of a little bit of a
disjointed episode. We're just going to kind
of keep getting little freeze cuts. It'll be
like memento, you know, all backwards and that.
And so, yeah, let's talk about the match a little
bit. Pedro scores 16 minutes into the game, 16
minutes in. Just looked really, you know, looked
really good there. What did you guys see? Dan,
what were your thoughts? So once I got out of
the game, I watched the highlights because it
was at the goal away from me. And dear Lord,
that was a great shot. Just the whole buildup
to the play with we're pouring more Portland
tears into our cups. Give us just a sec. Hope
that sound comes through. That is the live sound
of Portland tears. It does. The incredible taste
of unfathomable sadness. You just love it. I
saw so many Portland fans going to the game,
and they were super nice. I mean, all of them
was really nice. Before the game, after the game,
I couldn't get a single one to talk to me, so
I don't know what the deal is. It's okay. They
don't want pity. No pity. Fuck the Timbers. My
favorite thing is they call themselves Soccer
City USA, right? Yeah, so on their stadium it
has the initials SCUSA. Excuse me. Good times,
good times. You know, so after we scored that
first goal, it felt like... Felt like we were
in control for most of the game. I mean, the
only thing for me, it just felt like Portland
had no possession with purpose. Their chances
where they looked even potentially dangerous
seemed to be coming off of quick transition moments.
But for the most part, I thought that they were
really toothless. And then the times that they
did have possession, not possession with purpose,
but the times that they did have shots on goal,
Fry stood on his head and did magic, and he looks
like he is fully back. In fact, I think I personally
thought he was the player of the game because
it could have been 2 -1 Portland if it hadn't
been for Fry just being the GOAT. Yeah, I think
the expected goals were not very favorable with
Portland. You know, foot mob only has them as
a .57. Frye did make that really great save with
his strong hand there. I mean, maybe the shot
was from outside the box, but that was not easy.
Matter of fact, I don't think that shot was from
outside the box. It was just a weird... It was
just kind of from a weird angle, but it was going
in. Oh, 100%. It was going in, and Frye was completely
horizontal when he saved it. Yeah, and that's
where sometimes the expected goals don't always
match up with the eye test. Because that in itself
should have been, you know, a .57 at least from
what I saw. Just great save from Fry there. Cedar,
was this your first time in ECS? No, it was my
second time. I had come up here a couple of years
ago for a regular season. Oh, the Minnesota game,
right? Yes, Minnesota. Rusnak had the winner
in that one. This was 2023, April of 2023, I
want to say. Yeah, that's the other time I've
been at UCS. It's always fun. You can probably
hear my voice is a little dead right now because
I was singing my ass off, and it was worth it.
Yeah. It was fun. It was super fun. And my voice
goes up an octave. Yeah. Yeah. As I hit puberty.
But, no, that's one of the things about ECS is
you get that energy, but sometimes you need to
re -watch the game to really kind of see what
happened. Definitely, definitely. But, you know,
especially for a match like that against the
Timbers, you've got to bring the energy, and
it feels like we did. So, yeah, I'll be happy
to watch the replay. Admittedly, the ECS crowd
was great today. Like, I did not hear. Portland
do their alphabet chant all night? I will say
that sitting on the 45 -yard line, they were
really loud and they were going strong. I could
hear Portland really well. So credit to their
fans for bringing it, but didn't help their team
win. I imagine it's hard to root for that team
when Merritt Paulson is your owner. We are so
lucky. I know we have our quibbles with our management
sometimes. At least it's not like what Portland
has to deal with because, oh, my goodness. Just
shooting some accusatory glances across the room
right here while you say that, you know. But,
yeah, it would suck to be in their situation
where, you know, you love a team, you care deeply,
and they just fail you. Oh, wait, we're Mariners
fans. We know that feeling. I don't think we're
all Mariners fans. We're all about the Saunders
here. Wow, that's getting awkward. I will say,
seeing some of these Timbers fans, a lot of them
are also Mariners fans because that's the closest
MLB team. And it just made me feel weird. I felt
like, how do I put... Yeah, I mean, we were literally
at a bar where there was Sounders and Timbers
fans watching the Mariners together, rooting
for the Mariners. I don't know how I can put...
How do I feel about a person like that? Because,
I mean, to be a Mariners fan, that's like trauma
bonding right there with other Mariners fans,
100%. And then it's also the worst person you
could possibly think of. So it's like, it's really,
really strange. I mean, my Timbers fans' friends
aren't listening, so I'll agree with you. If
you are listening, I love you. No, you don't.
He's lying. Well, it's kind of like how the people
in Seattle that support the Trailblazers. Like
me. I root for the Trailblazers because there
was never a real rivalry with the Trailblazers
and the Sonics. They were never both good at
the same time. And also, black and red is pretty
dope colors. I mean, yeah, I'll give you that.
The colors are pretty dope. The team, not so
much. I mean, every team in the 90s changed their
color scheme to black and red. Yeah, it's not
that good of a color scheme. Says the guy who
took me to see LeBron James play at Portland.
So he clearly likes Portland to a degree because
we saw LeBron, the GOAT. Did he even play like
20 minutes? Yeah, he played the whole game. This
was before. Was this at, oh, at Cleveland. Yeah.
It's Cleveland. Yeah, so he played. He had an
incredible dunk over Nurkic. Yeah, I mean, that
game was cool because that was kind of my first
exposure to Dame. dame lillard as well uh funny
enough uh actually scuttlebutt listener eric
was one of the one of the four people in that
car uh so it was me cameron eric and and one
other um and and that was just a that was just
a really fun day we uh i believe i pissed on
providence park Didn't I? Because I really had
to pee afterwards. I mean, wait. I might have
split by that point since I was living part -time
in Portland. Allegedly. Allegedly. I believe
some liquid might have left my body. They weren't
tears. You might be really part of Portland at
that point. Well, I was relieved to do so. Is
that like pissing on the Alamo? Is that kind
of like the same thing? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, when you got a long drive home, you
got to find a spot to go and there just wasn't
anywhere except for... Well, I mean, you're like
driving, you're like, look, there's a huge toilet
right there. Yeah, it was a public urinal. I
mean, that's the amazing thing because the McDonald's
across the street is like the grossest McDonald's.
One time I was in there at like six o 'clock
in the morning and this woman said she was going
to smash her gonorrhea fingers into the ketchup
if they didn't fix her order. And yet... That's
a cleaner place to be than the stadium. What's
crazy is that I remember going to Dave Buster's
and I went like the full yard outside. And then
the Uber guy gave me like a soda. He's like,
here you go. You need this more than I do. I
want you all to just picture someone. Telling
you they're going to smash their gonorrhea fingers.
I don't want to picture that. Picture it. No.
Picture what gonorrhea fingers look like. No.
And stop. Just stop right there. Just stop. Take
his mic away. He's done for the day. You're done.
Yeah. There's a reason why during the watch parties
for the Sounders, we often had to cut off Nicholas's
mic. All before the match started, right? No,
all the time. At least once a game, he would
say something inappropriate. And, you know, we
had visitors calling in or watching from like
Uruguay. I think we had someone from China one
time. And Seattle's best and brightest were out
here saying stuff. They were getting their mics
turned off. Well, this is why he started. He
joined his own podcast. So he can say whatever
he wants. He can say whatever he wants as long
as I don't have the controls like I do today.
Yeah, there's the there's very much. So anytime
you hear anyone go and muted, that was that was
a fairly regular and muted. But, you know, here's
the thing, though. It was never graphic. It was
just always I would always just kind of see how
close to that edge I can get. I don't know, gonorrhea
finger seems pretty graphic. Now, I would imagine
that it would look like a green circle with a
white axe in the middle, though. Now, we're having
fun here, and we're talking about everything
that we like to say about Portland, but I will
say, can you take salt and straw back? Because
every single neighborhood has three salt and
straws, like they're fucking Starbucks now, and
I like salt and straw, but I've had enough. Do
not besmirch the best ice cream flavor in existence,
which is their pot of gold, where they take Lucky
Charms cereal and they steep it in their ice
cream base. So the ice cream base is like the
cereal milk. And then they put the... marshmallows
in the ice cream when the ice cream is there.
It is great, but it's only a limited time thing,
so I will shamelessly plug that one. That sounds
good. It does sound pretty good. Let's get back
to the match, though, because it is after midnight,
and I'm sure there's not just people in this
room, but servers and other people who want to
sleep eventually. We're at a 24 -hour restaurant,
so that's not going to happen, but... Be careful
because if we feed them, they're going to turn
into gremlins. You know what is not a limited
time? Cookies and cream ice cream. I'll be a
gremlin for that. There we go. Gotcha. Gotcha.
So I'd say that takes us to halftime, what we
were talking about. And then it comes up the
second half. The Sounders were struggling just
a little bit. It seemed like although Portland
wasn't putting together great possession, they
kept having breakaways that would allow them
not one -on -ones with Fry, but at least one
-on -one with a defender. who beasted up at the
beginning of that game and just looked awesome,
continued to do so in the second half when he
was, you know, breaking down those, those, those
runs and staying on the people. And we saw Christian
do some great things because early on he gave
the ball away in dangerous spots, I think three
different times. And then he made someone right
after that and it was incredible, but there,
there was a little rough out there to start the
second half. Were you afraid Cedar that we were
not going to be able to hang on at that point?
At the start of the second half? Yeah, just throughout
the first 15 minutes or so. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't
afraid. I was still pretty confident. But you
could definitely see Portland get their moments.
And like you were saying, all the transition
moments that they had did seem like halfway dangerous
to kind of dangerous. And I wonder if that's...
maybe the byproduct of not having a guy like
Obed out there who is really, really good of
just making himself, like, glue to the opposition
in the midfield. And, you know, Resnick hasn't
played. I mean, he was running, like, wild. Oh,
totally, totally. He was a wild man. No, totally,
totally. This is not to besmirch his performance,
right? But he's, you know, he was being asked
to do something that he hasn't done in a few
years. There's still got to be a little bit of
a learning curve there. Our waiter at this place,
he has the nicest, deepest, smoothest voice,
Joe. How could you not? His voice is incredible.
I kind of wanted to get him back on. Can we get
a ghost sounder from this guy? If we haven't
mentioned, shout out 13 Coins. I think we've
said... We're at a restaurant, but we haven't
said where we are. We're at 13 Coins. Shout out
13 Coins. They've always been good to me and
to the Seattle Superhawks, who I work for. So
they were super awesome to give us some space
tonight to be able to record this podcast and
coming down here and supporting a local restaurant.
And they're open late night, which is not something
you find in Seattle elsewhere. So definitely
support them here. And their waiters have some
of the deepest, smoothest voices we've ever heard.
Get weak in the knees every time he walks in
the room. I mean, we are going 13 coins after
dark. I mean, I'll try to get him back on the
mic when he has to come close out my tab. Daddy
Dan paid for all of us. Oh, I'm sorry. That didn't
get picked up by the microphone. So I heard you
say thank you so much for taking care of us.
Yeah, it's all good as long as everybody Venmo's
me before my wife sees the transaction. Which
one? Which wife? No, he's back. And here's our
guest of honor. Joe, can we get a Go Sounders
from you? Go Sounders. There we go. Yes. Yeah,
the champion. When you come to 13 Coins, ask
for Joe. That's right. So, yeah, Cedar, we were
second half. A little bit of struggle there,
but we held it together. We held it together.
I mean, these guys put in a really great performance.
I mean, yeah, shit's going to happen. We're going
to give away some possession here and there.
But, I mean, when I was really, you know, clenching
was near the end. It was getting a little touch
and go. But yeah, I mean, the ref certainly wasn't
helping us out with that. I'm trying really hard
not to hand Nicholas the mic because we're going
to have to mute him. Oh, there's a scream upstairs.
Oh, my goodness. Well, lock the door. We're going
to go into we should go into like lockdown mode.
Well, when you're a teacher in school. To quote
Inglourious Basterds, I fight in no goddamn basement,
so we better get the hell out of here. This is
such a fun episode. You know what? As much as
we're just kind of talking about the game because
we keep having all these amazing interruptions,
let's just say that we are happy to be here with
all of you listeners and celebrate with one another
a fantastic one -nothing win. It just feels so
special to finally have won at home for the first
time in quite some time, it feels like. When
was their last win at home? Was it during the
final against Miami? I think that's right. So
it feels like a long time ago, considering where
we've been. So let's get to the red card. Real
fast, before we get to the red card, I just wanted
to say that my biggest takeaway from the game
was the fact that we were able to withstand a
lot of pressure there at the end, a lot of those
breaks, and there was a feeling throughout the
entire crowd, at least the people sitting around
me, like, okay, one of these breaks is going
to turn into a goal, and we're going to go down,
and they're going to equalize, and they didn't,
and that gives me a little bit of hope for the
playoffs, too, because we're going to have to
play some tough games in the playoffs, and it
was good to see us getting back to our ways from
last year of just being able to hold on to that
that lead real quick then the nice thing I will
say too is we would take their breaks and then
counter and then almost created goals at the
end several times and so it was it was uh amazing
to see the Sounders have the ability to do that
because we see them move the ball but to turn
around that quickly and then turn it into almost
scoring goals was fantastic my biggest takeaway
is that if this doesn't show to you that Pedro
is our most influential DP then I don't know
what is. Like, the difference maker today was
Pedro. We had Jordan and Rusnak playing multiple
games in the past, and we didn't get the result.
Pedro starts today, and we get the three points.
He was our difference maker today, even though
he didn't go the full 90. I mean, yeah, he offensively,
definitely. Christian Roldan was just everywhere.
He was amazing. Just up and down, making some
really good plays. I found it really interesting
to see Albert in that 8 role that Obed was playing.
And I'm a little bummed that we're not going
to see that next week against RSL. Just because
we have so much offensive firepower between Paul
Rothrock, Jesus Ferreira, Pedro de la Vega, Jordan
Morris up top. Having Christian and Albert...
As more attacking options, I am frankly surprised
we only got one goal today. Portland's definitely
upped their defense from previous years for sure,
but I thought we had some good opportunities
to get more than one goal. But most importantly,
let's just appreciate the fact that we got a
clean sheet. Clean sheets are always good, and
this is the time of year to just keep that going.
You know, I think I've been on the we need to
start Thomas hype train, but I will say that
Fry had a great game today and that he proved
why he is the starter, and I have no arguments
against him. He had a great game, and I will
give him his flowers today. I'm going to tell
you straight up that there's... Yes, people are
going to have preferences between Fry and Thomas,
but there's no world in which you can convince
me that... putting one over the other is going
to... And the tears have overflowed. Wow. Yeah,
I just don't see a world in which one over the
other is going to net us a better record. I just,
I think it may be a situation where, oh, And
this is all hypothetical. We'll never actually
know the answer to this. But I just don't see
like, oh, like Fry makes that save. Okay, that
gives us that 1 -0 win. But maybe, you know,
Thomas makes the save where Fry made a mistake
a couple weeks ago. You know, so I just, I think
we're fine no matter which goalie we have. And
because of that, I just can't, I feel like Steph's
got to be our starter throughout the season and
the playoffs. So I hope everybody's sitting down
for this, but Nicholas, I agree with you. Oh,
my God. Completely. I think Thomas is a better
athlete right now. I think Fry has better game
knowledge and management, and I don't think choosing
one over the other is going to change the outcome
of the games. Yeah, the only exception would
be if we knew ahead of time that it was going
to go to penalties, but I don't think it's worth
putting him in. before penalties and switching
goalies in the middle of a game. You ride the
hand you're with. Let's talk about that red card.
What red card? There was a red card? Yeah, Rusnak's
red card that when he took the Portland player
down from behind, he was on a breakaway, got
a red card, which is the whole reason why we're
not going to have him next week. I didn't see
a red card. That's the only red card I remember.
Yeah, I didn't see a red card. I didn't see anything
foul play. I just saw the Sounders taking a chunk
of someone's ankle. I saw a professional foul
that had to be made because no one else was going
to make it deeper down the field. Yeah, I mean,
but it did result in a red. And like we said,
it means that next week the Sounders have, what,
usually they have played four, three. Players
in the midfield, like the mid -midfield, we'll
say, not counting wearers. And they are left
with, what, four players for those three spots?
Or is it three players for those three spots?
Two players for the three spots? Oh, my God.
We literally only have Danny Leyva and Jao Paulo.
Which, by the way, shout out to Jao Paulo for
getting his first minutes back from injury. It's
just so good to see him back on the field again.
Definitely really happy about that. But he's
not 90 minutes fit. Why don't we call up former
Ballard FC player Peter Kingston? Or we could
call up, we were talking about this on the way
over, Dan. What if we called up you and put him
at center attacking mid? Me? You want me at CDM?
I'll play goalie, but I won't play CDM. Didn't
Smets play midfield back in his playing days?
Let's get him on the field. He is on the team.
I like the way you're thinking. Can Rothrock
play midfield? Honestly, it's probably Jesus
Ferreira doing what Albert was doing. I don't
think you're going to put Pedro back there. I
don't think. No. I don't know who's the most
defensive. You know what? This is a Brian problem.
Yeah, that's going to be fun. Now, here's the
good news. The good news is we have two games
to go. We're currently fifth in the table in
the Western Conference. LAFC is four points ahead
of us with two games in hand. So let's just stop
ourselves right there from doing hypotheticals.
Vancouver. is uncatchable we can't catch third
but sixth place is Austin they are five points
behind us with same number of games Portland
is five points behind us but they only have one
game left so they can't catch us so realistically
we're pretty much locked into that five spots
so if Alex or sorry if Albert's going to be out
for a game you know this is probably the best
case scenario get get him a chance to get some
rest i guess yeah i think i agree with that i
mean we um we really don't i think the question
is who's gonna end up who are we gonna have to
go play at first and uh my guess is it's gonna
be vancouver or minnesota because lafc has those
two games in hand and they seem unstoppable once
since they brought in i mean sun and buonga together
is sick but Four straight wins. Wow. Four goals
and three of them and three goals on the other.
So they are pretty unstoppable. But, yeah, I
mean, in the end, yeah, the red card happened.
It was late. But Sounders came away victorious.
I think Moose had a few chances to score. You
want to talk about that LAFC real quick? Yeah,
I just want to kind of point out just how dominant
that pairing has been to start. Their last four
games, they've scored four goals, four goals,
four goals, and three. In LAFC versus San Jose,
Buonga got a hat trick and Sun got a goal. So
they were responsible for all four goals. Salt
Lake, four to one. Sun got the hat trick and
Buonga got the goal. So between that, they both
got four goals. Then RSL again, Buonga got three.
Sun got one. And then against St. Louis this
week, Sun got two, Bwonga got one. So all of
their goals in their last four games have come.
So that's what, four, eight, 12, 15 goals have
come between those two players in the last four
games. You mean a summer signing can have a positive
impact on a team? Don't you agree on that? a
summer signing that we literally had no mechanism
to bring in so let's let's not yeah would yes
that summer signing is it's a great signing it's
looking great he's also he's a he's a world -class
player okay period let's not go there it's why
when we were linked to drogba i was like i don't
care when we bring him in Bring him in. And then
it was too late eventually. But there's certain
players that you know are going to come in and
dominate. And it's players of that caliber, world
-class players. Most players don't have that
impact, as we saw most of the players that got
signed this summer. They might have a little
playoff impact, but they didn't have big games
down the stretch. Son of Blanca together, I mean,
you didn't go into assists on those where they
had some assists on each other's goals, too.
So if you talk about total goal contributions,
it's more than 15. So it's pretty crazy. Wait,
so Drogba was linked to the Saunders? Oh, at
one point, there was, you know, when the rumor
mill goes crazy, Drogba was linked to us. Torres
was linked to us. There was a lot of crazy rumors
at one point, but, you know, those things didn't—
the best player in the league, even though he
lost the MVP to Robbie Keane. He was still fantastic.
What's crazy is that he went to, out of all the
teams he went to, he went to Montreal. Yeah.
Which is crazy to me. Yeah. Yeah, it's the French.
Those wily French. Beat me to it. Beat me to
it. So with that in mind, any final words? Any
last thoughts about tonight? Cameron, why don't
we start with you? Big win. I think it changed
our mentalities a lot, and I think the mentalities
of a lot of the fans just to finally have a win,
and a win against Portland. I know the last episode
we did with the Ultras, we talked ourselves off
the ledge and then proceeded to immediately get
back on it but not record. So that was probably
good because it would have been very negative
episodes. And this makes me feel a little more
positive where... you know, the teams we're going
to play in the playoffs aren't Portland, but
they, if we show up, we can play. We just got
to show up. And this team is still very, very
talented. And so it reminds us how good this
team is, even though they've kind of shat the
bed since the final there against Miami. So for
me, as a collective, this team can play with
anybody. We saw it against Miami. They can play
with LA as a collective, even though they don't
have, two players with the amount of form or
top -level talent, world -class talent as L .A.,
and that's okay. But also for me is we're playing
with house money right now, and if we don't win
another game this year, and this is how the season
ends, we beat Portland and we got a trophy, so
I'm pretty happy, and that's how I feel about
it. I will just say real quick, just keep in
mind that those last four games we talked about,
it's been Salt Lake, Salt Lake twice, San Jose,
St. Louis. So not exactly the top of the league.
We're talking about our games. He was talking
about our games, not LAFC's. Okay, well. I think
the concern was saying that we don't have two
top -end players like Buonga and Son. Yeah. Don't
hate on Pedro. Okay, leave him alone. Like you
guys are saying, I mean, it's nice to win a trophy
against Messi, the Barca boys, and then to also
finally get that monkey offer back and beat Portland
at home. It feels really good. And, you know,
yeah. I mean, do I want us to make a deep run
into the playoffs? Yes, of course. But if that
doesn't come into fruition, then it was still
a great season, and we had some really great
moments. We're definitely not winning the MLS
Fair Play Award, though, that they give out every
year. I mean, all our red cards. I mean, it feels
like every single person on this team has gotten
a red card. That's kind of funny. But, yeah,
great game. Happy to be here. I thought, wasn't
that the whole point? Give racism the red card?
That's that whole campaign they have. This is
why we keep getting it, right? You know, a quick
side note, though. Did they not do the soccer
kicks cancer in September? I don't remember seeing
anything about that this year. They wore the
jersey, the warm -up tops for it. The warming?
The warming? It's after midnight. I'm sleepy.
I have to get up and go to a Taylor Swift movie
tomorrow. Let's wrap it up before we die. Didn't
you say yes to that in the first place? I did.
Let's wrap it up because we're about to lose
all our power here. Hashtag free Pedro. All right,
you know what? Where can we find you all? They're
all on the Discord. That's what they always say.
They no longer give out their internets. I'm
legal -minded punk on everywhere but X because
I'm still banned because of Liverpool fans and
Dick Tracy. And I am cascades to see on Instagram
and you can find me on the discord under Nicholas.
We want to sing build a bonfire, build a bonfire,
put the timbers on the top with the white caps
in the middle. And we'll burn the fucking lot.
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We'll see you at Lumen and go Sounders! Alexa,
who's the best MLS team of all time? The Seattle
Sounders are both unequivocally and incredibly
the best MLS team of all time.