He's a tough kid. All I gotta say is the public
can't say it's cheating. Hello and welcome to
another episode of Sounders Scuttlebutt. I'm
your host, Nicholas Biela. I'm joined by my fellow
host, Cameron Collins. Hello, Cameron. Hey, what's
up, Nick? How you doing? Doing pretty good. It's
been a busy, jam -packed weekend. It sounds like
we're recording on Sunday night, fitting that
in before the chaos of the work week gets to
us. So Aaron, unfortunately, already began his
chaos. He's currently at work right now with
some unexpected business, so he won't be joining
us. But we are coming off of a 0 -0 tie against
Minnesota today, this morning. and we will obviously
be talking about that today. Before we do that,
we've got some stuff to do. We've got some traditions
to get into. I think it's time to crack open
a beverage and talk about some Scuttlebutt. So
why don't you lead us off? Yeah, I wasn't expecting
to have this. I bought it last night after the
Superhawks game, and let me tell you, if you
haven't made it out to a Superhawks game yet,
I highly recommend it. You never know when Nick
might be inside the Superhawk. We have a new
mascot now, like a new person inside the mascot.
And so when his schedule doesn't work out, you
know who we're coming to to be the mascot. We've,
of course, signed Jonte Porter, NBA player who
was banned because he unfortunately made some
dumb bets. bet on his own team i believe uh but
he was 19 young and dumb and he's learned from
that and right now he's trying to get his career
back and he's playing for us and it is so much
fun to watch him uh superhawks are undefeated
so far this season he's been dominating the league
and most importantly if you're listening to this
wednesday or before of the week of this match
so what today's the 22nd so 25th or before on
the night of the 25th, Wednesday, the 25th is
Supersonics night. Gary Payton is there every
game since he's our associate head coach, but
also in the house will be Sam Perkins, Sean Kemp,
and a bunch of other Supersonics. So definitely
going to be a fun night. So if you're a Sonics
fan, I highly recommend coming out to Royal Brome
Pavilion over at SPU on Wednesday night. I believe.
tickets i guess i always am hesitant to say ticket
prices but i forgot we're not on the radio live
right now so i can say actual ticket prices uh
i believe they're either 10 or 15 bucks but it's
worth it correct me if i'm wrong is it not is
that also not coinciding with the mba board of
governors meeting this week that's interesting
actually uh yeah it could be a celebration or
it could be a crazy no right like because because
uh two days so uh I think 23rd and 24th. So Monday,
Tuesday are the NBA Board of Governors meeting
where they will decide not just if they're expanding,
but specifically if they're expanding to Seattle
and Las Vegas. Yeah. It's sounding like franchises
are going to be $9 billion, which is insane.
Not my money. And the other thing is that OKC
has already said they would give up the Sonics
history. You know what? Can we just not talking
about it like that, making it sound like they're
doing us some sort of solid? I understand. But
legally, there has to be contracts drafted up
that give us that history and whatnot. No, I
get it. I get it. But anyways, it's just a little
bit of a sticking point there, making them sound
like they're benevolent. Yeah, that was a long
way of saying that after the game last night
where we dominated, I had a rough day. The broadcast.
wasn't working our computers are broken i ended
up getting a new dongle and it worked but um
i grabbed cider on the way out when i grabbed
dinner at pcc because uh i knew that this morning
i was supposed to be going to a kids uh soccer
match and i thought what's better i grabbed like
a 7 -eleven coffee cup and i was going to pour
the cider in there so it looked like i was drinking
coffee oh the good old brian schmetzer yeah yeah
so uh i was super excited to try that. And then
I ended up just going over and watching the Sounders
instead. But because of that, I have Inclined
Cider House Juicy Peach. And I don't know much
about Inclined. I'm just adding letters to words
today. I think I'm tired. But it's based out
of Oregon. I can read that much. Eugene. Oh.
Well, maybe they aren't Ducks fans. But anyways,
I'm going to open this and I'm excited to drink
it. That's got a good sound to it. There you
go. In the meantime, I'm going to go with my
Sunday night standard on this with a can of Rainier.
Cheers to you, good sir. Oh, I see that 6 .9
there. That's a big boy. Yeah. And it is a big
boy. It's a tall boy. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
I may have some loose lips that are sinking ships
by the end of this episode. Uh -oh. So, one,
yes, to reiterate that I absolutely want to step
in as mascot for a day. That is a big dream of
mine. You know that everyone that knows me knows
that I love mascots and I get incredibly excited
about that. Very animated guy. With that in mind,
pivoting a little bit, it's been a crazy week
of soccer between U .S. Open Cup, Champions League,
coaches getting fired, crazy cock -a -calf after
dark games. Europa League, UEFA Champions League.
Oh, Jesus, yeah. Just what's going on in the
EFL. EFL final. Yeah, I mean, just so much, so
much soccer. And we are under, what, 90 days
away from the World Cup. We've got just a plethora
of things going on. So the full complement of
home and away jerseys for all the national teams
have been announced, to the best of my knowledge,
unless maybe, at least for Nike and Adidas they
have, maybe Pumas and any other subsidiaries.
I don't want to say sub, but any, um, yeah, not,
not Nike Adidas. Um, but to my knowledge, pretty
much all of them have been, uh, done. I actually
picked up two jerseys myself. I had to go with
the USA away kit. Um, I do like that, that stars
sublimated into there, uh, went with a Christian
rolled on number six. then i uh i had to get
a germany away kit as well because i don't like
i like the germany white kits i just don't wear
white kits i i'm gonna stain them i'm gonna mess
them up i feel like on my head's on a swivel
every time i'm wearing one as a dad right the
german kids they're super retro they're like
throwback kits uh these ones are kind of nice
they're this they're this blue with um they remind
me a little bit of our pacific blue jerseys from
a few years ago from 2016 2017 um that kind of
two -tone blue it it looks nice um and i needed
something for when i'm going to see germany play
in toronto so i need it was time for me to update
uh update my germany stuff i may be part german
but i'm also part french and my great uncle great
great uncle raul great uncle raul They lived
in Alsace -Lorraine, and he punched a Nazi in
the – or the other way around. He stood up and
sang La Marseillaise in a Nazi's face, who then
punched him out, and he fell out a window and
landed in a garbage can and was able to get away.
So he went, like, for Casablanca. Yeah. That's
awesome. I didn't identify. I'd just been getting
some French jerseys. So I've been getting – I
got a 1998. World Cup final Zidane long sleeve.
I got a 96 Euro Zidane home, and then I got a
short sleeve home 98 final Thierry Henry. Very
cool. I've been doing the throwbacks. You know,
I actually got a throwback jersey my own last
week. Team out of Ecuador, the BSC. Barcelona
team, Barcelona BSC. And what is special about
them is that in 2003, their sponsor was a local
Ecuador beer company and they were called Biela
Lager. So it turned out it was a Google or eBay
search that I had. I was looking for. tap handle
from biela lager i've never tried the beer i've
never had a chance to find it i've looked for
it um and when i type in biela cerveza this jersey
came out and i'm like oh that is going in my
cart right now but yeah did it come with the
shorts no no no but i did get the electricity
i did i did score on the electricity kit too
the new with tags Paid $89 for it. Had it as
a buy it now for $89, and it came with the shorts
in tags as well. So I've got a mint condition
Sounders Electricity with tags and shorts. Yeah.
You're right. Yellow lager is hard to get. It's
not for sale anywhere, like shipping to the U
.S. So I'll tell you what, if someone can find
me a six pack of Biela lager, we can make a deal.
Single bottle from Ecuador. Well, that's the
thing. I mean, if anyone's going to Ecuador,
Central America, Latin America, South America,
and they can find it, open invitation, I'll make
it worth your while. We'll come up with something.
The review this guy wrote said, Thin malt flavor
with an odd pear fruitiness on the palate. The
mouthfeel is vaguely crisp from a medium carbonation.
Hot bitterness is of small stature and lets the
sweetness take over mostly. Touch of astringent
grain in the finish with an unwanted residual
sweetness. This guy said more about beer in one
paragraph than I have said my entire life as
not a beer drinker. I've had beer. I'm just like,
it tastes good. You know what? It truthfully
doesn't sound like it tastes that good, but that's
not the point. This one says Aromas de Viles
Malta y Cereal. There we go. Malta and cereal,
I assume. Yeah, what are we going to talk about?
Well, I mean, Oscar Pereja got fired. Hell yeah.
Yeah, after six seasons. So can I lay down some
numbers for you? You know I'm a numbers guy.
You know I geek out over that kind of stuff.
So Oscar Pereja was the second longest coach
in MLS behind Brian Schmetzer. So at this point,
can you name... Any of the four longest tenured
coaches in MLS that are behind Brian Schmetzer?
Oh, wow. Here's the crazy thing. Three of the
four, I look at the names and I see when they
started in their current role, and I think of
them still as head coaches at other MLS clubs.
if that's a quote or a clue houston head coach
maybe is that one of them i don't know ben olsen
who formerly did dc united for for ages yeah
um he's been around for a while uh and he's number
five at uh at being hired in 2022 so if we're
doing 2022 uh is one of them the guy up in vancouver
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, because they had
Mark Dos Santos. Then they had another guy, but
no, not Timo Werner. Oh, my God, I can't think
of his name, but last year was his first year.
Okay, so it's only two years. Yeah. So then I'm
trying to think of other teams. I have no idea
how long the Portland coach has been there, but
maybe him. No, no. Pablo Mastroni in RSL. There
you go. There you go. By the way, Jesper Sorensen
is who I was thinking of. Yeah. Pablo Mastroni
was hired in 2021, December 2021, formerly with
Colorado. Yeah. And then... We played one of
them. One of them was our original color analyst
and was... We played against three times in MLS
Cup. Greg Vanney's been at LA that long? Yeah,
2021, January 2021. Wow. Yeah, I thought it was
like two years ago. My brain is breaking. But
number four, actually, I thought was at his current
post the longest, but it was Pat Noonan at FC
Cincinnati. Yeah, he took over and turned them
good, but they haven't been good for that long.
But the point is, though, Brian Schmetzer was
hired in 2016, so he's been head coach double
the amount of time that the next person is. I
think the Minnesota coach was playing for Portland
at that time. That's crazy. I mean, yeah, because
here's the thing. Schmetzer, the gap between
Schmetzer at number one and Greg Vanney at number
two is five years. The gap between the second
longest and the present is five years. So that's
just nuts. I mean, it's just appreciate Schmetzer.
Well, we got him because it really is such a
special story. It's been such a special story,
and I'm just always grateful for having him lead
this club. Is he still the oldest coach, or is
Bruce Arena older now? Oh, Bruce is older. Bruce
is in his 70s. Because Bruce was gone for a little
bit, so I think Schmetzer took that for a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, so... He's at 73, 74 years old. Schmetzer.
No, but then you also have Martino over in Atlanta.
He's 63 and just a few months older than Schmetzer.
But he's also newer. He's newer back into the
league. Yeah. They were both gone for a bit.
And you want to hear something crazy? There are
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. How old are you?
How old am I? 46? Okay, that's what I thought.
Yeah, there's 10 MLS head coaches that are younger
than us. You mean I should be coaching in the
MLS right now? Okay, I'll work on this. I don't
think that's how that works, but, you know. I
mean, it was a trip when... When college players
were suddenly younger than me, now that pro players
are younger than me, it feels very strange. Yeah,
that was always a bummer when you realize you
are now older than every professional athlete
out there. Oh, I mean, I'm still planning on
playing for the Sounders. Well, now that Yarmir
Yager finally announced his retirement. Yeah,
no kidding. He'll be like 60. 54. Jaeger started
in the NHL later than... There are people that
are in the NHL now that weren't even born when
he started in the NHL. Like, what a legend. Yeah,
what a legend. Anyways, the other thing. So,
Champions League. Really want to just kind of
talk a little bit about our upcoming opponent
after taking down Vancouver, that Tigris -Cincinnati
game. Did you watch any of that game? Yeah, it
was a painful, painful watch because let me tell
you, traveling to Cincinnati would have been
a lot nicer than traveling to Tigris. And for
Tigris to continuously come back, get two goals
in the first 10 minutes, get the lead. Give up
a goal to be down on goal differential. Aggregate,
yeah, and away goals in the 65th minute. Yeah,
sorry, away goals, not goal differential. And
then for Cincinnati to give up that goal in the
eighth of nine injury minutes. Yeah. So 98th
minute to give up a goal to fall apart and have
Tigres go through, which meant the Sounders now
have to travel there. So I have a question, though.
Okay. We got six points, and they each got three,
so we should be the home team, but we have to
play on the road first. I figured we would have
the home field advantage. Yeah. Home field advantage
is playing at home second. You want to play home
second because much like what happened with Tigris,
they were down 3 -0, but they had home field
advantage and were able to take it to them in
the second leg. How did we have that over Vancouver
then? Because we were the League's Cup champion.
Oh, okay. Because the home field advantage kicks
in based on points after starting with this round,
with the results of this most recent round. Yeah,
so we got six. That goal from Rothrock was huge.
We would have won anyways, but it became big
for sure. Yeah, the only team that is doing better
than us in the standings is LA Galaxy. Yeah,
which one? LA Galaxy. But we wouldn't play LA
Galaxy until the final if that was the case.
So we would host every round from now on except
for against them? No, they recalculate it after
each round. So we already have six points, so
that's a good start. But yeah, so points will
matter in this. You need a point at Tigris at
least, and then three at home. If you want a
chance to be hosting. Yeah, so the matchups are
going to be Seattle and Tigris, Club America
and Nashville. If we advance, we'd play the winner
of Club America and Nashville. Then, and we won't
even talk about the Nashville -Miami game, where
it was 0 -0 on leg 1, 1 -1 on leg 2. Crazy finish
there, knocking out Miami. Damn shame that was.
LA Galaxy against Toluca, who Toluca is playing
the best team in Liga MX right now. So Galaxy
are in trouble there. And then LAFC versus Cruz
Azul. So right now you've got the final eight,
and each of the four matchups is an MLS versus
Liga MX matchup. So this is... This is a dream
scenario. This is what I love about CCC. I still
want to call it CCL. CCL is so much better. You
know what's interesting is I was thinking as
we went into this format that there were less
teams than back when there was group stages,
and that's not true. Because when there was group
stages, it used to hop directly into the semis.
Or was it the quarterfinals? Either way, there
are more teams now. Cause I think there's 25
currently. Well, well it's different because
of the, they basically have like a major play
in for those final spots. And so it's a little,
it's a little, yeah. Let's go to the CONCACAF
conference teams too. That's the last spot. Yeah.
Their tournament. Yeah. So there, I mean, there's,
there is a lot more going on below it, but we
also just have more teams in it, which is nice.
I like that. Yeah, I would love... So I'll say
this. I'll start with this. If anyone listening
is thinking about it, going to Mexico for a CCC
away match, do it. 100 % do it. There will be
away traveling supporters with Sounders and ECS.
I've done it a couple times. I did it for Club
America, Azteca. I did it for the Champions League
final with Pumas. It's a hell of a trip. And
it looks like there is no problems with Monterey
right now in terms of travel restrictions. Because
we did have some travel restrictions pop up recently
to certain parts of Mexico, like Puerto Vallarta.
That was only like a four -day – they made a
very strong point for people that were paying
close attention. I had friends who were traveling
to Puerto Vallarta three days after the assassination.
I had a friend who was going the next day and
he had to cancel his trip because of it. Yeah.
So, yeah. I mean, it was pretty – Crazy. I mean,
that's what happens when the U .S. meddles in
other countries' affairs, though. Now, I will
say this. I was going to travel to Amsterdam
to see Wyclef perform when I was living in Paris
because there was threats against Americans in
Brussels, and they wouldn't let me on the train
with an American passport because the train was
going to get blown up. And so I missed out on
seeing Wyclef live because of it. Hi, Summerwoodstock99.
You didn't miss much. That would have been the
time to see him. No, he would have been the second
album out by then. That was the Carnival. That
was off the Carnival. 97, I think, was Carnival.
It was at the end of that cycle. But it was weird.
It was a weird performance. Anyways, yeah, that
CCC was crazy this week. Open Cup was interesting.
They were eighth grader scoring in one of the
games. Really? Yeah, eighth grader, like a 14
-year -old kid, scored to get the game winner.
One of the minnows. In fact, the team is named.
The eighth grader, his dad owns the team, and
he got the same name. I can't remember the name
of that, but yeah, just crazy game. And then,
of course, there was the brawl between Sacramento
and whoever they were playing on, someone else
in California, Rio Grande Valley. I can't remember.
Yeah, but it got ugly. It was one of the more
ugly incidents since like up there with red card
wedding level of ugliness. Maybe I'll have to
go back and rewatch it. I just saw the very beginning
of it. Yeah, it sounds like what happened was
hearing conflicting stories, but it sounds like
fans were kicking the wife and child of one of
the players and one of the players hopped over
and it just set off a brawl in the stands at
the end of the game. But it also sounds like
these two teams. No, but as far as notoriety,
this last year, Sacramento Republic played this
team again, and it got really, really ugly. And
so it's just kind of one of those things where
El Toro Lito was the team. And, yeah, just got
ugly. um you never want to see that i hope yeah
i hope it's not um i don't know i hope it's just
not something that becomes a norm uh so yeah
the 40 people no that was just one that was at
sacramento state football game here so we do
have some yeah we do have some other long videos
so they can watch the whole game Oh, Jesus. We
do have some news. So the Sounders did announce
the dates for the Tigris game. Leg 1 will be
on April 8th. That's going to be at Estadio Universitario.
And then Leg 2 will be here at Lumen Field. We'll
have grass. It will be on April 15th. So that
does mean that we're going to have some fixture
congestion. We're going to have, as of right
now, we are going to have games on April 4th,
April 8th, April 12th, April 15th, and April
18th. So that is one, two, three, four, five
games in 14 days. I have a feeling that RSL game,
and I think there are rumors that that RSL game
is going to get moved. Because five games in
14 days, what's that? Four games in 14 days is
still kind of crazy. Yeah, but five is a little
nuts. But the good news is the back half of that
is going to be home games. So we're going to
travel to Houston on the road. We're going to
travel to Mexico City for Tigris. And then we'll
have... At least as of right now, a home game
against Salt Lake, a home game against Tigris,
and a home game against St. Louis. So we'll see
how that shapes up. Speaking of rescheduling,
there was some news that came out this week that
the NFL announced that they plan on playing...
The Seahawks opening game will be on September
9th, Wednesday, September 9th. The only problem
with that is the Sounders are playing Sporting
Kansas City at Lumen Field on September 9th.
And the Mariners play that night. So we'll see
what happens there. I don't know. I don't know
what's going on. Well, frankly, the Sounders
schedule is set. Well, then why can we move RSL?
The NFL is going to have priority over the Sounders.
They're going to move the Sounders match. Unless
they're going to play Safeco, I would be shocked
if they're allowed to. The NFL is going to be
always first on everything. But they don't get
to just take over. So to me, I'd be curious.
Not without a concession. I bet legally they
can't just force it. But Don Garber is from the
NFL. He's going to do whatever they want. Oh,
I'm not saying that it's not going to get moved,
but they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
So I imagine there's going to be some sort of
concession involved here. I'd be curious to find
out more about that. Maybe that might be something
we talk about in the Alliance Council. And if
there is, we'll never know about it publicly.
But I would doubt that. I think they're just
going to be like, we're the NFL. We're taking
it. Yeah, but that's not – they can try. I understand
that. That would be like Pub League telling the
Sounders, oh, we have the stadium tonight. I
don't care if you want to take it. We have it
scheduled. No, they're going to give it to the
Sounders. I understand, but I understand the
order of operations. But if it's already on the
schedule, they're going to have to give some
– it's not just a, oh, out of the goodness of
their heart, we're going to do that. They have
no leg to properly do that. Well, I don't know.
It's that either you play the game another day
or you ain't playing the fucking game. That's
your options. We own the stadium. You don't own
the stadium. We own the stadium. No, the Seahawks
do not own the stadium. That's the thing. The
Seahawks do not own the stadium. I understand
that. They can tell the Sounders to fuck off
at any time they want. There might be something
in the contract that says what happens when they
do, but trust me, there's not going to be anything
that goes on here that is happening. It's just
a question of when the Sounders will play. But
again, what I'm saying is I'm not doubting and
disputing that it would happen. But I am saying
that they don't have a legal reason to do it
without the Sounders agreeing to it. I don't
know. I don't know. But I can't imagine that
there's the, oh, we get the right of first. We
can make you move. I don't think that's how that
works. It's a good question that I would love
to get some insight on. I mean, these are the
kind of questions we'd ask. That's true. I mean,
we're a third or fourth tier. What do you call
it? Revenue. Revenue. Yeah. Yeah. But tenant,
I mean, because Seahawks are obviously first
and then, I mean, so, and then be ahead of us
is conventions and concerts. Yeah. Not dirt bike
rig, but it is conventions and concerts. We've
been able to not play there midweek before because
of dirt. Remember? Yeah, but only because it's
been on the schedule for over a year. Sure. So
that's the same exact reasoning. It's the same
exact reasoning. If she said, I want to do a
concert on this date, they would move us. She
might have to show up wearing a Sounders jersey.
Well, we'll see. I still think that when I told
them, I said, take the Nightfall jersey, grab
Kim Kihei, go down to LA where Blackpink is performing,
and get a photo shoot of them in the jerseys.
It will become the highest selling jersey of
all time. And they didn't listen to me. And what
happened? Blackpink became one of the biggest
bands in the world. K -pop exploded in the US.
Now, with that said, speaking of global soccer,
news came out today that Anton Griezmann is agreeing
to join Orlando City on a free transfer this
summer. Now, do not mistake. Well, this is the
thing is do not mistake this deal getting over
the line coming days after Orlando City fired
Oscar Pereja. I believe these are correlated
because the rumor was they were trying to get
this over the line on this transfer window. He
came out to watch the team and didn't really
like what he saw. Well, there's that too, but
I think I have a feeling that it was a coach.
I think those are related situations, but we
may never know that. I mean, they lost 5 -0 in
one of those games when he was here. So how do
you feel about that? Do you think that moves
the needle for you? I mean, Orlando, as far as
I can tell, and I don't know if it's Pereja or
the management who's bringing in players, it's
surprising they're not very good this year because
I think they've done a really good job of taking
the Sounders model of going down and getting
young South American players and bringing them
up and making them better as a team. which LA
Galaxy has also done. The Sounders apparently
aren't interested in doing it anymore, or it
just can't get moved across the line. But they
took this model that we transformed the MLS with,
and they ran with it and got really fucking good,
just like LA Galaxy did when they won the championship.
So this is a different route for them, but I
think you can't pass up on a player like Griezmann.
Like that's he, he could start for any team in
the league and just look at the five 35. I missed
today. Like he changed, he tilted that field
in a way that you don't see players doing the
MLS. Yeah. I mean the, and I mean, they're both
around the same age, but, um, But I feel like
if you're trying to rely on them as a 90 -minute,
65 -minute starter, that might not be a very
successful path. But for those that are willing
to take that risk, yeah. I mean, Messi's that
old, too. He's fine. Well, we can't know. No,
you know damn well you cannot compare. I mean,
Messi's the GOAT, but Griezmann is still a highly
valuable player in the world. It's not like he's
a nobody now. Yeah. But with that in mind, you
mentioned, you brought up another point that
I kind of wanted to talk about. This came out
earlier this week. You brought up, you know,
you feel like, oh, we're going away from signing
certain types of players and that, which can
be true. But there was a report about long -term
squad management, a global index from the CIES
Football Observatory. I posted this in our Scuttlebutt
Discord. And there was a global ranking of clubs
whose squad management is most focused on the
long -term based on an index combining four key
indicators. The number of players used in league
matches over the last three years, the lower
the better. The average stay of current players
in the first team squad, so longevity within
the squad, the average remaining contract length
of those same players, and the average age at
the time of signing, the lower the better. So
the idea being that if you're signing players
young and they're staying with your squad and
you're getting production out of them, that's
a good sign. So number one on this global list
with a long -term index rating of 100. was Real
Madrid. Number four with an index of 93 .9 were
the Seattle Sounders. Number five, Philadelphia
Union with 93 .5. And that's it for MLS. There
wasn't another MLS team in anywhere near. After
that drop -off of 93 .9, 93 .5, the next highest
ranking was 77 .1 with New York City. So, I mean,
we're talking major differences there. Did you
look into the coefficients and why? Because it
seems like the thing that put us the highest
was that our players' average stay is over three
years. I'll get to that debt in a moment. I'm
going to read off the top 10 because I think
that would be interesting. So you had Real Madrid,
Brentford FC out of England, Athletic Club out
of Spain, Sounders, Philadelphia Union, then
Liverpool, Red Bull Leipzig, Manchester City,
Chelsea, and Real Sociedad out of Spain. Good
stuff, right? Other teams in the top 15 include
Bayern Munich, Everton, Newcastle, Man United,
Arsenal. So even if you're going to argue, oh,
well, we're just gaming the system data -wise,
we're in good company. I think it'd be somewhat
foolish to poo -poo these results. And I think
this also passes the eye test with us building
such a deep roster. Now, to answer your question,
What differentiates us? What things were big?
So now I'm going to focus on the MLS data because
this will allow us to kind of think about it
in comparison with other teams. So players fielded
over three years. In the MLS, we led the MLS
with 28 players fielded. Philadelphia 29, next
highest was Orlando with 35, going to as many
as 59 players from LAFC, 54 players from Minnesota.
So the 28 and 29, seriously outliers. So that
is certainly going to help. The average stay,
how long we've kept players here. Now, we blew
everyone out of the water here, 3 .28 years.
Portland with 2 .21, Cincinnati with 2 .1, and
Vancouver with 2 .0. So five teams with an average
stay of over two years and going as low as Sporting
Kansas City, complete turnaround with 0 .92.
Houston Dynamo, we're going to talk about them
a little later because they are really turning
things around, 1 .14. But then teams you expect
to see with high turnover, Inter -Miami, you
know, Atlanta United down there. I mean, it's
interesting. You have people like Jordan and
Nuhu and Christian that definitely skew it heavily
towards having players. Don't forget Alex Roldan.
You know, Alex Roldan. I mean, even at this point,
obviously, Stephen Fry. Yeah. So we have some
players. For all the young players we brought
up, we have some players that are nearing the
end of their careers. But this is where data
comes into play is that balance. You're balancing
young with old, but you're also keeping people.
um so age at recruitment when what was their
age when we brought them into the league so in
this one we are kind of middle of the pack the
youngest is colorado and 22 .5 with philadelphia
22 .7 going as high as houston dynamo with 27
.3 inner miami 26 .9 atlanta 26 .6 A lot of these
teams that are bringing in players that are paying
for players, LAFC down at the bottom of that
list, Toronto, Galaxy. The Sounders are at 24
.9. We're kind of in the middle to lower part
of that. It makes sense, right? Because some
of our quote -unquote young players were late
bloomers like Reagan, like Rothrock, who went
to college. Christian was the same way. Alex
went to college. We're bringing in players from
college and actually letting them play after
that instead of signing them straight out of
the academy, which we have those two. Yeah, and
I think the key things that are really coming
into play here really are the fact that we...
I think the things that are really differentiating
here is the fact that we... are keeping those
core players together. I think that's really
the big one. Because honestly, when you look
at some of these other teams, when you're talking
about players fielded, even in the top 10, you're
going to have some that are as high as 55, 50.
So that's not necessarily the differential point
because the Sounders have such an advantage there.
So it's really interesting just diving into this
data. I'm looking forward to the next MLS collective
bargaining agreement because I think we're really
going to start taking the reins off of all this
secondary gam -tam, wham -bam, thank you, ma
'am, and just kind of go, hey, here's the dollar
amount, go. Build your team how you want. And
I think we're... And seeing right now, we're
seeing that happen as we go. We're seeing different
teams being successful with different models
of how they build. And what works for one team
doesn't work for another. And then, you know,
it's just really fascinating to me. It's just
really fascinating. You know, one thing that
makes sense to me is why we don't have a lot
of player turnover compared to some teams. We
have had one coach. for so long. And despite
having two GMs, and again, only two GMs though,
and Craig didn't come in and upset the apple
cart, he kind of, his philosophy may be a little
different, but it's still driven from the youth
system up. So I think having one coach and that
coach likes, in fact, maybe if we had Craig the
whole time, we have even less players who have
played because you know, Garth would bring in
some players that Brian would just not play.
So maybe it's interesting that I think having
a consistent coach and knowing the kind of player
he likes, they can bring in those type of players
when they do. That's a good point. Maybe we haven't,
we haven't, it's funny to say this considering
Jordan Morris is injured every other day. And
we, and so is Pedro, but we, haven't had a lot
of long -term injuries we've had players miss
parts of seasons minus who ja paulo and um but
he came back and paul areola well pedro and i
wasn't like you're ending compared to some other
teams maybe i i i get it i feel like we are still
injury prone to a degree but when they're talking
about a three -year average the thing is we're
we're that's the thing is with the three -year
average We are getting just good production from
these players. We built the depth pretty well.
We know who's going to start in maybe eight or
nine of the positions every game. Barring rotation.
Yeah, I get what you're saying. I get what you're
saying. But anyway, I think that it's... Well,
you know what? Let's take a look at this. Let's
take a look at the MLS really quick. So the top
five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Okay. So the
top 10 teams in this list. Now, again, actually,
you know, I'm not even going to do this. I was
going to read off the top 10, but the reality
is that after you get away from the Sounders
in Philadelphia and reminder, Philadelphia won
the shield last year. Once you get away from
them, the drop off Sounders were 93 .9. Philadelphia,
93 .5. Then the third place was 77 .1. The difference
between third place and 25th is like 15 points.
So it's the difference between third place and
25th. is the same difference as second to third
place so it's hard to use a correlation of because
you lump all those teams in together and their
numbers aren't that different set that create
a correlation but i think it is saying something
that the top two were the supporters shield winning
team and a team that last year i do believe were
the deepest team in mls history i stand by that
the sounders last year were super deep and unfortunately
the areas that they were getting the injuries
were their key dp areas where we weren't having
all three dps on the field and and i think we
have with all three what's that do we have any
games with all three not many but but i think
but that's that's kind of what i'm getting at
where we were successful despite that but i think
that's i think that's a correlation with this
you know this if you had given those same levels
of injuries like if you took if you ranked other
teams in mls based on here's your first top player
all the way down to your last player in the roster
and you matched it with the sounders top player
to the bottom and then you you took the same
injury days no team would have been anywhere
near as successful as the sounders were like
our depth was just insane that um i mean and
i think i think we win the mls cup if we just
had areola it it hurts but yeah i think i think
we were one offensive piece away from from from
that i i do think you're not wrong um and that's
how much of an impact he was having now Let's
move on from this just because. We did a huge
scuttlebutt day. I mean, today was a lot going
on. Like we talked about, so much going on in
the soccer world the last couple of weeks. So
I think, yeah, let's want to take a break and
head to the recap. First, I just want to mention
EAFC just had their birthday event. And so it
allowed you to upgrade players that maybe wouldn't
be in a starting roster on your. You know, when
you play online. Yeah, your league play. Your
foot, F -U -T, foot, whatever that is. Yeah.
And so I was able to do something pretty cool.
Yeah, ultimate team. Where I just want to tell
you what my starting lineup is now. And then
they have another special lineup. Starting at
striker, rated at. I feel like you're going to
piss me off here. Where did he go? Rated at 88
is Landon Donovan. Starting at left wing, rated
at 89, is Clint Dempsey. Started at right wing,
rated at 90, is Pedro de la Vega. Right mid,
rated at 90, I have Trinity Rodman. Left mid,
rated at 91, I have Paul Rothrock. Center mid,
rated at 89, I have Obed Vargas. Are these ratings
based on the league that they're in or how are
they? They were much lower, but they give you
evolution cards where you can upgrade them. And
because they had special ones for the birthday,
I mean, Rodman would be like, I think she's an
87 or 88. I'd already moved her up. I think Dempsey
was like an 85 maybe. Donovan's around the same
thing. But the highest players on Seattle, I
think, are... uh, Russ snack and, uh, uh, the
AMR. So I ended up with, uh, Christian who right
now is only an 80 in my team, but now they have
a thing where you can upgrade the team captain
for a, for a national team. And so I made him
the U S team captain. So he's going to be 93.
Uh, and then on my bench is Pulisic. Who's going
to be in 89. Uh, Gianluca Vialli, who's one of
my favorite players of all time, played for Chelsea,
is a 90 striker. I loved him when he captained
the Enterprise, by the way. And I have Dansby
Swanson coming off the bench as my left mid at
an 89. And then Reagan. And Yamaha are both 89s
in the back. So I have a pretty fun lineup of
Sounders players, plus Tornado Rodman, Dansby
Swanson, a couple other players from Europe,
Gattoto, Giles, who plays for Bayern Munich,
who's a Canadian national team player. Gattoto,
is he from Africa? No, she's from France. you're
welcome sorry sorry i'm derailing those and i
got yielded so i mean i have a pretty fun lineup
my plan is to add uh in john john franco zola
who's one of my favorite players of all time
and then to get z done so once i get those two
i'll be complete i'll have a 89 or above roster
all of my favorite sounders my favorite u .s
women's national team players and uh my favorite
Historical Chelsea players. With Zidane, remind
me what the headbutt button is. Yeah, I wish.
That was one of my favorite things of all time,
despite the fact that it made him lose the World
Cup. And any time Italy wins the World Cup, it's
truly a sad day for the world. It's sad. For
Christ's sake. I'm really hoping they don't.
Let's go. I really have to root for Northern
Ireland. over italy this is tough you know actually
uh as we get closer this week is it is it this
week that the playoff championships are uh it
is right it's i think it's this week uh end of
this week are we gonna record before yeah i mean
that's the question are we gonna record before
the world cup playoff um because it is international
break it is When does that? No, it starts on
Thursday. Yeah, so we have to talk about this
little break. Do you want to talk about this
before going to break or after going to break?
No, let's take a break, and then we'll hit it
right when we come back, and then we'll hit the
Sounders match today, and then we'll look to
what's coming up next. I mean, because let's
be honest, this will be more entertaining than
talking about today's Sounders match. Yeah, we
can pile through today's Sounders match pretty
quickly. I think so. Alright, let's go to break.
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
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-T -R -E -O -N dot C -O -M. Now back to your
regularly scheduled programming. Yeah, we're
back. You were looking down, so I'm just going
to take it from you. You took it like a champ.
So we got European playoffs coming up. Well,
not just European, just everything. So the Interconfederation
playoffs as well. So we do have a few different
groups. Europe is the interesting one, minus
maybe a team or two in the Intercontinental.
Well, we're going to hit it up real quick. We're
going to go through each pathway. So entering
Group K, this is going to be intercontinental.
It's going to be New Caledonia playing Jamaica
with the winner going against Democratic Republic
of Congo for a place in the World Cup. Do you
have a preference there? I got to go Jamaica
personally. Move off your mic a little bit there
too, Nick. You're getting pretty hot right now.
I know you're excited. Yeah. Excited. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. So I'll tone that down a little bit.
So, yeah. So I agree with you. I think Jamaica
is the way to go. I mean, it's not going to be
easy. And that's going to be all this week. Oh,
no. No. No. None of this will be easy for anyone.
I don't think there's a walk pathway for anyone
that's easy. So the other inter -confederation
playoff will involve Group I. and that's going
to involve Bolivia and Suriname with the winner
playing Iraq. In here, this could get interesting
just because we still don't know what's going
to happen with Iran. Iran players seem to think
that they are going to play and they want to
play. There isn't an official statement, but
I'm just curious to see how that develops. The
FIFA has already denied that. That's already
been not happening. Wow. So in here, I honestly,
I kind of want Iraq to make it just because I
want all the teams that have beef with the United
States to be in the United States. I mean, I
want Suriname, but I would not think that they're
going to be the team to go through. But it would
be pretty amazing for a country of that size
to make it that far. Yeah, I mean, I know that's
a CONCACAF minnow, but I just, I would be shocked.
Oh, yeah, I don't think it's going to happen.
I mean, I think it'll depend on, Bolivia is traditionally
okay. You know, they've had their years, but
I think Iraq is probably the highest rated team
of those. Yeah, I think that's right. So, the...
Going into the European ones, that's going to
be a little bit different. So the European playoffs
are going to be, let's see, what is the European
playoffs? So the European playoffs. The first
one. Thank you. Why don't you hit me up with
the first one? Path A, excuse me. The first match
is Italy versus Northern Ireland, and they will
play the winner of Wales versus Bosnia and Herzegovina.
to make the World Cup. That's a tough one, right?
Because I think Italy and Northern Ireland are
probably the two best teams in that group. But
I don't know which one's going to go through.
Italy is probably the better team, but they have
been snookered. It depends on which Italy shows
up. Could you imagine three straight World Cups
without Italy? But Wales is currently ranked
35th. Iran is 20th, by the way. Italy is 12th
in the world. They just jumped up. Senegal dropped
two spots. Speaking of which. We didn't even
talk about that. Oh, my God. They had their championship
taken away and somehow dropped two spots. Did
you see that? Someone took the medal ceremony
and put it in reverse with the clip of Senegal
returning their medals. Even Hakimi was like,
no, we didn't win. This is stupid. They may not
have won, but I understand the idea of taking
away the championship for walking off the pitch.
No one comes up good in that whole situation.
I disagree. typical Afghan corruption. Did you
see there's now another country who's a very
small country who's not good at soccer that's
petitioning to have Morocco's 1964 championship
taken away when they did the exact same thing?
I mean, it makes sense to me. If they did the
exact same thing, fuck them. Take it away if
you're going to push it through. It was in Morocco.
It's all about corruption. It's fucked. I hate
it. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. I'd be embarrassed
if I was a fan of the team and to feel like given
that would be almost more insulting. But speaking
of World Cup qualifying, can I just give a big
shout out to the Philippines? The women's Philippines
team qualified for the Women's World Cup next
year. And they were the only team in Asia. They're
the only team in Asia that had to take on the
three giants. They had to take on Australia,
they had to take on basically the top three women's
teams in that region. Have you been watching
any of the matches? I was going to say past your
bedtime, but no, you're working during it. They've
been free on YouTube. I will say that the Asian
Confederation has done a fantastic job. Every
single match in the Asian Women's Cup was on
TV. I watched portions of most of them. I fell
asleep before the ending of Japan -Australia,
but I assume Japan pulled it out. I should have
looked. But they also are showing – I'm trying
to remember who the third team was. Australia,
Japan, and was it Korea, the number three top
women's team in Asia? Okay, there we go. They
are incredible. Is it really? Okay. But South
Korea is also very good. They also play all of
the Asian Champions League matches, both the
elite and the second tier, for free on YouTube.
So if you're a soccer fan, there's matches going
on starting at 1 o 'clock in the morning. It's
like the old days when they used to play the
A -League on Fox Soccer Channel. That's awesome.
It's super fun. That's awesome. So moving along
real quickly, we've still got three more teams,
three more paths to go. Path B. involves ukraine
playing sweden and then poland playing albania
the winners of those games play each other for
the uh right to go to the world cup me personally
i gotta root for poland because um just just
with their history uh and quality of play i mean
they become a much better team historically if
they don't lose two of their best players all
time to germany To Germany? Yeah. Agreed. They're
golden generation. They are a little down as
of late, but they're still 34th in the world,
so I think you've got to give them the favor.
Ukraine, though, is 30th, so it's not going to
be a cakewalk, but I think I'm picking Poland
there. No. So, path C is Slovakia playing Kosovo.
And then Turkey or Turkey playing Romania. Here,
I don't really, yeah, I don't have much of a
dog in this fight at all. So I just want to see
exciting soccer. Yeah, I think Turkey is probably,
they're traditionally very good. And I could
see them. Although now that I say that out loud,
I guess in this one, we want whoever's the worst.
because that would be the USA's group. Yeah.
Right? That's probably Kosovo. Yeah, so I guess
you're kind of rooting for chaos. Yeah, so now
if you get a red card in those games, does that
mean you get to... Yes. Yeah, because that's
part of qualifying. Kosovo is 79th in the world.
Go Kosovo. Go Kosovo. And then path D would be
Czech Republic or Czechia. Is that what they're
calling themselves now? Czechia versus Republic
of Ireland and Denmark versus North Macedonia,
who features our very own Danny Mussovsky. Yeah,
so Danny Mussofsky got called up. That's why
he wasn't playing today because he will be called
up for North Macedonia in this playoff against
Denmark. So not going to lie, as much as I'd
love to see Republic of Ireland advance, I got
to root for giving Danny Mussofsky a shot at
the World Cup. I mean, I got to root for Ireland.
But Macedonia is 66th in the world. Excuse me,
North Macedonia. I don't want to upset the Greeks.
Come on. Because they own the rights to most
of it. Come on. Just starting wars here. Ireland
is somewhere in the 50s, 59th. So they are slightly
better. And then, I mean, I think that Chechie
is probably the team to beat. But Ireland's just
been on so much fire. That run where they beat...
Oh, my God. Those late game winners. Yeah. Just
absolutely incredible. Just crazy. Bonkers, bonkers.
I'm excited to see how those games go. I mean,
Chechi has 43rd in the world, so it's going to
be... Moments like that make me love soccer.
This is the biggest match for Ireland probably
since... Well, it was since the Thierry Henry
handball game. Since the handball. And that was
a tough one for me being a French national team
fan and loving Thierry Henry. But, you know,
he committed a handball, then scored a goal and
knocked out Ireland. Not his fault. Not his fault.
The refs didn't call it. I mean. So, yeah. So
it should be interesting. We will find out very
soon. I'm going to put some hands to TT tonight.
What? And muted. But, yeah, it should be fun
watching those. They, of course, play. The European
ones are on the 26th and 31st. Do you see the
intercontinental dates? Yeah, the Intercontinental
dates are going to be the 26th and the 31st as
well. There's going to be some fun days of soccer
on Thursday and Tuesday. So definitely tune into
those. One of my favorites was two World Cup
cycles ago, was it? Where basically Sweden was
playing Portugal. you were either going to have
a World Cup without Zlatan or a World Cup without
Ronaldo. Yeah, unfortunately. And... Yeah. We
could do without Ronaldo. What a whiny little
whiner. Yeah. By the way, speaking of hands of
TT, Bernadette, my wife, was born on the exact
same day, day, month, years, Ronaldo. A little
bit of fun trivia. Okay. So let's talk about
today's game. We've gone through all this. We've
talked a little bit about everything else. Spoiler
alert. It was not a particularly exciting game,
but it was an effective game. Yeah, it felt like
a traditional we can't beat the low block because
all Minnesota does is stand around in the box
game. But you know what? Here's the thing. So
spoiler alert. I'm actually. pretty happy with
this season of course yeah taking a point on
the road we are in the middle of and i am counting
spokane as playing away from lumen lumen field
so we are in the middle of five straight games
away from home and we have gotten 13 out of 15
points we've had uh out of those 13 out of 15
games Sorry, 13 out of 15 points. My apologies
there. 13 out of 15 points. We have allowed just
one goal. We've got four shutouts, one goal against
Vancouver. Funny enough, that's the one game
that wasn't true. Yeah, 13 out of 15 points.
We have one loss and one draw. The loss was Salt
Lake, but I'm talking about St. Louis, Vancouver,
San Jose, Vancouver, and Minnesota, the last
five games. No, I'm just talking about the last
five games that we played as a team. And so we
played five games in 15 days. And so I am not...
complaining about this and especially with with
this lineup that we put out normally and looking
at champions league runs in the past these were
the kind of games that were punts these were
the kind of games that we lost we were not creating
yeah we were getting crushed in those games um
and and instead you know we still had Like, here's
the thing. You look at our bench. Our bench had
Jackson Reagan, had Jesus Ferrer, Jordan Morris,
Stephen Fry, Cody Baker. I'm not going to talk
about Baker because that's not really proving
my point. Stephen Fry, Paul Areola. So you got
some starting quality players on the bench. You
have, you know, Rothrock, Russ Snack, Christian
Roldan, New Who, and Alex Roldan. So you've got
a mix of starters and then some bench players.
And I thought we did a really good job of controlling
possession. I think we also understandably, when
we've seen time and time again with this team,
when you have such high rate of turnover, especially
when you're looking at the offensive players,
we're going to struggle to get that goal. And
that's just been historical. That's pretty normal.
So I'm not shocked about that. But I'm very,
very pleased to see the way we stood up defensively.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's a lot to
write home about this game. We played decently.
We had a lot of possession, which has been the
opposite of most of the other games this season.
But we were forced into it from Minnesota. It
felt like... We played very poorly in front of
the goal, and we did everything from the left
side until later in the game and just couldn't.
Yeah, I feel like that was Minnesota pushing
that. It felt like Minnesota was doing anything
with it. We had some great chances on goal, but
the ball kept not going where we wanted it. So
it was an interesting game. I'm happy to get
out with a point. I'm worried about the Alex
injury considering. He had been so solid and
that's the last thing we need more of. Press
conference. Brian said, everything's going to
be okay. Hit, hit pointer, hit pointer. They're
going to reevaluate, but, but it's, it sounds
like more precaution, not muscle, not ligament.
It sounds, sounds like a best case scenario.
And then knew who had a monster game. They were
talking about it in the pregame show. In particular,
I think Chance Fry was discussing it along with
Jackson. And I have a Chance Fry signed jersey
up in my closet upstairs. Nice. Congratulations
on becoming a grandfather. They talked about
that on the broadcast today. probably wouldn't
have lasted on most teams with his antics throwing
his hands in the air all the bullshit that he
put the team through but brian smetzer didn't
give up on him and he's turned into a captain
quality player who we always knew he had the
talent he he was our captain now he is a rock
on the field if christian's not there yeah i
mean um and let's shout out let's shout out A
couple of the young guys. I thought Tino Lopez
once again had a wonderful, solid performance.
Another save. Yep. Andy comes out. I don't think
it was the best decision, but I also don't think
it was terrible. It was a great play from the
Minnesota player to head it to the side. Well,
the other thing is him coming out at that aggression.
He forced the Minnesota player into panic. So
I didn't really have a problem with it. But still,
Tino gets over there and makes that huge save.
And Snyder looked great when he came on and immediately
started challenging people as well. Yeah, I'm
really liking what I'm seeing from Snyder Brunel
for sure. was very pleased to see Jordan get
more than a cameo, get 25 minutes. That was really
encouraging. A little bit when he first got on
the field, though, just to get him back and going.
Of course. And so I think that hurt us a little
bit. There was no time where it felt like we
were actually, you know, we had a chance here,
a chance there that maybe we're part of an expected,
you know, not a whole expected goal, but partial
expected goal. There was no time during that
game where I felt like, oh, we're going to score
here, though. No, well, no, no, no. There wasn't
that first half. There was that really nice cross
from Nikola Petrovic who sends that right across
the goal mouth. And if Callender doesn't make
that little bit of a hand on it, De Rosario's
got to tap in. I don't know. I've lost faith
in De Roe. You know, he's young, but he's just...
We hyped him up in preseason. I think that's
unfair to him. Brian warned us about this. He
said he's young. He's going to be inconsistent.
But he's essentially lost the starting job at
this point to Moose. And so it's a little bit
of a bummer. Well, I like his physical play.
I hope that as we as I mean, we're going to need
players to contribute. So I'm hoping it could
be – I will say this. I feel less confident about
his ability to get on the score sheet than I
did when Danny Mussofsky was struggling because
I felt like Danny was getting into good, dangerous
spots and creating opportunities. I'm not seeing
that from D -Ro. I'm seeing someone who – I will
say his last two starts, he's looked far better
than he did. He's not pushing over to the left.
He's getting a little bit higher. Whatever they're
doing in practice is putting him in positions
to be more dangerous, and he needs to continue
that growth. I still think we need a number nine,
but if we can make it to... Every team needs
a number nine. If we can make it to the summer
just with what we have and be in the hunt in
the top five, we can make a real run at this
if we make the decision to go out and sign a
quality nine. I don't just want a starting level
nine, which is what Danny is. I want a game change
number nine. Again, keep in mind we have four
road games. We've played four road games. We're
not the best on the road. We have been this year.
But for the last several years, when you watch
us play on the road, it's not fun. It's a slog.
And now we've made it through. And the only one
that got us was RSL. And let me tell you, we
don't win in RSL regardless. So that one kind
of you can throw away. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, ultimately,
we are certainly on pace for doing what we're
supposed to do. If you get a draw on the road
and you win at home, you're going to be a Shield
-winning team. And right now, we have seven points
in four games on the road. Yeah. In league play.
And then we have three points in one game at
home. Which is weird. oh wait no sorry i read
that backwards yeah we've only had one home game
that's the weird part yes yes there you go there
you go i'm catching up i'm uh it's been frustrating
it's been like almost like yeah i'm watching
the games but i feel very disconnected from the
sounders as a team right now because we haven't
had the opportunity to see them in person it
does feel weird yeah it almost feels like an
extended pre -season in a lot of ways um but
but The thing is, we've got a little bit of a
rough schedule in front of us. But then we got
a chance for some points. But I think the big
thing, though, is trying to get people healthy.
It sounds like Yamar is going to be out for another
six weeks. Yeah, eight weeks total. It does not
sound like Alex is going to be long -term. Well,
with this international break, yeah, he might
be fine when Houston comes around. So we'll see
her when we go to Houston. By the way, Houston
is looking pretty dangerous. I did get to watch
some of their matches recently, and they look
a little dynamic. When they're on, they're looking
dynamic. They've got some players that can ball.
Which I'm just hoping that they don't have it
so organic that it's almost hard to recognize
what they've done. You know what I mean? Like
as a, as a, not a fan of their team. Yeah. And
I'm not a fan of their team. Spoiler alert. But
yeah, Guillermo Augusto has four goals already
and three assists. So in their last going back
to last year, one, two three four five six in
their last seven games they have four red cards
five red cards excuse me and in their last three
games they have a red card in each of those games
and they they lost to dallas they beat portland
and they lost lafc and i imagine absent the red
cards let's see went to 68th minute and then
game winning goal came from musa late uh and
then against uh that was the Dallas game against
LAFC, yep, had the red card, and then the two
goals came after the red card. So the two losses
they have so far, I don't know if you can count
on those being losses moving forward because
I can't imagine they're going to red card every
game, but three red cards in three games is pretty
rough. Yeah, well, they've got some talent. They
brought back into the league Mateusz Bogusz.
Yeah, he's so good. if you're a Monster Squad
fan. They've got Ezequiel Ponce. They've got...
Oh, yeah. But Guillermo Augusto, who previously
played in Brazil with Santos, so he's been lighting
it up for them. They brought back Hector Herrera,
so referees of the world, make sure you got your
towels ready. Bogush is the biggest of those
signings, and I think he kind of went under the
radar just because he was a former MLS player.
We, as Sounders fans, know. I don't know. Like
I said, Augusto is balling. Sure, but I don't
think he's a name that people around the league
recognize. Oh, no, no, because he came from Brazil.
So absolutely not. But this is a guy that in
Brazil was scoring double -digit goals, double
-digit assists. He's doing that here. That's
what I want the Sounders to do. Come on, guys.
It's like a Nico Lodeiro type of goal assist
kind of guy, yeah. But then don't forget they
also got Jack McGlynn, who is young, I think
still has a very promising career. I would not
be surprised if we eventually see him in a U
.S. like a Gold Cup squad. I don't think he's
going to be like a team level, but I think McGlynn
can be a Gold Cup type of player. It's funny
that he's young, which he is. He's 22. Because
we've known him for so long, he's played almost
100 matches for Philly. He played 99 matches
for Philly. And he's played at the U -16, U -20,
and U -23 level. He does have 13 matches and
two goals for the USA nationally. Speaking of
the U -level, who got called up? One of our players
got called to the U -19 World Cup. Or U .S. roster.
Was it... Oh, geez. Yeah. I'm trying to think
who just got called up. Gonzalo Cigars? No, no,
no. It was either Stu Hawkins or Snyder Brunel.
I think it might have been Snyder Brunel. Did
they both get called up? At least recently. I
don't know if they were both this window, but
yeah. Which Stu needs to get on the field, man.
Yeah, well, I think – no, I'm pretty sure that
Stu Hawkins got called up for the U -20. I think
like – no, I think this window. I mean, last
window he was in the U -20s. In this window he's
not. We got Snyder Brunel. Okay, well, he's 18,
so yeah. But, I mean, it's an interesting lineup
there with Kevon Sullivan coming up, who we know
from Philly. Aiden Hezekarney, who unfortunately
we know from Salt Lake. He's been playing really
well for them. I haven't heard of most of the
midfielders outside of Snyder Brunel. Same with
the defenders. And then the goalies, you have
the young Rapids goalie, Campagnolo. And then,
of course, Giorgi Di Marzi, who plays for Roma.
Pretty safe to have a Roma player on our U -20
team. U -19, excuse me. 2007, that's the year
that they had to have been born or later. That
feels wrong. Wow. Yeah, let's close up this game.
Solid point. I'll take it. Once again, doing
a good job of digging deep when we can. Loving
our defensive effort as a team. I'm loving the
fact that we're looking at the league standings
right now. And we're currently – we've allowed
two goals in five games. LAFC has allowed zero.
Yes, please. The whole season. It's going to
be an interesting season. I think – and we'll
piggyback off of Dan the Bastard's question about
we have one goal from the nine all year. Does
Jordan Morris return change that? I don't think
so because he's not going to play the nine. Uh,
he's going to be, I think you're right. So will
we get, uh, could it change it as in better service?
I don't know if you get better. I mean, you get
great service out of Jordan. I don't know if
it's any better than Roth rock or Jesus or Russ
snack or, you know what I mean? Like Areola,
uh, arguably Areola is the best of them in my
opinion, uh, outside of Pedro crossing. Well,
yeah, I think, I think what you end up getting
though, is I think what ends up happening is
when you are, When you've got a band of three,
presumably of like a Rothrock, Morris, Rusnak,
Areola, Jesus Ferreira, three of those five,
whoever's at the top is going to get opportunities
because of what you have there. Yeah. Will it
lead to more goals? I hope so, but I mean, we
struggled with the low block again today. It
seemed like... Maybe because it was a regular
season game and we were rotated, we didn't go
for it like we did in the playoffs because we
showed we could break it. But today, we didn't
use those tactics because when you break it,
it also opens you up to more attacks at the back.
Yeah, I mean, today, you know, I don't know if
today is indicative of what we can expect to
see because I do think that it is such a... I
do think that it is such a unique team with Minnesota
that their defensive tendencies are a little
more cynical than most. So it's kind of hard
to pin what we saw today as a correlation to
what we see going into the future. Totally. Bob,
what else do we got in the mail? We answered
most that you answered already. Muffin top models
question about Lumen and the usage. And just
rip weapon X mentioned that opt out date is April
8th for your CCC tickets. And if you don't opt
out by then you'll get charged on that day. Well,
let me ask you a couple, let me ask you a question
though. Some available coaches that could be
out there. Who do you think would be most likely
to get hired by someone? You have Peter Vermees.
You have Caleb Porter, Eric Winalda, Oscar Pereja,
Wilfred Nancy, James Curtin, Chris Armas. There's
some big names. Who went to Celtic? Was it Wilfred
Nancy? I mean, I'd love... to see noncy coach
somewhere because he's such an awesome coach
i prefer if it's not in the mls uh it probably
won't be i can't imagine he's coming back struggled
at celtic i don't blame him for their poor play
but i do blame him for how he was i watched most
of their matches how he responded publicly and
privately to what was happening with the poor
play he was put into a shitty situation and was
set up to fail uh Well, you also know it was
bad when they brought back the guy they fired
after they got rid of him. They brought back
Brendan Rogers? Martin O 'Neill. Oh, well, he
was before that. I mean, Brendan Rogers has been
there for years. Martin O 'Neill is like a perennial
caretaker there. Gotcha. Yeah. Or no, because
Martin O 'Neill was the interim. Yeah, Nancy
was just not up for the non -play aspects of
it. He just seemed lost. And we also saw Ramsey
get fired, left New York, went in, got fired.
We had seen great results for, I think, who would
be a great MLS coach is the one who came over
to Chelsea from, what's the, Strasburg, Rosigny.
he's going to get fired at Chelsea after the
three, nothing lost to Everton. He might last
a few more games, but if they don't improve it,
so I don't see anyone big coming to the MLS right
now. You would think that Jim Curtin, if he wants
to keep coaching, would get a chance because
of the amount of success he's had in this league.
Hopefully Vermees. But I think he's, I think
he's like a, I think, I think, I think Curtin's
like a Oscar Prejas. He has a very specific set
of skills, and if you're not looking to do a
youth development, then he's the kind of coach,
he's not going to want to go to a Colorado. I'm
not saying Colorado's looking to sack their coach,
but these teams that historically struggle to
keep up with the rest of the league. like a colorado
a montreal a they both have really good young
players i mean they they would be a good option
for him but montreal is winning now and colorado
just has a new coach so um i can't see i mean
but i think i think vermise i'm just hoping gets
blackballed because he was everything that was
wrong with the lee we heard time and time again
one of the reasons why games called the way they
were was because he pushed the rules committee
to allow Just that chop down play that made the
MLS. Such a piece of cake. There's no way that
his play would be able to. It hurts the MLS.
That's MLS 1 .0. It's MLS 1 .0. If they can get
chopped down and not have a bad, you know, get
card or whatever. You know. Like him and Dom
Kinnear and that coaching tree of that cynical
celebrate. Yes, I agree in terms of his style.
You know, he did a great job. This league has
evolved. The league has evolved. I don't think
there's a place for them. I could see them going
to USL Championship, especially as USL is making
that push to be the top league. I get it. I get
it. It's some serious shade. I mean, if they
want to keep coaching. Well, Nolte's an interesting
one. I think he loses out based on his personality.
Personality? I think, yeah, he's like a Caleb
Porter, very abrasive. Yeah, he's clearly a great
coach. I mean, I hate to say it, same with Caleb
Porter, but as I said in that Portland, Seattle
documentary that you can go watch, most punchable
face in the history of the MLS. uh i'm sorry
michelle would have something to say about that
man and caleb porter no no i mean he won championships
in portland and columbus but he always seems
to fail up yes caleb porter caleb porter should
go back to soccer in college like that i don't
think he could they're not going to put i mean
because if you look at times have changed like
his college teams i mean there's already people
pissed off uh there is a lot of xenophobia going
on in college soccer right now because the rosters
are largely made up of people coming over from
other countries to play at the college levels
so that they can get that look to make the mls
and so where the college soccer was largely irrelevant
three or four years ago you're now getting some
really good players coming in from other countries
and if you're american you're having a hard time
getting on some of those rosters And for me,
I'm like, well, you signed the best player, especially
in the age of NIL. Yeah, but at the same time,
there's a lot of college teams. So maybe if more
teams took their program seriously, they'd get
more spots. I just don't think that Caleb Porter...
You can't yell at kids like that. No. No. No,
but I think... Largely of that list of players,
I would not be surprised if, or sorry, that list
of coaches, I would not be surprised if we don't
see many of them ever again. I would think Caleb
will get a shot just because of his success,
but... I don't think so. I think he burned too
many bridges. He did it in three. He burned in
Portland, burned it in New England, burned it
in Columbus. Those are... That represents three
very distinct style of ownerships that are influential
in different ways. You've got the old guard in
Kraft. You've got the Merritt Paulsons of the
world and the new money of Columbus. I just don't
know if he gets a shot somewhere. I just don't.
Maybe. I don't think Wilfred comes back to the
league. Jim Curtin. Yeah. Yeah. But so, you know,
it's interesting to see it. And I mean, that's
another thing that let's talk about really quick
is just let's acknowledge that as the league
evolves, it's not just the players that are getting
better. The coaches are getting better. I mean,
I have a lot of respect for Jesper Sorensen.
I'm really, I'm happy. Like every time they showed
him, he had one eye looking one way and one eye
looking the other way. Yeah. What are you talking
about? I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed.
I kept going. I turned to Steve and I'm like,
Steve, he's cross -eyed, right? Like, I'm not
crazy. You are crazy, but that's another story
altogether. So why don't we look ahead to our
international break. Actually, do you want to
look ahead? We're going to record before the
next game because we've got that international
break. We'll probably talk about some World Cup
stuff. Let's just tell us who the upcoming Sounders
matches are. Yeah, so coming up we do have Houston
on April 4th. So that's a bit of a break. So
maybe next week. Maybe next week we'll know all
the World Cup teams. Maybe we do a little World
Cup preview. Yeah, I mean, we might record before
then, after the first round of matches. But yeah,
I mean, we could record after that as well. And
I think also we will have a really good idea,
potentially, maybe not, of Christian's chances
of making the USA. I mean, they're already really
good. In fact... Poach was talking about him
again and talked about how he's the kind of player
they want, someone they gave a chance to, and
he grabbed that chance, and how he's not a superstar.
He's a ride or die. And he's good at everything
he does. He's a locker room glue, and he represented
the time when Poach... shifted from players who
weren't giving effort they brought him in and
he set the tone on the effort that he expects
to see he's the ride or die glue there's barring
injury knock on wood i don't see a world in which
christian doesn't i think so now i think he we
saw him kind of drop off a little in sounders
play and he needs to keep playing well but he
was man of the match today uh if he continues
to not score goals because he's not in that position
anymore just show up and play well and lead the
team uh yeah i can't see him not making it i
mean there's a reason why you and i both have
usa christian rolled on jerseys despite the fact
they haven't announced the roster yet you have
two i've got two i mean well i have my i have
my gold cup because i i promised myself i would
buy his jersey when he got his first us call
up so i've got that beautiful Give me one second.
You talked about something? Because now, even
on the website, he is solidly listed as the number
six, which is incredible. But, you know, it's
like how Donovan – oh, yeah, number 17. You've
got to get him to sign that. It's a really nice
– the red and blue striped jersey with the number
17 rolled on it. Yeah, you've got to get him
to sign it. Oh, I did. Oh, nice. Where did you
get that done? At a game you came over to ECS?
This was at a preseason event. This is the same
night that Garth Loggerwaite smashed eggs on
my head. But what I love about this kit... One,
the stars are great. The stripes are great. But
you can see in here the stars on the blue stripes
as well. That is really nice. Although I will
say the authentic of the jersey you just got
is maybe the best USA jersey I've ever seen.
Well, yeah, that's why I got the authentic. I
looked at that up close and then in here the
little details on that. I normally don't want
to spend the extra cash. For that kit, I did.
And mine is not authentic, so I'm going to need
to... And quite frankly, I'm kind of hoping they
fuck it up. I'm kind of hoping they fuck it up
because they fucked up... Last time I ordered
from Soccer .com, they fucked up my Megan Rapinoe
women's four -star when we won the World Cup.
And they gave me the wrong number. And it's...
imperceptible you cannot know but i i know because
i'm anal attentive and they just sent me another
jersey and told me to keep the old one so i gave
it away as a gift to someone so it's like come
on you said they gave you the wrong number what
do you mean no like the the the numbers that
they oh they used the wrong numbers well they
used the right They used the right number, but
the number was like a misprint because they had
subtly in there like the states in the numbers.
And there was something about it where it didn't
show up right. I thought you meant they didn't
send you number 15. And I was like, everyone's
going to notice that, Nick. What are you talking
about? No, they didn't. Yeah. No, no, no. It
was one of those things that only. a select few
would would ever notice but it basically meant
that i got to give away a jersey another jersey
for free i do i will say i think that whatever
the big prize is this year should be for the
person that wins the contest uh for the pick
them because that's the one that actually effort
you know you know i think i think i'm i'm open
to that for sure um especially when this year
we've seen a much better rate. Each game has
had consistent high rates of play. And that's...
Oh my goodness, we didn't. We did, yeah. Thank
you for the reminder. So, starting with the San
Jose game, Daniel Rowe, Sounders Dan, won. He
had a perfect score. The Vancouver game, you
had myself, Bernie, my wife, and Bryson, we all
won. Did you guys know what the score was going
to be? What happened here? I mean, the Vancouver
game, well, I got the score right, but not the
goal scorer. Were you hanging out beforehand?
That is... No, funny enough, yeah, everyone was
in different spots. Usually Bernie and I are
not near each other right before kickoff. But
Bernie was working. But I think Bernie, if I
remember correctly, got the goal score right
but didn't get the Vancouver goals right. Bryson
didn't get the goal score right, and I got the
score line right. And then Minnesota today, with
a weird score line like this, there were too
many people that were tied with only two points.
So there were like seven or eight. Did you say
Sounders Dan was there? You know what? Here,
I'll read off the list here. Give me one second.
I'll pull off the people that got it. Oh, I'm
going to have to, yeah, give me one second. I'm
going to have to cross -reference here. Okay,
ready? So, Paul. Paul, we had Eric13. We had
Roma, my daughter. She's killing it. Still cracks
me up that she had the highest points per game
average last year. So if she's playing all season
long, she might destroy us all. Alex Diaz, right?
I mean, she's adorable. When I'm pulling up the
selectors, she insists on being the one that
hits the phone numbers to enter the selections.
She won't just tell me. But today Bernadette
also got first place. Let's see, Cedar. Gap first
place. SF Pat. Shout out to SF Pat. Got to hang
out with him when he was in town a few months
ago during the offseason, so that was great.
And then that is it. So, yeah, like seven people.
So big day for people. I had a rough day in fantasy.
I don't know how you did, but I forgot to rotate
for Champions League for the second straight.
uh week and uh her halter got me four total points
for himself and muller got me 19 points uh so
a little rough little rough there and then of
course uh buonga only got me 76 and son almost
only got me 68 so uh i definitely had a rough
week i'm glad i put in thomas instead of or whatever
the San Diego goalie is named because we'll talk
about it more on the Ultras edition because we
get into this. But you got third place this week
with 1 ,200 points right behind Alex with 1 ,260
and Dan the Bastard won with 1 ,370. I am second
to last – oh, I guess third to last place but
struggling. the last few weeks because of Champions
League, which has dropped me from third place
overall to a distant fifth place. Better than
you, though, right now. You had a rough few.
Yeah, where's the overall? You hit the 26 on
the right next to number five, where it says
we were in week five. Alex is 8 ,000. Dan the
Bastard is 7 ,700. Cedar has 7 ,300. uh i'm not
sure who fish is has 7200 i'm at 68 you're at
64 and uh whoever black zebra is is 48 that might
be aaron and then i don't know who i i you know
what it is black and yellow has yet to play this
year sir not appearing in this league so uh alex
is running away from it with it not surprising
but really he's only uh you know, he's 2 ,500
ahead of you when it's easy to make up four or
500, 600 points a week without having a great.
Yeah. Just take his phone away. Just take his
phone away. So I'm confident that that's going
to be fun, but we'll get more into that and break
it down a little more on the ultras episode.
Whenever we record, we were going to record on
Thursday, but I think. there was only two of
us, so we decided not to. But you and I, we can
record two. Man, we got to get Aaron in here.
We got to get all three of us here at the same
time. Yeah, it's kind of a weird scheduling right
now, which is part of the reason why we jumped
to three hosts to make that a little easier.
But it is always fun when we can get all three
of us together. For sure. And I'm hoping to eventually
start getting in on the Ultras episodes a little
bit more as well. It's been the chickadee China.
There we go. So why don't we wind it down there?
Real quick, because you mentioned it. All right.
I watched this reel from, I think it's like a
podcaster who's like a mom that's our age with
a young daughter. And she's like, do you want
to hear the weirdest song? to his young daughter
from the 90s, and she puts it on and then films
her daughter's face as it starts going, Once
there was this boy who... The whole time she's
going, What the fuck is this? And for those who
don't know, that's by Crash Test Dummies. Yeah,
exactly. Not to be confused with Mbop. No. It
is a good song. I love that song. The lyrics
are wild. They make no sense. And the video is
even wackier. I actually knew one of the touring
members of Crash Test Dice. Were they in Bare
Naked Ladies? They're a Canadian band. But yes,
that's actually, well, there's a connection there.
He was one of the drum techs. Anyways, yeah,
there was a connection there. So you're not,
where do they find you on the interwebs? Well,
my only fans is, uh, uh, I don't really know
where I'm going with that. So we'll just stop
there. Uh, come find me on Instagram at cascades
to see, uh, all letters, no numbers. So cascades
T O S E A. From the Cascades to the sea. How
about you? Wait a minute. Are you even, where
aren't you banned right now? No, I'm just banned
on Twitter. They've never unbanned me. I don't
think there's anyone to unban me left at Twitter.
And the reason I'm banned was for impersonation
because I logged in in Bahrain and Columbia or
somewhere like that at the exact same time. Rather
than going, oh, you've been hacked, which I sent
them notice of, I have been banned from Twitter
since the Leagues Cup final day. You can get
me at SSFCscuttlebutt on Twitter. I'm manning
that Twitter, so you'll see me say things about
Chelsea and PSG along with the Sounders. Usually
I make it clear it's me when that's happening.
And, of course, Legal Minded Punk on Blue Sky
and Instagram. And on the Discord, of course.
Join the Discord. Join the Patreon. Well, I was
going to say, I thought... I thought you were
telling me that you weren't able to send me messages
on Instagram. So they were talking about, there's
a post where they were talking about an album
and everyone loved the singer's scratchy voice.
And I know for a fact his voice is scratchy because
he was doing a ton of cocaine at the time because
I'm friends with one of his good friends. And
I said in response, being funny, quoting the
Chappelle show, cocaine is a hell of a drug.
And they banned me not for mentioning drugs.
When they did the review, they banned me because
they said I was trying to sell cocaine. And I
was like, it was a joke. And they're like, no.
So I was banned from sending messages for three
days. I can still use it. I can post. I just
can't respond to people. So yeah, I did get banned
from. uh messaging on instagram because they
thought i was trying to sell cocaine which is
the most ridiculous thing ever yeah that's a
good note though it was in a call who is the
band i'm not gonna say it because uh i have a
tattoo of them and so i don't want them to know
i was talking about it uh but um the uh the the
thing is when they sent me the notice it did
say it was automatic ai did it because it caught
it and it can catch things in both comments and
messages so remember when you're sending messages
on instagram they are being read by the algorithm
and instagram can pull them up and read them
at any time they are not private uh and so do
not believe that you are getting away with anything
there By the way, just as a side note, putting
a pin to that, remind me to tell you of my cocaine
story of which lead singer was doing cocaine
just down the street from my house. Whoa. I didn't.
And got kicked out of their band. Whoa. That
is crazy. I did not realize that you knew Sammy
Hagar. did he get kicked out for coke no he didn't
get kicked out for that um no uh all right on
that note on that you know gossip time with cameron
and nick i tell you it's this that's our that's
our other podcast see it's it's kicked loose
lips sink ships loose links ship sinks you know
Okay, well, you know what? Let's hear from one
other member of our squad who has a cocaine story
or two. James, why don't you take us away and
pull us to the border? No, no, no, no, no. Do
not get James in trouble. No, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no. Mr. The PA announcer from Sounders
who is a retired cool person. I love James. Managerial
person who is nothing but the kindest, most wonderful
man ever. Please take it away. Yes, and public
legend. 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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at BritVoxus. That's BritVoxUS. We'll see you
at Lumen and go Sounders! Alexa, who's the best
MLS team of all time? The Seattle Sounders are
both unequivocally and irreparably the best MLS
team of all time.