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The Orca Boys road show has been pretty impressive this season
310 Plays10 hours ago
Aaron joins Jeremiah to discuss how the Sounders have shown how their culture and depth has helped them to be successful on the road so far this season and it really showed in their victory against Houston. The two also previewed the upcoming CCC matchup against Tigres and end with a segment talking about Seattle glow up ahead of the World Cup.
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Transcript
Introduction to Will Bruin and Sounders' Success
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what cross! And what a goal!
00:00:59
Speaker
Where's my copy? I got a bunch of them in the car. How many do you cost them? 50 bucks. I'll deadline you. that
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Seattle Sounders' Impressive Road Trip
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Nos Adiates, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on May, on May. Let's start over again.
00:01:57
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Adiates, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Oh my God, dude.
00:02:07
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Monday, April 6, 2026. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Today, I am joined again by Aaron Campo and Engineer Lickett.
00:02:23
Speaker
The league portion of what we've come to call the roadshow is now in the rearview mirror. And frankly, I'm not sure how it could have gone much better. Saturday's win gave the Sounders 10 points from this road trip, which included four straight shutouts.
00:02:37
Speaker
In this one, the Sounders got another goal from Paul Rothrock, giving him five across all competitions and a fifth shutout in six games by Andrew Thomas. Now, they'll put the finishing touches on this stretch of eight games away from Lumen Field when they face Tigris in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals, writing a fair amount of momentum.
Are the Sounders Contenders for the Supporter Shield?
00:02:56
Speaker
Now, Aaron, before we started recording, you and I went back to the transcripts and we looked at what we said about this road trip and what we thought was going to be a satisfying or acceptable number of points.
00:03:08
Speaker
What did we say, Aaron? I think we said, i know we said, I just looked at it, that an acceptable number of points, that the threshold for not being a disaster was five or six.
00:03:20
Speaker
We'd be happy with seven or eight, i especially eight, I think we said would be quite good. Nine was plausible, but after that, it's really, you're getting really greedy.
00:03:31
Speaker
And lo and behold, Sounders got 10 points. And some of the context of that conversation was eight points on the road, at eight or nine points on the road. That's, that's target. ah You know, that's pretty greedy, but like if the teams were playing, right?
00:03:48
Speaker
And in reality, um you know, some of them aren't great, but San Jose looks like a legitimate Western conference powerhouse at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Minnesota has not looked bad, especially last weekend. St. Louis even doesn't look too bad. St. Louis doesn't look too bad. i think Houston, we'll get into into that game and in depth here in a second, but I think Houston looks quite good, actually. I think they looked like a yeah playoff team in this game. um They've been pretty decent this year. So, ah yeah, I think you've got to feel great about it, man. I mean, you know, that they could go into Mexico City and have a bad night and not Mexico City. Monterey. Monterey.
00:04:26
Speaker
and have a bad night in a race, some of that goodwill. But in terms of how the league is going... It's pretty good at this point. I mean, I think they're in fifth place, so it feels kind of weird to say this, but I think that the Sounders are still in the mix for the Shield, which maybe this may be the latest they've been in the mix for the Shield since 2014. Well, 2021, would say. That's true. was the year that they were 2013 unbeaten to start the season. But yeah, since then, I would say. Since then, for sure. Yeah. Easily the best start that they've had.
00:04:55
Speaker
And... You know, this in some ways, this is I mean up haven't actually looked at the points that they claimed in 2021 through six games, but I don't imagine it was much more than they have right now. yeah they They were tying a lot of games, if I remember correctly.
00:05:14
Speaker
And but, you know, this has been i think I've been very impressed on a lot of ways with the with this start. But the the biggest of which is if you just look at the fixtures that they you compare the fixtures of this season to last year. So you look at San Jose, you look at St. Louis, you look at Minnesota, you look at.
00:05:35
Speaker
Houston. And even you can look at Colorado, the home game, they tied Colorado last year. They, you know, they lost at RSL. So that's a wash, but then they lost at San Jose.
00:05:46
Speaker
They lost at Minnesota. They lost at St. Louis and they, they did win against, uh, They did win against Houston.
00:05:58
Speaker
So that's a, that also is a wash, but you know, that's, I think it was nine points ahead of last year based on a fixture to fixture comparison That's feeling pretty good. I mean, this is there's not a lot of ways that you can you got to got to tie yourself up ah into knots a little bit to be frustrated by the start. And I know that there are people who are frustrated at the relative lack of goal scoring.
00:06:22
Speaker
But man, I just can't I just can't get worked up about not scoring a ton of goals on the road if you're pitching shutouts.
Defensive Improvements and Strong Season Start
00:06:30
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it's, it's unusual for a team to play five games on the road in, in league play.
00:06:38
Speaker
um They haven't, like you said, they haven't played Lumen since February at this point. And so you don't normally, it is, it is very crazy. um But you don't normally see that many consecutive road games. And when they're interspersed throughout the year, if you you know play at home and you blow the doors off somebody 4-0 and then you go on the road and win in a game like we saw over the weekend, that 1-0 is just like, yeah, well, we just won 4-0 a week ago. like right yeah You got to do what you got to do on the road. But when you have to watch it five times in a row,
00:07:12
Speaker
you know, not, not as exciting, but these are games they weren't winning last year. um Right. You know, these, these are games that they were getting a point from the like they weren't winning a lot of one nils at all last year. The defense struggled a lot. i I think they only won two one zero games last year and they've already won yeah three one zero games this year.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, they ah the defense looks fixed. Obviously, there's still plenty of season for that to to turn around. But all of the things that they were doing last year that were frustrating and seemed uncharacteristic, they're not doing those things this year.
00:07:46
Speaker
Systemically, they just seem a lot more solid. um I think that they are being a little more pragmatic, but I think that that makes sense to do. Like, I think that last season they really wanted to go for it a lot. And I think that.
00:07:59
Speaker
that made sense in the context of the season and what people were wanting to see. And some of the excitement was lagging a bit this season. I think they've got people back in the fold a little bit more, and you just have to set a good tone for the season and do what you got to do to get points on the road. When they've been at home, they've been pretty exciting to watch. So I don't really have a lot of concerns about that. And now, you know, coming up soon, they'll have a whole bunch of games at home, not in a row because I think they play two at home and they go on the road again, yeah,
00:08:28
Speaker
they'll have a big chunk of games at home ah where, you know, they can play some fun, exciting soccer, score some goals. And i think get people really excited how they follow this up though is going to be important, right? Because right now I think you have to say this is a team, even though they're in fifth place, seems kind of crazy to say they're, they're a supporter shield contender. They've got 13 points from, from their first six.
00:08:51
Speaker
That's that's pretty good. And if they can keep up the home form that they had last year and even be average on the road the rest of the year, they're totally in the mix. They've just set themselves up really, really well, I think, for for the rest of the season.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they at this point, they could play at a one-point pace for the rest of the season on the road. Yeah. and they would easily beat what they had last year.
00:09:19
Speaker
ah That would put them on 22 road points. which isn't a great total, but it would be enough to be, I mean, you're a playoff team easily. If you're gone on 22 road points, you're going to be a playoff team. That's obviously not the Sounders goal, but it it just sets them up very nicely.
00:09:34
Speaker
You know, going like you said, just to kind of put things in context of what they were doing last year. You know, they had only had one shutout to this point last year. they had not had a shutout win to this point last year. They weren't exactly bad defensively, but they were not great. They'd given up ah eight goals at this point last year. They'd given up two this year.
Team Culture and Player Development
00:09:55
Speaker
And, you know, even though they are fifth in the table, that's a that's even a little deceiving because they're only they're fourth in the supporter. They're tied on points for fourth in the supporter shield standings. And they're only three points back of of the of LAFC. And all the teams in the top six have all played at least ah three home games.
00:10:18
Speaker
And yeah some of them have played four or five home games. So, you know, the Sounders are are banking a lot of road points here. ah You know, we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. But, you know, the goal going into this road trip, I think, was really advance from Champions Cup and don't do anything to take yourself out of the Supporter Shield race.
00:10:40
Speaker
And they they did that with flying colors. I mean, this is a ah team that looks... like they know who they are. They have, you know, they bat. And I think it's easy to forget that they've had a ton of injuries.
00:10:52
Speaker
You know, yeah. Tino Lopez wasn't on the roster. Yeah. To begin the season. And he started the last three, the last three games, all shutouts.
00:11:02
Speaker
And he looks totally confident at center back. I mean, he may be, he may be the third or fourth quarterback. center back at this point. I mean, he might not, he might be the second center back. I don't know. Uh, but Yamar has been out for most of this time. Then Alex Roldan got hurt.
00:11:17
Speaker
You know, Jordan Morris has missed most of the time. Pedro de la Vega has obviously been out for, uh, the whole year. Uh, Albert Rusnak didn't start this game. You can kind of just go down the list and kenny misovsky was Danny was her. Danny Mazovsky started, so you know didn't, wasn't starting at the beginning of the season because of a back issue.
00:11:36
Speaker
So, yeah, i mean, it's, I think you just have to be really, really pleased with everything that the centers
Management Strategy: Promoting and Selling Players
00:11:43
Speaker
have done. And man, I'll tell you, They showed the video of Brian Schmetzer's postgame speech in the locker room, and it wasn't fire and brimstone, and it wasn't anything big, but I just really came away appreciating the culture that the Sounders have really built here, and there is this camaraderie, and there is this sense of, you know,
00:12:06
Speaker
ah MLS rightfully gets beat up a lot for not really having proper clubs, that these are just kind of groups of players who are thrown together and don't have a lot of, you know, there's not a lot of teams that have a real ethos inside of them. Yeah. And I think what we're really seeing right now is the Sounders have that. And and that's not going to be a surprise to anyone who is listening to this, but it really does. i think it it really underscores what they've built when they are able to start like this. I mean, they are basically playing every game with four or five starters that they signed from Tacoma defiance.
00:12:44
Speaker
ah You know, half their roster basically comes from Tacoma defiance. They just signed Peter Kingston. ah It's, I'm just blown away really at what they've managed to do. And yeah, it would be nice if they spent some more money,
00:12:58
Speaker
but I do think there's a trade-off and and the trade-off right now feels like a pretty good one. Yeah. And I think that you can, you can hold two opinions at once, right? It is, it would be really nice if they, if I felt more confident that they were going to spend money when they, they needed to.
00:13:16
Speaker
Right. And they haven't really needed to because they have this culture. They have this pipeline. they every Every young kid that that comes in and gets into the lineup looks ready to be there.
00:13:30
Speaker
Even if they're not setting the world on fire, even if they're just doing a job, filling space, whatever, they never like I've never seen... well I don't want to say never, but it's extremely rare that you see a Defiance product...
00:13:43
Speaker
come in and just look totally off pace, totally unprepared, totally lost. and And that's just... I'm trying to think the last time it happened. ah Yeah. You know, maybe you go back to... i don't know what... Yeah, i mean, you got to go back a couple years to find players who were kind of thrown into the deep end and didn't look... And I'm talking about, like, one-off cases. I'm not talking about, like... You know...
00:14:11
Speaker
everyone will talk about the, uh, the teenager game in Austin in 2021. And that was pretty impressive, but in a lot of ways that was not, you know, they kind of got lucky in that one a little bit. They, you know, they held on for dear life and they, they were playing a team that, you know, was struggling to finish, but that's not what's is going on anymore. um the centers are going into places like Vancouver and just standing toe to toe with some of the best teams in the league. And yeah, yeah.
00:14:39
Speaker
I love it. You know, I love watching this team. You know, Peter Kingston came into this game late and I was just saying how he never looks overmatched.
00:14:50
Speaker
You know, he is 24 year old defensive midfielder out there doing just shows he belongs right away. i You know, obviously, Tino Edwards, like I said, is an even better example of that. But you can kind of just go down the list of of players that they've been able to bring up.
00:15:07
Speaker
and And players who were not highly regarded, ah you know, like Snyder Burnell is not the same as Peter Kingston. Snyder Burnell is a player who clearly they they identified early and they brought him in and he is, ah he's clearly very talented.
00:15:22
Speaker
Peter Kingston is someone who went through the defiance or I'm sorry, went through the academy, spent a long time in the academy. was highly considered, but not necessarily a top prospect. He goes to college, doesn't really stick anywhere. He ends up doing five years between Seattle U and UW. He goes and plays. He doesn't get drafted.
00:15:42
Speaker
He signs with Ballard, or he plays for Ballard, and then he signs for Defiance. And he just sort of like keeps grinding. and he gets his chance and now he's, you know, they, they had this video of him after, right after he didn't get drafted, I guess.
00:16:02
Speaker
And he was very sort of like sober and, and said, you know, I'm just going to keep putting my head down and, and try to make this thing happen. yeah And lo and behold, here he is.
00:16:14
Speaker
How many guys on this team were like six months from going and doing something else? know like it's crazy yeah and and they're all talented players but the margins at this level are so thin yeah and it's just like someone giving you a chance someone giving you a chance and finding the right culture where you're allowed to you know to be given the chance and you're allowed to make mistakes.
00:16:38
Speaker
How many teams in MLS would have gone out and signed the first veteran free agent center back? They could have, as soon as you are pulled up, the GM would have been on the phone with somebody or they would have made it. Get down here. We need you.
00:16:51
Speaker
And, and the sounders don't do that because they have, they, they trust that, they They at least trust that, you know what, we got to see what we have in the guys we have in-house. Right. And that is admirable. I know that there are some people who find that annoying, who think it's cheap, who want the Sounders to go out and get the free agent. And maybe it is cheap.
00:17:12
Speaker
It's okay to I don't think it's this, that, but I agree with you. I'm i'm with you. I'm sorry. No, I mean, i i I think that sometimes the Sounders are cheap. I think sometimes people complain about the Sounders being smart.
00:17:26
Speaker
Right. It's like anytime they don't spend money gets lumped into one big thing. And it's like, well, no, sometimes it's OK to see what you have in the guys that are already in your organization who are going to take like how great is it to have these two guys taking up supplemental spots who are playing real minutes, who are not hitting your cap at all.
00:17:48
Speaker
And who either, you know, maybe they're going to turn into to good, solid MLS players. maybe you're going to be able to to trade them for assets so they can go start somewhere else. Maybe they'll turn into long term starters. I mean, that probably not.
00:18:02
Speaker
But and maybe they just end up being back in players for a couple of years and they go do something else. Well, I think that's what's interesting about the Sounders is that there's examples of all of these things. You know, you've got a Jordan Morris who, you know, will likely be a lifer. You've got a Christian Roldan who, yeah, I'll count him among the sort of through the pipeline players. You've got an Alex Roldan, guys who achieved reasonably high levels and just stayed around forever. And then you've got the Georgie Manungus and the Danny Leivas and the Obed Vargas is at the high end of players who, you
00:18:37
Speaker
were essentially moved on when they they either outplayed the league or they just couldn't they couldn't get on the field. And then they've got they've got players who will also stick around and fill out the bottom end of the roster.
00:18:51
Speaker
you know like a cody A couple weeks ago, Cody Baker started against San Jose, and i don't think I was almost unremarked at how competent he looked. This is a guy who barely gets on the field for the Sounders, but whenever he does...
00:19:07
Speaker
looks like he totally belongs. Yeah. And I just think that being able to cycle in players at various levels of the sort of the need chart is really important. And it's, and it is what builds culture. And, you know, you look at how many players the Sounders have right now who started playing for this organization recently, as kids, as children, as 12, 13-year-olds.
00:19:33
Speaker
and And it's not a small number. you know it's It's at least a half dozen guys who started playing for the Sounders at the beginning of their their academy careers, you know that they were that they were getting that they were being invited to be guest players for for teams and whatnot. And i don't think you can... And yes, it's important to have...
00:19:56
Speaker
the Christian rolled on and the Stefan Fry and and the guys at the top on of the roster who can impart that culture. But there is something to be said about the bubbling the culture up from beneath too. And, and so you can bring in players from outside the organization and they just sort of immediately get it like Nikola Petkovich.
00:20:16
Speaker
it Really sad story. Here's a guy who you know seemingly was a little lost at Charlotte. He comes here, and you could just see the way he was talking about being here and how...
00:20:29
Speaker
like it was a different environment and it's, yeah, it's, there's a winning aspect of it, but it's also like, there's a camaraderie and there's a togetherness and it's not clicky. It doesn't, it doesn't seem clicky. I'm sure there are clicks within the the team, but it seems like every time a new, we have a lot more players who come in are,
00:20:51
Speaker
enamored with the culture here than players who can kind of just be like, yeah, whatever, just pay. Let me get my paycheck. People talk so much for throughout MLS history. Happy birthday to MLS, by the way. It's 30th, 30th anniversary today.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah. They talk about when is a month like, when is MLS going to get to where Europe is? And when is it, you know, when are we going to have the same kind of culture when this is how things are other places, right?
00:21:19
Speaker
The great clubs outside of like, you know, the very top end Manchester United and Barcelona and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Although they have plenty of Academy product products come through as well. But this is how it is in most of the rest of the world, right? You have this steady supply of players that come up through your academy who are playing meaningful minutes for you.
00:21:37
Speaker
And maybe some of them only play for you for a couple of years before dropping down a level. um And plenty of them will go on to bigger clubs or you know move up a pyramid, whatever it is.
00:21:48
Speaker
But this is unique in MLS, this kind of reliance on your pipeline. And your academy. And when it's not unique in MLS, that is when I think we're going to know that all those investments and teams have been put into the academies have been worth it. And I think it's also when American soccer is going to start leveling up a little bit when you have this proven pipeline of like coming up all the way through the academy, playing club soccer,
00:22:15
Speaker
at the MLS level and then moving on to bigger and better things. And that becomes like a much more consistent thing rather than what tends to happen now, which is the best 16 year olds get sold before they ever play for the first team. Right.
00:22:26
Speaker
And then, you know, you're left with guys who weren't quite good enough to, to play at the highest levels in world of soccer. Yeah, and i and i I think I probably talked about this previously, but and ill I'll sort of raise my hand and and take some blame for throwing around the idea that the Sounders are sort of like becoming a selling club. But I think there is an important distinction between what a classic selling club is and what the Sounders are. And the the main difference is that a selling club...
00:22:57
Speaker
is selling players up and down their roster and is not necessarily interested in developing ah winning. They're not winning is just not one of the the main focuses.
00:23:11
Speaker
And the Sounders are right now mostly selling players who can't break in, who don't have clear ah roles within the team. I really like Georgie Manungu's talent.
00:23:23
Speaker
I think he is probably going to do very well at Colorado, but there is a reality that he was not, you know, he was, he probably wouldn't have started on, on Saturday. i don't, you know, the only time he's getting starts most likely is when the Sounders are really heavily rotating.
00:23:40
Speaker
ah You know, Reed Baker Whiting looks like he is really starting to find his footing at Nashville. But man, I got to tell you, knew who i don't think he if he was here, i don't see how he'd be starting over because Nuhu is playing great.
00:23:55
Speaker
Danny Leyva is going set a career high, maybe double the number of minutes that he's ever played. And he looks like he's balling out for Nekoxa. I don't know that he would have been playing any more than he did last year.
00:24:07
Speaker
Like, yeah, that doesn't seem very likely. And you can sort of just go down the list and every guy ended up going to a better situation for them, but the Sounders got something out of it. And, and so it's not really, it's not that they're a selling club. It's that they are now in a position where they can sell extra talent because that's how reliable the pipeline has become.
00:24:31
Speaker
That, that is the thing is that when you develop a lot of good players, you're going to sell good players. And I think that there's this mindset in American sports because this is soccer is unique in the sense that like the farm system in baseball is not the same as the academy system, right? Like and NBA teams do not have 12 year olds in their pipeline.
00:24:51
Speaker
So it's different. And yeah, you're you're going to lose good players. You're going to sell good players. And you can't look at that as we lost that trade or we lost that sale or whatever. There are so many great players who came through the IAC system who...
00:25:08
Speaker
didn't make their careers at Ajax who got sold to Barcelona players, Barcelona players, Manchester city players, Manchester city sells tons of good players. Albert Rosnack, for example, came up through Manchester city's Academy.
00:25:20
Speaker
Great, great MLS player, right. Um, was never going to play for Manchester city. And, and I do think that that's something that, that Sounders fans are going to have to get comfortable with is that, yeah, like I'm happy for Reed Baker Whiting.
00:25:33
Speaker
I loved him here. i wish he could have broken through and won the serving job. But he didn't, and now he's going somewhere where he's going to have a chance to do that and and you know and develop and and you know hit the heights that he's going to hit in his career that he just going to have that chance here.
00:25:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess we should probably talk a little bit more specifically about this Houston game.
Analysis of Match Against Houston
00:25:54
Speaker
It was a game worth talking about, I think. Yeah. You know, the Sounders, I think wrote to i think you could say that they – the starting lineup was reflective of at least a little bit of looking to Wednesday. Albert Rosnack didn't start.
00:26:11
Speaker
Jordan Morris didn't start. Hassani Dodson didn't start. I would expect at least those three to start against Tigris. And they ah all three of them came off the bench.
00:26:23
Speaker
And, You know, the the first half wasn't great. It was, you know, I think you could argue that they even though the Sounders had a pretty significant possession advantage, they really only created one scoring chance, and it was a good scoring chance. ah You know, Jonathan Bond made a nice save on Jesus Ferreira, but that was really the only that was the only true moment of danger, I thought.
00:26:47
Speaker
And then I guess there was maybe a couple, half chances that were, you know, they were ah ah close to being real chances. And then they, they go into halftime and the first really great chance that they got was when Paul Areola got played down the wing and it looked like he had Danny Masofsky set up for maybe even a tap in and his cross. I think so it goes down as a shot.
00:27:17
Speaker
I, I kind of think it got deflected out though by the defender. I don't know that Danny actually got there. Yeah, i I did not think that was as clear-cut of a chance as other people did, even in real time. I thought that that was a difficult finish, for sure. And, ah you know, I would like to see Danny Misovsi score that, because there's yeah he's a guy who needs to be scoring goals to justify his minutes.
00:27:38
Speaker
He sure does, yeah. But but that I don't think that was as nailed-on of a chance as it maybe looked at at first. Yeah. ah And it should be said, Andrew Thomas made a couple good saves. The probably the best one was Guillermo kind of dribbled through a couple defenders and really got an impressive shot off that forced Thomas to, you know, to make a ah diving save.
00:28:04
Speaker
And that was really but that was really probably the only great chance that are like by far the best look I thought that Houston had. And other than that, the Sounders, I thought, really did a good job of just defending and not giving a lot to Houston.
00:28:21
Speaker
ah You know, set we talked a lot about set piece defense coming into this year and how they needed to improve. I don't I mean, maybe there is maybe one decent look on a set piece, but the Sounders have been really good on set pieces so far this year.
00:28:36
Speaker
yeah Yeah, and i mean that was the biggest thing last year. right That was the thing. all the All the smarter, stats-minded folks than that I kept making that point at the end of the season doing you know sort of the the analysis of the year. like This was a team that was really good defensively from the run of play. It was just really bad set-piece defense that that undid them.
00:28:56
Speaker
um And it it hasn't been an issue so far this year, that's for sure. No, it certainly hasn't. And that's you know that bodes well. i And then they they were able to... You know, by the time Morris came into the game around the 60th minute, him, Rusnak, and Dotson, I think, all came in together, I remember correctly. and they And it did feel like the game sort of switched over at that point. Like, the Sounders definitely had a a much more cohesive attack.
00:29:27
Speaker
ah Morris, you know, it's funny. I've seen... a fair number of criticisms of Morris. And i keep hearing this notion that he just looks like he's past it.
00:29:38
Speaker
And I don't honestly know what people are watching. Uh, Morris, now I don't, I don't, whenever he's on the, like he's, first of all, he's coming off his best year on a per 90 basis. So like the idea that he's somehow far removed from being productive is just not accurate.
00:29:54
Speaker
Uh, and he's, you know, what you use played like 70 minutes this year? And, you know, he's looked like himself, you know, he, he hasn't necessarily gotten a ton of scoring chances, but he looks fast. He looks like he's, you know, he, there was a play in this game where he he got out into the open field and he literally just bounced off a couple of defenders. And i was like, yeah, this is the Jordan Morris that I'm, I'm dying to see.
00:30:17
Speaker
yeah And you know, he doesn't necessarily make a, mate. He gets the assist on the, on the Roth rock goal. And I do think it was not an easy header for him to get to.
00:30:28
Speaker
And I don't know. i don't have any... I'm happy to give him the assist on that one. He you know he he got ahead to it. And sure, it was like a popped-up header, but he put it in a place where his his teammate could finish it. So i don't have a problem with that.
00:30:43
Speaker
He is just, to me, so clearly in and a different caliber of of st striker from Osaze and Danny that I just... If you're frustrated with the injuries, I get it.
00:30:56
Speaker
And and if you if if you want to say he's injury prone and that's why i would rather there be, you know, we have somebody else there. Fair enough, right? I'm not going to try to convince you that you're wrong to feel that way.
00:31:09
Speaker
I might, but I'm not going to do it right now. But... But when he is playing, he's just so clearly better. And the team just looked so much better after he came on. And and I think that that was not just him. right i thought I thought Dotson was was quite good. I thought Rusnak was good.
00:31:28
Speaker
So it was it was the substitutions and the tactical adjustments that I think made the difference. as you know, holistically, but the Sounders were able to keep possession much better because this holdup play was so much better than the Danny's was. He's just every element of what you have to do to be a striker. He is better than his competition.
00:31:50
Speaker
He has the best holdup play. He's, he's, you know, best with one V ones. I think he's, at least on par with Osaze aerially, right? Like in terms of like actually converting aerial chances.
00:32:06
Speaker
um And there were a couple of times where, you know, the Sounders in the first half attacks that just would have totally died in midfield where Moose would have lost the ball right away, where Jordan was able to make something happen with it. And and that just makes the team so much more dangerous as a, as a unit. But I think,
00:32:26
Speaker
that this was a game where people who doubt Brian Schmetzer's tactical acumen, people who doubt his ability to make the right changes at the right times, like we still get so many complaints. You hear it all the time on Blue Sky and the Discord, whatever, about Brian not making subs on time.
00:32:47
Speaker
Brian waiting too long, taking off the wrong players. And it's just crazy to me. Like he has made like every substitution he has made this year has, has worked as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. i don't know that there's been one sub that you could go like, I got that one wrong.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah. i mean And just the tactical adjustments at the halftime, Or consistently very good. Yeah, they destroyed Houston in the second half. Like Houston was better in the first half. I think the degree to which they were better was is maybe overstated by some folks, but they were clearly the better team, right?
00:33:17
Speaker
Yeah. The Sounders just obliterated them in the second half. Houston created absolutely nothing at all in the second half. ah The Sounders were just far, far better. And then they made the right adjustments at the end to to win the game. I mean, it's just...
00:33:31
Speaker
i it's pretty good soccer team with a pretty good coaching staff as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, and and it shouldn't be lost. Like, this was not easy conditions. I mean, the the game got delayed by thunderstorms, and it was pouring rain virtually the whole game. I can only imagine how exhausting it must have been to to play that thing out.
00:33:51
Speaker
um But, you know, to your point, the Sounders had 0.97 XG to ah Houston's 0.31 in the second half alone. ah You know, like, they...
00:34:04
Speaker
did not have any real looks, you know, and the, the last good look they had was around the 65th minute. Yeah. And then after that, it was a lot of nothing.
00:34:18
Speaker
Yeah. And that, that's a consistent pattern. I feel like in Sounders games where they just decide the game's over. They just decide the other team is not going to have more chances. They're not going to be scoring. They're not going to be creating anything else. And that's just the way it goes. And like Houston had some set pieces at the end.
00:34:34
Speaker
And those are always nervy nervy, but they didn't create anything from him. There wasn't any danger from him. And, you know, the the Sounders did not have a ton of chances, but the chances that they did have, the one Jesus had in the first half, took a great save.
00:34:51
Speaker
um I was ecstatic to see him... shoot uh that was really encouraging he quadrupled his xg for the year with that with that one shot so that was that was wonderful to see i i thought he had a thought he had a really good game as well um overall, but seeing him go towards goal was, was really encouraging. Um, you know, I will say speaking of subs, I think the one, ah frustration that I've heard most commonly is that Jesus keeps getting pulled relatively early and I get it.
00:35:22
Speaker
I wouldn't mind seeing him on the field a little bit more. but I also got to think that they're doing a lot to preserve his legs. Like this is, yeah this is a guy who's probably going to end up playing 50 games. I mean, if he stayed, you know, if, if you got to play 60 minutes, 65 minutes, and that means you get to play 50 games, that seems like a good trade. Yeah.
00:35:42
Speaker
And he presses so hard. Like he's just, he's just running the whole time he's on the pitch. You know, he, he probably runs as much as a lot of attacking players do playing 90 minutes. Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's it it feels good right now. You know, it can all obviously be undone and and we're sort of living in the moment. But that's what this is, right? We all we can do is live in the moment. And I do like the Sounders chances against Tigris. I got to say, we're going to do a little bit more talk about Tigris in the second segment.
00:36:09
Speaker
And I will remind people if you. are interested. we talked to John Arnold of getting CONCACAF last week on Friday, and he, he gave us a nice little preview of, Tigris.
00:36:21
Speaker
So if you're really interested in digging in, you can do that. But ah yeah, I mean, I, I do like the Sounders chances. i think this is a, you know, I feel very positive right now about things. Yeah.
00:36:33
Speaker
So, ah you know, hopefully that that maintains. And, ah you know, when I come back, ah in case people are curious, I'm going to be leaving to Mexico on Thursday right after the basically after the game. So I will be gone for a week.
00:36:45
Speaker
And so hopefully when I come back, we're still in the same mood. Yeah, that would be good. Yeah, yeah. That's the thing, right, is that they they've been a great road team before and sucked at home. So yeah they just got to do both. They got to do both this time. And and i think we should be good. It would be nice. It would be nice. It would definitely be nice. But all right, well, let's take a break. and we're going to talk a little bit about Tigris. We'll talk about some other stuff. ah Maybe talk about it about grass ah since it's going in right now.
00:37:12
Speaker
But yeah, you're listening to Nos Adietes on the Sound at Heart Podcast Network. And we'll be right back.
00:37:20
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:39:18
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Welcome back to Nos Arietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network.
Champions Cup Quarterfinal: Facing Tigres
00:39:22
Speaker
All right, so Sounders have a a big game against Tigris. They will be going down to El Volcan, which is...
00:39:32
Speaker
the historic stadium in Monterey, as opposed to the Stadio Technico, that is where Monterey play. But this is this is one of the great atmospheres in North America and frankly in the Western hemisphere in the world.
00:39:50
Speaker
I mean, El Volcan is a tremendous place to watch a soccer match from what I can tell. It's, you know, I would imagine there will be a very good crowd there. The supporters are always very boisterous.
00:40:02
Speaker
And there is the, you know, we saw when Tigris played Cincinnati that the atmosphere has a way of sort of taking over and almost carrying Tigris to results.
00:40:14
Speaker
And in that, for that reason, I'm really glad that the sounders get to host the second leg because it feels like maybe the, there's little less potential for that in a first leg.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, but that seems fair. Um, I, i'm I'm sure they have, but I'm trying to recall when the Sounders have played Tigres. In 2013. 2013, yeah. Yeah, that was the first leg of the Champions Cup, also Champions League quarterfinal. They lost in 1-0. Yeah.
00:40:44
Speaker
yeah It was a kind of quiet affair. And the thing I'll always remember about it was Siggy was really upset because there was no passive offside called on the on the goal.
00:40:55
Speaker
And he, yeah like, the Tigres attacker was... ah in an offside position and was interfering with the play and every time a play gets ruled out for offside i think about that play for some great and then the return leg obviously was the one with uh the the deandre edwin goal yep was it and jimmy traori scoring jimmy traori goal yeah maybe the most maybe the most famous goal in sounders history still two pretty insane goals in that game yeah no i think the pedro goal is probably the Yeah, I guess now. yeah But that Jimmy Traore goal for a long time was just sort of ah a thing of legend.
00:41:30
Speaker
Yeah, it was a hell of a goal. Hell of a goal. um And that was that would have been before Tigres were this generation of Tigres, right? Before they were sort of... Yeah, it was just like pre-Giniac.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, best team on the continent for a while, and the Sounders managed to avoid him. So that's... Yeah. That's pretty handy. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, the only time the Sounders ever kind of played that Tigris team was in leagues cup in 2021, which is not really considered the same leagues cup that is going on now.
00:42:03
Speaker
Uh, The Sounders won the game, that game 3-0. It was at Lumen Field. That was Nico Ladero's made a return in that game and scored a banger from like 30 yards out or something like that.
00:42:15
Speaker
I do remember that game, but it felt like a friendly at the time. Yeah, yeah it kind of did. But this will not, I don't think, feel like a friendly. no i'm I'm really actually kind of looking forward to just seeing, because this is a real good test, I think, of of the Sounders, of their culture, – of You know, that they should be able to put something like their best foot forward.
00:42:34
Speaker
Alex Roldan, who I don't think I mentioned in the first segment as someone who will probably start this game, I would imagine Alex Roldan will slot back in at center back.
00:42:45
Speaker
My guess is we're going to get. Although I don't know, maybe we get Alex Roldan at right back. Maybe that would be an inch. That's actually a very interesting dilemma. and I may all put it to you. Would you rather see Alex starting at right back or center back in this game?
00:43:02
Speaker
So it's like Lopez versus Kalani Kosarianzi. I don't think there's a, I'm not going to blame Brian for starting um Alex at center back if that's what he does, but I kind of feel like you got to say Tina Lopez, like, Hey man,
00:43:18
Speaker
you've you've earned you've earned the spot. like You've played really well. yeah There you go. like this is this is This is what you get. This is your reward, right? you You get to play on the road against the Tigris team. That ah is going to be you know raring to go. So...
00:43:33
Speaker
That's what I would do. I think he's played well enough to earn it. And, and I like the sink or swim approach. um If he's not ready for that yet. Well, now that's something, you know, right. And I'd rather find that a second leg. And that's, yeah you know, exactly. And if you're chasing a goal or you're, you really need, you're you chasing a result more in the second leg.
00:43:51
Speaker
It probably makes more sense to have, you Kalani and Alex on the field together. And then you get a little bit more of an offensive look, but yeah. And this one, i think there's an art, a pretty good argument to be made. Alex rolled on at right back, Tina Lopez at center back.
00:44:08
Speaker
And then Reagan knew who and on the same token, that's why I think we're going to see Dotson and rolled on instead of Brunel and rolled on. Yeah. I just think, this is Brian's going to default to his sort of like that. And I, and I don't think it's wrong in this case. I like, I actually kind of agree with that decision. I think if, if they, if that's what they do, I i don't have a problem dots in starting this game. I thought he looked good coming off the bench.
00:44:34
Speaker
Right. um I, and then we'll probably see, Ferreira and and Rusnak and then Rothrock on the left, I would assume and Morris up top. I mean, that's a I'll take that. I like that lineup.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it's about as good as you can do right now at this point, um especially for, you know, for a road game and conquer calf. ah I think it's going to be a tough game. This is clearly the best team the Sounders have played all year. and And I don't think it's particularly close. I mean, Vancouver.
00:45:05
Speaker
And San Jose are both pretty good teams. Yeah, that's true. That's true. um Neither one of them have Anjo Correa on the team. So that's that's fair. but But, you know, I mean, Marco Farfan plays for Degrace. So like how how good can they be really? ah i mean, they're a good team.
00:45:23
Speaker
They, I think, finished second in the Apertura, right? Yeah. this year. ah Yeah. They're, I mean, right now they're mid table, pretty decided mid table. Yeah. And they, and they're coming off a loss to Tijuana and, and they lost to Juarez this year. I mean, this is a, they they've had some injuries. And so I think this is, they have not really, i don't know if this is going to be like their full strength side, but this is a wounded Tigris team that to me feels ripe for,
00:45:55
Speaker
You know, if the Sounders can get like to me, the ideal result is probably one one like or yeah two two, I suppose. But like I would anything better than one one. i will consider an absolute victory one one. I would have no qualms with at all. I mean, obviously, I'd take zero zero two. ah But getting that road goal would be would give me some nice peace of mind.
00:46:17
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. and And I think that that's on the table, right? I think that this is still a Tigres team when they're at their best. They're not grinding out results. they're They're scoring goals. So I think that that's, you know, I think the Sounders are capable of doing that.
00:46:31
Speaker
And the Sounders are capable of grinding out results. And I think that that helps quite a bit, you know, having that confidence coming into the game. I don't think they're going to be intimidated by Tigres at all. I think the days of going down to Mexico and just getting absolutely waxed are great.
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah. Largely over. Right. Like those Santos like Laguna teams that they played in like the early Right. right ah I just don't see this Tigres team being a team capable of doing that to the Sounders team, which is which is nice. It's nice to feel pretty confident going into these games.
00:47:00
Speaker
um But yeah, I mean, it's you know, it is a tough game. It's a tough place to play for sure. ah it feels really good to have what feels like a very high stakes team. Champions League game again. Yeah.
00:47:13
Speaker
The Vancouver games like. It doesn't quite feel like Champions League because it's right an MLS opponent and it's a Cascadia opponent at that. Right. Exactly. Even though the Whitecaps, maybe they are better than Tigres at this point. I think that that's totally possible.
00:47:28
Speaker
It just doesn't feel quite the same. um And yeah, it's i the road looks pretty. i don't want to say easy, but it looks like you know, it looks like they can make a run. If they get past this team, it looks like they can make a run. No, I would say if they, if they win this one, I think they're going to be the favorites against whoever they face in the semifinals, either America or Nashville. And then if it's Toluca in the final,
00:47:56
Speaker
you know, Toluca might be the best team in, in North America. That's, but if it's at, but the the thing is that because they won both legs of the, of the round of 16, that gives them a really good shot at hosting the final.
00:48:13
Speaker
And I'll take the Sounders chances hosting, honestly, anybody. ah Like, I, I'm not going to say that they're going be the favorites. And again, we're getting way ahead of ourselves, but,
00:48:26
Speaker
I mean, I i like this. I like the Sounders at home against anybody. So, yeah, if they can get past Tigris, I really i think they're in they're in good shape. Now, Tigris is not going to roll over. You know, they just they just walloped FC Cincinnati five goals ah in the return leg.
00:48:48
Speaker
That's, that's gotta, that's gotta to be a, you know, and they've got some real players on that team. They've got guys who are very, very good. Like this is not a, this is not a bad team.
00:48:59
Speaker
No, it's not. I mean, it's Andre Pierre Gignac, despite being 40 is still very good in front of goal. Yeah. takes him while to get in front of goal at this point, but when he's there, you know, he's, he's very effective on how Korea is, is an extremely good player. um They, you know, they, they are,
00:49:18
Speaker
Very talented team, but I just, I feel good about, about the sound of chances in this one. I really do. I think that ah it's always tough, you know, to go into Mexico um against any teams, but like the very bottom teams, but you know, and I think I would much rather play T grace at this stage of the tournament than like a semifinal.
00:49:41
Speaker
Right. Like I think that that's, it's going to be more intimidating and it's going to be higher pressure. um And I do think that the Sounders having the return leg like this is probably not going to be the exciting free flowing game that people want to see at this point in the season after playing so many games on the road. I'm sure the Sounders are going to approach this one very similar to the way that they've approached, you know, the St. Louis game or the Houston game or whatever it is. But um I mean, would you?
00:50:08
Speaker
want to go out and try to score five goals in this environment. I don't, I don't think I would, I don't think that's really the right approach. So, uh, you know, do, do what you're good at. Uh, and I think what the Sounders are good at is, is getting the results they need out of games like this one.
00:50:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. all right. Well, ah the other thing I wanted to just touch on is Fox 13 apparently has a camera trained on Lumen Field right now.
00:50:33
Speaker
And if you are so inclined, you can watch. I'm stealing this line from you, but you can watch grass grow. Yeah, they they today were putting down the grass. I believe they got about halfway done and presumably tomorrow they will finish the job. So if you're listening to this, you can you know, I Fox 13. would just go to Fox 13 and they, you should be able to find the link there, but it is kind of cool to see the grass being put in. I don't know if it's how big of a deal it is. It's weirdly relaxing. i don't know. It was nice to have up on the second monitor when I was in a meeting. And I just like when I needed to zone out, I could just look over at that and you know, was nice. Nice to watch. Yeah, it is. i am. I got to admit, I'm a little surprised that we're April 6th and they're just now putting the grass in.
00:51:19
Speaker
ah yeah, yeah. But I guess that I mean, i look, I'm going to assume this is part of the plan. Like they know exactly what they're doing and that this is you know, this is all part of it. And I think it probably speaks to how much work it took to lay the foundation.
00:51:36
Speaker
ah Apparently, it's like a foot, 14 inches, something like that of infill and sand. And it's going to feel like a real. grass pitch, uh, even more so than last year's club world cup, supposedly. So yeah, I'm excited to see it. I don't know that I'll ever get a walk on it, but I am right. It's, it'll be neat to to have, like, I still love seeing grass on Lumen field. ah Like last year was really cool, uh, to see it.
00:52:02
Speaker
And especially over an extended period, like it was last year, but we're going to have this grass until like July 19th or something, you know, like yeah it's going it's going to be there a long time. It's actually, it's pretty cool.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it we'll play like half of our home games on it this year, probably. Something like that. Yeah, like six ah yeah six or seven. yeah yeah absolutely. Almost half the... At least a third of our home games.
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah, pretty cool. i was I was up there this weekend. I walked from Pioneer Square to T-Mobile. And walking by walking by lumin it was... it feels very real. Like the world cup is very real in a way. Have they started doing activate? Like, is it starting to feel like FIFA space?
00:52:42
Speaker
They've got some signage up, you know, the, all of the, all of the bars in the area have shifted from Seahawks centric advertising. So world cup centric advertising. um Yeah. It's feeling it's, you know, it's still, it's going to feel a lot more FIFA and two weeks, I'm sure. yeah And then especially, you know, in a month, but yeah,
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's.
Seattle's World Cup Preparations and Global Spotlight
00:53:05
Speaker
It'll be cool. It'll be cool to see. Well, you know, and I I don't know. I assume most of our listeners are relatively like are you get into Seattle with some regularity? But in case you haven't been here recently.
00:53:19
Speaker
It is really remarkable how. Yeah. beautiful like the downtown area is like guess the even pioneer like pioneer square the waterfront right now is undergoing this unbelievable transformation and you know the waterfront to me is like look i i feel whatever you feel about the world cup and i i think there's i have mixed feelings about it I think that you know there's plenty of reason to be skeptical of FIFA and everything else that's going on.
00:53:52
Speaker
But I'll tell you right now, I am convinced that at the end of the World Cup, that the Seattle waterfront is going to maybe be the most famous waterfront in... in the world. I mean, it's, it's like, it's, it's, ah it's, it's a sight to behold and it's going to get so much, like it's going to be beautiful weather.
00:54:11
Speaker
It's going to, you know, it's going to be amazing. It's it like that part of it is really exciting. Like I am excited to see Seattle get its glow up. That was, that was the other thing I did Saturday was I walked from T-Mobile up to the sculpture park and I went, I went along the waterfront the whole way. And it's just, yeah,
00:54:30
Speaker
If you have not been down there in a while, um it's better than you think it is. it's It's better than you think it's going to be. can't overstate it. it's It's beautiful. And downtown feels like Pioneer Square feels more happening than like Westlake does at this point. Oh, I would totally agree. yeah More than Southlake Union, for sure. Yeah, you can still pretty much avoid the CBD, unfortunately. But, you know, the waterfront is beautiful um and it feels very...
00:55:01
Speaker
it It just feels like a big city in a way that it hasn't maybe sometimes in the past, like especially when you get down to the waterfront. um It's it's just it's beautiful there. There were so many people out and there's going to be 10 times as many during the World Cup. It's going to be I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get in any games, but I'm going to come up and hang out at least a little bit during the games because I think it's just going to be sort of a once in a lifetime experience app in Seattle. Yeah.
00:55:26
Speaker
for, you know, good reasons and and unfortunately probably some bad ones as well, but, you know, still a ah unique experience that I think is worth having. Yeah. And along those lines, ah the plan right now is that Sounder Heart and Scuffed podcast, which ah people may or may not know is a U.S. national team podcast, are going to be sort of doing a joint party at Fast Fashion and We're going to do some game day activities when the U S is playing Australia.
00:55:54
Speaker
I think we're going to have a, we'll probably do some sort of a get together the night before either at fast fashion, maybe project nine ah kind of figuring out the details there, but there's going to be a lot of stuff going on.
00:56:07
Speaker
got to say ah the sounder heart headquarters, which is in the ID is also like right outside. Even this is sort of like brings it all home. There's all this, this construction going on right now where they're like,
00:56:21
Speaker
upgrading some of the lighting and it's you know it's we we we're located on a little bit of a seedy corner but um you know it'll be interesting to see if it's not seedy at least during the world cup uh yeah but it's it i i i am really like that part of it i am excited for i i am not i am disgusted by the ticketing practices i am skeptical of all the political stuff that's going around the world cup, but there is some like on the ground things that I think will be cool.
00:56:51
Speaker
And, you know, i'm I'm excited to finally ride the light rail to the East side. ah have to get around to doing that at some point, but I don't know. I, uh, we're, this is still months, a couple months away, but we're getting close now. We're, and, uh, I should also say,
00:57:08
Speaker
I don't think we've publicly announced this yet, but we are officially going to be doing a second issue of four, the Sounder at Heart magazine. ah We are probably going to start taking pre-orders maybe as soon as next week.
00:57:22
Speaker
ah We have already stories starting to come in. We are going to be writing about Belgium. We're going to be writing about the Iranian diaspora. are going talking about the previous Seattle World Cup bid, all kinds of stuff that I think people are going to find really fun and interesting. We'll have profiles on all seven teams that are going to be playing in Seattle.
00:57:47
Speaker
It's going to be a packed issue with lots and lots of content, and hopefully people... want to buy that one as much as they bought the first one which we ah we sold about 1600 copies which is pretty cool ah circulation of this one we're we're thinking is going to be closer to 2000 so and if people want that first issue we still have issues available just go to center heart and there are links all over the place on there but yeah I mean I think that's that's it I think get anything else for me Aaron
00:58:18
Speaker
I don't think so. we We packed a lot into this one. So, You know. you know All right, well, let's get out of here. ah i am Jeremiah Shan, ah signing off on behalf of Aaron and Lickett. ah Also, want to say thank you to our sponsors, Full Pool Wines, and of course, our subscribers who make this all work. I just want to say thank you again to everyone who is subscribing and making this this thing happen. With all that said, this is No Study At Disc, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. And remember, you'll never get alone.
00:59:19
Speaker
Let's go at Sounders.