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Sounders put on a masterclass against Inter Miami
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From the buildup all the way to the celebrations, the Sounders did just about everything exactly right in the Leagues Cup final against Inter Miami. It went so well that Jeremiah was inspired to do a solo pod talking about it. Enjoy!
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Transcript
Introduction to Will Bruin and Sounders' MLS Cup Victory
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. Come on. Hey, O'Shaan.
00:00:14
Speaker
Let's go. The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. Here comes Ruiz Diaz through the middle to crown it for Seattle.
00:00:25
Speaker
The Sounders rule the region. of
00:00:59
Speaker
you know what was the thought process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't? Ever since I wrote a commentary that we didn't take the outcome seriously.
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines
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.
00:01:43
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines, Hacks and Ferments, and our subscribers. Just wanted to get on here and throw something down. I know it's been a little longer than I would have liked, especially after the League's Cup final. We've been very busy pumping out content.
00:02:02
Speaker
ah In fact, I am doing this episode solo because Aaron and I are planning on doing a mailbag podcast on Thursday. And I just wanted to make sure that we had something on the record talking about the Leagues Cup final. And so I'm trying something a little bit different here.
00:02:17
Speaker
ah Obviously, Lickit is going to be producing this one. So I want to say thank him as well. But this is basically just me going off on the League's Cup. Hopefully you guys appreciate that. Hopefully I touch on some subjects that we have not already done. i did a whole bunch with Lobbing Scorchers on their live postgame show.
00:02:36
Speaker
That was a lot of fun. I absolutely recommend going to listen to that. It's like four and a half hours long. It holds up pretty well. We had a lot of good times. Anyway, ah I'm Jeremiah O'Shan and let's get into this.
Sounders' Messi Jersey Swap Initiative
00:02:50
Speaker
It was really a storybook performance from the Sounders from the very beginning of the week and the buildup when Brian Schmetzer is talking about they have Messi, but we have Paul Rothrock. Yes, I realized that wasn't the whole quote, but they were they were feeling it. They welcomed this. They embraced the challenge.
00:03:13
Speaker
And never was that more obvious than when they did this Paul Rothrock Jersey swap with Messi where they invited fans to bring in their Messi jersey and trade in for a Paul Rothrock kit.
00:03:27
Speaker
It was glorious. It was an idea. I have to say it did come from the Sounder at Heart discord. I will say that if you are a Sounders sicko, you got to get into the discord.
00:03:39
Speaker
It is amazing in part because people are throwing around ideas like this. And not only are they throwing around ideas like this, but they get into the hands of Sounders ownership, not directly from me, admittedly, but that's how this came to be.
00:03:54
Speaker
i Someone had this idea. i shared it with a Sounders media person. He sent it up the food chain, and a day later, it was a real thing. And the Sounders got they they made 100 trades of these jerseys.
00:04:08
Speaker
And this is all before the game. The Sounders... embraced this challenge. they They got excited about not just, they didn't want to promote come watch Messi, but they put an interesting spin on it.
00:04:21
Speaker
And I think that really ended up setting the table for this whole thing. It was as much fun as I have ever had at a Sounders game. I'm not going to say that this was more important than Champions League or a better performance than MLS Cup in 2019, but this was something special on its own and you really had to be there.
00:04:41
Speaker
But if you weren't, I want to talk about
Match Atmosphere and Fan Dominance
00:04:44
Speaker
it a little bit more. ah So I have to admit, walking up to this game, that there were a lot more messy jerseys than I had anticipated. i know people have been saying, oh, this might be a big messy crowd, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, nah, it's going to be like 99% Sounders fans, maybe 1% Miami fans. It was not that. it was It was a bigger split than I had anticipated.
00:05:09
Speaker
But it was nothing like the 60-40 split that some people were expecting or saying that they were going to be. I would say maybe eighty five fifteen ah right ah But once the cheering happened, once anything that required feedback from the audience, from the crowd, it was it it may as well have been 100% Sounders fans.
00:05:29
Speaker
there People were booing Messi. They were chanting, who, who, who are you, who are you, when Messi got announced on the show. on the starting lineup. It was great.
00:05:39
Speaker
I absolutely loved it. And fans were not there to pay deference to messy, to pay deference to Luis Suarez and suji so Sergio, Sergio Busquets or Jordi Alba.
00:05:51
Speaker
And, ah and anyone else that was out there, they were not here to ah make Miami feel special. No, they wanted to make this feel like a road game, which it very much was.
00:06:03
Speaker
And it was, what was funny was seeing, it was almost surreal to see the lineup that the Sounders put out in contrast to Miami, who has all these European players who have pedigree, who have been there, who have played on the biggest stage.
00:06:19
Speaker
And here it is, the Sounders who are missing Jordan Morris. They're missing Albert Rusnak. They're missing Danny Masovsky. They're missing Nuhu and a bunch of other players who could have started. But They even with all those players missing all along, I was confident that they were going to be able to figure this thing out.
Key Performances by Obed and Christian
00:06:39
Speaker
And that's what they did. I'm to say that's mostly because of Obed and Christian. But Yamar and Reagan also had really good games. Pedro de la Vega, who we just found out, was apparently told by Messi that he will never play for the national team as long as he's involved, ah which is kind of crappy sort of.
00:07:02
Speaker
ah Smack talk in the game. But what are you going to do? Messi was feeling petulant. He was feeling frustrated. And I think the fact that he said that.
00:07:14
Speaker
Is sort of just indicative of how out of his game he felt. i don't know. Maybe he does that to everyone. But certainly we don't hear about it a lot all the time. And it was kind of cool to see.
00:07:25
Speaker
ah and
00:07:30
Speaker
the the The Sounders were absolutely just masterful in the way that they are harassing messy that and they were they weren't giving Luis Suarez any space. There were two good lucks in this game.
00:07:42
Speaker
One of them felt messy. The fact that he missed it, I think, actually speaks to how frustrated he was in this game because he wasn't really ready for that chance when it came to him.
00:07:53
Speaker
ah The other big chance was Allende, who probably should have done better. But what do you know he missed this... Miami had two good looks. They didn't convert them.
00:08:04
Speaker
The Sounders had more than two good looks. They didn't convert all of them, but they converted enough. ah The Sounders were creating more danger throughout the game.
00:08:16
Speaker
That started almost right away when Osazi de Rosario nearly got on the end of a Jesus Ferreira cross, only for it to just be out of reach. But that didn't matter. The Sounders continued to press. ah de rosarviio so De Rosario wanted to make good on the next chance that he got, though, and it was a Gorgeous cross from Alex Roldan.
00:08:37
Speaker
And Osase just rises up and smashes it into the back of the net, heading it in. in Just glorious stuff. And at that point, it really did feel like this might actually happen, that the Sounders were going to actually take care of business against Miami while featuring a lineup of guys that mostly came through the academy or defiance. the only So Osase De Rosario playing for the defiance earlier this year.
00:09:05
Speaker
ah its Who else was in here? ah Paul Rothrock. He was playing for Defiance regularly as recently as last year. ah They had Reed Baker Whiting, another player who as recently as this year has gotten minutes with Defiance.
00:09:21
Speaker
That's sort of Andrew Thomas, another player who I don't think he's played for the Defiance this year, but really the only starts he's been getting are in place of, you know, Stephen Fry is still the starter on this team, as best we can tell, at least going into this game.
00:09:35
Speaker
I think he was generally considered the starter. And at no point did the Sounders look like they were intimidated in any way in this game. De Rosario in particular has been so good in this tournament. That was his fourth goal.
00:09:47
Speaker
He finished second in the golden boot race in leagues cup. That's remarkable. This is a player who had never played an MLS as recently as a few months ago. And now he's leading the line against Lio Messi.
00:10:02
Speaker
Uh, And what's even funnier to think is that at this time last year, i wasn't even sure De Rosario was an MLS player. i was not super impressed by what he was doing in his first season at Defiance.
00:10:13
Speaker
But then in the offseason, the first thing he does is he goes and suits up for Guiana. He has a hat trick for Guiana against, I believe, Barbados. And then he follows that up with another goal. And then in the offseason, he goes to Florida and hangs out with Tino Lopez, another Defiance player.
00:10:29
Speaker
And they
Osase De Rosario's Development and Impact
00:10:30
Speaker
sort of recommit themselves to being ah the best player that they can be. He comes into training camp ready to learn, ready to execute. He works with Peter Dahlrimple, who is sort of the Sounders coach who works with their high, sort of like high upside players at Defiance.
00:10:48
Speaker
He becomes a film room fanatic. He studies the game ipart very, very seriously. He takes everything that the Sounders are giving him. And he applies it.
00:10:59
Speaker
And he's just... like I've heard more than one person call him a sponge. Anyway, it is absolutely great to see. ah He's now got 15 goals across all comps between the Sounders and Defiance.
00:11:11
Speaker
ah He's actually one of three players in the Sounders organization right now who could potentially break the existing record for most all competition goals in the ah organization.
00:11:24
Speaker
So I'm including if you... score for defiance or sounders in this thing. The record right now, still Obafemi Martin's 19. Yusuke Nome, he has 16 goals across all comps.
00:11:36
Speaker
That's all for defiance. And then Danny Masofsky, of course, has 15 for the sounders. So that's three players who could potentially break this record. None of them are Jordan Morris, weirdly enough. And I just want to say Jordan Morris is having a great season when he's healthy. He hasn't been healthy, obviously.
00:11:49
Speaker
I'm not. This is not a negative on Jordan Morris. It's just an observation that there are a lot of there's a lot of players having very good seasons right now. ah And let's not forget the role that Alex rolled on not just played on that goal, but generally speaking,
00:12:08
Speaker
He was coming off a year where I think it was maybe unfairly maligned. I did not think he was bad last year, but he was not particularly productive on the offensive end. ah But I think most people probably remember him for the giveaway that led to the Galaxy's goal, which was ultimately the game winner in the Western Conference final.
00:12:27
Speaker
That was probably not a fair way to look at his last year, but this year he has avoided those kinds of high profile mistakes and he's just been so good as a sort of defense first right back, but he's still very useful going forward. He's shown his versatility this year.
00:12:44
Speaker
He's, uh, he's also, pretty good going forward what we've seen. And in in this game, he ended up with a goal. He has the penalty that ah kind of seals the deal. And then he also had the assist to Paul Rothrock, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
00:13:01
Speaker
ah Anyway, he we could kind of I could probably just go down the roster. And I think everyone on the team really had a good game in this one. I don't have any complaints.
00:13:14
Speaker
And i yeah I think that one of the commonalities is and with all these players is sort of the overall vision that this roster was built with.
00:13:28
Speaker
You know, I've made plenty of comments about how corners seem to be getting cut in terms of spending. And that's not just the transfer budget. That's stuff that's kind of behind the scenes as well. And while still think that's true, it has forced the front office to focus on what actually works.
00:13:45
Speaker
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00:14:27
Speaker
To find out more, just visit center at heart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening. Nos Adietes, admittedly, is not exactly known for our spicy takes, but that doesn't mean we want our food to be mild.
00:14:41
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00:15:30
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00:15:37
Speaker
This team has 16 players on the roster that either came through they came through the developmental pipeline in some way, meaning they either played at least for one of the ah either the Academy or Defiance, oftentimes both,
00:15:50
Speaker
ah They had three other players who were drafted out of college and effectively developed by the Sounders too, um'm including Christian Roldan, Alex Roldan, and Andrew Thomas in that group. The ratio is even more skewed if you look at who actually played against Miami, where 11 of the 15 players who got on the field effectively were developed by the Sounders.
Sounders' Legacy and Stadium Sell-Outs
00:16:11
Speaker
Even among the four players, the Sounders can't really claim to have developed. Only Jesus Ferreira is in his first season here. meaning the Sounders have have put time and they've kept this group together, but still sort of like developed them.
00:16:26
Speaker
i The Sounders took no shortcuts. In a relatively young league like and MLS, that's not easy to do. But I think we can see that that in the way that the, that the community responded to this game.
00:16:39
Speaker
I don't know that there are any other markets in MLS, even when messy is on the other side of the field can sell out 70,000 seats in really the span of three days. And so I don't the 70,000, they didn't sell at all. 70,000 admittedly in those days.
00:16:53
Speaker
and those three days But I'm guessing that no more than 10,000 had sort of chosen the pay-as-you-go option for League's Cup. Maybe, they let's just say they sold another 10,000 in the lead-up to that game.
00:17:06
Speaker
They probably had to sell close to 50,000 seats to get this to a sellout. And that's what they did. it was amazing. And they weren't giving away these tickets. These tickets, as you probably know, were selling for...
00:17:17
Speaker
At the starting point, like $100, a lot of these seats in the third deck were selling for over $150. So people really wanted to beat her. Yes, of course, Messi and his buddies being here helped undeniably.
00:17:29
Speaker
That is not the point, though. The point is that these people wanted to come see the Sounders beat Messi. They wanted to be in the house when the Sounders hosteded another hoisted another trophy.
00:17:40
Speaker
They're ninth in the MLS era. This is the fifth time that they've won a trophy at, or actually I should say ah fifth time they've hosted, hosted a hoisted a cup at home.
00:17:51
Speaker
They also won the supporter shield at home, which I always like to remind people. So technically I suppose you could say that they had six in all six of those matches. Let's call the, uh, 2014 season finale, a cup final two, since they were going against the galaxy, they had to get a point in that game, but they won.
00:18:08
Speaker
The centers are six and oh, in those six cup finals that we're calling it right here. That's pretty amazing. A lot of those games have been played in front of huge crowds like this one, but none of them were bigger. 69,314 people at Lewin field.
00:18:22
Speaker
And I got to tell you, there's something that feels it's, it's only about two and a half times what normally show up to a game. But I'll tell you, the energy and the vibe around it was exponentially more impressive than two and a half.
00:18:37
Speaker
It was amazing, it was it was ah reminder of why we do this, why we get excited, why we come to games every time. ah What's even more amazing is that I think what really ties this all together, I should say, is that this is not a new phenomenon. You can go back to 2009, sure, but you can go all the way back to when Adrian Hanauer took over the club in 2001. This is now the...
00:19:01
Speaker
this is now the 12th title that they, that they've won in that time. ah No one else has done. Actually, I take it back. That's a 13th title. They've won in that time. Or if you include their four ah USL and a league championships.
00:19:19
Speaker
and And I think that it's fair to include those because there's a genuine through line. You know, ah more so than any other team in the United States or Canada, the Sounders still have a genuine connective tissue that binds them to every area, every era and but from 1974 way up until now.
00:19:40
Speaker
Ryan Spencer obviously played for the NASL team and, and Hanauer grew up rooting for them. Goalkeeping coach, Tommy Jutra briefly played for the A-League Sounders, but he joined Schmetzer's USL staff in 2006.
00:19:53
Speaker
Wade Weber, the team's director of player development, even played for FC Seattle in the Western Alliance era that bridged the NASL and A-League areas before playing for the Reborn Sounders and eventually joining the Academy in 2016.
00:20:06
Speaker
All of which is to say there is a real sense of history because the people who lived it are still passing along those stories and are able to articulate why the Sounders are different.
Comparing Sounders' Depth with InterMiami's Success
00:20:17
Speaker
Not to put too neat of a bow on this, but InterMiami has none of that.
00:20:21
Speaker
They have the glitz, the glamour, and lots of legitimately amazing players, but they have no sense of history. I applaud their efforts to try to manufacture some of that, but that's what they're doing. In many ways, it has been successful. They won the 2023 Leagues Cup, and they set the points record on the way to winning the Supporters Shield last year.
00:20:39
Speaker
mi Miami remain one of the elite teams in MLS, and I have no doubt that on their day, they could have won this game. But this was not their day. Christian, Obed, Alex, Reed, Jackson, Yamar, Andrew, Jesus, Pedro, Rothrock, and Osase all made sure of that.
00:20:55
Speaker
Brian Schmester put on a masterclass of preparation, motivation, and innovation. It didn't matter that he was missing no fewer than seven players who otherwise would have been expected to play at least some role in this game.
00:21:06
Speaker
Each of his subs worked to absolute perfection, none of which were more inspired than bringing in Georgie Manungu for Jesus Ferreira, pushing Rothrock to the number nine spot for the last 15 minutes.
00:21:19
Speaker
Only five minutes after Manugu came on, he drew a penalty with his patented dribbling. And of course, it was Rothrock in that number nine role that led to him scoring the goal that will be replayed for many years to come and tore the roof off Lumen Field with the explosion of ecstasy it unleashed.
00:21:37
Speaker
The only shame is that so much of this conversation following the match was surrounded by the surrounded around the fight after the whistle. And let's make no mistake. Miami were the instigators and the perpetrators of the worst acts.
00:21:51
Speaker
Luis Suarez chief among them. I don't need to go through a blow-by-blow of the whole thing. In fact, if you want to read a blow-by-blow, I would recommend checking out my story on Sounder at Heart. But the fight seems to have started with him not getting the response he wanted from Obed Vargas while chastising the 20-year-old and then fully spitting on head of security Gene Ramirez.
00:22:12
Speaker
In between that those two incidents, Sergio Busquets punched Vargas, Thomas Avelas attacked Jackson Reagan, and a bunch of other players looked like petulant crybabies.
00:22:23
Speaker
I'm sure some Sounders will end up being punished eventually in this whole thing, but that's how these things usually go. ah But my main fear is that MLS is going to try to wiggle out of taking responsibility by deferring to any League's Cup to by deferring to any leagues cup level punishment.
00:22:40
Speaker
As a soccer public though, we cannot let that happen. The CBA clearly outlines that Don Garber has the authority to discipline players, regardless of which competition something like this happens in, especially when it crosses an especially egregious line, as I think everyone agrees happened here.
00:22:57
Speaker
ah But the more lasting narrative should be entirely focused on the Sounders.
Sounders' Promising Future and Growth
00:23:03
Speaker
There's a lot of daylight between now and MLS club. Plenty of things can change between now and even the start of the playoffs.
00:23:09
Speaker
They are still just 12th in the Supporter Shield standings. Right now, though, the Sounders seem to have built as resilient and deep of a team as any in MLS history. They faced down the reigning champions of South America, Europe, and CONCACAF and more than held their own against them.
00:23:25
Speaker
They dismantled Messi in front of 70,000 fans. They trolled Luis Suarez so hard that he melted down on the field. I am excited to see what they do next.
00:23:37
Speaker
This new era, this does feel like a real start of a new era for the Sounders. It is a lot of fun. Everything is not perfect. I'm not trying to paint too rosy of a picture.
00:23:50
Speaker
But right now, it does feel really good to be rooting for this team, to be following this team, to be writing about this team. And I would like to think that all of you are enjoying it as much as I am.
00:24:04
Speaker
With all that said, i should probably get out of here. ah I want to say thank you again to our sponsors, ah Full Pool Wines and Hacks
Listener Support and Content Expansion
00:24:14
Speaker
and Ferments. I want to say a huge thank you to all of our subscribers.
00:24:19
Speaker
We just finished our August fundraising month. We are way ahead of where we were last year. We are in a very, very good spot. and But i also i also want to encourage everyone to, if you're listening to this for free, throw us a little bit of money.
00:24:35
Speaker
you know, ah please become a subscriber. The only way that we're able to keep doing this stuff is through people like you. We want to keep expanding. We want to keep doing more things. And eventually we'd like to bring on some other actual employees. We have a lot of paid contractors, but right now I'm, I'm essentially doing this as the only employee of Center at Heart.
00:24:55
Speaker
So anyway, with all that said, I should probably get out of here. i am Jeremiah Oshan. This is Nos Adietes, part of the Center at Heart Podcast Network, and we'll catch you next time.
00:25:30
Speaker
Let's go and sounders. um