Transcript
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.
Speaker: Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
Speaker: Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does just about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what a goal! Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
Speaker: I'll deadline you.
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.
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Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Pole Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Monday, August 10th, 2026. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Today, i am joined by my co-host, Aaron Campo, and our engineer, Lickett.
Speaker: Ooh, big sigh, big sigh. Finally, after three whole months, we're going to talk about a Sounders win. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
Speaker: And it should be noted that Corretaro rotated their lineup and had at best questionable motivation in this game. But a 3-0 win is a 3-0 win. And it sure as heck beats losing. Aaron, how would you describe the way you felt at the end of this game?
Speaker: I mean, it was a relief in a sense. I am famously checked out on this competition. ah Yeah, fair. I think my mantra last year was, look, if they get to the final, I'll i'll care. Until then, I don't care. and that And that is, you know, largely held true. I don't think they're getting to the final this year, so I'm probably not going to care too much. But...
Speaker: It was nice to see them score goals again. It was nice to see them control a game again. i think that there was a very palpable sense of relief after that first goal. and And I think after that first goal, they looked a lot more confident. They looked a lot more i relaxed in the way they were going about the game. So, um you know, it's it's it's a relief, but it's also it has to be said that if they hadn't won this game,
Speaker: I think you've really got to start panicking. Like you really got to start bailing out the boat at that point, because this is a game that they just, I mean, if they didn't win this game, you were almost looking at a guaranteed 10 straight losses, which, because if they couldn't beat Corretaro, they were going to lose the Chivas. And if they, and they were probably going to lose at home to,
Speaker: Vancouver and then yeah their next opportunity to win would have home against Austin, which you in a normal world, you think that's a win, but Hey, they just lost Austin. So who knows? Right.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like in that sense, they kind of had to win this game, especially seeing the lineup that, that they were up against and, And they did, you know, to their credit, it was very comfortable.
Speaker: um This was not a good team they were playing, but the Sounders did not have a very good team on the field. Right. I mean, they they had a lot of rotation. They've already got a bunch of guys out to injury, as we all know.
Speaker: So that was a relief. Obviously, some things that happened towards the end of the game took a lot of the shine off of that relief. um And yeah it losing Pedro De La Vega felt. Like, I mean, it's a sucker punch, man. It's, I don't, I don't know how else to put it. um It's, it was so exciting to see him back. And it's just, I think everybody had to sort of take the approach of just being excited and and not being too nervous. And then he goes out with a muscle injury five minutes in and,
Speaker: You know, we talked so much last year about how this knee injury was a fluke thing and it's it's not a a signal that he can't stay healthy in it. I think that's true. I think it's similar to Jordan Morris's shoulder injury, right? Like those are both freak injuries that don't have anything to do with fitness or anything else.
Speaker: It's just bad luck and you deal with it. But then for both of them to come out and very soon into their first game back from injury. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: they're going out with muscle injuries and it just makes me wonder what the hell these guys are doing during the break, man. It's, it's crazy. It, it is a real concern. I mean, this is at least, I want to say at least the fourth time that a player has gone out within 10 minutes of entering the game.
Speaker: And look, that's bad. That's really bad. And I don't know if that's bad luck. or if it's something that's going on in training, the Sounders have said they are looking into various training habits to see if they're, you know, overcooking guys or just not prepping them. But, you know, I think,
Speaker: one of the big concerns, like you said, is they looked so bad against Portland that it looked like they hadn't spent, it looked like they were coming into out of preseason. It looked like they hadn't really done anything in the, in the month and a half off that they had.
Speaker: And don't know if they fully recovered from that yet. I like, this was the first game where, I think they did look like themselves. ah and And we can, you know, we'll get into some of the positives, but we may as well deal with this Pedro de la Vega thing first. ah I will say we have a story coming out in the next day or two on Sounder at Heart ah from one of our sometimes contributors, but he he's someone who has done a lot of work in sort of charting
Speaker: injuries and comparing it across the league. And what he came away finding was that the Sounders are more injury prone this year than most teams in the league. But the difference between where they are and where the average, like, so the average is something like 3.6 players are missing per team per week.
Speaker: And the Sounders are at four. So it's not like it's a crazy variance from the, from the norm. and but the Sounders are on the the high end of injuries this year.
Speaker: And so it's, it's in, it's like I said, it's probably within the range of it being kind of bad luck, but it does seem like it's a recurring thing. And I don't know. I, I, You know, it's been said by a lot of people that they should be asking these questions and best I can tell they are.
Speaker: i just don't know that there's an easy answer. What I can say is that the Sounders put as much resources, at least from what I can tell. Again, I'm just on the outside looking in. But from what I can tell, they they have something like 12 people who are full time, either physios or sports science staffed.
Speaker: whose job it is to basically keep these guys healthy. And they have all the state-of-the-art equipment. Part of the pitch of of Long Acres was that they were going to have better access to fitness equipment, fitness, you know, all these bells and whistles.
Speaker: And it doesn't seem like it's done a lot of good. Yeah, no, I mean, it really doesn't. And it's I think, too, it feels like it's always like a key player, right? That's being hurt. And I mean, maybe the biggest miss right now is somebody we can't really blame the Sounders for because it's it's Christian.
Speaker: And, you know, he was hurt while he was on national team duty. and And it sounds like he probably got re-injured trying to get healthy enough to play in the last game. So.
Speaker: Um, yeah, that's, you know, not really one that you can plant put on the training staff, but for me, it's, it, it is the injuries and it's the re injuries especially. And it's also just the, like you said, just the, what seemed to be like a lack of actual map fit match fitness coming out of the break. Um, I'm not, you know, pointing fingers or any at anyone and I'm not blaming anyone, but I think for the first time in, we've been having this conversation for the entire run of the show. Right. Um,
Speaker: And for the first time, I'm not comfortable saying, look, this is just randomness. Like, maybe it is. Maybe it's just bad luck. Maybe it is randomness. But this there feels like there's more smoke here, that there's something going on. And I'm not saying like anybody's not doing their job correctly or whatever, but it just feels like something that.
Speaker: I'm hoping they can get to look at it because it's it's a big problem. And I hate to use this sort of device, but it's it is a thing that everybody is talking about.
Speaker: And it's inescapable at this point. And look, if you. The sounders can't just put their head in the sand and say, well, it's bad luck. they They've got to be looking into this. And I think they are. I'm not again like you. I'm not saying we need to start firing people or anything like that, but something is off.
Speaker: And it needs addressed somehow. And it could just be as simple as they have a lot of older players. They have a lot of, they're playing a lot of games and, Injuries happen.
Speaker: They've also signed some players that have questionable injury paths. So maybe it's all this confluence of things. And look, that's a viable explanation. It's just that it it is. It's tough one to swallow.
Speaker: It's even it hurts even more that Pedro looked good in the brief time that he was on on the field. He came really close to scoring a goal, which I guess in hindsight would have only made it hurt more. kind of for great if, yeah, if he had actually scored that goal, which was, you know, but he brought some energy.
Speaker: he you know, he, he looked good. He, he looked really good. Uh, but he, they're going to be, we're going to find out probably tomorrow how serious this is. So we don't have a diagnosis. Maybe it's, maybe it's not serious. Maybe he's back in a couple of weeks. I don't know.
Speaker: But, uh, the way these things go, it seems like, you know, we're, we're probably going to be talking about this in a month and saying like, okay, is he back for good this time? So fingers crossed.
Speaker: ah But yeah, I mean, as it is, Yamar is out. Christian will Dawn is out. Jordan Morris is out. ah Paul Areola is out. Hassani Dotson. Hopefully we'll be back soon, but you know, right there, that's four or five guys that are,
Speaker: pretty key members of your of your roster. Alex Rodon is just working his way back. Alex Rodon played in this game. He got his first start since since April, I believe.
Speaker: And he he looked fine. i was not enamored with him defensive midfield. I actually thought he may have been one of the weaker players out there. All things considered, I w I was not really blown away by anything that he did.
Speaker: ah I will say that Peter Kingston, who was his partner, was not necessarily great in possession, but let's maybe talk about some of the positives.
Speaker: His pass was really what opened up the first two goals. And yeah all three goals were really nice team goals in part because they were the kind of movements that the Sounders have been able to unable to pull off at all during the seven-game losing streak.
Speaker: where they were able to get the ball going downhill. They were attacking the opponent opponent goal, and they they were they were able to get the ball into the attacking phase without slowing down. like They were able to sort of force the defense back onto their heels on all three of those goals.
Speaker: But let's talk about the first one first. The Sounders broke some pressure, which is something that they also have not done really well. And the key pass in that one was when Peter Kingston found Sebastian Gomez sort of up the wing and then Gomez carried the ball forward 25, 30 yards and and then continued his run, ah most importantly, and and then was able to put himself in position to finish what i have to assume was A somewhat blind cross from Paul Rothrock. I don't know that he had any way of really seeing ah that run being open, but it was a great, I mean, the ball got to Gomez in stride and he just put it through the goalkeeper's legs. It was a really nice goal.
Speaker: Something that we just have not, that kind of movement we have not seen from the Sounders really at all for months. Yeah, it was it was a great move. And i I do think that maybe there's something to the fact that the guy that was able to get on the end of it and put it away it was a guy who hasn't been playing much, right? Who maybe doesn't yeah have as much of the weight of this run. and And I mean, hey, you know, if you get a start in a competition like this and you are a guy like Sebastian Gomez, who is very much on the periphery of the first team, it's tough to do better, I think, than he did to make a first impression and and just to, I think, make an overall solid impression.
Speaker: it was It was a really good finish. um Kreutero's keeper was an interesting fella. would love to play against him every week. He made some very questionable decisions. He made some real questionable decisions. Yeah, but i i you know I don't want to take anything away from the finish. it was it It was a nice finish, a really good run at the back post. ah The kind of run that like we just like, look, we've talked about it a lot. I love Jesus Ferreira, but he's not making that run. And if he makes that run, he's getting to the ball, getting to the end line and stopping and trying to find the cutback.
Speaker: It was so nice to see somebody over on the right hand side, you know, make that far post run and just make the run. Yeah, just make the run, man. yeah Just make the run and then shoot the ball at the goal after you've successfully made the run.
Speaker: And look, like I know that Gomez is not the answer to any of the problems necessarily, but I i would like to see him get some more minutes, you know especially while the roster is still pretty thin and guys are injured. like he He has a skill set that i think the sounds have been missing. He has a lot of confidence to his game. He's willing to take guys on.
Speaker: And and it was you know it was refreshing. It was effective in this game. I mean, going up against better competition, He's probably not going to have as as much luck, but like, you can't really convince me that this team was that much worse than like that Austin team we played. Right. So, um, no, or yeah, no, not at all.
Speaker: Yeah, so I would definitely like to see him get or Portland. Yeah, for that matter. um So, yeah, I'd like to see him get some more minutes. I do like him better on the wing, I think, than in central midfield, at least at this at this point. But yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, you know, great. It it was a great it was a great team goal, you know, and and seeing ah them score on the counter attack again was just so nice. It's been it feels like it's been forever since we saw that.
Speaker: Yeah, right. Exactly. And then the second goal was also made by a Peter Kingston pass. This time it was really a gorgeous, really a gorgeous ball.
Speaker: Left footed through ball. He cuts out fully two lines of of defenders. ah You can maybe even argue is three lines of defenders because it was hit from so deep.
Speaker: And it hits Rothrock basically in stride. He doesn't have, he he's able to just sort of, he puts it between two defenders in particular. Rothrock is able to get there first and then hits a first time pass to, uh, to Danny Masofsky, who again was also just making the run and the goalkeeper was, i don't know if he was out of position, but he was definitely in no man's land.
Speaker: And he sort of, he seemed to be basically yeah because of the pass that Kingston makes, I guess that forces the goalkeeper to respect the possibility that Rothrock is going to shoot that.
Speaker: And so he's coming off his line to play the Rothrock shot. And it was also so in the middle, a part of the field where he could theoretically shoot from.
Speaker: But Rothrock, of course, passes it, and that leaves Danny Masofsky. Essentially, all he has to do is tap it in from 14 yards. he When I first hit that, I honestly thought he missed the shot, and I was going to lose my mind. But ah he he made it. So, look, full credit to Masofsky. That is the first goal that the sound a Sounders starting number nine has scored this year.
Speaker: he's I told him about that in the postgame and he acted like he had never he's like oh I had no I have four goals I don't know about everybody else yeah no Danny right yeah yeah yeah no but you didn't start in the store game danny right yeah ah yeah Danny was, ah that was a very, uh, he, he seems it. That was a very 2025 Danny Mussovsky goal to like, just you put yourself in such a good position that, that you're finishing. It doesn't matter, you know? Right. And I saw someone not to, not to call out readers, but I saw someone in the comments say, look, you know, that's, that's a,
Speaker: I'm not that impressed by that finish because all you got to do is like not mess up. And it's like, but that's what, I mean, that's a lot of what being a good striker is, right? It's like getting into those positions.
Speaker: yeah Where it's harder to. Yeah. A lot of guys have not, the the reality is that the Sounders haven't scored a lot of goals like that this year. Yeah. Because they haven't been able to generate those chances. So I don't really care.
Speaker: that he fell into the ball or whatever you want to say. Like, I mean, he didn't, but he, he deserves credit for making the run. Rothrock deserves credit for making the pass.
Speaker: Like I said, I think Peter Kingston did the bulk of the work to create the chance, but it's a good goal. And again, it's a, it's an opportunity. It's ah another example of the Sounders sort of forcing defenses to react.
Speaker: And you almost, I had honestly got to the point where I wondered if they were capable of scoring in transition anymore. They had been so rarely in these, I guess it's not technically transition because they're not going from offense to defense, but they are,
Speaker: forcing their in i don't know what the right they're they're scoring at speed i don't know what the right way to it's a fast break i don't know whatever uh but yeah you they were not putting themselves in positions to take these kinds of shots for months literally for months and so just to see them do this was great yeah i mean i think that whatever you want to say about Crathore, every time I say it, I feel like I'm saying it wrong, so I'm sorry. but Oh, yeah. Me too. Whatever you want to say about the level of of competition.
Speaker: think you're getting closer, though. have not I watched a video before this, and I think it got in my head of how to say it right. ah The Sounders have not shown that they are capable of pulling off those patterns of play.
Speaker: against no defense, right? Like if you're just running like scripted plays in practice with nobody, right nobody in opposition, i would not have trusted them to pull it off.
Speaker: So to see them do it against actual, honest to God, professional soccer players was, was very encouraging. It's a proof of concept. And it's, I think that so much of this run has been a lack of confidence, like especially a Portland away at the Sounders did a lot of things right in that game. And then they just looked so completely different.
Speaker: bereft of confidence when they got into the final third. And, and I think having, you know, Hey, like we can actually score goals. We just just scored three of them. That's, that's only going to help them go forward. They're not going to do as much second guessing, hopefully. And, um and I'm, I'm begging for any reason for positivity right now. So I'm, I'm going to lean into it.
Speaker: Yeah, look, I think that's sort of where we are right now, right? Is like you got sort of take what you can get. And right now, this is what the the Sounders are. um this This is what who they are, right? This is this is who this is this is what they're capable of. And if that means that they are...
Speaker: ah
Speaker: Like you you can't look gift horses in the mountain. The Sounders are not in a position to be choosy about who they are beating. And this is a start. That's kind of what I wrote today when I wrote about this game is the Sounders needed to start. They needed to start their turnaround somewhere. And it looked that it came against a questionable opponent is fine.
Speaker: Now, what how do they do against Chivas? Chivas. That's the next big question. Can they build some momentum going into Vancouver? We'll see. ah But then we might as well talk about this too. the The third goal, again, kind of a similar play, not quite as transition-y, but similar in that Jesus Ferreira plays a nice ball to Mussovsky.
Speaker: And Musoski made ah honestly, a great turn and a, and a nice move to open himself up. And then he put a cross through the box that found Gomez Gomez did not panic.
Speaker: And he makes a relatively simple past rust neck who, scored sort of a vintage Albert Rusnak goal where he opens it his first touch opens up a little bit of space and he hits a, just a really nice shot inside the far post and look, getting Albert Rusnak going again, pretty important. If the Sounders are going to do anything at all this year. And I mean, just make the playoffs.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. I mean, he he has to contribute ah and not just looking pretty good. Like, I thought he looked pretty good against Portland away. ah Nobody looked good against Toluca, so I'm not counting that. But I thought he looked pretty good in this one. But him actually getting on to the score sheet matters a lot. and And that, you know, that like low just pass into the net, he hasn't...
Speaker: taken that shot this year. Like he just hasn't, he hasn't shown a willingness to shoot and to even attempt that, which is like, as you said, a very vintage Albert Rusnak move. So, you know, the fact that he's taking a shot is a good sign to me, a better sign, obviously that he's putting it into the back of the net. But um I thought he looked really good in the, in the attacking phase in this game. ah You know, he, he's, he's one of those players that the,
Speaker: The line between a very effective Albert Rusnak in the buildup, especially, and ah not very effective Albert Rusnak is a lot finer than you would like it to be, you know, because it's just so much of his game is tempo and and controlling possession and ball control generally.
Speaker: And it's like one or two bad giveaways are the difference between a good Albert Rusnak game and ah and a bad Albert Rusnak game. because his ability to control the ball in difficult situations and and allow them to you know be a little more aggressive when he has the ball in midfield is a big part of what makes the offense work when when he is playing well um and he you know he he looked very comfortable in this game at least in the attacking phase yeah i would totally agree with that defensively i look uh we're not the first people to point this out, but yeah, Albert Rosnack was never a active, a particularly active defender, but he had zero defensive actions in this game. Yeah. And he wasn't, I guess, I mean, in some ways, I guess it wasn't super necessary and he, and he seems to put himself in positions to sort of like be defensive.
Speaker: He's not getting into tackles a lot at all. ah I don't know. Is that is this something that we should be worried about? Or is it like, look, I mean, he's definitely not Nico Ladero. Let's put it that way. And is this sort of all action play?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't love it necessarily. I'm looking now to see what his defensive actions were like in previous years. I mean, they're down this year, um but they were never good, like you said, right? um So that's, it it is what it is. i would obviously love for him to be a little more active and a little more involved in the press. I do think he is pretty good about getting in the way. So he's not taking a defensive action necessarily. It's nothing that's going to show up in and statistics, but he is cutting off passing lanes and and just generally being a nuisance.
Speaker: um But that's really damning with fan praise. I'll be honest. ah I think if anything, maybe he is being given the given the grace to not be as involved defensively because he is most likely carrying some kind of chronic injury.
Speaker: Um, so maybe, maybe that's part of it. They're just telling him concentrate on, on attacking, you know, and, and being involved in the attacking phase. I don't know. Um, but I do think that it's very common to hear that, you know, they should consider moving him back a line. And I just, you can't have a guy that,
Speaker: that plays like this in a double pivot. I mean, he's if they wanted, he's really ball secure, but he you can't have someone who does not. Who does not play defense in double pivot, i mean right?
Speaker: If they if they want to go to a system where there are two eights and a six, he can be one of the eights probably in that system. um But then you're not playing like that's the whole other thing. Cause then you're probably, you know, playing without wingers and they're just not going to do that. Right. So do you really want him in there with Snyder Brunel as your, your shield for the defense, man? I don't think you do.
Speaker: I really don't think you do. ah He's i mean, last year he averaged one defensive contribution for 90. ah This year he's like, point nine defensive contributions per 90 so this is this kind of the guy he's been for a while um yeah i mean and even going back to 2024 it was 1.32 uh right and and look i i guess on some level it's also worth noting that for the most the sounders have not suffered defensively as a result of him you know they're consistently one of the best defensive teams in the league so you know i don't know uh
Speaker: I think the biggest thing is that they want, i think they want to be more of a pressing team than they can really be with him. You know, he does. Yeah. And, and he, he has some, you know, like his possession one in the final third is like, that's where his defensive con to the degree that he has defensive contributions.
Speaker: That's where they are. Right. Yeah. Uh, but i don't know at this point, this is not the big sounders biggest concern. I don't know why I felt like getting into it, but I guess it was worth mentioning that. you feel I mean, it feels notable.
Speaker: It's notable. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, I also say that there were for as convincing as the scoreline was, And as much as they felt like they controlled the second half enough to a degree large enough that I was never really worried about the result.
Speaker: There were a lot of moments in the first half, especially until they got their second goal that yeah it was pretty dicey. Like they were, they like, I'll tell you the person I am a little worried about is Jackson Reagan.
Speaker: who you know This is a guy who was best 11 last year. or a Yeah, I think he was best 11. Yeah, I think he was best 11 last year.
Speaker: and he think so. you know He's been a finalist for Defender of the Year. He was in the All-Star Game this year. And he has looked like absolute crap ever since the break.
Speaker: And i don't know what to make of this. It's very strange because earlier, you know, as I was reading through our notes for the show, i was thinking, well, you know, he's played a lot and you know, maybe it's a fatigue thing, but he just had two games off.
Speaker: I don't think it's that. For a dumb red card. Yeah, it's ah it's it's very concerning ah because he I mean, he's a guy that the Sounders need to feel like they can build around.
Speaker: And so yeah this is just dip in form. I'm not like to that point yet where I'm like, oh, you know, what have we gotten ourselves into here with this long term contract? But he's got to turn it around, man. I think that Yamar coming back would probably be helpful because I think as good as.
Speaker: Some of the replacements have been, you know, Tino has been, i think, better than we could have expected. Alex was has been good when he's played in that spot. Kim Kihi has been good when he's played in that spot. It's, Yamar is a really good partner for Jackson. And I think if this is yeah Yamar's last year, they need to go out and find somebody who has a similar similar skill set to Yamar. Because I think that we are kind of seeing that Jackson's game does have some holes in it.
Speaker: And when there's not somebody there that can compliment him and and cover, you know, cover some of those holes, it can can be a bit of a problem. So um it it is concerning. It's definitely concerning. He had some nice passing passes in this game. Like his distribution looks pretty good.
Speaker: um But just defensively, it's been. he's He's gone from having, you know, one of those a game to having several of those a game. And that's you can't be doing that.
Speaker: Yeah, i I want to say that if there's one player, one healthy player who I am most concerned about at this point, it might be Jackson Reagan. Because I kind of feel like Ferreira and Rusnak, if you can put better, you know, like they need to be better than they've been. But I'm just not as worried about their form.
Speaker: Whereas i am I am getting to the point where it's like there's something going on with Jackson that doesn't feel right. and And it might be that he's had so many partners this year that maybe that's wearing on him. You know, i I'm looking at the Sounders lineups right now.
Speaker: And he has had.
Speaker: Let's see. Six different partners at center back, which feels like a lot. It is. And there's um there's a ton of weight on him. I mean.
Speaker: i you know, he's he's basically the veteran guy in the defense right now, and the defense has been getting shelled and that can't be easy. um So I'm sure, the you know, there's and mental component to it.
Speaker: But. I mean, if you're expecting players on this team. Yeah. Yamar hasn't played since the third game of the season. It's crazy.
Speaker: It's very crazy. Yeah. It is really crazy. I know he's supposed to be back soon, but like, yeah, I don't know. We don't know. He just got hurt there. I think the centers are actually not sure when he's going be back.
Speaker: Oh, that's right. It's actually supposed to be back and then got hurt. Yeah, right. Exactly. So that's, there's not a clear timeline for his return. So that's, yeah.
Speaker: Big sigh. ah Yeah. Is center back a position you would actually want the Sounders to go out? and if Like, if you're ranking, we can maybe talk about this in the second segment, but if you were ranking your needs list, who's at the top? What's at the top of your needs list? But Sounders.
Speaker: oh Man, ah you could ask me this question once a day, every day for three days in a row and probably get a different answer. But I mean, I think for me, it's probably still central midfield.
Speaker: I, i I like Snyder. I mean, and we did this whole segment last year, but just sort last week. But just to recap my, you know, my feelings on the subject, I like Snyder Brunel a lot. I think that they could easily upgrade on him as, you know, once Christian is back, I think that you could easily have a better partner for him right now. I think you could easily have a much better partner for partner for Snyder than Hassani Dotson. So that's where I'd be focused.
Speaker: I would love to see another striker brought in especially because I think Jordan Morris is anything you get from him this year is a bonus as far as I'm concerned at this point. ah But I think center back is right there. i mean, if for no other reason than you know, you have to replace the AMR at some point, who knows when he's coming back this year.
Speaker: And if he does get back and Jackson continues to struggle, you know, like having somebody that you can give Jackson a break, would certainly not be i mean i know something that would have missed. I do think Hawkins has the potential to be either a compliment or a replacement for Reagan. So that's good.
Speaker: That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. And he has looked very good and I don't... Sorry. but sorry Oh, no, I agree. i i I think he's looked good in his limited time. He's not ready now to assume Jackson Reagan.
Speaker: But right I've been encouraged by what I've seen from him. ah So, you know, we'll we'll take that, I suppose. um ah yeah We should also probably talk a bit about the various fracuses that happened in this game, which was a weirdly heated affair. I kind of put it a little bit on the on the referee.
Speaker: This was a ah yeah truly bizarrely refereed game because the referee seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing. Like he there was not a ah matter of the referees in over his head or anything like that. It was just like he was okay with the shenanigans and the most obvious shenanigan that was going on in this game was correct. The row was delaying almost every free kick.
Speaker: Like they were standing in front of the ball. And so, and he wasn't doing anything to create space. And so finally late in the first half, Albert Rusnak just kicks the ball off the defender, which as far as I know, is a yellow card. Like you're supposed to, if you aren't giving that space, that's supposed to be a yellow card.
Speaker: Yeah. And the referee just literally shrugged. It was like, what do you want me to do? I want you to give me the space. What are you talking about? yeah Yeah, it was, it was crazy. ah There were that, there were a couple of extremely obvious fouls where he very effusively told the player to get up.
Speaker: to get up Yeah. Yeah. Just a very, very bizarre. I mean, you know, I'm, I know that we get my keys refs tend to be a little less stringent, I guess you could say, but there's, there's like,
Speaker: though they enforce the actual rules of the game, right? Like maybe they don't call fouls the way I'd want them to. And and maybe they let a little bit of shithousing go more than I'd like, but like they're in enforcing the, you know, space on the free kick rule, right? Like it was, it was very, very strange.
Speaker: Very, very, very strange. i I can't help but think it it contributed to the emotions being a little higher than the normal. ah The first incident happens towards the end of the first half when Eric Duenas, a former LAFC player, comes flying into the Sounders bench, which, look, it's he's going after a loose ball.
Speaker: ah But he runs into Andrew Thomas, who didn't who didn't like it ah and sort of starts jawing with him. And then. Somehow it gets to a point where I guess maybe the player pushed Thomas and then Max anchor the back of the third goalkeeper gets up and sort of pushes him back. And then all of a sudden the benches from the retro bench is flooding onto the Sounders bench. And look, nothing ended up happening.
Speaker: But I did think it was very funny that at least in the book, the only card is max anchor for shoving and nothing for all the players, the retro players storming over, which as far as I know is not allowed.
Speaker: Like you can't leave your own technical area to in that situation. ah Very weird. It was very, very weird because like, I,
Speaker: i I have to assume that the Carrethro player said something to Thomas because like he was there like it's not like he... like it didn't seem like he like he was just chasing a loose ball or whatever and Andrew yeah doesn't seem like the kind of guy to be like hey man don't touch me like it was very weird it was a very weird little little brawl there and i i kind of expected it to get worse because it was so bizarre that I assumed I had just missed something but no just everybody got up off the bench and got mad all right yeah yeah and then of course at the then at the end of the game
Speaker: knew who had been jawing with somebody, ah earlier in the game. And then, ah I guess Ferreira said something to somebody and And then that sort of started like a little thing started. And then all of a sudden knew who is like inviting a correct role player to meet him in the tunnel. And it's like these, both players are sort of like heading to the tunnel to, you know, at least act like they're going to fight.
Speaker: And luckily Andrew Thomas steps in is just like, no, what are you doing? This is stupid. But, Again, i don't know really what set that off, but it the ah for a game that didn't have a lot of real hard tackles, that was not super hotly contested, a lot of high emotions that were kind of weird.
Speaker: Yeah, it was very strange. um The Nuhu thing, like, there are a lot a lot of things that Nuhu does that really bother me. this This aspect of his personality, as long as he kind of...
Speaker: as long as people can keep him in check and he can keep himself in check and not actually do things that hurt the team. I'm kind of whatever about, yeah like he's a, he's a passionate guy. ah These guys, ah you know, no offense, but the credit throw players seemed like kind of a bunch of dicks. So I'm sure they said something yeah to piss him off. Andrew Thomas picked him up and carried him away. That was very funny to watch.
Speaker: Um, yeah so I don't know, like this this one didn't bother me too much, but it it was just like a weird like nobody cares about this game. You get like the Sounders know they're like, know, already won. I don't think they care. I don't think. no no, I can't imagine that like they're getting paid either way, you know, like.
Speaker: Very weird one to get heated. i do think that the ref had something to do with it, but like there were like Snyder Brunel got just absolutely cleaned out like three minutes into the game before the ref had any chance to really, you know, have any impact on on the tenor of the game. So.
Speaker: I think that they just kind of play that way, which, you know, if like you're a lower table team and league M at keys, I think you kind of have to, but man, this is like a, this is maybe one step above a friendly. We don't, we don't really got to be that way in a game. Like, I don't think.
Speaker: No, no Well, uh, that's about all I really had on this game. I don't, I don't think either one of us have big, I did write in the notes about Steph Fry. Uh, look, you got to shut out. This is the centers for, this is a crazy thing.
Speaker: Uh, for as good as the centers defense had been, they had not had a shutout in like 15 games. This was their first home shutout since the season opener, uh, which is a pretty wild stat, uh,
Speaker: I'm yeah, I am. ah I'll just say I am happy to have Steph be the goalkeeper during leaks cup. I still don't really entirely see the point of switching goalkeepers. I know people have been calling for that. I, I, I don't really understand what value that has.
Speaker: i think that that would be huge, I think Andrew Thomas is confident guy, so I don't want to say that that would destroy his confidence. But if there was something that was going to destroy his confidence, I think getting benched after being one of the best keepers in league before the break and then having the defense totally fall apart.
Speaker: Right. And then the the midseason competition where, you know, like you won the job last year, more or less, ah having a guy who gave up three goals as good as he was against Toluca.
Speaker: I just don't. I think that there... I feel like there's probably an element of people who wanted Fry to be the starter all along feeling justified in that more than people. Sure, yeah. Because I just, of all the problems this team has had, I don't feel like Andrew Thomas has been one of them. And he you got to find out if he he's the guy going forward. You got to find out sooner and later because Steph Rye is not getting younger. Yeah.
Speaker: Right, exactly. ah Yeah, let's let's leave it there. all right, we're going to come back. We're going talk a little bit more about an interview that I did with Paul Tenorio and some of the stuff around the interview. That interview actually hasn't hit the public feed yet. That's going to come out on Wednesday. If you are a subscriber, though, we released it on...
Speaker: Friday, actually. And i and if you're a subscriber, it's on the private RSS feed. That's something that you get access to if you are a SoundRite subscriber. I'll just note that we are that August is our most important month as a product of us going starting our independence in August. And so we just have the most subscribers in August. So this is when most of our a large portion of the of the site's income comes from August.
Speaker: So if you are someone who is a subscriber, I would just urge you to check and make sure that your payment information is up to date. And if you aren't a subscriber, consider becoming one because that's how we keep doing this whole thing.
Speaker: But let's take a break. ah and We'll be back after that. You're listening to sounder starting to li you listen to No the Podcast Network.
Speaker: Sounder at Heart has been around in one form or another since 2009. In 2026, though, we make a pretty significant evolution when we go analog. Yes, that's right. In the year of our Lord, 2026, we are publishing a real-life magazine. We're calling this thing 4, as in Sounder at Heart 4.0. But we're stylizing it as IV because we absolutely love Roman numeral. And if you want to refer to it as IV, that's cool, too. The first issue has a comic book-style cover that was hand-drawn by local artist Kevin Newber. Features by Tim Foss, Susie Rance, and Charlie Boehm. A statistical deep dive by Kat Bush. A Q&A with Brian Schmetzer. A column by G. Willow Wilson. And photographs by Noah Reif, Max Aquino, Mike Russell, and Jane Gershowitz.
Speaker: I could not possibly be more proud of the work everyone put into making this, and I think you're going to absolutely love it. If you'd like to get your hands on one of these limited edition copies, we're currently selling them for $15 on our website. Get yours now.
Speaker: Welcome back to Nos Adietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. All right. So, like I said, we did this interview the interview with Paul Tenorio, essentially about Larry Berg, who is the new ah commissioner of MLS. He will officially take over in on a job in...
Speaker: 2027 so at the end of this season i guess maybe at the end of this season he'll take over as the official gm or ah the official commissioner but he has already been appointed and so the interview that i did with tenorio we mainly talked about how the sounders might fit into this new world that and mls is heading into and sort of the impending cba and we we talked a lot of It was mostly about that, but sort of on the periphery of the story.
Speaker: And we didn't really get into this, but that's why it's on my mind is a lot of stuff that's going on with the Sounders business. As we talked about on what we learned this week on Friday,
Speaker: ah Hugh Weber has left the Sounders to join the Edmonton Oilers. ah He is going to be the CEO of the whole organization that operates the Oilers and the Rogers Center.
Speaker: guess what's called. and a whole other bunch of stuff that's in Edmonton. ah But that has left a leadership void. I shouldn't say that. It's not a leadership void. The Sounders ah are apparently turning over the business side to this whole C-suite of people that they hired under Hugh Weber.
Speaker: And this is all a long way of getting into the idea that there's this... there's this specter, I want to say, of the Sounders moving to Renton. They have said this on the record many times that they intend to, that they would like to build a stadium out in Renton. Now, it's mostly been framed sort of as a as an alternative to staying at Lumenfield, they have not said they are going to move. They, they have ah just said that they are exploring the possibility of moving and talking to people in the organization though, this seems to be where they're heading.
Speaker: Now I have long argued that the, way that they are doing this is sort of the worst of both worlds. On one hand, they are just sort of throwing this chum out into the water of saying, hey, we might move to Renton.
Speaker: And i maybe they wanted to gauge what the public response to that was. But from what I can tell, everyone hates this idea. Like almost everyone that is a Sounders fan, that's certainly a season ticket member now, I have heard almost nothing but negativity.
Speaker: Maybe I'm going to be kind and say 20% of people have expressed a open-mindedness to this. Very few of them seem excited about it.
Speaker: But where I say this is the worst of both worlds is that they are sort of building up this, they're putting this thought out into the world, but then they're not following it up with any positive, any reason to get excited about it. They're not putting out renderings. They're not talking about how great it's going to be. It's just sort of something that's simmering in the background. And it's sort of like building resentment, I think, among Sounders fans. And so what is already a challenging environment for the Sounders because of the season ticket renewals, because of the performance on the field and all this other kind of stuff
Speaker: The Renton thing is just another thing that Sounders fans throw on to the pile of reasons they are frustrated with this team. And I don't know what my question to you is, Aaron, but it just I guess what I'm just venting a little bit that it just seems like this whole idea of moving to Renton only is getting worse and not better.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it is like the the more I think about it, the more it the more it seems like it might be a reality. And the more I start kind of preparing for the eventuality, the more perplexed I am about it.
Speaker: I understand the fear that but we have a relationship with the Allen family. They own, you know, 25% of the club or whatever. We have a good arrangement at Lumen. Now there's new ownership at the Seahawks. They might not care about us at all. They might jack up our rent. They might, you know, do things not only to, because I know one of the concerns with staying at Lumen is like, there's nothing about this that feels like our home. You know, we don't have our own locker rooms, everything in the stadium, Seahawks centric.
Speaker: And they're already having you know a tough go of trying to get those things changed with the Allen family owning 25% of the team. These guys might make that stuff worse. like They might you know tell us we can't use the Seahawks dressing room locker rooms anymore.
Speaker: um They might not care about getting the the football lines off the turf, all that kind of stuff. right So I get that, right but I don't think that's really that... feasible because the Seahawks have a vested interest in the Sounders state. Yeah. that They're that's, I mean, they they make a lot of money off of it. Like they make a ton of money in rent from the Seahawks being there between the Sounders and rain and all that stuff. They have anywhere between 30 and 40 events a year at Lumen field. That's right. Three to five, what five times. is No, it's like three times as many games as there are for the Seahawks on a good year.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's and maybe the new ownership would be even better to work with. Right. Because they are invested in keeping the sounders and rain there. So maybe that's how they get the locker rooms built. Maybe that's how they get the turf replaced more often or, you know, don't want to reach for the stars here, but they maybe that's how they get grass. Right. Like, yeah.
Speaker: maybe that's how they get some so sound or specific signage in the stadium, right? Like they it is having that incentive to keep them there. um But to me, it's just like, that's a problem you deal with when it gets there. You don't make everything about the fan experience worse just because you're afraid of something bad happening at some point in the future.
Speaker: um They have a lease through 2032, right? 2031, believe. That, ah twenty thirty one i believe that So they've got, ah they've got a lease for another five years that whether or not the current Seahawks ownership, you know,
Speaker: cares about them at all, they've got at least five years with the current terms. Right. And, and I would assume that all of the stuff that's really important is in that lease. So it's not like the Seahawks can make, you know, the game day experience worse. Right. I'm sure getting rid of the football lines as part of that, I'm sure turf replacements on a regular schedule as part of that, all that stuff. Right. So, um, it just seems like such an overreaction um,
Speaker: what might not even be a problem. You know, it just it's you're moving from the central hub of the entire region transit hub, but also transportation hub generally. Right. Like every highway system in the region dumps out into downtown Seattle.
Speaker: Basically, every bus in this the city goes to downtown Seattle. Right. All the region downtown. Yeah. um Yeah, yeah. I mean, Long Acres is much closer to to me and than Lumen, and it would take like an extra like an hour longer for me to get there by by transit.
Speaker: um You know, I'm not naive enough to think that Any kind of corporate value statements are truly a reflection of anything other than the PR.
Speaker: But you can't make a big deal about your commitment to sustainability and, you know, all of the stuff you're doing to like reduce carbon emissions and blah, blah, blah, blah. blah And then move from a stadium in the middle of downtown Seattle in one of the most transit accessible locations on the West Coast.
Speaker: I don't even think that's arguable anymore. Like, I cannot think of a better connected area than downtown Seattle transit-wise for a regional transit hub on the West Coast. There are very few even in in North America that come close. ah To...
Speaker: a stadium that you built on top of a wetland in the suburbs that has like two buses going by it. Yeah. And so if you do that, if you make that decision, all of that stuff about, you know, believing in sustainability and reducing carbon emissions, you can't say that stuff anymore with a straight face.
Speaker: That's all gone. That's all out the window now. Right. Like you you just can't. and And you do have to think about that stuff of like, how are you projecting the club? Like what kind of cultural institution do you want it to be?
Speaker: It's going to be a much different one if you move it out to the suburbs, I'll tell you that much. And i just think that there is so much tunnel vision and and it it feels like the the only possible way this could still be so heavily considered is a there's some kind of ticking time bomb with Lumen that we don't know about, which I'm pretty skeptical of.
Speaker: Or B, there's just ah an echo chamber situation happening where the people in the sounders front office that would be making this decision have fallen in love with the idea of it. And they are tuning out the noise. They're saying, yeah, well, you know, people will come around or whatever. And like, look to some degree, they probably will, but it's never, ever, ever going to be the same. well and Like you were just putting such a hard cap on your ceiling. And you're also just sort of poisoning the well. I think, I think there's a lot of people right now who, yeah if things were going differently and I mean,
Speaker: ah yeah on the field but also just the way that they were conducting their business like a long time ago one of our readers had a theory that the sounders were purposefully shrinking their fan base in order to not disappoint people when they moved to renton so that they wouldn't have to tell more people not to they would have to they'd have it was like they wouldn't have to call their their season ticket list. They could just offer everyone on their season ticket list, a ticket at, at in Renton. And that would work. I always thought that was a crazy theory and it didn't make any sense.
Speaker: ah But it does. Like, I don't think that's what's happening, but if they were doing that, would they be doing anything differently than they are doing now? And, and I guess my my point is that, look, if you want to build up goodwill, you should probably not do that. You should probably actually be making your product so attractive that you can sell basically as many tickets to no matter where you're playing.
Speaker: But they aren't doing that right now. So I don't know. My hope is that with Hugh Webber leaving, that that creates an opening. Because my understanding is that it wasn't Hugh's idea to move to Renton.
Speaker: but he was a big fan of it. He was a big cheerleader of that. And my hope is that with him out of the picture, that there is some chance for new voices to emerge in the organization that speak maybe a little bit more reason to the idea that staying in Seattle should like like the top priority of the team. Like that is really like the Sounders are a Seattle team. And I would even argue more than,
Speaker: maybe any other team that's ever been there because so much of the Mariners fan base, so much of the Seahawks fan base has come from outside of the see this the city. Whereas a lot higher, it feels to me like a much higher percentage of the Sounders fan base is actually in the city.
Speaker: And I don't know, maybe this is an argument of saying, well, maybe we should be changing that as misplaces that maybe that's what that is. But yeah, No one's saying that. um And I, I guess I just wanted to, to really forcefully go on the record again and say,
Speaker: We got to like, please, I hope that this is a ah chance to reset this narrative. There's a new Seahawks owner, man. I am bummed out that the the Seahawks owner sat down for an interview. They asked him about buying a basketball team and they didn't ask him about buying the soccer team right in the, or getting involved in the, in the soccer team.
Speaker: That is literally, already playing in your stadium. They asked him about grass, but they they didn't ask him about the soccer teams. Very strange, but ah maybe he wants to come on our show and sit for an interview.
Speaker: yeah Come on, brother. We can talk about AI, too. I got some questions for you about that stuff. yeah His answer on grass I thought was pretty interesting, though. like It was definitely not a no.
Speaker: It was it was ah you know it was it was an interesting one. it's definitely a I'm not making that decision answer, but, uh, you know, I mean, maybe there's, yeah, in case you don't know, essentially what he basically said was that's a decision that I'm going to leave up to the, to the Seahawks people to like the, the team to this, like you know, implied that it was a sporting decision, uh, which, Hey, if this becomes a sporting decision and not a business decision, I think that's,
Speaker: really a point in grass's favor, which, uh, you know, it's funny cause you know, five years, as recently five years ago, I was sort of a, what I thought a pragmatist about the whole grass thing.
Speaker: And I was just like, we're not getting grass. Why are we even talking about this? But, uh, had sort of turned a corner on that and I have really turned a corner now that I saw what grass could look like when it was there for the world cup.
Speaker: And, I would love it if we had grass at Lumenfield. Absolutely love it. Yeah. I mean, I know that with the schedule change, that grass during football season is going to be rough.
Speaker: But. I mean, whatever. Grass is rough and a lot of the world. And look, everyone I've talked to about grass at Lumenfield that really knows what they're talking about has basically said, It's just a question of money. there There are absolutely technologies out there that would allow us to have a grass pitch if we were willing to spend the money it took to upkeep it properly.
Speaker: That might be a lot of money, like a real lot of money, but there is a solution if you have enough money and if the will is enough, if the will is really there, put grass in. So, you know we'll see.
Speaker: And like, maybe there's a world where the Seahawks say, I know the NFL PA heavily in favor of grass. Maybe there's a world that where the Seahawks say we'd like grass. And the Sounders say, if you let us have our own locker rooms, if you let us have our own signage, we will chip in for the grass. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: Like we will not, you know, like we'll pay to make sure that the surface is good enough for us. It's going to be a lot cheaper than building a stadium and rent it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. you know?
Speaker: Absolutely. Well, who knows? Look at that. Maybe we're ending. Maybe we're almost letting ending on a hopeful note today. Maybe. Yeah. And maybe we'll sign somebody. Hey, you know, uh, I will say that my conversations with people in the front office have been more positive.
Speaker: and No one guaranteeing anything, but for the first time in a long time, I would say I am cautiously optimistic that some sort of signing is going to get done. Maybe even two, who knows?
Speaker: Uh, The Sounders have about three weeks to do this. i would like to not wait for three weeks, though. It would really be nice if we could kind of get this done sooner than later. it's Yeah, that would be good. I mean...
Speaker: was to say, it's not looking great that it will be Casper Tankstead, who looks like he might be heading to somewhere in Greece or Turkey. But I will also say that the people I was talking to, that was the name i had.
Speaker: And I know that negotiations have been going on with Baynard over Tankstead. But there was other players who they were more optimistic about signing, whose names I don't have.
Speaker: So... We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. It's, you know, I think any kind of signing that's not a de defined signing or an academy, a trade for a rotational MLS guy. Yeah. or Academy sign would be welcome. I shouldn't say that because Montreal just signed Alexis Sanchez. So there are signings they could make that would piss me off. But as a DP, yeah that doesn't seem like DP.
Speaker: Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, they really got a Chivas USA that.
Speaker: We need a team like that. We need a team like that. All right. Well, ah yeah let's get out of here. Thank you to our sponsor, Full Pull Wines. Another shout out our subscribers and a request that if you enjoy what we do on this show, if you want to help us expand and continue growing and offering you more and varied content, consider becoming a subscriber yourself.
Speaker: Plans start as low as $3 month or $30 a year. and go up from there. ah It's like less than a cup of coffee ah these days, right?
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah I think so. yeah for For the price of a oat milk latte, you could become a a so a what do we call them a supporter of sounder at heart uh which is like seven dollars a month that's that is literally less than a medium oat milk latte in the city like come on what are we doing in here i mean usually usually if i go and get a pour over after tip that's what i'm saying i' suffering moreover so that's that's just coffee yeah coffee yeah
Speaker: All right. ah Let's get out of here. ah Thank you, Aaron. ah Thank you, Lickit. I'm Jeremiah O'Shan signing off for No Saudietes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network.
Speaker: And remember, you'll never get alone.
Speaker: Let's go and Sounders.
