Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Sounders Senior VP of Communications Alex Caulfield talks soccer, career, and World Cup
467 Plays2 hours ago
Alex Caulfield (Sounders Senior VP of Communications) joins Jeremiah to talk about the passion for the sports career, soccer and a little World Cup.
Sponsor
🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php
***
Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.
Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase the Sounder at Heart physical magazine, IV or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.
“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and New Role Announcement
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 just about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what cross! And what goal! Where's my copy? got bunch of them in the car. How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline
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.
Guest Introduction: Alex Caulfield
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adietes on the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. Today i am joined by a very special guest. Alex Caulfield is the Senior Vice President of Communications for basically the entire Sounders and Rain organization, picking up lots of little assignments and Every day, it seems.
00:02:02
Speaker
ah The barge, the pure 62 activation being the most recent. Welcome to the studio. It's a beautiful day on the first day of the World Cup. Couldn't be a better time to have you on.
00:02:13
Speaker
Well, I think the first thing that needs to be stated is for those that can't see this space, it's beautiful. Congratulations to Sounder at Heart. I do love to get that reaction a lot. No, it is. It's as we're sitting here, the World Cup is on. It's officially underway here with Mexico and South Africa inside the Azteca. And it's a beautiful day in Seattle. The sun is shining.
00:02:36
Speaker
i don't see a cloud through these very nice windows in the studio. And yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, ah it's absolutely my pleasure to have you on. This is something that, you know, kind of was born out of the many, many conversations that we have around the Sounders, you know, after games or after practice or or whatever. And we always seem to have good conversations.
00:02:59
Speaker
And I've been trying to get you to come out here and do this for a while. yeah So I want to say thank you for doing it. i ah I appreciate that. This is, i think the listeners should know, this is a one of one opportunity. i subscribe to the maxim that if you are a communications practitioner, it is your job to push others to the front and make sure that those stories are being told through the right spokespeople.
00:03:22
Speaker
I think in my time here at the organization, I don't believe I've ever done an on-record interview. So that is both a a detriment to my judgment today, but a credit to you for bringing me into the fold. But in all seriousness, yeah, I think we share a i think ah a unique working relationship. Obviously, on the beat together, I have a lot of respect for what you guys have brought to the community. And so, yeah, I'm just
World Cup Excitement in Seattle
00:03:44
Speaker
excited to talk some football here today with you guys. Well, let's start with this. The World Cup has has come to Seattle.
00:03:50
Speaker
I can imagine as someone who grew up a diehard football fan that that lives and breathes this every day that you are. I mean, you're not just a guy who came to the Sounders as, oh, this is the next step in my ladder up the professional sports field.
00:04:08
Speaker
food chain you wanted to be working in soccer you are a soccer fan you spent your vacation which we'll talk about going to various stadiums in england and scotland and how is it for you to be working in this industry with the world cup literally on our doorstep it It means
Career Journey in Soccer Communications
00:04:28
Speaker
everything. I mean, I think you're right. I think people that find their way into to this type of profession, whether it's on your side of the aisle or or my own, um you have to feel it. I think you feel a calling to it. I am very, very proud to say that since the day I graduated from college that I've only ever known a career in professional soccer, professional football, depending on your your persuasion and what you call the sport. um Does it pain you to say soccer? No, not at all. To me, they are interchangeable. But but it is I do find it remarkable. You know, when I was starting out, I don't know. well I'll tell you, people in my own family didn't find it a credible career choice. And the fact that this ecosystem that we now know in in U.S. soccer and and North American soccer more broadly has grown significantly.
00:05:14
Speaker
To become what it is. And someone like me could start as a young person and and grow a career in it. And certainly with what you all are doing with having grown ah a readership and now a multi prongs media affiliate, I sincerely like that is that is an amazing story. But yeah, I think the nature of your question is.
00:05:31
Speaker
is one that lands with me. Like I do this because i love it. I feel this, um, the sport in a really profound cultural sense in that you wouldn't know it by listening to me and you're probably going there, but I was not born in this country. I was born in the UK.
00:05:47
Speaker
um I traded accents when I was eight, nine years old when I made the move because the public school system there in northeast Ohio was ruthless and I wanted to fit in. But it's funny, soccer slash football was the connection point for me with a lot of
Soccer as a Universal Language
00:06:04
Speaker
people. And it and it still is. I mean, you can meet anyone from any part of the world. And now we're going to see lots of visitors arriving here. already are in in our own community in Seattle.
00:06:13
Speaker
And you have a touch point immediately. where Wherever they're from, there is a favorite team, there is a favorite player, there is a moment. And that is the the connective tissue of this game that, yeah, it doesn't matter how old I am you know whether it was the beginning of this or where I am now. And hopefully one day I'll be an old guy being able to have chats like this.
00:06:33
Speaker
It just gives you a jumping off point to to chat with someone. You know, it is kind of a funny thing. And I think anyone that has traveled or frankly met international travelers can has probably experienced something like this is that as soon as they have any inkling that you might be interested in soccer, they immediately want to know who your team is. Yeah.
00:06:52
Speaker
And i hate to I take some joy maybe in disappointing them invariably that when I say and don't really have a team outside the Sounders ah and I sort of go through this whole thing of how I've never really had a connection point.
00:07:06
Speaker
and I'm sort of like at 48 years old still waiting for that de connection point to be like, no, this is my team in England or Germany or wherever else. But it is kind of it's a very common thing. Like people want to connect and they they just want to be able to know something. Like when I went to England and we went to this game at at Valley at the Valley. Yeah.
00:07:28
Speaker
We were on the train with some guys front that were QPR supporters. And they're they immediately they asked, oh, you guys are from Seattle. ah Do you know?
00:07:40
Speaker
And they started listing off a bunch of Canadian players because we were close to Canada. and And we're like, I mean, yeah, we know who those are, but why would like what is the connection that you're expecting here? But it was just funny because they wanted to find some. It was like, I guess there's some Canadian players that have played for QPR.
00:07:55
Speaker
They couldn't think of any. amir And then they started naming some Americans that were on the team, but were sort of fringy Americans who I didn't know. But it was just funny how it was just immediately they wanted to kind of find this connection for them.
00:08:06
Speaker
I think think you deserve credit, in my opinion, that the Sounders are your team and that you and you say it from the chest. um I think having um that rooting interest and and being proud wherever you go of of this club and this community is, um I think it's the right play, in my opinion, because this is where you've kind of come up professionally and you've been with the club since day one in MLS and...
00:08:28
Speaker
You know, you're going represent
Authenticity of the Sounders Organization
00:08:29
Speaker
that proudly and loyally. But I also understand people that come from other places or have fallen in love with a game through other yeah means. and And they are proud Everton fans or they also go in for, you know, Valencia. But in addition to going to our games that just across the street here at Lumen Field. So you're right. There's always that, uh, sort of six degrees of separation game. We all play, ah yeah you know, you could look at the Sounders teams of yesteryear and go, well, you Arsenal just won the premier league. And actually there's direct Arsenal connections to the Sounders like Freddie Unberg as the sort of first marquee signing right there, along with Casey Keller, who also played in the premier league and played for one of Arsenal with Arsenal's but arsal's chief rival. Right. And so, um,
00:09:13
Speaker
You do that in football. walls you like i I was not. that's That's another one. That's another one. Right. So, yeah, I think everybody has that type of relationship with the game once you're kind of inside. Yeah. I mean, I love that part of it. Yeah. And I love it I just I mean, I love the the seeking Connection, I think. and And soccer is such is this universal language that people can almost always find a connecting point. and And if you look hard enough, you're going to to little pieces that connect me to people that are, you know, that we have nothing else in common over.
00:09:47
Speaker
And the World Cup is obviously the. the the peak of that yeah and everyone you know you can just sit there and
Seattle's Global Soccer Reputation
00:09:54
Speaker
talk about world cup moments that you remember from their game or whatever and i'm just this is kind of getting off the topic a little bit but what are you seeing what have you experienced in terms of people coming into seattle you are you sensing much of a a buzz about uh either from you know like either visitors or people that you're interacting with? Yeah, I'll give you ah i'll give you an example. So a few months back, i was trapped my wife and I were traveling, which you alluded to earlier. um
00:10:23
Speaker
And shout out to Paul and Tim Malahan for watching our kids on that particular trip. I've got great in-laws in Bellingham. was jealous about that. It was a good time. And on the way back, we stopped quickly through Amsterdam. And as I'm wont to do,
00:10:38
Speaker
Of course, I find myself in some random football shop, you know, in ah just over some canal that we we're walking around. and My wife rolls her eyes and is, you know, she's a good sport. It's like, yeah, of course, we're to go in this, you know ridiculous memorabilia style museum ask monolith that you found here on the one day we're stopping through Amsterdam.
00:11:00
Speaker
And I go in and the guy that ran it was there and it was just my wife and i And he had these amazing photos up of himself as a younger man with Johan Cruyff. um Obviously, you know, this is the capital of quite a sha of the Cruyff movement. Yeah, pretty amazing. And so I asked him about it and he's like, you know, we were, we were friends and came up together and, you know, the IAC system and,
00:11:22
Speaker
This wall now, as I'm looking closer, is like a who's who. There's Dennis Bergkamp on there and Rude Hullet and whatever. it's it's just It's like a shrine to the best of the Dutch national team. so This guy, is like he's got some amazing stories and he's asking, he's like, where are you from? and I was telling him about Seattle and he's like,
00:11:42
Speaker
kelvin leardom i i kid you not right that's back to this thing we're talking about this immediate connection yeah six seven thousand miles away whatever the distance is from puget sound and he knows kelvin personally right because of his time at the test i guess he was involved at some level there couldn't say enough good things about him i agreed with those good things i love kelvin incredible character i loved him just gregarious outgoing so fun to be around. yeah Loved American sport, by the way. That was the thing that I really... Yeah, that's why i like that. That's one of the things that i I immediately noticed about him is that he had this American ah understanding of American sport that you don't always get from the European players. yeah I mean, i I have no shame in saying this. He knew more about the NBA than I did. I don't follow it closely enough to be knowledgeable, but his knowledge was incredible. So anyway, he was talking about you know coming over, seeing games, people in his community doing it. And Seattle's reputation...
00:12:36
Speaker
Again, whether it's through a personal contact like Kelvin Leardom or what people see when images are broadcast the world and people start researching what this World Cup is going to mean and the locales you can go to, this confluence of ah major metropolitan area on the best that nature has to offer anywhere in the world with the summer sunshine and its disposition and orientation toward the sport that it reveres going all the way back to 1974 and frankly, even before that, from what I understand.
00:13:06
Speaker
um it is different here. It is. It's unique. You know, and if I was a foreign tourist and I wanted to be in the United States during the World Cup and I didn't necessarily care about who I was seeing, I'll tell you, you could do a whole lot worse than just staking out in the Pacific Northwest yeah and bouncing between here and Vancouver because these two soccer markets are really unlike anything else, I think, in North America in terms of the way that the average sports fan has a literacy with soccer that is
00:13:40
Speaker
that is really refreshing.
Unique Engagement of Sounders Fans
00:13:42
Speaker
I think, I mean, you you go and you, and it's might, they might not always be huge Sounders or Whitecaps fans, but you know, there are definitely lot of champions league fans, a lot of English premier league fans, a lot of folks that just enjoy watching soccer that are definitely going to be watching the world cup.
00:13:57
Speaker
And I don't know. I find it really like just very gratifying in in the way that it it allows us to sort of be part of the community. 100%. Yeah. I mean, I've had family visit here from the UK, especially in the early years when I was here. I've been here twice, once for grad school.
00:14:17
Speaker
And then when I came back to work for the Sounders, I joked with you before we started recording, if you had offered me any role within the Sounders while I was at Seattle U, I would have bitten your arm off of the shoulder to take it. But that wasn't on the cards at the time.
00:14:28
Speaker
but during that You had to grind a little bit at DC United and Columbus Crew, right? And and had a cup of coffee at Fox. Yeah, i tried to try to pay my dues as best I could. But during that first tour here, a family visit from the UK, and we'd take them over to the Georgian Dragon on a Saturday morning.
00:14:45
Speaker
And they were just like, this is like home. I mean, this is literally you could not get closer to England. Now, again, it's not. You're over there in Fremont. There's the Lennon statue down the street. It's ah you're uniquely Seattle. right right The ballroom is right there. you know yeah know that's That's got its own sort of scene.
00:15:02
Speaker
But you go inside the George. And yeah, it's like for a person of a UK persuasion, You do feel it that way. And I think it is such a welcoming environment for all levels of the game here. um There is no place like it. I think if you're into this community, you should be very proud that you're a part of it because it it's different.
00:15:23
Speaker
Well, you know you touched on something that I want to get into a little bit. And one of the things that I've always been very impressed about the Sounders is that there are a lot of people in the Sounders who clearly are doing this because they find something very attractive about the Sounders. They find something very attractive about being in soccer in particular. And that's always for a long time been the thing that stands out and differentiates, I think, the Sounders from virtually every other every other MLS team.
00:15:53
Speaker
where they are genuine fans of the team or they are genuine fans of the sport and that they're spending their free time doing stuff around the team and the sport.
00:16:03
Speaker
And it gives it an authenticity. And I think that's part of what makes we've always said about what makes Sunder Hart great is that a lot of the people that are doing this stuff are doing it out of genuine interest and not because they're just cashing a paycheck.
00:16:16
Speaker
I think that is the engine that drives the Sounders behind the scenes, in my humble opinion. And I think it does make it maybe a little different from what you might see in other and MLS markets. I've worked in others.
00:16:27
Speaker
um They are not all like like this. And it's it's the Sounders, it's the rain, it's all of it. The people that are there are there because they deeply want to be. um And they're good at what they do.
00:16:40
Speaker
And you could look at someone, you know, we we joked earlier about this, but I'll bring it up and I'll give you, I'll so cite my source here. But Wade Weber is a great example of this. Like if you spend five minutes with Wade, Wade would be an amazing history professor at a collegiate level.
00:16:54
Speaker
Absolutely. Like his knowledge of just world subjects is encyclopedic. And he's incredibly outspoken and well-spoken. um And I could see him doing 50 other things with his life.
00:17:06
Speaker
But he's dedicated his professional time to the Sounders because I think he feels it in a deep way. Our head coach is the best example of this. yeah Going back to playing in the NESL era um and being a ah connector through these different eras of Sounders soccer. Yeah.
00:17:25
Speaker
you know Adrian, at a leadership level, kept this thing going in a time in USL when it was far more precarious than it is now. and I don't know that he gets enough credit for that because certainly you look at contemporary MLS and its it's thriving i mean in in a way that every quantifiable dad point you could point to, whether it's on the pitch and where MLS is now and the OPTA rankings globally and certainly off the pitch with what you're going to see for the values of these these clubs internationally and some of the teams that MLS, you know the bigger clubs are are pushing against now in international football is is is amazing. But to get from where this thing was to that point took a lot of belief.
00:18:06
Speaker
um And so I think, yeah, we these are just three individuals we're bringing up and there are a multitude more, but the premise of what you're asking to me resonates because That's what drives this thing. and And again, you have to be able to connect it to the community.
00:18:20
Speaker
Like the fans have to see that reflected back to them. Right. And I think that that it is a cycle where if the people at the top care, then the people in and everyone they touch cares.
00:18:31
Speaker
and And the only way it keeps going. And then that is, you know, it's sometimes hard to identify the special sauce in a organization or any any successful anything that's successful.
00:18:42
Speaker
I think it's always tough because, you know, like I look right now, I'll just use center heart as an example. Like I look around the landscape and I've been struggling with this a lot of how do we cover the world?
00:18:54
Speaker
Yeah. How do we, you know, how do we, and, and, and there's two main ways I think you can kind of go about it. One of them is that you say, well, we're going to do everything we possibly can and just cover the world cup as if we're the New York times.
00:19:07
Speaker
Well, look, we aren't the New York Times. We don't have the resources of the New York Times. We don't have the resources of the Seattle Times. And the Seattle Times, I want to say, i think has done a really good job agreed of stepping up their coverage for the World Cup. They have done, you know, I've got a special section here.
00:19:23
Speaker
sitting out they've had special sections in the newspaper they have had many many news stories they're active they're using all parts of their newsroom and they're covering this tournament in a way that frankly sounder heart couldn't do and so i what i've been constantly trying to do is like find the ways that sounder what can sounder heart do better than anyone else and we've been looking for little angles you know and and i think we've done an okay job i'm not going to sit here and say that we've done a perfect job But i I think it's important for organizations, though, in general, to remind themselves of what do we do better than anyone else? Yeah. And try to focus on that and not try to be everything to everybody, not try to be, you know, the Sounders don't need to be the best sports organization in the world. They just need to be a really good organization.
00:20:09
Speaker
Seattle focus. They don't even like I think that they have a differentiating factor among even the Seattle sports teams that they can draw from an authenticity that that even like the Seahawks can and they maybe they'll probably never be as big as the Seahawks, but they can do some things better than Seahawks still. Well, I think what you said there sparked off, it's funny, it's like a confluence of things you said have led to a thought that might spur the conversation forward a little bit in this
Importance of Local Sports Journalism
00:20:35
Speaker
sense. So you brought up the Seattle Times.
00:20:37
Speaker
And the first person I thought of regarding some of the coverage that I've seen that I think deserves a shout out and believe me, they have a lot of contributors that deserve shout outs too. But Tim Booth coming over from the Associated Yeah, absolutely.
00:20:49
Speaker
I'm sure most of your listeners have read a Tim Boo story and didn't even know they were reading a Tim Boo story when he was with the AP. His coverage for the Times you know over the last year plus, however long that that's been going on since he made the move, has been exemplary. And one of his most recent stories was on Gary Wright, who was the first senior vice president of business operations, I believe. But effectively, the the the business leader at the time when the Sounders were launching with the Seahawks in tandem,
00:21:19
Speaker
in 2008 2009 and when i was at seattle u as a graduate student i knew i wanted to work in the sport i had no idea how i was going to do it and gary wright fortuitously was the first person i heard speak was my first professor and went on to become my advisor in that program um Right when I was starting out. And so I listened to him speak for all of, I don't know, 10 minutes. And I said, I want to do what that guy does because he was that engaging in that dynamic. And one of the things that he spoke about in those early years of the Sounders, and I believe that it has continued on.
00:21:49
Speaker
was a relentless obsession with the fan and a respect for the product. Now, there are many Gary Wright-isms that a lot of his ah people, if you will, that he's impacted, and there are literally thousands of them across sports business, would tell you that would add on to those. But I remember those clearly. And it was a respect for the fans in that you're gonna have a voice, democracy in sport is real.
00:22:15
Speaker
um The naming of the team right is ah is a flesh and blood example of that. And this obsession with the products, um that does not mean largesse, it does not mean um you know using resources unwisely, it's actually the antithesis of that, it's taking every resource you have and deploying it ruthlessly efficiently Whether that is one end of the roster and developing someone like Paul Rothrock, who then scores in a Leagues Cup final. And, you know, we've now got this amazing communications campaign around him.
00:22:43
Speaker
Or you go and you sign Nico Ladero from Boca Juniors or Clint Dempsey. It can look... different at any given time but the point is a standard of excellence and from adrian uh to gary uh todd liewick he was really influential in those early years uh ziggy schmidt was one of my personal mentors and is someone that meant a great deal to me as is brian schmetzer you you know garth lagerwey craig weibel i could i could list yeah a hundred more people but they embody these things that you're speaking about and i think again if you go to sounders matches if you go to rain matches
00:23:17
Speaker
um if you like soccer in this community, there is so much to genuinely be proud of. It's not even communications or PR spin. It's it's just real. I totally agree with that.
00:23:28
Speaker
At the same time, there's things that we can do to improve. Right. And you have done a ton of first person research, whether or not you'd call it research or not ah in the U in England and the UK in general, especially.
00:23:43
Speaker
What are some of the, that you know, we've talked a lot about the sort of the experiences you and I off the record of, about the experience that we've had in England. Like I was blown away when I went to Charlton. Yeah. ah You know, it's a 25,000 seat stadium. It was maybe two thirds, three quarters full.
00:23:59
Speaker
But what blew me away was, and I get it. Like QPR fans are traveling from across town. yeah It's different, but there are 3000 fans in stand. ah And the atmosphere was electric and the and there was this like the concourse to the degree that it existed was very low tech. You know, it was carts and things that you might see at a high school football stadium and it worked.
00:24:28
Speaker
And yet and and and I don't know, it just it worked. Right. I don't know what I can take from that. I don't know what we can import here because there is something special about it being, look, you walk into a neighborhood and then all of a sudden there's a stadium yeah cropping out of nowhere.
00:24:44
Speaker
But are there things that you think we can, that American soccer, that the Sounders in particular can take from some of the football experiences that you have in England and the UK? The way sometimes riff on this subject is to start with a, it's not Pollyannaism, but it is a half full approach in that the fact that MLS is where it is now,
00:25:08
Speaker
from where it started in 1996 and competing, genuinely competing for hearts and minds and market share at a table that includes the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association,
00:25:21
Speaker
The National Hockey League, major men's and women's Division one athletics, which for those on the European side of the conversation, unless you see what D1 athletics look like oh in places like University of Washington or up and down the West Coast, other parts of the country, SEC country.
00:25:39
Speaker
other Big Ten schools, it's crowded.
Growth of MLS in the US Sports Market
00:25:42
Speaker
And so where I'm going with this is I think what MLS has achieved so far with its residents and fan communities, what the supporters communities are doing in these cities is remarkable. And so the answer to your question, I think in a word is time. I know it's not a very, i think that's true it's not a sexy answer. No, but I think there's a lot of truth to that. And I think, you know, we're it's funny. The 94 World Cup was the promise of a professional division like this.
00:26:09
Speaker
And now that it's returning here in 2026, the World Cup, you're seeing that promise fulfilled genuinely. the The amount of soccer specific stadiums that have gone up.
00:26:21
Speaker
The one thing I will tell you, I mean, we're talking about what lessons can you take from the English game, which um I love talking about, but you speak to people that work in the English game and and I do, and and I've got colleagues I really respect on on that side of the Atlantic.
00:26:34
Speaker
They will be the first to tell you the sports business acumen in North America and the infrastructure that we have here is second to none. it It genuinely is impressive. And so I'm quite proud for the MLS story to have been a part of my professional journey and story.
00:26:49
Speaker
But what you're asking is, how do we get it even bigger? How do we keep going? And I think time is part of the answer. But I think if there's one thing you take from from the UK especially, and and you touched on it a little bit there, it was about, you're talking watching a game at the Valley and 3,000 QPR fans.
00:27:05
Speaker
And obviously, I grew up on on Leeds United being from Yorkshire. And that was the first, Ellen Rowe was the first ground I got taken to as a kid when my dad, they played Newcastle United. I remember it like it was yesterday. um there is a almost psychotic obsession with the product.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah. If there was one thing i would communicate, and again, that one thing has a lot of different offshoots, but it is a relentless focus on the product. they were and And again, bringing it back to Gary Wright for a moment how the sound was launched,
00:27:33
Speaker
It's that level of attention to detail, what that pitch looks like, who is playing on it you know the nuanced understanding of what you're watching. you know Maybe you switch at halftime from a back four and now you're in a back five and the shape is totally different. Those fans there are dialed into it in a way that is almost unhealthy.
00:27:52
Speaker
And you've seen that now with your own eyes. And i live and breathe it And I love going back to experience that atmosphere because that doesn't exist anywhere else. Even as much as we're growing here, that level of intensity is not quite there. And so i think as the fan community grows here, as the traditions grow, as we get more time, I'm not trying to be evasive in the response, but I believe that is how you develop something that's real.
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, and I will say one of the things that struck me is that as impressed as I was with the fan culture and stadium and all of that, I was also struck by this idea that the championship is better than MLS.
00:28:28
Speaker
I thought was this is an interesting debate was maybe a little laughable. uh, the quality of football that I saw and granted, these were two mid to lower table teams. So I'm not sitting here saying that no one in the championship is better than their equivalent, but you get, I mean, i don't know. To me, it just struck that the quality dips a lot. And then granted they're playing 50 games. They're playing twice a week, basically every single 46 games in a championship season. Yeah.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, and, and then obviously they play leagues cut or league cup and they play, uh, FA Cup. Yeah, it's 50 games falling out of bed. Right, exactly. Before you even get deep in those competitions. But it is, I think that sometimes that American soccer fans beat ourselves up a little bit over the quality of the football. Yeah.
00:29:12
Speaker
And the quality of football is, I think, better than a lot of people sometimes appreciate. I mean, again, i say this as a person that I think is qualified to speak on it because I... i If I had to do them, I think I've worked probably more than 700 professional football matches. That's a lot of games. And I've watched a lot of championship football in person in my life. And i think the most diplomatic way I can answer it is you're right. I think the top end of the championship is incredibly compelling. It is one of the most compelling products in the world because of the jeopardy, because of what it means. i mean, you saw what happened recently with.
00:29:46
Speaker
Southampton and Hull and Middlesbrough on that triangle. and and then obviously that game and the the value associated with just a single match at Wembley and what that means to the fortunes quite literally and figuratively of a football club.
00:29:59
Speaker
The top end of the championship is amazing, but I do not believe that as a whole, that that division is of a higher quality than what you see in MLS, like when l LAFC and Sounders are going. don't, I don't. Right. i don't um I could empirically point to data and and we could bore an audience with that discussion. But genuinely, if you look at the quality of the players that are on on the field for the teams and I'm less now, I am proud of how far it's come. But the one thing the championship has going for it is a relentless atmosphere up and down the country. And the jeopardy is significantly real.
00:30:30
Speaker
It's that that part was, i feel like under almost understated how great the atmosphere was again for a maybe 75 percent full stadium. Yeah, it was loud. It was engaged.
00:30:43
Speaker
It was everything about it was the exactly what I went there to go see. And i had a great time. I'm really glad I went. I'm hopefully we'll get back sooner than later. 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 Newbern. Features by Tim Foss, Susie Rance, and Charlie Bohm. 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.
00:31:37
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. Nos Adietes admittedly is not exactly known for our spicy takes, but that doesn't mean we want our food to be mild.
00:31:56
Speaker
Spice up your life with Hacks and Ferments. Handcrafted in Georgetown and made it with the best local ingredients from across the Pacific Northwest, they specialize in unique small batch fermented hot sauces and vinegars.
00:32:08
Speaker
Haxan Ferments brings bold flavors and natural fermentation together for something truly special. Whether you're a heat seeker or just looking to elevate your cooking, you'll find something you love at HaxanFerments.com.
00:32:21
Speaker
That's
00:32:27
Speaker
And right now, if you use the code SOUNDRATHEART, that's all one word, at checkout, you will get a free hot sauce with your order. Again, go to hacksandferments.com, use the code sounder at heart at checkout for a free hot sauce with your order.
00:32:45
Speaker
Hacks and Ferments is a proud sponsor of the Sounder at Heart podcast network.
Impact of 2026 World Cup on Soccer's Growth
00:32:51
Speaker
But to bring it back to the World Cup a little bit, it's going to come, it's going to go, right? The World Cup will be here for the better part of a month. What do you think realistically the lasting ah the lasting benefits of someplace like Seattle can take from having the World Cup? here Seattle didn't have a chance in 1994. Should have had more, in my opinion.
00:33:13
Speaker
and fact You want to read about that chance. There's a whole article about it in for the Sounder Heart magazine. I didn't intentionally tee you up for that, but I'm i'm glad there was a moment that was tap in for you. That's good.
00:33:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think we look back on 1994 now and for me, it's it's in bright lights even still because I was making a transition to a new country. It's the first World Cup I can remember. I have like bits and pieces of Italia 90 and people screaming in my grandmother's house with England actually having an amazing run at that tournament.
00:33:45
Speaker
um But 94 is where it becomes in Technicolor in my mind. And I just talked about the fact that there was no MLS in 94. MLS now is that sort of promise fulfilled.
00:33:57
Speaker
I hope we look back on 2026 as the force magnifier for all the things we're discussing in this conversation. Um, whether or not that will come to pass, we shall see, but I like our chances.
00:34:08
Speaker
I believe in North America as a footballing environment based on what we've already talked about, whether it's infrastructure or the type of players that we're able to attract here in MLS and the growth of it all.
00:34:22
Speaker
Um, I think you're going to look back on this in 10, 15, 20 years time, and you're going to go, that was the moment that it It became big time. And I say that because, again, already before e ball is kicked in Seattle or anywhere else in America, because as we're having this conversation, only that's been kicked is in Mexico so far. Yeah.
00:34:42
Speaker
the sport is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. It's carved its place out for itself. So now it's about how much more elbow room can you take? Yeah. And I think that is the interesting question that you're asking is how much more share of the pie, how bigger of a share of the pie can the sport get? Can MLS get? Can the Sounders get in Seattle?
00:35:01
Speaker
And that, that competition, and that's a key word in this country because there's a level of competition that doesn't exist in other countries. no and its it does here And I think that sometimes gets over,
00:35:12
Speaker
overlooked when people are talking about the way that MLS can get into this market get into the American market is that it's not just competing with the NFL and the NHL and the NBA and major League Baseball and Division I college sports.
00:35:26
Speaker
And the end and and and but it's also competing with all the other soccer properties that are I don't get the sense that soccer is as widely available anywhere else outside of the United States where you can for a relatively nominal amount of money watch virtually any soccer league in the world every any time of day. On this one, and this is the biggest friend and family complaint I get from the other side of the world.
00:35:52
Speaker
I think ah you know if you want to watch the Prem, Peacock sub is like what, $8.99? Right. right And you get all all the games. right If you wanted to watch every Premier League game in the UK and you're living there as a UK resident between Sky and TNT Sports, you're talking about 200 pounds month.
00:36:11
Speaker
which if you do the conversions about 250 USD a month, and you have something that you don't have in other countries, the 3pm blackout rule, where you actually can't, it's it's antiquated, I won't bore everyone, but you can't even see those games, right? Like those are those are blacked out in terms of your, what you're able to watch unless you're using and a ah let's call it a VPN stream, right? You're using some sort of backdoor.
00:36:36
Speaker
So yeah, we have this unique disposition on this side where you're not just competing against those other leagues we've been speaking about, but the Bundesliga and the Liga and the Premier League and the UEFA Champions
MLS vs International Soccer Properties
00:36:46
Speaker
League.
00:36:46
Speaker
And the amount of rights that are available here at ease is both an amazing opportunity and a challenge specifically for MLS. One of the things you should be very proud of if you are in Seattle and you're a Sounder fan, which looking at the Sounder specifically for a moment,
00:37:02
Speaker
The Boston Consulting Group study that was commissioned by MLS about 10 years ago says a lot that has a lot of data in there about what does a soccer fan look like in any given market. And in Seattle, the disproportionate amount of soccer fans in this market specifically that follow the Sounders is massive compared to other markets. The Sounders are your team. Very much how you, Jeremiah Ochan, go out to the world you say, I don't really have a Premier League team. I'm just a Sounders fan.
00:37:29
Speaker
it's not just a sounders fan. You should say that proudly because that is what that study yielded. And it proved it out in terms of data. And I think that that's one of the, one of the superpowers that the sounders have. And I hope that the sounders will be able to lean more into this is that they have,
00:37:47
Speaker
they don't have We don't have the biggest market. We don't have the richest market. But what we do have is we have a genuinely engaged fan base yeah that is just dying for more, whatever more might be.
00:38:01
Speaker
like Every time we put out one of these magazines, I'm like, You know, we've done two of them. And I and i wonder, like, are people really going buy this? And sure enough, they do. Every time we, you know, when we launched the website, I was wondering, are people really like, are people really going to support this? And they did.
00:38:19
Speaker
And there's not a lot of markets in the in the country that and I don't think that says so much about Sounder Heart as much as it says something about Sounders fans. They just want something to be, to stay and to give them more.
00:38:32
Speaker
And Sounder at Heart fills that forum. And I think that that's one of the things that I am really just blown away in Seattle, especially is just how much of a like they don't We don't have to go out and convert people into Sounders fans. We just have to kind of give them a reason to want to consume it. And the data backs it up. I mean, again, whether it's you're looking at a data set from a company like Scarborough or you're talking about the BCG study, if you're identifying as a soccer fan in this market and there are hundreds of thousands of them, and we say this market, we mean Western Washington, right people that show interest in the sport.
00:39:13
Speaker
when you start getting into some of the the micro learnings from that about who is your club the vast majority are going to say in a market like this the sounders whereas if you went to louisville kentucky i'm just using a random market i don't know their exact specific specificities, but you might you might see Real Madrid or you might see Liverpool Man United.
00:39:33
Speaker
um That is what makes Seattle unique, I think, from a football slash soccer community perspective.
Soccer's Growing Popularity in Seattle
00:39:39
Speaker
I'll also remind everyone, just zooming out in a macro lens, this is the third most populous country on the planet Earth. We're approaching 350 people.
00:39:49
Speaker
I sometimes think Americans, they get in this mindset of like, we've got we got to win weather here, man. like We got to win the newscast. And it's like, you actually don't. like Think about how many sports fans there are in this country. You need people that care about soccer to believe in MLS. And we now know.
00:40:06
Speaker
There are millions and millions of soccer fans in this country. We've got to capture those folks. Right, exactly. And that's one of the things that... ah we It's funny. We were having this debate on Sounder Heart recently of how popular, not as MLS, but how popular is soccer in this country? Very.
00:40:24
Speaker
It varies the answer. And it's somewhere between, depending on what study you're looking at, it's either the third most popular sport or maybe the seventh most popular sport. like But that's the range. And and it's not that. and there's a lot of And there's a lot of people that you can slice out of that pie is my point. like there's Okay, so let's say there's 50 million sounders are soccer fans in this country.
00:40:49
Speaker
That's more, but that's like, that's ah it's the population of England. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, think about that on its own will be a very large country. Right. With a significant GDP output. Right. So that's kind of my point. And I think we we get so caught up in we've got to be the biggest one soccer going to make it. It's it's arrived. It's here here. Turn on Fox right now and watch their coverage of this thing. Like, well, maybe not. Yeah.
00:41:13
Speaker
I think they're doing a great job on their coverage. Are they? When I turn it on today and I saw live set desks in New York, L.A., Mexico City, Toronto, I'm blown away by what I'm seeing. We are, for what it's worth, we are sitting here watching Telemundo Peacock. We are. will just say, though, I was watching Fox earlier, and full disclosure, as a former News Corp employee myself, I'm going to proudly represent their efforts. Sure. Still having colleagues over there that respect and appreciate. But yeah, I think...
00:41:42
Speaker
Where you're going with this is, for me, the the right take. We do not have to capture a ah market size of 350 million people. We need to continue to win more hearts and minds from the soccer community itself.
00:41:55
Speaker
It's robust. Yeah, it's going to be interesting, actually, as we go through this. the ah The and NBA Finals are going head-to-head with the World Cup right now. I believe there is even a possibility...
00:42:06
Speaker
I guess we don't know. I guess we we don't know if there's going game six, but there was a chance, I guess, that there would be a game six in New York the same day that the World Cup was being played there. right mean, that's that would' have been amazing. It's a real sports equinox kind of moment. Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah.
00:42:23
Speaker
Yeah, but i don't know. I'm i'm still feeling for as much as FIFA and the U.S. government has done to sour the tournament as a whole in some ways.
00:42:37
Speaker
I do. I am really i come away still feeling really good about what was able to what we've done here in Seattle. Yeah. With all the fan fest with all the activations. I mean, I think.
00:42:49
Speaker
There's like just some real world stuff. I mean, like the the transit its set up here feels like it's going to be so much better than almost anywhere other than maybe Vancouver. And and like you go right now, you can go down to Pioneer Square and there's a huge screen set up down there.
00:43:05
Speaker
And people are watching the games and you can go to pier 62 and you can go to. Please do. Yeah, please do. Please go down to pier 62. ah Speaking of which, i i think my my little tip to everyone, try watching. not You don't have to get down to pier 62.
00:43:20
Speaker
You can watch it from the overlook walk. Well, as a Sounders and Rain employee, I'm going to deeply encourage you all to get yeah down to peers Pier 62 and to even explore the floating barge, which absolutely, of course, the finishing touches are happening right now. As we have this conversation, it's it's a special space. But yeah, you really can't go wrong in this city. um And as long as the June gloom stays away and we get this kind of weather like we're seeing today, think this is i hope it's not spoiling us too much. But today going to be curse of the commentator. Yeah. I think people are going to have a a really good time. There's nowhere like this community and in the summertime. um And we're starting to get into that that good period of the year.
00:44:00
Speaker
There's some great games that are on the schedule. i actually enjoyed reading your guys' coverage of, um for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina versus Qatar. I think you did a really nice job of outlining why the general market should be interested in that game.
00:44:13
Speaker
I'm looking forward to going to that game now. So good job. um Hey. there's a i have to say but for all the we did not get like some of the big sexy teams, but i don't I don't think you have to look that hard to see some really intriguing matchups in honestly all four of the games. Let's start with Belgium and Egypt, right? I mean, you're talking about the Egyptian king. Mo Salah just finished his Liverpool tenure, one of the greatest players of the modern era as far as I'm concerned.
00:44:40
Speaker
playing a team in Belgium that I think has a legitimate shot to make a run. Sure. You look at that team up and down, like these are special players. That's going to be played right here at Lumen field. You get to absorb that. know. I know. I know. I'm, I just got approved for my credentials. I'm very excited about that, but yeah, you can go through the, every single one of these games I think has some intrigue.
00:45:00
Speaker
I, I am really excited though about USA, Australia. Yeah. It's big one. I mean, it could be the entire hinge on which the group swings. Totally. For both of those teams and maybe even broader than that.
00:45:13
Speaker
I think Paraguay, the Paraguay game on Friday as we sit here recording this on a Thursday. yeah um i'm I'm really interested to see what we get out of Pochettino as players.
00:45:25
Speaker
um i like I like what I saw against Germany. yeah um i'm I'm appreciating how he's setting this team up. They look like they're going to run and they're going to fight.
00:45:36
Speaker
And it is going to be, there will be an intensity about the team that I think When American sides are having their best day, they play with that level of focus and heart, frankly.
00:45:50
Speaker
right When we think about the best of the U.S. s teams of yesteryear, I think Clint, I think of Landon, I think of Jeff Cameron, I think it's Tim Howard, and the list goes on and on and even Even before that, right like prior teams going back to 94, there's a grit to it.
00:46:03
Speaker
Pochettino's renowned for that, whether it was at Espanol or Southampton, um Spurs, like those teams play hard. And so i think Australia is pretty good too.
00:46:14
Speaker
i think they've got some, some good players that are really useful. And so that's a hard ticket to get. I know it's hard to get into. If you're on the fence thinking about it, my counsel is just do it because you'll always have the memories and you probably won't think too much about the dollars in 10 years, but yeah,
00:46:32
Speaker
ah easy for me to say it's yeah it's tough out there right now it is tough out there right now i will say that if you're looking for cheaper tickets and you just want to be able to go i think you'll probably be able to get some relatively cheap tickets to uh the bosnia cutter game i think it looks like iran egypt is actually looking like it'll be relatively cheap which i think would be a a fun game. Iran has putting a, I'm not going comment at all on any geopolitical tensions. Absolutely. A great national team, like truly. And again, having, and a great scene in a couple of world cups. Like it is an interesting story. And I, and like we have a whole thing in our, again, in our, not to keep plugging the magazine, but we have a whole thing about the diaspora.
00:47:14
Speaker
And how this is sort of like a get a chance for the Persian-Iranian diaspora to sort of gather on the West Coast, which is where a lot of them are. Significant. Yeah, especially in Southern California. And I'm sure it will look great here, too.
00:47:28
Speaker
i also i'd be remiss not to mention the fact that you got. Well, it's it's interesting on a podcast where I'm on the record for the first time in living memory. You got Garth Lagerwey to contribute something. I know. I'm realizing we probably should have called more attention to that, but that was quite I'm very proud of that. gift I may have advised Jeremiah after seeing it could have done with a headshot to actually make a reader realize rather than like a 12 point type right byline where we don't even really explain anything about it. But yeah, sure. I look forward to reading Garth's piece. I've not read it yet. Um, but that's a great get like a nice contribution for the, the print edition here that I'm looking at on the coffee table. I was, i was not able to get Garth to, uh, tell me what his next plan is though.
00:48:12
Speaker
when If you find out, let everyone know. but Oh, I will definitely let everyone know if once I find out. But I don't know the answer to that yet. Always rooting for Garth. One of the always rooting for Garth. And and the sounders that we all love would. Yeah, he was so instrumental. And he was also really indicative of someone who I think came to this organization and wanted to. He loves he loves the game ah like not like not just soccer, but the entire all everything that comes with that job. And he was such a ah joy to be able to work with and talk to. And I'm happy that he is seemingly quite, he's doing well now and seemingly getting ready for his next, his next step. Yeah. Well, you want to talk about someone that has invested their life in making the American version of this game as strong as it can be. Yeah. He's right up there for me. Oh yeah. And we've, we've had a lot of those at the Sounders. We talked about Ziggy and Adrian and Brian and,
00:49:09
Speaker
and Craig now. and Garth is is certainly on that list and cares deeply about the success of the sport in this country. and and We're better for it, um I think, as a soccer nation, having him involved. First and foremost, we obviously saw publicly reported that his health is is you know trending in every way you'd want to see. and That's what matters the most. and looking forward to seeing kind of what happens next with him. But for now, we'll all have to settle for yeah piece that he has written for your yeah for edition. He kind of talks, ah talks a lot about his, i his own soccer journey and where he's seeing it going and what he likes, would like to see happen. So, ah you know, anyway, well, I think that's, that's kind of what I wanted to,
00:49:53
Speaker
talk to you about if you're if if people are still listening now credit to them yeah yeah i mean we got solid what we got here close to 40 or 45 minutes you know you you and i are are fond of the sound of each other's voices and probably are our own and more than each other's but um no i i've enjoyed it and i think i'll just close by expressing gratitude to you and the sounder at heart community I've not been able to say this before, but I think what you guys, and I say you guys, like the readers, the people engaging with your content, um whether it's podcasts or print edition, anybody that loves the game here in Seattle, you play a critical role in building this up to what it's what it's become. Yeah, all of you guys. So um keep going because as I said earlier, the more of that we get, the faster the progress we all want to see goes. that is That is the biggest challenge, I think, is just having some patience that there is a process that this has to all go through. And it won't all be exactly how we want to be. But i do feel it feels like we're trending in the right direction.
00:51:02
Speaker
Well said. All right. Well, I'd ask you to plug something, but I don't know if you're you want to plug Pierce. Yeah, you too I should do that dutifully and and and honestly, sincerely, because it is an amazing space. We've got Waterfront Park this summer.
00:51:16
Speaker
um Just go on to Seattle Soccer Celebration, the website, which you can find through Saunders and Rain online. Register because space is limited, but there's a lot of it. So it's awesome and it's open. Just register if you are so inclined for that premium experience, which is Very nice. The floating barge is an option too, but more than anything, we just want people to get out, enjoy the World Cup, have a great summer. And critically, as part of the 52 Fields Initiative, um that floating mini pitch is a ceremonial 52nd field. It'll be repurposed.
00:51:49
Speaker
elsewhere in the community afterward, but really cool to see what was initially 26 fields by 26 for open and free play throughout the state of Washington become 52. Hat tip to everybody at the Ray Foundation for the work they've done on that, um because that is a lasting impact. And we talked earlier about what does this all mean? Like any kid can get out and and dream and and get on those fields and play. And that's that's the whole point of this.
00:52:13
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. i do think that there's a lot to be, like I said, there's a lot to be proud of. And the 52 pitch thing is one of the cooler projects that I think that, that the rave foundation or that anyone has done really.
00:52:28
Speaker
Are you going to, I don't know if you've done this elsewhere, so forgive me. This has already been put into the sound or heart zeitgeist. Do you have a world cup prediction? I have not made one. Are you going to today? ah Sure. I will make it for the sake of this show.
00:52:42
Speaker
ah The last time I was asked this, I was a little caught off guard. I hadn't given it a lot of thought. And I think I reflectively said France. I think I'm going stick with France. okay I still like the talent. I realize that there is always some...
00:52:58
Speaker
you know like There is some disruption. there's It's never perfect. But the talent pool of France is just so deep. and you know i think they I don't know that they're prohibitive favorites by any stretch of the imagination, but if I have gun to my head, that's who I'm going. Who do you got?
00:53:16
Speaker
Well, I'll first say what's what's so interesting about that France comment is we got to see some of those players in the Cold World Cup last summer. And that was so amazing to me watching the Sounders battle over every blade of grass against Desiree Douai.
00:53:29
Speaker
And, you know, Ousmane Dembele, I believe, was injured at the time, if memory serves. But he's obviously part of that front line for France now. And what ah what a privilege that was to see Schmetzer doing battle with Enrique there. It's cool. Yes.
00:53:44
Speaker
My answer to your question, i won't I won't run from it. I think it's a ConvoBowl team because I think the weather is a serious factor. Yeah, I can see that. And as someone that obviously pays very close attention to the English national team, that's all anyone's speaking about is the weather and there' there's a picture it's in their heads. There's a picture of one of their players, ah like his profile picture, and he's got a watch. He's like bright red, watch tan kind of thing.
00:54:11
Speaker
I don't think they have any idea what they're... in for it starts to be so again i think conmo bowl because brazil and argentina going to blink twice at any of this right it's sort of like uh to use an american football analogy when players show up to training camp in the sec guess what alabama is really really humid and really hot and they're just going to put 20 pounds of gear on and go play that's the conmo bowl teams to me like it's it's a built-in advantage never mind like if One of the big Western European nations gets down to like Azteca and has to play at altitude.
00:54:42
Speaker
So I think the geography and the weather of North America makes it interesting. Of course, I would love to see Thomas Tuchel lead England to the promised land for the first time since 1966. I would love to see...
00:54:55
Speaker
the u.s men's national team make a deeper run than the one they made their prior high watermark which i believe was a quarterfinals in korea japan in the modern game of course they went to the semifinals in whatever 34 or something but i i gotta say i i think it's for me probably brazil or argentina i flip a coin on which okay yeah yeah brazil has kind of been slept on a little bit i think so and um again they've got a world-class manager you talk about poise and calm like You know, he is he is all class and knows how to handle the biggest moments, obviously coming from, you know, Real Madrid and everywhere else he's been in his career, a player for AC Milan. So um here's to Don Carlo. I will tip my cap to him, but Argentina as a defending champion needs to be
00:55:38
Speaker
seriously considered as well so yeah yeah i know it's it seems like the yeah it seems like there's a lot of uh spain france argentina are sort of the the betting favorites i guess is there a dark horse is there a team that you are excited to just see maybe them surprise some people morocco were welcome I don't even know if you can even credibly call them a dark horse after a semifinal appearance. I think if they did it again, that would be, but I think they are an emerging football power. I'll, I'll leave what happened at the AFCON final kind of alone. Cause I don't really know what to make of that with,
00:56:13
Speaker
the administrative side, but the footballing side. And having been to their country with the Sounders, and one of the highlights of my career was such an honor to to be with the club for the Club World Cup there.
00:56:24
Speaker
That is a country, i mean, we're only on the ground there for, I don't know, maybe... three or four days they football's in the blood man like they're obsessed with it so then you look at the talent pool players again we got to see one of those players you know Ashraf Hakimi last summer in Club World Cup like um there's a lot there to like Yeah, yeah i i'm I'm just excited to see how this plays out. I've been surprised a little bit how many people have Norway making a real run, and I guess I didn't appreciate how deep their roster was. like i said
00:56:57
Speaker
i and i've Over time, I've come to appreciate that they have a lot more. There's not just Erling Hall. It's a whole, a whole roster of quality players. Well, with this expanded field, 48 teams, I think there's a lot of interesting options for, for dark horse quote unquote.
00:57:15
Speaker
And there's levels of that too, I suppose. I got to tell you, Scotland, I find compelling. And there's some bias there, right? Family leanings. And that's obviously we're just over there, but no, sincerely, I mean, Scott McTominay, what he's doing in Syria after leaving Man United,
00:57:28
Speaker
John McGinn, incredible player for Aston Villa. chey Adams, I like. I mean, there's just there's players all over that team that. I don't know. You can make a case here. That's why we have to start kicking balls and see what it looks like. Right. Exactly. I'm just excited for that. I'm excited for that. mean, I am happy to maybe be able to put some of the other stuff aside and to focus on the game. It's what happens every year. feel like when this happens is that once the ball starts getting kicked, once we start seeing those drone shots of these beautiful settings like Seattle and Vancouver and everywhere else.
00:58:01
Speaker
Uh, but anyway, thank you for doing this. Thanks for having me. I, uh, like just having soccer conversations on here sometimes. And the world cup was a perfect time to do that. ah With all that said, thank you to Alex Colfield for coming on.
00:58:14
Speaker
I'm Jeremiah Shan. This is no study at this part of the sounder heart podcast network, and we'll catch you next time.
00:58:50
Speaker
Let's go at Sounders.