Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Sound Bite(s): The day Andrew Thomas became a legend
76 Plays1 year ago
The Seattle Sounders didn't exactly put their best foot forward in their U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 match against Louisville City, but they did advance. In the process, Andrew Thomas may have earned himself a permanent place in Sounders Open Cup lore with his shootout performance in which he saved three shots and then slammed home the game-winner himself.
Sponsors
Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/
You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.
"Diversions" audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music: https://despatchesfromseattle.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Louisville Shootout Recap
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Sound Bites, a mini podcast by Nos Adietes and Sounder at Heart. Today is Thursday, May 9th, and I am Jeremiah O'Shan. On today's show, I'll be looking back at Wednesday's shootout win over Louisville City and quickly looking ahead to Sunday's game against the Portland Timbers. Hey, this is Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to Nos Adietes. Here we go. Come on! Hey, O'Shan! Let's go!
00:00:30
Speaker
For anyone who was paying attention, the Sounders finally got themselves a genuine positive moment on Wednesday when they advanced past Louisville City via shootout in the US Open Cup round of 32. The undeniable star of the game was goalkeeper Andrew Thomas, fresh off signing a multi-year extension that will keep him under the Sounders control through 2029. The 25-year-old was credited with five saves during the 120-plus minutes to get it to the shootout where he made three more saves.
Thomas's Heroics in the Shootout
00:00:57
Speaker
Most epically, he saved a penalty in the 8th round, waved off Sota Kitahara, who was preparing to take the potential clincher, and took matters into his own hands. Thomas went full power over placement and hit the ball about as hard as I've seen a penalty taken, barely giving opposing goalkeeper Danny Fonda a chance to react.
00:01:17
Speaker
Thomas, who had been chirping at the Louisville players throughout the shootout, then peeled off in celebration, pumping his fist and unleashing primal screams while his teammates chased him down. The three saves equaled the number of saves Sounders goalkeepers had made in their four previous shootouts combined, all of them losses. Thomas was also the first Sounders goalkeeper to convert his spot kick.
Game Dynamics: Sounders vs. Louisville
00:01:40
Speaker
Of course, the match should have never really gotten to that point in the first place. Despite using a lineup that had just two regular starters, that was Josh and Tetsuya and Alex Roldan, the Sounders were able to grind out a 2-0 lead off goals from Paul Rothrock and Danny Masovsky. Rothrock's goal came off a nice cross from Georgi Minungu, while Masovsky's headed in a perfect Danny Leyva free kick. At that point, the Sounders seemed to have the match pretty well under control.
00:02:07
Speaker
but a penalty in the 67th minute put the match on its head. While Alex Roldan was arguing for a handball on the attacker, the ball appeared to strike his raised arm. The referee pointed to the spot and Sean Tosh converted. Still, the Sounders seemed to have settled the game down enough to see it out, but in the 89th minute, the Sounders did a horrible job handling a throw-in that bounced around the box until Wilson Harris slotted it home.
Team Performance Analysis
00:02:32
Speaker
Truth be told, the Sounders were probably a little lucky to get it to penalties at that point, as Louisville had the better chances from there on out. It was not a particularly encouraging performance by the Sounders in that sense, especially when you dig into the performance of the first-teamers.
00:02:45
Speaker
Putting Thomas' performance aside, I wasn't really blown away by any of them. There were some bright spots in Cody Baker's tenacity, Danny Levis set piece delivery, Paul Rock's finishing, and John Bell's willingness to break lines. I also thought Stuart Hawkins did well to recover a few times, albeit usually from situations he had put himself in. But if we were looking for anyone to put the type of performance that demands more starts, I was left wanting.
00:03:11
Speaker
I did like what I saw from Divine's player Snyder Brunel in his 30 minutes, and he probably had the best penalty of the bunch. I also thought Kalani Kosa-Rienzi continued to acquit himself well, if not necessarily demanding a first team contract.
Preview: Sounders vs. Phoenix Rising
00:03:23
Speaker
Still, this is mostly about advancing, and that's exactly what the Sounders did.
00:03:29
Speaker
They'll now face U.S.L. Championship side Phoenix rising on May 22nd at Starfire. Phoenix has historically been one of the top teams in the U.S.L. Championship, making it to the championship game in their first year, finishing atop the regular season in year two and then winning it last year. They're off to a bit of a slow start this year, however, going three, four, and two and sitting sixth in the Western Conference table.
00:03:53
Speaker
They beat North Carolina Courage in their open cup round of 32, albeit while playing overtime up 10 men to 9. Kind of a crazy game there. Phoenix will also be without one of their top defenders after Lawrence Wike was red carded. My hope is that the Sounders will bring a few more first chambers to this one. I wouldn't necessarily blame them.
00:04:15
Speaker
And they start a similar group, but they really could use more experience on the bench.
Challenges Ahead: Fixture Congestion
00:04:20
Speaker
It was a little frustrating to see. The only options that Brian Spencer gave himself were, uh, in terms of MLS experience where Leo Chu and who was the other one? Oh, soda kite Hara. There we go. And, uh, I mean, I would love to see maybe a Christian rolled on heck, maybe a Jordan Morris who.
00:04:42
Speaker
I'm like kind of amazed to realize this, but Jordan Morris has never even played in an open cup game under Brian Spencer. But yeah, Christian Roldon, maybe even a Jow Paulo, you look at LAFC, they use two, both of their designated players started on the road against Las Vegas lights last night. I understand the sounders are in a bit of a pickle right now in terms of
00:05:04
Speaker
Fixture congestion as well as available players, especially at center back where they are down to essentially their fifth stringer. But I don't know. I do think that if they're going to talk about trying to win this thing, they need to put in a little bit more than they've put into it so far.
00:05:25
Speaker
That said, I can understand why they had to make the decisions they made for this one. Like I said, this is a stretch of very busy games for the sounders. They are going to end up playing 10 times in about 30 days.
00:05:43
Speaker
which is, no, they're going to essentially play every midweek for five straight weeks, which is a lot to ask. I definitely get it. And, and this game was quite a bit about survival more than anything else. In that sense, they passed the test, but now they can turn their attention to, they're going to have actually three more games between this game and the Phoenix game.
00:06:07
Speaker
The first of those is against the Portland Timbers on Sunday. The Timbers, as you may or may not know, are currently mired in an eight game winless run going 0-5 and 3 and allowing 19 goals during that stretch.
Struggles Against Timbers: Can Sounders Break the Streak?
00:06:19
Speaker
Unfortunately, this is also a timber seam that has absolutely had the numbers, the Sounders number as of late. The Sounders are winless in their past six games against the Timbers. That's the longest ever fallow streak.
00:06:32
Speaker
the Sounders have ever had against their southern neighbors and that goes all the way back to 1975 when this rivalry first started. The last time the Sounders beat the Timbers was that 6-2 win at Providence Park on August 15th, 2021. Let's hope the Sounders are due for a turnaround.
Closing and Subscription Appeal
00:06:52
Speaker
Before I get out of here though, I did want to make a bit of a pitch to all of you.
00:06:57
Speaker
Today's episode is free to everyone, but normally what I do is I record these mini episodes about once or twice a week, depending on what's going on in the world. And they're usually only available to our paid subscribers on a private RSS feed.
00:07:12
Speaker
If you enjoyed this episode of SoundBytes, I'd hope that you would consider becoming a paid subscriber of Sound at Heart. Plans are available for as little as $3 a month or $25 a year. And then at the $75 a year level, you'll also get access to our private Discord server that has become very active in recent weeks. I don't know if you are someone who participates in the game threads on Sound at Heart. Those usually get about 250 comments.
00:07:41
Speaker
They tend to slow down when we get high traffic. That's, you know, something we're trying to figure out. But on discord, we get anywhere from a thousand to 2000 comments on a game thread and it doesn't ever have issues loading. So if that's an experience that you really like, I would urge you to check out our discord, become a paid subscriber of sounder at heart and really just help support independent soccer media.
00:08:06
Speaker
With all that said, I'm gonna get out of here. I am Jeremiah Shan. This is Soundbites, and I will catch you next time.
00:08:49
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!