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Smash and Grab: The Heritage Cup Edition!
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Aaron joins Jeremiah to recap the win at San Jose and they come to the conclusion that it was good, actually, to win. They also talk Vancouver Whitecaps Leg 2 preview and express excitement about going to Spokane to play some soccer.
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Transcript
Introduction and Announcements
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what a Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline you.
Sponsorship and Recording Details
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of Nos Adieta as part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Monday, March 16th, 2026. I am your host, Jeremiah s Shan. Today, I am joined again by Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
Sounders' Recent Wins and Strategic Plays
00:01:57
Speaker
Well, the Sounders are coming off for quite a week, going 3-0 in three road games, with the most recent one coming on Sunday against the Sounders' Earthquakes. The Sounders made eight changes in that game from Thursday, gave two players their first ever MLS starts, and had six players making their first starts of the season.
00:02:14
Speaker
It wasn't pretty, but it was effective, as they got a goal from Paul Rothrock and rode Andrew Thomas' hot hand to their third shutout in eight days. All in all, really not bad. ah Aaron, are you?
00:02:30
Speaker
i don't know. How are you feeling about things right now? I feel pretty great about things. ah You know, this was not a game that I think the Sounders win. If you replay it 100 times, I don't think they win it all that often, but they won the one that actually goes down and in the standings. And, um you know, they've got six points from from the first three of this five game road trip.
00:02:49
Speaker
Minnesota looks eminently beatable at home. If they can come back to Seattle on April 12th with nine road points, man, that's incredible. you know''s ah That would put them, if they can match last year's home ah a home form on a over 60 point per game pace for the year,
00:03:07
Speaker
And yeah, I think you have to feel great about it. And the Sounders absolutely got some luck in this game. i You know, San Jose was not as clinical as I'm sure they would have liked to have been.
00:03:19
Speaker
um Some big time saves from Andrew Thomas. the Of course, the incredible clearance from Tina Lopez. ah And yeah, I mean, but the reality is that when you have a defense as organized as the Sounders do, and when you have...
00:03:36
Speaker
a team full of guys as committed to the cause as the Sounders are, you're going to win more games like that than you probably should. then You know what the numbers would tell you you, you should expect to do. They just, they pour everything into every game. As long as there's a chance that they can get a result, they're going to put everything on the line to get it. They have a winning mentality. Winners win, losers lose. Right. And you know, the Sounders went out there and they won. They shut out the earthquakes for the first time and yeah,
00:04:01
Speaker
almost a year oh man that's a good stat yeah i yeah that's a good that's a good shout now i'm gonna look that up but uh you're right they had not done that in a long time yeah the earthquakes have been scoring like crazy this year you know um they they haven't played a ton of the first goal the earthquakes had given up actually yeah this year first goal they'd given up this year right and they've they've also well actually no they hadn't scored that many they'd only scored six in their first three but still i mean yeah yeah And, you know, like looking at the earthquakes in that game, they looked like a
Discussion on Opponent Teams and Players
00:04:33
Speaker
good team. Like, I don't think that this is a bad team that had just gotten lucky with early season results. I don't think they're going to competing for the supporter shield or anything, but they added a very good player in team of Werner who I thought looked pretty good in that game. I think he's going to, he's going to settle well in MLS and be a really key addition. I think that this, you know, based on what I've seen from them, they, they look very much like a playoff team and, know,
00:04:56
Speaker
If you can beat a team like that on the road, you got to feel pretty good about it. You know, they've got nine points from four games. You got to feel great about that. The one loss was to an RSL team that also looks to be pretty good, especially at home. So I'm feeling real, real good. If every game they'd won this season had looked like that,
00:05:15
Speaker
Obviously, I'd be a little more concerned about the underlying performances. But if you put a lineup like that out there after smoking Whitecaps midweek, which also adds to the to the great mood, you've got to feel pretty good about getting any result you can. you know You're starting two guys that were on loan.
00:05:34
Speaker
um You're only getting 45 minutes. Yeah. you're only getting 45 minutes from Jesus Ferrer and Albert Rusnak. You're still missing Pedro de la Vega. You're still missing Jordan Morris. You're still missing Yamar.
00:05:47
Speaker
And they just went out, you know, 30 minutes from the world on. No, no Kim Ki. He, um, and they went out and they found a way to get it done. And that, that is what a winning team does. That's what fostering a winning mentality does.
00:06:00
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, I don't want every game to look like that, but no, given the circumstances, I feel, I feel pretty, pretty great about it. Yeah, so I
Defensive Improvements and Key Performances
00:06:10
Speaker
looked this up. It looks like the Sounders had played 11 straight against the Earthquakes where they had given up at least one goal, and you had to go all the way back to 2021. Interestingly enough, that was the game in San Jose where they won on a very late Jordan Morris goal, if you and remember that one.
00:06:32
Speaker
And they ah yeah, that was the last time they shut out the the Earthquakes. They haven't shut them out at home. in since 2020 uh and that was and that was actually in that was actually in mls's back uh group stage play so they haven't shut them out at lumen field since 2017 an active streak still 2017 is the last time sounders shut out The earthquakes in at Lumen Field, very much beside the point, but just fascinating pretty trivia. And the earthquakes in general against everybody have not been shut out since May 17th of last year. So. Oh, wow.
00:07:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So this is, you know, that's a, that's a team that can score some goals and, uh, they didn't, they didn't do it. And they generated a lot of chances, you know, and, and to get to your, you know, to address a little bit more of your point is, you know, the sounders, there's a lot of, i did a column today, ah sort of like illustrating some of the stats that illustrated just how,
00:07:37
Speaker
sort of under it, the Sounders were, you know, they only had like the, there's a stack called field tilt that may mostly is measuring final third entries for each team. And the Sounders tend to dominate this stat. This is like kind of one of their bread and butter stats, but they were down 84 to 16 percentage wise on, on field tilt, which is not good. That's best I could tell the lowest that they had been since I started measuring this.
00:08:07
Speaker
two years ago. So that's, that's not good. ah They only had 37% possession. That's actually not too, too crazy, but they are outshot 25 to seven. The even crazier stat is they gave up 17 corners and they had zero for themselves. So there was a 17,000,
00:08:28
Speaker
corner kick disparity between the two teams that's tied for the largest disparity in MLS history. And suffice to say, none of the teams who were on that list won the game.
00:08:42
Speaker
Uh, and, you know, the centers had struggled, you know, one of the things that branch muster pointed out in the post game was that, you know, last year they struggled with set pieces. We've talked about it a lot. We, you know, there's a ah ton of ways to sort of illustrate it. The best of which is maybe that they gave up three set piece goals in the final game against Minnesota United ah sort of illustrative of the problem that they were dealing with all last year. And I didn't count up all the,
00:09:08
Speaker
sort of attacking free kicks that sounds they took, but they, they probably took three or four of those. So you add those, they had over 20 attacking set pieces and that they didn't score on any of them.
00:09:22
Speaker
And I'm not going to say that the sounders defended them all perfectly, but they they did what they had to do. you know There was a lot of sacrificing bodies, a lot of block shots. There was a sequence ah you know around the 35th minute or so where the Sounders blocked like three shots in the box, maybe all of them from Jackson Reagan, just sort of like a real you know a real gutsy win. And like you said, you don't want to play like this every week, but when you're facing a situation like they were this week,
00:09:51
Speaker
Sometimes you just got to do what you got to do to win and you don't spend a lot of time analyzing what you did wrong. You spend a lot more time looking at what you did right.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that that's the that's the right way to look at a game like this, especially given the extenuating circumstances in a game like this. And they they gave themselves a chance to win. I think that.
00:10:13
Speaker
a lot of the way the rest of the game flowed happened because the Sounders scored a goal in the 20th minute. Right. Right. That's an and also and a good point. And I think that because they looked pretty sprightly, pretty decent early on. um Yeah. For 25 minutes or so, I think they were the best. they You could argue they were the better team.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. they They certainly were not as aggressive. and Their line of comp confrontation wasn't as high as you would expect from from them normally. But I thought that, you know, they looked perfectly aggressive.
00:10:43
Speaker
Adequate. You know, they were very much in the game. They got a lead early. And, you know, San Jose poured it on and they did what they had to do. And i i think that this is similar to that Austin game, right? with the With Raul and and the kindergarten team.
00:11:02
Speaker
where it's, does it really matter how it happened? Like you got the three points. It's ridiculous that you got the three points out of this game and you wouldn't have done it without a very committed, disciplined performance.
00:11:15
Speaker
um And yeah, I was, I was really impressed, you know, with, with the performance the that the kids put in. I thought that the veterans that were in the, in there as well um put in a really solid performance i thought knew who was great again um yeah jackson reagan jackson reagan was incredible yeah um knew who i will say you know because i i'm a person who has been hard on new who a lot over the last few years and this year i think he is back to his absolute best um he seems yes i would agree with that he's been incredible defensively he seems a little more um
00:11:49
Speaker
I don't want to say disciplined because that's not really the right word, but he seems to have a better, a clearer idea of what he wants to do in the attack when he goes forward. yeah He's put in some pretty dangerous balls. He's picking his spots a little better. So I just want to say he's he's been great. Reagan was great.
00:12:04
Speaker
ah Lopez, I thought, was was really impressive. I hope he did earn that contract because i i mean... deserves it. yeah Would you rather have Tino Lopez on this team or some random freely available USL-level center back? I would certainly like to see what Tino Lopez can do in that spot. Or some freely available former MLS player who might just be looking for a job. i mean i right At this point, Tino Lopez has upside. He's 23 years old.
00:12:30
Speaker
He's got some athleticism. He's got some decent size. But what really impressed me about Tino Lopez was – he never looked overwhelmed by the moment. You know, he never was just booting balls out just to sort of clear his lines. There was, you know, he had a couple moments of real composure where he, you know, he took the space where he made passes that were incisive and he just looked like a player who understood that this was, this was a chance to audition, not just a chance to, you know, uh,
00:13:02
Speaker
not blow it. You know, he was, he was out there sort of like trying to win a spot, not avoid losing a spot. And on the same token, Peter Kingston, i was, i was not, I was, that was the thing I was most concerned about, to be honest with you. When I saw this lineup, I had kind of,
00:13:18
Speaker
ah Figured they were going to do something very similar to this, but i I did not think they would start Peter Kingston and Nikola Petkovich in the defensive midfield. And I thought that was probably going to be a little soft.
00:13:28
Speaker
And it wasn't. You know, i don't I don't think that was their problem really at all, was that defensive midfield was not... was not bad. You know, Pekovic is not exactly a, he's certainly not a six.
00:13:40
Speaker
And I think that that's maybe something we learned from this, but he has some real attacking instincts. He can spray a ball around, you know, he he did good about getting into space. I liked what I saw from him, but he's, he's like i said, he's, he's not a six.
00:13:54
Speaker
Peter Kingston, i don't know if he's a six either, but he showed some of that.
Veteran Players' Impact and Controversial Moments
00:13:58
Speaker
ah he had And then he also had a couple really good plays. In another world, he has a second he he helps us underscore a second goal.
00:14:06
Speaker
That ball he played to to Paul Rothrock right at the start of the second half ah easily could have been a goal. ah he so he He had that really nice breakaway where he he was selfish, which I'm not going to get too hard on him for, but he made a great run, took a great touch into space. Should have passed to Masovsky, but yes i mean just another like ah a guy taking the opportunity to be aggressive, make a good play, which I do think is ah is an an impressive instinct in a situation like that.
00:14:35
Speaker
Yeah, I will say if there was one frustration I had in this game, and I wouldn't say it was disappointment because i whatever it wasn't ended up not being that big of a deal. But I don't know that any of the veterans who came in off the bench actually helped as much as I would have liked. You know, yeah Albert Rusnak in particular, you know, it was his turnover that led directly to the to the Preston Judd chance that Lopez made that amazing play on. And then he he was offside on the goal that would have sealed the game.
00:15:08
Speaker
And I just want to talk about that moment a little bit. Yeah. ah You know, it was funny in the postgame. They showed the the film and Brian Schmetzer is like, I, you know, you you fucking, what do you say? he you You owe him a fucking apology or something. i don't know. It's like he did some colorful language to Albert jokingly about Cody Baker and And Albert is just like, yeah, you know, just kind of shrugs. And it's like, what are you to And I, on one hand, I don't really blame him for being off side there because he was so far off side that there really wasn't, i don't think there was really anything he could have done to get on side. ah And if anything, what Brian said is look, just like go farther off, like get out of the way. yeah Like you gotta like sort of get out of the way there.
00:15:54
Speaker
And, ah and at the same time, I got to say, i i think that call is correct as much as it was frustrating to see. I don't understand how anybody can possibly have a problem with that call. um If you are in that spot, you are impacting the play.
00:16:13
Speaker
ah Whether or not the goalkeeper was fully screened and couldn't see the ball, couldn't see the shot, whether or not there was a deflection, none of that stuff matters. He is standing directly between...
00:16:24
Speaker
the last defender, the ball and the goalkeeper. And so um that's going to affect something. you just and You just can't be there. And it's, it's frustrating.
00:16:35
Speaker
um i i would have to, to look to watch the full play again, to say confidently, but I don't, Felt like there was never really any reason for him to make the run that put him in that position in the first place. Like it was just, i mean, he was making a, I mean, I think he was making ah an honest run off of so what the way it starts as Osaze has it sort of on the wing. and by the way, it's, it's kind of a funny whole sequence because Rothrock very close to being offside on the initial ball in. He makes an amazing touch to, to just bring it down smoothly and to start that sequence. And I think where, if I remember correctly, where,
00:17:14
Speaker
Rusenek falls or starts to go offside is he's sort of playing Osase to play to like, he's making himself available for Osase to play on the ball. But then when, and once Osase plays it square to Cody Baker, there's no hope, you know, he's, right he's kind of hopelessly offside at that point. And I think to Brian's point, he's saying like,
00:17:35
Speaker
he needs to just get at that point. You got to get out of the way. Like you just don't, you can't, you have to take yourself out of the play and he, and he doesn't really do that. You know, he's sort of, i think he kind of knew also the way he reacts is sort of like sheepish and like, Ooh, I, I wasn't really involved. Right. but and And I guess I can see some,
00:17:55
Speaker
I guess I see some people's point. ah Whereas there was a time when that goal, that kind of call was not made very often, but we, I feel like we see it made all the time now. i mean, it wasn't right. you You can go through the, you know, the last couple of weeks, I guarantee you will find two or three much, much more borderline instances where that was waved off where a goal like that was way up above. Yeah. I would imagine. So i for me, I,
00:18:22
Speaker
if this isn't an example of of the non- involved but impacting offside exception, right? Then the rule might as well not exist. Like, right. This is, this just feels like the the clearest possible case of it.
00:18:37
Speaker
I was honestly pretty surprised that didn't get flagged initially because I, I think you had said that the, the initial bar review was actually to see if Rothrock was offside initially. That's, that's why apparently why it took so long as they were initially seeing if, if Rothrock was offside and it would have been a more straightforward decision. Like there's no, for sure.
00:18:54
Speaker
there would have been no need to sort of like, well, is he, is he offside or is he not? And i mean, I'll be honest. I, when I watched the replay, I thought it was probably going to be offside. i guess they, they ultimately decided that it was, it was too close. And, and so they, at that point they went to the next, the next part of the play.
00:19:15
Speaker
i don't love how long it took. I, you know, this has been sort of like a thing this year where replays seem to be taking way too long. But I don't know. i Like, look, if the call is correct, I just... You know, like, this is like i the Hassani Dotson goal should have stood. Like, there's no question about that.
00:19:35
Speaker
This one... i think it's a pretty I think it's a pretty obvious call. I think that it's just if if that goal comes against us and the players and on the other team is in the same position. you want it waved off. You want it waved off. Yeah, especially if it goes to review, I think. um Right. So, yeah, it's frustrating. It does suck for Cody because it was ah it was a great take. You know, there was a deflection, but he put it in a good spot.
00:20:00
Speaker
um to force to force the deflection i don't think he does he he does have an mls goal right no that would have been his first that would have been his first goal yeah i don't even honestly i don't he doesn't have a lot of goals period uh no no not much of a goal scorer um no he's not although he had two pretty deep and here's another player who had not really you know he played a little bit I guess he's played a little bit this year, but he has not had a big role.
00:20:26
Speaker
And he, you know, he also looked really good. He was matched up against Timo Werner the entire game. And yeah, he got beat a few times, but he never looked out of his, he never looked out of, you know, like he was out of his element or that he was just overwhelmed by, by anything like he was,
00:20:47
Speaker
I mean, I thought he held his own. i was really happy with him. I mean, so much so that I would... I feel very comfortable about him being sort of the... back Essentially, he's he's like the backup left back at this point, even though he was playing right back in this game.
00:21:01
Speaker
But, you know, he... I thought he was, he was good. i liked him a lot. You know, he, he can do a job and it was a good reminder that he, you know, he's never not looked up for it. I mean, that's sort of the, right he has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle a little bit, but at no point has he looked like he was,
00:21:20
Speaker
that this league is at too high of a level. he He's a great guy to have around. Like he's just the the perfect example of this is a really handy guy to have around because there's nothing about his game that screams out. We've got to play this guy more. We've got to find minutes for this guy. Right. Yeah. Because there's like, there's just, there's not this upside that I don't see this upside with him, at least at this point where it's like,
00:21:45
Speaker
we need to make a spot for this guy to to get more minutes. But I never get nervous when I see him in the lineup. Yeah. I mean, Timo Werner has made fullbacks with much greater pedigrees than Cody Baker look pretty foolish.
00:21:59
Speaker
yeah And Cody Baker didn't look especially foolish at any point in this game. And, um you know, he was in there to do a job and and he did that job really effectively. Yeah, Cody Baker, by the way, does have one career goal. It was like three years ago.
00:22:14
Speaker
So it would have been a pretty nice, a nice thing. is This feels all like it'll be kind of like the Danny Leva. It was all the day. It really does seem snake bit by the the lack of gold things. But yeah, I mean, I, i ah you know,
00:22:29
Speaker
I didn't think I get Christian and Alex were fine in this game. ah You know, Sazay was okay. ah Danny Masofsky did not do enough with his start. I was really, i had really high hopes for him. i had really high hopes for Georgie Manungu too. And ah you know, he made a couple, get had, it it looked like he was close to making something happen.
00:22:53
Speaker
But he he was not, I would not say he was a additive part of the Sounders in this one. But Jesus Ferreira made another, you know, he he was again one of the Sounders most dangerous players.
00:23:05
Speaker
a very A very good performance by him. he The ball he gives to Rothrock on the goal is just absolutely perfect. and And I'm very much here for Jesus Ferreira redemption tour as a playmaker.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah, he's been incredible this year. um I know that some of the advanced metrics haven't loved his performance, but I i think that that's a lot of that is just they value specific things. Yeah. um Because he's been, i think, incredible. um he's He's never going to be the...
00:23:36
Speaker
ball security robot that albert rusnak is um but he's gonna take chances and pull off things that albert rusnak isn't and i think that they're pretty complimentary players to have and being able to slot jesus in and and get albert a little bit of rest and not feel like there's that much of a drop off is is extremely it's it's a luxury to have that And i think that, you know, he, he has a great, obviously has a great synergy with Paul Arreola, but I just feel like he clicks with pretty much all the attacking players on this team. yeah he He knows them really well. He's pretty consistently making dangerous passes, anticipating runs.
00:24:18
Speaker
I think that for him to really take the step up to be the player that everybody wants him to be. And the, and the kind of player that I think he knows that, you know, that he wants to be he needs to get a little more goal dangerous and be a little more yeah involved closer to goal but i mean for the contribution that we're getting for him it's hard to have any complaints it took him some time to to get adjusted but that happens a lot with attacking players especially creative attacking players they can't all be nico ladero right they can't all hit the ground running with a new team um but he seems very comfortable now in the system and and yeah he's been
00:24:52
Speaker
you could make a case that he's been the most important player so far this season. Um, yeah, a pretty, you know, you could, you could definitely make that case. He's only taken two shots, right?
00:25:05
Speaker
Both of them are headers. Oddly enough. One of them, I think, forced a pretty and impressive save save as well. Yeah, they're both on goal. ah So I can't sit here and say I remember exactly.
00:25:19
Speaker
yeah he yeah he did make one that was a very good a very good header. And it was against St. Louis, I guess. Is that right? yeah Yeah, I feel like I remember that one. Yeah.
00:25:31
Speaker
ah But yeah, he's i would say that that's been sort of the ongoing frustration with him since he got here. Is there he's just not been, you know, for a guy who's who's not that who's a young player who really made his career as a goal scorer.
00:25:47
Speaker
He has not been. i mean he's not been selfish. He's not been a player who is looking for his own shot as much as you would expect. And he, he just doesn't shoot as much as you would expect. And he's not really in those parts of the, you know, he's just not even in, in the, in the box a lot, which is, is, is kind of weird, but I'm, I'm loving him. If he wants to have 15 assists while playing as a pocket winger, have absolutely no problem with that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he had seven, he had seven assists last year.
00:26:19
Speaker
He's already got, he's got four and four games this year. So, right. Yeah. It's a, he's on, he's on a good trajectory for sure. i yeah. I mean, like i said, I found a lot more to be happy with in this game than I did to be frustrated with, you know, you can definitely throw your hands up and point. There's a lot of things you can point to as saying like, well, I don't want to play this way. Okay.
00:26:39
Speaker
Fair enough. But yeah, i want I want to win games when we're rotating eight starters out. you know i want I want to be able to do that. i Whatever you got to do to get results when you are this rotated, I am here
Upcoming Match Preparations and Strategies
00:26:53
Speaker
for it.
00:26:53
Speaker
And they set themselves up nicely for... Wednesday, I mean, let's not lose sight of that, that this was a game where they needed to, they needed to rest a little bit and they cannot, you know, I think if anything we saw on Sunday when Vancouver put six goals up on Minnesota United, that they cannot go into Wednesday, assuming they've already won. That would be a huge mistake.
00:27:18
Speaker
It would. Yeah. And that would be a pretty brutal way to knock some of the shine off this early season. it Sure would. oh yeah So, yeah, you've got to you got to take care of business. Vancouver is very dangerous.
00:27:30
Speaker
I think you've got to feel comfortable going into that game. Right. You got it. Yeah. But. I mean, weird shit happens, man, in in Champions League, especially. And yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Sounders defensively a little bit better than Minnesota, I think it's it's fair to say. But still, you know, they don't need to score six. They only need to score four. So right um I think it would be real, real nice to get an early goal on Wednesday and and put it to bed. here's Here's a fun stat before we before we close out this segment. ah Guess how many crosses the Sounders had in this game?
00:28:08
Speaker
10. I don't know. Zero. Zero crosses. That's I assumed it must be wrong. So I went and looked at a different website and apparently it's not.
00:28:19
Speaker
Zero crosses. Well, I mean, i and I guess that doesn't totally shock me because so many of the Sounders crosses, they are not a heavy crossing team. And to the degree they get crosses, it's usually on corners because those are, I believe, recorded as crosses.
00:28:34
Speaker
And they had no corners. So I guess there's some... ah it It doesn't I guess it shouldn't blow my mind that much, but that is it definitely speaks to, ah you know, crosses are coming out of sustained possession, usually. And the Sounders did not have a lot of sustained possession, especially in the attacking third, which, you know, I do think that that's again, just to circle back on this.
00:28:57
Speaker
you know If you're going to be frustrated about the way they played, I will note that they had four or five high-quality attacking sequences in this game. you know Rothrock himself said, you know I probably should have had at least two goals. There was the one I talked about with Peter Kingston, and then there was that one that came shortly after his goal where Pekovic played him in. And he was he was in on goal.
00:29:20
Speaker
If he just taps it over to Georgie Manungu, that's that's probably just a goal. ah But he he doesn't really control it at all and and end ah ends up not really turning into much.
00:29:32
Speaker
But you know those are the kind of – like the Sounders were willing to attack. This was not just sitting and absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. There was a game plan here, and I think that's important to note that this was not just – that they they went into this thing with ah with an idea of what they wanted to do.
00:29:49
Speaker
And and they they basically did it. i don't I'm not going to going to say they intended to give up 25 shots or, you know, allow the the kind of quality opportunities that that sounds they got. But this was i don't know. it was It was a good performance. I don't I don't I just don't have a problem with it.
00:30:08
Speaker
Yeah, no, I don't i don't at all. you You save the ah your philosophies of football and sticking to your identity, you save that for when you've got most of your guys available.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you're playing at home. Yeah, and you're playing at home. you're You're starting a couple loanies. You just do what you got to do to get it done. And you know i think that if they get a point out of this game, everybody is probably pretty thrilled.
00:30:31
Speaker
yeah The fact that they got three with that approach, I think... that suggests that it was probably, probably the right decision. Cause I think if they go out there and they try to counter press and they have a high line of confrontation, they probably get torched pretty badly.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah. one One more thing I just wanted to get your thoughts on. We're going to, and then we'll, we'll come back and talk a little bit more about the Vancouver series, but the, the the big play of the game ends up being the clearance that Tino Lopez made.
00:30:58
Speaker
I think we both agree that that's a just an outstanding play of hustle, but also skill. ah But what I'm curious on your thoughts were, you know, Jackson Reagan, I think there's a lot of discussion of whether or not he got away with a penalty there.
00:31:14
Speaker
And after watching it, i'm not I'm not as convinced that it's the stone cold penalty somewhere having us believe. Like, if it got called, I don't know that I could complain. But the the reason it didn't go to VAR, I think, is because Judd slows down and sort of kind of for like almost like draws the contact. And and since he gets a ah good shot off, it it clearly has not you know stopped him from doing that. But am I being too paul am i being ah two rave green glasses on that one?
00:31:44
Speaker
I mean, I don't think you are. um If I were an Earthquakes fan, i there's a pretty good chance I would think that you are. um Fair enough. The way I always try to look at satoo it calls like that, right, is how pissed off would I be if this didn't get called for us?
00:32:01
Speaker
And I feel like this is one where I would have been frustrated and said, man, I wish we'd had a ref that would have given that penalty. but probably wouldn't have felt too aggrieved.
00:32:12
Speaker
i I mean, I do truly think that that's the case. I think that um on first look, I also thought that it was pretty lucky to get to get away with no call there, but ah they showed the clearance a million times as they should have.
00:32:27
Speaker
And with each successive watch, it was pretty obvious what had happened. Yeah. that you know he he did just slow up to to get a better chance at the shot off.
00:32:38
Speaker
Jackson does have to control his body there and not bowl him over, but he he did that. i don't think he really put him off too much. Yeah, I don't think he put him off too much. um I think the reason that that wasn't a goal is because Andrew Thomas made a ah good save and and Tina Lopez made a heroic clearance off the line. um So yeah, I think that if it gets called...
00:33:00
Speaker
I'm probably annoyed about it, but I probably accept it um as, you know, a reasonable call. But I don't think we have any reason to feel guilty or that we really got away with one, you know?
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's it's sort of part of the adage of this is why you don't leave your feet. Like, you're almost always more likely to get the benefit of the doubt if you make that sort of an upper body shove instead of a lower body tackle.
00:33:26
Speaker
i And, you know, i'm I don't know. you guess I guess I think that's a good way of putting it. Like, I i just don't think – like, this has happened to Jordan a bunch of times, and I don't think he's ever gotten that call.
00:33:41
Speaker
Nope. And look, if if Judd goes down, is it a penalty? Probably. But, you know, the the reason he doesn't go down, i think, is because he still has what he thinks is a good shot.
00:33:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and that's that's the the proof is in the pudding there for me. Right. Every striker in the world. Has a pretty good sense of whether or not they have a better chance of scoring.
00:34:07
Speaker
Then, you know, to make it worth it to stay on their feet, ah he should he probably should have scored. I mean, i don't want to take anything away from Andrew Thomas or Tina Lopez, but I think he probably should have scored that. And he and he didn't. And I don't think it was because Andrew Thomas or Jackson Reagan bumped into him lightly. I think it was because he just didn't finish it all that well. And it's just just that simple.
00:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, all right, let's take a break. We're going to come back. We'll talk a little bit more about the Vancouver Whitecaps game and some other stuff that's going on in the world of the Sounders. You're listening to Nos Adietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network.
00:34:52
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.
New Initiatives and Merchandise Announcements
00:35:07
Speaker
We're calling this thing 4, as in Sounder at Heart 4.0. But we're stylizing it as i 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. I could not possibly be more proud of the work everyone put into making this, and I think you're going 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.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:36:35
Speaker
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00:36:52
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adientes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. All right, so a couple little... housekeeping things before we get to the Whitecaps preview. One is it looks like i am going to be on Q13's Good Morning Seattle show tomorrow at like 1030. So I was supposed to be on last week and I got canceled because of snow. Apparently that was a lot more compelling than soccer.
00:37:19
Speaker
i I don't know. I can't guarantee that I will actually be on. But if you happen to hear this before and you want to watch me look like a fool on TV,
00:37:30
Speaker
this is your her opportunity. i'll I'll be, I'll be watching. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I'm sure some friends will be watching and I'm sure I'll get all kinds of notes about me. Uh, my wife will make sure I shave and pluck my nose hair and maybe even comb it, uh, comb the top of my head.
00:37:47
Speaker
ah and, uh, you're not going to wear hat. like I won't wear a hat. No, I'll wear a beanie. Yeah. There you go. That would be a slick move, wouldn't it?
00:37:58
Speaker
It would. Yeah. maybe um ah I'll also note we have some new stickers in the Sounder at Heart store. ah It is a sticker designed by Lickit and it's going with the Ferreira areola thing, combining them into one inspired by Tim Foss Ferrari.
00:38:19
Speaker
It's a fun little sticker. looks like the Ferrari logo kind of with ah with a whale. So those are available to purchase. Or if you are a, I think a supporter or above, you can get some for free if you want to ah figure that out.
00:38:34
Speaker
And I will also just remind people that we still have magazines for sale. plenty of them. And if you haven't gotten it, please get in contact with me. I've, I've fielded too many of these to realize that, uh, some, some did not get to their intended recipient and I apologize, but if you haven't gotten one, it's probably lost in the mail. Uh, so get in touch. The U S mail apparently is not as reliable as it once was. If you've not heard, I don't believe that.
00:39:06
Speaker
Right. lot of things don't work how they used to these days. Yeah. but We should look into that. and Somebody should. We should look into that. Somebody should do something about that.
00:39:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So we have a game on Wednesday in Spokane. I am planning on driving out there and potentially driving back in the same day like we did for the game against Vancouver, except for twice as far.
00:39:38
Speaker
I don't know that this is the best plan. And so, you know, wish me luck. But i this way I am able to take my kids to school the next day. So that's an important part of the familial responsibility.
Upcoming Match Dynamics and Fan Engagement
00:39:54
Speaker
And ah you don't care about that. You just want to talk about the game, I bet. So let's let's talk about this game. Aaron, do you think that playing in Spokane is going to be... a plus or a negative for the sound a positive negative uh i mean i think that anytime you have to travel for a game it's probably worse than not having to travel so in that sense that's there's the logic in that you know that's probably but it's not a crazy trip uh it's gonna be flight i think is yeah not under not too bad uh it's gonna be i think a really good crowd um it'll be a fun environment yes uh i think that you know the people there are going to be really excited to get a chance to to watch a very high level game um i think it's going to be a good game i think the whitecaps are going to come out flying you know they're going to
00:40:45
Speaker
they've they've got some ground to cover. So I think they're going to come out and be aggressive. And um so it should be a pretty entertaining game. And ah yeah, so in that sense, I think, you know, it's not as good as playing at Lumen, although depending on how good the crowd is, maybe maybe it's better than this game would have been at Lumen because I don't think there would be that many people there.
00:41:04
Speaker
um Probably wouldn't have had mean, it wouldn't be full. I think we can safely say that. Like if this game was in Lumen, it would probably be 20, 25,000 people, which is not a bad crowd, but is not fuel is that it was not going to be raucous. I don't think. definitely Yeah.
00:41:22
Speaker
And this could be electric. I mean, this really, I'm excited about this. I actually think the center should, if this goes well and it looks like, and I'm not saying the result, but like the whole thing, if it goes well,
00:41:35
Speaker
I think this is something they should look into trying to do on a regular basis. There's a lot of Sounders fans out on the the dry side, as they call themselves, I learned. Yeah, I mean, i i like the idea, but how do you how do you make it a regular thing? Do you just play Champions guy i don't know. like I'm not a logistics guy. yeah i think I'm not saying that. Maybe an Open Cup game.
00:42:00
Speaker
Right. If they ever play in the Open Cup game again, i think it would be great to play in Spokane. um I'm a little skeptical that they ever will play in the Open Cup again, but, you know, it be I think it would be great to play in there. And I'm not necessarily opposed to like if they're playing, you know, Metapon or or something like that. Yeah. Again, right. Like one of those teams, the new format makes that far less likely.
00:42:22
Speaker
Um, but you know, I wouldn't be opposed to, to doing something like that or just playing like the inaugural champions cup game there every year that they're in the competition. I'm, I'm certainly not opposed that. they can play leagues cup games there.
00:42:34
Speaker
They could, they could somehow, I don't know if they could actually, but yeah, it yeah, they might not be allowed to do that, but, um, they might not be, yeah they're probably less likely to be allowed to do. I don't know that they're, I don't honestly know that they can choose to play,
00:42:50
Speaker
They might not actually have as much flexibility in this as I'm imagining because I don't, I don't, I think most of these tournaments that now have rules about where you're supposed to play the games because they don't want you to sort of move them to secondary facilities if you don't have to.
00:43:04
Speaker
Right. And, you know So whatever, maybe it's a fantasy. But I like the idea of playing this game there. I'll just say that. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. i will note that as of recording this, which you know we're recording this around 9 o'clock at night, there are a few hundred tickets left because CONCACAF was...
00:43:24
Speaker
was you know given 500 tickets to do whatever they wanted with. And then I guess they shockingly aren't using them. And so they were re-released. And so there's a whole bunch of tickets that CONCACAF had a hold on that just got released back into it. They're not cheap. you know They're all over $100.
00:43:41
Speaker
right You know, there's going to be 5000 plus people there, i think is going to be a great atmosphere. i i would like to think that this is setting up to be of ah you know, there's no, i guess this is, I bring it up because in a normal situation, you're going home with a three zero lead.
00:43:59
Speaker
And, and there could be a let off, you know, there could be an emotional let off. And I don't think that's really going to happen. You know, whether or not they, i think they, there's no good reason for them to have an emotional letoff here because their crowd is going to be pumped up. They're presumably going to have their first choice group out there. They're playing a dangerous opponent.
00:44:22
Speaker
The center should be going out there and, you know, ideally looking for a win. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that you if if people are going to pack that stadium, pay some pretty hefty yeah prices for tickets and they're going to come out and support like I think you you have to give them a good show. You can't just sit there and counter and bunker and counter and just protect the lead. I think you've got to go out and be at least a little bit aggressive.
00:44:49
Speaker
obviously the most important thing is getting through to the next round. Right. But yeah. Yeah. um And you know, this is by, by all accounts of ah a cool stadium, a nice stadium. So it should be, I think it should be fun for the players as well. um A little better than star fire, I think would be my, would be my guess. so I mean, I would rather, i don't, okay. I don't know. I'm going I'm not going sit here and say they for sure should play.
00:45:13
Speaker
i would rather do this than play at star fire, but I do think it's a better it's a a better overall environment than at Starfire. Sure. And I like Starfire. I say that as someone who likes Starfire.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah. I think if not for the logistical issues, right? Like Spokane is further from Seattle than Starfire is. I think that's, that's fair to say. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. but A little bit. But yeah, I mean, I think that ah they should still have a pretty good home field advantage.
00:45:40
Speaker
Uh, it should be, you know, it should be fun. Um, ah this is certainly better than when they were playing games at, uh, at Cheney stadium. And I say, as somebody who loves Cheney stadium and boy, that would be convenient for me, but, uh,
00:45:54
Speaker
you know, this is, this is better. I think it's cool that Spokane gets an actual game. I certainly think that they should explore maybe playing a friendly over there every now and again. Yeah. Maybe that's a, that's maybe a little more realistic is playing an annual friendly in Spokane, which, which could also be a lot of fun.
00:46:10
Speaker
I think that, Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say that I, the impression I get is that there is a, so like, I don't think 5,000 people are coming from Seattle to go to this game. My impression is that this is a very local group, maybe season ticket holders, but season ticket holders who live over there. Right.
00:46:30
Speaker
and probably not a lot of season ticket holders, uh, realistically. Like I would love to, at some point I would like to find out the numbers, uh, how much of the, how many of these tickets actually sold during the season ticket presale and how many of them were sold to,
00:46:43
Speaker
ah Spokane soccer fans. I'll also note that I think we are doing a live show with Spokane soccer show and Lobbing Scorchers on Wednesday at Flat Stick Pub. I believe it's going to be at five o'clock. So if you want to, if you're going to be out there, if you're listening to this and you want to come experience the live show that is, lobbing scorchers, uh, come out there. Aaron, I just got to ask, did you happen to watch the lives, any of the live stream of us coming back from Vancouver?
00:47:17
Speaker
ah no, I did not because I was packing. I was packing for a trip that never happened. It's fine. But I, well, I got punished by my trip being canceled. I know. i know that's exactly. That's why it happened.
00:47:29
Speaker
But yeah, i mean, I, I think the sounders, should feel good about this. You know, there's not a lot of, you know, it's funny. I, I went and looked up the history of three zero wins in Sounders history in the, in like two legged series. They've never, I don't think they've ever won an away leg ah by three goals in any.
00:47:52
Speaker
Well, yeah, no, I don't think they've done it in any competition. They were up to zero on the road against Houston 20, in twenty
00:48:02
Speaker
20, 2019, 2019. Yeah. nineteen twenty nineteen 2019. Yeah. I mean, i feel like I would remember that if, if that had happened, you know, and it like the most likely place for that to have happened would have been champions league in like 2013 or something. I think. Yeah. And they, you know last year, I mean, they, they beat, they tied the most goals they'd scored in a champions league road game, which was three. And that was in against Antigua. They done it twice.
00:48:31
Speaker
And the most recent one was against Antigua and that was a three, one win. So yeah, They, they'd never like coming home with a three zero lead is, I'm not going to sit here and say it's unprecedented, but it's really rare. Like this is not, yeah, this is this is not something the sounders. I don't think i've ever experienced this. Like I said, I i would hesitate to see. There are probably not a lot of examples of anyone doing that. Like, and in in a weird way, road goals kind of don't matter because
00:49:04
Speaker
if if Vancouver needs to score four goal, like there's not, ah the tiebreaker is not going to come into play here, but, um, a three goal lead is great. And coming home with a three goal lead is even better.
00:49:18
Speaker
Well, and the, and the way that, that having that extra, that third goal does help is that Vancouver knows they have to score three goals, you know, right like exactly. they they have to score at least three goals.
00:49:29
Speaker
Uh, And that's just to get it to extra time. Right. So it's, uh, it's, it's a, it's a pretty big hill to climb. Um, as far as I can tell, the only time the Sounders have ever scored three goals and in a way, like they did it twice in 2012, um, against Caledonia and Marathon. So slightly higher level of competition in white caps. I think it's, it's fair to say, that Marathon team was, uh,
00:49:54
Speaker
really annoying to play i remember them that from even that long ago almost 15 years at this point so um yeah uh i think that the sounders are at their best assuming that they're healthy and have a full you know their full complement when they are playing their game um You know, this isn't a situation like they had against the earthquakes. They're going to have most of their guys, most of their guys that they've had the season, at least. Right.
00:50:20
Speaker
There's an outside chance that Jordan gets some minutes here. Right. Brian hinted or not hinted. Brian said that both Jordan and Hassani could potentially be available this coming week, but not.
00:50:35
Speaker
Like he didn't commit to that. he's He made it sound he sounded more optimistic about Jordan being available for Wednesday than Hassani. But he made it sound like they could both potentially be available. I don't I don't know how much stock I don't.
00:50:49
Speaker
Neither one of them are going to start. I think we can say that ah I would be surprised if. either one of them play more than a few minutes. you know, I guess Hassani technically is fit. It's just a matter of him going through concussion. I would just think it's easy to give him another day off of you, if you can afford to do it.
00:51:09
Speaker
And they seemed the way that they set up the lineup on Sunday to me, imply or suggest that they are not expecting to have Hassani for Wednesday because otherwise you could you could play Brunel or you could play one of these other guys with the assumption that Hassani was going to be able to relieve them on Wednesday. But instead, I would assume it's going to be Roldan and Brunel in the middle.
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. and Yeah, but so at any rate, um the the initial point, I think, was just that there's no reason for the Sounders to sit back in a shell and let no the Whitecaps run at them.
00:51:48
Speaker
Um, because if the Sounders get a goal and it goes to four, it's really hard for me to see the Whitecaps continuing to
Future Match Preparations and Venue Considerations
00:51:55
Speaker
press. Right. And then maybe you can take your foot off the gas and have a nice, easy, uh, Wednesday night, you know, they can get a goal early right and then really put it to bed.
00:52:04
Speaker
Um, So yeah, i'm I'm looking forward to it because I do expect the Whitecaps to come out guns blazing and play really aggressively. And they they certainly have the guys to do that to to put a scare in you. So it should be fun to watch. And if the Sounders are prepared for it and they play as well as they did in the first leg, maybe they score three again. Maybe this is, you know, they they drop a Minnesota on them and go for legs.
00:52:27
Speaker
Um, and I think going into that Minnesota game, if they can get a result like that, uh, that's going to feel pretty good. That's going to give them some confidence and set them up, you know, for success. And, and this I think is, has the potential to be tougher than their, their next, the the white caps as a team have a, I mean, yeah, caps i think earn it yeah the whiteups are better to me than Tigris or Cincinnati.
00:52:49
Speaker
And, And that's another thing that the Sounders, there is a benefit to winning this game. If they win this game, they are virtually guaranteed to host the second leg of the next series.
00:53:04
Speaker
And then they they want to keep... collecting as many points as possible because that puts them in better position to host. I don't know for certain whether or not they can host the next round at Lumen. The first, if they're, ah if they had the first leg at home, and don't know for certain they can play it at Lumen field, but I strongly suspect they can.
00:53:24
Speaker
And I'm almost positive. They can host the second leg at home because that would be after the April 12th game. And i guess I might not be there for that now that I'm speaking it out loud.
00:53:37
Speaker
But yeah, neither one of us would be, I don't think. Yeah, ah I picked a good time to to take a vacation, but that's how it goes. and That's how it goes, you know. That's how it goes. Peter's Cross to the vacation happens. I shouldn't, yeah I should not.
00:53:53
Speaker
You shouldn't take it for granted. right should not. No, lot of stuff going on in the world, if you haven't noticed. Yeah, definitely. It seems almost trite to be talking about vacations right now, but.
00:54:04
Speaker
You got to take time for yourself, you know. You do, you do. I agree. Well, I think that's all I got. I think we're going to try to do a mailbag next week because there's a bye week. The next show is going to be coming during a bye week. So we'll have a little bit more time to air things out. So if you have questions you want to get answered, you should send submit those on the discord. As a reminder, we do all those are questions on the discord and think that's all we got. Yeah.
00:54:38
Speaker
I think that's all we got. All right. Well, let's get out here. i want to say thank you to our sponsor, Full Pull Wines. Of course, thank you to our subscribers. Thank you to Lick It, our producer. Thank you to Aaron for once again doing this with me.
00:54:51
Speaker
I am Jeremiah Oshan. This is No Sadie at This, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:55:28
Speaker
Let's go at Sounders.