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Seattle is proving FIFA made the right call
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Lobbing Scorchers, Ari Liljenwall and Noah Riffe break down the first week of the 2026 World Cup with the group stage opening round officially in the books. Egyptian supporters took over Seattle for Belgium and Egypt, downtown fan zones were buzzing without the USMNT even playing in town yet, and Seattle looks every bit the part FIFA hoped it would be. Has the Emerald City already made the case for an even bigger role in future FIFA events?
Lobbing Scorchers digs into the USMNT stock after a 4-1 demolition of Paraguay, with Folarin Balogun emerging as a Golden Boot candidate and Gio Reyna finding his form. But how much should expectations actually change after just one game, and could Australia, with Mohamed Touré and Nestory Irankunda, be a tougher test than anyone is giving them credit for?
The boys share their favorite World Cup moments so far: Cape Verde keeper Vozinha goes from 50,000 Instagram followers to 10.9 million after the Spain draw, Messi drops a hat trick on Algeria, Haaland and Mbappe both bag braces, and FC Dallas striker Petar Musa scores for Croatia in a 4-2 loss to a sharp looking England side.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.
Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
Contact: lobbingscorchers@justoncemedia.com
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Transcript
Introduction and World Cup 2026 Kickoff
00:00:00
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome back to the Sounder Heart studio in the ID. We are laying this one down on Wednesday, June 17th, and we are continuing our 2026 World Cup coverage here tonight.
00:00:33
Speaker
The first round of the group stage matches are in the books, and we got plenty to cover tonight. We're going to get into why Seattle is proving FIFA made the right call as a host city. how much expectations for the USMNT can change after their big win over Paraguay and why Australia might be a tougher test than expected. And then ah we're going be talking about some of our favorite moments from the world cup so far. And then at the end, we actually have some Seattle Sounders and Pedro de la Vega news to close it out.
Hosts' Personal Adventures and Ticket Scams
00:01:02
Speaker
So, uh, Noah, what's up, man? We got a lot to get to with the world cup in full swing. You were in l LA doing God knows what going on. James Corden late night live. Yeah. Uh,
00:01:12
Speaker
I haven't seen you in in a week or so at this point. What's up, man? How's it going? Life has been crazy. I was in l L.A. I did attempt to attend the U.S. Men's National Team game at SoFi. Sorry, l L.A. Stadium. I was unsuccessful, but I was successful in making my ah late night television debut where I sat there and clapped like a seal while James Corden and some Italian comedian I had never heard of go I don't understand why they're flopping. I don't get it. I'm from New Jersey. And I was like, okay, clap, clap, clap. You know, this is a great show. I'm totally not dying inside a little bit, but we'll get more into that ah towards towards the end of the show maybe, um unless you want to talk about it right now.
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I just I followed the whole journey on IG and TikTok and I did not necessarily expect you to end up in the James Corden studio by the end of it. But I think that actually ended up being equally, if not better content than if you had ended up making it into the game. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, so like the whole the whole crux of the idea was I'm gonna go to LA. i was actually a surprise guest on the Happy Foot, Sad Foot live show. Shout out, by the way. So shout out to them. That went amazing. That's really why I was there, was there on Saturday for that Saturday night.
00:02:30
Speaker
But I had booked my ticket strategically so I was going to be able to potentially make the men's national team game. I'd been watching ticket prices. As you know, they have been outrageous. $1,200, $1,300, $2,000 face value. I couldn't do that. I mean, we're both broke boys. That's why we, you know, spent all our money to get Katie Wilson elected. You know, you got to stuff the man. Just kidding, guys. It's going to We're joking. We're joking. um but i Yeah, i I thought, you know what, I'll be able to get a ticket for like 600, $700 online, like right before the game.
00:03:05
Speaker
Well, I found out um the hard way that it's a little bit more challenging than that. So I almost missed my flight the first thing, the light rail decided that it just didn't. Oh ah yeah, I was trying to take it that day and they were like, it's not going. Yeah, no, it just stops going. Well, the best part, I'm running down the escalator at the Capitol Hill station. I can see a train waiting, its doors are open. I'm like full extension running, you know, like Jordan Morris attacking a ball.
00:03:32
Speaker
and then i And then it's like slow motion. I see the doors closing and I'm like trying to stick my hand in and boom, it shuts right before I'm able to do it. And I'm like, oh But it says, you know, three minutes of the next train. Well, 40 minutes later, i was very late to the airport. But what was cool was i actually, i took an Uber, which I was very sad to do because, you know, that's $60 down the drain.
00:03:56
Speaker
I met my friend Shay, who is now my new friend, and we talked to soccer the entire way. um And his ah his team is – I'm totally blanking on it now. I can see the crest in my mind. But he's a fan of one of the African nations, and we just talked for a long time, and I was like, we should watch a game together.
00:04:18
Speaker
And so ah he agreed, and he also is having one of his family members bring me a jersey. All the way. Oh, let's go. I didn't know about this. From the home country. saw the real of you guys and that was very funny. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, you know, that was that was good. I was in good spirits at that point. I made it to the airport. It's kind of rushing through security, made it to my flight delayed.
00:04:42
Speaker
So now I'm stressing a little bit. Right. Because. I don't know if I'm going to be able to like make it to the game at this point. And you know, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just stretching a little bit. I'm i'm stressing a little bit. it was Senegal, by the way. I'm sorry. I had to, I had to look it up, but Senegal, Senegal national team.
00:05:02
Speaker
So I'm stressed out, but I'm literally sat like on the floor of the airport on my laptop, refreshing the the FIFA ticket exchange, messaging sketchy people on Facebook. I have a crazy one that I didn't tell in the in the um in the Instagram stories that I'll tell here. But ah yeah, Facebook, all of this stuff. And someone messages me and she goes, hey, by the way,
00:05:27
Speaker
All of the resale exchanges, except for the official FIFA one, close four hours before the game. Oh, shit. So I was stressing. I was like, I don't know.
00:05:37
Speaker
Like, how am I going to make this work, right? I'm in the air. I'm scrolling. I'm looking. I'm looking. Nothing. Nothing. It's all like 1,980. Like, barely moving. Barely moving. I see lots of tickets available. Just no one wants to lower the prices. I'm like... Dodging scammers on Twitter and dodging scammers on Facebook and like trying to find this thing. And I end up landing, so I have to close my laptop. And that four hours had elapsed before the game. So now it was only down to just the FIFA website.
00:06:12
Speaker
which I don't know if any of you have tried to use the FIFA website, but it will list a range of prices in a range of categories. So it's like category three ticket, $600 to $45,000. That's like the range. And then you have to click into every individual section, every individual seat to check the price. And by that time, the bots have scooped up the cheap tickets. It's over you. That's one of the most chalked websites of all time. It's genuinely terrible. So I was, I was stressing and i land and I'm like, okay, we have two hours until kickoff.
00:06:46
Speaker
If two hours until kickoff and mind you, i then learn you can no longer transfer tickets one hour, and like one hour before kickoff. So I'm like, okay, I literally have an hour before I'm cooked and it's 20 minutes to get to the the stadium and I'm like, shit, okay? So I'm sitting outside LAX, again, grinding on my laptop, trying to find something and just nothing. Like I'm finding tickets that are, you know, $600, $700, trying to buy them and it won't let me check out or it won't let me add them to my cart because they're been scooped up.
00:07:23
Speaker
Then I'm like, okay, I find something. I get it in my cart. I'm about to check out and blocked. I get rate limit exceeded. Oh, no shot. Rate limit exceeded. you actually almost had it.
00:07:36
Speaker
I almost had it. I hit rate limit exceeded and then I'm like, what the heck? So I just refresh the page, log out, log back. Nope. Blocked. I was not able and I still am not able to go on the FIFA ticket resale exchange website. So I'm I don't know what happened if I got like blocked because I was refreshing too many times trying to find a ticket.
00:07:54
Speaker
But I couldn't, I literally can't use it anymore. And so i I was like, I'm determined to go to this game. So I got in ah i got in an Uber. I go to the stadium. I stash my bag because I had a huge like backpack. And I'm like, I have to do with the old fashioned way.
00:08:10
Speaker
anyway Anyone got a ticket? Anyone got a ticket? Extra ticket? And when I tell you, These people were acting like they've never seen someone trying to buy a ticket at a game before. it was crazy. I was getting looked at like I was like some dude screaming on the side of the road like crazy.
00:08:28
Speaker
And um i like everyone looked at me crazy or was laughing at me or was like, no. and And people online were like, well, why would you even try and go get a ticket in person? I'm like, plenty of people. There were other people trying to do this as well. um So I did not end up getting the ticket and I was like super defeated. it was hot. I got sunburned, like just, just total utter failure. And I get a call from my friend and he goes, Hey,
00:08:56
Speaker
You know, I've been I've been following your journey. Do you want to be in the studio audience for the James Gordon show, which is after the um you know, all the World Cup matches? It's like a midnight late night show, but just for the World Cup. And I was like, at this point, why not? Right. So I take another Uber. We're down, you know.
00:09:19
Speaker
two nice sound receipts in just Uber charges at this point. And
Seattle as a World Cup Host City
00:09:24
Speaker
I get there to the studio and it's just the Fox studio. So that's like where they film like Fox news and like all that stuff and a Sunday night football on Fox or whatever. So I'm like, all right, we're just at some Hollywood studio lot now. Coinside, get chauffeured by security, go through security. And they're like, why do you have this big ass bag?
00:09:46
Speaker
And I start to explain to them my whole journey, my like everything that just happened. I'm like, yeah, I don't really have a place to stay yet. I've got a couple of friends here, but like, I don't know, you know, like all this stuff didn't get a ticket, didn't really have a plan was just coming down here.
00:10:00
Speaker
And they were like, they were like radio and they were like, you know, radioing in talking and I'm like, oh shit, I'm going to get kicked out of here. It's over. They ended up letting me in. And then a producer comes up to me and goes, tell me more about, tell me more about your story.
00:10:14
Speaker
And i was like, okay, you know, I i told him the story and they were like, oh, this is good. let me get Let me get another producer and another producer. So I like recanted my story three times. So finally, by the time I met like the show runner, I'm like recanting this story. Like I've, you know, I'm like doing a play or something. And they they go, well, you know, um we're actually interested in doing some like crowd interviews and talking with the crowd tonight because potentially our guest is not going to make it. He's actually at the game. Would you like to be on? Are you comfortable on camera?
00:10:47
Speaker
And I was like, I comfortable on camera? Who are you talking you something talking to? who you Let me tell you something. Absolutely. So I really thought my 15 minutes was about to happen. Man, oh, that that's...
00:11:01
Speaker
And then it's so close to getting lobbing scorchers on national TV. know. And then the damn Italian New Jersey guy show up. Had to show up. ah So that is where it all ended. But it was a whirlwind. I had fun. I got to watch the game on the Fox lot. So it was still a good time. And honestly, what a fucking match it was. Yeah, no, I'm excited to ah talk about that. But it was it was a hell of a trip to witness. And again, like it ended up...
00:11:29
Speaker
not where I would have expected on the set of the James Corden late night show, which, uh, that guy is very funny. So that would have, that would have been goaded if you could have gotten on there, but you know, so it goes, sounds like you had a good time anyway, and made the best of a, uh, difficult situation. But, uh,
00:11:45
Speaker
All right. Noah, should we get into this World Cup pod? Let's start talking about it Good tangent. But ah let's let's talk about the World Cup. Before we do so, I do have a couple plugs just to get out of the way. We are hosting our first event at QED Coffee on Saturday at noon. This is a panini card trading event. Come finish your panini card trading books. i only have Stickers. or stickers. Yeah. I, as you can see, I only have kind of a half idea a, the panini card thing, but I will be there at QED and you should be there to come hang out. Even if you're not into panini cards, it's going stickers, stickers, panini stickers. Why do I keep saying world cup stickers? World Cup stickers, not same thing. You get the idea. Come to QED Saturday at 12.
00:12:29
Speaker
It's going to be sick. We're very excited to 12 to 2. We're very excited our first event at QED, the title sponsor of Lobbing Scorchers Kickoff, by the way. Get your subscription, lobbingscorchers.com slash coffee. Also, we have a giveaway going on. This is always very exciting. We have, as you can see right here, an official FIFA World Cup match ball.
00:12:50
Speaker
We're going to give it away. Lobbingscourchers.com slash giveaway to us sign up. And this could be ah this could be yours. Could be yours. We will not sign it, though. No, you got absolutely not. You got to pay for that. But ah all right, Noah, let's get into it. ah The World Cup is in Seattle, and we've gotten our first taste of what it's really like when this tournament takes over a city.
00:13:10
Speaker
And it was a sight to behold. i'm ah I'm excited to talk about it. And I think, you know, what I want to do with this discussion is kind of touch on, like, What about it shows why FIFA made the right call making Seattle one of these host cities? Cause I think there's so much to ah get into there, but Belgium, Egypt was ah last Friday and God, that was, that was so sick. It incredible. Like the the game itself was great. And like say, seeing Katie B and Mo Salah was in Seattle was cool as we all thought. But let's talk about just the vibes and the atmosphere around the city and downtown, because i didn't really know what to expect.
00:13:51
Speaker
Like I had I really had no concept when I got on the Roosevelt light rail to go down there. I was like, I don't know if it's going to be Belgium taking over. i don't know if it's going to be a more Egyptian presence. I really have no idea. So the first thing I noticed when I got down there was just the Egyptian fans showed out. Yeah. Like the atmosphere they created was crazy. And there was just so many of them like that may as well have been in Egypt's home game. And then that made the moment when they scored the first goal so much like more powerful, honestly. Uh, so there, I think there's a lot I want to talk about here, but, uh, did you, do you have any, uh, takes or observations just on how that first game kind of, uh, culminated this event actually being here and taking over Seattle? I think the biggest thing that I saw was online, especially on like European soccer, Twitter, Spanish, Twitter, like all of this kind of stuff.
00:14:41
Speaker
The amount of people who were commenting saying that Seattle stadium is the most beautiful city they've ever seen in their life. I mean, we were getting we were getting the Monterey treatment. Like, you know you know the viral photo of, like, the Monterey Stadium with the mountains in the background from inside and, like, all of that? We were getting that. They were like, this is this is a gorgeous stadium and, like, it's easy to get around in and, like, everything. The fans were so excited. They were loving the city. They were loving the watch parties. They were like, man, this is this is a stadium. And it was crazy because for me, personally, i felt very vindicated.
00:15:17
Speaker
I've been saying for a long time that soccer is what will put this city on the global map. Not football, not baseball, definitely not hockey. So to get to see literally like I saw...
00:15:31
Speaker
I'm not even joking, I'm not even joking. Like 200 different tweets that were all the same iteration of, this is the most beautiful stadium I've ever seen, Seattle is incredible. 10,000 retweets, 100,000 likes. like We are gone viral for how pretty our stadium is And it's not for football. And it just felt like the most vindicating day of my life because I've been saying this.
00:15:54
Speaker
Lumen Field was built for soccer. The only reason it was built, the only reason the levy was passed was because this specific event was considered because they said, we want to have the World Cup here someday. So we will make sure that it is ready for soccer, that there will be a soccer team in here. Because initially, initially when they proposed the levy for the public funding for the stadium, it was only for the Seahawks.
00:16:17
Speaker
And the people, they said no. So they had to change it to include soccer. And this is why. it just it feels so vindicating. And there was a lot of Seahawks fans in my mentions crying and bitching and moaning. And I was like, you know what, man? I love the Seahawks. We both love the Seahawks. We're both huge. just go watch Go listen to episode one.
00:16:35
Speaker
We talked about the Seahawks on episode one. Don't actually go back and listen to episode one. But yeah. Yeah, but like, but we're Hawks guys. We're Hawks fans. We're not like the Sounders guys that are anti-Hawks. There's some Sounders fans that are like that. No, I'm pro Hawks, but I'm anti first and goal, which I think, you know, is whatever. So it just, it felt very good for the city to be like really held up as like, wow, this is a soccer town.
Ticket Prices and Fan Access Discussion
00:17:00
Speaker
And I think, you know, something that really struck me, especially coming back from LA,
00:17:06
Speaker
it's it's fucking impossible to get around there. Like, you you have to drive, you have to Uber, there's no public transit. And that said, LA is a massive city. Like, every neighborhood in l LA is its own city. Like, it's it's huge, right? But Seattle...
00:17:21
Speaker
Everything around the stadium is walkable right now. There's extra public transit. There's trains coming every two minutes. Well, you know, when they do come, but you know, sometimes there's issues every like two minutes during the match. The third most people ever transported by the light rail was that Belgium, Egypt game.
00:17:40
Speaker
People are coming here. They're moving around. They're taking public transit and they're like, wow, this is a beautiful city. I can walk to Pike place. I can go here. I can ride a bike. I can take the train. I can take the bus. I just love how we're able to show off our city in a way and compare them to other American cities.
00:17:57
Speaker
And instead of getting shit on like, you know, New Jersey and MetLife Stadium, we're getting the treatment. The Santa Clara Stadium is taking a lot of heat. Yeah, like we we're getting not only Seahawks fans, we're getting to own the Niners. So you have to like soccer. I mean, that's, you know, it's... Some of the, like, the contrast is some of the tweets that people from other countries are sending about the Niner Stadium in Santa Clara yeah are funny. They're like, like, I saw one from a Swiss guy who was like, where the... Am I? like Yeah, where is this? What is this? Like, you're... at Seattle's getting none of that. And I think, like... ah
00:18:32
Speaker
the word validation that you use. That's kind of how I feel too. Like kind of getting to share this thing that we all have this love and community over with everyone else and like seeing their reaction to it. And it kind of reinforces it's like, yeah, this is as awesome as we think it is. Didn't it also, uh, for me, it kind of looking at how it's gone so far, it kind of makes it harder to wrap my mind of this Sounders moving to Longacres idea. Yes. Um, cause everything you're talking about with the accessibility and the transit, there's such, there's such a value add to that. And we're seeing that with the world cup. I thought it was fortuitous as well.
00:19:10
Speaker
How it was the most stunning weather day of the entire year on the day of the first world cup game. And you see these pictures going viral as well, where we all know like Seattle in the summertime, it literally looks like paradise. Yeah. But it was paradise. It is. It literally is. And it's like you you're like, why doesn't everyone live here? But then you're like, you know, to the people that are coming here for the first time, it's like, yeah, it's like this all year round. Definitely come back here in January. And this is exactly what it's going to be like. yeah No changes. But like in all seriousness, the fact that it was just that stunning, picturesque type of day, it made like it made it.
00:19:46
Speaker
so much better. And I think it really like it blew minds. Like a lot of the Egyptian fans out there were so stoked to be there and they really, I got a shout out to to Egypt, shout out to all the Egyptian fans that are here because they took that place over. They created one of the craziest environments I've ever seen. And that's kind of, I guess one of my other takeaways so far, at least with how well it's going in Seattle is, you know, there was a lot of negativity surrounding this event, rightfully so deservedly. us included included. There was a lot of consternation about like the, uh, the ticket prices and the blatant price gouging and the politics of everything. There's a lot of things to not like about the lead up to the tournament, but it's like once the people's game actually starts getting played by the players, there's just like this switch that flips and the oligarch class like ceases to matter. Like you can't take the game from the people at the end of the day. I mean, could you can literally take it from them because you can't afford to get into the stadium. but Well, so, okay, here's a not to go off on too much of a tangent. Sure. But, like, I think one of the things that I was concerned about was with these prices, are they going to be able to fill the stadiums? And is there going to be any atmosphere at all? They they packed this Seattle stadium. They pack totally packed it. And for me, it's like...
00:21:01
Speaker
Yes, the everything we talked about with the prices and the price gouging is valid in that frustration is righteous and it's stupid and it's bullshit that normal people can't go to these games. If that many people are going to buy the tickets and sell out the venue, then of course they're going to charge that price. And it's, it's corrupt and it's cynical, but it's also just like the only way that it would ever change is if people were like, no, screw this. I'm not paying that. I'm not going to go. But if they still are able to pack the va venues anyway, then I don't really know what is to be done about that. Like they're, we know how the oligarch class works. They're bloodthirsty for every last penny of it. They're never going to give up a single penny that they could, that they can gouge out of us. And if people give them that money, they're going to keep taking it. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be interesting to see these next few games. I think Seattle is a unique market as well, where there's just ah the the wealth inequality in this city is pretty vast and we are a soccer city in general. So like local fans who are fans of soccer, a lot of them already have money, their kids play yada yada. And then additionally, like if people have been planning for four years to come here, they probably knew, well, the tickets are going to be very expensive. There's, you know, there's other things I'm not i'm not trying to to to downplay the the atmosphere because the atmosphere looked incredible and it looked like it was actually full of real fans, not just random casuals coming to the game. yeah But I will say like there there is this there is still this sense to me where I'm like, i'm I don't know, something feels like something feels still like a little weird. I don't i don't know what to say about it. It's like, really? like
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm shocked. I'm shocked a little bit, I guess. And, and maybe, maybe I just underestimated how much money people are willing to spend or have, I think, I think we may, maybe I'm a broke bitch.
00:22:46
Speaker
Maybe that's what it is. Or I feel like there's also, there must be, there might be something going on where they're like doing initiatives where you get like fans or supporters groups in or something yeah like yeah there's gotta to be something like that going on. Like, Cause I don't, I genuinely don't know how you sell out a game like that with like 10 grand tickets, but I mean that, you know, we'll, we'll see what happens. But so far, like my fears and concerns about the atmosphere at the actual stadium, uh, where we're not like founded, like that was a, that was a great atmosphere and we'll see if they can keep it up. Uh, here's a question for you. Has Seattle earned an even bigger role for consideration for future FIFA events? Because
00:23:27
Speaker
I don't know. I think we're killing it harder than anyone right now. Like I think this place should be first on the list for whenever they want to come back. I mean, I'm sorry, but the Women's World Cup in Seattle, the final should be here.
00:23:41
Speaker
The final for the Men's World Cup should have been here. I'm sorry. Oh, it's so bad. weird Is it like Gillette or whatever? It's MetLife. Oh, God. Yeah, it's where you have to take like seven buses. people have been doing People have been walking there just to show people that it's possible. And it's like, you walked 20 miles and it took you eight hours. Like, why are we doing this? But yeah, like,
00:24:05
Speaker
I Seattle is a soccer city. Washington is a soccer state. It's very it's it's been like that. It's been like that. Honestly, you know, what's the two biggest sports in Seattle? In my opinion, it's basketball and soccer like football is big, but it's not as big as basketball and soccer baseball. I mean, we've been hurt a few times, so whatever.
00:24:27
Speaker
But It's a soccer city through and through. The Sounders have proved that. This World Cup has proved that. The Copa America proved that. In 2016, like, it's not just, this is not like this is just yet another feather in the cap. The most attendance ever at Lumen Field. We were at that game. Leo Messi, Seattle Sounders, Paul Rothrock game winner. Like, this is a soccer city. The Seahawks can't pack that many people into the stands. Like, i don't know what to tell you. So, we're here.
00:24:57
Speaker
We're now, we're looking at it. They deserve to at least host during the Women's World Cup if the U.S. s gets that bid. And secondarily, I mean, I think this should be a destination for later on games, finals even, for major tournaments. It's...
00:25:16
Speaker
like I mean, i say it, it's the greatest city in the world, but I think it's proving that, especially with the infrastructure, the ability for fans to get around and just the feel of the city when stuff like
Seattle's Capability and Future as a Host City
00:25:26
Speaker
this comes here. Like we are a true sports city. And I think you had that down. Like I've gone to, i went to the Mexico kickoff match and I went down to 62
00:25:40
Speaker
Sorry, we've got a fire truck going by. I went down to Pier 62 and I had a great time. Like I had the best time. I was that was crazy. There was so many Mexico fans. Yeah. Yeah. So like the whole city's getting into it. It's like these other watch parties are still getting lit. Like we have like 17 different places to watch it. Our fan zones are free. They're not free across the country.
00:26:04
Speaker
Like Seattle does it right. I don't know what to say, but I want to hear what, how you felt the city has kind of like, like it's moving with the world cup here. It's just such like when you have a world cup in a city, it's just such a different feel than kind of anything else that you can imagine because it really like, especially this is the first world cup I've ever like been to. Yeah. And it just becomes such a melting pot. Like it really, I know everyone's been saying that word, but like, it's so true and you can, you can feel it like, any time that there is, i think the Egypt thing is such a good example. Like they came in here and took over thousands, tens of thousands of people all kind of like getting behind the same thing. And they're just so stoked to be there. Like it's kind of, it really, it feels like you kind of can't get quite that feeling from anything else. Like you can have big major sporting events with a lot of people, but there's nothing like
00:27:01
Speaker
fans of different nations all coming together and being at these games. It's just ah it's been a cool experience and it's been ah it's been a great start and hopefully it continues like that. But I feel like it's, it's set up to like the Belgium Egypt game kind of just like set the stage for it. But I definitely like,
00:27:21
Speaker
it's It's lived up to what I hoped it would so far. And I think, you know, we got to give credit to the to the city for that because it's not going this well everywhere. Like I really think, man, like when I look around at like social media and stuff, like we are getting by far the most positive press, yeah like by far in a way. Uh, so, but I think that comes from somewhere. So, uh, again, I hope it just keeps rolling like this and this momentum keeps going and it's, it's just such good timing for, uh, what we're going to talk about in this show, but like USMNT on Friday, just a couple days from now, I'm, I'm, this is, I feel like it's going be insane here. It's going to be insane and it's going to be ratcheted up even more with ah how the first ah parts of the group stage have gone with the U S and Australia, both winning and it's, for control group it it is for control of the group in the U S looks so good against Paraguay. yeah that they have a great chance to take full control of this group, which is kind of crazy to to talk about. We're going to talk about it in this next segment, but real quick before we take our first ad break, there's a few more Seattle group stage matches on the horizon here, including U S Australia, but ah you got Bosnia, Qatar, Egypt, Iran as well. ah I'll be at Egypt, Iran. Yeah. Real quick. Uh, what are you, what are you excited for? For these? I'll just say for my part, uh, you know, I'm on the Bosnia bandwagon. Yep. Same. I'm very much, I love their team. They're one of my favorite teams to watch in, in a kind of different way. Like it's not that they they play beautiful footy, but I see beauty in the way, how unbeautiful their footy is. Uh, so I'm looking forward to that game. And then, Egypt, Iran, uh,
00:28:58
Speaker
with how hard Egypt brought it, brought it and their fans brought it for that first game. That one's going to be just as crazy, if not crazier. So all three of these are just going to be lit is basically what I'm saying. Yeah. I'm excited for USA, Australia. I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing what,
00:29:15
Speaker
what The atmosphere is like outside the state. I won't be in the game. um I'm interested to see how many Aussies travel. I've already seen some around the city. um And yeah, I mean, that's going to be just a crazy game and atmosphere in general. So I'm really excited just to experience that. And then Bosnia, Qatar, Esmir Barak Tarvich super fan right here. Like we love an MLSer.
00:29:42
Speaker
who now plays a PSV, but you know, and we love an MLS. He's killing it, man. Like he was on PSV, which is one of it's the best team in the, yeah, it's him and Pepe. It's the best team over there in that league there to BCA. so yeah. nu Yeah. I'm excited for that game.
00:29:57
Speaker
The Bosnian fans are awesome. I need to find the Bosnian coffee pot. Have you seen this? It's literally like a one story tall coffee pot. And they just, they pass out coffee, Bosnian coffee to people. So I will find that I met some Bosnian guys at Pike place market. We exchanged numbers.
00:30:15
Speaker
Bosnia, I'm coming for you. And I'm going to try and go to, I kind of want to go to that game. I'm so excited that that game is here. That was like such an added bonus because of, uh, I got so stoked on Bosnia when they beat Italy. I gave them a standing ovation my alone in my apartment watching that game. So, uh, it's going be as me as mayor. Thank you. S mirror. That was a legendary penalty kick, but, uh, all right, we're going to take our first ad break and we're going to be right back and we're going to talk some USMNT.
00:30:40
Speaker
Some people think California has a monopoly on wine, but it turns out the Pacific Northwest produces plenty of it too. Our sponsor, Full Pole Wines, stocks a huge number of local wines and also lots of others from different parts of the world.
00:30:53
Speaker
The best part? They're run by Sounders fans, and they also have the most important thing I need when choosing a wine. People who know what they're doing who can tell me what to buy. It's super easy. You join their mailing list, they send out a newsletter covering what they have, and you pick the ones you want to either grab at their warehouse on first or have shipped to you.
00:31:11
Speaker
And then when you go to someone's house, you bring one of those bottles and everyone is super impressed. We're proud to be sponsored by FullPullWines.com. Hey everyone, Ari here.
00:31:23
Speaker
I'm excited to tell you about one of our sponsors, Hakes and Ferments. Hickson is a Seattle-based hot sauce and vinegar brand, making some of the most flavorful hot sauce around. We've partnered up to craft a small batch green blended hot sauce fermented to perfection with bright flavor and medium heat.
00:31:38
Speaker
We love it so much, the label even has our faces on it. You sold out the first batch, so we made another. Visit lobingscorchers.com slash sauce to order and be sure to check out the full line of Hickson Ferment Sauces, including their limited seasonal flavors.
00:31:53
Speaker
As you know, we're huge fans of supporting local business. We've partnered with Seattle coffee roaster, QED Coffee, to bring a full spectrum of coffees to our listeners. Matt, the owner, is a diehard Sounders fan and inaugural season ticket holder who can often be overheard talking about the latest match while he works behind the bar. Thankfully, you don't have to live in Seattle to get great coffee.
00:32:14
Speaker
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Additionally, QED is offering Lobbing Scorcher supporters 25% off site-wide with the code LS74. What are you waiting for? Visit one of their three locations in Mount Baker, West Seattle, and Three Tree Point, or go to lobbing scorchers.com slash coffee and use code LS74 at checkout.
00:32:42
Speaker
I want you to think about what's actually happening here for a second. The World Cup in Seattle with Christian Roldan? Yes, the same Christian Roldan once referred to by Mauricio Pochettino himself as the perfect player. Christian Roldan is an example of if you want to build your perfect player. Well, now you can get the perfect kit for the perfect player. The official U.S. soccer store has jerseys, scarves, and all the gear. It's a full circle moment for Seattle soccer fans, and you need to be dressed properly for the return of our GOAT. Go to lobingscorchers.com slash USA and use code SCORCHERS for 10% off most items.
00:33:28
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the SoundRate Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Adietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues.
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00:34:10
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US Men's National Team Highlights
00:34:17
Speaker
Welcome back from another ad break that you definitely did not skip. ah Noah, let's talk some U.N. U.S. men's national team. We were just hitting on it in that last segment there. But this is ah a start to the tournament that I don't think many people expected. I don't think anyone thought that we were going to give Paraguay that work quite like that. But this team came out and they whooped ass in that first game. So let let's just ah i'm I'm curious your takeaways. We haven't caught up on the old Yanks yet, but like looking at this four, one, uh, win over Paraguay to open the group stage. There was a couple of things that struck me outside of how the team played. Like the team played great. Balogun looks insane.
00:34:58
Speaker
Geo scored a great goal. The attack man looks genuinely scary. Like our defense at times, we love to get bammed on at inopportune moments, but the offense looks awesome. Yeah. But, uh, I think one of my biggest thoughts watching that game was like, I think I drastically underestimated,
00:35:17
Speaker
the home field advantage that comes with hosting this shit like that stadium for Paraguay like they didn't stand a chance man. That was like ah l L.A. did it up great for that. And that just looked like a very intimidating, very imposing venue for any opposition.
00:35:34
Speaker
The players clearly fed off that. The whole team clearly fed off that. That energy, I think, is part of what kind of galvanized how good a performance performance that was. And then that got me thinking, like, dude, okay, imagine that home field advantage, but in Seattle.
00:35:47
Speaker
Come on now. And that's, I think, ah you know, it's a good segue into when we preview Australia. But, like, when I look at their team, they were impressive in their first game, too. Like, don't get me wrong. I think they're a lot better than I gave them credit for. I think they're going to have a hard time coming in here. and dealing with this crowd in this environment. It's like, it's actually such a scale tilter towards our team. Like I really think it is. I don't think people understand how loud Lumenfield gets. Exactly. Like I louder than SoFi. SoFi is loud and it looked great and it sounded great. That said, a lot of the fans there as well were like very rich people who were given tickets to that game or spent a lot of money to go there.
00:36:27
Speaker
The access point in Seattle was a little bit lower and I will say like crazy fans have a little bit more money here. So I think it's going to be insanely loud and honestly, to be honest with you, been to a lot of Sounders games. I know the Roth Rock goal was very loud.
00:36:44
Speaker
The loudest goal that I've ever heard in Lumenfield history, Clint Dempsey 2016 Copa America. i like I can't even... You can't even replicate it. It was like this eruption, this roar that was... like My ears were literally ringing after it. And i've been you know I've been to Seahawks games. I know it gets loud. I know we have the Beast Quake and whatever, but...
00:37:08
Speaker
Man, i I think that home field advantage is genuinely going to be insane. I think it's good we're going to get continued good Seattle PR from this. So the 4-1 against Paraguay, was very impressed with Balgan.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, i mean i was let's talk about him. i wasn't I wasn't necessarily shocked, but I was impressed. I mean, he and the whole team truly was in for him. I will say...
00:37:34
Speaker
I am not going to let my concerns about the defense go away because the way that they were able to control possession throughout the game, they they weren't tested that much. The defense was not tested that much. That said, Pochettino had those boys playing like prime fucking Barcelona. Like that passing sequence that led to the Reina goal Oh my God. If you haven't looked at, there's a fan video that someone took from the stands on YouTube of that whole buildup it that you can't play the game any better than that. That was, Oh God, that was champagne. for You know, it's crazy. I saw someone, ah I saw someone say like, Oh, the one guy who almost sold it, Sebastian Berhalter. I was like Dude, he makes, he made the sickest pass of the whole sequence. Yeah. How could you watch that sequence and not come to, and not come to the conclusion that Sebastian Berhalter actually made that whole thing happen by that, by doing that. That was an incredible individual effort by Berhalter. And really everyone on the team in that sequence was just so locked in and so on point like that, that,
00:38:37
Speaker
That might have been the best goal the USMNT has ever scored. I think easily. I mean, I think easily with the buildup, with the stage, with everything. And you could have even made that... You could have made that argument about the second Balogun goal and even the... yeah Well, I guess, yeah, the finish on the Geo goal outside of the buildup. I think i think to to to hit on the Geo goal really quick and then let's go and talk about Balogun, but...
00:38:57
Speaker
the thing that I said about Gio was like, I don't know, like, I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve to be on this roster. I'm just like, you know, like he has the most to prove out of anyone. Yeah. And prove it. He did.
00:39:08
Speaker
Like, I think that that is exactly why Mauricio Pochettino had him on this team. I was, I, I'm the first to admit that I was like, I wouldn't say concerned, but I was a little bit like hesitant to be like, is that really the choice you're going to make there?
00:39:23
Speaker
But, I said it then and I'll say it now. He had the most to prove and I think he proved it right there. I think he proved it right there. Yeah, I think that goal kind of validated his inclusion on the team, whatever questions people might have had about that. I really did not actually think about that one for that long because the way I see it is it's like, you know, I think we've all seen in flashes and fits and starts the type of talent that geo has. Yeah. And he just has this kind of different level, this different individual ability to make stuff happen. That is so valuable on the international stage. And also i think like the super sub role is actually perfect for him because it's not like he's like a super high engine, high work rate. I'm going to play a lot of defense type of player, but if you need someone to come in the game and do some shit, like we saw him do in the Paraguay game, like I can't think play of player.
00:40:15
Speaker
player in our pool that can do that stuff like he can, uh, as for Balogun, I mean, how many years, if you want to talk about going back and listening to old lobbying scorchers, when we covered this team in like, you know, 2024, uh, the whole discussion was the classic, like this team can play some good footy. You got no striker that can finish. Uh, they got Balogun on. I love the fact that Balogun is like, he was literally born in Brooklyn yeah and then moved to England a month later. Yeah. And then he gets to play for our team, but like yeah, we're playing for Arsenal. Technicality baby. Yeah. yeah Put them on, put them on the team, suit them up. Like he's very yeah English, but whatever. yeah Like we needed a player like him and you could see why that second goal that he scored is a world-class goal. I mean, come on, like shedding two defenders and picking out the top corner like that. Absolutely nails.
00:41:03
Speaker
And having a player like that on a team that can play the type of footy that we can play. That's a game changer. That is a ceiling changing development. If he is playing like this, he looks like a goddamn golden boot contender right now. And if he keeps playing to that level, this team is genuinely scary. Like I do believe that. I don't think the Paraguay result or performance was like smoke and mirrors and they were playing way above their level. I think that might just actually be their level when they're on their stuff and they were on their stuff in that game. And Balogun was a huge part of it. And Gio was huge part of it. He's going to so good in MLS, man. Oh, man. And speaking of that, too, future Philadelphia Union player Christian Pulisic. Yep. I mean, you know. Who's injured right now. He was looking. Did he take a knock? He took a knock. He hasn't been training. The first time he trained was today.
00:41:53
Speaker
Okay. Well, you know, uh, USMNT is training in Seattle tomorrow. I'm going to be heading out there. I'll see if I, uh, see captain America, but honestly, like we, he's a guy we have given a hard time on a lot of fronts over the years. I think for his political takes for his, you know, I could do without the dancing.
00:42:11
Speaker
COVID vaccine conspiracy theory, but whatever, like the the man, when he is not locked in on the COVID vaccine algorithm, he's a pretty good player. And he looks like a really good player in in this game. Like I got to give it to him. He is, he's playing up to this moment right now. So, uh, credit to him, credit to him. Uh, let's talk about Australia a little bit and then we can move on to our favorite moments. Uh, but like, like I was saying, man, like,
00:42:39
Speaker
they They were impressive in their first game. The fact that they came out and smacked ah turkey in the mouth like that was impressive. And also just some of these young attacking kids they have coming up. I was watching, you know, Motore and Irancunda. I hadn't really watched either of them play all that much. And those are like...
00:42:56
Speaker
I guess the golden generation Aussies coming up. And to me, when I watched them play, I was like, damn, this team has more juice and attack than I thought they did. I kind of perceived them as a we're going kind of sit in our low block and muck the game up and just be super sound and disciplined. But no, like they were taking it to Turkey. ah But I just think this is a tough task for them, man, to come into this city, this stadium and play this team in this form with this crowd. It's going to be the most bloodthirsty USMNT crowd you have ever seen, man. It is going to be absolutely insane pandemonium in there.
00:43:36
Speaker
I mean, good luck to them. Good luck to them. I don't, I, I, I think they have more talent than I gave them credit for to be able to pull a result in a game like this. And I think if there is any kind of a plucky underdog type team that can muck up a game like this enough to pull a zero, zero or one, one, these guys can probably do it.
00:43:55
Speaker
I think the degree of difficulty on this game for them is very, very high, higher than I thought it would before I saw how that Paraguay
International Match Highlights
00:44:02
Speaker
game went. I think they have a really good chance. I did see some Australian punditry around... Well, well Mike, I think the ah the US s is actually a an underdog going into this game. Down under. Okay, yeah. So I'm not really going to agree with that in any sense because... They can say that if they want. i Like, that's sweet. That's cute. um
00:44:25
Speaker
And not to be like Eagle Screech America the Beautiful, but... If you saw the whooping they put on Paraguay and like, listen, Turkey's a good team.
00:44:36
Speaker
I think Turkey's probably a better team than the U S and Australia on their day. They definitely have more individual talent. Yeah. But yeah, again, like you're saying it's the world cup, the outside circumstances.
00:44:49
Speaker
playing here. It's going to be crazy. I'm not betting against the U S and I think they take control of the group. And I think they go back down to California and they might have three straight wins.
00:45:02
Speaker
It's looking entirely possible. And also I think overall, I just, every time the U S M and T is in a world cup, my, the, my first priority is just just don't embarrass, don't embarrass nations. yeah All right. We got, we, this is all of our reps on the line right here. So if you go out and and do some dumb shit, it's that that's reflects on all of us. yeah So at the very least, uh, they are not only not doing that, but they look like one of the better teams in the group stage, uh, so far, Noah, anything else on the USMNT? You know, I will say, uh, if Christian Roldan does not play in this game, he will, he will, I will, I got burned. I got burned by that. i I gave a whole take on when I was doing the watch along about how excited I was to watch him get in the game and stick it to the USMNT bots. And then he didn't play. If he doesn't get in the Seattle game redacted, that's all I'm going to say. Redacted. i need to see Christian rolled on and the roar of applause that happened for him in Seattle. That's required. He better play. ah One last thing I'll say about the defense. I am. I am concerned about that. Like the one Paraguays scored, it just, it felt like it's like, can you guys ever just like keep the clean sheet or whatever? But I think like in these games in the short term, especially in the group stage, I'm not like super worried about it because the offense looks so good. But my, my concern would be as they get further in the tournament and try to make an actual run when you're playing teams like
00:46:29
Speaker
Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, all these, you can't just get bammed on like that because they're going to be a lot harder to score on. So if there's a ceiling inhibitor, my concern right now would be, would it would be that like when you play the best of the best, the elite of the elite, you can't be as leaky as we are. And kind of like, I feel like our team gets, ah like aggressive in the wrong moments sometimes and then leaves themselves exposed. yes And when you do that against better elite global opposition, you're going to get slammed on like that's it. No, I completely agree. I also like something to note is Australia plays.
00:47:09
Speaker
a little bit ah a little bit of Ramsey ball. Not crazy, not crazy, but they they do they do play that high block. they yeah They play basically to how the Sounders opponents who successfully play against them, play against them. Turkey had a higher XG for whatever that's worth, but like the the point is like people are attacking they are able they are able to you know like not score. So I don't know. I like the U S has got a better attack maybe than Turkey. i don't know where I'm going with this tangent here really, but like, think it is going to be interesting to see like how these two teams match up with each other. Absolutely. Uh, all right, Noah, you ready to talk about some of our best moments and favorite storylines of the first week of the world cup? I got a few yeah right here so I can get us started off dude.
00:47:56
Speaker
The, uh, Cape Cape Verde. Is that what we settled? Yeah, we were looking up. We're trying to get the pronunciation right And then I forgot it. There's about 40 different pronunciations. We're going with Cape Verde, Cape Verde zero zero draw with Spain, the Spanish national team playing Cape Verde in the type of game where everyone goes. Yeah. Why is Cape Verde even in the tournament?
00:48:19
Speaker
Why are they even in the tournament? You know why they're in the tournament? Because they just kept a clean sheet against the goddamn Spain national team. Did they play the most despicable Haram ball of all time? I was going to you want to talk about Ramsey ball? They were Ramsey balling their...
00:48:36
Speaker
freaking minds out. 40-year-old Vozena. And I loved it. So yes, let's talk about this. Funniest shit of this tournament so far. Vozena, 40 years old. Noah, this man is a hero and an icon, not just of Cape Verde, but of my life and I think the sport in general. yeah That man...
00:48:53
Speaker
was competing his ass off out there. And when I, okay, what I want to do about the Xenia, I was looking up his crick career trajectory yeah and this is so funny. He didn't start playing professionally until he was 25 years old. So there's like there, yeah. So I was looking this up. There's kind of like no record of his career in a top flight league until 2015. He was grinding like in these leagues that aren't even on recorded stuff. He was just playing to play and getting called in by Cape Verde.
00:49:23
Speaker
And then finally, in 2015, when, like you said, when he was about 25 or so, or I don't know, like later in his, way later in his career, he finally broke through in the Moldovian Top flight, you know, where you know about that? I love them. I love the top flight. That's where he broke in. And then he moved to the Portuguese second division for a year, which is that's where he plays. Now, this man plays in the Portuguese second division. He spent a year there and then he played five years in the top flight in Cyprus. Noah, can you find Cyprus on a map? Do you know where that is? I can only because I'm a little bit of a geography freak. So tell us about Cyprus in that case, because I got no idea what the top flight over there is. I mean, I don't know it's ah i don't know what the is the Cypriot top flight is. Cypriot first division, that's what he played I don't know much about that, but um I will say it is just fun that Is that this is is this the best story of the tournament so far? He went from 50,000 followers on Instagram to after that game. He was racking millions at a time. yeah Last I checked last night, he was up to 10.9 million. That's more than Victor Wimbunyama. If you wanted an illustration of the power that this game has...
00:50:38
Speaker
A zero zero draw, which everyone always makes fun of so soccer for a zero zero draw. oh no know A zero zero draw resulted in this man going from 50 K Instagram followers to more followers than Victor Wimbanyama. So you want to tell me like no one cares about this. And I think the funniest thing about him going from 50 K to 10 million is to me, that's almost like the rest of the world, like pointing and laughing at Spain. Yeah. like yeah yeah yeah This guy owns you and he does man. Imagine going out there 40 years old. You've been grinding in the Cyprus top flight for like your entire career. You're currently in the Portuguese second division, not doing anything that anyone notices or talks about ever. And you go out there against the Spain national team. He got in their heads, bro. By the end of that game, he was laughing at them. Because there was so many insane sequences in that game where it just looked like they were very easily going to score.
00:51:31
Speaker
And then they didn't. it would They would smash it off the post or he would make the most insane save you've ever seen in your life. yeah And there was also multiple instances where he like he messed up. He like came off his line when he shouldn't have and it looked like it was going to lead to a goal and be a howler. And he would just pull it out. it was I have never seen a performance like that, dude It was that's the magic of the world cup, man. Like, like you look at the average rate, like I'm on, and I'm on font mob right now. You look at the average rating of every player.
00:51:57
Speaker
Kay Verde's players did not play well. Like they were Ramsey the whole game blatantly. And I loved it. And, and in Spain, I mean, yeah, like, I mean, I'm sorry, but anytime you can hold, you mean, you mall. And of course he didn't play the full match. You can hold them to, Get owned by Vosinha, Lamine Mal. Get owned. Get slammed. You had one of the youngest players against one of the oldest players, and this is what happens. This is the beauty of the World Cup. You never get this anywhere else. No, you don't get 50K to 10K. And now what's crazy is I'm going to the old-ass dude in the... My brain's deteriorated. I'm not going to be able to barely talk, and all of a sudden I'm going wake up and be like, Vosinha.
00:52:41
Speaker
Like I'm never going to forget the name Vosinha, Cape Baird. No, absolutely not. Like he is legend for as long as this sport is thing. That was one of the craziest performances have ever seen. He should come to MLS.
00:52:54
Speaker
Yeah. Round out his career yeah as the starting goalkeeper for the Seattle Sounders. Yeah. ah but No, no. He's got to go somewhere funnier. What would be funnier? Like, like the earthquakes, the San Jose or inner Miami that that or Miami now we're cooking. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, best games so far, Noah. Uh, I have a couple of shouts here. Yeah. I really enjoyed Brazil, Morocco. I was talking about this on kickoff, but I think like, you know, I've been talking about how Belgium 2014 is like my, the team that's close to my heart. 2026 Morocco dude, watching, so good watching the start of that Brazil game. They, they kind of fell off a little bit in the second half. Brazil ends up tying it. Vinny jr. scored an insane goal. But that that honestly added to how good that game was. But the way I was just so impressed with the way Morocco came out to start that game, because, you know, you're going against Brazil. People don't think this Brazil generation is as good as past generations, but it's still one of the biggest names. And I think even the best of national teams going against Brazil, it would be understandable if you had to like work into the game a little bit and feel it out. and You have some nervy moments. Morocco just has none of that, man. They're so clean. Like everything is just so buttoned up and like on point. And then you see some of the individual talent they have, like the goal that they scored. It says they have as elite of talent as anybody, but the guy that I keep coming back to, man, just watching Hakimi play. Oh yeah. It's just like, like that was what, that's one of the things I've been thinking about about with the USMNT is just like,
00:54:25
Speaker
Okay. If you have to play that team, how do you deal with that guy? I don't know that you can, I will say though, on that point, if there's any two guys who are athletic enough to maybe have some sort of fighting chance there, Jedi Robinson and Serginio desk might be it. Like, I think that's ah actually a strength of our team is how athletic our fullbacks are. But like, how do you stop that guy? Some of the runs you can't, that's why he's one of the best players in the world. Some of the runs that he's making from those right back spots, he's just, I It's just a straight shot and you're like, all right, well he has the ball and he's going to run that for 50 60 yards. And that's the situation. You're not getting that off of him. It's just, he's so impressive to watch, but their whole team, man, I was just watching. They've, they've played my, they played my favorite footy so far where i was just like, damn, that team is sick. I'm a big Morocco fan. Obviously, as a now newly adopted Senegal fan, we don't fuck with Morocco, but you know we don't got to worry about that. Just talking about this match. I mean, come on, dude. like kimi we We've talked about Hakimi before when the Sounders played PSG and just how incredible he was to watch even in that match. And that was when he was like barely trying. This game he was trying yeah and I was like, oh yeah. Oh, okay yeah yeah okay. That's the level we're talking about. yeah That's not good for everyone else in the world. You know what would be sick?
00:55:41
Speaker
Come to the Sounders. Anyway, that would be, uh, I mean a right back designated player. If there ever was one, he's not a right back. I don't care. Like when anyone says he's, he's a right, he plays right back, but he's a winger and is this like, okay. But the question is, is this, is this a like, um, he's a running back, not a quarterback situation. it kind of is like, I've i've never seen a right back who can like do that type of stuff to that level. He's insane. And the thing is he can track back cause he's that fast. He's so fast. Their whole team, like their whole back line and their whole midfield, the athleticism just stands out. So it jumps off the screen. Yeah, it's pretty insane. It really does. The amount of ground that their demons can cover and, uh, and their center backs as well. Just an the awesome team. Uh, my other favorite game so far was Japan Netherlands. I think that game was honestly even better from an entertainment perspective.
00:56:35
Speaker
ah I just, I really liked Japan. They always, i they just, they're like such a classic, like find a way no matter what type of team yeah they're going against the Netherlands, which is another one of like another big ah powerhouse contending expected to make a run type of side. And Japan was down to one in the 80, whatever fifth, seventh minute. And they came back and tied it and it felt inevitable. Like I knew they were going to do it. Like it's every time they're in one of these tournaments,
00:57:05
Speaker
They just like play up to the moment like that. But that game was just so entertaining. Like the Dutch always play some of the best footy women seeing kind of how Japan was able to compete with them and then end up taking the result in that game. That was impressive. And that was some, I think the best footy of the tournament. So far, I completely agree. Can I share my favorite hate watch so far? Oh, please. My favorite hate watch so far was Portugal versus DR Congo as a Ronaldo hater myself, being able to watch 41 year old Ronaldo out there blasting shots into nowhere and being the most selfish player of all time, leading to a one, one draw Congo, getting points, Portugal being embarrassed. The fifth best team in the world, by the way, Portugal,
00:57:47
Speaker
And the whole entire Portuguese team looking at Ronaldo like, bro, are you get off this team? Like they are so ready for him to be done. It was just an incredible hate watch for me personally. Like I you hate to see the guy who is selfish succeeding. And when they're not succeeding, it's like, oh, my God.
00:58:07
Speaker
I really like, I mean, you'll probably agree, but is it crazy to say that them bell counting Ronaldo still at this point is just kind of ridiculous? It was insane. He could have come to the World Cup, but he should have played a Neymar role where he's not actually playing. Exactly, because he he really can. Like, if you look at his numbers in the Saudi top flight, which, you know, it's the Saudi top flight. That's worse than MLS. It is, but he can still put the ball in the back of the net. The guy has like 58 goals in 55 games in that league or whatever. think might be able to score some in that. Not all, not all. But like the point is my point is like he's still producing on the stat sheet in for his club team, but he's so cooked in like every other aspect of the game. He gives you nothing like on on defense. He gives you nothing that's well-rounded. He basically reminds me of a Galaxy Era's Laton, which remember how he would just stand there? he would just wait. The biggest statue I've ever seen play the game, which you know he scored a bunch of goals too, but I just don't think...
00:59:01
Speaker
I think a striker like that very clearly has the most value as a super sub when you're chasing a goal late in the game, which I understand that Ronaldo probably wouldn't accept that. And you might have to leave him off the team altogether if you told him that was his role.
00:59:13
Speaker
So be it, man. Move on. i don't know. That's it. I feel like they are literally hamstringing their team. They are. Because he's playing and he shouldn't have been called up if that was going to be his role. I quite frankly don't understand it because they have a good team. Portugal has a good team. They have João Neves and they have all of these other players who like they've got a solid team.
00:59:37
Speaker
He's just selfish. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's you playing FIFA calling for the ball all the time. And then you're blasting a shot into the stands. I mean, if I was his teammate, I'd be, I would be, he's one of the only strikers I've ever seen that gets like when, when his teammates score, he's like not happy. Yeah. A lot of the times he is sometimes to be fair, but there's famous clips of him, like being pissed that he wasn't the one who scored it type stuff. Yeah, exactly. Uh, anyway, I got a, we got few more things to to talk about here. I think the superstars showing out was a big storyline yesterday. You had a Lionel Messi hat trick.
01:00:12
Speaker
We'll talk about that. But then Erling Haaland for Norway and Kylian Mbappe for France, of course. They both had masterclass type games. Let's talk about Messi real quick because ah he absolutely slammed Algeria single-handedly last night. ah His first career World Cup hat trick. And he's now tied with Closet, the former German striker for the most World Cup goals in history. But... You know, it's youngest player to ever score at a world cup for the Argentinian national team. And now the the oldest player to score for the Argentinian national team. I mean, he looked incredible to the point where, I don't know. I just, he looked like he was having so much fun yeah yeah in a way that like, you know how i at inter Miami, he looks kind of pissed off disappointed. disillusioned a lot of the time. yeah All of that just like washed away. And he was in his flow state yeah that he's been in his whole life. And there was just no stopping him. The goals he was scoring were incredible. And,
01:01:12
Speaker
I was watching that and i was like, this man might just not be denied in this tournament. No, I don't think he will be. I mean, dude, he's, this is, I'm playing in MLS is really holding him back by the way. Yeah, no. His first hat trick ever. Let's continue to discourse on that actually specifically because yes, how many people were saying, Oh, he may not make this world cup. He may not play in this world cup. That's one thing. And then the secondary tier to that was he shouldn't play in this world cup because Because he's playing in a farmer's league. He's playing in a retiree's league. He's not good. He won't be fit.
01:01:43
Speaker
He sucks because he's playing.
01:01:48
Speaker
I mean, the does the scoreboard? Did we just say scoreboard? It was genuinely the best World Cup game he's played in his entire career. Why do I have to to be defending Messi, too, at this point? Yeah, we we but it's like we're not the Messi defenders. We're not the Messi defenders, but it's like, I'm going to defend you.
01:02:03
Speaker
Because... Yeah, Inter-Miami is dog shit, doo-doo trash, but he—yeah, I legitimately— that by He looks so happy to be playing on a good team again. Yeah. He was like, oh, these guys know what they're doing. Thank God. Wait a minute. Thank God. Wait a minute. Oh, my God. Yeah, no, absolutely. This is what it feels like again. No, I know that mean, that was i was impressive to watch, man. You can't take it away from the guy. Like, he looks— Does that cement his GOAT status over Ronaldo? Like, you compare the two matches?
01:02:29
Speaker
I mean, I think that was cemented already personally, but like, yeah, exactly, man. Like look at the contrast there. Look at the contrast between how he's still doing it up in the game that Ronaldo just had. mean, I think Ronaldo's two years older, but still. No, I mean, they're they're they're both 40 year old men. It's just the same idea. But like, The fact that he's out there in all seriousness at age 38, 39, dropping hatties on people in the World Cup. I don't know if we're ever going to see anything like this guy again. And if not, like even watching Yamal get shut out by Cape Verde. You know, it's like this kid is supposed to be the heir apparent.
01:03:03
Speaker
I just don't know if there is an heir apparent at all. But ah Norway, obviously, like I mentioned with the Holland brace, I was impressed from him. Iraq looked good as well. like If you watch that game, yes, absolutely. Norway has the better stars, the better talent, but Iraq looked good.
01:03:21
Speaker
Like they they looked like Iran, by the way, as well. So the, the, both of those countries are kind of showing out. I mean, I guess Iraq got four, one, they weren't showing out, but I think you're right. Like they, that, that was not a necessarily an accurate representation of how they played. Yeah, it's I think that they still looked pretty, pretty dangerous. And I think in a different group in a different game, they they may.
01:03:45
Speaker
Who knows? Who knows how that group will shake out? ah Last couple of notable results here. France 3-1 over Senegal Mbappe brace. ah Kind of similar vibes to watching Messi. Honestly, Mbappe looks freaking locked. I mean, that's yeah, that seems about right. He always you know, he's one of those guys that always is. But like I think I think what happened at the last World Cup pissed him off.
01:04:06
Speaker
As you would expect, he's already won one. He won one. He, when he was like 19, he seriously, like he Holland and Bop a messy all look kind of pissed off and out for blood. That's sort of my takeaway from watching the three of them in the group stage. Uh, and then, You also had a nice MLS moment today. FC Dallas striker and perennial golden boot contender Petar Musa scores for cro for Croatia against England. England ends up winning 4-2, and they honestly looked really good in the game. Harry Kane scored a couple of goals. They should not have let that penalty be retaken. I hate the new i missed that penalty. was that I hate the new penalty rule where it's like if you have a blade of grass, if you've stepped off of the line by a blade of grass, oh, but the penalty kick taker can go...
01:04:52
Speaker
Stop run, run with three 60 spin and back heel into the net. and No, make it easier for goalkeepers. I'm team goalkeeper. That's my rant. Yeah. I, maybe they got thrown a little bit of a bone on that one, but I think I watched one that game. Exactly. Like England, very comfortably outplayed Croatia, but like you can, you can tell that they, you can't change who you are, man. You can't change who you are at your core. And they were doing the England thing. I got, I love England. Like there's such lovable doofuses out there sometimes. Like,
01:05:20
Speaker
one of the best teams in the world without question. They're like roster and their player pool is always insane. They are going to have a lot of the best players on the entire planet in every game they play. But even this game against Croatia, they're like going ahead and then immediately blundering away the equalizer. and Just like you guys are, you're not going to, you are going to mess this up. Like there, it is just so, ah even in the game where you comfortably outplay Croatia, which is a good team and you beat them four to two, you still just managed to make it look like this,
01:05:50
Speaker
thing that's teetering on the edge of car crashing the entire time. And like, you just know that they're going to actually make it to the semifinals or the final and that they're going to do that again. Like it never fails.
01:06:03
Speaker
I, I, yeah. Cinema. I don't know what else to say about that. We all like, but shout out Petar Musa. Shout out Petar Musa. That was a, that was great goal. Great moment for him. Shout out MLS, you know, Croatian national team, world cup goals against England.
01:06:18
Speaker
Learn Petar Musa, man. How many MLS goals have happened so far in the tournament? You had a hat trick from Messi, one from Musa. Has there been any other ones? I think there have, but I can't remember off the top of my head. but Canada?
01:06:31
Speaker
No, Canada's was Kyle Lahren. That's right. so
Expanded World Cup Format Debate
01:06:34
Speaker
Former MLSer, though. Former MLSer. That's right. That's right. Yeah. He's, you know, I don't know if he's that good. Canada. We didn't have Canada. in now I was going to say, can we point and laugh at Canada really quick? They look, yeah, you know, I'm the guy who made a joke about how I was defecting to them. So I probably shouldn't point and laugh, but like from a footballing perspective.
01:06:53
Speaker
Dude, that's that was not that was that was an okay result. Bosnia's good. 1-1's not horrible. I didn't think they looked good at all. no I really didn't. like they Kyle Lahren kind of bailed them out from getting shut out yes in their home opener. You know what's so funny? I saw someone call Group B the the socialism group because everyone's on zero goal differential. Everyone's on one point and all their matches were 1-1 so far. So it's just the, uh, it's the even playing. That's we're all going to, we're all going to be on the same guys. We're going to just vibe. We're going to vibe. It would be tight if that came down to like yellow cards, like the whole, whole thing. rooting for that outcome actually. But, uh, all right, let's take one more ad break and then we will come back and close it out with, uh, some quick format takes and, uh, some Seattle Sounders news. We'll be right back.
01:07:36
Speaker
Welcome back from another ad break that you definitely did not skip. Noah, let's talk real quick some format because I had, this will function as our agenda check for the week because I have an agenda on this that I wrote about in my column for Sounder at Heart plug this week. But I wanted to get your thoughts on it because there's been a lot of discourse about the expanded 48 team format. And what I've been seeing on social media is a lot of This is stupid. It should be 32. This is too many teams. It's diluting the event. You're getting too many of these one sided like, you know, Germany, Germany beat Curacao seven to one type stuff. So I think there's been a lot of ah negativity around that. But what I was kind of doing... Well, I will say the Brazilians were not too upset about that 7-1. No. They were like, finally, we were not only team that got the 7-1. Curse out solidarity with their new brethren. But no, like, you know I think there's... there's
01:08:39
Speaker
I would say, would you agree that like there's been more negativity around that than positivity? I think in the lead up to the World Cup, there was definitely a very large um vocal minority of European, specifically, fans who were like, you're ruining the game by including more African nations, which...
01:08:59
Speaker
Take that as you may, but exactly, exactly. But, uh, but okay. So this is kind of what I was cooking on with my column this week. And, uh, I'm interested in what you think of this, but like, I get where the criticism came from with it. Uh, as far as the fears of the tournament being overly diluted and having too many overmatched nations, And I think when you look at that Germany 7-1 on Curacao, that's kind of a case study for what those people are talking about. So I don't think it comes from nowhere. But now that I've seen how it's going so far, I think it's actually fine.
01:09:35
Speaker
I think that it's... good to have more teams in it than less teams. And I think that it creates some fun moments and it's already created some really fun moments, one of which we already talked about with, uh, Cape Verde, but also just the principle of the, of being upset about this mismatch, Uh, what I was pointing out was like any tournament in any sport is going to have mismatches in the opening rounds. That's how a tournament works. So maybe does this accentuate that a little more when you expand the teams? Yes. But the idea that those mismatches would take place is like some crazy thing or unique to a 48 team tournament. That's we see this in every tournament and every sport. The example that I gave was like, you, nobody is crashing out on social media talking about how you shouldn't have the number 16 seed in the NCAA tournaments. Those games pretty much are always won by the one seed, but like you never hear that discourse. So to me, it's not like that dissimilar from that. And then I think I just like having an expanded field that creates the opportunity for, you know, a nation like Cape Verde to go out there and, know, Like, you know, you could say, oh, it's a mismatch. They're like, why would I want to watch Spain beat Cape Verde seven to one?
01:10:44
Speaker
Guess what? They didn't beat Cape Verde seven to one. They got trolled. They got trolled to a zero zero, which you could argue about whether you like watching that style of soccer. But that was one of the best moments of the whole tournament. So anyway, that's basically I wanted to just get my format take on record. I think it's actually fine and perhaps even good.
01:11:03
Speaker
and am i am i Am I crazy? I think that's a good take. I love the ability for smaller nations to be able to be represented at the World Cup. Shocking, breaking news. You know, I think that maybe the only, like, argument point is that a lot of these um teams are filled with non, like, kind of,
01:11:25
Speaker
What do they say? Like non-residents, you know, players who maybe they couldn't represent their where they were born. So they're representing their parents national team. I don't want to hear that because the USMNT is basically all of that.
01:11:39
Speaker
It's basically, oh, you were born in Brooklyn and then moved three days later to England and you're going to become our best striker. I don't want to hear it. That's what makes the World Cup cool. We get to follow our heritage. We get to root for these teams that we have connections to. And I think the more people that have connections to soccer. Also, it gives a lot of money to these national team programs. So like Kira Sal and Kate Verne. There's no more than just than just the raw results at play. with Yeah, they're getting millions of dollars for their national team and directly to develop soccer in that country, which just means better soccer players are getting a chance. More people are able to play the game. We're spreading the game. And if you truly believe it's the world's game, you want to see the world at the World Cup. So I completely agree with you.
01:12:23
Speaker
Hell
Seattle Sounders and Belgium Connection
01:12:24
Speaker
yeah. I mean, that's all I had on the ah on the format. Noah, you ready to close it out with some Seattle Sounders news? I'm ready. We've got some. What's a sound? Yeah, it's like I was seeing this training report from J.O. today, and I was like, wow, I feel like I'm living in a different world right now. ah But ah yeah, there was some actually there was a lot of stuff from J.O.' 's training report from today, so let's ah let's just get into it to close it out here. Which I was able to confirm the score of this Belgium versus Sounders game before J.O., so. boots on the ground. He should have referenced me in this, uh, in this report, but he didn't. So I'm going to have to blast him on Twitter or something. Yeah. Let's, so let's start there. Uh, sounders scrimmaged Belgium at long acres. Uh, I think um as many are probably aware, Belgium is posting up. So they've set up shop at long acres. Uh, so the Sounders first team got to scrimmage them.
01:13:15
Speaker
They, uh, they fall to one players to feature include, uh, these are what are confirmed, uh, Antino Lopez, Osase de Rosario, Sebastian Gomez, Kim Kihee, Paul Areola, knew who Ryan Saylor back from the white house, back on the training field. Uh, and then also right before we started recording, I did see a picture on Jackson Reagan's Instagram story of him defending Lukaku. which that is two big guys going at it. But it's funny. Lukaku is probably the first guy I've ever seen that makes Jackson Reagan look like skinny little dweeb. I know Jesus Ferreira played as well, and there were a few other starters who were there too. Yeah, okay. so like the fact that they scrimmaged them, I think that's a great experience for the team. like We want them to stay fit and sharp while they're on break here. ah But honestly, Noah, my takeaway from this is more like...
01:14:04
Speaker
I think that they're kind of vibing and getting value out of just being posted up near Belgium. And I think they're, to me, it sounds like they're kind of, they're kicking it. yeah They're getting to know the guys on the Belgium team. the You had our third string keeper as well play. He's been training with Belgium. Right. Like they sort of have ah created this dynamic where they're, I don't know if like taking the Sounders under their wing would be overstating it, but it feels they've been very welcoming and like appreciative of Seattle hosting him at the practice facility. And they're trying to give back to Seattle and the team, which I think is very, very cool. But one of the things you're going to give us KDB. Exactly. Exactly. That's the main thing. But like, so, but one of the things on that point is, uh, J O had a nugget about how Schmetzer has just been kicking it with, uh, Rudy Garcia, who's the Belgium coach picking his brain. They've been talking regularly, both casually and on more technical topics like training and tactics.
01:15:05
Speaker
I love that, man. I love that Schmetz has taken the opportunity to just be Schmetz is networking, bro. He's networking, but like what can I learn from this guy? He coaches one of the best national teams, most talented national teams in the world. What can I take from that? And the fact that both Rudy Garcia and the Belgian players are so willing to... ah kind of just meld with the the sounders like that. I think there's like a decent chance that they could get stuff out of this that could like meaningfully improve the team or at least, you know, give them new things or new ideas or new ways to think about stuff. I really hope Schmetz is picking Rudy's brain as much as he can. It sounds like from what Jay was saying that he is. So I just think that's so sick that they're staying at long acres. They're melting like that and they're scrimmaging like good stuff. Good stuff guys. Keep playing hard.
01:15:54
Speaker
Any Belgium takes or do you want to do some De La Vega? I love that they're playing. I love that we're getting to see some of the Sounders players out there again. it is kind of scary that we're going to roll right out of this World Cup, which is a logistical nightmare on the lobbing scorchers end into ah the back half of this season.
01:16:16
Speaker
But man, like it is it is cool. And man, like I I want to start seeing some Sounders rumors flow. I want to start seeing some sounders. don't know. I could use some of those endorphins as well. Like, you know, like I just, let me get a little taste here and there. I know they're, they're back now. You know, they did their little vacation, did whatever.
01:16:36
Speaker
We're back locked in. Sounders are training, um bread and butter, bread and butter, kitchen table issues. We're back to will Craig Weibel sign someone or not. I really, I can't wait to get back to that. God, It feels like the last time we did Will Craig Weibel assign someone discourse was like six months ago, even though it was only like a couple weeks ago. yeah
Seattle Sounders Updates and Player Returns
01:16:55
Speaker
Well, hey, it's another thing that we talk about every six months. Pedro de la Vega.
01:16:59
Speaker
Yeah. Great segue. And his injuries. Pedro de la Vega, parenthesis me, has resumed some limited training, according to J.O., although he is unlikely to be available by the time the Sounders return to action on July sixteenth Schmetzer seemed optimistic that the midfielder would at least resume fully training around that time. The hope Schmetzer said is that De La Vega would be fully fit by the time the Sounders visit the Timbers on August 1st. So that's the first kind of like target date I've seen for De La Vega. That is later and
01:17:31
Speaker
fit It is later in the season than they hoped originally originally weren't they saying that they were expecting him back he might be right the right angle the cup so that doesn't get fitness is what they said That timeline did not ah pan out but no look you You can say whatever you want. People can say whatever, whatever they want. All I'll say about this is we'll see what happens because at this point I understand, like I, I honest, I do understand where you're coming from with the exasperation with the whole situation, but I also still fully believe in him and convicted that in the event that he, they can actually get this guy fit and healthy and on the field,
01:18:11
Speaker
that I've seen enough from just his talent level that it changes the whole complexion and the whole ceiling of this team. And I know that you don't even disagree with that. Like your argument is more based on the fact that they haven't been able to get him healthy and fit yeah on the field. But you know, if this is the time I'd like,
01:18:29
Speaker
for better or for worse, that is going to be highly determinative on if this team is able to do anything of note this year, which is a very, ah exasperated, ah exasperating and a scary proposition to many. I understand, but speaking for myself,
01:18:46
Speaker
Let's just see what happens. I'm, I'm still genuinely excited to see him come back and play and see what it can do for this team. Because, I think as frustrating as the injury situation has been, the talent level is, is different than anything this team has on offense. So that's still where I'm at. And August 1st, let's see, let's see, let's just see what happens. Yeah, we'll see. I would not expect him to play in that game. Maybe a cameo at the end. I think, you know, 10, 15 minutes at the end. And then we'll get 10 to 15 minute cameos for the next two months. And then by the time the playoffs come around, maybe he's By the time the playoffs come around, he'll be ramped up and good to And then he'll ready to go to the Mets outfield.
01:19:27
Speaker
loading no we're not going to the men's outfit and and then a freak something freak happens and we're back to square one just kidding i don't want to wish that on the kid but uh Now we've got, we've got, we've got petro discourses. Just, it's, uh, it's back. Cut it off right there. Cut it off right there. Next. But that is, that is genuine news. The fact that he, August 1st seems to be around that areas when they're targeting. So if you were wondering about that, subscribe to sounder at heart, what are you doing? yeah you would have known that before I had to talk about it. But, uh, last bit of news from sounders training, no one, then we can call it a night. they'll I mean, it's pretty, uh, the center back group is the center back group is getting healthier. Yeah, Mar, Stu Hawks, Ryan sailor back from the White House and Kim Ki, he have now all resumed full training. So that means that ostensibly when the team is back to league play, i you don't have to go with the KKR Alex rolled on makeshift right side of your defense. Yeah, that has kind of cooked.
01:20:26
Speaker
However, i i really like especially watching the last couple of games before the world cup break where the sounders were kind of limping into it i think this team needs yaymar back and like i really do some of the goals that they were conceding like it's not even on like alex per se or on anybody it's just when you don't have that uh physical imposing big ass dude in the middle of everything right it's it's a lot harder to defend other guys imposing ass dudes when Anytime this team is playing a good number nine, I'll take Yamar out there over anybody.
01:21:01
Speaker
So that's just good news that the CBs are getting healthier and the team as a whole getting healthier. We'll see what happens after the World Cup.
01:21:12
Speaker
Thank you guys for watching. We'll catch you next time. Appreciate y'all. Love y'all. Like the video. Sub to the channel. Till next time, we out. Peace.