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Matchday 1: Someone left the cake out in the rain image

Matchday 1: Someone left the cake out in the rain

Nos Audietis
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Aaron and Jeremiah discuss Sounders versus Rapids in less time than the first half of the game itself! They talk about beating Colorado 2-0 in Seattle’s home opener, before the team head off on the road for 5 away matches. The guys also chat about the hometown talisman, Paul Rothrock, who not only became the man of the match after having to sub in early but also shared the heartwarming story about the song he was listening to before the match. The episode also includes how horrific the refereeing was but how well the first home attendance of the year was. Welcome to the 2026 regular season!

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Transcript

Introduction to Will Bruin

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.

Celebrating Seattle Sounders' Success

00:00:11
Speaker
Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does just about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what 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.

Podcast Sponsorship and Season Opener

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.
00:01:41
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network, sponsored by Full Pull Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Monday, February 23rd, 2026. I am your host, Jeremiah s Shan. Today, I'm joined again by Aaron Campo and our engineer. Lickett.
00:01:59
Speaker
Well, the Sounders opened their 2026 season, i suppose you could say in style. They won two zero They were relatively dominant over the Rapids. Paul Rothrock did Paul Rothrock things. There were some gray clouds, though. Jordan Morris went out with an apparent quad injury. Hassani Dotson went out with what was concerned that it was a ah concussion.

Match Analysis and Player Performance

00:02:24
Speaker
But otherwise, I think you could look at the entire game and feel pretty good about how each individual played. Aaron, what what would what were your big takeaways from from this first game?
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, i I think if not for the ref show in the first half, which I'm sure we'll talk about, and the injuries, it was a game that I would have forgotten about. five minutes after it ended. Very professional. Sounders never really got out a second gear.
00:02:52
Speaker
Liked a lot of of what I saw. You know, i didn't I didn't think that anybody played poorly of the, of you know, the starting compliment. And very professional. It was a game that the Sounders, I think, knew they had under under control from the get-go.
00:03:08
Speaker
And they saw it out effectively, got the got goal and the second half to put it away. It was pretty boring from there on out, which I think is is fine for this this time in the year. um So, yeah, you can't ask for too much more, I don't suppose, better than the the start to last year where they the Sounders outclassed Charlotte and and ended up with a draw.
00:03:28
Speaker
I think, you know, the Rapids and never really getting especially close to scoring was nice. um And the Sounders creating tons of chances and and ending up getting two. I mean, that's you know, that's a good way to start the season.

Injury Concerns and Team Depth

00:03:39
Speaker
You really couldn't afford to drop points in this one, I think, with the with the five straight games on the coming up. And, i you know, you want to get the vibes right because some of those games might be a little tough. So, yeah, no real complaints other obvious other than the obviously the into injuries.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, ah well, let's talk about that first half a little bit because we will get to the good parts, but let's get the bad parts out of the way. So first, you know, five minutes inside of the first five minutes, best I could tell right around 430 or so. Jordan Morris looks like he maybe tweaks a muscle. He's making a run, just a quick darting run, and he sort of pulls up a little bit.
00:04:22
Speaker
spends a couple minutes sort of trying to play through it. And then around the eighth minute, he just sits down, covers his face, very upset. which i I'm choosing to believe was more out of a general frustration of, Oh no, not again. And not a freak out of, Oh, I've actually done this before. And I know it's going to be six to eight weeks to recover.
00:04:44
Speaker
Why can't I catch a break? I I'm going to choose to be positive and think that this is maybe not a horrible situation like that. I guess that's relative, but that it's not that kind of situation that said, Paul Rothrock,
00:04:57
Speaker
takes off his warmups, comes in, and for a few minutes there, had the exact impact on the game that you would want.
00:05:08
Speaker
Jesus Ferreira, you know, around the 14th inning or so sends in a cross that's way too far for him. Paulie just chases after it. Taps it in, keeps it in bounds, bounces off the ad boards, takes a touch to settle, and then puts in a perfect cross to Albert Rusnak, who scores, best I can tell, his second career header, ah which you got to love.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah, pretty... I was going to say, just like a perfect Pauly Rothrock moment. Yeah, absolutely. And the class. It was a hockey goal, you know? Chasing down a lost cause, going into the boards, picking out the pass, and going and celebrating. Yeah, I mean, it's it it really is the sort of quintessential... It's it's like the...
00:05:53
Speaker
Anybody that had any concerns about about me getting paid in the offseason, here you go. This is why they did it. This is why I'm here. Yeah, and I think, ah you know, it's certainly Jordan going down with it with an injury is a much bigger bummer than this could possibly counteract. But I do think it was a like...
00:06:14
Speaker
All right. Yep. Jordan's out. He might be out a little while. You know, we don't, we don't really know, but this is why you have depth on your team. This is why you have guys like Paul Rothrock on the bench because they can come in and and do this. Right. And, and you don't miss a meet. So ah that was definitely an uplifting goal. Well-timed I thought. yeah,
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he just I, you know, I think it's fair to say I was initially a Paul Rothrock skeptic. I don't think I was alone in that. And um not that I didn't think he was a good player, but that he was going to be this good of a player and that it was going to be sustainable. But he's he's certainly proven me wrong. i love watching him play.
00:06:50
Speaker
This was a great example of that. And I feel like the more

Controversy Over VAR Decisions

00:06:53
Speaker
confident he gets, the better he gets. And ah it's it's a lot of fun to watch. He is he's never boring, which.
00:07:01
Speaker
you know, given some Sounders teams of the of the past, that's that's a really nice thing to have, I would say. Yeah, yeah, I would say so too. And then just almost immediately after that, the Sounders get a... ah get what appears to be a second goal.
00:07:18
Speaker
Like two minutes later, Alex rolled on stings a ah volley that forces a save from Zach Steffen, Hassani Dodson's waiting on the doorstep, clearly on side taps it in.
00:07:30
Speaker
It's two zero. And here we go. The route that we were all waiting for. Now, maybe we're starting to forget about the Jordan Morris injury. It's great. And then the play doesn't restart and it still doesn't restart. And four minutes later,
00:07:45
Speaker
the referee comes back and tells us that the play, the goal has been disallowed for a, ah for what we later find out is Osase De Rosario carelessly jumping.
00:07:56
Speaker
ah Now he did, the replay did show that there was some clash of heads between De Rosario and the defender. And honestly, if that had been called a foul in real time,
00:08:08
Speaker
I don't think anyone would have really had an issue with it. You know, it's like sometimes that, hat you know, it but for that to go to replay and for it to take four minutes to go through the replay, that was, that was a gut punch. And it was sort of one of those things like, is this what VAR is for? Like, are we really, we're we're like, I think one of the things that bugs me also is that there's so many circumstances where I don't think VAR, VAR were to intervene. Like if this is an MLS cup,
00:08:38
Speaker
there's no way that they're disallowing that goal. No, I can't, I can't imagine. So, and, and I know that the, um, the MLS ref stats fella, um, that, that does the Lord's work over there on, I think on blue sky these days, yeah is um, was, was saying that, uh, this is an area of, and this kind of foul was an area of emphasis for pro this year that, um,
00:09:00
Speaker
you know, this is something they really want called that hasn't been called in the past. And, and, and I, I don't hate that necessarily. um I'm okay with them saying, look, this hasn't been a foul in the past. It's going to be a foul going forward. I think we've seen some, some situations where that's happened in the past where where that's been a good thing for sure. And I think anything that's designed to prevent head injuries, I'm i'm totally okay with. Yeah, sure.
00:09:26
Speaker
I mean, the contact was pretty obvious in real time. ah The ref was right there. He, I'm sure, saw it. and And I think that the frustration that I have is that if we're going to allow VAR officials to just talk the referee over the course of about five minutes into agreeing with them, just give them give them the ability to overrule, right? I don't like that model.
00:09:52
Speaker
I think the CR should have... ultimate say. And I think the way this should always go is the IR says, Hey, this is what we saw. Take a look. And that's the end of it.
00:10:03
Speaker
That's the end of the conversation, right? The air cannot still be in his ear saying, well, why don't you slow it down to point, you know, 8,000 speed and, and look and and see what you think. Right. And that was clearly what was happening. Like the VAR guys are talking him through it and saying, this is what we're seeing.
00:10:19
Speaker
Look at this angle, look at this angle. And, and I don't, it's a waste of time. and it's also, just let them make the call. Like if you're going to allow that to happen, to take all of that time um to to look at this, this thing from all these angles, all these different speeds.
00:10:36
Speaker
Like i I personally would be fine with VAR being limited to real time speed, because I think there are so many things that look so much worse when you slow them down and don't look at them in real time. I think this is a great example of that. Like when you watch that foul, know,
00:10:50
Speaker
In real time, it really doesn't look like too much ah to anybody. And so if it takes you watching it over and over and over and over from multiple angles in slow motion to finally, after five minutes, say, yeah, OK, I guess it's foul.
00:11:02
Speaker
What are we doing? It's not it's not in the spirit of of what VAR is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about, hey, there was a really obvious thing that you just didn't see.
00:11:13
Speaker
and And that's not what this was. and um Yeah, I mean, like you said at the beginning, if this is a call that that happened in real time and we never get the goal, I don't think anybody cares. I think people maybe roll their eyes and say that's a bit ticky tack, but whatever. Right. That's not an uncommon thing to happen on a corner where there's a foul that nobody really saw.
00:11:34
Speaker
And people say, oh, well, i guess, you know, maybe somebody saw something, whatever, play on. Well, I think and I think what really bothers me about this, and I don't want to spend too much time on the refereeing, but this is one of those games where you kind of have to talk about it a little bit. for sure I think what really bugged me about this one is not so much the end result even, and it's It's that, you know, so the goal happens and it's two and a half minutes, literally two and a half minutes before the VAR even calls the referee to look at it. yeah
00:12:05
Speaker
And then they spend another minute and a half looking at it. But if if it takes you two and a half minutes to assess whether or not a review is required, that to me is not clear and obvious.
00:12:21
Speaker
If you've got to break it down that much, if you and this is a thing, it's not a complicated call. This is not some weird interpretation of the rules. This is do was there a foul that happened here?
00:12:32
Speaker
And if you got to do all this work just to get to. Yeah, I think there was a foul here. Well, God damn it. That's not enough. You know, and i know no I am curious to hear if they actually will release the... ah like I feel like on these controversial calls, they rarely end up releasing the audio.
00:12:47
Speaker
And they only seem to share the audio when everyone is in agreement that this was a great call. Right. I'm curious to see how the what the what the audio transcript, what this sounds like. But either way, the gold gets disallowed. It's a shame. And then ah and then almost immediately after...
00:13:07
Speaker
Like within a couple minutes of, of, uh, play being resumed, there's another controversial call this time. Noah Cobb comes in and clobbers Paul Rothrock on a challenge. And from the, from the angle of the broadcast, the original broadcast angle, it looks like a really bad challenge. Like it looks like he absolutely cleans out Rothrock. Rothrock looks like he got hurt.
00:13:28
Speaker
It's, it's pretty bad. Uh, And then they spend again, they spend about two and a half minutes reviewing it before they call over the the referee. And and it this ends up being a four minute review process as well.
00:13:41
Speaker
And and then I

Rothrock's Impact and Personal Journey

00:13:43
Speaker
will admit here, there is a reverse angle of it that makes it seem less egregious. But it's like one of these it's probably an orange card. And then sure enough, the referee comes out and it says it's a you know, with a gusto with his whole chest. It was a reckless challenge.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yellow card. And it's like, wow. is that the Is that the way we want to ah like announce this? like I don't know. like To me, the gap between red and yellow is such a judgment call that if it's still a yellow card, that to me is not enough to overturn a red unless it was like some misapplication of the law.
00:14:19
Speaker
For sure. I think as well, um if yeah you weren't obviously watching the broadcast, this was even worse on the broadcast because they didn't show the red card.
00:14:30
Speaker
Right. they They showed the foul. I saw the foul. And in real time, I thought that's nasty. But I wasn't clamoring for a red card. They said he'd been booked. And then they just don't say anything for like two minutes. And and then they're like, oh, he's going to go review this. There might be a red card here. No, they didn't realize it was. They they didn't realize it was a red card. So I nobody watching the game on TV has any idea what's going on.
00:14:56
Speaker
Right. And then they say, oh there has been a sending off here while the while the Rapids player is walking to the locker room. ah Amusingly. Right. The thing I was thinking is they're definitely going to overturn this because there's no way that's a red card.
00:15:11
Speaker
But if it had been a red card. would he have gotten in trouble for not leaving the field in an orderly fashion? Well, he's going to, sure he's going to get fined because he, he dicked around on the field for a long time.
00:15:22
Speaker
Right. Um, cause, and we've seen Sounders players wait until a call got reviewed and then get fined later. Um, so it'll, that'll be interesting to see, but yeah, I just, uh,
00:15:37
Speaker
I thought that the the call for the red card here was pretty rough. ah I was pretty shocked when they announced. I actually saw your your post on Blue Sky that it was a red card and said, oh, OK, well, I guess they they totally missed out on the broadcast.
00:15:51
Speaker
um And yeah, watching i out of curiosity were you on fox or I was on the Apple. i was on Apple. okay Yeah. yeah um interesting And yeah, it it was it was very strange. So I had I had absolutely no idea what was going on until I saw your post and then saw the players start walking towards the locker room. But yeah.
00:16:12
Speaker
You know, in this case, I think they they get the right call. But again, the issue is this is taking so long. What like what are we doing here? And this is, I think, a clear situation where we've seen this review a bunch of times where the AR says, hey, come take a look at this or the VAR ref says, hey, come take a look at this.
00:16:32
Speaker
ah the The CR goes over, looks at the thing for like five seconds and immediately changes the call. Right. This this was totally one of those situations. I have no idea what he was looking at. um And after that first one, just inter an interminable amount of time.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, it was anyway, at that point, the sort of like the flow of the game is totally botched. But if as if that wasn't enough, there was, you know, there was like two more stoppages for injuries. There were a bunch of and then what's funny is that there were a bunch of tackles that.
00:17:07
Speaker
Rapids players had after that, that seemed like they were probably worse than the Noah Cobb tackle. That cs elbowbo was, yeah, was, I thought, much worse. Aronson had like, ah there was one like a seal.
00:17:20
Speaker
Oh, there's ah one that also there was a guy that kind of went in two footed. Aronson had one that was pretty bad. um And then, of course, Hassani Dotson ends up getting hit in the head in, you know, there was.
00:17:34
Speaker
almost there was like 14 minutes of stoppage time. And of course, Dotson ends up getting hurt towards the end of that completely unnecessary to keep still be playing.
00:17:45
Speaker
And, and we don't know if he actually had a concussion. It sounded like Schmetzer was seemed to think that maybe he didn't have a concussion. He wouldn't have to go into concussion protocol, which would be great.
00:17:55
Speaker
But, um, Either way, he came out. and And at that point, you're just like, get into halftime. We got to start this thing over. and And I will say the second half was better.
00:18:07
Speaker
it had more of a flow. ah but you know it was still on a razor's edge. right The Sounders were only up by one goal. any Any weird thing could happen. We've seen that happen many, many times, but luckily it's it's Paul Rothrock who gets the the you know the the ceiling goal relatively. 61st minute, and at that point it felt like the game was ah almost over, ah but I do want to shout out a great pass from Osazi de Rosario to play Jesus Ferreira into space.
00:18:36
Speaker
Ferreira's cross is not... necessarily great it takes deflection but Rothrock takes it first time and just smashes it past uh Stefan into the goal and and the Sounders celebrate and it did feel like there was this big cathartic moment and and after the game I I i asked Paul because I saw him before the game sort of before fans started coming in he was kind of he had headphones on and he was he had a ball in his hand and he was just kind of roaming around the field just kind of like vibing out and I asked him about that whole thing and he he starts talking about how yeah he was just trying to get in the right in the headspace it had been kind of a weird preseason and it's it is kind of a funny it ends up being kind of a funny story because you know Rothrock has this great year last year where you know maybe he's not a club legend but he's becoming sort of a he's very much like a cult hero within the club something more than a cult hero I would say but he's if not a club legend more than a cult hero he's somewhere in between he's very beloved at this point.
00:19:36
Speaker
he's talismanic i think is a good way to put it good good word good word uh So he comes in and he ends up taking less money to re-sign with the Sounders. And then he spends all preseason training with the second team group. And and not because you know there was clearly no starting spot. It's it's like they just made a decision. we're goingnna We're going to play Jordan out on the wing. We're going to start D-Row or Mussofsky up top and just see how that goes.
00:20:04
Speaker
And sorry, Paul, you might be playing left back. And in fact, he starts... The split squad game that's the last preseason game where they're they're playing like a bunch of of reserve players from Louisville and and guys that they're borrowing from Tacoma Defiance and and the academy. And he's playing left back in this game. and he And I got to imagine that gets in your head. It's like, wow, I just...
00:20:29
Speaker
I was on this high and I come back this year and I'm just like starting over again. You know, this is where he was two years ago, like talking about maybe playing left back or whatever.
00:20:39
Speaker
And ah it's certainly where he was last year at this time. And he says he was listening to ah the Donna Summer song, ah MacArthur Park Suite. and And he was listening to it. And he i asked you know i i ask him what he was listening to. And he says, well, I was listening to this Donna Summer song because ah Amy Liu ah skated to it. And I was really inspired by her whole story. I didn't have any point of reference for who Amy Liu. It is Amy Liu, right? I'm not.
00:21:09
Speaker
You probably don't know. think so. We'll say for the sake of I'm pretty sure it's Amy Lou, but I, I think, like I said, I had no, I had no point of reference for this. Uh, uh, Oh no, it's not.
00:21:23
Speaker
God damn it. What's her name?
00:21:28
Speaker
Uh,
00:21:31
Speaker
Alyssa Lou. God damn it. Alyssa Lou. I knew it was, I knew it was Lou. It was an A yeah and I knew the last name was Lou. Uh, but anyway, so was like, i was inspired by her story. You know, if you don't know it, she was 16. She was top of the world.
00:21:45
Speaker
One of the best figure skaters ever. And then she just retires. And cause she's burnt out she just wants to have a normal life. And then she comes back, she comes back at 18 and has been sort of on this comeback tour. And I, and I actually went and watched her her performance. It was amazing. Like she turns in this unbelievable free skate, like perfect, everything perfect.
00:22:06
Speaker
And she did it to this Donna Summer disco song from 1978 anyway. And he says he got inspiration from that. And it's, it's, it's just like this, like Paul is so good.
00:22:20
Speaker
At telling a story, at telling his story of like giving like meaning behind what he's doing. And it was just this reminder of like, God, it's so great to have this guy on the team.
00:22:31
Speaker
Like, yeah, he's don't get me wrong. He's a great player and he does these fun things. But he's also so good at like letting you write, like letting, giving you something to like grab onto and create a narrative around. And I love it as a, as someone who covers the team. I, I absolutely love that he is, he's back.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, and i he's he's an interesting one because he, i i think he's extremely earnest. Like, I think he's he's very real. I've never gotten a sense that he is in any way fake or manufactured.
00:23:04
Speaker
But I think he absolutely has a sense of, i hate to say brand because that's that's more cynical than what I mean. i think he has a sense of narrative. I think he understands there's a story to tell.
00:23:20
Speaker
I think he he knows what is compelling about him, and I think he leans into it. And i love that. i like too sports or sports or entertainment. And i don't need everyone to try to craft a persona to make themselves more compelling. But if you have a personality and a story and a way of playing the game and all that stuff that is is as compelling as Paul Rothrock,
00:23:44
Speaker
you'd be crazy not to lean into it because it's going to make you more

Player Performances and Tactical Analysis

00:23:47
Speaker
beloved. It's going to be good for your career. It's going to give you a better connection to, to the fan base. It's going to set you up with a job for life with the Sounders organization. If you want it, most likely um it's smart, but it, it feels absolutely 100% true to to who he is as a guy.
00:24:03
Speaker
oh I, I totally agree. And I just think it's amazing that he, you know, like I don't know. There is, he didn't know he was going to play in this game, let alone do anything. And that he created this sort of whole story before the game where he, you know, I asked, like when I asked him like what songs playing and he's like, well, now you're going to put me on the spot. And I thought it was because he couldn't really remember what the song was.
00:24:29
Speaker
But no, he not only did he know what the song was, he had a whole fucking story about it. Like it was like, give me a break, dude. Are you serious?
00:24:40
Speaker
Pretty. It's pretty incredible.
00:24:44
Speaker
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00:26:43
Speaker
So anyway, i loved it. Um, And, you know, we should talk about some of the other stuff in this game. I um i did really like Rothrock. Now, it is funny that, you know, the sounders really tried to i don't know if they tried, but they were ready to sort of like put the bro broth rock, put it on the back burner. And here he is.
00:27:03
Speaker
He's going to be starting game two. I guarantee it Yeah. Yeah. Seems seems quite likely. Yeah. um And it's what the other funnyest thing I think is the second time that he's come off the bench early on and had an impact like this. You remember the way he got his start also like was when he came off the bench for Alex Roldan when Roldan got a concussion against Minnesota. And I think he had a goal and an assist in that game, too.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, and then and then I think was an injury sub against Houston, like either midweek that same week. or Yeah, I mean, he certainly that was his that's where his his his trajectory really started to kind of right shoot.
00:27:42
Speaker
um yeah Yeah, he scored the next sure he scored the the next week against against ah hoson but I don't know. Um, other people in this game, I thought Ferreira was really good.
00:27:56
Speaker
You know, he was all over the place. He ends up with two assists, two kind of cheap assists, I guess you could say. Although, uh, the first assist, I, it's funny to me that he gets it. You get the secondary assist. Cause he was like really bad pass. Um,
00:28:12
Speaker
I think not getting an assist on that pass to Rusnak that Rusnak put wide of the post. Right. It makes it like that was worth three or four assists. So yeah I'm fine with him getting credit for one.
00:28:23
Speaker
That's a good point. Yeah. he He, early on in the second half, he, he made a pass where he threads it through like five defenders to set Rusnak up for, uh, Oh, just an absolutely gorgeous chance.
00:28:36
Speaker
ah You know, and I said in Discord, if you give me one player, ah give $100 to bet on one player to put that shot on frame, I'd probably take Ristak.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah. And he he just hits it wide. i don't i almost got the sense he didn't quite know where he was. Like, he didn't have... That's that's what I thought as well. Yeah. ah Or he was almost surprised at how how open he got there. but Yeah.
00:29:01
Speaker
um I know D-Row was not as... He had the one pass, you know, and other than that, he didn't do a whole lot, but I i thought he was fine.
00:29:12
Speaker
you know I thought with D-Row, there were a lot of things that he did that were not especially glamorous that Danny Masofsky does not do. can Yeah.
00:29:24
Speaker
Just some of the dirty work, some of the... His hold up play is much more effective. um He was effective in the press. Yeah, effective in the press being just kind of generally being a nuisance. I was I was impressed. It was a quiet game like that's not a if you repeat that game 34 times, ah that's not great.
00:29:42
Speaker
Right. But I did see a difference. Like if you're going to tell me you can start either of these guys and neither one of them are going to score. I'm picking D-Ro 10 times. Right. yeah Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that makes you a starting number nine is how well you can of how you can impact the game even when you're not getting chances.
00:30:07
Speaker
yeah And he found a way. you know The pass that he has to set up the second goal is a great pass. ah It's not necessarily a pass you expect your number nine to be able to make.
00:30:19
Speaker
ah He came back pretty far into his own end and... And hit a, you know, it was not like just a chip ball. It was, you know he hit ah a solid through ball to Ferreira into space. So, you know, I appreciate that he has that in his bag.
00:30:32
Speaker
and don't know if we've seen him do that in the past. ah I also, I really was happy with the way the Sounders handled the Rapids build out.
00:30:44
Speaker
ah I thought that their press was very effective. At times the Rapids, you know, I'm curious your thoughts on this. The Rapids were playing style of build out that we don't see a lot where they were seemingly very happy to pass the ball around in their own box.
00:31:03
Speaker
And they got in trouble a few times. But I guess this is becoming an in vogue style. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's you have to be confident in doing it. You have to be you have to do it well, but it's it can be really, really effective when it's it's done well.
00:31:24
Speaker
And I guess the idea is that you do it against teams who want to press you. So you sort of invite the press and then play through it. Right. Yeah. More or less. Right. You you get them to overcommit and Yeah.
00:31:37
Speaker
The idea is that you have like these patterns of movement that you, you feel really comfortable playing out of like a heavy press, right? You've got a ton of pressure on you. You know where guys are going to be.
00:31:48
Speaker
Right. They had like five guys in the box sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, you know, it's, it's super effective when it works. And i am somewhat skeptical that this Rapids team has the talent to pull it off because It requires you know some some pre pretty significant skill and and confidence, but i I appreciate and respect that they are trying to do it. right It's something i haven't seen a ton of in MLS, and when it when it works really well, teams can really punch above their weight by by ah doing it effectively.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, ah it's it it it did not work, I think, is is. Yes, that's yes. The takeaway, though, in this whatever they were trying to do, they gave up a lot of possession. i mean, in the first I want to say.
00:32:39
Speaker
at least through the second red card or the not the second the red card that got all overturned, at least through that point, they barely were able to get past their own end.
00:32:52
Speaker
ah and And they did not create a lot of dangerous possession, either in transition or out of, you know, out of sustained possession either. Yeah.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah.

Game Day Experience and Future Outlook

00:33:05
Speaker
And so that was I think that was an encouraging thing for the Sounders. You know, they the Sounders ended up with ah a. Average line of confrontation that was close to 52, you know, almost at midfield, which is pretty wild. They only one time last year and they were a reasonably good pressing team last year. Only once did they have a game where they had a higher line of confrontation than they did yesterday.
00:33:30
Speaker
And and a lot of that, I'm sure, is because the Rapids played so deep in their own end. But, you know, to the the Sounders didn't shy away from playing their game either. You know, they they were they saw what the Raptors were doing and they said, sure, we'll well we'll take five of those.
00:33:46
Speaker
And... ah yeah and I thought that was that was encouraging. I also thought the crowd, you know, I don't want to make too much of the crowd, but this was the Sounders' best attended home opener since COVID, which is notable to me, especially notable because the Hawks Nest wasn't open. I guess there's renovations going on for the World Cup that ah or that have closed the Hawks Nest until until a later date. I don't know when that's going to be reopened.
00:34:17
Speaker
But it did feel like the result was more people packed into the lower bowl. And it felt energy, at least during the second half, it felt energetic. There were definitely some times when the energy got sucked out of there.
00:34:30
Speaker
But on the flip side, i guess getting into the stadium was a total nightmare. ah You know, the Sounders changed the time they opened the gates. They used to open it at an hour and a half before the listed kickoff. Now they're only doing it an hour before.
00:34:44
Speaker
i don't think that was the main problem. I think the main problem was, A lot of people were telling me that they just had fewer gates open. And then they also had fewer concessions, which then led to even more lines when you got inside.
00:34:57
Speaker
Either way, people were getting into the stadium quite late. And there were a lot of people who were really frustrated, which only was made worse by the rain and by the constant stoppages of time. Right, right.
00:35:11
Speaker
And yet I still felt like that was a good crowd. it It was a good crowd. I mean, there was definitely ah an energy that was present that did obviously get sucked out. It wasn't just the crowd that where after that second stoppage, the energy got sucked out. I thought all the energy came out of the game as well.
00:35:28
Speaker
yeah um But that's, you know, that's that's a different conversation. um i i thought the crowd looked good on TV, especially once it filled in a little bit. I thought, especially given the weather, I mean, I was really on the fence all day. And then when I saw what the weather was shaping up to be,
00:35:44
Speaker
At night, I decided to stay at home. So um considering that, I think that that's a really good showing. ah And that's that's encouraging because it it shows that they potentially are building off of last year off of, you know, being more exciting, being better to watch at home.
00:36:00
Speaker
And I thought they did a pretty good job on the field of doing what they needed to do to get people to come back. And whether or not the experience of, of everything else of getting into the stadium of, of getting a hot dog or what have you is going to put people off. We'll, we'll have to wait and see. And, you know, we've got plenty of time for people to forget that part of the experience, I guess, because we've got over a month until the next home game Yeah. ah So almost six weeks till I actually six weeks, I think, until the next home game.
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah. So, um you know, that's, that's a bummer um in some ways because, know, Even if they play reasonably well on the road, they'll probably have some results that don't feel great in that yeah that six weeks. But um yeah, I mean, I thought the Sounders as a team did a really good job of of giving fans something to come back for.
00:36:51
Speaker
And that does make the rest of the experience, I think, frustrating. Yeah. because it just didn't need to be that way. I, I, it's really strange. This team, 17 years in now, um, 12 years, I think still figuring things out. mom stations Yeah. It's, it's pretty crazy, man. It's pretty crazy. And, uh, you know, I don't know, maybe they'll get there someday.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah. I, so my understanding of what happened in this one, or at least the decision to, to open the gates late was maybe a ah reasonable financial decision. like someone actually told me that over the course of the season that might save them, you know, well into six figures, which, Hey, ah you know, that's a, that's a potential Tam signing. Right. ah and and so I don't necessarily begrudge them that part of it, but if you're going to not open presumably because of,
00:37:51
Speaker
you know, that extra half hour of, of over of time that you have to pay everyone, you should still have the same number of people working trade and operating the gates. And that's just kind of wild that they, they didn't do that.
00:38:07
Speaker
ah But looking ahead to this five game road trip, I will say the Sounders have some winnable games in this. And I would actually go as far to say that there are no unwinnable games in these next five.
00:38:19
Speaker
They're at Real Salt nut Lake next week, which, you know, obviously a bugaboo location for the Sounders. Sounders have not won there. i don't think since 2000. two thousand I don't think in MLS play in regular season play. i don't think they've won there since 2002.
00:38:36
Speaker
2011 the lamor nagle of a game yep that's the one time they've ever won there i think right well they also and then they want to play a game there right in in ah also in 2011 no 2012 2012 yeah no two that two no two thousand twelve two twelve yeah And then I actually think i they may have won there in 09 too, but either way, it's been a long, long time since they, and not a lot of ties either. They've been really bad at, at RSL. So but usually though, the game falls in the weird part of the schedule.
00:39:05
Speaker
ah You know, that's like, they're always rotating for that game. They should be pretty close to full strength, you know, Jordan Morris aside. So fingers crossed on that one. And then they're at St. Louis city Then they have the CONCACAF Champions Cup a road game.
00:39:21
Speaker
And then they're at San Jose. And then they have a home game for Champions Cup. And then they're at Minnesota. And then they close out the road trip at Houston.
00:39:32
Speaker
I mean, i think six points, very doable from that point. from those five, I would think nine points is, is pretty realistic. i get beyond nine points in your, no, you're getting hopeful, but getting greedy. Yeah.
00:39:50
Speaker
I think, uh, we go ahead. Sorry. I don't really have much. i was just going to say, I think that's, uh, we ran the numbers in discord earlier and yeah the, the pace that you tend to see from,
00:40:07
Speaker
um from shield supporter shield winners for road games would have the sounders at about eight points from from these five and the fact that they have to do five in a row makes that tougher but the fact that they're playing the teams they're playing that little easier so if they can get seven or eight points i feel pretty great uh about about it or pretty good about it if they get more than eight i feel pretty great about it um the the thing that's always tricky with mls is that teams that were shitty the year before randomly become really good without really changing that much and so there's always the possibility that one of these teams has gotten good i mean houston could be legitimately good they so like they might feel okay san jose might be okay yeah i mean it's it's year two of bruce arena down there right so um
00:40:58
Speaker
Maybe he's he had some time to work his magic, so you never know. um But I think this team is capable of beating every single one of these teams, even if they hit their 100 percentile outcomes for the for the full season. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see. and ah In a way, it's kind of nice to get this long stretch of road games knocked out um because you know you're you're you're playing with a little bit of house money the rest of the way, which is always a good position to be in.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the for sure. the The last part, you know, from the run into the World Cup break is a lot of home games after that.
00:41:38
Speaker
And, yeah you know, that could be they could get on They could put together a nice little run and, you know, we'll see how it goes. But I'm I I think there's a reason for optimism, I guess, after this first game.
00:41:51
Speaker
I thought you know when Dotson and Roldan were together, I thought they looked really good. i mean, honestly, I don't have complaints about the performance of anyone that started. And to the degree I had complaints, it was things like you know Georgie Manungu was not as aggressive in open space as I would have liked.
00:42:10
Speaker
you know Danny Masofsky didn't do a whole lot when he came on. It was good to see Paul Ariel and get on the field. He didn't do a whole lot. He also came on really late. So I don't, I don't really know what to take. i don't know that there's really anything to take from that.
00:42:24
Speaker
ah Right. But yeah, I mean, everyone, everyone that was on the field in the first half, I thought looked, looked good. I'm, I'm optimistic that Ferreira can, you know, I thought he, he got off to a great start in terms of everything.
00:42:39
Speaker
Reagan and Yamar were were really, really good, I thought, and especially in supporting the press. Yeah, Reagan especially, I thought, had the Rapids didn't do much, but the three times the Rapids did anything, Reagan was a big part in ah making sure it didn't turn into anything. so Yeah, and andy you know Andrew Thomas came up with one. He needed to make one big save, which you know was kind of when the game was already almost over, but he did make one good save there at the end.
00:43:07
Speaker
And, you know, he maybe had a couple questionable passes, but nothing that was too That's always the thing, though, right? Like when you step up a level, um i feel like the for goalkeepers, the distribution is always the thing that takes some time getting used to. yeah There's just a little bit less time. And obviously he's played in MLS plenty of times, but its it is different. I feel like when you're starting in the first game and and all that stuff.
00:43:32
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that. Well, ah I'll give one more plug. i or right Yeah, I'll give one more plug to four, the Sounder at Heart magazine. We had our launch party on Friday. Really good turnout.
00:43:47
Speaker
I know Aaron was even there hiding in the and the seats with Lickett. there was a lot of people there i wasn't There were a lot of people I want to get in anybody's way. Yeah.
00:43:58
Speaker
oh Andrew Thomas was great with his time. The Sounders brought the Leagues Cup. That was fun. It was smaller than I thought it would be. The Leagues Cup?
00:44:09
Speaker
The Leagues Cup, yeah. it was It was kind of tiny. It was like a Cascadia Cup size. It was little bigger that. It wasn't very tall. i It wasn't very tall. That's true.
00:44:20
Speaker
It had some growth. it does have some It did have some growth. You're right. You're right. Some people say that's more important. I don't know. That is
00:44:30
Speaker
That is what they say. ah Yeah. All right. Well, if you want to get an issue, we still have lots of magazines left to sell if people still want them. I think it looks great. It's good. I wasn't i wasn't involved in in the production of it. I don't have any anything in it. So I can say this unbiasedly. It's it's extremely good. It's well worth the the dough.
00:44:50
Speaker
Just as something to have on your coffee table looking nice. Yeah. Yeah. Lick it. Lick it did a wonderful job. Putting it together. It's beautiful. And i think I think we're going to do a World Cup issue. I've started talking to some people about writing stories. I need to make sure that Lickett is still on board with putting it together.
00:45:11
Speaker
yeah but i i think he he saw the demand. I think he's addicted now to seeing people excited about his product. I hope so. Yeah. He got a lot of praise from from my wife for his work. so Oh, good. I that was enough to...
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah. And she said she might be able to get it into the library for us. So yeah. Yeah. We'll see. That'd be cool. That would be cool. All right. ah Let's get out of here.
00:45:38
Speaker
Aaron, thank you for. For breaking it down with me. You betcha. But let's get out here. Thanks to our sponsor, Full Pool Wine. Thank you to our subscribers for making this all happen. We are ah in the midst of a nice little subscriber drive. So it's been great to see those numbers ticking up after a little bit of time that got flat. So, hey, that always makes me feel good.
00:46:02
Speaker
All right. That said, I'm Jeremiah O'Shann signing off for Aaron and Lickett. This is No Sariyatis, part of the Sounder Heart. podcast network and remember you'll never get a loan
00:46:42
Speaker
Let's go at Sounders.