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Fans react to Seattle Sounders Game 3 at Minnesota United!
269 Plays13 hours ago
We react and take calls following Seattle's Round One series finale at Minnesota United in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
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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.
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Transcript
Introduction and Live Stream Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
Pre-Game Excitement and Match Overview
00:00:22
Speaker
Well, sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be real scorcher today. What, the scorcher today? Well, it's gonna be
00:00:43
Speaker
Good evening, everybody.
Match Recap: Seattle Sounders vs. Loons
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome in to your final post-match live. of the 2020-25 regular season. Shout out to the 2025 season. and It has come to an end in the great cold state of Minnesota.
00:01:02
Speaker
3-3 draw in regulation. Seattle Sounders fall in PKs.
00:01:09
Speaker
The Loons move on, and the Sounders are sent packing.
00:01:16
Speaker
So much to talk about with this game, guys. We're going to be hanging out, reacting, coping, rationalizing, perpetuating our final agendas of the season. Got the presser pulled up, going to play that, should be starting.
00:01:30
Speaker
I mean, i don't know, maybe the last game of the season, there's like a more elongated locker room speech. ah But before we get into... Sorry, there... Okay, presser not started yet.
00:01:45
Speaker
ah Before we get into everything that... ah
00:01:58
Speaker
Rusnak and Rothrock for the hostage video coming right up. ah So they should be they should be joining this Zoom call soon. They're talking, so I'm hearing both things at the same time. ah But that's what ah that's who we're going to be talking to.
Game Analysis and Critical Moments
00:02:12
Speaker
um Before we get into all the things that went wrong in this game and why the Seattle Sounders season is now over, I do want to say, I mean, what a game.
00:02:24
Speaker
Like, if you were a neutral, which I know none of us are, but if you were...
00:02:29
Speaker
I mean, the drama, the red card, the comeback, the equalizer, that freaking shootout.
00:02:44
Speaker
Andrew Thomas busting up his finger, maybe, during the shootout. It was a thriller. It was a thriller.
00:02:56
Speaker
You can't deny that. well But I guess um going to I'll lay down my ah first initial takeaways, and we'll get Noah in here eventually. He's headed home from fast fashion right now, so he'll be on in a bit.
00:03:08
Speaker
ah Once the presser's over, I'll drop the call link in. You guys can hop on and lay down some takes. But ah I'll get my initial takes while we wait for the presser to start, which is, I mean, I guess my first reaction is that that should not have been a game that goes to PKs.
00:03:25
Speaker
You end up up a man in that game for how long? How much better could that game have started? Two goals in the first 10 minutes. Albert Rusnak with one of the best team goals they've scored all season. We've seen him slice it and dice it like that a lot this year. his team scored ton of goals this year.
00:03:43
Speaker
And that was a great one.
00:03:47
Speaker
Danny Musavsky. All right, sorry. We got the presser pulled up.
Emotional Reactions and Team Resilience
00:03:51
Speaker
Pauly Primetime's in there.
00:03:57
Speaker
out of there as quickly as possible. So with that in mind, we're gonna go and get started right away. Jeremiah Oshan has our first question. Jeremiah, go ahead, please. Yeah, I guess, Paul, um but how how would you describe the emotions of ah of a a game like that?
00:04:16
Speaker
Challenging. I thought, you know, we, okay We're unfortunate to let the game slip away like it did in those few moments where we lost our lead and that we bounced back really well from that.
00:04:37
Speaker
Credit to the team. I think that's been our calling card all year is finding moments to be resilient like that. and We found a way to get back in the game.
00:04:51
Speaker
and think we were all feeling pretty confident going into the shootout.
00:04:56
Speaker
You know, we knew Andrew was going to make a few saves for us.
00:05:02
Speaker
I been a part of a shootout a while that goes that far, all the way down to the goalkeeper. yeah, tough way to go out. Tough way to go out. All right, next question. We'll go over to Maz Vita. Maz, go ahead and ask.
00:05:17
Speaker
yeah i'll go ahead albert I'll answer the first one. Just if you can, i know emotions are raw, just the suddenness, you know, of that game and the notion that your season is done.
00:05:31
Speaker
Can you speak a little bit to that? I know emotions are raw right now.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's, so it feels,
00:05:41
Speaker
you know, it just doesn't doesn't feel right um because of many things. We, we but we went a man out today, had control of the game, and yeah, somehow found ourselves down thirty two and and five just just to equalize it i think
00:06:07
Speaker
No, we're really good. really Sorry about the typing, guys. Running double duty. When you go nine up in a playoff game on road and you have a lead when it happens, it's just, you know, in no way you can let the other team score two goals to take a lead.
00:06:23
Speaker
The easiest chance probably of all season to put it away, thirty one hit the post. um And then again, you know, we get equalized last minute. It goes to PKs.
00:06:37
Speaker
Then we had two PKs to win the game. um And I don't know why, but it just just you know right now it feels like it wasn't meant to be. um And as you said, you know the emotions are also, so it's it's hard to really you know identify why.
00:06:56
Speaker
um But that's that's that's how it feels. I think Andrew drew on the first PK when he saved it, broke his finger or dislocated it. It's just, yeah, it's a lot of things, you know, and we combine all those, and right now we found ourselves that the season's over, but yeah, it just it doesn't doesn't feel right.
00:07:17
Speaker
We also feel like we haven't lost to them in three games, um and and we're out of playoffs, so it's tough.
Reflections on Narrow Margins and Team Pride
00:07:29
Speaker
Thanks.
00:07:30
Speaker
Alright, we're going to freelance reporter for the Seattle Times who's currently in the room in in Minnesota. Heather, go ahead, please. You mentioned it didn't feel out like it was meant to be. This is there for either of you. just with the you know You mentioned two you know hitting the crossbar, potentially a third one.
00:07:49
Speaker
Crossbar was you know a factor to come lot times, too, with the PKs. You know was that part of maybe just that feeling like ah this wasn't meant to be? I mean, was it, know, just the margin was that small. I mean, how tough was it to just kind of keep going, know that you weren't out of it till the very end?
00:08:08
Speaker
I think, you know, sports are one on really fine and margins and we've lost in margins tonight, I think. That especially hurts given,
00:08:22
Speaker
how long the season has been and, you know, what, where we've come from as a team since the start of the year, being part of the team last year during in and this year, you know, I feel like we're a better team.
00:08:38
Speaker
We've played some great football this year.
00:08:43
Speaker
and yeah, I mean, sometimes sports can just go that way. think we felt in our hearts and, you know, we believe that we were in the better team and obviously we're not the team moving on and that really hurts.
00:08:59
Speaker
Um, I've got to give credit to, you know, how they stifled us in some moments too. They've found a way to get the better of us a couple times this year. And, um, that's definitely going to be some fuel for us the next time, you know, we play the next year. And, um,
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah, it hurts right now because that's 10 months of work. It's just
00:09:31
Speaker
just gone after ah few few moments.
00:09:36
Speaker
All right, George, you're up next. Go with your question, please. ah albers and I know this is still really raw right now, but watching the game, it seemed like there was and nothing else that you guys could have done. It felt like you guys left it all on the field. I wondered if you agree with that or if you think that there might have been something that in hindsight you could have done different.
00:09:58
Speaker
And then Paul, Messi just renewed his contract with... Inter Miami. So can we have Paul Ross-Frock again with the Sounders next season? I think you have some unfinished business here that we'd like to see you complete.
00:10:17
Speaker
So yeah, your first question. No, I mean, as as far as you know, there's no such thing as question and effort and in any game. So, you know, up sit here and say oh you know the effort was there. I feel like that's just First and foremost, it has to be there and was there.
00:10:37
Speaker
But even as far as tactics after about the first game series, you know, we tweaked some things and in the short amount of time changed a little bit in how we want to attack, especially against against Minnesota to create more chances. And, you know, that was ah kind of resulted in seven goals in the next two games.
00:11:03
Speaker
um so as far as that goes you know the work that that we've put in and and the tactics that coaches gave us and our video analysis, you know, what they what they saw in a video and how to break them down, we we actually applied that in a game and and did it really well. So even today, you know, on road, scored three goals in a playoff game.
00:11:26
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, we left it all out there. um Yes, there were mistakes, but those this just part of the game. My mistakes happened and you know and i'm I'm sure a few moments of that game today, if if if I could have back or anybody else that and that knows how the game went, yes, we would want those you know moments back.
00:11:50
Speaker
But it's easy to sit here now and be like, you know i yeah should have done that I should have done that, done that. So, yeah. No, I mean, I'm proud of the group. Proud of everybody, what we did.
00:12:01
Speaker
Although, as I said, that it doesn't doesn't feel right that we were lost the way we did this whole series. um But, yeah, I'm sure it will, you know, it will hurt for for a day, two, you know, maybe three. um But then, you know, we're going to have to regroup.
00:12:22
Speaker
And, you know, have an off-season, you know, And get better next year. That's that's that's ultimately all we can do, you know, is improve from this year and try to better next year, you know, and and go again and then go to win another trophy um because, you know, that's that's what this club is about.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:46
Speaker
And then to respond to your question, you know, I don't and don't want to make this moment about myself. i think
00:12:59
Speaker
You know, those those conversations will continue over the next couple weeks. And, you I've made it clear my desire is to stay here. But, you know, I'd prefer not to speak on that right now. Just give them emotion.
00:13:15
Speaker
know, I want to keep the focus on what we've done as a team this year and as a group. This has been a special group. You know, it's where the most goals ever is a Sounders team in a year.
00:13:28
Speaker
won a trophy. There's there's been some it been some great moments this year, some real highs.
00:13:36
Speaker
Several players, I think, have had unbelievable individual seasons.
00:13:43
Speaker
But yeah, this one hurts. you know and In my head, we were going all the way and winning two trophies this year. It's
00:13:52
Speaker
going to take a little while to have that settle in. That's not going to happen.
00:13:58
Speaker
All we'll take one more and we'll take it from Felipe Makeda. Felipe, please go ahead.
00:14:05
Speaker
Thank you, Alex. This question is for Albert. Albert, like Paul and Roger mentioned that on the season had up and downs. This series of games have everything, intensity, big emotions.
00:14:21
Speaker
This last series of pen penalties was incredible. But at the end, the the team is out. work What is the message that you give to the fans that were with the team during the whole season?
00:14:37
Speaker
Honestly, I feel like our fans are, you know, they feel exactly the same as as we do right now.
00:14:45
Speaker
You know, we wanted another, you know, i'm not just another playoff game, but maybe have another home match at Lumen this year. um Because I feel like we we made that we made that place, you know, really special again and and really hard for other teams to come in and and do anything.
00:15:07
Speaker
um So if anything, you know, we try to get another another home game. um But yeah, I mean, the the support has been incredible, whether it's been at Lumen or on road.
00:15:21
Speaker
Even today, there's a small number of fans that we saw with the green jerseys. And hear on plates yeah, we could hear them and it's it's not a short trip.
00:15:32
Speaker
So even if it's, you know, we don't care about how many, but even if you see a few, it's you know it gives you another a little bit of extra and and we needed that this series and we got it know whether it was a game two at home coming off of ah of a loss in the first one in the shootout again or today you know so yeah the support has been incredible and it always has been um yeah so you know i can speak on behalf of everybody every player and it's just a big thank you honestly to everyone And then, you know, I'm sure they're good about it just as we are. as as is
00:16:08
Speaker
It's too short after a game, you know, to to kind of say a farewell message to to the fans or or kind of, you know, have a few sentences to sum up the whole year. it's you know I'm sure we'll do that, you know, whether it's on on social media or at the facility, you know, however it's going to go down. But, yeah, right now, i mean all we can say is – Yes, thank you.
00:16:35
Speaker
Guys, thank you both very much for your time. That concludes tonight's player portion of the post-match press conference state travel song.
00:16:43
Speaker
For head coach Brian Schmetzer, who is sitting down next, if you have a question for him, once again, please go ahead and reset the deck for us and hit that raised hand function button. We will get started promptly as soon as he sits down.
00:17:08
Speaker
No, no.
00:17:12
Speaker
Adjust the chair, adjust the chair. Okay.
00:17:16
Speaker
right for you, Alex. Thanks, Kevin. Coach, thank you for your time.
Coach’s Perspective on Loss and Missed Opportunities
00:17:19
Speaker
would you like an opener this evening? No. All right, we'll go straight to it. Jeremiah, why don't you kick us off, please? Yeah, Brian, don't know. what What did you feel like, or when did you feel like this game game was starting to slip away, and and what do you think you guys did that allowed them to yeah get back into it after going up 2-0?
00:17:44
Speaker
Well, I mean, look, credit credit to them on the first goal, because that was a tremendous free kick. ah But certainly the start of the second half,
00:17:58
Speaker
ah when you've got three really clear chances, because the message in the second half was to go out and find a third goal. That was the message in the second half.
00:18:10
Speaker
that we're not gonna, you know, they're down a guy, let's push, let's try and get second to the third goal.
00:18:18
Speaker
And you've got Albert Smith from the penalty spot that clanks off the left post or the right post.
00:18:25
Speaker
You've got Christian, you know, inside, the guy blocks it on the line. You've got a ball out wide to Alex You know, two guys are sliding in, we've got multiple guys in the box and, you know, it goes past everybody, we can't score.
00:18:44
Speaker
I think in that moment in time, that's where we lost the game.
00:18:51
Speaker
But as far as my own feelings of when things were unraveling, probably came, you know, when obviously Mark Conovich, you know, scores the third goal, then it's like, well, Jesus Christ, I mean,
00:19:05
Speaker
This might not be your night. The guys fought back to get 3-3. You know, you get you get two chances to win it in penalties.
00:19:20
Speaker
You know, mean, you could you could pick any one of those moments, Jeremiah. But I will say this. This is the toughest loss that I've experienced at this club.
00:19:35
Speaker
it was it This one was tough because we let that slip away.
00:19:42
Speaker
You know, all the, all the you know, you're going look, for a lot of teams, lot of teams are going to say, won Leagues Cup. You know, a lot of teams would look at this season as a as a as a success. You won a trophy.
00:19:59
Speaker
But the standard at our club is games like this don't happen. And we should have been moving on. And that's on me.
00:20:10
Speaker
That's on us. We have to accept that.
00:20:15
Speaker
All right, Maz, we'll go back to you, please. Yeah, Brian, or you you gave a lot to unpack there. So ah let me go a different way. how much do you think that the home field advantage, is that a lesson for next year? Some of your players were talking about.
00:20:28
Speaker
No, we should have beat him the first game here. We should have beat them tonight.
00:20:34
Speaker
And why is this such a tough loss?
00:20:39
Speaker
Because you gave it away.
00:20:43
Speaker
All right, Heather for the Seattle Times in the room there. do you have a question for Brian? She's busy writing. Okay, no worries. George, we'll go your way. Coach, I guess this is a really tough loss because you scored seven goals, the other team only scored four.
00:21:01
Speaker
You had two draws, so you never actually lost the game. i I had to two questions. One is on on their goals from the set pieces. Was there something that the players didn't follow or was it that the team surprised you with their set pieces? And then the the second one, for all the supporters that are nursing this defeat, what is the drink of choice that you would recommend?
00:21:28
Speaker
People don't always have to drink to drown their sorrows. That's a bad habit. No, i' it could be tea, coffee. I've fallen in that trap many times. I'll answer your first question.
00:21:41
Speaker
The two set piece goals in the second half were goals that we should done better on. You are correct in that. the The long throw in, they played it short. My guy flicks it on.
00:21:56
Speaker
You know, the guy sneaks in at the back post. Obed is supposed to be marking there. New who has a chance to make the play. And then on the corner kick, their player, Markanovich, actually runs from the top of the box.
00:22:08
Speaker
And we have a zone. And there should have been a player back at that back post covering that area of the field. So, again, if you want my strong opinion there, you cannot, in this league, give up soft goals.
00:22:27
Speaker
And we gave two at home. And it didn't cost us. but we gave them two tonight and then cost us.
00:22:38
Speaker
All right. Reminder for me, you have a question, right? Head coach, Brian Spencer, hit that raise hand function button. We're getting down to the end ti here. Jeremiah, back to you for follow-up, please. Yeah. Just wanted to talk about the shootout where Andrew Thomas comes in. what was – a what was What was behind the decision to do that? And he what did he do to his pinky? It looked like he may have broken it or dislocated it.
00:23:06
Speaker
So it's funny that you're asking the question and not the guy that's been bothering me ah all week long. But I'll answer it this way. i had a conversation with Steph, and Steph is a team guy.
00:23:20
Speaker
It was a little, you know, look, it was a little chink in his armor. But he said, no, let's let's do this. And so we were prepared. We had everything in place.
00:23:31
Speaker
But it just shows you that shootouts are fifty fifty um You know, our shooters needed to do better. We had two chances to win it. He dislocated his finger and they shoved it back in and he continued. He made a couple saves after that.
00:23:49
Speaker
So credit to Andrew for doing his part to try and help us win this game. And it's unfortunate that his last shot hit the crossbar because normally I'm telling you this.
00:24:00
Speaker
I was thinking about putting Andrew like six, seven, eight because he's been lights out at training. ah But, you know, again, it goes back to that maybe tonight wasn't going to be our night.
00:24:16
Speaker
All right, Maz, back to you. Yeah. Brian, you've mentioned soft goals before, even before this playoff. ah What's the issue? i know it's it's kind of hard right now, but oh right now, what do you think is a disconnect there? Well, there's no disconnect, Maz.
00:24:34
Speaker
It's just guys have to make plays. You know, did we do enough to get enough training done? That's the first thing I'm going to ask myself. Did we do enough to give the players the tools to be successful?
00:24:47
Speaker
Did we do our jobs as coaches? that i Did might do that I do my job as head coach to make sure that everybody understood what was going to go on with long throw-ins, long corner kicks? Did we do enough in training?
00:25:00
Speaker
to make sure we we're prepared for a team that's, you know, bread and butter is set pieces. And we'll go through all of that and we'll make adjustments and we'll try and at some point, not tonight, maybe not even two months from now, but, you know, we'll we'll we'll try and figure that out, Maz, when I'm in a better mood.
00:25:23
Speaker
Thanks, Coach. All right. I think that'll do it for tonight. Brian, thank you for your time. I'll say welcome.
00:25:31
Speaker
immediate Thank you. there's any other needs, please let a number for our staff now. That concludes Snipes.
00:25:38
Speaker
Heavy stuff there from bri Brian Schmetzer. Let's ah let's talk about but's talk about that a little bit. He called it the toughest loss, I think, that he is sustained since he's since he's been at the club. i don't know if he meant head coach or overall, oh but it's hard not to agree with the sentiment that this is among the the tougher L's.
00:26:01
Speaker
This a tough L. This is a tough L. He didn't give a very detailed answer to the follow-up. He said because we gave it away and left it at that. But let's, i guess let's start there.
00:26:15
Speaker
Let's start there. Because there ain't no way.
00:26:22
Speaker
No way on any planet, in any dimension, in any galaxy,
00:26:33
Speaker
that when you go up 2-0 in a decisive playoff game like that in the first 10 minutes, the first 10 minutes go as perfectly, literally as perfectly as you could possibly fathom.
00:26:47
Speaker
couldn't You could not have drawn up a better start to that game. You couldn't. You couldn't. It was incredible. They looked great. They were slicing that low block right up.
00:26:58
Speaker
2-0. You're up 2-0, okay? And honestly, in the playoffs, that's not that safe lead. It's not. With a two-goal advantage, you know, they score one, and it's fully game on. So really, you can't feel safe until you get up three or four goals.
00:27:15
Speaker
But then you get the red card.
00:27:19
Speaker
Then you go up a man. in the 40 what, first minute? So you're playing the last, mean, I'm not a math guy, but 50, 55 minutes, whatever it was when you count in stoppage, you're playing the entire second half up a man.
00:27:39
Speaker
There is no scenario where you can have that be the start of the game and then find yourself in a situation when you are playing up a man where you're, you're literally down three, two fighting for your life in the last like five minutes of the game.
00:27:56
Speaker
And there's so many reasons why they ended up in that situation.
Missed Opportunities and Defensive Lapses Discussion
00:28:02
Speaker
ah Schmetz brought up one pivotal moment in this game that we got to talk about.
00:28:09
Speaker
I think that game was lost.
00:28:13
Speaker
on that on that chance in the the sequence early in the first half where Ferreira finds Rusnak at the PK spot with a wide-ass open net. He hits it off the post.
00:28:28
Speaker
If that goes in, it makes the scoreline a lot more friendly to Seattle, but it's also, the I think, the psychology of it.
00:28:39
Speaker
They're They're down a man and a goal at that point, I think. I think it was 2-1 at that point. That would have made it three one and I think they they probably would have felt
00:28:54
Speaker
chalked after that. They probably would have felt chalked. you You basically, it's not fully dusted because it's pretty early in the second half, but it's it's pretty close to dusted.
00:29:07
Speaker
So...
00:29:10
Speaker
That's moment number one where it's just like...
00:29:14
Speaker
Rusnak scored a great goal to to start off the game. And a play like that, you know I think it's unlucky as much as anything. It was a wide-ass open net. But that's chance number one to to dust this game right there. I think they'd probably win the game if that goes in.
00:29:34
Speaker
But honestly, as much as that...
00:29:40
Speaker
I mean, this team, it's not a mystery how they score their goals. It's not. They got two goals off set-piece sequences in this game. One off a throw-in.
00:29:52
Speaker
They always do long throw-ins. They did a short throw-in.
00:29:56
Speaker
Boxall sends the cross-in. They get one goal off that. And then the second one's a corner kick where Markonich is just mount marked at the ah the far post. If you're actively trying to lose the game, that's the type of stuff that
00:30:09
Speaker
would be happening. Like it, it's not just the concessions. It's that they came in a way that exactly plays into the, the opponent.
00:30:19
Speaker
So for, for that to happen while they're up a man, mean, it's a, it's a debacle. That is, that was a debacle.
00:30:31
Speaker
And frankly, the things that did them in, in this game and did them in all season are a lot of the same stuff that we've been talking about all year.
00:30:41
Speaker
Ill-timed concessions, needless concessions,
00:30:48
Speaker
blown leads. The reason they didn't have home field advantage for this series was like all of those exact things. And all those things came up in this game when the start of the game went exactly how they needed it to go.
00:31:02
Speaker
They get a man advantage in the first half.
00:31:07
Speaker
And all that stuff still happened. They were handing Minnesota these goals. They're handing him the goals.
00:31:16
Speaker
So there's just no way that can get to a point where you're down 3-2 in the 85th minute. i' i I want to give them credit because I know people are bagging on Jordan because he missed his PK. I'll say this to start that point.
00:31:33
Speaker
I'm never going to bag on anybody for missing a PK. okay PKs are random. They're pretty much totally random, whether they go in or not.
00:31:44
Speaker
whether it hits the post or not you know, in that scenario, it's based on like a 0.2 inch differential in how you hit the ball. It's not, The issue I think is how you ended up in PKs in the first place. Not, not even the really bad ones that happened in this series, like, uh, Danny wave, uh, Obed and, uh, Osase.
00:32:01
Speaker
Although I was not the greatest PKs I've ever seen taken. i'll I will say that, but it's, to me, it's more about how did you end up there in a situation where you're fighting for your season when you've been up a man for as long as they were, and you got two goals in the first 10 minutes,
00:32:19
Speaker
but I'll give them credit. Uh,
00:32:22
Speaker
For finding that equalizer.
00:32:27
Speaker
Sorry. Sorry about the typing, guys. There's going typing.
00:32:32
Speaker
I'll give them credit for finding the equalizer that got it to BKs. I think it would have been a way, way
00:32:41
Speaker
more embarrassing L if they hadn't leveled it up.
00:32:48
Speaker
I'll say though too, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people call any L embarrassing. Literally every time the Sounders lose, you get the contingent of people who say that that was embarrassing.
00:33:00
Speaker
An L is not inherently embarrassing. It's not. Ls happen sometimes. Unless your barometer is they need to go It's not an embarrassment or a disgrace every single time you lose. This was embarrassing.
00:33:15
Speaker
It's embarrassing because of how much the advantage was skewed towards you between the two goal lead and the red card.
00:33:24
Speaker
And the extent to which they kind of just handed them the game.
00:33:32
Speaker
tough.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's tough.
00:33:41
Speaker
it is ah It is undeniably tilting. And I think in time, once everything is simmered down
00:33:53
Speaker
and we can reflect on the 2025 season, there was a lot of good this season. They won a trophy this season. They got into CCC next season. They have a bye for CCC next season. The League's Cup final was was legendary.
00:34:08
Speaker
One of the greatest days, one of the greatest moments in club history. This sours it a little bit, at least in the moment. This takes the shine off it. Getting bopped out in round one of the playoffs like that.
00:34:22
Speaker
When all you need to do is manage the game, stay disciplined, not make individual errors.
00:34:33
Speaker
Let's talk about the first goal they conceded from Perea. That foul that they, that Yamar puts on him to give them that set piece, you just don't need to do it.
00:34:47
Speaker
You don't need to do it. You have the cover there. You got two guys on the attacker in question.
00:34:57
Speaker
And that exact, exact, scenario
00:35:07
Speaker
is the only way they're going to score.
00:35:11
Speaker
One of the only ways. Did anyone really think that that wasn't going in when when they got the free kick in that spot? I knew it was going in. That guy is nasty at free kicks. not even a lie.
00:35:27
Speaker
But it's just an example of like, when you're up two goals and up a man, you just, you don't need put yourself in that situation.
00:35:39
Speaker
Um, all right, I'm going to drop, drop the call link and Noah shouldn't be here, uh, in too long, but I'm running a little bit of double duty. So it would honestly be helpful to have someone hop hop on. And, you know, I want to give you guys a chance to cope.
00:35:52
Speaker
Um,
00:35:55
Speaker
Protocol before i before I drop this call link in. Just general note, not singling anybody out. Just keep it. I know emotions are running high. You might want to trash on Minnesota United.
00:36:07
Speaker
You might want to trash on the Seattle players, whoever you got your agenda against.
Caller Reactions: Playoff Format and Future Outlook
00:36:12
Speaker
let's Let's keep it chill. You can be emotional, but don't crash out and start saying stuff that's out of pocket.
00:36:23
Speaker
We've had a couple instances now where we've had people teetering on the edge. 98% of you are totally fine. And we love doing these call-in shows. But after an L like this, I feel compelled to... If anyone's teetering and it's a warning situation, we're going to give you a yellow.
00:36:46
Speaker
And if it goes fully off the rails, you might get a second yellow or a straight red, okay? So let's just get that out there.
00:36:56
Speaker
Call link in the chat now. It's not about you, Kenny. It's actually not.
00:37:05
Speaker
Feel free to hop in and drop your takes. All right, we got Max in here. Is that Max Aquino? All right, all right. We got, we got, we got, okay. Everyone's tapping in. Everyone's tapping in. We got Max, we got Jordan, we got Kenny, we got Jeremy.
00:37:19
Speaker
Max, it's telling me that you will need to connect your mic cam before you can add them to the stream. So I can't add you. We're going to, we're going to go to Jordan first. And then Max, if you connect that, I'll get you in after him. and Jordan, my guy, welcoming last year of 2025 P.K.L.
00:37:41
Speaker
at Minnesota. Insane game. I mean, what did you think, man? How are you doing? ah As you can tell, I'm at work. It made work a lot harder, obviously, having to go through P.K.s and watch the whole game.
00:37:56
Speaker
um No, I wouldn't say i wouldn't say embarrassing. I feel like a game is embarrassing only when you lose four, five, minutes know you just like, the you get dog walked.
00:38:13
Speaker
it This, however, is probably the most disappointing loss in a very long time. Even if we won, it was going to be a disappointing win. Just in general, it was disappointing game.
00:38:26
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. um So, like, it's tough, really, like, There it's a team that plays for free kicks, plays for throw-ins, plays for corners.
00:38:42
Speaker
We knew this going into the game and yet we still gave all of those up knowing what they would do from him. The only goal I'm really upset with most, like the free kick, it's a free kick.
00:38:54
Speaker
The only thing Stefan Frey can do is adjust his positioning, but if you leave one side too open, they'll go the other way. The corner, to go down three two
00:39:07
Speaker
I don't know who it is who's supposed to be guarding him, but just completely lets him run free. It's so focused on like the ball being whipped in is not tracking his man.
00:39:20
Speaker
And it's just like, you've got to do better. You know what they want to do. You have to do better. You have to follow. It's not a state secret how they score their goals. They're they're very good at it. And, you know, like, ah I know ah for me, it's like, ah i understand what you're saying about how, ah about how kind of, they don't they don't have any other tricks or whatever. And we've been as guilty as anyone of, ah we've been giving them a ah hard time on this show about how they play and their tactics and all that.
00:39:49
Speaker
i mean, look, they scored They ended up with five goals in this in the series. so like And there's a reason they ended up at 1.7, 1.08 points per game this year. And I think that's kind of what I realized tonight is it's like, i was I was thinking about this before the game anyway, but it's like, we can complain about that all they want, but like it's not like and it's not like a mystery. It's not like anyone know doesn't know what's coming.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, it it'd be different if in game three, all of a sudden, Minnesota comes out attacking football, tiki-taka, play the passes.
00:40:23
Speaker
It's all set pieces. And you know what?
00:40:27
Speaker
Fine, whatever. Either way, you were up a man. The thing that upsets me the most, honestly, is... reading the comments earlier ah people getting upset with Rusnak for missing.
00:40:42
Speaker
I understand it was a wide open goal, but there's a reason why we're here and they're there. I'm not making that shot. I don't care. Under that much pressure, hundred i was shaking during penalties and I'm sat in two states over or multiple yeah know across the country basically freaking out.
00:41:00
Speaker
So it's it shit. It is. There's no other way around it, but
00:41:07
Speaker
we had more than just that chance. And the second half, there was one point where we had like four or five chances back to backto back to back to back. And we just don't finish it. You know, Jordan gets the goal to send it to penalties.
00:41:21
Speaker
Andrew, think based off of I read coach coaches lips, They were trying to, they think he might've like broke his finger on the landing located his pinky or something.
00:41:35
Speaker
We haven't even talked about that yet, but dude Andrew Thomas is a freaking dog. He was a beast in the shootout. the fact I know he's stated. Yeah. yeah Yeah. He dislocated his pinky during the shootout. I thought he might be doing like a bit, but now he dislocated his pinky during the shootout. Still made a couple saves.
00:41:51
Speaker
Seattle had two chances, two chances from the spot to end that, to win it. Miss both. The, In penalties, what piss me off the most of the fact that everybody went left. Everybody. I don't think, other than Andrew who hit the bar, every penalty went left.
00:42:07
Speaker
And it's like,
00:42:10
Speaker
you what I will say, and I said it on Monday, and I'm going to say it again, is Sinclair is not a good goalie. He did not save a single penalty in either penalty shootout. They ripped seven goals on him in the last two games. so yeah and He's good at PKs, and I think he is a good goalie, but it's not like he's so good. I don't think he's a good mental PK guy.
00:42:35
Speaker
Andrew Thomas is good at PKs. Andrew Thomas, but other than the one miss, every miss Minnesota had came from the save. But overall, it's...
00:42:49
Speaker
win loss it was going to be a disappointment they they should have put the game to bed in regular time they got lucky to get it to penalties and every penalty going to the left is just it's just ridiculous like you just think like just somebody go down the middle somebody go to the right he did it he dove to the right one time with every penalty that went to the left and everyone just kept going to the same side He's going to save one if no one tries to go any way around it.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Jordan, I got a jam-packed cue right now, but ah any youre last thoughts or takes on the ah on this game or the 2025 season that you want to cook on before you get the next person?
Critiques of Playoff Format and Opponent Tactics
00:43:36
Speaker
Playoff format still should be changed back to home and away. Win or loss, I was going to say that. 2025 season, and disappointing end, still a success. We still lifted our trophy. you can't say it's a bad season when you win a trophy.
00:43:49
Speaker
I think, i think ah most of us will get there in time, but I understand if people don't feel like that right now, that was brutal. But ah Jordan, you the man. Thanks for, thanks for tapping in this season. You're a, you're a great caller and hopefully we'll catch up with you when we do, ah we'll do call-in shows over the off season where we'll get people in. So hopefully see you then brother. Appreciate you.
00:44:09
Speaker
I will be there. Have a good night. Take care. All right. We got Kenny. We got Jeremy. We got Poos. We got Timbo. We got Caleb. It's going to be a big one, folks. We'll be here for a while.
00:44:21
Speaker
ah We're going to get Kenny on the stage right now. Kenny, what's up, man? 2025 season. That's a wrap. 3-3 in regulation. PK defeat. Insane game, but Seattle comes out on the losing end.
00:44:35
Speaker
What's up, man? How are you feeling?
00:44:43
Speaker
Oh God, man, those fucking goalposts and crossbars, man Really screwed us in this series. I hate this, this three game series, man.
00:44:56
Speaker
They didn't beat us one time. They didn't beat us once. They tied us twice. And we, you know, I mean, Shit, you think you can't give up. You can't be giving up goals like that. We're shipping goals.
00:45:10
Speaker
You can't. That is why. The reason they lost this is not because of the Roosnack miss. That was a big moment in the game, but it's not the reason they lost. It's not because of Jordan Morris, who people are blaming Jordan Morris.
00:45:22
Speaker
The only reason that game is in PKs is because of Jordan Morris. Do you guys realize that? like he scored the biggest goal of the game so and rosnack but it's not even that uh they uh that he missed the pk either it's all those soft goals that they uh that they gave up all right we got noah in here so i'm gonna make it a three-man panel but i oh yes bring him on bring him in keep keep cooking keep cooking you guys cook for a second i'm gonna tend to some other shit noah noah cook man cook man Let me make sure my mic settings are right. Do I sound do i sound good? Okay.
00:45:57
Speaker
Well, um
00:46:03
Speaker
is that not exactly how this was always going to happen? Do you know what I'm saying? ah That was...
00:46:15
Speaker
i'm not upset. but I'm not happy. ah and, and, um, unfortunately, Obed Vargas, the price is going down.
00:46:27
Speaker
Um, that was a terrible penalty. ah yes, St. Clair was off his line, but no, he should not have been able to retake it. Uh, for those who are crashing out about that, just because he de missed anyway, doesn't the keeper doesn't really matter at that point.
00:46:43
Speaker
Um, um, Who else is off your line? think it's bullshit anyway. I think you should be able to be off your line. I think it's fun. Yeah. Jordan both smith Morris and Obed and Osase.
00:46:53
Speaker
and and ah i'll When Osase came up, here's what I was thinking. going walk you through the PKs when I was thinking. Yeah. When Osase came up, I was like, No, no, so ah ah please no, please. No, no. Like that's not right.
00:47:08
Speaker
ah Andrew Thomas should be shooting here. He should have been there. he should have been in that position. Yep. That was my thought. I was saying that. I can't blame Andrew at all. I literally have nothing but joy and happiness when I saw him sub in and I thought he covered himself in glory.
00:47:24
Speaker
Goes down, breaks a finger, makes two saves. You know, like, what are do you going to, what more could you ask of? And then it's vindicating for us, for what we've been saying, bro.
00:47:35
Speaker
What we've been saying. And you don't want, listen. He drinks his tea with his pinky up. He's going to to keep it down now, but that's just that. um I think it's really vindicating ah that he should have gone in, and i think he should have played the whole series. I think he should have started and played the whole series. I think it's very clear that next season he will be That guy, he's going to be starting, um which is cool to see.
00:47:58
Speaker
ah Minnesota i don't deserve it. they're gonna they're gonna get They're going to get knocked out by whoever they play, whether that be Portland or ah San Diego. It doesn't matter. They're terrible. They're a shit team, shit culture, posthar shit play style.
00:48:13
Speaker
Michael Boxall, you should have been sent off. You're a fraud. I hate you. um ah Who else do we got? um Just just just the worst possible the worst possible team to advance.
00:48:25
Speaker
And what's worse than that is like now i have to like I have to have Minnesota United fans think that this means anything. yeah Thinks that this means anything, brother. Like...
00:48:37
Speaker
You are nobody. You are nobody. You will continue to be nobody. You're not winning the cup. It's not going to happen. I don't care what you have to say. So, ah yeah, I think also we performed really poorly ah defensively when we gave up those goals. and All three set pieces. All three of their goals were set pieces.
00:48:59
Speaker
um A long throw taken short and quickly. the Obviously the free kick. And also the last corner. So ah ah throw in a free kick in a corner. up You can't get much more much more set piece oriented than that.
00:49:16
Speaker
But we had we have some luck on our set pieces. the The first goal from from us was
00:49:26
Speaker
Oh, the first goal was um not a set piece. That was Nuhu. Nuhu cooking with a secondary assist. Excellent little cross. And that goal was created by Jesus Ferrer. God, that goal was record was sick.
00:49:40
Speaker
was sick. I know they lost, but that goal was freaking awesome. The loons, the loons should not have advanced. Best of three format is bullshit. I've been saying this. We've been saying this again.
00:49:52
Speaker
They're cooked. They're cooked. They're cooked. They're not going to. I don't know about that because as as like negative as the as the tactics can be.
00:50:06
Speaker
Like, I was just telling saying on a previous call, like, we've been talking all this mess all series. They got five goals in the series. So I don't know, like, like the idea that ah I don't think scoring the negative soccer is like they're not.
00:50:23
Speaker
But they scored they scored two less goals than the Sounders in league play this season. Like, it's not a team that doesn't score. Yeah, but it's it's one game. They drew two matches. They drew two matches and lost a match. They didn't win a single game.
00:50:37
Speaker
Why did they get two home games for getting three more points than us in the regular season? It just it's does not make sense that they get two extra home games, a whole extra home game.
00:50:50
Speaker
Just for finishing one win. Listen, I see, I see people in the, in the chat, Matt, that I'm saying that they're not going to If they win, if they win, i will get a loon tattoo. If they win MLS cup, I will get a loon tattoo. That is how convinced I am that they will not win.
00:51:05
Speaker
They're not going to win. There's no way I will. I will personally go to Minnesota and I will, I will hand deliver, will hand deliver flowers, chocolates, and I will beg for the forgiveness of Eric Ramsey. I will personally kiss his feet.
00:51:21
Speaker
I will wash his feet. I will do whatever he wants. He can have whatever he wants because it will not happen. He had whatever he wanted today on the set pieces. The third goal was the most tilting, their go-ahead goal.
00:51:34
Speaker
um I saw some people blaming Albert for that and being planted at the penalty spot, but it's like... Alex, you're at the back stick, man. It's zonal marking and you got to pick that runner up, you know?
00:51:46
Speaker
paul Paul comes in and follows, i don't know what the player was, follows the player inside of Alex. And so Alex is the furthest out man. And I don't know if Fry can do better on that, but it is point blank. But he just started. There's no one on the back post.
00:52:02
Speaker
but Was that where Obed lost his mark? Because there was one. Maybe i was like that was the second goal. That was the second That was the short throw in quick. um Gaymar's alone at the penalty spot with the guy who gets a flick on. i don't know if paul Paul's at the top of the box. I don't know if he can he can come help at all.
00:52:19
Speaker
But it's it's flicked on, and yeah, Obed is caught napping. Obed used to not even mark his man there. had a bad game. oh Obed used to be, when he was younger, he used to be completely out of the picture there and then knew who would get blamed for trying to trying to cover that.
00:52:34
Speaker
yeah That had happened multiple times. and So Obed and Alex are, I don't want to say liabilities on set piece, but we've seen that from Alex for five years now. you know Going back to MLS Cup 2020 versus Crew, right it he allowed a goal on the back post and Um, he's done a lot of really good stuff for us today, but today he, I mean, in his career, but today he was over six on, um, crosses.
00:53:03
Speaker
And, you know, when that's been such a vital part of our game plan, like it's set into the tactics, you have to execute, you know, ah when new who's out crossing you, man, let's, let's pick it up a little bit.
00:53:17
Speaker
i think. Yeah. Well, what did you guys think of the missed chances like did you did you did you consider Rusnak's post a sitter? i mean, there was it was a gaping goal and it was a good chance created by Jesus went up the up the touch line and got Christian to the end line and it was just a clinical Schmetzer ball.
00:53:40
Speaker
But um, I mean, I don't know about sitter or not sitter or whatever. It's it's one that I expect him to finish. Yeah. I've finished a million times. Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do Two shots in this game. One of them goes in. He created the three chances.
00:53:55
Speaker
And so did Ferreira also created three big chances. We had six big chances and squandered three. They only had three in the whole game. Yeah. Squandered one. But... Let's, ah I want to give us your final thoughts here, Kenny. There's like ah literally. Yeah. So if you can't get in, I guess.
00:54:12
Speaker
Yeah. cabin Um, Yamar had an uncharacteristic game. He he was bad. for He was bad in total duels. He has the yellow card and the, the foul for the free kick and the, the goal first goal went right over his head. I don't know if, if, uh, uh, um, Reagan should be on the other side, should be on the inside of the post for that wall.
00:54:35
Speaker
And, um, Reagan had a pretty good game. Yeah. Agreed. He had that big chance created off the header. Well, I feel like, what are we even talking about here, man? Season's over. You know, listen stats. Like it's going to change anything. Season is cooked.
00:54:54
Speaker
We rest and we rest our kids for this, for this trial until next time. um Andrew Thomas era, Andrew Thomas era. Let's welcome.
00:55:05
Speaker
I'm ready. Welcome to the Andrew Thomas era. All right, Kenny. Thanks for being here, man. We appreciate you. All right. Ari, you're driving. I'm driving. Can you drive? I'll i was scott it i do all right well i like I gotta get up MapQuest. I gotta print out these instructions. I've got to, like, oh, I just filled up the gas tank, but he doesn't want to drive the car. It's like, oh, my God. let's get ah We're going to get Max in here next because he was he was first in the queue, but then had to, like, get his back sorted.
00:55:37
Speaker
Max. Hey, guys. What's man? How are you feeling? You know, it's not the best. Yeah, felt I've been better. how How are you feeling? That's the important question. Oh, that was infuriating, but it is what it is.
00:55:50
Speaker
I mean, really, this whole playoff series kind of made me feel like indicative of what our entire season was. Moments of brilliance, the potential's there, but at the end of the day, we just came up short when we needed it.
00:56:03
Speaker
We just couldn't quite put it away. um I don't know. i'm um um It's like I've i I was watching this night when we were up by a player, I kept thinking, how are we out of ideas?
00:56:16
Speaker
You know, how is it that we're resorting to send it to the corner and cross over and over and over again? At least when we got Georgie in there, they, they recognized they had to double team him on the dribble. So that opened up Alex at the top of the box.
00:56:29
Speaker
And even though he is, he didn't connect with his crosses, at least he was getting good looks there, but that was rough. That was rough. um And as far as PKs go, he got to get it on frame.
00:56:41
Speaker
You just have to. you can't You can't hit the the post three times and expect to win. You just can't. so but that's Is there anything to be done about that? Because I feel like feel like this team is like bad at taking penalties. like What other conclusion can we come to after the shootouts in this series? where it's like It's one thing if Dane St. Clair balls on you and and saves it or you know something like that, but to wham them off the post and then the ones that Obed and Danny Leva...
00:57:12
Speaker
Like they're doing too much. Every penalty that they missed, they were doing too much. Trying to roof it. Trying to, trying to, trying to do something fancy. Stutter step. Georgie barely scoring. Georgie shouldn't have scored, by the way.
00:57:22
Speaker
Let's talk about that. He had his, he had his mitt on that. Georgie didn't even drive that ball that hard. That was a terrible save by St. Clair who goalkeeper of the year, my ass, by the way, that's a whole other thing with Thomas.
00:57:33
Speaker
yeah When Thomas got his hand to that one and it went in. So kind of equalized out. Yeah. um the The line of thinking, I believe, for having Rosario take that one and was that we've been that with MLS Next Pro, there's so many more opportunities for taking PKs in actual pressure situations that they felt that he was that he's he was equipped to do it because he's been in quite a few shootouts at MLS Next Pro. so That was the worst penalty I've ever seen. oh sure.
00:58:01
Speaker
but It was awful. like I feel bad for the kid. I want him to succeed. And also... I couldn't tell you which one was worse. That one or the Obed one? like I don't know what Obed was doing.
00:58:13
Speaker
um I know that you got a big Q, so I don't want to take up too much your time. um i just, at the end of the day, i think that it really felt like we had a career year out of several players like Misofsky that's not going to get repeated next year.
00:58:30
Speaker
um You know, 14 goals. He's not going to score 14 goals for us next year. That's just a fact. ah He's not expected to. So the fact that he had such a good year, it feels like it was wasted.
00:58:43
Speaker
But, and then I, I'm not going to bag on any of our DPs, but I really would like to have a top end DP, you know, that, that Dempsey, that Oba, the Ru Diaz, the Ladero, someone that's just going to carry the team when we absolutely need them. And that's just the one thing we, we had a lot of very good players.
00:59:03
Speaker
We didn't have any just top notch elite players at that level. And that's, Frustrating, but what can you do? that's we We did have a ridiculously deep roster. It's probably the deepest I've ever seen roster, where you're going that deep into it and said, that's fine. It's not a huge, I mean, it's it's a drop-off, but it's not like devastating dropout where you just got a warm body out there. I never felt like that when Lebo's on there. you know Everyone had a role.
00:59:28
Speaker
So I'd like to see where we go. um I'm very curious what's going happen with Obed. ah So I'm going to, I'll leave it here so everyone else can get on. But ah thank you guys so much for doing these. It's been a fantastic season with that. And see you next year, guys.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see you soon. It's going to come back way quicker than you think. Oh, yeah. And we I'm sure we'll hang in the offseason, but you know. Exactly. Exactly. Good to see you, Max. All right. Roll the dice, Ari. Who's next? You you knew.
00:59:55
Speaker
mean, let's let's just go in order. We got we got Jeremy up next. Cascadia.net. always mess that absolutely cascadde yeah i always mess that up your both get on I think mine are in a different order than you.
01:00:07
Speaker
Okay. Jeremy, what's up, man? What's up with ah Cascadia FC? What did you think of ah of this game? I'm sure you enjoyed it more than ah most of us did, but let's get your analysis. would you think?
01:00:19
Speaker
I'm going to try and not smile as much as I can. know i that that that's that That would be rude. You guys are being very nice letting me on here. I really hopped in to pose an ethical question because I think we can all agree that Minnesota has complete lack of ethics when it comes to the way they play, the way they foul, the entire setup.
01:00:42
Speaker
I don't even mind their fans that much, but I despise this team. yeah They are infuriating. Okay, can I cook on that for a second? Go for it. The sequence where they just pissed me off so bad in this game was ah when it was 2-0, and they start, every time they feel contact in the box, they're going down, fiending for a bailout. I think that's what Noah said.
01:01:04
Speaker
fiending for ah a bailout, like trying to get a PK. the The foul where they set up Pereira's first goal is, you know, it's ah not a smart play by Yaimar, but that's that's what they're doing. They're putting themselves in those situations, trying to get those those set pieces so they can just poach goals like that.
01:01:22
Speaker
Man, watching that, like, ah I know it's sour grapes, but it's still just like, you guys thought about like playing the sport? I mean, God damn. here that They want to do everything but actually play soccer.
01:01:34
Speaker
which makes them it makes them an affront to Sporting World. Oh my God, and Cincinnati has just taken the lead. Oh, Lordy.
01:01:46
Speaker
Brenner with the brace. They are on top in game three. Hell is real. Hell is absolute. the playoffs ended, Jeremy. It's over. There's no more games. There's no more games.
01:01:58
Speaker
There's a big one tomorrow, but jacked that. Did guys know that the MLS next pro rivalry between FC Cincinnati 2 and Columbus Crew 2 is called Hell is Plausible? Heck is plausible, i have if I remember correctly. very Congratulations to them. But o that that's kind of brutal. i I was really hoping for a Columbus win. That's okay. There's still there's still time. you know Players can pop up in the 88th minute and get equalizers. so Yeah, famously.
01:02:23
Speaker
By the way, yeah, Jordan Morris, can we talk about that flick from Roldan? Yeah, it was like great. He was unbelievable in this game. He's been unbelievable in every game all season. I thought it was a little weird that he was the designated player not to take a PK in this shootout.
01:02:41
Speaker
But you know what? It'd be like that sometimes. My ethical question has to do with this shootout. Well, Roldan's famously not been good at PKs. I mean, it's one. It's Dane St. Clair, guys. He's not good.
01:02:54
Speaker
ah No, no. Roldan has missed his last four. Yeah, he's two for six for his career. Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. yeah And he's also, he's not a DP, so. I did not, um I did not expect him to be that bad at PKs. I guess he does have a weakness to his game after all.
01:03:13
Speaker
But one that isn't actually, like, incredibly important, I guess. Yeah. but My ethical question for this game has to do with Minnesota and the one time they actually decided to be ethical.
01:03:26
Speaker
So Thomas dislocates his pinky in the shootout. Allegedly, don't know what happened. Yeah, I mean... it Messes up his fit his pinky. Yeah, he he he screwed up his hand.
01:03:39
Speaker
Yeah. For the rest of the shootout, Minnesota sends all their kicks to his right instead of like trying his left once if I know you guys have a stake in this game. I i have a stake in this game too. But as a new if I was watching this as a neutral viewer, I would be incensed, especially as a Minnesota fan, that you don't even try. Taylor Twelman was crashing out about this on Twitter. like i get it. like Is it some kind of gamesmanship to not to work? I don't think was. I think they're just dumb.
01:04:12
Speaker
No, i think i think that i think that's I think that's gamesmanship. I think that's like, they would expect us to do that, so we're just going to spam the opposite. and And somehow, Thomas still makes more saves than St. Clair does in this shootout, too, which I also found really funny because but Schmetzer did what I assume a lot of y'all have been expecting, get Thomas in for the PKs, which, yeah, that's that's good.
01:04:35
Speaker
It set up the shootout to be an all-timer. Because this is an all-timer shootout. But unfortunately, instead of becoming Sean Johnson, Thomas decided to become John Kempen, who for one brief second I thought was Tim Kempen, because that sounds about right.
01:04:53
Speaker
But it wasn't. So Minnesota now has, I guess, their double post moment. I don't think they deserve it. they That team certainly doesn't deserve it. Maybe the fans do because if we're being honest, you know, Minnesota's a city famously starved. No, their fans suck, dude. Really?
01:05:08
Speaker
Their fans have been so obsessed with the Sounders. I'm like, brother, this is not a rivalry. We don't think about you. You are not poor. twenty was bar for that They want to be the Timbers so bad.
01:05:21
Speaker
Like they're like, they want to be the Timbers. They want to be, they want to even be the white caps. Like neither of us think about the white caps. In fact, I rooting for the white caps. Yeah. I voted for coach of the year. Like it was the easiest decision I ever had to make. It's like, it's like they're no, their fans suck too.
01:05:39
Speaker
I am not aware of this. Minnesota. except jeffer re Fair enough. Shout out Jeff Reuter. You know, But I was mostly impressed with the way they were somehow able to get back into this game.
01:05:53
Speaker
I don't know what more Schmetzer could have done. Like, honestly, i think he he coached a very good game. The problem is, is when it comes down to individual mistakes on set pieces, which a lot of set piece goals are conceded from individual mistakes.
01:06:08
Speaker
Because you lose a marker, one player just is able to jump a split second ahead of you. It's tough. It's tough. But at the end of the day, like it's a really tough loss to end the season on.
01:06:23
Speaker
And speaking as someone who had the toughest loss of all time to end the season last year and all that followed from it, um yeah y'all are still in a pretty good place.
01:06:34
Speaker
i We won... anyone We won a trophy. we like Who fucking cares? it doesn't It doesn't feel like it right now, but like I said earlier, when the dust settles, I think we'll be able to be happy with what the team accomplished this season, getting the trophy, and ah and we'll talk about it a lot more over the offseason, but as for like the broader future of the club, I feel like they're in a pretty good place. The roster's in a good place. There's going to be decisions to be made on that front. but Thank you, Ryan Kent, who are not coming back. He's not probably, but they're, they're set up well to continue to be like as successful as they have been going into the next, I think year or two, at least here.
01:07:11
Speaker
So we'll, we'll cope with that at a later date, but I do think it it merits pointing out. I do have one last question before i'll hop off and let the friendlies back on.
01:07:22
Speaker
um How much of that Ryan can money are you giving to Paul Rothrock? Well, Ryan King will be a free agent, so it won't even matter. Yeah, but that that's still a fair amount of money that comes off the books. But but that goes to Paul Areola. Yeah, Paul Areola. That's right. Oh, I forgot about him.
01:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. that's Jeez, he's still there. I'm excited for him to come back. I don't care. People can say whatever they want. He looked... Oh, him and Ferreira in the Champions League looked awesome.
01:07:50
Speaker
Get him back. Yeah, Ferreira, another positive. 600 to Yeah, Ferreira's looked really good over the past, like, couple months. He had a great series. People aren't going to want admit Great series. He had, like, four assists Or he should had four assists. He had three. He should have had four.
01:08:04
Speaker
Especially from, like, the first few months of the year where he was very much in the what-does-he-even-do camp. So, yeah. I mean, you got, once again, got that to look forward to. But, yeah, it's a long, long time before we'll see the Seattle Sounders play another soccer game.
01:08:20
Speaker
That's fine. It's actually not going to be because it'll be January. and Oh, yeah. World Cup. Well, we have a bye in Champions Cup, so... Who knows? Oh, and Columbus just missed like the golden opportunity to tie their game.
01:08:35
Speaker
Soccer never ends. I will be taking a very long nap, and then I will wake up, and it'll be back again. And it'll just be like we never stopped the podcasting. so Well, Jeremy, thank you so much for coming on. Plug gear what's good plug your stuff, though, real quick.
01:08:50
Speaker
um I won't be writing it, but there should be a recap of this game up on CascadiaFC.com in the next couple of days. So don't forget to check that out. Jeremy Piedman, everyone. Thank you so much, brother.
01:09:02
Speaker
Thanks, man.
01:09:05
Speaker
All right. You're up next.
01:09:10
Speaker
All right. We got Poos, then we got Timbo, then we got Caleb, then we got James, and we got a lot going on. Let's get Poos in here. He's on stage right now. Poos, what's going on? Welcome. How you doing? how you feeling?
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah. Brutal Brutal L to end the season. Where's your mind now? Brutal L. um I am definitely salty until actually, to be honest, I was thinking of Noah because I was working when I was listening to him crash out very
Offensive and Defensive Performance Analysis
01:09:38
Speaker
hard.
01:09:38
Speaker
gotten into So I was like, I was like, dude, I am him right now. Like I'm very, very, very mad. And then you were like, no yellow cards. So don't worry, we're not going to go there.
01:09:49
Speaker
But that that will not be a problem. But I'm going to like, I'm going to I'm going to throw out some grievances. This is what we're here for. Yeah, I think that like, if we win this game, right?
01:10:00
Speaker
a penalty goes in or you know, a goal is not scored. Right. We don't give it up. There's still valid criticism. Right. Like, yes, I'm out of that game. It would have been an actively like bad win, like performance wise. Right. We come out of that game saying like, that's not good enough.
01:10:16
Speaker
Right. So like right now it feels heavy because we didn't win. Right. But like, even if we did, there's, there's, there is valid criticism and I totally don't want to like shelf that.
01:10:27
Speaker
I do want to express that think this playoff format sucks. I think it rewards really bad soccer. um I think that I'm going to maybe butcher these stats a little bit, but the point is made that like Minnesota didn't win a game.
01:10:43
Speaker
Right. Seattle won one, tied twice, played away twice. impact And won on goal differential. i was going to say had a positive goal differential. And they're the one zero and two in a three game set with Minnesota where you have to play there twice is like a phenomenal.
01:11:00
Speaker
it It makes me frustrated with the league, like a little bit, to be honest. Like, I can't help but think of like betting companies and gambling companies like circling the league, you know, Apple and Messi and big money being interested in like this artificial hype.
01:11:13
Speaker
Right. That is like oh, what a moment. But it's really not. We shouldn't have played this game at all. We should have been through by game two when we won at home, crushing them. Or we should have lost in game one.
01:11:25
Speaker
Or, well, sure, but I mean, I like, ah I like, I don't mind a two game format. Me neither, but I'm just saying like, either way, it's like you, this is, it's ridiculous. It just feels like it's forced. And if it was worth anything, they would keep it throughout playoffs. I think there's like good reason that they're like, we're only going to do it now. And then everything's going to go back to normal.
01:11:41
Speaker
And it's just like, it feels It feels shitty, right? It doesn't feel like, I feel like the better team was eliminated and that's frustrating. There's a lot of people being like, and and again, to the valid criticism, there's a lot of people being like, well, the better team didn't win because they lost. And it's like, no, statistically, even that's not true, right? Like they scored more goals, they won more games, they had better results, but because penalties are just being inserted artificially to create a moment, you know, like,
01:12:10
Speaker
It feels crappy right and I think that a lot of teams in this position would feel the same way and i and it largely I think it harms the league right when people talk about like and the embolist being seriously and and you know it it trying to advance the sport or say something about the beautiful game right.
01:12:25
Speaker
It's crap like this that is very frustrating and makes it just like harder to have a real conversation about like why the team and how the team should be playing better right. We went from having the best back line in the league last season to, I think I saw through seat the Seattle, I didn't know this, scoring the most goals we've ever scored ah across like some stretch of time or whatever.
01:12:45
Speaker
um So that's really cool. At what cost? and We've given up a lot of really crappy goals. Those goals in Seattle, I remember being there and watching them and being like, these goals are not, these are dumb goals that we shouldn't be giving up.
01:12:57
Speaker
These are really bad goals. We should be, we're trying to play so professionally and so beautifully that we're not just kicking the ball down the field to clear danger. You know, Yaimar's getting caught with the ball at his feet a little bit.
01:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, Yaimar had a bad game. Well, I'm thinking about in Seattle, right? I remember watching, like, he's got the ball stumbling on his feet a couple times, and instead of really booting it, realizing he's, like, advanced in the field, he's one of two center backs, he should be aware of his positioning and his place on the field. He really should be killing that ball.
01:13:26
Speaker
gets key with it, gets caught, they snatch the ball off of him, you know, hard press counterattack, score a goal. Second goal, Obed plays a slow ball that Jordan thinks is going to go a lot harder than it does. It holds up on the ground. Jordan doesn't get onto the ball quick enough. They turn on it. They shoot. It's It's things like that they're like feel cheap, and those are that's like valid criticism. right We should be better than that. should not do you know The Seattle Sounders should be playing better than that.
01:13:51
Speaker
It's easy to be like, oh, we played some of the best teams in the league or in the in the world. We played PSG. are you know Aren't we so slick? But it's like, yeah, but we we're also giving away really dumb goals to Minnesota United, a team that I never think about in my life until I have to play them in a game.
01:14:08
Speaker
Like, I, I, in a way it's like, I feel like we're giving Dane St. Clair too much legitimacy, you know, like fuck Dane St. Clair. oh I don't even think about that guy. I didn't even know he was, I'm going to be honest. Maybe I'm exposing myself. I didn't know that he was goalkeeper of the year.
01:14:22
Speaker
And, and it's just like, really, you know, like really ah sure, whatever. I don't care. That's all league stuff. I, you know, I can kind of isolate myself from that, but in terms of like the team that I care about and the way that they play, right.
01:14:35
Speaker
All the league stuff aside, I don't know that Jordan Morris is going to be a number nine DP at the top. I have always liked seeing him out wide. I thought like when Nico and Raul were on the team, Jordan largely played out wide and he was like supposed to get up and down that field.
01:14:51
Speaker
And they won a bunch of trophies with that. You want a bunch of trophies. No, I there's maybe, I don't know the coaches, you know, thinking through this but it's like um I can imagine a world where they're saying Jordan's getting a little older he is not a teenager anymore he can't quite do that but he is still a very fast player so maybe they're trying to push him up I don't see him naturally being as threatening being up top as a number nine I'm totally willing to like be wrong about it that's just my feelings I have never really loved seeing him at the top at the nine and to that extent
01:15:24
Speaker
It makes everyone ask, who is our goal scorer? Who is Seattle Sounders goal scorer? Who is like our dangerous player that you're like, oh, oh, oh, he's about to do something. And we don't have Dan Mussovsky, 100%.
01:15:35
Speaker
one hundred percent and And again, to have a conversation. Do we re re-sign him? well We're going to do a lot of this discourse, so maybe we table that. but um yeah like that that I think after this game and how these last two games went, that that that discourse is going to be hot this offseason. You made a couple really good points there that i wanted to hit, and then we'll ah keep it pushed into the next person. but like ah when with With the ah three goals that they scored in this game, Seattle, across all competitions, ends the year
01:16:08
Speaker
at 87 goals all comps you can check my math on that 87 i don't know what the uh what the mls record is for a club goal scoring across all comps is and it's a little skewed because they played maybe more tournaments than other teams this year But if you told me before this season that they would end up at 87 all comps, I would be like, oh, my God, like that's probably one of the sickest offenses that Seattle's ever had. And I think this team this year ah had one of the best. it was one of the best Sounders teams offensively in terms of the level of footy and production and all that.
01:16:43
Speaker
And we talked about, though, like if we want them to play like that, they might score more goals, but there could be a give and take with you leave yourself more exposed and you concede more goals. The goals we're talking about them conceding, not just in this series, but like all season, I don't even think it's anything to do with that give and take. It's just like preventable errors. Like you it's not even about that. So that's like the frustrating thing for I also think, and I just have two points that I'm like going to make in closing, but they're related to this point, right? I think that when I try to think about why do we have such a leaky backline, quote unquote, or a porous backline,
Club Management and Player Dynamics
01:17:20
Speaker
named Jaymar earlier,
01:17:22
Speaker
But you guys had a criticism. I think it was last week. I think it was Noah saying that, like, I love the man. OK, I love the man to death. We need to learn how to retire players like Frye.
01:17:33
Speaker
or Ruiz Diaz or people that have aged out of their prime gracefully, right? Like that is our next step as a club. If we wanna be serious, or be I don't even honestly care as much about people talking about the level of investment in the club.
01:17:48
Speaker
If the academy is producing players that work or we're able to make trades that make sense, I'm totally down. But like when Andrew Thomas balls out And then we throw Frye back in, right? there's like There's a lot of emotion to that. there's a lot of like There's a lot of like humanity to that that I'm not really going to like be privy to. you know And it's clear that Brian Spencer loves that guy.
01:18:09
Speaker
At the end of the day, right like it's feasible. It's possible that like Andrew Thomas could have been in goal, you know, earlier game one or from the get go and saved us from even playing this stuff. So I think that like point one, we need to learn how to retire players gracefully as a club and not be stuck on them or like risk offending them or like the locker room can't explode. They've all gotten offended anyway.
01:18:32
Speaker
being kind independent it It doesn't matter. Yeah. 100%. Famously, Ozzy was like crashing out after. he was like retweeting. Raul, bro. Raul was crashing out. He was retweeting Garth out.
01:18:43
Speaker
Nico hated the Sounders when he left because they didn't want renegotiate with him. Raul hated the Sounders when he left. it's Fry is probably crashing out right now. Like it's all. It's a part the going up, man. shit It's a part of the all- It happens to us all. um I mean, I would be i would be mad.
01:19:00
Speaker
but like that's it's it's business it sucks it's part of you're literally a professional player bro yeah like you're a professional player if you think you can make money out another team like we will gracefully love to like let you go and pursue that like you can have that we have and also standard And I just think about like the elite teams in other leagues, right? They don't really mostly have to deal with things like that, right? Where it's like they're bigger than the player.
01:19:24
Speaker
And right now I feel like we still have a little bit of an issue with like players feeling bigger than the team a little bit, you know? And like we have this challenge probably in like a very humane way, staffing and all the people that really make that machine work of getting players to a point where it's like,
01:19:39
Speaker
Like when I saw Andrew Thomas come on, I was pretty excited. But also there's a small part of me that goes like, but is it like too late? Why are we bringing him on for PKs? Like we, this is like, you should have just played it.
01:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, man. I mean, rewarding him for getting a trophy, right? Like it's not like he just played well and had a series of good games. That man won a trophy, right? that Yeah. That's what I've been
Community Engagement and Season Reflections
01:20:00
Speaker
arguing.
01:20:00
Speaker
They could have lost to Puebla, Club Puebla in Leagues Cup if it wasn't for Andrew Thomas. My second thing I was saying. I mean, probably doesn't win that game. Those PKs have got to be on target. We have to get better at taking penalties. Seattle Sounders, I don't know why like we get big for big games, and then when it comes to penalties, we're choking. we're Not like the goalkeeper's making a save.
01:20:20
Speaker
We're whiffing the ball, or it's hitting the post, or like never set a chance of going in if the goalkeeper doesn't even move, it wouldn't have gone in. That has got to change. like They have got to drill down. I agree.
01:20:31
Speaker
Thank you so much for the crash. Yeah. Thanks for tapping in. Those got some good discourse going. So appreciate you. And hopefully we'll talk to you over the off season when we line up our call and shows for that.
01:20:42
Speaker
ah All right. We got Timbo, then it's going to be Caleb, then it's going to be swear. And then there's only three more people in. So if you want to get your last thoughts and grievances of 2025 out there, Go ahead and tap in. I'm down to hang out for a little while.
01:20:55
Speaker
ah We're going to Timbo in right now. He's got a picture of Schmetz as his avatar. Timbo, can you hear us?
01:21:03
Speaker
All right. I don't hear Timbo. His kids are calling in, so that's sick, but we're going take him off the off the queue. And we're going our guy Caleb in here. Last Caleb call of the season. He's got his drum set there.
01:21:18
Speaker
He's walking on stage. Caleb, what's going on, man? How are you feeling about the end of the 2025 season? Lay it on us.
01:21:32
Speaker
I can't hear him. don't know he is. Wait, I will. I just have to say this like for 2025. Oh, you can't hear me. Oh, you can't hear me. grace Can you hear me now? Yeah, we got you.
01:21:45
Speaker
Can you hear me now? Okay. um Well, I have to say like, it's, I don't know how to just really, there's a lot of emotions, um but I'm going to say this so I can just get this.
01:22:02
Speaker
ah So I could just like, you know, kill all these birds with as many stones as I can. um ah Congratulations to Albert. That was actually a very great goal.
01:22:14
Speaker
I'm not, i mean, as much as trust me, I think, you know, of all people, like how you know critical I am of Albert. Um, I mean, he only just does like so much, but it's just not enough. Like there's and like, he doesn't strike fear. It's not him. It's just the opponents that look at it. And especially for a lot of opponents that know that Albert's been here a long time in MLS, they, they, they just, if there's no fear in there, there's just no fear in there.
01:22:43
Speaker
And I think that, you know, i mean, Frye, I mean, you know, for I, I just, I just, I'm just, I'm just waiting for the, for the, for the Thomas era because it's, it's, it's about a time, like, like, like the other caller said, respectfully, we've got to learn to give them the boot because we've given them the boot in the wrong times.
01:23:12
Speaker
And I think we should have we we should have gotten rid of Fry maybe five years ago, but I'll let trust me all the crash out people happen. But um this season in ah in general.
01:23:27
Speaker
Like. Craig, you're officially dismissed. And i know that you want so-called want a trophy and you want to hide behind that. But you literally are just pulled out the RSL 2.0 card that you did back in Salt Lake.
01:23:42
Speaker
So I'm telling you right now, Mr. Craig, you're stop, stop using ah RSL ideology in the Emerald City. That's all I have to say. you are officially dismissed.
01:23:54
Speaker
Take your RSL 2.0 ideology somewhere else. Take Freddy Juarez. Take Danny Masovsky. Take Albert. take all the RSL acquisitions and go somewhere else.
01:24:05
Speaker
We are done being the RSL 2.0 and let us grow back to being what we know um that was originated in 1974 and in 2009 by the Emerald City's faithful named Seattle Sounders Football Club.
01:24:26
Speaker
So now I return it back to you. absolute fire as always. ah Did you have any ah last thoughts to wrap it up before we keep pushing?
01:24:39
Speaker
We might've lost you. um don know Well, I just, well, I mean, Hey, I gave, ah gave my drumsticks to a lot of the players this year. ah you know, i just, I'm very, I'm very grateful for that.
01:24:53
Speaker
um I'm very, very grateful that, i mean, if anybody that hasn't watched the Pedro De La Vega um ah behind the scenes, ah behind the shield series.
01:25:05
Speaker
I mean, I encourage anybody to watch that because that's really something special to me this year and stood out because my drumsticks was able to, you know, make it and to the sounders and, you know, for it to be highlighted.
01:25:20
Speaker
it And that's something that I give props to the club. And we have a lot, we still have a lot of work to do. In order to, and and I look forward to you, Ari, and you, Noah. And i know Daddy O'Shan is in the background somewhere.
01:25:37
Speaker
yeah i look forward to you guys coming to salt lake next year so we can really have this absolute content of content galore of a of a of a of a yeah yeah i mean which you know he still has yet to debate me which i call him out like you know respectfully um but i would just say yes like i still look forward to any of all all of nos orientes and and lobbing scorchers for coming to salt lake and actually getting the content that nobody else will ever get of something historic that we have never seen but i could that's a different day but again thank you for letting me express myself this year um you know we've uh we're like i look forward to having more debates with you guys and you know like yeah let's uh we're on to 2026.
01:26:26
Speaker
On to 2026 up the bridges. Thank you, Caleb. Thanks, Caleb. appreciate you, boss. um Shout out. I'm a Craig in guy. I'm just going to say it. I like, I like my boy. We're going to have to, be we're going to be doing a lot of the off season as well. So we will do the discourse. We appreciate you, Caleb. Thank you so much, boss.
01:26:45
Speaker
um Who's next. Should we try Tim Timbo? Yeah. Okay. Let's let's check on Tim again. See if it's just a feed of his, of kit of his kids. Timbo. Can you hear us?
01:26:56
Speaker
Does not appear so. We're still just getting the live feed of his house. So we are going to move on to Sawyer. And then we got Tribe. Hell yeah, that's a stacked lineup. Let's get Sawyer in here.
01:27:07
Speaker
Sawyer, you're on the stage. Can you hear me? Yeah, we got you. yeah Brutal L to end the 2025 season. How are you feeling? Bad, bro.
01:27:17
Speaker
I posted like five things on my Instagram story. Just like about the whole season. what a What stood out about about this one? Schmetz called it the toughest L of his time in Seattle. Would you agree?
01:27:31
Speaker
Yeah. I wasn't really watching the game last year because I was busy, but i was watching this one today. I was like super invested into it. and like When Jordan scored, I was freaking out. like I was home alone.
01:27:44
Speaker
And I swear, my neighbors probably thought I was eating murder or something. Like I was screaming so loud. It was such a good I was also probably like pissing off my... When I yelled the most was when they were bamming the PKs off the post when all they had to do was make it and win. I literally was yelling profanities in my apartment. Just like, just end it. Just end it, The watch party was crazy. We were getting rowdy.
01:28:10
Speaker
We were getting rowdy at the watch party. It was crazy. and uh right before he scored i saw andrew like putting his gloves on getting warmed up and i'm like bro this has to be scripted if like we're gonna tie it like if he's warming up to put his gloves on and then we score and then it just brings me back to like open cup though like we had the game-winning penalty and like the saves
01:28:36
Speaker
Dude, he was beasting it. I don't give a fuck that he missed the no last PK. He was laying it on the line. He dislocated his pinky on the first shot. He's out there.
01:28:47
Speaker
Popped it back in Putting the team on his back. He made two saves after. The smile that he made after they back in. He was talking the crowd. Everything he wanted to from a PK demon, he gave it to us, and it just bums me out that he doesn't get the W for that. If Dave St. Clair dislocated his finger, he would have gone on. Maybe they would have had somebody. It have season-ending injury.
01:29:07
Speaker
He'd be an IR, dude, forever. he Hang up the gloves, bro. Yeah. Do you think... This was my question to both of you. Do you think that they should have let Ice-T take one earlier?
01:29:22
Speaker
Because I feel like they should have given him one earlier. I feel like maybe... That didn't pop into my head at the at the time, so that's kind of my barometer for if I'm going to crash out, if it's a bad decision or not.
01:29:35
Speaker
i i didn't i I kind of figure the conventional wisdom is the goalkeeper. You put them last just because they got the least experience with it. With Andrew Thomas, the calculation might change, though. like I see what you're saying.
01:29:46
Speaker
In hindsight, I think there might be something to do that. Yeah, I could see that. But they were saying... They're saying on Apple TV how he's like good at taking penalties or something like that. He almost... Dude, he he hit the bar in the way where like that can go in if you get enough spin on it. do you know what I'm saying? like In my game today, we lost, but this kid shot a The other team, he shot a shot for like 30 yards out and went off the bar and off our goalie's back. But like if our goalie hadn't dove, it would have gone out.
01:30:15
Speaker
Yeah, so you never know. I'm not mad at the kid. like Genuinely, I'm so like... Listen, I'm a shill. I'm an Andrew Thomas shill, dude. I bought Andrew Thomas stock when it was zero, when it was low. And now I'm going pump that. I'm going to make sure that he gets as much hype as possible. Cause dude, he's just, he's electric to watch. And like the shit house that he was doing as well, a little bit, like just like,
01:30:39
Speaker
i I love that. I love that in a goalkeeper. like That's so, yes just in a player in general. square But like I do appreciate what Dane St. Clair does as ah as a bit.
01:30:49
Speaker
like He's a bitsman. I love a bitsman. I think he's funny. I know everyone hates him. I think he's funny. I don't care. He's funny. He's a cliff farmer. He's just farming cliffs. Jumping onto the crossbar. Yeah, you jumping on the crossbar, kissing it. Like, all right. Like, yeah, am I mad? Am I tilted? Yes, but like that's what I want my goalkeeper to be doing. I think i think he might be a stripper like in his side hustle. he was all map He was on the post in the first game, and he's on the post like today.
01:31:15
Speaker
He's all over the posts. And you know what? i would I would pay for him. um Anyway, Sawyer, any final thoughts from you from this match? uh i think shrimp fc should like secede from mls i agree i agree a heater to close it off one more thing i want to show you something that i made okay what does that sound that's my alarm oh i got got pizza bro check out check out this thing that i made whoa that's sick yeah are you like a yeah glass glass blowing
01:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, at my school. That's sick. That's cool. Yeah, you're talented. I was i was emailing you Ari. I'm not Ari, Noah, my bad. That's right, yeah. I was trying to give you something.
01:32:06
Speaker
Dude, i'll we'll we'll connect. We'll get one. We gotta post-season party. Let's do a Blavings Orgers post-season party. I feel like that could be fun. That would be tough. We'll figure it out. i got I'll get it. I know. got like i was go It was a crazy day. so yeah That's sick. yeah Now I'm extra excited.
01:32:22
Speaker
Yeah. All right, brother. Thank you for calling in. We'll talk soon. ye See you. See Sawyer. ah All right. We have got, yes, let's go. This is the one I've been waiting for. Dude, Tribes. Oh, Tribes. i already, i already like Tribes. Tribes is cooking backstage. I already liked it. You know, when they, ah when they released the behind the
Calls for Strategic Changes and Future Potential
01:32:40
Speaker
scenes videos where you can see the guy in the locker room, like or the guys in the locker room right before they're about to like take the field and get going. That's what Tribe is at right now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. yeah let's ah Let's get him on the stage.
01:32:50
Speaker
Tribe, what's going on, man? Talk to us. PKL to end the 2025 season. Brian Spencer called it the toughest L he's taken since he's been affiliated with Seattle, with the Seattle Sounders.
01:33:04
Speaker
What did you think? Do you agree? Yeah. Up two goals, we we blew it. Fucking down a man for Minnesota, up a goal, we blew it.
01:33:16
Speaker
Two opportunities in a penalty shootout to win it. We blew it How much more could you ask for how much more do you want? To win a game you can't ask for anything more and Ovid Vargas decides to do some stupid Jorginho shit
01:33:35
Speaker
What is going on? How on earth? It's the same thing. We shouldn't have been in the third game. We had Danny. Oh, God, it's really enraging. We have Danny Russovsky who missed two tap-ins the first game, and we should have won that.
01:33:51
Speaker
The second game was easy at home. and We shouldn't have even played this game. And what is this stupid thing? stupid thing that MLS does. Why don't we have extra time?
01:34:02
Speaker
Why don't we have extra time? Why can't we be a normal fucking league and have extra time? It's, it's enraging. And I don't know. Something needs to change about this. Really?
01:34:14
Speaker
The game is gone. it really is. It's been gone for a long time. Don Garber. What are we doing? Terrible guy.
01:34:25
Speaker
I know. Listen, I got cook on this three game series thing. Just again, I know I hit it a little bit, but in what world does the team that has the better record, better goal differential,
01:34:39
Speaker
not win, not advance. What are we talking about? You're telling me that the team that drew two matches and won a match advances over the team that doesn't advance over the team that lost a match and drew two matches.
01:34:53
Speaker
It's stupid. And I'm going to be so honest with you, Tribe. You know, you get this. If there's extra time, the Sounders win both of those. Easily. I'm fully convinced. Multiple goals.
01:35:05
Speaker
Oh, this one especially. They would have had 30 more minutes up a man while they were already putting pressure on him. Like, oh my God. And penalty kicks are legitimately a coin toss. I think, and and I want to ask you this. This is my next question.
01:35:19
Speaker
Why didn't Brian put Andrew in in the first game for penalties?
01:35:26
Speaker
Brian Schmetzer has ah has a thing for veterans. and And it's really brought this club down to its knees so many times. Again, you don't trust De La Vega enough. He could have gotten really good sooner.
01:35:42
Speaker
You didn't trust Manungu. We've seen what he did in this in this game. Manungu should have... Ryan Kent coming in the game over... I mean, I know he played, but like, i don't know. could have been Kent should have been on sooner. Rothrock should have been on sooner.
01:35:58
Speaker
you you're You're playing the wrong people in the wrong situations. It's just unbelievable. But it's it's also unbelievable because he gains trust with veterans of the club. I mean, even if Christian Roldan was playing like Loris Karius in the 2019 Champions League final against Madrid, he would stay on.
01:36:24
Speaker
he Because he's been a reliable player. doesn't matter if you're reliable. If you're terrible in a game, take him off. Fire him. Get him out of there, you know? What are we doing? i just Brian Schmetzer has a thing for these players that have performed over the years, and it doesn't really matter to him how good the people on the bench are and and how it will affect the game.
01:36:48
Speaker
Yeah, no. i I thought Obed should have come off in this game. Yes. Like, I don't think he was good. Like, I think he was actively not good. And there was a couple of giveaways where I was like, brother, you're just too cold.
01:37:01
Speaker
Like, I don't know. Like, save it. Like, I don't know. Like, I, I don't know who you put on there. Maybe Danny Leyva. Like, I don't know. But like... Snyder Brunel. Snyder Brunel. Whoever. I'd be fine with Danny Leyva. You get more advanced movement.
01:37:16
Speaker
You're trying to score anyway. Danny Leyva set up that incredible sequence with Paul Rothrock in the last game that you win. Why not get him on the field for Obed? Like, I didn't... i didn't I didn't quite understand it.
01:37:28
Speaker
we But we have an Osaze on the fucking field because you want him to take a penalty, but he doesn't touch the ball. Ryan Kent turns into a ghost. I mean, what did Ryan Kent do this whole game? like i don't know. He had a couple pretty bad giveaways.
01:37:40
Speaker
He was bad. Ryan Kent was bad. Ryan Kent should have never been expected to carry a workload in a game three when he hasn't played in fucking months. Yeah, not after that. That's ridiculous.
01:37:51
Speaker
Not after that injury. No, it's ridiculous. It's not fair to him. It's not fair to him to put him out there. And that's his last game with the club. You could see his quality with the penalty, though. You could see his experience yeah and his coolness.
01:38:03
Speaker
and went been through And that's why I really want him to stay. Because I really think he could become a starter for this club if he stays healthy of the and in a special player. But it's really just unfair to him what happened.
01:38:16
Speaker
It's unfair to him how how we treated him as a player early on. It's unfair to him how it has to end. Just like how it was unfair to Rui Diaz and how it's going to be unfair to Stefan Fry.
01:38:26
Speaker
Because this club has a history of letting go of their players in a just cruel, terrible way. In a toxic way as well. And that's what's going to turn out with with Ryan Kent and Stefan Fry now.
01:38:40
Speaker
And I can't believe it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, i listen, i people in chat are saying Kent did well, Kent did well. I'm not saying that he... He wasn't terrible. He wasn't terrible. I'm not saying that he was a detriment. What I'm saying is it was always bad to expect that he was going to be able to come on and make an incredibly big impact in this game when he hasn't played in months.
01:39:02
Speaker
That's just unfair. That's an unfair expectation to put on a player like that. And i'm just not I'm just not... I'm just not about it. And I don't think he played...
01:39:13
Speaker
well in that position to what you needed in this moment so it's just like it's just like oh my god i don't know i don't know the whole the whole kent thing he he was supposed to play in game one he didn't he was supposed to play in game two he didn't you then you bring him in game three like i i don't know i just there's there's something about it and and to your point of like not you not moving on from people i agree i agree yeah i i also think brian schmetzer man we We would have won four more MLS Cups if if we did well in the regular season, had home field advantage.
01:39:49
Speaker
that's That's something that so many people are telling me. That's what a lot of us believe. If we have home field advantage, the Sounders would have, well, imagine against the Galaxy, right? Last season, final of of the conference in Lumen, we would have won.
01:40:05
Speaker
um yeah ah couple seasons ago against Real Salt Lake. Oh, no, we were home, but we lost. Oh, never mind. We should have had Thomas because that was a terrible penalty shot. But in general, we would have won so many more trophies with this with this lineup, with this with this team in the past 10 years if if we were home.
01:40:26
Speaker
And that's one thing I need to to lay on Brian Schmetzer because we need to do better in the regular season. We need to get home field advantage. and And we need these things because it's not only good for the fans, but it's also good for the players because more pressure's on them at home to do well, and then they can understand how to work with each other better under higher intensity, louder, louder environments because there's no place like Lumen Field. You know what I'm saying?
01:40:54
Speaker
There's no place like Lumen. So yeah it's it's terrible. It's terrible what we do in the regular season, and but in knockout soccer, we're probably the best team there is, but this was just a really unlucky one.
01:41:08
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I'm seeing some discourse in the chat here over subbing on Kent to be a good penalty taker. Cause he was a good penalty taker. yeah Yes. Like I agree, but also, at that point you're surging. You're not trolling for PKs. Like I just, I, I get it.
01:41:23
Speaker
I get it. But like, that's, I don't know. To me, that's, I'm not a coach. I am not a coach. I'm a dude. I'm a dumb ass with a microphone. Okay. So don't expect me to, to have a rational take all the time. All right. That's, that's my whole bit.
01:41:38
Speaker
And the last thing I want to say, yeah I have ah so much respect for Andrew Thomas beyond belief. He is a fucking hero. He gave us two or three opportunities to just win the game, and our dumbasses couldn't do it. he He is seriously a hero. It doesn't matter that we lost because he gave us those opportunities. He did everything and more than he was supposed to do.
01:42:06
Speaker
right You bring on a keeper, you hope for a save and your team to win. the He made three, three times. You can't ask for much more from him.
01:42:16
Speaker
And with the dislocated, I'll be honest, as a keeper myself, it really, that unless my hand is actually broken, I think I'd be okay to just pop the finger back in. But the amount of pain, it makes you feel a little bit more hesitant to make a save, which is all the more impressive from Thomas.
01:42:34
Speaker
And he is just hero. He's got a couple extra saves, too. he I know. He's so good at guessing, dude. He doesn't it i'm not doesn't guess wrong. He's like million on Martinez. Yeah. I don't know. yeah He's just like Emiliano Martinez. He needs to do a little bit more shithousery, though. I think that would that would just bump it up. Be like Dane St. Clair. Get a yellow card talking to players.
01:42:55
Speaker
that That would be amazing. but Yeah, Clair shithouses more than he does, but like I just love when he when he's saving the PK and he's giving it back to the fans. like It's great. It's great. I just love Thomas, and he he needs to stay. We are going to keep him.
01:43:10
Speaker
We're going sign him to a DP contract, whatever he is. truthfully the the um heart and soul of the Sounders, you know? And I really love that guy. Anyways, I gotta go, guys.
01:43:22
Speaker
Oh, I was gonna i was goingnna ask if you wanted to watch the clip of you getting prank called by ah John Brake's Bad News. Oh, God. they going i'd have to I'd have to pull it up. but we'll we'll do it another we'll do a yeah onell do it We'll do another show. We'll get you on. we're gonna get ah we'll do We'll do some fun stuff. There's going to you enjoy dog days of the offseason where we can get into that.
01:43:44
Speaker
It's been an amazing season from you guys. I love you guys. You guys have done so much for the fans giving us voices. for the content on Instagram and on YouTube, informing all the people that have no clue what's going on. You know, you guys are truthfully exempt.
01:44:04
Speaker
I get an example of the best that this club has to offer. And I thank you guys so much for this season. It means the most coming from you. That's what we're, that's what we're here for. We're, we're, we love you. We love your content. And, uh, yeah.
01:44:18
Speaker
yeah I hope you guys have an absolutely wonderful stream. I love you guys. Thank you as well. See soon, dude. All right. Wow. All right. That is it for the, uh, for the queue.
01:44:29
Speaker
So, uh, man, I mean, I think we can call it, but it's like, i think so. Yeah. and This was a crazy season. and It's, Yeah, let's debrief that just for a couple minutes and then we'll wrap it up. No more calls.
01:44:41
Speaker
No more calls. Yeah, no one no one tap in. We're going to get out of here. um foot it I do want to say like thank you to on the note of what Tribe was talking about. Thank you guys for tuning in all season. This was easily like the biggest season that we've ever had. like We grew so much on every platform.
01:44:59
Speaker
Our YouTube game is better than it's ever been. And our IG game is is popping. And that's all because of you guys. So thank you all for tuning into the show, tuning into the streams every week. We're just glad you guys enjoy it.
01:45:11
Speaker
And we're glad that we can provide a space for everyone to just like hang out, cope, celebrate, bask in the victory, rationalize the defeats. Like, yeah, just thank you guys for the show would not go.
01:45:26
Speaker
Without all you, you all we, we make the show, but if you didn't consume it, then there would be no show. So we love and appreciate you all for that. And, uh, going off of that, I know this was a bad ending and it was a sour end of the season.
01:45:41
Speaker
Noah, I fucking love this team. The 2025 team. Yeah. I love this team. Uh, first of all, the, uh, the, just the level of footy that they play is, it is phenomenal, especially in attack.
01:45:55
Speaker
87 goals across all comps. I mean that, that like, I can't ask for anything more than that. And I also can't ask for anything more than the moments that they gave us this year, going back to, uh, this, this team, this team, uh,
01:46:11
Speaker
made Adrian Hanauer crash out in the locker room during a labor dispute because they wore t-shirts with the Monopoly guy while he was hanging out with the FIFA oligarchs. Do you understand how funny that is?
01:46:22
Speaker
Yes. These players, this team, they gave that to us. That was that was incredible. I wanted to note that because I was thinking about that today. And I was like, that was so fun for us to like cover. like I didn't think I'd be covering a labor dispute where the owner is crashing out in the locker room.
01:46:35
Speaker
Like, ah that's like a random thing, but it's just ah this team gave us so many great moments culminating with the with the League's Cup, which I understand like people are going to call it cope to say like, oh, you got knocked out of the playoffs in round one, but we won a trophy.
01:46:50
Speaker
That was one of the best games in club history. That was one of the best moments in club history. What like I can't as someone who follows the team obsessively every single day ah and makes an entire podcast and YouTube show dedicated to this team.
01:47:03
Speaker
What more could I freaking ask for than that, man? They gave it they gave it all to us. They laid it on the line every single week. They played at an extremely high level. They made Seattle, the whole city, the soccer scene here, they made it look good, man. The whole league is jealous of this team.
01:47:17
Speaker
The whole league is jealous that they got to have a moment like they got to have in League's Cup this year. So I just got to get my gratitude out there to to the team, to the players, like for all the moments that they gave us this year.
01:47:34
Speaker
there couldn't have been any content better to be made. So that's my, ah that's my sentimental soapbox. No, you got any sentimental soapbox? Yeah, I mean, I'll start by saying like literally everyone who has enjoyed our show and joined the streams, listened to an episode, found a TikTok, watched it, liked an Instagram post, done everything. You know, we this is absolutely a passion of ours. Like this is this is what we do in the group chat.
01:48:02
Speaker
Like we we were we would we would be sitting here making this show if not a single person. Yes. If not a single person listened to it, if we never made a dollar off of it, we would be making it anyway because we're sickos and we fucking love it.
01:48:14
Speaker
Yes. it's like it's so It means the world to me ah when people come and say what's up, when I'm just like walking around or in the grocery store whatever. Yeah.
01:48:25
Speaker
The fact that I and Ari have been able to make a genuine impact in people's lives, like that is the greatest thing in the world. We've got moments like they got messy. We got Paul Rothrock club lore and him kissing the third goal to make Miami crash out.
01:48:39
Speaker
I'll take that over. I'll take that over around one playoff. day I don't care about that. Seven days a week, 365 days a year. I will take what we got in leagues cup over around one playoff win over Minnesota United. Like,
01:48:51
Speaker
call it cope call it whatever you want man like that's why we that stuff is why we do it and they this team gave that to us this year so i don't want the end of the season to overshadow that we should all appreciate that you guys realize like a lot of other fan bases like they don't have this they don't have a team that gives them moments like that they don't have a community like that uh like we have here that makes it so special uh A lot of, I mean, a lot of teams, they have to, they watch the game every week and they're like, man, this team sucks. This is not fun. Like we have the best time of anybody. So like that's, that's a credit to the, to the guys who play every week.
01:49:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, i'm I'm excited for the offseason. I'm excited to do a wrap up show. This season has been the biggest we've ever done. Next season, I promise you guys, we're going to do it even bigger.
01:49:39
Speaker
Like this is this. There is no slowing down on the gas pedal of lobbying scorchers. We love what we do. And, um, I might stream, I might stream more this off season than I do. dirt Yeah.
01:49:51
Speaker
Like I'm weird. We're not going no nowhere. ah and like Noah said, we're going to turn it up in, uh, in 2026 world cup year. we'll be covering sounder season all day, every day, like we always do, but that we also got that the whole world cup coming to Seattle. So that's going to be and even bigger deal than the club world cup this year.
01:50:11
Speaker
uh, Stay tuned because the the content train keeps rolling. It's not going to stop just because they got knocked out of the playoffs by Dane St. Clair. No, I think that's, I mean, I think that's good. I'm excited. We'll do a wrap up show. We'll do a pod. We'll do something. You know what, Ari, we're going to do our, an in-person pod.
01:50:30
Speaker
Yeah, let's do that. But let's also work through the super chats because. oh yeah. is not So we got a few here. Thank you all to everyone who's donated even one dollar to us. again Like I said, that's not why we do it at all. But like it genuinely every super chat you send, everything, everything that you can kick towards us.
01:50:48
Speaker
It makes the show better. It allows us to spend more time on it. So thank you guys. All of you donated this year. We love and appreciate all you. ah Derek Richards, one of our, one of our biggest ones. We love you, man. The goat $10 super sticker member for 11 months.
01:51:03
Speaker
We love you, Derek. Appreciate you. Hebrew hammer. Thank you. Another great supporter. go Thanks y'all. Let's get more silverware next season. Amen to that. Lucas, thank you for the support. Y'all are the shit. Thank you. You're the shit.
01:51:15
Speaker
Appreciate you. And then it has $2 for Noah's loon tattoo. Yeah, that was, you were cooking on that. That I mean, listen, I'm, I'm ah hold me accountable. Y'all know, y'all know I'll do it.
01:51:25
Speaker
If, if Minnesota United win MLS cup, I will get a loon tattoo. I'm not getting the the logo. That shit's ugly, but I will get a loon on me and you will all know what it's for.
01:51:38
Speaker
And that's just going to be that. i'll ah I'll answer this one real quick before we go. saying Ari, real quick, I've noticed an amp in the background. What guitar do you play? I got an electric and an acoustic. that I started playing over COVID a little bit. My brother is the musician in the family. He can like ah he can like hear a song and then play it on piano. It's wild. I don't know how he does that.
01:51:57
Speaker
But he set me up with an acoustic and then electric over COVID. And I actually got kind of good, but I haven't been practicing the last like year or so, so I'm not that good anymore. But anyway, yeah, that's the story behind that. All right, Noah, let's call it a wrap on that.
01:52:12
Speaker
Thank you all so much. We'll be back at it, honestly, probably in the next few days. so Correct. It's not going to be any kind of like extended break just because it's the offseason. I know we're getting sentimental, but like we're going to right back at it. Exactly. But, you know, last game of the season. It's good to celebrate a little bit. You got it you got to like tie it all together. Yes.
01:52:29
Speaker
so Love you guys. Like the video, like the video, like the video, like video, sub to the channel, rate five stars, like, comment, subscribe. And we will see you guys very, very soon for the rest of our playoff coverage. And then the off season's honestly going to be just as pop and discourse. Correct.
01:52:45
Speaker
There's always stuff to about. Everybody lock in No one get unlocked just because the season's over.