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The Red Card Wedding: An Oral History
106 Plays8 years ago
June 16, 2015 is a date that will always bear special significance to Seattle Sounders fans, and to a lesser degree those of the Portland Timbers. That was the Cascadia rivals faced off at Starfire Soccer Stadium in a U.S. Open Cup match. More relevantly, it was the day Clint Dempsey lost his mind, the Sounders finished the match with just seven players on the pitch and the Timbers became the first road team to win a competitive match against the Sounders at Starfire.
We teamed up with Chris Rifer of Soccer Made in Portland and FourFourTwo’s Richard Farley to tell the story of this fateful day through the people who experienced it first hand. We talked to Lamar Neagle, Andy Rose, Ross Fletcher, Nat Borchers, Caleb Porter, Jack Jewsbury and referee Jeff Hosking.
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Transcript
An Epic Game Without Referee
00:00:22
Speaker
a pretty good word for it. As the game went on, this was going to be an epic game because you could just see it. I mean, to be quite honest, at that point, it was almost comical. Almost as if we were playing without a ref, but then again, we also had this guy in the center that really didn't know what he was doing.
00:00:51
Speaker
In sports, the word impossible is almost always an exaggeration. After all, if we saw it, it happened. That shot, that catch, that throw we thought we'd never see, turns out impossible could be done.
00:01:09
Speaker
But every once in a while, even within those bounds, something so absurd happens that only fiction can provide context. Only fantasy, our imagination, can relate to something so unforeseeable, our view of sports just can't hold it.
The Legendary Red Card Wedding
00:01:28
Speaker
So it was on June 16, 2015 that a legend was created. One that defied the history of Major League Soccer's most prominent rivalry. It's one that defined an MLS Cup Contender season and one that will forever be linked with one of the best players that US Soccer has ever produced. Sound hyperbolic? Perhaps it is. But nobody who actually saw the red card wedding unfold would say otherwise.
00:01:57
Speaker
What should have been an innocuous US Open Cup match now lives on as a signature game in the decades old rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers. And, as you'll hear, the memory of that night still, years later, lives fresh in the minds of those who were on the field.
00:02:20
Speaker
For Nos Adietes, I'm Richard Farley, working in conjunction with the Jeremiah O'Shan and Chris Reifer. This is Remembering the Red Card Wedding, featuring... My name is Nat Orchers and I was playing center back at Portland. Hi, this is Brad Evans and I was a center back during the Red Card Wedding. Jeff Foskingham. I was the assistant referee on Stan's side, so I hear two.
00:02:46
Speaker
This is Jack Juiceberry of the Portland Timbers, captain and defensive midfielder. Caleb Porter, head coach, Portland Timbers. Hey, I'm Andy Rose. I play for the Seattle Sounders against Portland Timbers in the U.S. Open Cup. We gained up to the Red Card wedding.
Absurdities and Chaos Unfold
00:03:02
Speaker
We're also joined by the former voice of the Seattle Sounders, Ross Fletcher and Seattle Sounders midfielder Lamar Nagel.
00:03:19
Speaker
To describe the red card wedding by its score alone doesn't do the Knight justice, because 3-1 just isn't that uncommon of a score line. To say the game went into extra time of a knockout competition and was waged between rivals helps a little, as does reminding everyone that one of these teams finished the night with only 7 men.
00:03:39
Speaker
But the absurdities of the night, two years ago, ranged from the most mundane of things, the weird throwing calls, the uniforms, to some of the most inconceivable events you'd ever hear of from a soccer field.
00:04:15
Speaker
dimly lit field, poor surface, 4000 baying fans screaming and throat rasping from only feet away from the players. They can feel them, smell them, almost touch them. It has a little bit of a feel of Mad Max beyond the Thunderdome.
00:04:18
Speaker
and Ross Fletcher was there to call
00:04:34
Speaker
Brad Evans. You know, obviously it's going to be a testing match. It's Portland, Seattle. It's a small postage stamp of a field. It's a terrible turf field, which both teams are accustomed to playing on turf. So in saying that, it was still really bad. And that field plays very poorly. Nat Borchers. It hurts my knees and my Achilles tendons in particular just to think about playing on that pitch because it is like they put a bunch of plywood down and they threw over some green confetti and they just called it a field.
00:05:03
Speaker
Kayla Porter. I mean they're like touching distance to you. You hear everything they're saying and it was like that all game long.
00:05:11
Speaker
literally I was getting verbally amused all day long and little would we know that the setting will be overshadowed by the events and it all started in innocuous but maybe bizarre fashion setting the tone the two kits the teams would wear Portland Timbers come out in their home kit of green and the sound is in black
00:05:35
Speaker
Now this is a Seattle home game, surely the sounders are in rave green, but no, often sponsorship obligations overtake tradition. But when you start watching the game, it's very clear that the referee Daniel Radford, who will be a hugely controversial figure in this most remarkable of evenings, would let it play on with two teams in a dark place, in dark kit, going at it.
00:06:03
Speaker
Jeff Jusberry.
Tensions Rise as Seattle Faces Risks
00:06:21
Speaker
And so I think the refs kind of kept their eye on in the first half. But there was a point where him and I had a conversation, not a heated conversation, just a real conversation that, hey, we're struggling to tell the difference between the two teams. Because it was more of the shorts and the socks, if I remember right, than necessarily the top. So it's almost like you had to look at the shorts to make sure you were passing it to your right team.
00:07:24
Speaker
Seattle did end up changing into their white kits at halftime, but even now, it's still unclear how the two teams showed up intent on wearing such similar colors. The kit man told me they refused to change. That's why. Because we were told we were going to wear, what was it? The green. The green. But they wanted to wear the black. Right. And we only brought green. And then last minute they said, well, they're not going to change.
00:07:54
Speaker
We have to change so we don't have uniforms. And so they said, well, we're going to play in the black anyways. And I think they realized that it was really tough to see. So they changed it half time. I think it was right. Andy Rose talking to us from England. I love those jerseys. So I was a little bit annoyed for sure. It was just one of those things where the play, you know, I had
00:08:29
Speaker
The Kits ultimately didn't have an impact on the game, but in hindsight it was a strange harbinger, a sign that even in a contentious rivalry this match would be a little bit different. Another bad omen, some players on the field noticed that the man in charge with presiding over affairs seemed to be micromanaging things early on.
00:08:51
Speaker
So this referee was very inexperienced coming in. Daniel Radford's lower level referee but getting his chance effectively in the US Open Cup and this is what US Soccer liked to do and you can understand it to give lower level referees a chance to prove themselves they move them up in a competition. US Open Cup not as prestigious as Major League Soccer or the Conquer Cap Champions League or International Soccer so this is their moment to show if they can do it.
00:09:16
Speaker
The sad thing was, Daniel Radford, unlike Daniel Radcliffe, had no magic spells. He couldn't pull a trick out and he would, for some reason, focus on little issues that didn't seem to make sense. Coming in, he knew it was going to be a broiling atmosphere between two really, really strong rivals. And instead of making sure that the discipline was right, I remember during the first half thinking, why is this referee focusing on throw-ins?
00:09:46
Speaker
for all of the things he could have been policing properly. He was seemingly obsessed with getting throw-ins taken from the right or wrong place and whether someone's foot was marginally over the line. Of all things to pick up on in a local derby it was that and that's when I first thought there's something not quite right about the ability of this referee.
00:10:07
Speaker
I remember now the foul throw calls against us, however many. I remember some really soft yellow card fouls. I remember the referee having no control over the game whatsoever. It was almost as if we were just, almost as if we were playing without a ref. Lamar Nagel. There'd be balls thrown in and the advantage would be lost just because he brought it back. I remember being pissed about that.
00:10:35
Speaker
For Seattle, it got worse after halftime, albeit in a very different way. Early in the second period, after Diego Valeri struck to put the Timbers up 1-0, Daniel Radford made his first major impact of the match, taking note of Brad Evans, who was already carrying a yellow card.
00:10:53
Speaker
I remember I was playing right back and Vilfana comes forward and I don't know if I had poked the ball away but somehow he ended up on the ground on top of the ball from my viewpoint either when a player falls on top of the ball the referee should blow a whistle because more than likely he's probably handballed it or there's going to be a dangerous play as soon as a player falls on the ball and he doesn't get up right away
00:11:15
Speaker
there's going to be a dangerous play and somebody's going to get hurt or something stupid is going to happen. So I didn't hear a whistle. I see light of day, which is the ball. So I give it a poke. And sure enough, maybe two or three pokes. I'm not sure. He throws his hands up. Referee, second yellow. And I'm sent off. Knap portraits. You get sent off and you're thinking, wow, OK. Now we really have an opportunity here. It's tied up. It's 1-1. And we've got the man advantage. Now we've got to do something about that.
00:11:49
Speaker
do something about that actually understates what's going on here. Starfire wasn't just a fortress because of its close confines and terrible turf. The Sounders hadn't lost there. Four victorious open cup runs were built in Tukwila, and the time Seattle had lost in the competition, they did so on the road. It was something Portland was well aware of coming into that game. Thinking before this game that it would be an incredible opportunity to kind of jump start our season.
00:12:19
Speaker
Because at the time, we were kind of struggling. We knew they had never lost in the open cup on that field. And like I said, we were kind of struggling. And I thought, you know what, great opportunity if we can win this game to lift our season and maybe derail theirs a little bit. Even before that season, Caleb had always talked to us about doing something that we had never done for this organization.
00:12:44
Speaker
whatever that was, whether that was winning the supporter shields, winning an MLS cup at that time, it would have been going into Seattle and beating them at star fire because no one, if I remember right, had done that in the past 10 years. So we wanted that the group that was on the field that day wanted to do something that the Portland timbers have never done in the open cup at star fire. So within that context and with Brad Evans shown his second yellow card, that's when the emotions of the night started to peak.
00:13:11
Speaker
Yeah, the bench is going crazy because it's on the side of Portland's bench, right in front of Portland's bench. So they go crazy. And their whole fans are sitting right behind there also. So they go crazy. And obviously, this ref is influenced by factors in the game. And he let that one get over him. And as soon as I got my first yellow, I think it was soft. It may have been soft. I don't remember what it was. But the second yellow, knowing how soft it was and getting the red card, ultimately, if I get into his face and scream and yell, it's going to accomplish the same exact thing as if I just walk off. And almost in a walk of,
00:13:39
Speaker
Not defiance, but throwing the hand in the air saying this is an absolute joke. And which it was, you know, it was a joke call. But that, I guess, spiraled into, you know, the death of our open cup run, obviously, and that undefeated run at Starfire too. Andy Rose.
00:13:58
Speaker
It was just kind of like a little bit of a punch in the gut where you're like, okay, this is going to be that much hard. And it's frustrating, especially losing, you know, losing a guy like Brad, who of course, you know, is, is a leader and in tough moments, you know, sometimes teams can rely on, on their veteran guys.
00:14:19
Speaker
So Portland start to take charge of the game, they score and Seattle think we've got to do something about it. This is a tournament in which we prided ourselves on winning it so many times. But they didn't want to use the stars. Clindamsi, Obafemi Martins, it's a busy rut. Seattle have started the season terrifically well. They don't want to derail MLS. But at the same time they don't want to lose at home to their biggest rivals in the Open Cup.
00:14:44
Speaker
tournament they treasure, so on come Dempsey and Martins, Martins gets the equaliser, takes it to extra time and you think this is going to go well, even with 10 men they've got a fighting chance here.
00:15:01
Speaker
like of that caliber on the pitch, you feel like you have a chance. It doesn't matter if you're down a man or maybe the referee is going against you or certain moments, little things aren't going your way. You always just feel like you have a chance and countless times, you know, throughout my years playing with Oba. It's just, you get a, you know, a good feeling like, right, all we need to do is try and get him the ball in a couple of dangerous places.
00:15:28
Speaker
There's every chance he's going to be able to finish it for us. So massive relief. Like I said, some of those nights I look back on it are some of my favorite nights as a player. I'm at Starfire with that crowd and without a doubt that moment when suddenly you're back in this game was one that I'll always remember.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, I remember being frustrated, like thinking, you know, we're up a man and then we give up something on a set piece and it's like, you know, really, are we gonna, you know, are we really gonna, you know, let them take this from us and we have this advantage. And I think it, you know, I think it spurred us on, you know, I remember, you know, one player in particular, you know, Rodney Wallace is, he's the guy who, you know, was one of our, you know, our leaders on that team in terms of being able to flip that switch, being able to have that drive that,
00:16:15
Speaker
competitive edge to say okay it's not good enough let's do something about it.
00:16:23
Speaker
but then again tragedy this time strikes with Martins
Dempsey's Viral Outburst
00:16:28
Speaker
going down injured takes a cleat from a fallen Darlington Nagbee freak accident Martins gets carted off on a stretcher and you think at that point wow it looks serious and i remember thinking to myself this could be a really bad injury i remember him going down in the middle of the field and then thinking that that was really bad i mean the injury was uh pretty bad and then just uh kind of more worried about him than
00:16:53
Speaker
about the game obviously at the time. I spent a lot of time with him in the locker room just because they were carrying him into the locker room so that I'm not even watching the game and that was tough you know he's like crying on the table because of what happened he knows the severity of the injury.
00:17:19
Speaker
You know, three DTs and a couple extra players who are special, who are a little bit different. And for us, there's no doubt about that. Over with our guy. By the time Oba Femi-Martens was carted off, it was the 86th minute, but Seattle had already used all their substitutions, which meant Tide 1-1 going into 30 minutes of extra time. Seattle was going to have to play two men down.
00:17:45
Speaker
You know, so I never relaxed till the game's done, you know, because I've seen everything. And so, yeah, in that moment I was still nervous, you know, even though we're up two men and, you know, it still takes a good play to score, you know, the goal to put it put away. And at that point in time, I think that what I said to the team was they're going to play for PKs and we need to stay on the front foot. We need to keep pushing and, you know, not let them
00:18:11
Speaker
get out of the game. You know, I think I remember saying, you know, we can't let this team get out of this game. You know, we need to, um, you know, go for the jugular, you know, get the ball, put them, put them away. You know, I think we pushed a little bit more because up until, if I remember correctly, up until that period, they had a few, few chances that I thought it almost, they almost scored. Maybe it was one chance when I thought maybe it was my,
00:18:38
Speaker
You know crazy worry was not wasn't there, but I remember one moment where I thought that they're gonna score on us up We're up two men. You know what I mean, so
00:18:47
Speaker
I think after that, we were clearly in control after that period. Because it was like, hey, we're up two men. If we give something up here, how is that going to make us look? We're obviously in a situation where we should win. And we have all the cards are stacked for us. We should make this happen. So I think the pressure was that much more pronounced because of that.
00:19:11
Speaker
I remember just giving absolutely everything I had and just saying to myself, look, and I know the other guys on the pitch were saying the same things to themselves. Look, we've had some really special nights at this place and this could be another one of those. I don't know if I've ever ran so hard in a game
00:19:34
Speaker
You're thinking, OK, if we can defend for our lives, you never know. We might just catch them on the break. It's going to take a Goliath effort. I mean, we're going to have to be absolutely huge here. Without a doubt, there was no point where I or any of the other guys on the pitch stopped believing that we could turn it around and win that game.
00:19:55
Speaker
Despite that optimism, Seattle gave up a goal within the first period of extra time, going down in the 100th minute when, after a rebound, Rodney Wallace put Portland in front 2-1.
00:20:06
Speaker
I'm sure there was a sense of relief that we were able to get it. A lot of times, even if a team loses a man, one of their forwards comes off and they sit in a little deeper, so it's not much different in terms of breaking a team down. Now, obviously, two is a bit different, but it's still, when it's
00:20:27
Speaker
For them, it was probably a focus on that first 15 minutes and getting through it. So to be able to kind of to break through in that first period, I think was huge for us. And it was definitely a sense of relief, but we knew that there was still some business to take. I remember even thinking two, one, I was still nervous. You just never know. And as crazy that game was, you thought, in some ways, there's more pressure.
00:20:52
Speaker
I remember feeling as though we can still do this, let's still do this. I think we might have even had a couple of sort of off challenges, a couple decent looks. Yeah, I remember it's not obviously having a lot of possession, but us getting down in there half a couple times in some dangerous areas. So I do remember thinking that we could possibly still tie this up and then bring it to PKs, which would have been perfect for us.
00:21:21
Speaker
So it's about the 110th minute that you start to see an incident that would go viral, would go worldwide. Portland have scored, they're 2-1 up, but Seattle are about to totally lose it. And when I say Seattle, I mean Clif Dempsey.
00:21:37
Speaker
Michael Azira, who's a very gentle guy, good competitor on the field, but doesn't mean harm to anyone, goes in for a challenge with Gaston Fernandez, leaves his arm awkwardly in the air, but definitely for me, no elbow. Fernandez sells it as such. Daniel Radford makes the decision to send him off. Out goes Azira, Seattle down to eight men.
00:22:01
Speaker
but that's not the end of it. And at the time, I didn't realize exactly what Clint Dempsey was about to do or did do. But Dempsey goes over to the referee, complains vociferously, gets a yellow card, and then unprecedented this. And I've never seen anything like it in my 17-odd years of calling soccer games. Takes the notebook out of the referee's top pocket and casually rips it up and flings it on the floor.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I just remember thinking, uh, thinking like there's no way, I mean, anybody who knows, who knows Mike Lazzera, a red card is like the furthest thing from, from what you think. You know what I mean? He's, he's not that type of player. And I just knew right away, it wasn't a red card. And so when I saw the referee pull that out, it was, uh, it was shocking. And, and looking back, it's like a moment that did you'd say would be kind of laughable.
00:23:24
Speaker
Again, Jeff Hosking, the assistant referee.
00:23:47
Speaker
nine players already and now with a retard now they're down
00:24:16
Speaker
When have you ever seen a player react like that? Dempsey has totally lost it. Seattle have totally lost it. Dempsey then is carried off by his teammates, spitting and snarling and wanting to go back at the referee and really have it out with him. And that's the point you fear for more than just the game being lost to Daniel Radford's control. Could there have been crowd trouble? Could there have been bigger fights going on around?
00:24:44
Speaker
I remember I think it was Nat and I were kind of standing behind the play and I think we just looked at each other and just kind of giggled that what we were seeing right now. But I remember also that it boiled over a little bit at that point. And there were a couple of us that were even separating some of the Seattle guys from the referee because it just didn't look pretty.
Disastrous Loss for Seattle
00:25:03
Speaker
Obviously, there are a lot of emotions going on and frustration from their side. So we're actually trying to, I think, help them out a little bit just because it looked like they were trying to
00:25:13
Speaker
to go at them with the stuff that happened with Clint and the referee. And kind of hats off to both Jack Juisbury and to Nat Borchers. You know, when Clint was ripping up the note card and really getting in the face of the referee, they stepped in, even though that wasn't their teammate, just to kind of help calm the situation a little bit. And so, you know,
00:25:39
Speaker
Man, that was a bizarre one. I remember trying to shield the referee from him and then thinking, well, why am I doing that? Because he's obviously going to dig his own grave here. So I just kind of let him do whatever he's going to do.
00:25:55
Speaker
And then I saw him grab the referee's card and just start tearing it up. And I just really couldn't believe my eyes. It's something that you want to do. I think every single soccer player wants to do that in their wildest dreams when it's just like they're fed up with officiating. They want to do something about it. But he did it. He actually went there and did that. And I just remember being so shocked. My jaw just hit the ground.
00:26:21
Speaker
I was just like, he really, he went there. He really must have been pissed off about that call. I mean, the game's already over. Like, what's going on? Yeah, we were all around the ref, kind of. I was a little bit, I wasn't really arguing, I don't think I was really arguing with the ref. But seeing the ref writing something down and then Clint, you know, obviously in his ear and then taking it, throwing it. And I thought,
00:26:43
Speaker
Oh, that's another red card, for sure. And then Clint starts to walk away, and he pulled out a yellow, and I was kind of relieved. I was like, oh man.
00:27:08
Speaker
If you really dislike the referee's call, that is like the ultimate diss.
00:27:13
Speaker
Of course, I don't condone that, but it is something that you think about, of course, as a player. And he goes up and he does that. And then I'm like, wow, he's actually doing it. I cannot believe he's ripping up that note card. That is just incredible. And now I'm just wondering what is going to happen next.
00:27:35
Speaker
But to see Dempsey do what he did was horrifying. In football terms, he should never have done it. He apologized days later. Wasn't the most fulsome of apologies, which maybe suggests something of Dempsey's attitude. But it was just a remarkable sequence of events that would, in the near decade of the Sounders in MLS existence, mark out, I think, their darkest day.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even know where he thought to grab the book and actually riff it up. And who knows, maybe in his mind the game was already over. We're down, we're down three now. What's it matter if I do something silly? And obviously does something that he probably wishes he hadn't. Looking back on it, but it's something definitely I've never seen and I assume it's just out of complete frustration.
00:28:30
Speaker
Just to top things off, when you think the night couldn't get any more bizarre, you realise at the end of it Ziggy Schmidt, the Sounders coach, didn't coach the rest of the game from that Dempsey moment. But he was so riled up at what he'd seen that he took himself away from the coaching position. I think he went and stood in the bottom quarter of Starfire Stadium and watched there, because otherwise, as he was then quoted in the post-match media scrum, he would have
00:29:00
Speaker
quote, choked out the referee. And I remember Ziggy Smith storming out of the game that no one even noticed that. Yeah, he left the game early and walks right by our bench and, you know, started, you know, yelling at us. So, and then, you know, after the field, it got pretty tense, too, you know, on the pitch between the coaches and players. Obviously, everybody's going to remember the clicked MC. You know, a lot was made, a lot was made of that as it's
00:29:29
Speaker
you know, them being down men, but really the game was over when they lost Dempsey. That's why he lost it.
00:29:36
Speaker
And that just sums up an evening that the sound has completely lost control from all levels it went wrong. And Ziyi naturally regrets those comments. I don't think he regrets saying what he said about the quality of the referee. We could all agree, Daniel Radford had a terrifically bad game that day. But to hear a coach he's looked up to and is so well respected in the game say those things, no wonder US Soccer came in with sanctions.
00:30:05
Speaker
But you add all those issues up in totality and it was just a terrible night for Seattle. We're up four guys on the field and there's nobody pressuring you when you have the ball. We still had a few minutes that we needed to make sure that we took care of business. So until we got that third goal, we definitely felt safe at 2-1.
00:30:28
Speaker
You know, once we got the third, that definitely closed it up. But there were some, again, I think the tackles were still flying. The frustration was definitely there. I think for us, it was more just about move the ball. Don't let them even get close to you at this point. The game's over, and we're moving on, and they're not.
00:30:43
Speaker
It was weird. I remember standing there with Adam Quarce and we were just counting the number of men on the field because we just kind of lost track. You just kind of lose track in the game of how many guys have been sent off. Didn't really comprehend. And I think it's that moment that Oba had gone down, they didn't obviously have another sub. And then just thinking, oh my God, there's been three guys sent off and one guy injured and they're down to seven men. And the hardest part about that was like seeing the game out
00:31:12
Speaker
knowing that and thinking, well, in the back, what if we gave up a goal to seven men? And I remember just being so tentative with my passing. And there was tons of space, but I do remember one player, Justin Rose, from their team, was everywhere. He was running his ass off, and it was pretty cool to see. He still had some life, and he still had some energy, because he actually made it kind of hard for us, even though we were playing up four guys. It became comical, and at the time,
00:31:42
Speaker
what were the seven of us left on the pitch. We weren't funny and funny. We were just going to run our socks off and tackle hard and play with pride and just keep on going because at the end of the day that's what the fans deserve. There was no way, I think a lot of guys would have turned the talent.
00:32:09
Speaker
looking back, you're playing with seven guys against 11 and we all just kept fighting. We all just kept fighting. We knew everything at that point was stacked against us but we still had time to play and with the way the game had turned out, it was just like one of those things that you never know what could happen. Let's just keep going. I knew we were at our limit and obviously I'd never played at that before. That wasn't really, I wasn't
00:32:40
Speaker
had any cards or you know that wasn't really on my mind it was more of you know filling spaces where guys weren't defensively and then you know looking for advantages if we could break if somebody was up or the right time to break or not to try to get up the field but you know at that point there's little time there's little man it's
00:33:01
Speaker
it's a difficult situation for everybody. I just was trying to think about how I wanted to walk off that field and if I wanted to like diss the Seattle Sounders fans or do something like that because I was just so kind of fired up by the whole you know situation of like the way that the Sounders fans are players that handle things not I thought was really sad you know disappointing that they would
00:33:24
Speaker
and kind of stooped to that level with what Clint did. I just didn't think that they had handled things with a whole lot of positive energy at all. It was really kind of strange and you could just feel the air just taking out of that stadium and it was only the Timbers fans who were there chanting and excited about what we had just done.
00:33:58
Speaker
I remember getting hit in the back with a water bottle. I remember things getting just pelted on the field and we were just there a couple weeks ago and it obviously wasn't as bad, but I'll be honest with you, it's the one game where you're, I mean, they're like touching distance to
00:34:30
Speaker
No, I've never felt that way. I don't think in any competition in this country where I've at all felt threatened or felt like fans were being overly abusive.
00:34:42
Speaker
The fans were fired up and they obviously had a right to be. In some respects, in other respects, they didn't. I think they were probably just as hurt to lose and the way they lost was pretty brutal as well. So I think they were all pretty fired up to have that happen to them. At that point, most of the fans were kind of hanging around at the bottom of the stands where you kind of have to walk through them.
00:35:26
Speaker
events culminate like that before.
00:35:37
Speaker
that night in May will be forever remembered for the sounders for derailing their season and for worldwide media for providing them with a spicy bit of video and copy because Clint Dempsey's actions went worldwide I remember the day after tons of my friends and fellow broadcasters from England were saying was that you last night commentating on Dempsey what the heck happened this had a huge viral impact
00:36:08
Speaker
We completed all the paperwork in the locker room. We got it showered up. We went to the hotel that the out of town officials were staying at for the assessment debrief.
00:37:07
Speaker
Clint Dempsey would end up being handed a ban by US soccer that has kept him out of US Open Cup competition to this day. For the Sounders, the effects of the red card wedding were even worse. Obafemi Martin's injury not only sidelined him for a significant time, but in conjunction with Dempsey's three-match MLS ban and time with the US men's national team, it helped derail the Sounders season.
00:37:31
Speaker
The team would fall from its place amongst MLS' leaders into a place that would send the club spending in the summer transfer window. Though the team recovered to make the playoffs, it bowed out early, and some suspect the lingering effects of 2015's Swoon helped pave the way for Ziggy Schmidt's 2016 departure.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yeah, it screwed us. You always look back on a season and say, these were pivotal points. I even look back on last season and say, the home opener, we lose one nothing. That was a pivotal point and a pivotal game. And to lose one nothing, it kind of sent us on a crap run, to be honest. Maybe if you look in years past the games that we won the first game of the season at home, we've gone on a run and we've put ourselves in a good position.
Impact on Coach Ziggy Schmidt
00:38:14
Speaker
I think there's always going to be games where you look back and that was a pivotal part of a season where, who knows? It's hindsight. If we feel the second rate lineup and we lose two to one, but we have our guys healthy and we win the supporter shield, it's like, man, great coaching, great this, that, and the other. But if we start the lineup we did and we win 4-0 with even subbing those guys on, it's like, wow, great coaching and we go on a run.
00:38:42
Speaker
It was like a comedy of errors. It's difficult to say whether that was the end for Ziggy Schmidt in overall times. There had been a couple of moments in years previous where he was significantly on the hot seat as regards his future as a Sounders coach. He managed to ride those storms out. He'd always been allowed to go and invest in new players.
00:39:03
Speaker
and the front office had shown tremendous faith in him. So I'm not sure you can say that was a definitive moment, but I think it was a turning point for Ziggy. The season never recovered from there. And in the end, Seattle looked as far away as they ever were from winning MLS Cup. Maybe that was a foreshadowing of what happened the following summer when Seattle just had to act. So I don't know, because he had another year in the job,
00:39:29
Speaker
Some might say he could have gone sooner, some might say he should never have gone as the franchise coach. But I don't think that night did him or Seattle too many favours in what has been a fabulous near decade of existence as an MLS franchise.
00:39:47
Speaker
That near-decade would culminate 17 months later when the Sounders lifted their first MLS cup in Toronto, a turn that allows the red card wedding to be cast in an entirely different light. Had the Sounders parted ways with Schmidt, continue to struggle, and not have the glory of 2016 to fall back on, the red card wedding may be a defining moment in the franchise's modern history.
00:40:10
Speaker
Instead, one of the most absurd nights in North American soccer history can be looked upon as unreal, cast as fantasy, and given a title more befitting, a work of fiction.
00:40:34
Speaker
Interviews for this program were conducted by Jeremiah O'Shan and Chris Reifert. Thank you to everybody who gave time to the project, Nat Orchers, Brad Evans, Ross Fletcher, Jeff Hosking, Lamar Nagel, Kayla Porter, and Andy Rose. Thank you to the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers for their help in putting this program together. This has been a production of Nos Adietes, and remember, you'll never yacht alone.