An oral history of the Red Card Wedding (revisited)

Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. Here we go. Come on. Hey, oh, shit. Let's go. Let's go. And now they truly can start the celebrations! It's the Sounders MLS Cup! Nicola now leaves absolutely no doubt. The Sounders rule the region. Ah, this feels fucking awesome. This is a tiny... Nice work on your little yacht you know, what was the thought process?

in terms of who you decided to use. Ever since Sounder and Har wrote a commentary that we didn't take them seriously. This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Bull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.

I think bizarre is probably a pretty good word for it. As the game went on, you know, 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. 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. 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. 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 defied an MLS Cup contender season and one that will forever be linked with one of the best players that U.S. soccer has ever produced. Sound hyperbolic? Perhaps it is. But nobody who actually saw the red card wedding unfold would say otherwise 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... memory of that night still years later lives fresh in the minds of those who are on the field. For nos audietes, I'm Richard Farley, working in conjunction with Jeremiah Oshan and Chris Ryder. is remembering the red card featuring my name is Nat Borchers and I was playing Hi, this is Brad Evans, and I was a center back during the red card wedding. Oh, man.

I'm tired. This is Jack Jewsbury of the Portland Timbers, captain and defensive midfielder. Hey, I'm Andy Ro- We're also joined by the former voice of the Seattle Sounders, Ross Fletcher, and Seattle Sounders midfielder, Lamar Nagel. To describe the red card wedding by its score alone doesn't do the night justice. Because 3-1 just isn't that uncommon of a scoreline.

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 seven men. But the absurdities of the night two years ago range 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. And Ross Fletcher was there to call it all. So this is a night that so many Sounders fans have been looking forward to. US Open Cup, a tournament they had owned since coming into Major League Soccer. At Starfire, a place that was an absolute fortress. Seattle unbeaten in all their Open Cup games there against their hated rivals, the Portland Timbers. Dimly lit field, poor surface.

4,000 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. Brad Evans. You know, obviously it's going to be a testy 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.

In saying that, it was still really bad, and that field plays very poorly. Nap archers. It hurts my knees and my Achilles tendons in particular just to think about playing on that pitch because It was like they put a bunch of plywood down and they threw over some green confetti and they just called it a field. Caleb Porter. I mean, they're like touching distance to you. You hear everything you're saying. And it was like that all game long.

Literally, I was getting verbally abused all game long. And little would we know that the setting would 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 Sounders in black. Now this is a Seattle home game, surely the Sounders are in red 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. Jack Jewsberry. I believe Brad Evans would have been their captain at the time. And him and I actually had a discussion because of the lighting and the sun. They believe it was a sunny day. And it was very difficult.

to tell, and we kind of knew before the kickoff that it might become a problem. And so I think the refs kind of kept their eye on it in the first half, but there was a point where him and I had conversation not a heated conversation just a real conversation that hey you know 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 necessary at 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. AR2, Jeff Hosking. In a typical MLS match, we are given the team colors well in advance. And so if there's any type of conflict like that, we can solve it days in advance, usually up to like a week. Open cup, you pretty much just show up.

And there's not the league structure around those games. Before the game, we inspect both teams' uniforms at standard practice, and we held them right next to each other and up. The problem was that both teams said these were the only jerseys that they brought. Portland said they only had their... They used warm-up shirts, and so I believe that they changed colors at halftime, if memory serves, correct?

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. I think that 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...

And then last minute they said, well, they're not going to change. 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 at halftime I think it was Andy Rose talking to us from England I love those charities I was a little bit annoyed for sure. It was just one of those things where the play, you know, I had never experienced it before.

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 seem to be micromanaging things early on.

So this referee was very inexperienced coming in. Daniel Radford, lower level referee, but getting his chance effectively in the US Open Cup. And this is what US soccer like to do. 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 CONCACAF Champions League, or international soccer. So this is their moment to show if they can do it.

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?

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 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 We're just almost as if we're playing without a ref. Lamar Nagel.

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. I remember I was playing right back, and Villafana 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 there's going to be a dangerous play and somebody's going to get hurt or something stupid's 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. Nat Porchers. You get sent off, and you're thinking, Wow, okay, 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.

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 jumpstart our season because at the time we were kind of struggling. We knew they had never lost.

you know, in the open cup on that field. And like I said, we were kind of struggling and I thought, you know, a great opportunity if we can win this game, you know, to lift our season and maybe derail theirs a little bit. Even before that. That season, Caleb had always talked to us about doing something that we had never done for this organization. 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 Starfire 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 Starfire.

So within that context, and with Brad Evans showing his second yellow card, that's when the emotions of the night started to peak 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

it was soft may have been soft I don't remember what it was but the second yellow knowing how soft it wasn't getting the red card ultimately if I get into his face and scream and yell it's gonna accomplish the same exact thing as if I just walk off and almost in a walk of

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 2. Andy Rose. Okay, this is going to be that much harder. And it's frustrating, especially losing, you know, losing a guy like Brad, of course.

you know, is a leader. And in tough moments, you know, sometimes teams can rely on their veteran guys. So Portland starts 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. Clint Dempsey over Femi 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, a tournament they treasure. So on come Dempsey and Martins. Martins gets the equaliser. takes it to extra time when you think this is going to go well. Even with 10 men, they've got fighting chance here.

Playing with Oba was just such an incredible experience, and any time you have players 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 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 Hobart. It's just, you get a, you know, a good feeling like, right, all we need to do is... is try and get him in a couple of dangerous places. 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 are some of my favorite nights as a player at Starfire with that crowd and without a doubt that moment.

when suddenly you're back in this game was one that, you know, I'll always remember. Yeah, I remember being frustrated, like, thinking, you know, we're up a man, and then we give up something, you know, on a set piece, and it's like... You know, really, are we going to, you know, are we really going to, you know, let them take this from us when we have this advantage?

I think it spurred us on. I remember one player in particular, Rodney Wallace. He's the guy who was one of our... our leaders on that team in terms of being able to flip that switch being able to have that drive that competitive edge to say okay it's not good enough let's do something about it But then, again, tragedy this time. Strikes with Martins going down injured. Takes a cleat. From a fallen Darlington Nagby 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 pretty bad. And then just... Kinda more worried about him than...

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. It didn't just hurt us that night. It completely transformed our season. And I know that's just one of those ways, right? You have, it's not easy to build out.

really sustainable team over the course of the season. You always have, you know, three DPs 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 game.

By the time Obafemi Martins was carted off, it was the 86th minute, but Seattle had already used all their substitutions, which meant tied 1-1, going into 30 minutes of extra time.

Seattle was going to have to play two men down. You know, so I never relaxed until 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 it away and at that

One time, I think 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 not let them get out of the game. I think I remember saying, we can't let this team get out of this game. No, I need that. Go for the jugular. Get the ball. Put them away. They pushed a little bit more because up until, if I remember correctly, up until that period, they had a few.

A few chances that I thought almost, they almost scored. Maybe there was one chance that I thought, maybe it was my... you know, crazy worry. It wasn't there. But I remember one moment where I thought, they're going to score on us when we're up two men. You know what I mean? So I think after that, we were clearly in control after that period. Because it was like, hey...

You know, we're up to, man, you know, if we give something up here, you know, how's that going to make us look? You know, we're obviously... in a situation where we should win, you know, and we have all the cards are stacked for us. We should make this happen. So I think the pressure was like,

just that much more pronounced because of that. I remember just giving absolutely everything I had and just saying to myself, like, I know the other guys on the pitch were saying the same things to themselves, like we've had some. 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 the game before. I mean, yeah, you're thinking, okay, 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 cute. There was no point where... 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.

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...

of breaking the team down. Now, obviously, two is a bit different, but it's still... when it's you know 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

I remember even thinking 2-1. I was still, you know, nervous. Because you just never know. You know, and as crazy as that game was, you thought, you know, in some ways there's more pressure. I remember feeling as though we can still do this, let's still do this, let's, you know, and I think we might have even had a couple of sort of half challenges, a couple of decent looks.

Yeah, I remember us not obviously having a lot of possession, but us getting down in their 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, I mean, perfect.

So it's about 110. that you start to see an incident that will go viral, will 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 Clint Dempsey. Michael Azera, 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 Fernandes, 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 Azera. Seattle Bancers, eight men. But that's not the end of it.

And at the time, I didn't realise 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... unprecedentedness, 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. Yeah, I mean, I just remember thinking like there's no way. I mean...

Anybody who knows, who knows Michael Azera, a red card is like the furthest thing from what you think, you know what I mean? 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... It was shocking and looking back it's like a moment. that you'd say would be kind of laughable, but you're so invested in the moment.

And so that's in the game, and at that point, you're still like, look, we still had players, playmakers on that pitch who could get us a goal out of nothing. We still had Clint on the pitch, you know, and without a doubt, we were still believing, like, all right, we're going to get back in. And so when that happened, it was... from a referee standpoint the way it came and had gone it was just like why why is that necessary right now again jeff hosking the assistant referee

challenge for the Portland player for the ball. The referee thought that it was straight leg and into the shin of the Portland player. So he showed a red card. Like I said, there was already a lot of frustration from having to chase the game. You know, it'd been a long night, and now they're down to nine players.

And now with a red card, now they're down to eight. And that's when a lot of tempers slared. But there was an actual resignation of, all right, this is not going to happen for us tonight. And not only that, but obviously Seattle didn't agree with the red card, so that's when Dempsey made his opinions known, if you will, by coming up behind the referee and slapping the notebook out of his hand.

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.

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 at what we were saying 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

some of the Seattle guys from the referee because it just didn't look pretty obviously there are some 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 to go at him with the stuff that happened with Clint and the referee. notecard and really getting in the face of the referee. They stepped in, even though that wasn't their teammate, just to kind of help.

on the situation a little bit. And so hats off to them, I guess, for that. Man, yeah, it was a bizarre one. I remember trying to shield it.

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 and I saw him grab the referee's card and just start tearing it up and i i just really couldn't believe my eyes i just never it's something that you want to do as like i think every single like 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. And I was just like, he really went there. He really must have been pissed off about that call. The game's already over. 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 quit, you know, obviously in the air and then taking it and throwing it. And I thought... Like, that's another red card, for sure. And then Clint starts to walk away, and he pulled out a yellow. I was kind of relieved. I was like, oh, man. We got away with that one and then Clint like wrapped around.

started walking back towards him, and I was like, oh, no, he's going back. So I'm ripping it up and then throwing it. And I said, all right, that's... I mean, that's got to be at least another yellow, right? If you really dislike the referee's call, that is like the ultimate diss. 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. But to see Dempsey do what he did

was horrifying in football terms. He should never have done it. He apologised days later. It 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. Yeah, I don't even know where I thought to grab the book and actually riff it up. And who knows, maybe, you know.

Maybe in his mind the game was already over. 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.

It's something definitely I've never seen and I assume it's just out of complete frustration. 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. that 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 corner of Starfire Stadium and watched there because otherwise, as he was then quoted in the post-match media scrum, he would have... "...choked out the referee." And I remember Siggy Smith storming out of the game. No one even noticed that. He left the game early. He walked right by our bench and started yelling at us.

And then, you know, after the field, it got pretty tense, too, you know, on the pitch between the coaches and players. Obviously, I was going to remember to quit that seat. You know, a lot was made. A lot was made of that as, you know, them being down men. But really the game was over when they lost Dempsey. That's why he lost it.

And that just sums up an evening that the sound has completely lost control from all levels. It went wrong. And Ziggy naturally regrets those comments. I don't think he...

Regret 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 who's looked up to and is so well respected in the game say those things no wonder US soccer came in with sanctions But you add all those issues up in totality and it was just... A terrible night for Seattle.

four guys on the field and there's nobody pressuring you when you have the ball you know 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 but you know once we got the

but 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. It was weird. I

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. I think it's that moment that Oba had gone down in. 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

Knowing that and thinking on the back, what if we gave 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 it was pretty cool to see you know he still had some It became comical and at the time, you know... What was this? Seven of us left on the pitch. We weren't finding it 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... to turn the towel and it's honestly a really proud moment for me looking back that you know you're playing with seven guys against 11 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. You know, 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. I wasn't really thinking of that. I don't think I 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. looking for advantages if we could break if somebody was up or the right time to break or not to try to get off the field. But at that point...

There's little time. There's little man. 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 about the whole you know situation of like the way that the Sounders fans and their players had handled things and I thought was really

sad and disappointing that they would stick to that level with what Clint did. I just didn't think they had handled things with a whole lot of positive energy at all. It was really... Kind of strange. And you can just feel the air just taken out of that stadium. And it was only the Timbers fans who were there chanting and excited about what we had just done. There were some things being thrown from the stands.

which you don't like to see, but, you know, it is what it is. Yeah, at that point, you know, you're just kind of waiting for the match to end and, you know, with all the rest of it after the game. 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 you.

a whole hot dog that was thrown down at my feet, which I was kind of baffled that somebody would buy a hot dog, hold onto it for 120 minutes, and then choose to throw it. No, I've never felt that way in any competition in this country where I've at all felt threatened or felt like fans were being overly abusive.

The fans were fired up, you know, and they obviously, you know, had a right to be, you know, in some respects. In other respects, they didn't. I think they were probably just as hurt, you know, to lose. And the way they lost, you know, 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.

There was a few that had some kind words for us off the, you know, when we were making our way through that. that pathway, but at that point we were just kind of talking with players really from both sides and everyone was kind of in disbelief a little bit as far as nobody had ever seen events culminate like that before.

That night in May will be forever remembered. for the Sounders for derailing that 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.

Completed all the paperwork in the locker room. We got showered up. We went to the hotel that the out-of-town officials were staying at for the assessment debrief. I didn't even leave for my house until almost 1 in the morning because all of those things took as long as they did.

You know, when you have an hour's worth of paperwork that needs to be submitted, the assessment debrief took a long time dissecting different events in the match and just kind of... describing and learning from different reactions to different scenarios. There was follow-up. I know for all of the officials, we had to talk directly with U.S. Soccer when they were deciding what punishment would be for Clint Dempsey. Really, they just want to make sure that all of that...

Events that took place. Events that were described in the reports. who are accurate, so they have a full picture of what went on, what went on. Clint Dempsey would end up being handed a ban by U.S. soccer that has kept him out of U.S. 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 U.S. men's national team, it helped derail the Sounders season.

The team would fall from its place amongst MLS's 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 Siggy Schmidt's 2016 departure.

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 1-0. That was a pivotal point and a pivotal game. And to lose 1-0, 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 so I think there's always going to be games where you know you look back and that was a pivotal part of a season where if who knows it's hindsight you know 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 uh

You know, 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 when we go on a run. So it's... It was like a comedy of errors. It's difficult to say whether that was the end for Ziggy Schmidt in overall terms. There have 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. 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 that.

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. 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.

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, continued 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.

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.

Interviews with us. Thank you to everybody who gave time to the Lamar Nagel, Hala Porter, and the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers for Thank you. This has been a production of I expect a LAFC who is motivated. to prove themselves at home, to prove to their fans that they're capable of winning in this league. And it's up to us to really ruin the party. You guys like that now? Awkward joke, dad joke right there.