Mailbag: We're still on about the Leagues Cup

This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Grainger. Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the... exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

This is the story of the one. As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. It's why he partners with Grainger to stay fully stocked on the products and supplies he needs, from tissues to disinfectants to floor scrubbers. All so that he can help students, staff, and teachers stay healthy and focused.

Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. 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 comes Rui Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle! process in terms of who you decided to use and who you didn't. Ever since I heard about a commentary that we didn't take outcome 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 Pull 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. Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes, part of the Sounder at Heart.

podcast network sponsored by full pool wines, hacks and ferments, and our subscribers. We are recording on Thursday, September 4th, 2025. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. I am. Once again, joined by my co-host Aaron Campo and our producer, Lickett. This is the mailbag episode, ostensibly for August. We had intended to record this a little earlier. It is September.

But we're doing the August mailbag. I hope that is OK with everybody. But a lot of questions about League's Cup and all kinds of other things. But before we get to that, Aaron, how are you doing? I'm real tired. I didn't get a great night's sleep last night.

But I've got a four-day weekend coming up, and I had a five-day weekend last week. I don't know if I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for you. No, that's fine. You shouldn't. You went to Bumbershoot last weekend, though. I did. Yeah, I did. It was fun. We didn't watch any bands. The only band we cared about seeing on the day we were there was playing in the Vera project and we couldn't get in. So. Yeah.

My wife and children went to COVID. My wife got COVID. Went to the bummer shoot and they had a great time. It seems like it's a good hang. I still have never been, but they had a lot of fun watching bands. It's definitely if you are expecting Bumbershoot circa, you know, 2014. or what have you. It's not that which I'm grateful for because that's I loved going when I was younger and then it just the scale of it got a little too much for me. The bands they were booking were not as much my speed.

And it was just too much, you know, it was like any other festival. It's a much smaller scale, a lot more, I think, arts focused. That's more its roots, right? Yeah, yeah. And relatively cheap, right? Especially if you get the early bird tickets. I mean, nothing is cheap anymore. So I'll tell you that the hack for us, we got so we bought two two day passes for adults.

And that got us, if we wanted, we could have had brought up to four kids each day. We only brought three one day and two the other. But you break that down on a per day per.

person basis and it's a pretty good deal. Yeah. And it's definitely, I mean, it's kid friendly as long as you're not, you know, a crude, right. Um, there's cause there's some, you know, there's like a circus arts thing. That's a little, uh, blue and uh you know there's there's adult focused stuff but uh nothing nothing too crazy and uh no one there was no complaints about any of that

Yeah. It's a good time. It's the cat. I will say this. If you are a big time cat person, I don't actually recommend the cat circus because I heard that was bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's. So basically you wait in line for like half an hour. And when you get in there, it's a bunch of eight year old kids.

petting the most scared looking kittens you've ever seen in your life. Like the cats are just not happy. And it's, it's an, it is ultimately a cat adoption event. And those are, that's just kind of the nature of them. You know, and it's it's worth it to get the cats good homes and everything. But you're not going to see like a cat doing tricks. I keep it in my mic. Sorry about that. Yeah, you're not going to see a cat doing fun circus tricks. You're going to see a cat shaking.

sticky handed eight year old yeah but other than that a lot of fun uh bummer mania is always a good time you know if you're into that sort of thing um yeah Well, I'm happy to hear all that. The other thing that got some questionable reviews, there was a stand-up, ostensibly a comedy show or something. Yeah.

yeah my daughter went to and was like that was it was so awkward it was it was very very bad they didn't even advertise any of the stand-ups like their names or anything oh um which i thought was a little strange but uh

The other fun thing is the fashion district though, which is right next to where the standouts are. They love that. Yeah, my wife bought me an Elvira candle. Yeah, it was a good time. And before that, I went to... full pool wines to pick up some wine look at that um so you know organic uh mention yeah yeah very organic i was not trying to figure out a way to segue more naturally into that for

They didn't ask us to do that, to be clear. No, I wouldn't imagine. Did they at least hook you up a little? I don't think so. I wouldn't. I would feel extremely uncomfortable if they did. Yeah, I would. I definitely would. okay fair enough yeah well we're you know i'm not saying it like it's a good thing it's just yeah fair enough you know it's how i am all right well i believe that uh ends the banter segment of

of the show uh that said so before we get into the questions we do have one newsy topic that i don't know if it will be addressed i don't think it's addressed in the question so i just wanted to get to it so both louis suarez and inter-miami issued what i guess well suarez i think you can call it an apology he did use the word i apologize i think he actually says the words i apologize and he takes some level of

He expresses some contrition, even if it's vague. And I wouldn't exactly call it a good apology, but it is not. I've seen much worse apologies. Let's put it that way. It's definitely a look what you made me do kind of apology. It had an element of look what you made me do. I will absolutely agree with you there because it does say unfortunate things happened and then I reacted.

Which what exactly are you reacting to? We've seen the tape, my man. Right. Yeah. I mean, the unfortunate thing that happened was they got their asses kicked, I think. Right. I guess that maybe is maybe that's maybe he's blaming the sounders for kicking their ass. That's possible. I do think that he and Messi and Busquets see that as an enormous affront. I actually do genuinely believe that. All available evidence suggests that you're correct. But I'm going to go ahead and read the full...

Inner Miami statement because it's short enough that I feel like I can do this justice. And I think you'll notice. Well, I'll just read it. Inner Miami condemns the altercations that took place following the conclusion of the League's Cup final. These actions do not reflect the values of our sport and remain committed to upholding the highest standards of sportsmanship, both on and off the pitch.

We are working closely with Leagues Cup and MLS officials to ensure the situation is addressed appropriately. We thank our fans and community for their continued support. You'll notice no apology, no acknowledgement even that they... were involved in this really other than to say that they like the sounders could have literally the sounders could have put out this exact same statement and uh to like it would had no it would have made no difference like

It's amazing. It's like kind of an amazing statement. Almost like why bother putting this out? It's like, we don't like it that there was a fight. Right. It's definitely got that. There was an altercation and at some point a bystander became struck by a bullet fired by the gun of an officer kind of vibe to it. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Which is always, always a good one to hear. That's always fun. Sure. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was not, that was not great. Yeah. I, but the good thing, I suppose. If you choose to look at it this way, is that that these both these statements came out on the same day does suggest that the wheels of justice may be finally moving now. It seems like it. Yeah, I wouldn't be.

be shocked if it were a situation where they were like you have to put out some kind of statement yes about this or else this is going to be worse for you maybe But if that were true and Ender Miami put out that statement, I would say, OK, this is even worse than if you hadn't said anything. It's a very bad statement. It's pretty brutal. Yeah. Yeah.

It also contradicts itself by saying that they're committed to upholding the highest standards of sportsmanship while putting out a statement in which they accept zero responsibility for what happened. which I really like. I'm not going to say that the Sounders are like the Sounders will probably catch some punishment. I don't doubt that just because that's how these things go. But I really dare anyone, anyone.

to watch the film of what happened, whatever angles you want and find me one instance of a sounder sort of initiating, uh, initiating anything like, yeah. I feel like everything the Sounders did was absolutely retaliatory or even defensive. And I don't think you can say the same thing about most of what Miami does. No, I don't think so. I mean... If what we've heard is to be believed about what led up to all of this, Miami was pissed about how physical the game was allowed to be called.

Right. Which, you know, I don't feel like Sounders fans can have too much of a complaint about that because this was the same referee that was a referee in the game against Puebla who also played extremely physically. And Sounders fans were extremely pissed off that no fouls were being called. So to some degree, turnabout is fair play. Although I do think the difference is that the Sounders were actually trying to play the sport of soccer, whereas Pueblo were not.

But there's plenty of, I think, precedent of Sounders fans being outraged that games were too physical, right? Yes, sure. Which is fine. It's fine to be hypocritical about referees. when it comes to your team that is agreed completely fine um this is sports it's not serious but um that seemed to be the only thing and like

You know, we've heard reports of Messi saying some really nasty stuff to Obed Vargas and Pedro de la Vega. Suarez is a legendary shit talker. Busquets was clearly jawing all night long.

And I'm sure they were getting something back from from the Sounders players. You know, I mean, we saw Pedro sort of like, yeah, and that's the way it goes. But I do think there is this level of entitlement. of these guys of i'm allowed to do it to you because of who i am but you are not allowed to to do it to me because you are not me and that's just bullshit i mean yeah like nobody is

Nobody thinks, most of all Pedro de la Vega, I'm sure, that Pedro de la Vega is Lionel Messi. Nobody believes that. But on the night, he was the better player. On the night, his team was much better than Lionel Messi's team. And if you're any kind of a professional, you should be able to deal with that. And I'm not going to clutch my pearls about the, you know, the trash talking and the mental games that they're trying to play with it.

But I do think that when you allow that to carry over after the whistle, and especially when it turns into something physical like this, it's just really... really bush league and you know messi was still jawing at pedro de la vega when they were in the the metal line in the metal line i know yeah there's a great shot of that where like he's he's like six people away right like like pedro is towards like the middle or even maybe the front of the line and

Messi is sort of at the beginning of the Miami line, but there's a big gap. And the video actually is just Messi sort of like yapping into the ether. And then finally, Pedro sort of steps out of line and is like, Like, are you talking to me? Right. Why are we still? Why are we still doing this? Yeah. And I don't think. Most people who are sports fans to any serious degree.

are under any auspices that these guys are what their public reputation would have you believe. But the reality is, I think that you can't be as good at a sport. as Lionel Messi or Michael Jordan or Tom Brady. Any of these people who were in the conversation for this person is Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods. This person is the best to ever do this thing in a highly competitive.

highly stressful environment that also brings with it enormous amounts of wealth and fame. You can't have a normal brain and do that. No. Whatever, whichever direction the causality is like at a certain point, you're just not going to be a normal person anymore. And usually that in a very bad way, like usually it just completely breaks you mentally. it leads to things like we saw on Sunday. Yeah. I, I, I'm with you. I'm like, I'm not worked up about whatever messy said to. Yeah.

Pedro or Obed I don't need to I don't think we need to litigate that at all Frank I mean like he I assume he said some bad stuff and I assume it's it's awful to hear it outside of the like even maybe even the game i don't doubt that yeah like sort of bothered the players which is why i i think the there's still that we're talking about it but like

There's trash talk and then there's whatever happened after. And whatever happened after is clearly, this is not sport anymore. This is being a crybaby. This is... This is just sour grapes. And it's embarrassing. It is embarrassing. And I don't think it's embarrassing for MLS. I actually think in a weird way, I don't know if this is good for MLS. I don't think it's good for MLS. But there is an element of this that...

turns this into a very sticky sort of news story. And it's not the kind of coverage that MLS wants. But I assure you, if the Sounders had just pantsed Miami and that was the end of it... I don't think the national media would still be talking about this story. And that's not, again, this is not a, oh, it's good that MLS has villains kind of thing. But there is a reality to this, which is.

people are talking about the league's cup final that would have never been talking about it. And it was a great, and I, and I think there's a weird element of this where it sort of forces them to mention, by the way, the Sounders drew 69,000.

They sold out Lumen Field. It was an amazing atmosphere. The Sounders played this amazing game. But Lear, let's talk about all this other stuff. And honestly, let's talk about all this other stuff. I don't know they even mentioned the first parts that extensively. Whatever. I'm not really worked up about the optics of this thing, except for, man.

Inter-Miami looks so, so bad. I've yet to hear anyone that doesn't either work for Miami or is just a sort of red-pilled Messi fan who is actually defending.

anything really that happened on sunday after the whistle and it's kind of funny to see because it does feel like it's sort of a mask off moment a little bit where absolutely yeah uh you know messi and and these guys were sort of held up as this in some weird way this model kind of organization and it is very clearly a deeply deeply troubled organization that is probably rotten

All the way through. I am very happy for Chris Henderson to not be there anymore. Very happy for DeAndre Yedlin to not be there anymore. I don't think there's really anyone left that has ties to the Sounders. So that's great. Yeah, it is. I mean, I think that. In a weird way, like. It does show some growth of MLS where. You know, these these players who I think expect to just. totally come in and dominate the league yeah are very frustrated that they're not able to do that

And we're not talking like second tier former superstar. Like we're talking the greatest player to ever live, who is still playing in an extremely high level, was like the best player at the World Cup. Two years, two years ago or whatever it was. like real legitimate world class players who are extremely frustrated by how difficult the league is. And I think in a way, this, this becoming like this big international story, because it involves Lionel Messi.

even if it's not exactly the kind of attention MLS wants, like you said, I think it does. Like if you are somebody who has a negative perception of the quality of play in MLS and you know what you know about Lionel Messi and how competitive he is. And, you know, Luis Suarez and how competitive he is and what a high level they're still capable of playing at. And you see, wow, they still care. They're still invested. And they got waxed by this team full of like Academy products.

that's that's a positive thing for the league i think for for people outside of you know the mls bubble to see um yeah that that they are upset that they clearly care. There's no way. There is absolutely no way that you can spin this as with a straight face. Well, Miami just doesn't care about leagues. These players don't care about this league. Clearly that you do. They do. They could barely work up the ability to carry more because they are sort of like at the top of their carrying tank.

That part I think is good. I also think that it illustrates – I've heard this many times that, well, Miami is sort of washed. They're done, blah, blah, blah. There is an element of – It will never be the same. Like I said, there's a mask off element of this. But part of what makes this honestly pretty special is that the Sounders beat a good team.

They beat a very talented team. They beat a team that had moments that had long stretches of this game where they actually played well. I rewatched the game. I was actually a little surprised how much of the game Miami really did control. I mean, from. The beginning of the second half, at least until the 60th minute when Brian Schmetzer makes some subs, to his credit, that changed the game. Those 15 minutes were really, really good, were solid stuff from Miami.

I also thought the first 20 minutes, the Sounders looked like a team that was on a different level. They were ready to play. The line I used was, it looks like Miami brought a violin to a knife fight. because they were just sitting there complaining about how hard the Sounders were playing. And it was a lot of clean tackles, and it was a lot of just hard, good play. The Sounders were challenging every pass. They were challenging every shot. There was this...

Funny clip that I just saw right now on Instagram where they're glazing Leo Messi for this wonderful through ball. I think it was to DePaul. Yeah. The one that Jackson Reagan makes this amazing block on. Inside the box. It was early in the game. And it sort of is there. I just think it's so funny. They're talking about, oh, look at this great ball that Messi plays. The shot was blocked.

It was a great play by the defender. It was a nice ball. And I think it's fair to recognize it was a good ball. But let's talk about the whole sequence here. Right. Yeah. No, I mean, it's the ball to set up. The first goal from from Jesus to Alex was everything as good as that. I think it was a great ball. And ultimately, like the time in MLS where a guy who could pull off tricks like that.

could just completely dominate is over and has been for a while yeah like there are lots of number 10s in the world right now that could come in and make a couple passes like that a game who would be a total waste of a dp spot now obviously Lionel Messi is not a total waste of a TP spot. But the cult of personality of Messi is the reason I didn't want him in the league in the first place and the reason that I will be so glad when he's gone.

Because of shit like that. And because like the TikTok that showed the the confrontation of him and De La Vega postgame, the caption was like, never disrespect the goat. Yeah, I don't think Pedro said a word to him all night. Right. It's just it's it's yeah, it's it's ridiculous. So very glad to see the back of them. And, you know, I'm glad we don't play them for. Oh, oh, oh, two weeks or whatever it is. Yeah.

But, you know, with any Luxoras and Busquets will be suspended. Yeah, you would hope. All right, well, let's get into these questions. We have a lot of them. We do. We do. We actually... We kind of trimmed it down even. I think that we originally had close to like two and a half times as many questions as we have. Thank you to everyone. And we've also combined some of them. If your question got cut, it was not.

Does not indicate there was anything about the quality of the question. There were just too many of them. And so first, we'll start out with some questions about the League's Cup. And this one is from Rick. The Sounders played and beat the defending.

CONCACAF Champions Cup, MLS Cup, and Supporter Shield winners by an aggregate of 12-0. 10 different goal scorers and 14 different players had goal contributions. Four clean sheets and two total goals against. Was this the most dominant performance? by an MLS club ever. So they're only talking about Leagues Cup because if you wanted to really get crazy, you could include MLS Cup, the reigning MLS Cup winner twice within that same span of time.

And it would have actually been 16-0. Yeah. But they are talking about Leagues Cup. I think it has to be the most impressive Leagues Cup run. I believe the Sounders are the first team. to go undefeated in League's Cup. At the very least, they won more games in regulation than anyone else. Now, not exactly the longest. I guess that's probably not...

They probably weren't the first team to go undefeated. But I believe they had the biggest goal difference. I believe they scored the most goals. It was a very, very impressive League's Cup performance by the Sounders. There's not a lot to compare it to, but this is up there. This is more dominant than their CONCACAF Champions League title, which was, I believe at the time, also the most...

lopsided goal difference in CONCACAF Champions League history. So when the Sounders come to play, they really do put on a show. This was a very impressive showing. If you include all the games, I believe they outscored the opponents 16 to 2. Yeah, I think that's right. That sounds right. Four shutouts. I mean, just dominant stuff. I got no notes. And they did it while rotating their lineup a lot, like not just on the fringes.

Every game had a different lineup. I believe every game featured at least four or five changes from the previous game, whether it was in league play or not. And I actually have that right here. Every game in, I guess I take that back. The inner Miami game only had one change from the LA galaxy game, but the LA galaxy game had nine changes from the previous week. Yeah. A lot of changes in these games. They lost Albert Rusnak during the tournament. Didn't seem to matter.

They were playing without Jordan Morris. Very much did not matter. They lost Danny Masofsky during the tournament. It didn't matter. They lost New Who during the tournament. It didn't matter. It was up and down the roster. Just really, really amazing stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think that the only other competition for most impressive tournament performance ever would be something else in the Leagues Cup and nothing else that an MLS team has done in the Leagues Cup.

i think comes close to to this um and something in the champions league and you have to win the champions league for it to be the most impressive and the sounders are the only team to have ever done that so um i mean i i'm more impressed by the champions league i think in a sense because it required going on the road and yeah um was more of a traditional tournament so i think that's a more bigger accomplishment more games for sure i think that's a bigger accomplishment

But I don't think anybody would argue with that in terms of just how badly did the Sounders beat the did the team beat the opposition into the dirt? it's really hard for me to think of anything that comes close to what they did in this league's cup. And that they beat, you know, they beat good, you know, they, they didn't have the toughest road possible, but they had a tough enough, they had a plenty tough road.

uh yeah there were you know so whatever uh and they did have to go on they had at least won one game on the road so i think that's true that's true all right this is from andrew uh and again i'm just gonna remind everyone all these questions come from our discord Our Discord is just sort of blown up lately in part because I think people heard that the whole trade your messy jersey for Rothrock thing originated in our Discord and it eventually made its way all the way up to Sanders ownership.

And they found out there's real shit going on at the Discord and the Sounder at Heart Discord.

They want a piece. And so if you want a piece, come on in, join. It's fun. Anyway, Andrew asks, was this the sounder's best performance of the Schmetzer? Was this the best performance slash semester's best coaching in a cup? Oh, just for cup finals. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean, if you look at the cup finals 2016, I mean.

I don't want to take anything away from from Brian. The way the team was set up was was great. But yeah, I don't think you can ever give too much credit for a nil though. 2019 great performance. Toronto was not. nearly the team under miami is i don't i don't think uh there it's a little weird because pumas was also like not

the very strongest team that they could have played. I think Miami was a better team than Pumas was in 2020. I think so. I think so. Even relative to the quality of the teams at the time. Not that much has changed in three years, I guess. I think that if you look at the way the Sounders are just playing in general right now, it's really impressive. The way the team was set up, the tactics, everything like that.

And then the adjustments that they made to counter what Inter-Miami was doing after halftime completely changed the game. And that's been one of the knocks, fairly or unfairly, I think. More recently, unfairly, but in the past, fairly. But one of the knocks on Brian Schmetzer, I think, has been he doesn't sub aggressively enough.

And his subs are predetermined and he doesn't really like to sway from his his plans. And I think in this game, it was very clear that he was responding to the conditions in the game and he picked the exact perfect substitutions to make. And in terms of the end game.

That's really where you make your money, right? Is adjusting to what the other team is doing, that sort of punch-counterpunch thing. Right. I mean, he threw a haymaker in this game. You couldn't really have asked for anything better. Yeah, and the first two subs were Kalani and... Why am I blanking on who the other sub was? Danny Leyva, I believe, right? Danny Leyva. Yeah.

Kalani and Daniele were the first players off the bench, and neither one of them necessarily were great when they first got onto the field, but they... both brought a lot of energy and that energy really was sorely needed. And then the Manungu one was just a masterclass sort of decision. Like that could not have been better. It played out exactly, exactly how. you would have drawn it up and it was spectacular.

All right, this next one is from Atlas Collective1234. What is the payout for League's Cup? Saw some info say the champion would be awarded $2 million, but also some info said there was also prize money per win. Any idea on the total set the Sounders walked? away with so my understanding is the sounders get two million dollars and then the players get or i should say the sounders get at least two million dollars

And then I don't know if it's of that. I suspect it's not. I think it's a separate payout that the players then get $900,000 from. At least $900,000. Because the way it's set up is you get $100,000. 100,000 for every game you play and 50,000 for every win, I believe is exactly how it breaks down. And so there's a winner. They won all six games. They played six games. That adds up to 900.

There might be an adjustment. They might get a little bit more, but that's the bare minimum that the CBA mandates that they get. And they max that out. And then I actually, if you're really curious. The players have now collected about $2.5 million in total prize money because they got $1.4 million from the Club World Cup and then they got like $212,000 or so from the CONCACAF Champions League. And this is before...

Even they're getting bonuses from MLS play, which there are a whole bunch of bonuses that you get for MLS play. And I don't think this is how they'll do it, but if you were to just break up that...

2.5 million dollars into 30 even size chunks for the each player on the roster again i doubt that's how they'll do it but if you did that it would be about 85 000 a piece which might not sound like a ton I guess if you're thinking in millionaire athlete brain but for a lot of these players that's a really significant part of their salary yeah like some of these guys actually literally doubling their salary best in performance bonuses potentially so that's great yeah absolutely uh

This is from MCB. The Sounders didn't start a single passenger on defense in the final. Has this ever been the case in prior finals? So I went and looked at the lineups from, I didn't go back to the Open Cup days.

That's okay. Forgive me for that. But I think we can safely say Sana Niasi was on a lot of those teams. That's so funny. I was thinking of Sana Niasi. But, and... uh freddie lingberg was on one as well um did he start the final i guess he would have that would make sense i think i think he i think he did yeah i think you're right you probably did so 2022

um the the champions league final i wouldn't call anyone on that team a passenger defensively but i also don't i yeah i mean he he would press but Certainly not to the degree Asazi did in this game. More like chase. Yeah. In 2019, Jovan Jones started at right wing. What are you suggesting? I'm not suggesting anything, brother. I think when he was not lined up at the left back position.

I would say he was not especially interested in doing a lot. I don't know that he was especially interested in defending as a left back either. Well, that's true. I was trying to be kind, but yes. So, yeah, I mean, I think you could. I think you can definitely say beyond a shadow of a doubt that that no Sounders team has ever been so completely from top to bottom invested in playing defense.

as they were in this game. And they won 3-0. Crazy. Crazy how that works. How being that committed to playing aggressive defense can turn into a bunch of goals. It is truly wild.

Truly wild. But yeah, I would agree with all that. All right. Next one is from Bill Jones TRPT. As much as a lot of us, in parentheses, me referring to himself, but it also works. if you say me, complained about League's Cup before the tournament. Could our ruin in that tournament run in that? Gosh.

Could our run in that tournament ultimately be the thing that starts to grow game day attendance going forward? So, yeah, I think you're talking about the broader game day attendance and not necessarily League's Cup attendance. And I think. A spectacle, let's call it, like it was on Sunday can't help but have a positive effect on everything you're doing. And, you know, you would think.

2022 would have had a similar effect but the difference in 2022 is that happened in may and unfortunately there was a lot of season left to play and they did have a few That summer was actually going pretty good up until the banner unveiling when they got smacked by the Portland Timbers. And then it was a pretty dramatic decline from there forward.

Sounders, so the Sounders, I bring that up because the Sounders just weren't able to maintain the momentum that they built from 2022. 2019, also an amazing spectacle, an amazing event. Then there was this COVID thing that happened the next season that sort of took away all the momentum from that. I think this has the potential to be very different, partly because it's already towards the end of the schedule. Assuming the centers do not.

fall flat on their face, which there's really no, like there were still some warning signs, I think early in 2022 that maybe we were able to push aside, but there are not, this is not. The warning signs, I suppose, this year were that they keep getting injured, but that apparently doesn't matter. I think we're at the point now where...

There are, I'm sure there are, there is like a Jenga tower. I'm sure there is a point at which you can pull enough pieces out where the whole thing crumbles. But right now the sound, like I would, I, the sounders seem very. capable of handling those kinds of missteps. And so, yeah, I do think this has the potential to carry some real momentum, man. I'll tell you.

They could not have timed the release of the season ticket renewals any better. Literally, they came out this week. It's funny because they first announced them right after the transfer window closed and I was giving some of the people in Sounders PR a hard time. did you guys really want to release this? Right. Like announce, tease this right when the transfer window closed and you guys did nothing. And then he's like, Oh, I think the results will, will help. And I was like, okay, we'll see.

And then, yeah, I think there's like, I don't know what kind of person right now is going to look at that season ticker renewal. By the way, it's like the smallest increase in the last three years. So like ours were up 3%, which is effectively nothing.

And they have a whole bunch of new perks that are enticing. There's, you know, you get discounts on various things. We have an article coming out that'll be really interesting. I'm not going to get into it all right now, but yes, the answer is yes. That's the answer. I think. yeah i i pretty much wholeheartedly agree i think too um beyond just how they looked in that game and how uh how dominant they looked and everything like that just the word of mouth about like

Oh, yeah. Messi came in here and his team got waxed. It's probably going to get people interested. Yeah. And there were definitely people on the broadcast that they showed that.

looked uh who were wearing miami jerseys who looked like they'd been worn over so maybe they were sounders fans before right and but like you can't be that much of a sounders fan even if you're wearing a messy jersey to a game right to a cup final yeah yeah um so yeah i think it could have a have a big impact yeah uh i'm excited i mean it i do think there's a genuine there was a genuine

interest outside the normal sounders bubble. I had a lot of people come up to me in the last few days and just say, wow, what an amazing thing for you to get to cover. And these are people who don't normally care about the sounders really. And, and so I do think that it sort of reached beyond the normal group and that's really how you grow.

the attendance numbers. Thank you for listening to the sounder at heart podcast network, which now includes no study at this loving scorchers and the cooler yield. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible through our paid subscribers plans start as low as $30 a year.

allow us to remain independent and mostly ad free subscribers get access to all our written and podcast content including a full text rss feed and a mostly ad free podcast feed that includes every show in one spot if you really like what we're doing

though, I'd encourage you to sign up at our higher tiers, which include all sorts of various perks. The most popular of those is our members-only Discord, where the real Sounder Sickos hang out. I know I've called this group the smartest, funniest, and best-in-

sounders fans in the world but it's more than the rough equivalent of a sounders mensa meeting discord is where we make things happen like for real you know the promotion the sounders ran that offered fans the opportunity to trade in their messy jersey for a paul rothrock one that originated in our

You'll not only be the first to know about stuff, but you also have a semi-direct line to the movers and shakers at the Sounders organization. If you want to be one of the totally normal people who occupy the Sounder at Heart Discord, just become a supporter. porter of sounder at heart. Anyway, thanks for listening and go Durs. Nos Adietes admittedly is not exactly known for our spicy takes, but that doesn't mean we want our food to be mild. Spice up your life with Hacks and Ferments.

Handcrafted in Georgetown and made with the best local ingredients from across the Pacific Northwest, they specialize in unique small batch fermented hot sauces and vinegars. Haxan Ferments brings bold flavors and natural fermentation together for something truly special. Whether you're a heat seeker or just looking to elevate your cooking, you'll find something you love at haxanferments.com. That's H-A-X-A-N-F-E-R-M-E-N-T-S dot com.

And right now, if you use the code sounder at heart, that's all one word. At checkout, you will get a free hot sauce with your order. Again, go to hacksandferments.com. Use the code sounder at heart at checkout for a free hot sauce with your order. accent ferments is a proud sponsor of that sounder at heart podcast network. Uh, this is from MCB.

Who do you think was the Sounders MVP of Leagues Cup? So, excuse me, Pedro was the player of the tournament. And I'm not going to argue with that call, but I think it was Christian personally. He was just... on a on a different level um and as a defensive midfielder is never going to get that kind of award uh you know player of a tournament but

He was just a total nightmare for every team. I think Obed may have been the MVP against Miami, but for the tournament at large, I think it was Christian. I think he was the best player. period yeah i yeah i would i would agree with i would agree with that i i think you could maybe make like alex was sneaky very good jesus ferrero was sneaky really really good too

I have no issue with Pedro de la Vega getting it. I think he was the most exciting player of the tournament. I think he's the player who generated the most buzz. And that was another thing, just to go back to the previous question, I think that's another reason that...

will help the Sounders is that there was just so much, there are so many memorable moments from these games and so many of them happened at home. I do really feel like this year maybe turned a corner in a lot of ways, at least from a... fan engagement perspective. We still have complaints. I don't think those complaints are invalidated by all of this, but they certainly are rendered less important.

Like when you're playing the way that the Sounders are playing right now, you don't have to do literally everything right. You can do a few things. You can cut some corners in off field areas.

and still be getting a lot of positivity around the team. Yeah. So that's it for League Cup questions. Next, we've got three questions about the Defiance, and we're going to do things a little bit differently. uh for these and i'm just going to ask all of them and jeremiah is going to answer them because uh he should be able to answer them much better than i can so the first one is from atnsg2000

Is the growth we've seen from the younger players correlated with the arrival of Craig Dalrymple as head of development? Any chance we can get an interview with him slash Wade slash both about the changes in programs? You know, we could we could work on that. But I do think broadly speaking, Dalrymple has had a pretty positive effect. He only has been with a team, I believe, since last year. So I don't want to give him too, too much credit.

But I think you can draw a direct line to Osaze de Rosario's development. I think you can draw a direct line to Snyder Rennell's development. I think you can draw a direct line to some of the... Kalani Kosarienzi's development. So I think he's doing good work. I think he's doing really good work. And Wade Webber, I think, has done a really good job of creating sort of an environment where the Sounders have been able to...

have a really positive pipeline sort of experience where there is integration between the levels of the sounders that I don't know. I don't know how. how common this is, but I do know that the Sounders have a really collaborative process when it comes to moving players up and down between the teams. and trying to make it feel integrated. It's not uncommon to see Defiance or even Academy players training with the first team, especially when numbers are low, but they are able to do that.

pretty seamlessly. The Sounders are never at a point where they don't have enough players to do proper training exercises. Again, I only see the Sounders, but they have really done an amazing job of integrating the entire pipeline that i would think is bordering on common sense but probably still something a lot of teams don't do

All right, next one is from Green Caribou. This summer really struck me as remarkable how it seems every player that comes up from Defiance seems to be mentally and emotionally ready and not overwhelmed by the moment. They look like they believe they belong. What does Defiance do to prepare these young players, especially teenagers, for the move up from a mental standpoint? Well, I think a big part of it is that these players already know each other pretty well. And I think that's partly...

the result of they have these integrated training sessions. But for instance, Snyder Burnell preseasoned with the Sounders, not just this year, but last year as well. And so they're pretty good about identifying players who they believe. have real MLS potential and entrusting them to sort of be able to meet the level. Osazi De Rosario preseasoned with the Sounders this year. Kalani Kosarienzi.

preseason with the Sounders this year. I think he also did last year. So they're really good about identifying players and moving them through and giving them lots of opportunities to get reps with these players so that when they come in, it's not really a new player. It's someone who already has a rapport, who they already are maybe even friends with some of the first-teamers. So I just think it's not as much of a...

What's the right word? They're not surprised by anything, you know, a culture shock, culture shock. That was the word I was trying to think of. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's key to like, it's such a huge change to go from. playing an X-Pro and being a developmental player to there's enough already without every element of it being intimidating.

All right. Last of the Defiance and Academy questions is from Paulsbo Sounder. Are the Sounders looking to expand their Academy footprint? How can they parlay the season success of our Academy slash Defiance graduates into further recruitment of young talent? That I don't have as much insight into. I know at one point, I think they cut their U15 team, although I think it may have come back. They have a U17 team and a U19, I believe, at the academy level.

I'm not 100% sure what the status of that is, but they've done some stuff which is maybe corner cutting a little bit if you choose to look at it that way, where they don't have a full... Like the U15 thing, I believe they cut briefly. And a lot of folks were kind of frustrated by that, understandably, because they were sort of...

Losing a full-time team and instead of that, they were kind of creating these sort of hybrid teams where they would call up players from the best players from local clubs. And sort of like have them as guest players and things like that. Although I think now that they've, I think they're back to having a formalized U15 team, but, uh,

They do have a lot of connections to the local academies. I know, especially Seattle United, they work with pretty closely. And that's sort of how they go below the U15. And I'm sure I know a lot of clubs have teams that go down to like U9.

and that are directly affiliated. The Sounders do not do that. I suppose they could expand, but I think their attitude is it's better to cast a really wide net early on like that. And so what they do is they provide... lesson planning and and coaching sort of tips to the local academies and so they try to they don't it's not their employees that are that are implementing these these plans but they have

the plans that are there entrusting to these other academies, I guess. And so they probably could expand that. I don't know that they are. I don't know if that's really the answer that's being sought there, but that's, that's what I know.

So I guess I'll ask you this, Aaron. It's from Josh. It says in preseason predictions, Jeremiah called out Georgie's take on ability as a possible influential X factor in 2025. And after this tournament, even in very limited minutes, I think we can officially say he's come good on that prediction. He needs minutes.

but given the performance of others ahead of him right now and players trickling back from injury, it's hard to see how his significant minutes will materialize anytime soon. How do you think about this conundrum? Is the situation really all that likely to change much for him in 2026?

It's a good question. I think that right now, Georgie is not a 90-minute player under ideal circumstances, right? Like, I think maybe there are some teams in the league where he would be, but I think right now he is... very much best deployed the way he was deployed against center miami and and just as a later game sub to run at people take people on make something happen that's not to say he can't you know

be effective as a starter. He's just not a guy I think that's close to starting, especially for the Sounders. But I think he's going to continue to get chances because he keeps taking advantages of. taking advantage of the chances he's being given. These teams have not figured him out yet when he's deployed that way. He makes things happen. He creates chaos.

And I think he's getting more confident. I think the goal he scored against, I think that would have been... Tijuana? Tijuana, yeah. The one where he got sent off, unfortunately. But, you know, that's, I think... That had to be a big confidence builder for him because he's tried that move a few times where he cuts in and tries to curl one in and it hasn't gone well. I think finally connecting on one is going to be good for his confidence for sure.

And winning that penalty against Miami, I mean, it was proof of just how dangerous he can be. And so, yeah, I think he's going to continue to get minutes. I don't know that his... role necessarily is going to change that much going into 2026 but i think he is going to be i think he came into the season as a guy who needed to prove he could be effective in this role and so it was really hard for him to get any kind of minutes

earlier in the season. And I think he's going to get very regular minutes down the stretch. And I think he can parlay that into, you know, maybe having twice as many minutes next year as he does this year and maybe getting a few more starts, especially, you know, in... secondary competitions. So yeah, I think that the situation will change in the sense that he's going to go into next year as a bigger part of the plan.

than he was coming into this year. And he'll be able to build on that rather than having to sort of come and improve himself as an option that can be trusted off the bench. I think the best upside for him right now with players coming back is that. Brian Schmetzer has sort of been given a real piece of evidence that the Sounders are deep, that they can rotate, that they don't have to

rely on the same group of players every game, especially during fixture congestion. And so my hope is that even as players get healthy, that they still use a lot of these rotations and that it's done more out of a... position from strength and less of a position of need. And I think that might happen. I think there's reason to believe that that could happen and that Georgie presumably will be in a position to...

benefit from that. Like, I don't think he's going to be a regular starter, but I think he's going to get minutes. Yeah. All right. This one is from good looking. That's wow. Confident. Is there an update on Stuart Hawkins? All right. Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on. Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE-certified master technicians. And if you need help...

We could recommend to shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. Auto Parts.

Unfortunately, there is – well, I'll give an update. It's not great news. My understanding is he sort of suffered a setback in his recovery from the hamstring injury that he suffered. Unfortunately, the original one, I believe, happened while he was doing a post-game sprinting after playing off the bench.

So that's not great. And then I think he may have hurt himself again in the weight room, maybe again while in recovery, which is not great. So hopefully he is getting closer. He was it's it's funny. He's kind of become a forgotten. But at the beginning of the year, he was having an amazing season for Tacoma Defiance. And Tacoma Defiance season has sort of gone off the rails a little bit, which seems to have coincided with him no longer being available.

So that's been too bad. He's also going to end up missing out on the U-20 World Cup, which is a bummer because he probably would have been a useful player for the United States in the U-20 World Cup. So kind of a bummer for him. Hopefully he's...

back sooner than later but i think it's still a few weeks away uh this one's from danger dane how seriously are the sounders considering moving masovsky and yamar in this offseason for how much possible for how much possibly. Masovsky seems like a no-brainer, but Yamar seems like the kind of guy who they can hold on to a year too long rather than a year too early. Then let go a year too early.

Yeah, so I can't I can't obviously speak to how seriously they're considering it. I would guess that they have to be considering it pretty strongly. It's. I think that you're right that under better circumstances, Yamar is a guy that you want to see a sign that he's not the player that he has been this year before you cut ties. But I think they're going to be in kind of a difficult situation next year if they want to add talent.

And I think that there is a real risk to just totally running it back, no matter how good they are this year. And we've seen that play out before. So I think they've got to at least be thinking about it. I'm less convinced, honestly, at this point that Masovsky is as much of a no brainer as I was a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, I think there's a good chance he's going to set the single season goal scored record for the team.

I think it's hard to move a guy like that, man. I still think it's the right decision. I just think it's going to make it a lot harder, especially because I think that the return that they're likely to get on him as a 30-year-old who has had one season. anything close to this one is gonna be less than what it seems like maybe they should be getting um and they you know i can see how they don't really want to have that kind of pr hit i guess but uh

I definitely think it's on the table for both of them. And I would say that you're correct that Musovsky is probably the more likely to move. But I really wouldn't be shocked to see Amar move because I think he's got a ton of value to teams that... need a player like that to get them over the hump you know yeah i think that's that's the the conundrum i think is i don't know what the market's going to be like for danny masofsky i agree on paper if you can move one

Masovsky is probably the one that you feel like you can live without because you have a sort of ready-made replacement for him. Most likely Jordan Morris is going to be the starter next year. Even if Danny Masofsky scores 20, 22 goals, I don't eat. He could have an amazing season, but I think Jordan Morris is still probably the odds on favorite to be the starting number nine next year.

And Osase de Rosario is right there as a very viable backup. And so that leaves you with a player who you can potentially move for. assets. But who knows? Maybe it's Osazi de Rosario. Maybe Osazi de Rosario actually has real value and you can get a good return on him. So I don't know. I don't think either one of these are very simple.

But the only reason you trade Yamar is not because you don't believe he's going to be good next year. It's because you believe you can get a real return for him. And I don't know what it would take for the Sounders to trade him. But I do know that they sort of have to consider doing some things like that because otherwise they're going to sort of be stuck in the same.

cycle that they've been stuck in previously which is that they just don't have enough resources to make really bold moves and then but i don't know maybe they after this year maybe they feel like they don't need to make bold moves that's also possible yeah so who knows

It is. Yeah, it's possible. I think the concern I have there is that they've felt like that before. And then it turned out that the complacency caused issues. So that does make me a little nervous. Yeah. Speaking of Osaze, next one is from Boomstick315. How radically has the internal appraisal of Osaze changed over the course of this run? Does the front office see him as a viable second option for next year or even as a possible first choice in the long term?

I have not heard a lot specifically in that level of detail, but I do know that their opinion of Osaze has changed in the last year. Now, has it changed in the last few weeks? That's not usually how high-level soccer talent evaluators work. They like to see players doing well. I don't know that he's doing anything so dramatically better.

They are suddenly changing their opinion of him, but he has been really, really good. I know I've changed my opinion of him. I know that I did not expect him to hit the ground running the way that he has. There weren't a lot of people that would have been suggesting this, although I will note that Matt Doyle was an early person saying, look at this guy's MLS Next Pro numbers. I think this is going to translate.

And it really has translated. It's translated remarkably well. And again, sort of like Masovsky, it's not like he's on some finishing heater. He's just really, really good at getting himself into outrageously advantageous positions.

Yep. All right. This one is sort of a two part question. The first one is from Spaceman Spliff and he says, how excited are you to be entering the CONCACAF Champions Cup in the round of 16? Do we think we largely run back the same roster or where might we make some changes? And then Boomstick had a similar question or a related question.

saying realistically, how hard is it going to be hold onto this team? How many departures do we think we expect this offseason? So first question, I do think there is a big benefit to entering the Champions Cup later. Although, having that round is nice prep for the MLS season. You get maybe an extra, but I would rather enter later. That first round has just been a round where we see guys get injured a lot.

over the years and i'm i'm happy to not have to shift probably to central america or to the caribbean although maybe an mls sometimes it's an mls team but it's it's nice to not have that variable to worry about It is. And the Sounders have twice been knocked out of Champions Cup or Champions League by Central American teams in that round. It's nice to not have to deal with. In terms of the roster, though, I think that the roster is largely going to be the same. I think that...

Pedro de la Vega is likely to be back unless he plays so well down the stretch that we get a crazy offer for him, which is, I think, I mean, it's not out of the question. But I expect him back. I expect Jesus back. Jordan. All the DPs, all the key players. But I think we probably see some turnover on the fringes. And I think Ryan Kent is unlikely to be back. I think that he's been...

His injury has really hurt him because his absence just hasn't been felt at all. And that's got to be a tough place to be for him. But I wouldn't be shocked to see maybe somebody like Yamar. leaves maybe somebody like masovsky leaves as we discussed um you you kind of put the the d-row bug in my head as well um maybe he's i hadn't really thought about it either it was sort of like a real-time sort of uh epiphany that that might be something that could happen

The Steph Fry decision is going to be a big one. I am pretty sure that Andrew Thomas will be the starting goalkeeper next year. And so they're going to have to talk to Steph about... If he comes back, like what number makes sense for everybody? And is he okay being more of a backup? And if he's not, you know, they'll have to, I would think they'll have to bring in another backup from outside the organization. Yeah.

And then who else are potential players that, and then that's the thing is that there's not Joe Paolo is another one who I would think won't be back. New who will be an interesting one. I have to imagine they will be exploring trades for him, especially sort of with the, you know, one of the more important performances, frankly, in the final was Reed Baker Whiting and not because he was so great, although he had some.

Real highlights. The ball he played to Paul Rothrock for the breakaway was about as perfect of a pass as he could make. Yeah. And I thought he held up very well defensively. You know, he wasn't perfect, but... I think it showed that the Sounders don't necessarily need new who and sort of all the trade-offs that come with him. Right. So it'll be interesting to see what ends up happening. He's got an option for next year and I don't.

I think it's – the centers will probably pick it up, but I have to imagine that they're going to explore possible trades. Yeah.

All right, so a similar sort of combo question. Up next, first from Mendy, adding to the off-season departures topic, how is the future looking for Polyprimetime? Will we be able to keep the local kid local? Eric asks a similar question, but with the added wrinkle of, can you explain what happens if he doesn't come to an agreement? He isn't a free agent, so what does that mean for negotiations with other teams? Yeah, so my understanding is the Sounders were...

Pretty significant, pretty significantly apart from Paul on a contract offer. His people wanted, I understand somewhere in the $700,000 range, the Sounders were. supposedly offering somewhere in the $400,000 range. There is a reasonable middle ground there. I actually thought $400,000 was a reasonable offer a few weeks ago. But I just don't know. After you make... Rothrock, the literal poster child of your match against Leo Messi. And he then performs.

Every bit as good as you could have, you were better than you would have dared to dream. Let's be real. Like there was no realistic scenario that the Sounders could have come up with that. It would have been as perfect as it was. And so you put all that pressure on him and he performs. And then he basically says after the game, I love it. I thrive on that. This is what it's about. And I understand the conundrum because once.

Albert Rusenek comes back. I don't know that Paul Rothrock is a starter on this team because you've got Jesus Ferreira on the right. You've got Albert. Rusnak in the middle and you've got Pedro de la Vega on the left. Now there's minutes for Paul. I think that's undeniable. He will play, but in a must win game, is he a starter? I don't know that he is. And I don't think that really.

is even a knock on him because Pedro De La Vega has been the Sounders' most dynamic player for several months. Jesus Ferreira has established himself as this very solid two-way player. And again, he's doing everything the Sounders are asking. And so can you afford to pay a player who really isn't a starter that kind of money?

Yeah, you probably can't. You have to figure it out. I think that's what it is. Ryan Kent is getting $950,000. He's not a regular starter. He was never really even – they didn't necessarily expect him to be a regular starter. Right. I just think the centers are going to have to pay him. Now, what happens if they can't come to an agreement? His best option is probably to go overseas because he is not a free agent. I don't think.

he's going to get a lot in a, like I just can't see him moving within MLS. Like the centers would basically have to trade his rights. That doesn't seem very likely. His best option is probably to go to.

maybe England, and see if he can land at a championship club, which doesn't sound like the worst option for him. I would much rather him stay in MLS, but I think the Sounders have sort of created a situation where they absolutely have to... resign them they have to figure it out yeah they do and i think they will i mean i think that i do too i do not blame paul for asking for what he asked for um so i you know i think they'll i think they'll get there

Next one's from Ken W. When are they going to stop dicking around and sign Obed and read? I think that's going to get the read one. I feel pretty confident we'll get done. I think the Obed one's tricky. And the longer it goes, the trickier it gets. Right now, the first big hurdle is he's got the U-20 World Cup coming up. If he goes to that...

He's going to end up missing. I think the last potentially the last five games of the regular season. That's, that's tough. That's a tough one to sort of stomach. And I don't know if it's helps or hurts. If the sounders say like, cause the sounders I think can say no, but then you're, if Obed really wants to go and he's, he's.

not signed beyond next year? Does that create bad feelings? This is going to be a tricky one. And I don't have, I'm not going to try to pretend like I know the easy, the answer, but what I do know is the Sounders. Absolutely should be offering him the max U22 deal. I don't really see the downside to that at this point. He's shown he deserves it. It only hits the cap of $200,000. That's Adrian Hanauer's money. He just saved money by not signing.

doing a transfer, you know, signing a transfer, pay the kid, get him under contract and then figure the rest out. And I really think that's what has to happen. Yeah, for sure. That's just, that's the, you cannot let. a guy like a player like Obed get away you just cannot it's no I totally agree all right so this is another kind of combo

deal. The first one's from Aaron R. And he says, Andrew Thomas has really come into his own this summer. Fry seems like he still needs to shake off some rust from coming back from the injury. How likely is it really that Thomas will be starting by the playoffs? And then Colin McLeod. has a similar question. How does the front office navigate the Fry Thomas situation in the off season? How do we keep Thomas without souring the relationship with Fry?

So I think it's unlikely that Thomas is the starter by the playoffs. I think that Fry would have to have a rough couple of games to lose the starting job. Yeah, yeah. I just he's been I mean, he's been pretty good this season. And it's I think that it's even if you think Thomas is marginally better, I think that's a really difficult way to treat the captain of the team to say, well.

you know, you've still performed well, but we think this guy is a little bit better. So we're going to bench you for the end of what could be your last season. I just don't, I don't see that happening. Yeah. And in terms of how, you know, they navigate that situation.

I think Stephen Fry is a self-aware guy. I think he understands that his career is close to an end. I think he understands that Andrew Thomas has been really good. He looked ecstatic for Andrew Thomas after the game on Sunday. He did. And and so I think that, you know, that's a conversation they'll have to have. I think I don't I don't think.

Stefan Fry is going to feel entitled to being the Sounders starting goalkeeper next season. And I think that if he wants to start again, the Sounders will say, well, you got to go do it somewhere else. And I think he will be. I think he'll come to peace with that. I think the long-term answer is simpler.

Like you said, like it's that's the easier part. I think you get through once at the end of the season, regardless of how it's over. I think the Sounders have a conversation with Steph. Probably along the lines of we'd love to have you back.

We're not saying you can't compete, but Andrew's the starting goalkeeper at the start of training camp, and you've got to win that job from him. And that the default is Andrew's going to be our starting goalkeeper next year. We don't know what's going to happen. But that's what it is. Now, it is, I think, a lot trickier right now, in part because Andrew Thomas just had a spectacular League's Cup. Now, he wasn't tested.

ton but he passed every single test he was given none not the least of which was the penalty shootout where he came up with two massive saves he had his upside at this point is undeniable I think there's a very real possibility that Andrew Thomas in a couple of years will be one of the top goalkeepers in MLS, but the Sounders have a lot of, they have seven very important.

League games to play before the playoffs. And I don't know how they're going to navigate this. I don't. This is one I really don't envy. I don't envy Brian Schmetzer because I think probably what happens is Steph Fry is going to be the starting goalkeeper against the Galaxy at home. And then maybe maybe Andrew Tom and maybe because it's short rest, Andrew Thomas starts against Miami on the weekend. Right. Well, if Andrew Thomas plays well again.

It's going to become one of these things. It doesn't even matter how well Steph Fry is playing because if you start to believe that Andrew Thomas is this potentially great goalkeeper. who has this really high upside, it's going to be really hard not to roll the dice with him. So I don't know how this is going to play out. It's not the worst situation to be in because Stephen Fry...

is a perfectly capable goalkeeper. He might be, I don't know if he's an elite goalkeeper, but he only gives, he's a security blanket. You know, he's not going to make really bad mistakes. And the reality is that. in the two game i think it's he's only played two games right since he came back i think so yeah maybe he played three but either way he he's given up some goals but no bad like

Other than the Minnesota one, which I don't totally put on him, he's not been bad by any stretch. So it's not like he's playing himself out of the job, but this does seem to be a situation where Andrew Thomas is. just sort of like raising his level. So I don't know. It's going to be fascinating to watch. I will say as, as far as those things go. Yep. All right. We're going to close out with a question from Dorcas.

He says the standard we hold for excellent goalkeeping in MLS career is Nick Raimondo. Should Stefan Fry be the new standard or more like a co-standard with Raimondo? So I was tempted to say that I thought. Stephen Fry's had the more impressive career, but looking at their their trophies and just general career trajectories, I'm not sure that that's true.

Um, so I think it's just sort of the standard bearer of an era, right? Nick Raimondo was a standard of excellence during his prime. Stefan Fry was, and they obviously had a little bit of overlap, but, um, they weren't dominant at the same time so you know they weren't the consensus best goalkeeper in the league at the same time so i think it's just you know when people think about goalkeeping excellence uh during this period of mls

Steph is going to be the guy that came to mind, just like Raimondo was from 2006 to 2014 or whatever it was that he started to decline. Yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see how history treats Steph Rye. In the same way, even though Nick Romano never won a goalkeeper of the year... It felt like there was always sort of a recognition that he was an elite goalkeeper. And I guess Stephen Fry has enjoyed something similar, but not quite like it just doesn't seem like Stephen Fry gets the.

the juice that Nick Raimondo had. And Steph is an amazing goalkeeper whose career, he's now the only, you know, he was already the only player. In MLS history, who had won the Canadian Championship, the US Open Cup, MLS Cup, Supporter Shield, and CONCACAF Champions League. So you could just add on a sixth trophy to that. He's the only one to have won those five plus League's Cup.

That is an amazing achievement. Now, he did not start the League's Cup, obviously, but he was very much a part of that team. And his career in terms of trophies is... I believe unmatched as well. I think he has now something like nine or 10 major trophies as a, as a goalkeeper. And that's remarkable stuff. I would suspect that he's much more interested in that kind of thing. Like, how many trophies did you win? You know, what's the ride like? And I think he definitely wants to be the...

starting goalkeeper going forward, at least for the rest of the season. And so, and, and who knows, maybe he adds another, another MLS cup to that, to that trophy hall. I don't know what history will say if he's the new standard bearer, but he deserves to be. He's been an amazing goalkeeper. He's an amazing spokesperson. Hopefully this works out for everyone. Yeah. MLS has that thing that I think every league that's not the very, very tippy top leagues and teams has where.

The very best players to play at any given position aren't there long enough to really sort of etch their names in the history books outside of Landon Donovan, who was kind of a weird situation. Yeah, so I do think for a goalkeeper like Raimondo and Frey, maybe they weren't the very best keeper in the league in any given year, but just keeping that standard so high for so long is extremely impressive, I think.

I agree. It's very, very impressive. And this has turned into a fascinating year for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is... that they won a trophy for the first time since 2022 but there's all these other little stories that you can tell and stefan fry's story is definitely going to be one of those

All that said, thank you to everyone for submitting questions. We really do apologize if we didn't get to your question as it was. We did an hour and 15 minutes just on what we got. And I suppose that's a... a hint that maybe we should do these more often. Hopefully you appreciate though, that we're able to go kind of in depth and, and try to answer these questions as thoroughly as possible. With all that said though.

I want to say thank you to our sponsors, Full Pull Wines and Hacks and Ferments. Again, I want to say thank you to all our subscribers. You guys are what make this possible. This has been an exceptionally... Good month for us. We got a big boost from the messy story. A huge boost for the messy story. I have to say as a total aside, I get why. why Apple pays so much attention to Messi because, boy, it draws a lot of eyeballs.

With all that said, though, again, I'm Jeremiah O'Shann signing off for Aaron Campo and Lick It. This is No Sarietes, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. And remember, you'll never get alone. Let's go Sounders. This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Granger.

Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Grainger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

Check engine, ABS, or maintenance light on. Take the guesswork out of your warning lights with O'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE-certified master technicians. And if you need help... we could recommend to shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly. Auto Parts.