Smash and Grab: The Heritage Cup Edition!

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, O'Shens, let's go! Seattle Sanders have done it! Winners! The Southers rule the regions! Seattle Sanders is gonna be! Uchama Gooch! All creatures, great and small! As just about runs into the advertising audience. Go to our left. More goes in. Oh, what a cross! And what a goal! Where's my cop? I got a bunch of them.

This episode of Nos Arietis is sponsored by Fulpole Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pool was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders 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 to another of Nos Adietas, part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, sponsored by Full Pool Wines and our subscribers. Recording on Monday, March 16th, 2026, I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shann. Today I am joined again by Aaron Campo and our engineer Lickett. Well, the Sounders are coming off quite a week, going three and oh in three road games, with the most recent one coming on Sunday against the Sounds Day earthquakes.

The Sounders made eight changes in that game from Thursday, gave two players their first ever MLS starts. and had six players making their first starts of the season. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective, as they got a goal from Paul Rothrock and rode Andrew Thomas's hot hand to their third shutout in eight days. All in all, really not bad. Uh, Aaron, are you I don't know, how are you feeling about things right now?

I feel pretty great about things. Uh, you know, this was not a game that I think the Sounders win if you replay it a hundred times. I don't think they win it all that often, but they won the one that actually goes down in the in the standings and Um, you know, they've got six points from from the first three of this five game road trip. Minnesota looks eminently beatable at home.

If they can come back to Seattle, uh, on April twelfth with nine road points, man, that's incredible. You know, that's that's uh that would put them if they can match last year's home uh home form on a over sixty point per game pace for the year. And uh yeah, I think you have to feel great about it and

uh the Sounders absolutely got some luck in this game. Uh you know, uh San Jose was not as clinical as I'm sure they would have liked to have been. Um some big time saves from Andrew Thomas, uh the of course the incredible clearance from from uh Uh Tina Lopez. Tina Lopez. Uh and yeah, I mean but the reality is that when you have a defense as organized as the Sounders do, and when you have a team full of guys as committed to the cause as the Sounders are.

You're going to win more games like that than you probably should. Uh then you know what the numbers would tell you you should expect to do. They just They pour everything into every game. As long as there's a chance that they can get a result, they're gonna put everything on the line to get it. They have a winning mentality. Winners win, losers lose, right? And You know, the Sounders went out there and they won. They shut out the earthquakes for the first time and

uh almost a year. Yeah, that's a good stat. Yeah. I that's a good that's a good shout. Now I'm gonna look that up. But uh Yeah, the earthquakes have been scoring like crazy this year, you know. Um they they haven't played a ton of the first goal the earthquakes had given up actually. Yeah. This year. First goal they've given up this year, right? And they've they've also well, actually no, they hadn't scored that many. They'd only scored six in their first three. But still, I mean Yeah.

And, you know, like looking at the earthquakes in that game, they looked like a good team. Like, I don't think that this is a bad team that had just gotten lucky with early season results. I I don't think they're gonna be competing for the supporter shield or anything, but

They added a very good player in Team O'Verner, who I thought looked pretty good in that game. I think he's gonna he's gonna settle well in MLS and be a really key addition. I think that this, you know, based on what I've seen from them, they they look very much like a playoff team. And

If you can beat a team like that on the road, you gotta feel c pretty good about it. You know, they've got nine points from four games, you gotta feel great about that. The one loss was to an RSL team that also looks to be pretty good, especially at home. So I'm feeling real, real good. Uh if every game they'd won this season had looked like that.

obviously I'd be a little more concerned about the underlying performances, but if you put a lineup like that out there after smoking the White Caps midweek, uh, which also adds to the to the great mood. You've got to feel pretty good about getting any result you can. You know, you you you're starting two guys that were on loan. Um you you're only getting 45 minutes. Yeah. You're only getting 45 minutes from Jesus Ferrer and and Albert Rusnak.

Um, you're still missing Pedro de la Vega, you're still missing Jordan Morris, you're still missing Yamar. And they just went out, you know, thirty minutes from the roll dawn. Yeah. Um, no Kim Keehe. Um And they went out and they found a way to get it done. And that that is what a winning team does. That's what fostering a winning mentality does. And uh yeah, I don't want every game to look like that, but no, given the circumstances, I feel I feel pretty, pretty great about it.

Yeah, so uh I I looked this up. It looks like the Sounders had played eleven straight against the earthquakes. where they had given up at least one goal. And you have to go all the way back to twenty twenty one. Interestingly enough, that was the game in San Jose. Where they won on a very late Jordan Moore school, if you uh if you remember that one. And they uh yeah, that was the last time they shut out the the earthquakes. They haven't shut them out at home in

since twenty twenty. Uh and that was and that was actually in That was actually in MLS's backp uh group stage play. So they haven't shut them out at Lumen Field. Since twenty seventeen, an active streak still. Twenty seventeen is the last time the sounders shut out. the earthquakes in uh at Lumenfield. Uh

Very much beside the point, but just fascinating uh pretty crazy trivia. And the earthquakes uh in general against everybody have not been shut out since May seventeenth of last year. So Oh wow. Yeah. So this is, you know, that's a that's a team that can score some goals. And uh they didn't they didn't do it.

And they generated a lot of chances, you know, and and to get to your, you know, to address a little bit more of your point is, you know, the sounders there's a lot of stu I did a column today sort of like illustrating some of the stats that illustrated just sort of under it the Sounders were. You know, they uh only had like the the there's a stat called field tilt that mace mostly is measuring final third entries for each team. And the Sounders

tend to dominate this stat. This is like kind of one of their bread and butter stats. Uh but they were down eighty four to sixteen uh percentage wise on on field tilt, which is not good. That's Best I could tell, the lowest that they had been since I started measuring this two years ago. So that's that's not good. Uh they Only had thirty seven percent possession. That's actually not too, too crazy, but they are outshot twenty five to seven.

The even crazier stat is they gave up 17 corners and they had zero for themselves. So there was a 17. corner kick disparity between the two teams. That's tied for the largest disparity in MLS history. And suffice to say, none of the teams who were on that list won the game.

And, you know, the Sounders had struggled. You know, one of the things that Brian Schmitzer pointed out in the postgame was that, you know, last year they struggled with set pieces. We've talked about it a lot. We, you know, there's a a ton of ways to sort of illustrate it. uh the best of which is maybe that they gave up three set piece goals in the final game against Minnesota United, uh sort of illustrative of the problem that they were dealing with all last year. And I didn't count up all the

sort of attacking free kicks that Sounds a took, but they they probably took three or four of those. So you add those, they had over twenty attacking set pieces. and that they didn't score on any of them. Uh, and I'm not gonna say that the Sounders defended them all perfectly. But they they did what they had to do. You know, th there was a lot of sacrificing bodies, a lot of block shots, you know, there's a sequence.

uh, you know, around the thirty fifth minute or so where the Sounders blocked like three shots in the box, maybe all of them from Jackson Reagan. Just sort of like a real You know, a real gutsy win. And like you said, you don't want to play like this every week. But when you're facing a situation like they were this week, Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to win, and you don't spend a lot of time analyzing what you did wrong. You spend a lot more time looking at what you did right.

Yeah, and I think that that's the that's the right way to look at a game like this, especially given the extenuating circumstances in a game like this. And they they gave themselves a chance to win. I think that A lot of the way the rest of the game flowed happened because the sounders scored a goal in the twentieth minute. Right. Right. That's an also an in a good point.

And I think that because they looked pretty sprightly, pretty decent early on. Um you know, they're twenty five minutes or so, I think they were the bet they you could argue they were the better team. Yeah, they they certainly were not as aggressive. Um, their line of confrontation wasn't as high as you would expect from from them normally, but I thought that, you know, they they looked perfectly adequate. You know, they were very much in the game. They got a lead early.

And, you know, San Jose poured it on and they did what they had to do. And uh i I I think that this is similar to that Austin game, right, with the with Raul and and the kindergarten team. where it's d what does it really matter how it happened? Like you got the three points. It's ridiculous that you got the three points out of this game and you wouldn't have done it without a very committed, disciplined performance.

Um and yeah, I was I was really impressed, you know, with with the performance the that the kids put in. I thought that the veterans that were in in there as well, um, put in a really solid performance. I thought Newhoo was great again. Um Yeah. Jackson Reagan Jackson Reagan was incredible. Yeah. Um Newhoo I will say, you know, because I I've I'm a person who has been hard on New Who a lot over the last few years, and this year I think he is back to his absolute best.

Um he seems Yes, I would agree with that. He's been incredible defensively. He seems a little more um I don't want to say disciplined'cause that's not really the right word, but he seems to have a better a clearer idea of what he wants to do in the attack when he goes forward. Um he's put in some pretty dangerous balls, he's picking his spots a little better, so

Uh I I just wanna say he's he's been great. Um Reagan was great. Uh Lopez I thought was was really impressive. I hope he did earn that contract because I I mean deserves it. Yeah. Would you rather have Tino Lopez on this team or some random freely available USL level center back? You know, I would I would certainly like to see what Tino Lopez can do in that spot. Or some freely available former MLS player who might just be

looking for a job. I mean I at this point, Dean you know, Tino Lopez has upside. He's twenty three years old. He's got some athleticism. He's got some decent size. But what really impressed me about Tino Lopez was overwhelmed by the moment. You know, he never was just booting balls out just to sort of clear his lines. There was, you know, he had a couple moments of real composure where he, you know, he took the space, where he made passes that were incisive.

And he just looked like a player who understood that this was this was an a chance to audition, not just a chance to, you know, uh Not blow it. You know, he was he was out there sort of like trying to win a spot, not avoid losing a spot. And on the same token, Peter Kingston. Uh I was I was not I I was that was the thing I was most concerned about, to be honest with you. When I saw this lineup, I had kind of

figured they were gonna do something very similar to this, but I I did not think they would start Peter Kingston and Nikola Pekkovic in the defensive midfield. And I thought that was probably gonna be a little soft. And it wasn't, you know, I don't I don't think that was their problem really at all. Was that defensive midfield was not was not bad. You know, Pekovic is not exactly a he's certainly not a sick.

Uh and I I think that that's maybe something we learned from this. But he has some real attacking instincts. He can spray a ball around. You know, he he did good about getting into space. I liked what I saw from him, but he's he's like I said, he's not he's not a six. Peter Kingston, I don't know if he's a six either, but he showed some of that.

Uh he ha and then he also had a couple really good plays. You know, he uh in another world he has a second he he helps the sounders score a second goal. That ball he played to to Paul Rothrock right at the start of the second half. uh easily could have been a goal. Uh he so he he had that really nice breakaway where he he was selfish, which I'm not gonna get Too hard on him for, but he made a great run, took a great touch into space, should have passed to Masovsky, but I mean, just another like.

uh a guy taking the opportunity to be aggressive, make a good play, which I do think is a is an an impressive instinct in a situation like that.

Yeah, I I will say if there was one frustration I had in this game, and I wouldn't say it was disappointment, because I whatever, uh they it wasn't ended up not being that big of a deal. But I don't know that any of the veterans who came in off the bench Actually help. as much as I would have liked. You know, Albert Rusnak in particular, you know, it was his turnover that led directly to the

to the press and judge chance that Lopez made that amazing play on. And then he he was offside on the goal that would have sealed the game. And I just want to talk about that moment a little bit. Yeah. Uh, you know, it was funny in the postgame they showed the the film and Branch Metzer is like You know, you you fucking blue what do you say? He you o you owe him a f fucking apology or something. I don't know. It was like he said some colorful language to Albert jokingly about Cody Baker

And and Albert is just like, Yeah, you know, just kinda shrugs and it's like, What are you gonna do? And I on one hand, I don't really blame him for being off side there because he was so far off side that there really wasn't I don't think there was really anything he could have done to get on side. Uh and if anything, what Brian said is

Look, just like go farther off. Like get out of the way. Yeah. Like you gotta like sort of get out of the way there. And uh and At the same time, uh, I gotta say, I I think that call is correct as much as it was frustrating to see. I I don't understand how anybody could possibly have a problem with that call. Um if you are in that spot you are impacting the play. Uh whether or not the goalkeeper was fully screened and couldn't see the ball, couldn't see the shot.

Whether or not there was a deflection, none of that stuff matters. He is standing directly between the last defender, the ball, and the goal. And so, um, it that's gonna affect something. You just and you just can't be there. And it's it's frustrating. Um I I would have to to look to watch the full play again to say confidently, but I

felt like there was never really any reason for him to make the run that put him in that position in the first place. Like it was just I mean he was making a I I mean, I think he was making a an honest run off of so what the way it starts is Osai has it sort of out on the wing. Uh and by the way, it's it's kind of a funny whole sequence because

Rothrock is very close to being offside on the initial ball in. He makes an amazing touch to to just bring it down smoothly and to start that sequence. And I think where if I remember correctly where Rusnak falls off or starts to go offside is he's sort of playing

Osase to play to like he's making himself available for Osaz to play him the ball, but then one on once Osazay plays it square to Cody Baker, there's no hope. You know, he's he's kind of hopelessly offside at that point. And I think to Brian's point, he's saying like He needs to just get at that point you gotta get out of the way. Like you just don't

You can't you have to take yourself out of the play. And he and he doesn't really do that. You know, he's sort of I think he kind of knew also uh the way he reacts is sort of like sheepish and like Ooh, I I I wasn't really involved. Uh and and I guess I can see some I I guess I see some people's point, uh whereas there was a time when that could be

goal that kind of call was not made very often. But we s I feel like we see it made all the time now. I mean it wasn't right you you can go through the you know the last couple of weeks, I guarantee you will find two or three much, much more borderline Instances where that was waved off, where a goal like that was way above off. Yeah, I I would imagine so. I for me if If this isn't an example of of the non involves but impacting offside exception, right?

then the rule might as well not exist. Like right. This is this just feels like the the clearest possible case of it. I was honestly pretty surprised it didn't get flagged initially because I I I think you had said that the the initial var review was actually to see if Rothrock was offside initially. Yeah, that's in uh that's well apparently why it took so long is they were initially seeing if

if Rothrock was offside. And it would have been a more straightforward decision. Like there's no for sure there would have been no need to sort of like, well, is he is he offside or is he not? And I I mean I'll be honest. I when I watched the replay I thought it was probably gonna be offside. Uh I guess they they ultimately decided that it was it was too close and and so they at that point they went to the next the next part of the play.

Uh I I don't love how long it took. I uh you know this has been sort of like a thing this year where replays seem to be taking way too long. But I d I don't know. I like look, if the call is correct, I just You know, like this like I g the Hosani Dotson goal should have stood. Like there's no question about that. This one

I think it's a pretty I think it's a pretty obvious call. I I think that it's just uh if if that goal comes against us and a player is in the uh on the other team is in the same position, you want it waved off. You want it waved off. Yeah. Especially if it goes. I think. Right. So yeah, it's frustrating. It does suck for Cody because it was a it was a great take. You know, there was a deflection, but he put it in a good spot. Um to for to force the deflection. I don't think he does.

He does have an MLS goal, right? No, that would have been his first MS goal. He I don't even honestly I don't know he doesn't have a lot of goals, period. Uh no, no, not much of a goal scorer. Um No, he's not. Although he had two Pretty deep and here's another player who had not really you know, he played a little bit I guess he's played a little bit this year, but he has not had a big role and

He, you know, he also looked really good. He was matched up against Timo Werner the entire game. And yeah, he got beat a few times. But he never looked out of his he never looked out of, you know, like he was out of his element or that he was just overwhelmed by by anything. Like he was

Uh I mean I thought he held his own. I I was really happy with him. I mean, so much so that I would uh I I feel very comfortable about him being sort of the bat essentially he's he's like the backup left back at this point, uh even though he was playing right back in this game.

I thought he was he was good. I I liked him a lot. You know, he he can do a job and it was a good reminder that he you know, he's never not looked up for it. I I mean that's sort of the He has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle a little bit, but at no point has he looked like he was that this league is at too high of a level. He he's a great guy to have around. Like he's just the the perfect example of this is a really handy guy to have around because there's nothing about his game that

screams out, We've gotta play this guy more, we've gotta find minutes for this guy. Right. Because there's like there's just there's not this upside that I I don't see this upside with him, at least at this point, where it's like We need to make a spot for this guy to get more minutes, but I never get nervous when I see him in the line.

Um I mean Timo Werner has made fullbacks with much greater pedigrees than Cody Baker look pretty foolish. And Cody Cody Baker didn't look especially foolish at any point in this game. And um You know, he was in there to do a job and he did that job really effectively. Yeah, Cody Baker, by the way, does have one career goal. Uh it was like

three years ago. So it would have been a pretty nice a nice thing. It's this feels a l like it'll be kinda like the Danny Laba thing, I suppose. Although Danny Leva really does seem snake bit by the the lack of gold things. But yeah, I mean I I Uh, you know. I I didn't think I guess Christian and Alex were fine in this game. Uh, you know, Osaz was okay. Uh

Danny Masovsky did not do enough with his start. I was really I had really high hopes for him. I w I had really high hopes for Georgie Manungu too. And uh, you know, he made a couple he had it looked like he was close to making something happen. But he he was not I would not say he was a additive part of the Sounders in this one. But Jesus Ferreira made another, you know, he he was again one of the Sounders most dangerous players.

Uh a very I uh a very good performance by him. He the ball he gives to Rothrock on the goal is just absolutely perfect. And And I'm very much here for Jesus Ferreira redemption tour as a playmaker. Yeah, he's been incredible this year. Um, I know that some of the advanced metrics haven't loved his performance, but I I I think that that's a lot of that is just they value specific things. Yeah. Um Because he's been, I think, incredible. Um, he's he's never going to be the

ball security robot that Albert Rusnak is. Um but he's gonna take chances and pull off things that Albert Rusnak isn't. And I think that they're pretty complimentary players to have. And you being able to slot Jesus in and get uh Albert a little bit of rest and not feel like there's that much of a drop off is is extremely it's a it's a luxury to have that. And I I think that, you know, he he has a great obviously has a great synergy with uh Paul Ari Ariola, but

I just feel like he clicks with pretty much all the attacking players on this team. Like he he knows them really well. He's pretty consistently making dangerous passes, anticipating runs. I think that for him to really take the step up to be the player that everybody wants him to be, and the and the kind of player that I think he knows that. that he wants to be, he needs to get a little more goal dangerous and be a little more involved closer to goal. But

I mean, for the contribution that we're getting for him, it's hard to have any complaints. It took him some time to to get adjusted, but that happens a lot with attacking players, especially creative attacking players. They can't all be Nico Ladero, right? They can't all hit the ground running with a new team. Um, but he seems very comfortable now in the system and and yeah, he's been uh you could make a case that he's been the most important player so far this season. Um pretty you know

You could you could definitely make that case. He's only taken two shots. Right. Both of them are headers, oddly enough. One of them I think forced a pretty in impressive save save as well. Yeah, they're both on goal. Uh so I can't sit here and say I remember exactly Yeah, he yeah, he did make one that was a very good uh a very good header and it was against Saint Louis, I guess. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I I feel like I remember that one. Yeah.

Uh but yeah, he's I I would say that that's been sort of the ongoing frustration with him since he got here is there he's just not been You know, for a guy who's who's not that who's a young player who really made his career as a goal scorer, he has not been I mean, he's not been selfish. He's not been a player who is looking for his own shot as much as you would expect and he he just doesn't shoot as much as you would expect. And he's not really in those

parts of the you know, he's uh just not even in in the in the box a lot, uh which is is is kind of weird. But I I'm I'm loving him if he wants to have fifteen assists while playing as a pocket winger. I have absolutely no problem with that. I mean he had seven he had seven assists last year. Yeah. He's already got he's got four and four games this year. So Right. Yeah. It's a he's on he's on a good trajectory for sure.

Uh I yeah, I mean uh like I said, I found a lot more to be happy with in this game than I did to be frustrated with. You know, you can definitely throw your hands up and point. There's a lot of things you can point to as saying, like, well, I don't want to play this way. Okay, fair enough. But I wanna I wanna win games when we're rotating eight starters out. You know, I wanna I wanna be able to do that. I I whatever you gotta do.

to get results when you are this rotated. I am here for it. And they set themselves up nicely for Wednesday. I mean, let's not lose sight of that. That this was a game where they needed to they needed to rest a little bit and they cannot you know, I think if anything, we saw on Sunday when Vancouver put six goals up on Minnesota United. that they cannot go into Wednesday assuming they've already won. That would be a huge mistake.

It would, yeah. And that would be a pretty brutal way to uh knock some of the shine off this early season. It sure would. Uh so yeah, you've gotta you gotta take care of business. Um Vancouver is very dangerous. I think you've gotta feel comfortable going into that game, right? You gotta Yeah. But I mean, weird shit happens, man. Uh, in in Champions League especially and uh Yeah, I mean...

Sounders defensively a little bit better than Minnesota, I think it's it's fair to say, but still, you know, they don't need to score six. They only need to score four. So Right. Um I think it would be real, real nice to get an early goal on Wednesday and uh and put it to bed. Here here's a fun uh stat before we before we close out this segment. Uh guess how many crosses the Sounders had in this game? I uh uh uh ten. I don't know. Zero. Zero crosses. Insane. I

assumed it must be wrong. So I went and looked at a different website and it apparently it's not. Zero crosses. Well I mean I and I guess that doesn't totally shock me because

So many of the Sounders crosses, they are not a heavy crossing team. And to the degree they get crosses, it's usually on corners because those are, I believe, recorded as crosses. And they had no corners, so I guess there is some Logic it it doesn't I guess it shouldn't blow my mind that much, but that is it definitely speaks to uh you know, crosses are coming out of

sustained possession usually. And the Sounders did not have a lot of sustained possession, especially in the attacking third, which, you know, I I do think that that's again, uh, just to circle back on this. You know, if you're gonna be frustrated about the way they played, I will note that They had four or five high quality attacking sequences in this game. You know, Rothrock himself said, you know, I probably should have had at least two goals.

There was the one I talked about with Peter Kingston and then there was that one that came shortly after his goal where Pekovich played him in and he was he was in on goal. If he just taps it over to Georgie Manungu, that's that's probably a a goal. Uh, but he he doesn't really control it at all and and end uh ends up not really turning into much.

But you know, those are the kind of like the centers were willing to attack. This was not just sitting and absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. There was a game plan here. And I think that's important to note that this was not just

You know, that they they went into this thing with a with an idea of what they wanted to do and and they they basically did it. I don't I'm not gonna sit here and say they intended to give up twenty five shots or you know, allow the the kind of quality opportunities that that San Jose got, but this was I don't know. It was a it was a good performance. I don't I don't I just don't have a problem with it. Yeah, no, I don't at all hate you. You save the uh

your philosophies of football and sticking to your identity, you save that for when you've got most of your guys available. Yeah, exactly. If you if you're starting yeah, and you're playing at home. You're you're starting a couple loanies, you just do what you gotta do to get it done.

And you know, I think that i if they get a point out of this game, everybody is probably pretty thrilled. Um the fact that they got three with that approach, I think That suggests that it was probably probably the right decision'cause I think if they go out there and they try to counterpress and they have a high line of confrontation, they probably get torched pretty badly.

Yeah. One one more thing I just wanted to get your thoughts on. Uh we're gonna and then we'll we'll come back and talk a little bit more about the Vancouver series. But the the the big play of the game ends up being the clearance that Tino Lopez made.

I I think we both agree that that's a just an outstanding play of hustle, but also skill. Uh but uh what I'm curious on your thoughts were You know, Jackson Reagan, I think there's a lot of discussion of whether or not he got away with the penalty there. And after watching it, I'm not

I'm not as convinced that it's the stone cold penalty somewhere having us believe. Like if it got called, I don't know that I could complain. But the the reason it didn't go to VAR, I think, is cause Judd slows down and sort of kind of for like almost like draws the contact. And and since he gets a a good shot off, it's it clearly has not you know, stopped him from doing that. But am I being too pol am I being uh too rave green glasses on that one?

I mean I I don't think you are. Um if I were an Earthquakes fan, I'm there's a pretty good chance I would think that you are. Um fair enough. The way I always try to look at situ uh calls like that, right, is how pissed off would I be if this didn't get called for us? And I feel like this is one where I would have been frustrated and said, Man, I wish we had a ref that would have given that penalty.

I I mean I I do truly think that that's the case. I think that um on first look I I also thought that it was pretty lucky to get to get away with no call there, but Uh they showed the clearance a million times as they should have. Uh and with each successive watch it was pretty obvious what had happened. Um that, you know, he he did just slow up to to get a better chance at the shot off.

Jackson does have to control his body there and not bowl him over, but he he did that. I don't think he really put him off too much. Yeah, I don't think he put him off too much. Um, I think the reason that that wasn't a goal is because Andrew Thomas made a a good save and and Tina Lopez made a heroic clearance off the line. Um so yeah, I think that if it gets called

I'm probably annoyed about it, but I probably accept it um as, you know, a reasonable call. But I I don't think we have any reason to feel guilty or that we really gotta. Sure, you know. Yeah, and I think it's it's sort of a part of the adage of this is why you don't leave your feet. Like you're almost always more likely to get the benefit of the doubt if you make that sort of an upper body shove instead of a lower body tackle. Uh

And, you know, I'm I don't know, I guess I think I'm we I think that's a good way of putting it. Like I Like this has happened to Jordan a bunch of times, and I don't think he's ever gotten that call. No. And look, if if Judd goes down, is it a penalty? Probably. But you know, the the reason he doesn't go down, I think, is because he still has what he thinks is a good shot. Yeah. I mean that and that's that's the the proof is in the putting there for me, right? Every striker in the world.

has a pretty good sense of whether or not they have a better chance of scoring than, you know, to make it worth it to stay on their feet. Uh, he should have he probably should have scored. I mean, I I don't want to take anything away from Andrew Thomas or Tina Lopez, but

I think he probably should have scored that. Uh and he and he didn't. And I don't think it was because Andrew Thomas or uh Jackson Reagan bumped into him lightly. I I think it was because he just didn't finish it all that well. And uh it's just it's just that simple.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, uh, all right, let's take a break. We're gonna come back. We'll talk a little bit more about the Vancouver White Caps game and uh some other stuff that's going on in the world of the sounders. You're listening to Nose Audio. on the Sound at Heart Podcast Network. Senator at Hart has been around in one form or another since 2009. In 2026, though, we make a pretty significant evolution when we go analog. Yes, that's right. In the year of our Lord 2026.

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Welcome back to Nos Adiatus on the Sound R at Heart Podcast Network. All right, so a couple little housekeeping things before we get to the White Cast preview. One is it looks like I am gonna be on Q thirteen's Good Morning Seattle show tomorrow, uh at like ten thirty. So

I was supposed to be on last week and I got canceled because of uh snow. Apparently that was a lot more compelling than soccer. Uh I don't know. I can't guarantee that I will actually be on, but uh if you happen to hear this before and you wanna watch me look like a fool on T V, this is your opportunity.

I'll I'll be j I'll be watching. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I'm sure uh some friends will be watching and I'm sure I'll get all kinds of notes about me. Uh my wife will make sure I shave and pluck my nose hair and maybe even comb it. Uh comb the top of my head. Uh And uh you're not gonna wear hats? I won't wear a hat, no. Oh wear a beanie. Yeah. There you go. That would be a slick move, wouldn't it? It would. Yeah. It would be uh Uh I'll also note we have some new stickers in the Sounderheart store.

Uh it is a sticker designed by Lickett and it's going with the fur the uh Ferrera Ariola thing, combining them into one inspired by Tim Foss Ferrari. Uh it's a fun little sticker. looks like the Ferrari logo, kind of with a with a whale. So those are available to to purchase, or if you are a I think a supporter above. You can get some for free if you wanna uh figure that out. Uh and I will also just remind people that we still have magazines for sale.

And if you haven't gotten it, please get in contact with me. I've I've fielded too many of these to realize that uh some some did not get to their intended recipient and I apologize, but if you haven't gotten one, it's probably lost in the mail. Uh so get in touch. Th the US mail apparently is not as reliable as it once was, if you Not hurt. I don't believe that. Right. Thing a lot of things don't work how they used to these

Uh yeah. But we should look into that. Somebody should we should look into that. We should somebody should do something about that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So we have uh a game on Wednesday in Spokane. I am planning on driving out there and potentially driving back in the same day, like we did for the game against Vancouver, except for twice as far. Uh I don't know that this is the best plan and so

you know, wish me luck, but I this way I am able to take my kids to school the next day. So that's you know, that's a important part of the familial responsibility.

And uh you don't care about that. You just want to talk about the game, I bet. So let's let's talk about this game. Aaron, do you think that playing in Spokane is gonna be a plus or a negative for the sound? Positive or negative? Pff Uh I mean I think that anytime you have to travel for a game, it's probably worse than not having to travel. So in that sense that's there's logic in that. You know, that's probably but it's not a crazy trip.

Uh a forty five minute flight, I think, is what I not too bad. Uh it's gonna be, I think, a really good crowd. Um, it'll be a fun environment. Yes. Uh I I think that, you know, the people there are gonna be really excited to get a chance to

to watch a very high level game. Um, I think it's gonna be a good game. I think the White Caps are gonna come out flying, you know, they're gonna they've they've got some ground to cover, so I think they're gonna come out and be aggressive and Um so it should be a pretty entertaining game and uh yeah, so in that sense I think, you know, it it's

Not as good as playing at Lumen, although depending on how good the crowd is, maybe it maybe it's better than this game would have been at Lumen,'cause I don't think there would be that many people there. Um Probably wouldn't have happened. I mean it wouldn't be full. I think we can safely say that. Like if this game was in Lumen, it would probably be twenty, twenty five thousand people, which is not a bad crowd, but is not fuel.

Is not it was not gonna be raucous, I don't think. Um this could be electric. I mean, this really I'm excited about this. I actually think the sounders should if this goes well. And it look like and I'm not saying the result, but like the the whole thing, if it goes well, I think this is something they should look into trying to do on a regular basis. I I there's a lot of Sounders fans out on the the dry side as they call themselves. I Yeah, I mean I I like the idea, but

How do you how do you make it a regular thing? Do you just play champions cut? I don't know. I'm not a logistics guy. Um I'm not saying that. Maybe an open cup game. Right. If they ever play any open cup game again, I think it would be great to play again. Um I'm a little skeptical that they ever will play in the Open Cup again, but you know, it would be I think it would be great to play'em there. And I I'm not necessarily opposed to like if they're playing

you know, Metapon or or something like that. Yeah. Again. Right. Like one of those teams. The new format makes that far less likely. Um, but you know, I I wouldn't be opposed to to doing something like that or just playing like the inaugural champions cup game there every year that they're in the competition. I'm I'm certainly not opposed to that. They can play Leagues Cup games there.

They could they could. Somehow I think that's a good thing. I don't know if they could actually, but they might not be allowed to do that. But um they're probably less likely to be allowed to do that. I I don't know that they're I don't honestly know that they can choose to play

They might not actually have as much flexibility in this as I'm imagining because I don't I don't I think most of these tournaments that now have rules about where you're supposed to play the games'cause they don't want you to sort of move them to secondary facilities if you don't have to. Right. And You know, so whatever, maybe it's a fantasy. But I I like the idea of playing this game there, I'll just say that.

I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I will note that as of recording this, which, you know, we're recording this around nine o'clock at night, there are a few hundred tickets left because ConcaCaf was was, you know, given five hundred tickets to do whatever they wanted with and then I guess they

shockingly aren't using them and so they were re released and so there's a whole bunch of tickets that ConcaCaf had a hold on that just got released back into it. They're not cheap, you know, they're all over a hundred dollars. But Uh, you know, there's gonna be five thousand plus people there. I think it's gonna be a great atmosphere. I I would like to think that this is setting up to be a v a real you know, there's no I guess this is I I bring it up because

In a normal situation, you're going home with a three-zero lead and and there could be a let off. You know, there could be an emotional let off. And I don't think that's really gonna happen. You know, whether or not they I I I think they there's no good reason for them to have an emotional let off here because their crowd's gonna be pumped up. They're presumably gonna have their first choice group out there, they're playing a dangerous opponent.

The sounders should be going out there and, you know, ideally looking for a win. Yeah, I think so. I mean I think that you uh if if people are gonna pack that stadium pay some pretty hefty uh prices for tickets. uh and they're gonna come out and support, like I think you you have to give'em a good show. You can't just sit there and counter and bunker and counter and just protect the lead. I think you gotta go out and be a l at least a little bit aggressive.

Obviously the most important thing is getting through to the next round, right? But uh Yeah. Yeah. Um and you know, this is by by all accounts a a a cool stadium, a nice stadium. Um so it should be I think it should be fun for the players as well. Um

A little better than Starfire, I think, would be my would be my guess. I mean I I would rather I don't okay. I don't know. I'm gonna I'm not gonna sit here and say they for sure should play. I would rather do this than play at Starfire, but I do think it's a better It's a a better overall environment than at Starfire. Sure. And I like Starfire. I say that as someone who likes Starfire.

Yeah, I think if not for the logistical issues, right? Like Spokane is further from Seattle than Starfire is. I think that's uh that's fair to say. Yes, yeah, yeah, by a little bit. But yeah, I mean I I think that uh they should still have a pretty good home field advantage.

Uh, it should be you know, it should be fun. Um I this is certainly better than when they were playing games at uh at Chini Stadium. And I say as somebody who loves Chini Stadium and boy, that would be convenient for me. But uh

You know, this is this is better. Uh I I think it's cool that Spokane gets an actual game. I certainly think that they should explore and maybe playing a friendly over there every now and again. Yeah. Maybe that's a that's maybe a little more realistic is playing an annual friendly in Spokane, which Which could also be a lot of fun. I I I think that oh go ahead. Sorry. I was gonna say that I I the impression I get is that there is a sli like I don't think five thousand people are

are coming from Seattle to go to this game. My impression is that this is a very local group, maybe season ticket holders, but season ticket holders who live over there. Right. And and probably not a lot of season ticket holders, uh, realistically. Like I would love to at some point I would like to find out the numbers, uh, how much of the how many of these tickets actually sold during the season ticket presale and how many of them were sold to

uh Spokane soccer fans. Uh I'll also note that I I think we are doing a live show with Spokane Soccer Show and l and Lobbing Scorchers on Wednesday at Flat Sick Pub, I believe it's gonna be at five o'clock. So if you wanna if you're gonna be out there, if you're listening to this and you wanna come experience the live show that is uh lobbing scorchers uh come out there. I Aaron, I just gotta ask, did you happen to watch the lives any of the live stream of us coming back from Vancouver?

Uh no I did not because I was packing. I was packing for a trip that never ended up happening. Oh well he got punished by my trip being cancelled. I know, I know that's exactly. That's why it happened. But yeah, I mean I I think the sounders should feel good about this. You know, there's not a lot of you know, I it's funny. I I went and looked up the history of

three zero wins in Sounders history in the in like two-legged series. They've never I don't think they've ever won an away leg uh by three goals in any Well, yeah, no, I don't think they've done it in any competition. They were up two zero on the road against Houston in twenty. 2019. 2019. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I would remember that if if that had happened, you know, and it like the most likely place for that.

to have happened would have been Champions League in like twenty thirteen or something, I think. Yeah. And they you know, last year I mean, they they beat they tied the most goals they'd scored in a Champions League road game, which was three, and that was in against Antigua, they done that twice. And the most recent one was against Antigua and that was a three one win. So they I they'd never like coming home with a three zero lead is

I'm not gonna sit here and say it's unprecedented, but it's really rare. Like this is not Yeah. This is This is not something the sounders, I don't think I've ever experienced this. Like I said, I I would hesitate to see there are probably not a lot of examples of anyone doing that. Like And in in a weird way, road goals kinda don't matter because if

If Vancouver needs to score four goal, like the there's not a the tiebreaker is not gonna come into play here. But um a three goal lead is great and coming home with a three goal lead is even better. Well, in the in the way that it that having that extra, that third goal does help is that Vancouver knows they have to score three goals. You know? Right. Like exactly they they have to score at least three goals.

Uh and that's just to get it to extra time, right? So it's uh it's it's a it's a pretty big hill to climb. Um as far as I can tell, the only time the Sounders have ever scored three goals and in a way like they did it twice in twenty twelve, um, against Caledonia and Marathon. So slightly h higher level of competition in the white caps. I think it's it's fair to say. Uh that Marathon team was uh

Really annoying to play. I I remember them that from even that long ago, almost 15 years at this point. So um yeah, uh I I think That the sounders are at their best, assuming that they're healthy and have a full, you know, their full compliment when they are playing their game. Um

You know, this isn't a situation like they had against the earthquakes. They're gonna have most of their guys, most of their guys that they've had this season at least. Um there's a outside chance that Jordan gets some minutes here, right? Brian hinted or not hinted, Brian said that both Jordan and Hassani could potentially be available this coming week, but not

Like he didn't commit to that. He's he made it sound he sounded more optimistic about Jordan being available for Wednesday than Hassani. But he made it sound like they could both potentially be available. I don't I don't know how much stock I don't there neither one of them are gonna start. I think we can say that. Uh I would be surprised if

either one of them play more than a few minutes. You know, I guess Hasani technically is fit. Uh it's just a matter of him going through concussion. I would just think it's easy to give him another day off if you if you can afford to do it. And they seemed the way that they set up the lineup On Sunday to me. imply or suggest that they are not expecting to have Hassani for Wednesday because otherwise

You could you could play Brunel or you could play one of these other guys with the assumption that Hassani was gonna be able to relieve them on Wednesday, but instead I would assume it's gonna be Roldan and and Brunel in the middle. Yeah. That makes sense. Um and yeah, but at any rate, um the the initial point I think was just that. There's no reason for the Sounders to sit back in a shell and let no the white caps rot at them. Um because if the Sounders get a goal and it goes to four.

it's really hard for me to see the white caps continuing to press, right? And then maybe you can take your foot off the gas and have a nice easy uh Wednesday night, you know, if they can get a goal early and and really put it to bed. Um So yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to it. Uh'cause I do expect the white caps to come out guns blazing and play really aggressively and they they certainly have the guys to do that, uh, to to put a scare any SO.

It should be fun to watch and if the Sounders are prepared for it and they play as well as they did in the first leg, maybe they score three again. Maybe this is you know, they they drop a Minnesota on them and over two right. Um and I think going into that Minnesota game, if they can get a result like that.

uh that's gonna feel pretty good. That's gonna give them some confidence and set'em up, you know, for success. And and this I think is has the potential to be tougher than their their next the the white caps as a team have a potential to be tougher than the other. The white caps are not Yeah, the White Caps are better to me than Tigris or Cincinnati. And

And that's another thing. The Sounders there is a benefit to winning this game. If they win this game, they are virtually guaranteed to host the second leg of the next series. And then they they want to keep Collecting as many points as possible because that puts them in better position to host. Uh, I don't know for certain whether or not they can host the next round at Lumen the first.

If they're if they had the first leg at home, I don't know for certain they can play it at Lumen Field, but I s strongly suspect they can. And I'm almost positive they can host the second leg at home because that would be after the April twelfth game. And I guess I might not be there for that now that I'm speaking it out loud. But Yeah. Neither one of us would be, I don't think. Yeah. Uh I picked a good time to to take a vacation, but that's how it goes.

And that's how it goes, you know. That's how it goes. Fingers crossed the vacation happy. Uh I shouldn't I should not You shouldn't take it for granted. I shouldn't No. A lot of stuff going on in the world if you haven't noticed. Yeah, definitely. It seems almost trite to be talking about vacations right now, but Uh you gotta take time for yourself, you know? You do. You do.

I agree. Well, uh, I think that's all I got. Uh I think we're gonna try to do a mailbag next week because there's a bye week. Uh the next show is gonna be coming during a bye week. So we'll have a little bit more time to air things out. So if you have questions you want to get answered, you should send submit those uh on the Discord as a reminder. We do all those our questions on the Discord. And I think that's all he got.

Think that's all we got. All right. Well, let's get out of here. I want to say thank you to our sponsor, Fulple Wines. Of course, thank you to our subscribers. Thank you to Lickit, our producer. Thank you to Aaron for once again doing this with me. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. This is No Saudi at Disc, part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. Remember, you'll never get a lot. Let's go fing sounders.