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Hi, I'm Will Bruin and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounder's legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. Here we go, what? 4 daily accordance with the joe-channel biggest for videos colliding and all that's content. They truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the sound of the bells come. Nicola Doe leads up to the ring of Doe. The sound of this rule of the region. The seal of the soul of the magical hill. The texture of the night is good to hear it.
It's a little fucking awesome. This is a tiny fucking dog. It's about a second, y'all. That fucking cat-sized chain. It was the dog process. And the use of it. First and sound are what a commentary that we didn't take over seriously. Go, go, go, go, go! Go, go, go! Welcome back to another episode of Noce Audietta, sponsored by Full Pull Wines. I am Jeremiah O'Shan, joining me today to help preview the Cascadia Cup match coming up on Saturday, which is tomorrow for us.
I don't know when this is a guy, I'm sure. It's Chris Reifer, Brenda the show, currently unattached as far as outlets go, but still one of the great minds of Timberer's coverage out there. I don't know about great minds, but definitely still fairly obsessed. Yeah, exactly. I guess that's really what I meant. He's still... If you follow on Twitter, you'll see that he still talks about the Timberer's as much as anybody. So that qualifies, and we love having Chris on.
And so thanks for doing this, Chris. Of course, I'm happy to be here. Happy to be back. Yeah. So, Chris, we have a rather big match, although the stakes go ahead. They're weirdly... The stakes are kind of weird. I know that's what this is. Which I think we actually should... We would be remiss. And if we sort of let a moment of unity go by, to all sort of collectively turn our gaze northward and point and laugh at the Vancouver White Caps right now. Yeah, so...
Almost breaking news, practically breaking news. Which will be very platform for breaking news, yeah. Exactly. When this comes out in 12 hours or whatever. But yeah, the White Cat, we just found out like an hour ago that the White Caps cannot host. If they end up in the eight-nine game, they cannot host because their field is being used by supercross, which I realize as a sounder's fan is very... It's a little glass housey for me to laugh at. But... This is worse than the car show.
This is worse than the car show. They can't play their game. They have nowhere to play. So, for the first time I believe... Maybe not the first time in Emma's history, but certainly the first time since I've been paying attention. A playoff game may be played at the lower seed, which in this case would be Portland. And if the White Caps are in this game, that is wild. Yeah, it's crazy.
I'm sure there's somebody who, you know, like Matt Doyle or something would be like, in 1999, the Miami Fusion, you know, there was something like that. I'm sure in Emma's history where... I mean, look, anything that happens in embarrassing, almost always is precedented in Emma's. Because there's just been kind of that arc, and there were some periods that were a little wild in the league. But yeah, I mean, it's really, really bad. It's very lucky for the Timbers.
I mean, the Timbers are likely just sort of playing the odds of road games and the like, likely to be the nine seed. They, in that case, they would have been going on the road where they've been to that last point abysmal over the course of the year. And, you know, that would have been bad news in the play-out, the play-in game, to go on the road. Now, they will be seemingly very likely at home, regardless of when or loss this weekend.
So, a little bit weird that changes the dynamics of the game a little bit. Maybe, I don't know. I kind of think the Timbers were always going to go for it in Seattle because of the cascading of cup implications, because it's Seattle. And because, frankly, whether you're eighth or ninth in the playoffs, the outcome is still very likely the same, that you are the veritable lion at the Gladiator Show, which is to say your day only ends one way, and that's not well.
Right. Oh, so, you know, I don't think it'll change the game that much, but it does give us an opportunity to point in life at the White Caps. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was funny because I started off this week thinking, like, wow, I don't remember when the stakes have been quite so high for a cascading cup between the Sounders and Timbers.
And sometimes you get wrapped up in that, and then I had to look back and I was like, oh, yeah, it was just 2021, where the Sounders were playing the season finale at Vancouver. And if they won that game, they would have won the number one seed in the Western Conference. They only needed a tie to win the cascading cup, which they got, but they got a tie and they didn't, they ended up with the second seed. And anyway, and we've had season finales between the Timbers and White Caps before.
So I suppose if you really, like, check yourself a little bit, the stakes are not outrageously high. The Sounders can move up to third. But and I guess the White Caps or the Timbers can move up to eight, which maybe would be fitting. But just for the sake of this, the White Caps are pretty close to stuck in eighth. They, or I shouldn't say that, they can't get much higher. The chances of them getting higher than eighth would require them winning on the road at RSL.
And then also a loss by Minnesota to St. Louis. Minnesota is playing at home. St. Louis is eliminated. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, yes, if two unlikely results go their way, they could theoretically move up to seventh. But the odds of two unlikely results going their way are not great. No, I mean, into the concept of unlikelyness. Right, right. Unlike the good, I suppose, if I want to speak English.
Right. So the, so really the stakes for the, the Timbers are not in terms of playoff seating are not very high. They're going to be, they're most likely going to end up hosting the playoff, the playing game regardless. But the Cascadia Cup is on the line. And of more than that, the original pride is on the line. The Timbers have this unbelievable, unbeaten streak at Lumen Field right now. 10 games in the regular season.
It's been since they, uh, since they last lost at Lumen Field May 27th, 2017. Do you remember where you were on May 27th, 2017? Were you out? No, I have no idea. There's a good chance I was at Lumen Field. Right. There's a very good chance I was at Lumen Field. But yeah, I, I mean, it has been that long, which is, uh, which is truly extraordinary. And, and I, I mean, something like this, I don't have much of an explanation. No, I don't think you're several of those teams.
If I were to try to get one, I mean, that basically spans the several ace of era. And they were very good at sort of getting the, we need a one-off game here kind of thing. Uh, they were, they were always fairly conservative tactically. But that's a pretty good approach. If you're sort of like, we need to win this one game, which is why you see teams like that do well in single elimination tournaments, uh, like the MLS playoffs periodically are.
Uh, and so, you know, I, I think if you want to try to find some rationale for this probably inexplicable, uh, streak, maybe that would be it. Uh, and then you might make the argument that that rationale no longer applies, because that is very much not this year's Tembers team. Uh, so, you know, but I, I think for the most part, I, you have to layer in just a, a very, very, uh, thick layer of flukiness, uh, to that streak.
Yeah, I, I, the thing that jumped out at me is that, you know, you can, if you were an alien visiting from another world and you said, oh, this is a strange phenomenon. My understanding is that home teams tend to be a lot better. And you, you could look at the numbers and they would tell a very, a story that defies logic. The sounder's average better than two points per game at home when they're not playing the Tembers.
The Tembers average less than one point per game when they're playing someone other than the sounders on the road. And yet here we are. And it's not even like the Tembers have the sounders number in this sort of unbelievable way. The sounders are 65 and one at Providence Parkering. The Tembers have lost a number of times down here in Portland. Right. Yeah. It's, it's a very, so it's, it just really does defy any sort of real logic. And yet here we are 10 games into this.
I suppose you could even tease it out a little bit more. There, there was an open cup game that the Tembers won in Tacoma. And then there was this playoff game, which always makes it kind of a complicated thing that I just stopped referring to the open. I just started saying regular season games. But yeah, yeah, yeah. The sounders did technically win a home game against the Tembers during that time. But of course, it was the, the shootout win by the Tembers.
So it didn't feel like a win for the Sounders. So we don't have a territory. If there ever was one. Exactly. But coming into this game, the Tembers were, you know, they were rolling. They beat the Sounders. Then they had a little bit of a hiccup. But then they beat the Galaxy 4.2. And it looked like they might actually make a surge up the table. They had this high flying offense. And it seemed to be sort of like all clicking into place, not in such dissimilar fashion.
Then the Sounders where they both sort of turn their seasons around around midseason. And things seem to be going really good for the Tembers. What's happened over the last four games where they've gone, they've gone, they've only lost once, but they don't have any wins in their last four. How would what's been going on there? You know, I think teams in general like the Tembers that attack very well, but don't offend well, are susceptible to these kinds of runs.
Because they're always one little bit of the cold stretch away from a string of bad results, right? Defense kind of plays every week, right? And if you have a clear defensive structure, if you're a team that sort of keeps things more simpler in the attack, but certainly keeps it clean at the back more, I think like the Sounders do, I think you're a little bit less susceptible to these kinds of blackouts.
And look, I mean, the Tembers, having watched the last few weeks, I don't think it's that they've been terrible. I think they have the, if you sit back with your glass of brandy, you say they have the better of the play in the last couple of games. Like the Kale Porter would have been all over that. Oh yeah. They dominated the last two games. And that would have been non-relational. I'm a rational boss. Yeah, honest with you. Yeah, that wouldn't have been irrational.
I mean, you watched the games, and yeah, I think they probably did have the better of the play overall in those two games. But I mean, they are where they are, and they got the results that they got. And I think they probably had some hot streaks in the attack over the course of the year, that they rode certainly that game against the galaxy. They were on one. They also went to RSL and put three in a three-three draw. This team is specialized in making gold draws this year. Oh yeah.
But you know, I mean, they've certainly had some periods in which they've been filling it up. But when you're kind of like relying on that hot hand, when it goes away, you know, the emperor ends up having no clothes. And I think that's where they've been over the course of the last few weeks in really untimely fashion.
But I will say, you know, I mean, there's going to be a lot of temptation to look at the last few weeks and say, well, this is why, you know, we weren't higher in the table at the end of the year. Once again, and this has been the same story over the course of the last three years, the original sin was back in the spring, when they got off to yet another very, very, very slow start. As they seem to every year, they started to dig themselves out of it in the summer.
But you just leave yourself no margin for error. So even if you do have a couple games where it just doesn't quite come together in the attack, that ends up being fatal instead of being something that is a blip. And so I think that's been the story for the last couple of games. I think if you're looking at the timbers from the last two games and saying, well, you know, the attack isn't potent anymore.
You're playing with fire because this is a team that did score 64, whatever goals in the 31 games that preceded that. That's really impressive. This is a team that can score goals. And so, you know, if you're a Sanders fan looking at the timbers saying, well, I wasn't worried about that attack, but not anymore. I think you're probably putting money on, on, you know, an NF2, which is dangerous.
Yeah. But you also want to have to look at the timbers defense and say, well, we're opportunities there. So. Yeah, it wasn't so long ago that they scored seven goals and backed-to-back games against the Galaxy and RSL. Yeah. This is a very potent offense. I don't think anyone who allows themselves to forget that is, like you said, is sort of setting themselves up for a nasty surprise. You know, you had a thread on Twitter, which we're still calling it Twitter. I don't know.
Yeah, I've not made the move just because I feel for a number of reasons just so dumb when I say on X. But I posted on X. I feel like 80 for multiple reasons. So I'm stuck with Twitter as well. So, but anyway, you posted an interesting thread that sort of dug into whether or not Phil Neville has done a good job this year. And I think if you would ask me at the beginning of the year, I was, I was very skeptical that Phil Neville was going to have success.
I did not think he was particularly good at Miami. He's never struck me as a particularly, you know, in sight, like he doesn't have a real defining element to his game, like he grew up as a defender. But his teams have not, or he came up as a defender himself, but his teams have not been particularly hard to score against. Up until now, he was never really seen as this offensive coach either. I thought it was a curious hire.
But I would say they've actually exceeded what my expectations were, at least far as far as the end of the beginning of the season goes. But then you look at the players that are having these outstanding seasons. It shouldn't be surprising. Santi Moreno was a very highly regarded player. Evander obviously, you know, he didn't have a great year last year, but he came in on a $10 million transfer. Jonathan Rodriguez had been scoring goals for Culba America.
Flipp and Mora had had some very outstanding seasons. The offense, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the offense is good. But how much credit does Phil Neville get for that and how much criticism diseases are for how bad they've been defensively? So I think he has to get some credit for the attack, right?
I mean, even if the talent is good, if you don't put them in the right places, even if putting them in the right places is fairly common-sensical, if you don't do that, you're not going to get the output that they have. And so I think it's fair to say that he does deserve some credit. And it's not just the fact that he's got for a really talented guy. They have built a system around capitalizing
on their talents. They've really pushed their full backs into the attack this year, especially one mascara. And that's made them really dangerous. That's sort of let, you know, you talk about how Jonathan Rodriguez has been a target winger for them. That's really let him be that target winger, right? Because he's not responsible all the time for creating a ton of width. He doesn't have to sort of do those duties and do that dirty work that sometimes wingers do have to do.
And he can be that target and be sort in, you know, really sort of maximize what he does. And so I think, you know, Neville has done a number of things like that that have put those guys in position to do well and to maximize the considerable talents that they do have. So I think he deserves credit for that. And you know, if you want to sort of break his grading down into sort of, you know, attack and defense, I think you'd have to give him a solid B plus A minus in the attack.
Yes, there's a lot of talent there. But we've seen Emma last teams that have tons of talent that have not scored tons of goals and they have. And so I think he gets credit for it and he deserves credit for it. But, and this is what like when I see the commentary in the article that Charles did for the MLS site, if I remember right.
Yeah. And I see the quotes from Neville, it leaves me scratching my head because he sort of copped in that article to being like, yeah, we tried to find different ways to play that would have tightened up the defense and it just didn't quite work. We figured out in this group that we just kind of have to go for it. And I'm just like, like when I see that, I'm like, the game model has not been stable. It's not been stable all year.
There have been these multi-gold draws and they have dropped points because their game model has been really unstable. And you're like your coach. Like that is your one job. Is it a game model that not just is the most fun or not just is the most productive in an attack in a sense but gives you the best chance to win.
And I think it is very clear that they haven't found that that there have been times when they've been really brutalized in transition where at times they've not been clean in possession which has opened up opportunities for opponents to play against the ball. I think back to a four, four result at home against St. Louis back up, I would say six weeks or two months ago where I mean that's brutal. That can't happen. And that is very much a sign of not having things right.
And when you're a coach, figuring out that system is job number one for you. And I think they've not. And so if I were to have a great em overall even if he gets a B plus or A minus in the attack, if I were to grade him overall, I think it's a C minus or a D plus. I think it's pretty inexplicable to have a team that can score 64 goals in MLS and be sitting in ninth place and going into the final round. That's not good enough.
And they should be higher because they have the talent to be and they've not capitalized on. Yeah, I think it was you who dug up another stat about how there are only I think four teams in MLS history who have three, 14 goal scorers and all the other teams are basically supporters shielded contenders. Yeah, so the the sat that I dug up, I'm sure that's correct. Somebody else gets credit for it. The one that I dug up is a few weeks ago they were on pace to score 70 goals.
Okay. And every team that has scored 70 plus goals in an MLS season has either been first or second in their conference except for one, which was. This is expansion, expansion year in Lanyl United, which I think an expansion team, especially that expansion team with Mickey on the run and Joseph Martinez. Like they were exceptional in that way but they were also still as an expansion team, obviously a little bit flawed. But the timbers have not been sniffing that.
They've not been close to that at any point this year. And I think that really sort of highlights how extraordinary, not necessarily in a good sense, this timbersive team has been. Because everybody else who has had this kind of talent and this kind of success in the attack has been much better than they have been. And, you know, I think that should lead to a considerable amount of self-reflection for the timbers.
And do you get a sense that, you know, it was interesting the timing of the story coming out because it comes, and I don't know when the interview was done. So maybe the interview was done before some of these results but it actually read to me like the interview was probably done during this break. But the timbers do seem to be in this period now where they are sort of trying to sort of clamp down defensively a little bit. They've only given up two goals in the last three games.
They've only scored one in those three games, but it does seem to indicate that to what you're saying that there doesn't seem to be a coherent plan here. Like, and I also wouldn't say, you know, one of the things that Neville said is that, well, we got to press. We got to, you know, we got to really press the act. And it's like, well, that's not really how they defend either. They're not, they're not getting burned in transition because they're just flying around in the offensive.
They're trying to win the ball back. They just aren't very good defensively. Like they get broken down on pieces. They get broken down and sort of brutal. Right. So it's, it's, again, it just seems to suggest that he really doesn't have an answer for what's going to the degree that things have gone wrong, what's going wrong. I mean, he's not obviously a disaster or anything, but. Yeah. I mean, I think that's exactly it. They don't have an answer.
And I think that's kind of what, what, you know, even though that's not directly what he was saying in that interview that he did for that article, I think that's kind of the takeaway that I got from his comments, which is they couldn't find an answer to this problem. Right. And it is ultimately a problem that I think, you know, I mean, there is, there is still life in the season.
So it's possible that they could turn things around and go on a miraculous run and really make noise in the playoffs. I mean, yeah, I mean, is that possible? Yes, is it likely? No. But if that doesn't happen, you're going to look back on this season and say that was ultimately fail. And that was the thing that kept this team from being the team that it probably should have been.
And so, you know, I think that's a pretty damning thing for a coach and is it the kind of thing that's going to get him fired after one year? No, absolutely not. He's going to be back with the Timbers in 2025. But in this was kind of the point of my most recent Twitter thread was he should be back, but with a fairly warm seat, the kind of seat where if they start again and have another really slow start, we could be talking in May about whether there's going to be a coaching change.
Because it's not like he's shown much of anything this year to indicate that he frankly has the aptitude to be a really good MLS coach. I mean, there's not, and it's not like there's anything in his past that's demonstrated that he's going to be that he's a really good MLS coach. And so at some point, I mean, there are just coaches who have frankly gotten a lot fewer opportunities than fill a level with similar track records.
And at some point, that's going to catch up with him if it doesn't change. Now, you know, from a bigger perspective, I mean, the Timbers have spent in transfer fees in the last 24 months, about $20 million, maybe a little bit less than that, a ton of money. And they were trying to spend more. Thank you for listening to the Sounder Heart Podcast Network, which now includes no Soniatas, lobbying scorchers, and the cooler yield.
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They ended up spending a little bit less money to get Jonathan Rodriguez's worked out. I mean, that's a signing that's gone well. The event resigning was the big chunk of that, $10 million of that, I think, at the end of this year. You would say that's also been a good signing. And so it's not that they've not spent money, but they've spent almost $20 million in transfer fees. They've added a couple million dollars at least to their wage bill on an annual basis.
And over the course of the last two years, that's taken them from eighth with about it with 1.35 points per game to 10th, with 1.26 points per game. To today, ninth, with if they would lose actually this week and they'll be on that same 1.35 points per game number. I mean, if I were Mayor Paulson having spent that money, that would be something that would have me asking some really hard questions.
I would be pretty hot under the collar about that because I would not feel like that's the ROI that I should be getting, putting that much into the team over the course of the last couple of years. And I disagree a little bit with the take, and I think this is the retort that you hear the most to that, which is that, you know, there's sort of in the process of rebuilding.
I think MLS is just fundamentally different from, you know, maybe the NBA or MLB where you do sort of see these longer rebuilds that require some investment along the way, but it's just a multi-year process. I think in MLS, you see teams go pretty quickly when they make the right moves from positions like the Timbers were in up into much more competitive positions and they just haven't, period.
And so, you know, I think that at some point, look, the Timbers are not exactly the world's most rigorous self-reflection team in the world. They have tended to, and their leadership has tended to put them into a place where weaknesses either aren't recognized or acted on until they're truly untenable. And we've kind of seen that over and over.
But I mean, at some point, I think somebody's going to look at that and say, hey, they're going to be some changes here unless there's a very, very clear path to a more successful future. Well, that creates an interesting segue, I think, into sort of the mood around this team, which, from a distance to me, looks like it's much better than it was rewind to where we were at this point last year. It was pretty bad. They did mis-to-play-offs.
They were in the middle of, they had an interim head coach. They had, and more than that, they had all this negative energy around the team that was mainly of the Timbers' own making. Like, it wasn't that fan-time. They were. Why are they totally, sorry. Yes, entirely of their own making. But it wasn't just because the results in the field weren't so good, and it wasn't because of a handful of questionable personnel decisions.
It was like a seemingly truly toxic environment where the team was almost antagonizing its own fans in terms of the way that they were operating and the way that they were handling a variety of issues, and not the least of which was the whole thing around the thorns. And then, but it, and again, I don't know this from firsthand experience, but it does seem like things have gotten a lot better this year.
It seems like Phil Neville, to his credit, has done a lot more outreach in terms of talking to the fans specifically and talking about the importance of playing for the fans and doing all these kind of things. I don't know that we've heard a lot less from Merit Paulson, which I suppose is maybe a net positive. But I don't know that has there actually been any repair going on, or is it just like, well, the team's fun now, and they're not making us actively mad.
I think there has been some repair that has happened on some fronts that I actually think is meaningful. But you know, you reference Neville doing more to connect with supporters. I think that has happened. And I think that is something that he's done well over the course of his first year, that he has, he's made the efforts and he's made the outreach that frankly the timbers had not for a long, long time.
And I don't think you're wrong at all to call the relationship between the supporters in the club previously antagonistic. And he's not taking that approach. He's not sort of bought into that antagonism between the supporters in the club. In fact, I think he's done a lot to fight against it. The club was was crying out to have somebody who would be sort of a more public face of the club. And I do think that's to Phil Neville's credit that he's been able to do that and has done so successfully.
I think the big thing is the team has also just been fun, right? Right. And I mean, that is a change. The last couple of years of G.O. Savare says, I mean, not only were they not very good, but they were also just pretty tired of watching. And if nothing else, Neville's teams haven't been that. They've kind of been, you know, it's been for Locos soccer. And that's not, you know, that's, that's, that's a good nickname. Is it what they call it? Yeah, I mean, I mean, I love it.
I hope that's what they call it. Because that's great. Yeah, I mean, but you know, I mean, if you're kind of old and grouchy like me, that's not necessarily what you want to see, but it is a lot better cinema at least than what we had over the course of the last few years. And so I think that has improved the vibes overall. And I mean, sort of off the field, there have not been at least sort of renewed instances of scandal off the field. And that certainly helps.
And time has, I think, saved some of those wounds. Do I think the club as a whole is, is, is, you know, over those things? No. I don't think so. And I think those things will always be at least sort of in the background. They certainly had this year and at least embarrassing episode with Debella. And that's right. That's right. I'm sure it would be. A shirt sponsor before a scandal about Debella's owner came out and the timbers rightfully had to part ways with them.
You know, and so it's not like those things are entirely in the rearview mirror, or at least if they are in the rearview mirror, they're still like pretty close in the rearview mirror. But it's not like they've been continuing to step on rakes over and over and over again this year, which is an improvement from years past. And so I think all those things have contributed to the vibes being a little bit better around the team over the course of the season.
But I would be, I think it would be a mistake to assume that that means that everything is hunky-dory and that people won't be disappointed if the outcome of this year is a ninth place finish and a, you know, one in Don or a cameo in the playoffs. I think people will be disappointed with that. And I think there will be some pressure then going on them going into next year. Well, let's go into this game and at least spend some time talking specifically about this matchup.
You know, they've faced each other twice this year. They were both pretty cagey affairs. I think you could say, neither one of them. You know, I think you could say that the timbers probably were their most conservative, that they've been certainly at home. You know, you look at this is a team that scored 39 goals at home, which is tied for the second most in all of MLS. They had one of the best home goal differences, or expected goal differences, I should say, in MLS at plus 13.
They were a high flying team at home. And the sounders did an OK job of actually tamping that down. Now, they obviously didn't do much to generate their own offense, but they played OK defensively in those two games. Or we saw a different kind of timbers team that we're used to seeing. I guess there's maybe another way of putting it. Which version of the timbers are you expecting to see on Saturday? Is this going to be the four loco soccer going on the road?
Or is this going to be a much more conservative approach? I expect four loco. I expect four loco. And honestly, I kind of think that's what Neville was was winking at in that article. I think they're going to come out. I think on with the sounders on the road, and especially with the form of the sounders that were in at the time, I think it was pretty rational and pretty smart for the timbers to say, you know what, if we keep it clean, we don't think you can break us down. Right.
Yeah, because that's where the sounders were at that time. I don't think that's where the sounders are now. I think Brian Schmezzer and his team have unlocked a couple things. You all have talked about Paul Rothrock kind of getting on a little bit of a heater recently.
But I think they've also just unlocked a few things that have not only allowed the sounders to be on a better run of the form in terms of points, but it also just allowed the sounders to be a much more dangerous team in the attack generally over the course of the last several weeks since we saw them last. And so I think if the timbers go into this game and Seattle thinking, oh, let's just run it back. We'll do the same thing that we did last time.
They probably are going to have a pretty rude awakening or at least they're setting themselves up to have a rude awakening. And so I think they are more likely to lean into their authentic cells, which is for loco soccer. It's to go out and turn the game into a track meet to try to get Evander and try to get Jonathan Rodriguez into space and let those guys make a difference. That doesn't always come off well. That's why the timbers are where they are in the standings.
But look, it sometimes does. I mean, they went down to RSL. They got a 3-3 on the road. They actually took the galaxy on the road. They didn't win that game. They lost that game. But I want to say it was 4-3, may have been 3-2. But it was a very, very good, very competitive game that they were stuck into against an extremely good galaxy team. And so I think this is probably one where they're likely to lean into their plan A, which is to try to open up the game and make a while.
Which will be fun watching, fun viewing for everybody involved on Decision Day. But I think when you look at the sounders overall form, that also plays very much into some of their strengths. Yeah. And they are going to be also missing Kamal Miller, who is suspended on yellow card accumulation. And Suntima Rano. And that was, I was going to ask a question.
Was the last time the sounders, or maybe it wasn't the last time, but one of the times that the sounders and timbers played, Phil Neville said almost the exact same thing about a van der being out. It would be a miracle if he played. And he started and I think he went 90 minutes in that game. 90 minutes. Yeah. I mean, they're very well could be some gamesmanship there. My understanding, I don't think Santi has trained this week, or if he has trained, he's trained in a very limited capacity.
So I would be surprised if there's a Willis Reed moment for Suntima Rano this week. I think that's probably legit. And I think we'll likely see Anthony come in in his study. Anthony himself has had a year where he's been inconsistent, but has been very good at times. And it is especially good when the game gets open. It is not so good when the timbers have to possess a little bit more and to try to build out.
And so that personnel shift, I think, also sort of leans the timbers into trying to make this attract me. But I expect that to be true. We'll see. As you're right to point out that Neville's prognostication is about player availability. Have not always borne out. So keep that in the back of your mind. But I expect Anthony instead of Santi Marena. And then who do you expect to start at center back? So it's been a rotating cast this year to be sure. I think it'll likely be Daria Zuparic.
And Miguel O'Rajo would be my guest. And he's the most like for like switch. If with Miller out, that said, he has been out on international duty. And so assuming there are no knocks and assuming there's no sort of travel fatigue coming off of that, that would be my guess in terms of where they go at center back.
Zach McGraw just has not really worked himself into consistent favor with Neville, which has been a disappointment for the timbers this year that somebody whom they very much thought was going to be part of their future in that position. The other guy, Christiano Paretis, who was arguably the timbers most consistent performer last year, has found himself totally out of favor in a position that seems to be a position of need for the timbers.
That's been a big problem of how to fill the eight role. It's been Davide Aghalla and Diego Chara and in the six, eight capacity. And I think there's reason to look at that unit and say it's not performed all that well. And so you would have thought that Paretis would have been in a position to break into that at some point this year and he just hasn't. And then, and then goalers, is there an actual dispute as to who the number one goalkeeper is or is it Maxine Crippo and James Pintemis?
Yeah, I think the number one is probably Crippo. I, I, Pintemis has performed quite well this year. And so I think what Neville said after the gaming at Steph C Dallas was that this was an opportunity to get him a start and I actually kind of believe that because he has performed well enough that it makes sense when you have sort of a tight win-new of games to find one, to rotate and to keep him warm. So I would guess it's going to be Max Crippo.
He actually, I think, has been a little bit better form. I think there were real reasons to criticize his form earlier in the season. I think his performances have been a little bit better of late than they were in the spring and into the early summer. So I haven't seen much of the basis to, you know, make that switch on form. So I expect it's going to be Crippo, but it's possible that Pintemis will get the start. That's been a little bit of a platoon.
Yeah. And as you alluded to, Defender of the Year candidate as a parach is just holding it down there at center back. Yeah. And giving up what, 56 goals or whatever now? Yeah. That's an obvious candidate for Defender of the Year. Really obvious, 55 goals. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I cast some of his versions on them. 55 goals over the course of the year. I don't think anybody on this team is going to be winning Defender of the Year.
Yeah. That is my prediction. You can have me back if I'm wrong. And absolutely. So more broadly speaking, and I guess, well, this is probably the, the end of this conversation, which I appreciate you, you coming on and giving us so much insight into the Timbers. But this, I take the, you know, take the records out of it, take everything out of it. Is this, do you get the sense of the Timbers sort of approaching this as sort of their, their M. Loss Cup?
Like, I don't know if they absolutely, if they legitimately harbor hopes for winning M. Loss. I'm sure internally they talk about it. But it feels like this is a big emotional game, frankly, for both teams. I mean, I think the Timbers, the Sounders also are looking at this from a big emotional, much more emotionally than than just standings. I do think so. I think this is the most important game of the rest of the season.
But now, of course, if they go on a run and they find their way to the Western Conference Finals or something like that, you know, you would revise that opinion. But I think it is fair to say that that's reasonably unlikely. And so given the likelihoods of how things play out from here, I am comfortable saying this is the most important game of the rest of the season. With the Cascadia Cup on the line, it's against the Sounders. I mean, there are, there are all of those emotional strings.
And then also, legitimate hardware. The Cascadia Cup is not nothing. It's an important trophy that I think all three of the teams that partake in it would very much want. And so, you know, in a year in which there are not many other opportunities for trophies, this is one. And so I think this is the game that they are focusing on.
So notwithstanding the fact that it arguably for them means less than the same thing now that it looks very likely that they're going to host the play in game regardless. I expect the timbers to be full strength. I expect them to put everything into the game tomorrow, notwithstanding the fact that they're going to have to turn around and play a play in game just a few days later. This is the prize.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if it's quite that extreme for the Sounders, but they, you know, you can see, you know, it was probably a few years ago where they started to get tired of this narrative around the why can't you beat the timbers at home thing. And it's now reaching a point where they're just like, I like, I don't have anything else. I just, they're out of things to say. I think they just want to put it to bed. I think that that's part of it.
I think this has been a weird season for the Sounders. They, you know, they're sitting on 56 points, which is a very respectable goal total. But 50, 59 looks a lot better than 56. But I do think it's going to take a lot of shine off the season as a whole for it.
They lose if they lose or even tie this, this game against the timbers, especially with the Cascadia cup on the line, even if it doesn't really make that much difference in terms of champions, like qualification or playoff seating, I just think it's harder from an emotional perspective for them to, to go into the playoffs, to look forward, to even look back on the season as sort of a missed opportunity unless they can win this game.
So I think, like I said, the stakes are not maybe as high for the Sounders, but it is, I think they're kidding themselves if they don't admit that this is emotionally a really, really important game for them. Yeah, and I think going, especially going into the playoffs, right, the last thing you want to do before things get really real.
And I think the Sounders are fairly described as a real Dark Horse contender to come out of the West in the playoffs, given both their style of play and the recent form. I think they're a team that very fairly could be looking at the playoffs saying we want to be a factor here. They're not the veritable Chum in the water. I think they see themselves as one of the sharks.
And the last thing you want to do when you're going into sort of a shark-oriented playoff is a loss to the rival at home to finish the regular season. So I would expect there to be quite a bit of emotional valence for the Sounders on this game. And I hope so. I mean, these games are more fun when the teams are fully stuck into it. And I'm optimistic that that's going to be the case coming up here tomorrow. Do you know if there's much of a traveling contingent coming up? I don't know.
I would imagine so, at least sort of in line with pre-pandemic historic levels would be my expectation. It's a big game. Everybody's known that this has been decision day for a while. And I don't know if I'm the league if that's a scheduling decision that I would make again. But decision day up in Seattle, I mean, that's a lot of stakes. And that's worth two and an inch for. Absolutely. Well, Chris, thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Hopefully we can get soccer made in Portland going again again, because I always enjoyed soccer made in Portland. I hope so too. I always enjoyed it as well. But I hope so too. But nonetheless, I appreciate you having me on. And I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow. Absolutely. All right. Well, with that, I am Jeremiah Shan. This is NoSaudiettes. And we will catch you next time. We love you. Let's win another one. team!