this is to bay He's in a tapping threat, Brad Evan. It's so weird. The party has started. All right, everybody. Welcome back to this week's episode of Side by Side, Brad Evan's here, along with Kiely. Let's get right into this one. We had massive expectations for this game against Portland. And I'll tell you what, that first half was one of the best first halves that I think we've seen the Sounders play all season.
And talking before the game, we had the podcast before the game was season ticket members. And I think from that group, the expectations were high as well. And the quotes from Schmetz before the game, especially after that big win in Austin, I think the guys are feeling really confident. It's crazy what a big result can do, especially on the road to a group. I think if they would have lost that game in Austin, we probably see a different side and mentality that comes out against Portland.
But it was the team that we've been waiting for to show up and play a complete 45-minute half. And walking through those goals, the first goal was finally a set piece play, fantastic service. And that's the run I've been asking from Jackson all year. He's so big, get to the near post. And that's a Chad Marshall special right there. Get to the near post, flick it on. If it goes on frame great, if it doesn't, you hope that someone's on the back post.
And I remember Freddie Montero from yesterday, that was his spot. He would just hang out on the back post. And I swear he probably scored a quarter of his goals, just hanging out back there. Because you never know what can happen. Not everyone on corner kicks has to rush to the ball and try and challenge. And I think that the sounders may have figured something out on their set pieces. Because the last couple games of service has been better, the runs have been better.
And we've created a few more opportunities, which is going to be key, heading hopefully into these play offsets, these goals, and especially away games that we have coming up, is playing for set pieces and playing really smart. And that first goal was just, was a great start to the game. And role scores and the stadium was so loud. And they were so happy for Raoul to get that goal and get that one off of his back. And then he was confident moving forward.
You could see his movement. He wanted the ball. He was begging for the ball even over the top. Like, guys, I'm here. Put me in. I'm going to do the work. And that's something I don't think we've seen from him in a while. And before the game, I got into garage level. You probably heard me on the broadcast say this, but I want to repeat it. Is in that garage space, for those of you that haven't been down into EX1, the ceilings are 50 feet high. It's a massive space.
You could fit 150, 200 cars down there. No problem. That's where all the tour buses park when concerts come into town. So it's a massive space. And all I could hear, I thought there were speakers on with some Latin American music, speaking Spanish. And I get closer and closer and walk. Because I always park in the very back. And I look kind of in a car and I see the hat on. And I know it's Raoul right away sitting in his car with the music on full blasts with the windows up.
They weren't even down. And I walked up a side and I knocked and he turned down the music, rolled it down. And I said, what's up, man? And I said, are you ready? And he said, yeah, just get in motivation. And that's the only thing he said. And he was focused and I said, all right, I need two from you tonight. And I walked away and he rolled up the windows, music went straight back to full blasts. And he was getting himself into a game mode. And I've never seen him do that before in a game.
And so that showed me, like, okay, this guy's showing up to play. And that first one is a testament to him. I think just being focused. Because at the end of the day, it's more mentality than it is the physicality of it. Right? These guys have showed all year that they can run around a field. They can do the work. Then it's just that mentality, that shift of, I'm going to be an assassin. I'm going to be in the place that I should be.
And if things go well and the set piece is drawn up, how it should be, then I'm going to find an opportunity to score. And he did. And then the sounders keep pushing. And Portland looked atrocious in the first half. I haven't seen them play. I don't watch many other games. But I haven't seen them play that bad in quite some time. They just had no answer for the sounders press, the sounders determination. And then Leo Chiu is rewarded with pure effort in that goal. Pure effort.
And then, you know, start of the story is Rips Office, Jersey. And at the time, I didn't have a problem with it because Leo's a guy who doesn't get into challenges. Really. I mean, if he does make a challenge, it's like a good 50-50s. Not the enforcer or a center back that you would think might have to make a last ditch tackle in a game. And so for me, I didn't have an issue. And half time whistle blew, sounders are flying.
And let's also talk about JP standing on the line when Portland's pressing and all the guys, you know, finding a right spot and what would have been a Portland goal and JP standing on the line to secure things and heads that off. And knew who Bicycle Kick out to clear the ball and the crowd was loud after that one too. Reminded me of that Bicycle Kick in Portland how loud that the fans got. And just that jolt of energy and the sounders go in at half time to nothing, playing great.
And I put my headset down and walked out and chance coming in for half time was like, did you, did you talk about it? And I was like, no, you know what? Honestly, I didn't even talk about it. So obviously chance was was thinking about it already. Hey, this guy's got a yellow card for something like that. What if something happens in the second half? Where do the sounders find themselves? And then we go into the second half.
And I haven't I didn't see the replay because I was so focused on what was going on on the field. From what I was told afterwards, not a yellow card. It was really soft if anything. Debatable, I guess, but that changed the whole course of the game completely. If flip, flip the game on its head, Portland came out, Evander took a hole to the game and showed what kind of playmaker he can be with time and space.
And when you're a man down and you got a guy like that, it was always going to be a tall task for the sounders to pull that one out. And you don't want to defend for 45 minutes with a man long time. It was a long, long time. Even if it was in the full, it felt long. It was five minutes of extra time. Yeah. And so it just really took the win out of the sounders sales and gave it all to Portland at that time. And they pushed and credit to them, they get one back.
And of course, it had to be a spree with his first touch in the game. And that's just disappointing for me. I think disappointment is the only word to describe the feeling walking out of that stadium. A golasso by Evander. He's right-footed. What can we do? You know that he's right-footed. He finds time and space, his Portland breaks and just picks out the top corner and stuff. It does his best, but at the end of the day he's never getting to that one. And they kept pushing, pushing, pushing.
And then the sounders were able to hold. I think when Ariaga brought on, it got brought on. It just added a bit more stability. Something, yeah, hindsight 2020, can you make that change earlier? Of course, we can always say that. But at the time you're winning to nothing, you're confident. And I know the sounders train that way. Every team does. I do it with my high school team. You train a man down to know that if it happens, this is how we're going to play and prepare.
You don't do that often, but when you do it, you should do it well because Portland came out and punished us. I think Portland in particular is a tough team to play a man down with because they're so chaotic and random. That like you said, yes, you plan on this is what we're going to do with 10 players. But like, they look so terrible sometimes. And then they do something incredible. And it just comes out of chaos to me when I watch that.
It's always chaos. It's never, you know, there's something to be said about a counter attacking game in that being beautiful. So it's a counter attacking team and it's done in a way where yes, it causes chaos, but that's what they train on. And so that's where it becomes. Is it the beautiful game with Portland? No. Is it effective? Not for the majority of this season against the sounders, is it? Yeah, it's been pretty effective.
And so yeah, the sounders find themselves with a point and they end up with five out of a possible nine on the week, which is good. It's okay. Better than the alternative. 100%. But, you know, you kind of head into this long break now. The guys don't play until September 16th against Dallas. Another team that's kind of trying to find the stride that I don't think anyone can really figure out just yet.
So you got a long break. And I think the guys had a couple more days off to rest up and get healthy. And yeah, I think Raoul has to be disappointed to then be taken off. And he was probably feeling motivated. He just walked right out of the locker room at the end of the game, disappointed. Because everyone thinks that they can make a difference. And the coaches have that difficult decision to make tactical subs.
And that one maybe did pay off, maybe didn't. The sounders had a couple opportunities late in the game actually to press. So the fight was there. The work rate is there. The intensity was there. It was just a couple moments of lapses playing a man down. And the sounders find themselves still sitting in second place with the number of games in hand. You know, Miami beats L.A.F.C.
And so the only thing that matters is that the teams below us must win all their games for the sounders to be in real trouble. And that's not a guarantee. So we can't bank on other teams at this point. We still have three road games in a row. So September 16th against FC Dallas. And then four days later we had to Colorado. A team that has fired Robin Frazier. And we know now when teams fire coaches that they get a little bit of life. They've only won three games on the season.
And I listened to the press conference in front of me and I did not realize that. Yeah, listen to the press conference from their president. And there's just no accountability there. One reporter asked when was the last time that the cronkeys were in the stadium. And he really couldn't answer the question. It's a team where the ownership does not care about that team. They're not willing to make the investment. I talked to Marcelo Balboa, former Rapid.
We all know US men's natural team member announcer now for Apple TV before at the sounders practice. And he was like, it's a disaster. It's a disaster in Colorado. They sold the players at the wrong time. They did such a good job in 2019, 2020, 2021. Even they were off to a flying start. I think they won the Western conference in 21 or 20. I can't remember which one. So you thought they had everything figured out.
And then all of a sudden they sold a few players and decided, oh, we're going to go domestic and pick guys up off waivers and we're going to trade. And it just hasn't panned out. Yeah, it's one of those firings where Robin Frazier should kind of be. I think he should be okay with it. He can land somewhere better and that is a franchise where they care. Yeah, and he deserves that. He is a great coach. And he's a great guy. And I just feel bad for that city because I remember playing there.
And the stadium is relatively packed. Yeah, right. And it's a team that loves soccer. And it's a team with a rich history. It's one of the original MLS teams. And to see where they are at right now is it's kind of sad. It's a good demo for MLS 2, I feel like. Yeah, it's a great demo. This is a great demo. Denver. Yeah, younger proud. It fits. Yeah, it fits that 18 to 35 year old that MLS is targeting. And you know, you got the universities there. You got everything.
So we head into Colorado four days later and we'll see what Colorado brings. And ultimately we got to see what the sounders bring. That's going to be a trap game right there. And then we head to Nashville at the end of the month. And that's a massive one. And we're all going to that one. That's a key matchup for the sounders as we travel to an Eastern conference team to pick up points in a really difficult place to play.
So three really tough road games for the sounders and not tough because the teams are amazing circumstance circumstance changes everything. So Austin's in the same position as most of those teams and the mentality is there we saw them get the result in Austin. I think they can do it. They can pull it out here. And if they get six out of nine, I think that's that's massive moving forward as we head into what would be the last three games of the season at that point.
Yeah, I think it's just very important that we maintain our place in the table because I'm looking at the Western conference. Dallas is ninth with 34. We're second with 41. That is a tiny margin. Yeah. And the top nine teams make it eight and not the eight and nine seed have to play a play in game once they do the play in game round one is a best of three. So a lot of games on Apple TV. Yeah. A lot of playoff games.
They ultimately right now it is a two game swing if Dallas loses two games, they're going to be out. If the sounders win two games, you could possibly looking be looking at second place. I mean the galaxy could still make the playoffs with 29 Colorado is really the only team out of it with 19 points. Otherwise, everyone's in play. Yeah. So a tough task for the sounders, but one where they have to be feeling I think confident.
If you looked at this early on in the year and you looked at a three game stretch towards the towards the end of your season and you look at those teams that have been pretty good Dallas and Nashville. But now even in the standings, Nashville still trying to kind of figure out where they're at. What where do they sit, Keely? Let's see. Nashville is in seventh place. They have 40 points.
So again, a team that's trying to figure it out. So I think we're okay going into this and I think the sounders have to be confident in looking at the standings because it could be the other way around those teams could be sitting in first or second. And then we're really looking under the gun so they must take advantage of this opportunity. So still still a tough task and that kind of leads me to I do want to talk about Miami.
And I know that we've heard a lot about Miami and we talked about Messi and his impact. Fans are probably sick and tired of hearing about it, but I just I don't think so they shouldn't be. Yeah, I it's really the only games that I've been watching 90 minute games are watching Miami play because I'm waiting for the downfall and they just haven't. They've been insane. Messi's goal contributions since he can't it's just it's unreal how you know those three guys have completely shifted the course.
They've had a couple other additions as well. But really those three guys have shifted the course for an entire club in the snap of a finger. And the only thing I can think of is Nico's addition in 2016 to the sounder squad. In our position towards the end we were out of the playoffs and then all the sudden one guy comes in and makes all the difference. And the team goes on a run and we win MLS Cup.
I cannot think of another impactful moment in MLS where a player comes in and completely changes the trajectory of a club. And so maybe that's why I'm so enthralled by it. Not just because he's you know the great one but because of the turnaround and the impact that he's had because I just figured Miami was dead in the water and they still have a chance which is wild. And Messi seems beyond motivated and for them to go to LFC and win three nothing and and spank him.
Yeah, were they fortunate and their goalkeepers been fantastic but his ability to change a game by himself is just it's unreal. And I don't know when you're watching do you feel the same way to me watching Messi turn this franchise around is the difference between just a great player who wants to go out and play great versus a great player who wants to make the team and the franchise around him great.
That's been the biggest difference because even I mean I remember when Messi first got signed no one thought that it was going to really help Miami this year. I think oh we're going to watch Messi do some great things we're going to you know start their rebuild and here we are you know a couple weeks later leaks cup champions undefeated an MLS play. They're an open cup final open cup final. It could win a double in the matter of two months with that.
Yeah and even when Messi doesn't score he gets to assist it's like this guy is the epitome of success. Yeah, I don't know how else to put it. It's like Nico when he first came he plays the right pass every single time he has the ball.
And that to me is the most impactful thing now the question is if the cronkeys being the billionaires that they are want to make an investment they could do it if they wanted to turn that team around and we've seen it all it takes is maybe three incredibly high quality players that are motivated.
Can you do it in Denver if the money's right I think guys will go just about anywhere and and it puts pressure on the rest of the league to say you will be left behind if you don't because that's the that's the direction that the league is going right and the sounders had starfire put a little bit of money in there. And then we knew that we weren't going to get a training facility for a long time that wasn't even on the radar so we made massive investments into players.
And we got the championships we got the results and then starfire we say okay let's take a pause now in our deck of cards with our ownership group we're going to build a fantastic training facility. Now does that set us up for the next round of a couple massive players coming in here and saying oh wow we're sitting right now we're looking out it's starting to come together it's going to be world class these are the ebs and flows and you just haven't seen it in a place like Colorado.
And the L.A. Galaxy is in L.A. I don't think the facilities are where they need to be to keep on attracting these massive stars so it has to be that total package to be successful and and the investment has to come at the right time so disappointed for Colorado and ecstatic for Miami to be able to see that investment and it makes me feel good as a player that these the continuous investment in you know new teams especially to really get off the track. And that's been really cool so.
As we close out this last phase of the season. How would you rate the sounders overall this year so far. I mean I give them an A minus but that's I'm glass half full I think that they've dealt with some you know players being gone they've dealt with some weird injuries poor Christian rolled on you know hopefully he is able to come back soon. And prays up for him.
I think we've done well I'm going to give him an A minus I know that you know the offense is sputter occasionally but like staff is having a career year again the defense is doing amazing. I mean he's staff is set to set his own record for a shout out in a season he is 13 in 2017 that's the record he's 11 now he's totally going to make that yeah he's going to break that and it says a lot about this team you brought up a great stat is the
sounders haven't fallen below fourth place the entire season and that's consistency for this year now it's about closing out the season but I'm also okay with the criticism because it just shows the standard in the city of the club standard of the club and the standard of the city. Okay so as we close the thing out we're going to head into Dallas and we're going to preview that one in depth next week.
More in depth yeah as they kind of you know get tidbits online of their roster and kind of what it'll shape up being we'll preview Dallas next week we'll take the rest of these next couple days to see what the sounders are doing at training and get a better idea of where this team is going in the future so I'll be headed out to Spokane to they're you know decimated by fires out there and so I'll be heading out to hand out jerseys at one of the
hospitals of our partner Providence to some of the kids that are sitting in the hospital at the end of this month a quick day trip we have a couple of great events coming up that are going to be super fun so keep an eye out for those and the 50 50 raffle I was selling tickets before the game and I don't know if enough people in the stands even know what the 50 50
raffle is so if you're listening you buy a ticket it's one ticket for 10 bucks 10 for 20 bucks 50 for 50 200 tickets for 100 bucks at 70th a minute mark I think it closes right so the amount of money that's raised let's say it's 20 grand one winner $10,000 goes into that winner's pocket 10,000 goes to the
rave foundation so we split with the rave foundation and one winner in the stand so make sure if you see it in the con course you commit the rave foundation we all know is doing fantastic things it's not going anywhere else but to allow kids to play a little bit more soccer so if it's one ticket grade if it's 20 thank you even beyond that is is a massive commitment and you might end up winning a massive pot of cash someone won I think $4,500 bucks this just for you know maybe
they bought one ticket but it all helps in the end and we also need volunteers the more volunteers we have the more eyes and and pockets we can reach to help it grow so if you're interested I think you could probably find it somewhere online with the rave foundation and reach out maybe to your ticket salesman ticket sales woman that you want to be involved to help raise some money
it's you know 20 25 minute commitment before the game and it's really really easy I had a great time doing it reaching out to fans and getting them to commit snap in some photos so just another great opportunity for the rave foundation so we can continue to do what we do
rave foundation will be we will also be doing a radio watch party with rave foundation for the 16th at Flat Stick pub and South Lake Union we're going to do pre-haven post radio from there so check that out too all fans open the come hang out at Flat Stick place and put some good games those guys are awesome over there so that's it for this edition of side by side thank you subscribe like whatever you do tell your friends all about us until next week we'll talk to you later