Coming to you live from Orelliot Avenue Studios of Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts. Good eighten, everybody, Welcome into Sounders Weekly. Jackson felt here. Good to have you with us on this Wednesday night. Hopefully everybody had a good Halloween yesterday, celebrating the Sounders win from Monday night back there at Luminfield in the first game
of the first round of the playoffs. A good win for your Seattle Sounders to start off this postseason road two to nothing over FC Dollas a penalty kick from Albert Russnak in the first half and Jordan Morris using his head in the second half in the seventy fourth minute, very fittingly to give the Sounders their too nothing win. Big show tonight as we both reflect on that win and
look ahead to Game two coming up on Saturday. And before we move any forward, quick note on Saturday's broadcast, you will actually be able to listen to that over on the Sounders FC stream channel on iHeartRadio. I'll be sharing that all week on my Twitter at Jackson B. Felts, also on the
station's Twitter at nine to three to three KJR. We'll be setting that as much as possible, but in general, if you just google Sounders fc iHeartRadio, you're gonna find that stream channel to be able to listen to the Saturday's game. Our provident Swedish premat show will begin at five thirty this Saturday, kickoff at six o'clock. Danny Jackson, Brad Evans, Michelle Ludka, three of them will be in Dallas at Toyota Stadium for the match. We'll be
back here in Seattle for pre half post. Should be a big broadcast there for Game two. Also, you can watch the match of MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. The man who's calling that match for Apple TV he joined us last week. He's on this entire series for Seattle. Dallas color analyst Brian Dunseeth will be joining us again here in just about twenty minutes or so to talk about Game one that he called with Max Brettis and talk
about Game two ahead down in Frisco, Texas at Toyota Stadium. So we'll have Brian Dunseth later on to continue our conversation about the playoffs and later on tonight we'll of course go around the league with ari Leenwall talked also Seattle Dallas, but want to get his thoughts on the rest of the playoffs, dominated so far by home teams here in this postseason, So we'll get Ari's take a little bit later on, and in a few minutes you're going to hear
from Joshitansio in the locker room after the win. Josh had a very very good game, I thought from the defensive midfielder spots next to Juel Paulo. So good to catch up with Josh in the locker room. He's always a lot of fun, a lot of energy kid who's obviously from here, and he knows what it's like to be a Sounder, to be a Sounder fan, and you felt that, and you'll hear it from Josh Atensio coming up
in a few moments. So Josh Atensio, Brian Dunseeth, ari Leenwall, big show tonight here on Sounders Weekly ahead of Game two coming up on Saturday. Let's roll through some quick hitters though before we get and here from Josh Atensio. Before we dig into the soccer stuff, let me just say this,
because I reacted. I don't know about reacted big, but I had a pretty definite reaction when I saw that on Sunday the Seahawks had the end zones painted blue for their retro game, and I kind of had the reaction of, oh, geez, I mean, it's gonna be blue on the field for the Sounders Monday night playoff match. It's not gonna look great. You're gonna see residual football lines. It's just I mean, listen, I know it had to be that day. If you made it Halloween, the
attendance is gonna be really low. You couldn't do it right before the Seahawks game because then you're dealing with soccer lines, and soccer to football change is harder. I don't think you could do it a couple days in advance, So really, Monday night was the one night you could do it. But I was really scared that a lot of that Seahawks field, especially the blue end zones, were going to get in the way of a good looking field.
But credit to the Lumen Field staff and all of the stadium workers who probably worked around the clock to make sure that field was ready for soccer come Monday night. In less than twenty four hours, they turned that thing around and it looked great. Didn't seem much blue at all. You could see a little bit of the football lines, but it wasn't too bad. Overall,
phenomenal job by the womenfield staff. And then secondly, you know, on the point of Monday night was also you know, we had a reaction, pretty defined reaction about how the match was gonna be on Monday and not to mention the third match is gonna be on a Friday and Dallas gets a weekend match. We have to deal with weekday matches. How does that impact the home crowd? Are you gonna get a huge crowd on a Monday night?
And credit to you all, I mean a round of applause to the sounder, fans listening and everybody tuned in because you all showed up, showed out, were loud, We're into it. Fantastic atmosphere environment. I thought the crowd was phenomenal there on Monday night. I mean when Nico comes off the bench, when Raul comes off the bench, the noise created and the chance for Roland Nico when they came off the bench, that was very loud.
It was awesome to see, so well done for all of you people, you know, showing up there on a weeknight, on Monday night and being loud and being out there. That was an awesome showing. So I thought that was great in terms of off the field stuff. Just wanted to roll through those two quick points because a big round of applause to the U all and the stadium staff there at lumin Field. Now, when it comes to on the field stuff, it was great in a lot of different ways.
I thought every single player put a plus on the field. Nobody was a minus out of that. I mean knew who had a think it probably a double plus because he may have had the best assist of his life, a great cross for the Jordan Morris header. We saw great games from Albert Resnak, who was hustling his butt off the entire game, running so damn hard. That was all to see from Albert Russnak. Well deserved to be able to get the penalty, and you know it was a little bit nervy
there sending it to the bottom left post. It looked like the keeper got a hand to it, but enough power there from Russnak to get that into the bottom corner for the opener goal. Well done for them Morris of course the goal on the header, but Stephan Frye was our Toyota Man of the match and Stephen Fry well freaking deserved fifteenth clean sheet of the year for Fry and that defense, because I thought Fry coming up massive to save in the
twenty third minute on Haesu's Ferira. Haesu's Ferreira. Who oh my gosh. I mean, he probably woke up Tuesday morning and was just you know, thinking instantly about those two chances in the twenty third minute that was saved by Fry, and then in the twenty seventh minute where he has a one on one and just blows potentially the best chance of the game maybe for either side. Really he was a one on one and he has to put it, you know anywhere that Stephan Fry isn't, and he said end the ball into
you know, basically above the end. He sends it into the crowd and you just wonder what the heck a guy like hayses Ferira, a national team player, was doing in that moment. So ultimately, you know, lucky there, but Steph and Fry comes up big somehow, not a top three keeper in MLS, he wasn't voted as one of the finalists for Goalkeeper of
the Year. That is a complete joke to me. It's a joke to Brian Schmitzer, as a joke to a lot of people, and it's hilarious because Stephen Fry clearly where's that a little bit has a little bit something on his back, comes out and puts together a great performance in that shutout.
So overall wonderful from the Sounders getting that to nothing win. Following that win, the club overall moves to twenty three, thirteen and seven overall, dating back to the club's inaugural season back in nine here in the postseason, so
a great record there. I'll also mention it just a couple of quick notes here before we hear from Josh Atensio against Dallas in the playoffs, Sounders are now five too and two in their nine contests, so a good record against FC Dallas and a record that bodes well going into game two here coming up
on Saturday. They've actually not lost to Dallas in eighteen matches in all competitions at lumen Field that dates back all the way to May of twenty eleven, so Seattle with just a phenomenal mark at home against Dallas, So that is certainly going to come up in case there is a game three, which would be next Friday, about a week and a half away or about what nine days away, So that is a stat that will come to next Wednesday if that is the case. A couple of hours before we move on to here
from Josh Atensio, a round applause to head coach Brian Schmitzer. Schmitzer with the win becomes the third winningest head coach in Major League Soccer history in the postseason. He's just behind Bruce Arena and Cee Schmidd now in third all time, So congratulations to Brian Schmitzer. With the start, Christian equaled Ozzie Alonzo's
career high for postseason appearances. They are just behind Stephan Frye at twenty nine, so congrats to Christian and Steph of course still already claiming that top spot and that twenty nine starts, I should say, the twenty nine appearances in the MLS Cup playoffs for fry that's fourth all time in Major League Soccer history. So quite the mark there from Stephan fry So overall, we're looking ahead to Saturday now in game two, but a few nice notes there coming out
of game one. There on Monday night, well after the two nothing win, had a chance to head down to the locker room and chat with another good conversation here with Josh Atensio, defensive midfielder who's found himself a nice role on this team, that starting spot next to Jul Paulo. He gets forward, kind of finds that right pocket at times, even put a couple shots from distance josh Atensio did. But overall a very very happy Josh Atensio.
Following the two to zero win over Dallas, down back to the locker room and here from the Sounders midfielder Josh Atencio, you know, we're really happy. Not a perfect game. It was heck ticke at times, and we gave them some opportunities. I felt like we gave them opportunities that didn't really create anything on their own. So, you know, responsibilities on us and we like that moving forward. But you know, I thought the guys were great. We were Albert's never going to miss from there, and uh,
you know it was it was good to get to zero at home. The crowd was crowd was awesome. It was. It was a great experience. It was good the crowd. We'll talk about it in a minute. But Albert's penalty kick, you know from our vantage point up in the press box where I'm not sure if the keeper got a hand to it, but it definitely was close because he guessed right on that right side. What were you
seeing from your vantage point? I knew Albert was going to score. I think he did get a hand to it, but you know it's a good picky and a good goal and it was coming. So you talked about, you know the fact that you guys didn't allow Dallas to do a lot of things on their own apart from those two plays, right, So what was you know, worked so well on the defensive game plan to make sure that you guys shut them down in the midfield and didn't allow hayesus Frer to get
going top at all. Yeah, I think, uh, I think it's a testament to the whole team. You know, having Jordan up there presses really well. It makes the game predictable for the guys behind him. We don't give much away, you know, Christian defense so well, you know, really really front to back, we just we're tight and you know,
Jackson and Yamar were locked down today and so we're Alex and knuwho. So you know, I just think we we kept the lines tight, made them, made them play in front of us, and it didn't give them a lot to work with. Going into game two, Dallas down one nothing in this series. Do you expect to see a little bit of a different functioning Dallas team coming up on Saturday. It'll be interesting to see, you know, we have we don't really have experience with this format. What do you
think of the format? By the way, you can be completely honest because a lot of guys have already just completely destroyed the format, so you can be honest. Okay, well I'll say I don't hate it. Then uh, you know, it's more games, which is for better or for worse, But you know, it's it's a different challenge and we're we're just gonna have to adapt to I mean, that's that's the cards we're dealpe. So we won game one and now we have to win one more and Dallas has
to win too. So they're gonna come out and there I'm I'm assuming they're gonna play direct. I'm assuming they're gonna come out and try to score goals, especially at their place. So that's a challenge we'll have to be ready for. But we have to win too, So right in terms of being ready for that, if they are playing more direct, if they are playing a different style, then maybe we saw tonight here in Seattle, how do you go about game planning a different kind of Dallas team with the same players
that you saw tonight. They're gonna come out differently, but they're they're also going to have to adapt to what we do because they can't lose us. And you know, I think, I think we provide them a lot of challenges that they're gonna have to go and they're gonna have to think over, maybe more so than we're going to have to make changes ourselves. You mentioned the crowd a few minutes ago. It's a couple more here for you, josh Attempsio in the locker room, you mentioned the crowd. With the win,
you've guaranteed yourself at least one more game here in Seattle. The next game would perhaps be a Game three a couple of fridays from now. But what can you say about the crowd out there tonight on a weekday showing up, showing out, being loud. I was really impressed, and Dallas was impressed too, because we didn't The stands weren't super full when we left warm ups. There weren't weren't a lot of people out there. But we were walking out and a couple of players in the Dallas and oh, this is
stadium filled up. It was the beer lines. I was overlooking the beer line. The beer lines were about as long as I've ever seen. Write a kickoff, I didn't see those. So the Dallas was you heard from Dallas guys that they were pretty impressed. The stadium filled up a little bit. Yeah, and it was a little surprising for me to see too, but it was. It was awesome. How to smile on my face the whole walkout, It was great. I talked to you before last thing here
for you. I talked to you before the Saint Louis game on Decision Day. He told me about the President's card game. On the flight back from Saint Louis, falling the two nothing win. How did you do? I think I did good. Yeah, I think I did good. Were you weren't you weren't the a hole? No? Not not often. I think Jordan had a down day, which is which is not normal for him because he's just been taking money off of us the whole year. So it's nice
to get a little back on him. Good luck in the card game on the flight back coming up this Saturday. Hopefully it's with a w thank you. I appreciate it. It's good stuff there from josh Attencio. And you know, for those who don't remember, a couple of weeks ago, before the Decision Day match, josh and I spoke about the card game he plays on the plane where you know, I'll let you guys go back and listen to it in the podcast form, but talking about the game that they play
on the flight home on the road. So that's what we were referencing there. And it sounds like Joshua did pretty well for himself on the way back. Good luck to him on the travels back on Saturday night after this Dallas game. Well, Sounders FC and Boeing are teaming up to support the Washington Youth Soccer Community Corner on matchdays this season. Join us in stadium as we welcome Washington Youth soccer players and coaches to cheer on the Rave Green. Courtesy
of Boeing. We'll take a break here on Sounders Weekly. Continue to look ahead to Game two coming up on Saturday. The man who's calling this series for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, Brian Dunseeth. He's calling it as a color analyst alongside Max Brettis and Brian will join us again for a second straight week. That comes up next on sports Radio at ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC Ceedle's Sports
Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back to Sounders Weekly. Jackson Feltz here. Good to have you with us, and good to hear from Josha Tencio there in our previous segment of Sounders Weekly. Make sure you check out the podcast later on in case you missed that well. Sounders e FC Soccer is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. Still gonna go around the league later on tonight with our good friend ari Leenwall of
MLS Soccer dot com and the pod cast Lobbing Scorches. But before we do, joining us right now is a broadcaster who's calling the match. You can watch all of these games on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, and I should mention that this Saturday's match is presented by Regent's Blue Shield, where connection
is at the heart of a healthy life. Regent's Blue Shield. Together we health the broadcasters on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV for Sounders Dallas, our Max Bret us again and the man who's joining us for a second straight week, Brian dun Seth, color analyst for these Sounders Dallas matches. Brian, good to have you back on the show, my friend, how are you. I'm fantastic man. I appreciate you having me once again. I always
enjoy the conversation. I appreciate it if it's taking the time out, Brian, let's just very quickly get your opening thoughts on the two nothing win that we saw Monday night back at Lumenfield. Really impressive first leg, I guess
is what we'll call it. I was again after being a part of a couple of broadcasts rec and specifically the Tuna win on the road at Saint Louis, I was intrigued to see how the kind of continued evolution of this group looked in a playoff format, especially with the opportunity of a couple of young players integrated into this squad. You know, what were they going to be? The changes from Brian Smester to his starting eleven. We figured new who
Tola would be back in. He put in a very typical who playoff type of performance. But you know, especially the week that saw news of Nikol Ladero electing to cause a little bit of havoc within the group for the announcement that he was going to take his talents elsewhere after the end of the season, I was intrigued to see the response, and the response was exactly what
I expected from this group. They got the first goal, they managed the game well enough to get the second goal, and at the end of the
ninety minutes they win. But if you're Brian Smithster and his coaching staff, it comes with a keen eye of recognizing as well that Pat hayeses today to finished off those two chances in the first half, you know, the small margins could have drastically changed with regards to what that scoreline looked like and how Seattle would have had to find themselves kind of clawing and manage his game back
from a losing position. Yeah, exactly. The Stephan Fries save in the twenty third minute, the Hasus Ferra one on one miss in the twenty seventh. Either of those go in the back of the net, and we could be talking about a very very different narrative coming out of Game one, for
sure. Brian dunsas our guest voice of this series between Sounders and Dallas on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Brian, you mentioned Nicholas Ladero there and the comments last week that came out that this is his final year with the Sounders. Didn't ask you this last week, and this is a perfect chance
to quickly slip this in this week. On the national level, I mean here in Seattle, we look at Nicholas Ladero as the greatest Sounder of all time, just the trophies, the records since he got here, et cetera. On a national scale, what is his legacy to Major League Soccer on the large scale, to a national audience. Is he one of the league's greats? Yeah? Absolutely absolutely. You know I would throw he and Diego Valari in a kind of similar conversation in terms of coming into Major League Soccer
acclimating quickly both on and off the field. You know, the the focus on making sure the communications fields in English were superb, you know, setting the tone both on and off the field in terms of expectations, leadership, accountability, professionalism and then player performance, and I think people forget. I mean, this was a really fascinating time with the Sounders. You know that that the timeline of of of of you know, departing from the faithful dual
of Almi Martins and Clint Dempsey and then transition. I can remember specifically talking to Darth Logrouey about you know, the difficulties and the signing of Niko Ldero and you know, the the there's so much nuance and layer and then knowing that Ruideas was that was the next target. You know, extraordinarily talented and incredible human being from everybody that I've spoken to, and it's a sad moment, you know, I experienced something similar. And Craig Wibole was here when
Javier Morales that came to an end with him at rialsau Lake. And you kind of find in you when you're talking about a lead of elite players, you kind of walk into this super interesting conversation of okay for the club and the identity and the and the price point and what expectations are, what reality is, and that comes a point for the player where he says, hold on a second, I'm not done yet, right, So unfortunately his time might be done in Seattle. When it's all said and done, it would
be an extraordinary career and you hope. You know, there's handshakes and hugs and tiers all the way around because everybody recognizes what he meant. But also there's an ego involved, and the ego is that Nicol Leadero's not done. So I'm intrigued to see what's next for him and his family. I know, I said during the broadcast, We've seen conversations and links, you know, whether it was Nacional and Uruguay, whether it was Boca Juniors in Argentina,
whether hell it's Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer. The reality is we've seen the spark and the impact that Nico Ladero still has. And I would say the way that he plays is really unlike any other ten in Major League Soccer because the amount of ground covered, his ability in small spaces to create something out of nothing, and he just really just pulls people all over the place trying to chase and figure out and again you saw I mean you think
about the quivers for Brian Schenzer to turn through. When you can bring on Nikoladero and Roller Redias, it completely changed. I mean it strikes fear into the opponents knowing that hell here comes thirty minutes and we know that Neiola Daro and rollaler Ridias are about to hit the field. That is a scary,
scary prospect for opponents. That's exactly right because we saw Nico come off the bench in the second half and and Brian Schmenzer was on our station last night and said he quote changed the game, and I think we saw that where Nico just brings a leading one nothing. He comes in and it very clearly settles down the game. The Sounders get rolling, Jordan scores the header and we're often running to nothing, and Nico's impact on the field just you can
clearly see that the guy can still play at a high level. It's just a question of where. And you know, MLS, I'm sure MLS teams who are in looking for a number ten certainly will. We'll look to figure out a way to get Nico on their budget for next year. That'll be an interesting situation. Come twenty twenty four, and then this offseason ahead. My goodness, this is going to be a busy offseason for Craig Wible and
company here in Seattle. My god. Brian Dunst's our guest coll analysts for MS season pass on Apple TV, where you can watch Sounders Dallas Game two. Brian, let's talk about game two because Sounders now with a one nothing series lead of this three game series, looking at the way that Game two is gonna have to function with Dallas facing a must win, how do you
think that Dallas's tactics may change without Alan Velasco? Also, but how do you think Dallas and Nico's tactics may change looking at this must win and also being at home in the circumstance. Yeah, I don't know. And I apologize because I'm not trying to avoid the question or be flip it to it, because the reality is, we don't This is the first time we've seen
this format. We have no litmus tests, we have no examples to point too to say, oh, this is the way he should play, this is what he has to do because there is no aggregate score line to manage.
And I think you and I talked the week ago when we were talking about if I liked it, if I didn't like it, I loved it because how cool was it to be able to see both of these managers just basically say screw it and just literally you know on board every attack minded player that they had to either stretch the lead out or chase the game and try to get themselves back into the game. So I don't know, I can
tell you that he's got maybe three to four different shapes or identities. It's another couple of days to to get Kemungo as well as a Sebastian Lejet potentially into that starting eleven or at least into some capacity to play more significant minutes than they did in this match. And we'll wait to see what exactly if Saturday comes too soon for Alan Velasco. So, yeah, I gotta be
honest with you. I'm not positive, but I still know that, you know, for as bad as the score line looks and how clearly evident, what history will tell us it was a Sounders student went at home again. O heass Fadata hits either one or both of those one D one opportunities. We're having a different conversation about how this looks. So I guess the easiest thing for me to say is don't bet against FC Dallas just because they lost
in that first leg. And I'd also remind everybody because of the style of play for FC Dallas and the way Nkosas has set this team up, there's actually fans back at the stadium at Toyota Stadium down in FC Dallas. So I'm hoping for a sellout Saturday night, and I'm hoping for the FC Dallas fans to bring it to create the atmosphere that whatever is necessary. But again a couple of one. What I do think that we might see in Saturday's game, and let me know if you agree with this or not, is
potentially a wildly exciting match. I mean, you and I spoke right before kickoff on Monday about how exciting we thought the first half was going to be in that game one, and it turned out to be exactly what we thought. I kind of see a similar thing where Dallas at home is gonna want to come out on the front foot, I think, and for the Sounders
you can slide in some possession play. But I think that this team, with the speed of a Morris Chew Russnak who's worked us butt off there on Monday, and also Christian roll don I think that this opens it up for a potentially big back and forth transition plays where Dallas gets on the possession front foot and then Seattle tries to get you know, grab the chance to on the break. I could see a first forty five minutes that could be even
more intense than the first forty five on Monday. Yeah, and i'd also i'd add for Schmitzer, how does he approach it? Yeah, you know, the tactical chess match and the checkers. You know, it's not just
the substitution patterns at the sixtieth minutes. I was a big advocate for our broadcast to show who was on the bench, just so fans could get an idea of kind of continuing kind of the education purposes of you know, hey, by the way he turned to and by the way I always referenced Ziggie Schmidt because the legend always used to say to me, don't tell me who to bring on, tell me who to take off, and how does that
make my team better? So it again, Yes, the verticality is constantly a threat because of the speed and pace of Chew and Jordan Morris, in particular, the transition ability, by the way, I thought a tensial was superb. Yeah, I thought his partnership was wil Palla was fantastic. The combativeness, the whether we call tactic files professional fouls, the recognizing recognition of when to to take a yellow, when not to take a yellow. I
just you know, the continued partnership of YAMR. Reagan. You talked about Steph Frye. I call him Big Game Bob. He's always got a huge, huge save in him. So yeah, I mean it's it's really hard to point out a poor performance. But again, Margins, right, those smart margins I keep coming back to, and hayeses Fedeta finishes those one of those two chances. The complexion of the game looks drastically different. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, I think it'll be a fun one on Saturday, and
I think people are really in for an entertaining match. Hopefully it just goes throughout. Where As a Sounder fan, I could see Sounders catching him on the break. In transition, you get one, Dallas has to push more and then they throw more numbers forward. Seattle gets another one on the break. It could it could turn into a very very fun match for real frankly either fan base. So we will see. And by the way, that
that's what happened. That's what happened in Saint Louis the other day. Yeah, Sport in Kansas City, they gave up the first game, they started goal, they started pushing, and next thing you know, all bet off and it looked like just a firefight of speed and athleticism. Brian, before we let you go, you mentioned this series between Sporting Kansas City and Saint Louis. Would love to get a thought from you on what's happening in the rest of the playoffs. So, I know we were talking in the elevator
about LAFC and Vancouver that five to two first game of that series. Now that heads back to Vancouver. But what are your initial kind of just headlines from what you're seeing around the rest of the MLS playoffs. Yeah, statement of intent from Cincinnati, from Philadelphia, you know, the Orlando City game was every bit of defensive that we expected from Nashville. I'm really excited to see what the first leg looks like between Columbus Crew and Atlanta United in the
West. I think we've seen some really fun results. I still think it's going to be a dogfight between both the Houston Dynamo and Rial Salt Lake. That game will be out in Salt Lake City on Monday. Yeah, this have everything that we've hoped and expected, and I think in terms of everything we watched on Apple and if you haven't watched any of these games, this first round is going to be free. So the entire best of three series matchdays one, two, and three will be free on the Apple TV app.
But yeah, I mean it's it's I still feel like we're going to understand what this second leg in this format really means after we get through match Day two and all of a sudden, either games are done that we didn't expect to be done in two games, or all of a sudden, we're in game three and we didn't expect this, you know, this matchup to get the game three. Yeah, we'll see if the Sounders are hosting Dallas next Friday night, and we may have another chat next week, depending on
what happens. Brian here, there's a bunch of stormshead in your way too, So it sounds like it's going to be a wet couple of weeks. It really is. Yeah, the rains starting today and they're continuing for god knows how long, so we'll see if that gets all the way to next Friday. But man, great stuff today. Love having your inside, especially on the Nicholas Ladero stuff. That was awesome And we'll all listen to you
six pm. MLS Season Pass on Apple TV coming up on Saturday. Have a great call with Max and we'll see if we're talking again here in a week. Sounds good man, I look forward to Thanks Bud. Great stuff there from Brian Dunseeth MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, broadcaster for Sounders and Dallas in this whole first round it, as he mentioned, free for all
of these first round games. Well I quickly mentioned once again that Saturday's match is presented by Regent's Blue Shield, where connection is at the heart of a healthy life Region's Blue Shield. Together we health also one more note before we take a break and continue talking about the MLS playoffs with Ari Leonwell of MLS Soccer dot Com and the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. Before we get Arion, I'll tell you that Sounder fans bud Light was brewed to be a delicious and easy
to drink beer. Bud Light easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Pick up bud Light at your local retailer today. Please enjoy responsibly. We'll continue to talking Sounders Dallas and the wild MLS playoffs here that are ongoing. More next on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Bow back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders fc CL's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Welcome back Sounders Weekly. Good to have you with us here, Jackson Feltz Good to have our two guests so far this evening, Josh Attensio and of course Brian Dunzeth. Check out the podcast in case you missed any of them, But check out the podcast after tonight's show is over, because you don't want to miss what's coming up. Right now, joining us from MLS Soccer dot com and the podcast Lobbing Scorcheres. He has a new episode out
I saw as the playoffs are beginning. Ari. Lillian Walla joins us right now. Ari, good to have you back on the show. My friend, how are you I'm good? Jackson, how are you doing good? I'm good. Ari. Let's talk some playoffs soccer. Just opening up and get your initial thoughts on what we saw Monday night with the Sounders two. Nothing went over over Dallas. Yeah, I mean I thought they looked sharp,
Jackson, they looked sharp. It was good to see. It was good to see them get multiple goals and take care of business at home. It was good to see them keep that clean sheet. I wrote about it in my postgame content, and Brian Schmetzer talked about it after the game. But I thought that I thought that was the best game I've ever seen new Who play. I really did. I thought he was phenomenal, and not
just on defense. He picked up the assists on on that second goal that Jordan Morris scored, and Stephan Fry came up with a couple of huge saves, especially that first one on his SU's ferrero, where you know, if that one goes in, that entire game could be totally different. So I think it was good to see that the improved form that we saw at the end of the season seemed to translate over to that first playoff game. Yeah,
I think we definitely saw that. It's an interesting point of new putting together maybe his best game of all time because you're going into an offseason, there is inevitably going to be a lot of changes. Obviously with Nicholas Ladera, we know he's leaving. We didn't even talk about that last week. Well, I will probably do a season rap conversation with you and talk about
all these things. But in a situation where you have new putting out great tape and read Baker Whiting emerging at lefts back, that could be an interesting spot come the off season ahead. But that's a question for another time. Arias we kind of look forward and begin our sharp vision opponent at look,
and we look ahead to Saturday's game too. This is a situation where Dallas is not only down one nothing in the series, they might also be without Alan Velasco, who went out in the first half due to an injury. We'll see about that. But you know, how do you kind of handicap this game too, in a match that is a must win for Dallas and a Sounders team right now, that is, as we both agree, playing
really sharp. Yeah, it's gonna be a hard game, because Jordan Morris was talking about it last night, But you know, in a game like this, you're going against a desperate opponent that knows that their season night is on the line and is going to be playing at home. And then on top of that, Frisco's a very difficult place to travel and get a result. Seattle is historically struggled quite a bit there, so I certainly don't expect
it to be an easy game. One factor that might not be as big of an issue as it has been in the past when Seattle goes to Frisco is I think one of the things that makes it so hard to play there is when you go there in the summer months and you're dealing with that oppressive heat. That shouldn't be as much an issue that time this time around, at least at this time of year. So I think that actually might come into play quite a bit as far as Seattle's chances of getting a result in
this game compared to what they normally are. But it's still a tough road trip, and you know, as ce Dallas, it's their season right here, so you know they're going to come out and try and jump on top of Seattle from the jump, and they're gonna have have to absorb that and manage the game and try and figure out how to get a result, however, they can and end this series so they don't have to do a Game three. My little weather app here says seventy seven degrees in Frisco on Saturday,
So imagine kickoff at eight pm Central time, six Pacific. That's going to be a pretty comfortable temperature there coming up on on Saturday evening. Ari Luion was our guest. Ari, Let's quickly dig a little bit deeper, because you mentioned how Dallas is going to try to jump on the front foot and go for it in a must win. That could really open up this
game and make this a wide open back and forth bout. And for the Sounders who have so much speed on the you know, on pretty much everything Top four, Russnak you know went to another gear there on Monday night. But you have Chew, you have Morris, you have Christian in that transition, I think this could bode well for Seattle if if Dallas over commit a little bit. I think I think that's a good point. You know, a desperate team can be a team that opens opens themself up in that way.
And so when you're in Seattle's position and you know the other team is going to come out firing like that, I think your mentality is to try and capitalize that. You know, Stephen Fry was pretty adamant that it would be it would be a bad play to try and just sit back and just
absorb that pressure. So I think what Seattle should definitely try and do is when FC Dallas is throwing numbers forward, which you know they're going to be, definitely don't be shy about trying to hit them and transition, and you know, if you can get one or two goals, you should like your chances of at least taking a draw that would get you to penalty kicks, and at that point you give yourself a pretty good chance of taking the result
you need to advance. That's absolutely right, completely agree with you. Ari Luine was our guest. Ari Tonight's uponent, Alec was presented by Sharp Vision, Modern Lasik and Lens, the official Lasik provider of Sounders FC. Ari. Let's shift gears and talk about the rest of the league and before we dig into a couple specific games. Tea, It's interesting to me that overall in the playoffs so far it's been absolutely dominated by home teams. I haven't
looked up to see what's going on between Columbus and Atlanta. I should probably do that, But overall, looking at the series is overall only one road team and that's Sporting Kansas City over Saint Louis has won. This has been a playoffs dominated by the home team. Is there anything to that in regards to maybe the new format or just simply the better teams winning. How do
you read into home teams winning? You know, ninety percent of these games so far, Well, it's not all that different than the trend that you typically see throughout the league during the regular season. MLS is known as a league that's really hard to travel in. If you look at the table every year, pretty much every team is going to have a winning home record and a losing road record, and how high you can get up on the table a lot of the times is dependent on how many of those road results that
you can grind out and take those extra points there. So the home road splits in MLS are kind of like that usually, So I don't know if that could be a factor that is just staying consistent in that way. And then of course you have the higher seats are hosting the first game, so you have matchups ostensibly of teams that were better throughout the regular season hosting these
home games first, so that probably has something to do with it. But you know, I think what I'm going to be looking for to answer that question better is just how these second game games go. And if the lower seeded teams hosting the second games also pretty much win all those games, then I think that is a trend that could be worth talking about in regards to the new format. Okay, so we'll continue that conversation maybe next week after
we see what happens in the weekend's games. Where you got in New York hosting Cincinnati, the other way around, Dallas hosting Seatle of course on Saturday night, Kansas City hosting Saint Louis, Vancouver hosting LAFC. Those last two I want to talk about game ones of those series. I listen, I was still doubting that Saint Louis was for real after their decision. They lost
to Seattle, where I think they kind of mentally crumbled. I think you saw a team that I was kind of still questioning if they were going to be able to get up for it in the playoffs, And we saw Sporting Kansas City, which to be fair, very good soccer team, most wins in MLS since the month of May, but Sporting Kansas City just absolutely demolished them. What did you see in that game one? Yeah, so that was the one result where the road team, YEP, got to win,
and they did it in commanding fashion in Saint Louis. And you know, I can tell you that Saint Louis City fans weren't exactly happy with me after the last episode of Loton Sportsers because I said that I put them on Traud Watch. Now I didn't even call them fraud. You know, straud watched different than outright calling them. But you know when I when I see as a stat that you overperformed your expected goals by twenty goals, that is that
is a whopping number. I don't I don't think I've ever seen a number like that, And that's the kind of thing that can even outcome playoff time. And that's really all I was trying to say. But they didn't take too kindly to that. But sure enough, you look at the first game and they lose four to one at home. They were the only home team to lose. So we'll see how the rest of that series pans out.
But I have to say watching that game and seeing how what I felt, I felt a little validated in my pre playoffs take that I wasn't sold necessarily on Saint Louis City either, and they did nothing to dissuade those thoughts in that game. They got ran over by Sporting Kansasity. Absolutely, so that you are justified. And I do too feel that because I listen to Saint Louis. I mean, when you're you, because the way you give up six less goals than the XG said, and you score twenty more than the
XG said. Yeah, that's deserving a fraud watch indeed. And they got whooped by Kansas City. And now the series goes to KC with the now hosts coming up this weekend looking to close out the series. Also, LAFC, they won in Vancouver. They won at home excuse me, five to two. Now that series goes to Vancouver. I mean that was a game one where hangs Head scores to Bwonga, the Golden boot Winners scores two, and the lafc's offense just looks on fire right now, Ari, what do
you see out of them? Yeah? I thought Vancouver hung with it in that game better than the five to two score line might indicate. They might down one zero and two to one, and they managed to tie it both times, and they were playing l AFC relatively straight up, and it got away from them in the second half. But I think that game is kind of where you see the degree of firepower that LAFC really has compared to a
lot of these teams in the Western Conference. They're the only team in the West that can hang five on you like that, just you blink, and they have all these goals and Denny's wonga if he's in that type of form throughout the playoffs. He won the Golden Boot this year. They're gonna be really hard to stop. You know. I'm rooting for the white Caps in that series. That would be a fun upset. It just doesn't look like they have quite enough to hang with lafc's firepower, and it doesn't seem like
they have the defensive validity to slow LAFC down. So it seems like if if someone's gonna take down LAFC, it's probably gonna have to be later in the playoffs when they come against the team that has an ew leite defense well, which is Seattle, and it would be the two to three games Seattle hosting LAFC, which would be I believe what on the twenty fifth or twenty
sixth of November, So that may be the road we're going down. Also in the Western Conference, a team that you also talked highly of, Houston Dynamo. They got a two don't want to win over saut Lake. Over in the East, Philadelphia beat New England three to one. You also had Cincinnati beating New York Red Bulls three nothing, Orlando beating Nashville one nothing as well. So that's what's happening over in the Eastern Conference. Ari will talk
to you next week. Hopefully we're talking about the Sounders looking at a conference semifinal, but we'll see what happens this coming Saturday night. Thanks as always, my friend. Yeah sounds good. Thanks Jackson. Good stuff there from Arilillionwall MLS soccer dot com and host of the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. Well,
we do not have Andrew Harvey for around the sound tonight. He gave some info on the ol Rain playoff game last week, and I'll pass that on one more time here because they did not play this last weekend international break. But the next game in the playoffs for ol Rain comes at San Diego this coming Sunday at six thirty. I believe you can watch that match on CBS Sports. I want to say that's what Andrew had said at match kicks off
at six thirty this Sunday, Oil Rain at San Diego Wave. And that's a San Diego Wave team that finished top of NWSL with thirty seven points. This is a one seed versus a four seed game, so big playoff match gonna be a difficult one for ol Rain coming up this Sunday. But back to the Sounders wrapping up the show tonight once again broadcast details for this coming Saturday. It's gonna be the Sounders at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
Kickoff is gonna be around six o'clock. Our provident Swedish pre mat show will be at five thirty. You can listen to the match on the Sounders FC stream channel on iHeartRadio. I'll be sending that link out at Jackson B Feltz
on my Twitter. Our station will be sending that out at nine three three KJR, so you can make sure to check those if you are on social medium and also if you just generically google Sounders FC stream channel iHeartRadio, you should be able to find that online, so that too where you'll be able to listen to that match. But of course you can also watch on the MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. Coming up pregame five thirty kickoff
six o'clock on Saturday night, Big one for the Sounders. You can move on to the Conference semifinals at Lumenfield with a win. A loss would send this to a game three next Friday and nine days back at Lumenfield, so we will see what happens. Thanks to all of our guests tonight, Josh
Tencio, Brian Dunseeth and Ari Lillian Waller. Check out the podcast in case you missed any of it, Sounders Weekly wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app where you can listen to this Saturday's game two match well. Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Sounders FC, and we will talk to you on Saturday over on the stream channel.
It is a five thirty pre game six o'clock kickoff. We'll talk to you then for sounders and Della's, but for right now, Fox Sports Radio is coming up next.