Coming to you live from Orelliot Avenue Studios of Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson felt Good, Aiden and everybody. Welcome into Sounders Weekly. Jackson Feltz here good to be with you for the next hour here on Sports Radio A ninety three point three KJRFM. We're talking about a Sounders one to one draw against the Calisle Rapids, not able to get all three points despite leading that match for so much of it.
We'll get into what happened. Also, we will look ahead to Sounders San Jose Earthquakes. That match coming up this Saturday evening over on nine to fifty am will be a seven o'clock pregame seven point thirty kickoff. A lot of coverage on that ahead. We're gonna be looking ahead of that match a couple different ways in the show. First coming up here in just about five minutes from right now, Heath Pierce will join us. Heath Pierce is a
broadcaster for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. He will be hauling the match this coming Saturday, Sounders and San Jose Earthquakes down there on the road in San Jose. By the way, Heath is also a former member of the Portland Pilots. We'll get into that here in a little bit. We'll also cover the San Jose match in our sharp vision upon it Alec with Ari Lillianwall, who will take us around the league. We'll talk some more MLS.
Minnesota United off to a hot start, so we'll have Ari Lillion Wall coming up. Later in the show. We'll go around the sound with some big Rain news and a Ballard FC by the way about to kick off or actually they did just kick off here recently in the last half hour in the US Open Cup match up at Memorial Stadium against Spokane, so that's currently ongoing. And of course we will chat with a Sounders player this week. It's Albert
Russneck after the one to one draw against Colorado. So a lot coming up here in Sounders Weekly. On the Colorado front, Raul Rodiez penalty early in the match. Great to see Tye Freddy Montero's club record for goals across all competitions at seventy nine. Raoul you could see clearly for the rest of that match one and number eighty just wasn't able to reach number eighty despite long shots
he really was hungry for number eighty, but he didn't reach it. And then josh Atencio's second yellow card, the double and the red card sent off there, and that really fundamentally in the fifty seventh minute changed the entire complexion of that game. Sounders playing a man down and it took all the way until the eighty eighth minute and a free kick that was forced a phenomenal save
out of Andrew Thomas. It was a great free kick, great take, but Andrew Thomas made a better save and unfortunately the Sounders, the people who were on the line on the wall defending didn't box out, and it's Kevin Cabral who knocks in the rebound. The easiest goal Kevin Cabral will have in his entire life, that goes in the back in the eighty eighth minute, not able to find the winner while playing a man down. San Jose had a few chances additionally as well, and what do you know, it is
a one to one draw. Also important to mention, Andrew Thomas had a fantastic penalty save in that match, penalty created by the Rapids Jackson Reagan tackle on the edge of the box. Andrew Thomas dives to his right and a great job there from Andrew Thomas. I talked to Brian Schmitzer yesterday training and I asked him, listen, has Andrew Thomas worked his way into making this a competition or is this still Stephan Fry's job to lose when he gets back
healthy? And you know, Schmitzer said, it is Fry's job, but he did give credit to an outstanding game by Andrew Thomas. He was our Toyota Man of the match. And you know, good news on the Fry front. Stephen Fry was back in training. He's looking good. We will see if he is able to start against the San Jose Earthquakes this Saturday. That's TBD. All so TVD is Albert Russnack. You'll hear the interview coming up here in just about a half hour. Albert Russnack. He feels good,
he feels like he will be able to start. The question is does Brian Schmitzer in the coaching staff feel he will be able to start. So that is an additional question. But no, Josh ATTENSI in this match will raise questions of what the coaching staff does with this case. You know, do you do a one for one swap with a Tensio and russ Snack in the four four two? Do you change back to the four two three one and get Russnack in the middle attacking role of that band of three midfielders.
So there's a lot of options for what Brian Schmitzer and Freddie Warrez, Andy rose Preki, the entire coaching staff do for this match. We will see what it looks like. Not good news on Jul Paulo. He is still a ways out, per Brian Schmitzer. Also still a ways out is Pedro de la Vega, and obviously those two midfielders, the attacking winger in dala Vega, your defensive the in engine room of this team, Jul Paulo. Having both them out I mean I will continue to tell people who are freaking
out right now just wait until this team gets healthy. And yes they may not be one hundred percent healthy, but these two specific players, I mean Pedro de Levega is the guy that this team brought in in the offseason to be, you know, a new engine room on the offensive end. He's what we were missing. Creative, fast, good on the ball, takes on defenders, et cetera et cetera. Always has an eye for goal. He's what this team has been missing, and when he's not there right now,
that changes the way this team functionally just works offensively. Same way with Duel Paulo. I mean he as we've talked about. I mentioned the injuring room a second ago. Not having him changes a lot of things. So let's just wait till these guys get back, and hopefully the rest of the team is healthy when they do get back. But it is still gonna be a ways for both of those guys. So that's the situation injury wise.
We'll see what it looks like against San Jose. But joining us right now here in Sounders Weekly is a man who played for the Portland Pilots and MLS now I say, Portland, listen, this isn't Portland Timbers. You know you can listeners say like, oh, you're visiting with somebody from Portland now. He was a part of a program that produced a lot of Sounders Casey Keller, Wade Weber and joining us right now here is another one of the
former Portland Pilots. His name is Heath Pierce and he's also a broadcaster for MLS season pass on Apple TV. Heath, great to have you on the show. How are you today, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me, well, thanks for coming on. Obviously, you know I mentioned that the Portland Pilot's history there, we know, you know, just from from chatting off the air. That's you know, Steve Cheranolo obviously now head coach
at LAFC, was also with Portland Polace. A lot of MLS rich history in soccer history in terms of the United States, came out of that university DoD Just a little about being at a school that you know that that's a little bit off the beaten path from you know, your big University of Washington stuff. But boy, Portland has produced a ton of great soccer talent here locally. Yeah. Absolutely, And obviously that program has been really revitalized in
the last few years in terms of the on field product. But for me, you know, Steve Tarundelo, who was there some years before I got to the school, was a big reason why I went there, right the opportunity to play for Clive Charles, who had spent some time you know, as the Olympic team coach and was sort of widely known as one of the best coaches in the country at that time, a guy who I think would have had an opportunity to coach the full men's national team or even the women's
national team at one point, because he was coaching both programs a lot of the time there at University of Portland. But it is off the beaten path, and especially then, right when you were a kid and I came out of California, you usually went to a big school in southern California or northern California, and then if you went to the Northwest, it was about you dub right right somewhere you could have a big college experience, a big sports
experience, you know. Being a city like that in Portland at the time wasn't really a draw. I think obviously they've been able to market themselves well over the last years, both with you know, coming to MLS and the city developing in a number of ways, and so back then though, like the idea of going to Portland was kind of it was off the beaten pass. But I went there specifically because when I sat down with Clive Charles, he said, I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Connor
Casey. I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Steve Tarundelo. You're going to go to school, You're going to pass your classes, but I'm here to train you to become a professional, and so when that time comes, I'm going to push you out. So obviously at the time, Dean Wurzburger was the head coach at U dub I'd played under him with the youth national teams, and there was, you know, the idea of
the college experience. But for me, I was driven on, Hey, I want to become a pro, and that's where I had my best opportunity. They weren't thinking about national championships and those types of things. They were thinking about player development, at least in the case for me, And so that's why I took the leap and never looked back. And uh, and I just got a text about thirty seconds ago telling me to ask you if you ever crossed pass with Nate Jaqua because I didn't even know and I had
to look this up for here just a second ago. Nate jaquall also both without the Portland pilots. Did you and him cross pets? Yeah? So I was a freshman and Nate's I believe junior year. So I got a chance to play one season with with Nate before he went into the into MLS, and so knew him quite a bit throughout his career. And obviously that was the same period as a player named Kelly Gray, and so there was
a long list. But yeah, Jake Wa obviously a guy spent a number of years in Seattle, and I know liked by the fans for his aggressive mentality and play. So yeah, he's another guy that I actually had. The the rest of them, I never really had the opportunity to play with until I got into the national team, where I got a chance to sit next to Casey Keller And never tell him how big of you here he was to me at Teacher Undelo, you know, never tell him how much you
know his career path meant to me. You've got to sort of hold all that in when you're there and act like you belong there. But Jake, what was the guy that I did get to play with for one season in college? Oh cool? All right? Well, Heath Pierce is our guest MLS season past commentator, will be on the call for Sounders Earthquakes. Heath, we should probably talk some soccer. I could I can nerd out over
soccer history and how rich it is through that university for a while. But let's talk some soccer in your week so far from you four what five match days so far into the season. Just give us your two cents and and maybe the biggest surprises, biggest takeaways you've had from the first few weeks of the season. And you know, sees the Sounders towards the bottom, and sees you know, a team like Minnesota up towards the top, Miami doing
their thing. What have your impressions so far been in the league. Yeah, it's been It's been a really interesting start. And it's weird and and and I and I'm the way I've broken it down right when I start up in for a Sounders game against San Jose, I've had a chance to call a couple of Santose games already, and I'm well aware where they're at in
their season. You know where the weaknesses are, where the strengths are, where the opportunities lie, kind of where their roster is going to build out. But when I think about an LAFC in tenth place, Seattle Sounders winless in thirteenth place, it almost doesn't worry me. And I know maybe I'm I'm I'm different than than than the Sounders faithful who are saying, Okay,
you know, we're three games in. Obviously we had the canceled game, but it's unacceptable this this level of start to not have you know, more
than two points to kick off the season. But when I think about what Schmetzer's done over the years and just his ability to fill the team that can compete the fact that you're still missing three four key players in the roster Seattle Sunders specifically, I'm not too worried about them, although it is a little concerning for a club that spent so many years as a dominant force at home where if you ask anybody, like if somebody comes out of Actually I talked
to Josh Wolfe, you know, after the the the Sounders game, and he talked about nobody goes to Seattle and does well right, and the fact that they came out of that with the point they were super excited. Even though if you look at the possession and some of the chance creation and the attacking sort of the way that the attack broke down, Seattle had a lot
of those opportunities. Maybe not clear ones in terms of the XG creation, but you know, he was complimentary of his team coming out of that game the way that they did, considering how difficult it is to go to Seattle. Now, if you start to give that up, that same story to a lot of teams throughout the year, that's a little bit of a problem
for what has otherwise been a fortress. And I know last year there was a big focus on, hey, we need to be we need home games to be this place where it's really hard to come and get a result. I think that was the case at times. But you know, pretty equal home and away record from the Sounders last year, and they're going to have to definitely become the more dominant home in this season. We absolutely will be And obviously this San Jose match coming up is on the rug and when we
come back home. Ye, that is an emphasis to turn that back into a fortress heath because you have seen the San Jose earthquake so many times, why don't you give us some two cents on where Seattle can beat them and where Seattle really needs to spend some extra time in training this week preparing for what they can do. Well, I think for Seattle. It's again, and this is actually a similar theme with Sanelse. They've got to get that
front four creating chances, right. Seattle's had some decent spells of possession, They've had some pretty standard sort of patterns of play, but there needs to be that ruthless killer in seac and I think that's the story for both these teams. Santos has gotten some decent looks, but they haven't been able to really turn that into momentum and turn that into goals and then ultimately result.
And then Seattle similarly, if you watch the chances they create, maybe they're not missing a ton of clear cut chances, but they're getting to the edge of the area. They're getting into the attack king third, it's just falling apart at that point. And when you think about the ruthlessness of some of those players year over year, from Seattle or even San Jose, it's it's
it's surprising at this point. So when I think about this San Jose team, it's just about continuing to create uh chances and and there's a little bit of that as things go on, a little bit of that lack of almost belief that that you can do that that you don't want to fall into. But the San Jose has an opportunity to play with two strikers. Now with john and and Bogas, they can play with one striker. I know that a Bogas was sort of playing underneath next to him. Uh and the last
one they brought in that Pellegrino player as well. I'm all Tellegrino from from Norway where he was a back to back Golden Boot winner as a as a winger, which is pretty incredible in terms of his ability to score goals. And then Espinoza who came into the league as this guy who could put the ball in the dangerous areas and then last year was also showing that he could he could finish at an elite level. So those are where the real threats
are. They can play in possession and things like that. But when I think about the Sounders being able to play against that play against them, it's about being able to again bring those attacks to a conclusion when you get into the final third. Who's going to have the selfish mentality at the right time
to take it on the shoulders to have a moment of magic. If maybe you're not creating consistent chances where you can you know, anybody who watches the game enough can steal when a game swings and you're like, oh, yeah, there's a goal coming, Well that's not happening. Who's going to be that big player for the Sounders that can step up and create that goal.
And obviously, when you don't have your full team on the field, or what I would consider the best team on the field, whether that's a Stephen friednessing, a Gapollo, you know, Rusnak working back in Yamar, working back in Nathan as well. It's just, you know, you got to go with who you have and then you need those players to step up. Finding the right person to score the goal, to break the dam and open the floodgates to goals is a question that it may take the great philosophers of
our time. Has been frustrating and we'll see if it starts this week in San Jose. I personally hope you get to call three or four Sounders goals against the winless San Jose team, But we'll see how it shakes out there on Saturday, Heath, this was awesome. I hope we can chat again here in the future. Have a great call on Saturday for Quakes and Sounders and appreciate you giving us some time today. Thank you. It was a
great having a conversation and reminiscing on the old times. That's great stuff there from Heath. Pierce spent probably more time than needed to talking about and reminiscing on his Portland pilot's days. But I would emphasize everybody, listen, I'm not appreciating Timbers. I'm not appreciating the Portland I'm appreciating what that university has produced in Casey Keller, Wade Weber, Nate Jaqui, which I just learned as well. So pretty cool, rich history down there, with that university
producing a lot of local rave green talent, So pretty cool there. We'll take a break in Sounders Weekly, we'll talk more about the San Jose match coming up. Coming up here on Sounders Weekly, we have Albert Russknack Sounders
midfielder. We'll also go around the sound some big ol Rain news. I mentioned ol Rain, you'll hear why coming up in a little bit, and we will also go around the league and have more on Sounders San Jose with Ari Lillian wall Lot's coming up here over the next hour on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for sunders fc CL's sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back Sounders Weekly,
Jackson Feltz here. Good to be with you here tonight. Thanks for joining us late this evening after Cracking Weekly. As a reminder, we have Ari Lillianwall coming up in a little bit to take us around the league. We'll also have around the sound in just a few minutes. I want to ask Ari about the referee situation. How much closer we are to getting the big referees and the main referees back because their replacements they've been making some mistakes.
Christian Roldan had some comments after the game that I completely agree with and listen if it's a situation that hopefully will get resolved very very soon. Christian Roldan had those comments in the locker room and I was able to go over and hear those right after speaking with this man. Albert Russnach, Sounders midfielder. He's been injured with an ankle injury. Finally got back onto the field, got thirty plus nine minutes of action there against the Rapids on Saturday.
Great to see him back on the field. We talked all about his physical health, how he's feeling, if he could go and start against San Jose. We talked about the Rapids game. We talked a lot about what's ahead for the Sounders. A great conversation in the locker room with myself and Sounders midfielder Albert Russnak. We started off by simply talking about the feelings after giving up that late equalizer to Colorado and getting a one to one result at home.
So here's Albert Russnak. It feels like a loss, honestly, you know, thirty or so minutes, a man down, it's not easy. You know, you're under it, and to hold it kind of you know, without conceding until the very last few minutes is you know, it's disappointing. I thought it was all about hard work after the red card, right, and just sacrificing and then trying to defend and protect the goal. And it's also one of those goals that you know, with a bit of maybe
like the bull gos for a corner or whatever. But yeah, we gotta, you know, reflect on that goal, look back and then see what we could have done better, you know, to kind of follow up and
and help Andrew out. But yeah, I think it does it. It does feel like a loss just to go off that last point there, because listening to Schmitzer's postgame press conference, he was really emotional and frustrated and if emphatic about the defending on that set piece, like two days ago, you were saying, we were on that two days ago, you know, making sure you know, set piece defending was on point. You know, so I guess coming into the locker room after the game, you know what was
what was the mooton here? Obviously felt like a loss, you said, But like was the mooton here thinking about that moment and thinking about doing what could have been? Yeah, I mean, you know, all it takes is maybe one, maybe two guys kind of run back and create the ball. So it's it's really a small detail that that cost us, you know, extra two points today, and yeah, not much, you know other than that. I thought we controlled the game for sixty minutes until the red
card and then obviously you go man down. Then you kind of under it and you're defending, you know, in control completely the whole game, and then one moment changed the game and in their favor and then and then it became for the last thirty minutes a little bit different kind of game than what we saw the first sixty. So yeah, you know, another tie at
home and not the probably the start of the season that we wanted. But you know, with three games in and there's still a lot of games to be played well, and still a lot of games for you to play, because I mean, let's just let's for you personally. I mean, you know, first action, how do you feel physically right now? No, I feel great. You know. It was it was all about, you know, just getting the ankle to feel kind of somewhere normal like I did
before. As far as physically, I feel great. And and yeah, you know, it wasn't. It wasn't the scenario was imagining to come into the game. But that's why. Sometimes you know, a game, the game asks, you know, for you to do something different. And I think, you know, I'm versatile enough to to play anyone on the left like today. But yeah, you know, hopefully we stay healthy as a
team moving forward. And uh and yeah, and we got two road games and we were we're really good last year on road, so you know, we'll try and do that and Santos that next week for sure. You mentioned there, you know, getting the ankle back to a place where it feels you know, normal. A. Does it feel normal? And B do you feel like you is it a place where you can potentially start week?
Yeah, I mean I feel like I could start next week. You know, I think it was more I think this week also in practice, you know, it was more mentally, you know, just being back in the mix and you know, going into kind of tackles and and then and around the players and just building confidence on that really and then and that's that's all I need. I feel like, you know, that's all I needed from
this week. And then obviously today came on in there not a lot of actions with the ball, more without the ball, but it felt good, you know, it felt good to be back in it. And and yeah, the only thing you know, disappointing today is the result and the weirdness of playing out a position, coming on a man down, The whole thing changes. But speaking of weirdness, the weirdness of the injury itself, where as I understand it was like a day before the first game in l a
FC, like what happened there? Yeah, it was a day before the LFC, and it was you know, towards the end of the training and I kind of blocked the pass and as I blocked the pass, my ankle twisted and then my full body just landed on top of it. You know, I did it pretty good and part of the game. Man, you know, I didn't. I don't remember last time I was injured to miss the game. It's been years, but yeah, for whatever reason, it happened, and and that's it, you know, But I'm back now to
it. So just looking ahead now, honestly. Yeah. And I mean the conversation was looking the first question to press conference, the conversation with it with everybody has been like, all right, because can this team score goals? Can this team score goals? Right? And you gotta feel like you getting back in hopefully it is in the starting lineup that's going to help this team unlock the ability to score multiple goals. Yeah, I mean that's yeah,
that's definitely one of my jobs. But you know, we have enough quality to score goals. And I feel like, you know, we're just for whatever reason, we're just missing that final bit of play, you know, And we have guys up to whoever plays, you know, they can score and they can make the final pass, and it's just it. It hasn't happened yet, you know, and I feel like once it does happen and well we have that breakout game, I think it will continue for a
long long time, you know. So yes, there is you know, we need to be kind of hard on ourselves and look what we can do better. But on the other side, you know, it's still early, and you know we have to keep going. We have to keep creating chances. The more chances we create, the more likely we are to score. So you know, keep going. And then you know, we have whole next week to prepare for San Jose and I'm sure we'll work hard on on
on our final product. Well, last thing for you, and you mentioned, you know the guys up top role is seem like he has had an extra pepinist step this year. Have you seen that? Yeah, I mean you see he played he played really well today obviously until the the red card and the game changes. But you know, even the confidence on the PK's you know, yeah, he's he is a goal scorer and you know he feels confident in front of the goal, and you know, he had a
goal today. He had another you know, good shot that uh that went just a little bit over. So he's definitely one of the players that I mentioned that you know, has has it to score goals and also you know, to to make that final play, you know. So yeah, we'll be looking. We'll be looking score next week, you know, different ways than just p Casey. Well, you've you've taken a lot of penalties in your career. Have you ever taken a penanca? I have twice and one
size scored and once the goalie state in the middle. So what's the mentality when you go up and you like think I'm gonna do this, You just decide to do it, and then if you have the boss to do what, you do it, you know, and then if it comes off, it's it's obviously and all everybody celebrates. If it doesn't come off, people are like, why he's done it, But you know, it's part of the game. I like it. I like I like it that right with the death. All right, Well, good looking San Jose, thank you.
It's good stuff there from Albert Russnak, Sounders midfielder, and we'll see he says that he's good to start. We'll see if Brian Schmitzer agrees and puts him in the starting lineup, and that would, you'd think, allow the Sounders to get back to their traditional four two three one formation. Of course, Josh Atensio is now going to be out, so does Brian Schmitzer do a straight swap putting in Russnack with a Tensio out and it's a one for one and we stick with the four four to two. We will see
what Brian Schmitzer chooses and goes with coming up this Saturday night. We'll talk about that with Ari lillianwall Moore here in a little bit. But before we get to around the league, let's get to around the sound some actual news to talk about. Some few things right now. Actually, Ballard FC, the USL two team locally, are playing in the us Open Cup right up the hill from our station at Memorial Stadium against Spokane Velocity. I'm going to
be walking up there right after the show is over. So that's in terms of Ballard f C news. More USL two news, you have West Seattle Junction announcing that they have hired former Sounders legend really defender Roman Torres as an assistant coach. So Roman Torres is back in the area. He was with the Tacomas Stars. He was playing with the indoor team, I believe, not the USL two team, the indoor team, and now he is an
assistant coach there at West Seattle Junction. So that was a very cool connection there. And also rain FC news some actual big news here regarding rain FC. A couple points here. So let's first just go over the game. They had their first game on Sunday at Lumenfield. They got a one nothing win. You got a penalty. I want to say it was about like fourteen seconds into the game. They get a penalty. It's a long ball over the top against Washington and it ends up drawing a penalty in the box.
And then Bethany Ball also steps up and hits the penalty there in what was it the second or third minute. Rain get that early early goal and they defend well and they go on to beating Washington. Won nothing there. So that was a very good piece of news to start the season with.
But then the other major piece of news that came out this was actually you know, posted and sent out via email and sent out via social media at midnight on Sunday night Monday morning, so kind of an unusual time there, But the head line said Seattle RAINFC acquisition by Seattle Sounders and Carlyle near's completion. Here is the exact quote. OL Group announced today that an agreement has been reached with a group including the Seattle Sounders FC and global investment firm carlysle
for the sale of Seattle RAINFC. Also says the transaction is expected to close in early twenty twenty four, which obviously we're in right now. So how about that news. We are seemingly very close to Seattle RAINFC being kind of the partner in and under the umbrella of Seattle Sounders FC. Pretty darn cool. And if you've been in Lumenfield this year, you've seen kind of the tarps on the three hundred level. They now share kind of the same background
with the rain logo and the Sounders logo. So you can already start to see that partnership just visually in the stadium, and then you know how that partnership continues to evolve. You know, there's a lot of interesting legs there, and there's a lot of cool ways that this could go. So thing to monitor thing to continue to discuss. Maybe we'll even be able to get
Adrian Hanauer on for some comments at some point. But very cool news there as the sale for rain FC to the Seattle Sounders I and that global investment from Carlisle nearest completion. Very very cool. Well, from around the Sound, we now turn our attention to around the league. Ari Lilionoil will join us next and talk some more Sounders and MLS action on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for sunders FC
Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back Sounders Weekly, Jackson Feltz here this evening. Good to be with you. Good to spend a few minutes with Albert Russnack in the Walker room after the Sounders draw there against Colorado last week. Good to hear from him. And then go around the sound. In case you missed it, out FC playing right now as we speak up at Memorial Stadium, just a few blocks from the station here
in the US Open Cup match against Spoke against Spokane Velocity. We'll have more on that next week. But from around the Sound, it's time to go around the league. Joining us right now is our good friend from MLS Soccer dot Com, writer and editor there as well as host of the podcast Lobbing Scorcheres Ari Lillian. While back on the show, Ari, good evening, my friend. How are you. I'm good, Jackson. How are you doing? I'm good man, I'm good. Lot to get to here.
Let's quickly start off with your impressions of what happened there on Saturday at Lumenfield for the Sounders. You get the one nothing lead, you get the penalty from Raoul, and then you give up the eighty eighth minute equalizer after the red card. Just overall, if you can sum up the match, how would you sum up what we saw on Saturday? Yeah, you know, it was unfortunate because it actually started off pretty well. I thought, you
know, the attacking movements early in the match looked pretty good. They got rewarded for it with the penalty. Uh so they got the early goal that they needed. But unfortunately, when you can't get the second goal and then you get a red card, you leave yourself susceptible to the exact outcome that happened. I mean, they conceded a penalty that Andrew Thomas did really well to save, but playing down a man for that long, it's just tough
to hold up in that situation. So it's just unfortunate because you felt like you didn't really get a full ninety minutes of seeing if if they could hold that lead because of the red card. So but you look at these two results at home to start the year here zero zero against Austin and then one to one against a Rapids team that's you know, improved but rebuilding, and it's certainly not ideal home for him to start the year. Well, all
right, let's go back and talk about the red card. And there were a few moments to talk about when it comes to officiating, and you know, we brought up the fact that these are replacement referees right now, and then Christian roll Don said in the locker room, we need the highest quality on the field. We want those refs back because what happened was, you know, during the red card, Josh Utancio has a slide tackle as a balls are going away from goal. The ref lets almost exactly a minute come
off the clock. Then he brings it back and gives Josh the direct second yellow, turning into the red he sent off. So there was a minute long delay where play continued after the second yellow was going to be given. No review was done, it was just you know, all right, now play has stop. Now I'm going to give the second yellow. Very odd situation. There a few other very odd situations in that game, and it
all resulted in the crowd chanting you know, ref. I believe it was ref, you suck after the final whistle, pretty loud as loud as I've ever heard it in that building. Fans are starting to become even more frustrated with the refs. Players are starting to become more frustrated with these replaces. Where are we at right now? Where do you think that this is at? And how soon can we get the refs back on the field. Yeah, Well, Christian wasn't the only player to give a quote to that effect
this week. He saw a few more scenarios in a lot of different games around the league that were UH where players were expressing a similar sentiment. You know, I tend to agree, I want the UH. I want the experience refs back as soon as possible. I think you're seeing a lot of UH game management issues and individual calls where that experience is shining through I mean, as far as the yellow card on Josh Atensio itself, actually didn't have
that much of an argument with that call. In particulate, it was weird how the ref Yeah, how the referee let the let play go for that long before going back for it. But the challenge itself, I mean, i'd think that's arguably the issue is the fact that it took a minute to give him the second yellow when it should have been instantaneous, and that's that's the part that's frustrating. It was a fair yellow. You usually pull it
back in that situation. I agree with that, But I mean as far as when we're going to get them back, I really don't know, Jackson.
I mean, it doesn't seem to be much of a close end in sight for the dispute that's going on, so hopefully they can get it resolved as soon as possible, But like, I haven't heard anything to the effect that they're any closer now than they have been this entire time that they've been negotiating, which I mean, it's just going to be interesting to see how long that it can stand like this, because I think both players and fans are starting to get to their wits end a little bit. Yeah, definitely
at the wits end after what happened this last week. But so we move forward and it's Sounders at San Jose coming up this Saturday night. Quickly for broadcast details on that before move forward. It'll be a Providence Swedish pre much show up seven o'clock, kickoff at seven point thirty over on our sister station, Sports Radio at nine to fifty kr am. Folks can also listen in Spanish language on LRA thirteen sixty and watch the match via MLS Season Pass on
the Apple TV apps. Set Sounders at San Jose this Saturday night on nine to fifty kr am Ari. This is a San Jose team in our sharp vision opponent outlook here that is one of only two teams in MLS that have no wins, no draws, and four losses. It's them and the revs, this San Jose team. You know, we usually kind of go into road matches saying like a point would be a you know, getting a draw
on the road is a good result. I'm looking at this one saying the sounders should be looking towards all three am I off base there no not based on how San Jose has played so far this year, They've been arguably the worst team in the league through their first four games. The only thing I would say is that the Quakes have traditionally been a bit of a bogey team
first Seattle. No matter what form they're in, especially when the Sounders go on the road there, San Jose always gives them a game, and the last few times that they've played down there, the Quakes have gotten the better of them, if I call correctly. So MLS is a bit of a weird league like that. We all know that that the form that you're in at the moment is not always relevant to the result that takes place in the
next game. And I just have a little bit of pause given the struggles that Seattle has had on offense and San Jose's historic standing as kind of a bogie team in that way, I don't think it's like a three points in the back type of situation. I expect this to be a hard fought game at the very least, especially because the Quakes. This is another situation where Seattle is facing a desperate opponent where they're playing at home. They're gonna come
out firing. So I think Seattle should definitely hope and expect to be taking a result in this game. But I don't think it's like a pushover opponent, as the Quakes record might indicate, and then you hit the nail on the head. That's why I hate playing desperate teams. I hate teams that are you know, had the backs against the wall, and ATO and four
they certainly have their backs against the wall. We'll have more on the pre match show seven pm over on nine to fifty KM on Saturday, but for tonight, the opponent, Alec was presented by Sharp Vision Modern Leask and Lens, the official Lasik provider of Sounders FC. Are you let's move forward and kind of really start to jump around MLS and jump around especially this Western Conference where Minnesota you know, we haven't talked about them yet the entire season.
We were talking in the press box and I came up to you and I said, you know, it's amazing, how have we gone you know, three episodes or four episodes so far and not brought up Minnesota United because they are on fire, and I mean are they are? They the best team right now playing as the best team in the entire league at this point. I mean They're certainly the hottest team this side of Inner Miami. You know, I probably still have Inner Miami as the best team in the league.
But yeah, you got to be impressed with what Minnesota has done because they didn't even have a full time head coach coming into this season. They had Ammeron Knowles as their interim head coach. They just hired Eric Ramsey, who was an assistant coach for Manchester United, thirty two years old, youngest coach in the league. And I was on his introductory press conference the other day doing some content for MLS Soccer dot Com, and I gotta say I was
pretty impressed just with how he handled the media. He speaks multiple languages. He seems almost like an up and coming young coaching prodigy that they might have on their hands there. You know, I don't want to anoint him as anything this fast, but like when you combine the infrastructure they have in place there with a pretty strong roster that had been playing well under the interim coach, now you throw in this new hire who seems like a really hot,
up and coming young coach. I definitely think Minnesota is cooking, and I would not be surprised to see them sustain. Maybe not the two point five points per game form that they're on right now, that would be easily a shield winning pace, but I would not be surprised to see them up at one point eight one point nine points per game going forward here, which that would put them in contention for the number one seed in the West and the
supporter shield. I just had to look up Eric Ramsey, the new head coach of Minnesota. He was born on February fourteenth, nineteen ninety two. For context, Like, you know, and I'm one of the younger people here at the station. I was more on May seventh, nineteen ninety two. I'm about to turn thirty two years old. I I mean, you're and you're right in the same age. This guy is our age Ari, and he's leading Minnesota United. Like my god, yeah, no, I
mean he's an impressive guy. I'm telling you, you don't become an assistant head coach at Manchester United without knowing what you're doing a little bit. So I'm definitely interested to see how he does in MLS because I think there's a lot of upside there that's amazing. Really quick, and once again, Ari, Lillian was our guest MLS Soccer dot Com writer editor also host of the
podcast Lobbing Scorchers. You mentioned Inner Miami, and you're probably right. Inner Miami right now is at the top of the list, with Minnesota probably right under in terms of like power rankings. But since you mentioned Miami, Luis Swarez another brace, another two goal effort for Miami in a win. I'm wondering, you know, in the early projections of MVP just a few weeks
in, who has the leader right now? Is it Luis Suarez with Miami or is it Yaku Makis the Greek freak with Atlanta Because he got another goal and assist as well. Yeah, I think those are two great shouts. And you know, Luis Suarez, if he keeps producing like this, you're gonna have to put him up there. He's probably going to be in contention with the Golden Boo, with Yakamaki's and you know, I think there's other
guys you could throw in there. Kucho Hernandez is one. But you know that game against DC United, that kind of any preseason notion that people had that Luis Suarez might have lost a step or he's washed. I mean we'll see what happens, but he certainly does not look to be any of those things. I think, you know, people might have forgotten that when we're
talking about Suarez. If you name the if you're trying to name the five greatest goal scorers that have ever played this game, his name is in there. I mean, this guy is that good. He's an absolutely lethal finisher.
You saw that in the DC United game, and uh, it's really it's just it's a cheat code when Inner Miami are doing right now with when you starting a guy like that, with Messi, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquez, we're talking about, you know, the greatest player of all time, and then a collection of guys that are in the top probably like five to seven players at their respective positions that have ever played the game. So I think with Inner Miami, you're kind of you're you're kind of seeing what
happens when you when you stack like that. We're up against it on the clock. But I would push back a little bit on the greatest. I mean, there's a lot of great attacking and goal scorers I would put above
Luis Sores. But that's another that's a debate for another time. We got to end tonight's Around the League segment by mentioning and talking about what the hell happened in Chicago, because that game between Montreal and the Fire was at three to three going into the ninety ninth minute, and I mean, let's just why don't you just just set the table. It's the ninety ninth minute, the Fire have the ball at their own goal, and the most improbable thing,
maybe an MLS history, happens to lead to a Fire win. Yeah. I mean, this is one of the crazier goals that you're ever going to see. But it was a wind assisted situation where it was really high gusts of wind in Chicago and Kelen Acosta, Chicago midfielders basically just hitting the ball. He's trying to just put it in the mixer and so he hits it skyward and the wind just takes it and it just never stopped sailing and it went in somehow. He was not trying to shoot it at all.
But you know, credit to him for putting it in there and getting the game winning goal. And you know that that was a bit of a role reversal for the Chicago Fire because they've developed a reputation as the team that gives away leads and conceived blay goals to drop points. And they actually they were down three to one in this game, I believe, and they came back
to win it four to three. So that's a nice little uh. I don't think there was much sustainable necessarily about a goal like that, but I think just from a vibess and mentality perspective, if there is a team that needed a result or a sequence of events like that from from a morale standpoint, the Chicago Fire would be it. So that was definitely if you haven't seen the highlight, go look that one up, because it's one of the crazier goals you're ever going to see. What would you say? It was
probably from about sixty yards out. I don't think it was quite that far. I think he was in his own end or maybe closer to midfield, but it was definitely very very deep if it wasn't sixty yards out of his fifty five yards out, because that's one of the most crazy goal where he just you're right, he just tries to lob it in and it somehow just carries and carries into the back of the net. A goalkeeper way out of position. Just it makes you cry and laugh and all the emotions as a
soccer fan. One of the most insane goal winners and game winners I've ever seen. What a job there from Calaacosta. All right, Ari, great stuff man. We will see what happens with Sounders at San Jose. Obviously going to have a lot to discuss next week, but for tonight, we appreciate the time and taking us around the league. That's good. Thanks Jackson. Well, if you need more Ari Lillionwall, you can check out his
Lobbing Scorcheres podcast wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app. He'll have an episode I think it is out now recapping the Rapids one to one draw and then also looking ahead to Soundhers San Jose. So get more Ari Lillienwall content there. But thank you to him once again for taking us around the league. All right, that'll do it for tonight's show. I want
to thank all of our guests, including there Lillian Wolf. If you missed anything on tonight's show, check out the podcast on the iHeartRadio app wherever you get your podcasts, just search Sounders weekly. So we will talk to you on Saturday night. Once again, it's over on our sister station of Sports Radio, nine to fifty AM. It will be a seven o'clock Providence Swedish
prematch show seven thirty kickoff for Sounders at Earthquakes. You can also listen in Spanish language on l Ray thirteen sixty and watch on the MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. But we will talk to you in terms of radio over on nine to fifty k AM for Sounders and Earthquakes. One final note and that's Sounders FC. Soccer is presented by Provident Swedish official healthcare partner of Seattle Sounders FC. That will do it for tonight's show. Thank you all
for joining us. We will talk to you on Saturday and have a great rest of your week. Everybody. Fox Sports Radio coming up next