Coming to you live from our Relliot Avenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts.
Good evening, everybody, Welcome into Sounders Weekly. Jackson Feltz here, good to be with you on this Wednesday night. This will be our last late show, last time we're gonna be at eight pm. We're switching back to Wednesdays at seven o'clock now that the Seattle Craken season is over, so back to seven pm next week. But we welcome you into the next hour of Seattle Sounders soccer Talk
here on ninety three point three kjr FM. We're talking about a Sounder win beating FC Dallas one to nothing on the road, finishing this road trip one to one and one, and we're also looking ahead to the Sounders next match against Nashville coming up this Saturday at Leuwinfield. Saturday's match is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Seattle Sounders FC. We'll talk about that extensively tonight with all of our guests. We're gonna be joined Brian Dunseth,
broadcaster for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. We all call him Donny, and Donny will join us here probably in just about twenty minutes or so to talk Sounders Nashville. We'll also talk to Arilllenwall Major League Soccer dot Com in the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. We'll kind of go around the league with him. Talk to Ari about what he saw from Seattle in the win over Dallas. Nashville ahead a lot to get to here on Sounders Weekly come up this segment, we're gonna actually hear for I think
a couple Sounders if we can fit them both in. Oh, Bet Vargas had the chance to visit with him out at Sounders practice yesterday Long Acres, and also Danny Mozoski. I got a one on one with Danny Mazoski, and I think a good conversation with the guy who a scored the game winning goal against Dallas, and then b he's had a pretty darn good week. We'll talk to Danny Mozoski later on. We'll tell you about his very good week as well. So we'll hear from both of
them here coming up. But of course we'll start the show by kind of just reminiscing and recapping that win over Dallas before four. We hear from those players. You know, this was a game where I think the second half was so influenced by the fact that Dallas didn't have Musa, their star forward three goals, three assists on the season. He was injured late in the first half, and the game was just so heavily influenced by Dallas not having
him in the second half. I'm not sure how much you can really draw on a lot from that last forty five minutes other than the fact that Seattle did what they needed to do and you know, they didn't screw up, they didn't, you know, give the goal. But I you know, I talked on the postgame show about how knew who a center back in this three four to three system really got up to be like a left winger at occasions in the second half. But it
didn't cost Seattle. They had players covering. It all worked out.
But at the end of the.
Day, like I think, you get a lot of takeaways from the first forty five minutes, and I think there's a lot of things to discuss in that first forty five minutes, one of them being Pedro de la Vega. Pedro de lave is back for the Sounders. He played the forty five minutes he was on a minute limit.
Brian Schmetzer was on KJR yesterday to update all the injury situations, one of them being Pedro de la Vega, and we'll kind of get to the whole rundown here in a few minutes, but you know, he did say that Pedro de la Vega will continue to be on a minute's limit against Nashville coming up this week, so that is important to note. But we saw him start and play forty five minutes, and you'd think he'd be
in line to start again as against Nashville. And in those forty five against Dallas, for my money, he was the best player on the field. And I know you had twenty twenty three mls MVP Acosta for Dallas on the field as well, But at Pedro dal la Vega, the speed, the power, the energy, I mean I have in my notes right here just you know, excitement, because it felt like he was just bursting every single time
he could make a run. There was a ball between two Dallas defenders and the power and speed he used to charge right between him, you know, creating what was a yellow card and a free kick for Seattle. But you know, it's those types of plays that don't necessarily, you know, involve the goals, but it does show what he can do. And ultimately, of course the goal is off the post to Masovski's foot, but Pedro de la Vega he should get an honorary assist for.
That, I think.
But at the end of the day, I mean, such an important piece of what the Sounders are doing all across the field. He's putting in work defensively and just we're seeing the guy that we all thought that we would have when the team brought him in last year. Pedro de la Vega is a difference maker and when he is healthy, as we are seeing, he is a very very special player. And the good news is he played the forty five minutes, he hit his minutes limit, and he didn't get hurt again, so he'll be back
out there against Nashville, so that's very good. This is actually a good time as we're talking about Pedro de
la Vega. I had this back and forth with Obed Vargas out at training yesterday about Pedro dale Vega, and you know, we'll get to Danny Mazovski here in a little bit, But I did want to play this this piece of audio from Obed Vargas because I was interested and just you know, got a player that just brings such excitement and energy onto the field, and I wondered if Obed felt that and if players on the field were able to feed off of that that Pedro de
Levega was bringing. Here is my back and forth yesterday with Obed Vargas. How have you felt the team function differently on the field when Pedro dalea Vega is back in there?
Yeah, I think better, way add a little bit of a spark. Last game that he played, he was a little bit kind of unpredictable for the other team as well. Sometimes he would get found outside, sometimes they'd be inside. He has a dribbling factor where he can take a guy on. He's been really good at shooting from distance and training. He scored a lot of goals in training and I was kind of mad that he didn't get that one in the game, but you know, resulted in
a goal. So he's getting better and better.
So going on us our comment, do you and the rest of the guys get extra boost by just watching him make plays and watching him make big runs.
Yeah, I think there's moments where he keeps the ball in tough areas, you know, maybe a second ball, and he keeps the ball for us. You know, it gives us a second breath, you know, because maybe if we would have lost them, had to defend, you know, but he keeps the ball, he gains possession, and that's that's
good for us. We're going forward now we're in their half of the field, and maybe it's not necessarily oh we see him maga play and how we want to go do, but the little things that he does keeping the ball for us, it gives us, you know, a second breath, especially for me sometimes when I have to do a lot of running. It's good to see when he keeps the ball.
That's good stuff from Obed Vargas yesterday at training talking about Pedro dale Vega.
We'll see.
I would imagine both of them in the starting lineup against Nashville and Pedro continuing to look like the special player he has been, and he has been very special when he's been healthy this season. Cannot wait to see more of that here in the weeks ahead. I mentioned in injuries a moment ago, and on that note of paeder Dale Vega, as we mentioned, still on a minutes limit this week, but you know you'd get the confidence
that he's going to start again. Some other injury updates and once again all this was from head coach Brian Schmitzer yesterday with Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Faine right here on ninety three point three KJRFM. He said that Jordan Morris could be ready to start this week against Nashville. Of course, Jordan kind of had a little adductor situation coming into the game there against Dallas last week. That's why he was on the bench, didn't play, but Brian
says he could be ready to start. Ryan Kent, if he has a good week of training, could appear on the bench against Nashville. And got just to see him. I mean, it's been a quick situation since they got him in the building and you know, for you know, now mid April to already see him on the field and maybe it's ten fifteen to twenty minutes, but just to see him and if he is healthy. We've seen the highlight tapes and if you haven't seen him yet,
just google Ryan Kent highlights range. This is a dude This is a guy who can make an impact on the offensive end and we've seen it out at practice as well. He is an electric player on that wing. So what Ryan Kent can add even in that ten to fifteen to twenty minutes, well, if the Sounders need a goal against Nashville, he could add a lot. Alex Troldon, Albert Rusnak both TBD. They're in training. I saw Albert Rusnak was in most of the full team drills yesterday.
Alex Troldon was off to the side. We'll see how they progressed throughout the week. Probably going to get some final news from Brian Schpenzer on Friday at the training session that they have and then maybe the biggest news and it's not good news, but it's news we have to share. Nonetheless, Jackson Reagan are center back. He of course got it injured in the Dallas game. He is out four to six weeks. Not good news there for
Jackson Reagan with the right hamstring injury. The injury bug has hit so far in twenty twenty five, that is for sure. So I wanted to give you all those injury updates from Brian Schpenzer yesterday with Dave Softimaaler and Dick Fann. You could check out the podcast Softy and Dick Interviews there. It's through the iHeartRadio app. And you can also find this show, Sounders Weekly, on the iHeartRadio
app and wherever you get your podcasts. But Sounders we missing Jackson Reagan at least for this game here coming up against Nashville back at luman Field. The match here this coming Saturday is going to be right here Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. We'll have a four o'clock pre match show four thirty kickoff for Sounders hosting Nashville at Louminfield. I also mentioned that Saturday's match is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Seattle
Sounders FC. All right, let's transition here in Sounders Weekly and let's hear from Danny Mazowski was able to talk to the Sounders forward after the win against Dallas. This was yesterday out at training. Had a nice one on one conversation. Danny Mazovski's had a very good week. We'll tell you why after the interview as well. But we did start the conversation by talking about him scoring that goal against Dallas last week.
Anytime as a striker, whenever you could score, it always helps with everything, you know, it helps with your playoff the ball as well. It helps him training, and so yeah, it's definitely a good thing, good thing to get a goal.
And then also it happened to be the game winner as well.
It did the second one where listen to those of us watching were kind of all saying, Okay, well, wonder what the communication was of why that didn't get an extra look on the field, Like, did you hear anything of why they didn't take a look at it through var At the second one, Yeah, I really.
Did think they would go to the monitor for that one.
I think it was one of those ones where it was going to be whatever the ref the linesman decided was going to be the final call, because I think it was too close to call it either way. So I think if the linesman left her flag down, then
I think it would have stayed as a goal. I immediately looked at the ref and he told me that he was hearing from his ear piece and they were like reviewing it in New York wherever the head quarters are, so I knew he was going to get a You know, an announcement on it, but I didn't.
I thought he was going to go see it himself on the on the var.
I think we all thought that and sadly didn't. But ultimately you do get the goal. You got a game winner.
And you know, over the last few day here with Danie was Ouski out of training, uh, you know, going in for for Jordan who's injured, and then hayesus Verra just you know, things haven't worked out for him at the top, you know, for you just kind of being ready and and being you know, that guy to be able to step in. What's been the mentality for you over the last you know, month, month and a half, I think.
The mentality has been trained well. I think that's the most important thing. That's that's really the only thing you can control as a player. And then if you do well in training, hopefully you know, the coach gives you opportunities in the game. So that's what I've just been trying to focus on for this, you know, a month, month and a half is just training really well, score as many goals as I came in training, and then you know, things happened.
Jordan, you know, woke up a little soreness or whatever.
So then I kind of got found out I was starting right before the game, and really, yeah, so it's just kind of just gotta be ready and it's my job.
So it's just I was just lucky, you know, uh, you know, prepared for it.
How late before, like how soon we're talking.
It was our team meal right before the game, so it was around three, a couple hours before the game.
So yeah, it was something I wasn't really sure.
I kind of knew that he was dealing dealing, you know, with his his injury and there's some so so I didn't know for sure I was starting.
Is there any special mental preparation that you have to kind of just go through to be like be like, okay, I guess I'm in today.
Yeah, exactly.
It's just a different mindset when you know you're not starting, you know, you'll you know you're gonna have to come on and give you know, twenty to thirty minutes. Usually when you're stubbing in, it's a different different mentality when you know you're starting, maybe a little.
Bit of different preparation. But I think I did a good job of bearing to be ready for the moment.
Well, you're ready for the moment when the ball kind of rebounded off the post for sure that that worked out real well. You know, Danny, I think it's fair to say that you've been a little snake bit in your time here. Big opportunities and we just haven't seen the stats. Is it a thing where you're kind of just as a player saying yourself, listen, the opportunities are there. It's just you know, these these numbers are going to come.
Yeah.
I think I definitely feel like as long as I get the minutes, I feel like the goals will come. I think that's the hardest part is to get the minutes. And we have a lot of good players on this team. You know, we have a you know, Jordan's a great player. His us is a great player. So for me, it's just training as well as I can and you don't when to get the opportunity to.
Try to score.
The vibe of this team seems good watching you guys training last week and today, like it seems like you guys are very up right now.
Yeah.
I mean, I think the all the leaders on the team, Christian, Jordan's, Steph, everyone's and the coaches as well, and just making sure that we all stay positive. We know it's a long season. There's a lot of games to play, and you know you're gonna go through those rough bits in the season. But just got us to stay positive and hopefully it'll turn around.
Well, we know the weather is turning and that's when the wins came last year. We'll see if the wins come this year. Nashville coming up. It's gonna be nice to be back at home, I imagine in front of the home fans.
Yeah, just because we know we had I believe three games on the road, you know, so it'll be nice to you know, get in front of the home crowd, hopefully some good weather and hopefully celebrate with a win.
Danny Mazowski there, and you know, if I was doing my job correctly, I would have remember to ask him about getting engaged. That was posted on social media just a couple of days ago. Danny Mazoski, A big congratulations on getting engaged as well this last week. So gets the goal, gets the win. As he mentioned there, seemed to take some pride there and having the game winning goal and then gets the go as well. He is engaged. A big congratulations. What a week for Danny Mazoski and
I kind of mentioned it. I didn't want to kind of be too straightforward, but yeah, he's he's had a rough I think year when you add up all the chances he's had. I've kind of criticized him here on Sounders Weekly as well, and I think just getting that confidence back and getting that kind of goal, yeah, it
can do wonders for a guy. And you know, Brian Schmitzer said on KJR last night with Softy and Dick Fane that he thinks Jordan Morris could be ready to start against Nashville, so Mazoski back to the bench, But just the confidence of scoring that and the confidence of being able to come off the bench and put a goal in the back of the net, that's good for him. So you know, listen, yes, he's been he's had a tough year. He's I used the word snake bit there,
but he hasn't cashed his opportunities. But I think you can look past that and just be happy for the week he's had, getting the game winning goal and getting engaged. Congratulations to Danny Mazowski before we break and before we get to our guests this evening, I guess in person live guests Ari, Lillian Wall and Brian Dunstuff coming up here in Sounders Weekly. Wanted to also quickly mention what's going on with the Coma Defiance because there is news
from last night. Tacoma Defiance defeated Oakland Roots two to one. They're through to the US Open Cup Round of thirty two. The drawing is going to be taking place tomorrow morning, and it is possible from what I understand, that Tacoma Defiance could be playing the Portland Timbers in the round of thirty two of the US Open Cup.
I mean, this is just me. I am so hoping that happens.
Please give Ta Coma Portland and God, if you could get it at Starfire, that would be beautiful. But give Tacoma Defiance the chance to do an upset over the Portland Timbers and the Open Cup. That would just be sweet on my soul if we could see Tacoma take out Portland. But no, listen, I mean Tacoma getting that win and getting through in the US Cup last night
at the Starfire that was excellent. Peter Kingston amazing free kick goal in the first half was about twenty eighth minutes nearly almost the exact spot and the exact kick that he won the USL two championship with Ballard FC a couple of years ago. Kingston now plays for Tacoma, now plays for Defiance, and he hit the exact same kick almost into the back of the net for the goal. So congratulations to Kingston, Congratulations to coming to Fiance again.
The draw will be tomorrow morning for the US Open Cup Round of thirty two. All right, we'll get back to some Sounders talk. We'll talk about it with Brian Dunsath. He'll be on the call for Sounders Versus Nashville this coming Saturday.
That's next year.
I'm Sounders Weekly on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders. FC Cethel's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Welcome back Sounders Weekly, Jackson Feltzer, good to be with you here on this Wednesday night. Well, let's not waste any more time. I've been looking forward to this interview all week. My man joining me from MLS Season Pass Apple TV. He's on the call for Sounders versus Nashville this coming weekend. It's our good friend Brian donn Seth. Donny, good to have you back on the show, buddy, how are you.
I'm doing fantastic, guess and good to be back with you.
Mo Man.
Yeah, good to have you back on. Lots to discuss here, you know, I think where we want to start, of course, is just our sounders. You were on the call for LAFC, San Jose, want to get your two cents on what you saw out of one of our Western Conference rivals there with LFC. In a moment, obviously, we'll talk about Nashville coming up. But you know, for us in Seattle,
we're getting a little bit healthier. We are, you know, finishing up a one one in one road trip, and you know, Donny, we're feeling a lot better about our soccer team than we were about a week and a half, two weeks ago.
Yeah, listen, I think coming into the season, you know, we were joking round with the additions that were made that this was kind of like the best US men's national team January camp roster that we've seen in Major League soccer because of the additions of Paul Ariola, Hazes Paeda, you know, the health and recovery and the fitness of Pedro de la Vega this season to start the year, and then continuing just to see kind of the overall
development of Stanton Railings, overall development of Jordan Morris and Paul Rothrock, Georgie Manongo and everything. And obviously that took that took a quick sideways turn, and these are things
that happen in Major League soccer. But I was more intrigued to see what the response would be from the group of players after the disappointment, after the injury and even going down to Dallas and losing Jordan Morris, who was a planned starter with a bit of that add upter issue, and to see Danny Mussofski step up and score the goal, Hazespeda go down with a with a certain amount of you know, pressure, and I don't even know how to verbalize that correct, but anytime you return
against your former club, there's going to be kind of these crazy emotions that transpire. So to walk out of there for you know, with three points against an excellent FC Dallas team that started the year underneath my former teammate and Aaron Quill, this has been I think a big three points for Brian Schmitzer. And Seattle to take and building into what is going to be a really fascinating matchup with BJ Callahan's and Nashville.
See yeah, And I want to pick your brain on that Nashville game because it's also very interesting to me to kind of just forecast a few days away. Brian dunsas our guest calling Sounders Nashville for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. And I feel for Quill, you know, because that Dallas team. It was obviously in the first forty five minutes, I think the Sounders had a good defensive game plan against Acosta and how to exactly shut down Musa. But then you lose Musa right before half,
and they just function entirely differently without him. So, you know, the way I looked at that game was just kind of, you know, once once the Sounders were able to grab that lead and once we saw Musigo down that last forty five was just kind of all right, just don't screw it up. And even though knew who liked to get ahead of the field and treat himself like a left winger instead of a center back, we didn't end up giving up that that lead.
So that was nice.
Donny, Let's talk Nashville, because this is I think an interesting you know, a game will be a little bit of a chess between the Sounders in Nashville coming up on Saturday at lumin Field, and I kind of going in, I look at the high x G for Nashville. I look at you know, the you know, sort of is this Seattle defensively kind of getting back to where they were? How do you read into what we're gonna see on Saturday in Seattle.
Yeah, listen, going back and watching that Nashville game against Real grilso Leasha had three goals in the fifteen minutes, uh, and we're only up one nil. You know, Daniel Lovett could have very easily been sent off for that elbow to the throw to Mark Chook, and the referee was a bit lenient. That's actually could have showed him a second yellow a few minutes later after he scored that
goal off the corner. You know, Honey Mooktar and Sam Surge at halftime seemed a little bit irritated with one another late penalty Rialso Lake once again led down by really poor mismanagement, specific to Nelson Pelasio not paying attention to the dangerous situations and then ultimately, uh, just clattering into Honey Molktar and then Sam Surge scoring from the penalty spot. You know, considering both he and Honey missed what is it three penalties this season, you know, that
was a big monumental moment. And a team in Nashville that scored or excume me, that won three consecutive games, lost to consecutive games and then get the three points that the death was important, you know, but but doing it without Walker Zimmerman, who was still going through concussion protocol, dealing with all kind of the the the audit, these
of off season additions, off season departures. You know, Eddie Tagset in the middle has just been a monster, and then and then just trying to figure out, uh, you know, exactly in the attacking phase of play, how to get the best out of this group. You know. There, I think this is a work in progress, and I think that's the best way to put it. They've got some really good positives, and they obviously have some things that
they've they've tried to work through. But the one thing DJ Callahan continues to reach is that this is going to be a process, and through the process comes you know, some incredible highs and some incredible lows, and I think we've seen both of that well.
BJ Callahan is somebody that that interests me because obviously we saw him in his time with the United States and you know, getting this Nashville job.
I guess, I guess.
The the base question I have is what do you make of BJ Callahan's philosophy about how he likes to play soccer and how we're kind of, you know, looking at this game.
For the coaching aspect.
On their side, there's a lot of a lot of the similar elements. I mean this with the utmost respect, a lot of elements that what we saw with Gary Smith. It's a team that's built on outside backs getting forward, uh you know love it's on the left hand side, and you know, horre on the right hand side. I
think tag sets in the middle. He had already covered I think heading into the to the RSL match over fifty miles in seven matches, which was just a crazy absurd you know, a fantastic engine quase them on the right hand side, wheel on the right. On the left hand side, they're going to overlap variation of service. They're also going to underlap when the ball's on the opposite side.
But I still feel like Surage and Hony mook tars trying to figure out the connectivity because there were certain points in that first forty five minutes where you know, like one was zigging and the other was zagging, and and you know, throughout these relationships there's gonna be mistakes
being made. But it's almost like, at what point are they just so locked in with the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each other that it's almost as if you know, there's just this psychological connection and just just this minute understanding in this situation, you do this, I'm doing this, and it just clicks. You know, you have this predatory instinct of top and I think that's
the evolution of of what's necessary. But for BJ, listen, the thing that I can give them the most credit was I was covering the US men's national team quite frequently in in in the build up to Cocamerica, and obviously BJ on the backside of the relationship with Greg Berholter specific to coming out of the World Cup, during the time when Anthony Hudson took over, BJ took over, you knew even with know mikey Varus coming in and taking over in the transition after the disappointment of Copa Medica,
that every time I saw bj coaching as an assistant coach, Jackson he was coaching. I mean, he was on the field walking the full US men's national team group through kind of their on field paces, if you will, of what the non negotiables are, what the tactics with the shape. And he's got a growl to him. You know, he's a dude with a big presence. He will demand non negotiables,
and I think that's kind of what you're seeing. And as much as I want to commend Gary Smith, because I think it's always extremely difficult to start an expansion team and figure out the right way to build the roster, and for Nashville, you know, they've had some They've obviously had a great hit in Honey Mooktar, but they've also had you know, some significant misses in terms of you know, big time attacking phase of players not panning out that I think there's a how do I say this correctly,
I'll dumb it down. There's something as simple as just the psychological element. You know, they're they're they're not the final product, and I don't think anybody expect them to
be the final product. But there's something about the mentality and the psychology of going through a full preseason, understanding kind of your strengths and weaknesses, understanding how every day you want to be better, and then ultimately holding each other accountable for those non negotiables, and in creating an environment and an atmosphere that truly is conducive to building
an identity. And I think that's kind of the stage in where they're at right now that it's not about the points, it's about how they get to the points. Does that make sense?
Yeah, No, that makes complete sense for sure. Brian Dunsin's our guest calling Sounders Nashville coming up on Saturday for MLS Season Past a little bit earlier at Lumenfield. We'll have a four o'clock pregame four point thirty kickoff for Sounders Nashville at Lumenfield, So hopefully a nice afternoon. Right now, it's a beautiful weather in Seattle, but clouds are supposed to come in and rain this coming weekend, so that's just great for all of us weekend warriors who like to enjoy the sun.
It's just bad weather of the weekend, It's be awesome.
Hey, Donney, let's wrap up with this news last week that there could have been a potential vote at the Governor's meeting that would have changed the MLS schedule from how we have it right now to a summer to spring schedule sort of matching the rest of the world. It didn't end up happening, so we're kind of in delayed, but it sounds like Don Garber is fully set on making this happen at some point. What's your just kind of two cents overall thoughts on a potential schedule change in MLS.
I think it's inevitable.
I think we've talked about it for far too long for it not to happen sooner rather than later. My first gut instinct with regards to it being delayed, I thought, man, that coincides with the current collective bargaining agreement that ends
with the Players Union. And the reason why I point that out is for any structural or significant change, there has to be kind of a quid pro quo, a give or take with the Players Association, because if it's not currently within the CBA, there's got to be a little bit of a negotiation happening, and I wonder, my first instinct, without any in without any institutional knowledge of what's happening, my first instinctual take was, well, that makes
sense because it aligns with going through another CBA negotiation with the players Union, and then that way they can kind of like tuck it into the bigger conversation of
what this looks like going forward. Those conversations and I've been a part of it on the player's side and the players represent representation for the respective teams that I was a part of, it can get super contentious, and the players Union obviously has certain non negotiables from their purview of how they want to approach collective bargaining agreements, and from the ownership and the league's perspective, you know, they're at the end of the day, like any other,
you know, massively owned company, they're going to want to make sure that everything that benefits them is absolutely one hundred percent covered as much as possible. So, uh, that's that was my take in terms of you know, listen, the reality is we're a huge country and we have a lot of variations of weather, and sometimes we're fortunate enough to have indoor playing surfaces, and other times we're straight out in the misery of suffering. Like we've seen
the World Cup qualifying with the United States. I believe it was against hon Duras playing up in Minnesota where beers were literally freezing inside of the stadium. So I think at the end of the day, there'll be a certain amount of rationale that has to do with, you know, player safety and help. Obviously, when we compare and contrast the other five major sports, there is a certain element with the exception of NHL that has an outdoor element
in adverse conditions. But I'm of the belief that, kind of like Feel the Dreams and Kevin Costner, if you build it, they will come, and if the specific teams, you know, put a product on the field that is conducive for fans to sacrifice, maybe, you know, the best weather in the summer versus you know, some inclement weather at times. You know, I've been a part of some great broadcasts where the orange ball came out and the snow was collecting pretty ugly and it made some of
the most fun moments of my broadcast career. So yeah, I think it's gonna happen. I think it's inevitable, but at you know, when we get to that point, I think it is dictated by a conversation from the player side, from the owner side, and hopefully we come to an agreement on all sides.
I love the insight there.
That's that's it's an interesting thing because, yeah, you we're not gonna have to play you know, July or August games in Dallas and Houston, but then you do get, you know, the the early December games in Toronto, Montreal, Minnesota. So it'll be certainly interesting when it eventually happens. But I think I'm with you it's inevitable. We'll just see when that eventually comes.
Donny. Always love having you on, Man.
I'll be excited to see you in the booth Luminfield this coming weekend.
So safe travels and we'll see you up here soon.
And as always, you can watch me put a Twinkie and Max Grados the bag and then he'll find it like a month later.
So looking forward to seeing man.
I love it.
Brian dun Seth, commentator MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. We'll let him go there, Donny. Great to have him on. He'll be on the call Sounders versus Nashville coming up this Saturday, late afternoon early evening folks, you can watch the match again MLS Season Pass Apple TV. It'll also be on Spanish language thirteen sixty, but we will have
the match right here. Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM, This coming Saturday, Providence, Swedish prematch show of four o'clock kickoff of four point thirty right here on ninety three point three kjr FM, this coming Saturday. Well, thank you to Don Seth and thank you to Ari Lillianwall coming up next because he was able to switch around his schedule. Ari from Mlssoccer dot Com and the podcast Lobbing Scorcheres. He'll continue to talk Sounders, Dallas, Sounders Nashville.
A lot to get to here on Sounders Weekly, Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM.
Back to Sounders Weekly on your home is Saunders fc cvil's Sports Radio ninety three.
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Welcome back, Jackson Felt. It's good to be with you here on this Wednesday night. Thanks to Brian Dunzeth for joining us there in that previous segment. Quick couple notes before we continue on here Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence Swedish, the official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. Also michelob Ultra ninety five calories and two point six grams of carbs. It's only worth it if you enjoy it joining us now is he always does different segments
to night. We thank him for being flexible. It's our good friend from mlssoccer dot com and his podcast Lobbing Scorchers.
Ari, Lillian wall Ari. Good to have you back on my friend. How are you?
I'm good, Jackson. It's nice to be able to talk about a win with you.
Oh finally, dude, finally, my gosh, I mean ultimately, you know what I've been saying. Let me just get your two cents as we kind of kick things off here. The win over Dallas, obviously for the Sounders last weekend is if you had told me three and a half weeks ago that we would be staring at a one to one in one three game road trip while dealing with the injuries to everybody. We were dealing with the injuries too, I would have taken one to one and one.
How about you, Yeah, I would say I pretty much agree with that. I think the only reason it might not feel so great is because of how the results have gone leading up.
To this road trip.
But I think in isolation, that's not a bad road trip, Like you mentioned, given the injury situation that they've been dealing with.
No, it's been solid, I think, and you know, getting Pedro dal la Vega back, who looked really good. We talked about it earlier, and now we're looking at a Nashville team that's been you know, as we just had Brian dunseeth on very high highs, very low lows. It's Callahan taken over from his time with the United States. We haven't talked about Nashville yet here on the show. What do you make of this Nashville team come to town this weekend?
Yeah, I haven't watched a great deal of them this season, so I've been digging into them a little more, and to me, it seems like the story of their season so far is that their chance generation has not just been good, it's been very good, but they're they're finishing has.
Left a lot of goals and.
Probably a few points on the table. My impression of it is that they're playing very good ball in the build up. Their attack is functioning as it's opposed to, and the chances and the looks.
They're generating are good. Uh, they just haven't finished them. So I think that makes.
For probably a more dangerous opposition than I anticipated based just purely looking at their record in points per game.
Well, Seattle can get Albert rusknack back and Jordan Morris Pedro de la Vega. You know, if Ferara unlocks what he needs out of just having good players around him, then we could be looking at it at a fun offensive game this Saturday. You know, Jackson Reagan obviously dealing with an injury, So we'll see how this thing shakes out again into a good Nashville team coming up here on Saturday. I'll give broadcast details in a few minutes
on that again. But to Loominfield, four thirty kickoff for Sounders Nashville Ari.
Before we end.
Tonight show, I want to bounce around a bunch of different things around Major League Soccer because there's a lot of things to get to and I'm just gonna rip the band aid off. The freaking Portland Timbers are flying right now for two win at Kansas City. You look at what they've been doing right now, fourth place in the Western Conference with fourteen points. I hate it, and it just pains me to say it, but boy, the Timbers are looking pretty darn good, aren't they.
They look pretty good right now. Yeah, they're certainly playing well on offense. They're scoring a lot of goals, and it seems like the attack has figured stuff out under phild Neville.
But frankly, that's not all that.
Different than the Portland Timbers that I've grown to expect over the years. They've been for a long time a team that doesn't have trouble scoring goals, but they're not very good at controlling games, give up a lot of goals, and that subsequent subsequently.
Kind of caps their ceiling.
So they're definitely in a good run of form right now, there's no question about it. And they're they're a dangerous team anytime you play them, because they can score with anybody. But as far as if I think they're a real, bona fide upper tier contender in the league, I'm not gonna call them that yet until they do it over a little bit of a larger sample size.
Okay, that's what I like to hear.
I didn't want to hear the optimism for Portland's fourth place and they're here to stay at the top of the West. That's what I wanted to hear, that you don't think they're you know, for real? Is I know, I know you and Noah sometimes do fraud Watch, and uh and I think I think even when you put the Portland Timbers just on, you know, the line of fraud Watch right now, maybe not squarely in the line of fraud Watch, but just like what they're doing isn't real.
I feel like they're kind of perpetually on fraud Watch because of what I said, Like you look at them, you look at them for these stretches, and they look like one of the most amazing teams you've ever seen. They play really good attacking SoC but then they do stuff like give up four goals in a game, like I bet just watch and see what happens, like I would bet I would bet money that their defense is gonna do them in eventually.
All Right, that I like to hear that.
Meanwhile, some team that I don't think should be on fraud Watch at all because they have just continued to put up big results and another one five one win this last Saturday, the Vancouver Whitecaps staying in Cascadie. Here Brian White with his epic game. Player of the Week in Major League Soccer. Vancouver Whitecaps already just keep doing it top of the Western Conference and they haven't moved from the top of the Western Conference in like two months now.
Yeah, and they just knocked off back to back League Meckis teams and co champions right up. And they're the ones who are getting the chance to face Inner Miami.
With the chance to go to the final in that competition.
So I'm really interested to see how that series goes. But no, they they look like the best team in the league right now. To be honest with you, I don't know if they'll sustain that, like quite at that at this level, but I think they are showing that
they're just a legitimately good team. Like there's not really much holes you can poke them what they're doing, Like you mentioned Brian White with the four goals, And I just think it's funny because Atlanta United spent twenty two million dollars this offseason on Emmanuel Latte loss Brian White's a twenty eighteen Super draft pick of the New York Red Bulls and went to Duke, and he's not only outperforming Latte lost, but he's performing outperforming pretty much every
number nine in the league right now.
On going Ryan Gold been hurt.
Yeah, it's it's amazing what they're doing. The thing that obviously stands out from my you know, base statistics is the fact that they have the most goals scored in the league at seventeen, and on top of that, they're tied for the least goals given up at six. I mean, they're doing it on both ends right now, and that, you know, screams to me a team that can win multiple ways. And we're seeing it again where you know,
five goals, I mean Brian White popping off. I mean they if they can do that and then Ryan Gold gets gets fully healthy, that is going to be a mess of a team to see come, you know, the end of the season if they stay healthy. Ari Lillenwall was our guest mlsccer dot Com. Also check out his podcast, Lobbing Scorches. They have live shows usually on Monday mornings
and Thursday nights. I know you had to switch around that this coming week, Ari, but look ahead and then subscribe and get notified about Lobbing scorches when they go live on YouTube. But Ari, let's let's quickly hit a couple of things before we let you go. I asked dun Seth about this, and I want to get your
two cents as well. MLS potential schedule change. There was maybe going to be a vote happened that didn't end up happening last week at the Border Governor's meeting about a schedule change to move to a summer to spring schedule where there's like five weeks taken off in January and you know, the months of July and August are open and there's like hot summer in Miami and Dallas and Houston. Didn't get voted on, But you know, Don
Garber seems pretty dead set on this happening eventually. I don't know if you have any insight, but just your thoughts on what seems to be eventual, inevitable schedule change coming tow NMLS.
Yeah, I welcome it in principle. You know, I'm all for any outcome that would minimize these situations where you have teams with a lot of international national team players on them and they almost get penalized for that because you get so many absences when MLS is playing through these international breaks. I do think there's just there's logistical stuff that.
Makes it challenging.
Like the thing I don't understand is how you're going to be playing consistently in a place like Toronto over these incredibly cold months, or Minnesota. I don't mean, I don't know if you got to put a roof on every stadium, but like that is kind that is part of the reason that the schedule here is different. So I don't if they can find good ways to contend with stuff like that, variables like that and make it all work and make it function.
I do.
I definitely think in ideal situation, MLS would be following that same calendar. So I just you know, I think there's reasons for skepticism, which is why this hasn't been done.
In the past.
Yeah, exactly. And I mean you look it overall. I know, Seattle and you have Adrian Hanauer and Hugh Webb who have both talked about the interest in having their own stadium, but you look at the teams who also deal with you know, also stadiums that have other teams. I mean Vancouver use it for the BC Lions, just going down the list here as I kind of look through all
of these different teams. I know, in the Eastern Conference you have New England, who also deals with the Patriots, and I'm not sure if the Crafts are interested at all in their own building. Atlanta deals with the Atlanta Falcons. Not sure if Arthur Blank wants his own building. Obviously, you have New York City and they already deal with the Yankees at Chicago is still in like what they still play in the Bear Stadium right there for Chicago Fires.
So yeah, there's.
They're at Soldier Field.
So there's a lot.
Of teams that have to figure out these logistics with NFL teams or other not even NFL teams, but just another franchise in the same building that they'd have to work around. And that's that that inevitably is going to deal with a lot of issues.
Yeah, I mean or monster truck rallies.
But yeah, like I mean, like, I think.
You hit it right on the head. There the are.
The these are the these are the things that you have to contend with. And you know, it goes to the other issue of maybe Seattle getting their own stadium one day too, which is something that's been talked about.
Hey, really quick before you go, the reports are that Lionel Messi contract extension with Inner Miami. How badly did Papa Garber need this news?
I mean, I didn't even know that.
That's news to me, but.
I mean, cool, keep them in the The guy looks like he could play till he was forty five, like I doesn't. Apparently he doesn't age. So however long they can keep him on their team, that's that's great for them. And uh, I mean as long as he's in the league too, it does put.
More eyeballs in the league.
You can't on the league. You can't deny that.
Yeah, this is from a couple of days ago.
It looks like the Athletic had the report that they're in contract negotiations. So if Messi is still part of our league for a couple extra years, that that's massive for our league and it's massive for pretty much just soccer fans in America to be able to continue to watch the greatest of all time continue to play in our league. You can't wait for the Sounders to be down in Miami later this year and see him. I hope we're gonna make the trip and that'll be real fun.
All right, buddy, good stuff. I got a run.
But thank you so much for the time here tonight.
That's good. Thanks Jackson.
It's gonna stet there from Arilill mlssucker dot com and check out his podcast Lobbying Scorches. I think they actually did a was it a live show or was it a recorded show at Lobbing Scorches out at Starfire yesterday for the Open Cup game for Tacoma to find so, I hope that went well.
I should have asked him about that, but we got a run. That'll do it.
Here for tonight's Sounders Weekly, we want to thank all of our guests, Danny Mazoski talk to him out at training yesterday, Brian Dunseeth and Ari Lillianwall right there. If you missed any of it, check out our podcast it's Sounders Weekly. Wherever you get your podcasts, look up Sounders Weekly. All right, that'll do.
It for us.
Look forward to Saturday's match. It'll be a provident Swedish premat show of four o'clock kickoff of four point thirty. You can listen to it right here Sports Radio KJRFM. As the sounders are hosting Nashville. You can also watch a MS season pass on the Apple TV app and listen in Spanish that goes on l Ray thirteen sixty. We will talk to you on Saturday. Look forward to seeing everybody back out there. Hopefully the weather stays decent
for Sounders Nashville at Lumen on Saturday late afternoon. Have a good rest of your week, everybody, and Fox Sports Radio is coming up next.