Coming to you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is Sounders Weekly with your host Jackson Felts. Good even everybody, Welcome to Sounders Weekly. Jackson Feltzer, good to be with you on this Tuesday evening here Seattle Cracking. I'm playing at tomorrow, so Sounders Weekly at a special day here Tuesday night. As a reminder, once the cracking season ends, we're going back to our usual time of seven pm on
Wednesdays, but here at eight pm tonight. Thank you for joining us. Well, it'll be a busy show tonight, as it always is, packing a lot into the next hour. We're once again talking about unfortunately a Sounders loss, though it is a one to nothing loss against the La Galaxy down in Carson, California. We'll get into that here in a little bit. We're going to chat with Cody Baker, who started the game there, a little bit of a lineup shift from Brian Schmitzer there in Los Angeles. We'll
hear from Cody Baker in a few mins. We're also gonna go a little bit of a different direction tonight. The Sounders weren't the only team to play in Carson, California over the weekend. Also, Tacoma Defiance played over the weekend, and for the first time here in Soundersweekly, we're gonna have a chance to catch up with airve DSA. He is the head coach of Tacoma Defiance. Everybody just calls him H. So from here we're gonna call airve
H. That's what everybody calls him around Long Acres. So H will be joining us in just about twenty minutes or so, and Age and I are gonna talk all about not only Tacoma Defiance. They're off to a decent start. They did lose in Carson, California to what is essentially the second LA Galaxy team, it's Ventura County, so they lost over the weekend, but they did get two wins to start the campaign. They're three weeks deep so
far, two one to zero. So we'll talk to H about his squad, what he's seeing out of some young Sounder pross, including Alex Stuart Hawkins, a center back prospect who has good size on him, was signed to the first team. He's you know, as a first team contract. But for Stuart Hawkins, it's just about I think building up that size and you know, rounding out his game. So we'll talk to each about him, some other players, and most of all he was an assistant coach with Montreal
last year. And the Sounders play CF Montreal coming up this Saturday. A match is going to be at Luminfield seven o'clock pre game seven thirty kickoff over on Sports Radio nine fifty am. So it's over on our sister station nine to fifty am this Saturday, seven o'clock pre for Sounders and Montreal. So H was an assistant coach with Montreal last year. Brian Schmitzer said earlier today that they've talked about picking his brain a little bit ahead of this Saturday's match
Sounders Montreal. But I think this is a match for Seattle that is a great opportunity, facing a team tenth place in the Eastern Conference right now, flying three thousand miles to the West coast. This is a great time for
the Sounders to pick up their first win of the year. We'll talk to H about Montreal and we'll of course preview the match in our sharp vision upon an ATLEC with Ari Lillian Wall, and we'll go around the league with Ari because Ari and I have the chance to talk about two losses that should be putting a smile on Sounders fans faces both Portland and LAFC losing over the weekend. So we'll talk to Ari about all of that and some Sounders So a
big episode coming up here tonight on Sounders Weekly. We'll get to Cody Baker in just a few minutes, but let's dive into the Sounders one nothing loss against the Galaxy. Before we do, I'll tell you that Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. So this one nothing loss, it's frustrating for a few reasons. Let's just start at the beginning, because in the first five minutes, I think it's very clear
the LA Galaxy have a good thing going. And it was such a surprise because de John Jovialich is their fantastic striker. He had scored five goals in five games coming into the sixth game of the year, and the injury report didn't even include Jovilch thought he was once again gonna start, but we learned right before the game from Kevin Baxter of the La Times wasn't even on the LA Galaxy injury report that he was dealing with a knock. I'd love to
know how that is allowed. The injury report comes out on Saturday morning, and for one, for me, a media member who is prepping for that game, would have been great to know that Djovilych was dealing with an injury. Would have been probably helpful for Brian Schmitzer and his staff to know that Djovilych was dealing with an injury. So that was quite a surprise when we all learned that Djoviovich was dealing with an injury. Thank you very much,
LA Galaxy. Anyway, so it was a different starting lineup than we thought the LA Galaxy We're going to have Barry gets the start. In the middle, you have Gabrielle Peck gets the start, and then Pencil, who's a fantastic winger as well as we saw a great speed But anyway, I think part of it is the fact that a LA Galaxy had a little bit of a different scheme using Barry as a post to Djovilech. But Cleary very clearly in the first five minutes the LA Galaxy were all over the Sounders. They
came out on the front foot they were attacking. Pencil nearly gets a goal in the second minute that hits the post that probably should have been in the back of the net. But then just less than two minutes later it is a goal and it's Gabrielle Peck who beat Stephan Fry and on that goal. We talked to bron Schweitzer earlier today and he said it wasn't air. It
was a mistake. He said Fry might have been a little bit rusty because you know, obviously we all know Fry coming back from injury at the start of this season, and I fully do blame Stephan frye. Yes, you can look at Jackson Reagan, you can look at some defensive mistakes, but at the end of the day, and Stephan will admit this himself, that is a shot that Stephen Fry needs to save, point blank, end of
story. He needs to save that shot. You know, it was very frustrating seeing that hit the back of the net when it's you know, to Fry's left. And yes, the conditions on the field were terrible. It was like they were playing in a fricking pool. Embarrassing for Los Angeles. That yes, okay, we get it. It doesn't rain that much, and you're dealing with a lot of storms in LA right now. Hope everybody
is safe down there. But that field in Carson, California, Dignity Health Sports Park, that is an embarrassment because for the first twenty minutes or so of that match, until it finally drained, they're basically playing in a pool that was terrible. You got to have better drainage on a field. I get it, it's LA. You don't see rain, but build a drained system galaxy. Other than that, I mean, you look at that goal,
maybe it's part of it. It doesn't really even skip all that much, so ultimate at the end of the day, it's a frustrating goal to give up. It's frustrating even more the fact that it comes in the fourth minute. And it's even frustrating more because for the remaining eighty six minutes in stoppage of that match, I thought the Sounders played pretty well. They looked determined, they looked driven, they looked like they had a fire in their
belly. And that's what I complained about in the postgame show after the San Jose match, that I didn't see that fire. I did see it against the Galaxy. I loved seeing that. That is exactly the type of Sounders drive that we want to see game in and game out. And I said, look at my notes here, I have ex's over big chances, and there's nine big chances for the Sounders across this match, and they weren't able
to score any of them. And you know, normally, I walked out of here the building on Saturday night, you know, saying to you know, Mi Minz Vita Marti, who was on the postgame show as well as Pete Fewing, I said, okay, listen, Normally, in any match, when you get nine big chances like you had in the game, you're gonna come away with at least a goal, probably a win. So unusual in that circumstance in the La Galaxy, top of the table right now,
good team, YadA YadA. But at the same time, it's just, man, you wish that one of these chances, I mean, Jordan at the very end is probably the one that has the big exclamation point in here on my notes, that's the one you really wish had gone in the back of the net. But to not get any of those nine, it's so frustrating because this very easily. It very easily could have been one to one, very easily could have been nothing nothing, but it wasn't and it marks
down as another loss for the Sounders. Final score one nothing there. And we move forward to Montreal back at home this Saturday, and what I said, great opportunity for Seattle to pick up their first win of the year. We will see what the starting lineup looks like. We know ju Al Paulo is back in full training. Oh Bed Vargas was out there today. We'll see what his status is for Saturday with his concussion protocol. But we do
know that Cody Baker got the opportunity against La Galaxy. We will see if he gets another opportunity, say, if Jule Paulo has to sit out again, interview has to come off the bench. We could see Brian Schminzer throw out his little lineup twist where he throws Alex roll Don on the right wing, Cody Baker at right back, Christian rolled On in the middle of the park holding next to Josh Atensio. I thought that combination looked good, worked well. I would like to see more of it if JP is unable to
start this match, but we will see what happens. As for Cody Baker, whether he gets the start or not. He did come on over earlier today at Long Acres. We had the chance to catch up about the game against the Galaxy, looking ahead to Montreal, his spart in the starting lineup. But we opened the conversation by simply asking what it was like at training today. It was a beautiful day out there at Long Acres. Here's Cody Baker, Tenny was nice, good weather. Everyone's back in motivated, so
spirits trying to training motivation you mentioned there. You know, teams still winless in the first five. You know what is the fire in the belly level right now going into game six, still looking for the first three points. Yeah, I think everyone wants to win. Even if face came a season, everyone wanted to win as bad as we do now because just how we always act, we want to win everything we can. So we're just very
motivated. Opportunity for you on the right wing, a little bit of a lineup shift there for the LA Galaxy game, coming after San Jose and your assist, but had a feel to get that opportunity and get the run in there on the right Obviously it feels good to know the coaches and the team have confidence in me to play out there. Performance wasn't up to the standard I'd wanted to be, so obviously I'm gonna keep poking and training, keep
doing what I can make sure I can earn that spot. So you said it wasn't up to where you wanted is what didn't work in the Galaxy game. Was it just in that first five minute period or were there more parts of it that you kind of critique yourself. Yeah, I think off to slow start for sure. I just think for me, technically it wasn't up to state that i'd like. And then looking ahead to Montreal, obviously,
well we'll see what it means. You draw Apollo back in full training, But if you're to get another opportunity, and what specifically do you want to continue to work on? What parts of the game itself on the field do you need to work on for this week? I think you can always work on everything. Proud myself on my defense so I can work on my defensive
capabilities and then also try to make an impact on the attacking side. Well, on the attacking side, I mean, you know, you're known is a very you know very much defensive player first, But I mean you are the assist leader on the Sounders right now. You're laughing right now? Is that a little bit funny to you? Yeah, it is, and we've kind of joked about it on the facility and people have given me some jokes about it. But yeah, I'm just hoping by the end of season one
assist isn't the assist leader. I think we both know that. But I mean, going back to that game in San Jose, the assistant was was pretty pretty nice. Is that something that you worked on the off season getting better offensively and getting better with your crossing? Yeah, that's an aspect of my game. I've always wanted to move on and I think like with the coach, especially working with Andy and Fetti, we did a lot of extras
after training. What come I crossing? All right, Well, good luck and let's hopefully your assist leader Marcos two assists and continues this up the market things. Cody perfect, Thank you. It's great stuff there from Cody Baker, Sounders right back. We will see if he gets another opportunity against Montreal. Good stuff there. Well. Coming up next to Sounders Weekly, We're
going to talk to Tacoma Defiance head coach Erve Dsa. He is known by H. So we're gonna be talking to H about Montreal to which he was an assistant coach last year, and his Tacoma Defiance team that is two to one and zero to start the season. More coming up next year in Sounders Weekly Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders FC Ceedle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FL.
Welcome back Sounders Weekly. Good to have you with us on this Tuesday evening. Moved up an hour here. Good to have you with us, and good to hear from Cody Baker that last segment before we get to Rave Dsa, the new Tacoma Defiance head coach who's going to be joining us here in just a matter of moments. Quickly. I didn't mention this in the first segment. Just about an hour ago, I saw it on the Sounders social media accounts. A major congratulations to Christian rolled On. Yes, Christian rolled
On made an announcement earlier today. The news is quite special. He and his wife Siana, I believe that's how you pronounce it, have announced that they are going to be having their first child. They made a baby announcement on Instagram. So major congratulations to Christian and his wife for their as soon to be parents as they make that baby announcement today. Well that's beautiful sentiment. And moving ahead here on Sounders Weekly and switching gears. Joining us right
now here on the show is the new head coach of Tacoma Defiance. Everybody calls him h his name is erve Da Say. He joins us right now here on Sounders Weekly. Ave. It's wonderful to have you on the show. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Well, there's so much to talk about with you from the season so far. Three weeks in you being an assistant with Montreal who
the first team faces at Lumenfield this Saturday. Let's start off with the new job now that you are, I guess just a few months in now since taking the job, what's it like. What's been at the new facilities, A long acres of new facility for everybody. What's it like being part of Rave Green. It's been fantastic, world class facility. The club has done a really really good job in facilitating there. I know it's been in the
works for a couple of years now and it's absolutely world class. I've seen a lot of facilities in MLAs teams and also in Europe, and this is really really top notched here. So it's a good environment to come into. Every single day is waking up early in the morning and driving to that facility. It's motivating because you just know you have all the tools at your disposal.
So it's been fantastic. The club has been fantastic with me. That made it very very comfortable for my family and I to transition into Seattle. That have been very very helpful in everything that we needed. So it's been
good so far. H One of the things that I asked you your introductory press conference now a couple of months ago was the fact that you come to the Sounders from a pretty diverse background with a bunch of different organizations both on the men's and women's side, because you were at Angel City down there. How has that, you know, diverse background allowed you to be a better
coach overall here with Tacoma. Well, it's actually one of my strengths because I don't look at I don't look at players as soccer players, I look at them as humans first, and looking at them that way gives me insight away from football that actually aligns with them basically intrinsically being motivated because they know that they have a coach that cares about them as a human being and their
family. Just having the experience of being around and coaching in different places, in different countries, it's a large palette for enhancing the ability of a human being and that's literally what I do. I just use soccer as a tool to do that, but really it's just to impact and influence lives in a positive way. I love that Vedesa. We all call him H. He's the new head coach of the Comment of Finance, joining us right now here
in Sounders Weekly here on Tuesday night. H, let's talk about the season so far for you guys. I'd like to gloss over and spend as little time as possible on the game this last weekend of five to us on the road a Venture County. But listen, in the first two weeks, got two nice wins. The attack looks like it's working. Well. What have you seen three weeks so far for Defiance? Yeah, I mean we have
a really good roster of players, really really good. It's it's wild balanced as well, which is key, which is the reason why we've hit the ground running this past weekend. It's it's it's really not nothing to glass over. I think it's important that this past week can happen because I was kind of waiting for it to happen because a lot of these guys it's the first time playing together. And everybody knows that a team gets closer when they share
struggle, and we needed to go through that struggle. We didn't really get that through the preseason. We played a good Austin team, but we overcome them pretty pretty well in Colorado as well, and I felt like, uh, you know, just the team in overall started getting a little bit too confident. So it was important that we gained their experience that we needed to do in Alai this past weekend because the players need that character development in order
to sustain good performances throughout the season. I mean, I'm searching for discipline and consistency here, and those things start off the field. So it was really important that the players went through that, and it was a good time for us to discuss it. We're obviously going to dissect it more this coming week, but I'm really really excited for the game this past this Sunday in LAFC. Will will definitely see how the team has grown after that experience.
Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the match coming up because for fans looking towards, it takes place at Starfire Stadium. All the matches for t come A Defiance home matches take place at Starfires Stadium. It's gonna be five o'clock PM, So gee your tickets and head out there to Starfire for to Come A to Fiance and l A f C two. You know, h One of the other things that we talked about when you first came here is your
style. And I love the answer you gave and I'd love to ask you again here on live radio on the show about your play style because you know, Wade Webern and has said in recent years, it's the former head coach of Defiance and we just try to mirror the system and try to, you know, allow that flexibility. I loved kind of the answer that you gave you before the season about what you want to do with this team on a game by game basis. Your philosophy on how you want your team to function.
Yeah. No, it's really simple in the sense that we create a game model and principles that allows the players to be the natural self. So we've recruited certain players for certain reasons, so why not put them on the field and give them the freedom to express themselves for that certain reason why that we're recruited in the first place. And if we do that, then they're
playing towards their strengths. And if they're playing towards their strengths, then it's something valuable to the club can use and eventually those players can move up to the first team and do the exactly the same thing on the first So rather than coming from a negative point of view, we want to stand on the positive leg and we want to give them the freedom of getting the ball, keeping the ball, and attacking. It's the reason why little boys and girls
started playing soccer in the first place. They like to have the ball at the feet, they like to score goals, and that's the game model that we created and the principles within that gives those plays the freedom in order to do that and just express themselves and express the personality on the field. Well,
it comes off as a very attractive form of soccer. And for those of you listening who haven't gone out there to to you know, or even just loaded up whether it's on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and watched any Tacoma Defiance content, I can tell you it's an attractive form of soccer.
You got the boys playing and yes, you know, giving up five goals of insuring County and glossing over that again, it was still a fun game to watch there, you know, h as we kind of you know, shifted, you actually talked about right there, you know, letting the players be themselves. And I did want to talk to you about a couple of specific players. A guy Stuart Hawkins, a defender, center back, a kid that the Sounders have signed to a homegrown contract. I know that the
club's very high on this young kid. He has a lot of promise. You know, in your few games that you've seen in a lot of practices. What do you make young Stuart Hawkins. Well, it's very steady. He has a good brand on his shoulders. He's being raised well, which is very important for a young man like that because there's a lot of promise on his potential and what's most important is Stuart doesn't walk around the training facility like as if he is Stuart Hawkins, the national team, play, etc.
He walks around just like another kid who wants to play. And that's important and it's important for us to keep his focus on that. So Stu is always the first one after a match. He's always the first one to send me a text. He's a head coach. Do you have any notes for me? Do you have any notes for me? Because he just wants to get better and better and better, and he's very humble in that way, and because of that mentality is the reason why he will continue to do
well. This is a process. We don't rush the process because we want to make sure that eventually, one day, when he does get his chance with the first team, that he succeeds and it doesn't fail. So we want to take it step by step, slowly but surely, and then we'll see a really good player for playing for the Sounders one day. Absolutely, so another player I wanted to talk to you about who started for you, who we've seen start for the Sounders. We've seen him come off the bench
for the Sounders. He's been with this organization for what feels like darn near a decade. It's Danny Lava and Danny Leave is a guy that I think we've been waiting to see that breakthrough and we've been waiting to see that next step, and he got the start for you played what did he play about fifty nine minutes there over the weekend down there against Ventura County. You know,
for a fresh eyes coming in and seeing Danny Lavin. I'm sure you've seen him from Afar in the past, but fresh eyes coming in and you know, getting your kind of hands around you know this this young guy. And Danny Lava is still a young guy. You know, what have you seen and what is the next step that he can take to take that next step to be you know, a more complete player and get more consistent minutes at the first team level. Yeah, I mean the hardest the hardest part
for any player is transition. Like even on the soccer field, the most vulnerable a team is is in transition, and it happens with us as human beings as well. When we transition from an infanto a toddler toddlane to a little kid, a little kid into a teenager, a teenager as an adult
and just like a for a soccer player is exactly the same thing. Danny has done completely well at the second team level and now he's going through the transition of being a regular first team player and it's it's a difficult process, but Danny has all the talent in order to do it. That's unquestionable. Uh. The thing with Danny is is he needs to be consistent and he
needs to stay disciplined and be patient. Patience is where a lot of players, UH take the wrong step is because they want it too quick, because they see everybody around them getting minutes. He needs to be patient and he
needs to trust the process and and keep working every day. Come in every day hungry, keep working and eventually coach might say he's going to give him that opportunity, and he might not work the first time, he might not work the second time, but he continues to stay consistent, it will definitely work the third and fourth time, and by then you'll hit the ground running. So he just needs to be a little bit more patient, stay professional,
keep that discipline that he has and he'll be fine. That's the voice of h v dsay. He is the new to comment Defiance head coach and h one last thing for you here and that is the element of Montreal is the first team, as we were just mentioning, plays Montreal at home this coming Saturday night. And Montreal is a team you know quite well. You
were an assistant coach for them last year throughout the season. So give us a little scouting report on CF Montreal and what the Sounders will be facing this weekend. Well, I mean this season is a little bit different because that got a new coach in l'anecutois, who's a very good coach, who has one m listen ext Pro with Columbus Crew two and it lost the final last season against Austin, So that's taken a little bit of a different approach,
but you know, most of the team is fairly the same. He emulates the style of Wilford Nancy, somebody he's obviously worked under in Columbus Crew. But that's also that's the reason why Montreal got him, because it was successful with that type of style of play when Wilford Nancy was at Montreal and obviously
in Columbus winning the MLS Cup last season. So this Saturday is going to be a fantastic game between us too, because we actually have a lot of similar styles between the way Coach Smith's likes to play and the way Montreal is currently playing right now. So it's really going to be a battle of tactics and strategy, and the team that it does it the best and performs the outcomes of practice the best is the one that's going to prevail on Saturday.
And I know that our first team is currently working really hard, even though they haven't received the results that they they've wanted, just a couple of things that they needed tweak, but I'm sure that they're gonna do. They're gonna do more than fine on Saturday, and it'll be nice to see my friends again from Montreal, but definitely coming to a pack stadium in a difficult place to play, and it's could be a good one. I can't wait for
it. Yeah, I can't wait either. Hopefully Brian Schmitzer wins that chess match and the Sounders can get their first win of the year, and hopefully you guys can get your third win of the year down there on Sunday against LAFC two at five pm down at Starfires Stadium. H good luck in that game. We really appreciate you jumping on here tonight for us. Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Great stuff there from h
Erv Dasa, the new Tacoma Defiance head coach. Loved his thoughts there on Montreal, which will be a tough match for your sounders coming up this Saturday. We're gonna preview that more with Ari lillionolof MLS Soccer dot Com in a matter of minutes. You know, we usually in this segment do our least segment where we hit on all of the clubs going on around the Northwest, around the Pacific Northwest here western Washington, covering USL two, covering Defiance,
covering rain FC. You know, on that note, we obviously covered Defiance pretty extensively there with airve H and it was wonderful to have him on the show. Wanted to list a couple other notes before we take a break and get to Ari. First up, There isn't too much news on the USL two front. That season doesn't start until next month. But you know, my club, Ballard FC hash to take up the bridges. I reped them and they made an announcement I believe late last week, and it's pretty cool
they're gonna be facing off in an international friendly. Yes, a USL two team taking place in an international friendly against the Chievis U twenty three team from Lega MX. They're gonna be facing off in June. That's June fourth, seven pm at Memorial Stadium. You're gonna have CHIEVSU twenty three's taking on Ballard seen a friendly. Don't often see USL two international friendly. Pretty darn cool
there for Ballard FC and everybody with the club there. So good luck to James Riley, not only in that match but the season ahead, as well as all the other clubs West Seattle, Mid Lakes, Olympia you have let's see, I mean, there's there's so many now Tacomas Stars. I believe that's the five year in Western Washington. It is absolutely packed. And then one final note here on around the sound and that's RAINFC because a Rain AFC played again last weekend. They were coming off of a two to one loss
to Chicago and unfortunately it is another loss. They're on Friday in San Diego. They lost to the Wave by a score of one to nothing. So currently Rain they won their opener a home, but two straight losses on the road has this team right now at one and two eleventh place in NWSL. In terms of what they have coming up, they're going to be again on the road coming up on Sunday, April fourteenth. They're off this weekend, so game coming up here in a week and a half that's going to be
at BAFC, the newest team in NWSL. That comes up on April fourteenth. We'll take a break here in Sounders Weekly. We'll switch gears back to the Sounders and talk Sounders Montreal and go around the league with Ari Lillenwall. That's next on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Back to Sounders Weekly on your home for sunders FC Cele's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM.
Welcome back Sounders Weekly. Good to have you with us on this special Tuesday edition here of Sounders Weekly on Tuesday tonight because the Seattle Crack can play tomorrow evening. As a reminder, once the Crack and season ends are we're going back to our usual time slot that we had throughout last year of seven
pm on Wednesdays, but we're still a couple weeks out from that. Well for Sounders Weekly right now, we're of course, ending our show tonight with a visit and a trip around the league with our good friend, writer and editor of MLS Soccer dot com, host of the podcast Lobbing Scorches, which has a new episode pre Montreal post LA Galaxy. Check that out Lobbing Scorches wherever you get your podcasts Ari. Lillianall joins us right now, Ari, good to have you back on the show, my friend, good to be
here. Jackson. Well, unfortunately, man, we're talking about another loss. It's not getting any better. Maybe it is on the injury or front. We'll talk about that in a few moments, but one nothing to the LA Galaxy. Well, let's do this again. What did you see in the loss? Well, first of all, it's a little bit frustrating to have the elements play so much of a factor. In the last couple of
weeks. You know, you had the torrential downpour in Philadelphia. You had a soaking wet field again in this one, so, you know, with the kind of new lineup that Schmetzer deployed, I felt like it was kind of hard to get a read on exactly how that played, just because the field was so wet. That being said, I mean, I did feel like after the seventieth minute it did look a little bit better offensively than it has in previous week. Previous weeks, they ended up with two point one
expected goals, which is usually a pretty decent output for a game. So I know that doesn't really mean anything at the end of the day, but I think in general that matched up with the eye test, and I thought the chance generation was improved. But yeah, I mean, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get on the score sheet. Now you're in a situation where it's five winless to start the season, which is obviously not ideal, not ideal at all. But I agree with you. I think we did see
a more fire from the team, better offensively. I didn't know about the two point one XG, but that's a stat that makes sense. I imagine you and Noah had the XG debate on the podcast, didn't you. We did re litigate that a little bit, but not extensively. Okay, okay, well, but I no, I didn't know the two point one number. That sounds about right. I in my notes right here have nine big
chances that the Sounders had the galaxy. It's just so frustrating we couldn't get one of those to go in the back of the net, and it's a goal that La scores in the fourth minute that ends up being their winner. So it's it's just continued frustration. But Alrei mentioned, you know, on the injury front, there is some good news to al Polo back in full
training. How do you think the you know, influx of JP. We probably won't start against Montreal this Saturday, but how do you think that JP coming back into this team, whether it's off the bench, in the lineup in a couple of weeks. How can that change the way that Seattle is playing right now? Can it? You know, I know he's a defensive midfielder, but can that affect the offense so much to turn this whole thing
around? Oh? I think it's going to be a huge boost on both sides of the ball, Jackson. I mean, JP is one of the better two way players in the league. When they get him back to full fitness, I expected to make a substantial impact, not just with what he brings defensively, but JP is such a good tempo controller, He's such a good long passer, he's a great wink up player. He really is a Jack of all trades does everything for this team, and I think during this
rough start of the season you're really seeing how influential he really is. There's been a massive drop off, particularly an attack, with what he brings to the table on that side of the ball, and they've really missed him a lot. And I think getting him and Albert Russack back to full fitness, I think that, I really do think that will help things, even though it's definitely disappointing that they haven't been able to keep a float really in the
absence of those two guys. Yeah, I completely agree with you on on both those fronts, and on Albert two. I mean, it's no coincidence that the attack was better against the Galaxy, and it was, you know, partly Albert russnext starting getting his first start of the year. So I
think JP will only help in that regard. All right, let's begin our sharp Vision opponent Alick here, and we're looking ahead to this match here against Montreal and a team in Montreal that the Sounders don't face all that often. It'll be a providence. We just prematch show seven o'clock kickoff at seven thirty. You can listen to that match over on our sister station of Sports Radio
nine to fifty kr AM. You know, also listen in Spanish language L thirteen to sixty and watch, of course on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. So Ari, this Montreal team that I wanted to quickly hit on with you. They obviously, you know, last year was a little bit of a big surprise from Montreal in the sense I believe expected maybe a little bit more of them after twenty twenty two where they finished in second place
and then last year missed the playoffs. This year, right now, they're on the outside looking in, but they are coming off as I see here a one nothing loss in DC. So maybe a little bit of a hungry team. What do you make of Montreal? What do the Sounders have to worry about in this? Yeah? I mean this CF Montreal team was a team that had a pretty down year last year after their head coach Wilfrid Nancy
left to join the Crew, where he immediately won MLS Cup. Wilford Nancy is one of the He's one of the best coaches, if not the best, in the league right now, and he had them punching well above their way two years ago. And they really felt that lost last year. The
Hernan Losada hire did not work out. But one thing I can tell you about them to start the season is they were picked by most of the pundits to finish way low on the Eastern Conference table this year, and they've actually looked, I would say, quite a bit better than people had them peg Dak going into the season. Their new coach is Warrant Courtois and he seems
like he's been doing a pretty good job with them so far. So I don't think they are going to be a trendy pick to make much noise in the Eastern Conference still, but I think right now for Seattle, this is a tougher game than you would have expected when you saw it on the schedule
heading into the season. No, well that's just comforting, that's great, But listen, I hopefully the Sounders can get their first one of the year and it is at home at Lumen Field, so folks can get their tickets SOUNDERSFC dot com slash tickets for this Saturday's match Sounders Montreal, excuse me, and also our Sharp Vision opponent Alec. Every week is presented by Sharp Vision, Modern Lasik and Lends the official Lasik provider of Sounders FC, and hopefully
Montreal actually includes everybody on their player injury report. Obviously jovialch for the LA Galaxy. I'm not sure if he got a knock, you know, the day before the game, but as is, jovelich Ari was not listed on that injury report. And oh, by the way, he's on the bench, and Kevin Baxter of the LA Time says, oh, he's dealing with a lower body injury. Well, the injury report was put out Saturday morning before the damn game, LA Galaxy. You can include him on the injury
report. That's just me yelling at nobody. But nonetheless, I hope Montreal actually is honest and full with their injury report comes out on Saturday morning. Ari, let's move on and talk more around the league here and jump around a little bit. The player of the week Chicho Orango with Al Salt Lake. He gets his second career hat trick in a big win over Saint Louis
City. What are we seeing that game? Yeah? I mean that was a wild sequence for Real Salt Lake because they were actually down one zero in the seventieth minute and Chicho scored that hat trick in a twenty one minute span. Three goals in twenty one minutes, and they were able to beat Saint Louis, who are coming off a great year last year. And I think real Salt Lakes talk is a little bit up in the early season here.
They are third in the West right now, and they were a team that I picked to make some noise last year after the Chico Arongos signing in THEB Diego Luna who's a really good youngest sending player for them, and they didn't really make good on that. They're they're still struggling without Pablo Luiz, who's out for the season again and he's he's kind of there, Jao Paolo I would say, so they never really seemed to recover from that loss last year.
But so far this season, Pablo Mastroni has them playing some good ball and you know, you know, Chicho Arongo is a very key kind of missing link for them. They didn't have number nine like this previously. And if they get him scoring goals at the same rate that he was when he was the star player for LAFC, I think we all felt Lake's another team
where their trajectory looks like it's ticking upwards. Well. I remember seeing Chicho Aurango last year in Leguas Cup against the Sounders, and we're calling that match for KJR, and it was just like, Wow, this guy is just on another level and seems like he is right continued on that level here to start twenty twenty four, Ari Luino was our guest Mlasucker dot com writer editor, also host of the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. Ari. I love when LAFC
loses. I love it more when Portland loses, and we get to talk about both of those things. Let's start with the former and then we'll go to the ladder. LAFC losing, getting a little bit upset by Colorado in
Colorado. What happened there? Yeah, it was pretty surprising to see because LAFC won their previous game again Nashville five to zero, and I kind of felt like, Okay, for whatever struggles they might have had at points during this early part of the season, here they look pretty much back to the normal LAFC. Dennis Kwanga had a two goals and assist in that game, I think. But then they come back and go on the road to Colorado, which is definitely a tough place to play, but they lose that three
to two. But you know, I thought it said more about the hopes for Colorado, frankly, because Georgia Mihailovich had two goals and one assists in that game. He scored in the eighty third minute, in the eighty ninth minute to tie and then to win it. And Colorado, you know, they were a team that they were one of the worst teams in the league last year. They were last in the Western Conference, but they really remade their roster this offseason. So getting LAFC like that at home, that's a
big win for them. I still tend to take that LAFC will probably correct course and at the end of the season we'll be looking at them as the top at least two to three team in the Western Conference. But they definitely they seem like they're bragging a little bit. That Nashville result of notwithstanding, yeah, ninth place right now in the West is LAFC puts a smile on my face if I ignore who's at the bottom of the conference. But yeah,
it's interesting to see LAFC so far this year. And then Portland, I mean, we've spent the first few weeks of the year talking about how good the Portland Timbers look. But perhaps even better than the Timbers is the
Vancouver white Caps. And the white Caps beat the Timbers up at BC Place over the weekend, and the white Caps it was fun because it's a Cascadia match obviously, but you know, white Caps might end up being the bigger Western Conference test for the Sounders than Portland, just based on the early run. Yeah. I don't know if I'm ready to say that quite yet, Okay, but they definitely the Phil Neville era in Portland got off to a
really strong start this season. They actually they beat Colorado for one on MLS's back weekend, But these last two weeks they've definitely shown some vulnerabilities. It seems like they're still playing pretty well offensively. Vanders scored another crazy goal in this game. It seems like anytime he scores it's a banger. But Portland
definitely has not looked as good the last two weeks. So I don't begretch any Sounders fan out there that wants to take thallass in that, as they says, Seattle struggles through this stretch here, but Vancouver themselves, I mean, I just look at a team that has added in the offseason. They still have Ryan Gauld and the Vancouver Whitecaps seem like a team ready to take
that next step maybe. Yeah, I definitely agree. They've been a team in the last couple of years since vanniye Sartini has taken over where people are kind of waiting for it to all come together, and it definitely seems like they might be ready to do that. They have really good building blocks they have for a while. Like you mentioned Ryan Gold Scottish Messi is one of
the best playmakers in MLS. He's a very cold, dangerous player, and him and Brian White, they really have like a really dynamic duo playmaker striker combo with that. It's been it was one of the most productive duos in the league last year and it seems like they're ready to do that again, which if they can maintain some defensive validity, Yeah, the white Caps might be cooking up there. Yeah, they might be. Indeed, are lasting
for you really quick here. I know last week at the very end we were short on time, but we did have to mention that we got real referees back. The replacement referees go to the wayside and the deal was cut and we have the main referees back. Now. Listen. I only watched Ismael Lfath in the Sounders Galaxy game, So that is the basis for this question, because you actually watched a lot more games than just Sounders Galaxy.
Did you see the quality of refereeing get better this week because at least watching Lfath, I didn't see it. I did. I did think if you watched the full slate of games, I did think it was much better. You know, you're never gonna be free of refereeing controversy. There's going to be disputed calls every single week still, so I'm definitely not looking at it like now that the regular referees are back, we're never gonna see any of
that up again. But I'm just glad that common sense prevailed. And I do think as we move forward in the season here, you're gonna notice that the quality of the officiating is much higher. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right on that, good take, Ari look forward to more of your good takes on the podcast. I'm going to listen on my drive home in about ten minutes. So thanks for the visit tonight, and we'll talk next Wednesday.
Thanks Jacks, I appreciate it. It's great stuff there from Ari Lullianwall, host of the podcast Lobbing Scorches, get it wherever you get your podcast and writer and editor for Mlssoccer dot com. Well, that'll do it for our show tonight. I want to thank all of you for listening and all
of our guests tonight, including Ari right there. Check out the podcast Sounders Weekly wherever you get your podcasts, and we will talk to you on Saturday over on our sister station of Sports Radio, nine fifty KJR AM Providence, Swedish premat show at seven o'clock, kickoff at seven point thirty out at Luminfield. Get your tickets SOUNDERSFC dot com slash tickets as the Sounders will be hosting CF Montreal this Saturday. You also listened in Spanish language on l Ray thirteen
sixty and watch the match MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. So we will talk to you nine fifty KJRM on Saturday at seven pm. Have a great rest of your week everybody, and Fox Sports Radio is coming up next