Coming to you live from Marellion 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, great to be with you on this beautiful Wednesday evening here in Seattle, ninety three point three kjr FM, your home for Seattle Sounders FC soccer here right now as the Sounders are coming off of probably the win of the year, a magical time out at Lumen Field this last weekend where Seattle found themselves down by a score of
two to nothing for the second straight game, and like they did on Wednesday against Houston, they came back and erased that two gold deficit headers from Raw Ridiez and Jordan Morris. By the way, congratulations to the Sounders scoring on a corner kick that was awesome. So it was two to two at that point we entered stoppage time and then freaking Obed Vargas probably the pass of the year, an epic ball through to Jordan Morris who was streaking one on one
with the goalie and pass couldn't get it. Jordan beat him into the right side of the nets and the Sounders somehow, some way, in sixteen minutes score three goals, erase the deficit and pick up the win of the year three two at lumen Field, And as Danny Jackson had the highlight and he's called it as as we've seen on social media clips and we've listened back on the broadcast, that call that Danny had for the winner was fantastic and he
referenced the crowd and I said this on the postgame show, that the crowd in that moment and during the comeback it was electric. Fantastic job dolls, Sounders fans who made that noise and clearly the players fed off of it. What a win for the Sounders. This last weekend doesn't change too much regarding the standings. It does keep them above Dallas. Of course, still have
a lot of room for the Sounders to jump up the table. They're still sitting down in tenth place, but that three point points was big to hold serve and kind of keep going so that they don't get too far behind a playoff spot, don't get too far behind Vancouver and everybody else in that big group of teams in the West. There's a lot coming up. On tonight's show, we talked about teams in the West. Ari Lillenwall MLS soccer dot
Com podcast Lobbin Scorchers. Ari will join us here in just about twenty five minutes or so to talk about the win and talk about the Western Conference.
I want to ask him how he sees this group shaping out where there seems to maybe be a solidified top three, and then the rest will ask Ari about, you know, if that threesome is impenetrable and how high the Sounders could make it in this group of a bunch of other teams where right now they're on the outside looking in. But we know that Peter da le Vegas getting healthier. We hope he can, we can see him on the field
soon. How that changes the Sounders and if that can, you know, get them the points with Chicago coming up their bottom of the Eastern Conference with New England after that, they've had a rough year. So I think right now the Sounders are in a nice position to continue building off of this last week where they got seven points win over Minnesota, draw and Houston and then
the win here over Dallas. Continue to build on that, get more points, get up the table and be looking at, you know, hopefully being able to have a home two home games in that first playoff round come playoff time, but still a long way left to go, and we're hoping this team can stay healthy and get healthy with dalea Vega and continue to soar up that table. But what a win that was. We'll talk to Ari about It. Will also be featuring the nice conversation I had with Paul Rothrock here
in a few minutes. Paul and I sat down in the locker room for about ten minutes and listen, I if there's anybody in Sounders pr listening, I'm sorry. I know. Player interviews usually about five minutes, and I don't usually go over five minutes. When Paul and I got together and we started the conversation, he immediately said, let's just sit down. Let's just sit down at these lockers and just hang out. And that immediately puts you
in a different headspace when the guy says, let's just chill. So Paul and I sat down at a couple of lockers and Jackson Reagan walked by, had to bring him over, and Paul is one of the most fun interviews. I think maybe that I've ever done for Sounders Weekly. It was just an absolute joy. He was high on life coming off of the three to two win. So to the pr folks, I'm sorry I went ten minutes,
but you can't expect me to go any less than ten minutes. When you are with an electric guy like Paul Rothrock, who's an amazing speaker, you have guys walking by. It's the atmosphere after a three to two win. Everything was the ingredients were in place for a fantastic conversation, and a boy, wasn't fantastic. You all get to hear that in just a few minutes here in Sounders Weekly. So much fun talking to the Capitol Hill kid. I'm not sure if that nickname is gonna stick or anything, and I
just like saying it because he's from Capitol Hill. He's clearly a you know, Bleeds Rave, Green and Blue, and he's clearly such a Seattle lighte and you can feel the energy when he talks and just feel his enthusiasm for being able to score goals like he did against Minnesota and Houston and be part of this club which has clearly been a childhood dream of his and now here he is making a big, big difference on the field for the Sounders. He's so much fun to talk to you, so we'll get to him in
just a little bit, and then a round out tonight's show. A little bit later on, we're gonna go around the sound and also around the world a little bit. We're gonna take a look at USL two. We're gonna tell you some cool news about Seattle rain FC, and we'll get a little bit on Copa America and as well as Euros from our producer tonight and our you know, summer tournament correspondent. I think I'm gonna call you andrews Hearst,
so we'll get that a little bit later on tonight as well. I mentioned what the Sounders have coming up really quick, and that's gonna be a match here this weekend against the Chicago Fire. That will be a seven o'clock pregame and a seven to thirty kickoff. It'll be a seven o'clock provident Swedish pre match show. I should mention right here on Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. You know, so watch the match via MLM Season Pass
on the Apple TV app. Listen in Spanish language on l ra thirteen sixty and of course get your tickets today for Saturday's match at soundersfc dot com slash tickets. We'll preview that Chicago match with Ari Luino while coming up in a little bit. You know, I could go on for another fifteen minutes celebrating the three to two win. Pete Fewing and I had a great postgame show where we celebrated it, and you know, I really could spend the entire
show tonight just you know, gushing about the fight in this team. And obviously you saw the drive and you saw the reactions, and you know, each time the Sounders scored the first and scored the second, they grabbed the ball, run back towards midfield because they knew, hey, listen, we have all of our horses out there, Roles sub Don Jordan stayed on, we can pull this off. And you saw that fight and that hunger in them. And when Jordan scored the winner, I mean, the emotion coming
out of him was fantastic. I just wanted to quickly take another second. I mentioned it when we first, you know, talked about the goal. But the pass from Obed Vargas to find Jordan Morris running in the ninety fourth minutes. That is such an exceptional ball, and listen, I think it's there's a lot of things you can say about it. The vision, you know, the ability for the kid to stay on the field after getting hurt and maybe coming off the field, but Obed fought through the pain, stayed
on and then had that pass. But I think it's very clear this kid, Obed Vargas just continues to skyrocket. You see the talent every single week. It's just getting greater and greater. And I don't know if he's gonna be wearing Grave Green a year from now. Maybe he is, maybe he's not. But regardless, he's per MLSPA, the salary numbers that came out, he's not making a lot this year. He's one of the best values,
maybe in all of Major League Soccer. But his nest contract, wherever that is, whether it's here in Seattle or somewhere else, that contract is going to be a monster deal. That kid's gonna earn a lot of money. And that pass on Saturday, that exceptional pass that got the Sounders their winner, that's gonna help him earn a few more bucks there on that next deal. So Congratstobed Vargas. Congrats to Jordan Morris on the brace. I mean, he's had an amazing run. What five goals in his last six
games, so he's on an incredible stretch right now. Rusnak with another two assist game. He's playing like a designated player. Right now. The Sounders are doing exactly what we wanted them to do. They're looking like a very good team. Yes, the two goals giving up was not good, one of them extremely soft. I'm not going to focus on that. I'm going to focus on the fact that it was three points. There's things to clean up, there's things that they need to, you know, get done,
like Peter dale Vega getting healthy. But right now, the recipe he is there. We see the foundation built for this Sounders team to do what they've done in so many years previously and take this summer and go rise up the table with a bunch of wins. So we'll see what happens this Saturday against Chicago. After that three to two win, this was an incredible conversation. Sat down with Paul Rothrock. I didn't even sit down. He told me, let's just take a seat, and we took a seat. And we
ended up having a wonderful conversation. This is a sounder from Capitol Hill. He's a kid from the academy who was you went to Toronto, things didn't work out there. He's back. He's been ripping it up in Open Cup play, where he scored a ton of goals in the US Open Cup dating back to last year. He's now making a big impact in MLS play. As we can see, he had an awesome, awesome attitude after the three two win over Dallas. So this is a long one here with Paul Rothrock.
He it includes a visit from Jackson Reagan. We get into some personal off the field stuff. A really fun sit down here with Paul Rothrock after the win over Dallas. Guys are pretty excited. I think the atmosphere was the most crazy, Like right at started scored, you know, the team chef is out there losing his mind, like the saws are running over from across the field. Really good feeling. I think that's the happiest feeling I've
had in a long time. It was just such a relief. We knew we were gonna win the game at that point, and yeah, finishing really strong on the week seven point a week. It's interesting that you bring up the point that it is the happiest you've been considering that the last two games you scored both in right, but you would take the moments and I had over booth both els, So I mean that that it felt so good.
It's been a fun week for me personally, for sure. But you know, the way this game, the way this game went, and the way it's the timing that it's come in the season, it was you know, it looks for a second like we're gonna lose at home, loose some momentum, and and the guys pulled through it. That's two games in a row where we've come back from Tuesday League. So yeah, and just to stay just feeling the feeling, the like the energy from the fans as we scored
that third goal was so special special. I want to see if we can wave over Jackson, Reagan and your buddy here because obviously obviously Wednesday in a minute, in a minute, in a minute, take your time, because Wednesday, Wednesday must have been pretty special where where you guys, going back to the Seattle United days for both of you guys to score in Houston,
that that was that was pretty special. Imagine it was awesome. We were kind of pinching ourselves after on the flight home, just like can you leave this? And we we had a lot of games like that where I got the first one and she got the second one. And in youth real, which is pretty wild. He has a knack on side pieces and I kept saying this year, like dude, what's going on, Like where's your goal?
Where's your going? Uh? To be fair to him, there is a pretty sick first goal to open his account, and yeah, really happy for him to here he comes for a second Jackson here here with Paul Rothrock Wednesday must have been pretty cool and he just talked about it. But like you guys going back to day to Seattle United, I mean, to be able to both score in a comeback one of those draws that felt like a win. What did that mean to you to to be able to to score
alongside him on Wednesday? Yeah, I mean there's super special. Thanks, like something that we've talked about since we grew up together, and so the fact that actually happened was pretty crazy. I mean, I think we're still to believe just super fun. I think if I would have told each of you guys ten years ago that you'll score in the same game for the Sounders. What would each of you have said? Paul I was a cocky little guy, so I probably would have said, yeah, I am, But
Jackson, I said, you're crazy. Oh we'll let you go. Thanks so much for a few minutes as a pault. You know obviously that that was super special. And then Minnesota too. I mean this week you mentioned the seven point week. I mean, and I think because you mentioned the words of where this has come twenty twenty four rough star for you guys, but the fact that you were able to get the seven point week, get
another two games at home for this to come right now? The group, I imagine I can see in your face feeling pretty darn good right now. Yeah, I think so, it's just like, can you know, can we keep chasing that feeling? Can we ride on that momentum? I know, I'm really enjoying it. I know a lot of a lot of guys are too, you know. And and can we play like we did in
those last twenty like over a longer course of a game. Can we can we really like show that type of soccer, that exciting style where we're just really do that for it. I think we can. I hope we definitely can. I think it just takes a few guys pulling in the right direction and some confidence to build. And I think that's definitely happened this week, and I hope, I hope we can keep that going. We have a
nice stretch right now. We've got two more games at home. I think after this nice build up weeks too, so we can, like everyone can, everyone can get in training. Patron's close to being back, which is exciting too. And and I think when the fixture congestion is less hectic, like it's easier to get injured guys back as well. They have more time to train with the guys. And so there's there's things that are exciting that
are happening right now that yeah, I'm I'm pumped for. Is it hard to stay even keel and like not get too high or not get too low, you know, in certain points of this season, especially right now. I think that's that's the challenge of being a pro. I think, you know, this is my second season now with my first team, but I think I've been around long enough to understand that things can change really quickly they're
better or for worse. You know, it wasn't too long ago that I wasn't even on the roster for games, right, So yeah, I think for me it's it's game by game. I actually spoke to Andrew Thomas for some advice too, because he had that like run of really good games, and you know, he said the same thing, just like, enjoy it. You never know how many games you're gonna get right now, how many minutes you're gonna get, But like take each game game by game, and
I hope we can do that as a team too. Right now, the first times I've had to visit you for Sounders Weekly, so I have a couple of questions. I've been meaning to ask you, what is it about you in the Open Cup? Like do you just do you just get up for Open Cup matches and just like do you go into those games saying because you just said you're cocky, right, do you want to those games saying oh, yeah, I'm scoring today. Yeah, I usually going having a
pretty good feeling. I think. I think last year, especially my first game with the Sounders with the first team, I was thinking to my you know, I had some moments with the first team in Toronto that I got into some games and I did okay. But you know, for me, I knew that I might not get another chance here and if I was, if I was gonna do something, it better be on Starfar Field, where I've played over one hundred youth matches. I go, yeah, your history
in that field. Yeah, I mean we played to the State Cup final there every year. I have really good memories there, and before the Open Cup games, I've just tried to play through play back those those goals and those memories and like think of those as we're going into the game, and I feel like I know how to play that field pretty well. So yeah,
I love the Open Cup. And I said in another interview, but like, I'm so happy that MS teams are still in that because it helps really helps guys like me get get a game or two where you're getting proper minutes because prior to that, prior to those moments, I didn't have any real opportunities. Until later in the year, you know, you're you're getting five minutes here, ten minutes there, and it's so great to be able to get sixty at least sixty minutes, right, I think most of them.
I've played more than that, but yeah, and it's it feels like a European atmosphere. It's really intimate, and yeah, all my family can be there as a hometown kid. So even being from the hometown, right, being from what I'm not great to go with geography, but you're you're
very like, yeah, I'm terrible geography regardless. Right in those moments where you're hearing the crowd world, do you do you allow yourself to you know, go back ten years and think of those moments, which state championships, the playing there as a kid, and and do those moments come in in
those moments where you're celebrating those goals at start fired. Definitely. I think it's especially the moments after the game where you know, I get to go over to the sidelines and I have, you know, fifteen twenty people at every home game, Like that's that's such a special feeling because it's surreal. It is surreal, and you know, I used to come to all the games with my dad and take the you know, take the light relegate here, and it's just it's just nuts that it's we're on the other side of
that now and and to be a part of the team winning games. It's really fun. What do you like to do off the field, That's a good question. I I like to be in the outdoors a lot. I like to I'm kind of a water baby and so I like to get into the lakes and the oceans. My girlfriend and I are always like jumping in Lake Washington or swimming at Alcay or going to garden. So I really like to do that. And what else I like to pay the piano hidden talent.
Yeah, I don't know if I go that far, but I really I really like music, so you know when when it's appropriate going to music shows as well. We're your favorite artists. I think it's always changing. Marvin Gay's always up there Radiohead when I'm being like, well, old soul, I am an old soul. I am an old soul. Kellen Roe used to say that about me. I'm an old soul. Yeah. I like I like a lot of like disco and seventies and eighties music. Let's
go Chef. Chef actually has a pretty good music taste as well. That's that's how we've connected, is he's often playing music I like in the in the team Orange. So anyway, he got to celebrate with the winner today. How about that? Amazing bring us full circle here, Paul was awesome, man, Thanks so much. Look forward to seeing you score against Sacramento in the Open Cup round and score. I mean listen, big game again Chicago next week. So hope to see out there and continue this amazing run
you guys got going. Thanks man, appreciate it going. It's good stuff there from Paul Rothrock. Great conversation, the old soul, the Capitol Hill Kid, whatever nickname you want to call him, he earns one. I don't know what it is, but he deserves a nickname. And he's been so much fun to watch. He's demanding more minutes from Brian Spencer. I want to ask Ari Lee while coming up next, about Paul Rothrock. We have a lot to get to with the writer and editor of mlssoccer dot com
and the podcast Lobbing Scorcher. So we'll talk to Ari about Paul. We'll talk to Ari about some other things with the Sounders three two in and go around the league with him. A lot coming up here in Sounders Weekly on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR. Hey, everybody, Jackson Feltz here really quickly wanted to jump in and add something to the podcast version here of
Sounders Weekly this week. It's something that has kind of come up since we did the show a little bit earlier, and I wanted to add and obviously very important because as many people saw after Tuesday, Tuesday Night news came out some reporting from Jeremiah, Oshanna, Sanderhart, Nicol Moreno also Sah as well as El Polso that Rollri Diez and knew who will not be with the club for this next week, including the Chicago Fire match coming up on Saturday.
So obviously that is a major, major point that needs to be talked about, you know. Brian Spencer spoke earlier today Wednesday afternoon out at Long Acres and said it's a coach's decision, didn't call it a suspension, didn't call it disciplinary, but said that they will not be taking part in the game and that they will rejoin the group as a whole on Sunday morning as the team then kind of gets ready to go in that next week for New England
a week from this Saturday. So no role and no knew who, you know. I can only say that, you know, let's see what the Sounders do. At the left back position. We know that they have Cody Baker Read Baker Whiting. It's a home game, so that may say that it's more on the Reeds side because he's more of an offensive player, but obviously both those guys can slide in there left back very easily. We've seen Reid here recently. Had I think he's been really good since coming back in,
you know, to the team from his injury. Also, you know, looking at the forward position, Jordan's been great. Jordan has as we mentioned, five goals in the last six games. He's hot right now. So rollways playing backup striker. There's been a re injury to Bradilio Rodriguez, so that hits on the forward depth. But we're going to see Pedro de la Vega back. Brian Spencer said with SOFTI and Dick yesterday ninety chance Pedro
de la Vega sees the field against Chicago. We know they have Danny Mazowski as an attacking depth person, so there are players that can step in for No. Rallery Diaz coming off the bench, I think absolutely. But listen, at the end of the day, it comes back to the fact that both those guys Roll and Knew who. They left the field right after the game was over. They didn't celebrate on the field with their teammates following the
three to two come back win. Their reports, you know, the report from in the headline from Sounder Hart says that Roland Knew Who were disciplined. Of of course, that goes, you know, against what Brian Schinzer said today that it's not disciplinary. It all comes back to semantics really, you know, whatever you want to call it. Rowland new who are not playing with the team this week training, you know, I think off to the side, but they're doing their own thing and they'll be back with the team
after the Fire game. So Brian said on Tuesday, it's an internal matter before he updated the situation today, but that is what we know right now, and that's the situation. So at the end of the day, I would just whatever you know, may have happened in the locker room, whatever
happened, you know, them leaving the field early. I always come back to this one very simple line, and this goes for the Sounders, Seahawks, Mariners, Storm Rain, whatever, it all comes back to the very very same line, and that is no player is bigger than the club. No player is bigger than the team as a whole, and the moment when a player thinks they are is a moment where you got to start thinking about
the player's place with that team. And not to say that's the case with what's going on right now, but listen for New If he's mad he got taken off in the seventy third minute, you know, listen, man, the team was down. You know, the team was eventually down to nothing, and I think the team needed more offensive help. We know, knew
Who is not the best offensive player, so that change Knew Who. If you're mad about that, I'm sorry, but get better on the offensive end because right now, read Baker, Whiting, other fullbacks on this team, they're better on the offensive end. And at the end of the day, New may have scored a goal for Cameroon. He may be feeling himself a little bit of right now. I think that's understandable. But the context of
the situation matters. And if new Who's mad about being taken off in the seventy th a minute, he needs to be understanding the context of being down to nothing and then needing a couple of goals, which they ended up getting, by the way, so you know, understand that and celebrate with your teammates. As for Roll, completely understandable that he is not, you know, the starter right now. Jordan just has five goals in six games.
You play the hot hand, as Brian said against Houston, you're in a situation where you're gonna sit back a little bit more play and transition, and Jordan's just the better player to do that. So understandable Jordan would get the three starts in eight days. It's great for him. But for all I understand he's mad about not starting. He's making all the money, he's a leading goal scorer. But at the end of the day, Brian's just playing
the hot hand right now and playing game by game situation. Jordan eventually will not score five goals in six games. At some point later in this season. Roll will probably get his chance to start again some point later in this season. But for right now, you know, you understand him being mad. It can blow up into whatever it may have blown up into. So just wanted to add that to the podcast edition here of Sounders Weekly Sounders Without
Role and Knew Who. This week we will have more on that situation. Next week and more as hopefully they make their reintegration to the team. With that said, let's get back to the content. We still have a lot to get to. Andrews hurstel join us for our around the world as we talk about COPA and Euros. We'll have around the sound we'll go around the league and that will be with Ari Lillienwall, which comes up next right here
on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM and Sounders Weekly. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders fc cel's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back Sounders Weekly, Jackson Feltz here. Good to have you with us here on Sounders Weekly. Back to our normal every single Wednesday, seven o'clock when the Sounders aren't playing. I'm back from vacation. We're ready to rock and roll for a busy summer ahead. Least Cup starting up
of course here in a little bit. But it's great to hear from Paul Rothrock there in that previous segment, and now coming up somebody who has carved out an agenda about Paul Rothrock. We'll get into that here in a moment. It's our good friend from MLS soccer dot Com and the podcast Lobbing Scorchers Ari lillianwall Ari. Good to have you back on my friend. How are you. I'm good, Jackson. It's good to be back. Yeah. We'll get into some around the league stuff and talk some MLS here in a
moment, but dude, we have to start with Sounders. I was pretty lit to start the show tonight, very excited after that three to two comeback win. Great conversation there with Paul Rothrock. I'm not sure if you heard it, but before we talk about Paul, let's just get your reaction to what was probably the win of the year for the Sounders. Yeah. I think it was the win of the year. It went from being potentially the worst loss of the season too, I think the biggest win of the season
so far. It was a great comeback. I mean three goals between the seventy eighth and the ninety fourth minute, and then also how they got the goal I thought was notable. You know, you have Rabul ruy Diez getting one from inside the box, which he's not done I don't think at all this year, and then Jordan Morris getting the brace. Jordan Morris is kind of carrying this team right now. I think that's five goals in his last
six games, So it's definitely a sign of life. And I think it's the type of comeback that can potentially be a galvanizing result if you were able to build on it and string together some results going forward. And I think that's the big thing about this result is the fact that you look at,
you know, the larger picture and step back a little bit. You finish off a seven point week where you got the win over Minnesota really good, draw another comeback from two down in Houston, and then you look forward and it's Chicago and New England, and I mean, I guess we can do a little bit of sharp vision upon at alec here. But it's the element where you look at both this next game and the one afterwards and there's a real potential here for Sounders to pick up nine points in these three. Yeah.
Absolutely, And if you look at the table, I mean, the Eastern Conference from about fifth to tenth is just a logjam. No one has really separated themselves in that group. So if you can get on a hot streak and you know, win three or four in a row or three up four or something like that, and rack up some points. They could get up the table pretty quickly here, and like you mentioned, it is a
what would seem to be a soft spot at the schedule. MLS doesn't always work like that, you see wonky results sometimes, but they are set up to collect some points here if they're able to take care of business with this part of the schedule against Like you said, Chicago and New England teams that New England has looked better, but Chicago has not had a very good year, so there is an opportunity here. Yeah, you mentioned Chicago there really
quick. Tonight's opponent Alo presented by Sharp Vision, Modern LASC and Lens, the official Lasik provider of Sounders FC really quickly. We don't have to go too deep into it because there's still so many things we have to hit with you tonight. But right now, Chicago bottom of the Eastern Conference, what eighteen points on the year, This should be an absolute automatic three points. There's there's no excuse not to win this game, right yeah, I mean
you would think so. They did have a good result a couple of weeks ago where they beat Toronto for one, which was pretty surprising. But Chicago have been near the bottom of the table all season, so Seattle at the very least will be heavily favored in this game. Yeah, definitely. We'll see what happens coming up on Saturday. We'll get broadcast details in a little
bit on that, but it'll be a Saturday. All right. Let's jump back and let's let's talk specifically about Paul Rothrock, because it was really too bad. He didn't score in the comeback against Dallas, but he said it was the happiest time in a long time for him that comeback win, which is a lot considering the week he's had, scoring against Minnesota in the two nothing win and then scoring in the comeback at Houston. He has just been
on fire recently. I think he's demanded seeing the field a lot more. There's there's obviously the fun side of the agenda that you and Noah have going on, lobbing scorches about Paul Rothrock, But objectively, as a mlssoccer dot Com editor, as somebody who looks at this sport and can step back and view it just objectively, Paul Rothrock is doing a lot of very good things to demand more time from Brian Schmitzer. Absolutely, you know, the Paul
Rothrock thing. It started off as kind of a joke last year when he was scoring goals in US Open Cup, and I didn't really actually consider him, you know, a potentially a potential solution to Seattle's goal scoringes. But I mean, if you look at how he's played this season, you can't really deny it anymore. And yeah, like you mentioned, he didn't score in this game against FC Dallas, but I thought he had a huge impact
on the game, providing a spark coming off the bench there. And really he's been the most consistent goalscorer, one of the most consistent goal scorers on the team, gating back to last year. So I think when you combine all those factors together, I think it's pretty undeniable that Paul Rothrock is a big time contributor to this team right now, and he should be getting more
minutes going forward. Yeah, I think that's undeniable right now. And Paul's you know, earning himself, whether it's you know, five ten minutes whatever, I think he's making the case. You know, especially you know when you look at Danny Mazowski, a guy that coming in here, we thought, all right, his goals and assists per ninety minutes number is so high. Let's see what he can contribute, and we just haven't seen that yet. Now, maybe Paul Rothrock is taking a fair amount of minutes away from
Danny at this point in the season. But again, we'll see what happens with a fresh week and you know, no Wednesday game tonight, so we can look to Saturday and kind of see what Brian Schmitzer does with a full week, a run up and getting healthier obviously with Pedro Dalea Vega who we
expect hopefully to see back very soon for the Sounders. On the point of agendas, and once again, Ario Lunel was our guest MLS Soccer dot Com and that podcast Lobby Scorchers on your podcast with Noah, You guys have done a really fun segment there on your Agenda Watch and Paul was one of those Agenda Watch players. What other agendas are you guys monitoring right now? You know it kind of fluctuates week to week, but Obed Vargas is typically on
there given the breakout season that he's experienced. Albert Russknack has been a topic of discussion, with the debate going on over his status as a designated player. This year, Leo Chu has been featured quite a bit, so we really we take stock of every agenda around that we hear permeating around the fan base every week, and yeah, it seems to be a pretty popular segment
on our show. People will have fun with it. I've enjoyed it, and I specifically wanted to talk about Rusnak and bring that conversation to the air because you know, you look at this game, another two assists, and
you look at what he's been doing over these last really five games. From my eyes, he is looking at every bit the designated player, and you know, you look at the investment, the financial investment there from MLSPA and and what Russ Rusnak is making and at least from these last you know, few games where he's racking up the assists in giant numbers, he's looking like a true DP to me, Yeah he is. He's definitely in his best
form of the season right now. And you know, he's showing why I was excited about this signing when he first came over from Real Salt Lake. I mean, I've spent years watching Russnak and Demir Krylak be really one of the better one to two punches in the league with RSL, and you're finally seeing fully those attributes here with Seattle. I mean, his dead ball service
has been really on point the last few weeks. He's getting a lot of those assists from set pieces, and they finally scored off one of his corner kicks. But he's also racking up the assists from open play as well, and his seven primary assists are top ten in MLS right now, I believe, so. I think with his form lately, there's been a lot of talk about how Resnek was more of a TAM player than a DP, and that put a having him in it. The DP tag was a flaw with
the roster. But with this form that he's in right now, he's at least making it a debate again as to whether he should have that DP status. And he's got nine assists this year, which that's pretty good outfit. I'll put from your number ten. That's a real, real good number at this point in the season, you know, just a little over halfway through. At nine assists, I'll take that every day of the week from a
guy who's a DP. All right, let's switch gears from MLS. And by the way, really quick, before we turn our attention to the rest of MLS, I'll let everybody know that Sounders FC Soccer is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. All ri let's talk about the rest of the league. And there was an interesting tweet from our friend Nico Moreno of l Polso and I believe a coworker of yours now with Sounder at
Harts as well. And you know, Nico was saying, how I know it's early, but you look at the top three in the Western Conference LAFC, Real, Salt Lake, LA Galaxy, and right now, it's hard for him to see that three changing between now and the end of the year. I disagree a bit. I think RSL looks pretty good, but they've also been racking up a ton of minutes on legs and we'll see if they
can do it through thirty four games. LAFC obviously the top, but LA Galaxy is the team for me where I'm kind of just waiting to see them kind of fall apart and fall down the table. As we look at the Western Conference, those three at the top and then kind of that next group that you were talking about a moment ago. You know, how set in stone do you think the top is or is there room for somebody to kind of, you know, bump up and enter that top group. I actually
see it pretty much how Nico sees it. I think those top three have kind of differentiated themselves. And I'm a little higher on the Galaxy than you are. I've been high on them all season. I just think they have when they're at their best, probably the best offense, the best front four in the league aside from enter Miami. When they're playing at their pace level and have everyone healthy. I mean, Giobilich is one of the more lethal
number nines in the league. And their wingers Gabrielle Peck and Joseph Paintzill I call them Joey Paints. They've been very dynamic, great signings for them, and when they get out and running, they can score with the best of them. There are questions as to their propensity for conceding goals, yes, and just their general performance on the defensive side of the ball, and that
could be their downfall. But when you have an offense that's that electric, it can paper over those defensive shortcomings, and they have been a little bit better on defense recently as well. And you look at their record ten three and seven, I think they are in that group with rsl l LANFC Ario Lillonell was our guest MLS Soccer dot Com and his podcast Lobbing Scorches. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app allrio Let's switch
gears to the Eastern Conference here for just a couple moments. A big loss, an upset loss for Cincinnati against a team that the Sounders are facing here in a couple weeks. Yeah, have looked a lot better lately. They were off to a historically bad start to this season. They looked like Wouldn't Spoon contenders. They were putting up similar underlying numbers and stats to the FC
Cincinnati teams that won three straight Wooden spoons and stuff like that. But now that they've won four straight, so they're looking a lot better under Caleb Porter, and I think they're kind of evening out to become the team that more of the team that we expected the rev to be going into this season. So it was a surprise to see FC Cincinnati dropped that game at home. But you know, they're known for playing a lot of these really tight one
goal games and they usually win those games. But you're playing with fire when you do that every single week, and I think this is a situation where it finally came back to bite them. Man Ari. We can't end tonight without of course touching base on Miami. I mean we didn't speak for so long because of all the Wednesday matches and then now one week back. I don't think we touched on everything going on with Miami and Messi and Suarez and
that whole crew. But right now they are leading right now in terms of the shield standings forty one point. I mean through twenty matches, that's the top of MLS. You know. I guess the obligatory question is are they still the leader in the clubhouse in your book? And should they be in Vegas for winning the Shield? Yeah? I still think they are. I just think their top level is pretty comfortably the best in the league when they
have all their guys. The question of course is health, and they also have Messi, Suarez and the Tis Rojas away on international duty right now, but they've managed to keep pulling results without those guys, so I think they're
showcasing some more impressive depths than people might have thought that they had. So if they can stay afloat while they're dealing with these international absences and then get everyone back from Copa America duty healthy and good to role, I really do think they're pretty comfortably the Shields favorite, and I would pick them to win pretty much any playoff game that they're in as well. Ari, great stuff, man, I love it and look forward to your podcast looking ahead to
the mess Sounders Machic in Chicago coming up this weekend. Hope all as well going with the podcast. We appreciate you doing this one here today. Appreciate it, Jackson, And yeah, real quick, on the topic of the podcast, I did want to plug that Lobbing Scorchers has a new partnership with Sounder at Heart, so we're up on their platform and their podcast network now. And if you'd like to support our show, all you have to do is go to sounder at heeart dot com slash ls and you can support us
from there and tune into the show. There you go. Good stuff, Ari, We appreciate you joining us. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks Jackson, it's good stuff there from Arilillionwall of MLS Soccer dot com, where he's a writer, editor and editor and host of the podcast Lobbing Scorchers There well. Twenty twenty five season membership deposits are on sale now for the Sounders for a limited time. Place a deposit for only fifty dollars and get
priority to select your seats for next season. Benefits include free MLS season pass pre sales, take a flexibility and more. Learn more at soundersfc dot com slash Membership. We'll say a break here in Sounders Weekly. We will come back and do something a little bit different. It's been a while since we've had these regular shows. I want to get kind of back into the habit of going around the sound which we used to do with our good friend Andrew
Harvey. But USL two is in full swing right now. That time that we update what's going on in USL two with our local club, So we'll update that, will update what's going on with Rain some big, big news there. So a lot here coming up here in Sounders Weekly on Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Sounders fc CL's sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FL. Welcome back everybody,
Jackson Feltz here Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ FM. Sounders Weekly every Wednesday at seven pm when the Sounders aren't playing. It's been a busy last couple months, but glad we're getting back into some regular shows here thanks to our guests so far this evening Paul Rothrock great to talk to him in the locker room after that dramatic Sounders three to two win over Dallas and then Ari Lillian Waller there as well. Check out the podcast Sounders Weekly where every
year podcasts including the iHeartRadio app. In case you've missed anything here tonight,
well this week here in Sounders Weekly. And something I'm gonna try to do a little bit more consistently here through the summer is going Around the sound a segment that we used to do with our good friend Andrew Harvey where we kind of go around and we update everything going on with USL two, with rain and anything else kind of just in the soccer world here locally, So listen USL two USL League to a league that was won by Ballard FC last year
has grown a ton this year to Camas Stars are now in USL League two. West Seattle Junction is a new team. We have Midlakes over on the east side, only Town as well down south in Olympia. Lots of representatives here in the Northwest of teams that are now kind of actively in regions I would say, neighborhoods that are actively in our pro soccer world, so quickly
to update what's going on there. In USL League two in their Northwest division, Ballard is currently at the top of that six wins, two losses, one draw, nineteen points. The next closest team is Tacomas Stars. They have fourteen points with a four to two and three record. West Seattle Junction also four to two and three with fourteen points, So Tacoma and West Seattle
battling for that second spot right now. By the way, I think we mentioned this weeks ago, but Roman Torres as an assistant coach there with West Seattle as well. James Riley is the head coach with Ballard, so a couple Sounders connections. Midlakes United over on the east side. They have three wins, four losses and one draw. They're at ten points, fifth place, and only Town has two wins four losses and one draw. They're at
seven points right now, down in seventh place in the Northwest Division. So that's what's going on. I right now have an eye for this Friday where Midlakes is going to be hosting Ballard. That's going to be a match over on the East side this Friday night at seven pm for Tacoma Stars. They have a match coming up hosting Midlakes this Sunday at six pm. And then to round things out here we'll get to West Seattle Junction. They are playing
tonight actually down in Olympia against Only Town. So that's what they have going on. So busy here in USL too, as all of our clubs here in the Northwest are facing each other this week. Really quick we got to switch gears in before we bring in andrews Hurst to give us an update on Copa America and Euros kind of our summer tournament correspondent really quickly wanted to touch
base on what's going on with the rain in action on the field. Should be mentioned that they played to a one to one draw against Louisville at home this last weekend. They have a match coming up this Sunday at Gotham FC rain tough go this year in the NWSL. Two wins, nine losses and three draws there all the way down in thirteenth place. Right now the top eight make the playoffs. Still long time left in this season, but lots of room and lots of time and they need to take that to get back
up the table there in the NWSL. Now off the field for RAINFC, there was some pretty big news this last week that we wanted to share. This news came official was at last Monday, so just over a week ago that, following the completion of a final purchase and sale agreement, the ownership of Seattle Sounders FC and global investment firm Carlisle have come together to invest in and operate the NWSL club Seattle RAINFC. As the press release says, so
Seattle Sounders Carlile they are the new owners here of RAINFC. The blockbuster agreement, as the press release says, will unite the top flight teams in women's and men's pro soccer here in Seattle for the first time in our town's history, is going to keep the rain firmly rooted here in the Pacific Northwest. There were some rumors when they were owned by ol group of the ten for
Rain moving. Those relocation rumors are now very much dead. The Rain are here to stay as a part of the new structure there with the Sounders FC ownership and Carlisle Adrian Hanauer. Of course, Sounder's FC owner will may be serving as the governor of Rain on the NWSL Board of Governors. And also wanted to note that the Rain's women led leadership team will be helmed by Maya Mendoza Xtrom, who have course spent about a decade with the Seattle Sounders.
So congratulations everybody and pushing that over the finish line and making it happen to have both Sounders and Rain under one umbrella here in Seattle soccer. It's pretty dawn cool, I think. And so that was that massive news last week. Quickly before we end tonight's show, I wanted to bring in our correspondent Anders Hurst. He is our summer tournament correspondent there covering everything going on with
COPA and with the Euros over in Europe. Andrews, let's quickly start with the United States men's national team here us getting a nice win to start COOPA. How would you describe what we saw this last weekend in their win over Bolivia. A pretty simple job done, you know, looked pretty competent in doing so. Politics score and Baligan scored. Two guys that you want to see on the score sheet. And I just will say it may be those
who are not as impressed as they should be. That is a game that a previous version of the US men's national team would draw zero zero or even lose one zero because they weren't able to score a goal and then they let in a late goal. So I think as at this point in time, job done. Let's see the same thing gets Panama and then the big one against Uruguay. Yeah, we're gonna have a lot to talk about next week when it comes to this segment when we talk about the US after that Igua
game. So a lot more on the US next week. I agree with exactly what you just said there. Let's step back and talk about COPA overall. Yeah, obviously I think we're seeing an Argentina team coming on. I'm obviously that's both for US. I know you're repping Argentina. You know I'm a fan as well. Yep, there's Brazil obviously, Columbia dark horse.
How do you how do you handicap this tournament? Midway through matchday two, the way it's lining up, it seems that Argentina has a pretty clear path to the final, and then the other side of the bracket, it could honestly go anywhere from the United States to Brazil to Uruguay. There's a couple other dark horses thrown in there as well, But I think if the US does its work, Brazil with a pretty shocking draw to Costa Rica the other
day, they're not looking in the prime form that they usually are. If the US gets their stuff together, they can definitely be the ones to meet Argentina. But I think it's pretty safe bet it's gonna be Argentina in the final. The only ones really standing in the way is Mexico. Wach I would not like to see. Well again, We'll talk a lot next week, next Wednesday, when the group stage is over and we have the whole
bracket, you know, set in front of us. Yep, let's talk about Euros because Euros have been wild crazy so far, just crazy or earlier today we see some even again shocking results group. He has all four teams at one one and one. There's so many things. There are so many
ways you could answer this, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Yeah, what has stood out to you through this group stage the lack of difference between the top tier teams and kind of the tier below that is kind of overall how I would put it, because there hasn't really been a pure dominant team.
I would say Germany and Spain look the best out of all of those teams, but even teams like England, who people expected to go far, they tie Slovenia yesterday, Portugal just lost to Georgia just as we speak now. There's just so many results that kind of stand out to you and be like that shouldn't be happening. And I think it's a combination of the top teams kind of falling back down to earth a little bit, and some of those lower our teams, you know, growing in stature as well. I'm
gonna pick Romania to win the thing. Yeah, let's good, let's go. I cannot believe it. I'm gonna go Austria. Austria has actually looked really good for me, winning their group over France. Yeah, I mean, this is gonna be super fun. I can't wait till next Wednesday when we get more action there in Europe. Thanks for jumping in. We're going to continue to bring you on as our summer tournament correspondent as these things go
on. That sounds great. Thanks Jackson. That's great stuff there from anders Hurst. He'll be joining us throughout these shows here throughout summer as these tournaments move forward. But that will do it for the show tonight. I want to thank all of you for listening. I want to think Paul Rothrock, want to think Ariy Lillenwall anders there. Good to bring all this to you tonight, and we will talk to you coming up. On Saturday. Sounders
will be facing the Chicago Fire at Luminfield. Get your tickets today SOUNDERSFC dot com, slash tickets, and of course we'll have our Providence Swedish premat show seven o'clock right here ninety three point three kid Air FM kickoff shortly after seven thirty on Saturday. You can also watch the match on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and listen in Spanish language on l Ray thirteen sixty one.
Final note before we end tonight's show, it's obviously being in a pack show reaction to the three to two comeback win Paul Rothrock, Ari, Lillian Wall and Anders Hirst. There as we went around the league, around the sound around the world, all those things we didn't have time to fit in
the recent news of what happened with Rall Re Diez and Knew Who. What I'm gonna do is, after this show is over, I'm gonna take a few minutes and go off and record an extra few minutes that I'll throw into the podcast version of Sounders Weekly for those who don't know Rollri Diez and Knew Who. According to head coach Brian Schmitzer, this was his decision. He said they will not be playing in this Saturday's game, so no knew Who
it left back, no role is your backup forward. I'm going to record a few more minutes about why, about their situation, about what we know about that, So more on that ahead. Check out the podcast for all of the show and for that if you missed any of it. But we'll talk to you on Saturday for the fire game and for right now. Fox Sports Radio is coming up next.