How many do you live from our Elliot Avenue studios of Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. This is Saunders Weekly with your host Jackson Felds. Good evening, everybody, Welcome into Saunders Weekly. Jackson Felts here, good to be with you on this Wednesday evening. This cloudy, rainy kind of fall Wednesday evening here in Seattle is it's Sounders FC time. Sounders Weekly Sports Radio
ninety three point three KJRFM. Wednesday is covering all things Rave Green. And it's just a shame that we're starting tonight show and we really don't have anything to talk about. It's not like the team's you know, unbeat in the last five it's not like they just unveiled in a completely new rebrand. And right as I say that, it's not a rebrand, it's a brand evolution. Yeah, that's a joke. Because there is a lot going on with
our Seattle Sounders, Tonight's show will be busy. I'm gonna spend the first few minutes talking about that brand evolution. I'm not gonna call it a rebrand. Gonna spend a lot time talking about the new logo and Crest and everything
that went on involved. You're gonna hear more about it from Adrian Hanour owner of the club, primary owner, as well as Taylor Graham, who is the chief marketing officer and chief revenue officer of the Sounders, as well as Cameron Collins, president of Alliance Counsel, and talking about the fan influence on what we saw yesterday and all of the new logos and crests and everything that our Sounders are just unveiled. You're also going to actually get some soccer talk
later on tonight show. Are you Lollian Wall of MLS Soccer dot Com. He's gonna be joining as we give you around the League and gay his thoughts on the brand evolution as well, not gonna call it a rebrand. Do not have Andrew Harvey on tonight show for Around the Sound, But I will tell you that to Come a Defiance begins their playoff push for MLS Next Pro. That playoff journey begins coming up this weekend, and ol Ray just a few points off of second place in NWSL, and I will quickly say congrats
to Megan Rapino for a brilliant career as well. So there's your Around the Sound in lieu of Andrew Harvey missing because he's out of town this week, but a lot coming up tonight on Sounders Weekly. For the first few minutes, let's just dive in and let's talk about this brand evolution with the Sounders because it is ridiculously special. And I was on the side by Side podcast with Brad Evans last night from MoPOP. There was a big celebration at MoPOP.
You may have seen some on social media, and in case you haven't seen any of this stuff, you haven't even seen a picture of the rebrand. Obviously Sounders FC on all social media channels. I've tried to cover the best I can at Jackson B. Felts on my Twitter account where I've been sending out a bunch of stuff. And you may have seen the big celebration last night at MoPOP, where not only the current Sounders were all in attendance,
but you had a mix of current and former Sounders players. It really was a special gathering of everybody who has really ever had a hand in this club. I mean, Pepe Fernandez was there going way back, Dave Gillett was there, I saw Peter hat Tub, Chance Fry of course, one of people on our broadcasts. I mean, listen, it really was a celebration of Sounders for all time. There was a moment where every player who has ever played for the Sounders got up on stage together, and I mean,
I just got freaking chills. It's a magical, magical moment to gather everybody who's ever donned the colors. You know, it's just what a moment that was underneath the new Crest brilliant, brilliant celebration last Night's so much fun to be there, and you know, overall, I think one thing that
came out from last night is how joyous of an occasion this is. Because this brand evolution really is a arting off the next fifty years, because next year, of course, is the fiftieth anniversary of this club, and the next fifty starts now with this new brand. And I think one of the brilliant parts about this evolution was the fact that it came so directly from the fans. You know, is you're gonna hear from Adrian han Our in our next segment. Such a large part of this, and he says a non
negotiable was making sure the fans got what they wanted. So look at it overall, and there's more than ten thousand surveys and we all got those surveys. I believe it was a couple of years ago last year where we filled out you know, what does the Sounders mean to you? What images are iconic with Sounders? And in doing all of this, I think some things were very clear. Blue and green must stay. I mean, yeah, there's enough songs about blue and green. We are the blue, we are
of the green, right, so that had to stay. The needle had to stay. The needle now is just synonymous with Sounders. Yes, it's a thing where you look back the history of Sounders crests and you go through it and you know the wave with the soccer ball on the oh that was the first one. You had the needle next to the Dome Kingdom, which
was a soccer ball. That was the next logo, and the needle that was the first appearance of it. Then you had the Orca showing up from about ninety four through two thousand and three, so there's Sammy's showing up. They go back to that kind of wave logo there and the usl vays and then with the birth of MLS, we got the return of the needle there with our crest and mls that the team will continue to wear by the way for the rest of this two twenty three season. So the needle returns.
So the needle is synonymous with Sounders and it was voted on so in many of these surveys, fans spoke up and said, it is the needle, So the needle is retained. And then also, of course the name gotta
keep Sounders. I don't think that was ever going to change. So all of these things added up together to get what we got yesterday with the brand evolution, and you know, the surveys and the hundreds of hours and all of the conversations, you know, whether it was the one on one interviews, whether it was the focus groups, whether it was the roundtables, all of these hundreds of hours go together to make sure everybody has their voices heard
in all these different types of groups. Because it included season ticket members, Alliance council members, supporters, fans, general Seattle sports fans, team members, coaches, players, the list goes on and on. Everybody was asked about their thoughts on you know, what is the Sounders brand, and it came out into what we saw and a brilliant new crest that I'm wearing on a sweatshirt right now. I mean, you look at the green. It's
a slightly different shade of rave green. And Taylor Graham will talk about it in the next segment as well. You have the Pacific blue and then the hair to Jaquay. I absolutely love. So there's the new color palette. But then on this crest you retain the needle, you modernize the needle. I think that's brilliant, and then you kind of simplify and I think the very very simple look where the colors are very interchangeable, where you can see
the logo being done in a number of different ways. You can check out all my tweets again Twitter Jackson B Felts for all the different variations where you can interchange these colors inside of the logo and there's no name sounders on the primary crest. I love that decision. You're able to use it in such different ways. Unlike you know, listen to the current crest. The old crest is nice, but you couldn't use it in that many different ways.
This you can use in so many different ways. So I love this primary crest. You're keeping the needle, you're essentially keeping the colors adding a new third color, kind of like the Seahawks use their green with the Hawks eye.
I love that. But then it's the tertiary logos and also the word mark that they use, where the word mark is essentially the same thing we've seen from previous Sounders logos, but then slightly the changed font and the curvature with the wave and Sounders goes from the first s to the last s. But then it's the tertiary logos and the return of the Orca, the return of Sammy in a new design from what we saw with the previous Orca logo
there in the nineties and early two thousands, they had this great you know, you know, I guess you'd call it a graphic in the release video that the Sounders put out on their social media yesterday, where the old logo, the old Whale and the logo from the nineties. He heads the ball to the new whale and the new Orca who then catches it on his tail. And is this beautiful animation from one logo to the current logo, from
one Orca to the new Orca with the soccer ball. That might be my favorite part of this entire brand evolution is just that you know, two second animation of one ball going from one orca to another, just brilliant. But
the carnation is sensational if you don't know the story. The final home game of every regular season, Sounders players have white carnation flowers and they go around the stands and give the white carnation flowers to the fans, And it really is this carnation signifies the connection between the players and the fans, and it always has this goes back, you know, all the way decades and having the carnation is a logo will make I think this story in this element a
lot more prominent in club history and a lot more prominent now with this brand, that the carnation really represents that connection between the players and the fans. I think it's just beautiful. Couple pieces of gear I got already have the carnation out. I think it's just a really beautiful touch that they included this.
And now we have carnations versus Roses whenever we face Portland. So I thought that was magnificent, and then the seventy four and I'll quickly mention that I don't think there's a club in MLS and you look at it by the color s, even by the logos and everything else, but specifically the seventy four. There's not a club in NLS that so directly connects their history to
their future. And by including the nineteen seventy four on the primary crest and by including the seventy four as one of the tertiary logos, it's so directly says we have five decades of history, we are recognizing that, and we are embracing our history of fifty years. I love seeing the seventy four.
I love the recognition of the seventy four. I think it's a brilliant job by everybody involved to include the seventy four so prominently, so overall, with all of the logos we got, with all of the Rand Revolution we got, I think it's just an exceptional job by everybody involved in terms of who was involved. Why don't we hear from them, Adrian Hannauer, Taylor Graham,
Cameron Collins, Let's hear about their thoughts on the logo. It's a fun time to be a Sounder fan with this evolution, we hear from all of them. Next on Sounders Weekly Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for Saunders FC, Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point three kjr FM. Welcome back, Jackson Fells here Sounders Weekly
KJR. Good to have you with us, and thanks to those of you who spent that first sevent there with us, just giving you the overall initial thoughts there on the Sounders brand Evolutionist. We're gonna call it the new crests and logos and color palette and everything like that. In case you missed that, check out the podcast. But I love it and I absolutely have already spent a large amount of money on gear. Back to the pro shop again this morning too to get a couple of new sizes of things. This and
this is some amazing, amazing stuff at the club put together. But you've heard my thoughts. It's down time for the thoughts of the people who were really involved in making this happen. As I told you in the previous segment, three key members that were a part of the entire group and organization and community and the many thousands of people who went into this process, and three
people who were key to that were Adrian Hannaur owner of the Sounders. As you can probably guess, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief revenue Officer Taylor Graham with the Sounders, who obviously had such an enormous hand last night at the big celebration at MoPOP, Taylor got shouted out by pretty much everybody who took the stage for his amazing work to make this new logo and brand come to fruition. And then Cameron Collins, so who you may remember, he's been on
the show a number of times. Alliance Council President, And in case you don't know, Alliance Counsel is the organization, the group that essentially covers all season ticket holders so that season ticket holders for the Sounders have a voice, and that is Alliance Counsel. And Cameron Collins is the president of Alliance Counsel. An Alliance Council had a large hand in, you know, making sure that the voices of people were heard and making sure and having a hand in
speaking and saying certain things. And Cameron had a large voice and pushing for the Orca which he was very very happy the return of Sammy there on one of those tertiary crests the logos, I should say, so, you're gonna
hear from Adrian Hannaur, Taylor Graham, and Cameron Collins. Coming up, I'll tell you that Sounders FC and Boeing are teaming up to support the Washington Youth Soccer Community Corner on match days this season, Jordy's in stadium as a welcome Washington youth soccer players and coaches to cheer on the Rave Green courtesy of Bowing. All right, without further Ado, let's hear from some of the really important voices involved with this rebrand. Shouldn't say rebrand. It's the second
time I've done that brand evolution here for your Sounders. We'll start with the owner, Adrian Hannaur. Adrian was walking and talking to a lot of people and our sideline reporter here for KJR for Sounders Broadcast, Michelle Ludka. Michelle and I had the chance to catch up with Adrian Hannaur talking about the brand evolution. We're just sort of guiding it along for for what our fans and people in the community want. So that was the hope in the process.
You know, we feel like we got it right. Not everybody's gonna love it, but but that's the way it goes. But but again, I'm just super proud of the team for the process we've put in, and I'm proud of our fans for showing up and you know, doing their part to help guide us. Do you have a favorite part of how it's all comes together in terms of what it looks like? Colors? You know, look, I love I'm a color guy. I love the colors that uh,
and and all the different uses, all the different combinations. It's just so flexible. Uh. And I love the way the shield looks on the kits. Uh. Some you know, I've been able to see some things that maybe aren't quite out there in the public yet. And it's uh, it's pretty hot. It's pretty cool. Celebrating fifty years next year. As you look to the future, what is your hold for this club for the next
fifty years? Winning a bunch of championships? You know, I always I always talk about we want we want to challenge for championships and we want to make a massive impact in our community. Those are the you know, those are the two key pieces to the puzzle. We talk about our our mission, which is to create moments and rich lives and unify through soccer. We try to you know, try to make every decision with that you know, with that lens in place. But we do we have you know again and
specific you know, specific things that that are ahead of us. Really soon. We're opening up our amazing training facility. We've got the twenty twenty five Club World Cup, which you know, super excited about obviously hosting the World Cup if you're well acquainted to it. Uh and uh. I just I think the future is super bright for the sound in our league and our sport
Adrian. This was a concerted effort. It definitely shows to unify this logo through the history of this organization and the different logos we've seen over the decades. You talk about just that element of connecting this club over the years through this logo the logos that we've seen today. Yeah, well look, I
mean I think you have to go back in history a little bit. When we launched the team in two thousand and seven, you know, I think MLS the league wasn't quite sure what to make of the history of the NSL and former former iterations and so you know, they didn't dictate anything, but we sort of got signals that maybe it was it was time to move on and chart a new course. Our fans quickly told us that that was a bad idea, but we still I think in the original crest we kind of
left that history behind. Uh. And now again fifty years later, and by the way, it was about four years ago that we started having conversations about whether it was time to recapture that history. And so uh, you know, today I think you see the culmination of that, which is you know, again trying to pull in all the decades of Sounders history and and
uh, it's hard, hard work. And again I'm super proud of the team for what they what they came up with, the ten thousand surveys, the hundreds of hours, How how important was it to get the fan perspective on all of this rebrand. It was a non negotiable. It was absolutely uh, you know, paramount to what we were doing. Uh. We want this shield. We want this uh representation to be of our fans, of our community, not necessarily for them, and you know, to them.
We absolutely wanted our fans and and and stakeholders, staff players, corporate partners, uh, influential sort of taste makers, art art, you know, people in the art scene locally to have their say, and uh, you know again that I think the result is the culmination of all that work. Adrian, congratulations on a great launch. Thank you. That's Adrian Hannaur,
Sounders FC owner. Good thoughts there on. I love what he was saying about how important it was to make sure the fans had that voice, and you just love hearing that from him, and how it was a non negotiable and how we had to have you know, exactly what the fans wanted and overwhelmingly and the fans wanted the needle, the fans wanted the blue and
green, and the fans wanted Sounders. And yeah, that's why it's kind of a brand evolution instead of a rebrand, because we kept the blue and green, we kept the needle, we kept the name, so it really kind of just is an evolving of the crest. Essentially. From Adrian Hannaur, we move forward and hear from the Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Taylor Graham, former player with the Sounders, of course, who had a large hand in this entire brand evolution, including the new color scheme,
which I asked him about. But listen, I'd mentioned his titles there. Chief Marketing Officer and Chief revenue Officer Taylor Graham wants to be known as some other thing. Colmas hocker Ner. That is what my family calls me, and so I've been called worse also, Chief of Marketing, Chief of revenue, new logo. Let's start there and just initial thoughts on what the product turned into and what we all saw here today look changes really hard, and
today we unveiled the club unveiled a new primary logo. But it's more than just a primary logo. It was a full brand identity system. And what I hope everyone knows that the reason the club did this is because we want This is a club that's rooted in our history and heritage, born in nineteen seventy four, and the way that we are going to grow is by creating pathways and opportunities for multiple audiences to come and be a part of this.
And that has to be done by more than just a primary logo. For a club with as rich of a history as a Sounders, it felt like we needed a brand identity system that was representative of fault, all four errors of the club. And that's what today was is giving sidelines to where we're going in twenty four and why we're excited for the future ahead. You mentioned the multiple audiences and that's one thing that stuck out to me was you have
the car nations. That stuck out I think too. Obviously fans now no end of the season, how big of a thing the carnations are. Older fans certainly know because it's been such a storied part of the club. But then you have the Orca, right, and that's going to connect to a large range of different people. So the importance of connecting to all the different
generations Sounder Fronts seems like that was a big important point. Yeah, there's a story in there and there's something for everybody, and whether you understand the story behind it or not, or just to respond to how it looks and feels, that's that's an entry point for the club to be able to engage From day one. I've always felt a sense of belonging with this club, and for me that started with soccer. For others it's rooted in sport.
For others it's because this is a club that represents the community they call home. So regardless of what your wise or what you're a driver, we want to invite more people in to grow with us. We're a forty nine year old challenger brand in a challenger sport in a challenger market, and we're we're
really excited about some growth ahead. But today, as step one of a multiple, multiple year growth process for for the organization, for the sport, you're with Taylogram and one of the things that astounded me, and I'm going to be mentioning it, you know, just on end for the next few months, is the fact that more than ten thousand surveys, as they said, hundreds of hours of different conversations, you know, talk about that process
of making sure that that fans had a large voice in this. Yeah, from day one, Adrian said, if we're going to do this, it's not what you think it is, Taylor, or what the club thinks it is. It's what our community says it is. Because that's what this club has always been. It's been rude in the community and so I honestly can't
believe that either one or multi multiple marks didn't leak. And to me, that's reflective of the fact that we've socialized and shown this to thousands of people and it's not something that they saw, it's something that they felt that they built, and so it comes with a sense of pride, and it comes with a sense of responsibility. I woke up this morning feeling a sense of responsibility not to get this wrong and the club not to get this wrong.
And the fact that our fan base felt that same sense of pride is indicative of what this club is aspiring to be. The new logos and obviously the Orca returning and the carnation and all that, it's great. But then the changing the colors, that's one thing that you could have just continued on with the Rave green and the blue and the colors we've been seeing for the last
decade. Why the slight color shift? It was super interesting. So when we talk to fans and we said what are the colors of this club? Was unanimous it was Rave green and Pacific blue. But what we said and when we said, well, what does that mean to you? It started with an energy, It started with a spirit. It didn't start with a specific tone or color. But when we when we led to conversations about what colors represent Rave green and Pacific blue, there was some concern that the colors
that we had lacked accessibility. It was something that someone would wear to the match, but want to take off before they went to restaurant with their fan afterwards. As we try to grow and have our brand be more accessible, we did a lot of color serving to make sure that our club colors are still representative of the spirit and the energy of what this is the Rave Green and Pacific blue to pull in a new color. Our heritage that is that
is behind us in our badge. It's what sets us apart and a lot of the nineties just almost straight from that. It's got this throwback feel for it that just feels good to me. And at the end of the day, this is what responded with the fan base and so it feels very familiar. But there's some slight modifications intended to solve some of the challenges our fans of community have felt well. It worked with me. Spent more than two hundred dollars this morning, So thank you for the great work. I'm sure
the fans thank you as well. I appreciate it. And for those who participated, they are the ones who drove this. This is their club and I participated just like them because I'm, at the end of the day, a fan like they are, an a four player thank you, and a sucker Nerd. Yeah, Sucker Nerd. It's great stuff there from Taylor Graham. I really kind of love the new hair to Joqua color. That's what I'm maybe one of my favorite parts of this whole brand evolution because it's a
color that the team had. You know, basically it's a one for one from ninety four through zero three. The logo with the Yorka it's kind of that teel awkwa color. I love it, and you're seeing that as a big focal point with this brand evolution. And just hearing him talk about that and this kind of new color pod, it's it's just wonderful. Some great stuff there from Taylor Graham. Finally, let's hear from the fans side of
this and the input the fans had. Cameron Collins, president of Alliance Counsel, which of course represents all season ticket holders. If you are a season ticket holder, you're part of the Alliance and Cameron is the president. And Cameron and I caught up last night at MoPOP and we talked about the involvement of Alliance Counsel, the involvement of season ticket holders and fans in the brand evolution. Here's Cameron where he and I first talked about just his initial reaction
off of the new crest. It was super exciting to see it come out and come to fruition. You know, this process started so long ago, and luckily the Alliance Council had had a hand throughout that process, and it's been hard to keep it quiet considering I think it was in May of last year, right before the Champions League Final that we kind of got a preview of what was to come. And so to have it come out and get to celebrate the next fifty too, I'd say a hundred years for the Sounders.
I mean, this is that's how big. This is so uh, super exciting, you know. I think it's been largely positive response and I'm really happy about that. There's so many things to follow up on. Let's quickly start with the thing you mentioned about how a lot of people have seen this for a long time. Taylor Graham mentioned as well, this was a thing that has been going or the logo has been going around a lot of circles. The fact that it didn't leak at all this morning at ten am,
everybody saw it for the first time. It wasn't on Reddit, it wasn't on Twitter. It wasn't in some back room stock room picture of some piece of gear. That's an amazing feat in of itself. Yeah, I think it goes. It shows that the love of the Sounders and the people who are evolved in the process. H and also maybe a strong nda make
sure that you don't say anything coming from a lawyer. Yeah. But but but also I think, uh, you know, you may have mentioned this on Twitter, I believe, but sometimes the leaks come from the sellers putting stuff online too early and stuff like that. And I think the Sounders did this roll out in a way that would prevent that. And it was awesome to be there as the pro Shop open this morning and just see everything out there. And that was feeing very fun at the pro Shop. Rice,
but too much. My wife is not going to be happy with me spending. But let's continue. Cameron. You mentioned how Alliance Council has had a hand in this for a long time, and take us through that timeline a little bit of when not only Alliance Council, but when fans started to be part of this and the voices that all went into this process to making sure
that this logo and these logos, I should say not even this. These logos were a culmination of what the fans wanted rather than what maybe marketing folks wanted. Absolutely, you know, they decided that they wanted to see if we should even have an update of the old logo. And that kind of process was driven by the fans and by sports fans as well, that in Seattle and beyond, not uh Sounders fans, But they started with Sounders fans, and they started with focus groups, and every one of those had one
to two Alliance Council members in it. Uh, you know, we we had I think I was in Texas the first time I heard about this, and uh it was I was super excited and got to come back. And then I was out shooting a documentary. I wasn't living there or anything, but I got to come back and uh, you know be a part of these these groups. And you really got to see that they were very thoughtful about this process and made sure to ask all the questions and and the fans
spoke, right. I mean we we talked about it last year at the annual business meeting. Where they who they went to and why they went to those folks and you know, overwhelmingly, whether they were Sounders fans, Seattle sports fans in general, or outside of that group, but just were sports fans. The space needle was a major part of the Sounders and what it means to be a sports team in Seattle, and that's why you still see that a major part of our logo. Let's wrap it up with this.
There's six total logos, from the primary to the woodmark to the tertiary logos. You can only have one, which is an impossible and ridiculous question, but you can only have one. You're wearing the greenhow with the yorca on your head, you can only have one of the six? What are you
going with? Oh? I'm going with the Orca all the way. I mean, if you had seen me in the meetings were on We're on zoom with the Sounders, and every time Taylor Graham brings it up, I start cheering and be like, get take my money, give me one now. Yeah. So it's it's a it was a fantastic I mean, I you know, I grew up in the eighties and nineties and so I was actually it's come a Stars fan first, and then once the Sounders came back, you know, late nineties in high school, I was going to games with
Sammy the Orca and with the Orca logo. So for me, it's a throwback to my childhood and growing up here in Seattle, and so definitely the Orca. And plus you know, he's hitting a little ball at all the yachts, sinking them like like the Orcans are doing in real life. So that's that's super fun as well well that sustainability, right, we're making sure the oceans are safe, right, Yeah, that's that's what the Orcas do
you know it. Scrap stuff there from Cameron Collins, President of Alliance Counsel. Cool to hear how much of an involvement the fans had here in making this brand evolution in reality and the colors and the locos and the Orcas you can tell, he was so happy about that as everything else. So wonderful stuff there from Cameron Collins. Before we take a break and move on and finally talk some actual on field soccer, I'll tell you that Sounders FC soccer
is presented by Providence, Swedish official healthcare partner of Sounders FC. Well, why don't we shift gears and why don't we actually talk some soccer ball on field. We've spent pretty much the entire first forty minutes of this show pretty much just talking about what happened there yesterday with the new crest and logos and everything. Why don't we actually talk about the team that's unbeaten in their last
five Ari Leuenwall MLS Soccer dot Com. He will join as Yes, I will ask him his thoughts on the logo, but we're gonna talk a lot of Sounders soccer because this is a team coming off and win against Colorado on the road again here against Nashville this week. We'll talk all about it next with Ari Leunwall. Sports Radio ninety three point three KJRFM. Now back to Sounders Weekly on your home for sunders FC, Seattle's Sports Radio ninety three point
three kjr FM. Welcome back Sounders Weekly, Jackson Felts KJR. Good to have you with us. It's a rainy day outside, but it's all sunshine here on Sounders Weekly as they're celebrating the Sounders new crest and brand evolution that
rolled out yesterday with all the logos and everything. It's been fun hearing from Adrian Hannaur Taylor Graham Cameron Collins giving you my thoughts as well, and we are once again going to get another thought from r Luenwall of MLS Soccer dot Com coming up in just a moment before we take a trip around the league. Before we do, I'll tell you that Sounder Fans, bud Light was
brewede to be a delicious and easy to drink beer. But like easy to drink, easy to enjoy, pick up bud Light at your local retailer today. Please enjoy responsibly joining us right now as he always does. Is the host of Lobbing Scorchers, the writer for MLAs Soccer dot com. Ari Lillian Wall Ari, good evening, my friend, How and where are you? I'm great Jackson. I'm coming to you from Eugene, Oregon, where my
parents were making the move from Santa Fe, New Mexico. So coming off a very lengthy twenty two hour road trip and stand here for a few Oh so yeah, I'm doing it. Hold on, hold on twenty two hour road trip. I hope you at least got a couple of stops in stop along the West coast or anything. Alternating with my sister, we did not. I mean, we stopped for gas but that was about it. We did it great shot because we had three cats, a corgy and a tortoise
with us. So what's really stopped? We just we just turned it out. Man. Once, I'm sorry you just said three cats, a cory, and a turtle. Yeah, my parents have a lot of pets. So twenty two hours straight driving alternating the drivers with five pets on board. I can imagine what you were like after you stepped out of the car in Eugene, Oregon. Yeah, probably the most the leaving moment of my life.
Well, I knew that you were weren't in town, you weren't at the event yesterday at MOPAP, but I didn't know you had just went through all that. Well, I hope you're able to relax and get a breather in before making your way back to Seattle. But my god, to be a fly on the wall of that car for that twenty two hour trip, my god. All right, alot, let's dig into some other stuff, my friend. Listen, before we dig into the actual soccer stuff. I
just initially gotta get your take. Is somebody who's seen a lot of rebrands New England, Chicago in MLS over the years, Seattle with their own and their new crest. What were your impressions of the whole brand evolution that the Sounders rolled out yesterday. I think it's great. Actually, I think it was time. You know. I know, the old crest and the old branding had sentimental value, but I think over time you get too points where
stuff like this is necessary. And I thought it was executed really well in the sense that I think something that's gone wrong with some rebrands in past years, like the Chicago Fires, they didn't really consult the sand base in any extensive way beforehand, and that's kind of when you get off track. So it seems like everything they did was in line with what people wanted them to do, and you know, keeping the space needle it's a part of it.
I support that. I think that's an obvious, iconic thing to pay homage to nineteen seventy four. I really got no complaints about it. I thought it was rolled out well and I like to look at everything. All right. Sorry, we actually get to sock some soccer now. Sounders unbeaten in their last five, coming off of the win against Colorado last Wednesday, And I'll tell folks, if you want more on what happened against Colorado. You can go check out that podcast st After Tight Show from last week.
But listen, man, I think that this team is finally turning the corner. Christian rolled on back, Rovalry Diaz back in full training. Let's just get your overall thoughts comparing it to the rest of MLS. You know, do you think that the Sounders now are back and back for good? You know, as long as there's no more injuries, but back for good, you know, to the classic Seattle team in the stretch run that we've seen so many time and time again over the last decade. Well, I think
it's definitely been a lot better over these last five games. You can certainly say that I thought the win in Austin was really good. The result in Dallas was a pretty good result too, if you consider how much they've historically struggled there. And the win at Colorado is the one that really interested me because I thought you saw them roll out the lineup that I think there's some questions to be had as to win there. That's their best starting eleven,
even with Nico Videro and Rabul really did is healthy? You know, that's debatable but it's definitely that was a game that got me thinking about that. But I think you hit it right with Christian coming back. You can just see the difference that it makes. We've been talking all season about, you know, how necessary that would be for this team to get back to full capacity. So I don't know if I'm ready to call them fully back back yet. They still have to They still has to stacks and points down the
stretch here and solidify that playoff positioning. But I've certainly been encouraged by what I've seen these last five games, with how log jams West is and no one really stepping forward to take the mantle in the conference. It's all right there for them for the taking if they can get in a good run of form here. Absolutely so. And that's why Nashville, which we'll talk about in a few moments, the game coming up this Saturday, is so important.
Ari, you mentioned a couple of seconds ago how that might be the Sounders best starting eleven, and he said it's debatable, And you know, we even went back and forth on our group thread and kind of bring that to the air. I think it is an interesting debate because I think you know, you have Jordan up to Leo on the left, Albert in the middle, Rolled on the right. I think I would agree with you that those are the four. I think it's completely undebatable what the best back for
is. You won't see Knew who he's on yellow card accumulation suspension this coming Saturday, but he at the left back, Alex Roldan at right back, Yamar Jackson center back, and Fry and goal. It's those two holding midfielders, and specifically who sits next to Joel Paulo. Some would say josh at Tensio, who started in the Colorado game, is the better option. I would still like to see Obed, you know, get that run consistently with the other team lineup. So I suppose the question of Obed versus JP,
and then you know, also I suppose Nicholas Ladero. Some people would say has a shout for that spot as well, but specifically in that spot, because that really is I think the one spot that is up for debate. Who would you go with of those three guys and why? I really like what I've seen from Josh at Tensio this year. Okay, I mean I think you can you can make the argument for Obed there, and I don't think you would be wrong, But from what I've seen this year, Josh
at Tencio was playing really, really well before he got injured. He scored a great goal, so we got on the statue. I know neither of them are going to really be doing that all that often, but that's something that he did do. And I felt like him getting kind of squeezed out of the rotation after the injury. I would have liked to see him get more minutes in that stretch. I thought he earned that. And then I think since he's been back in the rotation, the offense has functioned at a
higher level with him back there. Then when it's been JP and Obit as the pairing back there. There's definitely debates both ways, and it's definitely not a knock on Obt. I think Obed has played well this year, but as far as the overall functionality of the team, I think it's functioned at a higher level with Josh back there. That's just me. There's definitely opinions
both ways on that. But I think if you go back to earlier in the season with how Josh A Tensio played too, it all adds up to he's he's played well, he's been in good form, and I think he earned more minutes. That's my that's my take on it. I don't think it's a bad take at all. High I mean, I think that there's absolute validity to every word you said. And Josh Atensio is playing really well,
you know, since he's kind of made this recent run. I just I love what Obed brings and in getting up the field and finding that pocket on the right. We saw him get an assist in the Poland match when he has that skill, and I just I like that added element of offensive prowess and finding those pockets that Ohbed can deliver. But I think that listen, I think that you're absolutely right, and both opinions and both players have
validity. So then listen, I think that's a debate and then a conversation that Brian Schmitzer and the coaching staff we will also have here in the future. But Ari, let's move on here and talk about our sharp vision opponent, Alec Sounders, heading to Nashville coming up this coming Saturday. It's gonna be a five o'clock pregame, five thirty kickoff over on nine fifty KJR AM Providence, Swedish pre match show at five o'clock. You know, so watch
the match via MLS season Pass on the Apple TV app. Ari Nashville is a team. They're in the Eastern Conference now, they are in the playoff picture right now. We know they have some spectacular players. But listen, man, what are your impressions of this national team, the danger that they can cause and what they've done this year. Nationalist see is a good team. They're really solid on defense. They're hard to break down. But the
story with them is they're pretty one dimensional as far as in attack. They're kind of Handy Mutar or bus. They run everything they do through him. He's one of the best players in the league, one of the most talented players in the league. Puts up some of the best stats in the league. Has been in the MVP conversation every year since he's been in the league. But you know, if you can if you're able to neutralize or curb his impact on the game at all, it's a team that you can take
points off of. They're hard to score on. But if you can diminish Handy's influence on the game at all, you know they play a lot of one ones, two twos zero zero's those type of games because they haven't really
been able to give Haney the support that he needs around him. They signed Sam Sturrige, who is a pretty highly rated number nine signing earlier this year, who was supposed to help with that, and it has helped with that in a certain situation, but they haven't really got that going to a capacity where they're all of a sudden, you know, one of these teams in the league that's scoring three or four goals again, so they're a team that you can get at if you can slow Haney down, which is a lot
easier said and done. Is the problem. I mean, he can he can take over a game all by himself. So Seattle's gonna have to stop him from doing that. And it's gonna be tough to do on the road too, because Geodas Park, where they play in Nashville, is a really Rabbi stadium. It's one of the tougher places to play in the league, and they're really good at home and they play a lot better in attack at home. They feed off their crowd. They're eight two and three, so
it's one of the harder road games you have in the league. But as far as Nashville as a team, you know, I see them as handy guitar bust so if you can slow him down, you have a chance.
Well, they've been playing a lot of games recently and moving forward. I mean they have four games between September twentieth Wednesday and then October fourth Wednesday, So in the span of like two weeks they have you know, four games essentially in the Sounders or the third of those four they have there been play Net Orlando City at home this coming or I should say a week from tonight on that Wednesday, and they play on Saturday in San Jose to a one
one draw. So you look in Nashville right now, and you know, hopefully the Sounders can potentially catch them on this you know spring where it's just you know, they are, they're a little bit worn out from all of these games, but we'll see what happens. We're excited to take the entire broadcast out there. So I'm excited to see that stadium there in Nashville. It should be a very very fun time and really raucous crowd from from everything
I've seen already. Unfortunately, when we're running out of time. I think we've run out of time now. I got to actually take a break. I would love to ask you about what's going on in the Open Cup tonight between Miami and Houston. There. I just don't think we have time to hit it before we have to end the show tonight. So tell you what. Next week show, we'll talk all about that Open Cup final between Houston and Miami. We'll continue MESSI Watchcott. I can't remember the last time we
did an episode in an interview here and we didn't even mention MESSI. But we'll cover that all next week. Buddy, great thoughts on everything, including the Nashville game coming up, and we'll talk to you next week. I have a good one, so I was good. Thanks Jackson, ari Leenwall, MLS soccer dot com and the podcast Lobbing Scorchers. Make sure to check out Lobbing Scorchers wherever you find your podcasts. Wonderful to have Ari on the show. And again, yeah, we'll check out and cover the Open Cup
on next week's program. But yeah, as we mentioned, excited to be going to Nashville. The entire broadcast crew is Pete viewing Danny Jackson and I are flying out together on Friday, headed there for the game on Saturday. Very very excited for that and the wonderful environment that down to I can say the alcohol and the bourbon and the whiskey and the barbecue and the Nashville Hot Chicken, and I mean I was told we're gonna do some line dancing.
I'm not sure if I'm fully agreeable on that. Were are my agreeable? Keiley on the karaoke But listen, we're gonna have a good time out there. So Friday will be fun and in the game. They're on Saturday. Sounders at Nashville, by the way, you know, are great thoughts. They're on Nashville. I mentioned that tonight's opponent, Alec, was presented by Sharp Vision, Modern Lasic and Lens, the official Lasic provider of Sounders FC. But one more time, really quick, that game coming up. It
is Sounders at Nashville. It's Pacific time. Going to be a five o'clock Providence, Swedish prematch show and five thirty kickoff. You can listen to the match on Sports Radio nine fifty KGr AM and of course you can watch the match via MLS Season Pass on Apple DV so we'll talk to you on Saturday from Nashville, Tennessee for that match. It'll be awesome to be there.
But thank you all for listening tonight. Make sure you check out the podcast in case you missed anything tonight, including Adrian han Hour, Taylor Graham, Cameron Collins and Ari Lenel right there. It's been fantastic to you know, a talk about the Sounders and actually get some soccer talk in there, but also really celebrate the brand evolution, talking about out the new crest, the new tertiary logos, and the wonderful new redesign. All the gear right now,
A bunch of gear, I should say, is on sale. You can head down to the Sounders FC Pro shop right there at lumin Field, really really cool gear. That listening if you're headed to the game next Wednesday for that match as well. It's just an outstanding selection and I spent a good couple hundred bucks. But listen, I just love the new crest,
I love the gear. I think the club absolutely nailed it, and you as all fans, well done speaking up and well done in the club taking the fan input and making sure everybody got their voice heard and happy with the result. I think it's just sensational. So that'll do it for the program tonight. We will talk to you this coming Saturday from Nashville, Tennessee,
five pm pre match over on nine fifty KJR. For sounders in Nashville, we'll talk to you then, but for right here and right now, Fox Sports Radio is coming up next