Episode description

The Sounders head into the final stretch of the season in fine position. Although they are coming off a 2-0 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Union, they beat the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 at home earlier in the week. That leaves the Sounders comfortably in fourth place and with a semi-reasonable hope of still grabbing a bye. But as long as they can win at least one of their final two homes, hosting a first-round playoff game seems like a solid bet.

If there’s a dark cloud hanging over the team right now, it’s injuries. As great as they looked in the win over the Whitecaps, their starting lineup against the Union was missing four key components and a fifth was playing with a broken arm. Clint Dempsey was merely given a rest and it looks like Roman Torres will be fine, but Osvaldo Alonso looks like he’ll be out for a bit and Cristian Roldan has a broken arm that probably won’t be fully healed until the seaosn is over.

Jeremiah and Aaron discuss all of this, while also considering how big of a deal it would be for the United States to fail to qualify for the World Cup.

This week's music: RIP Tom Petty, "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", RVIVR - “The Tide”, Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia"

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you're looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.