Nos Audietis

With the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers set to meet in the U.S. Open Cup for the first time since the game we've dubbed "The Red Card Wedding," now seems as good a time as any to share a project we've been working on in conjunction with Soccer Made In Portland.  This is only a teaser trailer, but it we're hoping to release the full thing within the next couple weeks. For now, though, we've got interviews with Ross Fletcher, Brad Evans, Lamar Neagle, Andy Rose, Nat Borchers and Jack Jewsbury in the can. They had some wonderful perspectives on the proceedings of that fateful night. For now, here's a taste of what's to come. Music credit: The Rains of Castamere

A lot has happened in the two weeks since we last record. The Sounders have played three!!!! games, going 2-1-0, have lost a bunch of players to international duty and are apparently about to lose another. To help us unpack all of this stuff, we brought on friend of the show Richard Farley. He shares some thoughts on what he sees as Brian Schmetzer’s tendency to over-indulge the multi-faceted tools at his disposal and gives us some insight on what kind of team the Portland Timbers are likely to field for Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup match. Of course, we also take a bunch of your questions. This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, 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. Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!

It wasn't the dominant victory our emotions so desired, but those were some very important three points the Seattle Sounders just claimed. There’s an even bigger match with significantly bigger stakes on Saturday, but for now we can at least breathe a little bit easier. In addition to discussing the game and doing a short preview of the Timbers match, Jeremiah sat down with Washington state teach of the year, ECS member and all-around interesting guy Nate Bowling. Of course, we also answer some of your questions.   This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, 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.

We've been pretty good about sticking to an every-other-week schedule. But after the Seattle Sounders dropped an ugly 4-1 decision to the Chicago Fire on Saturday, we felt it was better to do a quickie and get that out of our system. There’s no sugarcoating the situation the Sounders find themselves in, 10 points in 10 games simply isn’t good enough. But upon rewatching, this game was more frustrating than deflating. There were so many big calls that could have change the game that went against the Sounders and some actual quality play from the boys in Rave Green up until the third Fire goal. Still, the Sounders find themselves needing a result badly on Wednesday against Sporting KC. Maybe this will get them there.   This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, 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. Music used in the sponsor reads: LASERS - "Amsterdam" Want to hear the music from the show in their glorious, full versions? Check out the Nos Audietis playlist on Spotify!

Just writing these words feels totally wrong: The Seattle Sounders are off to their worst-ever start. Yes, that means worse than 2010, 2011 and even 2016. It’s not that the Sounders have played bad, per se, but the results simply haven’t been there. We tried to make sense of this start, discussed the recent news surrounding S2 and interviewed Will Bruin (who apparently lives in Ballard!). Enjoy. This week's music: "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.

We here at Nos Audietis take a fair amount of pride in a measured, reasonable approach. We know that one game does not a season make and that one performance does not define a player or team. We're well aware of the importance of sample-size, which is a recurring talking point in this week's show. That said, it's hard not to be encouraged by the Sounders' 3-0 takedown of the LA Galaxy, a team that might not be what it once was but one that still has the kind of talent that should keep it from being embarrassed like that at home. Once again, FourFourTwo's Richard Farley joins us to help sort through the mess. We also talk about the Seattle Reign's 5-1 win over the Houston Dynamo, Leo Messi, Darlington Nagbe and everyone's favorite MLS owner-coach combination.   This week's music: "Star Blazers Theme", Perry Como - "Seattle", Hounds of the Wild Hunt - “Ragged All Week”, 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.

We're now five games into the 2017 season and the Seattle Sounders' offense still hasn't hit its stride. Sure, there was a three-goal outburst against the New York Red Bulls, but after a pair of ties in which the Sounders only scored one goal, it's fair to at least ask if there aren't more systematic problems. With FourFourTwo's Richard Farley joining us, we decided that the struggles aren't anything worth losing sleep over quite yet. After solving all the Sounders' problems, we moved on to some more general soccer talk including the 2026 World Cup bid and various Champions League goings on. 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.

It’s been an interesting couple weeks to be a Seattle Sounders fan. The Sounders, of course, won their first game of the year, a confidence-building win over the New York Red Bulls. The goals from Clint Dempsey, Jordan Morris and Harry Shipp all doing their part to aid in the good feelings. The game also featured standout performances from Joevin Jones, Cristian Roldan and even Gustav Svensson, who’s proving himself to be a regular Swedish Army Knife. But then Dempsey went on the international stage and bagged himself a hat trick. That doesn’t do much for the Sounders directly, but it sure is nice knowing that the Designated Player appears to be back to his old self. Speaking of Svensson, we also got to interview him. He’s got some great stories about playing in Crimea at the time of the Russian invasion and apparently even played a game in Turkey in front of a 45,000-strong crowd of all women. Definitely worth a listen.

This wasn’t quite the start of the season we had hoped for, but one point from a tough two-game road trip isn’t the worst-case either. Aside from the first 45 minutes in Houston, the Sounders actually played pretty well. Sure, their advantage in xGA could be chalked up to playing from behind for a good deal of the time, but the offense looks reasonably potent and if they can regain the defensive form they had during last year’s playoffs ... well, this could be another fun year. The guys sort through all of that and then have Richard Farley back to discuss some of the goings on around the league. Among the topics of discussion are the beef between Alejandro Bedoya and Jozy Altidore; the Twitter spat between the Timbers and Galaxy; and whether or not the seemingly shrinking reliance on American players in MLS.

We're now just a days away from the Seattle Sounders' first game as defending MLS Cup champions. Has a pretty nice ring to it, right? Well, we figured we better get the band together for a season preview, inviting Richard Farley onto the show to give us another perspective on the Sounders as well as the rest of the competition. We all seemed to agree that FC Dallas and Toronto FC are probably the biggest threats to unseating the Sounders. We've also decided that if the Portland Timbers can't put it together with the squad they assembled that the guy who deserves the blame is almost certainly Caleb Porter. In between the Sounders and MLS segments, we sit down with Harry Shipp. Suffice it to say, you're probably going to end up rooting for him after listening to this interview. Shipp talked extensively about how he never felt his head was right in Montreal and was generally quite introspective. This is a player who seems to have a coaching career in his future.

This is the third and final installment from YachtCon. This is effectively just the Sounders panel, which included Stefan Frei, Cristian Roldan, Garth Lagerwey and Chris Henderson.

This is the second of our three-part YachtCon series. This episode starts at the end of the Reign panel and runs through the raffle to the beginning of the Sounders panel.

YachtCon ended up being nearly three hours, so we broke it up into three episodes. This is the first of those episodes and it runs through the Seattle Reign panel.

Let it be said that Cristian Roldan is a very good sport. The Seattle Sounders midfielder certainly did not have to agree to an interview that took close to an hour. He sure as heck didn’t have to then follow that up by going to YachtCon and participating in a panel. On top of all that, he did it with a smile. Not only a smile, but he acted like he enjoyed the whole thing. When we told him that we wanted to ask him a bunch of questions about Jordan Morris and told him to get exacerbated at some point, he made it seem totally natural (it probably helped that the emotion likely came from a real place). When we suggested that he take a bite of pizza while answering another question about eating pizza during an interview, he proclaimed that he loved the idea. Among the issues we touched on — aside from his friendship with Morris — were his upbringing in an immigrant family, what areas of his game he most wants to improve and his overall outlook on life. I’ve enjoyed most of the interviews I’ve done over the years, but no one acted as if they enjoyed it quite as much as Cristian. Hopefully that comes across in this fuller version of the interview we first aired at YachtCon.

Opening training camp as the defending MLS Cup champions has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? The Seattle Sounders did just that this week, and there were no shortage of storylines. The most interesting was probably the health of Clint Dempsey. The Designated Player has been fully cleared to train and even participated in the beep test on Thursday. It’s looking very much like he’ll be ready to go for First Kick. Among the host of trialists, was a familiar name: Steve Zakuani. While it’s not entirely clear if he’s actually on trial or just hanging around, he too did the beep test and is looking very much like a player who could potentially contend for a roster spot. There’s also a host of rumors attaching players to the Sounders, perhaps most notably one Fredy Montero. Jeremiah and Aaron talk all about this stuff, as well as find time to take your wonderful questions.

All things considered, waiting eight years to win a championship doesn’t seem that bad. Rather, it was the uncertain nature of when it would actually happen that made it so tough. Now that we have the mildly elusive Philip Anschutz Trophy in our possession, though, it sure is nice, right? There’s a mild debate raging outside of the Sounders-phere as to how deserving we are. Aaron and Jeremiah essentially dismiss the discussion out of hand, pointing out that how you win the cup is an academic argument and takes nothing away from simply having won. They also spend a fair amount of time discussing the Victory March, which was just about perfect.

In so many ways, 2016 has been the worst season in Seattle Sounders history. It started with one of the most tumultuous offseasons in their brief history as they lost several fan favorites, including Obafemi Martins. It continued with frustrating loss to Club America in CONCACAF Champions League and into the regular season with three straight losses, a 6-12-2 start and a week spent in last place. Even one of the biggest highlights — signing Nicolas Lodeiro — was preceded by nasty negotiations with Boca Juniors and followed by Clint Dempsey’s heart issues. There were off-field issues as well, starting with the whole mobile-ticketing fiasco and several public disagreements between the front office and supporters groups. Given all that, it’s not shocking that Adrian Hanauer still has mixed emotions heading into Saturday’s MLS Cup, as he admits that he takes each failure personally. We talked to Hanauer in his Pioneer Square office above The Ninety on Thursday for what we feel is some interesting insight into a season that may well end on the highest high in Seattle soccer history.

We encountered several technical difficulties in attempting to get this week’s show into your earholes, but we like to think it was worth it. Richard Farley joined Jeremiah in the first segment and they basically broke down the Colorado Rapids series while looking head to the MLS Cup matchup with Toronto FC. Both basically agreed that while TFC is scoring in bunches, their defense leaves plenty of room for question marks. Conversely, this is a Sounders defense that has allowed just three goals in five playoff games. The prospect of this being a bit of a shootout seem reasonably strong. As usual, Jeremiah and Aaron close out the show with a question-and-answer segment. Enjoy.

Thanks to a rather long break in the MLS playoff schedule, it feels like quite a long time ago that the Seattle Sounders got past FC Dallas to qualify for the Western Conference finals. But here we are and the Sounders are actually looking like favorites against the Colorado Rapids. Aaron and Jeremiah are actually feeling pretty good, too, especially as the Sounders are not playing the way we’re used to them playing in the postseason. This is feeling like it could be special.

We weren’t sure if we were going to record this week, especially since Aaron has a bit of a superstition about doing stuff like this in the middle of a series. But with Wednesday’s news that Brian Schmetzer was having the interim tag removed from his title, we felt we owed to all of you to focus on that especially since the next time we record that bit of news will likely be lost. In order to relieve Aaron of his superstition, we brought on Richard Farley to discuss the hiring with Jeremiah. As usual, Richard gives us a bit more of a national perspective on the hiring. One thing they focused on was how different the perception of the announcement was outside of Seattle. While here, it seemed to make a certain amount of sense to unveil Schmetzer in front of a massive group of fans, nationally it looked as if the Sounders buried the news by announcing on a weeknight while Game 7 of the World Series was being played. Enjoy.

At one point in this week’s show we were asked “what one word would you use to describe this season?” Our best answer: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It has been a wild season, and it’s going to continue for at least one more game. The Seattle Sounders have gone to depths they’ve never before experienced and managed to come out of it in reasonably good shape as they’ll be hosting a Knockout Round game. To help Jeremiah and Aaron make sense of this crazy season, we brought back Richard Farley onto the show. They talk about the Sounders’ chances at making it all the way to MLS Cup, what Brian Schmetzer still needs to do in order to get the fulltime gig and they answer your questions. Enjoy.

Last time we recorded we were talking about the Seattle Sounders needing a win to secure their spot in the playoffs. Two matches later, they still need the same thing. This isn’t an ideal position for the Sounders to find themselves in, but considering the situation a couple months ago it’s definitely progress. To help us get a handle on what kind of opponent stands in their way, we enlisted the help of Real Salt Lake fan Jason Greenwood (@neaterguyonline). That may seem like a rather random guest, but you have probably seen Jason’s work on Twitter at some point. He’s the guy notorious for masquerading as various soccer journalists and spreading false rumors. He’s a divisive figure, to be sure, but we also find him pretty funny. It’s not just the imitations themselves, it’s how mad “real” journalists get about it. The guy has been banned from Twitter at least three times.

With the short week, we weren't able to do a full episode. We did however get a chance to talk to Seattle U men's soccer coach and Sounders broadcast analyst Pete Fewing. We figured now would be as good a time as any to share that interview. If you don't know, Fewing is a Seattle soccer original. He's been around the game here his whole life, playing against the likes of Brian Schmetzer as a youth, then playing at the University of Washington and for Seattle FC. He began coaching at Seattle U way back in 1988 and put together one of the strongest NAIA programs in the nation, winning a national title in 1997 and eventually moving up to NCAA Division II. There, he led the Redhawks to an undefeated campaign in 2004 that culminated with another national title. He left Seattle U in 2005 and spent a few years coaching the Kitsap Pumas, notably nearly leading them to an upset of the Sounders in the U.S. Open Cup in 2011. He eventually returned to Seattle U and helped guide them to Division I in 2012. Last year he guided them to a Western Athletic Conference title and into the NCAA's Sweet 16. Over 18 seasons, he's won 220 games, registered a winning percentage of better than 60 percent and suffered through just three losing seasons.

Every time we record, it seems like there's more good news. We could definitely get used to this. The latest bit is a string of positive results that has seen the Seattle Sounders win three times in nine days, part of a four-game winning streak and a run of seven wins in 10 matches. Crazy as it seems, we're talking about a team that's currently one win away from clinching a playoff spot. The Sounders, once hamstrung whenever they were missing a key piece, managed to beat the Vancouver Whitecaps on the road despite effectively playing without four of their top offensive threats. Yep, we're starting to believe this team is shaping as something special. We also talked to Sean Okoli, who you may remember as a Sounders Academy product, former Sounders player, but more relevantly the recently crowned USL Golden Boot winner. He also happened to play for FC Cincinnati, one of the more interesting stories in US Soccer this year after they broke all sorts of attendance records. Of course, we also find time to answer your questions.