Nos Audietis

The Sounders finally scored a goal at home. It only took 405 minutes, but they did and it was enough to snap a five-game winless run. As luck would have it, they also moved up to second in the Western Conference table thanks to LAFC losing to the LA Galaxy, allowing the Sounders to inch ahead on goal-difference. The goal, it should be said, was very well-taken. It started with Obed Vargas driving forward to find Nicolas Lodeiro, who worked a 1-2 with Léo Chu, who then found Albert Rusnak for a left-footed finish from about six yards out. Sure, it came after the Houston Dynamo were reduced to 10 men but we are in no position to be questioning goals at this point. Is everything fixed? Of course not. But it sure is a lot more fun to talk about wins than a scoring drought. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Our interview with Seattle Sounders Brand Ambassador and Broadcast talent, Brad Evans. It's a rather long interview, the full version of which is only available to our Substrack subscribers. This is an edited version. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

The Houston Dynamo have been one of the surprising teams this season, sitting fourth in the Western Conference after a horrible 2022. But they've only claimed five points on the road. We talked to Victor Araiza of The Striker to get his sense of the situation. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Jeremiah is doing this week's mailbag episode solo. He talked a lot about the future of Nicolas Lodeiro and his assessment of Héber's performance. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

The Sounders’ scoring woes extended into another game, as they settled for yet another scoreless draw, this time at home to Orlando City. The Sounders have now gone scoreless in three straight home game and have been shut out in 4 of 5 overall.  The Sounders are still somehow in third place and only three points out of first, but this is becoming increasingly brutal to watch. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

To help us preview this weekend's Sounders-Orlando City match we enlisted the help of Michael Citro, who runs The Mane Land. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

LAFC is near the tail end of a brutal stretch in which they'll play 16 matches in about two months and 22 matches in about three months. To get a better sense of how that has taken its toll we talked to LAFC podcaster Travis Helwig. In addition to hosting Happy Foot Sad Foot, he's also a member of the currently striking Writer's Guild. We talked to him about that and how to support them. He suggested donating to the Entertainment Community Fund which supports other parts of the industry. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Should Albert Rusnak replace Nico Lodeiro? What about Cody Bake for Nouhou? How much off-season change should we expect? Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Give the Sounders this: At least they made it entertaining. The Sounders finally broke out of their scoring doldrums by putting three past Charlotte FC, including a brace from Raul Ruidiaz and another from Cristian Roldan in both of their first starts in about two months. The only problem? The Sounders also gave up three goals, albeit all pretty well taken. Each of Charlotte’s goals erased a Sounders lead, meaning the Sounders blew more leads in this game than they had in their previous 17 combined (it had only happened once). In the second half of the show, we discussed Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris' USMNT call-up, suggest holding the Leagues Cup concurrently with the Gold Cup in future seasons and give our outlook for the second half of the season.  Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Obed Vargas is back from the U20 World Cup and to get a better idea of how he did and what kind of impression he made, we asked Adam Belz the Scuffed podcast to give us some insight. Scuffed, for those of you don't know, is one of the top US Soccer podcasts and they are fully listener supported.  There's also a second-half to this interview where we talk about Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan's place in the national team and some of the broader issues surrounding the program. To listen to the full episode, you'll need to become a paid subscriber to our Substack.  Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Jorge Gonzalez of Top Bin 90 joined us to give some insight on Charlotte's injury situation and a lowdown on soccer culture in the South. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

This is a pretty short one but we do touch on Albert Rusnák's potential move to the No. 10, Obed Vargas' performance at the U20s and how happy we were to see LAFC lose in the CCL final. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

That was not much fun. While the Sounders managed to stop their losing streak against the Timbers and picked up their ninth shutout of the season, the match itself was a pretty massive letdown. Not only did it end in this rivalries first scorless tie of the MLS era, but there simply wasn’t much action. The Sounders only took five shots and the two teams combined for just .6 expected goals. It was ugly. As someone who has suggested the Sounders’ performances have mostly been better than the scoreline suggests, I have no such defense in this one. We discussed all that while making some time to talk about the ramifications for Messi coming to MLS. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Believe it or not, we've made it to Episode 400. It's been quite a journey and taken us about 12 years to get here. Mostly coincidentally, we're marking the occasion with a joint podcast with our friends at Coffee and Valkyries to preview the Seattle-Portland doubleheader. Thanks for listening! Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Jamon Moore of Quakes Epicenter joined us to preview Wednesday's match against the San Jose Earthquakes and explain how Luchi Gonzalez has managed to improve the woebegone franchise. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Ben Cork of View From 202 (and formerly Once a Metro) joined us to share insight on Saturday's opponent, the New York Red Bulls. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.      

This isn't the most uplifting mailbag episode but we do give our thoughts on a possible formation change, the seeming inability to find late goals and how much a problem the lack of lineup consistency is. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

After a few weeks of disappointing results but some play that was at least decent at times, the bottom kinda fell out in Vancouver. The Sounders started slow and never really got on track in losing to the Whitecaps 2-0, their fourth straight loss against Cascadia Cup opponents. This one was among the most depressing, not necessarily because of the scoreline but because of how bad the Sounders looked throughout. The fight that has at least always been there was nowhere to be found, there were sloppy passes throughout, a lack of creativity on offense and just some generally uninspiring play. The guys try to diagnose the problem and see if they can't figure out a way this gets better. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

The Sounders seem to have a really annoying knack for losing to teams in really bad form. They actually played reasonably well in this one and created a ton of chances, but is there reason to be worried? Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

A chat with OL Reign defender Sam Hiatt on the team's strong start, her growth as a player, and her representation as a Filipina-American athlete.

With the Sounders hosting Austin FC on Wednesday, we convinced friend of the show Will Bruin to join us for a special episode of Bear With Us. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

Dustyn Richardson of BayouCitySoccer.net (formerly Dynamo Theory) joined us to share insight on Saturday's opponent, the Houston Dynamo. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

These questions were taken before the Open Cup loss to the Galaxy on Wednesday but are still relevant as they're mostly about the larger MLS campaign. We talk about the Sounders' penchant for "playing down" to opponents; what we think of the Léo Chú-Jordan Morris partnership; and how much patience we should have with Raúl Ruidíaz among other things. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

The Sounders came into Sunday’s game facing an opponent that looked all but dead in the water. Sporting KC had gone winless in 10, had only even managed three goals scored and looked fragile enough that an early goal could have completely knocked them out. Instead, the Sounders conceded a goal in the 4th minute -- the first they allowed at home since last season -- and then another in the 31st minute. That was more goals than KC had scored in any game this season and more than they’d scored in their previous 535 minutes coming into this game. It was, to put it simply, a really ugly performance. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. You can also support the show by checking out our line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

We caught up with Jimmy Mack of No Other Pod a Sporting Kansas City Podcast to get a better understanding of what's going on with this weekend's opponent.   Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.  

This is the mailbag episode for Week 11 of the MLS season. We mostly focus on how the Sounders will handle the situation at left back, but also get into potential plans for the summer transfer window and discuss the possible return of YachtCon. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. We also have a line of merch including every past YachtCon design and our latest skull-and-crossbones logo.    

It wasn’t exactly the result the Sounders were looking for, but considering they had only even claimed a point at RSL once in the past 12 trips to Utah a 0-0 shutout might not be such a bad thing. Utah has been a rather horrific place for the sounders to play and anything that can go wrong usually does. This time, however, it was more of a mundane road draw. That the Sounders also managed to keep a shutout should probably be seen as a bit of a bonus as well. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.  

Matt Montgomery of Wasatch Soccer Sentinel joined us to share his thoughts on Real Salt Lake, to explain why they call pop 'soda' and to talk badly about Pablo Mastroeni's tactics. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.

Coming out of a week that was pretty darn depressing and only seem to get worse as it wore on, the Sounders put together a workmanlike win that should calm any lingering concerns that this season was poised to go off the rails. A quick recap: First they lost 4-1 to the Timbers, collapsing in a way we’ve never really seen. Then on Wednesday, Raul Ruidiaz goes down with yet another hamstring injury, that night Jordan Morris plays 88 minutes for the USMNT in an ultimately meaningless friendly that ultimately kept him out of startering consideration and then on Saturday we find out that Nouhou was a last-minute scratch due to some migraines. Through about 75 minutes, the Loons made life pretty difficult, setting up shop in a midblock and refusing the Sounders any sort of transition opportunities.  But rather than get over-anxious or settle for a tie, the Sounders found a bit of magic through Fredy Montero and a perfectly hit shot from Albert Rusnak to secure three points. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.

We caught up with Andy Greder, the Minnesota United beat writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press to get a better understanding of what's going on with this weekend's opponent. Greder tells us the latest news surrounding Emanuel Reynoso's absence, gives us the lowdown on Kemar Lawrence's potential availability and gives us some insight on how Minnesota has managed to go claim 9 of 12 points on the road so far. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.

It's our weekly mailbag episode. We try to figure out if the Sounders have completely lost any edge in the rivalry, try to determine which players were most missed, explain what's going on with Xavier Arreaga, and try to help a St. Louis City fan figure out how to avoid becoming an asshole. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. All background music used is royalty-free content licensed via pixabay.

So, uh, that happened. For the better part of 70 minutes, the Sounders basically controlled the match against the Portland Timbers and looked likely to end their three-game losing streak. But then Dairon Asprilla scored an admittedly impressive bicycle kick, revived the crowd and sent a bolt of energy into the Timbers. 20 minutes later, they were 4-1 winners. It was the fourth straight time the Sounders had lost to the Timbers, the first time that’s ever happened in the rivalry’s history; the Timbers beat the Sounders by three goals for the second time in three meetings, a losing margin the Sounders have only suffered two other times since the start of 2019; they’ve now outscored the Sounders 11-2 in those four games; and the Sounders gave up more goals in that 20-minute span than they had in their previous 700 minutes this year.  It was not surprising that Brian Schmetzer was about as mad as I’ve ever seen him in the postgame, saying he’s not even sure if the Sounders can consider this a rivalry anymore.  We unpacked the collapse and how the Sounders move forward. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. All background music used is royalty-free content licensed via pixabay.

Stumptown Footy is dead, long live Stumptown Footy. As you probably know by now, Vox decided to stop funding most of their MLS sites a couple months ago. Most of them are moving forward in new formats. Stumptown Footy is one such site. We caught up with Sam Svilar to get the lowdown on their new life as a newsletter (currently parked at StumptownFooty.Substack.com until the URL license switches over) but more relevantly about the state of the Timbers.  Things are not so good in the Rose City, where they come into this match riding a six-game winless run. It's not just the top line numbers that look bad, either. The Timbers' season high for xG is 1.1, a mark the Sounders have topped in 5 of 7 games Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here.

Get to know OL Reign assistant coach Scott Parkinson in our first "Coffee & Valkyries" of the 2023 season. Scott talks about how he met OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey, their first stint working together at Utah Royals, his time as head coach of Gotham FC, and reuniting with Harvey for 2023 and more.

This is the mailbag episode ahead of Week 7 of the MLS season. If you'd like to get your questions answered in future episodes, please shoot us an email at [email protected]. In this episode, we answer questions about who has been a bigger surprise so far in 2023, what do we do with so many hot players and so little starting spots, and we wax poetic about our next matchup against those dudes to our South.   Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

St. Louis City SC came at the kings and they missed - big time. The latest to game the throne were flying high coming into the matchup with the Rave Green sporting a 5-1 record, 1st place in the West and sitting above the Sounders. Seattle pulled STL back to earth behind Josh Atencio's first MLS goal (a golazo/a banger/a wonderstrike/rightfully Goal of the Week) and left the visitors wondering what happened after that 3-0 rinsing. Raul Ruidiaz came off the bench and quickly doubled the lead leaving Brian Schmetzer some more sleepless night ahead of the Portland matchup. At least Coach has some things that might help him combat that - the team is perfect at home still and they are back at the top of the West. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

St. Louis City surprised not only the pundits but even their own fans by starting the season 5-0-0, eclipsing the Seattle Sounders' record for best-ever start by an expansion team. Even after losing last week to Minnesota United, Saturday's match still offers plenty of intrigue. To get a better sense of the team the Sounders will be facing, we reached out to Matt Baker of the podcast Flyover Footy. He gave some real insight into what makes City tick. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

This is the mailbag episode ahead of Week 7 of the MLS season. If you'd like to get your questions answered in future episodes, please shoot us an email at [email protected]. In this episode, we answer questions about the quality of the Sounders opposition, the Sounders' midfield, what we should expect lineup-wise, the concern over MLS Season Pass subscriber numbers and decide who's the biggest complainer among MLS head coaches. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

The Sounders won their second straight game, again going on the road to beat the LA Galaxy. Again it was Leo Chu and Jordan Morris providing the offense and staking them to a 2-0 lead. This time, however, the Sounders had to hold on for dear life in the second half, narrowly escaping with a 2-1 win. Still, a win is a win, especially on the road and the Sounders will now be playing for first place this weekend when they host St. Louis City. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

We caught up with Ryan Rosenblatt, our resident LA Galaxy expert and the author of ESPN's MLS Power Rankings, to find out what's going on with the once-proud franchise. We discussed the supporter boycott, Chris Klein's rocky tenure and who the Galaxy expect to have back this week. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

We're trying out something new and making the question-and-answer segment its own episode. Let us know what you think. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

The Sounders finally ended their 10-game road winless run in rather emphatic fashion, over-running Sporting KC 4-1 behind four, yes four goals from Jordan Morris. Leo Chu was also credited with four assists, tying a league record, including three primary assists. This was all despite the Sounders giving up an early goal, but the Sounders pretty much dominated the match from the 5th minute forward and now head into this week’s match with the LA Galaxy feeling pretty good about themselves. Programming note: We've decided to try out breaking out the QA episode into its own thing. Look for that tomorrow. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

It's a podcast miracle! Our tech provider was able to recover the lost QA audio! Here it is just in time for Saturday's game. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

  Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

The Sounders had a chance to score a statement win against arguably the league’s top team who was playing their fourth game in 10 days and 5th in 15, but ultimately had to settle for a 0-0 tie against lAFC. Watching the game back, though, I was kinda struck by just how good the sounders looked, especially in the first half. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

We caught up with friend of the show Alicia Rodriguez (aka @soccermusings) to give us the lowdown on LAFC. While they won't be particularly well rested, Alicia thinks LAFC will continue with their mild rotation they've been doing through their first four matches of the season and will be looking at this game as a significant test. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Coming off two resounding wins, the Sounders were dealt a “humbling” loss -- in the words of Cristian Roldan -- when they went on the road for the first time, falling 1-0 to FC Cincinnati. I wouldn’t say it was bad loss, per se, FCC is expected to be one of the best teams in the league this year but it was a bit of a reality check that the Sounders aren’t just going to prance through the league schedule.  They showed a bit of fight and even appeared to get the equalizer until VAR disallowed it, but will head into this week’s match against LAFC looking to rebound. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Whether you loved or hated Kasey Keller as a Sounders broadcaster, it would be impossible to deny his place in club history. Not only was his signing ahead of the 2009 season a signal of intent from the new MLS franchise, but he was an inarguably massive part of how they came out of the gates and won U.S. Open Cups in each of his first three seasons. He also won a MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in his final season. But Keller made an even longer-lasting mark by serving as the team’s color announcer on TV broadcasts from 2012-2022. During those 11 seasons, Keller barely a missed a game despite also working fulltime for ESPN and his commentary accompanies many of the greatest moments in club history. Keller’s penchant for criticizing defenders more than praising offensive brilliance and insistence on remaining objective sometimes rubbed fans the wrong way, but his honesty was never questioned. Although Keller is no longer on the Sounders broadcast — a casualty of the move to AppleTV — he was still more than happy to spend well over an hour with us where we talked about his current position with ESPN, his time with the Sounders as player and broadcaster, his journey from the South Sound to Europe, and many other things. The full hourlong version of this interview is available to paid subscribers to our Substack. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

The Sounders are off to one of their most exciting starts ever, improving to 2-0 after dispatching Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Jeremiah and Aaron are understandably pretty excited and love what they're seeing both in attack and on defense. Aside from discussing some of the finer points of what makes "Highlife Soccer" they also weigh the possibility that this is the best midfield trio in MLS. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter If you'd like to become a subscriber to our Substack, that can be found here. This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Craig Waibel took over as the Seattle Sounders' third-ever general manager during the MLS era about three months ago. Although he had previously served as the team's sporting director and as such played a significant role in the current roster build, he has put his fingerprints on the team in ways that fans don't usually see.  Most of Waibel's work has been done behind the scenes, attempting to rebuild an office culture that took a hit during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that led to the Sounders going 100% remote.  One of the biggest aspects of Waibel's directive has been encouraging more in-person interaction that isn't necessarily a meeting. He keeps his office at Starfire Sports Complex rather spartan, with just a stick-figure picture that he drew himself as one of the only decorations. He says that's because he doesn't want it to feel like "his" office, as much as a place where he happens to work and anyone else is welcome to use it.  We sat down last week for an hourlong conversation, the first half of which can be found here. The other half of the interview is being made available only to paid-subscribers to our Substack and can be found at NosAudietis.Substack.com.  Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)