Nos Audietis

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

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 nosaudietis@gmail.com. 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 nosaudietis@gmail.com. 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 t

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 conversatio