Can the Seattle Sounders beat LAFC?

well I think before we jump into that this might help illustrate a little bit of how we feel about lafc we got some champagne here to celebrate another absolutely incredible final fumble by lafc something that we track here often on the Pod so and we're back we are now joined by some guests some visitors from the lobbing Scorchers Seattle Sounders podcast do you want to introduce yourselves sure yeah I'm Ari Lillian wall I'm Noah R we are lobbing Scorchers Sounders podcast a MLS podcast a [ __ ] Houser podcast perhaps that's all of the above this is our favorite type of podcast I'm gonna lob I'm I'm going to lob you guys a compliment right away and just say that the kits that you're wearing Darren and I are much underdressed and the compliments will stop from stop after this but we do have to acknowledge that we're enemies we're sworn enemies both kids week our top tier and already your your top guest just by your choices of apparel and outfits well thank you up the goals shout out to Brighton top of the Premier League best team to ever exist they've never been bad ever in their entire lifespan and I've got New Mexico United to represent my home state yeah so be nice to Ari because we're like Brothers now United exactly I mean yeah you do a Sounders podcast but you're wearing the New Mexico Jersey that's all we care about yeah exactly a gesture of good is like geographical average sort of yeah that's true I don't know that is true look look how early I'm stretching for things yeah you guys you guys may not know this but we are the walkable City discussion podcast of of record for MLS but usually it happens when we run out of things to talk about Darren we have plenty to talk about I mean we're happy to talk about that too Seattle's a we live walkable to each other we walk to pod yeah wow this is like what a get for us this is incredible I love it the best part about that bringing that up and now hearing that you can walk to podt is that we could not live farther away from each other in the County of Los Angeles like it's it's astounding but it makes complete sense when you think about what Los Angeles is in the greatest context of the county but Darren we do have things to talk about we'll get to the Walk we're gonna play our teams will play each other shortly yeah in a game nobody cared about until cooo scored a goal in the 90 plus minute on Sunday now we're all if you're an LFC pan we're back in US open cup the most important game of the season we're playing the Sounders we've done fairly well against them up until now but I would say this ahead of you know the 2022 season the most important match in lafc's history trounced by the Seattle Sounders and yet since then things have been a little different I'm just curious like straight from Sounders fans and straight from guys that really are close to the team how do you feel about lafc In This Moment like just in a general not not going into the game per se but just like what is LFC a bogey team or are we reading too much into that well I think before we Gump jump into that this might help illustrate a little bit of how we feel about lafc we got some champagne here to celebrate another absolutely incredible final fumble by lafc something that we track here often on the Pod so we will be popping this in final fumbles in general or final fumbles specifically from LFC specifically from l see know it's a thing yeah I mean well Noah gets this situated I can take your question um I mean speaking for us like we're sick of lafc this is like the fourth time that these two teams have played this year and like you mentioned it's just gotten so one-sided uh I think I mean we looked up the exact record it's like uh LFC is 70 and two in the last nine versus Seattle and so it's like there I think there was a while where it was legitimately starting to look like a really good Western Conference rivalry and I always hold uh the 2019 Western Conference Championship up as like the greatest win in Seattle Club history because that was the year I mean lafc was in year put up that was the Carlos vea MVP uh plus 48 goal differential or whatever year and uh no one myself included thought Seattle was winning that game and that was this great historic win Seattle went on to win MLS Cup and really I mean there was the covid year where Seattle knocked them out of the playoffs but pretty much since then um it's just been all lafc and um especially the I mean these last two games and this year really like it's felt like the games have not only gone lfc's ways but like these last couple games haven't even been all that competitive uh Denny banga is an evil demon spawned he's spawned from the gates of hell I hate watching that guy I'm sick of him yeah I never want to watch him play soccer again um but I mean it's an incredible Squad right I mean you know we're popping champagne jokingly about them choking a final but that's because that's like with how oneid it it's been with Seattle that's like all we have right now that's all we can hang our hat on that's sort of where that comes from it's not even like from a holding it over you guys it's more just like the shot in Freud is like what we have to hold on to yeah we we became most known uh in the lafc sphere for after the the uh Champions Cup debacle let's say uh that we we recorded an hour and 30 Minute Podcast just on that on that game just to feel good about ourselves so thee by minute or what we just you know we it was just like um well because so Seattle has two things in this whole kind of rivalry number one is the 2019 the Western Conference Championship and the fact that Seattle has won Champions Cup and LC couldn't quite do it uh so those are like uh like I said that's just kind of another thing that like when we think of things that we have to hold on to in this Dynamic right now where lafc wins all the games those are the two things that I hold on to we respect them but we hate them and you know we did bring up recently that it's starting to feel like the Rival between LFC and the Sounders is is getting to a point where I'm like all right I might rate this rivalry over the the Timbers rivalry just because LFC is such such a big it's just a globally recognized team right like Portland plays in a in a baseball stadium like no one cares about them they have like Evander who's like who even cares about that guy you know and it's like we have to watch Denny banga a literal demon play on this field and just I I weep I weep every time he touches the field because he's too good at soccer wow well I feel like you put us into a Tren of depression and then pulled us right out of it that was really helpful that's what we're about with the champagne and then now I feel like I'm drinking champagne I don't even have it but yeah it's interesting I'm glad that we started in that place of like you mentioned that you're sick of playing us I I feel like we've gotten into this weird situation with Seattle Vancouver maybe even Portland where like we're at the point we're like okay we're doing it again let's see if we can do it again and it's some like we were so happy to have you guys on because it's just like okay like what is there that's new to this that we can bring to the situation uh what is new what is new like what well uh we have a little bit of new stuff on our end too yeah well I do think there's like a little bit of a different spin to this game and Novelty to it with it being an open Cup game but also at Starfire this is what we were just talking about on our show yeah so I don't think I don't think lafc has ever played at Starfire no and it's it is a whole different animal than games at like a big Stadium or at Lumen field because the dimension it's a very narrow pitch it's like the pace of play is incredibly fast because of how like unique the dimensions are and the environment is very crazy because it's 5,000 venue they pack for every open Cup game they pack it to the brim it's incredibly loud and the fans are right on top of the field whereas at Lumen it's this vast like expanse where the fans there's kind of the separation between what's going on the field and the fans in the stands Starfire they're right you're the fans are right on top of you like uh all the heckling and the insults that they're uh hurling out at at like the goalkeepers and the players on the field you can hear them on the field and it really uh it also it affects a visiting team's tactics quite a lot because we were just talking about this but like any notion of playing conservatively or defensively is much more difficult because of how fast the pace of play is so it's just like a it's a variable that creates like an entirely different game than you would normally see on like a normal size pitch and like I said like it's gonna be a really crazy Rowdy environment so I think like Seattle's all-time record in open Cup games at Starfire is very they've only lost twice all time at Starfire in the open cup one was the game against the Timbers where Clint Dempsey famously got ejected for tearing up the referee's notebook and Seattle actually finished that game with seven guys on the pitch because there was like an injury in a bunch of red cards um so there was that one and then like last year I think the Quakes won in PKS other than that Seattle's never lost an open Cup game at this building and they played like 30 Games there so like as much as lafc has the upper hand in terms of like Talent differential and like the quality of Denny banga and bogus and jru if he plays I doubt he's gonna play but like uh I think like if there's one thing that we're kind of hoping for from a Seattle perspective it's that the Starfire variable will affect lafc's game plan and their execution during the game enough where it turns what should be a game where LFC is pretty heavily favored into just a 5050 tossup yeah and it's you know the big thing is we we kind of know the lafc mindset a little bit we've watched them play about 150 billion times against the Sounders it's you know Season just this season played 400 times this season it's crazy and you know that tanking that that like we'll wait you out we'll let you have possession at Starfire it's just too much of an onslaught to do that you got to hold some possession to be successful there and if you score it doesn't really matter there's a there's going to be other chances to come back no matter the quality of the team on the other side it'll be entertaining like that that I can pretty much guarantee I've never seen an open Cup game at Starfire that didn't have my adrenaline going and I think like with uh that dynamic between these two teams right now that's probably gonna be accentuated because the other thing I'll tell you guys is that uh like this is such a golden opportunity for Seattle to like kind of kick lafc while they're down a little bit like coming off this emotional leagues cup loss short turnaround Seattle I guarantee you the players and I know for a fact all the fans are sick of how these fixtures have been going and like I the fans and I I guarantee the players are definitely like relishing the chance to like twist the knife a little bit I was not aware of how intense that change in venue is going to be that's really exciting and terrifying well I will say we usually do dread going up to Seattle anyway for the turf alone where is wor this is like thank you great oh worse yeah it's really bad it's like you can see The Ridges yeah oh greates professional game on this arguably no yeah 100% that sounds like US Open cup yeah that sounds great exactly it should be yeah exactly so venue venue aside um and the advantages disadvantages that are we going to see anything different from Seattle because late you know lately the talk has been well the player the the should be the best player on your team just can't get on the field can't stay healthy uh are are we going to see pretty much the same like is Brian going to roll out the same team be like guys there's no way they can beat you guys again like let's make this happen or do you foresee them playing in a different way not just because of the conditions and the dimensions of the field I think it's going to be a pretty strong lineup I don't know like he's been schmetz has been running out pretty much the same lineup every game in leagues cup and in this last game against Minnesota on Saturday you know it is like a pretty tight turnaround um so that might affect like their might be a little bit of rotation um but I certainly think like uh you know I know really wants to win this game and uh I think there's like enough of a rest here where like certain guys like I think Jordan Morris probably starts I think rusnack probably starts and really in this last resurgent run of games that Seattle has had against everyone besides lafc um where they've been playing more like a two two points per game Pace over the last couple months um the Morris and rusnack Duo has been very effective and very productive I think they're probably gonna he's probably going to run them out there for this game and then you might see a little bit of rotation on the backline like the starting CBS are usually Yar and Jackson Reagan you might see like a John Bell in this game who's been a pretty effective like third CB and you might see maybe a younger guy at right back but I think new who who's Seattle's best defender or at least one V one Defender I think he'll start so I think it's going to be pretty much First Choice except for maybe one or two changes but I I I really think Seattle is going to be going for it in this game I don't know do you see a different no I think it's going to be the same we're going to be we're going to be uh that I think it's really going to come down to Paul Rothrock one of our fan favorites here he is a absolute open cup Merchant he the only thing that he likes more than scoring in the open cup is looking as hot as he does like he is a he's a good-look young man uh but we yeah I think he's G that probably you could look at the lineup that we played this past weekend you it's probably going to be exactly the same I don't think there will be any new wrinkle just simply because if it works don't try and Tinker with it and in all seriousness like watch out for Paul Rothrock Ro he will score on you at Starfire that's his favorite thing to do he was good the first half of the last matchup and I I would say like no one no one reaches the levels of [ __ ] howery that newo does but like Paul's definitely on the he's on the path oh yeah yeah he's been the biggest storyline on our show this year yeah we love [ __ ] Houser we love a little r and it'll get like that Starfire the the crowd I mean I think the best Starfire moment if we can go back to that for a second was Marcus hannaman the former Sounders goalkeeper chugging a beer after winning an open Cup game from a dude in the in like right behind the goal so like that type of that type of energy that's beautiful that's beautiful he would have done that anyways let's yeah we if nothing El I I would say we're a pro chaos podcast more than anything else even and a pro good-look soccer players podcast that's true we enjoy good-look soccer players it's just as frustrating to hear about the good looks as it is to hear about the for of team for us like we we pride ourselves on that just as much as anything else I feel like the transfers we look for that's a criteria for us we need goodl looking guys on the team yeah we don't go to Stats bom we go straight to Google Google Images yeah that's where front office is looking I'm at the Instagram swiping you know favorite you know saving those images for later you know so I can make sure that we we match up one to one that's uh yeah we're we're right there with you it's important Yeah you mentioned the form that you guys are in I remember I think the last time we played I was think we were talking about how this is maybe the best form we've seen Seattle and at least this season and certainly in a little while we did win that match but then didn't seem to slow you down at all and now I feel like we're saying it again this is probably the best form you've been in that we've faced you in a while again I just I think Jordan Morris coming into his own is a big deal this is the best he in a while at least that we've been looking at to see him like not at his best for a good chunk of games I feel like I would argue it's the best he's ever been in his entire career he's out of his mind right now him and rusnack both are uh are on it's definitely like a been a stark turnaround from the beginning of the Season where there were I mean we went through a lot of games and recorded a lot of podcasts where this offense was just tough to watch frankly like with we had like a running joke about like will the Seattle Sounders score multiple MLS goals in this game like probably not and if they did it was like oh my God hooray like I can't believe it and then usually they would not and it was it was there was dog days for sure but they really the last two or so months they've turned it around quite a bit they're scoring a lot of goals and really think the things to watch out for are uh rusnack has really EXC excellent delivery into the box uh and he can do it he can range out and do it from really far out wide and he can put the put in service on a dime and he's also a very very good set piece taker like his free kicks into the box particularly are uh have just been dead eye through this whole stretch and his Corner kicks are uh Elite NLS right now uh so he's been a big driver of it and then uh kind of the the crazy thing that happened was uh I mean uh Seattle still has Raul ruie Diaz who's a club Legend and I mean the club's all-time leading goal scorer he's coming off the bench right now because he was not effective earlier in the season he is not scoring goals at the rate that uh we've been accustomed to seeing from him and uh schmetzer to his credit made the change of starting Jordan Morris as the full-time number nine and as soon as he made that change and it was rusnack and Morris uh playing off each other as like a onew duo with rusnack as the 10 and Morris up top the offense really took off and um like you mentioned earlier this is all without deega has been hurt the whole year though and he was supposed to be the signing that elevated this offense from what it was last year and we really still to this day at this point in the season have not really gotten any sort of sustained look at what he looks like that like he's just coming back from like his third or fourth injury just now so I think what we're trying to hope for down the stretch and into the playoffs is that he gets healthy and actually starts playing and then I'm curious to see what this team's ceiling could be offensively because we really haven't seen it with de laa in there there and the Morris renag Duo has been great for a couple months now so it's definitely like like it's been a tough season at times but the arrow has been pointing up lately and there's kind of this like backhanded reason for hope that maybe a run down the stretch and in the playoffs is in the cards here if De la Vega can actually get fit and contribute yeah and I think this is a perfect potential game for him to have like get a Super Sub moment break in cause a little chaos he's looked good he had a insan curved goal waved off for a it was an offside call but you know fans will argue that till they till they turn blue in the face but cool goal should count that'sa co go I like that we do have a rule on our show that that Vince coined that if it's cool it should count yeah I this was like a a gold standard for that rule cuz it was an incredible goal and it didn't count but it's still like whenever we watch him play you see the like even in this Minnesota game this weekend he had this pass that sprung Jordan Morris on a breakaway that was I mean is a perfect ball so uh you see it in flashes and we're like I don't know how much of a role he's going to play in this game I don't know if schmetz is going to want him put him out there on this Starfire Turf but that's more forward-looking that's something that we're kind of hoping we see happen I I'm curious because I'm old enough to remember that the Sounders are able to make a run out of nothing at any point in the season it doesn't matter where they are in the standings and I think you look at the west and you say like the West is pretty soft like other than LFC I mean I still am not quite sure about RSL and that yeah they made some good incomings but they also sent out some very good players and if Chicho doesn't play itj no it doesn't matter the Galaxy clearly Seattle knows how like to play the Galaxy I mean they can go forward but other than that Seattle knows how to like pants them in any kind of big game so is this the most important game of your season or is there like is it overstating it because like Seattle can always make a run and could do something as you said in the playoffs no I don't think it's overstating it because Seattle needs the psychological weight off their mind that they can't beat this lafc team 70 and2 over the last nine is uh is not just unacceptable it's psychologically damaging like when another team has your number to that extent and you just can't seem to beat them and especially like for me at least it's less about the results these last couple games and more just like Seattle like didn't look competitive they got played off the field at home uh and didn't make adjustments that changed the result from the first game to the second game and really dating back a long time now just has not been able to get results against this team and like for Seattle I think to gain like the confidence and the psychological just relief like they need to they need to beat this team and they need to win this game and also um I think there's just so much riding on the uh the principle of you know like I said beating lafc when they're already when they're already down they've just lost leagues cup to like put another knock them out of open cup like three days later on top of that there is no better way to like cure this like one-sided feeling of a team that you can't get the better of than eliminating them from the open Cup right here so like to answer your question I think this is the most important game of Seattle season not even necessarily because of the open Cup Final on the line although that is a big factor but because they just they need to beat lafc like to have confidence that they can do it in the playoffs if they get played off the park at Starfire again what reason is there to think that if there's a playoff matchup it'll go any different none so yeah I'm in agreeance there it's make or break not only for the open cup which I think funny enough there's our our general manager was hanging his hat on about we have a competitive team that can win trophies look at this we're in the you know we're in the leagues cup whatever round of whatever we're in the semi-final for this for open cup and we're you know we're still in a playoff spot my man hung his hat on some some pretty some pretty Shaky Ground so from the top down on this club it's a really really big match that means a lot more in my opinion to the Sounders than it does to lafc even though I understand like getting your ass beat by Columbus for the 15th time in a final or in an important game sucks and like you're going to want to put the wiing on someone else I just don't think it means as much to to to to lafc respectfully as it does to the Sounders where like legitimately I would say this is their best opportunity to actually bring home some silverware this season I actually I got a question for you guys real quick yeah do you think banga is gonna start this game yeah oh I think so the man is I don't even think he's a man he's a machine you watch r games and the fact that he continues to like run at full Pace like no matter what I mean I remember so when he first came to the it was like he always had a translator I think he still does use a translator mostly but his English he understands I mean he can actually speak pretty good English it's just you know these guys when they're doing interviews they don't want to be misquoted so they prefer to use a translator but I remember there was a spell where he like didn't score in like four games which to normal players doesn't seem like a big deal but we're talking about Denny banga and I was like so what like what goes through your mind like do you get mad and he kind of like smirked and like kind of laughed and then he he gave a long answer and while while the woman was translating he was like I get mad and I was like I [ __ ] love that like he just the guy wants to score goals and I think legitimately I know he really likes winning games but also secretly he's like if I didn't score and we win did did we play did we win very right now he's getting stifled Drew this last match was Drew's first start so I think my guess is if I was Denny Baga I'd be like great he's going to draw some Defenders away jaru got his first goal banga scoring BL Powers bong yeah bonga had a bad game too I mean he made some poor decisions obviously he hasn't quite been himself the last few games well he's a he's a One V one monster right but Columbus has his number and understands how to get the numbers over there and when he gets it in his head that he needs to beat somebody he's going to keep going to the well and I think he'll feel pretty confident about his ability to score against Seattle but I don't even think it matters I don't think he honestly knows what team he's playing against again he just sees he's like goal I put ball in goal and then I get to flip yeah this is a guy who played for his his national team in gabone and then found a way to make it to an LFC match like 12 hours later like it was he's just like it's a soccer game why would I not play pretty early in his tenure with us so we were kind of all surprised by that and kind of like learned the language of Denny banga through that but sorry were you going to say I mean it's just it's funny like going into the playoff game last year you know obviously the game plan and like everything leading up to the game is all about how do you stop Denny banga and I actually thought Seattle did such a great job for most of that game in keeping him at Bay knew who was like playing the game of his life trying to keep this guy contained and it was actually going like as well as you could hope against a player like that and then it's just that one moment where he gets off on the gets out on the brid break and when he I swear man like when he's running in the open field that's the most terrifying sight in the league like when he's running at you it's just like I don't really know what you do about it slower with the ball which is it looks exactly exactly it's the same speed it's the same speed and like all he needs is that one moment and last year it made the difference in the in the playoff game you know so uh I just I never go into a game against that guy and feel good about it at all and so I was I was hoping maybe but like also we we were joking about this when LFC was in Champions League uh last year we have a term called like the the the CCL hangover yeah and like they like it felt like lafc rotated way less than your average MLS team in Champions League and banga is just out there it doesn't matter like if the game is two or three days later he's still out there playing the full 90 does this guy get tired like how is yeah like we were like yeah he just you can just play him every game and it doesn't matter the rest of team does yeah oh the rest of Team definitely does and and I legitimately think it's more detrimental to LFC to have banga there and not put him in the game I would be I would fear for Steve tren's life if he was like so you're just gonna sit next to me and I'll get you in when we can we'll be able to hear everything so we'll let you know yeah are the seat is it is it just normal bench seats or like can players sit behind the coach because I feel like if he's behind Steve he'll be ble to burn a hole in the back of his head think of like a like you're you're a little league team you know kind of style like it's literally that and then it's like maybe 3 feet and then you have the walkway metal bleachers but people are in your ear chirping all game long and not only to like the the opposing team the last game I was at we were I think it was tied at half or something whatever dude next to me starts chirping at Brian schmetzer and I got to lean over to him be like hey buddy you're not down there coach you need to you need to zip it so it's a it's an electric atmosphere it was great to was it we were open to Stage the the visual J playing at Starfire the alltime leading goal scorer of the French national team like at this in Washington buta yeah sorry but uh I mean I don't think he's gonna play but he doesn't start but Steve did come out after the game and said he doesn't think it's as bad very bad so I think he definitely goes and he said that and obviously he did play on Turf when we played you guys the last time like he's not really afraid of turf it's not it's not like a keini situation where Georgio's like look my career could be over you know Jude is in a different class in ter terms of his Fitness I do think that Kai Kamara starts I think he gives them a better chance with his Mobility depending on how injured JW is but I I wouldn't be surprised if we see oliv yeah depending on we talk about Kar for a second sure that dude is 800 years old and is still like insanely talented we we were talking about like we signed Danny musovski former LFC for LFC no yeah thank you for that I think he's okay I don't know what you guys think about him but I have said this I'm not normally the like this hot takey with players but uh that dude Straits me to watch play soccer that dude like pisses me off to watch play and maybe it's just the mental state he's in I would hate being a backup nine that would kill me mentally but to see him come in and just like and then I'm seeing Kai Kamar I'm ready for that dude to score a bike that dude is he's he's I can't just you continue well musovski was actually productive for LFC was he not like yeah well a little he's a confidence player so I think to your point like when he shows up and he's like wait I'm not the starting nine he he's gone you've lost him he L Danny is a good finisher but that's about it so like if he's not getting chances and then obviously he's checked out too I he's not very he's not of much use to you um but yeah Kai though I you got it it's not it's it's obviously that right it's his ability I mean he could still jump out of the building at uh you know 87 or however old he is but helps he the mentality like he literally shows up and and I guaranteed they told him they're like Jude's coming so just so you know like you you're a stop Gap and the guy couldn't be happier he clearly needed that goal right he one to go ahead of Landon in the soring charts go consecutive games he gets it and then's like no I I still got something guys like I and he's a joy to be around like there's there's something special about a player like that and I I think the converse is a Danny mski who you know gets sour about kind of things and that's that's a bummer because I do like I do like Danny I think he's a good story but just just kind of a bummer I do remember he went on a bit of a hot streak uh at RSL and I remember being like wait where was this what what's going on here yeah and then they bought Chicho yeah yeah and he was like wait what the there was a weird period maybe was it last season or the beginning of this season there was a weird period where we watched like four other teams with I think it was last season with like three or four other teams with Duo former lafc Duos scoring at will when we couldn't buy a goal and it was a very strange period of time for us as fans yeahh but yeah the m musovski musovski mski uh Chicho era there was when that was working was pretty tough to watch talk about a great buddy cop movie Chichi what incredible incredible he would be he would be a good movie cop that should be his next career as acting I think he could totally hit that he's got the like good facial he's like he's built for it I think he needs the mustache like you and then he's just a Dead Ringer there it is I'll let him know I'll let him know I'll get I'll slide in that contract I'll be like buddy let me hear me out right you said it star you should be able to hear yeah exactly be like let know on Wednesday yeah Danny going back to uh banga real quick I I think it'll be really particularly interesting for him with the with a with a narrow pitch so you're talking about figuring out a way to beat him that might have been how you figured it out uh actually here sorry not to like totally piggyback out you Darren but like yeah for banga and both your best player right now Jordan Morris they thrive on space and behind so like who has the advantage on this field I think Seattle does just because they have played on it a lot and they know how it plays that's a huge advantage in my opinion I don't know if uh Seattle will make anything of that Advantage but I think you can you can look go back at and look at the results that Seattle has had in this tournament historically like playing at this venue they're very very hard to beat at this venue like that like and it doesn't really like the historical trends of it doesn't seem to matter who they play there have been some like really tough hardfought close games uh for sure like competitive games but um like Seattle never gets boat raced at Starfire just because most of the visiting teams they don't have like any base of knowledge for how to game plan for it and then even as good as you could ever game plan for it like once you're out there in these crazy Dimensions with how different it plays than a normal ml Stadium it's very hard to adapt to and adjust to so um I would think that that's what we're hoping is that that Seattle has an advantage from that but like I don't know just listening to you talk about it right there like uh honestly Denny banga in like even more enclosed space almost sounds a little scarier than it would be on a bigger field I don't know the way he usually succeeds is he goes to the box at a certain angle which he now no longer has and then a little more often than I would like to the point where it seems pretty predictable he'll put that last touch he'll go one more like touch toward the goal line than you think is possible and you're like he's not going to go that way there's no angle there and then he does and he finds an angle and he scores and I think defenders in the last I don't know handful of matches have started to get a little bit wise wiser to that but also I feel like it helps to have some space on the side if you're going to try to pull that off as often as he does so I don't know I don't like it I don't like the sound of it it doesn't sound great to be playing in what sounds like an indoor field like we're playing IND it really is like comparable to that yeah I think you know playing sevens like what's going on yeah basically we should that would be so sick seven on S that might be theal and Finals should be sevens I think you just solved the mls's problem with open cup is like oh it's too much too many injuries 7v7 would be sick I mean Seattle played with seven there once it was just not intentional yeah you said that just wasn't ideal but Seattle invented the seven7 again you know the Mee the seven man man yeah I think you know having a poacher though like like Kai Kamar someone like Kai Kamar can be a poacher for sure yeah and you know that could play really well on on a Starfire type because I feel like a lot of the goals on Starfire tend to be like a Paul Rothrock poacher goal or something like that where it's just bouncing around in the box and you're just finding a way so I I don't know who I'm ex I I neither of us are ready to to say that Seattle will win this match but I think I think it's fair to say both sides of the podcast are not excited for this game in terms of terms optim we're excited for the game but the optimism of like our team coming out on top we're both like we both have legitimate reasons to say I don't really want to play this game right now we're so we're so beaten down by by these last nine LFC results but uh I mean the other thing I was going to say is that like Starfire games do get a little track meaty like it can be a lot of back and forth up and down transition play which I do I mean that's what lafc excels that so like depending on how they adjust to the dimensions and the speed of play that is something that like like lafc might be better equipped to handle a game State like that than most teams who are coming to Starfire fair I hope we can pull it off I I will say you you mentioned earlier about how needing to get this sort of get the monkey off your back I found myself sympathizing with you guys even though we're on the other end of that situation but we're in the same situation like we just were still hung over from 15 hours ago being in the exact same situation with Columbus we can't seem to [ __ ] beat them and whether it's a a League match or a finals match I don't I I would really like the next time we play them to not be in another finals maybe like some baby steps trying to beat them but we cannot figure it out so I think when you were saying that this like Seattle needs it more I I think maybe a win doesn't quite mean as much to lafc as it might to Seattle but a loss means at least as much to LFC as a loss would to Seattle is that a fair way to put it Vince what do you think like I think losing leagues Cup finals and then three days later losing US Open cup semi-finals to a team that we've had your number for a bit uh that feels like a nice a nice little Rock Bottom for the season for us for sure that's what we were talking I would hope that's Rock Bottom I was saying I was saying I think like another thing at least that you know we're hoping plays in Seattle's favor is that I do think the pressure is on lafc in this game because of exactly what you said like getting eliminated from two different tournaments three or four days apart like that is not good for The Vibes and the morale you know uh so when you're going into a game and you feel like the pressure isn't on you as much you can play a little Freer you don't have that kind of weight of expectation on your back so and especially with how one-sided this this dynamic has been lately I'm hoping Seattle leans into that a little bit and just kind of takes on the same mentality they took on in that 2019 Western Conference Championship where LFC could not have been more favored and I think uh Seattle was able to kind of play on a similar thing in that game which is that you know no one expects us to win this game if we lose no one's going to really bat an eye we can just go out there and like have fun play our game and like let the chips fall and I think they use that to great effect in that game I'm hoping they kind of lean into that again in this game um because I really I think the whole fan base out here is probably expecting Seattle to lose and uh I think they can I'm hoping they can use that to their advantage in a way it's absolutely like criminal and cruel to think but this is the way Football goes sometimes is like LFC really is kind of an a no- win situation it's like hey if you won oh you got to another final well that doesn't doesn't matter unless you win it and to Darren's point if you lose the knives will be even more will be out but I want to say you guys have been awesome like we we normally go on with people for about 15 minutes and we're almost at like uh three quarters an hour here uh could you tell everybody because you guys are very fun and I do think that even if you're an LFC fan you should be listening to lobbing sers can you tell everybody where to find you guys we'll take that Co we've got a couple of uh of lafc fans in our YouTube comments it's all it's we CL this last show we recorded we clowned on lafc a lot but it's all in it's it's an equal opportunity clown show over here we clown on the Sounders too yeah exactly set up a little freeway pod I five baby let's go yeah so we're we're hosted on Sounder at heart right now which is the most popular Sounders fan blog that used to be a part of SP Nation but about a year ago went independent and they've created a podcast Network for local podcasts out here so we're on that with them their podcast is called No saetas which is great and then there's also the cooler Guild which covers Seattle rain so we're a part of that Network and if you go to Sounder heart.com LS that's like where you can find all of our shows and then also you can find us on like all the normal platform and then yeah the big thing that we're pushing right now though is the YouTube because we just started that like a month or two ago and we've already gotten some pretty decent uh little traction and we're trying to uh we're trying to trying get Happy Foot sad foot numbers numers so if anyone if anyone watching this like wants to sub to our YouTube that's probably the the best thing you could do for us right now yeah just search lobing Scorchers you'll find us yeah go like their stuff subscribe to their stuff even if you're like what am I going to do what listening to Sounders we cover all of MLS too cover other stuff too right there you go we cover MLS and US men's and women's national team yeah oh my God okay put it in your rotation just we l all sorts of Scorchers don't you worry we are we will warn you though there is a little bit of pro Galaxy propaganda we do love Joey painel just a little bit he is he is one of our Joey okay we're going over time here up well we're good we can have selective hearing yeah you can just skip fast forward through that part you're good yeah well fast forward yeah if you could start offering like LFC fan warnings I think your viewers warning yeah we can that yeah warnings that sounds great you've done the impossible which is pick us at least these two guys back up after really horrifying loss to get excited about this next match I did not imagine that we would be excited for a Wednesday match this week against Seattle who we've played a lot in the US Open cup which is like I don't know whether we're supposed to care about this but now I'm I'm I can't wait for this match this is gonna be great and I hope we can do this again I dare I excited to play Seattle another time we can hang out again no no we'll talk about a different game you've taken me too far this don't worry we'll probably see you in the playoffs you don't have to worry too much we'll be see you again for game 162 or whatever exactly yeah well shout out to our to our new Rivals Happy Foot sadf foot this is a great collaboration we're starting here may are we lobbing feet new new new name here collab name lobing feet let try it happy sad lobbing feed works better than the other way around yeah it's cool you guys take it yeah all right thank you both for having us we appreciate it all right thanks for being here when we come back what are we doing next we're making some vets yeah all right [Music]