The Seattle Sounders Need to Finally Beat LAFC

my plan was to originally record this video before the leagues Cup match against lafc but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to and now I'm recording it after the match and things didn't quite go to plan I wanted to record a video talking about our pretty good campaign in leagues cup because I haven't done much coverage talking about the tournament and coincidentally we're playing lafc in the quarterfinals of the leagues cup then just a week and a half later we play them in the semi-finals of the open cup and in my opinion these two match matches were kind of the Make It or Break It in regards to a good synopsis of where this team is at and what we can do this season because the reality is I think those two competitions were probably the best chance we had at winning a trophy cuz we were having a pretty good run in leagues cup and for the fact we were already in the quarterfinals I thought okay we only need to win like two three-ish more games or at least maybe make it to the semi-final so we're guaranteed that third place game then we can at least get qualification in CCL I was like you never know what happens but lafc happened and so we lost that game and then especially the open cup I think that's the main one I want to focus on is the one where I really think this is our golden ticket golden opportunity to pretty much kind of like save the season and make the season end on a positive note be it the final season for many of our big players or Brian schmetzer if they renew him don't renew him or if anything else happens prior to that but I felt the open cup is kind of like that Cinderella poetry ending for a lot of those players in Bron ran and good way to at least you know transition into maybe a new era for the team and so I'll get more into that later on in the video so make sure to stick around for that but let's first talk about Leakes cup our campaign as I said I didn't do much coverage talking about it so this is a video where I'm going to do basically a recap of it because I need to get something off my chest guys I don't really like the tournament I don't know if you guys feel the same way about it I'm just not a big fan of it it feels very fabricated and not authentic I personally value the open cup way more I mean there it's as Jose marinho once said it's football Heritage that's what I grew up on and that's what probably most of you grew up on I mean it's the equivalent of the Copa Italia the FA Cup that is what the open cup is I know that leagues cup gets you more money you get automatic qualification to CCL or CCC however you call it now and like it's more appealing it's more of the shiny toy but for me and maybe some other MLS ogs and maybe even some of you that love the open cup more it's more important in my eyes I think that's the more important trophy to win leagues cup just it's so fabricated and it just seems too plasticky but nonetheless in regards to our campaign in leagues Cup this year we didn't have a good one the previous year with the first edition of the expanded version of it obviously we made the final back in 2021 I want to say and we lost to Club Leon in the final that's when it was a lot more like a smaller format but in the first year of the expanded version of it we got group and we got pretty much humiliated in the tournament which wasn't nice so this time around I think the main goal was get out of the group have a decent showing which I think we did to be fair though our group was pretty easy so I did expect us to get out of it if I'm going to be honest I didn't get to watch like many of the games like I watched each game but like bits and pieces cuz they all fell on a weekday and it's kind of tough with coming back home from work I usually go work out right after work I'm pretty Gass and I I don't really have much more brain capacity sit down and watch soccer so I watched some of the games bits and pieces here and there obviously I watched the highlights so I had a general grasp of what happened obviously my friends texted me too I read the articles watched the press conferences when I had the opportunity to do that when it comes to the Minnesota game they got a red card I believe early on in the game so we were pretty much up a man for most of that match and we kind of struggled a little bit to break them down granted they were going to play in a low block they were going to try to frustrate us and try to send it to a penalty shootout we scored late on it was an okay performance we did what we had to do and that's what matters in Cup competitions then when we played noxa I mean the game didn't really matter I mean we had to lose that game like 40 to have been knocked out it got kind of close in the end we lost three to one but I will say this is truly how I felt that first 15 20 minutes felt like a whole different version of the Sounders like I haven't seen an ages like I'm talking when we used to when we beat Portland 6 to2 that kind of feeling like the way we were playing there there was just a freshness some authenticity and like fluidity and it felt like wow I really can see the vision the possibilities with certain players and like when OED scored how deaa was playing I was like oh my God this is like such a like a way I haven't seen the Sounders play in a while and it really made me feel like a kid again watching this team like 2014 with Oba and Clint or 2015 or even like 2018 or 19 with Nico and Raul like it felt really good like I don't know it was like a huge dopamine hit cuz I thought we were playing so so well and Del Vega scor and I was like it just reminded me of like an Oba femi maren moment like a piece of magic from nothing he spins the defender and then just dicks the shot it goes perfectly bottom corner I'm just like what the heck like it was a really really good feeling and obviously the goal was overturned and I was like well welcome back to reality and then we pretty much crumble in the rest of that game club noxa absolutely shapped at us and I was like okay not good and for the fact we end up finishing second which I think topping that group should have been somewhat of a given but it didn't happen and then we play against LA Galaxy I watched the whole entirety of the first half and that's all I really needed to see from us was the first half cuz we played pretty well I mean we just pretty much exposed them on set pieces early on and once it was 2-n it felt like we were kind of in cruise control and we kind of learned our lesson from the noxa game and we were able to hold out in that match and I think we played pretty well that was probably one of our best performances so far this season it's quite unfortunate it's come all the way to the Midway point in the season that we've had to have our first best game of the season but you know what Beggars can't be choosers then we played against our good old friends Pumas and I wasn't able to catch much of the game but as the term Goes The Vibes were high the stadium was pretty well filled up unlike the previous three games we played really really well in that game and yeah the memes were impeccable I was just hoping can we now kick on from this we had two good games I think the Minnesota game was okay the nxa game wasn't good so we had two good games it's kind of similarly to earlier in the regular season you know we started off bad we picked up some good form against the Lesser opponents then we Face Off against our first honestly our biggest challenge in lafc like in the MLS regular season we get absolutely shafted back to the shadow realm can we learn from that mistake can we now bring this good momentum into this game is this team any different and kind of similar to the same thing I spoke about in this video which if you guys haven't watched it I still pretty much stand by most of the points pretty much all the points I make in this we did not learn our lesson and it was pretty much a repeat of that game like it was almost a carbon copy of it drew didn't even have to play and we looked silly we played really really bad in that game and again it just shows like I don't know how many more times we have to get waxed by lafc for us to realize that this squad is no longer top tier yeah I mean I I watched this game it was on a Saturday so it was a lot easier to tune into I was debating whether to go or not to go I will say I didn't think we were necessarily going to win this game I think even if we played a perfect game we would have been able to just squeak by maybe two to one or win it in a penalty shootout but just the Firepower lafc have the organization tundo just knows how to roll our team over like Brian's never beaten chundo since he's been hired at Lac it's oh man I pray to God we don't lose this open Cup game CU yes we lost this but I think the more important match is the US Open Cup match because I know for a fact lafc fans and LFC really want to win that game because they've never won the open cup they've pretty much won every trophy in US soccer that they can win except for the open cup can we please for the love of sweet baby Jesus stop them in their tracks in that and I'm not super confident based off our two previous games and I think it's a really bad look too if we get destroyed by lafc three times in one month it's a really really bad look and it just shows our level I mean a lot of fans maybe don't want to be on the same page as me think okay yeah we've won some games we've done pretty well and I give I'll give us our flowers there I think Jordan Morris played really well in the Pumas game rusack played really well in the Pumas game they've played well in a few games I think honestly Jordan moris went off in the Pumas game he actually played so well that first goal he scored was so nice I just wish he could do it more consistently which it's not going to H like realistically guys like Morris and rusack they're not going to get that much they're not getting any better they're not it's not the fact they're not going to get much better they're not getting going to get any better they're just getting older Morris it's weird to think but he's going to be 30 next season rusack is already in his 30s like this is as good as it's gonna get and so to my point is is he had a really good game against Pumas I like the dog in him that he had like when he made that run and he got penalized and he was the one wanting to step up and take the pen because we've never seen Jordan ever take a pen in my life to my knowledge and so that was good but it's just like he's not consistent enough where we see that on a consistent basis but that was truly like a really good Striker's performance but how many times can we say that from Jordan this season half the time less than half the time but that's the thing is is you need a striker think about it the teams that have been winning MLS Cup they've been going to finals they're teams that make deep runs in Cup competitions they have guys like Coos bangas Suarez like they have guys that are consistent most of the time or like when we were making deep runs ruy Diaz was consistent when he was healthy but that's my point like there needs to be a better standard I mean MLS is growing teams are getting so much stronger teams are getting a lot better and obviously I spoke about it in this video so if you guys want to watch that talk about all the transfer business stuff over there for this game against lafc in the open cup can we learn from our mistakes we had a good run in leagues cup I think we played pretty well I think the biggest takeaway for me is that match against noxa in the first 20 minutes that was really good our game against Pumas that was really good in certain moments like I don't think we played perfectly against Pumas but Jordan Morris's goal the creativity I think there was a lot of positives in those two matches in particular but then when we play against Lac that's the problem we're not at that level these guys are not at that level where it's like okay we're good for a couple of games but can we go to the next level we we know we're a little bit better than the average or below average or the MLS teams but can now can we compete against the big boys because that's where it matters that's how you win Cup competitions that's where I see the biggest issues is this roster these guys most of these players are not at that level like Rothrock was having a good leagues cup but then his like the depth the levels really show because he was played out of that game Morris was played out of the game rusack was played out of the we had nothing in that last game so what I'm hoping is I don't care what happened previously against La I don't care whatever happened happened Brian this is all I'm asking from you let's win this one so if I did record the video before the game against lafc in the leagues cup my main thing I would have said was I'm okay if we lose the game against them in the leagues cup the more important one in my eyes and maybe you guys agree with me is the open cup one because the other side of the bracket is SKC and I think New Mexico I forgot the other team but they're second division team I think realistically whoever comes out of this game between Seattle and LFC will be the winners of the open cup I think it's a golden golden opportunity and I think if we make changes we've seen that this type of lineup of plank fry Alex noo yar Jackson ja Paulo like Jordan whoever it may be like the bog standard XI it's not going to work You' got to spice it up I'm assuming Pedro is gonna start in this game in an Ideal World I would really put like Georgie and Pedro on the wings terrorize that defense ask questions like what banga BOGO were doing to the Sounders I would also let them have more possession I know it's going to be crazy to say let them have more possession because LC doesn't know what to do when they're the team that has to possess most of the game they love counterattacking they love when we have possession so play the opposite I think you maybe play with a more structured and play them on the Counterattack so maybe go five in the Back le Pedro ruy Diaz maybe you play Morris out wide but something like that I'd say switch it up because these last two games they didn't work at all we lost 3-0 both times so it didn't work I would switch it up you got to try something different I think you can force lafc into an extra time or sneak by a onego lead or win in a penalty shootout you can do that but you got to switch it up you got to go with something different you got to go with something a little bit more spicier and actually takes it to him don't go with your granola grain same type of tactics go with something different in my opinion if we can win this game in the open cup I honestly think it erases the last two games but if we don't win this a lot of questions are going to have to be asked getting beat by LC three times in a month is such an l and it's such an L as a fan to witness like you got to try to win this game this game is important this game is one of our most important games in a while and in my opinion it also will show us us fans who still is here to show up in these big games for us these important matches going to be a sellout I'm going to be there I'm pumped for this game I am worried the Firepower LFC already has and to see what jarud does he's only had small cameos so far but going to into that game I wouldn't be surprised if he starts or gets significant minutes adding that to their attacking Dynamic is so scary let's just I and like there isn't much that we can do in regards to change but like try to go balls to the wall do what you can to at least terrorize them as much as you can but also having that defensive stability where it's like try to keep it to a one to no goal margin as long as possible don't play scared but play smart because once it was 2-0 like for example in the leagues Cup game we kind of already knew it's GG's so keep it close keep B tight I'm not saying play scared but play smart and play with a structure and play with what fits our players best because as I said we don't have as much Firepower and maybe as much depth as LFC does but play to our player strengths and I think with this backline in particular with guys like newu and Alex Ron I think newo plays his best and I mentioned it in one of our previous videos he plays best in that Center back three when he's on that left side I think ree Baker Whiting could add a different dimension as a left wing back I think Alex is by far he's not a right back his best times as a Sounder was as a right wing back so maybe try it I could be wrong there too but what I'm basically trying to get at is try something different try to take the game to lafc because I think we played too conservatively in those last two games and that's what hurt us try something different try taking it at let them have more possession let's let us play on the Counterattack do something different because if I I think if we can beat LFC I think we can win the open cup and it could maybe change our season as I said I don't think Brian's going to continue again after this year I definitely think in theory R deaz rusnack some of these guys it's they're going to Bid Farewell I'm hoping that at the end of this season we're going to have a lot of roster changes so it might be a final season for many of these guys this would be the best way poetic way to let maybe the coach ruy Diaz A lot of these guys to bow out and it's I think it's poetic in regards to our 50th Anniversary win the trophy that kickstarted our whole great success in MLS I would love to see that and that's what I'm hoping for and as well guys if you're going to be at this game I will be doing fan cams so make sure you guys will probably see me with the mic I might be setting up I might be already interviewing fans I might already be recording if you're going to be at this game I would really love to get some good fan reaction so I would appreciate from the bottom of my heart if you guys come stop by give me your guys' opinion especially because there's been a lot to talk about with this team with some frustrations maybe some positive some hot takes so that's why I'm going to wrap up today's video guys let me know your guys' thoughts in the comments down below of the previous game against LFC what you're hoping for against LFC in the open cup if you guys are going to be at the open Cup game make sure to stop by after the game for fan reactions if you will be there and as well shout out to our patreon members Nathan goody Scott ran with scissors Aldo Hernandez hernon Gonzalez Zack barers and Mason grette if you guys want to go subscribe to the patreon the link is always in the description it's the best way to support the channel but boys and girls I hope you all have have a lovely day [Music]