I’ll admit, I was not quite ready for the 2023 season to end. A season that had once been virtually left for dead had come roaring back to life over the last couple months and I had sorta talked myself into the belief that this season was destined to end at MLS Cup. Maybe not actually lifting, but at least making a valiant charge, maybe even with Nicolas Lodeiro and Raúl Ruidiaz putting in a couple notable performances along the way. Nothing I saw against LAFC totally dissuaded me from believing that outcome was at least plausible, but the 1-0 loss at least means it’s no longer possible. If I’m to pull back a little, I suppose the final game was rather predictable. The Sounders played reasonably well -- I think you can even say they outplayed LAFC -- but couldn’t convert their chances, while LAFC made the most of theirs. Maxime Crepeau is a big reason why the sounders couldn’t convert, but the decisive factor ending up being the most predictable thing ever: Denis Buounga racing down the left wing and firing an absolute laser past Stefan Frei. Sponsors Full Pull Wines Watson's Counter Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/ 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.

It's probably still too early to say this season has been an unmitigated success, but by beating FC Dallas in the first round of the MLS Playoffs they showed that this season at least has some positives to take away. Jeremiah and Aaron give a bigger picture view on what this series told us about the Sounders and what they think could happen in the next round against LAFC.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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.

 

 

Much to our chagrin, the Seattle Sounders will be playing a Game 3 of their best-of-3 series after falling to FC Dallas 3-1 on Saturday. The match started off pretty much disastrously, with Dallas getting two goals inside 20 minutes.

To their credit the Sounders played much better over the next 70ish minutes until a Jackson Ragen giveaway allowed Dallas to score an ultimately meaningless insurance goal. During those 70 minutes, though, Jordan Morris looked about as good as he’s ever looked, scoring one goal, having another waved off for a questionable offside and just giving the Dallas defense all sorts of fits.

There was also a penalty not given despite VAR’s recommendation and a few other good chances for the Sounders to equalize. All in all, a disappointing but hardly disastrous result. We discuss.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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.

 

 

Drew Epperley of Big D Soccer joins us to preview Saturday's Game 2.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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 ran their unbeaten streak to 10 games and took a 1-0 series lead over FC Dallas in the first round playoff series. They got goals from Albert Runsak and Jordan Morris, a 12th career playoff shutout from Stefan Frei and generally looked about as good as they’ve looked all year.

I still don’t quite know how to feel about this three-game series, but I know winning your first game is a lot better than losing it! 

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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 will play familiar-playoff foe FC Dallas in a best-of-3 series that starts on Monday. To help us get some insight on the Sounders' opponent is Jon Arnold, who is part of the FC Dallas radio team as well as the guy who runs the Substack Getting Concacaf'd. 

Arnold says he think Dallas matches up reasonably well with the Sounders and tells us about the story of Bernard Kamungo, who went from a Tanzania refugee camp to U.S. youth national team player.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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 few weeks ago, we were asked by a listener to project how well the Sounders would finish. We were thrilled to discover that we probably underestimated how good this team was still capable of being.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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.

 

 

Matt Baker of the podcast Flyover Footy joined us on the show to help preview Saturday's regular-season finale against St. Louis City. He explains how the expansion team recovered from a midseason slump to blow away everyone's expectations.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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 closed out their regular-season home schedule with a 0-0 tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps. I think we can fairly say the Sounders had the better chances and certainly had more of them, but it would probably be a stretch to suggest they deserved much more than they got.

Defensively, they were stout and limited a very dangerous Whitecaps opponents to just four shots, and only one each from Brian White and Ryan Gauld. Offensively, though, it was a lot of half-chances without too many clear-cut ones.

The point was good enough to keep the Sounders in third place, but they’ll likely need some sort of result in their season-finale against St. Louis to maintain home-field advantage in the first round. It also closed the books on what is now officially their worst-ever home record over the course of a season, albeit one in which they allowed just .65 goals per game (the fewest they’ve ever allowed).

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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 got a massive win on Wednesday, beating the LA Galaxy on a 96th minute goal from Cristian Roldan that punched their ticket back to the playoffs. Jeremiah and Mark talk about how this win has helped revive their belief that this team might be capable of making a run.

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Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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.

 

 

Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) of Galactic Tribune joins us on the show to give us a scouting report on the LA Galaxy, a team that both scores and allows goals in bunches. He says Riqui Puig is about "99%" out and explains how injuries have piled up this year.

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Watson's Counter

Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which became a reader-supported website on Aug. 21. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more: https://www.sounderatheart.com/about/

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.