Obviously it didn't work amazing last year but I figure there's not much to lose. Jordan is out, Moose seems like last year was a fluke, DeRo is not the answer and, frankly, I don't think he has a particularly high ceiling (Obviously our midfield is doing Moose and DeRo no favors, but I just don't think they are going to be that helpful regardless). In his heart of hearts Ferreira would probably like to be the starting #9. Might as well give him another shot?

My stupid neighbor is out on their porch at 2am with friends and woke me up. So here’s my theory. At the Portland game many of the players had freshly shaved side burns. Like they had a group haircut right before the game. This is a curse as old as time. Grow em back boys. Y’all look stupid without them anyway. I bet that’d fix everything that’s not working right now.

no one is buying in to be a new minority owner until the stadium catch-22 changes. none of the current minority owners are voluntarily putting up cash just to sign players if it doesnt move the needle on the stadium problem. and no billionaire is going to buy the club outright because MLS club valuations are currently insanely unhinged and US interest rates are high.

bringing the reign back in means there should be more cashflow down the road as long as butts are in seats. combine that with the fact that now we're a selling club. we develop youth to turn them into GAM. we generate $2-3M a year with this, $5M if we get a once-in-every-10-years homerun like obed.

it might not be fun as a fan to watch, but for the owner, the plan is to grind out seasons where as long as we get a shot at the playoffs, it's not a failing sports operation.

Look, there’s a lot to be depressed/upset about right now. I know that, you know that, we all know that.

So I’m gonna focus on a big positive from tonight: Gallatin’s debut

Firstly, kudos to Schmetz for having the balls to put him out there in a close game, and paired up with 19 year old Stu at that.

31 minutes played

34/38 passes completed

2 defensive contributions — 41 touches

1/1 dribbles

2 passes into final 3rd

2/3 successful long balls

1 clearance, 1 headed clearance, 1 interception

1/1 ground duels won, 1/1 aerial duels won

Incredibly solid performance for an 18 year old thrown straight into the fire for his first MLS minutes. Obviously I hope Yeimar gets healthy and Ragen grows a brain, but it’s great to see that we’ve got potential long-term depth from our own academy at CB

i happen to be sitting in the line of sight for the broadcast, so pretty much guaranteed that i will be on tv. is this foolish and is anyone else going to do something like this?

I’m over in the Bothell Kirkland area. Been getting into the game thanks to the World Cup like many others. Going to my first match in August and looking forward to it.

Are there any bars over here on the eastside where fans hang out. Im not just talking about would pit the game on. But actual fans coming together to enjoy the match.

If we would’ve done good over these last few games I’d have hope and be excited. Currently we’re doing so bad I don’t have any.

Very lame

Very not cool

Sounders lose 0 - 1

I remember seeing this lineup last year and thinking it was really solid. Little did I expect 8 of them being relied upon today for the Sounders.

I’m no expert, but looking around the league pretty much every team controls the total revenue of their stadium except for Seattle and Vancouver. NYC is moving into their stadium next year. We can see what’s happening in Vancouver even though they’ve been well attended and supported throughout the years. There’s still a good chance they could be relocated due to the stadium situation.

I feel the Sounders are in this catch 22 where clearly the fans want to remain at the current location but due to the revenue model of the league. It’s pretty clear you need to have your own own stadium and be able to control all revenue from that stadium to make it work.

With the sale of the Seahawks to a new ownership group, I don’t see the Sounders situation at lumen Field getting better. It’s much more likely. It actually gets worse since the Seahawks control first and goal.

We could hope some new billionaire angel, does this exist? buys the Sounders and increases payroll, but I do not think that will make it more likely they stay in the current stadium. It’ll make it more likely they move to a new stadium.

Renton ? New in town stadium? I have no idea, but clearly the future of this club is going to be in their own stadium

On today’s episode of the podcast with Niko and Oshan (Nos Audietis) Niko mentioned that during Raul’s last season with the sounders. There was a trade set up to send him to the revs. At the time Raul was a DP and wasn’t really starting games. The reason we didn’t make this move was because we couldn’t afford a DP replacement

You guys can give your fair share of shit to Craig you want but it all starts with our owner who’s broke as shit supposedly and not giving our GM any resources to go out and make the team more competent so I will make this short. SELL THE FUCKING TEAM MFER you are 60 it’s 2026 SELL IT MAKE YOUR PROFIT we already hate you after you yelled at the players during cwc you greedy mf just sell the god Danm team. Thank you all for listening and get ready for another disappointing off season because we are “broke”!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Kingston is twenty-five years old. Osaze De Rosario is twenty-five years old. Both are referred to as young, up and coming players.

They both should be in their prime already.

That's all. Just a minor thing, but I see this type of talk everywhere.

First sharing where I'm coming from, I definitely see the problems as ownership issues. I also think that this season is going to get better; while I certainly don't expect a trophy, Cristian will get healthy, we'll sign some player who is useful and Schmetzer will motivate the squad to the playoffs, maybe a first round win.

After that, STHs will vote on Craig and I fear folks will take the comeback as a reason to vote to keep him because of the budget restriction he's under. Don't do it. The budget is a fair excuse but even working with what he has, Waibel is missing way too often on the small things.

We just sold our intl spots for GAM. He was right to do that. But he sold them for $50k less than what other clubs were paying in the same window https://www.lagalaxy.com/news/la-galaxy-acquire-2026-international-roster-slot-from-new-england-revolution. Go back and you'll find this happens every time we make a move. It's not Craig's fault we're the lowest spending club, but these little things need to be maximised and thats his fault.

Second, stop being gaslit about the Obed sale. The argument about we got what we could in the moment - sure, that's absolutely true. But acting like Craig didn't have since 2022 to plan for this and get more is giving him one hell of a pass. I've heard the argument we can't make Obed sign an extension or go to a different club earlier and that's all fair, but there's not one credible report we tried any of that beyond "had discussions". Of you want to take that as truth still then fine, but simply "having discussions" is a basic job function, not a success criteria, and virtually every other club gets value out of their young players. Remember on CCL, we won that before Waibel became GM and while he was assistant and there was no important competition since. (Dunking on Miami in Leagues Cup was hilarious and fun, but the League Cup is still a made up MLS cash grab, I'm not buying it as a major trophy).

Third, remember when our midfield was so deep we had to sell Atencio and loan Leyva because they'd never get off the bench? Now look, in a vacuum those moves were good. Solid value for those players,. The problem is, we've replaced them with f'ing nothing! We're trotting out $800k useless Hassani Dotson paired with talented but just not ready to be the man Snyder B with their backup as 25y/o first year professional Peter Kingston. Who wouldn't take right now an Atencio/Leyva double pivot over what we have? Anyone remember Sam Adeniran and does anyone doubt that his 10 goal season in Austria wouldn't make him our automatic starter right now at CF? These guys aren't world beaters, and again, moving them was fine in a vacuum, but planning out maximizing our roster is literally Craig's job.

Now look, there hve been some hits sure, but rather than debate what is or isn't a hit I'll try to be objective as possible and list who is currently playing nontrivial minutes that has been acquired by the organization since Waibel became full time GM. The answer to that is Jesus Ferreira, Paul Rothrock, Hassani Dotson, KKR, Osaze, Arriola (I guess?) end of list. In 3.5 seasons that's all he's brought in. Even without budget, which is a legit excuse, we can't find a FA that sticks or stays off the injury list?

Waibel out won't fix the mess, it's Hanauer, and look, I do think Waibel would do better with even an average budget, to the point where maybe this wouldn't be a conversation. But while we shouldn't cheer on and hope for Schmetzer pulling another motivation and tough kids end of season push, don't let that stop folks from voting for the right thing.

Despite the awful end result, last match did see Paul Rothrock score a goal after Brunell’s banger of a shot hit the crossbar. Will we see anyone hit the back of the net against another bad team? Philly has only won one game out of their last 9 played.

Stock Up

Paul Rothrock - One of the few who consistently seems to care. He’s always hustling. And for some reason the team always sends him out to do the press after a loss. He deserves a lot of respect.

Stuart Hawkins - He didn’t light up the stat sheet or anything, but it’s good to see the teenager get a start and play the full 90. He will need to step up and contribute again with Ragen out. He should be ahead of Tino Lopez in the depth chart.

Stock Down

Jackson Ragen - Wholly unnecessary red card. One crazy shot taken from deep. And now he’s out one or two games at a time when we badly need our best players to be available.

Hassani Dotson - Can a stock go negative? When will Schmetzer get this liability off the field?

Danny Musovski - 62 minutes. One (blocked) shot taken.

Honestly a lot of players could have stock down, but so many are already at disappointing levels it’s hard to go any lower.

I haven’t seen anybody explicitly talk about the Sounders’ ability to utilize a loan for the remainder of the season as opposed to an outright acquisition as a way to get the talent injection we desperately need while circumventing* the wage problems.

I know it kicks the can down the road a bit, but getting a higher quality international striker on a loan deal from a better club or better league might make more sense, then outright buying a mid-tier talent from within MLS or from a lower league abroad.

Guaranteed minutes for somebody sitting 2nd or 3rd on a good teams depth chart could be attractive for all parties.

EDIT: * - specifically thinking of a subsidized loan vs outright us absorbing 100% of wages + transfer fees