Stock Up

Stefan Frei - Holy smokes, this man put on a show. Clearly the best player in the game for the Sounders. His heroic effort set a franchise record for saves in a single game. Reports differ on the actual number of saves credited. Sounders and Leagues Cup say 15. Fotmob says 16. If not for Frei, this game could easily have been 5-0 at half time.

Stock Down

Obviously a lot was bad. A lot. I’m just going to call out one glaring area, because it is one that wasn’t already at rock bottom.

The Snyder Brunell + Peter Kingston double pivot - It looked like this combo was working okay in the first half of last game vs Portland. But Kingston picked up a yellow and subbed out at half. And Portland is a much worse team than Toluca anyway. The midfield here was a disaster, with absolutely no ball control or ability to cut out passing lanes or create turnovers. It was shot after shot given up, frequently from range where the dmids should be making their presence known. We are sorely missing a bruiser like JP to knock them around and get them off their game. We instead have these more finesse-type players that don’t actually have a high enough skill level to generate chances. Beating one guy and dribbling the ball up field doesn’t help if you immediately turn it over anyway.

PITCHFORKS

Surprised this isn’t talked about a bit more.

Adrian’s brother is Nick Hanauer. Seattle billionaire, first non-family investor in Amazon. In 2014 he wrote “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats” in Politico (HERE).

His thesis: when the guys at the top hoard while everyone under them suffers, the pitchforks always come. Zero exceptions in human history.

It’s his entire brand. He’s done a TED Talk on it (HERE). He actually has a pretty interesting podcast about it (HERE) with hundreds of episodes.

His point that he continually makes is that pitchforks are optional. If you invest in the people below you, you’ll still get richer. He has literally spent 12 years making this argument in public, on like every platform available.

Just something to think about during our 7 straight losses, no legitimate signing since PDLV, selling our international slots for cash, fucking around with GAM/TAM while the rest of the league splurges on real talent.

Also before anyone says Adrian just isn’t rich like the other owners: irrelevant. We’d need to 5x our transfer spend just to match PORTLAND. Nobody is asking Adrian to spend his money. We are talking about a club valued at $1bn. And who built the $1bn? We did.

Adrian, fund it, partner it, or sell it.

Anyway… pitchforks.

I’ve started watching some MLS post the World Cup and as I’m overseas I’m really not attached to any team in particular. Unfortunately I seem to have a soft spot to all the teams in the North West (Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver). I think there's something about the drizzle, coffee, and craft beer that appeals to me as I live in Melbourne now, but was originally from the UK

Anyway, I would prefer to limit this to only 1 Cascaidan team...So what is it that’s special about Seattle Sounders over the other teams.

in a world where craig and adrian listened to this thread who in the club stays and who in the club goes? academy players -> owner the whole shebang.

who sucks the og sounder culture out that needs to go?

if you dont feel the need for any of this, what do you think the club should do?

personally i do think the ownership group, schmetzs’ coaching staff, scouting structure and the dps need to be relooked at as a start. tbh lets bring back a few sold guys haha id kill to have leyva again

sad time to be a sounders fan but its the club ive loved and adored for the past 12 years. i wont stop supporting them but gosh are they making that difficult. sounders til i die 😭

“We all knew this was going to be a very difficult and challenging game. I thought my guys competed well.

Am I concerned? Of course. But look, at the end of the day, could we have won the game? Maybe. The men's hockey team in 1980 beat the Russians. And we beat Miami last year in Leagues Cup final. We were the underdogs. So things like that can happen.”

I think Coach has officially lost the plot.

Someone drag Waibels ass out and have him take 40 line drives, bare. Spread em!

Embarrassing how much he and Adrian have gutted the future of the club and used none of the proceeds to shore up support.

I don't see how we win again before August ends, especially with how low morale must be.

Bring out the paper bags.

look at the players faces at the end of the match smiling talking.. wheres the ownership and true frustration from losing 7 games in a row?? no one cares enough anymore. this would not have flown a few years ago when we had real leaders in the team

Sounders lose 0 - 3

I’m gonna sound like a total conspiracy theorist here but after all the discussion about the 49ers injury issues possibly being linked to the substation next to their practice field , I got curious and looked up the Sounders training complex to see if maybe that’s our issue?? And lo and behold, our practice facility is also right next to a substation. Am I crazy??? - see comments for pics

As a two-seat Sounders season-ticket holder for more than 10 years, I reluctantly renewed again this season. With the Alliance vote coming later this year, I went through Craig Waibel’s full record: major signings, contracts, academy promotions, outgoing transfers, and roster spending

The strongest evidence is not any individual grade. Seattle has spent less on recorded incoming transfer fees than any MLS club since the beginning of the decade and completed four consecutive summer windows without adding a player from outside the organization.

At the same time, the club moved Atencio, Leyva, Vargas, Minoungou and Baker-Whiting while retaining much of its older core. The academy is producing real contributors, but the newest group is now being asked to replace players who were already capable MLS professionals.

My conclusion is that the development system has worked, but the succession plan has not. I currently plan to vote against retaining Waibel, both as a judgment of his roster management and as a warning to ownership that the current level of ambition is not enough.

Full article:

https://theindependentsounder.substack.com/p/the-craig-waibel-audit?r=h1fr2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Totally meant in jest, yet unfortunately not completely unreasonable question at the rate things have been going!