Nos Audietis

The days and weeks are running into one another, but that hasn’t stopped us from recording another one of our patented “podcasts.” It’s now been about six weeks since the Seattle Sounders last played a game, and amazingly we still have things to talk about.

Among the topics of discussion this week were a call from ECS not to play any games until it was safe enough for not only players, but also fans to be in attendance. We also discussed the Seattle Times’ story that looked back on the decision-making process that resulted in the Sounders playing their final game despite a looming pandemic.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

All of us are handling this “stay home, stay safe” order in different ways. Some are getting house work done. Others are binging TV shows. A lot of us are simply trying to stay sane with a house full of people all the time.

Will Bruin, like the rest of the soccer world, is trying to balance staying in game shape with all of this stuff. It’s understandably wearing on him a bit.

That’s where we come in! In the latest episode of Bear With Us, we provided a list of six different houses full of six people —mostly current and former teammates of Will’s — and asked him to pick one house to ride out the quarantine in. We also found out that he’s doing a bit of “all of the above” from the list at the beginning.

Give it a listen.

Musics: "Bumped into Bigfoot" - Bedford; "Cutthroat" - prod. by Syndrome

The Seattle Sounders haven’t played a match since March 7 and we have absolutely no idea when they might start playing again. Thus is the new world we’re living in.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t have lots of questions. Jeremiah and Aaron do their best to answer them and hopefully provide you with a bit of a distraction.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

We’ve only played on league game and this season already seems to be taking us on a roller-coaster. The Seattle Sounders were in prime position to come home with a lead in the Concacaf Champions League series with Olimpia, only to be forced to settle for a 2-2 tie. They then fell behind in their home leg, only to find themselves seemingly cruising to advancement only to fall in penalties.

The MLS home opener saw them fall behind the Chicago Fire, then storm back to win 2-1 on a 93rd minute goal.

In between all that, we hosted an exceptionally successful YachtCon that raised more than $10,000 for Seattle Children’s Hospital Autism Center.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

For the fifth time, we've hosted something we lovingly dubbed YachtCon. Frankly, this one is going to be tough to top (which won't stop us from trying).

Not only did we have an absolutely stellar panel of guests -- Brian Schmetzer, Jess Fishlock, Bethany Balcer, Bill Predmore, Brad Evans, Will Bruin and Garth Lagerwey -- but we finally had a venue that was all ours. Hale's Palladium felt just about perfect and we have some amazing ideas that we think at least have the potential to smooth out any rough edges.

Among the highlights were Schmetzer talking about the "hazy" days of the CISL's Seattle SeaDogs, the players all facing off in an epic game of "Line 'em Up" and Lagerwey explaining some of the intricacies of the new CBA. 

In addition to having wonderful guests, we also raised a significant amount of money. We're still going through the full accounting of everything, but it's looking very likely that when it's all said and done that we'll exceed our $10,000 fundraising goal. All of that money will go to the Seattle Children's Autism Center, which they use on buying Big Red Safety Boxes for their families. If you'd like to contribute more to the cause, you can give a tax-deductible donation here. If you act quickly, you can still contribute by placing an order for one of our jerseys by filling out this order form: men's, women's.

On a more personal note, it should be said that for all the talk of MLS's potential growth, events like this should be treasured. There might not be any teams in the world of the quality of the Seattle Sounders and Reign FC who are participating in a grassroots, fan-centric event like this. We also owe a big thank you to SB Nation, who agreed to cover most of our expenses this year and played a huge role in helping us reach our fundraising goal.

But enough talk, If you weren't able to attend and would prefer to watch the highlights, check out our YouTube page. Otherwise, you can listen to the podcast version of the show here.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

Back in July, the Seattle Sounders hired their first ever President of Business Operations. At the same time, Peter Tomazawa also became a part owner of the team. We first got to know Tomazawa during a conversation with reporters back in August. But we figured it would be good to check in with him again now that he’s been on the job for a few months.

Tomazawa is clearly enjoying his new role. At MLS Cup, he related a story where he told MLS Commissioner Don Garber that he should get used to coming to Seattle for MLS Cup because Tomazawa intends to be hosting it regularly. He says that not just as someone who works for the team, but as someone who is also a fan. The Tomazawas have been season-ticket holders since moving here in 2015 in order to give their son a chance to play for the Sounders Academy.

Hope you enjoy the interview.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

While the Seattle Sounders have not been particularly active this offseason, Will Bruin has been doing his best to get ready as close to the start of the season as possible. The good news is that he says he should be back in full training in less than a month and could plausibly be ready to start by the end of March.

Of course, all work and no play makes a bear go wild. Will found some time to visit family, as well as visit Hawaii while doing his best to keep up on the training regimen passed along by Sounders training.

We also got Will’s advice on things like managing a Seattle winter and proper Twitter etiquette.

Musics: "Bumped into Bigfoot" - Bedford; "Cutthroat" - prod. by Syndrome

We recorded before today’s SuperDraft, but that didn’t stop us from talking about how we don’t have very high expectations for it anyway. We also answered a ton of your questions.

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

We're now a few weeks into the offseason and we have to admit that it's been pretty slow. The Seattle Sounders have mostly been checking the required boxes by declining options, protecting players from the expansion draft and the like. Aside from the 18 players they have on roster, most of last year's players remain in a sort of purgatory with only backup goalkeeper Bryan Meredith officially leaving to Inter Miami and only backup goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland newly joining the team in a trade.

Still, we felt compelled to give you that sweet, sweet content most of which comes in the form of answering your questions.   

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.

We won MLS Cup. Again. This time at home. It was an almost magical experience, all the way from the pregame scene at Occidental Square to the mood inside the stadium to the play on the field.

Don’t listen to what anyone else says, the Sounders absolutely deserved this. They’ve been the best team in the postseason and showed it again against Toronto FC.

Jeremiah and Aaron get into that as well as looking ahead to what this offseason might have in store.

(audio file replaced 11-14-19)

This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)

Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.