MLS Cup playoff preview vs. Minnesota United and what team will most likely lose MLS Cup to the Sounders

Niko and Jeremiah cover quite a bit of ground in this episode of What We Learned This Week. With the playoffs looming they share injury updates on Alex Roldan, Yeimar, Ryan Kent and Pedro de la Vega. The guys offer what they know regarding contract talks for Obed Vargas and Paul Rothrock which may not be as much you had hoped for. All of this leads into a preview of the Minnesota United matchup and Niko shares his overall playoff bracket.Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

With the MLS regular season behind us and the playoffs looming, Aaron and Jeremiah sit down and discuss the upcoming bracket tournament and where they see the Sounders headed in this chase for another trophy. They also dig into their “over/under” prediction list for the season to see how their prognostications over the season ended up.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

Jeff Rueter (most recently with the Athletic)  joins the show to give us insight into the 2025 MLS Cup playoff matchup against Minnesota United. They also dive into the Western Conference and Eastern Conference playoff pictures including which team would most likely lose MLS Cup to the Sounders if we make it that far. Jeremiah and Jeff wrap up the show by giving their MLS end of year award picks.Follow Jeff Rueiter on BlueSky.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

Niko Moreno joins Jeremiah talk about how good Jesús Ferreira has been for the Sounders and hoping to see what the attacking quartet of Jesús, Albert Rusnak, Pedro de la Vega, and Jordan Morris can do again. Finally. Discussion then turns to the return of our players on International duty and how they all did on their respective squads.In the final segment, Jeremiah talk to Paul Harvey of American Soccer Analysis and The Outfield (a NYCFC outlet). They discuss a new analytical tool Paul developed and also the upcoming game versus NYCFC.Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.Follow Paul Harvey on BlueSky and The Outfield.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

In a bit of a departure from the normal soccer talk Jeremiah and Aaron take a minute to discuss what a surreal couple of weeks it has been for Seattle sports. In particular with the Mariners being 2 wins from a possible World Series berth for the first time you'll have to forgive us for taking a minute to soak it all in.Diving back into the actual soccer show the guys review the Sounders home win against Real Salt Lake and the importance of that win. We wrap it all up in what was almost a real-time reaction to the breakout performance the Sounders’ Cristian Roldan had for the USMNT against Australia.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

With several key players on International duty and several more injured the Sounders are missing as many as 11 players for their match against Real Salt Lake. In this episode of What We Learned This Week Jeremiah, Niko, and Tim talk about what players could be called up from Tacoma Defiance to fill the roster and speculate on what a possible starting lineup will look like against RSL. Will we see chaos or is this is a good opportunity for some younger players? The guys also round up how Obed Vargas and Reed Baker-Whiting have looked for their respective Mexico and United States National Teams at the U20 World Cup.Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.Tim Ostlund-Foss writes for Sounder at Heart.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been primarily listener supported since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

Jeremiah and Aaron are back with another mailbag episode, taking questions from listeners that try to assess how good of a season this has been so far and what next year might look like.Before they do that, though, they spend some time going over the massive win over the Portland Timbers.As a reminder, all these questions came from our private Discord, which is available to all subscribers at the Supporter ($75/year) level or above. If you’d like to upgrade your membership, you can do so here. If you’re already a Supporter or above and want to join the Discord, shoot us an email.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***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 here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

The general consensus seems to be that the Eastern Conference is far better than the West this year. While that may true in terms of depth, the reality is that the top four or five teams in the West can stand toe-to-toe with their Eastern counterparts.To help make that case, we brought back Backheeled.com’s Joe Lowery, who also shares some of his early end-of-season award picks.You can support Joe’s work as well as ours by upgrading your membership to the Advocate level or above, which includes a complimentary subscription to Backheeled.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***Nos Audietis is the flagship podcast for Sounder at Heart, which has been a reader-supported website since 2023. You can support us by becoming a paid subscriber, learn more here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

The Seattle Sounders are just two points ahead of the Portland Timbers and haven’t beaten their biggest rivals at home in the regular season since 2017. Those are pretty good reasons to win. But Jeremiah and Niko argue that the reason this game is so important has less to do with statistics and more to do with vibes. The Sounders need this game just to get things moving in a positive direction again.Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***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 here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.

The Seattle Sounders did a lot of things right against the Vancouver Whitecaps. They also did some stuff wrong … and picked up a couple of injuries.With Aaron out of town, Tim Foss is filling in. He and Jeremiah discuss the latest Sounders disappointment and look ahead to the final three games of the season.Sponsor🍷 Full Pull Wines: Love wine but not wine clubs? Check out the boutique wine seller who lets you browse their selections and pick whatever you want. You can join their mailing list here: https://fullpullwines.com/signup.php***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 here. You can also watch many of their shows on YouTube.Aside from becoming a Sounder at Heart subscriber, you can also support the show by using this link to purchase MLS Season Pass or checking out our merch table to buy various shirt designs.“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.