Ryan Rosenblatt joins Jeremiah and Richard to discuss the World Cup draw and to share some of his experiences while following the USMNT around Concacaf.

Richard Farley suddenly has a lot of free time so he and Jeremiah decided to record a podcast about something they were discussing on Twitter. Effectively they argue that the fortunes of the USMNT are largely divorced from the long arc of American soccer at large. It's an interesting discussion that goes in several directions.

We're also really curious what you think of it. Do you want more stuff like this?

It has been about 15 months since we last recorded an episode of Bear With Us. Don't worry, we're now all fully vaccinated and feeling good.

Will catches us up on what he's been up to all this time, what he thinks of the Sounders' new formation and how he feels his teammates have come together during this trying time.

Of course, we also found some time to offer some advice.

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

The Sounders return for their 13th season, ready to take on the team they scored an epic comeback against the last time they played at home. Unlike that game, though, this one will have fans in attendance. 

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.

Two weeks of YachtCon: Back to School is now officially in the books. To help us close things out, Sounders GM Garth Lagerwey hung out, shared some insight into his philosophy, teased the hiring of a new sporting director, drank a couple beers and ate a bunch of spicy hot wings. A good time was had by all.

For the third class of YachtCon, we welcomed Cocktail MD was joined by Will Bruin to learn the history and origin of punch, found out that beer cocktails are a thing and crafted a classic Old Fashioned, with a bit of a twist.

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Paul Zitarelli of Full Pull Wines welcomes Kelyn Rowe and Spencer Richey to his wine-tasting course at YachtCollege.

Brian Schmetzer helped us get YachtCon: Back To School started right, putting on his professorial hat to dig into his coaching philosophy and sharing some insight into his tactical approach to 2021.

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.

June 16, 2015 is a date that will always bear special significance to Seattle Sounders fans, and to a lesser degree those of the Portland Timbers. That was the Cascadia rivals faced off at Starfire Soccer Stadium in a U.S. Open Cup match. More relevantly, it was the day Clint Dempsey lost his mind, the Sounders finished the match with just seven players on the pitch and the Timbers became the first road team to win a competitive match against the Sounders at Starfire.

We teamed up with Chris Rifer of Soccer Made in Portland and FourFourTwo’s Richard Farley to tell the story of this fateful day through the people who experienced it first hand. We talked to Lamar Neagle, Andy Rose, Ross Fletcher, Nat Borchers, Caleb Porter, Jack Jewsbury and referee Jeff Hosking.