Jeremiah and Aaron get together for one final episode of 2020, providing some closing thoughts on MLS Cup and looking ahead to the offseason while sharing some thoughts on good albums to get us through the (hopefully) tail end of this 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.

The Sounders scored a historic comeback against Minnesota United to qualify for their fourth MLS Cup final in five years.

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.

The Sounders are back in the Western Conference finals. It’s the fourth time in five years and the fifth time in seven years that they’ve been here. That’s something that hasn’t been accomplished since the halcyon days of D.C. United going to each of the first four MLS Cup finals. The Sounders will now host Minnesota United on Monday with a chance to go to their fourth MLS Cup final in five years for a chance to win their third MLS Cup.

Jeremiah and Aaron discuss the 1-0 win over FC Dallas while also looking ahead to Minnesota United.

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.

Well, we made it. A regular-season like none before and hopefully one we’ll never repeat is in the books. All things considered, I think this has to be considered pretty successful. The Sounders finished with their best-ever goal-difference, their best points per game since 2014 and put three players on Best XI. They’ll go into the playoffs among the favorites to go to a fourth MLS Cup final in five years. Yet it’s also been a very strange year that hasn’t felt as fulfilling as all this would suggest for obvious reasons.

Jeremiah and Aaron discuss the season as a whole, look forward to the LAFC playoff match and try to figure out an appropriate new nickname for Lumen Field.

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.

The Sounders are finally wrapping up this wild season, heading into the final game of the regular season sitting third in the Western Conference with a decent shot at still grabbing the No. 1 spot if they win and results fall their way. But it’s been a bumpy ride getting here, at least recently.

They’re now 1-2-3 in their last six, which includes a brutal stretch of five games in 18 days. The most recent of those was a 1-1 tie with the LA Galaxy. The Sounders finally rotated their lineup in that one, making five changes from the previous game and looked OK out of the gate. When most of their starters came on in the second half, they looked a ton better but still managed to give up a goal against the run of play before finding a very late equalizer.

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.

Raúl Ruidíaz caught COVID-19 while on international duty with Peru. Jeremiah and Aaron would rather FIFA had canceled the window. 

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 usually meet with Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer a couple times a year. The last time we talked, the global coronavirus pandemic was just setting in. Now several months later there are still many questions around how this will all affect the Sounders. One effect we do know about is the decision to close the 300s to season-ticket holders. We talked about man of those things in this episode.

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.

There is nothing normal about this season, from the schedule to the congestion to ... the world. So, maybe in that very specific way the fact that the Seattle Sounders suddenly can’t beat the Portland Timbers at home makes ... sense? OK, that’s probably a stretch but neither Jeremiah nor Aaron seem too worried about a deflating loss, assuming it doesn’t snowball into a string of bad results.

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.

It's been nearly a month since the Seattle Sounders last played, but they return on Sunday against the Portland Timbers. It's definitely a weird one, though, as there will be no fans, likely artificial crowd noise and uncertain stakes. 

What we know is that this is probably about as close to "normal" as we're going to get for the foreseeable future. 

Aaron and Jeremiah discuss all of that, sing the Sounders' praises for the announcement of 2021 season-ticket renewals and answer many 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.

And just like that, it was over. After going 1-1-1 in the group stage, the Seattle Sounders were bounced from the MLS is Back Tournament in the Round of 16 by LAFC. The 4-1 scoreline may have been a little flattering even as the Sounders were thoroughly outplayed.

Disappointing as that loss was, neither Jeremiah nor Aaron were quite ready to freak out about it or about the state of the roster in general. They were happy that no one seems to have gotten sick while they were there, though.

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.

The Seattle Sounders return from an unplanned four-month break tonight. Unfortunately, it's hardly under the best of circumstances. While there was reason to hope that this might feel a bit more celebratory when the plans were first announced, the reality is that the pandemic that caused the break only seems to be getting worse in the United States.

As nice as it would be to focus on the soccer, Jeremiah and Aaron spend the first segment lamenting the lack of leadership that has gotten us to this point and makes it much harder to simply throw on the blinders and enjoy watching the Sounders again.

They do, however, get around to talking soccer too. The second segment turns the focus to the field while also answering listener questions.  Hope you enjoy.

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.

There were plenty of times when it seemed like the 2020 season was completely lost, but last week MLS announced that their long-rumored summer tournament would happen. On Thursday, they even released the draw. So, yeah, this is really happening.

Aaron and Jeremiah spend most of the first segment discussing the pros and cons of going forward with the tournament. While both still have significant reservations, they also admit that they’ll almost certainly be very interested in watching it. Live soccer, after all, beats no soccer.

As usual, they also take question from readers. Enjoy.

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.

Spencer Richey came up in the Seattle soccer scene just before the Seattle Sounders launched their academy. The goalkeeper played for Crossfire then moved to the United States residency program in Bradenton before coming back to Seattle to play for the University of Washington.

His time there coincided with the Huskies’ hiring of Jamie Clark and their subsequent rise to national prominence.

During his five years with UW — he added a year due to a medical red shirt — he helped the Huskies become one of the top college programs in the United States before getting drafted by the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Richey spent a couple years with the Whitecaps — even getting a MLS start — before going on loan to FC Cincinnati in the USL. He played well enough to make the jump with them to MLS and despite FCC bringing in a foreign goalkeeper to be the presumed starter, Richey would end up making 19 starts last year and opened this year as the starter again.

We caught up with Richey on Thursday in his Cincinnati home and talked about his rise up the American soccer ladder, his continued fondness for Seattle and his outlook for 2020.

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.

Time has lost all meaning so it’s perfectly understandable that you might have missed that this was supposed to be the week that the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers met for the first time this year. You may have even noticed that the two teams’ websites have been doing all sorts of content about it, including an oral history of their first-ever meeting of the all-MLS era.

We figured that was a reasonably good excuse to invite our good friend Richard Farley back onto the show. We talked about that game, what it meant for the rivalry and, oddly enough, a lot about the Michael Jordan documentary. It was fun.

Later in the show, Jeremiah and Aaron expressed some deep skepticism over the plan to bring all 26 teams to Orlando for some sort of tournament.

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.

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.