Niko Moreno (@ElRoloNW) joins Jeremiah to discuss the final preparations for the Sounders’ Western Conference semifinal against LAFC. Niko is particularly interested in seeing some sort of tactical change and suggests putting Raúl Ruidíaz back at striker with Jordan Morris moving to the wing. He also floats the possibility of seeing João Paulo back into the starting lineup, which becomes even more attractive if Paul Rothrock can’t start.

Jeremiah and Niko also discuss some of the big moves around the league that could have an impact on the Sounders.

One of our favorite announcer teams on the MLS Season Pass lineup is Max Bretos and Brian Dunseth. We’ve had Dunseth on the show a couple of times, but with the Sounders gearing up for LAFC we thought it would be good to have Bretos on for the first time ever.

Bretos is one of the longest tenured announcers in MLS, first starting out on Fox Soccer Channel before moving to ESPN and then eventually to MLS Season Pass. In addition to calling games, he also does work with LAFC. We figured he’d be a great person to provide some insight into the Sounders’ next opponent.

If you’d like to hear more from Max, check out his podcast “The Soccer OG.”

With a pretty big lull in the schedule, Jeremiah and Aaron are doing their monthly mailbag. Among the questions they tackle: Who should have played more? Who should the Sounders move on from? What positions should Sounders prioritize for upgrade? How will the Sounders finally beat LAFC?

No, it wasn’t pretty, but in times like this it’s important to celebrate good things. By beating the Houston Dynamo, the Sounders have qualified for the the Western Conference semifinals for the 14th time in 16 seasons. It’s the seventh most in MLS history, and the only teams who have done it more had 13-season head starts. Jeremiah and Aaron give them their due.

That was not exactly the performance we were hoping to get from the Sounders, but to act as though winning the game is anything short of a positive is rather silly. Jeremiah and Aaron break it all down and look ahead to what Game 2 might look like.

Andrew Pearson (aka @interpearsonal on Twitter) joins Jeremiah to give a tactical preview of the upcoming series against the Houston Dynamo. In the Dynamo, Pearson sees a very similar team to the Sounders, or at least very similar to how they Sounders played last season.

The Seattle Sounders came into their regular-season finale against the Portland Timbers absolutely flying, having won three straight and unbeaten in six. They started strong, too, jumping out to a 1-0 lead and looking by far the better team. But as has become all too familiar against the Timbers at home, one mistake snow-balled and they had to settle for a 1-1 tie. The Sounders still head into the playoffs on a seven-game unbeaten run and by most objective standards had a very good regular season but the vibes are a bit off. Jeremiah and Aaron discuss.

Longtime friend of the show and Timbers expert Chris Rifer joins us to help preview Saturday’s Cascadia Cup clash. It’s been an up and down season for the Timbers, who are likely looking at this game as something like their MLS Cup.