1) About 4 years since I moved away from Seattle to Portland for University and made friends with a guy who really loved soccer. I was aware of the Sounders before then, but never really watched all I knew about them was we had Keller and Montero who I kept getting confused with the Mariners "greatest" prospect (lol)
2) I thought it was really cool that there are local people playing for the Sounders unlike Mariners/Seahawks. I rock a Neagle flair because I grew up in Federal Way and think it was cool that someone from my hometown was on the team...
3) Going to the Rapids Playoff Game in 2013 I drove up from school to meetup with some friends and watched our team manage to break our slump. Alternatively beating LA at the last minute to win the Supporters shield and derail Donovans victory lap.
4) I was really disappointing this off season lots of teams went out and built their roster. The additions made by teams like Toronto, Orlando, Vancouver, Chicago, Montreal all made me worried when our only signing was a 32 year old RB with an injury history, a backup keeper and a bunch of rookie strikers (although it is cool Jones & Mansaray are from the 253, and I actually met Jones once while at Highline CC). I never have been a huge fan of Rose or Azira, I felt Gonzalez is too old and Remick is not ready. I wish we kept Brad as a utility man and bought a center back. This run has been shitty because a team I thought would still be competitive crumpled in the open cup in spectacular fashion and crumbled once again like in 2013. I wasn't on the fire Sigi train back then, but now I am not sure.
5) Honestly I think the teams depth needs to be evaluated, Pineda has not played well and isn't fit to be a starter he seems to play fine for 15-20 minutes but just runs out of gas since he hurt his ankle in like game 4. Neagle who was really good last year and fuck the haters is playing like he doesn't give a shit anymore, Barrett has been dreadful and is reverting back to the joke striker he was around the league, Gonzalez has slowed down and is not the player he once was and I still don't think Remick is good enough defensively.
5) I honestly wouldn't be unhappy to see Sigi fired he can't seem to motivate the players he has this season, and tactically I think he is to prone to playing players out of position. Rose and Roldan are not good wingers, Neagle isn't a CF. Even last year he played Kenny Cooper out of position constantly on the wings over Pappa or Evans. Likewise discipline this season has been poor on all levels and I was bitched at on Sounder at Heart for saying that. The Open Cup was an utter disaster, guys in S2 doing the same against RSL, Pappa drunk driving and just in general a sense of from that the "refs are against us waaaah!!!" when they are shitty to everyone.
5) Team wise I think we need to restructure the team significantly, I think we need to look around the MLS to find guys to restore our roster last season we made trades for Marshall, Cooper, Barret and Pappa (with Chicago via allocation order I believe). Moves we have not made this season.
Rosterbation
5a. Buy someone who can platoon with Dempsey/Oba as a striker so we can rest them in games and the quality wont fall off a cliff from MLS BEST 11 to Rookies and Cloggers. Whether this means signing Morris this winter or not we need to improve our #3 striker.
5b. Wings, Pappa gave us one of the best Sounders moments when he won the Supporter Shield. However I am not sure if he is the right guy for our team. He is probably one of the best dribblers in the league by far however he slows play too much when last year we had alot of success as a quick transition team. However we have no other actual winger, I think Neagle is best as a supersub and think he is redeemable (he was somehow our third best forward behind Johnson & Martins in 2013 and was one of the best wingers in 2014 when he is on he makes up for his lack of skill with work rate)
5c. CM our midfield is weak... like really weak. I think Friberg will pan out as a decent starter for the next few seasons but behind him I think Rose & Azira need to go. Rose isn't good enough defensively to replace ozzie, isn't fast enough to play on the wings and isn't good enough of a passer to replace Friberg/Pineda. Azira I feel tries to play hero ball he runs around and wins the ball alot but has terrible positioning and even worse passing. Alternatively if we bought a DP more B2B midfielder/Winger I think our midfield problems would be fixed.
5d. Defense our LB spot is a gaping hole on our team I am not a fan of Remick and I think with Gonzalez's injuries its time for him to hang up his boots.
Tldr