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.

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🍷 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

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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.