Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Gotham FC is on a run; SD Wave is sinking; A big weekend awaits

Transcript

Gotham FC is on a run; SD Wave is sinking; A big weekend awaits · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football before we hit the pitch.
0:09
If you enjoyed the show or love women's football as much as your
0:12
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
We do this every single week, sometimes twice a week.
0:17
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
0:20
you like to watch or listen. Links to Twitter X Instagram,
0:23
TikTok threads, all available in the show notes of this episode.
0:26
I am host Dino de Cespedes and as always I am joined by my Co
0:30
host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:33
Feeling fantastic, buddy. Feeling fantastic for a few
0:36
reasons. Let me just go ahead.
0:37
Get this. Get this baby started and
0:39
cracked. I've got my seltzer today, but
0:43
we're going to crack it nonetheless.
0:45
Fair enough. I understand that.
0:47
And I feel like I feel fantastic for a reason that a great many
0:50
people feel fantastic. One, we got some good football
0:53
in the middle of the week from the NWSL.
0:56
And two, to my knowledge, I have not angered Kendrick Lamar in
1:00
any way. And that is, that's fine by me.
1:03
I want to keep that streak going for the rest of my life 'cause
1:06
that's he is apparently a gentleman you do not want to
1:09
make angry. I think it's a very astute
1:11
point. All I could do you know was
1:14
think back to those times when I used to listen to Drake and then
1:17
dust off my old red hoodie for this wonderful Thursday night
1:21
pod to recap some of the Wednesday night action with my
1:23
guy. Very excited to kick it off with
1:25
you, man. Where do you want to get
1:26
started? Let's start in chronological
1:28
order. I like it.
1:29
The Bats of Gotham FC played the San Diego wave in Gotham, if you
1:34
will, or New Jersey, whatever you want to call it, Gotham FC
1:39
to San Diego Wave one. Do you have any big takeaways
1:43
from this one? I think my biggest take away
1:46
probably, well, let me take it from the top, I would say the
1:50
starting lineups. These are like the two teams
1:52
that I think have been wrecked the most between like
1:54
international breaks, injuries, just like lack of rhythm.
1:57
Gotham's kind of gotten their stuff together.
2:00
San Diego a little bit less so only two players on the pitch,
2:03
so just two out of all 22 would be making their 13th start of
2:07
the season. In this one, that was Emily
2:09
Sonnet for Gotham, Kaitlin Sheridan for the wave, again for
2:12
Gotham, Nolan Williams, no Esther Gonzalez, no Ellis
2:15
Stevens, no problem. Still had Crystal Dunn, Katie
2:18
Stengel, Emily Sonnett, Roosevelt, all very, very, very
2:21
much in the building. Gotham looked really good.
2:24
I mean, now nine straight unbeaten, coinciding with the
2:27
arrival of Aunt Katrin Berger, they are finding their rhythm.
2:31
I was impressed, man. I gotta say, I think I had been
2:34
a little low when we're doing our early season tears, fully
2:37
ready to abandon that that Gotham's at that.
2:41
Good take. Yeah.
2:42
But I do want to kick it back to you.
2:43
What do you think they're doing so right at the moment?
2:46
They're playing really direct versus the wave.
2:50
And I don't know if that's always, you know, their manager,
2:52
Juan Carlos Amaros, I don't know if that's always his game plan.
2:56
I don't think they, they tend to always play direct like that.
2:59
I think a lot of times they're kind of moving the ball around
3:01
the field a little bit. But against the wave, they they
3:04
very clearly saw something. Rose Lavelle was playing some
3:07
great passes early. Brunia was getting up the right
3:10
side of the field. Yasmine Ryan was streaking up
3:13
the left side of the field. I thought they looked fast.
3:15
I thought they looked aggressive, maybe not even fast
3:18
is the word. They look decisive and
3:20
aggressive, I thought. And then you just have the world
3:24
beater, Rose Lavelle herself 'cause she can hit those good
3:27
passes, but then she can also hit a missile from about 28
3:32
yards, maybe 26 yards, and put you up one NIL in the first
3:35
half. That ball had, I don't know,
3:38
Pedro Martinez, Greg, some wicked, wicked movement on it.
3:43
I was just actually thinking about this.
3:45
Imagine being a goalkeeper. The ball starts off sort of
3:48
flowing one way and then it ends up in the opposite top left
3:52
corner. By the time it hits the net.
3:54
There's just no way to know. There's no way to handle that.
3:56
Like that's just you're just DOA at that point.
3:59
Rose Lavelle, Sometimes we have players that are due like,
4:03
because as it's been four or five games since players have
4:05
scored, Roosevelt was due just from what she was doing in that
4:08
match. Yeah, she, her passing, her
4:10
striking, she had a head. Like she was just so super
4:13
active that you just felt like it was coming.
4:16
And then when the moment does come, she's on the run and then
4:19
she's got the wave defender sort of backtracking and she uncorks
4:23
it. It's just like you already knew
4:24
what time it was, like that was always going to be money.
4:26
The best way to beat Kailyn Sheridan is to give her
4:29
absolutely no chance at it. And that's what she did from
4:33
that distance. And you make such a great point
4:35
when Lavelle is on the run like that now, it's like everybody
4:38
has to kind of a be retreating, but be be thinking about
4:42
whatever three or four options she has in front of her.
4:45
Is it going to be a through ball?
4:46
Is it going to be a 12? Or is it going to be a rocket?
4:49
And if you guess wrong, you know it might be Yahtzee I.
4:54
Want to call out Katie Stingle too.
4:56
She had the key tackle and the lead up on that one.
4:59
She was really active as well. I mean this team is like it's
5:02
wild to see. This was the first time.
5:04
Obviously they they play this lineup.
5:06
So you have that lack of continuity with regard to the
5:08
players and the starting lineups.
5:09
I think they've only had seven players start ten matches of the
5:13
13, no. And one of those seven players
5:16
is Esther Gonzalez, who's been hurt for a while, and it might
5:19
be a little bit before she's back.
5:21
Yeah. I think the other thing about
5:23
Gotham, they won all the toughness battle.
5:26
Like when you look at the toughness stats that I love to
5:28
look at like fouls committed, 15 to four Gotham, nice tackles, 26
5:34
to 18 Gotham, yellow cards, 3 to one Gotham.
5:38
Like it wasn't just that they were tough.
5:40
They were, I think I, I think they actually came into this
5:42
match saying and this wave team with another NFL cliche, I want
5:47
to dust off the West Coast team flying east.
5:49
So it was problematic. You already know that.
5:52
But I think this Gotham side wanted to come out here and
5:56
rough up San Diego and just kind of see what would happen.
5:59
And I think we saw a good amount of that in addition to that
6:01
decisiveness that you talked about.
6:03
And they pretty much, I don't know, I would say they dominated
6:06
the first half like they were in kind of total control.
6:08
I think that was the story of the first half.
6:09
I think you're right that they kind of dominated that,
6:12
especially it felt like from like 15 on, I think I think they
6:17
they really controlled it. But San Diego, they came out
6:20
pretty fast in the in the second-half.
6:22
Maya Jones was able to get the equalizer.
6:24
Really impressive play from Jones, just like rips the ball
6:28
off of Sam and then heads toward the goal for the finish.
6:32
But outside of that, going back to what you're saying in the in
6:35
the totality of the match, Gotham was still winning all the
6:38
toughness stuff. They were winning those fifty
6:40
50s, they're fouling, they were aggressive.
6:43
If you're San Diego, you could probably look back at that Maya
6:45
Jones play and be like, we needed about 50% more of that
6:50
type of play that Maya Jones was able to produce there.
6:53
Yeah, it's one of those things where it's sort of like hitting
6:56
1/2 court shot, you know, in basketball.
6:58
It's kind of like it's cool, but it's not going to get you into
7:01
rhythm. Like it's just like a weird
7:03
fluky kind of thing because that was just my Jones.
7:05
I mean, I think it was a on catch a burger pass, little bit
7:09
wayward. Jones gets a hold of it and
7:11
essentially sort of wins on two moves, kind of like gets the
7:15
outside, gets the inside a slick finish near a post, sneaks at
7:19
past. And I thought it was a little
7:22
bit weird to see a goal. I mean, let's rewind back to the
7:27
previous week where you've got like Sanchez killer cross finds
7:31
Jaden Shaw. Jaden Shaw kind of like, you
7:33
know, knocks at home and now like they're on the board and
7:35
now it's everything's very exciting.
7:37
This Jones goal was like very much not a team goal.
7:40
This was like her being like, let me just faster, let me just
7:43
heave this from half court, see what happens and then she
7:46
equalizes. But at the same time, it's kind
7:49
of like not a ton to build on if you're San Diego there other
7:52
than like emotionally. So I don't know.
7:54
What did you see? What did you see after the goal?
7:57
I think what they could have taken from that, and it's
7:59
probably easy to say in hindsight, but what they could
8:01
have taken from that is, OK, let's try to win more of these
8:04
duels, be more aggressive, taking the ball off of Gotham,
8:08
which is also easier said than done.
8:10
But I think you're right. You're not going to get two of
8:12
those exact kindness of goals, but you would hope that some
8:15
aggressiveness could help at least create opportunities for
8:17
you to knock the ball around a little more.
8:20
So I like the Subs for the wave at the half.
8:24
So they brought on Alex Morgan, pretty good player to bring on
8:27
one of the greatest players in the history of the USA, Savannah
8:30
McCaskill, who I think we've talked about a lot on this show.
8:34
One of the better midfielders, hard nosed, tough, good passer,
8:37
smart player. And then they brought on
8:39
Mackenzie Doniak as well. So I like those Subs for them.
8:42
But then all reliable. Jenna Neiswanger just always in
8:47
the mix for the bats. I thought she played a big role
8:51
and you know at what she came on in like the 60th or something
8:54
like that. I think it was just to kind of
8:56
resettle things for Gotham and just make sure that they had a
8:59
little more control and just the wave.
9:02
They couldn't keep up with the ball it felt like in this one.
9:05
Yeah, that's a great point. I'm looking at some of the
9:06
passing stats here. So Gotham completed 63 more
9:11
passes than the wave attempted. Oh, OK.
9:15
OK, Yeah, that's it. But your disparity, yeah.
9:18
A little rough possession, a shade under 6040.
9:21
So the wave we're pretty much chasing kind of all night.
9:24
It's tough to really put your finger on what's not working
9:28
there. Yeah.
9:29
And then on the flip side, what I really loved about Gotham, and
9:33
I'm not sure how much of this probably a good chunk of it is a
9:36
credit to Amoros, but it felt like they had multiple two and
9:41
three player attacks that featured different players.
9:45
It's like, OK, now it's like Brunina and Crystal Dunn and
9:48
it's it's Roosevelt and Stengel. And then it's like, you know,
9:51
nice Wanger. We'll get into like the second
9:53
goal late in this one. But it just felt like the danger
9:56
was coming from anywhere and like it really was emerging
10:00
based on here's our advantage right here in this 10 or 15
10:03
second pocket like go. And I think San Diego's a
10:07
complete opposite, like almost no cohesion.
10:10
We didn't get any players in rhythm from San Diego, kind of
10:14
like working towards anything that that was was somewhat
10:17
promising, was like a little chance here, chance there.
10:19
But you look at where they were at, three shots total, one on
10:22
target. Yeah.
10:23
You know that's not going to get it done at Gotham.
10:27
That's the recipe for a long night.
10:29
Yeah, against Burger, if you want more than one goal, you got
10:33
to take more than three shots in most cases.
10:35
So, yeah, I mean, I think with Amoros, I mean, obviously they
10:39
win the league last year with him as the manager.
10:42
You know, in football, you you assign some of these qualities
10:46
to the manager you have almost based on their nationality and
10:49
kind of their their background. You know, there's a little bit
10:52
of Spanish football in that where you're talking about you
10:55
attack the space, not stick to your game plan.
10:59
It's like, well, OK, well, maybe the triangle is is U3 over here,
11:03
but hold on a minute. Change fields.
11:05
We got space over there. So they got a lot of good
11:08
players. They have smart players.
11:11
We should get into the goal because they have great poise
11:15
down the stretch too. And I think you're going to get
11:17
some of that. We, you know, you and I love a
11:19
good sports cliche. You get some of that
11:22
championship medal that bleeds over into the following season
11:27
of like, yeah, we know we can do this.
11:29
Even if you weren't a big player on the squad the previous year,
11:33
you know, everybody else has that DNA and that almost like
11:37
bleeds into you. We saw with like a lot of like
11:39
bit players on the on the Golden State Warriors.
11:42
Like, yeah, like you see it with, you know, and in the with
11:45
the Warriors specifically, you saw with like Jordan Poole and
11:48
like they're just cycling in various centers to go to go in
11:52
there and play like, oh, he looks pretty good.
11:54
It's like, well, he looks good in the context of the whole
11:56
team. Not saying that's what that's
11:58
what Gotham is doing with some of their plays that they seem to
12:00
have a lot of good players, but they know how to win is
12:03
essentially what I'm what I'm rambling at here.
12:05
And they showed it at the end of this one.
12:07
Perfect way to put it and they know how they want to win.
12:11
Obviously we've talked about them defensively.
12:13
They're on a crazy tear right now.
12:15
Nine straight unbeaten, five straight wins plus nine goal
12:18
differential over that nine match stretch.
12:21
So they're not really blowing the doors off teams.
12:23
They're out scoring teams 14 to five over that same stretch,
12:26
that nine match stretch roughly a goal and 1/2 per game.
12:29
I wanted to ask you about this. So so we know what they want to
12:32
do defensively, and I think the key ingredient of that back four
12:36
is they're all excellent on the ball and they all understand
12:39
offense and what they're trying to do offensively.
12:41
So they're able to quickly kind of turn things around and
12:44
they're nasty on defense, which is a great advantage to have.
12:47
I looked at some numbers last season.
12:49
So Gotham's leading scorer last season, Lynn Williams, led the
12:52
team with just seven goals, second on that list.
12:56
Midge Purse with four, Jen and I saw on our third with three.
13:00
So this isn't a team that was lighting it up last year.
13:03
Only 10 different goal scorers for the entire season last year
13:07
for Gotham. Kansas City already has 16I.
13:09
Was Gonna Say has five games for Kansas City.
13:12
And a half a year. No disrespect to the attacking
13:15
players on Gotham, I think collectively as an attacking
13:18
group they're as tough to deal with as anyone.
13:21
But we've seen some changes in the league with some singular
13:25
talents. Do you think Gotham's, let's
13:28
call it, like a lack of explosiveness, especially when
13:31
you compare to like the KCS and the Washingtons, and then also
13:34
maybe a lack of like a monster #9 is Gotham's formula maybe
13:38
from last year, especially with how fast things are evolving in
13:41
the league? Do you think that's something
13:43
that could rear its head later in the season, maybe in the
13:45
knockout stage? I think it certainly could.
13:48
Then you raise a great point, especially in, you know, the
13:51
playoffs, which is essentially a cup that you're playing for, a
13:55
knockout, a knockout tournament. You definitely run that risk.
13:59
I would say with Esther Gonzalez injured and Lynn Williams banged
14:03
up. I do wonder they're on this
14:06
great run now. You mentioned that they were
14:08
able to win this match without those players even appearing in
14:11
this game. How long can they keep this up
14:14
and allow these players to get healthy?
14:16
And then you might have close to full strength Esther or close to
14:20
full strength Lynn Williams at the end of the season going into
14:24
the postseason tournament. Now, you know, you might not
14:28
have a monster #9 but you have a great, experienced wing and a
14:32
great experience #9 to go with that awesome defense.
14:36
So I'm with you. I think it absolutely could bite
14:39
him. That's on the board.
14:40
But it might be 55, 45 with up. What do you know?
14:45
Esther and Lynn Williams had a great postseason, and now
14:48
they're in the final. I could definitely see that.
14:51
And like I said, I think collectively as a group, they've
14:54
got a lot of firepower. You know, you can look at like
14:56
the the first half that Rose Lavelle had, or she's just,
15:00
we've made the statement on the show before.
15:02
It's like, oh, well, you know, she Rose Lavelle for that 30
15:04
minutes she was on. So like the best player in the
15:06
field, at some point, she maybe just needs to be in that best
15:11
like sort of in that that roughly probably like maybe best
15:15
11 conversation, you know, with regard to the league, just
15:18
because she's just always this dynamic.
15:20
And now the plays are actually, you know, netting, you know,
15:23
it's not like, oh, that was a close call.
15:24
Like now it's like, no, she just fucking buried, buried that
15:27
thing and and flipped this game on its head.
15:31
And now I love the the idea of thinking, OK, well, what if we
15:35
can just get S there all the way back, Lynn Williams all the way
15:39
back, even like maybe bringing them in as Subs for a few
15:41
matches just to sure, just to ramp them up nice and slowly.
15:45
It's going to be interesting to see what what the standings look
15:48
like as we approach the end of the season and whether or not
15:52
they're in striking distance and like how how much the shield is
15:55
in play for Gotham. I appreciate you going back and
15:59
and checking our pre season picks.
16:01
We both had them to win the shield.
16:03
It looked very dicey at the start, but now I think we're
16:07
looking a little bit better. You're looking up.
16:09
Absolutely. They weren't going to let us off
16:11
the hook with, you know, the nobody's interested in that in
16:14
those single digit extra time numbers.
16:17
You know, we want 10 plus. This is the NWSL.
16:19
It's just how we do it here. You know, we might hit you with
16:21
12 or 13, maybe a 15. Anything can happen.
16:25
We get another 10 in this one and obviously the scoring wasn't
16:28
over. So Macy Bell takes advantage of
16:31
all that extra time. 90 + 9 gets the game winner.
16:34
It starts with Crystal done. She gets the ball around the
16:37
halfway line, gets it to the 18. The ball eventually finds its
16:39
way to Jenna Nicewanger, who, what do you know, plays a really
16:43
nice pass to Macy Bell. She finishes bats up to one.
16:47
You alluded to it earlier. Brutal run continues for the San
16:51
Diego wave, but good times keep on rolling for the bats.
16:56
They're right in this thing. 100% yeah, the Macy Bell finish,
17:00
that whole sequence of hers was just nasty.
17:02
Whips a leg around to like get it back the other way.
17:06
It's just like total and one shit.
17:07
And I'm glad you mentioned Crystal Dunn too.
17:09
Her drive into the 18, just not something a player at her stage
17:15
in her career at like the 97, you know, she's already played a
17:18
full 90 and then some and she's just running away from people
17:22
taking the ball good 3035 yards before it was all said and done.
17:26
And then 10 seconds later, give or take the balls in the back of
17:29
the net, three points are theirs.
17:31
Another just whole hum day at the office for Crystal Dunn.
17:34
What are you going to do? One of the old timers, that's
17:36
what this team has. They have a they have multiple
17:38
of them on the roster. They got the old guard.
17:41
They have the new younger players coming up and Jenna Nice
17:45
Wonger and company. So they got everything.
17:48
I don't think we overstated their potential demise.
17:52
I think we were still pretty careful of that.
17:54
But it was you're right, it was teetering there early.
17:57
It did not look great, but you bring in on Katrin Burger from
18:00
Chelsea, things are really cooking for them so I'm excited.
18:03
I'm very excited to see them play over the weekend.
18:05
Yeah, I'm checking out their their early season run.
18:08
They lost three of their first five, including the Challenge
18:11
Cup. So I think we were, you know,
18:14
just just calling it how we saw it.
18:16
What else can we do? Just a little plucky podcast
18:19
trying to trying to make it happen out here.
18:21
With that said, that wasn't the only NWSL midweek match up.
18:24
Angel City hosted one of the teams I'd like to bat my eyes
18:28
at, Racing Louisville in what turned out to be sort of a
18:31
banger. Things were happening in LA on
18:34
Wednesday night, Multiple exciting things.
18:38
Yeah, I this this was a good one for everybody who was kind of
18:41
two screening it with the Kendrick Lamar concert.
18:45
So an exciting moment for Angel City fans as their three teenage
18:49
players started in the attacking midfield.
18:53
For them, right behind Sidney LaRue, you have the Thompson and
18:55
sisters and then Kennedy Fuller in the middle there and paid off
18:59
pretty quickly. 17th minute Fuller collects a pass pretty
19:03
much standing mostly alone near the six near the six yard box or
19:09
near the penalty spot somewhere in that area and just was able
19:12
to pass the ball in the net. Open up her NWSL account as a
19:16
scorer. Got to be a thrilling moment for
19:18
her. So congratulations to her on
19:20
that. But it also put Angel City up
19:21
one nil over racing Louisville. And I thought, I thought
19:24
Louisville looked a little stagnant on that play.
19:27
A little a little surprise. Like, we're 17 minutes in and
19:30
the defenders are kind of looking at you're like, Oh,
19:32
yeah, the game, The game started, yeah.
19:34
Totally flubbed that one. I think if you're if you're in
19:36
Louisville, you had two different defenders sort of
19:39
playing the Madison Curry shot from like 30 plus yards and like
19:44
kind of getting in position to block that.
19:46
While there's three, I think it was LaRue and Giselle Thompson,
19:51
we're right in that mix, 2 running alongside Fuller or sort
19:55
of at the same kind of, you know, parallel angle.
19:57
So Curry had a couple different places she could she could have
20:00
gone to with the ball. Definitely a defensive
20:02
breakdown. Great finish though, still by
20:05
Fuller. Yeah, to kind of keep a cool
20:07
head and knock that one in, especially in.
20:10
I mean, I think we could say it, this was like a 5050 match.
20:13
You know, you look at the standings, these are the 8th and
20:15
9th teams on the old table and I think stats pretty even across
20:20
the board as well. So, you know, shout out to
20:23
Fuller. Great finish and it was a good
20:26
bellwether for what was coming for Angel City.
20:28
And that was more goals. Rocky Rodriguez, she gets a free
20:32
kick, is able to like bring the ball down, make the strike two
20:36
nil. Angel City in the 32nd minute
20:39
wasn't sure if this one was going to get too out of control.
20:42
But Louisville, as you kind of bat your eyes at them as a
20:45
squad, they're too. They were too good to just get
20:47
boat raced in this one. So they draw foul, I thought in
20:51
obvious penalty. Megan Reed fouls Alexa Barr way
20:55
late from behind, stamp on the foot.
20:58
There's nothing else but a penalty to be called there.
21:01
And Taylor Flint, she took the hell out of that penalty.
21:04
That was side netting real strong.
21:07
Just a great effort from her. Yeah, no doubter for sure.
21:10
And I mean, credit to Louisville for getting back in the game on
21:14
the heels of that. And then roughly 20 ish minutes
21:17
into the second-half, Louisville ties it up absolute dime from
21:21
Emma Sears, one of the other one of the other rookies who's just
21:24
kind of making a making a name for herself shout out to her.
21:27
Carson Pickett ties it up to two.
21:29
Now we've got ourselves little nip and tuck, little exciting
21:33
NWSL after dark heading into winning time, roughly half an
21:37
hour ish of the match. And this this 5050 affair got
21:41
little heated. It got even more heated.
21:44
You gotta say the Kendrick Lamar energy rubbing off on Angel City
21:48
FC, Merritt Matthias not here for any bullshit.
21:52
She kind of gets pushed in the general direction of, you know,
21:55
the, the concrete staircase in in the arena and, and the what,
22:00
the metal hand railing. And she ran up on Abby Ursig
22:03
after that and was clearly not thrilled with that, with that
22:07
push. On the broadcast, I'm not sure
22:09
if you picked it up, but you could read her lips and you can
22:11
see her voicing they're not like us, you know, to Earth.
22:15
She's like kind of hovered over her.
22:17
It's a very intense moment. You got the Kendrick Lamar
22:19
concert on, and I see that I'm just like, oh, everybody's ready
22:23
to fight in in Los Angeles today.
22:26
So I thought she rose to the occasion nicely.
22:29
I thought it was a it was a fitting moment in the match, but
22:32
even more fitting toward the end.
22:35
I can't remember who delivers the aerial ball, but the ball
22:38
comes flying in a really, really, really beautiful touch
22:41
by Alyssa Thompson, who's able to just groove in a pass for
22:46
Sidney LaRue. The announcer nailed the two
22:49
that was that's vintage Sidney LaRue ball where it's like, OK,
22:52
I'm going to perfectly time my run across the defenders.
22:55
Boom, there's the pass. I'm off and running.
22:58
I'm in space one V1 with the keeper.
23:00
You know what time it is. So it's cool to see the 34 year
23:03
old LaRue get that moment on a great pass from the teenager
23:07
Alyssa Thompson. Yeah, I, I commented earlier in
23:10
the season about, you know, Angel City, I think the first
23:13
couple weeks they had the oldest starting line up in the league,
23:16
if I'm not mistaken. Now it's kind of really cool to.
23:19
I'm not sure if they're full on hitting the reset button, but
23:22
they're clearly playing with an eye in the future.
23:26
Yeah, trying to sort of develop some of this young talent.
23:28
I think it was mentioned on the Gotham San Diego broadcast that
23:31
Gotham maybe only had one rookie and.
23:34
Oh, wow. So I think like, really
23:36
interesting to see these different franchises taking
23:39
different approaches to player development and, you know, sort
23:42
of long term, short term, kind of thinking much, much needed
23:45
win for Angel City. Obviously you got Louisville
23:47
coming to town. That's a match that you've got
23:49
to get and as mentioned prior, 8th and 9th teams in the
23:53
standings. Do you have a lien at this point
23:56
with regard to who you think might be more primed to hit the
24:00
playoffs? I'll give you one more quick
24:02
data point. So both teams even on points
24:05
with 15 after 13 matches. Louisville Clings, that last
24:08
playoff spot with a plus two goal differential.
24:10
Angel City, they got to make up some ground they're currently at
24:13
-5. I think you've been right on
24:15
about Angel City from the beginning of the season is that
24:19
you have a approached them with caution and I think that's the
24:23
right thing to do because after this match notwithstanding, and
24:27
I understand Louisville has three wins, 6 draws, 4 losses.
24:32
I think I'm with you. Savannah de Mello in the
24:35
midfield, Emma Sears kind of emerging as a good young player.
24:39
You have Kanu out there to score goals.
24:41
I think Louisville's a really good team.
24:44
I would confidently pick them over Angel City to make the
24:48
playoffs. Where are you landing on that?
24:50
I think I agree with that. I mean, to pretty much even
24:52
teams, it's funny. You look at the stats, the stats
24:55
tell the exact same story. These are teams sort of in the
24:58
same vicinity. But I think Louisville, I think
25:00
they've got the players and I just like how they play like
25:03
they're tough. They clawed their way back into
25:05
this game and then they get beat on a sequence of a couple really
25:10
good balls late in the match on the road.
25:13
It's going to happen. And then obviously they do have
25:15
a pretty healthy goal differential advantage over
25:18
Angel City. So who knows, maybe that's
25:20
enough to carry them into the playoffs.
25:21
But I'm with you, I think I think Louisville's got the
25:23
inside track based on what we've seen this season.
25:26
And then maybe Angel City wants to lean more into these younger
25:29
players, get their players some some important reps here and
25:32
really play more of the long game.
25:33
Yeah, and no disrespect to Becky Tweed, who I believe is a very
25:37
good manager for Angel FC, did a good Angel City FC.
25:40
Pardon me, did a good job with them last year, but Bev Yanez,
25:44
manager at Louisville Seattle rain legend, so shout out to
25:48
her. Let's go.
25:49
I want to look ahead now. Actually, let me let me tie in
25:52
the wave here very quickly. So we talked about, you know,
25:56
their struggles against Gotham. San Diego haven't won a match
25:59
since May 8th. That's tough.
26:01
Winless at their last six, another flattish performance.
26:06
We talked about the stats disparity.
26:08
Obviously this is a midweek game.
26:09
The line UPS are a little funky. You know, nobody wants to put
26:12
all those extra miles, you know, on on their players, especially
26:14
their their more experienced players.
26:16
It's a long season, a lot of stuff going on.
26:18
But from a San Diego standpoint, you give up that Backbreaker 98
26:22
plus minutes on the clock to lose another one.
26:25
If you're the wave this weekend, Saturday night you head to
26:28
Houston, take on the dash bottom two bottom three type team in
26:32
Houston. You got to be feeling like you
26:34
have to have to have to get and I'm I even hesitate to say like
26:39
points in this one. I feel like if you're San Diego,
26:41
you have to win this one because you're you're teetering very
26:45
dangerously towards our season is just over.
26:49
They just cannot seem to get it together.
26:51
What do you think? What do you think about this
26:53
Houston matchup? They got to be desperate.
26:55
I think you're right. And you know, if we're if we're
26:59
throwing around sports radio talk, must win, must win, middle
27:04
of the season, right past the halfway point of the season,
27:07
kitchen sink game, whatever you want to say.
27:11
I mean, I think you're right. Like we're getting pretty close.
27:15
So they're a point behind racing Louisville, three behind them in
27:19
goal differential. It's not awful, but I think
27:23
you're right, man. Like you're going up against the
27:26
Houston team who you have significantly better players
27:29
then even on the road. I think you really, really want
27:34
to win here. You want to be able to kind of
27:36
fatten up against some of these quote UN quote lesser teams.
27:40
Although Houston Dash fans might be looking at us saying we only
27:44
have one fewer point than they do.
27:46
How much worse are we than them? One fewer goal as well.
27:49
Yeah, you don't have, but you don't have Jaden Shaw and Naomi
27:52
Germa on your team or Caitlin Chariton.
27:54
So that's why we don't think you're as good as San Diego.
27:57
But you know, those Houston hard heads, they might, they might be
28:00
able to prove us wrong. But I think if you're the wave,
28:03
you go in there thinking we gotta gotta get this one.
28:06
Yeah, I agree with that. And then just going through the
28:08
exercise of, OK, what if they don't, then what do you do with
28:12
the squad? A lot of a lot of investment
28:15
into what they've put together, you know, and I think probably
28:19
the biggest disparity between the talent and the results like
28:24
I think in the league this season, just a huge gulf between
28:26
those two. And I think we are going to get
28:28
a desperate San Diego team. So that that one will be, I
28:31
would say, a must watch for me. I'm really interested to see how
28:34
they respond. Just a couple days rest here.
28:37
Quick turn around Wednesday to Saturday.
28:39
That's tough. That Houston.
28:41
That Houston heat. Also tough.
28:43
Not great. I think that's a 6:30 PM local
28:46
kickoff, so the sun will still be peeking out at that time.
28:49
But yeah, I'm definitely be locked into this one.
28:51
I really, really want to see how the Wave respond and if they
28:54
make any changes because, I mean, I think it's pretty clear
28:57
things aren't totally working and they do have a lot of
28:59
talented players. So maybe it's just a matter of
29:01
moving some pieces around and trying a different approach
29:04
here. Totally.
29:06
Maria Sanchez returned to Houston.
29:08
Game, revenge game. That could be interesting.
29:10
That might be worth one sports take.
29:13
Chip on the old on the old roulette wheel.
29:15
Maria Sanchez goal. That would be interesting after
29:18
she demanded out of out of the out of the side.
29:21
Yeah, I think I'm with you. This feels like appointment
29:25
viewing on Saturday night. 100%, yeah.
29:28
So we'll be locked into that. Two other big time matchups I
29:30
want to talk about this weekend. When you look at the standings,
29:33
I think both of these matchups super live for potentially a
29:37
playoff preview. Gotham FC hosting the Washington
29:41
Spirit, obviously Gotham on absolute fire.
29:43
Washington, I don't know, pretty much right there.
29:45
And then the other one I'm excited about Portland Thorns.
29:47
They host the Kansas City current, league leading, Kansas
29:50
City current. Let's start with Gotham FC and
29:53
Washington. We just got a very, very close
29:56
look at this Gotham side. They seem to be humming
29:59
Washington as well. I mean, I think they they're
30:02
just out here scoring big goals, earning points, winning big
30:05
games. What are you going to be looking
30:07
for in this one? Oh man, I think, I think the
30:09
spirit are going to come in here with the feeling of something
30:12
they really want to prove. They had that that kind of
30:14
strange draw versus the aforementioned San Diego wave
30:18
last week where it took the the Bethune masterpiece at the end
30:22
to kind of squeak out that draw. Other than that, they've won for
30:25
their last five. Now they travel up north to New
30:28
York. They've taken the Acela, from
30:29
what I understand. I don't know that I'm just
30:31
grotesque. East Coast reference.
30:34
They're going, they're going up north to Jersey, which I guess
30:37
the Acela doesn't stop in Jersey, if I remember correctly.
30:40
I digress. We're way off.
30:42
We're way out of bounds. But yeah, I'm looking for, I'm
30:45
looking for more Croix Bethune. The more Croix Bethune playing
30:48
football I can have in my life. That's what I would like to
30:51
watch and I think Gothams defense is going to pose some
30:54
interesting challenges for playing out of the midfield to
30:57
kind of connect those passes. We talked about their
30:59
aggressiveness, we talked about their organization in Gothams
31:02
defense. So how much of their game plan
31:05
this could be a challenge for Amoros is OK, we have to cut off
31:10
this offensive central hub for the spirit.
31:14
And if we can stop that, maybe we can try to squeak out A1 nil
31:18
victory or maybe a 21V or something like that.
31:21
So I think this is a classic genius distributor with great
31:26
threatening players up top versus a a stout, organized,
31:30
intelligent defense. I want to grab one of my little
31:33
take chips. You know I keep here by my desk.
31:36
Nice. I want to put it down on.
31:38
I think we get a Trinity Rodman game in this one.
31:40
Nice. I think she's a little do for
31:43
something big. This is exactly the kind of
31:45
situation where you would expect her to kind of just be fully
31:49
ready, fully locked in. I mean she's always she's always
31:52
like Max locked in, but I think she might have had this one
31:55
circled on the calendar. I had to imagine, and I think
31:58
we've seen a lot of really good moments from her and obviously
32:01
that's why she's producing at an insane level.
32:04
I think this might be the match where she kind of puts it all
32:07
together. She's going to be facing this
32:08
Gotham site. Imagine playing midweek.
32:11
Obviously you're you're at home. You got to come back just a few
32:14
days later and now Washington's staring at you and you got to
32:17
chase Trinity Rodman up and down the field.
32:21
And then you fall asleep for a second, Craig with hoons
32:23
obviously ready to hurt you. SARS up front.
32:26
I think there's there's danger kind of like all over this the
32:29
the field in spots and I can just see maybe this Gotham
32:33
defense maybe being a little half a step slow in this one.
32:36
Sure. And a player like Rodman taking
32:38
full advantage. Yeah, that's a great point.
32:40
I think that is an extremely live result.
32:43
Not much travel for the Spirit. Acela jokes aside, probably one
32:47
of the last teams, maybe the Spirit and your Orlando Pride,
32:52
maybe the last teams you would want to see when you played a
32:55
midweek game and they did not play a midweek game.
32:58
Not ideal. I guess you would throw the
33:00
current in that group as well. Yeah, have to another another
33:05
bit of appointment viewing this weekend. 100% absolute must
33:09
watch getting Sunday started with a bang and a great Sunday
33:13
slate at that. Absolutely.
33:15
Yeah. And then as soon as this one
33:17
wraps, well, Gotham, Washington, that one's 1:30 PM Eastern,
33:20
10:30 AM your time. So jealous you get football
33:23
before noon out there. Nice.
33:25
Well, after breakfast. Coffee.
33:27
Yeah. Little slippers.
33:29
You get nice and comfy. You know, before you even broken
33:31
a sweat, you've got high a high level NWSL action to enjoy
33:35
immediately following this one. 4:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM
33:37
Pacific. Portland hosts those Casey
33:40
Current that you don't want to see in a few days rest
33:42
Thankfully, Portland had a little bit more than a few days
33:45
and a couple of their players had a little extra rest.
33:48
Portland gets Sophie Smith back this week.
33:51
That's going to be good for them.
33:52
I'm I'm going out on a limb and I'm going to say having Sopha
33:57
Smith is better than not having her in the line.
34:01
So that will be good. Yeah.
34:02
Just absolute banger rematch of that opening match that had
34:07
Leanne Sanderson on the call where where the current win 5
34:10
four. And just like, oh, OK, I guess
34:13
it's going to be a fireworks show in the NWSL this season.
34:16
You gave some awesome stats about how scoring is slowed down
34:20
in the past few weeks, which I think could make for a very
34:22
interesting match here. We have dueling MVP candidates
34:27
in Sophie Smith and Tim Wachuinga.
34:29
Vanessa D Bernardo doesn't want to be denied.
34:31
BIA Zanorato doesn't want to be denied in that MVP race.
34:35
I'll be very interested to see. I have not seen any injury
34:37
updates on Sam Coffee yet. That would be a tough blow for
34:43
Portland. If she's not able to get out
34:44
there, she will be absolutely necessary against this Kansas
34:48
City current attack. But I think either way, if the
34:51
first matchup was any indication I'd expect even if it's not all
34:56
goals being scored, I would still expect some fireworks and
34:59
make sure you batten down those goal posts extra tight with the
35:04
nails to make sure somebody doesn't knock them off off
35:07
course there. This match is going to be one
35:10
where we're probably going to be looking at, I mean, this is
35:14
probably like maybe a little too reductive, but that Kansas City
35:18
current offense against the Thorns defense, I'm very
35:21
interested to see if Portland's able to hold up.
35:24
They're going to be at home, obviously, but the current, we
35:27
already know what they're capable of offensively.
35:29
And then I think on the flip side, you know, especially with
35:31
Sophie Smith back, what is that Casey current defense going to
35:34
look like? We talked about it a couple
35:36
weeks back, their profile not being one of a championship type
35:40
team, but also a big delta between their goals allowed and
35:44
their XG allowed. Meaning it's probably they're
35:47
probably fumbling around a little bit on defense and
35:50
letting in shots that maybe are not of the highest quality.
35:54
That's not going to be the case against Portland.
35:55
I imagine they're going to be facing at least a few high
35:58
quality shots. And I'm really going to be
36:00
looking to see ultimately, like, which defense is able to kind of
36:04
hold it down, hold down the Fort for this one because I think
36:06
we're going to see offense in both directions.
36:09
Yeah, I do want to hit one quick point.
36:12
You mentioned MVP, We ran a quick Twitter poll.
36:15
This was interesting. Twitter believes that Sophie
36:18
Smith is our 2024 NWOSIMVP. She got 37% of the votes.
36:23
Banda was in 2nd, 25.9% of the votes.
36:27
And then Chiwinga cried. Bethune tied for 3rd 18 1/2
36:30
percent. And then somebody ripped me,
36:33
ripped being our YouTube comments.
36:35
It's like, so let me get this straight.
36:37
You have D Bernardo ahead of Trinity Rodman for MVP.
36:40
Did I did I misunderstand that? And I had the sheepishly be
36:43
like, yeah, maybe, maybe now that I hear you say it, maybe
36:48
you might be. I mean, you know what, I liked
36:51
it. I think de Bernardo, that's
36:53
that's a knower of balls pick. She's she's all over the play.
36:57
Her fingerprints are all over the place for Kansas City's
37:01
offense. I'll I'll defend you on that
37:02
one, buddy. Yeah, I I appreciate that you
37:05
did rattle off some insane Trinity Romans.
37:08
Yeah, she's cooking that kind of.
37:11
Kind of, you know, had me hit the reset button a little bit.
37:14
And I think the same with on chewing guy.
37:15
I think you kind of I, I came into the last week's episode
37:19
with Sophie Smith as my, my MVP pick.
37:21
But I, I think, I think you, you talked me into Tamois just with
37:25
some of those stats and just what she's been able to do this
37:27
season. But either way, the Internet
37:29
spoken. Our audience likes Sophie Smith
37:31
for the MVP, but we're only halfway through.
37:34
That's the beauty of this exercise.
37:35
We might sneak another MVP ballot episode before the
37:38
season's all said and done. So definitely stay tuned.
37:41
We'll hit the 3/4 mark of the season at some point, so I mean,
37:44
why wouldn't we do another MVP check in?
37:46
Got you. That's two, that's two in a row.
37:48
Now I'm going to I'm going to secretly keep track of this.
37:51
So you picked Sophie Smith as MVP on the show.
37:54
Twitter agreed with you in those votes.
37:57
We put together our favorite elevens for the UEFA Women's
37:59
Champions League. You absolutely destroyed me.
38:02
People picked your team over mine.
38:04
I would just say not bitter at all about this, but to the to
38:07
our pals of the show, free your mind.
38:09
Think about the creativity, the lineup I put together.
38:12
Don't be so rigid on like everybody's position, you know,
38:16
come on, like where's where's the Pep Guardiola in you and
38:20
putting people in different positions.
38:21
I digress. That's, that's two in a row
38:23
though, buddy, You're you're, you're starting to put together
38:26
a pretty good lead. Much like the San Diego wave.
38:28
I gotta start notching some victories here before shit gets
38:31
too too scary looking. It's going to be a long season,
38:34
man. We're going to have a lot, a lot
38:36
of opportunities to get some poles up here.
38:38
Maybe, maybe we need a tears episode, maybe, maybe a tears
38:40
episode to get you back on track.
38:42
There we go. That's always, that's always
38:43
your domain. We might be might be trending
38:45
towards that. Nice, I'll be ready for it.
38:48
Let's go. Anything else we want to hit
38:50
before we get out of here? I think we covered the big ones
38:52
the rest of the Sunday slate. Nothing to sneeze at.
38:55
North Carolina Courage taking on Chicago Red Stars, it's a good
38:58
one. And Seattle rain versus the
39:01
aforementioned racing Louisville in Seattle, I'll be in the
39:03
building covering that one. Those are the two evening
39:06
matches on Sunday, four, I think, interesting matches that
39:09
really kind of give you a different look at the at the
39:12
squads kind of top of the table, middle of the table and bottom
39:16
of the table a little bit with Seattle.
39:19
But you know, plenty, plenty to watch on that one with the two
39:22
absolute bangers to start it. So I'm just excited for another
39:25
just absolutely sick weekend in the NWSL.
39:28
For sure. And to ran out the slate Friday
39:30
night, Orlando, they host the Utah Royals, 8:00 PM Nice.
39:34
And Saturday, Bay FC versus Angel City FC, that whole
39:38
Northern California, Southern California battle to the death.
39:41
That one's going down after dark.
39:42
Saturday night, 10:00 PM. Eastern, 7:00 PM Pacific.
39:45
That one's going to be a fun one as well.
39:47
Oh, yeah. All right, man, I think we did
39:48
it. It's been another episode of it
39:49
to the channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
39:51
for watching, listening, liking, subscribing, chiming in, giving
39:56
us positive reinforcement, voting for me in all our polls.
40:00
Please keep that up. Really helps through boys ego.
40:03
So I appreciate you guys. In all seriousness, we
40:06
definitely, definitely appreciate all the input into
40:08
the show. We love kind of opening the
40:10
doors and having this be more of like a community type.
40:13
Gathering So thank you for rocking with us.
40:15
And if you're an OG of the show, thank you for continuing to rock
40:18
with us. Remember, like if you liked and
40:20
subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
40:23
podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
40:25
Links to all of our socials can be found in our show notes and a
40:29
big thinking my coast. Mr. Grant Engel.
40:31
He's got loyalty. He's got royalty inside his DNAI
40:35
appreciate you man Damn. I appreciate you buddy, the
40:39
feeling is mutual. Thank you for being the good kid
40:42
in this mad city and we will talk to you guys later.