Latest / Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More / Episode 20 | Walter Cup Game 3, WNBA Opens Hot/Officiating Overhaul, NWSL Week 8

Transcript

Episode 20 | Walter Cup Game 3, WNBA Opens Hot/Officiating Overhaul, NWSL Week 8 · Raising the Game: Covering WNBA, NWSL, PWHL & More

• 0:00
  Three games into the season with like one of one of the younger
• 0:04
  teams, not the youngest team, that'd be the Mystics, but like
• 0:07
  one of the younger teams and claim your claim that you just
• 0:11
  got done telling your players that they are selfish in the
• 0:14
  locker room. Hi, I'm Caitlin.
• 0:24
  Hi, I'm Alex. And this is Raising the Game, a
• 0:27
  women's sports podcast covering primetime performers, the
• 0:30
  business behind the athletes in the leagues, and what the growth
• 0:33
  of women's sports means for the next generation of women's
• 0:37
  athletes. We are here episode 2020 would
• 0:42
  have thought. I I did.
• 0:46
  You did. You did.
• 0:47
  You set a goal for us. You did.
• 0:48
  You did so. We're almost halfway to it.
• 0:51
  It is amazing what a week does. We have gained 120 followers on
• 0:56
  social media. Yeah, something happened last
• 0:59
  week, so. We want to dive too deep into
• 1:01
  that. We've got PWHL, yes, we had an
• 1:05
  exciting game tonight we'll talk about.
• 1:07
  Yes, game three happened just before we sat down to record
• 1:11
  this. Got WNBA?
• 1:15
  WNBA is heating up. Maybe we're going.
• 1:16
  To talk about a controversial topic, referee refereeing.
• 1:21
  Just to be clear, we can't get fined when we talk about them
• 1:24
  so. Yeah, that's right.
• 1:25
  We'll talk about it all day long.
• 1:27
  And then some NWSL roundup I think.
• 1:29
  Yeah, a little roundup with the NWSL as we start to look ahead,
• 1:34
  and we've talked a little bit about it, but heading into that
• 1:37
  international or kind of the World Cup break that's coming up
• 1:40
  for the men's World Cup. So every point matters right now
• 1:44
  as teams kind of square up how they're going to look going into
• 1:47
  that second-half. Yeah.
• 1:49
  All right. Should we do some announcements
• 1:50
  or some favorite things? Favorite things first favorite
• 1:52
  things first. I have, I have two.
• 1:56
  One was. So as we've mentioned on
• 2:00
  previous episodes, my daughter is playing like organized soccer
• 2:04
  for the first time and she has decided that she wants to play
• 2:11
  goalie, which is what I played when I played soccer.
• 2:14
  And she had some really incredible saves over the.
• 2:18
  Weekend I just got to. Shout her out.
• 2:20
  They were. She was brave.
• 2:21
  She stood in, held her ground and she seems to also want to
• 2:26
  learn the position, which is really cool.
• 2:30
  I'm not getting like too high of hopes, but it was just like fun
• 2:33
  and she seems interested. That's awesome.
• 2:36
  My other favorite thing is just the people who are engaging with
• 2:40
  us on mostly, mostly Instagram, but on our social media.
• 2:45
  We just really appreciate all the engagement, the interest in
• 2:49
  what we're talking about. I don't think that we would have
• 2:51
  imagined that happening in a week.
• 2:54
  No, no. We had a one clip get over
• 2:59
  20,000 views, which is pretty crazy.
• 3:01
  And so we're this is all new to us.
• 3:03
  So it's we're kind of absorbing it, kind of enjoying it and also
• 3:08
  learning. Learning a lot about social
• 3:10
  media that you would have thought millennials knew about
• 3:13
  social. Media.
• 3:14
  Yeah, we did not. Yeah, so.
• 3:17
  Oh, mine. Yeah, that's serious.
• 3:21
  Well, so First off, we are recording this on our
• 3:25
  anniversary night. So welcome to our date night.
• 3:28
  This is our date night. Eight years, 20 episodes.
• 3:31
  This is great, this is fun. I like doing this, I love doing
• 3:34
  this. So I just wanted to point that
• 3:36
  out. And then also one of the
• 3:39
  followers that we got over the weekend introduced us to
• 3:44
  something new that we didn't know existed.
• 3:46
  I believe it's the Women's Football Alliance, the Minnesota
• 3:50
  Vixen, which is a tackle football.
• 3:52
  I think they also do flag football, but tackle football
• 3:55
  here in Minnesota. It's all over the United States,
• 3:57
  but it's they have a team here in Minnesota.
• 3:59
  So yeah, I thought that was really cool and I can't wait to
• 4:02
  check it out. Yeah, I think we're going to try
• 4:03
  to go to a game here in a couple weeks when they're back home.
• 4:07
  Yeah, absolutely. Cool.
• 4:08
  All right, ready for headlines? Let's do headlines in the PWHL.
• 4:13
  The Ottawa Charge stave off elimination in the final minute
• 4:17
  of game three in the Walter Cup finals.
• 4:20
  Yeah. So overall, Montreal leads that
• 4:21
  Series 2 to one. We'll talk about it a little bit
• 4:24
  more here in our PWHL segment. Montreal did oust.
• 4:30
  They did our Minnesota Frost. No 3 peat.
• 4:33
  No 3 peat, but that's OK. We are cheering for the charge
• 4:38
  we're. No longer the villain anymore,
• 4:40
  right? Two more expansion teams
• 4:44
  confirmed in the PWHL, with Las Vegas and Hamilton ON to join
• 4:48
  Detroit in the 20262027 season. We're going to talk a little bit
• 4:53
  more about this, the announcements last week and the
• 4:56
  fan reaction a little, but we're also expecting an announcement
• 5:00
  for the San Jose expansion potentially by the time you are
• 5:05
  hearing this. Potentially tomorrow, today is
• 5:07
  Monday record so. We're we're hearing Tuesday for
• 5:10
  San Jose. 236 players apply to entry draft from 15 countries.
• 5:18
  Yeah, so if we were worried about being able to fill for
• 5:20
  more teams, worry no longer. We're going to break those
• 5:24
  numbers down in our segments. But plenty of women want to be
• 5:28
  playing in this league. WNBA action heats up with tight
• 5:33
  game, surprise wins and a lot of settling in.
• 5:36
  Still to go. Yeah, again, we'll get into this
• 5:38
  a little bit more in detail, but I think the thing I'll call out
• 5:41
  here is I, I mentioned this as the season was about to start,
• 5:46
  right? And it was like, this is sort of
• 5:47
  a like spotlight year for the W really, really important.
• 5:52
  How are fans going to show up? Sellouts all over the place,
• 5:56
  y'all. All over the place.
• 5:58
  Yeah, it was great. Season ticket sales are selling
• 6:00
  out, arenas are selling out, so momentum is looking good.
• 6:04
  It's looking good, all right. Opening weekend game between
• 6:07
  Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever had 2.5 million viewers, making
• 6:11
  it the second most watched regular season game on ESPN,
• 6:15
  fourth most watched all time. Like I said.
• 6:20
  WNBA formally approves the sale and relocation of the
• 6:23
  Connecticut Sun to Houston, where they'll become the Houston
• 6:26
  Comets. So the Comets rights call back
• 6:29
  to like the dynasty days. They won four championships in
• 6:33
  the world in in a row. Excuse me, behind Cheryl Swoops,
• 6:36
  Cynthia Cooper, Tina Thompson, like those were the women that I
• 6:40
  grew up watching play basketball in the West.
• 6:44
  And so that's huge. I think again, we've talked
• 6:47
  about the controversy about the the move and I have to wonder if
• 6:52
  it's affecting the Connecticut Sun play right in this season
• 6:57
  right now. NWSL Match Week 8 featured
• 7:01
  season rematches, scoring streaks and a top of table
• 7:04
  clash. My top highlight from this is
• 7:09
  that Mal Swanson has returned to active duty folks.
• 7:14
  She is off the, the, the, the, I don't know, postpartum W, It's
• 7:21
  not really injury. I don't want to call it that.
• 7:23
  What a team to come back to. I think we're going.
• 7:26
  To talk about that, we'll get into it.
• 7:29
  Gotham FC is an advanced talks to move to MLS team NYCF CS new
• 7:34
  stadium in Queens which will be opening in 2027.
• 7:38
  This is going to move the team from Harrison, NJ, where they
• 7:41
  currently play, into Queens, NY. So we're going to talk a little
• 7:47
  bit more about this today. We're not going to go super deep
• 7:49
  in it, but like you're essentially asking for a brand
• 7:52
  new fan base. So anyways, we'll get into it.
• 7:56
  Interesting move. Yeah Racing Louisville ownership
• 8:02
  group Soccer Holdings is exploring A partial sale to a
• 8:05
  minority investor. So all the press clippings
• 8:09
  around this are like, OK, just to be clear why we're doing
• 8:13
  this, we are not looking to relocate the team.
• 8:16
  We are looking to maintain competitiveness in this league.
• 8:22
  And we need more money. We need more money to be able to
• 8:25
  pay the players that we need to bring to Louisville, KY, which I
• 8:31
  feel like, yeah. So we probably don't have enough
• 8:34
  to get in. No, probably not.
• 8:36
  I know I thought about it. I thought about it.
• 8:38
  It's going to be an anniversary gift.
• 8:41
  It's not bronze. Bronze is 8 years so.
• 8:42
  OK, never mind. I think soccer's 10
• 8:46
  internationally. Australian striker Sam Kerr
• 8:48
  officially confirms Chelsea departure.
• 8:51
  Yeah, well, what a legend. She ends her WSL career here
• 8:56
  with five titles, three FA Cups, 3 leagues, championships.
• 9:03
  So these are all different kind of tournaments.
• 9:05
  We won't go into the detail of that right now.
• 9:07
  And 115 goals in seven years, which ties her or maybe is one
• 9:12
  behind most all the time. Fran Kirby, who plays for
• 9:16
  Manchester City United, I can't remember which one off the top
• 9:21
  of my head. What's interesting though is she
• 9:25
  did not say she's done. And so now it's got a lot of
• 9:29
  NWSL has probably got Racing Louisville, right, looking at it
• 9:32
  going, hey, could we get her over here?
• 9:35
  Her wife is American, also international national team
• 9:39
  player Christy Mewis. They just had a baby.
• 9:42
  And so I could see the draw potentially to come to come
• 9:46
  back. I sometimes don't read the stats
• 9:48
  that you put in here until we're on air and I read that I was
• 9:51
  like, this is an insane stat line.
• 9:53
  She's yes. If you have an opportunity to
• 9:56
  watch Sam Kerr play, take it. Reporting was shared last week
• 10:01
  indicating that the NWS LS High Impact Player Rule, AKA the
• 10:05
  Rodman rule, is already being amended to remove the specific
• 10:08
  qualifying criteria originally stipulated.
• 10:11
  Yeah, we'll talk again. This will be another one in our
• 10:13
  NWSL segment. We'll talk a little bit about.
• 10:17
  It's interesting to me that they are already considering changing
• 10:21
  this rule when it technically hasn't gone into effect yet.
• 10:25
  So we'll get into it a little bit later in today's show.
• 10:30
  Bundesliga head coach Marie Luis ETA finishes her interim stint
• 10:34
  managing Union Berlin with a four nil win over Augsburg,
• 10:37
  which also kept Union Berlin from relegation.
• 10:40
  Yeah, we just had to follow up. She had got her first win and as
• 10:44
  the manager, interim manager last week, she had a draw the
• 10:49
  week before. So finishes, you know,
• 10:52
  bolstering their their stat line or whatever with a few points.
• 10:57
  Sounds like she will be staying on with that program to coach
• 10:59
  their women's team, but just stepped in as they got rid of
• 11:04
  their original manager and had a pretty pretty flourishing finish
• 11:08
  there. Alina Split Alina defeats Coco
• 11:13
  Goff for Rome title in thrilling fashion to claim her 20th career
• 11:16
  title. Yeah, this was I think Goff gave
• 11:18
  her a run for her money. Good to see Coco back in a
• 11:22
  final. She's gotten close the last
• 11:24
  couple tournaments, but this is as these players are gearing up
• 11:27
  for Roland Garros in the French Open, which comes up here in a
• 11:31
  in a couple weeks. In NCAA softball, super regional
• 11:35
  matchups are set with heavy SEC representation.
• 11:38
  Best of three series will begin midweek.
• 11:40
  I put this in our what to watch and it reads like a NCWA
• 11:45
  football or NCAA basketball like.
• 11:48
  Tournament. Well, it's like all SEC.
• 11:50
  Teams. It's wild.
• 11:51
  There's 16 teams left I think, or something like that.
• 11:55
  And it's they play these super regionals now and it's literally
• 12:02
  over half of them are are SEC teams.
• 12:04
  But I think this is one that I certainly would just have on.
• 12:08
  It's like really exciting. There's a lot of momentum behind
• 12:12
  college softball in particular. And I can see we've talked about
• 12:16
  how volleyball is probably the next pro sport that's going to
• 12:21
  kind of grow. Softball might be kind of close
• 12:25
  in that realm. Think about like BIG4 men's
• 12:27
  sports, baseball's in there. So like, softball's got to be
• 12:30
  probably something coming. There's a lot of hype around
• 12:33
  college softball for sure. All right, let's move it on to
• 12:37
  our first section tonight. PWHL playoff picture.
• 12:42
  We could have came into tonight knowing our champion.
• 12:45
  Could have. But we do not yet.
• 12:47
  Because the Ottawa Charge are those girls.
• 12:51
  Yes, they have been gritty all playoffs.
• 12:55
  Remember, Remember just a few mirror episodes ago we were here
• 13:00
  being like, that's just silly. Why wouldn't they choose them?
• 13:05
  They only had nine wins. These teams have sixteen wins
• 13:08
  and thirteen wins and blah blah blah.
• 13:10
  I heard the announcers tonight in the game saying that nine
• 13:13
  wins was a record for the team in the regular season.
• 13:16
  So that was actually really positive for them.
• 13:19
  And clearly, clearly they are a, they are a playoff team, right?
• 13:24
  They took us to five games in the was it 5 games or at least
• 13:28
  four games in the final series last year.
• 13:31
  They've been in the playoffs every year.
• 13:33
  They seem to like just flip a switch when it comes down to
• 13:38
  these like must win situations. And this whole series has been a
• 13:43
  battle. This was the first game that
• 13:44
  didn't go to overtime. Montreal won both in overtime.
• 13:49
  21 victories like close games, so.
• 13:51
  Night was wild because it was going into third scoreless and
• 13:55
  you think, all right, the next goal basically wins this.
• 13:58
  Game. And Montreal scores, and then
• 14:01
  Ottawa comes back and scores two more, with the last one coming
• 14:05
  in the last minute and just, yeah, insane.
• 14:07
  I didn't think anything was going to get past either of
• 14:09
  these goalies tonight. The the goaltending in this
• 14:13
  series, the whole playoffs, frankly the goaltending has been
• 14:16
  insane. But like the goaltending between
• 14:20
  and Renee Debian and Gwyneth Phillips is like a master class.
• 14:25
  And it's not like they're not facing shots.
• 14:27
  We've talked about the shots that Phillips has faced here
• 14:30
  before. Like 140 some last series.
• 14:33
  Like 50 more than Aaron Frankel, right?
• 14:35
  And you're just continually seeing them, whether it's, you
• 14:40
  know, getting the the the pad out there for some kind of toe
• 14:44
  save, Gwyneth Phillips is amazing with your paddle or just
• 14:48
  like flashing the leather and snatching that puck out of the
• 14:50
  air. It's like, it's pretty
• 14:53
  impressive to watch. I think we're going to talk a
• 14:55
  little bit about just kind of the the match up here, Ottawa
• 15:01
  versus Montreal, what some of the kind of meaningful things
• 15:05
  are behind that that match up. Yeah.
• 15:07
  So I think one couple of the things here, like, obviously we
• 15:11
  were as Frost fans, we were bummed to see the Frost go out.
• 15:14
  But as women's sports fans, we can really celebrate the fact
• 15:19
  that we're going to get something new, right?
• 15:21
  And I think that's what helps grow the game at the end of the
• 15:23
  day. And so in this playoff series
• 15:28
  for the Walter Cup, a, you're going to have a Canadian
• 15:31
  champion for the first time, which I think is really
• 15:33
  exciting. And when you think about hockey,
• 15:36
  like you can't not think about Canada.
• 15:40
  You also can't not think about Minnesota.
• 15:41
  So it feels like kind of fitting, but I love that there's
• 15:46
  this weird karmic balance in my mind of like, the US won the
• 15:49
  Olympic gold and so now a Canadian team is going to win
• 15:52
  the Walter Cup. And frankly, a lot of Canadian
• 15:56
  Olympians are on between these two teams left here.
• 16:00
  So I think that's pretty cool. You have two women as the head
• 16:05
  coaches of these two teams, so Corey Chevery and Carla McLeod.
• 16:11
  Corey Chevre is the head coach of the Montreal Victoire.
• 16:14
  Carla McLeod the coach of the Ottawa Charge.
• 16:17
  What's extra impressive to me, Carla McLeod actually had to
• 16:20
  take time away from the team at the end of towards the end of
• 16:22
  the season to get treatment for cancer and has come back and is
• 16:28
  now coaching the team. And she has just this like very
• 16:31
  calm, but very like it's intense, but without it feeling
• 16:39
  like an overwhelming intense. It's like a steadiness, right?
• 16:43
  She had a presser after the second game, which I'll we'll
• 16:47
  talk maybe talk a little bit about in a second here where
• 16:51
  well, I'll talk about it right now.
• 16:53
  Essentially, the goal that Montreal scored to win the
• 16:56
  second game was the player was open because the the out the net
• 17:01
  front defender got tripped by by another Montreal player.
• 17:05
  And so she was out of position and then they scored.
• 17:08
  And so they're asking her about it and she she talked about how
• 17:12
  it was, it should have been called, but she but then she was
• 17:15
  like, that's that's sport. That's like what happens and we
• 17:19
  have to reload and go to the next thing.
• 17:21
  And I just like had a lot of appreciation for how like level
• 17:27
  headed that response is and also understanding like, no amount of
• 17:30
  your complaining is going to change what happened, as unfair
• 17:34
  as that really was, right? I think everybody who's seen
• 17:38
  that clip, you're like, yeah, textbook.
• 17:41
  As a fan, you, yeah, I can't even imagine going out there and
• 17:43
  being like, I just got to be calm about this and move on to
• 17:47
  the next one. You know?
• 17:48
  That is what's best for the team right now.
• 17:50
  Right. And I'll say to just watching
• 17:52
  the game tonight, there was ATV timeout.
• 17:56
  So Montreal had just scored their first goal.
• 17:58
  And like Alex said, it was 00 going into the third period.
• 18:03
  Montreal scored with maybe 12 minutes left to go in the game.
• 18:08
  It's like still a decent amount of time, but they kind of got to
• 18:10
  that like middle of the period timeout, TV timeout and when
• 18:15
  they got back from break, they showed on camera what she had
• 18:19
  done. She'd pulled she pulled her team
• 18:21
  like close on the bench. She's like telling players like
• 18:24
  get down here and then she's like, you can just imagine like
• 18:29
  what she's saying to them in that moment that and then they
• 18:32
  won. They turned around and won
• 18:34
  right. They fought back.
• 18:35
  So she they really embody her. I think on the ice, you know,
• 18:42
  and Corey Chevy seems great too, like very poised.
• 18:46
  Both of these women, I think, lead in a really excellent way.
• 18:50
  Yeah, for sure. I think one of the I'm going to
• 18:53
  kind of go to the stat side of things.
• 18:54
  One of the interesting things I saw about Montreal is of the 12
• 18:58
  playoff games that they have played and now we can count it
• 19:01
  as 13. I.
• 19:03
  Think I know 11 of them, so now 12.
• 19:05
  So 12 out of 13 playoff games they have played in their
• 19:07
  existence have been one goal. Games they've won by one goal.
• 19:11
  God I feel bad for their fans. It's a heart attack waiting to
• 19:15
  happen there. Oh, man, I think it's, yeah,
• 19:19
  it's intense. They're a remarkable team.
• 19:21
  I despite there have been some, I think missed calls against
• 19:26
  them throughout the playoffs. There was definitely some stuff
• 19:29
  going on in the Frost series, but other teams would say the
• 19:32
  same thing. I do think they're the best team
• 19:36
  in the they were the best team in the league during the regular
• 19:39
  season, and I do actually think they're the best team in the
• 19:41
  playoffs. But but sports doesn't care
• 19:46
  who's the best team on any given night.
• 19:47
  They care who's there in the right spots, hustling, doing
• 19:51
  their thing. If Ottawa wins, I will be very
• 19:53
  excited for them. I think if Montreal would have
• 19:55
  won tonight, I would have been like.
• 19:57
  Yeah, kind. Of kind of makes sense.
• 19:58
  They were the best so. What I'm going to be watching
• 20:01
  for so Game 4 will be I think on Wednesday.
• 20:05
  So the night that this episode is released, they'll be back in
• 20:09
  Canadian Tire Center. So they're still in front of
• 20:11
  friendly crowd. They had almost 17,000 people.
• 20:14
  Yeah, it's wild. They are tonight setting a
• 20:16
  playoff attendance record. And I just think like the hype
• 20:22
  there is real and the charge really ride on the momentum that
• 20:26
  their fans give them. And so I think that gives them a
• 20:28
  little bit more of a chance in this game for, but coming back
• 20:35
  from being two games down in A5 game series is really, really
• 20:38
  tough. So we'll see if they can do it.
• 20:40
  Yeah, two goal lead's the worst lead in hockey.
• 20:43
  The worst lead in soccer too, believe it or not, it's probably
• 20:45
  the worst league 2 score lead is probably the worst worst lead
• 20:48
  in. Anything all right?
• 20:50
  Should we move on to this expansion news?
• 20:54
  Yeah, let's we talk about it. We had obviously Detroit I think
• 20:58
  was announced before. I think we talked about that.
• 21:01
  Last episode. Since then we have had Vegas and
• 21:05
  Hamilton have been announced. So we have 2 E ish coast teams
• 21:13
  and one West Coast ish ish. Yeah.
• 21:16
  So there are a lot of speculation around other teams
• 21:20
  that may or may not happen. I think the biggest one right
• 21:22
  now is San Jose. San Jose, yeah, which we talked
• 21:25
  about that I think last episode too, Like Bay Area really makes
• 21:29
  sense. It's a haven for women's sports
• 21:32
  in particular. And so I think I I would be
• 21:37
  surprised at this point if that's not where they're going.
• 21:42
  But yeah, it was interesting kind of following along as these
• 21:45
  announcements were coming out last week, specifically with
• 21:50
  Vegas and Hamilton. For the most part, fans seemed
• 21:59
  upset. Detroit, everybody celebrated.
• 22:04
  And the reason for that is that Detroit has been part of this
• 22:08
  takeover tour, which we've talked about here on the pod,
• 22:11
  where it seems that the PWHL is kind of doing some market
• 22:15
  testing. But also like if you actually go
• 22:18
  back and read or listen to what the branding of that was in the
• 22:23
  beginning, it was just to like bring professional women's
• 22:26
  hockey into places that don't have a team, right?
• 22:31
  Because last season when they expanded, they ended up
• 22:35
  expanding to Seattle and Vancouver, who were recipients
• 22:38
  of takeover to our games. I think fans made an assumption
• 22:43
  and not and not wrong in inaccurately.
• 22:46
  I think we were even thinking the same thing said that.
• 22:49
  A lot. Right.
• 22:50
  That the, the markets that we're going to get teams were markets
• 22:55
  that we're getting these takeover cheer games.
• 22:57
  And so the reaction to Vegas, Hamilton, Hamilton had takeover
• 23:02
  cheer games, but Vegas and then San Jose in particular, has been
• 23:10
  a little less, less than thrilled, right?
• 23:14
  And so it'll be interesting to see, like, how this all shakes
• 23:18
  out a little bit. Yeah, a little bit.
• 23:20
  I think, and I think it was interesting because when we
• 23:24
  talked about this many episodes ago, it was that they're doing
• 23:28
  their homework, not necessarily that if it's successful, it will
• 23:32
  be here because that is, I think we even talked about this last
• 23:36
  week is like there has to be other things than just ban
• 23:38
  intent. There's multiple criteria.
• 23:40
  There's. A lot of criteria and even where
• 23:43
  they had sell outs and take over tours they did, there was
• 23:46
  something else there that just didn't hit.
• 23:49
  And so I can see how you might be confused as a fan to be like,
• 23:52
  we had this great turn out and why don't we get into team, but
• 23:56
  it had to been something else. Yeah.
• 23:58
  And the big, the big thing that we've talked about here before
• 24:01
  is just like the sharing of the venue often times with an NHL
• 24:06
  team, right? And so do we have enough time in
• 24:10
  the schedule to be able to do that?
• 24:12
  We know that we don't get ownership of that.
• 24:14
  So it's sort of like a hey, we'll make space for you in, in
• 24:19
  the rotation. I do know that I I read, I think
• 24:22
  it was Calgary in Canada did not get a team because they and that
• 24:29
  the GM or whoever is in charge of that decision or or made the
• 24:33
  statement of the Calgary claims. Yeah, that sounds right.
• 24:39
  We're a women's sports podcast. We haven't done no men's sports.
• 24:43
  He it was like, we want, we would love to have a team, but
• 24:47
  we like can't make it work right.
• 24:49
  And, and in Canada and other maybe some other U.S. markets,
• 24:53
  like they're not just hosting NHL teams, there's AHL and other
• 24:57
  like there's other leagues that are playing there.
• 24:59
  So don't get it twisted. It's not like it's just the NHL
• 25:02
  team, but I know Washington, DC was one in that boat that we we
• 25:07
  read in Denver. Now, on the flip side, Vegas and
• 25:11
  San Jose and Detroit all have NHL teams who clearly were
• 25:16
  willing to come to the table and meet kind of the terms that the
• 25:19
  PWHL was setting out. And one thing that I've actually
• 25:24
  learned through reading about this is that Vegas actually has
• 25:29
  one of the fastest growing youth girls hockey rates in the
• 25:34
  country, which would not have picked Vegas for that.
• 25:40
  But I have to assume that in some of the more typical hockey
• 25:46
  spaces that that's already pretty saturated because you
• 25:50
  kind of grow up around it, you're expected to play it.
• 25:52
  So if you go into these like warmer weather markets where
• 25:55
  maybe hockey isn't like the first thing you're thinking of,
• 25:58
  there's more opportunity for upside.
• 26:00
  So sheer numbers, I don't know what that means, but growth rate
• 26:03
  obviously looking good. And I think they were, they saw
• 26:06
  that as like an opportunity to take to kind of capitalize on,
• 26:10
  hey, there's growth in the youth side.
• 26:13
  And I'm not talking about, just to be clear, I'm not talking
• 26:15
  about this in like a pipeline to the PWHL for players.
• 26:19
  I'm talking about fans, right? You're going to have people who
• 26:22
  want to go take their daughters or their sons to go watch this
• 26:26
  team for. Sure.
• 26:27
  So, but it could be a pipeline. So let's talk about.
• 26:30
  It could be a pipeline. Let's.
• 26:31
  Talk about this draft that we have 200 and. 36 You're not
• 26:35
  going to let me talk about the colours.
• 26:37
  Oh, we, I mean, we can talk about that if you want.
• 26:40
  Somehow they made a worse Green Bay, I think in Hamilton.
• 26:43
  Is it? Hamilton Vegas No, I think I
• 26:47
  sent I sent you like a really, really funny text 'cause you
• 26:50
  sent me a screenshot and I was like, how did we end up with
• 26:55
  like Gopher colors where we pretend that the baby poop
• 27:02
  yellow is gold and then we have this like pea green with the
• 27:08
  gold, which is which is Vegas's colors, which may look good on
• 27:14
  I'm imagining Breezers in that color and I just can't you.
• 27:17
  Mean hockey pants. Stop that.
• 27:20
  Yes, it's I hate that color. Yeah, it was.
• 27:24
  I was kind of like, this is a choice.
• 27:28
  The other thing I do, sorry, I want it, I don't want to move
• 27:30
  off of this too quick. The other thing I do want to say
• 27:33
  is I am excited for all of this and I, we will talk about
• 27:39
  there's some pushback on like, well, can they expand that fast?
• 27:42
  We'll talk about that with the entry drafting.
• 27:44
  The Hamilton choice does seem interesting to me, given that
• 27:52
  Hamilton is like right next to Toronto.
• 27:55
  Oh yeah, Toronto's right there. I think they're like an hour
• 27:58
  apart maybe? And then you have Buffalo, if
• 28:00
  they, if they ever end up with a team like right across the
• 28:03
  border. Yeah, but even like Montreal,
• 28:05
  like it just if you were to like pull up a map of Canada, you're
• 28:08
  kind of like, wow, that's a lot of teams in this like tiny, kind
• 28:12
  of not tiny. Canada's huge.
• 28:15
  Yeah, we did. Yeah.
• 28:16
  We were looking at it earlier. We are trying to learn our
• 28:18
  Canadian geography, to be clear. And so that one was interesting,
• 28:23
  but it could it could kind of be a little bit like a, you know,
• 28:28
  cities in the US that have multiple teams or you think of
• 28:31
  like kind of New Jersey, New York, like right there.
• 28:34
  And like, you know, that's like could be kind of we'll.
• 28:39
  See, we'll see how it works. So now let's talk about how we
• 28:43
  are filling the pipeline. Right, Yeah, We have 236 players
• 28:48
  joining the draft. If I did my math right, that's a
• 28:52
  there's 103 openings. Yes, that's what we believe, as
• 28:56
  long as they're not changing roster construction.
• 28:58
  Retirements. Or And so that was something I
• 29:01
  was going to talk about. So there is a Hannah Brandt has
• 29:04
  already come out and she plays for the Boston Fleet, said she's
• 29:07
  going to retire. I am interested.
• 29:10
  Last week we talked about the more mature players in the
• 29:13
  league and with some of these changes, will there be some more
• 29:19
  retirement announcements? At the same time, you got
• 29:24
  players coming back who are like 39 years old.
• 29:27
  And so we'll talk about that in just a second. 103 spots, 236
• 29:34
  players so try outs are going. To be insane, Are we going to
• 29:39
  have a combine like? I kept thinking as I was writing
• 29:43
  this segment, I'm like, they got to do try outs, right?
• 29:46
  Like you got to try out to make the team.
• 29:48
  Can you imagine how awful that would be?
• 29:51
  So much pressure. So breaking this down a little
• 29:54
  bit, 'cause I do. The numbers were interesting to
• 29:57
  me. We have 128 forwards.
• 30:00
  We have 69 D defense people, defenseman, 38 goal tenders.
• 30:06
  The number of spots open, if you kind of go based on a typical
• 30:11
  roster construction, which usually you carry three goal
• 30:14
  tenders you carry about, what would that be for 8:00-ish
• 30:21
  defenders probably. Maybe like one extra depending
• 30:24
  on your reserve players and then you're going to carry something
• 30:27
  like 12 to 1314 forwards. Again, I'm I'm I'm including
• 30:35
  like reserve players in my numbers right here.
• 30:39
  That means across four teams you're looking at 12
• 30:43
  goaltenders, about 36 defenders, maybe a little bit less and
• 30:46
  about 55 forwards. So if I if you heard the
• 30:52
  numbers, I just said 128 forwards, 55 spots, that's a
• 30:57
  battle. Yeah, yeah. 69 defenders,
• 31:00
  there's 36 spots. 38 goaltenders, there are 12 spots.
• 31:05
  So you're essentially saying 2/3 of you will not make a team,
• 31:10
  right? And so if we are sitting here
• 31:14
  concerned about this pipeline, we should not be.
• 31:18
  If we're concerned about expansion, that's.
• 31:21
  What I mean, yeah, sorry. That's what I mean.
• 31:25
  Obviously the argument against that would be like, well, you
• 31:28
  don't know the quality of these players.
• 31:30
  Well, we kind of do actually. So if we look at this draft
• 31:34
  class coming out of the NCAA here in the States, it is nuts.
• 31:41
  A ton of Olympians from multiple different countries, right?
• 31:46
  You have players who have been playing overseas who are coming
• 31:50
  over and wanting to take a shot in the PWHL.
• 31:55
  You've got players coming out of retirement who are doing it.
• 31:58
  And so I think it's really cool just to just to, it'll be really
• 32:05
  interesting to see. It's going to.
• 32:06
  It's a fundamental transformation in the league.
• 32:09
  And I think just like the rhetorical question I was like
• 32:14
  thinking about was what does it say about this league that 39
• 32:20
  year old is coming out of retirement after seven years to
• 32:23
  try and get into the league? People from Switzerland, Japan,
• 32:27
  Checheia, Italy, Taiwan, Netherlands, they want to come
• 32:31
  over in place. Like what does this say about
• 32:32
  how this league is run? Yeah, yeah.
• 32:35
  And that's a great. I think it says a lot.
• 32:37
  I think that's a great point. I think too, it might, you know,
• 32:40
  it obviously speaks to the opportunity to play outside of
• 32:46
  the States. But like, it's it's interesting
• 32:51
  that as soon as you open up the number of roster spots that
• 32:55
  they're going to have, now you do have people who have access
• 32:59
  to the league right now saying, hey, I'll shoot my shot.
• 33:02
  Yeah, exactly. OK, So this person that we keep
• 33:04
  alluding to 'cause I feel like we should just talk about her.
• 33:07
  Canadian Olympian Megan Augusta is coming out of retirement
• 33:11
  after seven years at age 39. Wow.
• 33:18
  I got a chance. You have a chance, so do I.
• 33:21
  This is why I keep training the way that I do.
• 33:23
  She's a three time Olympic gold medalist, A2 time IHF World
• 33:27
  Women's World Champion, and she is currently the 4th all time
• 33:32
  leading goal scorer in the NCAA. There have been a lot of really
• 33:36
  good players that have come since she was in the NCAA.
• 33:39
  So like that, to me that was like the most impressive thing I
• 33:42
  read on her resume today. So I'm excited to see if she
• 33:47
  gets picked up. Yeah, because I want to see
• 33:50
  that. I just want to see her.
• 33:52
  I want to see her play. I want to see that.
• 33:54
  I want to see the draft. I want to see her go up and get
• 33:57
  her jersey if she was there. Yeah, that would be so cool.
• 33:59
  I know. So other players that we're
• 34:03
  going to be keeping our eye on here in the entry draft, which I
• 34:07
  think is what do we say June 17th in Detroit, top pick
• 34:12
  contenders. You've heard us mention these
• 34:14
  names before, but Caroline Harvey out of Wisconsin, Abby
• 34:18
  Murphy out of Minnesota, Layla Edwards out of Wisconsin.
• 34:23
  I could just keep listing Wisconsin players.
• 34:25
  Yeah, mostly in Wisconsin. Like Lacey Eden out of
• 34:28
  Wisconsin, Kirsten Sims out of Wisconsin, Tessa Janake from
• 34:32
  Penn State. But then you've got Finnish
• 34:36
  stars. So three time Olympian Petra
• 34:39
  Neimanen, I learned is like has been a leading scorer in the
• 34:44
  Swedish leagues for a number of years.
• 34:47
  She was like the 2023 MVP, obviously played on their
• 34:51
  Olympic teams last couple of of times here.
• 34:55
  And then she also teamed up with now former Gopher Nellie
• 34:59
  Latinen, who is just on the team there too.
• 35:02
  So you're going to get some European talent coming over and
• 35:07
  then couple goaltenders to keep our eyes on.
• 35:10
  So Taiwan, the lone Taiwanese player in the draft is a
• 35:14
  goaltender. I'm going to totally butcher her
• 35:17
  name and I apologize, but suitings who?
• 35:21
  That's pretty close. I think I feel like that's good.
• 35:24
  And then the Swiss goaltender in the article that I read today, I
• 35:29
  was told by this person on The Who wrote the article that this
• 35:34
  is the best goaltender outside of the PWHL right now, Andrea
• 35:40
  Bradley. No idea if I said that right
• 35:42
  either, but she just helped lead Switzerland to a bronze medal in
• 35:47
  the most recent Olympics. So I am excited.
• 35:52
  I am excited to see how this goes.
• 35:54
  I will be watching the draft and I'm going to be very curious
• 36:00
  over the next couple of weeks here how this whole thing plays
• 36:05
  out because remember, folks, we've got players to protect.
• 36:09
  We've got, you know, exclusive negotiation target list to make.
• 36:15
  We've got EF OS, which I've always forget what that one is
• 36:20
  called, and then foundational player offers and then RE
• 36:23
  signings and all of these things.
• 36:25
  Yeah, I think it's going to be an interesting draft because I
• 36:28
  normally would not watch any hockey draft because they're a
• 36:30
  lot of times it's kind of like MLB drafts where they're
• 36:32
  drafting the rights to players who are still in high school or
• 36:35
  early college this time. So this is going to be like an
• 36:38
  actual kind of fresh out of college or an international, all
• 36:41
  that type of draft. So it'll be fun to watch.
• 36:44
  And then attaching to either teams we already know and love
• 36:47
  or these like new teams that we're kind of excited to see how
• 36:50
  they go. Yeah.
• 36:53
  All right, let's move it on. Are we talking at WNBA?
• 36:59
  WNBA. Talking WNBA all right.
• 37:02
  Oh, I should have added in favorite thing.
• 37:04
  I had the pleasure of going seeing the Lynx play last night.
• 37:09
  So shout out to my friend who whose sister had tickets and
• 37:14
  asked if I would come with. And then shout out to Alex for
• 37:17
  making that, making that happen here at home.
• 37:20
  I thought I was going to get to go.
• 37:24
  What? Just leave the kids here.
• 37:25
  Oh well, next time. Next time, but we're going to go
• 37:29
  through, I'll talk a little bit about that.
• 37:31
  They played the Chicago Sky and lost.
• 37:33
  So but I want to go through just like thinking of full Week 1.
• 37:39
  So we officially kicked out the season last Friday.
• 37:42
  We've had a full little bit over a week now of play.
• 37:45
  Just some like ups and downs that I'm noticing so far.
• 37:49
  So I think from an UPS perspective, Asia Wilson after
• 37:53
  the aces like total flop in their opening game, their ring
• 37:57
  ceremony game, they are off and sort of running.
• 38:02
  They they had a little bit of a challenge against Atlanta on
• 38:05
  Sunday this past weekend, I think.
• 38:07
  They're three and one at this point, though.
• 38:09
  Yeah, Yeah, they are. But I'm just saying they almost
• 38:12
  lost to Atlanta but the reigning WMB AM VP is looking like the
• 38:23
  front running WMB AM VP. She did in a not this last game
• 38:28
  against the Dream, but over the sun, which you could argue like
• 38:32
  me, they're not that competitive right now.
• 38:35
  Dropped 45 points on 83% shooting from the floor.
• 38:41
  We mentioned this Asia Wilson. This is Asia Wilson.
• 38:44
  Yes, this is that is. Yeah, that's insane.
• 38:48
  And she's not shooting like she's not just shooting layups.
• 38:52
  She's got like a crazy mid range game.
• 38:55
  So that's impressive. I will say that in the midweek
• 38:59
  game where the Lynx beat the Wings that our girl Courtney
• 39:04
  Williams had, I don't know, 21 points or something like that on
• 39:09
  9 of 10 shooting from the floor, which if you do that math is 90%
• 39:13
  field goal shooting, which is insane.
• 39:15
  But then she turned around and had a really bad shooting night
• 39:19
  last night. All right, Speaking of the
• 39:21
  links, Olivia Miles, our rookie number two overall draft pick,
• 39:26
  tearing it up. She is making history.
• 39:28
  I think you mentioned this last week, but I think just getting
• 39:34
  to watch her in person last night, just the way she sees the
• 39:39
  court is a little bit scary. And I think she it's very clear
• 39:44
  she's got things she's got to learn.
• 39:46
  We got to start to like make some smarter decisions on those
• 39:49
  passes and things like that. But her you said this like her
• 39:54
  ceiling is so high, is so high. Caitlin Clark records her 12th
• 40:01
  game. With 20 plus points and 30,
• 40:03
  excuse me, 10 plus assists in her 57 game career, which is
• 40:09
  setting a record for both quantity of those, that number,
• 40:12
  that stat line for number of games and the speed with which
• 40:16
  she got there. I think the next closest player
• 40:19
  did that or got to 11 or something in like 400 some
• 40:24
  games. Oh my God.
• 40:25
  And it's not just games. That's games played right.
• 40:27
  It's. Not like, yeah, games played,
• 40:29
  yeah. She was out for, she was out for
• 40:30
  a little bit and that doesn't count.
• 40:31
  No, no, no that. Doesn't count.
• 40:33
  That's still wild. Holy smoke.
• 40:34
  So she's, you know, we continue to kind of see this offensive
• 40:38
  production from her. I think so far this season.
• 40:42
  She did just have a really good game over the weekend against
• 40:45
  the storm, Seattle Storm on Sunday.
• 40:48
  But the game prior to that were the fever lost to the Mystics.
• 40:51
  She was having a real hard time finding the bottom of the bucket
• 40:55
  until she needed to ended up hitting the shot to send them to
• 40:59
  overtime right. But she's she seems, it'll be
• 41:03
  interesting to see if she is starting to find her rhythm a
• 41:05
  little bit more, so we'll be watching for that.
• 41:09
  Absolutely. And then Atlanta Dream Baby I
• 41:13
  like. Yeah, what is going on?
• 41:15
  Here they well, I think it's good like they took down the
• 41:18
  links right in that first game they overcame a 191819 point
• 41:24
  deficit against them they beat the wings.
• 41:27
  We'll talk about the Wings in a second.
• 41:29
  And then they took the Aces, the defending champions, to the wire
• 41:34
  and they had been down in that game by 18 points or something
• 41:39
  like that. It was a big it was a big
• 41:41
  deficit. So Alicia Gray, she's showing
• 41:44
  up. Ryan Howard didn't play in that
• 41:46
  game against the Aces. Angel Reese is doing Angel race
• 41:49
  things, right. They've got Jordan Canada.
• 41:53
  Like there's there's a there's potentially a good thing brew in
• 41:58
  there. They need to shoot better.
• 42:02
  They did. They weren't shooting very well,
• 42:05
  but that was AGM pick in the poll like third, third most
• 42:11
  likely to win the championship. So we shall see.
• 42:15
  But that Reese trade is looking. Like it is, and you continue to
• 42:19
  take people to the wire and expect to win.
• 42:22
  What's that? So they took the, they took the
• 42:24
  ace to the wire and lost, right. They took the links to the wire
• 42:28
  and won. Yeah.
• 42:30
  How, how many times can you keep kind of doing that like coming
• 42:34
  back and having to having to win?
• 42:38
  I can't tell if you're being cynical or not.
• 42:40
  I'm asking the question is, is that sustainable?
• 42:44
  I don't think so, but I think what it demonstrates is fight.
• 42:49
  They're not rolling over when a team goes up on them by 19
• 42:52
  points. They're fighting back and then
• 42:54
  they're maybe getting the outcome, maybe not.
• 42:57
  But you want if your, if your team is demonstrating resiliency
• 43:02
  in the first couple of weeks when like we haven't all figured
• 43:06
  each other out, there's people coming off of injury coming back
• 43:10
  into the season or whatever it might be.
• 43:12
  Like. To me, a lot of the skill and
• 43:16
  like the technical and like the strategy execution in a season
• 43:22
  is going to come with time. The mental if if that looks good
• 43:29
  early on and right now again, it could change.
• 43:32
  But right now the dream look like they've got some bite to
• 43:35
  them. That is a great sign to me.
• 43:38
  Yeah yeah. Cool.
• 43:39
  So no, I I would, I think they would like to probably be
• 43:43
  winning games by more, but I think seeing them be able to
• 43:47
  fight back and not again, not like look at some other teams
• 43:51
  that have gotten down by that much and then they stay down
• 43:54
  right. I just think that like, I think
• 43:58
  it's a good sign all. Right.
• 44:00
  What I will say on that front is we were watching that game and I
• 44:05
  said to my daughter as the dream we're roaring back and closing
• 44:10
  that gap. This is where a championship
• 44:14
  team is tested. Can the Aces close out the game?
• 44:17
  Yeah, they got the ball to the point guard and the point guard
• 44:22
  hit the shot she needed to and they won the game.
• 44:24
  This is Chelsea Gray, by the way, if you don't know who the
• 44:27
  point guard is. So yeah, I think they are worth
• 44:31
  a watch. And then just generally
• 44:33
  speaking, Eastern Conference off to a strong start behind some
• 44:38
  really strong backcourt play across multiple teams there.
• 44:41
  And then everybody but Connecticut is off to a strong
• 44:45
  start. Connecticut has lost all their
• 44:47
  games. Bernie Griner's been out.
• 44:49
  She was their big blockbuster trade.
• 44:51
  But I just feel like that, like we said, I just feel like the
• 44:57
  move is like. Yeah, it's going to be hanging
• 44:58
  over them all season. Yeah, it's a, it's a Paul for
• 45:02
  sure. So, all right, Downs.
• 45:05
  Man, this was so sad last night. Well, yeah.
• 45:11
  I mean, just Rikia Jackson on kind of a normal kind of bump
• 45:16
  play there and planted wrong and just totally looks like an ACL.
• 45:21
  Andre, I don't think we've gotten confirmation yet, but
• 45:24
  went down hard for a while. Yeah, there's been, there's been
• 45:29
  some like commentary. Her teammate Tash Cloud came out
• 45:33
  and was like, This is why the referee needs to be better.
• 45:35
  You got to protect the players. I love Tosh, I love that she's
• 45:40
  sticking up for her teammates. I don't think there was contact
• 45:45
  that created that situation. She literally just, I've seen
• 45:51
  enough non contact ACL tears in my day that like that's what
• 45:55
  that looked like. To be clear, we do not know at
• 45:58
  the time of this recording what happened.
• 46:02
  Real bummer. Rakia was looking like she was
• 46:04
  going to be a lead dog there for Chicago and that team actually
• 46:10
  looks formidable. Camila Cardoso in the middle was
• 46:15
  not allowing much to happen for anyone who went to the bucket
• 46:19
  we. Were kind of joking that they
• 46:20
  were kind of a hot mess. I think they're not.
• 46:23
  I think they're not a hot mess. I think they got a lot of effort
• 46:26
  in that team. And I also have to shout out
• 46:29
  Gabriella Haquez. Like, she looked great last
• 46:34
  night. She looked like a vet.
• 46:35
  She looked calm, cool, collected.
• 46:37
  She put up 20 piece, I think, and eight rebounds.
• 46:40
  There were multiple times just in the game where like I could
• 46:44
  see that she was frustrated with a call or whatever and she just
• 46:48
  kind of like, OK, locked in and then she'd hit a big shot when
• 46:54
  they needed it. So I think big shout to her.
• 46:59
  Selfishness in the locker room with the wings.
• 47:03
  Man, it is how. Do you come out and say that?
• 47:07
  It is messy y'all to come out. Oh, this is the hot mess.
• 47:13
  On what are we in three games into the season with like one of
• 47:18
  one of the younger teams, not the youngest team, that'd be the
• 47:21
  Mystics, but like one of the younger teams and claim your
• 47:25
  claim that you just got done telling your players that they
• 47:28
  are selfish in the locker room. It's it's a like, why do you,
• 47:33
  you don't say that to you did say that to your players.
• 47:36
  You don't say that to the media. Two, it sounds like you're just
• 47:39
  like got a bunch of millennials. They're just selfish here.
• 47:42
  Like you sound like like some boomer talking about kids.
• 47:46
  Like these darn kids. To be fair, I do think the wings
• 47:50
  have some things they got to figure out.
• 47:52
  I think we you talked about it last episode or the episode
• 47:55
  before, but like, they have a lot of guards, a lot of what
• 47:59
  could be really, really good guards or are really, really
• 48:03
  good guards. And like they seem to not be
• 48:06
  able to figure out how to like optimize that.
• 48:10
  We watched him play the Lynx and the Lynx ended up beating them.
• 48:15
  I would be worried about their defense, specifically pick and
• 48:19
  roll defense was not very good. So maybe they can, which is
• 48:23
  funny 'cause like they have Alana Smith now who came from
• 48:27
  the Lynx, was the Co defensive player of the year last year
• 48:29
  with Asia Wilson. Like Jess Shepherd.
• 48:33
  I like they've got length, they've got experience.
• 48:36
  I'm just not really sure but when OK.
• 48:41
  You said it. You said it not me, but it's
• 48:44
  like also when your coach is coming out of the locker room
• 48:47
  saying like that he just said this stuff to you.
• 48:50
  I I'm just like, but to be clear, the other thing I want to
• 48:55
  say is we are four games into the season.
• 48:59
  Let's like let him figure it out for a little bit before hot
• 49:03
  taste my. Question was, do we have a hot
• 49:05
  seat already? Oh, for sure.
• 49:07
  I mean, I think so I think it's crazy in sports these days, Like
• 49:11
  I think the seat is hot immediately once any sign of,
• 49:14
  you know, trouble. I would say potentially there's
• 49:19
  there's hot seats all over the board in the West right now.
• 49:22
  But I think we need to get a little bit further into the
• 49:27
  season to like really pass judgement here.
• 49:32
  And I think, too, we also have a tendency to forget that, well,
• 49:37
  Paige Beckers is a star in this league.
• 49:39
  She is in her second. Season.
• 49:41
  Yeah, yeah. So she's essentially, you know,
• 49:47
  a very young player too, trying to figure out a system and and
• 49:51
  whatnot. So, well, I'm sure we'll be
• 49:55
  talking about them more in the future.
• 49:57
  Yeah, I think we will. Like contrasting my comment
• 50:02
  about the East, the Western Conference is not looking strong
• 50:05
  outside of the Aces. There's a lot of like kind of
• 50:09
  back and forth. So the West seems to be doing a
• 50:12
  couple instances back. To back.
• 50:14
  Games, yeah, where they're we're like far like East, East Coast
• 50:18
  teams are playing W like far West Coast teams back-to-back.
• 50:23
  So like the tempo went out to LA and they played one night, they
• 50:27
  got to rest and then they played again.
• 50:28
  But both out there, crypto.com Arena and then you had I think
• 50:34
  the Liberty did that with Portland and like for the most
• 50:38
  part those series are splitting. Like they're not really, there's
• 50:41
  no one really like kind of taking supremacy there.
• 50:44
  I'm guessing that that is actually a better thing for the
• 50:48
  players to not have to do those long, you know, multiple time
• 50:52
  zone change of things. But the West is looking a little
• 50:56
  bit like a struggle bus. Nobody beside, again, besides
• 50:59
  the Aces, nobody really like seeming consistent.
• 51:03
  I'll say again, what's consistency when we're four
• 51:07
  games in or five games into the season?
• 51:11
  I will say though, on on the terms of downs, Seattle looks
• 51:17
  like they're going to be about what we thought a little bit of
• 51:19
  a hot mess, not really sure what is going on is.
• 51:22
  Having fun though. She is having the time of her
• 51:25
  life and I love that for her and I hope that she just continues
• 51:29
  to. And I think that her energy
• 51:30
  actually will be a little bit contagious up there.
• 51:34
  And like, hopefully that's just brings some positive momentum
• 51:38
  that way when it comes to performance on the court.
• 51:44
  But the Sparks, so the Sparks, if you look at the Sparks
• 51:48
  roster, you'd be like, wow, yeah, I'd take that team any day
• 51:53
  we got. Kelsey.
• 51:54
  Plum, Kelsey Plum NECA, Guma, Ke Cambrink.
• 51:58
  But Dereka Hamby, Ray Burrell. Like a bunch of players who can
• 52:04
  find the bucket, They defend well, right?
• 52:08
  And I haven't watched them, which can be problematic.
• 52:12
  Yeah, it can be for some people. Yeah.
• 52:15
  But just again, looking at that roster and having watched those
• 52:23
  players before, I would assume that their record would be
• 52:28
  better than it is right now. And again, feeling out period.
• 52:32
  You talked about the importance of like these first 10 or so
• 52:35
  games and we're about halfway there.
• 52:37
  So we'll see, but that one has been a big surprise for me that
• 52:41
  they just haven't been able to kind of find a find a little bit
• 52:45
  of a rhythm yet. For sure.
• 52:47
  So what have you been noticing about these first four games or
• 52:52
  so? Is there anything that's popping
• 52:53
  out, anything that's loud, that's stopping games for some
• 53:02
  reason? Oh gosh, yeah, I'm sure you all
• 53:05
  have too. If you've been tuning in, it's
• 53:07
  called a whistle. Yeah, it's.
• 53:10
  Called a whistle? You mean are we going?
• 53:12
  To talk about we're going to talk about this, we're going to
• 53:14
  talk about the refs. And again, I can't get fined so
• 53:17
  I can say whatever I want. Let's let's talk about this.
• 53:22
  There's been a lot more stoppages of play, a lot more
• 53:24
  whistles. The stats around this 22.3 fouls
• 53:31
  and 23 .1 free throws per game in 2026 versus 17.5 holes and
• 53:39
  18.2 free throws in 2025 so far, so a huge increase.
• 53:45
  Yeah, and that's like the the big thing here, and I'll
• 53:49
  probably come back to this a few times, but like that's a
• 53:51
  material difference in the game outcome.
• 53:54
  Yeah, 55 points is what you're talking about.
• 53:57
  Plus, you're talking about what was it of four, 555 more fouls.
• 54:05
  So we are seeing, I feel like more players foul out or get
• 54:09
  into foul trouble, which changes the game, right?
• 54:13
  Yeah. Keep going and.
• 54:15
  So for the reason, the reason for this, there was an offseason
• 54:20
  task force that was set up players and coaches to address
• 54:25
  the physicality and I think the consistency of refereeing.
• 54:29
  I we talked about it. We didn't have a podcast yet.
• 54:32
  We were talking to the air, but we talked about the refereeing a
• 54:35
  lot last year. We saw in the Commissioners Cup
• 54:37
  game we went to, there was a lot of.
• 54:40
  Yeah. It's.
• 54:40
  Consistency, it's been an issue in the West for a number of
• 54:44
  years now, right? And there's been comments from
• 54:49
  players, coaches, fans, officials, GMs, like, you name
• 54:54
  it, of we are struggling with the physicality that's allowed.
• 55:01
  We feel like it's jeopardizing player safety.
• 55:04
  It's jeopardizing like some elements of the game that that
• 55:08
  make it more entertaining. And we need to fix it.
• 55:12
  And so that was what Kathy Engelbert pulled this task force
• 55:15
  together and. The big focus they're.
• 55:20
  Working through it they're. Working through it, the big
• 55:21
  focus here was freedom of movement for the offensive
• 55:24
  player. Yes, you will hear us say that a
• 55:27
  lot. We'll say that a lot here.
• 55:30
  I think we have a quote here from the WNBA head of referee
• 55:34
  performance and development, which is apparently a position
• 55:37
  that exists, Sue Blanche said. What came out of our meetings
• 55:42
  was we didn't really change any rules or change and
• 55:44
  interpretation when we drill down into the nitty gritty.
• 55:47
  It came down to we needed to strictly enforce our current
• 55:51
  guidelines. So that's what you're seeing
• 55:54
  more of a more stricter enforcement of freedom of
• 55:56
  movement, which I don't know how that doesn't become a different
• 56:00
  interpretation or whatever, but. Yeah, having not read like the
• 56:06
  rule book, right, it's hard to know, but it is very clear when
• 56:13
  you watch games that they are. It's weird because they're like
• 56:19
  protecting offensive players more like the the calls go more
• 56:26
  in the favour of an offensive player versus like them letting
• 56:30
  it go. I don't think right now it's
• 56:35
  making the game better. No Well and I think I feel like
• 56:41
  that's part of the reason that sometimes people watch the WNBA
• 56:43
  there's a little bit more defensive mindedness than in the
• 56:46
  NBA right and so it's going to be interesting to see how that
• 56:51
  how that takes us. Another little tidbit here was
• 56:55
  that the tech foul fines were overhauled.
• 56:58
  Techs 4 through 7 are now $1000 each.
• 57:01
  The eighth tech is 1500 plus A1 game suspension and the old Max
• 57:04
  was 800 I. Mean those costly.
• 57:07
  It's a big change. Yeah, we have some some other
• 57:12
  stats here. We have 12.
• 57:14
  I was 10 yesterday. It's now 12.
• 57:18
  It's gone up 12 of 15 teams currently averaging 20 plus
• 57:22
  fouls per game. And last year, the the
• 57:27
  Connecticut Sun led the entire WNBA in 2025 at 19.6 fouls per
• 57:33
  game. So the old league leader is now
• 57:36
  below. Average of the current 44 games
• 57:40
  in again, and we're talking that's four games in.
• 57:45
  Free throws have exploded. Yeah, five games this season
• 57:48
  with a team at 25, plus free throw attempts.
• 57:52
  There were only 25 such games in all of 2025.
• 57:55
  Yeah, that I, I was thinking, like I mentioned Asia Wilson's
• 58:00
  45 point game. Thirteen of those points were
• 58:03
  free throws. Jeez, right, So that's at least
• 58:07
  what is that 7 fouls called against her, assuming that was
• 58:10
  all on twos or weren't and ones in there.
• 58:14
  And again, I go to like this, this has material impact on the
• 58:19
  game and we'll talk about it here in a minute.
• 58:23
  But like I'm kind of like how long is this adjustment period
• 58:27
  going to take? Like where players, so in
• 58:30
  officiating, good officiating is we all understand the rules,
• 58:34
  like players, referees alike, you come out, the refs usually
• 58:37
  communicate at the beginning of the game what they're like.
• 58:40
  Points of emphasis are going to be right because we want the
• 58:44
  game to be entertaining, right? We want it to be fair, but we
• 58:47
  want it to be entertaining or whatever.
• 58:50
  And I think right now you can really see players struggling
• 58:55
  just like they struggled before with like, why isn't that a
• 58:57
  foul? Now they're kind of like, why is
• 58:59
  this a foul? Yeah, So look at here's here's
• 59:02
  some feedback from players and coaches.
• 59:04
  We have Stewie saying that's insane calls that are
• 59:08
  unnecessary on both sides. And then there's no flow after
• 59:11
  being called for 31 team fouls versus Washington 31.
• 59:19
  We're we're talking. Last, Last.
• 59:21
  Year the average was 19.6. It's a lot of whistles.
• 59:25
  And then we've got Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx head coach Zane,
• 59:29
  and she was on this task force, apparently.
• 59:32
  The game is 40 minutes long. That's so 31.
• 59:35
  One every minute. And 1/2 and. 1/2 yeah.
• 59:38
  Yeah, we've got. We're just that team.
• 59:41
  Yeah. Let alone the other team.
• 59:43
  That's horrible. That's every 30 seconds.
• 59:46
  Oh my gosh. So we've got Cheryl Reeve,
• 59:49
  Minnesota Link's head coach, who was part of this task force,
• 59:51
  saying what I'm confused about being on the task force.
• 59:55
  We talked about unnecessary physicality.
• 59:57
  We didn't say we want to call marginal follows.
• 1:00:00
  We never brought that up. Yeah, I think, excuse me, I
• 1:00:04
  think that's some of what, like even being at the game last
• 1:00:08
  night, right? Was like, there's just like some
• 1:00:11
  things that got called where you're like, what?
• 1:00:13
  Like how is that a foul, right. And then there were other things
• 1:00:18
  that weren't called. You're like, how was that not a
• 1:00:21
  foul? And again, that that
• 1:00:23
  understanding between the players and the officials so
• 1:00:27
  that you can establish a flow in a game like I, I honestly cannot
• 1:00:31
  imagine what that game was like that Stewie was just talking
• 1:00:34
  about. They went, I know they went into
• 1:00:36
  overtime. It was like a 95 to 93 or 98 to
• 1:00:40
  95 or something was the end score.
• 1:00:43
  But like, that had to have been just like, like Start Stop the
• 1:00:47
  whole time. I couldn't do it.
• 1:00:49
  So frustrating. I think the interesting part is
• 1:00:52
  that we were when we were prepping for this is they've
• 1:00:54
  they tried this, they did this again or before in 2018 kind of
• 1:01:01
  the freedom of movement type idea.
• 1:01:04
  But the understanding here was that they were supposed to be
• 1:01:06
  addressing consistency more so this time.
• 1:01:10
  And I think what is interesting is now it's consistently calling
• 1:01:15
  more of these defensive fouls, whereas last year all everyone
• 1:01:20
  wanted was just call it the same, Yeah, every time.
• 1:01:23
  It doesn't need to be more or less on either side, just call
• 1:01:26
  it the same. Right.
• 1:01:27
  Don't, don't stack it towards one team versus the other.
• 1:01:32
  And it's I think what's important too, right, as we kind
• 1:01:37
  of wrap this portion up a little bit is like, I just think of the
• 1:01:43
  fan impact. And I know we're going to get to
• 1:01:45
  this. And I know again, we keep saying
• 1:01:47
  this, it's very early in the season.
• 1:01:49
  This very well could just be this like feeling out period
• 1:01:53
  between sort of the way that this is going to go.
• 1:01:57
  But honestly too, like if this is the way, if this persists,
• 1:02:02
  you risk losing viewers like in a big way, right?
• 1:02:08
  There's, there's kind of two parts of it too.
• 1:02:10
  There's a stat saying that five teams are already at 103.8
• 1:02:14
  points per game. Last year, only the Indiana
• 1:02:18
  fever had ever they're the only thing that cracked it last year
• 1:02:21
  in May, 100 points. But it's kind of two things.
• 1:02:25
  You have more scoring, potentially more offense.
• 1:02:27
  But if you're also having, like you said, the whistle fest, the
• 1:02:30
  no flow fans don't want to tune in and watch dribble it down,
• 1:02:34
  whistle, dribble it down whistle like that's that's boring,
• 1:02:38
  right, Right. Yeah, I think you have.
• 1:02:41
  You had in the notes here the quote from an NPR interview that
• 1:02:45
  Fee did, Nafisa Collier. And she said, you know, you come
• 1:02:48
  to watch players play offense and to score, You know, when
• 1:02:53
  it's so physical, it's not as fun to watch, was kind of her
• 1:02:57
  quote when she was interviewed by NPR.
• 1:03:00
  And I think that's like partially true.
• 1:03:03
  Like, I think I, I, I hate to go against Queen Fee, but I do
• 1:03:09
  think that the WNBA had built a brand around like this real pure
• 1:03:15
  kind of interpretation or representation of of basketball
• 1:03:20
  where defense was played and there wasn't like constant foul
• 1:03:24
  calling in favor of the offensive player.
• 1:03:28
  And I actually think people like the physicality of the WI.
• 1:03:31
  Think I go back to your point, what we we heard a lot more last
• 1:03:35
  season and we talked about it was like, just be consistent.
• 1:03:39
  If you're going to call it tight, call it tight both ways.
• 1:03:41
  If you're going to let it play, let it play both ways at the
• 1:03:44
  same time. I always go back to player
• 1:03:46
  safety is important. If you are starting to call
• 1:03:53
  everything a foul, I actually think that can put player safety
• 1:03:57
  in jeopardy too, right? I just think like you're going
• 1:04:01
  to end up with frustration happening.
• 1:04:07
  You end up with a lot of like that Start Stop situation.
• 1:04:11
  Like sometimes flow is what helps players protect players
• 1:04:15
  too. And so I just think it's
• 1:04:17
  something that we got to keep an eye out.
• 1:04:19
  We'll keep an eye on it. Well, hopefully it doesn't.
• 1:04:21
  Hopefully it kind of mellows out just a little bit here and we
• 1:04:24
  can watch some basketball. It's always something.
• 1:04:29
  It's always something we can never have.
• 1:04:31
  Just like. We're not talking CBA, so that's
• 1:04:34
  good. That's true.
• 1:04:35
  That's true. We'll take that as a win.
• 1:04:39
  Talk to us in seven years. All right, We are going to move
• 1:04:43
  on and wrap up here with just a little bit of an NWSL cover.
• 1:04:48
  So I broke down our Week 8 results, talk a little bit about
• 1:04:55
  the top five in the table as it stands today, and then I've got
• 1:05:00
  a few call outs on what I'm calling rising and sliding.
• 1:05:04
  So who's kind of gaining some momentum these last few weeks
• 1:05:08
  and who's losing momentum, right?
• 1:05:12
  And again, the importance of where we're at in the season
• 1:05:15
  can't be understated. So I think we've got about two
• 1:05:18
  or three more match weeks to play before we go on.
• 1:05:22
  That break starts on June 1st. A lot of players will go do some
• 1:05:27
  international duty the first couple weeks of June.
• 1:05:30
  Then there's a mandated break in our in the NWSLCBA for all
• 1:05:36
  players to not participate with their clubs.
• 1:05:40
  And then they've got about two weeks after that to like
• 1:05:43
  regroup, practice some and what not before they come back around
• 1:05:49
  the beginning of July. So here's what we got for you.
• 1:05:53
  If we go top of the table, we have now, the San Diego Wave has
• 1:05:57
  reclaimed the top of the table after a couple of weeks sliding
• 1:06:02
  back there. They had a big win on the
• 1:06:05
  weekend over Washington Spirit. All right, Utah, of all the
• 1:06:11
  teams, this was not on my bingo card, saw their shutout streak
• 1:06:16
  broken. So we talked about that last
• 1:06:18
  week. I don't actually know if they
• 1:06:19
  beat the record. I didn't look that up.
• 1:06:21
  I didn't do my diligence. We should have looked that up.
• 1:06:23
  Yeah, they could have, but I don't know for sure.
• 1:06:26
  But they continue their unbeaten streak.
• 1:06:31
  So they they beat Racing Louisville 2:00 to 1:00, but
• 1:06:34
  they conceded that goal. Their unbeaten streak is now at
• 1:06:37
  eight games. We have played I think 11 or 12
• 1:06:45
  games at this point, so that's pretty good.
• 1:06:49
  They obviously draw, they they have more draws or a couple of
• 1:06:52
  draws in there too, so it's not like they've won eight games in
• 1:06:54
  a row. Just to be clear, Portland is in
• 1:06:56
  3rd now. They are winless in their last
• 1:06:59
  two games after a draw to Angel City over the weekend.
• 1:07:02
  So they actually lost 2 Racing Louisville of all teams, 3 to
• 1:07:07
  one in the midweek and then they had a 00 draw to Angel City FC
• 1:07:13
  who is on my sliding list. I would say from what I saw of
• 1:07:19
  the Portland Angel City game, Portland had the majority of the
• 1:07:23
  chances. There was some ball soccer luck
• 1:07:28
  involved, hit some posts. Yeah, like just wives, like
• 1:07:32
  things like that. So I think also Sarah Gordon
• 1:07:35
  happened to them. If you don't know who Sarah
• 1:07:37
  Gordon is, she is like the fastest center.
• 1:07:40
  She plays center back for Angel City FC.
• 1:07:43
  Her recovery runs are crazy. Check her out.
• 1:07:47
  And then, well, Washington did drop that game to top ranked San
• 1:07:51
  Diego. This is coming on the heels of
• 1:07:53
  an 8 game unbeaten streak for them as well.
• 1:07:55
  And a lot of those were actually wins for them and so they are
• 1:07:58
  sitting comfy in fourth place. I did see that trend played in
• 1:08:03
  that game against San Diego. So she is not.
• 1:08:07
  She's fine from whatever that knock was or whatever.
• 1:08:10
  It was. Yeah, that happened that we
• 1:08:11
  talked about last week. And then Gotham FC is unbeaten
• 1:08:15
  in their last five, rounding out our top five.
• 1:08:19
  Thing that's interesting with them to me is they're not really
• 1:08:21
  scoring a ton and that's problematic.
• 1:08:26
  So the defense is there. Defense is there and and for the
• 1:08:29
  firepower they should have with Lavelle and Jaden Shaw and it's
• 1:08:33
  there many others. It just seems like it should be
• 1:08:39
  better in my view, and you're hanging on the edge of like, you
• 1:08:43
  know, 5th place. Obviously top 8 go to playoffs.
• 1:08:45
  So they're they're fine right now, but just something to to
• 1:08:49
  look out for. OK, my rising teams I.
• 1:08:56
  Don't want to give it away, but I didn't. 2 expansion teams. 2
• 1:09:00
  expansion teams. There we go.
• 1:09:03
  So did I say? Do I say Boston is on the rise?
• 1:09:09
  Y'all? They are out of the basement.
• 1:09:11
  They are no longer in last place, in fact.
• 1:09:14
  In fact they are, believe this or not, unbeaten in their last
• 1:09:19
  five games. I had to go look up the stat
• 1:09:23
  both ways, like the unbeaten and losing in the 1st 5.
• 1:09:27
  Yes, after losing their first five games so they have points
• 1:09:32
  now. In their last five games, they
• 1:09:34
  have been able to find the back of the net finally, and so they
• 1:09:38
  seem to be adjusting to their scheme.
• 1:09:41
  We talked about that a few episodes ago.
• 1:09:44
  They're now sitting in 14th, but they are on this nice little
• 1:09:47
  swing. I'll see where they go and we're
• 1:09:49
  going to see what happens. OK, Kansas City Current, I
• 1:09:54
  complained about them. Now they're on the rise.
• 1:09:59
  They are now in 6th, so a little different story than Boston, but
• 1:10:03
  they've won four of their last five.
• 1:10:05
  They are scoring goals. They have finally unlocked Temwa
• 1:10:08
  Shawinga. She scored that hat trick last
• 1:10:13
  week, She scored again this week.
• 1:10:15
  If they can keep her going, keep Kroy Bethune going, keep Alice
• 1:10:19
  Sentinor going, they are going to be in good shape.
• 1:10:23
  It just took him a minute. We were talking, was it Chris
• 1:10:26
  Armas? Chris Armas.
• 1:10:27
  Yeah, we were. Talking hot seat for him.
• 1:10:29
  We were talking hot seat they. Were talking hot seat on the on
• 1:10:31
  the television for another game for him like they were thinking
• 1:10:35
  more game there and. Yeah.
• 1:10:37
  So he figured it out and they are on the rise.
• 1:10:42
  And then my third team on the rise is my Denver Summit.
• 1:10:47
  And I say my Denver Summit because that's my adopted NWSL
• 1:10:51
  team. They are now in 7th place.
• 1:10:54
  So they are inside that playoff early, early, early playoff
• 1:10:57
  picture. They have won their last two
• 1:11:00
  games. They are scoring a lot of goals
• 1:11:02
  in their wins. Their losses are all one goal
• 1:11:06
  they have. They have only have one loss on
• 1:11:08
  the season by two goals and everything else is a one goal
• 1:11:12
  loss. We have seen they have had a
• 1:11:15
  hard time going back to like the Aces Atlanta commentary, right?
• 1:11:20
  They have had a lot of times where they've had a lead and
• 1:11:23
  squandered and that is not what you want to.
• 1:11:25
  See. So we will see how that goes.
• 1:11:30
  I am super excited that these expansion teams are having
• 1:11:34
  success. I think that's really good for
• 1:11:37
  the lead. It's a bummer when those teams
• 1:11:39
  kind of just sit in the basement.
• 1:11:40
  So to see Boston, even though it's two slots out of last
• 1:11:44
  place, like to see them kind of boosted out of there is.
• 1:11:46
  Going to start somewhere and also Denver is going to get
• 1:11:49
  Lindsay Heaps here soon. That is a great call.
• 1:11:51
  After that World Cup break. She comes back or comes into
• 1:11:55
  camp with them or comes into whatever.
• 1:11:58
  OK, teams that are sliding. The Orlando Pride we talked
• 1:12:03
  about this last week and Barbara Banda is.
• 1:12:07
  She can only do so much. She's.
• 1:12:08
  She is inevitable on the pitch, like she will score you goals.
• 1:12:14
  You have to figure out how to not let goals in.
• 1:12:16
  She can't be the Barbara Band-Aid like.
• 1:12:18
  Yeah, the Barbara Band-Aid, it's amazing, yes.
• 1:12:24
  And so they're in 9th place right now.
• 1:12:26
  So they're right outside of that again, those playoff spots.
• 1:12:30
  But they've lost four of their last five.
• 1:12:33
  They are, like I said, always scoring because Barbara is
• 1:12:37
  inevitable, but they are conceding too many goals and so
• 1:12:41
  if I'm coaching over there, I am looking at my defence, I'm
• 1:12:44
  looking at my goalkeeping and I'm trying to understand and
• 1:12:47
  it's not just defenders in soccer, it's not just the
• 1:12:50
  defenders who are at fault for defence.
• 1:12:52
  Like is my midfield doing their job?
• 1:12:54
  Are my forwards executing appropriately?
• 1:12:56
  But my scheme on defence is what I mean when I say that.
• 1:13:00
  They also lost back-to-back games this past week to the two
• 1:13:04
  expansion teams. And let's just say Orlando Pride
• 1:13:09
  won the shield two years ago. So you're established, you've
• 1:13:16
  been here. You shouldn't really be losing 2
• 1:13:22
  teams that have very, very low expectations.
• 1:13:25
  But they're also fun and whatever.
• 1:13:27
  Lots of there's lots of energy behind the expansion teams.
• 1:13:31
  Houston. Houston now is in 13th place.
• 1:13:34
  They are winless in their last five after starting pretty hot
• 1:13:39
  on the season. But they are struggling to
• 1:13:41
  score. Yeah, they have only scored one
• 1:13:45
  goal in their last five games, and so that is not good.
• 1:13:51
  And then Seattle also backsliding.
• 1:13:54
  They're in 11th place now, winless in their last five.
• 1:13:57
  No goals for them in that period.
• 1:14:00
  They had 200 ties. So like their defense can be
• 1:14:04
  good but they got to figure out how to score give.
• 1:14:08
  Hello Jay over there. She needs to needs to pump that
• 1:14:10
  team up a. Little bit, yeah.
• 1:14:11
  Can you take knighter from the torrent and flage from the storm
• 1:14:16
  and just put them on the field? They'll figure it out.
• 1:14:19
  And then my last one here on sliding is Angel City.
• 1:14:23
  So they're in 12th. So I kind of had 11th, 12th and
• 1:14:26
  13th in my bucket for sliding, but they are winless in their
• 1:14:30
  last five. I know it's kind of weird.
• 1:14:36
  And then teams, we just didn't mention.
• 1:14:39
  Bay FC has been sitting just in the middle all season long.
• 1:14:43
  Where they want to be they're. Just like right in 10th place.
• 1:14:46
  They've been like between 8th and 10th the whole year.
• 1:14:48
  I think we talked about that at some point they're.
• 1:14:50
  Sneaky. You're sneaky.
• 1:14:51
  They're gonna sneak in, Yeah. They just want to be right
• 1:14:53
  there. And then we didn't mention
• 1:14:55
  racing Louisville and the Chicago Stars.
• 1:15:00
  Yeah, who are basically a guaranteed win at this point on
• 1:15:04
  this schedule. I will be interested to see as
• 1:15:07
  Swanson as Mel Swanson's minutes increase.
• 1:15:10
  Right now they're monitoring or managing her minutes, and so
• 1:15:13
  does that make a difference? They seem to have a lot more
• 1:15:17
  problems than just needing one more forward on the team.
• 1:15:21
  Another thing to call it I didn't do.
• 1:15:22
  I didn't check beforehand but Nair went out.
• 1:15:25
  Oh yeah, I didn't Chuck either. If she's her leg injury last
• 1:15:29
  game, so I don't I don't know if she's if that was permanent or
• 1:15:32
  yeah, whatever. We'll have to look into that.
• 1:15:36
  All right, so that's a little run down here on the team's two
• 1:15:41
  topics. I just want to hit on really
• 1:15:43
  quick before we go back into what to watch.
• 1:15:47
  We mentioned in headlines Gotham FC is on the move.
• 1:15:51
  They are in advance talk so to be clear this is not finalized
• 1:15:55
  but it seems like it's likely to move locations for playing their
• 1:16:00
  games from Harrison, NJ where they play right now to Queens,
• 1:16:07
  NY where a brand new stadium is being built for NYCFCI.
• 1:16:13
  Was listening to a podcast today where they were reporters were a
• 1:16:16
  reporter was talking about this move and this new stadium is
• 1:16:22
  supposed to be beautiful. Queens, NY is also a very like
• 1:16:26
  diverse neighborhood and there it's ripe for soccer fandom.
• 1:16:32
  And so, and then the the other thing I wanted to mention is
• 1:16:36
  that Gotham, despite being one of the more successful teams in
• 1:16:40
  the league, has struggled to get consistent attendance.
• 1:16:44
  And so I could see where the league and the owners may be
• 1:16:49
  interested in exploring this, at least for the time, right.
• 1:16:55
  One thing to note for our audience who may not be as
• 1:16:58
  familiar with NWSL is that we primarily refer to them as
• 1:17:02
  Gotham FC, but their actual name is NJ Dash, NY Gotham FC.
• 1:17:09
  So they are New Jersey, New York, Gotham FC, so I it's just
• 1:17:15
  something I'm going to be keeping an eye on.
• 1:17:17
  Yeah. Is, is the stadium that they're
• 1:17:18
  currently playing in, is that a soccer like a PLD soccer?
• 1:17:22
  OK, So it's not like they're changing from.
• 1:17:24
  No, no. It's a shared venue, though,
• 1:17:27
  Sports Illustrated Stadium with the Red Bulls, New York Red
• 1:17:31
  Bulls, maybe. And so it's I, I, I don't really
• 1:17:36
  know like why they're not drawing as many fans, but like
• 1:17:40
  the if you just were to take population density alone, you
• 1:17:44
  would assume that they would be getting more people to the games
• 1:17:48
  if they make this move to Queens.
• 1:17:50
  This has came to mind. This is just total off the wall.
• 1:17:53
  They moved to Queens so that a different team could also move
• 1:17:55
  into New. Jersey possibly, possibly right.
• 1:17:59
  And then the other thing just to keep an eye on.
• 1:18:02
  Again, we don't have a ton of reporting on this yet.
• 1:18:04
  This was an article from Cutback, which I think is covers
• 1:18:09
  primarily soccer topics or football topics, But these
• 1:18:14
  changes to the high impact player rule.
• 1:18:16
  So when we talked about this in a very early episode of ours
• 1:18:20
  around the hip rule or the Rodman rule as it's become known
• 1:18:25
  here, the high impact player rule was rolled out, rolled out
• 1:18:31
  saying, hey, teams, you can spend up to $1,000,000 more than
• 1:18:36
  your salary cap on a player who meets like these specific
• 1:18:42
  criteria. And a lot of it was geared
• 1:18:45
  towards like the marketability of that player, not really on
• 1:18:50
  their soccer like like objective soccer ability.
• 1:18:57
  And it's interesting because with that, what that means is
• 1:19:02
  that essentially the media would be dictating who potentially
• 1:19:05
  qualifies for this role. And so I actually, if this is
• 1:19:09
  true, and again, I only have one article going on this, but there
• 1:19:14
  were again, this podcast, there were reporters who do this.
• 1:19:17
  We're talking about it too. But what what what's true about
• 1:19:21
  this is like, or what I like about this, I should say, is the
• 1:19:25
  NWSL is assessing it and making adjustments quickly.
• 1:19:29
  I think they've realized that that is limiting and biased and
• 1:19:35
  could be swayed in a big way. What this unlocks potentially is
• 1:19:41
  overseas talent coming into the NWSL, assuming that there are
• 1:19:46
  players who maybe didn't meet that original criteria, who now
• 1:19:50
  could come in and sign the kind of contracts that they want to
• 1:19:53
  sign. I think it's interesting that
• 1:19:55
  they're adjusting quickly on this.
• 1:19:58
  I mean, we said. 1015 episodes ago.
• 1:20:01
  Like is the WNBA taking note from the NWSL?
• 1:20:05
  Because the NWSL seems to at least try quickly and like, make
• 1:20:10
  things. Figure out how to make things
• 1:20:12
  work better. Yeah, agree, agree.
• 1:20:14
  So we will be keeping an eye on that.
• 1:20:17
  More reporting. Just to put a bow on it there.
• 1:20:20
  That rule was not set to go into effect officially until July 1st
• 1:20:25
  of 2026, which is kind of post this World Cup window.
• 1:20:30
  So it could be interesting to see what happens because now the
• 1:20:35
  European season is winding down, there's going to be players who
• 1:20:40
  have their contracts ending like a Sam Kerr, right?
• 1:20:44
  Will we see some big news in that window that doesn't involve
• 1:20:49
  international play and other things like that?
• 1:20:52
  So. I think.
• 1:20:52
  I think we might. We got to watch out.
• 1:20:55
  All right, let's move it on to what to watch.
• 1:20:57
  So much. Yeah, I mean, I really tried
• 1:21:00
  here. We've got WNBA.
• 1:21:02
  We've got three games, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• 1:21:07
  I'm going to now list off all 12 games.
• 1:21:09
  No, just kidding. I'm going to list 1.
• 1:21:11
  We'll post these on. Yeah, one per day.
• 1:21:14
  Thursday we've got Toronto Tempo who's two and two currently
• 1:21:18
  versus Minnesota Lakes, see that in League Pass or victory.
• 1:21:21
  Plus we've got Friday at 6:30 PM Golden State versus Indiana
• 1:21:27
  Fever on ION, pretty good game. We have Saturday, May 23rd at
• 1:21:34
  7:00 PM Central Los Angeles Sparks versus Las Vegas Aces and
• 1:21:39
  you're like, why do we pick a one and three team versus A4 and
• 1:21:43
  one 'cause sometimes you just play the game and something
• 1:21:46
  happens. That's right.
• 1:21:47
  And so if Los Angeles can pull us out, and I think that'd be a
• 1:21:49
  really fun. Game totally.
• 1:21:51
  And then Sunday, 2:30 PM Central Dallas Wings versus New York
• 1:21:55
  Liberty on Peacock and NBC, like we said, this is on.
• 1:21:59
  These are all on a million different channels.
• 1:22:00
  So like no reason. You just turn your TV on and
• 1:22:03
  you'll find out the NBA basketball, which is a beautiful
• 1:22:06
  thing to say yes. Also, I just want to call out
• 1:22:09
  another thing that's been really cool is that the the broadcast
• 1:22:14
  quality of these games is awesome.
• 1:22:17
  They've brought in some fantastic analysts to come talk
• 1:22:22
  about these games. You had Cynthia Cooper on the, I
• 1:22:25
  think it was the Prime Video broadcast.
• 1:22:28
  You had Sue Bird and you know, like, just like they have found,
• 1:22:32
  they have made it like like we've always been here doing
• 1:22:36
  this and it feels really good. Yeah.
• 1:22:39
  Just wanted to shout that out. Good job, Yeah.
• 1:22:42
  NWSL just one game on Friday, 7:00 PM Central Boston legacy
• 1:22:48
  versus Seattle rain Let's see what Boston can do.
• 1:22:51
  A rising versus a sliding. Team.
• 1:22:52
  Yeah, there you go. Somebody has a chance to either
• 1:22:55
  keep keep going or. Yeah.
• 1:22:58
  Turn it around. And keep sliding.
• 1:23:01
  Well, well, keep going and go. Either way, Saturday there are
• 1:23:06
  three games, Yeah, I picked 5:30 PM Central Utah Royals versus
• 1:23:10
  Denver Summit and look at that on ION and then on Sunday noon.
• 1:23:17
  Central Kansas City. Current versus Portland Thorns,
• 1:23:21
  CBS and Paramount Plus. Let's go.
• 1:23:24
  All right, and in my notes I have PWHL if necessary and it is
• 1:23:29
  necessary. Ottawa Charge versus Montreal
• 1:23:32
  Victoire Game four, Wednesday, May 20th, 6:00 PM Central.
• 1:23:38
  So that means if Ottawa can win that game, you're likely looking
• 1:23:41
  at a championship Friday or Saturday back in Montreal.
• 1:23:46
  I think it's scheduled. Is it?
• 1:23:47
  I didn't grab the time and date, but it's out there.
• 1:23:50
  That's OK, Go look it up. We'll get it there if we need
• 1:23:53
  it. Don't jinx Ottawa.
• 1:23:55
  Yeah, no women's elite rugby, they're on a break this weekend.
• 1:23:59
  But college softball like we talked about, there were no, the
• 1:24:04
  exact times were not out as we were recording this.
• 1:24:08
  They start on Thursday and go through Sunday.
• 1:24:11
  This is the match up list. Alabama versus LSU, Nebraska
• 1:24:16
  versus Oklahoma State, Oklahoma versus Mississippi State, Texas
• 1:24:21
  versus Arizona State, Florida versus Texas Tech, Tennessee
• 1:24:26
  versus Georgia, Arkansas versus Duke and UCLA versus UCF.
• 1:24:32
  Wowzers. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:24:36
  Just keep in mind as they get into these super regionals, if
• 1:24:39
  you're watching and you find a team to latch on to, they play a
• 1:24:43
  best of three series right now. So you're going to see games
• 1:24:47
  like 3 days in a row with those same teams and they're kind of
• 1:24:51
  like staggered throughout or whatever.
• 1:24:54
  So go find a team that seems fun and latch on.
• 1:25:00
  Have a good time. All right, OK.
• 1:25:03
  We've got not winners and losers.
• 1:25:05
  We rebranded. Rebranded.
• 1:25:07
  We have momentum and setbacks. OK.
• 1:25:15
  Do you have a set back right off the bat?
• 1:25:17
  I have to think. About it, my set back was Rakia
• 1:25:19
  Jackson and the potential if it's an ACL.
• 1:25:23
  Yeah, which it like that's. Kind of looks like it is.
• 1:25:25
  Mine too I. Think that was a big bummer to
• 1:25:27
  see. Yeah, it was.
• 1:25:29
  Really, it was a really it. I have never heard an arena so
• 1:25:34
  quiet and just like thinking about her rising star to like
• 1:25:40
  she was. And with everything she dealt
• 1:25:42
  with. I know, I know.
• 1:25:44
  Yeah. So our thoughts are with Rukia
• 1:25:50
  and the sky. I'm trying to think if I have
• 1:25:53
  another set back. I mean, we've talked about a
• 1:25:57
  variety of things. I think in general, you know,
• 1:26:01
  we'll be watching really closely this whole like referee and
• 1:26:04
  thing in the West because the season is so important.
• 1:26:10
  It is and you need people to want to watch.
• 1:26:14
  And so we need to make sure that we're aligning those that growth
• 1:26:20
  potential and the and the desire to keep doing that with player
• 1:26:24
  safety first and foremost. And just an ability to actually
• 1:26:29
  execute the game the way it's kind of meant to make it
• 1:26:33
  entertaining. So that might be mine right now.
• 1:26:39
  Momentum. I mean, I was going to go with
• 1:26:41
  Boston legacy. Like I said, that stat the the
• 1:26:45
  five loss losses to start the season and then five unbeaten is
• 1:26:49
  is awesome. So I think it's they've got the
• 1:26:52
  momentum. I was, I had penciled in
• 1:26:56
  Montreal and then I kind of crossed them out because as we
• 1:27:00
  were right watching or as we were prepping, they lost.
• 1:27:03
  My momentum is Ottawa charge. There you go.
• 1:27:06
  I think they have the momentum right now.
• 1:27:08
  Yeah, they might. I think they have the momentum
• 1:27:10
  to get the next game. Yeah.
• 1:27:14
  I don't know if I would seal the deal for the whole thing for
• 1:27:17
  them yet, but I feel like reverse hex, I hope they proved
• 1:27:22
  me wrong. There you go.
• 1:27:25
  So my momentum is with the Ottawa charge.
• 1:27:28
  I also love seeing like, like I said before, just Boston Legacy
• 1:27:33
  and Denver Summit be successful. It's just it's so good for those
• 1:27:39
  fan bases, those players, It's good for the league.
• 1:27:41
  So we're happy to see it all. Right.
• 1:27:45
  I think that's it on. Episode 20 is a wrap.
• 1:27:48
  It is. Follow us on Instagram RTG under
• 1:27:52
  score Pod, YouTube RTG under score Pod Sub stack, RTG pod.com
• 1:28:00
  raisingthegamepodcast@gmail.com. I think that's all of them.
• 1:28:05
  I think I got it right. Like I said before, I wouldn't.
• 1:28:08
  That's a lot. That's a lot.
• 1:28:10
  We appreciate you all being here.
• 1:28:13
  Hope to see you back next week. 20 more.
• 1:28:14
  Let's go 20 more. Bye bye.