Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / JESS FISHLOCK RETIRES 🚨 EMERGENCY RETIREMENT EPISODE | SEATTLE REIGN FC | NWSL

Transcript

JESS FISHLOCK RETIRES 🚨 EMERGENCY RETIREMENT EPISODE | SEATTLE REIGN FC | NWSL · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:05
  Oh OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast right now about
• 0:09
  women's football. I'm your host Dino Desuspitas
• 0:11
  and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
• 0:16
  What is up? I'm feeling fantastic buddy and
• 0:19
  hold on a minute, I got to check my watch here and the embargo
• 0:22
  has been lifted. We are.
• 0:24
  We've seen into the future. But as many of you may have
• 0:28
  already heard gigantic news in the women's football world
• 0:32
  today. Yeah, maybe you heard it.
• 0:34
  Maybe you didn't hear it. And I don't know what you talk
• 0:35
  about for your future. This is happening right now.
• 0:37
  We're just in the present, and that's all there is.
• 0:40
  Really. Yeah.
• 0:42
  So huge news. As you alluded to, your neck of
• 0:44
  the woods, your beat, technically, Jess Fishlock, the
• 0:48
  legend. You know, some news drops today.
• 0:51
  Mr. Grant Angle, where do you want to get started?
• 0:53
  Let's get started with a beverage as customary.
• 0:58
  Cheers to the legend. Exactly right.
• 1:02
  Cheers to you, cheers to football, cheers to one of the
• 1:04
  greatest football players we've ever had the pleasure of
• 1:07
  watching. And that news that we are
• 1:10
  talking about is the great Welsh legend Jess Fishlock has
• 1:16
  announced that she will retire from football at the end of the
• 1:20
  2026 NWSL season. Well deserved.
• 1:24
  I mean, what a run. Some really cool symmetry here.
• 1:28
  13 years to the day since the first NDSL goal, April 21st to
• 1:34
  2013. Before we get into it, I kind of
• 1:37
  reround the clock a little bit just to see what was going on
• 1:39
  in. In April 2013, we had just
• 1:42
  celebrated a big Masters victory for Adam Scott, and then we also
• 1:47
  celebrated the 2013 Louisville Cardinals winning the men's
• 1:51
  basketball tournament. Actually.
• 1:54
  I'm sorry, no, that title was vacated following the
• 2:01
  investigation into sex for pay scandals arranged by a former
• 2:04
  staffer. So yes, apparently there was no
• 2:06
  2013 in NCAA Championship. Apologies for that.
• 2:12
  But yeah, Adam Scott, 2013 Masters shout out to you.
• 2:15
  Adam sure. And I think that same 2013 NCAA
• 2:21
  tournament that, you know, the NCAA wants to tell us didn't
• 2:23
  happen. Isn't that the one where the kid
• 2:25
  had the gruesome leg injury during the tournament?
• 2:29
  But he's probably super grateful that that tournament never
• 2:32
  happened. So now he never had to suffer
• 2:34
  that broken leg. Nope, Nope.
• 2:36
  He's sitting pretty right now. For those wondering, the
• 2:40
  Michigan Wolverines were not awarded the victory.
• 2:43
  So yeah, we we go championless. Any who back to the matter at
• 2:47
  hand, Jess Fishlock, the legend I was as I was mentioning
• 2:51
  20/13/2013 was what just makes you know hurt debut in the NWSL
• 2:57
  and what a run from that point until where to where we sit
• 3:01
  today. Yeah, she is the longest
• 3:04
  remaining club original in the NWSL.
• 3:07
  She's the last remaining longest tenured player in NWS.
• 3:12
  His NWSL history. Pardon me, Seattle Rain Football
• 3:16
  Club or OL Rain or the many the couple different names that
• 3:20
  they've had. They've won the Shield three
• 3:22
  times. You know, notably an individual
• 3:25
  accomplishment. She is the 2021 NWSLMVP.
• 3:30
  She finished ahead of 1. Mallory Pugh, obviously now
• 3:34
  known as Mal Swanson, who finished 2nd and Midge Purse who
• 3:38
  finished third that year in MVP voting.
• 3:40
  Pretty good year for the Welsh legend.
• 3:43
  Yeah, and I think I'm glad you bring up the Welsh part of it
• 3:47
  because obviously, you know, you're covering, you know, fish
• 3:50
  lock in the rain, you know, for for the last few, you know, few
• 3:53
  years here that we've been doing the show.
• 3:54
  But the EUR, you know, last summer was an absolute roller
• 3:58
  coaster ride for us. And we we covered, I think we
• 4:01
  did did we do 21 straight days of shows or 18?
• 4:05
  We did a crazy number of shows, but just fish lock for Wales,
• 4:10
  one of the flash bulb memories for me of that tournament.
• 4:13
  You know, that gets the equalizer versus France.
• 4:16
  The place goes absolutely crazy. And like fishlock is just one of
• 4:20
  those players that, you know, a game state monster, you know,
• 4:25
  like when you need something, it's like if she's not in the
• 4:28
  game, the camera cuts through. She's just like chewing into the
• 4:32
  like, you know, like the, the, the railing and just cannot wait
• 4:35
  to get in there and then just plays way up, You know, when
• 4:39
  when her team needs it and, and kind of has done so since I've
• 4:42
  been watching the sport. But I know you cover her.
• 4:45
  What, what's been your experience, you know, going from
• 4:49
  in the in the stands to kind of like covering this team and
• 4:51
  understanding a little bit deeper and you know, like what,
• 4:54
  what her impact has been? Well, I'm glad that I spent the
• 4:58
  first couple years living here going to games, you know,
• 5:01
  formerly at at at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, which is a minor
• 5:04
  League Baseball stadium where I've watched players like Marta
• 5:10
  and Alex Morgan, Megan Rapino, Jess Fishlock, obviously, and
• 5:14
  other and other great players play football in an oddly shaped
• 5:18
  pitch, like in in a weird minor League Baseball stadium, like I
• 5:21
  said. And then watching them, you
• 5:23
  know, move over to Lumen Field and play in this gigantic NFL
• 5:27
  stadium. But I'm glad that I got to to
• 5:29
  watch as a fan first before we started covering the sport
• 5:33
  because you can really feel the love and respect that the fan
• 5:38
  base has for her. When I was on Leon Sanderson
• 5:41
  show, the women's football show, which you should immediately
• 5:43
  subscribe to on any platform that it's available, she asked
• 5:46
  me about Jess Fishlock. And, and I maintain that she is
• 5:51
  without question one of the most popular athletes in the city of
• 5:55
  Seattle, a pretty sports crazy town.
• 5:58
  And she is right up there near the top of the list.
• 6:01
  You see her shirts all over the place.
• 6:03
  The the way people cheer when she, when she, you know, was
• 6:06
  announced in the starting lineup or if she comes on as a sub,
• 6:08
  like you said, people go absolutely bananas for her.
• 6:11
  She's she's just been a great ambassador for the sport and I
• 6:17
  feel like that love and adoration goes worldwide because
• 6:20
  you saw the way, you know, players react to her when she's
• 6:23
  wearing the Welsh shirt as well. Yeah, tremendous respect for for
• 6:28
  Fishlock and what she's done for sure.
• 6:29
  And what she's contentious do as like a player like in real time,
• 6:32
  which is incredible. Do you have a, do you have a
• 6:34
  player in mind in terms of like a comp for a player that's like
• 6:39
  done what she's done, maybe cross sport, you know, like when
• 6:43
  you think about the breadth of the career and like all the
• 6:45
  trophies and championships. I think for our pals who watch
• 6:49
  the show on YouTube, they may notice occasionally over your
• 6:52
  left shoulder there's a photo and I'm not sure if it's like
• 6:55
  from a magazine cover or a book or something like that, but it
• 6:58
  is of Miami Bond. There we go, Miami Heat era
• 7:02
  LeBron James. Now, I am not going to compare
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  just Fishlock to LeBron James, although you know, people in
• 7:08
  Wales might think that's an that's an apps comparison and
• 7:12
  it's probably is I. Think people in Wales are want
• 7:15
  to compare LeBron to Jess Fishler?
• 7:17
  That's true. Might, yeah, it might be too,
• 7:19
  too low, but I'm going to go with another Miami Heat player
• 7:23
  in that era of when that that photograph was taken.
• 7:26
  I'm going to go with Dwyane Wade and my, and my thought, my
• 7:29
  thought process here is like, you know, obviously the heat win
• 7:33
  the title in 2006 and Dwyane Wade is like the, and correct me
• 7:37
  if I'm wrong here. I mean, maybe Tim Hardaway, I
• 7:39
  guess, but like Dwyane Wade is like the very first obvious with
• 7:44
  a bullet Hall of Fame player that you associate with the
• 7:48
  Miami Heat. And Jess Fishlock has the
• 7:51
  distinction of like we talked about her time with Seattle Rain
• 7:55
  Football Club or OL Rain or the different iterations of the
• 7:57
  club's name. She's an original, she is
• 8:00
  forever tied with this club and I feel like there's some
• 8:03
  parallels there to our old pal D Wade.
• 8:07
  I love that. Yeah, hopefully we got a sharper
• 8:10
  just Fish Lock statue than the than the D Wade statue that we
• 8:12
  got. We'll keep an eye out for that.
• 8:14
  It's low bar. Speaking of the leadership,
• 8:17
  because obviously, you know, Wade wins the championship and,
• 8:19
  you know, they get to two more when LeBron gets there.
• 8:22
  And we talked about Fish Lock's championship DNA and you know,
• 8:25
  her, her ability to play big when the moment calls for it.
• 8:29
  The EUR talked about that there's going to be a leadership
• 8:32
  vacuum in Seattle. You know, once she moves on, you
• 8:36
  know, you're, you're our resident Seattle beat reporter.
• 8:38
  You, you're on the ground. You know, you're in the
• 8:39
  building. You're kind of shaking trees,
• 8:41
  seeing what falls out, holding people upside down and seeing
• 8:44
  what falls out of their pockets. That's me.
• 8:47
  If you, if you put one or two take chips down on a player over
• 8:53
  the next four or five seasons, stepping into that leadership
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  vacuum, do you have anybody you have your eye on anybody that
• 8:57
  that could could be that? Now Jess Fishlock, obviously
• 9:02
  people know she has a nose for goal.
• 9:04
  Like you mentioned, she scores big goals and big moments.
• 9:08
  I think her her defensive prowess, especially in her MVP
• 9:11
  season, I think she had 20 plus interceptions that year.
• 9:13
  And like she can get it done on on both ends of the pitch.
• 9:18
  I'm going to go with despite the fact that she plays more
• 9:20
  defensive midfielder, I'm going to go with 24 year old Sam Meza
• 9:26
  operates in the center of the park and last year took a giant
• 9:30
  step forward in her career in terms of just a level of
• 9:34
  consistency and quality. Laura Harvey praised her after
• 9:38
  after pretty much every match. And you know, even our pal Tom
• 9:42
  Bomb from the great Shades of Blue podcast who does an amazing
• 9:47
  job covering Kansas City, current mentioned that message
• 9:51
  was jumping off the screen to him as as a real midfielder who
• 9:56
  can just cause chaos for the other team.
• 9:59
  Yeah, she plays so hungry, too. I think that's a great, great
• 10:03
  parallel. Was one of the names that I
• 10:05
  thought of for sure this 2026 NWSL season for the Seattle
• 10:10
  Rain. Obviously off to a good start.
• 10:12
  Five matches played, I believe 10 points from 5 top three in
• 10:15
  the table. You know, not quite a cupcake,
• 10:18
  but you know, Sunday, take it on.
• 10:20
  The Utah Royals might be winnable for a home match for
• 10:23
  Seattle, especially coming off the heels of of a big time
• 10:26
  announcement. A big, big time emotional
• 10:27
  announcement is, you know, temperature check on Seattle
• 10:32
  season. Well, in 2023 there was a
• 10:36
  legendary Seattle Reign player who announced her retirement mid
• 10:40
  season and that her effect, her retirement would take effect
• 10:44
  after the season. That would be 1 Megan Rapino.
• 10:47
  I think people might be familiar with her work.
• 10:50
  I think she announced that she was going to retire at the end
• 10:52
  of the season in like July of 2023.
• 10:54
  I want to say a. Little Peanut book record
• 10:57
  Speaking of. There you go and Seattle Rain
• 11:01
  Football Club went on to make the NWSL Championship.
• 11:06
  Now they lost in heartbreaking fashion, and Rapino tore
• 11:11
  Achilles within like, the 1st 10 minutes of the match.
• 11:13
  So we don't want that to happen. But like, how many times in
• 11:16
  sports have you seen, you know, a team rally around a legendary
• 11:21
  player and kind of try to go on one last run?
• 11:25
  Yeah, it happens for Marta like every every year, but then she
• 11:29
  just keeps going back for one more last run.
• 11:31
  But I I could certainly see see some rallying around Fishlock.
• 11:36
  She's she's still so has so much more, so much game and so much
• 11:39
  energy that I think it's much more than a figurehead.
• 11:43
  You know, there's sometimes what we see in other sports too, is
• 11:45
  like the retirement tour is a little sad.
• 11:47
  I don't think we're gonna get any of that.
• 11:49
  She's already got a goal this season and looks just as spry as
• 11:53
  you know, as as she's been. I think so.
• 11:56
  I don't know. But a little bit of a mixed
• 11:58
  emotions. I think on a day that, you know,
• 12:00
  you got to kind of contemplate some entire career, but still so
• 12:05
  much football to be played and also a day of celebration.
• 12:09
  No doubt, you know, like I, like I mentioned before, I won't
• 12:11
  belabor it too much. She's just absolutely beloved up
• 12:14
  here. I I think the that feeling
• 12:16
  carries over across the pond. You see the way people reacted
• 12:21
  to her goal in the EUR that you mentioned, the equalizer versus
• 12:24
  France. If you want to talk about a
• 12:26
  footballing machine, I want to rattle off some stuff here.
• 12:30
  I mean, you know, earlier in her career in the mid twenty 10s,
• 12:34
  you know, she was playing seasons for Seattle rain.
• 12:36
  Then she would go on loan to the Melbourne Victory in the West
• 12:40
  League. Short flight.
• 12:42
  Yeah, short flight, just real quick over to over to Australia
• 12:47
  and then she'd come back, play for the rain, then go.
• 12:49
  She went on loan to FFC Frankfurt, which is now
• 12:52
  Eintracht Frankfurt. Help them win the Champions
• 12:55
  League. In 2015 she had 6 Champions
• 12:58
  League appearances. Now she was back to the NWSL by
• 13:01
  the time the final was played. When she qualified.
• 13:03
  She's got that Champions League winner's medal and then, you
• 13:06
  know, back to the rain and then in the offseason she's playing
• 13:09
  for Melbourne City, helping them win the W League and then going
• 13:14
  back in, in the pandemic season in 2020, she went on loan and
• 13:18
  played for Redding. So she was just in her in her
• 13:20
  absolute physical apex. She was a footballing machine.
• 13:24
  She's the reigns all time leader in assists with 30.
• 13:27
  The all time leader in goal contributions was 79.
• 13:30
  She has 219 appearances in the NWSL.
• 13:33
  That's second all time. 205 starts.
• 13:36
  That's third all time in the league. 17,785 minutes played.
• 13:40
  That's third all time in the league.
• 13:42
  Just a player who was available to play and like you mentioned
• 13:46
  it before, plays with a heart, a style and an attitude and that
• 13:51
  is why she is the legendary player she is.
• 13:53
  Let's go. Extremely well said.
• 13:56
  Yeah, a player that will miss watching for sure.
• 13:58
  But thankfully, the the announcement comes early in the
• 14:01
  season and we still get to, you know, log some minutes enjoying
• 14:04
  the legend. Knock it around a little bit.
• 14:07
  Mr. Grant Angle, is there anything else you want to hit
• 14:09
  before we get out of here? Yeah, I think I'll, I'll say
• 14:11
  this last part too, is so, you know, in in my time doing
• 14:17
  journalism before like the the other day jobs kind of took over
• 14:20
  and now getting back into journalism doing this just
• 14:24
  Fishlock is without question one of the more thoughtful athletes
• 14:27
  that I've ever talked to. I mean, she seems to give real
• 14:31
  genuine consideration to every reporter's questions, takes them
• 14:36
  in the spirit in which they're asked and then tries to give
• 14:40
  real context and lend her expertise to the people she
• 14:44
  talks to. She shows I've, I've seen her
• 14:47
  treat everybody with respect. She she jokes around, she's very
• 14:51
  funny, very clever. Just it seems like a genuinely
• 14:55
  nice person. I think that really exudes in
• 14:59
  the way she does it interviews and in the in her playing style
• 15:02
  and the way you see her treat, treat her teammates and the way
• 15:05
  her treat mates, the way her teammates treat her.
• 15:08
  And so, you know, in my first season covering Seattle rain,
• 15:12
  there are a lot of losses mixed in there and make the playoffs.
• 15:15
  They're near the bottom of the table.
• 15:17
  And even in those very frustrating moments for, again,
• 15:20
  a player we've talked about who's got a lot of trophies, a
• 15:22
  lot of pelts on the wall, she still was an absolute
• 15:26
  professional, even though you could tell that those losses
• 15:29
  were really burning her up inside.
• 15:30
  But she still maintained a level of professionalism and I just
• 15:33
  really admire that. Yeah, no, that's super cool.
• 15:36
  And a 0% surprise to, I mean, professionalism just oozes out
• 15:40
  of that player for sure. Quick football calendar.
• 15:44
  We've got some well, three of our 4 champion semi finalists
• 15:48
  are in action on Wednesday, So we'll be back.
• 15:50
  Let's talk about that action and there's some some light check
• 15:54
  insurance with our semi finalists cuz we know that this
• 15:57
  weekend, this upcoming weekend, the Champions League is back
• 16:01
  this weekend in the following weekend, leg one leg 2.
• 16:04
  I mean we're we're very close to knowing who our champs league
• 16:07
  finalists are going to be. I cannot believe we're already
• 16:09
  here. And the Bussell also returns
• 16:10
  this weekend. Yeah, from into Seattle rain,
• 16:13
  taking on Utah Royals, the Washington Spirit versus Casey
• 16:15
  Curran. That's a big match of racing.
• 16:17
  Louisville, Orlando, Angel City, Portland, Gotham versus Bay FC.
• 16:21
  Go check out Wayne de Bay if you haven't subscribed to that
• 16:24
  already. Follow your boys on all the
• 16:25
  socials. All right, man, I think we
• 16:26
  definitely, definitely did it. Nothing else we want to hit for
• 16:29
  you out here, is there? Nope.
• 16:30
  I think we covered it. Now, obviously, could we cover
• 16:33
  the entirety of Jess Fishlock's amazing career?
• 16:35
  No. But we did our best.
• 16:37
  There's the breaking news. We operated under embargo like a
• 16:39
  couple of real journalists where we're reporting this from the
• 16:43
  past. But luckily, you know, real
• 16:45
  journalists get the get the good scoops.
• 16:47
  And yeah, let us know, though, what are what are your favorite
• 16:51
  Jess Fishlock memories? I'd be interested to hear them
• 16:53
  in the comments. Yep, hash masks happening right
• 16:56
  now. That's all there is the present
• 16:58
  moment. The current moment.
• 16:59
  Anyway, this has been over there, another episode into the
• 17:02
  channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
• 17:03
  for watching, listening, hanging out.
• 17:04
  If you if you enjoyed the show, leave us a review despite my
• 17:08
  stumbling at the end here, you know, show your boys a little
• 17:11
  grace. We're trying our best and it's
• 17:13
  not quite sleepy boys because it's roughly 10 AM Pacific, give
• 17:18
  or take a few minutes. YouTube, Spotify have a podcast
• 17:20
  where we like to watch or listen.
• 17:22
  Also, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, follow Patreon and
• 17:25
  comment sessions. The channel great way to support
• 17:27
  the show into the channel merch like your boys rocking right
• 17:30
  now. Another great way to support the
• 17:32
  show. Nice links to all the above.
• 17:34
  Much, much more in the description of this episode and
• 17:37
  a big thing in my coast as well. Mr. Grand Angle for being one of
• 17:42
  the ITC originals, you know, one of the four time MVP 2023, MVP
• 17:47
  2024 MVP 2025, MVP 2026 MVPTBDI. Appreciate you bro.
• 17:52
  Likewise, Buddy Co MV PS I think I think we can make that happen.
• 17:56
  I mean, obviously the two originals here, Fishlock and
• 18:00
  Rapino, you know, I mean, I feel like that's a that's a pretty
• 18:03
  good duo. PDM.
• 18:06
  There it is. But yeah, like, like I said,
• 18:09
  thank you everybody for for watching.
• 18:11
  Let us know what are your favorite Jess fish lock
• 18:13
  memories? What did we miss?
• 18:14
  What's the important context? What did what were you watching
• 18:17
  on the blurry Verizon GO-90 app in 2016 and 17?
• 18:23
  You know, watching NWSL matches on your iPhone 6 or whatever
• 18:27
  iPhone was Outback then, you know, let us know.
• 18:29
  Put us on game. Tell us what we missed prior to
• 18:33
  the 2019 World Cup. We always appreciate the
• 18:35
  knowledge you guys are dropping and thank you for watching and
• 18:38
  we will see you all next time.