Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL WK 9 Recap ⚡️ KC Current Rolling | Super SD Wave | Spirit v Royals Runs Wild | Reign & Bay FC WIN

Transcript

NWSL WK 9 Recap ⚡️ KC Current Rolling | Super SD Wave | Spirit v Royals Runs Wild | Reign & Bay FC WIN · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football. I'm your host, Dean of the
0:09
Suspicious and as always, I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
0:14
Angle. What's up, man?
0:16
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. That was a pretty awesome week
0:20
of NWSL football, and now we just got to power through 40
0:25
minutes of Sleepy Boy podcasting to talk about it all.
0:29
I'm excited to do it. You know, I'll tell you what, I
0:32
know you're not a coffee guy, but boy might have snuck in a
0:35
little 3:45 PM Pacific coffee. You know, the body's starting to
0:41
get onto this West Coast swing. So I think, I don't know, I feel
0:44
like my energy is going to be pretty decent.
0:46
Good weekend of football. We are not going to forget to
0:50
crack the beers to open this episode, so I don't know, I
0:54
said. We just do that now.
0:56
Speaking of energy drinks like coffee, I have something
1:00
delicious right here. Really.
1:04
I mean, it's still a beer, but it's just like it.
1:07
I mean, I feel I'll feel great as I'm drinking it.
1:09
Talking about football team. I felt like a plug coming on.
1:12
I was like, all right, here we go.
1:14
We're about to learn something Here.
1:15
Put these hops. For sponsorship?
1:18
Nope, just a regular old delicious Seattle based beer.
1:23
Glorious. Well, cheers to you.
1:25
Cheers to those delicious Seattle based beers.
1:28
Cheers to all the football. Oh my goodness.
1:31
Does anybody know anything about this outside of Casey?
1:34
It's with Casey. Does anybody know anything?
1:37
That's my first question. No, I don't think so.
1:40
Like, and I'm glad that our show doesn't pretend to know because
1:44
these results are just swinging wildly.
1:47
We get we've got some predictions, right?
1:49
We've got some predictions, not as right, but that's the joy,
1:54
that's the joy of the league. All right, let's let's get to
1:58
it. Well, actually, where do I get
2:00
started, Mr. Gringo? You know, I love a chronological
2:04
order and let's talk. I mean, there's, there are a lot
2:06
of things you mentioned the that Kansas City current that
2:09
juggernaut in the middle of the map in the United States,
2:12
Orlando Pride, Unfortunately, 0 Kansas City current one I got to
2:16
tell you did not enjoy. A rough a rough watch.
2:22
I mean, a lot of skill on the field for sure, but just
2:27
watching that Orlando offense, I mean, I think shout out to Mike
2:30
Wot, who had a great stat nugget Orlando conceding first in the
2:35
fifth straight match. That seems impossible to even
2:40
wrap my head around considering how dominant this team was
2:43
defensively last season coming into the arm like, well, is this
2:46
team going to give up five goals at all first foot, first one to
2:51
five straight matches? I think the winger issue is just
2:54
so devastating. I mean, too often you're
2:57
watching this match and like Banda's running up the pitch and
3:01
nobody running with her. And then now it's like a
3:04
trailing Angelina trailing Marta and you know, not to knock on
3:07
those players, but that's not their game, their game.
3:10
You don't expect those players to be running up the field.
3:13
Haley McCutcheon was kind of spent a lot of time in the 1010
3:16
spot. Alley walk came out later.
3:17
You don't expect these players to be like up doing the the
3:20
Banda type things, but that's necessary, especially when you
3:23
look on the other side, you see KC and it's some combination of
3:29
Debina BIA, Tema Chiwinga Levantos, you know, sneaks up Di
3:35
Bernardo's, you know, in the mix, you know, the Claire
3:38
Hutton, you know, she's like covering pretty a ton of the of
3:41
the pitch and it's like night and day watching these two
3:44
offenses. Yeah, totally right.
3:46
I mean, I think it, we just have to point out like, obviously you
3:49
knew right away in the offseason the departure of Adriana was
3:53
gonna be a factor, even if she I don't even think she get
3:55
necessarily got a ton of minutes last year, but she just helps
3:59
with those kind of things. But then you have to point out
4:02
Julie Doyle was 10th on the team in minutes last year.
4:04
Summer Yates was 11th on the team in minutes last year.
4:08
Doyle's made one appearance and has played 11 minutes, still got
4:11
a goal in those 11 minutes. But you need Julie Doyle for for
4:14
more than 11 minutes when you're 9 games through the season.
4:17
Summer Yates has made 4 appearance appearances, pardon
4:20
me, And she's played 107 minutes of the 810 available minutes so
4:25
far. So when you talk about the lack
4:27
of wingers and when we talked about so much about Orlando
4:31
Pride's depth last year, you take those two out of the mix.
4:34
Those are two really valuable players for them.
4:37
Absolutely. And I think, you know, we
4:39
mentioned Adriana when we first got the news.
4:41
I had no idea it was going to be to this degree.
4:44
And I think another part of it too, is like Orlando's counting
4:49
on apparently like Mata playing like every minute of the season,
4:55
man. You know, like it's like, I
4:56
mean, at some point, I mean, this is the GOAT we're talking
4:58
about, but you know, like I just see too often, you know, I I I
5:04
don't want to call it like Kayla Sharples on the KC current, you
5:07
know, defense. I thought she did.
5:08
She did a great job kind of like overplaying, you know, like, or
5:13
like being a little overprotective trying to protect
5:15
against Banda. And I think Cook as a backstop
5:18
was like really helpful there. Lorena, you know, like that,
5:21
that that was like a pretty formidable setup.
5:24
Outside of that, I think defensively, Kansas City, not
5:28
super impressive, not super organized, but extremely
5:32
committed. I think whenever there was an
5:33
attack, they just had bodies in the mix.
5:37
They weren't really organized. You couldn't really tell how
5:39
they were set up necessarily, but the bodies were there.
5:42
Shout out to Lori Lindsay, who who called it out like roughly
5:45
like early in the second-half, the way through the second-half.
5:47
But you could just see it like they just were not going to get
5:50
beat by the typical Orlando attack.
5:54
Yeah, I mean, and their defense has been good all year.
5:56
We were talking about it a couple weeks ago where they, you
5:59
know, that's how they've been really ratcheting up that goal
6:02
differential for them. I think they're like plus 13 at
6:04
this point, you know, miles ahead of of the next in the
6:08
league. I think maybe 6 ahead of the
6:10
next team. Yeah, the defense has been good.
6:13
This was a good Claire Hutton game.
6:15
She's strung together two in a row now after she had a little
6:18
bit of a rough showing against the Seattle Rain FC.
6:21
But the credit to Kansas City, a deserved win, a big win.
6:28
You know, in Orlando, the injuries are starting to concern
6:32
me a little bit. Seems like they're starting to
6:34
pile up. You mentioned Alana Cook as a
6:36
backstop. She had to leave the match
6:38
early. I don't know, looking a little
6:41
rough out there. It is, but I mean, I think I, I
6:46
like, I, I'm, I continue to be fascinated by what Casey's doing
6:50
defensively because it's almost as if they lost to Orlando last
6:55
year and we're like, let's do that same playbook.
6:58
Like they've got band up there. We've got Joinga Plus like we we
7:03
feel like our attacking players might be, you know, I'm sure
7:07
they feel like they've got the better attacking unit amongst
7:11
the two squads, but I'm sure they looked at that that
7:13
Orlando's side, looked at the defense, how they played, how
7:18
they sold out. I mean, even watching Emily
7:20
Sam's in this game go heads up, 1V1 versus Timo Chewinga, that
7:24
was a fierce battle. There was crazy battles all over
7:27
the pitch. Chewinga versus Morehouse was
7:29
another good one. Hutton versus Marta, They got
7:31
into it. I think there was a lot up and
7:33
down the pitch. But when you look at KC, they're
7:36
they're just playing out like a hungrier brand of football.
7:39
And I think, you know, you know, I love to look at like the the
7:42
rough housing stats, you look at the tackles 25 to 9 for the KC
7:46
current. Fowles committed 11 to 6 for the
7:49
KC current. You know, I think Morehouse was
7:52
good. But ultimately, like, you know,
7:56
KC, I mean, it's weird, but they were tougher.
7:59
They just were tougher. They played harder.
8:02
You know, they, they kind of sold out all over the field.
8:06
It's almost like they were, you know, and I think Orlando, I
8:09
wouldn't say they picked their spots, but it just wasn't the
8:11
right, the right personnel set up to beat this current side,
8:15
even at home. Yeah, I can.
8:18
I can see that. It's just I need more of Banda
8:20
on the ball. We talked about she's going to
8:22
need to get some service from the wings, but I don't know,
8:25
we're going to have to see how much of her game she can go back
8:27
and get the ball to, to, to kind of try to create some problems.
8:30
She's going to have to do something to get her on the ball
8:33
more. And I, I also do wonder, like
8:36
without that Kylie Nadener miscue, which, you know, you
8:40
don't see that a lot from her. It's a it's a tough spot for her
8:43
to kind of figure out where to play the ball.
8:44
And then she's got chewing a bearing down on her.
8:47
I don't know, this probably could have been a nil, nil draw,
8:49
but I think I think it's a fair result.
8:52
Kansas City was just better on that night.
8:55
Yeah, I would agree with that. And I mean, it's a misstep from
8:59
Nadendra for sure, but not not the the most embarrassing
9:03
missteps you've seen. And then when you realize she's
9:05
got BIA over one shoulder, chilling over the other shoulder
9:08
and it's like if that ball goes anywhere except straight to Anna
9:11
Morales, it's an issue. And then it end up being an
9:14
issue. Last week known in the match.
9:17
A lot of people might think that that 52nd minute Temwa Chillingo
9:20
goal was the moment of the match.
9:22
But I mean, to me, I've got to Fast forward roughly 16 minutes,
9:26
right around the 68th minute, our guy Mike Watts quote ball
9:33
into the channel on the other end and quote.
9:39
OK, Yeah. I mean, he's got to reference
9:42
the existence of the podcast. We're we're going to get our guy
9:45
to do it. But you know, he's using the
9:48
term. I like that.
9:50
I wonder what my back to to fill some of the audience in.
9:54
Are you letting me out of the channel?
9:56
Is that how this works? Nice, nicely done.
9:59
I know you've dropped it, Obviously, I, I, I'm just going
10:04
to be totally shameless. Do you know you can, you can
10:06
cringe as necessary. I mean, if a pass goes into the
10:11
channel during the season, and we know many will, you know
10:15
what? My feelings won't be heard
10:16
whatever you decide. But I just want to say, when a
10:19
pass goes into the channel in the NWSL this year, maybe once
10:23
or twice if you want to mention this show, it wouldn't exactly
10:27
be bad for us. Twice now we're talking about
10:31
Fight Grant's over here asking for multiple plugs.
10:37
This isn't payola, I mean. All right.
10:44
Tremendous use of the word payola.
10:46
How about that? Yeah, great, great pull by him.
10:50
Yeah. I mean, we can count that as
10:53
like 1/2 time. I know he's said it before in
10:55
other matches. I I got to just give him the
10:57
nudge to be like and remember, you got to talk about the
10:59
podcast, buddy. I think, I think he'll, I'm sure
11:02
he'll, I'm sure he has nothing else going on and he'll have
11:05
plenty of time to read my stupid emails being like, hey, can you,
11:08
can you plug our podcast please, on your national broadcast?
11:12
I'm sure he's very anxiously awaiting our notes on his
11:15
performance. Either way, big match, big
11:17
moment. Sorry.
11:18
I appreciate our guy Mike Watts, obviously for, you know, half,
11:22
half credit and for calling a great match for sure.
11:26
It was a good, it was a good call by him.
11:27
There was a, there was a thing like in the opener where the
11:30
camera flashed to Benda, Marta Debina and Chewinga and he had
11:36
like a quick like one liner on all four of them.
11:39
I thought that was really well executed by him.
11:41
The goal call was good and then he had to navigate like some
11:44
tricky waters like with Alana Cooks injury.
11:47
It was like a non contact injury.
11:49
You know, obviously Watts is our guy, but I I, it was a good call
11:52
by him. I thought through and through.
11:54
Hell yeah. Yep.
11:56
Disappointing result for the Pride fan in me, but we'll keep
11:59
it moving. Long season, Yeah, we'll see
12:02
what happens. I want to shift gears though.
12:06
Gotham FC NIL, San Diego Wave 1. Wow.
12:11
Big, big big results. I mean, where do where do you
12:17
want to start with this one? I think it is about time to
12:23
start taking San Diego quite seriously.
12:28
That Escanio finish I I guess let's start there.
12:32
I mean. Audacious.
12:34
Audacious. Like that's some, that's some
12:39
like Olympics gym floor routine finish where you're just like,
12:42
I've been working on this for four years and this is my moment
12:45
right here. And I'm just going to I, I mean,
12:47
so smooth, so cool. I can't believe this player is
12:50
17 years old. And like at the moment in the
12:54
match, the 30 minute mark, I thought it was so crucial
12:58
because Gotham bullied the wave through the 1st 1520 minutes of
13:03
the match. Like they were really physical.
13:05
They were really, you know, like I I, I have two, two lines of my
13:09
notes that I want to hit the first one.
13:11
Gotham looks like they can and will overwhelm you.
13:14
And then three notes later and San Diego have just wrestled
13:17
away control of everything about this match.
13:19
It was really wild because Gotham was like pressing.
13:22
They were everywhere. They were getting, you know,
13:25
they were aggressive offensively.
13:27
They just were selling out. And I was watching like, either
13:31
Gotham's like really, really, really good and really hungry,
13:34
or they're going to run out of gas here, I think.
13:37
Not that they ran out of gas, but San Diego burned all the gas
13:42
that they had. I mean, the way they're able to
13:44
move the ball, you know, just move the chess pieces on the
13:48
board. It's really, it's really on a
13:49
different level this season. Yeah.
13:52
I mean, going back in like looking at the stats like after
13:56
watching the match and in the first half, possession ends up
14:01
6139 in favor of the wave. And like you said, like the the
14:06
first like 1520 minutes, I didn't think it was going to end
14:10
up that way. But like, obviously if you take
14:12
control, you know, for the remaining 25 plus of the half,
14:17
that's exactly what San Diego did.
14:19
And yeah, I think they just they just wore them down.
14:21
And now Gotham had a had a look at an equalizer.
14:24
I think it was like around like 53, I want to say shortly after
14:27
halftime where Jalen Howell played like a fucking super one
14:31
time Passover, the top damage purse and you feel like purse
14:35
probably could have done better to have the equalizer there.
14:38
But you know, they were just they were just on their heels in
14:42
San Diego. Again, you know, I'll hand hand
14:46
up on this one. I didn't expect this and I keep
14:49
kind of expecting the turn to happen and they keep proving me
14:53
wrong. I, I'm at the point of season
14:57
where I, I'm not really expecting to turn anymore.
14:59
I think this is a good team. I think this is a team that if
15:02
you draw this team in the playoffs, you know, as currently
15:05
constructed, you know, that's, that's a real point of worry for
15:10
me. You look at Kimi Escanio, this
15:12
again, This is a 17 year old player.
15:14
She completes 90% of her passes short and medium on the day.
15:18
She's like wild, no, I'm sorry, 90% of her passes and then her
15:22
short passes, 22 of 2310 of 11 on medium passes.
15:25
So she she barely missed today. And on that goal, I mean, I
15:30
noticed something that I don't think anybody saw coming coming
15:33
into the season. So as Oscanio comes up to the
15:37
ball, strikes, it hits the back of the net.
15:41
I look down at one of my fists and it's clenched and I look
15:46
down at another fist and it's also clenched.
15:49
And then there was a, there was a, an immediate pump when a,
15:53
when Escanio scored and, and then I drew, you know, I mean,
15:55
then I had to go back to my notes and get back to, you know,
15:58
the, the, the objective nature. But we might be approaching my
16:02
San Diego way. Oh, buddy, I feels like we're at
16:07
the station already. I mean, you've been.
16:10
You've been out here. Early, which I got to tell you
16:16
is is worth going back to because I was I was a little
16:19
bummed that we didn't get to it in the Orlando Pride Kansas City
16:22
current portion. So let me just try to get to
16:26
this real quickly. I know we got we got to move the
16:28
show along, but shout out to our pal at Astra on Blue Sky who I
16:33
thought asked you a hilarious question that was simultaneously
16:38
a nice jab in the rib cage when when Astra asked you which match
16:44
are you prioritizing on Friday night?
16:47
After last year being all in on the Pride, I feel like Ed Astra
16:51
thinks she might be switching sides.
16:52
And I can't say they're totally wrong, no.
16:56
No, definitely not switching sides for all intent.
16:59
You know, just for posterity's sake, I did watch Pride Current
17:03
first, went back and watched Gotham San Diego on the replay.
17:08
But you know, we do, we do what we can.
17:10
Another quick shout out, pro Maroni amazing gets the
17:13
assistant in Ishkaneo goal 61 out of 69 of the passes led the
17:17
team in total carrying distance and progressive carrying
17:20
distance each by a mile. Maroni covered a ton of ground,
17:23
connected on everything. And then you mentioned Jalen
17:26
Howell. You look at Fat Mob's top nine
17:28
players in terms of player ratings, Jalen Howell is the
17:32
only Gotham player of the top nine.
17:35
Oh, wow. The rest are all sitting away
17:37
players there. I mean, we, I mentioned that
17:39
stat about their medium range passes, their short medium range
17:44
passes being in that like in the highest.
17:45
Well, short is in the high in the 90s.
17:48
Medium I think is in the high 80s.
17:50
Well, well, well beyond it's this match.
17:52
They were right on that exact same number, I think right
17:55
around 86%. And these are 15 to 30 yard
17:58
passes. And then you combine that with
18:01
the positioning and the movement they've got like the French
18:03
Connection, you've got like Maroni, Dali, Cascarino.
18:06
Cascarino was great getting into the final third, whether it was
18:09
passing or her runs. This team is just dangerous.
18:14
And I think we haven't really even seen this team like fully
18:19
fleshed out yet, in my opinion. I think when you look at the new
18:22
players, you look at the young players, you look at a new
18:24
manager, I think we're still going to see some evolution from
18:28
this wave side. I think that's yeah, I think
18:32
that's a fairpoint. Like I guess we just got to see
18:34
because like Adevals had success and so I guess we can't, I'm not
18:39
even going to say we, I guess I can't let the way things ended
18:43
at Arsenal totally color how I view this guy for the rest of
18:47
his career. So I think you know the like I
18:50
said, the evidence is mounting against my San Diego Wave FC
18:55
skepticism before the season. It's getting harder and harder
18:59
to hold on to. Yeah, no, I I definitely get it.
19:03
Well, there, there's room out here.
19:05
You know you can ride the wave with us.
19:07
Nicely done. What a switch gears.
19:10
Houston won. Portland Thorns FC.
19:12
This one must have hurt man. Portland Thorns FC-4.
19:16
A massive win. Now Portland, where are they
19:19
sitting? Fourth in the table.
19:20
Goodness gracious game in hand or no, actually, they're they're
19:25
a game ahead, but they're five points behind.
19:27
They're just I mean this is a team well well, training towards
19:30
the play offs big time performance here at Houston,
19:34
battling the elements, battling the heat.
19:37
I don't know. I think that the thing that I'm
19:39
going to take away is this Portland side sells out
19:43
offensively and defensively they're, you know, they're,
19:48
they're, they're a bit of a Wrecking Ball.
19:50
Like they just kind of want to knock around and get a chance
19:54
and turn that chance into a ball heading towards the goal.
19:58
Yeah, that's a great way to. I mean, that's kind of like the
20:01
ethos of how Sam Coffey plays football in the NWSL.
20:05
Jesse Fleming can do a lot of the same stuff.
20:07
I was just kind of, I was really impressed with the level of
20:11
skill on each of their goals that happened in the run of
20:14
play. Tordens, Goal Linehan and Kaya
20:17
Hanks. Who?
20:19
Looks like a real impressive rookie so far.
20:23
Like every, every time I see her play, there are like a couple
20:26
things where I'm like, yeah, that's probably a real good left
20:29
winger that, you know, Portland just scoops right up, fits into
20:32
the system and then figures out how to win games.
20:35
Yep, Yeah, and in addition to those young players, how about a
20:39
veteran Mimi Ali do from Benfica could just sort of like connect
20:43
some some of the things that are happening for for Portland
20:46
offensively. ALDI gets the assist on that
20:48
first goal. Pietra Torden's goal in the 26th
20:51
minute. The 21 year old what a move to
20:54
kind of pop the ball up in the air and just like total and one
20:58
vibes where the defenders like look at he's like, wait, where
21:01
is the ball exactly looping around?
21:04
And then Torden adds another, you know, inside Juke before
21:08
going, you know, out to the left and just creating a ton of space
21:12
to knock it home. Kaya Hanks.
21:13
I thought Kaya Hanks and Raider Reyes on the left were dynamite.
21:18
Like, that is a real scary, scary pairing.
21:22
Those two kind of, you know, just doing what they do on
21:26
offense. Reyes gets the assist on Kaya
21:29
Hanks goal. And then, yeah, the end of the
21:31
day, huge win for the Thorns. And yeah, they haven't lost
21:36
since April 18th to when they felt the wrath of your Seattle
21:40
Reign. Yeah, man, I mean, we're going
21:43
to have to see is it going to look like last year where they
21:46
have like these big swings forward and then these a few
21:49
steps back? Something feels a little
21:51
different about this team. You don't know, like does the
21:56
absence of Sophie Wilson like rear its ugly head like later in
22:01
the season where it's just like we just need somebody to get
22:04
some goals here. It looks like they're developing
22:06
those players. But like, you know, like you
22:08
mentioned, so like what toured in is 21, Hanks is 20.
22:16
So you know, you're going to need you're going to need some
22:18
consistency over the course of the season from those players.
22:22
So again, not to be not to be a downer here, I'm just I'm
22:26
keeping an eye on it. We'll, we'll see how things, you
22:28
know, look in those dog days of July.
22:32
Yeah, I mean, it's something that we'll track, but we came
22:36
into the season wondering where the goals were going to come
22:38
from. Portland right now sitting on 16
22:41
goals, just three behind KC, good for second in the league,
22:45
tied with the Spirit in the Wave on 16/1, ahead of the Orlando
22:48
Pride on 15. So this team's finding a way.
22:51
We'll keep an eye on them for sure.
22:53
Of the another team locked into one of those, not locked in, but
22:56
probably sitting pretty comfortably in a playoff spot.
23:01
Speaking of your rain, though, yeah, yeah.
23:03
Just real quick, I said those dog days of July and as soon as
23:06
I said it, I mean the Euros are going to be happening, there's
23:08
going to be an international break, the dog days of August,
23:11
the NWSL is not playing matches in the month of July.
23:13
You know, live Fact Check on the show, worry about
23:16
accountability. Sorry about that.
23:19
I like it good clean up. It will be busy in July and
23:22
probably be busy in August too. So you know, calendar never
23:25
stops for us. Your Seattle rain, the big dub
23:31
Seattle rain one on the road they go to Louisville, earn the
23:35
clean sheet one nil Seattle big win big three points.
23:39
I'm going to clear out here. What do we see in this one?
23:43
I mean, Sam Meza to Maddie Dalene, I think Seattle Rain FC
23:49
supporters should hope that's the future of the club.
23:52
Meza has been great this season, just consistently very good.
23:57
Every time you watch her play, I think she had one, She had a bit
23:59
of a rough go against Angel City, but she has been a dogged
24:04
defender and is now like, you know, getting the ball forward
24:08
and and helping connect the attack.
24:11
The finish by Darlene off the amazing Mezza pass one of those
24:15
balls that is just waited so perfectly that dies right into
24:18
Dalene's path and then Darlene has the wherewithal to tuck it
24:22
away. She had another chance before
24:25
that that Mezza mentioned in the in the post game press
24:27
conference that that Mezza like kind of was a little hard on
24:32
herself was like I just didn't get the ball where it needed to
24:34
go. But you know, those two have
24:36
chemistry from their time playing at North Carolina
24:39
together. Maybe the maybe the best thing
24:42
the University of North Carolina has had going for it the past
24:44
few years. Running into some some stormy,
24:48
stormy waters right now and some other ways the different podcast
24:52
perhaps, But I I digress. You know, the the second-half of
24:56
this match pretty ugly in long in long spots.
25:01
I felt I felt like Taylor Flint could have had the equalizer.
25:04
But Seattle rain finds a way to hold on defensively.
25:07
Tell me if you've heard that before.
25:09
Definitely heard it before the rain.
25:12
Kind of remind me a little bit of last year's Courage side, the
25:15
way that they're kind of trying to play without the possession.
25:18
Wild stat lines in this one. Racing Louisville dominates
25:22
possession 62 to 38 shots, 20 to 4 in favor of Racing Louisville.
25:27
The the anomaly, though just one shot on target from 20 seems
25:31
impossible, but that's kind of what happened.
25:33
Seattle rinse. Seattle wins, completing just
25:36
59% of their passes. The XG was pretty much in the
25:39
same ballpark. It ended it ended one point O to
25:42
O .9 to racing Louisville. And then you mentioned Taylor
25:45
Flint wild stat line for Flint. So she leads racing Louisville
25:49
with four shots, 3 tackles, 6 interceptions and six shot
25:53
creating actions leads it to even all four categories.
25:56
She seemed to be everywhere and yeah that that meets a pass.
26:00
I definitely I definitely had that one on repeat.
26:02
I love the pass that continues to get the player more and more
26:06
open the longer the ball rolls. It's just something so pleasing
26:11
aesthetically about a ball like that.
26:14
Yeah, absolutely. Great pass and you mentioned how
26:18
skewed the stats are in favor of racing.
26:20
Racing Louisville also had twelve corners to Seattle Reign
26:23
having one in the match. I mean, but it's even then it
26:29
just never felt like any of Louisville's chances were really
26:33
dangerous. Claudia Dickey had a great catch
26:36
on one of those 12 corners where she goes up in high points at
26:39
like Randy Moss, like 2 hands, like catch like over her head.
26:44
She remain, you know, she continues to be on a on a good
26:48
run of form, I want to say. I mean, on the Louisville side.
26:53
I got two more quick things on the Louisville side.
26:55
I thought there were some still some good passing sequences, you
26:58
know, Sears, D'mello, Sonas, Mil Malay, they they were able to
27:05
put some stuff together. But again, they just never
27:07
really, they never really got into any super dangerous
27:11
situations. And that's how you lose 1 nil at
27:13
home. Racing Louisville continues to
27:17
just be probably the most confounding team in the league,
27:21
I think by by a pretty good margin.
27:23
You really, really never know what to expect from that side,
27:28
even within a game. You know, they, they, they, they
27:30
win the XG battle, they lose every match.
27:32
They that that happens when they win, they lose the XG battle,
27:34
vice versa. 20 shots outshoot Seattle 20 to 4 and then can't
27:39
find a way to win at home. So yeah, I think back to the
27:44
drawing board type situation for racing.
27:45
Seattle continues to trend upward, you know, and now
27:50
they're, they're even higher than where I had the preseason
27:52
and 7th. They reach up, climb up to 6.
27:57
So I think they're they got I mean, what are the vibes in
28:02
Seattle? Like is it is it sort of like
28:05
paper champion, kind of like, you know, going into the NBA
28:08
playoffs as a seven seed type type situation?
28:11
Or is it? Does it feel like foundationally
28:15
things are maybe starting to percolate?
28:18
Yeah, I think you know the the Ascension, like everybody knew
28:23
Jordan Bug was going to be good in her second season.
28:26
Like that was pretty much a done deal.
28:27
Her pedigree speaks for itself. I know Susie Rantz of the great
28:32
Sounder at Heart who's been a guest on the show.
28:35
Shout out to Susie. She asked Laura Harvey about the
28:39
match in the post game press conference after after the the
28:44
win over Louisville and Laura Harvey still is kind of to your
28:48
paper champion's point paper champion is probably rough, but
28:51
I know what you mean there. Like here's what Harvey said and
28:55
tell me if you can if if I'm just like making up the relation
28:58
here. She said, quote, when we compete
29:01
the way we did and show a little bit of quality, not only will we
29:05
win these games, but they'll be more comfortable than they were
29:08
today. End Quote.
29:10
And, and really how Harvey started that answer to Susie was
29:15
some games, I feel like, like I'm, and I'm paraphrasing her
29:18
here, but she said some, some games you see that, that
29:23
competitiveness and that like real like toughness out there.
29:26
And then other games their quality is better, but they
29:29
might not be as tough on the ball.
29:32
And she's basically saying you got to put those two things.
29:34
You got to start putting together more complete games to
29:37
use a sports cliche. And so I, I think there is a
29:40
little bit of that because you need both of those to win in the
29:42
playoffs. And if you have one game where
29:44
you have one and not the other, you might get knocked out.
29:48
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, 4-2 and three on
29:50
the season got to be at least on the upper end of where the
29:54
expectations were coming to the year.
29:56
And you know, you love to win games that are on the schedule.
30:01
Look, you know, at least questionable or a little tricky.
30:04
You know, obviously the the the time change and all the stuff
30:07
involved in this one. And you just never know with
30:09
with with Louisville. But I mean, you have to credit
30:12
Seattle and you know whether we'll see how much of it is is
30:17
build build upon able. But either way, all they can do
30:21
is kind of come out and get results.
30:23
And I think that's what they've done for the better part of this
30:26
season. So definitely props to them.
30:28
Another thing that we're going to continue to track.
30:30
Let's scoot ahead though North Carolina encourage to Chicago
30:35
stars nil. I think this maybe the most
30:40
predictable, most normal result of the weekend.
30:42
I think this is one of the only score line where just I was just
30:45
like OK, OK this makes a ton of sense here.
30:48
Yeah, you're totally right. I mean, these are just two clubs
30:50
on totally different trajectories right now.
30:53
It feels like, you know, Minaka Matsukubo scores the two goals.
30:58
It's a great performance from Murphy and goal.
31:03
Had to had to make a couple great saves against Ludmila that
31:07
could have that looked like they could have been the equalizer at
31:10
some point. But the Courage just looks
31:15
frankly better than Chicago in, in a lot of places on the field.
31:20
I was, I was surprised and Leanne Sanderson brought it up
31:24
later in the broadcast. But Chicago looked an awful lot
31:27
better when they brought Jimmy Joseph on the field.
31:29
I think she should probably just be on the field more.
31:32
But, you know, maybe, you know, like we always say, the managers
31:34
have more information than us. Maybe she had a knock and she
31:36
needed to have limited minutes. I'm not totally sure, but I'll
31:40
just, I'll restate it. The team looks way more
31:42
dangerous with Joseph on the field and they got to they got
31:45
to try to figure something out in Chicago or they might be
31:49
looking at dead last to the table this year.
31:52
Yeah, I mean, I think even if they do figure something out,
31:55
they still might be looking at dead last.
31:56
They're kind of way down there, Ludmila.
32:01
Three shots, 3 on target. So one bright spot on the day
32:05
for Chicago. And you got to imagine, you
32:08
know, Joseph not in the starting line up.
32:10
You know, Joseph's been really good this season.
32:12
You know, no real, no good, real reason not to keep her out
32:16
barring injury. But you have to imagine coaching
32:18
change this. This has to be a lost season for
32:21
Chicago. They cannot be looking at their
32:23
record 11 and seven being like, all right, how do we climb back
32:25
into this? They're just so, so far behind
32:28
and they don't have the firepower.
32:30
This is not a team that has had a string of unfortunate results.
32:34
Like this team just doesn't every week they're up against it
32:37
with regard to kind of like lining up and and running out
32:40
there. So I think if you're Chicago,
32:43
you're probably trying to figure out what you have, you know, and
32:45
that could be, you know, just moving some pieces around, doing
32:49
some experimentation. Maybe they feel good about
32:51
Joseph. So that's kind of maybe like a
32:54
locked in situation. But yeah, I, I have to imagine
32:56
they're probably, I don't know, it's weird to say it was so
32:59
early, you know, we're still in May, but they, they might
33:01
already have an eye toward next season.
33:04
Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't blame them if they
33:07
do. And, you know, at least at least
33:10
things will get easier next week.
33:12
Let me just double check. Oh, they're playing the Kansas
33:14
City Current. That's not great.
33:16
You don't want that. So, yeah, I mean, this would be
33:21
if memory serves. And please, our pals can correct
33:24
me in the in the comments if I'm wrong, but I believe in 2023, I
33:29
think they finished DFL dead last on the on the table.
33:34
Then they get Mal Swanson back. Mal Swanson helps lead them to
33:37
the playoffs. Obviously they have the
33:38
unfortunate Sam stop injury to kind of derail the season.
33:42
And now it looks like they're trending towards another dead
33:44
last in the table. That'd be dead last two out of
33:46
three years. Got to start, got to start
33:49
looking at some other options. Obviously losing Swanson is
33:53
gigantic. I can't understate that, but you
33:57
know, you got to you got to get something else going out there.
34:00
You can't be a one person team. It's it's not a recipe for
34:03
success. Well, I mean, you know, when
34:10
you're thinking about like, you know, data and running
34:12
experiments, a lot of times, like you want to, you want to be
34:15
able to run experiments where other things are constant.
34:19
And I think it's really interesting that when you think
34:21
about triple espresso, all three of those players have been
34:24
sidelined, you know, Washington Spirit and Rodman, Sophia Wilson
34:29
and Portland and Swanson, Chicago, Chicago's the only one
34:33
that has completely imploded without their without their shot
34:37
of triple espresso. So you cannot obviously a
34:40
tremendous player. You know, this is a, you know,
34:45
upper upper echelon player in Swanson, but it to me, it's not
34:50
really an excuse. Like things are just at a point
34:53
where, you know, you've given up 19 goals this year.
34:56
You've scored five times in nine matches.
34:59
That's that's not you know, so I mean, we'll see.
35:04
I mean, I think if you're North Carolina, though, it's weird.
35:08
They're 3 three and three on the season, still outside the
35:11
playoff mix, even though it feels like they've I mean,
35:13
they've won three out of the last four.
35:15
So I mean, it's probably just the abysmal start, but you know,
35:20
it, it feels like things are coming together for North
35:23
Carolina. They had they've had eight
35:26
different goal scores this season.
35:29
And like I said, they're coming on.
35:31
I think, you know, with Nejas sort of abandoning the style
35:35
from last year and just trying to like play towards the
35:38
strengths of, you know, from a personal standpoint, I think
35:41
it's really would help this team.
35:44
I'm not sure they're going to finish as high as I had them.
35:47
I think I had them forthcoming to the season.
35:48
They're definitely not going to get there, but I think A-Team
35:51
head in the right direction. Yeah, I wouldn't be so sure to
35:55
say they're definitely not going to get there.
35:56
I mean, they're four points back of Portland and the Spirit.
36:00
And I mean, they have the same goal differential as the Spirit
36:03
Now they're they're four behind the Thorns and on goal
36:06
differential. Yeah, they got a lot of good
36:09
players, man. They got smart players all over
36:11
the field. They play a good style.
36:12
Ryan Williams as a wing back has been absolutely destroying this
36:16
year. Last four matches they have the
36:20
last minute victory over Kansas City current at home where they
36:23
had to get the two goals like at the death.
36:25
Then they have a 22 nil victory away at Utah.
36:29
Then they have the home draw versus your Orlando pride.
36:32
Well, really trending toward my Orlando pride.
36:34
We'll talk about that later. But that but that draw was only
36:39
because of that wild cholufia header at the at the death and
36:43
then they get this home win versus Chicago.
36:45
I I think, I think things are looking up and there's a lot of
36:47
talent over there. Yeah, absolutely.
36:50
Well, next week the courage doesn't get any easier.
36:52
They draw my San Diego wave. Sunday, May 25th, 7:00 PM.
36:56
There it is. I'm so hometown out that way.
37:01
Yeah, I moved to the wrong city here on the No, I'm just
37:03
kidding. All right, let's go ahead.
37:06
Match of the weekend Washington 3 Utah Royals.
37:10
Three went this one went a little haywire.
37:14
I, I got to admit, I think this one went down the same time or
37:17
maybe prior to the BFC batch, but I I wasn't able to catch
37:19
this one live had to go straight highlights in this one wasn't
37:23
able to catch the replay either. nwsl.com NWSL plus general
37:28
Internet, general TV, sports streaming.
37:30
Let's let's get to a point where this match is available to a
37:34
person like me in full even with some commercials.
37:38
I could live with those. What are we doing?
37:40
So I bet I'm going to need to lean on you here for a little
37:43
bit, buddy. Washington spirit 3 Utah Royals
37:45
three. What do I need to know about
37:46
this one? Bonkers game.
37:48
Thought it was the match of the week.
37:50
That was some that was real hoops out there not not
37:54
defensively though. Both of those defensive units,
37:57
oh boy, not great right now. It's way too easy to beat the
38:03
Spirits back line with long passes right now, like in the
38:06
past few weeks, they're just getting smoked on those.
38:09
And then for the Utah Royals, if you attack them down the wings,
38:14
there's a pretty good chance that somebody is going to be
38:16
open in the middle of the field. And I got to tell you, most
38:19
teams who play organized coach to football will attack you down
38:24
the wings and try to play the ball in the middle.
38:26
It is a weird quirk of the Utah defense that they're not good at
38:29
defending them. Pretty wild.
38:31
I mean I I I caught up with this one via highlights and stats and
38:35
I think a couple that stick out to me.
38:37
The XG battle 4.0 for the spirit 0.6.
38:44
Yeah. I mean, like that's wild.
38:47
The shots 28 for the Spirit, 9 for Utah.
38:51
Everything else I think was pretty pretty straightforward.
38:53
I mean, all the all the scoring in the first half, watching
38:56
Rosamund Gwasi in the bits that I did see probably knocking on
39:01
the door of my definitely my favorite spirit player of the
39:04
season. Maybe in the mix for my favorite
39:06
player overall the season. I think her her energy or like
39:10
her hitting fifth gear, what she just loves to do is it it really
39:15
is something to watch when she's like I'm going to go here and
39:17
I'm going to do something, I don't know, as exciting I think
39:20
as we have in this league. Yeah, absolutely.
39:23
And that pressure that she puts on the defense just gives all of
39:29
the other great playmakers on that Spirit side some
39:32
opportunity to get a rebound or to get open and and to cause
39:36
more havoc. I can't believe I've I've gone
39:39
this long without just saying it.
39:41
The two most important words this season for me as a premier
39:45
stockholder of this player. Bethune back, she played 77
39:50
minutes, looked good out there, was moving well out there, I
39:54
think for the first time really this season.
39:57
And the fact that she's able to give you almost 80 minutes in
40:00
that effort and had some really good moments as well.
40:05
That is encouraging for the Spirit side.
40:09
That's definitely exciting. I mean it looked like for you to
40:13
from from the lineup situation look like was she playing more
40:15
up field or where was she doing most damage?
40:19
Yeah, she was. She was heavily involved in the
40:22
attack. Hopefully sleepy boys memory is
40:24
is right on this, but yeah, I can I yeah, she was.
40:28
She was in, in the final third, making passes, taking some
40:33
shots. I think she had, she had at
40:34
least one or two blocked. There was one that was like a
40:38
way, way errant, like way over the bar.
40:41
But when, when she stepped up and took it with confidence, I
40:44
was like, OK, as the season goes on, that's going to one of
40:48
those. A few of those are going to be
40:50
on frame and a few of them are going to go on the net.
40:54
So I I was really, I was encouraged by her performance on
40:59
the Utah side. I do want to say, even though
41:02
even giving up three goals, I thought it was a gigantic
41:06
McGlynn performance. She had, she had a couple, this
41:09
could have been this could have been uglier for for Utah if she
41:12
wasn't there. She gets the penalty save.
41:15
She had a diving save on a Bernal header.
41:18
She had a kick save when Kiwasi had her one-on-one.
41:21
She did everything she could. She was just left too vulnerable
41:24
in a few spots. Yeah, I can imagine McGlynn 7
41:28
saves allows the three goals, but she faced 28 shots, 13
41:33
different spirit players attempted a shot, 8 different
41:36
spirit players had a shot on target.
41:39
I mean, imagine, you know, it's not just the the volume of
41:43
shots, it's the different styles, different strikes,
41:46
different points on the pitch that you know, different Subs,
41:48
players coming in out, 13 different players attempting a
41:51
shot. That's it's hard to that's an
41:54
SAT question right there. Watching McGlynn kind of like
41:59
step up in this one and, you know, be able to hold on to the
42:02
point. It's got to be a little bit of a
42:03
bummer, you know, to be Utah and take that lead so deep into this
42:07
match. But obviously you're on the
42:08
road, you're going to Washington.
42:11
I think something definitely to build on for sure.
42:14
And then Casey Krueger with the late winner.
42:18
It definitely may, you know, and she's back as well.
42:21
I think her for I'm not sure if this was her first action, but
42:25
you know, she definitely has not logged a ton of minutes this
42:27
season. It just kind of reminded me that
42:31
I mean that the finish was awesome.
42:32
I want to talk about that in a second, But I I got a chance to
42:35
talk to her after the Challenge Cup and she was so cool.
42:39
And so like Regal, you know, and it like you can you kind of like
42:43
associate that with her game a little bit.
42:45
Like it's like it's never rushed.
42:47
She's never like stumbling over herself.
42:49
She's she's always just in control, great balance, like
42:52
great, you know, control over faculties for sure every second
42:56
that she's on the pitch. But did that finish like the
43:00
violence of the head snap? I'm just like, OK, I got this.
43:04
This has to go in. Let me let me turn back the
43:08
clock a little bit. Let me let me dig, dig deep back
43:10
into the archives and and really finish with some ferocity here.
43:13
That was a great finish from Kruger.
43:16
Yeah, unbelievably smart to get where she she needed to be in
43:20
the box. It was a great cross by Terry
43:22
Mickey own who you know who who streaks down, gets to the end
43:25
line and feeds it in there. Casey Krueger had some funny
43:28
comments like in in the post match interview with the with
43:32
the the studio team. I think it was on Ion and was
43:35
just like, yeah, I needed to get into that part of the box.
43:37
I knew I needed to get there and making them put the put the
43:40
cross on her, but she still had a lot of work to do with that
43:43
cross. How many times do you see that
43:44
cross go like you nick it too late and it goes way left and
43:48
it's it's right of the goal or or you pop it up or you hit it
43:52
right at the keeper. Mcglyn, as good of a game as
43:55
McGlynn had, she had no shot at saving that.
43:57
It's because of the execution of Kruger. 100% perfectly put.
44:02
Yeah, very cool moment and yeah spirit a much, much needed
44:06
result at home. They had been definitely
44:08
reeling. That I think is their first non
44:11
loss at home of the season if I'm not mistaken.
44:15
One more match to hit. This one was a fun one, but I
44:18
was in the building for this one.
44:19
First time at PayPal Park Bay FC2 lease Angel City FC nil.
44:27
I was excited for this one. Obviously great crowd.
44:30
Let me start there 14,000 plus in the building and that place
44:35
was rocking. I think you even when they when
44:37
when goals got close, you can you can feel it and then
44:41
Penelope Hocking she scores in the 23rd that place they
44:44
exploded. I'm not sure if that's a normal
44:49
course of affairs for PayPal Park, but I was very impressed
44:53
with the environment and you know, not to not to get even
44:56
more on ad Astra's bad side. But Orlando, I will say Orlando
45:00
knowers of ball down there, you know, they, they know when,
45:03
when, when to cheer, when not to cheer you.
45:05
They know they know what they're looking at.
45:08
There just aren't enough of you looking at what you're looking
45:11
at. Maybe, maybe they don't know
45:13
what they're looking at. You know, I, I had to explain to
45:15
this, you know, to my fiance. I'm like, they've got the
45:19
greatest player, whoever played in Orlando, They've got one of
45:23
the best players in the world playing right now in Orlando.
45:25
They won everything last year. They really should be packing
45:29
that stadium and and figuring out how to fill that gap because
45:34
that's an incredible team, incredible pedigree, incredible
45:38
accomplishment. But that, yeah, that BFC
45:40
environment, pretty raucous, man.
45:42
I was impressed. Wow, just one match in I got to
45:46
tell you AD Astro was right about you.
45:47
Just doesn't even know. I mean, I can't wait.
45:52
I'm going to start buying some pride gear.
45:54
I'm I think I'm really in contention to be the Orlando
45:57
pride guy on this podcast. This is fantastic.
46:00
Just takes takes, you know, just being a California elitist.
46:04
Now this is this is how it goes. Nose thumbing my nose at at
46:10
everything. Now let's get to the football
46:14
evenly matched, I think between these two teams.
46:16
Angel City LED in a couple of key categories, but Bay FC I
46:19
think was right there. They win the XG battle.
46:21
They came out in a 4411 interesting set up.
46:25
Taylor Huff sort of in the in the 10 to kind of tennis kind of
46:29
spot. Kunda Naji way up top.
46:32
Taylor Huff great, great match from Huff 22 years old Florida
46:35
State 70 really really good. 7 passes into the final third,
46:39
three chances created. She leads Bay with three
46:41
interceptions. Also the the team with touches
46:44
in the final third with 26 a Mansfield, OH native, how far
46:51
are you? How familiar with Mansfield.
46:55
Not not hugely familiar. I think it's like it's not far
46:58
from where I went to college at a beautiful Kent State
47:01
University. I want to say it's like an hour
47:03
or like an hour and a half southwest of where I went to
47:07
college. I I think I used to see
47:09
billboards of a large gun show there.
47:12
So just, yeah, as you could probably guess, not really my
47:17
scene. But other than that, I don't
47:19
have much Mansfield information. That's funny.
47:22
That's a good pool though. Fair enough.
47:24
Well, I've got some Mansfield information.
47:26
Mansfield, OH, location for several big budget Hollywood
47:29
movies, including The Shawshank Redemption, Air Force One, and
47:34
Tango and Cash. The reason I bring is Stugot's
47:39
favorite. Of course, the, the reason, the
47:46
reason I bring this up, I think Taylor Huff has a real shot to
47:51
be the greatest athlete ever to come from Mansfield.
47:53
OH, so I, I, I, I dug through and I've got two options here.
47:58
1993 first EVOL pro, Terry McDaniel from the NFL, great
48:02
outside pass rusher or a player near and dear to my heart. 2000
48:07
first EVOL pro, another pass rusher.
48:09
What are they doing out there in Mansfield?
48:11
Just pumping up, you know, all pro pass rushers, Eagles legend,
48:15
defensive end, Hugh Douglas. I think those are the only two
48:18
players that have got any shot. You know, Taylor Hough, 22 years
48:21
old, the the her whole career in front of her.
48:24
I'm, I'm putting a weird take chip on.
48:27
Taylor Hough will soon be the greatest athlete ever took up
48:30
from Mansfield. OH, prove me wrong.
48:33
OK, you know what? Probably a good bet she's going
48:36
to have to get past Hugh Douglas.
48:37
Obvious climb past Hugh Douglas to get there.
48:41
I mean we might as well just do fun Hugh Douglas.
48:43
Facts. I was watching rugby one time
48:47
like years and years ago on like the Discovery Channel.
48:50
It was like the rugby sevens tournament and Hugh Douglas was
48:53
there to like help explain to an American audience what was
48:57
happening in rugby. And I was like, OK, Hugh
48:58
Douglas, big rugby guy. Now I have to ask the question,
49:02
was he a rugby guy in Mansfield? Who knows?
49:06
I mean, yeah, I'll have to go back and check, check the stats
49:09
that might change his his candidacy.
49:12
To sport. Athlete, we got to take all this
49:15
into consideration. All right, back to the match.
49:18
Alyssa Thompson. I think on the Angel City side,
49:23
this is a marvelous player. We're all like, I think
49:25
physically one probably I, I went through the list and I'm
49:30
trying to think, all right, of the players that I've seen first
49:33
hand in person. I mean, I feel like I'm not sure
49:39
if I've seen physically a more gifted player than Alyssa
49:42
Thompson. And I'll explain to you what I
49:44
saw. Obviously you see her flat out
49:46
speed. I, we learned earlier in the
49:48
season by her track background, her quickness is just filthy.
49:52
Like she's just juking players. I mean, just off the frame.
49:57
I mean, it's, it's, it's wild. And then there was 1 moment in
50:00
the 68th minute. I, I, I made a note to myself to
50:03
go back and watch it. I'm not sure if it was Doll
50:06
Kemper, but there was somebody on BF CS back line that just
50:11
flat out gets in her way. And I'm like, I'm going to, I'm
50:13
just going to knock over Alyssa Thompson right here.
50:16
And Thompson just bounces right off of her.
50:19
And my job was just like, I don't understand how that can
50:23
happen because that's a very small player moving very
50:27
quickly. Usually that kind of collision
50:30
or just that that kind of like physical contact ends.
50:32
Not that way. And she was just like, no, I'm
50:34
going to keep my feet. I'm going to bounce right off
50:35
and I'm going to she it. It barely knocked her off her
50:38
line. I mean, it was this.
50:41
This is a real stand out athlete here.
50:44
Yeah, I think, I think that's a great call.
50:47
And you know, it was going to take any teenager some time to
50:51
get used to the physicality in this league.
50:53
We've we've talked about it a few times with a few different
50:55
players, but, and, and you know, we mention it with some of the
51:00
more diminutive players when when some of those, you know,
51:05
someone who's who plays a little smaller, might weigh a little
51:07
less than some of their opponents out there can really
51:10
show you like, OK, yeah, I, I have a level of quickness and
51:14
skill that I'm going to lean on, but I have enough strength to
51:18
your point to bounce off you or to get through you.
51:21
And we're talking about some a real, a real dangerous,
51:24
especially in an attacking sense, a real dangerous
51:26
attacker. And she showed that, man.
51:28
I mean there were multiple and one mix tape type moves that she
51:32
was that she was just pulling off pretty easily out there.
51:37
Yeah, and like just so instinctual, like it's like,
51:40
yeah, right. You step here, I'm going to just
51:42
bounce. I'm going to make you.
51:43
I'm just going to embarrass you. It was really, really, I mean,
51:49
just super impressive. I think on the Bay FC side.
51:52
Well, I want to get to some Penelope, Penelope Hawking sound
51:55
because I I asked her about the goal, her 23rd minute.
52:00
Yeah, her 23rd minute goal that was assisted by, I think Taylor
52:05
Huff. Yeah, I believe I got that
52:07
right. So let's go to that sound here.
52:10
Dino de Sesco since the channel podcast questions for Penelope.
52:13
So on the goal, the ball kind of squirts through a pass Doria
52:17
Bailey and you had a quite a quite a run up on to it.
52:21
Did time slow down a little bit and kind of like, what does it
52:23
feel like to kind of smack the ball that hard?
52:25
Yeah, I mean, honestly, like I've, I've just been hitting
52:30
that shot in training a lot. So, you know, when it when it
52:34
came to me, I realized that, you know, I had a little bit of time
52:37
and I didn't want to take a touch.
52:38
It was, it was perfect ball and it was just perfectly lined up
52:41
to hit on my right. I thought about hitting on my
52:42
left, but I was like, no, I'm just gonna go with my right
52:45
because I've hit this a lot of times in training.
52:48
Yeah. So I mean, it's just one of
52:50
those moments where it's like the the work has paid off.
52:53
And yeah, it just, I just felt natural.
52:55
So it was. It felt really good.
52:58
OK, well, that's cool. That's that's cool to hear
53:00
because I feel like sometimes watching some of these, some
53:04
goals that look like that, I feel like people are like, Oh
53:06
yeah, the ball just kind of bounced in her in her path and
53:09
then she just, you know, instinctively crushed it.
53:13
It's cool to hear 2 athletes like especially, you know,
53:16
cosigning like, Yup, seen that a bunch of times.
53:18
She can make that. Absolutely.
53:21
And that was Caroline Conte, who cashed in.
53:25
The PK was sitting next to Penelope Hockey on that one.
53:28
I, I, I mean Bay FC, this was a really good game from them.
53:32
I thought defensively I would mention Elissa Thompson, Doll
53:36
Kemper and Caprice Tidosco held up really well against Thompson.
53:41
You know, just kind of like running up that left hand side.
53:43
They had a lot of work to do and they just played really well.
53:47
Emily Mingus and Maddie Moreau on the back line as well.
53:50
Haven't logged a ton of minutes either of those players.
53:52
Moreau specifically, I thought played really well just to kind
53:57
of like keep it together and Angel City, you know, kind of
54:01
like a lot of a lot of motion, a lot of things happening, not
54:03
really able to cash in. They didn't I think they were a
54:05
little bit of notch four shots on target, nothing crazy
54:09
dangerous. And then I think my last note,
54:11
Rachel Kunanagi, I, I kept thinking about your MVP pick
54:15
because she is a tremendously valuable player to Bay FC.
54:21
Like in a lot of ways, she has an incredibly thankless job.
54:26
Like it's just get out there, put pressure, you know, like Max
54:31
out your creativity and Max out your effort every time you have
54:35
any kind of chance and try to distribute when you can try to
54:42
be a facilitator. And it's like they're asking her
54:44
to kind of do everything and she's so good and she's so up
54:48
for it. Like every run, every available,
54:52
anything she was just kind of trying to grab and take
54:55
advantage of. I mean it definitely, I don't
54:56
want to say it changed my my perception of Quinn and Naja,
54:58
but it just definitely showed me another two or three new
55:01
dimensions of her game that I just hadn't hadn't noticed.
55:05
And I the goals are not, you know, the goals are the goals.
55:09
But I don't want to say BFC definitely need her goals, but
55:12
BFC cashed in huge with her contribution, her runs, her
55:18
gravity, her vision. I think like without Kundanagi,
55:22
this is a completely different ball game.
55:24
And this in no way was a Kundanagi match and that
55:28
definitely was an eye opener for me.
55:30
Yeah, that makes sense. And I and I think she she's
55:33
going to have to play an interesting role in in that, in
55:36
that sense, like you're right, she's going to need to score and
55:39
she's going to need to assist, I think to really get the full for
55:42
the team to get the full value out of her.
55:45
There was an interesting thing that was a moment that was
55:47
caught on the broadcast where she very clearly wanted to take
55:51
that penalty that Caroline Conte took.
55:54
And then she kind of backed off. And I, you know, I, I from what
55:58
I know, like in my cruddy high school football team or
56:01
whatever, like you, you decide like who your penalty takers are
56:05
in practice and things like that.
56:07
And it looked like Conti was saying something to the effect
56:10
of, hey, I'm the one who's supposed to take it.
56:11
I'm going to take it. And she buried it with a lot of
56:14
confidence and then immediately like went over to Kundanagi to
56:17
look to seemingly say like, Hey, I got you.
56:20
Like I, I won't screw that up for you or something to that
56:22
effect. You know, obviously I, I
56:24
couldn't read ellipse or anything, but I, I liked Conti's
56:27
confidence. And I'm glad you bring up the
56:30
Kunanagi point because, you know, Conti completes nearly 90%
56:34
of her passes. She had those couple of shots,
56:36
the one-on-one on target. You know, she knocks home the
56:39
penalty. Maybe that that Kunanagi gravity
56:42
is going to allow her to play with more confidence and some of
56:46
those her other team mates to play with confidence.
56:49
So I'll be interested to see that.
56:51
But I'm also I still and you know, you know me as and how I
56:56
how I view sports. I cannot get over.
56:59
You take Kunanagi off the field. You bring Oshwala on the field.
57:03
They swap right around the 70th minute.
57:06
You should play them both at the same time.
57:08
Man. We got to figure out a way to
57:09
play them both at the same time. I I don't want to live in a
57:11
world where we're getting 20 minutes of Oshwala like we
57:15
should be getting 70 minutes of both those players.
57:17
But easy for me to say sitting in my office in Seattle.
57:23
I mean, yeah, that would, that would, that would be really nice
57:26
if they were able to unlock those players because Oshwala
57:28
comes into the match and takes that Kundanagi spot and is not
57:34
Rachel. Kundanagi is not doing the same
57:35
things, you know, that he gets chances, gets touches and then
57:39
has to do other stuff. You know, it's just like, you
57:42
know, not the highest and best use of Oshawa's towns either.
57:45
But to Oshawa's credit, you know, I was, you know, kind of
57:49
hanging around the tunnel area, like the tunnel area, the press.
57:52
It's kind of like all, you know, in the same situation.
57:56
And I got to see Oshawa a few times, you know, kind of warming
57:59
up super high spirits, super, you know, I'm not sure if she
58:03
knew she was getting in, but like, I think the vibes were
58:05
good from Oshawa. She didn't look, you know,
58:08
mercurial or like upset or Moody.
58:11
You know, she she looked super high spirits, really pumped,
58:15
really excited about the day even before the scoring.
58:18
So you can kind of see her professionalism there.
58:22
Really hope that that she's able to put it together.
58:25
All right, man, big, big week of football.
58:28
Did we miss anything? Anything else you want to hit
58:30
before we get out of here? I think, I think we've done it,
58:34
my good man. You know, we, we talked about
58:37
the football. We got a couple minutes on Hugh
58:39
Douglas. What else can you ask for in a
58:41
women's football podcast? I'm not sure.
58:45
I'm sure you can ask for a lot more.
58:46
We as as we do every week, we left a lot of it in the bone.
58:50
All right, quick update on some commercials here.
58:53
We launched this might be news to you.
58:55
I don't know if I talked about this.
58:56
We launched link tree shops. Have you have you seen this?
58:59
I have. OK.
59:00
Just just so the audience knows how locked in I am and who's
59:04
really running the business here.
59:05
Yes, I, I did see, I did see you.
59:07
You executed this. Thank you for doing it.
59:10
OK, so we're going to go in there, we're going to kind of
59:12
keep everything updated, but it's already loaded up with some
59:15
pretty cool gear, some Orlando Pride championship gear for the
59:19
Orlando Pride fans out there, some some USWNT gear, some NWSL
59:26
team gear. I mean, there's a lot of good
59:27
stuff there, some good discounts in there to check out.
59:30
And then obviously your boys earn, you know, modest
59:34
commissions on all that. So if you're looking to get some
59:36
gear, pop into pop over to our store, see what's available and
59:41
check that out. Another bit of commercial news
59:43
here. We launched memberships via
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YouTube. We've got one priced here that's
59:48
it this is a simple show simple enterprise here and it's roughly
59:51
the cost of a beer you know we crack when you know every every
59:54
episode here. The average cost of a beer in
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the United States had a bars for roughly around 475 we come in
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$0.24 above that 499 a month that unlocks loyalty badges
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visible in the comments and live chat custom emojis that could be
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used in the live chat, including four different types one.
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ITC logo and original green and three alternate colorways, one
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with the Orlando Pride colors, one with Barcelona Femeni colors
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and then the other champion of the 2024 season, the US women's
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national team. We've got their colors in there
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as part of those ITC logos as well.
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And part of the membership also includes member shout outs on
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every episode. We already do this, you know,
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especially if you're commenting and, and, and leaving heat in in
1:00:37
that thread. And then obviously priority
1:00:40
replies to comments is also including the memberships as
1:00:42
well. And while I'm on the topic, I
1:00:44
want to call out some friends. So some discussions happening on
1:00:48
Reddit. Who's got the best at the BSL
1:00:50
show? Who's doing the best coverage?
1:00:52
Who's doing the precaps? Who's doing the previews?
1:00:54
Who's doing the recaps? I'm not saying we're the best,
1:00:57
but suffice it to say, according to Reddit, we're in the
1:01:00
conversation. And I want to shout out some
1:01:02
friends of the show. Any under score necessary?
1:01:04
1533 read between the Subs Psychological Air 8643 Nervous
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Boysenberry 9 and of course the OG Sharky's kitten.
1:01:14
Appreciate all the love on Reddit.
1:01:16
Please keep it going it feels really nice.
1:01:19
We appreciate it. Yeah, that's super cool.
1:01:21
Like I always say, we somehow found a corner, a corner of the
1:01:25
Internet that is not populated with terrible people.
1:01:28
In fact, we found a corner of the Internet that's populated
1:01:31
with awesome people. So I think that's that makes the
1:01:35
show worth doing in itself. But I just, you know, again,
1:01:39
behind the curtain, all these things that Dino have set up, I
1:01:43
just have nothing to do with. I'm just walking in and just
1:01:46
Dino's like, look at all this cool stuff I did.
1:01:47
I'm like, well, that's awesome. I watched the games and took
1:01:50
some stupid notes. So I appreciate you doing that.
1:01:53
And so for anybody who enjoys that stuff, make sure you show
1:01:57
some love to our to our guy. I you know what, if it wasn't
1:02:00
for you, our guy Mike Watts wouldn't have said uttered the
1:02:04
phrase into the channel on the on the on the matches and the
1:02:06
biggest match of the season. So this is a team effort.
1:02:09
Absolutely. Yeah.
1:02:11
We've got, you know, great fans, great, great members of our
1:02:14
community, great bots. Also, I'm sure it can't be that
1:02:17
so many nice people are are engaging with their content.
1:02:23
I want to lastly though, episode calendar.
1:02:26
I'm not sure I even have to say it, but I'm going to say it
1:02:28
anyway. Next Saturday, the Champions
1:02:29
League final Barcelona versus Arsenal Barcelona, we'll have a
1:02:33
preview for you. We'll have a what a recap for
1:02:36
you with our guy play by play announcer for the zone Chris
1:02:39
Sharples will be checking in after the final for the second
1:02:43
straight year. Leanne Sanderson came on the
1:02:46
show for the second straight year to preview the final.
1:02:48
Go check out that episode with Leanne if you haven't heard that
1:02:50
one already. End of yourself match week 10
1:02:53
also going down next weekend. Not a ton of bangers on the
1:02:57
schedule. There's only six matches and
1:02:59
none of the six feature two playoff teams playing each
1:03:01
other. So perhaps you and I just put
1:03:03
together a 10/26 or five thirteenths or 38.461% of the
1:03:08
way through the season. NWSL check in.
1:03:12
We may give out some words, make some predictions, have some fun
1:03:15
with it and maybe more so than it's a it's a Champions League
1:03:18
weekend. I'm not sure we have to dive
1:03:20
way, way, way deep on match day 10, but I don't know, it's an
1:03:23
international break after that. So we'll have some time to maybe
1:03:27
decompress and get our thoughts together in a more macro sense.
1:03:31
I think that makes sense. Yeah.
1:03:33
I mean, if I figured we would do a couple shows this week,
1:03:36
obviously one more, one more Champions League preview, I
1:03:40
think sounds good with me and you if we could probably talk
1:03:44
about some recent results. But yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm down for
1:03:48
whatever. I mean, I don't think this is I
1:03:51
don't think what I'm doing right now is the spirit of episode
1:03:54
calendar. Again, I just going to say
1:03:57
sleepy guy, we're going to get there.
1:03:59
We're going to do some shows and we're we're going to appreciate
1:04:02
you guys when you when you check it out and drop some knowledge
1:04:04
in the comments. That we will.
1:04:07
All right man, this episode with the channel, Thank you, thank
1:04:10
you, thank you for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or love
1:04:12
ones hope as much as it would do well as much as your boys do,
1:04:15
make sure you kick in with us each and every single week,
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sometimes twice a week. Like if you like to subscribe,
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1:04:21
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1:04:25
Love hearing from you. Thanks to all of our socials
1:04:27
except one in the shows of this episode and a big think in my
1:04:30
coast as well. Mr. Grant Angle, sleeping awake,
1:04:35
dozing, half here, half there, doesn't matter.
1:04:38
I appreciate you, bro. You're, you're the guy around
1:04:42
here. I mean, I can't, I I can't, I
1:04:44
can't even I can't even communicate to you how many of
1:04:48
your takes. I'm.
1:04:49
I'm not. I'm not bullshitting.
1:04:50
You bounced through my head as I'm watching these players.
1:04:53
I'm like, oh, yeah, great. Your grandma's on that.
1:04:54
Grandma's on that. So sleepy or no sleepy, you
1:04:57
bring it each and every week, each and every episode.
1:04:59
I appreciate you bro. Likewise, my good man, I mean it
1:05:02
that is the doing the show has ended up where it's every time
1:05:06
it's that Leonardo DiCaprio meme of him pointing at the
1:05:09
television around like Dino said that.
1:05:11
And then even then, like people in, you know, people who
1:05:15
interact with the show or just like, Oh yeah, they pointed out
1:05:18
this like that. That's been that's been one of
1:05:20
the great choice of the show, just talking ball with a bunch
1:05:23
of people who know ball. So we appreciate you guys
1:05:26
rocking with us and we will see you all next time.