Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL Matchweek 20 preview

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NWSL Matchweek 20 preview · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to into the channel, a podcast primarily about
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women's football. Before we hit the pitch, if you
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enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your boys
0:12
do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
Subscribe follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast wherever
0:17
you'd like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
0:19
favorite podcast app links to all of our socials in the show
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notes of this episode. I am your host Dino de Cespedes
0:25
and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant angle.
0:28
What is up man? I'm feeling.
0:30
Fantastic buddy, we're back. Match Week 20 is nearly upon us.
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We got some big picture topics to discuss and I'm ready to chop
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it up with you. I'm ready where you want to get
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started. Well, first I'm going to get
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started with this celebratory beer.
0:43
Oh, I almost forgot, that's my bad.
0:46
You know what has to be done. Yes, it does.
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Nice. Cheers.
0:53
Cheers to you. Let's start, as is custom with
0:55
your Orlando Pride as we progress through the season and
0:58
they continue to win or just at least not lose, I think every
1:02
match of theirs is pretty much becoming the match of the week,
1:05
and this one's certainly the match of the week.
1:07
Your Orlando Pride versus the Kansas City Current in Orlando
1:10
on Friday night. An absolute banger.
1:13
Friday, Orlando, 8:00 PM. First in the table versus third
1:17
in the table. Obviously you mentioned it.
1:19
Orlando on a historic run, unbeaten.
1:23
Now we're at 19 and an eighth match win streak and then a
1:27
current sixth match win streak does that.
1:30
Unbeaten. These are win streaks where
1:32
they're just kind of mowing teams down.
1:34
Obviously, we were pretty hot on KC early in the season.
1:38
Where's your head at? Where?
1:39
Where are your expectations for this KC Current side now coming
1:43
to Orlando? Obviously to take on the
1:45
juggernauts that are the Orlando Pride.
1:47
You know, my mind goes back to that big match right before the
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Olympic break on July 6th where your Orlando Pride was able to
1:54
win 21 at Kansas City in an eventful match where they were
1:58
down to 10 players for the entire second-half and they're
2:02
still able to gut out a win. I think if you're Kansas City,
2:05
you have to to look at this match now in Orlando and say how
2:09
are we going to figure out a way for our defense to hold up
2:13
against this just ruthless Orlando attack?
2:17
Yeah, obviously they they made one change.
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Alma Schultz, the German goalkeeper, I guess we'll be
2:22
making her third start, see what the lineups look like.
2:25
But I think that was an important change for them.
2:27
I mean, 80 French, obviously this is a pro 80 French podcast
2:31
enterprise, have you want to think about that?
2:32
But obviously had her struggles. I don't think that's the only
2:36
issue with with their defense. I think they tend to scramble
2:40
and chase a lot. They're just always seems to be
2:43
kind of free runners that they're a yard or two behind
2:45
trying to play catch up on. You brought up that July 6th
2:48
match against Casey. So the wild part about that,
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that was actually roughly 6768 days ago as of recording time.
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Right now, we're recording Wednesday night.
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That was the last time new Orlando Pride gave up a goal.
3:02
So play, it's been almost 10 weeks and on that one play it
3:07
required Timo Chewinga taking the ball 50 plus yards, beating
3:12
Emily Sam's, beating Cal Strom, beating Anna Morehouse and you
3:18
mentioned it, the red card still not enough.
3:21
Orlando walks away with a big 2 to one win.
3:23
That Chewinga goal, like you said, she picks the ball up at
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midfield. I mean, on their own on their
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defensive side of the halfway line, she just completely shakes
3:33
off Carrie Lawrence, who was just having a hell of a day
3:35
trying to guard chewing of pretty much from jump, picked up
3:37
her first yellow in the 14th minute, leading to that second
3:41
yellow eventually to get the red card to get out of there.
3:43
But I think for KC, and we've talked about it and you
3:47
identified this relatively early, it's obviously important
3:50
to have a great singular goal scorer.
3:52
Like to know like, this is our this is our ace.
3:55
This is the person who we're going to give the ball to.
3:58
But if you're not able to attack from like a bunch of different
4:01
angles, then you can be in real trouble.
4:03
Now, I don't think that's necessarily the case with KC.
4:07
They obviously have to being AD Bernardo is good in the
4:09
midfield. They're getting Biazanerato
4:12
back. So that's obviously going to
4:14
help kind of change some of the geometry of the field.
4:17
But they got to they got to try to get the ball to Chewinga in
4:19
dangerous areas, or at least in in some space, because I guess
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you could give the ball to her on your own half of the field
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and just if she has space, she can still get to where she needs
4:27
to go. But Orlando's defense just makes
4:31
you play play the ball in areas that you don't want to be in.
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And I think they got to try to figure out some way to solve
4:38
that. And that is, I was not aware
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that that was the last goal scored against Orlando in league
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play. To have that goal be scored by
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Tim Whatchuenga. If you're going to give up one
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goal in two months in league play, that might as well be the
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player you give it up to. And what she was able to do on
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that goal, indefensible, you know, that play.
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And Morehouse still gets a hand on it.
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Yeah. Sam still was within a couple,
5:01
you know, a couple inches of, you know, kind of like
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dispossessing this pride defense.
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I'm glad you brought up Carrie Lawrence too, because after that
5:08
KC match, it's now been three straight matches of the same
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back 4, Carrie Abello, Emily Sam's, Kylie Strom, Corey Dyke.
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So for this team to only have allowed one goal in the past
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seven matches, I mean, how do we even contextualize?
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I, you know, like, even like a Bart, like it's funny.
5:27
We we like lose our minds over Barcelona.
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Even Barcelona gives up goals and, you know, makes it yeah,
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like somewhat interesting against competition.
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Not quite at this level. This defense as a unit, as
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dominant as I've seen any kind of unit, like even maybe the KC
5:42
offense, you know, like at the beginning of the season, I still
5:45
would probably put this Orlando defense ahead of them just
5:47
because, like you said, they make it really impossible.
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I asked Seb Hines about this. They take away the passing
5:53
lanes, they pressure the ball, They're super physical, they're
5:56
super smart and they're super In Sync.
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So it kind of seems like the only way they're going to get
6:01
beat is by some chewing a magic or some be a magic or some
6:04
Davina magic. Yeah.
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The last quick note I want to hit obviously shout out to the
6:08
shades of blue Shady gang here. I know what time it is, but Tom
6:11
Bomb brought this up. Claire Hutton, like, I'm not
6:14
sure, big, maybe outside of Utah, But then Utah also has
6:18
added some players. You know, it kind of make things
6:19
interesting. But you could make the case, and
6:22
I think Tom was making that case, that KC misses Claire
6:25
Hutton more than any team misses any other U20 player.
6:29
And the gap might not even be that small.
6:33
Yeah, 100%. I mean, she started 16 of 17
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matches that she's appeared in. She has more than 1400 minutes
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played. And then courtesy of our pals
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over at Foot Mob, she's in the 88th percentile and Aerial Duels
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won in the 92nd percentile. And defensive actions players of
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similar position. I mean, she's just been
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incredibly consistent. You just put her in the lineup
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and she's able to play well with all those kind of star players.
6:57
I think if you are Vlatko and you're game planning for this,
7:03
you have to look at your team and be like, you just got to be
7:06
as physical as possible. And Orlando was racking up the
7:10
yellow cards in our first match. Like, let's not do anything
7:13
crazy. I mean, Carrie Lawrence's red
7:15
card on Temua Chewingo was a bad foul.
7:19
I mean, she leaves her feet, she slide tackles.
7:21
It's from behind. She doesn't get anywhere near
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the ball. You don't want that if you're
7:26
Kansas City. And obviously you don't want to
7:28
play to to injure anybody, but your only shot is to play as
7:32
physical as possible with the like the talented Brazilian
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contingent. And then obviously, Barbara
7:37
Benda. Playing physical against
7:39
Orlando's also pretty tough because they've got some,
7:42
they've got some dogs on that team.
7:44
Oh yeah, it's tough to say. I mean, there's there's really
7:46
no, there's no good recipe, but I, I have to imagine if you're
7:50
KC, you have players like D Bernardo, Lebanta, Chewinga, be
7:54
a coming back, maybe Debina. If I'm Vlad Co, I'm probably
7:57
letting all of those attacking players know, let it RIP, let it
8:01
RIP. We we've got to manufacture a
8:03
goal or maybe two goals where there wasn't one.
8:06
Maybe from a little bit of a low XG kind of position, but we just
8:10
need to put shots on frame just into the mix.
8:14
And then the flip side defensively, can they hold up?
8:17
Because you especially when you think about a Cariabello, you
8:20
think about a Barbabonda, even Martel, of course, sleeve an
8:24
arrow, show big set up. Absolutely.
8:26
And then that back line is like you're not going to out muscle
8:29
them. They have a nasty streak.
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Like these aren't the more finesse type players.
8:34
These are physical players. Even when you go back and watch
8:37
that chewing goal, every defender was livid right when
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they gave up that goal. It wasn't the head and hands.
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It was like handfuls of hair. And they're just like, you know,
8:46
like why? You know, it's just the level of
8:50
intensity off the charts as well.
8:52
I'm super excited for this one. Yeah, and I think Kansas City
8:55
has to be prepared for that, right?
8:56
Like, would you have the ball in the final third, in Orlando's
9:00
defensive third? The midfielders are going to
9:02
track back and they're going to challenge you, too.
9:05
But it's funny you you point out, I think you're 100% right.
9:08
Orlando's defense, absolutely the most dominant unit in the
9:12
league. If we want to kind of break them
9:14
down by units, I think you mentioned, you know, Casey's
9:16
offense, especially early in the year, Casey's attack.
9:19
I think Gotham's attack as the year has progressed is probably
9:22
one of the elite units. But then one of the like, at
9:25
worst, the 3rd or 4th best unit in the league is also Orlando's
9:29
attack. So you know, I I'm not, I would
9:33
not place a wager on Kansas City getting a win in Orlando, but
9:39
I've been wrong in the past, so we'll see how it goes.
9:42
In fact, if I had to bet a few of my hard earned duckets one
9:46
way, I think I might go for the Orlando outright win.
9:50
I like it, probably got a decent number on that both.
9:52
Teams just scored no? Oh no, Why?
9:56
I think I could see both teams scoring.
9:58
I went on my whole Domina BIA, you know, firepower rant and you
10:02
know, we're scoring last quick note, Casey, that Casey offense
10:07
obviously missing a lot of players, a lot of changes either
10:10
The beginning season now feels like an eternity ago, but now
10:13
that's four straight matches with just one goal lost three of
10:17
those four. The one win was over Utah with
10:20
no alley sentinor in a game that was pretty well contested.
10:23
We'll say so I'm I'm going to say I I wouldn't be shocked if
10:26
they won. You know, and I think you look
10:29
at Orlando, their their last match this was at Chicago
10:32
against a defensive minded team. They out possessed Chicago 61 to
10:35
39 and they outshot them 15 to 3:00.
10:38
But the finishing not quite there.
10:40
Only two of their fifteen were on target.
10:42
So if you can catch Orlando on on that similar kind of day, I
10:46
know they're a different team at home for sure.
10:47
And if you could create some magic offensively and have the
10:50
game be in the balance late into the match, I think that is
10:54
probably the recipe. But even still, it's got to be
10:58
big uphill battle for that KC team, especially with Claire.
11:01
I mean, it's crazy to talk about an 18 year old like that, but
11:03
Claire Hutton, I think just is that important to that squad?
11:06
Yeah. 100% again, I don't, I don't mean to talk about Kansas
11:09
City like they're a giant underdog.
11:11
They have a ton of skill on their side.
11:13
It's just what have we seen from Orlando that we need to really,
11:18
really be questioning? They've had great goalkeeping
11:20
and we've talked about the defense, the skill in the
11:22
midfield, just the passing in the midfield just to like open
11:26
up Banda moving forward, Julie Doyle playing in crosses.
11:30
It's just like there's just no relief anywhere on the field.
11:33
I want to go back real quick while they're while they're
11:35
playing with 10 players on July 6th.
11:37
So Kansas City, obviously they had one more player on the
11:40
field. They're able to hold 67% of the
11:42
ball. They had 15 total shots.
11:44
Only four of those were on target.
11:47
And they had, according to our pals at Foot Mob, again, they
11:49
had zero big chances. Orlando, with only 33% of the
11:53
ball, had eight total shots. Two of them were on target and
11:56
they had two big chances because even when they were a player
11:59
down, you can get Banda into space and she can take on any
12:04
defender on any team in any league.
12:07
And the last number I want to hit is in that second-half.
12:12
Orlando committed 4 fouls to Kansas City, committing 8 fouls
12:17
and Orlando was the team with fewer players on the field.
12:20
So that that even goes to show like you talk about Seb Hines
12:23
and his influence and like the group defending that they do.
12:26
They're just a wildly smart team too.
12:29
Like you said on on Shades of blue.
12:30
Shout out to our guys again, like if you're thinking about
12:33
the absolute best clubs in the world, Barcelona, Chelsea, Lyon
12:37
and a similarly beautiful city, Orlando.
12:41
Hell yeah. I mean, I I keep hitting the
12:45
stat because it it's I think the first time I brought it up, it
12:48
might have been like six or seven weeks ago, actually, six
12:51
or seven match weeks ago, we'll say Orlando was maybe 12 matches
12:55
played and eleven goals given up.
12:57
Or it was like some somewhat like equitable in terms of like
13:00
what they've given up in the matches play.
13:01
Now there are 12 goals allowed in 19 matches.
13:05
Like in other sports, you'll see teams over index, maybe on
13:10
defense or on offense or on transition or whatever.
13:14
Orlando just seems to be better than you and all of the, you
13:18
know, like, kind of like in controlling, turning, you know,
13:21
defense and offense from the midfield, their backline and
13:24
then their their attack. Doesn't mean they can't have an
13:26
off day. As we get later into the season,
13:30
will they be able to get through the pressure of being
13:36
undefeated? Other squads have kind of
13:38
experienced injuries and personnel stuff.
13:40
Sometimes in the front office, there's stuff that could kind of
13:43
derail things. Orlando's had like a great
13:46
season from that standpoint, 100.
13:47
Percent, yeah, I mean, shout out obviously Hayley Carter, the GM
13:51
of Orlando Pride. And we've talked about set
13:53
behinds a lot. It's just a culture up and down
13:56
that entire structure. I know that that's a term that
13:59
gets overused. I know we talked about the Miami
14:00
Heat on this podcast some as well, but like that's real, man.
14:04
Like you work in a company or you work in an organization that
14:07
like works well together and has a plan and a cohesive vision.
14:12
That's how you would attain success and in this field, not
14:16
to mention maybe the best striker in the world.
14:19
It's it's so funny when you mention you know, the culture
14:23
because some that you see quite a lot in football when a winger
14:27
takes an ill advised shot and then the forward does the like,
14:32
what are you doing here? Like, you know, and like, it's
14:34
like, I don't know that I've seen that at all this season.
14:37
You know, from, from from an Orlando player.
14:39
It just seems to be all positive, all trust.
14:42
And like you mentioned, the intensity, the attitude, the
14:44
culture, like that shit's real. Like you're in the building and
14:46
you really can feel it. Yeah.
14:48
Man, you know, maybe it's corny or whatever.
14:50
I just don't think like winning habits is a is a dumb cliche.
14:54
I think it's a real thing that exists in like whatever field
14:57
you're in. Hell yeah, for sure.
14:59
Apologies, bro. I'm going to put you on the
15:01
spot. I want to see if you got a
15:02
prediction. Orlando Casey.
15:04
I'm going to make one. I hadn't thought about this, so
15:07
I'm going to go off the Dome as well, but I'll kick it to you
15:09
first. Two nil.
15:10
Orlando. Oh, I.
15:13
Think you've talked about the arrow with Kansas City.
15:16
I wanted to slow you down a little bit on their arrow
15:18
pointing down. They're going to be a top four
15:20
team. They're gonna host a playoff
15:22
match. They'll probably win that
15:23
playoff match. They have great players.
15:25
Like I went back and watched that.
15:27
I know there are some things that are that are different.
15:29
You mentioned the keeper change. And while this is a Pro 80
15:32
French podcast, that keeper change was probably warranted.
15:36
Understandable. But like you said, Orlando's a
15:38
different beast at home. They're just playing too well
15:41
right now. And when you think about the
15:43
trust, they trust each other because they all hit perfect
15:46
passes all the time to each other.
15:48
So yeah, they they trust each other.
15:50
So give me give me two nil Orlando and Benda gets at least
15:56
one. I think that's obvious.
15:58
And I'm going to say I'm going to say carry a bellow goal.
16:03
I'm going defender goal for the second one.
16:07
I like it. I like it well, that's why I
16:09
trust you, bro like you know it's good pathway it's clean
16:12
passing. You know I don't have to worry
16:13
about that and then you're going to kick it right back to me.
16:15
I'm kick it right back to you. I'm going to go I'm debating
16:19
here I'm going to go 2 two wow a little bit of a shootout.
16:23
I think Kansas City it's not quite back against the wall, but
16:27
you know you lost to this team who was down to 10 at home now
16:32
it's like you lose this one. Granted you're on the road, it's
16:36
pretty clear that you're not at the level.
16:37
Yeah, if you go in there, you kind of get waxed a little bit.
16:40
Yeah. So that's got to fuck with you
16:42
mentally going down the stretch run, going to the playoffs where
16:45
you're just like, OK, we're sort of drawing dead.
16:47
We really have to kind of make a stand here.
16:50
Big, big, big time matchup for them.
16:52
And you got to remember, first half of the season, it was
16:54
almost like Casey's title to lose.
16:56
Sure. That's just what it was for the
16:59
first month and a half, I'll say.
17:00
So I like Tutu here, you know? I don't want to accuse you of
17:04
being scared, but, you know, I mean, Kansas City's given up 28
17:09
goals and now they have to go play against Benda, Marta
17:12
Angelina, Adriana, Julie Doyle. I mean, we'll see how that goes.
17:16
But all right, it's, it's on wax now.
17:18
We'll, we'll see how it goes. And, you know, I, I tend to
17:20
swing wildly one way or the other.
17:22
So maybe my two nil, maybe I'm being too aggressive and it's
17:25
just easy for me without a rooting interest in this match
17:28
to just be like, Nah, they're going to crush them both.
17:30
Teams to score +2. Now I'm just getting out of
17:32
direction, remember? But they're probably pretty
17:34
tasty. I don't go, go check it out.
17:36
Let's go ahead. We're going to introduce, I will
17:38
say an expansion of a vehicle that we've used here at the ITC.
17:43
We each brought to the table one NWSL squad that we believe has
17:47
the arrow pointing up and one NWSL squad that has the arrow
17:51
pointing down. So with that said, Mr. Grant
17:54
Angle, who is your very first installment of arrow pointing up
17:59
in the game that is poised to be sweeping the nation.
18:02
Arrow pointing up or arrow pointing down?
18:04
You gotta. Love an arrow pointing in some
18:05
direction. Everybody will be shocked.
18:08
Arrow pointing up Seattle Rain FC.
18:11
Now let's go. You might ask yourself, is this
18:13
an obvious choice for your boy? Yes.
18:16
But is it also absolutely, incontrovertibly correct?
18:19
Yes, it is. I'll tell you why.
18:22
So all right, Rain FC has won its last three matches, the last
18:26
two being 32 victories over Racing Louisville and Angel City
18:29
respectively, both on the road. I'll also say it is funny how 3
18:33
consecutive wins can change the narrative of your entire season.
18:37
I've heard a few announcers and a few pundits point out that the
18:39
Rain haven't lost a league match in seven matches, streak dating
18:44
back to their June 9th loss at Kansas City.
18:47
But as somebody who was in the room with some of the players
18:50
and with Laura Harvey during that, that stretch where there
18:53
were 4 draws in the league preceding these three wins,
18:57
those did not always feel like happy draws.
19:01
The club was kind of inching along one point at a time.
19:05
But Speaking of points and an arrow pointing, why do I think
19:09
aside from these three wins in a row, why is the arrow pointing
19:12
up? Because a lot of stuff changed.
19:15
On August 5th, Seattle Reign FC signed Anna Maria Cerna
19:18
Gorsevich, the 33 year old attacker.
19:20
She previously played with FFC Frank play for the Portland
19:24
Thorns. She played for Barcelona in 2223
19:27
where she had eight goals and six assists in Liga F and that
19:30
was in route to the club winning a continental treble.
19:32
That year they won Liga F, they won the Super Copa and they won
19:35
the UEFA Women's Champions League.
19:37
Cerna Gorsevich She had two goals and two assists in nine
19:40
matches. Every time Seattle Reign had
19:43
those bad draws or were racking up some losses early in the
19:48
season, Laura Harvey just kept saying we just do not have the
19:51
quality in the final, just don't have the quality in in really
19:54
important areas when we're trying to make that LastPass.
19:58
Cerna Gorsevich, you put her on the field and that immediately
20:02
upgrades it. And G so young obviously was a
20:06
Chelsea staple for a long time. Cerna Gorsevich had shown her
20:09
quality over years and years of play.
20:11
Even though they had never played with each other before.
20:14
Just having both of them on the field at the same time just
20:17
creates like, there's just like a natural connection between two
20:21
players who were just absolutely.
20:22
Geniuses out there. I think that she's gonna prove
20:26
herself as maybe one of the most important transfers for any club
20:30
across the NWSL and like for the second-half of the season.
20:33
I could definitely see that she's just a professional
20:36
striker. She's a professional scorer,
20:38
like in that in that vein. And I remember obviously Orlando
20:42
before Banda, you know, joins, you know, I remember last season
20:46
Messiah bright she she goes over to Angel City and I was kind of
20:49
bummed because I was like, you know, like not at the Banda
20:51
level, but like a player that physically can take up space,
20:55
create a lot of gravity, open some stuff up.
20:57
But having a player that is smart and can manipulate the
21:00
defense, not just kick it into the back of the net.
21:03
I mean it's it's massive, you know, and then you have a player
21:05
like, Gee, I don't know, is she the most accurate?
21:08
Like, she could just put the ball any, you know, like that
21:12
goal that G scored. Yeah, frozen goalkeeper moment.
21:16
You know, he's like, OK, the goalkeeper is like, OK, I know G
21:19
is probably going top left here, just frozen and then ends up top
21:22
right fastball. She's basically like the Greg
21:24
Maddox of the interview itself. Just takes it wherever she
21:26
wants. And a player that is absolutely
21:29
going to have her game raised by a sternicorcevich.
21:32
Yeah. 100% and I, if I may, I will make a motion on the ITC
21:37
podcast. Can we start calling her Cerno?
21:40
Hmm. I don't see why not, you know I.
21:42
Love a nickname, Cerno. I like it.
21:45
All right, I I've also seen people abbreviate because it's
21:48
Anna Maria Cerner Grisevic AMC pretty good like that one as
21:53
well, thought we don't have an. AMC, Do we?
21:55
Outside of the theater, yeah. Not that I can think of.
21:59
So yeah, I think either of those can work.
22:02
Certain gross savage fun to say, though, I will say, OK, so you
22:05
you inject instant quality, instant experience, calmness to
22:09
kind of patrol and and she's just been dynamite helping with
22:12
the build up play. Like we haven't seen like her
22:15
scoring goals, you know, in any like loads themselves yet.
22:18
But just the build up play is just way better with her out
22:21
there there. And then the other edition that
22:23
they made, I know we've talked about some of this before, but
22:25
this is like now that we've seen it on the field.
22:28
This is what contributes to the arrow pointing firmly in the up
22:31
direction. On August 19th, Seattle Rain FC
22:34
traded Bethany Balser to Racing Louisville for midfielder Jalen
22:38
Howell. Now that was pretty serious
22:40
business because as you know, I had said at the time, you
22:43
couldn't find a player or a staffer or Laura Harvey herself
22:49
to ever say a bad word about Bethany Balser.
22:52
She is loved and respected in that organization, still is.
22:55
She's a professional. She's a goal scorer.
22:57
She was the only one scoring goals for Seattle in that bad
23:01
run in the in the beginning of the season.
23:03
So for them to make that decision to say, OK, we got to
23:06
shake the snow globe on this attack and we're going to bring
23:09
in Jalen Howell, a little more of a defensive minded
23:11
midfielder, have her in some kind of rotation with Jess
23:14
Fishlock and Quinn. And the attack is completely
23:18
night and day. And this is not to take anything
23:20
away from from Balser, who again, I I will say was the only
23:23
one scoring goals for rain for what felt like months.
23:27
But the combination of Jordan Heitama, Bethany Balser and
23:31
Ziara King was just not quite working in the final third.
23:36
So now you have the addition of how the addition of of AMC.
23:41
Then the team also brings in the really a Coco Mondesir, a 25
23:45
year old Haitian forward from Montpellier.
23:47
And now even though I think we had talked about a previous on
23:49
this podcast, Laura Harvey told me Coco needs like to kind of
23:53
build up like some physicality to play in this league long
23:55
term. But now she's just dropping Coco
23:58
in 25 minutes, 20 minutes at the end of matches.
24:02
And now you get another injection of quality of obvious
24:05
smarts and cleverness. I mean, the attack is just night
24:09
and day compared to where it was.
24:11
It's. Wild how that can happen.
24:12
And I think that's just a testament to chemistry.
24:15
Like, even like Ziara King, who you mentioned, looks like a
24:18
different player. I think, like, things are
24:20
opening up. Passing is getting a little
24:22
better. And then Bethany Balser, to your
24:23
point, hasn't looked bad in Louisville.
24:25
Yeah, like, I think, you know, she's she's been effective.
24:28
She's not an assist so far in three matches.
24:30
They're very fitting. First arrow pointing up.
24:34
I want to as my arrow pointing up squad, I'm going to go with
24:38
my playoff pick Bay FC. There we.
24:40
Go. I like.
24:41
To think about these things with regard to was there a turning
24:45
point? You know, and I think as simple
24:47
and as basic as this might sound, but bringing on Abby Dahl
24:50
Camper, pairing her up with Emily Mangas, I think that could
24:54
be one of the moves of the window.
24:55
Also, like, yeah, we talked in great detail about defensively,
25:00
you know, how bad things kind of work.
25:01
AFC and their manager of our team, Montoya, I think was was
25:04
quote on the telecast having me, I'm paraphrasing here, having no
25:07
interest in the draw. Just wants to kind of run and
25:10
gun. Somebody's going to win,
25:11
somebody's going to lose and that's kind of just how it's
25:12
going to be. Still not a draw to be scene for
25:14
this BFC side. So I like the way they play Doll
25:17
Kemper. Obviously she scores in her
25:19
debut for BFC in their three to one bullying of the Portland
25:22
Thorns. Then they clean Sheet Racing
25:24
Louisville one nil. I went back and watched the
25:26
Portland BFC match. Before that match they showed a
25:29
graphic. Portland was in 5th, BFC was in
25:33
10th. This was two matches ago.
25:35
Now it feels completely flipped upside down.
25:39
Portland's in 6th, Bay's in 7th. Not a huge gap between the two.
25:43
And I kind of love like I just jotted this down in my notes.
25:46
Albertine Montoya's approach of like, we're either going to win
25:49
or we're going to lose and I don't care.
25:50
It's almost like the three-point revolution of the NWSL the same
25:54
way that like Steph and Clay or like the three-point NBA, you
25:56
know, it's like we don't want a bunch of draws and just stack a
25:59
bunch of like giving the three. That's fine.
26:01
We'll we'll we'll live with that rather than stacking up all
26:03
these ones out here. I'm into Bay, I think the arrows
26:06
pointing up there. Let me know if crazy you're not.
26:08
Crazy. It's one of my greatest regrets
26:10
in this season of podcasts that we've been doing is that I know
26:13
I talked about it before, but when we were on loud and proud
26:16
Orlando, which you should instantly subscribe to and watch
26:19
great Orlando Pride podcast. I said, I thought Bay FC could
26:23
get in the playoffs. And then two weeks ago I was a
26:25
huge coward and then totally backed away from him because of
26:28
the defense while also saying I like the Abbey doll camper
26:31
edition. So I think you're right.
26:33
I mean, you bring on Doll Camper.
26:34
She has national team experience.
26:36
She obviously can lead you. She's a she's a veteran player
26:40
and you still have Asisa Oshwala and Rachel Kunanagi up there.
26:45
They can carry you through games.
26:47
You talk about that 3 point revolution, they can just rack
26:50
up three pointers for you by themselves.
26:53
Absolutely. And I think I'm glad you're out
26:54
of Kundan Anji because she seems to be figuring out this league
26:59
with every passing week. Yes, she's like.
27:01
OK, you want to play me this way, I'm going to draw some
27:04
people out and I'm going to put a nasty cross right into the box
27:07
and it's just going to be a tap in for a goal and we're going to
27:09
separate ourselves that way. She's clearly becoming like a
27:13
winning player. I don't need by numbers, I don't
27:15
need the goals, I don't need the highlights.
27:17
We need to win and to win it's going to require different
27:21
different moves in different spots.
27:22
So she's playing definitely her best ball I think in the league
27:25
so far. That match against Racing
27:27
Louisville, just kind of switch gears back to the defense really
27:29
quick. Louisville managed one shot on
27:32
target out of 11 versus that Bay defense.
27:35
And I think that's kind of quickly becoming my favorite
27:36
status. Like you might be able to get
27:38
shots off, but how many were you able to put on target?
27:40
Because that's going to tell me how much space you had, how much
27:43
time you had, you know what your options were.
27:45
I mentioned watching that Bay FC Portland match up two weeks ago.
27:49
There was a moment that was really interesting because BFC
27:52
pretty much decided in that match, we're going to sell out.
27:54
We're not going to let Sylvie Smith beat us.
27:56
We're just simply not like she touches the ball.
27:58
We're going to be on her. You brought up, you know, the
28:00
little bit of a little bit of a howler and in terms of like how
28:03
Smith did get that one goal on basically the gift.
28:06
But there was a really prescient moment in that one where Smith's
28:09
got a little bit of space, perfect position, right at the
28:12
edge of the box and just gets immediately swarmed by multiple
28:17
BFC defenders. Like quicker than you would
28:19
imagine. I think Smith thought she had
28:20
more time than she did, Gets closed down immediately.
28:23
She's got an outlet to Sam Coffee, who is not Sophie Smith
28:27
from the edge of the box, but it has to take a RIP on it because
28:31
she gets the ball in a dangerous area.
28:33
She's got a look and doesn't get anywhere near any kind of
28:36
threatening with her strike. I just thought that play really
28:39
encapsulated a new approach for Bay FC.
28:42
Let's crank up the intensity. We can't cover every spot on the
28:44
field, but let's pick our spots where we're going to drive.
28:47
We're going to shut down opportunities and we're going to
28:49
hope that on the backside our rotations are good enough to
28:52
kind of cover then. That fits when you have two
28:56
superlative attackers up front. So like, we'll we'll sell out,
29:00
we'll play help defense, we'll try to cut it off and then we'll
29:02
try to get the ball up as fast as possible and then let the two
29:06
superstars kind of take us from there.
29:08
Yeah, I think it makes a it makes a lot of sense.
29:10
And I I just firmly agree with you.
29:12
It feels like Arrow's pointing up for Bay I.
29:14
Like it. So just to give a little bit of
29:16
a preview for what's going on this weekend.
29:18
So Seattle rain, your team, who's got the arrow pointing up,
29:21
They will be in action Monday night, Monday Night Football
29:25
action. How about that?
29:26
They host Gotham FC September 16th, 10:00 PM Eastern, 7:00 PM.
29:30
Pacific. And my arrow pointing up, Team
29:33
Bay FC, they will travel to Cary, NC take on the Courage.
29:37
They kick off the weekend Friday night, 7:00 PM September 13th.
29:40
For some mid, not even the table, but like mid playoff, you
29:45
know, jockeying. I think that's going to be a
29:47
really, really interesting matchup and a great style
29:49
matchup, yeah. Big implications in that when
29:51
you know North Carolina is good at home, I think that one's
29:54
going to be a must watch. Hell yeah.
29:56
All right, so those are the arrows pointing up.
29:59
Got a couple arrows pointing down who earned in your book,
30:03
your personal record book. The dubious distinction of being
30:06
the first ever arrow pointing down team in the history of the
30:08
ITC? Sure.
30:10
So I want to say, well, you know, we try to be positive
30:12
people on this on this podcast. So let me take you on a little
30:16
bit of a journey here. I am going to go with Portland
30:19
Thorns FC as my arrow pointing down team.
30:23
Let's go, Spider Man meme. OK, You're you're the same.
30:26
Yeah, I got Portland. OK, all right, so, so tell me
30:31
you know how how in lockstep we are.
30:33
I do have a little, little something at the end here, but
30:37
you know, they haven't registered a point in three
30:39
matches since returning from the Olympic break.
30:41
That made me that made me think the Arrow's pointing down.
30:44
So they had a 2O loss coming out of the break to Gotham FC on
30:48
August 24th. They lost three, one at home to
30:50
Bay FC as you referenced earlier.
30:52
That was on August 31st and then they had that 21 loss away to
30:56
Washington Spirit on September 7th, which I have to think is
31:01
the worst Portland loss to a Magic Johnson team since the 91
31:06
Western Conference Finals. Excellent.
31:09
So now they're sitting at at 6th on the table and they're only
31:12
three points ahead of AFC like you mentioned.
31:14
So usually I would say losses away to the Bats and away to the
31:19
Spirit are nothing to panic over.
31:21
And I think there's also some additional context needed in
31:24
that loss to Gotham. They didn't have Sophie Smith
31:26
and Sam Coffey or freshly signed Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie
31:30
Arnold. You know, they're coming off of
31:31
the Olympic break there. And the tricky thing about
31:34
playing Gotham FC is that they opted for like semi rest for
31:38
their starters. So Swanger and Sonnet played in
31:41
the first half of that match. Rose Lavelle played in the
31:43
second-half, and they had just added Jess Carter, who was
31:46
freshly, you know, put into the lineup and deployed to terrorize
31:50
attacking players all over the NSL.
31:53
Not to mention, Gotham also had a rested Ellis Stevens, Yasmine
31:56
Ryan and Bruninia waiting in the wings.
31:59
So it might be in a little harsh on Portland for the Arrow
32:03
pointing down maybe a little. But still, 3 losses, three
32:07
straight losses in a row, That's really tough, yeah.
32:10
Man, totally agree with you. Those 3 losses Portland
32:13
outscored 7:00 to 2:00. Not great.
32:15
And they've lost four of six in their last six matches.
32:20
Just four goals and four points. Not a great setup.
32:24
I think when you look a little bit deeper, Sophie Smith, who've
32:26
talked a lot about on the show MVP numbers, eleven goals, 6
32:29
assists on the season, and then it's a huge fall off from there.
32:33
I think with this Portland side, you can kind of sell out a
32:36
little bit on Sophie Smith. Yeah.
32:37
And I think I saw that, You know, we're watching this, the
32:39
rewatching this BFC matchup. Olivia Moultrie, Janine, Becky.
32:42
They're second on the team, three goals each.
32:44
Hina Sugita, second on the team with three assists.
32:47
So Sophie Smith outpacing pretty much the entire squad and I
32:51
think defenses are really, really starting to adjust to
32:54
that. The other thing I want to
32:55
mention, Rob Gale comes in April 16th as the interim manager.
33:00
The Thorns go on to win six straight and seven of eight.
33:03
Absolute tear at that point, you know, the bounciest of new
33:07
manager bounces. Then Rob Gayle awarded the
33:10
permanent job July 19th, and the Thorns go on to lose their next
33:14
three matches. That's tough.
33:16
Correlation, causation, who knows?
33:20
I mean, I'm not saying that, you know, Rob Gayle is not going to
33:23
be a successful manager in this league or for this franchise,
33:26
but just an interesting observation.
33:28
I'll leave it at that. Yeah.
33:29
Maybe, you know, maybe Rob wanted to keep his options open.
33:32
Maybe like the interim tag, who knows, But I think, you know, we
33:36
kind of saw that with this Portland team from the start of
33:39
the season. Like they started the season,
33:42
they lose two in a row. They had that big loss to Kansas
33:44
City where they were trying to fight back in the opening match
33:46
of the season, which was just a fireworks show.
33:49
They lose 5:00 to 4:00 at Kansas City.
33:51
But I mean, they started the season zero wins, one draw and
33:56
three losses before they ripped off a bunch of those wins in a
33:59
row. So there appears to be some
34:02
streakiness to this team. This is where I'd like to
34:05
implement my little bit of A twist here.
34:07
I think there's too much damn negativity in this world.
34:11
So I will say yes. Are they my first ever Arrow
34:15
pointing down team? As as long as we're doing this
34:17
as a segment, yes they are. But do I think that Arrow will
34:21
remain pointing down? No, I do not.
34:24
I want to. I want to bet on the
34:25
streakiness. I think they have too many good
34:27
players and I think what we should prepare ourselves for is
34:30
their upcoming match on Friday night, NWSL After Dark in
34:35
Portland versus the Chicago Red Stars.
34:39
You mentioned where these teams are on the table.
34:41
Portland Thorn sitting in 6th on 27 points.
34:45
Chicago Red Stars sitting in 8th on 23 points.
34:49
This is absolutely huge for Portland.
34:52
I think, I think it at home, I think you have to win this
34:56
match. So streaks be damned, they have
34:59
to come out here and end that streak on Friday.
35:03
And if they don't, then you know that arrow is even.
35:06
It's pointing further down, if that could, if that could even
35:08
be possible, But I would also want to pause it if the team is
35:12
very, very streaky. Rewinding all the way back to
35:15
our season preview, I did pick this team to win the NWSL
35:19
championship because I had faith in them to win three matches in
35:22
a row in a playoff scenario. Even if they lose to Chicago, I
35:25
can still hold on to my preseason pick and just say, OK,
35:29
they're going to get all these losses out of the way in the
35:31
streak. They'll make the playoffs and
35:33
then they'll get streaky in the right direction.
35:35
Arrow pointing up at the right time so the take is still
35:38
protected love. It every base covered.
35:42
I mean, seems logical to me. I like it and I love that you
35:45
brought a twist. I also brought a twist.
35:47
Let's go. And I brought a twist.
35:48
I think you're gonna like obviously my arrow pointing up
35:50
team is Bay FC. My arrow pointing down team is
35:53
Portland. Now we're going into match week
35:55
20, so every team's got 7 matches left on the schedule.
35:58
The Portland Thorns, currently in 6th place, play only one team
36:03
ahead of them in the standings. They were in seven matchups.
36:06
So if they're going to turn it around, the schedule gods have
36:10
shown down on them. Might be a great, great time for
36:13
that. And we'll get 2/3 of a triple
36:15
espresso in action and it's after dark.
36:17
That'll be a fun head to head matchup when they go against
36:20
Chicago. On the flip side, my arrow
36:22
pointing up team Bay FC, 5 out of their next seven are against
36:26
teams ahead of them in the standings.
36:28
They're currently sitting in 7th, so not an easy run for this
36:32
Bay FC side, but I don't know, there's some.
36:35
Still, I think the vibes are really, really good.
36:37
They look better than they've looked all season.
36:40
Great. You know, to your point about
36:41
Portland maybe this being the start of a turn around, great
36:44
time to be kind of peaking. You can still carry a lot of
36:47
that momentum into the playoffs. And as mentioned, they're in a
36:50
playoff spot already, you know, and we talked about two weeks
36:53
ago they're in 10th four teams between them and Portland and
36:56
now they've completely closed that gap.
36:58
Yeah, I. Totally agree.
36:59
And you, I'm glad you bring up the seven matches remaining, you
37:02
know in a 26 match season, that's a little more than 25% of
37:07
the season remaining. So to your point, there is a ton
37:11
of jockeying to be done. It would appear that the NWSL
37:14
scriptwriters have really gone in on this season because
37:19
there's so much to be decided before we even get to the
37:22
playoff time. So every week you're going to
37:24
get like two or three matches and we're going to be sitting
37:26
here going, this is going to go a long way to decide the
37:29
playoffs. Yeah.
37:30
And I think the really interesting part, we talked
37:32
about this maybe a month or so ago, it's like Orlando might be
37:36
getting to a place where they're putting the shield further in
37:40
further out of reach. Yep.
37:41
So if they're sitting in a spot where they're going to cruise to
37:45
the shield, which is not unreasonable, it becomes, you
37:48
know, about the playoffs and seating.
37:52
And a lot of these teams like a Portland, you know, like a North
37:55
Carolina, maybe like a Bay FC probably already are in that,
37:59
hey, let's get let's right the ship so that when playoffs kick
38:02
off and we're there, we're we're peaking 100.
38:04
Percent, man, I'm, I'm locked in.
38:06
It's going to be great and it's going to take us right into the
38:08
Champions League. It's just like you can't not get
38:10
any better in this part of the football calendar Hell.
38:13
Yeah, and Speaking of quick programming reminder, early next
38:16
week we will drop our Champions League Round 2 preview.
38:21
Some massive, massive match ups, especially for your boys
38:25
Arsenal, BK, Hakken, Manchester City, Peru FC, Real Madrid,
38:29
Sporting CP, PSG, Juventus. Like this is a loaded slate.
38:34
You've got 24 teams that are going to be going all out over 2
38:38
legs to try to grab one of those group stage spots.
38:41
We will be back early next week to pretty much just crack beers
38:44
and get excited about the matches.
38:45
I think that's fair. Yeah, I mean.
38:47
That's the show. I mean, if you've been rapping
38:48
with us this long, that's pretty much what we're doing here.
38:51
So yeah, I mean, just stars big time clubs, up and coming clubs,
38:57
young players, crafty veterans. The tournament has every single
39:01
thing you could possibly ask for.
39:02
As a football fan, I just cannot wait for Round 2.
39:05
Even the first legs. Then you get to digest all that.
39:08
Then you have a week until the 2nd legs.
39:10
It's just a fantastic tournament.
39:11
I cannot wait for it to be back. We're.
39:13
Pretty much back. I mean, like, we're like all the
39:17
way we we've sat at the restaurant, we've gotten our
39:19
table, we put our drinks order in.
39:21
We can see the appetizers just kind of slowly working their way
39:24
over to our table. That was just about kicking
39:26
back, letting the football wash over us and enjoying another
39:30
Champions League season. Very, very excited.
39:32
Yeah. And we had.
39:32
Decided in our first Champions League preview that we were we
39:35
were back and now I think we can, we are upgraded now that
39:39
we're past this and we're into Round 2 of qualifying, I think
39:42
we are so back we're. So back, yeah, not quite back
39:45
back totally with you on that. Want to do a quick couple shout
39:47
outs, Cali Texkin who now goes by CTX shout out.
39:51
You already know what time it is, Blade Runner.
39:53
You already know MLS architect resurfacing after some Champions
39:57
League talk. Great to have you back, Bard
39:59
Morton. You know the gang.
40:01
It just feels like the gangs are getting back together.
40:03
It's kind of like school season gets back in.
40:05
You get to see all your buddies again.
40:06
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
40:08
I think. That's it, man.
40:09
Match Week 20 in the NWSL. Prime to be excellent, prime to
40:13
be very interesting. I'm ready to get to that on our
40:16
way to the Champions League. Let's.
40:17
Go. All right, man, I think we did
40:19
it. It's been another episode of
40:20
Into the Channel. Sincere.
40:21
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for watching,
40:23
listening, following, liking, subscribing, just plain hanging
40:25
out with your boys and remember to like if you liked and
40:28
subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
40:30
podcast, or wherever you like to watch or listen.
40:33
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
40:35
Links to all of our socials, every single one in the show
40:38
notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coach
40:40
as well, Mr. Grant Engel, for pretty much always having that
40:43
arrow pointing up. Bro, you already know what time
40:45
it is. I appreciate you man.
40:47
Up and to the right man. It's it's the the podcast
40:49
viewership, the podcast subscribers.
40:51
We always appreciate you guys. Thank you for rocking with us.
40:54
Let us know seriously, who do you have the arrow pointing up
40:57
for? Who do you have the arrow
40:58
pointing down for? Drop some knowledge for us.
41:00
Let us know who we missed. We always appreciate you guys
41:03
rocking with us and we will talk to you next time.